R.I.P. Jack LaLanne

My earliest memory of Jack LaLanne was watching episodes in the morning of the Jack LaLanne Show in black & white as a little kid. This was well before there were hundreds of channels to choose from, and if nothing else, the man was amusing.

I recall watching this overly enthusiastic middle age man in a jumpsuit jumping up and down and thinking, "how silly."

Until Jack's passing yesterday at the ripe young age of 96, that was about all I thought of Jack LaLanne.

Just goes to show how first impressions can be misleading.

Thanks to widespread news coverage of Jack's passing, I now know just how ahead of his time this fitness icon actually was. A few of his notable achievements include

- Opening the nation's first modern day health club in 1936.

- Becoming an early advocate of strength training for women, the elderly, disabled and (get ready for this one) athletes. Before Jack LaLanne athletes typically avoided strength training as it was thought they would become muscle bound!

- Inventing the forerunners of modern exercise machines, including pulley devices.

He brought fitness to the masses with the advent of TV, well before ExerciseTV and DVDs were around.

“I can’t die,” Jack LaLanne most famously liked to say. “It would ruin my image.”

Not at all Jack, not at all.

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

Agility Training

Perhaps it's the fact that she won 2 medal's at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, including the first ever downhill gold for an American woman. Or maybe it's the fact that she is currently defending her 3 previous World Cup titles.

Any way you cut it, Lindsey Vonn is one heck of an athlete and I've been digging deep to learn some of her training secrets.

What I discovered was that to increase her odds in defending her World Cup title in 2011, Vonn made the decision to focus on improving her agility in the off-season.

Has it made a difference? Check out this video of Vonn racing at Lake Louise, Canada this past December (watch what happens at the :50 mark!):



That's pretty darn incredible and at the time, put Lindsey back in first place in the World Cup standings.

Vonn credits this instantaneous physical response to a new training regimen this past offseason.

According to an interview Vonn recently did with Wired.com, she didn’t change the bulk of her endurance program: a regimen of core workouts, weight-lifting, and cycling that has made her one of the fittest racers on tour. But at the U.S. Olympic Training Center near San Diego this summer, she added a routine of agility exercises like cone drills, knee-high hurdles, and agility ladders, which encompass a horizontal circuit divided like a ladder and you step between the “rungs.”

So, what exactly is the focus of agility training?

By definition, agility is the ability to decelerate, accelerate, and change direction while maintaining good body control and without losing time (speed) in the transition. With the exception of skills specific to the sport, agility can be the primary determining factor to predict success in a sport.

The key components in agility training are:

- Body control and awareness
- Recognition and reaction
- Starting and first step
- Acceleration
- Footwork
- Change of direction
- Stopping

Since all of these involve development of motor skills, our bodies can be trained in each of these areas.

Example exercises can be found in a free PDF download from the NASM that you can find HERE.

The lesson to be learned is that we should continually be modifying our training protocols to reap maximum benefits. What I especially like about agility training is the flavor it adds to any workout program and the fact that you can perform agility drills just about anywhere.

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

"Lighten Up" In 2011

Millions of folks start every year making resolutions to change something in their life they’re unhappy about.

Twenty-three percent of them will break those resolutions within a week and 45% by the end of the month.

Personally, I’m not a fan of resolutions. I’m a much bigger fan of evolution – the process of change and progressive growth.

Most New Year’s resolutions are pretty life encompassing. I mean, the bigger, the better, right? Well, that in and of itself may just be the problem and my advice is to lighten up on how you set goals to better position yourself for success.

Whether your goal this year is to lose weight, get out of debt, or get a new job, put a game plan in place that breaks these goals in to smaller steps.

For example, if your goal is to lose 25 lbs in 2011, smaller steps that will help you achieve this goal would be

- Download, read and re-vamp your cupboard and fridge based on Dr. John Berardi's advice in the free PDF eBook you can find in the CFB posting, What's In Your Pantry?

- Start a food journal

- Make sure to eat a serving of lean protein at every feeding opportunity

- Make certain to eat 1 - 2 servings of vegetables at each feeding opportunity

- Try one of the dozens of free Turbulence Training workouts found throughout Catapult Fitness Blog

Again, small steps that do not all need to be accomplished at one time. Be certain to celebrate your milestones and reward yourself along the way for each step achieved (not with something that will negatively impact the goal you're trying to achieve!).

And remember, occasional lapses in your plan are not failures, but rather temporary setbacks.

And if you don't end the year achieving your goal? Celebrate what you learned along the way because chances are, you'll be ending the year having successfully achieved many of those smaller goals you set along the way!

Train hard; stay strong; celebrate life's accomplishments.

Peace.

Susan