HOCEVAR PERFORMANCE

It has been a while since I posted on this blog. I wanted to let everyone know that the blog has moved over to www.hocevarperformance.com - The Next Level of Athletic Performance.
The blog is updated on almost a daily basis with tons of information on sports performance, strength training, motivation, and life experiences of me - Luka Hocevar. If you are interested in getting to the your highest potential then come on over and join the experience that will take you there!!!

Thank you for following me through everything!

www.hocevarperformance.com

The Fitness Industry?!

As much as I believe in the fitness industry, I can see how there is so much frustration with personal trainers and franchise clubs that provide the training.

I have gotten to experience this first hand for the past three months working as a training manager in one of the biggest franchise gyms at the moment. I am learning a lot as far as managerial tasks go but as far as training and gaining knowledge from the training perspective of things..........let's sayI could have regressed had I not been continually educating myself and working with a number of clients outside of that setting.

Even though I have been moving up the ranks I definitely know I do not want a future in a franchise because their service seems to be so far from a priority and it seems nothing else matters but the invoice. I understand that the people that are purchasing personal training are taking a step in the right direction and that we are helping them but something isn't right because a lot of people that sign up (and I mean A LOT) are not getting results, many times not even showing up for their training sessions.

The causes for this are many. One is the motivation of the trainers, everything seems to be rushed and there is no extra information or support being given. As soon as the session is over it is over to the next client and a lot of the time the same exercises, intensity, etc. (not really ever looking at the individual). The other factor is the experience and education of the trainers! I talk to most of the trainers that work for the company and I can't believe how little sense, knowledge and experience they have..........many of them not caring about continuing education, just enough to upkeep their certification.
At first I would talk to the trainers about anything and everything related to training, basically just talk shop, and I realized none of them really payed attention and tried changing the subject. I later realized that the reason was that they knew very little or nothing about what I was talking about so they didn't want to talk about it!

Now when I say this I am talking about the majority.......there are still good, passionate trainers in the big franchises, but it seems they are a dying breed (my experience).

Let me not even get to corporate because there it gets really bad. When you have a V.P. telling you how to sell a lady that has a herniated disk and to just give her to any of the trainers is just crazy! I don't have a problem with selling training because I believe that the people will have many benefits that will lead their life in a healthier and better direction, but the problem arises when you do not believe in the product you are selling, which in my case is the level of the training (in many instances).

The truth is that big franchises are going to keep selling a lot of personal training because of the client base of the big gyms but I would much rather see all those clients scatter and find smaller gyms where the trainers really have an interest in their health and have the knowledge and passion to provide great service......

I think thats enough of a rant for now. I will keep trying to give the people I assess and consult the best service and direct them to the trainers I trust and probably making my bosses pissed off............its the least I can do!

Water vs. Coke

I was reading through Dax Moy's blog and I loved this post. Part of the reason I wanted to post it is because everyday I deal with people that drink around 1-2 cups of water a day and around 8 cups of Coke a day. Somehow I feel it should be the other way around..............

WATER

1. 75% of the UK population are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population.)

2. In 37% of all the UK population, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50%less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

COKE
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: 1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Still want a coke?

Should We Say Something?

At this moment in time I have no other choice but to work out at a mainstream fitness facility, which is fine because I stay focused and get my training done the way it needs to.

I am actually not going to rant about the mainstream fitness facilities because I think enough people have done that already (I might in the future when there is nothing to post about).

The thing I want to bring up is watching some people in mainstream gyms working out and I can't help but notice that their form is just awful. Because my life revolves around basketball and performance/strength training, I know I look for any minor thing but this is far from it since people are on the verge of injuring themselves every time they pick up a weight.

Today while I was training I saw a lady doing back extensions with some weight and hyper-extending her back to an extreme. After she was done with the set she looked like she was tight in her lower back (I wonder why?) and thought that stretching her lumbar spine and putting it in extreme flexion would do her some good. The worst thing was that there was a personal trainer right next to her that did not say anything! But that it is a story for next time....

Another example:
The other day I saw somebody deadlifting and their lumbar spine was in so much flexion I though they were doing the cat/camel stretch. And the weight they were using was not small since it was around 300 lbs or so (actually they were deadlifting of some plates to get extra ROM when they couldn't even hold a neutral spine with the regular deadlift).
Now this time I couldn't just stand there and watch without saying something and watch the man fracture a vertebrae, so I politely asked if he doesn't mind a bit of advice. He said he doesn't and I explained why he shouldn't do that and what it is causing and even though he might not feel anything right now, there is a big chance it will cause problems in the future. To make a long story shorter, he was grateful for the advice and he asked if we could schedule a time to go over the proper lifting techniques, some corrective exercise, etc..... Happy end right?

Why do I say should we say something?
Because I have done this before and I have gotten many negative responses from I know what I'm doing leave me alone!, to what do you know! and even..........I'm a personal trainer I know these things! So after getting a lot of negative reactions, one asks if it is worth it.

Well is it?
I think it is. I am not on a mission to go around and correct peoples form but when I see somebody that really looks like they are going to hurt themselves, I will make an effort to educate the person about how they should do it in a safe way. If I get blown off then let it be but as a trainer I cannot stand by and watch somebody set themselves up for a possible serious injury!

Stress, Training and The Wedding......

I have been quite busy lately............ up till this Monday anyway. This past Sunday I had got married to my wonderful wife and what a glorious day it was!!
But everything that led up to the wedding wasn't anywhere close to being glorious. Things were going wrong the whole week, from hotel reservations for guests, the weather (our wedding was outside), incorrect orders, a stressed fiance (which equals a stressed me) and to top it all of my wallet with all my documents and credit cards was stolen. Needless to say, weddings are tougher to plan than I thought (and I thought it was hard)....

Well, I found my refuge at the gym where I let all my stresses out and got ready for each new day. One thing I always scheduled was a workout. Considering it was a very stressful time I made sure the workouts were a little less intense and had less volume than usual. And another thing, I didn't stick to any program or anything because I just came and did what I felt like doing since there was already too much scheduling going on. This made the training more fun and made me more relaxed.

After the wedding my wife and I went to the beach for four days (a mini honeymoon). This was greatly appreciated since we had a very tough month and we needed a break, I can definitely say that I needed a break from training as well as I have a tendency to push myself too hard.

Starting tomorrow I am back on the schedule and I am back in the weight room and basketball gym working towards my goals. I am also excited about my trip to Boston at the end of the month to train with Eric Cressey (www.ericcressey.com). If you don't know who he is then you need to find out....

To sum up my post.....when life is stressful you still need to do the thing that will get you ahead, take time off when you need it, don't let changes in life make you lose your focus, hang around smarter people than you and you will take steps towards your goals......

What Should I Do In The Basketball Off Season

I have been playing basketball since I was around 7 but I started training with a team when I was 1o years old. Since then I have been playing basketball all the time whether it was the season, pre-season, off season, vacation time.......you name it, I played ball. The reason is not hard - I loved it (and still do)!

Once I got to college I still played the whole time over the summer. I would also lift weights and do my strength and conditioning and by the time I came for pre-season to train with the college basketball team I was a mile ahead of everybody else when it came to conditioning and strength and my shot felt great, everything was the way I wanted it to be. It felt good to say the least but I wasn't ready for what happened after that.......as the season was starting I started getting tired and my shot wasn't falling like it was supposed to, bottom line, my performance was not anywhere near optimal. It was hard but I had admit it to myself that I was doing too much all the time and the bod needed a rest sometime and it just happened to be the beginning of the basketball season!

It is 2 years after my college playing days and I have two professional basketball seasons behind me and I so much more knowledge about preparing for an upcoming season, especially when it comes to strength, conditioning, skill work.
Even though there has been so much progress in the strength and conditioning field there are still so many players, and even more disturbingly - teams, that are using outdated methods that do not help them in the long run. I will talk about some of the problems I see and things that can be done to improve them.

- Training full speed after the season is over. After the season is over the athlete should take time to recuperate and not think about their sport, take a vacation and most importantly fix any injury or problem they had during the season. When players keep going after the season is over it is a sure way to overtrain.

- Not enough corrective exercise and strength training. Every athlete has imbalances ( in some sports more than other) which they need to address because imbalances nearly always lead to injuries and decrease performance in the long run. Every basketball player should strength train, whether to get stronger faster or put on some functional muscle mass. From my experience most players should just focus on getting stronger, which will bring up their other athletic abilities (and also help fix their imbalances when the right exercises are used).
- Too much conditioning work in the early off-season. Most of the players I know that do train when they have a break, do too much conditioning early in the off-season and just keep going with it all the way in to pre-season. They focus on running and other aerobic work and do very little strength, speed or agility training.
- Playing basketball games, tournaments, summer leagues the whole summer. When trying to get exposure there is nothing wrong with playing a tournament or a summer league but I see many players doing that the whole summer while they should be improving in the gym, on the track or doing more skill work. When you play basketball year round, you do not have time to fix your imbalances, take a mental break, and work on the things that will make you a better player. Just playing by itself is not gonna automatically make you better, many times it will reinforce the things you are doing wrong (pick and choose the most important games and tournaments).
- Doing nothing and waiting for team pre-season. I know a lot of guys that relax a whole lot the whole off-season and expect to get in great shape and improve in the team's pre-season. Let me give you a hint - it's not happening!!! Pre-season is geared towards sport specific conditioning and even more so team offesnse, defense, etc. You are not going to improve in the 4-6 weeks of pre-season (especially if you were doing very little the whole summer) and you will be very very lucky if you will be where you were last year (who doesn't want to improve every year? If that's you, then stop playing!)
- Letting yourself get out of shape. There is nothing wrong with taking time off and letting your mind and body take a brake. This is done for the reason that you can come back mentally strong and ready to go and improve in the off season. What you should not do is just be careless and do things that are not good for your body such as excess drinking, too much unhealthy eating, laying around for long periods of time, smoking, etc. Such things will make sure you get overweight and really out of shape so that when you start training it will take a lot of hard work to just get where you used to be (it is a lot easier to get out of shape then to get in shape!). If you live a healthy lifestyle in general then it will be much easier for you......
- When the time comes doing too much aerobic training. It still seems to be the trend that to get in basketball shape we need to run for miles and miles of steady state cardio. At least it seems like that since I still see the majority of the coaches doing it which carries down to the players doing it in their off season. If you can run 10 miles at a slow pace, it doesn't mean you will be able to run 20 full out basketball court sprints with short breaks! The energy systems used in basketball are 80% ATP-PC, 10% glycolysis, 10% aerobic..............you might be asking what that means? It means you should cut down the long slow running workouts and start doing more interval training, circuits, etc...

Those are just some of things that should and should not be done in the basketball off-season according to me. There are quite a few more but I will leave that for another post since there is already enough to think about in this one.
If you can take at least a couple of points and implement them into your off-season to boost your results, performance, get you in a good team, or anything other for that matter, then great!
If not, then you will soon figure out that you should......

Why I Love Kettlebells

I have always been somebody who wanted to try out all the different kinds of training available, whether it was different programs or different tools. When I was younger there would be ads in magazines about the best new device to get your vertical up or to get your abs super strong and because I was young and didn't know any better, I went and bought them.
Time and effort let me know that these devices didn't work and all I did was get frustrated and look for the new miracle device.

But I soon started studying strength training books, russian manuals, speed training etc.... and started realizing that everything is built on principles of training. I also realized that there is no secret training tool that will do miracles without applying the sound principles.

Since then I have used many tools to improve my strength, mostly staying with barbells, dumbells, bodyweight, until my brother told me to try these things called kettlebells. When I first saw them I didn't know what to think since they looked like a cannonball with a handle but I said I would give them a try since I have nothing to lose. I had a great workout my first time and even though I had mixed feeling I said I would return. The next day I felt every muscle in my body and I could barely sit but to me that was a sign that it was a different type of training. From that day on the kettlebell was a new tool I would definitely use.

I actually barely went to the gym for the next three months and trained with kettlebells exclusively and after returning to the gym my numbers went up. I'm not gonna write how much but let's just say it was quite a bit. I knew that a lot of it had to do with them being a new training stimulus and breaking my previous plateau but in my eyes the kettlebell was staying for good. And the funny thing is the kettlebells are so much fun to train with you don't want to stop! Rarely has there ever been a tool that could challenge you so much and let you have as much fun at the same time (CAUTION: handle with care, can be addictive).

Its been four years since I started training with kettlebells and they are not my ''end all be all'' of training but I use them quite a lot, some periods more, some periods less. They made such an impact on me that I went to the Denmark and got my RKC certification, which was a great experience in itself and I also got to meet and talk to the legendary Pavel Tsatsouline (this guy knows strength training, and guess what-he's Russian).

My brother, my friend and I also opened up a gym (as far from mainstream as it gets) which specializes in kettlebell training and it has been going incredibly well, not too mention there is so much room to grow.

I haven't forgotten that principles of training are the foundation on which we build on and a majority of my training still gets done in the gym, but kettlebells will always be a mainstay in my training because as much as they are a tough, they relax me because I'm having fun training with them.

Don't get sucked into fads but do open your mind to other training tools because you might see how useful they are or maybe they were meant for somebody like you (who is missing a breath of fresh air).

Until the next time, keep swinging.......