Category: training programs

Natural Movement Training is Whole Body Training

The McCarthy Project has developed and partnered with thought leaders in the world of natural movement training and the outdoors as our gymnasium.  The sessions are intended to develop the mind, as well as, the body.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1.  When are your sessions?  Open Sessions are Tuesday at 10am and Friday at 12pm.

2.  Who and what ages workout together?  The McCarthy Project has two types of groups: open and invite only.  The open sessions are available to whoever would like to complete the session.  It is not age specific or advanced in difficulty. The “invite only” groups are scheduled on an as needed basis.  The “invite only” groups may be athletes looking to get ready for the season, a specific age group or a small group or organization with specific, individualized goals.

3.  Can adults participate in the session?  Absolutely, all parents of participants are encouraged to attend and complete sessions.  We feel that parents are integral to each young person and our goal is to create a path that leads back into creating strong families, not one more thing to separate. Adults with participants are free of charge.

4.  How long is each session?  Each session is up to 2 hours in length and it determined prior to starting. For the most part, each session is 90 minutes in length.

5.  What activities do you do during the session?  Each session is broken down in 3 parts; Natural movement training, strategy games or project-based learning, and walking or running.

6.  What is natural movement training?  Erwan Le Corre of MovNat coined the term natural movement to mean “training the whole, not the parts.” Erwan states, “Natural movement fitness is different. We don’t isolate muscles. We don’t obsess over burnt calories. We train our whole bodies in an integrated, practical way. Our practice is about movement. It’s about life.”

7.  What types of movements do you perform?  The following are a list of movements performed; leaping, running, throwing, balancing, and lifting.  We use the natural surroundings to work the complete body in outdoor environment all in a logical, scientific format.

8.  What is project-based learning?  John Taylor Gatto, former national teacher of the year from New York City, created a list of cognitive development action steps.  Our goal is to include as many of these concepts in our training sessions. More Details.

9.  Who influenced your thinking in developing the program?  Stephen McCarthy has completed deep research into the history of fitness and cognitive development.  He has been influenced by several philosophers from the 18th century to current thought leaders. More details.

 

 

Kettlebells vs Barbells: Pro’s and Con’s Discussion

By Jack Woodrup, VerticalJumping.com

I have been wrong. And not just a little bit wrong, but apparently, a lot wrong. You see I have until recently felt that kettlebells have been wildly overrated as far as athletic development, or more specifically, strength development goes. Outside of kettlebell swings (which for the record I have always loved), I have for the most part thought that any exercise you could do with a kettlebell you could do just as well, if not better with a dumbbell or a barbell.

However, recent experiences have taught me that this just isn’t the case. Let me explain. It all started with my love hate relationship to squats. I loved doing them, and have achieved some pretty good relative squat strength based results, but the fact is that I have never really been a great squatter. Every improvement in squat strength has taken a lot of dedicated effort and persistence and the most I have ever squatted without using chains or bands is 355lb (160kg @ 74kg, good for 2.16X BW. Also coincided with when I was jumping my highest).

So last year when I moved to Nashville, between the stress of the move, the displacement from my previously fully equipped gym to a cramped and only moderately well equipped gym in my basement, and my body just feeling being beat up all the time, I decided to stop squatting for a few months. Those few months pretty quickly turned into a year.

So what got me back into squatting? Well a number of things happened. Firstly I read an interesting article on T-Nation that stated:

“With kettlebells, you can decrease the training load by up to 75% and still make significant progress in strength, power, and body composition goals. While some may argue that kettlebells put you at a mechanical disadvantage (which is what forces you to use less weight), it really all boils down to tension.

The Central Nervous System (CNS) doesn’t know the difference between 300 pounds on your shoulders and 120-pound kettlebells in hand. The CNS does understand tension though, and if kettlebell training offers any benefit, it’s learning how to develop and use full-body tension.”

For the complete article, visit here.

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3.  Book Review of “Amish Guide to Minerals, Vitamins, Herbs and Supplements” (Journal of Natural Food and Health)

4.  Great source of information on the world of politics, gmo and organics. (Organic Consumers Association)

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Proper Technique Critical For Success in the Weight Room

by Jack Woodrup, Vertical Jumping

In my previous article about how to squat deeper I talked about longer term solutions such as regular stretching and mobility work (which you should be doing anyway), reducing the training loads, gradual reduction of box heights for box squats, and ‘greasing the groove’ of the movement through a high volume of daily bodyweight squats.

In this article I am going to provide a more immediate solution that you can implement TODAY. That solution is to simply change the way in which you are squatting. You see most people when they think of squatting think of the traditional barbell back squat.

Unfortunately this is also the version of the squat that relies most heavily on good mobility and flexibility, particularly in the upper back and shoulder region (see picture below). Now that might not be a problem except for the widespread postural issues that sitting so much has caused, meaning lots of folks these days don’t have the necessary range of motion in those (and other) areas to perform a deep back squat freely.

For the complete article..

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Background and Benefits of Heart Rate Variability Training

By Jack Woodrup, Vertical Jumping.com.

A common question I get asked about my Vertical Mastery jump training system is “how many inches can I expect to gain?” Now as much as I would love to be able to say something specific like “9 inches in 8 weeks”, the truth is there are so many variables outside of the workouts themselves that can have an impact on the results making such predictions is actually impossible (and to be blunt about this – people who do make such claims about specific results are lying to you).

You see, when it comes to athletic training each person IS different. Here is a list of just some of the things outside of the actual training program that can, and indeed do impact how much an athlete improves:

Age
Gender
Body type
Genetics
Training history
Diet
Sleep habits
Life stress (exams, job, relationship, money etc)
Other sporting commitments (games, training, other sports)
Climate they live in
Lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, drugs etc)

Custom Training: Sometimes the need for a custom training plan is rather obvious.

As many of you know my belief about ANY form of training is that from an actual programming point of view having a customized workout based on the individuals needs as they relate to a specific goal is the fastest way to get results. This isn’t a great revelation by the way, most good coaches and trainers would agree with this view. But even with a custom training program there are still all those other outside factors at play. The question this raises is how then do you account for them in building and designing workouts?

Heart Rate Variability Training To Rescue
This is where Heart Rate Variability (HRV) training comes in! What exactly is HRV? In really simple terms HRV is the variability in the time between our heart beats. If there is a high level of variability in those times it essentially means that the parasympathetic nervous system is more active. If the variability is low it means that the sympathetic nervous system is more active.

Read more..

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10.  Sleep and A Heart Healthy Lifestyle (Mens Fitness)

11. Ankle Range of Motion: 95% Solved without Dr (Mobility WOD)

 

 

 

Leading Health and Fitness News

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Best Jump Exercise Ever? Practice Makes Perfect

By Jack Woodrup, Verticaljumping.com

Here at VerticalJumping.com we love squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, box jumps, power skipping, the 123 drill, and many more. But there is one exercise that rates above all else as the very best vertical jump exercise ever.

This particular exercise improves just about all the required athletic attributes for jumping high, and is head and shoulders above everything else at improving movement efficiency. Also if your sport requires you to do any jumping then this is the most sports specific exercise choice you can make.

Practice Makes Perfect

So what is this magnificent jumping exercise that trumps all others? The very best vertical jump exercise ever is, drum roll please, practicing jumping. Yep, it is that simple. As is the case with most things, the best way to improve at something is to actually go out and do it.

If you are training to jump for a particular sporting application then one of the best things you can do is to go and practice jumping as you would for that sport. For example to jump higher in order to slam dunk a basketball, go out, find yourself a basketball ring, and then spend time trying to jump up to it. At first you will work towards just touching it, then towards being able to grab it, and then, ultimately trying to get as much of your arm above the ring as possible. If you can get your wrist above the ring, then provided you can time it right, you should be able to dunk off a lob.

Practicing your actual jumping technique is one of the most commonly overlooked things you can do to improve your vertical jump. People often believe they need all sorts of fancy exercises, different sorts of weight training equipment, and cleverly designed programs, but it is amazing how often they overlook the basic act of going out and simply doing some jumping.

Spending time working on your jumping technique will help you jump higher in so many ways. First and foremost though it will improve your movement efficiency! This is a big one. If you have less than stellar co-ordination then you will be severely limiting your potential jump height. Poor efficiency means you cannot fire your muscles in the correct order to create a smooth and powerful jumping motion.

Practicing jumping also helps develop explosive strength and reactive strength in a manner specific to jumping. Box squats, power cleans etc also develop these strengths, but jumping itself is obviously going to help you improve these traits for jumping better than every other exercise you can do.

Basically all training you do is designed to force your body to adapt to its environment (also known as an adaptive response). Thus if you want to get stronger you must expose your body to continuously greater loads, usually by weight training. This sends the signals to your body that in order to survive it will need to develop greater strength. The same goes for jump training. If you want to jump higher you must go out and regularly try to jump continuously higher. The more you practice jumping high the greater reinforcement of the message to your body and the quicker it will adapt.

Just about the only thing jumping doesn’t do that well is to increase your maximal strength levels. This is better achieved using weights. At some point most athletes will need to spend some time getting stronger in the gym in order to fully maximize their vertical jump, but unless they have mastered the action of jumping in the first place, then really, they are just wasting their time.

Conclusion

If your training has stagnated and your vertical numbers are going nowhere maybe it is time you took a step back, removed all your other exercises from your program, and just went out and started jumping. You might be surprised how much you can gain simply by including a bit of sport specific jump work into your program.

 

 

 

http://www.verticaljumping.com/the_best_vertical_jump_exercise.html

How to Create Proper Squat Technique

By Jack Woodrup

Vertical Jumping

I have discussed the benefits of squatting deeper for the jumping athlete. These benefits included a better carry over to vertical jump performance, improved knee health, and increased mobility. All of these things are something any athlete should want. So, how do you create proper squat technique?

The 2 Reasons You Can’t Squat Deep

In my experience there are 2 reasons why someone can’t squat deep.

1. They are using too much weight.

2. They lack the flexibility/mobility.

Too Much Weight

Fixing the first on is easy, just take some weight off the bar. The weakest point of the lift is at the bottom, when you start squatting deep you will have to start with a lighter weight then you have been used to lifting. Don’t let your ego get the better of you – which if you have been used to lifting heavy loads for partial squats, can be easier said than done.

Lack of Mobility or Flexibility

The second issue is a bit more complicated but definitely not insurmountable. The obvious solution to a lack of mobility or flexibility is of course to start doing some more stretching and mobility work both before you lift, and as an ongoing activity to improve your range of movement.

The main areas of tightness that you should focus on with your stretching are the glutes, calves, hips, hamstrings, chest, and shoulders.

For the complete article, visit here.

Stanford Study Shows Improved Performance By Simply Sleeping

Today’s world is always looking for the silver bullet to improved productivity and performance.  Stanford and many others have proven that getting the proper type and amount of sleep will allow you to perform at a higher level.

On this weeks The McCarthy Project, we will be looking into the areas that will prove that sleeping will eliminate many daily maladies, like the need for energy drinks, caffeine, and constant entertainment to keep you alert.  Secondly, sleep allows your brain to process what you learned from the day, to formalize your thoughts into coherent, new ideas.

So what does sleep deprivation do to your life?

1. Decreased energy. Reduces your body’s ability to store glycogen — energy that you need.
2. Worse decision making and reflexes. Studies have shown that people who don’t get enough sleep are worse at making decisions and less accurate.
3. Hormone changes. Not getting enough sleep can increase levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that can slow down healing, and worsen memory. It also lowers levels of growth hormone that helps repair the body.

Allow yourself to sleep and have some down time.  Your overall quality of life will improve and your performance will benefit.

Tune in when The McCarthy Project discusses the silver bullet of improved performance, sleep.

During the second hour, Lindsey Berg, USA Volleyball Olympic champion, shares her thoughts on sleep and recovery and how to perform at your best.

Are Deep or Parallel Squats Needed When Doing a Squat?

By Jack Woodrup
VerticalJumping.com

Jack Woodrup has done tremendous work over the years focusing on the subject of jump training or improving your vertical.  This post on parallel squats and many other forms of squats will put to rest the many questions related to depth on squatting related to increasing your vertical jump.

At the start, he makes a great case for squats that match the range of motion that would  occur during the event.  So are parallel squats needed for jump training? Almost every trainer will correct you if you don’t, It this really the truth?

For the most part yes, but build up to mastering the deep or parallel squats as your mobility/flexibility allow.

Check out he complete post at verticaljumping.com.

 

How do you combine a jump program with what the high school coach is doing? Possible?

By Jack Woodrup
VerticalJumping.com
For a lot of young athletes doing well in high school sports is a hugely important time in their life. Up for grabs for those who play are very valuable college scholarships, and in some cases, maybe even pro careers. Even if you don’t aim that high doing well on the court and getting more playing time can often be a pretty good reward in itself.
So with that in mind, it isn’t in entirely far out statement to say that High School coaches hold a great deal of power in the student athlete/coach relationship. So what do you do if you are looking to improve your vertical jump so that you can improve your on court or on field performance and your high school coach has you doing something that seems very counterproductive to that goal? Can these two situations co-exist?
Well, the first thing you need to realize is that the coach is not your enemy. If they have you doing something they more than likely have their reasons for it. If you think that what the coach is asking you is genuinely going to hurt you and your teams performance than you should consider setting up a meeting with him to ask him or her about it. Questioning your coach can be a bad move if you do it wrong (like in a timeout huddle right at the end of a tight game for example), but it can help build your relationship if you do it right.
This I would think meant visiting their office, asking your question, letting them answer, and if you are still unsatisfied, bringing up a few well researched counterpoints and maybe even offering an alternative suggestion.
Another issue you might face is that sometimes increasing your vertical jump isn’t necessarily the biggest thing that you should be working on. For example if you are a basketball player and already have a pretty decent running 34 inch vertical jump but have no endurance, well in order to get better basketball you might need to prioritize doing some more conditioning work so that you can still play solid defense and have your legs on your shot late in games. Conditioning work generally won’t help your vertical though so if you are looking to get that 34 inch running up to 40 inches you will need to way up which goal is more important.
If it is just jumping high for the sake of jumping high then you might consider quitting the team and trying out for high jump or long jump, both of which will definitely compliment your jumping goals a lot more. If you really want to play basketball though you might just have to shelve those plans for the 40 inch jump until the summer off season.
That said, even if your coaches goals differ from your jumping goals there is still plenty you can do to maximize your chances of increasing (or at the very least , maintaining) your vertical jump. In season work should consist primarily of basic strength training (squats, deadlifts, step ups), some dynamic low impact work (kettlebell swings, moderately loaded Olympic lifts), and of course some low level jumping drills to maintain the explosiveness (box jumps, seated jumps).
High school sports can be a very rewarding experience for the young athlete, but it can also be very stressful. On one hand you want to do right by your team and your coach, and on the other you want to challenge yourself to improve as an individual. How effectively you balance those two goals out can be a real challenge and sometimes the best thing to do is take a step back and reassess what you want out of your sport and then once you have made those decisions, give it your best shot to achieve your goals.

For more information, visit the Weight Room section of our site.

Overused Training Method: Plyometrics

By Stephen McCarthy

The McCarthy Project

Plyometrics for sport performance  are mainstay in almost every jump training program. The problem arises that plyometrics are probably one of the most misunderstood training methods in the training world today. They are very aggressive and overused which leads to less than stellar results. On the other hand, plyometrics will provide the stress needed to improve your game.

Before we go into the details, lets start with the definition. The word plyometric was originally used as replacement to the term “shock method” Over the years, the definition has expanded to include almost any form of jumping and landing training exercise. In my mind, this is an over reach. The purest definition of the plyometrics is a dropping from a raised surface, landing and then bounding in the shortest amount of time. Today, the definition does not include the dropping from a raised surface. It is the engaging of the stretch shortening cycle under stress to produce a training effect.

The biggest problem is that the training method is one of the most aggressive methods of training and is the easiest to do at home. And in America if 20 foot contacts or reps are the recommended prescription, then 100 would be better. This is not true for plyometrics. More is not better, you must stay within the researched methodologies to gain the results from your work.

Simply follow the plyometric training program including; the recovery time, limit your foot contacts and make sure each rep is done with max effort. And you may see the results of your work, not overuse injury.

Jack Woodrup of VerticalJumping.com on How you would know if a vertical jump training program is marketing hype?

By Jack Woodrup

VerticalJumping.com

When I first got interested in vertical jump training I was shocked to discover that at the time nearly all the jumping programs that were available for sale were quite frankly terrible. One reason for this is that a very large part of the vertical jump market is made up of highly impressionable teenage boys wanting to slam dunk a basketball.
No offence to teenage boys (I was after all one myself at some point), but the biggest thing they don’t get is just how little they actually know about things. I am sure I am not the only adult who looks back on his teenage years and thinks “If I only knew then what I know now”.  Fortunately these days the internet has made is significantly easier to research the various jump programs available and find out if they are any good or not, but in order to help you out here are a few things to look for.
Firstly, does the sales pitch make promises of guaranteed gains? If the answer is yes be wary. I know it helps reassure people if they think they are going to buy a program and 12 weeks later be jumping 10 inches higher, and this sort of thing definitely helps people make more sales, but the truth of the matter is, any real coach will tell you that guaranteeing a specific minimum result for people is actually impossible and to do so is to tell a lie.
You see everybody is different and has different strengths and weaknesses, and different starting points. An absolute beginner who has never training might indeed improve 10 inches on 12 weeks, but a more advanced athlete might be lucky to get 1 or 2 inches in 12 weeks.
So as counter intuitive as this is, if you are after a program that is going to treat you right (i.e. not lie to you even before you make a purchase) then look for one that doesn’t make outlandish claims of guaranteed inches.
Another key indicator for determining what is a good program or not is how customised that program will be to you. As I mentioned earlier, everyone has different strengths and weakness and they shouldn’t be trained the same way. One size fits all programs, or cookie cutter programs as they are known, will treat every athlete identically and have them train the same way using the same set of exercises, sets and reps.
So why is this such a big mistake in a training program? Well jumping is a function of relative power, and relative power is a function of strength and speed (how quickly you can apply your strength). So a strong but slow athlete will get a lot more benefit from a plyometric and jumping focused program, while a weaker athlete would do better by hitting the weight room to increase their strength.
To recap if the jump program you have bought, or are looking to buy doesn’t make outlandish claims and false promises, and it is customized to your individual needs than these two very good signs that the jump program has been written by someone who actually knows the subject well and is honest enough to not try cheap marketing lies to sucker you out of your hard earned cash. And in my book, if I was forking over my hard earned cash and putting my jump training in someone’s hands, I would want it to definitely be that sort of a person.

Shaun Goodsell of Mental Edge Talked About the Basics of Developing Mental Toughness

Your host Stephen McCarthy and Shaun Goodsell of the Mental Edge discussed the different aspects of mental toughness.  It is one of those subjects talked about plenty, but what is it? how do you get it?

Shaun exposed a simple, clear path to developing your purpose to the point that you will succeed.  Then when the failure that arrives, the athlete, coach or parent can show mental toughness to face the defeat and complete the mission.

Shaun mentioned the following how-to steps to developing inner discipline and becoming mentally tough.

1.  Design your life intentionally and know you will fail several times

2.  Talk about how to act out the design you see happening

3.  Then stay focused and do the work needed to accomplish the design.

To listen to the complete show, visit here.

Secondly, on the show Shaun mentioned his online site for developing mental toughness, here is the link for his site.

Shaun Goodsell Bio Information:

Shaun has worked with LPGA Golfers, National Championship Hockey Players, Professional Triathletes, State Champion Football and Hockey Players, as well as those athletes who simply want to make “the team.” Every athlete deals with certain mental interferences and life impairments no matter what level they may be at competitively. There is no such thing as right and wrong, or, good and bad, in Shaun’s mind. I do not look at life in these terms. As a Performance Coach, it is my challenge to help each individual athlete develop a new way of defining his/her performance – it is not about good or bad, but about looking at what factors go into a quality performance and what each athlete can do and/or change, individually, to experience just that. With Shaun’s ability to teach and to inspire, along with his ability to communicate abstract ideas clearly, he is able to help each person he works with identify and look at ways they might be engaging in self-defeating patterns of thinking and/or acting, which results in an overall empowering experience for the individual, raising their level of mental toughness and overall self-esteem. Shaun also works extensively with coaches and parents of athletes in large groups, focusing on their integral roles in athletes’ overall mental development and their lives in general. Each coach and parents leaves these presentations and workshops inspired and better equipped to manage athletes with aim, purpose and compassion.

For more information, visit his website.