Is Lactic Acid Dangerous? (image from hotbodytraining.com)

By Jeremy Hoy, MS, CSCS, PES, USAW

Ask any athlete that has endured some type of intense exercise and you will most likely hear them talking about lactic acid negatively, mentioning such things as intense burn, pain, toxic, lactic acid removal, and muscle soreness among other things.  Most athletes will tell you that muscle soreness that occurs the day after an intense bout of exercise is a result of lactic acid.  But, does lactic acid really contribute to muscle soreness? Does it cause the body to shut down during intense exercise?

To help answer these questions, I want to begin with an excerpt from a New York Times article dated May 16, 2006, written by Gina Kolata:

———-

Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.

Coaches and personal trainers tell athletes and exercisers that they have to learn to work out at just below their “lactic threshold,” that point of diminishing returns when lactic acid starts to accumulate. Some athletes even have blood tests to find their personal lactic thresholds.

But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy. The reason trained athletes can perform so hard and so long is because their intense training causes their muscles to adapt so they more readily and efficiently absorb lactic acid.

The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago, said George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense.

“It’s one of the classic mistakes in the history of science,” Dr. Brooks said.

Its origins lie in a study by a Nobel laureate, Otto Meyerhof, who in the early years of the 20th century cut a frog in half and put its bottom half in a jar. The frog’s muscles had no circulation — no source of oxygen or energy.

Dr. Myerhoff gave the frog’s leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Then, when Dr. Myerhoff examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid.

A theory was born. Lack of oxygen to muscles leads to lactic acid, leads to fatigue.

Athletes were told that they should spend most of their effort exercising aerobically, using glucose as a fuel. If they tried to spend too much time exercising harder, in the anaerobic zone, they were told, they would pay a price, that lactic acid would accumulate in the muscles, forcing them to stop.

Few scientists questioned this view, Dr. Brooks said. But, he said, he became interested in it in the 1960′s, when he was running track at Queens College and his coach told him that his performance was limited by a buildup of lactic acid.

When he graduated and began working on a Ph.D. in exercise physiology, he decided to study the lactic acid hypothesis for his dissertation.

“I gave rats radioactive lactic acid, and I found that they burned it faster than anything else I could give them,” Dr. Brooks said.

It looked as if lactic acid was there for a reason. It was a source of energy.

Dr. Brooks said he published the finding in the late 70′s. Other researchers challenged him at meetings and in print.

“I had huge fights, I had terrible trouble getting my grants funded, I had my papers rejected,” Dr. Brooks recalled. But he soldiered on, conducting more elaborate studies with rats and, years later, moving on to humans. Every time, with every study, his results were consistent with his radical idea.

Eventually, other researchers confirmed the work. And gradually, the thinking among exercise physiologists began to change.

“The evidence has continued to mount,” said L. Bruce Gladden, a professor of health and human performance at Auburn University. “It became clear that it is not so simple as to say, Lactic acid is a bad thing and it causes fatigue.”

As for the idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness, Dr. Gladden said, that never made sense.

“Lactic acid will be gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise,” he said. “You get sore one to three days later. The time frame is not consistent, and the mechanisms have not been found.”

The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.

Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial mass.

It is clear that the old lactic acid theory cannot explain what is happening to muscles, Dr. Brooks and others said.

Yet, Dr. Brooks said, even though coaches often believed in the myth of the lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way possible to increase their mitochondria. “Coaches have understood things the scientists didn’t,” he said.

Through trial and error, coaches learned that athletic performance improved when athletes worked on endurance, running longer and longer distances, for example.

That, it turns out, increased the mass of their muscle mitochondria, letting them burn more lactic acid and allowing the muscles to work harder and longer.

Just before a race, coaches often tell athletes to train very hard in brief spurts.

That extra stress increases the mitochondria mass even more, Dr. Brooks said, and is the reason for improved performance.

And the scientists?

They took much longer to figure it out.

“They said, ‘You’re anaerobic, you need more oxygen,’ ” Dr. Brooks said. “The scientists were stuck in 1920.”
———-
So, it seems that the key to being able to perform longer at higher intensities is increasing the ability of the mitochondria to use the lactate produced as energy.  High intensity conditioning, including sprinting, interval training, sled training, etc. can all help in this area.

What about the delayed soreness?

As mentioned in the article, any excess lactic acid or lactate accumulation in the blood is removed within one hour after exercise.  Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is more of a result of damaged muscle and connective tissues from the previous workout.

Does Lactic Acid get produced with general aerobic activity?

Remember, lactic acid is only present when more lactate is being produced than can be utilized.  Lactate is produced under normal (rest) conditions in the human body, but is produced more significantly as a result of the breakdown of stored sugars (glycogen) in the liver and the muscles during anaerobic activity.  With aerobic activity, the process of breaking down the stored sugars produces pyruvate, which is then converted and used to produce ATP for more exercise.  Research has shown that during normal aerobic activity/exercise, there is lactate production, but the rate of production is equivalent to the rate of removal/usage so there is no accumulation—that changes during more intense exercise.  Since lactic acid is the acidic form of lactate, and is typically only present when there is an excess accumulation of lactate, it is not produced with general aerobic activity (according to research).

Does Lactic Acid shut down the body?

Research has shown that the exercise science community is split down the middle with yes and no answers to this one. Some claim that it is the excess accumulation of lactic acid in the blood that causes the muscles to shut down by interfering with muscle contraction processes and interfering with the efficiency of the enzymes involved in energy production (Siff 2003, p. 72).  Other scientists suggest the body shutting down during intense exercise is a result of acidosis, which is caused by entirely different processes (you can google acidosis and exercise if you’re interested in learning more).

Much debate still exists as to the exact cause of delayed onset muscle soreness and to the exact cause of the body shutting down from intense exercise.  As more information becomes available, expect to find out about it here.  Stay tuned for more great information in future newsletter issues!

Sources:

New York Times, May 16, 2006

Facts and Fallacies of Fitness, Mel Siff, 2003

By Brandon Monin, MS, CSCS, TPI GFI

For years it was believed by golfers at all levels that weight training and physically preparing for golf wasn’t effective.  There are many misconceptions that are associated with weight training or physical preparation such as it will “bulk you up” or you make you less flexible and negatively impact your technique.  Despite what many believe or what you have heard, there have been many research studies done in the last few years on elite level golfers that show that these misconceptions are all wrong.

Golf is a very physically demanding sport that requires consistent precision within the complexity of the swing, as well as the ability to generate explosive power through a wide range of motion.  The golf swing uses the entire body to transfer power to the ball to propel the ball far and accurate.  Many of the top players in the world such as Tiger Woods credit their commitment to physical preparation as one of the major reasons for their success.  Golf is now a sport where physical training is an integral component to play at a high level consistently and without injury.

Specific Physical Training

There are several physical functions that need to be addressed in a training program.  These include balance, posture, flexibility, core strength, peripheral strength, power, and cardiovascular function.  Improving these physical functions can help improve several aspects of your golf game such as club head speed, drive distance, putting distance, stamina, and longevity.

5 Benefits of Specific Physical Training for Golf:

1.     Increase Club Head Speed

 Three main factors affect club head speed: Muscular force, the range of motion of the swing or flexibility, and the coordination of all the movements in a swing required to hit the ball.  A proper training program will increase these factors therefore increasing the club head speed and allowing for more distance on your shots.

2.     Increase Drive Distance

 An increase in club head speed will ultimately increase your distance off the tee while keeping accuracy.  Several studies have proven this showing an increase of as much as 9 meters in just six weeks of training.

3.     Increase Putting Distance and Accuracy

 With an increase of power, core stability, and balance putting distance and accuracy can be improved.

4.     Increase Stamina (endurance, power endurance)

 This is vital to a golfer’s performance over the entire 18 holes.  The golf swing requires a very high power output that occurs 30-40 times during 18 holes of golf.  An untrained golfer will fatigue decreasing one’s performance.  For those who choose to walk the course improving endurance could lead to a significant decrease in handicap.  Physical training can improve the golfer’s stamina (endurance) or more specifically power endurance which makes it possible to hit the last drive of the day, or the last chip of the day with the same amount of force and power, and accuracy (control) as the first one of the day.

5.     Increase Longevity

 A proper physical training (exercise) program will decrease the risk of injury in both junior and senior golfers, and consequently decrease the amount of time away from the sport.  Injuries occur more often in senior golfers due to the natural decrease in the physical functions such as flexibility and mobility.  A proper exercise program will delay these decreases in senior golfers and allow them to play well into their later decades.

As you can see a proper exercise program can improve your golf game and lower your handicap.  So forget about the negative stories you’ve heard and remember the facts.  Physical preparation for golfers is proven to be effective by not only solid scientific research but also thousands of golfers who chose not to believe the common misconceptions.  So whether you’re young or old, a recreational or serious golfer, starting a proper exercise program could get you over the hump and lower your handicap.  Besides the benefits on the course the health benefits from exercising are an added bonus.

Finish First Sports Performance will be offering a FREE TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) Golf Fitness Evaluation at the Robert Morris University (RMU) Golf Dome on January 21, 2012 from 1pm – 3pm.  Space is limited so register early at the customer service desk at the dome or by calling 866-468-2231 x820.  For more information visit http://www.finishfirstsports.com/golf-fitness.html

Deep Sleep for Better Performance

By Coach Jeremy S. Hoy, MS, PES, CSCS, USAW, Performance Scientist

Parents, athletes, and coaches have known for years that getting plenty of sleep is one of the most important factors in optimal recovery in sports.

However, it still seems that most athletes are sleep deprived and as a result, often not achieving full recovery from games, practices and/or workouts.

When discussing sleep, it is particularly important to understand that the greatest value is in getting deep sleep. Scientists say that there are 5 stages of sleep, beginning with light sleep, then moving on to deep sleep and finally REM sleep. Deep sleep occurs in stages 3 and 4. You can only get to stages 3 and 4 by first experiencing stages 1 and 2. All too often, our sleep is disrupted throughout the night, limiting our amount of deep sleep. Each time we are disrupted, we begin again at stage 1. It takes about 90 minutes for a complete cycle of stages 1 through 5. This is optimal: deep, uninterrupted sleep.

So, why is deep sleep so important?

This is where the body goes through natural restorative processes such as the release of growth hormone, which plays a major role in tissue repair (such as muscle). Not getting restful sleep and allowing the body to get to stages 3 and 4 denies the body of the best natural recovery methods available.

10 Tips to Better Sleep:

1. Make your room as dark as possible. Remove or eliminate any light sources such as computer monitors, TV’s, night lights, etc. If you cannot get the room really dark, you can try using a sleeping mask.

2. Make sure the room is at a comfortable temperature. Set the room temp to the way you feel most comfortable when you sleep. Our sleep cycles have a sensitivity to light. When our eyes and brain senses light, it sends a signal to “wake-up”, making it more difficult to get the deep sleep needed for optimal recovery.

3. Don’t eat high carbohydrate meals or snacks (or high glycemic foods—foods that digest quickly or spike your insulin levels rapidly such as white breads and starchy carbs) within 2 hours of going to bed. An acceptable snack would be something like a handful of almonds and an 8 oz glass of milk. The almonds have a slow release fat which will be metabolized slowly during the night, helping to fight any hunger pangs that might normally creep up during your sleep.

4. Remove any potential distractions or disruptions from your room (such as phone ringers, dogs barking, etc.). Remember, it is key to have uninterrupted sleep.

5. Add white noise from items such as fans, humidifiers, etc, or wear earplugs. It is important to keep it as quiet as possible. I know many people who like to fall asleep to the sound of the TV. Quite often, they are disrupted several times throughout the night by loud infomercials, flashy lights or other distractions from the TV. Replace the TV with a fan if you need noise.

6. Relax the mind and body before going to bed. It is almost impossible to fall asleep within 30 minutes after an intense workout. Relax the body, and relax the mind. Read a book, or meditate (really nice if you have a massage chair!) and prepare the mind and body for sleep.

7. Avoid too much caffeine consumption. Also avoid caffeine consumption after 2pm. Consuming large amounts of caffeine will have an effect on your sleep. If you are having trouble staying awake, try some physical activity. Do a few push-ups, sit-ups, stretch, jog around the room, jumping jacks, berpies, etc.—I think you understand.

8. Go to bed and wake-up at the same time every day. Consistency here is the key. The human body/mind likes consistency. Getting use to sleeping and waking at the same time daily helps create a rhythm and helps you achieve deep sleep on a more regular basis.

9. Get 8-9 hours of sleep daily. I know this is very tough for many of us, but studies still show that this is optimal. 9 hours is more preferred for teenagers or college athletes, while 8 hours is preferred for adults. If you cannot get 8-9 hours of sleep, refer to Tip #10.

10. Schedule your sleep in 90 minute intervals to help promote getting deep sleep. If you know you can only get between 4 and 5 hours of sleep on a given night, set your alarm for 4.5 hours. Waking up at the end of a sleep cycle (90min) will help you feel refreshed. Waking up in the middle or at the beginning will make you feel more sleep deprived and tired throughout the day.

Much has been written over the years regarding sleep studies and sports recovery. Taking advantage of your sleep as a recovery tool is a great way to help optimize your athletic performance. If you are currently an in-season athlete, using recovery strategies and techniques, such as maximizing deep sleep and proper nutrition, are keys to performing at your best consistently throughout the duration of the season AND reducing your risk of getting injured.

For more information about sleep and performance, please contact a performance coach at Finish First Sports Performance to schedule an educational session. You can reach a coach at 866.468.2231 or by filling out the Contact Us form at www.finishfirstsports.com.

As the New Year draws near, it is time again to take a quick self-assessment to compare our 2011 results with our 2011 goals.  Did we achieve our fitness or sports goals?  Why or why not?  What are our next goals?  How do they fit into our long term goals and plans?

Maybe you are one of those people who did not achieve your fitness or sports goals.  Or maybe your main goals are to be ready for the summer beach season.  Maybe you’re sports season is over and you’re ready to begin training and preparing for the next competitive season already.  Either way, you need to understand some simple principles about limiting factors and how to better address them to achieve your goals.

Limiting factors are simply those things that stand between you and your goals.  They are the main reasons we don’t reach our goals, and, while there may be many, for the purpose of this article, let’s address the limiting factors preventing us from achieving our fitness and performance goals (physically).  Mental limiting factors will be addressed in an article in another newsletter later.

According to Dr. John Berardi and Ryan Andrews, in their book “The Essentials of Sports and Exercise Nutrition,” limiting factors for fitness and performance (physical) can be divided into three categories:

1. Your genetic makeup,
2. Your physical activity patterns, and
3. Your nutritional habits.

Genetics

Although we all do have very real genetic limitations, too often this is used as an excuse.  While many of us are not genetically equipped to compete in the 100m for an Olympic gold medal, win the Tour de France, win the NBA slam dunk contest, or be the Superbowl MVP quarterback, we can still ALL improve our fitness and health, and attain realistic goals with the right advice and plan.

Not everyone has the goals of trying to reach the upper limits of human performance.  If you’re fully grown and 5’0”, you will not be playing against Shaq in the NBA anytime soon, or maybe never, for that matter; genetics are real, but know that very, very few people ever come close to realizing their genetic potential for health and fitness.  This means that there is always opportunity for improvements in body composition, health and performance.  Set the goals, get advice, make a plan, and follow the plan.

Exercise

This one seems pretty simple, yet it is not addressed correctly by many people.  Getting fitter, leaner, healthier, or improving performance all require an active lifestyle and an intense exercise regimen.  You can’t be sedentary, or have an inactive lifestyle and expect great results.  There needs to be purposeful exercise (specific workout routine) AND an increase in daily activity to get the best results.  This means that you cannot exercise 3 days each week, then be a sedentary slug on the other 4 and expect great results. Additionally, as will be discussed in this article, proper nutrition is also extremely important for achieving your goals and optimal results.  So, get off the couch and get moving–Not just during your workouts, but get more active all day.  If you sit all day at work, or at school, then go home and sit some more, you are not living an active lifestyle.  Get up, and get moving.  There is always time for exercise or activity IF you really want to achieve your goals.  If you are an athlete, you need to pay close attention to your purposeful exercise and make sure you are getting rest (talk to your strength coach about this).  Find a strength coach to help you create a plan with your goals in mind, and follow that plan.

Nutrition

No matter what your fitness or performance goal, nutrition will play a big role in helping you achieve it.  Knowing what to eat, what not to eat, and when to eat it is crucial for supplying the body with the right nutrients at the right time for energy and health.  Poor nutrition is what holds most people back, while good nutrition is what helps them move forward.  Research has consistently shown that adherence to an exercise routine with an active lifestyle and good nutrition produce great results every time. Good nutrition can help you get the body you never thought possible, and help you reach your performance goals.

After taking a closer look at these three limiting factors: genetics, exercise, and nutrition—do you think that you are being held back in some way by at least one of them?  Most likely, if you have not been able to hit your fitness, health and/or performance goals, the answer is yes.  Take a moment to critically analyze what has been limiting you and take the steps to push past or through these limits.  Get some help from a qualified professional, make a plan of action, and take action!  If you are one of those people looking for help and think you are ready, or would just like to get some more information, visit www.finishfirstsports.com to learn about our special introductory packages designed to let you try out all of our great features without the risk of any long term commitments.

Ever get too caught up with what tool you need to get a job done?

Even to the point where the tool has to be a specific brand name?

Well, does it really matter?

Honestly, the answer is no.

Too often we get hung up on what tools we have or what tools we need and we lose focus on getting the job done the way it should.

I often receive emails and phone calls from people wondering if we use a certain machine for our training, or a specific piece of equipment, or some other tool that they were told by someone along the way is the only tool that can get the job done.

The truth is that there are many tools needed for any job.

Some tools are better suited for preparing some athletes, while others are better suited for helping other specific athletes. These are things we determine after a specific evaluation and assessment, and find out what exactly the goals are for each athlete.

My job as a strength and conditioning coach is simply to best prepare my athletes for the highest level competition that they can possibly compete, and reduce their risk of getting injured.

While there are certain tools that I like to use, in order to do my job and complete my task at hand, I may be required to use more tools for some, and less for others. Either way, it is important for me to learn and know not only what all tools are out there, but how to use them and if and when they may be useful to any of my athletes.

Not sure what I’m talking about?

Think about it this way. Gray Cook, a physical therapist that has worked with athletes at all levels, says that it is like doing a construction project, such as a simple home remodel. Are you concerned with all the tools you need, and focused on keeping all your tools neat and shiny and polished…or are you concerned with doing what it takes to get the job done, and finishing with a beautiful home remodel?

Chances are that if you were focusing on the tools, that you will now change focus to the finished product.

That is why it is important for us, as strength coaches, to concentrate on the finished product, and learn about all the tools available to help each athlete get there.

At Finish First Sports Performance, we are committed to doing our job, and to learning and researching to tools to help you achieve optimum performance. If you’re not taking advantage of all we have to offer, please call, email, or stop in to see what else we can do for you.

(From the Training & Conditioning weekly blog, October 19, 2009)

•••
Watching a college football game last weekend, I saw a tailback begin a play taking what the television analyst described as a “false step” when the ball was snapped. The analyst commented on how counterproductive that step is due to the time he is losing to get to the line of scrimmage and that if the tailback were to eliminate that step and “drop and go,” it would be more beneficial in getting to the hole more quickly.

I have heard this argument for years. Connect the dot wisdom such as this reminds me of one of the greatest logicians in all of fictional literature: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes said, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” This quote holds true in the case of the tailback and his false step (FS).

At first glance, the FS appears counterproductive. In fact, some training methods attempt to eliminate the backward step to produce a more time-efficient and powerful start. But if this paradoxical movement appears to inhibit performance by impeding acceleration, then why do athletes inherently take a step back to move forward?

The answer is quite simple: In order to propel the body forward from a stationary position, the center of mass must be situated in front of the support area. This can be accomplished by rotating the body forward about the ankles or by displacing the support area behind the center of mass. Either way will provide the necessary outcome, however, does one lead to better performance when compared to the other?

Using a step back has been associated with poorer performance, because the time used to perform the FS could have been used to move forward instead of backward. Alternatives have been used (drop and go [DG]) to minimize or eliminate the step back to improve acceleration. This movement requires the athlete to simultaneously tilt the body forward about the ankles while performing a semi-countermovement of the hips and knees. Once the body lean is steep enough, the knees and hips are extended, producing forward acceleration of the athlete. Which start results in the greatest power development, minimizes start time, and maximizes acceleration?

Research in the last eight years has examined and reexamined the FS and the DG as a means of accelerating. Science has compared these two starts in the following areas:
(1) Begin Time (which has been defined as horizontal force greater than 10 N),
(2) Impulse Time (defined as finish time when horizontal force dropped below 10 N minus the start time),
(3) Horizontal Ground Force, and
(4) Velocity/Displacement.

The begin time (was actually slowest in FS. In fact, it was 50 to 100 percent longer compared with DG (0.460 vs. 0.304 milliseconds). Therefore, it appears the anecdotal evidence is supported. On the basis of this information alone, we should begin training our athletes with the goal of eliminating the step back; however, examining impulse may suggest otherwise. In the case of impulse time the FS was only 0.24 seconds, whereas the DG displayed a range of 0.41-0.56 seconds.

So, although it may take slightly longer to begin producing force, the action is completed much more quickly when using an FS. In regard to horizontal ground force (force generated to propel the body forward), starting with an FS produces the greatest mean power of the two starts. The values reported for FS and DG were 8.09, and 0.16 J/kg, respectively. This indicates that the FS is the best way to increase kinetic energy of the center of mass in the horizontal direction (there is a 97-98 percent drop-off when using the DG starting method). It now appears an FS produces not only larger power but also a shorter time (impulse).

Having a quick start and generating large amounts of power are certainly beneficial, but does it translate to moving more quickly? By examining the same time point for each start, the FS was best (1.95 m/sec) compared to the DG (0.42 m/sec). This means by beginning with an FS you will cover more ground in a given period of time than in a DG. This was supported further as the center of mass was displaced 0.25m, and .012 m with FS, and DG, respectively.

Using DG has been suggested to prevent the wasted time of stepping back and provide a much more explosive start. Although force initiation is generated quickly, the time elapsed to complete the task is greater, negatively affecting both velocity and displacement. Furthermore, because a countermovement must be used with this start, the center of mass is displaced downward, which contradicts Newton’s Third Law of Motion indicating there will be a disproportionate vertical return compared with the horizontal movement desired. In other words, the vertical force produced cannot be redirected quickly enough by the rotation about the ankle axes to result in efficient horizontal movement.

Using a FS was originally thought to be wasted motion and decreased the ability to accelerate. Although inherently paradoxical, the research-based information suggests the FS holds the most promise to maximize performance during the first few steps of acceleration. This inherently natural movement demonstrates greater force development with the shortest impulse time. As sports-performance professionals, we need to take heed in what Sherlock Holmes suggests: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have evidence. It biases the judgment.”

Todd Brown, CCS, is a sports science consultant working in south/central New Jersey. He has worked with Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and Women’s Professional Soccer. He can be reached at: tbrowngator1@aol.com.

]]> http://finish1st.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/new-thoughts-on-using-a-false-step-for-acceleration/feed/ 0 coachhoy Homer running http://finish1st.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/facebook-hockey-magazine-strength-and-conditioning-interview/ http://finish1st.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/facebook-hockey-magazine-strength-and-conditioning-interview/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:16:47 +0000 coachhoy http://finish1st.wordpress.com/?p=20 ]]>

By Coach J. Hoy, CSCS, NASE Cert., USAW, Jump Stretch, Inc. Certified, Elite Performance Scientist

I would like to thank FACEOFF magazine for the article in their most recent issue (Oct-Nov 2009, page 12). It’s great to see that what Finish First Sports Performance has been doing to help athletes for almost 10 years now is continuing to get recognized in the athletic community.

For those of you who do not receive the magazine, I am here to tell you it is a FREE publication. All you need to do is go HERE and sign up to start receiving your FREE issues.

Additionally, you can pick them up at any ice rink in Pittsburgh, some YMCA’s, or at the Finish First Sports Performance world training headquarters.

Finally, for anyone who is not able to get a copy of the magazine, but would still like to read the article, here it is.

*****************************************

Workout Mecca

Robinson Township gym helps athletes achieve optimal fitness

Story by Matt Grubba

Hockey has always been a sport that rewards the most-skilled players on the ice.

But as players from juniors to the pro ranks continue to get stronger and faster, keeping pace physically requires a hefty commitment off the ice, as well.

With that in mind, Jeremy Hoy saw an opportunity.

Hoy, a certified strength and conditioning specialist with a degree from Slippery Rock University, founded Finish First Sports Performance in Robinson Township, a gym with focus on athlete-specific workout programs that has drawn top area athletes.

Since opening its doors in 2007, Finish First has helped train pros such as Toronto Maple Leafs center Christian Hanson and former Robert Morris and Current Johnstown Chiefs forward Sean Berkstresser, right down to high school and amateur players.

While hockey players aren’t the only ones getting the benefits of Finish First’s training, they make up a good percentage of Hoy’s business because of his background in the sport.

“When I graduated, I went to Lake Placid, N.Y., to be an intern at the U.S. Olympic Training Center,” Hoy said.

“I got to work with a lot of really cool sports like skeleton, bobsled and luge, as well as the women’s gold medal ice hockey team, which was one of my first exposures to high-level hockey.”

For Hoy, a wrestler in high school and college, that would be the start of a connection to hockey that continues today.

After his internship, he returned to Western Pennsylvania for a job as the director of sports performance at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center, a position that gave him even more exposure to top-flight hockey.

“I got to pick the mind of Kevin Constantine, who had just finished up with the Penguins, Dave Hanson, who is still at the Island Sports Center, and Marianne Watkins, who is one of the best power-skating instructors in the country,” Hoy said.

“I would have to say that after the success I had at Lake Placid and working with the Pittsburgh Forge (Junior A team) at Robert Morris, I tended to fit in well working with hockey players because they’re all so hard working and have good values.”

Finish First’s “Total Athletic Performance System,” a gym trademark, takes into account age, skill level, development level and injury history, as well as other factors, to determine an individual workout plan unique to each person and his or her sport.

“(For hockey players) we do a lot of single-leg, multi-plane movement. We do a lot of stopping and starting and working on the first three steps, getting that strength and acceleration,” Hoy said.

“(Hoy) really cares and really knows his stuff. He’s always doing research,” said Christian Hanson, a Venetia native who played his first five NHL games last season after graduating from Notre Dame.

“I’ve had strength coaches through juniors, college and now with the Leafs that will talk to Jeremy about me during the offseason. They all say the same thing after talking with him – that he really knows what he’s doing and they know I’m being taken care of here.”

“My hips have always been really tight, and as a hockey player, the looser your hips are, the quicker you’re going to be,” said Berkstresser, an Apollo native who first worked with Hoy while playing for the Forge, from 2001 to 2003. “It’s made me more explosive and a lot more powerful.”

Those benefits are why Hanson and Berkstresser continue to work with Hoy at Finish First, located on the corner of State Route 60 and Moon Run Road.

The building, which formerly housed a beer distributor, was morphed into a well-ventilated workout space for Finish First customers, taking advantage of the garage doors formerly used for deliveries. Workouts aren’t confined to just the building, either, as Hoy and his coaches also take advantage of the area behind the building, where property borders the wide-open space provided by the Twin Hi-Way Drive-In cinema.

The expanse of dirt and grass behind the building allows for everything from sprints to pushing sleds, giving Finish First more workout flexibility than most fitness centers in suburban Pittsburgh, so many of which are stuck in strip malls or in crowded neighborhoods.

“We do a lot of stuff outside, conditioning, footwork drills, sleds and flipping tires,” Hoy said.

“I had a vision of a training facility similar to this, maybe a bit bigger. I looked at a lot of commercial spaces before we moved in here, and space is always an issue. If you’re in a retail area, you’re kind of limited in what you can do.”

With such a prime location, Hoy can focus on what he enjoys doing the most: working with individual athletes on a more personal basis.

“He gives you more one-on-one attention and I think he really bases everything around what your strengths are,” Berkstresser said. “Instead of handing you a paper and saying go at it, he really builds you up and works on your weaknesses.”

And Berkstresser knows that the attention he gets isn’t just because he’s a professional – it’s the way Hoy has always treated all his athletes.

“He’ll be my trainer until further notice. Even when I’m done playing hockey, I’ll probably still go work out there to work with him.”

Oct. 8 — This is Robert Morris’ last chance to win a CHA championship.

And with a 1-in-4 chance, those are pretty good odds.

RMU made the CHA finals last spring after upsetting defending champion Niagara in the semifinals. The Colonials hope to go farther next spring.

“Everyone wants to look toward the end and hope to be champions, and that is what success is based on, championships,” Robert Morris senior captain Dave Cowan said. “But we are taking the season as it comes, trying not to look too far ahead and stay focused on what’s in front of us now. We need to win in our conference. We need to win at home and stay consistent.

“I think that our biggest downfall in the past is consistency, so if we can stay consistent, we should be able to keep ourselves in the hunt.”

Sophomore goaltender Brooks Ostergard finished with two shutouts, a .917 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average a year ago, and while Ostergard was a no-name to some, his name is now very common in the Pittsburgh area.

“It’s his job [to be the No. 1 goalie] ,” Colonials coach Derek Schooley said. “He’s earned it and it will be interesting to see how he can do for a full season. He just needs to be consistent.”

Junior forward Chris Kushneriuk is also a fan of Ostergard.

Brooks Ostergard became Robert Morris’ go-to goaltender last season (photo: Robert Morris Athletics).

“We all knew Brooks had the talent to be a top goalie right from the moment he got here last season,” Kushneriuk said. “He’s confident, talented and determined, and all the guys are comfortable having him behind us. He’s a great leader in his own sense because he keeps things loose and has a great sense of humor to go with it.”

While it’s easy to look past the season and to the CHA tournament, Cowan, as a competent captain should, has his team firmly on the ground at this point.

“When looking at the season, you never want to look too far ahead,” Cowan said. “This preseason is the best we have had since my start to the program, and a lot of that is thanks to Jeremy Hoy, our strength coach. Hopefully, our hard work in the summer and in the preseason will pay off, as I’m sure it will. My expectations are always high for this program as they should be when looking at the guys we have coming back and our freshmen coming in.”

Losing key players like forwards Chris Margott (the school’s all-time leading scorer) and Jason Towsley and defenseman Matt Krug only opens the door for players like junior forward Nathan Longpre and junior defenseman Denny Urban, two All-CHA preseason team picks, to shine.

“It would be easy to say that Urban and Longpre will need to continue to have stellar seasons, but really we’re going to need all the returnees to lead the way,” Kushneriuk said.

“We only have two seniors and we are still a very young hockey team, but we have great leadership,” Schooley said. “Once we get back from Alaska next weekend and then go to Ferris State after that, we should know more.”

Even so, the talk of bringing a CHA title to RMU still cannot be avoided.

“With the core group of guys that we have and a very gritty and talented group of freshman, we’re expecting nothing less than winning the CHA championship,” Kushneriuk said. “Since this is the last year of the CHA, we’re looking at nothing less than winning the CHA championship. Robert Morris has been close too many times, but now we have the personnel and the drive to take it home.

“We need to stay true to our systems, be strong on our special teams, and continue to do what made us successful at the end of last year. All the returnees know the feeling we had in Bemidji, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

I have some news that I think is worth sharing.  Hearings are underway that may change the nutritional supplement industry forever, and provide some sort of regulation that would prevent dangerous products containing such things as various forms of steroids (or steroid compounds) from being marketed to teenagers.  I have attached the article in this post.  My questions to you are:  Do you think that they will be able to regulate this industry?  Will this help level the playing field?  Will this affect you?  Please share any thoughts or comments you may have.

Finish First,

Jeremy

Senate seeks tighter supplement regulation from USADA
BY Teri Thompson and Nathaniel Vinton
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS
Tuesday, September 29th 2009, 8:55 PM

At  a Senate hearing Tuesday addressing the alarming proliferation of steroids within the relatively unregulated nutritional supplements industry, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said his organization was weeks away from announcing a new initiative that will propose regulatory reform of the supplements industry and will have the support of major professional sports leagues.

“It’s an effort to educate and effect change in the legislation,” said USADA’s chief executive Travis Tygart, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and drugs. “The problem has migrated away from elite athletes.”

Tygart said the initiative will have support from the NFL, NBA, MLB, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee and other organizations. Various sports leagues recently have faced challenges to their anti-doping policies by athletes claimingcontaminated supplements had triggered their positive drug tests.

“We may need to look at what we’re going to do here with the exemption,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), referring to legislation that has allowed the dietary supplement industry to circumvent many of the regulations imposed by the Food and Drug Administration.

Political pressure seems to be building on the supplement industry. The hearing followed a summer-long series of federal raids on manufacturers and distributors of steroid-laced supplements. Some of those enforcement actions were led by federal agents who investigated the BALCO doping conspiracy. Specter said he was inspired to hold the hearings after reading about the 50-game ban on reliever J.C.Romero of Specter’s hometown Phillies.

He said he was also troubled by a federal appeals court ruling from earlier this month that prohibited the NFL from suspending two Vikings for violating the league’s anti-doping policies. Romero and the Vikings players – Kevin Williams and Pat Williams – blamed contaminated supplements for their positive drug tests.

Among other witnesses were top officials from the DEA and FDA, and Jareem Gunter, a former collegiate baseball player who suffered liver failure after ingesting an over-the-counter supplement laced with the designer steroid methasterone. While he wasn’t an official witness at the hearing, Gunter was called forward to tell the story of his hospitalization. He said he had gone out of his way to seek a muscle-building supplement that didn’t contain banned substances, but later found out that the makers of the product had spiked it with an obscure designer steroid.

“I thought I’d found the diamond in the rough, something that wouldn’t hurt me at all,” said Gunter, who now works for a non-profit group.

Besides Specter, the only other lawmaker present for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and drugs was Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), one of the most ardent defenders of the supplement industry in U.S. Congress.

“The FDA is overburdened,” Sen. Hatch said, referring to the Food and Drug Administration, which has struggled to keep up with the burgeoning industry of bodybuilding supplements. “I blame Congress for a lot of these things. We don’t give you enough support.”

Tygart said he still hoped the professional sports leagues would sign on to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees independent drug testing for American Olympic athletes. Although the professional leagues have teamed up with USADA to help fund research for human growth hormone urine screening, they have largely shunned USADA’s anti-doping policies, which are much stricter than anything pro athletes face.

“We’re not asking for the same approval process as drugs,” Tygart said. “The FDA now gets no idea of what products are out there and what substances are in them.”