michael reid

Knee Pain Survey

I was researching an upcoming article when I came across this "knee pain survey".  Simply follow the below directions:

"The Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment Questionnaire (Visentini, Khan, Cook et al 1998) is a quick way of monitoring the progress of jumpers knee rehabilitation. Simply answer the questions below and you will be given your score from 0 to 100 with 0 being poor and 100 good."

In the near future I will write about exercises and other strategies to resolving knee pain.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

Lots of Chin Ups = Good Vertical Jump

Here is something interesting that I tell a lot of the athletes I work with: "the more chin ups you can do, the higher you will be able to jump".  After I tell them this they usually look at me with a blank stare, some simply accept the statement while others will come back and say "but chin ups is an upper-body exercise, jumping is your legs!".  While this is essentially correct, it is not the whole story so lets explain this further.

First of all I have my anecdotal evidence, the athletes that I work with who do the most chin ups are also the fastest runners and best jumpers, this is for male and females.  This is my own personal experience, but many other coaches will tell you the same thing; lots of chin ups = good sprint speed = high vertical jump. 

Secondly, your upper-body contributes approximately 10-20% of your vertical jump; you can jump higher when you swing your arms.

Thirdly, what does a chin up measure other then upper-body pulling strength?  Well, it is a measure of your relative strength.  Your relative strength is your strength relative to your body mass, in layman terms it is often called your "pound for pound strength".  This, I believe is the main reason why I and other coaches see this correlation.  Relative strength is key to being quick, fast and jumping high.

Tack,
Mike Reid

references:

Harman, E.A., Rosenstein, M.T., Fryman, P.N., Rosenstein, R.M.
The effects of arms and counter movement on vertical jumping
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc 1990 vol. 22, page 825

Mark S. Walsh,  Harald Böhm,  Michelle M. Butterfield and Jabakar Santhosam. 2007: Gender Bias in the Effects of Arms and Countermovement on Jumping Performance. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 362–366.

Bobbert, M.F., Huijing, P.A., Van Ingen Schenau, G.J.
Drop jumping. I. The influence of jumping technique on the biomechanics of jumping
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc 1987 vol. 19, page 332

How is Fish Oil made?

I got this great question from David:  "where does the fish oil come from? from where in/on the fish? what kind of fish?"

I really was not sure, so I did a little research and this is what I found.  The fish oil is processed from whole fish and follows the following steps to separate the three major parts of the fish; fat-free dry solids, fats and water.

fish meal & oil processing plant in Iceland

1. raw fish enters the processing plant and is hashed (cut into pieces) and cooked by steam.
2. The cooked mass of fish is then pressed or centrifuged to separate the fat-free dry solids and the liquid (oil & water).
3. The fat-free dry solids are further processed into fish meal. Fish meal is commonly used in animal feed.
4. The liquid (oil & water) which is called press liquor is further processed to separate the oil and water.
5. The water that is separated from the oil also has solids in it and is added back into the fish meal.
6. The next stages of oil processing is calling polishing.  This is where impurities are removed via hot water.
7. The final stage of oil processing involves adding anti-oxidants before the oil is placed in stainless steel storage containers.

Check out this link for more detailed description of the processing.  www.fao.org

Sardines, anchovies, herring, mackerel, salmon and tuna are used most for human consumption as well as other Pelagic species.  Pelagic fish live near the surface of the water as opposed to the bottom of the ocean floor.   They can generally be found anywhere from the surface to 1,000 meters (547 fathoms) deep.

If you have any other questions please send me an email.

Tack,
Mike Reid
 

Fish Oil is good!

Are you taking it?  Why not?

There has been a lot of information on fish oil, also known Omega-3 fats, in research and the popular press.  It is probably the #1 supplement everyone should be taking.  It has many benefits and listed below are some of them of the big ones:

• Improves heart health
• fat loss - who doesn't want that?
• brain function - improve your memory & mood
• anti-inflammatory - anyone have aching knees, low back pain ...

The list can go on and on.   I have included some references and links to some sites with lots of excellent information.

Marchioli R, Barzi F, Bomba E, Chieffo C, Di Gregorio D, Di    Mascio R, et al.Early Protection Against Sudden Death by n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids After Myocardial Infarction: Time-Course Analysis of the Results of the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell'Infarto Miocardico (GISSI)-Prevenzione. 2002, pp 1897-1903.

Yokoyama M, Origasa H, Matsuzaki M, Matsuzawa Y, Saito Y,    Ishikawa Y, et al. Effects of eicosapentaenoic acid on major coronary events in hypercholesterolaemic patients (JELIS): a randomised open-label, blinded endpoint analysis. Lancet 2007; 369: 1090-1098.

Thorsdottir I, Tomasson H, Gunnarsdottir I, Gisladottir E,    Kiely M, Parra MD, et al. Randomized trial of  weight-loss-diets for young adults varying in fish and fish oil    content. Int J Obes 2007.

www.johnberardi.com

www.chekinstitute.com

www.mercola.com

www.westonaprice.org

Be Well and consume your fish oil!!!

Mike Reid

Scientific Basketball Training - part I

I recently did a presentation on the science of basketball training to a group of coaches.  Below is the summary of the research findings.  In the future I will give examples of how to apply this information to develop training drills and tests.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

Summary of Research and Science

• Basketball is an Anaerobic Sport – power, strength, quickness, agility dominate the sport (1).

• Aerobic Capacity has little effect on Anaerobic recovery (1).

• low-intensity endurance training may even impair recover from high intensity exercise like Basketball (2).

• Work:Rest Ratio     1:1 to 1:3 (3).

• 60% low intensity (1-20s), 15% High Intensity (1-15s) (3).

• Distance Traveled for Pro Basketball = ~3000m, excluding walking and Shuffling (4).

• Inverse relationship between aerobic capacity/training & power/strength (5-7).

• The more you train the Aerobic system the lower potential you have for power, strength & lean
  body mass improvements (5-7).

• Interval Training: improve aerobic & anaerobic capacity at the same time (8, 9)               

• interval training: high intensity exercise + short rest (e.g. Line drill on 60-90s intervals).

references

1. Hoffman, J.R., S. Epstein, M. Einbinder and Y. Weinstein.   The influence of aerobic capacity on anaerobic performance and recovery indices in basketball payers. J. Strength Cond. Res. 13(4): 407–411. 1999

2. Plisk, P. Speed, agility, and speed-endurance development.  In: Essential Principles of Strength and Conditioning (2nd ed.). T. Baechle and R. Earle eds. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000. pp. 487.

3. MCINNES, S.E., J.S. CARLSON, C.J. JONES, AND M.J. MCKENNA.  The physiological load imposed on basketball players during competition. J. Sports Sci. 13:387–397. 1995.

4. McClay, I.R., J.R. Robinson, T.P. Andriacchi, E.C. Frederick, T. Gross, P. Martin, G. Valiant, KR. Williams, and P.R Cavanagh.   A profile of ground reaction forces in professional basketball.  J. Appl. Biomech. 10:222–236. 1994.

5. Dudley, G.A., and R. Djamil. Incompatibility of endurance & strength training modes of exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 59:1446–1451. 1985.

6. Dudley, G.A., and S.J. Fleck. Strength & endurance training: are they mutually exclusive? Sports Med. 4:79–85. 1987.

7. Hickson, R.C. Interference of strength development by simultaneously training for strength and endurance. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 56:255–263. 1980.

8. Tabata, I., K. Nishimura, et al. The effects of moderateintensity endurance and high intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and V˙O2max. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 28(10):1327–1330. 1996.

9. Tabata, I., K. Nishimura, et al. Metabolic profile of highintensity intermittent exercises. Med. Sci. Sport Exerc. 29(3):390–395. 1997.

1st day

Hello,

I am a professional strength coach from Canada (or physical trainer as they call it here in Sweden) currently working in Sweden with a pro basketball team (www.gothiabasket.se).

I will be posting more information on training, nutrition, health and other related areas in the days to come.

If you have any comments or questions please contact via email.

Tack (thank you in Swedish),

Mike