Nothing else really too much to say except....
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
A Guaranteed Way of Getting You 86,400!
Investment strategy....
Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400 and it carries over no balance from day to day, it allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.
What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
Performance Coach, Trainer, Motivator
"S.M.A.R.T.fit" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Magic of Myelin
The Magic of Myelin
This has been a terrific piece for me personally to put together and I hope it will be for anyone wanting to better understand “talent.” In the world of sports psychology we talk a lot about and instruct athletes to work on "deliberate practice." What exactly is “deliberate practice” and why is it important? The simple answer is – IT HELPS THE ATHLETE PRODUCE MYELIN. Myelin is the fatty insulation around nerve fibers that makes electrical nerve signals more efficient.
So what is the connection between “deliberate practice” and Myelin?
It is now very well known that superior athletes and superior leaders of great skill in any field have spent many years carefully sharpening and perfecting their technique (this includes savants, who, by nature of their disability, are able to focus obsessively and persistently on math or music or art, effectively tuning out distractions). Why does high-level skill take so much time and steady effort to develop? It turns out that this slow, patient persistence is exactly what myelin needs to become a thicker and more efficient insulator. You can't rush that process. In neurology, myelin is being seen as an epiphany. This is a new dimension that now helps us understand a ton about how the brain works, especially about how we gain skills, all skills.
Let’s take a look at the current epicenters of great sports training; the Spartak tennis center in Russia, golfers in South Korea, baseball payers in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. What is the common thread? Deliberate practice. This is an obsessive focus on technique. Each of these places are incubators for deliberate practice. Harnessing the competitive drive comes later (at Spartak, they don't allow students to compete in tournaments for at least three years).
“He’s gifted” “What a natural” “That guy was born to do that” Those are all things people say when they see extraordinary feats and phenomenal skills. But are some people born that way? Are some people born with more efficient myelin-boosters than others? Maybe so. Maybe, on top of the years and years of persistent development of technique, Anna Kournikova and Tiger Woods also got lucky in the genetic lottery. But what I as well as many others in this field have learned following the last few years of research, genetic differences seem less and less relevant.
Here is why:1. No one has actually found these much-vaunted genetic differences relating to skill and talent. Maybe they're connected to intelligence, maybe even persistence….? All we know is that we haven't actually found them yet.
2. Regardless of what differences we're born with, there is a lot of evidence that suggests: most people do not come remotely close to achieving their genetic potential
high-level achievement is simply impossible without hard work and persistence
3. We also know from definitive research that no one benefits from a mindset that relies on their "natural" abilities. Students encouraged to rely on their natural gifts stagnate, as do poor-performing students told that they are limited by some disability. In opposition, students of every caliber perform better when they are encouraged to equate hard work with results.
Athletes and age of peak performanceThe path of an athlete’s career follows a parabolic arc: a fairly steep rise as the body matures and skills are acquired, a peak, and then a slower, flatter decline as ability fades. But what causes this peak and decline? Obviously it has to do with physical attributes like speed and power, but what about the deep, underlying aspects of performance?
The consistency of this rise-peak-decline pattern is striking, even across very different sports. For nearly every major sport, the age of peak performance is in the range of 22-30, and some interesting trends emerge when you look at sport type in relation to an athlete’s peak age. The age at which performance tends to peak across sports seems to mirror the continuum from purely explosive, athletic sports to slower, more skill-based sports, with explosive sports peaking earlier. Further, even within sports that combine different abilities, explosive abilities (like base stealing in baseball) tend to peak earlier than more cognitive, skill-based abilities (like drawing walks in baseball).
Given that myelin is associated both with expertise and with the ultra-fast conduction of nerve signals, it seems logical to explore whether the degeneration of myelin might be associated with the decline that we see in athletes’ performance. Myelin integrity also exhibits a parabolic trajectory with age, and the breakdown of myelin is associated with slower nerve conduction and cognitive and physical decline. But while this seems like a plausible explanation, studies have shown that myelin integrity actually peaks around age 40. In a study conducted at UC San Diego, a range of subjects were tested on a very simple but common neurological test, finger-tapping speed. Maximal finger tapping speed requires high-frequency action potential bursts and is associated with myelin integrity. The study results found that myelin integrity, as measured by brain imaging techniques, and finger-tapping speed closely mirror each other, and peaked around age 39. The study’s concluded that the results suggest that in this very healthy male sample, maximum motor speed requiring high-frequency burst may depend on brain myelin integrity.
Interestingly though, even in the most skill-based sport, golf, performance decline begins before 39, the age at which studies suggest that myelin integrity peaks. Decline in every sport happens while myelin integrity, and thus the quality of the signals sent through the brain and body, should still be improving. So, again, why the decline? It is potentially productive to examine when certain physical attributes begin to decline, and whether those might explain why athletes lose competitiveness with age. Decline does not seem to be related to a loss of physical strength. Studies have found that muscle atrophy due to aging doesn’t begin until around age 50, so that seems like a dead end. Another potential cause might be an accumulation of injuries.
Certainly in high-impact sports like football, or sports with razor-thin margins that make injuries relatively more debilitating like track and field, we tend to see younger ages of peak performance. It may just be that the wear and tear on the body over the years erodes an athlete’s ability. This idea is bolstered by research on how football running backs who carry the ball more than 370 times in a season tend to show a predictable pattern of decline in the ensuing seasons after that huge workload.
But the metric that seems most related to decline is pure explosiveness. We see the most explosive sports, like track and field sprinting, peaking the earliest. Even within sports, as in football, positions that rely more on explosiveness (running backs) peak earlier than those that rely more on other, more experienced-based skills (quarterbacks). The neurological metric that seems to fall more in line with peak athletic age, and with this explosive speed, is reaction time. Reaction time peaks in the 20′s and then begins to fall off. Specifically, it is complex reaction time that declines fastest. So why do reaction time and explosiveness peak when they do? In reality, athletic decline is probably due to a number of interacting causes, both physical and, potentially, neural. The exact mechanism behind why athletes peak when they do, despite the predictability and inevitability of the process, is not 100% understood, but it’s getting there.
So how do you become a superior athlete? Deliberate Practice and Myelin! Practice smart, practice hard, practice long!
This has been a terrific piece for me personally to put together and I hope it will be for anyone wanting to better understand “talent.” In the world of sports psychology we talk a lot about and instruct athletes to work on "deliberate practice." What exactly is “deliberate practice” and why is it important? The simple answer is – IT HELPS THE ATHLETE PRODUCE MYELIN. Myelin is the fatty insulation around nerve fibers that makes electrical nerve signals more efficient.
So what is the connection between “deliberate practice” and Myelin?
It is now very well known that superior athletes and superior leaders of great skill in any field have spent many years carefully sharpening and perfecting their technique (this includes savants, who, by nature of their disability, are able to focus obsessively and persistently on math or music or art, effectively tuning out distractions). Why does high-level skill take so much time and steady effort to develop? It turns out that this slow, patient persistence is exactly what myelin needs to become a thicker and more efficient insulator. You can't rush that process. In neurology, myelin is being seen as an epiphany. This is a new dimension that now helps us understand a ton about how the brain works, especially about how we gain skills, all skills.
Let’s take a look at the current epicenters of great sports training; the Spartak tennis center in Russia, golfers in South Korea, baseball payers in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. What is the common thread? Deliberate practice. This is an obsessive focus on technique. Each of these places are incubators for deliberate practice. Harnessing the competitive drive comes later (at Spartak, they don't allow students to compete in tournaments for at least three years).
“He’s gifted” “What a natural” “That guy was born to do that” Those are all things people say when they see extraordinary feats and phenomenal skills. But are some people born that way? Are some people born with more efficient myelin-boosters than others? Maybe so. Maybe, on top of the years and years of persistent development of technique, Anna Kournikova and Tiger Woods also got lucky in the genetic lottery. But what I as well as many others in this field have learned following the last few years of research, genetic differences seem less and less relevant.
Here is why:1. No one has actually found these much-vaunted genetic differences relating to skill and talent. Maybe they're connected to intelligence, maybe even persistence….? All we know is that we haven't actually found them yet.
2. Regardless of what differences we're born with, there is a lot of evidence that suggests: most people do not come remotely close to achieving their genetic potential
high-level achievement is simply impossible without hard work and persistence
3. We also know from definitive research that no one benefits from a mindset that relies on their "natural" abilities. Students encouraged to rely on their natural gifts stagnate, as do poor-performing students told that they are limited by some disability. In opposition, students of every caliber perform better when they are encouraged to equate hard work with results.
Athletes and age of peak performanceThe path of an athlete’s career follows a parabolic arc: a fairly steep rise as the body matures and skills are acquired, a peak, and then a slower, flatter decline as ability fades. But what causes this peak and decline? Obviously it has to do with physical attributes like speed and power, but what about the deep, underlying aspects of performance?
The consistency of this rise-peak-decline pattern is striking, even across very different sports. For nearly every major sport, the age of peak performance is in the range of 22-30, and some interesting trends emerge when you look at sport type in relation to an athlete’s peak age. The age at which performance tends to peak across sports seems to mirror the continuum from purely explosive, athletic sports to slower, more skill-based sports, with explosive sports peaking earlier. Further, even within sports that combine different abilities, explosive abilities (like base stealing in baseball) tend to peak earlier than more cognitive, skill-based abilities (like drawing walks in baseball).
- For baseball, a number of studies, using different methods, have pegged peak age between 27-29.
- For Tennis, peak age has been pegged between the early 20′s and 25.
- For basketball, peak age has been found to be at 27 for all positions, with different positions showing different patterns of decline.
- For Track and Field, peak sprinting age has been found to be in the lower-mid twenties, with endurance events having a little older peak ages.
- For golf, athletes have broader peaks–between 25-35, with slower declines.
- For football, running backs and receivers peak around 27, with running backs showing sharper fall-offs than receivers. Quarterbacks have a broader peak between 25-35.
But why do athletes decline? One place where we are now looking for an explanation is in myelin integrity. As noted above, myelin is a fatty sheath that insulates the axon of the neuron, the long portion of the neuron that conducts the electrical signal when a neuron “fires”. This sheath acts like an electrical insulator, and allows the axon to conduct a signal much faster than an unmyelinated axon. You’ve all heard of “gray matter,” but myelin is what we call “white matter” when we’re talking about the brain as opposed to “gray matter”, which is mostly composed of neuronal cell bodies. Neuroplastic changes in white matter have been observed in musicians and other categories of experts–it’s as if repetition and practice cause the laying down of additional layers of this myelinated insulation–so it isn’t too great of a leap to anticipate that highly trained athletes might exhibit differences in myelination and white matter when compared to the general population.
Given that myelin is associated both with expertise and with the ultra-fast conduction of nerve signals, it seems logical to explore whether the degeneration of myelin might be associated with the decline that we see in athletes’ performance. Myelin integrity also exhibits a parabolic trajectory with age, and the breakdown of myelin is associated with slower nerve conduction and cognitive and physical decline. But while this seems like a plausible explanation, studies have shown that myelin integrity actually peaks around age 40. In a study conducted at UC San Diego, a range of subjects were tested on a very simple but common neurological test, finger-tapping speed. Maximal finger tapping speed requires high-frequency action potential bursts and is associated with myelin integrity. The study results found that myelin integrity, as measured by brain imaging techniques, and finger-tapping speed closely mirror each other, and peaked around age 39. The study’s concluded that the results suggest that in this very healthy male sample, maximum motor speed requiring high-frequency burst may depend on brain myelin integrity.
Interestingly though, even in the most skill-based sport, golf, performance decline begins before 39, the age at which studies suggest that myelin integrity peaks. Decline in every sport happens while myelin integrity, and thus the quality of the signals sent through the brain and body, should still be improving. So, again, why the decline? It is potentially productive to examine when certain physical attributes begin to decline, and whether those might explain why athletes lose competitiveness with age. Decline does not seem to be related to a loss of physical strength. Studies have found that muscle atrophy due to aging doesn’t begin until around age 50, so that seems like a dead end. Another potential cause might be an accumulation of injuries.
Certainly in high-impact sports like football, or sports with razor-thin margins that make injuries relatively more debilitating like track and field, we tend to see younger ages of peak performance. It may just be that the wear and tear on the body over the years erodes an athlete’s ability. This idea is bolstered by research on how football running backs who carry the ball more than 370 times in a season tend to show a predictable pattern of decline in the ensuing seasons after that huge workload.
But the metric that seems most related to decline is pure explosiveness. We see the most explosive sports, like track and field sprinting, peaking the earliest. Even within sports, as in football, positions that rely more on explosiveness (running backs) peak earlier than those that rely more on other, more experienced-based skills (quarterbacks). The neurological metric that seems to fall more in line with peak athletic age, and with this explosive speed, is reaction time. Reaction time peaks in the 20′s and then begins to fall off. Specifically, it is complex reaction time that declines fastest. So why do reaction time and explosiveness peak when they do? In reality, athletic decline is probably due to a number of interacting causes, both physical and, potentially, neural. The exact mechanism behind why athletes peak when they do, despite the predictability and inevitability of the process, is not 100% understood, but it’s getting there.
So how do you become a superior athlete? Deliberate Practice and Myelin! Practice smart, practice hard, practice long!
Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
Performance Coach, Trainer
"S.M.A.R.T.fit" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
Performance Coach, Trainer
"S.M.A.R.T.fit" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
What good is one apple?
Do you think the apple or apple seed is worth more?
Rodney and Gregory were sitting in the break room talking about business strategies for their small training company. Rodney, ever the worrier, was expressing his frustrations over how "quick success" seemed to be eluding them. Rodney said to Gregory, "I can't see any evidence of this hard work. It seems like every thing that we have done has been to no avail."
Gregory, a much more seasoned businessperson, sat listening while peeling a big shinny red apple. Gregory understood Rodney's frustration. Early in his business career, Gregory had similar feelings and often gave up on his goals prematurely because he did not believe in himself. Fortunately, Gregory gained understanding of the need for belief and patience.
Holding up the apple he was peeling, Gregory said to Rodney, "See this apple, Rodney. When I cut it in half, we can count the number of seeds in it." Gregory cut the apple in half and noted the number of seeds in the core of the apple. He held up one seed for Rodney to see. "However," Gregory continued, "we cannot count the number of apples in one seed." Rodney looked at Gregory with confusion as he struggled to understand how Gregory's example related to his concerns.
Gregory continued, "We cannot know how many “trees” will grow and bear fruit from our efforts thus far. Now is the time to assume that our seed will bear fruit, to see the orchard filled with trees loaded with apples, which have been fertilized with belief and confidence, and watered with enthusiasm. We must be careful not to allow the weeds of negativity and doubt strangle the new plants as they struggle to grow into fruit-bearing trees."
***********************************
Don't be stuck looking at things like Rodney, just fire him now and look at the seeds!!!
Often, it is very difficult for us to see beyond what is present, or absent, for a period of time after we have made a decision and taken action. The silence between the time that we launch our goal and when we begin to see the results of our efforts can be deafening. It is during this time that we may lose momentum and enthusiasm for our goals.
Our ability to see thousands of apples in one apple seed may separate the truly successful people from those who experience only a minimal amount of success.
You must maintain a vision of what you want, need or desire, and be confident in your abilities to achieve success even when you cannot yet see the results of your efforts.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Program!
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Program!
Someone last week said to me, "Man I wish I could be you for a day as a 'trainer', you have a great job; you get to scream and yell and yell and scream at people all day long!" I ever so politely replied, "Are you freaking nuts, you are out of your mind? You really don't know what I do, do you? The fact of the matter is, yes I do have a great job AND I do not yell and scream at people all day long. Who enjoys getting yelled at and who enjoys yelling at people?" Who in their right mind wants to hand you a lot of money and then tell you, "now that I have given you money, please treat me like crap by screaming, yelling and calling me names." Well let me stop for a second, maybe someone looking to fulfill a freaky fetish, but that's another topic...
This is such a misconception in this industry... not only by clients and prospective clients but in general as you can see. Maybe they get this from TV and big box gyms and from the ever popular tanned up Affliction wearing Johnny Frohawk? (some of you that know me know who I mean) This I believe is also something that newbie "trainers" see as part of the job, maybe they get it from Spin Instructors...? Do me a favor and please shoot me if you ever see me going into a spin class! That's what I want to do as much as run on a treadmill at the gym! Wow, that's as exciting and effective for fat loss as sticking my hand in a meat grinder, and not to mention BORING AS HELL!
This yelling and screaming is so not true of the "fitness professional."
The value of what we provide as "fitness professionals" is in the program design and the programming for the client, it generally is not entirely in the actual training session. Although the actual session is much better with a "fitness professional" than by yourself, a good program design in my opinion is far superior than Johnny Frohawk standing over you screaming at you to "push harder" or to "do one more rep." Motivation is vitally important, so don't get me wrong here, my point is that there is equal if not greater value in the program design. Being in a one on one session with a client for every single set and every single rep motivating and instructing and coaching is very valuable, and yes, many people need someone to be with them for every training session. Maybe because they know the value of having you there or maybe because they know that they are lazy or need assistance or just simply want to be pushed - correctly.
My point here is that you are being paid to help your client, so spend a little time and figure out how to help them, it all starts with a good program. So Speak Softly and Carry a Good Program, otherwise your clients will find someone who does. Value what you do, and your clients will value what you do for them. Or you can just pay someone to "hang out" like they have been doing with you.
Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
"S.M.A.R.T.fit" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
Someone last week said to me, "Man I wish I could be you for a day as a 'trainer', you have a great job; you get to scream and yell and yell and scream at people all day long!" I ever so politely replied, "Are you freaking nuts, you are out of your mind? You really don't know what I do, do you? The fact of the matter is, yes I do have a great job AND I do not yell and scream at people all day long. Who enjoys getting yelled at and who enjoys yelling at people?" Who in their right mind wants to hand you a lot of money and then tell you, "now that I have given you money, please treat me like crap by screaming, yelling and calling me names." Well let me stop for a second, maybe someone looking to fulfill a freaky fetish, but that's another topic...
This is such a misconception in this industry... not only by clients and prospective clients but in general as you can see. Maybe they get this from TV and big box gyms and from the ever popular tanned up Affliction wearing Johnny Frohawk? (some of you that know me know who I mean) This I believe is also something that newbie "trainers" see as part of the job, maybe they get it from Spin Instructors...? Do me a favor and please shoot me if you ever see me going into a spin class! That's what I want to do as much as run on a treadmill at the gym! Wow, that's as exciting and effective for fat loss as sticking my hand in a meat grinder, and not to mention BORING AS HELL!
 |
| Johnny Frohawk |
The value of what we provide as "fitness professionals" is in the program design and the programming for the client, it generally is not entirely in the actual training session. Although the actual session is much better with a "fitness professional" than by yourself, a good program design in my opinion is far superior than Johnny Frohawk standing over you screaming at you to "push harder" or to "do one more rep." Motivation is vitally important, so don't get me wrong here, my point is that there is equal if not greater value in the program design. Being in a one on one session with a client for every single set and every single rep motivating and instructing and coaching is very valuable, and yes, many people need someone to be with them for every training session. Maybe because they know the value of having you there or maybe because they know that they are lazy or need assistance or just simply want to be pushed - correctly.
My point here is that you are being paid to help your client, so spend a little time and figure out how to help them, it all starts with a good program. So Speak Softly and Carry a Good Program, otherwise your clients will find someone who does. Value what you do, and your clients will value what you do for them. Or you can just pay someone to "hang out" like they have been doing with you.
Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
"S.M.A.R.T.fit" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Working Hard... Too Hard?
WHY DO YOU WORK SO HARD.......?
IF SOME IS GOOD, IS MORE BETTER?
What about this....
If two aspirin get rid of your headache in 30 minutes, wouldn't it be better to take ten of them so you could get rid of the headache in six minutes?
Of course not!
IF SOME IS GOOD, MORE IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER.
Sometimes LESS is MORE.
Once there was a small logging company in the Pacific Northwest.
One day they hired a former pro football player.
This huge 300-pounder was not only incredibly strong but also in great cardiovascular shape. On his first day he came to work his first day with a "I'm going to show you guys who I am" attitude.
He went and got an ax and quickly starting chopping. Every once in a while, he noticed all of the other lumberjacks taking breaks, walking up and down the road. Not him, he kept going. Non stop, he chopped and chopped and chopped.
At the end of the day, all the workers met in the boss' office to get their pay which was based on the number of trees they chopped down. The new guy went first and and proudly told the boss that he chopped down twenty-one trees.
There were chuckles from the other men. Embarrassed, the big guy pointed to an older man and defiantly asked him how many trees he chopped down?
"Sixty-four. He asked another... "Fifty-six." Then they all chimed in... "Forty-four." "Fifty-one." "Sixty-eight." "Seventy."
Totally humbled, he asked, "I was working much harder than you guys. How could all of you chop down so many trees when you all were taking so many breaks?"
The oldest of the men said, "Young fella, you're working too hard. When you thought we were taking breaks, we were walking to the shed to sharpen our axes. You got to take time to sharpen your ax."
WORK SMART, NOT HARD and KEEP YOUR AX SHARP!
Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
Performance Coach, Trainer, Motivator
"S.M.A.R.T.fit Solutions" - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"
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