Whitney Workman warming up with Abs, AJ Clark of Pfeiffer busting back and reps, Mike Maness of Lenoir-Rhyne starting world-class back, BJ Bun from UNC-Penbrook pulling deads and hitting cleans

Answer: The cool spring sidetracked a lot of people it seems but this routine coupled with a sensible food plan will strip the excess weight you want in time for the beach trip. Intensity is the key to stimulating your metabolism.

Be consistent for the next few weeks and when you workout make it count.

Begin with a hip raise/reverse crunch combo. Lie on a bench and secure yourself by holding on to the bench just above your head. Elevate your legs until they are perpendicular to the bench and lift your hips off of the bench. Use a controlled motion, lower yourself back down until your buttocks touch the pad and do 5 reps. Keep your legs together and complete 10 reps of a reverse crunch extending your legs out parallel to the floor. That is only half the set so return to the hip raise for 5 reps and the reverse crunch for 10 reps.

After those, do a set of 10 pull-ups.

Follow the pull-ups with bodyweight squats for 15 reps, Using a moderate weight, grab a pair of dumbbells and do squat/press for 10 reps.

Finish the sequence with elevated push-ups for 15 reps.

The cardio portion of the sequence is preferably jumping rope for 2 minutes. You will repeat the entire five exercises and cardio completing 3 cycles.

Choose another exercise for each one in the first sequence and follow those with sprints for the cardio.

This style of exercise can be very challenging but very effective in a short period of time. Your metabolism is stimulated not only during the workout but also for hours after the workout is complete.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: Your doctor's advice was indeed the best advice for you to rid yourself of shin splints, tibial stress syndrome. They are an inflammation of the tendon that sits on top of your tibia in each of your legs. They are common with runners and even dancers. Changing the surface on which you run, increasing the speed, duration or intensity of your training or even your shoes can trigger them.

The common approach to recovery is rest. Ice therapy on your shins in the affected area for 12 to 20 minutes can improve your rate of recovery and exercises, as simple as lifting your toe upward while keeping your heel on the ground can strengthen them but don't try that until the pain has subsided. You can use a band or weight. like an ankle weight on top of your foot, for resistance.

A Chiropractic can treat shin splints, reducing the pain and inflammation, using cold laser therapy. It can significantly reduce the discomfort, especially when used in conjunction with the conventional treatment. There are also compression sleeves which can be found at sporting goods stores that assist while exercising.

You could try a combination of these treatments and training sleeves to combat your condition until you complete your race but in the and you will need rest to fully recover.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Explosive Track and Field Training. Lydia Laws running hurdles

Question: I am aware both your daughter, Lydia, and Alexis Dickerson, train with you. They have excelled this season My daughter runs track and trains at another gym and needs some guidance. What does she need to focus on to reach her potential?

Answer: Thank you for your kind compliments. Both of them have done very well and share the desire to continue to improve. In addition to them, Shanica Johnson, Natalia Dunlap and Tamilia Wright are also enjoying success this year and have all been with us as well. Besides that they all share another common denominator which is they compete with the Durham Striders in the summer under the guidance of Donny Davis. That was where they honed their skills on the track and field.

In the gym we used different approaches for these athletes depending on the event in which they compete. All follow explosive core building routines that include cleans, deadlifts, front squats and squats. Randy Hadley, who is a friend and trainer coaching Olympic athletes in Orlando, sent specific exercises as well that build unilateral strength in the hamstrings, quads and hip flexors.

Lydia utilized her extensive gymnastics background to use and teach ab routines to her training partners and they spend extensive time stretching.

Alexis's throwing strength is a result of building power in her core and working her upper body for the finish of her throw.

In the sprints and hurdles, especially the 300m and 400m hurdles, 400m sprints and 800m races they all train their upper body which assists them in making a strong finish.

They all include plyometrics in training for explosive starts and throws.

It is huge team effort that begins and ends with these athletes and their overwhelming desire and will to train to be the best.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: Full blown puberty is a time that your body produces hormones at an unrelenting rate to reach the genetic potential you are programmed to attain. It's important to consume sufficient calories to provide your body with the nutrition it needs to fully recognize that growth. Don't run out the door eating a toaster pastry, wash down fries and pizza at lunch with Gatorade and finish the day with someone handing you food through a window in a wall and expect to be at your best. Your bones need calcium and one of the best sources, provided you're not lactose sensitive, is milk. It also contains protein which of vital importance for growth. If you like eggs and you can choose to eat them in variety of ways, they contain more protein and fat. The protein we already know is vital and the fat is needed for your body to produce more hormones which trigger more growth and physical maturity. Whole wheat toast or an English muffin contains carbohydrates which is a primary source of energy.

You should see a pattern of supplying nutritious foods to contribute to your body's hormonal efforts to grow. Water, not a processed " recovery " drink should be what you are drinking at lunch. Unless you have exercised all morning and have lost electrolytes through excessive sweating, you don't need a Gatorade at that time. The fats you consume from fries and pizza provide calories though they do not provide optimum nutrition for growth. Instead eat a 6-inch sub full of turkey with green leaf lettuce, tomatoes and whatever else you might enjoy on a sub. Make it and take it from home along with peanut butter crackers and an orange. Have a banana immediately after school and more water before you train. Hit the weights 2 or 3 days a week. After training, drink a protein drink using whey protein. When you get home have a good home-cooked meal.

Now this is a best case scenario and you won't always be able to do this. Give it your best shot to give you the best tools to realize the growth potential you have.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: Tiger Woods was the guy who introduced weight training and physical preparation to the golf masses. He sculpted a good physique as he trained his body to better handle the physical difficulty of world class golf. As a golfer you can improve your long game tremendously by weight training. Simply making your body stronger will improve your club speed as you strike the ball. Specifically your training needs to work your abs as part of your core. Your lower back needs to be trained to balance your core along with your abs. Include training for your hip flexors since they are often overlooked but are part of the core routine. Glutes tie into your lower back muscles and are necessary for driving through the ball along with your hamstrings and quads. Chest, shoulders and upper back help complete your swing. Your triceps need to be strong to hold your arms in proper position as you finish your swing. A small but vital factor is to improve grip strength by working your forearms. When you work your abs, don't just focus on forward and backward movements but also include rotational exercises to improve hip mobility and torso rotation which mimics fairway and tee shots. Flexibility is as important as strength in building club speed. Stretch your Achilles tendons, hamstrings, lower back, shoulders and lats.

Include cardio training to counter the length of a golf game.

Your training actually has a ceiling since you are not trying to be a bodybuilder or strength athlete. There exists a point of diminishing return for your game. Do you actually need to press 100 pound dumbbells? Will being able to squat 400 pounds make you any better on the golf course than being able to squat 225 pounds? A combination of increased strength, core flexibility, muscle endurance and cardio-pulmonary endurance along with much improved flexibility and range of motion throughout your body combine to improve your game from the physical aspect. Justin Scott, a teaching pro at Precision Golf School trains very hard and has improved his game and eliminated lower back pain that resulted from over use and impaired posture. As muscles get stronger posture improves. Weight training has made his game better simply because his Increased strength allows him to practice longer. More consistent, repeated movement ingrains the motor skill neural pathways.

You have taken tremendous steps to be better by the time the weather allows you to return to your game. Maintain your body's gains by training with a maintenance routine but huge weights aren't necessary for productive golf training.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: Typically, this is not actually a problem of one side being stronger than the other side. Most of the time it is a lack of proper form caused by concentrating on using more weight instead of training for form first. Continued reps with heavier weight has compounded the imbalance.

There are a few methods you can use to stabilize your core and strengthen both the muscles on your left side and improve your motor skills transmission on your left. On your right, you could compare your motor skills to the flow of traffic on I-40. The message from your brain to your muscles is quick and smoothly flowing. On the left your neural transmission is more like a dirt road. slow with a lot of bumps. Unfortunately you have to put your ego aside and start over... on your bench press. Special attention is needed to form.

Once you lie on the bench and place your hands on the bar, set your feet in a wide stance with your feet firmly planted and pressed in the floor. Lock your hips on the bench and lift your ribcage to lock your shoulder blades on the bench. This provides a stable lifting platform. With an empty bar, do five reps. Control the speed of the bar as it lowers to your chest and with an explosive drive, press it out to arm's length. Begin adding weight and perform 5 sets adding weight with each set.Perform 5 reps on each set. When you are unable maintain your proper form terminate the set. Use a spotter to insure that you keep your shoulders locked firmly on the bench.

Another training method to improve both your muscular strength and motor skills transmission is to use dumbbells for chest presses both on a flat bench and an incline bench. Push both dumbbells up but keep the right dumbbell locked out and perform reps with your left arm. Do at least 3 sets of 5 reps on each set. It sounds like a slow process but the change you need can occur very quickly.

Once balance is restored and your form is correct, then your bench press will progress very quickly.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: Certainly there are, and some are much more effective than crunches. On a scale of one to ten, ten being most effective crunches rate a two or three.

One exercise in particular, that allows you to support your neck is the Reverse Crunch. It's done by lying on your back on a bench holding on to the bench above your head. Lift your legs until they are just above parallel to the ground. Bend your knees and pull your legs towards your torso. At the top of the movement, slightly lift your hips off of the bench. Extend your legs out again keeping them just above parallel to the floor. Do 15 to 20 reps for 3 sets. If you need more neck support, try rolling a towel and placing it under your head and neck.

Windshield Wipers are another very effective ab exercise that coordinates well with the Reverse Crunch. Lie on the floor inside a frame or doorway holding on to the frame supports. This keeps your torso stable. Lift your legs to a 90 degree position with your legs tightly together. Your legs should be straight up. Now rotate your hips to the side allowing your legs to move to just above the floor. Lift them back to the start position and then to the opposite side. Do ten reps in each direction and three sets. Don't try this exercise if you have a history of lower back issues.

Get your abs tight and your core stronger.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: There are four cornerstones to a successful training program guaranteed to produce results if you properly follow them.

Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, That's 15% of the program.If you can get in a little more that's even better but get the 64 ounces.

Healthy eating, controlling overall calories and making food choices that benefit your body not just tantalize your taste buds is number 2 on the list and is 40% of the program. You can enjoy food that tastes good and is nutritious as well, but it may take effort on your part to break the cycle of convenient food.

Cardio is necessary not just to burn calories but to improve your heart rate, blood pressure, cardio-pulmonary system and circulation. It counts as 25% of the program.

Finally, there is weight training to build calorie-burning muscle, improve posture, build bones and circulate fluid in the lymphatic system. It too is 25% of the successful program.

Thought they possess varying values, each of the four cornerstones must be applied consistently.

The final necessary part of the equation that has to be engaged is your attitude and will. If you don't believe you can, you won't. Your tendency to measure your lack of success is based on what you see your friends doing in the gym. What you don't see is the food preparation, or the cardio outside the gym. Honestly assess what you are doing and what you are not doing before you declare your workouts a failure. Reduce your focus to a microcosm of your workout. tighten in on the exercise you are performing. Make it tighter to only see the set you are doing. Tighten it further to the single rep going on at that moment. If you perform that rep perfectly with all the effort you can and then apply that to the next rep, and so on, then the set becomes as perfect as you can make it. The exercise series becomes as perfect as you can make it. The workout becomes as perfect as you can make it. That continues to extend to the activities you have to engage outside the gym like food preparation, drinking water, walking and being as active as you can in everything you do.

The results begin to show and you get stronger mentally, emotionally, more disciplined.

The workouts don't get easier, you simply get stronger. Your success translates into other aspects of your life because it doesn't get easier, you get stronger.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: When you are on the road and traveling by automobile, make time for stops to gets out and move every one to two hours. Move around and stretch. Don't just get out of the car but actually flex and stretch your muscles. You may look different from everyone else at the welcome station but you will feel much better.

When you arrive at your destination hotel, go ahead and train. It won't be as effective as your normal workouts at your regular gym but it will get your blood moving and body feeling better.

Both of these are important for air travel as well. Get up and move about the cabin as frequently as possible. If you change time zones training can help your body adjust to the time difference. With both modes of transportation but especially for air travel try to remain hydrated.

Make every attempt to avoid snacking too much as you ride in your car. It does help pass the time and it can hep you deal with the boredom but it doesn't do your body any good to eat because you have little to do. Exercise and maintain your hydration levels whether you travel for business or pleasure.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: No single aspect of training can be overlooked when the goal is continued significant progress.

Intensity levels during your training is the foremost and most obvious. Without it, you're spinning your wheels and going nowhere. Make the exercise and the muscle or muscle group being work your focus. Exhaust that muscle through various techniques that include both mass and volume routines.

Nutrition is a continual challenge that never seems to end if you want to grow. All three macronutrients, fats, carbohydrates and protein are necessary. Fats are used to make many of your body's enzymes, carbs are used as the primary energy source and protein, amino acids rebuild muscle tissue after you destroyed it in the gym.

Water makes up over 60% of your muscle tissue and you have to continually replace it. The standard eight glasses a day, 64 ounces is a good place to start.

8 hours of sleep each day is required for growth. During sleep your body repairs itself. It uses the nutrients and water to rebuild, repair and grow tissue.

One final aspect that can't be ignored is will. Your body will do whatever your mind directs it to do. Without will, you can't attain greatness. Average is not an option and excellence requires commitment. When the pain of training seems too much to bear you have to choose to bear it. Without a clear picture of your goal and a do or die attitude, you'll settle for less. Be more.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Harrison Gee Deadlifting 356 Lbs

Answer: The deadlift is one of the most productive exercises available for producing strength and power.

In the football world and that way of thinking, Power=Force x Velocity and deadlifts require great force but not great velocity. Most coaches and trainers at the high school level teach several forms of cleans because they require more speed in the movement which translates well to the football field. They overlook the fact that most high school football players won't clean more than 250 pounds for a single rep before they graduate. Most will be under 200 pounds. Cleans are higher on the speed scale but obviously lower in the force department. By utilizing both exercises, deadlifts to build more force capability and cleans to build more explosiveness you can build a bigger beast.

A strong deadlift will allow the athlete to squat heavier and build overall greater core strength. Look at it like this, which rocket engine will fly higher: one that is capable of a 200 pound payload or one that can carry a 500 pound payload? Use all the tools available to you. If the school weight-room does not teach you an exercise that can make you better, like the deadlift, then learn it from the guys at the gym and use it to get stronger.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: To get somewhere in training you have to know where you are going. In the book, "Alice in Wonderland", Alice asked the Cheshire Cat which road should she take.The Cat asked where did she want to go, Alice said she didn't know. His reply,(paraphrased),"If you don't know where you are going, then, any road will do."

Know where you want to go. Then design a routine or hire a trainer to build a program to meet your needs. That immediately eliminates the wandering in the gym and random training. You should determine concrete goals along with stepping stone short-term goals to reach your crowning achievement.

If you look at successful athletes, they can be split into two distinct groups, those that are relentlessly chasing a dream or those who are running from something. So you either run towards something or away from something. Either way excellence is often the result.

For instance, Michael Jordan, by his own admission at his Hall of Fame induction, played with a chip on his shoulder. He pursued excellence because he loved basketball and his deep desire to overcome what he felt was a snub by his high school coach when he was relegated to playing JV instead of the varsity squad in the tenth grade. He played to prove that coach was wrong and to prove he was the best.

Latipha Cross, an East Michigan track star, has experienced multiple tragedies in her 19 years. Her mom was killed, dad disappeared, abused by her foster family, homeless, and has cancer, lymphoma and melanoma. She runs angry and away from the horrors of her life towards a better life. She runs all out and wins.

Find what motivates you. Why do what you do? Some people train angry and get it out of their system. Some others train because they love the process, love the training, love the results. Take a few minutes, determine your goals, get a plan, find your deep motivation and be successful.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl

Answer: No matter what the muscleheads in the gym or the advertising in the muscle magazines "report", you will grow tremendously just fine by eating, as long as it's the nutrition your body needs. While protein supplements are a convenient option to assist you in consuming the protein necessary for consistent growth, they are not a necessity. The "Golden Rule" of protein consumption is one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Bodybuilders. in their efforts to force growth, will train their muscles to a point of exhaustion and use from 1.5 to 2.5 grams of protein per pound of body-weight. For a 200 pound guy this can be 300 to 500 grams of protein per day. In the off-season, this is only a portion of the 4,000 to 7,000 calories a day a bodybuilding athlete may eat. Often this kind of food intake may be necessary considering the intensity of their training, their body's need to recover and in some instances PED use.

We had an 18 year old kid who came in weighing 168 pounds and carried 8.9% body fat. His protein use was maintained at 190 to 200 grams a day. Only 40 grams of that came from protein a supplement with the rest coming from food. Additionally, he trained four to five days a week but on the days he did not train he didn't use a supplement. The majority of his protein was from fish, chicken, beef and eggs. He used a whey protein supplement on training days within 45 minutes after his workout because of the easy absorption rate of the whey protein. Exactly 12 months later, this kid had increased his body weight by 30 pounds to 198 and was only 8.5% body fat. Lee Haney didn't use protein supplements . After our workouts, he would have two chicken sandwiches on whole wheat buns from the restaurant across from his gym, Animal Kingdom". He won the pinnacle bodybuilding title, Mr. Olympia, 8 times without supplements and the young man put on 30 pounds of muscle with limited use of them. While a useful tool, protein supplements aren't a necessity. As for pre-workout energy drinks, they are not even close to a necessity. They can help you achieve a good pump but that's about it. The energy boost you get is artificial and in time, they tend to lose their effectiveness. Eating healthy and training hard will take you a long way towards your goal.

God bless and keep training,
Daryl