Basketball Plyometrics Exercises

Basketball Plyometrics Exercises

Another article by yours truely on Stack.com. This one focus' on getting your vertical up and getting some hops. Check it out and share if you like.
The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become.

How to Become a Better Point Guard Part 1

How to Become a Better Point Guard Part 1

My first article with Stack Magazine focusing on developing point guard skill. Take a look and "pass" it on to your friend or that kid at the gym who just doesn't get it.

The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become.

Bron Brief: Fasted Cardio

Want to burn a few quick extra calories? Get into the habit of doing 15 minutes of fasted cardio (cardio on an empty stomach) every morning, and watch your body start to change shape. When you work through a short workout on an empty stomach, you’re using stored fat for energy. If you eat breakfast and then do cardio, you’re only burning off some of the food you just consumed. These workouts can be intense but you should never look to push yourself to the point of feeling light headed.Work out  harder, AND Smarter.

The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become.

Bron Brief: The Best Damn Abs

"Beach body" programs are all I've been asked for lately. Summers coming around so everyone is rushing to the gym hoping to kill it for one month and look like a underwear model. While I've already stated in numerous blogs why that won't work, I'm sure everyone is still going to try. Step one, the washboard abs. 

Bron Brief: Toning is More than Cardio

If I asked someone to describe the average woman workout at your basic gym, how would it go? Probably something like; 30 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the elliptical, some machine crunches, few reps on the abductor machine, and another 15 minutes on the stair stepper if your bad ass. Sure your tired after and feel like you should be dropping pounds but did you do enough? The answer is no!

Athlete Profile: Jennifer Austin

"Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident." While not 100% accurate,that line from the cult classic movie "Anchorman" was pretty much the general idea I had about Javelins when I joined freshman track in high school. Suit up, throw an awesome spear thing at someone, sit back down, get a medal. You could imagine my dismay when not only was there more to it, I was actually BAD AT IT. Though it looks simple enough, throwing a Javelin takes a lot more technique than just raw athletic ability or arm strength. So sadly my dreams of being the next Achilles or throwing a spear and kicking someone in a giant hole Greek mythology style lasted one full day. For the athletes lucky enough to even be good at it, avenues to show off that talent are pretty limited. Sure you can do it throughout high school and maybe college but like most sports the road ends there...unless you are elite. Once you are elite, a whole new door opens up with the possibility of competing in the Olympics. With the 2012 Olympics coming up, today I bring you Olympic track and field hopeful Jennifer Austin. If the last name sounds familiar she is the older sister of Dallas Cowboys receiver Miles Austin. The original Austin athlete, Jen, is a former Big East champion in Javelin and now has her eyes set on the 2012 Olympics trails. Like anyone else who knows the Austin family, being dedicated and a hard worker is just in their blood. Apparently, so does being a top notch athlete, although their father, Miles Austin II, hacks in basketball  (don't tell him I said that).Without further ado, Jennifer Austin.

Athlete Profile: Myree "Reemix" Bowden

Vince Carter..Josh Smith..Nate Robinson..Gerald Green..Dwight Howard..Jason Richardson..Blake Griffin..I'd ask you what all these names have in common but you've probably already figured it out. Each person here has shown they have the athletic ability, creativity and in some cases put their name on the line to win the NBA DUNK CONTEST. Although recent contests have left some to believe that maybe the NBA doesn't hold the best dunkers in the world anymore. Today I got to interview one of the people making that claim look realistic. Enter Myree Bowden aka The Reemix.

Bron Brief: Chest Like Ken, Legs Like Barbie?

Go into any gym in probably the US and you'll see tons of guys doing chest and arms. From time to time you'll get a sprinkle of people doing legs but its rare and the ones who do are usually doing them wrong. Women do legs 24/7 but most tend to just sit on machines and open/close for 20 minutes then throw in a few kickbacks. Heck I've seen guys hold up the squat rack for a hour just to crank out some bicep curls. Why is this you ask? Because its hard to show of your leg muscles on a regular basis and...leg training IS HARD!!

Bron Brief: Building Better ABs

Million Dollar ABs Here We Come

People commonly think, "Hey if I do a million crunches every day, I'll have a 6 pack in no time." Wrong.. Your abs are like any other muscle in your body. By working them everyday you can over train them and actually set your beach body goals back a few weeks. Train them 2-3 times a week from all different angles through crunching and stabilization. Also use weights if you want them to really stand out.

P.S: Keep in mind, muscle definition like ABs is 90% diet...It takes 250,000 crunches to burn 1 pound of fat. Thats 100 crunches a day for 7 years. So in short you can do the greatest ab workout ever and if your body fat % is too high they will be the greatest abs hidden under layers of fat. So be careful what you eat.

"The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become."

Bron Brief: Kill Your Lacks

No its not a typo of my trying to say Lats. 2 Common excuses for not working out are known as the 2 lacks. Lack of money and Lack of time. Money is the tougher of the 2 to fix but I'm sure if you sat down and wrote out what you spent money on in a week you'd see plenty of things that could be redirected towards your health goals. As for time, this ones easy. Everyone says they can't train or get to the gym because of time at one point or another. So try this out. For one day, schedule a time to workout, and then MAKE SURE you do it. Even if you can only exercise 10-15 minutes, get it done. At the end of the day, ask yourself if you were any less productive throughout the day than usual. The answer will probably be a no and one of your two main lacks will be gone.

The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become.

Lose 5lbs of fat at home..

No no, this isn't a call to dump you significant other as my friend assumed when I told her about the workout BUT it may still be more beneficial. As the picture shows, 5lbs of solid fat is not something sexy to look at. Think if you could just take something like that off your body for a little hard work and watch what you eat...would it be worth it?
Below is a workout you can do at home that only takes a half hour and with a healthy diet will get you on your way to that 5lb fat loss. SPOILER alert though; the routine is not for the faint of heart. Like most circuit training the goal is to finish as fast as possible but in a safe manner. Rest period time is up to you but take what you need. Sometimes it will only be long enough to catch your breath, other times it might take a full minute. No matter what push yourself and try to improve the speed you finish with each time even if it's only a minute faster. Without further ado here's the workout;

30 Jumping Jacks
5 Push Ups
25 High Knees in Place
7 Burpees/Thrusters
10 Crunches
7 Squats
5 push Ups
10 Crunches
5 Push Up
7 Squats
30 Jumping Jacks
5 Push Ups
25 High Knees in Place
1 Min Wall Sit

Rest, Repeat 2-5 times (5 is for someone in really good shape so don't fret if you can't do that many circuits right out the door, just keep it as a goal.) Also if any exercise seems to easy, like 5 crunches or 7 Squats just add a little weight. No need to be Ronnie Coleman but a 10lb dumbbell or 2 can really burn you out.

And there you have it. Do this three times a week. Clean up your diet by eating 5-6 healthy small meals throughout the day and make sure to rest. Nothing worthwhile comes easy but it is achievable..

Basic Core Strength Building Routine for Athletes

This program is designed as a basic template to strength train athletes. With this it will increase basic core stability and strength and prime the athlete for more advanced programs which center around gaining muscle or increasing speed/ explosiveness.

GOALS: Build Strength Foundation and Increase Athletic Performance

DURATION: 6 Weeks

WORKOUT DAYS: 3 Days a week

WORKOUT A)
Squats: 3 sets of 10-8-6 (2020 Tempo)
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8-8-6 (2020 Tempo)
Calf Raises: 5 sets of 8 (2020 Tempo)
Abdominal Crunches: 3 sets of 10 (2020 Tempo) add weight if needed
Twisting Sit Ups: 3 sets of 10 (2020 Tempo)
Glute Ham Raise: 2 sets of 8 (2030 Tempo)

REST DAY

WORKOUT B)
Bench Press: 3 sets of 10-8-6 (2020 Tempo)
Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 3 sets of 10-8-8 (2020 Tempo)
Seated Low Pulley Cable Row: 3 sets of 8-8-8
Wide Lat Pull Down: 3 sets of 10
Underhand Lat Pull Down: 3 sets of 8
(2020 Tempo) superset the 2 as a extended set

WORKOUT C)
Seated Military Press: 3 sets of 10-8-6 (2020 Tempo)
Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 10-8-6 (2020 Tempo)
Rear Deltoid Raises: 2 sets of 10-8 (2020 Tempo)
Standing Barbell Curl: 3 sets of 10-8-8 (2020 Tempo)
Standing Hammer Curls: 2 sets of 10-8 (2020 Tempo)
Tricep Dips: 3 sets of 10-8-8 (2020 Tempo)
Skull Crushers: 2 sets of 10-8 (2020 Tempo)

REST DAY

REST DAY

Sample Top Performance Diet For Athletes

This diet is a good approach to keeping energy levels high for athletic performance and with a little manipulation of calories can be used to steadily gain muscle or lose fat at a steady pace without wild fluctuations of energy levels.

GOALS: Increase Athletic Performance

FOODS NEEDED: Oatmeal/porridge, Brown Rice, Protein Powders, Mixed Nuts, Lean Sources of Low Fat Meat (Lean Steaks, Beef, Chicken, Salmon), Canned Tuna, Canned Salmon, Low Fat Cottage Cheese/Yogurt, Flax Oil/Linseed Oil/ Cod Liver Oil, Multivitamins.

CALORIES: Around maintenance calories, if weight moves up or down unacceptably then adjust caloric intake accordingly.

CARBS 40%
PROTEIN 50%
FAT 10%

EXAMPLE DIET:

Meal 1) multivitamin, oatmeal/porridge with two tablespoons protein powder mixed in or egg whites

Meal 2) cottage cheese or yogurt with one piece of fruit (banana or apple etc)

Meal 3) 1 cup of brown rice with 1 piece of chicken breast (season with small amounts of a sauce for taste)

Meal 4) cottage cheese with fruit

Meal 5) 4oz lean beef with vegetables

Meal 6)protein shake with flax/liver oil

Help Support Breast Cancer Awareness With Style..

With October coming to a close as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the walks/races winding down, you can still show your support. The innovative people behind BIONIC GLOVES are once again ahead of the curve by keeping up with the NFL model and making their own  Breast Cancer Awareness gloves.

Chair-Pak Travel Chair

Chair-Pak
http://www.chairpak.com/home.html

40 years ago everyone expected us to have jet packs and cars that turn into suitcases like on the Jetsons. While we're not there yet, lovely inventions like the Chair-Pak, do give a idea of how much time could be saved when that happens.

In itself, the chair-pak is essentially exactly that, a backpack with a aluminum chair built in. Sure the idea seems overly simple, but it's actually very well designed to blend the two. The chair is crafted into the backpack so while people can still tell it's a chair if they look hard enough, it's still not some gaudy eye sore or too small to be useful. It's a normal sized book bag, perfect for lugging around hiking equipment, sports gear, etc without sacrificing much space .. And with removal of one elastic strap, the chair pops out and your ready to relax at your destination. As always, I looked to test it in real world situations, so I gave it to my mom to break in. Now my mom isn't some hulking figure so the first question was would it be too heavy for her to comfortably carry. That answer is a firm no. It's surprisingly really light, lighter than your basic steel folding chair and she could lift it with one hand and swing it onto her back like a 5th grader. The next question is, being that light, could it really hold anything up. Again the chair pack cruises through. On the tag it says no one over 230 lb should sit on it. I'm roughly 240 at 6'4 and was able to comfortably relax in it. Sure if I got a running start and cannonballed onto it, it would probably snap but for sitting and watching my nieces sports events it works perfectly. My moms only concern was how to wash it all, but for the most part it's fairly easy. She's even keeping it because it's much more convenient than carrying the huge hammock fold out chair or constantly looking for bleacher seats.

SUMMARY
The Chair-Pak is a good investment for any outdoors man no matter if your hiking, watching a sporting event or just lounging in the back yard. Being able to carry a chair without forfeiting space or comfort is a time saver and well thought out. Now hopefully Les, the Chair-Pak creator can get started on my suitcase Jetsons car next.

Fat Gripz: Your Body Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link

The importance of grip strength is nothing new but still often overlooked. Tons of toys and tools have said they can fix your grip but it becomes so tedious that most gyms and clients completely ignore it. If you've read any of my other articles you know how grip strength effects your lifts. ALLL the big lifts need grip strength; deadlifts, rows, bench, even holding a bar during squats. So its still amazing how many people jump right over forearm and overall grip work. Well if this finally opened your eyes, don't run and get a wrist roller or super gripper. Just go to FATGRIPZ and get a few of these blue wonders.

Fat Bars have been around for a while but only the most hardcore and exclusive of gyms usually spent the time to get them. Whats a fat bar? By increasing the diameter of the lifting bar, your forced to grip harder and activate more muscle fibers. But since their so hard to come by, people have tried to rig up their own such as wrapping towels around bars or using squat pads. Fat Gripz had their own ideas. Fat Gripz are a hard rubber that you slip on to any bar or dumbbell (literally almost anybar) and it increased the bars size without any fancy bars or mcgyver towel wraps. As a athlete I had always been trained at places that had fat bars, so while I knew of Fat Gripz, I had never used them. Well I was recently given a pair to try and was quickly put in check. After a few reps you'll probably notice fatigue setting in the thumb areas of your hands. Now if have very big hands and even for myself it was a struggle to just bully these like I thought I was going to. After a routine of bench, lat pulldowns, rows and dips my upper body was shot. Oh and for the record, heavy lat pulldowns with Fat Gripz on are a evil evil exercise. If you doubt me try it yourself and have your friends watch as you struggle with your usual warm up weight. After the workout my hands were sore and I had some weird lobster pinch thing going on when I tried to grab things because my forearms were so tight but it still wasn't the "beware fat grips" type pain I was expecting after reading all the things on the site....until the next day. Me and my gf both were sore the next day. Like the "havn't worked out before, omg why does that muscle hurt" kind of sore. So I was impressed, while I wasn't going as heavy as I normally do because of the Fat Gripz, you couldn't have told my body that the next day. So yes, Fat Gripz work. They work so much that I apologize to any of my old workout buddies and teammates that I didn't have them before for them to use. But I do now so I will be passing on the pain.
SUMMARY
Step 1) Go to FATGRIPZ....Step 2) Buy some Fat Gripz.....Step 3)Have yourself a mans workout and build some muscle...
Train Harder AND Smarter


"The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become."

Bionic Gloves: Stylish or Effective?

Next on the product review trip is the BIONIC GLOVE.
Bionic Glove is known mostly for their baseball and golf gloves and both are pretty effective. Lucky for me I was able to get my hands on some of their new workout gloves. Would these Gloves have the same standards as their golf and baseball ones?

When they got here the first thing I noticed was the style. I've never golfed but one of my concerns was I'd be working out with some funky looking attention grabbing glove. These are attention grabbers but not in a negative way. I ordered a pair of fingered gloves and cut off gloves just to see the difference.Their sleak look was more reminiscent of my wide receiver gloves from football than bulky lifting gloves or golf gloves. Theres a velcro wrist strap that is strong enough to give you support and keep the glove snug but not get in your way like other gloves. Also each glove has pads/notches built in to press your grip better in certain areas. When you get the gloves their "test" is to pick up a weight with a bare hand and one with the gloved hand. And while it worked and you noticed right away, its not a real test because lifting light dumbbells are not a real struggle for gloves. To spice things up and really push these gloves, I went to a lift that is all about grip strength, the deadlift. Deadlifting can be a struggle for most lifters because your grip goes before the rest of your body is tired. So if your body can deadlift 600, but your hands can only deadlift 300, well your deadlift is 300lbs. So I set up 315 on the bar just to see if the gloves made any difference and after the first rep you could tell. The gloves give a solid grip that would usually lead to your hands aching and stop the bar from rolling in your hands. After a couple sets the gloves were still doing their job. I went up to 405 just to finish up and my hands were still fine. Now my one complaint was that the gloves might be TOO nice. While at 405 the gloves still worked, but the material (suede or leather type stuff) on the glove did have alittle wear from the bar attempting to roll. It was nothing drastic or even really noticable if I wasn't purposly trying to push their limits in the review but it makes me wonder how long they will hold up and still look this nice.

SUMMARY

All in all the BIONIC GLOVES passed with flying colors. They fit nice, gave me added grip without being sticky or needing me to wear wrist straps. Also an important and overlooks glove aspect, they didn't stick after working out. Anyone who has been caught off guard by the smell of their sweat gloves knows what I'm talking about. The gloves performed well and outside of my little nit picking about the scratch the bar left, they were pretty much 100% effective. I'd recommend them to anyone working out looking to get a good grip or just keep their hand modeling career intact. Not to mention the price so its overall a winning situation. Go to BIONIC GLOVES check out all thier styles, maybe even pick up some nice driving gloves next.

"The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we can become."