Growth Isn’t Just Physical

WHAT IS GROWTH?

I just finished studying for my CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. And after passing the test with 4 long months of studying I was thinking about a few things.

As a Strength Coach and a lover of lifting heavy weights and throwing them around…. That isn’t the only category to becoming as strong as possible. If your mind isn’t strong then your body can never be strong. You must grow intellectually  as well as physically. You must understand the process and ask yourself the question why you are training and what you need to do to get there to your final product. Learn and figure out the type of training you want to do whether it is to lose weight or become stronger in your main core lifts. Educate yourself about how to “Mold” and shape your body into what you want it to be.

YOUR BODY IS THE MIRROR OF YOUR MIND

Don’t get caught up in the final product of training, when as your strive towards your final product with your ups and downs that is where the true growth comes from.

If you train only your chest (agonist) and not your back (antagonist) then your body is more prone to injury. That is why you need to balance out your body so that as a athlete or fitness fanatic you can become less injury prone.

So don’t put all of your eggs in one basket by thinking that your worth, strength, or identity is found only in your strength or brains. Balance the two and you will see growth.

Embrace the process or balancing your growth and become the best “Molded” version of yourself.

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

Strength Coach | Performance Specialist

B.S. Exercise and Health Science

NSCA-CSCS | NSCA-CPT | NASM-CPT |

TRX Instructor

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter | Blog

Hip Mobility Pt. 2

Hip Mobility Part 2-

From part 1 we have to realize that you need to get mobility in the hips in all 3 planes of motion (Sagittal, Frontal, and Transverse). With the exercises that are linked in the video help to achieve  a better ROM (Range of Motion) with in the hips so that you can produce more force and prevent pain with in the lower back.

The exercises that are in the video include:

• Spiderman (Hold 15- 30 seconds on each side)
• Spiderman to Over Head Reach (8 Reps on each side)
• Yoga Plex (8 Reps on each side)
• Rocking Horse (8 Reps on each side)
• Hip Mobs (8 Reps on each side)
• EQI Hip Holds (15-30 second hold)
• Hip Flow- 1. Groiner    2. Spiderman/ In Step   3. Pigeon     (15-30 with each exercise/ and on each side)

These exercises should be held for 15- 30 Seconds. Its truly important for you to focus on form and also unlock the torso/ hips so that you can produce more force on the field or just stay more dynamic when you are working out so that your training can be more productive, so that you don’t through the motions.

With better ROM in the hips your will be able to prevent lower back pain and increase hamstring flexibility. And that as an athlete is a great feeling when you feel healthy and ready to execute any task that is placed before you. Whether it is swinging a bat, making a cut on the baseball field or doing a squat or deadlift.

If you do these exercises they will truly help you to feel better and become more dominate in the weight room or on the field/ court.

Enjoy and feel free to shoot me any other questions that you may have.

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

B.S. Exercise and Health Science

NSCA-CPT | NASM-CPT |TRX Instructor

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter | Blog

April Athlete of the Month- JT Thompson

JT Thompson is a Freshman at Cedar Park Christian School.

Let me describe him; Focused, Growth, Leader, Diligent, Intense, Calm, Collected.

JT is a pleasure to work with you, for one he sets a tempo in the weight room and on the baseball field. He is one of those guys who other feed off of and that is a key trait of a leader. Watch out for this kid because he is going to be doing some big things over these next few years.

So far this season in 4 games pitching he has struck out 41 People, for a average of 10.25K’s per game. Now thats MOLDED!

Great Job JT. Keep put the Good work and stay MOLDED!

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

Strength Coach | Performance Specialist

B.S. Exercise and Health Science

NSCA-CPT | NASM-CPT |TRX Instructor

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter | Blog

Increasing Hip Mobility Part 1

HIPS

How important are they? Are they apart of your core? Do they really need to be flexible?

The hips are important because of the fact that they help produce force with many power exercises along with produce force in your sport. It’s apart of the core and over laps so that transfer of power from the core can go to and through the hips.
One thing that most people don’t know is that there are around 17 of these muscles , and they are divided into 4 groups: the gluteal group, the lateral rotator group, the adductor group, and the iliopsoas group.

Flexibility in all 3 planes of motion( Sagittal, Frontal, and Transverse). To become flexible and explosive in all 3 planes we must make sure that we are dynamically flexible in all 4 of these groups.

Gluteal:

Lateral Rotators:

Adductor Group/ Iliopsoas Group:

There are many exercise that you can do alone or add to your training session to help with your dynamic flexibility. They include the; Spiderman, Spiderman to Overhead Reach, Yoga Plex, Rocking Horse and Hip Mobs.

I will be making a Video soon to talk about all of them and how you can add them into your warm ups or as dynamic exercise to your program to help your become more functional on your field of play.

These dynamic exercises will help you become more functional as an athlete so that you become a lethal weapon in your sport.

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

Strength Coach | Performance Specialist

B.S. Exercise and Health Science

NSCA-CPT | NASM-CPT |TRX Instructor

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter | Blog

March Athlete of the Month- Vinnie Catanzaro

Vinnie was selected as the March Athlete of the Month.

He truly has put in some of the work needed to become the best version of himself this year for the season to come. Vinnie truly has become a molded warrior. He is a stand up guy that is a hard worker and one that is diligent in trying to strengthen his weaknesses daily. He is great to work with and has truly become apart of the Curtis Clay Family.

What River Do You Travel Down?

Do you strive to become the best version of yourself?

Are you satisfied with where you are?

If you look at the successful people in the world they surround themselves with people that are truly successful and strive to grow not just yearly or monthly but daily. If you aren’t growing you are getting worse. When you become satisfied with where you are at that is when you get passed up and someone new steps in to take the lead.

Do you a lead or do you follow?

When you follow you tend to only take the steps of the person you are following. When you become the leader you set trends and change the quota. You need to become a game changer. A person that steps into the room and changes the mood for the better to make others work at a level that they didn’t know they had within themselves.

If you surround yourself with people that are stagnant or ok with where they are thats when you get caught in the current and pulled toward the river that isn’t overflowing with excitement and growth. You get pulled down the safe and weak current that is at a steady pace. And when that steady pace goes through a drought they drop off and dry up.

Don’t Dry Up! But flourish and grow!

Become a better version of yourself!

 

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

Strength Coach | Performance Specialist

B.S. Exercise and Health Science

NSCA-CPT | NASM-CPT |TRX Instructor

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter | Blog

In Season Training- Watering your crops!

Growth and Success Doesn’t Stop When Season Starts.

Offseason Training leads you up to the season of success. Hours and hours of making yourself into the most bullet proof form of yourself.

You gain 15 lbs. Your core lifts go up in weight and you begin to feel truly dominate and ready for the season to come.

But the next thing to keep in mind is that it doesn’t stop when tryouts begin or season begins. The journey to maintain what you have unlocked begins. One thing that you have to keep in mind as an athlete is that when you have been lifting weights and just stop that stimulus you are more prone to injury. The last thing that you want is to have any injury because you tried to do something your body was used and cause a muscle pull or strain.

When you begin season you don’t have to train the same volume you were lifting in the off season. But you must make sure to stay in the maintenance phase and keep the motor units (or muscle) that you were using to keep on firing effectivly.

Think of it this way. A farmer has to take care of his/ her crops to make a living. And you as an athlete make your living by excelling on the field. If the farmer would stop watering a plant it will whither away. Now during the summer you will have to water them more then you do in the winter. So this is a time to “lightly water the plants” or your muscles. Keep them healthy and nourish them with some good ole lifting. Make sure to maintain them so that you are able to reap the benefits of what you have done to build them up.

Get in and out of the gym and be effective with your workouts.

3 sets of around 6-8 reps.

If you have questions about what to do send me a message at curtisclayfitness@gmail.com

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

Pre-Season Baseball/ Softball Shoulder Maintenace

Your shoulders are very important. They are like your core for a baseball and softball player. If you shoulders aren’t healthy then you can’t play in the field and you truly will have a tough time hitting.

The key to actually working the “deep” shoulder muscles or the rotator cuff is light weight or bands and high repetitions will perfect form.

There are 4 rotator cuff muscle with in the shoulder joint:

• subscapularis – abducts the arm
• infraspinatus – externally rotates the arm
• supraspinatus – externally rotates the arm
• teres minor – internally rotates the arm

I get the question of what do the rotator cuff muscles do?

When it comes to the throwing motion, we need to slow the arm down when we are throwing and the rotator cuff muscles help to slow the arm down and prevent it from coming out of socket when you throw.

As a former collegiate baseball player when my are hurt I wasn’t a happy guy because the aching pain of your shoulder messes with you mentally when you throw and even hit.

Enjoy the video and PDF for the workout.

Shoulder Maintenance Workout Form

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck

February 2012 Athlete of the Month

RACHAEL DELAMARE- MONROE HIGH SCHOOL- SOPHMORE- SOFTBALL

February’s Athlete of the month for 2012. Rachael truly has challenging herself and reaching new levels of strength not just physically but also mentally. Her strengths have grow and her weakness have shrunk.

The great thing about it is that she is only a sophomore at Monroe High School. I am truly proud of her and her hard work. She should also be proud of herself. Her hard work is going to pay off in more ways then she can know right now.

Congratulations Rachael!

Complacency is the Enemy of Success (The Process of Becoming Molded)

CLAY: (Google)- A stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics

MOLDED: (Google)- The form or shape of something, esp. the features or physique of a person or the build of an animal

 When you look at yourself, how do you see yourself?

Are you where you want to be? Are you satisfied?

If you look at clay; dirt, minerals, and water mixed together. Its not done becoming what it should be unless someone lays its hands on it shaped into the final product.

Molding clay is tough and is surely a workout. It doesn’t feel good and it hurts. Its a process of shaping that object into something that you see as the final product. It takes time to mold and shape that object and then you have to stain it and put it into a kiln. It is time consuming and is truly a process. But when that final mug or bowl comes out you are ecstatic and feel a sense of achievement.

As a athlete you need to look at yourself as a lump of clay.  Look at where your weaknesses are and where your strengths are. Be honest with yourself.  Once you have done that strive to mold yourself into the product that you envision for yourself.

Don’t be content with where you are and rest in your complacency. Stay patient, it takes time to become stronger or even faster. But don’t be complacent and ok with getting a little bit better. Complacency is the enemy of success and if you want to get tot he next level you shouldn’t be ok with where you are at. We can always get better at something and shrink our weaknesses.

Im sick of people being OK with being OK. That is all you are, your not good and your far from great! Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, am I molding myself daily into becoming the best women or man that I can be to help my team out? Or help myself out?

Never ask yourself the question… What if?

• What if I would of worked harder?
• What if I would of gotten some good sleep?
• What if I would of fueled my body with better food?
• What if I focused every rep of every set?
• What if I would of passed that test to play and help my team?

Curtis “Clay” Van Wyck