Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Foam Rolling (Self-Myofascial Release Therapy) with Mackenzie and Hannah

Self-myofascial release, also known as “foam rolling,” has transformed from a once mysterious technique used only by professional athletes, coaches, and therapists to a familiar everyday practice for people at all levels of fitness. Recent information, technology, and affordable products have introduced an increasing array of training and recovery methods to the average person.

Self-myofascial release is a fancy term for self-massage to release muscle tightness or trigger points. This method can be performed with a foam roller, lacrosse ball, golf ball or your own hands. By applying pressure to specific points on your body you are able to aid in the recovery of muscles and assist in returning them to normal function. Normal function means your muscles are elastic, healthy, and ready to perform at a moment’s notice.

Supported Gluteus Maximus Roll (with single leg)
 Quadriceps Femoris Roll
 Low Back Roll
 Hamstrings Roll
 Supported Gluteus Maximus Roll
 Gastrocnemius (Calf) Roll

How Does Self-Myofascial Release Work?

Deep compression helps to break up or relax tight muscles and adhesions formed between muscle layers and their surroundings. Imagine you are tenderizing your own muscles. They should be soft and supple like a baby’s muscles. However, if our muscles are not taken care of properly we can experience loss of flexibility, adhesions, and painful movement.

The deep compression of self-myofascial release allows normal blood flow to return and the restoration of healthy tissue. The body naturally wants to be healthy and strong, but sometimes an extra boost is needed to achieve optimal muscle and tissue health.

What Causes Trigger Points and Tight Muscles?

Both have the same contributing factors including training, flexibility, movement patterns, posture, nutrition, hydration, rest, stress, and other lifestyle factors. Our bodies learn to compensate for what we throw at them every day, but we can exceed our ability to recover via too many intense workouts, poor posture, and other lifestyle factors.

This is when you need assistance using recovery techniques or through seeing a professional. If you lived a perfect life with everything in balance, you would theoretically never have either of these conditions, however I’ve yet to meet that person.

Why Am I Doing Something That Hurts?

For many, deep tissue massage is easy to understand. Ideally someone is able to work out the knots in your muscles, and it is commonly known this process may be uncomfortable and at times painful. Self-myofascial release provides the user the ability to control the healing and recovery process by applying pressure in precise locations, because only you can feel exactly what is happening.

It is always recommended to consult with your physician or physical therapist for therapeutic/sharp pain and receive approval before starting self-myofascial release. For most people you will be cleared immediately and your doctor will encourage the practice.

Releasing trigger points helps to reestablish proper movement patterns and pain free movement, and ultimately, to enhance performance. Utilizing stretching alone is not always enough to release muscles tightness, which is why foam rollers have thrived on the mass market. Imagine a bungee cord with a knot tied into it and then envision stretching the cord. This creates tension, stretching the unknotted portion of the muscle and the attachment points. The knot, however, has remained unaltered.

Foam rolling can assist in breaking up these muscle knots, resuming normal blood flow and function. The goal to any corrective or recovery technique is to get you back to the point of normal functioning, as if nothing was ever wrong.

Monday, 29 January 2018

Full Body Strength with Olivia - 2018

Functional Movement Training

Three (3) rounds of each exercise.  Complete ten (10) repetitions of each.

Chin Ups
Good Mornings
Back Loaded Squat
Bar Scales
Back Loaded Deep Squat
Intro to Deadlifts
Back Extensions

Swimming Mobility Work with Jordyn - 2018

Mobility Work for any sport but done specifically by Jordyn for her competitive swimming.

Work through each posture for a minimum of a minute (each side of the body) before moving on.










Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Lexa's Fitness Corner - Volleyball Exercises - January 24, 2018

Three (3) Rounds

Medicine Ball Lunge with Torso Twist x 15 per side
 Hulk Jumps (Plyometrics) x 20
 Back Extension (can be done off of a platform or bed) x 20
 Box Jumps (Plyometrics) x 10
 Bench Step Ups with Toe Touch x 10 per side

Event Gear Partnership - Born Primitive Apparel

This year, the Thermopylae Team, has an exciting announcement to make.  The Thermopylae Team has partnered with Born Primitive Apparel as the official shorts of the Thermopylae Event.  The men's shorts, Defender 2.0, and women's shorts, Double Take, are both high impact, full length shorts designed to keep up with any activity you do.

Athletes from our Pretorian training cohort will put the shorts through their paces in a variety of training, and competition, modalities while keeping you up to date on their functionality and durability.

Born Primitive is going to offer Thermopylae Athletes and Coaches a code for point of purchase.

Details to follow.

Defender 2.0
Double Take


BORN PRIMITIVE LINK

Sunday, 21 January 2018

2018 Thermopylae Fitness Series

Welcome to the Thermopylae Games, Thermopylae Obstacle Course Race and Thermopylae Training Program Website.

This year looks to be the biggest yet.  We are putting the call out to athletes, coaches, schools, administrators and school boards to join the THERMOPYLETES in their 2018 competitions.
 The Thermopylae Series was created by Coach Mike Maher at Valley Creek School in the fall of 2010 as the natural evolution of the fitness programming that he had been running with athletes since 2006.  The programming, originally called Bootcamp or Conditioning, grew out of the desire to see students train in non-linear athletics such as fitness, obstacle course racing and military style training.  This programming started at John Ware school using Coach Maher's background as a strength coach, fitness enthusiast and trainer.
In 2010, the Conditioning program started at Valley Creek school and rapidly grew into a multi-grade, multi-gender, multi-sport athletic training program.  That fall, a group of grade 9 students approached Mike with the idea of creating a fitness competition that gave them the opportunity to match their skills against the best that other schools, and boards, had to offer.  The THERMOPYLAE 3K Obstacle Course Race was born.
The first race, in May of 2011, consisted of four schools who competed on a cold, sleet filled day through a three kilometre and ten obstacle course.  The finish line was occupied by a steely eyed member of the Calgary Stampeders Football club with an impact hitting pad.
Since then, the programming has evolved, the number of participating students/schools has grown, and the THERMOPYLAE OBSTACLE COURSE RACE has grown to match.  Last year, in June of 2017, Valley Creek athletes hosted over 2000 athletes on a five kilometre, 25 obstacle course with mud, physical obstacles (walls, tunnels, hills), fitness obstacles (push ups, core exercises, burpees, etc) and our own personal fitness exercises (war machines, monster makers, etc).
The race led to the evolution of this WEBSITE.  A student driven, coach focused, site full of programming, information, gear reviews, training protocols, specialist information and race specific training.

The website met the needs of those schools without fitness programming or experience in OCR, but the next logical step was periodizing training to meet the needs of athletes who's goal was to be adequately prepared for the race.  The Thermopylae Games were born.
The THERMOPYLAE GAMES is an opportunity for athletes to participate in friendly competition against other schools.  These host schools create competitions based off of a five exercise, maximal output competition.  Each athlete competes in an exercise for a total of two minutes, their score is recorded, they rest and then compete in the next exercise.  At the end, their score is tallied and goes into a team total.  This event allows training that feeds into the race and prepares athletes to compete at their very best.
This year, as we continue to evolve, we have introduced the SPARTAN PROJECT.  A series of standardized fitness tests broken into "1" and "2".  Programs that are "1" is a competition where you try to finish all exercises, with perfect form, in under twenty minutes.  You record your score and try to improve on it.  The programs that are "2" are half of the exercise workload and you have twenty minutes to finish as many rounds as possible.  There is Armour/Strength, Javelin/Cardiovascular, Shield/Core, and Sword/Agility.
The event shirts this year are "trophy" shirts.  On the back of each are all of the SPARTAN PROJECT programs as well as the THERMOPYLAE OBSTACLE COURSE RACE.  There is a place under each to write your time, rounds or race time.  Allowing each athletes shirt to become their competition year trophy.
There are four THERMOPYLAE GAMES each year.  The first occurred back in November at Valley Creek School and the second will be at the end of February at Crossing Park School with the other two to follow.  The THERMOPYLAE OBSTACLE COURSE RACE will happen on Tuesday, June 5.
If you are an athlete, parent, coach, teacher, PE specialist, administrator, school or school board, please contact: mdmaher@cbe.ab.ca or thermopylaeocr@gmail.com for more details.
Thank you for your interest,
The THERMOPYLAE TEAM

Wednesday, 10 January 2018

Mackenzie's Fitness Corner - Yoga - January 10, 2018

Yoga Cat/Cow Pose
Four Point Starting Position
 Cat Pose
 Cow Pose
Child's Pose
 Child's Pose
 Pigeon Pose
 Cobra Pose