Blog
What to eat before and after a workout? Part II
I wrote an article a bit ago on this topic, and today we will dive a little deeper. Pre- and post-workout meals are meant to enhance body composition and performance. That’s why it is important to eat properly overall. I will give guidelines—which are standard for the industry and based on research—but please remember that everything depends on the kind of activity, time of day, and goals. Continue reading
Two advanced ladder drills you should be doing
Coaches, this one’s for you!
As you probably know, drilling ladders are a great tool for footwork, speed work and emphasizing different mechanics of speed and agility. The ladders work not only the feet, but do a great job of connecting the mind with the body. You can
add external Q’s as well such as horns, or a break-out pattern in which the athlete Continue reading
Maybe it is an age thing. I am by no means old at age 36, but I’m not exactly in my prime. I like when I am sore, even though that does not translate to a good effective workout. However, what I find myself balancing a lot these days is my recovery. At this point in my life, I know I will make time for working out. But for me, recovering from the workout—so I can effectively work out again—is becoming an issue.
Mobility, Stability, Strength exercises, what do I do first? What’s most important? There is so much information out there so we’ll start from the beginning. Let’s think back. The very first day when you came out of the womb, if you were anything like me, you were doing pushups before you came out, right? Ha! Just kidding. As a baby, I could have taken my leg and put it over my head six ways to Sunday without even blinking an eye.
After about a year of life, you gained stability. It first showed up with the ability to stabilize your head on top of your shoulders, then you began to crawl. Your mobility and stability were then starting to work in tandem. The last thing you found was strength.
There is not much that flat out gets me upset in this industry. There are some trends I don’t agree with, but that is okay. However, for some reason the detox and cleanse industry gets me upset every time. Maybe because I feel like the people or companies who are selling it are outright irresponsible. Whenever I meet the person who is selling this stuff or recommends it, I always ask:
“How does it work, and what toxins is it getting rid of?”
I could make this article super boring and explain in detail what FMS is and what it does. But you wouldn’t want to read that article. Instead, I’ll share what functional movement systems (FMS) means to you… If you train here, FMS is a key part of our training system that you might not notice, but I guarantee it is benefiting you in some way. If you do not train at Fast Twitch yet, this will give you confidence that we know our stuff and are committed to it. 
There are so many different mobility exercises athletes need, but only so much time in a day (even less in a workout session). With our athletes, each session is an hour and we have to pick which exercises are most important and will get them to perform the best. 
Mobility is meant to proactively address a problem before it becomes an issue. And, yes, there is a difference between mobility and stretching. The primary purpose of mobilization is to improve the position of the joint, thereby increasing power output, which will increase performance. There are a few techniques that are used most often to gain mobility.
When Tony Makriniotis and I began Fast Twitch, we had the sole intention of training athletes. Not athletes by today’s standards, because now the term “athlete” is used for adults, too. (Which by the way, is a great thing that I think helps adults build confidence in their abilities!) Back then, athletes were kids in middle school through college. 
I went to school to be a Certified Athletic Trainer who deals with injured athletes and getting them back on the field, and then I moved into exercise science to better support that knowledge base. I served as the head ATC at a local high school covering all sports both male and female and watching how these athletes developed and prepared themselves. From that point in my life, Tony and I decided to start running speed camps for kids. Fast forward to today: We now own a successful gym that runs a popular speed and strength program. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t know everything at 25, and I surely do not know everything now. But I always have cared immensely for the services and the people. Therefore, educating myself, applying this knowledge, and refining that over the years has always been a way of life for me. If you trained with me at 25, I would have given you a good service. At 36, I am giving you a much better one with streamlined results due to years of knowledge.
Fast Twitch Training has been in business since 2005. Not many small gyms can say this. This is not me bragging. (Well, okay, maybe I am just a little bit proud, but this serves more to set the stage for where we started and where we are now.) I was 25 years old when I started Fast Twitch. At this point, every gym I had been to, even smaller gyms, were nothing but dumbbells and a bunch of machines and treadmills. Every inch of the gym was filled with equipment.
My business partner and I put our heads together, and we had a different vision of what a gym should look like. We wanted to see an open space with room to move. This was before Kelly Starret streamlined mobility or cross fit was CrossFit®. This was before TRX and Olympic rings. Battle ropes were just coming out, and they didn’t have the large ropes or any variation. People did not generally know about this type of training. We were forging a path that was unheard of, especially around our area. That’s what made us successful in the beginning.