Running the 40 Yard Dash: The Necessary Evil

With the NFL combine starting Wednesday, I thought I would take a little time discussing the 40 yard dash and its true significance in football or any other sport for that matter.

I don't know exactly when the 40 became such a popular test. I remember getting timed for it in football and that was in the late 80's (yeah I'm dating myself here). The 4.4 was the standard. If you could get a 4.4, boy were you fast.

Then Deion Sanders ran a 4.21 in the 1989 combine and it was the talk of the town. It can make or break the start of NFL careers. Rightly or wrongly, a lot is judged on how an individual does on this race. Does someone have pure speed? I don't know why so much stock is put into this race though. In a football game, how many times is an individual running 40 yards?? Once, twice maybe. Receivers run some go routes. Lineman aren't doing it and sometimes running backs will break free for that big one.

How many of you remember Mike Mamula? He was the guy in the 1995 draft that had an incredible combine. He basically trained with a strength coach who just repeatedly trained the drills that would be in the combine. Thus a new niche was born and a projected 3rd round pick at best catapulted to a top 10 pick by the Eagles. Not getting into too many details, the Eagles traded picks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get in the top 10 to grab Mamula. Those swapped picks led to the drafting of Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks for the Bucs. Seems like a fair trade huh.

The 40 is a test that judges speed, but you can't judge if a football player is a good player or a bad player. Here is how you can look at the 40.

Here are some actual breakdowns of the 40 run by some of today's current stars:

• Drew Brees at the combine ran a 4.67 in the 40. His 10 yard dash was 1.66 and his 20 yard dash was 2.75. Your second 20 will probably be faster than the first 20 because you're starting to reach top speed. His flying 10 (subtract 20 from the 10) was a 1.09. That is more than a .3 of a second difference than the inital 10 so he is accelerating nicely. He was probably hitting his top speed at around 30 yards still accelerating to get under 2 seconds for his second 20.
• Matt Ryan ran a 4.89 in the 40. His 10 yard dash was 1.62 and his 20 was a 2.81. His flying 10 was a 1.19. A faster initial 10, but not accelerating as fast as Drew. He probably hit his top speed right around 25 yards and just tried to maintain it for the rest of the 40. Thus his second 20 was above 2 seconds.

Now let's take a look at some speedsters:

• Adrian Peterson ran a 4.4 in the 40 yard dash. His 10 was a 1.53 and his 20 was a 2.58. His flying ten was a 1.05 then. His second 20 was a 1.82. This means he is accelerating through to the end of the 40. Hitting his top speed somewhere around 40-45 yards. THIS IS HOW YOU WANT TO RUN THE 40. You want to not hit full speed and maintain it (too much work), but continue to accelerate all the way through to the finish line.
• Desean Jackson ran a 4.29 in the 40 (WOW!) His 10 yard dash was 1.53 and his 20 was a 2.52 Are you kidding me?? His flying 10 was .99 seconds. Unbelievable! A whopping 1.77 in the second 20. Now this guy is truly accelerating all the way through. He has some get up and go.

Now these are obviously the elite. The best of the best. Ultimately, if you are a football player, but not that fast in the 40, it isn't the end of the world. You might get dinged a little bit, but what will really have to show is what you do on the field and I think that is what the scouts will see in the end. Maybe you don't get drafted as high as you desired, but if you have heart, toughness, and show something on the field, that can't be ignored.

I think what I show here is if you run a 10 and a 20, we can figure out roughly what your 40 time will be based on the flying 10 and your initial starting 10. Like I stated these things can be worked on to try to improve those numbers, but the reverse can also be true. If you have an astounding 40 time, your football highlights aren't great, the 40 can then open up some doors for you. Coaches might think this guy is an athlete and if I can put him in the right situation, he can have great success.

Like I said, a necessary evil. We can complain all we want about how impractical the test is, but it ain't going away any time soon. When you are hearing about the NFL combine this week, what do you think the first question will be? How fast did he run the 40?

When Is It Too Young To Start Lifting Weights?

I get the question all the time about when is it the right age to start lifting weights. Will it do any damage to your child if they are lifting at age 8, age 10, age 12? One of the more common things heard is that if you lift too early, the child could stunt his/her growth development. So let me ask you a question:

Do you know anyone who is short and started lifting weights at an early age? 9, 10, 11 years old.

I don't either. That doesn't prove anything, but let me see if I can clear up some of this, by telling you how it was explained to me by an exercise phyisologist a while ago.

People don't get their growth stunted by lifting weights too early. There is no documented evidence that suggests this. What will happen is if you do not use proper form or use too heavy a weight, then you could damage growth plates. Yes, this is painful and not what we want our kids to experience, but it won't stunt your growth.

I have heard of kids lifting at ages as early as 9 or 10 and nothing has happened to them. Not just taking the dumbells and doing arm curls, but actual Olympic style lifting. The emphasis is always on the technique not the weight on the bar. The only time I have heard or seen injuries while lifting is when the lifter is using poor technique and most of the time there is way too much weight on the bar.

At our facility, if someone wanted to have us put their child on a structured exercise program, the youngest we would allow would be 13 or 14 depending on the maturity of the athlete. We would put them on a routine that would emphasize proper technique on the basic lifts. We would probably do moderate reps and not many sets so the emphasis would be technique. I don't want to start off doing high reps, have the kids get muscular fatigue, and then their form starts lacking towards the end of the sets. We would build up to that. We wouldn't be that concerned about how much weight they are lifting. The program would change to more of a challenging one based on the athlete's physical maturity.

Most of the time though, we don't get many requests for that, so it isn't anything I really worry about.

In our speed program though, we do some functional training with our athletes regardless of age, but most of that is bodyweight exercises. So we are emphasizing the technique and form, but developing some functional strength. Very safe and developmental progress. Trust me, the kids do a lot worse to themselves playing on the playground jumping from monkey bar to monkey bar. Speed work can be done at any age, but once again the younger athletes would have an emphasis on technique and the more explosive drills would be used with the older athletes.

So, if you are considering weightlifting for your athlete, I would recommend you wait until he/she is at least 13. But no matter when you start, the focus should be on the technique. Safety should be first and foremost so that the experience is a positive one.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 10)

Today was the last day. I weighed myself and I came in at 177 pounds and 7.7% bodyfat. So I lost roughly a pound of fat and a couple pounds of either muscle or water. Like I stated throughout this process, I eat a lot of calories, that was my biggest concern, and I obviously couldn't eat enough to keep my weight where it was.

I think a couple points to consider. This whole process eating clean and avoiding processed sugars and foods, I really didn't have to go the bathroom any more than usual. In fact it might have been a little bit less. I also didn't have any real gas throughout the week. Sorry if that is too much info, but people ask so I'm telling.

I think you need to have variety to help with the snacks (use almond butter with plain rice cakes and hummus with almonds or carrot sticks). It is good variety. Vary your meat up (fish and chicken) and use a lot of variety with your fruits.

So, I did it and lost a few pounds, think of what you can do if weight loss is your goal. Step up to the challenge and see if how this will change your health for the better.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 9)

The second to last day. This day I wasn't able to eat as much, but I got busy and it wasn't as big of a concern to me. I kept drinking water and had some almonds with me to help fill me up and it seemed to do the trick.

So tomorrow will be the last day. It will be interesting to see how much weight I lost. As I explained to one of my clients, the main point of the cleanse is to get rid of the toxins in your body. A by-product which is important for a lot of people is the weight loss. That part isn't my concern so I was trying to really eat as many calories as I could from clean sources.

So we'll see what happens and I'll talk with you tomorrow for the last installment of this cleanse.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 8)

I'm in the home stretch now. It is Monday, so I'm back to a structured day. Which means I just have to plan my meals when I can get them and then focus on work. I had 2 flag football games tonite at 9pm and then lifted this morning. The only real thing that I've noticed is that I'm not eating enough carbs to sustain my energy for these workouts, but for most of you, I'm sure that won't be a big deal. Just modify your own workout and you probably won't be playing flag football so you'll be good there as well.

Okay, I'm going to go to bed now. Nothing big to report except I've got 2 more days, then I'll weigh myself, take a waist measurement and we'll see how this has turned out.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Days 6 and 7)

Okay I missed yesterday's blog post.

Sorry about that!

I actually had some things to do, got busy, and well before you know it, I had to go to bed.

So, for Day 6, I'm going to go over what I ate that day. When you purchase the 24 Day Challenge, I will send you two sample menus (1 for the 10 day cleanse and the other for the 14 day Max Pack). But, to give you an idea what we're talking about here is were my meals yesterday. Bear in mind, I'm trying to get in as many calories as possible to maintain energy, avoid muscle loss, etc.

Breakfast - Oatmeal (from whole oats) with cinnamon and Advocare's spark, took Herbal Cleanse probiotic 30 minutes prior to eating
Mid-morning snack - some more oatmeal with blueberries and water (drinking water constantly throughout the day)
Lunch - Chicken breast, mixed veggies, brown rice, strawberries, water
Mid-afternoon meal - Chicken breast, brown rice, salad with vinagrette (however you spell that) dressing, and an apple with water
Snacks - I ate almonds, raisins, carrot sticks and peppers with hummus inbetween these meals
Dinner - Fillet (red meat), whole wheat pasta (my mom cooked it, but usually I'm not eating much pasta) no sauce, salad, and water, also took some Advocare OmegaPlex
Before bed I took Herbal Cleanse tablets

So as you can see a pretty clean diet. No unnecessary sugars and some decent variety in there (kindof).

For today's post, I'm going to go over my grocery bill for this 10 Day cleanse. This does not include the 24 Day Challenge cost and those supplemental products.

So here is what I purchased for the cleanse:

2 bags of salad
2 Onions
2 cucumbers
Vinagrette Dressing
2 boxes of blueberries
Almond butter
Plain rice cakes
9 oranges
bag of fuji apples
2 boxes of strawberries
2 bags of plain almonds
2 bags of raisins
Whole oats
3 bags of steamed veggies
3 round loins of beef
11 big chicken breasts (I split them in half)
bag of brown rice
8 cans of mixed veggies
2 frozen bags of brown rice

All that cost me about $80-$85. So that is what you would be looking at and roughly similar costs if you want to follow more of a clean diet after this cleanse. Talk to you tomorrow.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 5)

Alright, so today I had a test. The test was eating out at a restaurant. It was my niece's birthday so the family went out to Genji's Japanese Steakhouse. I decided to give it a whirl. I asked the chef to avoid butter and as little oil as possible. I also had him try to avoid the soy sauce, but I don't think he heard me as he poured some on my food.

That aside, I had a filet and shrimp with steamed rice and some veggies. The seasonings helped with the taste, but all-in-all it was pretty good and I survived. All things going well so far. No real issues. Body seems to be doing good.

Will be past the halfway point tomorrow, so until then.

How Do You Run Faster

Obviously, being in the speed training/improvement business, I get this question a lot. So I thought I would address it to you in as simple a way possible in this week's newsletter.

Going faster from point A to point B is broken down into two areas - stride length and stride rate (or frequency). The better you are in those two areas, the faster you will be.

So, if your stride length isn't great, that means it takes you more strides to cover the ground between point A and point B, thus you would be slower than someone who takes fewer strides.

Now, if you don't have a good stride rate, meaning how fast that leg is turning over and touching the ground over and over again, then it takes you longer to get from point A to point B. The slower that rate is, the slower your speed is. When you combine the two components that is how you get a slow or fast athlete. Getting them improved is imperative to improving your speed and getting faster.

What we would do first is see where your stride length is. Ultimately, your stride length will be determined by your height, limb length, etc. So, your stride will only be so long. As that improves and we work on it, we will get you to your optimal stride length. The length where your legs can cover the most ground efficiently while developing the right amount of power for your stride rate.

Once the stride length is improved, then a lot of your speed development will then depend on your stride rate. How fast can you get those legs churning to build up speed? A lot of times lack of leg strength is a big culprit for a slow stride rate, which can also cause a shorter stride length. We want to strengthen the legs appropriately to generate the power in those legs which will in turn get your stride rate improved and get you faster.

Understand, there is more to improving speed then what I just laid out, but in theory if you want to get faster this is what we're looking at - your stride length and stride rate. Luckily, you don't have to worry too much about all the complicating details for a speed developmental program. Just leave that to us.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 4)

Today wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday. The fiber drink stops for the next 4 days and I start using the probiotic. I've had plenty of water and I've learned to keep drinking it. The key to me not being hungry like I was talking about yesterday is to make sure I eat when I'm supposed to. So here were my meals today:

Real oatmeal made from oats with cinnamon and blueberries. This is pretty filling and helps me get to the next meal. I washed it down with some Advocare's Spark.

Had some almonds and raisins for a snack.

For my next two meals I ate chicken breasts, brown rice, mixed veggies, and fruit.

I then had to train for 4 hours straight, so I brought some almonds and had plenty of water.

That got my through to dinner. I ate a tenderloin, with brown rice, a salad with a vinaigrette dressing, with a clementine. I should be good until tomorrow. Will have the Herbal Cleanse tablets before bed and I'm good.

Talk to you tomorrow.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 3)

Another day of the same. The way the menu is set up, you really don't have much variety for these 10 days. The cleanse is trying to get a lot of the processed sugars, additives, etc. out of your diet. So I had a lot of the same foods today. Once again, I was a little hungry today, but that was due more to an unexpected change in my schedule and I wasn't able to get my planned feeding.

When I say I'm hungry, understand that my metabolism is pretty high, so I generally eat a lot throughout the day. I've picked some higher density caloric items in my normal daily routine, that are healthy, but not allowed in the scope of the cleanse. Thus it is tough to replenish those calories consistently.

But, I'll keep doing it. Feel free to ask me any questions that you might have about the cleanse and I'll try to answer them as best that I can.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 2)

As day 2 is winding down, all systems are go. I seem to be a little bit hungrier than I normally am because some of my snacks aren't exactly on the menu for the cleanse. I've had to compensate by eating a few more almonds and raisins then I normally do. More fruit.

I'm eliminating a lot of my meal replacement bars because you want to get rid of all the processed sugars and there are a few in some of those bars. Even though I was told that any Advocare products are good, I'm going to error on the side of caution.

One of the biggest questions I get with the herbal cleanse is "are you going the bathroom all the time." People are usually referring to #2 and as of Day 2, I'm not going any more than normal.

That's all for day 2. See you tomorrow.

10 Day Herbal Cleanse (Day 1)

So I've got clients that are doing Advocare's 24 Day Challenge. Basically, a way to jump start your body back to good health. One of my clients is on Day 13 and has lost 9 pounds already. The first 10 days of the 24 Day Challenge is an Herbal Cleanse. I'm going to do my 10 Day Herbal Cleanse with some of you and today was Day 1.

The point of the Herbal Cleanse is to get rid of all the toxins in your body by eating clean and utilizing the supplements with the Herbal Cleanse. When I weighed myself I was at 180 with 8.3% bodyfat. I'm obviously not trying to lose weight but we'll see if there are any changes to bodyfat, waist, etc. My waist is probably around 34.5" (measured around the bellybutton). But I will find out definitely tomorrow.

I will have more thoughts for you on Day 2, so here we go!!

Guidelines Say We Need To Use Less Salt

Every five years the new dietary guidelines are issued by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services department and this years guidelines seemed to have a salty theme to them. Salt (sodium) seems to be a big contributing factor for high blood pressure, but if you have diabetes or chronic kidney disease, the experts would like you to cut down on the salt.

Anyone 51 or older who has the aforementioned diseases, should allow only 1/2 a teaspoon daily for salt. All other Americans get a whopping 1 whole teaspoon. That is probably a little more than what I put on my popcorn last night.

But, it isn't as simple as just eliminating table salt. Salt is everywhere in foods, especially processed foods. A teaspoon of salt is about 2300 milligrams (mg). A serving of Ragu pasta sauce has 450 mg in it. My daughters Kraft Mac and Cheese has about 540 mg. My lean pockets have about the same. A Michelina's Chicken & Rice has only 400 calories, but 1140 mg of sodium.

And those are just the items that are in foods. That isn't counting if you decide to salt on your own. In my opinion, salt can be an addicting substance that you build up a tolerance for. So, if you are used to salt, you need more just to get that salty taste.

So what can be done to cut back on your sodium intake?

Well, it is the same thing I seem to say with every other health issue:

• Try to avoid the processed foods.
• Eat fresh foods as much as possible and avoid salting them.
• If you eat out, ask to not add salt to the dish.
• Just cut back on the salt you add on your foods.
• Start reading the labels and pay attention to how much sodium is in each item you are buying.

Or just do what a lot of people in our country seem to do. Ignore it. Let yourself get high blood pressure. Then ask your doctor for medications. Easy peezie. Did you love the sarcasm there??

Seriously, though, I don't know how realistic it is to get just a teaspoon of salt daily. Your average American is getting 4 or 5 times that amount daily. You would have to be pretty disciplined, but I do know that if you can eat more fresh foods and not add salt, you will do a lot better than where you are today.