Motivation can be defined as the desire to achieve, the fuel that inspires us to reach our goals. It has been said that motivation strengthens the ambition, increases initiative and guides our energy. Motivation is one of the most important keys in fitness success. I say this, due to the fact that I usually train athletes who are highly motivated.  It is easier for a professional or even amateur athlete to stay motivated to train because their living or their ability to win in competition depends upon it.

When it comes to training the average person, we often find that people are not as motivated, so they often fall short of what they really want to accomplish.  This does not mean that they won’t work as hard; it’s just that they might not know how to visualize the necessary keys to stay motivated longer. Normally, the design of a successful fitness-training program should always begin with the end in mind. And so, the first thing you should do to is set your goals, because these can be very motivating. In setting those goals, be specific, it’s always helpful to concentrate on your weak areas physically, so that as you work out you will see results.  There is nothing like results to improve motivation! After that it comes down to being consistent in your workouts.

But what if you have trouble staying consistent?   Usually, this happens due to being overcommitted in your schedule or sometimes, it goes back to motivation.  One of the biggest things that motivates is knowledge and working together with the LaValle Metabolic Institute and its staff has consistently reminded me that vast amount of knowledge shared by colleagues to enhance each individuals unique needs is an important tool to keep you motivated to achieve your exercise goals. If you are reminded in your daily life that what you do now is going to heavily influence whether you succumb to chronic illness down the road, it keeps you better motivated to stay consistent with your exercise.

One of the great benefits of exercise is its role in helping to reduce stress hormones. When you exercise it literally reduces the body’s norepinephrine, epinephrine and cortisol.  This is probably part of the reason that exercise is consistently shown to reduce risk of heart disease and other chronic disease like breast cancer.,  Deal with the stress hormones and you take away the negative impact they can have on your arteries, blood pressure and immunity.

For those that are intimidated by vigorous exercise or workouts, you should know that one of the best exercises that has been shown to reduce stress hormones is yoga.,  Yoga has even been shown to aid weight loss when no other diet or lifestyle changes were made.

Hirose K, Hamajima N, Takezaki T, Miura S, Tajima K. Physical exercise reduces risk of breast cancer in Japanese women. Cancer Sci. 2003;94(2):193-9.

By Sinead Duffy

Are there times when you doubt yourself and your abilities? Have you missed out on opportunities because you felt you were not talented enough, lacked education or felt unattractive?Time and time again, I coach people who have lots of talent and wonderful ability, yet for various reasons they are filled with self-doubt. They give up on their dreams, settle for less and  become stuck in a rut due to lack of self-confidence. It is no wonder that those who lack self-confidence are less adventurous, get less out of life and always underachieve.

Having self-confidence is crucial to living a fulfilling life. It influences your success at work, your relationships with others and your performance in everything you do. Confident people have faith in themselves and their abilities and they believe that that they can have the best in life. The good news is that confidence is a skill, it can be learned, and just like driving a car, it can become a habit. As you know, we don’t even have to think about our habits as they are part of us.

Apply the following 5 steps to greater self-confidence and you’ll soon notice positive changes:

Step 1 – Decide to Become Self-Confident
Write out the answer to the following two questions:

- What would your life be like if you were confident?
- What would self-confidence mean to you?

Based on your answer make a decision today to invest your time, effort and money in becoming self-confident. Read books about self-confidence, listen to confidence building audios, attend confidence building workshops and consult with a coach who specialises in confidence coaching.

Step 2 -Become More Self-Aware
Learn to develop an awareness of your unique individuality. When you know and understand yourself at a deeper level, you will have greater control over your thoughts, feelings and attitudes which in turn will help you build greater self-confidence.

Step 3 -Act with Confidence
If you want to feel confident; act with confidence. When you think confidently, walk confidently and talk confidently, it will easily and effortlessly become natural for you to be confident.

Step 4 -Use your Imagination
When you use your imagination to visualise yourself being confident, you are impressing very powerful images onto your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind stores images and the more you visualise yourself being confident the more it becomes part of our life. Whenever your subconscious mind accepts an idea, it immediately begins to execute it.

Step 5 – Belief in Yourself
It is not your actual abilities that determine what you can achieve but your belief in them. It is essential that you let go of limiting beliefs that hinder your progress and develop empowering ones that assist your development. Often we are like the fish that does not even realise it is in water. When you work with a coach you will identify and eliminate those limiting beliefs that hinder your progress.

In order to achieve what you want in life, you must develop your self-confidence. Begin today to create a new and confident you, that uses and values your talents and creates the life you want. Break free from self-doubt and learn to trust in yourself and your abilities. With greater self-confidence, you will feel inner strength, greater happiness and much more fulfilled. Begin today to sow the seeds of confidence and you will be amazed with the results and positive effects that ripple through all areas of your life.

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]]> http://www.carloalvarez.com/articles/5-steps-to-greater-confidence/feed/ 0 http://www.carloalvarez.com/events/2011-st-x-vs-moeller-regional-championship/ http://www.carloalvarez.com/events/2011-st-x-vs-moeller-regional-championship/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:30:27 +0000 Carlo Alvarez http://www.carloalvarez.com/?p=2467 St. Xavier takes care of business in the Region 4 Championship game against Moeller.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Will Fleming of the IYCA. Will and I are both on the Board of Experts for the International Youth Conditioning Association. So when he asked me to share some thoughts on how we train our athletes at St. X, I couldn’t say no. I met Will and his business partner Ryan during the inaugural IYCA Summit a few years ago. I’ve always enjoyed spending time sitting down with them and sharing ideas. They have been extremely successful in their business, Force Fitness and Performance in Bloomington, and are always looking for ways to improve their training systems and coaching knowledge.

Our interview was short, about 20 minutes and to the point. We wanted to share with IYCA members our training model, program design, assessment, freshmen development program and long-term athlete development strategies we use at St. Xavier High School. I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. I’m always excited about the potential…commitment…support it takes to really make a long lasting impact on youth athletics. It’s moments like these, when you get to share what you do with other coaches from around the country, that you can sense the possibilities.

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]]> http://www.carloalvarez.com/program_design/2463/feed/ 0 http://www.carloalvarez.com/program_design/playoff-ready/ http://www.carloalvarez.com/program_design/playoff-ready/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:48:08 +0000 Carlo Alvarez http://www.carloalvarez.com/?p=2456 The high school football playoff season is upon us. Most teams have played ten  regular season games and are preparing to play another four to five games in their journey to the State Championship game. For those of you who coach or train high school football teams, I’m sure you understand how difficult a full season can be for an athlete. But, if you have made it this far, I assume that you have done some things right and your hard work has paid off. My goal in writing this article is to provide our readers a few key points to help you prepare your athletes for the grueling coming weeks and intensity of the playoffs.

Having a Plan

Having a daily plan is of utmost importance during the playoffs. Expectations are high, days are shorter and there are plenty of distractions. Daily communication with the head coach, athletic trainers, and nutritionist is vital as you make sure everyone is on the same page. Our scheduling starts the day after our last game. We make sure we get a handle on lifting and conditioning days, injured players, hydration strategies and pre-game meals. If everyone is on the same page it makes it easier to make adjustments throughout the week and it helps players feel comfortable.

Mindset

It’s not hard to get hyped up for your first playoff game. Athletes are excited about the possibilities come playoff time. Everyone has a shot at the title, but keeping the right mindset can help your athletes focus on what’s right in front of them. In our program, we like to remind our athlete that tomorrow is never promised. We ask that they give us everything they have as we prepare for our games. No excuses, no regrets.  By keeping the focus on the now, we can eliminate the distractions that are so easily infiltrated into a playoff week.

Attack Problem Areas

Our training program throughout the season is divided into three phases. First five games of the season, second five games of the season and playoffs. During the season, we make sure that we maintain our strength, power and explosiveness through percentage grading and progressive overload on a weekly basis. When we look at our injury reports throughout the week, we always have to make adjustments to individual programs. No team during this part of the season is 100%. So the teams that can get their players as pain free as possible by game time, is going to have the greatest chance at success. Make sure that injured or banged up body parts are attacked first in the workout. For example, if there are shoulder issues, prehab and maintenance work is performed first in the workout. This allows us to maximize specific work in problem area, while still attacking his good shoulder, torso and lower body. Make sure you have a look at the weekly injury report, as you plan your training for the week.

Lower Volume and Higher Intensity

The playoff season is not about gaining strength or breaking down muscle tissue. We focus on improving power and explosiveness every chance we get through systematic progressions in our sets and reps. At this point of the season, we make sure that we have a good grip on the total amount of football-specific fundamental work performed on the field with the coaches. Our job is to maximize our weightroom time and helps us maintain our power output on the field.  How do we do that? We cut our workload in the weightroom by 20% and focus on density training. Our exercise selection is limited to a total of three to four exercises per training session. We like to progress our lifting and plyometric drills to the point where we are complexing the areas necessary to keep improving strength, speed and power.

Just W.I.N

W.I.N is an acronym we use daily in our program. W.I.N stands for what’s important now and it represents how we approach everyday throughout the season. Focus on what you can control on a daily basis and you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish. Never take your opponent lightly. If you have a plan, follow it diligently and it will help you prioritize any issue that may come up. The right mindset is critical in keeping your team focused. Attacking problem areas and managing your volume and intensity, will allow you to adjust your programming as necessary.

Good luck this week to those who are lucky enough to be part of the playoffs. Bring home a win.

In this video, GE provides a wide variety of these body imaging devices to transform objects like a baseball, fruit and a violin to create an analog representation of how tomography captures these image slices:

The consistency of your in-season program can determine the success of an entire season. The quote above is a great example of how we approach our in-season training program. You won’t win every game, but your training plan in-season needs to be consistent with the overall goal of building a great athlete and program that is resilient to bumps on the road throughout the season. Developing a consistent program during the season will allow you to make gains in flexibility, speed, strength, power and recovery. Don’t change your program from week to week and don’t deviate from your initial goals. It helps players and coaches understand that the plan is structured, well thought out and geared towards maintaing the levels of performance needed to survive a grueling season.

Success comes to those who are consistent and persistent. Allow your athletes the opportunity to experience a structured program with individual and team components. During the season you will need to make adjustments, but that doesn’t  mean that you make wholesale changes to the program. Use each day as an opportunity to coach your athletes and build consistent systems to monitor strength and weakness of each individual player. Now go forth and win your championship.

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]]> http://www.carloalvarez.com/program_design/in-season-training/feed/ 0 http://www.carloalvarez.com/events/inspire-change/ http://www.carloalvarez.com/events/inspire-change/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:03:50 +0000 Carlo Alvarez http://www.carloalvarez.com/?p=2421 Did you know that almost 700,000 people a year die of heart disease in the U.S.? Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of all Americans? In fact, someone dies from CVD every 38 seconds! Heart disease also kills more women than all forms of cancer combined.  And congenital cardiovascular defects are the most common cause of infant death from birth defects.

This morning we had our Executive Leadership breakfast at the Queen City Club to kick off awareness for one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. In Cincinnati last year, we raised $1.9 million and hope to raise $2.2 million this year. Individuals and organizations are inspiring change in themselves and in others in the fight against heart disease and stroke. Join us as we work to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20%, while reducing death from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20%. Join the American Heart Association and get involved!