Lateral Monkey-Barring is a great way to build the upper posterior chain and the lower arms/hands.  They can be done with a standard grip or with any and all variations of thick handles and/or attachments.

Exercise Description – Start with a wide pull-up grip on any bar, frame, rack or tree limb that will allow for some lateral movement.  “Walk” the hands side by side, back and forth, right and left as long as possible.  Once the 30 second barrier is crossed, add external weight and break the next 30 second barrier.

Heavy Overhead Walking can be an ultimate exercise.  It is a total body movement, but the delts, triceps, and low back will reach threshold first.  One of the inspirations for this was observed on the strongman circuit in the mid-2000’s.  The best competitors could farmer’s walk, yoke, load, and medley without a belt, but when it came time to press, they would put on a belt, which shows how overhead work is very taxing and a total body movement. 

Exercise Description – Press the apparatus (sandbag, dumbbells, yoke, or keg) overhead into the full locked position, locking elbows and shoulders completely out. During the exercise, keep the eyes on a fixed point.  Quickly, walk keeping the arms locked for the duration of the movement and cover as much ground as possible.

The Keg Leg Raise is another wonderful total body tool, but because of the lack of handles, the chest and biceps will fatigue the fastest.  This is a great example of putting the lower and thoracic back in an unpredictable and chaotic environment.  This is a great tool for the arsenal of any combat athlete.

Exercise Description – Wrap the arms around a suspended keg, similar to a bear hug or body lock.  Extend the legs, as if in a “hang.”  Raise the legs straight up and down (extension to flexion) alternating from one side of the keg to the other.  Concentrate on pulling the legs up towards the chest.  Progress this, by unlocking the hands and squeezing the keg with open palms.

180 Rows (180 Degrees) are great for developing a STRONG upper back and a (vice) grip.

Exercise Description – Very similar to an inverted row, hold onto suspended straps, rings, or ropes.  Kick the feet straight up towards the ceiling, and take the head back and down towards the floor (inverting the body 180 degrees).  From this position, an athlete will row just like any other pulling movement initiated by scapular retraction. Regression takes place when the legs are wrapped around the strap or rope for stabilization purposes.

Strap Hop Ins/Outs

Exercise Description –Start in a pushup position on the ground with feet in straps. Next push up into a locked out pushup position, from there hop out using both arms forwards once to the maximum distance possible hop backwards in the opposite direction. When hopping backward try keep moving back until body is into a full handstand, key to this exercise is keeping the core tight the whole time. Continue doing this forward and backward movement until the required amount of trips is complete.

Musculature Used – Upper back, Shoulder, Triceps, and Core

Wrestler Lunges

Exercise Description – This exercise is a combination of a lunge with dumbbell row, the athlete will be holding dumbbells in each hand during the whole exercise. First, take a big step out leg so that the knee of the front leg is behind the toes of that foot. Next squat down until right before the back knee touches the ground. From the lunge position, lean forward and perform a row, pulling the dumbbells up and squeezing their shoulder blades back and tight at the top of the row. Once these parts of the exercise are complete drive through the heel of the front foot and squeeze the glutes while standing straight up. Next without taking any extra steps perform the same routine with the other leg and row again once down in the lunge.

Musculature Used – Upper Back, Biceps, Forearms, Glutes, Hamstrings, and Quads

Zercher-Style Good Mornings

Exercise Description – Before performing the good morning part of this exercise one must hold bar in the Zercher-style.  This is performed by holding the bar in the crest of the arms between the biceps and forearms. Once the bar is in this position place the back of one hand into the palm of the other and locking their thumbs and keeping the bar as tight to them as possible by flexing arms and activating their back. Now unrack the bar; keeping eyes up take a few steps back and set the feet at shoulder width apart. Once feet are set, make a slight bend in the knees from there set the back (unlocking hips) drive glutes back reaching back like one would be sitting on a chair. While driving glutes back a stretching feeling should be felt in the hamstring, and then drives hips through and squeeze glutes standing back into the starting position.

Musculature Used – Upper back, Biceps, Forearms, Glutes, Lower back, and Hamstrings

Plate Push

Exercise Description – This exercise has a few variations, use a 25 pound plate, 45 pound plate, or multiple 45 pound plates depending on the strength of the athlete.  Plate pushes are much harder than sled pushes because the athlete lacks leverage on the resistance.  Push off both legs or make it unilateral and push off one.

Musculature Used – Quads, Glutes, and Calves

Ninja Squats

Exercise Description – First set the safety bars of a squat rack to a height that causes the athlete to squat lower than parallel for this exercise.  Once the equipment is ready then step laterally underneath through to the other side of safety bar. With one fluid movement perform a squat by keeping eyes up and shoulder blades back set the back by unlocking the hips and drive hips back performing squat underneath the bar through to the other side of the bar. Make sure the squat is deep, the eyes high, and not bending over at the waist at all.  To make the exercise  more challenging,  hold weights in the hands or wear chains around their necks, also lower the height of the safety bars would increase the difficultly.

Musculature Used – Glutes, Quads, Adductors, and Abductors

Heavy Front Carry

Exercise Description – Heavy Front Carry can performed by using multiple types of equipment, the best equipment is the yoke with an adjustable crossbar. For this exercise use the Zercher-style grip, the crossbar will be placed in the crest of their arms between the bicep and forearms.  With the bar is in this position place back of one hand into the palm of the other and locking their thumbs and keeping the bar as tight as possible to the body by flexing arms and activating the back. With the Zercher-style grip is set the feet by walking under the bar and setting the feet shoulder with apart and keeping eyes high, then drive through the heels squeezing their glutes and drives hips through stand up with the yoke.  Once standing straight up and with the yoke stable then walk quickly taking short step as fast as possible to maximum or designated distance.

Musculature Used – Upper back, Forearms, Biceps, Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings and Adductors

My family knew nothing about wrestling when I entered high school and by the time my brother graduated eight years later, we were a full blown wrestling family (this doesn’t mean setting up camp in the corner of the gym with blankets for a whole freestyle Saturday, using grandpa’s motorized wheelchair to rope off one third of the perimeter and annex prime bleacher space, Sissy in dirty bare feet running amok, getting pitchers taken with Bubby after he won his weight class of three, and eating sandwich spread as is so often the case).  For the Pankos, the transformation was one of passion, knowledge, and enlightening.  The crowd in Avon High School’s packed Auxiliary Gym blatantly realized there was a difference in acoustics from Becky Panko’s whistle between the football field and the gym, and I am sure for those that did not grow up with that whistle, seven years later, the ringing continues.

The following are some great experiences from or that led to the Indiana State High School Athletic Association sanctioned Wrestling State Finals:

My wrestling life is paralleled to that of Colonel Harlan Sanders.  The Colonel “made” it at age 69, I was slightly younger (a senior in high school) but I have never failed at anything more in my life than wrestling, and, subsequently, had I never wrestled, or more importantly, if Coach Bright had not cared enough to MAKE me wrestle, I would have never started a business, I would have substantially less faith in the American Dream and the CARNIVORE Culture would not exist.  Aaah, yes, the CARNIVORE Culture is the product of FAILURE.

The genesis of my wrestling started when a lady at church talked my mom into taking me to the Brownsburg Wrestling Club…probably because I was big.  That ill-fated decision lead to two monumental novelties – I was the only kid at freestyle tournaments that wore a shirt under his singlet, and my mom was my coach.  If ignorance is bliss then ignorance ignorantly coaching ignorance would be the most supreme form of eternal utopian fantasy.  Shockingly, I only lasted one season on the circuit, my crowning feat taking place at the Indy West (Ben Davis) Tournament where I got third out of three and that is only because the fourth kid left early.

My next touch and go involvement was as a seventh grader.  I didn’t make the basketball team, and my mom threatened to make me swim.  I have never had a more confounding fear in my life; I would have to wear Speedos.  I talked my mom into letting me wrestle because I figured covered boy boobs would be less embarrassing than uncovered boy boobs and high cut briefs.  I didn’t flirt with wrestling again until high school when Coach Bright, my eighth grade football coach and high school head wrestling coach made me wrestle.  He told me it would make me a better lineman, I was on board.  The seriousness of the situation compounded itself my first practice when it was discovered that the senior heavyweight quit.  The Avon Wrestling Orioles were down to three heavyweights – all freshmen.  Simmy Jublett would only last a month and was eventually kicked off the team for fornication with a mat maid, Bustin Jirch ended up being the inaugural Hoosier Crossroad’s Conference JV Tournament Runner-Up at heavyweight as a senior, and I, previously, wore a t-shirt under my singlet…so the bullpen was pretty full.

My first year on the mat was educational.  The last week of my season, I wrestled the top ranked, fifth ranked and tenth ranked heavyweights in the state and finished the year with a deviated septum.  My second season faired none better and by the end of it I had a career record of 15-43, lost every match when the dual meet came down to me, wrestled the first three of five eventual state champions I would wrestle in my high school career (it would have been six eventual champs and seven championships, but one guy couldn’t keep his middle finger to himself) and even made the ref raise my hand in a match I thought I won but had really lost (I still didn’t know green was home, red was away).

The above resume withstanding, I was fortunate to finish my wrestling career in Conseco Fieldhouse at State.  The entire experience was the best of my athletic career – high school and college football and Strongman included – the parade of champions, the floor pass, being in the bowels of the Fieldhouse all day Saturday, the organ for the Finals Face-Off.  The four walls of the Pacer’s locker room is the nicest place I have ever showered, and I finished my wrestling career being coached by my best friend and teammate Kyle Meunier.

Why was my teammate in my corner at State?  The previous week at the Semi-State, the assistant coaches decided to partake in the brilliance of Casino Aztar, Evansville, IN and all she has to offer in an Avon High School Activity Vus (van front, bus back).  After a night of drinks, they learned two things.  One, they were not very good drunk drivers.  Two, the Avon High School Activity Vus was NOT ABLE to outrun the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Deputy that pulled them over after a hit and run.  An early morning phone call on February 11^th, 2001 from Dr. Helton confirmed Avon Wrestling was down to one wrestling coach.  So while Coach Bright was in Jimmy Williams’ corner during his 215 bout, Kyle Meunier was in my corner – the first but not last time he coached at Conseco.

2003 was an exciting year.  Lynn, my brother, tracked falls, not pins, but people tripping and falling.  Over two days, 19 wrestlers, spectators, coaches, refs, and table help fell at Conseco Fieldhouse.  The best fall was executed by yours truly, walking down the stairs between Sections 101 and 102, in front of the entire Evansville Memorial Section, fresh shaved ice in hand, I got a little too confident in my steps.  I tripped, my heels got caught behind and underneath, and I slid on both knees down the concrete steps like the kid who has never played baseball slides for the first time IN JEANS at practice.  My saving grace was that Sections 101 and 102 are on the corner of Fieldhouse, so two thirds of the way down the stairs, they dogleg to the left.  The dogleg saved the glass barrier along the bottom of the section and I slid into the back of someone’s seat.

The Panko Family arrived on the scene in 2001, when my dad got his first company vehicle.  It was a Dodge Dakota, and only lasted about a year until Wood-Mizer gave him the Fishing Truck.  The Fishing Truck was a late model 1990’s two-wheel drive Dodge 1500, and we were allowed to drive it until a co-worker saw one of us driving it and tattled on my dad.  It was well known in the pre-Lucas Oil Stadium Days that the Clarion Hotel on South Capitol Avenue (God rest its soul) was the best free parking in downtown Indianapolis.  Lynn and I drove the Fishing Truck for the Saturday sessions.  I had never heard of daytime running lights, but apparently the Fishing Truck had them.  When we pulled into the lot at the Clarion, I saw the lights “on” and turned them off.  They were already “off,” and in doing, I so turned them on.  That night, during the finals, Indianapolis got hit with a MAJOR snowstorm.  We trudged the four blocks back to the truck only to find the battery was dead because I left the lights on.  It took my mom two hours to make the 15 mile drive from Avon to come get us and another hour and a half to get home.

The 2005 Finals were awesome.  Lynn won the 215 lb. State Championship, and came back strong from a terrible 2004 State showing.  In 2010, Blaine Hall placed 7^th and was the first wrestler since I opened PANKO Strength & Speed  to place.  The business had been open a few weeks, prior to that I had to train the team in the wrestling room.  2011 eclipsed them all.  Neal Molloy was State Champion at 130 lbs., Aaron Stevenson was Runner-Up at 189, and Logan Cooper was Runner-Up at 215.  Levi Moss who had also trained at PANKO Strength & Speed was 4^th at 119.  Four wrestlers, three in the finals, and another on the podium was a great night, especially since we were only a year in business.

Neal Molloy

Aaron Stevenson

Logan Cooper

This year Neal, 132, and his teammate Brayden Montgomery, 145, Brian Harvey, 160, and Bryan Snider, 285 are all wrestlers that trained at PANKO Strength & Speed.  Two wrestlers that were part of the first batch of PANKO Strength & Speed athletes that I started training in October of 2009 at Avon High School, Jonah Zorniger and Dylan Jones are wrestling as is Levi Moss.  Another new achievement, Trent McCormick Head Coach of Yorktown and PANKO Strength & Speed member is taking five of his wrestlers to the State Finals.  The CARNIVORE Culture will have a lot of influence on the four mats this weekend, a far cry from the Indy West Tournament and my mom coaching me to be…

So here it is the cusp of the 74^th IHSAA Wrestling State Finals, go early, stay late, and take it all in.  No matter what they say, save seats and run to save seats.  The ushers prohibit both practices, but everyone does and will always do it.  Those that listen to the ushers will be SOS (crap outta seat) and watching the finals in the balcony.  They have water fountains, so drinks do not NEED to be purchased.  There are a lot of vendors and many choices, but unless shaved ice is bought from the toothless hill-Billy that covers up his skullet with a tie-dye hat and yells “SAY’V DICE” then it’s just a snow cone.

PANKO Strength & Speed, Because of Wrestling, Proud Stewards of the American Dream

Youth in the Indianapolis Metro Area have grown up with a Colts team that won more regular season games than any team in NFL History.  And while that has been enjoyable for young Colts’ fans they know nothing about what it was like to see the Colts play in the early 1990’s.  The Pankos were Colts’ “Season Ticket Holders” for a few years in the early 1990’s, but not as people would recognize it today.  Five or six games a year Dad would take his two sons down to the Hoosier Dome; there was a dumpster around W Henry St and Madison Ave that served as residence for a panhandler.  While every other sucker paid to park, for a tithe of granola bars and warm beverages, the panhandle would watch Dad’s 1984 F-150.  After leaving the truck in good hands, Dad bought tickets from a scalper post kickoff for around $10 per, after entering the half capacity Dome, patrons seated themselves where they pleased, in a different spot each week,  and watched the worst football being played in the AFC.

Randy Panko is a fascinating individual.  His sales background and extensive international travel have made him too comfortable in unnecessary situations, though his latest adventure has advised one should never eat the shrimp tacos in Lima Peru.  He is well known for attempting to order in native tongue at ethnic restaurants, and the treasures he has haggled from third world jungle merchants of Asia and South America are better suited for the dump.  He has an uncanny cool when fitting in during uncomfortable situations.  On one of his mid-quarter excursions of the concourse in the Dome, he found a door that led to stairs that led to a door that led to the post game family meeting area for both teams, when he brought the news back to the bleachers; it was as if Francisco Pizzaro has found the lost city of El Dorado.  At the final gun for the next three years, he would coyly drag us to the doors and down the stairs as if we were some distant Slavic cousins to someone on either roster.  It turned out to be players, families, personnel, staff, waiting bus drivers and the Pankos.  “Boys, just act like you have been here before.  Be cool.”  It rendered three years’ worth of autographs and a handful of Hall of Fame handshakes.

The only NFL game for the Panko boys outside of God’s Country was Week 13 of the 1994 season.  The Cleveland Browns were the heartbeat of the Panko house, and to this day the last time Dad cried was on November 6^th, 1995 when Art Modell announced he was moving our beloved Brownies to Baltimore.  Fifty one weeks prior, we laid eyes on a most precious piece of real estate – Cleveland Municipal Stadium.  The Browns hosted the Houston Oilers (Tennessee Titans) on a snowy Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Taking in that old sanctuary of football was unbelievable, the smell of beer, tube steak, and Lake Erie air, the Dawg Pound, and the dump of a stadium.  The experience was heightened when two Browns fans lit into the head of a family of four tomahawk style with rolled up programs for not standing during the National Anthem.  That family’s situation deteriorated with coffee and beer being dumped on them and chicken bones being thrown at them.  They only lasted a quarter or so and left.  The Browns scored 17 unanswered fourth quarter points, moved to 9-3 and made the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.

The last two memories are much more recent.  Indiana High School Football is, in this opinion, not appreciated on a national level.  Twice in high school my season was ended by Cathedral.  In the two years I played them, six offensive linemen (TE included) played Division I football.  Two of them, Mathias Kiwanuka and Jeremy Trueblood now play on Sundays.  A tackle and a tight end, they played side by side for three years in high school, they both earned scholarships to Boston College.  Imagine how that double team went.  Super Bowl XLVI yielded Kiwanuka his second ring, an awesome feat for an alumnus of autumn Friday nights in Indiana.

I had a great opportunity to lift in Tom Zupancic’s “Zup’s Lift for Kids” a few times.  It was held on Blue Alley south of the RCA Dome during the tailgate.  For a Monday night game, we got the chance to hold it on Monument Circle.  In addition to the bench press, we got to deadlift an Indy Car and squat a front loader/backhoe.  We were rewarded with game tickets to Wil Wolford’s suite.  Wil is now the color man for Colts games on Emmis, but at the time he was the owner of the Louisville Fire in the Arena League.  Top to bottom, getting to lift, being treated like a VIP, and NFL games were an incredible experience.

Finally, a lot of people were excited about Clint Eastwood’s halftime commercial.   He portrayed powerful ideas and a resilient presence, but his words are flawed.  Halftime is nowhere on the celestial horizon for America.  The game has just begun and America is still winning, and because of the independent nature of entrepreneurial Americans, she will continue on her path as man’s last best hope on earth.

PANKO Strength & Speed, Proud Stewards of the American Dream

The first response on the article was that the information provided in the article was not groundbreaking.  This lends to the information versus implementation debate.  Mankind finds himself in the midst of the Information Age, and people can share any goblet of material in milliseconds with the click of a button. 

The response to the critic was simple in regards to training athletes, “the groundbreaking is not in the theory, the groundbreaking comes in the application.”  Information is more available than ever, information is given away, get on any serial entrepreneur’s website, they give all kinds of information away, but the real value lies in implementation – making the information work to benefit people, deliver products, provide services, verify exceptionalism, build wealth et al.  In the case of training athletes – its not the X’s and O’s of training it’s the way the X’s and O’s are incorporated to make athletes stronger, faster, less susceptible to injury.

Information is not the issue.  Having the drive, the wherewithal, and the cajones to act on the information is important.  Success, progress, wealth, achievement, et cetera are all based on implementation; doing not dreaming, acting, not reading the script, and success through unsuccess (FAILING).  Admittedly, if one percent in the idea’s in this head were successfully implemented the world would have its first “Former Offensive Lineman, Heavyweight, and Strongman converted Performance Coach cum Entrepreneurial Janitor and Secretary Billionaire™.”

Sadly, most individuals are too gun shy to implement.  They are perfectionists.  They are waiting for the “right time” and do not want to make a mistake.  My personal coach, Scott Manning, a disciple of Dan Kennedy uses Dan’s phrase “Good is good enough.”  Do not wait around for the “right time.”  When the right time “presents itself” it will be too late. 

Its like…

Buying a new car and being afraid of putting miles on it.  Buying new shoes and not wearing them for fear of getting them dirty.  Having a clean kitchen but not wanting to cook because of the perceived mess.

Quit being timid.  ACT.  IMPLEMENT.  ACHIEVE. 

PANKO Strength & Speed, Stewards of the American Dream

With plyometrics, the first thought that comes to mind is probably jumping. Jumping is to plyometric what Ford may be to the truck, not the only player in the game but certainly the owner of top of mind awareness. The term plyometric literally describes the change in muscle length that occurs from the deceleration and reacceleration phases of jumping. With applications of performance training ever advancing, plyometric is better replaced by the term reactive training. Reactive training is the ability to produce and absorb force. When applying the reactive portion of training, athletes need to think maximum effort concentric action following an eccentric action or phase.

An easy differentiation between concentric and eccentric

Here are the boring book definitions:

• Concentric action—the muscle shortens under tension
• Eccentric action—the muscle lengthens under tension

Here are the “definitions” for applied learners and those who learned under a bar:

• Concentric phase—produce force; accelerate(ion), gas pedal, positive, rising, up
• Eccentric phase—reduce force; decelerate(ion), brakes, negative, lowering, down

The ability of the athlete to absorb force is crucial. Before an athlete learns to produce force, he needs to learn to reduce force. Athletes should never be taught to jump without being taught to land. They should never learn acceleration until they learn deceleration, and generally speaking, they need to be able to first handle the eccentric portion (deceleration/negative/lowering/down phase) of a lift before they can master the concentric portion (acceleration/positive/rising/up phase).

A major factor in reactive training and highly violent movements is the importance of the activation of the central nervous system. Reactive training and the implementation of a reactive movement at the end of a strength movement forces the body to activate the nervous system and recruit a large amount of motor neurons to perform certain exercises. The nervous system determines the activation sequence for the movement(s), what motor units fire, in what order they fire, and how intense they fire. This is why the human body can gently pick up a tiny pencil without throwing it across the room and then go deadlift 600 lbs. It’s all about neural activity and muscle recruitment.

Reactive training can be incorporated into any exercise, movement, or lift and into any program to make any athlete more explosive. Athletes could literally perform a full jump at the top (lockout) portion of a squat or deadlift, but it is only recommended with the proper working load. The bar at the top (lockout) of a bench press can be “thrown” (more like popped) and caught. These examples may be a little extreme, but athletes do not get enough exposure to reactive training (this is a big reason why athletes are slow and have zero ability to explode) and extreme paints a solid picture and makes a crucial point.

Reactive Training

Reactive training can also be incorporated after a strength movement. The philosophy of transfer training—transferring the strength gains from core lifts to sport-specific skill sets or powerful and explosive movements—needs to be on every athlete’s list. This transfer of strength and speed to skill sets allows for an athlete to apply weight room strength to sports. For example, after a core movement (squat, deadlift, push press, and bench press variations and progressions), take a small rest period and do a reactive movement (throwing, jumping, sprinting, swings, slams, and variations and progressions) or a sport-specific skill.

The little exposure to reactive training athletes do get is typically lower body and in the form of box jumps (and probably not max effort jumps at that). Reactive training can be applied to training the upper body and can be incorporated into the anterior (front of the body) or posterior (back of the body) chain.

To make the anterior chain of the upper body more explosive, reactive training can be implemented in the form of explosive push-ups, tire battles, or any other ballistic, explosive movement at the end of a press. This will build a more explosive chest and shoulders.

To make the posterior chain of the upper body more explosive, reactive training can be implemented in the form of explosive pull-ups or any other ballistic, explosive movement at the end of a row. This will build a more explosive back and powerful grip.

Reactive training can also use both chains (anterior and posterior) in the form of battle ropes and medicine ball throws. This will also incorporate movement through the body’s three planes with rotation and energy transfer.

Reactive training can be used by the entire kinetic chain, but it also has to be progressed. This is supported by the force-velocity curve (of which the author claims no expert knowledge but rather an above average sense of application). Increased external resistance in the form of dumbbells, chains, or weighted vests can and should be used be used when athletes perform any form of reactive training—jumping, bounding, or even sprinting—to produce as much force as possible. This is supported at the midpoint of the curve where the power is the greatest because force (external weight) and velocity (movement of the weight) are about equal. At the top left of the curve, the force is too heavy and the velocity is too low (think a heavy deadlift). At the bottom right of the curve, the velocity is high, but the power output is low (a body weight jump or sprint).

Examples of using external resistance with reactive training

• Explosive pull-ups with a chain around the neck
• Wearing a weighted vest while doing explosive push-ups
• Broad jumps holdingdumbbells

Incorporating any of the above into training will lay the groundwork to make an athlete more explosive. Incorporating all of the above into training will build a better foundation that will help an athlete or coach implement a transfer portion into their training and take their game to the next level. Reactive training isn’t just for the legs. Athletes need to train their upper bodies in a reactive manner, and incorporating external resistance into the equation will make an enormous difference when it comes to power output.

The item du jour for that day was a French named exercise program that sounded more like a hygiene product than anything else.  Of course the models on TV are light years away from what the target market of this kit truly appeared to be.  As the hostess of the show rattled off the sales pitch, she continued to come back to one word – CORE.  The model was on her hands and knees – “hits the core.” The model laid on her back – “builds the core.”  This was the “ultimate core exercise(r),” and the one for the ages, “users will have a toned core.”

“Core” is the most clichéd word heard in relation to training, although its younger bastard cousin “functional” is not far behind.  Injudicious ignoramuses have been throwing the word around for almost a decade.  If not co-workers who feel intimidated by applied knowledge, execution, and implementation, then it is hens of the group exercise phylum “snoutus wenchus prima donnus” who think that having striation within the rectus abdominis (the six pack, in some weight classes an eight pack, and in others a keg) means having a stronger core than someone who can pick a lot of weight off the ground.  These are the trainers that use stability balls, whether cut in half or fully intact for everything and live and die with selectorized cable systems that move in and out and up and down.  They lose focus with bright, shiny objects, and would never dream of using a barbell.

The core is not just an aesthetic muscle.  It is anything not an arm, a leg, or a head.  The anterior portion stabilizes and transfers energy, the posterior portion acts like a crane for the human body and is the hub of all go muscles.  Having a strong core is simple but not easy, and not always fun but always effective.  Here are three secrets to having a stronger core, pull heavy weight, squat deep with a lot of weight, and press a lot of weight overhead, and for those that really want to push the limit do it all raw.  Good mornings and Romanian Deadlifts build a strong core.  Rows and pull-ups strengthen the upper posterior of the core, and tire flipping, sled pushing and keg carrying build resolve in the most important part of the core – that muscle in the chest that decides how far people are willing to do to get something they claim to desire.

A catalyst speeds up an action.  Being the coach, parent(s) of an athlete or being an athlete can be paradoxical, bewildering, and daunting regarding growth and development. There are so many opportunities for young athletes to be involved with travel teams, playing at high levels, and having the opportunity to play sports collegiately, but there are few resources to guide people along the way.  Youth sports generate $5 BILLION a year in revenues, and there are still so many questions left to be answered.  The questions revolve around getting athletes stronger, faster, less susceptible to injury, and staying stronger, faster, and less susceptible to injury. There is so much information about what should and should not be done to train for sports.  It can be difficult sifting the information.

Questions remain about preventing and coming back from injuries, strategies to implement and who to see, trust, and utilize; and where to find resources on performance-based care, which is best for athletes. There are questions about sports psychology, having the mindset of a champion, and developing mental toughness that spans the ends of the Earth so that obstacles may be overcome in pursuit of excellence.  Finally, there are questions about recruiting, getting athletes to the next level, and getting the attention of coaches who reward scholarships at the next level.  Alpha Athlete is here to answer all of those questions and many more.  The absolute best minds in the fields of sports performance training, prevention and rehabilitation of injuries, excelling with the mindset of a champion, and recruiting will advise athletes and parents each month on how they can become the ALPHA – the best.

In addition to a monthly off-line newsletter, Alpha Athlete is an Insider’s Circle of PANKO Strength & Speed.  It allows parents, coaches, and athletes ANYWHERE to learn, implement, and drive their success to new heights.  Memberships to Alpha Athlete include the following:

• Implement and progress multiple proper warm ups
• Fully activate the entire kinetic chain with proper mobility and muscle activation that will lay the foundation for fixing muscle imbalances and addressing postural deviations
• Learn the infinite progressions, movements, and overloads of conjugation that constantly keep the body in a stimulated environment.
• The ultimate movement sequence in order to make the fastest, strongest, and most powerful gains imaginable.
• The proper balance of conjugated workouts.
• Hybridization of strength training and speed training
• Theory and practical application of speed training – acceleration, deceleration, top speed, and reactive training – from proven, world class training paradigms
• Answers to questions regarding equipment
• The difference between performance and conditioning and when to implement each
• Continually making progress without succumbing to overtraining
• The incorporation of Strongman into training intervals, along with when and how to implements tires, sandbags, and sleds into the training
• Real Progression and Real Overload
• Building the Ultimate Grip
• Building UNSTOPPABLE GO muscles
• Movements that are outside of the box, paradigms that will challenge athletes like they have never been challenged before, and a monumental shift that will break free from the parody of most programs
• Training with a mindset that sets the curve for all others and creates the cutting edge
• Step up big and set the standard for SUCCESS

The Grinch story may be best suited to accompany the birth of Christ, thus making this correspondence appear to be a month late, au contraire mon frere.  He is most superlatively personified by Boris Karloff, cogitated by Thurl Ravenscroft, and nurtured by Theodore Geisel.  But a Grinch lives within us all, and he most certainly comes out in Adrian Panko during New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and the minimalist, shallow, obstinate fortnight subsequently following the fabricated barrier of a new year in which one can magically wake up, wipe the slate clean, forget everything, set resolutions, and start fresh even if that barrier takes place on a Tuesday-Wednesday calendar break.  As if no trials, tribulations, or barnyard fertilizer penetrated the crazy quandary mankind calls LIFE.

Deep breath, there is no harm in re-reading all of that to fully appreciate the beauty of the way the aforementioned was all pieced together, but also re-read it for maximum absorption.  LET IT ALL SINK IN!

Resolutions are unachieved tickles up the leg that a lazy, misguided, trite society of sheeple “set” for themselves every year.  They are timid, weak, and small-minded, and set that way on PURPOSE so that when people fail it is no big deal, they didn’t have much riding on it anyway.  At the end of every year, they are an eleven and a half month afterthought shielded with a lack of big standards, high expectations, diligent implementation, and BIG LEAGUE SUCCESS.  Resolutions need to be thrown out the door because people don’t respect themselves enough to pursue them vigilantly.  So its time to have a paradigm change… set a goal, one goal, ONE HUGE, INSANE, OVER THE TOP, COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BOX, OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE, KRAZY WITH A “K” goal and focus like a starving hunter to achieve that goal and do not let anything cross the path of life that will make that goal easy to forget, give up, and quit.  Not a list, not wishes, not want to’s, but one solid “WILL, it will be achieved.”

MAKE 2012 THE BIGGEST SUCCESS YET!

PANKO Strength & Speed, Proud Stewards of the American Dream