LEO Training: Strength & Conditioning | Endurance | Health | Performance | Injury Prevention | Joe DeLeo

Phil White - Unplugged

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In Episode #107 of the LEO Training Podcast, I interview Phil White.

Phil is an emmy-nominated writer and has co-authored the books UnPlugged, Waterman 2.0, and Game Changer with Fergus Connolly. He is also a frequent contributor to The Inertia and SUP the Mag.

Unplugged will teach the reader the following:

Reading Unplugged will enable you to: • Understand both the value and the limitations of technology in athletic performance, fitness, health, and lifestyle situations • Know how and when to utilize physical activity technologies in your everyday life—and when not to • Avoid the common mistakes that most people make with wearables and tracking apps • Understand which technologies and tests are most effective and which are a waste of money

And much more!

Interview Topics:

• Why is overdependence on fitness a problem?
• Importance of self-regulation of training intensity and volume using wearable technology
• The cost of "plugging in"
• Why it is important to engineer discomfort in your life?
• Top negative behaviors from technology
• and more!

Show Notes:

• Phil White
• Brian Mackenzie
• Dr. Andy Galpin
• Unplugged Book

Get Connected Workshop | The 3 Pillars of Training

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In Episode #107 of the LEO Training Podcast, I interview Erin Cafaro Mackenzie and Kylie Tullipan.

I've teamed up with these two amazing coaches to offer an upcoming workshop for youth rowers that will take place in El Segundo, CA July 20-21.

Erin, Kylie, and myself sit down and discuss the idea behind the Get Connected Workshop.

Register Today for the Get Connected Workshop!

Interview Topics:

• The 3 Pillars of Training
  • Performance
  • Mindset
  • Skill
• What Erin learned from Dr. Kelly Starrett
• Why bodyweight movements are a key foundational piece to health and performance
• Learning tools that will help you excel in sport and life
• Why you should do the one thing that everyone else is not doing.

Show Notes:

• Get Connected Workshop

Liz Fusco - Rowing Nutrition Principles

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In Episode #106 of the LEO Training Podcast, I interview Liz Fusco MS, RDN, Sports Performance Dietician for USRowing and Wellness Editor for SCAN Nutrition DPG.

Liz received her Bachelors in Dietetics with a minor in Kinesiology at the University of Rhode Island in 2011. While at URI, she assisted with nutrition, exercise, and eating rate research. After a teaching assistantship in her mentor's sport nutrition course, she was determined to pursue sport dietetics as a career. While pursuing her master's degrees in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition Science at San Diego State University, Liz began an assistantship at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center in 2012. She worked primarily with Rugby, field hockey, volleyball, water polo, and canoe-kayak, along with launching the @Nutr4TeamUSA twitter, writing recipes, publishing articles, contributing to protocol papers, and working in the dining hall. At SDSU, she taught food science and conducted sponsored research on carbohydrate metabolism.

After graduating from SDSU in May 2014, she completed her dietetic internship at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX. She returned to the Olympic Training Center in April 2014 as a sport nutrition consultant to rowing, track cycling, BMX, triathlon, archery, and rugby. Liz was hired as a full time staff member of USRowing after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Liz likes to make all aspects of sport nutrition as practical and approachable as possible. Her goal is to show her athletes that healthy eating can be simple, delicious, and performance enhancing!

Interview Topics:

• Part 1 - Education and Experience|
• Part 2 - Diet and Nutrition 101 for Rowers
  • General principles and guidelines all rowers can follow
    • Best practices for fueling before and after practice
    • How to approach travel
    • Effects of airplane travel on hydration
    • Effects of changing time zones
• Part 3 - Getting Light(weight)
  • General principles and guidelines lightweight rowers can follow
    • Any differences/recommendations for lightweight rowers on above questions
    • How to safely and effectively approach cutting weight
    • How to identify and make sure you are getting the proper macronutrient balance in your diet
    • Differences for junior, college, elite or master lightweights? Men vs. women?
    • Any warning signs athletes should be aware of to make sure they are not underfueled/underhydrated?
    • Any concerns about women/men having kids later in life or adverse health effects?
    • How do you coach work with the lightweights vs. heavyweights? Are the energy demands different?
    • Overnight loss and day to day hydration
    • Strategies and tactics

Show Notes:

• Fueling Up for Practice and Racing
• Serving Olympic Fuel is Liz Fusco's Dream Job
• US Rowing Profile
• Instagram
• Twitter

Meghan Musnicki is a two time Olympic Gold Medalist and 5x World Champion with the United States Rowing Team. Meghan shares her journey as a two sport athlete in basketball and soccer in middle school and high school to a walk on at Ithaca College.

Over the course of Meghan's career in rowing she experienced a lot of success and made it to the podium as a key member of the Women's Eight. However, what you will learn most about in this candid interview is the adversity and perseverance of overcoming failure and being cut from the team - more than once.

An excellent interview that provides insight into the challenges we face in sport and life.

Interview Topics:

• How did playing basketball and soccer prepare you for rowing?
• Racing/Rowing on US Team
  • Transition from College to US Team and making your first worlds team and being part of a historic run from 2010-2016.
  • From Riverside to Virginia to US Training Center and experience of being cut and picking yourself up again and again to move forward and propel yourself to success.
  • Let's Discuss the "shift in momentum" during a race that you describe in your article "What You Don't Know About Rowing"
  • What it means to "Dream Bigger, Fail Forward, and Live with Intent"
• What do you recommend young junior athletes (high school) focus on for athletic development?
• Should we specialize in sport early or play multiple sports?
• Transition from full time athlete to full time coach and what you are currently doing
• Questions from the audience…

Show Notes:

• Meghan Musnicki
• The Players Tribune "What You Don't Know About Rowing"
• US Rowing Profile
• World Rowing Profile
• Instagram
• Twitter

LT 104 | Aquil Abdullah - A Midweight's Journey Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Aquil H. Abdullah won four letters in men's rowing at GW from 1992-96. Aquil narrowly missed qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at Sydney by .33 of a second. After losing in the 2000 Olympic Trials, Abdullah considered retiring from the sport. Instead, he resumed training, competed again and won the elite Diamond Sculls race at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta at Henley-on-the Thames in London in 2000. He continued to train in the lead up to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and would compete in the Men's Double Scull event with Henry Nuzum. so.and in 2004 became the first African American man on the United States Olympic rowing team.

Abdullah, the second men's rower elected to the University's Athletic Hall of Fame, came to GW from nearby Wilson High School in Northwest Washington after starring as a 6-foot-1, 185-pound wide receiver on the Wilson football team. But he had started rowing as a high school senior and in 1992 accepted a rowing scholarship at George Washington where he majored in physics.

Interview Topics:

• How Aquil came to the sport of rowing from football
• The challenges that Aquil faced during his collegiate and international rowing career
• How he transitioned from GW to the US National Team
• Why he chose the 1x and sculling over sweep boats.
• The importance of being very technically strong as a midweight rower competing against bigger and stronger athletes
• The impact the sport of rowing has had on his life

Show Notes:

• Aquil Abdullah (Wikipedia)
• GW Hall of Fame
• World Rowing Profile
• US Rowing Athlete Past and Present

LT 103 | Michael Ranfone - Build Athletes. Make Monsters. Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Biography

Michael Ranfone BS, CSCS, LMT, FRC, ART is the founder and president of Ranfone Training Systems located in Hamden, Connecticut. For the past decade he's dedicated himself to improving athletes as a performance coach and manual therapist.

Mike graduated Cum Laude from Union College with degrees in Economics and Psychology—earning recognition in the National Honor Society of each discipline. While at Union, Mike excelled on the football field—he was a four-year letter winner, three-year all-league and all-league academic starter. He served as a captain during his senior campaign. His football career culminated in several tryouts for Arena and Canadian Football League teams.

He started his professional career at Yale—serving as the Strength and Conditioning coordinator for more than 500 Division I athletes. In 2005 he returned to school and incorporated Ranfone Training Systems. Since then, he's coached and treated thousands of athletes—while also consulting with professional and collegiate sports teams.

Mike's given performance enhancement lectures at private venues and universities across the United States—focusing on strength and movement improvement. He's a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) as recognized by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, a Licensed Massage Therapist in Connecticut, a Level 2 Functional Movement Specialist, as well as the only Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist and Functional Range Release practitioner in Connecticut and is a certified practitioner in Active Release Therapy (ART) among other specialized techniques.

Interview Topics:

• Athletic Development
• Strategies to teach and scale to kids in groups/classes of 5-10
• How do you address all the qualities for athleticism in 60 minutes?
• "Play is merely exercise in disguise."
• Using the appropriate stress dosage to enhance fundamental qualities
• How sport and training helps to teach today's youth work ethic, discipline, responsibility, and how to socialize

Show Notes:

• Ranfone Training Systems (Website)
• Ranfone Training (Instagram)
• Ranfone Training (Facebook)

LT 102 | Brett Bartholomew - The Art of Coaching Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Biography Brett Bartholomew is a strength and conditioning coach, author, adjunct professor, and Founder of the performance coaching and consulting company, The Bridge Human Performance® as well as the coach education platform ArtOfCoaching.com. His experience includes working with athletes both in the team environment and private sector along with members of the United States Special Forces and members of Fortune 500 companies. Taken together, Brett has coached a diverse range of athletes from across 23 sports world-wide, at levels ranging from youth athletes to Olympians. He's supported numerous Super Bowl and World Series Champions, along with several professional fighters in both professional boxing as well as the UFC. From a philanthropic standpoint, Brett serves as the Vice President for the non-profit organization Movement2Be, which serves youth in underprivileged communities through helping them learn more about physical activity. His book, Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In (Amazon), achieved "Best Seller" status in the categories of "Sport Coaching" (#1), "Business/Money" (#8) ,and was ranked in the "Amazon Top 100 Books Overall" in 2017. It is currently being used by several universities as source material used to help guide future coaches and professionals. Be sure to check out Brett's brand new online course

Interview Topics:

• P. 88 Why is conflict management and not conflict itself usually the problem and what tools can coaches employ to strengthen this skill set?
• P. 96 How did you come up with the idea to group athlete personalities into archetypes and have you personally coached each archetype profile? What's been the most challenging? The most fun?
• P. 220 | 13 Coaching Mistakes to Avoid | Which mistakes do you see young coaches make most often?
• 5/1/18, 11:27 PM "Training great athletes does not automatically make you a great coach. Too many undervalue working with novices, youth and those that are challenged in a myriad of other ways. True experience comes from exposure that is multifaceted." - Brett Bartholomew | Twitter
• What led you to create the "Art of Coaching" online course? How is this different than what is currently out there and how will it helps coaches become better at their craft?
• More on the new course Bought In

Show Notes:

• The Art of Coaching
• Brett Bartholomew
• Art of Coaching Slide Deck
• Conscious Coaching (The Book)
• Conscious Coaching Field Guide
• Bridge Human Performance

LT 101 | Jim Joy - Finding Flow in Rowing Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

My guest for this episode of the LEO Training Podcast is Jim Joy.

Jim Joy has coached at the University of Western Ontario, M.I.T, Yale University and Wesleyan University, and Hobart and William Smith. Jim also helped start Craftsbury Sculling Camp, the first rowing camp of its kind in North America.

Jim founded and has run the Joy of Sculling coaching conferences, for more than 25 years. This conference has drawn more than 5,000 coaches from youth programs, clubs, schools, colleges and national teams across the country and is focused on education and athletic development in rowing.

Jim is well known for his holistic and technical approach to a cyclical non-fragmented rowing stroke, where there is a strong bond between body, shell and water, creating a state of flow within an integrated whole.

It is this approach to the rowing stroke where our interview will focus its attention toward.

Here are 3 things you will learn:

• What are the primers for visualization?
• Why a complete training program should include time for mental training
• Jim will provide some tools on how you can find flow during your own rowing

Topics:

• Jim's roots in rowing and how he got started
• Bob Fitzpatrick, Bob Pierce, and Steve Fairbairn
• Focus on precision of movement and skill development
• The primers of visualization
• Different types of simulation exercises
• and much more!

Show Notes:

• Joy of Sculling
• Jim Joy's US Rowing Medal of Honor Acceptance Speech

LT 100 | Dr. Carlo Varalda - Evaluating Movement & Power in Rowers Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

This week's guest is Dr. Carlo Varalda. Dr. Varalda is the Executive Director of NSCA Italy. He has worked with the Italian Rowing Federation and currently is working with the Italian Short Track Team in preparation for the Winter Olympics. His work focuses on research for the improvement of performance and methods for the assessment of athletes. He evaluates muscle, posture, and function. Dr. Varalda is convinced that there is still a lot to do in the sport and, more generally, in the movement for all age groups.

Interview Topics & Questions:

• Carlo's Education and Background (who you have worked with)
• Movement Screening for Rowers | What do you evaluate and why?
• How does the evaluation effect their cardiovascular training (rowing,erg) and strength training?
• Has the data you have gathered from evaluations allowed you to reduce injuries and improve performance?

Show Notes:

• Carlo Varalda Website
• Functional & Postural Assessment and Prescribed Exercise for Rowers

LT 099 | Dr. Stuart McGill & Brian Carroll - The Gift of Injury Subscribe & Review on : Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

This week's podcast features two return guests: Dr. Stuart McGill and Brian Carroll.

Dr. Stuart M. McGill is a professor emeritus of the University of Waterloo, where he was a professor for 32 years. His laboratory and experimental research clinic investigated issues related to the causal mechanisms of back pain, how to rehabilitate back-pained people and enhance both injury resilience and performance.

Brian Carroll is world class powerlifter with over a decade of elite class lifting under his belt. Coming back from a devastating back injury in 2012 that broke multiple bones and that most experts said he would never recover from, Brian returned to world class form and was able to establish a new world record for the squat at 1185 pounds all after his back injury.

This interview tells the story of Brian's injury and his journey back to health and elite performance with the help of Dr. McGill.

Here are 3 things you will learn from this interview:

• The importance of being an athlete 24/7
• What's one piece of advice you both would give to our youth to better prepare them to strength train?
• The value of assistance work

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Gift of Injury you can find it on Amazon.com, Powerrackstrength.com and BackFitPro.com and I will also include those links in the show notes.

Interview Topics and Questions:

Brian and Dr. McGill

• Who came up with the title "The Gift of Injury" and what's the meaning for each of you behind this title?
• What does being an athlete 24/7 mean?
• What's one piece of advice you both would give to our youth to better prepare them to strength train?
• Regardless of sport, why is it important to only compete at competitions a few times a year?
• What do we need to do to change the mindset of chasing reps and adding weight? This is not a mindset that athletes intuitively possess.

Brian

• What does it mean to "Practice the way we plan to compete." and to "approach every lift with intent and meaning".
• The value and importance of assistance work. What do you look for when coaching an athlete and how to select the appropriate exercise.
• Your decision to retire and over the next several years lower your body weight.

Dr. McGill

• Why "knee to chest" stretches and rolling around | use of a foam roller are not good for the back or performance?
• How the Big Three provides a stiffening, bracing effect for several hours after performing them reduces micro movements.
• Bone callousing: quick explanation of theory and how this was a key part of Brian's rehab

Show Notes:

• BackFitPro.com
• PowerRackStrength.com
• Gift of Injury
• McGill Pull Up with Maximal Neural Drive
• How the Great Ones Hold Onto Their Careers
• Thoracic Mobility Drill