Tune in to the segment recap from Episode 4, Build A Foundation that Keeps You Coming Back! Brad highlights the importance of restoring mobility and stability to optimize loading capacity. This is a foundational focal point for any programming and is not just for beginners.

Tune in as Brad shares a compilation of high influencers as they speak about doing, planning, and pushing forward. He speaks about the importance of taking inventory of your life and taking the time to write your goals down and also write the commitments to those goals. This episode finishes off with a message about not playing the victim from the “Hip Hop Preacher” aka Eric Thomas. No one is going to push you harder than you! If you aren’t helping others grow there is a good chance it’s because you aren’t growing yourself! Discipline and consistency with a regular exercise or training routine can help you to become more multi-dimensional in several areas of your life. Let’s start taking action everyone!

The Quick Clip Recap of the Week comes from episode 6: What You Do Outside of Training Time is Equally Important to Your Results. The highlighted segment emphasizes the importance of sleep and how it can affect your training and performance as well as 10 tips to get a better night sleep.

In today's Episode Brad speaks about the 5 zones of Target Heart Rate Training and how you can progress through each one depending on where you are currently with your individual fitness and overall health. He encourages those who have not worked out in a while to get medical clearance first for a couple different reasons. One to clear any risks and two to establish some baseline data points that you can continue to monitor over a 6 month period (lab pulls,vitals, etc).

Brad speaks about his journey to reintroducing running into his overall training program to address the gaps in his programming and more directly address his cardiovascular limitations. He is 6 weeks in to a 3x/wk, 30 min run, at 160 bpm average and has never felt better! He has seen his resting heart rate go from 60 bpm 6 weeks ago to 54 bpm and he is showing more sound sleep through his FitBit data each night which is helping him to wake up feeling more rested! He plans to stay at this same level until he can do the same distance/time with a heart rate intensity that is closer to 150bpm showing adaptation over time.

He speaks about the Karvonen Formula which is a way to use your max heart rate and resting heart and plug in a % of intensity to reach a target heart rate zone range. The scientific evidence points to 50-80% for optimal health benefits and the least amount of risk.

Example of how to find out your Target Heart Rate Range when Considering 50-80% Intensity.

Brad's Individual Example:

Max Heart Rate= 220- Age(35)= 185bpm

Resting Heart Rate: 54 bpm

Karvonen Formula:

(Max Hr-Resting HR) x %Intensity + Resting HR= Target Heart Rate

185-54= 131 x.50=78.6+54= 119.5bpm

185-54=131 x.80=158.8bpm

So to get optimal benefits, Brad’s Heart Rate would need to be between 119.5bpm-158.8bpm.

Zone1 (Grey Zone): 50-60% Target Heart Rate Intensity

Zone2 (Blue Zone): 60-70% Target Heart Rate Intensity

Zone3 (Green Zone):70-80% Target Heart Rate Intensity

Zone4 (Yellow Zone): 80-90% Target Heart Rate Intensity

Zone5(Red Zone): 90%+ Target Heart Rate Intensity

Action Tip:

-For beginners start at zone 1 and perform 2-3x/wk for a few weeks and track your progress with your resting heart rate over time. With increased capacity comes a reduced resting heart rate.

-For Intermediate or Advanced Exercisers: Leverage Zone 1 and Zone 2 workouts as active recovery days to help you in between your higher intensity days or higher resistance training days (anaerobic focus).

The Science has the most evidence for optimal health benefits when considering 30-45 minute duration within the 50-80% target heart rate zones. The closer to 80% range will burn more calories, increased cardiac/respiratory capacity, improve cholesterol, and blood pressure. Lower ranges of target heart rate range will still give you similar health benefits but won't afford as much calorie burn and increase in cardiac/respiratory capacity.

Enjoy putting this simple principle to practice and watch your health gains improve progressively over time!

Tune in for this quick segment recap of the 1st episode, How to Become a SportSquire. Brad also highlights this Thursdays segment: The Benefits of Training Within Your Target Heart Rate Range. If you are interested in being added to the SportSquire Newsletter email “SportSquire” to [email protected]. Match your knowledge with your ACTION!

Today's Episode features Assistant Athletic Director at Purdue University, Peyton Stovall. Peyton is a hall of fame basketball player at Ball State University where he was captain and a starter for his 5 year tenure from 2003-2008. He suffered 2 ACL tears during his collegiate career. His first ACL tear happened at the end of his sophomore season where he was having a breakout year averaging 17points per game and was a Mid-American Conference leader in points, assists/steals and three pointers. He ended up as Ball State's 9th all time leading scorer (1,383 points). He started 113 games out of 120 games completing his career as 2nd in all time minutes played in Ball State history (3,870) and also 2nd in three pointers made (163). He ranks 6th in assists and steals (163) in the program's history upon graduation.

Brad and Peyton played on the same high school AAU Basketball Team, Billy Shepherd Sports out of Indianapolis, and reminisced on the glory days when they beat the Atlanta Celtics in the Las Vegas BIG TIME Tournament who had 5 future NBA players in the starting line up to include Dwight Howard, Brandon Rush, Josh Smith, Javaris Crittenton, and Randolph Morris. Peyton had a breakout game and Brad shares Peyton's social media post he shared in March of 2020 when remembering and looking back on that specific game. A lot of smiles and laughs for sure!

Brad inquires about Peyton's relationship with high school teammate, Purdue Football alum, and NFL star Dustin Keller growing up. He asks about their relationship and how they both were there for each other when they both suffered devastating injuries during their playing careers. Peyton elaborates that through his journey of being a high school Athletic Director in his previous role, he always encouraged athletes to play multiple sports to avoid overtraining of certain muscles/movements and help to reduce injury.

Fast forwarding to today, Peyton serves as Assistant Athletic Director at Purdue University and is in charge of student-athlete development. He speaks about how he leverages his experiences as an athlete and his unique vantage point of persevering through adversity with his two knee injuries. He enjoys giving others a platform to have a voice and fosters inclusion in his team role at Purdue. Sounds very similar to his days as a successful point guard!

This is an interview that highlights perseverance and leadership! Tune in and be inspired by Peyton's story!

A lot of us focus on our goals and look at our training programs and think that simply executing those plans is going to get us to where we need to be. On today’s episode I want to highlight some pivotal areas that with focus, can enhance your training gains.

Focusing on these 6 areas can make a big difference in supporting your every day life outside of training: 

1.) Mental/Spiritual: Need to tend to this side to ensure your WHY and purpose are aligned. Brad plays a clip from ESPN's Training Days with Nick Saban and Kobe Bryant. Kobe speaks about how younger players in the NBA tend to be concerned on the end result of things instead of learning to enjoy the process and the journey. "You've got to fall in love with the grind and enjoy putting the puzzle together every single day". Saban says "everybody wants to be a beast, but not everybody wants to do what the beasts do". 

2.) Addressing Sleep Quality

What are the affects of sleep deprivation on athletic performance?

1.) Slower muscle recovery

2.) Changes in mood

3.) Increase level of stress hormones, including cortisol

4.) Decreased aerobic endurance/Decreased glycogen synthesis.

5.) Increased ratings of perceived exertion

What are some proactive ways in which you could get better sleep?

The American Cancer Society wrote a blog on 10 recommended tips for a good night sleep:

1.) Go to sleep at the same time each night, and get up at the same time each morning, even on the weekends.

2.) Dont take naps after 3pm, and don’t nap longer than 20 minutes.

3.) Stay away from caffeine and alcohol late in the day.

4.) Avoid nicotine completely.

5.) Get regular exercise, but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime.

6.) Don’t eat a heavy meal late in the day. A light snack before bedtime is ok.

7.) Make your bedroom comfortable, dark, quiet, and not too warm or cold.

8.) Follow a routine to help you relax before sleep (for example, reading or listening to music). Turn off the TV and other screens at least an hour before bedtime.

9.) Don’t lie in bed awake. If you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, do something calming until you feel sleepy, like reading or listening to soft music.

10.) Talk with a doctor if you continue to have trouble sleeping.

3.) Nutrition: having a diet that has well rounded nutrient density is very important to baseline health, recovery, mental wellness, and creating building blocks for growth. Brad speaks in broad terms to a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, long acting/complex carbohydrates, and low amounts of saturated fat. 

4.) Hydration: proper hydration can be a game changer. Brad speaks to dehydration and tips to help you stay away from a hydration deficit. 

5.) Activity Levels Throughout The Day: Take a deep dive into prolonged sitting throughout the day and importance of consecutive movements throughout the day to break up blocks of stagnation that can lead to health issues and musculoskeletal imbalance. 

6.) Plan and Prepare to Win: You have to visualize yourself winning. Fill your mind with encouragement to help you stay inspired on your journey. Prepare for your training the night before by laying out clothes, meal prep, being prompt with scheduled time for workout to ensure you are on task with your other daily responsibilities. Fall in love with the grind and the journey and don't concern yourself with end results!!

Why do Systems work? 

1.) Eliminates randomness in training. Without structure it is harder to make linear gains. 

2.) Creates a level of focus and planning to avoid hitting a dead end. 

3.) Systems account for putting 1st things 1st. 

4.) Systems involve a comprehensive oversight and thoughtful planning that hits all areas of wellness/performance and addresses mobility, strength, function, speed, agility, and allow granular parts of any one individuals musculoskeletal/neuromuscular/cardiovascular needs. Reducing imbalances and planning progressive loading and movement can prepare the body and reduce injuries secondary to adaptation to movement and loading capacity. Failure in movement and loading capacity leads to injuries. 

4.) Systems create accountability and repetition strengthens and confirms. Allow for progress tracking and creates a list of pre-requisites prior to hitting advanced training programming. 

Systematic framework and principles allow individuals and groups of people (Athletes/teams) to have a sense of direction and structure that sets up success in training. Brad mentions the long tenure of Nebraska strength program legend Boyd Epley, who had a 40 year tenure with Nebraska Football and Athletics and was a pioneer in strength and conditioning periodization and systems approach. 

Brad also speaks to a story and conversation he had with the head Athletic Trainer of the San Antonio Spurs and how their preventative rehab program redefined how pro sports teams look at "Prehab". 

Take into consideration how you feel within a training program, but don't let that dictate the system that you find fundamentally sound from a programming standpoint. This is the whole basis of the episode is to allow positive adaptations to happen through a system rather than letting the individual dictate programming once all things have been considered. Systems are thoughtful and comprehensive. This is why this is the Gold Standard for training.

Too often individuals jump into certain training programs without attention to the most foundational focal points like mobility, activation of important muscle groups through their full range of motion, stability, and translation of how they will progress to more functional based exercises that will make an impact on their everyday potential. We frequently jump straight to loading with little respect for the neuromuscular adaptations that happen during the first 4-6 weeks of any program. Brad lays out how resting spinal posture can be a great assessment tool for mobility, activation, and endurance of anti-gravity postural muscles that are responsible for unloading your spine. He speaks to a 3 step assessment to describe how you can be more aware of the 3 transitions of your spine and how you can influence these areas to better influence a solid foundation. Stripping down your training program to restore optimal mobility, stability, strength are paramount to allowing individuals to have a strong neuromuscular base that can be progressively loaded. This concept will allow for minimizations of compensation and achievement of maximal capacity. If you listen to the end of the episode Brad speaks to a free 6 week PDF that addresses the very concepts he speaks about during this episode! Don’t be normal, be a SportSquire!

Brad will give a quick overview of the first three episodes and give a teaser for the next three episodes including three additional segments/interviews with inspiring difference makers! Don’t miss this episode to get you primed in the right mindset to push toward your higher personal wellness goals! If you wish to get on the SportSquire Newsletter that will be sent on a monthly basis with helpful wellness and movement tips then email Brad’s personal email at [email protected] with the Title “SportSquire”. Don’t be normal, be a SportSquire!