All or Nothing
Finding Middle Ground It’s Sunday night and you reflect on all the poor eating choices you made over the weekend. You vow to be incredibly strict and meticulous with your diet and exercise plan this week. Monday: You wake up at 5:00am to hit the gym, and eat egg whites, ground turkey, and asparagus. Boom! […]
Environment = Goals
Change Your Environment to Match Your Goals Your environment encompasses all of the spaces you spend your time, such as your home, car, and office. The best way to start changing your habits are to take control of your environment. When you examine all of these spaces ask yourself: Is my environment helping or hindering […]
On and "Off" Day
Do These Things On Your Off Days Every good training program has rest days. When you find yourself on an off day, here are three things that you can do to maximize your recovery so you are ready for the next day of training. Myofascial Release. Big fancy term for rolling out. Rolling out is […]
Pain Face
Going To The Dark Place The Dark Place. Where you feel searing pain. Where doubts fill your mind. Where you want to give up. Where your knees buckle. Where your lungs bleed. Where you can’t breath. Where you want to cry. I haven’t experienced the dark place very often as an athlete. It’s scary, […]
All about Protein
Which Protein do I need?! Protein powder is everywhere!! You can seemingly find endless companies that sell different types of protein powder. Among these may be Casein Protein, Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Egg Protein, and Plant-based protein. Let’s dive in to the protein powder to see which one does what so you can […]
I've been called lots of names…
I’ve gone by many names in my lifetime—Brock, Brocolli, Brocker. Recently, I began answering to a new title. I packed a bag with a change of clothes and shipped out to Ft. Benning, GA for Army basic training. From May to late August I wasn’t ever called Broccoli—just “Private Crystal.” […]
Self-Talk Affirmations
Gary Mark, author of “Mind Gym,” explains that “We all have conversations going on inside our heads. I call it self-talk. Every athlete hears two competing voices. One is a negative critic, and the other is a positive coach. Which voice we listen to is a matter of choice.” What voice do you listen to? […]
The Ups & Downs of Floor Press
Why do we Floor Press? Like the bench press, the floor press is a pure upper body movement. When you floor press, you are not able to drive your legs like you can on the bench press. This forces you to use maximum effort on the upper body muscles, mainly the pectorals, triceps and shoulders. […]
Your Mental Game
Your Mental Game Genna Smith and I recently attended a Sport Phycology Seminar, presented by Mike Caruso, Pro-Strongman competitor. Here are the ‘knowledge nuggets’ from that seminar. The brain is a muscle – if you work this muscle it will improve and grow. Tommy Kono, an American Weightlifter, developed a model to successful weightlifting, where […]
Should I take Creatine?
Creatine is not just a fitness supplement. It is found naturally in our body, and is also contained in meats and fish! There are many different types of creatine on the market, created by many different companies. The most tried and true type is Creatine Monohydrate. Not only is it the most used, most common, […]
