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Author: Craig Smith

Maximize Your Season: Structuring Endurance & Strength Training with Three Key Questions

Structuring your endurance and strength programming can make or break your training. To help clarify your training schedule, we use three key questions to correctly scaffold the program. While the typical question we hear circles around sport-specific exercises, more important questions often get missed—questions that can make or break the season and influence your performance on race day. Question 1: Are You In-Season or Off-Season? Your immediate reaction might be, “I’m not sure what the difference is.”  To clarify, our strength coach, Spencer, offers this guidance: “If you’re building up to a specific race and tapering to maximize fitness while reducing fatigue, you’re in-season. Out of season might still include races, but it’s not aimed at peak performance.” To put it succinctly, here’s how our team defines it: So, which one are you currently in? Once you know, we can get specific. If You’re In-Season: For athletes training in-season, here’s

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The 4 Reasons Exercise is Hard to Start and Maintain

Starting an exercise program usually begins with a detailed look at your goals and a plan to achieve them.  Showing up consistently is assumed. After decades in the health and wellness industry as a personal trainer, strength coach, exercise physiologist, and physical therapist, I’ve seen firsthand that the problem isn’t your goals, program structure, or knowledge of the importance of exercise. You already know regular exercise is crucial. Nor is the problem finding a place to work out, scheduling gym time, or getting the right equipment for home. The real issue is execution: showing up and doing the work.  Exercise is hard to start.  Exercise is hard to maintain. Why? There are four major reasons: Evolutionary Mismatch We did not evolve to exercise; we evolved to conserve calories Our ancestors developed in an environment with limited access to calories. The body’s ability to conserve energy allowed humans to survive periods

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The Importance of Protein Consumption for Resistance Trained Individuals

Congratulations, you’ve embarked on the journey of resistance training. As you delve into the realm of exercise, one of the first topics you will hit is to up your protein intake. Unlike a few areas that may seem superfluous, it is an important area to get the right nutrients, with protein taking center stage.  Here’s a brief overview to ensure you maximize the benefits of your training regimen through adequate protein consumption.  Amount To optimize muscle growth and recovery, aim for a protein intake ranging between 1.6 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. This can be confusing, since we do not use the metric system on a daily basis, so we will show both grams to pounds ratio and grams per kilogram of body weight.   Metric Imperial  Example kg to lbs 1 kg 2.2 lbs 180 lbs man weighs 81.6 kg g to oz 1 gram

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How to use On Demand Supplement Workouts within your normal exercise routine

At SPC, we’re excited to announce that our supplemental workouts will be available on our On Demand platform.  However, we understand that there may be a learning curve associated with incorporating these workouts into your routine.  That’s why we want to ensure you have the resources to make the most of this valuable tool for future reference. If you’re unsure about what the supplemental programs entail, we encourage you to check out our blog post, ‘ The 4 Types of SPC Supplemental Workouts.‘ We will go into each aspect of the workout, why, and when to add the supplemental workouts. Understanding the Structure: Components of a Workout A single workout, at the most simple level, should include a prep component and a workout component. But this misses other aspects that often occur at SPC. Let’s define these components first: Prep: Getting your body ready for exercise. Skill Development: Learning or

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The 4 Types of SPC Supplemental Workouts

The foundation of our programming is the strength workout. Building upon this foundation using a progressive overload approach is essential for long-term strength and fitness gains. Incorporating supplemental workouts can provide variety, target specific muscle groups and movement patterns, develop new skills, and enhance overall fitness and performance. Supplemental workouts can serve various purposes, such as addressing weaknesses, improving mobility, treating recurrent injuries, reducing risk for falls or simply adding diversity to training. They include exercises like mobility drills, corrective exercises, accessory movements, and conditioning work. By integrating supplemental workouts into your programming, you create a more well-rounded and balanced training regimen. This approach not only helps to prevent boredom and plateaus but also allows for continuous improvement and adaptation over time. We want to review the types of supplemental workouts in this article. The 4 types of supplemental workouts We have 4 types of supplemental workouts: We will explain

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What is the difference between Phase 3: Activity Progression and Phase 4: Exercise, Maintenance, and Monitoring?

Welcome to the transition zone—phase 3 to phase 4—at Smith Performance Center. This shift marks an important move from rehabilitation to performance. We’re committed to ensuring that our community doesn’t get stuck in a permanent rehab mindset. The switch from rehab mode to peak performance mode can pose challenges, demanding careful consideration and expert guidance. Phase 3 is all about building up tissue capacity, gradually ramping up activity levels, and prioritizing overall well-being. It involves strengthening muscles, alleviating muscle inhibition, closely monitoring responses to increased activity, and addressing any lingering issues stemming from previous inactivity. Essentially, it’s about improving tissue capacity while laying down a solid foundation for what comes next. In contrast, phase 4 signifies a fresh chapter, with a focus on establishing a consistent exercise routine and raising the bar for performance standards. Our goal here isn’t just to ‘move’ but to instill a long-term commitment to fitness

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Physical Therapy Tucson

The 10 Strategy Mistakes of Repetitive Injury When Exercising

Do you want to get back to exercise but keep on getting hurt? The merry-go-round misery of a repeatedly injured exerciser is a common complaint at Smith Performance Center. When someone shows up, our physical therapists listen to a series of injuries that seem to occur every time they get into a workout routine. The exerciser finishes rehab and heads back to their respective sport. The first few days go well, but inevitably the same problem comes back. In our clients’ minds, their body has lost the ability to stay healthy. They believe age is driving the problem, or the joints are shot. They think the activity they choose to do is too vigorous and must be replaced.  These are not the problem.   The cycle of repetitive injury is a strategic mistake. Returning to activity with a strategy We believe in a process called the SPC Phases. A phase at

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11 Reasons Personal Training With Our Strength Coaches Is The Right Choice For You

Maintaining an active lifestyle is complicated in modern society.  Overall activity is declining with technological advances; we now opt for vehicles instead of walking, and jobs often entail prolonged sitting. Balancing work commitments often makes planned exercise challenging. Beyond these barriers, uncertainties about suitable exercises, a distaste for workouts, or recurring injuries like back problems or arthritic joints hinder consistent physical activity. The consequences become apparent over time.  You wake up one morning feeling older; simple movements like squatting or getting up from the ground seem arduous. Attempts at workout routines result in significant soreness, leading to extended breaks. Returning to these routines becomes daunting, with barriers preventing a fresh start. But having someone to assist you with exercise isn’t silly; it’s crucial. Exercise ranks as the number one habit for improving your lifespan and overall health. However, consistency is key. Without regularity, the benefits diminish. To help overcome these

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Smith Performance Center Tucson

The 7 Home Plan Mistakes Ruining Your Progress in Physical Therapy

Not all home plans are made the same. Home plans are therapeutic exercise lists that undergird your journey in physical therapy. Unfortunately, home plans can stall your progress. This happens for a variety of reasons –  the home plan becomes an afterthought to your care, the physical therapist is overloaded with clients, the overuse of assistants, or too much of an emphasis on what is done to you by the practitioner versus what you can learn to do yourself.   We see each of these situations when reviewing the histories of new clients with long-term injuries. The home plan is a critical component of your rehab plan in physical therapy. Our team regularly helps new clients who have been doing the same home plan from physical therapy for years which is not helping. This includes obvious mistakes like stretching an irritated nerve, overloading a painful joint with weight-bearing exercise, or making

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