Iron Dog Fitness by Orozco

Exercising Without Equipment

by Damien ‘Adrian’ Orozco

 ( continued from home page )

One of the best things about using a bench to rest your legs on as you perform crunches is that it allows you to disengage your hip flexors so that your abdominal muscles are doing all the work by forcing you to keep your lower back on the ground.  Some people feel back pain when they perform crunches because their back starts to spasm but most of the time the real reason is that the Iliopsoas muscle is pulling on the lumbar vertebrae.  So keep in mind that if you want to perform a crunch try to keep your lower back firmly pressed into the ground by rotating your pelvis toward you and drawing in your belly button toward your spine.  Hold the describe position and then start flexing at the abdominals.  Another simple thing you can do is place your fingers under your lower back and try to maintain pressure on your fingers the entire time.  The moment you feel that you release this pressure try and see if you can re-apply it and if you can’t it probably means your abdominals are to tired.  Rest and repeat again after about 10 – 15 seconds.  You can start with one set of 8 – 12 reps of each exercise and build up to 3 sets of 12 reps.  When this becomes easy it’s time to move on to something more advanced.  You can make push-ups more challenging by pushing up of the ground as fast as possible and then lowering your weight as slow as possible immediately after.  You can make crunches harder by raising your legs straight up and trying to reach with your fingers toward your toes and when this becomes easy you can add some weight to your hands.  For more free exercise tips go to www.irondogfitness.com.  You may also contact me directly by e-mail: damien@irondogfintess.com or by calling (323)972-4487 for a FREE CONSULTATION.

Olympic Weight Lifting and Why It's Better Than Bodybuilding Workouts for Athletes

Sports performance has become a billion dollar industry.  While many training methods exist a lot of programs still focus on body building methods ever since the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's hard for athletes not to want to do this type of training consdering the physically appeasing benefits that can be achieved by a discplined lifter.  Many coaches still use this as the way of training athletes because bodybuilding has been around so long and it's thought that if you look fit than you must be fit. Unfortuneatly it is not true that if you look the part you must be it. 

Bodybuilding focuses on isolating muscles and working them on seperate days as you advance in you fitness levels.  The problems with that time of training is that the muscles are trained in slow fashion and most sports require you to move fast.  Football requires speed, skill and power as does baseball, basketball and so forth.  It is well known in athletics that a slow athlete is a bad athlete and won't achieve much as the common saying is 'speed kills'. 

Olympic Weight Lifting teaches many skills and attributes required from athletes by their coaches.  This type of lifting requires an athlete to have both physical and mental skills as well as psychological strength.  Being timid and slow has no place in athletics.  Olympic Weightlifting requires you to be strong, powerful, flexible and mentally tuff. Any leaks in an athletes skill can easily be manipulated in sports.  A perfect example of this is again football.  Great coaches in the football industry seek to find the weaknesses of the other team.  They look to see who is slow, lacks skill or is weak just to mention a few.

A perfect example of the many benefits achieved and required by Olympic Weightlifting is seen in the bottom position of the final stage of the Snatch. Here senior high school athlete of the Mustangs, Genaro Torres (#78 OL ) can be seen carrying 135 pounds overhead. He demonstrates both skill and most important the flexibility neccessary along with the strength and power needed to hold this position before he can stand and drop the weight. 

Although me and Torres have had several discussions regarding bodybuilding and olympic weightlifting he has always been willing to learn and show case his abilities. He understands that more important than how much you lift is how you lift and that a willingness to learn will only make him a better athlete.  Like any other athlete he gets frustrated when he doesn't get something right but he understands that it is a part of the process. 

Olympic Weightlifting demands that an athlete learn Newton's Third Law of Motion which is 'to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction'.  Verkhoshansky described Power as strength speed and speed strength.  A sprinter knows this concept as he knows that he or she must be able to explode out of the blocks which requires speed strength and his ability to gain speed requires strength speed.  A slow start of the blocks will leave a sprinter behind but his strength speed might give the same individual another chance at winning the race.  Sprinters also know that the end of the race is determined by speed endurance.  These abilities can all be achieved by Olympic Weightlifting and not so by bodybuilding focused workouts.  Explosive Power is thus another skill that can be learned in the weightroom by athletes because it requires tremendous rate of force development along with extreme focused mental concentration on the task of lifting weight.  We all know that in order to learn something we need to concentrate so that we can understand what we are trying to make second nature.  With all this being said you can realize that by putting all this together you will in the end also develop intra and inter-muscular coordination which should also be second nature if you are to achieve elite skills.  Oh yes, and those physical attributes desired by all athletes are acquired because the body must adapt to the physical demands hence hypertrophy.

Need I say more?  Hit the weights are start incorporating Olympic Weightlifting into your routine along with plyometrics, ladder and cone drills!

LAPD Centurions Football team

Wins 2010 - 911 Championship at Salesian High School

Thats me on the Far left with a smile : ) and my cap

After beginning the season with strong victories in the first two games it seemed like there was no stopping the LAPD Centurions football team. Two weeks late came game four and they appeared not to be the same team when the Phoenix Thunder put some serious points on the score board.  Another two weeks had gone by and now the Centurions see themselves winning a game against the San Diego Enforcers football team as they lead early in the first half.  Sooner than later the score board showed a good game where both teams were contending to keep the points up on their side of the field.  Half time had passed by and the Centurions were looking hungry and ready to show domination.  For a while it seemed like the Centurions would take the victory home but the Enforcers had other plans as they won this game late in the 4th quarter. 

Another home game and for that matter the final home game as well as the last game of the season.  The Centurions new that this was the last game for the season and the only way to end it was by closing the season with a victory.  I had a great time with these guys both during practice and throughout the season standing in the side lines with these guys during the games.  I knew that this last game was very exciting for both the LAPD and the LA Fire Dept.  This was the game Fire called the 'Battle of Los Angeles'.  They had come to Salesian expecting to win the game. The Centurions came on the field with the same expectations.  Only one team would win and during the first half the Centurions had a big lead of 27 - 2.  It seemed like LA Fire had no answer and a questionable call gave them 2 points that no one agreed with. 

After the second half started LA Fire seemed like a different team and now they were putting points on the board but at the end the LAPD won the 'Battle for Los Angeles', and claimed the 911 Bowl with a dominating victory of 33 - 17.  The guys were very excited as well as was I.  I look forward to working with these guys again next year as they prepare for another season hoping to take the season undefeated.

A championship is on everyone's mind and nothing less will be excepted.  I hope to see everyone return for another season of football for the 2011 season. 

Centurions Football Heads to Vegas to play Phoenix Thunder

Last year I volunteered as an Assistant Strength & Coonditioning Coach for the Centurions Semi-Pro Football team.  I didn't expect to land a position as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach but this honor came with the invitation of the Defensive Backs Coach Don Payne to join the team.   It has been a honor and quite exciting to be a part of this program and especially to play a role in the success of this team. 

The Centurions kicked-off the season with their first victory against Cental Texas Wolfpack with a score of 48 -13.  They took the lead in the 1st quarter immediately by scoring two touchdowns early in the game.  This success was seen in the following game in which they defeated the Inland Empire Enforcers in which they won 54 - 21.  The coaches hope to continue this type of performance on the field by scoring early in the game and putting up a strong defense to stop the Thunder from scoring in the 1st half.  By claiming a victory against Phoenix, the Centurions are confident that they will be able to claim another victory against the San Diego Enforcers to whom they lost last year.  This game will define it. 

The Los Angeles Police Department football team will hold their 2nd Annual Alumni Golf Tournament which is hosted by Rod Martin to help raise money for the 'Blind Childrens Center of Los Angeles'.  Find it in yourself to help raise money for these kid by downloading the form below and registering! Registration deadline is May 1st so if you would like to contribute you need to do it before the end of April!

May 14, 2010
Second Annual LAPD Centurion
Alumni Golf Tournament
California Country Club, Whittier, California
Click here for registration form.

On March 20, 2010, the Centurions defeated
the Central Texas Wolfpack 48 to 13.