Stayfitanywhere’s Blog

My lacrosse team, the Ladner Pioneers, was eliminated from the playoffs on Thursday and our season was over.  Not a great start to the August long weekend.  We played well but just didn’t capitalize on the mistakes the Tri City Bandits made, and the Bandits capitalized on all of ours… in the end the most deserving team won.  It is tough when you spend 6months of the year working towards a goal, winning a national championship, and you come up short, a lot shorter than you expected.  This happens to athletes every year, but this feeling isn’t exclusive to athletes it happens to everyone.  You put in a tremendous effort just to fall short and it doesn’t feel good.  You deserve to be upset, but you can’t stay down for long.

I spent most of Friday slothing around with little motivation to do anything, I was still devastated.  As the day passed and the sun shone brightly I knew I couldn’t resist the call of the beach, so I met with some great friends to celebrate a birthday.  It was nothing fancy just spending a few hours at the beach with a BBQ, a stereo, and a cooler.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday evening in Vancouver and at the end of the evening lacrosse was the farthest thing from my mind.  Whenever you are attempting to reach a goal having a support network (friends, family, coworkers, teammates, etc) is absolutely essential to helping you reach your goals and just as important when you fall short.  No matter what your goal is (fat release, correct posture, pain reduction) you need to find at least one person to keep you on track and to get you back on track when you lose sight of the final destination.

I woke up Saturday morning not wanting to do anything but sleep.  Might have overindulged a little Friday or it might have been the toll a lacrosse season takes on your body or it might have been a bit of both, either way Robyn made me get up and head out for the day.  So we went for breakfast, hung out at the beach, had dinner at a friend’s and walked to the English Bay to watch the fireworks.  I kept busy throughout the day, and only had a few free moments to think about what I could have done different.  By the time the last firework had exploded I felt like I had come around full circle and was ready to start preparing for my next goal, without the help of my support network and some time to reflect on what could have been done different I might have been stuck in a rut for a while.  This reminds me of one of my favourite sayings “If nothing changes, nothing changes.”  Obviously something has to change during the next lacrosse season or I will be back in the same predicament next summer, so if this sounds familiar to you remember the above quote and figure out what needs to change if you actually want to change!

When Sunday arrived I was ready to move and be active again.  After lunch myself and 3 friends went to a park to throw a Frisbee around.  We spent 30minutes whipping the Frisbee around and getting warmed up, this warmup culminated with a game of “500”.  Do you remember this game?  Do you remember the last time you played?  I played this game tons as a kid and have actually played it quite a few times as an adult.  It is very simple to play you gather a group of participants at one end and have a thrower at the other end, the single thrower throws an object (Frisbee, football, baseball) and calls out a number between 1 and 500.  The participant that catches the object gets the points and the first participant to reach 500 points becomes the new thrower.  After a few matches we were ready to play a modified version of Ultimate (luckily Robyn showed up to give us another body) so we played 3 on 2 ultimate with 1 person always being on offense.  We switched teams around often to keep the games interesting and after an hour of running, changing pace/direction, jumping and throwing we were all spent.  The spent feeling didn’t last long as a couple hours after that we went down to the beach and played some pepper with a volleyball.  The running commentary of the day was that we were all “staying fit anywhere” with the amount of activity we were getting done (Robyn did the Grouse Grind in the AM and another friend played squash earlier) and it just goes to show that a gym is not necessary to stay fit, all you need is some friends, some space, and some imagination!

The weekend was full of ups and downs but being surrounded by good friends, sunshine, and fun gave me the opportunity to battle through a momentary setback to one of my lifelong goals.  I will always have the goal of winning a National Box Lacrosse Championship but for now I am looking for a new goal for the next 3-6months, got any ideas?  Share them with me, I am always up for something new.

Live to Move, Move to Live,

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

I have written about lacrosse many times so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that lacrosse is my favourite sport.  I started playing lacrosse when I was 12 years old, I was still living in Edmonton and my hockey coach asked me to play on his box lacrosse team in the summer, so I said sure.  It was a pretty smooth transition from hockey to box lacrosse; both sports require the use of a stick as an implement, both sports have 6 players on the floor/ice at the same time, both sports require excellent hand eye coordination, both sports require rotations to shoot/pass, both sports have a physical element, both sports have you shooting on a goalie to score, and finally both sports are fast and fun! 

As I said both sports require strong hand eye coordination, and the ability to rotate so when I got my first lacrosse stick from Canadian Tire, a Brine Shotgun, I spent countless hours throwing the ball against the garage.  Even though I had played hockey my whole life and was used to having a stick in my hands things didn’t start very well.  I spent a majority of my time chasing the ball and learning to pick it up, as it turns out this was and is still one of the strongest aspects of my game.  After a couple of weeks spending hours banging the ball against the wall I figured out how to throw properly which brought the next challenge, learning how to catch!  This wasn’t too bad because I learned how the ball would bounce during my countless hours chasing the ball around my yard, but by this time I was starting to practice with my team and we didn’t spend much time standing still catching balls, we had to catch them on the run (the way the game is meant to be played).  My first season of box lacrosse was fun and challenging and by the time the season was over I had a pretty good grasp on all the basic skills needed to play the game.

I only played one season of lacrosse in Alberta and luckily moved to one of the hot beds of lacrosse in the world, British Columbia, and from there my love for the game grew.  I quit playing soccer right away, and 4 years later I quit playing hockey to play box lacrosse and field lacrosse.  Moving to BC give me the opportunity to play in a more competitive league and gave me access to fantastic coaches that really helped develop my skills and knowledge of both box lacrosse and field lacrosse (I will write a separate post regarding field lacrosse which is a totally separate game).  When I was 17 I was the captain of the Surrey Stickmen Intermediate A team that was coached by Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame members the Tasker brothers and we won a provincial championship!  It was one of the greatest moments of my lacrosse career and I was fortunate to be a member of such a fantastic team, and I still play with many of those teammates today.  The bond you create with your teammates when you come together to win a championship is something that can’t be broken over time and is probably the reason why I love this sport so much… well that and the mental and physical challenges that come from trying to beat your opponents!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

I hope everyone had a fantastic Canada Day and are prepared to enjoy a great weekend!  I am heading out of town on a vacation and wanted to share a few things with everyone before I go.

·         This morning I trained Rob Daly  for the first time in 2010.  Rob has been training with me since I first started training clients and has been instrumental during my evolution as a trainer/coach.  To welcome Rob back to training (not that he wasn’t training while he was working in LA) I decided to test him out with one of his favourite workouts http://blog.stayfitanywhere.com/?p=578 and he crushed it!  If anyone is looking for a photographer check out Rob’s website www.robdaly.com to see some of his work.

·         A friend of Mine Cam Beals is leaving for the Calgary Stampede tomorrow and if you know the dates of the Stampede you will wonder why he is leaving so early??  Well he is riding his bike from Vancouver to Calgary to take part in the festivities of the Stampede… Good Luck Cam wish I could have taken part in the journey with you.

·         If you work in the Health Care field take a look at this website for some resources on preventing Healthcare Associated Infections www.haiwatchnews.com.

·         My lacrosse team the Ladner Pioneers is gearing up for the playoffs and as soon I return home we will be starting our first playoff series and I would love to see you in the stands email me or check www.wcsla.ca for dates and times of games.

·         The sun has come out FINALLY here in Vancouver and I have spent most of the morning on my bike zipping around the Seawall from English Bay to Kits beach and I saw tons of cyclists, rollerbladers, runners,  walkers, skateboarders taking advantage of the weather.  I also saw tons of kids playing in the playground, throwing footballs/Frisbees, kicking soccer balls and just generally having fun.  Thank you Vancouver for the reminder of why I love living in this city!

I want to leave you all with one last thing to think about… when you train hard, you need to recover hard!  With that being said I am off to enjoy a vacation but I will be back soon and ready to train and play hard!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

This Sunday the Delta Jr. A Islanders (www.deltaislanders.ca) crushed the Grouse Grind as a team, 21 players and 2 coaches raced their way to the top of the mountain.  The players and coaches did a fantastic job considering less than 12 hours before the start of the climb the team had lost a hard fought game to the New Westminster Salmonbellies 6-4, who currently lead the BC Jr. A Lacrosse League Standings.  The winner of the race was Nate Clare and in a close second place finish was rookie Sean O’Neil.  As Nate and Sean caught their breathe at the top a flurry of players arrived to cheers with most players finishing under 55minutes.   The players weren’t finished when they crossed the finish line they still had a 30min yoga session to be completed.  Annika Hodgson from Duquette Strength showed the players what it takes to push their athletic careers to the next level.

For many it was their first attempt at the Grind and Yoga, and they showed tremendous determination and concentration in accomplishing both tasks.  With this kind of effort on and off the floor the Delta Islanders may just surprise a few teams on their road to the Minto Cup.

Check out pictures of the team on our facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/StayFitAnywhere/50493916136.  If you would like to book a customized active activity for your team or group please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanwhere

Box lacrosse season has arrived and I couldn’t be happier.  My team, the Ladner Pioneers, is looking fit and we have been practicing hard for just over a month.  We had our first big test this Monday with a game against our biggest rivals, the Tri-City Bandits, and we beat them 11-9 in a very exciting game.  We followed our victory up with a practice on Tuesday and another game last night, which we won.  Lacrosse is a very physical game and it takes a toll on the body.  Certain measures must be taken after a game in order to recover so that you can play/practice again in a very short time.  Below are some of the strategies that I use following a game/practice, try these strategies after your next workout!

·         Refuel – As soon as I get off the floor and get all of my gear off I grab my recovery shake.  My recovery shake consists of a hemp protein powder (http://www.manitobaharvest.com/) mixed with Athletic Greens (http://athleticgreens.com/about/).  This combination ensures that I get all of the nutrients I need to refuel my body for my next game/practice/workout as well as giving me everything I need to start repairing any damaged tissue.  I sometimes compliment this shake with some fruit and nuts if it has been a particularly taxing session.

·         Stretch – After I have had my shake I take some time to cool down then I perform a full body stretch.  I spend extra time working on areas that are particularly tight and for me those areas are my hamstrings, glutes, hips, hip flexors, and lats.  The stretching doesn’t stop here, I will again spend 10-15 minutes before I go to bed doing another stretch session along with some fascial release using a couple of lacrosse balls and a foam roller.

·         Ice – After my shower I head to the trainer and get ice packs applied to any areas of my body that needs it.  Depending on where I am sore I keep the ice packs on anywhere from 10-20minutes.  Again icing doesn’t stop there, once I get home it is time to slap on more ice packs and continue to do this for the next couple days when I have a chance to relax.

·         Beer – This is an optional step and isn’t necessarily a health recommendation, it is more of a team bonding exercise.  After games and practices all of the guys get together to have a beer and talk about the game, practice and life and is one of the many ways we come together as a team, which makes us perform better on the floor!

Recovery is just as important as doing a proper warmup before playing, after all without it makes taking part in the next game/practice more difficult.  Train hard, recover smart!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywere

I was 14 when I decided I wanted to start working out.  I wanted to learn about strength training and fitness to become a better athlete.  I played lacrosse, hockey, rugby, and volleyball and thought that if I went to the gym to workout I would be able to run faster, jump higher, and be strong on my feet.  So I went to the Walnut Grove community centre and signed up for an orientation to the weight room.  The weight room had about 10 machines arranged in a semi circle around the outside of the room and some free space in the middle.  I spent about an hour with the instructor learning how to operate and adjust all of the machines so that I could complete the program she had set up for me (and every other person who was going to be working out in the facility).  The program prescribed for me was to do 3 sets of 10 reps on each of the 10 machines 3 days a week.  This was going to be great, I was going to get strong, if anyone could even catch me they’d be lucky if they would be able to push me off the ball or puck. 

So I spent the next 4 weeks doing my workouts between lacrosse, hockey, rugby and volleyball.  After 4 weeks I noticed a few things.  To my surprise I wasn’t running faster, I wasn’t jumping higher, and I wasn’t any stronger on my feet.  How could this be?  I was following the program.  The program was BORING but I was still working hard and was lifting more weight than when I started.  I spent well over 60minutes sitting down and moving my body through restrictive ranges of motions during my workouts.  The machines I was using weren’t very comfortable and they certainly weren’t mimicking any of the movements I was used to performing when playing sports.  I guess this is where I first learned that machine based strength training wasn’t for me or any other athlete.

That was it for my workouts at the fitness facility, it was time to start doing what had always made me a better athlete in the past: spend more time perfecting the individual skills of my sports.  My favourite practice drill was to head to my old elementary school with my lacrosse stick and a ball and spend hours throwing the ball off the wall.  I had been doing this ever since I got my first lacrosse stick at the age of 12.  I’d find any wall I could and just bang the ball off the wall.  I quickly learned how to throw, catch, chase and pick up a ball.  After a while just simply throwing the ball against the wall got boring so I started taking aim for specific bricks.  Once I could hit specific bricks while standing still I started aiming at bricks will throwing on the run.  I was always looking for a way to challenge myself when throwing the ball against the wall.  I came up with all sorts of games and from these games I learned how to move effectively in all directions, how to throw/catch the ball in a variety of situations, and essentially become a better lacrosse player. 

Many of the experiences I had as a youth have influenced the way I think about fitness and athletics today.  It is incredibly important that we provide our bodies with as many opportunities as possible to move, and once we have learned to move efficiently and effectively we need to find ways to continually challenge the body so that it keeps on learning and improving. 

Live to Move, Move to Live!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

I had a fantastic Easter Weekend, it was filled with activities, friends, and fun!  I kicked off the long weekend by celebrating my Kiwi friend’s birthday with an outing to Marpole Curling Club.  My Friend Damo was so enthralled by curling during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics that he decided he had to try it out and booked a few sheets of ice for the night of his birthday.  With a large group of people that had zero curling experience we took to the ice, and oh yeah we were decked out in retro athletic gear so that our lack lustre skills would be outshone by our bright outfits.  After getting a quick lesson we split into teams and went to war.  Stones, brooms and bodies were all over the ice in the first few ends but as the night progressed our ability to hurl the 40lb rocks down the ice got better, but not much.  Our match ended in a tie which was fitting seeing as no one really showed any real skill.  If you ever have the chance to get some friends together and try out curling I would recommend working on the following exercises be: Lunges, World’s Greatest Stretch, 1 Foot Balance, and Standing Partner Battles.

My night of curling was just a warm up to the most important event of the weekend, the 2010 BC Senior Men’s Field lacrosse Provincial Championships.  My team, the Whalley Ballers, was entering the tournament ready to avenge our Overtime Loss in the Gold Medal game the year before and we were prepared and confident we would do just that.  We played two round robin games Friday against the John B Pub and the Abbotsford Attack and won both to earn a trip the semi finals on Saturday against the Ladner Pioneers, the team that beat us in the gold medal game a year ago.  The score was close at half time, but as the second half rolled along my team was able to secure a good lead and hold on to beat the Pioneers and secure our spot in the finals against the Coquitlam Beer Hunters.  The Beer Hunters were our biggest competition throughout the year and they came to play on Saturday afternoon.  The game was close finishing with a score of 11-9 for the Whalley Ballers and my team claimed our first provincial Senior Men’s championship and a spot in the National Championships in Montreal!  A big congratulations to all my teammates for a great effort over the weekend and a special congratulations to Reese Baillie (top defensemen), Ian Poole (top midfielder), and Tom Johnson (top goalie).

With all of the activity I took part in over the weekend I took some opportunities to relax by starting a new book, Born to Run by Chris McDougall.  I am nearly finished and this book is going to be on my recommended reading list!  I am by no means a runner, and am even less interested in running ultradistance races but while reading this book all I wanted to do is go running through trails on the North Shore in my barefeet!  The book is about the greatest footrace and runners the world has never heard of.  McDougall introduces the characters beautifully and describes the culture of the Tarahumara tribe with great passion that makes it nearly impossible to put the book down.

This weekend saw me take part in an activity I have no experience in, accomplish a goal with my teammates, and get inspired to do something I never thought possible.  I hope your Easter weekend was as good as mine!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTips at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

It has been about 6 weeks since the end of my box lacrosse season and the start of my field lacrosse season.  During that time I spent two weeks recovering from a few nagging injuries to my hip and my hand.  To help myself recover quicker I employed the RICE principles… Rest/Range of Motion, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.  If you have been spending a significant amount of time training for an event or a competition these simple principles should be used during and after your training to ensure you are prepared to compete and are able to recover quicker to begin training for your next event.  Even though I wasn’t fully recovered I spent the last 4 weeks doing 1-2 workouts a week mixed with my usual bike riding.  These workouts were basically maintenance workouts so that I wouldn’t lose my current level of fitness and could still recover from my injuries.  My plan of recovery and maintenance over the past 6 weeks really paid off, I had my first field lacrosse game on Sunday and I was able to play to my usual calibre and finished the game feeling like I could have played another one.  I knew my plan was on target during the start of the second half when I noticed 5 of my teammates sitting on the sidelines with minor injuries. 

The take home message here is that even if you are tired, busy, run down, or injured there is something you can do to help maintain your fitness level until you are ready to push forward!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

The past week has been an incredible lacrosse week for me, I coached Team BC U19 Selects during the national championships, I watched the New Westminster Salmonbellies (www.salmonbellies.com) play in the Mann Cup, and had some friends/teammates get drafted to the National Lacrosse League.  All of these things happened in the past 7 days and over the next two days I will see another team claim a National title. 

Last Thursday I travelled to Winnipeg to coach Team BC U19 Selects during the First Nations Cup.  We were looking to repeat as national champions but unfortunately we came up short to a very good Team Ontario.  Although we came up short in our title defence the tournament was still a great success with both the U19 and U16 BC selects winning silver, and the U19 and U16 BC Stars finishing in fourth (www.2009fieldnationals.ca).  Congratulations to all of the players who played with great passion and intensity and made all of the coaches and management proud with their behaviour on and off the field.  A special congratulations to our U19 national all stars… Goalie - Kyle Middleton (Nanaimo/SFU), Attack – Chris Jones (Ridge Meadows), and Midfield – Max Weselowski (Ridge Meadows).  Finally to the graduating players: Jaxson Lee, Kyle Hoffer, Blake Duncan, Ashael Beaudet, and Kyle Robinson thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the team, all the best in your future lacrosse careers.

After arriving home from Winnipeg I headed to Game 3 of the Mann Cup in New Westminster.  The Mann Cup is the Senior A National Championship of box lacrosse and is a best of seven series played between the champions of the Western Lacrosse Association (BC) and the champions of Major Series Lacrosse (Ontario).  The trophy was donated in 1910 and is made of solid gold with a value of $25,000 however winning the trophy is priceless as very few individuals even get the opportunity to compete for it.  Game 3 saw the Brampton Excelsiors defeat the Salmonbellies in double overtime, every game in this series has been exciting with overtime, and a bench clearing brawl.  The series is now 3-2 in the Salmonbellies favour and game 6 will be played tomorrow night in historic Queen’s Park Arena (www.theboxrocks.com).  If you would like to watch some incredible lacrosse action loaded with NLL starts head to New West for a 7pm (game time is 7:45pm) as this is guaranteed to be a sellout!

Finally the National Lacrosse League (www.nll.com) held their annual pro draft yesterday and 5 former teammates/opponents/friends of mine were taken in the draft as well as many other great BC lacrosse players.

4^th Overall – Cliff Smith… Cliff is a stayfitanywhere athlete, runs Wild West Lacrosse Camp (www.wildwestlacrosse.com), and is a former teammate of mine when we played for the Surrey Stickmen

6^th Overall – Garret Billings…Garret is from Langley as well, and together we won a provincial championship in Intermediate A lacrosse in 2001  

14^th Overall – Dane Stevens…Dane and I won a Senior Men’s National Field Lacrosse championship in October of 2008

17^th Overall – Brad Richardson…Brad is from Langley and although we have never been on the same team together we have competed against each other for a long time and taught together at Wild West Lacrosse Camp

27^th Overall – Carlton Schuss… Carlton and I won a Senior Men’s National Field Lacrosse championship in October of 2008

All in all it was a great week of lacrosse and it is only going to get better with the Mann Cup champion being crowned before the end of the weekend!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

Sunday night marked the close of our first StayFitAnywhere Walk Challenge and it was definitely a success, altogether we accumulated over 13 million steps in 3 weeks!  To all of you who participated in the challenge thank you for participating and congratulations on keeping your body moving.  It was my first time participating in a walk challenge, and although I didn’t win (I hate not winning) I had a great time trying to sneak in a few more steps throughout the day, from going for a walk around the block just before bed or marching on the spot while waiting in line for the ATM.   Following is my notes from the challenge (I wore my Vibram Five Fingers, www.vibramfivefingers.com, for almost every single step I took)…

It was a lot of fun reading everyones comments and seeing how they got all of their steps in over the 3 weeks, be prepared for our next walk challenge in 2010!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere