Aug22
Don Bosco Prep Staff Directory
Don Bosco Prep Staff Directory can be found Here !
No Comments »Football, Uncategorized, high school, high school coaches, teaching, training
Aug22
Don Bosco Prep Staff Directory can be found Here !
No Comments »Football, Uncategorized, high school, high school coaches, teaching, training
Jul25
Sportsgist.com is very proud to introduce Steve Leo from the Parisi Speed School. Steve has an extensive background in athletic training and will be sportsgist.com’s resident strength and conditioning coach. He will be providing the type of information that any athlete who is serious about their game is going to want to have access to.
Steve has been training for 11 years, and an employee at Parisi’s for the past 10 years. He has been hired by Nike to conduct speed-testing camps through SAQ program . Steve was a three-sport varsity athlete at Hawthorne High School in Football, Wrestling (Captain, All-conference) and Baseball. He continued his education at Northeastern and William Paterson University in exercise Science Steve has ten years of experience coaching athletes including Head Coach of Saddle River Wrestling 4 years, Hawthorne High School Wrestling 3 Years, Bergen Catholic Wrestling 1 year, ASA Softball Coach 3 years, and MABL Baseball Coach 4 years. Steve continues playing competitive baseball in the North Jersey Men’s Adult Baseball League. Steve has Five years of experience in personal training of athletes including USA National Team Wrestling, Major and Minor League Baseball, Olympic Judo, NFL & Arena football players.
Certifications: Advanced Level Certified Personal Trainer from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), National Interscholastic Federation Coaches Association (NFICA-A.C.E.P program), Member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Rutgers S.A.F.E.T.Y Cerified Instructor and VIRTUS Certified (Protecting Gods Children).
No Comments »Baseball, Basketball, Football, SportsGist, high school, training, wrestling
Jun16
It would be to your benefit to take advantage of the month you have off during your winter break to stay fit and ready to go for the spring season. A great way to do this, is to stay active for at least 4-5 days a week for 40-90 minutes at a time. These activities can vary from soccer drills to leisurely activities such as biking, swimming, running, or playing basketball. If you have access to a gym, engaging in light weight activities can give you a competitive advantage, but if not, doing the body weight activities (listed below), you can remain in shape.
An average week might consist of 2 days of weight training or body weight circuits/conditioning and the other 2 days longer aerobic activities with soccer sprints in between (interval running).
It is very important to run at least 3 times a week, whether it be to work on sprints (10’s to 100’s) or longer endurance runs (1.5 miles, 1 mile, 800’s, 400’s, 200’s)
Circuit:
Always conduct a warm up before beginning any workout and a cool down after.
Body Weight Squat- 20 times
Single Leg Squat- 15 times each leg
Pull Up/ Reverse Pull Up- 10/15 time
Walk Out Push Ups- 10 times
Dips- 10 times
Single Leg RDL (body weight)- 15 each leg
Sit Ups- 20
Alternate Arm to Alternate Straight Leg (Ab work)- 20
Sit Ups- 20
Body Weight Squat- 20
Reach Crunch- 20
Move through the circuit three times with a good tempo and correct form
Overall, the emphasis of the winter workout is not on what you specifically do, but making sure you are staying active 4-5 days. By this point, you should know your body and know how to take care of it. Make sure you allow the needed recovery time, but at the same time continuously push yourself to become a top notch Division 1 athlete.
*LIFT US TO GREATNESS, RUN TO GLORY!*
1 Comment »Baseball, Basketball, Cheerleader, Cheerleaders, Cheerleading, Football, Hockey, Nutrition, Recruiting, Soccer, SportsGist, blog, college, etraining, high school, training, wrestling
May21
Put your fears aside. Vegetarian diets are typically rich in carbohydrates, with plenty of protein and high performance fats. That’s the perfect prescription for exercisers and athletes. With 60 percent of your diet coming from carb-packed grains, beans, fruits and vegetables, there’s no way your performance will drop off. And you can certainly get enough protein to pack on plenty of muscle. But you do have to plan your diet well.
And just for clarity-sake, although research has taught us that eating too much of animal-based foods may result in the development of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer, the problem is not that eating any amount of these foods is bad for you. But if you make animal foods the center of your diet, you just don’t have enough room left to eat all the fabulous plant foods like grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables necessary to ward off disease.
ENSURING THE PROPER NUTRIENTS
Changing from a meat-centered to a plant-centered diet is not as simple as just eliminating the meat. The trick is to make sure you’re not skimping on any nutrients as you cut out certain foods. Vegans run the greatest risk of deficiencies because several vital nutrients including protein, vitamins B12 and D, iron, zinc, and calcium, are found in highest qualities or most significant amounts primarily in meat, eggs and dairy products.
SPECIAL FOCUS ON PROTEIN AND CARBOHYDRATE
When it comes to carbohydrates, don’t be misled by fads. The research is clear: if you want to train hard and long, you need plenty of carbohydrate to achieve your goals. Eating a vegetarian-style diet will make this easy. Plant-based foods are great sources of all the different carbohydrates and fibers that will keep you healthy and fuel intense workouts.
To get enough calories and nutrients, vegetarians should eat at least 1,800 calories a day. The following list gives you minimum servings for each day, with a suggestion of where to add more to increase calories.
Lacto-vegetarians:
Vegans:
Serving size guidelines:
| Food Group | Serving size |
| Whole grain bread, cereals, and grains | 1 slice bread; 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice, or pasta; 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal; 1/2 bun, bagel, or English muffin; 1 small roll, biscuit, or muffin; 3 to 4 small or large crackers |
| Vegetables | 1/2 cup cooked or chopped raw vegetables; 1 cup raw, leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked legumes; 3/4 cup vegetable juice |
| Fruit | 1 medium piece of raw fruit, 1/2 grapefruit, 1 melon wedge, 1/2 cup berries, 1/2 cup diced, cooked or canned fruit, 1/4 cup dried fruit, 3/4 cup of fruit juice |
| Milk | 1 cup nonfat or lowfat milk or yogurt, or kefir |
| Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, beans | 1 oz. cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish, 1 egg, 1/2 ounce cheese, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese 1/2 cup cooked cooked dried beans |
| High Performance Fats | 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, sesame oil, peanut oil or other nut oil; 1/4 of a small avocado; 8 large olives; 1 Tbsp seeds; 6-8 nuts; 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter |
A GOLD MEDAL LIFETIME
You are now on the road to improving your performance, and your life. Many successful athletes have chosen a vegetarian lifestyle. Not only could they perform at peak levels during their athletic careers, but they have maintained good health and longevity throughout the rest of their lives.
SIDEBAR
DETERMINING PROTEIN QUALITY
Approximate protein quality of various forms of protein found in food and supplements.*
| Protein | PDCAAS | PER |
| Gelatin (Collagen) | 0.08 | - |
| Wheat | 0.43 | 1.5 |
| Beef/Poultry/Fish | 0.8 – 0.92 | 2.0 – 2.3 |
| Soy | 1.0 | 1.8 – 2.3 |
| Ovalbumin (Egg) | 1.00 | 2.8 |
| Milk Protein | 1.00 | 2.8 |
| Casein | 1.00 | 2.9 |
| Bovine Colostrum (BC) | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Whey | 1.0 | 3.0-3.2 |
*Data compiled by Dr. Richard Kreider, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee
May07
Russ Cozart has been the head wrestling coach at Brandon High School in Florida for the last 28 years, and in that time has only lost one match, his overall record is 384-1. That one lost was the first for the school in the last 34 years. In that time period Brandon set the longest winning streak in the history of any high school sport of 459 straight wins. This streak was recently documented by ESPN in a two hour television event entitled “The Streak”. The show takes an in depth look at Coach Cozart and his team as they go through the 2008 season. It actually captures that sole loss to Miami Dade and then shows how the Brandon team was able to bounce back and go on to win yet another state championship.
Russ Cozart has won 17 Florida State Team Championships and has coached 65 individual state champions. His Brandon Eagles were ranked third in the nation in 2004 and first in the nation in 2005. In addition he has coached 85 athletes to individual national championships and 143 All-Americans. He has sent numerous wrestlers on to tremendous success at the collegiate level as well.
Listen to Coach Cozart discuss the keys to success that he has brought to Branden as well as the dedication and effort it takes to be a successful wrestler and a successful program. Cozart also discusses how he is able to help his players in the recruiting process

May07
Proteins, carbs, vitamins, minerals, water, and fats. Of the 6 primary classes of nutrients, which is the most critical for growth, muscle development, and health? If you guessed water, you’re right!
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
But with all the obvious importance of water it appears that most of us aren’t drinking enough. Nearly one-third of the U.S. population is walking around slightly dehydrated. “So what?” you ask. “What’s the big deal about being slightly dehydrated?”
A VOLUMINOUS PROBLEM
Just about anyone who knows anything knows that you can get pretty sick and even die from severe dehydration. But the fact is that chronic, mild dehydration, a constant 1 to 2 percent deficit of body weight caused by loss of fluids, can have a measurable effect on mental and physical performance, muscle growth, and even long term health.
WATER AND YOUR MUSCLES
Since muscles are nearly 70 percent water, even a small loss of fluid will affect their function. Muscles are controlled by nerves. The electrical stimulation of nerves and contraction of muscles occurs due to the exchange of electrolytes dissolved in water across the nerve and muscle cell membranes. If you’re low on water or electrolytes, muscle strength and control are weakened. A water deficit of just 2 to 4 percent of your body weight can cut your strength-training workout by as much as 21 percent, and your aerobic power by a whopping 48 percent!
WATER AND YOUR FAT
When your goal is losing body fat, water is your friend. It can help take the edge off hunger so that you eat less, and it has no calories. If you are on a high protein diet, water is required to detoxify ammonia, a by-product of protein energy metabolism. And as you mobilize your stored fatty acids to burn off as energy, you release any fat-soluble toxins that have been benignly stored in your fat cells. The more fluid you drink the more dilute the toxins in your bloodstream, and the more rapidly they exit from your body.

WATER AND YOUR BRAIN
When it comes to peak mental capacity, whether in school or in competition, your hydration state will affect your performance. In a study of subjects’ abilities to perform mental exercises after heat-stress induced dehydration, a fluid loss of only 2 percent of body weight caused reductions in arithmetic ability, short-term memory, and the ability to visually track an object by 20 percent compared to their well-hydrated state.
WATER AND YOUR HEALTH
Probably most surprising is the effect that chronic, mild dehydration has on health and disease. It was a practice of Hippocrates to recommend large intakes of water to increase urine production and decrease the recurrence of urinary tract stones. Today approximately 12 to 15 percent of the general population will form a kidney stone at some time. Many factors can modify the urinary risk factors for developing stones. Of these, diet – especially fluid intake – is the only one that can be easily changed and that has a marked effect on all urinary risk factors.
Mild dehydration can also be a factor in the occurrence of mitral valve prolapse. In a study of 14 healthy women with normal heart function, mitral valve prolapse was induced by mild dehydration, and resolved with rehydration.
YOUR FLUID PLAN
Contrary to our drive to eat, our drive to drink is not as keen. Our thirst mechanism doesn’t kick in until we are already mildly dehydrated. When you’re working out moderately in a mild climate, you are probably losing 1 to 2 quarts (2 to 4 pounds) of fluid per hour through perspiration. That means that a 150 pound person can easily lose 2 percent of their body weight in fluid (3 pounds) within an hour. If exercise is more intense, or the environment is more extreme fluid losses will be greater. You can see how easily you become dehydrated. If you don’t replenish your fluid losses during exercise, you will fatigue early and your performance will be diminished. Without fluid replenishment after exercise, your performance on successive days will decay, and your long-term health may be at risk.
Monitor your hydration status. One of the easiest ways is to check your urine: it should be relatively odorless and no darker colored than straw. Anything more and it is a good sign that you are dehydrated and need to be drinking more.
DON’T GET CAUGHT EMPTY-HANDED
| EARLY SIGNS | SEVERE SIGNS |
| Fatigue | Difficulty swallowing |
| Loss of appetite | Stumbling |
| Flushed skin | Clumsiness |
| Burning in stomach | Shriveled skin |
| Light-headedness | Sunken eyes and dim vision |
| Headache | Painful urination |
| Dry mouth | Numb skin |
| Dry cough | Muscle spasm |
| Heat intolerance | Delirium |
| Dark urine with a strong odor |
FLUID GUIDELINES
No Comments »Nutrition, SportsGist, Uncategorized, etraining, training
Apr30
This is a copy of the plan I gave “Jersey” Joe Martinek during the 07 season. Joe’s defensive back position coach at the time approached me and wanted me to help Joe make the jump from 195 lbs to 205 lbs. Joe was the perfect client, anything you asked him to do, he did, and because of that work ethic, he got from 195 lbs to 205 lbs in less then two months. This plan is a perfect example of how to gain lean mass in season which by most accounts is deemed impossible. This plan also is an example of a player who may not be starting, but is waiting in the wings for an opportunity to start. Joe was later switched to RB and is currently in a three way battle for the starting Running Back as a red shirt freshman. Once Joe had the tools to gain lean mass he made sure to utilize them. When Joe came to Rutgers he was 195 lbs at 6% body fat and could bench press a 1 rep max of 275 lbs, less then a year later he is 215 lbs with 5% bodyfat and poses a 1 rep max bench press of 365 lbs. At Rutgers we preach accountability, with this plan is an accountability checklist that you can continue to use. The checklist works by making sure you eat 49 meals per week, I cannot tell you how many athletes complain to me that they are not gaining weight, but when I check their accountability sheet, they are missing a lot of meals. If you continue to eat the correct number of meals and still don’t gain weight, that’s when you add additional calories to the meals.

Martinek in the open field
Gainers “Big Three” Explanation
1. Protein is the most important thing, that you eat all day, everyday. You must eat it at every meal. Without protein there is no muscle growth. Common sources of protein are: Meats, Eggs, Grains with Beans, Dairy Products, and Protein shakes.
2. Consistency is key; one great day is completely offset by one day that is anything less then perfect. Protein must be consumed all day, everyday without fail. At least 7 meals containing protein must be consumed everyday. Anything less and you are sabotaging your gains.
3. Preparation ensures you never have an excuse for missing a meal and in turn never have an excuse for having a bad day. Having Tupperware with you means you have meals available to you at all times and are always prepared. If you don’t plan for success then you are planning for failure. The food within the program is there, so just box extra to go. Pack a 2nd breakfast at breakfast, take advantage of a boxed lunch, box a 2nd dinner at dinner and for your last 2 meals, drink protein shakes.
As a gainer all you have to worry about is eating. No cooking, no cleaning, no purchasing, and no problems. Just eat the food. Eat protein at every meal, Eat 7 meals a day, and bring Tupper-wares to every meal. That is the plan for success, follow it and be successful.
That is the plan in terms of how to eat; this is the plan of what to eat.
For athletes who have a hard time staying lean while gaining mass I use a Charles Poliquin anecdote to help remind them which foods to eat. “If it doesn’t run, fly, or swim and isn’t green then don’t eat it.” That means your 7 meals should be composed of these foods.
Run, Fly, or Swim: poultry, beef, lamb, liver (calf liver), wild game (buffalo, venison, elk). crustacean (crayfish, prawns, shrimp, lobster), mackerel, mollusks (clams, mussels, scallops, oysters), sardines, tuna, white flesh fish ( cod, founder, halibut, orange roughy, pollack, rockfish), and salmon.
Greens: artichockes, arugala, asparagus, beets, bok choy, broccoli, broccoli rabe, brussel sprouts, cababge, carrots, cauliflower, celery, collard greens, dandelion, eggplant, endive, fennel, green beans, horseradish, jerusalem artichokes, jicama, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mushrooms, okra, onions, hot peppers, sweet peppers, pumpkin, purslane, spinach, squash, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, and watercress.
Athletes who have a faster metabolism require more calories so I recommend sticking with the basics listed above, but also make sure to add the following foods to the seven meals as a way of boosting calories: whole eggs, nuts, protein powders and unrefined grains.
For athletes who have tremendous genetics, I recommend a modified “seefood diet”: you see food and you eat it. Now the modifications are a short list, you can eat whatever you want excluding Trans Fats. Trans Fats are included in cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, margarine, fried foods, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, shortening, some cereals and some candy. Also make sure there is protein at every meal. If your meal doesn’t contain protein, just add a protein shake. An easy way to add extra calories to every meal is by consuming peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on top of your meals. Be sure to eat natural peanut butter, which is an easy way to add up to 1000 calories per meal. Now the “seefood diet” is for the athlete who needs to gain lean mass but no matter what they eat can keep a serious six pack. An excellent example of this is Kenny Britt whose favorite mass gaining technique is to drop burger king pies into his mass gainer shakes.
Apr24
Scott Wright-NFL Scout-PodCast
This is a great time of year for a sports fan. You can’t beat all the great sporting events that are currently going on…MLB is in full swing, NBA playoffs couldn’t be any better, NHL playoffs have been awesome, and now the NFL draft takes center stage for a couple of days. I was lucky enough to talk with Scott Wright, a football draft expert. He’s been doing this for 10 years and more times than not his NFL draft predictions are accurate. Listen to draft analysis on many of the top QBs in the draft, including Andre Woodson, Colt Brennan, Joe Flacko, and John David Booty. Think you know how important the Senior Bowl is or what is the strongest position in the draft? Compare your notes with Scott Wright!
Apr08
Current Houston Texan Morlon Greenwood talked to SportsGist.com about his move from Jamaica to New York and how he became interested in football. Greenwood didn’t even play football until half way through high school and ended up starting at Syracuse University during his first season. Hear what Greenwood had to say about his work ethic and training regimen.
Mar24
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