Oprah has her favorite things here are a few of mine...

Well it's that time of year while all of you all are looking for gifts and fat food well I don't have that luxury... I do have things that I want that really put a smile on my face... first of all these are not product endorsements just my fave things that I personally used.. Multi-Sport King's Favorite things.

1. Naked Juice Protein Drink
It's like a protein orange, pineapple protein drink you don't need to mix anything its already there. I love the smooth test and it's cheaper than running to Smoothie King every day. You can find this at national retailers like Whole Food's. Visit www.nakedjuice.com for more info.

2. Strength Training Shoes
I love these shoes and I am going to order a pair the first week of January unless I get them for a surprise holiday gift. You find these on classic site Eastbay or Ecommerce site Amazon.

3. I love fruity Brazilian candy.. don't know where to find it but I always happen to run across it. when I can't find it I get Frooties by Tootsie Roll super good and so addictive!!!

4. & 5. No- Xplode- BSN makes this product and they make some great products you can use this MRI NO2 this is the best pre-training supplement on the market I have been using it since 2006.. super pumps mind clarity you can feel it moving through your vains. Arghhhh!!!! What a RUSH!!!! you can find these products at GNC or www.bodybuilding.com

6. I suggest a thermogenics cycle for about 4 weeks do not use while you are using the previous product because NO-xplode has caffeine in it which will make you jittery.  My Fave is Oxy Elite Pro. find it at www.bodybuilding.com


7. 200lb CarbonFX Gill Athletics 16' 5" this is the best pole for my size it's light weight and bends just right and I hope it will help me to clear 6.1 meters this year! (the world record) you can find this pole on Amazon.


8. I believe when you work out or just exist in the physical world we all need to re-adjust when I'm in ATL I visit LaLeo's Body.  Great staff and I always feel relax when I leave. If you are in Atlanta or passing through like I tend to go there for more info. http://www.laleosbodywellnessspa.com/



Well these are a few of my faves feel free to get them for me in abundance.

Happy Holidays.

Cheers!!!

Pre-Season Jitters: New Meal Plan and just plain rambles

So today I am just going to ramble, I was talking to Muna last night discussing holiday plans etc. plans for track season, her website, houses ya know just stuff. Anyway so I looked down lastnite at my stomach and i said it's time to change my diet. So here it is for pre-season training days:

Breakfast:
Grapes
Oatmeal 1 cup
2 eggs
Whole milk
Tea

Lunch:

3 Chicken thighs
1/2 cup Sweet Potatoes
GreenBeans
Strawberries
Orange Juice

Dinner:

Soup
Broccoli
Slice Garlic Bread
Rice Pudding
Steak or Meatballs


So that should get me through a few days keep me from being bored ya know? yeah anyway so how has hanukkah been? what my christmas folks doing? Man I just did some abs they made me feel great. One thing I love about working out is how good it makes you feel. I am still mastering how I respond to everything in this universe. It's been a rough fall season I can't wait! but in this moment I am experiencing so much joy, I don't know if it's joy of the future but all I can focus on is this present moment. See you on track!

Shalom

Guess who's back for dinner???

Ok so I took some time off from you guys I went through some hectic times over these past few weeks but make no mistake, my resolve is stronger than ever. So Track season Officially begins this week all around the world, I was at my old High School and saw the track team doing nothing playing basketball light shoot around. I began to think to myself hmmmm these guys can't be serious. That's another story but for me it made me think about how easily we can become distracted from training. While trying to live life and deal with the hurdles that it brings. I know how hard it is to get up on a cold brisk morning and strap up those laces. Now that it's holiday season, many of us including me make excuses for not training but, let me help with your your 3 day holiday work out plan. All you need is 15-30 mins.


Day- 1
You just got to grandma's and you are already to get your eg nog and rum but first....

Go to the back yard and get me 50 Jumping Jacks when you get back in the house 50 crunches (2 sets of 25) and 50 push ups ( do how many you can do non stop, if you don't make it to 50 finish on the second set.

Day-2

This will be obviously dinner day for most of you, so since dinner doesn't start when you wake up, you have at least 30 minutes to devote to stretching. Static stretches are an excellent everyday if not daily way to increase blood flow and circulation to various parts of the body.

Day-3

Before you Run out to those stores Repeat day 1 & 2 but add in some good water intake and lunges 3 sets of 10 each leg this should have you charged up ready to go, to fight over that new ELMO, IPAD or some other contraption.


I would give you advice on what to eat but I don't want to got there, I need some new endorsements...lol

Happy Turkey Day

Let's get to the Core of the problem...

So I have been writing on my series about abs and the core training. Now I 'm working my core and getting ready for my 2011 season as I write this. I will include a simple routine I use for my pre-season that I am actually going to perform tonight. I will upload tutorials and video this week, additionally I will give you an everyday ab routine it can be done daily it's short and sweet but you have to do this everyday.

I know some of you saying everyday? this is a lifestyle choice. I'm on the phone with more than half of you and I hear you ordering your #1, 2's or 6's so if you have time for drive thru you have time for a better lifestyle.

Working out is about quality of life, I see so many people who are not in a position to live comfortable as they get older because they took their bodies for granted.

So let's start living intentional and training your body is the first step to living a great life.

Abs Week 1

First attack the lower abs..

You lie on your back, hands placed at sides or on temples
Legs straight in air and exhale pushing lower abs to the spine. At the same time lifting your buttocks completely off the floor. Try the visualization of a string pulling you by the end of your heels.

I perform 40 of these in 3 sets. you should work at a pace thats good for you. To achieve maxium succeess push yourself each week.  For elite athletes off season we perform 500 ab excercises every other day.


Next excercise is the traditional crunch you can look online for various forms. I perform 3 sets of 40 reps for this excerise.

Following traditional, is the Bicycle (alternating knees and elbows) I only do 40 of these because I have yet to develop my ATP to sustain me long enough, don't tell that to my coach.

Now you can't forget the obliques since I am not uploading video tonite I can't show you what excerise I prefer. but look at online at www.bodybuilding.com for various ab training videos.

Final thoughts, most of the time I see people training in the gym and they take the abs so lightly they act like its a walk in the park. While ab workouts won't shed abdominal fat they will give you a solid core and thats whats needed for over all fitness.

Happy training!

Follow me!!! Twitter.com/multisportking

Arghhhh my back!!!!

Well at the request of my good college buddy Horace, I'm going to talk about lower back and abs today. The lower back has always been a problem area for me. During my Jr. year of high school I suffered a terrible lower back injury that rendered me nearly useless. At times I often couldn't feel my legs or they would give out on me right in the middle of a run. My coaches didn't know and I appeared to look healthy but it was then I knew how terrible a lower back or ab injury can be.

Some of the biggest challenges athletes and just your general everyday person find during training is strengthening the lower back an abs. This particular body part is often over looked and under trained.



EXTENSORS and FLEXORS

The abs and the lower back work in concert to stabilize the body and to keep your spin aligned. Whether you are picking up groceries are bending down to pick up the mail your abs are firing off all the time. So here are a few things you will need to build that midsection and core.


1. Get a stability ball or Boshu ball

The stability ball is my favorite it brings crunches off the floor and allows you to use abs and lower back for every excercise. ( I will post a video tutortial for ab excercies next blog post).

2. ab wheel

Ab wheel is also a good way to build the core it allows you to really strengthen your entire body. I love this tool.

Additionally, I perform squats 3 times a week. While squatting the abs flex and and the lower back extends. You must also do Dead Lifts this will help with your lower back, and legs.

The abs are bigger than just a sexy beach asset they are essential for the day to day wellness for all of us.

diet is important for the look but best believe good ole fashsion hard work will get those babies where they need to be. I will be posting workouts about abs and lower backs all this week. Email your questions and more gould2.0@gmail.com

What are some of your ab techniques you find successful? email a video if you want and I will post it.

You are so smart... you run 5 miles a day!!! But you can't keep a woman happy..

So I know what you're thinking.... but it's not that.. Today we are going to discuss over training. Most people outside of elite Athlete circles don't understand that running consistently on concrete for hours at a time not only destroys cartilage in the lower body but also decreases your testosterone levels. Yes I see guys at the gym who tell me that they work out their total body. Oh okay that's what your doing, no what your doing is increasing Estrogen you "girlie man".


Physical Changes that indicate possible over training:

1.      Unintended weight loss or weight gain
2.      Persistent increase in muscle soreness, even with standard/easy to moderate effort workouts
3.      Increase in Resting Heart Rate by more than 5 beats per minute
4.      Slower than normal recovery of heart rate after a hard effort
5.      Lingering muscle and joint pain
6.      Swollen lymph nodes or "glands"
7.      GI problems -- specifically, diarrhea or constipation
8.      Minor abrasions heal slowly
9.      "Heaviness" or "sluggish feeling" that lasts for more than 24 hours after standard workouts
10.  A decrease in physical performance, particularly, during standard workouts

Emotional Changes that indicate possible over training:
1.      Loss of joy for competition
2.      Desire to quit
3.      Loss of general enthusiasm
4.      Easily irritable or heightened impatience or annoyed by otherwise normal interactions with others
5.      Complaints of being bored

Behavioral Changes that indicate possible over training:
1.      Loss of ability to concentrate for long periods of time
2.      Loss of appetite
3.      Loss of coordination
4.      Loss of libido
5.      Changes in sleep habits or inability to get quality sleep or unable to sleep

If you have any of these feelings you possibly are over training. As an elite athlete I have done it all and tried every training technique out there. I remember those days when I over trained and worked out every part of my body to my detriment.  There are many ways to train, and by no means am I being critical of superior endurance athletes. My business partner David Netter has actually swam the English channel and wants to swim from Venice Beach to Catalina Island. which is about 69 miles if I'm not mistaken. 

Be Well

To Meat or Not to Meat? That is the question

I was speaking to some of my old highschool buddies about the good ole days!lol One of the guys who by my opinion is one of the best athletes I have ever seen or played with, recently turned Vegan. I messed with him and then my other teammate says he has been a Vegan for 2 years. So this inspired me to today's blog.

A few years back while training and living in Atlanta, I stopped eating beef, chicken and pork. I was merely on a fish diet. I felt very good on this diet, but I was noticebly weaker in my lifts and squats missing the raw power I possessed during my mid 20's. I thought it was merely age, but more recently I began to embark on a diet that included Beef, Fish and my veggies of course. I actually focus on Testosterone building foods, like Almonds, Avacado, Steak(beef and Lamb). So this leads me to the question to Meat or Not to Meat I want to hear from you tell me your ideas about your workout regime who you feel while lifting and more.

Personally, I feel that meat gives me the testosterone I need in my diet to perform on the track and off. I have a few tips I found in Muscle and Fitness Magazine:

 Research shows that, unlike a diet rich in meat, a vegetarian diet can cause a drop in testosterone and that a diet higher in fat promotes higher testosterone levels than does a diet lower in fat. Meat contains cholesterol, a precursor to many hormones, including testosterone. Red meat is high in zinc, which is a must-have mineral for supporting testosterone. Include steak, lean ground beef or roast beef in two of your five or six daily meals to sustain testosterone levels.


Stick With Tough Exercises

To beef up your testosterone levels, the bulk of your workout should involve "compound" weight-lifting exercises that train several large muscle groups, and not just one or two smaller muscles. For example, studies have shown that doing squats, bench presses or back rows increases testosterone more than doing biceps curls or triceps pushdowns, even though the effort may seem the same. This is why doing squats could help you build bigger biceps.
Make Nuts Your Midnight Snack

Nuts are good for your nuts. Research has found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat -- the kind found in peanuts -- had the highest testosterone levels. "It's not known why this occurs, but some scientists believe that monounsaturated fats have a direct effect on the testes," says Incledon. Nuts, olive oil, canola oil and peanut butter are good sources of monounsaturated fat.
Squeeze Out Five Repetitions per Set

Throwing around 5-pound dumbbells won't help you effect a rise in testosterone. Start off by using a heavy weight that you can lift only five times. That weight is about 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. A Finnish study found that this workload produced the greatest boosts in testosterone.
Do Three Sets of Each Weight-Lifting Movement

Researchers at Penn State determined that this fosters greater increases in testosterone than just one or two sets. Rest a full minute between sets, so you can regain enough strength to continue lifting at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum during the second and third sets.
Rest Harder Than You Work Out

If you overtrain -- meaning you don't allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions -- your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent, according to a study at the University of North Carolina. The symptoms of overtraining are hard to miss: irritability, insomnia, muscle shrinkage, joining the Reform Party. To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.


All in All there some things combined with eating a fat juicy steak that will help you get right!

Cheers

Basic Training.....

Well I just started training and I'm hoping that, I am ready, my mind and body will evolve in such a way that I can even fathom. My photographer Jeremy Deweese took a few photo's of me during training I guess I will let you in and see a snap shot....

The Start of Something Great

This is my first post of many, I have been blogging for a while on Social Media, Social Injustice, and much  more. I want to keep a log about my sports training and other motivational ideals. My struggles, my fears and success. I am here for your questions and answer's about any thing sports related. We just finished an important holy season and its going to be a great New season we are going into. Let's shake the kinks off and move into something real and pure.

Yours Truly,

Dan Gould

the Multi Sport King