Competitor Talk: Answer This Every Day

"What's the hardest thing you did today?"

One of my former NFL clients told me his coach was famous for asking, "What's did you do for the first time today?"

The question above mirrors this one. It's all about doing something different, something more challenging every day.

The most successful people can answer this question with a firm answer.

And, if we're honest with ourselves, we can go through a lot of our days disappointed in answer to this question.

It proves just how comfortable we're living.

Seek hard every day. Ask yourself this question when you go to sleep at night.

Your success will depend on what that answer consistently is.

And by the way, the trailer above is from the movie Free Solo. If you haven't seen it yet, this guy has got an answer to the question every day.

How to Motivate Your Young Athlete to Eat Better

It never fails.

The first time I meet with a new athlete and their parents, the question of nutrition comes up.

Something like, "Can you help my son/daughter eat better. I try to tell them all the time, but they don't listen to me."

Or, "What we need to work on is nutrition. He/she doesn't eat enough, or when he/she does, it's fast food or all the chips in the house."

I usually reply, "I can give them what they need to know and how to eat to fuel their training and performance. But they need to decide for themselves if they want to do it."

What they need is the intrinsic motivation to do so.

Motivation to eat well and sleep eight hours a night doesn't come naturally to most kids. But what does help is when the environment, set up by the parents, speaks those things you want your kids to do.

Johnathan F Katz, Ph.D. and clinical sports psychologist, says, "You don't really create motivation in your child. Kids need to internalize the importance of eating, sleeping, and training before they will be motivated to take care of their body for sport in a constructive way."

The best way to get it done is by modeling good eating behaviors. This makes the concept of healthy eating a reality for your young athlete.

Jill Castle, author of Eat Like a Champion wrote, "You won't be able to 'make' your children eat well (or practice, or sleep more, or any other desirable behavior). But, if you behave strategically, as you set up the food environment for success and model healthy eating from day to day, you will slowly help them along their developmental path and instill the ingredients for internal motivation."

This goes back to the greatest leadership principle. Lead by example. I wish it were easier, but it's not. Your kids are going to follow your lead no matter what you say.

My grandfather, who lived with many vices, used to tell me to do as I say, not as I do. That never works, especially with your young athletes and their nutrition.

If you need help setting up a better food environment in your home, let me know. I can do online nutrition coaching to help you and your young, aspiring athletes get better!

The Best Workout

This one is for my parents, adults, and those of you who tend to binge when you make a weight loss goal.

Binging is fine for short periods. It helps you ramp up your dedication to those things that will help you get results.

But going from 0 to 100 or even 0 to 20 doesn't work for long.

Instead, with nutrition focus on eating a little better, and less. And for your workouts, find the one you'll show up to around 3-4 days per week for a long time.

Like a year...or more...like the rest of your life.

These are the best workouts. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what it is.

Our adult programming is designed for this. First, we figure out where you should start. Then we build a program that you can sustain over time. It's not built on how hard you can work; it's built on how often you can show up. If you're interested in us helping you, let me know.

The Leader's Ultimate Test

It's incredible how one person can change the entire destiny of a group of people.

Take, for instance, Tom Brady. Two years ago moved everything that he'd ever known in football to a brand new city, team, and culture.

Mike Evans, Tom Brady's teammate, and his eventual go-to wide receiver, said, "When he came to this team, I knew he was going to change the franchise. He's done that and then some.

Brady turned around an abysmal culture and won a Super Bowl in his first year.

How does that happen?

It's leadership. One person willing to lead the people involved in making the changes needed to become successful.

Last night was another great example. Matt Stafford, who many people did not believe could perform under the big lights, won a Super Bowl in his first year with the Rams.

Stafford's struggles forged who he became as a leader when he came to the Rams. But, unlike Brady, he didn't show up with rings.

What he did show up with is humility, desire, and a willingness to lead and sacrifice for his team. He and a few other leaders provided all the culture it needed to become a super bowl champion.

Leaders can come from all different places. Their focus, humility, work-ethic, and willingness to lead by example are what separate them from everyone else.

They set the standards, the team buys into who they are and begins to follow suit.

Ultimately this defines anyone's leadership. It's a leader's greatest challenge--creating positive change!

Making an impact bigger than yourself starts with a change in you first. So if you're ready to make some changes in your fitness or performance, please let me know how I can help.

Competitor Talk: You Have More

Each week, we put up a thoughtful quote on our display TV called Competitor Talk.

Every Friday, I'll share that quote with you and give you a little insight into why it was chosen.

"You can always do more than you think you can."

-John Wooden-

There's a lesson I've written about before called the 40% rule.

It says, "when the mind is telling you you're done, you've only 40% done." That's pretty sad. Nothing is accomplished here.

Yet, we do it every day because it's easy. Once we get to a place where we feel some slight discomfort, we stop.

The accumulation of all those stops leads to mediocre results.

You get what you put into everything. And you can't get much when you stop at the first sign of pain.

You can do ALWAYS do more than you think. And your results will always prove if you do.

Does Creatine Build Muscle?

One of the most common conversations I have with parents and athletes is about supplements, but especially creatine.

And the most common question I get with creatine is, does creatine build muscle?

Creatine itself does not directly produce an anabolic effect. However, what it provides as far as your energy systems are increasing your body's ability to increase muscle size, strength, and power.

Creatine is produced naturally in the body, but only in small amounts. It's stored in the muscle as phosphocreatine. In terms of training and athletic performance, phosphocreatine is energy for very high-intensity exercises in short amounts of time.

Supplementing with creatine can increase the stores of phosphocreatine 10-40%. This allows your body to train and compete at higher intensities for more significant amounts of time.

So, in the event of building muscle, creatine can help you train longer and with more intensity—all beneficial for the anabolic process.

Creatine supplementation has been shown to increase sprint performance by 5% and power up to 5-15% in short-term supplementation. In addition, long-term has demonstrated positive effects on lean body mass over time.

My advice is always this:

Get these two down first:

1. Nutrition

2. Sleep

Once you nail these two, combining creatine can be a game-changer for your strength, muscle-building, and overall performance.