Pumping iron ... finally

Today was a day I have been anticipating for three months. For all of the anticipation and expense, I am now more confident than ever that I made the right decision.

As I arrived this morning, I noticed that the staff had arranged four Athletes' Performance gym bags for the four new clients this week: Larry Johnson, me, Fred and Cameron (the last time I'll ever mention L.J. and me in the same sentence.) The bag included two t-shirts, a water bottle, Gatorade packets and ... Metamucil.

I got a chance to meet Fred and Cameron yesterday and we proceeded through the orientation process. Fred is a 15-year veteran soldier who has served four tours in Iraq. He's spending the next two weeks rehabbing from a broken pelvis and compressed disks in his back ... that he suffered by getting hit by a car in the U.S. Cameron is a high school kicker in Washington State.

I learned yesterday that we will receive "shooters" before every work out. For me, those shooters are about 8 oz of creatine and 8 oz of EAS Muscle Armour. All supplements that we receive here are ethical and NCAA-approved. My first workout started at 8 am. I'm in a small group filled primarily of baseball players, supervised by two interns and Daryl. There are only five people in the group, and the size and ratio of trainers to athletes makes it intimate. We started with something called "movement prep" which is basically a selection of squats, lunges and stretches designed to prime the body. I spent the last 10 weeks performing the same exercises while completing a similar online program that is run AP. The difference, however, is supervision. I heard "chest up, butt out" so many times today that I thought my ears were going to bleed. Seriously, I have issues with my posture and my intern, Joe, is trying his best to work that out of me. The AM work was mostly stabilization work (e.g. laterally jumping onto a box with a miniband around my knees). Just when I was starting to wonder when we were going to be done, the session ended.

The kitchen staff whips up a special shake that we drink after every workout. The shake is specially prepared to match the goals and strategies that we discussed with the nutrition staff yesterday. Mine is a laundry list of supplements: 3 amino acids (leucine, glutamic acid and taurine), Chocolate Mass Factor, maltodextrin, and Athlete's Defense washed down by two multi-vitamins and a fish oil pill. The purpose of the shake is to provide me with some essential nutrients (I can forgo my fish oil pill if I eat salmon three times each week) and with some supplements that will help maximize the iron pumping.

The nutrition staff followed up on yesterday's orientation by producing a personalized report. I weighed in at 205 lbs yesterday and the staff recommended that I gain 5 to 10 pounds while reducing my body fat from 15% to 12%. I received a packet of information detailing how I should act in every possible scenario when I might come in contact with food.

We relaxed after the workout by experiencing the coldest place in Tempe. Our trainers recommended a cold plunge, which basically means sitting in 60 degree water until your teeth chatter. After the second workout, I took it one step further, alternating between the cold bath and the spa.

The PM session was more of a traditional lifting work out, with a few tricks thrown in. Joe informed me that everything is supersetted at AP, which means that sets of exercises are alternated with other exercises. Today, that meant front squats were paired with squat mobility exercises and pull ups included lat stretches. I also used a bizarre cable machine and did some leg balancing exercises.

Wednesdays are special at AP. I will explain why tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Orientation

Today marked my first day at Athletes' Performance. The month ahead promises to be exciting and daunting.

I arrived at 7:15 am, early enough to eat breakfast at the facility before the beginning of my program at 8. I was quickly awed. I was directed to a pro-style locker room with padded chairs, full showers and a sauna. The lounge includes leather couches, a ping-pong table, billiards, and a bank of computers. The weight-room is huge (the size of two basketball courts) and there is also a rubber court, track and turf football field.

At 8, I was led to an office where Steve, AP's resident nutrition guru, asked me a few questions about my goals, measured my body composition and took some "before" pictures (which made me feel like Jared). After my flexibility was measured, I ran on a treadmill with a heart-rate monitor and a mask for 9 minutes. My morning was already over and it wasn't even 9 am.

The 3 hour break gave me a chance to star gaze. Athletes' Performance is known as a off-season training site for professional athletes, so I was surprised to find a large number of high school and collegiate athletes. Still, there were a few big names including Larry Johnson (Kansas City Chiefs) and Brady Quinn (Cleveland Browns) of the NFL, Dan Cleary (Detroit Red Wings) and Derek Morris (Phoenix Coyotes) of the NHL. Among collegiate baseball players, I saw Mike Leake and Josh Satow (ASU), Zach Etheredge (Texas-San Antonio) and David Cross (Virginia Tech).

The afternoon sessions weren't as active. We had a noon nutrition meeting where Steve showed a PowerPoint presentation. AP has a team of kitchen staff run by chef Debbie who prepares three meals per day according to Steve's personalized nutrition plan. Today I had a large bowl of granola in the morning, a burrito at lunch and steak, mashed potatoes and veggies for dinner.

There was a short workout at 1, where we focused on our core strength followed by a general orientation meeting and a meeting with my trainer, Darryl Eto. Darryl and two interns will train four athletes, which includes several baseball players. My training starts tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

First Class

After a long day of traveling, I have finally arrived in Phoenix around 12:45 pm PT. I got up early and went to the airport again today. This time, however, I actually boarded a plane. My 7:15 am flight to Houston was smooth enough and, after a 2+ hour layover, I boarded a plane bound for Phoenix.

As I wrote yesterday, Continental promoted me to first class for both flights. I had never flown first class (though I've often been jealous as I trudged past their rows on the way to Coach). The big advantages? The seats are comfy arm chairs (no middle seats). There is more than enough leg room. The service? Fantastic. EliteAccess passengers enter the plane first and receive beverages while the rest of the plane boards. Even the notorious airline food was good. On the first flight, we ate a full breakfast, complete with scrambled eggs, potatoes and fresh fruit. On the second flight, we were served a warm turkey & cheese sandwich with a potato salad and dessert. If you can afford to fly first class or can get bumped from your scheduled flight, it is definitely the way to travel for a long flight.

Rick Epstein, my first cousin once removed, picked me up at the airport. I am staying with his family, which includes his wife Mitzi and their sons (my second cousins) Sam and Danny, in Tempe. They're very generous to put me up for 4 weeks; they've given me my own bedroom and bathroom. The house is within spitting distance of the public bus that will take me to Athletes Performance, so this is truly a perfect situation. On the way back from the airport, we passed by Athletes Performance. It is situated on the campus of Arizona State University, near the baseball and soccer fields. The facility looks nice enough from the outside; I hope it's as spectacular inside.

The only thing that's not ideal is the heat. Being outside for more than several minutes is unbearable here. It's over 100 degrees here and will be 104 tomorrow. The low temperatures are in the mid to upper 80s. Managing the heat will definitely be a challenge, but if I can train in this environment, I should be in fine condition for fall practice. At any rate, I heard that most of the training will be indoors.

Tomorrow will be the most interesting day of the trip. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Stranded in Baltimore

Much to my surprise, I am still in Baltimore. I woke up at 4:30 am to prepare for a 6:45 am flight. When I arrived at the airport, the Continental agent informed me that my flight (to Cleveland before connecting to Phoenix) had been canceled. I elected to fly out tomorrow. For my trouble, Continental bumped me up to EliteAccess first class for both my flight from Baltimore to Houston and the connecting flight to Phoenix. My training doesn't start until Monday, so nothing lost (except for a Carlos Quentin bobblehead at Sunday's Diamondbacks game).

If you've got any questions or comments about my experience throughout the next month, please e-mail me at hymben@gmail.com. If I get enough e-mails, I'll answer them in a separate post.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Welcome

At the urging of several of my friends, I will be chronicling my experience at Athletes' Performance this August. Athletes' Performance is one of the most popular training facility for athletes; alumni include NFL's JaMarcus Russell, DeAngelo Hall and Brett Favre, MLB's Chase Utley, Russell Martin, Brian Roberts, Carl Crawford and Nook Logan and NBA's Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Tyronn Lue. I'm spending my time at the Arizona State campus to help recover from elbow ligament replacement surgery in December and to prepare myself to tryout for the baseball team at George Washington University.

I leave July 28 and I'll provide updates and photos as frequently as I can. If you have questions about the experience, please ask me and I'll answer the questions on the blog.

Thanks and happy reading!

-- Ben