Bryan Meyer is a leading expert in athletic performance coaching and the founder of B Meyer Training in Orlando. His client list includes Olympic medalist and goes beyond just NBA all-stars. Meyer and his training methods have been featured in ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Menโs Health. Meyer was an instrumental in getting Dwight Howard back from a potential ending injury and this exercise was used in his rehab and strength program. His brand has spread to China and he has plans to continue to help educate Chinese athletes and coaches on better training. His passion lies in education and not only helping build better athletes, but better people.
To help with tight hamstrings, try stretching while sitting on a bed with two legs on the ground and pulling your ankle back and forth for 30-45 seconds. You can also do a loaded stretch by putting your leg up on the bed and reaching out while keeping your spine straight. Transcript: "So the question is, what do I do for tight hamstrings? So some of the most explosive athletes in the world have so-called tight hamstrings. So don't get too bent out of shape, but if it is causing pain and stuff in other places, you need to address it and there can be other things up and down the chain. But to get to your question, you're going to use a bed, you're going to get that leg up, you're nice and supported, your other leg's on the ground, you're going to sit into that back leg when you feel that little bit of a stretch, you're going to pull your ankle back and forth, it's going to pull on the back of the knee there and then go all the way up to your butt 30 to 45 seconds, wiggling it back and forth. Try not to lean forward, try to sit down into it. And again, you have the bed there for support. The other thing that I like to do is I like to load the stretch in a stretch position. So you're going to pop your leg up, make sure you're supported, soft knee, and then you're going to reach out, keeping your spine nice and straight and try to reach out far. Don't reach down, keep your back nice and straight. And then after you do that, I'm just going at a different angle so you can see. So I'd reach out, I'm feeling a pull on the bottom of my butt on my ischial, I would drive back up. Sometimes it can be because your hamstring's doing too much work, your glutes not doing enough and some other stuff. But again, try to load that stretch and hopefully these help and we'll see you soon."
Drink 8 ounces of fluid every hour for 10 hours that you're awake, and then drink the number of ounces equal to your body weight in pounds divided by 30 every 15 minutes when exercising. Transcript: "So the question is, how do you stay hydrated during strenuous exercise? Well, I'm definitely guilty of not doing a good job of doing of this when I was young. I'm much better now. First thing I want to say is the first thing you get up, you've been basically fasting 7-10 hours. Get your 12 ounces of water. On average, you want to do about 8 ounces of fluid every hour for about 10 hours that you're up. So again, these are from much smarter people than me. This is just an average. So this isn't counting exercise. Then when you're doing a strenuous exercise, some people sweat more than others. So again, this is super average number. You take your body weight in pounds, divide it by 30, and that is the number of ounces that you should have every 15 minutes. So again, that's just an average. These were from some really smart people, much smarter than me. Don't know where they got all these numbers, but I guess they call it the Kelpon or Gelpon formula. So again, your body weight in pounds, divide it by 30, and that's the number of ounces every 15 minutes. Again, keep sipping on your water. Super important. Hopefully that helps, guys."
Olympic lifts are great for strength, speed and power exercises. They can be done with either dumbbells or barbells, but dumbbells allow for greater range of motion. They should generally be done at the beginning of a session when athletes are fresh. Transcript: "So, how do you use Olympic lifts in your training? Love them, but I'm a big dumbbell person just because of the strength curve with the barbell. I think Olympic lifts are a little bit easier to teach safety-wise with dumbbells. Try to... There are so many different ways to progress them, make them a little bit more fun than the regular Olympic lifts with barbell because the barbell restricts the range of motion. Dumbbells gives you a little bit more freedom. As a general rule, they're used at the beginning of the session when the athlete is fresh. You don't want to do them at the end. That's not to say if I have an athlete for a couple months and they're getting ready to go back into season that they may do them towards the end if it's a strength-speed-power cluster. But as a general rule, you want to do the most demanding things at the beginning of the session when they're fresh because it is a very demanding skill. I'm always a big believer in the dumbbells, like I said, over the barbells."
To grow larger biceps, prioritize them in your workouts, micro dose them by doing one or two sets of elbow flexion exercises throughout the week, work them in different ranges and don't forget to do compound movements such as pull-ups and superset with elbow flexion curling type exercises. Transcript: "So the question is, any unique tips for growing a larger bicep? Well, for me, I have such big biceps already that I don't really need to work them. Just kidding. Is obviously to prioritize that. So obviously, if you're younger, you can train at larger volume and a little bit more frequency, but also just micro dosing them. So even if it's a leg day or whatnot, to do one or two, three, one or two, three, four sets of elbow flexion type exercises. You can sneak those in and it doesn't have to be the priority of the workout. The other thing is to work them in different ranges. So work them in a very lengthened position and get them strong in that. And then as you fatigue, you can make the weight lighter or make the exercise easier as you fatigue. And just remember at the very end of elbow flexion, there's little to no torque moment arm on the elbow flexors. So sometimes just working them where they're the strongest also in that 90 degree angle will help. And also doing compound movements, not just the elbow flexion type exercises, the pull-ups, the rows, even though rows can be more or should be more of a lat type exercise, but to superset those. So you could do the large compound movements, for example, do pull-ups and then superset those with some elbow flexion curling type exercises. So hopefully that helps and gives you a little bit of a variety on things that you can do and choose for your workouts."
To increase your workout, focus on control and adding holds at different points in the range of motion. Utilize different stances, directions of force, and grips to make the workout more challenging. Finally, add weight when you are comfortable with the movements to further increase difficulty. Transcript: "So the question is, to up my workouts, should I start by increasing my weights or do faster or more reps? Well, first let's work on control and adding holds at different places in the range. So halfway down you can hold three seconds, lower it down to that point, hold three seconds, go all the way down another three seconds, and then try to come up for three seconds. So crazy threes, crazy fives, hold 10 seconds, come up, make it reactive. So you have to stop on command. The last thing that I like to do is add weight. And then the other thing is your stance. So worry about if you're doing something standing up, change where you're standing, change your foot position. The last thing that you should change is the weight, change the direction of force that's coming at you. So hopefully that helps, and reps are one thing, but how fast are you doing the reps? How slow are you doing the reps? So try the holds, try the stances, try the direction of where the force, where the machine, where the cable is pulling you, your grip in and out, wider, narrower, and it's a completely different animal, completely different workout. So hopefully that helps, and look forward to hearing more."
To start an athlete with power development progressions, begin by having them do functional body-weight exercises such as squat drops. These involve dropping into a 90 degree squat and holding the position for a few seconds. Progress from there to single leg squats, adding tempos, holds, and shifts to increase intensity. This helps the athlete with body awareness as well. Transcript: "How do you start an athlete with power development progressions? What I like to call is functional power stuff, so bodyweight type stuff. So athletic stance, a very simple one is you just start, I guess they call them squat drops, I call them athletic stance, where you start with your feet together and then drop into a 90-degree squat, see if you can hold that. You can do tempos, you can go up-down quick, you can do frontal plane, side to side, forward-backward, transverse, twist and come back, and just work on trying to keep that pillar or that base as tight as you can and then progress that to single leg. And the athletic stance drops on single leg are pretty demanding, you know, for the moderate average athlete. So you just stand on one leg, your knees locked out, and drop down as fast as you can, keeping trying to get to that 90-degree angles, keeping the knee in the middle, not letting it come in and get down to that squat position, but on one leg, hold it for maybe two or three seconds, come up, and then repeat it again. And you can add tempo to that, you can add holds, you can add shifts. So you would shift from one leg to the other if you're on two legs, so you drop down on two legs, shift to the left, hold for a second, stand up only through your left, go back down, shift to your right, stand back up through your right. Just a lot of different progressions that you can do, but start with what you know they can do and then progress them from that. So that's where I start with my power progressions. They're fun, you can make games out of them and whatnot, and it helps the athlete with body awareness too. So hope that helps!"