"The Velocity Supercharge"
Introduction
"The Velocity Supercharge" is a simple system designed to develop the elements necessary to support high velocity performance and recovery. This system allows for the 'human battery' to begin to charge, and energy to be efficiently produced. As energy levels rise, this energy can be directed towards any goal you desire to achieve.
This system provides a solid foundation of training, nutrition, and environmental inputs, designed to provide both energetic preparation and recovery/adaptability from performance and training.
"The Velocity Supercharge" should be done year-round in order to both potentiate performance and build yourself into a stronger, more resilient human being. It is designed to be used as a supplement to stack onto any training routine you are currently doing, as well as sports specific skills training.
There are 3 steps within "The Velocity Supercharge"...
1. Maximal velocity training
2. Fuel your performance
3. Align with nature's rhythms.
When these steps are consistently addressed at a high level, we are able to produce enough energy to access states of high performance and recovery.
Let's discuss the 3 steps in a bit more detail...
1) Maximal velocity training
High velocity training sessions should be performed 2x/week, as part of "The Velocity Supercharge". In some cases it makes sense to add more sessions...but 2x/week is a good starting point for most athletes.
"The Most Important Exercise"
Sprinting is the most important exercise.
Sprinting isn't just for track athletes, football skill positions, and basketball players...sprinting should be applied to all sports, including baseball, and everyday individuals alike. Why? There are a few reasons…
While sports specific training is all the rage these days and everyone is looking for the latest trend, this is actually somewhat of a lost cause and can actually result in worsened performance.
Biomechanically, we evolved to do several main functions...walk, stand, sit, run, jump, throw, with some elementary lifting and loaded carrying, as well. These precursor movements should always have some level of attention in your training.
While many get lost looking at the sport specific tree, they end up missing the forest. Remember you are…
Human 1st.
Athlete 2nd.
Sport Specific 3rd.
Meaning by becoming better at those natural movements we evolved to do at our own “foundation”, we can subsequently improve all other actions, be it a pitch, swing, or running the bases.
Conversely, if your training is making you worse at any of those things, and much conventional strength training unfortunately does...you may actually be nudging yourself in the wrong direction slowly over time.
By getting better at sprinting, we can get better at all subsequent actions. Sprinting helps us efficiently learn how to translate energy. If sports are about translating energy efficiently, the best translators are the best athletes. Sprinting teaches us how to effectively transfer energy throughout the kinetic chain and develop more elastic properties needed to reach and sustain high performance in all other movements.
Remember that it’s this elastic quality vs. a disjointed, unsustainable “muscling through” that we’re looking for in throwing, hitting, and running. This creates neurological and metabolic adaptation, meaning that it both promotes hardware and software changes in the body. These are some key adaptations that are lost on most of today’s athletes.
In addition to harming torque capabilities, too much time spent muscling through movements and not enough time working on movements that promote energy transfer, slinging and generally performing movement tasks with tensegrity (tension with integrity)...will make you a worse athlete. This is why plyometric activity, sprinting, ballistic exercises, and various types of loaded movement are often the most neglected components of baseball training. By taking the time to do these energy transfer movements that work the entire body as one coordinated unit, you are creating the requisite morphological adaptations that will lead to you being able to have that “effortless velocity” baseball is all about.
Instead of mistakenly training your body to become fragmented and move in isolation, it’s important you train movements that integrate the body so it can self-organize in space as one. Training at MAXIMAL velocity is key to this.
2) Nutrition to Fuel Performance
The typical nutritional approach is one that tends to be all over the place without much direction.
Let’s simplify some things…
Most mature athletes perform well in the 3500-4000 calorie per day range. Depending upon activity level and metabolism, some may need up to 6000+ per day to meet their energetic needs. These #s are a rough estimate and need to be adjusted based on performance, daily demands and metabolism.
Keep in mind that as your rate of metabolism improves, not only do positive things like repeat power output happen, but the demand for more nutrients increases. You may need to include more nutrient-dense foods like eggs, milk, steak, wild oysters, and fruits. Contrary to popular belief, energy is not just measured calorically. While calories do matter, it’s not just about how many of them in and out at the end of the day.
When we say energetic preparation, we mean that in a deeper sense. Nutritionally, this means emphasizing pro-metabolic foods that support neurological function, hormones, and energy production. On the flip side, we want to negate foods that are “energy-stealing” or inflammatory to some extent.
This doesn’t mean you can’t ever have your favorite foods, but it means that these things should not be part of your day-to-day diet.
In order to be a happy, healthy, robust human being who’s resilient, adaptable, and able to perform at a high level, you’ll need your energy reserves topped off most of the time.
The majority of your food should come from the following list...
- Organic eggs
- Organic milk
- Steak/red meat
- Seafood
- Chicken
- Organ meat
- Potatoes
- Rice
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Greek yogurt
- Cheese
- Grassfed butter
- Pasta
- Bread
- Quality ice cream
- Raw honey
- Dark chocolate
- Olive oil
- Water
Avoid or generally minimize…
- Industrial seed oils (canola, vegetable, soy, peanut)
- Artificial sweeteners
- Stabilizers and gums (e.g. guar gum)
- Nuts (not avoid-but limit to small amount)
- Fast food in general
The goal is to get you eating a high volume of quality foods from nutrient dense sources. This not only supports high performance, but also translates into tissue gains that are supported through high velocity training...as opposed to the slabs of useless bulk most athletes gain in an offseason from eating junk.
The idea here is to promote performance by promoting health. By minimizing energy stealing foods and maximizing energy promoting foods, we’re not only driving your health, but also ensuring you have a giant gas tank full of energy currency in your cells to “spend” on being able to adapt to life and training.
It is that whole adaptability that is lost on most. It’s one of the main reasons why you don’t see guys adapting to their programs and getting better.
3) Align with Nature's Rhythms
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of health and performance is living a life in alignment with nature. There is a major mismatch between the modern environment and the pro-evolutionary one in which we evolved.
We eat foods that we’re not meant to eat, have stress levels we’re not meant to have, don’t move efficiently, don’t sleep well or enough, don’t spend enough time outside, don’t get enough light, and have alien technologies in our environment.
It’s no wonder there are epidemics in obesity, mental health, and injuries in athletics.
So much of The Velocity Supercharge is really just about "re-wilding" and realigning with our natural selves.
It is through THIS that we can create an adaptive environment for the human to thrive in.
- Go to sleep before 10 pm, and get 8-10 hours of sleep per night.
- Minimize artificial light and technology usage, especially after 8 pm. Phone screens, TV, laptop use should be limited to a reasonable amount each day.
- Sleep in darkness. If you want light earlier in the evening, consider wearing blue blocker glasses and ideally exchange your lightbulbs for amber bulbs (they’re the same cost).
- At least once a week go for a walk or easy hike in nature. Beach, trails, park, forest or anywhere natural is beneficial.
Sunlight is perhaps the biggest natural energy producer we have access to, and it’s free.
Sunlight is a literal swiss army knife of a cure-all, from immunity to high performance. Sunlight helps us produce natural steroid hormones, build muscle, burn fat, resist disease states, improve mood and drives a myriad of biochemical processes that occur beneath the surface.
Because the modern environment has greatly limited our sunlight, it is paramount that you get as much time outside as possible. Whether it’s walking, sprinting, hiking, taking the dog for a walk...every excuse to get outside is a valid one.
Once again, keep in mind that essentially all states of poor performance or disease result from an evolutionary mismatch between the human and its natural environment.
By realigning yourself with nature, we can better operate and perform within the context of modern society. This serves as a bio tune-up of sorts that is another driving input that integrates to bolster our performance.
This document is an overview and intro into the system. If you would like to learn the details of this system, and how to implement it into your own training for maximal effect...join our FREE "Inner Circle" discord group. Here you will find access to knowledge/discussions, and a group of highly motivated athletes.
