The Power of the Latino Vote

 

The Power of the Latino Vote

Randy Shaw is the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and is Editor of the online daily newspaper, BeyondChron.org. His

previous books are The Activist’s Handbook and Reclaiming America, both from UC Press. While his latest book, Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century (UC Press, September 2008) examines how Cesar Chavez’s crusade for labor rights paved the way for social change.

On October 1st, Shaw published the article “Why the Latino Vote Could Decide the 2008 Election” on Alternet.org. In addition, you can read the entire post below.

Why the Latino Vote Could Decide the 2008 Election

By Randy Shaw

In California’s 2008 February primary elections, Latinos made up 30 percent of all total voters.

For the first time in U.S. history, Latino voters could play a decisive role in a presidential election this year. If they do, we can thank Cesar Chavez and his protégés.

Why? The UFW pioneered the grassroots campaign model we see in place today.  In the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, the UFW treated its campaign for Robert Kennedy like a community organizing drive. How?

They went door-to-door in California’s barrios like people did before TV ads dominated politics. Analysts later found the farmworkers’ union’s turnout of Mexican-American voters provided most of Kennedy’s narrow margin of victory.

In 1972, the UFW faced a well-funded, grower-backed California ballot initiative, Prop 22. The union set up tent cities to house hundreds of farmworkers who came from the fields to help the campaign. Though heavily outspent, the UFW defeated Prop 22 by over one million votes, again showing its ability to get Latino voters to the polls.

Four years later, the UFW put Prop 14 on the California ballot. It failed, due to poor drafting and timing. But the campaign trained a generation of activists in voter registration drives, mass petition campaigns, intensive door-to-door and street outreach, public visibility events and Election Day voter turnout efforts.

Sound familiar?  Former UFW Organizing Director Marshall Ganz, who led the Prop Fourteen effort, went on to develop organizing strategies for Barack Obama’s campaign.

Today, groups like Mi Familia Vota (MFV), involving such UFW alumni as SEIU leader Eliseo Medina, are active in eleven states. MFV is particularly targeting infrequent Latino voters in Colorado, whose turnout could swing the

state—and perhaps decide the presidency. Mi Familia Vota is alsoworking to boost Latino voting in New Mexico, Nevada and Florida, three states that went for President Bush in 2004.

Forty years ago,Cesar Chavez and the UFW began working to increase Latino voting. But the UFW’s successful model remained isolated for decades while campaigns relied on expensive TV and radio ads, unlikely to meaningfully boost Latino turnout.  This year, thanks to UFW alumni, its outreach model has been revived and could determine our next President.

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3 Reasons Why Your Poor Mobility is Holding You Back

So many lifters are willing to complain ad nauseam about their lack of mobility, but very few of those people are willing to get up and fix it. Most individuals would prefer to deadlift heavy and get their heart rates up than spend about 10-15 minutes addressing their muscular imbalances and chronically tight areas.

What those people might not realize, is that their lack of mobility is actually sabotaging their progress. Instead, they'd rather just cut to the chase and dive face first into their workouts. They see the value in heavy lifting and pushing hard, but they neglect the accessory mobility work. It's easy to ignore, because the immediate pay-off might be minimal. They release a tight muscle once or twice, and don't make any lasting changes. Like strength training, though, consistency is the key. Doing a handful of stretches, some self-massage, and corrective exercises every few days will go a long way. Not only will you feel more loosey-goosey, but you may even PR your lifts just from adding some more range of motion to your joints!

If your overhead squat looks like that of the guy on the right, this article is about you.

Hopefully, this post will help knock some common sense into you and remind you to pay more attention to the corrective exercises. Here are three major reasons why your limited range of motion is holding you back from getting stronger:

1. You can't get into the right positions. Movements like the front squat require a considerable range of motion. If your latissimus dorsi and pectoralis minors are tight, you won't be able to achieve an ideal position in the lift. No matter how many times a coach may say "elbows up," you just can't get them any higher. Your mobility is going to hinder your progress, because if you cannot keep your torso upright, then you won't be able to support a significant amount of weight in that position. I have met plenty of people who have ample strength, but stagnate on the clean, because their chest drops every time they catch the barbell. Their legs can support the weight without a problem, but their shoulders aren't having it. If these people did some work on the areas in question (pecs and lats), they would, undoubtedly, get an immediate PR on their cleans.
2. Your potential for force production is limited. A muscle has to lengthen before a contraction. A length-tension of a relationship of a muscle explains that a muscle can produce an optimal amount of force at a certain length. For example, if you were to pick up a heavy book, you wouldn't do so with a fully extended elbow. Instead, you would probably bend your elbows a bit. Now, this continuum of ideal length is a balance. If someone is too flexible, force production will be limited, and the opposite is also true. If you are inflexible, the muscles are constantly partially contracted. Take a look at the diagram below of a muscle cross-section. The top model (a) cannot produce enough force because there is too much of an overlap, whereas option (c) can't produce optimal force because there's no overlap at all. Option (b) is just right: a little bit of overlap so that the muscles are at their ideal length for force production. So, if your hamstrings are "tight" you won't be able to produce true power on a sprint or a vertical jump, for example.
   
3. Muscles are not firing in the proper sequence. If you're tight, you're more than likely compensating in ways you don't even realize. For example, if your ankle mobility needs some help, chances are, you're using the muscles on the medial portion of your leg (hip adductors) way too much, while the lateral muscles (abductors, gluteus medius, tensor fascia latae) aren't working enough. Every time you squat, lunge, or sprint, your mechanics are altered. Because your muscles are not in symbioses, this could mean a slower 400 meter time or a weaker back squat. Once the kinetic chain works as it is supposed to, your mechanics are more efficient and you might find that previously challenging movements are a bit easier!

Bodyworker Thomas Myers notes, "organismic movement and stretching – yoga‬, pilates, training‬, manual therapy – can help cells to their proper tension environment by relieving pressure or strain, and this results in better functioning all over." It's great to work hard and get stronger, but it's also important to give your muscles some love and alleviate tension in the body.

Ultimately, if you find that your performance has plateaued, perhaps it is time to finally work on improving your tin man status of mobility and join the supple side.

Works Cited:

1. Baechle, Thomas R., and Roger W. Earle. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.
2. Clark, Ross A., Brendan Humphries, Erik Hohmann, and Adam L. Bryant. "The Influence of Variable Range of Motion Training on Neuromuscular Performance and Control of External Loads." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 25.3 (2011): 704-11. Web.
3. Myers, Thomas. "Biomechanical Auto-Regulation." Anatomy Trains. N.p., 17 Nov. 2015. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

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Up, Up, and Away (Exercises to Improve Your Vertical Jump)

I don't know if there's something strange in the air lately, but for whatever reason, I've gotten a lot of questions about how to improve a vertical jump. Some individuals are naturally gifted with hops, but for the rest of us who need to work hard to become more powerful, we have to add more explosive movements into our routines. If you want to sky like Jordan, you want to make sure you're using the correct exercises.

This could be you! (Don't quote me on that, though...)

So what determines how high you can jump? There are a couple of factors, but I'll name the most pertinent:

• Muscle fiber distribution. Okay, so, in a nutshell, you have two different types of muscle fibers: type I and type II. Type I fibers (also known as slow twitch), do not fatigue easily. An endurance athlete will have well-developed type I fibers. Think: marathon runner. Type II fibers (also known as fast twitch) are split up into type IIa and IIb, and type IIb is the most easily fatigued. Someone with a higher percentage of type IIb fibers would be a 100 meter sprinter or a javelin thrower. Movements that are really short in nature require more speed and power. The fiber makeup of a muscle is determined by your genetics, but your training can help express and further develop either fast twitch or slow twitch fibers. If you train in an explosive, high-intensity manner, you are going to develop your fast twitch fibers to the best of your genetic ability.
• Rate of force development. This builds on the first bullet point. Let's say you tried to do a power clean for the first time. Initially, while you're learning the movement, you will probably pretty slow moving under the barbell. Two years later, your bar speed will be significantly faster. Granted, you've also become more competent and confident with the movement, and you are stronger, but your rate of force development (RFD) has improved significantly. How quickly you can express force is incredibly important in working your ups.

Now that the bulk of the science-y stuff is out of the way, we can get to the meat of the article: here some exercises that will help you leap tall buildings in a single bound. (Actually, maybe don't try to jump buildings just yet...)

1. Back squats (I have faith I don't need to post a video for this one...)
2. Power cleans
3. Power snatches
4. Push jerks
5. Depth jumps
6. Jumping lunges
7. Bulgarian split squat jumps
8. Low hurdle hops
9. Barbell jumping squats (no need to go heavy, here. Maybe 20-30% of your best squat.)
10. Barbell pogo jumps (similar as the previous exercise, but not as much hip/knee bend)

Ideally, we want to train strength in conjunction with plyometrics. For example, a six week study by Adams and his colleagues found that individuals who performed strength and plyometric exercises, saw a greater increase in vertical jump than the strength group and the plyometrics group alone: 

"Examination of the mean scores shows that the [strength] group increased 3.30 centimeters in vertical jump, the [plyometrics] group increased 3.81 centimeters and the [strength/plyometrics] group increased 10.67 centimeters. The results indicate that both [strength] and [plyometric] training are necessary for improving hip and thigh power production as measured by vertical jumping ability."

 A 10.67 centimeter increase in vertical jump in only 6 weeks is pretty solid! Basically, just jumping a lot will increase your jumping height, but if you perform strength training on top of that, your results will be significantly better.

If you want to get the most bang for your buck, Olympic weightlifting (snatch, clean, and jerk) movements are superior. "Olympic [weightlifting] exercises seemed to produce broader performance improvements than [vertical jump] exercises in physically active subjects," found Tricoli et. al. They continue to say, "groups using the [weightlifting] program increased [10 meter sprinting speed] more than those using the [vertical jump] program." So, not only did these movements effect the jumping height of the test subjects, but it also made them sprint faster!

In short, if you're looking to improve your jumps, try the exercises in the above list. Both strength training and plyometric training can be combined so that you can slam dunk like the pros in no time.

Works Cited:

1. Adams, Kent, John P. O'shea, Katie L. O'shea, and Mike Climstein. "The Effect of Six Weeks of Squat, Plyometric and Squat-Plyometric Training on Power Production." J Strength Cond Res The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 6.1 (1992): 36. Web.
2. Chelly, Mohamed Souhaiel, Mourad Fathloun, Najet Cherif, Mohamed Ben Amar, Zouhair Tabka, and Emmanuel Van Praagh. "Effects of a Back Squat Training Program on Leg Power, Jump, and Sprint Performances in Junior Soccer Players." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 23.8 (2009): 2241-249. Web.
3. Makaruk, Hubert, and Tomasz Sacewicz. "Effects of Plyometric Training on Maximal Power Output and Jumping Ability." Human Movement 11.1 (2010): n. pag. Web.
4. Tricoli, Valmor, Leonardo Lamas, Roberto Carnevale, and Carlos Ugrinowitsch. "Short-Term Effects on Lower-Body Functional Power Development: Weightlifting vs. Vertical Jump Training Programs." J Strength Cond Res The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 19.2 (2005): 433. Web.

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How Bigger Hamstrings Will Improve Your Athleticism and Prevent Injury

Let's talk about everyone's favorite chain: the posterior chain. So many songs have been written about it, but yet, some people oddly neglect to sufficiently train the glutes and hamstrings.

With this overwhelming abuse of the quadriceps complex, it is important that lifters prioritize isolation of the hamstring muscles to balance out the discrepancy in strength. Hamstring strength can play a role in improved power output, running economy, and may even reduce the risk of injuries like ACL tears.

As much as I love squats (and believe them to be one of the most beneficial exercises), the squat does not actually activate the posterior chain as much as many people think. In fact, many people squatting are quad-dominant, and under-utilize the gluteus maximus.

Before I elaborate, we need to review a little bit of anatomy. The muscles we refer to as the "hamstrings" are actually three separate muscles: the biceps femoris (which has a long head and a short head), the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. These two joint muscles work together to flex the knees and extend the hips.

Now that that's out of the way, we can talk about how these muscles affect performance. Since they act as hip extensors, strong hamstrings are going to be crucial for a high jump and a fast sprint. A 2007 study on sprinters concluded that "[...]the muscles mainly responsible for forward propulsion in full speed sprinting are the hamstrings, the glutaeus maximus and the adductor longus. The hamstrings are singled out as the most important contributors to produce highest speed levels." Essentially, an athlete with well-developed hamstrings will be able to horizontally accelerate much faster than an opponent with weaker hamstrings. Each stride will allow him to generate greater hip extension, getting more power as he straightens his legs. While quadriceps strength is necessary, it is the posterior chain that allows him to push harder off of the ground.

Similarly, another study found that runners with a smaller hamstring-to-quad ratio, meaning that there was not as big of a strength/size disparity between the two muscles, had a better running economy. This balance between the quadriceps and the hamstrings allowed the runners to be more efficient in their cadence. It was deduced that "runners should consider implementing hamstring exercises to improve their f-H:Q (hamstring to quad) ratios."

Usain Bolt has some serious hamstring pump.

The muscles activated in jumping are very similar to those we recruit in sprinting. While sprinting is unilateral, jumping is a bilateral movement. The extension of the hips, knees, and ankles, however, is much the same.

A four week study on males (with no strength training experience) found that the Nordic hamstring exercise (which I will show you later in this article) "[produced] favourable neuromuscular adaptations for the possible prevention of hamstring injuries while enhancing performance in athletic, untrained males." Using this exercise, on average, their vertical jump heights increased by about 6.3 cm in a month! That's pretty substantial. Granted, these are untrained individuals, but athletes could still reap some benefits from building the hamstrings.

I am a firm believer that a stronger, all-around, individual will be more resilient to injury. There is a decent amount of evidence to support the idea that hamstring strengthening can prevent the incidence of hamstring pulls, ACL tears, and other such injuries.

Askling et. al. tested hamstring injury in high-level soccer players. He put the players on an eccentric hamstring strengthening protocol 1-2 times a week for 10 weeks. "The results showed that the occurrence of hamstring strain injuries was clearly lower in the training group (3/15) than in the control group (10/15). In addition, there were significant increases in strength and speed in the training group." So the players got stronger, faster, and stayed injury free. What more could an athlete or a coach want!?

Here's the part you've been waiting for--the exercise section:

1. Russian leg curls
2. Good-mornings
3. Hip extensions (add weight if necessary)
4. Single leg RDL
5. Barbell hip thrusters
6. Stability ball leg curls 
7. Single leg sliding leg curl (advanced)
8. Slow eccentric RDLs
9. Reverse hypers
10. Stiff legged deadlifts

Not only will you have a better-looking rear-end, you'll be stronger, faster, and more injury resistant. Sounds like a win, win, win to me. Build those posterior chains!

Works Cited:

1. Askling, C., J. Karlsson, and A. Thorstensson. "Hamstring Injury Occurrence in Elite Soccer Players after Preseason Strength Training with Eccentric Overload." Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports Scand J Med Sci Sports 15.1 (2005): 65. Web.
2. Blazevich, Anthony John. "Optimizing Hip Musculature For Greater Sprint Running Speed." Strength and Conditioning Journal 22.2 (2000): 22. Web.
3. Clark, Ross, Adam Bryant, John-Paul Culgan, and Ben Hartley. "The Effects of Eccentric Hamstring Strength Training on Dynamic Jumping Performance and Isokinetic Strength Parameters: A Pilot Study on the Implications for the Prevention of Hamstring Injuries." Physical Therapy in Sport 6.2 (2005): 67-73. Web.
4. Mjolsnes, Roald, Arni Arnason, Tor Osthagen, Truls Raastad, and Roald Bahr. "A 10-week Randomized Trial Comparing Eccentric vs. Concentric Hamstring Strength Training in Well-trained Soccer Players." Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports Scand J Med Sci Sports 14.5 (2004): 311-17. Web.
5. Moir, Gavin, Ross Sanders, Chris Button, and Mark Glaister. "The Effect of Resistance Training on Hip-Knee Continuous Relative Phase Measures during Accelerative Sprinting." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 39.Supplement (2007): n. pag. Web.
6. Nuckols, Greg. "Hamstrings: The Most Overrated Muscle for the Squat 2.0 • Strengtheory." Strengtheory. N.p., 29 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 May 2015.
7. Sugiura, Yusaku, Tomoyuki Saito, Keishoku Sakuraba, Kazuhiko Sakuma, and Eiichi Suzuki. "Strength Deficits Identified With Concentric Action of the Hip Extensors and Eccentric Action of the Hamstrings Predispose to Hamstring Injury in Elite Sprinters." J Orthop Sports Phys Ther Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 38.8 
8. Sundby, Øyvind H., and Mark L.s. Gorelick. "Relationship Between Functional Hamstring." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 28.8 (2014): 2214-227. Web.

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Healthy, Easy, Power Protein Pasta

Sometimes when I on a roll with recipe creating, I get in way too deep. What I mean by that: my dishes get really weird. Least we forget that sometimes more simple is more better. Ha. As I was creating my meal plan and grocery list last week, I was not in the mood for any of it. I wanted something simple -- something wholesome and filling. That is when I know it is time for me to get back to the basics.

Often times we get so caught up in the newest miracle food or diet that is up and coming and forget the "good ole foods". I am extremely guilty of that. A healthy style is all about balance. I cannot stress it enough. We all need different nutrients in moderation. I threw together a very simple, easy, filling, and nutritious recipe for my lunches this week. It is packed with protein, complex carbohydrates, vegetables, and it tastes delicious. A small portion of this goes a long way - trust me.

What you need:

- 6 oz's (half a box) Barilla Vegetable Based Pasta. Buy it here

   I like this better than brown rice pasta, whole grain, or whole wheat. It is made with freshly pureed tomatoes and carrots. You only need a VERY small portion of this pasta in this dish. The noodles are big.

- 1 pound of extra lean ground turkey (or chicken or beef, your choice)

- Half a bag of fresh spinach (add other vegetables as you wish)

- 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese 

- 1 container of organic garden vegetable sauce

   I normally puree tomatoes myself, but for this recipe I did not so I could have more flavor. As you see pictured above, I only had about 3/4 of a container. I would reccomend a full one. Because extra lean met has not fat and can be quite dry, more sauce helps with the taste and texture. I buy organic sauce at specialty grocery stores. The ingredients tend to be more wholesome and fresh.

What do you do:

- Boil noodles

- Cook meat until almost fully done via stove top in a pan

   This will also cook in the oven so leaving it a little undone will not make the meat as dry.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat baking pan of your choice thoroughly with nonstick spray

   I used a small baking pan.

- Once noodles are al dente, pour them in said baking pan, along with tomato sauce and fresh spinach. Mix thoroughly.

- Add turkey meat and mix thoroughly again

- Top with crumbled feta

- Bake for 20 minutes

Nutrition Information:

1 serving; 7 total servings 

This will vary based upon portion size, brands and ingredients used. This is to be used as a guide only.

Calories - 200

Fat - 4g

Carbohydrates - 23g

Fiber - 6g

Protein - 21g

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Why You Need to Have a Big Butt

Having a big butt is certainly preferable for models twerking in rap videos, but it's also extremely important in athletic performance. Weather you're a soccer player, a running back or just simply working out to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to make sure you're giving your butt the attention it deserves.

I know what you're thinking: "But Arianna! I can squat 250 pounds. My glutes are really strong!" In a perfect world, you would achieve glute activation in the back squat, but many of the back squats I see people execute in the gym make use of the anterior quadriceps muscle and recruit minimal activation from their posterior chain. The truth is, if you are a predominantly sedentary person (meaning you sit for 4+ hours a day at home or at work), you probably don't know how to correctly activate your glutes because you're not using them for the majority of the day. Fear not--you are part of the American majority who sits at a desk job all day. It's no wonder that we don't know how to activate the right muscle groups considering we don't use them as often as we should.

Underactive or weak glutes can cause a ton of problems, including lower back pain, knee pain, IT band syndrome, and a whole slew of other maladies. Your quadriceps may be strong enough to squat 250 lbs, but guess what? If you learned how to activate your glutes properly, you would easily squat over 300 lbs.

The gluteus maximus (one of three muscles that make up what we collectively call the "glutes") is the biggest muscle in your body. Now, if we learn how to properly employ the strength of this tremendous group of muscles, we are going to see some real magic happen. Whether we're doing a deadlift, a squat, a box jump or a clean and jerk, we need to learn to properly harness the power from our glutes in order to move the most amount of weight and avoid injury.

In order to utilize the strength of the ever-powerful gluteal muscles, we must focus on activating them. Some great exercises can be found in my previous article about warm-ups, but I'll list a few more that I really like here:

• Single leg or weighted glute bridges
• Banded walks
• Reverse hyper extensions
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts
• GHD raise
• Bulgarian split squats
• Reverse lunges
• Side plank with abduction

Once you learn to properly engage your posterior chain, you will see tremendous gains in strength while simultaneously protecting your body from injury. If you have humongous quadriceps and a small butt, that should be a red flag to you that your glutes needs some more attention. Channel your inner Nicki Minaj and start building a bigger booty!

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Plyometrics and Power

Looking to get stronger, fitter, faster, and more powerful? Plyometrics, or fast, explosive movements, are a great way to improve your overall fitness levels and get your heart rate up. Box jumps, jumping lunges, brad jumps and clapping push-ups are just a few examples of plyometric movements. These exercises require no equipment and help you develop explosive power that will ultimately lead to increases in strength and speed.

These movements make use of your fast twitch muscle fibers (as opposed to the slow twitch muscle fibers used predominantly used in strength training) to create as a tremendous amount of strength and speed in a very short period of time.

In a lift like the squat, powerful hips will help you get out of the hole once the weight gets heavy. Exercises like the box jump or broad jump help to develop that explosive power that will ultimately translate to squatting or deadlifting more weight. Likewise, clapping push-ups can really teach an athlete how to develop bar speed on a bench press.

One study at Western Michigan University showed that a 6-week plyometric training program significantly increased the agility of athletes. The amount of power developed in a successful plyometric program can ultimately translate to other activities such as shuttle sprints.

Assuming you really pay attention to the way you perform these movements (focusing on stability), there are numerous benefits to plyometric training. At the end of your next workout, spend about 10-15 minutes on a few, quick sets of explosive exercises. Focus on form, then speed. Once you get the form down, you will see your strength and overall athletic performance skyrocket.

1. Gehri, Daniel J., Mark D. Ricard, Douglas M. Kleiner, and Donald T. Kirkendall. "A Comparison of Plyometric Training Techniques for Improving Vertical Jump Ability and Energy Production." The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 12.2 (1998): 85. Print.
2. Miller, Michael G., Jeremy J. Herniman, Mark D. Ricard, Christopher C. Cheatham, and Timothy J. Michael. "The Effects of a 6-Week Plyometric Training Program on Agility." Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 5 (2006): 459-65. Web.

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Squats: the King of All Exercises