 Winter Hours
The winter sessions are off and running are we happy to announce we will be adding more hours to the schedule! Cornerstone Sports Club Monday, Tuesday & Thursday from 4:30 - 5:30 pm MS/HS Strength & Speed Monday thru Thursday from 5:30 - 6:30 pm Personal Training Hours are available for personal training Monday thru Friday. If interested, send me a message with the word TURKEY and I will send you information regarding how to schedule.
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What I Have Been Thinking About...
We had a freedom of speech debate in PE this week that kind of relates to this whole Jimmy Kimmel saga. A student compared the fitness activity (shuttle run, jump rope, and pushups) to slavery. A bit dramatic and this did not go over well with their classmates. They told the individual not to say that and it turned into a conversation about free speech. In this example (and Kimmel) I believe the person said something potentially offensive or insensitive. Other people heard it and said that it was not a good idea. The person who made the statement then evaluates their choice of words and learns from it... hopefully. That to me is how free speech should work. There should not be some authoritative type of figure that dictates what can or cannot be said. Let people talk. They may expose themselves as something you didn't envision or you may actually learn from it! Am I Getting Old? I think I have tendinitis... or arthritis... or something else that ends in an 'itis. Over the years I would occasionally have some weird heel pain and/or mild ankle swelling that would come and go. I typically would just chalk it up to something I did in the previous day and leave it at that. Well, things changed a bit this week. While cleaning out one of our out buildings I threw something into our dumpster and I felt a little bubble pop at the bottom of the Achilles tendon. After the pop there was a mild burning sensation that lasted a day or two. No bueno! Fast forward a few days and I am in the gym working out and my wrists were feeling beat up. I should have taken this as a warning sign but pushed on and did one more set. These were my famous last words. As I attempt one final rep, some crunching occurs in my wrist, I drop the bar and yell out "ahhh" and start calling myself a dumbass (a few dozen times) because I thought I seriously hurt my wrist. So what do we do now? Rest and Revive ! Fitness Tip of the Week I have been collaborating with a bunch of guys on developing a training program for a new gym opening in downtown Easton. The place is called Boxology and it is set to open up in mid-October. There are a bunch of great people involved in this project and I am excited to be a part of it and get this thing started! After all the talks, with MMA coaches, Boxing coaches, fitness coaches, sales/marketing people, the talk always turns back to numbers and having measurable data. You need a Point A (starting point) if you want to get to Point B (your goal). As you embark on a program, having these measurables is vital. It is how you gauge whether you are on the right path or the wrong path. With nothing to measure, we don't know if what we are doing is right. So here is my advice: Pick one exercise or activity. Identify where you are right now (Point A), follow a program to improve yourself, and track your progress. Do this for 4 weeks. Retest and reassess. Incremental Gains... What could 5% weight loss do for you? Well, as it turns out, a lot! I was chatting with a friend about weight loss and we came to the conclusion that a little goes a long way. Don't believe me? Type in "benefits of losing 5% of your weight" into google and you will see improved cholesterol, reduced blood pressure, improved insulin sensitivity, improved mobility, better sleep, and the list goes on. So what does this look like in the real world? Lets say you weigh 300 pounds and you want to drop some weight. Losing 5% will reduce your weight down to 285, which still has you in the overweight category, but you will start seeing all those improvements listed above. This feeling then cascades into other areas of life. You start to realize that you're sleeping better so maybe you stop drinking that glass of wine to unwind at the end of the day. Maybe you notice your pants are feeling a little looser, your body doesn't ache as much, and your mood has been better. When the second servings or dessert come out, you start asking yourself "do I really need this?" More often than not, that answer will be a NO! All of these little wins build up to major wins if you stay patient, stay on the path, and keep the end in mind! Quote of the Week "Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive" -- Andy Grove I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck What I Have Been Thinking About...
I came across a sign a few days ago that read something like, "You are awesome the way you are!" and I thought " hmm, that is interesting". The reason I had that thought is that I was just coming in from a training session where we were running around, encouraging kids to get a little better, and to work hard at accomplishing something. I thought to myself, if you are awesome the way that you are will you ever work on improving? Is it possible to become more awesome or will you stay satisfied with just being regular awesome? This led me to my next thought... On Teaching... I had a conversation with a veteran teacher this week about labels. For example, there are a bunch of kids with an ADHD diagnosis that we work with. They have a hard time focusing and sitting still and we understand that. As a teacher, we have a choice: work with them and help them manage certain aspects of their life orlet it be? I always err on the side of helping and I think most things can be changed if work is put in. The idea is something like this: Lets say a kid can sit still for 4 seconds and we begin working on ways to manage this. Before you know it, the kid reaches 8 seconds. Then 15, then 30, and so on. They still have a tough time managing those quiet, idle moments in school but they are improving. As this goes on, we help them through it, offer ideas and solutions, watch them succeed (hopefully) and then they learn that they have the ability to change their behaviors if given proper practice and attention. This builds self-efficacy (the belief in your own ability to achieve a specific goal) and encourages the child not to view the way their mind works as a crutch or flaw. Fitness Tip of the Week I was talking with a friend who had an injured leg and we began chatting about working out while injured. In his mind, sitting idle was not an option and he wanted to train as much of his body as possible without further damaging or negatively effecting his injury. I told him this was a great idea as there is something called the cross-education effect that offers up some pretty incredible healing benefits! This effect is a neuromuscular phenomenon where resistance training on one side of the body (the uninjured side) leads to increased strength in the opposite limb (the injured side). So, if your right leg is hurt and in a cast, training your left side will result in less muscle atrophy and less strength loss. It is pretty cool! This effect is thought to be primarily a neural adaptation, with strength gains transferring from the trained to the untrained side due to changes in the motor cortex. On School... I have been subbing a few days per week and I have to say, it is a pretty sedentary profession! There is not a ton of fresh air, little to no movement, and most of the work is done while sitting. It is no bueno! This led me to ask myself, has it always been this way? A few years ago I read a book titled Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World by Kelly Starrett. It is a good one with plenty of eye opening statistics. The main gist of this book explains how excessive sitting leads to pain, increases the risk of heart disease, and causes other orthopedic problems. He then shares ways to combat this and offers four things that we can all implement with very little time commitment...
Quote of the Week "There is nothing permanent except change" — Heraclitus I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck We get a lot of questions about Sports Specific Training for kids so I wanted to address it with a detailed explanation.
Simply put, sports specific training is not necessary nor advised for youth athletes. I was recently speaking with a professional coach and athlete and we were in agreement that most sports require certain characteristics that can be applied to just about any sport in America. For example, if you get stronger, faster, or jump higher, it will probably make you better at your given sport. This is strength and power development and I feel it should account for about 80% of your training. To further prove what I am trying to say, there are certain exercises that are non-negotiables. If you search “Saquon Barkley Trap Bar Deadlift” a video of Saquon (a football player) doing a Trap Bar Deadlift will show up. If you search “Rory McIlroy Trap Bar Deadlift” A video of Rory McIlroy (a golfer) doing a Trap Bar Deadlift will show up. Two high level athletes, two totally different sports, both performing the same exercises. Now before you discredit any of this I will say that, YES there are specific demands for specific sports that are important to put an emphasis on. HOWEVER, it does not change how an athlete should get strong or powerful and in general really shouldn't change how they train too much at all. Where the real sports specific training piece comes into play is in the small accessory exercises or movements to help prepare an athlete for the demands they come into contact with on the field or court. This is the remaining 20% of the workout session. To wrap up this thought, when we are in the weight room, we build strength and power. The track is where we build conditioning. The field of play or court is where you build sport skill. Don't blend all three together into one session. When you chase everything, you end up catching nothing! Now when it comes to youth, anything sport specific should be avoided. Young athletes need to be good generalists before they become specialists. That being said, young athletes should focus on playing multiple sports and getting strong and powerful so they can perform and develop future skills. As they get older (16-18 years of age), they can narrow down the focus and train directly on whatever sport they choose and grow from there. Coach Chris What I Have Been Thinking About...
These past few years I have stumbled into working in schools and I have to say, I have been enjoying it. It all started when our daughter was in pre-school and they were in need of a Phys Ed teacher. They asked, I said yes, and from there it has expanded into something I never envisioned I would be doing. Two days each week I teach 7 different classes with kids aging from 3-13 years of age. It is a wild day filled with many ups and downs but it has been such a great experience so far. Then, on the other days of the week, I began working at the school where I coach Track and it is like a whole another world. This week I had a first: preparing for an ALICE drill. ALICE is a school safety protocol acronym that stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. It is interesting and I go back and forth on what I think of it. In one breath, I think it is important to be prepared for everything and have an evacuation plan. In another breath I think it is a bit too detailed for some age groups and I feel like you can still prepare without going into great depth on the circumstances surrounding the evacuation or lockdown. I am glad I got to learn and see what one of these drills is like and I feel better prepared to handle a situation in any place if it were to arise. Fitness Tip of the Week The Framingham Study is a 70-year longitudinal research program and what they discovered about longevity was pretty surprising. After gathering two decades worth of data for 5,200 subjects they discovered that the greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity. Large lungs equaled longer lives. So how does one improve lung capacity?
I had a nice conversation with a fellow dad this week about being a parent that can be involved in their kids life. This man had children late in his life and as the opportunity to retire presented itself, he jumped at it! In his mind, it was a no brainer to be at home, present, and involved so he can enjoy the years with his kids before they are too grown and out of the house. At some point during this talk we began chatting about health and fitness and how we both felt it was important to try and improve yourself so you can be as useful as possible in as many situations as possible. For example, if your kid wants to go for a hike and you need to carry a bunch of gear, you can be useful and be loaded up like a pack mule. Or what about in those instances where a buddy of yours needs help moving something heavy? Can you be useful and offer a hand or do you have to call up some young guys to show you how it is done? To me, being useful and feeling useful is important for ones psyche. After all, who wants to be called useless? What I've Been Reading... Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle My daughter loves watching the kid show Xavier's Riddles. This show shares information about historical figures and one of the episodes featured Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the classic series Sherlock Holmes. After I learned a bit about Doyle, I dove in to his novels and really enjoy them. They are quick and simple (which I am really appreciating at this moment in my life), thought provoking, and engaging as you try to crack the case alongside Holmes and his sidekick Watson. Thumbs up for these classics! Quote of the Week "Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles" -- Fyodor Dostoevsky I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck What I Have Been Thinking About...
One night as we were getting ready for bed our daughter shared how her life was tougher than the dogs. I agreed with her and shared that tough times are kind of a part of being a human. She asked why and the discussion went to the idea of opposites and contrasts. There is happy and sad, sunny and cloudy, dark and light. It is hard to appreciate happiness, sunny days, or lights without first experiencing the opposite. I shared that tough times make us appreciate the good times. In the moment, nobody likes the tough times but when all things are said and done, we come to realize that those tough times have some value. There is usually a lesson or two wrapped up in these experiences and it is on us to learn from it. Fitness Tip of the Week Last week we were getting prepared to visit family in Long Island and I was beginning to feel a bit run down. I had a day where I woke around 3 am and couldn't get back to bed so I chalked it up to lack of sleep but then the nose got snotty, the sinuses felt inflamed, and I didn't have too much pep in the step. I was officially getting a cold! This illness didn't materialize into anything too crazy but it did remind me of something I heard a few weeks ago. I was sitting in a conference and the speaker said, "You can have a million problems until you get sick. Then you only have one." When your sick, you focus on one thing: getting healthy. Now, imagine if we took this concept to everyday ailments, medical diagnosis, conditions, or injuries. Rather than living with something like high blood pressure or a bad knee, why not treat it like your sick, focus on getting that issue resolved, then move on through life feeling a little bit healthier. On Coaching... I spent over 10 seasons coaching high school football and one of the key deciding factors in not returning to the sidelines dealt with the egos of the other coaches. I would sit in coaches meetings or interact with guys from other coaching staffs and listen to them whine about things, talk insensitively about kids on the team (key word being kids), and so much more. Now fast forward a few years and my dad, in his retired years, decided to work at the local school and work on the chain gang for games. I crossed paths with him yesterday morning and he looked at me said, "You know what, these high football coaches just whine and complain all game". I said I know! As coaches we preach certain qualities and mantras that we want our athletes to adhere to. We want them to stay poised, not act out when things don't go your way, take it one play at a time, and so on. Then, when the competition begins, we as coaches model the exact opposite behaviors and feel that it is an acceptable thing to do so. In case you need to hear it from someone, IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE! What I've Been Watching... The Terminal List: Dark Wolf on Amazon First and foremost, before diving into this, you really want to the watch The Terminal List season one. Marisa and I both loved the series and it is one of those shows that has you sitting on the edge of your seat wanting more. Dark Wolf is a prequel and it gives a little bit of a back story on how the characters became who they became. In Dark Wolf, "Navy SEAL Ben Edwards works CIA black ops. As he delves deeper into moral gray areas, he struggles between light and dark impulses - two wolves fighting within him." If you want more, I highly recommend the Terminal List book series. I read just about all of them and it is one of the only fiction series that I eagerly await the next book! Quote of the Week "Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” - Jerzy Gregorek I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck What I Have Been Thinking About...
You cannot choose your parents. I am going to touch on this idea a little later in the newsletter but when it comes to life, some people draw the short straw and others draw the largest straw in the world. In both cases, the child has no say in any of it. This idea can be applied to genetic components like height and athleticism, or more behavioral qualities like having a loving and caring parent verse one that is manipulative, mean, or downright evil. In good news, the hand that you are dealt does not define who you will become. It is a factor but not the be-all and end-all. You still have an opportunity to play that hand in any way you wish. Some hands are tougher to play and it will take an extreme amount of courage or tactics to come out victorious but at the end of the day, if you are alive, you are still in the game. You still have time. You still have opportunities to win. Fitness Tip of the Week I was talking with a member this week and he asked about my opinion on exercise frequency. After little thought I just said it has to become a non-negotiable and part of your daily routine in one form or another. This concept can sound overwhelming to many of us but I think there is a simple mantra that we can apply and it is little and often over the long haul. We do not need to have an elaborate training program, the most high tech gear, or even access to a gym. We just have to get up and move! Four Ideas to add more physical activity...
On Coaching... "The Man Who Chases Two Rabbits, Catches Neither" -- Confucius I was listening to a few guys discuss MMA and they were talking about the approach one of the current champ takes. This guy at the moment is untouchable and his style is so well rounded that it begs the question, how does he do it? Well, as it turns out, he doesn't chase more than one rabbit at a time. He compartmentalizes his training, he boxes with pro boxers, he wrestles with the best wrestlers, and he works on jiu jitsu with the best jiu jitsu guys. As he develops those individual disciplines, he then makes it his own. Like MMA, there are a lot of qualities that need to be worked on in order to be successful in most sports. In my opinion, each session should have a point of emphasis. The field is for sport. The track is for speed or conditioning. The weight room is for strength. Once you maximize those qualities, you can then make a style of your own. What I've Been Watching... The Girl in the Picture (trailer here) I have been treating documentaries like podcasts and listened to this one while cleaning up the house last week. This story is just heartbreaking with so many dark twists and turns that it leaves you speechless. My brain cannot conceptualize the dichotomy that is in each and every one of us humans. Some people go out and do bad things in the world, other people go out and do good. This story has a little bit of both and it makes me wonder about what leads people to do the things that they do. Quote of the Week “A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.” ― James Allen I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck Girl Power (ages 6-10) Mondays from 4:30-5:30 pm
A fun, high-energy fitness class designed to help girls build strength, confidence, and resilience—both inside and outside the gym. Through a mix of strength training, conditioning, and teamwork-based activities, participants will improve their athletic abilities while learning the value of discipline, perseverance, and self-belief. This class is about more than just fitness—it’s about empowering young women to feel strong, capable, and proud of what their bodies can do. Whether it’s lifting, running, or moving with purpose, Girl Power is where girls come together to train, grow, and thrive! Click Here to Register: GIRL POWER! Cornerstone Sports Club (ages 6-10) Tuesday & Thursday from 4:30 - 5:30 pm This program introduces young athletes to a variety of sports and activities in a fun, supportive environment. Each session focuses on building fundamental skills like running, jumping, throwing, catching, and teamwork—helping kids develop coordination, confidence, and a love for being active. Through age-appropriate drills, games, and challenges, participants not only improve their athletic abilities but also learn valuable life skills such as sportsmanship, cooperation, and perseverance. Whether your child is trying sports for the first time or looking to build a strong foundation for the future, our club provides the perfect balance of fitness, fun, and friendship. Click Here to Register: CORNERSTONE SPORTS CLUB Intro to Strength & Speed: Tuesday & Thursday 5:00 - 6:00 pm This class is designed for athletes who are ready to build a solid foundation in strength training and speed development. Through age-appropriate exercises and drills, participants will learn proper lifting technique, bodyweight strength movements, and explosive speed mechanics. The focus is on teaching correct form, improving coordination, and developing the fundamental skills needed for long-term athletic success. Whether your goal is to get faster on the field, stronger in the weight room, or simply build confidence in your athletic ability, this program provides the tools to take that first step. Click Here to Register: INTRO TO STRENGTH & SPEED MS/HS Strength & Speed (11 and up) Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 5:30 - 6:30 pm This performance-driven class is built for middle school and high school athletes looking to elevate their game. Each session focuses on developing total-body strength, explosive speed, and athletic power through proven training methods. Athletes will work on sprint mechanics, resistance training, plyometrics, and agility drills designed to enhance performance in any sport. With an emphasis on proper form, injury prevention, and measurable progress, this class helps athletes move stronger, run faster, and compete at a higher level. Click Here to Register: STRENGTH & SPEED Full Schedule Available here: FALL TRAINING SCHEDULE Four-Day Sports Camp for Kids (Ages 6-10)
Can you believe summer is almost over? I surely cannot but I hope that we can end it with a bang! On August 18th we are launching our final four day sports camp for the summer. Over the course of four days, participants will be introduced to a variety of physical activities in a supportive and energetic environment. Kids will enjoy:
Our experienced and friendly coaches ensure every child feels included, regardless of their skill level. With a focus on safety, fun, and skill development, this camp is perfect for young athletes or kids just looking to try something new. Space is limited for these camps. To guarantee your spot, sign up today! Good Afternoon,
We’re excited to announce a brand-new lineup of training camps coming this August! Whether your athlete is looking to build strength, boost speed, or sharpen their skills before the school year starts, we’ve got a camp for them. For kids aged 6-10...
— Coach Chris |
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