When you're such an impressive physical specimen as Vernon Davis (6'3", 250 pounds), it's hard not to stand out. But the San Francisco 49ers' star tight end is up for a challenge. Vernon dons a disguise (as the aptly named Sycamore) and hits up his Jamba Juice store in Santa Clara, Calif., to see whether his loyal customers would recognize him.

For more Vernon, check out our two-part interview: here Vernon talks offseason motivation and nutrition challenges, and here he talks owning your style.

Are you ready for some Madden NFL 15? To celebrate the release of the new game on Tuesday, August 26, we have a Madden NFL 15 Xbox One Bundle to give away. The new Madden NFL 15 features all-new camera angles on defense, new options to pressure quarterbacks and more aggressive defensive options, an improved broadcast experience  and a skills module that teaches gameplay, strategy and football concepts. If you win this, you'll be hosting more than Monday Night Football at your house this fall. Why? Because the new bundle includes:

• Download code for Madden NFL 15 on Xbox One
• Standard Xbox One console
• Standard Xbox One wireless controller
• Standard Xbox One chat headset
• Special edition Madden NFL 15 packaging
• Token for three Madden NFL Ultimate Team Pro Packs

Enter Now (August 22- August 26)

Are you excited? Well if you are, then get seriously pumped with this awesome trailer:

Want to know the best thing you can do right now to improve your physique, strength, and health? Stop sweating the small stuff. If you’re eating healthy and working out—imperfect as your approach may be—you’re already well on your way to a better body. That’s because most of the fitness rules you supposedly have to follow to see results are bunk. The following are some classic fitness falsehoods, many of which you’ve likely fallen for in the past. It’s time to set the record straight.

10 Reasons You're Not Building Muscle >>> 

Fitness Myth No. 1 
“YOU HAVE TO DO HIIT TO BURN FAT.” 

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is among the biggest trends in fitness now, and a popular form of cardiovascular training. Intense intervals— alternating bouts of all-out activity with periods of rest or light activity, usually wrapping up in about 20 minutes—have been hyped as a way to burn maximum calories in a short period of time. The claim is mainly based on the idea of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which refers to the body processing more oxygen in the days after an intense workout to encourage recovery (which in turn leads to a heightened metabolic rate). Therefore, while HIIT workouts are short, EPOC allows them to cause a fat-burning effect that lasts many times longer. 

While EPOC is a real phenomenon, its impact on your body fat is disappointingly small. A 2006 report in the Journal of Sports Science found that “the earlier research optimism regarding an important role for the EPOC in weight loss is generally unfounded.” Additionally, “the exercise stimuli required to promote prolonged EPOC are unlikely to be tolerated by non-athletic individuals.” So, if you’re fairly new to training, you’ve got a long way to go before HIIT will be of any help. 

John Alvino, a trainer and nutrition coach in Morristown, NJ, recommends a much simpler cardio regimen—five to 10 minutes of jumping rope at the end of a training session, which is plenty to condition the heart for the demands of your weight training and a generally active lifestyle. And if your goal is weight loss, simply cut calories. “Train with weights, walk more, and be active,” says Alvino— you don’t need HIIT to change your body. 

Break the Rules, Build More Muscle >>>

Fitness Myth No. 2 
“YOU HAVE TO LIFT HEAVY TO BUILD MUSCLE.” 

Lifting more weight recruits more muscle fibers and results in growth, but it’s not the only means you can use to stimulate muscle gains. “Muscle can be built in a wide variety of rep ranges,” says John Meadows, C.S.C.S., a competitive bodybuilder and physique coach (mountaindogdiet .com). “The scientific research has demonstrated that overall volume of weight is what builds muscle over time, not just how heavy the weight is.” 

Lighter training allows you greater volume (sets and reps) in a given workout without taxing your joints and connective tissues. It can also allow you to establish a better “mind-muscle connection,” whereby you get a better contraction in your muscles by thinking about them working while you lift. “And for muscle groups that act on smaller joints, such as arms, shoulders, and calves,” says Meadows, “lighter weights can be more effective than heavier ones, as these areas can become thrashed with heavy loading.” Think about how much you can curl—it hasn’t increased over the years like your bench press, but if you’ve been consistent, your arms are bigger. Isolation exercises work best with lighter loads. 

Fitness Myth No. 3 
“THE POST-WORKOUT WINDOW IS CRUCIAL FOR BUILDING MUSCLE.” 

Over the past decade, the notion of nutrient timing has gained steam. The idea, despite conflicting research, is that consuming protein right after a weight workout (up to an hour, usually) will maximize the muscle-building effect of the session. While many experts believe there’s value to this“post-workout window” theory, most still acknowledge that the overall amount of food you eat has the greatest effect. As long as you hit the number of calories you need daily, along with the right combo of macronutrients, you’ll grow. 

A meta-analysis of 23 studies published by the International Society of Sports Nutrition in 2013 found that research does not support the claim that protein consumption within one hour after training—or one hour before—is significantly beneficial for increasing strength or muscle mass. Furthermore, the researchers observed that cases where protein taken around workout time did yield a positive effect were due to an overall increase in protein intake—not the timing of it. 

Ask Men's Fitness: Can I Still Use the Bowflex I Found in My Attic >>>

Fitness Myth No. 4 
“MACHINES SUCK FOR BUILDING MUSCLE.” 

Just as lifting lighter weights can help you avoid injury, machines are a wise option when you’re injured. By forcing you to move the weight along a preset path of motion, machines stabilize the load for you, which can make training easier on your joints. This isn’t ideal for a beginner, who needs to activate his stabilizers to build strength, but intermediate lifters or those who need substitutions for certain exercises shouldn’t write off machines. 

Meadows points out that machines allow you to use techniques that take your muscles to failure, such as dropsets (where you perform a set, reduce the load quickly, and continue pumping out reps), with little risk of getting hurt. 

Furthermore, “machines can be more effective than free weights, depending on your body type,” says Meadows. If you’re tall, squatting may not build your legs as well as leg presses. 

Fitness Myth No. 5 
“BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY.” 

“It’s a common argument that eating breakfast stabilizes your blood sugar for the rest of the day,” says Alvino. “But the reality is that when you get up in the morning, your blood sugar is already stable from the fast you had overnight. That’s why if you’re getting blood work done, [your doctor asks] you to come in fasted, first thing in the morning. Ingesting food will only raise blood sugar.” 

But doesn’t breakfast help us lose weight? Well, a 2011 study in the journal Obesity indicates dinner might be more beneficial. Subjects who ate most of their carbs at dinner for six months lost more weight, abdominal circumference, and body fat than a control group following a more conventional diet. The big-dinner eaters also controlled hunger better throughout the day. 

However, if you enjoy breakfast, or feel starved in the morning, Alvino says you can feel free to keep eating it—again, it’s the number of calories you consume over time that determines weight loss or gain, not the exact timing of them. “Another reason people eat breakfast is their mom told them it’s the most important meal of the day,” says Alvino. “But when I look around, most mothers I see are obese. So if you want to get lean, why would you take advice from someone like that?” 

Food for thought. 

5 Ways You're Wasting Your Workouts >>>

Like all Grand Slam tournaments, the US Open men's draw is made up of 128 of the world's best competitors, with the winner needing to make it through seven grueling matches to hoist the trophy at the end of it all. Still, despite the best efforts of opposing pro players, these tournaments almost always seem to come down to the same guys, commonly known as the Big Four: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Their collective run of dominance - particularly by Federer and Nadal in the 2000s, has been unprecedented in the ultra-competitive modern world of sports, and has lasted just over a decade. Since the start of 2004, these four have won 39 of the last 43 Slams, 24 of which came down to Finals between two of the rivals (including 14 of the last 16).

All that said, Nadal won’t be around for this one due to injury. So, with Nadal out of the bracket, can Djokovic feed off his triumph at Wimbledon last month? Can Murray return to the form he was in for the 2012 and ’13 seasons? Or does Federer still have one more big win in the tank? Of course, there are plenty of other competitors vying for the title too (125 to be exact), but we’ll try to keep it simple in this preview.

Ace Your US Open Style >>>

Rafael Nadal, Spain, No. 2

Sure, Nadal’s out with a right wrist injury (he’s lefty but needs both hands for his backhand returns), but his absence is so massive it’s worth going over what we’ll be missing without him. Rafa is the defending champ at the US Open, where he outlasted Djokovic in last year’s Final, breaking Novak’s resolve with a comeback win in the third set and then finishing him with an efficient 6-1 win in the fourth. Since then, he lost this year’s Australian Open Final, snagged his ninth French Open title (he has 14 Slam wins overall) and uncharacteristically bowed out in the fourth round of Wimbledon in July. Nadal’s greatness is undeniable, although his health and occasionally inconsistent play (like his shaky Wimbledon performance this year) have hindered him from exhibiting perennial dominance on non-clay surfaces.

Sports Injuries: Tennis Elbow >>>

The Tennis Workout >>>

Regardless, Nadal is still in his prime at the age of 28 and has appeared in 12 of the last 18 Grand Slam Finals, so his injury leaves a huge window of opportunity for the remaining members of the Big Four, as well as for several other players like Stan Wawrinka (no. 4), who grabbed his first Slam title earlier this season over Rafa in Australia, or David Ferrer (no. 5), who reached his first Slam Final in last year’s French Open (a loss to Rafa, naturally).

Roger Federer, Switzerland, No. 3

At the age of 33, Federer has collected a record 17 Grand Slam titles and is widely considered the Greatest Of All Time by experts and online message board trolls alike. Still, the man hasn’t won a Slam since breaking Andy Murray and his country’s heart at the 2012 Wimbledon Final, but it’s not for lack of trying. Fed has remained at the top of the game and fought back from a back injury that badly hindered his 2013 season. He returned to his familiar post in the Wimbledon Final earlier this summer, where he pushed Djokovic (six years his junior) to a classic five-set match, rallying back from a 2-5 deficit in the fourth set only to lose in the fifth, 4-6.

Tennis is a young man’s game, and Fed’s heyday of his early-to-mid-20s, when he won 11 Slams from 2004 thru ’07, are long over. Even so, that doesn’t count him out of any given tournament, and Federer’s improved health and methodical approach this season prove that he can still go the distance in these tournaments and give himself a solid chance to grab one more Slam. Plus, the top-ranked opponent on his side of the draw is Ferrer, and it’s tough to ignore his 10-23 career record against Nadal – the only man who’s had consistent success against Federer throughout his career. In 2009, Fed snagged the career Grand Slam by winning his only French Open while Rafa was sidelined with a knee injury. Perhaps he’ll take advantage again in trying to snag his 18th, and perhaps last, Grand Slam title at this year’s US Open.

Novak Djokovic, Serbia, No. 1

Spending the early part of his career in the shadow of the legendary Federer-Nadal rivalry, Djokovic has gotten over the hump and proven himself as the best player in the world in recent years – at least for considerable stretches of time. With Federer aging, he’s nudged his way next to Rafa as tennis’ 1-2 punch in the rankings. Novak has seven Grand Slam titles under his belt and has been aggressively contending for championships over the past four years, appearing in 12 of the past 16 Slam Finals (he’s also lost seven championship matches as well).

Novak Djokovic: What It Takes to Win >>>

There are virtually no flaws in Djokovic’s game, so it’s really about him being in the best state of mind with the best fitness level possible. In 2011, his surge of dominance, in which he won 41 straight matches to start the year and three of four Grand Slams that season (along with the Australian Open to start 2012), was widely credited to his decision to utilize a gluten-free diet (gluten sensitivity has since been debunked, but it clearly improved his diet and psychological handle on the game). Coming off a huge victory at Wimbledon last month, he should have a great mentality entering the US Open, even with the possibility of having to face Murray in the quarters, Wawrinka in semis and a rematch with Federer in the Final.

Andy Murray, UK, No. 9

Often thought of as the world’s fourth-best player, Murray has had his share of struggles lately – as evidenced by his slipping to no. 9 in the world rankings. Unfortunately, Murray just hasn’t established himself as a consistent force to be reckoned with since that turbulent legacy-changing year between July 2012 and July 2013. He wept in front of his country in a heart-wrenching post-match interview following his loss at the ’12 Wimbledon Final, but came back to win a gold medal at the Olympics later that month, then his first Grand Slam title at the US Open later that summer before returning to win the next year’s Wimbledon Final over Djokovic.

Unfortunately, he just hasn’t been playing at that world-class level since, losing in straight sets to lesser-known competitors like Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov in recent Slams. Perhaps the low point was failing to reach the Wimbledon semis for the first time since 2008, while attempting to defend his title. But all things considered, he’s still young at age 27, it hasn’t been too terrible of a backslide, and he should be able to at least reach a quarterfinal matchup with Djokovic. He’s 8-12 in his career against Novak, so it’s totally plausible to think he can pull off the upset, survive semis and defeat a 33-year-old Roger Federer in the Final – if he can play to his potential throughout the tournament.

One muscle-building strategy is called time-under-tension, the gist being that you can force your muscles to grow by exhausting them (for a longer period of time) during a set. You can do this in two ways: more reps (of course), and pausing a movement of an exercise. With countdown sets, you accomplish both at the same time. Head over here for the complete workout. Then watch the video to see our training director Sean Hyson demonstrate proper form of the moves.

Day 1 of the Countdown Sets Workout:

DIRECTIONS
Perform each workout (Days I, II, and III) once per week, resting a day between each session. Perform exercises marked with a letter (“A,” “B,” and sometimes “C,” or even “D”) in sequence, rest- ing as needed in between. So you’ll do a set of A, rest, then B, rest again, and re- peat until all the prescribed sets are done. Perform the remaining exercises as straight sets.

1A. Deadlift
Sets: 4   Reps: 5

1B. Pushup
Sets: 3  Reps: Count down from 6

2A. Lat Pulldown
Sets: 3  Reps: Count down from 5

2B. Triceps Pushdown
Sets: 3  Reps: 15

2C. Barbell Rollout
Sets: 3  Reps: 12

3. Goblet Squat
Sets: 1  Reps: Count down from 6
 

When Portland Trailblazers star Damian Lillard got cut from the USA Basketball squad over the weekend, he didn’t sulk about it. He reminded his Twitter followers that he was “good” and proceeded to strut out in grand style, posting an image of a red, blinged-out Star Wars trooper walking out with a boombox in hand and thick gold chain around his neck.

It served as a reminder of just how cool Lillard is. That cool-factor is just part of the reason why he was selected to be the cover athlete of EA Sports’ NBA LIVE 15.

“Being the face of a video game says a lot because you represent that game," Lillard said. “I can just think back to being a kid, and even know, when I think back to playing a game, the first way to tell somebody what game you’re talking about is to say 'who’s on the cover of the game?' Just the thought that there will be kids one day saying ‘that NBA LIVE, you know, the one with Damian Lillard on it,’ that means a lot to me.”

The Oakland-native said he spent a full day working with the game producers to capture his likeness, his cross-over dribble, his jump shot and even his mannerisms and facial expressions. Landing the game cover is another accomplishment on a growing list for the 24-year old, who has been making waves in the NBA since catapulting into the spotlight after spending four years at Weber State University. 

Lillard played with Team USA's as the team prepped for the World Cup in Spain until the roster was reduced to 12 players, but he is taking a lot of positives from the experience. “Not a lot of guys get the opportunity to play against the best players every day in practice, to be around them and to see their habits and how they approach practice,” Lillard said last week before the cuts were announced. “There’s a lot of stuff I can learn from them, so it’s been a great experience so far.”

After winning the 2012-13 Rookie of the Year, Lillard made an even bigger case for why he should be considered one of the best young players in the league last season. He earned his first All-Star appearance and competed in all three skills events and hit the most memorable shot of the 2014 NBA playoffs, a Game 6 buzzer-beater against Houston, that helped land the Blazers in the second round for the first time in 14 years. Lillard then signed a monster contract extension with Adidas that puts him on par with the highest-paid endorsers in the league.

Lillard talked to Men's Fitness about his time with USA Basketball, his style and his eating habits now that LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have sworn off carbs.

Who surprised you as the best athlete in the USA Basketball training camp?

I think everybody here is in really good shape. But I think Kenneth Faried is a monster with his motor and how hard he plays and goes after rebounds and loose balls. The same for Anthony Davis. He’s just so long and runs the court like a deer.

The Basketball Performance Workout>>>

How will your personal style reflect your influence in your Adidas apparel?

I’m really into fitted stuff. The tapered sweats, the hoodies, the three-quarter cut-off shorts, tank tops, graphic t-shirts, snapback (hats) and beanies. Just relaxed gear. That’s what I like.

Does your style originates from your neighborhood in Oakland, or have you started to develop and style your own look?

I think growing up, I’ve started to like different things. I think certain things look good and I don’t really care what other people think or what people think is nice. Whatever I look at and I like, if I try something and it looks good on me, in my eyes, that’s the style I get comfortable with.

LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony made big news with their off-season no-carb diets, is that something you’ll try?

Actually just a couple weeks ago, I got on a different meal plan. I wouldn’t even call it a diet because I’m not as big as those guys. I just got on a more strict meal plan where I don’t eat as much sugar and salt and fried food. Just for health reasons, to feel better and take better care of my body and treat it like the machine that it is so it can function better and longer.

Late last month we launched our newest transformation program, the 21 Day Shred. It's a full training routine with full body circuits, traditional bodybuilding splits, intervals, and cardio challenges. Here is one of the staple ab routines from the program. So whether you're taking on THE SHRED, or working on your our routine, here's something to add to your arsenal. 

Build a perfect body. Download your copy of the 21 Day Shred >>>

MEDICINE BALL SLAM

Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rest: 0

MEDICINE BALL V-UP

Sets: 3
Reps: 20
Rest: 60 seconds

PUNCHER'S PUSH UP

Sets: 3
Reps: 5 each side
Rest: 0

MEDICINE BALL TOE TOUCH

Sets: 3
Reps: 15
Rest: 60 seconds

RUSSIAN TWIST

Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rest: 0

SIDE PLANK

Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rest: 60 seconds

Countdown sets is a muscle-building strategy where you force your muscles to grow by pausing an exercise at a point in its range of motion. Head over here for the complete workout, and here for video of Day I. Then watch our training director Sean Hyson demonstrate proper form of the moves from Day II.

Day 2 of the Countdown Sets Workout:

DIRECTIONS
Perform each workout (Days I, II, and III) once per week, resting a day between each session. Perform exercises marked with a letter (“A,” “B,” and sometimes “C,” or even “D”) in sequence, resting as needed in between. So you’ll do a set of A, rest, then B, rest again, and repeat until all the prescribed sets are done. Perform the remaining exercises as straight sets.

1A. Bench Press
Sets: 4   Reps: 5

1B. Bulgarian Split Squat
Sets: 3  Reps: Count down from 5

2A. Chinup
Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible

2B. Lateral Raise
Sets: 3  Reps: Countdown from 6

2C. Side Plank
Sets: 3  Reps: Hold for 30 sec. (each side)

3A. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
Sets: 3  Reps: 10 (each side)

3B. Lying Triceps Extension
Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Whether you’re into CrossFit or not, you have to acknowledge that its benchmark WODs (Workout of the Day) are great measures of overall fitness. That’s why CrossFit trainers have their participants repeat them regularly to measure progress. If your time goes down or your “points” go up, you can be sure you’ve gotten stronger, faster, more durable, and probably leaner (as a positive side effect). 

For some out-of-the-box hacks to help you improve your performance on the most popular CrossFit WODs, we got in the box with Rob Orlando, a Reebok-sponsored CrossFit competitor and the owner of Hybrid Athletics in Stamford, CT. For each WOD, we suggest first giving it a try on your own to establish a baseline, then implementing Orlando’s tips as you improve. 

Men's Fitness Exclusive: CrossFit Confessions >>>

THE WORKOUT: FIGHT GONE BAD
Perform each of the following exercises for one minute at a time - don't rest between them. Give yourself one point for every rep you complete, except for the row, where you should count each calorie you burn as a point. Rest one minute between rounds and perform three total rounds; count up all your points and note the scores.

Wall-ball Shot (20-pound ball to a 10-foot-high target) 
Sumo Deadlift/High Pull (75 pounds) 
Box Jump (20 inches) 
Push Press (75 pounds) 
Rowing Machine 

THE LOWDOWN 
Named after MMA legend B.J. Penn, who tried the workout and compared it with a “fight gone bad,” this WOD tests mental toughness as much as power endurance. Perform each of the following exercises for one minute at a time—don’t rest between them. Give yourself one point for every rep you complete, except for the row, where you should count each calorie you burn as a point. Rest one minute between rounds and perform three total rounds; count up all your points and note the score. 

HACK IT
1) If you have any shoulder issues, take a wider grip on the bar (outside shoulder width) for the sumo deadlift/high pull so your elbows aren’t higher than your wrists in the top position. This is a safer, more joint-friendly setup. “Push hard on the box jumps and push presses and then coast a bit on the rower,” says Orlando. Because the jumps and presses can be performed quickly, you can rack up a lot of points fast by giving them your all. “You can then use the rower as an extra minute of active recovery,” so you’ll come back fresher for the next round. 

2) To boost your score, you need to improve your overall performance average only slightly—you don’t need to kill it on every exercise. If the last time you performed Fight Gone Bad you got 240 points, that breaks down to an average of 80 points per round. Divided by five exercises, that’s a mere 16 points per movement. In other words, to improve your score, you just need to perform 17 or more reps (or calories, in the case of the row) every round. 

Keep that number in mind and achieve it. You’ll be tempted to do more on the exercises you’re good at, but don’t. Save energy for moves you’re weaker on. 

Break the Box: How to Hack "Fran">>>

In 2006, Pat Fitzgerald became the youngest head football coach in the Big Ten when he scored the top job at Northwestern University at the age of 31. By 2013, he had guided the inveterate underdogs to a 9-3 record and a Gator Bowl victory. He also became embroiled in a larger NCAA controversy when his players voted this spring on possible unionization in the wake of a landmark decision by the National Labor Relations Board. (The school is appealing the NLRB decision; the player vote will remain secret until that’s sorted out.) Here he discusses technology, weightlifting, and the overspecialization of sports training.

What’s your first advice for athletes across the board?

Growing up in the ’80s, I played multiple sports. I really think that the well-rounded approach is somewhat lost today on our athletes. I’m much more a proponent for a broad-based experience. The skill sets that it takes to play multiple sports are very different. In our game, if you’re looking at a skilled player, you wonder why he has a hard time catching the football. Well, maybe he never played the outfield in baseball! A lot of kids run track, and you see a lot of improvement in speed mechanics, which is great. I encourage a more holistic approach of being well-rounded.

What fitness trends are you seeing picking up steam in football right now?

On the whole I think that there’s just a lot more information and awareness out there these days about the right athlete lifestyle. Instead of just saying, “Hey, I have to gain weight so let’s go grab a bunch of this and
a bunch of that and just have calories,” it’s about adding the right calories and putting the right fuel in your body. We’re trying to look at how proper rest plays into peak performance and avoiding injuries. For instance, I’m not
a baseball expert, but I see this spike in Tommy John surgeries. My first inclination is that young people are throwing too much, throwing year-round, and throwing too many curveballs.

The Importance of Rest Periods >>>

And in football there’s this idea that lineman even as early as high school need to weigh at least 300 pounds. What are your thoughts on that?

I think it’s much more important to be healthy and athletic than it is to be big. Some kids get way too big way too fast. “You’ve got to be 300 pounds” and “You’ve got to bench-press 400 pounds,” I think, those are old-wives’ tales.

Seven of the Biggest Fitness Myths - Debunked >>>

Do you think we’ve reached the peak in terms of football popularity?

No. I think that medical trends are catching up with the athletes. I think that maybe what’s been perceived as negative [with concussions] has raised terrific awareness in the medical field, in coaching, and for athletes. What are the best practices in the short term? How can we do the things preventively? This is the discussion that’s been ongoing for a few years, and it’s just making, I believe, football stronger.

How do you see technology changing the athlete?

Years ago, it was a big bench, a big squat, and a big hang clean—and get in great shape—and you’ll be fine. Now we’re using an integrated approach with nutrition, rest, and strength training, and the tweaking of the rules with the technology, with the pads, the helmets. [And with data trackers,] understanding your body — all those things are critically important to make sure that we can be as proactive as possible from an injury prevention standpoint and from an optimizing standpoint in terms of individual athletes. A lineman trains differently from a quarterback. Twenty-five years ago everybody trained the same way.

You’re a young, well-liked coach. How does one avoid becoming say, the next Lane Kiffin?

I can only speak for myself. It’s about showing our guys the way instead of pontificating our thoughts. From my perspective, you’ve got to really work hard to surround yourself with people who are better than you.

Do you get in the weight room with your players?

I’ve got a little bit of personal pride. I’ll go work out. My numbers aren’t what they used to be, but I’ll definitely get out and run a practice. I’m very active in our practice. I work to improve my flexibility. I work my tail off to improve my sleep and rest and balance my diet.

Rashad Greene, a 6-foot, 180-pound speedster from Albany, GA, may very well end his collegiate career as the greatest wide receiver in the history of Florida State University football.

No humble feat, of course. FSU is a perennial powerhouse and gridiron talent factory that in recent years has churned out top NFL receivers like Kelvin Benjamin—a first-round draft pick this year—as well as big names like Peter Warrick, Laveranues Coles, and three-time Pro Bowler Anquan Boldin.

In 2013, Greene caught 76 balls, the second-highest total ever in a single Seminoles season, and snagged nine receptions for 147 yards in the 2014 national championship game against Auburn. The Seminoles won. This season, Greene is primed to break FSU’s all-time records for total receiving yards, career receptions, and receiving touchdowns—the first two are records that have stood since 1968.

But, for all his accolades, promise, and well-earned swagger around FSU’s practice field, today the 21-year-old nursing major with the quiet temperament is just another player who’s slacking his way through
a workout.

And there’s no way he can hide it.

Greene, along with the rest of the Seminoles “skill guys”—speedy wide receivers and defensive backs—is going through a series of grueling conditioning sprints on the turf at FSU’s new $15 million indoor facility, near the end of the team’s spring practices in Tallahassee. Vic Viloria, a stout former linebacker who’s now the team’s head strength and conditioning coach, oversees the drill.

Instead of focusing solely on the players, however, his staffers are glued to an array of computer monitors that display a constantly updating stream of colorful numbers, bar graphs, and pie charts. Some of the numbers indicate that Greene might be dogging it a little.

The information comes from a sensor about half the size of an iPhone 4, which Greene—along with every other player—wears on his back under the uniform, held in place by a triangle-shape “sports bow” secured at the neck and under the armpits.

Pat Fizgerald Q&A>>>

Developed by an Australian sports science company, Catapult, the sensor tracks more than 100 metrics, including distance, speed, acceleration, deceleration, and heart rate. It also monitors change in direction using 3-D accelerometers, 3-D magnetometers (essentially digital compasses), 3-D gyroscopes, a GNSS antenna for GPS, and a processor with a memory unit. As it collects data, the sensor transmits numbers wirelessly to the coaches’ sideline command center. There the computers use algorithms that factor in the players’ vitals and other biographical info, then elegantly format the information into readable—and actionable—graphs and charts.

At Florida State, the data is sacred. This is a football program that finished in the top 5 of the Associated Press poll every year from 1987 to 2000, routinely steamrolling its opposition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But it struggled through a slump in the 2000s, in the twilight of the tenure of long-running head coach Bobby Bowden.

Recently, though, the team has surged back to prominence under new head coach Jimbo Fisher, a longtime Bowden acolyte who took over the top job in 2010. The data never lies, argues Fisher, who credits it for helping guide the Seminoles back to their rightful place atop the world of college football. “It’s helping me manage the team in terms of where we want to peak during the year,” he says, speaking at the pace of a hyperactive child.

On the practice field, Viloria notices that Greene is slowing up a few yards before the end of each sprint. In the past, Viloria would’ve had only his eyes and intuition for such a split-second observation, but now the sensors offer figures to back it up.

Greene, like the rest of his teammates, knows not to question the data; so when Viloria shakes his head and tells him the last sprint didn’t count—he slacked off in the final stretch—Greene doesn’t argue or hang his head in complaint. He merely lines up and does another 100-yard gasser, running full-bore to the very end.

He looks over at Viloria, whose readout confirms the effort. Greene hits the showers as the coach smiles, another training session altered slightly but significantly, another national championship a fraction closer. 

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Welcome to the new age of football, where real-time information influences a head coach’s practice decisions on a daily basis, and every athlete gets an individualized training program intended to maximize potential and reduce injury. And the Seminoles, headed by the irrepressible Fisher, are leading the way.

“FSU football was the first major college football program to really adopt the Catapult technology,” says Ethan Owens, a sports scientist for the company. “We created it, but they had to figure out how to take it and use it to benefit FSU football.”

The Seminoles became Catapult’s first U.S. client in 2011, a year after Fisher took over the team. Viloria and his then assistants, Erik Korem and Joe Danos, pitched him on the Catapult devices after seeing them in action at a practice of an Australian rules football team, the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

Catapult was founded in 2001 by engineers Shaun Holthouse (now the company’s CEO) and Igor van de Griendt. The duo developed a unique athlete-tracking microtechnology, and eventually found themselves working with several Aussie pro football teams.

Viloria and Korem, fascinated by what they learned from watching the Catapult system in action, brought the idea back to their head coach. Fisher, always searching for an edge in the hypercompetitive world of elite college football, approved the program.

The first year, FSU used 30 GPS sensors for the entire team. Initially, Viloria says, the data was little more than noise, what with the small sample size and the fact that the Australian sports scientists who designed Catapult didn’t know what stats to cull for an American football team. Each sport, they argue, comes with sport-specific movements and conditioning drills that produce wear and tear on the body in different ways.

But as FSU gathered more data—adding additional sensors each year, topping out at 80 this season (at the cost of more than $100,000 a year)—they began to develop profiles for different types of players. Previously, Viloria could only theorize that a series of sprints or route-running drills would have a different effect on Greene (6', 178 pounds) than on Benjamin (6'5", 234 pounds).

“If I take two guys with different body types out on the field, well, shit—the same workload is going to be a lot more stress on one than on the other,” Viloria says. “We knew it before, we just couldn’t prove it.”

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So last year, the much heavier Benjamin ran shorter conditioning sprints (90 yards) than the lithe Greene (a full 100 yards). Big offensive linemen, meanwhile, went 60 yards.

“Each individual player can only sprint for so long,” Viloria says. “Beyond that, it’s no longer speed. It’s not cardio or endurance either, because they’re exceeding the heart-rate zone you want them to be
in. At the end of the day, if you get rid of that, you get rid of a lot of potential injury.”

Viloria now establishes benchmarks at the beginning of the season for each player—similar to a weight room max-out figure—that can be followed all year. “It’s been a total culture change,” he says. “Everyone used to run the same distance. But in the weight room, we wouldn’t ask a  190-pound guy to lift what a 300-pound guy lifts. That would just be stupid. The only reason we know that is because we get baseline numbers. We do the same with the sensors on the field.”

The data also provides a way to cut through the obstacles of player personality and stubbornness. For example, if Greene can sprint at 20 miles per hour for 100 yards without slowing down, the coaching staff can tell him to run at 80% for a training session and observe if he’s following through or not.

“It takes all the guesswork out of it,” Fisher says. “Some guys don’t show how tired they are. Others do. This lets me have correct data so I can make direct decisions. We know over a period of time where each guy performs his best at the end of the week, so we can adjust each practice specifically for him. Players aren’t cattle. You can’t train them all the same. They all have different parts.”

The Catapult sensors aren’t your average Garmins or Jawbones, either, delivering only basic information like heart rate and speed. The system relies on proprietary algorithms that vacuum up several metrics in real time and assemble them in easily digestible ways.

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The most important metric for FSU, for instance, is the all-encompassing “PlayerLoad” variable, which takes into account sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes of motion—basically, movement in every direction—as well as other factors like age, weight, high-intensity running, time spent walking versus running versus sprinting, and the number of accelerations and decelerations.

PlayerLoad crunches the numbers to provide a single figure that represents how hard a player’s working.

Call it the Holy Grail number, the figure that “turns all this fancy verbiage into football talk,” says Viloria.

Based on those PlayerLoad numbers, Fisher, Viloria, and the rest of the staff may keep a practice going, end it a couple minutes early if the entire group is overworked, or instruct individual players to take a rest if their workload gets too far over their benchmark.

When practice ends, Fisher studies a printout detailing the workload of every single FSU player who was “mic’d up”—team lingo for wearing a sensor. If the team was supposed to go 80% but went 85%, he’ll dial back the next day to give his troops some rest by increasing repetitions but lowering the intensity, or reducing the amount of physical contact between players.

This, he says, keeps players in football condition while simultaneously giving their bodies and muscles a bit of a rest so they can peak in time for the games.

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For all the data program’s success, Fisher was initially skeptical about the role of data in monitoring and maximizing cardiovascular fitness.

“It really was hard for me to adapt, because it’s against everything I’ve ever been taught in sports,” he says. In football, he points out, players are supposed to go 100% all the time. Anything else runs counter to the sport’s “religion”—that melodramatic, Rudy-esque belief that players should always be pushing themselves, painfully, to some metaphysical limit in hopes of improvement.

But, according to Fisher and Catapult scientists, that mindset is not only rapidly becoming obsolete, but has possibly been dangerous all along.

“You wouldn’t drive a car in a race without a dashboard, so why do we do that with our athletes?” says Gary McCoy, Catapult’s senior applied sports scientist in the U.S. He argues that we all have different-size engines that can operate at full speed for only so long—and no two are the same.

Fisher’s opinions on the benefits of data changed as he saw its effects. In 2013, when the team’s data-monitoring program was in full swing, the Seminoles began the season ranked 12th in the USA Today poll—and never stopped winning. They won nine straight games by at least 27 points, including four against ranked opponents. FSU finished a perfect 14–0, defeating Auburn 34–31 in the national championship game on a dominating drive during which they looked as fresh as they had in the first quarter.

“We were able to peak damn near every week because we had all the data coming back,” Viloria says.

The team also dramatically reduced injuries. Soft-tissue injuries—muscle, ligament, and tendon issues that arise from overstretching, lack of strength, and, most important, fatigue—are down 88% over the past two seasons, primarily because FSU is limiting overtraining.

“Most soft-tissue injuries are preventable,” says sports scientist Michael Regan. “We’re giving them a tool to measure the movement of their athletes, and, therefore, their fatigue and load. By building up benchmark data, you’re understanding the risk of soft-tissue injuries and can be proactive in reducing them.” Not a single player missed a game in 2013 due to one. That’s a remarkable statistic for such a high-level NCAA football program. (The University of Florida, meanwhile, suffered 10 season-ending injuries during the same stretch.)

Conditioning drills are safer as well. “We’ve been able to stop five or six heatstroke situations by monitoring players’ heart rates during practice,” Fisher says. “We’d go grab a guy, get him cooled down, then get him back out there.” Viloria, the man overseeing the cardio training, put it even more simply. “I don’t have to wait until the guy passes out to sit him down,” he says.

It’s an about-face for Viloria. “The first year, when the data didn’t really make sense, I was the typical bonehead. I began to think that I didn’t need the fucking computer to tell me how to do my job. The second year, I thought it was OK. Now, I really feel bad for the teams that don’t have it. It’s gonna extend careers—and save kids’ lives.”

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Catapult has also been a boon for recruiting. Fisher uses the data-monitoring program not only as a selling point for the university, but also as a means of better preparing  players for a pro career. He argues that the data will help deliver them to the sport’s highest level in the best possible shape.

In 2011, Kelvin Benjamin arrived at FSU as the eighth-best high school wide receiver in the country, according to rivals.com. And though he caught 30 passes in 2012, the coaching staff felt he was relying on his physical gifts during games, content to glide through training sessions. Given his massive size and quickness, he should have dominated. Viloria believes that providing real-time feedback to Benjamin helped convince him that he needed to work harder on the practice field.

“There’s no more arguing,” says Viloria. “I don’t have to be the typical strength coach. I give them a number and show them where they should be. It gives them some ownership. It’s their body.”

Other teams are catching on. Oregon and LSU use Catapult’s trackers for their programs, though they have nowhere near FSU’s 80 sensors. The University of Kentucky’s football team hired away former Viloria assistant Erik Korem to run its GPS program, while Viloria disciples Joe Danos and Alex Hampton now work as strength and conditioning coaches with the NFL’s New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars, respectively. In total, Catapult has contracts with 19 college programs and 14 NFL teams.

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Catapult doesn’t offer a consumer product yet. That’s coming in the future, according to CEO Shaun Holthouse. He believes that it will lead a new wave of wearable, high-performance devices that not only measure your outputs but also run them through algorithms and help do your thinking for you. For example, if you’re a long-distance runner, you’ll have your own version of the PlayerLoad variable, which will incorporate your heart rate, weight, and age, and be able to tell you if you’re slacking or going too hard. The same will apply to all kinds of endurance activities.

“You could compare it to Formula 1, where great high-end technology is developed and proven at the elite level, then over time makes it down to production cars,” Holthouse says. “The great thing about our technology is its strong scientific pedigree and the fact that
it has such a demonstrable performance benefit for the world’s most elite athletes. It’s very different from ‘bottom-up devices’ like Fitbit and the Nike+ FuelBand, which are focused more on sedentary lifestyles and obesity problems.”

Fisher agrees. Winning isn’t about going 100% all the time, he says; it’s about peaking at the right time.

“The last two years are when we’ve really been able to use it,” he says, “and we’re 26 and 2. Injuries are down. We’ve had two ACC championships and a national championship.”

And, he’ll tell, FSU is just getting started.

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Quick: How much do you deposit in your 401(k) each month? You probably don’t know, and that’s a good thing. In fact, the single best thing about your retirement account may be that it’s automatic: After you set it up, you forget about it, and you don’t miss the money that you’re putting away. Over time, that inertia really works in your favor. Whatever your financial goals, research shows that you have a far better chance of hitting them if you automate the savings process.

But now, as surely as a celebrity breakup is followed by naked pictures hitting the Internet, corporate America has figured out how to turn this dynamic from a savings enhancer to a wealth destroyer. If people tend to forget about automatic payments and never miss the money—cue maniacal villain laugh—then automatically deduct the money from their bank accounts every month forever! They’ll never even notice it’s missing.

Call it contract creep, the insidious growth of cash-sucking services you sign up for and never escape. It probably started with cable, or maybe a gym membership. Now it’s Netflix, and your cell phone provider, and Pandora, and mini-storage, and cloud storage, your car lease, and credit monitoring, and that trial thing you don’t use anymore but can’t cancel because you don’t know who to call. Every month, they transfer money out of your checking account and into their shareholders’ pockets.

“The fastest way to cut someone’s annual expenses by $5,000 is to cut back on these contracts,” says David Bach, the best-selling author of the FinishRich series of financial books. Bach, who has led people through “money makeovers” on Oprah and the Today show, urges people to look past the small monthly amounts.

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“It’s what you’re paying over 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, a decade that counts.”

Consumer expert Clark Howard says that the younger the consumer, the more “monthlies” he’s likely to have. “You can rent books, music, video—it’s all you can eat for a flat monthly rate, and you don’t have to lug all this stuff,” he says. “It’s a more portable life.” The problem, he says, comes when you start piling up services you barely use. Not long ago, Howard and his wife realized they were paying a monthly fee for an online fax service, but they hadn’t received a single fax in years.         

Bach says he’s starting to see a backlash against these fees as cell phone carriers such as T-mobile offer no-contract deals. But don’t hold your breath for your cable company to call and suggest you pay less. Take back control of your budget by staunching the cash bleed.  

The great thing about getting rid of monthly payments is that the benefits keep on coming. Sure, you can save money by brown-bagging it, but that requires the discipline to make a sandwich every morning. Trim your cable bill, on the other hand, and you’re that much richer every month.

The first step in cutting back on contract creep is to set a financial goal. Just as it’s easier to drag yourself to the gym in the predawn hours if you picture your future shoulders, you’re more likely to make tough budget choices if you know that the savings add up to a down payment on a new car in two years.

Second, you have to be ruthless. Here’s how:

Cell phone

Obviously you can’t give up your phone, but there are many ways to reduce the cost. First, does your company issue you a device? If so, get rid of your personal phone. It’s fairly easy to “port” your number to your work phone. For e-mail, I use the iPhone’s mail app for business, and I added the Gmail app for personal e-mail. Yes, you have that one douchebag friend who sends attachments that don’t quite mesh with your corporate culture. You know who he is. Don’t open those e-mails on your phone. Life is a lot simpler when you carry only one device, and you could save more than $1,000 a year.

If you are the douchebag sending the NSFW attachments, this won’t work. So keep your second phone, but ask your service provider for your company’s corporate discount. How about that: I just saved you 20% and you don’t even deserve it.

If you’re a freelancer (or you work for the Secret Service), you still have lots of options. “We have never had prices drop in cell phones like we’ve had in the past year,” says Howard. FreedomPop actually offers phone/text/browsing for the absurd price of $0. Of course, there are catches: You get hit with charges if you exceed strict limits and you won’t get the latest-and-greatest iPhone at a subsidized price, and you’ll get barraged with up-sell offers. “It’s a very good price for very mediocre service,” says Howard, who recommends Republic Wireless. Plans start at $5 a month. Virgin Mobile offers a no-contract plan for $35 a month with 300 minutes and no limit on data. Consider prepaid plans, which allow you to buy minutes and not pay again until you use them up. Tracphone sells 800 minutes for $120. They’re good for a year.

If you’re stuck in a contract, get rid of text messaging. Facebook is beefing up messaging with its $19 billion (!) purchase of WhatsApp, and plenty of other apps offer free messaging, too.

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E-mail

There’s a fun detail tucked away in AOL’s quarterly earnings reports. According to the company’s most recent filing, more than a million people are actually shelling out about $20 a month for the privilege of having an @aol.com address. If you’re one of these people, please call the company immediately and explain that you would like the price they give everyone else: nothing. And don’t tell anyone that you were one of those million-plus dupes.

Mini storage

City dwellers who aren’t minimalists or heirs to a real estate fortune face a big problem: too much stuff to fit in an apartment. So we dump the crap we’re not using into a climate-controlled purgatory where it slowly becomes less and less relevant to our lives while draining more and more from our bank accounts. Ask yourself: How many items in that storage bin have you ever missed? One word: eBay.

Car lease

Leasing is a great way to guarantee that money will be leaving your bank account every month for the next half century or so, until your kids finally take away the keys. Sure, the monthly payments are higher if you buy a car outright, but if you take care of it you’ll have years of paying nothing at all after the car is paid off. What’s more, as the car ages and loses value, your insurance payments should drop. If they don’t, shop around for a cheaper policy.

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Car insurance

If you haven’t solicited a number of quotes in the past year, you’re probably leaving money on the table. There’s no single “cheapest” insurer. Each one has a profile of the customer it prefers—say, a certain demographic in a certain neighborhood—and they use different criteria. Liberty Mutual, for instance, courts college alumni groups. So check to see if your company, college affiliation, or even an AAA membership will help.

Cable

Among households that have a subscription to Netflix or Hulu, 18% have dumped cable television, according to an Experian Marketing Services report. You, too, can cut the cord. However, the one thing that’s tough to get in a post-cable world is sports. But it’s possible. You can buy a digital antenna, which will cover you on games broadcast over the air. No Monday Night Football, since ESPN now has that franchise, but SNF airs on NBC; it’s available over the air. Remember: When you call the cable company to terminate service, there’s a good chance you’ll be offered a reduced price in return for remaining connected. You can decide whether it’s worth it; either way, you save.

Online services

The list is endless: Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Pandora, Spotify, iCloud, Picasa…they all serve their purpose. The question is, do you get your money’s worth? Would you be better off backing up your photos on an external drive than in iCloud? Do you really save money with Amazon Prime? Do you actually need more than one movie provider?

If so, you may be spending too much time on the couch. 

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Seth Davis has interviewed some of the most decorated collegiate coaches of the past 20 years: Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight, among others. With a pad and pen as the college basketball correspondent for Sports Illustrated, and now from behind a desk as the host of the Seth Davis Show on Campus Insiders—an all-online college sports network—Davis has picked the brains of leaders at the top of their sport. He spoke with us about those leaders and what makes them a success or a bust. He also revealed John Wooden’s feelings toward pregame speeches, and why you should ask questions like Howard Stern.

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Men’s Fitness: What qualities make a good coach, and for that matter, a leader? 

Seth Davis: I think a lot of the same qualities you would expect in any CEO, I mean it starts with dedication and hard work. I often bring up John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. The two cornerstones of the pyramid are the bottom right and the bottom left, which are enthusiasm and industriousness, so that to me is what really prevails. You have to love what you do and have a legitimate passion and then be willing to put in the time and pay attention to the details and grind—the nitty-gritty and the less glamorous parts of the job.

You think about it for a coach—depending on the sport obviously—but there's 365 days in a year, so if you’re an NFL football coach there's only 16 of those days the coach is actually in a game. In college basketball there’s only 30 of those days you're coaching a game. Well, that leaves 335 of those other days. What are you doing on those days? And what are you doing in those hours?

MF: What is a question that you often ask coaches?

SD: The question I ask a lot of these guys is like, is it fun? Like, you’re in this game and the odds are against you and it’s craziness and the fans are booing or they’re cheering and you’re in the heat of it. It just looks so stressful. I mean, is this fun? Most of them will say no. Another common question I'll ask is, which feeling is more intense, is it the joy of winning or the pain of losing? And I don't know anybody who has answered winning. They all feel the losses more than they enjoy the wins. You know, there are a lot of similarities between them regardless of the sport.

MF: We can’t talk about college coaches without bringing up John Wooden. You wrote a book on Wooden called Wooden: A Coach's Life, what is something you learned from him while doing your research?

SD: Well, first of all, the thing that I really wanted to do in the book is to dispel a lot of myths about him. He had been described in terms that made him seem inhuman, he was a great man but he was a man, and he was not a perfect man. I really believe in revealing someone’s imperfections. They actually become more sympathetic, more relatable. If someone’s perfect all the time then it’s really hard to connect with them because you know inherently that it’s just not true. 

A couple things about Wooden: First of all he was actually pretty insecure, and I think a lot of great achievers are driven by insecurity, they’re afraid of their demons, but their demons inspire them to try to exorcise them if they can. That insecurity—that fear—drives somebody like John Wooden. He was also extremely competitive—very, very competitive. He was tough on referees and he wasn’t always popular with other coaches, a big part of the Wooden myth is he never talked about winning. And it’s true, he never talked about winning, but that doesn’t mean he didn't want to win. He really, really, really wanted to win. And he won a lot.

MF: So out of all the coaches you’ve talked with, who’s the guy you want giving you a pre-show pep talk? Who’s the one that will get you fired up before you film?

SD: That's a great question. I think Tom Izzo's a guy that comes to mind. You talk about enthusiasm and industriousness, there's a guy who has a lot of intensity, a lot of real decency. But Izzo's a guy who can certainly go into a locker room and fire people up. Although I have to say, you know the guy who you would least be inspired from a pep talk? John Wooden. He did not believe in pregame speeches. He did not believe in high emotion. He told his players to avoid the peaks and valleys. When you leave here, people shouldn’t know whether you won or lost. His attitude was, he's a teacher. It’s his job to teach you the game of basketball, and the games were your exam.

MF: As the host of your own show, what do you want to give viewers when you interview coaches and players? What should they expect?

SD: The viewers are going to come away feeling that they understand that person a lot more than they did. There's going to be certain information, and facts and details about their lives. Viewers are going to gain an understanding of the person that I think is hard to find anywhere else. By the way, my No. 1 icon for interviewing, the best interviewer who's ever lived, is Howard Stern. He asks anything. There's nothing he won't ask. Now there are some things I won't ask. I'm not going into someone’s private lives, their bodily functions and that type of thing. But there’s something to the approach of just feeling like, what does the listener really want to hear? Ask it. Ask it. I’m not as good as Howard Stern, I’m not as bold as Howard Stern, but I’m trying.

You can catch Davis on the Seth Davis Show at www.campusinsiders.com.