I could probably write five pages on the video below, but I'll keep it short. This embodies the attitude we should all have. This is not about being stupid and training 'on top' of an injury, but training 'around it', which I have talked about before. For the last two months I have been training around my right hand, and keeping my training just as intense as it was before. Well, nothing will be as intense as my pre-deployment training cycle, (I was a beast and actually blacked out a few times during training) but I was damn close. The point being that if I had backed off and done light work to 'maintain' I would be getting my head handed to me now that I'm rolling back into a two handed training cycle.
Rolando is also a perfect example of what I mean when I talk about 'real strength'. Fighters can't mess around with ineffective training. You find out real fast if your training is working or not. This works. You may not be a fighter, but you engage in the ultimate contest of strength, endurance, and willpower every day.
Life.
This has also inspired me to work harder on my video editing. Time to read the final cut express instructions... I guess.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
A shiny red kettlebell, and the double snatch
Today was pretty eventful in terms of my own training. I have my brace off now and have been working my right hand. I don't have much grip strength, but enough to hold onto a kettlebell. I ran through some swings and snatches. I think doing this everyday in limited amounts will really help to strengthen the damaged finger. I'm sticking with the GS style grip for the most part, as I think the HS style would be a little too much stress.
I performed a double snatch with two 16 kilos, which proved to be much more difficult than I had anticipated. Cindy brought her Russian Red 16 kilo to the training. I love that thing. I think the smoothness of the coating will make it better for high rep snatching. I plan on ordering one as soon as possible. Highly recommended.
I also pulled off a bottoms up press with the 20 kilo.
Cindy and I also started experimenting with an empty handed turkish get up. This is performed by doing a Turkish get up with both hands in the air. This works the core a tremendous amount. DO NOT TRY THIS WITH TWO KETTLEBELLS. It is very difficult, and you could easily injure yourself.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Muscle memory, pregnant models, and fat bodybuilders
I always do my best to be straight up and down with people regarding the advances they can make with training. I don't sell anyone a six pack abs myth, although I do remark upon the amazing amount of definition I achieved in my mid-section last year after I had been doing a ton of kettlebell swings.
In the spirit of that I wanted to take a moment to clear up some common misconceptions about what goes on in the fitness industry and training in general. Whenever you are doing a study, you want to look at all the angles, and also be very aware of your study subjects. Some trainers will have early success utilizing a certain training protocol, and then stick to that come hell or high water. After all, it worked before, so why would it not be a constant? The problem with this is that either their study subjects consisted of them and their buddies, or of people who had previously been fit or were brand new lifters. If you have never lifted weights and I have you hold a sack of potatoes over your head and squat, you will probably make great gains. This is more along the lines of GPP (general physical preparation) than specific training. At this early point in training, periodization is most likely not even necessary for a while. This is also why so many people stick to the same program forever, because it worked for so long.
Now we look at another angle, which is muscle memory. Your body remembers the condition it used to be in. If a trainer works with someone who used to be in great shape but became deconditioned, similarly they will most likely meet with quick success. Unfortunately, this is nothing to base a system of training on. I want to address the widest possible audience, and be prepared for any contingency.
People often mention to me the before and after photos they see for training programs on tv, or diet pills. Some of these are legit, but for the most part it is trickery. You will notice with many of these 'fat men' they have well developed arms. This is because they are simply bodybuilders in a bulking phase where they happen to have a gut from eating a ton to get bigger. Hydroxcut is notorious for this. They could have lost that weight without the pills, and most likely many of them do. The steroids help them achieve this. A while back Hydroxcut even got popped for having a female model who was PREGNANT in her before photo. Well, duh.
My whole point here, is not to be discouraged if your progress is slower than these miracle photos. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you are always looking for a quick fix or a miracle diet or pill, you will always fail. You will succeed by eating right, training hard, and being committed for the long haul. Don't look at exercise as something you have to do for a while to get in shape, but look at it as a healthy part of your life.
The fact is, that this works. If you are training properly, getting enough rest, and lifting, pushing, swinging, or dragging progressively heavier objects, you MUST get stronger. If you are not, fix your program. If you are working hard, and burning calories, you must lose weight. There's no way around it. The amount of people out there with 'glandular problems' who cannot lose weight are far, far fewer than the number who claim to be.
You know what you need to do to be happy, and no one can do it for you. The effort, and developing the fortitude to get the job done will give you a sense of satisfaction that will be a reward in itself.
In the spirit of that I wanted to take a moment to clear up some common misconceptions about what goes on in the fitness industry and training in general. Whenever you are doing a study, you want to look at all the angles, and also be very aware of your study subjects. Some trainers will have early success utilizing a certain training protocol, and then stick to that come hell or high water. After all, it worked before, so why would it not be a constant? The problem with this is that either their study subjects consisted of them and their buddies, or of people who had previously been fit or were brand new lifters. If you have never lifted weights and I have you hold a sack of potatoes over your head and squat, you will probably make great gains. This is more along the lines of GPP (general physical preparation) than specific training. At this early point in training, periodization is most likely not even necessary for a while. This is also why so many people stick to the same program forever, because it worked for so long.
Now we look at another angle, which is muscle memory. Your body remembers the condition it used to be in. If a trainer works with someone who used to be in great shape but became deconditioned, similarly they will most likely meet with quick success. Unfortunately, this is nothing to base a system of training on. I want to address the widest possible audience, and be prepared for any contingency.
People often mention to me the before and after photos they see for training programs on tv, or diet pills. Some of these are legit, but for the most part it is trickery. You will notice with many of these 'fat men' they have well developed arms. This is because they are simply bodybuilders in a bulking phase where they happen to have a gut from eating a ton to get bigger. Hydroxcut is notorious for this. They could have lost that weight without the pills, and most likely many of them do. The steroids help them achieve this. A while back Hydroxcut even got popped for having a female model who was PREGNANT in her before photo. Well, duh.
My whole point here, is not to be discouraged if your progress is slower than these miracle photos. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you are always looking for a quick fix or a miracle diet or pill, you will always fail. You will succeed by eating right, training hard, and being committed for the long haul. Don't look at exercise as something you have to do for a while to get in shape, but look at it as a healthy part of your life.
The fact is, that this works. If you are training properly, getting enough rest, and lifting, pushing, swinging, or dragging progressively heavier objects, you MUST get stronger. If you are not, fix your program. If you are working hard, and burning calories, you must lose weight. There's no way around it. The amount of people out there with 'glandular problems' who cannot lose weight are far, far fewer than the number who claim to be.
You know what you need to do to be happy, and no one can do it for you. The effort, and developing the fortitude to get the job done will give you a sense of satisfaction that will be a reward in itself.
Monday, August 20, 2007
New logo and one handed/one legged push ups
If you've been doing one armed push ups and want something more challenging, you might try what I've been working on lately. While performing your one armed push ups, lift the opposite foot off the ground. This adds a whole new dimension of difficulty to an already difficult exercise. You can find more things like this in Pavel's book 'The Naked Warrior'.
I received my logos tonight and of course am already plastering them everywhere. They come from Cathe Holden of Home Grown Logos.
She does excellent work and is easy to work with.
I received my logos tonight and of course am already plastering them everywhere. They come from Cathe Holden of Home Grown Logos.
She does excellent work and is easy to work with.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Calendar Upgrades
It's been a rocky start with the individual calendars, but please bear with me as I get organized and flesh out a system. From now on all calendars will be completed and online by Tuesday morning, to include your independent workouts. Remember that your independent training sessions are an important part of the overall training system, and not simply my way of keeping you occupied when I'm not around. :) If you would like to plug in more or fewer independent sessions to make it work with your personal schedule, please let me know.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New kittens and T-Shirts!
My cat Allie gave birth to three beautiful kittens tonight! Pony, Chococat, and Girevik are now among us.
I have also been working on new t-shirt designs, and the logo is also in the works and should be released in the next couple weeks.
We are now firmly in the SF location and will be doing upgrades and bringing in new gear to get it going full speed.
Still looking for a Palo Alto location...
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Trainers and Trainees, Read This.
Interview with Coach Glassman from Crossfit
The above is an interview with Greg Glassman, the creator of Crossfit. Now I am not saying Crossfit is the best or only way to do things, but all of the key points are there. Like clockwork my clients start telling me a couple weeks in to training that they are stronger, have more endurance, and are even starting to see physical changes. Normally they ask me if that's possible, as their past training experiences have led them to believe it's not. When I began training I was always told clients may feel different after a month, but physical changes take 2-3 months. Or in some of your cases not at all, apparently.
Of course this begs the question, what is the difference between my training and yours? Why is it I have such dramatically quicker results? I really believe that partly it is that if you tell me something I am doing is wrong, and provide good evidence to back up your claim, I will take your advice and change. I have met way too many people who will not, and so they never grow and improve.
My mantra to my clients is "If your body is pushed, it will respond." I see it over and over again. The key is knowing how to push it, and where the line is. If I walk through a modern health club I mostly see a sad state of pure isolation training with clients who lack the ability to truly isolate a muscle, rampant machine usage, and outright dangerous training. Ironically, some of this dangerous training takes place on machines, while my training which involves tire flips, swinging around an iron ball, and throwing heavy bags over your shoulders is actually quite safe.
Which provides a better cardio workout? Riding a stationary bike, or performing sets of high rep push presses? Sadly, most people would probably state that 'obviously' it is the stationary bike. Read the article above to find out why it doesn't even come cloe.
The above is an interview with Greg Glassman, the creator of Crossfit. Now I am not saying Crossfit is the best or only way to do things, but all of the key points are there. Like clockwork my clients start telling me a couple weeks in to training that they are stronger, have more endurance, and are even starting to see physical changes. Normally they ask me if that's possible, as their past training experiences have led them to believe it's not. When I began training I was always told clients may feel different after a month, but physical changes take 2-3 months. Or in some of your cases not at all, apparently.
Of course this begs the question, what is the difference between my training and yours? Why is it I have such dramatically quicker results? I really believe that partly it is that if you tell me something I am doing is wrong, and provide good evidence to back up your claim, I will take your advice and change. I have met way too many people who will not, and so they never grow and improve.
My mantra to my clients is "If your body is pushed, it will respond." I see it over and over again. The key is knowing how to push it, and where the line is. If I walk through a modern health club I mostly see a sad state of pure isolation training with clients who lack the ability to truly isolate a muscle, rampant machine usage, and outright dangerous training. Ironically, some of this dangerous training takes place on machines, while my training which involves tire flips, swinging around an iron ball, and throwing heavy bags over your shoulders is actually quite safe.
Which provides a better cardio workout? Riding a stationary bike, or performing sets of high rep push presses? Sadly, most people would probably state that 'obviously' it is the stationary bike. Read the article above to find out why it doesn't even come cloe.
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