Wednesday, December 27, 2006

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER part 2

Expanding on the previous post, here are things that your attiude CAN do for you.

1)Your attitude makes a difference in your approach to life!

The happiest people in life do not have the BEST of everything. All things in their life are not PERFECT. But they do try to MAKE THE BEST of everything. They're like the person in a remote village going to a well every day to get water who says' "every time I come to this well, I come away with my bucket full!" instead of, "I can't believe I have to keep coming back to this well to fill up my bucket!"

2) Your attitude makes a difference in your relationships with people.

To be successful, a person needs to be able to get along with others. That is why Theodore Roosevelt said, "The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with other people." There are many factors that come into play when learning skills of how to work with people, but what makes or breaks that ability is a person's attitude. While it's true that some people seem to have a natural ability to get along with others, even someone with limited people skills can become a people person if he decides to have a positive attitude toward people.

3) Your attitude makes a difference in how you face challenges.

In life there will be certain challenges,problems, failures and tough times. How are you going to handle them? Will you give up? Will you allow circumstances to make you bitter and miserable? Or are you going to make the best of things? Whatever path you choose depends on your attitude.

4) Your attitude is the DIFFERENCE MAKER!

When is your attitude most important? When life is on the line and things are challenging. When things are pushing you to your limit, that is when you attitude is the difference maker. Rosenbaum points out, "We have known for over 2,000 years- from the writings of Plato and Galen - that there is a direct correlation between the mind, the body and one's health." Poet John Milton wrote.

The mind is its own place, and it itself
can make a heav'n o fhell, a hell of heav'n.

Ultimately your attitude has a profound influence on how you see the world - and thus on the way you choose to live out your life!

Blessings!

Monday, December 18, 2006

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER

Another Christmas has come and gone. I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year and taking the necessary rest we all need. I took a down week from training last week and stretched a bit. My work load was very heavy and I needed the rest.The high rep KB work has caught up with me and my body needs a little break from weights.

So today's post is about a book I started reading by one of my favorite authors, leadership expert John Maxwell. For those of you who are into self growth and becoming a better leader I highly recommend any of John Maxwell's books. This book "the difference maker" is about the importance of "ATTITUDE" and how it really does make a difference in everything you do.

So what exactly is attitude? Attitude is your inward feeling expressed by outward behavior. Ultimately your true attitude will wiggle itself out and it will be exposed. Here is what a good attitude cannot do for you:

1) Your attitude cannot substitute for competence.
2) Your attitude cannot substitute for experience
3) Your attitude cannot change the facts.

If you are 5 feet tall, your dream of playing in the NBA is out. Having a positive attitude cannot change reality. If you don't got it, you don't got it. As the old coach used to say, "You can't get out what God didn't put in."

4)Your attitude cannot substitute for personal growth. You still have to get out there and learn, apply and grow.

5) Your attitude will not stay good automatically. You must constantly choose to work on it and develop it. You can read, watch and meditate on CRAP or you can input words, music and information that is uplifting and empowering. The choice is yours!



More to come!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Snatch Only Day!

Like last wednesday I am keeping with the "one movement" rule for now and only performing snatches. My forearms and elbows are giving me fits,and thanks to Rif's advice I am doing some soft tissue work and trigger point release to aid in the healing. My volume has increased a bit with the higer rep KB work and I can feel it. For that reason I lightened the load today.

Snatches
16kg 20/20, 20/20, 20/20, 20/20 = 160 reps

Short and sweet, the way I like it. Although forearmd are so jacked with blood right now I can hardly type on thie keyboard :)

Monday, December 11, 2006

Dan John's Ten Commandments of Training

Dan John is right on. He may be one of the best presenters I have ever seen. And is hilarious as well. Enjoy!


The Ten Commandments of Lifting
...and Daniel came down from the mountain, yeah, verily, and carried tablets of iron...
1 Use whole body lifts, rarely isolate a muscle

2 Constantly strive for more weight on the bar and move it faster

3 The best anabolic is water

4 Did you eat breakfast? If not, don’t ask me anything about nutrition

5 If you smoke or don’t wear your seat belt, please don’t tell me the quick lifts are dangerous

6 Go heavy, go hard

7 Keep it simple. Less is more

8 You have to put the bar over your head

9 Put the bar on the floor and pick it up a bunch of different ways

10 Know and love the roots of your sport"


http://danjohn.org/

Monday Training

I am not a big Woody Allen fan but I do agree with his principle on success.

"80% of success is showing up."

As I was training today (a very short workout) his quote made perfect sense to me. Just showing up is half the battle. If people just committed 20 to 30 minutes, 3 times per week for focused exercise, they would be astonished how much progress they would make in one year, yet alone one decade.

Training

A-1 Double KB Front Lunge
20kg x 2 5 x 5/5

B-1 Clean and Press

20kg 2 x 2/2
16kg 3 x 5/5

B-2 Single KB Bent Over Row
32kg 1 x 8/8
28kg 2 x 6/6

That was it. My elbows are really jacked, especially my right elbow where I had reconstructive surgery. Something is not right. The ligaments feel weird and often I cannot straighten my arm if I have it in a flexed position for any length of time. Moving furniture around this weekend trashed it. I love the high rep KB Ballistic work but it seems to be aggrivating my elbow. I need to find a balance between high KB rep work and recovery. I'm still not there yet. Going to do some studying on how I might rehab my elbows. The forearm stretching and band extensions don't seem to be working.

Thoughts anyone?

Friday, December 08, 2006

Friday Training

In keeping with my goal of building up to 200 High pulls with the 20kg I was able to get 180 today. Next week will be 200 and then I will back off a couple of weeks and try and get my volume up to 300 reps in the RIF range!

A-1 Chin Ups
28kg 5 x 3

A-2 Clean and Press
20kg 5 x 5/5

B-1 High Pulls
20kg 9 x 10/10 = 180 reps.

Unlike last week, today felt great. I got in a "zone" where I felt like my endurance was great and could have done many more sets!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Snatches....

Today I only wanted to focus on one lift: Snatches. It's amazing how mentally draining doing many exercises on one day can be. To do only one frees up alot of energy for me, which I like. Using the 20kg felt appropriate today.

Snatches
20kg 7 x 10/10 = 140 reps

That was my workout. Short but effective!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Training....Various days

Monday Strength Day

Wanted to keep the volume really low today, epsecially after my temp runs at the track on Saturday. Very sore!

A-1 Double KB Front Lunges
2 x 20kg in rack position 4 sets x 5/5

B-1 Clean and Press
28kg 3 x 3/3

B-2 Chin Ups
24kg 3 x 3

I love these short workouts as they don't waste me at all. Very focused and very productive for me. As Mel Siff says, find a way to train that makes you a better athlete but keep you orthopedically healthy and sane :)

Saturday December 2 / TEMPO RUNS

10 x 100 yards (bodyweight GPP exercises in between)
Push Ups
Fisted Push Ups
Jumping Jacks
Shuffles
Mountain Climbers
Jumping Lunges

Been a while since I've done Tempo runs. These felt great as I feel my CORE work so much when I do them. I might have run them a little too fast as I was over zelous to get back on the track. My glutes and hamstrings were very sore. These tempo runs should have been done at 60% intensity, but I ran them at 70 to 75% intensity, too much! Either way I was so happy that my body tolerated it and my lumbar spine felt good.

Last Friday

Bottoms up clean
16kg 5/5
24kg 3/3
32kg 2/2

High Pulls
20kg 8 sets x 10/10 = 160 reps

The high pulls felt high. Nothing felt right that day. Just couldn't get into a groove at all. At least I trained, that is the positive I can take out of that session.