Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Training...slowly but surely!




Now that my health seems to be getting better..........although slowly....I have started doing some light training. I remember when Jeff Martone wrote an article a couple of years ago highlighting a very busy and difficult time in his career when he literally only had 10 minutes to train a couple of time per week. Well that is essentially what I have been doing. Three 10 minute workouts a week has been plenty and I can feel it even with that amount of training. It is forcing me to cut out the fat per say and just focus on the meat, or the BASICS.

When it boils down to it, focusing a couple of movements is the key to getting and maintaining your strength. Being a practical person, with a baby on the way, a very busy training business to run and manage, marriage, etc.....never has time been more important to me. The concept of focusing on doing LESS things BETTER sounds so much more appealing than doing MORE things worse.

Perhaps many of you can relate to my situation as many of you have incredibly busy lives, children, marriages and of course many fun training goals that constitute this thing called life. It's taken me many years to figure out that sometimes the best thing in your life you can do is to say "NO" to the things that are not important and to the things that interfere with the moral fabric of you life. As much fun as it is to be super young, I do enjoy the painstaking wisdom that comes with getting older. There are some things that only life experience can teach you! Amen to that!

The movements that seem to give me the biggest systemic effect for strength and power are:

1) Double Clean and Press
2)Weighted Pull Ups and Chins

3) KB Single leg Work (SL DL's, Lunges)

4) KB Squats

5)Snatches
6) Sprinting on the Track!

Keep it simple stupid, right? Because I don't see life getting less busy, for now these movements/exercises are a life saver. I am not gaining any muscle, that's for sure, probably because I am not doing enough volume. But the catch 22 is that because I am on my feet so much every day training clients, I have to be very careful not to overtrain as I am already doing a lot of movements with my clients whether in the form of catching MB's, stretching them on the table, or doing bodywork.Either way, I am learning what works for me; and HIGH VOLUME workouts fry my nervous system and my recuperative abilities.

Okay, that's it for now!

23 comments:

Lauren Brooks said...

Glad your health is getting better. 10 minute workouts are awesome. You can go very intense but get it over with fast. Super short workouts have been my ay of life as well since having a baby. Surprisingly enough, they are showing to be very effective!

fawn said...

Excellent message for us who are in the "industry", or anyone else who makes a living using their body! Be respectful to your CNS.

Franz Snideman said...

Lauren,

Yes, I seem to respond well to short, brief intense training sessions. Some people can drag out their training sessions to an hour, but not me!

Less is more, alot of the time!

Franz Snideman said...

Fawm,

yeah, for those of who do this for a living (going on 12 years), we have to protect our health and choose our activities wisely. I am a natural sprinter (zero endurance), with a lower than normal work capacity, so I have to listen to my body.

The CNS is the key, you are correct!

Howie B said...

You are right on Franz. I've had to come to grips with the same realization recently. Working a corporate job that demands 10-12 hour days, along with an hourly commute each way, having a wife and baby, sure makes you appreciate the basics.

Up until recently, I was able to get to the gym on my lunch hour. Within the last 2 years or so, I've seen the greatest gains of my life and I credit it to mainly to focusing on squats, deadlifts, pullups and dips.

Now my lunchhour opportunities have pretty much disappeared, so I am forced to wake up at 5:30am to squeeze in my workouts - now consisting mostly of kettlebells. Life forces us to constantly change and adapt. Hopefully we can all appreciate that which is valuable to us, strip out the non-valuable, continue to improve ourselves and be happy.

Joe Sarti said...

the art of simplicity is a beautiful & effective. I appreciate your coming to understanding that becoming a master of the few things will really compliment your lifestyle. This is what I tell my clients all the time

Continue to grow strong and wise

Tommy Shook said...

Franz, Glad you're feeling better. Make your training even less complicated: One arm long cycle for 10 minutes. Do not put the bell down, switch hands as needed, but try to limit switches. Keep the sprinting in your program as well, and stretching. After 6 weeks you're going to feel some real progress.

Aaron Friday said...

Nice post, Franz. Good message and nice selection of exercises.

Aaron Friday said...

As a sprinter, that TSC snatch test must be really fun for you, eh?

Thanks for adding us to your Blog map.

Franz Snideman said...

Howie,

Thanks for the post man. I'm sure I will be contacting you with questions about fatherhood, etc...

Strip out the invaluable -- awesome bro!

Franz Snideman said...

Wildcard - haven't done much long cycle stuff, but sounds brutal! I want to take Federenko's seminar to learn the technique better!

Franz Snideman said...

Joe, thanks for the post brother!

We need to talk about sprinting brother! I will call this week!

Franz Snideman said...

Aaron,

I have meaning to put you and Fawn on my link list and today I finally did it.

The TSC snatch test SUCKS! I hate it!

But hey........sometimes you gotta do things that you don't want to do. And that test is definitely it. The RKC snatch test is not too bad, but it is still ENDURANCE WORK for me!

Aaron Friday said...

I thought I'd get a rise out of you with that TSC comment! I'm wired the same way as you and absolutely hate that stuff.

RKC snatch test seems harder to me. That's on my To Do list.

Pete said...

Franz,

You would have a blast at the Fedorenko cert! Very true about having the ability to say NO to things that are much lower on the priority level, we want to do it all! This virus is taking longer to run its course. Sleep is taking a larger priority right now.

Sean Schniederjan RKC said...

Nice post! That's what I am all about these days: 20 minutes of serious work 3-4 times a week. I think if you are working in that 20 minutes with a heavy enough kettlebell to challenge yourself and not standing around.... that is plenty! And of course increase the work in the same amount of time as one progresses.

And you get to spend more time with the important people.

Franz Snideman said...

Aaron, yeah, me to! I just don't like that high rep stuff!

Pete, I will take it, hopefully next year when they make another swing through California. Great talking to you today!

Franz Snideman said...

Sean,

Quality over quantity, a principle we should all live our lives by. You're righr, if you can't get a high quality training session in 20 minutes or less, you are probably socializing or resting too much!

Mike T Nelson said...

Interesting comments!

I think all of us struggle with "being busy". Currency should be thought of in terms of time (non renewable resource), money (allows you to do stuff) and mobility/flexibiity (do what you want, when you want). I stole that from Tim Ferris's book "The Four Hour Work Week"--awesome book.

Another great one is David Allen's "Getting Things Done"--excellent.

I would also recommend that you hire a virtual assistant. Got to www.getfriday.com and tell them I sent you (I don't make any money on it). You can hire someone for 10-20 clams an hour to do stuff for you! That is a HUGE ROI in my book. I can't speak from personal experience yet, but I will be up an running on it by Monday. There is currently about a 5-6 week waiting period though.

I would assume most of your sessions are all semi private (2-3 people at once)?

Glad you are feeling better!
Rock on
Mike N

Pete said...

Thanks for the call, Franz! Always great to talk with you.

Franz Snideman said...

Mike,

I have the book by Timothy Ferris - quite revolutionary - I like it. I am trying to implement in some of the ideas, not easy, but I am convinced that his thinking is right on!

I do some semi-private training and I don't like it. I find people are so different that to generically give them the same program NEVER works as well as seeing them one on one. I know, I know, it's not as time efficient,but the client ends up getting more specific and individual attention which in the long run works better in my experience.

thanks for the advice on the virtual assistant. I need to look into that.

Kettlebell Lady said...

"..doing LESS things BETTER" That's a good way to start thinking about time as you prepare for parenthood. I have a 6 and 3 year old; my husband works 4 to midnight and teach elementary school music, so I time is something I am always dealing with.

Franz Snideman said...

Kettlebell Lady,

We are excited to be parents but everyone tells us that if we think we are busy now, just wait, our time will become very limited. Oh well, such are the phases and changes of life. I'm sure I'll be posting about how tired I am in the months to come.

:)