Any Monkey can make someone work hard!

"To me, the sign of a really excellent routine is one which places great demands on the athlete, yet produces progressive long-term improvement without soreness, injury or the athlete ever feeling thoroughly depleted. Any fool can create a program that is so demanding that it would virtually kill the toughest marine or hardiest of elite athletes, but not any fool can create a tough program that produces progress without unnecessary pain."

Dr. Mel C. Siff

I thought this picture was funny. So true the quote by Mel Siff. Any Monkey can make someone work hard. Just invite somebody over to clean your back yard and they will "work" hard. Working hard is important...but when "work" becomes the goal how then do you know if you're making progress? Ultimately, as all of you know who are reading this blog, it's not the work load or how sick you felt after the workout, it's much more than that.

We undoubtedly live in the most exciting time in history within the health and fitness industry. There is a "renaissance" taking place within the fitness industry and so many cool ideas and methods are coming forth as well as lots of the old time exercises and methodologies coming back. Just think what has happened in the last 5 years in the fitness industry. Think of all the incredible certifications that have come to the forefront and claimed their stake in the "PIONEERING" pie you might say.

1) RKC for starters
2) Z-health
3) Clubbell certification
4) Paul CHEK cert's
5) Valery Federenko
6) Tim Larkin's
7) tons of great martial arts organizations
8) Chi kung and tai chi...
9) Gray Cook FMC
10) Gary Gray...

and so much more..........

We really are living during an "enlightenment" in the fitness industry and frankly, I am very excited to be part of it! What about you!


Wednesday Training

Incline Bench Press
155 x 3 x 3 sets

Bulgarian Split Squats
16kgs 5/5 x 3 sets

Single Arm Cleans
40kg 5/5 x 4 sets

Snatches
28kg 5/5, 5/5 10/10

Grateful!!!

What am I truly grateful for in my life?

Today I turn 34 years old. As like most birthdays, I like to take time and survey my life, both good and bad, and contemplate. After reading a Timothy Ferris Blog on Gratitude, it got me thinking. Here are things that I am grateful for in my life:

* I am grateful to be alive today....I've made it 34 years so far....many people in the world die way before that.

* I am grateful that I am married to an amazing woman who supports me, loves me and completes me.

* I am grateful that Yoana is Pregnant with our daughter who is due in 6 weeks :)

* I am grateful for my twin brother Keats and his kids, my mother and father, my sister, my friends, family and support system. I realize that I am blessed with amazing people in my life and that the network of people I know has given me tremendous opportunities (which a lot of people do not have).

* I am grateful to be in good health and to be able to teach people healthy practices for my profession.

* I am Grateful for my relationship with Christ and the Peace and hope this relationship gives. It truly is the POWER behind everything I do.

* I am Grateful to live in San Diego, to have a home of our own, and to run a profitable and completely fulfilling business.

* I am Grateful to live in this amazing country where freedom and liberty are cherished. We live in a country where anyone (literally anyone) can come here, work hard, and achieve their dreams.

* I am Grateful for all the amazing knowledge available today as well as my passion for learning and teaching. I love books and I love music!

* Overall I am grateful for the life God has given me!

WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR?????

Training:

Birthday Training:

Barbell Military Press
115 x 3
135 x 1
135 x 1
115 x 3 x 2 sets

Zercher's
135 x 5
185 x 3 x 3 sets

Weighted Pull Ups
28kg x 3 x 3 sets




Sunday: 20/20 snatches 24kg

Took Last week off from weights!!! My lumbar spine, which has felt great, was starting to feel a little weird.......so I didn't want to test it.

Thanksgiving Training:
Tempo Training at UCSD Track
10 x 100 yard sprints @ 70% intensity
Between sprints we did dips, pull ups, jumping jacks, jumping lunges, shuffles, mountain climbers, and push ups. Great training Session!

Tough Love versus Spanking!

Tough Love vs. Spanking

Most of Americas population thinks its improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of "those moments."

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

They usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.



The above story I recieved in an e-mail from my twin brother Keats. I thought it was totally funny!

Just got back from Phoenix where I took a 3 day course on NMT coure on the cervical spine, jaw and head. Let me tell you that this course absolutely rocked! I learned so much and could not believe how important it is to properly and thoroughly examine and release the muscles, fascia, tendons and tissues in these areas. One of the benefits of going to these seminars is not only the hands on practice but the work that you receive in return from your partner. My jaw, neck and head have never felt better! The intra-oral work is insane but so darn effective! I have now completed 4 out of 5 Neuromuscular Therapy seminars and have one more to go. So far I have taken:

1) Lower Extremity

2)Posture and Gaiting

3)Torsi / Pelvis

4)Cervical / Cranium

Number 5 will be Upper Extremity and than I can test out and become nationally certified! These seminars are best seminars I have ever taken to learn you anatomy. A good NMT therapist will rival most doctors in anatomy knowledge because they have their hands and fingers in every muscle of the body. You learn the origins and insertions of all the muscles and learn them better because you are actually on the landmarks and on the tendinous insertions. I would highly recommend that any motivated strength and conditioning specialist / trainer / coach take these seminas just to learn your anatomy. Not only that, but who could't benefit from learning how to take people out of pain and restore function to the body? Who couldn't benefit from learning the anatomy and physiology better? I have always said the better you know A & P, the more you will be able to help people, especially those people with problems that people have not been able to help them with!

Training:

Took Friday, Sat & Sun off for the seminar. The next two weeks will be focused on less load and slightly higher volume and reps. Looks like the 3 weeks heavy is a little too much for my body. Two weeks heavy followed by two weeks light is the ticket!!!

Breakdancing

This stuff is unreal!!!! Look at the body control of these guys. I have always thought that elite level break dancers are some of the best athletes in the world!

Training Today
Incline Bench Press
135 x 5
155 x 1
165 x 2
165 x 3
165 x 3

Snatches
32kg x 5/5 x 4 sets = 40 reps

Weighted Chin Ups

24kg x 5,5

Is your Body Built on a Shaky Foundation?

Last Sunday was three weeks in a row on my ZERO sugar diet. I thought I could never do it since I have been a huge sugar eater my entire life. I must admit that it is not easy and that the first 10 days were brutal. I dreamed of sugar, meditated about sugar, WISHED I could have just a little bit. Thank God I did not give in and I must say that I feel a sense of well being that I have not felt in a long while (maybe never). The picture above represents the average American and what their cells look like when raised on a diet of processed food, junk food and sugar. A scary site for sure, but think about it; your cells can only rebuild themselves with the materials that you put in your body. In a weakened state, when the next virus, bacteria, fungus or parasite sets scope on your body, you go down for the count. It's like the tornado in the picture heading toward the wooden house about to fall apart. The BUGS have their way with you and destroy you because your body is weak and sick. Just think of the next time you stuff in a Krispy Kream donut down your mouth. Soon the donut will be the raw material that will build up your eyeball cells, your liver and spleen cells, and every other cell in your body. Do you really want to have the cellular integrity of a Krispy Kream donut?

We are living in exciting times as the amount of incredble health information available is doubling all the time. The problem now is not a lack of information, it is a lack of APPLICATION. So few people are actually eating whole foods and their health is taking a huge nose dive. I take myself for example; here I am arguably one of the healthier people in our country and represent a small minority of people dedicated to teaching and coaching people to optimal health. Well, even with whole foods in my diet I was becomming so sick from the sugar in my diet that it literally was starting to kill off my spleen and reak havoc on my blood sugar. Both blood work and muscle testing attest to this! The bottom line was that I was consuming too much refined sugar and it was starting to destory me internally. The take home points are this:

1) You must find what is stressing out your system and take it out of your diet, PERIOD! "But I like sugar and drinking my double frappachino at Starbucks." Tough! If you want to feel great and rebuild your body with optimal biulding blocks, start first by eliminating the sugar.

2) Take Wheat out of your diet and see how you feel. Most people eat way too much wheat and it destroys their ability to absorb nutrients. It also has the potential to cause your body to attack itself (sounds kind of like an auto-immune disease to me).

3)Being healthy, first and foremost, is about the quality of food you put in your body. How many of us know people that exercise all the time and never look any better or healthier? We all know these people and the reason they never look any better is because they are eating too much or are eating the wrong types of food. These people are NUTRIENT DEFICIENT! People must be tested to find out what foods are currently healthy for them and which foods are not. If people would just start by eliminating the foods that are causing them hidden food allergies and intolerances it would do wonders for their health.

4) Find somone who does NRT (nutrition response testing). I have recently begun to include this NRT with my clients and the RESLUTS are near AMAZING. If you are in the San Diego area and would like to be tested on foods do yourself a favor and come in and see me. It will be very worthwhile for you to find out which foods are causing your system problems and which foods are healthy for you to eat. The days of cookie cutter nutrition programs are gone. We must be totally specific with foods because foods truly are a drug. Just as the wrong prescription drug can kill you, the wrong foods can lead to premature aging and early disease.

We are entering a new era in clinical nutrition where practitioners will be able to keep people from becoming "MEDICAL WRECKAGE" early in life by finding the foods that are over stressing people's bodies and replace them with the healing whole foods that allow the body to heal itself. Whole foods based supplements will also pave the way for improved health as they can fill in the holes per say and get people the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Monday Training
Barbell Military Press
95 x 4
115 x 4 x 4 sets

Zercher Squats
135 x 5
185 x 4
185 x 3
185 x 3

Weighted Pull ups
98lbs (missed 1 rep by 1 inch)
88lbs 1 rep
BW x 10

Saturday at the Track
Warm up - 15 minutes
Cone Drills (acceleration and de-acceleration around four cones in a box formation) x 6

Speed work
20 yards x 3
30 yards x 3
40 yards x 3
60 yards x 1

Speed Endurance Work
200 yards x 2

Last Friday Training - took off. Body felt weak and tires. Listened to my body!

The Refining Process of Wheat......

The following is taken from the Standard Process Webpage

Wheat kernel comprised of starch and nutrient-rich bran and germ Bran and germ are removed, resulting in primarily empty starch (flour). Processed flour is bleached to improve the appearance and texture of consumer goods. Bleached flour is enriched by adding in a few isolated B vitamins and iron in an attempt to replace what has been removed. Nutrient-deficient consumer goods that have the ability to sit on a store shelf for an extended period of time are the final result.

We eat plenty but we are still starving. As a nation, we eat poor-quality foods that have been stripped of nutrients. We do not consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Many of us get our whole grains from instant rice, refined wheat breads, pastas, and cereal. We eat a tremendous amount of prepackaged, pre-made meals. One-quarter of Americans eat at fast food restaurants each day. Americans are overfed and undernourished. The foods we eat are not providing our bodies with the nutrition it needs to survive and be healthy. We are starving our bodies and we are sick. We suffer from diabetes, heart attacks, obesity, and the list goes on and on.

Only whole food supplements complete the nutritional gap.
A word of advice: Not all whole food supplements are the same.

There is good news.

Given proper nutrition, the human body has an amazing ability to heal itself. If properly fed and given the right nutrients, the human body is designed to repair itself. To do so, we need to eat a healthier diet, exercise, and take high-quality supplements made from whole foods. Whole food supplements supply our bodies with nutrients we are not getting from our diet, all the vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, and phytonutrients that foods possess in a way that nature intended, in a whole food form. Whole food supplements are made by concentrating foods for use in supplements. When processed correctly, they supply a multitude of the plant's components. Foods provide nutrients that work synergistically. They work together to provide you with optimal nutrition for good health. Many whole food supplements available in today's marketplace range in quality. Companies are riding the wave of supplement popularity rather than focusing on commitment and quality.

- Standard Process Webpage

This is my third week on my structured training program and it feels great. The lack of sugar in my diet is improving my recovery big time. I am not getting nearly as sore and I have more energy. The Standard Process supplements I taking are helping big time as well:

- Multizyme (a pancreatic enzyme supplement to help take the stress off my pancreas)

- Zypan - (Betaine Hydrochloride - more an acid to break down proteins better)
- Spleen PMG ( A protomorphogin designed to rebuild my spleen)

- Zymex II - (an anti- parasitical/bug product to help remove the debris from a dying parasite)

- Catalyn - (Standard Process' whole foods based multi-vitamin - it really is just a bunch of freeze dried whole food - GREAT PRODUCT)

Wednesday Training
Incline Bench Press
Warm Up
160 x 3 x 3 sets

Weighted Chin Ups
40kg x 2 reps x 2 sets
20kg x 5 reps x 2 sets

Snatches
40kg Left side - fail Right side x 2 reps
32kg 5/5 x 1 sets
24kg x 10/10 x 1 set

Ben Stein on O'Reilly Factor about Intelligent Design

This Video is great! I think Ben Stein is one of the great Americans left in the entertainement business today. "Bueller...Bueller....Anyone...Bueller." (I hope some of you got that). Anyway, he is coming out with a movie called " Expelled:The Movie", a story about the growing debate against the Intelligent Design movement(or creationism). This has always been a hot button for me because I feel like the secular scientific community will not even allow you to speak about creationism or intelligent design. In their eyes Evolution explains everything and anything that does not have a naturalistic interprataion is unacceptable. School teachers who question Darwinism are getting fired all over this country. Give me a break! Since when did we trap science in a tiny little box and say "CLOSED", we can learn no more...we figured everything out!

Stein interviews some very respected scientists on both sides of the arguement and from what I can see does a great job on explaining the case for intelligent design.

Some of the greatest thinkers in history of believed in God; Einstein was a believer in God. He the design of the universe was to perfect. Newton beleived in God as did Darwin himself. One only has to look at DNA to see the incredible language that it used to make every living cell of every living organism on this planet.

If I saw a Ferrari washed up on the beach I wouldn't say, "Hey, this is amazing. Look at what billions of years did to this piece of matter, it evolved it into a Ferrari." Of course I wouldn't say that,becuase where there is design there had to have been a DESIGNER!

Monday's Training
Zercher Squats
140 x 5 x 5 sets

BB Military Press
95 x 5 x 4 sets

One Arm Chins with Bands
Green Band x 2/2 x 2 sets

Snatches
32kg x 5/5 x 2 sets

Yesterday's Training.........and Kicking the Sugar Habit

This week was my first full week of training in months. Full because I was able to do three weight training sessions plus one sprint workout. That should be the template for the rest of the winter, God willing with this baby on the way. My diet has been significantly better; almost two full weeks without any refined sugar. No cookies, no candy, no chocolate, no COLDSTONE ice cream on the weekend, nothing......nada........zilch.......ZERO! It has been tough but my goal is to extend this streak as long as I can. I have never been on a refined sugar fast...never. Always there has been ample amounts of sugar in my diet and my health and immune system have suffered from it. Now I am not one of the zealots that thinks you can never eat any sugar at all....that's not what I am talking about. But I do think that we all eat too much sugar and it destroys health if left unchecked. This is the right thing for me right now....my body needs a break............and I am still getting natural sugar from frozen berries and whatever else if found in whole unprocessed foods.

If you are anything like me, honestly, you must admit that you love sweets. Donuts, love them! Ice Cream...love it! Toblerone Chocolate...the Best! Pastries and hot chocolate....too damn good! I will admit it.........I am a sugar junkie. A couple of weeks ago I got some blood work done as well as some muscle testing done. Both tests showed that I was not responding well to sugar at all and that my fasting GLUCOSE leves were dangerously high for a soon to be 34 year old man. That is the great thing about blood work....your lifestyle will always come out in your blood. You cannot lie to your blood as blood is the vital sap of life that determines your health. With my daughter on the way (and with Type II diabetes in my family), I want to stick around on this earth for a long time to be part of her life.

As my wife says, having skinny genetics like I have can be a curse. Here's why; when you are thin and can get away eating alot of crap food without gaining weight, you erroneously conclude that you must be healthy. WRONG! Someone who has less the favorable genetics in the "get lean" department will eat sugar and gain weight. That is called INSTANT feedback. They immediately can see the negative consequences (gaining fat) from their bad eating while someone like me will not visibly see it in a rise of bodyfat. But ever more deadly, my harm lies in the background, almost invisible to me until one day I wake and find out that I have diabetes or some auto immune disease. Now don't get me wrong, I love being able to get lean quickly but , it can be a double edged sword because the INTERNAL damage can be asymptomatic for years until it's too late.

Lucky for me I am catching it early! I hope to be able to get a hold of my blood sugar levels quickly. In two weeks I must say I feel significantly better. I was poisoning myself everyday and my body was getting sicker and sicker. My cravings are still there......and I must admit it is very difficult to say no when all around you is sugar, all the time...everywhere you go. Now with holidays approaching I will be tested big time. I automatically link holidays (Christmas and Thanksgiving) with eating sweets. YIKES! Thank God for DISCIPLINE.

TRAINING (Friday)

Zercher Squats
135 x 5
185 x 3 x 3 sets

Barbell Military Press
95 x 5
115 x 4,4,4,3

Weighted Pull Ups
32kg 3,3,3

Coldplay

Love this song. Love Coldplay!!

This week has been my first semi-challenging training week in a while. Health is on the upswing - trying to eat zero refined sugar - tough to do, but I need to.

Wednesday Training
Incline Bench Press 155x3x3 sets

Snatches
32kg 5/5x2 sets
24kg 10/10 x 3 sets

Weighted Chins
20kg x 5 x 2

DBL KB Front Squats
20kgs 5 x 3 sets

Monday
Zercher squats 135x5x5 sets
BB Military Press 90x5x3 sets