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!

212 degrees - The Extra Degree

I found this video on Alwyn Cosgrove's blog. A great video about simple truths we all know but need to apply to achieve the great things we want to achieve in life!

RKC Snatch Test

I was looking at Yoana this morning (six months pregnant) and asked her "Do you think you can still pass the RKC snatch test six months pregnant?" She said, "Of course. Although I am heavier and that will put me into a new weight class where I have to complete more reps. Let's try it though."

Well, needless to say she passed with flying colors and she completed 54 reps with the 12kg. Remember that Yoana has done 130 reps in 5 minutes with the 16kg, so she is very capable of doing some impressive numbers with both bells.

I decided to test myself as well. My numbers were 56 according to my bodyweight. I ended up doing 30 and 30. It wasn't to bad except my lungs were highly taxed.

Power on! KETTLEBELLS RULE!

Changes................the different seasons of life

Summer is coming to an end and autumn is approaching. To be honest with you I am actually ready for autumn. Maybe because I have been rather sick this summer that I am looking forward to change. With a baby on the way my life has already changed, my priorities and the lens in which I choose to see the world through. It's all good though. I realize that life is much more than selfishly obsessing about my goals, my wants and my desires. Not that there is anything wrong with goals and desires, they are built into our human DNA and part of the journey. However, I do think you can get so caught up in "yourself" that you forget about what life is really about; RELATIONSHIPS.
This pregnancy has been good for both Yoana and I because we realize that life is more meaningful with deeper relationships in your life. And what relationship (apart from one with God) can be as meaningful as the relationship betweena husband and wife and their child?

Okay.................enough of that. Training wise I have been doing a couple sets of presses, pull ups, lunges and squats a couple times of week. Not enough or even structured to document it in my blog. Life is busy and with my health still not 100% I must just trying to find the balance between work, rest, play and family life. I can tell you one thing for sure, I need to work a little less and focus on RELAXATION , rest and PLAY.

September TSC......it was a GREAT one!

September is always a great time of the year. Kids are back in school, people are getting back into some type of work and training routine, football season starts and you can always count on a competitive TSC taking place. This one was no exception. Great competitors and a nice size crowd came to Revolution Fitness to experience this grueling yet fun day of pain.

First of all, here are the competitors and their results"

MEN Open Division

Jeff Cwalinski BW 257 DL 475 Pull ups 11 Snatch 116
Aaron Wilson BW 146 DL 395 pull ups 40 Snatch 122
Osvaldo Aponte BW 152.8 DL 315 Pull ups 29 Snatch 112
Mike LoBue BW 179.2 DL 405 Pull ups 35 Snatch 121
Christian Goodwin BW 169.2 DL 345 Pull ups 11 Snatch 68

MEN Elite Division

Phillip Davis BW 169.2 DL 405 Pull ups w/22.5lbs 16 Snatch w/32kg 114 (new TSC Record)

WOMENS

Jennifer Peters BW 150.2 DL 220 Pull ups 7 Snatch 139
Kristin Olafsdottir BW 144.8 DL 225 Pull ups 10 Snatch 123
Susan Atwater BW 134.2 DL 225 Pull ups 8 Snatch 86
Rhonda Fuller BW 148.4 DL 265 Pull ups 10 Snatch 131

Yoana and I want to congratulate all of the competitors for coming out an competing and giving it their all! It is so motivating to watch athletes push themselves to the limit!

We also want to thank Mike LoBue for bringing his SDSU athletes with him to the competition. He always brings great athletes and is one heck of a coach and motivator for talking them into competing, even if they are totally new to kettlebells, pull ups and deadlifts. Thanks again Mike!

Reflections.......................an Eternal Perspective

I hope this post doesn't come off sounding too dark, too negative and depressing. That is not my intent at all, I'm just sharing what has been on my heart for a while and more importantly it gives me a chance to write some of my thoughts down and reflect on them in a different way. For a while I have wrestled with my own mortality(the fact that I will one day die) and have tried to come to grasps with this fact. Death seems like such a foreign concept to me, to all of us. It seems as if it just shouldn't be and we live our lives and act and behave in ways that might prove that we think we are immortal, which of course is false. The fact of the matter is that life is not a dress rehearsal, it is the real deal. We only get one shot at this life, one opportunity to swing for the fences. Once it is over, our time here on earth is finished. As a professing Christian I believe there is an after life as reason and logic prove to me that this is true.

Atheists try to convince themselves that once" your dead, you are dead, that's it; that's the end of sensation." Yet the universal and overpowering conviction has persisted in every culture since the beginning of time that death does not end human existence. The fact that man is a spiritual being who survives death of the body in which he temporarily lives on earth is a basic human instinct that can be denied only with great effort. Moreover, even apart from scripture, the scientific validity of this universal belief is easily proved.

Death is a fate that we all imagine that we will somehow avoid, at least for a while. The fact is no matter how healthy one may be, we are always one breath away from death. This is a very UNPLEASANT topic that we do not like to talk about or think about. That is why I like what Moses says in the bible that we need God's help to fit our few days into an eternal perspective.

To quote Dave Hunt, "But modern funerals, with their beautiful flowers and kind rememberances of the deceased, seem almost designed to keep the mourning to a minimum in order to help the living remain detached from the unspeakable event that has drawn them together. we cannot bear, for ourselves or for others, to dwell upon the fact that death inevitably puts its terminating stamp on every earthly passion, position, possession and ambition."

Where am I going with all of this. Not sure! I just no that I do not want to waste my life away on trivial things. Coming to grasp with your own mortality is an important thing to do as I believe it can and should push you toward GREAT endeavors and GREAT vision. The very fact that we are mortal makes LIFE that much more significant and precious. So what are you waiting for (myself included). Swing for the fences, do great things. Love people, serve people, and challenge yourself to reach, strive and try harder.

Someone once told me that the only thing you can take from this earth (we certainly can't take any of our material goods) into eternity is the CHARACTER that you develop here.

Down...but not out!

This couple of weeks has been very challenging for me health wise. A nasty virus that turned into an upper respiratory head cold plus a severe case of Prostatitis, a bacterial infection in my prostate. The prostate infection left me going to the bathroom 10 times per night and needless to say I was getting ZERO sleep for days. The prostate infection I think I have had all summer; It just was a very low grade infection that got really, really bad. My urologist gave me six weeks of Cypro to knock it out. Now I now why my energy levels were so poor and my response to exercise was HORRIBLE! I am just so ready to start feeling better and to start training again.

How did I get like this? Well, for one I overwork myself, much like a lot of entreprenurial business owners do. Too much work, not enough rest, and not enough high quality sleep. Number two, my nutrition that past two months has been atrocious. Cookies, ice cream and other junk food have not helped contribute to good health. Yes, even trainers are human and get hooked on bad eating for weeks if not months at a time. Time to regroup and apply SELF CONTROL again. Having great health really comes down to a few simple, but often difficult to apply principles, such as:

1) Discipline
2) Lifestyle
3) Nutrition
4) Training intelligently

If any of these principles gets left behind or abused, health will diminish quickly and aggressively. Adversity with health serves as an opportunity for me to examine why I make some of the choices I do and where I want to be in the next year, 5 years and 10 years. With a baby on the way I must now put my health as a priority because I must be healthy for our little girl. Unfortunately because I am very stubborn an unwise at times, I often have to learn the hard way and let things get really bad before they get better.

What is the difference between a WISE MAN and a SMART MAN?

Think about!

A SMART MAN will find ways to get out of problems or precarious situations!


A WISE MAN will find a way to never get into that problem in the first place!

And that is a big, BIG difference. I am smart a lot of the time. I am not too wise. I need to ask God and for his wisdom and more importantly, learn to APPLY WISDOM!

Proverbs 2:10, 11

When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
Discretion will preserve you, understanding will keep you!

Been Busy.........like everyone else!

I love this poster of Steve Prefontaine. He really was one of the greatest athletes to ever live!!!


Sometimes when you are juggling so many things at one time, many of the things we enjoy doing (like blogging)get put on hold. Been a busy couple of weeks. Work schedule has definitely picked up and my responsibilities seem to keep growing(which isn't always a bad thing.) I took last week off from training as I felt awful all week. Maybe a low grade infection or virus. I've been battling something that is for sure and it hasn't been fun. My response to exercise has been very poor which tells me their is some underlying health issue that needs to be addressed. Maybe it's increased stress or a nutritional deficiency? I'm not sure, but I plan on finding out. Overall this week I feel much better, thank God. This week is a very LIGHT week of training to help me slowly come back. I need to listen to my body, especially on those days when I see 8 + clients per day.

On Friday I am off to Phoenix to take a NMT (Neuromuscular Therapy) course for three days on all the muscles of the pelvis and torso. Should be fantastic!

Training Today:

Multi Directional Lunges (5 different angles)w/barbell
2 sets x 10/10 (2 per angle)

Pull Ups
10/8

TGU w/20kg
2 sets x 2/2

Single Clean and Press w/20kg
2 sets x 5/5

That's it for now. Off to Phoenix to learn!

Love this Quote

Today's Training

Double KB Front Squats (20kgs)
5 reps x 5 sets

See Saw Press (24kgs)
5/5 x

Pull Ups (16kg)
8,8 = 16 reps

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I took this from Geoff Neupert's Blog. It is one of my favorite all time quotes. So much so that we put it in the front of our book "The Revolution Kettlebell Fat Loss Program."

Change......is a good thing!

With the coming of our new baby I have come to realize that change is an important part of life. Their are different seasons of life and with each season comes new opportunities, new perspectives to learn, and new challenges. I also always think of the scripture passage from the book of Ecclesiastes where King Solomon talks about how their is a time for everything; a time to laugh...a time to cry...a time to work and a time to relax..... and I'm sure most of you have read it or heard it. The following poem I found in John Maxwell's the Difference Maker and it's called:

Will I Master Change, or Will Change Master Me?

by Dick Biggs Life's turning points are as sure as the tide Just a matter of when, so why not decide? To Embrace these transitions always to grow 'Tis folly to ignore what you already know. Make a vow to adapt to the crises of life There's no reason to suffer more stress or strife. Quite often change becomes a blessing in time while making you wiser in pursuit of your prime. No change is impossible, no one is exempt You can step out in faith or shrug with contempt. Life comes in cycles, no two are the same To claim nothing's new is a naive game. Some change is impractical, some things must endure You need worthwhile values, so profound and pure. Plus a noble purpose to guide you each day and give life meaning as you forge your way. But most things do change, it's a natural law You can believe this is truth or stand there in awe. It may be uncomfortable, it may cause pain- Won't a regretful heart be a greater strain? With every change, there's an outcome to bear So accept the challenge, for life's seldom fair. Be willing to risk and you're bound to find More courage and strength from a positive mind. Be bold, be daring, be receptive to change For most things are better when you rearrange. Get out of the rut, seek a new vitality Move beyond the old to a fresh reality. Ah, life has turning points, they won't disappear Rise up to greet them and conquer your fear. The choice is simple, it's as clear as can be: Will I master change or will change master me?

I love that poem and read it often. Good stuff!

TRAINAING

Yesterday at home:
KB Military Press w/24kg
3/3 x 10 sets

Snatches w/24kg
5/5 x 10 sets = 100 reps

Overhead sqats w/24kg
3/3 x 3 sets

Saturday Track Workout:
Warm Up
20 yards x 3
30 yards x 3
40 yards x 2
60 yards x 1

Suicides w/ 5 cones (with cones placed every 10 yards)
5 sets

Thursday

Double KB Military Press (2 x 24kgs)
5 x 5 sets

Weighted Pull Ups w/24kg
5,4,3,2,2

Snatches w/24kg
10/10 x 1 set

Motivated by Excellence! Bulldog Snatch Video

Well, what can I say. I am motivated by watching excellence in others and recently the postings by Rif about Kenneth Jay and his snatch numbers with beast have opened my mind to what is possible. Kenneth is on another level.......well.......another planet. His strength and power levels are unreal and I know there are many other KB practitioners that will raise their KB numbers and loads after Kenneth has raised the bar for all of us. Let's be honest. Anyone that can snatch the BEAST (106 pounds) consecutively for 25 reps (one arm) + 24 reps (the other arm) is a mutant. He did those numbers and that got me listening. That guy knows what he is doing and his training is simplistically focused on strength and power.

I have not been snatching heavy KB's for a while, especially since my lumbar disc herniation last year. Back is feeling a ton better and has been for a while but I wanted to test my snatch numbers with the 40kg Bulldog. My previous snatch record at the June RKC in 2006 was 15 reps on my right and 10 reps on my left. Well today I got 16 reps on my right (woo hoooo) and only 6 on my left (booooo). There is definitely a huge weakness on my left side but either way I am excited that I was able to snatch it for some reps. It proves my theory that you do not have to lift heavy in order to be able to lift heavy. If you get good at snatching the 24kg you will have the base conditioning to able to lift a heavier bell. Our good friend and Muay thai instructor Roger Lewis was nice enough to film it for me.

BULLDOG SNATCH VIDEO

Yes I know......the left arm is LAUGHABLE. The first rep I barely even got up overhead. I have lots of work to do on the left side fore sure!

Answer from legendary sprint coach Charlie Francis!

When I was 26 (I'm 33 now) I submitted a question about sprinting to Charlie Francis, possibly the best sprint coach to ever live. Well funny thing is I was an Tom Furman's site and saw a collection of Q and A's with Charlie Francis that he has posted. I was shocked to find my question and his answer in there. It only took 7 years for me to get the answer. Here is my question that I gave him and the following is his answer. But you know what? I am still pumped to have this answer because it does answer some questions for me as I head off to the track to sprint right after I post this! God bless Charlie Francis!



Sprinting, Rapid Improvements, and Those Wacky East Germans

Q: I'm a 26 year old 100m sprinter who's been sprinting on and off since my junior year in high school. In the college program I attended my times were worse than in high school and I attribute it to the buffoon type of aerobic training my coach insisted I do. Well, years have passed and since having read your material I sprinted my PR of 10.72 (electronic- previous best was 11.00) with very poor strength levels. My goal is to get down to 10.4 this upcoming track season. Is this level of rapid improvement possible in one year? 10.72 felt like I was floating; it was the easiest race I've run. Have you ever seen anyone drop their 100m time by 4/10's of seconds?

A: That's a lot of time to drop all at once, especially as you've already dropped 3/10's in the last year! I'd suggest that you put some of the time planning on hold and concentrate on getting the best training program in place that you can. Relax and let the results come to you.

Your comment about your 10.72 race illustrates what I mean. The best races always feel easy! Don't put pressure on yourself. I'm not sure what sort of aerobic training you did before, but I've always had a significant aerobic component in my running programs (about 35% anaerobic, 65% aerobic). These runs act as an "active recovery," enhancing blood flow and increasing capillary density (the enhanced microscopic network slows down the flow of blood past the cells, allowing more time for complete nutrient transfer).

The other poorly understood, but even more important benefit, is the increased ability of the body to generate more heat around the muscle motor neurons. Increased heat around the neurons lowers electrical resistance, allowing more current to pass. This permits more muscle fiber to act as fast twitch fiber!

The East Germans understood the role of additional heat when an extensive review of world record performances revealed how often the record setter was at the early stages of a cold and running a fever when the record was set. (Later into the cold, the adverse effects outweigh the benefits, of course.) This led the East Germans to experiment with de-natured viruses to generate a slight fever immediately prior to a world record attempt!

The warning here is that these "tempo" runs must not interfere in any way with the quality of the high-speed runs. This means that aerobic interval runs must not exceed 75% of your best possible speed. If your best time for the 200 meters is 21 seconds, then your interval 200 meter runs must be slower than 28 seconds! Additionally, your last interval must be as fast as your first. If you have any problem doing that, you're going too fast!

Liftting something a little heavier

Video of American Sprinter Tyson Gay running a 19.68 in the 200 meters.


It's amazing how your body adapts to loads. For the last 4 to 5 weeks I have been using lighter loads (less than the 24kg) for almost all movements. Well today I pulled out the 40kg, 32kg and 28kgs and they felt great, but really heavy. I tend fry out my CNS if I lift more than two weeks heavy. Perhaps 2 weeks of heavy followed by 2 weeks of lighter/speed work is the key.


Friday Training

A-1 Weighted Pull Ups
40kg - missed (a couple of inches away. This is a bummer because at the June RKC I got this weight, no problem)
32kg - 1o sets x 1 = 10 reps

B-1 Double KB Clean and Press
28kg's - 2,2,2,2,2 = 10 reps

C-1 Front Squat w/24kg KB
5 sets x 10 reps = 50 reps
Wednesday Training

A-1 Double KB Press w/24kgs
5,5,5,4

B-1 Front Lunges w/ 16kgs
4 sets x 6/6

C-1 My version of the Kenneth Jay Snatch workout
32kg, 24kg, 16kg R / L / R, L / R / L for 15 second intervals x 3 reps

That smoked me big time. Need to start adding this in every week.

More Pics!

Back from Hawaii.....what a trip!!!

Our week voyage on the Big Island of Hawaii came to end on Monday as we returned to the mainland. For those of you who have never been to the big island, you must go. It is gorgeous, volcanic and has fantastic weather. We were able to completely detach from work, stress and the daily routine. However it took me a couple of days to stop checking my e-mail on my cell phone and to de-stress. I am so used to going, going, going that it is often hard for me to slow down and chill. But the energy in Hawaii gets to you and SLOWS you down to the ALOHA pace of life. We stayed at the Hualalai Resort, part of the Four Seasons. WOW! This place is as nice as it gets. Our most difficult decision every day was deciding which pool we were going to go to, which beach, and which Spa/gym we were going to train at? Yeah, yeah, I know, super tough decision making, right?



We had a blast and are already planning our next trip there. As much I love vacation it is always nice to come back home and get back to work, training, our dogs, etc. I love that life that we have here so that always makes it fun to come home to. Training wise we were able to train every day and one of the gyms (Kukio)even had dragondoor kettlebells. It amazes me that on vacation I can train every single day but at home I can train 3 to 4 days per week maximum. When you have no stress and are relaxing all day, your recovery ability is beyond phenomenal. Now I now why pro athletes can train every day because they don't have to be on their feet working all day. When they are not training they are relaxing, or doing something to enhance recovery.

Overall a great trip.

Ready for Vacation!

Well, Yoana is finally starting to feel better from the pregnancy. She passed the 3 month mark last week and did a very thorough food allergy and food sensitivity evaluation with CHEK Practioner Aaron Wilson. He absolutely dialed in which foods were causing her problems and also figured out which organs and glands were being over taxed. Now she feel so much better. I to did the same testing yesterday and found out I had a whole bunch of things going in my body. Thank God I am on the road to improving my health and knocking out a virus and bacterial infection in my gut that have been bugging me for a while. Very Exciting!

On monday we fly to the beautiful BIG ISLAND of HAWAII for a week of vacation together. We are both exhausted from a brutally busy first half of the year and one week in KONA is just what the doctor ordered. We are so ready for this!!! YES!!!!!

Saturday Sprinting Session with my client Brett

* Yoana and I took 2 of our classes outside to La Jolla Cove on the Grass. Outside classes rock !! We will be doing this more often in the future

Warm Up

Full Speed sprints on grass

3 x 20 yards
3 x 30 yards
2 x 40 yards

Suicides with 5 cones spaced 10 yards apart
4 intervals at 70% intensity

Thursday Training

Snatches w/20kg
7 sets x 10/10 = 140 reps ( I was going for 10x10 but left hand blister went crazy)


Tuesday Training

Weighted Pull Ups w/16kg
5,5,5,5,5,5

Double Military Press (no clean)
20kgs 8 sets x 6 reps

Assisted Pistols
4 sets x 3/3

TAKE CARE! We are off to Hawaii! May God bless you all!!!!

Impossible is nothing!

The following is from an Adidas add in ESPN Magazine:



"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an oppinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool. Hope you enjoy it!!!

Saturday's Training

A-1 Chin ups w/12kg KB
8,8,8,6,5,5,4,3,3,2 = 52 reps

B-1 Single Arm KB Military Press
20kg 8/8 x 6 sets

C-1 Pistols with stretch Band
3 sets x 5/5


Thursday Training
A-1 Double KB Front Squats
12kg's 5 sets x 8 reps

B-1 Pull Ups w/ 24kg
5,5,5,5,5

C-1 Single KB Press w/24kg
5 sets x 6/6

Tuesday Training
A-1 Pull Ups w/16kg
5,5,5,5,5

B-1 Double KB Military Press
20kg's 8 sets x 6 reps

C-1 Pistols w/ stretch band
2 x 5/5