I’m going to start off by saying, man, that was fun.
Girevoy Sport, competitive kettlebell lifting, was introduced to Manhattan yesterday. Congratulations to Rick and Chriss and the Ironworks Fe team for throwing such a successful event. Great job.
So this was competition #2. The first was when I competed long cycle with the 24kg bells at Mike Sanders’ event over in Sparta, NJ. After having trained 6 weeks in a sport consisting of a completely different movement language, I finished with about 5 minutes and 4 seconds and 21 reps. This time around I came in at about 7 minutes and 40 seconds with 34 reps. Personal best. I’m happy with that.
If you’ve yet to get a taste of competitive bells, it’s time to get it in gear folks. If you’re in the area, Mike is holding another event next month, I believe on Saturday the 14th at The Fit Experience. Even if you’re going just as a spectator, it’s time to get your feet wet and see what it’s all about.
For more information, contact Mike at Mike.Sanders.kbfit@gmail.com or at 973-670-7047
What would you normally expect to see as a rep count on an exercise in your average workout day? 15 reps over 3 sets? Maybe 20 over 4?
What happens when you take that number and blow it up? What happens when that number hits 50? 100? 200? More? We don’t live in a world where every demand comes at you in neatly tied bunches of 10 or 15. It’s similar to my point about loading with water or sand. The loads our world throws at us are very rarely evenly loaded with a nice convenient ergonomically pleasing grip. We get what we get and it rarely shows up right at our 10 repetition max.
We regularly explore the higher regions of rep counts in my clients’ programs. So this isn’t anything really new to them. However, a couple of weeks ago we set some seriously high goals, in the hundreds, on some very difficult movements. I wanted to take these particular folks on a journey.
What happens when you’re standing at the base of a sheer rock face, there’s no way back and you have to get to the other side? The path of least resistance becomes straight up. Where do you go mentally? Do you tell yourself it can’t be done? Do you defeat yourself immediately? Do you jump in, hoping for the best, and live, mired in self doubt, asking yourself if it’s worth it at somewhere around the 217th rep?
Or do you find that place of trust and faith? Do you find that place of inner strength and resolve that doesn’t give you any option other than success? Given time and determination, you will finish. It’s a test. In the case I mentioned above, it was a place we needed to go. Self doubt and darkness overshadowed the faith in one’s own ability and conditioning. The goal was to push through as a group, to encourage each other through some of the most difficult and demanding training they’d ever seen in order that they would lead each other to the well of self confidence and faith deep inside. I don’t mean to sound like a cult leader here or anything. Our daily grind often times doesn’t seem to foster a sense of faith in one’s ability to out perform expectation, so we forget it’s there. We just have to dig down and find it.
You know what? They did it. They found it.
I’d put that same challenge out to you. When was the last time you seriously tested yourself? When was the last time you set out a task that lies on the very cusp of your ability and just went for it? When was the last time you searched and scratched your way forward until you finally found that well?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, and in class, there’s little chance of anyone getting out without said acceptance…
If there was a common theme this week, it was the theme of built in rest…with a catch. 5 for 10. Five barbell front squats each minute for ten minutes. So once you finish your reps, you’ve got the whole rest of the minute to rest until the next time. The catch is that you rest. The weigth doesn’t. At no point can you rest the barbell on anything other than your body. So the test becomes, how can you work with, around, over or under the weight to take as much pressure off your muscles and rest the load on
your frame between sets. Learn how to work with your body. It’s the most advanced and versatile tool you’ll ever use.
Then into the court for “Hellion 1.” You’re going to make five trips
through the circuit, performing each movement for 50 seconds before moving on to the next. six stations, five rounds. One of your
stations is specifically a rest station. Every 6 minutes, you get one minute recovery. With 50# of sand, kettlebells, and a couple of our other choice greatest hits movements in the mix, and your only having one solid minute of rest in every six, you have to focus in part on slowing your heart rate and reoxygenating as much as possible during the ten second transition into the next movement.
In any movement, sequence, complex or combination, there are
those minute moments that you can recover, there are those unlikely positions and postures that allow different batteries to charge while others take over for a bit. Learn to look for them and exploit them for all their worth. It can make a huge difference in your experience and results.
Toseesomeonefightingtolifttheirbody up off the ground one more time, simply through sheer force of will even though the muscles have clearly drained their tanks dry, to see someone hurling 20lbs through the air with every last pound of force they possess in preparation for another round when it seemed no less than a miracle that they caught the ball in the first place, to witness someone looking back over their shoulder at their partner as they hurtled across the floor, knowing that every moments delay meant that much more work to be born by the other…this is to know….Dude, you’re going to want to ice that sh*t down!
I’m not sure I’ve seen a performance that embodied such a sense
of selfless abandon and a whole hearted sense of giving ones self over to a workout as we saw this week. When the system began to breakdown, for began to suffer, “…it’s a product of my not stepping into a gym in the last 4 years…” Well, yes, if you’re not accustomed to this kind of work, it’s going to be hard, but let’s not confuse that with a lesser degree of fitness. Fitness doesn’t just exist in the gym. Some would even argue that real fitness doesn’t exist in the gym at all. It exists in the rest of our lives. The gym is merely prep work.
Running, jumping, climbing, sailing, pulling, just plain moving, all of these are hallmarks of fitness. We are merely conditioned to the demands most regularly placed upon the body. I’d never last an hour with some of the rock climbers I know at my gym. My forearms would probably divorce themselves from the rest of my body in sheer protest after a mere 20 minutes or so. These folks lasted 70 minutes the other night. What’s not fit about that?
We’re going to call this week’s workout “Find Your Own Way.” What started out as Juggernaut 2, evolved and grew right along with our athletes this week.
I’m usually a stickler with my clients. I’ve done the homework on a program or a workout, designed it as efficiently and effectively as possible to accomplish what my clients are looking for. Baring any morphological issues, the program should be accomplished as it’s written. It is what it is for a reason. Thursday was something else entirely.
Our Juggernaut workouts are exactly what they sound like, huge. You have one task. Here’s as much time as you need. Your one goal; finish. And every single person did. Every single person returned to the well time and again to draw out more, to keep going. As wells began to run dry, the workout began to change. Out of necessity, in order to simply keep moving and accomplish the goal. Explosive movements gave up their explosion and gave way to movements that enabled the maintenance of speed and momentum. These same high velocity movements melted into purposful, structurally strong movements that emphasized keepingh form and strengthening the body, all while the energy stores were being looted.
In rounds 9, 10 and 11, burpees shrank to body weight squats briefly interrupted by a pushup or two. Decksquats morphed into deliberate but determined weighted situps. Clean and press melted into sumodeadlifts, which, in turn, were ground down into a straight forward romanian deadlift. By the 12th round and 74 minutes into the workout all four athletes had found their own road, their own path up the mountain. When I called out the hour, half expecting someone to ring the bell and and tap out at the end of what was supposed to be our one hour together, the only response I got was the sound of focused breathing and medicine balls slamming against the wall.
Each athlete: One body, one system, accomplishing one mission, one goal. Finish. Bravo.
There must be a call issued by our Thursday gathering, something akin to a dog whistle, or the sound the air makes before a storm the kind of a call only a select few that can hear. Canines
hear what we cannot. Animals know to barricade their dens before the first gust of wind even begins to shift. We humans stand oblivious as nature flees before us.
The same can be said for our Thursday athletes. I’ve yet to meet a mere human in our class. Thursdays call out the beasts, even when they themselves don’t know wilder things live inside. I stand amazed every time.
“I don’t strength train,” yet she tears through the program. Beginning the evening with “Why are there skull & bones on the waiver? Isn’t this about being healthy?” Then 20 minutes later through sweat and gritting teeth “I get it now,” as she cranks out one more repetition.
Last week’s newbie shed his human skin again for something far tougher. Gifted for finishing first with an extra helping, he still found encouragement & strength to lend his fellow athlete.
We might just have to close out next week’s class by adjourning to the roof and howling at the moon.
How far can your body go? How much can it accomplish when given leave to function as one single machine, not separate parts? I think they just about found out.
I’m not going to even go into trying to teach an olympic clean via the internet. However, being such an incredibly important with such versatile application, we need to take a look at a couple of variants at least.
We’re leaving the heavy load, one off power behind and focusing on developing whole body coordination, speed, anaerobic conditioning, and stability.
All three examples in the video, all cleans in fact have the same three basic parts.
1st Pull: Knees straighten and the torso maintains a consistent angle to the ground.
2nd Pull: When the knees have straightened, the hips thrust forward with as much power and speed as possible as you shrug the shoulders and high pull.
Catch: The weight should be moving with enough energy that you’ve thrown it vertically. Release your grip, fall slightly back towards the ground and reposition your hands under the weight.
As with anything else, this takes practice. Then more practice.
Be safe, listen to your body and have fun. Now MOVE!
I think I’m about to be sick. No really. I might actually be seconds away from having to purchase a new keyboard. Clean up on aisle 4 man.
I just received this season’s copy of a so called fitness trade journal in the mail at my club. I say “so called” because there are all sorts of trade journals in the fitness industry. This one rates as a thinly veiled advertisement vehicle for anyone who wants to pay enough to get a feature length article published about their, usually shoddy, product. The cover story on this one….all about how gym memberships are up….because “vanity is a recession industry.”
How should you, the clever, trendy, yet ever so thrifty club owner/operator capitalize on this? Well son, by purchasing some of our low cost, highly indestructible mirrors, so everyone can get the best view of any angle while they toil away in your dungeon of torture and sorrow they’d likely never set foot in if they couldn’t stare at their own abs while they work.
Actual quote here “With ______ mirrors, you can go completely off the wall….You can hang them from the ceiling so members can check their form on flat bench presses, or proper body positioning in supine exercises….” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if your back is supported by a full length flat bench, or THE FLOOR, you’ve probably got good form.
Or let’s look at another one here. “With vanity on the rise, your members will be grateful to be able to monitor their progress towards physical and economic recovery.” The economic part comes in earlier in the article as the author equates joining a gym and staring at your @ss to bettering your ability to land a job in a recession.
Are you freaking kidding me? I know you’re trying to hawk a product here. But seriously? This single author somehow encapsulates every last thing in the fitness world that keeps America fat.
Get out of the mirror. Forget about the aesthetics. Focus on the movement. Focus on moving your body through space with as much efficiency as possible. Create a strong machine capable of performing under increasing load or intensity. Your beach body will follow. I promise. And you will have created the functionality in your body that lends its self to sustained results.
You know what? Go ahead. Get into the mirror. Watch those biceps curl that dumbbell. Watch those pecs push that bar. How long are those results going to last? How long have you been trying to break through to that next heavier bench press or into that next size smaller jean? It’s time to try something else.
Aesthetics are a consequence of fitness.
Get fit, learn to move first. Everything else you want will follow.
What keeps you going? What is it that pushes you harder? It’s like in a job interview question. Do you need the camaraderie and competitive environment that comes in a group situation with less individual attention? Or are you more of a self motivator? Here’s your task.You’ve got supervision if you need it, but we’re looking to you to make this happen?
People are figuring this out every week at the Blowout.
That’s no surprise. What does surprise me is when people are taken out of their familiar environments and given a mission, just how farthey’re willing to go. Every week I learn something new about the resolution of a strong mind. I’m not talking about elite professional athletes.
I’mnot talking about world record holders. I’m not
talking about anyone other than the kind of people we all sit next to on the subway every single day.Every day athletes that choose to rise above through performance. Resolution, determination, strength of mind and body.
Never am I ceased to be amazed by the stamina and determination our participants demonstrate. Weekly the instructor is inspired by these athlets. Weekly I learn a lesson that allows me to push myself harder. It’s another reason why I’m grateful. Another reason why I understand I have the greatest job in the world.
When looking at implementing any of the training tools we talk about here, or reorienting your training program to incorporate more of these ideas, already we’ve made a shift. What we’re doing here is looking at you, not as gym goer, lawyer or sales professional, but rather as an athlete. We’re adapting the principles of athletic performance coaching to enhance your performance through your day. You are a functional athlete. Your events, your tournaments happen every single day.
To this end, we have to treat our training and the way we approach it as an athlete approaches hers/his. How do athletes prep themselves all year to make sure they’re performing at the highest possible level?
First and above all else, is the athlete’s mindset. Remember Jen, the triathlete I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? If she has not decided well in advance of her long mid February bike ride up The Pallisades that come hell or high water, she will succeed, she will find some area in which she can improve, she doesn’t stand a change against the cold and the wind. She’ll never finish. I know. You’re not running a triathlon. But you’re not training for one either. Everything is scalable. To get the results we want, relatively speaking, we all have to train just as hard for our own lives and our own events as any serious athlete trains for theirs. When you get your mind in the right place, decide that you will, in fact, succeed, you’ve just quadrupled your chances.
Set your goals. S.M.A.R.T. ones. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound goals. You are going to push your program and fitness to a specific place, to accomplish a certain reasonable thing by a pre determined date. What’s important to you? What do you need? What are you training for? Set those goals. Then when you get to that date, be honest with yourself. Did you hit them? If you’ve made specific and measurable goals, it won’t be hard to tell. Hit them? Good. Now, reset and make new ones. Onwards and upwards. Didn’t hit them? Where did you fall short? How can you now incorporate that into the next phase of your training to make sure you hit them next time? Remember these intermediate, progressive goals are benchmarks and way signs that keep you enroute to your ultimate goals.
