Who doesn’t need a little more rotational training in their program? I mean come on!!
Archive for the ‘functional’ Category
Technique Video: Choppers
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010Thursday Blowout
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
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?
Stop in one Thursday. Tap into your well.
Foundation X
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Squat Damnit!
There is nothing more functional, nothing more applicable, and nothing SAFER in training than the squat.
End of story. I don’t want to hear it. Scream whatever kind of shearing forces, compressive forces, lower back issues you want to. If you move through your day on two feet on a regular basis, you should be doing some sort of squatting.
You squat every morning getting out of bed, every time you get up from your morning constitutional, get out of the car, up off the subway seat… You squat. Shouldn’t you practice to be better, more efficient and stronger at it? Knee problems, hip issues, lower back problems; there is a variant of the squat that can and actually will help you improve. That having been said, if you have any of those issues, remember, consult a licensed professional before taking on any physically exertive activities. Learn your limitations, how to work with them and get busy improving your strength and mobility.
Pick a sandbag up off the floor. Stand up off a 6” to 12” step repeatedly. Put on a backpack full of books and squat down to touch the floor, stand up, rinse and repeat. Load a bar with your 3 rep maximal load and go to town. Whatever. There is a variant that fits your level in such a way as to challenge your fitness and coordination.
You’re working posture, coordination, legs, hips, back, shoulders, proprioception, balance…The sheer act of walking is a form of reciprocating unilateral squat. So find something, put it on the ground or some place that lends its self to easy loading and PICK IT UP!!
Thursday Night Blowout
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
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.
Great job guys.
Thursday Night Blowout
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
To see someone fighting to lift their body 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?
Workout of the Week
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
4 rounds:Email me or post to comments to reserve for this week’s Thursday Blowout.
10 Burpee C&J (see Saturday’s video)
10 Ball Slams
400m sprint
Time:
Load:
MB weight:
Proceed through this workout and choose loads according to your ability! Push your personal envelopes, but be safe.
Thursday Blowout
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
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.
12 rounds of the following.
12 repetitions of each movement equals one round.
Burpees
Kettlebell clean & press (12 each arm)
Med Ball Deck Squat
Kettlebell high swings
Wallball
Workout of the Week
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Refer to Saturday’s video post for instruction & technique.Email me or post to comments to reserve a spot in thie week’s Thursday blowout.
As much as possible, do not put the bar down to rest. Find recovery in the catch position on the clean or in the locked out over head position.
20 Burpee cleans
5 OH barbell squats
15 Burpee cleans
10 OH BB squats
10 Burpee cleans
15 OH BB squats
5 Burpee Cleans
20 OH BB squats
bb weight:
time:
Press straight from your last clean into the overhead position. I suggest going a little lighter than you may thing you need with this one. Take stock and be honest with yourself. You decide just how intense or challenging this is. Push yourself, but know your limits and be safe.
Now MOVE!
Workout of the Week
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009Refer to last Saturday’s video for reference.
Choose a challenging but manageable weight. Take stock and be honest about what you can lift today. If you need to adjust in the middle of the workout, do it.
Complete as many rounds of the following in 30 minutes as possible. Record your loads.
5 H.S. Burpees
5 Pullups (or assisted if necessairy)
5 Barbell Pushpress
5 Tuck Jumps (jump, knees to chest in the air)
Now MOVE!
Taking another Look
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
It’s about time we went back to take a look at some of the underlying principals of our training philosophy. Why do we train the way we do? How can we make our workouts more efficient?
For the next few Thursdays, I’m going to go back over our 10 Foundations. Starting…now.
Part I: Train your body weight
Start with body weight. If we can’t move our own body weight efficiently through space, what right do we have to be lifting external weight? Become proficient at moving your body through space. Develop, or relearn healthy movement patterns that will decrease your chance of injury and increase your effectiveness in your workout.
Life demands athletic performance of each of us every day. I guarantee you, if you learn proper body weight squats, body weight rows and pushes, you will progress at substantially higher rate with increased safety over more traditional training. That way, when you get around to lifting the heavier external loads, you’ll be using you time much more efficiently and see elevated gains as a result.