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Thursday 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.

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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.

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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?

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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

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Thursday Blowout

Sunday, June 7th, 2009


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.

Awesome work guys.

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Thursday Blowout

Sunday, May 31st, 2009


I love it when the new folks come to town. Don’t get me wrong, you regulars out there absolutely make my day week after week. And those of you who fell off recently, it’s time to get your butts back to class!

But there’s somethign about the journey a first timer goes through. “Here’s your goal.”
“What the…?!?”
“Ready? “
“Um…wait”
“Set”“Hold on!”
“GO!!!”


….and then they do. shortly there after, usually panting as hard as they ever have and more drenched than they’re used to being in their own sweat, they’ve accomplished something they never would have thought possible, like lifting a cumulative 5,000lbs in less than 10 minutes for example.

Green button, red button. Re-read last Sunday’s post. Treat your body as if it were binary for once. Turn it on, all the way on and see what you can accomplish. Stand up off the machines, step off the treadmill belt, move your body through space and see where you end 

up.

We ran into another “Barbarian” routine out in the courts. Barbarians rely, in part, on the work your partner does to determine how much work you have to do for how long. How does another’s dependence on you shape your outlook on the workout when your partner is hurtling further and further past their lactic threshold? Or are you looking for a little payback because they made you travel a little too far past yours?
Awesome showing guys. It was a pleasure working with you. I look forward to having the same pleasure again soon. As for the rest of you…time to get back to work!

MOVE.

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Thursday Blowout

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009



We explored a new aspect of group training this week. What happens when the amount of work your fellow team members have to do depends solely on you? What happens when they can’t rest until you finish your assigned task? What if your partner took too long taking care of his/her end of the bargain, making you work longer than you originally thought you could?

Kind of mean? Yeah. A little tricky and devious in design? Absolutely. We’re looking for those things that allow each person to draw deeper and find more within themselves than they suspected possible.

Push, push, push. And then push some more. We’re more capable than 

we think. The catch is that we either have to already have faith in that, or we have to be pushed to the point that the only thing we see is the next rep, the task before us. That’s when we look up 

and understand that we broke through our own expectations without even realizing it.

You are more capable than you think. Do you have the faith to find out for yourself?

Great job guys. You’re getting stronger every week.

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Thursday Blowout

Sunday, April 5th, 2009



Central Tenant: The separation between your cardiovascular conditioning and your strength conditioning is an artificial one.


Building upon that, the separation between physical strength and mental strength is equally fictional. Now, you obviously don’t have to be able to squat twice your body weight or have a 6 minute mile under your belt to be a Rhodes Scholar. I’m not talking about intelligence. I’m talking about mental clarity, strength, determination. A human

 is one machine, one unit. Just as the legs can’t function with out a healthy core and back, the mind can not perform optimally without a strong body to support its efforts. Coming at it from the other direction, how will the body achieve it’s full performance potential without real mental clarity and resolute determinati
on? 

And that’s exactly what we saw this week. Clear, sharp determined 

minds driving bodies to 
the very edge of their performance capacity. It had been a long break for a couple of participants, so there was some ground to be made up. By sheer force of will that ground was clawed 
back, inch by inch. Summon enough energy for one more repetition. Now, one more. One more. Another. The key isn’t to focus on finishing. They key is to just keep moving. Determine to move. Reap benefits both physically and mentally.

This only happens once a week. There is only this night to push yourself this hard in the accountability of your peers. Find out just how far you can go. Test the limits of your exertion. 

Know exactly what you’re made of. 

In this room, it’s not necessarily a bad thing when some
one says,
 ”You’ve put a couple on since you started didn’t you.” That’s not a question.

Congratulations everyone.

Also a huge congratulations to the boys out at Eads House of Pain in La Jolla for graduating their second evolution. Your third evolution
 has a ti
tle. “This one goes to 11.” Enjoy.

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Saturday Night Blowout

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

We’ve got one more look at the squat coming up, so that’ll be next time. Right now I want to recognize this week’s Saturday Night Blowout. 


“It’s one of the first times that I felt like I can…I can do this.” 

Adaptation: The body’s response to elevated demands. 

That’s what it’s all about. You push, you push and you push. Your body thanks you by growing
 stronger, faster, more coordinated and more efficient. It’s also what Steve over at Extreme Fitness Concepts and I like to call evolving. 

Evolve: To undergo gradual change; develop


One becomes something new, something bigger and better in certain aspects than they were before. Not better in terms of one is better than another, but better in terms of personal growth, beating and achieving more than what you were. Attaining
 more. Achieving progressively higher goals. 

The athletes at each week’s Saturday Night Blowout have committed themselves to a
 process of evolution. Last week’s first timer identified how after recovery from the workout, he felt stronger, more in control of the movements. Sometimes evolution isn’t so gradual. Sometimes it progresses in leaps and bounds. 

We were introduced to the 6th Beast yesterday. One round building upon the intensity of the last, taking advantage of the fatigue. As you grow wearier and wearier, you have to draw deeper and deeper from that energy reserve. You have to ask yourself how badly you want to achieve success.  A perfect example of how real fitness includes so much more than just ones physicality. 

Out to the courts and into the loving embrace of the Barbarian. This is fitness you don’t get by sitting in a soft cushy easy chair with a weight stack attached. This is the kind of fitness you earn with sweat, determination and a rejection of the idea of personal failure. I will succeed. I will push myself. I will achieve. I will grow. I will evolve.

In the courts, “can’t” disappears. You figure out how. You find a way. And you know what? It works. If at first glance your task looks impossible, take a closer look. Clues to the path

through to your achievement lie just below the surface. What is the goal? What must be done? What do I have to do in order to make that possible? It’s like the saying my wife is so fond of. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”


No excuses. Achieve. 

Post results in the comments section.

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Saturday Night Blowout

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009


When we accept and decide to work with the idea that the separation between strength and cardio training is a completely synthetic and man made distinction, all the rules in the gym change.  Strategies, goals and our very priorities must change. In a Darwinian world a five hundred pound leg press doesn’t do you a shot glass of good if it’s not paired with your ability to perform over time. 


And this is the world one of our participants began to see last

 night. When it becomes unrealistic to achieve your goal in short order, you have to make a  plan and set your interim goals accordingly. Way points in the road to achievement. And in the end, your goal setting and, even more, your dedication to those goals determines the level of that achievement. Great job Nathan. That distinct sensation of feeling like a lump of kneaded dough goes away after the first couple.

Beast down, on to Hellion.  When you’ve performed almost four minutes straight each of lunging, squatting, swinging and otherwise exploding through space with your whole body, where Mike gets the ability to motivate as many jumps with as much power as he does is nothing short of astounding. What you perform on a weekly basis is the payoff and should be the aspiration of anyone committed to a regular fitness and performance program. Great stuff.

Nathan picked himself up a few new skills out in court 3.  Coming into it with as much weight lifted over time as he did, it didn’t seem to matter because he,

without being told really, found the first rule of Saturday Night: Just keep moving. Awesome job. 


I can’t wait for next week.

Post times for each event to comments.

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