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So here’s the breakdown, high intensity anaerobic threshold training with a huge variety of tools, body weight, TRX, kettlebells, free weights, cardio intervals and Olympic lifting to name a few, Wednesday nights, 8pm at West River Health & Racquet Club. $20.
If you’re planning on coming, shoot me an email just so I can program the evening as efficiently as possible.
West River Health
424 West End Ave
@ W81st St.
Penthouse level.
Good Evening Everyone,
I’m sure you have all been watching the news with as much horror and heartbreak as I have this week. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the extent of the destruction and loss in Haiti right now. I’m just a fitness coach at a small gym in NY, but I can’t not try to help as best I can. I believe we’ve all been given gifts with the expectation that we’ll do the utmost good with them. My gift is making people sweat. So that’s what I’m going to do.
This Saturday, January 16th from 5pm -6pm I’m throwing a special Bootcamp for Haitian relief. West River members and non members alike are welcome. I want to fill this place to the gills.
Admission is a $30 check made out to the American Red Cross with “International Relief Fund: Haiti” in the comments line. Do not make checks out to me or to the gym. Only your donation gets you in.
This will be an open level class that is appropriate and challenging for all fitness levels. Kettlebells, sandbags, calisthenics and a whole lot of sweating going on. If you’re planning on coming, shoot me an email so I can make sure to have enough…fun…planned for everyone.
Even if you can’t make it on Saturday, please pass this message along to the people in your contacts list. Maybe someone there can and is looking for a way to help. To make a donation straight to the American Red Cross Haitian Relief fund please follow this link.
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&JServSessionIdr004=rkheqwwce3.app194a
Class will be held at :
West River Health & Racquet Club
424 West End Ave @ W81st St.
Penthouse level.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Saturday.
–
Jt
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.
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.”
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.
without being told really, found the first rule of Saturday Night: Just keep moving. Awesome job.
Put It Into Practice
Having said all that, now it’s time to give it a try. If you haven’t already started incorporating the foundations into your workout, I’d like to invite you to a couple of events that really demonstrate these principles quite clearly.
Every Saturday I lead an open level class at my club on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Saturday Night Blowout starts at 6:30pm, West River Health & Racquet Club, 424 West End Ave. Every week the dedicated gather together to look at how to use the whole body as one piece to accomplish the task at hand, or attain certain goals. Most nights there’s a friendly competition worked in, sometimes in a team setting, other times not. In any case, I’m not going to lie, we work HARD and you’ve probably never worked out like this before.
Bring a friend. Otherwise they won’t believe you accomplished what you did.
The other event is Steve’s Midnight Madness in Astoria. I have a link to his blog in the right hand side bar. Every Thursday at midnight we gather at The Rock on 31st St & Ditmars. Steve gets it folks. He understands how to get the most out of the human body in so far as performance. Check out his blog and you’ll start to get a feel for his approach each week.
Don’t be shy. Come on over. Get some hands on experience to take with you.
We’ll get back to Mr Saxon next time.
I’ve been fielding a lot of questions recently as to what it means or how one begins to work in the way we’ve been discussing here. What we’re talking about is an approach to your fitness that will continually challenge you to improve your performance and create the foundation for lasting progress and results. Your results are determined by measuring against your own past performance.
First, forget the comfortable old formulas. Challenge yourself. Find a new way to look at your strength training. For example, forget three sets of 15 with a nice comfy tv break in between. Using the same things you’re doing now, challenge yourself to 50 repetitions. 3 sets of 15 is 45 anyway, so might as well. How long did that take you? Did you have to stop? Ok. Fine. You did great. Keep that result. Next week, come back. Do it again. Remeasure it. Remember the books in the carry-on challenge from last week? Do it again. Compare times.
Once you get accustomed to that format, take two or three things that you know from your routine. Set a goal for each one. “I’m going to do each one of these things X number of times.” Split that number up into reasonable segments, say 1/4 of the total repetitions in each round. String them together and push yourself through four rounds until you’ve achieved your goal on each one. Stop only when you have to and only just long enough to keep going again. Push past the comfortable and familiar. Record your results. First we’re going to look for improvements in stamina by comparing your finish times. Then we start playing with load.
Remember, the separation between your cardiovascular fitness and strength training is a completely artificial one. Let’s put them together, use your time as efficiently as possible and forge ahead into 2009.
In response to popular demand, we’re shifting the Saturday Night Blowout to a weekly format. Every Saturday, we’ll be meeting at West River Health & Racquet Club, 424 West End Ave on the penthouse level. Shoot me an email or call to let me know you’re coming just so I can make sure to have room for everyone. All my contact info can be found on my homepage, JtNetterville.com
A huge heartfelt congratulations goes out to this weekend’s Saturday Night Blowout participants. Although, truth be told, not all started out as participants. Some started as protest-ants. “We’re gonna what?” Then they started getting their feet wet and began to discover what it feels like to really push in this particular arena, thus making the transition to participants. As some came to understand how rewarding this level of exertion can be, they pushed for as many laps, lengths, throws & rows as possible. Now they become contestants. This is why we call the programs evolutions. Through this experience you become… something else. The experience is a transformative one in some ways.
The veteran team jumped off to an early and very strong start. Black & White seemed a little shell shocked at the whole proposition, but jumped on in. Team Kleidman…machines.
Into the courts. Am I imagining things? Do the Veterans actually look a little hungry for this?
Round 1 down. There’s one or two in here that can’t believe what they just did. There’s another one or two that just discovered something about themselves and gave their teammates a thing or two to think about.
“Yes sir. We’re going again.” One blank, pale face staring back, team black & white mustering for a second helping of what they didn’t even know they could do the first time…& I swear the Vets are still chomping at the bit. One is working through, persevering & pushing. The other drawing on…something and even smiling.
Beastly beastly team K. Machines.
Another round down. Evolution complete. Several of you took this workout to a performance level you didn’t even know you had. For others it was a familiar feeling with a new face. Some of you tapped the tanks dry. Congratulations. Congratulations to you all. And thank you!
So far Carl walked away with the “Beast” at 250 points. Team Kleidman is leading the “Barbarian” with a total of 222 points. Scores are still coming in. I’ll update as I have more information.