there are no magic pills

I know I've said it before. Preaching away to the deaf and don't want to knows, but the simple truth is, there are no magic pills. If you're not eating at least four properly portioned meals a day then any supplements you choose to imbibe in just aren't going to help you.
This article is mainly about dieting, which is such an ugly word. Eating habits though, are what make or break looking good naked.


When I say properly portioned, I mean, portion sizes. I'm not getting our scales, calculator and food manuel every time I want to eat. Ain't gonna do it. Eat raw, when you can't eat raw, eat as fresh as you can. Don't give yourself salmonila because someone told you to eat raw food. A little sense goes a long way.
For most people, eat what you can eat comfortably 4-6 times a day.
look at what you eat and evaluate the nutritional properties. McDonalds doesn't have a nutritional item on the menu.
Do you put diesel into your gasoline engine?
How long did it last before the car died?
What happens when you don't keep the oil maintained or the transmission fluid?
What happens when you don't scrape out the rust and change the fuses?
The car dies.
One of the miracles of humanity is how long the machine can keep going under all the stress and abuse we put it through.
If you want your body to run like a ferrari, then you have to think about what you're putting in the engine.

Most, almost all, of the diet industry wonder pills don't work!!!!!
The producers of the pills are lying about what they can accomplish and they can have drastic side effects. The commersials and models of these products are lying to you.
Do yourself and your loved ones a big favour and stay away from any kind of magic beans.
If you have a personal trainer trying to push you onto pills, run away from her too. I've seen this going on. Disgusting. You're supposed to be a PT not a drug pusher.
I know everyone wants to look good naked, and to do this you have to learn to fill your body with nutrients from nature and you have to exercise.
If it comes in a box or a bag, it probably ain't good.

i'm only human

I did some curls for the gurls today.
okay so it was more like curls for my ego, but thats how it goes....
sped my way up to 90k, missed.
went for 90k again. missed.
dropped it to 85 k. missed
dropped it to 70 k , ah, much better, ugly but better.
down to 50k, fantastical
down to 20 k, okay so its now cardio.

i still like pumped guns
i still like barbell curls
and i still go way to heavy for the experts.

and here's a gun pumping duo for you. work your way up to a heavy set of curls. then take of a some weight and double the number.
then take off more weight and double that number.
and do that again.
and 1 more time.
and once again to grow on.
well you should be pumped by now,
but wait theres more.

now its time for pushups.
pushups for 10 min.
do as many as you can in one blast. wait 20 seconds and do as many as you can.
wait 20 seconds, do as many as you can.
you get the idea.
keep going for 10 min.

now you can go show of those guns. just hope you dont need to unload a truck anytime soon.

weight loss

If you want to lose weight, you have to, you must, put effort into it.
You cannot make positive changes to your physique without effort. Effort means hard work, sweat, discomfort and self discipline.

100% of the people that I talk to about weight loss don't really want weight loss; what they want, but don't realize, is fat loss. Fat loss takes effort. Starve yourself and you'll lose weight. 90% of the people I talk to about weight loss need to build muscle; they just don't realize it and have a distorted view about what muscular development is (and does).

Most of the people who tell me that they don't want to lift weight because they " don't want to get bulky" are already carrying around a vast bulkiness.

( darlin' this ain't gonna happen to you no matter what jenny craig says)

If you want to improve your fitness, at any level or to any degree, you must first come to terms with the fact that you have to put effort into it. You have to work for it.

The harder you work, the more effort you put in, the better the results.

Invest in yourself with effort

The media, the infomercials, the infotainment television, the get thin quick schemes and scams are lying to you. 3 min a day, 10 min a day, 15 min a day will not give you magazine cover good looks.

20 minutes a day, 20 hard minutes, I can work with but that's a different article.

You have to move.

If you never restrict or manipulate calories again I don't care, but you have to move. No amount of exercise will overcome a donut and coffee diet but exercise is integral to HEALTH. You have to constantly work intelligently on your strength. You have to maintain your mobility throughout life, and you have to keep your heart pumping and the only way to do these things is with exercise.

However diet is integral to weight loss and fat loss.

Diet is such a four letter word and what we really mean is eating or lifestyle habits.

Hello, this is hunger, hunger this is ( your name here)
You must make friends with hunger. No, not starvation, just get comfortable with a less than full stomach. Learn the difference between hunger and desperation.
If you wait until those little hunger pangs start, then hit an exercise session ( 20 min hard yakka) fat will melt away (as long as you don't become a gorging beast right after) be mindful of your portions and nutrients. I mean really, you know there's zero nutrients in a mars bar.



We do things outside the box. We focus on performance. We are not the 'norm'. Take a look around . Do you want to be 'normal'

Don't spend time agonizing over the scales. Hell, throw them away or stash them under the kids bed. The best measure for how effective your slimming regime is, are your blue jeans. A tape measure on your waist gives you a quantifiable measurement and allows you to make (fixed) period adjustments, but how will your blue jeans fit really tells you how much effort you're putting in to your program.

Handstands

Body weight training is regaining in popularity among certain circles; particularly boot camps and dinosaur enthusiasts. And that’s a good thing. Body weight training gives the practitioner a greater kinaesthetic awareness and athleticism.

One of the more obvious body weight exercises to choose would have to be the handstand. The handstand allows the trainee to practice a variety of conditioning principals singularly and jointly.

You can practice isometric contractions, max strength, strength endurance, repetitive strength, muscular isolation principal , explosive strength. It also enhances athleticism and balance.

I believe that when you’re learning the handstand the best and first thing to do is fall down. I find that most people cant do the handstand because they’re too busy being scared of falling down and getting hurt. If you fall down a couple of times you will realize that you’re not going to get hurt so you can then get on with learning the exercise.

Now when I begin with these I usually start off with some ugly cartwheels just to warm up and get the feeling of being upside down.

Practicing the hand stand (which often becomes walking on the hands due to trying to keep your balance) increases your bodies skills at spatial awareness ( where you are in space) and athleticism. It also strengthens the rotator cuffs spinal erectors and core.

We usually start practicing the exercise by walking up a wall. We begin in a pushup position with our feet by the wall and then walk backwards up the wall until we are in the handstand.

Walking up and down the wall is a routine in itself. Here we are integrating the core and pushing muscles of the body.

From the up position we can lock and hold it for isometrics, great total body conditioning.

As we get stronger we can start doing handstand pushups. For those seeking size this is a great shoulder builder. My favourite pushup technique from this position is a J push up. Essentially, from an arms extended position lower your body down until your nose just about touches the floor, then, pretend you’re pushing an orange with your nose (away from you) and extend back up. This movement really gets the lats firing as well.

After we get stronger in this position we start doing handstands where we bend down, face away from the wall and swing our feet overhead so the come into contact with the wall. We end up in the handstand position facing away from the wall.

Once again I like to practice holding the locked out position. I believe this is great for strengthening the posterior and small muscles. After you get to the stage when you can hold it for a minute then its time to start doing handstand pushups from this position. Now just because you’re doing pushups doesn’t mean you ‘have ‘ to drop the iso holds. I generally do both. I promise, those holds will make you strong. When you can do 10 handstand pushups, its time to start increasing the range of motion by placing your hands upon some blocks. I’ve used blocks as well as bars to get my head to dip lower.

When you’re capable of doing 3 sets of 10 or more like this its time to start playing with tiger press handstands, one arm handstands, I’ve even done plyometric handstands.

Handstands should be taken seriously and integrated properly into your training regime, but they should also add a fun element to your workouts. They’re great for total body mastery as well as developing awesome strength in the shoulders and shoulder girdle.

wrestling

Rasllin' dear old 'granny would call it.
Wrestling is a sport. A great sport and there are as many variations as there are cultural divides.
But if we get away from 'sport' and just wrestle, like we did as kids, man, that's fantastic exercise. If you have some good friends you can work with, throw down some mats and get to it.

'you probably want better mats than this one'

You'll be working max strength, relative strength, repetitive strength, strength endurance, cardio, mental toughness, energy systems, mobility. Its all there (in wrestling) and it's fun. You'll be having a great time, boosting your testosterone naturally and developing a team ( team building).

Now I'm not advocating reenacting the best of WWF smack down or destroying your living room. You don't want to be doing pile drivers and figure four leg locks to your friends and sending them to the hospital ( i don't really know, maybe you do)


Set down a few ground rules of gentlemanly conduct. Around here we warm up then start out with some ground work. From there we do a series working (starting) from the knees and then graduate to standing (starts). We go from 1-3 min rounds, usually only 1 min. You'd be surprised how long a minute lasts.

Wrestling, with smart rules, is an awesome way to exercise. It can be recovery work, active rest or integrated into your program weekly.
One last note: a reminder really, We're just talking wrestling as exercise, not full out greco roman or mma.

pushing the boundaries of friendship a little far.

car pushing

Car pushing

Forgotten strangeness

There’s a lot of science in training. More so everyday. And its good to know the science and the reasons behind things and why certain things happen particular ways; and how to manipulate bio mechanics to attain our goals.

But with all the newbies flooding the gyms of the world with their framed certificates in hand, quoting theory after theory, the ART of training is often forgotten.

What the theory strong trainer usually forgets (if they’re ever taught) is that practice is often miles from theory.

Car pushing must follow under the ART of training

I promise it will train every part of your body.

It will make you strong, give you endurance, condition your heart, lungs and legs, make you mentally tough.

It trains you dynamically, isometrically, hits your starting strength and maximum strength, your prolonged strength.

And it’s easy to learn. Find an open space. Find a car. Put it in neutral. Start pushing.

Car pushes are the hardest workouts my athletes have ever done.

When they start slacking in the gym I just have to remind them of the last time we went to the back of the Kmart and started pushing the car and they instantly get the right mind set.

I have been known to attach a tow rope and pull it as well.

Personally I like to work against a slight incline.

And its amazing how many people will stop and offer you help and then look on with zero understanding when you try to tell them you don’t need help. You’re training. But its good to know that some people will still make the offer.

If you can work at this for more than 20 min. Find a steeper incline.

bridging

I'd like to begin by selling you a bridge.

Okay, so its not the Golden Gate Bridge.

But the act of bridging and more specifically , the wrestlers bridge.

Bridging strengthens the posterior chain both dynamically and isometrically. It also drastically increases mobility, flexibility and health.

This is how your spine is designed to work. It reinforces itself in this posture.

3 ways to bridge:

1) start lying down on your back- place your hands above your head. Bend the knees and place your feet as close to your butt as you can. from there push up into a bridge position.

2) wall climbs.- I really like these. Most people think of these as a back bend, but they are not. Standing just off the wall-facing away from it-bend backwards until you can touch the wall. From there look back at the wall. you want your nose just off the wall. When you are eye to eye with the wall slowly start climbing down as far as you can. Don't slide down and don't fall down against the wall. It is a climb, climb down as far as you can and then climb back up. Your goal is to be able to place your forehead on the floor.

These are so awesome I often use these a separate movements.

3) Swiss ball. This is perhaps the easiest beginners option . Simply sit on a swissball. Roll into a lying postilion and from there reach back and roll, stretching your back across the ball. Roll back as far as you can. Once again you want to try and get your forehead on the floor.

Learn to bridge and you may forgo your weekly trip to the chiropractor.

jump ropes

Growing up in La Florida, we always watched 'black belt theater' every saturday afternoon. Its amazing how many asian guys were named Bruce. Anyway, after the 'bbt' every kid in the neighborhood was out in the yard going over all the new moves he'd just spent the last hour and a half memorizing. Wasn't long before the staffs and numb chucks came out (always home made) with the obligatory crack to the skull. Once or twice we even had a self imposed TKO.




Starting out with jump ropes can sometimes be similar. Toes get whipped, the rope smacks you in the back of the head, I just watched rocky for the umpteenth time and tried the side to side fancy moves only to tie myself up in a series of goofy knots.
However; getting past the initial foray, jump rope is another great and all to often unused conditioning tool.
Its an excellent way to get the heart and lungs working,
Its good for recuperation and active rest.
Its great calf work
Good for coordination
Its raining and you can't go to the track? hey, lets all jump rope tonight.

One of my favourite schemes for utilizing the jump rope is as an active rest between exercises in a circuit.

running

I like running. Genetically speaking we were designed to run to one degree or another. (some more obviously than others).

Now, when I run, I think; I'm ususally away in fairy land during a big part of the trip. But thats me and years of RJD. I think about zombie land and the importance of cardio, I think about how much easier running was when i was a kid, I think about the business, I think about the sweat rolling into my eye and how it burns and why the hell i'm doing this and the way it collects on my lip to be blown away in a spray of breath and i wonder if maybe I shouldn't have saved that breath for, well, breathing.
I think about how long it takes me to warm up to the session and find my stride (round about the 4 min. mark usually) and then swoosh, I'm in my stide, I have my pase, and I'm paying attention to my technique. Oh; then its back to zombie land again. (unless we're running at night, then I'm on high werewolf alert.)


It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't make it to the mail box.

The best way to run? Find a park or woodland path. Free your spirit. Start easy and slowly progress. If you're to heavy to run, find a hill, a steep hill that forces you to climb, almost crawling on hands and feet. Push a car! really-car pushing is so under utilized.


find a friend. Find someone to go with you. Put it in the diary ; monday-3:30 jogging with Joe at rags park.

You need some kind of cardio and running fits the bill. You have to train the heart and lungs too.

pullups.

deadlifts are the bedrock of manliness, but pullups are the chisel that shapes it.

no matter what size you are 20 pullups gets respect, and 20 pullups is what you should be shooting for.

my top 5 variations:

rope climb

pullup on tree branch

really damn wide

arthur jones

monkey jumps.

pullups are one of those great multi-joint total body exercises.

they hit the back, arms, grip, and if done right the core.

If you hate the gym, the only posterior upper body exercises you ever need to do are some version of the pull up.

If you're a cardio king, well, do yourself a favor and jump up into a tree along the jogging trail and get some pullups in.

got a question on pullups. ask me, i'll answer it, you should be doing them.

cleaning

oops, no, I mean these:

I like cleans because they require mental guts and focus. I mean they are a hard exercise, but they are easier to learn than snatches. Pull something heavy from the ground, up onto the chest. KISS.
To get strong and powerfull keep the reps between 1 and 6
to get conditioned and lean up the reps to as high as 20.
I've gone as high as 100.
ouch, I knew it too.
another great thing i like about cleans is the many different objects you can use. we use sandbags, stones, logs, kettelbells and even an old computer you can see me using if you sift through the blog.

the number 1 error I see when people do cleans is during the second pull. Instead of heaving the arms straight UP (close to the body) they turn the movement into a reverse barbell curl.

squats

Squats; often called the king of exercises!
Another difficult exercise with a high level of skill requirement. Now don't let that desuade you from using it in your training. Its hard to find a better exercise for any goals you may have.
Squats are a more forgiving movement than the deadlift; less strenous on the system as a whole.
If you're a man this exercise is going to beef you up and make you impressive; If you're a lady this exercise is going to give you shapely legs and a nice bottom.
the stronger your squat the faster your sprint the longer you can trek.
the squat allows you to burn fat, build muscle and develop power, endurance and athletisism.
three of my favorite squat methods are:
1) 20 rep squats. If you pull of 2 sets of 20 rep squats, you're impressive. If you pull off 3 sets you really didn't do the first 2 sets properly. If you do 1 set, great, one awesome hard set of 20 reps of squating is a fantastic way to achive a lot of results. but if you're not huffn n puffn then you didn't really do them right.

I wouldn't start a workout with 20 rep squats, but you could make the squats the center of your training program (generally or for the day) or you could use it as a finisher. You should be strong though ( by that i mean, not drained from your other training) so you can give them the attention they need to provide results.

2) box squats; these are the staple of the powerlifters routine. they develop tremendous strength through the posterior chain and core and allow the trainer to go very heavy. reps should be kept under 6 reps when you practice these and technique should be focused on intently. another, often overlooked idea behind box squats for the non power lifter is the safety issue. its psychologically easier knowing you have a box behind you and the box allows more control over the depth of the squat.

(dave tate from elite fitness)
3) squating with an odd object on one shoulder: I like these. this allows one to get a strong workout with out overloading with traditional weights. technique is still important but using odd object tends to really drop the weight down. it also creates more athletic movement and cross sectional strength. A great degree of core activation. dependant upon manipulation of volume these can be used for a great mix of outcomes. I probably wouldn't use them for body building but health and fitness, strength, rehab, core work, leg work, athletisism, mma, etc, etc...
When I want a client strong and athletic these get trained.
I've done these with stones, logs, kettlebells, sandbags, even barbells.


coaching is super important in complicated lifts like squats, even when you've been squating for 30 years. without feed back and cues, you won't be getting the best of yourself. 1000lbs squaters still have a coach working on little technique points. You don't have to hire a coach , but do yourself a favour and get coaching from people who know what they are doing.

deadlift

the deadlift


the dead lift.
there's not another exercise more telling of manness. Brute, grinding, testosterone loaded, hard work, manness.






The deadlift demands a huge strength pool and gives a huge fitness carryover. It works everybit of the body hard, from the toes to the fingers.
It will add size, absolute strength, power and mental stability to those who conquer it.
It has application for every sporting endevour.
but, there's always a but.
It has to be used correctly for the goals you've set out.
It is punishing on the central nervous system. If done incorrectly there is a high injury risk. It requires a great degree of skill ( believe it or not).
variations and permutations.
there's a lot of different ways to do the deadlift;
of course there's the straight normal deadlift. then;
sumo deadlifts; double over hand grip; snatch grip; BTR; one hand; suitcase; odd object; rack pulls;


examples of permutations:
If you make 2 changes to your deadlift, you'll end up with 10 variations
just by changing your stance and your grip
thats enough to keep you busy for an entire career of lifting.
normal deadlift stance/opposing grip
normal deadlift stance/double overhand grip
normal deadlift stance/snatch grip
normal deadlift stance/curl grip
normal deadlift stance/one arm
normal deadlift stance/ suitcase
sumo stance/opposing grip
sumo stance/double overhand grip
sumo stance/snatch grip
sumo stance/curl grip
sumo stance/one arm

You simply need to adjust the other variables (load,sets,reps,rest) to match your current goals.

tonights top ten

tonights top 10 list:
top 10 exercises that you'll ever need.
1) deadlift
2) squat
3) clean
4) pullups
5) running
6) jump rope
7) bridging
8) car pushing
9) wrestling
10) handstands.
not as funny as Dave's list , but its a good list just the same.
i'll follow this up with posts on each of the exercises mentioned

why we like the stairs

I went into town yesterday and watched a movie with the kids.
Afterward we went to the central city park and ran the bleachers (stairs).
now the way we do it is;
run a flight of stairs, run the hill beside the stairs ( which is half the distance) and run another part of the hill that turns into stairs (just for fun).
took us about 15 min and had my HRM working at about 85%


Now after the first run I'm usually huffing and puffing and questioning my sanity, the boy however is wondering why i'm making such a big deal of minimal work. In my defence I outweigh him by 50K and a score of years. Having said that he wore a flannel shirt and I was wishing I had the kutzpah to take my t shirt off.


anyway;
The reason we like stairs (and hills) - the cardiovascular out put is tremendous. thats a lot of respitory work at 85% for 15 min. So we are getting a marvelous heart and lung work out. So much more fun than counting laps around the track. A lot of work done, harder and in a shorter amount of time than if we used another form of steady state cardio.
we're getting our sprint work in without the impact of a flat track wearing on our hips.
We're digging in and giving ourselves a gut check,(me moreso than the boy), this isn't a run walk senerio (more on that in a minute) we run those stairs and hills.
volume; The stair work creates repetitive effort hip and knee flexion. muscular development. the fact that its 15 min and not 1hour 15 min means we arent tapping into the bodies protien reserves to get through. ( catabolism)
Now the way we do this we run up, but we walk down. we dont sit at the top or at the bottom. the walk down breaks the respiratory system but works the muscular system even harder. Walking down we are doing eccentric contractions contiuously. once again hitting that repetitive muscular (eccentric ) contraction volume work.
because its nonstop work we are also doing strength endurance work. yes its body weight work. but its still muscular strength, high volume, but not excesive.
Now what most are probably interested in, WE ARE BURNING FAT, working in this physical capasity range, we are burning our body fat reserves without catabolising our muscle tissue.

As we continue to incorperate these stair runs into our training we'll add a lap at a time, slowly improving our conditioning. Our time spent in the workout will slowly expand, but not by huge amounts at a time. We dont want this to become a drawn out steady state cardio session.
The stair work works our cardiovasucular system
toughens us mentally
improves our conditioning
improves muscle tone
improves endurance strength
and burns fat
whats not to like

truly mad

100 reps with a 80 lbs computer.

truley dinosaur training.

i'm a dinosaur and the equipment is prehistoric

but effective; my o my

and fun

don't forget to have a fun element in your training.