Monday, February 28, 2011

There's always a point.

Sometimes the point of task becomes clear upon completion. I apologize if the 1000 squats and pushups came off as punitive. In some ways, it was punitive but very necessary; but the main purpose of that one was to reinvigorate everyone to do exorbitant workloads and feel accomplished afterwards. If I really wanted to punish you with a pointless workout, I would have assigned 10 pushups and 10 squats for the week. Personally, I wouldn't have even considered starting a workout like that.

I was hoping the everyone would group up and just start it and push each other past comfort zones. I like to imagine one person saying "I think that's enough for today", while another person rebuts that with "Like hell it is! Let's do a few more. Just less we have to do tomorrow." We were really hoping that more people would have done that workout.. at least started it and scaled it in some way to exhibit that warrior approach to tasking a problem.

Some people actually did that. For those of you that did, how did you feel before, during, and after?

Performance: Quantitative and Qualitative performance have always been the main tenets of BHIP. We're not asking this of you all now simply to dignify our coaching you. It's what YOU want as human beings. It's how YOU dignify coming to classes. If I enrolled in an "athletic" training program and my "athletic" performance didn't improve, I'd probably ask for a refund and not return. Seeing as there's nothing to refund you all, I think performance really is the currency you pay with. Otherwise, we, performance-improvement-addicted coaches see no point in OUR jobs.

I suggest asking yourself what performance means to you and what drives you to be better. Give yourself a good 'why' factor. Then keep that in mind as you train or compete.

Also, keep in mind that movement does not hurt your body. Doing movements POORLY and INCORRECTLY does hurt you. If you have issues with hurting yourself, you may want to address your movement.

Gym Jones - Hard Work

Here's a couple fun ways to puke:

1. Chelsea (modified from our friends at CrossFit)
30 Minutes: On the Minute, every minute -
- 5 chest-to-deck pushups (no knees)
- 10 Situps
- 15 Ass-to-Ankle Squats
Go until completion, or record the round at which you failed to complete the workload.

* So every minute you'll start the workload and rest the remainder of the minute until the next minute.


2. 1.5 mile timed run. (6 laps, 2400 meters)
or 500m swim, 3k row, 5k cycle.

* Warm up well, practice some running drills beforehand, and run AS FAST AS YOU CAN and TIME YOURSELF! Thanks


Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Muscles are sore, will is strong..

Good job last week. Many headed the call to action. It was awesome to see the collective response. Here's some advice: try not to take criticism too personally. Take it "accordingly". But DO personalize your reaction as you would want it perceived by others. Your reaction and response is what YOU control and will reflect YOUR character, regardless of the circumstances. If you completed last week's homework (even if scaled), I commend you. You have, once again, demonstrated to yourself what you are capable of doing, regardless of how undoable it may seem, and regardless of your perceived level of "culpability" to the assignment. Well done!


A few more.. Choose at least 2:

1.

Death March: 400 Meter walking lunge. (1 lap around the track)
- 50 pushup incentive to PR: if you do not set a new personal best time, then immediately crank out 50 pushups. I suggest doing this one in a group to push each other. Yeah, it burns.. so what? Is it really that bad? Tell yourself to move faster.


2.

Choose ONE of the Following Sports:

Swim, Bike, Run, Row

5 Min on, 2:30 Min off, 6 Min on, 3 Min off, 7 Min on.. Done.

All out maximal efforts! Enjoy the lactate.


3.

Jump Rope for 10 minutes. Preferably barefoot. Alternate steps and tempo.

death-by: pushups
tabata: situps (dust off those abmats)
4 minutes max squats

50 superman-banana (both sides = 1 set)


Keep up the good work! Keep pushing yourselves.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Location for 2/16

Yo. Yo. See you on the track at 5:30pm. Weather seems to be holding. If it rains, we'll move inside to the track gym and make something happen. See you then!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Seasons of Change..

I'm not sure where the disconnect happened, but it seems that some of the coaches and the BHIP attendees are on different pages... perhaps completely different books now. Somehow the word "maintenance" became attached to those that have completed the original "onramp" program. Maintenance implies that all goals/advancement/progressions have been met and maxed out. Nothing can get better so we just maintain running speed. I'm not sure why this word became linked with bhip, as one of the acronyms stands for "IMPROVEMENT". How can you maintain and improve something? That can't happen. Things have to change for improvements to take place.

There was a time when you all enjoyed doing absurd amounts of work and then coming up from the mud, dusting yourselves off, and high-fiving each other. It seems like things have changed. I've seem a few indicators that people are shirking the work (not everyone, and trust me, we know) but today, we witnessed the pinnacle of this new phenomenon.

I programmed the workout for today for a reason. It is a workout you all did during the onramp. You have done it several times and I figured that everyone would get super pumped up to blow it out of the water with all of the strength and anaerobic conditioning work we've done since then. Everyone should have blown their times out of the water. Instead, what do I see??? I see people doing pushups on their knees and squats that look half-assed, and no one is hustling at all. That alone is unacceptable. To make matters worse, this was done right in plain view of the new BHIP onramp. Way to inspire them guys. Upon being called out by an instructor, complaints were issued about not being able to finish the workout if done as assigned. Yet everyone was done and gone well before class was supposed to be over.

Are we to believe that everyone is already fit enough? No one has any more room for improvement? That's absolute bullshit. We (the coaches) are still holding people accountable for improvements.. The program depends on it. Your fitness depends on it. Your reasoning for coming to class should depend on it. If you aren't getting any returns out of an investment, you would divest, if you were smart, right? Why would you keep attending a class that promises a return and then not investing yourself?? What's worse is that people then point fingers at the coaches and say that they're not being pushed enough by the coaches. What a smack to our faces. You don't want to do the work? That's fine. But make sure you point your finger in the right direction when we ask who to blame. YOU play the hand you were dealt as you want to.

So let’s get a few things straight. You are always accountable for improvement. You are TRAINING. NOT MAINTAINING. You should be striving for performance improvements whether the coaches directly demand it or not. You are still competing with yourselves and others. Life is never going to get easier unless you train HARDER. Sweat more in training: bleed less in battle. Push-ups were NEVER allowed to be performed on knees and the stop-watch has always been your enemy.

P.S. The new BHIP onramp class did the very same workout last week and not a single person even thought about doing it on their knees. It’s not even something they think about. The jokingly take pride in the fact that they aren’t allowed to modify things for ease and even joke about how they won’t let themselves do it on their own workouts. Several have even expressed how irked they get when they see others doing pushups on their knees just to make them easier.

The bottom line is that you’re selling yourself and your training short when you do that. No one benefits from that. We need to get back to that groove where everyone expected way more of themselves and we need to start taking responsibility for that. Like I said, if you don’t want to do the work, that’s fine, but admit that to yourself, in the mirror and please do not come to class as weakness and laziness and self-pity can be contagious when not properly addressed. We offer many other programs like yoga, Pilates, step, and spin where you can scale things as low as you need. But please don’t dilute something that is renowned for setting the bar high. You have worked far too hard and too long to simply regress back to the mamby pamby methods. Why would you do that? "Almost" is only good is horseshoes ans hand-grenades. Step up to it and LIVE UP TO IT! Do it! No compromise, no regrets, just hard work and sweat. You’ll be doing yourself a favor.

Here’s the workouts: They have been modified in lieu of what we saw today.

1.
- 1000 Hand-release push-ups
- 1000 Ass-to-Ankle squats

Take as much time as needed. If it takes 7 days, then so be it. Break it up. Get ‘em done. Get ‘em done well. Take pride in your work. If you’re knees touch the ground on the push, redo the rep or the whole set. If your hips are too high or you bend your back instead of actually squatting, redo them. Make ‘em count. They’re for YOU. Not me.

2. 10 Bruin-Walk Hill repeats.

Do Not do them on Friday. The onramp class will be doing them on Friday.
Use the first 2 to warm up with. Start at about 70% and by the 5th one, be going at 100%.

Bonus: If you feel that you misrepresented yourself today and want to redeem yourself to YOURSELF. Go ahead and redo the workout. Perhaps in a group with some stopwatches; bring some motivation. Make it count. Live up to your expectations of yourselves.

** If you feel that this doesn’t apply to you and you’ve always put out 100% and never shirked the work, then good for you. Do some tabatas and some death-by’s instead of the 1000s if you so choose; no sweat off my back. But make sure you’re really evaluating yourself. Being critical of yourself won’t hurt you.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/29/from-geek-to-freak-how-i-gained-34-lbs-of-muscle-in-4-weeks/


http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/01/07/the-power-of-less-leo-babauta-zen-habits/

Thoughts?

Monday, February 7, 2011

HYDRATE!

Please make sure you're hydrated. Also, keep an eye on eachother. If you get ill, cool yourself off before drinking any fluids. You'll throw it up and feel (and smell) worse otherwise. Also, be mindful of how you feel. There's nothing wrong with turning back on a workout. Training is a progressive process, and one workout isn't going to make or break your olympic career. You want to invest yourself into your training so that you get stronger, not sick..

Don’t Train Sick

Here's some more workouts to keep y'all occupied in your training quests:

1.

Chose ONE of The Following Sports:

All sports do: 30:20 x 12 rounds, 30 seconds on 20 seconds off, all out efforts!

Swim: Use pool or open water

Bike: Use a Monarch ERG, stationary bike with wattage tool or something similar that can hold a load of 200+ watts

Run: Use a treadmill, set at 12% grade at 0-30 sec slower pace per mile than best 5k pace. Do not reduce the speed! You can also run on the track or bruin walk. You can try the new woodway treadmill also.

C2:Row 30:20×12


2.

-30 seconds On and 30 Seconds Off x 8, Superman Banana
-30 seconds On and 30 seconds Off x 8, Flutter Kicks
-30 seconds On and 30 seconds Off x 8, Plank
-100 OH Squats (use a pvc pipe, broom stick, or any other rigid bar.)

How do y'all feel about portion control in fast food chains? Should the sizes of the drinks and meals be regulated? Is a 30oz coffee from starbucks too much? Or should the consumer bear the responsibility of their choices? Should exorbitantly sized portions and drinks be an option?

I remember when McDonald's got rid of the "super-size" menu.. America is still growing in girth.

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?


Blog > Infographics > Food Consumption in America
Food Consumption in America


Visual Economics: Food Consumption in America

Enjoy!