So stay hydrated. And warm up really well to acclimate to and to tolerate the heat better.
Here's the fun part:
Sprint, Bike, Swim, OR Row. Choose ONLY 1.
6 x
- 90 Seconds ON; 90 seconds OFF
All-out efforts. Stay consistant.
Here's my advice: Don't just try to "endure" the 90 seconds. Try to beat yourself. See the 90 seconds as a limited window of opportunity to beat your previous run by even an inch. Otherwise, you're just suffering for 20 minutes, and that will suck. HAVE SOME FUN!
Because we can.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Summer
is just around the corner. That means many of you will be barbequing. Rusticles is a very hungry dude, and as such demands that you bring him some tasty barbecued meat.
Here's a simple one to keep you all busy this week:
4 Rounds:
- 400m Sprint
- 50 Squats
Enjoy!
Here's a simple one to keep you all busy this week:
4 Rounds:
- 400m Sprint
- 50 Squats
Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Keep up the good work.
We get lots of compliments about how well you all squat. So thank you all to adhering to the standards we've been working on. Keep up the good work.
I'd like You guys to learn to hand stand. So if you want to try it, here's a good tutorial
Handstand Against Wall Progression Pt.1
Handstand Against Wall Progression Pt.2
Here's a workout for you all to do this week.
5 RFT:
50 Mountain climbers (2 count)
25 Situps (get your belly-button in front of your pelvis before touching your toes..)
Enjoy!
I'd like You guys to learn to hand stand. So if you want to try it, here's a good tutorial
Handstand Against Wall Progression Pt.1
Handstand Against Wall Progression Pt.2
Here's a workout for you all to do this week.
5 RFT:
50 Mountain climbers (2 count)
25 Situps (get your belly-button in front of your pelvis before touching your toes..)
Enjoy!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Comfort is the enemy
In the beginning of BHIP we stress finding comfort while in a state of discomfort. We all get pretty good at doing that. But inevitably we all somehow reach a "cruising altitude" and get comfortable in it. The workouts still get you sweaty and you might feel pretty wrecked, but the big leap is just missing. This was fairly evident on last Wednesday's workout when people were reverse-curling the bar rather than actually cleaning the bar (one is easy, the other is difficult) and then complaining that the bar was "too heavy".
I truly appreciate hearing that workouts were "hard" "grueling" "challenging" "killer" etc.. but there has to be a certain amount of credibility to those descriptions. Sitting can be excruciating, and anyone who has ever been on a long flight will attest to that.
A huge difference exists between just getting through a workout as quickly and obstacle-free as possible and actually using the workout as an opportunity to build upon already existing strengths. I'm not saying that it's "wrong" to just breeze through a session and I'm not saying that anyone is breezing through them either. It is clear that everyone is working hard; but our focus needs to be redirected. As we try to constantly improve our performance in any way we can we have to use our training time to address our weaknesses and strengthen them along with alread-existing strengths.
Here is an analogy I use when describing training as part of a workout: A "workout" is kind of an obscure term to begin with, but there are 3 types of workouts in my opinion.
1. Exercise: This is when we do something we can and have been able to do and are all capable of doing regardless of training. i.e. going for a jog, walk, gardening etc. Very low on the skill chart. very universal. The analogy here is "exercising" one's rights to freedom of speech. Everyone CAN, and thus DOES it.
2. Practice: This is a workout where one uses ACQUIRED skills in an intense environment. Football practice. One must know the game of football before practicing. Kind of like practicing medecine or law. You first need to acquire the required skill-sets and then implement them at a high intensity.
3. TRAINING: This is where we acquire and refine skills and gradually increase intensity to practice/game speed. This is the time when things get uncomfortable and stressful. Like job training, new demands are placed on the system that require a certain amount of adaptation from the individual to facilitate proficiency. Then the skills are overloaded once more to develop perfection at underload. Training can be extremely stressful and uncomfortable, but that stress is what makes us better, stronger, faster and more capable of handling larger demands. The key is to take advantage of the OPPORTUNITY. he discomfort is NOT a punishment, but rather a stimulus to adapt against. Sometimes the old saying "no pain, no gain" is true. Just remember, the pain is temporary but strength lasts.
I can go on about this forever, and some are probably sick of hearing it, but we all need reminders, so please do whatever you need to do to stimulate yourselves. These are YOUR workouts to make YOU stronger, better, faster, and harder to kill; no one else. So take advantage of them.
On that note, here's something to keep you sweaty:
4 x 20 burpees. rest 1 minute in between each set. scale accordingly.
time EACH set separately. Do not deviate by more than 1 second per set. *Foul if you do.
* Foul = 1 minute wall-sit (rest your back on a wall with thighs parallel to the ground).
Enjoy. and please post your times. Thanks
I truly appreciate hearing that workouts were "hard" "grueling" "challenging" "killer" etc.. but there has to be a certain amount of credibility to those descriptions. Sitting can be excruciating, and anyone who has ever been on a long flight will attest to that.
A huge difference exists between just getting through a workout as quickly and obstacle-free as possible and actually using the workout as an opportunity to build upon already existing strengths. I'm not saying that it's "wrong" to just breeze through a session and I'm not saying that anyone is breezing through them either. It is clear that everyone is working hard; but our focus needs to be redirected. As we try to constantly improve our performance in any way we can we have to use our training time to address our weaknesses and strengthen them along with alread-existing strengths.
Here is an analogy I use when describing training as part of a workout: A "workout" is kind of an obscure term to begin with, but there are 3 types of workouts in my opinion.
1. Exercise: This is when we do something we can and have been able to do and are all capable of doing regardless of training. i.e. going for a jog, walk, gardening etc. Very low on the skill chart. very universal. The analogy here is "exercising" one's rights to freedom of speech. Everyone CAN, and thus DOES it.
2. Practice: This is a workout where one uses ACQUIRED skills in an intense environment. Football practice. One must know the game of football before practicing. Kind of like practicing medecine or law. You first need to acquire the required skill-sets and then implement them at a high intensity.
3. TRAINING: This is where we acquire and refine skills and gradually increase intensity to practice/game speed. This is the time when things get uncomfortable and stressful. Like job training, new demands are placed on the system that require a certain amount of adaptation from the individual to facilitate proficiency. Then the skills are overloaded once more to develop perfection at underload. Training can be extremely stressful and uncomfortable, but that stress is what makes us better, stronger, faster and more capable of handling larger demands. The key is to take advantage of the OPPORTUNITY. he discomfort is NOT a punishment, but rather a stimulus to adapt against. Sometimes the old saying "no pain, no gain" is true. Just remember, the pain is temporary but strength lasts.
I can go on about this forever, and some are probably sick of hearing it, but we all need reminders, so please do whatever you need to do to stimulate yourselves. These are YOUR workouts to make YOU stronger, better, faster, and harder to kill; no one else. So take advantage of them.
On that note, here's something to keep you sweaty:
Episode 245/365: Unglue Your Hips and Thighs
4 x 20 burpees. rest 1 minute in between each set. scale accordingly.
time EACH set separately. Do not deviate by more than 1 second per set. *Foul if you do.
* Foul = 1 minute wall-sit (rest your back on a wall with thighs parallel to the ground).
Enjoy. and please post your times. Thanks
Monday, May 2, 2011
Strength
Many have heard me argue that strength is THE most important factor in athletics, and in life in general. Strength allows you to say "YES", in the physical sense and metaphysical sense. Stregth has this strange illusive aspect to it where those who believe that they're not strong also believe that they aren't entitled to it or were somehow delt a "weaker" hand. Those are mere excuses. The reality is that strength is attained via hard work. Stregth is a vision that a person must have and commit to setting out to achieve it. It doesn't just fall in your lap.
It is delightful to hear that people enjoyed dead lifting. But don't be mistaken, heavy lifting days aren't "easy days". You shouldn't be asking "That's it?" at the end of the workout. You should feel releived that the workout is through. Aaron came up to me and informed me that he experienced that moment of zen while lifting that I have called a "religious experience".
It truly is. If you push yourself hard enough for a brief moment things get interesting. everything around you ceases to affect you and you are totally in your own little world. It's slow-mo and you can't hear anything. Things start getting scary, but you know you've come to far to turn back or let go, so you push on, millimeter by millimeter, the weight keeps moving. You have no doubts or fears at this point. Just anxiety to finish the job. You extend and stand up tall. What seems like an eternity concludes with a violent scream of growl. And then you don't want to let go. You've done all that work only to surrender the bar for another attempt. You let go and then the lungs take over and the vision blurs and things get wobbly. All that surefootedness seems to drain out from under your feet and you start stumbling. You know you have to lift the bar again, but not a bone in your body wants to. So you wait there with an ever rising pulse and blood pressure, knowing what lies ahead.
There should be fear in you before you lift. You should be nervous. You should be anxious. Its the fine line we walk between progress and disaster. Without it, there is nothing to overcome, nothing to strengthen against. It is thanks to mean ol' Mr. Gravity that we can get strong. The workout should be anything but easy, humdrum, or boring.
So enjoy them. Work hard. Get strong. Then get stronger.
Here's a little conditioning work:
5 rounds as fast as you can:
5 broad Jumps
10 Hand-release push ups
15 bench dips (use a chair)
Here's a glimpse into our methods of program development:
It is delightful to hear that people enjoyed dead lifting. But don't be mistaken, heavy lifting days aren't "easy days". You shouldn't be asking "That's it?" at the end of the workout. You should feel releived that the workout is through. Aaron came up to me and informed me that he experienced that moment of zen while lifting that I have called a "religious experience".
It truly is. If you push yourself hard enough for a brief moment things get interesting. everything around you ceases to affect you and you are totally in your own little world. It's slow-mo and you can't hear anything. Things start getting scary, but you know you've come to far to turn back or let go, so you push on, millimeter by millimeter, the weight keeps moving. You have no doubts or fears at this point. Just anxiety to finish the job. You extend and stand up tall. What seems like an eternity concludes with a violent scream of growl. And then you don't want to let go. You've done all that work only to surrender the bar for another attempt. You let go and then the lungs take over and the vision blurs and things get wobbly. All that surefootedness seems to drain out from under your feet and you start stumbling. You know you have to lift the bar again, but not a bone in your body wants to. So you wait there with an ever rising pulse and blood pressure, knowing what lies ahead.
There should be fear in you before you lift. You should be nervous. You should be anxious. Its the fine line we walk between progress and disaster. Without it, there is nothing to overcome, nothing to strengthen against. It is thanks to mean ol' Mr. Gravity that we can get strong. The workout should be anything but easy, humdrum, or boring.
So enjoy them. Work hard. Get strong. Then get stronger.
Here's a little conditioning work:
5 rounds as fast as you can:
5 broad Jumps
10 Hand-release push ups
15 bench dips (use a chair)
Here's a glimpse into our methods of program development:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Up and Away
Looks like things are running smoothly. Everyone know what to do and should be doing it well. Meanwhile, we'll be grooming yet another boat-load of motivated people. It's all coming together, folks.
The first 12 weeks of BHIP are called the "On Ramp". Just like the I-405, the on ramp gets your car up to speed so you can merge in without disrupting the flow (we all wish that was reality on the 405). The main focus of the on ramp was proficiency at intensity, accuracy, balance. Doing things quickly and safely, progressively. Basically, we want to optimize the software and enjoy any physical changes we can get.
Now that the software is dialed in, we want to upgrade the hardware while still refining the software. We want to get stronger. Plain and simple. We want to become more "load-bearing" so that we can fight gravity better. We can build upon that strength with speed and power and quickness, but without strength, it's impossible. So lets focus on getting stronger. Pushing yourself to lift more, lunge more, squat more. If you have the opportunity to lift heavy weights in class, please don't waste it by not lifting your maximum potential. Cardio conditioning is fun but the real magic happens with strength. No one has ever been classified as being "too strong". Let's see if we can change that.
Here's some more work to strengthen with:
warm up well
1. 10 minutes of arm circles. Alternate directions as desired. Keep your arms straight out to your sides. If they drop, stop the clock and continue once ready to resume. Go until all 10 minutes are accounted for. Yes, your shoulders will burn, big deal; just keep spinning.
Rest 5 min
2. Death - By - Push ups
On the minute, every minute, add an additional push up until you fail to complete all of the required push ups in that minute. RECORD YOUR SCORE.
* Your score is the last SUCCESSFULLY completed round. NOT the round that you failed on.
Rest 5 min
3. Tabata: choose a single sport
Row, Swim, Bike, Spinning Bike, Sprint, Treadmill, Crank
20 seconds ON :: 10 seconds OFF
row: set the damper setting to 8 or higher
Swim: wear a shirt for added resistance and count in your head if needed.
Bike: Find a hill
Spinner: set the resistance for an uphill sprint after a 2 minute warm-up
Sprint: Find a hill
treadmill: set incline to at least 10, set pace to your fastest mile time
crank: same as spinner
Enjoy.
Get up and move around:
Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think
The first 12 weeks of BHIP are called the "On Ramp". Just like the I-405, the on ramp gets your car up to speed so you can merge in without disrupting the flow (we all wish that was reality on the 405). The main focus of the on ramp was proficiency at intensity, accuracy, balance. Doing things quickly and safely, progressively. Basically, we want to optimize the software and enjoy any physical changes we can get.
Now that the software is dialed in, we want to upgrade the hardware while still refining the software. We want to get stronger. Plain and simple. We want to become more "load-bearing" so that we can fight gravity better. We can build upon that strength with speed and power and quickness, but without strength, it's impossible. So lets focus on getting stronger. Pushing yourself to lift more, lunge more, squat more. If you have the opportunity to lift heavy weights in class, please don't waste it by not lifting your maximum potential. Cardio conditioning is fun but the real magic happens with strength. No one has ever been classified as being "too strong". Let's see if we can change that.
Here's some more work to strengthen with:
warm up well
1. 10 minutes of arm circles. Alternate directions as desired. Keep your arms straight out to your sides. If they drop, stop the clock and continue once ready to resume. Go until all 10 minutes are accounted for. Yes, your shoulders will burn, big deal; just keep spinning.
Rest 5 min
2. Death - By - Push ups
On the minute, every minute, add an additional push up until you fail to complete all of the required push ups in that minute. RECORD YOUR SCORE.
* Your score is the last SUCCESSFULLY completed round. NOT the round that you failed on.
Rest 5 min
3. Tabata: choose a single sport
Row, Swim, Bike, Spinning Bike, Sprint, Treadmill, Crank
20 seconds ON :: 10 seconds OFF
row: set the damper setting to 8 or higher
Swim: wear a shirt for added resistance and count in your head if needed.
Bike: Find a hill
Spinner: set the resistance for an uphill sprint after a 2 minute warm-up
Sprint: Find a hill
treadmill: set incline to at least 10, set pace to your fastest mile time
crank: same as spinner
Enjoy.
Get up and move around:
Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Return of the SQUAT and some Running too!
For your enjoyment, please complete the following at some point this week.
1. Warm Up---Include some really good squats within your warm up.
2. Hold the bottom of your most excellent squat for 5-10 minutes. Keep it active. Don't just go to sleep and hang out in your joints. It should be challenging but therapeutic. End it when it becomes deleterious.
3. Complete 100 of your most excellent squats for TIME. Record.
4. Do a brief running warm up/some running drills. Then, do 10 x 40meters Sprints (run as fast as you can safely). Aim to be consistent with your time; so, recover on your walk back to the starting line or as long as it takes you so that you can be consistent (approximately 3-5 times as long as it took you to run the 40 meters).
If running will not benefit you, then do 10 x 50meters Rowing. Recover 3-5 times as long as it took you to row 50 meters.
5. Stretch.
If your body is calling for something more, consider the following: Stretch. Do some warm ups. Play with the kids. Walk the dog. Play sports. Take a yoga class. Dance. Climb a rock. Hike. Ride your bike. Have some fun.
Is Sugar Toxic?
Farmers market at UCLA?? Sweet!
1. Warm Up---Include some really good squats within your warm up.
2. Hold the bottom of your most excellent squat for 5-10 minutes. Keep it active. Don't just go to sleep and hang out in your joints. It should be challenging but therapeutic. End it when it becomes deleterious.
3. Complete 100 of your most excellent squats for TIME. Record.
4. Do a brief running warm up/some running drills. Then, do 10 x 40meters Sprints (run as fast as you can safely). Aim to be consistent with your time; so, recover on your walk back to the starting line or as long as it takes you so that you can be consistent (approximately 3-5 times as long as it took you to run the 40 meters).
If running will not benefit you, then do 10 x 50meters Rowing. Recover 3-5 times as long as it took you to row 50 meters.
5. Stretch.
If your body is calling for something more, consider the following: Stretch. Do some warm ups. Play with the kids. Walk the dog. Play sports. Take a yoga class. Dance. Climb a rock. Hike. Ride your bike. Have some fun.
Is Sugar Toxic?
Farmers market at UCLA?? Sweet!
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