Last week we saw the very refined power capacity of some very attractive women, and a beast of a dude. Obviously women have plenty of athletic capacity which is often left untapped because of societal constraints and artificial external limitations. The "I can't because I shouldn't" clause comes to mind.
Females ARE athletes; and female dominated sports are very exciting and entertaining. But like any sport, it is important to understand that these girls, like every other athlete in the world have to earn their spot on the field. In high-stakes sports there is absolutely no room for compassion; only winning.
Here's an example of women who channel their athleticism and drive to win much like guys do on the holiest of days during the football season.
This is called the LFL. Lingerie Football League. 7 vs. 7 women from opposing teams have to play the field in the same fashion the men play in the NFL. The girls are a bit more scantly clad and the hits aren't quite as bone-crunching, but the heart and mind are in the right place.
This league is only 2 years old, entering into its third season. Obviously the LFL has been pretty popular, but as you can imagine it is still quite a bit in the novelty sports phase. Maybe once Vegas gets its eye on it will it be taken more seriously and commercialized. Can't you just hear the rest of the world watching in awe as the LFL gets broadcast across the globe and simultaneously grumbling "Only in America" under their breath while shaking their heads in envious disapproval? I love this country!
Lets suppose the LFL does get picked up and becomes a prime-time event with all the beer-drinking, hootin and hollerin. Read: $$$$$ Imagine what athletic priorities the teams and women would have to constrain to. Yes, the eye-candy factor is always prevalent, but it doesn't necessarily win championships. Athleticism specific to the sport will be in demand from the women. So this commonly accepted idea that women are exempt from being big, strong, and powerful will be GONE! No longer will most misinformed women define fitness as how long one can run aimlessly whether it be on a treadmill or in clunky shoes down a busy road. The "new" demands will involve strength, power, speed, stamina, agility, resilience, and a drive to dominate your opponent to WIN! As you can imagine, training will follow to facilitate these demands and to express these traits in the athletes. It will be glorious.
Think about it though, shouldn't those demands be universal regardless of age and gender? So with that in mind, isn't it denigrating for women to confine themselves to the cardio equipment at every gym? I'm not saying that guys know "the way" in the gym (far from it if you look at most guys coming out of any commercial gym), but this prom-like-separation of priorities must end. In my perfect world, the girls of the LFL would be running around emasculating complacent men and inspiring ladies to be "more".
new hashtag: #traindammit
Because we can.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Girls lifting things
Ok, I realize the last post was boring. So here's some videos of people lifting impossible heavy things:
This is Dmitri Klovov lifting a little over 450 pounds over his head. Absurd right? Look how small he makes that bar look.
Ok, now lets watch girls doing cool thing:
Julia Rohde: Adorable and lifting about as much as I do. A bit humbling.
Maria De La Puente: Another little girl that humbles most football players.
This is Lidia Valentin. She's My favorite to watch. She's a healthy girl. By girl I mean she's a girly girl. She packs on the make-up, paying real careful attention to her eye shadows and accessorizes with earings. She then skips up to the bar and yanks it overhead with enough power to make even the burliest of men cower. I love it.
Enjoy!
This is Dmitri Klovov lifting a little over 450 pounds over his head. Absurd right? Look how small he makes that bar look.
Ok, now lets watch girls doing cool thing:
Julia Rohde: Adorable and lifting about as much as I do. A bit humbling.
Maria De La Puente: Another little girl that humbles most football players.
This is Lidia Valentin. She's My favorite to watch. She's a healthy girl. By girl I mean she's a girly girl. She packs on the make-up, paying real careful attention to her eye shadows and accessorizes with earings. She then skips up to the bar and yanks it overhead with enough power to make even the burliest of men cower. I love it.
Enjoy!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Is correlation causation?
The post I wrote last week got a good amount of positive response. I'm glad people enjoyed it. From what I noticed a lot of people seemed to agree with my assertions. It seems pretty evident that following the steps I laid out will accomplish the goals I set out to accomplish. Notice a few things: at no point in the post did I even mention the idea of "calories" or quantity. I only addressed the "what" and "how" and a little bit of "why". Not "how much". "How much" is kind of irrelevant, isn't it? From a physiological stand-point, quantity comes after the "what". Water will flow down-hill regardless of how much water you pour. There is a very consistent mechanism that makes it so: gravity. Olive oil will separate from vinegar regardless of how much you pour of each (this logic doesn't apply in the microverse where atoms do funny things; I get that.)
In chemistry there is also something known as "energy of activation" and that kind of applies to this. If there is not enough stimulus to create a reaction, then the reaction won't take place. So yes, a little of this or that won't propagate the inevitable reaction that should take place, but everyone is different in the "how much" department. So one person can eat a bag of sugar and be fine while another gets insulin-resistant just by walking down the soft-drink isle. Think of this like Death-by-10m. The first couple of intervals are a breeze. Then, all of the sudden, the stimulus is just too much and it hits you like a brick to the head. The overwhelming sensation comes on without warming even with a good bit of recovery. This is how your hormones function. The difference between not enough and too much may not be noticeable, but once you're overwhelmed, it's irrelevant.
Lesson: don't play with fire. If the adiposity reaction is working against you, then you need to eliminate the stimuli that are propagating the physiological reactions. It's pretty simple on paper, now it's just a matter of application. That part is entirely up to you and I can't help you there. That goes a bit beyond my pay-grade, but I feel like there are enough intelligent people among you to effectively apply the logic I lay out if this is applicable to you or someone you know.
Here's my idea of the most adiposity-inducing meal:
A jelly donut deep-friend using sweet batter in vegetable oil, slurped down with some cola. - Is the calorie-count even relevant? Pretty obvious, huh?
So I'm driving this morning and, for some weird reason, I pop on NPR. Like clockwork, this story comes on: A Dire Sign Of The Obesity Epidemic: Teen Diabetes Soaring, Study Finds.
The entire segment was presented as if obesity is the CAUSE of diabetes. Obesity is not the CAUSE of ANYTHING. It is an outcome! It is also associated with other issues, like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol. Thus making it a risk-factor, and nothing more. We can't see inside of people without tools and cuts, but if we see a person who is obese, we can also make other assumptions about one's physical state of being. Personally, I am against this because most people are so misinformed that it's useless. There are so many popular preconceived notions and assertions that people make about obesity that it's hard to rifle through it all. One of the biggest things is that it's treated as a psychological dysfunction rather than a normal physiological function. As if it's caused by people not being able to stop eating.
So if diabetes isn't caused by obesity, but rather correlated to it, what exactly is being treated?
This is the equivalent of treating emphysema by trying to cure bad-breath, disregarding the fact that smoking cigarettes caused both of those issues.
I'm going to leave it at that and let you all come to your own educated conclusions.
Here's a guy who helped a lot of people though: Dr. Bernstein.
Goal: Learn to use your glutes.
In addition to back bridges try side clams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc-8G9SZvuc&feature=relmfu
focus on the hips.
Do back bridges and clams for 15 reps at a time. Let's say a good 10 sets. Put it together any way you like.
Enjoy!
In chemistry there is also something known as "energy of activation" and that kind of applies to this. If there is not enough stimulus to create a reaction, then the reaction won't take place. So yes, a little of this or that won't propagate the inevitable reaction that should take place, but everyone is different in the "how much" department. So one person can eat a bag of sugar and be fine while another gets insulin-resistant just by walking down the soft-drink isle. Think of this like Death-by-10m. The first couple of intervals are a breeze. Then, all of the sudden, the stimulus is just too much and it hits you like a brick to the head. The overwhelming sensation comes on without warming even with a good bit of recovery. This is how your hormones function. The difference between not enough and too much may not be noticeable, but once you're overwhelmed, it's irrelevant.
Lesson: don't play with fire. If the adiposity reaction is working against you, then you need to eliminate the stimuli that are propagating the physiological reactions. It's pretty simple on paper, now it's just a matter of application. That part is entirely up to you and I can't help you there. That goes a bit beyond my pay-grade, but I feel like there are enough intelligent people among you to effectively apply the logic I lay out if this is applicable to you or someone you know.
Here's my idea of the most adiposity-inducing meal:
A jelly donut deep-friend using sweet batter in vegetable oil, slurped down with some cola. - Is the calorie-count even relevant? Pretty obvious, huh?
I'm a huge Dmitri Klokov fan.
So I'm driving this morning and, for some weird reason, I pop on NPR. Like clockwork, this story comes on: A Dire Sign Of The Obesity Epidemic: Teen Diabetes Soaring, Study Finds.
The entire segment was presented as if obesity is the CAUSE of diabetes. Obesity is not the CAUSE of ANYTHING. It is an outcome! It is also associated with other issues, like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol. Thus making it a risk-factor, and nothing more. We can't see inside of people without tools and cuts, but if we see a person who is obese, we can also make other assumptions about one's physical state of being. Personally, I am against this because most people are so misinformed that it's useless. There are so many popular preconceived notions and assertions that people make about obesity that it's hard to rifle through it all. One of the biggest things is that it's treated as a psychological dysfunction rather than a normal physiological function. As if it's caused by people not being able to stop eating.
So if diabetes isn't caused by obesity, but rather correlated to it, what exactly is being treated?
This is the equivalent of treating emphysema by trying to cure bad-breath, disregarding the fact that smoking cigarettes caused both of those issues.
I'm going to leave it at that and let you all come to your own educated conclusions.
Here's a guy who helped a lot of people though: Dr. Bernstein.
Goal: Learn to use your glutes.
In addition to back bridges try side clams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc-8G9SZvuc&feature=relmfu
focus on the hips.
Do back bridges and clams for 15 reps at a time. Let's say a good 10 sets. Put it together any way you like.
Enjoy!
Monday, May 14, 2012
If I wanted to blow up..
Everyone has a weight-loss solution, I've discovered. I was at several public places throughout the weekend and I'm pretty sure that I heard some know-it-all explaining to a bunch of bewildered folks the Truth about weight-loss. I swear every one of them had some different little thing that was the KEY. One person said not to eat after 6pm. Another said no carbs after 4pm. Another said only mono-unsaturated fats are good, the rest are evil. More exercise, more cardio, less cardio, supplements, smoothies... I was blown away. I didn't realize how much I don't know about the "secrets" and tricks to make weight-loss so easy. The best part is that the people giving and receiving the advice look like weight-loss is the least of their problems. I digress.
I find it interesting that everyone has a weight-loss solution but few have a weight-GAIN method that is guaranteed to work. So I'm going to lay out a short protocol for gaining as much weight as possible, as quickly as possible.
From what I know about physiology, adiposity is controlled via various hormonal and enzyme mechanisms. So I would try to optimize those mechanisms.
- The first thing I would try to do is to shut down leptin sensitivity. Leptin is a hormone that controls fat storage and satiety and the last thing I would want is for that hormone to impede my fattening. So I'd want to keep my body saturated in leptin to promote resistance rather than sensitivity. How? Well, I'd stop eating fats and eat way more refined carbohydrates. Not sure exactly how much more, but I'd make them the staple of my diet by a huge margin. http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/277/5/E855.abstract http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/search?q=leptin
- Also, I can't have any glucagon in my blood. Glucagon mobilizes glycogen to be metabolized, and I don't want that. I want to store, not mobilize or metabolize. Glucagon secretion is triggered by amino acids in the blood. http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/pancreas/glucagon.html Translation: I won't be eating any protein as that breaks down into amino acids. Sure I'll be depriving myself of essential amino acids, but my goal is not to be healthy, rather to gain as much adipose tissue as quickly as possible.
- Luckily for me, my new carb-rich diet will also help keep insulin levels nice and high. But I want to make sure that the insulin levels spike up and stay erratic. So I'm going to opt for straight fructose. Plenty of research has shown that fructose is the king of adiposity. The sucker goes straight for the liver turns into fat pretty quickly and does a whole bunch of other good damage along the way. Check; mate. http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37385 http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/04/fructose-vs-glucose-showdown.html Anything with high-fructose corn syrup is going to be a staple of my daily intake. So lots of soda. I like cactus cooler and Dr. Pepper, personally. Bam!
- In the off occasion that I start getting sick from all the sugar, I might want something less sweet, but just as blood-sugar spiking as sugar, if not more. What I wouldn't want is any other nutrients distracting from my body from my goals. I'm going with flour based products. I"d try to just eat dry flour but that's hard to do; it's a choking hazard. So I'll go for a nice, moist, chewy product. Let's call it low-fat bread. Why low-fat? Like I said, fat will interfere with my leptin saturation. I have to make sure and optimize. The key here is NOT a balanced diet (whatever that means anyway), the key is to maximise my adiposity potential. I want all the cards in my favor. Low-fat white bread, like a bun or a roll or biscuit would be great. I'd probably add some jelly packets or some fake maple syrup to really give me a boost.
- After a while of this, my pancreas might not be able to produce enough insulin to keep packing away all that sugar in my blood and I can't have any of it going to waste. Also, I might die if my blood sugar levels stay high for too long. So I'll need to start supplementing myself with insulin injections as my pancreas breaks down and I succumb to diabetes.
- I won't want to exercise because that will burn up blood-sugar, but I do want my cortisol levels to stay high. Cortisol is a stress hormone that will contribute to elevated blood-sugar. So in addition to moving as little as possible, I'm going to want to avoid restful activities like sleeping. So I'm just going to plant myself on the couch and watch TV with my sodas and buns nearby.
I realize that this may come off as a little insensitive to the current state of the obesity problem in this country and world-wide. Personally, I contend that sugar-coating the problem only exacerbates it. Pun definitely intended. Take what you will from this, but the obesity epidemic is not a freak accident. Like I said before, adiposity is a very precisely controlled process in the body that we have inadvertently and unknowingly learned to optimize rather than maintain naturally.
* Addition: Drinking booze not only wreaks havoc on metabolism in the liver but also makes the liver store any and all sugars in the system as fat until all of the alcohol is metabolized out. So that's a no-brainer. Beer in one hand, soda in the other, I'm primed for success.
Here's some more fun readings:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/01/body-fat-setpoint-part-ii-mechanisms-of.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm Diet soda won't help!
Why the Campaign to Stop America's Obesity Crisis Keeps Failing
Government tries to shut down paleo diet blogger
http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/
Enjoy!
Goals: Either hold hollow position for 30 seconds 3 times. Or 3 sets of 30 hollow rocks with a minute rest between sets.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Walk Hard
Note: Please make sure you tend to your belongings if we ever move away from the bleachers for the workouts. The track is pretty accessible by the general public although we're working on changing that. If you can avoid bringing lots of things, that would be best; otherwise you'll have to be very mindful of your things.
Walking Hard
There you go, folks. A picture of a scantly-clad male to drive a point home. Happy? Didn't think so.
Of all of the things I've heard that "it's bad for your knees", or "you shouldn't do it", or "not too many/in moderation"; I've never heard any of that regarding walking. Even the most inept doctor or therapist knows that walking is a good thing. Walking can lower life-insurance policies (counts as exercise) and can spark romance ("likes to take long walk on the beach"). It can be done at any age since the able body is functionally designed for it. Frankly, I don't think there is anything better for ones health than a good hearty stroll.
Some folks may argue that walking is reserved for those who can no longer sustain high intensity activities. Bubkis! First of all, unless you're conditioning for football season or you play hockey in the NHL, high intensity activities need only be a marginal fraction of your "training". (I consider sleep, food, mobility, etc. part of the training regiment.) Realistically, few, if any people on this planet wouldn't benefit from walking as a supplement to their training or lack of. For many, like my grandparents, walking has been a major staple of their exercise. In fact, I've never known them to do anything besides that.
Walking has many therapeutic qualities that are inherent almost exclusively to the movement. The world's leading authority on back and spinal health, Stuart McGill can't praise walking enough. Essentially he says that the rhythmic, multi-planar and multi-directional movements through the hips and shoulders help alleviate a lot of the tension that resides in the spine from sitting around in poor posture or from various injuries. He suggests adding BRISK walking into every one's daily regiment. Furthermore, brisk walking requires a better posture than simply schlepping around for a while, so you're going to have to pick up the pace a bit. If that's not enough, you can periodically challenge yourself by adding in a back-pack or a ruck or a vest which will create a bit of a postural overload and create a little extra traction which will strengthen a lot of those little muscles that protect your posture and subsequently your spine.
Here is a little more info as to the benefits of walking: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/walking.html
Personally, I am very lucky. I get to walk at least a couple miles a day as part of my job and my activity levels. I've always walked a lot. To and from school. Walked a good 5+ miles a day every day during college. I still enjoy walking and choose to walk every chance I get. It tends to piss others off when I park a mile or 2 away from where I'm supposed to be but oh well, at least I feel good, and that's what matters to me. I do notice though, after a few days of reduced or eliminated walking, like during long trips or rides, I become much more stiff and rigid, especially in my hips and knees. My shoulders start to slouch and my neck and lower back hurt. I have a sticky IT band on my right leg and it will just glue itself to my vastus lateralis causing me to have a nice limp that I grow less and less aware of. So I love the fact that I "have" to walk a lot. It's a blessing in disguise.
Here's what I suggest:
Separately from exercising, add in a good, brisk, walk like 4 days a week for 30-60 minutes a day. Preferably in the evening when it is nice and cool or if you have time after work, walk over by Sunset as the tree cover will keep the air a little cleaner. You're only duty is to walk briskly, walk tall, but not too hard. Save that for these guys:
* Powerwalking is an Olympic sport. I'll leave it at that and let you all make your judgements on your own.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Too easy?
Ever feel like life is getting too easy or that you might be getting too strong? Perhaps a dose of reality is in store.
Those hollow rocks are rough, but you should be able to do them for a good 30 seconds to a minute. So if you can't, I suggest you work on that. If they get a bit easy, there's a solutions.
Enter the AB WHEEL:
hopefully this isn't a new image for you. It's simply a wheel with a handle as the axle.
Here's a video of how to use it, more or less.
You can really see the hollow position coming into play dynamically. As the guy move through the motion, he has to hold his abdomen really tight and pull the wheel back using upper body rather than just rolling the hips back. Notice when he demonstrates a poor execution how his belly drops and his lumbar dumps into his belly and the whole thing falls apart.
These things are dirt cheap so don't go trying to make one of your own, trust me on this.
Just make sure you have something under your knees.
Combine it with the back/hip extension supplementary work and you're looking at a pretty bulletproof mid line. Add in some grip training and some sprinting/jump-roping and you're about to go beast-mode.
Don't forget reminding your mind that life isn't too bad either. Keep the mind strong. Read "Mind Gym". If you already read it once, read it again; you probably forgot something important.
Here's a pretty decent write-up of mental strength with references from some of the worlds toughest and most resilient individuals.
(I would skip down to the part where the actual SEALs contribute.)
http://ashotofadrenaline.net/navy-seals-how-they-made-it-through-hell-week
Enjoy.
Those hollow rocks are rough, but you should be able to do them for a good 30 seconds to a minute. So if you can't, I suggest you work on that. If they get a bit easy, there's a solutions.
Enter the AB WHEEL:
hopefully this isn't a new image for you. It's simply a wheel with a handle as the axle.
Here's a video of how to use it, more or less.
You can really see the hollow position coming into play dynamically. As the guy move through the motion, he has to hold his abdomen really tight and pull the wheel back using upper body rather than just rolling the hips back. Notice when he demonstrates a poor execution how his belly drops and his lumbar dumps into his belly and the whole thing falls apart.
These things are dirt cheap so don't go trying to make one of your own, trust me on this.
Just make sure you have something under your knees.
Combine it with the back/hip extension supplementary work and you're looking at a pretty bulletproof mid line. Add in some grip training and some sprinting/jump-roping and you're about to go beast-mode.
Don't forget reminding your mind that life isn't too bad either. Keep the mind strong. Read "Mind Gym". If you already read it once, read it again; you probably forgot something important.
Here's a pretty decent write-up of mental strength with references from some of the worlds toughest and most resilient individuals.
(I would skip down to the part where the actual SEALs contribute.)
http://ashotofadrenaline.net/navy-seals-how-they-made-it-through-hell-week
Enjoy.
Monday, April 23, 2012
PR!? How did that happen?
Note: Make sure you're enrolled and squared away with the membership this week. If you need help, walk over to the cashiering desk and they'll take care of you. Read: $$$
Weather: Just a reminder, if it rains this week, then we will suspend any outdoor activities, but you'll be able to come inside the Wooden Center or KREC and do your own thing or jump in on IFT. You know the drill.
A few newer people have asked whether we share the workouts and for help with their own workouts. No, we do not make our workouts public. A lot of reasons for that and I'll save you all the boredom of it, but we just don't. You all have journals and you can easily track your own workouts. As far as your own workouts go: I used to put up a workout a week, but they got repetitive and often I find that it's too much for most people, yet they're doing them out of obligation and eating into the next day's training session. So for those that want to do something extra, go for it, you know how to put workouts together by now and a lot of the sessions have groups that meet up on off days to exercise. Just make sure you're listening to your body. If you feel tired and wasted, REST. If you feel like you can fly, go big. Any fluff in between if just a tiresome waste of your time. Go for a pleasant walk instead and call it a day. The key is to enjoy the things you spend your precious time on.
Method, Madness, PR, Why..
Last week we dead lifted. A day that many look forward to and others dread. That day, when all you have to do is grab a bar that weighs a little too much and stand up tall with it, elicits quite a bit of anxiety in most of us. In one sense, you think: what can possibly go wrong; in reality, those that have gone heavy and have experience that deep dark hole where you feel lucky to be alive know the feeling and want to avoid it at all costs. But the glory of the PR (personal record) doesn't come without a price to pay. And that one lift, the one single attempt, is the culmination of weeks upon weeks of invested training, so there's quitea a bit of interest in it.
So everyone went after it. We warmed into the heavy weights and then hit it with all our might. We held on tight to the bar and kept pushing the ground away from it. Our faces tensed up and some even let out a mighty roar (loosely stated). The will was relentless and letting go would mean losing it all and that's just unacceptable. Bam. Finished. You're standing tall and still holding it. You look around and everyone has their jaw dropped. Well done! You PRed. You're feeling quite victorious. As well you should. Progress is no easy task.
A number of people then asked about how that's possible since we don't really dead lift that much. This is a very valid question that we consider during programming but don't really expose much. The concept is called "transferrence". It literaly means transferring skills and strengths to bigger "things". So a lot of little things we do end up stacking together and amalgumating into bigger, more compound strengths and skill sets. Over several weeks, we have many opportunities to develop very useful strengths and skills to then apply into the subsequent workouts. It's like a snowball.
Think about something as simple as jumping. Jumping seems pretty straight-forward, but how does an individual get better at jumping? You could try to overload a jump but if you go too far past your work-capacity, you're just going to tire yourself quicker than usual or snap an achilles tendon. Bad news either way. So, with some smart coaching, you decide to break the jump down into it's parts. Hip extension/leg power; great, let's train it. Power cleans, kettlebell swings, plyo depth drops, jumping lunges, jumping slam ball, push press. Sweet, eay peasy. Wait, how do I get better at those things though? Well, lets' take the clean and kettlebell swing. Those depend very heavily on hip strength and back strength and how quickly you can apply those strengths. So how do we get at those? Well, the squat is always the big daddy king of them all and the dead lift is close behind (but we can't dead lift often because of neurological issues) so let's do more of those. But wait, how do you go about putting a heavier bar on your shoulders? Well pullups, pushups, dips, and pressing will help that. Don't forget about the hand strength needed to even think about holding onto a heavier bar or a kettlebell. Hand-hangs and farmer carries help those. Lets not neglect the massive amounts of midline stability needed for any progressions in structural overload. After all of these things, the most important part of them all is actually having the energy resources and the nutrition to develop and recover. So food and sleep and rest are imperative.
So you see? Jumping is simple, but getting better at it is not. Big deal.. Who cares about jumping, right? Well you might not, but if you're paycheck depends on it, you might. Welcome to athletic strength and conditioning. Developing these progressions and programming them for athletes that need to become faster runners or more powerful jumpers or swimmers or throwers is no easy task. But you see the idea here? We take lots of seemingly unrelated and pointless workloads and transfer the developments into much more focussed and precise movements. Think about why a runner should do pushups, and why a hammer thrower might want to squat 500lbs.
So this is what we do in BHIP. We do lots of different things that all somehow culminate into bigger and broader strengths and skills. This is something to think about when involved in performance-based training, which is what BHIP is. There is always a purpose and a method to the madness, and if you can think about it that way, maybe it will help motivate you. A bicep-curl is fun and all but it's only good for just that, unless you're addressing that weak link in a clean when your legs push and your arms get yanked so hard that you can't hold the bar.
This leads me to address some things I saw in the deadlift. Most people had breakdowns in their hand strength, which is pretty expected since we don't get to hold heavy things all day like our hands were designed to do. The other was core strength. Every dead lift should feel like you just held a plank for like 5 minutes. Once the core breaks down, the spine either rounds backwards or forward into the abdomen. This causes a massive power bleed and the whole structure falls apart under load and the legs give out. The bar falls to the ground and makes a loud crashing sound indicative of failure.
No, situps will not address this issue. The situp develops hip FLEXION. The fact that your abs burn just means you have weak abs, not that you're training them. Dead lifting is about hip EXTENSION. I told everyone long ago to start holding the hollow position and I'll remind you again now. Hollow rocks are the key. Then transfering the hollow strength into other skills will develop the midline strength you need for lifting and running and swimming and sitting upright.
Here's the video again: http://gymnasticswod.com/content/hollow-body
Check out the progressions he shows as well. Ring a bell?
Read this article: http://www.mensjournal.com/laird-hamilton-says-make-yourself-uncomfortable
Good stuff in there. Think about the transference of Laird's training into his sport.
Go do some hollow rocks. Do them till you can't, then do like 50 more.
Enjoy
Weather: Just a reminder, if it rains this week, then we will suspend any outdoor activities, but you'll be able to come inside the Wooden Center or KREC and do your own thing or jump in on IFT. You know the drill.
A few newer people have asked whether we share the workouts and for help with their own workouts. No, we do not make our workouts public. A lot of reasons for that and I'll save you all the boredom of it, but we just don't. You all have journals and you can easily track your own workouts. As far as your own workouts go: I used to put up a workout a week, but they got repetitive and often I find that it's too much for most people, yet they're doing them out of obligation and eating into the next day's training session. So for those that want to do something extra, go for it, you know how to put workouts together by now and a lot of the sessions have groups that meet up on off days to exercise. Just make sure you're listening to your body. If you feel tired and wasted, REST. If you feel like you can fly, go big. Any fluff in between if just a tiresome waste of your time. Go for a pleasant walk instead and call it a day. The key is to enjoy the things you spend your precious time on.
Method, Madness, PR, Why..
Last week we dead lifted. A day that many look forward to and others dread. That day, when all you have to do is grab a bar that weighs a little too much and stand up tall with it, elicits quite a bit of anxiety in most of us. In one sense, you think: what can possibly go wrong; in reality, those that have gone heavy and have experience that deep dark hole where you feel lucky to be alive know the feeling and want to avoid it at all costs. But the glory of the PR (personal record) doesn't come without a price to pay. And that one lift, the one single attempt, is the culmination of weeks upon weeks of invested training, so there's quitea a bit of interest in it.
So everyone went after it. We warmed into the heavy weights and then hit it with all our might. We held on tight to the bar and kept pushing the ground away from it. Our faces tensed up and some even let out a mighty roar (loosely stated). The will was relentless and letting go would mean losing it all and that's just unacceptable. Bam. Finished. You're standing tall and still holding it. You look around and everyone has their jaw dropped. Well done! You PRed. You're feeling quite victorious. As well you should. Progress is no easy task.
A number of people then asked about how that's possible since we don't really dead lift that much. This is a very valid question that we consider during programming but don't really expose much. The concept is called "transferrence". It literaly means transferring skills and strengths to bigger "things". So a lot of little things we do end up stacking together and amalgumating into bigger, more compound strengths and skill sets. Over several weeks, we have many opportunities to develop very useful strengths and skills to then apply into the subsequent workouts. It's like a snowball.
Think about something as simple as jumping. Jumping seems pretty straight-forward, but how does an individual get better at jumping? You could try to overload a jump but if you go too far past your work-capacity, you're just going to tire yourself quicker than usual or snap an achilles tendon. Bad news either way. So, with some smart coaching, you decide to break the jump down into it's parts. Hip extension/leg power; great, let's train it. Power cleans, kettlebell swings, plyo depth drops, jumping lunges, jumping slam ball, push press. Sweet, eay peasy. Wait, how do I get better at those things though? Well, lets' take the clean and kettlebell swing. Those depend very heavily on hip strength and back strength and how quickly you can apply those strengths. So how do we get at those? Well, the squat is always the big daddy king of them all and the dead lift is close behind (but we can't dead lift often because of neurological issues) so let's do more of those. But wait, how do you go about putting a heavier bar on your shoulders? Well pullups, pushups, dips, and pressing will help that. Don't forget about the hand strength needed to even think about holding onto a heavier bar or a kettlebell. Hand-hangs and farmer carries help those. Lets not neglect the massive amounts of midline stability needed for any progressions in structural overload. After all of these things, the most important part of them all is actually having the energy resources and the nutrition to develop and recover. So food and sleep and rest are imperative.
So you see? Jumping is simple, but getting better at it is not. Big deal.. Who cares about jumping, right? Well you might not, but if you're paycheck depends on it, you might. Welcome to athletic strength and conditioning. Developing these progressions and programming them for athletes that need to become faster runners or more powerful jumpers or swimmers or throwers is no easy task. But you see the idea here? We take lots of seemingly unrelated and pointless workloads and transfer the developments into much more focussed and precise movements. Think about why a runner should do pushups, and why a hammer thrower might want to squat 500lbs.
So this is what we do in BHIP. We do lots of different things that all somehow culminate into bigger and broader strengths and skills. This is something to think about when involved in performance-based training, which is what BHIP is. There is always a purpose and a method to the madness, and if you can think about it that way, maybe it will help motivate you. A bicep-curl is fun and all but it's only good for just that, unless you're addressing that weak link in a clean when your legs push and your arms get yanked so hard that you can't hold the bar.
This leads me to address some things I saw in the deadlift. Most people had breakdowns in their hand strength, which is pretty expected since we don't get to hold heavy things all day like our hands were designed to do. The other was core strength. Every dead lift should feel like you just held a plank for like 5 minutes. Once the core breaks down, the spine either rounds backwards or forward into the abdomen. This causes a massive power bleed and the whole structure falls apart under load and the legs give out. The bar falls to the ground and makes a loud crashing sound indicative of failure.
No, situps will not address this issue. The situp develops hip FLEXION. The fact that your abs burn just means you have weak abs, not that you're training them. Dead lifting is about hip EXTENSION. I told everyone long ago to start holding the hollow position and I'll remind you again now. Hollow rocks are the key. Then transfering the hollow strength into other skills will develop the midline strength you need for lifting and running and swimming and sitting upright.
Here's the video again: http://gymnasticswod.com/content/hollow-body
Check out the progressions he shows as well. Ring a bell?
Read this article: http://www.mensjournal.com/laird-hamilton-says-make-yourself-uncomfortable
Good stuff in there. Think about the transference of Laird's training into his sport.
Go do some hollow rocks. Do them till you can't, then do like 50 more.
Enjoy
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