Ty Ferrell's Side of Training

Where I'm Coming From

2012-01-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, I was motivated to post a quick blurb about where my ideas and methods for fitness are coming from. Luckily, this is also the beginning of a new year so it seems good to post this. I like easy reads myself so I will keep this as simple as possible. I hope you gain more about where you stand (with your ideas) in fitness from reading this.

First off, most of the following is not all from me. I always like the quote "Stand on the shoulders of giants". I have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by really good trainers and other fitness professionals from an early point in my career. On top of this I was able to quickly seek out and find some of the "giants" of the fitness industry and learn from them. Sooo here are some of the giants I have learned from and stolen information from. If you don't know these fitness pros you should use your handy dandy google and find out more about them (no particular order):
Mike Boyle
Alan Aragon
Gray Cook
Ian King
Tudor Bompa
David Barr
Charles Poliquin
Stuart McGill
Chuck Wolfe
Paul Chek
Ashley Masurek
Tony Gentilcore
Christian Thibadeau
Charles Staley
Willy Wayland
Cassandra Forsythe
Joe Defranco
etc....etc...
A lot more that I could list but this would turn into a blog about a list of the smartest people I know in the fitness industry. You wouldn't want that. From these fitness folks and my understanding of anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics, I have reached this point in my career:

Top Rules I still follow:

- Eat protein with every meal (snacks as well). Human body is a protein fortified machine. Protein is very necessary to maintain a strong body able to recover from daily activities. So eat the animals ruthlessly.

- Multivitamins are a joke compared to ingesting vegetation. Also different vegetables tend to counteract the acidic build up from protein. So eat different varieties and lots of it.

- Nothing wrong with drinking coffee. It keeps focus and from that it can improve strength while training. Just don't overdose because you may get the "shakes" and we'll all laugh at you.

- Strength Endurance is the first attribute that should be trained in any given new trainee.

- Concentric (think lifting portion) motion of any exercise should remain fast and controlled. Want to go for slow tempo training? Only slow down the Eccentric (think lowering the weight) part.

- All stretches should be held so you feel a "slight" stretch. Unless you are working directly with a therapist there is no reason to stretch to an almost painful position.

- If a person can not squat and lunge without pain that person would be really silly (putting it nicely) to go out on a run.

- Jogging slow is for folks who like bad knees, ankles and hips. Run at a proper speed with a solid gait cycle and if interested in making running a constant activity be smarter than the average and invest in a few sessions with a qualified running coach.

- Train with proper progression. A joint needs to be stable before it becomes flexible. Learn to squat before jumping. Learn to deadlift before "cleaning". Learn to do a proper pullup on a bar before training like a trapeze acrobat.

- The harder a person trains the more a person has to use active recovery techniques and sleep to keep healthy.

- Foam rolling is far more superior to stretching alone.

- When it comes to dropping fat, it's still a low carb world. High carb diets are for those looking for type 2 Diabetes. Drop the extra sugar and the fluffy stuff around the tummy will drop with it.

- Learning the Eccentric portion of "scawee" exercises (like chinups and pushups) will eventually lead to being able to do the entire exercise properly.

- Train to be fit not skinny. Skinny will not last too long. Going to a gym to hop from cardio equipment to cardio equipment and attempt an extreme low calorie diet is a formula for certain disaster. That big bulky muscle some people hide from actually is what will keep the body resilient, youthful, and keep certain things upright. One side note, bulking up generally comes from a surplus in calories not heavy weights.

Top Rules I have thrown out:

- Eat every 2-3 hours per day (6 meals a day). No real science behind this for speeding up metabolism. It is a real pain in the ass to do. I still believe it does give more satiation than less meals but still too much of a pain for a person with an actual life.

- Doing situps is worthless. Doing situps will not get a person a flat tummy or 6 pack but they still have purpose in building full body strength.

Top Dumb Rules that still are just as ridiculous this year as they ever were:

- Keep your knees behind your feet while squatting. This one is still absent minded as ever. I believe this came from the concept of keeping your feet and knees inline. Maybe from the powerlifting squat that looks more like a wide leg Good Morning. Where ever it is from it still has strong influence on cookie cut classes, exercise videos and many trainers. How I hate it....let me count the ways...

- Do situps and crunches for a 6 pack and strong core. These exercises can help with trunk (core) functional strength BUT to see a ripped 6 pack a person will need the genetics. Second is building a strong body (from strength training) and third is the low total bodyfat revealing your prize. Men need to be below 12% body fat and women somewhere around 16% body fat. Otherwise just wear a bigger shirt.

- Train on an empty stomach in the morning will burn fat faster. This is so dumb and painfully idiotic I will not say anymore then do not do this.

- New trainees should join a "hardcore" over marketed bootcamp. I imagine this must be because people live on a budget. Well I hope that budget is big enough to support medical bills after being traumatized by military style "call to action". Some bootcamps and circuit training classes are actually okay. They are held by pros who LIMIT the number of participants and who can regress exercises and customize for the trainees needing this. MOST are not. Most bootcamps have people doing things they should probably never do in a lifetime and they end up with injuries. Best thing to do is find a qualified pro who can ASSESS your fitness level and joint health. Buy a session or two and invest in your body like you actually think your body is worth more than 19.99 a week.

- A person feels tight means a person needs yoga. A person has a bad back means a person needs yoga. A person is weak means a person needs yoga. Yoga has become the largest marketed form of conditioning I have ever seen. It is even bigger than wrongful marketing of marathons for people out of shape. I am biased. I must admit. However, yoga is not the "fix-all" answer. I do believe yoga has a lot of great aspects to it. The meditation (not in a nicknamed pose like doodling monkey on a fence pose), and many of the patterns are great (to limitations). My problem comes in when a person is holding a pose for too long, cooking in a classroom heated to a hallucinating hot temperature, attempting to do every pose and not listening to their body, and getting feedback from a seminar yoga instructor who prompts the person to keep pushing a ridiculous stretch not knowing anything about the person's anatomical condition.

So, I kept it pretty simple and you can get a rough idea of where I am coming from. Hopefully you figured things out about where you stand with fitness ideas and practices.

Train to be FIT not Skinny!

2011-10-04T14:03:00.000-05:00

I really love this pic I ninja'd from JP's facebook page. It really says it all. A while back I heard something on the same lines from Mike Boyle and Charles Poliquin. Paraphrasing the coaches about the lack of healthy big butts on people. More folks with flat or saggy asses. Definitely something everyone should drive for. Train to be healthy and fit and not skinny.

Follow Up Sloppy Dieting Down

2011-10-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

This is a follow up to The Sloppy Art of Hollywood Dieting Down. As I tinkered around with this diet I really felt like I was becoming a nutrition sinner. I took it to the extreme on both ends. Now, keep this in mind, I only used this diet on myself. So take it simply as that. I have not tried this on a multitude of subjects for a year or more. So far I have been toying with this dieting concept for about three months. In this entry I am just honing the diet a bit on myself. I think to really see how well a diet has the potential for working you need to try both left and right extremes as well.

Here I will illustrate I have done and how well it worked or how horrible it went wrong. At the end I will show the revised formula for the diet. This is a work in progress and remember I am only trying this on myself (and a few close friends).

Reverse the original formula:
- I feasted like a king early in the day and tapered off at night.
DID NOT WORK
After eating a large meal closer to noon I found myself lethargic and unmotivated to train. Also, I retained a good amount of water. My weight did not really change but I predict if I remained on this reverse diet I would be in chubby category in a months time. A week of feeling like crap was enough for me to get off of this diet change.

Fast in the morning:
- I skipped all morning meals and ate a very light lunch then trained and feasted
Did not work for my goals
Personally I am biased against fasting. I really think it is the dumbest thing a person can do. However, I tried it for some of the day. I did lose weight and my body looked more lean. However, I looked too small. My strength took a hit as well. It seemed I could not recover from a training session as quickly as before. Also I was totally focused on food ALL BLASTED DAY! I daydreamed about what my evening food orgy would be made up of. When I did eat at night I had a stronger craving for junkfood. For me there was too much of a loss for dropping bodyfat and attempting to perserve muscle.

Cut out Protein:
Hard to say
- I did not completely cut out protein but it certainly was at a low caloric intake. No major changes in body or workout. So is there NEED for high protein consumption? Probably not.

Nightly meal with no constraints:
- The jury is still out, but I predict this will cause problems in the long run
Here followed the original formula all but one rule. I did not limit my desires for eating whatever I wanted. I literally noticed small changes in water retention off and on but nothing majorly off (with body composition). I seriously doubt if I could lose much weight eating like this but I did not gain fat either. My guilt crushed me at the end and I begin to hold back on crap and eat much better. Now I use this way on the days I will be very active.

Here are my revisions so far. If this keeps going well I'll test it out on some innocent souls and give you the results:

- Eat in the morning small meal but it is good to have vegetables or low glycemic fruits (berries). High glycemic carbs in the morning do not seem to work well for me and I get really lethargic.

- Eat an afternoon meal with a high amount of protein. Keep carbs to a minimal. Loads of vegetation if possible. I just feel so much better when I can eat high protein and vegetables for lunch. Sometimes I eat carbs here to but I keep that down. I feel the mental diffrence after eating too much carb.

- Have Pre and Post workout meals or drinks around training session. Carbs are still not necessary. Fat will work just fine.

- Take a multi-vitamin while feasting. I'm not a vitamin fan but it is good to cover my bases.

- Crap food portion of the feast can be more than the good stuff. Best to keep this type of overloading on hard training days.

Everything else I keep the same. This is still in progress though. Stay tuned.

My Take on Tudor Bompa's Maxex Training

2011-08-16T13:51:00.000-05:00

First off, Coach Bompa’s program does not need to change. It’s fine the way it is when it comes to training athletes and enthusiasts possessing plenty of experience with maximum strength training. However, I find that those just getting into plyometric training may need to totally separate using maximal strength and plyometrics or take a shot at this idea for using Tudor Bompa’s Maxex training.

For those who do not know, Tudor Bompa writes about using simple plyometric training in combination with maximum strength training. The program is part of the preparatory phase in a linear periodization. The main philosophy here is get the maximum amount of fast twitch fibers to respond and immediately follow with plyometrics aimed to increase the ability be explosive and quick. Tudor believes “…developing maximum strength should not be applied rigidly or in isolation…”(Bompa, Carrera 186). I find this is also a great way to train even for those fitness enthusiasts like myself, who are not necessarily competitive in any sport, but are looking to maintain (or gain) a high level of strength and be able to use it outside of the gym environment. Also, for myself, knowing as a person ages the body begins to abandon unnecessary speed, agility, and strength; I want to be able to perform and be active at a high level as long as I can.

Like I stated earlier, Bompa’s training protocols for this Maxex really do not have to change. For the actual version of the Maxex training check my reference. However, I would modify his training method a bit for the new athletes and enthusiasts out there. Before beginning this program a person should have experience doing maximum strength training.

Generally, the Maxex training should be done no more than 3 times a week allowing 24-48 hours of recovery. If you have low flexibility in your major joints or not familiar with plyometrics, keep this separated. Separating plyometrics into its own session will allow for technical learning and proper progression.

When it comes to the maximum strength training portion, I like Jim Wendler (read more here) and Faleev’s (read more here) near maximal training approach. So there are no 100% RM lifts. The most will be 80-90% RM in any given lift and you do a few exercises per session . This should allow greater recovery and greater quality in performance. I really like employing 5x5 (65-75%RM) protocol and even going further and using 5x3(75-85%RM) and then 5x5-3-1-1-1 ( the one rep lifts are for 90%). The plyometric movements coupled with the max lifts are different. During the 5x5 protocol the plyos should be extremely technical. Just get the movement absolutely perfect. Reaction time can be dropped a bit as you are concentrating on the movement itself and not the transition portion to the next rep. (In example tuck jumps should have all the focus on the actual jump and “clean” landing and not very concerned with the speed of transition to the next consecutive tuck jump). During the 5x3 protocol the reaction portion should be added and focused on as well. As soon as you land PERFECTLY you react and proceed into the next repetition. Finally, during the 5-3-1 protocol the plyo should be just as smooth and clean as 5x3 portion. The repetitions will be higher than the max strength exercises (most likely). The repetitions are TOTALLY based on your ability to do perfect reps with all out power. Once the power is gone you stop. There shouldn’t be a time when one plyo exercise goes past 20 seconds and that is giving a lot of time. You do not want the plyometric maximal effort to become nothing more than aerobics. Do not be confused with plyometrics and aerobics. Plyometrics are very closely related to max lifting in that you attempt to recruit as much muscle as possible. The difference is now you are going for increasing the rate of speed, which will need a great amount of power and flexibility. Keeping these sessions at a necessary length, I recommend only performing 1-2 exercises for max and 1-2 complementing plyo exercises.

Here is my actual training regimen for this:

Week1

Day1

BB Hookgrip Deadlifts 5x5
super set
Double Arm Swing Jumps for Vertical 5x15(approx.)

Day2

Off

Day3

BB Bench Press 5x5
superset
Close Hand Partial Pushup to Wide Hand Catch 5x6

Day4

Off

Day5

BB Hang Clean 5x10
superset
Split Jerk specific Double Arm Plyo Split Hops

Day 6 and 7 off

*On my off days I work on assymetries and mobility exercises

This is just to show how to work in the 5x5 protocol. The plyos can also be done for time instead of repetitions. My advice is to keep with repetions for 5x5 and switch to time if you want for 3x3 and 5-3-1. If you are having trouble with the plyometric portion, I advise you do them first.

Now if I was going to separate this it would look something like this:

Day1
Double Arm Swings 5x5

Day2
BB Hook Grip Deadlifts 5x5

Day3
Plyo Pushups 5x6

Day 4
BB Bench 5x5

Day5
Hang Cleans 5x10

Day6
Split Jerk 5x6

Day7
off

As I learn to perfect the plyometric pattern I would begin combining days so the regimen looks closer to the previous program sample.

Reference

Bompa, Tudor and Carrera Michael. Periodization Training for Sports. Champaign IL: Human Kinetics 2005

The Sloppy Art of Hollywood Dieting Down

2011-08-02T13:48:00.000-05:00

A few people have asked me to put up information concerning getting lean VERY quickly and still being able to live like a human being. Usually this question stems from the Hollywood celebrity dieting. I try to please. So this is for those looking to see their bodies in a leaner form very quickly. This is not the exact way your favorite stars have done it but it is very similar and will give you the same type of quick results. Before I explain the details, we need to separate the potential patrons of this blog and those who really need to go a much healthier route and seek out proper dieting and training techniques, which is better for you anyway (I won't leave you hanging if you are not up to for this. Just get in contact with me and I'll help out).

People who can try this with my blessing should have the following:

Be at or below 20% bodyfat if you are female and 16% if you are a male

Reason: if you have too much fat on you could get saggy skin issues and the plan is very short and it is better to be closer to a ideal look before you start.

Have a few years of quality strength training under your belt (hopping around in aerobics class with cute flourescent weights does not count).

Reason: You need a solid foundation of muscle so when you diet down you don't look like a "hangy skinned crack head". Must have solid body under the fatty cushion (male and female).

Have the discipline to see it through

Reason: If you half-ass the plan you'll end up nowhere.

If you meet all the qualifications then proceed. If you don't it's probably best you don't. I won't give you my blessing and continuing would be blasphemous.

Here is how it works. You need to let the diet do most of the work. You should not attempt long bouts of training and understand that you will feel less energetic and probably have overall less strength. You want to do bigger movements and keep the training brief. Being active is great, but know your fitness limits. This plan isn't neat it's sloppy. However, it works. You will have two solid meals a day. I highly suggest you eat in the morning and at night. You're going to have to listen to your body for the most part. You know when you are hungry in the morning. It should not be any later than 3 hours after you wake up. The evening meal will be the biggest and morning very light. If you are a coffee drinker, keep it going. I highly advise to stop drinking coffee about six hours before sleep. Drink a good amount of water daily. This doesn't mean you have to supersaturate yourself, just drink water. Finally do not do this plan for more than a month at a time. That is unless you are looking to be skinny as possible.

Here is an example of how it works:
- Wake up in an hours time drink a coffee with a low carb protein shake. If you are a multivitamin person go ahead and take it.

- In less then three hours from wake up have breakfast. No need to go low carbs here just keep it light.
Example - few fried eggs, bowl of fruit, slices of toast and coffee

- Drink water throughout the day and when you begin to get cravings for food drink a coffee with your favorite creamer and sugar if you want. To keep from going overboard and drinking a jug of creamer use a smaller coffee cup and only have one cup.

- Be active throughout the day and keep your mind occupied.

- The evening meal needs to have lots of vegatables and a lean source of protein. I also suggest eating rice or pasta for satiation. Don't worry about the high carbs just eat.

- For Sweetooths you can have a candy bar or another smaller desert. If you like drinking a bit, drink your favorite whatever but keep it limited (just a few meaning dos). I am serious you can have at it, somewhat.

That's it. No real hard guidelines to endure and you should see visible results in a few weeks time. If you want them even faster don't drink or eat sweets and bump up the training. This is by no means a healthy way to do anything. Just a quick fix for the impatient.

Quick Blog on Running Myths

2011-08-01T08:04:00.002-05:00

I like the authors point of view of this quick read blog on running myths:
Mythbuster of Running

If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

2011-07-26T13:59:00.000-05:00

Just had a real eye opening week training a client who has been doing Krav Maga for some years now. Krav Maga is an Isreali form of lethal martial arts. The interesting thing to me wasn't her Krav Maga level of expertise but she participates in one of my circuit training classes and seemingly has the basic "damaged by the fitness industry" squat. During a quick assessment she squats back into her heels, pulls her upper body forward, keeps her knees behind her feet and only drops her hips into a shallow squat. To me it didn't add up. She is a martial artist and outdoor activity enthusiasts. So why is she squatting like the typical aerobic instructor??

Turns out she did take some fitness group classes some time ago and the instructor showed her how to squat to keep her knees safe. We talked a bit and she showed me some of her Krav Maga moves. Turns out the rules of squatting like an aerobic instructor were thrown out for the demonstration. She easily maneuvered into low attack and defense positions where the knee twist, tilt and extends past the foot. So the "safe" squats were just for fitness...and nothing else.

So, I let her know she should forget all the fitness rules her fitness instructors have told her and just do the training. So, she was able to lunge deeply and squat almost to the floor in great form without being limited by the ridiculous rules of mainstream fitness industry. She was so advanced with the exercises that after class I asked her to try a few one leg squat exercises I picked up from Pavel Tsatsouline. She did not disappoint. After a few tries she was able lower herself in a deep pistol squat, roll back some and sit on the floor, roll forward and pistol squat back to the start position. I really can't take much credit for teaching her this. A few cues here and there and she was all set. The thing is she already had the raw potential.

My fear about this is there are trainers, coaches and instructors out there trying to fix something that's not broken. A real limiting obstacle for clients looking for optimal mobility and strength.

4 Hour Body

2011-06-13T05:21:00.000-05:00

This is an old blog but I'll put it up. I was reminded of Ferris's blog about Faleev training method after reading Wendler's article and his 90% 5-3-1 training method. Both seem to have the similar idea. Check it out here:

4 Hour work week

Cross Training Choice

2011-05-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

I recently had a discussion with a young trainer and triathlete. We agreed on most things and clashed on some things. This is pretty common in a good discussion. I usually don’t like agreeing on everything. It makes for a very boring conversation and I learn more when hearing other theories and opinions. What we disagreed on was choosing proper cross training for sports. In her opinion cross training was more about lowering the impact on certain joints. I didn’t necessarily argue on this point, but her cross training choice for running was biking. This I had an issue with. In my opinion, biking does lower some knee and hip impact but the lower back and shoulders are worse off. I do agree that unloading is indeed part of cross training but not in this fashion. This is like telling someone “pick your poison...” and hope she chooses something that won’t kill her.

My definition of cross training is training that reduces the “pattern overload” of one sport or type of training. To do so the dominant plane of motion and muscle/joint motion pattern need to be modified. For the most part, the typical sport is highly “Sagital” (think – going forward or backward) in motion (with exception of “swing” sports) and the typical gym training is the same (pushup, situp, dip, squat etc.). Instead of just attempting to reduce impact on a few joints I want the training to force a complete 180 in contrast to the usual training or sport. An added benefit is a very possible instant lowering of intensity. Usually, this cross training is using muscles and joints in less dominant patterns than what the trainee is used to. In some cases the motions have to be learned at a much slower speed.

I deal with A LOT of long distance runners these days. The beginners and those trainees who think they know more but are still beginners, generally share the same problems from constant ground pounding. The “pattern overload” here is usually created from the energy saving sloppy running gait cycle adapted to complete a long race (anything more than 800 meters is long to me). To make it clear I am talking about a general group of BEGINNERS not to be confused with pros or those running enthusiasts who take the time to develop a proper running gait cycle. So, for the beginners who just start running without training usually they have low dorsiflexion of the ankles and make improper ground contact (especially the notorious heel strikers). In turn this causes the force bleed from the ankles and more impact than should be there. The feet are usually shuffling instead of actually running which increases the amount of ground contact, shortens the gait cycle and increases hard impact on joints(especially at calcaneus/talus, knees, hips and lumbar spine). Last point the upper body is in a constant lean, which keeps the hip flexors partially flexed (successfully keeping the glute muscles from really getting involved) and increasing tension in the lower back. There are numerous other areas as I go up the body but I’ll keep it short and cut it off here. If you want to hear more on good running posture you can check out my vid on it here.

Now these common beginner shortcomings are similar to that of a cyclist. Also, cycling and running share the same planes of motion (both Sagital), and the muscle/joint pattern is very similar. So how is this cross training? In my opinion biking and running as cross training is not a good match up. I believe it would be wiser to find exercises or a sport that changes the plane of motion and joint movement patterns to disrupt the threat of pattern overload and keep the trainee from getting the associated injuries and pains from the sport. So a runner who is in the Sagital plane of motion and keeps the hips flexors engaged, has low dorsiflexion and general joint problems from this bad posture I would place in a more Frontal (think side to side) and Transverse (think twisting) plane of motion. I would also include training that engages hip extensors and dorsi flexion more. Generally speaking a runner also wants to reduce impact when cross training. So I would incorporate swimming if possible (especially breast stroke, freestyle and “squid motion” floating on her back). Swimming is one of the best activities for unloading joints and dropping impact to zero. I would also add lateral and back lunging (possibly advance to one leg squat drills as well). When lunging is done correctly this should help greatly to build dorsiflexion actively stretch hip flexors, engage hip extensors (specifically when returning to a standing position). Integrate upper body rotation so the deep lateral rotators of the hip will be included.

That is how cross training should be viewed in order to reap its full benefits, in my opinion.

Don't Let Your Knees Go Over Your Feet When Squatting or Lunging!

2011-04-25T05:31:00.000-05:00

The ever-present golden rule to not allow your knees to go over your feet while squatting or lunging is absolutely WRONG!

It seems there is no escaping this silly and useless rule. In the position I am now I get to hear from many different people from many walks of life and nationalities. It seems this rule is carved in stone with the vast majority of Americans and Canadians, and a few of the Europeans (most are still not crippled by this rule). I put the blame on the American (including Australian and New Zealand influenced) fitness classes and the celebrity fitness professionals. The classes are beneficial for getting people motivated and moving but teaching improper techniques is a major drawback. I can not honestly state this happens in every single class but A LOT seem to have adopted this knee never over feet rule. Slowly but surely it is losing its American isolation and beginning to bleed into the international community. Since fitness class instructors and celebrity trainers can not possibly be wrong, this rule must be correct. If a person does squat or lunge while allowing her knees to go past "the foot barrier of no return", she might hurt her knees and possibly never be able to walk again.

This is a frustrating battle for fitness professionals who do have an understanding for anatomy, exercise kinesiology, therories of exercise science and biomechanics. Debunking a gym myth that is thought to be a really legit rule, is a pain in the ass. What I plan to do here is give anyone reading this (who is faithful to the knee foot rule) a little insight to why this rule is wrong. Take the info or leave it:

The length of your femur bone will dictate how far your knees while go over your feet.

The femur (thigh) bone comes in different sizes. The taller you are the longer the femur. People with long femurs will squat and lunge over their feet regardless. A shorter person can get away with squatting or lunging while keeping the knee behind the feet, but taller people will totally screw up the proper alignment to perform a squat. Instead, it will look as if the person is doing a hybrid of a good morning and a squat (in the eccentric half of the motion). With a barbell added to this form the lower back becomes very susceptible to bearing a lot of the weight and therefore at great risk for a well deserved injury. If anything this form can be modified a bit and be used as a decent deadlift starting position.

A basic partial squat in the "athletic world" is simply the preparatory position to a jump

Before a person jumps his body automatically drops into the squat position. Usually this is what we call a quarter or partial squat. The partial squat is a good starting point for learning to either squat deeper or to jump. Before a person jumps he does not shift his weight into the "heels" of his feet. If he does his jump will probably be very low. Instead the weight of his body naturally sets at the "center of gravity" point, which is in the middle of the foot between the heels and forefoot. The ankles will bend properly along with the hips. If you view this from the side his lower legs and torso will be running parallel.
In most properly progressed workouts a person will learn to squat and advance to a form of jumping squats. If you learn to squat into your heels like you are in a overpacked fitness class you will not have the proper motor skill to jump to your optimal abilities.

Only Powerflifters squat into their heels

There is a good reason for this. Powerlifters are simply looking to lift the maximal amount of weight per exercise. So, you can see the powerlifter will spread his legs out, turn his feet outwards, and sit far back as he lowers the weight. This is simply a play on physics. Put the body in a position where the weight does not really have to travel that far. More you spread your legs the lower the bar is and the less you have to bend your knees. Turn your feet out and the less need for ankle mobility to lower the weight. Sit far back and the less the lower body needs to flex and extend to move the weight. Unless you want to powerlift, probably best not to adopt this method.

It's not the knees that are holding a person back it is the issues stopping optimal ankle mobility

During a squat a person will have to bend optimally in three joints (hip, knees and ankles). The deeper the PROPER squat ... the more the ankle needs to (dorsi) flex.
Ankle mobility is very important for anyone who weight trains, and especially important for runners. For the proper muscles to fire off in the proper sequence during a squat you need to be able to flex at the ankles. If not your body will use another physics law "find the point of least resistance" to move the weight. Ankles will not take the flexion so the knees and lower back joints will take more stress than they are supposed to (length tension relationship).
A decent trainer will help you fix up low ankle mobility. When squatting into your heels the ankles do not flex a great deal and the issue of low ankle mobility will remain.

Qualify thyself

Seriously, we all know or knew how to squat and lunge. Squatting and lunging are primal movements that we gained at the point we learned to walk. The patterns developed as our bodies altered for the force of gravity (namely the spinal cord and feet). Then people begin to ride bikes, drive cars, sit on supersoft chairs and at desk. At this point the pattern probably begin to breakdown. Either we use this ability or we lose it.
So, it is good to understand if you loss the ability to properly squat and lunge or if you still got what it takes. If you lost it, it is best to learn it again and definitely deal with any joint problems that may come along while assessing your lunge or squat. Trouble spots to look for:

Do your heels invert (come together) and want to raise off of the floor when squatting deeply?
Do your knees shift away from your feet either inward or outward?
Is there any noticeable tilting or shifting of your body to the right or left as you squat?
etc. etc.

Hate to leave you hanging with these questions but If I go into depth on how to qualify yourself on squats and lunges this would be come a very lengthy blog. SO if you have questions for me just email me ty@fitnessenergysystem.com, leave a comment or ask in my forum

Hopefully that helps a bit.

Training Like Celebrity Super Hero

2010-09-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

I was really into comic books and now still like the idea of my teenage heroes making their debut on the screen. Seems like each movie has a few shots of the actor showing how heroic his body is. Movies like 300 the entire movie is based on ripped figures spilling blood.

There are lots of articles in magazines and on the web illustrating the diet and training needed to get the actors to super hero physique status. Pretty interesting to read some of them. Most articles will of course exaggerate the actual results. My favorite warped result is Ryan Reynolds losing 33% of his total body fat. It is actually a play on words to make it sound like he lost 33% body fat. In reality it was probably something like going from 14% BF to 11% BF. Still it is a success. Then I really like the genetically empowered celebrities out there, like Christian Bale and Brad Pitt. Writers giving "hardcore" articles of infamous Fight Club workout and Batman workout. This is where I visualize an magazine editor or website writer looking at a picture of these guys and just making up some crap that may or may not have been part of their regimen. A little research and a person can read about the actors eating and drinking more of what they pleased. Yet they still come out on the screen with very low body fat and cool phrases before they beat the living crap out of someone.

The truth is there still isn't a perfect workout or diet. However most of the times the workouts and diets of celebrity superheroes are more or less the same stuff:

Get Lean without losing muscle workout:

- Use the primary big lifts (bench, squat, dead, chin, and dips) and incorporate a few power dominant movements if you want. Screw with the tempo if you like too. Deadlifting was a highly used exercise for the 300 Spartan cast.
- Get your aerobics in. Seems most superstars like to run. Will Smith is said to run 5 miles a day, hope he has plenty of ice for those knees. Hugh Jackman was about intervals.
- Recovery is very important. Spiderman Toby did yoga stuff. Hugh Jackman is said to have done Tai Chi. I would imagine everyone slept at least eight hours or so.

The above goes the same for getting big. I have not read much of a difference in training. The main difference seems to be the play on volume and load. Even that wasn't really anything dramatic. Drop a few reps, add a set and 10-20lb of weight.

Dieting to get lean and ready for spandex suit:

- Seems the low carb and high protein way is popular.Ryan Reynolds when prepping for his DeadPool liked his CLA and consumed most carbs around training time.

- Before shooting, the actors seem to like the bodybuilder's gluceogenesis (protein only) and go carb crazy to get the reduction in water and vascular for a shot where the viewer needs to see veins and max definition.

Dieting for bulk:
- More carb allowance and a nice steady increase in total calories. Hugh Jackman supposedly ate 1,000 calories over his maintenance diet to become Weapon X.

So what can we take away from the training and dieting for superhero actors....well.....nothing new, I guess.

John Izzos blog about Trainers

2010-08-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

Quick read and pretty interesting the contrast in trainers. Used to see it on a daily basis:

Is Your Trainer Just a Fitness Model

Reached Max Raw Deadlift Goal

2010-08-05T09:47:00.000-05:00

Funny thing with my higher endurance lifestyle I was able to do more than just one lift. Lift went almost flawlessly. My hips were too high from the start, but everything else was fine. This is probably the final time I go for max dead lift without a belt and wrist wraps.

Right in time for my 35th birthday, 405lb deadlift:

The Tabata Myth | Blog | High Octane Corrective Exercise and Performance Enhancement at Robertson Training Systems

2010-06-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

The Tabata Myth | Blog | High Octane Corrective Exercise and Performance Enhancement at Robertson Training Systems

A real eye opener for fans of Tabata Method.

Maybe You Have to Do Less

2010-05-10T15:34:00.002-05:00

These days I get approached by people who have done long bouts of grueling training with a personal trainer, fit magazine or the popular fitness videos. I get asked if I heard of this guru or that fitness expert. Usually I have no clue who they are speaking of. Many times I agree with the ideas they express to me. Sometimes I shake my head and disagree with principles. Doesn't really matter. If it works for you, I can't argue with it (much). One painful thing I am noticing is the amount of exercises and TUT (time under tension) people are putting themselves through to get to their goal. There is an astonishing amount of stress (both physical and mental) and minimal amount of recovery many will attempt to go with. I have had people tell me about the amazing plyometric style workout they had followed by a 30 minute "core" (place lame ab title here) workout. This person is not an athlete or pursuing competitive driven goals. Instead he is a hard working individual with a job that demands long hours and little ability to eat. Sleeping is more of a burden for this guy as he needs to meet deadlines and keep his family financially secure while the rest of us sleep. Yet he still wants to train like a person who can get nine hours of sleep nightly and throw down 3000k/cal plus per day. This trend seems to be growing to me. Average Hard Working Joes and Janes wanting to train like competitive athletes.

Now before I go on, I am all for "over reaching" phases of training for those who have a few years of consecutive training under their belt, but definitely not for the Administrative Assistant for a Engineering company ran by Insomniacs. It is absolute suicide! I heard a great quote from Coach Dave Tate "train hard and recover even harder". The problem with most people I talk with, without the ability to recover properly from usually excessively high volume workouts, is they hit some major obstacles. The obstacles can come in the form of injuries, stress, and ill effects from training (the real bad one). This just brings the goal drive to a dead stop for most. Very demotivating and it takes a lot to get back up and strive forward. Not a good thing to be plagued by "bad knees", "bad shoulders", or "bad lower back" for years because you just had to attempt to destroy yourself every training session without the ability to rebuild and recover from it. Added bonus is to find body fat still close to the same level before the carnage begin. Why is this? The human body simply does not differentiate our daily lifestyle stress from the workout stress. Too much stress regardless of cause is likely to hinder a person from progressing in training and enhancing overall health. The body does need certain amount of stress to stimulate body compositional changes and behavior changes, but there is no need to go over board. Lowering the daily intake of stress and increasing the ability to recover will reap greater benefits for both short term goals (be realistic though) and long term health. Paul Chek calls this "enforcing the balance". It is easy to see this when we watch elite athletes. They may train hard but they eat like there is no tomorrow and sleep like hibernating bears. So recovery is very high for them (generally speaking) as a result they can give their all at competition time.

So maybe less is better for us mere mortals. At least until a lifetyle is obtained that recovery and training and living are balanced. To know if it is a good time to embark on a vicious training session, you should be able to answer hell yes to the following:

Do you get sleep 7+ hours a night?
Do you eat at enough food so the caloric input is above your RMR (resting metabolic rate) and get most of your calories from lean proteins, healthy fats and cruciferous vegetables (seriously you should be well above this)?
Are you able to use at least one form of active recovery daily (foam roll, massage, ice therapy, stretching etc.)?

If you can't do these simple things than you need to think about balancing your stress (lifestyle and workout) so that you are able to handle it. Since I doubt if quitting your job is an option, an easy way is to drop the total TUT time each training session. This holds true for those having more than three training sessions weekly. Don't simply try to lower intensity (think-weight). It is true higher the intensity the more demand is placed on the nervous system. In comparison, the higher and longer the sheer volume (think-total reps) of the training, the more the body goes into "flight" mode. This is where stress hormonal response raises, fat storage increases, and a sense of depression begins to show.

One more note, don't be afraid to drop the sessions when lifestyle stress becomes overbearing. One or two sessions a week with exercises that really count (squats, deads, lunges, cleans, pushups chinups and hybrids of these) will be fine until you can handle more. Trust me you may be surprised as you begin progressing in fat loss and strength gains while lowering the training stress.

Maintaining Low Body Fat

2010-05-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been 3 months since I dropped down below 13% and here I am still sitting at 12-13% (depending on the tides and last measurement was 12.4%). No magic to it. Just keeping it simple and staying active. Generally speaking, I follow the percentage idea that I ninja'd from John Berardi. I need to do the right things that I know work for me at least 60% of the time to keep the bodyfat low and performance (strength training perfomance for the dirty minded folks) at a higher level. I think that is the key when it comes to individual body composition. You have to know what works for you and what doesn't. We all have to start at some default point but over time you can really customize it for your body's kinetic abilities and genetics. More specifically some of us have outstanding athletic abilities and some not so much.Also, some of us have the genetics to feast and drink like sweet tooth kings all along the body burns the calories with a vengeance and others...not so much.

Just to make sure we are all on the same level with the "default" guidelines. I use John Berardi's easy to follow guidelines. I give him credit but I have seen these guidelines before in different books and articles, from different nutrition experts.

General Guideline:

High protein in all your meals. Guys generally want a gram or more per pound of lean body mass and women half that. Make sure the protein comes from good sources and take note I said LEAN MASS.
Carbs should mainly come from vegetation. Keep everything else to a minimal for fat loss (including healthier versions of rice and noodles). Also the vegetables will help keep your PH levels balance. SO load up.
Drink water or green tea and consider everything else a cheat or workout drink (besides coffee that would be blasphemy).
Carbs should be tapered off at night but make sure healthy fats keep coming. You want 30% of your calories coming from your fat.
Follow thes rules 90% of the time for folks just doing activities an hour a day. The more active you are the more you can get away with lowering this percentage. I train for a total of about 7-8 hours a week so I can get away with upping the junk calories on my hard workout days and drink a few pints of beer with good friends. On top of this I keep my non-training activities stable as much as possible. I do a half of a mile morning walk, active recovery drills, and generally keep in motion all day.

Some guidelines I choose to skip:

Eat 6 meals a day or every 3 hours your awake. I still do this because I need to get enough calories and protein in but if I can do it in 3 meals, so be it. I still have not found any solid evidence supporting the frequent meal idea and I can do it or I don't have to. I have yet to see any adverse effects from not doing this.
Eat carbs around workout time. I actually just do protein and caffeine before and after.If I do carbs at this time they are pretty low in the glycemic index.
Don't cash in all your cheats on the same day. Bah! I make sure I get adequate protein and vegetation in me but next thing that goes down the hatch is burger and fries, beer, and cookies (not necessarily in that order). When I cheat I don't screw around. HOWEVER, I always do additional aerobic activities the morning after.

Now I'm at the point where I know how to maintain 194lb at 12-13% BF. Well, that is just too friggin' small though. It will take time but I will need to put on at least 10lb of FFM (fat free mass). For me and my current lifestyle and environment, I can put a solid 12 pounds on in a year and a half. So 10lb will take a little less. If I don't mind the body fat raising by a few percentages I can do it in less time. BUT I DO MIND! So slower process is the way if I want to stay lean.

Squatting Below the Parallel is Bad for Your Knees

2010-04-27T17:04:00.001-05:00

I ninja'd the link for this great article at TonyGentilcore.com. Check it out here

New 3minute drill

2010-04-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

Just a heads up folks. I posted another quick drill (exercise) for replacing the conventional treadmills and elipticals at the gym. I am a big advocate of more intensity and motor recruitment over the usual high volume and high boredom aerobics. Try this drill for 3 minutes straight. Oh ya, before performing this you should know how to squat and lunge without any trouble.

Speed Skater ala -Ty

Taste of Cubicle-ville

2010-04-12T10:34:00.001-05:00

This weekend I was able to accomplish A LOT of work. I thought it was a necessary thing to do to catch up with things I have been procrastinating. Everything I needed to do revolved around my pc and desk. When it was all over I found myself looking at the time with "that's impossible" expression on my face. I just sat in front of this stupid computer for almost six hours. The only breaks were to relieve my coffee irritated bladder. Right away my stomach grumpled ready for a binging. When I stood up my legs felt like they were made of old wood and rusty hinges. My neck ached from being in the forward position all that time and my lower back made these two popping noises that foreshadowed the coming trouble.

It was too hypocritically funny. I usually tell my clients over and over again not to just sit in front of the computer for more than an hour. Here I was feeling the exact reason why. The great thing is I got a lot accomplished. The bad thing is this morning's ( which is the morning after) workout went from the idea of Olympic lifts to a warmup and a bunch of drills. I simply was not ready for a real workout after abusing my body with desk work all Sunday. DEFINITELY, never doing that again.

Oh ya, one good thing is I was able to prep the first of a video series I call 3 minute drill.

In a nutshell these will be aerobic based drills that are better alternatives to mind-numbing treadmills and elipticals. Not sure what happened to my other videos, they seem a bit distorted. I'll leave that to another day when I am ready to do desk work again and next time with frequent breaks for joint and mental health.

Asymmetry Circuit for Die Hards

2010-04-06T07:01:00.000-05:00

A while back I wrote about self-checking for asymmetries that will effect your joint health and progress. This is adding on to that method and idea. Gray Cook speaks about handling the asymmetries through assessment of movements. The movements for the most part are unilateral in nature. So instead of attempting to pinpoint exact muscles or groups of muscles a person should simply address the movement flaw. A real simple example is a frontal (lateral or sideways) lunge. Finding tension or lower ROM (range of motion) with the left or the right side means, a person would do more volume (either sets or reps) on the lacking side. Quite simple and easy to apply to any unilateral exercise. A more complicated example would be the Turkish Get-Up. A person would not only increase the volume on the flawed side, but would also cut the volume on the opposite side and ONLY train up to the point where the exercise form is correct. Now this is a bit humbling. If a trainee can't even get off the floor properly than this is the stage he will stay at until he can.

I think this is the best way to go for those not wishing to research into kinematics and anatomy. Now, I have been approached with a few questions from "die hard" older long distance athletes. They may have asymmetries and nagging injuries but they are not willing to stop their plyometric training to fix the issue. They usually approach me and ask for a one stop solution. More specifically they ask will yoga or pilates work for the injury. As I right this my blood pressure raises in the idea of magical solutions through cookie cut classes. I usually sigh and just tell them it may help (God help them). A great coach put it like this. Saying there is a simple cookie-cut solution is like saying a person can write a bunch letters on paper and call it a dictionary ( SO TRUE).

Well, for the hard-nosed athletes and enthusiasts I would advise you to do your asymmetry training consistently either in smaller chunks before your actual training, or in a full session on days you are not training. Consider it prehab to prevent rehab. Like I wrote before this session time is for you to really analyze the form you are using and the response from your body when stimulated to be mobile. It is a must to at least jot down quick notes on what you sense and which movement and body side is having trouble.

You can check out an example of my own asymmetry circuit here.

Proper Ab Training

2010-03-25T06:42:00.001-05:00

I usually check around for good info on proper training and nutrition tactics. I found this on Mike Stare's blog. He defines and illustrates some proper techniques for training the abs. My only crit of this is CHINUPS!!!! C'mon man where are the chinups.

http://beverlyfitnessblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/proper-ab-exercises.html

Yoga Versus Exercise

2010-03-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

Shamefully this is what the people I meet on a daily basis see. Yoga is the feel good stuff and exercising is for people who want to look like bodybuilders. May seem funny to some but this is seriously the feedback I get from lots of people from all over the world and all walks of life.

Even worse are the studies that place yoga against "conventional exercises" for hypertension and overall health improvements in the elderly. I simply can not believe people who study the science of exercise can not see the big picture here. They literally are in the middle of trees but can't see the friggin' forest.

There is not a difference between yoga and exercise. Yoga is a specific and generally dynamic form of exercise. Yoga is not just stretching and breathing. That is like saying gymnastics is just swinging and jumping. Gray Cook once brought up a good point about complex movement patterns creating an environment where the body stabilizes, balances, stretches, and contracts all during one exercise. Yoga is quite similar to this. I personally do not call myself a raving fan of yoga, but I know that yoga is just another form of exercise or movement patterns we should not attempt to segregate from other forms of exercise.

Deadlift PR

2010-03-05T09:43:00.001-05:00

Well, this Wednesday I went for 405lb raw deadlift. I didn't get it. Gave myself five attempts, but no cigar. Really major upset while I was at the gym, but when I was able to clear some of the fury and riot-creating music induced from my mp3, I found I still came through with a new PR for raw deadlifting. A month ago I was sitting stale at 370lb raw and now I am at 385lb raw. Not only that I have a new "hook grip" PR. I went from a mere 315lb to 345lb. Not bad at all but definitely not where I want to be. I still have 405lb in my goals. However, I am just going to say I have to hit this number before my 35th birthday in August.

It's a good time now to go into a power dominant cycle of training. Mainly dealing with "explosive" relative strength qualities (think maximal effort without the use of weights). I agree with Tudor Bompa in that moving from max strength training to power conversion types of training is a very good method to convert max strength into power. I remember hearing a quote form some movie that has stuck with me:

"Having power is one thing...being able to use that power is quite another."

My Six Weeks Body Comp Results

2010-02-28T17:15:00.001-05:00

The next two weeks I will be hard pushed to update my blog. Getting ready to do some traveling and making sure "loose ends are tied" before I leave. At this point I am closing in on a solid 12% BF. I probably could push for 11% but the cost would be lowering body weight even further. Not feeling right in skinny mode and I do not want it enough right now. I do know from getting to this 12% area again I do not have the genetics for a cool Bruce Lee or Usain Bolt 6 pack. I would need to be at single digit body fat to see something close to that. So here are my six weeks results for body composition. Going to try to record the 405 raw deadlift. Hopefully that will be up on Wednesday or Thursday.

(click image for better view)

Great Commercial for No Excuses

2010-02-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

One of the best messages that I have seen about fitness and training. I think try to view it anytime I feel like I'm not going to hit the gym.

Past the Halfway Point

2010-02-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm about halfway to the deadline to achieve as many of my personal fitness goals as possible. Right now I'm hitting some setbacks that have me rethinking what I really want and exactly how much I want it. Keeping it simple I have two goals that I want to achieve at this point.

1. I want to deadlift 405lb raw (meaning no straps and belts)
2. I want to drop to 11% body fat

As far as deadlifting is concerned I still want to build up and go for it on the last week of training. Right now I'm sitting a bit stale at 370lb. I find that the spine can only take so much compression before a person needs to let it decompress and get away from big bilateral movements such as deadlifts. Not to mention I need more mobility work in the hips and ankles to keep progressing. I am addressing this issue by cutting the total TUT (time under tension) instead of dropping bilateral movements out of my program. So far it seems to be working fine. Also every other day I do a circuit without external weight. In this circuit I am pushing to increase mobility in certain joints and stability in others (like knees).With this change comes a change in the dominant energy system training. Where I was very alactic and lactic a few weeks ago, I am now really high lactic and aerobic. The side effect of the change in energy system dominance is a quick drop in bodyweight.

Dropping bodyweight bring me to the real issue with the second goal (11% body fat). I started the program at 205lb and I am now on my way to 195lb (approx 198-196 currently). I REALLY do not like the small look on me. I am also 1 - 2% away from the 11%. I give it this leeway because at this low level of bodyfat it really becomes "touch and go" situation. If I lower my activities too much I gain fat. Also if I stray away from the diet too much I gain fat. I seem to fluctuate between 13.3% to 12.3% weekly. The weight however continues to dip. I feel better near 215-220lb. So, reluctantly, I will stop focusing on this portion of my goals. I will still keep it clean for the most part and keep activities going but this goal is changing to a low bodyfat percentage I can maintain while getting back into "big boy" shape.

So that's where I am at. Pics of the body change will definitely be posted and hopefully video footage of the deadlift at 405lb.

Now things that I learned so far that hopefully can help you with your goals as well:
- I get ample water without adding extra bottles of water as long as I keep the salad intake up. I'm sure other foods have good water in them as well. So I do not need to actually drink 6-8 liters this way.

- Bodyfat reduction responds best to good old fashion aerobic training and reduction in carbs. I hate it but it is a must. I find separating aerobics from strength training is best and doing it 5-6 times a week keeps me in lean condition without emphasis on reducing calories.

- I definitely need to stay away from starchy carbs. They just ruin the day for me. I learned to accept this very expensive 72% pure dark chocolate as my cheat instead. I can nearly eat the stuff daily. It is too expensive for me to do that though.

- Alcohol is best served clear and hard. Every once in a while I will drink beer but Vodka on the rocks is my choice. No fruit juice or soda added.

- Protein shakes and green supplements are a lifesaver. With a regular work day I will get two solid meals in me if I am lucky. The great bonus of this is the ability to just drink the low carb calories down. No debating just drink it. It keeps me on track when I am looking for a extra large pizza.

- Recovery is always important. My body was not responding well to the first week of increased aerobics until I really started doing active recovery work. In my case lots of "foam rolling" and icing. Not surprisingly much of the strength training is very much active recovery. The calories are a bit lower than I want (hence the loss of weight) and when I increase them I know my body will begin recovering faster again.

Halfway there.

Nutrition for Last 8 Weeks

2010-01-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

Alright for this final stretch here I'm going to need to sharpen my nutrition intake a bit. Loads of partying over the holidays has placed me at approx 13.5 - 14.5% BF. I was at 12% but no longer. Now I want 11%. I'm going to just follow this hybrid guideline. Some of it is my experience. Some of it is from other coaches. Some is just experimental.

Keep my nutrition logged at least every other day on Fit Day. If I end up eating the same stuff day in and day out even less logging is necessary. You can see my log here
Keep to the basic guidelines 90% of the time and 100% for the first week. I agree with bodybuilding types who state the less you have the cheat the less you think about it. Therefore the less you will be inclined to rip open a box of chocolate chip cookies.
High protein diet. The only way to go. I'll start at 1 - 1.5 g per body lb. I may end up at 2g by the end.
All carbs minimized. I just want vegetables for carbs. Fruit is fine around workouts. Everything else is a cheat even the brown organic high antioxidant low H1N1 pasta or rice stuff.
Cheats can't be anymore than the low calories of a normal snack meal. So no more than 200-300 k/cal per cheat. No back to back cheats.
Increase water to about 6-8 liters daily. I'm around 5 liters now.
Vegetation until I turn green. Just load it up. Right now I'm using a green supplement hopefully that will change.

As far as calories go, I calculate I will need at least 2100 k/cal to keep basic bodily functions functioning and shouldn't go above 3300 k/cal. Since I need to sustain as much muscle as possible, I'm going to drop the max calories to about 10% less and stay there (3000).

Shouldn't take too long.

8 Weeks Left

2010-01-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

I have about 8 -10 weeks left in my year periodization for training. My goals were pretty simple.

- Drop to 12% BF - I did and found out I can really maintain a low bodyfat when I focus more high levels of activity and recovery. Also found out when I just make sure I'm eating decent for my goals I don't need to count the calories or get crazy with macronutrient percentages. I'm sure that this would help, but I am definitely not a bodybuilder type, so I don't measure and calculate....just chew.

- Increase Max Strength - I did BUT I found if I go too far I end up losing too much. I lost a lot of strength with my deadlift and now I'm looking to get it back.

- Maintain a more alactic/lactic dominant energy system - Failed at this one. My environment demands my energy system be dominated by lactic/aerobic. No biggie.

- Increase power potential - A very deceiving trait. I did in some areas but lost it in others. I think I gained the potential but actually being able to use it.... that is quite another issue in itself.

Now I am wrapping up this training design. I am going to work my way up to a point of "over-reach" training. Over-reach phases are tricky. You really need to be aware of all your problems before starting. However, when you start it all these problems must be pushed to the back corner of your mind and you drive forward into the over-reach training program with a "fuck it...I can't be stopped" type of attitude.

For me I will do this for 1 week of training. The final week. My year ending goals are a higher standard so I have to rise to the challenge.

1. Drop to 11% BF
2. Deadlift 405lb "raw"

I try to get video of the training sessions in the final week.

My Decade Top 17 List of Fitness Stuff that Works

2010-01-07T09:57:00.009-05:00

Really I should say things that work for myself and my clients. I just put together a list of what I have learned in my many years as a trainer. I either learned these things by being successful or something failed miserably. All I know is this stuff works for me so far and it has been close to a decade now since I really have been full time training. So here is my list from my success and mistakes with fitness:

In no particular order

1. If you're going to a training program or diet do it all the way. We definitely cling to what persuades us the most regardless if the idea or method is right or wrong. Add a celebrity to a training system or diet and suddenly it is the holy gospel. Whatever fitness idea persuades you make sure you REALLY do it by following the protocols and lasting through the duration of it. Then you can judge from there. Most systems work at least partially.

2. Sleep is essential for dropping fat and maintaining overall health. More sleep before the strike of midnight the better, Cinderella.

3. High protein diets with low carbs still are the best diets for fat loss and maintenance of muscle. The closer you stay to just protein source and vegetables the better. Make sure to really load up on the vegetation.

4. 6 packs are genetics, diet, and cardio. Generally a person needs to be at or below 11% body fat to be this ripped. You can do an infinite number of crunches on a nice baby blue swiss ball and never see the six pack if your fat percentage is too high. Even this is not a guarantee if your genetics are not quite up to par for having a sixpack.

5. The better your support group is the more successful you will be at most challenges. Hang out with people opposing your goals or success and you will most likely fall short. So ditch the loser friends (kidding...slightly).

6. Doing any exercise past the point of exhaustion will generally push the body to hypertrophy (build muscle mass). Whether you use lots of weight with low reps or baby weight with super high reps, they body will adapt by developing more mass. Big muscular thighs can come from heavy barbell squats or come from spin class.

7. As we age we lose the ability to move fast, jump, and upkeep basic functional ROM (range of motion). So train with speed in mind and maximal strength for the reps you use to hold these effects at bay. That means leave the fluorescent dumbbells alone.

8. When training Olympic lifts have the patience and wisdom to train the body up to par before going for it (progress). Nothing worse than a crappy CF style clean and jerk.

9. A person will burn more calories exercising in either the standing or plank position (pushup position). So when going for fat loss use these body positions A LOT.

10. Drinking a protein shake or eating a handful of nuts will help to curve the appetite before going out to eat or grocery shopping. So you don't feel crushed by not ordering the the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sundae and a slice of mocha cheesecake. Oh, I've been there.

11. Marathon wannabes and long distance joggers should look at the posture of the elite class long distance runners and attempt to mimic while out running so you don't "plod around and end up getting a bonehead injury".

12. Never miss a workout because you are pushing for time. Do something in the timeframe you have. Something is most definitely better than nothing and that is what my downloadable program Firestarter is all about. No more excuses. Just friggin' do it!

13. The first three weeks of being consistent will be your hardest. If you make it past that you will continue to push.

14. People who hire a trainer or keep a journal of their training and body composition are generally more consistent than most and will more likely succeed.

15. Read one article a day from different fitness and medical sources and you will be smarter than most bonehead personal trainers in this overcrowded industry.

16. Do not attempt to train body parts like a bodybuilder (unless you are a bodybuilder). Best way is to train the movements (i.e. push, pull, full body push (think squats) and full body pulls (think deadlift)).

17. "Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind". Motion is what the body is created for and it creates emotion. Meaning you have to get started to be successful and be motivated. Don't spend too much time B.S.ing around with over-planning and buying supplements and cool tight shirts. Start moving and you will learn along the way. Success is contagious and motivating. So do it and move always forward!

Crappy Workout

2009-12-17T05:49:00.006-05:00

Had a pretty crappy workout this morning. I take it my body is telling me there may be CNS fatigue occuring. Didn't hit the numbers I wanted and I am a believer of the Theory of Diminished Returns, meaning I attempt to continue as my numbers drop I will begin to regress in strength and recovery. You can check out the numbers here

So I'll take a long weekend off from training. Raise protein intake, sleeping hours and do active and dynamic drilling to keep the ROM up to par. Hit it hard Monday.

New Twist on My Fitness Assessment

2009-12-07T09:44:00.010-05:00

For years now I have separated kinetic and strength assessments with actual training. I had a good reason for doing so. I have always felt that basic assessments needed to be done when the body is rested and the mind is focused only on the task at hand. Of course there are reasons out there why a coach would want to assess his client while not fully recovered or focused (especially for high endurance athletes). Up until this year I have felt assessments need to be kept separate from the stress brought on by training.

This year I have been assessing while hitting clients with hard training. Actually, there is microphase separation in the training. Corrective exercise and reassessment sessions on opposite days of "goal" training sessions. What I have found or verified for myself is that asymmetries throughout the kinetic chain are easier to detect/fix and easier for the client to sense and understand when the client hits a point of slight to mid level discomfort. What I mean by this, is at the point the breathing and heart rate hit a high level and the muscles are beginning to feel pain of lactic acid build up, the client has hit a point of slight to mid range discomfort. I arrange certain basic test within an AA (Anatomical Adaptation)and corrective exercise session. I find the different training days is a big help to keep the sessions motivating, and really justify to myself and to the client why we choose certain exercises.

I do this type of session only a few times a week for clients who are beyond the beginning stages of training. Clients who are not beginners and trying to pack mass and strength, drop fat, and/or perform better in a sport need more sessions to handle these goals without the kinetic assessing/re-assessing. This especially goes for training near maximal load or power output. A client will need to keep "readied" for handling the trauma of this training and the assessments will most likely show negative progression as muscles tighten and bones get compressed during these high intensity sessions. Again, that motivation factor is kept high if I don't bore the hell out of them with corrective exercise drills for their given asymmetries, everyday.

The assessment is given the time it deserves and improvement or lack of improvement can be noted weekly along with progression towards personal goals. Also, the training goes uninterrupted by corrective drilling. So far, this type of assessing/re-assessing, corrective training, and goal training takes up to 12 weeks to run its course. Around the third to fourth week I can really see what the client can do. One primary reason is this is the point the motor patterns are corrected, which eliminates false plateaus or positive signs for kinetic issues. The way I can tell if this phase has worked is there is less of asymmetrical training within the program by the final weeks. If you're a little confused let me show an example:

Say I have a client with a ROM (range of motion) problem with her right shoulder. The left shoulder does the movement just fine. It would not be optimal to attempt to train both the shoulders equally since one has less ROM than the other. So, the exercises I choose to develop better ROM in her shoulders, she will do by performing more sets on the right shoulder (usually two more sets at first), which needs most of the focus. As the training continues, the asymmetrical training should become more symmetrical (meaning the right shoulder is becoming even with the left shoulder in ROM and the sets are equal on both shoulders). This progression can also be justified by the "goal" training days. Hopefully the exercises where shoulder mobility is necessary show improvement. Once a re-assessment shows ROM is equal in both shoulders the hybrid phase for that particular assessment is done.

Currently, I am doing this on myself and you can see what I mean by following my journal on FES forum.

Giving Away the House!

2009-10-19T04:46:00.013-05:00

Hey guys and gals. I need your help with something. I have created two training programs that work "like a charm" but I want more feedback on them. So if you could:

1. Go to my forum HERE
2. Register yourself for access. Chill-ax, your info is safe. I have no intentions of spamming you and it is required so you can give me feedback on the training.
3. Download either Hydra Training System or Firestarter.
4. Start the program and keep me informed on how well or how not so well it is working for you.

I created the Hydra Training System two and a half years ago. It was created for those looking for serious amounts of strength endurance. The side effects are the usual:
- fat loss
- increase in strength
- decrease chatting on the cellphone while at the gym

This program was first tested on myself,a few of my athletes, who were in need of higher threshold of endurance and the mental strength to push through the "burn"; and a few clients with morbid ideas of training. We all gained kick ass results from the testing phase and when I put the program out to the public.... generally folks loved it. The program is named Hydra Training System because ..... because its a cool name. It is very much a straight forward "linear" type of training model. Time tested and ready for use.

HYDRA TRAINING SYSTEM

The second one named Firestarter was created to eliminate excuses of why a person can not train. The excuses typically revolve around time and disliking gym environments. I first tested this out with an online gaming community. Very mixed reviews for those who commented on the training. So, I worked out the kinks and created the improved version that solved all the problems. Many people still use this system because it does not get any easier and you do get decent results. No excuse training if you are interested.

FIRE STARTER

There you have it my two training systems ready for you. Give one of them a shot and let me know how it works for you.

Mucho Gracias in advance

Fried the Back of My Legs

2009-10-03T12:27:00.004-05:00

Last Monday I tinkered around with the notion of using a T-Bar to work the entire back through to the hamstrings. Personally, I'm really not so keen on the t-bar or any constraining piece of equipment. However I decided to throw the exercise in to my Monday routine. The result was my legs and side area of my hips (gluteus medius and minimus most likely) were totally obliterated. It did not take long for the effects to be felt. The next day I was a guy who walked around like C3PO and cringed at the idea of sitting down. The only problem is today is fucking Saturday and I am just healing up enough to get back into a decent routine!

I am quite happy I performed this hybrid exercise on the T-Bar, but quite upset that it diminished my legs to wobbly weak god-fearing limbs. I don't think I would try it again quite yet, but I will sometime when I am ready to put my legs back to the test.

In case you wanted to try it here it is:

Ty-Bar Hybrid

1. Load up a T-Bar with 80% of your guesstimated max.
2. Straddle the t-bar and lift it. MAKE SURE YOU ARE ABLE TO KEEP YOUR LOW BACK ARCHED. If not don't do it.
3. Your feet should be in a dorsiflexion position (toes are facing up and heels down - think opposite of being on the balls of your feet). You may need to grab a few small plates or a small board to place your toes on if the t-bar does not allow for dorsiflexion. Knees should be slightly bent.
4. Keep the body very tight and "white knuckle" the grip. This point you should be standing tall with your "war face" on.
5. Hinge your upper body downwards through your hips. Do not allow any movement except the hips hinging.
6. Using your arms and concentrating on squeezing the shoulder blades together, bring the weight up towards your chest.
7. Now bend the knees more and hinge the hips back as far as possible. Hold for 1-2 seconds.
8. Straighten your arms and return to the standing position.
9. Repeat the sequence and get ready for a shock to the hammies.

Michelle Obama's Arms

2009-09-08T07:37:00.009-05:00

First off, I must say I am happy to see arms with muscle mass considered stylish and goal setting for women. It wasn't to long ago that many women were pursuing skinny Paris Hilton or Angelina Jolie starved down arms. I remember a few potential clients coming up to me asking about Halle Berry scrawny arms. I gave them the best way to get that. Starve yourself by day and go for the Celebrity Champagne-Cocaine diet by night and you should be headed in the right direction. Needless to say none of them signed up for my training.

Getting back to Ms. Obama. I was very happy today while watching the Today show and seeing a segment on her great arms. It was very good to hear that women want... well... muscle mass on their arms. So I stopped what I was doing and watched the segment of what her personal trainer is doing with her. Well my friends, my gleeful smile soon changed to a stoneface grimace. What I saw was a trainer (I think) telling the viewers of Today show Ms. Obama picks up cute little paper weights and curls one way and then another. Then she goes to the cable machine and does tricep extensions one way and reverse the hand grip to really isolate, stimulate, antioxidate the triceps. Teeth clenched I walked away from the tv and sat down to vent in my blog. I'm not going to go off on the toning and sculpting muscle comes from superlight flourescent weights is absolute bullshit. Nope not gonna do it. I am just going to state how I believe a woman would get a physique like Michelle Obama (deep breath). Keep in mind this is my humble opinion after training a few female clients here and there to get the "Oh My God I am Fucking Hot!" results.

Michelle training by Ty:

- First off our dear First Lady has pretty good posture. You need this to look good. No one likes a defeated looking posture of the insecure. Flaunt your health lady! Good posture will help keep up what we "health and science book readers" call the kinetic chain. Before you can have proper functional movement you MUST have proper posture. A HUUUGGEE bonus is good posture keeps the "core" (starting to really hate that word) active and strong. I constantly cue proper strong posture checkpoints so much that, we changed all the music in my training studio to just my voice saying the following again and again:

" All work and no play make Jack a dull boy"

Just kidding, really these are my cues:

" Keep your head back with chin slightly tucked..."
" Keep shoulders back and down as if you are squeezing your shoulder blades together..."
" If you are unsure if your "core" is strong and ready, simply cough...feel that mid torso contraction?....now replicate that tight feeling in the core and breathe normally with it held like that (Ninja'd from Stuart McGill).

- For the main event, the arms are quickly trained up in comparison to the rest of the body. By default you can check out your arms to see how much the body is changing. If you have flabby waving good bye amplifiers attached to your triceps, then you probably have the same deal with the whole body. It is because of this isolating exercises such as a curl and tricep extensions are kept to a minimum. We want more caloric burning and metabolic driving points per exercise. We want as much muscle going to work in a single exercise as we can get. So go for the gusto. Let's get primal baby! Pushups, dips and chinups. If you can't do the exercises, not a problem. These primal monsters are easily regressed:
1. Pushup becomes a plank (not the sissy plank on your forearms...a real plank on your hands). There are plenty of ways to progress from a plank to pushup. The easiest being placing a cushion under you and slowly lowering your body onto it. Get up however you want. Oh ya, don't even think about those sissy-chicken-baby pushups on your begging knees.
2. Dips become dips off of chairs or any elevated surface. If that is still to hard bend your knees until it is manageable.
3. Unmerciful chinups become squirmy kicking chickens as you convulse to pull yourself up. Please don't really do that instead you will get yourself to the top position and hold yourself there. Better yet, lower yourself down slowly. It is absolutely amazing how quickly the body adapts and you will be able to knock out serious chinups. Oh ya, if you really have to you can use the assisted lame chinup machine ( I really hate those things).

The quoted trainer's recommendation was some generic crap like three sets of fifteen. My recommendation to really get you there is the following:

- If you are a newbie in the battle to look good naked, then simply do one set to form failure per exercise. Take as much rest as you need and hit the next exercise. That's it....just one set. When I say form failure, I mean you can no longer properly do the exercise. Now write your results down and because I like kidding around a lot I lied about one set.. so do another set to form failure with attempts to beat your last score and lower your rest breaks and that is one session your done.

- If you have been in the trenches of training for a while and can handle this, go for a circuit. Rest breaks are active so do active stuff in between (jumping jacks, jumprope, squat thrust etc). Complete one circuit take a minute or two and do it again. Keep going in circuits until you no longer can pop out a decent amount of reps per exercise. Mop up all your sweat and your done.

Just to reiterate I am very happy about the movement for more healthy and muscular arms for women. Hopefully my advise helps. If you need additional help or have crits/comments go to my forum and let me know. If you don't trust me because I am a guy, here are some women who can get you going in the right direction:

Cassandra Forsythe

Rachel Cosgrove

Goodluck and train hard

The Verdict for My Trail Running Trainers

2009-09-02T12:16:00.010-05:00

A few weeks back I did a quick post about coming off of some deserved Vay-Kay and purchasing new trail-running shoes from Under Armour. I paid a decent price for these suckas' so they better work.

Well a few weeks later I am fully sold that these shoes are not just to style at a "state of the art" gym while running on a treadmill next to scantily clad fitness model.

( I don't knock the idea...but still)

No sir (or ma'am) this be "the real deal". I took these trainers out on a few uphill mid speed sprints to check comfort and gripping. If you want you can check out my training on my forum. You may even want to keep an online journal there as well. First thing I noticed was the good grip of the heel to midfoot portion. When my foot hit the ground it was..STABLE... I could easily put good amount of force into my stride without fearing a miss step (which can easily become an annoying twisted ankle). The only fallback is the bulky shoes has some weight to them. Even though I easily adjusted, the sturdy neutral positioned sole and heel cushion came with the price of added weight.

Another point here, I ran with these shoes on a one mile trail tempo run. The terrain was pretty rough. Once again no problems I must say and at that point I was very used to the added weight. I even tested out the gripping after a nice "downpour". I found myself a muddy uphill track and took off in sprint intervals. My friends I did not feel one slip.

So the shoe checks out and has the Ty Ferrell stamp of approval.

(HEREBY APPROVED BY TY FERRELL)

So there are Myths About Exercise...

2009-08-20T09:58:00.009-05:00

I just finished reading an interesting article in Time magazine. It was titled "The Myth About Exercise" (by John Cloud). The highlighted point was vigorous exercise does not always deplete weight. In fact, it contributes to adding weight. I did appreciate the good use of references to back up the authors certain points. From what I read, the article just proves people in general need to be more active.

Even though it is quite tough to stay unbiased when reading, I did my best to bite my lip and show the good points and flawed points of this article. To make this easier to read, I'll just list them with the authors points and mine.

1. Vigorous workouts can create a strong appetite after completion. A person is more likely to eat junk food (author mentioned examples of french fries and muffins) and have a higher caloric intake than expenditure.

I agree the appetite is usually increased. This goes along with the increase in metabolic rate, which is a really good thing. There is definitely a certain discipline needed after training to eat properly, but not much. I find most people will want to do the right thing after training.Also most fitness professionals know that the nutrition factor makes up 70% or more of the weight loss challenge for most non-athlete trainees. With proper nutrition protocols placed around training times this should not be a problem (at least not directly after training). From my experience those who eat diets higher in protein and fiber are able to satiate the need for grabbing crappola on a stick. Also, if a person is going to cheat then cheat after training. The body is more forgiving on sugar addiction around this window of time. The problem comes in when a person simply does a form of aerobics (such as jogging) that his or her body has already adapted to and then attempts to indulge. Not to bash on simplistic aerobics too much, but alone, aerobics has a very limited influence on the potential EPOC (excess-post exercise-oxygen-consumption). Point being the metabolism is really stimulated while doing the aerobic activity and not after.I definitely agree on the notion of being more active means having a higher temporary metabolism and subsequently appetite.

2. A person not going to a gym can lose close to the same amount of weight as someone in the gym for up to 194 minutes a week.
This was a heavily flawed point. The studies referenced by the author were to vague to understand the training protocols the study group was exposed to. Also there is no information about the nutrition or lifestyles the study group had. Another flaw here is not knowing the body compositions of the group starting and finishing. Other than the flaws I would agree results will be all over the place for any average person for weight loss. The problem is a person depending on a gym training session as the magical answer to weight loss. That is simply absurd but it is the warped perception of some. The author, like others, sees the gym as a replacement for loss of activities in life. This is partially correct, but we still have primal bodily systems and the demands outweigh the desires. Doing crunches in the gym and running for thirty minutes to an hour is a small demand placed upon the body in comparison to what a person will do with the other twenty-three hours a day.

3. Self control diminishes as used. People can not stay in control.
You know I think I heard this exact argument in a serial killers defense case. Discipline is a huge part of getting to a weight loss goal. Motivation is the next factor that needs to be stronger than deterrents. This goes along with the idea if you want "change" you need to "change" your lifestyle. People set themselves up for failure when they look to lose weight, but still want to party like it's 1999 every weekend or cook up big pasta dishes every night. There is a point of diminishing self control and motivation. When I worked in a commercial gym we used to take bets on what new member will fall victim to the "3 week this shit don't work" syndrome. Very evil but true. Change has to be embraced and a person has to be ready to do what it takes. If not it is inevitable the person will fail and I will win another ten bucks.

4. Total activities are more important than the gym to lose weight.
NO SHIT! Now we are getting somewhere! I do agree. We are not the active mobile hunting survivors we once were. We are rush hour driving, computer typing, bad back griping, pill popping evolved humans. The body is still pretty primal. As stated before, it comes down to the demand placed upon the body. If we place demand to sit alot and browse the internet, well we get big ole' booties and sessions at the chiropractors office for kyphotic posture. If we take the time to stand up, walk around, hold good posture and enjoy whatever activities we want (biking, weightlifitng, kayaking etc.) ... 'Lo and Behold our body's begin to adapt to the imposed demand we put on them and we can actually look into a mirror after a shower and smile at the awesome active specimen staring back at us.

Wrapping this up, I can see the frustration this author feels from getting suckered into a 30 minute "ab attack" special deal from his gym. I can see the overwelhming frustration in many people who want to be picture perfect in "6 weeks or less", who think jogging around the block at tortoise speed and then buying organic and junk food from Whole Foods will make them Angelina Jolie thin, or who hire a trainer to handle the weight loss burden but refuse to change his or her lifestyle. This frustration has inspired articles like this Time magazine one. Here is my final point:

- There are no magic pills or perfect answers for weight loss. To lose weight make sure all factors are good to go (training, nutrition, recovery and being active).

- Body transformations can take sometime. As Berardi puts it 6 week goal is more like 52 week goal. There needs to be enough demand for weight loss and these things take time (short of liposuction).

- Consistency, frequency, motivation, and a decent life balance will reap greater rewards than mind numbing treadmill jogs and chocolate cookie dough ice cream with dark chocolate "super-antioxidant" sprinkles. Frustration is what it is. Frustration over genetics, fitness programs, and foods. We all get it at some point. If it were easy every guy would have a body like Terrell Owens and every gal one like Jessica Biel.

Back Off Break to Go Right Back On

2009-08-11T12:14:00.003-05:00

So I went on vacation for a few weeks. Spent my time enjoying great food and drinking different ales. While I was away, I made sure to do some activity. I put together all in one dynamic warmup exercises, I did a bunch of pushups and luckily my folks own a crosstrainer cable machine, so I took full advantage of that (not to sound like I am that disciplined... because I am not). My daily caloric intake blew away my daily activity. As one coach put it, " I was doing a 5 mile workout and taking in 10 miles worth of calories". I did enough to keep the mobility up to par. I was hoping to get back to the island and hit the gym hard. Repent for my disturbing fetish with food. Well, that did not happen. I even bought some snazzy new Under Armour shoes to tackle hardcore trail running.

Here is a look at these things. I'll keep you posted on how well they handle the trails:

My reason for not going all out just yet... I really need a break from training. At least in the gym. I sense my body is not ready to kick arse on the barbells and my mind is focused on too many other things. Now usually I would raise the bullshit flag on anyone else who came up with this, but this is one of those moments when I have scratched a bit deeper into the confusing and thick surface of exercise science. I need a week before slamming the weights around to recover and (excuse the wacky voodoo talk) unify and balance mind, body and CNS - central nervous system (or spirit). So this is now my plan and hopes. I will not lift weights yet. I will continue to train outdoors and do active patterns of mobility drills such as those used in yoga and pilates. I'll give it a week or possibly longer. I am sure the results will be far greater than the short loss of gym time. Will have to see though.

Bench Press is Back to a Decent Poundage

2009-06-25T13:03:00.003-05:00

Many moons ago I forsaken ed the barbell bench press. I no longer required its benefits and I despise the consequences. A little over four years ago I peaked my bench press around 335lb. Nothing glorious about the amount but for me, a guy with long spider arms, it was a PR breaker. The only downside was the annoying injuries that came with it. No injury was serious but it did force me to abruptly discontinue benching.

My stats for this peak weight:
6'3"
215lb
15% BF

Well, today I just put up 315lb again without any problems. I probably could have repped with the weight if I didn't burn myself out with multiple sets of lighter weights. It felt great and I am back in business. Just 3-4 months ago I was actually struggling with 225lb. I'm not at 335lb but I really don't care, I'm close enough.

My current stats:
almost 6'3" (spinal injury...lost some height)
203lb
13.5% BF

Now, how I got to this point involved a lot of factors. Just to name the primary factor, I do pushups with different hand positions on a daily basis. I average around 60 pushups daily. The pushup is arguably on of the best upper body exercises ever. So I put this primary exercise to work for me. You can check out the loads of pushups I have done and my training to this point on my forum

I have now revisited the bench and will add it by to my devilish exercise toolbox. I have no goal with it anymore, perhaps to be able to rep 315lb like I rep 225lb.

Uphill Trail Running

2009-06-11T12:24:00.007-05:00

I have discovered a new hobby for myself. The funny thing is I actually should hate it. Now, when I say "hate it", I mean should really FUCKING hate it!! Interesting enough it actually is growing on me instead. Now I am liking (not to be confused with loving) my new hobby, trail running. I do not like it quite enough to put some serious mileage on my sneakers, but I do like it to continue to do it.

Trail running alone is not what I find likable,it is where the trails are located. I run on some steep ridges overlooking an amazing and tropical valley. I have seen trail running on television but this is unbelievable. An added bonus is the landscape. The landscape changes with hard rains. On this island, a hard rain hits just about every month. The ground is volcanic debris and shifts a good deal with the rain. So just about every month, I have a new trail to run.

My primary running routes are on steep uphill portions of the ridges. When I say steep I don't mean you have to use your hands and feet to get you to the peak. This is a high enough incline that you really need to pull your knees up to make headway. Full out sprints are just about impossible though. This is a bummer for a guy like me that rather deal with max speed than max endurance. However, the great side effects of serious caloric expenditure is good enough for me to overlook the speed issue.

Now, I do not track the runs very closely. I have extremely hard days and very light days. I just use how my body responds as a guide. I do keep track of my body composition and the biggest reason for liking the runs is the fact I stay at 14% body fat or lower. So I'm all for the running that I once hated with a passion.

My New Diet Results

2009-05-20T09:45:00.005-05:00

Well here we are just about four weeks after I started this new diet of mine. In case you do not remember the premise was to consume 3200 k/cal on off days and 3800 k/cal on training days but the kicker was to load up with carbs around training times.

Funny thing, this did not go as well as planned. I found myself fighting to maintain 3200 k/cal and many times slipping well below that. On the training days I was able to get 3800 k/cal into me with the help of ice cream, cheeseburgers and fries and good old beer. Unfortunately the results are very much sub par.

I started at 204lb and 13.5% BF
I am now at 205-206lb and 13.5% BF (2nd week I jumped up to 14.5% but came right back down)

So I gained approx. 1lb of ffm (fat free mass). Truly not as I wanted or expected. The big trouble came with attempting to maintain clean calories on the non training days. The good news is I believe I have a decent diet to put to work when I want to maintain my body composition.

Don't Get Crazy With Squats Young Skywalker!

2009-05-01T09:33:00.010-05:00

Through my career as a trainer and trainee I learned a great deal about squats. I have tried many variations myself. As a trainer I have seen many variations. What I find that works for the general public is to use specific squatting techniques to reach certain goals. If you want to lift a lot, there are squats to improve that. If you want to jump higher and run faster, there a squats for that. If you are looking to boost energy expenditure in training, there are squats for that. Also, there are squats that simply just suck. The squats that win the suckiest squats of all time awards are the notorious Smith Machine Squat and the Swiss Ball Squat (with the stupid ball against your back and the wall). These two annoying squats really do nothing more than cause improper squat technique and damaged joints. However I still see them being prescribed to trainees who are new or who state "squatting hurts my knees". My answer to that is "Oh really, so I guess you must be the only person in the world who takes a dump standing." This is for those new jedis looking to squat properly and not perform the wrong squats.

So, many newcomers to training have amazingly awesome hopes and goals. What we know is before this highly motivated individual embarks down the fitness road, he should build a proper "functional" foundation. All the exercises including squats should recruit perfected movement patterns, strength endurance, and neuro-muscular efficiency ( AT FIRST!). Once this point is complete the sky is the limit. So for the newbies the squat should be what I call the perfect learning squat.

The perfect squat is more focused on posture throughout the motion than on load or reps. The checkpoints:
1. Feet straight forward and hip width apart.
2. Shoulders back and down with a slight chin tuck.
3. Lower "core" area tightly brace (this includes preservation of the low back arch).
4. Form is maintained throughout motion.

Now, dropping the glutes below parallel is not part of the checkpoints for new guys and gals, because it simply is not as important as holding the posture. If he can do it... fucking great! If he can't drop that low ...oh well...it will come in with proper training.

This perfect learning squat is also the key to hip extensor progression. Master this and you will be a better squatter, runner, and jumper.

Just to make it perfectly clear on what a new guy or gal shouldn't be doing, the following are types of squats that work well for more advanced trainees with reason to squat like this:

1. No box squatting with a external load (barbell, dumbbell, bands etc) - The only guys and gals out there that should do box squats are those looking to squat the most amount of weight possible. Mainly, the big powerlifters and powerlifting wannabes fall into this group. Box squat just causes all kinds of trouble with the low back. People who box squat may put up impressive amounts of weight, but most likely they all get out of bed like Fred Sanford in the morning.
2. No jumping onto high plyo boxes - This is absolutely fantastic for building reactive power in jumping athletes, but looks like shit when a new jedi jumps up to a plyo box practically pulling his knees to his ears and lands with a big crash. I see it a lot and it must feel as miserable as it looks. Before you get to jumping squats, Skippy, make sure you have a damn good squat working for you. In fact you better be at the point where you can do some one legged squats without much trouble.

Lastly, let me leave you with the smart way to progress your squats:
1. Perfect Learning Basic Squat
2. Deep Squats
3. Deep Squats with Hands Overhead
4. 1 Leg Squats
5. 1 Leg Deep Squats
6. Jumping Squats
7. From Plyo Box Drop Down and Immediately Jump Up to Stabilize in a Squat

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. New trainees with flat feet or damaged ankles will need to widen their stance. If that does not work, raise their heels. Those who have already sustained some traumatic knee injury will stay at partial squats and do more one leg squatting drills than others. A rule of thumb is to get a decent assessment from a damn good trainer or sports therapists.

Now use the squat wisely young Skywalker.

My new choice of dieting

2009-04-24T13:20:00.004-05:00

For those who don't know, I have picked up and moved to an island in the Caribbean. It happens to be an extremely mountainous island. My first days here were spent gasping for air, sweating profusely, and feeling an incredible "pump" in my quads as I climbed these mountains and hills DAILY. Along with this I dropped a lot of body weight. I went from 210lbs to 198lbs in a matter of a month (give or take a week). Luckily I have been able to bring myself up to a scrawny 204lbs at about 13.5% body fat. Funny thing, I was just 202lb and 12.5% about three weeks ago.

Now my challenge is to climb back up to 210lbs and remain at this bodyfat or lose some. My training is progressing fine ( you can check it out here). My sleeping and recovery patterns can use a bit of tweaking. Now my diet... Shit! I need a serious amount of muscle saving calories. My RMR is close to 2000 k/cal and my COA (cost of activities) is close to 3700 k/cal ( I used John Berardi's Precision Nutrition site to figure this stuff out). So I need AT LEAST 3800 for the calories to be used for mass building. Well, being the busy guy I am. I simply do not have the means to drop six to eight meals down my hatch. So I need to get these calories within four to five meals.

Now my first week I started at 2800 k/cal and shifted up to 3000 k/cal. The second week I shifted it up again to 3250 k/cal. I found this to be my limit with my available calories (keep in mind I live on an island). So, now on my third week I decided to change things up to get the calories in my body when it counts. The macronutrient that works for me, to keep fat down and maintain muscle mass, is high protein, low carb, and moderate fat. I have researched a bit in Joel Marion's cheater diet, Berardi's metabolism based nutrition, and CT's carb cycling codex. From these diet pointers and my own knowledge of what works for me, I am now doing "High Insulin Carb and Lots of Fat Cheat Diet on Hard Training Days". Yes, the title sucks but it basically explains what I'm doing.

I know I can not reach the next level for caloric intake without changing my habits a bit. On mild training days I will attempt to sustain 3200 k/cal at the current macronutrient ratio. On my hardest days I will increase the caloric intake to 3800 - 4000 k/cal. My protein intake will be lowered unfortunately. My carbs will be loaded at a higher amount near the multiple training times. While the fats will be raised a bit near the normal meal times. I will have plenty of insulin release to get the desired anabolic effect. I will continue to monitor the body fat to make sure I do not leave this phase with a belly suited for XXL shirts.

I'll let you know how it ends. I have about three to four more weeks of this hypertrophy dominant phase.

Women Fitness Frustration

2009-04-15T10:38:00.003-05:00

I am seriously absolutely overly happy that a great article is out there verifying what I say over and over to female trainees in the gym. A big plus is this is not an article written by a "bulky" woman. Rachel Cosgrove has a basic athlete build. Now, before the smarter trainer types, who know better than to judge looks for knowledge, ridicule what I am saying ... understand that I also know people should be impressed with knowledge instead of visual marketing, but they are not! So it's good someone who looks like an every day woman is saying women need to train properly.

So women, and trainers read this great article and either give yourself a pat on the back for doing the right thing or slap yourself across the face for screwing up. I'm joking about that last part (sort of).

Great stuff!
Read this

When to be Linear and when to be Undulated

2009-03-20T12:49:00.003-05:00

I am writing this really for those like me. I am an ex athlete with multiple nagging old injuries and now someone who is a bit higher on the fitness chain than an enthusiasts. My days of competition are done and over with. However, I still use smart training principles.

Being a person of my position I choose to phase in and out of different modes of strength training (maximal, hypertrophy, adaptation, power etc). Also I like to play with different modes of energy system work (alactic, lactic, aerobic etc.). But since I no longer have a game day or competitive time period to build for, I find myself just doing it to learn and "see what happens". These days I'm learning some patterns of movement from Parkour and Capoeira. Both very interesting and both can equally leave a person with injuries. These two will suffice until I get bored and move onto another endeavor.

Now motivation is tough and therefore I go through a lot of variation with training. My goals are basically the same. Look good naked and enhance power and strength whenever possible. Now through research we know that undulated training is most likely superior for getting rapid results and being able to maintain these results longest. Trouble with undulating and learning different areas of strength and conditioning is it does not seem to leave much room for error. To be more specific here, when I was hardcore into building a strong snatch lift, I really needed time to get the technical skills down and build up explosive reactive power for the catch portion of the lift. I did try to undulate a bit and found trying to go maximal then quickly change to a higher rep, in a matter of days, left me pretty inadequate with the actual technical side. Also, I know not to attempt to undulate a high volume with an Olympic Lift because of the chance of forming bad motor patterns.

So what's a guy to do? Why not go Linear? Whenever I need to learn something and "groove" the necessary pattern there is nothing better than the repeated effort found in a linear periodization. Generally speaking, I would start with higher volume and lower intensity (i.e. 60%RM - 4x12 type of protocol). I would go for about two weeks of simply breaking down the pattern and practicing the skills. Over the next month or so I would gradually build the RM to probably 80-85%, raise the sets and drop the reps. Now, this has already been proven to not be the superior way to get stronger and more explosive, BUT this will allow for the building of motor skill without injury. Now the downside is adaptation to the stressors comes quickly. So the body adapts and progress (in terms of power and strength) will come slower. Keep in mind I am looking for the motor skills and other technical needs at this point.

After I'm done learning what needs to be learned and trying it at higher intensities I am ready to undulate my training. It is here when I can throw in a few sessions of all out maximal strength, a session for power with technical learning and a few sessions for good old hypertrophy. Also my energy system work would undulate as well.

So if you are like myself, maybe you should try a linear approach and then undulate it. Just to give you an example of what I am talking about, here is what I would do to build my snatch lift if I could do it again:

Linear:
2 wks - anatomical adaptation and technical work - energy system - lactic and aerobic
4 wks - hypertrophy (build intensity and lower volume gradually) - energy system work - lactic to alactic
2 wks -(transition to undulated)- one day attempt Snatch lift for submax (80%) - max lift with basic closed chain lifts that enhance hip extension and scapula retraction.

Undulated:
4 weeks
Day1 - Hypertrophy - Day2 - Max lift - Day3 - Technical and Power - Day4 - Hypertrophy - Day5 - Max Lift
Energy System:
Day1 - Lactic/ Aerobic - Day2 - Alactic - Day3 -Alactic - Day4 - Rest - Day5 - Alactic/Lactic

Chance for Learning

2009-03-05T10:15:00.005-05:00

Well really it is a time for realizing what I knew but, for whatever reason, did not put into practice. Many changes taking place since the global recession and I am in the middle of launching my new website/forum . Also I took some time to feel out what direction I really wanted to take my personal fitness endeavors. While I'm getting all this together I begin stumbling about on things I should already be doing because I already know it but just totally disregarded it (like a moron).

Right now I'm sitting at 12.5% Body Fat, a scrawny 200lbs., and more endurance than I would ever need in life. What I want is 12% - 11% BF (anything lower and I would never be disciplined enough to hold it)., 220lbs of mass on my bones and more power and medium (lactic) endurance (high endurance usually comes with the great side effect of not being able to get out of the "scrawny" rut).

Now here is what I know but have not used to get to these goals:

1. Hypertrophy training - I was getting to complicated with this. Hypertrophy is pretty simple to evoke. Simply train the muscles past the exhaustion point with enough overload so the reps are not out of control high ( I like 8RM and lower). Recover well and eat like a king. Simplistic stuff I already knew. Tons of methods out there but the premise needs to be pretty much the same.

2. Max Strength and Power - This point I just totally broke my own golden rule. If you lack the mobility in the involved joints DON'T TRAIN WITH MAX WEIGHT UNTIL YOU GOT IT!! My deads are a lot better looking now that I took the time to increase my lower body joint mobility. Also, to me, develop max lift to transition into the power lift. For instance, the deads need to be developed to transition into cleans. Soooo.... I do not lift like a "power lifter" who simply seeks to gain leverage for maximal weight. I train like an Olympic lifter looking to develop a better power clean. If you haven't witnessed both lifters you should. The deads for a powerlifter is a whole world apart from the dead for Olympic lifters.

3. SAID rules over everything- Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand can not be changed regardless what I do. My life has changed where I am know doing strenuous hikes up and down mountains daily. I also train various people and take runs with my running clients. I went from 215lb to 195lb in a matter of weeks. I fought tooth and nail to regain some mass. Still have a way to go. I feel the Michael Phelp's caloric trouble now. I have to put done at least 2700 k/cal to keep functioning and 3300 k/cal at least to maintain current muscle. Add 500 calories to that and that is what I need if I want to gain. My body is now geared to high endurance climbing activities. I am trying to change it to a bigger more powerful thing. SAID principle says hell no.... not without changing the demand of high endurance my life currently has. DAMN YOU SAID!

Learning to go back and review what I know and actually apply it. I'm sure I'll remember more as time goes on

Look at Your Waist and Hips

2008-10-09T07:27:00.002-05:00

One of the best ways to self test yourself for symptoms of obesity is to simply use body tape. In fact, body tape blows away using a scale and the ridiculous over used BMI guide (I absolutely hate BMI... its a joke). You should also put this to use for any body fat reducing endeavor. Obviously the best way of testing is still hydrostatic and skinfold calipers (as long as the administrator knows how to use it), but this is still a great way to self check. All you have to do is check your measurement at waist level (either directly on navel or slightly above) and the hip level. The most important is the measurement being at the waist. This is where the dreaded visceral fat can easily store up around your vital organs underneath the abdominal wall. This fat storage leads to many cardiovascular and digestive problems. We all know some guy that has a seriously hard stomach about the size of a keg. The deception is the muscle is pushed forward so the stomach is hard to the touch but underneath the vitals organs are fighting for space with oozing fat. You can't deceive the the body tape.

Here is the breakdown to make sure you are healthy:

Men your waist measurement should be below 37 inches (94 cm)! If not get training now and eat right.

Women your waist needs to be below 31.5 inches (80 cm)! If not quit wasting time on that mindless treadmill and really start training and eating right.

Check out the many articles I wrote to get started at The Fitness Road

The hip ratio portion is really hard to tell if you are out of shape or not. Some of us have seriously big engines (butts) for power and speed. Some of us have wider hips. I usually don't bother with hip stipulations. This area should reduce just like the waist BUT the waist should be lower than hip in the ratio.

Katie Couric and Palin

2008-09-29T10:33:00.001-05:00

I just can't get enough of the SNL rendetition of the political show that is happening now. Funny stuff....real funny stuff:

What the HELL!!

2008-09-23T13:21:00.003-05:00

Gawd Dammit to Hell!! I totally screwed things up with my regiment. For some insane reason I eliminated the chin up from my training. Three months later I'm in the gym doing a few chinups....suddenly I am totally out of strength and I am kicking around like a "X-box loving out of shape 7th grader" in gym class. This was on rep number 5 for crying out loud!!

What happened! Well the most primal of all pulling lifts known was neglected and shunned from my training and my ability to grab the bar and grind out fifteen or so chins was over. Now here I am re introducing the chinup to my body. I do a chinup everytime I pass by a bar. I do negatives and scapula elevation/depression drills on the bar. My only quest is to gain back some chinup dignity.

Excuse my rant.

We Need to Laugh

2008-09-15T09:24:00.003-05:00

There is a great author who once said humans are cursed with the ability to see just how fragile and short our existence here on earth. So when we laugh we are boldly laughing at our own mortality. I agree with him. We need to lighten up and laugh a bit. Live in the present and drive for a better future. So this entry is just a little blog for you to laugh at:

Calories In : Calories Out Disorder

2008-07-17T10:50:00.004-05:00

I hear it from every nutritional pro, "It's all about calories you take in versus calories you expend."

I can't lie... I KNOW they are absolutely right. HOWEVER, the major problem translating this short phrase is folks will try to shorten it even more! So instead of calories in and calories out I hear people speak of just the calories in portion. People wanting to lose fat, maintain muscle and reap the benefits of looking damn good naked (which is the definition of "toning") end up screwing this simple formula up by eating too little.

Why?

Simply they are ignorant to the second part of the phrase "calories out". I know, you are already typing away to get off my blog, but just hold on and allow me to explain. We all know it takes some fuel (calories) to make our human body machines function properly on a daily basis. However, we do not all understand how much fuel a person will need and what effects this caloric number. Understanding this is KEY to being able to apply calories in versus calories out. Now, I'm not going to get overly complicated here, I will quickly explain the basics behind the madness.

First and foremost your caloric intake must ALWAYS stay above your RMR (resting metabolic rate). This is the amount of calories you need to function optimally. Your body already expends a good deal of calories without a mind-numbing treadmill or 100 useless crunches. Typically a healthy non-obese person will need to eat their weight x 10. So if you weigh 150lb, you will need to eat at least 1500 calories. Simple "ballpark" formula.

Next, you need quality calories. IHOP for breakfast and Pizza Hut for dinner ain't gonna cut it. Get lean proteins, plenty of vegatables and keep off the extra carbs and starches. Unless you run around the block 24 hours a day, carbing up is not too smart. Stay lean you need to go easy on the carbs.

Third, if you want to drop the fat you need to raise your calories out above your COA (cost of activities) which includes daily stuff and adding the gym in. You to do enough to stay above your calories you are taking in. Word to the wise choose your activities wisely. Specifically jogging miles and miles and spending several hours stretching in a class....is a joke. I have written many articles to aid in the calorie burning agenda. Just check out thefitnessroad.com for more info.

Okay that is it for the basic look in clearing up the calories in versus calories out disorder I see time and time again.

Dara Torres - No Pink Dumbbells Real Training

2008-07-07T06:42:00.003-05:00

If you don't know you definitely should check out this article in NY Times. Athletes dare the impossible and this amazing woman has just raised the bar for the elite. Well, she really HURLED the bar into space.

I won't bore you with redundant details. The point I'm making here is she did this all and is a full time mom. She answered interviews perfectly. She basically said what I would say to all potential female athletes and average janes. You have to focus on a balance in your life with emphasis on the recovery and nutrition. You have to actually train with REAL weights and use speed and power. Tony Gentilcore coined a pronoun for the types of weights most women go for in the gym, useless paper weights.

So, I'll say it again just because Dara Torres is proof for older ladies to get a clue. You want to look good naked and stay that way for life:
- Eat enough to maintain muscle but less than the cost of your daily activities. If your not eating at least 1600 calories your fooling yourself.
- Lift weights that cause a demanding overload for the exercise you choose. Leave the pink dumbbells to the ass clowns.
- Recover properly....your body must heal for you to be able to reap your goals.

Check out thes pics of this outstanding athlete and mom:

Death of the Trainer

2008-05-15T10:35:00.005-05:00

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller and is considered a classic of American theater. Viewed by many as a caustic attack on the American Dream of achieving wealth and success without regard for principle, Death of a Salesman made both Arthur Miller and the character Willy Loman household names. The play raises a counterexample to Aristotle's characterization of tragedy as the downfall of a great man, whether through (depending on the translator) a flaw in his character or a mistake he has squandered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_Salesman, sited May 15,2008).

History repeats itself and this time it is the personal trainer. Slowly but surely the number of full time trainers is dropping. Trainers are becoming more like class instructors and consultants, engaging clients in bootcamps, discounted sessions of less than an hour capacity, and downloadable videos. It was just today I witnessed a group coach putting a bunch of uninterested, gabbing soccer moms through a session of various exercises. I noticed the women going through the motions with "paper weights" and having enough energy to yak away about how adorable their kids' bad habits are and bellow out a few loud overly dramatic laughs (I'm sure you see my slight dislike for fitness fake community). Also, I know of trainers who make decent profit just having someone get consulted by them for a few minutes once or twice a week. Of course there are the video trainers out there, too. Some of these guys are absolutely clueless. I think they just have a "stage hand" holding cue cards up for them to read as they demonstrate a few no brainer exercises. I love it when they use words like core, burn, sculpt,and target at least a few dozen times per sentence (sigh).

Now don't get me wrong. I do not blame trainers from giving up their day jobs to attack other more lucrative courses of training. In fact, I have also begun to change up the options available to clients..slightly. Some would say this is just the nature of the economy right now. People seek out cheaper options that yield okay results. I would have to disagree and blame it more on the change in the fitness industry itself. Personal training for one person per hour is less profitable than ten per hour. To get more specific with this statement, say a trainer charges $75.00 an hour. Another trainer charges $15.00 an hour, BUT herds ten clients together for the session. Also, the $75.00 an hour trainer focuses solely on that one client ensuring high quality, safety, and optimal results. The second trainer puts together an obstacle course of exercises with very little focus on anything more than making sure the clients don't run into each other. That's an even bigger bonus of not needing to provide quality in the training, I guess.

This my friends is the new route layed out by the fitness industry. Less quality, cheaper pricing, and greater profit for the class provider or consultant. I should be happy and dive right into it, BUT it simply doesn't sit right with me. I a see major fork in the road coming up soon. Either I do bootcamps and forms of consultation or I find a new day job.

-Just my thoughts

Ty Ferrell's List of Foods You Can't Afford Not To Buy

2008-03-27T11:44:00.003-05:00

I get a lot of questions about different foods that I eat. Soooo... I decided to compose a quick list of foods that everyone will need to support a healthy lifestyle.

1. Whey Protein Supplement:
I do not know one person that can not use this valuable asset in a diet. Some would argue it's not a whole food source and therefore is not a good choice. So what... It is a supplement to substitute for a whole protein when you are on the go. A decent source will still supply quality protein the body needs. There are many times when I am between clients and do not have time to munch down a turkey drumstick. Sometimes I need fast and efficient and this definitely fits the bill.

2. Green's Plus Supplement:
For the same reason as above. A person needs vegetation in every meal. Chewing on a lettuce head while training a client isn't exactly appropriate.

3. Frozen fruit and vegetables:
Fresh fruit will put a big hole in your wallet, these days. Frozen goods make it easy to toss a protein shake together in a blender, and have it fortified with super berries like blueberries and strawberries. Also, frozen vegetables defrosted in put into an omelet are very nice.

4. Fish oil:
Besides giving me extra calories when needed. Fish oil is high in omega 3. A healthy diet should be higher in omega 3 than monounsaturated fats and saturated fats. Not only this fish oil generally has more antioxidant power than your typical multivitamin.

5. dried fruit and mixed nuts
Dried fruits like prunes, raisins, and cranberries are my favorites. Any nut but a peanut is a good candidate to mix. With this you can mix up a healthy snack when on the go.

There you have it. At just about any given time these foods are in my fridge and cupboard.

Read more at The Fitness Road

What Are Fitness Boot Camps For??

2008-03-17T06:46:00.005-05:00

I have spent seven years in the U.S. Navy and Army. When I think of a fitness boot camp, it sometimes has the same characteristics as a real bootcamp. A BUDs (Navy Seal) instructor once told me you don't do the training because it is healthy or safe, you do it because it prepares you for the stress and needs of your job in the military. I think he was right on the money. The things we did during training were not necessarily healthy or the best choices to promote muscle or get you "tone". The exercises were simply created to get the soldier or sailor ready for the mission.

So I think it is laughable to think fitness boot camps are anywhere near a one stop solution for fitness. Like military bootcamps they possess basic elements that make them specific to certain areas of fitness. Below I have gone through the basic elements of bootcamps and what they truly promote:

1. FBC (Fitness Boot Camps) will promote endurance strength. This is the major strength that a FBC will allow to progress. Other strength qualities become more specific to the individual. For instance, speed strength can be increased to a point but the individual will most likely need more customized attention to develop higher levels of speed.

2. FBC will promote primal movements. I should say SHOULD promote primal movements. Unless the FBC is addressing athletes of higher motor skill level it should not push more explosive and multi-plane (multiple direction) training. This would just lead to bad habits and injuries. The primal movements like pushups, chinups, dips, squats,deadlifts and lunges should be the major movements used in an FBC for the average joe and jane. Variations should be made from these movements to enforce good habits, joint stability and later joint mobility. Also, primal movements allow for the greatest amount of joints to be used in one exercise, which brings me to my next point...

3. FBC will promote muscle co-contraction and fat loss. Muscles are functionally designed to work together and not isolated. Also when more muscles are used in one exercise you use more calories per exercise and have a greater EPOC response (layman- EPOC allows you to burn calories for hours after training stops). Also, becoming efficient with the movements means they will be safer. Safety allows for increase of load (weight), decrease of rest breaks and overall increase of volume.

4. FBC is a stepping stone for those looking to go into more advanced training periodizations. I have to be honest here, FBC will never be able to address a person's every need. Not only this, a person will eventually grow beyond the vague scopes of even an advanced form of FBC. For example, if a person wants to develop more maximal strength he or she will need to go into a max strength training periodization. Usually max strength training needs higher levels of rest that could not be facilitated in a FBC. Another example, is if someone has special needs to promote more fatloss and is slowed because of the lack of advanced motor skills. Well, this person will need to be given special attention to increasing motor skill, that others in the FBC may or may not need.

As you can see, FBCs have their specific goals which are fatloss, increase in edurance strength and hopefully increase ability to utilize primal movements. Other than that, I am hard press to find any FBC than can promote anything more.

Get more at The Fitness Road

Off Topic Banter part 1

2008-03-15T08:40:00.002-05:00

Sometimes to unwind my insane membrane I watch the craziest stuff. This is one of my favorites:

Don't Let Them Get You With The Jedi Mind Trick

2008-03-09T10:19:00.006-05:00

I sat in on a semi-conference a little while ago. It was interesting because it was filled with new and veteran entrepreneurs. Everyone socializing and networking. I would say it was a smart thing to do with this economy. Why not help other small and large businesses get an edge while they help you?

Anyway to get back to my story, these business types I figured for being very smart and able to look underneath the superficial layer of hype and marketing. Well they were smart in their crafts but not so much when it came to looking past marketing and seeing the true product or service for what it is. To my surprise many of them who I thought were rock solid in the common sense department were easily swayed to the darker side of the force. It was as if Darth Vader came in the room and grasp the attention of many of the business professionals with his death choke grip. Now, I have to admit there were some who didn't budge when a rep from a weight loss clinic started pitching out his marketing. Good for them for not falling for the old Jedi mind trick.

Now, for most of the populace in the US I expect to see a large amount fall for hype. Well, now I must report that even the best hustlers can be hustled. So I'm putting this warning out there for all who are wise enough to listen. Heed my words young Skywalker:

- If a sales person says his supplement or methods are backed by doctors, don't fall for it. The thing is many fitness related things are backed by quacks. Infomercials usually have some Doctor Dumbass that they paid off to come out and speak of the awesome power of whatever they are selling. I have news for you, doctors are not always correct. Doctors are not always healthy. Doctors are not always good liars.

- If a sales person gives you a testimonial about how fast a system works, don't fall for it. Many systems are out there that reduce weight fast. The key word is WEIGHT. Want to lose weight quickly, lock yourself in the closet for a day with no food or water, come out and weigh yourself....Presto! Magic for a moron. People can easily lose weight, the hard part is reducing fat while sustaining muscles and metabolism. That is where these "weight loss doctor enforced clinics" fail and pro trainers such as the guys and gals at The Fitness Road bring you success. Be smart young Jedi. Losing "weight" quickly without respect for metabolism and muscle leads to flabby skin and gaining it back before you can shoot another B12 syringe in your ass.

- If a sales person talks about data and research and blood work, they better be a doctor themselves. Only an idiot would let anyone but a doctor or nurse draw blood and attempt to analyze. If they start talking about triglyceride, glucose, and cholesterol levels dropping in the blood results, ANYTIME YOU LOSE WEIGHT THESE LEVELS DROP! Simply because there is less mass to you. Young Skywalker you need to be active daily to get the same results. Want to see rapid action on this, EAT RIGHT!

Now I have given you the power to see past the Jedi mind trick. Go and teach others who are ready to truly be fit and not just lose weight today and gain it back tomorrow.

Get more at thefitnessroad.com

Good and Bad Side of Personal Training

2008-03-06T08:20:00.003-05:00

The battle rages on about what makes a good trainer and what makes a turd. I've been in the industry long enough to see many good trainers and even more turds that call themselves trainers. To make this easy to understand, I'll illustrate what I mean with an example of a good personal trainer and bad personal trainer. This should remind you of the filmstrips played in elementary school on topics such as good hygiene/ bad hygiene.

Good Trainer: Will greet you and assess your goals, general health, and ability to get to that goal. As a bonus more knowledgeable trainers will be able to take an in depth look at your posture, daily good and bad habits, and your current fitness level.

Bad Trainer: Will greet you and attempt to go right into a training session without any knowledge of your abilities, goals and health risk factors. This trainer uses phrases like "did you feel that?", "are your abs sore yet?", and "gimme two more whatever your name is?" This turd like any other simply tries to make your muscles burn without knowing that any chimpanzee can make anyones muscles burn. Only an idiot would choose a trainer because their abs hurt or biceps burn. This bozo will also try to sell you by throwing in foolish philosophies: "You have to do situps on a ball to get a sixpack", "Warmup on a treadmill for 5 minutes and then come over to me so I can make you do bicep curls", "You have to eat lower than 1200 calories to lose weight" and the list goes on.

Good Trainer: Introduces his or her solution for you to achieve your goals. There may be many options available but the prices for the solutions are not up for bid. This trainer knows his or her worth and that the quality and value of the training can not be under minded by amateur discounts or freebie sessions.

Bad Trainer: Cheap in both price and quality. You are just another dollar in this turd's pocket. This hustler will probably use adjectives such us "instant", "ripped", "maximum calorie burn" , and "totally awesome...". No quality and little value. More discounts and free sessions than you can imagine if you just sign the contract.

Good Trainer: Keeps an accurate journal of your training and body composition. This trainer knows without collected data there is no progression, at least not for long. This trainer is able to assess any problems that may arise with your health and is not afraid to refer to another professional (such as doctor or physical therapist) if something is out of his scope. Results are guaranteed to happen after following the customized protocols.

Bad Trainer: Can give a rat's ass what you want or need. Either he will follow a silly muscle mag cookie cut workout or listen to some crap another turd told him. Probably have you do an extreme diet without any idea of what he is doing. Training is just what he or she feels like watching you do. Today may be the worthless butt blaster and tomorrow the worthless shoulder press machine. No care for form or muscle and nervous system recovery, just hurry up and lets go to the next machine. This turd judges you strictly from your weight on the scale not knowing weight can fluctuate greatly and is deceptional when used alone. Your weights up, so now you have to go on the elliptical for two hours today or something stupid like that.

Oh I can go on and on. I imagine you get the scoop from these examples. Make sure you seek out a good, high quality and knowledgeable trainer and leave the turds in the toilet.

Get more at The Fitness Road

Who Needs a Trainer??

2008-01-16T14:37:00.000-05:00

I have to be honest here. I usually do not get hired because someone is completely ignorant to fitness. Usually people will know some basic information and have been to a gym a few times. Most have even researched a bit and have had some success with fitness. In fact, there are plenty of cheap books and internet video sources that will feed you fitness programs that will work to a certain extent. I have to state, I am hired more for the discipline over the “know-how”.
I know the knowledge and experience is a huge plus. There is a difference between a genuine trainer and a two-bit hustler with a bubbly personality and big mouth. I would say that has some influence on who a person seeks out, but in the end a potential client is thinking can I trust this trainer to teach me what I need to know and keep me on point OR is this some goon that just wants to take money and bullshit his way through a session.
The discipline in a trainer keeps him (or her) keeping a journal on the client’s sessions, body composition, goals, and nutrition. The discipline in a trainer makes sure the goal is reached safely and effectively without foolish arrogance getting in the way. I’m sure you have seen the trainers that have a success story to share with you and they attempt to mimic that same training scheme on everyone regardless of goals or ability. This discipline also is to hold a client accountable when necessary (like when nutritional guides are resisted or ignored) and to let the client go if he or she is not “ready” to except the positive changes.
I get hired by people looking for this discipline and know-how and are ready to receive the training. I have trained other trainers, athletes, rehabilitating individuals, and fitness enthusiasts. The truth is everybody will need guidance in fitness for one reason or other even myself. So who needs a trainer. EVERYONE!

Dynamic Body and Dynamic Mind

2007-12-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

I am very happy to say from public support and support from other experts, we are looking forward to a GREAT new year!!

A new series will soon debut. It will take simple myths and gym legends, such as "sitting in a sauna raises gh and helps burn fat", and put them to the test to see if they have solid evidence or weak and no evidence backing them.

It is with a solid scientific base that one can go in various directions without wasting time trying to prove what has already been proven.

I will leave you with this basic knowledge for the new year.

Since the day you are born, you are born to move and move constantly (when all movement stops then so does life). A child unable to sit in class through a boring lecture on history is not suffering from A.D.D. He or she is simply doing what the child was born to do. Move and move A LOT. Keep this in mind when you are looking for ways to drop pounds quickly or develop a more muscular physique. We are born to move and through movement we burn excess calories and we get stronger and better than before. It is only when we begin to limit our motion that we find oursleves with joint pains, limited flexibility, and many related diseases.

Follow these tips to regain your ability to be mobile, stronger, and healthier:

1. Do not sit in one position for more than 15 minutes. You will find your body wants to shift around anyway. If you are able to stand up and squat back down a few times in your seat, great. Place your hands behind your head and lean your upper torso back, as well. A smart strength coach gave this peice of advice:

Squat down keeping your heels on the floor for a point in time where you no longer can hold the position. If you are at work, act like you are checking a computer wire or outlet. Maybe even drop some paper on the floor and take your time picking it up.

2. Walk to places of short distance to you (instead of driving). Your local store, video store, or a friends house. Remember to be safe and try to bring a buddy or maybe a vicious pitbull.

3. Drink a lot of water and get it from a different location than you rest or work at. If you are staring at the boob tube, make an effort to getting up and getting a glass of water every so often.

The more mobile you are the easier it will be to enforce good healthy habits. Trust me, motion creates emotion (good and happy kind). So move forward into the new year!

Check us out here

The Steroid Witch Hunt

2007-12-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

This has to be the most laughable joke of a preceding. Celebrity athletes being hunted down because of their use of the "sauce". Seriously, how much money is being wasted testing the hell out of these athletes and searching every nook and cranny for evidence of steroid use. ARE WE INSANE!! I don't care if Bonds took steroids. I don't think I'll lose sleep knowing that a well known athlete has decided to pop a syringe in his butt. Another crazy example is bringing up the past with Jones. How long did that withchunt take.....10-12 years!!

These supposed "Keeper's of Justice" must have a serious grudge against athletes. Maybe these were the guys in highschool getting their head dunked in a toilet of urine and flushed (swirly) by some big jock. Maybe they were pushed into the cheerleaders locker room while still trying to get there pants on (after gym class). Whatever it was it left a nice deep childhood scar that can only be healed by bringing down as many star athletes as possible.

One final note, people who know anything about steroids and sports know it does not make a superstar athlete. ATHLETES ARE BORN ATHLETES. Steroids help recovery after getting smashed a few times by a linebacker. Steroids enhance strength and some endurance so you can play game after game at the demanded top condition. Steroids are not wonder drugs and they do not make a superstar what he or she is.

Eat What You Want on Thanksgiving!!!

2007-11-21T17:40:00.000-05:00

I am sick and tired of all the half-wit health crap on TV and the internet. Warning people to eat "light" and count calories while trying to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal. I say, enjoy yourself. Enjoyment of life is healthy. Being around family is healthy. Over-feeding every once in a while is ANABOLIC. That's right, scarfing down a heaping of turkey laced with tryptophan will help protein synthesis along. Add in the sugar and you just boosted your insulin. Now, your body is working overtime trying to use all the macronutrients it is being given. It works over time -- your METABOLISM raises. You burn more calories just sitting there and laughing up a storm with uncle Jed because Grandma Martha let out a noise she said came from a "barking ghost".

For athletes and fitness enthusiasts, this is just a time to really enjoy ourselves and screw all the rules of health for a day.

Over eat and enjoy Thanksgiving.

In good health,
Ty

Five of the Worst Pieces of Exercise Equipment

2007-11-12T07:07:00.000-05:00

There is an infinite amount of exercises one is able to use when going to an everyday gym. Some believe more variety is best. Some believe a person should do what is necessary to succeed. Regardless of which school of thought is right or wrong they both should agree on what exercise equipment is just used to waste time and take up space. I have compiled a list to allow you to eliminate useless training equipment and either train with variety or train with restricted necessity.

1. Smith Machine:

This has to be the worst piece of equipment in the gym. Many trainers will make the best of this machine and use it to do other exercises besides squats and lunges. That is creative and great. However, if you are using this silly machine to squat, lunge, deadlift, row, or press you are asking for serious joint trouble down the road.

2. Hip Ab/Adductor Machine:

A friend once gave this the nickname “good girl-bad girl” machine. This machine supposedly will “tone” your inner and outer thighs. The only problem is “toning” is simply lowering bodyfat while maintaining muscle AND there is no such thing as “spot reduction” (i.e. if you twist a lot you won’t get nice abs). The machine puts “unnatural” pressure on muscles that are used to stabilize and neutralize movement. You want to strengthen these muscles jump, sprint, squat and lunge.

3. Torso Twist Machine:

I rarely see this piece of crap in gyms anymore. This machine puts loads of unnecessary and unnatural pressure on the spine. Unless you want a nice herniated disc in your spine, don’t use it.

4. Swiss Ball Squats:

This exercise does the same horrible job as a Smith machine, minus the machine. It creates extra tension on the knees and hinders a person from doing an actual squat. Instead you learn how to fall backwards.

5. Shoulder Press Machine:

The shoulders are the most mobile and vulnerable joints in the human body. When motion is restricted as with this machine you are not saving your joints, you are just causing more chance of injury. Keep away from this silly machine.

I can go on, but I won’t. This stuff gets my blood pressure high. Also there are other pieces of equipment to watch out for, but they are too debatable to be debunked. From this list you should be able to set some good boundaries for your next workout.

How Are Those Goals Treating Ya??

2007-11-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

What are your personal goals?
Can you obtain it?

These are just a few questions that inspire thoughts success in some, and a cringing realization of how far away success in life is for others. And for a few, these are simply two questions that will nonchalantly arise in life, kind of like that pimple that routinely rises to the surface and is the first thing to greet you (besides your alarm clock) in the morning.

For those who can smile in the face of those two simple questions, you’re already ahead of the game. You can read on if you have the time between closing your multi million dollar deal and planning your annual euro vacation. For everyone else read on, you might just like what you read.

First and foremost, personal goals and career goals ARE NOT THE SAME. When you think of a personal goal, think along the lines of what makes you happy and what truly means something in your life. And when I say the goal has meaning I really mean it. Career goals do help you get to some of your personal goals but are the “supplement” to your personal goal. For instance, a personal goal might be to live by the sea and be able to travel a lot. The career goal would be to obtain an occupation that supports this personal goal.

Next, are your goals legit?? Do you truly want to pursue and achieve them? This is a problem I usually see in some people I have consulted over the years. In their cases, they think they want to be fit. When asked for the reason behind it, they usually have reasons that will not help to keep them motivated and determined to succeed. Some have wanted to look good for beach season. A few want to look great because it is time (as if something Divine has told them it is time). Every once in a while I get a few who want be in shape because a family member or doctor told them to. So the reason has to have true meaning to you to succeed. The actual goals themselves are not impossible to obtain, but the desire behind it probably does not have enough meaning in these people’s lives to drive them to success. A desire should not only motivate someone to put forth the effort, but also keep him or her dedicated to the course of actions to get there. So the desire must be strong enough to endure the timeframe needed to get to the goal. Also, the actual desire begins on a high level of pleasure or pain and is specific and clear. A wise business man, who now has one of the most popular shows on TV, once said mediocre actions lead to mediocre results. Putting it together, a bad and good example of a successful goal:

Bad
I want a million dollars. Why? I don’t want to be poor. I want to live an easy life. I want to have a big house. I want a lot of crap.

Good
I want a million dollars. Why? (Specific Pain) my daughter has been diagnosed with cancer and to be able to afford the help she needs I will need the million dollars. (Specific Pleasure) I want to be able to go to Hawaii for my honeymoon, stay at a five star resort for five days and own a house in Boca Raton.

Third, a goal is just a dream until it is written down and backed by good reasons for it existing. I can’t stress this enough. Take ten minutes or so out of your life to focus on what you want out of it. If you really want it, it shouldn’t be that tough to conjure up in your mind. Remember, this is not a career goal. So if your goal is to have your name embossed in gold for most adored supervisor of the year at some overpriced coffee house, you might want to rethink why you want it. I can promise you it will be a big awakening moment. Getting back on track, write down your personal goals with the reason(s) it is meaningful. Hopefully, this part won’t have you up all night sharpening pencils down to a pointy nub.

Next, focus on the timeframe to get it done. That’s right; put the deadline protocols in place to really make it stick. The protocols are short term goals that will reinforce your efforts to get to the “gold”. Quick example, personal goal is to be freestyle swimmer in the next Olympics. First protocol is to seek out info and classes and find out as much as possible on the sport. Second, join a team or hire a coach. Third, best get your butt competing. This person would set up the protocols on a time basis. I really mean actually marking down realistic deadlines on a calendar. This will give a stronger focus on the long term goal via the short term protocols. And it will keep the action and emotion going and prevent the feeling of staleness and uncertainty.

Lastly, make sure your goal or goals are obtainable. The big keys to keep in mind for this adventure are the finances and resources necessary, the timeframe to get there, and the strength of your desire to accomplish it. So, becoming a movie actor/actress by February 2010 is possible, as long as your protocols to success are in place and are well researched, but becoming an Oscar worthy actor/actress by next year, may be slightly unrealistic.

Summing it up here, if you keep these points in mind and follow them when you go after a personal goal, you’ll find yourself in a more successful position to ultimately accomplish your personal goals.

Good luck

Crappy Personal Trainer Syndrome

2007-10-25T06:38:00.000-05:00

I recently was in the middle of a discussion that seems to sprout its ugly head every month or so. Why are there so many "bad" personal trainers in this industry? Why do people pay them to give them horrible service?

I have been in the midst of this conversion a few times. The answer for these questions seem to be this:

-It is too easy to become a personal trainer.

- People love bargains and gimmicks. Whatever works the fastest and is the cheapest is the best.

This obviously is a major problem for good personal trainers out their looking to really help their clients and wanting to charge for their time they spend providing quality service in and out of the gym.

Well, because I am pretty weary from constantly talking about this, I will simply get to the point and point out what I believe will make a good trainer and what a potential client should look for.

Good Trainers

Well educated in their craft. Do not simply rely on easy to obtain certifications. They have extended amount of experience and knowledge.
They really want to help the client they work with. The client is not just another person to make warmup for 10 minutes on a treadmill and count reps for.
Train clients on an individual basis. The trainer must be able to assess the client before training him or her.
Talks the talk and walk the walk. Doesn't tell a client to not eat donuts and then gobbles down a dozen every night.
Is not afraid to leave a client who fails to commit. Training someone who doesn't want to do as the trainer says is not worth training.

Smart Clients:

Do not judge a trainer on looks. You should be impressed with the knowledge of that trainer and not his abs.
Looks for a trainers background. Knows the trainer should have at least a few years under his belt, and a respectable certification to back him up (ACSM,NSCA,NASM and Chek)
Trainer explains workout and keeps a journal on clients progress. Nothing worse than a trainer who can't remember anything about you but your name.
Trainer focuses on you during session and does not watch music videos or strike up useless conversations with others. I hate that the most
Trainer is always prompt.

These are just a few things to catch. We can only hope that clients and trainers both become smarter about personal training

A Bit About Me

2007-10-15T04:41:00.000-05:00

Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog. In this blog , I'm going to tell you a bit about me. I have been in the fitness industry for quite sometime now and still find things about it that are surprising. I created the website called The Fitness Road to keep people like myself informed on solid principles and ideas in the industry. As we all know, there are a lot of fitness sites and so called gurus out there giving out a lot of information and a lot of b.s. It is pretty hard to decipher between the two at times. The Fitness Road started as a site to help decipher the crapola from the stuff that works. We are certainly not the only site to do this. In fact, I rather like the idea of standing with truthful sites and professionals who cut through the garbage and bring you the facts.

When I thought about making a blog about me, I found that much of what I pursue and have accomplished is highly influenced by the philosophy behind The Fitness Road. I really like looking into complications of strength and conditioning. There is A TON of information out there. I take this information and simplify into its basic components. For the most part, every experiment, training philosophy and guide will follow basic principles in fitness. Hell, life is pretty much the same way. Basic principles bind us all whether we like it or not. One major principle I use as a filter of all other information is SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). The principle simply means people (and animals) adapt specifically to their daily life and changes. In my eyes, life throws some serious obstacles at you. To overcome the obstacle it usually takes a change in simple patterns in life. Whether that is waking up earlier, eating more or less, being more patient, or whatever. It is a change that must happen to overcome the obstacle and "adapt" to the new environment (stimulus).

Obviously, I like to go off on rants from time to time. To keep from ranting anymore, I'm going to wrap this up with a little overview of me:

I'm a active guy who is either up and training or "rehabing" old injuries. I am a huge ancient history buff, there is some crazy stuff that went on in those periods (pretty close to crazy stuff that happens now). My goal right now is to bring my clean and snatch lift over 225lb. and to bring my deadlift back up to 450lb. From my experience in the fitness industry, I am wise enough to seek out "functional" methods of training. Train hard but be smart. I only hope when I turn 50 I am not the guy who says "If only I knew then what I know now...".

Thanks for tuning in, see you in the next blog

Healthy Posture is Everything

2007-05-22T07:01:00.000-05:00

It is truly a low back pain society. Many of my clients have a form of low back pain. Hell, I myself have had low back issues in the past. If you spoke to me ten years ago I might have told you, to do what you can and muscle through it. Sounds like the normal advice given (“no pain, no gain”). Surprisingly, it still plays somewhat of a role in fitness. You can’t just leave a part alone in your body and expect it to heal and function. You will need to impose the right amount of demand on the body part and put it through the proper movements to get optimal function out of it. Unfortunately, even folks who think themselves healthy and fit specimens sometimes lack in good posture, which will eventually affect their strength gains and mobility.

How many times have you seen a strong looking guy, sporting a protruding gut, or woman with healthy legs, possessing “hunchback” type posture, that makes you think her arms were made of lead?? I’m sure if you look you will see this frequently and perhaps you will also be a suspect.

In my opinion, the single most important group of bones in the body makes up the spine. It should be protected as much as possible, and kept functional all through your life. There are three sections of the spine. We have cervical spine (descends from base of your head to your upper back), thoracic spine (descends from upper back to end of rib cage) and the lumbar/sacrum spine (from end of ribcage to ending point of hips). The cervical spine moves in all directions and is a very mobile joint. The thoracic spine is the most mobile and also moves in many directions. The lumbar/sacrum is more stable and major functions are to be more of a foundation or solid base for the other two sections. For this reason, most rotational movement should be facilitated by the thoracic spine while the lumbar is held in the “neutral” or strong base position. In order to keep the lumbar stabilized, the hip will also become a very big mobilizer.

Try digesting that information a little. In order to have good strong posture you will need to keep the lower back from doing too much work will the upper back and hips handle most of the daily task. This will be easy to some, but very frustrating to others. It is however a very important aspect of fitness.

Enough base talk on the matter, I am going to outline a few steps to help you maintain healthy and strong posture while working out and just living life. Just like a child, you have to re-learn basic motor skills and enhance them.

Step1: Starting at the cervical spine. Keep your head in line with your shoulders and slightly tilted down. Two ways of checking this are by making sure you walk leading with your chest not your nose, and make sure your ears stay in line with your shoulders (slightly behind your collar bone).

Step2: Now for the thoracic spine. Retract (bring shoulder blades close together with chest out) and depress (bring shoulders downward) your shoulders. At this point you should feel your abs “tightening” as the core gets pulled into proper position. You want to feel this core tightening to be sure you are in the right position. You should also maintain the core tight position and breathe normally.

Step3: Finally the lumbar spine will be addressed. With your body being supported by the core muscles, you should be able to walk holding this position and be able to perform any task with this core braced position. The lower back should not flex when you need to bend over or squat down (think back rounding). Instead, you will mobilize your hips by pushing you gluteus out and keep the, lumbar spine in a strong neutral position.

There you have it. These are pretty easy steps to follow and should be adhered to when in the gym lifting weights, outside running, or just living your daily life.

Go With the Flow

2007-05-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

The summer is just around the corner. It is a crazy time. For most, it is a time to wind down and take some vacation. Also, it is a great time to go have some outdoor fun (in less clothes than you usually wear). Whether you surf, kayak, run, bike etc. , you probably strip down a bit and show off that body you spent a good deal of time constructing.

This sounds like you right??

I sincerely hope this is the case, if not. What are you waiting for? Get your body into shape and keep it there. It doesn't take much for some. For far too many, it takes a HUGE lifestyle change and a demanding diet (which shouldn't be that demanding).

To get to your fitness goals of being healthy and looking good naked, you will need to go with the flow that has already been set up. Noone is going to re-invent this wheel. The flow is simple and can be painful for seriously out of shape saps.

The Flow:
- Hit the gym and do more standing exercises than sitting.
- Eat more whole foods and limit grains and manufactured crap.
- Go outside and do something fun for cardio.
- Don't try to be an agile hero, spiderman. Take it easy and work at your level and do what is necessary.
- Drink water and restrict juices and sodas

Now get with the flow and get ready to strut around town with a carefree "I look good" attitude.