Get loose!

http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/

A great place to work on stretching, joint mobility and coolness.

You have to earn it!

http://sportatitsbest.com/2010/02/20/jon-montgomery-vs-martins-dukars/

A few great quotes from the article:

In the words of the former Crazy Canuck, Jungle Jim Hunter, “too many athletes want to win by default,” as opposed to earning their results.

Martins Dukurs having had an incredible race markedly increases the value of Jon’s medal – maybe not to the public at large, but to Jon. If he won gold because Martins had an equipment failure, it wouldn’t have meant what it does.

There are far to many people (especially my generation and younger) that think things should just be given to them. Whether it be a better grade, a promotion or even a favor, this sense of entitlement is really starting to piss me off. You can not expect to get anywhere or see any results if you do not put in the time and effort required. Sometimes you might even have to do more than the bare minimum to get ahead!

Get your butt off the couch and start training because if you want it, you'll have to earn it!

Adaptation - why your old program doesn't work as good as it used to!

Scenerio 1: The Weightlifter

I hear it all the time, "Oh man, my program rocks! I'm getting so big and strong! My bench is up like 20lbs in two weeks". Two months later I'll check back and it is always the same "Yeah, things are going well I'm getting bigger for sure." but when I ask how much they're numbers are increasing it is usually 20-30# above what it used to be, but it hasn't gone up any in the last 2-3 weeks. Usually in about 2-3 months they have plateaued doing there 3 sets of 10 or 15 and the 21's for the guns routines. At best they get a little bit bigger and a tiny bit stronger (on their 1rm). They can bench 135 for 15 but only 185 for 1.

Scenerio 2:

They start doing high intensity workouts that only use light weights - P90x, Jazzercise, bootcamps. Now depending on the degree of couch potatoeness the atheletes will usually dramatic results for the first 2-3 month, good results of the next 3 months , ok results for the next 3 months and then minimal increases after that. eg. 1 Mile time goes from 11min to 8:30min to 7:15 to 6:45 to 6:40 to 6:38.

Now getting off you butt is good and doing something/anything is better than nothing. Now that being sad there is a reason that your current/old programs suck. It all starts off well because you are putting a stress on your body that it is not accustomed to and as a result your body needs to adapt to that change resulting in your increased speed/strength. But if this stress is the same - 3x10's or just body/light weight metcons, your body will adapt to it and you will stop experiencing gains. Now during this early period you will also benefit from increasing your muscle memory - the more you do a movement, the more efficient you learn to do it. Most of the time gains in metcons at 6-9 months in are due to this effect. Your stamina increases dramatically the first few months but during this time you are very exhausted during the workout and your form is crappy, making you inefficient. 6 months later your stamina is better and you are able to keep your form tighter and you start to become efficient in the movements. Doing a burpee 0.2 sec faster each rep over 50 reps is a 10 secs decrease in your overall time. Is your "cardio" better - no! Are you more efficient - yes! Are you therefore fitter - sure! Now efficiency is a topic for a different day but an important concept nonetheless.

Back to Adaptation - A good program is one that requires the body to adapt to new stressers and allows the body enough time and the ability to recover from the stress resulting in the ability to do more. Basically you need to do enough so that the body has to change/adapt but not so much that adaptation is impossible or too little that no adaptation is neccessary. The tricky part is that the amount of stress required for the change to occur and the amount of rest required before you have improved will change constantly during your training career.

For weight lifters - Use "starting strength", then move on to the "Texas method" then to a more advanced protocol. As you plateau you need to change the program accordingly nothing lasts for ever and what works for an advanced athlete will not work for a beginner and vice versa.

For P90Xers - Keep the exercises in your workouts varied and start introducing heavier weights. Switch to scaled Crossfit.com style workouts then try the real thing. For those long time body weight/light weight Crossfiters start getting heavier or increasing the difficulty of the body weight exercises try handstand pushups instead of regular. Do Fran at 115#, you can lower the reps at first to keep the volume similar to what you are used to. Your body will adapt and you will be stronger and faster. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable or risk being content with being scaled.

*Side Note: Doing 1000+ air squats in row is probably the dumbest thing you can do in your training as the stress is so high that there is no way you will see any gains after recovery in fact you will most likely see a lose in your abilities. Excessive/insane feats of strength will result in instant overtraining!

A Successful WinterLift

On Saturday I competed at Winterlift in Sarnia. Here is a summary of what worked out to be a third placed finish in the 77kg weight class. BWT 76.1kg; Snatch: 1-84kg, 2-89kg(miss), 3-90kg; Clean&Jerk: 1-109, 2-115, 3-119; Total: 209kg. Big thanks to Bryan Marshall and Hani Kanama from Toronto Weightlifting for all their help, tips and great advice. I would also like to thank Larry, Miel, Stella, Jeff, Glenn, Rick, Justin, Robyn, and everyone else for the cheers and support.

Crossfit Chilliwack

Over the Christmas Holidays I spent 3 weeks training at the new box in my hometown. I had a great time at Crossfit Chilliwack with a bunch of great people! I can't wait to get back and see how they've grown.

Crossfit Taranis

Over the holidays I went to Victoria to visit Ben "Famine" Wheeler aka Wheels. We did a lovely 5km row at Crossfit Taranis. This box is huge! Best of luck to Ben and his training endeavors at his new box. I'm sure you'll have a tonne of clients in no time. I look forward to seeing him at the regionals in Calgary.

Happy New Years!

It's New Year's Eve remember to celebrate in style and get your groove on!

Now is a great time to make your goals for the coming year or at least the next 3 months. Make it attainable and make it real put a number to it. Pick 3 for each catagory - strength, work, skills

My goals for 2010

Strength:

1. Squat 400lbs

2. Deadlift 420#

3. Snatch 100kg

Work:

1. a 6 min Mile

2. 1/2 angie in 6 min

3. 15 rnds of Mary

Skills

1. 100 DUs in a row

2. 3 sec Front lever

3. 10 full HSPU on Parallettes (shoulders to thumbs)

Workouts

Keep lean and mean over the holidays!

Workouts can now be found at:
www.4horsemenweightlifting.blogspot.com

or alternatively at
www.crossfit.com or www.crossfitfootball.com
www.performancemenu.com
www.optimumperformancetraining.blogspot.com/
www.coachrut.blogspot.com

Check out my SAC!

http://www.londonlegiontrack.ca/Home_Page.php

Training at Powerplay

I have become tired of working out at campus rec. as it is too busy, too crowded and lacks proper equipment. I will now be doing Crossfit, O-lifting and strength workouts at Power Play Training Centre (865 Florence street, London, ON N6G 5W5). They have all the equipment I need to do any workout I wish (2 full O-lift sets/platforms/racks, GHD, Back ext, pullup station, kettlebells dumbbells, barbells and weights a plenty, box jumps, a 40 yrd indoor track, treadmills, bikes, med-balls, etc. and I'm bringing a C2 rower, some rings and a few other goodies that I will leave at the gym for general use). I have a deal setup with the manager Ryan for anyone that is interested it's $50/month and you can come by whenever they are open but they do run training sessions throughout the day so it can be a little busy at times especially 6-8:30pm (though the O-lifting platforms are usually free at this time) . I train at lunch time 12:30-1:30pm since that is their slow time (we had the whole place to ourselves today), so if you want to join me and Brad for a workout drop on by or give us a shout and we can car pool from Western.

*Additional Note* - Winterlift is in Sarnia on February 13th, 2010 and Crossfit Sectionals are in Toronto March 20-21st, 2010. It's never too late to start preparing so get out and work hard!

Killin' it For a Cure!

October is breast cancer awareness month and today I had a chance to participate in the "Killin' it for a Cure" fundraiser at Crossfit Will County. It was a fun event consisting of a team WOD. Teams of two had to complete the following: 3rnds of 20 Clean&Jerk 135#, 40 Kettlebell swings 53#, 30 pullups. My partner Mike (Crossfit Naperville) and I finished the task in 13:25, here's a pic of the two of us post workout.

Crossfit Chicago

I had a few hours off from doing research at the APS so I dropped in to Crossfit Chicago on Friday. Little did I know I would be in for a little treat called "Linda" aka 3 bars of death! Good bunch of guys/gals and a puppy make up this quaint little box. Coach Rudy Tapalla ran the WOD while Coach Bryce Wood motivated and spotted me through out the workout. I had a great time guys and I look forward to sporting my new crossfit chicago t-shirt.

Good Crossfit - Bad Crossfit

There are a lot of crossfits out there, some are good and some are bad!

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Handson_DilutingTheBrand.pdf

The truth is that people who offer great Crossfit or other services will do exceptionally well and people who offer mediocre crossfit will still do ok. The reason being is that even poorly executed crossfit programming and functional movements provide a better workout that 90% of the programs / globo gyms / personal trainers out there. The magic is in the movements, even when those movements are not done exactly as they should be. It seems wierd but it is the truth. There are 1000's of people a month becoming new crossfit trainers and opening up their own affliates who know nothing about how to train people. Some of these will do well as coaches and others not so well but hopefully they will be constantly learning how to be better coaches and that makes all the difference. All good coaches and trainers started off as amateurs before they became all-stars it just takes time. New unqualified trainers will unfortunately injure a client or two but this will hopefully remind them to keep improving their knowledge in exercise physiology, biomechanics, olympic lifting, etc. I have trained at a lot of bad crossfits, some get better everytime I go back and some don't. The only good thing is that eventually there will be 5-10 Crossfits in every big city and 2-4 in every small town and the crappy crossfits will all be weeded out.

Alec Hanson from Crossfit Costa Mesa says it best (CFJ article )- "A great trainer is someone who inspires those they train. They create new opportunities for their members. They push them and encourage them and are invested in their lives and their success. If they are bad trainers, their clients will either get hurt, hit plateaus or realize they don’t really know anything and leave."

For all new trainers I think it is important for them to stick with what they know and slowly expand their knowledge. People can get very fit doing 4rnds of 400m run, 50 air squats or 3rnds of 30 pushups, 50 situps. Sometimes less is more (effective and safe)! Use the tools you have and then build from there. As your clients grow so will their needs and your coaching will have to follow suit because if you can't keep up they will leave. If you can't do a clean and jerk or if you don't know the proper way to teach the movement then you can't expect your clients to perform them in the workout. When you have some idea of how the C&J goes you can put it into the programming at low weight for high reps and when you have a solid foundation of the C&J you can start to get your clients lifting heavy singles. (This is the same reason I don't teach people how to do backflips.)

So which is worse, doing crossfit.com by yourself (can't see form) at a Globo Gym or working out at a Crappy Crossfit (doing horrible programming)? The answer is different for everyone for me it's the crappy crossfit but for someone who doesn't know the movements correctly it is the globo gym. Either way both are better than the typical "back and bicept" day followed by 30 min of cardio when trying to get fit.

Keep functional, keep fit!

Trainers - Keep learning you never know enough and keep up to the needs of your clients or lose them!

Athletes - If you are not seeing results or you find yourself getting hurt/injured find a new trainer!

Take your workouts to go!

The following is a list of workouts that can be performed on the road, away from the gym. Look for pieces of the environment that can be used as equipment ie. benches (for box jumps), retaining walls (for box jumps), tree branches (for pullups), big stones (for "kettlebell" swings, press or thrusters) etc.

21-15-9 of Squats and Pushups rest 2-3 min and repeat as necessary.

100 burpees

Max rounds in 20 min of: 5 pushups, 10 situps, 15 squats

400m run x 4-6 (rest 2-5 min in between)

1 mile run, rest 5 min, 1 mile run

4 rnds for time of: 50 squats, 400m Run

3 rnds for time of: 20 burpees, 50 situps

100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats

5 rnds of: 15 clapping pushups, 25 hollow rock, 35 jumping squats

400m walking lunges

tabata (20s work, 10s rest) pushups, situps, burpees, squats

5 rnds of: 1 min Handstand, 10 pistols

10 rnds of: 100m sprint, 10 burpees, rest 1 min

3 rnds of: 200m run, 30 squats, 20m bear crawl, 10 burpees, 20m bear crawl

50-40-30-20-10 tuck jumps and situps/V-ups

21-15-9 Handstand pushups and pushups

3 rnds of: 20 squats, 15 burpee broad jumps, rest 2min

3 rnds of: 50 supermans, 50 situps

5 rnds of: 10 pushups, 10 jumps for height, 200 m sprint
2min rest
5rnds of: 10 pushups, 10 broad jumps, 200m sprint

Practise your Gymnastics:
Handsprings
Handstands
Elbow levers
Flags
Tumbles/rolls
L-sits
and all the one arm/leg and straddle/tuck variations

Go Hiking!

Go Swimming!

Go Bike riding!

Go Running!

Rings, or a jump rope are small enough to fit in your suitcase and will add even more variety to your workouts.

FGB IV

Join the fight now! Fight Gone Bad IV will go down on Saturday, September 26th at around 6pm in the 4Horsemen Garage. Come out, have fun and show your support for prostate cancer research and the Wounded Warrior project. There is still time sign up or to DONATE!

Get Outdoors

(Flying sideways off a tree and over a ledge at Lindeman Lake, BC.)

Just do something fun and outdoors! It's summer time get off your butt and go hiking, swimming, running, etc. you can even try some gymnastics (just remember that nature's equipment is not as structurally sound as engineered equipment ie. the structural integrity of cedar bark is not enough to support a flag from a 165# individual - see pic). Getting some fresh air and a little sun it will do you good.

Elbow lever - Place hands facing backwards on object. Stab elbows into stomach on either side of belly button. Lift head and legs slowly until straight. Open elbow angle to bring body horizontal. (Tutorial)

t-shirts

T-shirts are coming! The crest will be on the back, the front will have Conquest, Death, Famine and War around the collar. Does anyone want a saying on the back as well? Add your sayings to the comments section.

eg.
"the iron never lies"
"FIT AS F*CK!"

Over-training or Under-recovery

When performance drops the 1st question you need to ask is WHY? Most likely it is due to over-training or under-recovery both terms are basically interchangeable. When you are over-trained it is because you are have not fully recovered, therefore over-training is simply under-recovery. You must be very careful to not train in excess of what you can recover from, it is all about time management - how much rest do you need between workouts to be recovered. Will one day of rest allow you to recover from 1, 2, or 3 days in a row of hard workouts or do you need 2 days of rest for every 3 days of workout. Finding the right work to rest ratio is a tricky task and differs from individual to individual and also varies for each individual based on their current workload, nutrition and sleep habits. Workload or Volume is the sum of the loads you lift multiplied by the repetitions you perform (eg. 300# x 20 reps = a 6000# workload, 150# x 60 reps = 9000# workload), usually it is easiest to disregard the warm-up sets and only calculate this for the work sets. Depending on your program you may want to have a high workload (muscle gaining phase) or a low workload (right before a competition), but either way, the higher the workload the longer it takes to recover. Nutrition has a profound impact on recovery - you need to put the right building blocks into the body so it can repair itself (branched chain amino acids, glutamine, omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, magnesium, calcium etc.) not to mention you have to refuel for the next workout. For proper eating check out Foundations and Post-workout-feeding or check out Crossfit Cowtown's blog, or Robb Wolf's site. I recommend that my athletes eat a fairly "clean" diet (ie. as close to paleo as possible) to reduce inflammation and auto-immune responses caused by grains etc., to increase their rate of recovery. Protein:Carb:Fat ratios will depend on the needs of the athletes but most O-lifters can keep the carb intake very low. The last major aspect of recovery is sleep. As an athlete you need a minimum 8 hrs of sleep in order to recover I recommend 9-10 hrs for anyone wishing to be a highly competitive athlete. Make sure this is quality sleep - Super dark room (with no lights). When you are sleeping your body is performing the majority of the repair work. Workload, Nutrition and Rest are the main factors to recovery but there are also small things you can do to aid recovery. These minor aspects include - post-workout stretching, PNF stretching, foam rolling, contrast showers/baths, Epsom salts. The Most important thing is to listen to your body! If you are overly sore, tired, sleepy, or tight you might be on your way to being over-trained, remember it is better to take more rest than not enough. Use the rest-day to actually rest!

The Warm-up!

A good warm up is the key to a successful workout. In general, the shorter the workout the longer the warm-up! The quicker or more explosive you are while doing something under load the higher the potential for disaster/injury. High acceleration = High Force (F=m*a) especially at high mass/weight. So if you are going for a slow jog you probably don't need to warm up the muscles because the jogging is such a low stress/shock on the system that it will essentially be your warm-up. However if you are going to hit 6x50m sprints then you are probably going to want to do some amount of warm-up - like a light jog, then a faster jog, then a slow run, then a fast run and finally a sprint at ~90%. The same goes for heavy lifting do a few reps at 45% (5reps), 65% (3reps), 85% (2reps) before attempting your first lift (100%). The warm-up should not be too hard and essentially just there to get your muscles full of blood and loose, allowing you to move all your joints/limbs through the full ranges of motion needed in the exercises you will be doing. Do the warm-up at a comfortable pace but don't take to long, save some time for the actual workout!

My favourite way to warm-up is as follows:
1.) 2 minutes skipping - singles (so easy to do, very little range of motion, very low effort but get the heart pumping)
2.) dynamic movement (arm and leg circles, toe touches etc. just get those limbs moving in a full range of motion)
3.) basic body movements (air squats, pushups, situps, pullups, back extensions - pretty basic stuff, nothing fancy but it warms up the muscles in a large range of motion)
4.) the sticking points. I only use static stretching on anything that is super tight - hips, and ankles are the big ones here. The preferred method to loosening up the hamstrings, glutes and quads and pretty much everything else is PNF. *Note* most static stretching should be done post-workout as it can have a detrimental effect on performance if done pre-workout (hips are usually only exception to the rule).
5.) If needed foam roller on the sore areas
6.) raise the heart rate a bit (all that stretching can lower the heart rate and you start to get cold, you should have a slight sweat on before you start the workout) I like to do skipping -Double Unders.
7.) Practise - go through any movements which you are unsure of or rusty that are in your workout. If it is a lift do reps with the bar and then 45%, 65%, 85%.
8.) Mentally focus on the task at hand - take a minute or two to rest and think about how you will complete the workout, close your eyes and image yourself doing each exercise to completion until you are finished
9.) Grab some water to rehydrate, and chalk up.
10.) Kick butt on the workout.

excuse me while i kiss the sky...

Big thanks to Jay's dad for hooking us up with some incredible boxes (20", 24", 36"). Tuesday I decided to give my max another go after "Helen". This video was my last attempt at 55 3/4 ". Excuse the "arnold" pose at the end.