Dec.16:
Warmup: Indian Clubs, and light dumbbell for shoulders, form roller, jump rope.
“Lumberjack” WOD
20 reps Deadlift BB 215lbs. then 500mter rowing
20 reps dumbbell swing 40lbs. then 500mter rowing
20 reps burpees. then 500mter rowing
20 reps Zercher squat 100lbs. then 500mter rowing
20 reps burpees. then 500mter rowing
20 reps pull-ups then 500mter rowing
20 reps box jumps . then 500mter rowing
20 reps dumbbell squat cleans 2-35lbs. then 500mter rowing.
Normally “Lumberjack” WOD is normally done with running 400 meters but today it sucked outside, so did rowing. Also did Zercher squats to get more mobility instead of overhead squats. 42 min time was not bad, but then I did not use prescribed weights load.
Gut check on Martial arts exercise for next year;
No I don’t think I will be training for the next MMA fight! Its bloodsport for young aggressive males between the ages of 18-30years old, so that leaves me out and training they use is not unique, as I use everything they use for tools and technique. I’m just not going to have my face rearranged and my ears flatten rolling around on a sweaty caged in mat. However, it’s a great sport to watch but that’s all it is to me.
I have the background to use martial arts of several styles as an instructor for many years, so all that I needed is to plan out a group of movements that are fitness and mobility productive for no special self defense purpose. When you all look at martial arts in commercial schools, they are not for the most part dealing with self defense methods; you are really practicing fighting as a sport of fitness. The definition of self-defense in the legal world is difficult to justify, with or without weapons and you may just learn a enough to get yourself in trouble. The only people who can use real martial arts are military and law enforcement personnel to defend themselves or protect others without much reservation.
Citizens when using martial arts today do it primarily for fitness and youth development. Most of the schools and programs out there are doing a great job in that regard. The instructors in commercial schools don’t want to be known as a bunch of hard nose fighters nor do they want to be liability for injuries during training or on the street if your students starts using the arts outside the gym. All fighting has to be performed in a controlled environment with strict guidence. Therefore for the most part, martial arts schools what advertize that you will learn how to defense yourself in a life or dead situation are doing you a disservice. You see the elements of defending one’s self in a tactical context where the objective is render the opponent(s) harmless, cannot really be trained in a gym environment, plus you may not want to have that outcome on your conscience any way.
So this coming year I have a special 30-60 min martial arts routine(always a work in progress) workout I learned overseas, with a lot more joint mobility speed-strength work and less banging on the bags or slow lifting. Because most of the movements and training on speed strength are ballistic techniques, which is the primary focus of training at my age, should enhance my total body function. There is just too much sagittal programming in the past causing imbalance. Martial arts workouts if performed continuously or with hard ballistic intervals, can make you ripped and pimped out rock hard! (not like a "Jersey Shore" Pimp)
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Crossfit work for the coming year.
Dec.15th.
Warmup: Indian Clubs, and light dumbbell for shoulders, form roller, jump rope. Joint mobility for legs and back..
3 Sets; Kettlebell pressing, pull-ups, DB swings and Kettlebell pull over and crunch
Second session:
heavy bags/speed bals, hands and legs. For 30 min.
Gut check on CrossFit exercise for next year;
Crossfit is gaining on the fitness world like a freight train. That being said, is it real?
1. For the last 6 years I have been using Crossfit or various versions of WODs into my daily fitness program. However, I don’t teach or coach the program myself even though I have a cert, but I still don’t believe it qualifies me to be a good coach. My reasoning is that I really can’t perform some of the exercises due to some physical limitations, so I content to use what I can do or scale the exercises I suck real bad at. The other thing, I don’t really want to be committed to a commercial “box” being well entrenched in retirement mode. Therefore I am content to have my personal Crossfit "box" next to my house with every toy and function to do any Crossfit routine. (don’t ask how much that cost me!) I will continue to use Crossfit WODs for the coming year because, they work and can use a vast number of exercises for a personal fitness program.
2. The upside of using Crossfit program is that it promotes intensity and variability. Crossfit program can be done almost daily if it’s planned out as not to get into over use issues. It works and the detractors can spit and sputter about its dangerous and can kill you(no one has died yet, but I have seen unfit joggers die during a marathon this year). The other fitness program out there can talk a lot of shit how intense it is and effective their program is, then look for the “poster boys and girls” to see the fruits of their program. Crossfit has hundreds of fit examples.
3. Once you become well schooled in Crossfit exercises, and most are very basic, like barbell clean and jerks, pull-ups and Kettlebell swings, you can compete against others in the nation in the “games”. However, you better had done your homework, as competitors are as serious as a heart attack! Crossfit as fitness promotes a competition style by timing each routine and matching your performance with others daily. However, you still have the option to perform at your level of capability. I will continue to time all my training as I have done in the past when I train mostly by myself, so I do need the added pressure of matching against the clock.
4. One size fits all program? Just about in my experience. There may even be too much for the average to handle or the professional to focus to be successful. I have gotten the Crossfit Journal since it was being published; therefore I have tons of fitness information that would take a life time to reconcile. Crossfit is constantly attempting to define fitness as a global concept for all to embrace. But the most important aspect as Crossfit evolves, is the continuous investigation of all so called stand alone sports like powerlifting, running, football, shooting, and the list is endless. Coach Glassman I think is trying to be as inclusive as possible so no one in the fitness world is left out considering his 10 elements of fitness applied to Crossfit. So regardless of your fitness interest from trail running to gymnastics to strongman training you can be part of the community. Also, you can follow or attend a “box” based on your personal style of training from the basic main site WOD to the more aggressive multiple WODs like SEALFIT site. My personal favorite is Tactical Athletic of Jeff Martone’s as it has a good combination of strength and endurance for someone who has to use tactical attributes that a fireman, LEO, or military which I will continue the coming year as it is for the real deal people on the street each day.
Dec. 14th
66 min run/walk in very cold weather.
Warmup: Indian Clubs, and light dumbbell for shoulders, form roller, jump rope. Joint mobility for legs and back..
3 Sets; Kettlebell pressing, pull-ups, DB swings and Kettlebell pull over and crunch
Second session:
heavy bags/speed bals, hands and legs. For 30 min.
Gut check on CrossFit exercise for next year;
Crossfit is gaining on the fitness world like a freight train. That being said, is it real?
1. For the last 6 years I have been using Crossfit or various versions of WODs into my daily fitness program. However, I don’t teach or coach the program myself even though I have a cert, but I still don’t believe it qualifies me to be a good coach. My reasoning is that I really can’t perform some of the exercises due to some physical limitations, so I content to use what I can do or scale the exercises I suck real bad at. The other thing, I don’t really want to be committed to a commercial “box” being well entrenched in retirement mode. Therefore I am content to have my personal Crossfit "box" next to my house with every toy and function to do any Crossfit routine. (don’t ask how much that cost me!) I will continue to use Crossfit WODs for the coming year because, they work and can use a vast number of exercises for a personal fitness program.
2. The upside of using Crossfit program is that it promotes intensity and variability. Crossfit program can be done almost daily if it’s planned out as not to get into over use issues. It works and the detractors can spit and sputter about its dangerous and can kill you(no one has died yet, but I have seen unfit joggers die during a marathon this year). The other fitness program out there can talk a lot of shit how intense it is and effective their program is, then look for the “poster boys and girls” to see the fruits of their program. Crossfit has hundreds of fit examples.
3. Once you become well schooled in Crossfit exercises, and most are very basic, like barbell clean and jerks, pull-ups and Kettlebell swings, you can compete against others in the nation in the “games”. However, you better had done your homework, as competitors are as serious as a heart attack! Crossfit as fitness promotes a competition style by timing each routine and matching your performance with others daily. However, you still have the option to perform at your level of capability. I will continue to time all my training as I have done in the past when I train mostly by myself, so I do need the added pressure of matching against the clock.
4. One size fits all program? Just about in my experience. There may even be too much for the average to handle or the professional to focus to be successful. I have gotten the Crossfit Journal since it was being published; therefore I have tons of fitness information that would take a life time to reconcile. Crossfit is constantly attempting to define fitness as a global concept for all to embrace. But the most important aspect as Crossfit evolves, is the continuous investigation of all so called stand alone sports like powerlifting, running, football, shooting, and the list is endless. Coach Glassman I think is trying to be as inclusive as possible so no one in the fitness world is left out considering his 10 elements of fitness applied to Crossfit. So regardless of your fitness interest from trail running to gymnastics to strongman training you can be part of the community. Also, you can follow or attend a “box” based on your personal style of training from the basic main site WOD to the more aggressive multiple WODs like SEALFIT site. My personal favorite is Tactical Athletic of Jeff Martone’s as it has a good combination of strength and endurance for someone who has to use tactical attributes that a fireman, LEO, or military which I will continue the coming year as it is for the real deal people on the street each day.
Dec. 14th
66 min run/walk in very cold weather.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Developing a new training plan for next year
Dec.13th.
Warmup: Indian Clubs, and light dumbbell for shoulders, form roller and some heavy bag hands and legs.
Rainy day WOD so its at my box out side porch for some Metcom.
1000 meter rowing on C2
50 wall balls
1500 meters rowing.
50 burpees(suck as always so I will stay out of prison so I have to use them for fitness)
2000 meters rowing
Good session and doing it outside in the fresh also made it enjoyable, except for the burpees.
Gut check on kettlebell exercise for next year;
We all know(except for the brain dead) that the reality shows on TV have nothing to do with reality. When thinking about what is now real life in the fitness world, I came up with a few programs up for debate as I am can only look at it from my narrow view finder. Based on my review, I can embrace a new fitness program for the coming year shedding what is low productive and embrace things that were productive, especially asymmetrical.
1. Kettlebells has become the new kid on the block, especially in the last 5 years, with significant increase in use by everyone from housewives to MMA fighters. However, the number of serious Kettlebell athletics who specialize, mostly as a new sport competition like GS or people who want to be instructors after taking a weekend seminar, still appears to be very low, but growing slowing. There are a lot of detractors out there that believe the Kettlebell fitness thing is shit, and will bad mouth every opportunity, especially if they came on board to get a piece of the action late or don’t like being undercut. Can’t we all get along!
2. I Goggle the word “Kettlebell”and each day I get from 4-50 hits a day of individuals, or companies involved in some commercial fitness program using kettlebells. Everyone must of just awoke to find a new piece of equipment to peddle. There is even some gyms that specialize exclusively to the use of Kettlebell as a total fitness, but they are just starting to emerge. You would think that with all the “fat frying programs” out there, there would never be an obesity problem in the country. Kettlebells will not induce fat loss any more that a set of dumbbells or a boot camp routine…….it’s the diet stupid! You don’t have to do a single push to be thin again. Thin and fit it another thing.
3. GS Kettlebell sport is the only competition with kettlebells and the only real way to evaluate your progress when compared to others that also train. It has a standardization of Kettlebell style, size, weights and type of lifts. Competition is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a sure way of adding intensity to the workouts and a reason to keep training, that will produce personal growth. One downside is that once a aggressive type person stops competition, there is a high probably that they will lose interest and move on to something else. Have you ever heard of a Pro football player playing in some high school “flag foot ball game” pickup game with the boys? Bottom line if you are looking for something in fitness that will last a life time or your useful years, GS may not be the ticket. If you don’t believe me, the next GS completion, see how many are 50-70 year old men and woman are competing. It is really small! That’s not fair! You see few in that age group in any fitness program.
4. What then do you do with these overprice hunks of iron(KETTLEBELLS) to become useful to a fitness routine if you are not standing up for 10min to have some one count every rep. Well now they have a “strongman division” that’s 4 min timed set for a higher weight Kettlebell but in the same context. A new GS sport completion has arrived with higher weights and shorter time span. AD syndrome comes to mind. Let get this shit over with by adding a heavier Kettlebells( I can also sell bigger kettlebells maybe) and keep the timed sets for the BUFF’s of the Kettlebell world. I do have the heavy Kettlebells and prefer shorter sets, so next year they will be added to the training mix at some point. However, for pure absolute strength development, there is nothing like 500 lbs barbell deadlifts or box squats. I have not seen Kettlebell that big yet.
5. This year I gave up my complete collection of “hard style” kettlebells with the fat handles and various size bells. I gave them to LEO training group who just need a resistance weight with no intent to make kettlebell a life’s mission. Based on my years of using kettlebells for all types of exercise, it’s the completion-GS style Kettlebell for me, not for any reason, I can grab them more effective with my small fingers. So this coming year its completion style kettlebells for completion lifts and all exercise routines. I still don’t like the idea of them being made in China when we have great steel mills in this country, And plenty of people out of work to make them.
6. Personally I have no problem of Kettlebells of much heavier weight for timed sets. All sports activities tries to be inclusive, however, that will only keep the top level competitive Kettlebell GS lifters motivated and will not bring in new real Strong lifters into the sport of GS. That just my experience with “muscle heads” Even though 105-135 lbs lifted over head with one arm for 2 min is definitely nothing to look down on, even for the big Dogs of strength, but it’s not satisfying to a really strong person who are benching 600 to 800 lbs or clean and jerk a Oly bar with 500 lbs. for a few reps. Intensity trumps endurance always!
7. Don’t label me as an anti GS sport Nazi! GS and timed sets for fitness is fantastic! Just Not as a steady diet all year or every workout. I have done my share of 10-20 min timed sets of cleans or long cycle at some point in the year of training and will continue that for the coming year. However, the long Kettlebell sets, even the Strong Sport “ Kettlebell weights, are only a small part of my training year as my goal is fitness and sustainability. OH, that dirty word: sustainability! You mean I have to be fit for life and keep this shit up for the next 10-50 years! Lets see if you all can go to your favorite “Planet Fitness” gym, run on the threadmill, day after day for the next 25 years….can you handle that?
8. I have never been able to keep my level of strength or intensity all year long. So the concept of periodization of some kind is necessary for me, but not as regimented as when I was competing. Therefore, starting sometime around the first to the year I start to work with more weight and volume of Kettlebell exercise, as well the other “toys” so I am at full work capacity in late spring. Then Late in the fall, back off and taper down.
9. The coming year I will also have to watch the volume more closely as there will be adding more “complex” Kettlebell and body weight movements that are not in my regular program, so I may have to tap out sooner each day. The objective is to increase joint mobility which has always been lacking……. like forever! I have a number of exercises using kettlebells that I got from Scott Sonnon who has fitness longevity in terms of style and methods, which I will have be trying this coming year. The more complex exercises tend to be more taxing, therefore I have to see just how much of them can be incorporated each week.
10. Hard style or soft style is just commercial hype as far as I am concerned. It matters little if you are performing a snatch with a hard style Kettlebell or a GS with is considered “soft style”. Try a 20 min set long cycle with a 24kg and see how soft it feels! Or try the slow moving Turkish Get up for a few sets and see how long you can last before you get gassed.
11. All in all the Kettlebell is a great fitness tool but it has lots of completion with barbells, sand bags, chains, kegs, TRX, ropes, logs,….well you get the idea. However, this coming year, and not so much as a resolution, but concentrate more on complex movements both slow like the TGU, and faster asymmectrical cleans and juggling. Add in some body weight exercise for joint mobility, then I should have an interesting training program what will never get stale..So it my get real interesting.
Warmup: Indian Clubs, and light dumbbell for shoulders, form roller and some heavy bag hands and legs.
Rainy day WOD so its at my box out side porch for some Metcom.
1000 meter rowing on C2
50 wall balls
1500 meters rowing.
50 burpees(suck as always so I will stay out of prison so I have to use them for fitness)
2000 meters rowing
Good session and doing it outside in the fresh also made it enjoyable, except for the burpees.
Gut check on kettlebell exercise for next year;
We all know(except for the brain dead) that the reality shows on TV have nothing to do with reality. When thinking about what is now real life in the fitness world, I came up with a few programs up for debate as I am can only look at it from my narrow view finder. Based on my review, I can embrace a new fitness program for the coming year shedding what is low productive and embrace things that were productive, especially asymmetrical.
1. Kettlebells has become the new kid on the block, especially in the last 5 years, with significant increase in use by everyone from housewives to MMA fighters. However, the number of serious Kettlebell athletics who specialize, mostly as a new sport competition like GS or people who want to be instructors after taking a weekend seminar, still appears to be very low, but growing slowing. There are a lot of detractors out there that believe the Kettlebell fitness thing is shit, and will bad mouth every opportunity, especially if they came on board to get a piece of the action late or don’t like being undercut. Can’t we all get along!
2. I Goggle the word “Kettlebell”and each day I get from 4-50 hits a day of individuals, or companies involved in some commercial fitness program using kettlebells. Everyone must of just awoke to find a new piece of equipment to peddle. There is even some gyms that specialize exclusively to the use of Kettlebell as a total fitness, but they are just starting to emerge. You would think that with all the “fat frying programs” out there, there would never be an obesity problem in the country. Kettlebells will not induce fat loss any more that a set of dumbbells or a boot camp routine…….it’s the diet stupid! You don’t have to do a single push to be thin again. Thin and fit it another thing.
3. GS Kettlebell sport is the only competition with kettlebells and the only real way to evaluate your progress when compared to others that also train. It has a standardization of Kettlebell style, size, weights and type of lifts. Competition is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a sure way of adding intensity to the workouts and a reason to keep training, that will produce personal growth. One downside is that once a aggressive type person stops competition, there is a high probably that they will lose interest and move on to something else. Have you ever heard of a Pro football player playing in some high school “flag foot ball game” pickup game with the boys? Bottom line if you are looking for something in fitness that will last a life time or your useful years, GS may not be the ticket. If you don’t believe me, the next GS completion, see how many are 50-70 year old men and woman are competing. It is really small! That’s not fair! You see few in that age group in any fitness program.
4. What then do you do with these overprice hunks of iron(KETTLEBELLS) to become useful to a fitness routine if you are not standing up for 10min to have some one count every rep. Well now they have a “strongman division” that’s 4 min timed set for a higher weight Kettlebell but in the same context. A new GS sport completion has arrived with higher weights and shorter time span. AD syndrome comes to mind. Let get this shit over with by adding a heavier Kettlebells( I can also sell bigger kettlebells maybe) and keep the timed sets for the BUFF’s of the Kettlebell world. I do have the heavy Kettlebells and prefer shorter sets, so next year they will be added to the training mix at some point. However, for pure absolute strength development, there is nothing like 500 lbs barbell deadlifts or box squats. I have not seen Kettlebell that big yet.
5. This year I gave up my complete collection of “hard style” kettlebells with the fat handles and various size bells. I gave them to LEO training group who just need a resistance weight with no intent to make kettlebell a life’s mission. Based on my years of using kettlebells for all types of exercise, it’s the completion-GS style Kettlebell for me, not for any reason, I can grab them more effective with my small fingers. So this coming year its completion style kettlebells for completion lifts and all exercise routines. I still don’t like the idea of them being made in China when we have great steel mills in this country, And plenty of people out of work to make them.
6. Personally I have no problem of Kettlebells of much heavier weight for timed sets. All sports activities tries to be inclusive, however, that will only keep the top level competitive Kettlebell GS lifters motivated and will not bring in new real Strong lifters into the sport of GS. That just my experience with “muscle heads” Even though 105-135 lbs lifted over head with one arm for 2 min is definitely nothing to look down on, even for the big Dogs of strength, but it’s not satisfying to a really strong person who are benching 600 to 800 lbs or clean and jerk a Oly bar with 500 lbs. for a few reps. Intensity trumps endurance always!
7. Don’t label me as an anti GS sport Nazi! GS and timed sets for fitness is fantastic! Just Not as a steady diet all year or every workout. I have done my share of 10-20 min timed sets of cleans or long cycle at some point in the year of training and will continue that for the coming year. However, the long Kettlebell sets, even the Strong Sport “ Kettlebell weights, are only a small part of my training year as my goal is fitness and sustainability. OH, that dirty word: sustainability! You mean I have to be fit for life and keep this shit up for the next 10-50 years! Lets see if you all can go to your favorite “Planet Fitness” gym, run on the threadmill, day after day for the next 25 years….can you handle that?
8. I have never been able to keep my level of strength or intensity all year long. So the concept of periodization of some kind is necessary for me, but not as regimented as when I was competing. Therefore, starting sometime around the first to the year I start to work with more weight and volume of Kettlebell exercise, as well the other “toys” so I am at full work capacity in late spring. Then Late in the fall, back off and taper down.
9. The coming year I will also have to watch the volume more closely as there will be adding more “complex” Kettlebell and body weight movements that are not in my regular program, so I may have to tap out sooner each day. The objective is to increase joint mobility which has always been lacking……. like forever! I have a number of exercises using kettlebells that I got from Scott Sonnon who has fitness longevity in terms of style and methods, which I will have be trying this coming year. The more complex exercises tend to be more taxing, therefore I have to see just how much of them can be incorporated each week.
10. Hard style or soft style is just commercial hype as far as I am concerned. It matters little if you are performing a snatch with a hard style Kettlebell or a GS with is considered “soft style”. Try a 20 min set long cycle with a 24kg and see how soft it feels! Or try the slow moving Turkish Get up for a few sets and see how long you can last before you get gassed.
11. All in all the Kettlebell is a great fitness tool but it has lots of completion with barbells, sand bags, chains, kegs, TRX, ropes, logs,….well you get the idea. However, this coming year, and not so much as a resolution, but concentrate more on complex movements both slow like the TGU, and faster asymmectrical cleans and juggling. Add in some body weight exercise for joint mobility, then I should have an interesting training program what will never get stale..So it my get real interesting.
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