Do you want to have the strength, mobility & toughness of an action hero? Well let me tell you about my own method that I have used training myself (& others as a former fitness trainer) to work towards this goal. Let me preface this by saying if you want to be a powerlifter, bodybuilder, etc you need proper guidance for steering this toward your specific goal. Also if you play a specific sport you need to make sure you add in specific skill development.
My methods will take you 80-90% towards anyone of these categories. If you want to be prepared to take on anything then this is a (if not the) style to use. Strength, power, speed, agility, quickness, mobility & flexibility are what this style will help you build.
So let's jump right in & quit the yammering, the following is a guideline to the order I have found works well in most cases. Now when I say most that means it is NOT written in stone. Do not be afraid to experiment! Just don't hurt yourself doing something weird. I train six days per week, one day conditioning/cardio type movements, the next more explosive/strength/power oriented work. I use Monday – Saturday with Sunday being a free day.
General Warm-up – I know, I know, boring, but it needs to be done. Take at least five (5) minutes of moving all or at least the majority of your joints. Do not just get on a bike for 5 minutes & think you have done good, because you haven't. Jumping Jacks or a variation are a good thing to start with, but you need some squatting/hinging, some reaching & twisting.
Specific Warm-up – This is usually used mainly on explosive/strength/power days as your body works best when your nervous system is stimulated. This usually (you may see this word a lot) consist of the first 3-5 exercises or movements simulating them. I even do this for explosive jumping/plyometric movements, I just do them without as much explosiveness.
THE WORKOUT!
Stamina/Conditioning/Cardio - I sometimes use a certain skill or skills I wish to learn at or near the beginning, but then I get into the meat. I use rounds/timed tempos with minimal rest between movements & rounds/tempos. I usually end the session with some odd work like muscle endurance in my feet, light resistance high reps.
Explosive/Strength/Power – I usually (that word again) start with a jumping &/or sprinting drill. I try to make sure the combined rep total is 20. Depending on S/C/C day I choose drills that are not compromised from that training. This is important as it further stimulates the nervous system. This can allow stronger muscle contractions.
Next I usually move to some high resistance lifts. I usually perform a squatting &/or hinging, upper body pull (vertical – horizontal), upper body push (vertical – horizontal), ofttimes I will follow with midsection or posterior chain work. I try to stick with certain basic movements & place specialized odd movements after basic heavier movements. Some people would choose to do it opposite, but in my experience the basic movements are so much heavier than odd movements that with focus it doesn't really matter that you have worked those muscles.
A final comment before I go to the next part. E/S/P is not stamina/conditioning/cardio so take at least 0:30 or longer between movements. Having said that it is rare that I rest longer than 2:00.
STRETCHING!!!! - This is the life saver. For the last five years I have been using http://www.yogabodynaturals.com/ method called Gravity Poses. I have no monetary interest in this company I just have found Lucas' Gravity Poses to work the best.
RECAP:
General Warm-up 5-10 minutes
Specific Warm-up (especially on high resistance days) 5-10 minutes
Stamina/Conditioning/Cardio 10-30 minutes
Explosiveness/Strength/Power (jump, sprint, basics + esoteric) 15-30 minutes
STRETCHING! 10-20 minutes
Total Time S/C/C = 30 - 60 minutes
Total Time E/S/P = 35 – 70 minutes
You should always strive towards the lower end of the time scale. Most important take away is use the minimum amount needed to achieve your fastest gains.
So if you wish to be prepared physically & mentally for any activity or sport try the Animal Ability style!
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
My Journey Into The Underground
When my friend, Ben Bergman, asked me to write about my journey into the world of Underground Strength training, I didn't have to think twice about it. I was blessed to find several coaches back around 2004-2005 whose methods were unorthodox, but highly effective. Some of the strength & conditioning renegades I found then were Mike Mahler, Diesel Crew, Bud Jeffries, Greg Glasman, and Zach Even-Esh.
All of them were training in warehouses, garages, parks, back
yards, or playgrounds; any where except in gyms.
I still learn from all of them to this very day. However,
Zach Even-Esh is in the spotlight today.
I had trained in martial arts for quite a few years and had
always looked for something to that would fill the void in the training we'd
been doing. I knew strength and power had to be improved to improve what I call
"stopping power".
When I learned of Zach's wrestling background and got his
first training manuals, which I still have and study), something just clicked
for me.
Though I opened one of the earliest CrossFit gyms in the USA , number 35
to be exact, I continued to follow Zach's methods. I was kind of the "black sheep" in CrossFit, and
still am, because I believed in learning from all valid sources whether they
are CrossFit or not.
Let me clarify one thing right now, I refuse to become a
CrossFit hater or basher even though it is now the "cool" thing to
do. If someone who doesn't do CrossFit can whip Rich Froning, Jr., then maybe
their opinion is worth listening to. We are one of a very small number of gyms that offer
CrossFit and Underground Strength training, in fact our gym has become known as
the Cave, not by its' legal name of CrossFit Gulf Coast.
We are a strength-based training center. Our training
regularly includes bench press, squats, deadlifts, and shoulder presses. All our athletes do strict pull-ups on a variety of
apparatus like Zach's original Underground Strength Gym in NJ. Odd object lifts often replace barbell lifts, though we do a
lot of heavy barbell work still.
I could go on about this for hours, but let me narrow it
down to the subject Ben asked me to talk about, that is why I go the Underground
route and how it has affected my business. Underground Strength workouts are harder and longer than
what most people are accustomed to, but they produce great results. We usually train from 1 1/2 to 2 hours, not
15 minutes.
Another plus for Underground training is the shorter
learning curve with odd object lifts than with barbells. This is especially
true for the Olympic lifts, though they are tremendous. Underground Strength has let us rise above the herd. I have
refused to run a "cookie cutter" gym.
You could say, "I took the road less traveled, and that has made
all the difference."
Monday, July 15, 2013
Putting The Super In Superhuman
Becoming beyond the realms of human abilities in fitness
isn't as far fetched as most people want to believe. Sure you won’t always be
someone who can deadlift 1000 pounds, run 50 miles, do 100 pull-ups or swing a
kettlebell 10,000 times but you can however push the very brink of your natural
abilities to become something more than yourself. Being superhuman doesn't mean
you’re just a physical specimen and do whatever the hell you want; a superhuman
has physical gifts using his emotional content to define his spirit and conquer
him/herself in their own endeavor.
To reach
certain levels, you must push yourself out of your comfort zone naturally and
with reason. Don’t be just jumping into something already advanced and think
you won’t be sore or get hurt, that just makes you a moron. Instead focus on
the progressive elements of what you’re capable of and little by little keep
pushing. Testing your limits are tests of your will power, how far you’re
willing to go. There is a bit of a price but it’s worth everything you've put
your heart into. Some people go so deep it might end up crippling them, others
keep edging and finding what they’re capable of and in doing so learn the value
of your mind and body’s strengths and weaknesses.
To become
superhuman is to follow simple and basic rules or you can come up with ones
suitable for you but the most basic ones are as follows:
- Never be satisfied with your training, keep learning.
- Train hard and smart, use your mind and body as if they’re the same thing.
- Sleep & Recover, very important in building the body and resting the mind
- Push yourself progressively, never take a short cut or you’ll end in a way you won’t like
- Value your true friends in your field for they’re the ones who give you the best advice and keep you motivated either through a conversation or just a few words.
One of my
favorite teachings to become superhuman is to follow your own path. This is one
of the toughest things to do and I’ll tell you why; people want to follow
someone else because they see how they do things and want to follow along but
never go beyond that. I realize some people like to do that P90X or Insanity
type programs and I’ll admit it’s better than nothing and if it works for them
awesome but they’re missing the big picture. You’re watching the DVDs and you
follow along as best as possible and if results come great, however, DVDs tend
to wear out or get scratched, stolen, ripped and whatever could happen how will
you do your workout? You going to pay another couple hundred bucks to get them
new? Think about it. I have my own
opinions about them but let me tell you something, just watching and following
along is really only good for techniques and tempos.
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Friday, July 12, 2013
Why Old School Is Superior
Back in the old days of the early 20th century,
you had workers in mining towns, quarries and other places where things needed
to be dug up, barreled out and transport heavy equipment or rock/stone that
weighed more than you can imagine. These men were extremely strong from this
back-breaking work and can topple just about any modern strength athlete today.
You want to talk about hard times, try being underground for 10-12 hours a day,
cutting, toppling and carrying out rock, stone and coal for a living. It’s a
point to learn what real strength is like.
In my
opinion Blacksmiths are some of the most underrated artists in their
profession. There are paintings in Paris that are as beautiful as a smoking hot
woman but when you assemble a weapon or a crafting tool by your very own hands,
the labor, the grip strength, the mind and precision is just off the charts.
Blacksmiths are very rare today because you have machines that cut down the
object making to a 1/3 of the time. These guys were very good at what they did
and the strength of their hands was second to none. I wouldn't doubt some of
those guys would be able to bend tough steel or crush your hand by shaking it
or squeezing it. There’s a lot we can learn from them.
If there
was the type of athlete we should strive to learn from is that of the ancient
athletes of the remote past especially the original Olympic athletes of Greece and Rome
long before the modern games came into play. You had guys that can most likely
destroy athletes of today. In India ,
wrestlers were the best soldiers the old empire had because of the discipline,
the conditioning and the level of strength that came when they were called upon
for war. Milo of Croton would lift and carry a calf everyday, as the calf got
older and bigger, Milo would still pick it up and carry him on his shoulders,
when the calf matured into a full-size bull, Milo
was still at it carrying this massive animal. This was one of the first
documented ways to progress to a heavier weight. In the middle ages, you had to
be tough as a knight because of the armor you wore was pretty damn heavy and
still had to have precise accuracy and strength to fight in battle.
How can we
learn and use to create certain methods for old school strength and fitness?
For starters, want to get an idea of what it’s like to work in a rock Quarry, get
a tire and a sledgehammer and hit that tire for as long as you can. To simulate
moving and carry something heavy, lift odd objects and/or sandbags and carry
them a certain distance. Learn the ancient traditions of Indian Wrestling by
swinging the Clubs and the Mace, when you’re doing them right you’re carrying
on a legacy that has lasted for centuries. Don’t have equipment, learn how to
handle your body in awkward positions by moving like an animal in the wild, or
learn how to use natural movements that the very first men had to learn;
sprinting, jumping, crawling, lifting/carrying kind of like moving like Tarzan.
Push-ups and Squats are great foundational movements if you’re in a closed-in
space or learn how to handle your body similar to a gymnast or wrestler. These
modern fads in fitness today really cannot compare to those who actually had to
bust their ass back in the day, training can be fun as I've always emphasized
but to really get to what you want, it’s training hard and smart that gets you
the best results.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Combo Workouts To Make Things Interesting
Its fun when you combine things together and make them
unique but not many people think they’re that creative and just follow others’
movements and just don’t learn how to use their brain. Not saying training isn't
a bad thing, whatever works is cool but when you bring certain things together
because it’s what you’d want to do, it’s a whole different ball game.
When you
create certain workouts, sometimes you need a place to do them. A park with
benches, swings, bars and walkways make up for a very unique training
experience. Another example would be your backyard or garage if you have room,
building and setting up your own style of training. Say you want Kettlebells in
one corner, Maces/Clubs in another area & a pull-up bar or rack in the back
and you've got it made, maybe you’d like to have some Odd Objects laying around
and picking them up at random moments in the workout who knows. For you
Bodyweight Practitioners, you can do things just about anywhere and have just
as much fun without ever spending a freaking dime. Here’s an example if you’re
up to the task….
Do a kettlebell snatch for a minute or two
5-10 reps of Bridging Gymnastics
Lunge to the furthest odd object you have and lift it
100 Squats
50 Push-ups
50 Tire Swings with a Thor and/or Sledgehammer
Do a couple rounds and finish off with some stretching
Now that workout might seem a bit advanced but it’s very
random and it’s unique. Pick exercises and combine them into what works for you
or try something different and see how it turns out while understanding how
your body reacts.
The best
thing you can do for yourself is go outside the norm. Make things work for you
that others can’t fathom of doing, not to prove anything towards them but to
prove to yourself that you can step outside the box and have fun with what you
have. Be resourceful, learn to see things differently. If anyone knows how to
make oddball exercises work its Steve Justa, he just finds things and works
with them in unique ways like lifting up a tire off a 2000 pound truck or
holding an isometric for an hour straight hell he’ll even circle around a 500
pound stone or barrel just for kicks. The more you learn to do things outside
the box, you begin to understand the limitless potential to become super strong
and crazy fit.
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