Over 100 Done So Far

 The journey continues as I keep grinding with my Hill Sprint Training. Thought I'd share my results so far. There isn't a huge difference but I'll take what I can get and keep getting better and better. I've now reached over 100 Sprints since I started a little over a month ago. Had to reduce the amount of sprints after the first three workouts since I was doing too much just to begin with. I was doing 10 sprints a session and reduced it to 5 each for the next three weeks, I'm now in my second week of 6 sprints a session for 12-15 seconds each. 

Results don't come easy for me and I've actually changed my eating habits around since I started this up again. I've cut back on a number of things and focused more on Steak, Rice, Eggs, Homemade Shakes with Milk & Raw Eggs, Chicken Salads from time to time and some other good stuff. On my days off from sprints, I'll do mainly Isometrics but I also go on walks, play basketball, work with hammers, do circuits and even one workout where I managed 105 slams in 5 minutes with my 20 lb slam ball. I thought I was going to die from that one and that felt more intense than the sprints LOL. 

Isometrics help a lot with the recovery and some days I'll do the intense 7-12 second contractions but other days I'll do 30 seconds or longer doing various positions. Overall like I said there isn't a massive difference in my physique and I still have quite a road ahead of me but I'm loving it and I feel different. I feel lighter even at around 255, my legs feel springy, the definition in the legs is awesome too and haven't felt I lost any strength. Stamina keeps getting better little by little and the endorphin highs are just flat out incredible. 

Not planning to look like Zach Efron from Baywatch but the idea is to slim down more, eat better, drink more water, harden the muscles up a bit and just be in better shape. This is my last year in my 30's and I want to be in the best shape I can be in when 40 hits. Getting a head start isn't a bad thing now is it? I don't want to feel like an old man and still want the ability to keep up. Too many people I know let themselves go after they approach 40 and many younger than me are already starting to wear down from injuries and even dying because of certain lifestyle choices. Although looking like you're in shape and actually feeling and doing things that keep you in shape are different things, I just want to get better little by little and feel like I'm not wearing out and can't keep up. Conditioning and Flexibility becomes more crucial as we age and staying strong is part of that puzzle. 

Sprints are more than just running hard for a few seconds, it's about fighting yourself and discovering where your true strength and will lies. Keep at it and keep being amazingly awesome everyone. 

Mar 20th

Today Apr 24th

 

The Hill And You

 It can be a love/hate relationship and sometimes you just want to quit but when you push because you know what's at stake, you find out what you're capable of. Now that can be a lot of things in life and some will take it to extremes even to the point of extreme conditions to prove how tough they are but in the end, there has to be balance amongst the chaos. For this specific reason I'm going with Hill Sprints here.

When you're at the hill and you sprint up that son of a bitch like your life depended on it, there's a lot of things going on that many don't realize. The hill can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on how you do it and treat it as such because believe it or not, that hill is like a coach. I teaches you what you're doing wrong, how to correct your stride, how you proceed with the right speed and how to apply the strength of your fortitude to its demanding presence. If you have someone to go sprinting with, that's great and you could push each other and encourage each other but even that is rare to find unless you're training for a sport like Football or Wrestling or MMA. The majority of the time, a Hill Sprinter is by him/herself, locked onto a specific goal with nothing but the clothes on their back, the surroundings and the ground they're sprinting on.

Hill Sprints are of a different animal than other forms of Strength Training or Interval Training. The hill fights you and wants you to not be able to tackle it's angle or dimensions. It doesn't want you to succeed but you push on anyway. It can be intimidating and it can even speak to you saying "you can't beat me, I'll make you feel like you're dying inside" or something along the lines of "Try me and find out what it feels like to know you need everything just to even get pass me by a few yards." It doesn't discriminate, it doesn't care where you come from, it doesn't matter what color, creed or if you're a world champion, it will beat you to a metaphorical pulp if you let it get to you. 

As of late, I've completed about 70 Sprints so far in my training and it doesn't get any easier. I've had to reduce the number of sprints because I did sense something wrong after doing too many of them too soon and that hill was laughing in my face. I still managed them but I was going back home on fumes and my body was in shock along with shot to shit. When I reduced the number to 5 sprints instead of 10 per session, things felt better, I felt stronger both during and after. The hill taught me a valuable lesson and that's to never underestimate its ability to kick your ass and ravage your ignorance. I don't sprint at 100% cause that would only be a few seconds and my legs would be shot, I sprint just hard enough to go for 10-15 seconds to hit that sweet spot. That gives me the opportunity to show that hill that I'm listening to not only it but to my body and finding that balance of going hard but not to the point of possibly getting hurt. 

The progression is simple and I nearly found out the hard way that simplistic progression and not all out high number of sprints is the way to go. I'm not Walter Payton or a Shamrock or Brock Lesnar, I can only be me. Right now I'm in the final week of doing 5 Sprints per session, by next week I'll be going after 6 for a max of 4 weeks and then add 1 more and so on and so forth. I don't bring my cell, I don't bring a backpack or water bottle with me, just the clothes I wear and the shoes on my feet to get me there. Walk to the hill, do my sprints, walk home and that's my workout. Depending on how many sprints I do, door to door takes about an hour or so from the time it takes to get get there, sprint and go back. There's beautiful trees, a cool park nearby and nobody bothers me unless they honk their horns driving by to cheer me on or give me a thumbs up. It is seriously one of the friendliest places I've ever been in. Most of the time with people coming by, I just nod and have us both be on our way. 

The hill I run on is a hill where my grandmother-in-law lives next to and it's a hill that leads up to the mountain where my Father-In-Law lives. Beautiful hill to even just climb up and there's a little trail on the side of the mountain that overlooks the road leading to the lake. Nobody bothers anybody, very civil and very little of the time you see an asshole drive by or some nutjob trying to see how fast he can go in his pickup with a MAGA Sticker & Gun Rack on the window. Always careful where I'm at and aware of any cars coming by cause the lane is barely small enough for a bike. When I walk back down to recover, I shift over to the ditch on the side. 

It's not the steepest hill but it is fun to sprint on and every now and then, you get some deer close by just sitting or looking on. If you like Hill Sprints and have a hill near by, use it to the best of your abilities, just be careful depending where it is. Keep being amazingly awesome and hope you have a great start to the week. 

The Difference Between Being Euphoric And Being A Zombie

 

The first 3 workouts of my current sprint training program didn't start off on the right foot so do speak. I started out at 10 sprints a session and without realizing it, it just didn't seem right. Something was off especially after the sprints and walking back home. When I did my third session and finally understood what I was feeling, I changed it up and went down a few notches. After each of the first three sessions, I was feeling like a zombie walking home. No energy, walking on fumes and feeling dead inside. It felt like shit and my body didn't completely respond well until I decided to make one change. Reduce the amount of sprints to half of what I was doing and progressively build up to 8-10 again.

When I made this one small change, it became something bigger than the previous three workouts. Cutting the sprints down to 5 not only changed my outlook on the workouts but felt the complete opposite of what I was doing before. I felt that I did enough but still had something left in the tank. I felt a sense of euphoria, that happy energy and bustling with life and vitality. Walking back home felt great and easy. Here's the main difference between the two opposing effects of being euphoric and feeling like a zombie: The feeling of euphoria is like a 70's Hippie in a meadow, just feeling great and high without an ounce of hate or negative feelings towards the world. Feeling like a zombie however; feels like nothing matters, the world goes on but you have no life in you, there's no usefulness and the feeling of no purpose, you just don't give a shit. Your body is moving or being still but there's nothingness as well, the energy feels empty and no sense of vitality whatsoever. 

This isn't just a feeling from sprint training, these can happy during any form of training or having such a long day at work or during work that it either sucks the life out of you or give you a reason to be happy and full of life. To me, training is about having something left in the tank but also feel like there's vigor and power that still runs strong while feeling great at the end. If your workout ends where there's nothing left and there's no life or energy coming from you internally or externally, there's something wrong there. If you're a competitor training for a sport, sure you want to work hard and make efforts to go against the competition but if there's no energy left for when the game even starts and you're just playing without an ounce of vital energy, what good was all that practice for? Practice with the intention of being at your best before, during and after whether it's a workout, training for a sport, at your job or whatever that keeps you being vitally strong. 

Now when it comes to awareness, you should always be aware of your surroundings. When you're naturally high and full of euphoria, you still know where you are and what's going on. When you're high out of your skull and have no sense of awareness whatsoever, that has a very high risk of killing you. Overdosing and things like that is what I can't condone and taking drugs to feel good just isn't right. Be vital and strong in your euphoric state with a solid sense of awareness. Don't go so far that that not only life is sucked out of you but there's no energy and strength left to do anything that it seems like you're dead but still moving. Be amazingly awesome and live with happiness and strength.   

100 Seconds Of Fat Melting Training Like Nazis Standing Next To The Ark

 

Certain aspects of training can be hard as hell and you do the best of what your body allows you. Even with a strong mind, your body is quite capable of more than we give credit but there's always a limit that reaches maximum. In Sprint Training, no matter who you are, your top speed only lasts mere seconds. In those seconds however, you are training your body to tackle fat like Kevin Greene took down quarterbacks; hard, fast and with ferocious intensity. 

Sprints separate the men from the boys and turns them into lean, mean fighting machines nearly as fast as the Flash. You can have your life flash before your eyes and still see what it would be like to go so hard that you are fighting for your life at the same time. Sprints are primal, intense and full of benefits that we often ignore because of the various things that it does or doesn't do. In simple terms, Sprint Training gives off Warrior Vibes.

For 10 seconds at a time, you can imagine many things to make this as intense as it's meant to be: Chasing down somebody, running from an animal, racing your shadow, being a character, being a real life superhuman or whatever you choose to do, make it so you're creating the fastest version of yourself. Those 10 seconds can determine the ability to burn off fat at a rate that's almost unbelievable to comprehend. Now imagine working those 10 seconds multiple times and rest 2-3x as long in order to recover. It's Strength Training in its simplest form; no complicated things to do, no machines, no gym noise, nothing but you and the ground. 

Hill Sprints however make fat burning the ultimate workout that ground sprints doesn't get passed. Even by mere inches, Hills make your ground work better and you take on a whole new meaning to the words "Mental Toughness." This past Thursday and yesterday, I took on a Hill nearby the house and went as hard as my body allowed me for 10 Sprints at 10 seconds at a time. I wasn't always my fastest, but went hard as I possibly could and made each sprint and my recovery count. It's that time of year where flowers bloom, the weather gets warmer and the days are longer. It's time to hit the Hill to really make the most of what you want to achieve in having a lean physique fast. 

Like the Nazis standing and getting melted by an ancient and powerful box, your fat won't stand a chance with Hill Sprinting. Like always, pay attention to form but at the same time, pay attention to your intentions as well. This isn't some climb up a hill and going for a hike, you're going to work at the hardest you can possibly make it for those few seconds of training. Intensity is the key and your will to go hard as if your life depended on it. 100 seconds is all of the time it takes to induce the largest amount of Growth Hormone and Testosterone possible. Be able to breathe better, sleep better, eat more and feel that urge of sexual energy that every guy wants to feel. 

Training this way is only needed 2-3x a week and it's best to start off with a small number of sets and seconds if you haven't done them in a while. 4x8-10 seconds would be a good starting point, that's a max of 40 seconds of work. Each month, add one sprint and a few seconds to progressively get more out of it. Max sprints IMO shouldn't be more than 20-30 seconds and on most days, 10-15 is more than enough. Max amount of Sprints shouldn't be more than 10 because you're training merely to get leaner and stronger, you're not trying to match Walter Payton who did so many damn sprints it's a miracle his legs didn't fall off his body. At full speed may not be more than a few seconds and probably no more than 10. It's very difficult if not impossible to stay at 100% speed for 30 seconds. 

To build a program on Hill Sprints, check out Josh Bryant's 6-Week Sprint Training Guide to get you started. Also check out his Speed Training book.

Be fast, run hard and keep being amazingly awesome. 

Inhuman For Your Thoughts

    Over the decades we have been influenced by our favorite superheroes and comic book characters within all walks of life. They inspire us to believe in a world filled with wonder and imagination. They help us escape reality for a while and get sucked into a really cool story involving major players like Captain America, Superman, Thor, The Hulk, Aquaman and many more. It's the centerpiece of finding within that raving hero that lives inside many of us. We do have heroes in real life plus many villains and we want those heroes taking down the bad guys. But do superhumans live among us?

 

    In reality you can't fly or shoot lasers out of your eyes or have strength like the Hulk but we do have however some amazing human beings being able to do extraordinary things. Great minds like Einstein and Tesla, incredible athletes that seem to have god-like powers like hitting a homerun 500 feet, run the 100 meters in around 9.5 seconds, picking up 1000 pounds, bending/snapping wrenches in half and even withstand high doses of electricity. I'm learning about a series of heroes in Marvel called the Inhumans; earthlings that have superhuman abilities from an ancient entity that harnesses their senses and abilities that is different to each individual. Some of you may know more of the Royal Family of the Inhumans such as Medusa, Black Bolt, Karnack, Triton and the Satyr Gorgon. They're kind of like the Ancient Greek Family the Olympians just on a different scale with different powers but all related to each other. What's amazing is that some of these characters have near real-life counterparts that have insane abilities. Triton who is like a fish with the body-like of a man who is practically the king of water, we have athletes that have abilities to swim for long periods of time under water; Medusa as you may have guessed has the long hair and can control even the tiniest particle at will to create some serious damage, think there isn't someone out there that has crazy hair like strength? Some women do but one of the strongest hairs belongs to a man named Joseph Greenstein aka The Mighty Atom that had the hair strength to hold back a plane. Why not Blackbolt, the king of the Inhuman Royal Family (who's also married to Medusa) that has the ability to fire sonic screams to take down enemies, there's a woman out there I forgot her name but her screams had reached decibel levels that are off the chain. Let's not forget Gorgon; a animalistic entity that has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a wild goat (sounds similar to Pan don't you think). He is a trainer of the Inhumans that can take down a city block just with the strength of his legs in a mighty stomp. Some of the strongest athletes in the world have immense leg strength even though they don't have the legs of a satyr; they can run incredibly fast, lift insane amount of weight and have super muscle that allows them to lift well over a ton.

 

    We may not have superpowers but with the right training and the right tools, we can become far stronger than the average human and develop incredible athletic ability. To get an idea of developing incredible strength, one can lift odd objects like rocks, stones, logs, kegs, heavy pipes, furniture anything that has you working the stabilizer muscles in an awkward position. Develop explosiveness through jumping or sprinting. Imagine having your own set of abilities that sets you as a unique individual and be able to generate great power in the blink of an eye using a technique(s) that gives you incredible energy. Use your gifts and abilities to possibly save lives, help others and get a realistic edge over your competition. How sweet would it be to hit a ball further, speed down the field with no one able to catch you, hoist up another human from falling and even protect the ones you love with intensity and insane strength? You can do the ordinary routines and live your life like nothing's going to happen but why not have that Superhero Mentality and infuse your imagination to grow stronger and build incredible muscle that is useful and functional. You have a choice. What would your favorite hero want you to do?

Burning Fat With Sprints

 
    Trying to lose weight, burn fat, build muscle and all that stuff yet most would tell you to do an hour of cardio and weights. Hate to break it to you but it always happen that way, however; you can get things done in a far shorter amount of time and that's through High Intensity Training (HIT). We've all heard this before but does it really work? Hell yes it does but a lot believe you need to do it everyday. There's no way in hell you can go that hard everyday without either blacking out, burning out or just plain die from exhaustion. At best 2-3x a week should be the maximum, for beginners once a week is enough.

 
    Sprint Training is the focal point to HIT because it's a far shorter workout, you're resting more than training. Your body is filled with powerful cells and has a very strong sense of recovery. Although different people recover differently the principle still applies. Now when some mention sprints they think running either or up a hill or flight of stairs; it's not always running something it could be other things like skipping rope, battling ropes, moving like a wild animal; it's moving as fast as you possibly can for a short burst. Thirty seconds should be the peak. At first only a few seconds is all you can do which is fine it's a start. In my personal training when I do sprints, most of the time 30 seconds is the whole workout not one set at a time. When you go hard at a fast pace, you're opening the fast twitch muscle fibers that unlocks every muscle in your body that's firing.

 
    There's just no way your body can move fast without every muscle firing because if you did it in isolation and only working a specific set of muscles those muscles would be far drained and you'll be looking like a goofball. Whether it's running, swimming, battling ropes or whatever, most likely your whole body comes into play because it needs to work in unison. Hitting the body that hard produces natural growth hormone which creates a level of burning fat, building muscle and releasing more cells to the bloodstream. Think about all those dumb lethal injections people do to stimulate growth hormone when in reality you can produce it naturally and have it be 10x more than the latest pill or needle in your arm or wherever. Unless your hormones are so low that exercise wise it won't come no matter what you do than see a doctor about it but generally your body is meant to naturally grow from within, it's a beautiful piece of work.

 
    Think of it like this, who in the hell has a lot of time these days to get in awesome shape? You work like a madman, got a family to feed and you think an hour and a half everyday is going to get you somewhere? So why not have shorter workouts that produce far more than standard cardio. It's building your body without the hassle. Even if you spent a few short minutes a day doing a crazy style of Yoga can help you and progress even by the smallest fraction. On your "days off"; stretch, breathe deeply and recover. There are days where you hit hard one day and go a 180 the next or you go hard and the next day you do about half or a third of the previous day. Listen to your body and get a feel of how you recover, your level of energy and the intensity you bring yourself. Don't always listen to some shmuck that ghost writes, do what's best for you. Shorter bursts produce better results in my opinion but it's also just as important to recover and let your body repair itself. Practice it and you'll start to see changes you never knew was possible.

 
Have a great weekend everyone. Be Awesome.

In 30 Minutes Or Less

 Hate to disappoint you people but the title does not mean I’m talking about ordering a pizza. I love pizza as much as the next guy but this is something more important than food. This is about learning to exercise with the little time you have as possible. Training for 30 minutes isn’t always about cardio training or doing one 30 minute workout, why not spread those 30 minutes throughout the day.

 One of the most powerful exercises you can do is Isometrics, more so what some people call Power Postures, meaning holding various positions at odd angles. Think of some of the Yoga Postures like the Downward facing dog or what we call the Hindu Push-up, just holding for time in the three positions can build internal power like you wouldn’t believe. How about holding a horse stance like the Shaolin Monks do, that builds some serious leg strength. These two examples can be used as a foundation to build your body from the inside out.

 Ever watch TV? Of course you do, you have a favorite show or movie you like to watch and take hold of the drama or one-liners that unfold, than the dumbass commercials come on and nobody likes those right except the trailers for upcoming movies. Why not use that time to get in some exercise, remind yourself to exercise a little bit, do a few push-ups or squats during the commercials, hold your leg(s) up in your chair for a few seconds, do jumping jacks, these are all things you can work on while the commercials are going and when your show comes on, take a break. Continue this until your show is over and there you go, you just did a workout within a 30 minute period.

 Stop thinking you need to do an hour of this or an hour of that, you don’t have a lot of time. When you wake up in the morning do a few stretches for about 15 minutes to get your day started, you’re at a red light in your car, while you wait push/pull and/or squeeze your steering wheel, and you can get in great shape no matter where you go. The people who tell you have to do cardio and an hour of weights to get in shape are the ones who are stealing everyone’s money and think they have full on expertise on what is good or bad for you in exercise. The less time you can workout, the more you can actually gain, not just physically but mentally and emotionally because you can have more time to do the things you have going on in your life. It’s all about making little effort that can turn into big impacts in a productive way.

 Don’t ever feel you have to go to a gym and use a cardio machine because someone told you to because it gets you in great shape and listen to your iPod or watch TV while on the treadmill, ask them to do 500 Hindu Squats and so how long they last, bet you a few bucks most likely he won’t be able to do it and he’ll be so out of breath he’s going to feel like dying. Real cardio won’t have to be 30 minutes, if you really learned it, it doesn’t need to be more than 15 at best. Cardio is a term that exercising to keep the heart rate at levels that burn fat and build muscle, most cardio methods only diminish muscle and yes you’re burning fat but not the way you really want it too. Doing a few squats for several minutes gets your heart rate up real quick and maximizes fat burning levels faster than anything else with the exception of sprinting which you only need to do for a few seconds at a time. Build your way up and make the best of the exercise time you have and believe me, it’s better to do exercise for a few minutes and feel awesome than doing exercise for a long, long time and feel like crap afterwards.