Sorting Out the Pretenders...

In my efforts to continually improve myself as a coach and trainer I do a lot of reading and watch a lot of video. There is so much material out there in print and especially on the internet that it can be overwhelming. How do I know when I'm reading something that is really useful? How do I know when I'm reading something written by some out-of-shape armchair trainer trying to make a quick buck? The first thing I look for is proof of how fit the person is that I'm looking to for guidance. Guys like Steve Maxwell, Ross Enamait, Jon Hinds, Steve Cotter, Mike Mahler are absolute freaks of nature. The second thing I look for is how much their training philosophy lines up with my own. My training philosophy is essentially that I strive to get in the best condition possible through functional conditioning and healthy eating. And I'm willing to train very hard to attain my goals. The guys mentioned above share this philosophy. You won't see any of them trying to sell you on a new piece of fancy equipment or bizarre diet.. They're not going to have you wasting your time on the bench press or the leg press when they all know that different variations of pushups and squats kick the crap out of the bench press and leg press for functional strength.. Now don't get me wrong, I'm open minded enough to know that there's a place for bench pressing and leg pressing. They're great for bodybuilders who need to isolate muscles to bulk them up and take all the functionality out of their bodies. They're also great for people who care more about what they look like in a mirror rather than how they feel or function in real life. But there's lots of coaches out there who will tell their athletes to do these exercises which, in my opinion, makes no sense at all. An athlete needs full body explosive power to be competitive. Not a limited range of motion and a lot of bulky muscles. I guess if you suck at football and find yourself on your back a lot with heavy opponents on top of you then the bench press is a good exercise to strengthen your chest and triceps so that you can push the opponents off of you and get back to the huddle. At the NFL combines they have people see how many times they can bench press 225 pounds.. In 2007 the best performance was from a defensive lineman  that benched it 42 times.. Holy Crap!!! He must be super strong, right? But he weighs in at 307 pounds so that's really only 73% of his body weight.. Not so impressive now is it? I wonder how many "true to form" pushups he can do? Probably not 42... OK, enough ranting about isolation exercises where most of the muscles in your body are completely supported... 

My main point today is to make sure you don't get sucked in by hype. Getting really fit is simple. Hard work, natural full body exercise, healthy eating.. The reason not everybody is fit is because most people don't want to work hard and they don't put the effort into eating right.. Anybody on the internet or in books or on video that is trying to sell you some kind of "secret" to get you in the best shape of your life without a lot of hard work is full of crap and is only out to make a buck. The longer it takes for them to describe their "secret", the more crap they're full of. (You know what I'm talking about.."But wait, there's more! You'll also get........". This goes on for about 3 pages.). Also, if you have no proof of how fit the individual is, then you have no proof that they are living the life that they're trying to sell to you. Stay away. If a person doesn't actually live it, then they can't teach it. I read a lot of stuff from noted "professionals" that prescribe 3 sets of this, 3 sets of that, rest this much between sets, blah, blah, blah.. And I think to myself, "I know people can work a lot harder than that because I do it every day.. How is this supposed to get an athlete in top form?".. So common sense tells me that if this person can't put a workout together that I think is difficult, then this person doesn't know what it's like to work hard himself.. 

You don't need to subscribe to 17 different newsletters to get in shape. It's very easy to get into information overload. Find a half dozen or so sources that you trust. People that you know work hard, are in great shape, and are not trying to sell you some "secret to better fitness". People that keep it simple with natural, full body exercise. Here's a workout for you that I had a group at the gym perform the other day.. It has everything in it that you need and it was intense; pushing, pulling, squatting, jumping, every muscle in your body engaged, all the time.

In a 40:20 format (40sec work followed by 20sec rest) for 5 rounds:

Kettlebell Swing

Burpees

Uneven KB Military Press (Great neuromuscular development by having one arm push a different weight than the other)

Jump Rope

Renegade Row

Scissor Pushups (which are a twisting pushup where one leg gets twisted under the body and out to the opposite side, sorry no video)...

See? No secrets. Just intense exercise that works your whole body..

All the best,

Kevin