Saturday, August 30, 2008

30 minute blast

Checking in quick with a great workout that I did this morning before I had to head out.. I was pressed for time so I wanted to make the most out of the ~30 minutes that I had to work out.. So I grabbed my jumprope and started with some light rope skipping for a warmup.. 100 revolutions forwards and 100 backwards.. I followed this up with some joint mobility for a few minutes to get the synovial fluid going to lubricate the joints... Always a good idea, especially as we get a bit older.. Now that I was warmed up I went into my workout. I alternated between the following:
-250 forward revolutions on the jump rope 
-250 backwards revolutions
-10 1-arm pushups (5 left, 5 right)
-25 regular "good" push-ups (nose, chest, hips touching the ground at the same time. slow, controlled movement, elbows in)

I went through that circuit 3 times and had some time left so i added 100 forward doubles and 100 backwards doubles on the jump rope, 25 more pushups to make it an even 100, and i added two sets of pull-ups to add a pulling exercise to the workout.

Excellent workout! Great full body cardio from the rope jumping. Explosive power from the jump rope doubles and one arm push ups. Strength and endurance from the regular pushups performed slowly and properly as well as the pull-ups. Plus it was fun. I love using my bodyweight for a kick ass workout. Plus I work on all kinds of fun things with the jump rope, crossovers, Ali shuffle, doubles, all kinds of different footwork. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I know the one arm pushups and jump rope doubles are really difficult so just switch in variations for any of the exercises that you can't do yet. Get creative. And don't forget to have fun!

Kevin

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Learning from one of the best...

I just spent a couple days in Philadelphia being hosted by one of the top physical culturists of our time and the first trainer to bring kettlebells into the mainstream in America. Steve Maxwell has been training people in functional conditioning and martial arts for 35 years. He is a world class martial artist and athlete, and at 55 years old he is in better shape than many elite athletes in their 20's. It was a privilege to hang out with him for a couple days to have him alternately kick my ass in the gym and then teach me what he's learned over the years and the best way to bring it back home to my clients.



We had been working out the details of my visit for about a month, since he's pretty much on tour non-stop giving kettlebell and functional conditioning seminars and certifications around the world. He promised to "slap it on me" when I got to Philly so I best be prepared. He definitely lived up to his promise on Day 1 giving me a 30 minute double kettlebell workout with simple and complex kettlebell movements with 2 20kg kettlebells, 60% of my bodyweight... He had me doing double snatches, cleans, swings, squat thrusters and then started combining the moves in all kinds of creative, tortuous ways. The last exercise in the workout was double racked turkish get-ups for 6 reps. I probably had one of those "you want me to do what with 88lbs?" looks on my face. But I would never say "I can't" and I just went for it one rep at a time.. What an amazing full body workout.


Day 2 I woke up feeling a little sore so I wanted to stretch out with a short run around Philadelphia.. So I went down to the desk and asked where the "Rocky steps" were.. Only about 2 miles away, perfect.. So I went out to the Philadelphia Art Museum, home of Rocky's famous run up the steps.. Didn't it seem like it was about a mile of steps in the movie? I don't know, it was a long time ago. I counted them and it turned out to be 70 steps.. So I figured, OK, so we do stair repeats.. I had Zeppelin blaring on the iPod and I decided to do stair sprints for 2 full songs which turned out to be about 8 minutes.. I made it 9 times in 2 songs but had to do a tenth sprint because it doesn't make sense to stop at 9 does it? 


Got a good breakfast in me and off to my second session with Steve.. Today Steve had an endurance workout planned for me.. He put a single 16kg kettlebell on the mat for me, which seemed pretty easy considering the day before he had me working with double 20's.. Once I picked it up he let me know that I wouldn't be allowing the bell to touch the mat again for over 30 minutes... So much for the 16k being easy.. He ran me through a series of full body movements for 30 minutes, alternating from one arm to the other with no breaks.. The last set in the workout was 20 reps of no momentum deck squats. By the end of this workout the 16kg kettlebell felt like about 1600kg. It was awesome! Another simple, yet amazing workout made up entirely of full body moves with a kettlebell.



The trip was a great experience for me. I learned a ton from one of the top physical trainers in the world who really "gets it".. No gimmicks, no machines, no hype.. Just hard work, functional movements, and incredible results.. Exactly what I'm looking to bring to all my clients.


All the best,

Kevin

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Functional Conditioning at its best!

There is no better display of functionally conditioned athletes then what you see at the Olympic Games, especially the Summer Olympics.. Gymnastics, Track and Field, Wrestling, Beach Volleyball.. That's right, beach volleyball.. They run, jump, dive, twist, turn, have explosive power, and body fat in the single digits.. And you thought it was all about the bathing suits :) How about water polo? Try treading water for 60 minutes while mixing in 50 meter sprints every minute or so and having some other guy pounding on you trying to get the ball away from you.. Every event is amazing in its own right, although I think I'm still trying to recover from watching about 15 seconds of the men's synchronized diving.. Sorry, but that event is completely unnecessary and may even be morally wrong. What's with the skimpy bathing suits? Just awful....

But to me, the most impressive, awe-inspiring events that I watched were in the men's and women's gymnastics.. I don't know how many moves and routines I saw that, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe the human body was capable of it. In fact, I was so inspired by these Olympic Games that I decided I'm going to devote the next four years of my life to training to make the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics team for London 2012. I figure this was Yang Wei's last go 'round and there'll be an opening on the team.. My Chinese Olympic name will be Buck Lee and NBC will have all kinds of touching interviews and stories about me because I'll be the first 45 year old Olympian in gymnastics history. I just hope they don't have Mary Carillo interview me because she's more masculine than me and I'd be really intimidated..

To get my gymnastics career going I decided I needed some equipment. So I went to Lowe's and bought about $20 worth of PVC and fittings and built up my own pair of little parallel bars (parallettes) to practice on. Quick, fun, and cheap project. Then I went and found some exercises to try out.. The website for American Gymnast has tons of great info. With parallettes assembled and a bunch of cool exercises to try out I started practicing.. Was able to nail my L-sit and handstand but was less successful with the planche and pirouettes.. But hey, I have 4 years to get ready, right?
   

I'm kind of bummed that the Olympics are over. The Olympians are a true example of what it means to be functionally fit. They push the body to the extremes of strength, endurance, power, coordination, agility, mobility, stability, and mental toughness. The training we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning is designed to unlock the inner Olympian in all of us.. Take it from me, Buck Lee, future Chinese Gymnast, London 2012 ;)

All the best,
Kevin
 

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Patience is a virtue...

Whoever coined this phrase must have been part of renovating an old mill space for a gym.. The space I'm renting for the Dynamic Strength and Conditioning Gym is part of a renovated mill building at 100 Factory St in Nashua NH.. It's got a wide open 2000 sf workout area, 16 foot  ceilings and 14 gigantic windows letting in tons of natural light... It's a fantastic place for my gym.. Has lots of character. I really like it because it doesn't have that "doctor's office sterile" feeling of lots of personal training facilities, and it doesn't have the industrial feeling of the 25000 sf warehouse gyms loaded with shiny machines, mirrors, and flourescent lights... It's perfect for the types of workouts we're doing.. It's got the big beams overhead to hang my climbing ropes, gymnastic rings and pull-up bars from.. It's got the wide open floor space for the running, jumping, crawling exercises we do. There's plenty of room to swing kettlebells around, toss medicine balls, and jump rope.. I'm still trying to decide the best place to build my jungle gym :) It's perfect!

Back to the "patience is a virtue" phrase.... Being an old mill building, there is some work required to get the place in shape for the gym.. Particularly the windows.. The previous owners used to put plastic up over the windows in the Winter to keep the heat in and they would staple it to the trim around the windows.. then in the Spring, they'd tear the plastic down and leave the staples and repeat the process next winter.. Judging from the amount of staples in the trim, my best estimate is that this process began somewhere around the beginning of time. It took days to get all the staples out of the windows.. In retrospect, I should have turned all the staples in for scrap metal, I probably would have made a couple thousand dollars.. That done, I'm now on to scraping, filling holes, sanding, getting ready for new paint.. The whole time I'm in there thinking about other things I'd rather do, like poke pencils in my ears, or drive nails into my head. Trust me, this is not fun work.. But it gets done, albeit  very slowly, and I know the finished product will be impressive.. So I just keep at it. But it sure does test my patience. I think all the difficult workouts and bike races that I've done go a long way towards providing me the mental toughness to sit in a mill building on a beautiful sunny day pulling staples out of windows for 10 hours.. On the bright side I'm developing a grip that the "kung-fu grip" GI Joe of the 70's would be proud of!

Anyways, I can't wait to get it all done and start filling the place with people looking to get in the best shape of their lives. Hoping for a September opening.. If anybody is looking for a great functional conditioning workout you can come help me scrape and paint some windows :)


Sunday, August 3, 2008

Joining the Physical Culture movement


There’s a phrase some of you may or may not have heard: Physical Culture.. This phrase has been defined as: philosophy, regimen, or lifestyle seeking maximum physical development through such means as resistance training, diet, aerobic activity, athletic competition, and mental discipline. Specific benefits include improvements in health, appearance, strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, and general fitness as well as greater proficiency in sport-related activities as well as everyday activities.


This is what Dynamic Strength and Conditioning is all about. Becoming a physical culturist is not just about starting a workout routine, it’s a lifestyle. I remember what it used to be like to workout so that I felt like I was at least doing something good a few days a week to offset the other bad stuff I would be doing.. The drinking, the poor eating habits, the lack of sleep.. I was going to a Gold’s Gym and doing sets on weight machines and running on the treadmill to nowhere, or better yet, riding the stationary bike to nowhere.. Either way I was getting the same place... Nowhere! I had the physique of somebody who spent some time working out, but mentally and physically I was tired and constantly felt like crap.. Then one day I had a life-altering event happen and things changed for me (another story for another time...).. First thing I did was I stopped going to the gym.. Sound counter-intuitive? Instead of wasting my time on machines, i started using my body like it was meant to be used. I started running outside, cycling thousands of miles a year, doing bodyweight exercises; push-ups, pull-ups, core work, squats, plyometrics. Great functional conditioning workouts. I started feeling better but I needed something more. The lifestyle change came next. I stopped drinking, I started eating better. No more steak and cheese subs.. No more white bread, no more high fructose corn syrup.. I stopped buying things with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. Now, when I buy a loaf of bread I try to pick the one that is most likely to hurt if I get hit with it (that will ultimately be the most naturally made loaf of bread you can find). Physically, with the combination of natural exercise and natural eating I was getting into the best shape I’ve ever been in. And then the benefits of all that started seeping into every other facet of my life. My relationships, my ability to deal with stress, my outlook.. Everything was changing in a very positive way. This has been a transformation that has been many years in the making and now I’m in a position where I’m able to share what I’ve learned. I’m easily in the best physical and mental shape of my life. I can move like I used to move when I was 10. Old, nagging back and knee injuries don’t bother me anymore. I’m strong. I wake up feeling fresh. I feel much younger than my years tell me I’m supposed to feel. I feel like I’ve discovered a fountain of youth. It’s like when you’re a kid and Santa brought you the coolest toy on the planet and you can’t wait to go show it off to everybody. Well that time has come...


I’ve just agreed to terms on a lease for a new gym that should be open in the September/October timeframe... The Dynamic Strength and Conditioning Gymnasium will be located at 100 Factory St in Nashua, NH. in a renovated mill building right next to the Clocktower Mill.. 


The best and most comprehensive programs that will be offered at the gym will be the customized personal training programs, whether it’s one-on-one or in a semi-private group with anywhere from 2-6(max) people.. These are programs that are designed to help everybody get in the best possible physical and mental condition they’ve every been in. You’ll work out with me 2 or 3 times per week. You’ll be given additional workouts for days when you’re not with me. Together we’ll complete an initial physical assessment to see where you’re starting at (and it doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out or you’re already an elite athlete) and we’ll create goals for you. We’ll work together on your nutritional intake and keep a nutrition log. We’ll monitor progress in your workouts with periodic assessments and keep a daily workout log. The workouts will be progressive at the rate at which you are able to progress. If you’re already a high level athlete, these programs will get you to the very top of your game. If you’re not as concerned about competition and just want to feel and look great and reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle then these are the programs for you. This is a commitment to a healthy and better lifestyle and there is no limit to the benefits. You’ll age youthfully. There’s a phrase I heard that’s kind of corny but I think it fits. You’ll add years to your life, but more importantly you’ll add life to your years. I’m 41 now and that is easily the most important thing to me as I get older...


Also at the gym I’ll be offering group sessions similar to the outdoor sessions that many of you have been joining in over the Summer.. The FIT (Functional Interval Training) class will be offered a couple times a day and I’m also looking to offer other types of group sessions; Spartan Workouts and High Octane Kettlebells are a couple different types of workouts I’m thinking of offering a couple times a week... There will also be monthly seminars on kettlebell training, bodyweight training, joint mobility, etc... 


This will be the first full service functional conditioning gym in the area and it’s about time.. Time to get out of the traditional gym, off the treadmill to nowhere, away from the posers and intimidation. Time to join the physical culture movement with Dynamic Strength and Conditioning...


All the best,

Kevin