Wednesday, November 26, 2008

killer workout

I put my workout up on the board not thinking that the Renegade Rows would end up being the easiest thing on there.. When renegade rows are the easiest exercise in your workout you know you're getting a good ass-kicking workout.. Today's workout..


-narrow stance 20 kg Renegade Rows (20 reps )
-Plyometric Pushups between ground and a 12 inch med ball, this is done by launching off and back onto the top of the ball. (20 reps)
- 5 Double 16kg Getup Situps with a 10 second negative (very tough). 
- 50 double unders forwards and 50 double unders backwards on the jump rope..

I went through this 5 times.. 5 stars for this one!

Have a great Thanksgiving,
Kevin

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Numbers Don't Lie

We're halfway through our Downtown Nashua Dynamic Fitness Challenge and yesterday was "assessment" day to see how far our challengers have come in the first 4 weeks of the Challenge.. To recap, the Challenge is made up of 12 people that work for or own businesses that are local to downtown Nashua. We have Deb Soby of Patisserie Bleu, Karen Campfield of Surf Restaurant, April Bohaker of Salon Apryl, Andrea Granger of Verde Salon, Kathleen Palmer of the Nashua Telegraph (who is covering this same event on her own blog), Jen Amidio of J. Bella, Roni Vetter of Jake's Old Fashioned Ice Cream (I'm actually eating some of Roni's Hunk O'Berry ice cream as I write this, it's the best :). On the men's side we have Pete Johnson of Johnson Electric, Paul White of Northern Acres, Kirk Dubois of National Grid who is single-handedly responsible for the drop in natural gas prices over the past month so you can feel free to thank him personally. We also have Dr. Paul Gasch of Amherst Family Chiropractic and Marc Petit of A.H. Machining. Marc comes to my noon time kettlebell workouts and then comes back at 5:00 for the fitness challenge workouts 3x per week. He's becoming a beast!

The challenge is this: Everybody performs a workout consisting of pushups, sit up and reach (with med ball), burpees, body row, box jumps. The workout is done in a format where you perform each exercise 10 times, then 9 times, then 8 times, etc... all the way down to 1.. Everybody completed this workout 4 weeks ago at the start of the program and the times varied from a best of 17:30 to 32:00... In just 4 weeks, everybody absolutely shattered their times. The improvements in time were anywhere from 20% to 50%!! The efforts that were put in were inspirational and the times this time around were between 14:05 and 22:00.. People were knocking 10 minutes or more off previous times.. In 4 weeks! To me, that is truly amazing. Everybody involved has been commenting about the increase in energy, stamina, clothes fitting differently, more positive attitude and self-confidence. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say that for some of the people involved, if not all of them, it's been a life changing experience.. The numbers don't lie.. These people are getting themselves in the best shape of their lives.

I was so inspired by their efforts (and scared that they were getting too close to my time I put up 4 weeks ago), that I re-did the challenge myself this morning... Last time I did it in 11:42 but when I was done I knew I could have pushed a lot harder, mostly because I didn't have much of a goal in mind to shoot for and I had never done the workout before.. This time I went into it with the goal of beating 10 minutes. I pushed as hard as I could and finished at 9:30.. I checked my heart rate at the end of the session and it was at about 99% max.. Last time I put out the challenge that anybody who beats my time gets a free month at the gym and it still stands.. You just have to do it a little faster now :)  Burpees have to be full burpees with pushup and jump with hands overhead at top of jump and box jumps have to be 24" jumps landing both feet on top of box.. Women can do burpees without pushups and jumps on an 18" box... 

Come on down and give it a shot.. If nothing else you'll get one of the best 10-20 minute workouts of your life...

All the best,
kevin


Monday, November 24, 2008

Pushing Through the Pain

I went out for my trail run yesterday morning.. it's about 4.5 miles through the trails of Hollis and it's an awesome run. Streams, hills, fields, boulders and granite to jump on.. I absolutely love it.. But today was probably the toughest run I've had. I've been fighting off some chest congestion (I'm not going to call it a cold because I think i've won the battle and it never really set in) and I had kind of a hard time breathing. This coupled with the 20 degree winter chill and it was like i was sucking air through a straw. I was really struggling and then my vision started to go. I started seeing a lot of white light, like swirling rectangles.. It was kind of like a bunch of spinning Spongebobs with light coming out of his pores.. It's hunting season so I looked myself over to see if maybe I'd been shot by a hunter. I kept trudging on, figuring it would pass.. I came to the first steep hill of the run and I went from feeling like I might have been shot by a hunter, to wishing a hunter would just shoot me and put me out of my misery. It was absoutely awful.. At this point I knew that at the top of the hill there was a shortcut back. But at this point in my life I've trained myself to the point that this is not an option. I would finish the run regardless of how badly I was doing. This is the type of mentality you develop by pushing yourself past your limits on a regular basis. The shortcut was there, but i didn't consider it for a second. Along the way I got my vision back but I was still sucking wind through a straw. I got to the point about halfway where the 40" granite monument is that I like to do plyometric jumping on. I had decided beforehand that I would finish the run but didn't have the lung capacity to do the jumps today. As I was passing the granite monument I could swear I heard it call me a wimp or something.. So I turned around and went back to it. This rock has taken it's share of blood and skin out of my shins and with a tender hip flexor from 100 pistols and some plyometric jumps a couple days ago I would have been smart to have just kept running.. But, again, the way my mind works now this just isn't an option. I stuck my first jump and added a second just for kicks and then headed on my way. I finished the run a little slower than normal, but I finished.


The reason I'm writing this is because I want people to understand what it takes to get yourself in the best shape you've ever been in. You have to constantly push yourself. It's hard, and sometimes it really sucks, but it's necessary. It's not easy. If you want easy, then stick to the elliptical machine and weight machines that only make you work one or two muscles at a time while you crank out your 10 reps. If you want to get in shape, then you have to be ready to work your whole body and you have to be ready to work it hard. And when it hurts, you have to continue to push through it. You have to be able to push yourself out of your comfort zone and into a zone that's really uncomfortable.. But then again, if it was easy, everybody would be in great shape. 


The people who are getting the most out of the workouts at the gym are the ones who push themselves to their limits every time they come in. When we do interval sessions, they work like hell for the entire interval. They do this despite the heart rate which is approaching 100% max and despite the pain they're feeling. They push out one last burpee or squat thruster because it makes them stronger. The benefits are there for those who are willing to push themselves to that level. The people coming to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning have more energy than before, they're stronger and leaner than before, they're happier and more confident than before. It's a wonderful thing to see. 


All the best,

Kevin

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Workouts of the Week

A few great workouts from this week that I wanted to share...

Alternating 10's:
Picked two exercises and alternated between them for ten minutes..
1st set was walking lunges followed by Overhead Squats. I'd walk across the gym and back (~25 yds total) carrying double 16kg kettlebells. Then perform 5 OH squats on each arm with a 24kg kettlebell. Did 4 round trips, and on the last set of OH squats I did 10 on each side. 

2nd set was power wheel crawl across the gym and back and then flip over on my back and do 10 power wheel hamstring curls.. I did this 10 times in ten minutes. Last few minutes were pretty tough.

3rd set was alternating between 5 pullups on the rings, unassisted isometric pulls with chin over the rings. No kipping. Followed by a Turkish Getup on each side with 28kg. I got 5 rounds in 10 minutes.

Totals for workout:
34 minutes, 30 mins effort plus 2 mins rest between sets
100 yds walking lunges with 32kg
50 OH squats with 24kg
250 yds PW crawl
100 PW hamstring curls
25 pullups on the rings
10 Turkish Getup with 28kg

Workout #2 was mostly to feel out how my right forearm was doing after trying to take it easy for a couple weeks and also to start doing some work on long sets.. I decided I want to work towards achieving some World Kettlebell Club rankings which will require long sets of snatches and jerks.. For this workout I went light on the kettlebells but it was still a great workout from an endurance standpoint.
10 minutes of 1 arm snatch with 1 arm switch at 5 minutes.. 12kg kettlebell. 21o reps.
5 minutes of the jerk with double 16kg kettlebells.. 46 reps..  this was pretty brutal.. i have a long way to go with this exercise.
I haven't done a lot of long set work. It's very demanding on a physical and mental level. Your body starts screaming at you to put the weights down but you just have to push through it. It's tough, but it's a great workout, and you put up some huge repetitions which build awesome strength and endurance. Best thing about this workout today was that my forearm responded really well to it :)

Workout #3
5 sets of 100 2 arm KB swings with a 24kg followed by 10 ring dips. When I thought of this workout I was thinking about how many consecutive two arm swings it would take with a 24kg bell for it to start to suck, and then I doubled that number. As it turned out, getting to 50 wasn't so bad. But getting to 100, especially the 4th and 5th times, was definitely challenging. Doing long sets of swings really works your grip. Each set of 100 took 3 minutes. My forearms were really pumped at the end of these sets. The ring dip is a phenomenal exercise that works your upper body really hard. Anything you do on the rings is great for the whole body because the unstability factor will require you to engage a lot more muscles than if you do the same exercise on a fixed bar.. Totals for this workout:
510 24kg swings (I did 110 on the last set.... just for the hell of it)
50 ring dips

Sometimes it's fun to figure out how much work you did by figuring out how much weight you moved.. In doing 510 swings with a 24kg I raised 26,928 lbs!

Train hard,
Kevin

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Setting Goals and Challenging Yourself

One of the things that keeps us working out is setting goals.. Sometimes people will get in a rut with their workouts because they don't have any actual goals they're striving for.. With people who compete, this is easy. You can set goals for different races you enter and train towards that goal. For people who don't compete there needs to be more creativity. Lots of people have goals of losing weight, which is a great goal if you're overweight, but it's kind of boring.. I like physical and mental challenges better. They give you something clear to set your sights on and, if you set the goal appropriately, you have to work your butt off to get there, so the weight loss and great physical shape come as a result of your efforts.. Examples of inappropriate goal-setting would be for a person who can do 10 pushups to set a goal of doing 12.. Too easy.. Or for someone like me who's in their 40's and American to set a goal of competing on the Chinese Men's Gymnastics team in London 2012. That's unrealistic (I doubt I could get the citizenship by then :)   

Here's how I set goals.. I pick challenges that are things that I am not even close to achieving yet and I know will take a great deal of physical and mental strength to get there. Like the 100 burpee challenge in 5 minutes.. I'm at 6:42 right now and I was a mess the last time I tried it.. 20 burpees in 1 minute I can do.. but for 5 straight minutes? not even close. This is a challenge that will take me months to achieve and there's always the possibility that I may not get there. That's what a challenge is all about. Pushing yourself beyond your limits.. Another challenge I set for myself is to do 200 snatches with a 24kg kettlebell in 10 minutes with 1 arm switch.. I've done 50 snatches with a 24kg with 1 arm switch and it was super hard for me. Plus, I'm still in the process of trying to heal a forearm muscle that I strained snatching a 32kg bell about 8 months ago.. A couple days ago I snatched a 12kg for 10 minutes with 1 arm switch to start building the strength back up in the forearm following my 2 weeks of (trying but mostly failing to) taking it easy on the arm. I got 210 snatches and it felt pretty good the next day so I'm pretty psyched about that.

A long time ago I also set a challenge to be able to do 5 pushups with an 80lb clarinetist on my back.. And I'm happy to say that I can now cross that one off my list :)

I'd be interested to hear some of the challenges you've set for yourself.. Or, if you need help setting goals let me know and I can definitely help you..

All the best,
Kevin

Sunday, November 16, 2008

On the Cutting Edge With Kettlebells in Nashua

The Nashua Telegraph had a feature article this morning on the benefits of training with kettlebells, especially with women. This is nothing new to those of you who have been training with me.. I've been promoting this for a while now and opened the only kettlebell gym in the region right here in Nashua, NH. For those of you who haven't been to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning in downtown Nashua, now is the time to get the best functional training available out there. We have kettlebell specific training sessions every day. We even have an intense 30 minute kettlebell workout at lunch that will get you in and out with a great workout and a shower and still have time to eat before getting back to your job.

Hope to see you for one of our kettlebell sessions soon. Join the cutting edge and come see why everybody is raving about the benefits of training with kettlebells, right here in downtown Nashua, NH.

 

When Will I Start Losing Weight?

Losing weight is very important to a lot of people. We've been open 4 weeks now and the people that are working out with us are talking about feeling stronger, having more energy, moving so much better, having clothes fit differently (in a good way) and being able to painlessly perform activities that used to cause them trouble.. All this in 4 weeks! But I've also been getting the question, "When will I start losing weight?". There's no clear-cut answer to this question. I can't tell you it will be 4 days, 4 weeks or 4 months. And that's because, ultimately, it's up to you.. I called my friend Rob Hudson, owner of Fitness By Design in Indianapolis, IN., who has been training people for over 25 years. He also gets this question a lot, and we had a good discussion about the issue. 


There's only one scientific piece of info I'm going to throw at you and it's really a very simple concept. If your goal is to lose weight, then you need to burn more calories than you're taking in. There's lots of ways to burn calories. Your body will burn calories watching TV, of course if your hand is reaching for a beer to wash down the handful of potato chips you just put in your mouth while watching TV, then you won't be burning quite as many calories as you're taking in. You can burn calories going for long walks, jogs or bike rides. This type of moderate-intensity aerobic activity gets your heart rate up and will burn calories at a higher rate the harder you work. But with non-interval, moderate-intensity type of aerobic training your body will stop burning calories at a high rate the second you stop your aerobic activity. My favorite way to burn lots of calories is to train like we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, with High Intensity Intervals. I said I wouldn't throw any more science at you, but I have to here... There were extensive studies done by a Japanese researcher, Izumi Tabata, that compared the effect of 4 minutes of high intensity intervals (20 seconds of work at max effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 4 minutes), against 60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise with heart rate between 60% and 80% max.. The result was 9x more fat loss doing the high intensity intervals. You're probably thinking that there's no way you can burn more calories in 4 minutes of intervals than you could in 60 minutes on a treadmill and you'd be right.. But, like I said before, when you're doing moderate intensity aerobic work you stop burning calories at a high rate the second you stop the exercise.. With high intensity interval training, you raise your metabolism so that your body continues to burn calories at a much higher rate even after the exercise has stopped. The result is 9x more fat loss! Of course, this means you have to work super hard during your intervals. If you're able to carry on a conversation during your 30 or 40 second interval of burpees then you're not working hard enough and you won't get the maximum benefit from the training. For max benefits, you need to work the intervals at max effort.


OK, so there's the part you need to burn calories and get strong.. And the great thing about that part is that you can come to a gym like Dynamic Strength and Conditioning or Fitness By Design or the Monkey Bar Gym and we can guide you to get the best workouts of your life. But there's a lot more to it than just getting in your workouts. If you want to get lean then you have to take the nutrition side of it into consideration. Both Rob and I agree that a lot of people don't do as well as they could on the nutrition side of things. I'm generalizing here, but many people tend to think that they can continue with the eating habits that got them in the poor shape they're in to begin with and continue with those eating habits as long as they start exercising.. Or, they think that since they're exercising, they can eat more junk, or just eat more in general. While it's true that exercising will help a lot towards getting you feeling better, looking better and raising your energy level, it's incredibly important to also fine tune your nutrition plan to complement your exercise plan and be more in line with your overall wellness goals. The best way to do this is to keep a nutrition log, just like you keep a workout log. Write down everything you eat and drink every day for a week or two. Figure out how many calories you're taking in and what the balance of protein, carbs, and fats are.. If you can't do that, then you bring it to me or Michele and we'll do it for you. We take a look at what you're taking in and see if it matches up with what you're burning. Like I said at the start of this, if you want to get lean, you need to burn more calories than you're taking in. 


But you still need to give your body the energy that it needs. Too many people will really restrict their intake to the point that their body's metabolism will actually back off because it senses that you're not giving it the fuel it needs. This is counter productive and unhealthy. You want to be at a point where you're taking in a few hundred calories less than what you're burning per day for a healthy rate of weight loss. The body is getting the fuel it needs and you're burning fat and building lean muscle with your high-intensity intervals. Don't get too caught up in numbers on scales. While burning fat you'll also be building muscle so the numbers on the scale don't really indicate how your body composition is changing. It's possible that you could have periods where the number on the scale may actually increase because you're building lean muscle at a rate faster than the fat you're burning. There are many ways to measure your actual body composition, whether it's with tape measurements, calipers, or some other form of measure. We can take measurements at the gym and that will give you a base point to compare against as you go forward. The most important thing is setting your wellness goals and putting together an exercise and nutrition plan that is going to get you to your goal in a healthy way. If you do that, and stick to it, then the rest takes care of itself. 


Michele and I are here to help you with your entire wellness plan. We're definitely helping everybody through our doors on the exercise part of it. Everybody coming in has been saying these are the best workouts they've ever gotten. Now let's get the other piece of the puzzle in order. Start working on your nutrition plan. Keep a nutrition log and let's take a look at it and get it fine tuned. You can also take your nutrition to another level and get yourself a health and wellness coach that specializes in nutrition like Laura Moran who is healthy, lean, and fit. Working with a health and wellness coach is a fantastic way to complement what you're doing with us at Dynamic SC. I'll admit, keeping track of everything you eat and drink for a couple weeks is a pain in the butt. But it's necessary, and it's only a couple weeks. Once you get your nutrition plan fine tuned, you understand what you need to be doing and you'll do it naturally without having to write everything down. 


If you want it, and are willing to commit to it, then there's absolutely no question that you will realize all your goals.


All the best,

kevin

Friday, November 14, 2008

Workout 11-14

Quick blog about my workout today.. I've been wanting to do a different variation on my 300/3000 workout that I've done with the 300 yds of power wheel and 3000 revolutions on the jumprope.. I've been doing a lot of hand balancing work over the past several months. When I first started out I couldn't hold a handstand if my life depended on it and I could get maybe 3 feet of handstand walking, simply from the momentum of kicking my legs up. But I never gave up and continued to work on it. Now I can hold handstands for a minute and I can handstand walk about 70 or 80 feet without dropping.. Hand balancing is a phenomenal full body workout. Every muscle in the body is engaged and working really hard to keep you upright. I highly recommend adding hand balancing work into all of your workout routines.. Plus it's a lot of fun, and think about it, if you ever need to get work in the circus or cirque du soleil, being able to do handstands is required. 

So my new 300/3000 workout was to go for 300 feet of handstand walking and 3000 revolutions on the jump rope in under 30 minutes.. I split it into 10 sets of 30 feet of handstand walking (made it 9 out of 10 times without dropping) and 300 revolutions on the jump rope (150 forwards, 150 backwards).. Finished the workout in 26:48! I was pretty psyched. It was a great workout.. 

Then my 12:00 kettlebell workout group started coming so I decided to join them for a Steve Maxwell inspired kettlebell workout that included many variations of the Turkish Get Up and different types of kettlebell rows. We wrapped it up with 3:00 minutes of heavy kettlebell swings in a 15:15 format.. Pretty intense 30 minutes of kettlebell workout.. Awesome energy, fantastic full body workout!

All the best,
Kevin

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

It Was the Burpees That Killed Him...

I can see it in my obituary.. "He seemed so fit, I never thought anything like this could happen... It was those damn burpees!"... I mentioned in a previous blog that I want to get to the point that I can do 100 burpees in 5 minutes.. I'm sitting here now cursing myself. 100 burpees in 5 minutes? What do I think I am, a 50 pound 5th grader? But the challenge (to myself) has been put out there, and I'm going to do it (unless it murders me).. Today I put burpees in everybody's workout, including my own, and most weren't real happy about it. The burpee is the single most effective way to coordinate and engage every muscle in your body at a really high level. The burpee is the kind of exercise that really starts to suck for most people at about 7 or 8, so going to 15, 20 or more is an excellent physical and mental challenge that really forces you to push yourself. For my own workout today I started out with about 20 minutes of jump rope....

... and then I started the burpees.. Last week I got 100 in 7:04 or something close to that.. Today I got it in 6:42!! 22 seconds off my previous best.. But it left me in a heap. Holy crap was it brutal.. I did the first 60 without stopping and it took 3:20.. I rested 30 seconds (which wasn't nearly enough), did 20 more, rested 30 seconds (which was even worse than the last 30 second break) and then did the last 20.... And then collapsed in a puddle.... Still a long way from my goal of 5 minutes, but I'm getting closer.

I finished the workout with some intense core work. Two sets of 5 Double Getup Situps with 2 16 kg kettlebells...

...followed by the one i've been working on lately that have been having trouble with, (and still need more work on), the kettlebell dragon flag...

Later in the day I did four 30 second sets of alternating SOTS press which is another incredible core exercise with kettlebells (video coming at a later time).. And then I went back to the stairs for another round of Shaolin Squat Stair Jumps with a Reverse Bear Crawl which I wrote about in a blog last week.. I was working the NM varsity basketball team out and I had them do 3 rounds of the stairs followed by one backwards bear crawl.. Each of them said it was the most difficult thing they've ever done and they couldn't wait to tell everybody at school that they did it.. Very cool!!

Train hard.. Be Well!
kevin



Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Just Monkeying Around...

As far as I know, the Dynamic Strength and Conditioning Gym is now just the second gym in the country, and possibly the world, to have a set of Monkey Bars.. The other being at the Monkey Bar Gymnasium in Madison, WI... This is a heavy duty set of monkey bars, 14 feet long and supported by 8 1/2 foot 4x8 hemlock beams that were each bolted into the floor with brackets fastened by 5/8 x 5" lag bolts. Want to guess what my weekend workouts consisted of? How about ratcheting in 56 5" lag bolts into 6" of wood floor for starters. Thankfully, the mill has wicked thick floors with 5 or 6 different layers of different kinds of boards. These monkey bars will be there till the end of time. And I know we'll be enjoying them at the gym for a long time to come.

Had a great workout yesterday.. Worked out with the DSC gym rat Marc. We went through a great power-building session based on a 5x5 format which is 5 sets of 5 reps. Typically, if you're going to go with lower reps, you load up on the resistance or make it a really difficult exercise. In yesterday's sessions we did the following:
5x5
Handstand Press
Ring Dips
Weighted Pistols (5 each side per set)
Ring Pullups
Power Pushups

I did the weighted pistols holding a 12kg kettlebell which is just under 20% of my bodyweight.. Next time I'm going to go with the 16kg.. The power pushup is a pushup that uses one of Jon Hinds inventions, which is called "The Power Pushup" (go figure).. I have a few of these at the gym so ask me about it next time you're in and you can try it out. I had it setup with 6 cables which adds 120 pounds of resistance.. The ring dips are a great exercise that requires a great deal of core strength.. Any exercise that's done on the rings really adds a new dimension and forces you to use every muscle in your body.

We followed the 5x5 workout with one set of Turkish Getups, 5 on each side done with a 24kg kettlebell.. Nice cooldown :)  Excellent workout!

All the best,
kevin


Friday, November 7, 2008

Fun With Stairs

A couple days ago Michele and I took Jake for a walk down to the Mine Falls trails which are about a 5 minute walk from the gym.. Mine Falls is a gorgeous network of trails in the woods of New Hampshire along the lovely Nashua River. Anyway, we're walking along and we come across this really steep set of about 30 steps that link the lower trail we were on with an upper trail.. I look at things differently than most people.. Where most people would see a set of stairs, I see something that can give me a killer workout. My first thought was of the Shaolin Monk squat stair  jumps that I heard about from my friend Jon Hinds, who is full of great ideas.. Apparently, when the Shaolin Monks weren't busy doing Monk stuff, they used to do full range of motion, butt to heels, squat jumps up stairs and mountains. Trappist monks brew beer, Shaolin monks do squat jumps. I prefer the Shaolin method of killing time :)  

So I told Michele we had to come back and get a workout in on these stairs. So today was the day.. We brought Jake out for a walk, went to the stairs and I started in.. One sprint up the stairs, one set of single step squat jumps, one set of double step squat jumps, and one set of triple step squat jumps.. My legs were really burning and got a super pump.. I was pressed for time and had to get back to the gym so I couldn't do any more sets of jumps, but I did have time for one backwards bear crawl up the stairs. Very, very difficult exercise and it works every muscle in your body... Great stuff! And a lot of fun.. So next time you're out for a walk in the woods, I hope you look at things a little differently. Enjoy yourself and act like a kid.. Jump, run, climb, crawl and work up a sweat..

Train hard, have fun!
Kevin


Thursday, November 6, 2008

Another day in Sparta

Another Thursday night, another great Spartan workout... Today's workout was in a 40:20 work:rest ratio. Complete 6 circuits of:

Double Kettlebell Swing
D-Ball Clean and Press
Double Kettlebell Getup
Sledgehammer Strikes
Jump Rope/Heavy Bag.



Huge effort by Niko, Nicole, Eric, and Michele.. Also it was awesome to see CJ climbing the rope like it was nothing. The people coming to the gym are bringing great energy. Let's get some more people down here for these Spartan workouts, your only regret will be that you didn't start sooner... I think people see the word "Spartan" and get initimidated. Granted, you want to be in good shape to come to one of these because I do set these up with a lot of exercises that can challenge you at a very high level.. But they're still designed to challenge you at whatever level you're at today. If you don't want to realize the phenomenal results that I've gotten doing these workouts then stick with your workouts at WOW or Curves. If you want to get in the best possible shape that you can be in then get your butt down here and join us. We're absolutely redefining the fitness world with our functional strength and conditioning workouts...

Some of the people coming to the gym have started leaving testimonials on our white board on the front door... Testimonial of the day:


Couldn't have said it better myself....
kevin


Wednesday, November 5, 2008

No such thing as going easy...

No matter how hard I try, i'm just not programmed for "easy".. Am I taking it easy on my forearm like I said I would? Yes.. Well, kinda.. I'm not doing any heavy kettlebell work and no snatches or cleans for another week and a half.. But I have to work myself and i have to work myself hard.. When I work out I challenge myself every time out. My easy days are my rest days.. If I'm exercising, then there's nothing easy about it.. Today's workout was intended to be a 30 minute session of burpees (Michele talked me out of trying 60 minutes).. So I set off on my 30 minute burpee adventure, after warming up with about 10 minutes of jump rope.. 99.9% of the people that come through the gym hate the burpee (I've blogged about this before). The reason is because it is a damn hard exercise that works every single muscle in your body.. And when you're doing burpees for more than 30 or 40 seconds it really starts to work your head too because the urge to stop is very high.. I was just over 10 minutes into the workout at 130 burpees and I was on pace to hit 400 burpees for 30 minutes when a new potential physical culturist came in to see what we're all about.. Luckily, when she saw how hard I was working she didn't get scared and run away.. She stayed, she liked what she saw and she'll be back for sure. But my 30 minute burpee session was stalled and will have to wait for another day.. I finished my workout with an amazing full body core blast with 50+ hanging windshield wipers.. Then I was practicing another move that I've been playing with which I'm going to call the kettlebell dragon flag (video of that one coming soon). My core was pretty torched from the wipers when I started on the dragons so my form kind of sucked and was not video-worthy just yet.. I finished up with another 10 minutes of jumprope fun... Here's a video of the hanging wipers...


Excellent full body workout.. 150 burpees, 50+ hanging wipers, about 6 or 7 KB dragon flags, and 20 minutes of jumprope.. No harm done to the forearm. Will be back snatching the 32kg in no time!

Be well, train hard,
Kevin

Monday, November 3, 2008

Workout 11-3

As much as I like working out with the kettlebells, sometimes it's necessary for me to just leave them alone for a little while and go back to bodyweight workouts. And when you have a strained forearm muscle that requires a "shutdown" period if it's ever going to get better, it's important to be able to still get kickass workouts in while you're shutting down that particular muscle. Using nothing but your bodyweight really allows you to do this. I strained the muscle about 8 months ago and have been reluctant to stop over-stressing it.. I continually perform heavy KB snatches, cleans, and swings and the muscle continues to give me trouble. Just last week on a day that I was determined to go easy I PR'd my Turkish Getup with 2 reps at 36kg (53% of my bodyweight). I admittedly have a lot of trouble "going easy".. So I'm going to spend the next two weeks without picking up a kettlebell and I'm going to go to a strict regimen of ass-kicking bodyweight workouts.. Today's workout was a 30 minute session to see how many rounds I could get in of the following:
100 Hindu Squats
20 Hindu Pushups
20 Jackknifes

I typically like to do longer sets of hindu squats but for today i really wanted to push the number of rounds and get a good number of pushups and jacknifes in as well.. When you're doing long sets of hindu squats, the lactic acid starts to build up in the quads at about the 40 second mark.. Being able to continue pushing through the burn requires a great deal of mental strength as well as physical endurance. It's similar to the feeling you get when time trialing on a bike or climbing hills. There's no recovery and you have to be able to push through the pain as your quads start to feel like they'll explode.. Of course, at sets of 100 squats, you're only going for a couple minutes, but when your quads are burning up it sure feels like a lot longer than that. 

As the timer went off at 30 minutes I was completing the 20th rep of the jacknife of my 7th set.. I don't know what was burning more, my quads or my lungs.. Great cardio workout, and an awesome full body burn. Huge energy level at the end of the workout! 
Totals for the workout:
700 Hindu Squats
140 Hindu Pushups
140 Jacknifes
30:00 minutes

But I sure miss the kettlebells :(
I put Michele and Marc (Official DSC Gym Rat) through a killer kettlebell workout at lunch that I wish I could have joined in.. They did the following:
100 1 arm swing
100 1 arm snatch
100 see saw press (alternating 1 arm military press)
50 KB thrusters

Michele was using 12kgs on the 1 arm swing and snatch and double 8kgs on the see saw press and thrusters.. She finished in 18:49! It was a stunning effort. Marc also came in under 20 minutes using the 16kgs.. Great job to both of you.

All the best,
kevin