Friday, February 27, 2009

Hey Kevin, When Are We Going To Do Cardio?

I get this question every so often and people who ask it get about 5 seconds of blank stare from me as I wait for them to break into a laugh and say "Just kidding.. hahaha". When my 5 seconds of blank stare is met with 5 seconds of even more blankness from the inquisitor then I realize the question has been asked for real. When are we going to do cardio? These are the times that make me realize how far we still have to go to destroy the misconceptions that have been developed over the past 50 or 60 years. 

There is a misconception that "cardio" work has to involve long periods of keeping your heart rate elevated in an "aerobic" zone where your heart rate is somewhere around 50-70% of it's max. According to the "experts", the longer you keep it there, the better. This is a message that has been brainwashed into society by the makers of treadmills, elliptical machines, and the chrome and fern palaces that house them. If you have 2 or 3 hours a day to blow on one of these running machines to nowhere then by all means, grab some headphones and a machine in front of the TV showing the Price Is Right and have at it. When you haven't developed any muscle and continue to gain weight after a couple months of running to nowhere then it's time to redefine what "cardio" work means to you....

Cardio work doesn't have to be done for extended periods of time and it doesn't have to be done at 50-70% of your max heart rate. It can be done in ridiculously short periods of time and it can be done at heart rates approaching 100% of your max heart rate. This is what high intensity interval training is all about. Work as hard as possible for a short period, recover for a short period, and repeat. Or, work as hard as possible for 10-30 minutes without a break. The longer the period of time, the lower intensity you'll be able to sustain. The trick is to work at the highest level of effort you can sustain. For example, when I'm in a 60 mile road race that takes about 2.5 hours to complete my heart rate will average around 85% max. When I'm in a cyclocross race my heart rate hovers around 90-95% max heart rate for 45 minutes. Cyclocross races are max efforts start to finish whereas road races you catch some breaks. When I'm doing burpee intervals at the gym, my heart rate is around 95-100% for anywhere from 1 min to 10 mins. The thing about working at a high intensity is it increases your metabolism. Your body continues to burn calories at an elevated rate when you're done exercising at a high intensity because it has to work harder to recover from the workout you put it through. This makes your body stronger because you push it harder and it makes your heart stronger because you push it harder. This is cardio work. 

My workout today consisted of some cardio work :)  I did a burpee workout (another gem from Johnny the Wildman) where I set out two cones 10 feet apart from each other. I started at the first cone and did 12 burpees, then walked to the other cone 10 feet away and did 12 more, walked back and did 11 more, then back to the other cone for 11 more.. This went on until I was down to 1 and 1. It's 156 burpees total. When you're finished with the round of 8's you've completed 100 burpees. Since I've set a goal to get 100 burpees in 5:00 minutes I checked my time at the 100 burpee mark. 5:56!! This beat my previous best of 6:42 by a whopping 46 seconds. I then took a much needed 30 second rest, finished the 156 burpees in 10:51 and collapsed for a couple minutes. I'm writing this 10 hours later and my lungs are still cooked.. As a finisher I did 6 rounds of Double Kettlebell Push Press with double 20kgs in a 30:30 format. Unbelievable workout and it only took me less than 20 minutes. 

Coming soon, another one of my favorites... "Hey Kevin, when are we going to work on our abs?" ;)

All the best,
kevin

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Half the Fun is in Getting There...

.... or at least that's what I tell myself as I'm about 12 miles into a ride, sucking wind up a hill.. I got outside on the bike today for only the second time of 2009. I've been riding the trainer and the rollers 2 or 3 times a week, plus I work out practically every day in the gym, so it's not like I've been doing nothing. Far from it. But the fact is that no amount of time on a trainer or rollers or swinging kettlebells or climbing ropes or any of the other stuff I do in the gym will get me in shape for bike racing. It provides me a good fitness base to launch from but that's about it. You want to get in race shape, you have to do it on the bike.

I started the day with a strength workout in the gym. I did a 5x5 routine of:
1 arm pushups
weighted ring dips with a 12kg kettlebell
double getup situps with double 20kgs

Once the sun came out and I got a couple hours break in the afternoon I hit the road on my bike for 22 miles. It was fantastic to get outside on the bike, but it's humbling to realize that, as fit as I like to think I am, I have so far to go. I think about the goal I've set for myself and I think about the amount of miles and effort that will need to go into it. I think about crossing the finish line on top of Mt Washington in agony, lungs ready to explode. Hopefully I'll look at the clock and see something under 1:10. But if I don't, it won't be because I didn't put the effort in. It's what I do. I set a goal, and I go after it with everything I have.

I was thinking today about how what I'm going through right now is the same battle that everybody has to face at some point. Regardless of whether you're a high level athlete, a weekend warrior that likes to compete, or somebody who has spent the last 15 years letting themselves go and wants to get back to the way they were when they were playing sports in high school. We all have something to aspire to. Depending on your starting point and where you see yourself getting to, the task can be daunting. I look at where I want to get and I know it's going to take about 300 hours on the bike and 5000 miles in my legs. It's the kind of thing that can make a person say "Screw that, why put myself through it?".. Or how about the person who has put on an extra 50 pounds and wants to get back in shape? They have to realize that it's going to take a lot of effort, in the gym and in the way they eat. Many people will give up before they even get going because they get too far ahead of themselves and become overwhelmed. I know the feeling. Here's an example. When I signed a lease on the gym and started getting the place ready the windows were covered in plastic and had about 5 billion staples in each of them. As I started work on the first window I looked around me at the 15 giant mill windows all in need of de-stapling, hole-filling, sanding, scraping, priming, finishing. Never mind the other work required (shower rooms, floors, etc), the lack of help and money. It would have been easy to give up. It seemed like it would take years to get to the finished product that I envisioned. But I kept at it, never lost focus (lost my mind a couple times.. hey, it happens) and eventually got it done.

Every goal can be achieved. It takes a singular focus and it takes determination. Words like "can't" have to be stricken from your vocabulary. The only limits that you have are the ones that you place on yourself. That's a fact. If I want to meet my goal on Mt Washington, then I have to put a training plan together that's going to get me there and I have to stick to it. And there's times that it's going to suck... A lot... This is no different than what the person has to do who has spent the last 15 years on his butt, eating crap, putting on 50 pounds and wants to get rid of it. He has to put a plan together, start exercising hard and eating right. And there are times that it's going to suck... A lot... And when it sucks a choice has to be made. We can choose to suck it up and push through the pain, whether it's mental, physical, or both. Or we can quit. To paraphrase Lance, "The pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever". My little 22 mile ride today hurt. It hurt physically because I pushed it pretty hard a couple times just to test myself.. It hurt mentally because I realized how far away I am from where I want to be. Despite all that I can't wait to get back on the road as soon as possible and do it all over again so I can be one step closer to where I want to get :)  

If I can do it you can do it. If you need some extra help and motivation to get you where you want to be then I will be happy to help you get there. See you at the gym!

All the best,
Kevin

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Don't Let the Economy Take You Down With It...

When the economy goes south it brings a lot of us with it, and in many different ways. Obviously, everybody gets hit financially to some degree, some worse than others. This causes stress, anxiety and depression. When people get overwhelmed with stress, it destroys their motivation to do things that are good for them, like exercise. Stress, anxiety, and depression suck the life out of a person. They rob you of positive energy and fill the mind with negativity and fear. But, like everything else in life there is a fix.


In my experience, it is impossible to have a healthy mind without having a healthy body. I can look back at any point in my life when I went through an extended period of stress, anxiety, or depression, and in each case I was not eating right, I was not exercising right, and I was drinking too much


My point is this. There are certain things in life you have control over. What you eat and how you take care of yourself is one of the things you have control over (Ok, that's two things). The economy is something you don't have control over. Getting stressed and anxious over things you don't have control over is pointless. Easy to say, I know. But I also know this, when I am feeling physically strong and fit it has a positive affect on everything in my life. When I push myself to the limit on a regular basis and challenge myself both physically and mentally it makes me a stronger person. When I achieve things that I was unsure I'd ever be able to do, it sets me up for success the next time I'm presented with a challenge. It gives me confidence and a positive outlook. I have incredible energy to deal with anything. Think about it, I lost my high paying tech job and started a non-traditional gym in the worst economy since The Great Depression. When you come into the gym, or read my blog do you sense despair or anxiety? Of course not. Is it because I'm crazy (Hmmm, maybe that's why Alison and Danielle call it "the Crazy Gym")? No, it's because I'm in a really good place physically and mentally, and I am completely confident that I'm going to be successful. And I'm not talking about results measured in dollar signs. My success is validated by the results and attitudes of the people that are coming to the gym. Somebody said to me yesterday, "I felt like I was a kid playing at the playground, it's so much fun working out at your gym it's like entertainment!". The gym is filled with positive energy, people challenging themselves, supporting each other, having fun while getting in the best shape of their lives. For many, this is the best part of their day.


So if the economy is getting you down, then you have to do whatever it takes to get your head in a positive place. That's going to start with taking really good care of yourself. The economy is cyclical, your fitness and attitude doesn't have to be. Your well-being is not a "non-essential" that can be put on the back burner until things turn around. Come down to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning and start challenging yourself at a higher level than you ever have before and realize the positive changes it will make in your attitude, energy, and well-being. Most things you can put a price on, your health isn't one of them.


For today, I'm going to keep my body tuned up with a playground workout in the gym. A playground workout is the type of stuff that makes you feel like a kid again. These kinds of workouts always keep a smile on my face:

20 minutes jump rope

20 minutes of hand balancing

Work on the Monkey Bars

Rope Climbs


All the best,

kevin


Thursday, February 19, 2009

It's Not How Hard You Work, It's How Hard You Work When Nobody's Looking

Ever been to the land of shiny chrome machines and mirrors and seen "that guy" on the pec deck doing flys and grunting and groaning like he's giving birth to a watermelon.. You can go back every week for a year and see the same person, lifting the same weight, giving birth to the same watermelon.. Wonder how "hard" he works when nobody's looking. In most cases, he's not working that hard which is why he's lifting the same weight week after week. The grunting and groaning is all for show. Don't be "that guy"... Be the guy who busts his ass when nobody's looking..

Had a very productive day today. Started the day with a 90 minute Bikram Yoga session.. Still not used to the heat or the smell.. Probably never will be. But it's still really good. Then this afternoon I did the workout that I intend to give the Spartan session tonight. It's a 15:15 workout where you work for 15 seconds and rest for 15 seconds. Perform 10 rounds of each exercise (5:00min) before moving on to the next exercise. The exercises were:

Double Kettlebell Swings
16# Sledgehammer strikes on the tire
Double Kettlebell Snatches
Burpees

I'm not allowing myself to snatch anything more than a 16kg for at least another month until my forearm is 100%, so going with double kettlebells is a great way to really crank up the intensity. And doing double 16kgs is a pretty good weight for me anyways at about 50% bodyweight. Looking forward to being able to go heavier with these soon :)  I was getting 8 swings per round, 5 or 6 snatches per round, 8 sledge hits per round, and 5 burpees per round. Totals for the circuit:
80 swings with 32kg
80 sledge hits with 16# hammer
55 snatches with 32kg
50 burpees

My finisher was where I added my biggest challenge for the day.. To finish up I did 100 consecutive pistols without stopping, alternating each leg every time. Completed the 100th pistol at 4:20 minutes! These were done barefoot with bodyweight. I then did 100 corkscrews and 50 pushups..

Train hard, especially when no one's looking :)
kevin

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Intimidator

Intimidate: To make timid or fearful; to inspire or affect with fear; to deter, as by threats...

Ok, so now I know what "to intimidate" means.. I've been coaching athletes for 16 years and I'm now about a year into training people with Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. Over the years I've been called a lot of things, some complimentary, others not so much. That's OK. I'm comfortable with who I am and I know that I coach people, young and old, because I know I can help them better themselves. My only goal is to share what I've learned with people in the hopes that what I have to share will help to achieve their goals. My passion sometimes comes across with a little intensity ;)  I train extremely hard and I've achieved great results. I opened Dynamic Strength and Conditioning (which you can vote for as best gym of 2009 at the Hippo's website along with this blog as best blog, haha) so that I can help others achieve great results. We train pro athletes, grandmothers, college and high school athletes, regular everyday people looking to feel better than they've felt since they were kids. Everybody who trains with us regularly gets phenomenal results.. 

Let me get to my point. Over the past year I've heard on many occasions that people don't want to train with me because I intimidate them (see definition above). Me? The Intimidator? I'm 5' 5", 148 pounds, and I shave my legs during bike racing season.. Intimidating? I'm kidding, right? Wrong. I've heard it enough now that I've decided to blog about it.. So let me explain to any of you that may feel intimidated by me what it is you're really intimidated by, because it's certainly not me. Your fear lies within, it lies not with the coach. (I can't believe i just wrote that, it sounds really profound doesn't it?)... You're afraid to push yourself. You've read what I have to say. You've watched my videos. You've maybe even come in to the Best Gym of 2009 and taken part in some sessions. If you've come in and worked out with us then you've felt the pain that comes with working every muscle in your body hard. You've felt the soreness the next day, which the first few times can be pretty painful. If you've continued to come then you've also felt the increase in energy and reduction in clothes size.. Then there's those that haven't come in or have came and left because the coach is too intimidating. For those of you that would like to blame it on me and my "intimidation" you need to take a look in the mirror and introduce yourself to the real reason that you don't want to work out here. You're afraid to push yourself out of the comfort zone. Your comfort zone is located at 5.0 MPH on the treadmill among sparkling chrome and mirror-lined rooms. Your comfort zone is not located at 100 Factory St. Which is fine, because frankly, what we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning isn't intended for you.. 

For those of you that come to my gym and leave my kettlebells and floors soaked with your sweat, thank you. Keep coming and I'll keep pushing you. This is why I'm here. This is not intimidation. This is motivation. And there's those of you that get it, and those that don't. If you're sitting there nodding your head right now, then you get it :)

For today I started the day with a 90 minute session of Bikram Yoga. I don't like heat, I don't like humidity, and I don't like rooms that smell like a bag of hockey equipment. But I love what the Bikram Yoga has been doing for my forearm injuries and I'm going to keep suffering through it. After all, I'm pretty good at doing suffering. Later today I worked out at the gym. I started out with 20 minutes of handstand work. Hand balancing builds awesome full body strength. I had somebody comment on one of my youtube videos that hand-balancing really wasn't core work. This was obviously by somebody who can't do a handstand. Until I built real full body strength I couldn't hold a handstand for more than a couple seconds. I can now hold one for a minute and I can walk about 100 feet on my hands. This requires great core strength and control of your entire body.

I followed the handstand work with 5 sets of double rope climbs with pullups and some double kettlebell compound work. Today I combined double kb front squats, military press, and double windmills. Each compound kettlebell set was done with double 16kgs and took about 2 minutes to complete. Great full body work! 
WARNING! The videos that follow are an 8 out of 10 on the "Intimidation" scale. If you're weak at heart and enjoy time on the treadmill while watching 5 TV sets and looking at yourself in a mirror then this is not for you.





Train Hard,
Kevin

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Deck of Cards

One of the best ways we use to get a killer conditioning workout at the gym is the Deck of Cards workout. Most people who have done it, dread it when they see it on the board. But they know they're going to get a phenomenal workout in even if it is going to hurt a little (ok, maybe a lot if they're willing to really push it).. I've been training an up and coming MMA fighter, Dennis "The Menace" Olson, and he's got a big fight coming up in a couple weeks so this is the time he needs to be getting in some workouts that are going to help him go at a really high intensity for extended periods of time with little to no rest. The deck of cards workout is perfect for this. The way it works is you do the number of reps on each card drawn (or some multiple of the number drawn). Each exercise is represented by a different suit. Today, I worked out with Dennis and we pushed ourselves to the limit with this one.. The exercises we chose were:

Spades = Burpees
Hearts = Jackknife
Diamonds = Hindu Squats x 2 (for example, if an 8 of diamonds is drawn, do 16 hindu squats)
Clubs = Kettlebell Swing x 2
Face cards = 10. Ace = 16

Kettlebell swings were done with a 32kg kettlebell. Once we flipped the first card there was no stopping until all the cards were flipped. First person to finish the exercise would flip the next card. This workout kicked our asses. At one point we had to do 46 consecutive kettlebell swings. Given that this was about 15 minutes into the workout and I was swinging a 32kg I can tell you that I was ready to drop.. The worst part of the workout though was the lack of spades coming up as the deck was getting slimmer. So we both knew we were going to get slammed with burpees at some point. The last 4 cards of the workout were all spades. 36 burpees in a row to finish the workout. Brutal!

Totals for the workout:
27:30
100 burpees
100 Jackknifes
200 Hindu Squats
200 Kettlebell Swings x 32kg

4 stars for this one!!

Best,
Kevin




Sunday, February 8, 2009

New diet that's low in GI, high in BS

If you've been thinking about starting a new diet, I'm going to save you some money today. I'll begin by saying that, in my opinion, "diets" are a bunch of BS.. The South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, there's a new fad diet that you can follow pretty much every other month.. The latest is the Low Glycemic Index Diet. I think this one was started by a Market America program called Transitions. Market America is the Bernie Madoff of internet marketing and they currently operate the largest pyramid scheme in the world. The first thing anybody has to remember about all of these "diets" is that they were developed to make somebody money.

In the case of the Low Glycemic Index diet, the idea is to keep your blood sugar relatively stable by eating foods that don't spike your blood sugar. The system ranks the quality of all carbs based on the effect on your blood sugar level. This diet could just as easily been named the "Hey Dummy, Stop Eating So Much Damn Sugar, Diet", but the marketing geniuses at Market America decided that wouldn't sell people on the idea. Scientific words that most people have never heard before, like glycemic, sound impressive and make you want to spend money to learn about it.

I'm just going to give you one example of why nobody needs to pay any attention to this diet. I was wondering what to have for breakfast yesterday morning and I decided I would refer to the Glycemic Index Table provided by any of these Low GI diet pushers on the web. I chose three different things I could have had for breakfast:
1. Whole grain oatmeal with 100% pure Vermont maple syrup, cinnamon, and freshly cut pineapples
2. Bowl of ice cream covered with peanut M&M's
3. Twinkie wrapped with bacon.
According to the table, the twinkie wrapped with bacon would have been my best choice, the bowl of ice cream with M&Ms second, and the bowl of oatmeal with fruit last.. No, I'm not kidding. 

If you want to be healthy and fit then you don't diet. You eat right and exercise. You use common sense about the choices you make. It's really incredibly simple. Here's what you need to do:
1. Eat real food, not processed junk
2. Eat when you're hungry. There's a difference between needing to eat, wanting to eat, and eating for the sake of eating. Know the difference. Only eat when you need to eat.
3. Stop eating when you're no longer hungry. That's before you're full. This is tricky because the mechanism in the body that tells you you're full is delayed by about 15 minutes from the time that you actually become full.. So this takes some knowledge about how much food it takes to become unhungry (when you have your own blog you can make up words). Luckily, you eat every day and practice enough so that it should be easy enough to figure out how much food you really need to kill the hunger and avoid eating to the point of being full. In most cases it only takes an apple or a banana. 
4. Get 25-30% of your daily calories within 2 hours of waking up. Eat less than 10% of your daily intake within 2 hours of going to bed.
5. Exercise daily and exercise hard. 

So, yesterday, after deciding on the oatmeal and fruit for breakfast (worst possible choice according to the Low GI diet people), I went off to the gym. I had some time between sessions to get my own workout in. For the record, high glycemic index foods put glucose into your system quickly which is required for intense physical activity. When mixed with the proper amount of fats and proteins you will provide your body with excellent energy for working out for extended periods of time. High GI foods are also good for after a workout when your body needs its glycogen stores replenished. This is all a scientific way of saying eat bananas before and after workouts. Whole grains and peanut butter are also good choices. I wanted a good strength building session yesterday and I wanted to put my forearm to another test. Yesterdays workout was 3 rounds of:
10 pullups on the rings
20 pistols on each leg
1 wall walk with 10-15 second holds and pushups
3 Turkish Getup on each side with 32kg

I haven't been able to do 10 pullups without pain in almost a year. But having been going to Dr Baroody in Manchester for Active Release Technique and ultrasound treatment and Bikram Yoga in Nashua (the locust pose is the healer for me) for the last 3 weeks I can finally say I'm making huge strides. I got 10 pullups in all three rounds with zero pain to the forearm. This was huge for me! With the pistols, I've done as many as 25 in a row on both legs but I have never done rounds of 20. I got all three rounds with 20 on each side for a total of 120 pistols. The wall walk is a great core exercise idea that I got from Johnny Grube. Followed this up with 3 Turkish Getups on each side with a 32kg. First round, 3rd rep, I thought I was going to pass out which would have been a bad idea with a 70# kettlebell floating over my head. 


After completing my 3 rounds, for the finisher I did a Power Wheel Kettlebell Bear Walk.. This is something that we call the Lavoie Crawl at the gym since I think it was Nicole that jokingly said one day after we were doing the Bear Walk that we should try it with the power wheel strapped to our feet. At the time it was said as a joke, but I took it as a challenge. It is as brutal as it looks.


Not a bad workout for somebody who failed the Low GI BS diet, eh? Imagine what I could have accomplished if I had the bacon wrapped twinkie...

Train hard, have fun,
kevin

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Workout of the Day

I just started a new blog which will be updated daily. It's called the Dynamic Workout of the Day. In it I'll be posting the workout of the day from the gym or maybe I'll throw in a workout of my own for people to try on their own. 

Today's workout (not on the new blog) that I put myself through was one of my forearm rehab workouts. Same workout I put the spartans through last night, except I used a lower weight then most of them did.. The workout was:

8 min jump rope warmup
50 1 arm kettlebell swings on each arm
50 1 arm snatches on each arm
50 goblet squats
50 1 arm contra-lateral row on each side
50 1 arm long cycle on each arm

I did the whole workout without stopping with a 12kg kettlebell (except for the goblet squats, i grabbed a 16kg for those).. Performed all 50 on each side without stopping before switching arms on every exercise.. Even though it was very light, I worked up a good sweat and gave my forearms a great low intensity workout. It took me 19:30 to complete.

I wanted to do something that was a little more difficult so I finished up with 3 sets of 10 windmills on each side with a 24kg kettlebell.. 60 24kg windmills total.. Nice finisher!

Enjoy the new blog..

All the best,
kevin

Sunday, February 1, 2009

I'm In... Let the Suffering Begin!

I was sitting in front of my computer ready to go at 7:45 this morning. The registration for the Mt Washington Autoroad Bicycle Hillclimb Race opened at 8:00am. This race is known to sell out in less than 30 minutes and I wanted to make sure I got in this time around. The last time I tried to get in I nonchalantly logged in about 3 hours after registration opened and found myself 400 deep on a waiting list. The other alternative is to race in Newton's Revenge which is the same route up the Mt W autoroad except it take place 6 weeks earlier at the beginning of July and it isn't nearly as popular (there are always a lot of pros racing at the "official" race in August, even if they are banned dopers like Tyler Hamilton). Plus, if you really want to get the best time possible you really need that extra 6 weeks of training. I know I've tried but I really can't put into words how difficult this race is. 

There's two ways to do this race. You can do it to finish it, like I did the first time when I finished in 1:32.. Or you can do it to place, like I'm doing it this time. My 1:32 was the first time I ever climbed the mountain on my bike and it was brutal, but without a time goal set in my mind I paced myself differently than if I had wanted to hit a specific time. Second time I did it in 1:24 (my goal was 1:20). Third time I did it was two years ago during a practice ride in early June and I wanted to do it in 1:20, which for me was pretty aggressive for that early in the season. Under 1:20 is considered the "top notch" category.. I got to the top at 1:20:00, fell off my bike, and puked (well, dry heaved really) for two minutes. I thought this was a really good accomplishment, especially considering how early in the season it was and that my warmup for the race included an 8 mile climb out of Gorham, NH to the Mt Washington autoroad at 6:00am during which I was chased by a huge moose which literally came inches from knocking me off my bike and crushing me like a grape and in the process scared the shit out of me. It was a female moose and I think she was really into my spandex biking kit that I was wearing that day :)  Anyway, I continued training hard and got myself in very, very good shape for the race. My goal was 1:15 and I know I would have hit it except for one thing... There were 70 mile an hour winds at the top of the mountain and torrential downpours so they cancelled the race. Huge dissapointment!

This year my goal is to come top 10 in my age group which is going to require a time somewhere between 1:10 and 1:15. I am shooting for 1:10 in decent race conditions (i.e. not raining hard and winds under 50 mph at the top). This is going to require a level of mental and physical conditioning higher than I have ever achieved in my life. It is going to mean levels of suffering that 99.99% of people will never endure in a lifetime. It is a goal, that were I to attempt to achieve it today, I would fail so miserably it would be laughable. And that's why I've set it to be my top goal for 2009. For me, a goal is something that once achieved, will signify an extreme level of growth. It can be physical, mental, or spiritual. The best goals allow me to grow in all three ways. And if there's one thing I learned, extreme growth does not come without extreme suffering.

People have asked me what it takes to build mental toughness. One of the things people love about coming to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning is the fact that they push themselves to new levels. Levels that they never push themselves to on their own. This is the type of experience that is required to develop mental toughness. But the toughest part is the ability to be able to work that hard when you're on your own and you don't have a trainer or group of workout partners pushing you. When nobody is watching and you put yourself in more pain than your body wants to handle and your brain is doing it's best to get you to quit but you continue anyways. When you decide that one of two things is going to happen; you're going to complete what you set out to do, or you're going to die trying. Sound over the top? Maybe a little extreme? Maybe it is, but that's what it takes if you want to compete to win or if you want to reach levels of fitness and performance that you thought impossible.

Does everybody have to be that psycho about their fitness levels? Of course not. But the second you stop pushing yourself out of your comfort zone you will stop making gains. People come to my gym and push themselves ridiculously hard and realize incredible strength, endurance and energy gains. They ask me if it gets any easier the more they do it. They don't like the answer I give them when I tell them that it gets harder.. Why does it get harder? Because the stronger you get, the harder you can push yourself. The harder you have to push yourself to make gains. My friend Doug has been coming to the Spartan workouts and he texted me his workout from yesterday. 6 rounds of 40:20 with double 20kg kettlebells with no rest of:
double snatches
power wheel rollouts
double clean and press
renegade row
double front squat
That is a sick workout! And, he did it alone. That is what mental toughness is. 

I'm in better shape than I've ever been in and I still put myself through at least one workout per week that takes me three days to recover from. I do this by myself with nobody watching. That's how you develop mental toughness and that's what's going to keep me going on my bike as I pass by the mile 3 marker on Mount Washington where the grade averages 18% for a mile, my heart screaming at 95% max, my brain telling me there's no freaking way we're making it the rest of the way, and there's more than 4 miles to go... Of course, that's assuming it doesn't kill me first :)

Lance Armstrong said it best. "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, an hour, a day, or even a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it will last forever."

Train hard, be well,
Kevin