There Are Simply No Excuses..

Getting out of shape for most people is easy. When you stop being active and you eat like crap then you lose your fitness and you lose your health. Many people have stressful, sedentary jobs. They eat from machines and packages. They have coffee for breakfast. They eat dinner at 9:00pm and wash it down with a half bottle of wine. They don't do anything that gets the heart rate up. They look in the mirror and see somebody that looks as though they could have eaten the 18 year old version of themselves and wonder how it got so bad. They get depressed, they get stressed. They want to get back in shape, but they worry about how hard it's going to be and how long it will take. Plus, they have no idea what they need to do to get there. They start making excuses.. Here's the top excuses I hear regularly.

Excuse #1 - I don't have time.

Excuse #2 - I don't know how

Excuse #3 - I can't afford it.

And here's where I destroy any misconceptions you may have :)

Everybody has time. The biggest issue here is the misconception that it takes hours every day to get in shape. If you're limited for time, and many of us are, then you need to make sure you're getting the most out of your time. You need to do intense exercise that is going to raise your metabolism. If you are able to increase your metabolism, then your body burns more calories during your daily activities once you're done exercising. This is the key factor in burning body fat. It's been proven that short periods of high intensity interval training (periods as little as 4 minutes per day) versus hours of aerobic activity will increase the metabolism to the point that your body will burn more than 10x more bodyfat during your regular daily activities. No, I'm not saying that working out 4 minutes per day is all you need to do. 99.99% of people can't push themselves hard enough for those 4 minutes to get the results that the people in the tests did. But 20 minutes of high intensity intervals? Now that's something everybody can highly benefit from... If you think that 30 minutes at 50%-70% of your max heart rate on the treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical machine is going to raise your metabolism you're wrong. It will burn enough calories to cover the extra cream in your coffee in the morning. Nothing more. If you're into bodybuilding type exercises, then be prepared to spend hours in the gym developing one muscle at a time to develop that inflated, non-functional, injury prone physique that does nothing for you in the real world. If you think you can find at least 20-30 minutes a day to get in shape, then I can give you an amazing, productive workout that will work every single muscle in your body, increase your metabolism and give your body all it can handle using your own bodyweight, kettlebells, medicine balls, sandbags, ropes and other fun stuff to play with. (More on the 30 minute workout later).

You say you can't afford it? I say you can't afford not to. If you're seriously deconditioned and overweight, then you can obviously afford the poor food choices that got you there. If you're spending your free time watching "The Biggest Loser", "American Idol", and "The Sopranos" then you can obviously afford your exorbitant cable and satellite TV bills. If you're hungover once in a while then you can afford to buy booze. How about running the heat a couple degrees cooler in the winter or getting fans instead of AC for the heat and humidity? It's nothing for most people to go out on a Friday night and drop $50 or more on drinks and appetizers with friends. Or $25 on a lunch out with colleagues from work. You can drive through any small, blue collar town of around 10,000 people and there'll be no less than 3 pizza joints that all seem to stay in business. Why do all of these "comforts" come before what matters most? When you're 70 years old with a countertop full of medications that cost you $500 a month after what Medicaid covers are you going to say to yourself, "Shit, I should have taken better care of myself when I was younger"? If you can't afford a few bucks a day now to take care of yourself how the hell are you going to afford the medications to keep you alive when you're a grandparent?

You know you need it, but you don't know what to do to get there? Talk to me. We'll see where you're at, where you want to get to, and I'll put a plan in place to get you there. I'll guide you, motivate you, and hold you accountable to your goals. All you have to do is want it and be willing to put in the effort. I have spent half my life finding the best ways to get in the best shape possible. I am turning 42 in a month and I am easily in the best shape I've ever been in and I continue to get in better shape every day. In the past, I have been in worse shape, mentally and physically, than most people that come through my doors for the first time. I have learned how to turn it around and get to where I am today. There is nobody better to help you get there too.

Don't believe all the hype you see and read in the media. Getting fit doesn't come in the shape of a pill. It will take time and effort, how long it will take will depend on how far you have to go. But, if you're out of shape now, that didn't happen overnight either. Everybody has a different starting point. There's a lot of marketing hype out there promoting easy ways to get fit and lose weight. Anything you read that tells you they have the secret that will help you to lose 20 pounds in 20 days is a crock of shit. There's no secrets and it's not easy. But then again if they told the truth then their marketing slogan would look more like this "Be prepared to work your ass off and use common sense when eating". Not as appealing as "All you have to do is take two of these per day and you can even eat cake!".. Getting yourself fit is a lifestyle, not a prescription. 

At Dynamic Strength and Conditioning we have tons of options for you. There's the group sessions that people are taking advantage of and getting better results than anything they've ever experienced. Everybody is raving about the gym and there are new faces at the gym almost every day! But the group sessions aren't necessarily for everybody when they're first starting out and some people just do better in a smaller group or 1-on-1 situation. We offer one hour personal training sessions that are phenomenal but not everybody has the time or money for this so I've decided to offer something new that fits everybody's schedule, is more affordable, and is guaranteed to get you results in the least amount of time possible.

I'm now offering 30 minute personal training sessions. These can be 1 on 1 or can be small groups of people. Using primarily bodyweight exercises and kettlebell exercises I will give you a high intensity workout that will build incredible full body strength, muscular endurance, and explosive power. Your metabolism will go up by an order of magnitude (as long as you're fueling your body properly) and you will definitely lose body fat. A better analogy would be that you'll be working your body in such a way that it will scare the fat off your body :) As for the "fueling your body properly" part, many people think they're eating well until I take them through a nutritional assessment. A nutritional assessment with recommendations will be provided to everybody signing up for personal training. Everybody who works with me and has implemented my guidance on their nutritional intake has seen inches of bodyfat come off their bodies.

Nobody can tell me they can't find 30 minutes, 2 or 3 times per week, to work with me on getting their health and wellness in order. "Kevin, are you trying to tell me I only have to do this 2 or 3 times per week and I'm all set?".... Ummmm, no, that would be a lie and it would be irresponsible for me to have you believe that. The two or three times per week with me is what you need to get on track, get incredible workouts in, and get the right guidance. You also need to find time on the days when you're not with me to continue the work that we're doing in the gym. This may be taking part in group sessions at the gym. It could be half hour trail runs. It could be bike rides. It could be going for a walk or playing with the kids. It could be you doing the Dynamic Strength and Conditioning Workout of the Day on your own.. But you need to work some kind of activity into practically every day.

"But, coach, I can't afford personal training..."... With 30 minute sessions, I'm able to offer the most time and cost effective form of personal training available. And if you can find 2 or 3 friends to do it with it can cost you as little as about $15 per session. Less than a half decent bottle of wine or a large pepper and onion pizza would cost you. Honestly, I am the wrong person to offer excuses to.

If you're serious about getting in shape, then make the commitment to it and stop making excuses, because there really aren't any. Come on down and talk to me and we'll put a plan in place to get you exactly where you want to be.

Best,

kevin 

"Are You Having a Heart Attack?"

"Are you having a heart attack!?" That was deinfitely the most memorable thing shouted at me during my first race of the season yesterday.... 

I went into yesterday's race with 2 goals. First, to finish with the main pack. I was expecting this to be the type of race where there would be a breakaway or two that may or may not stay out, but then the rest of the field would pretty much stay together. I was hoping to stay with the field. Second goal was to not crash. I haven't even done a group ride in over a year, so getting into a master's group at speeds approaching 40mph with guys inches away on all sides can get sketchy from time to time. I was hoping I wouldn't be the one to cause a crash... So I managed to meet my second goal anyways.... I was seriously unprepared to meet my first goal, however.

Out of all the fields in a bike race, the Masters 35+ is arguably the second toughest group after the Pro/1/2 group.. This is because the masters 35 has any racer from Cat 1 to Cat 4 that is over 35, which in biking years, isn't far off your prime. These guys are mostly Cat 2 and Cat 3 racers that have been racing forever. Super strong. My goal of hanging with these guys for the whole race on a hilly course with the amount of training I've had at this point in the season was unrealistic. Here's why. I haven't put in any type of race effort this year. While I have about 1000 miles in, they've all been solo and they've all been targeted towards getting my base miles up with very little interval training. I haven't done any group rides where the pace gets pushed up to race pace. These are the types of efforts required to be able to match the intensity on race day. The guys I was racing against yesterday are up to 2000+ miles for the season and have spent the last month racing at Wells Ave, Loudon and other organized races to get prepared. This isn't an excuse, it's just the way it is. Some people train to win races in April. I haven't. My racing goals occur in August through December from the Mt Washington race through the end of the cyclocross season. I have to remember that to hang with a masters group in April, I have to train like a masters group from January to April. I haven't done that. But that's OK, I'm still on target for my goals and there were some really good things to come out of yesterday (along with the really bad).. 

The Turtle Pond Circuit race is 5 laps around an 11.5 mile rolling course with two tough climbs. The race started out up the toughest of the two climbs, about a mile long at about 7% grade, and I'm watching my power meter pushing over 300W to stay with the group with nobody attacking since it was a neutral start. I'm thinking "man, is this going to suck next time around when they're trying".. We get to the top of the hill and the attacks start immediately. I wasn't expecting this and I wasn't happy about it because I knew there was no way I was staying with a group for 57 miles trying to chase down attacks the whole time. Two guys shot off the front and got a decent lead. The rest of the pack picked up the pace to try to keep the break in sight. The group stayed together until the second tough climb of the day which was a short, steep hill that was about 1/4mile at maybe 10-12%, steeper in a couple sections. The group blew up pretty good at this point with several riders getting dropped for the day at this point. But I was still in it, and I was actually feeling pretty good. After the climb, the riders left in the pack re-grouped and it was about 4 or 5 miles at 30-40 mph back to the start of the loop. I realized I was already through my first bottle, not even 1/5th through the race, and feeling really thirsty. I had also drank one bottle before the race even started. I couldn't believe I was feeling this dehydrated. It was 85, but it's not like I haven't ridden in heat before. We got back to the big climb of the day and now the group was pushing the pace. My power meter was hovering between 350W and over 400W to stay with the group. By the time we got to the top of the climb my heart was way over threshold and I knew it wasn't sustainable. But I hung with the group, got back in the pack and recovered. On the second climb, I made sure I was towards the front of the group coming into it in case I got passed by a bunch of riders so I knew I'd have a better chance of getting on the back of the pack. Surprisingly, nobody really passed me. I was going strong, but I knew my effort level was too high to maintain for 57 miles. Oh well, it's not like I didn't expect to suffer. One of the toughest parts of the climbs is having the ability to stay on with the pack after you get over the top. That's because when people come over the top they know everybody's hurting so that's where you're going to see some attacks. That means you've just crushed yourself to climb a hill for minutes at a time at about 95% max heart rate and now you have to chase down an attack to try to re-group with the field. It's super painful, but you don't think about it because all you can think about is grabbing on to the wheel in front of you and hanging on. So now I've hung on for the first two laps, I'm almost out of water, my mouth is pasty, and my muscles are really starting to fatigue from the dehydration and the intense efforts that are above and beyond anything I've done to this point in the season. Thankfully, Danielle and Alison, came to watch the race and they were stationed in the feed zone with extra water bottles. We turned the corner to start the 3rd lap, I grabbed a bottle from Danielle, and raced back up to the group. We get into the major climb for the third time of the day and I'm hanging with them as best I can. Again I'm pushing between 350 and 400 on the power meter which is crazy power levels for me to maintain at this point in the year. I get to the top of the climb with the group, but the pace goes up. My legs are full of lactic acid and are so heavy.. I try to push harder but I can't. About 5 or 6 riders go way off the front but I manage to stay with about 5 or 6 riders trying to chase them down. But I'm just barely on at this point. We get to another incline and I'm dropped. Demoralized, dehydrated, dropped. I keep turning the pedals. The group is about 50 feet away from me but they may as well be 50 miles. When you have a group of guys working together, drafting off each other, they get to rest a little when they're in the draft. I'm solo at this point and fighting the wind by myself with no break. My day is over. Now it's all mental. I'm half way through a 57 mile race and I'm by myself. This isn't a race for me anymore, it's just about finishing. In a circuit race where you come through the starting line continuously, it's easy to get off the bike next time around and call it a day. But I signed up for 57 miles, Danielle and Alison came to cheer me on, and I obviously needed the work. Quitting wasn't an option. The last 2 1/2 laps were fairly miserable. My lower back hurt, I was starting to really feel the effects of the dehydration, and I wasn't able to maintain any kind of substantial power output. My legs started cramping on the hills and I was worried that I might not be able to finish. I grabbed another bottle from Alison on the way through to my last lap. My legs were cramping any time I had to go over about 200W, which is essentially any time the road turns up.. I got through the first major climb and then I was into a small climb about 5 miles from the finish, 51 miles into the race, almost done. I stand up on the pedals to go up the short hill and both quads sieze. It felt like two daggers were simultaneously plunged into my quads. I fell off the bike in the middle of the road and was writhing around in agony trying to find a position that would relieve the pressure. Under the skin on my legs, the quad muscles looked like two towels being wrung out, veins popping out. I was there for several minutes. What was left of the pro/1/2 group rode by me on the ground and one of the guys yelled "Are you having a heart attack?!".. To which I responded "I wish!".. A couple cars stopped to see if I was ok. I contemplated asking for a ride back to the start, but at this point I was able to stand up and walk around without seizing. I knew I only had about 5 miles left, but I also knew I had to climb the steep hill in the course. I figured I'd give it a shot. I ate the last energy gel I had with me, drank what was left of my water and headed out. I got to the steep climb and the cramping started again. It was bizarre. I could push one pedal just hard enough to keep me moving and just as the muscle started to seize I could transfer the power to the other pedal. I was on the verge of another complete muscle seizure but I made it up the hill and back to the finish. Danielle and Alison clapping and yelling for me at the end like I had just won. It was pretty awesome.

All in all, it wasn't my best day on a bike. Hell, it might have been my worst. But a lot of good things came out of it:

1. I know where I am and how much work I need to do to get to where I want to be.

2. I finished the race despite everything in my body and mind telling me not to. Not sure where I ended up in the standings, but there will be a time next to my name, not a DNF like many of the racers in my field.

3. Ummm... I guess there isn't a third good thing.. Oh, wait.. I remembered to put sunblock on so at least I didn't have to deal with a sunburn in addition to everything else.

Now I'm rehydrated, I figured it out that I drank a gallon and a half of water between noon and 6pm yesterday before I had to go to the bathroom again.. By the end of the race I had lost close to 7 pounds. I'm mentally re-grouped and re-focused. I've signed up for 2 more races over the next 3 weeks and I'm working out a way to get into some intense group rides regularly. It's very early in the season and I will be peaking by late Summer and into the Fall when I need to be ready for Mt Washington, Green Mt Stage Race and the cyclocross season.

Thanks to Danielle and Alison for coming out to cheer me on in the race. Without you there providing support and water, I might not have been able to finish the race. I can't wait till Michele is done with massage school so she can be there for me too. I will tell you that having her as a massage therapist is awesome after the races, and that the best reason for cyclists to shave their legs is for the massages :)

best,

kevin

Double Trouble

Everybody who works out with us knows how incredible the kettlebell is as a training modality.. Is it the be all, end all? Of course not, and anybody who tells you it is is full of shit. Actually, anybody who tells you that their system is the be all, end all of physical conditioning is full of shit.. Simply because when it comes to functional conditioning there are tons of ways to get great workouts. Bodyweight, kettlebells, ropes, rings, balls, sandbags.. The list is long. But I will tell you, that in my experience you get the most bang for your buck with the kettlebell. There is really nothing else that I've trained with that works every muscle in your body so hard in such a short period of time. And if you want to make it even more effective, do double kettlebell work.

Today for the Spartan workout at the gym I gave everybody a double kettlebell workout. When you add a second kettlebell to an exercise there is the obvious increase in weight. Secondly, you now have an added weight swinging around that you need to both generate the power to move and recruit the extra muscles to stabilize. With one kettlebell, much of the body can assist in the stabilization of the swinging weight, with the second kettlebell there is a second kinetic chain activated which increases the difficulty and intensity of the exercise by an order of magnitude. 

For my workout today I took a different approach to the day's Spartan workout. The Spartan workout was 5 rounds in a 30:30 format with 1:00 rest between rounds of:

double swings

front squat

double push press

renegade row

double high pull

This is a phenomenal max strength building type of workout where you would choose fairly heavy weights with lower reps for 30 seconds at a time followed by a 30 second rest. I decided to change it up a little and go with lower weights and longer work periods for muscular endurance since this better complements my cycling training. So I did the 5 exercises for one minute at a time with no rest in between using double 16kgs. 5:00 minutes of intense work, 1:00 minute of rest. This also makes a perfect workout for my MMA fighters that I train. MMA fighters train in 3 x 5:00 rounds with 1 minute rest. So this format really does a great job simulating the effort required in an MMA fight. By doing the double kettlebell swings first for a full minute, you immediately crank your heart rate through the roof. Then you have to rack the weights for the next two minutes while you perform a minute of squats followed by a minute of push press. With your heart pounding out of your chest it feels like an elephant standing on your chest with the kettlebells in the rack position. Very difficult to breathe. After that you go right into the renegade rows for a super core exercise that really works every muscle in your body to maintain stabilization through the midsection. At this point it's been 4:00, my heart is cranked to about 95% max, and my body is starting to really fatigue. I went directly into double snatch which is the ultimate in generating full body ballistic power. This is a great finisher to a set like this because in a fight you need to be able to crank it up for max power while you're fatigued. Doing double snatches for the last minute of a 5:00 minute set is a sure way to make sure you have the gas in the tank required at the end of a round in a fight. Limiting your rest between rounds to only 1:00 minute ensures that by the time you get a little bit into round 2 you're really tapping into your mental toughness to gut it out and continue. Round 3 is sheer guts and determination. 5 stars for this one..

Here's a video of round 2 of 3.. 

Train hard,

kevin

I'm a Student First

People come to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning for a number of reasons. In no particular order I believe that list includes the following:

- It's fun

- Great energy

- Killer workouts

- They are able to challenge the body and mind at a very high level

- Incredible results

I also like to think that people come to our gym because they are confident in the training they receive. I am always looking to provide all of our members with the best, most effective ways to get in the best shape of their lives. I am always researching information from the top trainers in the world. I pore through hundreds of websites sorting out the pretenders from the real thing, and trust me, there are tons of pretenders out there. I seek out the greatest physical culturists in the world and look for opportunities to train under them. I am a student before all else. Every day I learn. I learn from the trainers I train under. I learn from the people that come to the gym. I learn from my daughter's girls U10 soccer team that I coach. I take what I learn and I bring it back to you at the gym.

As most of you know, I'm currently at a kettlebell trainer certification being given by Steve Maxwell. Steve is the first person in the country to train people with kettlebells and is widely known as one of the top 2 or 3 kettlebell trainers in the world. (I've already been certified by Steve Cotter, one of the other top 2 or 3 :) ... Maxwell has done everything imaginable with a kettlebell. He has about 30 years experience with kettlebells, has made every mistake known to man and has learned from every one of them. That's what makes him such a phenomenal trainer. He tries new things, learns from his mistakes, and imparts the lessons to his students. 

As a student myself, this is a great learning experience for me. I've found that at any given seminar or certification that I go to, there are three things that happen every time:

1. I get positive reinforcement of what I'm doing right

2. I find out what I'm doing wrong

3. I learn new stuff that I never knew before

At the certification today, Steve used my form as a demo to the entire group of how to do things right on 3 different exercises; swing, windmill, double clean.. This was very cool positive reinforcement to come from him. I also found out that the way I had been doing the jerk was not the most efficient way to do it. Additionally, and most importantly, I've learned many new ways to fix faults with the form of people who train with kettlebells. That's the part I like the best, learning how to make all of you better. And I hope that when you think about all the reasons you come to our gym, that's one of the reasons you think of. Every time you come through the door you'll get personalized attention to your form and we will strive to make you better.

We've created something pretty special at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning that you won't ever find at your chrome and fern palaces loaded with machines and mirrors.. It's a very personalized experience, where you know everybody else, you're all in it together for the same reasons, we all support each other and push each other. Michele and I are always improving ourselves, training ourselves, learning from our mistakes, and learning from each of you in order to make your experience the best possible. I guarantee you that part will never change.

Best,

kevin 

Transmogrification Part III

The more I rode, the more I began to realize that I could endure a great deal of physical suffering on the bike. The more I suffered on the bike, the stronger I would become mentally. I took to training in the hills as much as possible. There are two ways to bike hills, you can survive them or you can try to conquer them. The difference is essentially in the proximity you come to having a heart attack at the top. Almost anybody can put a bike in the easiest gear possible and make their way over the top of a hill. In my hill training I try to go as hard as humanly possible, muscles seizing with lactic acid, lungs searing with oxygen deprivation, and at the point where I think I can't possibly go any harder, I stand up on the pedals and go harder. One summer I signed up to do three hillclimbing centuries. The three rides covered 340 miles and had a total of about 27000 feet of vertical gain. One of the rides I did in Colorado, called the Triple Bypass, covered 120 miles with over 10,000 feet of vertical gain that went over three Rocky mountain passes. Toughest part of that ride was that the entire ride took place between 7,500 and 12,000 feet of elevation. My lungs were making a strange gurgling sound at the end of that one.

I started getting better at dealing with stress. I found that I could leave a lot of pain, anger, and stress on the roads. I would destroy myself on the bike and, in the process, found that the efforts would also destroy any demons I had inside. This proved to be instrumental in my ability to recover from a separation and divorce that affected me worse than I ever would have imagined. Without getting into the details, I'll just say that if it wasn't for the bike and a couple close friends, I may still be looking for my way out of a bottle of whisky.

It was at this point I started realizing that I could ride with some really strong riders. I  felt that I could suffer better than most, which lends itself well to hill climbing and road racing, and since I've always been the competitive type I decided to start racing. I set my sights on the Mt Washington Hillclimb, considered one of the toughest hillclimbs in the world. 7.6 miles of up, with no down. Not only that, but the average grade is over 12%. That grade is approximately equal to the steepest paved roads that you've ever driven on but typically only extend less than a half mile. As much as I try, I can't really do the difficulty of climbing Mt W on a bike any justice in words. You have to experience it to understand it.

I was training for Mt W with my friend Bill, a very strong climber who can suffer with the best of them. Bill and I would do rides in the White Mountains with 30 minute climbs and 50MPH descents. I would train alone and do hill repeats on the nastiest hills in Mason, New Ipswich, Ashby, and Wilton. At one point, Bill and I did a ride in Vermont that covered 130 miles with over 15,000 feet of vertical gain climbing over 6 mountain gaps. We covered it in under 8 hours! Training like this had an obvious effect on my physical conditioning, but it also had an amazing effect on my mental state. When you're spent physically and you're coming into the next climb and it's staring you down telling you that it's going to kick your ass and you dig that much deeper and put yourself into the kind of pain where your brain is screaming at you to back off but you don't, that develops mental toughness. When you do it over and over again it develops the type of mental toughness that allows you to deal better with difficult situations in all aspects of your life. This, along with the support of Michele and Bill, is what got me through the most painful period in my life and set me up for where I am today...

Next... road racing, shaving, and the best day of my life on a bike....

best,

kevin

Burpee Love.. Challenging Yourself at a Crazy Level..

We have a remote Dynamic Strength and Conditioning member who follows our workouts from Maine and challenges herself on a regular basis. She's never been to the gym but I'm looking forward to the day she comes because she'll fit right in with the rest of us. Anyways, Cindy is a 50-something grandmother that just completed her 100 Burpee Challenge today. For the past 100 days she has done burpees. Starting at 1, 100 days ago, and moving up one burpee per day until she completed 100 burpees today. I love this because it's a perfect example of what we're all about here at the gym. Challenging ourselves, pushing ourselves to new levels, getting excited about physical achievments, developing mental toughness, looking forward to the next challenge. These are things that we don't have to do, these are things that we challenge ourselves to do. Things that we set out to do where we know it's going to be difficult and there's no guarantee we'll even achieve it and it will take a huge effort to get there.

Today, in support of Cindy's 100 burpee challenge, I put a 100 burpee challenge into the gym workout. The challenge was to get 100 burpees in 10 minutes. Everybody tried it. Some doing full burpees with pushups and jumps, some without pushups, some without jumps. It all depends on the level they're at. Nobody really wanted to do it, but they were all psyched when they completed it and proved to themselves what they can get their bodies to do now that they've been training here for a while. And that's one of the greatest things about training here. People continually amaze themselves at what they're able to do. It's very inspirational. We had 39 people complete the 100 burpee challenge at the gym today.. Amazing!!

I often push myself beyond my limits. I get an idea in my head and I go for it. Once the idea has been set, I finish what I set out to do. It's usually something idiotic that I pay for the next several days as my body recovers from the punishment it had to endure. Like the other day, I took my power wheel and went down to Stellos Stadium (site of my first 100yd power wheel challenge) and decided to do a 100 yd crawl 3 times. It was cold, raw, and windy. Knowing I was going three times I paced myself on the first one. It took about 1:30.. I rested 1:30 and did it again. Much more painful the second time. I rested 3:00 and did it a 3rd time.. I was physically spent by 40yds but mentally there was no way I was stopping until I crossed 100yds. I made it on sheer determination and I knew immediately that my core was going to be shredded for days. I'm still feeling it today and I did the PW crawls two days ago.

I decided this morning that I would do something kind of idiotic (yet again). I decided that I would complete the 100 burpee challenge with every group session of the day. Seven times total. 700 burpees in one day. After my 400th burpee of the day I went for a 36 mile bike ride into another windy spring day. I got back and completed the last 300 with our last 3 group sessions. The last 200 burpees today were beyond miserable. 700 burpees. I ask myself why? And the answer is always just to see if I can. Just to see how much I can endure physically and mentally. It's an endless test with me. But I keep getting stronger so it must be working.. Can't wait to see how 700 burpees and a 36 mile bike ride feel on this 41 year old body tomorrow :)  For now, I think I'm going to go lay down....

Train hard, challenge yourself regularly,

kevin

What You Can Learn From Litter...

Now that all the snow is melting, and with Earth Day 2009 still 16 days away, we're able to see all the crap on the side of the road that people have been tossing out of their vehicles since the last global cleansing occured on Earth Day 2008. With all the miles I've put on my bike recently I've learned a lot about people and the products that they buy (and then toss out their window).

1. The beer of choice for people who drink and drive and then throw their empties on the side of the road is Bud Light with Budweiser a close second..
2. The people who drink and drive, get really hammered, and throw their Bud Light cans on the side of the road also like to kill their hangovers with coffee and donuts from Dunkin Donuts and then they throw their 20oz styrofoam coffee cups and wax paper DD bags on the side of the road.
3. People who eat at McDonalds are too fat and lazy to carry their empty bags and Big Mac containers to a trash can.. In fact, I was riding my bike past a McDonald's last week and there was a gigantic woman in a very small car that actually was tossing the empty bag out of her window before she even got out of the McD's parking lot. I gave her a look while shaking my head and she flipped me off. Her middle finger covered in ketchup.
4. Apparently, not only is it not littering to throw a burning cigarette out the window after it's done taking another few minutes off your life, it's also OK to chuck the empty pack out the window too.. Butt of choice for littering buttheads: Marlboro Light.
5. Energy drinks really work! I can tell because every empty energy drink can I saw on the side of the road was violently crushed before it was whipped in the woods.

I think the biggest thing I learned from this exercise is that the people who don't give a shit about what they put in their bodies also don't give a shit about what they toss around our planet.

So why is this an entry in my "Redefining Fitness.." blog? Because what we're doing at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning is so much more than just a place to workout. For the people who get it, this is a lifestyle. They come to the gym to challenge their bodies at a very high level with natural movements. They work to get their eating habits in order to complement their workouts and to add good years to their lives. They don't eat at McDonald's or eat donuts. All the positive energy gained at the gym starts to influence everything else in our lives. In my own experience I can tell you that I care a lot more about what I eat and where it comes from. I care more about the planet. I try to make good choices and decisions. I'm much more aware of how my actions affect and influence the people and the environment around me. It's part of the whole package. You start taking care of yourself and the rest just kind of falls into place. The gym is one of my favorite places to be because of the positive energy and excitement that everybody brings to the place and the effect it has on me.

Workout for today:
-4 x 4:00 min sets of 1 arm snatch with 16kg with 1 min between sets. 1 arm switch per set. About 320 snatches total
-150 pushups
-35 pullups (forearms were fairly cooked after the 16:00 mins of snatches so I didn't want to push it beyond this on the pullups)
-a few minutes of mace swinging
-interval session on the bike trainer - 5 x 3:00 at 300W with 3:00 rest between intervals. In my experience, intervals on the trainer come in at a power level about 10-20% lower than if you're on the road and I think it's because when you're on the trainer you don't get any assistance by pulling on the handlebars. These intervals felt like the equivalent of 330-350W intervals on the road. At the end of the 3:00 min intervals my heart rate was at about 97% and I wanted to puke.

Train hard. Don't be a litterbug :)
kevin

It's Only 4 Minutes, How Bad Can It Be?

Dr Tabata is a guy who did studies proving that short intense periods of exercise did more for your metabolism, effectively increasing the amount of fat you would burn, than if you did longer periods of aerobic activity. The study also showed a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity and 14% increase in VO2 Max.. Tabata interval sessions are typically 8 rounds of an exercise in 20:10 format done at a super high intensity, about 170% of VO2 max. This is essentially 20 seconds of work at maximum effort (like an all-out sprint) followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat 8x. In my workout yesterday I put in a Tabata interval of jump rope double unders using a new weighted jump rope that Bobby Hinds of Lifeline sent me. If there's anything that puts you at maximum effort in a hurry it's jump rope doubles. I had never done doubles in this format before, but I have done doubles intervals before where I would try to do 50 doubles, rest 30 seconds, do 50 more, rest 30 seconds, and so on until I had 500 doubles. I could get about the first 5 rounds before the :30 second rest was turning into something a little longer. I think my best time for this is 500 doubles in about 11 minutes. These doubles workouts are also some of the most agonizing I've ever done. Yesterday was no different. To make this workout effective, you need to be able to do continuous doubles without missing, or at least only missing occasionally in order to keep your effort at max. I was getting around 30 doubles in every 20 second interval. I was alternating between doing forwards doubles for one round and then backwards doubles for the next round. After the 2nd round, the 10 second rest wasn't nearly enough, and by the 4th round I was so oxygen starved that I didn't think I'd be able to continue. The thing about choosing an exercise like this for Tabata intervals, is that you can't modify your effort. In order to do doubles, you need to jump high and fast and keep the rope cranking the whole time. When you're using a weighted jump rope it takes the effort to another level of brutality. If you're doing another exercise like sprinting or doing pushups or squats, it's possible to decrease your effort level as you fatigue or run out of oxygen because you have control over how fast or hard you can go. With doubles, you don't really have that luxury. I got through all 8 rounds, missing a couple times in the 6th round and once at the end of another round which only lost me a few seconds total. I got about 240 doubles in just under 4 minutes.. This was easily one of the most painful things I've ever done in the gym.....

Sticking with the "4 minute" theme, I followed this up with 2x 4:00 minute sets of Long Cycle (Clean and Press) with double 16kg kettlebells with a 2:00 minute rest between sets.. This was pretty tough, but not what I would consider awful (like the Tabata doubles). I got about 50 reps in the first 4 minutes and about 40 reps in the second 4 minutes. I'm working towards being able to do longer sets with heavier weights. Eventually, I'd like to be able to at least do a 10 minute set with double 24kgs. 

I followed this up with a set of 100 pistols, 50 on each leg, which took me about another 4 minutes..

Totals:

20 minutes

240 Double Unders

about 90 Clean and Press with dbl 16kgs

100 pistols

Later in the day I went to the Hockey Bag for a Bikram Yoga Session to try to loosen things up. At one point the instructor was telling us, as we were laying down on the foul smelling carpet, what an aerobic activity this Bikram stuff was.. As I was laying there with my heart rate at about 60 bpm I kind of laughed to myself at that one. It made me think how much more I would like Bikram Yoga if we could Tabata-ize it and turn it from a 90 minute session into a 4 minute session :)

Best,

kevin

Answering to Yourself

One of the most difficult things in staying in shape and achieving any goals you may have set for yourself is being able to continue to work at it when you don't really have the motivation to. Yesterday was a perfect example of this for me. I had various aches from a couple workouts earlier this week. My butt was still hurting from 6 rounds of split lunge jumps holding a 30# sandbag and my legs were still feeling the effects of Tuesdays bike ride which was a 34 miler in which I put in my hardest effort yet this season. I spent about 90 minutes at an average power output that was 80% of where I need to be for Mt Washington (not bad for March)... 

Wednesday morning I had an hour to kill between sessions which I spent working on handstand work, assisted and un-assisted muscle-ups, pullups, one-arm pushups, and TGU with heavy med balls. So when Wednesday afternoon rolled in along with a bank of clouds, temps in the low 40's with windchill in the 30's, winds in the 10-20mph range and just an overall rawness in the air, it would have been easy for me to say "screw it" and not go for a ride in the afternoon. But that's not an option for me. I set goals and I know what it takes to achieve them. Lacking motivation to ride because it sucks out is not an excuse and I would have tortured myself (mentally) the rest of the day had I not gone out on the bike. 

Of course I could have opted to ride on the trainer or the rollers or even gone out for a quick 20 miler to at least get the legs moving and it would have given me a "bike ride" entry in my workout log. But the day called for an endurance ride and I had already mapped out a route. The ride took me into the hills of Amherst and Mont Vernon. Roads in the middle of nowhere that still have sand-covered snowbanks on the sides because the sun doesn't get high enough yet to melt any of it. There was a 10 mile section of the ride where every road name had the word "hill" in it. There was "Turkey Hill", "Wilson Hill", "Mack Hill", "Kendall Hill", "Another F'kn Hill".. It was endless, and it was all uphill into Mont Vernon. But once I was coming back down it was awesome! The hill coming out of Mont Vernon is a 50MPH downhill, which was cut down to 43MPH because I was straight into the wind (bummer).  There's a couple things that run through your mind when you're approaching 50MPH on a bicycle.. "Holy crap, this is awesome" and "Don't screw up, you don't have insurance"..

I got back to the gym with 44 miles in my legs, feet that I lost feeling in at about mile 25 from the cold, raw conditions, lungs burning a little from the effort, and a very satisfied feeling that I did what I needed to do to stay on track for my goals this season. It's all about answering to yourself. You have to hold yourself accountable to your goals. It gets easier when you have somebody pushing you, like when you come to work out at Dynamic. Or if you have some friends that you told you would meet for that bike ride even though the weather blows. But when it's just you, the motivation has to come from within. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. It's called mental toughness and it takes a long time to develop. But once it's there nothing will stop you.

It's 8am, 40 degrees, cloudy, raw and damp. The roads are wet from the overnight rains we had.. Guess where I'll be in 30 minutes.....

Be Strong,

kevin