who do you want as your strength coach!

getting to a distance goal!

Me running the Bataan Death March in March of 2004. 43km with rucksack in New Mexico (500ft of elevation during the race, and 2 miles of loose sand) Read more about the race at www.bataanmarch.com


As of recently my fitness spirit has led me to obtaining a great 500m rowing time. (1:30... currently I'm at 1:34.8) There are many ways to train for a goal, but sometimes the way you track something or time it, can change the way you think.

for example
Standard: the way in which most people will time an even. Press Start and GO and then move and press stop when complete. this gives you an idea of how much longer than your goal it takes you.

Reverse: If you have a goal time this will give you a better example as to how much time you have left to complete the task. Set time to goal time and watch those seconds disappear. Track how far you have left and close that distance. (excellent on the track and dead simple on the rower)

Pace: If you have the luxury of running with someone that can make your goal time, give it a try and see how long you last. On the rower set your pace boat and try to keep up!

With all distance training, even sprints there is a method to the madness. They are tactical events and should be treated at such. Even though you have me beat from the line I will have more energy to pass you at the end. Negative splits, meaning that the second portion of the race is ran/rowed whatever faster than the first. This strategy will lead to drastic time improvements. Remember that the end of the race, is the important part to be ahead at.

disease

Any diseases and conditions that cause illness in humans is nutrient related. They may include deficiencies or excesses in the diet. Obesity and eating disorders, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes are cause by intake. Nutritional diseases also include developmental abnormalities that can be prevented by diet.

Chinese medicine has been using natural methods to prevent disease for thousands of years successfully. I beleive in eating real foods, that are unprocessed to accomplish this task.

Why is this not commonly known information???? Large groups such as the FDA in the US have determined that diseases are to be cured by drugs, even though they themselves admit that ALL disease is caused my nutritional intake. Scurvy is the best example of this. I could go and eat oranges and be 100% cured from scurvy, but I would be prescribed Vitamin C..... now in this case I would say both are equal solutions. In many scenarios they are not. Side effects from drugs are typically unknown or considered acceptable.
Do you accept unknown side effects.

many times drugs usefulness are very ineffective are fixing problems. Cold medication is a perfect example of this.

There are no side effects to eating properly, only side benefits.

Any of my zoners out there post your experiences in how you feel day to day, or how about how long you have been on the diet and when the last time you were sick was (and how long it took before you were better).... It's amazing how simple this is and that the food that makes you perform better will make you lengthen your life, and prevent disease.

Eat and perform like a champion, live a long and full life!

Put yourself to the test!

Mixing testing weeks into your training can be a realistic wake up call. Many crossfitters use the crossfit north fitness standards sheet. This is a very interesting read and has been a great challenge for me to overcome my one dimensional athletic skills. The best part about being conscious of your short comings is that you can adjust your training to overcome these.

An example of this is that many people will feel that strength is their weakness and will add more strength days into their training (1 out of 3 days will be heavy lifting)
This strategy can be used for sport/works specific goals.

A big part of the testing is the attitude of setting personal records and not just saying I know I can do this or that. Do it.... and set a record! DON'T CHEAT YOURSELF

Fitness skills test sheet

Good luck, and feel free to post or tell me your results.
Set new goals based on test results!!!!!!!

logdriver

Logdrivers are hardcore... they exude many things that many athletes of today couldn't perform for 15 seconds and they do it everyday all day, and lets not forget they please their women completely!
keep that in mind if thats what your training for!

many men with naturally great grip strength usually share a common trait. Their daily life will involve a thick handled tools (sledge, axe...) Thick handled objects in training will improve your grip significantly. kettlebells, sledge hammers. Grip can be a common failure for many athletes and they aren't even aware of the weak hands being the failure.
Grip can be broken down into a few catagories:
crush grip, pinch grip, and support grip
working all of these into your training will unleash power you didn't even know you had. remember that because the muscles are very small relative to limbs, it will take a long time for the muscles to grow. be patient, tendentious can creep up on you if you aren't careful with training each equally.

if you don't have badass clauses then the chances of you having great grip strength in my mind is pretty slim. A grip workout when done properly can give you the same DOMS effect that an other workout will do....

cardio respiratory endurance, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy and toughness
are the 10 physical skills that we train to be a crossfit athlete.... use these to plan your individual training. Train hard and obtain the skills and at least then you can fall back on being a logdriver!

Reading

There are many books on many subjects, many of which get lost in form rather than function. With crossfit training it can be difficult to seek out "expert" advice from specialist trainers. When talking with an Olympic lifting coach, the typical response to crossfit is that its interesting and has good principles but will ultimately slow the progress that one would make Olympic Lifting. YES it will but the sacrifices made by not training in one domain of fitness, allows the crossfit athlete to be better at all other domains than the one dimensional athlete. Making you ready for the unknowable task and making daily life, combat, and sporting an easier experience.

How do I interpret what I read. There are basic principles that crossfit follows. When a specialist info breaks these rules (for example to increase a maximal deadlift typically a powerlifter will widen the foot stance to shorten the distance the weight travels) this breaks 2 rules 1.) increase ROM 2.) athletic position is somewhere between hip and shoulder position for the feet, this is where we jump and run from, and we should also train from.
the goals are different. The power lifter just wants more Lbs lifted when the crossfitter wants more strength and more strength will be made , by increasing the work load .

Many times we will take the form from the expert or high performance athlete in that genre of sport. We will take the spirit of their best workouts , and then add crossfit principles by increasing the ROM and increasing the intensity.... the effect tend to be quite dramatic.

I personally have done 21-15-9 years before crossfit was around Greg Glassman did not invent that. What he did do, was remove the expectation of rest, making this dramatically different.

he also made up pukie the clown!

books that are well received in the crossfit world.

-Starting Strength - Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore
-Gymnastics and Tumbling - United States Navy (1944) review available on crossfit.com, in the free journals section
-Entering the Zone - Dr.Barry Sears

The Abmat

The Abmat is an excellent training tool. It's purpose is to put or back int he correct position and ensure full range of motion during a regular sit up. I don't feel like giving it all the hype like they do on television and say that you'll get a six pack from using it, so I won't. What I will say is that this WILL help develop abdominal power and co-ordination at a low cost. (or free I will mention at the end)
as with the GHD sit up we have learned that we don't need to bring our sternum closer to our pelvic bone to create great "core strength" or mid line stabilization. There is a powerful set of movements you can do by keeping your back in a flexed position during the situp.
Opening your hips into a butterfly position will be even more powerful.
All of these movements will enforce a FULL ROM which is often cheated without even knowing it during a regular sit-up. I have personally felt the power of these helping to alleviate daily back pain, in combination with some other movements.
By cushioning the lumbar, the Abmat forces you to rely solely on abdominal effort to move your torso through the full range of motion. The opportunity to engage your hip flexors for that initial “umph” at the beginning of the movement is gone. Instead, your lower abs alone are left to do ALL of the work.

If something is injured it will require rest time, but at some time you will need to SLOWLY and gradually strengthen it again, so that you can avoid re-injury.

for more information here is an article from backbuilder.com click here
this article is a great break down of the mechanics during both traditional and abmat situps.

Free abmat:
The thickness is aprox 2 inches at the max height. I found folding and rolling a towel to be semi effective. With time and numerous reps you will have to re-adjust the folding and rolling, But a great substitute for no money. My towel has pushed me to purchase these for the gym... I suspect people will be asking me for them after a couple weeks.