Nothing Is Impossible With Extraordinary Resolve

Nothing Is Impossible With Extraordinary Resolve

Extraordinary Resolve.  Nothing Is Impossible With Extraordinary Resolve and this has been proven many times.

A few days ago, I came across this video on the internet, and I just had to share it with you.

At first, I thought here we go, just another weight loss story.  Not to take anything away from people who lose weight, but there are plenty of these stories pretty much everywhere.

Today, another strength coach whom I admire also posted this video so I decided to watch the whole thing.

I was truly in awe of this man’s journey.  And it really showed me that nothing is impossible with extraordinary resolve.

(The video is hosted on a religious site, so I’m not pushing religion, but people need to see this video.)

Nothing Is Impossible With Extraordinary Resolve!

EXTRAORDINARY RESOLVE…

What is extraordinary resolve?

Extraordinary resolve is what you must find in yourself to endure the pain of DOING… so that you do NOT have to face a much worse pain… the pain of REGRET!

After watching this video, I want you to ask yourself some questions… some important questions…

Why is my battle too supreme to overcome?

Why do my obstacles seem bigger than everyone else’s?

What possible reason can I have for not attacking my dreams?

Here are the typical reasons?

No time…

No money…

It hurts…

It’s hard…

I’m not strong enough…

I’m not talented enough…

I’m not good enough…

I have bad knees…

I have a bad back…

Bad hips…

Bad shoulders…

Bad wrists…

I’m sure somewhere in there your reason lies.. or maybe your reason lies in some other list.

The bottom line is that a life where you’re simply hanging around, without purpose, just working a job to make money to simply live.. almost like you’re just waiting to die…

Is NOT a life at all!

That’s a sentence!

Don’t live your life like you’ve been given a life sentence!

Live it as it’s been meant to live.

Work…

Play…

Run…

Jump…

Laugh…

Cry…

Love…

And most importantly LOVE YOURSELF… for nobody else can love you the way you can love yourself.  Not your partner, your husband/wife, kids… nobody.

Nobody else on earth can LOVE YOU and take care of you as well as you can yourself!

So next time one of those thoughts creeps in your head about why you can’t do something…

Remember this..

You CAN!

Then DO IT!

Kettlebell Technique Essential Pointers

Long lean muscles... Yoga.. what?

Getting the most out of your kettlebell training requires some patience.  But with patience comes rewards right?  And in the case of kettlebell training, having enough patience to learn correct kettlebell technique is essential.

With dumbbells and barbells learning technique can take some time too, but learning kettlebell technique is another story altogether.  With kettlebells, unlike dumbbells and barbells, the centre of gravity does not rest in the palm of your hand, but instead about 8 inches due North of your closed fist.  As the kettlebell moves, it generates it’s own momentum that is NOT directly sitting in the palm of your hand as with dumbbells and barbells.

As a strength coach I’ve always sought to learn from the best in the industry, and kettlebells were not an exception.  I did a seminar with Mike Mahler from Aggressive Strength down in NYC at Peak Performance, it was a great seminar, but Mike practices what I call more of a soft-style with his kettlebell technique, and I prefer the hard-style  that is taught more through the RKC and Agatsu programs.

That said, I had already learned pretty good technique on my own and I was comfortable to teach it to my clients.

HOWEVER… After taking just a few classes with Dave my kettlebell technique has really improved, and with all the great pointers he showed me, I thought it fitting that I share it with you so your kettlebell technique can improve too!

Dave Anderka’s Essential Kettlebell Technique Pointers

Kettlebell Technique Technical points for swings

Structure (squat)

•           Feet parallel,

•           Knees stay above feet

•           Eyes forward

Decent

•           Hips crease back, not down

•           Load weight on heels

•           Head up, shoulders packed

•           Back swing touches butt

•           One armed – thumb in the bum / free hand off the hip or leg

Ascent

•           Hips snap forward

•           Heels drive into the floor, posterior chain

•           Sharp exhale, engage abs & back

•           Swing to eye level

•           Shoulders square / slight flex in elbow / fist with free hand

Kettlebell Technique Technical points for the clean

•           Half swing (<45°), legs stay bent

•           Pop the legs/hips to accelerate (change direction)

•           Hand stays close to body, like zipping up a long coat

•           Aggressive punch around the bell

•           Insert hand into handle, 45° across the palm

•           Rack position, fist under chin (landmark finger to opposite cheek), elbow tucked

•          Return – Bell rolls off arm, into back swing

Kettlebell Technique Technical points for snatch

•           Half swing (45°)

•           Vertical high pull, action/power from legs/hips

•           Aggressive punch around the bell

•           Lock out at the top

•           Handle position across palm (45°)

•           Return – lead with the pinky, spiral out

•           Pressurize torso as the bell comes down

Review these kettlebell technique pointers thoroughly and see if you don’t notice a difference in your swing right away.

If you’re interested in learning more about kettlebell training and kettlebell technique, click this link to view the kettlebell class schedule:

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Kettlebell Technique  <===== CLICK HERE

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Check out these AWESOME videos of Steve Maxwell in action.

This is the exact stuff that Dave will be teaching here at PhysXtreme.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Natural Bacon Come On… Who Doesn’t Love it?

Natural Bacon?  Fooled Again!

Well folks we’ve been duped again! At least I was.

Who doesn’t love bacon… right?  I damn love the stuff, but I don’t eat much because I know it’s unhealthy.

All those nasty nitrites and nitrates right?

Well not long ago these new Maple Leaf Natural bacon packages started appearing in the Local Loblaws and I was so excited to see that they “appeared” to contain none of those nasty preservatives.  I bought 6 packages and went home and got some eggs and bacon cookin’ right away!

Not So Natural Bacon

Well… as it turns out I was duped!  In the Maple Leaf Natural Bacon ingredient list is an ingredient called “cultured celery extract”, which contains high levels of sodium nitrate.

What I didn’t know is that in addition to this new Natural Bacon, regular bacon, and other cured meats, pretty much all vegetables contain sodium nitrate. It’s a common mineral in the soil, and is thus absorbed as the plants grow.

Apparently though, when found naturally in vegetables, the negative affects of the nitrates in our body are countered by the high levels of natural anti-oxidants found in the vegetable.

In this Maple Leaf Natural Bacon, they don’t add any Nitrates or Nitrites, but they use a “cultured celery extract”, which is simply a concentrated form of celery containing high enough levels of naturally occuring nitrates to do the job they’re supposed to.

In this Natural Bacon, the cultured celery extract has too much nitrate compared to anti-oxidants.  So the ratio doesn’t provide the anti-oxidant protective effects you get compared to eating foods that naturally contain nitrates and anti-oxidants like beets and spinach.. two of the vegetables containing the highest amounts of naturally occurring nitrates.

As it turns out, vitamin C is the major anti-oxidant that prevents the formation of the carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach in the presence of excess nitrogen.  So what I’m wondering is… could we supplement with a couple 1000mg vitamin C (ascorbic acid) chewable tablets just before consuming bacon?

I wonder if this would help keep it healthier for us.  There is some research that supports this position.

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w00/nitrosamine.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2507690

Unfortunately there is also research that demonstrates that while adding ascorbic acid (vitamin C) does slow down and even block the production of some nitrosamines, it can accelerate the production of other nitrosamines.

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/39/10/3871.full.pdf

Of course.. there couldn’t be just one nitrosamine.. and vitamin C would block it right?  There has to be tons of different kinds so that we can’t have a straight and clear answer.

Some other reading I did also spoke about the fact that if products like bacon had a zero nitrate or nitrite content, they would be grey in colour.  Guess that’s why they have to put it in there.  Who would by grey bacon?  Yuck!

I’d love to hear your comments on this one!

Please leave them below in the comments section!

Strength Training For Athletes

 Strength Training For Athletes – Man UP!

Strength Training For Athletes gets our athletes, bigger, faster, stronger, and more mentally tough than traditional bodybuilding and pretty-boy pump up your pecs and biceps training that you see commonplace in most of the big chain gyms today.

When I was younger I knew nothing about the intelligent, balanced type of strength training for athletes that I now use in my own training and with our athlete groups and bootcamps.   I merely followed all the training programs of all the biggest bodybuilders in the gyms and in the muscle magazines.

The programs I followed helped me put on close to 50 lbs of muscle from my 18 year old weight of 145 lbs at 6′ 2″ tall, but I developed many strength imbalances and never truly learned how to master safe and effective training techniques which are critical when designing strength training for athletes.   The  ultimate result was many injuries of which a few still affect my ability to train today.

Bodybuilding and pretty boy/girl training is training that focuses on appearance.  If this is how you train, it will catch up with you over time.  The strength training for athletes that we do today develops superior strength, power, speed, and overall athleticism.  It also builds muscle size, but not the useless muscle that does nothing except slow you down that bodybuilding and pretty boy pump up training does.  And traditional strength training for athletes is also not all it’s cracked up to be as it ONLY develops strength in a few specific dimensions.

Traditional Strength Training For Athletes

MOST strength training for athletes relies heavily on Olympic weightlifting.  Exercises like cleans, power cleans, snatches, jerks, push jerks, etc… form the bulk of the training.  Undoubtedly the olympic clean and jerk and snatch are certainly the best display of pure power.  I mean athletes who focus heavily on these movements can definitely produce the highest levels of power, as they move very heavy weights pretty damn fast.  But they do this in a very specific plane of movement where the movement is perfectly timed and executed flawlessly.

In my opinion, no program that involves strength training for athletes would be complete without it… but what is even MORE important is strength and power development with odd objects which helps prepare the body for the real world sporting environment where things don’t line up perfectly to allow you to get into the perfect position to exert maximum force.

Whether you’re an MMA athlete, a hockey or football player, or a wrestler or athlete of some other contact sport, if there is contact between players, then you will often have to rely on your ability to generate forces in sub-optimal positions.  Strength training for athletes that ONLY focuses on the olympic lifts will result in suboptimal preparedness when it comes down to the crunch.

Optimal Strength Training For Athletes

The type of strength training for athletes we do involves sandbag training, kettlebells, sledgehammers, heavy sleds, battling ropes, and of course massive tire flips.  Tire flipping is probably the ultimate exercise for developing mental toughness as it pits you against a massive practically unmovable object that requires both massive strength and power production to successfully flip it.

Here’s a video taken a couple weeks ago of yours truly realizing that I’ve got LOTS of MANNING UP to do.  I got 2 sets of 3 reps with our 800 lb tire.  Subsequently, last week I was able to get 2 sets of 5.  It wasn’t pretty, and it was nearly a life or death battle on my final set to get the last rep, but this is the kind of physical and mental training that is absolutely critical for developing the optimally developed athlete.  Getting this tire off the ground is practically like doing a 1RM on deadlifts followed by a 1RM clean to move the tire from hip to shoulder.. then you have to do it again.. and again.. No room for pussies or cry babies!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The take home message is that if you want your contact sport athletes to have optimal strength and conditioning development, they need to train with odd objects during both strength training and conditioning training.  If they don’t, watch them get left behind by those who do the right kind of strength training for athletes!

Please leave your comments about strength training for athletes in the comments section below.

Safely Increase Your Box Jumps Without Getting Injured

Safely increase your box jumps without getting injured.  In this post I’ve got a cool video where I show you 3 critical elements you need to know to safely increase your box jumps without getting injured.

How to Safely Increase Your Box Jumps and NOT Get Injured:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To recap the video, the three things you need to do to safely increase your box jumps without getting injured are:

1. Hip height and hip mobility.

When you box jump, take notice of how high your hips are when you land.  If your hips are barely above your ankles as in you’re nearly sitting on your feet, chances are you’re not ready to safely increase your box jumps.  However, if you notice that you’re able to land with your hips 6-12 inches above your feet, then you’re developing enough force to box jump a little higher.

The next issue when trying to safely increase your box jumps height is whether or not you have sufficient hip mobility and flexibility in the muscle groups required to pull your legs and feet up higher to land a higher box jump.  If you can stand on one foot and without your hands pull your thigh of the free leg up past parallel to the ground and hold it there for 15 seconds, then you have at least sufficient hip flexor strength.  Next if you can pull your knee with your hands all the way up to or close to your chest without your support leg knee bending or your back hunching over, then you can safely increase your box jumps height.

2. Foot position on the floor.

To safely increase your box jumps height, another important element is making sure you get a solid drive off the ground.  Start your box jump with a strong dip on flat feet.  An all to common mistake is to rise up onto the balls of the foot before the dip and drive into the floor with the feet.  This causes the calf muscles to act as a sponge, absorbing some of the force we ideally want to transfer directly into the floor.  In a very well trained athlete, through a plyometric effect, this would actually help increase the box jump height, but it is important to realize that most people will lessen their box jump height by doing this because they will not develop sufficient force with their hips and legs.  Getting maximum force production through the glutes, hips, quads, and hamstrings and delivering that force into the floor is what is MOST important for training to safely increase box jump height.

3. Maximize upper body momentum with the arms.

To safely increase box jumps height you have to ensure you’re generating the maximum amount of momentum possible.  This is achieved with a powerful arm swing initiated as part of the downward dip and then followed through with the subsequent drive from the legs and hips.  The safety point is to make sure the arm swing follows an arc that does not connect the hands with the box itself.  My sister was doing our bootcamp a couple months back and she smashed her hand on the box and a couple of her knuckles are still not healed properly.  So be aggressive with your arm swing, but be conscious of HOW you swing them.

A fourth thing not mentioned in this video because I covered it in my previous article on Box Jumps, is to increase lower body strength.  Stronger muscles can produce more force, which is obviously critical to improving your box jump.  I didn’t cover it in the video because the video was in response to someone’s comment on the first post on box jumps in which the reader had hurt her leg during a box jump.  So this video was more to address how to safely increase your box jumps without getting hurt.

So work on this stuff and you’ll safely increase your box jumps height without getting injured.

I’d love to hear your comments, so please leave them in the comment box below.  I get a ton of comments from my posts by email, and I really appreciate them, but it would be very helpful to everyone if people would comment ON the blog in the comment section as others will benefit from hearing what you have to say and potentially my response.  Thanks!  :)

Work on these three things and you’ll soon find your box jump

Box Jumps Explosive Strength Training For Hockey Players

Explosive Strength Training For Hockey Players – Box Jumps

Explosive Strength Training For MMA Athletes Box Jumps In this article I’m going to cover some very important aspects of box jumps that will help you both improve your performance in the box jump and thus get more out of them in terms of their carry-over to MMA and other sports such as hockey, wrestling, football, etc…

Box Jump Set-Up

Always start with a relatively low box, one that you know you can jump on successfully.  Even though it may not feel like it’s much of a challenge, starting low and gradually working higher will bring your nervous system up to speed slowly and prepare you for higher boxes on successive attempts.

Stand in front of the box and depending on the height, assess your distance.  Common mistakes include either starting too far back or too close.  Either one can cause you to catch your foot on the lip of the box and leave you with a pretty nasty bruise and/or cut on the front of your shin.

Common approaches are either standing with two feet planted and then jumping, or doing a walk-up before the jump.  The walk-up gives a bit of forward momentum going into the jump.  Some prefer this, while others don’t.

In my own box jump training, at most I’ve taken a tiny step into planting both feet before jumping, but never a big walk-up.

How To Jump Higher

How high you can jump depends on the following factors:

1. Ensure a good set-up

2. How much force you can develop with your jumping muscles

3. Your hip and leg flexibility and mobility

4. Your athletic ability

How much force you can develop depends on how strong you are and how “amped” up you can get for your box jump attempt.  Strength training with exercises like squats, step-ups, hip thrusts, glute bridges, glute & ham raises and deadlifts will help your muscles develop the strength required to jump higher.

One common mistake I see frequently is not enough leg drive into the ground before the jump.  What tends to happen is people initiate the movement by lifting their heels off the ground and then they spring off their toes without getting much drive from the hips.  Good drive from the hips will usually start with feet flat on the ground and a good drop in the hips will occur before the jump.

Mobility and flexibility are critical for box jump height, as a maximum height jump will result in a landing with both hips and knees in deep flexion, a position only possible with sufficient hip mobility and flexibility.

Finally, with regards to athletic ability, the use of momentum is required for jumping, and the amount of arm movement is often over-looked it terms of importance in providing momentum for helping with box jump height.

A hockey player or mma athlete who attempts a box jump without sufficient use of their arms will not jump as high as the athlete that instinctively engages a powerful arm swing entering and following through the jump.

The picture at the top of this article shows clearly the heavy involvement of the arms in a high box jump.

Serious Box Jump Action

Click here to view the embedded video.

Box Jump Programming Considerations

Box jumps are becoming a popular exercise for not only athletic training, but also in exercise bootcamps (including the PhysXtreme Bootcamp!), but how you jump based on the programming is important to avoid injury and maximize performance.

When box jumps are used at the beginning of an exercise program, the hockey player, mma athlete, or bootcamper is fresh and not suffering from a heavy dose of accumulated fatigue.  At this point, the participant can attempt to jump as high as possible, and possibly even try to jump higher and set a personal record (PR).  The chance of injury is always there, but it is less because the muscles are fresh.  In contrast, if box jumps are prescribed at the end of a workout when the athlete is fatigued, we’re not usually looking for jumps to be of maximum height, and we’re certainly not looking for PR’s.  So make sure your desire for height takes into consideration your level of fatigue.

Normally when we put box jumps at the beginning of the workout, we look for sets of 3-6 reps.  This rep range can usually done with maximum force output and very little drop-off in power output.  If we use box jumps midway through or at the end of the program, we’re looking to train power endurance, and box height should be adjusted to reflect the athlete’s level of fatigue.

Safety Considerations

Box jump safety starts with taking stock of your fatigue level going into the jumps.  If you’re heavily fatigued, this is NOT the time to be trying to set any records.  Step-in, adjust your distance if necessary, and ensure you get a good arm swing as you jump.  Your set-up is key to safety.  If you’re not sure, ask for help from a qualified coach.

When Box Jumps Go Bad

Immediately After Crash Landing                                                        One Week Later

Click this link to learn how to safely increase your box jumps height.

Sample Lower Body Strength Training Program

1A) Box Jumps 3×6

1B) Box Squats 3×5

2A) High Box Step-ups 3×8

2B) Glute & Ham Raises 3×8

3A) Cossack Squats 3×10

3B) 1-Leg RDL 3×12

4A) Grappler 3×15

4B) Farmer’s walk 3×100′

If you have any comments please leave them in the comments box below.

How Lazy Can You Possibly Be?

I’m gonna start off 2012 with a rant.

This world is full of ridiculous examples of laziness.  And I’m pretty fired up right now because I just received an email from someone that put me over the top!

As you may or may not know, I did a Groupon back in August as a way of generating buzz and new membership for my absolutely awesome bootcamp (a lil’ shameless self-promotion), and 182 people bought my Groupon.

The Groupon was good for a full 6 months from the date of purchase.  It allowed the buyer to have 8 bootcamp style workouts.  Shortly after the first batch of people came in to redeem their Groupon coupons, I realized I can’t just dump 10 new people into a class, as there’s not enough time in 30 second intervals to teach safety and technique to each person for things like kettlebells, sledgehammers and tire flipping.  So I decided to implement a mandatory orientation session for everyone coming in with a Groupon coupon.  After they complete the orientation they can pick which bootcamp classes they come to from the schedule posted online at the website (www.PhysXtreme.com/en/schedule.php).

Within 2 months of the Groupon going out, I had about 50% of the buyers come through the door.  Of those, I’ve had quite a good retention rate.

But now, as the Groupon coupon is expiring on Feb. 11th, I have people calling me and wanting to know if they can use the Groupon PAST the expiry date.  And today I even got an email from a woman who was very upset that she can’t make it to the orientation session until two weeks from now, and that means she will only have two weeks to use her remaining sessions.

I might have actually let her use it past the expiry date, but she was indignant and spoke to me as though I OWED her.

Lady.. if you’re reading this… you paid $29 for 8 workouts.  That’s normally $150.

If you make it in to just 2 sessions, you’ve already paid less than the price of 2 drop-ins ($20 ea.)

So if you’ve got a Groupon for my bootcamp that expires on Feb 11, I really don’t want to hear all the reasons why you’re leaving it until the last minute to use it.

I mean really… how lazy can you possibly be?

I’m here to help action takers.  If your plan was truly to use it in January that’s cool, but wouldn’t it have been smart to at least call me or email me earlier on to find out what the rules are etc…?

There you go!

My first rant of 2012!

How To Get What You WANT in 2012 Do This…

So how did the past few days go?  Did you do things you regret?  If so, ask yourself why?  If you can’t come up with a good reason, dig a little deeper.  There’s always a good reason.  But just because it’s a good reason doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

That said, it’s finished and done.  So forget it.  The key to getting what you want in 2012 is in what you do from here on.  Many people made all sorts of new year’s resolutions who didn’t even keep their resolutions that they had from previous years.  I think it’s fine to think about what you want to achieve in the next year, but if it’s all you do is announce to people what you want to do but then forget about it the next day, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Each second of your life you face decisions.  In fact you make many decisions even unknowingly.  The key to being successful in any endeavour is to recognize each pending decision as an opportunity to grow and to become successful.

If you take any huge task, let’s say it’s to drop 40 lbs of bodyfat, gain 20 lbs of muscle and get in even better shape than you were in when you played hockey in college, the task can seem daunting.

In fact, such huge goals are often the reason people fail as they’re almost afraid to tackle it because of it’s size.  In addition, the fear of failure is often huge for some people too.

So here’s what you need to do.  We’ll use the goal I listed above as the example.  To make it manageable, start with just going to the gym, or getting outside and doing some basic exercise.  Don’t go too crazy, just do something.

Now here’s where I tell you how to get what you want in 2012…

To go from just doing something.. to achieving the huge goal you have.. all you have to do is repeat your effort but give a little more.

Ok.. I know that sounds totally lame.

Do you feel like I set you up for something big and underdelivered?

Why is that?  Do you expect that the answers to getting what you want out of life reside in me?  In my words?

You have to make it happen.  But the point is that you only ever have to do just a tiny bit more each time.  So don’t be afraid to make that first attempt.

Think about the next year of your efforts towards your goal.  If you train three times per week for 30 minutes, or 45, or 60 or however much it is.  If you do 5 or 10 exercises, and you do a few sets of X number of reps with a certain weight, or you run a certain distance, or skip, or bike, or whatever it is… every single time you do whatever it is that you do, every rep can be done just a little bit better.

Concentrate a little harder on your technique.  Push one more rep out, try to take just a few seconds off your 10K each time, just fight for the tiniest increment every time.

Be mindful of the Japanese word Kaizen, which means continual improvement.

If you always make some small improvement or just push a little harder at each opportunity you WILL get exactly what you want in 2012!

This concept is HUGE, and is one of the biggest reasons for the successes in every realm that you see around you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Just wanted to take a short minute to say thank you to all my PhysXtremists that come, bust out their awesome, and leave the gym as a better person!

Also want to say thank you to everyone that reads my newsletter.. and GETS.. that I’m gonna be raw, I’m gonna bust out the truth, with no B.S., and I will always deliver the awesome!

Have I offended some?  Hell yeah!

And will I offend more in the future..

Damn straight..

If I didn’t I wouldn’t be me!

Because my mission is to push you to the limit.  To make no excuses nor accept any excuses!

I want you to crush it in life and in lifting, and if everything gets sugar coated and is politically correct, it won’t twang on nerves that need to be twanged to force some of you out of complacency and to step up, to MAN UP!

A few hours ago I trained with one of my MMA guys and just as he left, I thought I should shoot a quick vid for you to say thanks!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I wish you a very Merry Xmas, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012… which I guarantee is gonna be fortified with Awesome!