No such thing as perfect

Over the past year I have read my fair share of books and talked with some very knowledgeable people on the subject of training programs. The knowledge I have gained has opened my eyes to the vast freedom of training.

For far too long I have over complicated my ideas on training; always searching for that "perfect" program, one that has never been found or created ( sounds like Indiana Jones or something). Well after all the countless hours I spent dreaming over this ideal program, I was hit in the head with the phrase " everything works" quoted by Dan John. This couldn't be true, I thought.  I was destined to find this special program and it was going to work forever. NOT! It all comes down to staying ahead of your body.  It doesn't want to get bigger muscles or lose the pudge around you midsection; it wants to stay safe, just how it is. But you have to trick your body once it adapts so you can keep making progress towards your goal. There are many ways to do this such as, increase the training weight, density style training which is more work in less time, adding sets or more volume in your workouts, and the list can keep going on and on. The idea is to change it up often and not let your body get into the same old, boring routine.  Every 4-6 weeks is a good marker.

 So was all my time wasted?  Not at all in my opinion. I just didn't want to believe it could be that easy. I thought I need to find the Holy Grail, when in reality all I had to do was try something for 6 weeks and move on. I mean honestly give a program 100% of my commitment and I would most likely see some type of results. If you’re always program hoping or mixing this with that you will never find out what truly works or what is wasting your time.

Stick to the basic human movements, another gem from Dan John. These movements are Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Carry, and some type of ground work like the Get-up. You hit these basic movements a few times a week while varying the intensity, add some weekly walking, I bet you will see results. Not only will you see great results, but your movement will be a lot better than when you started. It is really that simple, there are no magic tricks. Just hard work. 

Here goes nothing

     It has been a long time since I have blogged, But lately I have been trying to write more and get helpful information out to people. Facebook posts are great, but I want to go further with my ideas and give more information to back up my beliefs. I enjoy constructive criticism so feel free to give any advice you man have.

        I am going to dive right into it today with, What is a healthy lifestyle?  There is so much information at your fingertips at any point in the day it can be very overwhelming. There is fitness apps that can pretty much get you a six pack and amazing glutes ( I haven't found one yet but still looking) but you get the idea, The technology we have can be a blessing but also a curse. Today one person is telling you Paleo is the only way to survive, Carbohydrates are terrible and you will never be thin if you enjoy that bowl of oatmeal! I went a little to far but sometimes I read stuff that's close to that. Tomorrow guess what, If you don't eat for your blood type, It's game over and your body will stop working and you will shrivel up and expire. I am not trying to say I no everything, and  I understand its very frustrating especially when your just starting out. So my advice to you would be strive to make little changes, examples such as, only drink water or other non calorie beverages, only treat yourself after you achieve one of your goals, limit alcohol ( this is tough considering I love craft beer) but its not going to help me achieve my goal, Its going to make the process longer and I'm going to have to work a lot harder just to enjoy those few beers. Just make small changes over a period of time, If you try to change everything at once you will most likely fail. Its in the facts, One change and you have about an 80% chance of sticking to it, Two changes and its more like 50%, And three or more its 30% or below and failing sucks so just try one thing at a time, Make it a habit and then try adding another. This will help the habits stick and you achieve a healthier lifestyle. Enjoy the process, whats the rush, One step in the right direction today, Is closer to your goal than you were the day before.


Hope this helps

Learning from your mistakes

 The Longcycle kettlebell competition at Complete Kettlebell and Fitness has come and gone. It was a great event and Michael Cricks did an amazing job putting it all together. His gym is top of the line and very creative, His staff was great and very welcoming and I think they all did a great job hosting this event. That being said time to get down to what I learned this past weekend. First off this was my first competition without my Coach Chris Duffey and my friend and teammate Will Metcalf there and this made a big difference now that I look back. We usually help each other out and chalk bells and of course there is always the pep talks and pointers that we give each other and I didn't really notice this or appreciate this until I didn't have it. All these little things add up and can take a toll, I was chalking my bells right after my last warm up set and it was already time to lift. This takes away precious time to get yourself ready and prepared to lift and of course when your in your set you have your teammates cheering you on and giving you advice, Duffeys famous quote " just survive this minute" or " you can relax when the set is done" just these little things can make a huge difference and I learned that this weekend.
  I already new GS is all about going the full 10 mins and I usually do but with this competition I got so caught up in my MS numbers and the speed I had to go that it literally made me forgot about what the sport is really about and I was all about greed. Once I realized I wasn't making my target of 55 reps my whole mental game went out the window and I threw in the towel and gave up. I have to say I am very disappointed in myself for letting this happen, and I will not let it happen again it was a shitty lesson to learn but that is part of competing and lifting kettlebells. Its a journey of learning,suffering,over coming pain and the fear of pushing yourself beyond your limits, and to strive to never stop trying to get better. So as long as you can learn from your mistakes you have to just take it and move on and put what you learned to the test, which I will be doing right away.

June 23, 2012
Longcycle comp 2x32 30 reps in about 6 mins

Thanks for reading!

Ohio!

Yesterday my friend and I left for Ohio, It was a long drive it took us about 9.5 hrs and over 600 miles. Today we drove around to see what this place is all about. Its definately a lot different than MA. The people seem nice and the weather is a lot less humid than home. We went down and checked out Michael Cricks gym called Complete Kettlebell and Fitness and I have to say he has one nice gym. Michael is a great person and been in kettlebells for a long time and his gym has everything you can think of and some stuff I have never seen. He has a passion for training and helping people. If I could open up my own gym I would hope to make it as nice as his.
   Tomorrow is the big day so after we scooped out place we are going to lift we found a lunch place and of course I have to keep my weight in check so I stayed healthy. Thats one of the hardest parts about competeing, you work your butt off and if your like me you like to eat a lot but you have to be careful right before a competition because you want to make your weight class and you dont want to load up on junk because then you will feeling like crap doing your sets. Its also tough becuase I am not from around here and this is a little vacation for me and I want to try some of this different food. All I have to do is make it through tomorrow and then I can relax and enjoy myself.

Less than a week till Longcycle competition!

 This Saturday is the Complete Kettlebell and Fitness WKC Longcycle competition. I have been training for this competition. Before this I didn't have much interest in Longcycle I am not going to lie but I have found a real passion for this exercise. I use to be all about Biathalon but I find myself really getting into Longcycle and seeing where I can go with this. I have been eating really healthy all week and only cheating a little on the weekends. I haven't had any beer for around 3-4 weeks and I feel better than ever. Its amazing how when you take care of your body and really feed it real food how much better you can recover from your workouts and keep pushing.

This weeks training has been great even after my PR last week.
Monday June 18,2012
 I warm up with a 5 min jog or jump rope and some light OALC and then some Longcycle sets only lasting a Min each.
Longcycle 2x24 10,10
2 min rest
Longcycle 2x28 8,8,8
2 rest
Longcycle 2x32 7,7,7 this wasn't easy Monday's are always difficult for me.
Jump rope 10 mins 30 on 30 off

Tuesday June 19,2012
Jump rope 6 mins 40 on 20 off
some OALC and then some Longcycle sets of 1 min each
Longcycle 2x32 8 mins @ 6 rpms for a total of 48 reps and felt pretty good
6 mins rest
jerk 2x24 `12,12
Jump rope 10 mins 30 on 30 off

So I no this seems like a lot a few days before the competition but I was talking to Coach Duffey and he said were not scientific, we have full time jobs and have to be able to pick up the bells and do our thing and I couldn't agree more its so true. I work full time and train on the side I get in my sets when I can and I think its true you should be able to bust out a set pretty much anytime. We are not pros, this is our hobby and I don't want to go through peaking phases and all these other phases. I want to lift kettlebells and hit some decent numbers. I have watched Valery Fedorenko pick up a 24kg in his regular cloths and knock out 200 snatches in 10 min like nothing, No crazy warm up or anything just basically lets do this and boom he does it. Not to long ago he put a video up of him doing his MS numbers with no real crazy training for it. I don't no about everyone else but when Duffey pointed out the facts to me today it was all I needed to keep going. You need time under the bells and sets like the one today and be great motivation for  whats to come.

Closing in on goals!

 My training has been going steady, I have been very busy and its not easy but if its important enough you will find time to fit it in. I have been rushing around with work lifting and teaching classes at a local gym. Last week ended pretty well nothing to crazy.
 Over the weekend I did some yard work which was brutal and decided not to run after, then on sunday the guy who runs the gym I train at and myself made a little obstacle course for some people that come to my classes. They are running the Ruckus obstacle course run this weekend. Its 4 miles and its pretty brutal. The course we made was only a 1/2 mile but we did it 3 times and it was a big hit everyone liked it.
 Monday june 11,12 I was kinda feeling shitty but new it was all in my head and it was a easy day
Longcycle 2x24 2 min @ 10 rpms
2 rest
longcycle 2x28 3 min @ 8 rpms
2 rest
Longcycle 2x32 3 min @ 7 rpms and thats it, overall it wasnt a bad workout the 32kgs were tough but managable.
 Tuesday June 12,12
feeling pretty good all day just ready to get under some bells
Longcycle 2x32kg 10 mins 6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5 for a total and PR of 55 reps. This was huge for me to finially break the 50 mark its been killing me lately.
I have to say I have been eating pretty healthy and not drinking any beer this might have helped me achieve this I am not sure but I no one this is that I am going to continue like this and see what happens.

Back on track, kinda

 So after my terrible week last week I am slowly getting back on track. I have been eating really healthy and trying to rest up and recover from my workouts. Its not easy working a full time job, lifting, and training at a local gym but its worth it.
  When you compete in a sport, you really have to give it your full attention and 100%  or your kinda just wasting your time. I have been lifting for a long time and I have tried a lot of different types of lifting. I still enjoy other types of lifting, I love body weight training for some reason I cant get enough handstand push ups, pull ups, hand balancing and a lot of other variations of training. But when you want to do good in one thing you really have to side track everything else. Since there is a competition coming up June 23 I have dropped everything besides my comp lifts and some jogging. This makes such a big difference, especially when I have a lot of other things going on at the same time. So basically I am saying narrow your focus and see what happens, experiment with taking some things out of your training and I bet you will see your gains come back and surpass your personal best. I no I have.

Monday June 4,12
warm up OALC 16kgx 5/5 20kgx 5/5 24kgx 5/5 2x20kgx 10 2x24kgx 10 2x28kgx 9
Longcycle 2x28kg 8,9,8,9,8,9 this was tough on cardio
5 min rest
Jerk 2x28 4 min @ 10 rpms good set

Tuesday June 5, 12
went for a little jog then 16x5/5 20x5/5 24x5/5 2x20x10  2x24x10  2x28x8 2x32x7
longcycle 2x32 6,5,6,5,6,5,6,5 total of 44 reps. After last weeks shitty sets I should be happy with this but I am not I no I could have pushed the full 10 mins but I didn't.

that's it