Author: kylegarner3

Buy a Gym Membership or Build a Home Gym???

Quick Tips

I draw ideas to write from every little conversation and every daily experience. 

I recently had a longtime friend ask me this very question:

“I am just getting back into working out, would you recommend getting a gym membership or should I buy some simple pieces of equipment from a sporting goods store”.

This is a really good question actually.  The funny thing is that if someone would have asked me this 5 years ago, I would have said get the gym membership.  

Why?

Home gym equipment sucked.  Honestly, home gym equipment was really shitty.  You were stuck shelling out thousands of dollars for a treadmill or a elliptical trainer, or maybe a universal gym that companies touted as the “greatest thing ever”.  

The problem is two-fold for this type of equipment:

1)  You’re buying a $2,000 coat rack.  Most people buy a treadmill and 2 months later they are using it to dry their laundry.  This might be some of you reading this blog right now.  Same goes for a universal gym or elliptical.

2)  It provides an inferior training effect.  We know this!  You only have to maintain the speed of the belt on a treadmill with zero ground force production and a universal gym is a machine with fixed angles that place a much lower demand on crucial stabilizing muscles that fire in reaction to daily physical demands (whatever they may be).  A weight machine has very little real world carryover.  

Fast forward to my response to him today…

Without a doubt, I said go with the home gym set up.  I have been training at home for the past 5 years and it has been refreshing.  Absolutely refreshing.  I don’t like being around people when I train.  I don’t like the little conversations about my “toe shoes”, I don’t even like people asking if they can work in with me or when I am projecting to be done with the equipment that I am using.  I don’t like the music they play in gyms, blah blah blah.  

I just don’t like it.

Now, the second reason that I recommended the home gym is because quite frankly, home training went to another level with the introduction of:

  • Suspension trainers
  • Kettlebells
  • Dumbbells (Powerblocks)
  • Jump Rope
  • Weight-vests
  • Battling Ropes
  • Sand bags
  • Sand-bells

These are some of the more popular pieces of training equipment that is widely available to the public today.

Now, you’ll spend a decent chunk of change if you bought one or two of all those items that I listed, so will trim down the list to what I believe are the most impactful pieces of equipment.

1)  Suspension Trainer

2)  Kettlebells

I would go with those two items.  If you’re a male, start with a 12kg and a 16kg kettlebell (be prepared to make a quick jump to a 20kg) and a LifeLine Jungle Gym XT suspension trainer.  Females, start with a 8kg and 12kg kettlebell (be prepared to make a quick jump to the 16kg)   The exercise variations that a person can come up with from just these three pieces of equipment will blow your mind.  Endless combinations, workouts, etc.  Total body training that lends itself to not just stripping fat and building a lean physique, but also promotes the building of athleticism.   

The suspension trainer alone will keep you progressing for months.  It’s the single best piece of home training equipment on the market.  The portability and simplicity of a suspension trainer make it ideal for those who travel or those who wish to initiate the home training experience on a budget.  I love suspension trainers for folks that have banged up joints from years of grinding it out lifting big weight.  Reputable brands are TRX and Lifeline Jungle Gym, although i can’t say enough about the quality of the Jungle Gym XT and it’s unbeatable price point ($99 or less).  Watch for sales.

I buy my kettlebells from Lifeline also.  They are high quality, great surface finish and the customer service makes ordering a breeze every time.  Plus Jon Hinds is local to my location so it feels good buying a product from someone in my own backyard.  Trust me, it is possible to buy a shitty kettlebell.  Buying kettlebells is just like buying everything else.  You’ve got quality and then you’ve got imitation, then you’ve got plain old cheap.  Stay away from the latter two.  You’re only buying your kettlebells once, so make the purchase count or I can promise you that you will wish you had.  At least your hands and wrist will wish you had.As for the durability of suspension trainers and kettlebells…  you should have both for a lifetime.  The only reason the suspension trainer would crap out on you is if you were using it improperly, maybe having excessive loads on the straps or stringing it around a coarse/sharp edged anchor point, which would cut through the straps.  Shouldn’t be an issue if you use your head.  

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Kettlebells are a one time purchase that will last forever.  Period.  Well worth the money.  

The bottom-line is this…

The options for training at home were terrible even just a couple of years ago.  That has all changed with the evolution of improved equipment options.  More and more people are seeking alternatives to the commercial gym, and I fully support this movement.  Obviously the best approach is to analyze your budget and what you desire from your training efforts.  I would also evaluate your personality.

Are you the kind of person that can give an effort without anyone watching?  If not, home training is not for you.  At least not yet.  

If you can, and you have the money to invest in some simple gym equipment… well… welcome to the club.

 

 

Respectfully,

 

KG

Red Table Round Table #1

Quick Tips

Good Saturday morning from the little Red Table in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Part of the fun of keeping a blog is being able to write whatever you want, whenever you want to write it.  It’s your own personal space to release thoughts and ideas on this massive beast we call the Internet.  That is a pretty cool thing.

I decided that I really wanted to develop a blog posting series where I could just discuss whatever topics happened to come to mind during that writing session.  

Basically, I am talking about just putting my fingers on the keyboard and having at it.  

Creatively, I think this will help me regurgitate some of the interactions, questions and experiences that I had from the previous week.  

A recap of sorts from the past week.

Here we go…

 

—> Fat loss isn’t an ongoing process, it ends eventually<—

The concept of losing fat has to end at some point.  You cannot forever be in “fat loss” mode with your training and your eating.  You have got to have some kind of end goal to attain.  Whether you choose a certain body fat % or a performance related goal, it doesn’t much matter to me.  Although I suppose that if you are partaking in a full-fledged fat loss program you should probably be measuring the amount of fat you lose.  Skin calipers are a simple and relatively effective way to do this, otherwise hydro-static weighing or a BodPod will give some fairly accurate numbers also.

I was talking with my girlfriend Amanda about the whole concept of fat loss.  I told her that in my experience, sometimes people end up taking the fat loss concept to the extreme.  They literally attempt to walk around with 0% body fat.  They engage in extreme eating habits (calorie restriction and the like) and sign up for extreme workouts.  It becomes just as addictive as eating sugar or smoking cigarettes.  

At some point, you have to realize that you are going to enter a maintenance phase.  You’ve reached  your goals and you’re content with your body figure and your physical abilities and now you’re in what we call:  Maintenance. 

Fat loss ends at some point and maintenance begins.  You decide when that happens.  

Fat loss is a war and it is a lot more mental than physical in my opinion.  Habits need to be broken and new habits need to be hardwired.  Mentally you’ve got to prepare yourself for fighting off your old self-talk.  You’ve also got to get your head in the right place to endure your training schedule.  Physically, the human body is incredibly resilient.  You can handle a lot more physical stress than you think.  (Just keep it manageable physical stress)

 

I often go back and forth between favoring two approaches fat loss, and I think both depend on the personality of the person.  

Here they are:

  • Aggressive training and eating for 4-6 weeks, followed by a tapering process.
  • A consistent, not overly aggressive effective training regimen paired with a smooth transition into concepts of clean eating.

 

The first bullet point is an approach that is my definition of a fat loss war.  It’s pedal to the metal. You go crazy in your training and you stay brutally strict with your diet.  You get results quickly and then you turn back the dial a bit and continue pushing on at an effective yet much more manageable pace with regard to training and nutrition.  

The second bullet point is an approach that is quite popular also.  This is the “lifestyle” approach.  I am sure you’ve heard that a million times… “It’s not a diet… it’s a lifestyle”.  Puke.  

Anyways, this approach is a gradual climb.  There is a lot of acclimation to this approach.  I enjoy this approach to losing fat because fat loss is inevitably going to happen if you are eating clean and training purposefully.  I love the research and the highly technical information that the experts put out, but they complicate topics in an effort to sell products.

Eat clean and drink water, learn how to lift weight using big movements, ramp up your cardiovascular training from aerobic to higher effort intervals, then move into a more cardio-strength style training regimen and you’re going to experience a reduction in overall bodyfat.  

Measure your fat loss progress on the cheap.  Use a snug fitting pair of jeans and a tighter fitting shirt to gauge your progress.  Remember, you’re after fat loss and lean tissue gain… not weight loss. (I lose up to 3-5lbs just from sleeping, it doesn’t tell me anything useful).

 —> Again, I encourage you all to set your sights a goal.  A goal is a target.  Once you have the target, set the timeline.  Once you have the timeline, you can assess what kind of effort is required to achieve that goal in that timeline.  It’s simple.  We over-complicate what should be simple.   

 

Cheers to keeping it simple…

 

KG

 

 

You Gotta Lift With Your Legs!

Quick Tips

Walk into a loading dock at any department store, hospital or industrial factory and you are going to see- maybe in plain sight or maybe laying next to the garbage- a sign that resembles the following:

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Caution:  Use Proper Lifting Mechanics

 

I probably hear something similar to the following quote 3-4 times a week while lifting decent sized plastic bins… “Kyle, lift with your legs bud!”, people say as I throw one bin on top of another.  

Ok, first things first…

1)  Take a look at the picture above.  How many people do you know that have proper mobility in their hips to get their ass that low?  Do you?  Most people don’t, so right away you’re putting yourself in a sketchy body position.  You’ll compensate big time to get that object off the floor.

2)  Lifting with the legs isn’t enough.  It’s all about technique.  Lifting the object by hinging your hips and driving your butt to the floor in an effort to primarily use your legs during the grunt of the lift is ideal.  Also, we deadlift barbells with massive loads in the gym…  Your back muscles are highly involved in that process, so don’t forget that having the back muscles helping out is a good thing, just don’t make them the only thing taking on the brunt of the load.  You’re moving a heavy object from a resting position on the floor to waist height (or higher).  You’ve got to pressurize your torso region to help protect your spine during the grind of the lift.

3)  Lifting odd-shaped objects is… well… odd.  The rules of lifting still apply to lifting odd objects.  Stay rigid, pressurize your torso to help protect your spine as I mentioned above, etc.  However, lifting something other than a designated weight training tool is awkward at best.

4)  Thankfully, most people who are probably lifting heavy stuff like the picture above are probably doing it for a living.  The reason that I say thankfully is because these people are probably conditioned to lifting heavy odd shaped objects, but more importantly they probably aren’t sitting in a chair all day.  You’ll hear me preach about how sitting is wrecking our posture and ability to move (it’s also unavoidable with our occupations), our metabolism, etc.  It’s horrible and unavoidable in today’s working world.  Take a person that sits all day and ask them to lift a 75lb-85lb box and you might have just dealt the camel the final straw (if you know what I mean).

5)  Programmed resistance training and attention to movement quality will protect our bodies from injury and aid in performance, even it that performance is lifting a heavy box off of the floor.  This is the foundational thought process behind establishing and enhancing strength, power, mobility and stability in your training sessions.  Physical preparedness is everything.

You’ll never appreciate your ability to move more than you will once you DO NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO MOVE.

You gotta lift with your legs! haha…

Cheers

KG

The Birth of Multi-Method Cardio (the aerobic alternative)

Quick Tips

Cardiovascular training is important for genuine health and athletic endeavors.

Cardiovascular training, mainly aerobic, is a topic that hasn’t gotten it’s due respect in the last few years, especially with the rise of work capacity style workouts.  Most of these work capacity style training sessions are resistance based, using training tools like dumbbells, kettlebells and barbells.

Multi-method cardiovascular training was born out of necessity for me.  Maybe someone else was utilizing a tactic similar to this before me, and if so, give credit to that person.  I am sure I didn’t invent it.  However, I will certainly take credit for perfecting it:)

The background behind it…

For 3 years I trained in a studio apartment with limited equipment.  At first, I thought it was just going to be a temporary situation, but it soon evolved into a challenge of sorts.

Could I maintain my current fitness levels using nothing but a jump rope, 4 kettlebells, a suspension trainer, an Schwinn Airdyne and some resistance bands?

That was the question.

It wasn’t difficult to set up my program at first.  I had plenty of room for improving using my kettlebells and progressional exercises on the suspension trainer.  However, as the weeks and months passed by, I began to adapt to my training regimen.

Adaptation is inevitable.  I love the concept of adaptation.  You know why?  It means you stuck to the program long enough to reach the point where your body became strong enough, powerful enough, stabile or mobile enough to render your program… easy.  You essentially have become really efficient at the performing the physical tasks in your daily program.

***Just don’t continue performing those same training sessions for too long or you’ll be sorely disappointed by the results.

Sorry I sidetracked for second there…

So multi-method cardio was born out of necessity.  In between my higher intensity work capacity days, I needed a day where I could engage in some form of aerobic-style activity.  Easy right?  I could have just hopped on the Airdyne and pedaled mindlessly for 30-40 minutes.

The problem is that I don’t have the attention span for that.  I get bored, just like many of you probably do.  The Airdyne solution would have worked just fine, but it is boring as shit!

So, I decided to choose lower impact training methods sectioned off in designated time increments to accumulate that 30 minutes of aerobic activity.

I primarily used my jump rope, a 53lb (24kg) kettlebell and the Schwinn Airydyne.  I also had my Polar HeartRate Monitor on at all times.

I would use each training tool for 10 minutes, grab a swig of water, then move on to the next immediately.  Ironically, I never experienced that same level of insane boredom that I did when only using one method.

I love that.  Training effect without insufferable boredom.

I am effectively accomplishing the same thing I set out to do had I only rode the bike for 30-40, but now I am developing skills using other tools.

Staying in the 10 minute range duration-wise also helped me avoid over-use injuries.  I am convinced of this.  I love jumping rope and swinging kettlebells, but you cannot do it every single day.  You’ll eventually develop chronic over-use type symptoms or worse yet, injury.  Your body needs a break at some point.  (If you’re a person who is back in the fitness saddle for the 2013 and experiencing hip pain or back pain from all of the working out you’ve done, it is for a reason my friends!)

One important point of MMC (multi-method cardio) is anyone can do this at home, which is the other part that I thought kicked ass.  I listen to MY music in MY own environment.  I could watch my television while I jumped rope and rode bike without giving any thought to what channel or movie was showing.  Completely personalized.  Fantastic.

Here is exactly what one of my multi-method cardio session…

Sample Multi-Method Cardio:

Jump rope-  10 minutes

Kettlebell Swing-  10 minutes

Bike-  10 minutes

Depending on your training level, you can adjust the session a bit:

  • Beginner:  6 minutes each
  • Intermediate:  8 minutes each
  • Advanced 10 minutes or longer each

My heart rate for a MMC workout usually hovered around 145-155bpm, occasionally rising higher than 155bpm but never lower than 145bpm.  This type of training is intended to be an aerobic segue between more intense training sessions.  It worked great.  Soreness from my higher intensity training sessions dissipated quickly with the increase in blood flow

Simple?  Absolutely.  Why complicate fitness?  That only leads to confusion and lack of action in my experience.

Always remember that you have to be able to justify your training habits.  I can easily justify this type of aerobic conditioning, and I think that many of you can also in 2013 and beyond.

At the end of the day, give it a try.  Self-experiment and find your groove…

Cheers…

KG

(Part II coming soon…)

Maybe I Should Post a Workout?

Brain Training, Dumbbell/Barbell Workouts

I got to thinking about what purpose this blog is going to serve.  As I build my information publishing business from the ground up, the blog will serve as an outlet for updates, current thoughts on news and media, ideas to get you thinking about your own training and also a splash of what my training and eating habits look like.

Kind of sounds like the average blog uh?

Hmmm…

Anyways, I thought that I should probably fire up a post sharing a sample workout.  I’m typically not a person that promotes individual workouts.  I am more of a program type guy.  The program is the road map.  It’s complete and will keep a person progressing for months, years, etc.  Programs build bodies resistant to fatigue and injury.  Programs build strength, stability, power and work capacity.

A workout is really just the “sweat of the day”.  However, hot damn if I don’t love an improvised workout!

{I’ve literally got hundreds of improvised workouts in a notebook at home here.  I record everything.  I tested throwing together workouts based on movement patterns and exertion versus the traditional approach to physical fitness.  I got some interesting results.}

But never mind that…

After all, the gym is a busy ass place.  Not all of the equipment that an author or coach draws up for a program is going to be open all of the time.  I think that authors forget about this when they write.  You’ve got a free weight area in each gym which gets more and more popular every single year, and the author wants you to stake claim to a bench, 4 pairs of dumbbells and barbell?  Get real.

I despise those people who pull this kind of shit in the gym.  Especially since the effort put forth by the individual doesn’t even come close to the amount of equipment that they have hoarded.  (Sorry for the rant)

Sometimes you have to adapt, right on the fly.

If you recall, last Sunday I got my head jarred and suffered a concussion.  I am sure I have beat that into the ground already.  Any how, I gave myself a solid week of doing nothing but sleep and minimal movement around the house.  I have been through the concussion scenario before and it helped big time to lay low.

This past weekend my lovely girlfriend (Amanda) and I spent the weekend away from my Eau Claire training compound, in Minneapolis, MN.  I debated whether or not to try to do something physical while in Minnesota but ultimately decided that I wanted to see how it felt to exert myself a little bit.

Turns out I was good to go.

Anytime I am in a commercial gym I always prepare for the worst…

… the worst equipment.

… the worst crowds.

… the worst amount of space.

… etc.

Seriously, if you plan for the worst possible situation and you know that you have a Plan B no matter what… that is comforting.  You’ll never miss a workout and you’ll always be pushing closer to your objective or at the very least maintain what effort you have put forth already.

I could get a quality workout in a phone booth.  I am convinced of that.  I don’t need any equipment and I can get by just fine for an extended period of time.  But not all of you have that knowledge which is partly why I am writing my ass off (book-wise) lately.  It isn’t always peaches and cream when it comes to the resources available for the ever important workout.

Luckily, I play with the free weights almost exclusively.  It’s the most underused section of the gym, especially after New Year’s, which is weird because it is also the most effective place in the gym to change your body, build strength, lean mass, etc.

Develop an athletic looking body if you will.

Seriously, you’ll strip fat twice as fast using nothing but free weights as opposed to running on that hamster wheel we call a treadmill.  This is no joke.  Those who have been at it for while will back me up on this (feel free to do so in the comment section so I know that someone out there has a pulse:)

After I knew that I could train at a decent intensity (which wasn’t much since I was so out of it all week), I went for the free weights and had at it.  The gym had one squat rack which is all I needed to know to make the session respectable.

Here is what my on-the-go adapted  training session looked like:

A1)  Rear foot elevated split squats x8 R/L

+

A2)  Push-ups x15

–  No rest between exercises for 5 total rounds.

–  Rest for set up of the next movements (roughly 2-3 minutes)…

B1)  Deadlift x5

+

B2)  Chin-Up (slow eccentric) x8

–  Very minimal rest between movements for 5 total rounds.

– Rest for the clean up of the equipment used and transition to cardiovascular dusting…

Aerobic:  2.5mi run on treadmill (aka: hamster wheel) keeping the heart rate around 153-156bpm.

The workout time was about 45 minutes.

As you can see, I measure everything.  I knew that I needed to keep my heart rate down post-concussion just to be safe.

I warmed up for a ridiculous amount of time just to be safe.  They had a really shitty jump rope which I tried to twirl for about 3-4 minutes before finally giving up on it.  Having decent functioning equipment really makes things more enjoyable, trust me there.

I will say that the work capacity portion was tough for me.  It felt like I hadn’t trained in months which is common when you just lay around for days at a time.  The aerobic session was strictly just to re-acclimate my body to that kind of oxygen exchange and continuous movement.  The treadmill, in reflection, was a good choice since I really just had to move enough to keep up with the belt.  My body isn’t ready for anaerobic type conditioning just yet, and that is me telling myself “no, not yet”.  I don’t want to risk anything shitty happening with my brain.

My conditioning was great prior to the concussion, so it shouldn’t be too much work getting back to that point.  That is the beauty of strength training.  Build it once and your body will remember what it needs to do.  The first couple sessions are discouraging but you have to keep it in perspective.  The body operates on an incredibly predictable set of rules.

Do this, then this happens.  Do this, then this happens.

It’s really nothing more than that quite honestly.  Don’t hype it up anymore than is necessary.  Avoid the over-hype.

Most people really don’t need to be concerned with every little detail of fat loss or lean mass building.  Do this, then this will happen.  Let guys like me worry about that kind of stuff.  Stay low information with your training.  You’ll be much happier.

938 words into this post and I am finally wrapping it up…

Oh, but before I go, check out some new tunes that I have been training to…  I dig this guy and his music a lot…

  • Macklemore- “The Heist”

[Hip-hop, not rap.  Incredible lyricist.]

 

Cheers for two-a-day posting from this guy…

KG

Dr. Oz… And Here Comes the BackLash

Quick Tips

I always perk up when I hear or see popular figures like Dr. Oz on television.

Why?

Because I know that he has won the hearts of so many television watching addicts that are in search of “the next great tip”.

Last night’s piece on NBC Sunday Night programming surely didn’t disappoint.

I have to admit that his advice last night was decent.  But it’s the same old song and dance for me and many others…

–  Eat more vegetables.

–  Stop eating processed junk.

–  Exercise moderately for no more than 30 min a day.

–  Include the walk into the Mall, place of work or grocery store as part of that 30 minutes.

Huh?  Re-read the last two points that he made about exercise.

Now, one might say, “Kyle, these are great points, anyone can start with this!”  You’re right and you’re also missing a much more important point.

You’re right in the fact that advocating people to just get up and move in some way shape or form is a really positive tip.  You should move whenever possible, no doubt about that.  Add a little bit more everyday and the accumulation will equate to big things.  You know the drill… take the stairs, park farther from the front door, take a short walk in the morning or after dinner.

But understand that this is the absolute bare minimum needed to get by.  These are recreational activities.  This is not “exercise” in my opinion.  Walking is a skill that an able-bodied human should be able to do for miles upon miles, not just for the minimum 50 yards from the car to the front door of the area shopping mall.

I have seen the studies showing the correlation between minimal amounts of moderately intense exercise (roughly 30 min per day) and its positive effect on life.  I get it.  I read it and I get it.

While this information is definitely interesting, how about we demand a little bit more from ourselves?  Walking for 30 minutes a day is great, but let’s get serious about changing or improving our physical abilities, trading unhealthy tissue for healthy tissue, increasing range of motion at important joints, etc.

Set some goals… Aim to run a 5K or a 10K.  Squat your bodyweight on the barbell.  Swing a kettlebell for 20-30 minutes.  Slam a medicine ball.  Go to war with some battling ropes or try to improve the maximum number of push ups or pull-ups that you can do in a 5 minute time-frame.

Become an athlete later in life, that’s something worth pursuing.

As I mention in my training book(s), we have become a nation afraid of work.  I am talking about legitimate physical labor.  The kind that fatigues your body quickly from effort, causes sweat pour down your face and eventually soak into your shirt.  The kind that causes your lungs to “burn” from a short and intense bout of conditioning.

We always seek the path of least resistance.  Our joints do it, our muscles do it and now our brains are doing it.  We crave what is easy.  We scour the internet, magazines and newspapers for the quickest possible route to health glory while enduring the least amount of physical agony.

Let me tell you something… resolving to dominate your training sessions, whether you are a beginner just learning or an advanced trainee seeking a new path, builds character that spills over into all other areas in your life.  If you can do it physically, you can do it mentally.

Back to the backlash…

I predict a massive backlash from Dr. Oz’s comments, even though I think that he is very intelligent and probably didn’t intend for his comments to be twisted the way that they inevitably will.

It was funny to listen to him talk.  He said that he has to choose his words so carefully when he talks about health concepts and strategies because:  “People will hear what they want to hear”.  I respect that comment.

What he is means is that people are always going to take his advice and twist it to fit their situation.  Some will use common sense and add his tips to the greater whole (exercise and nutrition), but most won’t.  They want the least painful quick fix.

If he says that raspberry ketones are a great supplement for helping to initiate weight-loss, consumers are going to be buying mass quantities of raspberry ketones and consuming at an alarming rate.  When no weight is lost because all that person did was over-dose on raspberry ketones, they render that intervention useless and ineffective.

I also respected his comments about NEVER endorsing a product.  That’s cool.  He said that anything on the shelves that mentions his name or shows his picture is a scam.  That particular company has chosen to use his fame as leverage to sell their product.

Beware of this.  The supplement industry is a billion dollar industry with so many horrible scams out there.  It is difficult to regulate the supplement industry and even more difficult to identify the supplements that are worth taking.  You’re spending your hard-earned cash on these products and most of them don’t work!  Ouch.

Anyways, prepare yourself for the backlash.  Don’t be afraid to push yourself into new realms of fitness.  I don’t care if you’re interested in kettlebell training, powerlifting or endurance-related activities.  Go after something and be WAY MORE THAN AVERAGE in doing so.

Make it happen this week, alright?  I will do the same.

 

Cheers on this Monday…

 

 

KG

Back in the New York Groove!

Quick Tips

Hola!

 

So I took a leave of absence from writing on the blog for a little while, but it doesn’t mean that I was sitting on my ass the entire time.  I have been trying to find my way through this whole “writing a book” process.  

I have found two things:

1)  I have enough thoughts to write 10-15 books.

2)  All of those thoughts swirl and end up paralyzing my efforts quite often.

 

It’s funny how my brain works.  I am finding that the thoughts don’t flow fast enough that I can talk into a tape recorder or use talk-to-type technology, but yet when I type (and I do consider myself a decent typer) my fingers can’t keep up with my brain and I get distracted by the next thought.  It’s a constant battle.

I seem to be caught in the middle somewhere.  

Luckily, I never write alone…

Image

 

Gus!

I was peeling through some old emails this morning and came across an email that was originally sent by the marketing gal over at LifeLine Fitness.  If you are unfamiliar with LifeLine, I would highly encourage you to check out their product lines.  Most of it is geared toward individuals that want to break free from commercial gyms, move into bodyweight style training, or are looking for a more portable way to stay fit.  

All of their products I stand behind, including their line of stretchy bands (resistance bands if you will).

I have to admit, I still struggle with the use of resistance bands.  I just think that it is such a mistake to base an entire program around bands.  I have never been a fan I don’t think.

The resistance is not consistent throughout the range of motion, which basically makes an exercise easy from the start position and gradually more difficult as the joints reach full extension.  

I could see why a more advanced trainee would like bands, especially if you were trying to improve your lockouts on movements like squats, push ups or deadlifts, but using bands as a replacement to more traditional tools like dumbbells or barbells seems inferior still.

Again, maybe there is something I am missing here.  

Segue…

Segue…

Segue…

Last Sunday night I suffered what is my 5th diagnosed concussion of my life.  I say “diagnosed” because anyone that plays or has played a contact sport of any kind know that getting your bell rung is common and often unannounced to medical professionals after it happens.  I think that science and testimonials from recent years shows that hiding concussion-like symptoms is a major mistake.  

Anyways, I am about 5 days out from my Sunday night head impact and my head still feels cloudy.  It is hard to explain really.  I don’t want people to know that I smashed my head because it inevitably will lead a long lecture on taking care of yourself, which at this point, I cannot take any more of.  It’s also extremely frustrating because my cognitive processes are slowed.  Not painstakingly slow, but I just don’t feel as sharp as I did pre-impact.  

I know that this dissipates over time.  Head trauma is a little more fragile than other parts of the body, but it still requires a decent amount of rest and recovery.  Limiting TV, bright lights, ahhemm… computers (shit), and anything that makes the eyes twitch or taxes the brain.  Exercise or exertion of any kind is out of the question.  I know this very well from my collegiate hockey playing days. 

When I was in college, I really brushed off concussions like they were nothing.  Now I a much deeper respect for the healing process.  It’s my goddamn brain I am dealing with.  I only get one, and if I mess it up, I am screwed.  It really puts things into perspective when you think about it for a minute.  

All in all, my projects are moving in the right direction.  I will definitely be adding more blog posts in the coming days, weeks and months.  Blogging is such a great release and provides time to put out information in an uncensored fashion, which I love.

 

Cheers to a great weekend… Keep moving…

 

KG

Honestly, Who Cares? (1081 words of IDK)

Angry Rants

I apologize for the lack of blogging lately, I have been putting my energy into writing the book/guide/manual, whatever you would like to refer to it as.

I am not really sure what to make of the book now that I think about it.  I have so many ideas, it’s like overload.  Maybe I should change this, or maybe I should reword this to read like that.  On and on, around and around it goes.

But I will say this, I think that everyone should attempt to write a book about something that they are passionate about.  You can really learn a lot more about your passion, and also a really tap into who you are as a person.

I have zero ambition of earning money from the book, although I now have a tremendous respect for authors and what they charge for purchases their work.  $12 is a small fee for the amount of time, headaches, research and edits that it takes to put together something that you have no idea if anyone will ever want to read.

That’s putting yourself out there.

But I think that I am finding that writing is giving me a bigger/tougher set of balls (sorry I couldn’t think of any other way to put it).  I am finding that it takes a ton of courage to write something down on paper and hope people will find some value in it.  It’s quite scary actually.  I think that a lot of people would be scared shitless to do it.

I sort of related it to the ever popular “fear of rejection” that sales books so often talk about.  So many people could be great salesman or saleswomen if they could just get a grip on how they handle rejection, and more specifically, the word “no”.

I have often heard people say that they think that everyone should have a job in the service industry at some point before entering the work force… well I think that everyone should have a job in sales, where you have ZERO guarantee of an income and you have to work your ass off day in and day out to earn a living, and you hear the word “no” so much that you develop a thick ass skin.  You start to understand that the word “no” isn’t a no to you (the person), but rather a no to whatever you a presenting or pitching. “No’s” come for all different reasons, so I won’t get into that here.

The second major topic I wanted to discuss is haters.  I recently got into it pretty hard with a big time trainer from Florida who claimed that he is “sick of internet selling crap”.  He was surfing the internet reading fitness articles when he got to the end of one and it was a big plug for the author’s product.

Who gives a shit?  Honestly, everyone is selling something these days, and if you aren’t selling a product, you are selling yourself… daily to your superiors, colleagues or customers.  You are selling your skills, your work ethic, your motivation, your ability to do more than what is asked of you, etc.

This same gentleman went on to say that he hates it when trainers who basically aren’t legends in the fitness industry go on to publish books.

My response to him was the following (copied and pasted):

“Good for John Romaniello. Honestly, good for him. He hustled, networked, chased his dream, achieved it. If people buy his products, so be it. 

Good for Alwyn Cosgrove, he did the same thing. 

There are a lot of un-informed people writing, yes. But that is the internet, and there isn’t a law against writing whatever is on your mind.

I have two filters these days…

1) Poor strength and conditioning advice.
2) Haters.

I respect someone who has the courage to write and put themselves out there like Alwyn and John. Every product gets roasted by someone at some point. 

Nate Green went for it all out and look at his progress in this life with his career. He is achieving what he set out to do, following his dreamers. I am about his age and I remember picking up his book in Border’s bookstore and literally feeling jealous. I hated on his success from the get go, but then realized I felt the way I did because he took action and I didn’t. I wasn’t fulfilled.

I don’t know Kaz… if you have a problem with “internet crap selling”, maybe you should avoid reading articles on the internet. I don’t mean this to be harsh, and I really debated whether or not to say anything at all, but reading through the thread rubbed me the wrong way. 

Alwyn, keep doing what you’re doing, I love it. You only live once, and life is so fragile and short, so you might as well do something incredible, whatever that incredible is.

It’s a gorgeous Fall day in Wisconsin, I am going to go enjoy it…

Cheers.”

I still get fired up reading that, but I think the fact that I feel that kind of emotion is a good thing.  Maybe I am just not willing to go through the motions in life.  I certainly always didn’t have that attitude, as the last couple of years have really been eye-opening for me.

Hey, maybe I will write 3, 4, 5, shit maybe 10 books!  When a writer gets their first work published, I bet they got very little respect from anyone until people started see their work on the bookshelves, maybe even in the New York Times Best Sellers list.  You have to get your start somewhere.  I have a deep respect for that last statement.  I really respect the people who are doing the unpopular activities in order to realize their dreams.  That’s cool to me.

I have always been an open book with passing on my opinion about strength and conditioning, methods that I believe in and methods that I don’t.  If I don’t know something, I network and find out, or I simply redirect that person to someone in my network who knows better than I.

At the end of the day, I think the point of this now 906 word post is that make a decision to do something epic in your life and just go for it.  Who gives a shit?  You are going to die someday, and man it would suck to have a boat load of regret.  Go out and get as many crazy experiences as you can.  Work hard, train hard, get around people who push your limits and make you want to be a better person.

Stay strong…

KG

I’ll Train Anywhere, Man

Bodyweight Workouts, Quick Tips

There was a song a number of years ago by Johnny Cash, “I’ve Been Everywhere”.

As I sit outside on a gorgeous Fall day here in Wisconsin, I got to thinking about how fitness has evolved over the years. It wasn’t all that long ago that a workout only took place inside of a commercial gym.  Sure, there were some outlying people here and there, maybe some underground gyms that were doing some really great stuff, but for the most part, a membership style big box gym was the only place to get your hands on some equipment and train.  At least that is what most people thought.

Gone are those days.

I haven’t trained in a big box gym for 5 years running.  

At first, it was hard.  Looking back, I have to assume that it was a far more mild withdrawal than what a smoker experiences when they go cold turkey, but it really was difficult.  I felt lost trying to figure out how I was going to create a sustainable training plan without all of the equipment that I had become so accustomed to using.

I think that a lot of people go through these feelings when they think about organizing a training plan that doesn’t involve a gym.  I can assure you that the thought that you need thousands of dollar worth of equipment to get a quality workout is a myth.

Does equipment help?  Yes, absolutely.

At some point, it is nice to have access to a traditional barbell, some dumbbells and a nice cable machine.  But you can survive and progress for a really long time without it.

I had 4 kettlebells, a first generation suspension trainer, some resistance bands, a foam roller, a Tiger Tail, chin up bar, and a jump rope.  That was my gym.

After thinking things through, I realized that I really wanted to try and create a training regimen that I could use to preserve the muscle, strength/power, soft tissue health and solid quality of movement that I had built over the years.

My training really went to another level once I took my training wheels off and left the gym. I came to the conclusion that if a person clings hard to the fundamentals and principles that really great programs are built on, you can get an unreal training effect no matter what equipment you have available, or your environment.

I’ve trained everywhere.

Outside in backyards, parks, school tracks, football fields, etc.  Inside in a room that’s slightly larger than a small bathroom, a guest bedroom, a hotel, etc.  If you have a few feet of room in all directions from where you currently stand, you can make it happen.  Trust me, I have done it.

Not on purpose or as a topic to brag about in conversation, but out of necessity.  I have made the commitment to a physical lifestyle.  It makes me happy and keeps me challenged to see what I can do next.  When I travel or when we are away from the house, I feel comfortable knowing that I can engage in some quality physical activity no matter what the environment is.

Winter in Wisconsin is a bitch.

But even then, you have options to get a training session in.

So when I start ranting on and on about people’s lame excuses for not getting a sweat in on any given day and how weak that this, now you can understand where that is coming from.  You can train anywhere with anything, you just have to WANT to.

I aim to always be a resource for all of you.  Sometimes you what I write about will really hit home for you and your situation, sometimes you may be offended by my tone or sometimes you may think my article is so boring that you hardly make it through the initial few paragraphs.

Either way, I aim to create change and get you to think…

KG

Is a Rep Just a Rep?

Brain Training

The small details in life are often what seem to separate poor from average, average from good, and good from great.

So when I get the question of whether it is ok to miss/skip a rep in a work set, I have changed my tune quite a bit over the years.  On the surface, one might say, “Who gives a shit, it just a workout and it is just one rep”.

Is it?

I think that it is more than that.  I think that physical activity, and a person’s ability to finish a training session according to plan, is a clear indicator of someone’s behavior and habits.  The brain is so heavily connected to whether or not you get off the couch for a training session, run that extra 100 yards or finish that last set or rep.

So, if you consciously skip that last rep when you could have finished it, it would be interesting to see if you are doing the same thing in other areas of your life.

–      Are you missing opportunities to make that sale in your career?

–       Are you avoiding continuing to pursue your goals?

–       Are you eating processed foods because it takes work to cook a meal?

I am not an expert on behavior, but I observe everything.  I enjoy observing and trying to understand why humans do what they do.  I often think about why I do the things that I do in my own life.  Habits are hard to break, there is no doubt about that, but they can be broken.  It is never too late to create new and improved habits, it’s just a decision.  It’s uncomfortable to call yourself out, but sometimes that type of irritation can create a world of change.

I know this is a deeper way to think about exercise, but I also think that thoughts like this can stick and help to create change.  I believe that habits carry over into everything that we do.

So yea, I think that finishing that last rep can make you a better person. I think that having the conviction to complete your workout exactly as it is drawn up for that day can push you over barriers that may be holding you down in other areas of you life.  Absolutely.

It’s not just a rep.