A 1000 Words of Movement

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It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video of free-flowing movement ( what it can and should be) may be worth 10,000 words.

That could be truth or extrapolated mathematics.

I won’t have much commentary on the video below from Diewey Nielson.

All that I will add is that this is what my warm-ups have evolved into. Sure, I still recommend activating known weak areas and also mobilizing known restricted areas, but ground based movement like this may do more for re-educating our bodies on what baby-like movement feels like.

I look at ground based movements like this almost as a dynamic yoga, with far more transfer into your everyday movement.

Some years back, I was blown away by how challenging these movements really are. 5-10 minutes of this and you’re sore in weird places in the days following. After viewing myself on video playback, I also realized that what my mind thought I was doing, was not what my body was doing. I looked stiff, out of sequence and in some instances, un-athletic.

For any of you that thinks this type of training is “soft” or “un-extreme”, I would tell you that I used to feel the same way. I used to think that workouts meant big weights, iron, chalk and balls to the wall effort.

I still believe that it is important to pick up heavy things, but I have a distaste in my mouth for the extreme these days. A lot of us should be starting from ground zero with moves shown in the video shown below, not huffing and puffing over a loaded barbell or swinging like a chimp from a pull up bar.

I suggest that all of you learn a few of these moves and find a way to work them into your warm-ups and your workouts.

Cheers to the ground based flow…

Kyle

Example of 3 Simple Kettlebell Workouts

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Kettlebells are a great tool for the home gym.

If you’re scared of making the monetary investment in a decent pair of kettlebells, don’t sweat it.

Kettlebells will out live you. Spread $100-$200 over a lifetime and you’re looking at pennies per month to own a nice selection of kettlebells. Besides, nothing is more refreshing than eliminating that boring commute to and from the stuffy ass gym that you’re training in, where you have to fight for equipment or discuss politics with the guy next to you (who is resting on the equipment that you need to finish your training session).

Ugh, I don’t regret leaving the gym atmosphere, not for one second.

I’ll always pump the tires of companies that I personally support and believe in. If you’re interested in purchasing some kettlebells, head on over to LifeLine Fitness (a Madison, WI based company) and get yourself some.

Read up on the good starting weights for males and females, but I’ll go ahead and make the suggestion that you purchase the next size bell. You’ll grow out of your suggested starting weight rather quickly. Adaptations happen quickly with kettlebells and most people are swinging bells that are far too light to have any significant impact. Especially swings are designed to load the hips explosively, and the hip musculature are the most powerful in the human body. Swings require a decent load, so load up people.

I started with a 20kg kettlebell and almost immediately moved to the Russian Special Forces standard weight of 24kg. I hovered there for a while before adding a second 24 kg kettlebell. Double kettlebell movement opens doors to whole other world of training, one that is perfect for complexes and other work capacity based sessions.

Training sessions that incorporate high amounts of work in a condensed time frame will blow fat off your body quickly.

Here are examples of 3 simple kettlebell workouts that I commonly use in my own personal workout regimen…

1) Kettlebell Flow

2) Kettlebell Swings on the Minute (aka: swing-stop-swing-stop)

I tend to use a much heavier kettlebell for this workout than I do for workout #3 (listed below). Grip strength is tested toward the middle/end of the workout, but having two hands on the bell during swings helps to distribute the stress to both hands, versus snatches, where the load of the bell is directed at one hand.

3) 15:15 Kettlebell Snatch Intervals (20 minutes total)

I use a sub-maximal weight kettlebell for this type of workout. Speed of movement from top to bottom, without sacrificing technique are my focus. I could probably go for a 24kg kettlebell for this type of training session, but the 20kg has been my go to.

This is hight repetition snatch work. Make sure you’re resting between sessions like this. Overdoing snatches will tear up your hands, mess with your nervous system and potentially cause some overuse response in your shoulder/back musculature. Just be aware of these things, don’t dwell on them.

Fire up one of these workouts today or tonight. If you don’t own a kettlebell, go buy one.

You won’t regret it.

Oh one more things… if you want shorter tidbits on movement and health, head over to my Facebook Page and give it a like 🙂

Cheers to the simplicity of effective workouts,

Assess Yourself Often, Decide What’s Next

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Assessment is an essential element of physical improvement.

Ideally, frequent assessments are made not only to your body aesthetics (weight, fat, muscle, etc) but also to your ability to move freely with stability and strength (mobility, stability, strength, etc).

After all, it is completely possible to look great and move like shit.

It’s also possible to move great and look like shit.

*** I should clarify what I mean when I say “look great”… it’s in the eye of the beholder. Our perception of what a great body looks like is grossly skewed by mainstream models, magazines and media. Obviously, carrying higher levels of body fat can raise health concerns, but “looking great” doesn’t have to mean visible muscle striations and the almighty six-pack. If you’re body type allows you to feel confident in your own skin in any situation, good for you, you’re there.***

Besides, most magazine models, movie actors, and testimonials from famous workout programs like P90X and Insanity are manipulated and photo shopped to amplify their physiques. Did you know that?

Check out this great article recently published in the Huffington Post describing how fake testimonials for workout programs really are…

Having looks without movement or movement without looks both carry their negatives.

The best approach might be to meet in the middle. It’s more than possible to improve both at the same time without sacrificing one or the other.

If you look great but you cannot move without encountering restriction or pain, life’s activities become a hassle and certain movement patterns might be avoided altogether. No one enjoys feeling pain, so we tend to avoid moving in ways that cause it. I’m not referring to that burning sensation felt in your arms and legs when executing push-ups or squats, but rather the debilitating lower back pain experienced while you attempt to pull up a pair a socks. Or maybe it’s the pinch in your shoulder when you reach overhead for a clean glass in the cupboard.

Looking great isn’t the only qualifying element to health.

The advances in made in assessing (and correcting) movement over the last 10 years or so have been tremendous. The physical therapy world and fitness world are beginning to bridge gaps to one another, with ancient practices like indian clubs, yoga and martial arts adding value to the mix.

We have a much clearer understanding of joint function, breathing and soft tissue health and how it all ties together to create a highly functioning body.

We understand that six-pack abs, bulging biceps and a set of trapezious muscles big enough to scratch your ear lobes may not mean a damn thing if movement dysfunction is present.

On the other hand, maybe you move really well but you pay little attention to your body composition. I know a lot of people who are extremely athletic but don’t pay much attention to what they put in their mouths food-wise. Ironically, poor eating can case inflammation and pain in and around your joints also. Here are some common foods that are worth re-considering. Eliminating most of these foods, or at the very least reducing and substituting with more nutrient dense options can work wonders.

In the operating room, it is obvious that a lack of attention to body composition will eventually restrict joint range of motion. Many of the patients in need total joint replacements are also overweight/obese. The increase in body fat literally prohibits the patient from achieving a healthy range of motion in the knee joint. The additional weight combined with the lack of range of motion earns them a trip to the operating room where a surgeon hacks, cuts and pounds his way to an artificial knee.

This is an extreme end of the spectrum, but it’s worth mentioning none the less.

Both scenarios described have solutions. But it requires that you take a step back and assess what your next move is. Just like a chess match, there is a next move, unless you’ve waited too long. Then it’s checkmate.

If you desire the lean body, assess your training habits while simultaneously assessing your eating habits. I’ve tried to out train my diet before, and it’s a pain in the ass. Once my eating was in check, my body appearance improved but ironically so did my performance, skin and quality of sleep.

If you want to improve the quality of your movement, learn a few simple assessment tests give you feedback as to what’s going on. If you cannot squat with arms extended overhead or perform a push up without breaking at the midsection, you’ve got some work to do. Film yourself while you test out. You don’t have to show anyone the video, it’s for your reference and education only. Watch yourself, compare it with other folks, preferably a fitness professional that moves effortlessly and do some research on how to fix your hang ups.

I would start with the Functional Movement Screen, and someone who knows how to conduct such as test.

Consistently assessing yourself gives you important information on you where you are, your progress thus far, and allows you to decide on the next course of action. It gives you focused direction. It creates a clear and simple route from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in the future).

Assess and make the next move.

Cheers to assessing, correcting and building non-photo shopped bodies!

The Devil’s Ass Crack is Sitting on Wisconsin and There’s Nothing Wrong with Working Out Indoors

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Blog post title is inspired by this viral “It’s Hot As Hell” YouTube video

(you can find the link to the video at the end of the post)

All of my Apple devices say that it’s 89 degrees in the EC (Eau Claire, WI), but there is no way in hell it is 89 degrees. I could cook an egg on the sidewalk and I nearly lost skin to the seat of my Volkswagen Jetta (TDI I might add). Just for clarification, TDI means diesel:) It’s got to be closer to 94-95 degrees at least.

In a nutshell, it is stupid hot in Wisconsin at the present moment. It’s down right suffocating outside.

*** Please grant me this moment to bitch about the weather… I am well aware that it is hotter elsewhere.

I preach about how refreshing it is to get take your workouts outside, but not in this kind of heat and humidity. You’ll bury yourself in the first ten minutes. Plus, if you’re a sweater like I am, any movements that require grip become annoyingly unsafe. When I say sweater, I mean wet. Not damp or slight lower back sweat stain, I’m talking about ring out my t-shirt wet. Squeaky sneakers wet.

Swinging a kettlebell with sweat sliding between the palms of your hands and a heavy cast iron cannonball is nerve-racking. It’s not fun to re-grip at the apex of your swing. Also, if the bell slips, it’s going to slip on the backswing, where gravity is re-introduced and the hands are taxed to maintain grip. Smashing the bones in your feet would not be fun. I’ve been swinging for a while, and I’ll still grind through a few extra swings with wet hands despite knowing better. It’s not good practice, but I’ll commonly pull the plug on any ballistic kettlebell movements (snatches, cleans, swings, etc) when the sweat is really pouring out of me.

So, the game plan today is an indoor workout. No question about it.

My sacrifice for training indoors is that my ceilings are not of the ideal height for a select few kettlebell exercises. If I was working in max effort squat jumps (which I never do) or snatches (which I love to do but can’t), I would have to find alternatives or take my workout outside. But not today.

Today is going to be totally improvised.

Continuous movement for 15 Minutes
No rest between movements, reset back to squat jumps after finishing the Schwinn Airdyne ride.
Monitor heart rate for effort.
Monitor exercise technique for muscular fatigue/breaking of form.

* I don’t claim to have invented this, and I don’t typically mix multiple movements together that take a great deal of thinking, but this seemed like a nice combination. I wanted a total body movement combination, and this seems to serve that purpose.

First, I put this workout together using my same general template that I use for all of my program/workout design. All movement patterns are represented in the workout, including a cardio effort with the 60 second Schwinn Airdyne ride (in honor of the Tour de France). Nothing is maximal effort. That would ruin the point of the workout. Burning out in the first round does little for you. By monitoring my heart rate, I can verify that I am in fact working as hard as I think I am. It’s not a perfect gauge effort, it has it’s flaws, but it works extremely well for me and a lot of other people.

Second (and to my last point), I chose sub-maximal reps and sub-maximal loading on all exercises. This decision was influenced by the duration of time that I targeted for the session (15 minutes). Again, the point is to move a pace that allows for:

1) Quality technique in each rep of every exercise.

2) The accumulation of an afterburn-like effect that will lend itself to staying lean, maintaining strength, improving work capacity through various exercise variations and while leveraging my body’s reaction to the training stimulus (calories expended post-workout).

Third, all movements are bodyweight based the entire way through. I have fallen back in love with bodyweight training. Bodyweight training goes wherever you go, has simple progressions and leverages the most effective movement patterns in a brutally effective manner. Bodyweight training is the foundation of all other modes of training, so it’s probably best be capable of executing sound technique using just bodyweight against gravity’s pull.

Also, I enjoy having and building strength as much as the next person, but at the present time, the strength that I have developed and maintained through bodyweight based exercise progressions is more than enough to meet my daily needs. If I ever want to develop higher levels of strength, I will have to move heavier loads and adjust other training variables. Simple as that.

Fourth, the entire workout takes 15 minutes. Now, I won’t con you (yes con you) into thinking that the whole ordeal takes 15 minutes only, because it doesn’t. I typically spend 10-15 minutes before the actual effort driven portion of the training session hammering home joint mobility, soft tissue restrictions and activation of weaker muscles. I also whip through a series of staple dynamic flexibility drills that prepare my body for what’s ahead.

You can argue that warming up doesn’t prevent injuries, but in reality, why risk it? Do you really want to find out through experience? It’s just not worth it.

Lastly, take a look at the final two bullet points above. Here is a snapshot so that you don’t have to scroll up (the things I do for my readers):

What’s going to burn out first? Lungs or muscles. It will vary from person to person depending on what your past training regimen was and current fitness status is. In other words, will your cardio or your ability to successfully and repeatedly execute each rep of each exercise (muscular contraction) give way first?

For me, it’s a combination. Muscles seem to go first, especially when I am toying around with higher volume training sessions. Some of you may find that you haven’t open up your lungs aggressively for quite some time, so the feeling of not getting enough air may cause you to tap out first. In this case, focus on relaxing your neck. Push your oxygen through your neck and chest down to the lowest part of your stomach.

Breathe deep.

So there you have it, a simple yet effective training session for all the land to enjoy. Feel free to substitute your favorite or most accessible cardio alternative for the Schwinn Airdyne sprint. Some days, low impact/high reward conditioning tools are the ticket. High impact all of the time may mean high risk for some of you who have not yet adapted. Jumping rope would fit the bill nicely, so would a treadmill sprint set to an incline. Your choice.

Cheers to training inside when it’s outside!

(As promised: “It’s Hot As Hell”)

Be A Perfectly Golden Marshmallow: Toying w/ BJ Gaddour’s Fat Loss Workout

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BJ Gaddour

BJ Gaddour is the new Craig Ballantyne.

Craig Ballantyne created Turbulence Training back when it was personal trainers were not publishing material on the internet the way that they are now. Now everyone has a product.

Hey, if you can write and you have the drive to stay motivated after working 9-10 hour days, why the hell not? Everyone is selling something, product or self. Doesn’t matter, it’s how we succeed.

BJ Gaddour currently works with Men’s Health as a consultant. Essentially that means that he made enough noise doing his own thing that Men’s Health contracted him to write workouts, articles and programs for them.

BJ’s claim to fame is fat loss and boot camp style workouts.

A while back he posted a free PDF titled “The Seven Deadly Workout Sins”.

Pretty solid little article.

In it, he describes a general outline on how to design effective fat loss workouts.

When I read the article, it was a wake up call that I should have WAY more confidence in my writing and methods. It was nearly identical to my training philosophy at the present time. It was a great moment for me to realize that what I am cooking up here in Eau Claire (the mecca of the Midwest) is well seasoned (nice play on words) and spot on for what’s current in the training world.

Total body workouts, timed efforts and rest, 3-4 days a week. No cardio. Cardio is obtained as byproduct from the unique blend of incomplete rest periods and resistance based exercises.

Again, this is a STYLE of training. It’s not the law, but this kind of training gets results quickly. If you buttoned up your eating habits, you would shed unwanted layers in very little time.

I enjoy giving other trainer’s workouts a run through, as it can get a little monotonous writing your own programs all of the time. Sometimes, it’s nice to have someone else do the designing for you. I just follow along for once.

BJ’s workout looked something like this:

I talk about movement patterns on this blog all of the time, and a closer look at BJ’s template shows that he thinks along similar lines. Hip hinging, squat, pressing, pulling, total body movements are all represented in this workout. It’s a recipe that has endless variations and keeps your workouts interesting and effective. The systemic effect of a workout like this is fantastic.

Most people will probably find that they are unable to keep moving all of the way through some of the 30 second work bouts with certain exercises. Chin-ups continuous for 30 seconds doesn’t sound that hard, but talk to me about that in round 3 of the workout when your eyeballs are teetering on your orbitals. It’s a different ballgame at that point of the workout. You’re in the eye of the storm in round 3.

What I like about this workout is that is manageable. The movements can be scaled up or down depending on a person’s training level and age. Manageable fatigue is the key to successful fat loss workouts. If you cannot control and OWN every movement in every rep, every round, every workout, you’re putting yourself at risk. Posture collapses in a matter of a rep. I’ve seen it in both my own training and others. That’s all it takes to slip a disc, tear a rotator cuff or and break bones. It’s a long, painful and expensive ride to the emergency room.

Injury during training is a tragedy.

Overall, this is a great workout. The rest periods can be frustrating if you have to adjust your equipment in between exercises. I was using my suspension trainer for a variation of this workout. I found that adjusting the straps was a nightmare. 15 seconds is not a lot of time to gather yourself and set up for the next movement, especially when your hands are shaking like crazy. The nervous system is on full alert.

The 60 second rest periods at the end of each round is also well thought out. One minute gives adequate time to gather yourself, get a drink and towel off before entering into the next round of work. In the later round, one minute feels like a blink of the eyes.

Successful work capacity based fat loss workouts seem to have peaking point with regard to exertion, whether in the middle of the circuit itself or as gradual accumulating fatigue that reaches a high point at the end of a workout. The goal is to manage your output, giving an effort that challenges your body steadily in the early and later rounds. Early burnout makes for sloppy exercise technique in later rounds and a serious lack of enjoyment. The workout should be challenging but fun and engaging. Purposeful.

Lately, I’ve been drawing similarities between the perfect “golden marshmallow” and a fat loss driven workout:

When you cook a marshmallow for a s’more, some people enjoy perfectly cooked golden marshmallows and some people like the torched black marshmallows. Cooking a perfectly golden marshmallow is a campfire art. If the marshmallow gets too close to the fire it will burn. If you don’t get it close enough it’s just a warm white marshmallow.

Peaking after the final rep of a workout (while still being able to own your movement) is an art. We are all at different fitness levels so this is largely a judgment call by YOU, the trainee. You need to make the decision on when to pull the plug on a set, a workout, or when it’s necessary to add more.

This is what a smart personal trainer can monitor for a client, and why good personal trainer add value to person’s fitness endeavors. Personal trainers can take a client close to that edge, that fine line, without pushing them over. The entire workout remains in control, yet impactful in its training effect.

The goal of a great workout is to be a perfectly golden marshmallow at the end.

BJ’s workout accomplishes this.

Cheers to golden marshmallows and better workouts!

A Brief Synopsis About Why “Fat Loss” is Preferred Over “Weight Loss”

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Look familiar?

“Weight loss” is a common set of terms that has been the measurement of health and wellness for decades. Once the mainstream grabbed ahold of the weight loss, it was all over. As for who first used the phrase “weight loss” to describe a positive shift in a person’s health and appearance?…

I have no clue.

What I do know is that I have never really understood why we say “weight loss”.

While I know that on some level, “weight loss” does do a decent job of describing the events taking place when a person decides to improve their nutrition or physical activity, I also feel that “weight loss” is so short-sighted.

Especially when the weight that is being lost is being measured by a bathroom scale or the equivalent. We judge our progress by comparing our previous weigh in to the current weigh in. If the needle moves left (weight loss) we celebrate and feel good, if the needle moves right (weight gained) we become frustrated, depressed, pissed off and in some extreme reactions, give up on our health endeavors all together.

I’ve witnessed people give up on physical activity and nutritionally smart eating habits solely based on the needle bouncing to the right instead of the left. They may not give up the first time that they see it happen, but most certainly on the second, third, or fourth time that significant loss does not occur.

The problem with letting the weight scale be the dictator of your progress is that weight scales measure weight! Ha! Yes, weight scales suck because all they do is measure weight. Weight scales don’t factor in whether that weight is useful muscle or useless fat (not all fat is useless), water weight, fecal matter (grow but true), etc. There is zero indication about where the weight displayed on the scale is coming from, which is why I feel that body composition (or the composition of your total weight) is such important information to know.

Here are a couple of pictures that help make my point. If you are someone that finds motivation to get fit for body appearance reasons, consider this picture:

The picture depicts the same female at different weights, yet different shapes. Although the difference between the right and left pictures may be subtle, there is a noticeable difference. When asked, most people would probably want to look like the picture on the right, especially not knowing that the picture on the right represents the same girl at a HEAVIER weight.

The girl looks more “toned” (not sure I like using this word but it works for now) and fit in the picture on the right, but she weighs more. Why? She built lean muscle and removed layers of fat.

Fat on the body, visually, projects much different than muscle on the same body.

Here is a picture that helps support my last statement, anyone who has ever been in a health class or kinesiology classroom has no doubt seen images like this:

While the old “muscle weighs more than fat” adage doesn’t make much sense, body composition and visual observations at what muscle increase and fat decrease looks like certainly do.

What we could potentially say, is that “a pound of fat takes up nearly four times the space of the same amount of muscle tissue”.

In other words, your height and weight can remain exactly the same, but you can feel and even visually look, well… fatter.

If you add more lean muscle to your body while simultaneously losing fat, you’re going to see a decrease in size, despite what the scale tells you. Your body begins to “tighten up”, “tone” or whichever descriptive word you choose to use.

Increasing muscle while decreasing fat is a positive shift in body composition, and generally, overall health.

The most direct and efficient way to accomplish this is with resistance training, and decent nutritional regimen.

Here is an old article from the University of New Mexico describing all of the benefits of resistance training…

Too simplify, here is a snapshot:

Because of this, I have to recommend that we shift our thinking and judgements away from the weight scale, and on to body composition tests like bodpods, skin calipers or hydro-static weighing to analyze what the ratio of muscle to fat really is. The problem is, these are all laboratory tools. They are unrealistic for the average person to use for monitoring progress.

Waist circumference is also a decent indicator of how your body is reacting to exercise and nutritional interventions.

Go find a pair of jeans that fit tight at the current moment. Try them on. Set them aside for now.

Get aggressive with your movement and eating, forgetting about any measurements or weighing.

A week or two down the road, try on that same pair of jeans.

Rinse and repeat for months, because months is how long it is going to take. Dedicated and repeated effort for months, not overnight or in a week. Bodies built naturally and properly, take months to establish. But once they are built, basic upkeep is all that needed to maintain their integrity.

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Better yet, strip down into a swimsuit for females, and a pair of short with no shirt if you are a male. Make a conscious effort to show some skin. Now, take a full body picture. Have the courage to do this in the beginning and frequently along the way. It’s unscientific but it is brutally effective. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

You don’t have to show anyone the pictures but yourself. It’s your reminder of where you started and how you a progressing. In the future, it may serve as a fuel to continue on the right path when times get rough. We can all use a little motivation every now and then.

It takes time and effort to make change. Transformation is a big process. You’re tearing down and building up. A complete remodel of your body. Don’t get discouraged. If you’re doing right things to initiate lean muscle gain and fat loss, you’ll make progress. There is no doubt. If you falter or give up, your progress will slow or halt.

Always remember that if it were easy, everyone would do it.

In most cases, body composition change is incredibly predictable. Keep moving often, purposefully and aggressively and leverage that effort with nutrient dense food. The combination of the two will peel fat off of your body like an onion, and restore something that most of us could use more of… muscle.

Cheers to trading weight loss for fat loss…

Bodyweight Style: Dive Bombers: Pressing On Without Equipment

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Males love upper body pressing because it tends to make us look muscular, and females love upper body pressing exercise because (apparently) it decreases the amount of jiggle on the back of their arms while waving or doing other upper extremity activities.

Ladies… it’s all in your head 🙂

However, upper body pressing exercises have to be on the top of most people’s lists when it comes to a workout, so why not talk about it?

Hello dive bombers.

I love dive bombers. Dive bombers bridge an important gap for upper body pressing, and more specifically, vertical upper body pressing. Traditional vertical pressing can also be referred to as overhead pressing. Military presses are probably the most recognizable exercise in this category.

Handstand push-ups look great on paper, but the reality is that handstand push-ups are often too aggressive for most people, and dumbbells and kettlebells are not always readily available for use. If you stop and think about it, a handstand push-up (press-up) is an inverted vertical press where you’re lifting the weight of your entire body. If you weigh 175lbs, you’re pressing 175lbs. Add in the friction of your heels against the wall, and you’re probably pressing 180lbs or more. A lot of people cannot vertically press their bodyweight in a strict fashion.

Dive bombers can fill this training gap when needed, and dive bombers have the progressions (more difficult) and regressions (less difficult) to fit the needs of most people.

Dive bombers are challenging enough for the toughest guy/gal, yet can be regressed for the beginner who seeks an upper body challenge.

For those of you who cannot perform handstand push-ups or want to save your walls and neck from wear and tear, dive bombers are a fantastic alternative.

I’ve seen a few variations to this movement. If possible, I prefer working through the entire eccentric and concentric phases of this exercise. Meaning, you’re going to lower yourself down into “the hole” and also press yourself out of “the hole”.

Some folks will lower themselves into the hole, press up, then raise their butt back to the starting position. Essentially, you are performing half of the whole dive bomber by doing this. I don’t see anything terribly wrong with this, but I would much rather see both eccentric (lowering portion) and concentric (upward portion) strength represented.

If you’re going to get all dressed up, you may as well dance.

Here is a snapshot overview on how to perform dive bombers…

The starting/finishing position of the dive bomber is very similar to downward facing dog in yoga. Very similar.

Alignment from hands to hips could be better, but you get the general idea…

The lowering/pressing portion of the dive bomber demands upper body control, joint mobility and stability through the mid-section.

The mid-point press up provides a low load training stimulus similar to a modified dip…

1) Imagine slithering your body underneath barbed wire on the way down and also on the way back up. Chest can brush the ground but does not lean or rest for any amount of time, them movement flows from start to finish.

2) Lower into the hole with control and press hard on the way back up.

3) Maintain posture from head to hips. Don’t break. If you do, regress the movement and work different phases before going for the whole thing.

4) Regress if need be (work lowering phase only, or upward phase only), progress if need be (elevate feet, lower slower, single arm, etc).

5) Breathe.

Don’t over think dive bombers or any other exercise. Just do it. Play around with it. Tweak it and then tweak it again. Experiment with your movement and what fits best.

Use your judgment on progressing the difficulty of the movement or dialing it back.

Here is sample bodyweight circuit with dive bombers included:

Dive bombers fit nicely in circuits because they can be adjust to be sub-maximal, which is an important consideration when fatigue begins to set in. Again, they are a great alternative for vertical pressing, and it’s undeniable that there is a significant amount of stress put on the core to maintain posture throughout the range of motion.

It’s a home-run movement that is safe and effective.

Integrate into your training regimen right now.

Cheers to dive bombers, improved pressing habits and blasting jiggle!

Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie and Adding Burpees to My Kettlebell Complex Workout Kicked Ass

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Burpees and I have a love/hate relationship, and I’m sure that most of you probably have similar feelings.

On one hand, full burpees are as close as it gets to being a complete bodyweight exercise.

Burpees are ridiculously effective for elevating heart rate and recruiting a large amount of muscles. Large muscular recruitment is a beautiful thing. Burpees require little to no space, zero equipment and you can perform them anywhere. Indoors or outdoors it does not matter. Burpee workouts are a perfect alternative to traditional running or biking.

On the other hand- the hand that despises every aspect of the burpee- burpees are the red headed step child of my workouts. When I see them on the docket for the day, I cringe. I cringe because they test me every single time. I cannot think of a single workout where burpees felt easy. If there was a workout where burpees were enjoyable like a walk on a white sand beach on a hot Summer day, that would be a major red flag that I didn’t design my workout properly, or I was leaving something in the tank (aka: Half-assing it). Burpees are the vegetables of the workout world. They require very little thought and are quite monotonous when performed for high reps.

But, when weighing the likes and dislikes toward burpees, I know full well that slipping burpees into a workout can crank up the overall impact of the workout. The training effect if you will. In other words, I’ve never felt worse (physically or mentally) after performing burpees at the end of a circuit or as a workout by themselves.

Burpees deliver every single time.

Shakira’s hips don’t lie and neither does my heart rate monitor.

So while I started thinking about different sub-maximal activities that I could integrate into my complex workouts- to keep my heart rate elevated in between rounds- burpees were one of the first exercises that came to mind. It seemed like slipping them in between rounds could deliver what I was looking for. Preferably, the filler exercise needed to be ground based and something that kept me in a vertical standing position.

So, here is what the workout evolved into:

Again, the goal here was to add another 5 minutes of elevated heart rate and exertion to my training session. I know from extensive experience that the kettlebell complex displayed in the snapshot typically takes 12-15 minutes to complete in full, so my goal was to extend the workout to 20 minutes or longer. The addition of the burpees between complex rounds successfully did just that.

Overall, I enjoyed the addition. I’ve added timed jump rope intervals to my complexes before, and they worked quite well. But since I can’t seem to find a jump rope that can live longer than 2-3 months before breaking, I was forced to use burpees. The key to adding filler exercises to tough workouts is to choose exercises that require low technical know-how. When you’re sucking wind, trying to gather yourself before the next bout of exertion, this is not the time to be messing around with movements that have high technical difficulty.

In fact I will just come out and say it… it’s stupid. The risk doesn’t even come close to matching the reward. Avoid it and you’ll put yourself in a better position to avoid injury while reaping all of the good that can come from a workout like this.

Closing thoughts…

The majority of my workouts are by design. I rarely walk into a workout without knowing what’s about to happen, which is why I think I have adhered to this physical lifestyle for so long, and why I will remain committed to moving aggressively and intelligently for years to come. It’s habit now, fully engrained into my life.

Each workout (or entire program) follows a general training template that I’ve got embedded in my mind. Early in my strength and conditioning education, I consumed book after book and realized that everyone was using the same general approach to designing effective workouts and long-term programs, so I began adapting and experimenting with slight variations to these time tested principles.

My personal preference is a system wide, total body approach to exercising, so I know that I like to see all of the major movement patterns represented in each training session (ex: squat, pressing, pulling, hip hinge, etc). Body part splits are not for me. I get bored. Working a squat pattern four different ways on the same day is un-interesting to me. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great option for your fitness endeavors.

I also have a crystal clear distinction between what I classify as a purpose driven workout, and what I classify as a recreational activity. Playing ice hockey on Wednesday nights is recreational. Kettlebell complexes are a workout. My approach doesn’t downplay the positives of recreational activities (because they do matter overall), but I feel that there is a major difference between “the workout” and pick up basketball.

At the end of the day, movement in any shape or form adds up, and there is no denying this. Any way that you can engage in it, it’s a bonus. We can debate the details all day long, but the bottom line is make an effort to sit less and move more. That’s a recipe worth following.

Here is a great video that diagrams how dramatic even the smallest shift in movement can have on health.

Cheers to adding burpees to the workout…

Exercise Is Cognitive Medicine and Performance is Prevention

Quick Tips

I think exercise makes us smarter, but so do the scientists.

I’ve felt for some time that peri-exercise and post-exercise “high’s” can shed light on solutions to problems that previously seemed unsolvable or overwhelming. I’ve been stumped time and time again before heading into a workout, engaged in a workout, then come out of the workout with the solution.

It’s magic.

Whenever I hit writer’s block or cannot seem to find the words to describe what I am thinking about, a solid workout seems to help me climb over the hump.

Most recently, during a couple of long slow runs (if I all else fails, lace ’em up and pound the pavement) while up north for July 4th weekend, I began thinking about how the benefits of purposeful movement extend so much further than just building beach bodies.

It goes back to the overall training effect of a workout.

I started thinking about how improving physical performance can have such a dramatic effect on your ability to ward off injury or chronic pain.

Exercise can keep you pain-free. You can bulletproof your body to unnecessary injury using simple tactics.

It’s so powerful.

Sure, exercise is just a small piece of the pie of life, but making an effort to move more adds years to your life with very little time invested. It really doesn’t take much effort to initiate a noticeable shift in appearance and health markers. In fact, I think most people are taken back by the simplicity of the overall process of establishing new levels of health and performance.

At the very least, improving physical performance gives you the best opportunity to add years to your life, and make those years quality. Moving through life in pain and negative effects of preventable disease is no way to live. Adding quality years to your life is the goal.

My simple advice is to learn which training methods and movements to invest your time in. Doing so will pay dividends for the rest of your life. It’s an investment that will pay you back whether you want it to or not. “Do this, get that” kind of thing.

Increasing performance-like qualities is prevention from injury and poor health.

I view training as an investment, and always have. I’ve talked about leveraging quality workouts over and over again in the past. It’s an investment in your physical and mental health. The research on the effects that exercise has on long-term cognitive function alone are plentiful. Besides the positive internal effects of that exercise has on or brains, persevering through challenging workouts and sticking to a long-term training regimen builds character.

Here are some cool articles that I found regarding the effect that exercise has on your brain health:

1) Regular Exercise Has Powerful Effect on Brain Health

2) Exercise as a Behavioral Intervention

3) How Exercise May Help Memory

The internet is jam packed with great articles like the one’s above. If you get bored on a rainy day, type “exercise and brain health” into Google. You’ll see get an insane amount of hits for that search phrase:

There are so many positives byproducts that result from dedicating yourself to working out a regular basis, it is hard to imagine why we all aren’t flooding gyms, parks and trails to get our daily fix of movement.

Cheers to keeping all of your fingers intact as we move through this 4th of July!

No Equipment Workouts: Rocky Pull-Ups and Hill Running

Quick Tips

This past weekend proved to be a test of my ability to adapt to my surroundings, get my workouts and also do a decent job eating right.

My fiancé and I travelled down to my parent’s new retirement residence in central Wisconsin, where I quickly realized that any chance of a nice Saturday morning jog was out the window.

It was all hills. Nothing but hills encapsulated my parent’s little community.

No matter which direction I went out of the driveway, it was a hill both ways. I know that sounds impossible, but trust me, I would have paid money to have flat ground.

Regardless, it was a scheduled training day and I am fully accountable to myself to get my workouts in when I schedule them, so I went through with it anyways.

The tough part about running terrain that has such great elevation change is that it leaves little time for the body to warm up. I felt like I was still half-striding by the time I reached the base of the first incline. In these situations, I typically dial back my pace and turn it into more a of a long slow climb. Short, choppy steps work well for warming up on inclines, similar to what you would use when climbing a mountain or something similar. Enough to keep you moving but nothing to set personal records with.

Saturday’s Workout looked like this…

Goal: Increase heart rate and maintain for time, open up the lungs, enjoy the new sights and sounds. Here’s what I did:

20 minute run (slower pace accounting for hills)

I have no idea how far I went. I would presume that I was running somewhere in the neighborhood of 8:30-9:00min/mile pace, but I cannot confirm this. I didn’t have a heart rate monitor on either, so it was a fairly primitive run for me. In situations like this, I try and gauge my effort based on respiration and stride technique. If I feel like I am suffocating or my technique is compensating in some fashion, I dial back the intensity. I am a chronic over strider during runs, so having the inclines on the hills really forced me to shorten up my stride and increase the frequency. For me, this is good reinforcement.

100+ yard incline sprints x3

There was no shortage of hills. One particular naturally identified itself as a nice location for some incline sprints (aka: a burnout session). There was limited motor vehicle traffic, which made me feel comfortable about being out there, especially in the countryside. You might look at the rep count for the hill sprints and feel that it is low. That’s fair. But three reps of all out sprints up a 7% incline for 100+ yards will surprise you. I suggest that you give it a shot sometime. Focus was placed purely on running posture, arm swing, knee drive and hip extension. I’ll never be considered for the Olympics, but it’s fun to continue to work on skills.

Sunday’s workout something like this…

Pure bodyweight circuit:

A couple of thoughts:

You can do pull-ups pretty much anywhere, but it doesn’t make them more enjoyable.
Pull-ups with a poor grip surface places a greater demand on grip strength/endurance, which can effect your performance.
Grip strength is important.
Shuttle runs late in a circuit can be the icing on the cake.
There is still no great way to pull horizontally without some kind of equipment (suspension trainer, etc).
Burpees are one of the greatest total body, space saving movements of all time, and they also suck each and every time.
Understanding basic exercise and how to organize it using what you have, where you are, and your current fitness level will keep you on track for life.

Conclusion…

Were my workouts this past weekend ideal? Absolutely… not.

I would have rather have been working with my kettlebells and something more structured. But, I did not have access to that kind of equipment. I had access to my body-weight, some hills and a phone timer. The situation was not ideal, but it worked.

Depending on your body composition and fitness level, you could make some serious gains from workouts like this. I have been training for quite some time, so the point of these workouts for me was basic maintenance. Something to get me moving and get a daily sweat in.

But for a beginner or a novice looking to make some bodyfat change or improve performance-like qualities, these two workouts are fantastic.

Cheers to adapting unideal situations and leveraging your body!

M(eaux)tion Fitness

Fuel Your Fitness Journey

A 1000 Words of Movement

Example of 3 Simple Kettlebell Workouts

Assess Yourself Often, Decide What’s Next

The Devil’s Ass Crack is Sitting on Wisconsin and There’s Nothing Wrong with Working Out Indoors

Be A Perfectly Golden Marshmallow: Toying w/ BJ Gaddour’s Fat Loss Workout

A Brief Synopsis About Why “Fat Loss” is Preferred Over “Weight Loss”

Bodyweight Style: Dive Bombers: Pressing On Without Equipment

Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie and Adding Burpees to My Kettlebell Complex Workout Kicked Ass

Exercise Is Cognitive Medicine and Performance is Prevention

No Equipment Workouts: Rocky Pull-Ups and Hill Running

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