The NFL Draft and the specificity principle

I may be weird, but the NFL draft is my favorite sports day of the year. I usually have a few guys over and we diagnose what went wrong with the Vikings' picks. Actually, they have been doing quite well in my opinion - I would say Adrian Peterson hasn't been a bust! This year they picked a couple of players with character issues - I guess Ziggy's code of conduct goes out the window if the guy has enough talent. Percy Harvin of Florida was our number one pick on Saturday, a guy who got booted from playing football in the state of Virginia for choking a coach. He also tested positive for smoking dope the day before the NFL combine, proving he is not the brightest bulb on the tree. Oh well, typical Viking shenanigans!

Speaking of the combine, that is the portion of the draft that intrigues me the most. As I am always attempting to break PRs and love strength training, it is awesome what kind of numbers these kids can put up. My PR for benching 225 is 12 reps, whereas most guys get at least 25 - I do remember a guy getting 45 a few years back - WOW! A little trick for finding out a max is to multiply your reps * .03. For me, 12 @225 is 12*.03 = .36; 225 * 1.36 = 306. My max at the time was 305 so that is pretty dang close!

As for the specificity of these tests, it surely remains to be seen. For some players, it has shown to be true - for others the specificity of benching 225 for reps, running a 40 yard dash and a vertical jump test doesn't transfer to the playing field. I think it shows the athlete's potential no doubt, but is not a guarantee. The guy who benched 225 for 45 reps is not a pro bowl player. All I know is that if you can "pass the test" you can become a richer man overnight! My chiropractor buddy Dr.Josh Sandell helped a Notre Dame player drop his 40 time from 4.92 to 4.67 - which raised his stock from a potential 6th rounder to a 2nd rounder...making him MILLIONS of dollars. And with the number one pick from Georgia signing with Detroit for a reported $78M ($42 guaranteed) you wonder if the economy is so bad after all. If I could just talk a team into believing my bench translates into excellence on the field. On second thought, after hearing what pro players do to practice squad players during scrimmages, I'll keep my day job and fight for my life in a non-violent manner!

Get off the treadmill (with apologies to Mike T Nelson)

It's 85 degrees and I just got back from a five mile bike ride with my daughter. The wind made it pretty tough on some of the hills coming back so it was indeed a workout!

On that note, I just had to put something in on the subject of treadmills and the sacred cow(ness) of them. Hint: If you want to get someone riled up, tell them their $3,000 treadmill was a waste of money! Mike T Nelson's blog just had a post on this and it was right on as usual. It got people about as excited as his "dump the foam roller" article. Mike and I went through a lot of Z Health training to learn how to move better and stop screwing yourself up day after day. Staying off a treadmill is one way to do this!

As always, the choices you make have consequences. If you can make an educated decision I believe you should make one. It is PROVEN that running on treadmills make you slower and worsen your movement. So any chance you get, do anything BUT run on a treadmill. And get outside! That means take bike rides. Jump rope. Jog. Swim. Swing a kettlebell. Think of all the Vitamin D you are getting! If it's raining and you must be inside, work out, play hoops or racquetball, ride on a stationary bike or use a rower machine. But don't use something that will hamper your ability to move. Just pick another protocol, that's all I ask!

DOMS and the point of no return

Well it's been two days since my VO2 max training day and I am still sore as heck. (For the lay person DOMS means delayed onset muscle soreness). Even after 20+ years of training I still make mistakes, mine being cranking out a lot of snatches without having done them for about a month. I remember reading how some bodybuilders would do hundreds of sets of one particular exercise to determine if it works for them. Marty Gallagher "The Purposeful Primitive" told of a time he did 50 reps of one arm curls for each arm on the hour for 10 straight hours - and his arms locked up the next day! I don't feel that bad but you get the picture.

Let's examine my situation:
Lats: Some tightness
Triceps: Sore, felt like I did 20 sets of brain crushers
Biceps: Sore - some kettlebellers have huge arms - this proves why
Hamstrings: Felt like I got whacked with a baseball bat
Glutes: Ditto
Psoas: Finally! Thanks to Z work!

When looking at the areas that were sore (and not sore), I realized it was directly attributable to my Z training. My muscles are now firing! In the past, this type of work would have led to a severly sore lower back. I took a long walk, did Z health, ate as much as I could and still felt it. To top it off I had some sleep distubances. I asked Mike T Nelson about remedies and he also recommended an epson bath. He also stated that DOMS peaks in 24-48 hours and that even after just 1 exposure, your body will not see nearly as much DOMS with the same exercise. Awesome!

So the moral of the story is don't go overboard unless you have been practicing the exercise. If you are a bodybuilder on the juice knock yourself out. Otherwise you WILL knock yourself out.

VO2 Max and the Fear Factor

I recently bought the book "Viking Warrior Conditioning" by Kenneth Jay, Master RKC as well as his DVD on the subject. Excellent work on both I must say! Buy them now at http://www.topnotchpersonaltraining.com/educationalmaterials.htm . Last Saturday I went through his 15/15 protocol pre-test and came up with my target number of 7. So I felt I was prepared for today even though I dreaded it, almost to a point of fear in a way.

Started with 20 minutes of Z work and then some work on pistols (I have yet to nail one). Joe Pavel has me doing some band work (JumpUSA) and some other protocols to get my tight ankles used to the "down" position. Then did a quick 1-5 ladder on pullups (15 reps) and finished with two singles at 12K (hard!). I had been doing chinups for a long time because they tested well but my left elbow has been bothering me as of late. A quick test on chinups resulted in much pain - but thankfully wide grip tested fine! The pullups seemed a little harder today, and I was wondering if it was due to any visual issues. It was early Saturday AM so I had my glasses on (I'm blind as a bat due to staring at a friggin PC all day). This may have hampered my form a bit - we'll see next time.

Now I was ready for the 15/15 protocol, or I thought I was. If you have tended to go for more strength work (i.e. low reps) you tend to hate cardio work. I am no exception. You want the pain to end quickly, and with a shot of adrenaline induced rage you can pound out a couple quick reps no problem. This protocol is no such animal. By the 6th minute I was already cursing Kenneth Jay's descendants (if he has any). My hands were hurting and my heart was beating out of my chest. Seems that sitting at a desk all day is not conducive to excellent cardiovascular health!

But I made 10 minutes/20 rounds of 7. While I only used the 16K, 140 reps in 10 minutes is really cool! While it is hell going through it, when you are done you feel so darn good - maybe its because you are done HA! But really, high intensity CRF work gives a totally different feeling than a single max attempt, and better I might add. Of course this all depends on your adrenal type and all sorts of factors. More on that later.

I will keep you posted on my progress with this excellent program - remember, simplicity is the highest form of complexity. When you read Jay's book you will see how much work he put into this and the science behind it all. And all I have to do is 80 sets of 7 to move on to the next torture of a program........60 to go!

Are you done complaining?

Does everyone realize how easy it is to complain during this time of economic troubles? You hear it all the time - my 401K is now a 201K. My hours have been cut. My pay has been cut. My dreams of retiring are over.

OK, we are all guilty of complaining sometimes (although I haven't heard too much grumbling about the weather we have been having.) So why am I bringing this up tonight on this beautiful 70 degree day? Because I just got back from the wake of a high school classmate, Randy Zahler. He was just 42 years old. No, his death wasn't from an accident or suicide or anything like that. Randy had Lupus.

Lupus is a hard disease to treat but Randy braved it the best he could. He had symptoms and problems for nearly twenty years, soon after he served 7 years in the army right out of high school. In addition, he and his wife had to deal with the death of their two kids to similar complications. Not only was his life cut short but his quality of life was terrible. He had to fight infections constantly and was hospitalized many times. The disease took a terrible toll on him, and the pictures showed the gradual degradation. The gray haired man in the casket looked to be 80 years old, but it was indeed Randy.

So the next time you are battling a kettlebell during a five minute snatch test or are at rep 16 in a grueling 20 rep squat set, remember how lucky you are that God gave you the strength and health to give it all you got. That is a tremendous blessing, one that my longtime classmate could have only dreamt about.

Randy Zahler
STMA class of '85
1966-2009
RIP

Tax Day

Tax day. Does anyone love it more than a bean counter? Well I can tell you it's a big relief to get it over with. And yes, as usual it was a pain. Every year while doing my taxes I think of how easy this could have been. My cousin who works in Taiwan told me he gets a postcard in the mail that calls for him to pay a flat 17% of his income. A friggin postcard! Now that's efficient. Which makes me think of Einstein's famous quote that "Simplicity is the highest form of complexity". I think of this every time I do Z health or Kettlebells, as they are the simplest exercise protocols around, but the work done behind the scenes is another story. Nothing short of brilliant I say - I am proud to be a messenger!

Compounding the pain is the fact that National Tax Freedom Day was April 13th, the day where you finally realize all your work up to this point for the year has gone to pay taxes. Ironically enough, Minnesota's tax freedom day is April 15th and puts us solidly in 9th place on the offender list. That's 105 days folks, or roughly 29% of the entire year. Americans will pay more in taxes than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined.

And you wonder why there are 700 tea parties all across the nation? Make mine green, organic that is......

The Great American Bailout

Hello everyone, welcome to my first post! As my profile states I work in big corporate as a "head paper pusher" but my true passion in life is fitness and training. While the idea of sitting at a desk all day, shortening your spine and tightening your hip flexors (all the while fending off huge amounts of stress) sounds wonderful, I would actually prefer to be exercising and helping people reach their training goals. More on that on another post!

Believe it or not, many "corporate world"concepts tie in directly with health and fitness. One such item is the concept of "bailout". Personally, the word bailout drives me nuts. To me it conjures up the idea of being spineless and weak; having others do the work that you should be doing. Mopping up messes YOU created. I believe in personal accountability, and if you fail you fail. No harm in that, at least you gave it your best. For a business, a bailout lets you start at a clean slate via a government handout or a bankruptcy. But the people you have let down suffer the consequences.

On that same token, your health is something that YOU alone need to focus on. Of course there are always congenital issues that cannot be prevented, but the majority of our health issues lay in the hands of the individuals themselves. To me, taking medications is the ultimate BAILOUT. I remember being at a health seminar where we had a certain amount of money to spend and were told we had a headache off and on over the period of a few weeks. Unlike the rest of the table who went to the medical doctor almost immediately, I would not give in and would not go. First I asked if there were any major life changes or undue stress in recent months. I then asked to go to a chiropractor to see if I was out of alignment. Then I asked about hydration. Caffeine. Blood tests. Cortisol levels. Food allergies. I think my partner on the project was really getting PO'd at me, but hey, I didn't want to spend money I didn't have to.

If you are constantly running to the doctor for meds, it's time to look inward. As the economy worsens and health prices skyrocket, pretty soon you will be FORCED into finding alternative ways of handling issues. Of course I'm very happy doctors were able to help my kids with their appendix and tonsillectomy surgeries. But if they are not acute issues, try the scientific method. Find out when things began bothering you. Has anything in your life changed? Sleep patterns? Eating patterns? If possible, try to figure out as much as you can on your own. Your doctor cannot possibly determine all your problems. My challenge for you is to try to keep the "medication bailouts"to a minimum. You owe it to yourself.