Goal setting & the Movement

Who hasn't heard the mantra "Those who fail to plan are planning to fail." Well, there have been many plans that have failed because they were based on a faulty premise. Realism must be at the forefront, meaning they most be realistic and attainable. For myself, I must have simple goals AND no more than three at a time. While the movement calls for PRs every night, it is important to do the RIGHT exercises that will increase the likelihood of achieving your goals.

In addition to the right exercises and doing them properly, you must live by the ultimate litmus test: TEST IT. You must also decipher how you feel as well, as per my last post where bench tested well but bar speed was slow. Then major fatigue set in. Now remember - this is only MY results. Your body may react totally different based on your body type or even your job.

On that notion, I did snatches tonight for the first time in a looong time. They always test well so that is great. But lately I have been breaking intensity (% of max) PRs and gotten away from volume and density. It appears that my belt is a little tighter and my waist line not so good. So I went after a volume record for snatches tonight, which I did at 5,020. Problem is, my wind was gone! It took forever and my lungs were really pushed to the max using only the 20K bell. My goal is to snatch the 40K and here I am dinking around with the 20K. Not what I want. But at the same time I want fat loss so I need to do higher reps. What a delema! While the 88# is an ultimate goal, I really do want to nail 100 reps in 5 minutes with the 24K (my best is 83). The other reason is I want to compete at the TSC. I need to at least be competitive in this last portion of the contest! So bottom line I have a decision to make.

Since it is summer time, I am really going to push for lowering body fat and getting my five minute numbers up. While the movement will tell me which PR to break (intensity, volume, density) I need to snatch EVERY week and maybe multiple times, not once every 2 weeks (that's only twice a month!). And the records need to fall HARD. When I see a 125# Kathi Burger getting 100 reps in five minutes and Mark Wilson getting 100 in 3.5 I realize I have work to do. I don't have the goal to run a marathon but I am tired of getting winded easy - so jacking cardio is a key goal at the present time. For me, that makes the most sense, and my adrenals will thank me for it. Enjoy:)

Flying too close to the sun

The title is a saying that Mike Nelson always uses when referring to overtraining. Well, after Saturday's hard workout I was at the burning point. While bench press tested OK, bar speed just wasn't there. So what did I do? Kept on pushing. Wrong answer. I felt like taking a nap soon after my workout and then proceeded to have no energy the rest of the weekend. In other words, I taught my body that this workout was DIFFICULT. I had pains and tension on Sunday something terrible. My neck was totally whacked, a sure sign of struggling and maintaining high tension. Took until Tuesday night to feel better. I lost a few pounds and had sleep disturbances i.e. 5 hours Sunday night. These are all symptoms of overtraining and overload of adrenal stress. Time to quit working on intensity and start breaking PRs in density and volume!

Busy at work, baseball game until 7:30 so training was abbreviated. Shattered my BUP intensity, volume and density PRs tonight! Started off with the 16K for 12r and 10left, easy PRs. Then got 56 in 10 minutes for volume and density. And it was fun and EZ. No grimacing, no tensing. As soon as it got tough, I took 'er down. Did swings and would have broken a PR but had bad record keeping. That won't happen again!

On a side note, watched the Biggest Loser finale. The guy who won dropped 264 pounds. Wow! The only thing better than that is not weighing 526 to start with. Problem is, the guy moved like crap. His legs were so externally rotated I couldn't imagine him running or doing any kind of sport. Ouch! Movement protocol emergency!!!!

Variety is the spice of Life

Who doesn't like variety? That is why the Gym Movement is the ONLY system you need. The variety is necessary for growth. In the past, I only changed exercises when I was nursing an injury. As such, my training consisted of about a dozen exercises - talk about boring! In addition, it makes you look like a gym exercise. Have you ever seen guys who bench all the time? Their shoulders are rounded in and they walk funny. Is this the look a fluid athlete? Granted, that may not be their goal. But in the long run it WILL result in imbalances and eventual injury.

Case in point, when I went back to training my old way 2 months ago I started to get all knotted up and had to get several chiropractic adjustments. With the gym movement protocol, it is self correcting. Case in point: One of my goals is to increase my bench. When I started this protocol I was bummed that bench tested poorly for the first six weeks; I had to do dips and pushups. Funny thing is, now that I'm getting more balanced, neither of these test well and bench is going up!

Along the same lines, Mike and Adam strongly recommend long cycle clean & jerks (LCCJ). So I decided to try it after bench today after a volume PR of 5,870 (240-245 Matrix). I started at a baseline PR of double 12K for 3x10 in 5 minutes. This gets you working, guaranteed! Hardstyle magazine always talked about how people were gaining up to 15# of muscle doing LCCJ and I always wondered how. That is Frankie's idea of large to small - hard work on large movements is THE best way to stress the body. The body reacts to stress by laying down lean tissue - resulting in weight gain! NICE.

Workout: Bench PR Volume: 135x10 165x8 190x5 200x3 225x1 225x1 225x1 195x5 = 5,870 in 30 minutes

LCCJ: Double 12K for 3x10 in 5 minutes (hamstrings got tight!) Baseline PR

Double DB hammers: 30x6 30x6 30x4 30x3 19reps at 60# = 1,140 density PR in 5 minutes

Metabolic flexibility & the Gym Movement

Has my constant talk about Gym Movement become tiring yet? Well it's about to get even "weirder" so to speak. Both Adam T Glass and Frankie spoke about the fact that fixing your movement skills under load will help you become more flexible with your diet and your ability to use any substrate for energy. I was highly skeptical, having fought off several food sensitivities and allergies over the years. Several guys at the cert, most namely Mark Wilson, eats everything in sight and was lean as can be. And he is over 40 years old - so no excuse there. I wrote it off to great genetics and forgot about it.

Go back 6 weeks ago (right before I started on this protocol) I decided to go back to "old school" training to see what would happen. I started gaining some strength, but at what cost? Soon I felt terrible, my movement suffered and next thing I knew, I was going to the chrioprator three weeks in a row! Movement cost AND monetary costs....not smart in today's economy. But the thing I noticed the most is that after eating a certain protein bar during this period I began to feel bad after eating it. I started having digestive trouble. I became bound up and was no longer "regular."

Fast forward to the Movement training: I ate the EXACT same bars with no dire effects: Digestion - fine. Elimination - fine! Not that I have begun to eat terrible or anything but somehow or another I am able to handle things I couldn't. I am going to continue to try different things and TEST IT. Note: I spoke to Mike Nelson on this and he has been doing the same. He will be putting together an e-book on this difficult subject. Can't wait for that!

Training tonight: Chinup volume - 30PR. Overhand thick bar DL: 220 (PR) "G" gripper 40/40 and 30/30 PR volume & intensity. Had a huge pump from this simple workout, something I expect each and every time I work out. Can you say the same?

PRs and biofeedback

Once again, biofeedback rules! After a weekend with the guys and a somewhat lack of sleep I wondered how things would test today. I was looking to do a chest movement, pistols and triceps. After a month of testing well, bench presses tested just OK. Dips haven't tested well for at least a month. So I was hoping pushups would do the job - yes they did! As a baseline PR (have done pushups only once since starting biofeedback)I did 70 in 10 minutes, starting out with 25 for a initial intensity PR. This was a lot harder than I had imagined, but wow what a pump! That is always a nice signal that things are working well. Next went to pistols and got 30 with the blue band. Again, lack of sleep or whatever this was difficult, done in 10 minutes. What a difference a band makes - the green was simple, the blue all the way to the floor. Exactly what I need. Finished off with 6 sets of lying dumbell tricep extensions, volume PR of 760 in 7.5 minutes. All other tricep exercises tested junky, so crank it!

Interview with Craig Robley

My good friend and colleague Craig Robley was kind enough to drop by and discuss why he wants to use Top Notch Personal Training to get him into top shape. Craig will be starting his venture next week when he comes back from a trip he earned to Hawaii for excellent production at work (he is an advertising consultant for Dex). Craig is a former wrestling standout and All-American at Luther college in Iowa. As he states in the interview, he is tired of "being tired doing minor things." I can help him with that! Best of luck to Craig, and I will be posting his progress...stay tuned!

Targeted for Termination

Since my son's favorite movie is Terminator, the title above has been running rampant around my house. It of course also applies to the real world, as the company I work for has been doing some "house cleaning" as of late. While it's never fun, I always remind myself that it's business, not personal - so I felt OK about the termination early Monday AM. Then, on the way home from work I got a call from my friend who said he was let go last Thursday. It was kind of like "touche"!

Why do I bring this up? Because terminations/firings apply to many things in life. Especially in training. #1 hint: if your trainer gets you hurt, they are an idiot. It really is that simple. I've heard horror stories of clients doing kettlebell bear crawls down a concrete embankment and getting injured - all done to "make things harder" (sounds like a well-known kettlebell guru to me). Any endeavor you take on in life you are told to be relaxed so you can perform at your best. Of course, to everything except kettlebells. Wrong answer.

So in looking at my giant pack of books and DVDs I have begun to think of ideas and protocols that need to be terminated -exercises and routines that use someone else's internal feedback. Why this is coming crystal clear to me is due to my jumping on "The Gym Movement" bandwagon which focuses on personal biofeedback to determine an exercise's effectiveness. It's time to weed out the junk and focus on what works. There is so much info out there you need to know what you DON'T like to know what you DO like. I have an inner peace I've never had before and its great! So when the next DVD or book that comes out touting its effectiveness, please throw it against the wall to see if it sticks. If it's not listening to YOU it will not help YOU.

Training tonight: Broke TBDL volume PR (via the 380-385 Matrix) got 7,705 in 25 minutes, and a density PR as well. Then did 100 lunges in 7.5 minutes (PR)which really kicked my butt. I had to watch and make sure the tension wasn't ramping up to much - there were times my breathing was hosed up and had to back off a bit. Did a little grip work but I was shot. Great workout!

Keep the PRs coming

Thur workout: DL volume PR 4,485/regular grip pullup volume PR: 26 reps/1arm swings 24K density PR 80 reps in 4.5mn. Sat workout: KB Press volume PR 2904 in 10 minutes. Used the 20K for 66. Lying tricep (BB) 65x5 baseline PR, volume of 1,225, density of 153 (8mn). DSP gripper PRs 2415 in 5mn/density 483. Decided to do pistol work tomorrow, I want to focus on that.


As I stated in my last post, it is not HARD to break PRs. You have a goal every single workout and you just "Do it". It really is a great feeling to know that you are getting better every single day. "Get your reps in" is good advice, but you need to know how many and how fast you did it (in perfect form of course). Deadlift for instance, my volume PR is 4485. How can I not improve when I get to 5,000 or more? Your body responds to stress by laying down tissue - and this is noted in me gaining 5 pounds "mysteriously" since the cert three weeks ago. As Frankie said, the only limiting factor is TIME.....who knows where I'll be by year-end? Great stuff!

PR nite

Frankie Faires of the Movement program said adaptation is a never ending process. You are getting better or worse every single minute of every day. You cannot FORCE adaptation, no matter what your externally focused personal trainer may tell you. Besides, no one knows your body better than YOU. 'Nuff said.

PR night included 225# Bench matrix (+ a few extra reps) = PR volume 4,725. Goblet squat intensity PR 88x5; volume PR of 1,840 and density PR of 184 (done in 10 minutes). BUP went a lot better than I thought. Got a PR of 10 with R and 8 on the L with the 36#er. Got a total of 38 reps in 7.75 minutes for a volume and density PR as well.

I am happy to inform you that breaking records all the time does not mean you will be broken. The funny thing is I don't feel tired at all. I am sleeping more soundly than ever and lately have even been getting up a bit earlier! The biggest thing to all this is taking meticulous record keeping. Because I destroy records every week I must re-write the record books each Sunday night in preparation for next week's onslaught. As FF says, TIME is the only limiting factor.....is this awesome or what?

The Biofeedback craze

Greetings,

Lots has happened since I last posted, and fortunately for me most of it is VERY good! About a year ago Mike Nelson introduced me to biofeedback training and last month Frankie Faires and Adam Glass put on a seminar on it (Mike attended as well). All I can say is brilliant! Just when my training had gotten to an all-time confusion and frustration level, this came around. I just can't say enough about the concept of PRs everyday. You have to feel it to believe it. I will be posting on several of the key points in the post to come, in addition to my and my clients training results.

05/03/2010 workout:
Snatch:Volume PR of 4,988 in 25 minutes included 40 reps with the 32K, also a PR. My goal is to snatch the Bulldog so its important for the 70# to feel like a breeze - Mike figures 10 smooth easy reps and I'll be there. I'll try some max numbers soon.

Pistol: Did 65 reps at a variety of heights; my pin ladened left ankle has always been an issue so I will keep cranking on this and making it look EZ.

Reverse curl: done with my thick bar, I did 4x6 with 30# just to get my feet wet and get a baseline PR. This program is so fun because it "forces" you (bad word oh well) to change up your exercises. Change up = fun times!

More soon..........