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Pull ups and the Zombie Apocalypse

You see these lists all over the internet every day:

“10 skills you need for a happier life!”

“21 skills every man should have!”

“101 skills you need to survive the Zombie Apocalypse!”

Who says I need a happier life!?! And what’s with the casual sexism?

I’m  happy in my life because my four year old daughter has a bodyweight deadlift (for reps!), can almost do a pull up and is wicked deadly with a lightsaber! (My zombie plan is to train my children to be Jedi Knights)

The ability to climb is an essential fitness skill in law enforcement, fire and military service. I’d add that it’s something that everybody should be able to do. The ability to rescue your neighbors cat/child, complete an obstacle course, get holiday decorations out of the attic, or climb a tree to escape zombies should be in everybody’s toolbox!

If you want to own climbing, then the pull ups, grip strength and crawling are the things to look at. But let’s do one thing at a time.

There are a lots of variations of pulling your body up to (and over) a bar, door frame or tree branch. You can do:

  • pull ups – palm facing away from you
  • chin ups – palms facing you
  • tactical pull ups – no thumbs
  • neutral grip – palms facing each other
  • any of the other myriad variations

For the sake of simplicity let’s just, for today, put them all together under the name ‘Pull Ups’.

Why do pull ups?

Apart from the lifestyle benefits of putting up festive decorations, escaping zombies and being able to save your life in the event of a flood they:

  • help counteract the ‘modern Gollum’ posture
  • encourage full shoulder/upper back range of motion
  • are a health counterpart to pressing actions
  • help develop the ‘athletic taper’ body shape
  • are a good indicator of a healthy body composition

They can also be used for:

  • pure strength
  • lean muscle development
  • endurance strength/cardiovascular drill
  • weighted pull ups (nothing says ‘I’m too strong for my body’ than this!)
  • an accessory for squats and deadlifts (you need a thick back to support big weights)

Fat-loss Guru Josh Hillis also notes that any woman who can perform three pull ups and any man who can do five, probably looks pretty ‘rockstar’ (and if they don’t then it’s the kitchen, not the gym, that they need to work on).

Can’t do a pull up?

Here’s a video I made a few years ago detailing exercises you can use to build up to your first one.


Don’t know how to add pull ups to your training? Want to know why you shouldn’t do pull ups before deadlifts or  superset them with bench press? Join the conversation on our Facebook group!

Be fit, be strong, be happy!

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Choosing your first Kettlebell Part 2 – Weight

In Part 1 of choosing your first kettlebell we talked about why you would want one in the first place. We touched on the idea that there are three categories of using a kettlebell:

  1. Strength and Power development
  2. Cardiovascular Endurance
  3. Mobility Training

Also on top of this versatility of use the kettlebell is also one of the few serious training tools that you can realistically keep in your own home.

When left unattended in the kitchen, kettlebells gather around bins hoping for scraps of protein (yes, I put some mats in my kitchen…).

Without going into each too much detail, for the serious trainee there’s a good chance your original ‘heavy kettlebell’ will slowly turn into your higher rep kettlebell and maybe even turn into your mobility training kettlebell.

With that in mind we’ll talk about how to choose the weight for your first kettlebell, or preferably, three.

Read more

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Choosing your first Kettlebell Part 1 – Why get one in the first place?

As many of you know, I teach a lot of strength, mobility and conditioning workshops many centring around the use of the kettlebell. Now, there’s nothing magical about kettlebells despite what many hardcore enthusiasts might believe. It’s basically a cannonball with a handle, nothing mystical there.

But, they are just a tiny teensy little bit special. There are many different tools to be used in our training. Barbells, dumbbells, clubbells, Indian clubs, gymnastics rings, powerbags and bodyweight callisthenics, to name just some of what’s available to us. So what make kettlebells so special?

 

Nothing special about these guys.

Versatility

In my experience the kettlebell is possibly the single most versatile tool we have available in the modern gym environment. For most beginner-intermediate trainees, women or men, I can get an entire workout from a single kettlebell. Depending on the weight of the ‘bell I can use it in various different ways.

Read more

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What are Mindful Mums fitness classes?

New mothers are given very little choice by fitness class providers.

There are classes for new mothers but they either don’t include Baby, or they don’t recognise the pain and problems that pregnancy and birth can bring.

Mindful Mums is a class that recognises what a Mum’s body has been through and understands that Baby can be included in, and have fun at, a fitness class.

Mindful Mums uses gentle, primitive movements to help new mothers regain full and pain free movement. From there, we move on to low intensity strengthening exercises to help Mums become more capable in everyday life.

So what are primitive movements? This is where the genius of the Mindful Mums class lies. Primitive movements are the movements that most children make as they progress from lying, to rolling, to crawling, to climbing  furniture and finally, walking unaided. In a sense, in a Mindful Mums class your baby can be your coach!

When: Mondays @ 1000 (from Mon 4th Sept)
Where: Funkstar Fitness, Ladeside Business Centre, St Catherines Rd, PH1 5RZ
Cost: £25 for the 5 week block
Contact: colin@mindfulstrength.co.uk
Spaces are limited to 8 mums plus their baby/s.
Babies must be 3 to 12 months and mums must be post natally cleared for exercise by their Doctor or Midwife.

 

 

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Willpower is weak

Willpower is weak, few successful people rely on willpower in the long term for success. Sure willpower is like a muscle, we always get that analogy. So let’s take that analogy to its logical conclusion.

To get stronger or more powerful we need to work the muscle, we need to work it hard enough to introduce tiny little failures in it. Then we need to leave it alone for a period of time so that it can recover and improve.

If we work it too hard, it will break big time and not improve as it recovers. Also we’ll have had to wait a long time for it to recover so we can use it again. If we don’t allow it enough time to recover, over time it will not be able to restore itself to even its starting level of strength.

The same is true of willpower. If we exercise it to a certain degree everyday and don’t overly rely upon it, it will get stronger. If we try to overly rely on it… it may work for a short spell but invariably we end up gorging on Jaffa cakes, vegged out on the sofa watching a Game of Thrones marathon (or is that just me?).

Read more

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What makes a Mindful Kettlebell class different?

What makes a Mindful Strength Kettlebell class different from 99% of other fitness classes?

Most fitness classes are oxymoronic (read more here), they don’t really help you move towards your goal. The clear truth of the matter is that once you can move well, pain-free and with a degree of strength you are a lot closer to your goal. That can be that to look better, run a 10K, complete a Tough Mudder without any help or even just get on the floor and play with your grandchildren.

Our kettlebell classes are essentially small group personal training. You pay a monthly fee, you attend three classes a week and we give you homework for a fourth session in your own time (at home or in the gym). It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a gym membership or kettlebells at home, our programs include bodyweight training and we can plan specifically to your needs.

Swings

Photo courtesy of Roger McCarthy

The classes are limited to eight students to one coach, we train as a group and we lift one another to a higher level.

The class isn’t a ‘turn up and turn into a sweaty mess’, it’s planned out over a four, six or eight week period (depending on which class) with realistic fitness standards to achieve on the way.

What you get:

  • Personalised mobility warm ups
  • Three kettlebell classes a week
  • One homework session (planned for you) a week
  • Access to our Mindful Strength Community facebook group
  • Access to our exercise video library
  • Tuition from the Scotlands only StrongFirst Level 2, Barbell, Bodyweight, Groundforce Method, Flexible Steel and Functional Movement Systems certified Coach
  • Optional nutritional guidance and accountability

Cost is only £40/month and we limit classes to eight students, to secure your space contact:

colin@mindfulstrength.co.uk

Be fit, be strong, be happy!

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