The training is only 10%

Iceberg

I could have said that the ‘workout’ is only 10 percent, but I like how Mark Rippetoe puts it. The legendary barbell coach describes the difference between ‘training’ and ‘working out’ is that training is something you do to achieve an end goal over a period of time, whilst a workout is something you do to ‘feel good in that moment in time’. Whilst I could argue the semantics and words used, I’m totally behind the idea at play.

Many people go to the gym with an idea in their head of what they want to look like, or be like. They don’t really understand the process required to get there and so do what they’ve always done, or been led to believe is the ‘best way to workout’. Read more

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Primal Realities

Twenty years is a long time. Time enough to see a lot of fads come and go, to see ‘the cutting edge’ information recycled every 3 years or so, and to become a jaded grumpy old man. My journey across the years has seen me train, dabble and immerse myself in lots of different things.

On the martial arts side of things I have trained seriously in a large number of martial systems such as Tai Jitsu, Karate, Judo, Aikido, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kali, Silat, MMA, to name a few.

In the fitness side of things I’ve trained in many modalities in many styles, barbell, kettlebell, bodyweight, group exercise, gym based, outdoors, distance running, sprinting. I’ve trained using bodybuilding methodologies, powerlifting, ‘fat loss’, blood-shunting, etc, etc.

Let’s not forget the low fat, high fat, high carb, low carb, fruit diet, salmon diet, liquid diets, etc.

Over this time I seem to have found myself comfortable with, and teaching, two schools of training. One martial system and one strength and conditioning system. Both of which share a lot in common, which is what I want to share. These two schools of training are Dog Brothers Martial Arts (DBMA) and StrongFirst (SF).

strongfirst-logo (1) DBMA

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Mud Racing

Probably the single biggest sporting event that people seek my help with recently is obstacle course racing, or as I like to call it, mud racing. I seem to have developed a reputation as a ‘performance enhancer’, but not the type you’ve been hearing about in the news over the weekend.

So, with regards to mud racing, what are the ‘big guns’, the things that seem to have the biggest impact on peoples performance?

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Inefficient Exercise – One of the two keys to fat loss

In a previous blog I stated that their were basically two keys to body composition change (aka ‘fat loss’). Those two keys being ‘caloric restriction’ and ‘inefficient exercise’. I can’t take credit for these terms as I stole them from Master Coach Dan John (all hail Dan John! Hail!) And that said, I doubt that Dan invented these either.

So the question arose on the Book of Faces:

“What do you mean by inefficient exercise?”

And my reply:

“Tends to be things with repeatable high peak power output or large workloads. Peak power examples are Hardstyle kettlebell swings (ridiculously inefficient), slam balls, well performed burpees, etc. High work load has to be balanced against fatigue/safety so you’re talking about the loaded carry family, which includes pushing/pulling sleds/cars, etc. ”

Quite succinct I felt, but maybe it needs fleshed out a bit. Read more

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Building things that last

Lots of interesting stuff going on for me right now, one of which was the return to regular training of two ladies who had trained with me for one and three years. Both had had ‘real world stuff’ happen that meant that the had to stop training with me, but now after a break of six months and one year respectively, they were able to return to training.

We shall call them Taylor Swift and Dr Who respectively (you know who you are!). Taylor Swift had trained with me for just under a year and then broke her ankle, Dr Who had trained for about three years and had to take a year off (life, children, house move).

At this point let’s take a diversion. I was recently in Italy for the Plan Strong seminar with Pavel Tsatsouline and Fabio Zonin. Whilst I was in Italy for 4 days, I only managed two hours of site seeing whilst killing time for my flight home. It was then that I realised that ‘back in Roman days’ they built stuff to last.

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Sight seeing in Verona

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Strong is more important than calories

Big engines burn more fuel. And by engines I mean muscles. And by fuel I mean calories. If you want to get ripped and look lean for the summer, there is a simple progression.

  1. Move well
  2. Get strong
  3. Rest hard!
  4. Do inefficient exercise (which you can do at a greater level than before now, because you are stronger!)
  5. Rest hard some more
  6. Some kind of caloric control
  7. Drink water
  8. Look awesome!

That’s it.

Seriously.

Ok, it may get a wee bit more difficult ‘towards the end’, but that is the jist of how to look hot for the summer beach season. Read more

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