Archive March 2010

Some old stuff that I am reworking…and love!

Years ago, John Powell and I had a long conversation about training past the age of forty. John, for those of you who may not know, is the former world record holder in the discus and holds two bronze medals from the Olympics…as well as a Silver medal from the world championships at age forty!

John broke down “past forty” training into two basic “phases:” Phase One, which may last from 30 days to 30 years, and Phase Two, the key to superlative performance in not only the Master Athlete, but everyone else, too.

Yet, none of this came clear to me until after the Northwest Regional Masters Track and Field meet when George Mathews mentioned that “the problem with being a Master is the loss of muscle mass.” He noted that at a certain age, you suddenly become frozen, it seems. Hypertrophy, the building of muscle mass, seemed to be the answer.

The problem? The traditional means of periodizing, building up one’s training over a few months was shaped like this: Period One: Hypertrophy (Good old Bodybuilding) Period Two: Basic Strength Time (Go Heavy, Go Hard, Go Home) Period Three: Basic Power Stage (This is when one starts lifting faster in the weight room, more emphasis on speed on the track Competition …compete Period Five: Recovery (an active rest period of a few weeks where one backs way off and lets the mind and muscles heal.

For the older athlete, this may still work, but John noted that there was a key element missing Passion! George also pointed out that the loss of hypertrophy (muscle mass) was the missing.

An overview: Phase One

This could last as long as a whole career. Basically, it is the “nerve and muscle” stage. One learns the techniques of the sport and ingrains a simpler and smoother method of performance. Ideally, one would begin with a full blood profile test, I would argue for HDL and Triglycerides to be monitored throughout one’s adult life. John Powell added testosterone and DHEA levels for men, too.

During training, one strives for, first, correctly performing all the movements…from lifting to jumping to the competitive movement. Second, John recommends repetitive, but rhythmic, sets of “big lifts,” i.e. squats, cleans and snatches.

John had an illumination in his throwing career when he talked with World Shot Put champion Peter Sarul and then members of the British Javelin team…who were very

successful at the time. They told him about this workout:

Power Clean: 60K x 10

Squat: 70K x 10

Power Snatch: 50K x 10

Front Squat: 60K x 10

Crunches: 25

You did these in a circuit, one after another, then tracked your heart rate on completion. You did this cluster for three sets. As your heart rate would go down (over time), obviously your conditioning was better. Also, your total circuit time should try to go down, too.

John discovered that these “fast”workouts focusing on speed and condition, led him to his lifetime best throws. For basic training, John believes that repetition is the mother of instruction in Phase One. He though any drill that one could do over and over…while focusing on making the technique simpler and simpler…would be the key. For a discus thrower, he recommended doing the turn forwards and backwards (without throwing) with an overweight implement, then going through a workout.

In every sport, there are drills that ingrain technique.

But how to move on?

Phase Two

John had only one word: Passion. From the Latin, “to suffer,” I can’t think of a better word to describe the Love/Hate/Suffer/Fury that is required to improve as an athlete. Sadly, many young athletes have all the physical gifts, yet no passion. “The Love of the Game” is a perfect title…for a disappointing movie.

Passion. Well, how do we get it? Master athletes can teach the youth here:

1. Travel to a lot of meets.

2. Hang out with your competition for long periods afterwards.

3. Read everything, watch everything you can about your sport.

4. Travel some more. Hang out some more. Learn more.

5. Spend your money on your sport! 6. See number four above!

Yet, something is missing. I think George hit it on the head when he discussed hypertrophy. For Phase One, we can focus on speed and technique (nerve and muscle), but in Phase Two…as we build passion in our hearts…we need to build muscles in our body. The more I think about this, the more I KNOW IT IS RIGHT!

As a matter of interest, short spurts of intense training increases the natural Growth Hormones of the body…the anti-aging drugs. In Phase Two, a serious attempt to both raise GH and build muscle are a yin-yang relationship!

The research, although it is tough to discover, seems to point to several things, if you want to increase GH (and hypertrophy).

1. Eat some protein before lifting…ten to twenty grams.

2. Monitor rest periods between sets (one minute rests have shown, in some studies, to spike GH)

3. Use “full body” lifts, such as my favorites:

Power Clean and Front Squat Power Curl Clean and Press Overhead Squat

Good Morning or variations Clean grip snatch Power snatch

With Kettlebells, are you kidding me? Goblet Squats, Swings, Snatches, Get Ups, Clean and Presses…the whole RKC!

4. Don’t be afraid to “bodybuild.” Get those arm curls, triceps extensions, pull upswhatever. Put your time in during Phase Two building your Passion and Body.

That’s Good Advice!

I know some that I have can help one rekindle the passion that drives great athletes. Let’s look at a few obvious ideas:

1. Keep a journal. If I could recommend only one thing, it would be to keep this on-going conversation with yourself. As you link the days together and watch the ebbs and flows of your training and life, you can pick out the clues that lead to success in your life …athletically and real!

2. Buy books and videos on your sport. Brian Clay’s discus technique has changed my vision of things! Read magazines, books and internet articles that apply to your sports and try new things!

3. Practice both single and wide focus in your sports. Single focus would be bowling alone on one lane trying to just throw strike balls …ignoring all spares. In your sport of choice, you should occasionally strive to fix just one thing: all your resources should pour into attacking or improving one aspect of training. Wide focus is what a football coach does: the coach measures and adjusts his 92 man team, seven assistants, four managers, bus drivers, et al to deal with the opposing team and the whims of the officiating staff. Both, single and wide focus can be exhausting…but for different reasons.

Single can be “boring,” yet every athlete needs the “groove” from multiple repetitions. Multiple focus can simply over stimulate the senses. The Highland Game experience is a study in multiple focus: dancing, piping, drinking, eating, noise…and up to ten different athletic events with only a few that share any technical skills.

A couple of ideas for training multiple focus: listen to music you hate while you train; train for three sports (throw, lift, carry, whatever) in a single training session; train in extre mes…cold, heat, fasting, time of day, odd locations; learn a new sport!

Finally, invent new ways to train your current sport…seriously, “think outside the box” and restructure your whole training…or just one aspect of training.

“Passion” fuels the athlete far beyond the next workout, the next week or the next season. It also may be the secret cure to aging!

5 Comments

The Middle of the Strength Universe

I am pulling up to school this morning and Master RKC Brett Jones calls me. I get in and Mike Brown has a bunch of new FMS ideas. My emails have piled up with some of the best and brightest names in strength training.

In my mailbox later in the day, Lyle McDonald has some personalized diet ideas for me. Later, I work on refining my Get Ups with the 32s with several quality people critiquing my work.

For whatever reason, that’s a typical day of mine. Gant Grimes, noted strength coach and lawyer, dropped by yesterday and, to be honest, it is a rare day that somebody from the “know” doesn’t pop by the gym. Why?

For one thing, I think I never actually came out and said “I know it all” and all of you are wrong. It’s rare in this field. I learn so much everyday. Socrates, a man of poor squatting but fine academic rigor, said this:

When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can the god mean? and what is the interpretation of this riddle? for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What can he mean when he says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a god and cannot lie; that would be against his nature. After a long consideration, I at last thought of a method of trying the question. I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, “Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest.” Accordingly I went to one who had the reputation of wisdom, and observed to him – his name I need not mention; he was a politician whom I selected for examination – and the result was as follows: When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and wiser still by himself; and I went and tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went to another, who had still higher philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly the same. I made another enemy of him, and of many others besides him….therefore I asked myself on behalf of the oracle, whether I would like to be as I was, neither having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I made answer to myself and the oracle that I was better off as I was.

I think I know what he means!

4 Comments

Inseason Training for Football

I’m no expert, but I coached HS football a long time and I just have a few ideas:

1. The “heavy” day should be the day after a game…actually, right after a game works well, too, especially for underclassmen who play on the day before the Varsity, having them train on the Friday, for example, helps a lot.

2. The “other” day should be stuff that doesn’t take a lot of nerve. Don’t Snatch and Clean and Jerk, so to speak. Box Squats, Straight Leg Deadlifts, some dumbbell work and a few machines would work well, but don’t have the athlete tax his nervous system. If you have kettlebells, of course, you can do Goblet Squats, the Get Ups, and the Swing as restoratives, too.

3. Don’t be surprised if he gets really stronger, maintains, or drops way down. Any reaction to the training program is normal. We used to find a lot of kids improved their cleans a lot in the football season. My idea then was that they were finally cleaning once a week with supervision. Now, I have another idea: sled work, driving the legs, sprints and the games were all training the system to clean better. Benching and squatting tend to drop, but that seems normal vis-a-vis the work load of football.

4. Don’t be afraid to cut the volume, but strive to keep the intensity up. 5 x 5 just isn’t going to work, but 2 x 5 would be fine. Pyramids would be 2-2-1, that kind of thing. If you read my 40 Day Workout stuff, you see where I developed the ideas.

5. Watch the acne. If he starts breaking out, getting colds, that kind of thing…he is really overtraining. HS kids can handle a ton of volume, then seem to crash.

2 Comments

I can’t believe the progress in my hip

Before I begin my usual hyperbole, I should note it has been over a month since I reinjured it, but, honestly, after my humiliation in San Jose, I think I finally “get it.” Mike Boyle has a wonderful book (available at davedraper.com) that I practically read every day. This morning, I got my copy out and laughed at his insight about distance runners: Injury-Rehab-Train-Injury-Rehab-Train.”

I got myself so convinced of my immortality that I forgot the performance pyramid: first, movement, then ramp up the power. I’m sure that skills or techniques go on top, but when you ignore the base, really, what is point? So, my intern and full time mom, Mike Brown, has been working overtime making sure that I do “what I say I will do.”

So, each day, I do my Get Up style twists, my half kneeling presses, my various stretches, my rolling (usually twice a day), take my fish oil, hot tub for half an hour, sit in the Goblet Squat (yes, without pain) and do the things I say I will do.

And, it works. I feel miles better. I am living close to barefoot which seems to help me. I am really eating clean which seems to help as much.

I’m even back to doing one legged deadlifts which may go down as the least appreciated move in history. In other words, I am doing what I should have done two plus years ago.

And now, for our cultural heritage!

I thought this was a great point…the song is amazing, too.Ed Ames on Exercise and the importance of Following

7 Comments

Finally, a Chance to Sleep

I have been going at a rate that I can’t sustain. It is track season, so we had three meets in four days. The head coach is an idiot for scheduling like this. The next time I look in the mirror I will point that out. Last weekend, we had St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and I had the Blessing of the Kegs and a number of formal events and my workshop in Sunnyvale and the relocation people came over (if you missed it, Tiff and I are moving to California) and, well, there is more.

Today, I got to sleep in a bit and I am a new man. There is a wonderful chapter in Parkinson’s Law, find it-buy it-love it, that talks about a busy man being given a task. He does it in one minute. Mike Boyle has a wonderful last chapter in “Advances in Functional Training,” find it-buy it-love it, where he gives advice to young coaches. One great part is that “if you can answer an email in under a minute, do it.” The busier I get, the more emails I get! So, I answer them. My college classes start Monday, so with ‘all of this’ comes even more.

You know, my life is going to ease up quite a bit and I’m worried about it. Will I be able to be as productive with a lot of free time? It’s an honest question. Right now, I have this little daily goal:

100 KB snatches

Some Goblet squats

Work on the KB Windmill

Do the Hips Stretches from RKC II

Do some pressing.

It is my minimalist program for staying sane in track season. It’s a good program! With more time, will I just waste time? It’s something I think we all need to ponder: if I had more free time, what would I fill in?

My challenge is to continue to work on the mission. The problem is…my mission statement has radically changing as my daughters slide off to college and I walk away from teaching. For the next few weeks, I will be rethinking my core values (yes, it sounds like bull, but it works for me) and deciding what I want to be when I grow up!

6 Comments

Workshop in Sunnyvale

I have to tell you that if you missed these two days, you missed a lot. A lot of quality instruction, a lot of quality people. Yes, of course, I was brilliant, but there was a vast amount of quality information and hands on work for everyone.

I noted a couple of things. I know that people pay a grand for a one or day workshop to “master” dozens of different sports and moves. Someone may tell you that you have a back issue in squatting from this workshop or cert or clinic or add a point about your O lifting pull or make a general statement about this or that.

It’s probably not enough. I can fix most people’s squats in a second or two. As you enter the site, click on all the little buttons and enjoy all the free stuff. That video is old now and I like to think I have improved my skill set since then, but that little video has helped a lot of people. It is free. It is good. For those asking me about “Complexes” the list is right there as well as the JD Warmup.

It is free. It is good. Quality coaching does NOT come from a blitz weekend where much of the time is spent demeaning others. (As a note, this may sound like I am demeaning others, but I am not…I think I am making a point) You KNOW when you work with a master. My good friend, Pavel, calls this the “A-HA! Moments” as everything suddenly makes sense. With one touch, one push, one shove, you instantly understand the principle and usually never forget the feeling when everything links in perfectly.

That’s what I liked about this workshop in Sunnyvale. Our mobility work this morning was so good, I was taking notes while twisting apart. The review of simply the differences between the Olympic lifts and the Power lifts was probably as clear and eloquent as anything I have ever heard. The friendly environment was amazing, but everything flowed. One should come away from a weekend like this with clarity.

As always, a big thanks to my brother, Gary, who bravely shuttles me around to these events. He has his own following now and is pestered by fans at these events. He endures it with humility and grace.

And, now, a little taste of my next book:

I think I could make a fortune with a book entitled “Eat your way to success.” Honestly, the three best mental images I have for success involve eating. From what I have seen across the vast landscape of America, I think that eating is not a rarity for many here in these United States. Sadly, my “Frog, Elephant and Alpo Dog Food Diet” might lose customers simply by the title. Every time I fly, I see an advertisement for something called the “Cookie Diet.” That can sell. Somehow, even if it was “The All You Can Eat Frog, Elephant and Alpo Dog Food Diet” still might not break the top ten bestseller list.

If there is an axiom for a successful life and having any chance at achieving any goals, it would be the following:

“You can’t do everything, but you can do something.”

Let that sit before you for a moment. If I could do anything for my legacy to this fine planet earth, I would hope and pray it would be “Do something.” For years, at workshops I have been preaching my “secret” two words to success: show up. I need to add “Do something,” too.

My favorite story about the magic of simply showing up happened in 1984. I was standing in line, after a long train ride to get to there and probably no real sleep in two days, to register for my intensive Turkish language class. Quick, imagine me standing in line because that is all I was doing. If you have ever stood in line, use that imagine if that is easier for you.

A guy behind the registration desk slammed a phone down, looked up at me and said;” Do you want $1500.” My answer was “uh, yes.” It turns out that another student just decided to quit and had been given a nice stipend just to show up. I was given a check in the next three minutes for $1500 for simply standing in line.

If you want to be a national champion, you really need to get to the stadium on time. If you decide to get married, the ceremony starts at 11. Be there. Showing up is underrated as a life skills success clue.

Of course, showing up is only step one. Step two is to do something. When I counsel/mentor/coach/teach/help others in goal setting it often only takes a few minutes to outline a list of goals in every single area of life. Warning: be careful about setting goals, because you may attain them. Almost every time I have had one of these goal setting experiences, the person looks up and smiles from this sheet of paper, then their eyes go wide and they ask: “Well, uh, what do I do?”

Do something.

Easy to type. Easy to read. And, actually, easy to do. The problem for most people is that the enormity of a goal seems to explode like the Big Bang before them. You want to get your college degree? Well, you have to register, get a parking pass, find the cafeteria, buy a school sweatshirt, find a lifetime friend to have several funny experiences, go on a roadtrip, write and lose the Great American Novel, read a book simply from Cliff Notes…hey, you have a lot to do! For me, when someone says to college, I have a refreshing mental image of fun, study and free time. Why the disconnect? Well, I’ve done it!

4 Comments

Yeah, I’m that guy…

At this moment, I am sitting in the Delta Crowne Room sipping a Maker’s Mark and working on my next book(s). Today, we had the annual St. Patrick’s Parade and Tiff always jokes that I am running for mayor here. I have former students who ask about things that happened thirty years ago, current students who ask about track practice, friends, neighbors…well, everybody.

Halfway through, I get an urgent tap from Father Carley and we rush out in a snow storm to save kegs of Guiness from evil and I end up wheeling several kegs through wall to wall humanity. I get several “Hey Danny!s” as I drag the stuff through.

That’s why we lift weights. We lift weights so that when the time steps up to move kegs, we are at the ready. We are a noble brother and sisterhood, ready at any time to rally up and move kegs. Or whatever.

Off to Sunnyvale. It’s going to be another busy weekend.

5 Comments

An odd thing

My Godchild, Amanda Long Clark, teaches with me at JDCHS. It’s nice and I visit to bug her class whenever I can. Today, I looked the presidents and noted something: there have been 44 presidents. I have lived through 11 of them. I’m 1/4 of this “thing.”

I notice 52 sometimes. Today, we had an intersquad track meet and the icy wind was brutal all afternoon. My joints took a hit, to say the least. But, I feel good. Master RKC Brett Jones sent me a bunch of stuff about getting my hips back and it is humbling stuff. It’s my version of the Program Minimum Minimum: at least 100 snatches or VO2 max every day, a get up or get up stretch, a goblet squat, a press and then serious work on the “issues.”

Just doing the stuff helps. Just doing the stuff is a workout. I think people miss this all the time, they try to bang bang bang away and miss the stuff that is going to help long term. Hey, I know I did/do. I probably will forget all of this again when I get better. I do that kind of thing. It’s funny how I keep learning the same lessons.

I was named a Senior RKC today. To be honest, I think I have a ways to go before I am qualified. I have skills and I think I know my stuff, but kbells expose me to the world unlike anything I have ever tried. An honor…and I will celebrate.

7 Comments

Pain Leads to Pain Free

I’m not sure what was the hardest part of this last week, let’s review: Started this all with RKC II in San Jose and the physical and emotional issues that I noted in my last (now famous!) post. I had some issues at home with my daughters, nothing bad at all and the fathers of daughters who read this will nod gently, and I had to get up at 3:30 to catch my flight. I got off the plane, shuttled over to where Tiff left the car days before when SHE LEFT to go “somewhere,” drove to work, taught all day, had the first day of Track and Field Practice, graded my tests, dealt with my college classes and went to bed.

That was the easiest day of the week, by the way. The RKC II instilled some new drills into me and I decided to share them with my students. Although I couldn’t do a windmill in San Jose, teaching it slowly limbered me up. I took Dr. Jeff McCombs advice, to see his work go here: go to www.mccombsplan.com, and began finding a half an hour a day to hot tub. Think it is easy? Try finding a half an hour to sweat it out. He also advised me to look at my diet a bit and I’m telling you this guy is good. I suddenly realized a few things about why I thrived on Atkins, the Meat Leaves and Berries Diet, and the Velocity Diet. I need more protein and I might have some issues with breads and sugar.
Tweaking the diet, hot tubbing, Kettlebell yoga and some sleep have miraculously cured much of my reinjured hip issues. I was doing so well until I popped it at the state weightlifting meet. Alas.

What’s the point of all of this? Well, I don’t know, I rarely know the point. I think it might be something like this: We tend to ignore the things that work for us and keep looking over the fence at our neighbor’s grass. I “know” what makes me work but I lack the discipline to follow it.

Interested in hearing me? I’m in Sunnyvale, California next weekend.

For details:

http://performancemenu.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=30_38&products_id=333

2 Comments

A Bit of Honesty

Without a doubt, my experience this weekend was humbling. As I digest what I learned, I have had a chance to look deep in the mirror. My performance on Saturday, especially, just makes me wonder.

I have journal entries that state “Who is this guy?” after bad workouts or poor competitive performances. I try to disassociate myself from bad efforts as it seems to keep one emotionally (and probably all the other “allys,” too) moving forward.

I came in injured, maybe just hurt. I have been struggling with this hip issue and blew it up two weeks ahead of time with a new state record in the snatch (not much of a lift, but, well, whatever). Then, a week out, I popped my left elbow doing lots of pullups. I swore I had never been hurt before, but Tiffini (my wife who, for whatever reason, continues to love me) noted “Yes, except for that one surgery on that elbow, you have never injured it.”

The RKC experience is an opportunity to get called out physically, intellectually and emotionally. By Day Two, I was a wreck and I began to literally shrink. Pavel and Brett were wonderful in their encouragement and, honestly, I couldn’t find a better partner than Jeff McComb.

Here is the issue: I couldn’t do a windmill, I couldn’t do a Bent Press, I couldn’t do anything. The pullups and pistols work (where I just got EXPOSED) had left me sore. Moreover, I shrunk. It was like being on the bad end of a big loss; I got smaller.

I couldn’t push my hips, I couldn’t twist…I was done. “Who is this guy?”

Sunday, I think I rallied back even to the point of doing extra work and finding who I am again. The ideas have been tossing around in my head since then: how much emotional impact is there in physical training? Did I, as I assumed (I think wrongly now) “shrink” in front of my cadre?

This insight leaped me into a great realization about why training to failure is such…a failure. You literally make failure a normative movement. The body responds by saving itself the time and effort by reducing the time and effort it takes to fail.

On Sunday, I could do a Windmill even though “on paper,” I was trashed. Today, teaching my javelin throwers, I nailed a Windmill that would make Goddess DuCane not wince and would only encourage Team Leader Jones to make 20 or so corrections (well below the mark from this weekend when I did my work).

So, I sat there spinning this around my head wondering about the impact of emotions upon our training. Is it possible that “Stage Fright” can have the same impact on participants at a clinic? I think “yes.” I have always understood the importance of the emotional side of lifting, that all consuming rage that is masked by a face of calm and humor, but now I am also thinking that it can destroy something as simple as a “Kettlebell Yoga” move like the windmill.

It’s like a rhetorical question: one can answer right, but the speaker will still correct the answer. On Saturday, I let my embarrassment of physical laxity drain my ability to perform. Like a fifth grade girl singing “Tomorrow” and forgetting it’s only a day away, I tightened up and ruined my ability to be “me.”

Not that “me” is so great, but the insight that if I panic under the stress of the friendly atmosphere of the RKC II, one can only imagine the stress of our students, clients and athletes when we call upon them to go outside their little comfort zone. Literally, I had to reinvent myself in just a few hours to let myself “go” and move again at our certification.

The emotional hit of floundering was unexpected and humbling. But, I won’t forget the lessons.

11 Comments

« Previous entries