Archive August 2010

The “Secret” to the Cooking Blogs

It is the same lesson as always: Be Proactive!!!

Hats off to my friends at Park Road Fitness

Looking forward to a great weekend!

Blogging on Dinner

Less salt, less time. Let the excitement begin. I also make a shout out to Tommy Kono’s new book, I loved it!

Planks for the Memories: Video Blog

I mention the Naked Warrior here. You can buy it at:Dragon Door

Blogging from the SkyClub

If you are interested in more information, head over to the Q and A’s at davedraper.com.

For a program that really makes things simple, try the Program Minimum from Pavel:

The New RKC Program Minimum Summary
• Twice a week alternate sets of swings with easy jogging for recovery for 12 minutes
• Do your swings to a comfortable stop. Once you are well conditioned you may go all-out occasionally
• “Shake out” the lactic acid and tension from your muscles when jogging. Relax! The purpose of jogging is active recovery, not more conditioning.
• Twice a week, do get-up singles, switching arms after each rep, for 5 minutes.
• Focus on perfect technique, not on reps. Don’t count you get-up reps, and don’t try to top them!
• Arrange the weekly plan any way you want, e.g., Mon., Thurs.-Swings; Tues., Fri.-get-ups or Mon., Thurs.-get-ups; Tues., Sat.-swings. If you want to add an extra swing or get-up day, go ahead-make your day.
• Start each workout with 10 minutes of face-the-wall squats, halos, and pumps.
• Unless you are an experienced strength athlete, do no other lifting.

Odds and Ends from Last Weekend

I’ve been working on my next book(s) and really get spaced out. It’s like I forget what I am doing sometimes in one book and move into the next and get lost again. But, it’s going well. I think this is a great opportunity to move ahead in my writing career and I am taking it.

Things are going well otherwise. Tonight, I am making Cuban Chicken for Tiffini and it should either be excellent. Or not.

Today’s video blog. I love my 28k Kettlebell!

If you are in the market for Kettlebells, check these out: and tell them I sent you.

First Video Blog

I thought this would be an interesting “attempt” at doing my blog. I will keep writing, but sometimes I have show things.

For more information on Perform Better, go here:

If you want the books from Boyle, Cook, Draper or, well, me, visit davedraper.com

Anytime you hang out with Laree, it is a great weekend…

Just back from the “Perform Better Three Day Functional Training Summit.” Laree Draper, my fine editor, organized everything for me and I came away very happy. First, Chris Poirier puts on a first class event and there were 650 participants. It was nice to run into a bunch of people from the RKC community and a variety of people that I have met here and there in the past.

I finally met Mike Boyle. As some of you may remember, I made a note a while ago that I was reading, and impressed, by Mike’s new book. Well, I got an odd email that I “must like the smell of Mike’s farts, too.” For the record, I still haven’t smelled one and, well, I guess I will just have to wait. Mike’s presentation was fabulous and I can see why people listen to him. He really unpacked a lot of the mystery of warm ups and convinced me with logic and research to bring static stretching back into my work. Now, I have been doing it, lots of it, but I like his approach:

1. Roll
2. Static Stretch
3. Mobility Work

I will see if we can add it to our group meetings.

I hadn’t seen Josh Henkin in a while and his sandbag and strength workshop was a nice way to see someone understand that piling more and more is not always a good solution. He had some excellent ideas about insuring that when you add this and this to a movement, you have to back off on something else. A rare voice in the field!

I really did luck out with Stuart McGill. Stuart is the go to guy on lower back stuff. In fact, he is amazing. I love his balance about something that is controversial, he gives the right answer: “It depends.” After his session, we both sat down to work in a quiet room and got kicked out for something. So, we just sat and started to talk. I asked him if it was possible, as I assert, that I blew my stomach out squatting heavy. He pondered then had me stand up and he checked. Well, I was right, I have a condition (like a pregnant woman!) called diastisis. So, quick picking on my about my beer belly, it is a condition! It is going to take a little while to fix, but at least I know the route.

He also gave me some excellent insights into my hip issue. It seems I have a “Scottish Hip.” The leg moves square across with my ancestors and it is the reason I was off the charts in Quarter Squats and very average in deep squats. Saying this, it is also the reason I popped my left hip. Stuart, like many others over the weekend, gave me some great ideas to work with it. I have that dreaded “Gluteal Amnesia” in my left butt cheek, but he had me hinge over, put my hands outside my knees, squeeze out, THEN fire the butt. In just 24 hours, I seem to have much better control here. More on my butt later (lucky you)…

Also at the clinic was current American Record Holder in the discus, Suzy Powell. We had never met, but we had a ton in common, go figure. I was very interested in some of the things she tried through her career and, my dear friends, it was amazing to talk to her. Her AR throw, on the web somewhere, has lots of little tricks from the martial arts traditions, that are easily missed. I am going to give a few of her ideas a real run. There is a lot of things out there to consider in sport and when you get it right, things go well.

So well, you stop doing them!

I also got a chance to meet John Brookfield. Considering his physical feats, he is a fairly normal looking guy. Then, of course, he took a 20 foot piece of steel and twisted it so it could fit in a Federal Express package. Normal is not what it seems!

If you get a chance, look at the work of Robert Yang. I think he nailed it in the nutrition talk and it reminded me of the importance of priobiotics (or whatever, the stuff you get that is fermented and good for digestion…like kimshee) and the real need to think about foods you crave.  Look him up on the web.

Thomas Plummer did a very interesting talk. He took the top points from many fitness experts and laid it out for the audience. Becoming famous in this field is about passion and integrity AND not being a generalist. His energy and sense of humor really made a great talk. If he is talking, go and listen.

Finally, I met Gray Cook. This guy is as amazing as Brett Jones has told me. He worked on Laree and me (damn hip!) and just amazed us both with his assessments and manual work. The guy is not only dynamic and brilliant, but just a great hands on clinician, too. For all of you, do High Kneeling Haloes. Yes, Dan Martin…you will be doing this. If you don’t know, ask.

So, I’m tired and stinky and learned a lot…

I will just share this with you, part of one of my new books.

Still rough, but wow, I am really expanding my clarity…if you understand that! I loved my trip to Minnesota, by the way. I roomed with Dave Whitley, the Irontamer, and hung out with some great guys. Mark Toomey simply makes me laugh and it was nice to finally meet Dustin Rippletoe. Pavel and John are excellent hosts, by the way…

Here you go. Read. Learn.

Breon Hole was struggling with her kettlebell swing. Josh Vert had asked me to help out as Breon’s lower back would scream after a few repetitions of doing the swing. Within two reps, I stopped her.
It’s funny, because years ago a young man told me: “squats hurt my knees.” I asked him to demonstrate his squat. He did and I said: “Squats don’t hurt your knees; whatever you are doing there hurts your knees.” I told Breon: “Swings don’t hurt your back; whatever the hell you are doing hurts your back.”
Ah. Great coaching again! I knew something was wrong and stated the obvious. Breon then asked the million dollar question:
“Well, then, what am I doing wrong?”

Thank you, Breon. You see, I could SEE the problem, but I had no ability to fix it. Oh, I knew drills and we could have pushed, pulled and prodded her to a better movement, but I knew that I knew that I didn’t know what to do. Like that famous exchange in “Mystery Men,” and, yes, I think it is the greatest film of all time:

Capt. Amazing: I knew you couldn’t change.
Casanova Frankenstein: I knew you’d know that.
Capt. Amazing: Oh, I know that. AND I knew you’d know I’d know you knew.
Casanova Frankenstein: But I didn’t. I only knew that you’d know that I knew. Did you know THAT?
Capt. Amazing: Of course.

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