Archive December 2010

Happy New Year Book Review and Video Blog

Oddest year of my life. Seriously. Started in Ireland, moved to California and a million things in between. On the upside, what a year! My hip feels better by the day and I have to bless all of you who helped. Thank you!

SkyClub. From Christmas to New Years.

I’m reading Art DeVany’s new book that expounds his Evolutionary Fitness concepts. His work has always been inspiring and interesting to me. With Tim Ferriss’s book (Four Hour Body) coming out at the same time, it is interesting to compare and contrast the two, but I won’t yet. I think that Art’s book has a clarity about it…a theme…that won’t sit well with the ADD of Tim’s book. (That was NOT a knock on the book, but if you read it, you will know what I mean).

I really enjoyed Art’s DVD from just a few years ago. I couldn’t make the trip and it was just in Las Vegas because of track season. As head track coach, one just doesn’t wing off to Vegas. Well, I didn’t.

I have been waiting for someone to publish the following, but, well, here you go:

I think the fact that I was a lousy javelin thrower has actually made me a pretty good coach in the event. Not great, trust me, but I can get you better in the spear toss simply because I had such a hard mountain to climb. I’m not sure people realize how honestly horrible I was in the javelin until I started my Kettlebell training and followed the excellent advice of javelin coach Bill Witt. With a few simple Kettlebell exercises and some simple technical clues, I managed to add seventy feet to my javelin throw. I am convinced that this Track and Field event might be the most important reason that you and I can discuss “all things training” because we survived a fairly wild landscape with our ability to pick up a sharp stick and either defend ourselves or provide dinner.
Not long ago, I decided that my javelin throwers needed “something.” Like an artist, coaching is sometimes as much about instinct and intuition as it is about applying physics to the human body. Actually, science can often lead one astray as did the famous biomechanical study of the shot put that determined that the second place thrower at the Olympics actually beat the winner according to the calculations. (If you remember the cartoon character “Foghorn Leghorn” and his attempts to outwit the young “Egghead, Jr.,” you might have an insight into why the winner kept his gold medal even when the science geeks thought he got second place.)
So, I had this idea. My athletes have always complained about some kind of early season malady for javelin throwers. “Coach, my elbow hurts.” “Coach, my shoulder hurts.” “Coach, my back hurts.”

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What is Elite?

A few months ago, I was standing next to a kid about a hundred pounds lighter than me. He was skinny with hair covering his eyes and a glazy look about his eyes that seemed to indicate that he knew herbs beyond stevia and yohimbe. What caught my attention was his t-shirt: “Select” with the name of a small sport on it.

I asked him: “What does “select” mean?” He told me, with some hand waving and a lot of “ums,” that it was a team made up of all the elite athletes from the various clubs in the state. “So,” I said trying not to laugh, “you are the best of the best?” His answered amazed me:

“Yes.”

Welcome to the second decade of the new millennia. One can be “select,” “elite,” or “best of the best” by finding a small enough sport in a small enough pond that requires club fees and the purchase of a t-shirt.

Not long ago, I watched an ESPN show about Marcus Dupree. One of the coaches indicated that, in high school, Marcus ran a 9.5 hundred yard dash (blazingly fast…you can’t do it) and benched over 400 for ten reps. That’s a solid bench press even on the internet forums. My friends, that is “elite.” That qualifies for the “best of the best.”

I began discussing this issue not long ago with my editor, Chris Shugart, and he agreed: how did we come to this new era that anyone who does anything is elite? Moreover, and more important: what are the kinds of things that truly makes one elite?

I shouldn’t pick on this one mop headed boy. I have seen the same thing happen with high school football players, gym rats who think they are one step from Mr. Universe, and, of course with the rise of the internet, the various lunatics and crazies that think that simply doing something different than arm curls makes you on the cutting edge. I have lived by a simple formula for a long time:

What is an elite athlete?
1. The athlete no longer is on a steep learning curve. The athlete, in other words, is no longer improving in quantum leaps from year to year, or season to season. Lifts, for example, no longer double over two years. Improvement is slow.
2. The athlete has a year-round approach to one sport.
3. The athlete uses some form of intense training camp or focused training of some kind each year.
4. The athlete uses high levels of strength training before the competitive periods. Save for lifters, as strength levels go down, performance should improve.
5. The athlete has made a personal choice to be elite.

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Yes, I am behind on my Blog

Some people have asked for some specific things. For example, my “Bird Dog” Series and how I use the TRX to do traction on my hip. So, I went down to visit Laree and Dave Draper to take photos for my new “Mass Made Simple” book and we took the photos. As soon as we can organize them and put them up, then all your dreams will come true.

Laree gave me some nice presents. I am using her “Joint Connection” drink and she told me I would know in four days whether or not it is working. I am thinking “or the next morning.” I feel great in my hip. So, now, of course, I need to do something stupid to ruin it! Also, I picked up more of the Fish Oil with Vitamin D. This is something I can’t praise enough…I really think this combo does wonders. Laree also gave me a little device to open up the mid back and now may place looks like either a very odd toy collection or the remnants of a Muppet Show. But, if it works.

My visit with Dave

She also gave me a journal that they put together a few years ago. Since I feel better, I am training smart again. Laree noted how out of breath I was in Long Beach, but, in my defense, walking in total pain is exhausting! Since I have made so much progress with Jimmy Yuen, CK FMS, and Laree, I don’t hurt when I move…and that makes life better! (Yes, quote me)

So, off I go. I had an interesting question from an email to day about “how I feel about bodybuilding.” Maybe I don’t make this clear enough, but every single day past maybe 28 or so, you should be fighting the good fight with a focus on bodybuilding (hypertrophy) and joint mobility. So, yes, “I feel strongly.”

More soon.