Archive January 2011

Dan John in Napa: The Video

Enjoy.

Mass Made Simple

I have been trying for a couple of days to upload a video from here in Napa, but youtube and I aren’t talking it seems. Well, the video was funny, I made fun of Lonnie Wade and I talked about important things.

So, Mass Made Simple is out! It fits into a lot of what I try to teach. People ask me “when” to do MMS and tell them: “It depends.” Well, it does. If you are a football player, do it now. If you are in-season, DON’T!

Here is something that gives you an idea on how I do plan things:

Not long ago, everybody I ran into at the gym was a “bodybuilder.” Every guy was trying to figure out the next best machine movement to peak, scorch, taunt, or blitz their bicep into submission. Today, though, we have a new issue and I squarely put the blame on UFC and the movie, “300:” everybody in the gym now is a “fighter.”

I first heard about this a decade ago when a former student told me he was really into “grappling.” I asked him what this was (I knew wrestling and boxing, but this was a new one) and he told me that is when you roll around a lot on mats. I said: “Ah, yes. I remember being single.” He then informed me it was with another man and perhaps I misunderstood him. Certainly.

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An Old Post I made and someone asked me about it…

I thought it was worthy of the Blog. The question was simple…how do you deal with age and training:

A couple of quick suggestions: first, the role of hypertrophy needs to be addressed. One of things that starts to mellow out is the “passion” to train. Honestly, I don’t have the answer there, but a few years ago, DHEA was argued to be the answer here. So, whatever it takes to reignite the spark, do it. I suggest camps, workshops, seminars, or any kind of full leap back into whatever lights you up. Relearn everything. I think that might be part of the reason things like the RKC really got me going again. Call it immersion.

With that, the older guy also needs to address specific hypertrophy issues. Now, be sure to look up tonic and phasic muscles and you really want to build up the deltoids, triceps, rhomboids, and glutes with explosive big movements. Doing stuff like Double KB Clean and Press or Double KB Clean and Front Squat will do a lot for you. At the same time, you need to do some flexibility work , but just what you need. I find stretching the pecs, the hammies, the hips psoas and the calves to be plenty. Absolutely, things like Bikram Yoga are great, but you can get by with much less.

Don’t be afraid to do workouts like my 2-3-5-10 press workout that emphasize one weight but you get 20 reps fast. Do that five times and you have 100 reps…good for hypertrophy, yet little damage to the system. Passion can come back through some hypertophy and a little fat loss. Take your Vitamin D, follow Atkins’s induction (see the recent books) and get in the sun. For supplements, do stuff like ALCAR and ALA and more fish oil than you think. Also, pound down the orange flavored sugar free metamucil. Drink your water. And….a big one…donate blood five times a year.

Honestly, that newer Atkins book, something like the companion or something, is a great thing to follow. Eat all you want of fish, eggs, meat, poultry…one cup of cooked veggies a day….3-4 cups of raw veggies and drink a lot of water. If you drink, buy the book, “Martinis and Whipped Cream.” Too bad locarbcris no longer has a site, she had great low carb drink recipes. Crystal Light and either rum, vodka or tequila is a pretty good little “how you doing.”

Sleep is huge. I take ZMA, Z-12, fish oil, Alpha Male and some metamucil before bed (about 45 minutes before bed) every night. I also invested in good shades, good pillows, and I worry about comfort in bed. It’s worth every nickel to invest in sleep. If you live in a dorm, buy ear plugs, eye shades and a CD or something that will teach you to relax and sleep. Underrated advice here…

Train in two week blocks. If you do Kenneth Jay’s VO2 max, an excellent plan, do it like I do: an 8 minutes workout, a 12 and a 15. Do THAT five times every two weeks. So, week one is 8/12/15 then week two is 8/12 and week three is 15/8/12…you get the drift. Work over two weeks. If you do something like I just mentioned, week two might be three lifting sessions where weeks one and three are two. Also, you need to nail down this issue: do I do light days or off days. I can’t do light. I can only workout, so for me, an easy day is “off.”

Don’t ignore these final two things: either do Farmer Bars and/or Sprints about twice a week. I call my sprints the “Great 8.” I start off slow and taper. I don’t measure the sprints and merely strive for 4 “Down and Backs.” The idea is to be smooth and get into a sprinting movement. Farmer Bars for distance is something you also need to do. I would argue these last two ideas tie into everything I have said (see tonic and phasic…explosive glute work…two week blocks, whatever), but many people will become addicted to the gym for their answers and the answer is probably outside.

(Author’s note: this next part is interesting as I was still deep in pain with my hip injury…since defeated!)

Having said all of this, remember that part of the victory is simply playing longer than anybody else. I’m 52 and I’m already planning how to beat the crap out of college kids next year. In ten years, I would love to say that these guys will be competing but I have the sense that I will be in the kilt or the ring or the field and they will be discovering Scotch.

Certainly, there is more, but take care of some of this…

Minimalist Training

I have been keeping my training journals since 1971. It is fun, and insightful, to go back and read my workouts where I Bench Press 65 pounds for 8 reps and then, it seems like just a few pages later, I am finally getting the mythical 200 pound barrier. I talked with an old girl friend of mine the other day, Pam, and she said that my 300 pound plus bench press “scared” all the other kids in the neighborhood. On paper, though, it isn’t very far from 65 to 400, but in gym hours, well, let’s just say that is a lot of hours squeezed into some tiny pencil marks.

I love the gym. I love moving weights. I browse used bookstores for old lifting magazines and old books. But, life has a way of deciding that the time I have in the gym is not going to be as open ended like those first few years when I trained up to three times a day.

Yet, an interesting thing leaps from the pages of my journal when I cut back to two or three days a week because of inconveniences like “children,” and life. I note time and again that I get stronger, bigger and healthier. “Healthier” to a lifter means that the elbows don’t hurt when you put on your shirt and you can get in and out of a car with a minimum of embarrassment.

Even if you don’t HAVE to train on a Minimalist Program, you should consider it several times a year. Let me rundown, quickly, a few good reasons:

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