Archive August 2011

Navigating a “Blog”

So, I give a series of workshops and people want more information on “this and that.” So, I tell them to go to my Blog. Some seem to manage finding everything by scrolling down the page and then going to earlier entries. Others, well…

It’s become something that I really think about. Many people have told me that my conviction of giving away things for free is actually costing me a lot of time, money and effort. There is a notion that “free” means “cheap.” Or, “Dan John’s time” is not as valuable as “My time.” Good question, really.

Here is my take: I am possessed with this idea that I owe much more than I can give. My life has been blessed by mentors, coaches, family and friends who took care of me and lead me on the right paths. How, honestly, can I ever thank Dick Notmeyer enough? Twenty-five cents a week to train 15 hours under his care…pay that back somehow. Ralph Maughan’s great math mind cut track and field to the simplest steps…so simple that it took years to believe it. I have a free education, paid for by lots of work and probably too many sacrifices.

So, I will continue to “give away” a lot. Now, that I have contractual agreements, some things will cost. But, few understand the great shoulders I stand on each and every day.

So, if you are new to my site, take your time. Click buttons. Download stuff. Read. Enjoy!

Oh, and to answer the specific question: this is the SteveO workout…

“Stevo Workout:”
I sure love my group at the Coyote Point Kettlebell Club. We trained on Thursday this week and had a lot of new people. We were going to do the “Humane Burpee” with Pull Ups, but SteveO (Steve Ledbetter) added a simple idea: “Let’s do Suitcase Carries so we can do all five human movements.” More on that in a second…

So, off we went:
10 Bulgarian Goat Bag Swings
10 Goblet Squats
10 Push Up
Suitcase Carry Left Hand to Pull Up Bar
One Pull Up (Trust me on this!)
Suitcase Carry Right Hand back to Swing area.

Now, you can do this 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 fashion or a bunch of sets of Five…it doesn’t matter. It steams you up, gets the heart beating and works on a lot of things. What it REALLY works on is your abs at they don’t even have a chance to catch up.

So, I think we called it “The SteveO Segue Super Sircuit of Sweetness” or something like that.

Lifetime Warrior Workout

I had a nice compliment paid to me by a family member this weekend. I was training in the hotel gym and my sister-in-law’s boyfriend noticed me doing Pull Ups. He later told her, then the whole family, how impressive it was to watch me to Pull Ups.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that that is my worst movement and, if he ever got the chance, when I really lift or throw…stand back. But, it raised some good questions and I told him I would work out something simple for “most” people. I came up with a simple two-page overview of the “basics.”

The “muscles of youth” seem to make you taller. A tight butt, those external obliques, the deep abs, the deltoids, rhomboids, and triceps give off the appearance of youth. There is a great “Sex and the City,” the show not those dreadful movies, where we see the issue of “saggy butt.” So, do your presses, your one arm presses, your hills sprints, your swings and get younger.

At the same time, stretch out those muscles that are stiff. Doing bench and curls all the time leads to “the old man look.” Keep vigorous by stretching these daily.

LIfetime Warrior Workouts

It’s a very simple sheet, but it contains, in the simplest of ways, the gems of fighting age with weights and stretching.

The Warrior Spirit and The Divine Spark

As many of you know from my recent Facebook post, I lost several friends in the recent copter accident in the Middle East. I have been working as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) for at least eight years with certain military groups and, sadly, one particular group was hit hard this past weekend.

A few weeks ago, Laree Draper sent a “Care” package of On Target Publishing materials to the guys and I got a nice email back regarding how they were going to be following my advice on the Get Up and some training ideas. Sadly, the author and the others were all killed.

As many know, I am a strength coach but that is just a little part of me. I believe in the need for reflection, meditation and fasting as part of instilling the Warrior Spirit in myself and the people I work with in the field. I got this interesting email, as part of a series, where one of my friends wrote:

“I agree with you that many misunderstand the need for reflection in the warrior spirit. I would go further, based upon my experience over the past ten years, and say that many, many have forgotten the need for reflection in the warrior spirit. Musashi Miyamoto, Japan’s “Sword Saint” and the undefeated victor of over 60 duels to the death, said that the warrior should practice painting and poetry as well as the sword. His work, “The Book of Five Rings” is the deepest and yet most succinct treatise on the warrior spirit I have ever read. The warrior monks of the medieval orders such as the Knights Templar prayed and fasted regularly. But that tradition has been forgotten Reading, prayer, and meditation have been replaced with video games, alcohol (not that that wasn’t a part of things back in the day!) and surfing the internet.”

There are gems in this paragraph and I will keep these concepts close to my heart. He followed up by saying:

“The evidence for this I find in the gradual evolution of religions from pagan and sacrificial to enlightened and protective of human life and the human spirit; and of societies from barbaric to civilized, from monarchial or tyrannical to democratic. I see this as evidence of an ever-deepening realization of the inherent, sacred value of the individual, a value that finds its root in the divine spark that each one of us carries within us.”
:

Obviously, I have little more to add…

May they rest in peace and may perpetual light shine upon them.