Archive October 2011

Twenty Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today, my dad, Albert John, died. It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed. Of course, just a few days after the funeral, Tiff and I discovered we were pregnant with Lindsay, so we often joke that they “High Fived” each other across the barrier. So, and I firmly believe this, as we heard in “The Sound of Music,” whenever God closes a door, He also opens a window. To think that Lindsay, now in her second year of college, never met my dad is proof enough of the time going by, but the brain doesn’t like to think like that when it comes to grief.

My dad had his demons. His youth was rough and the details aren’t important. But, he loved his kids. There are six of us and we certainly have had enough success to make our folks proud. He also loved sports, too. I would like to think that those are wonderful passions as I seem to share them. I have often wished that my mom and dad would have lived long enough to hold one of my books as they both were avid readers, too, but that is not what happened.

In reviewing the body of work that I have written, I noticed I rarely mention my dad, but so many of the articles have him “around.” In lifting articles, I used to talk about “Dad Strength,” but rarely have details about my father. Some of my poems (I was going to say “my Award Winning” poems as I have won several poetry contests and the winning prize is $25!…which helped me realize that there was no money in poetry) have my dad in them, but it is not the same.

I have one article that gives me a vision of the time. As Kelly, my daughter, is now a first grade teacher, this article seems to be dated, but it still reflects my feelings on days to remember like this:

This year, my daughter Kelly starts the third grade. In some ways, my whole adult life is compressed into the third grade. It marks the year I learned about ‘the Birds and the Bees’ and Santa Claus, won my first trophy, and my brother came home from Vietnam. Perhaps all I need to know I learned in kindergarten, but I learned about life, and death, in the third grade.

Playing ‘Trivial Pursuit’ a few years ago, we came across the question of the shortest verse in the Bible. After one plays the game a few times, some questions are easier to pack into one’s ‘junk drawer’ memory: largest office building: Pentagon; shortest verse in the Bible: ‘Jesus Wept.’ It occurred to me during one game to look up this ‘shortest verse’ and read it for myself.

In chapter eleven of the Gospel of John, we find the story of ‘The Raising of Lazarus.’ It is a challenging chapter. After ‘snorting in the spirit,’ often translated as ‘becoming perturbed,’ Jesus asks where Lazarus has been laid. And then, Jesus wept.

When my brother received his traveling orders to Vietnam, nobody in my family had heard of the place. We consulted our little Atlas, the kind that came with the encyclopedia set that one would buy each week at the grocery store at the end of the aisle, and looked for the location. We found nothing, as I recall, our Atlas had an area called ‘French Indo-China.’

So, my family’s adventures with Vietnam began. The nightly news, which still lasted for one hour in the early Sixties, slowly began to report the battles and body counts. Life magazine added to the images with black and white photos illustrating events we could read in Ray’s letters home.

My mother’s emotions would only show while she ironed. I never understood why, but perhaps ironing took her back to World War II. First, my husband, now my son. Soon, it would be sons. It is the waiting that breaks one’s heart; we were warned about the sudden appearance of Marines in dress blues at the front door: no news is good news. The weeks turned to months; I passed from the second grade to the third grade, my class wrote to Ray during Christmas, the images of the war soon dominated the newspapers, the nightly news, and neighborhood gossip. We waited.
I sat in the far right row of Sister Eugenie’s classroom, last seat. I struggled, as I still do, with math. I kept focusing and reviewing the columns. The classroom door opened and I ignored it. My brother Ray walked in. I looked up, leaped up and rushed into his arms. I have held the hand of a newborn baby and the hand of a dying man, but I have never felt the pure joy of seeing my brother return, so unexpectedly.

In a sense, every soldier, sailor and marine rises with Lazarus. After months of fearing to speak the unspeakable, the homecoming marks a foretaste of the final family reunion, the life of the resurrection. When I returned to California for the funeral of my mother, then later for my father, I toured my school. The memory of Ray’s return filled me with hope. During the Mass of the Resurrection for my parents, I was reminded that when I join ‘with all the Angels and the Saints,’ mom and dad will be there, too. And, soon enough, my brothers and my sister. And one day, my daughters will bury me.

It is not a pessimistic view of the world, rather, it is a hope-filled view. It is in contrast to the statement of the famous sage, Anonymous: ‘everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die to get there.’ Rather, it is ‘in dying that we are born to eternal life.’

It is the lesson of life. And I have been thinking about it all summer, because, this year, my daughter Kelly starts the third grade.

Thanks for listening.

Inspiring “Fan Letter”

If my Mission Statement is “Make a Difference,” then it helps me to know that sometimes “it sticks.” Great letter in my inbox this morning and well worth noting. This, along with my workshop this morning with twenty enthusiastic learners, makes me want to do more:

“I try to keep track of your writings and want to tell you how much you have made a difference in my life. I work with two strength trainers, one in Dallas and one in Albuquerque—and can always tell when they have seen you in person, watched a DVD or read one of your books or articles. In other words, I can tell a Dan John influence in my workout—a new “simple but not easy,” although your training philosophy is evident throughout my program. We also discuss your articles and books regularly and make sure we are keeping up with you. (Reading is part of my training program and as a voracious reader, I love it).

I was not an athlete growing up because it wasn’t encouraged—definitely a pre-Title 9 era. So I began training after the death of my husband, when I determined the need to stay healthy (actually “become healthy” would be more accurate) because I needed to be able to take care of myself. And it helped deal with the grief. At one point, I could ran out of finger strength when sumo squatting with a dumbbell and my trainer had me deadlift instead. I wanted to do that again—and a lot! So at the age of 61, I began training to compete in powerlifting. And since I agree with your precept of having a goal to work toward, I set some fairly ambitious ones for myself. I also needed to lose weight, so my overall goal is to set American and World powerlifting records in four weight classes. I’m working on it. So far I have American and World records (NASA) in the 198 class and the American record in 181. I have a USAPL American in 181 and won my class at the Raw Nationals this year. (I have to qualify that by stating there was nobody else in my class at the Raw Nationals but I still had to compete with myself, my weights and a fairly high degree of pain).

At the moment my goal is to correct a mobility limitation that impacted my lifting with some pretty severe pain. It kept me from going for the 181 World record this year but we felt it was important to correct the issue rather than to just fight it. Progress is of course going more slowing than I’d like but another goal is to do this correctly—and once! No lifting for about 6 months and I’m about 3 months in—with an exciting rumor I may be able to begin to deadlift this week as a test of progress!

I have every excuse to fail in terms of training. I live alone and have to take care of the “everything” that used to be split between two people. I travel extensively for work—hence trainers in both Dallas and Albuquerque, since I live in ABQ but go to Dallas two weeks each month. Other than that I work with clients coast to coast and give 10 or so presentations/year at regional and national conferences. It is difficult to maintain my nutritional program while traveling and my travel schedule is exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. For too many years, I would also start “working out” and quit after about 90 days. The fact I have continued consistently for 5+ years is a testament to my trainers, who have kept things interesting and challenging.

Powerlifting changed my life in so many positive ways. I feel better and have more energy than when I was in my 40’s. I am healthier too. I learned it’s just as important to recover as it is to go as hard as you can—I knew the “go hard and achieve” part but neglected the recovery for far too many years. Thanks to my trainers (Nate and Slade), I also discovered a whole new set of wise people who could add to my life as an elder athlete as well as to the overall richness of my life. Thank you for being at the top of that list!

I am now 64 and in my 3rd year of competition as a powerlifter. My daughter Jennifer joined me last year in terms of competition and it has been great fun training together in Dallas. She recently qualified for the Arnold and I’m very proud. (She’s a Dan John fan too).

Sometimes you never know how far you have reached and what your influence can mean. I know there are crazy strong young athletes who gain from your wisdom, but you have made a difference in the life of a powerlifting grandma too. I appreciate your perspective on life and training, your humor, your values and those occasionally profound insights from the wise people you quote.

This year I also added two new goals:

1. Never get taken out of a meet on a stretcher (watched it, didn’t do it)

2. Never have to pre-board—well at least until age 85 or so

Thank you for making a difference!

PK”

She even knew my Mission!!!

There are some things more important…

This weekend, at Net Profit Explosion, I found out that Sean Greeley had “required” everyone to read my free book on my site (danjohn.net) “From Dad to Grad.” I wrote it for my daughter Kelly’s Eighth Grade Graduation. For Lindsay, I hand wrote a huge journal-like book that answered and addressed dozens of questions. Between the two works, I like to think I am leaving a legacy of my heart and mind.

That’s the key, really. Certainly, joint mobility work and hypertrophy/explosive work on the glutes, delts, triceps, rhomboids, obliques and abs is going to keep me “legacying” a bit longer (really, just improving the quality, not the quantity, I think…), but I have to agree with what my prof taught me about what Pythagorus (A squared plus B squared guy) taught about “immortality:”
Plant a tree
Write a book
Build a house
Have a child

It’s what the Ale-Wife told Gilgamesh on his way to meet with Uta-Napishtim, too, so I am not the first to say this either.

One of my favorite sites on the net, Zen Simplicity, had a post today that sings this same song. It’s worth your time to read this.

Every so often on the net, I read someone say that I sold out because of this reason or that reason. I guess that could be true, but I hope that my body of work, both as a fitness guy and a human being (“human doing?”), reflects my core mission: Make a Difference.

Let’s continue to meet and dialogue and leave this tiny blue-green orb a better place than when we got here.

Lots of Interesting Links…

This isn’t really a blog post, but a lot of my reading may miss these:

A mention in the Superman Blog

The whole workout

Some Good Cardio Boosters

Enjoy.

Explosive Overhead Work with Kettlebells

There are two sides to every discussion in Religious Studies. One is “mythos,” or the “why” of things and the other is “Logos,” or the how of things. With the Kettlebell Jerk, I think it is well worth a few minutes of why, before we move to “how.”

If I could give one piece of advice to anyone interested in the throwing arts or in any of the explosive lifts (snatch, clean and jerk), I would be best served by offering words of wisdom from former world record holder in the shot, Brian Oldfield:

“You can’t think through a ballistic movement.”

Memorize those words and live them. Now, like they say in “Harry met Sally,” as those words are coming out of my mouth like a balloon in a cartoon, someone is going to ask me: “Yes, that’s true…but where is my elbow half way through the jerk.” Hopefully, somewhere between the wrist and shoulder, but I think you still missed the point. Ballistic movements need the kind of teaching progression that is light on words and heavy on repetitions.

We see the same issue in teaching the Kettlebell Clean and Kettlebell Snatch. Both moves, like the Swing, are Swings! The most common fix for KB Cleans is usually addressing the Swing issue. The person’s brain is usually in the elbow or wrist or shoulder and the issue turns into Brett Jones’s “Uglystyle.” Literally, sometimes you simply can’t think through a ballistic movement. So, when I see a beat up chest or quirky finish to any clean or snatch, I glue my eyes on the hike and the triangle. Usually, that fixes things.

The decision tree on Jerks goes something like this:

Can the person do a Swing and a Get Up on both sides?

No. Well, then don’t do Jerks!

Yes? The next question is does the person need to do Jerks (we will discuss why in just a moment)?

No. Well, then don’t do Jerks!

Yes? Well, do they know how to Double Kettlebell Clean?

No. Well, then don’t do Jerks…yet!

Yes? Proceed to learning the Jerk!

What is the value of the Jerk? Well, and it is so obvious to mention but really true: one uses heavier weights on Jerks and therefore more strength, mass and “athletic” gains are possible from doing them. I am always amazed when young lifters don’t see the connection between strength and their other training goals.

Using bigger loads puts a stress on the body that shocks many people. At the recent RKC II cert, people were amazed how sets of five of the “Long Cycle,” double snatch sized bells being done in the fashion of “Clean-Jerk-Rack-Clean-Jerk-Rack…” could make the heart beat through the throat. It is a fat loss exercise worthy of the back cover of a fitness magazine, but don’t hold your breath until you see it there.

So, the “why” of the Jerk is easy. It is the ticket to fat loss, muscle gain and improved athletic ability. The “how” takes some finesse.

I think it is a serious mistake to teach the Jerk as a way to deal with fatigue after a bunch of presses. There is a popular notion that one does Presses until you need to use a little leg to do Push Presses and, when that gets dicey, Jerk the weights up.

Remember, under fatigue, the system resorts to practice. What this method is teaching is that we are going to exhaust the athlete and have them invent something new to counter the effects of fatigue. In practice, I can do this workout. It is a standard Olympic lifting workout. But, and literally this is a big “but,” I do this combination after a fair high level of mastery with the three movements.

I believe that after mastery of the Press, the double dipped Jerk should be taught next. The problem with Presses and Jerks, as Pavel often points out, is that they are not a good mix. Grinds and Ballistics are wonderful together in training, but not always in “learning.”

First, I teach people to Jerk with their ears. In other words, I want them to hear that foot stomp. To teach this, I have the person start in a foot position with the heels touching and the toes out.

This does two things: one, it insures that the dip, the “Push” of the Push Press and Push Jerk, goes straight down. The dip is tall with the chest high and head square with the eyes horizontal. A wide stance can be done, but this little tool speeds up the learning process. Again, this is a tool not the way to do for an entire career.

After demonstrating a Jerk, 99% of the population “gets” the general idea. Honestly, there is always one percent that doesn’t get anything and we sometimes have to move on. So, literally, stop talking, field no questions from the athlete and ask them to perform a Jerk. The key is this:

Listen for the feet. Insist on slamming the feet back on the platform after extending from the dip. This is the second reason I teach “heels together” in the learning process as to do this the feet must be active, the legs must work in the proper way (without every mentioning it) and the “monkey brain” is listening for the feet rather than the ballistic process.

It’s one of those things, like squatting, that works better if you get out of the body’s way and simply do the movement.

Second, the issue of Tempo is crucial in the ballistic movements. You should never over gun a snatch, clean, swing, or jerk. As the disco song goes “enough is enough is enough.” So, I recommend the following training workout sometimes called a “Drumline:”

Two light bells
Two medium bells
Two “heavier” bells

Double Clean and Jerk the first set of bells. Rack , recover and return to the floor. Step to the next bells and repeat. Finally, go to the heavy bells and repeat. Yes, you are only doing singles with each sets of bells. Return to the light bells and repeat as long as you like…or a little longer.

This easy drill teaches one to control the speed, the tempo, of the Jerk. You don’t need to send light bells through the ceiling. You need “enough” dip, not maximum. Controlling the bells is the sign of a professional. Early in the learning process, I always insist, as Dick Notmeyer insisted for me, to hold the bells in the overhead lockout for a little longer than you need. Not an hour, but perhaps it is wise to hold the bells in a solid steel column long enough to show mastery.

A small segue: I am a huge fan of Waiter Walks for everyone everywhere. It’s a rare person that I would insist upon at least a loop or two of Waiter Walks each session in the general warm up. Double Overhead Walks, well, I am not such a big fan of doing these. Yes, the RKC IIs can do this and most strongmen and strongwomen. This is one of those movements where I would err on the side of caution. If something goes wrong in the Double Overhead Walk, it will go wrong fast and it can be dangerous. All you need is one accident on this movement to understand how dangerous it can be: if one side fails, the natural reaction is place the head under the “high” bell and, well, to quote Sancho from Don Quixote:

“Whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it’s going to be bad for the pitcher.”

Use this tempo drumline workout often to build confidence and the movements. Take a few workouts to master the movement before moving into the Long Cycle. Once you do, the exercise will blossom into the most “bang for the buck” exercise in the kettlebell world.

Interviews at Begin to Dig!!!

I’m in Ireland, loving every second of it!!!

mc of begin to dig, has had some some great interviews and material from me:

She has a great interview of my new DVD: My DVD and Book to be on “Intervention”

mc and I also did a fun discussion discussing strength…and strength for women here: enjoy!.

Part Two of the Fun Interview