Efficient Exercise’s Project Transformation — the Preliminary Results

Okay, so it’s not the best picture, to be sure – I thought I could wash-out the glare, but alas… Anyway, here’s Madame Benoit’s rather erudite quote:

“I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with variation.”

Not to beat a dead horse, but again — it is my opinion that the parallels between the culinary arts and the pursuit of optimum Physical Culture are uncanny.  Substitute “program” or “methodology” for recipe, “trainee” or “coach” for cook and you’ll see what I mean.  No dogma here, just results.  This much I know to be true: on-going success in the n=1 pursuit of fine Physical Culture comes down to the ability to pick just the right ingredient, at just the right time.  It’s not at all rocket science really, but it does require a certain degree of devotion, dedication to the craft.  Just as in fine writing, though, one must know the rules inside and out before those same rules can be broken in order to produce an elegantly-honed piece.  We’ve all endured writing that is technically perfect…yet, colorless; lifeless, even.  Consider such writing as the equivalent of linear periodization in resistance training.  And then, every once in a while, we’re lucky enough to come across something breath-taking, like this:

“Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.”

That’s the last paragraph of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; and that, my friends, is a true work of art.  Cormac’s writing has a way of inducing epileptic fits among grammar Marms, and yet, what a vivid, sensual picture he paints.   McCarthy undoubtedly knows the rules of grammar just as well as any technician, and yet he’ll trample those same rules in an instant in order to produce a desired result — in this example, a last paragraph that is nothing less than brilliant.

~

And speaking of bending the rules to produce results, remember back in January of this year when I spoke of the launch of Efficient Exercise’s Project Transformation?  In this “project”, we at Efficient Exercise offered some 20-odd “everyday Joes” (and Josephenes!) 10 weeks of free training and dietary counseling, with the intent being to show that anyone can achieve and maintain a fantastic level of health and well-being with a minimum investment of both time and dietary intervention — or, another way of putting it, with a minimum of “headache, heartache and hassle”! Training consisted of two, 30-minute, CZT/ARX -based workouts per week, with “dietary counseling” consisting of  little more than the equivalent of  “hey, follow more-or-less a Paleo diet, and here’s Robb Wolf’s and Dr. Kurt Harris’ web sites“.

I jest here about the diet…but only slightly.  Actually we did offer the dietary counseling/intervention services of Austin’s Merritt Wellness Center for those who had a rough, initial “shaking the carb Jones” transition, or for those who we thought might be struggling with proper nutrient absorption, or other such issues.  The main take-away here is that these people were largely left to their own devices, other than the 2x 30-minutes per week that they saw us for their workouts, and the virtual support network created by our Facebook page.  A health and wellness program that is anything but a fad, mostly self-directed and administered, and that is sustainable for a lifetime.  No involvement from the medical establishment, no insurance hassles, nor dealings with the poly-pharma industry.  No sales pitch or endorsement from a celebrity talking head.  Surely something that simple can’t work, right?

Well, let’s just see about that.

So, after 10 short weeks, how did it go?  Just take a gander, if you will, at these results:

No gloss-over here, no top-performer bias, just the plain, raw, non-manipulated data.  Everybody’s data.

Limitations?  Sure.  I wish we’d done preliminary and follow-up blood work.  I wish that we had access to a more accurate method of measuring body composition (we used the impedance method; access to a university’s water tank/scale would have been nice).  But hey, we’re a gym/fitness studio, not a university lab.  Our aim was to show a trend, not measure absolutes, and in that, I believe we succeeded.

But the key points remain: this is a simple, realistic and sustainable program with a huge return-on-investment — not just in the measurable health and well-being parameters, but in the intangible measures — happiness, self-esteem, productivity.  Our intent here was not to produce better athletes, but better everyday citizens.  Citizens who will not become yet another drain on our country’s limited healthcare resources.  Citizens who can continue, into an advanced age, to contribute to the nation’s GDP, rather than become yet another statistical drain upon that same measure.  And, yeah (and here comes my “woo-woo” side) — citizens who can contribute to the overall “good vibe” of their communities.  Healthy, fit people are happy, courteous, empathetic, loving and caring people.  It is no coincidence that Austin is, at the same time, the epicenter of Physical Culture, and a city renoun for it’s tremendously good vibe.

But hey, enough of me yammering on about this, let’s consider a couple of actual participant testimonials:

 

So, can the nation’s health care crisis be tamed, one citizen at a time?  You bet it can.  One hour per week.  Some rudimentary dietary changes.  A huge return on a very small investment.  Vibrant health is within everyone’s grasp, even the most time-crunched of individuals.

~

Okay, and now for a few workouts from last week:

Tuesday, 3/29/11

(A1) blast strap flyes: 15, 15, 15

(A2) blast strap tri extensions: 10, 10, 10

(A3) CZT/ARX chest press: HR/3, 3, 3

I’m a big fan of pairing blast strap work with the CZT/ARX.  This little sequence here produced a total upper-body beat-down in a very short period of time.

(B1) OHS: 95/10, 12, 15 (box at 2 holes showing).  Shoulders were friggin’ shot to hell at this point, so this movement, as it was programmed in this sequence, was done more of an upper-body finisher, with the added benefit of providing a good lower-body dynamic stretch.

 

Wednesday, 3/30/11

(A1) Nautilus lateral raise: 150/10, 10, 9

(A2) XC seated military: (0 offset)/10, 7+, 7+

 

Thursday, 3/31/11

Ahh, goin’ a little old-school here, with a nice pulls progression!

(A1) power cleans (high catch): 135/10, 165/5, 185/3, 205/2

(B1) high pulls: (to at least belly-button height — higher, if possible), 225/5, 245/3, 275/3

(C1) BOR: 275/6, 295/3

(D1) straight leg DL: 295/6, 315/7

(E1) deadlift: 365/3, 415/2, 435/2

 

Friday, 4/1/11

(A1) high bar Oly squat: 135/15; 225/12, 12, 12, 12

(A2) XC bi curl: (+20)/12; (+30)/12; (+40)/12, 12, 12

The properly performed high-bar Oly squat is a thing of technical beauty.  Here, Russian world Oly lift champion (many times over) Anatoli Piserenko demonstrates a bit of “performance art” perfection.  Wow…

So it’s been a ‘coon’s age since I’ve done high-bar Oly squats myself; a radically different move, of course, from the power-oriented variety.  I performed these barefooted, which adds a tad bit to the level of difficulty in the movement.  What added to the difficulty level even moreso, however, was the fact that I performed these following a good deal of fixie huckin’.  Any form of squatting, though, following a spell of hard saddle time, is always an adventure  🙂  Seriously though — if you’re looking to push top-end weight in this movement, kids, wear your Oly shoes!  Do as I say, not as I do! 😉

In health,

Keith

Mind, Body, Spirit

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity.  This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization.  Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul.  Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.

~ B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala

…”There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

~ Rumi

So I was listening to Krista Tippett’s On Being last week — Krista’s show being one of my favorite commute podcasts — and was absolutely enthralled by Seane Corn’s description of Yoga as being “body prayer”.  What an awesome analogy.  And not just for Yoga, but, in my mind, for all pursuits of true Physical Culture.  This is one commonality that I’ve observed among those who, regardless of their particular fitness expression of choice, remain in the Physical Culture scene for the long haul — that the expression of choice becomes a vehicle for (or toward) something much greater than becoming better at that particular discipline.  In essence, practice of the particular discipline of choice continually re-establishes that connection between “self” and “other”.  Refined and bettered skills, body composition, what-have-you then become a nice secondary consequence, rather than the focus of the pursuit itself; it’s rather like the old axiom of only finding true love when you’re not actively looking for it, or of finding God only in the silence and stillness.

Of course it wasn’t always this way for me, and I initially came to Physical Culture as a kid who wanted to get “swole”, dominate on the football field and, of course, (and being devoid of any other talent) to gain some kind of an inside with the ladies.  I believe this is the natural course of action for these things.  Great artists, it seems to me — those with real staying power — follow a similar path.  And what is the essence of Physical Culture if not an artistic expression of sorts, or (and to steal a rif from Seane), body prayer?

So give a listen to this particular episode of On Being — you won’t regret it.  Yeah, even the most hard-core, HIIT weight trainers among you will be able to relate.

case in point: just check out how Seane describes her practice of  Vinyasa Flow Yoga, in the clip below.  Does this not sound like an athlete — any athlete — in the zone?

The linking of mind and body; remaining clear and steady, focused and grounded.  I like to associate Yoga (and like practices — for me, that would include hucking the ol’  fixie about town and sprinting.  MovNat-like endeavors?  Yep, that, too) as the “Yin” to HIIT’s “Yang” aspect.  And in both practices, I attempt to engage what Seane is speaking of here — a direct linking of mind, body and spirit.  I have a client who is active in both weight training and ballet; an awesome pairing, I think.  And kudos to her for dismantling preconceived notions both of what it is to be an dancer, as well as what it is to be a hellified strength athlete.

Now, most would consider a high-intensity slam-fest as being anything but a spiritual journey; why, though?  In my mind, it’s just another pathway, another opportunity to “connect”.  Anything that is physically challenging, and that can help razor-focus the mind is an opportunity to help link the spirit to the other — whatever “other” might mean for you.

~

Physical Culture as analogous to the culinary arts –

Have a look at the menu offerings at one of my and Meesus TTP’s favorite Austin-area restaurants, Foreign & Domestic.  Beyond this being high-dining “hog heaven” for the Paleo-minded, I am reminded, once again, of the parallels between the crafting a fine dining experience and expert fitness programming.  Both become works of art in the hands of the skilled practitioner; both, too, can become deconstructed and devalued to the point of being nothing more than a soulless, for-profit-only, vehicle.   Quality, in both disciplines, can be found in the love of, and absolute reverence for, the art.  Industrial fitness, like industrial food, is an anathema to the refined pallet.  And, too, elegance is found in simplicity.  The good need not be complicated and, in fact, to the extent that a food or fitness program is overly complicated is simply an attempt at covering what is lackluster at the onset.

simple ingredients, simple food, high taste

~

On to the workout front –

Sunday, 3/6/11

Sprints at the local high school.  Ropes, bars, and other fun.  Check out some of the new toys!

Climbing ropes in the background. Oh, yeah….

Monday, 3/7/11

(A1) snatch grip high pull: 135/7; 165/7; 185/6; 205/6

(A2) dips: 45/7; 70/7; 80/7; 95/5

(A3) pull-aparts (red band): 15, 15, 15, 15

Tuesday, 3/8/11

(A1) power cleans: 5 sets of 7 (fast cadence), 30 secs between sets

(B1) straight bar DL: 225/5; 315/5; 365/3; 415/1; 435/1, 1, 1, 1, 1 – very little rest between sets.  Leaned toward more of a metabolic hit vs an expression of max strength.

Thursday, 3/10/11

(A1) XCCentric 45-degree incline press: (+50)/21 rest-pause reps

(B1) trap bar BOR: 255/21 rest-pause reps

Friday, 3/11/11 –

AM – Pendulum Hip Press – 145 + 2 black bands, 8 sets of 3.  Speed!

PM – Pendulum Hip Press – 145 + 2 black bands, 8 sets of 3.  Speed!

Immediately following each of these leg press sessions, I hopped on the old fixie and rode — hard, but intermittently so; fast when I did put the hammer down, though and pretty damn far as well!  All-in-all, a nice mix of work.  And in excellent, ATX (spring-like!)  weather.

~

And finally –

The Austin Primal Living Group hosted a pot luck dinner on Saturday, March 12th; among the many attendees was none other than Angelo Coppela, host of the most informative and expertly produced, Latest in Paleo podcast.   Angelo and his friend Tom Sadira (mistahmojo!) were here in the ATX — the epicenter of Physical Culture — to attend the now infamous South by Southwest Film, Interactive and Music festival.  Angelo and Tom were nice enough to take time out of their SXSW partying to drop by our little Austin area Primal Meet-Up shin-dig, even going so far as to bring along some of that rockin’ Paleo beef jerky.   And it’s a tasty recipe, indeed!  Do check it out.

On Sunday, Meesus TTP, Angelo, Tom and I swung by the Efficient Exercise Westlake studio for a CZT/ARX (Accommodating Resistance EXercise) throw-down.  Both of the fellas survived the session (at least long enough to get in a post-workout photo op, and some follow-on Tweeting), but apparently brought Fago de Chao to it’s collective knees in trying to satisfy the guys’ resultant — and rampant — follow-on carnivory 🙂

Me, the lovely Meesus TTP, and Angelo. Hat tip to Tom “mistahmojo” for snapping the pic

Check out the clips of the guys’ CZT/ARX tussle at the Efficient Exercise YouTube page, or at our Facebook page.  Sweet!  But be forewarned – you might want to tone the volume down a bit when watching Tom’s workout, if you think the shrapnel from a little F-bombs might hurt 😉

In health,

Keith

Primal Needs, 21st-Century Constraints

Here at TTP, I tend to focus most of my training-related posts on the athletic betterment end of the optimum health/optimum performance continuum, as that happens to be what really gets my training-related geek-out juices flowing.   It also happens to be that end of the continuum where I target my own training  as well.  More precisely, I attempt to push the envelope of performance, while at the same time being very cognizant of the effects of that training on my overall health, because (and as I’ve said before), optimum performance often begins where superior health ends. The competition and training for competitive athletics takes a helluva toll on a body.  It’s simply the case of too much of a good thing being detrimental on that same system over the long run; you can only red-line a finely tuned engine for so long, and for so many bursts, before something breaks down.

The training techniques, environment, technology, and supportive science (and learned art, let’s not forget) afforded to, and practiced by, high-level competitive athletes does have relevance to the merely health-conscience, though, in the way that space-bound NASA missions have relevance to earth-bound humanity at large.  At-the-fringe science  — like at-the-fringe training methodology — affords trickle-down know-how and useful (practical) by-products to the masses.  Whereas, for instance, the push to space gave us Teflon, the push to build a better athlete more efficiently (i.e., impart the same level of strength/power while saving more time for skills development) give us the roots of High Intensity Training (HIT).  We at Efficient Exercise are in the midst of carrying this idea a step further by demonstrating that, with very little in the way of training time investment and lifestyle alteration, an individual can positively affect his or her health to the point of (1) lessening the collective burden on the (broken) healthcare delivery system, and (2) escaping the personal (and, by extension, family) hell resultant of the ravages of metabolic derangement, and the high cost — both in a financial and quality-of-life sense — of “diseases of civilization”.  We’re not attempting to make athletes here; no, our endeavor is simply to prove that an individual can still live a healthy, happy and highly productive life, even while facing the crushing constraints (time and otherwise) of a 21st-century lifestyle.

Primal needs, modern technology –

For optimum health, our bodies require intermittent doses of high-intensity output, and the safest, most efficient way to realize that level of required intensity is via smartly programmed resistance training.  While few dispute this fact, most agree that finding the time in a busy day to accomplish that task is…well…daunting at best.  Again, we’re not talking about the driven athlete here, we’re talking work-a-day, family-raising Joe and Jane citizen — the same people who ultimately become — even against their best intentions otherwise — part of the collective burden on our healthcare delivery system.   And as I’ve said before, no healthcare delivery system can be created that will not ultimately implode under the weight of a diseased citizenry.  None.  To be sure, the system itself is in need of serious reform otherwise — but let’s face it, the crux of the problem resides squarely with the man, woman and child in the mirror.

So let’s get back to surmounting the time/convenience issue.  For this purpose, we at Efficient Exercise utilize our CZT — think Critical Zone Training — technology.  A whole-body workout in 10 – 15 minutes?  Yes.  And I don’t mean just a workout (yawn….), but a friggin’ workout! Sounds like the stuff of Sunday morning infomercials, right?  Hardly.  Check-out some of the clips over at the Efficient Exercise YouTube page.  How does CZT technology force such an intense dose of work output in such a truncated amount of time? Because it’s an  Instantaneously matched,  accommodating resistance exercise, my friend.  Simply stated, the device matches the trainee’s available force output at the bio-mechanically weakest, and strongest, positions — and everywhere in between for that matter — in both the concentric and eccentric portion of the movement.  The trainee is producing maximum available force at each point along the strength curve for that particular movement.  The loading of any conventional exercise is limited by one’s strength at the bio-mechanically weakest position — otherwise, there would be no movement at all (bro-sistance bench pressing not withstanding  🙂   ).  The bottom line is a heavy-duty dose of high-intensity work in a very short period of time.  In the hands of an athlete, this is another fantastic tool for the for the overall training toolbox.  Not the end-all-be-all, of course — but a great tool nonetheless.  In the hands of Joe and Jane citizen, though, we feel that CZT accommodating resistance technology is the answer to acquiring all the health benefits of resistance training with an absolute minimum time investment.

So I love training the driven and those with single-minded determination, no doubt.  Athletes, and those aspiring for peak performance, are fun as all hell to program and train.  But I decided to come to Efficient Exercise for another, more lofty reason — because I truly believe that the purveyors of Physical Culture in this country (and every country, for that matter) are tasked with leading the general citizenry out of this global healthcare morass, and I wanted to partner with an entity that shared that same vision.  Needless to say, I found just that in Efficient Exercise.

Puttin’ our money where our yap is…

So fixing the nation’s healthcare crisis one person at a time isn’t all just bluster, blather and wishful thinking — we at Efficient Exercise are leading the way in devising a manageable program for Joe and Jane citizen.  Keep tabs on the happenings over at our facebook page; the fun kicks-off with a participant group orientation on Tuesday, 1/18.  Could fixing the healthcare crisis really be as easy as a grassroots push to adopt a Paleo-ish diet and a half-hour a week on CZT equipment?  We at Efficient Exercise certainly think so.

 

 

In health,

Keith

Mindfulness, Pre-Conditioning, and the Psychology of Possibility

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

– Rumi

What in the hell does a Franciscan Friar (Father Richard Rohr, author of The Naked Now) have in common with Physical Culture (writ large), and with the Paleo/EvFit/Ancestral movement specifically?  Plenty, my friend; plenty.  And that association has everything to do with the dissolution of preconceived biases, culturalization, mental conditioning/imprinting.  Now you’d think this topic would be as far removed from the wheelhouse of anyone with a stiff Catholic (or any religious) underpinning as could be; not so, however, in the case of Father Rohr — the Catholic equivalent to the Protestant emerging  church’s Rob Bell.

The interconnectedness of all things.  The fractal nature of life…and of lives.  The questioning of supposed “authority”, and the removal of blinders.  Again, not the kind of thing you expect to come from the religious community.  The times, though, they are a changn’…albeit slowly…but they are changin’, nonetheless.  All things — including, if this emerging Physical Culture renaissance movement has anything to say about it (and we most assuredly do!) — nothing less than the revamping of the entire thought process related to disease, healthcare, and the nature of health maintenance and the health delivery system.

Not convinced that any theologian — much less a Catholic theologian — can be so progressive?  Check-out this podcast interview of Father Rohr by Tapestry host Mary Hynes; fantastic stuff indeed.  Or, skim the pages of The Naked Now.  Learn to separate the teacher’s message from the teacher’s associations, and your preconceived notions of those associations.  If you can do that, you’ll avail yourself to a multitude of new learning opportunities, and avoid spiraling into that dreaded vortex of dogma .  Then take the added step by applying that openness to your exercise protocol selection.  The only question in your mind should be this: is this the best protocol for me, at this juncture in my life and given my goals.  Don’t allow yourself to be yoked to a tribe, protocol or guru just for the sake of belonging to a certain “community”.  Be a Physical Culture free agent, my friend, and prosper.

Theme of the week – Serendipity:

Funny how face-to-face conversations can, in ways not enabled otherwise, help drop the veil (or illusion) of separateness between entities.  Case in point: I had the pleasure of visiting (coffee at Austin’s own Epoch Coffee — one of my away-from-the-studio offices) and sharing a CZT-based workout with TTP reader Bill Fairchild.  During our conversation, I related how that, as a teen-ager growing up in San Antonio (and lucky enough to live in close proximity to the mecca of the San Antonio Physical Culture scene at the time, Powerhouse Gym), I was exposed first-hand to the dramatic effects of, what was an essentially a Paleo diet, could have on an athlete’s (and bodybuilder’s) physique.  Need to drop fat, really gain and maintain muscularity and athleticism?  Shift from eating crap to eating meat, eggs, and veggies — and lots of ’em.  Why didn’t I make the connection back in the 80s that this type diet was preferable, year-’round (not just for contest/competition prep) to all the high carb/low fat crap that was being perpetuated?  Simply this: I wasn’t ready yet to think on my own, still thought “authority” ascended to the position of authority by virtue of having the “right” answers — in short, my thinking was, for the most part, mainstream; I’d been blinkered, culturalized, imprinted…conditioned.  For as radical as I thought I was at that time, I was really no more than a chick that had just begun to emerge from the shell.  And what I know now is that the shell of self-disillusion is the toughest of all to crack.

Now, of course, I question my own assumptions and “knowledge” relentlessly; Every.  Fracking.  Thing.  What things do I feel as sure of now, at this stage in my life,  that may just be the result of conditioning?  Hopefully, my epistemocratic leanings can save me from that kind of tunnel vision now; constant vigilance, though, is key.

Serendipity, part II:

I found out last week that the most knowledgeable man on the history of Physical Culture, Ken O’Neil, lives in Wimberley Texas, not 15 minutes from me.  Holy wealth-of-go-to-knowledge, batman.  The man is a walking encyclopedia of Physical Culture — past, present…and future!  More, much more, on Ken in the near future.  You’ll see his name here in TTP quite often from here on out I assure you.

In all things, Mindfulness:

Couple of great reads from Harvard magazine here.  Check out The Mindfulness Chronicles: On “the psychology of possibility”, and learn to tap into the possibility (the reality!) of you creating your own reality.  Dramatic changes begin in the mind.  Just as epigenetics can alter gene expression, so too can you significantly “alter” your reality.  There is no try, there is only do. 

And this is cool: Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and nutritionist Lilian Cheung, a lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health, apply ancient Buddhist mindfulness techniques to eating in the modern world. “It is not just what we consume, but how we eat, when we eat, why we eat, and whom we eat with that makes a difference,” says Cheung, who grew up in a Buddhist home in Hong Kong.  And I would add that the same mindfulness applies when lifting a weight, or otherwise engaged in an athletic effort.  Don’t just lift and/or mindlessly, but strive to make that mind-muscle connection.  This is the first step to becoming truly adept in the art of Physical Culture.  Other steps follow, of course — but not before mastery of this.  My own workouts, truthfully, are my meditations.

The workout front:

Monday, 12/27/10 –

A good deal of fixie huckin’ preceded this workout, so the old legs weren’t exactly fresh at the onset of the lifts.  Nothing to be worried over, though, within my grand scheme.  The key is Autoregulation and adequate intensity.

(A1) front squats (hierarchical): 135 x 15; 185 x 6; 235 x 3

(B1) high-catch power cleans: 135 x 10; 155 x 7; 175 x 5; 185 x 3; 195 x 2, 2, 2

(B2) Russian leg curl: x 5 each round (5010 tempo)

Wednesday, 12/29/10 –

(A1) Tru Squat: 160 # (no counter weight) x 7,  3, 3, 3, 3, 3 (rest pause, 30×0 tempo)

(A2) leg press: 400 x 15 (30×0 tempo)

(B1) Nautilus pec dec: 110 x 13, 2, 2, 2, 2 (rest-pause, 40×0 tempo)

(B2) Xccentric seated military: (no counter weight, no added weight) x 6 (at 30×0 tempo), then 12 rest-pause singles at an 80×1 tempo

I followed this up with a (painfully) long stretch in the full ROM flye position, utilizing blast-straps and bodyweight.

Thursday, 12/30/10 –

(A1) kettlebell swings: 45 lbs x 50, 50, 50, 50

(A2) single-arm bent-over row (Oly bar): 95 x 12; 115 x 12, 12, 12,

(A3) Oly bar “shovel”: bar x 15; 65 x 12, 10, 9

(A4) Oly bar bi curl: 95 x 12; 115 x 12, 10, 8

(B1) “ski jump” cable shrugs: 4 sets of 200 x15

The “shovel” is simply an underhand (think bicep curl grip) straight bar front raise.  This hits the front delts in a unique way, and has the added benefit of engaging the lats from a rather unique angle as well.  For “ski jump” shrugs, I load-up a cable pulley (or pair of pulleys, as I have access to a Nautilus Free Trainer cable system), position the hold (either a single bar, or, in my case dual handles) behind my back, take a step or two forward and really lean into the weight such that I’m now at a hard angle away from the machine — a “ski jumper in flight” angle.  Now you can really torch the traps with some higher-rep sets.  And why a single-arm bent-over row with an Oly bar?  Try it, and let me know what kind of core strength is required to pull it off.  That’s why  🙂

Announcements?  Oh Yeah, I got a couple:

Check out what we at Efficient Exercise have on tap beginning this month:

What happens to a relatively untrained body when we combine approximately 30-minutes worth of CZT-based workouts per week with the implementation of a Paleo diet?   Well, beginning later this month, we at Efficient Exercise are going to find out.  If you live in the Austin area, and want to take part in Project Transformation: the Efficient Exercise Solution, give me a shout and I’ll get you on the mailing list.  We’ll be choosing our 20 “subjects” soon, so don’t delay in getting in your request.  And once this “study” gets kicked-off, you’ll be able to follow along on our Facebook page, as our subjects and trainers will be journaling about their experience there.  This will be a fun — and hopefully, enlightening — project to follow.  So “like us up”, and follow along — we’re out to show that a properly designed minimal investment can produce some stunning and healthy results.

…oh, and anybody in the Austin area looking to sell a fixie?  A Bianchi, preferably, 56 -58 cms?  If so, hit me up; I’m looking to add to the quiver  🙂

In health,

Keith

Progress? Progress!

A client asked me recently how she would know that she’s making adequate “progress”, with the context, of course, being fitness-related, and more specifically, strength biased.  And I wish I had a ready answer for her; the truth of the matter though, is that “progress” is a tough thing to define, and even tougher to measure — it’s a little like herding cats.  Sure we can say, for instance, that one’s squat has increased 30 lbs over a certain time frame — but what if in gaining that increased squat poundage, we had to sacrifice a tenth of a second off of a 40 time; 20 seconds off of a 5 k?  The fact of the matter is that “progress” can only be measured relative to — and, in fact can only be defined by — our stated goals.  As Dan John is fond of saying, the “goal is to keep the goal, the goal…”  Now, this might sound a bit flippant at first blush, but I can tell you from first-hand experience just how difficult this is in practice.  Dan also likes to base weight room progress on the movements: a deadlift max, maximum number of dead-hang pull-ups and the standing triple jump; you’d be hard-pressed to argue for better weightroom yardsticks and yet, what about the more nebulous indicators —   blood work, say?  Bodyfat levels…overall exuberance for life?  Ever been around a bodybuilder in the final week (or hell, final month) of contest prep?  Exuberance is not exactly a word that comes to mind.  What if we’re looking to be strong, yes — but not at the expense of chipping away at our overall health (this happens to be my goal, by the way)?  In that case, I think Art DeVany’s “metabolic headroom” is a great place to start.  In other words, what’s the separation between your metabolic “idle” and metabolic “redline”?  I’ll have to come up with a working definition here that doesn’t leave my intended audience with their eyes rolling back in their heads.  Any help and/or thoughts on getting this point across to those not geeked-out on diet and fitness is greatly appreciated.

The week’s training — a mixed bag…and I like it like that!

It’s not often that I rumble through three training sessions in a row, but that’s just the way things shook-out this week.  So in true power-law, random-loving fashion, I rolled right on along with life as it hit me.

Tuesday: a quick-hitter supper-set with these two –

barbell muscle-ups (from the high hang): 115 x 8; 135 x 6; 145 x 5, 5, 5

Efficient Exercise exclusive hip press: 400 x 12; 500 x 6; 545 x 4, 4, 4

 

Best in the business; the Pendulum Hip Press

 

I like this pairing for a quick, total body workout.  If I had a bit more time, I would have tossed weighted pull-ups into the mix, and I’ll add those in next time I do this little number.  Also, I’ve got some good 4-6 rep range numbers to work with now so as to employ Autoregulation principles to the exercise loading next time out.

Wednesday: making the most out of ready access to Nautilus equipment –

Nautilus pec dec: 110 x 11 (41×1 tempo), then immediately to

weighted dips: 70#  x 6, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2 rest-pause extended set

and to round things out…

Nautilus pull-over: 230 x 9+ (not quite 10), 50×0 tempo

The extended rest-pause set: think of this as a hybrid between a DeVany-esq Hierarchical set, and the standby classic rest-pause method.  The pec dec serves as a good pre-exhaust movement, here; big rep drop-off between the first and second “set” of dips.  Without the pre-exhaust, we’re looking at an initial rep range of 10 to 12 or so, and an increased loading prior to the initiation of each and every “set” until we reach (about) the 2-rep threshold.  From this point, we’ll bust-out doubles until failure.

Thursday: holy friggin’ HIT, Batman!  Check-out the clip below –

If you weren’t keeping score, here’s what Skyler put me through:

Romanian Deadlift: 5 rest-pause style dynamic/hyper reps (about 5 seconds rest between reps; max effort each rep)

Dip: 5 rest-pause style dynamic/hyper reps (again about 5 seconds rest between reps; max effort each rep)

Pull Down: 5 negative-only reps

Military Press: 5 negative-only reps

Squat: 5 rest-pause style dynamic/hyper reps (same drill, about 5 seconds rest between reps; max effort each rep)

Hey, what is that, a friggin’ mouthpiece shoved in your pie-hole?  Yeah it is, I’m a teeth-gnasher on the “long”, grind-it-out lifts.  I’ve actually bitten clean through a few of these bad boys.  I’d like to keep my teeth around for rippin’ through grass-fed animal protein, thanks, so I’ll keep sportin’ the old mouth vinyl.

So this CZT equipment is, well…it just has to be tested to be appreciated; the intensity that can be generated here is simply phenomenal.  If you’re in the Austin area and you want to take this equipment for a spin, give Skyler or myself a holler; we’d be happy to take you through a round.  Anthony Johnson, of the 21-Convention, did just that when he came through “the ATX” recently.  I gave Anthony a dose of hierarchical rest-pause on the Pendulum Hip Press on one day, then a few days later he followed my own CZT workout with one of his own.  Again, the master of ceremonies here is none other than Dr. HIT-dose himself, Skyler Tanner; check it out:

And checkout Anthony’s notes on his Efficient Exercise and CZT experience, here.

Paleo 101, Workin’ the Groove, and Settling In

Since Monday was a holiday (here in the US, at least), I figured it would be a great time to ease into the Austin fixie scene, get a feel for traffic patterns and, well, just the overall vibe and such.  And what I found was this: Austin is definitely a bike-friendly town; courteous drivers, plentiful bike lanes, fabulous rolling hills, too many ultra-cool coffee shops to count…wow, fixie paradise!  I went into the Efficient Exercise Rosedale studio and did a little bit of prep work for my Tuesday clients, then saddled-up and hit a series of sprints over to our downtown ATX studio to do some prep work for those clients (see my route, here).  Five miles of hard intermittent sprinting each way was a nice, bodily reintroduction to the biking experience.   How’s that for mixing business with pleasure, huh?  Yeah, to say the least, I’m lovin’ this new gig  🙂

So today following my client sessions I decided to ease back into the weightlifting scene by hitting some power cleans and close-grip high pulls.  Nothing real radical or too strenuous, just climbing back onto the on-ramp, so to speak.

power cleans: 135 x 10; 165 x 7; 185 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2

close-grip high pulls: 185 x 5, 5, 5, 5

Now, the Efficient Exercise downtown facility is chock-full of Nautilus MedEx equipment (along with a ton of other really cool play toys!), and so following my client sessions tomorrow (I train clients at the downtown facility on Wednesdays), I plan on hitting a Mentzer-inspired HIT session.   Again, more so to ease into things here.  As I’ll have to take substantial training time off in order to move into my new house in about a week (way excited about this!  Moving that is — not the missed workouts part  🙂  ), I’ll have to repeat this phase-in process once more.  And I don’t look at this as a setback, either — rather, I take the long view, and see this as a necessity to remain in the game for the long-haul.  It’s a great time to focus on technique flaws, form alterations (and abominations!)…small things that tend to get glossed-over when the training focus is on “hard, heavy and fast”.  Everything under the sun has its season. 

Oh, and I heard this yesterday on NPR’s “The Human Edge” series; a little bit of Paleo 101, if you will.  If you’re looking for a tidy intro, of sorts, for friends and family who want to now the most basis of all questions that we get asked in relation to our diet selections — why the overt avoidance of neolithic foods?  — this piece is a nice, concise reference.  It’s an easy answer, of course — but sometimes, though, it’s good for people to hear that same answer from multiple sources.

The Single Set vs Multiple Set Debate: Context Matters

THE big questions in the world of strength and conditioning:  the efficacy of utilizing explosive movements in the pursuit of athletic betterment, calories vs “content” vis-à-vis weight gain/weight loss, the single vs multiple set debate…; now if it weren’t for pressing issues like these, exactly what, pray tell, would we Physical Culturalists have to argue about?  I mean, a good 40% of the world’s internet traffic would just up and die  🙂

The problem (such as it is) with these debates is that most times the debate itself is force-framed into yes/no, black/white, right/wrong ideological camps, with each side having hunkered into a “no quarter asked, no quarter given” mentality.  This, quite simply, is no way to tackle any issue that so heavily turns on context and scope, and that is so mightily effected by a multitude of variables that simply cannot be effectively accounted for, much less controlled.

For instance, this recent post in Exercise Biology, along with the referenced studies (here and here) would seem to suggest that multiple sets to failure (in this case, three at 70% 1RM) are more conducive to hypertrophy than a single set (again at 70% of 1RM) taken to failure.  Ok, fair enough – but let’s dig a little deeper and see if we can uncover more to this story.

Now I’m in no way a tunnel-visioned worshiper at the altar of single-set-to-failure, BBS/HIT-like exclusive training; I do remain somewhat agnostic on matters of one protocol vs the other, opting instead for the utilization of the right tool for the particular job at hand, given the peculiarities of each unique circumstance. It is my opinion, for instance, that one can get a fantastic workout, and realize great results, with little more than bodyweight, gravity and basic playground equipment.    Is this necessarily an optimum way to induce a growth stimulus?  Is it time efficient, safe, and all-encompassing?  Well, in a word, no – but if this is all you have to work with and you’re willing to invest the requite time, you can certainly expect to realize some pretty good results.  Not optimum results mind you, but some pretty good results nonetheless.  And some (myself included), freaks that we are, would even consider this type of activity recreation, a really cool way to spend a couple of hours on a pretty day.  Enjoyment of an activity, however, does not imply that it is necessarily the most efficient way workout, and we need to – if not act on this distinction – at least acknowledge it.   

But back to the post and referenced studies: first off, in my mind I believe that there is a huge difference between localized and systemic stimulus.  A HUGE difference.  In other words, in no way does a single-set-to-“failure” in a unilateral leg extension impart the same systemic stimulus – thereby signaling a much more pronounced and universal growth/protein synthesis signal — as does a bout of full-on BBS/HIT-like training.  The two simply cannot be logically compared.  So researchers, in my humble opinion, need to do a much better job of comparing apples to apples, as this particular study is akin to dropping an accomplished 100 meter sprinter in an 800 meter race, then proclaiming that the winner (who’ll assuredly not be the 100 meter man) has trained in a manner that is therefore superior to that of the 100 meter specialist.

Another way of looking at this is to say that sure, a single set of push-ups to failure is not as effective a training stimulus as multiple sets to failure.  So what is the limiting factor here, and why would multiple sets be required?  The short answer is intensity, coupled with the ability to impart a deep inroad (muscular fatigue), both locally and systemically.  As Louie Simmons is fond of saying, you’ll never invoke a response by simply tossing BBs at an elephant’s ass.  To carry this metaphor out just a bit further, you better pack that BB buckshot behind one hell of a powder load (i.e., ramping up intensity via multiple sets), or – and much more preferable, in my opinion – nail the poor bastard with a single bazooka round; an intense, deep-inroad, single-shot dose of growth-promoting stimulus.  That’ll no doubt get the elephant’s attention, and quick.

And then there is the matter of pinning down those pesky little variables, things like “intensity”, and “failure”.

Now it’s blatantly obvious, to those of even limited training experience, that the term “unilateral leg extension” is in no way synonymous with anyone’s definition of “intensity”.  Check this prior post, and the embedded video clips therein, for an example of a whole-body, BBS/HIT-like workout that is both brutally intense and a potent driver of systemic hormonal growth response.  Intense?  Are you friggin’ kidding me?  Failure?  Complete and utter.  The ability to perform another set in any of the exercises performed in this session?  Yeah, right.  Note: the one problem with attempting to capture just how much intensity a trainee (in this case, me) is pouring into any machine is that there is nothing to gauge that intensity against; no wobbling plate stacks, no flexing, heaving bars, nothing against which to gauge bar speed and power output.

Now, to put this level of intensity in prospective, the BBS/HIT/SS bout that I engaged in here took all of 15 minutes, start-to-finish, to complete.  Even with superior recuperative ability – which I possess, not by virtue of anything that I’ve done myself necessarily, but just by luck of the genetic draw – I doubt that I could progress, let alone pull-off, one of these workouts at a frequency interval of anything less than 5 days, as doing so would keep me permanently mired in recovery purgatory (otherwise known as overtraining hell).

So compare that workout’s level of intensity and systemic “dosing” to what I am able to accomplish using the tools I have access to – primarily, free weights: a “normal” iron session for me will take approximately 45 minutes to complete, and I hit, on average 4 such sessions per week.  And there’s a much different dynamic involved here as well; going to true and utter failure while using free weights in a compound movement is simply not a safe nor is it an advisable thing to do and, therefore, multiple sets are required to impart a sufficient inroad.

Intensity, volume and Time Under Load.  Goals.  Available tools.  Circumstance.   These are the variables that one must juggle so as to craft for himself an appropriate protocol.  One size does not fit all; the dogma is that there is no dogma.  Craft wisely, then proceed with confidence.

The Sport-Specific Phenotypical Expression…

…or, the Advantageous Coupling of Select Epigenetics with a Favorable Genetic Predisposition

What happens when a kid of obvious genetic predisposition is placed in an environment richly advantageous to the expression of that genetic potential?  The right coaches, the right atmosphere, the right competitive environment — the perfect nurturing cradle just waiting for the arrival of that “perfect” genetic hand.

This is the perfect storm that leads to the creation of sporting legend.  The right kid finds his way into the right gym and falls under the tutelage of the right coach.  A young Lance Armstrong becomes enamored with the then budding sport of triathlon, is noticed by the right people, encouraged and sponsored at an early age; a young, gangly, athletic kid becomes a “work in progress” for storied Jamaican sprints coach Glen Mills — in each instance we know, of course, the rest of the story.

Genetics.  Epigenetics.  The hand you’re dealt, and how that hand plays out vis-a-vis the balance of the cards in the shoe, the strategy of the other players, the manipulations of the dealer.  The perfect hand at the right game doesn’t guarantee a win any more than does a gimp hand at the wrong game necessarily necessitate a fold, though, as such hard-to-pin things as will, desire and drive (which we now know are largely influenced by one’s genetics!) play such a substantial part in the final outcome.  When everything does come together “right”, though, the result is a beautiful thing to behold.

Now I’m not an endurance athlete myself — Hell, I consider 200 meters an endurance event — but I do appreciate the athleticism and training dedication required of these types of events.  I also appreciate the poetic synergy of obvious genetic predisposition within an advantageous epigenetic environment.  That said,  consider this kid, Lukas Verzbicas, as a perfect example of that synergy.  And check out an example of one of Lukas’ workouts.  A far cry and away from one of my own track sessions  🙂  And yet…

…and yet, what Lucas and I do have in common is the need for a base level of strength.  A differing base level of strength, to be sure, but even endurance athletes — if they wish to maximize their sporting potential — require a certain base level of strength.  Or, as it has been said, “…level of strength with which to endure”, a quote (or something similar) that I believe can be attributed to Charles Staley.

How would I suggest Lukas — or any endurance-leaning athlete, for that matter — obtain and maintain that required level of strength?  HIT/SS training is, in my estimation, the perfect fit.  In as little as an hour per week, the endurance athlete could build an impressive, and performance-enhancing level of strength.  A pretty damn good time investment-to-performance enhancement ratio — with the double pay-off being the enhanced metabolic conditioning that this manner of training provides; like an intense, off-the-track interval session.  I’m not sure what types of facilities Lukas has at his disposal in Orland Park, but if he were based in Austin, I’d suggest he slide by one of Efficient Exercise’s four locations and get hooked-up with the good folks there.  If you are an endurance athlete who happens to be lucky enough to live  in Austin, and you aim to boost your performance, by all means take advantage of the fact that the EE studios are available and convenient , and get on by.  Remember, all other things being equal, the stronger athlete will prevail.  It’s a maxim that’s just as true for power-burst endeavors as it is in endurance sports.

Yesterday’s (6/8/10) Workout –

Some dynamic and repetition method iron work at the gym yesterday.

feet-elevated push-ups: 40 lb vest x 12, 12, 12, 12 (1/0/x/2 tempo)
reverse-grip pull-ups: 40 lb vest x 6, 6, 6, 6 (rest-pause each rep within each set)
kneeling jump squat: 40 lb vest x 5, 5, 5, 5

4 rounds of that, then a superset of:

Pec deck: 195 x 10, 10, 9
Kneeling DB clean & press: 40 x 12, 12, 10

There are many, many permutations of the kneeling (or seated) DB clean & press.  In some, the motion is akin to what I would call more of a DB muscle-up than a “clean & press”.  In my version, the movement is initiated by hammer curling the DBs to shoulder height, then immediately transferring into a DB shoulder press, with the two distinct motions flowing as seamlessly together as possible, i.e., with as little pause at the transfer as possible.  Working the repetition method with this superset.  Every method that contributes to the goal has a part to play, some more so, some less; the trick is to continually assess one’s faults, then apply the correct tool and protocol to each perceived weakness.

In the push-ups, my feet were elevated such that I’m at an approximate 45-degree angle at the bottom-out position.  I push off of two platforms, such that my head and chest are allowed to sink below my hands without auguring into the mat.  Each rep was completed as explosively as possible, with just the slightest of a pause at the top between each rep.  No grind reps, each was quick and crisp.  Same with the pull-ups, which were performed on one set of gymnastics uneven bars.  These bars give quite a bit, and therefore absorb a good bit of power; I was surprised at just how tough 6 explosive rest-pause reps can be on these things — it’s akin to sprinting in sand.  Kneeling jump squats: I added an additional jump to the end of these, so that the final combination turned into a kneeling jump squat into a depth drop vertical jump.  How’s that for a mouthful?  It doesn’t roll real easy off the tongue, but it’s a helluva great explosive jump combo.

What You Don’t Know About the Pushup, by Zach Dechant, assistant strength and conditioning coach at TCU (and whose excellent blog can be found here), is a fantastic article, and explains much of why, for horizontal pressing movements, I much prefer the push-up to any back-down, barbell or dumbbell pressing motion.  Every now and again (on max effort/strength days), I will utilize a barbell or DB press from the floor — but that’s more so because I don’t have access to the proper toys (chains, proper bands, etc) and knowledgeable spotters that would enable me to do heavy work in a push-up movement.   I’m a huge believer in the “free scapula” notion that Zack speaks of in his article.  Plus, the push-up just feels like a more athletic (natural?) movement to me, better suiting my ultimate goals.  Just as I appreciate the dedication required of an endurance athlete, though, I appreciate what it takes to hoist an especially big bench — it’s just not my game, nor my personal aim.

My “180 Degrees From the Norm”, Efficient Exercise Training Session

As I’ve alluded to in posts over the past few days, I recently had the pleasure, while on a a quick jaunt out west to my old stomping grounds and a long overdue visit with friends, family (and especially!) Meesus TTP, of working out at one of the four Austin, Texas area Efficient Exercise locations .

Efficient Exercise president Mark Alexander was gracious enough to offer up the use of one of his studios for the morning, and EE trainer Skyler Tanner stepped-up to donate his most excellent “task master” services.  What a great team these guys make.  As Doug McGuff (Body by Science) commented on a recent post:

“..there is no-one better qualified to dish out a HIT beat-down than Skyler. Efficient Exercise is a beautiful facility…a perfect mix of Scandinavian minimalism and dungeon…”

I have to agree on both points.

But enough man-gushing, huh?  Let’s get down to it.

Below, and in bold, I’ve unabashedly plagiarized Skyler’s email to me detailing the HIT/SS paces he put me through on that morning.  I’ve made a few inconsequential edits for the sake of flow, context and clarity, but the bulk of this is Skyler’s own words.  I’d asked him to do this because, quite frankly, everything just kinda melded into a single, ball-bustin’ event subsequent to the RDL hyper-rep treatment that kicked-off the workout.  This is why it is, in my opinion, so very, very important to have a skilled and knowledgeable coach/trainer in your corner during this process.  One simply cannot — or at least I can’t — maintain a laser-like focus on the doing, while at the same time effectively controlling all the input variables (tracking time, counting tempo, fine-tuning resistance, etc.), and observing for proper form, alignment, execution, and rep speed — not to mention the tracking of current performance so as to construct follow-on workouts.  Pulling-off one of these training sessions really is a team effort.  And the expert controlling of these input variables — and all the while adding valuable coaching/prompting cues — are absolutely critical to maximizing one’s time — and, subsequently, the results obtained — in the gym.

My comments — the things I remembered after the fact, notes to self for the next outing, etc. — are italicized.

Video clips of this workout are posted at the Efficient Exercise Youtube page.  Below is a compilation of the session in its entirety…

…and here’s a clip capturing Skyler’s expertise in coaching me through the leg press portion of the workout.

This level of professional coaching and guidance is priceless, allowing the trainee (me, in this instance) to focus totally on the “doing”, and thereby leaving the manipulation of the many input variables, in Skyler’s control.

A couple of notes before we dissect this workout:
(1) my last previous workout to this was on the Thursday prior to this Saturday morning.
(2) I began this workout at approximately 19 hours fasted; post-workout re-feed occurred at approximately hour 22.  And damn, was it ever good! (and appreciated!).  Artz Rib House!
(3) I hit this workout after having worked all day, traveling 5+ hours, and getting only about 5  or so hours of sleep the night prior; not whinin’, just sayin’.  My point here is not to glorify cortisol-inducing stupidity or my refined Protestant work ethic, but to further highlight the efficacy of this type of workout (HIT/SS, specifically) within the grand spectrum of training modalities.  Had this option (a short, sweet, and to the point modality) not been available , I would not have worked out at all.  Something to keep in mind, especially those chronically pressed for time.  Hey, wait…doesn’t that describe all of us?

Anyway, here we go with the breakdown of my HIT adventure:

Keith,
Here’s what we did:
1. Romanian Deadlift (hyper repetitions on CZT-V): This was done for 5 repetitions. The first 2 reps were warm ups, with you pulling 50% and 75% of perceived max, respectively. The final 3 reps I instructed you to “break the machine” and pull like the dickens.

Holy ass-kickin’, Batman; hyper reps on the CZT are the bomb!  This, without a doubt, had to be the most intense few reps that I’ve pulled (and resisted!) in I don’t know how long.  In fact, intense doesn’t even begin to define it.  Plenty of “mental jedi” tricks going on here right off the bat.  For starters (and on a positive note), I “knew” that safety wasn’t an issue.  In other words, I could mute the internal “safety marm” that chides me to watch-out for a miss, dropped weights, technique malfunction, etc.  On the negative side, it was hard as all hell to override the the internal “overload police” — that voice that screams TOO MUCH LOAD, WE’RE THROTTLING DOWN TO SAVE YOUR DUMB ASS! which, of course, gets safety marm in a thither all over again.  Forget about effectively keeping track of tempo, rep count — hell, forget about anything other than pulling (on the concentric) and resisting the drop (on the eccentric).  Zen practitioners speak of “being in the moment”; hell, I defy anyone to *not* be in the moment while engaged in a hyper-rep on the CZT.  This is where having access to a good trainer/coach is invaluable.

Notes for the next time out:
(1) I think that a more thorough warm-up would’ve primed me better — both physically and mentally — for the rigors of this beast.

(2) My grip faltered on the 4th rep, and failed on the least.  You’re only as strong as your weak link, and in this case, that was my grip.  I think I had a bit more in the ol’ PC; straps might be an option next time out.  That, and working on building up my wuss grip between now and then.  Seriously, though — when the brain senses a failure in any one component (in this case, my grip) it sends out an all-inclusive, “shut ‘er down” signal.

(3) My default neurological impulse in this movement pattern is to “rip and explode”, so a prolonged “pull and resist” was totally outside my wheelhouse.  The thing is, if I improve here, I’l have built much more umph! to pack behind that “rip and explode”.  This is the “all connectedness” of differing training modalities.

Ok, so we’re 2-minutes in (if that), and I’m already zorched.

2. Nautilus Nitro Leg Press: 440lbs, with the goal to fatigue you before a 2:00 TUL. The goal cadence was ~10/10, though I wasn’t worried about being perfect. You controlled the turn arounds and crept out of the hole. At about 1:15 I added 45 more pounds because you looked like you could go forever. You fatigued around 1:45

I think that all the biking I do contributes greatly to my strength-endurance in quad dominant movements.  I’m in serious mental, pinpoint focus, now, on just completing the next rep, the next second, and  I’m totally under Skyler’s direction, now, trying best I can to react to his cues.  There’s very little anticipation at this point — I’m purely in reaction mode.  Again, I have to fight  the default neurological urge to “grip and rip”.  And there’s a kind of feed-back mechanism here that messes with the mind.  In a free-weight, explosive movement, the feedback is that escape velocity (for lack of a better term) has been achieved, and now it’s time to transition to the catch or receive phase of the movement.  Not so here.  This is a totally different physiological stimulus.  Right about now my body is screaming *WTF is this??*

3. 1 minute chinup: You performed a chinup with a 30 second positive and 30 second negative.

Funny thing here; these were performed on individual straps hanging from the rafters (think gymnastic rings), the height positioning of which required me to vert maybe 18″ (if that) to grab the handles.  As I stood beneath the handles, ready to jump — having just waddled from the leg press — my mind said “are you friggin’ crazy?  you’re not jumpin’ anywhere, bud!”.  It was one of the strangest feelings of neurological immobilization that I’ve ever had.  I had to have Skyler spot me as I attempted to the bridge the mighty 18″ gap.  Whoa.  Yeah, at this point I’m toast from the navel on down. Thank God my mighty vert — along with my pleading for a spot — was  edited out 🙂

The instability of the “rings” added another level of difficulty here.  Think chinups aren’t also a great core movement?  Try these on for size and let me know.

4. Nautilus Nitro Bicep (Super Rep): I over-estimated your strength, so you ended up performing what I call a “Super Rep.” This is where you perform a 1rm and attempt to hold the point of full contraction. The negative takes care of itself.

Damn right, after the chinup torture, my bi’s were like a pair of wet socks.  I think the instability of the rings forces greater bicep involvement in the chinup/pull-up movement.  Or maybe it’s just me?

5. Negative-only chinups: This was performed on the CZT-V. I used the first repetition’s strength number to assess when to end the set. When you inroaded your strength levels to 90% of the start, I cut the set. You made 4 reps.

I’m absolutely in love with this CZT machine; the same unit was used for the RDL pulls and resists.

6. 1 minute Dip: You actually performed 1 minute on the positive and 30 seconds on the negative.

I’m naturally strong in this, the triceps-dominant variation, of the movement.  Big tris, small chest; a natural “triceps pusher”.

7. Superslow triceps extension: I picked a heavy enough weight to fatigue you in under 2 minutes at roughly a 10/10 cadence. You fatigued at ~1:40

Yep, the ol’ tris were pretty hammered at this point.  “Welcome to the club o’ fatigue”, the biceps are sayin’.

8. Negative-only dips: This was performed on the CZT-V. I used the first repetition’s strength number to assess when to end the set. When you inroaded your strength levels to 90% of the start, I cut the set. You made 4 reps.

Have I said that I love this piece of equipment?  Yeah?  Well, it can’t be said enough.  One can totally lay it on the line with this machine, with no fear of “losing” the weight or otherwise making a weightroom, crash-and-burn “scene”.  And believe me, I’ve been *that* scene-maker.  Hey, if you’ve never failed, or been forced to bail-out in a totally ungraceful way, you’re just not pushing the envelope, right?  That failure defines a boundary that is now your new goal to conquer.  This is how we improve.  Anyway, the CZT not only lets the trainee push to the absolute end of his rope, but allows for a precise measurement of the “fail” point — all without weight-room calamity.  Not only that, but the desired level of inroading can be precisely dosed.  Nothing short of genius, I think.

So I love being pushed outside of my comfort zone, made to perform at tasks well outside of my wheelhouse, and this was definitely the ticket.  Would I recommend a HIT and/or Super-Slow protocol to others?  You bet.  For strength, power and speed athletes, this is a fantastic protocol to keep “in the rotation”.  For non and/or recreational athletes — or those “busy executive” types who want to stay in prime shape (and look good nekkid ) — I can’t see where you’d need any more than this.  I mean, damn — I’m not kidding when I say that this was a rugged 15 minutes!  I think that’s one of the other cool things about the Efficient Exercise system — scalability.  Someone with absolutely no training experience can come in off the street and be up and running in no time, while someone like me — with 30+ years of “skin” in the game — can be pushed to the point of buckling.  Am I sold on the system?  Damn right I am.

If you’re lucky enough to live in the Austin area, be sure to look up the Efficient Exercise team.  I can’t say enough positive things about this organization, their training philosophy, superb studios, and personal attention.  I wish that I had ready access to such a facility — if I did, I’d most definitely utilize it.  That’s a hell of a lot of fitness bang for such an inconsequential amount of time investment.

Oh, and one other thing: Austin area endurance athletes looking for strength training?  The Efficient Exercise protocol is your ticket.  I know Austin is full of endurance-minded folks (hey, Lance, you listening?) who realize the absolute necessity of strength work for longevity in the sport (not to mention injury prevention) — so how does 15 minutes devoted to strength training, every 5 to 8 days or so sound?  Hey, don’t take my word blindly, check it out for yourself — I guarantee you’ll see and feel the difference, and you’ll perform much better.

More on the advantages of HIT/SS for the endurance athlete later.