Kettle Bell Complex & Medicine Ball Finisher

You all are well aware that my friend and fellow trainer Brandon Reina and I are like mad scientists in the gym. Yesterday was a functional/metabolic day in our weekly routine and we decided to get a little nasty with some kettle bell work and a 20 pound medicine ball. Using a 53 pound kettle bell, we first completed five sets of a kb and body weight circuit trying to keep our pace below two minutes for completion (try it!) :

10 KB Swings
5 KB Cleans with each arm
5 KB Push Presses with each arm
10 Plyo Push Ups
5 Single Leg Drop Bottom Pistol Squats on each leg

Our rest period was the other person's set and when we finished there, we moved onto a pretty challenging finisher. Using a 20 pound medicine ball we alternated between 10 wall balls and 10 medicine ball pass & sprawl. A wall ball is basically a front squat with a power press trying to throw the ball above the ten foot mark we set for ourselves. The medicine ball pass & sprawl is a kneeling medicine ball chest pass and the you drop into a push up sprawl and back up waiting to receive the ball again to repeat. Again we simply alternated performing each movement so our rest period lasted only as long as it took for the other to finish their set. After four sets of the wall balls and sprawls, I can honestly say I was annihilated. Seriously one of the best 30 minute workouts I have ever done!

FITNESS FAIL #6

Not really sure what these two Mensa members were thinking with this crunch variation. The idea of having some guy rub his junk on my back while he tries to get six pack abs is just sort of off-putting. Check out this Fitness Fail.

Signs That Your Personal Trainer Is Bad, Weird or Both

Like all professions you have good trainers and bad trainers. The interesting thing about the personal training industry is it draws professionals from many different backgrounds ranging from steroid pumped neanderthals to fat kids turned fitness gurus. Regardless of their background you spend several hours of personal time with your trainer. This can be a really great experience if you have a great, personable trainer who is a good fitness professional. Working this closely with someone else can also be sort of odd if you have a poor fitness professional or are working with a dude who has a screw or two loose. Now I am not one to judge because I have my own personal quirks, but I feel I do a pretty good job of keeping business professional and respectable. To save you from awkward training sessions and uncomfortable conversations, I am going to share with you a few signs that your personal trainer isn't very good, is a little weird or maybe a bit of both. I will note these are all things I have actually witnessed as a trainer, a training manager and a gym employee.

Your trainer has purple hair. Not off to a good start here, do I need to even say anything else? Purple hair doesn't mean your trainer is bad, but it may be an indication they are a little off their rocker.

Your trainer takes personal phone calls on your time. This is just bad business. If your trainer often makes or takes personal phone calls while training this is a clear indication they have no interest in what you are doing or how you're spending your money. You're likely paying about a dollar an hour for their service, switch to someone who cares.


Your trainer has no certifications and insists they are useless. Sure training certifications don't ensure someone is going to be a good trainer, but they are certainly not useless. A trainer who gets certified and stays certified is required to attended continuing education classes, seminars and workshops. Over time, this typically results in an accumulation of sound scientific knowledge and good experience. If your trainer insists certifications are useless and he or she learned everything from tribal knowledge, you might want to consider working with someone else.

Your trainer never corrects your form. Even if you're a seasoned workout veteran from time to time you are going to break form when you are fatigued. If you go through an entire workout session with no coaching on your technique your trainer is either not paying attention or just doesn't know what they are doing. Even my most advanced clients require little tweaks and adjustments from set to set. No one has THAT good of form (except me).

Your trainer eats like crap, but tells you to eat clean. This isn't even fair in my opinion. Trainers should lead by teaching and example. If your trainer is eating McDonalds and Carl's Junior everyday and yelling at you about disciplining yourself, you should: tell them to discipline themselves first, then fire them for another trainer.

Your trainer treats you like a psychiatrist. We often develop good relationships with our clients, but if your trainer looks forward to your appointment so they can have you counsel them through life on a regular basis, you may want to tell your trainer to stick to just telling you how to workout and to consider seeking medical help.

Your trainer posts anime posters everywhere on the walls of their studio. One of the creepiest (but not the creepiest, that's coming up) things I have ever experienced. If your trainer turns his or her studio into a fantasy land of their deepest desires, cancel your membership, your sessions and perform a religious cleansing immediately.

Your trainer sits in your lap while you do triceps dips. Ladies and gentlemen this is true I have seen it with my own eyes, a male trainer sat in the lap of a male client while doing triceps dips and proceeded to brag about it. Gross...

Choosing The Right Program

Choosing the right exercise programming for yourself may seem like an impossible task. Correctly selecting the movements to utilize in your workout routine plays an important role in successfully reaching your goals. Many people waste precious time performing exercise routines that are often counterproductive and actually impeding fitness progress.

Establish a goal in your mind to help focus your program on something tangible. Although any exercise is better than no exercise, you can really spin your wheels if you want to lose body fat and all you do is cardio or if you want to build muscle and you haven't graduated from using exercise bands. Changes occur in the body when it is pushed out of its comfort zone. Here are some simple tips for designing a productive program for yourself:

Body Fat Reduction
Reducing body fat largely comes down to the way you nourish your body and placing it in a caloric deficit. When it comes to exercise programming for fat loss, you want to burn the maximum number of calories possible in each workout session. This can be accomplished by resistance training three to four times a week (thirty-sixty minutes) utilizing a variety of multi-joint movements that recruit the major muscle groups of the body (legs, back, chest, shoulders). Cardio programming for fat loss should include short, intense bouts of interval training on non-lifting days or three times a week lasting anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes.

Building Muscle
Building muscle mass also requires some important nutritional assistance because your body must be fed an adequate amount of calories to build muscle. Getting bigger really comes down to one training principle in the gym: Progressive Overload. Muscles grow when they are consistently required to perform more work and to move more weight over a period of time. This can be achieved by increasing the load (weight used) in your workout or by performing high repetitions and working at a high volume. In my experience as a trainer, I have found Push-Pull split routines with one day dedicated to Arms to be one of the most effective programs for building muscle everywhere. Keep your workout length to about an hour long as this will keep Cortisol from setting in and inhibiting your muscle growth. It is also important to WORK YOUR LEGS as they play a huge role in building size by releasing growth hormone and testosterone. Utilize high intensity interval training a few times a week to keep your heart in shape, keep your muscle building hormones high and to preserve the calories necessary to build size.

Sports or Recreational Performance
Improving competitive or recreational sports performance can be a tricky process as you typically have two goals in mind: improving performance and gaining, losing or maintaining weight. The truth of the matter is, performance comes first and body composition is a secondary concern. To successfully plan your performance program, choose exercises that are specifically applicable to your activity. All athletes - young and old, competitive or recreational, need to train FUNCTIONALLY. Use multi-joint movements, work in all three planes of motion and choose exercises that will increase strength, stability and power in the body. Ideally athletes should be functionally training three to four days a week in the weight room and combining that with sport specific speed, agility, quickness and skill work at least twice a week.

I hope this summary can help you better determine how you should be training based on the three most common goals I come across as a trainer. Feedback please!

TRX Atomic Plyo Push Up

Today Trainer Brand Reina and I were messing around with the TRX for our "Functional" day of the weekly program. After completing a tough set of single leg burpees with a jump, we also did some single arm chest presses with the TRX. After four sets of ten with these exercises I was sweating up a storm and my whole body was feeling the work. Then, I decided to get a little creative and decided to try the famous TRX Atomic Push Up, with a little dash of nasty: turn the push up into a plyo push up! The following video is the result of today's experimentation. Any thoughts on usefulness in a program?

2B FIT Camp 30:30

Today's 2B FIT Camp ended with a pretty mean 30:30 timed set that burned a lot of calories. After performing a tough strength session involving two separate Tri-Sets (three exercises back-to-back-to-back), the group was in for some challenging interval work. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "30:30" it is a timed interval set of thirty seconds of work, followed by thirty seconds of rest. Sprinting, TRX mountain climbers, T-Plank Rotations and Woodchops all rounded out the four set 30:30 circuit. TRX mountain climbers and the sprints really pushed everyone's heart rate up! After sixteen minutes of high intensity interval work, everyone did their cool down laps and went home! Great job today all the 2B FITters! There's no doubts your fitness levels have come a long ways in just three short weeks!

Evidence Supports HGH Supplementation Increases Performance

I have touched on the use of performance enhancing drugs and their dangers in the past, but have talked little about how the drugs actually enhance performance. While I do believe use of the illegal substances can increase certain aspects of physiological performance (as the study I am about to share demonstrates), I still don't buy into the idea this stuff makes better sports players. The use of steroids and PED's may improve physique, strength and certain physiological capacities to some degree, but it will never give someone the mental or motor function required to be a great athlete. Just because you're juiced out of your mind doesn't mean you will be able to properly swing a bat, recognize defensive schemes, throw an accurate pass, shoot a basketball or hit an accurate slap shot. Those skills transcend what putting some extra meat on the bones can do to an athlete. A recent study that can be found in the Annals of Internal Medicine takes a look into the use of HGH and sports performance:

At eight weeks, the researchers found that HGH injections increased the athletes' ability to sprint on a bicycle but had no effects on fitness or their ability to pull a weight or jump. The effect on sprint capacity was nearly doubled in men who also received testosterone injections.

"We found the enhancement in sprint capacity would correlate to a 0.4 second improvement over 10 seconds in a 100-meter dash." said Dr. Ken Ho, Head of the Department of Endocrinology at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, and lead author of the study. "This improvement could turn the last place finisher in the Olympic finals into a gold medal winner." - Science Daily

Given the results of this study, some of you may be realizing why skinny, seemingly harmless endurance athletes would take some of this stuff even though they aren't mashing their bodies into one another like football players. It's because the use of PED's alters your natural biochemistry in all sorts of ways! Regardless of my thoughts on the actual skill and function required to be a successful athlete, I still believe using this stuff is cheating. PED's are simply a shortcut for weak people trying to achieve something that takes years of hard work and dedication. Why sleep well, eat well, train hard and actually WORK towards something when you can do a quarter of the work and get triple the results? In my opinion, steroids are for people who's best isn't good enough so they go to whatever extent they can to feel like they mean something to the world.
 

RUSTED METAL In Concert

Many of the videos I post include music that is in fact played by a band I am a part of called Rusted Metal. The interesting part about Rusted Metal is that we are pretty much a hard rock family band! My dad is the singer, uncle plays rhythm guitar, cousin plays bass, my sister's boyfriend plays lead guitar and yours truly plays the drums. July 2nd we played our first show ever at The Vu in Newhall, CA. Here are some pics from one of the coolest nights I've ever experienced! Getting the opportunity to share creative energy and music that originates from the depths of us and watching people connect with it was awesome! Enjoy!

Speed Ladder 101: Lateral Double Chop

Another Speed Ladder 101 Drill for you! The lateral double chop is an essential exercise for developing lateral coordination, agility and quickness. Mix this exercise in with the last two exercises I have shown you and you will be on your way to having a pretty solid foundational workout!

Valencia Paseo Walk

This weekend I led a group on a little walk out here in my hometown of Valencia. It was a pretty hot morning, but we all got our daily dose of cancer fighting vitamin D, some moderate activity and enjoyed some fresh fruit afterward. It is pretty fun to see what happens when people have the opportunity to pick a personal trainer's brain. I was asked all kinds of questions about fitness ranging from different diet questions to how effective those cool "Shape Up" shoes are. Although the turn out was small, I really enjoyed being outside, talking fitness, moving around and sweating my ass off in the hot sun here in Valencia.

I want to thank the Newhall Land and Valencia (Awesometown) for inviting me out to be a part of this little event and I look forward to collaborating on more lifestyle related events in the future! The next event coming up is going to be a Canines & Coffee event in which there may be another Paseo Walk included to get Valencians outdoors and active on July 31st! I will keep you guys posted on anymore public activities that I may be a part of here in the near future!

Yoga In Malibu

This weekend my girlfriend Melissa participated in a little event put on by 102.7 KIIS FM called Yoga On The Pier in Malibu. The session is open to everyone 18 and older or anyone under 18 with a legal guardian. Melissa spent the morning with her friends doing an hour and a half of yoga that she was feeling all weekend! The event is held on the Malibu Pier, just outside the Beachcomber Cafe which provided breakfast and mixed fruit for the event.


You can visit the KIIS FM Yoga Page for more information. Melissa said it was one of the most relaxing, fun and challenging yoga sessions she's ever participated in! You guys know my take on stress relief, this program sounds perfect for many who endure the stresses of daily life. The program is run on Saturday's from 8:30-10:00am and will continue through September 4th. I can't honestly think of a better way to spend a little time outside by the beach and getting in some helpful, stress relieving yoga. I am hoping to make it out with her one of the next couple weekends to give it a shot myself! Melissa introduced me to yoga and I absolutely love what it has to offer! For those of you near the L.A. area, I'd recommend coming out and giving this a shot!

      Melissa's friends Heidi, Nicole and Melissa is on the right! Beautiful day!

Speed Ladder 101: Lateral Double In Double Out

Great beginning speed ladder drill to develop foot quickness and lateral agility. This movement should be a staple in every athlete's footwork and ladder program. For those of you who aren't involved in competitive athletics, I am again going to stress how fun and effective speed ladder training can be just for staying in shape, developing fitness and coordination. Enjoy!

My Trader Joes List From Today

So you guys probably get sick and tired of me harping on nutrition and how important it is. I have shared some other nutrition tools and lists with you, but thought this might help a lot. I made my weekly Trader Joes run this morning and thought it would be fun to share my receipt with everyone. At the end I'll include some other stuff my girlfriend and I typically buy that didn't make it in today's run because we weren't out of stock yet. Here it goes:


 Jeff's Trader Joe's Shopping List

TJ's Brand Organic Carne Asada
Bananas
Trader Joes Sliced Cheddar Cheese
Strawberries
Blueberries
Oranges
Jumbo Free Range Organic Eggs
Organic Baby Spinach
CLIF Bars
TJ's 2% Organic Milk
Baked Potatoes
Red Seedless Grapes
TJ's Frozen French Toast (my little breakfast treat every now and then!)
Corn Tortillas
Turkey Meatballs
Tomato & Basil Hummus
Organic Orange Juice (not from concentrate)
Organic Baked Beans
All-Natural Organic Beef Chili
Organic Corn Tortilla Chips

That's our list for today, but here are some of the other things we buy on a regular basis that we keep cycling through our diet:

Organic Turkey Bacon
Organic Chicken Sausage
Organic, Natural, Non-preservative Pastrami lunch meat
Gluten Free Cereal (Gorilla Munch!)
Organic Chicken Breasts
Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta
Gluten Free Organic Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce
Frozen Veggies (Corn, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots...not as good as eating them raw, but you gotta do what's practical sometimes!)
Brown Rice
Organic Peanut Butter
Organic, Unsalted Peanuts
TJ's Whole-Grain Bread

Overall we eat very well on this menu and my girlfriend has a gluten intolerance so she goes gluten-free everything. As for the majority of my intake, you'll see a lot of protein/meat products. Having taking Dr. Mercola's Metabolic Typing Test, I discovered I am a Protein Type and run MUCH BETTER when I eat a diet high in protein, higher in fat (peanuts, peanut butter, animal products) and lower in carbohydrates. I try to get most of my carbohydrates from fruits and veggies because they are so high in vitamins and nutrients, as well as beans and potatoes. I do eat the gluten free brown rice pasta about once a week which is higher on the glycemic index than whole wheat pasta, but reducing my gluten intake is good for me and eating it with the turkey meat balls helps keep my insulin levels more stable. Hope this list may be of some use to you at home! Shoot any questions you have in the comments or on twitter @JeffBomberger!

A Little Healthy Competition

As a part of yesterday's 2B FIT camp I discovered a way to get A LOT more work out of someone without me having to do a thing. In yesterday's morning fitness camp I decided to toss in a little circuit relay race to spice the workout up a bit and make things kind of fun. I knew people would have fun, I knew people would work, but man I saw some competitiveness and some diligence out of some people I never even guessed was there! Being a former athlete, I know that adding a little competition to things always makes the time go by faster and the work feel less like work. Here's what my little 2B FIT relay looked like:

15 Kettle Bell Swings
6 Power Press Passes down the basketball court with a Med Ball
Sprint to the end of the court, touch the line and sprint back to the starting line...
10 TRX High Rows
Tag your next teammate and go
Repeat for 3 sets...Winner goes home sweating and happy!

The relay was fun! People were getting after it, pushing themselves and cheering their teammates on. It was fun to watch people get motivated and find something else to work for rather than showing up and going through the motions. If you're in the Santa Clarita area, I encourage you to come out and try one of the morning workouts because they have been a blast thus far and I've received a lot of great feedback on the variation in the routines. If you can't make it out, try adding a little healthy competition to your weekly schedule by signing up for a recreational sports league or finding pick up games of soccer, basketball, volleyball, raquet ball or tennis somewhere nearby. If you're not the gaming type, workout with a friend so you guys can push each other a little bit! Without getting too crazy, a little competition can go a long way!

My Experience With Ankle Surgery & Corrective Exercise

The first comment I received on my Corrective Exercise blog was regarding the CE techniques used to help me recover from my ankle surgery. This is a really great question and I figured I'd dedicate a whole blog to it as it will allow me to get into to some of the finer details of CE use.

When I was twenty years old I had reconstructive surgery on my ankle to repair the Anterior Talo-Fibular ligament which is a main stabilizer (equivalent to an ACL in the knee) of the ankle. The surgery put me in a cast for 6 weeks and a walking boot for another 3. Pretty much when it was over, I needed to teach my ankle and foot how to walk and function again. Below I am going to discuss some drills and concepts my physical therapist and I worked on to get me back to hiking, jogging and running by 6 months post surgery and football ready by 8 months which from my understanding was a pretty amazing feat (no pun intended). It was not easy...it took a lot of pain and work, but MAN did it pay off!

First and foremost we had to work on ankle flexibility and mobility. Luckily I went to a sports specific rehab facility in San Diego called Rehab United (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) where all of their physical therapists were also Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialists, which told me they understood where I was coming from and what conditioning I was trying to get my ankle back in shape to. For this we did various stretches to literally bend, twist and flex the ankle into positions it hadn't even thought about moving into for 9 weeks. We used all sorts of different multi-directional and multi-planar lunge movements, reaches, balances and hops to get the ankle used to dynamic mobility, not just the static stretching of the tissue that a lot of boring physical therapists use. These drills started off very slow, controlled and limited in range of motion. I would basically do the lunges, reaches, balances to a small degree of ankle flexion or extension and continually pushed session to session to go a little further. The picture shown is the only picture I could find in my computer that resembled some of the multi-directional work we would do. This exercise is a lateral step up using a cross over step. We always started with a small step and progressed higher as I got stronger or used a BOSU ball. We did A LOT of lateral lunges and "clock" lunges in all different directions.

Proprioception was another key component to my program. Many of the balance and reaching exercises I performed to help my ankle, body and my mind regain a cohesive awareness of themselves in relation to each other. Proprioception is our body's internal awareness of itself in space. When muscle tissue atrophies, nerves stop firing and muscles stop stabilizing after 9 weeks of immobilization, you'd be surprised how "dead" the ankle feels and how much you have to regain a "sense" of where it is and what it's doing. This is very important for regaining full neuromuscular function and preventing injury in the future. These exercises included single leg balances, single leg balance directional reaches where the non-contact foot reaches out in front of the body, to the side and back in a rotational fashion, as well as performing squats, lunges, steps and other foot contacts on a BOSU ball. The picture shown is one I found that resembled some of the reaches we'd perform on the boxes. At first I would only drop my foot to the back as far as I could. As my ankle became more mobile and strong, I eventually would progress to touching my toe on the floor and reaching in multiple directions.

The other key focus of my program was regaining proper hip flexibility and mobility. What many people over look when it comes to injuries and rehabbing injuries is the way the injury affects other parts of our intricate musculoskeletal system. Injured or misaligned joints always have an affect on corresponding or connected upper or lower joints. In my case, the bad ankle caused me to develop a different gait when I walked and ran while the ankle was injured. While the ankle was in a cast, my left leg literally did nothing for an entire six weeks: no weight bearing, no weight lifting, no walking! Therefore, it wasn't just the muscles that stabilize and mobilize the ankle that had atrophied, but the muscles in my quads, hamstrings, glutes and hips all weakened and became severely inactive as well. When I returned to normal activity, those weak and tight muscles didn't just magically go back to normal, I had to re-strengthen and re-lengthen them so my body would function properly. When I was finally able to do so, we implemented a pretty intense dynamic warm up and challenging hip mobility exercises that worked the internal and external rotation of my femur, as well as the proper strengthening my quadriceps, hamstrings and hip flexors. Exercises such as hurdle walks, over under drills and core stability drills were employed to assist in regaining proper hip function. Again, sorry for the limited picture selection, but we did work use woodchops a lot for core strength and hip mobility. Notice in the picture the rotation of the upper leg involved in the anchor foot and the pivoting of the back foot. These movements were a big reason why we did TONS of rotational and chopping movements.

Since you were anonymous I don't know who you are that asked about this subject, but this blog is really meant to help you out. Let me know if this helps at all?

Why Use Corrective Exercises?

Some of you may be familiar with the term "corrective exercise" and some of you may not. Some trainers base their entire programming style around this concept, while some disregard it as a waste of time. I fall into neither one of these categories and would like to briefly explain why corrective exercise is important and should be moderately implemented into all fitness programs.

Why use corrective exercises? Simply put, to maintain proper muscular balance and biomechanical function. You must understand the art of corrective exercise techniques arose from a growing population plagued by muscular imbalances and postural deviations. Just like your car needs an alignment every so often, the body needs to be tweaked, stretched, strengthened and re-programmed to move properly. When your car is out of alignment, the car moves funny and the tire tread wears down in an irregular fashion. Not safe right? The same line of thinking applies to corrective exercise and functional anatomy! To understand the basics of functional anatomy and why corrective exercise is important, you must realize that our body is really a system of complex levers and pulleys. Muscles act upon the skeletal system to create a series of push, pull and rotational movements. When muscles are inactive, overactive, too long or too short the fluidity of this system is compromised and so is the integrity of the many major joints in the body (ankle, knee, hips, shoulders).

Will a program consisting of only corrective exercises help someone lose body fat or increase their athletic performance? The answer is clearly NO if those specific goals are neglected in one's training. The truth of the matter is corrective exercises have a place in EVERY single fitness program out there because they are employed to improve the FUNCTION of the body as a whole. Unless your fitness goal is to be a complete biomechanical disaster and a walking injury, then you could use some corrective exercises in your routine. The term "corrective exercise" will typically take one's mind to thoughts of low intensity, physical therapy-like, mundane movements. In some cases this is true, but the reality is any exercise that is used to counter or correct a muscular imbalance can be considered a corrective exercise. A lateral lunge can be considered a corrective exercise for someone with tight adductors while another people may need to a more static movement like a two point plank.

The type of muscular imbalances and their fixes are many, so I am not going to dive into them here. My point is to stress that all well designed programs should have some corrective exercises implemented to help keep a person's body functioning properly. It's like preventative maintenance rather than fixing something once it breaks. In a later blog, I will touch on some of the most common postural deviations, common muscle imbalances and also give you some ways to fix and prevent them in the future.

Couple's Fitness Competitions

I would like to give you all a heads up about an upcoming event in the Los Angeles area on July 31st and August 29th that is put on by a good friend of mine and fellow fitness advocate. The man who famously yields his wife around like a human kettle bell on youtube, Luke Sniewski, hosts a non-profit event called "Couple's Fitness Competitions" in Santa Monica, CA. The premise is simple: help your relationship grow stronger through fitness! The competition costs $40 per a couple and you will be put through a series of functional fitness tests in which you will be scored based on your performance. The tests vary from anaerobic conditioning drills, pull up tests, kettle bell endurance tests and much more! The leading couples at the end are awarded all kinds of good prizes and everyone who participates gets the satisfaction of sharing a fun experience with their partner at the beach!

The event is really awesome and the coolest part is it is done with the participant and the community in mind. The competition isn't only open to dating or married couples, friends can partner up to participate as well! If you are interested in attending and showing everyone you have some serious fitness you can contact me and I will pass your information on to Luke. You can also reach Luke on Twitter @LEAFlifestyle or by visiting the Couple's Fitness Competition website at www.CouplesFitnessCompetitions.com

Hope to see you guys out there!

2 B FIT Workout...

Today's 2 B FIT workout was a good one! Here's how it all played out:

Dynamic Warm Up - Lunge with a twist, high knee pulls, quad pulls, lateral lunge walk, Frankenstein walk, walking A's, A Skips, high knees, butt kickers, sprint/backpedal, shuffles, cariocas

Yes, people were already sweating! Can you say rise in core temperature?

Then we moved into some super sets. The first of which was four sets of fifteen performing knee drives and trx push ups. This combination got everyone using a lot of upper body and core with the TRX, while the knee drives emphasized quads, glutes and even a little cardio.

After knocking out that beautiful upper and lower body super set combo, we moved into four sets of fifteen medicine ball throw downs to get the lats firing, followed by fifteen kettle bell swings which is an excellent exercise for the posterior chain.

After hitting some major upper and lower body push and pull variations, we moved the campers into a 30:30 circuit consisting of:

Box Drags

Forward + Back Ankle Hops

TRX Ice Skaters

Kettle Bell or Med Ball Push Press

For sixteen minutes everyone performed 30 seconds of high intensity work followed by 30 seconds of rest. This cardio-strength interval took us to the end of the hour and we finished with short cool down.

My Soul Exercise...

Now that I have written a blog about Soul Exercise, let me share with you some of the things I do to keep my sense of wellness and happiness at higher levels. I am not shy about pursuing things that I love and I really truly believe this helps me lead a very fulfilling life!

Exhibit A: The blog page you are looking at and the book I self-published. I love to write! Most people wouldn't connect a career in fitness with a joy for writing, but I have found a way to link the two and I greatly enjoy it! Below is a graphic of the book I self published called, "Four Steps to Changing Your Mind, Changing Your Life"

Exhibit B: I love music and playing the drums. I play in a band called Rusted Metal and usually get to hitting the skins at least two times a week, if not more even if it's only for 5 minutes! This picture is from a recent gig we played at The Vu in Newhall!

Exhibit C: Although this has taken a back seat to playing music, when I was a teenager and for a couple years in college I did a lot of drawing and painting as a form of meditation for me. I can just get lost so easily putting something down on a paper or canvas. This is a painting I did when I lived in San Diego, inspired by the Tool song "Lateralus". Look up the words and you'll get it...

Exhibit D (the most important  one on this list): Spending adequate time with people that matter the most.  Nothing can replace the love that is shared between the people around you who care about you more than the rest of this world and it is important to immerse ourselves in that love as much as possible!

Exercising the Soul

Photo: Painting by Alex Grey www.alexgrey.com

What is the soul? Without diving into a complex and convoluted philosophical argument about what it exactly is, I'd like to take a stab at defining it for the sake of helping you practically apply some concepts I'd like to share. Regardless of your spiritual background or lack of thereof, let's define the soul as the part of us that connects our mind's perceptions with emotions and feelings that completes our whole experience of the world. The body acts, the mind perceives and the soul, well it can really be considered the root of our experience if we define it as a collection of feelings and emotions evoked by our experience. Now I know this mostly a fitness blog and you may be wondering why I am getting all touchy-feely. This is because there is much more to human wellness than just physical well-being. Mental and emotional health is just important to our life experience as a healthy body.

With that said, I think it is important to address the need for what I will call Soul Exercise. This comes in two forms: Self-reflection and pursuing creative outlets you enjoy. When there is a lack of Soul Exercise, there is a decreased sense of happiness, an increased sense of stress, a decreased sense of fulfillment and an increased sense of burden and frustration. This comes from consistently choosing an experience that evokes these emotions. If you are over stressed, frustrated, feel burdened or just plain burned out on life in general, I want you to participate in the first form of Soul Exercise: Self-reflection. It is important for us to look at our life, our work and the relationships we've built to evaluate how much we're growing as people and how content we are with life. I don't think too many people out there will argue that the one of the most basic life aspirations for humans is to be happy. To be happy you have to understand first who you are and address any thoughts, words or actions you endorse that impede you from reaching happiness. Second, you must learn how to evolve mentally and emotionally so that you may properly embrace real happiness when you find it. This state will not be achieved without self-reflection and contemplation about yourself and your relation to the world.

The second form of Soul Exercise comes from pursuing creative outlets that make you feel alive. How many of you have a a secret (or maybe not so secret) passion for singing, music, for drawing, for art, for writing or sculpting? How many of you have this connection to an activity or physical location that just makes you feel calm, at ease, peaceful and happy? Now for some more self-reflection: How often do you participate in those activities or visit those places? Often, rarely or unfortunately in many cases the answer may be never. Finding creative outlets, activities or even just being in a place that makes you feel connected to life, alive and happy is really essential to feeling fulfilled. The reality is, pursuing activities or endeavors that make you feel peaceful, connected and happy are usually so fulfilling, it takes very small doses to keep you feeling great! If you spend 50 hours a week at work, give yourself fifteen minutes a day of exploring one of your creative endeavors and I can bet your sense of well being and happiness will be elevated.

Sorry for the long blog, just something I wanted to put out there for those who are searching and willing to listen. I would love to hear how this works for you all!

What Is Your Core?

The mythological entity known as the "core": What is it? You hear people talking fitness all of the time and the phrase comes up in a bunch of different ways, "Are you a core trainer?", "I want to work a lot of core", or "How do I work my core?". You probably say it to, but do you actually know what it means?

Technically your core refers to the group of muscles responsible for maintaining postural integrity or in layman's terms, keep you standing upright properly. You may need an anatomy chart for this one, but these major core muscles include the: transversus abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis and the erector spinae. Those muscles make up the major core musculature of the trunk, while the psoas muscles, glutes and lats also play an important role in posture.

How do you work your core? This can be accomplished through static or isometric movements such as prone and supine planks, as well as side planks. Rotational movements such as woodchops and various trunk twists work the obliques. Dynamic core work comes in the form of resisting changes in the core's plane of motion during exercise. This can come in the form of maintaining posture or upper body positioning during various lifts or movements.

The bottom line is if you're on your feet or your trunk is unsupported and your body is required to maintain good posture, you are activating your core muscles. Isolated work like planks, abdominal work and rotational movements all fall into what people traditionally think of core training. One of the greatest benefits of training functionally and removing machines out of the equation is that your "core" does tend to get a tremendous amount of work as postural integrity plays a key role in executing functional movements!

5 Reasons To Stop Using Machines

Unfortunately most people are using work outs and fitness facilities that are stuck in the 1980's. This is back in time when synthesizer pop music and mullets were "cool". Major corporate gym chains and even most mom and pop facilities are loaded with exercise machines, treadmills, ellipticals, bicycles and all sorts of other counter productive equipment. Throw that in with members who have no clue how to use the equipment, let alone know what muscle they are working when they do so and you have a recipe for fitness disaster. I am going to offer you five reasons to dump the synthesizer music, mullets and out of date fitness practices once and for all and encourage you to start training functionally.

1. Music With Synthesizers and Mullets Aren't Cool
Mullets and synthesizers were cool in the 1980's, along with exercise machines and traditional cardio equipment. If synthesizers and machines are no longer cool, then it is safe to say exercise machines are also no longer cool. You and I likely agree that synthesizers and mullets are no longer cool, therefore, logic tells me neither are exercise machines or traditional cardio equipment...Modus Ponens son! (those philosophy classes paid off!)

2. Machines Keep You Sitting
Let's see, you wake up in the morning and sit in your car as you commute to work. Then, when you get to work you plop down in your office chair and depressingly stare at a computer for eight to ten hours. After that you sit down and commute home, but make a quick stop at the gym to work out. Now, if you're doing the math at home you've probably spent eight to eleven hours sitting on your ass all day...why would you continue to do so when you're supposed to be getting some physical activity? Most machines keep you sitting down which reduces the amount of muscles needed to perform activity, thus reducing the amount of calories you burn in a session. Get off your ass and workout standing up!

3. Machines Perpetuate Muscle Imabalances
Using machines that keep you sitting have another HUGE draw back. You know the low back pain, knee pain and shoulder pain you feel on a daily basis even though your playing days are over (or never even started)? That's coming from all the sitting you do which causes weakening, lengthening and shortening of important postural muscles such as inactive glutes, lengthened back muscles, shortened chest muscles and weak trunk stabilizers. If you're someone who sits a lot, the time you spend in the gym should be on fixing these muscular imbalances. Sitting in a machine and pushing weight around in a seated position only makes these pains and distortions more prominent.

4. Machines Work In A Fixed Range Of Motion
The human body is a dynamic thing. Training on machines only takes away from this characteristic of the human body. Machines with a fixed range of motion take away the challenge of controlling and stabilizing the resistance when performing a lift. By training with free weights in a standing position, you activate more core muscles, more stabilizing assistor muscles and overall you do more work in a given lift than with machines. You can also freely adjust the movement with free weights to comfortably navigate your own individual biomechanics. This state cannot be achieved with exercise machines!

5. Traditional Cardio Machines Are Ineffective & Inaccurate
I know you're proud for having burned 800 calories on the elliptical, but I have a secret to tell you: the machines estimated calorie burn typically more than doubles what you ACTUALLY burned during your workout session. All of the sudden, burning 300 calories in an hour doesn't seem so productive and you're right. Just 20 minutes of rhythmic kettle bell work has been shown to burn up to 400 calories! That's 1,200 calories if you do it for an hour! Base your cardio training around interval based activities that require large muscle groups, high intensity, explosive work or anaerobic work.

Speed Ladder 101: One In Quick Step

Today's video is the first of a series of short demonstrations I will be sharing to show you guys how to properly make use of a speed ladder. This nifty little piece of equipment can  be purchased at sporting good stores or on-line from places like Power Systems or Perform Better for anywhere between $35-$70. The speed ladder is a great tool for increasing athletic performance because it helps increase agility, quickness and neuromuscular coordination. The non-athlete type can also benefit from speed ladder work as it will increase coordination, balance, agility and can even be used to perform some fun intervals or cardio training. Click to view full screen for the best look at this drill...