Better Is Better

Time Under Tension & The Gymboss

One of the most overlooked variables in strength training is the amount of time the system is placed under stress in order to cause a desired adaptation.  One of the most common tools used to manipulate this variable in conventional training is tempo.  Basically, this is the time it takes to execute different portions of a repetition.  Generally, a repetition is broken down into the lowering phase (eccentric) and the overcoming phase (concentric).  Between each of these is a pause (or lack of pause depending on the tempo prescription).

Coaches often write out their tempo prescriptions something like this 4-0-1-0.  This would be a repetition that takes 4 counts on the lowering phase, no pause, 1 count on the overcoming phase and then again no pause before continuing into the lowering phase of the next repetition.

This definitely is a great way to control how much time you place the system under tension.  The above example would take about 5 seconds per repetition.  If you did ten reps you would be doing a set of approximately 50 seconds.  The problem is, most people grossly misjudge their counts.  I see this every day with my clients, and I've read about coaches like Mike Boyle who actually put this to the test by observing athletes lifting and comparing the counts to a metronome.

Controlling tempo is especially hard for beginners.  And since one of the main reasons for using tempo is to control time under tension (although there are other cool things you can do with it), I have taken to using timed sets with many of my clients instead of using tempo and reps.  So, for example, if I am targeting muscle growth (hypertrophy) I choose a weight that my client can handle for a 45 second set.  We keep an eye on the Rate of Perceived Effort and increase weight as perceived effort drops.  If I am more focused on another attribute, such as strength or endurance, I can decrease or increase the time of the set accordingly.

Here is a handy little table outlining the appropriate time under tension for various goals.
(pilfered from VancouverFitness.ca)

Workout Variables

Strength/Power

Hypertrophy

Endurance

Time Under Tension

4–30sec

30–60sec

60–100sec

The only tool you really need for this is a watch with a good chronometer function.  But I have come to rely on one of my newest toys, the Gymboss both in my own training and with many of my clients.  Although the process of setting the timers could be a bit more intuitive and simple, it is by far the best timer I have run across, especially at the price.  I really like that you can set two different timers, which also makes it easy to do interval training.

If you are looking for a new way of setting your training up, give Time Under Tension a try.  It is an extremely simple way of making sure you are using the right approach for your goals.

Were we built for wrist curls?

A fellow blogger who I find consistently makes me think, Rusty Moore over at the Fitness Black Book, recently posed the following question.

I just spent about 20 minutes on your site! I really want to give Clubbells a try to build forearm strength. I have always felt that wrist curls didn't do the trick. I do like one arm "suitcase lift" with a barbell for grip strength, but I would love to find an alternative to the wrist curls for direct forearm work. I'll probably just go over to your blog and comment. I've been searching for an effective forearm movement that felt healthy on the wrists…wrist curls feel a little damaging to me. Does that make sense?

The issue I would have with wrist curls, along with several other “conventional” exercises is its lack of “applicability” (I’d use the word functionality, but it has become such a cliché).  And if an exercise isn’t really applicable in the real world, chances are the human body isn’t really adapted to doing it naturally.  When would a caveman have fixed his forearm and moved a weight with his wrist only?  Probably never.  Instead, he would have things pulling against or through his grip at different angles as he manipulated them.

So the suitcase deadlift, or any type of deadlift for that matter, is applicable to tasks our forebears likely had to adapt to.  It’s a weight pulling directly against our grip.  Clubbells attack the grip from another perspective in that they address a weight pulling through that grip, as in dragging a carcass by the leg, for example.  Both movements reflect patterns that the muscles, connective tissue and joints were meant to do.  The tissues are functioning “normally” in this case.  If you force them to work “abnormally,” as in a wrist curl, I think you are right in feeling that the movement could potentially be damaging.  At the very least, it is not improving the applicability of your strength.

In order to get at the same target as a wrist curl in a more applicable manner, I really like kettlebells.  The press family of movements, culminating in the jerk, and the snatch really stimulate the development of the forearm.  I find they really echo any task which involves holding a weight overhead with your palms up, like carrying a big rock on your shoulder.  Again, this is a naturally occurring task to which our structure adapted.  I especially like the snatch because you are getting a combination of the “pulling against the grip” component during the swing phase, and the “supporting a weight” component during the overhead phase.

I always try to keep an open mind about different exercise approaches.  Being dogmatic closes you off to so many possibilities that you may never have thought of.  But I just can’t see how wrist curls would ever fit into my own personal approach to training.  I’m really interested in the idea that they can intuitively feel damaging.  I think looking at any exercise in terms of applicability to natural physical tasks may be a good way of assessing whether it could be potentially injurious or not.  If we weren’t made to do it, maybe we shouldn’t.

Your Prasara Body-Flow Yoga At-Home Webinar

Yoga University: Prasara 101

Prasara Body-Flow Yoga is one of the three wings of the ground breaking Circular Strength Training® system. One of the best descriptions I have run across for Prasara Yoga comes from CST Coaches Ilano and Hurst:

"Prasara Yoga is a method of physical practice designed to improve flow (Samadhi). Flow can be defined as the ability to move your body into any position or direction with grace and fluidity. In essence, flow is your unrestrained freedom of movement. Specific asana are chosen and seamlessly linked together to open your joints and strengthen your whole body."

There are some amazing clips out there on Prasara Body-Flow Yoga. Allow this collection to be your guide as you explore the world of Flow Yoga. As you work your way through these examples, you will be well on your way to earning your degree in the Yoga University! Enjoy!

=============================
Tutorials

Prasara Yoga 1/2 Spinal Twisting Pose by Scott Sonnon

#5 Best Bodyweight Exercise for Grapplers

BrickhouseBodymindTV Episode 4 (Spinal Rocks)

=============================
Exercise Demonstrations

Prasara Hurlies (Coach Hurst)

Prasara Pocket Wheel (Me)

Shouder Screw (actually a tutorial - but only if you speak Japanese...) (Coach Hurst)

4 Corner Balance Drill (actually a tutorial - but only if you speak Japanese...) (Coach Hurst)

Sonnon's Prasara Body Flow Threading Elbow Lever Bridge

Modified Trinity Yoga Squat (Coach Hurst)

Rotating Shinbox Cobra (Joseph Shwartz)

=============================
Prasara Flows

Prasara Yoga - Cricket Flow (Coach Hurst)

Tumbleweed (Me)

=============================
Seminar Extracts

Ageless Mobility Inspired Class Extract (Me in Australia)

FlowFit Sophistications (Me in Australia)

=============================
Prasara Montages

Prasara Yoga Primer DVD - English Intro

Prasara Yoga Series "A" Montage of Scott Sonnon

Prasara Groundwork Warmup (Coach Hurst)

Prasara Body-Flow 2006 November Session 1 (Coach Sonnon)

Twisting Crane Flow (Part 1) (Coach Ilano)

Revolved Head to Knee Pose Progression (Coach Ilano)

Sonnon Prasara Body-Flow Yoga Floating Lever


=============================
Body-Flow Montages

Scott Sonnon Prasara Parkour

=============================
Prasara Perspectives

BrickhouseBodymindTV Episode 5

Learn All About Clubbell® Training

Clubbell College Free Webinar: CB 101

Are you ready for your immersion into the world of the Clubbell®? If you are thinking about getting into Clubbell swinging, are just starting, or have been doing it for a while and are just looking for some inspiration, you've come to the right place!

I've scoured YouTube for my favorite clips and gathered them all here in one place for your learning and viewing pleasure. I stole this idea from a blog called Grok.com. Basically, this is your Clubbells 101 free web based seminar. Enjoy!

=============================
Exercise Tutorials

Clubbell Swipe Tutorial

Clubbell Barbarian Squat

Clubbell Shoulder/Rotator Cuff Recovery

Clubbell Swing
If you don't have it already, you can get my Clubbells 101 ebook for free by subscribing to the Momentum Training News. It includes a detailed tutorial of the Swing.

=============================
Exercise Demonstrations
Here are a few Clubbell exercises demonstrated without instruction or commentary.

Clubbell Mills

Clubbell Sparta Cast

Clubbell Fighter Swipes

Clubbell Bruiser Pistol Squats

Steve Maxwell 15# Alternating Shield Cast

=============================
General Inspiration!
These are clips of inspiring feats, inspiring movement, inspiring messages and inspiring settings. Enjoy

Coach Jones Swiping 80 lb Clubbell

CST at Kailua Beach (Coach Jarlo Ilano)

The Legendary Clubbell of Coach Scott Sonnon (Dan Chomicia's Catch 22 trailer)

The American Yogi With Scott Sonnon

RMAX Internal Power Challenge

=============================
How Does It All Come Together?
Below are a few clips that give some clues as to how you can fit Clubbells into your training programs. For more ideas, visit the RMAX International forums. There is tons of free information available there and plenty of knowledgeable CST Pros to answer your questions.

Metabolic Resistance Circuit

4x7 Sonnon Day Part 2 (for tons more of these go here) 

Clubbell & Kettlebell Basic Workout

Clubbell Kettlebell Mixed Up (from CrossFit Portland)

Couples Working Out

=============================
If you REALLY can't afford the real thing...
Here is a little tutorial for a pretty decent stop-gap tool. I don't recommend it, but as far as homemade clubs go this one looks to be one of the safer and more effective ones around. But please note that as soon as you get your hands on a genuine Clubbell® you will be amazed at the quality difference. I've heard this time and again in working with students who have gone from their own homemade clubs to the real thing...

Homemade Clubbell

Free Kettlebell Immersion Course, Kettlebell College: KB 101

If you are interested in kettlebells, or already use them but are looking for guidance and resources to help you improve, you are in the right place. You can get quite far studying on your own using YouTube alone. But you have to scour the internet to find the gems amidst the muck.

To save you the trouble, I've assembled many of the highlights here in one post. Think of this as your KB 101 class. Study the videos below, and you will have gone a long way towards understanding how to use kettlebells safely and effectively. I stole this idea from the guys over at the grok.com blog.

There are tons of other good clips out there. But I think these serve as a great starting point. Then it's up to you to explore...

===============================
Let's start with all the free stuff Coach Scott Sonnon has put up on the internet, as he has been pretty generous with his material. This is an impressive library and gives you just a tiny taste of what you get with his Official Kettlebell Foundation DVD set. The neat thing about Coach Sonnon's approach is that he delivers a holistic base of knowledge and practical strategies to not only have you using the kettlebell correctly, but to keep you healthy through compensatory exercise and mobility.

Scott Sonnon Kettlebell and Clubbell Yaw Press

Rounded Back Kettlebell Swing

The Best Kettlebell Exercise for Groundfighters (Quarter Get-Up)

The Best Kettlebell Exercise for Fighters (One Arm Long Cycle)

Scott Sonnon's #2 Top Kettlebell Mobility Drills

===============================
Other Informative Kettlebell Tutorials and Clips

CrossFit Kettlebell Swings


How to Quickly Master the Kettlebell Jerk (from KettlebellAthletics)


Kettlebell WindMill Variations (from KettlebellAthletics)


Girevoy Sport Kettlebell Competition Jerk Steve Cotter (demo by Valery Federenko)


GS Snatch Slow Motion


================================
Girevoy Sport At Its Best - Demos by Valerie Federenko

Valery Fedorenko 1992 Footage -188 Snatches


Valery Fedorenko 130 Jerks Two 70lb. Kettlebells


Valery Fedorenko 3 minute Long Cycle


================================
Throwing Kettlebells "Into The Mix" -> How they can fit into overall training programs

Clubbell & Kettlebell Workout Basics (Kettlebell Girl)


MMA Specific Conditioning Master Circuit 2


TacFit with Coach Steer: MetCon CST Style

Why do you fall off the wellness wagon? (And ideas about how not to...)

I ran across a very interesting post on the blog of author Tim Ferris.  It features something called the Transition Curve.  It reminds me of what Seth Godin calls The Dip.  The post runs through several stages of a recurring cycle in the life of an entrepreneur.  I'll let this excerpt speak for itself:

The concept that we’re going to examine is called the Transition Curve. It resembles a rollercoaster...

* Stage 1: The first stage of the concept is called “Uninformed Optimism”. At this stage on a rollercoaster, just getting to the top of the rollercoaster, you experience feelings of an adrenalin rush, characterized by excitement and nervous energy.

* Stage 2: The second stage is called “Informed Pessimism”. As you ride over the top of the curve you now have a bit more information. Feelings of fear, nervousness, and frustration begin to set in. Perhaps you even want to get off of it.

* Stage 3 – The third stage is called “Crisis of Meaning”. You’re past scared. You feel despair. It’s as if you’re standing on the edge of a cliff ready to jump, and you begin to think “Today the rollercoaster’s going off the bottom of the track for the very first time.” You feel helpless and you’re both terrified and frozen.

* At this point, you face a critical juncture. You can come off the bottom of the curve and crash and burn, which is when your business goes bankrupt, you lose your marriage, you start drinking, or you end up in a doctor’s office because of stress. Or you can come around the corner because you’re getting support at “Crisis of Meaning” and you can enter an upward swing call “Informed Optimism”.

* Stage 4 – Informed Optimism. You’re calm. You’re informed. You might even say you are cautiously optimistic.

(via The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss)

In reading about the Transition Curve, I could not help but be struck with the parallels to be drawn with people who are on the wellness path.  Whether it is a resolution to eat better, move more, regain lost movement capacity, reduce aches and pains, develop better energy reserves, etc, the above pattern is almost universally applicable.

Think of the last time you resolved to eat in a more healthful manner.  Something triggered it, right?  You saw an inspiring movie or read an inspiring book.  You hit the bottom of the barrel and decided, in a disgusted fit, that it was time to take things in hand.  You got inspired by a friend's tale of nutritional transformation.  Whatever the catalyst, something sent you onto the warpath.  You're all fired up!  You start reading blogs, magazines and internet articles about healthy eating.  You tell all your friends about which nutritional approach you have decided on.  You hit the health food stores and stock up on all your organic, healthy fare.  What an exciting time!

Then you get your first craving.  Or you go to your first dinner party.  Or you head into the Christmas party season.  Things get awkward.  You feel weird explaining why you don't want a glass of eggnog.  You feel derailed if you do have a glass of eggnog.  Now that the realities of daily life are muddying the waters of your perfect nutritional plan, you aren't sure how this is all going to work.  You start to know enough to worry about whether you can pull it off.

Then you hit the "dip."  This is the make it or break it point.  It is when you start to ask yourself, Oh dear, am I really going to be able to sustain this?  Am I willing to eat like this for the rest of my life.  Is it worth the trouble?  Am I really getting any benefit?

This guy is in the Dip...

I love the way Seth Godin explains the dip in some of his interviews.  He reminds us how the toughest year in a prestigious university degree is often the first.  This is done purposefully in order to weed out those who aren't cut out for the program.  So, the first year is the dip.  If you push through and succeed in that first year, you've made it past the point of resistance.  If you press through that membrane, you are home-free on the other side.

This guy is definitely through the Dip!!

As we see when we look around, most people don't make it past the wellness dip.  It's tough.  It's complicated.  It's confounded by our popular culture, media messages and social pressures.  But if you break through the other side, you find that you have momentum.  You know what you need to do.  You develop strategies to fit what you need to do into the realities of life.  You adapt to your new habits so that it becomes easier to "be you" while doing those things then while not doing those things.  Old habits begin to feel weird.  You've punched through the membrane.

Easy to say.  Obviously hard to do (or we would all be held up as models of health and fitness).  What are some things you can do to help you through the dip?

5 Things To Help You Through the Dip

• Surround yourself with like-minded people.  If none of your immediate circle share your goals, consider joining an online community like the RMAX tribe or some other forum or group which supports your new lifestyle objectives.
• Make very small promises and keep them.  When you are in the dip, seeing through to the other side is almost impossible.  Imagining that you are going to succeed is very difficult.  But making small promises to yourself, one at a time, and sticking to them is a great way to see you through the dip one inch at a time.  For example, you may promise yourself that "tomorrow, I will not eat any refined sugar."  That's one day and one goal.  That is doable.  It is very different than, "refined sugar is no longer part of my diet."  When you're in the dip, the latter just isn't believable.
• Write everything down.  The worst time to "slip" is while you are in the dip.  This is because one slip turns into one more "exception" which turns into the rule which leads you right back to where you started.  By writing everything down, you keep yourself honest.
• Get a coach.  I can't stress this enough.  If you are going it alone, it is tough to have the perspective, will and staying power to make it through the dip.  Seeing a coach even once a week can help you through that difficult period.  When you are riding high on the other side of the dip, you may only need your coach periodically.  While in the dip, I would suggest using your coach liberally.  And these days your coach does not have to live close by.  I have several people I am proud to call coach, and they all live hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away.
• Plan, plan and plan.  Write down in detail the actions you are going to take in the next 4-6 days to stay on track.  This could be writing out your meal plans.  It could be creating a detailed exercise schedule.  Whatever you are trying to achieve, map it out in great detail for at least a few days in advance.  Obviously, this type of meticulousness is not feasible long-term, but you'll need it to break through the dip.

I'm sure there are many more.  What dips have you made it through?  Have you pierced through the membrane of resistance in your profession, your relationship, your health, your mental outlook or some other area of your life?  What helped you make it through your dip?  Please leave your tips in the comments.  It'll help us all...

If you are smart, you'll exercise (or vice versa)

My daughter is one smart cookie (and I'm pretty sure I'm not just saying that from a perspective of parental bias).  But it is interesting to watch her express that intelligence.  When she is thinking on something, or recounting a story, she usually has to "move."  There is some type of physical expression which seems to be tied to her use of intellect.

I didn't really even clue into this until I watched a TED Talk with Sir Ken Robinson.  In it, he talks about how the school systems around the world are discouraging creative thinking.  At one point, he tells a tale of a young girl who is doing horribly in school and is labeled as being stupid.  But as soon as she is admitted into a dance school she finds her stride and goes on to become a rich and famous dancer, choreographer and producer.  Her intelligence was wrapped up in her movement.  Here is the talk if you want to watch it.  It's worth the time...

Then I ran across this study about sport and language capacity.  It seems that even just watching sport seems to have a positive effect on your ability to understand language.  This makes a lot of sense when you consider the work of Dr John Medina in his book, Brain Rules.

Medina tells us that our ancestors are estimated to have walked on average 12 miles per day.  And that is above and beyond all the other physical activity they were required to do for survival.  His conclusion, based on that and many other points of reference, is that our brains were made to function while moving through an open and fluid environment.  And he has a whole slew of modern science to back up his assertions that exercise improves cognitive ability.

Exercise improves cognition for two reasons: (from the Brain Rules site)

• Exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain, which reduces brain-bound free radicals. One of the most interesting findings of the past few decades is that an increase in oxygen is always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness.
• Exercise acts directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself. It increases neurons’ creation, survival, and resistance to damage and stress.

This is probably true for almost any type of exercise, but I'm convinced that approaching physical movement with a mind for gradually increasing sophistication would provide even greater benefit to the brain.  Every time you learn a new skill, you inevitably stimulate the brain and nervous system to lay down and refine new connections.  By taking your exercise consistently towards more complex patterns and levels of skill, you constantly provide the brain with that nourishing stimulus.

An example of this type of progression would be in taking a standard pull-up and progressing it towards a kipping pull-up.  Then, a kipping pull-up could be progressed to a traveling commando pull-up (from the CST 4x7 DVDs).  And a traveling commando pull-up can progress to a butterfly pull-up.  So instead of just adding a belt with a bunch of weight to my standard pull-up, I move through a gradual upgrade in the quality of movement as my capacity for quantity of movement improves.  We aren't just getting stronger, we are developing ever more complex neuromuscular movement patterns.  And in so doing, hopefully we're getting just a little bit smarter (or at least putting off mental decline for a little while longer...).