Better Is Better

How To Do A Pull Up

The pull up is by far one of my favourite exercises. OK, maybe not the funnest exercise to DO, but definitely one of the biggest "bang for buck" movements around.

But there's a lot of confusion about perfect pull up technique. So I'm doing a short series of pull up videos on BodyweightCoach.com. Here's the first installment.

How To Do Pull Ups

Hope you enjoy that. The next post will be about how to modify pull ups for people who are having trouble building up to their first pull up or who can't do as many reps as they'd like.

Neural Fitness — Is it the missing link?

If you're not getting the results you want. If you think you are "injury prone." If you'd like to perform better in your sport, but you're plagued by lackluster development. You may be neglecting the most important aspect of your training program—your nervous system.

Listen to Dr Kareem Samouri's explanation of his Neural Fitness principle. And if you're a fan of Circular Strength Training, you can have some fun with this video. Watch out for the parallels to many of CST's core philosophies.

BTW - you can check out Kareem's innovative programs by clicking here...

Enjoy!

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3 Things You Need To Know For Lasting Body Transformation

Bodyweight Workout For Fat Loss

As summer wanes and winter creeps ever nearer, you may find something else is also creeping up on you. Autumn tends to be accompanied by a slow creep of girth around the mid-section.

And even if you manage to fend off this slow creep, you still have the upcoming holiday season to think of. How you eat is going to have a lot to do with how well you weather the storm. I strongly recommend you check out Fat Burning Kitchen to help you with that.

But I’ve got another secret weapon for you. Below is one of my favorite bodyweight workouts for fat loss. In one minute, do three reps of the three exercises below. Take the rest of the round to recover before starting again at the top of the next minute. Do that 20 times...

3 x CST Frogger


3 x Lunge Jump


3 x CST Swing Split


Be forewarned, this bodyweight workout is deceptively easy for the first couple rounds. Don’t be fooled...

And make sure you blast through your three exercises as quickly as possible. You may be tempted to dawdle through it and take your entire minute to get the exercises done. But if you go that route you’ll soon run out of gas. The only way to make it through is to go as fast as you can and then spend the rest of the minute on recovery.

If you are more into training with equipment right now, you can also click through to check out my colleague Craig’s super popular fat loss program.

The important thing is to synch up your nutrition and your exercise to come through the dark months in fighting form for Spring. Keeping yourself lean and healthy year round is a pursuit that will pay dividends in mood, energy, vitality and longevity.

So make, borrow or buy a plan and get to it…

***
You may also enjoy these bodyweight workouts:

Tough Bodyweight Workout (with video)

Bodyweight Workout for Fat Loss (with video)

 

Or this primer on doing the perfect pushup!

Dumbest Things I Saw In The Gym Today

Gyms aren't all bad. There are lots of useful things you could be doing in a health club. Of course, you know that I think the majority of your time would be best spent outdoors or at home with your bodyweight, a Clubbell, a kettlebell, a sandbag or any number of other exercise modalities that take you closer to the movements of life and sport. But that's for another time.

The point here is that there are some downright dumb things that happen in gyms. Some things are just sad because they represent so much wasted time. Others are just plain d-u-m-b!

Today was a beautiful day here in Quebec City. There were tons of people outside on bikes & rollerblades or just out for a stroll. It was great to see. I had to be in the gym for some clients for a while. The place was almost empty (bravo). But our number one dumbest thing I saw in the gym today was...

Somebody climbing steps!

For one thing, it was beautiful outside. For another, Quebec City has more flights of long steep steps than any other city I've ever seen. So if ya wanna climb steps, get out of the gym!

The other thing they were doing wrong is just climbing, climbing, climbing at the same slow pace the whole time. Why not hit them hard for a bit, then slow the pace for a while. Or better yet get off the climber between intervals and do some joint mobility or flow yoga (à la Intu-Flow and Prasara).

Training with intervals has been proven time and again to outperform steady state cardio for fat loss and cardiovascular benefits. Why do we insist on maintaining our clutch on the chronic cardio?

The prize for the second dumbest thing I saw in the gym today goes to someone who was confident in the "functionality" of what he was doing.

Heavy biceps curls with each foot on a balance disk.

It looked like a circus side show.

First off, I'm not too keen on biceps curls to begin with. They have their uses for certain people at certain times. But if I'm using them with someone, it's to specifically address certain concerns related to hypertrophy or strength of the elbow flexors. At that stage, we're a long way off from applying that strength functionally. So why would you add instability to such an isolated exercise? I thought about that all the way home in the car and couldn't come up with any decent reasons.

And even if I was trying to add functionality to an exercise, rarely would I add the balance challenge to the bottom of the feet. It is very rare to a apply force in real life or in sport from a position of instability at the contact point between the ground and the foot. Even in sliding sports like skiing we create a solid platform between the snow and the foot through the edges of the ski. In cutting during field sports the foot is planted solidly to allow the application of force.

Very rare are occasions when the foot is not in solid contact with something. So why are so many trainers using instability under the foot? Doesn't it make much more sense to apply instability from the other end of the chain? That's why I love Clubbells so much. They're the perfect tool to add instability and chaos to the structure while working through a solid foundation underneath.

Anyhow, those are the two dumbest things I saw in the gym today. What have you seen lately? 

Bodyweight Challenge Workout

I turned 38 today.  Egad, that sounds really old.  So anyway, I had in my mind to do some sort of Challenge Workout, but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted it to be.  Then this morning I got an email from a buddy of mine in Thailand, and he mentioned that he’s been working with Forward Pressure.  I’ve also been using  FP extensively with a semi-private group of girls that I’m coaching.  So it dawned on me that this would be the perfect bodyweight exercise Challenge Workout!

Since it’s my 38th Birthday, I decided on 38 rounds using the second level of the flow (you can see the flow at the link above if you aren’t familiar with it).  This took me somewhere around 45 minutes.  As usual, I forgot to set a timer…  When I was done, I decided this would be the inaugural event.  So next year it'll be 39 rounds, and so on!  By the time I’m 75 years old, I should have some pretty serious pressing strength-endurance!

The Power Of A Challenge Workout

The occasional Challenge Workout is a powerful tool.  Not only does it give you a physical kick in the rear, it can be an excellent tool for exploring the mental side of performance.  I’ve experienced this many times doing Clubbell® challenges like the Trial-by-Fire.  A faint voice of dissonance always accompanies you through the first part of the session, telling you that you can give up any time.  Sometime before you get halfway, that voice grows very loud.  "Your sunk costs aren’t so heavy that you can’t walk away," the voice says.

Then you hit the halfway point, or just beyond, and you realize, for the first time, that you are going to make it.  You’re tired and hurting, but no more that you were at a quarter of the way through.  You’ve hit that steady zone that will carry you through.  And that realization gives you a boost - almost euphoric.

Then, close to the end, you just start to feel relieved that you’re going to make it.  You grit your teeth and try to push through with as much class as you can muster.  And when you’re done, you look back and think, “what was all the fuss about.”

I may not be able to turn back the clock.  But I can make sure that I keep moving, keep pushing myself, and hold the aging process at bay through natural exercise methods that develop flow and grace as much as strength and endurance.

Here Is Your Mission...

So here is your Workout Challenge.  How old are you?  Can you do that many rounds of Forward Pressure?  You’ll never know until you try.  And if you can’t YET, just start working up to it incrementally.  Take a look at the video in this post about Forward Pressure to learn the flow.  If you want more instruction, you can find Coach Sonnon’s detailed teaching here.  He also offers an easier and a more advanced version of what you’ll see in the linked post and video clip.

Don’t wait for your birthday.  Try it today!  The ultimate bodyweight Challenge Workout - your age in rounds of Forward Pressure.  Tell us in the comments how you did.

Cheers,
Adam

Bodyweight Training Meets Anabolic Diet - A reader's experience

Recently I had the good fortune of stumbling across one of the blogs of reader Andy Fossett, Anabolic Diet Results.  I enjoyed the writing and found the content to be thought provoking.  The following is a guest post from Andy about his experiences with the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution in conjunction with the Anabolic Diet.

Since the beginning of this year, I've been involved in an experiment to become "great." It's a relative term and a fuzzy goal. But as someone who has always just been good, it's a very real challenge to go beyond the results I've experienced so far in my life. Getting better results requires better effort and better tools. Effort comes down to motivation. My two primary tools in this experiment have been the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution and the Anabolic Diet. Before I describe my experience with combining these tools, let's skip to the results so you can see where this is going.

4x7 + Anabolic Diet

In a little less than three months following the Anabolic Diet and programs from the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution, I've:

• gained about 10 pounds of muscle and
• reduced my body fat by 1 or 2 percent.

To me, those are great results. Even better, I've achieved them while eating food I love, pursuing my hobbies, working at my career, and spending time with my friends. I'm convinced that, with greater effort and stricter compliance, I could have exceeded these results by a wide margin. However...

I've tried to "go hardcore" before. I ate almost nothing but oatmeal and chicken breasts for a couple of months while following a program of Olympic lifts and sprints. I got results with that too, but I hated life and eventually reverted to my old lifestyle - losing most of my gains in the process.

I've since come to grips with the fact that I'm not a Spartan. I don't live to train. I like beer. I like ice cream. I like having fun. Anyone who reads this blog probably already knows that CST is A LOT more fun than oatmeal and chicken breasts.

What's the Anabolic Diet?

On that note, I should probably write a few words about what the Anabolic Diet is all about. In a nutshell, the Anabolic Diet a carb-cycling diet that alternates between periods of insulin-fueled anabolism and lypolysis sparked by carbohydrate-depletion. Though there's a lot of science involved, it's extremely easy to put into practice. Monday to Friday, I eat a lot of healthy fats, meats, eggs, and vegetables. No sugar or grains. On the weekends, I eat pasta, bread, ice cream, whatever. The weekend "carb-up" lasts until I start to feel bloated or lethargic. Then it's back to high-fat and low-carb until next weekend. I love eating this way. I don't have to worry about eating too much of anything or timing my pasta meal an hour after my workout or anything like that. When I get hungry, I eat. Simple.

[Adam's Note: I just wanted to point out that although this nutritional strategy has been very successful for some people, I've never been able to make it work for myself or my clients.  People who do meet with success generally find they are taking two steps forward and one back.  I find that I take one step forward and two back.]

Bodyweight Exercise 4x7

This is actually pretty simple now too, thanks to the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution ebook. I'm by no means new to CST. I began using Warrior Wellness (the precursor to Intu-Flow) and Clubbells in 2005 and have since enjoyed working with a number of RMAX resources. I remember being intrigued when Coach Sonnon first made the 4x7 methodology public. At the time however, it just seemed too big, too complex, too expensive, and too difficult to integrate with all the other stuff I had going on in my life. Coaches Steer and Murdock totally destroyed that conception in the BER. The ebook came out a week before I had planned to begin my experiment, and it looked like the perfect way to apply 4x7 to my lifestyle. The targeted programs, the adjustable difficulty levels, and the ability to perform the workouts at home in a short time were especially attractive to me. I bought BER the first day it went on sale, and I read the whole thing in one sitting. After that, I couldn't wait to get started.

My Experience So Far

Since my primary goal (as a lifelong skinny guy) was to gain weight, I started off with the hypertrophy program. I found the workouts very challenging despite their minimal time requirement. I also enjoyed the creative application of the various protocols to make each workout fun and interesting. As I grew accustomed to each exercise, I looked forward to trying the next level in a subsequent session.

Though my workouts were a blast, and I felt like I was improving, the metrics did not agree. I was varying my diet heavily from week to week, trying to find the sweet spot with a few variables. I gained a little bit of weight, but it was mostly fat - not what I was looking for. I got somewhat discouraged, but decided to stick with both the Anabolic Diet and 4x7 for one more month. I'm now very glad that I did.

My second cycle was much more successful. I began working on the strength program in the BER. I found this program even more fun than the hypertrophy program. I loved the dynamic exercises and got super excited about bouncing around my dining room on those days. I also corrected my dietary balance during this cycle by eating more varied meats and a little less ice cream. I gradually increased my overall caloric intake and began to put on muscle.

The workouts in the BER are challenging and fun, but the high and moderate intensity days are only one half of the program. The low and no intensity days are integral to the the overall effect, which is a major point of departure from most workout programs I've seen. Having dedicated days for recovery and compensation is a huge benefit of the 4x7 system.

I'm a big believer in joint mobility training and yoga, but I've always found it a struggle to integrate them into a cycle. For one thing, I always thought of them as extras to be done in addition to my workouts. there's only so much time in a week, and extras are the first to get cut when life gets hectic. The 4x7 program makes a space for these important modes of training, and helped me slow down and make the most of each session.

Making It Life-Proof

The Anabolic Diet is that is works by causing a bodily adaptation. Basically, you train the body to prefer fat to other fuels. Of course, this is great for burning body fat, but it has a neat side benefit. After you are fat-adapted, occasional higher-carb meals during the week (or a beer or some ice cream) won't set you back - the body still prefers fat.

So you can pick up where you left off and not have to worry about wrecking your results for the week. I've done this a couple of times for social engagements and the like. In each case, my body composition still improved over the course of the week.

I've found the 4x7 to also be pretty bullet-proof. Like most people these days, I'm busy. I work, I work on the side, I practice martial arts, I have friends. All the usual stuff.

In the past, this has made it difficult for me to stick with a workout program. Sometimes, my Taido training conflicts with my recovery. Sometimes, I can't make it to the gym during hours. Sometimes, I'm just too damn tired to work out.

Since 4x7 is based on the concept of varying intensity (rather than sets, reps, etc.), I can adjust the day's plan based on my energy level. If I have training in the evening, I can downshift a high-intensity workout to moderate intensity. If I'm absolutely exhausted, I can take a recovery day and restart the cycle from there. And it's not difficult at all to make these adjustments. I just make sure to keep my effort, technique, and discomfort within the correct ranges. When I step outside the acceptable range, I back off or step down in exercise sophistication. Learning to use the Intuitive Training scoring has been the key to making 4x7 fit with the rest of my life.

Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

4x7 and the Anabolic Diet work really well for me. I'm getting the best results of my life without having to sacrifice the things I enjoy. it's as close to a perfect combo as I've found yet. The BER really helped make 4x7 accessible for me. Besides providing a good variety of ready-made programs for specific goals, it explains the methodology in a very easy-to-understand way. Everything is easily customizable to your own individual capabilities and goals. In fact, after my current cycle (I'm working on the fat loss routine right now), I'm planning to try to put together a 4x7 cycle to increase my jumping ability. So I'm obviously pleased with my results so far and plan to continue using the Anabolic Diet the and 4x7 and BER programs in the future. The combination has been very effective for me and easy to put into practice.

Bodyweight Exercise: The Ninth Zen Habit to Make Huge Savings in Your Budget

Bodyweight exercises could actually save you money and reduce stress in these  trying times.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits recently posted a collection of eight habits to help you save big money in these troubled economic waters. But in my book, he forgot an important one. Are you paying big bucks on your gym membership?

The average monthly dues are pegged at about $50 per month. But that can climb as high as $100 or more depending on where you live and what kind of gym you attend. That means cutting out the gym could save you anywhere from $600 to $1200 and more each year!

Yes, this is a health and wellness site. No, I’m not saying you shouldn’t exercise. What I am saying is that conventional gym exercise is not the only way to approach physical wellness. With or without equipment, there are a myriad of more interesting ways to express yourself through movement and stay in shape. You can...

• Exercise at home or in your hotel room
• Work out in the park
• Train at work

...or wherever you care to tote your portable gym. Hint - you carry it everywhere.

The Power of Bodyweight Exercise

The most versatile exercise tool in your possession is the weight of your own body. For centuries, sophisticated physical cultures have been using exercises employing bodyweight only to build impressive physiques, ample strength and legendary wellness.

But in these stressful times, the benefits of gymless training goes well beyond the monetary. It is well established that physical activity helps combat stress. And we have stress in spades these days.

But what about the process of fighting rush hour traffic to get to the gym? What about tussling for crowded gym equipment, dealing with blaring music and feeling like you are on display? These are hardly good stress relievers. Compare that with a quiet workout in your backyard or your rec room.

Bodyweight Training Options Are Deep & Wide

You may be thinking that bodyweight exercise will not be sufficient to garner sustained improvements in your conditioning, or that it doesn’t offer enough variation to hold your interest. This is far from true. Certainly, vanilla flavoured varieties of bodyweight exercises are limited to endless repetitions of push-ups and crunches. But there are endless choices of movements if we turn to examples such as ancient physical cultures and modern innovators like the Circular Strength Training® system (CST).

Here is a brief example of an effective session that you can do anywhere. These movements are pulled from CST. Perform one repetition of each movement before moving on to the next. One rep of each exercise comprises one circuit. Continue doing the circuit for the time you have available to you. Take rest pauses as needed.

CST Bodyweight Exercise Circuit

Quad Squat

(At the end of the rep tip up into a low squat to perform the…)

Prisoner Squat

(finish in a low squat and tip forward onto all fours to perform the…)

Leg Swoop

(Transition directly into the Quad Squat for a subsequent circuit.)

For a virtual library of bodyweight exercises, consider picking up the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution.

Give the circuit a try and let me know in the comments how it went.  How long can you go without stopping?  How many circuits can you complete in 10 minutes?  Play with different ways to challenge yourself with these three equipment free exercise options.

Dance Your Way To Better Fitness - Insight from a reader

I received the following note from Andrea as a follow up to the recent post about the Bollywood fitness dance class craze.  She is a dance instructor in Germany and she brings up some great points, so I thought you may be interested in reading the full text (with her permission).

I've not yet read the full article on Spiraldynamik, but I've printed it out and will be taking it with me.  I'm out the door shortly for a week of family vacation, and it will make for some good reading on one of the several planes I'll be on today (we booked using points!).  I've decided to go "unplugged" for the week, but I do hope you'll post your reflections to the comments section here.  I look forward to reading them when I get back.

Andrea, if I ever make it to Germany, we can trade Salsa lessons for FlowFit® training!

Hi Adam,

great post! I wanted to comment it directly but the system didn't accept my post.  Maybe it didn't like it or it is too long. 

I always enjoy reading your blogs, newsletter and whatever material you offer in the world wide web.
You were a Swing Dance teacher? I am impressed. I would take some lessons in Flow Fit and Swing from you but Berlin is too far away from Quebec. :-)

I work as a dance instructor. Swing is my favourite dance and I do Salsa, Tango, Ballroom Dancing. I want to learn Hip Hop, Ballroom gets boring.  

I would like  to share some thoutghts about the topic with you.  You are right - dance is great for coordination, timing, body awareness etc  - in one word: Flow quality. You can be a "successful" martial artist, weightlifter or football player without much flow, at least for a short time.
Not many athletes know the importance of flow quality. "Hey - I can do 50 kipping pull -ups. I have back pain but who cares? I am a strong guy!" Somebody should tell him that his midline stabilization sucks........ :-(

Dance is all about Flow quality.  That's why every athlete should take some dance classes.  You have to adress your issues with coordination deficits, bad alignment, SMA, residual tension, fear reactivity whether you like it or not. Bruce Lee was a good dancer. Gene Kelly was a good athlete (Ice hockey).
I actually do my Intu Flow with music sometimes and add some  variations so it looks like modern dance - but Intu Flow and  dance improvisation are the same  - in the underlying principles.
 
Fat loss? Well....uhm....I respectfully disagree.  For fat loss I'd prefer Tabata Squats,  sprint interval training or wrestling. RMax tacfit, weightlifting, crossfit WOD,  Alwyn Cosgroves programs  or Mike Mahler's Fat Loss- Kettlebell-program seems to me more effective than tango or swing.  Dance is more like moderate or low intensity , not high intensity.  There may be exceptions: breakdance or swing on a very high acrobatic level. I have never tried this so I can't tell from experience.
 
Quote:
"Flow, which in essence is the ability to get out of your own way and let your movement express itself freely."

Well said Adam. I agree. But unfortunately you can't express yourself freely if your coordination sucks or you suffer from SMA. Fred Astaire is great, Gene Kelly too, but watch the regular Joes in the world of social dancing. Bad alignment all over the place,  lordisis, kyphosis, no core stability, SMA , residual tension, tight shoulder girdle, tight hips etc etc.

Much worse than that: a lot of dance teachers don't adress this issues.  Probably  economic interests are stronger than ethics as a trainer. They don't want to lose their clients and they don't care whether their students improve or not as long as they pay for the classes.  Some dance students should hire a good physiotherapist, a mind-body therapist (in some cases a psychoanalyst....) and maybe a CST Coach first before   before wasting money on a dance teacher.    

I'm talking about motor ontogenesis. Some kids develop good coordination, some bad - depends on the conditions (parents, teachers, social restrictions).  And later in life more stress and trauma on the body  accumulates and even if you feel free when dancing and you have fun: bound flow in your body will imprison you.

CST is great for intelligent training.  As soon as my fitness level will allow it, I will attend Coach Sonnon's workshops in Germany.
My search for help in Germany led me to another system of "intelligent movement" to improve my flow and rehab my injuries. The name is "Spiraldynamik" . Swiss MD and Aikido Master  Dr. Christian Larsen, founded a resaearch group about 20 years ago. I'd recommend Larsen's Spiraldynamik-Clinic in Zurich for any injured athlete living in the area.

If you are interested, you can find a short article about Spiraldynamik (the only one in English).


Spiraldynamik Trainer already started to work in public schools in Switzerland  because the earlier in life you start correction the better the results.

So far my thougths about  flow and dance
Best regards
Andrea

The Key To Your Fitness Success – Gary Vaynerchuk’s Better Than Zero

What are the most common excuses for not exercising and eating well? The ones I hear the most go something like this:

• I don’t have time
• I travel too much
• I hate gyms
• I don’t like exercising
• I dine out with clients

I rarely hear anyone say they don’t know WHAT to do. People have a pretty good idea what they would need to do to improve their health and fitness. But excuses abound and nothing gets done.

However, I think one of the biggest problems is a question of scale. People think that health and fitness have to be all or nothing propositions. But in fact they can be entirely incremental. Start with one little thing. Everything counts.

I hold Gary Vaynerchuk, of Wine Library TV, in high regard.  No matter your opinion of his style, if you take heed of the content you'll discover rare gems of insight.  Listen to him explain his “Better Than Zero” philosophy. He’s talking about business and personal brand, but it is entirely applicable to your health and fitness:

Start Small, But Start Today

Whatever your current level of wellness practices may be, there is always something more you could be doing for yourself. Pick one thing and start today. If you don’t have any ideas, consider one –– and only one –– of following.

• Drink more water
• Eat protein with every meal
• Eat veggies with every meal
• Add five minutes of bodyweight exercise to your daily routine
• Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator
• Walk over to tell your coworker something instead of sending an email
• Stretch (or better yet do some Intu-Flow) every 30 minutes throughout your day
• Cut processed grains and sugar out of ONE meal in your day

Those ideas are off the top of my head. If one appeals to you, dig in. If not, use the list as inspiration to come up with your own ONE THING. Don’t try to change everything at once. For some people, going whole hog works (I tend to be one of them). But for most it just ends in overload and abandonment of the entire plan.

Instead, master one small thing. Make it a habit. Then add another. With each small thing –– no matter how insignificant you may find it –– remember that everything is “Better Than Zero."  The cumulative effect of many small things will end up in a torrent of habits which support a healthy lifestyle.