Sports Fitness

Maximum Training Resistance AKA “MTR” The most important concepts of self awareness can come from an “Maximum Training Resistance.” Other coaches may call it a “daily max.” The definition of the MTR is that “the maximum resistance that can be overcome one time without a strong effort of will or emotional stress.”  This idea is key in many of my programs. Most of my programs will crush you physically and emotionally if you do not follow this.  It is not to say its the programing because all programs crush people its mostly the load and not recognizing the overload. For example I have lot of athletes online that I coach that never and I mean never listens to me about counting their fucking misses in their lifts. So lets say they miss 3 to 5 reps a work out on one exercise. That means in a week they my take an extra 15 to 25 lifts. That’s 60 to 100 extra reps a month at a high intensity. That is an extra 3,120 to 5,200 lifts a year… How people don’t kill them self is crazy. After having diarrhea, not sleeping, random yelling, or crying in a car than the online athlete listens and starts counting their misses. The name of the game is can you handle the load.  Use the MTR as a guide so as not to burn out your nervous system.  So, the singles in the classical and power lifts should NOT be all out, however I do want it RFH!!!  Figure that out… You also have to learn whether you are missing lifts because you are working above your MTR, being a pussy or because your form just sucks. For me, it is an issue of leaving the snatch in front, the clean crashing on me, and I drive the bar out in front of me in the jerk.  If the speed on the bar is good and I am pulling the bar high enough to snatch it or clean it, or I am driving it high enough to jerk it, I know that I have not exceeded my MTR, whether I make it or not.  If I am missing my snatches out front, it is likely just because of my crappy starting position, first pull, locking out early and lack of timing, and not because I am going too heavy. As a athlete progresses they will learn exactly where that line is and if you do not learn that as an athlete it will be very hard to excel in any sport.  The ‘MTR Matrix’ is how most high level athletes train, not only in weightlifting, but in all sports.

In the heart of man, there are many seeds that have been planted: the desire to be super-human or immortal, the desire to be able to conquer life, the desire to save or rescue others - to be a hero, the desire to seek out God, and the desire to be free. Deep in man's heart, he longs for freedom. Freedom - free from bondage, slavery, suffering, oppression, depression, sickness, or whatever. Man longs to be free. We don't have much of a choice as to where we are born, or what government we are governed by (well, in today's world, that choice may actually exist, but it hasn't always). There are some outside constraints as to how much freedom we can experience. However, there are many aspects of freedom that are in our control. Your lifestyle, the actions you choose from day to day, play a large role in how much freedom you get to experience. If we are complacent, or apathetic towards moving (as we were designed to do), we can actually imprison ourselves to a life of obesity, pain, stiffness, fear, depression, and dreams. Movement is the key to freedom, the key to living.We can actually put ourselves in bondage and become slaves to a chair, or a sedentary life if we do not engage in moving like we were created to do. Walking, skipping, running, playing - these are movements that we were made for. They are not intended for drudgery, they are not "exercise". They are vitality. They are freedom. Look around you. How many people do you see that sit around and say things like, "When I was young, I had all kinds of energy." , "I used to be a great football player when I was in high school." , "When you get older, things start to fall apart." , "I have to be careful, I have a bad back." , "Son, daddy can't throw the football with you. His knee hurts." This list can go on almost to infinity. Life is not meant to be lived in bondage to our broken down bodies. Life is meant to be lived in freedom through our resilient bodies. We are not made to sit around and remember how well we used to feel, or how well we used to be able to run and play. We are made to experience how awesome it is to run and play when we are 80 years old. We are made to be able to go hiking through the wonder and beauty that God created, we are meant to be able to play with our kids and their kids. We were not meant to be imprisoned in our own bodies. Deep in your heart, you long to be free. You long to live and experience life. You have a huge degree of choice as to whether you nourish that desire and enjoy vitality. You also have a huge degree of choice as to whether you suffocate that desire to the point that it haunts you and aches your heart. Your heart, your soul cries out for life, for freedom. Find a way, MAKE a way, get up and move. Move and TAKE your freedom. Live.

If you want to get super strong than add unilateral (single limb) strength training to your regime. This highly effective workout will help you get fit faster. It’s a metabolic circuit that takes under 30 minutes to finish using unilateral exercises. Continue reading →

If you are a coach or therapist who speaks spanish and would like to meet-up at the NYC Grand Prix please know a private seminar on hamstring injuries will be happening the night before this Friday. Each topic is 15 minutes or so and concludes with a round table discussion on integrating topics such as Tensiomyography, streaming physiological monitoring, MSK Ultrasound, and bodywork. What is really exciting is that an actual athlete will be evaluated and bodywork will be done at the hotel for 90 minutes plus. The cost is a bottle of wine from the Nicasia Vineyard and while it's informal, the suggested attire is slacks and a button down as dinner is at 10pm. I also suggest bringing a small video camera and it's first come first serve as the limit is twenty people.

"Michael Crabtree underwent surgery to repair his Achilles tendon that he tore yesterday," coach Jim Harbaugh said. "Surgery was successful and we do not anticipate it will be season-ending for Michael." I was called by a consultant a few years ago asking what system of pressure mapping to purchase and I said Tekscan, knowing that their reporting would eventually rise to match the power of their analysis. A simple screening of all of the athletes on a football team can greatly reduce injuries and track the research. It's amazing how simply asking people if they want to be loaned a Fscan they say no, when they are complaining about pricing of equipment or lack of education. My feeling is that nobody wants to be making statements with risk to specific injuries. If you look at jones fractures in sport a pattern of risk does show up in the research, but specific posting are not easy, since orthotics are static and one has to do a few routes and cutting motions to see if high risk actions could amplify the pressure on specific regions of the foot. It's not easy but it's worth it. Teams are not doing enough pressure mapping to screen the athlete. The reason is most are not qualified to analyze it and most don't want to invest time or money, as athletes are not engaged. Simple solution? Broadcast the data on a giant flatscreen. Athletes are not dumb, they know their bodies matter. The problem is trust as well, since most athletes are being constantly hounded by promises of reducing injury and increasing performance. I bet the farm that the organization will make changes regarding data and injury over the next year, because they are not leveraging the bay area innovation. Adding force plates isn't going to help much, as they are needing to keep guys on the field and not pushing the envelope with training being a professional team.

Regionals #5 WoD:  21-15-9 Deadlift 315/205 Box Jump 24/30

"Michael Crabtree underwent surgery to repair his Achilles tendon that he tore yesterday," coach Jim Harbaugh said. "Surgery was successful and we do not anticipate it will be season-ending for Michael." I was called by a consultant a few years ago asking what system of pressure mapping to purchase and I said Tekscan, knowing that their reporting would eventually rise to match the power of their analysis. A simple screening of all of the athletes on a football team can greatly reduce injuries and track the research. It's amazing how simply asking people if they want to be loaned a Fscan they say no, when they are complaining about pricing of equipment or lack of education. My feeling is that nobody wants to be making statements with risk to specific injuries. If you look at jones fractures in sport a pattern of risk does show up in the research, but specific posting are not easy, since orthotics are static and one has to do a few routes and cutting motions to see if high risk actions could amplify the pressure on specific regions of the foot. It's not easy but it's worth it. Teams are not doing enough pressure mapping to screen the athlete. The reason is most are not qualified to analyze it and most don't want to invest time or money, as athletes are not engaged. Simple solution? Broadcast the data on a giant flatscreen. Athletes are not dumb, they know their bodies matter. The problem is trust as well, since most athletes are being constantly hounded by promises of reducing injury and increasing performance. I bet the farm that the organization will make changes regarding data and injury over the next year, because they are not leveraging the bay area innovation. Adding force plates isn't going to help much, as they are needing to keep guys on the field and not pushing the envelope with training being a professional team.

Power Snatch1-1-1-1-1 Then, AMRAP 10 minutes:15 Power Snatch, 35kg(25kg)30 Double unders Post loads and total reps to comments. Log results online (Beyond the Whiteboard)  

Foundations May 2013----WOD for Thursday 5/22GYMNASTICSplay with freestanding handstands for 12 minutesCONDITIONINGfor quality:50 kettlebell floor presses50 turkish get-upsPost results to whiteboard/comments/Cody.----When the Pursuit of Skinny and Strong Collide - Fit and Feminist"We don’t need a new 'skinny.' We don’t need a new beauty standard, nor do we need yet another physical ideal hanging over our every thought and move like a little black cloud of doom. What we need to do is change the paradigm so that we value our bodies for all of the amazing things they let us do. We need to expand our standards of beauty to recognize that beauty shows up in all kinds of bodies. And we need to get over this idea that the most important purpose we serve on is to be beautiful for other people. Our time on this planet is precious and we will never, ever get it back, so let’s stop squandering it in pursuit of meaningless ideals we will most likely never attain anyway. We deserve so much better than that." ----

Welcome to the muscle-up club, Kirby!! If you’ve ever witnessed someone achieve their very first muscle-up, you can probably relate to the euphoric excitement that almost always follows. Kirby’s addition to the club yesterday was extra special for a few reasons. First, it’s not every day that a 55-year-old completes this difficult gymnastic movement for the very first time. Add in the fact that Kirby is 6′ 3″ with the wingspan of small airplane, and the deck seems to be stacked against him. Second, Kirby’s been working toward this goal for over two years! His dedication to the painstaking pace of the skill transfer exercises and progressions is an inspiration. He’s even seen guys half his age come in and get one on their first try! Through it all, Kirby has remained disciplined, diligent, and focused on doing his best every day. Not even two consecutive years of failed attempts in the CrossFit Games Opens after 150 wall balls and 90 double-unders were enough to discourage Kirby’s efforts. When the Opens wrapped up this year, he came back into the gym and asked to review the drills to start back over from square one. Third, his muscle-up came at the most unexpected time. The fact that we caught it on camera was a complete accident. In the last month, Kirby hasn’t even attempted a muscle-up. He’s done lots of pull-ups, dips, and transitions, but has stayed away from failed attempts recently. Yesterday, after knocking out his back squats and 100 burpee pull-ups for time, he once again stepped up to the rings for some transition practice. After a couple nice kips and high pulls, we decided to try to add the “world’s fastest sit-up” for an unassisted transition. To critique his mechanics, we grabbed a phone for video review. Having seen Kirby complete literally hundreds, if not thousands, of drills and attempts over the last couple years, the fact that this one was documented is crazy luck. What happened next was pure magic. Two years of work paid off with a whole new view of the gym for Kirby to enjoy–this time from atop the rings looking down! Congratulations on EARNING your muscle-up Kirby. You are an inspiration to everyone here. Thank you for providing that spark that makes us all believe in ourselves and our ability to achieve even the most challenging endeavors.