Sour grapes, Crossfit, tabatas, and an exercise program that really helps you

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Josh

I posted some articles on Facebook recently dealing with Crossfit (in particular this one, this one, and this one), and just yesterday posted an article asking “What the #$%^ is MetCon?!”

Met-Con is a term frequently used by Crossfit and people who do Crossfit to describe the Crossfit-style workout. It’s also occasionally used as a blanket term for what could better be described as “General Physical Preparedness” – a program that achieves a general level of aerobic endurance, muscular strength, and some muscular power.

As mentioned in the post above, the term is actually useless, since literally anything and everything a person does qualifies as “metabolic conditioning.” That’s the definition of metabolism. “Met-Con” sounds cool, but doesn’t help anyone to understand what is being described or promoted.

I also recently re-posted this article by a fitness guru about Tabata training. He doesn’t go into much depth, so let me explain.

Tabata (named after Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata) intervals consist of 20 seconds of maximal effort work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for 7-10 total sets. Tabata developed this working on highly trained athletes, who would get close to total failure in that 20 second period.

The results are amazing. Over time the Tabata athletes’ VO2max (max oxygen volume/uptake) increased to levels beyond those achieved through any other recorded training protocol.

Crossfit began using Tabata intervals, and then a lot of other trainers jumped on board. Here’s the problem – Tabata intervals demand 7+ rounds of 20-second effort to exhaustion.

Most trainees do not have the capacity to exert an all-out effort period, let alone for multiple rounds of 20-second stints. This is not a knock against the average trainee, it’s simply a fact. New trainees don’t have the neuromuscular coordination or power-endurance to perform this protocol in any meaningful way, let alone to adequately control complex movements (like Olympic lifts) in this fatigued state.

Will it exhaust you? Yes. Will it make you feel like you are experiencing “tabata death?” Yes. Will it improve your performance over time? Maybe. As long as you don’t fry your central nervous system, or experience some sort of acute or repetitive-strain injury. And as long as your body can adapt between “Tabata” workouts.

That said, the reason for this post is something slightly different.

One of the people who commented on my Facebook posting of the articles above said that it seemed like “sour grapes.”

She’s an amateur competitive runner. She’s invested in her health and fitness. And I’m sure she knows at least one person who does Crossfit.

So I understand her reaction.

And that reaction itself is the reason for this post.

As long as the lay-public has no way to discern the deeper aspects of physical conditioning – as long as health and fitness experts continue to post articles that simply praise or blame, but offer no true education – those types of articles and posts are just sour grapes.

It is up to the competent health and fitness professionals out there to begin to educate their public about the principles of physical health (as far as we can understand them) in concrete and useful terms, that rely on accepted standards of reproducibility and logic (“science”).

Our technology has advanced to the point where – now more than ever before – it is possible for anyone to understand and interact with the deepest structures and functions of their bodies in ways that allow for feedback and meaningful correction over time.

This is the method that I use in my training, and seek to refine, constantly, and I call for all of the other health and fitness professionals out there to use the same principles in their programming – to tailor their work to each individual based on the principles of life – and to become proper educators of their client base, rather than just fad-producers or -promoters, cool-name-slingers, and/or disconnected, herd-mentality “workout” generators.

I’ve hit my limit on this post. I’ll post the best workout for you in the next entry!

What the #$%^ is “met-con?”

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Josh

Met-Con – Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic – having to do with metabolism, which is the sum-total of chemical actions that take place within the body at any given moment.

Conditioning – the state of something, or the process of changing that state.

Okay, so that’s it eh?

Well…yes, that IS it.

Sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch TV/play video games/wait for the paleocalypse = MetCon.

Workout till you puke = MetCon.

Go on vacation and hike/bike/swim/have fun every day = MetCon.

So can I ask a favor of you folks out there in the reading-world?

Please stop calling your workout session or methodology MET-CON!

We know it’s MetCon.

EVERYTHING IS METCON.

If someone is selling you “Met-Con,” and they’re not telling you specifically what aspect of your MET their going to CON (other than you wall-met…eh…alright that’s bad, but you get my point), take your money elsewhere!

Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization Seminar – Seattle

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Josh

I’m super-excited to announce this seminar!

The owner of Stretch PT and I have set up a two-day seminar with one of the lead physiotherapists from the Prague School of Rehabilitation on “Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization for Sport” that’s going to take place in January 2012.

DNS uses the principles of the neurophysiological organization of developmental movement reflexes to create dynamic locomotor stabilization in the client/patient.

Think – “hardware of human movement!”

Here’s the “official” webpage for the seminar – http://leegertrained.com/dns-seminar-seattle

The seminar is going to be at Stretch PT (across from REI), Jan. 21-22nd, from 9-5 both days. The fee for the 2-day course is $450.

Contact me asap if you want to reserve a spot!

And pass this along to anyone you think might be interested in attending!

NOTE: Attendance is restricted to trainers, movement specialists/therapists, physical therapists, and other professionals.

While you’re at it, check out this recent paper someone just sent me. Turns out the “motor programs” for different walking gaits don’t disappear, but are incorporated into new patterns that appear at the toddler stage of development!

Breaking up scar tissue in your body – why is it important, and how can you do it?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Josh

Andreo Spina has just come out with what I think is his best video yet. In it, he describes the way scar tissue adheres between layers of soft tissue in the body.

This information is critical to everyone who has a body. Soft tissue scarring is a fact of life. Everyone gets it. Knowing what to do about it and actually doing those things will improve your health, your movement, and your strength.

What are Soft Tissues?
The body has several layers of tissues.

There’s your skin, on the surface.

Under that, there’s the fascia, a contractile connective-tissue. Fascia is that white stuff you see on meat that you get in the supermarket.

Then there’s the muscle, which is attached to bone by tendons.

And the bones are attached to one another with ligaments.

Scar tissue, or “adhesions,” are areas where some part of the soft tissue gets damaged, and doesn’t actually heal. Instead it forms rigid connective-tissue bridges in order to stabilize the tissues and allow for movement.

Typically scar tissues remain when the body isn’t moved. But we’ll get to that in a second.

First, here’s Andreo’s video:

So you can see the importance of breaking up scar tissue. Imagine, as Andreo said, “stretching your leg up with a pair of skin-tight jeans on.”

You can’t do it.

That is, you can’t move well if your soft tissues are full of scar tissue that is preventing them from moving.

And if you can’t move well, your body can’t do several things:
1. It can’t pump blood back to your heart sufficiently. The contraction of muscle is what pumps blood back to your heart. If your muscles can’t (or aren’t made to…different issue) contract fully, your circulation sucks.
2. If that happens, metabolic waste builds up in your tissues…so, number two is You can’t clear metabolic waste produces efficiently. When those build up, disease happens.
3. You can’t feel the joy of movement. If you’re bound up by scar tissue, movement is probably painful. That’s no fun. And that doesn’t help you want to move.

So, what can you do about it? Here are a few things:

1. Get high-quality bodywork.
What do I mean by this? I mean bodywork from someone who understands the video above, and who isn’t just giving you a “relaxation massage.” People who label themselves as offering “sports massage” often have a good understanding of the above. Self-massage works as well. Investigate some techniques and apply them (on YouTube you can search for things like “myofascial release” or “skin sliding” or “break up adhesions” or “self-massage” or any combination of the above).

2. Take hot baths.
Yes, a nice hot bath is relaxing. Throw in some Epsom Salts if you want. The bath can also help to “liquify” the very soft tissues in your body, allowing them to slide again. But that will only happen on one other condition…that you:

3. Stay well hydrated.
This means drinking plenty of high-quality H2O. Not going to go into a lot of detail here. Simply try the pee-test. If your pee is not clear, you’re dehydrated (with exceptions). Also, try to get well-water from reliable local sources rather than drinking chlorinated/treated water from the tap.

4. Move Well, Move Often!!!
This may be the single most important factor. Moving itself, as long as your body gets heated up to a nice sweaty level, will help to resolve soft tissue adhesions. Of course, it won’t usually do everything, but it will sure help. And once those adhesions have been (manually) broken up, there’s nothing better than full-range, hot movement to keep things from sticking together again. That’s one of the reasons Tai Chi is so good for you. Getting down into the pose above (snake creeps down, I think) demands a high level of balance and strength, AND – to the point of this post – it puts the soft tissues of the body in the deepest possible level of stretching and contraction…

Foam rolling can help, but as Andreo points out, it doesn’t really or necessarily slide one layer of soft tissue over the other.

But don’t just sit there reading this! Go do one of those three things (or all of them)! And put them into your regular practice!!!!

Bodyweight Training – why, what, when, where, and how?

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Josh

Local Parkour facility Parkour Visions posted this talk of Charlie Moreland discussing bodyweight training.

Great talk!

AND…

I agree with his early assertion – “We can do what you can do, but you can’t do what we can do.”

This is often true, because movement is a skill.

So, if you practice doing the bench press often (laying on your back), you get very good at that movement-skill.

If you practice the progressions Charlie recommends, your nervous system gets much more greatly enriched.

That said, weight training still has its place. I just prefer to limit it.

Weight training has become popular in the past few decades as a way to rapidly change physique.

It also matches up with a cultural tendency to isolate things – we do “isolation” exercises like biceps curls, triceps pushdowns, etc., in much the same way that we isolate ourselves in other ways…

Free weights offer an easy way to “progress.” And, being less demanding on supporting muscles than bodyweight only training can be, it’s often easier to “bulk up” on free-weight programs than on bodyweight programs.

So what’s the best?

For the average person, the best is – diversity of movement.

Yes, I know I’ve discussed the SAID principle at length in this blog. The fact is, that’s true. You get what you train for.

But the average person wants to train for LIFE itself. There’s no “competition” date…or rather, every day is a competition…to feel good, to stay exuberant, to be healthy, to have energy.

There are a zillion ways to approach this, but at this point in life, my favorite is this:

Pick one “classic” barbell exercise: Squat, Deadlift, Clean and Jerk, Snatch, Overhead Press
Pick a few full-range-of-motion bodyweight movements.
Pick one movement practice – dance, martial arts, walking or hiking, climbing, etc.

Do your classic lift twice a week. Day one work up to a 1-3 rep max. Back off and do 2 or 3 sets of 3-6. Wait 72 hours. Do that lift again but do 60% of your 1-rep max, and go for 4 sets of 3 explosive (or, preferably, ballistic) reps.

Do your bodyweight training every day. Mix it up if you want. Stop with gas in the tank.

Do your movement practice every day.

In other words, use weights for “strength training.”

Use your body to move better.

Why You Fail – The Secret to Fitness Motivation, Part 2

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Josh

In an earlier blog post I commented on what motivates the truly motivated fitness enthusiasts.

It isn’t necessity.

It’s one thing that they’ve chosen to inspire and propel them onward.

Maybe it changes over the years, but it’s always one thing.

But why is it so hard to DO that one thing?

Here’s why:

"Grooves Turn Into Ruts"

What the?! The Grand Canyon?

Yes, that’s right. The Grand Canyon.

It’s a slide reminiscent of one used by Frank Forencich in his Exuberant Animal talks. His has the same caption as the one above “Grooves Turn Into Ruts.”

Yes Josh, but what does that have to do with motivation and why I fail?

Frank uses that slide to highlight the way our nervous systems work. Or the way a nervous system, generally, works.

As you do things, you use certain neural pathways in your brain (and body). The more you use those pathways, the more efficient those pathways become at delivering a signal. There are a lot of mechanisms behind this, and if you’re interested in those, send me an email and we can chat about the specifics. Otherwise, just remember the words of Daniel Siegel, MD:

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”

As with any natural system, energy follows the path of least resistance. If a signal comes into your brain, it is much more likely to go down the highly-efficient and well-used pathways than it is down some dusty, poorly-lit alley of your mind.

The longer you use those pathways, the more ingrained they become. Grooves turn into ruts. Similarly, the other pathways become more and more atrophied.

And the practice of using different pathways atrophies as well.

In action, this looks like what we call HABIT.

It’s the things we do over and over, habitually, without really thinking about them, that define us – just ask Aristotle.

This is also the reason why “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.”

The stimulus/response follow the same pathways…over and over…you rarely deviate from your norm. You are a creature of habit.

So attempting to change your behavior – starting an exercise regimen, for instance – is akin to taking a ton of water to the top of the Grand Canyon and pouring it out, while saying I don’t want this to go down to the Colorado River!

Likelihood = Pitifully Low.

So how do you get around this trap?

Well, in the words of the old GI Joe PSA’s “knowing is half the battle.” Being able to recognize your habitual patterns is a good first step.

The next step is to decide what pattern you really want to emphasize – knowing that it most likely will change over time!

Finally, you have to create that pattern.

You have to – literally – create a structure that will shape your behavior.

In the example above, it’s akin to creating a reservoir or channel into which you could pour your water.

For some people, that’s as simple as creating or obtaining a detailed exercise schedule, plan, or program.

For others, it involves signing up for a class or sessions with a personal trainer.

Even beyond that, it might include things like watching habitual actions in other areas and altering those, even slightly, to tip the scales in favor of the new behavior. Replacing chips with carrot sticks, for instance…

Definitely interested in hearing your feedback on this concept and approach to behavior change. Leave a comment below!

How to burn massive amounts of calories – all day long

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Josh

What’s the secret to the thin person’s physique?

I think I’ve figured it out.

After years of exercising, and ten years of training other people, I’ve found the single most important secret to physique attainment.

And you know what? It isn’t diet.

That is, if you have this thing, you can eat pretty much whatever you want and still achieve your physique goals.

And it isn’t even any specific exercise program.

You can exercise in the way that suits you best and still achieve your physique goals…as long as you have this thing.

What is it?

Before I tell you what it is, let me highlight two things:

1. After you read what it is, you’re going to say “I already knew that,” or “Oh yeah, right,” and you’re going to want to ignore what comes next – which is the most important part. So fight this tendency.

2. The word may be familiar to you, but the meaning is much different than you think.

So what’s the secret?

Intensity.

Now wait! Remember what I said above! Don’t just go “oh yeah, blah blah, I’ve heard of it, I already know that, etc.”

If you really do already know it, and you already have the physique (or level of performance ) you want, then yeah go ahead and leave – read a different post.

But if you haven’t already achieved your physique or fitness goals, give me another 100 words to explain.

“Intensity” doesn’t refer to a specific type of exercise. It does not mean “interval training.” Sometimes intensity demands interval training, but it does not mean that.

Intensity is a mindset that is applied in action.

In any action.

Scientific research has shown that any exercise of sufficiently high intensity will significantly increase metabolism throughout the day, burning more calories, and bring you that much closer to your physique goals.

But we already know that. And I still have ten words left to get to the real point.

Here they are:

Intensity is a mental state.

Science shows that it doesn’t matter whether you’re at 70% of your VO2 Max for 30 minutes straight, or if you lift weights at 90% of your 1-rep max, or if you lift weights at 80% of your 1-rep max.

How can this be?

Well, the body reacts the same way to a disruption in homeostasis. It has to re-balance the system. Disrupt that balance however you want – if the disruption is great enough, you’ll boost metabolism and see incredible gains.

My point here is this – you will never disrupt your metabolic balance enough until you have trained yourself how to be (think and act) with intensity.

Want to know more? Leave a comment with your thoughts below.

How to use the principles of exercise to your advantage

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Josh

Joel Jamieson posted a great piece on his blog about some of the basic principles of exercise and training. You can read it by clicking that link, but here are the basics:

Adaptation is the goal – it comes from progressive resistance/overload.
Adaptation is SPECIFIC to the stress – remember the infamous SAID principle. (But the body can only adapt to a certain amount of stress at any given time. Overstep that and suffer the consequences.)

Joel lists some of the “acute variables” of training – the things you can track over time to monitor how your body is adapting to the stress it’s experiencing.

Then he makes a great point – “build your training around residuals.”

What he means by this is that you should approach the planning of your training (if you’re doing that, which you should be, on some level) around how long different adaptations last, once they’ve been established.

This is a very very tricky subject, and I’ve actually never seen anyone approach training or programming from this perspective before.

Now the following are based on my memory, I’ll have to dig to find “precise” answers with references, but as I recall some basic residuals are:

Cardiovascular adaptations can decline in as little as two weeks post-training
Strength gains and muscle size decline after about 8 weeks of bed rest.
And…even though strength gains might remain after four weeks, ligament tensile strength can decrease by as much as 70% in that time.

Jamieson concludes with the great comment that adaptation is highly individual. The best thing you can do is to track your own individual process in whatever parameters you’re trying to improve over time, and observe your own body’s ability to adapt.

YOU – Always your best guide, if you’ll learn some basic principles, apply yourself diligently, and listen to your body.

Are barbell back-squats safe?!

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Josh

Before we answer that question, here’s some current news:

Today was yet another round of the Smolov squat program! Today was 2 sets of 3 with 300 on the bar, then a final set of 3 with 320. TOUGH!

Again, I underestimated rest times, and still feel like I’m not getting enough protein/recovery between sessions. I’m going to commit to a nice hot epsom-salts bath at least ONE day (if not more than one), and to getting plenty of protein and fresh greens in every meal. It’s only going to get tougher for the next four weeks…

That said, are barbell back-squats safe?!

Well I’m interested to hear your opinion on the subject.

Even the “experts” are divided! There are many differing views on the topic ranging from – HELL NO! to maybe…depending…to BACK SQUATS TAUGHT ME HOW TO LOVE AGAIN.

So what do you think? Are back squats safe or not?

Are words making you fat or lazy?

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Josh

I’m not a huge fan of scapegoats, the blame-game, or not being responsible for your own life and behavior, but let’s face it, there are factors that are simply out of our control.

Or are they?

Some of them are. Genetics, anyone?

I love the old bodybuilding question – “I have small calves, how do I get them bigger? I’ve tried everything.”

I know people for whom this is literally true. And you know what, I’m not sure if there’s a solution out there for them. They’re just always going to have small calves. Sorry guys, your lineage just didn’t store a lot of meat on the lower leg bones. Oh well. But look on the bright side, that leaves more time to focus on developing other things in life.

Sometimes genetics can be a serious hurdle. But genes almost always require an environmental trigger that switches them on.

That is, if you have the “fat gene,” it just means you’re more likely to get fat than the person who doesn’t have it. But it doesn’t mean that you HAVE TO GET FAT.

Knowing your genetic tendencies can be a huge help to guide your action.

Got the fat gene? Stay the hell away from refined carbs of any sort forever. FOREVER.

And that’s the point – If we KNOW about the things that are influencing our behavior or development, we can ACT to use that knowledge to our advantage.

That is – there are a lot of things that ARE within our control…if we can recognize them and act on them.

The big one that hit me today, and that spurred me to write this post, is LANGUAGE.

We all have habitual patterns we live through. Most of us tend to put our clothes on in exactly the same way every day. We use the same hand to hold our toothbrush. We get into the car the same way, we do the same things, AND…

We talk about and listen to the same stuff almost all the time.

Within our relationships – at home, work, or play – we tend to use language the same way. We tend to use the same words all the time, in the same patterns.

Since “birds of a feather flock together” we can safely guess that our friends, families, and probably coworkers, do the same thing.

So what does that have to do with being fat?

Well, before we talk about fat, let’s give a more extreme example.

If you work in a gym, or you’re a personal trainer, your vocabulary is probably full of anatomy and physiology terms. You probably tend to speak in action-terms (DO this, DO that, PULL, PUSH, GO, etc.). Most of your friends are likely involved in health and fitness to some degree, so they have a similar way with words (or can at least understand your way).

This “action logic” spills over into your very being. Or maybe it’s vice versa…maybe your very being spills over into your language. It’s probably a little of both.

Now let’s imagine someone who has a weight problem. I can recall a particular family I knew that would always talk about how FAT they were. Their language was PASSIVE. “We’re so fat. We need to do xyz, BUT…” insert excuse.

Within that family, everyone pretty much used the same words to describe their condition, and their relationship to their condition.

Other people might even have a VICTIM language about being fat and lazy – as if their condition is being done to them.

Want to change your condition? Want to change your “shape” (or get “in shape”)? Want to “get fit?”

Check your language, and the language of the people you hang out with.

Since “the way you do anything is the way you do everything” – it probably needs to change as much as your “habits” or whatever else you’re focused on.

NOTE: I realized this is about the third or fourth post that hinges on MINDSET, so I’ve created a mindset category. If you want to see all of the posts about mindset or mindframes related to fitness, just click on the Mindset category on the right hand side of the page.

NOTE 2: It is not unhealthy to have extra body-fat!