Strength

How strong is strong? How much do you have to lift to be considered strong? In this section I will outline how I see strong defined and the categories in which I develop strength in.

Defining:

I define strength as an overall composition of movement strength. I encompass all facets because I am sure you know people that all they do is bench and bicep work. They practice and practice at it, no wonder they are benching 2x their bodyweight. I am not saying that is not strong, but when you ask the same person to squat their own bodyweight and they can’t even muster 1 rep out then I think there is a problem. The other classic example is seeing someone on a lat pull machine with 200 and some odd pounds, and then you ask the same person to do a pull up and again not 1.

Mike Boyle has set out a list of criteria that he defines as strong. I use his list because he has years and years of data to back up his findings. Even though the percentages may fluctuate the core range is there. He defines the movements as such:

-Bench 1.25 to 1.5 x’s BW (250-300 for a 200 lb athlete)

-Clean 1.25 to 1.5 x’s BW (same as above) *(I like to see athletes with the same or similar bench and clean numbers. If you don’t have this relationship your athletes are spending too much time benching and not enough time on power movements.)

-Front Squat (we don’t back squat) 1.5-1.75 (300-350 for 200 lb.)

-1 Leg Squat  .5 x BW for 5 reps (half of your bodyweight)

-Chin-up .5 x BW for 1 rep (half of your bodyweight) * I also like to see the total weight for a chin-up (external load plus bodyweight) be greater to or equal with the bench press 1 RM. In other words, a 280-bench presser who weighs 180 lbs should be able to do 1 chin-up with 100 lbs.

-We also use the following formula for any dumbbell variations. DB weight = 80% of bar weight / 2

Categories:

Now that you understand the criteria, we have categories that will encompass a complete balanced individual. This list of eight is in no particular order and will have examples of movements that would be associated with each.

Power- medicine ball work, all Olympic lifts and plyometrics

Horizontal Press- bench and push-ups

Horizontal Pull- rows and recline pulls

Vertical Press- push press/jerk

Vertical Pull- pull/chin up

Knee Dominant- front squat or 1 leg squat

Hip Dominant- dead lift variations (2 leg and 1 leg)

Rotational or anti-rotational- this encompasses any and all movements that require your ability to integrate the right and left sides of your body, stabilize as to not collapse or break form and/or transfer weight from one side of your body to the other without breaking the form or technique.

Now that strength as been defined and categorized, we can now put everything together in a succinct program that has a balance of all the criteria. The key is to have it make sense and be progressive. You just can’t jump into the advanced movements without mastering the basics. They wouldn’t just send you in a fire, in a war or to arrest a drug dealer without mastering the basic principles and protocols. The same thing holds true for training.

Heirarchy of Fat Loss

David Letterman has his Top 10; Fat Loss has its Top 5 factors. The information you are about to read is my interpretation and reflections from Alwyn Cosgrove’s article.

Here they are:

1. Correct nutrition- Nothing can out train a crappy diet. Nutrition is so important to the overall success which makes it number #1. There are so many different “diets” out on the market; high protein, high fiber, and high carbohydrate, low sugar, etc. So where do you start and who do you believe? My first recommendation would be to start by clicking on the following link to Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website. I have teamed up with Dr. Mercola because I believe in his products. I am an all-natural, organic guy. I like to keep it simple and keep if fresh. I don’t want chemicals, fillers or pesticides in my food, supplements or body. His products give me exactly what I am looking for. He is extremely knowledgeable and provides incredible information.

He has a nutritional typing test that you can take which will tell you so much about the way you process foods, what foods you need more and less of and even what order to eat them in (http://products.mercola.com/?aid=cd204). After you click on the link, scroll down to the nutritional typing test and read more about what it is about. It is an inexpensive and effective way to find out more about your body’s nutrition.

If you decide not to take the test, my first recommendation would be a high protein, high fiber and low sugar diet. Lets take it one step further and define what exactly high and low mean. High protein is a % of your body weight. For example, I weigh 180lbs. My goal is to eat, drink or consume over 50% of my body weight in grams of protein/day. The closer I get to 100% the better. Fiber is much more of a challenge. Most people think that 10-15 grams is sufficient. Those are the people that are probably only consuming half that. The magic number is 32. 32 grams of fiber will not only keep you “cleaned out” intestinally but it will have other positive affects on your body. If you are thinking you are not getting anywhere close to that number try Dr. Mercola’s Fiber Harmony with Psyllium (http://products.mercola.com/?aid=cd204). The sugar aspect is probably going to be more difficult for everyone then any of the rest. It seems that everything we eat these days has some sort of sugar in it, whether it be processed, artificial or real. The key is to limit the amount. There is a difference between good carbohydrates that contain sugar and others that fall under the category because of the sugar. For example, have a actual orange rather then orange juice. Go right to the source. BE CAREFUL with the sugar-free or diet foods. The fact that it has artificial sugar in it should be a hint that it is not the best for you. Your body does not recognize the artificial sugar so it does not process it, which means that it ferments, yes like a dead person would, in your body. Pleasant! If you are going to have sugar, go for the real stuff, nothing artificial like high fructose corn syrup, enhanced sweeteners, or anything ending in “ose,” etc.

2. See number 1! Yes nutrition is that important. Your success in fat loss is 90% dependant on what you eat. Lets face it, you eat more often in a day then you exercise, which means the lifestyle that you lead should take that into consideration. Don’t train to eat, eat to train.

3. Activities that burn calories, maintain and/or promote muscle mass and elevate metabolism- bulk of calories burned are from your resting metabolic rate. It is a function of muscle mass, therefore adding activities that burn calories while increasing muscle mass is #1 priority when creating a fat loss program. This is pure 100% resistance training. This is bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, balls, etc. Using those tools or toys will help you achieve this stage. In this site you will find the right programs and movements that will support this stage.

4. Activities that burn calories and elevate metabolism- What are these? And what do they do? These are activities like interval sprints on the bike, slideboard, running, or any other piece of conditioning equipment. It is pushing yourself beyond the normal safe zone and beyond what you are comfortable with. Mike Boyle says, they are the most effective, yet people won’t do them because they are too hard. These are things you build your body into not just jump into, like we talked about previously in the conditioning section. The intervals create EPOC (exercise post oxygen consumption), which burns more calories and elevates metabolism greater than other forms of  “cardio.” There was a study completed that took 2 groups of people. One group did 20 weeks of endurance training vs. the other that did 15 weeks of  interval training. The results were astounding. The endurance group burned 28,661 calories while the interval group burned 13,614 calories, which is right about half of one another. The astounding part is that the interval group had a 9x greater fat loss than endurance. 9x greater! Not double or triple but 9x better! I don’t care the science behind it and how it happened in your body, whether it was because of one thing reacting with another or not, I am not a scientist. I am a trainer that sees results like that and wants to adapt that to all my protocols.

5. Activities that burn calories but don’t necessarily maintain muscle or elevate metabolism- This part is the “icing on the cake.” This is where the steady state conditioning comes in. this is where you go for a nice relaxing jog or bike ride, swim, etc. NOTICE this is not before the other stuff. This is only if you have time, extra time.

If you haven’t already noticed most people flip this sequence. Most people will go out run a couple miles and then a couple more the next week, never touch a weight, do some crunches and continue to eat like shit. This list is compiled this way for a reason. It is the most important first and the least last. You can not and will not achieve the results you want without following it.

Conditioning Part 2

Linear:

Linear is simply moving forward or back in a straight line. Robbins is not just speaking of straight out sprints like the 40yd dash, he is speaking more toward variations of starting and stopping, speeds and distances. He speaks to two examples, the jog to sprint and the sprint to jog. Either method used is focused on the distance traveled. For example, you could jog for 30yds then sprint for 5yds, then jog for 30yds and sprint for 10yds. Each time you could increase your sprint or jog distance depending on what phase you are in or what goal you are looking for. The same methodology would hold true for the sprint to jog. The key point to remember with this method is that you want to feel and noticeable see a change in gears from the sprint to jog or vice versa.

Multi-directional:

We live in a world that is not just forward and back. You, especially live in a world that is full of multi-directions. They goal of this phase is to keep the drills simple so you can really focus on the acceleration and deceleration off each direction. The cahange in direction and speed will teach your body how to affectively navigate through hallways, backyards, buildings, etc. Indirectly it touches on agility, or your ability to change directions while still maintaining your speed. Below is a diagram of a mach set-up for this phase. It is intending to be run a number of reps at a time or be built up to that.

Tactical Specific:

In this phase of development you are looking to focus on your specific work to rest ratio that your job requires. It may be the same across the board or it may be different from fire to police and military. They key is to find that specific ratio and utilize that in this phase. For example, if a firefighter typically worked while in a building or any situation for two minutes straight but then had five-six minutes of rest before asked to go again you would have a ratio of 3:1, 2 minutes of work and 6 minutes of rest. If you are really not sure what your ratio is, try looking at other activities that may require a similar work to rest ratio. Most are unique to their activity but you may find a similarity that works for you. My guess is you probably have a negative ratio, meaning you work more than you rest. If that is the case you would start with a small time frame like 10 seconds and only take a five second rest then go again for multiple bouts. Over time you can increase the work and rest time but still keeping it a negative ratio. So ultimately you could work up to a minute of work with only thirty seconds of rest. As long as the ratio stays consistent your number could go up to five minutes of work. That five minutes of work may sound little compared to what you do in the field, but remember that the intensity is constant and increased so it will make up for the difference.

New Addition

Sorry for missing a regular post last week. My wife and I had our first child. I will have a new post for all of you this week.