Strength

It’s no secret – I HATE stretching.

For 99% of the population, I think it’s worthless.

Now before you go nuts and toss rotten tomatoes at me through your computer screen or put up a FB post about how insane I am – here’s who the other 1% are:

People who need extreme ranges of flexibility – like gymnasts and some martial artists.

Ok, now, let’s dig into this thing. And please, hold on to your rotten vegetables for a few more minutes until we really unpack this.

First, I have never really liked stretching. It always felt awkward – like I was tearing my body apart.

(Hmmmm….. That should’ve been a sign right there…)

But, like a dutiful fitness professional I towed the proverbial party line and did the whole thing – from dynamic stretching as a warm up (including functional 3-D stretching on one of those fancy $2500 True-Stretch Cages) to static stretching to cool down.

And then there was the stretching as part of multiple corrective exercise programs…

Ugh – don’t even get me started on that. Ok, nevermind, do. Let’s just say I spent every freakin’ time I trained from 2002-2006 foam rolling and stretching and doing “movement prep” before I worked out.

(Brett Jones is right – if you’re foam roller has a name, you have a problem. And yes, that goes for you too Mister Rumble Roller.)

After that, I quit stretching altogether as I drank the kool-aid and joined the Z-Cult.

But even that reached its limits.

Why?

Because mobility and flexibility – or lack thereof – are both symptoms of something bigger – a lack of something else.

What is that “bigger something else?”

Well before we get to it, I want to ask you a question:

Why do you think your muscles are tight?

No, it’s not a trick question.

Think along the lines of having a fever.

Why do you get a fever?

Because your body is being attacked by a foreign organism that seems to feel right at home around 98.6 degrees. So the body responds by unleashing its immune system defenses, one of which, is to kill the intruders by elevating its core temperature.

Man, in his infinite wisdom, then takes ibuprofen or tylenol or whatever to try to get the temperature down. And in doing so, basically castrates the body’s immune response and lengthening the healing process.

Why don’t we think of stretching the same way?

Why do you think your muscles are tight?

Is the body telling you something?

Here’s an example:

About 10 years ago, I had a client with chronically tight hamstrings. I mean always, always, always tight. No matter how much she stretched them, she couldn’t relieve the tension. (She came to see me for body comp changes, but her “issues” got in the way many, many times.)

Well that’s because her abs were weak borderline shut off and she had chronically tight hip flexors.

So back then, we stretched the hip flexors and did some ab work – you know, the whole tonic/phasic stretch what’s tight, strengthen what’s weak routine. It provided some relief. But it never really fixed the problem.

We stopped working together on a routine basis in 2008, after about 6 years of “trying” to lose weight. (Complex issues: She’d lose, gain, lose, gain, etc…)

Now I’d do something much different with her.

Which is funny, because about 3 months ago we started meeting again, just once a month, instead of twice a week.

And she’s made more progress in the last 3 months with her back and her other structural issues then I recall her making in the 6 years we worked together. (Yeah, we were training for fat loss/strength, but she had some recurring stuff come up that we could never quite rectify. And yes, she even went to see a PT…)

So why were her muscles tight?

And why might yours be tight?

Well, I think there’s a very simple answer.

Here it is:

Your body is using your muscles as splints.

Yeah, I know, you don’t believe me.

So check out these pictures of one of the attendees at our last Becoming Bulletproof workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first is her traditional stance, developed from prying with goblet squats, and other forms of corrective exercise, including traditional forms of mobility and flexibility work.

The second is a picture of her after she said, “How come I’ve increased my ankle mobility?” (Without having done specific ankle mobility drills.)

It’s very simple: She’s recaptured her body’s natural and inherent ability to move.

Say what?

“What-choo talkin’ ’bout Willis?”

Look, the reason your muscles are tight is because your body is using them as splints, or as parking brakes, as the hip flexors are often referred to.

And why’s it doing that?

Safety.

It doesn’t feel like it should move into particular ranges of motion because if it does, bad things – like injuries – may happen.

And why does this happen?

Because most of us sit on our butts all day long.

And, a recent study done published in the October 2012 issue of The British Journal of Sports Medicine found that the average adult who watches 6 hours of TV per day over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 year fewer than someone who doesn’t. Do you think the computer screen can be subbed out for the TV? I do.

In another study published in the journal Diabetologia, its authors reviewed 18 different studies involving 794,577 people (source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/get-up-get-out-dont-sit/) and found the “average adult spends 50-70 percent of their time sitting.”

It found that there are increased risks in diabetes among other things.

But that’s not my main point.

I just wanted to prove that sitting is bad for you. Like scientifically-proven-bad-for-you.

But there are other things going on here – other forces at work. Deep, Mysterious forces…

Look, how come when you’re a little kid, you can easily and effortlessly squat but as an adult you can’t?

What happened?

Well, obviously, your body got tight.

Why?

Because it got weak, that’s why.

But not just any kind of weak – you lost what I call your “Original Strength” – or what is not-so-commonly-known as “reflexive stability.”

That’s your body’s ability to subconsciously anticipate and prepare for movement and activate/recruit the right muscles at the right times at the right rates to get whatever job done that needs to get done.

As I said – this is “reflexive” – just like when you go to the doc’s and he hits your knee with a hammer. The response is just “automatic.”

How Do You Get Reflexive Stability In The First Place?

Well it all starts in your mom’s womb. And then continues until your about 3 years old or so. It’s all that stuff you do when you’re a baby to a toddler and learn to walk upright.

That’s the physical purpose for going through those 3+ years.

The problem is that when you sit on your butt 8 hours a day since you’ve been 5 or 6 and went to school and were told to be a good boy or girl and sit still and pay attention – those reflexes you “earned” or developed, start to degrade – like a knife blade that gets dull and rusty.

And that’s why stretching is a complete waste of time for 99% of the population. Because you’re doing nothing but addressing symptoms of a much larger and more important issue – lack of reflexive stability (or reflexive strength if you will – it’s the same thing).

Same thing goes with all the incessant mobility work. And even some of the specialized behavioral optometry drills that many of these so called “movement experts” are blathering on about these days.

Most, if not all of that can be and will be fixed when you address your reflexive stability. (Yes, I know “all” is a bold statement. Let me just go on record here and say, some

I know, I know, to durn simple to be true or actually work.

Well this is what I’ve LIVED for the last 3 years and have never felt better. And the best part is at this stage in the game, I just perform a few simple but powerful “resets” a day and I move better than I did when I was a 17 year old wrestler.

But don’t take my word for it – check out this feedback we just got from Widdi Turner, who attended last weekend’s “Becoming Bulletproof” workshop in Atlanta:

“Thanks for the workshop you did in Atlanta Sat.  It was a game changer for me!  I can’t believe how different I feel.  Sunday I got of a bed AND WALKED A STRAIGHT LINE to the kitchen!  That’s a big deal because usually the first 5 minutes I’m staggering with no sense of center of balance.  I was so grounded.  And normally “sore” and “stiff” go hand in hand – I was definitely sore the next day, but not stiff at all!  I was shocked at how long the “mobility effects” stayed with me.  I’ve been doing a few basic moves every day/night since.  Hip pain’s gone, and although I whined in the workshop about my ankles hurting when we sat on them, they are much looser now.

I mentioned this in my feedback sheet, but I feel what you’re teaching could help soooo many people.  All you have to do is rename it for whatever group you’re approaching 😉  As someone joked in class, you had to name it “Becoming Bulletproof” so guys who come – they wouldn’t buy into something called “Tummy Time and Crawling.”  LOL  But seriously, if all those people who sit at desks 8 hours a day and then on their couch at night just did this for 15-20 min a day, it would change their lives!  No more “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

Good luck with everything – I haven’t stopped singing your praises to my fitness camp trainers all week (I go to FitWit – www.fitwit.org ), and forwarded them the emails Delaine originally sent from Geoff re: the book and workshop.  And on a side note, I usually do a few movement before I go to bed each night, and since Sat, I’ve slept thru the night without waking up – a first in YEARS.  Don’t know if it’s related, but JUST SAYIN’!”

So here’s the deal:

Stop wasting your time and energy stretching and doing those blasted mobility drills.

Instead, intentionally recapture your reflexes. Start by getting the book, “Becoming Bulletproof.”

But as I said, that’s a “start.”

If you really want to see – and feel – how to kiss stretching and traditional mobility work goodbye, and save yourself, time, energy, and sanity, “fast track” this process by joining us (Tim Anderson and myself) at the next “Becoming Bulletproof” workshop here.

It’ll be a day you will never forget. 🙂

Let’s face it, for some of us, 2011 was not our best year. If you read the news it looks like it wasn’t the best year for many people by a long shot.

2011 was a great year for me primarily because of the joy we experienced from the birth of our first child – our son Michael.

But I’m looking to make 2012 much, much better – much stronger and I invite you to do the same. The cool thing about the new year is it inspires us and fills us with hope for and to change. What didn’t seem possible on December 1st suddenly seems possible on January 1st.

In that light, here’s how I’m going to make 2012 my strongest year ever and as I mentioned, I invite you to do the same – join me and look back a year from now in amazement at all you have achieved.

There are 5 strategies I’ve been implementing over the past couple of years or so that have allowed me to –

– Start a new business
– Write and get a book published
– Speak nationally
– Allow my wife to stay home and care for our son
– Rebuild my body from years of abuse from training for competition

And, before we move any further, I want to set the record straight – There is nothing special about me at all, other than the fact that God made me unique. If I can do stuff like this – you most certainly can too. God made you unique too with certain skills, talents, and character traits. All you have to do is use them. Seriously, 10 years ago I never imagined I would’ve accomplished what I have. It’s a lot more than I ever thought possible. In 2012 you can do at least as well as I have – hopefully a lot better.

So let’s take a look at these 5 strategies.

1. Be Thankful / Have a Grateful Heart.

I have a confession to make – I used to be a “glass is half-empty” kind of guy. In fact, some days I still am. It’s hard to change unless you go out of your way to do so. Thinking a certain way is really just a state of mind. The more you think one way, the more you will re-enforce that thought pattern. And the more you will engrain those patterns until they are habits. And that’s all you know how to do until someone shows you something different, something better.

Here’s a really neat way I learned how to be a “glass is half-full” guy: Learn to be thankful/grateful.

I heard a guy named Dan Kuschell speak at a conference I attended a couple of years ago. He suggested a series of Top 10 lists to be thankful for.

– Top 10 Things I Am Thankful For Right Now
– Top 10 Things I Am Thankful For In My Business/Job
– Top 10 People I Am Grateful For In My Life

Take these lists and write them down. Don’t worry how long it takes you.

Then do this every day. At the start of each day. It really sets your mind on the right track for each day, no matter what time you have to get up.

When I first tried these, they were really, really hard. It would literally take me 0-30 minutes to get the lists done. They may be for you too. But when I was done, I was amazed at how my attitude had immediately improved. And the more often I did this, the better and brighter my attitude was throughout the day and from day-to-day.

And the cool thing is when my attitude improved, so did my outlook on life, and therefore my relationships improved and I saw more opportunities.

Life just got better and I was able to overcome some of my negative circumstances because I could recognize opportunities that I wouldn’t have before. And also, opportunities came my way that wouldn’t have before. Because after all, who wants to be around a sour puss?

2. Spend More Time With Your Loved Ones.

Here’s another horrible confession for you – for the first 9 years of my marriage, my wife and I rarely ate dinner together. I worked late and then worked out late. I’d get home somewhere between 8 and 10 every night. It was a major source of contention in our relationship. I was just plain selfish and didn’t value her or give her the priority in my life that I should have.

Today is a completely different story. We eat dinner every night, but I/we had to go through Hell to make that happen. I’m glad I did though. And now, I’m changing my schedule again (much easier this time) so I can spend time with our son and we can eat together as a family, now that he’s starting to eat solid foods.

We did this while we were away recently and it brought my heart such joy! There’s no greater joy for me than to spend time with my family now.

Loved ones are a blessing. Spend more time with them now while you still can. Look for the joy in those relationships.

I once heard someone say that on your deathbed you won’t wish you had spent more time at work or watching TV or chasing your dreams of personal glory. You’ll wish you had spent more time with your family and loved ones. Imagine having that kind of regret… It would be awful. I’m doing everything in my power to reach the end knowing that I lived fully and that starts at home.

I challenge you to do the same.

3. Dream More.

I am a Dreamer. Sometimes my dreams don’t turn into “doings” but many times they do.

Dreams keep us alive – they give us hope for a better future. Combine them with a thankful heart / attitude and they arrive much sooner.

I recently fulfilled a dream I had in my heart for over 2 years. I’m still unpacking the significance of it – but it was a very powerful experience. Sure, it involved risk, lots of risk, but I lived it anyway and am completely glad I did. So much good came out of it and so much more has yet to. And I never would’ve experienced that if I hadn’t first dreamed and then risked to actually live my dream.

And that’s another point – some dreams contain an element of risk. Sometimes you’ll have to let go of what you believe to be security in order to experience and live your dream.

And if things don’t turn out exactly as you planned, just remember what one of my former mentors said – “You’re not shot, you’re not dead. Keep pressing on.” (Unless of course you are shot…)

4. Pursue One Dream Relentlessly Until It Becomes Your Reality.

It doesn’t matter what your dream is. Commit to pursuing it. Combine this with your newfound thankful heart / grateful attitude and you stand a great shot of achieving it – and sooner than you think.

One thing is for absolutely certain, if you don’t start the ball in motion towards achieving your dream, you will not achieve it. At all. Ever.

One of my dreams for 2012 is to completely rebuild my body and turn it into a machine. Yeah, I know, might sound cheesy. I don’t care though, cause it’s MY dream.

I want to build upon what I did last year which was to physically prepare for Michael’s birth which I did. This year, as he grows, I want to expand my physical capabilities too. Last year I got my baseline back. This year I want to build upon that foundation.

I’m chasing things like:

– a one arm pull-up
– a triple bodyweight deadlift
– a 1.25x bodyweight press
– a double bodyweight bench press
– a double bodyweight zercher squat
– 100 snatches with the 48kg KB
– a pistol with a pair of 48kg KBs in the rack
– mastering some gymnastic strength exercises
– and sprinting again

I want to not only hit 40 but crush it – being in better physical condition at 40 then I was at 20.

What’s your Big Dream?

5. Seek Out Others Who Can Help You Achieve Your Dream Goal.

The English poet John Donne wrote “No man is an island” yet we all still seem to think that we can or worse yet, must do everything on our own. Supposedly, it’s the “American Way” to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” or whatever.

That’s poisonous and wrong thinking.

Nothing is or could be further from the Truth.

If you’re a conspiracy theorist, you might think that those who have been successful and don’t want to share that success actually made that lie up and continue to perpetuate it so they can profit of others’ misfortune. I can tell you as a fact, based on personal experience, isolation and ego-centricity is a great recipe for failure and never achieving your dreams. That’s a great recipe for making 2012 your worst year ever.

Part of seeking others out is being humble and admitting that you don’t know everything. Again, here’s something I’ve had to learn the hard way. I recall a conversation I had about 4 years ago on the phone while sitting in my car outside my weightlifting platform with a prominent coach. We were talking about what I needed to do to be successful now that I was an older Olympic lifter.

Oh how I wished I’d listened to him at that time! My lifting experience might have been different. I might have actually achieved my goals. I know this now because I have started to implement some of his ideas and my body is getting stronger at a faster pace.

Don’t be a fool like I was and reject help.

I have a strong network of like minded friends and mentors who can help me out. And yes, some I have even paid large sums of money to for their invaluable advice. Without it, I wouldn’t have accomplished what I did in the past year.

Speaking of getting stronger at a faster pace, if you’re on the East Coast, (even if you’re not) I’m running a Kettlebell Muscle Workshop on Saturday, January 28th in Virginia. Literally everyone who attends one of these sets PRs and is armed with new techniques to continue to get stronger. (I just read the testimonials from Hardstyle Ventura where I taught an abbreviated version of this seminar – people were blown away by their PRs.) You should come if you want to see PRs. Register here and still get the Early Bird Discount.

Forward Thinking, Dreaming, And Doing

The New Year is not even a full 4 days old. It’s full of bright opportunity for you to achieve all of your strength goals and dreams, or at least get started down that road. All you have to do is dare.

Here are two quotes I leave you with to help you on your quest, your mission, your journey. Write them down. Put them where you can see them and meditate on them daily.

“Who Dares Wins”
– motto of the SAS
(The UK’s Special Air Services, the original Special Forces Unit)

“Do the thing, have the power.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yesterday I was at Peter Lakatos’ house here in Hungary, just outside Budapest in a town who’s name I can’t spell, let alone pronounce.

He showed us his “garage” which is in quotes, because that’s what he told us it was supposed to be. Instead, there was no garage door, but a window, and a relatively soft interlocking blue panel mat floor. It was Peter’s own personal gym.

In it he had a set of stall bars, rings, a pull-up bar, a variety of kettlebells, including an 80kg, which I knocked off about 10 pretty easy swings with, a barbell set with two different bars – olympic and trap, and about 40 different other little pieces of equipment.

In short, it was perfect.

Except there were no dipping bars.

And that was a problem for me because parallel dips have been a staple in my training over the last 3 months. I’ve found them to be an excellent movement to help me “plank up” my midsection and combat all the extension and overhead work I’ve done over the last 15 years.

So, I eyeballed Peter’s gymnastic rings hanging from his pull-up bar and set them up for dips.

Holy Moly!

If you’ve never done dips on rings before you are in for an experience like no other. As soon as I hoisted myself up on the rings, every muscle in my body seemed to contract to keep me from-

a) swinging all over the place,

b) to keep my shoulders from ripping out of their sockets, and

c) to keep me from falling on my face.

The most noticeable sensation was just how hard it was on my triceps, lats, abs and pecs to just hold myself in place. My pecs literally cramped up right on the spot!

Fortunately Rif was there to give me some gymnastics pointers to help get me on track and not totally kill myself. The big take away – externally rotate my arms, starting from my hands on the rings.

Once I got the hang of balancing myself there, I was ready to attempt the dips.

Unlike the parallel bars, when dipping on rings, your body has no choice but to “plank up” when you perform the concentric portion of the dip. At least mine didn’t. My abs and obliques just about cramped with no extra conscious help from my mind. It was automatic.

I was finally able to knock off a whopping 3 or 4 sets of 3 reps.

How humbling. And how different from the stable parallel dipping bars. I guess that’s one of the reasons gymnasts have spectacular pec, shoulder, and arm development.

So that and an email I got last night, got me thinking –

How do you get “un-stalled” or unstuck and start making continual progress in your training again?

Is it to try something different?

Sure, that’s part of it.

What’s the other part?

Well, you may not like the answer, but here it is…

Honest, brutal, self-analysis in the light of your goals.

Let me explain.

I got an email from John, one of my Kettlebell Burn Inner Circle members last night. Now I admire John for three reasons –

1) He’s smart enough to seek training guidance, so he’s a member of the Inner Circle,

2) He’s 71 and still focused on making progress at an age when most people kick back and “retire”

3) He’s willing to ask questions and make the necessary changes even when they challenge his current beliefs.

John was asking me about my nutrition recommendations in this month’s Inner Circle program. He then went on to tell me exactly what he was doing – which was basically the opposite of what I was suggesting. And then he wanted my honest thoughts about the eating regimen he had created for himself.

I then emailed him back and asked him a very important question – which is the crux of this blog post –

“Is what you’re currently doing giving you the results you honestly and truly desire? If so, keep doing that thing. If not, why not give what I’m suggesting a shot since it is born of my own personal experience and has worked very well for me?”

And that’s the key to getting “un-stalled” and getting stronger again.

It’s looking in the mirror in a candid moment of self-reflection and asking yourself if what you’re doing is really working to help you achieve the goals you’ve set out for yourself.

Then you can either be fine with where you are and keep traveling down that road, or you can desire to make progress again and try something that has been proven to work by other people with the same goals or interests that you have.

I could’ve let the fact that Peter didn’t have a set of parallel dipping bars stall my progress on gaining strength in the dipping movement. But instead, I took a look at what Peter did have, and used that to my advantage.

(What most people don’t know about Peter is that pound-for-pound, he’s incredibly strong – the guy can do a Get Up with a 132 pound kettlebell at a bodyweight of about 176 pounds. That’s 3/4 of his bodyweight by the way. And he’s almost snatched that kettlebell too…)

In doing so, I acknowledged that Peter had some training experience that I did not and that I could learn from him to make me even stronger. Then I had Rif, a former competitive gymnast, help me with my technique so I didn’t hurt myself and could get something out of the equipment.

So instead of passing on the dips for two weeks, I got some amazing strength experience along with help from others more experienced then me, that I can take home and continue to use for my benefit.

And why is that important to me?

Because like I said in my last blog post, I’m currently pursuing body mastery. And parallel dips on a set of rings will definitely help me in that quest.

And why is that important to you?

Because if you’re serious about getting results with your training, kettlebell or otherwise, you need some brutally honest self-assessment every once in awhile.

So what quest are you on?

Are you still making progress or have you stalled out?

Are your beliefs holding you back? Have you even examined them recently in light of your current goals?

If not, are you willing to do so?

It’s ok if you’re not, just as long as your honest with yourself about it.

See, it takes courage to examine your training.

And that’s because most of the time we look for “research” to support our pre-existing beliefs, to justify our current behaviors, and therefore, put our minds at rest.

The only problem with that approach is when it comes to results.

See, when your beliefs don’t match up with your results, you’ve got a disconnect.

You become disconnected from reality. The reality is you may no longer be seeing results but you’re still proceeding on a course that isn’t supporting your goals. In fact, it may be taking you further away from your goals.

I know – it happened to me.

That’s why I quit Olympic lifting cold turkey. It was taking me away from my long-term goals. That’s why in the last 10 months I’ve completely revamped my life – from my eating, to sleeping (well, a new-born will help with that), to my training.

And that’s why one of my assistants from the 2009 RKC here in Hungary didn’t even recognize me the other day at Rif’s seminar.

And it takes more courage to change your course of action.

Now I’m not writing this to say that I’m more courageous than you or anything like that. Far from it. What I’m saying is if you’re stuck, I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been there myself. For a long time. And if I could finally do it, you can to.

It’s not easy by any stretch, but it is well worth it.

How do I know? Because of the deep inner peace and mental clarity I am now experiencing.

If you want to finally get “unstuck” and start getting strong again, then check this out – it’s right up your alley. It’s helped John out. It’ll help you too.

That’s all from Hungary. Level 2 starts bright and early tomorrow.