My "Home Gym"

What do you REALLY need to get in a good workout?

My life is a bit disorganized and crazy at the moment. Let’s call it “fluid” or “in flux” instead I’m living in my family’s little summer cottage in Old Saybrook and I have a “limited” amount of stuff to train with. I have:

• An Olympic bar and two 25lb bumper plates
• A bunch of kettlebells from 12kg to 24kg
• A chalk/puke bucket
• A 20lb Med Ball
• A GymBoss Timer

I also have a BEAUTIFUL little beach neighborhood that gets little traffic other than all the golf carts and it has a NASTY hill for sprints.

And, you know what? I’ve trained my ass off this summer with ZERO boredom. You don’t need much if you want to be honest about it…

Swings, Comrade, Swings…

I’m also seeing the value and beauty in the basics again. Having a limited amount of stuff to work with gives you a different perspective. I work two handed swings ALMOST EVERY DAY and find nuances in them almost every time that I hadn’t noticed before. Let alone the stuff you find in timed sets of kettlebell snatch or long cycle. You could train a lifetime with a few kettlebells and a timer. Combine in the CrossFit stuff you can do with a Med Ball and a 95lb Olympic barbell and you’re good to go. INFINITE POSSIBILITIES. All the other stuff is cool: rings, rowers, pull up bars, bench presses, max weight, etc., etc… But at times that stuff can be a distraction too.

There are no Quantum Leaps…

I’m also learning that there are no quantum leaps in fitness – or anything else for that matter. You get from here to there one step at a time. One TINY step at a time. Sometimes they’re so small you miss them. You get there by doing and “doing” happens in the here and now. Not later. NOW.

Are you living it RIGHT NOW?

Are you living in the present or are you living in the future? Hopefully, you’re not living in the past… It’s tempting to think about all our great goals and where we can be in a few months or a year. And, the truth is, we CAN make tremendous progress if we set goals and work toward them. But the “work toward them” is the interesting part. You can set a goal out a few weeks or a few months, but it’s easy to live in the future that way. Lately I’ve been asking myself if I’m living the life I want RIGHT NOW. Am I training RIGHT NOW? Am I perfecting my technique RIGHT NOW? Is my diet clean and Paleo and what my body needs RIGHT NOW? It’s too easy to set future goals and have it amount to a self-help, super-slick way of procrastinating and “I’ll do it later.” DO IT RIGHT NOW! Fall is almost here. Then winter. Then guess what? It’ll be spring again. Where can you be in the spring if you get on it RIGHT NOW?

I’m going to keep a real close eye on myself in the coming weeks and months. I have a lot of things I want for the near future, but I’m going to be damn sure I’m doing what I want and need to be doing IN THE PRESENT to get myself there. Otherwise, all the goal setting stuff is just mental masturbation…

And, if you’re trying to do too much and your head is spinning (not to mention your “wheels” are spinning) check out my post “Is Your Lifestyle Sustainable?”

ttys

Adam

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I hadn’t thought about it like this before, but a lot of what we do as athletes and martial artists – and probably in life too – is work at becoming more efficient. Speed isn’t really what we’re after. It’s efficiency. And with efficiency comes the speed and power we want.

Robb makes an awesome point when he compares learning CrossFit exercises to learning martial arts. I often said that my own martial arts background carried over to my coaching when I got into CrossFit. I was also lucky because most of the people I was coaching weren’t “CrossFitters.” They were people who wanted to get into shape. This meant they were a blank slate for learning technique on the various exercises and I took a lot of time getting everyone’s movement right before upping the intensity of the workouts. I teach kettlebells the same way. Learn the technique first then increase the intensity.

I say I was lucky the people I was coaching weren’t already exposed to CrossFit because no one was really worried about speed. They didn’t have the “spank it hard every time” mentality with their workouts so I was able to ramp them up slowly. I spent a lot of time teaching exercises and techniques and gradually ramped up the intensity and speed. They were already efficient in the basic CrossFit exercises before the intensity was ramped up. I also continually drilled the fundamental movements in our warm-ups to keep refining technique.

One of Robb’s prescriptions for a question about how to spend a year of training so the listener could advance through the sectionals next year was to spend more time on efficiency. The guy who asked the question was doing Wendler 5,3,1. Robb recommended working snatch variations on squat days: hang snatch, hang power snatch, etc. in a 10X2 on the minute format to get some volume worked up. Robb recommended push press and push jerk work in the same format on the pressing days. The 10X2 format sounds familiar to me since I just did the CrossFit Powerlifting cert with Louie Simmons. Robb also recommended getting really efficient on running.

The takeaways:

• Get strong and get technical!
• Incorporate Periodization and De-load periods

Robb on Tackling the “sport of fitness” from a “skill” standpoint

During the podcast, Robb used a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu analogy:

“You can’t roll hard every day and make that the whole thing. You have to work positional sparring, drill specific techniques, get ‘wickedly’ efficient at it, do tons and tons of reps and THEN progress it to a live, full speed setting.”

And there was another great point Robb made – one I rarely hear addressed – that dropping the competitive element gives your psyche a rest and lets you recover mentally. Sort of a “de-loading” for the mind. I think this is a highly overlooked and underrated factor in recovery.

Robb also mentioned actually getting better at your chosen sport by shelving the ego, slowing down and being self-critical. “Volume first, intensity second.”

All great stuff.

Coach Glassman wrote an article a while back called: “Fundamentals, Virtuosity and Mastery.” In it, he talks about “performing the common uncommonly well.” Sounds a lot like efficiency of movement, right?

In the end, Robb puts forth a different prescription for progress in CrossFit and Sport of Fitness: “Get strong, get technical THEN build capacity.”

Sounds like a great plan.

More on this soon…

ttys

Adam

This has been an exciting month for me. The March 2010 issue of MILO just came out and my article “CrossFit for Lifters” was in it. I’m unfortunately not able to reprint the article here, but here’s the magazine cover and a link to Ironmind’s MILO site.

In my article, I explain some of the basics of CrossFit and the theory behind it and explain how a weightliter or strength athlete can incorporate some CrossFit into his or her training to get an improvement in cardio and fitness.

Here’s an exerpt dealing with implementing CrossFit within an existing strength athlete’s program…

“There are a number of different ways you can incorporate CrossFit style work into your training. Since I assume you’re already training hard and heavy with a barbell, I’ll make the following suggestions:

• Do the CrossFit work on a rest day or substitute CrossFit for traditional cardio on your cardio days. CrossFit workouts are brief but very intense. Keep a close eye on your overall training volume and add in the new training carefully keeping aware of its effects on your recovery and progression.
• Try one of the CrossFit benchmark workouts that looks interesting and record your time. I’d suggest Linda, Helen, Angie or Grace because they use movements and equipment you’ll likely be familiar with. The deadlift burpee workout above is also a good one.
• At a minimum, try about six CrossFit workouts over the course of the month. Always do a different workout and try to vary the content of the workouts as much as possible. That is, don’t choose the same type of workout for all of them. Mix it up and choose workouts that are as diverse as possible. Record your time and other metrics for all of them.
• Also, push yourself to do things you’re not comfortable doing in the CrossFit sessions. If you hate running, emphasize workouts that require running. If you love doing barbell work emphasize CrossFit workouts that use bodyweight callisthenic movements. The point is to train outside of your comfort zone at a very high intensity.

Repeat the SAME benchmark workout you did at the beginning of the month and see what your time is. It should be faster – possibly a lot faster. At this point, you might also want to review your training log and see if there are any other improvements you can ascertain.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://adamfarrah.net/blog/MILO-CrossFit-lifters]

Every once in a while I have a perfect moment where I realize why I do what I do. I had one of those tonight. I think for all of us it’s very easy to get wrapped up in the day to day grind and the millions of little tasks we have to do that we lose sight of the big picture. In my case, I’ve been so busy building up CrossFit Middletown and training everybody that the WHY got a bit lost in the shuffle.

Tonight, Denise, one of my clients, came in and wanted to work on her kettlebell swings. That was great because that’s what I was going to do anyway   We’ve been working on kettlebell swings and she was coming along pretty well, but she still didn’t have the big, hardstyle “pop” at the top that makes the kettlebell swing what it is.

I pulled out the AWESOME squat patterning stuff I got from Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader at a recent kettlebell seminar he did at Modern Self-Defense Center/CrossFit Middletown and we went to work. Once we got her squat pattern down I had her do basic air squats, box squats, box squats to vertical jump and towel swings.

After about 30 minutes, Denise went from having a pretty good kettlebell swing to having a GREAT one. The first time she nailed the hip pop and Hardstyle lock I was so psyched for her. I saw the lightbulb go on over her head and I knew we were in business!

And that was the moment. THAT’S why I do this. Because I love to help make people better than they were before and I love to help people to do things they couldn’t do before.

Last week Denise had a pretty good swing with a 12kg kettlebell. Tonight she was KILLING the swing with a 24kg! AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! I love it! GREAT JOB DENISE!

Bryce also kicked ass on the kettlebell swings tonight. He maxed out with the 48kg for almost a minute and dropped down from there. That was some NASTY stuff!

Here was the kettlebell part of tonight’s WOD (or POD, right Merle? LOL)

• Girls: Kettlebell Drop Set, 1 minute each with no rest in between, 24kg, 16kg, 12kg, 8kg
• Guys: Kettlebell Drop Set, 1 minute each with no rest in between, 48kg, 32kg, 24kg, 16kg

Of course, we didn’t want to go home after that, so we did an 8 min set of Tabata Squats resting in the bottom position to finish things off…

GREAT workout tonight, guys! You guys ROCK!

Here are a few pics from tonight:

Originally posted [http://crossfit-middletown.com/crossfit-blog/why-we-do-what-we-do]

I firmly believe that the right behaviors repeated over time will produce consistent, predictable results. So, for me, the key to “How do you become outstanding?” is to repeat the right behaviors over and over again.

But, what are the “right behaviors?”

This is where the question really is. Obviously, if you do the “right” things over and over you’ll get your result. It’s knowing what those right things are – or figuring out what they are before you run out of time. (“Before you run out of time” can mean many things and will mean different things to different people. It can mean getting too old, running out of money, losing interest in a goal, missing an important peak in the history of the pursuit, etc.)

The time thing is something I continually grapple with. An interesting side note here is that, in looking back at skills and goals I’ve pursed in the past, I can say one thing without reservation. If I had stayed with some of the things I started out at early in life – no matter how poorly I felt I did them at the time – I would have been absolutely outstanding at them now.

This tells me that one thing you need to do to become outstanding at something is to keep doing it and keep learning no matter how bad you think you are or how long you feel it’s taking.

I think – particularly in myself – there’s a “distorted perception” that happens when you want to become really good at something. You sort of lose site of the progress you’re making because you’re so focused on the weaknesses you’re trying to overcome. Progress seems so painfully slow. But, again, even if you make painfully slow progress that progress will add up to great skill eventually.

This brings me to a great concept and a great book I read recently: “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. Jeff’s Slight Edge concept is the “little bits of progress added up over and over” idea defined and built up in awesome detail.

Another illustration of this comes from Stuart McRobert’s classic, Brawn. McRobert espouses over and over in all his writing that little bits of progress repeated over and over again add up to BIG gains. The classic example is the idea of adding just one pound to the bar on your bench press once a week. Not too impressive. BUT, add up those one pound gains over an entire year of consistent training and you’ll have added 50 pounds to your bench press!

By the way, below is a pic of my small discs for loading a barbell with VERY SMALL weight increases. They go as low as 1/16th of a pound! Pictured below are: 1lb, 0.75lb, 0.5lb, 0.25lb, 1/8th lb and 1/16th lb. With these you can literally go on for EVER making tiny gains in strength every workout – if your patience can stand it. And mine never could…

This is exactly what Jeff Olson talks about in “The Slight Edge.” Jeff explains how there are no “quantum leaps” in progress. Progress can LOOK like it came in a quantum leap but what you’re really seeing is the cumulative effect of all the little – sometimes imperceptible – bits of progress that have been made when they finally accumulate to get big enough to be seen.

I’m going to continue to explore this topic, but here’s one rule I believe is valid for becoming outstanding: Focus on making little bits of progress with consistency month after month and year after year.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/becoming-outstanding-kettlebells-crossfit-martial-arts]

Something that eluded me when I first read Enter The Kettlebell by Pavel was the seemingly inordinate amount of time and space he devoted to getting ready to swing. He goes into a ton of detail on picking the bell up, squat and deadlift form, wall squats, etc. When I read all that I felt it was hopelessly remedial. Surely someone with all my experience in traditional weight training and Kettlebell training knows how to squat!

What changed ALL my thoughts on this was the weekend’s Kettlebell and Functional Movement Patterning Seminar with Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader at Modern Self Defense Center in Middletown, CT. “Doc” had us start out “learning” to squat for the first 3 hours of the seminar. And it really was learning! He corrected a number of poor movement patterns that we all had. What was really interesting was that he underscored ALL the points Pavel went into in Enter The Kettlebell: Pry the knees out, pull yourself down with the hip flexors, pinch a coin with your glutes when you go back up.

Getting such a thorough and detailed breakdown and instruction in proper squat form to build the Swing on made all the difference in the world! And it gave me an incredible new perspective on the Swing as a fundamental, remedial and corrective movement.

It was the same with the Get Up. The lat and hip engagement going on when we drilled it slow and perfectly with Dr. Cheng was absolutely incredible. I got a completely new appreciation for the seemingly “simple” or “basic” movement. After the seminar, I began to appreciate the Swing and the Get Up as fantastically deep “catalogs of movement.” This brought me back to my traditional martial arts days and kata. In traditional martial arts, you learn forms or kata – long, memorized performances of movements and techniques. The purpose of kata is to give the practitioner a “catalog” of techniques performed properly for practice and as a reference. In any kata there are endless connections and patterns that can be discovered. Even the simplest, most basic kata has an endless amount of detail and knowledge in it.

This is the appreciation I gained from Dr. Cheng for the Swing and the Get Up. Two deceptively simple movements that could be broken down into infinitely detailed and complex movement patterns that – when performed and drilled properly – give a reference and a method for training the body to move properly. OUTSTANDING!

Working with Dr. Cheng also gave me an appreciation for why Pavel made such a big deal out of the Get Up and the Swing in Enter The Kettlebell. The exercises represent FUNDAMENTAL human movement patters that can be drilled over and over again for constant benefit no matter what the practitioner’s level. And they are the BASE for EVERYTHING that comes after in Kettlebell training.

This brings me around to another point that my friend Rolando Garcia made yesterday at the Dr. Cheng Workshop. I asked the question: “How does one incorporate Hardstyle training into their training regimen for Sport style Kettlebell training.” Dr. Cheng gave his answer and then Rolando added that he considers Kettlebell Sport a sport like tennis or basketball or football or whatever. He uses Hardstyle training to create efficient movement patterns, build strength and body awareness and correct imbalances in ALL the athletes he coaches. He lays the foundation with Hardstyle and that makes the “sport specific” training work that much better. Pure genius! And pretty much the end to all the Hardstyle vs. Sport debate in Kettlebells – but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t…

So, if Hardstyle training is a fundamental and foundational training style, couldn’t we think of movements like the Hardstyle Swing and Get Up as fundamental movement patterns like a white belt technique or kata in Karate? The same white belt techniques that a black belt still works toward perfecting? And, just as practicing basic strikes and blocks teach and perfect fundamental movement patterns like proper hip rotation and stability, can we look at the Swing and the Get Up as teaching fundamental movement patterns like proper hip, glute and lat engagement, as well?

More evidence about the foundational nature of Hardstyle training…

With the new knowledge I gained from working with Doc, I started going back through “Enter The Kettlebell.” Something I noticed on page 31 is that Pavel mentions both Steve Cotter (Senior RKC) and Anthony Diluglio (RKC). There are a few interesting points about this. Both of these guys have had a strong influence on me. Anthony Diluglio was really where I got my introduction to kettlebells. I got a 16kg bell from his company Art Of Strength and his “Kettlebell Training Clinic, Volume 1” DVD. It was actually that DVD that originally taught me how to use a Kettlebell.

And, of course, my connection to Steve Cotter is that he, along with Ken Blackburn, certified me as a Kettlebell Teacher through their sanctioning body, IKFF. I had a great time doing the Level 1 CKT with those guys and I learned a TON. Both are fantastic athletes.

So, what’s the point? The point is that both Steve and Anthony STARTED out as RKCs under Pavel as far as I can tell. Steve Cotter went on to form the IKFF and promote Kettlebell Sport primarily and Anthony Diluglio went on to start Art Of Strength. Both Steve and Anthony went on to somewhat different styles of training from the strict “Hardstyle” training taught by Pavel, but they both started with a BASE of Hardstyle training and that base is evident in what they teach and how they teach it.

That’s it for right now. I’m off to see when the next RKC is offered!

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/hardstyle-sport-kettlebell-training]

Saturday 6/20/2009 Modern Self-Defense Center in Middletown, Connecticut hosted Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader for a Kettlebell and Functional Movement Patterning workshop. I’d heard great things about Dr. Cheng so I was looking forward to the seminar for a while. I was absolutely NOT disappointed! Dr. Cheng is a fantastic teacher and has an understanding of the details and intricacies of movement that is inspiring and humbling at the same time.

We spent most of the morning working on a SINGLE movement pattern – The Squat. I think everyone there, including myself, thought they knew how to squat. The fine details we got from Dr. Cheng were really eye opening.

The immediate impact Dr. Cheng had on me and my training from this one “simple” set of drills and corrections was:

1. My deadlift immediately felt stronger after working these new movement patterns with him.
2. My hips and hamstrings felt noticeably “better.” I’m not sure exactly how to define better. All I can say is that the new movement patters I learned for the squat from Dr. Cheng had my hips feeling noticeably “lighter” and more open. I’d describe the sensation as very similar to the feeling I get after a really good yoga session. My flexibility and my circulation felt noticeably better.

From the squats we moved into the Kettlebell Get Up. Again, I learned A TON about movement patterns in this seemingly simple exercise. In particular, loading the lats and opening the thoracic spine. Once again, it was a humbling, frustrating and absolutely inspiring experience to “crawl” through an exercise I’ve been doing for a long time and considered myself to be well experienced with.

Interestingly, when we finished the Get Ups my shoulders, chest and upper back felt great. I had the same feeling in my upper body that I had in my lower body after the squats. Amazing what moving properly can do for you!

From the Get Ups we moved into one and two handed Kettlebell swings. Again, a deceptively simple movement done correctly created a great learning and training experience.

The swings were actually my favorite part of the seminar. Mainly because Dr. Cheng really picked on me and my form. He also made me train ALL my sets with the 32kg Kettlebell because I was “MSDC’s resident Kettlebell coach.” It was great and I learned A LOT about firing the glutes to propel the Kettelbell in a swing.

Throughout the day Dr. Cheng did a great job of tying together the movements we were doing with the basics of the squat we practiced at the beginning. It was really cool to see where the squat movement patterns were in the Get Up and the swing and all the other things we do as gireviks and martial artists.

Dr. Cheng is an outstanding teacher and is absolutely full of knowledge about human movement patters. And he’s completely accessible, funny and friendly. Thank you, Dr. Cheng and thank you Chris from MSDC for hosting him!

ttys

Adam

Originally posted at [http://adamfarrah.net/mark-cheng-kettlebell-workshop-ct]

I was planning to do the WOD (which was a bit intimidating) but Merle had another idea. In his infinite wisdom Merle suggested that I do the “first time” workout along with Kate both to lend her some support and to see how my fitness had come along in the month or so that I’ve been training with at CrossFit USA.

Now, this is the same workout I blogged about in my post CrossFIt will change EVERYTHING. The workout that had me laying on the floor in Merle’s bathroom for 30 minutes feeling like an adolescent who drank too much at a party.

Up to now, I had no idea where my fitness stood other than I’ve been LOOKING a lot leaner and more muscular. While Kate was doing her warmup I went out and did the first part of the WOD Merle had posted for my warmup – Run 1 Mile wearing the 20lb weight vest.

I got back from my run and we got into it. Once again, the workout is deceptively simple:

Row 500 meters
40 Wall Squats
30 Sit Ups
20 Push Ups
10 Pull Ups

I got through this workout in 6:33 minutes. That’s less than half the time I did it in last time – and I did full kipping pull ups instead of the jumping pull ups I did last time.

So, lets summarize:

I added a 1 mile run WITH a weight vest and did full kipping pull ups and STILL got this WOD done in less than half the time it took to do it a month ago. AND I was completely fine after the WOD. In fact, I could have probably done a few more rounds!

Now that’s progress!

ttys

Adam

Originally posted as [http://adamfarrah.net/kettlebell-blog/benchmarking-fitness-crossfit]

I got in and walked over to the whiteboard to read the WOD. Before I could, I heard a voice from behind me say: “You should have stayed home, Adam!” I turned around to see Scott dripping with sweat and breathing hard. I looked back at the WOD. It was a Filthy Fifty Friday WOD. Merle had about 10 exercises on there for 50 reps each!

At first I didn’t see the ubiquitous 1 mile run on the board. Then I saw it off in the corner. I was happy because I like the run, but then I realized how much work was on tap for the day…

I was about to get started when Merle told me he had “something special” for me and to forget the WOD on the board. Scott had just finished his workout and he looked up and asked Merle: “What are you having him do?” Merle just laughed and said: “Grab some popcorn and watch. This is going to be fun..” “Great.” I thought…

What followed was essentially a full-body beatdown with a rower, kettlebells and whatever else Merle could think of.

Here’s the workout:

Run 1 mile
Row 500 meters
Walking lunge with TWO 25lb kettlebells – these started overhead, but quickly moved into the rack position
Back on the rower for 500 meters
Bench Press with 165lbs to failure
Run 1/4 mile
Back on the rower for 500 meters
10 Suitcase Deadlifts with TWO 80lb kettlebells
10 pull ups
Back to the Rower for 500 meters
50 pushups
10 suitcase deadlifts
Run 1 mile

I’m still not sure if I was better off with that workout or the Filthy Fifty…

I’m finding that I’m getting more and more used to the CrossFit workouts. They’re still brutal and I STILL have a slight sense of dread when it’s time to go to CrossFit USA, but they’re getting better. It’s like I’m getting more used to pushing myself through that pain barrier.

I’m also FEELING a lot better. I’m very certainly experiencing an increase in testosterone and my mood is more positive and optimistic. AND people are noticing that I look bigger and leaner already. That’s with only about 3 weeks in hitting it hard with CrossFit!

Killer workout, Merle! Thanks!

Here are some pics:

Orginally posted [http://adamfarrah.net/crossfit-wod-kettlebells]