The Ron Reed Project

It's been awesome to see the number of adults training at SAPT consistently growing. I tip my hat to all those who work all day, drive their kids to every nook and cranny of NOVA, keep their kids from killing themselves on a regular basis, and still make time arrive at SAPT ready to get after it! It's very inspiring to see, and I'm excited to see more and more adults making vast improvements with us. One of our clients, Ron, recently went through an incredible body transformation that I wanted to share with you. Ron had been training with us for a little while already, but he told us that he wanted to enter a focused fat-loss plan as his health was beginning to suffer due to some weight he had put on.

We gave him an individualized nutrition plan, and tweaked his workouts so they would be a bit more "fat loss" oriented in nature. His results were nothing short of fantastic! See the video below.

I'd like to point out a few things that may be helpful to those of you reading:

1. Ron works full-time, both in the business world and at home as a dedicated father and husband. So, a transformation like this is certainly possible if you consider yourself a busy person (and I don't know anyone that doesn't).
2. Ron FREQUENTLY has to travel for work - often for 5-7 days at a time. So, even for those you that travel, you can definitely make worlds of progress with a schedule that demands regular travel. Ron would tell me what equipment he had available at the hotel (sometimes the hotels didn't even have a gym), so I would give him some "hotel room workouts" in which he could still get in some training with just his bodyweight, a chair, and a bed as his gym equipment. Your improvements in the physique realm will never depend on what fancy gym equipment you do or do not have available. It's the mindset that is going to be the difference maker.
3. Honestly, most of Ron's success was due to his consistency in the kitchen. I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can't out train a bad diet. Ron was constantly emailing me to make sure something was "approved" before he picked it up at the grocery store or added it to his meal. When he was on the road, he was sure to pick items on the restaurant menus that were going to help his progress, not hinder it.
4. He did not count calories, eliminate carbs from his diet, or partake in anything extremely complicated. It's important to note that nutrition plans really don't have to be as complicated or tedious as many may make it seem.
5. We did not do any carb cycling or sodium depletion leading up to his "After" picture (or at any point in his program).
6. Ron did not do a single crunch or sit-up throughout his program. Proof that you don't need to (in fact, you can't) sit-up your way to a lean midsection. It won't happen.
7. He performed zero steady state running throughout his program. Again, it is unwise (and unnecessary) to prescribe long distance running for someone in need of weight loss. Considering that all of Ron's blood levels returned to healthy levels during his program, this also goes to show you don't need long distance running to improve the health of your heart. Can it help? Absolutely. But I wouldn't recommend it as a modality of choice for a weight loss client.
8. He not only maintained, but increased his strength during this phase. I can't tell you how many times I talk to people (primarily males) that are frightened they're going to "lose all their muscle" if they enter a fat loss program. It's not going to happen if you design the program appropriately. As shown in the video, Ron hit a 40lb PR on his weighted chinup, a 30lb PR on his front squat, a 15lb PR on his close-grip bench press, and a 20lb PR on his trap bar deadlift. Note that these personal records occurred during this particular 16-week program (not throughout the few years he's been training with us).
9. Ron just turned 51 years old. 'Nuff said.

Here are his Before and After pictures (the before picture was taken while he was on vacation shortly before the start of the program):

Before

After (front)

After (side)

After (back) Congratulations, Ron! Who is ready to join him?

The Most Important Lession I've Learned

Everyone wants to succeed.

Regardless of what you may perceive as lackluster performance in someone, when it comes down to it, everyone has a deep desire to be successful. Once I identified and accepted this as a true principle in my life, it dramatically changed virtually all of my professional and personal interactions.

Here are a couple guidelines I use regularly to extract high levels of production from my athletes and, even, my employees:

1. What makes a person tick? Figure this out - it is a foundational key!
2. How can I help this person see the end goal (the success) for the process we’re currently going through? This can be applied to individual workouts, practices, and professional work projects.
3. Describe expectations. How can you expect someone to be successful if they don’t clearly understand the expectations of the event, team, work environment, etc.?
4. Finally, don’t let people down! For example, if you’re a coach and you’ve managed to get total buy-in from your players, don’t let them down by not putting together the best game plan of which you’re capable. Their success depends a great deal on what you’re doing, planning, producing, reading, writing… it depends a LOT on you.

This isn’t my sneaky way of getting people to work really hard. It’s my straightforward way of helping to guide people towards what it is that they really want to achieve. And it doesn’t matter if it’s running a faster 100-m dash or earning a higher paycheck or even building and maintaining a happy marriage, accepting that "everyone wants to be successful" will help you in working towards virtually any goal!

- Sarah

Charlotte: Powerlifting, Golf, etc.

As most of you know, the SAPT staff traveled down to Charlotte, NC, for the weekend. It provided an awesome opportunity to talk shop outside the constant distractions of NOVA, get intense and "Do Work" at a USAPL powerlifting competition, and relax out on the golf course. Sarah, Ryan, Sean, and John all competed at the powerlifting meet, and I couldn't have been more proud of them. Sarah isn't even a year out from giving birth to her first child, so it was impressive enough that she was getting under the bar and compete postpartum. Ryan, Sean, and John all hit personal records in each of their lifts. Needless to say, I was proud to be a "SAPTer" on Saturday.

Getting right to it, below are a few highlights from the meet.

Here's a picture of Sarah at the bottom of the Squat. (Being the brilliant person I am, I didn't think to walk around to the front of the platform to shoot video footage until after the first wave, so I failed capture Sarah or John's squat on video.)

Next is Sean nailing his squat in the 3rd flight. My favorite part about the squat videos is that you can distinctly hear Chris yell his favorite coaching cue as they come out of the hole (hint: it starts with "H", ends in "s", and has "e-e-l" somewhere in the middle):

Sean easily wins the "Most Improved Squat" award of the weekend, as he made ENORMOUS advancements over his 12-week competition prep phase. I was with him when he squatted twelve weeks ago - helping him determine the weight to base his percentages off for the subsequent training cycle. I felt as if I needed to physically shove him down in order get his hip crease parallel because his hips were so tight. It was awesome to see him diligently attack hip mobility throughout the past few months - and also give himself an honest assessment of where he was at - so that he could make the most of his training. It paid off, to say the least.

Here is Ryan hitting another PR in his Squat. Ryan's body (and mind) definitely took a beating as he was finishing out his semester of grad school, so it was cool to see him remain consistent in training and come out strong with PRs on all his lifts.

Next we have John Delgado hitting a solid bench press.

For those of you who may not be familiar with powerlifting: your bench can easily be 20-50lbs LESS (depending) than your typical bench press in the gym, as you have to demonstrate control on the way down, pause on the chest, and then come up. Not to mention: your shoulders/head, butt, and feet (heels included) need to remain in contact with the bench/floor.

Moving on to the Deadlift, we have (in order): Sarah, John, Sean, and Ryan all killing it. I can confidently say we had some of the cleanest looking deadlifts of the competition (some of the pulls I saw made me want to crawl into a corner and curl up in the fetal position).

Sarah pulling a solid conventional dead (in the past she went Sumo):

Delgado hitting a big PR (and he sets the bar down as if he's holding a newborn. Love it.):

Sean "Sandbag" Healy breaking the big 400 barrier! "Easy" goes the moderator. He blasted through this one. And you'll have to ask Delgado about the nickname (which fit perfectly).

Ryan hitting a PR and then spinning around to watch all three white lights shining. Awesome.

And, just so we can prove we DO enjoy other things besides the weight room, here is the SAPT staff (me, Ryan, Chris, Sarah) getting some sun out on the UNC Charlotte golf course.

Chris still needs to take some lessons from me on the back swing, and the proper pendulum action in putting, but that's okay..... - Steve

SAPT Closed 6/2, 6/3, and 6/4...Powerlifting competition to blame...

Good morning SAPT'ers, Just a reminder that SAPT will be closed today (6/2) and the remainder of this week (6/3 and 6/4).  Sarah, Ryan, John and Sean will be smashing weights (aka lifting them with great fury) at a powerlifting competition down in Charlotte!

Be sure to check our Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr for frequent updates! 

SAPT will resume normal operations Monday, 6/6.  Have a great weekend!

I used to be sweet…

Chris

2 Outside-the-Box Exercises (to do with as you may...)

My turn: Even if you're not a "tech-junkie," please consider following us on Twitter, watching us on Tumblr, and/or Like-ing us on Facebook to help spread the good word! Getting right to it, I thought I'd share two exercises you probably haven't tried before. The first is something I had toyed around with (and liked it) in the Summer of 2009, and the second is a tool we'll use with some of our wrestlers and combat athletes.

1. The 1-Minute Chinup

I forgot how brutal this really was until I went to try it again. As the name implies, it's a chinup that takes you one minute to complete. That's one rep, performed for 60 seconds. Take 30 seconds to pull yourself up, and then immediately transition into a 30-second eccentric. I wouldn't try this unless you're already fairly proficient at chinups (able to execute 12-15 bodyweight reps with perfect form). See the video below for a demonstration (fortunately, you can't see my face...):

I would say this exercise is good for 3 reasons:

1. A variation to improve your chinups (crazy, huh?!). My guess, however, is that this variation will help improve your chinup endurance as opposed to maximum chinup strength. Thirty seconds is a loonnng time to be moving through the concentric portion of the lift, and an equally long time to be controlling the eccentric portion of the chinup. It's also pretty widely accepted that isometric training will help to improve strength and neural control for the given joint angle involved in the contraction, and with the 1-minute chinup you essentially receive a "mini-isometric" throughout the entire range or motion (and thus, each joint angle) of the chinup.
2. To the gents in the crowd seeking to Sculpt 'da Gunz: you can't go wrong with some time-under-tension to elicit some growth in the biceps. I honestly don't think there is one particular exercise that is superior for increasing arm size. However, rotating exercises will almost always elicit a favorable response from the body as you have to adapt to that new stimulus. Given that very few people I know have tried this, it will probably be a solid catalyst for growth for you Broz out there.
3. To make you hate life. Don't think I need to explain this one.

Again, to reiterate: don't try this unless you already possess pretty solid chinup proficiency. Also, I would suggest keeping the frequency of the 1-minute chinup to one day a week in training.

2. Scramble to Tire Flip

I realizemany of you reading probably won't be able to do this due to equipment limitations (although you can always pick up a tire FOR FREE at your local tire supplier....just sayin'). However, it's just plain fun, which is enough reason for me to share it. Below is SAPT athlete, Greg (state runner-up and seven-time all-American wrestler), demonstrating the movement as he prepares for his college wrestling career:

Given that wrestlers - and fighters - frequently need to quickly reset their spatial orientation/focus (from rolling around, or being flipped over) and push back on an opponent, we'll often add these "scramble to tire flip" variations in their training program.  You can perform a number of drills before flipping the tire: rolls (as Greg displays), side crawls, up-downs, etc. You're limited by your own imagination.

If you're not a competitive wrestler or fighter, you can always give these a shot to make you feel good about yourself, or if you're simply feeling pumped up after watching a testosterone-infused movie like gladiator.

Off to go find some Maca root to add to my smoothie recipe.... - Steve

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Hold up! Before you read one more word, please consider following us on Twitter, watching us on Tumblr, and/or Like-ing us on Facebook!

Here’s an amazing food you’ll want to add to your diet IMMEDIATELY. If not sooner: Maca. I first discovered it about 2-months ago while searching for foods to help fight adrenal fatigue...

This first bit of information I pulled from www.raworganicmaca.info

Background

Maca is a root that grows high in the Peruvian Andes at altitudes of 14,000 feet (3500 m) above sea level.  It has been cultivated for 1000s of years and used by indigenous people to boost their energy while living at such extreme elevations where oxygen is in short supply.   It looks similar to a radish or turnip and comes in a variety of colors ranging from white to dark purple.

Peruvian maca root has the distinction of being the highest growing food plant anywhere in the world.  The extreme climate and conditions where it grows include freezing cold, intense sunlight and strong winds.   The soil is probably some of the worst anywhere for growing food.  And yetmaca root is a survivor and thrives in these inhospitable conditions.  Perhaps it is this tenacity to live that is imparted to those who it eat, giving them increased energy and ability to survive in intense conditions. No doubt it has made a productivelife possible in the very high mountains for generations of indigenous people.

Peruvian farmers tried the maca root on themselves (after they noticed positive changes in cattle) and found that it made them much more energetic, strong, better able to withstand the high altitude, harsh climate, and also that it made them more sexually active and fertile. Since then, there has been widespread knowledge and facts about the reputed ability ofmaca root to be a true aphrodisiac, and a fertility enhancer as well as a very effective energizer, strengthener, and giver of overall well being.

Commonly reported benefits:

• Increased energy and endurance
• Increased stamina
• Alleviated chronic exhaustion (fatigue) syndrome
• Improved sexual function and libidoin bothmen and women
• Enhanced fertility in people and animals
• Reduced hormonal dysfunction during menopause & andropause
• Balancedhormonal irregularities
• Alleviateddepression
• Reduced anxiety and stress
• Improved circulation leading to reduced anemia and faster wound healing
• Enhanced memory, learning, and mental ability
• Improved and more youthfulskin appearance
• Healthy teeth and bones

Maca also:

• Acts as a fungistatic and bacteriostatic
• Acts as an anticarcinogen and antioxidant
• Is an alternative to anabolic steroids, helps to build muscle

How Raw Maca Works:

Nutritionally,  maca root isrich in amino acids, phytonutrients, fatty acids, vitamin and minerals.   According to nutritional researchers, [information] published in the Journal “Food Chemistry” in 1994 and 2001 maca contains the following:

• Composition: 59% carbohydrates, 10.2% protein, 8.5% fiber, 2.2% lipids
• Essential Amino Acids: nearly all including Aspartic Acid, Glutamic acid, Serine, Histidine, Glycine, Threonine, Alanine, Tyrosine, Phenylalanine, Valine, Methionine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, HO- Proline, Proline, Sarcosine
• Free Fatty Acids: 20 have been found of which the most abundant are linolenic acid, palmitic acid, oleic acid
• Vitamins: A, B1, B2, B3, C, D
• Minerals: iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, sodium, potassium, calcium
• Macaenes and macamides: novel polyunsaturated acids and their amides
• Sterols: campesterol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol
• Alkaloids: Aromatic glucosinolates including: benzyl glucosinolate, p-methoxybenzyl glucosinolate
• Isothyocyanates: benzyl isothiocyanate, p-methoxybenzyl isothiocyanate

That alone makes maca a true nutritional powerhouse and amazing daily supplement.

But maca root, like ginseng, is also an adaptogen.  Adaptogensaresubstances that raise the physical body’s state of resistance to diseases through physiological health and emotional health improvements. This makes maca a broad based healer able tosupport and rejuvenate overwhelmed, tired adrenal glands eventually resulting in much greater energy, stamina, clarity of mind and spirit, and the ability to handle stress.

One other important note is that scientistshave also discovered that maca root has the ability to regulate, support, and balance the hormonal systems of both men and women for optimal function. One of the very great things about Peruvian maca root is that it is not “gender specific” and works equally well at the hormonal changing benefits for both sexes equally.

To confirm these claims, I went ahead did a bit of my own research to see if these claims are legit. In fact many of them are – here are the PROVEN benefits I found in scientific research that has been published:

1. Stimulation of body metabolism
2. Control of body weight
3. Increased energy
4. Stress reduction and anti-depressant activity
5. Memory improvement
6. Enhanced sex drive and the production of sex hormones
7. Reduction in prostate size and weight
8. Reduction of psychological symptoms of post-menopausal women (including anxiety and depression).
9. Unlike supplements, maca is a whole food so there are no side effects.

Lastly, this stuff is easy to use. Just add it to any beverage and drink up!

It doesn't matter who you are, there is something in numbers 1-8 that could stand some improvement. - Sarah