SAPT Exercise of the Week: Sample Warm-Up Series
Here's a quick warm-up that won't take more than 5-10 minutes to complete, but will hit practically every joint in the body and prep you to effectively smash some weight around. These are a few of my favorite moves that I've found to personally be some of the best "bang for your buck" drills.
Note: When you perform the prone plank portion, try doing it "RKC style" as demonstrated in the video below. It really does make a big difference in terms of how much benefit you receive from the seemingly simple exercise.
While, yes, warming up can be an annoyance for some people, I find three reasons that simply won't allow me to skip it before my own training sessions:
1) It gives me a "feel" for how my body and nervous system and faring during a particular day. As I run through the various movement patterns, I have a chance to sense what areas may be sore/testy, and also if I'm feeling "on" or not. This can then help me further autoregulate my training session and decide how hard I'll push it based off what my body is telling me.
This takes some experience and practice, yes. But the rewards can't be overstated.
2) Warming up is going to help you run faster, move more weight, and reduce the likelihood of injury during your training session. 'Nuff said there.
3) It gives me a chance to "bridge the gap" between the workday and my training session. During the warmup I have a chance to clear my mind and leave any troubles/worries at the front door, so to speak. Then, by the time I've moved on to the main lifts for the day, I have all my focus in check.
While some of the drills in the video above may be old news to many of you, I'm still shocked to find how many people tend to spin their wheels when it comes to preparing for their training session. Hopefully some of you can glean a few things from the video and add them into your own repertoire.
Pink Slime in School Lunch
This is important:
"Pink slime" is the term used for a mixture of beef scraps and connective tissue (formerly used only for pet food and rendering) that is treated with ammonia hydroxide to remove pathogens like salmonella and E coli. These so-called "Lean Beef Trimmings," are produced by Beef Products, Inc.Two former government microbiologists claim that, for political reasons, pink slime was approved for human consumption by USDA over serious safety concerns. (http://bit.ly/waMMni)
Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times in 2009 showed that "in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays."
Even apart from safety concerns, it is simply wrong to feed our children connective tissues and beef scraps that were, in the past, destined for use in pet food and rendering and were not considered fit for human consumption.
Due to public outcry, fast food giants like McDonald's and Burger King have stopped using pink slime in their food. But the federal government continues to allow its use in school food and has just authorized the purchase of ground beef which collectively contains an additional 7 million pounds of pink slime for consumption by our nation's children.
[You can follow the progress of this petition, including the latest media coverage and more information on pink slime, on my daily blog -- The Lunch Tray (www.thelunchtray.com)]
How to Train for a Military Physical Fitness Test: A SAPT Testimonial
One thing many of you may not realize is that, while SAPT does work primarily with athletes and general fitness clientele, we also have a special "niche" in preparing those seeking to join the military and/or pass a Military Physical Fitness Test. As many of you know (or, at least, can probably guess...), the selection and assessment process for the Special Operations is far from easy, and certainly won't allow for the faint-of-heart to make it very far.
We recently received an awesome (and humbling) testimonial from Jason, who trained with SAPT - via our Distance Coaching program - in preparation for his selection and assessment process for the Special Forces.
Needless to say, he worked his butt off in training, and we were honored to help him reach this milestone.
Take it away, Jason!
"Recently, I successfully participated in a Special Operations Selection and Assessment (S/A), and I can unequivocally say that the distance coaching program with SAPT was a huge asset!
To back up the story a bit, I came to SAPT with the goal of being able to max the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), do 20 pullups, run 6 miles in 45 minutes, and total over 1500 pounds. To say that this is a tall order would be a HUGE understatement. My training background consisted mainly of strength training with some General Physical Preparedness (GPP). I had a total that was in the 1200 range and could score about a 270 on the APFT. However, let’s not discuss my distance running…
Needless to say, I walked into SAPT pretty confident in my skills. Boy, was I about to be humbled! That first day, Steve broke down my form on all my major lifts and immediately saw where I had room to improve. At the end of that session, he made an effort to truly understand my needs, and develop a unique program to ensure that I met them. This was especially difficult due to the fact that I still had a 9-5 job, an upcoming wedding/honeymoon, and two rambunctious American Bulldogs all vying for my time. With that in mind, we planned on me working out at SAPT once a week, with all other workouts on my own. Over the next three months (while I stubbornly resisted scaling back the weight on the bar and doing “silly” mobility work) I put in the tough work. It was all worth it.
By the time that I attended my S/A, I felt entirely prepared. My APFT score had improved to well over 300, running for longer than 30 minutes no longer felt like I was breathing lava, knocking out 18 clean pullups seemed natural, and believe it or not, my strength is continuing to improve! SAPT had performed the seemingly impossible. Beyond that, at the conclusion of the S/A I was nowhere near as sore or immobile as I had anticipated being. Maybe those crazy crawls and band work actually paid off!
In conclusion, SAPT did a great job working with me in the gym and at home. They provided me with the tools to continue with my success, and for that I’m extremely thankful. They are in a unique position to help anyone achieve their goals. Whether that goal is in competitive athletics, aesthetics, health, or LEO/Military work they have to tools to help. Working within the Special Operations community has been a huge dream for me. And with SAPT’s assistance, that dream is finally coming true!"
~Jason
Click HERE to join SAPT today, no matter where you live!
The bug and the Windshield
There are two important lessons that one needs to know when training…
- You are going to have bad days in the gym, accept it. Or as Kelsey would say, “Some days you’re the windshield and some days your bug… Today you were the bug.”
- If your bad days keep on occurring you need to fix your program.
Allow me to expand a little on these two points as I have recently come into contact with both during my training. It’s vital that you listen to your body during your training in order to make the best gains you can. To do this pay careful attention to how you feel during your main movements because this is going to be the marker for the rest of your workout. Undoubtedly you will have a day where you feel like absolute crap which is perfectly FINE but you have to make the proper adjustments thereafter.
With me the times that I usually feel like this are during my deadlifts. If you know me then you know that I absolutely HATE deadlifting, it’s the worst thing ever (I probably feel this way because I’m terrible at it, who knows).
Pulling had been going well though up until last Monday when I realized I had become the bug. On that day everything felt heavy, I also felt out of my groove on every pull. I worked up to 90% of my 1RM for a single and it was a griiiiiiind. I tried to go down to 80% and get some quality work in but I didn’t even pull the weight off the ground, what happened next? Well after I got my Wolverine rage on I calmed down and just nixed the rest of my pulls, went onto my squat variation got in some good sets and called it a day. I simply chalked this up to being the bug and chose to just move on and look forward to the next training session. These days can happen for just about any reason, tired, hungry, unfocused, and maybe even OVER TRAINED. Don’t try and force it on these days, just get in whatever quality work you can and leave. If you force it you will most likely make the problem that much worse and get hurt.
On to the second point, if these “bad” days keep occurring they are probably "bad" because you are OVER TRAINED and you need to fix the problem. As I stated before I had a horrific time last Monday but this past Monday I was ready to go and felt pretty decent. I worked up to 85% and pulled it for two singles with an alright bar speed. I decided to put on 90% went to go pull and NOTHIN’! I couldn’t even get the bar to budge at all. I knew something was wrong because that shouldn’t have been happening. Stevo convinced me to drop the weight, significantly, and just go for an easy double. Well sadly that easy double was not easy at all. I knew that I was pretty over trained and needed to fix something. I called up “The Programmer” and told him what was going on, we talked about my training and my technique and came to the conclusion both needed to be fixed. The answer ended up being that I won’t pull heavy again until my meet and when I do pull (probably once every two weeks now) it will be around 40-50% for singles just working strictly on form. The take home message is don’t just ignore your body and keep going through a program simply because you feel you need to. You will only get weaker and probably injure yourself doing that. Reassess what you’re doing and make the adjustments needed so you can avoid your reps looking like this guy.
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Another Sugary Experience
I have to expand on a portion of my post on StrongGirlsWin.com from yesterday: the 3-Hour Glucose Tolerance Test. So, the test is screening for Gestational Diabetes and you only have to take this version if you fail the 1-Hour Tolerance Test (which I did).
There are, of course, strict rules to follow to keep the test valid:
- Eat a diet containing at least 150g of carbohydrates per day for 3 days prior to testing.
- Fast for 8-hours before consuming glucose solution.
- Drink solution containing 100g of glucose within 5-minutes. Think throwing back about 4 shots in 5-minutes… maybe not the best idea.
Then you sit for 3-hours that are interspersed with blood drawing every hour.
Doesn’t sound too bad does it?
Well, for me, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of medical testing. I have strong dislike for fasting, having my blood drawn, being forced to drink huge amounts of sugar, and sitting still for long periods of time. I’m not trying to exaggerate or be funny, I really don’t like any of those things.
In fact, I almost didn’t get the test done at all. After all, I’ve “been there, done that” with my first pregnancy. So, why should I put myself through this hellish experience again?
Aside from simply “getting over myself” and acting like an adult, I pulled up some research to educate myself on the risk factors associated with babies who are born to women with gestational diabetes and decided I did, in fact, need to get over myself.
A couple of the most notable risk factors for the child that I didn’t know include: increased likelihood of becoming diabetic at some point in their future life and falling into a coma if the doctors don’t know they need to monitor the newborn’s blood sugar levels. Those were the two points that resonated with me.
Well, anyway, this got me thinking about how absurd it is to consume so much sugar in one sitting, much less in one single day. But, that’s exactly what people do ALL the time!
Here are a number of popular beverages you or a loved one probably consumes regularly. All have around 100g of sugar:
You may think I'm being a bit dramatic about this whole thing. It's just a standard test, after all. But diabetes has a history in my family and I recognize my body's own regulation of its blood sugar levels as a natural challenge - pregnant or not. I've actively been trying to provide myself the best quality foods for about 10 years now and the idea of failing any sort of glucose test is frightening for me!
The good news is I passed my second test and the doctor assured me failing the first version is NOT a sign of things to come... not sure if I totally believe her. I think I'll just keep my head down, focused on continuing to consume high-quality whole foods and will have to enjoy Shamrock Shake commercials instead of indulging in the real thing:
A Little Deadlift Experiment, Part 1
Over the past five weeks of training I added 40lbs to my deadlift.
"Whaaattt?? Are you some kind of magician?" you ask?
No, not necessarily, but I've been doing a little bit of experimenting, along with training my deadlift with a bit of unconventional methodology. First, a bit of background information.
In early 2011 I deadlifted 410lbs for a PR. Then, in mid-2011, I contracted Lyme's Disease. I was bed-ridden for weeks and literally did not even have the strength/energy to watch the movies that friends brought by my house to help me pass the time. Fortunately (*understatement alert*), I was on the road to recovery relatively early considering my illness, and the doctors told me how amazing it was that I was up and walking so soon.
Needless to say, I now have a much deeper appreciation for how blessed I am to be where I currently stand with my health. Lyme's is an absolutely miserable disease and my heart goes out deeply to all those who find themselves battling it for years on end.
Moving on with the story, Lyme's completely sapped any strength I had previously obtained, and nearly left me back at Ground Zero with regards to my training.
To give you an idea, my first training session back in the gym (Fall 2011) entailed 3x6 pullups and 3x8 pushups.
And I nearly puked.
Even though I lived in convalescence for quite some time, I continued with my training, trying to be as perseverant yet prudent as possible. Eventually I worked back up to deadlifting 225lbs, but it felt heavy. And I mean heavy.
Fast forward six months, and - after feeling completely healed from the disease - pulled 385lbs for a single.
My Experiment
Next, I decided to play Mr. Scientist and play with a deadlifting experiment. To be honest, I was spinning my wheels a bit with my training, so I decided to work on a lift that I admittedly suck at: The Deadlift.
Over the past five weeks, I deadlifted every day, Monday through Friday. Yep. Every. single. day. Take the weekend off, rinse, lather, repeat.
What were the results? I went from 385lbs to 425lbs in those five weeks of training! Here is the video from Test Day 1 (I'll be "sort of maxing" every four to five weeks):
Some Closing Thoughts:
1. I am, admittedly, not a good deadlifter. Squatting has always felt more "natural" to me personally, primarily due to the fact that I have a very long torso relative to the length of my legs. I've had to work much harder than (some) others to bring my deadlift up, and it's still not what I would consider awe-inspiring by any means.
This was, however, a major victory for me after experiencing the large serving of humble-pie that Lyme's served me with in 2011. Not gonna lie, I gave myself a little, personal fist bump after doing this, and praise God every day that He has given me back my health in order to continue one of my greatest passions.
Like I said, you don't truly appreciate your health until it is taken from you.
2. Honestly, when I woke up on Testing Day last week, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Was I going to pull less than 385lbs? Was I going to be stuck at the same weight? Could I pull more?
My original goal was to climb back up to 405lbs, but I was pleasantly surprised to find how fast and "easy" the weight felt. This is why I went ahead and added another 20lbs to the bar to go for the 425 pull.
3. Note that I "sort of maxed," as I had a bit of room in the tank on that 425lb pull. I still stand by what I said that this is the way to go to avoid burning out and ensure (at least as much as one can ensure) continued progress.
4. No, I am not going to unveil the exact program I used. I'm going to continue tweaking and refining the plan, and see where it continues to take me. I do ask that you refrain from going out and performing heavy deadlifts every day after reading this. This is NOT what I did and you'd be digging your own grave if you go out there and begin pulling heavy Monday through Friday.
5. Although I improved 4olbs over this 5-week period, it was, admittedly, a lifetime PR of 15lbs. I'm interested to see how things progress (if at all) and how my body continues to react to this type of training plan.
6. Don't worry, after I'm done with the experiment, I'll unveil what I did. So keep your eyes peeled.
