“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but instead will interest his patients in the care of the human fram, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” – Thomas Edison

Paleo eating and primal living are Big Topics in the health and fitness world.  What does it mean to “go Primal”?

Basically, it means eating the foods your body way designed to eat and living the way your body was designed to live, with the purpose of fitness and health in general, and often weight loss in particular.

Heading up the Primal movement is a cool guy named Mark Sisson:

He wrote the indispensable Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy, one of the most highlighted books on my shelves.

Primal (for the sake of brevity I’m going to drop the /paleo today ) living allows your genes to express themselves in certain ways.  What do I mean?

Simple example: I have a tattoo on my forearm.  Think of that as a certain gene.  Maybe the gene for Type 2 Diabetes.

Whether I wear long sleeves or not determines if my tattoo will show, that the gene will be expressed.

In this example my sleeves represent my lifestyle.  If I exercise, eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and meats, and stay away from booze, grains, and sugars, the diabetes gene won’t have a chance to be expressed.  It’s like wearing long sleeves.

If I skip the gym and eat whatever I want, it’s like rolling up my sleeves and letting the diabetes gene be expressed – my lifestyle determined I would get diabetes.

The gene was there the whole time, what determines if the gene goes into action or not is your lifestyle.

As Mark says: You Have To Fit Your Genes To Fit Into Your Genes.

To have the kind of lifestyle that allows your “skinny genes” and healthy genes to be used, you can follow simple Primal guidelines.  Here are Mark’s 10 Primal Laws…

1.  Eat Lots Of Plants And Animals

I believe nutrition is the single biggest thing you can do to lose weight and get awesome health.  And the two biggest things you can do to improve your nutrition are to eat more vegetables and to eat more animal protein.

You should aim to have some complete protein in every meal, as well as a bunch of veggies.

2. Avoid Poisonous Things

This one is a doozy!  No one goes around drinking drain cleaner, but we put things into our bodies that are almost as bad.

Grains, soy, sugar, alcohol – all poisons.

Even if you’re just interested in weight loss and don’t give a damn about your health, poison foods will still completely reverse your progress.

See, if you’re eating foods that your body has to fight (ex: grains), it won’t be able to absorb the good nutrients from your meats and vegetables PLUS it won’t let you lose any fat.

You know how an infected cut swells up?  The swelling helps fight all the funk from the infection.

As soon as you ditch grains, soy, sugar, and alcohol, all the bloating in your body starts going away.  Why the bloat?

Basically, your body was swelling to help it fight off foreign invaders.

Getting rid of poison foods will make sure all the effort you put into diet and exercise won’t go to waste.

3. Move Frequently At A Slow Pace

Another tricky one.  Back in paleolithic days, humans had to walk all over the place.

We didn’t run, we WALKED.  If we ran around and burned all our energy, we’d be screwed if we didn’t find food right away.

Almost no one goes for leisurely walks or hikes any more.  We have to turn it into an exercise challenge.  Whoever has the highest heart rate wins.

Walking does all sorts of good things for your body.  Yes, it burns some calories, but that’s not why to do it.

Walking gets you outside, walking is relaxing, walking through the forest can actually help fight cancer, walking just plain feels good.

My advice: Go for a walk outside a few times a week, on the weekends get up in the hills and go for a fun hike with family and friends.

4.  Lift Heavy Things

“Lifting heavy things” doesn’t mean hitting the weight room 3 hours a day to try and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It means resistance training.

Part of Primal living was moving rocks, climbing trees, dragging dead deer, lunging down to pick berries, pulling a travois, and all sorts of other full-body movements.

Dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, sandbags, tires, and my favorite – your won bodyweight – are all things you can use for resistance training.

5.  Sprint Once In A While

Sprinting doesn’t mean lacing on some old New Balance Joggers and heading down to the track, it just refers to moving very fast (for your level).

Interval Training on a bike, treadmill, or rowing machine works great.

So does rocking out a fast set or bodyweight exercises.

So does jumping rope.

Moving quickly is very Primal – imagine a bear was chasing you and if you didn’t make it to a tree you’d die.  No one moves with that kind of intensity any more.

6.  Get Adequate Sleep

Getting enough sleep is a HUGE piece of the weight loss equation.

If you don’t sleep your body will start craving simple sugars, completely screwing up your eating plan.

No rest means you won’t recover from your workouts, instead of building a healthy body you’ll just be digging yourself into a hole.

No sleep means you won’t be able to bring any energy to your workouts.  It SUCKS trying to do fast bike sprints when you didn’t sleep the night before.  You go so slowly you wonder why you’re even doing them at all.

Some simple things you can do to sleep better are: no TV or computer an hour before bed (the light from the monitor interferes with sleep hormones), no booze or caffeine in the evening, get exercise during the day, get sunshine as early as possible, and eat lots of meat and veggies.

7.  Play

So many people drop the ball on this one.

No one ever goes out and has fun anymore.

I love going to the beach and tossing a football around with friends, wrestling with my cousins’ kids, climbing trees, shooting hoops with my dad, and just enjoying life and movement.

The biggest mistake I see people making with play is this:  They play to get in shape, they don’t get in shape to play.

Weekend Warriors go out and play flag football without building up their leg strength, shoulder health, and agility, and they get hurt.

Go out and play to have fun, as you get in better shape you’ll be able to totally dominate more intense games.

8.  Get Adequate Sunlight

Did you know getting more sunshine will reduce cholesterol levels?  It’s true!  Your body uses cholesterol as part of the vitamin D making process.  It’s one reason why your cholesterol levels test higher in the winter than in the summer.

Vitamin D prevents a lot of diseases and is essential for healthy teeth, bones, nails, eyesight, and the absorption of other vitamins and minerals.

Going out and getting burned is a Bad Idea.  20 or 30 minutes of sunshine a day (maybe during your walk!) will help you keep your vitamin D tank topped off.

(Oh yeah, smaller daily doses of sun have been shown to actually PREVENT skin cancer!).

9.  Avoid Stupid Mistakes

“Hey!  I’m going to make my New Year’s Resolution to run a marathon!  Tomorrow I’ll go out and see how far I can run!” <- Stupid Mistake

“Exercise sucks!  I’d rather be fat!”  <- Stupid Mistake

“But I don’t liiiiiiiiiiike vegetables!”  <- Stupid Mistake

“I worked out so I deserve this treat!”  <- Stupid Mistake

Back in paleo days, stupid mistakes could kill you fast.  “I’m going to poke that tiger with a stick!”  <- Stupid Mistake

Stupid mistakes can still kill you fast (“Screw the seatbelt!”), but most of the stupid mistakes we make are smaller ones:  Skipping breakfast, ditching workouts, going to bed without brushing your teeth.

As a guy who makes more stupid mistakes than anyone else (“Watch me jump off that roof!”), I can tell you that the fewer dumb mistakes you make, the better your life is going to be.

10.  Use Your Brain

Our Primal ancestors had to learn or die.  They had to observe what was going on around them and constantly solve problems.

Most of what we do now isn’t life or death, and we don’t have to track down our own meat anymore, but I’m always amazed at how people let themselves stagnate.

They never try anything new.  They never learn anything new.  I have no idea why.

It’s been shown that doing sudoku or word puzzles can help prevent dementia (I play games on Luminosity.com when my brain is feeling sluggish).

I figure that you can get even more bang for your mental buck by doing “body sudoku” – exercise puzzles that challenge your brain to learn something new while kicking your health and fat loss into overdrive.

An example would be the Spiral Squat – something totally out of the box for 99.9% of gym-goers, yet a great exercise and mental stimulant:

Just remember Rule Nine: Avoid Stupid Mistakes when you’re learning new exercises.  If you can’t get off the toilet without straining, don’t try a rock-bottom twisting squat, ok?

Conclusion

To put these Ten Primal Laws into your daily routine, here’s a painless method:  Pick one Law a week and get on it.  Or even one Law every 2 weeks.

Make each one a habit before you add the next.

Pretty soon you’ll be wearing your Skinny Genes :p

Talk soon,

~ Luke

Which needs to be stronger, your foot or your footwear?

Barefoot training is one of the biggest mindset shifts happening in the training world today.

We’re finding out that people are having a very hard time getting rid of foot pain.  What do people do when their foot hurts?  They stay off it and put on a tougher shoe, which further weakens their foot and deadens their proprioceptive abilities.

What’s really weird is that in places where people don’t wear shoes, they don’t have any of the foot and arch problems we have in America!

Go to a drug store in the US and there is a whole aisle dedicated to pads, supports, and orthotics to get rid of foot pain.  I posit that all of this support and padding is just making things worse!

In my volleyball athletes, much of our training is directed towards putting force through the feet and into the court.  (You don’t actually “jump.”  You shove against the Earth and according to Newton’s Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions, the Earth “shoves you back” just as hard and propels you into the air.)

The ability to put force into the ground and move your body through space is ultimately reliant on the strength and your control of your feet.

It’s a big problem that we never train our feet and that they just get weaker and worse as we get older.

If your hands are weak, it will limit your strength and skill in upper body exercises.  The same is true for your feet and training your legs.

Now, how does a weak foot link up with ankle braces and knee injuries?

Simple

In my exercise seminars, I teach people the “Stack of Joints” theory.

The stack of joints theory is that your body is a bunch of joints stacked on top of each other, and we look at it from the ground up.

Some of your joints need to be stable, and some need to be mobile.  They alternate with each other:

Ankle – Mobile

Knee – Stable

Hip – Mobile

Low Back – Stable

Upper Back – Mobile

Shoulder – Stable

If a joint is messed up, a good physical therapist will look at the joints above and below it.

As an example, if your low back hurts, it is probably because of a lack of mobility in your hips and upper back, and your low back has to take on their work loads.

That’s why if you have low back pain, we do a lot of HIP exercises.  By fixing the joints sandwiching your pained areas, we can fix the cause of the problem.

Now, a weak foot and a locked up ankle CAN’T be mobile.  I mean, if the ankle is in a SPLINT, it obviously can’t move.

This splinting of the ankle forces the knee the take on all the mobility that was meant for the ankle.

A study that was released last month looked at non-contact ACL tears in female athletes:

Koga H, Nakamae A, Shima Y, Iwasa J, Myklebust G, Engebretsen L, Bahr R, Krosshaug T. (2010). Mechanisms for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries: knee joint kinematics in 10 injury situations from female team handball and basketball. Am J Sports Med. 2010 Nov;38(11):2218-25. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

The researchers found that the mechanism for injury was rotation at the tibia:

(click picture to enlarge)

So instead of the ankle and hip taking on the rotation, the knee took it and “popped” the Anterior Cruciate Ligament.

This happens more often when the ankle is locked in a splint.  A weak foot and stiff ankle may sustain some injuries from a quick twist, but as a strength and conditioning coach, I’d much rather deal with a sprained ankle than a torn ACL.  If you’re confused why, here’s some simple math:

Sprained Ankle: Two weeks off, Can tape up and play if it’s a big game

Torn ACL: 6 months to two years off, might never be the same again, $50,00 surgery

The study I mentioned above also had these points:

- Non-contact knee injuries happen during cutting or one-leg landings

- At foot contact the knee pointed in (valgus)

- The tibia rotated internally then externally

Here are some ways to prevent non-contact knee injuries:

1.  Do all non-volleyball court training barefoot or in “barefoot shoes.” This lets your foot and ankle strengthen.

2.  Avoid splint-type ankle braces. Go with a softer lace up brace.  It might not protect the ankle as much as a splint, but a softer brace protects the knee much more.

3. Focus on prevention. Prepare physically for the demands of your sport.  A strength and conditioning program can take as little as an hour a week (in season).

4.  Train the around the joints as dictated by the mobility/stability continuum (stack of joints theory). Knees should be trained for stability, ankles and hips for mobility.

5.  Learn proper technique. Jumping is a skill, and it should be trained with as much detail as any other sports skill.

6.  Deceleration training. The knee injuries in the study above occurred during landing and cutting movements.  Training the ability to stop with perfect technique and strength would have prevented ACL injury.

7.  Nutrition nutrition nutrition. There are two keys to nutrition, the first is obvious:  Any extra weight in the form of fat will increase the force through the knee joint and will precipitate injury.  The second key is that a diet high in inflammatory foods such as grains, sugar, and dairy will diminish the integrity of your joints.

8.  Don’t try to substitute energy and enthusiasm for preparation and technique. An athlete throwing themselves around the court will break their body.  If you want to perform at a higher level, train at a higher level.

9.  Posterior Chain Training. The hamstrings, butt, and low back are all key areas that need to be strengthened in any athlete.  Sadly, these muscles are often totally neglected in training.  Simply firing up your butt muscles with the humble glute bridge during your warmup will help.

10.  Keep your eyes on your goal. It may feel weird and awkward and scary to exercise without ankle splints, especially if you’ve been wearing them for years.  Soon the discomfort will pass and you’ll be a stronger, better, healthier athlete.

Thank you so much for reading.  Let me know if you have any questions in the comment box below.

~ Luke Wold

Carson City Personal Trainer

Almost everyone who first comes into my gym has shoulder issues.

It may be from poor posture, injury, working on a computer all day, or poor exercise program design.

Whatever the reason for jacked-up shoulders, there’s only one thing to do… Fix them!

Most people think the reason for their shoulder pain is a weak rotator cuff.  They don’t realize that there are actually several muscles that make up the rotator cuff!  Take a look at this picture:

Notice anything interesting?  All of the rotator cuff muscles attach to the shoulder blade!

It doesn’t matter how strong your rotator cuff is if the muscles anchoring the shoulder blade are weak.  I like to use the anology of trying to throw a big rock while you’re standing on an icy parking lot: The stronger you can throw, the more likely you are to knock yourself down.

The same thing happens in the shoulder: Super strong rotator cuff muscles won’t prevent injury if they’re on an unstable surface.

Now take a look at the muscles that control the shoulder blade:

Shoulder pain happens when these muscles are stiff and weak; the shoulder blade dances around and causes all sorts of problems.

The circuit I’m about to show you is one of my very favorite ways to start fixing shoulder pain, and you can do it anywhere.  (Some of my athletes lie with their chest off their bed, some of my personal training clients lean over their desk)

This “miracle cure” is called the YTWLI.  Check out this 20 second video, the name YTWLI comes from how each position looks from above:

I’m going to break down each move for you, then give you a program you can follow at home to help get rid of shoulder pain by fixing the CAUSE of imbalances.

Shoulder Circuit Exercise: Y

Arms are about 90 degrees above shoulder level, with your thumbs pointing up to help with external rotation:

Shoulder Circuit Exercise: T

Your arms shoulder be just above 90 degrees from your torso, with your thumbs pointing to the ceiling.

The BIG KEY here is to squeeze your shoulder blades together – to “pinch a pencil” with your scapula.

If you have weak shoulder blade retractors, you’ll unconsciously pull your arms down toward your hips to substitute the big muscles of the lats for your weak retractors.  The angle should NEVER be less than 90 degrees from your torso.

Shoulder Circuit Exercise: W

Your upper arm should be at a 45 degree angle from your torso, with your elbows locked at 90 degrees.

Touch your elbows together in front of your chest, then pull your shoulder blades together to flare your arms.

Shoulder Circuit Exercise: L

This is a big time external rotation exercise.  When you sit or slouch, your shoulders pull inward.

With this exercise you reverse that movement.

Your upper arms should be straight out from your shoulders (90 degrees from torso) and you want to lock your elbows and rotate your arms until your wrists are by your ears.

A common mistake with this movement is to curl your hands in toward your body instead of keeping the elbows locked and rotating your upper arm.

Shoulder Circuit Exercise: I

Very simple: just push your hands out and up and pull your shoulder blades down towards your hips.

Bring your elbows all the way to your ribs and then press again.

I first learned this circuit while I was interning at a Physical Therapist’s office.  It’s very simple, and here’s the key to making it work: Focus on moving your shoulderblades in order to move your arms, not using your arms to move your shoulderblades.

The emphasis should be on scapulothoracic (shoulderblade) movement, not on glenohumeral (shoulder) movement.

This changes it from an ok shoulder exercise into a great shoulderblade stabilizing exercise.

Doing It

I like to use a Swiss Ball as my chest support, but a bench, incline bench, or any other support works as well.

If you’re SERIOUS about fixing your shoulders, you can do this every day.  If you’re just preventing shoulder issues, 3 times a week is enough.

What you’re going to do is 8 reps of each position with no weight and no rest in between movements.  This is a total of 40 reps per set.

Do two sets.

Add two reps each week until you reach sets of 20 reps each (100 rep set).

When all 100 reps can be done perfectly for 2 sets, go back to sets of 8 with very light (one or two pound) dumbbells.

That’s it!  It takes 2 minutes a day.

Lots of my personal training clients have found the shoulder pain they’ve lived with for years completely disappear in less than a month!

If you have shoulder pain, get on the YTWLI circuit!

A Carson City Gym Exercise post by Luke Wold

One of the hardest concepts to teach is what I call “tightness.”

After getting your body in the correct alignment, you create tension all through your structure to generate maximum force – whether with bodyweight exercises (pushups and squats) or insanely heavy powerlifting exercises (bench press and deadlift).

I’ve tried all sorts of ways to teach tightness; from smacking football players to teaching crazy martial arts breathing.

Nothing works quickly.

See, there’s something called The Principle Of Irradiation.  By tensing your right arm, you make your left arm stronger.  So by making yourself tight, you’ll be able to actually use all of your muscles and handle more exercise.

ENTER THE CRAZYBELL

I first learned of the Crazy Bell from the legendary strength coach Dave Tate.  The concept is simple: attach kettlebells to a barbell with bands.  The kettlebells jump and bounce all over as you lift, forcing you to stay tight or you lose control!  (Robert Downy Jr used crazybells to get in shape for Iron Man 2)

Pretty sweet!

My favorite way to use crazybells is on lower body exercises- the bouncing bells force you to keep your core very very tight:

To take it to the next level, you can add a valslide to the lunge:

Crazybells can also be used to add instability (forcing you to fire more muscles!) to ab and core exercises.

Here is the crazybell variation of the windshield wiper exercise used by the actors in the movie “300″:

(These looked so fun my cameragirl wanted to try them!):

If you have shoulder issues, the crazybell bench press is a great way to train stability:

And I have a love/hate relationship with D-Handle crazybell exercises.

On the one hand, they are great for stability and core strength, on the other… they’re freakin’ hard!

SET UP YOUR OWN CRAZYBELL

All you need for your own crazybell set-up are some kettlebells and some sturdy bands.

Loop the bands through the kettlebell handle, then loop them either over the barbell or through the D-handle.

Easy!

Note: Use much less weight than you can usually handle, crazybell exercises are tough!

Have fun and keep checking this blog for more crazy-effective new exercises!

Talk soon,

~ Luke Wold

Special Kettlebell Training Article By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

There seems to be a certain reservation among “regular” gym goers when it comes to trying Kettlebell Training.

I say this because when I train with my clients at the gym and have them do work with kettlebells, there always seems to be 3 or 4 wandering eyes peering over at what we are doing.

It’s pretty humorous because some will resort to stealth-like ninja techniques to perform the “wandering-eye-walk-by” whereby they pretend to be on their way to the water fountain and just casually stroll by 4 or 5 times to try and catch some instruction.

But honestly, 4 drinks in between your sets of ab/adductor machine?

Truth be told, Kettlebell Training is gaining momentum and it’s good to see that people are actually taking an interest in a simpler alternative to “traditional” weight training.

So with that being said, let me see if I can ease you into Kettlebell Training.

Here are 3 exercises you can start doing today, just by “subbing-in” a kettlebell for a dumbbell…

1. Substitute KB Military Press for any type of Overhead Pressing with a Dumbbell

Pick up a kettlebell and bring in it in close to your body ensuring that 1) your WRIST STAYS IN NEUTRAL (never flexing or extending) and 2) it is resting in the nook of your arm between your bicep and forearm (take a look at the picture of me above).

Brace your abs hard, pretending that someone is about to punch you in the stomach. Keeping your wrist straight, squeeze the handle of the KB as tight as you can and take a breath in, creating and even tenser brace in your abdomen.

Now press the kettlebell overhead moving your arm from a neutral GRIP (palm facing towards your midline) to a pronated GRIP (palm facing away) as you lock your elbow out over your head.

The important thing here is to LOCK OUT. I know in some body building circles they tell you to keep a slight bend in your elbow, even in the overhead position, to “keep tension on the muscle”. That’s not the case here. This isn’t body building.

You are going to LOCK OUT and make sure that 1) Your shoulder is depressed. That is, it’s not up by your ears, it’s down and back 2) Your bicep is almost touching your ear and 3) The kettlebell, while in the overhead lock-out position is in line if not BEHIND your head.

Slowly lower the KB back to the starting position following the same pronated to neutral curve you used when you pressed it over head.

[Edit from Luke Wold: This is a press PLUS a windmill]

2. Try a Modified Renegade Row in place of a standard 1-Arm Bent-Over Row

Unlike a standard DB Row, where you rest a knee on the bench, the Modified Renegade Row will force you to really use your abs to keep your low back stable.

Place a kettlebell on the floor on the left side and then place both hands on the edge of a bench (or chair). With your hands on the bench/chair, set yourself up so that you’re in a “push-up” position with your feet slightly wider that hip-width apart.

Reach down and grab the KB with your left hand. Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes and row the kettlebell into your body towards your hip. Remember when you row to squeeze your shoulder blades together prior to bending your elbow.

As you row, you’ll notice that your body will want to twist and rotate because of the uneven distribution of weight. You must prevent this from happening. By bracing your abs and squeezing your glutes, you will work your abs like they’ve never been worked before!

Slowly lower the weight, again not allowing yourself to rotate and repeat for the required reps.

3. Replace regular squats with a 1-Arm KB Front Squat

Just as the Military Press above, pick up a kettlebell and bring in it in close to your body ensuring that 1) your WRIST STAYS IN NEUTRAL (never flexing or extending) and 2) it is resting in the nook of your arm between your bicep and forearm (take a look at the picture of me above left in the header).

Brace your abs hard, pretending that someone is about to punch you in the stomach. Keeping your wrist straight, squeeze the handle of the KB as tight as you can and take a breath in, creating and even tenser brace in your abdomen.

Now, keeping the bell close, push your hips back and bend your knees. You’ll notice that as you descend, because of the uneven distribution of weight, your body will want to twist or even bend sideways. Just like the Modified Renegade Row above, you want to resist this and brace your abs hard.

Descend into the squat by pushing your knees out allowing your hips to go below parallel and keeping your spine straight.

Push your feet into the floor (keeping your heels on the ground the entire time) and drive your body up to the standing position.

So there are 3 exercises you can try out today, using only 1 KB, to help familiarize yourself with Kettlebell Training.

In addition to the benefit of only needing one piece of equipment for the above exercises, the uneven distribution of weight during KB Training allows you to use your abs like no other exercises can. They force you to stabilize your spine and to try to stay straight forcing your abs to work the way they were meant to be worked – as stabilizers of your torso and spine and not as “prime movers”.

And because of this, you’ll find that people who train with KBs tend to have bullet-proof abdominals, while eliminating low back pain and gaining usable strength that will help you in everyday life.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Kettlebell Workouts

An Exercise Boot Camp post by Luke Wold

Besides being ineffective, crunches are freaking BORING!

No long lead-in here, just 7 boot camp style exercises that will firm up your core and add a little ZAZZ to your training program

Boot Camp Core Exercise #1: Reverse Cable Wood Chop

Your torso muscles work in an X pattern.

Think about throwing a ball: your core flexes to pull your right shoulder down towards your left hip.

Most core exercises take advantage of this movement pattern.

But when you REVERSE that pattern, you’re working your muscles in a whole new way!

The foot set up for these is the same as for a standard cable chop, the difference is you set the pulley at the bottom pin and chop from low to high.

Boot Camp Core Exercise #2: Jackal Push Up

Your abs really engage when your hold an extended plank – something where your upper arm isn’t directly below your shoulder.

Jackal Pushups are the next-level of this idea.  Instead of just holding an extended plank, everything in your core tightens as you lift your body off the floor:

Boot Camp Core Exercise #3: Incline Rope Sit Up Eccentrics

Sure, these are a little more complicated to set up than just grabbing a mat and busting out a few crunches.  But they’re worth it.

It starts with an normal weighted sit up.  No problem.

Then you straighten your arms out overhead and lower yourself back slowly, keeping your body and arms in a straight line.  Brutal:

Tips:

• Think about keeping your arms by your ears – not in front or in back of your head
• Don’t push the rope handles together, keep them slightly apart
• Don’t let your shoulders “wing” back, press the handles constantly
• If you can see your hands or arms, you’ve let your body drift behind the rope, this makes it totally easy and you aren’t working your core much

Boot Camp Core Exercise #4: Cable Plank Pulls

Having one of your arms or legs moving while you hold a static core exercise is a phenomenal way to work your core.

I actually prefer to do these with a heavy elastic band instead of a cable, so the tension really tries to pull you over and you have to stay very tight.

As with all planking variations, don’t let your hips roll or you take the benefit away from your abs.

Boot Camp Core Exercise #5: Gorilla Ups

This is a standard grappling exercise I learned in my career as a wrestler.  (Seriously advanced athletes can do them with one arm!)

You have to keep everything tight and also flex your knees up while pulling with the arms.  There’s a lot going on here!

Boot Camp Core Exercise #6: Kettlebell Press To Windmill

As you press the weight overhead, your core stabilizers have to work overtime to keep you from pitching to the side.

The windmill portion of this exercise will totally smoke the muscles on the side of your torso.

Funny story: One of my clients did 4 sets of the windmill for the first time.  Next day she comes in holding her obliques (side abs) and said, “I HATE WINDMILLS!  I’m so sore!”

All I replied was, “Didn’t you tell me you wanted to work on your ‘love handles’?”

You could see the big cartoon light bulb go on over her head as she realized she’d NEVER worked her core like this.  She said, “You’re right!  I LOVE windmills!!”

Boot Camp Core Exercise #7: Kick Through Extended Side Planks

I’m taking all of the credit for inventing this one.  (I haven’t seen it anywhere else.  If you have, please keep quiet, I like feeling inventive )

The arm extended position makes side planks much harder.  Using only the top leg makes stabilizing harder and works your inner thigh like you wouldn’t believe.  Placing your feet on a raised surface makes the plank even tougher.

And kicking your leg means your body will be trying to sway and drop and you have to keep everything especially tight to keep from pitching over like this:

Forget boring, useless crunches.

Try one of these great core exercises in your next workout!

Talk soon,

~ Luke Wold

When I walked up into the weight room someone’s Dad was in there “working out.”

He gave me a sheepish look when I told him the upstairs of the gym is reserved for private clients.  But since he’d already started I said to go ahead and finish.

After a quick warm-up I hit this circuit 6 times: Kettlebell snatch x6 each arm, ValSlide Reverse Lunge x 10 each leg, and Weighted Chin Ups x 5, repeat with no rest.

Then a quick sip of water and my second circuit was 3 rounds of: ValSlide Double Reach-Out x 10, Handstand Push Up x 3, and Bodyweight Row x 12.

It took me about 25 minutes.

In that same 25 minutes this guy did 5 sets of Dumbbell Curls.  Seriously.

Unfortunately, spending more time in the gym than you need to is super-common, and I think that’s why people whine that they have no time to work out.

Now, today I’m going to drop 2 studies showing that not only will high-intensity circuits get you out of the weight room faster, they’ll also give you BETTER results.

(Of course, you could spend the same hour in the gym training with this style and get more done in those 60 minutes than the standard gym-goer does in 2 weeks of screwing around.  I think that’s freaking cool!)

This is the first study:

Kelleher et al. The Metabolic Costs of Reciprocal Supersets vs. Traditional Resistance Exercise in Young Recreationally Active Adults. JSCR 2010 Mar 17.

Kelleher et al examined the difference between traditional “straight set” resistance training to “reciprocal superset” training.

Here’s two quick definitions for you:

STRAIGHT SET: Standard resistance training protocol – One set of presses, rest.  Set of presses, rest.  Repeat until all sets are done.

RECIPROCAL SUPERSET: Pairing opposite movements – Set of presses, quick rest, set of rows, quick rest.  Not only do you actually get the same amount of rest between presses, you get twice as much work done in the same time.  And thanks to a principle called “reciprocal innervation” you will actually be able to handle more weight in the paired exercises.

The researchers above concluded: “Reciprocal supersets produced greater exercise kJ.min, blood lactate, and EPOC than did [traditional straight sets]. Incorporating this method of resistance exercise may benefit exercisers attempting to increase energy expenditure and have a fixed exercise volume with limited exercise time available.”

In plain speak: You will raise your metabolism and make greater changes in your body IN LESS TIME with reciprocal supersets than with straight sets.

INSIDE LUKE’S HEAD: How can I create reciprocal supersets in all of my workouts?

The second study:

Paoli et al. Effects of three distinct protocols of fitness training on body composition, strength and blood lactate. JSMPF. 2010 Mar;50(1):43-51

Paoli et al compared 3 different training methods: cardio-only, low-intensity circuit, and high-intensity circuit.

Out of the 3 groups, the high-intensity circuit group lost the most weight, lost the most fat, lost the most off their waist measurement, raised their metabolism the most, and gained the most strength.

Here’s an excerpt from their conclusion: “The results obtained favored the conclusion that high-intensity exercise combined with endurance training in the circuit training technique is more effective than endurance training alone or low intensity circuit training in improving body composition, blood lactate, moreover high intensity circuit training results in significantly greater strength increase compared to traditional circuit training”

So… high-intensity circuits kick ass compared to low-intensity circuits and totally blow traditional cardio out of the water.

INSIDE LUKE’S HEAD (con’t from above): How can I put reciprocal supersets into high-intensity circuits?

When the chips are all on the table and changing your body really counts, forget traditional weight training and endurance-style cardio – use high intensity resistance training circuits instead.

Putting It All Together

Resistance training includes bodyweight exercises.  Build your workouts around bodyweight and loaded exercises either paired or put into circuits, combine them with interval training, and clean up your diet and you’ll have a totally slamming body in wayyy less time.

I design all of the circuits for my personal training and bootcamp members – all you have to do is show up and push hard.  If you’re not in bootcamp (why not?) start tweaking your workouts with these two ideas and you’ll finally start to see some results from your time in the gym!

I love wrestling.

And I like judo, sambo, jiujitsu, and other grappling sports.

Today I want to share some of my favorite wrestling exercises using the freakin’ sweet ValSlide training tool.

Wrestling demands a full body strength and mobility that you don’t find in ball or net sports.  The positions are unnatural and the forces applied are extreme.

The ValSlide is made-to-order for wrestling training outside the mat room.  Below are exercises that will strengthen your neck, core, arms, and legs in grappling specific ways.  Check ‘em out:

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 1: Ball Spins

In wrestling your opponent can hunker down and block you on one side when you’re down on the mat – and to do anything you have to spin over the top to the other side before you have an opening.

The ValSlide Ball Spin helps you train the “body awareness” that you need for a fast spin.

Basically, you put a ball under your sternum and spin yourself in circles.  You can time how long it takes to get 10 rotations in one direction and try to beat your time.

You can hit a specified number of reps back and forth.  You can progress to using one arm or one leg at a time.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 2: Hamstring Curl To Reverse Bridge

Hamstring strength is VITAL in grappling!  And while in MMA fights you aren’t worrying about getting pinned, so the bridge isn’t as common a technique as it is in pure wrestling, you still need to strengthen your neck and work on the back bridge motion for throws.

If you’re in advanced condition, you can hit these without arm support, use one leg, or wear a weighted vest.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 3: Crippled Dog Push Up

This is a great way to train upper body strength and explosiveness.

The Crippled Dog looks way easier than it really is, I had a high school team give them a shot last week and several managed epic faceplants trying to reach too far too fast.

As a progression, I’ve used one leg in the air or else worn a weight vest, but I bet if you were a freaking maniac you could do these with one arm.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 4: Front Bridge Push

A weak neck will equal a wrestler who loses.  Strong neck = strong defense.

When I was a heavyweight wrestler in college, I used to ride all of my weight on my opponent’s head until their neck got tired, then I could have my way with them.

I actually used to train this movement on basketball courts while wearing a beanie, but the ValSlide makes it possible to do these anywhere.

TIP: Place the slider halfway between your forehead and the crown of your skull.  You’re less likely to flip yourself over.  Trust me.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 5: Forward Plank Walks

These are also called “Army Crawls” after the motion used to get under low barbed-wire fences.

Once these become too easy, push yourself backwards with the same arm motion.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 6: Lizard Crawl

Keeping low and driving with the legs is how you flip your opponent on the mat.

If you lift your hips as you drive forward, your center of gravity is too high and they can reverse your push – pinning you instead.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 7: Plank Walk Up

These help when getting up from referee’s position in wrestling, but even if you’re not a wrestler this exercise is one of my favorites for the arms and core.

You don’t have to have your feet on ValSlides for this, but ValSlides are the bacon of exercise: They make everything better.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 8: Tiger Push Up

These are a triceps KILLER!

Start off in a plank position with your feet on the ValSlides.  Now press down through your hands and straighten your arms.

You’ll feel a strong pull through your ab muscles and a delicious pump in the back of your arms.

When most athletes do a Tiger-style pushup, they push themselves back instead of up.  Putting your feet on ValSlides keeps you from pushing back, since you’ll just start skidding and won’t be able to do the exercise correctly.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 9: Bucket Push

Rather than having a specific sport carryover, these are a phenomenal conditioning tool.

Keep your butt as low as you can on these and DRIVE yourself forward.

Know why I call these bucket pushes?  You’ll be looking for a bucket after a few trips up and down the court

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 10: Push Back

I actually use these to teach the “hips back” part of a sprawl defense.

It’s very common to use a sprawl to defend against a take-down, but younger wrestlers seem to want to take the impact on their arms and chest instead of on the hips.  (I prefer going for the cross-face and twisting their neck instead of sprawling, but that’s because I’m mean)

This exercise gets them used to the backwards motion with their hips down.

It is also a good upper body conditioning exercise in it’s own right.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 11: Deficit Lunge

When you shoot a low single leg takedown, you’re DEEP on your front leg and you have to build enough drive and speed to get through your opponent’s defense:

The deficit lunge is a great way to train this movement in a progressive loading style, instead of just having your coach tell you to do it faster or better, you can now qualify your training on the motion.

And once you have the movement down, you can start loading (I’m holding dumbbells, but I also like kettlebells in the clean position or a sandbag to bear-hug)

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 12: Walk Walks

I like the wall walk without a valslide, but when you through in the lack of traction on the wall, this becomes an intense core and shoulder challenge.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 13: Kettlebell Alligator Walks

You can do the alligator walk with your hands in pushup position and no weights.

For a great core, grip, and shoulder stability challenge though – use the kettlebells:

Advanced athletes can add a row to the hip after each step.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 14: Accordion Side Planks

In a perfect world, everyone’s pike out from underneath their opponent would be smooth and beautiful.

Unfortunately, everything goes to hell in a handbasket when the ref starts your match and all of your pretty moves become uglier than this guy:

The accordion side plank allows you to train stability as you pull your feet in to your body while they’re trying to slide awsy from you everywhere.

Advanced trainees can do these with either a straight arm or a weighted vest.

ValSlide Grappling Exercise 15: Wall Runs

This is less a single exercise than a drill I use with grapplers.  It consists of a bucket push, valslide handstand pushup, and slide back pulls – all in a row.

In this vid I’m staying in close, but we often lengthen the distance for the bucket pushes and drive backs so everything gets taxed, not just the shoulders.

Word.

It would rock to have some comments below with your favorite ValSlide exercises, and what you use them for.

Thanks, talk soon.

~ Luke Wold

Most people think abdominal workouts require hundreds of sit-ups
and crunches. The truth, however, is that they are just a waste of
your time, and in some cases, may actually injure your low back.

If you really want 6-pack abs along with a sculpted body then the
most efficient and effective way of achieving it is through total
body exercises.

In this workout you will be performing nine total body exercises in
circuit fashion. Therefore, each exercise will be performed back
to back to back with no rest in between.

Start with kettlebell swings. These are 2-hand swings and you need
to power up with the hips. Drive them back and power them back up.

Move immediately into extended pushups. Move your arms out in front
of you as you lower yourself down and back up.

The next exercise is a stability ball pike. This is a more advanced
version of the stability ball jackknife. Place your feet on the
ball and your hands on the floor and pull the ball in as you push
your hips up until you are in a pike position. Try to get your hips
as high up as possible. If you are not very flexible, just do
jackknifes in place of them.

Move immediately into stability ball back extensions. Plant your
feet against a wall or something stable. Your chest is supported by
the ball. Place your hands behind your head and raise yourself up
and back down.

Next is a 1-arm kettlebell swing. Make sure you are driving back
with your hips and back up. If you are more advanced, you can do
snatches in place of the swings. Do all reps on one side and then
do all reps on the other side.

Next you will do high rep close grip pushups. Tuck your elbows into
your sides with your hands closer together as you move down and
back up. Do as many as you can.

Move immediately into stability ball leg curls. Place your feet on
the ball and bridge your hips up with your arms out to the side.
Curl the ball in while keeping your hips up the entire time. Do 20
reps.

The next exercise is a stability ball rollout. Place the ball in
front of you and start in an upright position, roll the ball out.
Get a nice long stretch as you roll out and contract your abs when
you pull it back in. If you have an ab wheel, you can use that in
place of a stability ball. This is going to be harder than using a
stability ball.

Finally, you’re going to finish off preferably with a sprint as the
last exercise. If you can’t do sprinting, you can sprint in place
or finish with burpees.

In most cases, although you aren’t directly targeting your
abdominals, you are still required to brace them which in turn
indirectly works your abdominals for a powerfully efficient
abdominal workout.

If you want maximum fat burning results, switch from crunches and
cardio to the belly fat burning Turbulence Training workouts:

=> Turbulence Training For Abs $1 Trial

One of the coolest dudes around is a guy named Martin Rooney.

He is a fitness and martial arts expert, and the chief operating officer of the Parisi Speed Schools.

I have ALL of his books and DVDs – they rock.

Martin Rooney

He recently posted two cool pull up exercise routine videos, and they were so awesome I had to give them a shot right away.  Check it out:

TRAINING FOR WARRIORS: 15 “THE HARD WAY

The routine is:

• Feet to ceiling
• Cannonball Pull Up
• Leg Raise
• Knee Raise
• Pullup
• Repeat 2 more times

Here’s me giving it a go:

It’s a fun circuit (even though I can’t talk at the end!)

TRAINING FOR WARRIORS: SKIN THE CAT

This series is:

• 3 pike pull ups
• Skin The Cat
• 2 Pike Pull Ups
• Skin The Cat
• 1 Pike Pull Up
• Skin The Cat

Here’s me again (I forgot to pike my legs, whoops!)

Listen closely and you can hear my shoulder pop into place…

The bottom line is, I’m always looking for new training ideas, techniques, and methods – and Martin Rooney is the best source around.

If you’re looking to build up your training library, start with Ultimate Warrior Workouts (Training for Warriors): Fitness Secrets of the Martial Arts, it’s an encyclopedia of exercises from around the world.  I guarantee you’ll head straight to the gym and hit it hard as soon as you take a look at this book!

And I recommend that ALL of the parents, athletes, and coaches I work with get and read Train To Win: 11 Principles of Athletic Success.

Get the books, give the challenges a try, and get into freakin’ awesome shape!

Talk soon,

~ Luke