• Ross Enamait put up a compilation video. Every time I think I'm in shape, watching Ross reminds me how much more I could accomplish. Ross's videos always get me psyched for my next workout.
• On the lighter side, Average Athlete vs Olympic Athlete. Funny, but also really puts it into perspective. Those guys obviously aren't olympians, but they look pretty fit.
• Even lighter, the Tour de Donut. Mmmm... Donuts...

I wasn't going to write anything up about this, as I didn't really think it was significant, but I read this series of blog entries from Ross Enamait:

• Bad Habits and Weight Loss
• Learning How To Eat
• Learning How To Eat - Part II
• Inspirational Display

... and taken together, along with this bit from the last one:

...transitioning to a healthy lifestyle may not be easy at first. If you've lived the last 20 years with poor nutritional habits and limited (or no) physical activity, you can't expect to suddenly transform yourself into the next Jack Lalanne. Self discipline will be needed to kick start the transition. Any change in habit requires a conscious (active) effort on your behalf.

Once you see the light, you'll realize that it's easy to keep, and certainly worth your time and effort. You won't see the light on your first day however. The transition from inactive and unhealthy to active and healthy is one that will take time and patience.

... got me thinking it might be worth posting a little something on my dietary struggles after all.

So, I eat too much sugar and white flour, both poisons. While I've made great strides over the past four years in both exercise and nutrition, I've never managed to kick the habit. HIGHLY addictive, those things. I've read all about alcoholism, and the behaviors I exhibit are the same (without the drunkenness and the social stigma). I've read all kinds of posts from evolutionary fitness folks that once you get yourself off the stuff, you'll stop wanting it, so I thought I'd put that theory to the test.

First, I tried a Thin Red Line approach. On a calendar, I'd draw a line through days I was good (no sugar, no deep fried stuff, no starch/minimal grains, and only whole grains at that), an X through days I was bad, and I'd try to make the line as long as I could. I thought just by tracking it that would be enough reinforcement. No way. The red Xs just piled up. I think I made it 11 days once, and when I'd fall of the wagon I'd stay off for days before climbing back on.

So I figured drastic measures were needed. Time to really give the whole "you'll stop wanting it" idea the best chance for success. I needed an interval where I'd be nothing but good. I thought six weeks would be enough. Short enough I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, long enough that my body would have time to adjust, and the cravings would lessen. I hoped.

So I did it, and it sucked, and through the whole thing I never stopped craving brownies, donuts, french fries, chips, ice cream etc. I thought I wanted it just as bad on on day 42 as I did on day 1 (it didn't help that I pulled my hamstring pretty good 12 days in and really wanted to say "screw it" and eat my way out of the resulting funk).

So I thought my experiment was a failure. I took three days, ate whatever I wanted, and then had a decision to make. Would I basically throw away six weeks of work by reverting to my old habits, or would I go once more into the breach? Well, I'm now two days into another six weeks. Sigh. I must confess I'm not dreading it quite as much as the first round. Here's what I've taken away so far:

1. Holy crap, kicking sugar is HARD. Even at my worst, I was fit, and ate pretty well otherwise. Even after six weeks of abstinence, I still crave it.
2. Jury is still out on whether it's possible to stop wanting it. Since my second six weeks fills me with a bit less dread than the first six, I'm going to take that as a sign.
3. Another sign: after the six weeks were up and I ate whatever I wanted for three days, I did not binge nearly as badly as I have in the past. It wasn't three days to be proud of, but it also wasn't embarrassing.
4. Man, I hope it's possible to stop wanting it altogether, because as Ross points out in one of his articles, any diet based on a feeling of deprivation is doomed to fail over the long term.
5. I suspect that your body chemistry has to change in a pretty deep and significant way before your desires change, and I don't know how long that takes. I wish I did! Pretty long time, it seems, so hang in there and give your body a chance if you embark on a similar effort. However long you think it will take, that's not long enough.

P.S. Some people have it easy, some have it extra hard. I'm betting I'm in the middle. The difficulty of the battle varies with the individual. UPDATE: I posted a bit of follow-up in the comments below.

P.P.S. A reader comment below. EIGHTEEN MONTHS?! Yikes.

• If you only read one, read this one: Mark Sisson on The Primal Blueprint.
• Ross Enamait on The Power of Patience.
• Art De Vany notes the potential benefits of High Intensity Exercise Before Sports.
• Straight to the Bar collects some interesting medicine ball workouts and videos.
• Frostillicus again assembles quality links and videos.
• Wohba finds a great contact juggling video (fans of Michael Moschen will dig this).

Two excellent, semi-related posts on building a training program of your very own:

• Get the Most out of Strength Training by Anders Eriksson. « via SttB »
• Ross Enamait on kettlebells.

Whatever you do, you have to really feel like you own it and want to do it if you are going to have a chance of success.

Ross Enamait, "Conventional Wisdom". Great post.

I was talking training with my friend Alec recently, and thought the conversation was worth sharing. He asked about tweaking the Tabata interval (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, 8 times in a row) for sprints because, if you TRULY run them all out, you'll be totally spent after two or three. Anyway, here's the ensuing conversation:

Jim writes:

It's hard to say. The Tabata study is actually pretty narrow, even if the results are compelling. Give this a read:

Tabata Intervals by Ross Enamait

That said, Ross doesn't treat the 20/10 ratio as sacrosanct. In reply to one of his forum threads:

My response is not specific to you, but your general statement has become a common trend in terms of the recent "Tabata" madness that hit the web a few years ago.

First, everyone came out with Tabata workouts. As time passed, it then became the in thing to criticize these Tabata variants, making statements such as "it isn't Tabata if it isn't ____."

Here is a news flash however there was ONE study performed with ONE piece of equipment. If you are not using the exact piece of equipment per the specifics of the initial experiment, it isn't Tabata.

But guess what, who cares? The initial Tabata study showed that short, intense workouts were effective. Take this simple lesson and apply it however you want. You don't need to follow a precise experiment.

The original Tabata protocol popularized a convenient timing system (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off). It is much more convenient to use 20/10, as opposed to 17.2 seconds on, followed by 8.4 seconds of rest. I'm sure the initial results would have been similar with a 17.2/8.4 second study, but you wouldn't have seen anyone using it.

20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest is a convenient way to track time when training. You can quickly glance over to a clock to keep track of time. When someone uses Tabata to describe these workouts, we will immediately know the work to rest ratios being used. Whether it is an exact copy of the initial study is irrelevant. Once again, who cares?

I personally use many "Tabata Hybrids" with 20/10 work to rest ratios. It may not be "true Tabata" but everyone quickly knows the work to rest ratios so I honestly don't care.

I've also seen Ross talk about 30/10 and 30/20, as long as it's intense. I remember reading that the original Tabata subjects were Olympic athletes (speedskaters, maybe), and they went at it hard enough (on exercise bikes) that they only made it through 6 or 7 and had to lie down afterwards. Safe to say, while I have on occasion gone at my Tabatas that hard, oftentimes I leave more in the tank than I should. It's hard to make myself that miserable.

So, sprints, and the general trickiness of Tabata "pacing." I think you really aren't supposed to pace yourself. It's all out, every time. But an all-out 20-second effort is INSANE. For example, I think I told you this, a couple years ago I paced off a 200 meter straightaway. Michael Johnson went that far in barely under 20 seconds, so I knew I had plenty of room. My timer went off, and I hauled like I was in a race. Humbling, how far away the 200m finish line was after 20 seconds. But I stopped, gasped, 10 seconds went by in an instant, and I sprinted back the other way. Came nowhere close to getting back to the start. After three I was all but dead, four was barely a jog, and I called it quits.

I've also done them where I go like 80-90% and make it through all 8, and feel like dying at the end. And I've tweaked the rest as you suggest so I can go all out and make it through a few more rounds. No idea what's best, but I bet it's all good. As long as it hurts. If you're only going to exercise for four minutes, it's gotta be painful.

Alec writes:

I had the same experience, back at Union, when you first broke the word on tabatas. Ran 20/10 on the track. 200s are a famously brutal distance, for normal people - even one. Like you, I can max it out pretty good in a 100, even 110. And you ride that for a bit. But then you still have 60 yards to go!

Trying to run two or, particularly, 3 more or less in a row, forget 4, without even fully catching your breath, is really impossible. I think in hindsight it probably turned me off on tabatas. I was pushing and feeling bad and feeling good, etc., on the 3rd one, but what I was doing had nothing to do with "sprinting," more of desperate lurching jog, and I just couldn't believe it was making me any better at the 20-yard sprints for goals.

Jim writes:

I've lately been thinking I'd like to incorporate running that better models what you do in a game. Maybe set up four cones in a square, 20 yards each side. Figure the running portion of a point lasts for what, three minutes? So set the timer for three minutes, and alternate running and jogging the sides randomly. So sprint a side, jog a side, sprint two sides taking the corner hard, reverse, jog two sides, sprint a side, etc. Keep moving for the whole three minutes, rest, repeat as much as you see fit. You can vary your rest, 60-90 seconds to simulate staying in the game and playing another point, 2-5 minutes to simulate taking a point off. You could also put a cone in the middle to do "inner corner" cuts rather than the "outer corner" cuts you get when you stay on the perimeter.

Alec writes:

I like this idea. I actually think its best contribution is that it would strengthen the groin muscles, which straight-ahead sprints don't do.

One change, though. If you watch our final at Nationals, you'll see that at least at the Masters level, even great players in big games routinely WALK for some portion of most points. So if you're going for verisimilitude, might want to incorporate a walked-length?

Jim writes:

Good point. I think it might depend on your goals for the session. If you want to emphasize speed and intensity, you might walk a bit more so you can go harder when you go. If you want to emphasize endurance, you'd eliminate the walking. Perhaps you could even vary between rounds. Like if you did five 3-minute rounds, you could jog/sprint in 1/3/5, and walk/sprint in 2/4.

I also think verisimilitude should only be taken so far. Ideally, the workout should be harder than a real point, so a real point feels like cake.

The other thing I want to get back to on days when I feel like working speed is that NFL combine 3-cone drill. I think I sent you this last year, but it's probably worth revisiting:

More on Turning, NFL Combine, The 40, 3-Cone Drill

For us, I'm thinking the bread-and-butter attributes are, in order:

1. Acceleration, deceleration, change of direction
2. 20-30 yard dash (heavily depends on acceleration)

The box I describe above and the 3-cone drill cover these nicely. Not to mention playing. Not to the exclusion of distances like the 200, of course. Lots of physiological benefits of that distance. Somewhat related, I liked this post:

Connections by Vern Gambetta

In particular:

It is IMPOSSIBLE to isolate one energy system or for that matter one system of the body whether it is neural, cardio vascular, muscular, or endocrine hormonal. Recognize that there is always a spillover effect, for example 3 x 150 meter sprints at 95% with full recovery will maximally tax all systems of the body. You will be working at greater than VO2 max during a portion of that sprint. Understanding this has great implications, as a coach it took me too long to figure this out.

Three goodies today:

• Crossfit Seattle's athletic skill levels. In particular, this PDF.
• Coach Sommer, author of the popular articles Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning and Developing the Hanging Leg Lift has been working on a book for a very long time. It looks like it might finally be on the verge of coming out. He has a new website, Gymnastic Bodies, which claims the book is ready to order (although that doesn't seem to be the case quite yet)
• Ross Enamait links up a slick Excel Deck of Cards workout generator. Just hit F9 to get a fresh workout generated from a variety of exercises. Customizable.

I've been meaning to write a review Ross Enamait's Full Throttle Conditioning DVD and manual for quite awhile. I really liked it, and I'm long overdue in writing it up. This time though, laziness has it's rewards, as Scott Helsley went ahead and wrote the review I would have written. I could try and rehash those sentiments in my own words, but why?

I also liked this note from one of the comments:

I also agree with you on Full Throttle Conditioning. It's a great product, and at $25 for both a DVD and a manual, a steal. I will say that it would probably be best to have either Infinite Intensity or Never Gymless (or both) along with FTC to get a fuller scope of what can be done. Hell, you can get all 3 for $85, which feels like grand larceny considering the amount of info Ross provides.

I think this is a good point. If you don't have any of Ross's products, getting either Infinite Intensity (dumbbell oriented) or Never Gymless (bodyweight oriented) plus Full Throttle Conditioning would make for a very nice package.

Ross Enamait just posted an article and video, "The Homemade Wheel." Definitely an inexpensive piece of equipment worth making, as it's good for a variety of truly killer exercises. And as always, Ross's video is very impressive. Check it out.

Ross Enamait just posted a Nike commercial that vaulted into my top five. Don't ask me what the other four are, because then I'd have to start YouTubing them and my workday would be shot.

I was reading this great rant by Ross Enamait, Examining The Google-Bot Trainer, and noticed in it he mentioned St. Wilhelm's Nondenominational Church of S&P and their Ten Commandments. Excellent, had to check out the rest of their site:

Though we call ourselves a church, we have no religious affiliations. Strength and Power is our religion. We do not have a physical building. There are no meetings or agendas. Membership is merely an honor bestowed upon you through good faith. Our hope is that the church will grow large enough that each member, at some point in their life, will pass a complete stranger on the street wearing a Saint Wilhelm's t-shirt and they will instantly know that this person has done something great, whether it be in competition or by simply achieving a hard-earned personal goal.

If you think yourself worthy to join, you must promise that once you receive your member's t-shirt, you will make a video of yourself doing something great while wearing the shirt. You may record yourself doing a gym lift, beating someone up (in organized competition, of course), crushing objects, or performing any number of strength feats.

The church recognizes Ross as a saint. :-)

I've endorsed Ross Enamait's books many times on this weblog. Top-notch material, so of course I'm very excited his first DVD (with booklet) is now out: Full Throttle Conditioning. The training videos he has posted online are always impressive, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done here. I'm ordering mine today.

Just clearing a bit of a link backlog:

• Ross Enamait on genetics VS hard work.
• Michael Pollan op-ed: Weed It and Reap.
• Art De Vany: impressive results from a 54-year-old convert.
• The Performance Menu has a bunch of articles online. Check the month links down the left sidebar.

Like seven pages into a deadlift thread, this guy Dr. Boots loses his mind and doubts Ross Enamait (trainer whose books I have praised many times on this site) can perform some physical task. In this case the task is a 400 lb. deadlift, and he says he'd pay $100 for video proof. Ross responds, "you just lost $100." It's fun reading the thread from that point, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the proof and then some. Incidentally, Ross declines the money after pulling it off ("You can keep your money however. I don't want it. Donate it to charity or buy some equipment for a gym that could use it.").

The subject says it all: Jump Rope Training - Part II by Ross Enamait. I don't know if I could turn the rope that fast even if I didn't have to worry about also jumping over it.

Suddenly juggling is popping up the fitness weblogs I frequent. First I noticed Ross Enamait posted a piece, Juggle Your Way To Improved Performance, and then Straight to the Bar posted a link to the YouTube of juggling sites, JuggleTube. They have a terrific old video of Francis Brunn on the Jack Benny show. I then searched for a Kris Kremo performance I'd seen before, but they didn't have it. Good ol' YouTube to the rescue!

I came up with a workout, heavily inspired by Ross Enamait's Work Capacity 101 (but easier), that takes advantage of all the equipment new equipment I've mentioned recently (my hanging pullup bar, my new jump rope and tire (the latter for sledgehammer training), and my horse stall mat as a nice burpee surface):

• 5 pullups
• 10 burpees
• 20 sledgehammer swings (10/arm)
• 40 high-knees, sprinting rope skips (if you miss, do them over until you get 40 in a row)
• Rest 1 minute
• Repeat 10 times

Well, my plan was 10 circuits, but the kids came home after the fifth. I say that like I blame them for cutting my workout short, but in reality I was grateful for the excuse. My forearms in particular were on fire, and I thought I was going to fling myself from the bar as I kipped at the bottom of the pullups, and my grip on the sledgehammer was so tenuous by the end that I feared for our car's safety (I workout in the garage). I would hate to have to explain a sledgehammer-sized dent in the door.

If that's too easy for you, you could switch up the sledge and the burpees like so:

• 5 pullups
• 10 sledgehammer swings per arm
• 20 burpees
• 40 high-knees, sprinting rope skips (if you miss, do them over until you get 40 in a row)
• Rest 1 minute
• Repeat 10 times

Better you than me. :-)

Ross Enamait's latest article and video, Budget Training, is up. Every time I turn around that guy gets stronger. The weights I use for strength, he uses for conditioning. How depressing. And inspiring.

Ross Enamait just posted a good article and video on sledgehammer training. I'd do that in my garage this winter, but it would just be a matter of time before I knocked the garage door opener off the ceiling.

Reader llimllib asks:

With the series coming up in a month or so, how are you going to work out to try and peak at the right time?

A teammate has borrowed my Ross Enamait books, so I can't really give as detailed an answer as I'd like (at least not terminology-wise), but it boils down to this: there are several models of periodization (how you time and vary workouts to improve over time), and the one I follow doesn't really emphasize peaking.

What I don't do is follow the periodization model where you spend a certain number of weeks emphasizing strength, then more weeks emphasizing speed, then more where you start putting it together, etc. in the hopes that it will all be in optimal for your event of choice. Don't get me wrong, this can can be a successful model, it just doesn't have much appeal for me. I like to be able to feel like I can play tourneys throughout the season without shortchanging them because I haven't peaked yet.

In his books, Ross favors a model geared towards fighters. There's no well-defined season, fights may occur year round, and schedule changes/opportunties mean you may have to fight on relatively short notice. I'm no fighter, but I like this model for myself as well. I like doing lots of varied routines, working on many different fitness qualities throughout the week. In a given week I try to fit in the following:

• 1-2 sessions Tabatas, with at least one being sprints (emphasis on max. fatigue).
• 1 session hill sprints and/or acceleration work (emphasis on max. effort/power, not fatigue).
• 1 session GPP (fairly grueling bodyweight circuits).
• 2 sessions pick-up Ultimate.
• 1 session max. strength.
• 1 session explosive strength.
• 2-3 core workouts interspersed with the other stuff throughout the week.
• 1-2 rest days/week.

It's pretty easy to fit all that in during the off-season, but adding in the 2 days of pickup makes it hard. At this point in the season, if anything falls off my plate it's the strength work, but I try not to let it.

Anyway, by mixing up the stuff I work on throughout the week, I don't overtrain any one given quality, so I can keep progressing (the rest day(s) are essential, however).

I'll do this pretty hard for three or four weeks, then take a back-off week, where I might just do bodyweight exercise, jump rope for the Tabatas, etc. I stay active, but I don't kill myself like I do in the hard weeks. The back-off week allows supercompentation to kick in, where your body adjusts to the strains of the preceding weeks, and allows you to start again the next week from an incrementally higher level. I think I've got the gist of the theory here, but again, no books to refer to at the moment.

And that's pretty much it. I repeat that cycle year round, varying what I Tabata, what strength exercises I do, etc. to keep it fresh. This has allowed me (I hope/think) to improve my strength and conditioning evenly and steadily. Again, this worked better in the off-season, as pickup kinda messes things up, but I still think I've gotten stronger as the season has progressed.

As for the implications as the fall series approaches, I'm basically going to keep doing what I'm doing, but will time it such that my back-off week is the week before Regionals. I'll probably skip pickup that Thursday, but will otherwise break a sweat a few times that week to stay active and fresh.

I gotta say though, I pretty much adopted this model as one I wanted for life, not for Ultimate. It seems to fit well and work for me, but a more traditional periodization model (build over months and peak for Nationals) might be superior.

Anyway, hope that answers your question!

Couple things:

• Poking around in this Crossfit thread, I clicked through on one of Greg Everett's links and noticed how nice the Evolution Athletics and Performance Menu sites are. At Evolution Athletics, check out the resources, particularly the videos (oops, quick sample suggests quite a few have "video coming soon" notes, but there are some good ones there). Also, don't miss this, The Performance Menu has a free issue offer, and you get to choose which one you want. Tough choice!
• One of the nutrition sections of Ross Enamait's Never Gymless is all about milk. In particular, pasturized and homogenized vs. raw. His latest blog post, Milk, addresses the topic again, and includes lots of good resources for making your own decisions.

• I had no idea watermelon was so good for you! I just assumed it was mostly sugar and water. Hip-hip-hooray for good sources of Vitamin A.
• A RossTraining thread: when the going gets tough... "I just cut off my mind." He makes it sound so easy!
• A 2001 Malcolm Gladwell piece: Drugstore Athlete.

Ross Enamait has a new article and video up titled Hardcore Training: An Experiment In Mass-building and Athletic Performance. Interesting and impressive, as always, even if I'm not personally looking for mass gain at this time. I gotta say though, for all the amazing feats of strength on display, the thing that impressed me the most was the rope skipping. I wouldn't have imagined it possible to do those arm-crosses that fast.

Oh, if you're looking for workout gear, the image at the end of the video is from a new T-shirt he's selling . Any money sent to Ross is money well-spent.

Ross's workout, The Magic 50, has become my de facto benchmark workout. I feel like I've been going a bit light on the running lately (partly because of the damn achilles, which are still bad from Easterns), so tried a variation yesterday. I substituted a 50m sprint for the DB swings, so it looks like this:

• 5 DB snatches per arm
• 50m sprint
• 10 burpees
• Rest 1 minute max.
• Repeat 5 times (for a total of 50 snatches, 5 50m sprints, and 50 burpeees)

Challenged myself with the DB weight (60 lbs.), sprinted all-out, and did the burpess as fast as I could (no hitches or breaks in the movement, one flows into the next).

Thought I was going. To. Die.

Enjoy!

I always seem to find ways to not do Work Capacity 101. Frankly, it scares me. I mean, who isn't scared by this:

• 5 pull-ups.
• 10 med. ball slams (non-bouncing ball, hard and fast, like a zombie is trying to get up from the ground and eat you, and you are trying to pummel it back into the earth).
• 15 burpees (not squat thrusts - incorporate a push-up and leap).
• 20 jumping jacks.
• Repeat 10 (10!) times at the top of every two minutes (that means, if you go as fast as Ross does in his video, the most rest you can hope for is about 45 seconds, and personally, I'm not nearly as fast as Ross).

I think the first time I tried it was around six months ago, I cut almost everything in half, and I still only managed five or six circuits. I might have tried it one other time since then, and wussed out similarly. I've made progress at The Magic 50 because I keep trying it, but little on WC-101 because I avoid it.

So today was the day, and I was determined not to shirk. Here are the rules I laid down for myself:

• Perform all the reps as prescribed, as fast as possible.
• One minute rest between rounds.
• As many circuits as possible before exhaustion.

So how many circuits did I last?

Four.

I suppose that number is meaningless without also including a total elapsed time, but I forgot to set the clock. Next time.

The big problem for me is the burpees. The way the workout is structured, you arrive at those slightly winded and with your triceps pre-fatigued. I'm also not used to doing 15 at a stretch. I usually do 10 at a time, and even when I'm doing as many as I can in a 30-second block, it's never much more than 10. Those extra five make a big difference.

I definitely have to plug away at this workout some more. It induces levels of discomfort I never experience on the field (and then only if we're committing way too many turnovers).

Anyway, read Ross's article, watch the associated video, and give it a try! I'd be curious to hear if it's as painful for you as it is for me.

Ross Enamait (my fitness author/trainer of choice) has a new site up: RossTraining.com. Check it out! The site sports a nice design and cleaner organization. All his excellent, free articles, videos, and workouts are now collected in one place, a few of which even I had missed (thought I'd found all his stuff previously). I'm particularly interested to see how he makes use of his new weblog, as he already pumps out lots of information via his newsletter and forums. With the new site up, he says new content will be forthcoming. Can't wait!

My fourth pass at my de facto benchmark workout, The Magic 50 (background: first, second and third runs). I used a 50# DB for the swings and snatches last time, but today I cut it to 40#, as it has been a long time, and I was feeling fragile after yesterday. I resolved to go quicker this time to make up for the lighter weight. Man, every move was a chore. But I'm not too disappointed with my time: 14:31. Heaps better than my second attempt from around the beginning of the year, which clocked in at over 26 minutes!

Here's the short version: if you are any kind of athlete (except pure endurance athlete, like a marathoner), you need (need!) to buy one of Ross Enamait's books. Go with Infinite Intensity if you want to work weights into the mix, or his new one, Never Gymless if you want to go (mostly) equipment-free. Absorb what he teaches, put in the work (and boy, do I mean work), and you'll reap tremendous benefits in strength, power, speed, and endurance. Now, the long version...

Never Gymless is the third book I've bought from Ross. I previously reviewed The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness and Infinite Intensity. It's going to be difficult to bring anything new to the discussion, as Never Gymless is essentially a combination of those two books, bringing the emphasis on bodyweight exercises from TUGTWF (which has been discontinued, as Never Gymless supercedes it) and program creation from Infinite Intensity.

The book is fantastic. You can't go wrong with either it, or Infinite Intensity. The primary difference is in the training methods presented: Infinite Intensity includes bodyweight exercises, but also lots of dumbell exercises. There are no dumbells in Never Gymless. It's all bodyweight exercises, but there's no doubt from reading the book (and watching Ross's videos) that you can get very strong with bodyweight exercise alone (Ross does include additional material on intensifying certain exercises with resistance bands). The book goes way beyond being a mere catalog of exercises though. Perhaps I can give you a good sense of it by going through the table of contents with some thoughts and a few short excerpts (page numbers in parens):

• Introduction (3)

  "I am constantly trying new things in a never-ending quest to improve my abilities and the abilities of those individuals I train. Rather than revising The Underground Guide for a fourth time, I wanted to start from scratch. I felt the need to create a true one-stop resource for training methods that require little or no equipment."

• The Duel (bodyweight training vs. weight lifting) (5)

  "Whether you use bodyweight exercise, weights, or sandbags, each modality is simply a means to an end. The end is the development of a complete athlete. There have been world champion fighters who swore by bodyweight exercise, while others thrived in the weight room. What does this tell us? The obvious answer is that several roads can lead towards the developmentt of an elite athlete. With a regular dose of hard work and a properly designed program, you can use almost any modality to enhance your physical perparation. This book will outline a bodyweight driven path."

• Training Principles (15)

  No quote here: just the section headings: Variety; Long Term Development; Purpose Driven Training; and Training for Specific Qualities. Great chapter, loved learning about intensity and recovery, training multiple strength qualities like maximal strength vs. explosive strength vs. strength endurance, etc. All the pieces, with conditioning, that need to be assembled into a plan.

• Pulling Strength & Power (32)

  26 pages on pulling exercises: pull-ups, muscle-ups, one-arm varieties, progressions for beginners to advanced athletes. You wouldn't think there'd be that much to say on this subject, but it's all good, no filler.

• Pushing Strength & Power (58)

  See above, but for pushing exercises. So many interesting varieties, and again, the progressions are great. Probably one of the best things about the book. Lots of creative uses of cinderblocks and tow straps as well.

• Lower Body Strength & Power (90)

  See above again, but for the lower body.

• Isometrics (110)

  These really seem worth including in any fitness plan, especially when you consider the short time commitment to produce what sound like excellent returns: "Another study examined the effect of weight training and explosive isometrics (together) on martial arts kicks and palm strikes. The experimental group working with weights and explosive isometrics realized significant increases in both peak force and speed. This study confirmed that speed can be enhanced by supplementing your martial arts training with strength work and explosive isometrics (Olsen, P.D & Hopkins, W.G, 1999). Fortunately, after reading this text, you can use bodyweight exercise in place of weight training. Therefore, you can produce noticable improvements in kicking and punching speed without equipment."

• A Powerful Core (127)

  One of the things I loved about Infinite Intensity was what it did for my core strength. More good stuff here in Never Gymless. "Exercises such as the crunch and sit-up do in fact offer some benefits, but clearly not enough. These exercises fail to address many of the movement patterns assoiated with the core. Primary movements of the core include extension, flexion, lateral flexion, rotation, and stabilization." Creative equipment hacks here, including powerful-looking resistance band movements, and some killer homemade double-wheel exercises.

• Conditioning is King (157)

  As usual, thankfully, Ross's conditioning workouts are again from hell (in a good way), emphasizing high speed, high intensity, and high fatigue. Love the "enhanced interval training" and "integrated circuit training" descriptions.

• Nutrition (173)

  The nutrition chapter is fascinating, and marks the biggest departure from The Underground Guide. That book talked a great deal about supplementation, while this book focuses on eating natural and healthy. Quite a few well-deserved slams against the food industry to go with tons of common-sense advice. One gets the impression this chapter could have been expanded into it's own book. I'm definitely going to have to check out some of Ross's sources for further reading.

• Program Design (194)

  Ah, like in Infinite Intensity, program design is the heart of this book. The individual pieces are great, but it's how to put them together into a program that will take you to higher levels of athleticism that Ross really wants to teach.

  "My training philosophy is one that integrates several methods, all with the goal of creating an athlete who is always ready for whatever life or competition may throw at him. Unfortunately, many training plans fail to comply with this simple concept. Rather than training for multifaceted development, individual attributes are developed separately. For example, an athlete may develop maximal strength for several weeks. He then shifts his emphasis towards explosive strength. After serveral weeks of explosive strength training, he shifts gears yet again, this time towards strength endurance. While working on this attribute, the improvements in maximal strength, which were developed several weeks earlier, are all but lost. Explosive strength also fades as the athlete dedicates all of his time towards strength endurance. As one attribute improves, previously developed attributes gradually decline."

  I've never liked the "peaking for one event" model of periodization I'd come to associate with the term, and love Ross's "always ready" approach to periodization. For me, this alone made Infinite Intensity worth the price of admission, and I'm happy to see the ideas reiterated here. Like Infinite Intensity, this book includes a sample 50-day plan, but Ross emphasizes again and again that you must tailor the plan to your needs. I think the sample plan in Never Gymless forces you to put a bit more thought into this as an individual, and that's a good thing.

• Frequently Asked Questions (224)

  Rather than discuss this, check out Ross's online FAQ (which includes how to pronounce his name :-). It's not the same FAQ as in the book.

• Works Cited (230)

  An excellent reading list.

• Exercise List (232)

  I count 136 different exercises listed here.

Well, another Enamait product, another rave. Sorry for being a broken record, but I simply feel the man puts out the best fitness books on the market.

P.S. I realized I've been presenting buying Infinite Intensity or Never Gymless as an either/or proposition. Personally, I'm happy to have both, as I plan on liberally borrowing from each when I design my next 50-day plan.

Ross Enamait's new book, Never Gymless is now available to order! Just put my order in. Review to follow...

Just updated my bits on Ross Enamait's triple-clap pushups (he has expanded his post into a full article) and the Turkish Get-up (via the Crossfit forums comes this excellent demonstration from the Art of Strength folks (WMV, 7MB)). Definitely going to start doing my TGUs like that.

I took last week off, and pretty much spent the previous two weeks experimenting with different workouts and exercises. I realized I'm kinda idling while I wait for Ross Enamait's Never Gymless to come out next week (next week! I can't wait!). So today I thought I'd give The Magic 50 another shot. It is the very first workout of Enamait's sample program in Infinite Intensity. I didn't finish my first attempt at it, even using the relatively paltry weight of 30-pound DBs. By week five I had increased the weight, and managed to finish, even if I was quite unhappy with my time of 26:25.

But I'm happier with my latest attempt, completed a few minutes ago: 50# DBs for both the snatches and the swings, and a total elapsed time of 19:45 (might have managed 60# for the snatches, but am still nursing a shoulder injury). At this rate I should be able to get under 15:00 in another 5-7 weeks. I could almost convince myself of that if I wasn't on the brink of hurling all over my keyboard.

Ross Enamait discusses and demonstrates triple-clap push-ups. Always informative, always inspirational.

(Video links in the article.)

Ross Enamait just posted the 13th edition of The Warrior Wire. Summary:

• Link to his new training video. Did I mention the grip-switching pull-ups last time I linked to it?
• Equipment notes on homemade rollout wheels, exercise mats (I've used that Home Depot anti-fatigue mat, it's good stuff), and rope suppliers.
• The "No Excuses" workout (looks like 10 minutes of hell).
• A pointer to the book of the same title by Kyle Maynard, illustrating that there really are no excuses (along those lines I'd also recommend the documentary Murderball).

Enjoy!

Given my high opinion of his other books, it should come as no surprise that I was thrilled to note Ross Enamait has a new book coming out in the next couple months! From his forums:

As for products, I've got a new book that I've been working on since the summer. I'm still testing the workout program(s).

The book is called NEVER GYMLESS. It's a bodyweight based program (with some additional tools mixed in such as resistance bands). Basically, a way to train at home without free weights. I'll post more details soon.

I'm also hoping to make a DVD later in 2006.

Sign me up for both, without a doubt.

He also has a new video clip up, The Home Gym (WMV ~6.1MB). I love these videos of his for illustrating so plainly the gap between what I can currently do, and what is possible. Some examples...

After 12 weeks I'm finishing the 10-week Infinite Intensity sample program this week (I repeated two weeks I wasn't happy with), and having just done the "Fast & Furious" workout today (which includes plyo pushups) I know exactly how impressive those clapping push-ups are. It's all I can do to clap in front of my face, and I feel like I manage that more with hand speed than the explosiveness of my push-up. And the the one-arm rollout? Criminy. I still have around a foot to go, maybe more, before I master the two-arm rollout.

Still, rather than be discouraged by how much more is possible, I'm inspired by it. I'm also very happy with the results of my first 10 12 weeks. I've increased by at least a third the amount of weight I can put over my head in various ways (single dumbbell snatches, push presses, push jerks, etc.), I've added probably a foot to my standing wheel rollout, and a good 15% to the ROM on my flag. Various nagging knee woes seem to be improving with all the squatting rather than worsening, although that varies by the day, and it did take some tweaking to find the right form for me. I'm even making progress on the one-legged squat, as I've lowered the blocks I sit-to/get-up-from as I build up the movement. When I do Tabata burpees, I can hit my max for 20 seconds for more than the first set, and by the last set my form and rhythm haven't completely gone to pot (even if I'm well off my max by then).

And, happily, the ankle sprain that only let me enjoy two-thirds of my first Nationals is finally starting to feel healed! Not completely, there's still the slightest bit of swelling, but the post-workout tendonitisy feelings are almost gone, and running/playing feels like it's on the horizon. Oh, how I long for spring...

A reader recently asked how I modified the sample program in Infinite Intensity for Ultimate. My reply is here, and hopefully of interest to non-Ultimate players as well, as most of my modifications are not Ultimate-specific.

As I've mentioned before, the very first workout of the Infinite Intensity program is The Magic 50. For me, five weeks ago, it was a rude awakening, as I only managed a Not-So-Magic 30. The workout shows up again in the program at the beginning of week five, so I resolved to post my results regardless of how damning they were. Sigh. Cringe.

50-pound DB for the snatches, 40-pound DB for the swings. 26:25. Twenty-friggin-six minutes and twenty-five seconds.

On the one hand, that score totally sucks. By the third circuit I was catching rest as I transitioned from one movement to another, and my fifth circuit was an interminable score-killer, as I had to wait out waves of nausea before proceeding. On the other hand, five weeks in and I did the whole thing rather than three-fifths of it, and with heavier (probably too heavy) weights to boot. And while I cheated between movements, I did each set with good rhythm and cadence (e.g. I didn't catch rest mid-burpee-set).

So give it a try, post how you do.

(Here are burpee instructions and tips, if you need 'em.)

When I started the 10-week sample program from Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity I was worried it would be too hard for me, and that I'd have to scale it back to the point of meaninglessness. But I just finished week five, so I'm halfway there! I've definitely had to do some scaling back, but not as much as I would have thought, and I feel like I'm in the shape of my life. In celebration of the halfway milestone, let me share with you a (modified for Ultimate) version of the last workout of the first half:

Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Rest 60 seconds
Repeat 4-6 times.

After five weeks of the program, I have a love/hate relationship with burpees. They are great, but I suck at them and they kill me. Make sure you're doing the right kind of burpee (here's a demo clip). Let me emphasize a couple points:

• Drop down into a full squat while putting your hands to the floor before you kick out.
• Kick out and drop into the pushup simultaneously.
• "Kick in" at the same time as you are pressing out of the pushup (even after five weeks, I still suck at this part).
• From the squat, leap as high as you can and then drop into the next squat, all in one fluid motion.

I think the above tips are all key to both good form and speed. Also, as you progress in the workout above and you start to die, try to focus on the fluid progression of each movement to the next. It will be very tempting to kick out first, then do a pushup (while catching a bit of rest in the upright pushup position), or to land the jump without flowing into the next squat (again catching rest, or at least a breath). There are a million ways to cheat. Resist the urge. Focussing on form and fluidity will help you get the most from the workout.

In each 30-second block, if you can do 10 burpees that's very good. 12 is excellent. 15 is ungodly. I think I do 8, maybe 9, in the first 30-second block, and then never quite get that high again (I'd like to blame my height for those crappy numbers, but I probably lose a second per burpee from my subpar "kick in"). And in the third round I cheated all over the place (I hate myself), catching rest and only managing 4-5 per 30-second block. The last round was better.

(Yes, when given a choice of 4-6 rounds, I chose four. Sigh.)

It seems like you should be able to catch good rest pivoting and faking, but if you do it aggressively, practicing low-release fakes, there's not much rest to be had. I found myself travelling a ton as fatigue set in, and by the last round my pivot was so. very. slow.

Fantastic. Can't wait for half #2. I know I'm going to do better on the workouts that repeat in weeks six through ten.

Today I start week two if the program detailed in Infinite Intensity. Workout of the Day? "Work Capacity 101". Check the video. Ross does the circuit in 1:15, with each of the 10 (!) circuits scheduled to start at the top of every 2 minutes. Pray for me.

One of the exercises that factors into my current program is standing rollouts on The Evil Wheel. A demo of how standing wheel rollouts should look is towards the end of Ross Enamait's Low-Tech, High Effect video. Ross makes it look easy, but this is an insanely difficult exercise. Not only is the abdominal strain the most intense of any bodyweight exercise I've tried, but it also hits just about every muscle from your shoulders to your shins.

The problem is, how does one progress to such an exercise?

First, safety: stay tight throught your body, and DO NOT let your back arch (i.e. your stomach drops). I haven't done this, but I can feel from the strain in my back as I get close that it would be bad, bad, bad.

As for the progression:

1. Do rollouts from your knees to start.
2. When you start doing standing rollouts, face a wall. When you rollout, the wheel will hit the wall, catching your descent. You can then reverse the motion.
3. As you get more comfortable, move further and further back from the wall.

Power Rings are also a fabulous tool for learning this movement (note that version 2.0 of the rings are available for preorder, and $55 is a great price (limited time offer)). On rings the same move is called a Standing Jackknife. The exercise and progression are simple:

1. Position the rings as close to the floor as you want. Bend at the waist, grab the rings, and push them away from you until you are fully laid out.
2. To make the exercise easier, raise the rings and/or start with your feet closer to them.
3. To make the exercise harder, lower the rings and/or start with your feet further away.

One of the great things about using rings for this is you can vary the resistance mid-set simply by stepping to/from the rings.

Today marks the beginning of my training for the 2006 season and beyond. For the next 10 weeks I'm going to follow the program detailed in Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity. Today's workout? The Magic 50. Well, for me it was "The Magic 30", as I'm new to dumbbell work and I started to feel a bit of back-related nerve shooting so laid off. I'm sure my form sucks, and I overestimated how much weight I could do. Also, 30 was pretty damn tiring. I have clearly gotten soft since the season ended. Amazing how little it takes to slide.

The Infinite Intensity program promises to be fantastic though. It's a mix of workouts like The Magic 50, interval training, a variety of core workouts, dumbbell workouts, plyometric moves, etc. All speed, endurance, and strength, no bulking up. I've modified it a bit, but not much. The biggest change is that Enamait calls for a work:rest ratio of four days on, one day off, but I'm going to go 5:2 (rest on the weekends). I'm also doing some substitutions where I don't have the equipment, like twisting medicine ball throws instead of heavy bag work, for example (although as an Ultimate player I wish—perhaps counterintuitively—that I could keep the heavy bag work - all that rotational power in the hips).

I wrote up a cheatsheet for the program, and I managed to squeeze it onto one double-sided sheet. 8-point Times New Roman, 4 columns, with the minimum margins my printer can handle. This makes it sound like the program is complicated, but it's not. What it is, though, is comprehensive, loaded with variety, and yet still, amazingly, focused. The book is a keeper.

The Crossfit WOD has a link to several Crossfitters doing a 1-minute burpee race. Very impressive scores, I thought, but the thing I found personally interesting was the form: when I descend from the leap I drop into a squat before kicking out and simultaneously descending into the pushup (like Ross, but not as quick (yet)). But these folks don't seem to squat much at all, and do a simultaneous drop-down/kickout/pushup-descent from a much higher point.

I'm not making value judgements; I just found it curious.

Ross Enamait just posted a new article on jump rope training, and like everything else he writes it's well worth reading, and will make you want to run to the gym (or outside) and try whatever it is he's currently preaching. As a bonus, there's a great video included that'll show you what the skill looks like after you put in 20 or so years of work.

If you have any shin issues take careful note of his advice to wear crosstrainers and work on a forgiving surface. So far I haven't found anything harder on my shins than jumping rope.

In a recent post I mentioned Ross Enamait and his books. Let me try and do more justice to the two books of his I own.

First up is The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness (now discontinued). Here's a quick rundown:

• More bodyweight exercises for the upper body, core, and legs than you can shake a stick at. After a lot of searching I found a good number of these online, but many were completely new to me, and the book collects them all in one place.
• Fifteen different animal walks and jumps (e.g. bear walk).
• Balance training (so often overlooked, but I really think this has made a difference for me - I'm saving this subject for a separate post).
• His stretching chapter is more a discussion of different stretching styles than detailed routines or exercises, so you'll want a separate source for those (see my "Books" section to the right).
• The conditioning section is all high-intensity work, and goes into lots of detail on various forms of interval training and explosive exercises.
• The nutrition chapter is fascinating, with a lot of discussion on various supplements and how elite athletes diet must differ from that of your average sedentary drone. I have not put much of this into play for myself yet though, so can't comment on it first-hand.
• Routines, routines, routines! Ross includes a bunch of ready-made routines putting it all together. You could easily build your own with all the information provided, but it's great to have so many off-the-shelf options, which also serve as great jumping-off points for improvisation.
• No equipment necessary! Well, you'd greatly benefit from a pull-up bar (I got mine for $25), an ab wheel ($10 or so), and a two-by-four, but otherwise your only equipment costs are the book itself and your workout clothes.

As I mentioned in my other post, you could build a lifetime's worth of workouts from the material contained here. So why buy any of his other books?

Well, I recently picked up his new one, Infinite Intensity. I did this mostly for inspiration, as it was billed as containing more advanced exercises than The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness, many of which I have not mastered yet. Sure enough, many of the exercises are currently out of my league. However, the book was still a fantastic purchase with direct relevance to where I am now in my fitness. A quick summary, from the book's page:

• Dumbbell training for power and strength
• Advanced bodyweight exercises
• Isometrics
• Weighted and bodyweight core movements
• Low budget options for homemade training equipment
• Heavy bag drills for enhanced punching power
• Conditioning drills to enhance each energy system
• An analysis of periodization for combat athletes
• Research from world renowned sports scientists
• Commonly neglected areas such as the hands and neck
• A 50 day training program
• And much, much more...

First off, the exercises complement and extend what is in Warrior Fitness, and the chapter on isometrics was completely new to me and compelling (moreso as the two gymnastic holds I'm working on are isometric in nature). But the big thing that makes the book worthwhile right now, even if you're nowhere close to such feats as a one-arm chin, is this: where Warrior Fitness gives you everything you need to build a fantastic workout, Infinite Intensity gives you everything you need to put those workouts together for a complete, long-term, training lifestyle. Personally, the chapter on periodization was worth the price of admission alone. I had always written off periodization because of it's emphasis on peaking for a certain key event, but it turns out that's only one kind of periodization. There are other forms that are relevant to longer seasons and year-round fitness, which is much more what I'm after.

A few final general notes...

All Ross's books are geared towards fighters, but the techniques are highly relevant for any competitive athlete, or those simply dedicated to getting into better shape.

The books are spiral-bound, which I understand can be a turnoff for some, but I really like being able to fold them over.

Finally, Ross is a one-man operation. He is self-published, fills the orders personally, encourages and answers all e-mail questions, and is an active participant in his forums. My books arrived almost instantly (I'm sure it helps that we both live in the northeast), and my few e-mail communications with him have shown him to be very responsive and helpful.

In short, I can't recommend his books highly enough. I love the two I have, but I bet they're all great.

Oh, last thing, if you want to get a better sense of Ross's writing and exercise routines before buying, here are his articles and videos.

UPDATE: The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness has been superceded by Never Gymless. Here's my review.

Ross Enamait recent posted a new video of workout clips titled Low-Tech, High-Effect. Good gravy. The rope skipping clip is mind-boggling, and I'm green with envy at his power-overs. Ross is one of my fitness heros, even if I only have one of his books so far (The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness). I'd buy more, but the one I have already contains a lifetime-worth of material. Still, I plan on picking up his new book, Infinite Intensity when it ships, as we all need pie-in-the-sky goals, and certain stuff like one-arm chins and the like are way out on my distant horizon. Can't wait!

In preparing for the 2005 Ultimate Frisbee season, I made the switch for the first time from predominantly long aerobic training to high intensity interval training (HIIT). Before I get into all the supporting documentation, let me repeat something: last season my workouts were hour-long moderate intensity aerobic sessions. This season my workouts were 20-minute HIIT sessions. When I finally stepped on the field in the spring this season, I was easily two months ahead of where I was the previous season, conditioning-wise. In other words, I cut my workout times by 66%, and was significantly, noticeably more fit as a result.

The workout I adopted was Taku's Interval Training. Taku underscores the point above (he's writing for combat athletes, but it really applies to all athletes except pure endurance athletes, like marathoners):

Hopefully it is starting to sink in that for combat sports, long slow distance training is ineffective. Jogging or running at a steady pace continually for 20-45-60 minutes at a time is really a massive waste of valuable training and conditioning time. To maximize your efficiency while training "Cardio" for combat sports build your routine around high intensity interval training.

You can skip down to "THE PROGRAM" if you don't want to read the science. What it boils down to though is this: once you've worked yourself up to the most intense form of the intervals, you do 15 minutes warm-up, followed by 5 minutes of intense training, followed by 5 minutes cool down. I know that looks impossible, but you are reading that right: the hard part of the workout is only five minutes long. This is exactly the routine I substituted for 60-minutes of lower-intensity aerobic work, with much better results.

I have since found many more articles detailing this form of HIIT. Phase 3 that Taku describes is a Tabata Interval, named after the study by Izumi Tabata that compared it to a different interval. I haven't found the study itself online, but Peak Performance has a compelling summary:

On a different day the subjects performed two different kinds of interval workout. The first session (I1) comprised bouts of 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest at an intensity equivalent to 170% of their VO2max. The subjects performed six or seven bouts each until reaching exhaustion, ie, they could no longer continue at the prescribed intensity. The second session (I2) comprised bouts of 30 seconds with two minutes rest at an intensity of 200% of their VO2max. The subjects managed four or five of these bouts. [snip]

The conclusion from these findings seems to be that the I1 workout, the 20-second bouts with 10 secs recovery at 170% VO2max, is a better training stimulus for aerobic and anaerobic systems than the I2 workout of 30-second bouts with two mins recovery at 200% VO2max. In support of this, Tabata et al found that a six-week regime of I1 resulted in a 13 per cent improvement in VO2max.

The results of this research by Tabata et al clearly show that two different intervals workouts have different demands and therefore training effects. I1, with 20-second bouts with 10 secs rest at 170% VO2max places the aerobic and anaerobic systems at peak stress. Therefore it would be a fine session for improving both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Events where both aerobic and anaerobic demands are high are, for example, 400m, 800m and 1500m running, sprint cycling, canoeing, rowing and speed skating. This kind of workout would be great for these sports. Games players may also want to use the I1 workout as an intense training method for improving aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

The benefits described above are from just one Tabata set (20 seconds all-out work followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8-10 times). The gang at Crossfit string multiple Tabata sets together in a workout titled Tabata This. Ross Enamait, in his fantastic book The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness also advocates stringing together Tabata sets. There are many exercises that lend themselves to the Tabata treatment: sprints, jump rope, squats, pushups, burpees (killer), chinnies, etc. There's no end to the ways you can torture yourself with Tabatas.

The one good thing about all that aerobic training was that it laid a pretty good foundation upon which I could build this more intense work. You would not want to undertake Tabatas or any other HIIT without a solid conditioning base. As is true for everything I write here—but particularly for stuff like this that might make your heart explode—consult a doctor before embarking on new fitness regimes.