Friday, January 30, 2009

Foundation IV


Complex Multi Joint Movements


This is going to sound familiar if you've been paying attention. The body is one piece. TRAIN IT THAT WAY!


"How can anyone expect to possess co-ordination in active work when his muscles have never worked together in groups?" Earle E Liederman 1924, early 20th century strongman.


Think about your body and goals in terms of sustained success through improved performance. Where is an arm curl going to get us? How will a leg extension give us the lean mass gain or trunk stabilization required to boost metabolic function and protect our spines in the course of our daily life?


Train movements, not muscles.


Now think about a dead lifting or throwing motion. Thing about how many more joints are required to accomplish those tasks. Now think about the energy demands, the demands on your coordination and propreoception. Which seems like a better use of our time in pursuit of our fitness goals? Time spent lifting through a larger number of joints simultaneously, using greater amounts of energy, developing greater coordination, an efficient sequence of fire in the muscles and an overall elevated level of performance is time spent efficiently.


Remember, we're training movements, not muscles.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Foundation III


Free Weights

Dumbbells, barbells, sand, kettlebells, old tires, grocery bags full of heavy books and 5# bags of rice...I don't care. When, in the course of your day, are you required to repetitiously push or pull an evenly loaded weight along a fixed linear path only to retrace that path and gently set that weight back where it came from while seated in a comfy supported position?

Like the workout sample in foundation II, stand up, find some object in space, pick it up and move it. Gradually work to move it an ever greater number of times. Maybe you make it a little heavier and then move it. Whatever. Just continually up the challenge to your system. We need to progressively train our bodies to handle demands we encounter every day. Since when did sitting in a padded seat pushing the handle on an overhead press machine equate to playing with your niece or nephew, lifting them up off the ground in the back yard? And no, a smith machine is not free weight.


Monday, January 26, 2009

Foundation II


Feet Planted Firmly on the Ground


Where do most of your most physically challenging moments occur? Standing on your own two feet. Hence, this is where the majority of your training should occur.


When you sit down, especially in a position that's supported with a back pad, you've already shut down most of the muscles you use to perform the simplest tasks at work or around the house, your stabilizers. You've moved into more non functional, body building based isolation training. By standing up and keeping the muscles around our spine firing full tilt, we’re efficiently using our body as the machine, the complete system it is meant to be. Remember, the body is and functions as one piece. Stand up and train it that way.

Try the following. Depending on your strength, hold a heavy book, box, package or some other object that you can only just raise up over your head, at chest level. Drop into a squat and stand up quickly using the legs to help you push that object up over your head. Come immediately back down into the squatting position with the object at chest level. That's a thruster.  Legs, back, abs, shoulders, coordination, we're working it all with that one. Try the following.

  1. 10 thrusters
  2. 10 situps
  3. 12 thrusters
  4. 10 situps
  5. 14 thrusters
  6. 10 situps
  7. 16 thrusters
  8. 10 situps
  9. 18 thristers
  10. 10 situps
  11. 20 thrsters
  12. 10 situps


Saturday, January 24, 2009

Foundation: Keys to Unshakable Fitness part I


Let’s dig just a little deeper into the concepts we've book referencing and that mode the Eads H.O.P boys so successful in their fitness plan. How do we put this kind of thing together? There are a select few basic keys to creating the kind of fitness you can take with you the rest of your life. I’ve split them up into 10 parts.

Part I: Train your body weight.

Start with body weight. If we can't move our own body weight efficiently through space, what right do we have to be lifting external weight?

If we look at training for athletic performance, you're not going to see basketball coach worth his salt putting his players on a squat machine before they can handle themselves on the court. Why should the rest of us be any different? Life demands athletic performance of each of us every day. I guarantee you, if you learn proper body weight squats, body weight rows and pushes, you will progress at twice the rate with increased safety over machines and heavy weights.

Obviously I'm referencing a TRX in the illustration. If you don't have one, let's start here. I've described how to learn good body weight squats. Take a rope and throw it over tree limb, fence top, or ceiling beam so you can hold on to both ends and lean back.  The further back you can lean towards parallel to the ground, the more of your body weight you'll be supporting on the rope. Body weight rows are simply leaning back and pulling with your hands so to bring your chest up towards the rope's suspension point. Now do the following in as little time as possible. Stop only to recover enough to just keep moving.

  1. 40 body weight squats
  2. 10 body weight rows
  3. 30 squats
  4. 20 rows
  5. 20 squats
  6. 30 rows
  7. 10 squats 
  8. 40 rows

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Eades House of Pain



Ok, so here's a perfect example of what I've been talking about. This group of guys out in San Diego, one of whom has the most dubious distinction of being related to yours truly, decided they wanted to make a serious impact on their fitness. So, what did they do? Make a bunch of big time resolutions and lofty proclamations? No. Buy into a year long sparkling new, state of the art gym contract? No. They actually gave up their memberships. Taking what would have been their gym dues for a month they  bolted a pullup bar to the ceiling, picked up a kettlebell or two, made a couple of boxes to jump on and did it up right, garage style. Welcome to the Eads House of Pain.

In 90 days of nausea, sweat & tears, Matt, Luke & Hunter accomplished more than the average big commercial gym goer will accomplish in an entire year. They dropped an average of 10lbs each, cut their 2 minute heart rate recovery by 81%, increased their dead hang pullup count by 102%, increased their lower body muscular endurance (wall squat times test) by almost the exact same 102%, and more than doubled their lower body flexibility.

No mirrors to stare in between sets just to check and see how much more ripped your abs look than they did 2 minutes ago. No Cybex machines. No "do not drop the weights" policy. No spanish tiled entry ways or microbiotic snack bars. They cut out all the fluff, all the excuses, took responsibility for the fact that they weren't happy with their fitness and made a real difference.



R O C K    O N    B O Y S  

How? In their case, they decided to go with a pre packaged home workout program. I'm not going to stand behind or endorse any particular program here, but I am going to say the one they followed is of the mindset I've been trying to encourage here over the last couple of months and in my own clientele for the past few years now. In the end, fitness is like auto mechanics or mathematical equations. If you know how the system works, you can guarantee the results you're looking for. Pull lever "A" get result "B." There are couple of foundational principals in fitness that, if heeded with care, will provide what you're looking for, lasting progress.

In the next 10 or so entries I'll start going into them one at a time and taking a closer look at each one. It really doesn't take much. Just a little concentration, a willingness to put away your excuses and commit to creating positive change in your performance and fitness.

Congratulations again guys. Keep going!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Goooaaaalllllsss!!!


So what's your goal? What are you working towards? Going to take a stab in the dark. You'd like to...lose weight and...have more energy. Am I close? Maybe it's something like "get back my college body" or my "pre baby body." 

Awesome. The next question is, "Well, how will you know when you get there?" When does that morning come when you wake up and say "Holy haberdashery Batman, I look fantastic and jee willikers I look fantastic!!!"

So how do you set goals that are important to you and let you know just how much progress you're making? Make your goals SMART. It's one of the oldest motivational speaker tricks in the world. But you know what? It works.

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Time bound

Set a very specific goal that is important to you and sits squarely in the realm of reality. Tie that goal to a specific completion date and rock on. Doesn't matter how advanced or novice you are.

I want to fit back in this pair of jeans from last summer by Memorial Day.
Come June 1st, I want to be able to walk from my place on 81st St to my office in 45 minutes.
I want to deadlift three times my weight by the end of March 31st.
I want to be able to play with the kids in the back yard for an hour without breaking 135 beats per minute.

What's important to you? When do you want to make that happen?

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Saturday Night Blowout


This week we can change it from "the few, the proud" to the two, the proud.  "There's not much on the list tonight..." Fantastic job guys.

The breakdown: This Beast was a deceptively simple one. With a particular load held aloft, start a timer and do one squat in the first minute, two squats in the second, three in the third and so on until you aren't able to complete the requisite squats in the space of one minute. Record time, weight and repetitions. Doesn't look that hard? Try it.

The weight? In this case, half your body weight. "Do you know how much I weight?" Well, doesn't really matter. NOTE: Is half your body weight appropriate for everyone to pick up right this very minute? No. But, think about it. What are you moving through space every single day? Our body weight. What is it that contributes to the pain we feel in our lower backs? Our body weight acting on our frame. What is it that makes it so hard for some of us to climb that set of stairs or in some cases, just our of the car or chair? Our body weight as it relates to our ability to move that amount of weight. Strength to weight ratio.

So as you're training, again do not get stuck on finding that weight you can lift a few times comfortably and with a little rest repeat your same performance. Let's look at how our strength relates to your body. Starting where ever you have to, if you can work yourself up to lifting 30%, 50% or maybe even 100% or more of your body weight off the floor or through space, how do you think that will effect your ability to move your body day in and day out? If you generate enough new muscle mass to move that weight, how do you think that much extra lean weight will effect your metabolism? How will that metabolic enhancement effect your body composition over time?

Sustained weight loss due to increased muscle mass over time due to an elevated level of performance. 

Train better. Perform better. Feel better. Look better. 

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Workout Playlist



So you’ve been listening closely and taking notes. You’ve got a good start on a great new workout. So what on earth are you doing watching TV on the gym floor and zoning out to your gym’s Top 40 and Euro Club Hits? You need something that’s going to keep you moving, focus you in on the task at hand, provide a little high energy motivation and in the name of all things good and holy, keep you off those Cybex machines!


Hint, if you were to risk getting kicked out of the gym because your music shattered the gym manager’s glass “4th Quarter Sales Leader” award, you’re on the right track. For what it's worth, here are my top album picks to start your own take-no-prisoners workout playlist.


  1. Dropkick Murphys: Warrior’s Code. (Did you see The Departed? I mean, come on!)
  2. Sex Pistols: Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (Sometimes the classics just can't be beat)
  3. Korn: Follow The Leader
  4. Rage Against The Machine: Evil Empire (You thought this might not make the list?)
  5. Ramones: Any album...Any album at all will do just fine.
  6. Surf Report: Supersonic Salvation (It helps in visualizing the soothing waves and ocean breezes while you’re doubled over the trash can)
  7. White Stripes: White Blood Cells. (You have to cherry pick off this one, but there ain't no way you're going to stop moving if you've got Jack screaming "Fell In Love With A Girl" in your ear.)

I’m always looking for more too. Post your playlists to comments.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

On The Road Again


Let's check in again. One healthier choice for yourself at a time. What choice did you make for yourself today? Getting any easier? Have you started making one better choice at a time? The sooner you start, the faster it becomes second nature and you don't even have to think about it anymore.


Ok, so this one goes out to the road warriors out there; account execs, regional sales directors, network consultants, efficiency experts and product specialists alike. Keeping active on a five leg, seven day trip can be…well, sorry about that. I don’t actually have to tell you how hard that is, now do I? You know all about it.


I don’t even really have one word for you. Three letters is more like it. TRX. The TRX is a tool I’ve been working with for the past couple of years now. Now, while it is just a tool and miracle solution to all your fitness needs, this one is particularly suited to help our serial travelers out there. I know you’re curious. Hit my links page at JtNetterville.com you’ll see it.


Go ahead. Check it out. I’ll wait.


Ok, good. Now, we’re basically talking about a nylon strap that you can string over your hotel room door, a tree branch, a pullup bar in the hotel gym, or even the support structure on the airport pay phone.



It’s also ideally suited for the type of workout we’ve been discussing. Quick transitions from one movement to another. No pulleys, resistance springs or rubber bands, just your body weight plain and simple. I mean it though. You can make your workout as intense as you want with this thing. Cool thing is that it’s good enough that when you can’t get to the gym, hang it over the door at home and you’re good to go.


If you have access to one, or already have one, try this. If you don't I've got a couple up here at West River. Swing by and give this a shot. Use the TRX site for reference as to these movements if you need.


Set your kitchen timer to 20 minutes. Complete as many of the following round as possible in that time.

20 TRX Jumps

10 row/tri ext

10 nuclear pushups

10 balance squats (per leg).


Let me know how you did.


Travel safely.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Functional Saxon: Elder Respect 2


"Apart from sport, enduring strength means that a businessman shall stand, without a break-down, business cares and worries, that he shall be capable, when necessary, of working morning, afternoon and night with unflagging energy, holding tightly in his grasp the reigns of business, retaining all the while a clear mind and untiring energy, both of body and brain." p28 Development of Physical Power

Huh…how about that. 1906, and that’s just about as clear of a definition of “functional” fitness as I’ve ever heard. What he's calling "enduring strength,” (fitness) is the ability to function all day , doing well those things which are demanded of us on a regular basis. The point I''m trying to make here is this: Functional training doesn't necessarily mean standing on one leg on a Bosu doing overhead dumbbell press and whistling Dixie. Functional training doesn't need a bunch of fancy toys, wobble boards, foam pads, specialty bars, elastic bands, vibration trainers, blah, blah, blah. It's all static, static that distracts from the main task at hand. We have to find how to train your body to function better every day doing the things your life demands of you.

Is there a place for all those things? Sure. Just make sure you're picking the right tool for the job. If you need to cut a piece of wood in half, you're not going to reach for a hammer. Similarly if your goal is to generate enough strength gains in your "core" to reduce back pain and improve posture wile dropping a few pounds along the way, sometimes all it takes is an open space, you and a little determination.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Saturday Night Blowout

We'll get back to Mr Saxon next time.

As for last night's blowout, you know when there's only one rotation listed to the evening's "to do list," it can't be good news. Inclement weather be damned. Ron, fantastic job man.  That's a leg up on everybody else next time around. Anyone can train when it's convenient. Champions train regardless.  earned just that much more swagger on the way to your goals.

Mike and Gary, still waiting on your posts from last class.

As a reminder, the blowout has switched to a weekly schedule. As our space is somewhat limited, the advanced sign up list goes up on Thursdays. Sign up is available at the West River front desk and by calling/emailing me. Friends, family, and anyone looking to be knocked down a notch in order to take three steps forward are all welcome.

A Sunday challenge:

Take 6 of those extra plastic grocery bags you've got lying around. Triple bag them until you have two bags that are three bags thick.

Fill those bags with as many cans of soup, bottles of water and bags of rice as they can hold. 

Complete the following without letting go of the bags.
100 squats holding your hands at your chest, so the bags are suspended in front of you.
75 Deep Lunges Holding the bags OVER HEAD
50 Bag lifts from the ground to your chest
10 laps from your kitchen to either the front door of your building (you
     urbanites) or, for those  in the less urban environs, to your car as fast as
     possible.

When you train, make life harder. After that, the rest is cake.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Elder Respect part 1

Time for a little check-in. It’s just over a week since New Year’s. What “one better choice” have you made for yourself today? List it to the comments section. I’d like to see how we’re doing. For those of you who don’t have the foggiest what I’m talking, look back at my post from December 30th.

Moving along…

I want to take a few posts here to look at one of the great historical figures of the fitness industry. Arthur Saxon (1878 – 1921) was a groundbreaking strongman and arguably the strongest man alive in his day. He was also an author. Now, you think early 1900 strong man, you think carnival side show, lion’s head hood & leopard print unitard. This was an unfortunate byproduct of early fitness enthusiast culture. For example, this following quotation is taken from the intro to his 1906 book, “The Development of Physical Power.”

"The fact that a man may have full physical development but disproportionate power and energy has been proven to me so many times that, in my book, I propose to aim at and instill the value of genuine power without any attempt to attain large increase in the dimensions of different muscles...I shall teach you to judge a man by his capabilities as an athlete, whether a weight lifter, wrestler or not, and not by the measurement of his biceps or chest." p7-8

Think about it. In 1906, there was already a stress on performance over aesthetics. Not to say wanting to look good is a bad thing in and of its self, but it does make for a bad goal. Remember, aesthetics are a consequence of fitness.

Go pick up something heavy and move it across the room. We’ll hear more from Mr Saxon next time.

Why This Approach?


So let’s take a minute and look a little deeper at why we’re training like this and why this kind of training is gaining so much ground across the country. Is is all about tough gym talk, fun toys, bad ass workouts and gut wrenching intensity? Well, those things do have their draw, but no. More and more children in America are pre-diabetic every day. 1 in 3 adults are overweight or obese. What we’re doing is establishing a performance based fitness that lends itself to sustained results and elevated fitness. It can be practiced and performed in any venue and in any setting around the world. This is fitness working its way out of the gym and into schedules, agendas and every day family life. And you know what else? It’s actually fun once you get into it.

It's kind of like the one better choice approach to your resolutions, something that can easily be incorporated into your life.

The heightened intensity and complexity leads to increased muscle mass and neuromuscular connectivity. In turn that increases coordination and your ability to perform at an even higher level. This self sustaining loop provides for a sustained elevated metabolic rate. Thus more energy burned every minute of every day. What does that provide? Everything you want. Plain and simple. We’re talking less back pain, more efficient movement, sustained weight loss, healthier heart and organs, more energy, increased circulation, higher immune function... It’s a lot. It’s something that sitting on gym floor, watching TV while you “recover” on the pec deck isn’t going to provide. By the time one of our Saturday Night Blowout athletes completes a Hellion or Beast round, they’ve accomplished more in 15 or 20 minutes than most accomplish in a couple of hours.

So here we go. Get everybody together, stand up off those pretty white machines in the gym, put down the People magazine, forget about the train wreck celebs on E! and let’s do some real work.

Find a stool or sturdy object about 24” off the ground. Squat down low enough to touch it with your seat but don’t sit back. Let’s call that a body weight squat. How long does it take you to do that 75 times? If you have a toddler, try it with her/him in your arms. Keep that time. Write it down. If you already do that kind of a workout, do the squats, then just as many situps and pushups. Write that time down and keep it.

Also, don't forget, for some hands on high intensity training, Saturday Night Blowout is switching to its weekly schedule this week. Call West River Health & Racquet at 212-835-9222 to reserve your spot. I'll see you at 6:30 Saturday!!

...begins with a single step.


I've been fielding a lot of questions recently as to what it means or how one begins to work in the way we've been discussing here. What we're talking about is an approach to your fitness that will continually challenge you to improve your performance and create the foundation for lasting progress and results. Your results are determined by measuring against your own past performance.

First, forget the comfortable old formulas. Challenge yourself. Find a new way to look at your strength training. For example, forget three sets of 15 with a nice comfy tv break in between. Using the same things you're doing now, challenge yourself to 50 repetitions. 3 sets of 15 is 45 anyway, so might as well. How long did that take you? Did you have to stop? Ok. Fine. You did great. Keep that result. Next week, come back. Do it again. Remeasure it. Remember the books in the carry-on challenge from last week? Do it again. Compare times.

Once you get accustomed to that format, take two or three things that you know from your routine. Set a goal for each one. "I'm going to do each one of these things X number of times." Split that number up into reasonable segments, say 1/4 of the total repetitions in each round. String them together and push yourself through four rounds until you've achieved your goal on each one. Stop only when you have to and only just long enough to keep going again. Push past the comfortable and familiar. Record your results. First we're going to look for improvements in stamina by comparing your finish times. Then we start playing with load.

Remember, the separation between your cardiovascular fitness and strength training is a completely artificial one. Let's put them together, use your time as efficiently as possible and forge ahead into 2009.

In response to popular demand, we're shifting the Saturday Night Blowout to a weekly format. Every Saturday, we'll be meeting at West River Health & Racquet Club, 424 West End Ave on the penthouse level. Shoot me an email or call to let me know you're coming just so I can make sure to have room for everyone. All my contact info can be found on my homepage, JtNetterville.com

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Saturday Night Blowout


We've all heard what they say about greenhorns, newbies & rookies. I'm here to tell you I just saw something else all together. Two of our athletes tonight didn’t have a clue what they were getting into. None the less they dug in, bit down and made it their own.

Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work. Nothing says commitment like leaving you DNA on the floor. I’m not quite too sure about this, but I think Mike took the disclaimer of dizziness, seeing spots, and shortness of breath to be more pre fixe menu rather than cautionary warning.


Having beaten back The Beast, we move on for our date with The Hellion. I’m starting to get used to the stares of disbelief. You know what though, Gary won a victory every time that med ball bounced back into his hands or felt both feet planted, standing tall and the end of his get ups. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea just how much Ron hated that kettle. But every time he rotated through, they got that much better. Work a little more. Fatigue is gaining fast. Dig even deeper and seek to excel. This is the key to performance and success. That’s what he showed us. Awesome, awesome job guys.


Mike, you’re starting to scare me man. I might just make you work with a 40# vest on from now on out.

Post results to the comments section. I'll see you next Saturday.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Paradigm Shift

I’m going to say this one more time…well, one more time at least. After that, I have no idea how better to get this idea across. Ladies and gentlemen, as simple and overdone as it may seem, FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.

I’m going to back up for a minute. I was in the gym today working on my deadlift. Immediately following a lift that ended up setting a new best, my workout buddy commented on a break in my form. I felt it. I knew it was there and it was good to have the spotter to confirm what I felt. I’d gone very heavy and took a risk because of it. It was at that point that the member in the next rack, we’ll call him Waldo, took a break from checking out his own ass in the mirror to chime in. Waldo says, “Yeah, you know, you better watch your back. It just isn’t worth it, for your aesthetic goals, to go that heavy. When you’re going for aesthetics, you know, there are just better ways…” For dramatic effect and so not to fly off the handle, I’m going to go ahead and insert another ellipse here. Ready? Here it is… Ok. Being one of those, “I’m going to finish this set of arm curls, pull up my shirt and admire my own abs in the mirror because I’m too sexy for this gym,” kind of guys, I couldn’t really get too mad at him.

Our buddy Waldo here represents exactly why we’re losing the fitness battle in America. Every single one of us, no matter what we say, do, or preach has something about themselves that they want to make look better. No doubt. We’ve all got aesthetic goals, but that should not dictate how we train. In order to create long term success, we have to create and train the movement patterns, functional strength & metabolic function that leads to sustained fitness progress.

Wanna lose 5lbs to look good for the party on Friday? Have a leaf of lettuce for lunch, skip dinner and go for a 5 mile run instead. Voila. Now watch Waldo gain it back the next day. Wanna sustain that loss? Pick up something heavy, train your body to move more efficiently, thus creating the functional muscle mass that will help to elevate and sustain a higher metabolic rate, FUNCTION better and maintain the FORM we all want so very badly. In life, just like that preceding sentence there, form follows function.

So to that end, here’s today’s challenge. Take the heaviest books you can, phone books, dictionaries, whatever, and fill up a small piece of carry on luggage. Squat down as close to the ground as you can, bear hug it to your chest and lift it up onto the kitchen counter. Back to the floor. Time yourself. How long does it take to do that 30 times? Keep track of that number. We’ll come back to it later.