On March 28, 2009 Vitaly Sitnikov's set a new kettlebell lifting World Record: 862 Reps of One-Arm Jerks with a 40kg (88lb) kettlebell in three-hours.
He did not put the bell down the entire time either, but rather held it against his thigh while resting.
75,856lbs total lifted. Crikey, what an effort!
Click here to see more pictures and the original post at Caestus : The Extreme GirevoySport Records Blog.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Think your workout is hard? Lift 88lbs over your head 862 times in 3-hours, then get back to me!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The real benefit of martial arts!
Regardless of style, all martial arts provide benefits far beyond just fighting ability. After all, 90% of us will never have to use our fist-fighting skills in a life or death situation. I think Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Chun sums it up well in the below video.
Here is an 85 year-old man who is not even considering retiring!
We should all hope to be this active at 85, both physically and mentally.
Regardless of style, all martial arts provide benefits far beyond just fighting ability. After all, 90% of us will never have to use our fist-fighting skills in a life or death situation. I think Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Chun sums it up well in the below video.
Here is an 85 year-old man who is not even considering retiring!
We should all hope to be this active at 85, both physically and mentally.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
5 Reasons Eric J Moss Rules:
For the past couple weeks, I have been corresponding with Eric J Moss, RKC. I believe this particular round of correspondence began from me reading one of his incendiary posts, calling someone out about something... In any case, Eric is a pretty cool dude and you should read his blog often.
Reason #1: Eric J Moss noticed I had not updated my blog for a couple months. His subtle calling-out has prompted this entry and more will follow so as not to be so shamed again.
Reason #2: Eric J Moss will show you not one, not three, not even seven, but ten ways to overhead-press a kettlebell. Don't believe me? Click here to see for yourself!
Reason #3: Eric J Moss was the first person to ever call me Comrade. The significance of this can only really be understood by our fellow Hardstyle acolytes.
Reason #4: Eric J Moss will astound you even further by demonstrating not one, not three, but five different ways to squat with a kettlebell! Click here to learn how to get some really strong legs.
Reason #5: Eric J Moss will not tolerate fitness charlatans, dinosaurs or snake-oil salesmen. In fact, he will do his best to inform us about them so we can be ready to explain why Hardstyle will honestly and permanently change their lives, as it did ours!
This concludes my tribute to Eric J Moss, RKC. Now get over to his blog and start reading!
For the past couple weeks, I have been corresponding with Eric J Moss, RKC. I believe this particular round of correspondence began from me reading one of his incendiary posts, calling someone out about something... In any case, Eric is a pretty cool dude and you should read his blog often.
Reason #1: Eric J Moss noticed I had not updated my blog for a couple months. His subtle calling-out has prompted this entry and more will follow so as not to be so shamed again.
Reason #2: Eric J Moss will show you not one, not three, not even seven, but ten ways to overhead-press a kettlebell. Don't believe me? Click here to see for yourself!
Reason #3: Eric J Moss was the first person to ever call me Comrade. The significance of this can only really be understood by our fellow Hardstyle acolytes.
Reason #4: Eric J Moss will astound you even further by demonstrating not one, not three, but five different ways to squat with a kettlebell! Click here to learn how to get some really strong legs.
Reason #5: Eric J Moss will not tolerate fitness charlatans, dinosaurs or snake-oil salesmen. In fact, he will do his best to inform us about them so we can be ready to explain why Hardstyle will honestly and permanently change their lives, as it did ours!
This concludes my tribute to Eric J Moss, RKC. Now get over to his blog and start reading!
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Another reason I love my job!
The video below shows my client Irv completing the last rung of a L/R Clean and Press ladder to 5. He did this non-stop, which is a total of 30 reps. A year ago, he could not do a ladder to 3 (12 reps) without resting for a while after the 2nd rung. I am very proud of Irv for his determination to improve. He has always done the independent workouts I provided and has advanced quickly and safely because of it.
Nice work Irv!
To read Irv's story in his own words, click HERE.
The video below shows my client Irv completing the last rung of a L/R Clean and Press ladder to 5. He did this non-stop, which is a total of 30 reps. A year ago, he could not do a ladder to 3 (12 reps) without resting for a while after the 2nd rung. I am very proud of Irv for his determination to improve. He has always done the independent workouts I provided and has advanced quickly and safely because of it.
Nice work Irv!
To read Irv's story in his own words, click HERE.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Deadlifting makes you happy, but too much deadlifting can make you sad!
Earlier this week, my client Ken told me how deadlifting seems to give him a feeling of healthy euphoria. I experience the same and especially so when I first started to deadlift. Ken has been deadlifting for 4-months, with an increase in weight and volume over the last two.
This amazing feeling comes from the release of hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone plus the rush of endorphins triggered by a relatively strenuous effort. Our increased confidence from a personal best does not hurt either! Of course, we want to make sure not to train overly long and hard, where we see these levels start to decline. This is why I advocate shorter, high-intensity workouts with the emphasis on form and safety. This allows you to stay within the accepted 30-40 minute high-hormone zone and still get all the workout you need.
Even with careful adherence to workout time and intensity, it is even more important to know when to slow down; when to allow time for recovery. We will not be able to maintain our optimal hormonal (happiness) levels if we are tired, moody and generally overtrained. We will also not be able to make significant gains in our training. This is something we all have to watch out for. The better we manage our fatigue and recovery, the longer we will continue to feel great, make gains AND stay injury-free!
This next part comes from a great podcast I listened to today at http://ironradio.org/ .
The podcast is titled Recovery While Training and can be found HERE.
The ironradio.org coaching group is: Dr. Lonnie Lowery (host), Exercise Physiologist and licensed sports nutritionist; Mr. Charles Staley, celebrity athletics coach and author, Mr. Robert Fortney, fitness industry journalist; Mr. Phil Stevens, fitness industry speaker, trainer and technician. All have successful competitive histories in power sports.
The host and guests put together an informal list of ways to monitor your fatigue levels and therefore identify when it is time to back off and return stronger on another day.
1. Keeping track of your level of perceived exertion for each workout. The host uses a scale of 1-20. Watch out if you see the numbers steadily declining!
2. Keeping track of your mood and motivation to train. This includes your emotional state both IN and OUTSIDE the gym.
3. Are you sleeping for 7-8 hours a night? Is it quality sleep, throughout the night? If your sleep is disturbed, your nervous system is telling you it needs a break!
4. A suggestion was made to quietly fill in your workout log right after you train. This gives you time to cool down and decompress from the intense mental and physical focus of your session. This way, you will be ready to take on the rest of your day feeling calm, as you should : )
5. Getting the most results with of the least amount of effort/exercises. No, this does not allow you to be lazy, just efficient in your exercise choices. A good example would be doing weighted pullups instead of separate pull, reverse-fly and bicep exercises. The same muscles get worked, but in less time.
6. "Every rep has a cost, but not every rep has a benefit"
7. Growth, Recovery and Progress happens outside the gym. Inside the gym is where we destroy ourselves so that we may recover stronger.
Some great advice from some top names in the game!
The moral of this story is, train hard, train well, and most importantly, TRAIN SMART!
Earlier this week, my client Ken told me how deadlifting seems to give him a feeling of healthy euphoria. I experience the same and especially so when I first started to deadlift. Ken has been deadlifting for 4-months, with an increase in weight and volume over the last two.
This amazing feeling comes from the release of hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone plus the rush of endorphins triggered by a relatively strenuous effort. Our increased confidence from a personal best does not hurt either! Of course, we want to make sure not to train overly long and hard, where we see these levels start to decline. This is why I advocate shorter, high-intensity workouts with the emphasis on form and safety. This allows you to stay within the accepted 30-40 minute high-hormone zone and still get all the workout you need.
Even with careful adherence to workout time and intensity, it is even more important to know when to slow down; when to allow time for recovery. We will not be able to maintain our optimal hormonal (happiness) levels if we are tired, moody and generally overtrained. We will also not be able to make significant gains in our training. This is something we all have to watch out for. The better we manage our fatigue and recovery, the longer we will continue to feel great, make gains AND stay injury-free!
This next part comes from a great podcast I listened to today at http://ironradio.org/ .
The podcast is titled Recovery While Training and can be found HERE.
The ironradio.org coaching group is: Dr. Lonnie Lowery (host), Exercise Physiologist and licensed sports nutritionist; Mr. Charles Staley, celebrity athletics coach and author, Mr. Robert Fortney, fitness industry journalist; Mr. Phil Stevens, fitness industry speaker, trainer and technician. All have successful competitive histories in power sports.
The host and guests put together an informal list of ways to monitor your fatigue levels and therefore identify when it is time to back off and return stronger on another day.
1. Keeping track of your level of perceived exertion for each workout. The host uses a scale of 1-20. Watch out if you see the numbers steadily declining!
2. Keeping track of your mood and motivation to train. This includes your emotional state both IN and OUTSIDE the gym.
3. Are you sleeping for 7-8 hours a night? Is it quality sleep, throughout the night? If your sleep is disturbed, your nervous system is telling you it needs a break!
4. A suggestion was made to quietly fill in your workout log right after you train. This gives you time to cool down and decompress from the intense mental and physical focus of your session. This way, you will be ready to take on the rest of your day feeling calm, as you should : )
5. Getting the most results with of the least amount of effort/exercises. No, this does not allow you to be lazy, just efficient in your exercise choices. A good example would be doing weighted pullups instead of separate pull, reverse-fly and bicep exercises. The same muscles get worked, but in less time.
6. "Every rep has a cost, but not every rep has a benefit"
7. Growth, Recovery and Progress happens outside the gym. Inside the gym is where we destroy ourselves so that we may recover stronger.
Some great advice from some top names in the game!
The moral of this story is, train hard, train well, and most importantly, TRAIN SMART!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Revisiting an old post with a new video...
Last November I posted an article called Keep Training? But I'm Injured!
In it, I discussed the fact that you can always find some part of your body to train, even if one part is injured. The injury I spoke about was bruised ribs. Well, my ribs were bruised again in a similar fashion by my Wing Tsun Instructor, Sifu Ralph Haenel. I had to again make adjustments to my training, as this time I was unable to do pullups or rows for 4-weeks.
During this time of "injury", I hit a Personal Best in the Deadlift AND VO2Max Snatch Protocol!
To read the November 2008 article again, click HERE.
And this time, I have the genesis of the injury on video : ) Enjoy!
Last November I posted an article called Keep Training? But I'm Injured!
In it, I discussed the fact that you can always find some part of your body to train, even if one part is injured. The injury I spoke about was bruised ribs. Well, my ribs were bruised again in a similar fashion by my Wing Tsun Instructor, Sifu Ralph Haenel. I had to again make adjustments to my training, as this time I was unable to do pullups or rows for 4-weeks.
During this time of "injury", I hit a Personal Best in the Deadlift AND VO2Max Snatch Protocol!
To read the November 2008 article again, click HERE.
And this time, I have the genesis of the injury on video : ) Enjoy!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
Heliomatrix - Dr. Ram and Team strike again!
The Heliomatrix - See video below!
You can control things on the screen by waving your hand!
Tony giving us his best "Burton Cummings"
A sweet old-skool ghetto blaster from another exhibit.
The Heliomatrix - See video below!This past Friday, March 6th, Tony and I went to the Midforms Festival at the BCIT Campus. Aside from my client Dr. Ram and Team's Heliomatrix, there were other "innovative exhibits showcasing the convergence of media art, electronic music, and digitalculture".
Dr Ram and Team last brought us Junkyard Wars 2008.
According to the good Doctor:
"The Heliomatrix is an adaptive mirror array precisely controlled by servos and coordinated by a network of microcontrollers. It is like a chameleon, with scaly flesh composed of reflective mirrors, each one capable of independent thought and movement. The array harnesses, reflects and manipulates light to produce a virtually limitless spectrum of effects, ranging from a sophisticated, multi-coloured light show to a savage display of the sun's incendiary power."
I could not have said it better myself : )
See below for photos and video:
You can control things on the screen by waving your hand!
Tony giving us his best "Burton Cummings"
A sweet old-skool ghetto blaster from another exhibit.
Wing Tsun Chi-Sau Seminar with Sifu Ralph!
WT Vancouver Senior Students at Philip's kwoon.
Sifu Ralph and Nilo
Brian Yam and I at the Chi-Sau
WT Vancouver Senior Students at Philip's kwoon.On Saturday, Februray 28th 2009, the senior students of Wing Tsun Vancouver met at Philip's WT school for a review of Chi Sau (sticking-hands) Sections 1-4.
Sifu Ralph often arranges bonus classes/seminars for his senior students to ensure we are all up to speed on the Sections. This way, we do not miss out on important training tips should we have to miss some of the regular weekly classes.
This was the third such bonus class I have been to for Sections 1-4 and, as always, I learned some new ways to better train my Chi-Sau Sections! The saying "An inch wide and a mile deep" certainly applies here, as though the sections are few in number, the ideas hidden within them are many.
I am looking forward to this weekend's review of Sections 5-7!
Sifu Ralph and Nilo
Brian Yam and I at the Chi-Sau
