So, it’s already March of 2012 and this year is officially almost 20% complete.
How far have you progressed towards your goals thus far?
Before we know it we will be 50% done with the year and the next thing you know, we’ll be bringing in 2013!
Time flies so you’ve got to make sure you’re making the most out of your time and focusing in on the things that YOU most want to accomplish.
Below I’m going to share with you 7 different things I’ve been doing to help me progress forward with my training and lifestyle.
I hope that you can find these 7 things I’m about to share with you helpful for you own training and health progress as well! If you enjoy them, make sure you click the LIKE button above and share the love!
Ok, onward!
1) I got my FIRST pair of Lifting Kicks
Ok, I’ll admit a while back I was against “lifting shoes’.
I thought I could get by with just lifting in any type of shoe, and that “lifting shoes” weren’t that necessary, but when you dig a little bit deeper into Olympic Lifting, you find out a ton and having some quality lifting sneaks helps out!
About a month ago I decided to invest into a pair of The Reebok Oly Lifting Shoes…
These are some bad ass shoes and so far, I love them! I was thinking at first that I should have invested into a true pair of Oly lifting shoe from a company like Pendlay, one that specifically makes Oly shoes and that’s been around for a long time, but the reviews I’ve read on the Reebok Oly’s were enough to convince me to grab a pair.
Besides making me feel more comfortable with my Oly lifts, I feel much better while doing any type of squat variation (especially overheads).
Bottom line, other than looking badass, these kicks are badass.
Last thing I will say is the price was a bit steep, but what can you do?
2) New Green Drink Concoction!
Here’s a drink that kicks the sh*t outta Red Bull, Rock Star, or any other “energy” drink out there.
If you need some extra energy without all the extra sh*t fillers and acids you get with your other energy drinks this is it…
I’ve talked about Athletic Greens before and I swear by it, but I found out a way to make it even more potent…
Introducing…
Lean and Mean Green Tea =>
I’m a HUGE fan of a local coffee shop here in town (in fact, I’m typing this post in the shop this very minute) and I always get myself a “Moroccan Mint” green tea. Shoot, the girls that work here have it waiting for me when I pull up!
It’s gives me just enough caffeine to get me that kick I need without all the extra crap from other caffeinated drinks… I get too shaky from normal coffee!
One day I had a little travel pack with me that Athletic Greens sent me along with my regular shipment so I decided to dump in into my tea.
Let’s just say I now have this drink just about every day.
I can see now why people are addicted to their Starbucks… I’m addicted to my Lean and Mean Green Tea from Scooter Coffee house!
There’s been a ton of talk about Athletic Greens lately as it gains more and more popularity. I got hooked over a year ago after finding out about it thru Tim Ferris’s “4 Hour Body” and I’ll tell ya, it really is a game changer!
Adding AG to my favorite healthy green tea has made it even better.
3) New Training Schedule
For the last few months I’ve switched up to a new training schedule and I feel that I’ve been making some excellent progress with it.
Keep in mind before I share this with you that my goals are strictly geared towards performance and competing in the Crossfit Games. That’s my overall goal = T0 make the final round of the Crossfit Games.
Once I get there, I’ll see what I can do… I’ve got some HUGE ground to cover and we’ll see what happens!
At this point I can care less about getting ripped or building more muscle… All I care about is taking my performance to the next level by any means necessary.
My main focuses have turned to improving my overall strength and endurance with these three big lifts: The Deadlift, Overhead Press, and Squat.
I’ve been doing an every other day split where I train strictly for skill and strength in the AM session and then with at least a 4 hour break in between. Then later I’ll hit up a conditioning based workout that’s usually geared towards power endurance, strength endurance, bodyweight conditioning, or just a straight up “kill myself” conditioning session.
I’ve not trained two days in a row now for about 4 weeks other then if I choose to come in and do a quick mobility workout (more on that later)
Here’s my last week of training:
Monday – AM Session
1A) Clean and Jerk 5 x 2
2A) Strict Muscle Up 5 x 5
2B) Step Box Jump for Height 5 2/ leg
PM Session
1A) Squat Clean E.M.O.T.M. x 10 Mins
2A) 21-15-9 of:
a) KB Clean
b) Chain Push Ups
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTT77fEFN40
3A) Full Tabata Of Each:
a) KB 1 Arm Snatch – 60# x 8 rounds
b) Toes To Bar x 8 rounds
c) Farmer Walks (this got BRUTAL!) x 8 rounds
Wednesday AM Session
1A) Back Squat 3 x 15
2A) Legless Rope Climbs 3 x 2
2B) Glute Ham Raises 3 x 15
PM Session
30 Mins Of:
a) SB Shouldering
b) Rope Slams
c) Sb Squats
d) Burpee Broad Jumps
e) SB Push Press
f) Mobile Planks
You may remember this one…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4yKdkWp4bE
Friday AM Session
1A) Trap Bar Deadifts 5 x 5
1B) Box Jump
PM Session
1A) 10 Min AMRAP:
a) 20 x Burpees
b) 10 x OHS – 135#
c) 5 x Muscle Ups
2A) 10 Min AMRAP:
a) 5 x Power Snatch – 135#
b) 10 Toes To Bar
c) 15 Wall Balls – 20#
This is just a sample of what I’ve been doing. That’s a typical week give or take.
The results I’ve seen have been great thus far and I’ll be continuing with this set up.
4) I’ve got a new “anytime” shoe..
Thanks to Bryan with Built-To-Run.com and Crossfit Midland for sending me these KICKASS new Inov-8 minimalist shoes, the Inov-8 Bare-XF 210, or what I like to call, “The ALL BLACKS” (even though they have a little bit of white…).
For some reason, I don’t jive too well with the Vibram5 fingers and while I think they are a solid piece of footware, i just don’t dig em.
I do however prefer to wear a minimalist shoe and between these and my New Balance Minimus 20’s, they fit the bill perfectly.
I wear these bad boys most of the time. Only time I don’t wear these new Inov-8’s or my MB’s is when I do Oly and Squat focused training sessions.
5) Fasting about 5 days a week
So, I haven’t really spoke too much about fasting as of lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reaping the benefits from it!
If you need to catch up a bit on fasting, check out this post HERE.
The way I’ve been personally implementing fasting into my lifestyle lately is with AM fasts.
Usually 3, maybe even up to 5 days a week I’ll fast until about 11 or 12 noon. What I’ve been seeing as far as results go is TONS more energy and way more productivity.
I make sure to eat hearty and healthy throughout the rest of the day, sticking as close to Paleo as possible and then I fast it out in the AM.
My last meal is usually around 9-930pm so when I fast up until noon the next day, it gives me a nice little mini-fast that I can take advantage of.
In short, when you fast, you get lots of different hormonal benefits including increases in Growth Hormone levels which is why fasting is so damn powerful.
I mentioned the increase in energy, but the productivity has been one of the best benefits.
On days where I need to get a ton done in the AM, all I need to worry about is drinking water or my Lean and Green Tea Concoction and I’m good.
It’s nice getting large chunks of time open to where I can just focus on getting sh*t done and not having to worry about stopping everything to prepare a meal.
On days where I train early in the AM, I’ll NEVER fast. I ALWAYS eat a post workout meal about an hour after as I highly suggest you do as well.
One thing I’m very safe with is post workout nutrition. If you’re going to be fasting, you need to make sure your fasting period is set in such a way that it’s done within an hour after you train. If you train in a fasted state and you don’t replenish your body afterwards, you’re asking for trouble.
You must refuel after you train!
I’ll continue to strategically use fasting as a tool to help my productivity and energy levels, plus as a tip for people out there looking to shred more fat fast, I would recommend the you definitely look into implementing fasting into your lifestyle if you haven’t done so already.
One of the best resources I know of as of now when it comes to fasting is HERE.
6) Mandatory Mobility Sessions
Aw, I’m excited to talk about this little bit here…
For the last month or so, I’ve made it MANDATORY for myself that I include at least 1-2 FULL workouts simply dedicated to mobility work.
For these workouts, I still warm up as if I was going to go through a regular training session, but then I hit up a series of dynamic stretching and mobility work.
These sessions usually last about 30-40 mins tops and after I’m finished, I feel like a million bucks!
Unless of course I just hit up 83 snatches… Not much you can do after a workout like that…
Anyways, I created a new mobility circuit and cool down stretching circuit that has been absolutely KILLER!
I would love to share the video with you here, but I’m ONLY making this available to my TrainAggressive.com members.
If you’re a current member of TA.com, I’ll be posting that stuff withing the Warm Ups / Recovery section this week, but if you’re NOT a member yet, what the hell are you waiting for!?
Make sure to join up HERE!
7) High Rep Olympic and Compound Lifting
Last but not least, one of the other new things I’ve been seriously implementing into my training as of late has been that of HIGH REP lifting, especially with Olympic lifts and the main strength compound lifts such as deadlifts and squats.
This was one of my major weaknesses that got exposed in last years CrossFit Regionals as I wasn’t used to hitting higher reps in lifts such as the snatch, power cleans, and even the deadlift.
I hit the 21-15-9 Deadlift workout fine, but my recovery from that much volume was terrible!
For years I have always lifted in the rep range of 6 and below for all of the technique based lifts, especially Oly lifts.
Most strength coaches know that when it comes to highly technical lifts such as snatches, cleans, and jerks, that it’s not smart to train in the high rep range.
When you start to get fatigued in these lifts, your form goes to sh*t which then takes away most of the benefits you’re trying to gain from Oly and compound lifting.
I’m a firm believer that you can train yourself to get very efficient at hitting these lifts with high volume and high reps.
In order to be competitive towards the top of the CrossFit realm, I knew I had to get better at high rep, high volume work with both Olympic lifts and heavier compound lifts.
So, I’ve been throwing in more high rep sets of deadlifts, overhead squats, snatches, and cleans within my programming and so far, I can tell I’m gaining some good ground.
When it comes to beginners, this is NOT a good idea. One must get a solid base of conditioning and sound technique down first before they start to implementing higher rep sets of these types of lifts within their training.
I wrote about this a while back on the blog HERE with higher rep deadlifts sets.
The funny thing is that my HEAVY deadlifts have gone UP. If feel stronger and more conditioned.
It just takes time getting used to the high rep training.
So there you have it kids.
7 Cool things for ya.
Go ahead and let me know what you liked BEST about these 7 in the comments below.
Get Livin’ and Trainin’ Aggressive!
PS – f you haven’t checked out my new membership site, TrainAggressive.com yet, I would highly recommend you do.
People are kicking ass all over in that thing and it’s only going to grow and get stronger. I don’t want you to get left out!
Also, like I mentioned above, I’ll be adding a kickass mobility and stretching circuit to the content area for member’s only.
On top of that, I got a TON of other kickass stuff coming as well…