Have you joined us over at Super Human Training?
Wrapped up a great call with The World’s Strongest Redneck, Steve McGranahan, last night.
You can imagine my surprise when I heard about Steve running an ultra-marathon and chewing up lightbulbs. On top of that we covered some great training information:
- Getting in the Zone, Going Unconscious and more on Mindset for High Performance
- The Reverse Cow Milking Technique for steel bending power
- How to Build Vice-Like Hands and why this is a must for just about any feat of strength
- Build Super Strength by Maintaining Weights
- Big Volume in Two A Day Workouts
- The Biggest Secret in Keeping your body fresh and ready to gofor the next workout
- Training Tips on the Last Two Fingers and How this will put your Hand Strength Through the Roof
- And much more
You may have missed the call but there is still some time to listen into the replay.
And if you aren’t signed up for the remaining nine calls, what are you waiting for? Make sure to sign up here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 29th, 2010. Comment. 
Yesterday I ran in the Wharf 2 Wharf race that is held annually here. It’s a 6 mile or 10K race from the wharf by the Boardwalk in downtown Santa Cruz to the wharf in Capitola (hence the name).
I’m not a runner. I know there are much better ways to get in shape, not to mention less boring, then to run miles upon miles. It’s fine if that’s something that you enjoy doing. If that’s you, all the more power to you in doing it.
But the majority of people in the world think running a marathon is the epitome of health and fitness. That’s where I have some issue. Anyway…
My brothers were doing it (one of them IS a runner) and they convinced me to join them. In my regular training I don’t run much. In the past two months I did a little running on the trails near my house twice. Probably a total of 3 or 4 miles. Not really steady pace but sprints and walking. Basically some form of intervals. That’s it as far as what I did to specifically prepare for this event.
But I’m almost always up for a challenge. I knew I wouldn’t even come close to my previous best time of 38:Something but was there just to have some fun.
Going Barefoot…sort of
And to add to the challenge I ran the race in my Vibram’s. (I have three pairs of shoes – my Vibram’s, my regular everyday Van’s and a pair of dress shoes so I didn’t have much choice.)
For those who have not heard about these shoes or barefoot running I’ll give a short recap. The human body is not meant to strike the ground with the heels on each step. With over-engineered running shoes and their thick cushions they allow you to do just this. Instead running is meant to be done on the balls of the feet.
Heel striking results in a complete biomechanical change to the way running should be done. And this results in pain in the low back and/or knees of many people.
Vibram’s are made to mimic being barefoot while still giving you some protection with a thin rubber sole.
Let’s get to the race. With over 15000 people running this race it’s no easy start unless you’re at the very start. For me the first mile was spent dipping and weaving through people trying to get ahead.
By the second mile the area had opened up and I was free to run at my own pace.
Running Into Problems
On the third mile I ran (no pun intended) into problems. Without the prior training my feet were not prepared for this run. Even if I had done more, running on trails is different then running on asphalt.
The pad right below my big toe was getting sore. As the race went on I figured blisters would be forming.
And my calves were getting fatigued. Staying on your toes does take muscle. Once again the lack of preparedness stopped me from going.
These two things combined meant I had to ease up on the running on the toes. My run became flat footed. And as I didn’t have much cushion this caused a dramatic slow in my pace especially in miles 5 and 6. More of a shuffle than a run.
I kept trying to pick it up but every time I tried I just suffered more. I decided I’d just finish the race without stopping, even if I was only moving at a slow jog. I did and came in at the finish line at 50:50, my slowest race time ever.
I was planning on going all out on one of the miles to see how fast I could do it, but was held back. Because I ended up going so slow I didn’t even come close to testing my conditioning and wasn’t even tired after the race.
My takeaways:
- Barefoot running is great. It works more musculature and is in general better for your body. I recommend you trying it if you haven’t.
- Barefoot running is also self-correcting. If you can’t do it correctly anymore its time to stop running (of course unless you happen to be one third of the way in a race).
- Going all out in a race without the preparation is a good way to hurt yourself. Part of me was worried it would end up worse than it did.
- Sometimes its fun to test your mental toughness. Sometimes its stupid. Often times its both.
Writing this the day after I’m happy to report no blisters. Just a little soreness in the feet and a lot of soreness in the calves and ankles.
And in case you were wondering I did see about five other people in the race running in Vibram’s as well. Didn’t get to compare experiences with them though.
My brother, the one that does run, decided to go actually barefoot taking of his shoes and socks for the last mile. And he says next year he’ll go completely barefoot for the entire thing. Maybe I’ll join him…Maybe I won’t…
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning, Mental Training, Running by on Jul 26th, 2010. 9 Comments.
I’m regularly getting questions on biofeedback training, almost everyday. So I thought it was time for another report on how its working out for me.
One movement leads another...
Doing any kind of movement (actually anything) will lead to increasing or decreasing any other movement. This is because the body is a whole and what effects one thing, effects EVERYTHING.
Thus you can test any exercise, any movement and see how that affects any other movement. This is commonly done with a range of motion test as this is a simple way to test things by yourself. It’s not without its faults, and there are other methods. But it does work if you do it right.
What I’ve found is that by doing this biofeedback training for a time I got better in tune with my body. That I didn’t even need to test all the time. That I could feel the better or worse movement within the movement itself. That means if I press I can feel whether or not today would be a good day to press.
This is a good thing. And its not even the end point of where you can get.
Progress on that front. However I also ran into a roadblock, created by myself.
Not testing all the time I began to make a slight shift towards forcing my body in directions it didn‘t necessarily want to go. Overtime this slight shift got bigger because I had something on the line.
You know about my progress on the deadlift which has been great. With that goal of 500 lbs. on the horizon, and the fact I wanted to hit it by the end of this month, I starting forcing myself in that direction, rather than letting it happen as it would by itself. I’ve done this by lifting heavier than I should have on many days. Even deadlifting when that wasn’t the best choice. The total effect is that my progress has slowed.
The promise of biofeedback training is that, if you listen to it, you’ll break PR’s without really having to try to do it. Effortless progress. These may not always be exactly groundbreaking PR’s or in the direction you always want but it does happen.
What happens when you don’t listen to your body? When you do things contrary to what its telling you? At best it’ll just be slower progress. At worst no progress, sliding back, or injury.
You can, for a time, force your body to adapt. But it will fight back. The question is why would you fight against your body when you can use it as an ally?
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bio Feedback, Strength Training Concepts by on Jul 23rd, 2010. 1 Comment.
Have you joined us over at Super Human Training?
We had an awesome call with Andrew Durniat last night. I have three things I’m adding into my workouts immediately not for the sack of adding new stuff, but they’ll directly help me in my goals. Not to mention a few more things to look out for in the near future.
As was expected we blew past the hour mark and went a full 80 minutes. All jam packed with information.
- Are you doing the forgotten barbell lift? I haven’t been but I am now, starting today!
- How to kick off the restrictor plates in your training.
- Why you may want to train in kilograms and not pounds.
- The simple formula to get stronger. So obvious almost no one sees it.
- What’s holding back your squat? Hear two different answers and how to fix your weaknesses.
- What Andrew learned in recent overseas training. The necessary thing that ALL Americans were lacking when it comes to Girevoy Sport. Can you guess what it is?
- How to combine training along with Strongman, Highland Games, GS, and Grip competitions. Discover Andrew’s secrets to effectively getting stronger and excelling in many sports.
- And much more.
You may have missed the call but there is still some time to listen into the replay.
And if you aren’t signed up for the remaining nine calls, what are you waiting for? Make sure to sign up here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 22nd, 2010. Comment.
I got this idea from Josh Hanagarne. To write a history of my strength training and lifting. Beware this is a longer story than I normally write but I think you’ll find it entertaining.
My beginnings
Me as a skinny kid, long before I ever picked up a weight.
In eighth grade I went out for the basketball team. We had ‘Camp Rambo’ which was to get us in conditioning and build skills before try-outs ever took place. The beginning of each practice was a mile and a half run. It took me about 13 or 14 minutes to run it. Then I got a pair of running shoes which magically cut minutes off my time. Despite this I didn’t make the team. That was a shot to my fragile ego.
Later that year we had the Presidential Fitness Test. I remember hanging on a pullup bar not being able to move an inch, wondering how it was possible to do so.
School finished. My brother was ‘making’ me go out for football in high school. He put me on a basic lifting program which I did in my backyard. I don’t remember the full details. I do remember the first time I deadlift over a hundred pounds and how happy I was about that. I also remember hitting myself in the chin cleaning a barbell one time.
I joined the football team at under 100 lbs. We lift heavy. We ran a lot. I make some progress but really not much. I was still weak and scrawny. We focused on the power lifts plus power cleans and snatches mostly. I’m sure there were curls involved.
Bodybuilding
In the off season I bodybuild getting routines out of the muscle mags. Typical routines involve four sets of squats, four sets of leg presses, three sets of hamstring curls, three sets of leg extensions. Part of me enjoys it. Part of me doesn’t. I make progress on the squats, until I realize each time I add weight my range of motion decreases and I have to start over. (That’s not the proper way to do partials.)
I do it for awhile then stop, only to return later on. I play football for all four years and this cycle continues. I would say in that time I became marginally stronger, but was still scrawny weighing in at about 140 at 6 foot.
In my senior year I become friends with another guy who likes to bodybuild. We become training partners. We did some crazy routines, like working out for an hour, going out to the parking lot and drinking a protein shake, then going back into the gym for another hour and a half. We take a lot of supplements and get marginally stronger.
Somehow my friend stumbles across an Ironmind magazine and orders some grip stuff. We mess around with it a little infrequently. I couldn’t even close the Trainer the first time I tried.
Bodyweight Training
My brother, who got me into football and bodybuilding, tells me about this guy Matt Furey who has some crazy bodyweight exercises. I read about them online and give them a shot. They whoop my butt. I start doing them regularly between gym workouts. After a period of time I stop going to the gym and focus on the bodyweight exercises exclusively.
I’m getting results. I’m progressing quicker than before. One of my first goals was to do a handstand pushup. After several weeks (months?) of training I hit that goal. I continue onwards and upwards until I can hit the lofty goals of a 3 minute wrestlers bridge, 500 Hindu squats and 100 Hindu pushups. I keep going. At this point I believe weights are for people who don’t know that there‘s a better option of just using your own bodyweight. I can start doing things others can’t. One arm pushups, handstand pushups, bridge kickovers, one leg squats and more.
Kettlebells
My friend buys kettlebells. I scoff at the idea of using weights but put that idea aside and give it a try. Its fun and it kicks my butt. I start training with the kettlebells too. About a year later in 2005 we head off to the RKC. I remember training hard to hit my thirty snatches with each hand to pass the test.
At this point I’m doing lots of bodyweight stuff and lots of kettlebells. At this point I’m really into training. Buying all kinds of courses, studying all different systems and trying to do it all. One guy in particular, Bud Jeffries, is the first person that I see that talks about combining it all in an intelligent way. I follow his advice for a time.
I assist several times at the RKC studying more from Pavel and all the other top kettlebell trainers. I learn about competitive kettlebell lifting and get certified at the AKC. I continue to study Matt Furey and even go on to win his Combat Conditioning Athlete of the Year.
Strongman and Everything Else
Depending on the latest thing I read, and to a smaller degree my goals, I’m doing different things all the time. The world of physical culture is quite wide.
I start hand balancing. A little later attending a gymnastics class.
I read a biography of the Mighty Atom. I get inspired and want to become a strongman. So I start to get heavily in grip strength, especially bending steel. I remember the first time I bent that Yellow Nail bracing it against my leg and taking 10 minutes to complete the bend. I learn more feats, primarily from Dennis Rogers, who I later get to study with down in Texas. I begin perform small shows demonstrating my strength.
I’ve done it all. Dinosaur Training, Combat Conditioning, Twisted Conditioning, Kettlebells, Clubbells, Strongman, Powerlifting, Crossfit, Partials, HIT, GTG, EDT and things that don‘t have a necessarily a name or acronym to them. There was training to failure, training beyond failure, not training to failure, and not training to effort. There’s club swinging, joint mobility, gymnastics, slow movements, fast movements, isometrics and more.
In ‘07 I also start my own personal training business which later evolves into the online entity it is today, all starting with a book on hand balancing.
In certain things I make progress, even good progress overtime. Other things I let backslide and get nowhere over the course of a year. This continues for years. The overall trend is upwards though never as quick as I would have liked.
I start to finally get it. I can come up with a good training plan that moves me towards my training goals. I can stick to this plan and get results from doing so. I make progress in just about every workout with occasional plateaus.
Biofeedback and Now
Then this weird concept called Biofeedback training comes along. It makes sense to me. And why would I stop trying everything that comes out? I put it to the test and after an initial breaking in period I go to learn from Frankie Faires and Adam Glass to learn more about it. My progress starts to accelerate.
This was my evolution. This led me to where I am now. Where I am now will continue to evolve. This is by no means complete and I‘ve got much further to go. More experiments to run. More training to do. More people to learn from. Much more progress to make.
Every system, every tool has its advantages and disadvantages. Some are better than others depending on your goals. Some are better than others period. Of course, I wish I would have had all this knowledge back when I started but what fun would that have been? In this case, the journey was worth it, and the truth is, it wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t taken the journey.
Want to share your story? Comment below.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. We’re getting ready to start the Super Human Training Teleseminar Series. The first call features Andrew Durniat and you won’t want to miss it. Sign up here.
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bio Feedback, Bodyweight Exercise, Feats of Strength, Hand Strength, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Jul 19th, 2010. 10 Comments.
It takes a lot of work to put something big together. But in the end it’s usually worth it.
As you may or may not know I’ve partnered up with Bud Jeffries, one of the top guys when it comes to getting stronger and building insane endurance.
If you don’t think you can learn something from a guy who squatted half a ton (literally), or who has done 3000 kettlebell swings in a single workout, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Anyway we’re on the phone quite often talking training, about the latest PR’s and experiments we’re doing in the gym.
And together we know almost everyone in the training industry at least as far as people who know how to get real results and are proof themselves.
When we re-launched Bud’s site late last year we did a big teleseminar series full of guests, top trainers and strongmen. Ten calls later we called it a wrap.
But even then we knew we had many more people to talk to, much more ground to cover.
Well, that time has come…
Introducing the Super Human Training Teleseminar Series.
I’ve spent countless hours getting this planned and you get to enjoy the benefits (not that I don’t get any myself. I’m actually still using many tips I picked up from the last series in my current training.)
You’ll find all the details on the site including who are special guests are this time.
And the best part is you can listen in for Free to each call.
All you need to do once you’re there is enter your email to get the details of each call as they happen.
This starts next week so be sure to signup ASAP so you don’t miss a single call.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I’d be greatly appreciative if you tweeted or posted about this on facebook. The more people who join the more fun it’ll be for all.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 13th, 2010. Comment.
For those of you not familiar with Josh Hanagarne let me give you the lowdown.
He runs an odd site called World’s Strongest Librarian (a self-proclaimed but likely true title).
It’s an odd collection of book reviews, humorous ramblings, tourette’s syndrome progress and declines, and more. It’s always highly entertaining. I even read Josh’s novel and I don’t read many novels these days.
He’s also got a good amount of strength training info like this post on his training history: Strength Training 101. I think that’s a great idea and will be writing up my own training history someday soon.
In order to keep things a little more focused he’s decided to start a new blog specifically on strength in all it’s guises. That’s Strength Rules where I’ll be interviewed shortly.
Just figured you’d like to check these out if you haven’t heard about them already.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 12th, 2010. Comment.
Does technique matter? How much? What is the difference between a strict lift and a not so strict lift? What is perfect form? Can, and should you, even go after it?
Find out the answers in my new article: Weightlifting Technique
I'm going to blow out my back...or am I?
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Lifting Technique by on Jul 7th, 2010. Comment.
Hit a 470 lb. deadlift yesterday.
For those keeping track (like me) that’s another 15 lb. increase in 10 days. I was surprised I maxed out again so recently this time, but the journal doesn’t lie. Also, for the record that’s just past the 2 ½ times bodyweight mark. Closing in on 500.
Not world record status but if I keep up this pace how long would it take?
And just three days ago I hit 277 snatches with the 24kg in 10 minutes. Closing in on 300.
You too can have this kind of progress. What does it take? The way I see it there are three keys.
1. Training
You need to do the best training possible. After experimenting I truly believe biofeedback training is going to give you the best, fastest and safest results. Click here for more information on how to get started.
However, that’s not all there is to it. Biofeedback is not some magic pill. You still need ideas on the best exercises in general and for you. You still need to know the best ways to approach your goals.
Training is key, yet it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
2. Health and Nutrition
I’ve just released my book 101 Simple Steps to Radiant Health. This contains plenty of beginner and advanced tips on supercharging your health. Superior health means superior energy and recovery for your training as well as being free from illness.
The book is a great start especially if you haven’t paid too much attention to your health in the past.
Also when you order you have a chance to upgrade to a special program I put together detailing all the food and supplementation I personally take. (Like this video multiplied times 100.) This is only available right now for those who buy the book, but this information can make a dramatic difference. I know it has for me.
This is key number two.
3. ?????
The third component is not hard to guess if you give it some thought. However, for now I’m not going to give it away.
Truth be told, I think this can make a bigger difference than the other two combined. I’ve just started really using it and as they say ‘the proof is in the pudding.’
********
On a similar note, I’ve decided to add another bonus for those who order 101 Simple Steps to Radiant Health. (Everyone who has already ordered gets this too, of course.)
I’ll be holding a special Q&A call to answer all of your questions. What more details on tip 75? Want to know what I personally do with tip 31? How about how I do 66? Want additional tips?
Maybe I’ll even talk a bit about key number three from above?
You’ll receive access information when you order 101 Simple Steps to Radiant Health now. I’ll be holding the call in a couple weeks so that you have time to read, digest and apply the information you get.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bio Feedback, Health, Nutrition, Recovery, Strength Training Concepts by on Jul 2nd, 2010. 2 Comments.
Supplements are evil! Supplements are good! Find out the truth in this video…
The contest continues (and a winner will be announced tomorrow). Leave your comments below to enter.
Filed under Health, Recovery, Videos by on Jun 28th, 2010. 8 Comments.
Immediate download plus you'll receive my regular email tips to help you build legendary strength and fitness.
