Thanks to everyone who has snapped up the Keys to Successful Training Online Course.
It’s is going off the market for good this Wednesday. Get it now for half price or never get it again.
One of the things I talk about in the course is whether or not to listen to music.
For well over a year now my workouts have been silent. With no music there are no distractions. It allow you to go deep inside, to concentrate better at the task at hand.
That was my reasoning behind it. And I still believe it.
Yet a couple of things I’ve read recently are making me do a switch.
In a little book from 1945 called How to Relax: Scientific Body Control comes the following:
“A few years prior to World War II Mussolini engaged Boyd Comstock, the University of Southern California’s well-known track coach, to work with Italian athletes. The object was to improve their performances at the Olympic Games. Comstock worked tirelessly at the task. But is seemed almost hopeless, until the canny American trainer hit on an idea.
“He had observed that these Italian youths were passionately fond of music. Could the natural rhythm they show in singing, for instance, be applied also to track? At least it was worth a trial. So Comstock told his protégés to sing as they ran, hurdled and jumped. Almost miraculous improvements resulted, Comstock reported.”
There is other information and stories in the book along the same lines. It makes sense that rhythm in music can be of useful effect in athletics.
My thought is that listening to music with the right tempo could be a big help especially in conditioning tests. Whether it’ll help in singles and low rep exercise I know not. Also the wrong tempo could possibly throw you off.
But then music can help you in another way. If its music that you enjoy, that gets you going, it can turn on the radiant circuits and put you in the right state for training.
So here is where I’d like your input. Plus a little experiment.
In the comments below, tell me if you listen to music, and what kind, when you train. Then for the next week or so (if you have control over it, meaning you don’t workout in a commercial gym) workout without music to see what sort of difference it makes.
And if you don’t listen to music write that below and try the opposite. Put on the tunes and train along with them.
I’ll be doing this and report back next week with any differences I notice.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Mental Training, Strength Training Concepts by on Oct 25th, 2010. 16 Comments. 
What time is it? Time to train!
We sent out a survey at www.Strongerman.com the other week and the results we’re quite interesting.
One of the most insightful questions was “What would you say is the biggest thing holding you back from getting as strong and enduring as you want?”
As this was an open ended question there were many responses but they could be broken down into a number of categories.
You know what the number one answer was? That over one forth of all people attributed to holding them back?
TIME
I must make a distinction. There is a difference between having enough time to get a decent workout in versus having enough time to do all the training you would want.
If you’re in the second group that’s good to be reaching for an ideal. Not everyone’s a professional athlete whose job it is to train. But I think most people fall more towards the first group.
Does it take time to train? Yes. Some people work a full-time job or even more than that. And then you have other responsibilities like family or friends. At that point working out can seem like something you just don’t have time for.
Here’s the thing. Workouts shouldn’t take long. I’m a big proponent of doing short workouts. I’ve done effective workouts shorter than 10 minutes. And if you don’t have ten minutes you need to take a good look at your schedule and find out where you can find that time.
Now not every workout is that short, but to be honest most of my workouts are under 30 or forty minutes. I haven’t done a workout longer than an hour in a long time. Not only are those marathon sessions unnecessary but they can be counter-productive.
As a concrete example, last week I did a kettlebell snatch test. The goal: in ten minutes to do as many snatches as possible. With a 32 kg bell this is an absolute brutal workout. I not only got 160 reps but I did it without setting the bell down (but with multiple hand switches) a new record for myself.
Ten minutes is tough. For beginners even with a lighter bell you won’t be able to last that long. Do eight minutes or even five. Since this is such an effective exercise working the entire body that’s all you need.
Now if you’re after certain goals you’ll have to play around with what you do and the timing in order to reach them. But it can be done.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time to train. That’s the worst excuse there is used by the lazy to mask their laziness. I can guarantee that you have the time somewhere
Stop making excuses and do it. If you train smart and effectively everyone has the time to train.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Kettlebells, Strength Training Concepts, Workouts by on Feb 18th, 2010. 3 Comments.
Hill sprints are always an excellent choice
There are many possible circuit training ideas. I’m going to list some just off the top of my head.
- Pick three exercises. Do each one for a minute before moving onto the next with no rest. Repeat this all for five rounds.
- Pick a strength exercises that you can only do for one to five reps. Have a conditioning move you can do a hundred reps in. Go back and forth between the strength exercise and conditioning exercise for a number of rounds. (This builds the ability to apply maximal strength while fatigued. Great for fighters.)
- Have 10-20 exercises of varying difficulties. Do as many reps of each before moving onto the next. Keep track of the reps for each exercise and your total time.
- Have an implement like a kettlebell on one end of a field. Do a set number of swings with it. Sprint to the other side of the field. Do a bodyweight exercise like pushups. Run back and repeat.
- Pick a number of exercises to work the whole body. Do a set followed by jumping rope for a minute. Go onto the next exercise then jump rope for a minute. Continue in this pattern stopping after you’ve done each exercise or just going once through them all.
There you have five potential workouts. With variations of each you could use these for the rest of your life.
Personally I like to mix it up with my circuits. Plan something then go after it. As long as you keep track of your workouts you can do something similar a month down the road and see how you’ve improved.
Alternatively, you can add a few reps or a bit of time to each exercise thus making each circuit harder. Do this on a regular basic and you have a formula for improvement.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. As for calve work as David mentioned about his Convict Conditioning Routine I haven’t directly worked my calves in even distant memory. Sprinting and/or jumping rope is all you need.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Feb 11th, 2010. Comment.
Almost a year ago I was talking to professional strongman Dennis Rogers and he presented me with an opportunity.
His friend and one of the world’s strongest men, Bud Jeffries was looking for someone to take over his business.
If you’ve been in the iron game for awhile its likely you’ve heard of Bud and www.Strongerman.com.
Perhaps you’ve been influenced by his work with Twisted Conditioning or How to Squat 900 lbs (among much else).
I know I have.
Due to some issues with the business he wanted to step back, have someone else take over and allow him just to write and train.
I took that job. Now this has been a secret project that virtually know one knows about. In fact, you are one of the first!
But all that work has finally come to fruition. The NEW Strongerman.com is live.
Go check out the site. There’s a bunch of great articles up. You can get his best selling ebooks right now.
But that’s just the start. Go now to find a few of the exciting projects we have in the works.
And be sure to sign up with your email on the site. Not only will you receive tons of incredible strength training and endurance building tips but we’ll give you a bonus to get started with.
Just last week I interviewed Bud to talk about what he’s been doing lately in his training. We’re talking about shedding 100 lbs and counting. Doing thousands of kettlebell swings in a single workout. Training MMA fighters and much more.
You get the whole hour long interview just by signing up on the site.
I hope my enthusiasm comes across because this is something that you should be excited about. Just talking to Bud recently has increased the intensity of my own workouts. It can do the same for you.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. When you visit the site please leave a comment telling us what you think or would like to see. Would love to hear from you.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 5th, 2009. 1 Comment.
One of my brothers who was in town is into Crossfit big time and he convinced me to go along with him to one of the local gyms this Saturday.
When we got there I was asked if I had done Crossfit before. My answer was ‘sort of’. I had done Crossfit style workouts several times, and knew how to do the lifts, but had never actually trained at a Crossfit before.
Since I was substituting my normal Hill Sprint workout with this one I was hoping it would be more conditioning focused and I wasn’t disappointed.
Here’s the workout:
3 rounds of 400m Run, 12 Deadlifts w/ Bodyweight on the bar, & 21 Box Jumps done for time
My time was 11:52. I finished second in the group of about seven. Only eight seconds behind (but I was using a bigger box to jump on).
I’m not going to lie. It feels good to go into someone else’s house and perform near the top. Of course, I train hard and heavy all the time, just differently from what is typically done in Crossfit.
And I know there are certain other workouts that could have happened that I wouldn’t have performed as well on.
There are great benefits to training like they do at Crossfit. It develops all around fitness using all manner of exercises. From gymnastic and bodyweight exercises to Olympic and power lifting. You’ll build strength and endurance almost always at the same time.
The randomness of it can be both good and bad. It will keep you excited and the body will never really adapt. However if you have certain goals you want to achieve its not the most direct path.
The competitive element pushes you to work harder then you might normally do. However, I’ve seen some people neglect form to go faster and also due to being tired. This can lead to injuries which is never good.
It was a fun time and a good workout. I may be going back every once in awhile just to test myself and shake things up a bit.
They also have a bunch of knowledgeable coaches. I know I’ll be going to get some help on Olympic lifting which I have little experience in myself.
Sometimes you need to train outside your box even if it’s a good box that you train in.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Next time I’ll have a video for you of a somewhat extreme feat of strength. I’ll tell you I can feel the soreness in my head and neck right now from doing it yesterday…
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Strength Training Concepts by on Aug 3rd, 2009. Comment.
Life likes to get in the way.
For the past couple weeks I’ve had family visiting. While I’ve enjoyed hanging out with them, spending all that time is taking away from other things. Add to that everything else that’s going on and training had to take a backseat…almost.
Because I’ve made the choice that I’m the kind of person who doesn’t miss workouts (an yes it is just a choice), I’m still finding the time.
One of the great things about short workouts is that you can fit them in when and where you need to. If your workouts take an hour or more then maybe not. But when they take less than half an hour its easy to get in there and get it done.
And even if you can’t do your regularly scheduled training you can find ways to work around it.
Take yesterday, for example. I was suppose to do hill sprints but due to getting up late, having work I had to get do, and some other surprises I wasn’t able to make it to the hill.
But I went kayaking with my brothers. Having never been kayaking it was lots of fun. However I also used it as my opportunity to work on my conditioning.
If I can’t do hill sprints today I can at least row as fast as possible in many short bursts. And let me tell you kayaking can be very winding.
In a similar instance is one of my friends who works construction. If he knows he won’t be able to hit the gym later that day he’ll turn his work into a workout. Carrying bags of concrete or rocks at an intense pace or something similar.
Life will challenge you in many different ways. But if you’re committed you’ll succeed.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning, Strength Training Concepts by on Jul 30th, 2009. Comment.
After you train there is one thing you have to do in order to get stronger.
And that is RECOVER!
Without recovery you’ll only train yourself into the ground. You don’t have to recover 100% between workouts but you do need to get most of the way there.
In my workouts I’ve been doing five working sets for my main exercises. But as I progressed and the weights went up this became harder and harder. That’s to be expected.
However, I felt completely beat at the end of most workouts. It was too much and I felt a little rundown the next day. Sometimes this resulted in a less than optimal workout that day.
So this week I am starting an experiment. I’m cutting my working sets down from five to three sets. Just more than half the volume.
The thing is, in training, you have to do enough to trigger gains. From there it’s a matter of recovering than doing it again next time.
This experiment will mean less total work, though no less intensity. It should still be plenty to force myself to get stronger.
Plus, from less overall volume, the workout will take less time and less of my recovery ability.
If you’re not making gains like before perhaps doing less, not more is the ticket to breaking new ground.
I’ll report later on how this works out for me. I expect good things.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I’ve upgraded the blog. It has a new look and more functionality than before. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.
Filed under Recovery, Strength Training Concepts by on Jul 14th, 2009. Comment.
