Everybody comes to a point in her or his life where you ask yourself the question "Who am i? Who am i going to be?"
The simple answer:
"You are what you have done. You are going to be what you are doing."
Think about it.
Now...REALLY THINK ABOUT IT!
Because what we DO defines who we are...
Cliché? Yes.
True. Yes.
Want another one?
Here is one by Bruce Lee:
"Knowing is not enough, we must apply.
Willing is not enough, we must do."
Well...What the hell does this have to do with training?
1)If you want to become more athletic, healthier, more energetic you got to act like it.
Work out, be as fit as possible. Because if you "behave fit" regularly, if you work at a high intensity, your body will adopt, because this is what you DEMAND of him!
That is adaption!
2)If you work regularly at a high intensity, if you push yourself regularly over your borders, if you can CROSS YOUR BORDERS DURING THE WORKOUT, your mind will adapt and you can CROSS YOUR BORDERS IN THE OTHER PARTS OF YOUR LIFE as well!!
That is why i love my training this much. It spills over to the rest of my life.
One piece of information i aquired from the Navy SEAL forum some time ago ( www.navyseals.com )helped me a great deal to identifiy the core values in my life. For now.
Some will never change, some i maybe will re-evaluate in the future. We will see.
Right now i´m tring to live my life according to those values.
"Code of the Warrior" by Brian D. Hoffner
In the future i will dedicate a blog-post to each of those values, write what they mean to me and my life.
Maybe this will give you ideas of what you want as well and make your life a little bit better.
Maybe you will only understand me better, maybe you´ll just think "he´s even crazier than i thought."
No mather what, it´ll get you thinking.
THAT is all i want.
Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 30. November 2009
Samstag, 28. November 2009
Surround yourself with people like yourself
I´m only talking about training today.
Talking like this about life...Mhm, that would be a topic far too big for a blog.
So back to training...
The Chinese got a saying: "People adopt the colours of their surroundings."
This is true... If you hang around with a certain kind of people, you start acting, talking, walking, being like them.
This doesn´t have to be a bad thing... As long as YOU got CORE VALUES that are INCORRUPTIBLE!
If you can integrate yourself in a new group, you got great social skills. If you lose your values in the process... Then you just got now backbone. Sorry to tell you.
Some people consider me crazy. Who thought of that?! ;-)
They just can´t understand why i spend my life the way i do.
I got a hell of an education on the medical field, in my spare time i manage to complete an additional education/schooling, take care of my training and the one of others, eat, sleep and have a social life.
It´s not easy but i feel good with the way things are going.
No mather how often people ask me "why", "how", "why" or "why the hell..." i know that is my way and that is all i need to know.
I try to limit my time spent on the internet, in forums, on social- platforms, because much of the stuff there is mostly a waste of time...
Endless discussions, time-consuming games, you-know-what-else.
But some things you need to take advantage of.
Some forums ( http://www.fighterfitnessforum.com/ , www.rosstraining.com) can help you, because there are people who think alike, who train their mind and body constantly, who live the way i live.
There are endless ideas for challenges, fitness-games, ways to get variety in your training, nutrition, regeneration.
This gives you the opportunity to get information about a million different things without the need to do them all yourself.
If you see something you are interested in, you get a first impression and then you can decide if you buy/build/order it...
If you are working out with a training partner, look for one who pushes you, who can push you with the necessary amount of rationality, who knows how far to go and when to stop!
If your training partner is always unmotivated, is always finishing before he/she even breaks a sweat... Dump him/her!
Find someone who encourages you to go beyond your self set borders and improve as a human being!
Just yesterday i did a challenge from the fighter-fitness-forum:
Military Press Challenge
-10min
-a 16kg Kettlebell
-no putting it down
-as many military presses in the given time frame as possible.
I banged out 190 reps, because i knew i had to give it all i got to keep up with the guys there!
"People adopt the colours of their surroundings."
We can´t ignore that.
So make sure you define the surroundings!!
Enjoy life, Train hard and train smart!
All the best,
Harry
Talking like this about life...Mhm, that would be a topic far too big for a blog.
So back to training...
The Chinese got a saying: "People adopt the colours of their surroundings."
This is true... If you hang around with a certain kind of people, you start acting, talking, walking, being like them.
This doesn´t have to be a bad thing... As long as YOU got CORE VALUES that are INCORRUPTIBLE!
If you can integrate yourself in a new group, you got great social skills. If you lose your values in the process... Then you just got now backbone. Sorry to tell you.
Some people consider me crazy. Who thought of that?! ;-)
They just can´t understand why i spend my life the way i do.
I got a hell of an education on the medical field, in my spare time i manage to complete an additional education/schooling, take care of my training and the one of others, eat, sleep and have a social life.
It´s not easy but i feel good with the way things are going.
No mather how often people ask me "why", "how", "why" or "why the hell..." i know that is my way and that is all i need to know.
I try to limit my time spent on the internet, in forums, on social- platforms, because much of the stuff there is mostly a waste of time...
Endless discussions, time-consuming games, you-know-what-else.
But some things you need to take advantage of.
Some forums ( http://www.fighterfitnessforum.com/ , www.rosstraining.com) can help you, because there are people who think alike, who train their mind and body constantly, who live the way i live.
There are endless ideas for challenges, fitness-games, ways to get variety in your training, nutrition, regeneration.
This gives you the opportunity to get information about a million different things without the need to do them all yourself.
If you see something you are interested in, you get a first impression and then you can decide if you buy/build/order it...
If you are working out with a training partner, look for one who pushes you, who can push you with the necessary amount of rationality, who knows how far to go and when to stop!
If your training partner is always unmotivated, is always finishing before he/she even breaks a sweat... Dump him/her!
Find someone who encourages you to go beyond your self set borders and improve as a human being!
Just yesterday i did a challenge from the fighter-fitness-forum:
Military Press Challenge
-10min
-a 16kg Kettlebell
-no putting it down
-as many military presses in the given time frame as possible.
I banged out 190 reps, because i knew i had to give it all i got to keep up with the guys there!
"People adopt the colours of their surroundings."
We can´t ignore that.
So make sure you define the surroundings!!
Enjoy life, Train hard and train smart!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 23. November 2009
Thank you to powerquest.cc
Sometimes we are standing... literally or just feeling like it in our life, in our training.
Sometimes we just feel like there is nothing moving forward, we do not know exactly where to go, where to turn.
If it´s about our life, we got mentors, family who can simply be there for us, sometimes guide us or just show us the right direction.
In training one needs mentors as well, good sources to get new information from, to get to know where to go from wherever you are.
If you browse through internet-fitness-forums you always get the same posts:
-where to start?
-what to do next?
-whats the best if i want to...
-how to conquer sticking-points...
If you ever get to a point like this visit:
http://www.power-quest.cc/ and listen to ALL OF THE PODCASTS!
and then go to
http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/
DOminik Feischl and Jürgen Reis offer you first-hand information from their own long experience in the world of fitness, ranging from professional climbing at a world-class level to training with the most simple tools to get you strong as a bull. And everything inbetween. ;-D
Just give it a shot, the only thing you have got to gain are two websites with tons of information and weekly input for your own improvement from some of the most successful trainers and athletes in the world.
Thank you from my side to Jürgen and Dominik for all their hard work and amount of information, which i on my own could never gather and therefore could never grow as much as i do thanks to you guys.
Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry
Sometimes we just feel like there is nothing moving forward, we do not know exactly where to go, where to turn.
If it´s about our life, we got mentors, family who can simply be there for us, sometimes guide us or just show us the right direction.
In training one needs mentors as well, good sources to get new information from, to get to know where to go from wherever you are.
If you browse through internet-fitness-forums you always get the same posts:
-where to start?
-what to do next?
-whats the best if i want to...
-how to conquer sticking-points...
If you ever get to a point like this visit:
http://www.power-quest.cc/ and listen to ALL OF THE PODCASTS!
and then go to
http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/
DOminik Feischl and Jürgen Reis offer you first-hand information from their own long experience in the world of fitness, ranging from professional climbing at a world-class level to training with the most simple tools to get you strong as a bull. And everything inbetween. ;-D
Just give it a shot, the only thing you have got to gain are two websites with tons of information and weekly input for your own improvement from some of the most successful trainers and athletes in the world.
Thank you from my side to Jürgen and Dominik for all their hard work and amount of information, which i on my own could never gather and therefore could never grow as much as i do thanks to you guys.
Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry
Sonntag, 22. November 2009
Till Sukopp Workshop Nov. 2009
I spent the last two days in Cologne, attending an instructor- workshop hosted by Dr. Till Sukopp, www.kettlebellfitness.de , doctor of sport science, to be certified with his organisation.
I´ve got to admit, i wasn´t looking forward too much, because i knew that the main topic would be kettlebell-exercises á la "hardstyle".
For my understanding, the hardstyle-variations, this concept of tension, usage of the bells for low-rep workouts, etc. are mainly a way to get started with kettlebells.
I learned all this quite a time ago, admittedly i had to learn it the do-it-yourself-way from books, short videos on youtube, but i did a good job and did not expect to learn much. Maybe a hint here and there to make a exercise harder or some corrections about minor technical points. But i had already progressed to the "fluidstyle", the competition-sytle of kettlebell lifting, which i consider much more athletic and beneficial to combat sports or overall athleticism.
But i thought "Well, at least i get another correction of my basics, it can´t hurt."
So i took the next plane to Cologne and was waiting for the workshop to start.
The first thing i learned about Till was one of the most positive: his flexability concerning the structure of the workshop and it´s topics.
Two of the four attendees had only time to stay saturday, so we re-structured and completed a monster-workshop from 0900 till 2040 including one lunch-break.
We started with the most painful, dreadful and exhausting part of the whole workshop: the snatch-test.
I learned a few days earlier that one had to achieve a certain amount of repetitions with the 24kg Kettlebell and only one hand switch was allowed.
I was frightened, since i had never tried this before with the 24kg Kettlebell.
I tried it to see where i was standing, 3 days before the workshop and failed. I have to tell you...I was nervous AS HELL!! :-D
In addition i am only used to competition-size bells with a fairly thin handle and Till placed a fitness-kettlebell with a handle as thick as my nightmares about it in front of me. :-D
But the atmosphere of hard working people(not necesarry the other guys in the gym we were working out) immediatly caught me and i went first.
I just thought: "ah...what the hell...just FOCUS, and KEEP ON GOING...one repetiotion after another".
Or as the US. Navy SEALS like to say: "One evolution at a time."
I grabbed the enemy(;-D) and started snatching. I really concentrated on the finer points, the drop, absorbing the weight, drive with the legs, all to conserve the grip which is the limiting factor for me...
I started my mental programm for the intense workouts i created for myself during the last weeks and only "zoomed out" now and then to hear how far Till had already counted my reps.
And pretty soon i hit my number, 56 reps for 77,6kg bodyweight.
I have to tell you...That´s a damn nice feeling!! Knowing i just stepped over another limitation i had only days, even moments before...That´s one of the good things that keep motivating me to push myself.
After we all worked our a**es of, we went on with the technical part.
We dissected all the basic exercises like the swing, the turkish get-up, cleans, presses, snatches, etc. into their small parts, analyzed the movement patterns executed the ourselves under the watchful eye of Till.
The most beneficial part, if you ask me and even if you don´t, was, since it was an instructor-workshop, the special focus of Till on failure- perception and corrective methods and exercises.
I already attended the IKFF Level 1 Kettlebell Instructor Seminar with Steve Cotter last june and Steve taught the exercises, the fluid style variation, with great skill and i still haven´t had a moment of regert that i invested the time or the money.
But for upcoming or already well-established instructors Till offered a tool-box full of ways to enhance the way of moving and increase the level of safety for ones trainees.
Plus you get a crash-course in the basics of marketing and business-planning.
Not to mention the several trainees Till provided, volunteers who never had any contact with kettlebell training before or even sports in some cases and we had to teach them the basic 2arm swing und turkish get-up plus design a little 10min workout for the in about 40 minutes.
That´s some supervised experience-gathering i can recommend!!!
In addition since myself and another participant had some time available on Sunday(the other two had already left) Till offered us to think about topics we would like to discuss and learn about.
So we worked through the basics of the famous Warrior Viking Conditioning / VO²max rouine, basics of regeneration, Self-Myofascial Release- Methods, etc.
I can only highly recommend this workshop.
Not only because i learned a ton of new things to apply in my own training and the training of my clients but also because i got to know Till a little bit over dinner after the heavy, first day and i am really looking forward to work with him in the future.
As always, if you got questions for me just drop a comment or write me a email.
All the best,
Harry
I´ve got to admit, i wasn´t looking forward too much, because i knew that the main topic would be kettlebell-exercises á la "hardstyle".
For my understanding, the hardstyle-variations, this concept of tension, usage of the bells for low-rep workouts, etc. are mainly a way to get started with kettlebells.
I learned all this quite a time ago, admittedly i had to learn it the do-it-yourself-way from books, short videos on youtube, but i did a good job and did not expect to learn much. Maybe a hint here and there to make a exercise harder or some corrections about minor technical points. But i had already progressed to the "fluidstyle", the competition-sytle of kettlebell lifting, which i consider much more athletic and beneficial to combat sports or overall athleticism.
But i thought "Well, at least i get another correction of my basics, it can´t hurt."
So i took the next plane to Cologne and was waiting for the workshop to start.
The first thing i learned about Till was one of the most positive: his flexability concerning the structure of the workshop and it´s topics.
Two of the four attendees had only time to stay saturday, so we re-structured and completed a monster-workshop from 0900 till 2040 including one lunch-break.
We started with the most painful, dreadful and exhausting part of the whole workshop: the snatch-test.
I learned a few days earlier that one had to achieve a certain amount of repetitions with the 24kg Kettlebell and only one hand switch was allowed.
I was frightened, since i had never tried this before with the 24kg Kettlebell.
I tried it to see where i was standing, 3 days before the workshop and failed. I have to tell you...I was nervous AS HELL!! :-D
In addition i am only used to competition-size bells with a fairly thin handle and Till placed a fitness-kettlebell with a handle as thick as my nightmares about it in front of me. :-D
But the atmosphere of hard working people(not necesarry the other guys in the gym we were working out) immediatly caught me and i went first.
I just thought: "ah...what the hell...just FOCUS, and KEEP ON GOING...one repetiotion after another".
Or as the US. Navy SEALS like to say: "One evolution at a time."
I grabbed the enemy(;-D) and started snatching. I really concentrated on the finer points, the drop, absorbing the weight, drive with the legs, all to conserve the grip which is the limiting factor for me...
I started my mental programm for the intense workouts i created for myself during the last weeks and only "zoomed out" now and then to hear how far Till had already counted my reps.
And pretty soon i hit my number, 56 reps for 77,6kg bodyweight.
I have to tell you...That´s a damn nice feeling!! Knowing i just stepped over another limitation i had only days, even moments before...That´s one of the good things that keep motivating me to push myself.
After we all worked our a**es of, we went on with the technical part.
We dissected all the basic exercises like the swing, the turkish get-up, cleans, presses, snatches, etc. into their small parts, analyzed the movement patterns executed the ourselves under the watchful eye of Till.
The most beneficial part, if you ask me and even if you don´t, was, since it was an instructor-workshop, the special focus of Till on failure- perception and corrective methods and exercises.
I already attended the IKFF Level 1 Kettlebell Instructor Seminar with Steve Cotter last june and Steve taught the exercises, the fluid style variation, with great skill and i still haven´t had a moment of regert that i invested the time or the money.
But for upcoming or already well-established instructors Till offered a tool-box full of ways to enhance the way of moving and increase the level of safety for ones trainees.
Plus you get a crash-course in the basics of marketing and business-planning.
Not to mention the several trainees Till provided, volunteers who never had any contact with kettlebell training before or even sports in some cases and we had to teach them the basic 2arm swing und turkish get-up plus design a little 10min workout for the in about 40 minutes.
That´s some supervised experience-gathering i can recommend!!!
In addition since myself and another participant had some time available on Sunday(the other two had already left) Till offered us to think about topics we would like to discuss and learn about.
So we worked through the basics of the famous Warrior Viking Conditioning / VO²max rouine, basics of regeneration, Self-Myofascial Release- Methods, etc.
I can only highly recommend this workshop.
Not only because i learned a ton of new things to apply in my own training and the training of my clients but also because i got to know Till a little bit over dinner after the heavy, first day and i am really looking forward to work with him in the future.
As always, if you got questions for me just drop a comment or write me a email.
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 18. November 2009
Is age a handicap?
No.
I know there are some thing that change when you are getting older:
-you don´t regenerate as fast as you used to
-you got other obligations
-maybe your focus of attention shifts to other stuff
Well, but nothing can overcome a laser-like-focus and determination.
"Patience and time are the two most powerful warriors."
A friend of mine found this video a few days ago.
Very Impressive!!
I don´t think he has problems getting out of his bed in the morning, playing with his grandchildren, taking his wife out for dinner, carring groceries from his car to his house/flat,...
If that sounds like a nice way to spend your future...Start doing something today!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
I know there are some thing that change when you are getting older:
-you don´t regenerate as fast as you used to
-you got other obligations
-maybe your focus of attention shifts to other stuff
Well, but nothing can overcome a laser-like-focus and determination.
"Patience and time are the two most powerful warriors."
A friend of mine found this video a few days ago.
Very Impressive!!
I don´t think he has problems getting out of his bed in the morning, playing with his grandchildren, taking his wife out for dinner, carring groceries from his car to his house/flat,...
If that sounds like a nice way to spend your future...Start doing something today!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 11. November 2009
A broad base of fitness - why and where to go from there
A man has to build the basement of his house first.
If he tries to build anything first, it will collapse with the first, small shake.
But can one live in a hole in the dirt? Can someone build a strong, solid base an then go nowhere from there?
Can one live solely with a strong base and no superstructure?
I always preach, how important a solid base of fitness is...
How one must first master basic ways of moving her-/himself, how to move external objects, how to apply force, generate power, improve energy systems, benefit from all the abilities your body already has.
If one has achieved those points, if one can take care of the own body, some amount of extrenal weight... Well... WHAT NOW?
As far as i know, there are two ways:
1)keep on improving the strong base.
2)take it over to a speciality you enjoy, and come back for regular visits to maintain health.
There are those, like myself, who just enjoy training for the sake of itself. I love pushing myself, challenge my mental capacities, adding weight, doing more in less time, watching my body getting stronger every day.
I notice the benefits in other parts of my life, but that´s just...well...a benefit.
That is what "fitness" means to me...being able to do a lot of things, not necessary world class but a whole lot better than anybody you see walking our streets.
Often people ask me, what my goals are.
Right now i got several but i do not train a certain way to achieve them as fast as possible. I just keep training and see them coming within my grasp. I wanna have a strong base first, then an excellent one.
I got, like everybody else, favourite exercises, hobbies, and they benefit from my training. But i do not train especially for them. They are part of my life. Just like training per se.
And there are those, who enjoy something in particular.
Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Nail- Bending, Soccer, American Football, Swimming, Endurance Running, whatever comes to your mind.
I they want to become good, they need a base, build by their sport/hobby/passion. Tecnique, the special movement-patterns, all specific.
If they want to become better, they need a good, broad base. They need the body to work with ALL HE HAS GOT!
Only if the pyramid has all the lower levels, there can be the one top stone, that forms the apex.
So wheter you wanna climb the top of your favourite pyramide or just have a nice, solid house that keeps your warm during cold weather:
Take your time to build a strong base of fitness.
Train hard and enjoy your life!
All the best,
Harry
If he tries to build anything first, it will collapse with the first, small shake.
But can one live in a hole in the dirt? Can someone build a strong, solid base an then go nowhere from there?
Can one live solely with a strong base and no superstructure?
I always preach, how important a solid base of fitness is...
How one must first master basic ways of moving her-/himself, how to move external objects, how to apply force, generate power, improve energy systems, benefit from all the abilities your body already has.
If one has achieved those points, if one can take care of the own body, some amount of extrenal weight... Well... WHAT NOW?
As far as i know, there are two ways:
1)keep on improving the strong base.
2)take it over to a speciality you enjoy, and come back for regular visits to maintain health.
There are those, like myself, who just enjoy training for the sake of itself. I love pushing myself, challenge my mental capacities, adding weight, doing more in less time, watching my body getting stronger every day.
I notice the benefits in other parts of my life, but that´s just...well...a benefit.
That is what "fitness" means to me...being able to do a lot of things, not necessary world class but a whole lot better than anybody you see walking our streets.
Often people ask me, what my goals are.
Right now i got several but i do not train a certain way to achieve them as fast as possible. I just keep training and see them coming within my grasp. I wanna have a strong base first, then an excellent one.
I got, like everybody else, favourite exercises, hobbies, and they benefit from my training. But i do not train especially for them. They are part of my life. Just like training per se.
And there are those, who enjoy something in particular.
Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Nail- Bending, Soccer, American Football, Swimming, Endurance Running, whatever comes to your mind.
I they want to become good, they need a base, build by their sport/hobby/passion. Tecnique, the special movement-patterns, all specific.
If they want to become better, they need a good, broad base. They need the body to work with ALL HE HAS GOT!
Only if the pyramid has all the lower levels, there can be the one top stone, that forms the apex.
So wheter you wanna climb the top of your favourite pyramide or just have a nice, solid house that keeps your warm during cold weather:
Take your time to build a strong base of fitness.
Train hard and enjoy your life!
All the best,
Harry
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