Those who did not know, I was on a longer trip for the last 2 months.
Training was not possible for a long time, due to some health complications but I´m very happy to tell I´m back on the wagon again. ;-)
Right now, I use the HeavyHands System by Dr. Schwartz, MD to get my Conditioning back up again, spend some time on my feet and started working with the Convict Conditioning Bodyweight Exercises.
I´ll be doing this stuff till mid- december, then I´ll finally have my very own Power Rack, Barbell and enough weight to keep my growing physically and mentally for a very long time.
So stay tuned, I´ll try to post regularly again and keep good topics coming.
Tip for today: Grip- Work!
Take some heavy weights (I used Kettlebells) and a towel.
Do Farmer Walks (two KBs in one hand, one Kettlebell with only one or two fingers), towel- swings and towel- curls.
Finally I could motivate myself again to write a blog- post...
This time I wanna talk about testing in our training.
We`re not talking about special workouts you do regularly to compare times, weights you used, reps you did to measure progress.
The essence of this approach is to do something and then look if it is working. Maybe it is, maybe it is not, maybe you overestimated yourself and got injured, maybe you underestimated yourself and progress was not as fast as you wished or it could have been...
First, this is not totally my idea.
I first heard about testing via Adam T. Glass and the Gym Movement.
So the basic idea would be to test for things you are about to do in a workout prior to starting.
Somehow you would have to get yourself a tool which could tell you if some movement is good for you today.
Everybody who has ever worked out for more than a month knows you eventually hit a plateau. Your eccentric- deload- supported- water- supported- ultra- flexible- wave program could not prevent that.
The key question is: why?
I exaggerated a bit above when naming the periodization. People much, much smarter and with way more experience than myself have spent decades developing periodization- schemata and they got much stronger than I am currently in the process.
Fortunately I am still in the beginning of my training career and the internet is giving people like me a place to put their opinions.
Ok, again, why do plans fail?
There are several factors to consider:
The key- factor would be: you are planing the future and...well...you cant really do that with certainty.
You did something in the past which had a certain outcome. It is as simple as touching the hot stove an experiencing the burning sensation. This can teach you, for example, not to touch the hot plate.
The problem is you never have all the information. Either there really is a lack of information or you can not comprehend all of it(lack of knowledge, inability to translate, perceive, etc.)
So, to stick with the example above:
If you do not understand the relationship between the power- switch and the hot plate you might assume several things:t 1)the plate is hot. Period. Therefor do not touch it. 2)the plate is hot and I can not control the heat, so do not touch the plate.
There are more but you get my drift...
You made experiences in the past which taught you more or less and according to those lessons you are planning something which is only existing in your head.
Your plan will always be flawed because no one has ever all the information and/or the cognitive ability to conclude from all of it. So your plan is flawed.
Combine those actions in the now, based on the past, with the human ego, which has brought us very far, which has inspired many great things, and there is potential for personal tragedy, injuries, etc..
So we need a tool to test our plan against the now, the true capacity of the physical body, meaning what would the body do in today´s workout if there was no ego, no mind, nothing constricted by "must", "should", etc. to interfere, only the need for improvement.
This requires a tool in the "now", nothing pre- planned, just coming in with a plan and checking if it is ok.
The next part will be dedicated to the few things I can tell you about neurological testing as well as my own variation I´m using due to my conditioning through my past experiences. :-)
Well...It´s done. It´s my last day of the Velocity Diet...Tonight at 2400 I´m back to eating solid food.
To be honest, it´s about time. It´s fun to drop weight, get some mindfuck going but still... :-D
There have been some physical changes as well, as you can see in the video below. So objective number 3 has been accomplished as well as number 1 and 2.
I lost around 6-7kg, my strength levels are the same or higher, conditioning didn´t suffer either. I even took a blood- sample yesterday and I will have the results in a few weeks...
To be honest, there is nothing more I can say right now...Maybe during the next few days some insights will occur to me which I can share with you.
If not... It´s always best to try it ourself anyway...
Train hard and enjoy every moment! All the best, Harry
OK, since the beginning of March I completed 2 phases, each 4 weeks long.
First I was eating like a pig and working the One lift a day program by Dan John.
After that I was a crazy pig starting the Velocity Diet.
I´m still doing that one, Sunday 2400 will be the finish- line.
Right now I´m looking forward to it, simply because I´m starting to feel I need quality food again.
I learned a lot so far, re-evaluated my idea of nutrition, discovered some things circling around in my head and lost some fat in the process.
The next phase is gonna be the consolidation: I´m gonna be pig all the way. I´ll train and eat like one.. ;-D
One success sets you up for the next one.
(Please, think about that one for a moment...It can make a huge difference in your life.)
Ok, why the comment above?
Because I lost some weight. I only consumed Protein- shakes for 4 weeks. I retained all of my strength and likely gained some conditioning because I´m lighter.
Still...My body is craving nutrients, fuel, energy which does not come from within.
So the next few weeks, 4-5 to name numbers, will be dedicated to strength work.
I was provided the possibility to train at a friends apartment, he has an awesome power rack, lots of weights, barbells and dumbbells... To sum it up: everything you need to become stronger.
Always going hand-in-hand with a decent strength protocol is a decent nutrition.
I´ll stick to one main indicator to know when to eat: hunger.
After reseting pretty much everything through the Velocity Diet I´ll simply trust myself to tell me when to eat.
I´ll consume 1-3 Protein- shakes per day, I´ll eat 1-3 meals per day, I´ll stick with protein, fat and veggies on my off-days and consume protein, veggies and carbs on training days.
About the training...
When we are talking about barbells and the basic exercises I know some things but had little practice so far.
So I pulled out my best reference towards strength training available in my literature: Purposeful Primitive by Marty Gallagher.
I like this book so much, I read it 3 times I think...
Finally I have the opportunity to practice some of the things I read about.
I chose to go with a 2 day/week training.
Marty describes it as somewhat crazy and... well... I like crazy. It´s OK, people tell me, ask me, whisper about me being crazy all the time so...yeah...it´s OK.
Each of the two days I´m gonna work up to one top set with 5 reps and add 3x8 back-off sets with roughly 75% of the top set.
This is done first for the Back squat, then for the Bench-press and then for the Dead-lift.
After this terrific amount of pushing and pulling little girl weights I´ll do one upper body pulling and one upper body pushing movement. Marty calls it Biceps- and Triceps work.
But I´ll stay away from triceps- push-downs as far as possible.
Instead I´ll stick with dips, heavy barbell curls and chinups. Which will be really funny after the basic- movements before. But hey, call me crazy... ;-D
2 times a week the body will be blasted, the rest of the week I do some easy cardio (I´ll talk about that in a further blog-post), maybe yoga and eat a lot which I hope will increase my strength- levels as well as my muscle mass.
Some things just get you going, make you access reserves you never would or maybe even could tap into on your own...
Doing things you never do can be such a thing.
To me, training alone and mostly using Bodyweight exercises and Kettlebells, Strongman Training with tools and implements I have no access to is such a thing.
Training in a group is as well...
Last Saturday I was able to combine those two strangers when I was invited by a friend, Gregor ( http://www.strongbodyandmind.de/ ), to visit him near Munich and together with other well known crazy trainees we would hit a 6 hour monster training day.
We started light... ;-D
Several Rounds of Tire Flips using a 100+kg Tire and with each round adding Sandbags which added up to 120,140 and 160kg "supersetted " with hand-over-hand Sled- pulls with the Sled weighing 60kg, 80kg, 95kg and finally 110kg...
That was mini- workout number one...
The next part consisted of Strongman Log Clean & Pushpresses.
We didn´t discriminated between Jerks, pushpresses and all that stuff.
Pick it up and get it over your head. Period. Because that is how strength is built.
The workout itself consisted of 60sec with 60kg, rest for 60sec, 45sec with 45kg, rest 75sec and finish with 30sec with 30kg.
I showed some weakness with the heavier weights but was able to beat some of the guys simply because due to my Kettlebell- Training I have got some pretty good endurance and speed with the lighter weights.
But I have to take care of my strength- levels...
Still I hit a personal best when getting 75kg (my current bodyweight) overhead...
The fact that I managed that weight was interesting to me, because I still struggle with 2 32kg Kettlebells.
To me somehow Kettlebells are more difficult to handle than Dumbbells.
But in the end all that matters is getting stronger, getting more enduring, be it with any form of free weights...
The next workout consisted of a 3 round- superset- set- up with 2x 20m Sled Drags (95kg, 110kg and some guys even hit 125kg) and 2x20m Trapbar- Farmer Walk with 110kg.
That one was tough...
The next one was even tougher...
4 Times 2x 20m Trapbar- Framer walk up to 150kg (some guys even hit 180kg!!) and finish with 1 round of max. time Farmer walk with 130kg...
We finished the day with a evil medley designed by Gregor:
For time 7@ Clean and Overhead(Pushpress, Jerk, Powersnatch) with a Thick- bar Dumbbell weighing 32kg, 6x Sandbag Loading on a 122cm platform(I used a 40kg Bag, some even handled a 70kg Sandbag!!) and 5 Keg- Cleans with a 40kg (some went for 50kg)
I was surprised how well I handled myself since I´m still doing the Velocity Diet and am living on Protein- shakes only.
The day after our training was tough because my body was screaming for food to restore itself...Still, I didn´t waver and stuck with my Diet. I received enough protein to restore my muscles and everything else will only help to burn off fat.
All in all it was a great day, I hit several personal bests and I am looking forward to another session when I actually have eaten something. ;-D
Last week I had some problems with my protein-order... I placed it last minute, panicked, re-routed it to Graz because I was afraid of the possibility of a 2-day-fasting.
The consequences were some delay in shipping and while I was traveling north to Linz the package was driven down southward to Graz...
Tough luck.
Lesson learned: make a choice, live with it, trust your instinct and if you panic and make the wrong decision you 1)still did better than making no decision at all and 2)live with the consequences.
So From Monday to today my Protein- intake was a bit too low and I kinda felt it during my workouts and afterwards, my energy- levels were kinda low but now I got my full supply which will let me cruise through the last few days...
What else...
I feel more athletic. I did some hill sprinting today, not conditioning style but with ample rest between the sprints (I think between 2-3 minutes) so it was more like a explosive- strength workout...
Right now I do not see as much progress with the body composition as I did during the first 2 weeks but as long as I at least keep my athletic level and learn something about my mindset I´m ok with that.
To be honest I expected the decrease in body fat would increase this week because I cut the raw milk in my shakes and stuck with water.
Maybe it was the decreased amount of protein, maybe I just do not see it because I´m biased...I do not give a sh*t...
It is happening, I set a goal and my mind has already achieved it, now I just wait for the actual time to pass...
The Velocity Diet so far brought me back the body composition I had 2,5 years ago after eating carb- free for several months and doing gut- busting conditioning.
Not that I do not like both of the above but it´s always nice to have a shortcut. ;-)
One more thing:
My solid meal for the 3rd week will be moved from Saturday to tomorrow, Friday, because Saturday I will be on the road to Munich to attend a Strongman- training- day with some good training- buddies and I do not want to start cooking when I get home at 2300. ;-)
Going to a restaurant for my one meal of the week is out of the question for me.
Simply because this meal has to be treated with respect, meaning I will cook myself, enjoy preparing it as much as eating it.
I guess that´s it for today, folks.
I´ll post the new progression- video and photos on Sunday, so stay tuned.
All you guys who do not work out in a sterile fitness studio, who do not only work on the Peck Deck and know Dumbbells can be used for something else beside front- and side- raises, not to mention those who actually have seen a Kettlebell outside of the vast object of virtu called the internet know how people are looking at you if you cut carbs from your diet, or...well...use Kettlebells, do something like Complexes, Interval- training, etc. Sometimes it can be enough to actually have some sweat running down your forehead to get people looking strange.
Imagine if you have to explain the velocity diet. ;-D
Imagine if you have to explain being on the velocity diet to a bunch of soon-to-be-medical-doctors... Well... Actually it´s not that different. The M.D.s mostly are as clueless as everybody else but after you explain some details to them they are still trapped in that narrow space called conciousness. So after explaining they think you are an idiot, because they are convinced they know it better. Of course there are exceptions, but you get what I mean.
This narrow horizon of possible(!) perception called conciousness is the reason I wrote todays blog-post...
Some person, I do not have a name since I heard his statement in a compilation- video on youtube said:
"If you have a golf-ball-size conciousness and you read a book, you will have a golf-ball-size understanding, if you look outside the window a golf-ball-size awareness, when you wake up in the morning a golf-ball-size wakefullness. But if you could expand this conciousness, then you read the book more understanding, you look out with more awareness, and when you wake up more wakefullness."
I´m constantly trying to expand my conciousness, be it by learning, observing, meditation, physical training, you can add cooking, raising children, whatever...
Therefor I´ve a problem... I have to re-read too many books. :-D Because with an increasing understanding, awareness and wakefulness you gain more information from every sentence, every chapter, every book.
Since I now have a lot of time, because I do not eat, I thought I´d give "Never let go" by Dan John (as well as other books I havn´t read before) another shot. I have to admit, I love this book. To me it is THE ALL-TIME CLASSIC of physical training. every concept you will ever need in training you will find in there. Combine this book with technical proficiency in all your exercises and you are set for everything. Workouts, life, self- improvement, psycho-therapy...
Anyway, back to our golf-ball...
I read the velocity- diet- chapter the other day and stumbled over one paragraph. Really, I´ve read those words about 6 times before, but this time they made another sense to me...(again...):
Dan wrote: "If you can do the V- Diet, if you can give up food and booze for 28 days, you can go out and attack any other goals you may have ratteling around in your brain."
And because a combination of factors is always more potent than a single component alone (if chosen wisely) there was another phrase I read which hit me in the face: "Why?" - "Because Coach said so..." I never liked that phrase before, it always sounded like an excuse to me but like I said, I must have been running around with a marble and now I upgraded to a golf- ball...
So you know what? The moment I read those words the last time they spoke to me, to me alone. During this moment they were written only for me.
I may have still a golf-ball ratteling around in my head but that golf- ball does have some crazy plans for the future. And now, I have a green light to getting all of it done. Because I will finish the Velocity- Diet. It already has happened in my head. It´s done. And everything else in my life, no matter how hard it will get, no matter how deep I will be stuck in the ugliest, smelliest sh*t there every was, no matter how hard all those moments will be, I will never have to worry about failure.
Why? Because Coach said so...
Sorry for all those who still have doubt, maybe one day those lines will also make such a sense to you, tell you your story when the time comes but for me all is right.
Why? Because Coach said so...
If Dan every reads this, do not worry. I know all that I have done, am doing and will do is my own choice, never will anyone but me be held accountable for my actions and any results from them. Taking responsibility for ones actions seems to be the first step on a long journey. But a beautiful, rewarding one.
Train hard and enjoy every moment! All the best, Harry
I´m writing this while drinking my lunch- shake. Actually it feels kinda funny because it´s nut-nougat-flavour and some of you may know I´m allergic to nuts...But since those are artificial flavours I won´t die. Still, always feels funny drinking that.
Well, the first week is done and I´m starting to feel good.
Monday the 4th of April was the first day. I set myself up for a more difficult than necessary first day, because I was consuming lots of carbs up to Sunday so I got hit by a pretty big hypo- glycemic- "shock" during Monday. :-D Well, no right to complain, I knew what I was getting into...
Tuesday started worse. I was having my first shake, vanilla cream- flavour in water (not my favourite by the way...) and while sipping I thought "3+ weeks of this..." and because of that thought, that construct I built up in my mind(!!) I almost refunded my shake, aka puked. Well, again, no right to complain, it was all my fault. After I got myself together again (I kept all of the shake inside as well) I started to be proactive again... I started thinking of ways to solve the problem. I couldn´t come up with anything. So the next logic step was to seek help from people who did what I´m doing. My first go-to-resource was Dan John´s "Never let go". He mentioned something about having some lemon or mint, stuff like that, with you water. So I went out and bought some lemons (because "Coach said so..." ;-D) and... well... It was heaven. Something not tasting like a shake or water without anything else...Heaven. :-) I think this small success was actually responsible for getting me through the first difficult days.
After that it wasn´t that hard anymore... Sure, there are some cravings but every time when I got them I took a step back in my head and thought why I had those...Most of the time it is simply because I´m used to eat solid meals...So nothing that could really become a problem. Just a habit now to be broken.
Yesterday I was reading and was hit by a real aweful craving...Someone was cooking and I smelled the not so good odor and it was literally feeling like a flame rising inside me who needed to be fueled by food... Fortunatly I was able to step back again in my head (thank you zen- meditation- practice) and discovered the "mighty flame" was actually feeling more like a small, cold, almost invisible flame which was consumed by itself in a split- second... A small moment, insignificant but a huge step for me...
I even set myself up yesterday evening when going out for a drink with some of my colleagues. While they were having cocktails, juices, etc I was sipping my mineral water, with a slice of lemon I might add. ;-) I´m proud because two of the girls sitting next to me ordered grilled vegetables and cheese and it still was no problem, no temptation to me. Round one for the heavy-set guy...
Today is my first solid meal. I´ll e be consuming three of those during the four weeks, every one after one week of liquid- meals- only.
I decided to go with fresh salmon seasoned with spring onions and parsley, some steamed vegetables and a huge bowl of salad(3 different kinds) with the rest of the spring onion as well as tomatoes. Olive oil, lots of it, will hold it all together.
Well, what else to be said... I feel good, no problems with injuries or lack of energy. I feel the need to sleep more but that´s more an instinct than being beaten down...
Sometimes during the week I realized I will be finsihing it...I´m still anticipating some serious cravings and maybe even hunger. But that is ok...I will deal with those. One at a time.
About a week ago I visited my mother and asked her to cook me one more meal, maybe bake a cake.
Yesterday I was going out one more time with friends, had a couple of beers, today, after a big lunch, I was lying in the sun for some time, smoked a cigar, poured me a whiskey and simply enjoyed its taste.
Tonight after my workout I´ll enjoy a steak with vegetables one last time, maybe another scotch or a glass of red wine. Then I´ll lie down.
Where I´m going you cannot come but I´ll stay in touch.
Fortunatly you do not have to go to church or a cemetary to stay in touch with me. ;-)
Tomorrow I´m starting the Velocity Diet. So I´ll say bye-bye to all kind of solid food. Milk shakes only for 4 weeks.
Some time after we are born we start to eat solid food. Especially in the western world we get very accoustumed to it. Often when talking to people, especially when the topic is a low-carb diet like all the Paleo- stuff, I discover people are addicted to sugar. That´s kind of the first stage...
I think it was Winston Churchill who said "Men did not accomplish all he did because he is made from sugar."
Let me be clear: We need food. period. There are some theories out there claiming there could be other sources of energy availiable to us but I´ll have to expand my scientific horizon for the next 20 years, talk to 20 different yogis, do some really crazy things. After all that I´ll come back to that question. See you then...
We do not need food all the time... We simply get used to eat. Like one can get used to smoking. It´s not only about nicotin, it´s about you as well. If you have to no food availiable you can sustain yourself for weeks. Some people I have seen much longer than others...
If you keep up your training regime and ingest what is crucially to preserve this metabolic active tissue, aka protein, your body only needs energy for the workout itself as well as you basic everyday energy demands (breathing, heart beat, brain activity... Some people really are energy savers with that last one. ;-D)
So you ingest all that is necessary to conserve the metabolic most active tissue needed to burn energy, muscles, and restrict the intake of energy necessary for everything else. The good thing is, we all do have those extra pockets of energy for such situations. We health professionals call them fat.
Ok, so we get the body into a state of burning fat. Nice...
The only thing which could be complicating things is, well...you. The narrow-minded concept we carry around in our skull all day and call conciousness. The concept of avoiding everything uncomfortable, living in the sweet middle of life, never to cold, never to hot, never whatever your limitations are. Only when put in extra-ordinary conditions we soar past what we thought impossible...
Even a constructed scheme like the Velocity Diet may help you destroy some of your limitations. Like Dan John wrote in his book "Never let go" ( http://www.davedraper.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=DDI&Product_Code=BDJN ): "If you can give up food and booze for 28 days, you can go out and attack any other goals you may have ratteling around in your brain."
Well...I´m used to eat almost every day (some fasting put aside). So it will definetly be a challenge to me only living on protein for 4 weeks while still working out, getting my medical studies done, having social contacts...
It is planned to have one solid meal per week, I´m not sure what that will be, I´ll reduce my coffee to 1/day or less. To keep a steady stream of essential vitamins I´ll make part of my shakes with raw-milk, the others will be only whey- protein mixed with water. To me getting rid of the bodyfat is only a side- effect.
The real benefit I´m hoping to reap is on the mental side. Simply by controlling eating, getting myself into a quite aggressive mindset (by the way, if you associate "aggressive" with something negative...I´m not sure you´ll like me..) of overcoming urges, impulses, useless mind-fuck which developed during my 25 years of "life"... I´ll meditate a lot and hopefully I´ll make it as difficult for myself as possible. ;-)
I´ll keep you posted on my progress. I´ll be starting with roughly 81/82kg (measured a about a week ago, I myself do not own a scale...)
What I´ll observe are 1)mindset, 2)performance in workouts and 3)body composition.
So: Never let go. Except food for 4 weeks. All the best, Harry
You and me have something in common: Today I felt my energy levels a bit low, I knew I was not going to get all the sleep tonight either so I decided to take a day off. Do nothing. Watch some TV shows. Take a nap.
That´s a nice way to keep your body balanced.
I can afford something like this because if I miss one day of training...So what?! I will not suffer from it, quite the opposite. Same is, most likely, true for you.
But what if your job, your duty involves, requires, is constant moving, working, running, lifting, practicing, evolving? How can the body keep up with the evolution of the mind?
Well... Who better to ask than Brad McLeod, former Navy SEAL and fitness coach? ;-)
What can be done to keep energy levels high, at the same time stay injury free, what can a person with a vast experience with pain, suffering as well as rising again after physical and mental punishment and crossing borders formerly thought "uncrossable"? Who better to ask than a man who made it through the toughest military training in the world?
Here we go, enjoy the ride.
HH: Brad, how did you value/use/include different approaches like BWEs, weight- training, bicylce riding, swimming, hiking, etc.? SGPT: That is a good question, Harald. During my times in the SEAL Team’s I valued the body weight exercises along with running and swimming as my top priority. I had to be able to do all 3 of those exercises very well to be a part of the teams. I would supplement extra workouts with bicycle riding and weight training to round out my overall general physical preparedness. I also climbed a tall houser rope outside the compound during lunch and sometimes did the small obstacle course for a few laps after work. I found that the rope climb was very beneficial to building my grip strength, upper body endurance and core strength. I would highly recommend adding the rope climb as a supplemental exercise to anyone who is thinking about Special Forces training.
HH: Did you design your own workout regime, was it provided by the organization or a mix of both?
SGPT: I was required to do a morning PT with the SEAL Teams for general training and then from there we would do a short run (5k) or at least once a week do a longer run (15k) or a swim. I would add extra workouts depending on how my body felt such as bicycle riding, and weight training and rope climbing. Doing the basic workouts from the SEAL Team would be enough to maintain your body in shape – but I was always trying to do extra. It paid off as I was asked to go to rock climbing school and later taught my platoon some rappelling and climbing techniques. Without the additional training I was doing I may not have been selected to go to rock climbing school. Learning to rock climb was a big turning point in my life so I was glad that I had put the extra work in to get my body ready for that event.
HH: With a such a unit and the possibility to be deployed on very short notice, was there any sort of programming of your training possible?
SGPT: I would just train hard all the time to be ready for anything at any time. I really mixed up the training but in general would always go towards muscle endurance doing long runs, long bicycle rides and long weight workouts (usually an hour at least). The only short workouts I would do would be the obstacle course where I may do 2 or 3 laps and end up working for about 30 minutes. So to make it harder I may run or ride your bike to the obstacle course and then ride your bike home – a few miles away.
HH: Recovery: Was there any? How did you handle the workload?
SGPT: When I was in Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training (BUD/S), there was not much recovery. You get your butt kicked every day and there is no let up. I remember my body always being in a constant state of fatigue. So you mainly have to muster up your mental power to get you through the daily grind of workouts. It has been said that BUD/S is 90% mental and 10% physical. I do believe that because at a certain point most athletes, even the best, get worn down by the total workload and have to run on fuel from the mind. That is where I began my initial rudimentary mental conditioning techniques of visualization and affirmations. Without them, my body would have crumpled and I would not have completed BUD/S. By working on the mental side, I was able to overcome my physical weaknesses and eventually succeed and graduate BUD/S.
HH: Again considering the possibility of short- notice- deployment: how did you make sure your training would prepare you but not kill you?
SGPT: When I trained initially for BUD/S my first time I was 19 years old. I trained very hard but made a lot of mistakes in my style of training. During my second time going through BUD/S (I was 22) I trained even harder but smarter. I did long 100 mile plus bike rides and long running events. I lifted weights for long periods of time and run to and from the gym. I pushed my body really hard and mixed up the workouts. Luckily I had no major injuries or set backs. I think the key is knowing your body and being aware when you train. It is easy to overtrain if you don’t mix up the workouts. If you were to do similar exercises day after day you would overtrain and strain the body – resulting in an injury.
HH: How did you deal with in injuries(if you ever had any)? Work around them or stop and heal? SGPT: For many years (after my time in the SEAL Teams) I was plagued with injuries. I would train for rock climbing and workout in the gym many days a week climbing the plastic holds and working out on the climbing hangboard. Over a period of time I realized that this was taking a toll on my body as I developed tendonitis in my elbows and shoulder problems. I kept doing the same workouts every day with repetitive motions (all pulling down). I was not taking enough time off to rest and did not drink enough water and stretch. Now that I do CrossFit – I mix up my workouts so that I don’t do the same workout every day and mix up the motions between pulling down and pushing. I run and stretch and do yoga and really mix it up. I drink water and most importantly I have scheduled rest – so my body is nearly injury free. This is a big thing for me after training for so long with injuries –to be injury free and setting new personal records in pull-ups, deadlift and the one mile run (at the age of 48) is a big deal.
HH: Thank you Brad, for sharing all this information. I´m looking forward to part 3 of our interview- series "Getting to know a Navy SEAL".
Guys, I think if you just read the interview you can get a ton of input for your training. Make it 87282362 tons if you visit Brad´s website http://sealgrinderpt.com/
Also tripple the amount of information if you read between the lines and discover the implied experience of a man who spent good time with the teams. This is as "no bullshit" as it can get, so I hope to see you guys again with the next interview.
Train hard and live every moment! All the best, Harry
(And to everybody who got fooled by the title: I´ll not discuss nutrition.)
There are two reasons for that:
-I was a sick pig. Yeah, right, I had the swine flu.
:-D
-Second: I have been in the Austrian´ backcountry for some weeks, completing an internship at a psychosomatic clinic.
Which reminded me of a very important rule to a warriors life: surround yourself with likeminded people.
Fortunatly I had one guy with me, even crazier than me who constantly kept me on the thin line between clear thinking and almost kiling him for talking nonsense all the time.
On the other hand I was shown who I do not want to be surrounded by.
I´ll have to evaluate my future under those new points of view.
But some really interesting things will happen over the next few months.
Right now I´m back to being a pig. But this time eating like one.
I was in the mood for some bulking again and the best results of my training career so far came from the one lift a day- approach by Dan John. ( http://danjohn.net/ )
So I´m back to the program for approx. 5 weeks.
But there is no growth without building blocks, energy and time to do the building.
About the building blocks:
I started eating as much as my daily work at the university allows me. Usually this means I´m able to get 2 square meals a day.
Since this would be way to little food to grow anything I added several milk shakes with a whey protein. That way I can add around 30 gram of protein 2-3 times a day.
So far it feels pretty good.
About the energy:
I´m also ingesting a good amount of carbs on my training days, mostly rice, bread and potatoes.
The rest- days are fat and protein only.
I have accepted that I will gain a little fat along with the muscle mass, that´s why the 4 weeks after the program are gonna be sweeeeet!
About the time to build:
Well, I have to sleep. Period.
After the program...
Well, since I will be a pudgy piggy after the 5 weeks I´ll give the velocity diet a chance:
I´m expecting the fat loss but along with it some huge mental barriers to break. Simply because only living on milk shakes won´t be a walk in tha park.
The training regimen will be slightly different than in the original version because I have to tailor it to my possibilities of my home gym.
After that I´m gonna be a sharp piggy, both physically and mentally.
My body will be in a state of optimal absorption capeabilities which leads to the phase three: another bulking phase.
Back to eating like a fat pig while working like a mule. Plus I´m as stubborn as one so it will be a walk in the park.
Well...kinda...you know...
I´ll keep you posted, especially while on the velocity diet and we will see how messed up I´m gonna get. ;-)
By the way, the next interview with Brad McLeod, our former Navy SEAL will soon be posted so keep checking the blog, I´m really looking forward to it and hopefully so do you!
Train hard and enjoy every moment! All the best, Harry
BTW: No piggies were hurt due to the usage of their name in this Blog. Every pig who was emotionally crushed due to my violent abuse of his proud name was given a cuddle- therapy to recuperate.
Amazed by the beauty of the stars, only visible in the darkness far away from our artificial lights in the cities.
When I go back, more and more brighter lights cross my path and slowly, one-by-one, stars become invisible, only the knowledge of them being there remains with me. As well as the hope to see them again someday.
We live in a world where many people want to convince us that the "wants", compulsive ideas of possessing, consuming, certain things, ideas, are actually "needs", things, ideas, spirits we need to survive, sustain or enhance ourself.
We have lived in this world for so long that we actually forgot what our "needs" are and are confusing them with our "wants".
Maybe because the "wants" are easier, quicker to gain, capture, maybe because due to the world we created for ourselves the "wants" shine brigther than our "needs". Because sometimes when people are delivered into places of the utmost darkness they can see the stars again and return a different being. Happy. Freed.
Taking a good look at oneself can have a suprising outcome, realizing what ones "needs" are...
Those are not my ideas, I´m just a medical student with too much oxygen in his blood and brain after his workout and a calm mind because during his workout he saw stars(gotta work on that respiratory capacity...)
A journey into the life and mind of a man who has gone through the toughest military training there is, a man who can tell you what "being fit" really means, because where he has been trained, where he worked, what he has done, there is no place for error, no place for training which is only boosting your ego...
Who is he, what has he done, what does it take to get there?
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy our view into a no-bullshit-world of fitness!
HH: Who are you and what are you currently doing? SGPT: I am an average guy who is on a life long journey to improve myself. My name is Brad McLeod and I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I work in a physically demanding job as an environmental consultant so I have to hike a lot and weather the Southern heat and rain. I work part time as a CrossFit trainer and help athletes improve themselves both physically and mentally. I train athletes both on my website http://www.sealgrinderpt.com/ and at local parks in the Atlanta area.
HH: What are the SEALs
SGPT: SEAL stands for SEa, Air, Land and are the U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare unit. These are guys that have to be ready for anything at anytime.
HH: How does one become a SEAL, what test have to be passed?
SGPT: The process to become a SEAL is very rigorous and very few guys actually make it to serve on a SEAL Team.
The first step is to be selected to Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training (BUD/S). You have to pass a written test similar to a college entrance exam, a full body physical examinations from a Doctor with no problems and then pass a physical test (PST) of swimming 500 yards in a side stroke, max pushups in 2 minutes, max situps in 2 minutes and then max dead-hang pull-ups to failure and then a 1.5 mile run in long pants and boots. The pull-ups are what fails many athletes. When I took the test only 2 out of 10 passed in that session.
From there you go on to be classed up in BUD/S which is 6 months long of intense work load. We started our class with approximately 135 candidates. The first 8 weeks you concentrate on working together as a team and do tons of cold water swimming, running, PT, obstacle course and classroom sessions. This is all really intensified during Hell Week. Team work is key in Hell Week. During this week you go without any sleep and are driven to your outer point of failure through surf torture, boat drills, log PT, and non-stop exercise and team drills. Many athletes quit in the first few weeks but drop like flies during Hell Week.
When I went through the Diving portion was the second phase. Of course you learn all about diving with open circuit (SCUBA) and closed circuit (no bubbles) rigs. You do a ton of underwater swimming and classroom and continue hard PT. During that time I failed a math test and was disqualified and sent to a Navy ship for a year before I could return to start all over again at BUD/S.
The third phase (at the time I went through) was land warfare. You learn how to navigate long range over the land, shoot weapons, explosives and how to blow things up underwater. It was really fun but still very hard with lots of PT and rigorous work and long days. By the time we graduated from BUD/S we had only 16 guys and started with 135.
From there you go to Army jump school at Ft. Benning, Georgia and then on to a SEAL Team where you serve 6 months and have to go through another rigorous workup. At that time it was called SEAL Tactical Training (STT) and you went through with your platoon. You learn more land navigation, more demolition and you shoot weapons till your ears ring and shoulders and hands hurt. The days are very long but you learn a ton. After over a year of training you are then awarded your Navy SEAL Trident which for me was a big honor.
HH: What made you come back after the failed math test and a year in the fleet? What was your motivation to get back and do it all over again?
SGPT: It was a major goal of mine to make it through BUD/S and to the SEAL Teams. So when I was kicked out of training for failing a math test I was mentally crushed. I have never felt so low.
I remember an Instructor saying that "If you quit now, you will quit on everything hard the rest of your life". That phrase stuck with me as I did not want to be a quitter. Once i got done feeling sorry for myself i resolved to come backer stronger and smarter than ever. I started working out like a mad-man on the ship i was transferred to. I read many books and ran long distance when i got into port. I transformed myself into a new and better person. My motivation was that i don't like to lose or be second place. I wanted to win and finish the drill.
HH: When you were with the teams, what did a typical day of training look like?
SGPT: I used to ride my bike in to work in the morning so would get a few miles in to warm up. Then we would all have our morning PT workout which was all bodyweight exercises similar to that found on http://www.sealgrinderpt.com/. After the PT we would go for at least a 3 mile run or some days we would go swim or do a nearby obstacle course. The O course where I was stationed was lower so you could really go through fast. I loved that O course. Once a week we would go on a longer 10 mile run from a park in Virginia Beach down to another destination on the beach. During the day we would have something different every day. We could be rappelling off a building or out of a helicopter. We would shoot weapons often and learn more explosives. We would dive or work in the boats and have drills. Every day was something new and interesting so you never got bored. Always fresh. During lunch I would go lift weights in the weight room and sometimes I would go and do laps on the tall rope climb. After work I would bike back home, so in all would have a pretty physically demanding day with both the physical workouts and skills to learn.
Well guys, that´s it for the first part. Stay tuned for the next part when we will hear Brads´ experiences with exercise- selection, programming, recovery and how he put it all together at http://www.sealgrinderpt.com/.
Train hard and be true to yourself guys! All the best, Harry
Making single events, which help your development (whatever you are working on), into habits is one way to success. One thing I can´t do very often but definetly regularly is attending one of Dominik Feischls´ seminars or training-camps. (http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/)
I attended this years "Wintertraining" yesterday and looking back, looking by a blister on my hand(a new low-count considering past events!), several sore muscles in my upper body and a desperate need for sleep to regenerate, I consider it another great experience!
We started the day at 1100 at a gymnasium with Joint Mobility and several warm- up- drills like balancing on the small side of benches while throwing medicine balls at each other, jumping drills on and off the benches,...
The first real training part for my group(Dominiks no-bulls*hit-training, being both strengthening and fun, is attracting more and more people from different countries, so we had to split up into two working groups this time) started with a set of timed rope climbs, static holds, stop- and- go- drills (on the rope),... Well, my forearms were kinda pumped after that. Good thing I knew it was only the start of our workout- day, otherwise I would have been tempted to quit. ;-) (It´s always a love- hate- relationship with Charly, the second coach beside Dominik, since he turned something aweful like losing part of a leg into a advantage over guys half his age: he started working pullups, all kind of handwalking, etc like a madman and developed into a human being even a chimp wouldn´t challenge on the bar! And since he loves what he is doing we do a lot of all his favourites and to us normal people it just hurts!! But we still love it. ;-D )
The next part was box jumps. Easy, right. Well...yeah. Exept we ran in circles, jumped one after another for like 5-10min without rest, steadily increasing the height up to 1,3 meters. I don´t do those very often, I managed to keep up, it did not really hurt but in a strange way those repeated explosive accelerations wear you down...Nice!
We continued with another set on the ropes, this time with more static hang-time and another round of handwalking at fixed ladders which had a slight incline. So basically after they wore our hands, arms, our whole upper bodies down they made us do the same thing again. Only harder. How can one not love these guys?!
We did a short circuit training with lunges, static rope hangs, elephant walks with pushups, jumping squats, knee- raises and feet- elevated- hands- on- plastic- balls- pushups(2 rounds, 30sec on/15sec off) before finishing our indoor- part with a 5min obstacle course which included backward handwalking, some tumbling, sideway- handwalking, handwalking on bars, balancing over benches,jumping over different obstacles. I was breathing heavy after this one! :-D
It was about 1300 when we changed into our outdoor- clothes(basically I think everyone added one additional layer of clothing) and made our way to the famous Naturtrainings- center in Thomasroith.
After some mobility- work for our shoulders(we needed that one) we started several team- games. While one team had to flip a 180kg tire all the way around a soccer field and at the same time carry a smaller tractor tire around the same field Farmer- style, all walking in snow(~ 15cm), the other team had to complete a static hang challenge with a total count of the hung minutes. Of course we switched and every team had to complete every event. Since Dominik and Charly were timing us the whole thing developed into a competition between teams. It was a fair fight. ;-)
Short hill sprints in slippery snow, stone-speed-dragging(stones weighing around 35-40kg I think), partner carries, resistance- sprints(weighted, against a partner,..), even shrugs with a heavy tire for time were integrated into the competition.
After all that fun we went for a 5km hike into snow-covered hills, climbed icy tracks and made our way through fields covered with knee- deep- snow. After that we called it a day.
There are several things one notices when participating in such events:
-work on your upper body endurance Because you never know how many additional pushups you have to do, how long you have to crawl over some field, how long you have to hold on to something, be it a bar, a rock, or something you are carrying somewhere.
-do your conditioning I know it sucks when you have to train so hard you almost puke a lung but if you gas out too soon you will not have any mental capeabilities left for important tasks.
-work on your mindset With some of the static holds or team challenges it was really tough because there was not much strength left after some of the dynamic pulls, etc. If you have got a happy place, a relaxing thought you can hold on so much longer, perform the next repetitions easier and keep a clear head towards everything else happening around you. Keep calm, breath.
-competition adds a new dimension to training Normally I´m a loner. I work out alone, I motivate myself, I plan my training myself... Being in a team, pulling the same direction as other people can give you that extra burst needed to get another step further out of the comfort zone. You push harder, pull faster and finish stronger. So now and then, add some people, add some competition to your training.
Some thing which made me very happy: It was a hell of a day, I was tired, I had my share of blisters... But:(!) After we finished I felt like: "WHAT?! I could, I want to run, lift, throw for another 5 hours!" And I still had the potential to do so, my mind was fresh...That was new to me. It feels good to sense progression in your life, in ones training.
Train hard and enjoy every moment! All the best, Harry
Imagine attacking installations, persons, gathering information, all that in hostile territory, thousands of kilometers away from home.
Imagine surviving off the land while being hunted by hundred of enemy soldiers.
Imagine doing things like diving(not the cosy i-learned-it-during-two-days-at-the-holiday-resort-kind of diving), skydiving, climbing mountains in the most aweful of conditions, combat shooting, marching with backpacks up to 60kg, things a normal person would consider crazy and maybe(!) a once-a-lifetime-adventure.
Imagine being shot several times with you guts literally hanging out of your belly(just remeber the last minor injury or even major injury and how much it hurt...how much you were still able to do...) and still being able to move, shoot and, most importantly, still able to think and take care of the man next to you.
Imagine all that.
The truth is: you can´t. Do not worry, I can neither. Why? Well...Such intensities, such energetic situation have to be felt. One has to dive into such situations and still has to be able to act.
When goverments choose people for such requisitions they have to be very careful. Who will stand even a chance? Who will crack too soon? Who will never quit? Who can keep making decisions when all odds are against him?
Who can deal with a situation in which there are two options: succeed or get killed/torured/...
To me, matter is only a supplement, an expression of the mind. And those warriors are the top of the food chain when we are talking about mental toughness, mental capeability.
I have a tremendous opportunity I can share with you, to get into the mind of a former U.S. Navy SEAL, ask questions and learn and he has agreed to publish his answers on my Blog.
How do these guys train, how they keep a physical and mental edge for missions impossible to imagine for 99% of the population... What has he learned from years in the teams, trial and error (only without room for error). Who has he been before he entered the teams, how it changed him and what he took with him? What are the key elements in his mental game which allowed him to keep going during the most intense selection process known in the military?
All this we will try to find out.
I hope you are looking forward to this as much as I do!
