Multi- purpose - The development of the human body

Still alive...

2011-10-14T13:25:00.004+02:00

Hey guys.

Do not worry, I´m still alive.

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.

GET A GRIP!!! :-D

Train hard and enjoy every moment!

All the best,

Harry

Testing (1) - Thoughts on testing

2011-07-19T16:03:00.007+02:00

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.

http://movefu.com/blog/what-is-biofeedback-training/

http://www.adamtglass.com/

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. :-)

Train hard and enjoy every moment!

All the best,

Harald

Running

2011-06-19T14:34:00.002+02:00

Good advice.

Train hard and enjoy every moment!

All the best,

Harry

Velocity Diet Completed

2011-05-01T12:18:00.003+02:00

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

Sick pig phase 3

2011-04-28T15:06:00.005+02:00

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.

We will see, as always I will keep you posted.

Train hard and enjoy every moment!

All the best,

Harry

Strongman- training

2011-04-25T11:31:00.005+02:00

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

Train hard and enjoy every moment!

All the best,

Harry

Motivational

2011-04-21T15:45:00.002+02:00

Train HARD and enjoy EVERY MOMENT!

All the best,

Harry

Update Velocity Diet Week 3

2011-04-21T14:40:00.003+02:00

Ok, so what´s new...?

Basically everything is going according to plan.

Well...almost...

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.

Train hard and enjoy every moment.

All the best,

Harry

Velocity Diet week 2

2011-04-17T10:53:00.002+02:00

Ok, here is the new video with...well, me. :-)

First before starting the VD:

Now the actual situation:

My posture is a bit off, because the day before I seem to have overstressed my right shoulder and it is completly cramped up at the time...

Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Aha...yeah...but: Why?!

2011-04-12T13:54:00.006+02:00

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

Believe

2011-04-10T11:19:00.003+02:00

To quote: "It´s amazing how far believe can take you."

Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Velocity Diet - 1st week review

2011-04-09T12:45:00.010+02:00

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.

The first parts of the fotos and videos will be posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/zigarry

Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Spreading hate supported by lies.

2011-04-06T21:13:00.001+02:00

Just makes me sad.
And a bit angry...

Train hard, enjoy every moment and always speak the truth from your heart and mind!

Harry

Never let go...except for 4 weeks

2011-04-03T14:08:00.006+02:00

Guys...I got my things in order.

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

"Breathe and Fire" with Greg Amundson

2011-03-24T17:34:00.001+01:00

New Video by Ross Enamait

2011-03-16T21:22:00.000+01:00

Excellent as always.

Train hard and live every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Getting to know a Navy SEAL (2)

2011-03-10T19:49:00.010+01:00

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

3 crazy phases ahead - a view into a sick pig

2011-03-06T14:37:00.015+01:00

It has been some time since I posted.

(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:

http://velocity.t-nation.com/free_online_program/sports_body_training_diet_velocity/velocity_diet_30

You got the link, so please, read it up.

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.

Needs and wants

2011-02-05T18:40:00.004+01:00

Every time I am at the countryside I´m stunned.

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...)

Train hard and enjoy every moment.

All the best,

Harry

Getting to know a Navy SEAL (1)

2011-02-01T15:13:00.012+01:00

Well guys...We are finally starting it.

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

Wintertraining

2011-01-09T15:39:00.010+01:00

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

Getting to know a U.S. Navy SEAL

2011-01-02T17:32:00.006+01:00

Imagine this with me:

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!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Me, a mountain and a failed challenge

2010-12-28T21:50:00.008+01:00

I want to start this entry with a quote:

„What is your job?” “Success.” – “And what are your qualifications?” “Failures.”
(Scott Sonnon)

It is just awesome having friends you can trust. Really trust.
Because trust leads to exchange of information. Through information you get to know a person. To an extent where you can assess borderline experiences/experiments beforehand, therefore modifiy them and reap the most benefits.

A few weeks ago a very close friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go on a mountain hike with him. We would take on the highest mountain in Austria, the Großglockner, 3798m high.
I was exited but the 3-4 day-long tour proofed too much for my holliday- schedule. "Well...", he said, "There is this one thing I always wanted to do...Get up and down in 24h. Are you in?".
Just a small information on the side...I never climbed a mountain. Ever. There are some bigger hills around Linz and Graz where I have been seen at the top but I never had any experience with a real mountain. You know, with a backpack, gas coocker, ropes, snow shoes, stuff like that...
I´m not into climbing that much either...

Now that you have this information about me you can guess what my answer was: "Hell yeah! I´m in!!".

Now, before you label me as crazy: Mathew and I are two of one kind. We like to get to know ourselfes, exploring where the phony exterior ends and where the real person, the very essence, this beautiful bright, energetic ocean of light is beginning. Through experiences the useless outer shell gradually gets, well, sometimes picked, sometimes torn, sometimes blown away.
Still: being save, being able to come back the next day, taking care of the man/friend next to you is important. Therefore is honesty.

We arrived at the bottom of the mountain at around 1400, after a car drive which lasted several hours and the previous night having been quite short since I was pretty nervous.
We started with a briefing of landmarks, the planned route. While changing into our gear we talked with some of the other climbers. Guys who have done stuff like this for years. When asked we told them we where about to start our trip up, leaving the guys suprised because it was about to get dark. Words like "crazy","hardcore" and "oh boy" were uttered. They silenced when being told 50% of this crazy group had never seen the top of a mountain or much of the bottom either.

We geared up, put our snowshoes on and started going up.
Most of the time we could move quite fast. If I brought one thing to the tour it was my level of fitnes.(nothing fancy as you know but no average-joe anymore either)

We ascended and after the first part which felt like a stroll in a snow- white park due to the terrain I stumbled about my main lesson from this event: I´m getting quite good at completing challenges I set for myself.
When confronted with a situation dictated by external factors, circumstances I still have much work to do.
But one thing I learned(especially when reading lots and lots of special forces soldiers, Seals,...) was quite valuable: one step at a time.

Very soon, not too far up the mountain we took a break, had a cup of tea and started to talk.
We both realized we had a bad feeling about the whole situation, about a further ascend.
Fact was, I wasn´t sure I could make it up there.
Fact was, my friend wasn´t sure he had enough capacities to take care of himself and me if something would go wrong.

At this very moment we realized something very beautiful: we really had left our egos in the cars, maybe even at home and only took ourselves and a backpack of honesty with us up the mountain. So we turned our back to the mountain and started descending.

Do not get me wrong, we failed. We set out to do a challenging task and failed. That´s it.

But this time we did not have the capacities to make it. Our at least not the capacities to deal with the consequences.
We will be back there, with more potential, both physically and mentally, and I´ll take a picture for you when I´m standing on the top of the Austrian mountain world. ;-)

Train hard and enjoy every step!
All the best,
Harry

What it takes

2010-12-20T01:40:00.006+01:00

I met some strong guys during my short training career.
Strong meaning both physical as well as mental strength.
One can not develop one without the other.

Guys who pushed themselves through workouts who would blow an average person right off the bench, the field, the track, platform, out of the building, garage, cellar,...
Workouts fot time, reps, sets, both.
I did some things ordinary people consider crazy. Well...

One can push oneself beyond many limitations, discover new aspects during the process, right after it or even when months have passed.

Imagine loading a bar onto your shoulders with your bodyweight and go for 30+ squats...

Imagine loading the bar with 2 times your bodyweight...

Imagine sprinting 400m, all out, only to get to a station where you need to perform 10 Clean & Press with a 40kg stone. Then repeat the process several times.

Imagine running a marathon...

People close to me, friends, family, sometimes ask me "Why are you doing this to yourself? "
"Because through my workouts I develop my mind.", is usually my answer.
One person asked me once "And what happens when you are too old to do such workouts? What will you do then? Then you cannot do such things anymore..."
I thought about tis question and answered "Hoepfully when I´m at this point I wil not depend upon physical exercise as my only tool to develop my mind."
To me(!!) exercise is the best tool. Period.
To others it may be painting, singing, religion, yoga, feeding animals at the zoo, taking care of their parents/loved one/friends/...,working at an office...

To me, mental strength is the most important thing because all the physical things can be taken away from you very quickly and very easy.
When all that is left: Who will you be then.

People like my push themselves in their training, just for the sake of pushing oneself.

Still...There is one thing in common when you are training in such a way:
You can always quit. "Stop...Right know...I do not have it in me today...I´ll come back stronger the next time."
It´s ok, right?

One question haunts my thoughts, training physically, being a martial artist for several years: What if I have no choice?

What if you are in a live-or-die-situation? Two ways: forget the flight, fight or die.
Many people in history, in this very moment go through tremendous terrors due to slavery, torture, prosecution...Some will survive, some will not.

How will one react if put against a wall, left with no more than the two options? Who will fight till the end, who will give in to the illusive easy way out?

Who will be able to face any situation any fight till his end?
Who will never take the easy way out?
Who can be put against the wall and still think clearly?

Thos are questions which keep me up at night, make me do crazy things, write these blog-posts...

Now I have recieved an astonishing opportunity to ask someone who knows.
I´ll keep you posted...

Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Still alive

2010-12-17T14:06:00.002+01:00

I have not been posting for some time.
Do not worry... I´m still improving, learning, watching, listening and recording.
Just not putting it out into the world via this medium.

So, a sign to prove I´m alive:

An improvement to my last attempt in October.
Not too much but I´m satisfied nevertheless. 4 reps more each arm with that weight is good for me, especially since I did not use kettlebells much since october.

Train hard and enjoy each moment!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (7) - Take one step at a time

2010-11-03T21:37:00.008+01:00

Every one who has aquired his driving license heard this one example from his/her teacher:

While driving at night you might stumble across a deer standing on the street.
Even though it recognizes your headlights, understands they pose a threat to its life it will not move. Blinking lights will not change the fact that it does not move.
It is caught in-between two things:
escaping to the right and escaping to the left.
Unable to decide what to do it remains standing still and will eventually end up on my BBQ.

One of my favourite sayings goes someting like this:

"In any given situation you can do three things: the best thing would be doing the right thing, the second best choice would be doing the wrong thing. The worst thing to do would be nothing."

Still, only one thing a time. If you would try to do the best and the worst you would end up having done nothing at all.

A few months ago I was at the hospital at around 9pm. This time not because I had hurt myself but because I had night services at the department of pediatrics.

We (me and a colleague of mine) where talking with the doctor in charge, discussing the last patient, treatments,... And as always students would recieve some advices for their future in the medical field.
One of the most important advices I recieved that night from a nurse. She said:

"If you are ever in charge of the walk-in clinic, please, finish one patient after another. Even if there are nurses, other doctors pressuring you to do something else, keep calm and finish your work.
Last week we had a doctor who just had finished medical school and was doing his first night shift. He got so carried away with trying to treat 3 patients at once to save time, after one hour there were still the same three patients in there and an uncounted number of patients was already or still waiting..."

I experienced the same thing while falling with 200km/h towards the earth this summer...
As I mentioned in a previous post I had some problems when starting to skydive. I still have but back then lying still while falling was problem enough.
Even though I had my trainer with me, giving me signals, my mind was racing with thoughts like
"Is my head back?" (He is giving me the signal to make my legs longer so I start to extend them more...)
"How do I get my pelvis down more?" (Again the legs- longer signal...)
"What´s the next step in the program" (Still the legs- longer and somehow he is looking pissed..Why, I´m doing all I can...)
"How high up am I?"...

So instead of just fixing one problem at a time I multi-tasked several ones and ended up doing not much the right way.
I´m not sure if it is because men can not multi- task or because it´s just my problem but nothing got better, only worse and I was lucky to pass that level.

The making of an elite warrior, SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, Nightstalkers, you-name-them, they get one principle taught from the beginning: One evolution at a time.(this line in particular was taken from the BUDs- Phase of SEAL- training)

Set priorities and then do one thing, 100%, give it all you got until you are done, then do the next thing.

Or like they say in the Zen- Buddhism: Plunge yourself in the moment, immerse yourself completly. Be the moment.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Take care of your Bells

2010-10-27T16:07:00.000+02:00

Oleg Ilika demonstrates how to get rough spots off you handles. especially useful when you still have old Kettlebells standing around like I do.

If you want to evade all that trouble when buying new ones, I can recommend you check out www.spodo.at , an extremly well equiped, obliging and dependable shop run by Mark Dorninger, a guy who is living at the other side of Austria and still manages to send me new Bells in about 1-2 days. That´s the kind of service you will not find at other stores.

Train hard and enjoy life!

All the best,

Harry

Compassion

2010-10-23T20:56:00.001+02:00

The Dalai Lama speaking in Stanford about compassion.

All the best,
Harry

Gifts

2010-10-16T14:15:00.001+02:00

Too often we despair facing such gifts life has given us, placed in font of us, simply because we do not understand...on one side. The other side does and will eventually guide us to what we have to learn from it.

"A warrior has no choice but to believe"
Tales of Power, C. Castaneda

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Suit-up-day workout

2010-10-13T22:38:00.000+02:00

Simplification

2010-10-12T16:56:00.004+02:00

I´m gonna stay true to the title of this post...

1)Pick yourself a pullup- variation (Towel as seen in the video below, close, medium or wide grip, palms of the hand facing you or pointing away, a neutral grip, hands at different heights, comando pullps, walking at the pullup- bar, etc.)

2)Pick a Pushup- variation (Scorpion as seen in the video below, Dands, Divebombers, Iranian Pushups, CLose, shoulder width or wide pushups, pushups on a gymnastic ball, be it with hands or feet on it, ring- pushups, clapping, one- arm, hands in an offset- pattern, etc)

3)Pick a leg- exercise (Lunges as seen in the video below, Jumping Lunges, Lunges forward, backward or to the side, Squats, 1 & 1/2 Squats, Jumping Squats, jumping forward or for height, one- legged squats aka Pistols, Split Squats, Rope Skipping, Sprinting, Cossack- Squats, Box Jumps, Knee Tuck Jumps, etc.)

Set a number of repetitions for each exercise and do them.
Keep perfect form and enough tension throughout your body.
Keep a good pace in order to get a excellent cardiovascular workout.

You can split the exercises, for example if you goal are 50 Pullups, 100 Pushups and 200 Squats you can do 5 Pullups, 10 Pushups and 20 Squats for 10 rounds.
Use any other number you like.
Another way to go is completing one exercise after another. So do all the pullups, then all the pushups, then all the squats.

Simply get the reps and keep your time to measure progress.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (6) - Smooth is fast. Take your time.

2010-09-25T13:17:00.030+02:00

"Remember: Smooth is fast!!"
I heard the instructors saying this to the students of the Basic Underwater Demolition training(BUDs) over and over again. It was a gift from a very dear friend of mine, a documentation about the Making of a NAVY SEAL.
I heard it but I did not truly understand it until my skydiving- course.

Even when we were still practicing the key movements on the ground during the theoretical part of the skydiving- course we were told repetedly to execute the movements smoothly and a bit slower than we thought they should be.

Because during stressful situation movements become shorter, staccato- like.

Martial artist learned to first practice in an environment without stress, where movements can be executed in a smooth, somewhat exaggerated, slower and wider manner.
Only if you start with wide, relaxed motions, only then will there still be any movement left which is still useful during stress.

I want to take about 2 things which can be learned now from this statement:

1) The physical aspect:
Everybody involved in any sport does know how movement tends to change during application under stress.

Be it the martial artist who suddenly gets tight during sparring or in a fight when he should be relaxed and breath freely.
Be it...to be honest, there is no sport coming to my mind when you do not have that kind of problem...Well, maybe Soccer. ;-)

Even if you are playing, e.g., the piano and giving a concert...If you tense up, interrup your flow you got a problem.

This is why training, the steps of learning the technical aspects of your sport, should be happening in an relaxed environment.
Why?
Because our brain is a marvelous, little box.
It not only remembers the physical sensations but the emotional state as well. And as everybody knows emotions translate into physical/bodily reactions back again.

One of the most common examples I get to observe is the frequent shot people recieve when in the hospital.
Sometime in tha past they associated a lot of things with recieving a shot: pain(the injection itself and maybe a hurtful inflammation afterwards), fear(we do not like when being hurt), deception(when mommy told you "this will not hurt"), violence(they had to held you down to give you the shot), disappointment(mommy lied to you), relief(when it is over I feel better).

(To some adults this seems exaggerated but to a child without the proper connections a ability to construct a future based on the events currently happening it may very well seem like this.)

Even when we do know better as an adult("It does not hurt that bad..."; "It´s for the better"/"If I get that shot now I will not suffer in the future", etc.) some of us still experience some sensations when facing a needle.
Breathing changes...Somehow it feels like your chest is getting to small for your lungs, your breathing muscles won´t move so freely as they used to. Breathing becomes shallow.
Somehow certain muscles are very tense...Abdomen, neck, shoulders,...
Your heart is starting to beat faster...faster...faster...

You do not need all this tension, cardio- vascular stress.
It disrupts what some coaches call "flow", a term I really like. It increases your energy demands and robs your precious recources.
A lesson I´m still learning when having a sparring situation and somehow I get tense(which is still happening much)... I´m a quite physically fit individual but those tensions combined with the demands of perception, action and reaction, movement burn me out very fast. At least it happens to everybody. ;-)

Ok...Old dogs not only can learn new things, they can learn new ways of learning.
Still... They are old dogs and have already learned a lot of things in ways not very productive.
I will talk about "arousal control" and mental training soon.

Now we are off to number 2) The symbolism behind todays "Lesson from skydiving":

This lesson actually started building itself in my head when attending the Steve Maxwell workshop in July.
We were talking about the execution of movement, the ongoing empahsis on numbers/repetitions under the label of effort/output/power per time aka intensity.
We talked about the goal of training which can differ from person to person and the necessary adaptation of the means to the end.
To show you what I mean: if you want to build a muscular upper back and biceps strict pullups are a great way to accomplish this. Kipping pullups have their value but in a different context.

So it is not just what you do but how you do it.

"It´s not about the present, it´s about the way it is given" to quote my mother.

It is not about what you do but how you do it.
Simply starting you own company and trying to get as much money for yourself without a thought for the well- being of your employees, customers, family, friends will not be enough. Within months you will be out of business.
Simply going into the hospital, running test, diagnosing and treating according to lab results, CT- scans will not make me a successful doctor. True compassion for my patients and mindset of truely helping them to get back into (social) life will make them happy, healthy and myself a better doc.

Too many examples come to my mind to write them all down, many, many more I do not know.
When you stumble over a good example, post a comment below because this is one mather best learned by examples and experience.

Just keep in mind: it´s not just about what you do, but how you do it.

Train hard and enjoy life. Smoothly. ;-)
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (5) - No back to basics. Get them right the first time.

2010-09-19T10:06:00.023+02:00

Like I said in the previous "Lessons from skydiving" the unique situation of a person jumping out of a plane is creating a very special environment.
The setting of one falling towards the surface of the earth through the air with about 200km/h, the fact of our body being moveable which creates streaming around it and the fact that if we do not have a parachute(left) or screw up badly we get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble.

When working with clients I sometimes spend a lot of time with single exercises. I think some of them actually get bored after some time, being eager to learn all there is about kettlebells, body- weight- exercises, etc.

Still... I keep on pushing details, restraining myself from overflooding them with the little things and always trying to focus on the big and important little things.

Why is it so important?

When I started with preparing for the schooling- jumps we went over the basics of good free- fall- posture over and over again.
Hips, head, knees. Get them right and you have won. That´s what they told us.
They were right.

During my first 5 jumps (you get only 7 with a trainer at your side) i was as stable as a used napkin flushed from a toilet of a plane.
During the 6th and 7th jump I was stable enough to, I need to quote my trainer,"be able to jump out of a plane without killing yourself or others".
Well...
My first solo- jump: stable as one could wish!

Why?
My theory: When you are jumping with the trainers you got a program for every level/jump.
Basically I got out and was 1) nervous, 2)with my thoughts only at the moving portion of the jump and 3)only looking what the trainers were signalling me.
I lost sight of the three basics (hip, head, knees) with every jump.

With my first jump, being on my own, scared as sh*t since no one is there to stabilize me, I was forced to focus on those basics, and those three alone.
Screw the somersault, screw the rotations, screw everything else, there was only room in my mind for the big three.
So I approached the door, got into position, counted to five and pushed myself out.
The moment when you lift your head up, feeling the first air starting to stream past both sides of your neck, the two sides of your body, when you fall and suddenly get a strange feeling at teh whole front of your body until you recognize the air is forming a cushion, allowing you to take control.
When all I thought was to scan with my eyes for the horizon, the thin line between the world we live in and the sky on is falling through, for me during those moments thin enough to no even be clear in sight, vanishing the clear disticntion between the two worlds.
When all I thought was to make the hips the deepest point, first trying to force the back to arch, then slowly, when the eyes realized the blurred horizon, relaxing into the fall, the hips started to sink towards the earth.
When all I thought was to get the knees up which caused my legs to shorten and my position to de-stabilize, then suddenly, when i felt the cusion under by hips, my legs relaxed and lengthend, suddenly feeling the cushion at the dorsi of my feet...
When all of my thoughts concentrated on the basics, my mind and body became free to actually take a look around, conciously, experiencing one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

I think with age physical training is becoming more and more like skydiving...
You wanna get the biggest bang for your buck with each workout, you still wanna make progress concerning intensity, workload but the older one gets the more deliberatly one has to act.

When you are young you can almost jump into training, do a ton of workload(literally), get no recovery with sloppy technique and still grow, improve, develop.
To a certain point...

But it is not like young athletes are invincible.
It´s more like they have a greater coverage with their bank account.
They can withdraw again and again for a long time but one day they will be too far in dept as well.
Like Steve Maxwell said while talking about Joint Mobility, Yoga (of which I became a huge fan during the last several months): "Lots of guys in their thirtys or fortys wish they had discovered this stuff 20 years ago...It would have saved them a lot of (disadvantageous) pain and stagnation."

If you read the previous post from the "lessons from skydiving"- series you already know how mistakes can bite you in the a**.
The lack of basics in physical training is one mistake which will result in the biggest bite.
Because when you get hurt, you have no way to correct your mistake...Even if you reduce the workload dramatically the applied load on the hurt tissue will still be violative.
No mather how light the load on your crappy deadlift is, it does hurt you.

So take the first steps of your life- long training as a mental challenge: tame your spirits who want to do more and more and more...
Take it easy, be proud to develop Technique, take in the basic concepts and movement patterns of your physical activity, read about it, watch others do it, breath some air surrounding your activity.

With time and uncompromising technique success has no chance but to come to you.

Train hard, train smart and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry

Turn around...Sometimes it is useful

2010-09-12T21:42:00.014+02:00

Most of the time I try not to look back too much.
Simply because my challenges are right here, now, the present time of my life.
Sometimes I indulge myself in looking forward, into the future, dreaming what may come.

In the past I was looking back a lot, the things I had done, some of them seemed to haunt me.
So nowadays I learn my lessons and let the past be.

About 40 minutes ago my computer crashed...Since I wanted to continue watching "The Jackal" I rebooted it.
It took some time and I somehow decided to pick up my current training-log which goes back to the 27th of October 2009.

I browsed through the pages, reviewed the workouts, the weeks and months going by...

If someone would be coming to me, showing me such a detailed log, all the notes of where the pain begun and where it spread to...How personal records where broken on a regular basis (sometimes 2 times a week) and at the same time how joints first got sore, then painful, then almost not moveable...
How the weights went up effortlessly, how numbers became bigger(be it the time worked or the weights lifted), how sleep spread thinner and the mood hit rock bottom.
How the spirit soared during the workouts, how it crashed when pain visited the following day...

I´d tell that person he/she is in way over her/his head. I´d tell that person it is time to slow down. Time to take a week off, no training at all, re- evaluate her/his personal goals again and be honest about her/his true capacity.

As a child I was quite fat.
So i got no good base considering my joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles...
One thing I have always been: stubborn.

Thank god one day my stubbornness turned against my lazy life, my eating habits, my movement patterns, my weaknesses.
I started to get back in shape, although I have never been there...

The problem was the real training, away from all the bullshit machines in the commercial gyms, away from all the people who use the narcissistic upper- and lower body split:
-day 1: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror above your belly
-day 2: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror beneath your belly.

When I started improving my physique, I unknowingly started to improve my mind as well.
I became stronger, faster, more competitive, mentally tougher.

I suffered through my workouts and reaped rewards. Some of the guys like Dominik Feischl (), who know me since I first touched a kettlebell and when I still struggled with 2 pullups, know how much stronger I became.

Still, I know now I was in way over my head.
I reaped rewards, simply because my body had to adapt in order to survive in some way.

I was stubborn enough to go on and on and on, push harder, farther and higher, but I was too dumb to realize my will, the pure power of mind could only outrun some aspects of biochemistry, some aspects of life.
Regeneration was not one of them.

When I start something I want everything at once. It took me years and lots of set- backs to develop ways to control myself in this matter.

Another thing it took was the words of Steve Maxwell.
When we were sitting at the end of the workshop in July, Steve talked to us about regeneration.

When a Coach with an experience of over 30 years is telling you, you are working too much, one is starting to think.
I even took one whole week off after the workshop.
Several months ago I would have went to the workshop, had come back with a minor injury, taped it and got back under the weights.

This time the advice stuck with me.
I shifted 2 gears back since then.
Do not get me worng, my workouts are still hard as hell, that´s a given. YOu need hard work to get results.
But the time between workouts is more and spent more relaxed. The food got more. Sleep got more.

And know what?
I´m happy.

Enough said?

I lost nothing of my strength, conditioning, I gained zero fat and gained about 3kg of muscle since July.
My sleep is great, I actually like waking up some days now and go to work. ;-)

Sometimes it is a good thing to turn around and look at your footsteps in the snow. Because when we do we can stop running in circles and continue on our way ... to the next circle.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (4) - Who is responsible? I´m responsible.

2010-08-23T13:03:00.010+02:00

The "Accelerated Free Fall"- system of learning skydiving is based on a sensory overload under supervision of 2 trainers in the beginning and later one teacher.

So basically you first get out of a plane one time strapped to a trainer (also known as a tandem- jump).
After that you exit a plane three times with 2 trainers holding on to you, stabilizing you, to be honest, they do most of the work...
Then you are off to four jumps with one trainer(who should by now only be a safeguard in case you screw up big time).

Then you are off on your own in the sky, from the moment you decide to reserve a spot in the next plane going up, through the gear-check, the sitting- order in the plane (most people think they just throw all on a huge pile, cram them into a small plane, let them cuddle till they are at 4000m altitude and then everybody is fleeing the plane embarrassing about whatever has happened...No, there is an actual system involved and there is much less cuddeling than expected. ;-D) up to the moment when you exit the plane, falling, openening your parachute and avoiding a crash while navigating towards your landing- spot.

Most of the people now get the idea one is responsible from the first free- solo- jump up to the last one for his/her own doing...
WRONG!

One is responsible from the moment you start the theoretical course.
They tell you over and over, they ask you many times and it took me quite a while and a book by Carlos Castaneda to realize the value of the lesson for life outside the gear...

From the moment your "are", you are responsible...Even though there are things outside of yourself which seem out of control, even when not wanting something to happen, only you decide what to do with what you have been given.

Take some of those pathological optimists... No matter what is happening to them, they only see the bright- side...
Take guys like myself... I do know very well things will go bad sometimes, to me that´s life.
In the same way I challenge myself in training every day I´m looking forward to challenges life will provide me. I may be beaten down during those times, sad, even desperate for moments...Still, I got my mindset of fighting through.

Sometimes one can not change what´s happening only how to percieve it. I recently read about it as the "mood of the warrior", which seems to be one of the toughest things to develop.
You can whine. - You can remain quiet.
You can ask yourself "why me?" - You can ask yourself "How am I gonna move on and what can I learn from this?"

Who is responsible? - I´m responsible.

What does it mean, "to be responsible"? - It means making decisions and dealing with the consequences, whatever they may be. Only then can one make decisions and be sure enough to stand by them, honest enough to see and admit mistakes, flexible enough to make decisions solving the consequences.
Think abou that last few lines...Read them again and think about your decisions today.

And please remember one of the points in the code of the warrior: no whining.

There is no whining because... Right! Because You are responsible!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (3) - Being there just isn´t enough

2010-08-18T14:22:00.015+02:00

When I start talking with people about my general perspective of the world, my life, my development I get to a point where people come to the conclusion I believe in fate.

Well, some of them are right, some of them are wrong because I depends on how you see "fate"...

A person who sees fate as something which will occur no mather what one does wouldn´t be right... I do not believe in that kind of fate.

Because I think we all are in some way forging our destiny.

From the smallest particles known to men, up to our plane of existence in which we call a small space "earth" up to the biggest galaxies... Everything is interacting.

When there is a manipulation on one plane, there are consequences on others as well.

One of the sadest examples was the atom- bomb...
A manipulation at an subatomic level altered or ended the lives of so many, changed bodies of humans, which can be a rather difficult task (just ask someone who has ever tried to lose weight or gain muscle, wanted different looks, etc.), and, even more impressive, changed the minds of millions of people, the way they see the world, their leaderships/governments, changed the way things were done and changed the whole course of history, the lifes of people living 60 years after the first manipulation on a subatomic level... Talk about a cataclysmik reaction...

This huge amount of energy unleashed transformed a huge amount of space as well as time.
But even the slightest shift in energy has consequences... Maybe not as huge as a nuclear weapon but something is happening...

As Morihei Ueshiba once said "I who am the universe", the smallest action, the smalles fear, the smallest act of kindness can carry the waves (or particles) of energy out into the world...

So fate seems to me just a interpretation of the principle of conservation of energy...Or how my grandmother used to put it: "you will reap what you haved sowed".
(Yeah, she had some wisdom... ;-D)

So to me fate is just what you give out there into the world, what comes around...

So...Before you ask: No, I did not pass out during an Exit from a plane and came up with that stuff and therefor call it "Lessons from skydiving"...

It came to me rather late during my jumps with my trainers.
One problem I dragged through all my Level- jumps: my feet/legs were too short...
You see if you got your arms in front you kinda need something out back to equal the airstream you are falling through. Simple physics.
(That´s why the shuttlecocks in badminton have a symmetrical shape above their center of mass, to allow the nucleus an even fall)

They definetly want you to get to a state of relaxation during your free- fall- time but they also repeatedly told us (and since I´m a quite intelligent human being it took me just under 7 jumps to actually get it) to keep an active posture.
Arch your back, head back, long toes...

It is very simple although it is a difficult principle of physics and an even more complex symbol for fate:

You have to be active, control your actions, emotions, have a plan and act accordingly to control your fall and not becoming a toy in the changing air current.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (2) - consequences or how mistakes can bite you in the a**

2010-08-14T21:25:00.016+02:00

Some mistakes are simple: you make them and the consequences hit you in the face immediatly.(sometimes literally...)

With skydiving it is a bit differnt:

You have packed your parachute, you get a spot on the next plane up. All good, right? Yeah, so far...
After you checked your gear you get on the plane, take your seat( well, it´s more like you sit on the floor of an extremly small air- vehicle and get cramed into a spot between a 60- year old man who just got a coupon for a tandem- parachute- jump for his first day of retirement and a ridicilously hot girl who is diving out of that plance in a way that makes me wonder if she got more balls than I...).

During the 20minutes it takes the plane to get to the 4km altitude you think about the jump, what you got as your goals, what you need to practice(stuff like posture, different movements, etc.), where the wind is blowing from(so you do not get lost or end up on the freeway south of the airport or the military training area north from it), who is jumping in front of you, who is coming after you...

Immediatly before you exit the plane you give yourself another check, at least all the things you can see and/or reach and feel on the outside of the parachute.

Then it is time to exit... You wait your turn, get into the door on your knees (not because you can´t take the agony but because the plane is so damn small...), get into your position, take a look down to the ground to get a sense where the pilot is dropping you off, take a deep breath and push...( One thing I learned about in gynecology).

The free fall... To be honest, I can´t really describe that one...You open yourself up, the whole body belly down while you keep falling faster and faster towards the earth. You body accelerates up to 200km/h which you feel from your partly covered head, out at the tips of your fingers, down to the back of your foot, an awesome power developed of the one medium we hardly ever notice, like fish hardly notice the water they are living in, still so powerfull only a small adjustment of your body position causes an enormous change in dynamics, like suddenly you start accelerating like crazy, start spinning like a mad yo-yo...

You routinely check your altimeter, still enjoying the seemingly endless view.

Check! You reached you altitude, it´s time to pull the chute.
You start to reinforce your stable free- fall- position, with one hand you reach back to your hand- deploy, the other one executes a compensating motion to remain stable, you get a grip on the hand deploy, rip it out, get back in to stable position, start counting...

21...

22...

23...

Nothing.
That´s not right...

Nothing...
I already should have been yanked like crazy by the unfolding parachute decelerating my fall...

Nothing...
CRAP!!

I will not tell you what to do now because that was the topic of the first lessons from skydiving- post ("Have a plan...Then another one")

My point this time: Nothing wrong was done during the free- fall.
Nothing wrong was done in the plane.
Nothing wrong was done during the check before the flight.

The mistake happened a while back, one hour before, one day before or even one week before the jump.
Packing the parachute, while you or someone else(I´d like it to be someone else so I can complain for eternety about it in heaven...) were joking around with a buddy, looking at the scared faces of people about to jump out of a plane for the first time in their life thinking "Maaan, I´m way cooler than that!", twisting a little cord, making a mistake when closing the bag which carries the folded parachute...

Overall skydiving is quite a safe sport, I´m not trying to display myself as a bada** here.

But one thing is for sure: if you make a mistake at a critical point each following step will unleash a whole new group of problems and those problems...You catch my drift.

My martial arts teacher once said "Wing Tsun is basically a straight punch. Only if you make a mistake you will need all those fancy hand positions and movements."

I think this is something inherently true for a lot of things.

If you have a plan (in which you put a fair amount of time), stick with it and have mastered the basics you will basically get through whatever you you are doing.

The earlier you make a mistake (and are not man enough to take care of it, be it out of pride or embarrassment) the harder it will come back to you...
Be it cheating on your new girlfriend, hitting the big weights without a proper athletic base or trying to do a job without a base of knowledge...
Most of the time life is giving us the chance to correct a mistake wether we want to or not.

One tends to ignore small mistakes in the beginning and brushes them under the rug. Because one still can...But the longer you drag them with you, the wider the consequences spread into other parts of your life...

Making a plan, re-thinking it, repeat the step before, work diligently and one will be fine most of the time.
And the other times? Well, call it bad luck or bad karma but you better have a plan B.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving (1) - Have a plan; then another one.

2010-08-05T15:19:00.012+02:00

If a young child is interested in something it usually can learn it by trial- and- error.

You want to walk? Stand up, walk a few steps, fall down, get back up,...
Speaking...No biggie.
Soccer? Hit the ball. Did not shoot a goal? Well... Hit it again. Till you know how to do it.
You just turned 18 and now you are taking your first driving lesson... And that other car is closing in very, very fast? Well... You may be stressed and a little freaked out by all the things happening around you(the car, the driving- instructor screaming next to you, the windshield- wiper which is all of a sudden turned on magically,...) but there is one thing you can do: hit the break!!
Guess what? That´s it. You put weight on that one pedal and usually all is good. You got another chance to try driving

But this is called "Lessons from skydiving"...
If you get out of that plane in 4 kilometers above ground and your parachute doesn´t work, you got no altimeter, you become instable, pull your parachute and get tangled up in all the cords, you are heading straight into a obstacle, you got no cords to stir the parachute, etc, etc...
If you got no plan here... Well, you are dead now.
I´m sure you get another chance for trying... At least if you belief in reincarnation.

Most will say: "Well... Of course you have to have a plan."
Right.

So let´s stick with the skydiving example...
You jump out of the plane, do your thing, reach the proper altitude, pull your parachute and... Nothing happens...
So...you gotta have the next step planned out. Pull the reserve.

You pull your main parachute, you feel a pull but not even close to what you should feel because it´s tangled up between the cords and the cords somehow got stuck to you... What now?

The parachute opens but both cords used to pilot it are ripped... WHat now?

You have to have a plan A, then a plan B.

Lets switch to another example close to my field of experience:
A patient has surgery. If a doctor would perform it only educated in the exact steps necessary to do it when everything is working as it should many people would not get out of the operation room alive.

Many banks where not prepared for the economic crisis and therefor a lot of them had to close, leaving thousands, millions without savings.

Where things mather experience has shown you have to think three steps ahead to be save.
Or to be successful.

Do not just cruise through life waiting for something to happen and then complain life is always hitting you the hardest.
Think about the consequences of your doings, create options for every possible way and then create the next line of options...
Be active when thinking about your future.
At first it can be difficult but with time it will become natural.

One thing, especially when dealing with risk risk situations are checklists.
Basically you think through an emergency situation, sort out the most important steps which secure your own safety and the safety of others, prioritize them, put them in an order, write it down and in case of that emergency you go through step- by- step.

For most real- life situations checklists are enough.

Then there are those events which go far too fast to pull out lists and start crossing of points. Maybe it is all happening too fast, you are in a situation where you can not work with lists(on a bicylce, falling from the sky, ...).
For those you still follow the same plan: think about what can happen, what you can do in this situation, what are the priorities and in which order to sort them and then comes one thing each and every man who served in the military dreaded: drills.
You memorize the checklist and perform it in an non- threatening environment over and over again.
Not the most fun training but for certain thing the most essential.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Clubbells

2010-08-02T13:56:00.004+02:00

One part of the workshop with Steve Maxwell was the "Hindu Workout".

Hindu Pushups, Hindu Squats, Macebells and Clubbells.

Since I worked with some of Scott Sonnons Yoga stuff lately and Steve Maxwell really got me interested I thought I´d give Clubbells a chance.

Those of you who read my Blog regularly know, I do not like to buy stuff pre- made, I like to build my own training equipment.

So I put some thought into how Clubbells work, what I think is important and what I did wrong in the past.

See for yourself...

Sorry for only giving you half the screen, somehow my cam was lazy today.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Lessons from skydiving

2010-08-01T12:40:00.003+02:00

Over the last years I was able to save enough money to treat myself to something I was looking forward to since 2003: a skydiving- course which will enable me to jump out of planes all over the world.

After two days of theory one comment of a teacher clinged to my mind:
"Everybody changes thanks to this course. Most of the time to the better."

So I will watch very carefully, like I always do regarding to my training, how this education and learning this new skill will change me.

It certainly will as every experience of an extreme situation with high sensory input and fast reaction time does.

I´m also very curious how people who do not see me face- to- face will experience me after the summer, since a lot has already and will change in the coming months.

So enjoy the ride.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Steve Maxwell Workshop Day 2

2010-07-27T17:09:00.032+02:00

Getting up that day was not easy... I had to figure out the angle of my shoulders which allowed me to pull myself up into the sitting position and how to contract my quads when getting out of my bed without starting to howl like a injured wolf.

Well, I did it. ;-)

After a good breakfast I hit the road and in no-time arrived at the Naturtrainings- center in Thomasroith.

The vibe was even better than the first day altough you could see that everybody had some sore muscles. The outlook of working with Steve and Dominik outside in the sun and having a clue of the information to come gave us the endorphines to forget all about the soreness.

Like the first day we started with Joint Mobility.

I figure the 50minutes we spent doing them saved a lot of my joints and muscles, because considering the kind of work we did plus the volume I´m satisfied with my health- status.

The next topic was "pulling".

This part was hosted by Dominik since he is one of the strongest guys considering pulling power I know.

We talked about the Pullup, a ton of ways to modify the basic version, how to focus this one exercise towards strength, maximum strength, strength endurance, Steve threw in some excellent coaching- and performance- keys and of course we did several challenges at the well known hand- walking- circuit...I am just happy I did not developed any blisters or hurt any tendons... It is simply amazing how strong one can get using only the own bodyweight.

Well... If you pull something you gotta push something.

And we did push ourselves.

Steve took us from the basic pushup with all the important structural keys up to the one- arm- one- leg- pushup.

It was simply amazing to see Steve bang out around 7 one- arm- pushups for demonstration.

The next topic was the pistol.

I´ll be honest, I do not like pistols.

Maybe because I never got the mobility to do one without holding something in front of my body. Maybe because my groin and thigh muscles cramp up when I have to hold the non- working leg out in front when doing them.

But if Coach says they are good for you... Well, there is no way you can argue with that. He´s got the experience. He´s got the performance. That´s it.

So Steve took us from the basic squat to prep- exercises for the pistol to the exercise itself and showed us ways to establish a basic performance level as well as progression- options.

After all this our bodys were allowed to take a few minutes of rest while Steve gave a theory lesson about Mobility, Overreaching and Obertraining as well as Regeneration.

Awesome stuff!!

The final challenge was a 4- circuit- training.

Yeah, 4 different circuits, between 3-5 rounds each circuit which in the end added up to 50minutes of training.

50minutes of Clubbells, MAcebells, Hindu Pushups, Tire Flips, Spartacus Lifts, Log Flips, Rope Climbing, Gracie- Pistols and much, much more...

Man, my whole body was burning after that one...

But...

Yeah...

You guessed right...

We were not allowed to finish...

Right after the end of the circuit we started jogging around the Naturtraining soccer field, only interrupted by shuttle- runs.

Still not being enough, we had to finish strong with a bear crawl over the soccer field to the finishing line, ending one of the greatest athletic experiences I ever had, with one of the greates coaches I know, Steve Maxwell, hosted by one of the strongest and kindest among the people I call my warrior brothers, Dominik Feischl, accompanied by some of the most tough and kind brothers in arms I had yet to meet.

Train hard, train smart and enjoy life!

2010-06-14T13:36:00.000+02:00

Vatertag - Fathers´ Day

2010-06-13T17:24:00.000+02:00

EliteFTS.com - Matt Kroczaleski on Internal Drive

2010-06-04T13:42:00.000+02:00

WKC Strongsport

2010-05-26T13:13:00.009+02:00

Kettlebell lifters are usually the most minimalistic among the minimalists.

Practice the Jerk, afterwards the Snatch.
Use Swings, Cleans, Presses, maybe some running and Squats as assistance- exercises.

Some guys who go for a more complete and broader spectrum of fitness, like Steve Cotter of the IKFF, where I got my kettlebell training, use stuff like bumps, Jerk- specific Squats and bodyweight exercises too.

That´s it. That´s the program.

Well...Basically that is enough.
You will be doing a kind of Cardio but at least with weights.
And I think if I´m doing my cardio some day with two 32kg Kettlebells, I won´t be that bad concerning my strength- levels.

Nevertheless, there are differences between lifting a light weight for time or higher reps and lifting a heavier weight for less time or reps.

So the guys at the World Kettlebell Club(http://www.worldkettlebellclub.com/) came up with the StrongSport Ranks.

It consists of one- handed Cleans and Jerks, done separatly, with weights of 20kg up to 36kg for women and 32kg up to 48kg for men.
Sets are around 4min with one hand switch.

Well...That´s it again.
Take something simple and do it until you are technically proficient.

Of course, they did not re-invent the wheel at the WKC.
Almost every occupation which contains physical movement worked with higher resistance:
Runner put on ankle- weights, profesional dancers practice with weighted vests, heavy single repetitions are used to lighten the work with less load.

But, as with the regular Ranks, the StrongSport Ranks are a nice milestone, a beacon to know where you stand, a possibility to measure progress.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Symbolism of training - Bodyweight Exercises

2010-05-25T10:36:00.003+02:00

In the first post concerning this topic I wrote about the capacity of our mind, be it the concious or the sUbconcious part to gain a deeper message from certain actions, lectures, etc.

Physical training has always been and will always be a mental development as well as a mere change of mass and the ability to use it.

Several things in life caught my special attention.
Physical training, medicine, especially psychiatry and psychotherapy, martial arts.

My long- term goal is to merge those things...

I´m still at the beginning of my journey but while working or at least watching and learning in all those fields I saw one constant:

You start within/ with yourself.

Take physical training:
I do not like my clients jump right ahead in Kettlebell- stuff, exercises with sandbags, etc.
If they got some base, it might be ok.
I prefer to lay some foundation with basic bodyweight exercises like Pushups, Pullups, Bodyweight Squats.
Those exercises give them a chance to experience their body once again, re-gain some basic awareness how their limbs are arranged in the 3-dimensional space and a hint how it may develop in the fourth, it gives us the time to teach basic breathing patterns, posture, build concious tension in the core, fix imbalances.
After that we´ll hit the iron, and then we can hit it hard!

People re-gain a sense of planning their own progressions, using physical exercises to think about their own current status, where they want to go/be after a time-span, looking for the best way to get there and then start working towards that goal.

They have to listen to their body, their mind as well, they have to get to know themselves again. Only then a succesfull training is possible.

Working- out can take you to your physical and mental borders. Once you arrived there you have to evaluate if you are ready to cross them, how far you will go and where to stop to remain healthy and grow even stronger during a phase of supercompensation.

There is even more, but you get my point.

Those are the must-have points of your training.

Now... I have not encountered one form of psychotherapy who does not want to empower their client.

Who does not want them to become aware of who they are by exploring where their weaknesses are, where they are losing their energy, where they are standing, what they want to achieve, what would be the best way to get there?

All this with the own body, focusing on increasing the strength to move oneself in different angles, situations, train various energy systems, play with different levers of your own.

Getting to know myself, making myself stronger concerning my own movement, my own structure.

Bodyweight training... The first step.

Train hard and enjoy life!

All the best,

Harry

The meaning of life

2010-05-24T09:43:00.002+02:00

"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his ife is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."

Victor Frankl

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls

2010-05-18T22:12:00.000+02:00

Truly beautiful performance!!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Attempt WKC Rank 3 Long Cycle

2010-05-18T15:01:00.000+02:00

Attempt WKC Rank 4 Long Cycle

2010-05-15T12:18:00.000+02:00

Just curious...

Symbolism of training

2010-05-02T18:52:00.008+02:00

I first encountered(meaning the first time I really stopped and thought about the real meaning of the word) symbolism during my basic training in hypnosis.

Experts like Milton Erickson, known as the father of modern day hypnotic psychotherapy, discovered the ability of the mind to grasp the additional meanings/message of activities, words, pictures(material or mental), etc.

For example, M. Erickson used to send patients of his without prior psychotherapy (performed by him, since most of his patients had an extensive record of psychiatric or psychological therapy) to a mountain with the assignement to hike up the mountain, get back down and meet with him the day after.

Quite a lot of people were done with their problems after the trip, altough they had suffered from them for several years in most cases.

One wonders how such things are possible...

One model we can use to explain those wonderful events is found by analyzing symbolism, which describes additional meanings of (living) things, persons, actions, etc.
For example:
- A dove is a bird and often a symbol of peace.

Lets look at the hike again:

The mere fact the therapist did not react the way you expected him to do(starting talking with you about your problems, inducing hypnosis, etc.) "throughs you off" your current model of the world and induces a search (subconciously) for an alternative meaning.

Arrived at the mountain you move yourself up- and forward, you yourself(!!) take single steps to reach a destination given to you by a psychotherapist to whom you travelled in expectation of being helped with a certain problem.

The deeper meaning can, e.g., be you making an effort to reach your goal, not giving up even when facing difficulties (steep inclines, rocks,...), finding your own walking pace, planing steps ahead, reaching the goal and by doing that gaining a different point of view on the world around you.

A simple act like hiking can be much more than reaching a point higher than the one where you started at.

Such symbolism can be sen in many things in our every- day- life.

For myself, my life changed when I started working out.
Of course this is no new experience.
Almost everybody starting with physical activity notices changes, both on the mirror and in ones head. Although the last ones are often less obvious.
For ages it has been known that a strong man has a strong character.
Modern psychosomatic medicine had to work hard to make people remember that! ;-)

It took me some time to notice I had become a diferent person since I started training. I think I evolved, hopefully into someone more positive. ;-)
I am quite happy with whom I have become because most of the problems in my young life I made disappear.
Notice I did not say "most of the problems disappeared"... I MADE THEM DISAPPEAR!!
That is part of the mindset gained from training.

I am a human being and I am a doctor-/psychiatrist- to- be.
Therefore two aspects are most important to me: physical and mental health.

With such a base I´m analyzing my whole training, always looking for clues what part helped which transformation best.

In the next few weeks, I´ll try to explain some of my findings to give you a general idea how you can develop yourself in- and out-side your head.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

"About Professional Sports and the everyday- life at the limit" by Mathias Zinkl

2010-04-30T15:33:00.004+02:00

Like the headline says, this one is written by a very dear friend of mine, Mathias Zinkl, a fellow medical student.
( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1679349068 )

He continues to challenge my mindset with his own thoughts about training, living, interacting with other beings.
Enjoy the article!

First some basics of our physiology:
Humans managed to adapt to external circumstances over millions of years. Those adaptations were always realized with minimal energy- consumption, simply because the way of living back then, a constant battle between kill and get killed, living in constant cold surroundings, a diet rich in fiber, did not allow us to spend too much energy.

What does this mean today?
Professional athletes over and over reach and cross their mental and physical boarders.
In between they REST more or less to be able to expand their limits the next time.

A life at the limit like Alexander Huber (a free solo climber) is living is admirable and many people think it would be far too dangerous for themselves and insane in general to try to reach such limits.
But A. Huber as well needs regeneration, rest, activities far beneath his capabilities to recover. Without such borderline- walks would not be possible and he would fail.

Most people agree when telling them such professional athletes need enough preparation and (here we would lose some agreeing people) regeneration to prepare for such extreme events.

Now let´s put together both previously discussed points and look at them in the life of a typical worker with a desk-job in an office who comes home after several hours of working while sitting and consuming 2 coffees and ends his day by relaxing on the couch in front of the TV.
Is he a competitive athlete?
Does he go for his limits every day?
Most people would consider this question ridiculous and answer “No.”

But let us take a closer look:
Our office worker has adapted to what surrounds him for many years: sitting in front of a computer and according to his genetic programs he is wasting as little energy as possible and, since he does not need them, keeping his ability to compensate (physical) stress as little as possible too.
So this man/woman is living at his/her limit every day of his life. The limit may be ridiculously small but a limit never the less and constantly driving in the red zone demands a toll (as every visit to ones´ borders does).
We all know specialization form professional sports. The office work is specialized as well, maybe even more than any performance athlete can ever be.

But there is a major difference:
The limit of the athlete is very, very high and he can easily reduce the intensity and regenerate.
The office worker is always at his limit, even when he is just lying on his couch watching TV because his heart has to press blood through his clotted blood- vessels, his intervertebral discs are constantly mal- supplied since there are no muscles to hold the spine in a optimal position.

He has LOST the POSSIBILITY to REGENERATE due to his specialization to the low demand of his surroundings and it is just a matter of time till all his compensations fail.

One thing is logical to everybody: a life without rest and regeneration is not possible in the long run.
This is what happens to people who have to go for their limits simply to survive in society, just to produce the next heartbeat.

There are no more activities below their limits except death.

Those things such people most of the time criticize when talking about professional athletes, apply to them as well, they are simply to blind to see it.

Back to basics - again

2010-04-13T10:17:00.006+02:00

Well... I guess we all have to go back to the basics now and then.
I´m not just talking about life here.

To evolve, to develop new skills, new mindsets, make new experiences... All this leads to a new person every day. Every day our brain, a organ with a magnificant plasticity, changes connections between cells, allowing higher functions like conciousness to express themselves in a new way.

Some people are afraid to turn back, be it in life or training.

Like going down with the weight you are using...

Many people get injured because their ego cannot accept the fact that they are not ready for certain external loads.
(Watch out, I am not talking about training in the last sentence, but I guess you already knew that, didn´t you?!)

To go back for a brief time, sometimes is a good thing.
It shows you where you come from, how you started.
Hopefully you know where you are at this point.

Because knowing two points in your life, the one you started at and where you are right now gives you a two-point-connection or lets call it a way walked.
How you went this way, what brought you forward, what made you take steps back, what obstructed it, what cleared it up...

Those are the things you can see when taking a few steps back... Literally or not.

I did this in my last training.
I ditched the weights for my conditioning and used the only tool always availiable: myself. :-D
Bodyweight exercises with high reps, either in one "run-through" or chunked like you see in the video below develop an amazing base for everything life can through at you.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

One of the biggest flaws - revisited (2)

2010-04-02T11:02:00.010+02:00

Well...The fixed weight of kettlebells...
You always hear that one...

The last time I wrote about this I suggested you to simply to not put the bell down when doing, e.g. complexes or stuff like that. That way, the old, light 16kg- bell suddenly feels like it weighs a ton. ;-)

Since people are never satisfied with only one good thing I will give you something else:

There are two major things right now in the fitness- world people want to achieve with their fitness- programs:

First: muscle gain
(Well... That one has been around for ages...)
If you want to add muscle to your frame simply use the formula proven by time: use more weight with total- body- exercises with good form for more reps.
That´s it.

Second: Have you heard about "Core- training"?

No, I am not talking about crunches and situps.

When talking about real "Core- training" we are talking about the fact that the muscles which encase your torso are there to prevent movement.

Yeah...It´s ok, read it again. PREVENT MOVEMENT.

Now what does this tell you about the sense crunches make in your training-regime? ;-)

They are there to stabilize the torso, transmit force between the extremities.
Have you ever tried to build a model-house on rubber-pillars? It will wobble and fall over. The same happens to your body:
If you try to transmit a powerful force from you legs to you hands and you only got a rubber-core you will wobble and fall right into a hospital- bed.

So...Core-Training...Developing a stable torso.
Now the link to the "dammit-I-only-got-one-kettlebell-of-each-size-problem" you might have.

In my case: I got a 16kg and a 24kg available right now.
For some the difference in weight would be a problem, but lets take a look from a different point-of-view:
Using those different weights, having a different momentum in your two hands you create 2 advantages:

1) You create a rotational component, forcing you muscles to work overtime to stabilize your torso.
The only condition is that you really keep your torso still while moving the weight.
So no bouncing while performing Overhead-/Floor- presses, Bent-over rows, etc.!

2) Even tough you create a rotational force like in one-arm-movements (that´s why they became to popular...they enhance core-stability), you still got the benefits of two weights waiting to be moved which increases the impact on muscle- development!
(See "Return of the Kettlebell" by Pavel Tsatsouline)

So, again, we have changed our point of view to make a flaw into a benefit.

Now if you own a 16kg, a 24kg and a 32kg kettlebell you can not only progress to a high level of kettlebell-sport-performance using timed sets and the one-hand-switch-mode (also known as the American Kettlebell Club Fitness Protocol) but also effectivly train your core- muscles and increase your overall- athleticism and build functional muscles with a more traditional approach of exercise- selection and repetition-numbers..

You are welcome.

As always train smart, listen to your body when trying two-kettlebell- exercises and exercise caution.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Powerful beyond measure

2010-03-25T19:23:00.002+01:00

Never be afraid to shine as bright as the sun and stars!

No more words necessary.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Walking amongst giants

2010-03-21T14:09:00.003+01:00

I often speak about the way of the warrior, his path on this earth, under this sun.

Going an your own, fighting, improving, to battle for yourself and others is one thing.

The company of other beings is the other thing.

Every day i realize how privileged I am.
Not only do I have got all the possibillities to get every education I could ever want, to afford all the little extras I need, so see the world, with my own eyes or through the ones of others.

The more I wander this earth the more people I am allowed to meet the more humble I become.

The internet made it possible for me to obtain all the information I need for my training, my personal favoured tool for self- development.

Clients of mine asking questions which turn around my perception of movement and allow me to understand it better and make it better for others.

But I am also given the chance to meet people on my way, most of the time through my medical education, who are giving me the gift of spending time with them, talking to them, listening to their expiriences, their way of seeing things around us, feeling the world outside and within;
showing me details which enrichen my life, open my mind in many ways to multiply my own possibilities both inside and outside.

Those people, most of them at the beginning of their journey, some further ahead on their path than others, already obtain knowledge enough for ages.
Most of the time I sit among them, listening, imagining, feeling, dreaming, asking myself what kind of wonderful energy brought me to them.

Thank you.

Train hard and enjoy life, walk every walk with open eyes.
All the best,
Harry

I am PSYCHED!!!

2010-03-16T21:05:00.004+01:00

I just recieved a email from a fellow warrior, Dominik Feischl (http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/) about a hellish challenge we are about to tackle at the 17th of April.

Maaaaaan it is gonna be awesome.
Speed rope climbing, heavy tires, mean stones...All outside in nature together with people who work like... how would zach even-esh put it... beasts!! :-D

Moreover the challenge (there will be videos) will only be the starting point of the day, because afterwards there are already waiting some hellish pullup- and climbing-variations waiting for us, two weaknesses of mine.

Well... Time to do my Towel Pullups to prepare for the rope climbing, Farmers Walks for the tire and C&P with kettlebells to lose the fear of the stone. ;-)

Those exercises will not only get you strong but will also help develop a strong core, necessary for injury prevention in all sports or every-day-activity.

Train hard and enjoy life!!
All the best,
Harry

Heute

2010-03-13T11:03:00.004+01:00

Tonight there was no time for regeneration, only time for people dear to me and dancing.

This song with an espresso and my day is already perfect.
(Not to speak about the client about to arive...)

Train hard and ENJOY LIFE!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - NEVER, EVER QUIT!

2010-03-11T21:32:00.004+01:00

Last and, if you ask me, the most important point of all:

NEVER, EVER QUIT!!

No matter what happens in this life, no matter how heavy sh*t rains down on you, no matter what you win or lose, who you meet or never get to know,...

Never ever quit working hard, improving yourself. Constantly attack life in the way we were meant to: learn, do, love, live.

No matter how tough. No matter how painful. Never, ever quit!

Well, we are at the end of the Code of the warrior...
If even one person in the world wide web read one marked word in this series and will already have started to change into someone better, a true warrior, I´ll have achieved more in my lifetime than I could ever have hoped for.

I will as well continue to grow, always ready to live the life of a warrior.

True warriors can not choose what they are. They only can choose their weapons!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Valery Fedorenko @ Arnold Fitness Expo

2010-03-10T21:07:00.002+01:00

Just impressive!!

This kind of skill and athleticism also translate into other feats of strength as you can see in the video below when Valery held a workshop at Zach Even-Eshs´ Gym in 2008.

Train hard and enjoy life.
All the best,
Harry

Warmup

2010-03-09T15:23:00.008+01:00

A proper warmup is important to reduce the risk of injury when working out and increase performance.

It helps to lubricate the joints with the synovial fluid and increase blood flow both to the muscle as well as around the joints, tendons, ligaments.

Moreover it gives one the ability to fit in corrective exercises like the cossack- squat in an otherwise tight trainings schedule.

So, NO EXCUSES, DO YOUR WARMUP!!

Above you have very good examples for a proper warmup.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Dan Gable, Dedication & The Habit of Winning by Zach Even-Esh

2010-03-06T13:29:00.001+01:00

http://zacheven-esh.com/blog/dan-gable-dedication-the-habit-of-winning/

An amazing Blog-Entry by Zach!!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

One evolution at a time

2010-03-06T11:01:00.008+01:00

A very dear friend of mine gave me a awesome christmas present:
A documentation of the US Navy SEAL- Selection Process called "BUDs- Basic Underwater Demolition Training".

Men from every social group, every color, every ethnic background, every education possible, together, be it in the "Grinder", a small place with nothing to fear but endless Bodyweight Exercises starting at 0400 a.m. and ending at 0400 p.m., together carrying, lifting, balancing huge tree trunks, together enduring endless periods in ice-cold water.

One scene inspired this very Blog-post:

An aspirant was failing to perform a log- exercise with the perfect form and tempo expected from the instructors.
Therfore he was punished with an seemingly endless set of pushups.
The camera- team was allowed to conduct a short interview under one condition: he had to give it in the pushup- top- position.
So they asked him, while he struggled to keep his body up under his own weight, amplified by his clothes which were wet from all the water, made even heavier by sand clinged to the canvas, his hands trying to find something in the sand to hold on to:
"How will you make it through the next log- exercises if you have to do all those pushups now? How will you make it through the rest of the day?"

He responded: "I don´t think about that right now... Right now, I´m doing pushups. So I focus on doing pushups. One at a time. After doing pushups, I´ll do what the instructors tell me to. One evolution at a time."

For most people he will seem like a stereotypical drone of the US- Military. Following orders, already powered down his own will.

If you look closer you will see a man with an understanding of the situation evolved only possible from endless hours of physical exhaustion and careful thinking of ones´ mental processes.

When do accidents happen? When do we make mistakes?
Only in moments when we are doing something, maybe we are already tired, and our mind starts to wander.
I know this mental process very well, since I am a hypno-therapist, I worked long hours figuring out how to induce/produce it.

The soldier mentioned above uses Trance- like states to focus on the exact thing he is doing right now, therefore switching of the parts of his conciousness likely to give up.

When would you rather give up??
-When you have to one more 1)pushup, 2)article to read, 3)room to clean, 4)etc.
-When you got a whole day/week/month/life ahead of pushups, articles to read, rooms to clean,...
The imagination of a long period of time ahead with activities you dread can be overwhelming.

So what he does is to chunk it. Split the whole period up into several activities.
By doing this, he reliefes himself of mental pressure, allows a more fluid work- process and achieves a higher focus on single tasks.

One step, one evolution at a time!
(You better write this one down!)

Myself, I found this extremly usefull.
I´m the kind of person who has his education (which is quite time consuming), is physically active, does coaching, reads (most of the time 2-3 books parallel) and tries to have some sort of social life.

Most of this I can not change.
But what I can change is my view of causality, how to arrange things I have to do and where I fit in things I want to do.

For example, I recently discovered "Speed Reading".

I watched the series, discovered I enhanced my reading speed(with same comprehension rate) within 15minutes of watching and 8minutes of practice from 300 Words/min to 400 Words/min
So... It works to some degree.

Since I spend much time either reading stuff for my medical education or reading up on relevant topics for my personal trainer- education I thought and give one of the books a try and do the outlined 7-day-program.

Every one must know one thing: such 7-day-programs are ALWAYS only the start.
They give you a basic understanding (if they are very good) and the rest is up to you.

But if you have to read a lot nevertheless, why not get the basics of speed reading and then incorporate the practice into the obligatory processes?
2 birds with one rock. ;-)

So: I put all my other books on hold and I will focus on the speed- reading practice for a week, maybe I´ll be done faster.
After that I hopefully have increased my reading speed and comprehension rate and will be able to catch up on what I`ll have missed up to then.

I keep you posted.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Inspiration

2010-03-03T11:32:00.001+01:00

Without words.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Regeneration - Qi Gong

2010-03-02T22:42:00.001+01:00

While some of my colleagues enjoyed their well- earned semester break I took an additional class about Traditional Chinese Medicine offered by the Medical University in Graz.

One class I especially enjoyed:
Qi Gong with Dr. med. Xiaoqiu LI.
He is a master in Wushu and Daoyin Yangsheng Gong, National Wushu- and Sanda- Champion.
http://www.taijili.at/

And somehow we were honored to learn the basic QiGong- Form with him for several hours.

I usually dread getting out of bed even one minute earlier but actually feeling what Qi Gong can do for you and managing one time trying it first thing in the morning (which requires getting out of bed 15minutes earlier each day) convinced me to make it a fixed point in my daily regime.

One saying always comes to my mind when I breath, feel and move my way out of the morning fog in my head into the light of a new energy in myself:
"You got to learn how to rest hard to be able to train hard."

Now I´ll be able to train somewhat harder because I learned to take 15 minutes each day aside to do something which will not build muscle, which will not increase my work capacity, which will not make me tougher... Well...at least not by itself.
But put together with my other intense workouts each week it forms a formula for success.

Working hard and resting hard to gain as much as possible!
Between your joints and between your ears!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - LIVE WITH PASSION, FIGHT WITH VENGEANCE

2010-03-02T16:23:00.003+01:00

Enjoy life.
Now and then take it easy, lean back, enjoy the view. Smell the roses along the way.

If someone steps in your path and trys to get you off: Fight!! Do it with vengeance.
You are in this world to go your way, live your life. No one is allowed to take that from you.

I always liked one line of a song: "Bark very little but know how to bite!"
Be humble before life and all the souls in it but don´t take any abuse!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Short, simple, effective.

2010-02-28T23:06:00.002+01:00

Below a workout I performed two days ago.

Less can be more. Just depends on how you do it!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Nutrition

2010-02-23T22:43:00.008+01:00

Most of the time I try not to make too much fuss about what to eat, when to eat, food combinations and whatever "important" point I just missed.

But several things brought me back to the topic:

- I suffered from a severe "disturbance" of my gastro- intestinal- tract. (Lets put it this way: the only exercise I could do for several days where quarter- squats on the toilet and one- arm- waterbottle-curls, to throw in some variations I used a teacup for some of the curls)

- I read two interesting articles about food and food- timing during the last two days.

- I read a good amount of the book "Primeal Body - Primeal Mind" by Nora T. Gedgaudas. As far as I got she covered the importance of Fats in your diet, as well as reasons why carbs are not necessary.

I´m not that arrogant yet to start to explain why fats are bad and carbs make no sense when you look at your biochemical- puzzle called Human Body.
Yes, I´m a future doctor but my love there lies with the psychiatry, so I know for sure I´m a little crazy but that is it.

Some things I understand with the basic chemical and biochemical knowledge I got and when I look at the way humanity, as a species, went to get were we are today:

What to eat:
I´ll keep that one simple:
-meat
-fish
-eggs
-vegetables
-some fruit (do not go crazy here...)
-raw milk or milk- products made from raw- milk.
Quality is more important than quantity.
That´s it.

When to eat:
Eat when you are hungry.
That´s it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1250798/How-fasting-help-slow-ageing-process.html#ixzz0gFVKEAzj

And check out the link above.
It´s about intermitted fasting, meaning not eating anything every other day.
Well...If a primitive caveman could deal with it, you can do.

Even in the bible they set certain times during the year where you were told to cut down on your intake an give the body a chance to clear some of the mess up you create when eating junk.

Also quite an amount of research is done investigating how fasting influcences your risk of getting some type of cancer.
As far as we know, FASTING WILL HELP PREVENT EVERY TYPE OF CANCER, since all cancer cells got one thing in common: they need sugar aka carbs.
You don´t need to stop eating but throw in a fasting day once or twice a week where you only drink water, some high quality tea, maybe a small yogurt from raw milk.

Where to get this stuff:

http://science.orf.at/stories/1640148

Check your local Farmers´ Market.
You will get stuff there cheaper and will experience a quality impossible to find in supermarket- products.
Plus you will do something good for your planet.(see link above)

Nutrition is key.
It will not only teach you how your body and mind can work at peak capacity, it will also teach you a good deal about life.
But more on that some other time when we talk about life- coaching.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

As simple as it gets

2010-02-14T12:24:00.003+01:00

Put on your clothes (that one is a courtesy to society), get out into nature, pick up something heavy and put it over your head several times.

Done?

Good. Take the same thing or if you want to mix it up something else and carry it for time or distance.

Done?

Good. Go home, take a shower and eat a lot.

Repeat this for several times a week, make sure the objects you pick up are getting bigger and heavier and you got yourself a training- "system" which will make you stronger, more musclular and mentally tough.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

VAKOG in Training or "The man in the mirror"

2010-02-06T10:59:00.005+01:00

When you start training and look at yourself (in every possibly perspective) and do the same thing after 1,3,5 years of training, you notice a fair amount of change.

Due to my life as a trainer and a therapist-in-training I observed that many trainees go through the VAKOG- stages when starting training seriously.

First: What is VAKOG?
It is a abbravation from the hypnotic vocabulary, where every letter stands for one quality of perception.

V...Visual
A...Accustic
K...Kinesthetic
O...olfactory/smell
G...Gustation/taste

Whenever a person is coming up to me to start training (well...there are, as aways, the exeptions), they come driven by the visual sense...
When asked, the first reason to start training given to me is "to be healthy".
90% of the time I sense this is bullsh*it, but whatever gives somebody a good nights´ sleep works for me.
The second reason is something like "getting in shape" aka "looking good at the beach/in a tight top/a miniskirt/naked/..." and then we hit the spot.

People are focused on how they present themselves to the outside world, how other people percieve them, what impression they make without doing something like acting(giving them a reason to admire them, hate them, whatever), saying something (smart or dumb)...
So in short, they live outside themselves, the lost contact to their center, whatever you want to call it.

When training begun, other senses come into play, because they can not see their mirror- image anymore, maybe because there are no mirrors when training with me or maybe because all the sweat is blocking their vision.
That is a good thing!

The next senses are commonly taste and smell because... Well, my trainees sweat a lot.
:-D

If they can accept the hard work I put them through, the teachings, the endless exercises to perfect technique, another sense comes into play:
Accustic.

This is the point in my trainees life they actually start to listen to me, not only what I tell them with my words, stuff they can just reproduce, meaning copy, but what is between those words, behind them, between the lines.
This is where the mental part of training, the symbolism making it so precious for life itself, comes into play.
This is where someone gets the idea first, training might be more than physical activity.

Last but not leasT:
Kinesthetic. #

Here You start to feel something.
Not only the weights you move, not only the strong muscles of your back, the tightening of the legs, the firm grip of your rotator-scuff-muscles on your upper arm, the increased capacity of your lungs...
You start to feel yourself again.
Feeling how moving yourself and weights outside of yourself moved you back to your center.
People feel more stable, more focused, in harmony with the natural cycles.

It is really hard to describe because to understand the stages yOu have to feel them yourself, use your senses to experience the sensations of transformations.

Maybe you already started by looking at "the man in the mirror".

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

"The Pussification of America"... Now think about Europe.

2010-02-05T15:43:00.006+01:00

I had to link this latest Blog- entry from zach Even-Esh, since it got really deep into my perception of our world today.

http://zacheven-esh.com/blog/the-pussification-of-america-2

Doing only what is necessary, do not deviate from the line of "comfort" given to us from people who want us to buy from them, function for them, bow your head deep into the soup-bowl you call life which has been given to you 15,25,50 years ago.

Because deep down YOU know, it is getting unpleasant if you cross those boarders, getting a new perspective, experiencing all those new emotions, maybe even old ones locked away, accepting you were restricted in your soup bowl before stirrs up a lot.

There is a professional term for such an event: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT/EVOLUTION.

Do not behave like you are an simple, no- cell- nucleous- organsim who stays his whole life (about 5 days) in this single, stinking tarn never doing more than just eat and sh*t.

Lift your head up, look what is beyond if you just get yourself up and start working!

Thx @Zach for his Blog, his Videos, his Website, Thank you for all the work!!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Prehab is better than Rehab

2010-02-03T10:56:00.002+01:00

http://www.dieselcrew.com/essential-hip-mobility-movements-how-to-warm-up/

I won´t say much more.
On the one hand because there is not much more to say, on the other hand because my next client for Kettlebell- Training is already on his way up.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - DISCIPLINE

2010-01-30T13:51:00.004+01:00

Get the things done which have to be done. It is that simple.

There will always be reasons not to do certain things right away. Guess what?! DO them anyway.

Combined with a laser-sharp FOCUS (yeah, that´s right, you heard that one already... It´s number one on the list of the "Code of the Warrior") it assures that things are ready when you need them.
That is one point in a fight, in business, in life which leads to success.

If you studied your opponent he will throw a punch but you saw it coming for some time and the counterattack will hit.

If you studied the market, your target audience, you will have your business- concept ready when the market demands it. Are you in need of an example? Kettlebells. Just wait 2 years.

If you studied yourself, improved yourself a little bit every day, worked toward something you really want for yourself, became a little bit better, be it in something you like or simply as a person, you will be ready for all the hardship in life. It will still be hard as hell to deal with but you will have the resources to deal with it!

Discipline.
Because it pays of tomorrow. For sure.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

One of the biggest flaws- revisited

2010-01-29T10:56:00.010+01:00

One of the two major flaws of the Kettlebells pointed out when discussing them with people is the fixed weight of the bells.
Most of the time I hear it when talking to people who primarily train with dumbbells, barbells or bodyweight- exercises.

You know what... They are right.

You can take a dumbbell, barbell and scale it to your exact needs. You can control and scale you progress better.
With a kettlebell you will have to work up to a higher amount of repetitions before you can progress up to a bigger bell.

Well, I still consider Kettlebells one of the best tools around, simply because you can work with them girevoy-style, meaning the sport-competition-style with maximum efficiency or you use them in a more powerlifting-like-style.

It is simply a weight. ;-)

Another major concern of people is, what happens with their money once they have "outgrown" a certain Kettlebell- weight.

For example:
If you have worked up to 200x Snatches and an insane amount of Clean & Presses with the 16kg Kettlebell or if you extended your Timed Sets of Snatches and Clean & Jerk all up to 10min with only one hand- switch most people are ready for the 24kg bell.
Nice...

But what about the 16kg?
People are always afraid the bells become useless and something standing in their house or apartment gathering dust.

Well...Let me tell you a story.
I got two 12kg Kettlebells. I do not work with them...I bought them for teaching purposes only. They are simply too light to deliver any effect when training with them.

That´s my comment before "Never Let Go" by Dan John.

One chapter is the Tabata Protocoll.
8 Rounds with each 20sec. Work(as many reps as possible) and 10sec rest.
I did this before, only with Bodyweight Exercises...Those already where like some medieval torture!!
Just try it whith Bodyweight- Squats or Burpees... ;-)

Now I added weight to the Tabata Prot..

2x 12kg Kettlebells used for Front Squats in the Tabata Mode...

Well...after the last set I could make it to the fridge, get some milk and back to my desk...That is where I stayed for about 15 to 20min... My quads were completly tense from all the blood and I could almost not bend my knees...The muscle simply wouldn´t let me stretch it...

What did I and what can you learn from my experience?

If you think a weight is too light, you havn´t cranked up the intensity high enough!!

As always, make sure you have a good atheltic base befor trying such insane intense workouts!!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

EDT - 2nd Phase

2010-01-25T20:50:00.002+01:00

I started my first EDT- cycle back in autumn.
http://mpbody.blogspot.com/2009/10/loaded-conditioning-its-hell-and-you.html

EDT = Escalated Density Training.
But lets keep it simple. Pick two exercises and do them back to back for 10 to 20min.

Use total body exercises and medium to heavier weights. (Don´t go all out with the weight. You have to work as fast as possible and heavy weights, a lot of volume, little time and a athlete on a non-professional-level almost every time equal deterioration and injury.)

Take one pushing and one pulling exercise.
For example use a Clean & Jerk with one or two kettlebells and do as many explosive, precise repetitions in the given time interval as possible.

Another idea I first got from Ross Enamit and David Whitley is to do one time interval with focus on the legs, e.g. with Cleans and Squats, and one with focus on the upper body, e.g. with Military Presses and Pullups, Bent-over Rows, etc.

I started my new cycle a few days ago.
The first workout consists of 15min C&J with two 24kg Kettlebells and 15min of Sandbag(50kg)- Carry.

I progressed from the last cycle by exchanging the two 16kg Kettlebells.
Progressing in the cycle can be done by first increasing the time and then the repetitions.

You can use every (odd) object to do EDT- style training, if you do not have weight simply use BodyWeightExercises, go out into nature and pick up stones, logs, etc.

Start your EDT- Training with lighter weights and progress if you can easily go all-out.
Be careful not to overreach when starting training with such an intense workout- mode!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Kettlebells for Fat Loss

2010-01-19T11:22:00.007+01:00

http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/Kettlebells012010.pdf

Very nice article, the link/information was provided by David Whitley, Sen. RKC via Facebook.

Good to have something printable to throw at people who recommend jogging for fat loss...

Well, partially I´m kidding. ;-)
But, all jokes aside, it is always nice to have some data which supports the individual and personal experience.

Intensity and a total body effort is essential for the transformation of body and mind.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - TRAIN TO WIN

2010-01-13T17:49:00.006+01:00

(This is actually a transcript of a recording from 2,3 nights ago when I woke up in the midle of the night, thinking about the blog- entry but i was still to perplex to write. :-D )

Earlier this evening I had a conversation with a friend about, well, I guess Ying&Yang, 0 and 1, black and white, training and regeneration.

This entry is about "Train to win". So... What does winning mean?

Who is the winner?
The last one standing.
In the end, no matter what you do, all that matters is that you are still standing.

You need to train hard enough to being able to deal with everything.
Your body needs to be able to handle every load, strain possible.
Your mind needs to be able to deal with every threat, get your body up even after been beaten down one time too often.

You need to rest hard enough to give your body and mind the possibility to rebuild, reshape itself and emerge even stronger from the trauma of the training, its´ intensity, its´ raw energy.

Train to win.
Today, tomorrow. Anywhere. You never know...

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR

2010-01-10T10:49:00.004+01:00

Family, the job, self- development, be it physically or mentally, relationships,...
All that is hard work.

All the points of the "Code of the warrior", Focus, thinking ahead, taking responsibility, no whining, etc. help us to get to the point, get the job done.

One thing we have to remember:
KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR.

Taking the hits, keep on getting up, keep on moving forward.
Sometimes it´s hard, sometimes it´s very hard.

Keep your sense of humor, smell the roses along the way.
That way, it will be a little bit more bearable, you will get a little further down the road with each step.
You will be beaten down, struggeling to get up and still you will be able to see and admire, enjoy and draw strength from the flowers, the green grass growing on the floor you have been beaten down to...
Confidence, in yourself and the universe around you, allows you to keep your sense of humor.
But you already kNow that, don´t you?

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - KEEP YOUR WORD

2010-01-08T15:42:00.003+01:00

Self- respect. Planning. Thinking ahead.

A warrior knows himself, even if ever-changing, knows what is honorable.

When you don´t know it and not got ther courage to admit it: keep your mouth shut, listen and learn.
When you don´t know it and got ther courage to admit it: say so and listen so you can learn.
When you know it: say so. But most important: Stand by it.

Keep your word, one, a warrior, is only as good as her/his word.
Everything can be taken from one, you and me, but never our integrity.

KEEP YOUR WORD, it is the foundation of self- trust and trust in others, respect, honor.

Keep your word.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Crassfit - Whenever, wherever

2010-01-06T09:42:00.008+01:00

Yesterday we got together for another CrassFit- Training in Linz before I´m off to Graz again.

About 5°C below zero, a small playground and a huge parking lot beside the Danube.

The more I train, the more I get to know all the sophisticated workout- and programming-approaches, the more I like the KISS- principle.

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid.

E.g.: You want to develop work capacity and muscles?

Ok, do a lot of work followed by a lot of food.

Simple:

We did 80 Hindu- Squats and some Joint Mobility to get the blood-flow going.

Well...we always got our body with us. The brain...mhm...I guess that´s a trick question, I´m not always sure about that.

We hit rope- pullups at the playground with a pyramid of 7 reps.

"Pyramid" means the repetitions go up and down again, so everybody did 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,6,5,4,... reps one after another.

Bodyweight again. Simple.

After that it was time for Clean & FrontSquats with two Kettlebells, in my case two 24s.

So you do 1 Clean per Frontsquat.

We hit a pyramid again with 1,3,5,7,9,7,...reps.

You need 2 weights for this one. 2 Kettlebells, 2 dumbbells, same or different weight... It doesn`t matter.

To mix things up if you already can wor with 2 24kg Kettlebells, pick up your estimated 55kg girlffriend(they behave like barbell-plates: if you can´t read the weight when looking at them, don´t even bother asking them...You ´ll get no answer. ;-D ) throw her over your shoulder and do the squats.

For the sake of the relationship, don´t do a clean after every rep. Believe me...Bad Mojo Guys!!

So...we hit the whole body with a nice volume of Strength- work.

What does this mean for a CrassFit- Workout??

Right... Time for Conditioning.

Since we all were quite beat, already got kettlebells in our shaking hands(not sure if the cold or the lack of strength was to blame), we did 2 short rounds of Swings, Cleans, Push Presses, High Pulls and Pushups involving the Kettlebells.

Nice.

Well...Lets not talk about the last drills we did with the sled...You know, dragging, pulling, swings(yeah, your read correctly...). It was fun, really, but...Lets not talk about it.

CrassFit in Linz...

Training with motivated people, obeing the KISS- principle, working hard.

Oh... By the way, one short tip for you since I got some experience with CrassFit:

If you ever attend, drive up to the meeting- point, get your stuff together and before you walk up to the training- site: leave your ego in the car.

Believe me, you don´t want to have that with you, it´s just ballast!!

Train hard and enjoy life!

All the best,

Harry

Code of the warrior - JUST DO IT

2010-01-05T21:13:00.003+01:00

Tough questions, difficult decisions, maybe(!) dreadful consequences. Some moments in life make us tremble.

Should I ditch my old job and risk not getting the better one?
Should I go over there and as her/him out?
Think of 1 to 999999999999 other difficult questions.

Now...
100% of the people reading this know what I mean.
85% will have something like that happening in their life right now.

Well... Only one thing, and ONE THING ONLY to do now:
Lean back, take a step back, take a deep breath and listen:

YOU KNOW what is right.
YOU KNOW what is the right way.
YOU KNOW what is THE RIGHT WAY FOR YOU.
Because YOU FEEL it deeeeeeeep inside!
JUST DO IT!

Sometimes we are afraid of big decisions. That is ok. Everybody is.

The IMPORTANT thing is to JUST DO IT.
It is that simple. It can be. You can allow it to be.

Be a warrior.
Just do it.

Train hard and enjoy life.
All the best,
Harry

(By the way: this blog-entry was not sponsored by nike.)

Code of the warrior - DON`T TAKE ANY ABUSE

2010-01-03T12:31:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I attended the Wintertraining in Thomasroith.
There, working all day, enduring challenges, lifting one thing after another, moving, performing,... Challenging oneself gets the mind going as well as your whole body.
There I got to think about that phrase... "Don´t take any abuse".

Who can abuse you?

External "foes".
Abusing you physically...Well, those are no match for a warrior. Deal with them the same way.
Abusing you mentally. People outside who want you to go down, who don not want you to succeed, because they can not themselves.
Those are the "no- sayers", the ones constantly telling you this or that can not be done.
Those are the dangerous ones. They work with little steps at a time. They go slow but in the end will break you if you let them.

"Do not set your expectations that high."
"Come on...That can not be done."
"Do you really think you could ever achieve that??"
"How can you be happy this way?"

Keep your friends close, your enemys closer. Watch them, learn how they work.
Then you know their game and guess what...It won´t work.
But keep your eyes open, there are a lot of them outside!
If you can not deal with them at the moment, because it is just to much, get them out of sight, 100%, surround yourself with people who truly want to help you, take your time to assess you situation, your resources, you potential, your weaknesses, your strengths.

One has to be realistic about the TIME ONE REACHES CERTAIN GOALS, but overall THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

Internal foes.
This is the little voices inside your head telling you "I can not go on." "I can not do this." "I´ll never reach this goal."
"I have to do this, they expect me to do it..."
"I have to do this or I´ll lose my face in front of the others."

Comfort. Ego. Fear. Lack of fear. Blind trust. Laziness.
Hell yeah, there are many. But a warrior is always mindful, watchful, vigilant.
To experience ones´ emotions, ones way of thinking, acting, making decisions... To experience oneself.
That´s the way of a warrior.

Don`t take any abuse!

Train hard and enjoy life.
All the best,
Harry

Wintertraining in Thomasroith 2009

2010-01-03T10:34:00.022+01:00

"We ride together, we die together. Bad Boys for life."

Have you seen the movie "Bad Boys"?
It doesn´t really mather. I´ll come back to the quote in a few moments...

Our host Dominik Feischl (http://www.naturtraining.at/) invited us to the Wintertraining 2009 to Thomasroith in Upper Austria.
I have been invited to several camps but i never know whats going to happen to me once i get there.
Altough Dominik only uses simple, highly effective training tools and methods he has succeeded in combining it with his amazing creativity and passion for training into a flexible training system where you never know whats going to hit you.

Only two things are for sure:
-you will have to demonstrate your will to perform in every energy system you got( from anaerobic to aerobic, from maximal- strength to strength- endurance)
-you will meet only people there, willing to go that extra mile, that extra set of pullups, that one-more-rep-with-the-log with you.

We started the day with a light warm-up jog(yeah, I know, I know, I jogged... ;-D) and some joint-mobility combined with bodyweight- movements to get our blood flowing and increase our core- temperature.

The first workout was provided by Karl Humer.
Karl, "Charly", is a guy you can get up to a pullup- bar, go away, do your christmas- shopping, meet some friends for coffee, shop for dinner- ingredients and then come back... Be sure he has been up on that bar doing pullups, one- arm- static- holds, grip- variations for the whole time!!
So we had the pleasure to learn from his method of strength- development, exercise- selection by doing all this stuff for about one hour!!

My favourite exercise was when all the trainees where hanging from the bars and we had to pass down a brick from one person to another...That is some amazing strength!!

The second workout was the Wintertraining- Challenge by Dominik Feischl.
To keep it simple: as fast as possible do all of the following exercises:
-30x Trapbar-Deadlifts 70kg
-20x Tire Flips 160kg
-3x Tire- Carry for about 40m
-30x Ring- Pushups
-100x Sledge Swings
-50x Around- the-world with a bulgarian bag, estimated13kg
-3x up and down stair-crawls

I don´t know where to start... Yesterday I started with the stair crawls...They kick some serouis a**!!!They almost killed me!
I proceeded to the tire flips, which are normally quite easy for me, since i got a good technique due to all my Kettlebell- work. But thanks to the snow, the tire was almost impossible to grab and therefor you needed almost 3 TO 4 attempts to lift the damn thing ONE TIME!!

The sledge swings where ok for me, since I do them myself and I got a good pace. Nevertheless my heart pounded like a drum. :-D

With the Trap-Bar-Deadlifts I got motivated and did them in one set. Oh yeah, by the way, my hammies, quads, glutes and lower back quit and went on vacation after about 25 reps.

After that the Ring- Pushups were hellish and the fairly light Bulgarian Bag almost killed me.
I will not talk about the final tire- carries here...;-) Although they were fun.

After that nice, little challenge we had a cup of tea. Literally...one cup. It felt more like a box squat...
Taking your weight(the cup), sitting back on a bench, taking a sip and then you hear your coach (in our case Dominik) shouting "UP!!!" and you give it all you got to make that lift.
When you are up... Well... We were off to our next workout.

The third and final workout of the day (yes, ONE DAY!) was another challenge by Dominik.

We went for a run in the woods surrounding Dominiks´ self- made gym.

This one was in its own way the most difficult one but at the same time the most beatiful.
Running, brief walking, Sprinting up inclination covered with ice and snow, between tress, branches,... It just felt right to work out like this. Thank you Dominik for this experience!

Between the slopes we did a ton of pushups, pullups(about one hour into the woods we absolved a pullup- ladder with some guys going up to 9 reps and an additional all-out-set!!), and squats, clean & presses, overhead- squats with logs we found on our run. Some you could pick up yourself, otheres required teamwork.

The most difficult thing was keeping your gloves flexible, since we sweated a lot (I wonder why...) our gloves were soaked and if you did not move them for about an minute, they simply froze up on you...
Getting them flexible again was sort of a grip- challenge inbetween. :-D

After that (by the way, we roamed the woods for about 2 hours without a break!!) we hit the showers and we all went to a lovely tavern for dinner. This was a perfect oppotunity to exchange thoughts and interact with the fellow warriors over some eggs, meat and vegetables.
(I admit, I had some french fries too... Shame on me. ;-D)

To get back to the first quote:
10 athletes, with 10 different focuses, 10 different approaches towards training, 10 different personalities, 10 different performance- levels.
Some there were a lot stronger than me, but I kicked their ass during the hill-sprints. Some kicked mine there as well, but I had an advantage with the deadlift since I got a good base built with Kettlebells.
Some guys could only walk the slopes while others sprinted them. So what?! The faster one simply carried each other uphill.
If they still had some spare time... We´ll... Always time for some pushups and pullups!!
Everybody performed at a different level at each station/workout.

It was never important to us.
Some guys we had to drag up the slopes. So what?! We ride together, we die together!
We started this together, we finished this together!!
That is the mind-set you expect and get from warriors who understand the effort it requires to push ones limits!

Thank you Dominik, for giving people the possibility to experience such a mental effort at least once in their life or to come back several times a year and develop it as a ability, as a tool aiding in ones´ whole life.

Train hard and enjoy life.
All the best,
Harry

Do I love training?

2009-12-26T11:28:00.006+01:00

I was prepared for this post with a lot of quotes and clever points.
Well...
I decided to cut that crap (pardon my french) and simply be honest.

Training is certainly a huge part of my life and I say "I love training" quite a lot I think...
But I´ve got to admit, I never really thought that one through.

I talk about it a lot, I want to talk about it a lot. I want to discuss it, gather information about it, want to know it in every aspect possible.
I crave it when not doing it, I´m looking forward to it, sometimes all day long, I crave the calm before the storm and afterwards. I crave the exhaustion, the sweat, the focus, the difficult breathing.
But training just is, exists.
It is just movement of myself and external objects.
Muscular contraction against a variable resistance with different intervals of contraction and relaxation.
Training doesn´t care about me.
I crave for it, miss it, initiate it.

I decide what and when, I decide the intensity, tough I get carried away sometimes.
It´s something brutally honest, something that, at times, almost destroys me.
But in the end I keep coming back stronger.

Give it all you got. The intense moment where one just can be. Complete.
Because it is simple: Extend your arms/legs. Bend your arms/legs. Tighten your abdomen/belly.
Watching something simple remaining simple but becoming difficult; close your hands, open your hands after a 10- minute- Farmers´ Walk with heavy dumbbells or kettlebells.

A focus behind a blurring wall of sweat pouring down from every inch of your body, muscles not even used shaking from sheer exhaustion of the total being.
Focus on bringing all together, exact movement to generate power, energy, on the spot.
Feeling feedback, feeling the kettlebell, the sandbag, the barbell moving, shifting, trembling when you are. Grabbing it tighter, almost to the point you feel your hands melting with the steel, cast iron, canvas, cotton. Harmony... The tighter the grip the more burning flames Inflame your every fiber, crawl up your arms, to your back, to your legs, somehow fill the lungs, one on each side. A honest feedback.
Well... I guess you could call that passion alright.

My goals in training?
Get better!!
Stronger. Faster. More powerful, More enduring. Become Indestructible.
Training itself got no goals itself, none for me.
Training doesn`t exist without me.

Still...I love training.
There... I said it. It´s out there.
I hope me saying this doesn´t ruin our relationship...

Thinking about symbolism, I´m afraid what this means for my general concept of love.
Well...I´ll go work out now.(Don´t say "make love"...Get your thoughts out of the gutter!)
I post a video on You...YouTUBE i guess...

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Regeneration - Not necessary talking training here

2009-12-25T20:46:00.005+01:00

After the Christmas Endurance Training I thought i also walk you through my regeneration-day and the most important aspects.

For those who don´t want to know my whole philosophy:
-eat enough protein.
-sleep more than 8 hours.
-drink a LOT of water!
-do something to keep the blood flowing (Joint Mobility Drills, Hot Tub, a massage, go for a walk,...)

Well, now the deeper thoughts...

Why the "not necessary talking training" in the title...?

Well...
I went for a long walk today, primary to get some blood flow going in my sore hamstrings and some fresh air into my lungs.
So I took my MP3- player and started.
After about 10 minutes I shut off the music... I felt like the music was filling my head.
Those of you who know me personally know it´s almost impossible to meet me without ear-phones. The music helps me to modulate my mood, gives me the possibility to attend to myself if needed.
Today I needed an empty head, no modulation, no influence. Just my surroundings, my thoughts.

I discovered i was tense again.
Not my muscles but my mind.(Well...my muscles as well but you do a workload of 16000kg in under an hour!)

I don´t know if this is something special only I experience but sometimes I discover my mind gets tense. It feels like I´m stuck in my own head, it spreads out and tightens my forehead, my face, my chest and there you go...I´m tense all around...

Those long walks help me reflect things experienced... SOmetimes not by thinking consciously about them but by just letting my mind wander or being silent like today.

I bet everyone of you, physical active or not got those events which tighten your head.
Exams, interpersonal relations, job, family,...
Get your recovery! After a good amount of hands-on work with burn-out- patients I can tell you: IT´S IMPORTANT!!
Search and find what´s good for you and DO IT!!

We only progress by hard work. Some do them conciously, plan them. Some just got those "AHA!!" - Moments.
But like training one needs to be able to restrain oneself.
Do not eat that chocolate. Do not have another beer. Do not watch another episode of Lost, Seinfeld or whatever and go to bed!

Knowing my zodiac sign being Cancer, a friend of mine once said to me "Ah...Two steps ahead, one step back."
I guess my friend was right...That is what i, we, should practice. Being able to step back once in a while in my world of training.
Only by stepping back one step once in a while we enable us to see the whole picture and assess if me are making progress.

After the long walk through cold rain I soaked myself into a 30min hot bath. Those do wonders for you. Especially if you finish them with a cold shower.
After those I usually feel like chewed and spit out but 30min afterwards I can eat a whole cow.
By the way, I did that. ;-)
Yeah, like I said, Protein is important!

I´ll finish my regeneration with about 8 to 9 hours of sleep. And I´m looking forward to it!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Christmas Endurance Special

2009-12-24T13:52:00.003+01:00

Merry Christmas.

For most people. christmas is family time. You know, hang out with family, dinners, presents, more food...

For me as well. ;-)

But those who don´t do anything during the christmas holidays need nuts like me who also push their workload during the holidays so they maybe do something.
Please don´t go jogging now...

For me, i spent about a hour of my 24th of december doing:

-500x Swings
-500x Push Presses,

both with a 16kg Kettlebell.

It´s about rep 300 at the end of the short clip.

No more rules, just finish it.
It took me something short of an hour.

To be honest, I was suprised how well it went.
Since I worked at a cosy cadence it turned out to be an 1hour endurance event, my grip stayed with me, my legs kept on going, my back feels great and my shoulders are going to be sore tomorrow.

Overall I´m happy. I like stuff like that.

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

2009-12-19T08:50:00.003+01:00

A scary duty if you really think about it...

Every word we say, every action we take, every use of our weapons(be it knowledge, words, bullets,...) and every consequence following...We are responsible for it.
We are responsible for our success and failure.

It is YOUR LIFE, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!

If you don´t like it, do something about it.
If you wanna blame someone else, if you wanna start whining...Go on. And get used to the fact that your problems will never go away.

Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry

Code of the warrior - NO WHINING

2009-12-15T17:33:00.004+01:00

You are what you have done.
You will become what you do.

ENOUGH SAID?!

Do not waste your time whining. Every moment you complain, feel sorry for yourself you waste a moment to dig inside, DEEP INSIDE and pull that negative stuff out of there and find a solution.

Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry

Valentin Dikul

2009-12-11T12:18:00.002+01:00

impressive.

A nice way to spend your days when you are older!!

An impressive man, who regained his health after an injury where doctors told him, he may never walk again.

Enjoy life and train hard!
All the best,
Harry