Keeping your head up, Mentally and Physically

No matter the situation, there is always something that will make you smile. That smile sparks a firestorm of emotions and sensations that radiate outwards in all aspects of your life and the lives of those around you.

"Anyone who has a continuous smile on his/hew face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening" - Greta Garbo  

Have you ever tried smiling at a stranger? you either get someone who gives you a dirty look and you know that they will then wonder for the next few minutes why you smiled and why they didn't smile back. Or you will receive a gift in return, another smile from a stranger. This is a gift that cant be monetized or returned, just know that the net happiness in the world increased at that moment and you took part in it.

If you are mentally in the game (life) everything else works out around you. Use the tips and tricks i have shared over the past months and change your world. Sell all the clutter, get rid of the people who bring you down and throw caution to the wind and do new things, meet new people.

Along with smiling to strangers, there is no better way to face an opponent then with a smile across your face. At first they will think your joking, but then they will start to get bothers deep down inside. And then they will be broken once they see that your serious and that the smile wasn't a joke. This also works for anyone that wants to see you unhappy; Smile until they no longer wish negative things towards you.

Today's workout is based of a classic Crossfit benchmark workout.

Barbara (5 rounds for time)

• 20x pull ups
• 30x Plyo push ups
• 40x Decline sit ups
• 50x Jumping air squats

Get after it! work hard and keep smiling. 

Core Stability. Not just abs.

 

 

If you can do a movement sitting down OR standing, always pick standing. This added force you use do the movement and keep stable is a huge benefit to your core.

Also picking movements that are done over head, or force you to have a weight transfer from from your hands to your feet will help build the REAL core that you have wanted.

Some examples of these useful movements and weight transfers are hand stand pushups (see above picture), Olympic lifting, standing dumbbell curls and standing shoulder presses.

keep working hard everyone! here is a great upper body core workout for you.

Workout 8-1 

Complete 7 rounds of the following for time…

• 7 x triple unders (21x double unders or 63 singles)
• 7x chest to bar pull ups
• 7x Power snatch (95#/65#)
• 7x handstand push ups

If you need an alternate to these movements. post in the comments!

-Mike 

Total Strength

          What makes you physically strong? This is often a source of constant debate and there are many differing opinions as to what constitutes a strong person. That is because there are a number of different types of muscular strength.
What are the different qualities of muscular strength and what is best type to have? Or do we have to train in all aspects of the strength game. If so, what ratio between the different strength types should we aim for?

          In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries the common measure of strength was a 200lb press overhead, these remember were the days before the squat and bench had come into existence. 


Relative Strength
 
Relative strength shifts the question from “How much can you bench?” to “How much do you weigh and how much can you bench?”
In the interests of not filling this article full of scientific jargon and technical malarkey, what is the best layman’s definition for relative strength? The easiest way to explain it is the ratio between the total weight being lifted and the total bodyweight of the lifter. The easiest example is a 200lb lifter bench pressing a 300lb barbell. In this case the ratio is 1.5, that is to say, the lifter is bench pressing 1.5 times their bodyweight.

Explosive Strength
 
Explosive strength is best explained by the Oxford Dictionary of Sport Science & Medicine. Their definition: “The ability to expend energy in one explosive act or in a series of strong sudden movements as in jumping, or projecting some object (e.g. a javelin) as far as possible.” So our bench press question becomes, "How fast can you push the bar from chest to lockout in the bench press"

Muscular endurance
 
In short, muscular endurance refers to the ability to sustain a number of muscular contractions over a sustained period of time. So to use the bench question again it shifts to, "What is the most amount of reps that you can bench for a set period of time?" or just "How many reps can you continuously bench?" Bodybuilders who utilize high volume, high rep training with reduced time between sets certainly have a certain amount of muscular endurance.
 
What aspect of physical strength should we focus on?
 
As old school trainers, relative strength should always be a primary focus. Depending on what aspect of the iron game you are focusing on, you need to balance out the other three types of strength accordingly. Most importantly do not ignore any of them to your peril. Old school muscle men essentially liked to take a generalist approach to strength and then developed a specialty interest within this. These days, trainees tend to specialize from the outset which leads to imbalances in overall physical strength.

 Workout 7-25 (The Test)

Run 1 mile

3 sets of pushups till failure

Max situps in 1 minute

run 1 mile

Max distance lunges in 1 minute

Wall walk ups

run 1 mile