Highlights from the 2010 Arnold Classic…BrinkZone style

Just returned from the 2010 Arnold Classic. Was a great show this year. The Arnold Classic is far more then just oiled up IFBB pro bodybuilders posing on stage, it’s the largest sports festival in the US. The mens pro show gets more then enough coverage in the magazines and such… I enjoy covering the other aspects, like the expo, various sports (last year I covered Fencing, O lifting, and PL for example), gadgets, and yes, pretty girls.

So, warning to viewers: if you are expecting/looking for, IFBBs pro bodybuilders on stage, you wont find it in this vid. I thought this year was particularly good for new exercise related gadgets, many of which were of that super simple “why the hell didn’t I think of that?!” variety. One of them I recently covered on this blog for example, the GymBoss Interval Timer. Another was the Fat Gripz you will see me using in the vid. May do a write up on that product in the near future. There’s also a new magazine on the market, called Muscle Insider, that looks very promising (reminds me of ‘old school’ MuscleMedia…) that yours truly will be in on semi regular basis.

So without further delay, here’s this years vid, BrinkZone style.

The 7 Habits Of Successfully Building Muscle is my latest creation for cutting through the hype and confusion of what it REALLY takes to build muscle mass and strength.

Written with Mark Macgillivray , one of my team of  professional advisors in the Bodybuilding Revealed members Inner Circle., – this report is a high quality easy to read  gift to all my subscribers.

While it’s focus is one of gaining muscle, those looking to lose fat can learn from some of the basic principles as well.

I’m really stoked about this E-Rport as I know it has the potential to help out a lot of people who may be confused about what foundational “habits” lead to success  in the gym.

Click Here To Download 7 Habits (Right Click – Save As.)

The only thing I ask is, if you’ve enjoy it and you would like more high quality reports made available free, then leave me and Mark your comments below about what you liked about it.

I’ll see YOU .. in the Gym.
PS:If you enjoyed 7 Habits, then you’ll love Bodybuilding Revealed, (if you’re not already a member).

Short post here. This is just my philosophy on the use of kettlebells as a tool in a broad spectrum training program.

• Work capacity
• Portability for travel or deployments
• ‘Feeder’ Exercises

Work capacity is pretty self explanitory.

The small size makes it easy to take just about anywhere for a total body gym. Going on deployment? Shove a couple in a conex and take an adjustable one on the plane. At work all day and don’t have much time or space to get a workout in? Tote it along and knock out some short work throughout the day. Your co-workers may think you’re a little nutty, but that’s ok you’ve got the six-pack and he that sports the six-pack makes the rules.

Jumping straight into olympic lifts is a very techinical sport and takes years of training. Kettlebells allow you to start training the gross motor movements(hip extension, coordination) with more room for not quite perfect form. And just as the kettlebell clean and snatch are slightly more complex, you can start just about anybody on swings and have them slowly progress to those exercises and if they so choose to trasition to the bar versions, they will have many of the mechanics already set.

So those are my top 3 uses of the kettlebell. The reason I break it down to these three is for whatever reason I see people trying to make the kettlebell things it’s not. I’m not talking about the guys that actually use kettlebells only, that’s their thing cool. I’m talking about the gym idiots that are doing curls with them, when there are freaking dumbbells right next to them. If you’re trying to bodybuild with kettlebell front raises…..you’re probably not a very successful bodybuilder, might want to find a new hobby.

Use them to become a workhorse while on the road because when you get back you want to get into olympic lifts. Don’t use them in front of a mirror or you will have your man card revoked….for life.

Getting Into Great Condition Using an Interval Timer

Outside the programs that are designed to obtain a specific goal, such as increases in 1RM strength, or an increase in muscle mass, etc, conditioning workouts can also be an integral part of a well designed program. In my earlier days, like most western trainers, I generally ignored General Physical Preparedness (GPP)/ general conditioning when focusing specifically on an increase in strength and LBM. The more western approach to increasing strength, muscle mass, or what ever the specific goal, is to simply focus  on the training that follows the goal, and generally ignore everything else. For example, if you want to be good at the powerlifts, just practice the powerlifts and so on.

That, more or less, is the classic ‘old school’  western model, although things have changed for the better in recent years as what worked well for western strength athletes has influenced eastern approaches and vise versa and modern coaches have rethought some of their approaches in recent years. However, most of your everyday people in the gym often fail to realize how much has changed in the past decade… One of the most successful strength coaches on the planet, Lou Simmons, is a big proponent of GPP for strength athletes of all kinds regardless of their specific sport. His article on the importance of GPP is a ‘must read’ in my view. (1)

Over the years, an appreciation on my end for GPP was responsible for the addition of my Hybrid/HIIT day as part of Brink’s Hybrid Training Program, which has led to improvements in body composition, strength, and GPP/conditioning, for those who have followed it. There are many ways to go about incorporating GPP into a program, but that’s not the focus of this write up;  I encourage people to read Simmon’s article on the topic. Other very successful SnC coaches/competitors, such as Dave Tate and others, are also proponents of intelligently applied GPP. How GPP is applied depends to some degree on the goals of the person, experience levels, etc., so some research is warranted before jumping into it.

Can the intelligent/appropriate use  GPP training – besides the obvious benefits to health and conditioning – make one a better power lifter, a better bodybuilder, a better athlete regardless? In my experience and opinion, the answer is yes.

With all that in mind, I wanted to discuss one of my favorite gizmos called the Gym Boss Interval (GBI) timer, and how I recently used it in my GPP/Conditioning day.

The GBI timer is one of those “why the hell didn’t I think of this?!” simple gadgets, that although not essential to a program per se, adds so much convenience to any workout that involves an interval of some sort, you don’t know how  you lived without it.

Simply put, it’s an inexpensive timer that will track two separate times intervals and combine them for you into a single program. For HIIT training, it’s a must have gadget. However, I find it useful for various activities  that involves any type of interval time between exercises, or rest periods. What follows is a recent GPP/conditioning day I followed that is a current favorite of mine, and how the GBI Timer was used.

This particular day calls for:

•10 minutes of HIIT training
•10 minutes of heavy bag work
•10 minutes of lateral medicine ball wall smashes

I set the GBI timer for a 30 second: 1 minute interval that lasts 10 minutes long. The timer will beep after each interval, so no watching clocks on the wall or display on some machine while trying to focus on not dying during HIIT!

The three sessions for this day are done with minimal rest between them. How much rest? ‘Till you have the ability to go onto the next one. If you can jump right from the HIIT session to the heavy bag work, go for it. I usually need  a few minutes to get my legs to work properly and my breathing back…

HIIT session for the day:

The HIIT protocol  I use for this session goes like so: after a brief warm up – 5 minutes or so on the treadmill – I will use a stair stepper type machine and will do 1 minute low intensity followed by 30 seconds all out, and repeat. I will do that for 10 minutes, which is literally all I can stand. When I say “all out” I mean 100% intensity, nothing held back, as fast and as hard as my legs can move me, similar say to a full sprint on a track.

Quick important note here: what most people consider HIIT is not. Most people who think they are doing HIIT are not. My full comments on that can be found in my article “HIIT Training, are you really doing it?”

As mentioned above, the Gym Boss Interval timer is worth every penny when it comes to HIIT considering how difficult HIIT is (when done correctly!) and not having to keep track of the intervals allows one to really focus on the effort.

Heavy Bag Session:

Heavy bag training, if you have never done it, is amazingly taxing. Again, the GBI timer is invaluable to me as I just want to focus on what I am doing vs. looking at the clock on the wall. Although one can certainly alter the intervals on the timer, I like to stick to my 30 second: 1 minute intervals for 10 minutes. I’m lazy I guess.

The heavy bag is 30 seconds of heavy bag work, one minute of rest, repeat for 10 minutes. Heavy bag work is not HIIT training. It is a form of interval training to be sure, but it’s not HIIT, nor is it recommended to attempt as true HIIT. If you have never done any heavy bag work, it’s probably worth getting some coaching there, looking at some vids on the ‘net. Etc. Heavy bag work can be hard on the joints, and done incorrectly, lead to injuries to your wrists, etc. How much actual effort you put into the heavy bag during the 30 second “go” interval, is dictated to some degree by your experience with it, not to mention, that 10 minutes of HIIT that was just done leaves one feeling quite trashed, believe me.

My advice, pace yourself on the heavy bag. Ten minutes of that – immediately following a HIIT session – will be much harder then most may expect. Again, the Gym Boss Timer works great here. No watching the clock (and I don’t like wearing a wrist watch when I train….) just hearing the beep, and focusing on the effort.

Lateral Move Med Ball Wall Smash:

The final third of this death march is the Lateral Med Ball Wall Smash: This one takes a little explaining. If you have worked with a medicine ball, you know they don’t bounce. The “med ball wall smash” involves throwing a med ball with enough force for it to bounce back at you off a wall. You shove it away from you as if passing a basketball to someone using two hands. Ball close to body, shove hard forward with both hands. With a med ball, standing say 3-5ft away, it takes some effort to make it bounce back at you. As you are doing that, you are moving laterally to your left or right. Obviously, you  need a length of wall to do it.

Two, the wall you use MUST be made of brick/cinder block/stone. If you try this on a typical indoor wall made of sheet rock for example, you will make big dent/whole in the wall, and owner of said wall will not be happy with you…ask me how I know… At my gym, the building is made of cinder blocks, so as long as I am using an exterior wall, I’m good to go. I usually use an empty aerobics room/studio for this.

I will go left 20-30ft, then back the other way along the wall as far as I have until the 30 second timer of the GBI timer beeps, then rest a minute and repeat. Again, when added to the last two section of this GPP/Conditioning day, this is much more difficult then it may sound. OK, maybe some of the 20 something studs reading this will blow right through this day, but I’m toast afterward.

Finally, I will finish the day off one set of chin ups for 20 reps.

That’s my current GPP/conditioning day – which I do once every 7-10 days depending on how it fits into my resistance training program – using the Gym Boss Interval Timer.

My gym is a pretty typical Golds Gym, various cardio equipment, a heavy bag set up in a corner of one of the aerobics oriented studios, various medicine balls, etc, so none of the above requires anything very fancy. You may have to modify it a bit to fit your particular set up. There are many other ways to use the GBI timer for a HIIT session, GPP day, intervals of all kinds, etc. You don’t have to use my examples  above.

You could also be creative and break it up into say 5 minute section, such as HIIT 5 mins, Heavy bag 5 mins, Med Ball Wall Smash 5 minutes, and repeat.

You can also change the interval times as it suits your needs, conditioning levels, etc. The 30 second: 1 minute interval for HIIT is all I can stand, and that same interval seems to work well for the others that follow, but there’s no reason one can’t play with the interval times per se.

Well that’s my write up of the Gym Boss Interval Timer as I use it for my current favorite GPP/Conditioning day, which for me, is incorporated into my overall program, which is focused mostly on resistance training (once a gym rat always a gym rat I guess), but currently I’m more interested in an overall balance between strength, bodycomp, and conditioning, then just one of them in isolation. I have added this “why didn’t I think if that?!” gadget to the Recommended Products section for those interested

See you in the gym!

(1) Lou Simmons on GPP

As my colleague Will Brink likes to say, “From Mentzer’s ‘one set to failure’ to Poliquin’s ‘German volume training,’ there is no program which recommends using progressively lighter weightloads from week to week.” Brink is of course, alluding to the universal requirement of all successful strength and mass gaining programs: progressive overload.

One well-known pro bodybuilder recently told me that as long as he was training to failure, he felt assured that he was using the highest possible intensity, and therefore, it didn’t matter what weights he used. Most people, after seeing his physique, would hesitate to argue with such convoluted logic.

(Incidentally, Matt Mendenhall jokingly calls this phenomenon the law of excessive mass: i.e., “I’m bigger than you, so I’m right!”) But I would remind such people that the individual in question possessed several attributes which allowed him to succeed despite his poor choice of exercise protocol:

1) He chose great parents for his avocation;
2) He was probably a dru… I mean, a recreational pharmacologist;
3) Perhaps most importantly, he possessed the ability to work extremely hard on a consistent basis for a long period of time.

With this in mind, you should immediately grasp the foolishness of “average” trainees (which the vast majority of us are) attempting to use this individual’s training methods.

Training is Stress!

Let’s start off with an analogy: If you went from a sedentary desk job to working as a lumberjack, your body would undergo some interesting adaptations as it struggled to cope with the unfamiliar environmental stressors inherent in that profession.

You would most certainly develop caluoses on your hands as a result of grasping axes, saws, and other implements for hours each day. These callouses, however, would be exactly the same size one year after getting your new job, three years after, six years after, ad infinitum. Why? Because after the initial shock, the degree of stress to your hands never changed over that period of time.

Training is no different. Most bodybuilders make great progress for the first year or two, but then never look any different from that point on. Many of these people understand the importance of progression, but lack the skills necessary to implement it properly.

The Training Load

In sports science jargon, the training load is defined as “the sum total of all training activities for a given unit of time.” The training load has two important components, both of which can be used to provide overload— volume, or the amount of work done, and intensity, or the difficulty of work done (Incidentally, as a rule of thumb, you should seek to establish a certain level of intensity first, and then add volume, rather than the other way around).

Before you can plan a certain level of progression, it becomes necessary to have a way of measuring each of these components. Volume is usually calculated as the amount of weight lifted multiplied by the repetitions performed with that weight. However, this traditional calculation is being called into question by some latter day thinkers. Charles Poliquin was the first to say that the actual time that a muscle is under tension (TUT) must be considered as well. If this seems too anal-retentive, let me ask you a question.

If you perform a set of 10 reps with 135 pounds, and your lifting speed (or tempo) is 6 seconds per repetition, and your training partner used the same weight and reps, but executed each rep at 3 seconds per repetition, did you each perform an identical amount of work? Clearly, no. This scenario illustrates the fact that the training load can be increased simply by gradually slowing down your lifting tempos over successive workouts. Reducing rest between sets also increases volume, since the workload will be performed in a shorter period of time. So, to use another example, if you and your partner both perform 3 sets of 10 reps with 135 pounds using identical tempos, but you rest one minute per set while your partner rests two minutes between sets, you achieved the greater volume.

Intensity is the second component of the training load, and it is normally expressed as a percentage of your 1RM (one repetition maximum), or the greatest amount of weight you can lift for one repetition in proper form. But here’s the catch with 1RM’s: they’re always changing. This means you never quite know for sure what your 1RM is for any given lift. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test for 1RM’s every 8 weeks or so— you should. Doing so gives you a guideline to work with. It’s just important to realize that 1RM’s are a dynamic measurement. For this reason, I usually prescribe repetition bracketsrather than percentage of 1RM when I write training programs for my clients.

When considering intensity, it’s important to realize that any change in your exercise technique— no matter how slight— changes the equation altogether. For instance, if you normally use a 3 second tempo (meaning, you complete each repetition in exactly 3 seconds) when testing for your 1RM, and the next time you test you’re able to add 5 pounds to your 1RM but it took you an extra second to complete the lift, it’s not an accurate indication of improvement. Establish your testing parameters, and then stick to them so that you have a consistent protocol when testing. If you do not, you’ll have no real way of knowing whether or not you’re improving.

Incidentally many people use the phrase “high intensity” to describe workout that are actually high volume or high density (which refers to the work/rest ratio). So just to be clear about our terms, remember that intensity has nothing to do with how much pain you’re in, or the fact that you frequently experience reverse peristolisis and out-of-body experiences after your leg training— it simply refers to how much weight is on the bar relative to your current maximal ability. Using this definition, we could say that performing 315 pounds for 1 rep is more intense than 10 reps with 310 pounds, even though the latter effort is far more difficult to perform.

The Volume/Intensity Relationship

Volume and intensity are mutually exclusive concepts— you can’t have high intensity and high volume simultaneously. If this was possible, you’d be able to do three sets of ten with your current 1RM! Yet both volume and intensity are necessary to achieve results— high volume loads create more lasting adaptations, while intense loads create faster adaptations which are more temporary. This apparent paradox is one of the primary reasons for periodizing (or cycling) your training.

Although you can implement the principle of progressive overload by increasing volume or intensity, it’s important to realize that increases in volume are more sustainable than increases in intensity. In other words, for a trainee with 10 years experience who can squat 695 for a single repetition, it’s much easier to progress by adding reps and/or sets than it is to try to add weight to the bar during any given repetition bracket

Which Type of Progression is Best?

In his book Science of Sports Training, Thomas Kurz identified three distinct methods which can be used to increase the training load over time:

1) Rectilinear method: Loads are continuously and uniformly increased. An example of rectilinear progression is to attempt to add five pounds to the bar every time you perform squats.

2) Stepped Method: Load are sharply increased, then held at that level for a period of time, before being sharply increased again. An example would be using the same weight, say 185 pounds for five sets of five reps, for a period of four weeks, and then increasing to 225 pounds for four weeks for the same sets and reps, and so on. This method, when used by advanced athletes, can result in fast, but temporary strength increases. Not effective for beginning or intermediate lifters of less than 4 years of continuous lifting experience.

3) Wavy method: Loads are gradually increased for several sessions, and then decreased for one or more sessions, and so on. A classic example of this loading scheme is as follows:

While increases in load are slower than the previous two methods, this technique lends itself to more sustainable progress, and as a result more satisfaction, and fewer injuries from training.

The Law of Sustainable Progression

Should an athlete progress as fast as possible? Or perhaps as fast as is comfortable? Or, should you just choose some arbitrary unit— say 5 pounds per week? There is a way to make some sense of this. The key is to determine the amount of progression that you can sustain over a prolonged period of time. Let’s take the 5 pounds per week scenario, which incidentally, is commonly used by people who make great progress initially, but who hit a wall after a year or two. While 5 pounds a week seems like a very gradual progression, if you take the time to extend this level of progression over the long term, you’ll find that it equates to an increase of 260 pounds per year! In such a scenario, the athlete would be a world class powerlifter within 2 years! Since this happens to very few people, it is a useful analogy to prove my point.

The previous scenario violates what I call “The Law of Sustainable Progression.” Fast increases in training loads soothe the ego and make for fairly impressive short term gains, but they can’t be sustained. A slower progression over a longer period of time leads to better and more lasting results than a faster progression which can only be sustained for a short period of time. Further, large, sudden increases in training loads are associated with hitting an early and false plateau, which can lead to injury, as the athlete resorts to more and more extreme methods in an attempt to break out of this plateau.

So progress as slowly (and also as consistently) as you can. Equipment companies are responding to the concept of “micro-progression” by providing more variable weight stacks which allow for smaller jumps. One company, Benoit Built, makes specialized magnets (called Plate Mate) weighing between 1/4 and 5/8 of a pound which can be attached to plates, dumbbells, and weight stacks. The beauty of Plate Mate (besides portability) is that they allow you to make minute, yet sustainable progressions from workout to workout. Putting this concept in terms you can relate to, let’s assume you’re a 250 pound bencher. Using a progression of 2.5 pounds per week, you’ll be a 380 pound bencher in one year. Even this is a very significant increase, but by using sound training programs and recovery strategies (see sidebar entitled “The Role of Recovery in Progression”), it can be done.

In the Final Analysis…

Bodybuilding is a subjective sport. But because there is a very real correlation between training loads and hypertrophy, you can assure progress by carefully designing your training programs and then closely monitoring the results of these programs. If your training load is gradually and consistently increasing, you’re making progress.

Methods of Employing Progressive Overload:

1) By increasing time under tension. Start with 6 repetitions per set, utilizing a 4-0-1 tempo. Each set should therefore take 30 seconds to perform. Each workout, increase the tempo by one second per rep, until you reach 10 seconds per rep. At this point, should choose to increase the weight, reduce the tempo, and begin progressing again.

2) By increasing the weight lifted. Using a standard set/rep scheme for each workout, add between 2.5 and 5 pounds to the bar each session. 3) By increasing the number of reps per set. This method is useful with exercises where you initially have a low level of strength, such as pull-ups or dips. Using the same load each workout, start with 1-3 reps per set, and add one rep per set each workout. Once you reach more than 12 reps per set, you should then employ more weight and/or slower tempos.

3) By increasing the number of sets per workout. Although it has its place, be cautious when adding sets to your workouts. For example, going from three sets to four is a 25 percent increase in volume for every given exercise!

4) By increasing the range of motion. Using the same load each workout, start with a reduced ROM, and gradually increase it from workout to workout. For example, you can perform bench presses in a power rack, starting the movement from the bottom-most position, which is set by the height of the pins. On the first workout, you might only work the top 3″ of a bench press. Each workout, drop the pins one notch, until you reach full ROM.

5) By reducing the rest intervals between sets. This has particularly good results when attempting to improve relative strength. Using the same load, number of reps, and tempo each workout, simply reduce the rest intervals by 10 seconds each workout.

6) By using “stutter” or interrupted sets. Rather than performing a continuous set, you can select a heavier weight, and rest briefly (5-10 seconds) between each rep. One method I sometimes employ with my athletes is to ask for a maximum number of reps in a specified time period— say, 2 minutes. They can use any number of sets or reps— they might for instance perform a set of 8, rest 20 seconds, do a set of 7, rest 30 seconds, then 5 reps, etc., until the time period expires. When using this method, always maintain consistent exercise form and speed of execution.

Sometimes, two or more methods of progression are used simultaneously. For example, from workout to workout, you may choose to add both weight and reduce rest between sets. This is usually employed in situations where a trained athlete is coming back after an extended layoff, and is able to make rapid improvements from workout to workout due to his extensive training experience. The problem with this method however, is that when you do make progress, you won’t know which factor to attribute it to.

The Role of Recovery in Progression

Better recovery means more frequent training sessions and therefore, faster progress. Although recovery will take place regardless, there are two particularly effective means you can take to accelerate recovery from training: massage and nutritional management.

In my work with athletes, I have found that expertly-applied massage can improve recovery times by as much as 40 percent. In fact, I find it so effective that I require prospective clients to receive massage therapy at least once per week. According to my colleague Dianna Linden, an elite-level softtissue worker located in Santa Monica, California:

“Spasms keep muscle fibers in a contracted state and disable their capacity to perform within the muscle when it is under load, therefore decreasing strength by whatever percent of that muscle stays contracted by the spasm. This weakens the muscle and increases its potential to tear near the edges of the spasm. By working regularly with an athlete the therapist can provide feed back which is a far more accurate account of how the muscles are handling the stress levels they are exposed to.”

Of course, nutrition plays a vital role in recovery as well. Although there are many factors to consider, adequate protein is crucial— I consider one gram per pound of bodyweight per day a minimum standard. Creatine monohydrate and branched chain amino acids immediately following training.

BrinkZone Sponsors Local MMA Event

As mentioned in a prior blog, I was a (minor) sponsor of an MMA event. The name of the event was “stand Up and Fight” and was held Feb 19th in Tyngsboro MA.  There was some great ‘ground and pound.’  I was really impressed with how professional the athletes were and the level of sportsmanship they showed; as good as it gets. I have been to a ton of bodybuilding shows, power-lifting meets, etc as both judge and or attendee,   the behavior was less then professional by some and that’s a real turn off. Trophies smashed, people storming off stage, and general hissy fits. These guys, after beating the snot out of each other, to a man, showed sportsmanship and professionalism that really impressed me.

Hey, make sure to share this via Facebook, Twitter, etc! Thanx!

Don’t usually comment on such things…..What does he have to apologize for? He’s an athlete, not a politician where his judgments can impact others (even though most politicians are screwing everything that moves…) so I can’t figure why he, or others, apologize to the public like that. Just once I would like someone like him to walk up the mic and say “It’s between me and my wife and none of your damn business. I hit golf balls for a living, nothing more, nothing less. See you all on the golf course” and walk away.

The only “mistake” Tiger made was getting married. However, philandering men of the wealthy/famous variety are par for the course (excuse the pun) with such men, and always have been and always will be.

News flash: wealthy/famous men, due to the nature of the male species, culture, etc, given easy access to sex, will more often then not, take advantage of it.

People really need to (1) get a life and (2) stop the hero worship of athletes and looking to athletes as examples of good moral/ethical behavior. They are by and large just over paid kids given way too much credit beyond what they do well in their particular sport.

Only lesson here is, the same old lesson: if you are going to use your fame/wealth to bang everything that moves, DON’T get married. But please, when you get “caught”  – and you WILL get caught – man up about it vs.  giving into the pressure to save your all American (invented) persona.

Sorry for the rant.

PS, the above is a rhetorical question. The reason he/they have to go on public TV and eat humble pie is about $$$. If you don’t go on TV and talk about what a horrible person you are, how you made terrible mistakes, yada yada, and so forth, they lose  contracts/endorsements if they don’t get their PR machine back up and running.As usual, comes down to good old money.

I made the drive to Bellingham. It’s suppose to be an hour and a half drive, but those of you that have seen I-5 around Seattle know to double your time minimum. It took me four hours. I had just spent 19 hours the day prior sitting in HMMWV’s, so needless to say I was quite tight and worn out. I got some dinner and passed out immediately after in my hotel room.

Next morning I headed to the RMAX gym located in the Bellingham Athletic Club. I aked where the Tacfit certification was being hosted. I then cruised to the back room of the gym where there were rings hanging, plyo boxes, paralettes, kettlebells and of course the clubbell. Most the students were already there and chit chatting introducing each other. Turns out some of these cats had just gone through 3 days of CST certification, they were going 5 days straight!

Most the attendee’s were looking pretty ripped and in pretty good shape. There were some firefighters, military(to include a soldier from Singapore), a physical therapist and the rest were trainers of some form or another. For those of you not familiar with Tacfit, it’s a metcon program designed by coach Scott Sonnon specifically designed for first responders. Also in attendance were coaches Ryan Murdoch(Who just released Tacfit Commando, a completely bodyweight version of the program) and Joe Wilson.

Tacfit has several interesting points that no other program can match. Although the protocols may appear crossfit-ish, they are designed in a much more specific process and the specifically the exercises made for good tactical habits. Each workout is 20 minutes long, which is a great help to those short on time. A joint mobility warm up and prasara warm down will make everything more effective and results quicker, but isn’t mandatory but highly recomended. Combined they add less than 15 min to the overall workout.

Classroom portion started off on the white board. Main points went over the 6 protocol wave format of the Tacfit workouts. The six protocols are organized in a very specific format from one to the next. There are 26 workouts total, each one building off the prior. Also there is four level to each of the 26 workouts and 96 exercise sets, Delta being for those new to metcon work, Gamma for those that have been at it a couple months, Beta for those that are very proficient after a couple months and finally Alpha strictly for bragging rights and may take a year or more to achieve if ever.

The first is the Tabata protocol of 20 sec work 10 sec rest. You’ll find as you work through Tacfit, there is a large sports psychology element to everything. This first protocol is meant to make you work fast and hard and force yourself to recover in 10 sec before bursting again. Did I mention Tabata’s are well proven to be some of the best work for body composition changes?

The next protocol consists of 4 min of work with 1 min rest between exercises. Most people when first exposed to metcon(metabolic conditioning) type workouts try to pace themselves.

The first workout protocol interrupted that thought process and forced you to recover in a timespan you didn’t think possible. Now with this protocol you have a sustained effort, but we tricked your brain to work faster from the first workout. So now you’ll be doing a repeated effort faster than you would have if you hadn’t had the first protocol.

The third protocol is each min on the min. The faster you complete your work, the higher quality and longer rest you get. Without the precursor exercises most will try to pace and end up with no recovery period. Again the tabata protocol teaches you to burst. Here you’ll get more rest if you finish faster.

Next protocol is the hardest for us coaches to monitor students intensity. It’s as many rounds as possible in the 20 min time period. Here you need to take all your body has learned from the previous protocols and apply it to get as many rounds as you can.

The fifth protocol is a compression of the second. It’s 90 sec of work 30 sec rest. Again using the previous protocols to get as much work as possible in the timeframe.

The last protocol is for time, as in doing so many reps of certain exercises as fast as possible. The goal here is to recover as best as possible during continuous work without reducing your pace over the duration. In other words sustained speed of work over the 20 min.

After a discussion on these protocols, some random notes I happened to write down before the pain train started. If you train above your max heart rate, your body does not adapt, also high skill level drops off extremely fast. Many of the exercises in Tacfit are very complex. This is meant to teach the operator to be able to perform high skill work even when in a high stress enviroment. Metcom work differs slightly from traditional gym workouts. In the gym you may get DOMS(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) 24-72 hours after your workout. Metcon will have a similar feeling but it’s actually a biochemical “drag” feeling. It will probably take an external set of eyes, especially with a high heart rate, if you are creating “cheats” on exercises, then you need to drop a complexity level. One idea coach Sonnon brought up is that your complexity will be determined that day. Some days you’re ready for more, some days less, don’t force a level you aren’t ready for ‘that day’.

So after this short little classroom portion we’re told we’d be going through all six protocols. So I’m thinking three today, three tomorrow, this is c=gonna suck! So we jump right into the Alpha workout(they are all named by the UN alpha-numeric alphabet code system). Alpha is the grueling tabata protocol with four total exercises with a full tabata protocol of each. 20 min of suckage. Just prior to starting we were shown some recovery breathing exercises. These were reinforced throughout and did seem to help. Ok so that makes your lungs burn a bit…. And ten min later on to the next workout.

So we jump into Bravo. Some what tame in comparison to Alpha. So one Tacfit workout alone is equivelant to 4 hours of traditional cardio, now we’re torching calories. So I’m thinking well we must be doing the third workout after lunch……

Then I hear coach Sonnon tell one of the other students we were doing all six today!! It’s time to really start sucking down the Surge Workout Fuel. Charlie was up next. Every minute on the minute is the bane of my existance, I hate it with a passion. I hate it so much, I was the first one done every round at about the 30 sec mark haha. Amazing how your hate fuel will get you better recovery. After being drenched by Charlie, I head to my truck and slam down my serving of Surge post workout with 5g of creatine mixed in. Lunch time at last. We’re told to force feed if need be. I had trouble eating and was too wound up to nap even though I was tired.

We all came back from lunch walking a bit slower and awaiting the next three workouts.

Delta, Echo and Foxtrot went by, completing the remaining three protocols. Day one was finally done. I chugged another serving of Surge/creatine, grabbed some dinner and headed to the hotel. I racked out pretty early and woke up around 0230 with my left arm locked at a 90 degree angle. It was so stiff, it took about 15 min using my right hand to straighten it out. I clamped my wrist between my knees to keep it straight and made sure my right arm was straight as possible as well, and went back to sleep. I woke up with my entire upper body stiff.

I arrived at the gym a few minutes early and entered from the back. Once everyone was there, Coach Joe Wilson(who is a long time police officer, now working with secret service on their fitness program) took us through a good long joint mobility session. It helped break up some of the adhesions and get the fluid back in the joints from the day priors trial by fire. Which as it turned out coach Sonnon’s fellow coaches had actually used as a joke, and he took them serious…Thanks guys…

After the mobility warm up, there was another brief white board class. The emphasis of the day was to go through ALL 96 exercises, progressions and regressions. But the class portion was focused on the true shining point of Tacfit, coaching cues. The coaching cues brings the program from a metcon that sculpts bodies into greek gods, to a tactically functional program that involves sports pyschology. This sports pyschology starts bringing in points like- above 85% heart rate, the brain will only hear one thing. The coach should make cues that are important over and over again. Some may not pick up on it the first time, or the second or even for several months or years. But eventually those cues will start to penetrate and take effect. Some are absorbed sub-consiously. There is also a heavy emphasis on teaching recovery with just as much power as technique. This will lead into “cognitive recovery”. What this means is getting the operators/students thinking during recovery. This translates to high stress situations such as the lull in a gunfight and gets the operator to think about what needs to come next.

On to the exercises. I won’t go too in depth on the actual exercises, but describe how they translate to the tactical arena. Every one of the 96 exercises was picked specifically to either train what I call ‘good tactical habits’ or assist in balancing out the body for specific things that occur with first responders/tactical athletes. For instance Kettlebell Goblet squats and gorilla crawls are designed to help with the stressors of armor by increasing mobility in area’s that get overly tight by heavy gear/airpacks. As far as good tactical habits, several are obvious, some not as much. For instance kettlebell getups are done differently than traditionally seen, but it teaches to plant and come up onto the edge of the foot rather than the ball of the foot which is less stable than the broad surface of the edge of a foot.

We proceeded through all levels including Alpha exercises demonstrating proficiency in each of the 96 exercises. Some of which I thought would be a big problem turned out being ok once I was properly coached on how to perform it, even with the day prior. One leg squats were still a problem for me, but clapping pullups, high level gymnastic exercises and clubbell exercises I had never been properly coached on came through without many problems. I noticed during day 2, some of those that had done better on the workouts the day prior were starting to drag. Those of us military or fire service, didn’t seem to have as much of a problem. I strongly believe going through the combatives courses and weeks in the field helped my body to pace itself.

The day ended with some more quick notes by all the coaches. The certification course had ended. My arms were stiff and hurt to lock out. I chatted with Joe Wilson a bit about how he programmed when he was in charge of his departments fitness program for the academy. He said he used Tacfit on Mon Wed Fri and had the cadets perform the events for the departments physical test on Tue and Thurs. Ideally Tacfit should be done on the high intensity day of a 4 day wave. The day prior to your Tacfit workout, you would perform strength work, all your deadlifts, squats, hypertrophy, kettlebells that sort of thing. Or you can do a Tacfit workout at a lower complexity level. The day after your high intensity day will be no intensity, but that doesn’t mean do nothing, you need to do full joint mobility. The next day completing the 4 day cycle is low intensity. This can consist of compensation like prasara/stretching or light bodyweight type stuff or some skills work.

I would reccomend if you are training for to keep yourself and those around you alive, to have a good strength training program in conjunction with Tacfit. I’ve found through my practice that Tacfit, that it fills alot of gaps that may have never noticed, but lifting heavy things isn’t one of them. It wasn’t designed for that since you are suppose to do that the day prior. Lift heavy things, do Tacfit, ensure you’re actually doing the compensation and mobility stuff and you’ll be set. Right now I’m trying a mix of AMD(Jim Smith/Diesel Crew) and Tacfit, and having huge success. The cool thing is, if you want to emphasize another skill you can switch your Tacfit into the moderate/strength day and have your emphasis placed in the high intensity. That’s what I’m trying with Tacfit at a lower complexity and AMD the day after. I feel rock solid already after only a week. I foresee huge success with this.

So this was the first field instructor certification for Tacfit. It’s my pleasure to be apart of it. I would have liked a third day that went over programming more and got into some of the business aspects for those that would like some side income, but also these tactics still apply when training your own organization. But with the time given, there was about as much crammed in as possible. I mean 6 high intensity workouts, 96 different exercises and some classroom is tough to squeeze into two days. Also I think there is alot of this material for the Team Leader certification which isn’t formated just yet.

All in all, if you’re an MMA fighter, first responder or military, I highly recommend you checking out Tacfit for your metcon program. It’s not just asskicking, it’s structured for what we do. The exercises, the coaching cues and sports psychology all bring us up the pyramid from GPP(General Physical Preparation) to SPP(Specialized Physical Preparation) and even the top with emotional/mental/pyschological. It takes everything you need to have a program for your organization and takes all the guess work out of how to apply work skills by stimulation not simulation. You’ll still need a good strength program like Joe DeFranco, Zach Even-Esh or Diesel Crew to complete your program.

The firefighters at the certification had been doing Tacfit for a couple years since they were the original test subjects and have been guinea pigs since. Carson is a freaking beast, he was doing alot of stuff at Alpha and Beta levels even after six workouts. They said most of the guys doing it had increased their air time and were much better at work. For law enforcement types, I would add in some form of grappling as your strength work, you’ll be slinging people more than lifting heavy things. For the military guys, skip a tacfit workout every other week and exchange it for a road march, still maintain a good strength program that emphasizes postural symmetry and allow for strengthening the load bearing structures while allowing enough time for spinal decompression. Hanging upside down often may be the answer. Also injury prevention should be priority over anything competitory, compete during your Tacfit sessions, practice during strength sessions. As always feel free to exchange a Tacfit session(or even a month) every so often with something new or change of pace, just make sure to keep consistent or progress will come to a screeching hault.

There is so much beneath the surface of this program and I’ve tried to peel back some of the onion layers. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll try to answer as best I know. There is plenty  I’ve yet to learn.

Nathan