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 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(Bodyweight Exercise Revolution) 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 reccomended. 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 pyschology 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 speciffically to either train what I call ‘good tactical habits’ or assist in balacing 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 proceded 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 and Tacfit. 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 reccomend 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 pyschology 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.

Fire guys I would add in some rope work and sledgehammer or wood chopping. 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. Also some work with Parkour will round you out with negotiating terrain. For the military guys, move a tacfit workout every other week and exchange it for a road march, still maintain a good strength program that emphasizes postural symetry and allow for strengthening the load bearing structures while allowing enough time for spinal decompression. Hanging upside down often may be the answer. If you run, keep the intervals to 800 meters or less unless you are doing a time trial(2/3mile/5k). 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 consistant 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 definately alot I’ve yet to learn.

Nathan

The “Great” Nutrition Debates
by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

While displacement foods (unhealthy foods that fill us up, knocking healthy foods out of our diets) are probably at the root of many of our health and body composition crises, what I call “displacement debates” have also become a real problem in today’s information age.

For example, the average North American barely knows what a carbohydrate, protein, or fat is, yet when they hear well-respected experts at the ADA recommend high carb diets and the highly (though not universally) respected Atkins group recommend low carb diets, they get so confused and frustrated they ultimately do little or nothing proactive to improve their health.

This argument is an example of a displacing debate: an academic argument that pushes the more important problems out of the public discourse. For the average North American, following either the ADA recommendations or the Atkins recommendations would go a long way toward improving their health. But instead of suggesting that people just do something, these groups continue to bicker about who’s right at the expense of an ever-growing obesity rate.

Below I’ve presented six of the interesting displacing debates I’ve heard argued lately. Hopefully by discussing them I can put to rest the idea that these issues are of critical importance to your overall health and body composition. I’d like you to understand that these represent small, fine tuning details which are only relevant to a small percentage of the population, if that. On the whole, these debates do more to confuse and paralyze people than to encourage them to take their health into their own hands.

The Top 6 Displacing Debates

1. Fruit is Bad Now?
We all know fruit provides fiber, vitamins, minerals, and low glycemic index carbohydrates, so it should be no surprise that many experts recommend eating a few servings of fruit each day. Heck, this notion has even been turned into a clichéd rhyme:

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away!”

Yet some experts out there actually suggest that fruit might be bad for us! That’s utter nonsense. So, imagine you’re someone with a lifetime of eating habits that are less than optimal (for some of you, it might not be so hard to do) and you’re exposed to this debate. What do you do? Well, nine times out of ten, you figure that if there’s a chance fruit is bad for you, you might as well stay away from it — probably better to reach for a Big Mac instead. After all, it does taste better.

What to do? Eat the damn fruit – but, as with everything else, don’t overeat!

2. Raw? Organic?
Speaking again of fruits (and vegetables), it’s recommended that the average person consume two pieces of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day as a bare minimum. I recommend 10-15 servings per day. Yet most North Americans (athletes included) consume far less than the standard recommendation of five servings of fruits and vegetables.

However, rather than simply recommend more fruit and veggies (no matter how you can get them, for any fruits and vegetables are better than none), experts spend their time fighting about canned fruits and veggies vs. raw fruits and veggies. And then they fight about raw fruits and veggies vs. organic fruits and veggies! Sure, I agree that raw, organic fruits and vegetables are best since they probably have a higher micronutrient count, but let’s face the facts: any fruits and veggies are better than none!

So again, imagine you’re someone with a lifetime of bad eating habits and you’re exposed to all this bickering. What do you do? Well, you’ll probably avoid the fruits and veggies, wait for the experts to finish dueling it out, and reach for a Snickers bar instead.

What to do? Get sufficient fruits and vegetables in your diet before worrying about whether they’re organic or not. Once you’ve done that, worry on.

3. Raw Milk vs. Regular Milk
What about milk? In my opinion, it’s not necessary, doesn’t always “do the body good,” and should be minimized in the diet (although I see no need for total elimination unless you’re lactose intolerant).

However, if we could simply get more people to drink milk instead of sugary soda, we’d have less obesity and disease. But instead of focusing on healthy behaviors, experts will bicker on and on about regular milk vs. raw milk. Of course, all this does is serve to draw negative attention to milk and away from the other healthy decisions people could be making.

Sure, if it were possible to get raw milk that was guaranteed aseptic, it would be better than processed, pasteurized milk. But faced with the confusion, what do you, the hypothetical sub-optimal eater, do? Well, nine times out of ten, you avoid both kinds of milk and drink another Coca-Cola instead.

What to do? Limit milk, and drink calorie-free beverages like water and green tea instead.

4. Tap Water vs. Bottled Water
Speaking of beverage consumption, people are dehydrated because they drink too little water while drinking too many caffeinated, diuretic drinks (coffee, soda, and alcohol). Dehydration leads to all sorts of health problems for the inactive, not to mention the decrements in athletic performance seen in dehydrated athletes.

But rather than simply promoting the heck out of water consumption, experts will bicker on and on about tap water vs. bottled water. Sure, good quality bottled water is usually a better choice, but don’t be one of these people who stay away from tap water, forget to pick up their bottled water, and simply remain dehydrated.

What to do? Drink sufficient water first; worry about the source later. (Of course, you may want to avoid drinking out of puddles next to pig farms in Uganda.) Put a water filter on your tap or buy one of those filter jugs you store in your fridge and be done with it.

5. Glass vs. Plastic
And how about the bottles the water comes in? That’s right, the glass vs. plastic debate. Just the other day, I was recommending that a group of my athletes pick up some Tupperware so they could whip up all of their meals and shakes in the morning. It’s easy to make a good food choice during the day when you’ve got all your good food with you, pre-cooked, pre-wrapped, and ready to be eaten.

After the talk, one of the athletes came up to me and told me he avoids Tupperware altogether because of the potential leeching of xenoestrogens into his food. When I asked what he uses to store his food in, he told me he doesn’t even preplan his meals. He also told me he needed to lose fifteen pounds and that he was overweight because his nutrition sucked!

Buddy, I agree that glass containers may be marginally better than plastic, but for the love of God, pick up some plastic if it’ll help you plan your meals! And this was a world-class athlete! You can imagine how the average guy fares!

What to do? Plan your meals in advance, storing them in woven baskets if necessary. Buy the best containers you can afford. If you can get the glass versions, great; if not, the generic plastic ones will do just fine.

6 . Free Range vs. Extremely Limited Range Meat
Most weightlifters eat lots of protein and that’s no mistake. One of the best ways to get all that protein is by eating a lot of protein and micronutrient-rich lean meat. Protein supplements are okay to supplement your diet, but real food should be your nutritional mainstay and there’s nothing better than good ol’ fashioned lean meat.

Since eating more protein can increase metabolic rate, improve your weight loss profile, increase protein turnover, accelerate exercise adaptation, and (when replacing dietary carbohydrate) decrease the chance of cardiovascular disease, it should be clear that most people would do well to increase their consumption of lean meat.

So imagine the dismay someone might experience when hearing that the experts are now bickering about the type of meat we consume. Many experts muddy the waters when discussing free range vs. grain fed meat, telling people that grain fed meat (the only kind you can find in many grocery stores in North America) is full of toxins, bad fats, and hormones.

Sure, free-range meat is probably a better choice, although there’s little proof the supposed toxins and hormones actually get passed on to us. But again, imagine you’re someone with a lifetime of eating habits that are less than optimal and you’re exposed to all this bickering about lean protein. What do you do? Well, when you’re afraid of the meat you have access to, you shy away from all types of lean meat and reach for another bagel. Bad choice!

What to do? Find the best meat you can by going around to various grocery shops and butchers. Owners of health food stores may also be able to help you locate the best stuff. But don’t be afraid to eat the meat you find in your grocery store — the reports of your impending death are greatly exaggerated.

These are just a few of the displacing debates gaining momentum in the nutrition world. Do your best to get past the marginalia, to get past the differences between all the new programs, and try to discover for yourself the basic principles all the successful programs seem to be built upon. Most importantly, when faced with a choice between two good options, one of which may be marginally better than the other, but both of which would be an improvement over what you’re currently doing, just pick one and go with it. You can optimize later, as long as you make an improvement now.

There’s no debating that.

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Top Secret Interview with James Smith about his new project

By Nathan Cragg

Prior to the release of his new AMD muscle building product, I was able to talk with my friend and strength coach Jim Smith. 

<Nathan> 1.  Smitty, what’s this latest product you’ve been working on?

<Jim> First off, let me say thank you for allowing me to talk to you and your readers.
My new product is called Accelerated Muscular Development (AMD) and as the name implies it is as muscle building program.  But it is unlike any program on the net right now.  It shows people not only why muscle is built but how muscle is built.  Everyone will be in for a big surprise if they think it is a program with tons of volume.  I actually shouldn’t say program, because it is much more than that.  It is a complete system.

<Nathan> 2.  Complete system?  Tell me more about that.
<Jim>When I was formulating the AMD system, I didn’t want it to be like everyone else’s program and be just a bunch of workouts.  When you go through a product like that and finish the workouts, you’re stuck.  You don’t know what to do next.  You don’t know what exercises, what sets or what reps you should be doing according to your specific goals or individual needs.  Also, you don’t gain the knowledge of how to design your own programs.

<Nathan> 3.  So how is AMD different?

<Jim>First of all, everything in AMD is  backed by science.  Scientific studies that support why I set up the system the way I did.  So, it is not my opinion, it is proven.  And the results of the people in the AMD testimonials are proof positive as well.

Now, I call AMD a complete system because it not only teaches why you’re doing what you’re doing, but it also provides a step-by-step protocol of what you should do from the time you step into the gym or your garage or where ever you train, until you leave.

Most programs, like I said, give you your workouts with the sets and reps and that is it.  What about the dynamic warm-up, what about the soft-tissue work, what about the activation exercises and what about the rehab component; they’re all missing.  AMD covers all of these and shows you how to put it together in a simple, easy-to-modify template.

<Nathan> 4.  One of the biggest problems I see is that when some people buy a muscle building product they get real excited and go to the gym to get started.  But they end up doing the exercises with horrible form.

<Jim>Let me cut you off there.  Not only did I provide you with the step-by-step sequential pictures that show you have to do the exercises in the AMD exercise index, I created a whole Youtube channel dedicated to the system.   I am currently loading it up with all of the exercises in AMD and I will show you the right way to do each one.  There is no more need to go and search Youtube to find how to do an exercise correctly (plus you have to be very careful what you find).  Now you have a video library showing you the right way each exercise should be performed.

If you want to see more of Smitty’s new program, go to AcceleratedMuscularDevelopment.com the AMD site and check out this killer exclusive look at the site.

See what Bill Long (busy Dad) has to say about AMD in the video below

Nathan

Just go here….

AcceleratedMuscularDevelopment.com

PS: For an exclusive first look at AMD and the exercises in the program, check out this video below

PPS:  Get ready for this innovative new product – AMD.com

Muscle Building System – Exclusive First Look at AMD from Jim Smith on Vimeo.

The Next Level of Core Training – Dynamic Planks

By Jim Smith

When you think about the most basic abdominal exercise, the first one that pops into your head is probably planks.

Planks are where a person lays out into a push-up position but instead of being on their outstretched hands, they rest on their forearms. In this position, the athlete or lifter will remain for a specific length of time. If the time exceeds one and a half minutes that is considered pretty good.

The benefits of planks include rehabilitating a back injury, glute activation, developing proficiency for bracing the torso with intra-abdominal pressure and an isometric contraction of the abdominals and developing muscular endurance of the muscles that stabilize, support and engage movements of the torso.

But in accordance with the Principle of Overload and the Laws of Chaos, there is a progression for all resistance training means. Progression of an exercise will increase the difficulty, which increases the demand and work capacity of the lifter and in turn, provides more adaptation and benefits.

So what is the next training progression for planks? Here are some of the most common modifications :

• Raising one foot off the ground (ensure the lifter doesn’t shift to the side to compensate by forcibly firing the glutes and bracing harder
  
• Add a weighted vest or back pack

Nathan’s Athletic 9mm’s

Couple years back I read an article by Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins called Athletic guns. It really is an ingenius program when you look at it and add in some factors. Using Chad Waterbury’s Anti-Bodybuilding method of 10 sets of 3 to maximize strength while maintaining high volume. So in this context our best bet is to use 3 reps times the 20 minutes, which oh by the way is along the line of Escalating Density Training(EDT) by Charles Staley. Hmm see the connections coming.

For the second workout, I used my kettlebell cause that’s just a more natural clean, plus I could do it outside the office during lunch instead of having to go to the gym. Probably the only time you can be hanging out outside with a pair of Addidas shoes no top or hat and an MP3 plugged in with high ranking cats all over the place and them not saying a word. Nobody messes with the kettlebell guy. They just stare and keep walking by scared of what might happen if they ask what it is.

But I digress. The above is what intrigued me. I started using the kettlebell clean+thruster(squat combined with a push-press) all the time. I could carry the kettlebell almost everywhere and knock out a workout in 20 min. I even did it on lunch break during a snowstorm once. When Matt says this will skyrocket your conditioning, he wasn’t kidding. Between a couple of these sessions a week combined with MMA class couple times a week, I was unstoppable. When I went to my fire academy, I was running circles around guys ten years younger. Doing 100M sprint/jogs X10 was almost easy.

Another workout this lead to was the barbell version. 3 reps every minute on the minute for 20 minutes. Don’t overload this or you won’t complete all 20 rounds on time. 65 pounds is a good start. I usually leave with blood on the barbell and dripping down my shins, breathing hard and alot of funny stares from the ‘pump-seekers’ and cardio queens. Blood, sweat and hard work tends to get that.

Back to the original article. I’m a naturally long skinny limbed guy, so some beef on the arms is always good, but only if it’s functional. These program worked for me in spades. I may not have cannons yet, but I like 9mm. It’s small, powerful, high capacity and a properly placed shot will still end an aggressor the same as a Daisy Cutter.

Give Athletic Guns a try. And if you need work on your conditioning, try the kettlebell version that you can do virtually anywhere, including Viking stylez in a snowstorm

The original program calls for

Workout #1

Pull-up Strength 2.0-More ways from Zero to Hero

Since the premiere of the Zero to Hero, it has been the most popular article on the site. The original article utilised grease the groove during the period of your entire day. Some of you don’t have the time and resources or are looking for a way to improve pull-ups during your regular workouts. Below are some new tips and idea’s to toss into you regimen to help you blast out of that plateau.

First off we need to decide the goal of your workout. Is it a conditioning workout or strength based? If you are following a cookie cutter program and don’t know here’s an easy approximation. If the workout calls for more than 20 reps, in general it’s probably gonna be more of a conditioning effect. Under 20 reps is strength based. These are just approximations. If you’ve been a gymnast for several years or are a light weight and have a high level of relative strength, these may shift up slightly.

The following learning progressions may apply to both categories depending on your current level.

Strength based-

• Start with negatives- slowly lowering yourself as described in the original article,beware eccentrics will cause more muscle soreness


• Progress to mixed grip- one palm facing you, one facing away, switch hands between sets


• Then chins- palms facing you


• Pull-ups- palms facing away 


• Finally weighted versions of all the above


• You may also use a band of partner to assist on any of the unweighted progressions.

Conditioning based-

• Jumping pull-ups- jump up, then lower yourself under control, but not slow like the strength based negatives. These are an excellent conditioner at any level if done with a good speed


• Mixed grip kipping- Same as strength based but this time use a kip to get a rhythm and speed


• Chin grip kipping- Same as strength based but this time use a kip to get a rhythm and speed


• Full kipping pull ups- Same as strength based but this time use a kip to get a rhythm and speed

You can use the conditioning based progressions to assist in advancement instead of a partner or band. Perfect if you train by yourself with limited equipment. On the weighted exercises, a vest, kettlebell or dumbbell and special pull-up/dip belts work best. Use the vest or air pack for the ballistic conditioning exercises. I’ve found a dumbbell between the feet or calves(depending on height to work well in the gym as you can just let it go and get another rep if needed. Kettlebells on the foot works off the same principle in an austere environment given enough height. Another option is a medicine ball between either feet or knees. Between knees will also help strengthen your guard squeeze.

Learning the kip takes time. Some of my fellow soldiers with less efficient nervous systems took upwards of a month to learn it. Took me about 3 workouts to perfect consectutive kips, I could kip once the first time but took awhile to get a rythm. So it all depends on your learning curve. Best resource is the Crossfit Video’s. The one’s by Annie and Adrian are very good instruction.

The following two videos are excellent instruction and trouble shooting the kip. They look much better in full size HD, just right click the title under the video, open in new page or tab.

The Kipping Pullup – Part One from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

The Kipping Pullup – Part Two from Jon Gilson on Vimeo.

Instead of a specific program, we can again grease the groove on a daily basis but instead of spreadout, just a simple couple min and your done. You can practice them as your warm up. 2-3 sets of 5 reps in a productive warm up circuit will do. For example 5 pull ups(of your level, either conditioning or strength, conditioning will be less fatiguing for your coming workout if you keep the volume low enough) 10 pushups, 15 squats. Couple rounds of that along with some overhead squat practice and you should be warmed up well. Toss in the harder ones for your actual pull up workout days.

Hope this update has answered some questions and given you some new ideas on how to expand your pull up performance. Leave comments and question on the blog Nathan’s Training Corner

What’s In My Kitchen Part 2: The Cupboards
by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

If you’ve read my theoretical nutrition articles you’ve likely familiarized yourself with the macronutrients, when they should be eaten, etc. However, it’s easy to talk the nutritional talk — the question is, do you walk the nutritional walk?

By offering you a glimpse at the contents of my kitchen, I hope to give you the opportunity to check your own practical nutrition habits against my own, and see how nutrition theory is put into practice. So let’s go through a tour of my cupboard, covering both pantry items and supplements. By the end of this article, you should see that good nutrition practice involves limits and discipline, but not the austerity that most people assume it does.

Pantry Items:

Rolled Oats
Quantity: 3 lb. bag

Mixed Nuts
Quantity: 2 lb. bag

Mixed Beans
Quantity: 1 lb. bag

Dried Fruit Mix (no added sugar)
Quantity: 1 lb. bag

Legumes
Quantity: 2 x 2 lb. bags (1 bag lentils, 1 bag mixed beans)

Quinoa
Quantity: 1lb. bags

Whole Wheat Pasta
Quantity: 2 x 2 lb. bags

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Quantity: 1 bottle

Canned Tomatoes
Quantity: 3 cans

Canned Beans
Quantity: 3 cans

Flax Seeds
Quantity: ½ lb bag

Miscellaneous Grains
Including oat bran, wheat bran, oat flour

Green Tea
Quantity: 2 boxes of 20 packets each

Spices
Salt, pepper, fresh garlic, basil, oregano, chili powder, onion powder, and cinnamon are a good start. Seasoning mixes are also handy and take the guesswork out of flavoring. For example, right now I have Italian, Indian, Mexican, and Thai mixes in my cupboard.

*Note: the pantry is where the average kitchen goes horribly awry. Cookies, crackers, potato chips, baking supplies, and other hydrogenated and over-sweetened junk, all perched high above on a shelf, ready to snipe away at your hard-earned health and body composition.

If this is your kitchen, carefully position a large trash receptacle directly beneath said shelf. With a smooth sweeping motion, use your forearm to plow these enemies into the abyss below.

The items above are most likely the only ones you need since most of your nutrition should be coming from fresh, perishable foods – those listed in my previously published article discussing what’s in my fridge.

Supplements

Biotest Metabolic Drive (Protein Supplement)
Quantity: 2 x 2lb. containers

Biotest Surge Post-Workout Drink (Workout Drink)
Quantity: 2 x 1lb. containers

Prolab Creatine (Basic Creatine)
Quantity: 1 300g container

Concentrated Enteric-Coated Fish Oil (Fish Oil)
Quantity: 3 x 50 capsule bottles

Genuine Health Greens+ (Green Food Supplement)
Quantity: 1 x 2lb. container

Biotest ZMA (Zinc-Magnesium)
Quantity: 1 90 capsule bottle

*Supplementation should be determined by your training goals and your resources, both time and money. Other than your post-workout drinks, fish oil caps, the occasional scoop of protein or a MRP, and perhaps some necessary micronutrients, no supplement should be taken year-round. And while it should go without saying that supplements should supplement and not replace a solid training and nutrition program, this is one of the most common mistakes I see, even in intermediate trainees. This is an example of my list based on my goals.

In the end, if you wish to expedite the process of reaching your goals, you’ll do the following:

Perform an inventory of all the food in your house, excluding nothing. Everything goes on the list, even if you didn’t buy it and don’t intend to eat it. If it’s in the house, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate will eventually eat it, so everything is fair game.

Compare your list to mine (both the items on this list and the items in my fridge article).

See how close you’ve come. If you’re close (on both the items to have and the items not to have), keep up the great work. If not, round up all the offending grub, and give it a warm send off as it pulls away in the back of a garbage truck.

For those who think it would be more charitable to drop it all off at a food bank, I have news for you: the poor don’t want your mother’s half-empty box of Ho-Ho’s either. If you really want to help, make a donation, drop off some good food, or volunteer your time.

Populate your kitchen with the foods above, and you will have built the foundation for nutritional success.

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Westside for 220th Skinny bastards

Warning: This program will make your clothes fit tighter, draw attention from really hot girls and become freaky strong. You’ve been warned!

Those of you not familiar with Joe Defranco, you’ve been missing out. The program that follows is from his WS4SB (WestSide for Skinny Bastards) series. Specifically I pulled the template from part III. It’s a journey of myself and some fellow squad members that delved into this program and made some dramatic gains. We utilised the Strength & Speed template.

 Don’t even tell me you wouldn’t wanna work with these guys!

 The above trailer is from Joe’s documentary movie Strong available at www.strongmovie.com There will be a review of it as soon as I get my copy. I’m expecting very good things from it.

Below I’ve highlighted what we did in the last two weeks of our WS4SB. This is not the extensive list from the original article as there is only so much the overseas gyms have available. There were a couple options in various sections in case the equipment was being being breathed on by the mouth breathers that aren’t breathing through their mouth because they’re working hard. Where there are two highlighted, it would alternate depending upon equipment. For the full list of templates and exercises, go to Joe’s site.

WestSide for 220^th Skinny Bastards

Strength & Speed Template

A-  Max Effort Upper Body

1. A. Incline Barbell Bench Press-Work up to 2 max sets of 3 Reps

B. Flat Dumbbell Bench Press- 2XAMRAP(As Many Reps As Possible)

Approximately 15-20 Reps, 3-4 Min  Rest

            2. A1-Dumbbell/Barbell Rows/Cable Rows

                A2- Rear Delt Flyes/Scarecrows/Face Pulls/Seated DB “Power Cleans”/Band Pull-aparts

                3-4 SetsX8-12 Reps Supersetted

           3. Dumbbell/Barbell Shrugs    3-4SetsX8-15 Reps

            4. Dumbell/Barbell/Hammer Curls      3-4SetsX8-15Reps

B-   Speed Training

1.      General Warm-up/Movement Skills (5-15 minutes) Increase core temperature by performing basic movement skills and calisthenics (Ex. Bodyweight Squats, Jumping Jacks, Skipping, Back Pedaling)

2. Ground Based Mobility (5-15 minutes) (Sample mobility drills: Roll-overs into V-sits, fire hydrant circles, mountain climbers, groaners, etc)

3. Frequency Drills (2-3 minutes) 1 or 2 drills to excite the CNS. 5-10 secondsX2-3sets (Ex. Low pogo jumps, wideouts, ankling, etc.)

4. Speed Training

            A. 10-Yard Starts/Sprints-10 sprints with 1 minute rest

            B. 20-Yard Shuttle/Sprints-6 sprints with 2 minutes rest

            C. 3-Cone Drill/40-Yard Sprints-4 sprints with 4 minutes rest

C-   Max-Effort Lower Body & Conditioning

1.      Box Squat- Work up to 2 max sets of 3 Reps(The gym surprisingly had a box. I’m sure it was probably requested for step-ups, but it worked)

2.      Hip Extension- 45 degree back raises/Pull-throughs 3X10

3.      Sprinter Sit-ups- 3X20

4.      Conditioning Finisher- Chose One(We alternated both)

Farmers Walk- 4-6X40-60 Yards 1-2 minutes rest(kettlebells carried in deep gravel)

Forward or Backward Sled Drags- 4-6X30-50 Yards 1-2 minute rest(kettlebells pulled by leather jump rope in deep gravel)

D-  Repetition Upper Body

1.      Dumbbell Flat/Incline/On Swiss Ball/Floor Press or Push-up/Chin-up Variations

3SetsXAMRAP or 4X12-15

2.      A1-Lat Pulldown/Chin-ups/Straight Arm Pulldowns

A2- Rear Delt Flyes/Scarecrows/Face Pulls/Seated DB “Power Cleans”/Band      

Pull-aparts

3-4X8-12 supersetted

3. Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Military Press/Side Press(slight learning curve if you’ve never performed these. Refer to Power to the People by Pavel)

      4X8-12

4.   A1- Dumbbell Shrugs 3X8-10

      A2- Hammer Curls 3X8-10/Dumbbell Tricep Extension 3X10-15/Pushdown 3X15-25

5.      Weighted Abdominals- Chose one 4X10-15

DB side bends

                  Barbell Russian Twists

                  Hanging leg raises

                  Weighted Swiss ball Crunches

                  Spread Eagle sit-ups with DB over chest

E-Conditioning/Strongman/Sports

1.      General Warm-up/Movement Skills (5-15 minutes) Increase core temperature by performing basic movement skills and calisthenics (Ex. Bodyweight Squats, Jumping Jacks, Skipping, Back Pedaling)

2. Ground Based Mobility (5-15 minutes) (Sample mobility drills: Roll-overs into V-sits, fire hydrant circles, mountain climbers, groaners, etc)

3.      Frequency Drills (2-3 minutes) 1 or 2 drills to excite the CNS. 5-10 secondsX2-3sets (Ex. Low pogo jumps, wideouts, ankling, etc.)

4.      Conditioning

Option 1- Benchmark WOD roughly 15-20 minutes

Option 2- Sport-Play a pick-up game for fun

Option 3- General Conditioning

      Sample:

1.      Mountain climbers into 10-Yard sprint-8 sets, 30 seconds rest, rest 1-minute before 2^nd exercise

2.      Wideouts into 15-Yard sprint-Wideouts for 5 seconds then sprint 15 yards on command. 6 sets with 45 seconds rest, rest 2 minutes before 3^rd exercise

3.      60-Yard Shuttle- 4 shuttles with 45 seconds rest, rest 1 minute before 4^th exercise

4.      Illinois Drill- 3 sets with 1 minute rest

Explainations

A. Max Effort day- Pretty self explainatory

B. Speed training- Sprint training not only make your assault techniques more effective, but it trains your nervous system to fire faster. Just like lifting fast and olympic lifts creates nervous system improvements. You should be working in either O-lifts, fast weighted lifts or some other type of speed training to enhance your muscle firing rates and coordination.

C. Max Lower Body and Conditioning- Again pretty self explainatory

D. Repetition upper body day- This is where the beef is built. The high volume stimulates muscle growth and helps flush the muscles to assist in recovery. If you are trying to maintain a lower weight, drop this day from your program.

E. Conditioning/Strongman/Sports(Optional)- Utilize this day for additional conditioning, lifting heavy stuff cause you feel like it(strongman type stuff) or play a pick up game of a sport. Depends on your goal, but the sport option has a definate mental and physical break and is much more fun.

Results

After one month of training following the templates laid out in part III of WS4SB, all of our lifts went up by 30-50 pounds(I’ll find my notebook again one of these days in between moving). I personally had a bodyweight shift from 177 to 189, appeared to be less fat as well, but being in a combat zone I didn’t care to actually measure all that. I gained another 5 or so in the next month. I had to have my ma send me new boxers so the legs would fit!! I had to cut the sides on all the rest. Be warned, you’ll need to get some Hane’s comfort band boxers. They tend to fit better in the legs while maintaining the same waist. T-Shirts fit tighter, I actually filled the arms up for once haha. People started mentioning how beefy and ripped all of us looked. But enough about my panties.

If you’re looking for a program to get you beefy, but still athletic and more functional, I highly reccomend any of the Templates. Even if your a fat bastard, you’ll still get freaky strong, and with ensuring proper conditioning, the fat should come off fast as well.

If you’re in a tactical enviroment, I would give a strong look at the ‘In-Season’ template. Combined with the conditioning methods mentioned in the Deployment Fitness Guide, you’ll be set without burning your nervous system out. The gist of the In-Season template is to design a Max-Effort Upper Body session and a Max-Effort Lower Body session approximately four days from each other. Combine this with some conditioning as outlined in the Deployment Field Guide and you should be set pretty well.

As as side note, I was talking to my friend Nate Morrison the other day. He mentioned they experienced dramatic improvements in ruck times by utilizing sprinting. I would strongly encourage looking into sprint training like the above no matter what your job or sport. Many benefits will come, mainly from getting the nervous system fired up. Speed is king.

In the end, I may be a skinny bastard. But like many of Joe’s clients, those of us that went through the adventure are now bigger and stronger skinny bastards.

I believe in you!

Nathan, Head Coach

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Fat Loss GPS

Plyometrics-what they are By Danny O’Dell

In a nut shell plyometrics are activities commonly seen on most elementary school yards through out the civilized world. These include the running, jumping, skipping, and hopping movement’s children do every day during recess. Athletes use plyometrics for an altogether different purpose and that is to become stronger and more explosive in their sport.

The former Soviet Union and Eastern block countries made tremendous competitive strides when national level master coach Professor Verkhoshansky began incorporating specialized high intensity plyometrics into their athletes programs. He noticed that when an individual wound up or violently prestretched before performing an explosive jump or throw, the power output from that athlete was multiplied several fold depending on the conditioning of the athlete.

This phenomenon, known as the stretch shortening cycle, takes advantage of the natural elasticity of the ligaments, tendons, muscles, and skin to resist the initial stretch. By utilizing a complicated combination of nerve transmissions and muscle responses your body automatically increases the power of the subsequent concentric contraction. The stretch shortening cycle (SSC) plays a prominent role in all of this.

Defined briefly, the SSC is a process muscles go through when moving a limb or an external load such as a dumbbell or barbell. Three phases generally describe the actions of the muscles during this time, eccentric-muscle lengthening, amortization-reversal of movement and the concentric phase with the muscle fibers shortening while moving the bony levers of the body. During the concentric portion the muscles are responding to the stored elastic energy that has been accumulated in the prior two phases.

Plyometrics takes advantage of this stored energy and increases the strength of the subsequent movements. However, just because this energy is present doesn’t necessarily mean that the athlete can use it. If this stored energy is not used quickly, it rapidly dissipates as heat. Elite athletes are able to retain this stored potential longer than many of us, some say up as long as two to four seconds.

If the energy is not used before it’s turned into heat then the effects of the plyometric exercise is lost. Plyometric training seeks to train the athlete how to take advantage of this physiological reflex to make an athlete stronger, faster, and more powerful.

Stay strong mentally and physically, and remain passionately committed to your hearts chosen path.

Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS*D

Phone: 509.991.6833

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