Press

I chose this video primarily because of the music!!


Training:

Press 5x3
then
50 double unders
10 pull ups
4 rounds

Good days/Bad days

I am continuing to meet my 5lbs. increase in weight every time I squat. After squatting I worked the deadlift. It was extremely weak today. Typically I will deadlift 5x1 with no less then 350lbs. Today I stopped at 300lbs. Not sure why this happened. I really want to focus on building it up but lately its been deteriorating. Time to hit the books and gain some programming advice.

Gotta break up the insanity.





Training:
Squats 5x3
Deadlift 5x1

Take It Easy!

Nothing has been more frustrating then learning the Power Clean. It has taunted me for months on end, until yesterday. As posted earlier, I reverted back to Hang Power Cleans to understand where I need to explode from on the thigh. Then I evaluated extending off my heals to my toes, fully extending the hips, shrugging the shoulders, keeping my arms straight, moving my elbows fast to catch the bar, keeping the right grip, not slamming into the bar when caught, making sure the bar followed up my stomach and chest until caught, and then letting it back down to go through that entire mental process all over again. What this equalled out to is me yelling at the bar as loud as I could and wanting to throw it through the wall. WHEN this happens to you, just go back to what the movement really is. Jumping with weight attached to your hands. In the great words and wisdom of Dave Tate "just pick the f*cker off the ground." Educating yourself in a movement is outstanding. Over analyzing can be just as deteriorating as never educating yourself to begin with. SO, take a step back and have fun with it. Lifting is something we do because we find personal satisfaction in lifting heavy weight. If you take the enjoyment out of it then you've taken the fundamental reason why you started in the first place.

Chalk

"Chalk is always a good idea, because it dries out the skin, and dry skin is less prone to folding and abrasion than moist skin, and therefore is less prone to problem callus formation. If the weight room is not equipped with chalk, bring your own. If the gym complains, change gyms.” (Rippetoe, Kilgore, 2007)



Training:
3x5 Power Cleans
then
20 double unders
20 push ups
20 26in. box jumps
4 rounds

Diet

I followed "The Zone" diet for about a year. It is a great way to start a good base for nutrition. Through the diet I have learned what my body needs more and less off. With a high output of energy their needs to be an intake of food that is going to fill in what your body has put out. Finding out what works for your body is very important so that you have the best output as well as recover quickly. Because we are not all Nutritionists we have to start with a base of knowledge from someone else. I do not follow "The Zone" verbatim because my body has different needs through my physical output. "The Zone" helped me find what my body needed and what I needed more of as my physical output increased.



Training:
Squat 5x3
Press 5x3
3 rounds max pull-ups

Fun!

Today Hurt!!




Training:

8 Double Unders
8 85lbs. Swings
8 Push Ups
10 Rounds

2nd Day of Squats

Another Great day to push hard!! I squat two times in a week. Each time I squat I increase the weight 5 lbs. This means that every month I increase my squat by 20. Think about that for a second...... In a year I will have increased my squat strength by 240 lbs. with perfect form. Now, all of that sounds great, but as the weight starts to increase significantly I will have to start using a 1 pound increase. Right now I am working with 235-240 lbs. I imagine that I will have to slow down with my weight increase of 5lbs. to 1 pound around the 285-290 lbs range. This is all hypothetical. I could blow past that number or I could hit a wall sooner then I think. Their are a lot of factors that will play into my training. This brings me to Tim Favreau. On his website he mentioned meso-cycle. I had no clue what this meant so I looked it up. There are meso, macro, and microcycles in a training style called Periodization training. Today is the first day that I have researched or read anything on this type of training style. I'm very excited to learn more about it. For right now I am in one through the training that Favre has created.

In earlier blogs I have mentioned how important knowledge is. I could follow Favre the rest of my lifting life and become very strong without ever reading a single paragraph about strength. This is not my goal and I would encourage you to look into the programing that you take on. Too many people follow training programs blindly. P90X, Crossfit, Tony Little Gazelle freestyle elliptical training, etc. When you take on a training program you are going to work you body; the only one you've got. I would want to make sure that the person that you are training under is not going to screw you up. Slipped discs, rotator cuff injury, knee problems, the list goes on. Ask yourself: What are your goals?, How are you going to achieve them?, Why is this training program the best for me?, Is my trainer credible? This will take research therefore creating more knowledge. This will get you to achieving your goals without wasting your time in some training program that is not going to ultimately benefit you.



Training:
Squat 5x3
Press 5x3
3 rounds of max pull-ups

Power Cleans

Power Cleans are the newest movement that I am learning. The only advice I have to give when learning cleans is to be patient.


Workout:
3x5 Hang Power Cleans
Then
Jump Rope 10 min. straight.

Squat Squat Squat Squat

"If the weight room is not equipped with chalk, bring your own. If the gym complains, change gyms." (Rippetoe, Kilgore, 2007)

Last week was an abundance on information. I refocused on proper form, brought my squat to the proper squat depth; which is the acetabulum bellow the top of the patella; learned much more vocabulary and had a few lessons in human anatomy. If you are unsure about the form and technique read "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore.

Time to get big and strong. Performing the low bar squat properly is going to bring in the entire body. The misconception is that you are doing "leg day" THIS IS WRONG!! "Leg day" is for people that do not understand the squat and what it will offer the entire body through physical and central nervous system strength. Because of all the components involved with performing the low bar squat the brain has to fire through the CNS all at once. This will exercise the CNS therefore strengthening it. Understanding that the low bar squat will work your entire posterior and anterior chain evenly from head toe is something that most people do not understand. This is another reason why it is important to balance knowledge and strength. One without the other will leave you only half as strong.

I am going to start squatting no less then two times a week. Once again my goal is to strengthen my power clean, deadlift, and squat. If this isn't your goal I would still advise that you do squats two times a week. Also check out Tim Favreau's understanding of using a belt.

Workout:
Squat 5x3
Deadlift 5x1

What the girls did:
400 meter run
5 burpies
5 rounds

Low Bar Squat

"The squat has been the most important yet most poorly understood exercise in the training arsenal for a very long time. The full range of motion exercise known as the squat is the single most useful exercise in the weight room, and our most valuable tool for building strength, power, and size." (Rippetoe, Kilgore, 2007)

Ah, two squat days in one week. 90 percent of my programing comes from Favre. There are some things that I do not do such as Bench Press, or some of the running that he programs. The running is because it is too cold outside and the bench, because I do not own one. It also has to do with what your personal goal is. My goal is to deadlift a max rep of 400lbs., build my Squat to working sets of 300lbs., and 200lbs. Power Cleans. I do not fully understand the method to Favre's madness therefore I follow his training while I continue to educate myself. After submitting a video of Front Squats that I was working on he gave me some pointers.

This was the worst of the 3 that I sent him. My hips are not even parallel to my knees. The Squat is defined as hips below parallel of the knee.


This is the proper depth of any squat that you perform. Just to show how high my squat was to Favre's, look at the distance from the butt to the heals and compare the two.


If you have any confusion, this will paint a better picture.


What I did today:
Squat 5x3
Press 5x3
Pull-ups 3 sets of max reps

Deadlift

Last week I had a little confusion between the proper technique from the instruction of Dave Tate vs. Mark Rippetoe. That confusion has been cleaned up and I am looking forward to lifting strong today! As you progress in a lift, technique becomes even more important. Deadlifting just the bar at 45lbs. with bad technique is not going to throw your back out or cause any damage. Doing it with close to 400lbs. will. This is not to justify bad technique at a lighter weight. As weight increases technique should not suffer. I've seen guys that have spot on technique in the gym when they are warming up, but when it comes to their work weight their eyes where bigger then their strength.

I worked the deadlift last week with 360lbs. 5x1. So that no one is confused this means 5 reps of 1 set. It is important when lifting heavy to reset after every deadlift. For me this means to let go of the bar, reposition the feet then lift the next rep. This will ensure that you do not bounce the weight off the ground. I did not do this last week which meant that the only true DEADlift was the first.

"'Lower back strength is an important component of sports conditioning. The ability to maintain a rigid lumbar spine under a load is critical for both power transfer and safety. The deadlift builds back strength better than any other exercise, bar none. And back strength built with the deadlift is useful: while the bar is the most ergonomically friendly tool for lifting heavy weights, a 400 lb. barbell deadlift makes an awkward 85 lb. box more manageable." (Rippetoe, Kilgore, 2007)




Deadlift 5x1
then
20 Double Unders
20 Box Jumps (26in. Stump)
5 rounds

What the Girls did:
100 rope turns
10 sit ups
5 rounds

Learning

This week has taught me more then the last year of lifting. I accredit this to the blog and focusing on putting out the truth. Throughout this week I have been asked questions that I did not know the answer too. No matter how hard I searched the great internet it had no answer for me. I dedicated an entire day to answer a simple question posted by Tim Favreau about the four squat variations that I listed on squat day. "Only 1 squat variation you listed will develop the posterior chain equally with the anterior chain, which one?" The biggest part of the question that took me by surprise was the anterior chain. It is pretty rare, in my experience, to come across information of the anterior with barbell training. Almost everyone will address the posterior chain with barbell training but not the anterior. After that was taken in, I could not find any information of what squat addressed the two chains evenly. Evenly was the key word here. Your leg and its muscles are going to be used in each lift but which lift had an EVEN amount of work involved. This was the hard part. After many cups of coffee and pulling my hair out I came to the conclusion that it was the Front Squat. WRONG!!, "Try again" (Favre) I surrendered after that. He was gracious enough to educate me on the Low Bar Back Squat. "Squatting with a low bar position through an entire range of motion will work the entire leg and hip musculature. This is important." (Favre) Good education on lifting is not cheap and does not come easy. When valuable nuggets like this one come across your path you hold onto them and run with it. I am going to dive into the book and DVD "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. I highly recommend anyone who is serious about building knowledge as well as strength to do the same. One without the other will lead you down a path that will be unfulfilling to true strength.




What the Girls did:
Team workout.
One team member did 10 5lbs. dumbbell thrusters while the other was in the Push Up Plank position. When one team member was done with thrusters they would switch. Continue this untill 5 full rounds are completed.

Power Clean

As programed by http://www.hybridfitness.blogspot.com/ I am going to be working on Power Cleans. This is the newest movement that I have been developing. When I start a new movement I get excited and put the cart before the horse. The Power Clean is an advanced movement that I keep going back and forth on as I learn more about it. In order for me to understand the technique of the Power Clean I am going to revert back to hang cleans and start over. As I progress in knowledge and technique I will gradually move to a Power Clean. This is frustrating but there is no sense in progressing to Power Cleans or Cleans if the fundamental technique is not established properly.

What I'm doing today:
3x5 hang cleans
5x3 Press
3 rounds of max pull ups

Squats

Every week I incorporate this great movement. There are four different types of squats: Overhead, front, high bar back, and low bar back. Each one is going to offer a great building of the posterior chain. I have a weaker core and leg strength so I rotate each week between front squat and high bar back squats. Today I am going to be working on my front squat. This typically is a lower weight then a back squat because it incorporates more leg and core strength to perform the movement. This is because the weight is in front of you and wants to pull you forward. For example, I work back squat 3x5 with 255lbs. and front squat with 190lbs. The goal is to make this gap much smaller. Tim Favreau from www.hybridfitness.blogspot.com makes the statement "I don't like doing a lot of heavy squats therefore I do a lot of heavy squats." This is the mentality that must be adopted in order to make strong what is weak.

What I like about Mark Rippetoe is the fact that he uses absolutes in his teaching instruction. The way he instructs the squat is a universal truth that can not be argued. This is not his opinion on how he thinks the squat should be performed or how the body geometry should be; it is how it is.




What the Girls did:
1 pull up
2 push ups
3 body squats
Max Rounds in 12 minutes.

Never Gymless

Ross Enamait is a pioneer of many different strength programs. His outlook and mentality on getting strong is outstanding. Through his website I have built many homemade lifting implements that have helped me achieve strength goals for a minimal amount of money. To find out more about Ross click http://www.rosstraining.com/about.html

Double Under Practice

Some of you might be a genius at double unders. Unfortunately this guy is not one of them. I just got done practicing by doing a pyramid from 1-10 back down to 1. The goal is to not mess up on any of them. If you do then go back to the number previously accomplished. For example, if I was working on 9 and screwed up I would go back to 8 working my way to 10. On the way back down if I screwed up on 8 then I would have to go back to 9. Continue this until the entire pyramid is complete.

Double Unders

Today I am going to be working on my double unders. This is an explosive jumprope movement that takes a good bit of coordination. Single rope turns have never been a issue for me to perform. Once I was introduced to doing double unders it changed all the confidence that I had in my jumprope ability. This is a great exercise to master.

Please disregard the music in the first video. Nothing I could do about that.

Mark Rippetoe

I was having a few issues with the position of the bar to my shins and shoulder placement. This clears it all up by great Mark Rippetoe. Here is a good interview that give a little background about Mark and some of his views on lifting. http://jerryhillfitness.com/blog/?p=99

Tim Favreau 215lbs. Power Clean

This is my good friend Favre. He is who I get pretty much all of my mentoring from. When I screw up like bouncing a deadlift off the ground he is the one to call me out on it. It's always good to have someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you are going down the right path to really see the gains that you are shooting for. To see more go to http://www.hybridfitness.blogspot.com/

Tim Favreau 215lbs. Power Clean from Matt Pittman on Vimeo.

5x1 360 lbs.

Today I really worked on my technique through the instruction of Dave Tate. Really incorporating the glutes and hamstrings more then doing a squat in the lift. Doing a quarter squat is easier then doing a full squat. This happens because you need to really get your shoulders behind the bar before the lift. It is much easier get your shoulders behind the bar if you go into a deeper squat instead of putting the weight into the heals and flattening out that back. Im continually working on my technique. So should you.

5x1 360 lbs. from Matt Pittman on Vimeo.

Fitness and Strength

You need to set goals before you can achieve the health and strength that you want. Each person's goals are potentially different than the next person's. What are your strength/health goals and what do you want to do to achieve them?

Dave Tate

Dave Tate runs through the importance of knowing the difference between power movements and to train accordingly. Body position is extremely important before walking up to the bar. To learn more about Dave click http://muscleandbrawn.com/dave-tate-biography/

Jim Wendler and EliteFTS

Jim Wendler and EliteFTS have an outstanding take on health and strength. This video gives a preview of the outcome of outstanding training. To follow up on Jim Wendler check out this interview http://www.mindandmuscle.net/node/510

Diet

Diet is one of the most important parts of any physical output. What you put in is what you put out. A person can work out all day long with a diet that consists of horrible nutrition and will create horrible results. What it boils down to is "what is your goal." Goals are the most important part of creating health and strength. My goal is to create a powerful and explosive strength out of a person with an ordinary body type through outstanding training and excellent nutrition.