This Past Week (4/19-4/25)

This past week was a good week for me. I was on my heavy triples week of SMS6, and I can feel that I am getting stronger every time I go to the weight room. The only thing that really changed for me in regards to my workouts was where I did plate pushes on Wednesday. I switched from a linoleum to a wood floor, and while my shoes could grip the wood better, the plate could as well. Plus the wood floor is longer, which meant that instead of doing sets of 25 second sprints I was now doing sets of 45 seconds sprints. I definitely had to cut the total number of sprints down, and when I completed my last set the only thing I had the energy left to do was to roll over onto my back and breathe. I didn't throw up this week though, haha, but my quads kept giving out as I walked down flights of stairs to the locker room.

I also worked with the Williams College Men's Basketball Team twice, as well as the Williams College Women's Soccer Team twice. All of my clients are progressing and reaching their goals, which is awesome to see. I also got an incredibly compliment from one of my clients this past week when he told me that after he mulches on the weekend his back and knees are no longer sore and he doesn't feel completely exhausted anymore. This man isn't training to enter a body building contest or to run a marathon, he's training to be healthy enough to be able to fully enjoy daily life, and that is an incredible goal. Speaking of marathons, my boy Chris Warren ran the Boston Marathon this past Monday, finishing in about 3 hours and 40 minutes. Congrats man!!

Anyways, that's all for this past week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (4/12-4/18)

This past week was a great week for me workout-wise. I had my heavy singles in my four core lifts and I hit all of them, including sets at 300 on the bench and 400 on the deadlift, pulling Sumo style. This past week was also my filming week for all of SMS6, so those videos will be up on the site and on YouTube shortly. I continued my twice-weekly plyo sessions, and am continuing to record how many calories I burn during each workout so as to be able to consider the metabolic demand of each workout when I organize the Self Made Plyo Program.

I also continued doing plate pushes on Wednesday. Plate pushes are one of my favorite workouts to do because of how incredibly exhausted I feel after doing them for only a short period of time (15 minutes). After doing plate pushes this past week, I believe I tweeted something to the effect of, "Did plate pushes for 15 minutes. Threw up at minute 10. Finished the last 5 on an empty stomach and a full heart." Hahahaha.

I also did recovery cardio on the stair stepper for 25 minutes on Thursday. I really enjoy this time because it gives me a chance to listen to podcasts by Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness. If you haven't heard his podcasts before, I HIGHLY recommend downloading them off iTunes. They are very informative and have a ton of great nutritional and healthy living information.

Well, that's all for this past week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

Resort Survival For The Health-Focused Person: Food

Two weeks ago I was in beautiful Tulum, Mexico with my family at an all-inclusive resort. Being as concerned with my health and fitness as I am, I decided to take some mental notes while I was there about how I made it through the week with my health and fitness levels intact.

Food

If you've never been to an all-inclusive resort before, all-inclusive means all-you-can-eat/drink in regards to food and booze. So, for those of you who have worked hard to get beach ready, this could spell disaster for your health and physique. However, there are ways to enjoy the resort and still leave with your six pack and a tan.

Let us make the assumption right now that all of the food at the buffet is going to be of poor quality. Quite frankly, it has to be. There's no way any resort can feed the number of people that they do and provide them with quality food while still staying in business. It just doesn't add up. So, to say that one thing at the buffet is going to be better for you than another is just telling you to pick the lesser of two evils. However, you can take this opportunity to get into some good habits.

1. Eat whole foods.

If you're going to eat the poor quality food provided by the resort, and realistically you don't have alternatives, you might as well stick to the foods that are actually food. While they won't be organic in nature, they are almost certainly going to be better than the chef's mystery special that night.

2. Eat often.

You know you're supposed to be eating six meals a day, but before you could never find the time. Well now you are on vacation and have access to, in many cases, a 24-hour buffet. Get your metabolism ramped up by eating no less than every three hours!

3. Be conscious of your simple carb intake.

Between the pastries at breakfast, the ice cream machine throughout the day, and the desert menu that is ALWAYS staring you right in the face, these resorts are jam=packed with simple sugars, and let's not forget all of the mixers for your drinks between the hours of noon and 1:30 AM.

4. Drink, drink, drink... Water.

Most of you have been sitting in a cubicle from 9-5 for the last year or so and aren't used to the sun. Now you'll be outside all day, so you need to be drinking a TON of water. This is another one of the habits you should be in, but if not you can become accustomed to while on vacation. Just take note as to whether or not the tap water is safe for drinking.

5. Booze.

It's all around you and it's already paid for. While I'm not going to sit here and preach the evils of alcohol, just understand that if you are drinking enough to wake up with a hangover, you are doing some SERIOUS damage to not just your physique, but your health and body as a whole.

6. Boost leptin levels.

Leptin is one of the most, if not the most, powerful fat burners. Ironically, the substance in only found in fat. So, while on vacation, you can let your diet slightly drift from perfect for the duration of your stay in order to allow your leptin levels to rise, which will result in you actually burning more fat. This is why you should be taking that one cheat day every week, but now it will just be a less dramatic cheat day extended over a six or seven day period.

So those are my food-related tips when it comes to resort survival. I'll be back later to talk about what you can do at the resort for workouts, but now I need to hit up the gym.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (4/5-4/11)

What is up, what is up, what is up??? So this past week was a REALLY good week for me. Not the best week I've ever had, but you know, solid all around.

So I finally got back on campus and could resume my normal eating, sleeping, training pattern. Let me tell you, after eating resort food for a week, cooking for myself again with all organic food was AWESOME. It was also nice not being completely drained from being in the sun all day so I could actually get some stuff done.

I started SMS6 the Monday after I got back. I decided to go with box squats again in this phase and then go back to free squats after this mesocycle is complete. I figured it made sense to keep them in there for two months so I could hit some heavier weights with it (triples and singles in this phase). So that was my lift Monday morning. Then Monday afternoon I did my first plyo session in about two and a half months. I stopped with the plyos in-season because I could feel myself getting worn down by mid-January. It was a great plyo session too.

Then Tuesday was my bench day, and I hit all of my weights clean and smooth, which was a great feeling after coming off of the week off in Mexico. Wednesday I did plate pushes in the morning for 15 minutes before class, emphasizing max effort during the pushes and only allowing 15-60 seconds recovery between sets. Thursday I was back in the weight room for deadlifts. I quickly finding out that I'm a much better deadlifter than I previously thought. Not that I a good deadlifter by any means, but I have definitely improved significantly over the last 5 months.

Friday was my standing military press day, and that went surprisingly well. I was starting to struggle with the weight at the end of SMS5, so I wasn't sure how SMS6 was going to start off, but just like every other lift that week I hit all of my reps clean. I was planning on doing my second plyo workout of the week, but I was feeling pretty drained, so I pushed that off until Saturday. Saturday afternoon I got my athlete on and killed my plyo session.

Now that basketball is over and the only training I'm doing is the training I put myself through, my ideal weekly schedule will look something like this:

Sunday: Squat Day

Monday: Bench (morning), longer plyos (afternoon)

Tuesday: Recovery work

Wednesday: Deadlifts (morning), alternate conditioning (plate pushes, hill sprints, etc.) (afternoon)

Thursday: Recovery work

Friday: Standing military presses (morning), shorter plyos & box jumps (afternoon)

Saturday: OFF

This past week the school weight room was closed on Sunday so I had to shift some things around, but it ended up alright.

On Saturday I also decided to restructure my plyo program such that it takes into consideration total time and total metabolic demand for each workout. In order to accomplish this, I will complete every workout in the program while wearing a heart rate monitor to figure out these numbers. This will be about a six month project or so, but I definitely think it's worth it.

Outside of training myself, I began training the Williams College Women's Soccer Team on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We do speed and agility work for about 20 minutes before they play pickup games. I sent out the newest issue of The Source this past Thursday as well. If you are interested in signing up for my free monthly newsletter click here. Also, on Saturday I traveled with 2 other people to a farm in Vermont (Polymeadows Farm) to purchase raw goats' milk. It was a great trip because we got to see the milking process and play with the baby goats. I also picked up some goat cheese as well, which, by the way, is really, really good.

Well that's all that I can really think of that happened last week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

Hmmmm...

For some reason the YouTube video I embedded in my last post is not playing correctly, so here's the link to it if you want to watch the full video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhcyx_8eD9U

This Past Week (3/29-4/4)

Wow! This blog post is LONG overdue, and for that I sincerely apologize. However, it is here now, so let's get to it. Okay, so last week I was on vacation with my family at a resort in Tulum, Mexico. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was very nice being able to get off the map for five days. I also took the opportunity to devise a basic plan as to how someone can survive a similar resort and leave with their health intact, as the unlimited food, booze, and free time give the average traveler very little incentive to not completely destroy their body. This plan will be posted in this blog in the very near future.

There wasn't a weight room at the resort we we were staying, so I decided to use last week as my deload week from training. If you aren't sure what a deload week or deload period are, check out my latest article, "Deload To Reload". Sunday I was traveling all day and Monday I just read out by the pool. However, I brought my TRX with me and I have a door attachment, so on Tuesday I did a TRX circuit for about 20 minutes right outside of my hotel room.

Wednesday was a great day as I woke up at 6:00 and went down to the beach for a workout along the water. I did a dynamic warm-up, then moved into some plyometric exercises, followed by a body-weight strength circuit (which included bear crawls, pushups, cliff scalers, and forward and reverse lunges), and I finished with a 300, which in sand was VERY slow haha. Then, a few hours later my family and I did some hiking around the Mayan Ruins, and what started out as a very touristy event soon turned into a brand new workout, as you can see:



On Thursday and Friday I did another TRX circuit. That was the extent of my workouts for the week.

The big news on the Self Made front was that I wrote a new article (“Deload To Reload”) (see above), and I got my third article in the last five months featured on EliteFTS.com.
Well, that’s all that happened last week. Now it’s time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin’.