In the fitness world everyone is trying to sell you something for a quick buck. The goal of the product seller is to try to solve your fitness problems with a product that solves all your problems.

They’ll sell you on shorter workouts. They’ll tell you that if standing is too hard then you can do it sitting. They’ll tell you that moderation in your diet is acceptable. Meanwhile they tell you all of this with a bodyfat percentage that isn’t even in the lean category, no visible fitness, and no client results to back it all up.

Probably the fastest way to make a shameless buck in the fitness industry is to sell short “high intensity” sessions to customers who don’t really like exercise. Selling 101 is simple – identify the problem, supply solution, make profit, get bitches. In a world where the majority of people are overweight it’s pretty clear that not many really enjoy exercise. The thought of having to work hard for an hour or more just isn’t appealing. So here comes the heroic huckster to convince you that all you really need is to train for thirty minutes a few times per week.

They’ll tell you that their plan is so good that this kind of training is used by elite sportsmen or women, or by elite fighting units or UFC fighters. That’s not a lie – high intensity training is used by all those people. The thing they’re not telling you is that all highly fit people are not doing just a little bit of training each week. You know those cover models you aspire to be on Men’s Health? Two sessions a day, five or six days per week. Elite athletes? Twice a day since they were about ten years old. Fighters and military? At least two fitness/ strength sessions per day with skill work thrown on top.

Now imagine that you tried to go all out for all of those sessions. What do you think the result is? Absolute physical burn out, exhaustion, and over training is what happens.

Here’s the truth, backed by research on how to get in shape and stay there, even as you get older. In 1936 a guy named Bruce Dill at Harvard undertook a twenty year study on response to exercise. Unlike most studies, which only run for six weeks (and anything can work for six weeks), this study is incredibly important because it shows us the importance of using intensity in training. The subjects who maintained the use of intensity in their training dropped only 1% fitness each year, or 27% total (the final study was done at the twenty-five year mark). Those who dropped off the exercise wagon showed a loss of about 43% of their fitness. Use it or lose it.

Looking at this you’d think that we should then make every effort to make every session as hard as possible to prevent the inevitable drop in performance over time. But a study done by Billat in 1999 used three different groups to test the effectiveness of interval training and discover if there was an optimal ratio.

They ran a study that split training into phases of all easy (below the point of exertion where your breathing changes – called the ventilatory threshold), 83% easy and 17% hard, and 50% easy and 50% hard. (Where hard was measured as 91% of maximum heart rate). The findings will shock you:

The average fitness increased from a Vo2max of 71.2 (already extremely high) to 72.7 after the 83/ 17 phase – an improvement of 1.5%. Many people believe Vo2max to be relatively untrainable but this study, in already experienced athletes, shows differently. However, when the training switched to 50/ 50 the tests showed a drop in Vo2max to 70.9 – a decrease of 2.5% from the previous level.

The answer is clear – too much high intensity training will send you quickly into an over trained state. This test was done using four-week blocks for each phase. Not only was three high intensity workouts per week too much for these high level athletes, it was worse for their fitness than doing none at all.

So how do you make this work?

Looking at the Billat study we have a very strong clue – roughly 80% moderate intensity and 20% high intensity. You’d think that the rules for strength and fitness training would differ but they don’t. We are still governed by the same CNS and we use the same muscles for both activities, so the rules remain the same regardless of what you choose to do in your training. (Believe me, it took me a long time to accept that). Using 80/ 20 as our guideline we can see that an hour long session should have no more than twelve minutes of high intensity work. Here are some examples for running:

Run 20 minutes easy, 3 x 3 minutes hard/ 1 minute easy, finish the run with easy running as for the warm up. (Total time ~ 1 hour).

Run 20 minutes easy, then 8 x 20s all out/ 10s easy (or rest), 6 minutes easy cool down. (Total time 30 minutes).

Break up a gym strength session into:

10 minutes of warm up and flexibility.

2 x 10 minute blocks of strength work done at 70% (i.e. use a weight you can lift 8-10 times comfortably and perform sets of 6-8 reps). Stretch for 5 minutes between each block on the muscles used.

10 minute hard interval work on rower – 2k TT, 4 x 500m all out with 2 minutes rest between each, or 10 x 30s all out: 30s rest.

Cool down and stretch for remainder of session. (Total time 1 hour).

Following this format we see 100% of our clients achieve better and better results every time they do our inhouse fitness tests. There are no injuries, there is no burn out, there is only continued, unstoppable forward progress towards greater and greater fitness regardless of their age.

We have a very cut and dry policy when it comes to injuries at RPT. It’s very different to what most other personal trainers anywhere will do, and having seen what the competition does locally in Bayside (Brighton, Sandringham, Highett, Moorabbin, Hampton, and Black Rock) it’s actually quite a shock for most people when they first start training with us.

See, if you’re hurt you can’t train. Most trainers will hear you say you’ve got a sore neck and just blaze away with both guns as if nothing is wrong. Your knee has been bugging you too? No problem, we’ll just squat light today. I’m not kidding at all about this stuff. I had to spend six months rehabilitating a woman a couple of years ago because their previous trainer thought the best thing to do with a sore shoulder was handstand push ups. The result of that was shoulder surgery. Having had shoulder surgery I don’t wish it on anyone. Not that my recovery was unnecessarily painful or difficult, just that any time you can avoid having someone cut holes in you the better in my opinion.

If you’re one of our current clients and reading this I know you’ve already experienced this firsthand, and this is not directed at you in anyway. I know you all get it and appreciate how serious we are about helping you not only get in shape but also stay in shape along the way. Too many trainers seem to think it’s acceptable to trade your current health for the potential gain in the longer term. But how fit are you going to become when you have to stop for surgery along the way? And how many sessions can you string together before a short term injury knocks you back?

I see it all the time. We’ve had clients who have displayed massive holes in their own abilities yet refused to address them. For some it is incredibly tight upper bodies making a lot of upper body training nearly impossible as they simply can’t even move into the range of motion needed. For others it’s a lack of core control making them prone to all kinds of injuries. And for others still it’s poor movements caused by years of not having addressed an older injury properly in the first place. In all these cases everything seems fine until suddenly it’s not. The first time it becomes apparent is when someone will say something like, “oh, my knee is playing up again”. That one word – again – is the clue. The knee shouldn’t play up again. The knee should have been fixed when it originally got hurt and rehab should have been done to fully restore any lost movements so that full activity could be resumed again.

And this is why we have our system at RPT. Aches and tweaks occur during training. That’s just how it is, especially with clients who are 35+. My rule is very simple – if the tweak lasts for more than two weeks you need to go see someone. The exception to this is neck and back pain. If you exhibit spinal problems so severe you can’t move properly you’re not allowed train with us until such time as we have received clearance from our physio. For many this come as a shock. “Oh, but so and so used to let me train when I did this”. Well, so and so is an idiot and hopefully they haven’t allowed to cause long term harm to yourself. Given I’m not a medical professional and I don’t have x-ray vision until I hear from someone who is an expert in these matters you’re grounded.

The weird part about this is that people often try to fight me on this rule. As if I’m doing something harmful to them. But here’s the thing. By stopping them from training I am helping them heal. By forcing them to go see one of the few good physiotherapists in Melbourne I am making sure that they heal. That makes me seem like a bad guy. Some, with overly inflated egos, can’t handle being told that their body has broken down and they are in unacceptable condition to be allowed train. Their anger at themselves for their failings will be directed outwards towards their trainer who is looking out for their best interests. But you have to stick to your guns here.

People think that training is all lollipops and fun WODs but every time a client walks through your doors you are in charge of their safety. That comes down to not just the environment and the training plan you set up for them but also in terms of looking after their health. And sometimes they’re too obsessive about training to notice that the warning lights are on and what they should be doing is resting rather than training. As a trainer you need to accept that you are going to be the bad guy in this situation. But your job isn’t to encourage people to go to red line. In my experience people don’t often need a cheer leader. They’re far more likely to need someone to hold them back so they don’t train too hard too often.

There’s this strange thing that happens when people walk into a business. They switch off mentally. In their heads they are in a safe place and their are professional staff on hand to look after them. As the trainer you need to be that safety minded person for them. It may not mean cessation of all training – a sore knee can mean that instead of a lower body session you’ll need to get them doing upper body. Or that instead of doing a form of cardio like running or rowing perhaps you need to use a ski erg. But you do need to address it. And if the pain persists for more than two weeks they need to be referred out.

Just a quick word here on medical professionals. There are some great ones out there, but sadly many are mired in the dark ages when it comes to treatment. If your physio or chiropractor says anything along the lines of, “You need to come see me twice a week for six weeks to fix this” get out immediately. Honestly, they should only need to see you two or three times if they’re any good. If their treatment involves ultrasound and a but of tape it’s probably garbage too. I’ll make this bit as clear as possible – unless you suffered from trauma (hit by a car, fell down stairs, etc) your pain is being caused by poor movement on your behalf. If their treatment isn’t about getting you to move better it is flawed and you need to find a therapist who understands how to fix movement.

Now that I’ve spoken to the trainers, let me speak to all the clients out there. We, your trainers, aren’t here to be your adversaries. We are here to help you become better. You came to us for our expertise and knowledge. So when we say that something isn’t right and needs to be addressed then please listen and take action accordingly. One of the things that most frustrates me is when I make a recommendation to someone and later find out they hadn’t gone to see the physio like they told me they had. As if somehow lying to me and continuing to train was going to fix their neck. But here’s the thing – my neck doesn’t hurt and when you end up having cervical fusion surgery at forty because you tried to win one over on me by not seeing a therapist it doesn’t have a huge impact on my life. If you want to be so juvenile that you resist my attempts to help you, well, you’re on your own then buddy.

There’s this common misconception that it’s clients versus trainers. As if we somehow enjoy having to ask you to push your knees out in the squat one more time. Or that we really enjoy talking to you about the diet you’re not following that you paid us good money to get you to adhere to. We just want to do out jobs and that means that you need to turn up in shape and without injuries, or that if you do get hurt – as happens from time to time – that you address it properly by seeing the therapist we recommend. There is a very good reason why RPT uses the physio that we do – because we have mutual respect and I know for certain that after a client sees them not only will we get a full report but we will also know exactly what that client should and shouldn’t be doing in training. (Here’s a buyer’s tip – if you are looking at starting with a trainer ask who they refer to for injuries and why. If they don’t have a support team perhaps shop elsewhere because that person is operating without a safety net).

Remember we’re here to help. If you’re getting sick frequently, are often injured, or otherwise finding it hard to get any training momentum going we know why. Please listen when we try to help you. And for the trainers out there, stick to your guns and don’t let clients train hurt. Ever.

One of the things I can never understand is how people can turn up at an RKC and still not be ready. It’s one thing if they’re injured leading up to it but still want to attend – no one expects a miracle if you’ve been hurt. But how can a healthy person turn up and not be ready?

It would be somewhat understandable if the RKC was a new course. With the way the fitness industry is most trainers expect to pay some money, attend a course, and walk away “certified’ as an instructor in whatever it is. In my opinion, that’s utter garbage and has led to the dismal state of the industry as it stands today all around the world. But the RKC isn’t new. It’s been around since 2001, and is well known for how tough the standards are. A quick search on the internet, or even reading the testing standards on the sign up page, will provide all the answers you need.

But still I often have to speak with students at the end of the weekend who haven’t satisfied all the requirements to pass. Some, having been told all weekend that their form is sub standard are ready to hear this. But others stare back at me, obviously surprised by having failed something. I suppose the fitness industry standard of passing everyone makes many believe that the teachers for the weekend had just been talking tough about the high standards.

If I had to nail down one thing that I felt was the leading cause of not being ready it’s pretty simple – not enough time spent on patterning. Trainers are not exactly the smartest people on the block usually. I mean, we just pick things up and put them down again for a job, right? And it always strikes me as odd that we’ll tell clients they need to train with someone certified in using a particular tool, but many trainers will get their education off YouTube. Things that make you go hmm…

So imagine a trainer, seeking to do the RKC, sitting down in front of their computer searching for RKC standard videos. There aren’t many around to be honest. We have some on our YouTube channel but even they are mostly focused on fixing specific elements of individual lifts, rather than just showing what good form in each lift entails. So there you are, looking for good videos on RKC standard technique, and all you find is one awful video after another. And so it’s not unexpected that you walk away thinking that your own poor technique compares well to the videos and that you’ll be just fine at the RKC.

Except you won’t.

Back a few years Dragon Door used to send out a list of required reading materials for the RKC. The list included: Enter the Kettlebell, Return of the Kettlebell, Super Joints, Relax into Stretch, Resilience, Naked Warrior and Power to the People. If you’re an RKC hopeful my first question to you is how many of those do you own, and how many have you read? Would you sit a university exam without having read the textbooks and expect to pass? So how come you come to the RKC – a very physical test – and expect to pass without having put in the required amount of time learning? (All of these are available from www.dragondooraustralia.com in Australia).

The second step, after reading those books, is to get in front of an RKC and have them check your form in all the basic exercises. Don’t be surprised if it takes an hour just to get you doing swings correctly. At this point, early in your kettlebell journey, I wouldn’t even bother about any skills other than the first three – two hand swing, goblet squat and get up. There’s a reason these are the same exercises taught at the HKC and it’s because they are the ideal starting point for home training as well as for instructors to better learn about kettlebells.

The big reason the HKC is so important is one thing – patterning. While all the more advanced kettlebell drills such as cleans, snatches and jerks are performed one handed to begin with it’s best to start with two hands on the bell. Additionally, for many people they’ll actually need to learn how to squat properly. The goblet squat was never intended to be a strength exercise, but a patterning exercise – one that taught high school kids quickly and safely how to squat en masse. The get up may be the ultimate patterning exercise for a variety of issues. Someone who can perform a solid get up will be able to perform a variety of other exercises well too.

In Australia the odds of passing the RKC are about 50% if you haven’t previously attended the HKC. But if you’ve been to the HKC those odds change to 90%. If I told you that you’d be guaranteed to make over a hundred thousand dollars if you just spent a day and $500 doing some kettlebell training would you go? Because that’s about what you’ll earn as a PT over the two years following your RKC. That one time $500 investment will pay off double over the following two years. Think about it – $500 to earn $100,000. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

If you haven’t grasped the gist of this yet, the step by step process for passing the RKC should be: buy and read ALL the books listed, train with an RKC, attend the HKC, and finally start working on attaining the strength and fitness standards needed for passing the RKC. Don’t think you’re talented and special and can avoid the patterning work, because you’re not and you can’t. I’ve seen more people who thought they’d be able to wing it fail the RKC than I can count. Don’t jump the gun, don’t waste time watching YouTube videos from other training groups, and don’t think you’re talented enough to pass without having done the work prior. Better men and women than you have tried that path and failed. Pay your dues, work on the basics and get the patterns right before adding load or volume. Attend the HKC. Workout with an RKC. Your chances of succeeding on your own are slim.

The RKC isn’t impossible. There are more than enough RKCs worldwide to show that passing isn’t that hard. Yes, it’s a tough weekend, and yes, you will be pushed. But if you’ve spent the time prior working on the patterns, attending an HKC, and working with a local RKC, you will be fine.

In the long list of qualities that trainers wish clients had – strength, flexibility, endurance, etc. – the top of all traits is not physical. The biggest problem for most is simply what’s between their ears.

Many give up without even truly trying. And what does that say about how they treat the rest of their lives?

If it’s acceptable to turn up for training late, is it acceptable to turn up for work late?

What about if it’s okay to put in 80% effort when the workout states to put in 100%? Have you ever done “just enough” at work, or do you truly go all out on every project?

Just looking at the last two – have you ever felt like you weren’t looked at for promotion but couldn’t figure out why? Perhaps laziness is the answer? While not lazy enough to warrant firing (or truthfully, making your boss go through the hiring process to end up with another sand bagger who likely will be just as bad as you, but in a different way) you manage to hang in by virtue of being the devil known, rather than a performance standout.

And this is how working out is. Each session brings a particular mental element that needs improving. I watched a client this morning spend 35 minutes on a single lap of crawling. Given the entire purpose of today’s session was to teach the clients to finally crawl correctly I was delighted. What made it even more fantastic was that for each breach of form there was a 10 push up penalty. For someone who struggles to do a single set of 10 push ups it is quickly obvious why it took her so long as she had to do 80 push ups to complete a single lap of crawling. The crawls were done with a foam roller sideways across the lumbar spine – any form breakdowns and the roller comes off. What made her efforts so spectacular was that even if it meant she dropped it without taking another step she dropped and did 10 push ups. Compare that to the clients who grabbed it with their feet but though, “it didn’t hit the ground, so I don’t have to do push ups”.

Which of those people would you be more inclined to hire if you were looking to employee someone?

The skills of life are in evidence during training. Gym time is merely a microcosm of the rest of life that allows us to breakdown and focus on different skills in isolation. Just the same as I can set sessions to focus on your squat, or deadlift, or crawl, I am also setting sessions that test patience, perseverance, toughness, and discipline. Will you actually go all out when the workout says to and face the inevitable detonation after, or will you play it safe? Will you complain when the workout is changed halfway through, or will you take it in your stride and laugh about it? And again, if you were thinking as an employer, or a husband, or someone stuck on a desert island with someone, which traits would you rather they have?

We have three rules at our gym, and the second is “Don’t complain”. Even with it written up on the walls it is amazing how many people fail to realise that they self-sabotage by allowing themselves to be involved in negative self-talk. Their argument for this is that they are using humour to cope with the situation. Yet in every joke there is truth, so what is really being said is, “I can’t cope right now”. Yet the only actual hardship they are facing is shortness of breath. It’s not like anyone is firing live rounds at them, nor are there dangerous wild beasts attacking them, and there certainly isn’t a ninja death squad out to kill them. All there really is, is  a little bit of physical discomfort.

At some point, and we can find it in most people quite easily, the thing that really will set them apart from the herd is mental strength. Attitude. It can be developed and it can be improved. To be honest, anyone who is still focused on the shallow physical side of training, and in particular the aesthetic side of training, is largely wasting your time. nailing down the discipline to eat right, go to sleep on time, and turn up and train regularly is a guaranteed way to improve the way you look (and feel). Ignoring the underlying health aspects of training won’t ever see much improvement in anything other than what you see in the mirror. And while having a six-pack can be amusing, it won’t make you many decent friends, and it won’t get you a raise, nor will it help you buy a house. But discipline will do all those things.

This is why we push genuine challenges at our clients every week. Only by pushing them past their boundaries can we help them as people. There is simply no place for the comfort zone in training sessions. Coddling people only serves to make them softer and weaker both mentally and physically. Forget shallow goals like bigger arms, or how you’ll look at a dance party and realise that the only benefits of any true value from physical training are the mental benefits and any training program that doesn’t address these is written by someone with a child’s grasp of where training fits into modern life.

Man evolved as the apex predator by being tough, relentless, cunning, and determined. If you think you have what it takes to be an apex predator then contact us.

I believe that many people waste their time in the gym for a variety of reasons. The most common of these is a lack of clear goals. Most people enter the gym with a goal of “getting in shape”. As far as goal setting goes that is pretty hazy.

A good goal is very specific and measurable. The problem for many is that they see a goal that might be “lose 5kg”, which as a goal is easy to measure, but don’t understand what might be some bench marks to help that become achievable. One of my friends, fat loss guru Josh Hillis, says that when women can do five pull ups they are usually in rock star physical shape – the kind of shape that you see on stars when they’re in big budget action movies. I know for myself that at certain levels of strength and performance I feel like i can run through walls.

But just having goals on its own often can lead to further confusion. It’s no good if I have a set of standards for the gym to help fat loss goals, but my personal goal is an ultra marathon. So even having a standard may not fix the problem of wasting workouts.

Our goals at Read Performance Training are simple – we are trying to create athletic, durable humans, who are capable of accomplishing a wide variety of physical tasks. To accomplish this what is needed is a broad base of physical qualities that covers everything from strength to endurance to strength endurance. Along the way we probably want to avoid injury too, which means that we need some kind of standard to ensure that the body is working correctly. The gold standard for this is the FMS.

Because people operate at all levels of physical skills when they come in the door, we need to know quickly where they are at physically, so that we can train them at the right intensity right from the start.

Baseline – FMS score of 14, no asymmetries. If a 14 is not achieved then priority must be given to achieving a solid foundation for hard training. Whether that takes a week or a few months that still must be priority. And yes, for current clients this means that some of you may not be eligible for group training in the near future but will instead need one-on-one training to rectify these issues as quickly as possible.

The standards below are written with male standards first, followed by female standards. There is some age adjustment for certain standards because it just makes sense. For instance, the male Journeyman standard for the 5min snatch test is 100 reps with a 24kg bell, and for over 50s it will be a 20kg bell. These standards appear in brackets after each test where applicable.

Recruit

• FMS score – minimum 14, no asymmetries.
• Deadlift – body weight for 5 reps, both male and female.
• Squat – double kettlebell front squat. Males, 2x16kg. Females 2 x 12kg. 5 reps.
• Pull ups – 5 sets of 30 second flexed hangs on pull up bars done with strict 60 second rest between sets, both male and female.
• Push ups – Males, 3 sets of 20. Females, 3 sets of 10.
• Run – 5km in 30mins.
• Row – 1000m. Males, under 4mins. Females, under 4.30mins.

Journeyman

• FMS score – minimum 14, no asymmetries.
• Deadlift – Males, 1.5x bw for 3 reps. Females, 1.25x bw for 3 reps.
• Squat – BW for 5 reps, both male and female.
• Pull ups – Males, 10 pull ups. Females, 5 chin ups. (8/3 for over 50).
• Press – Males, 2 x 24kg kettlebells for 5 reps. Females, 2 x 12kg kettlebells for 5 reps. (20kg/ 12kg for over 50).
• Clean and Jerk/ Long Cycle – Males, 2 x 24kg kettlebells, 25 reps/ 5mins. Females, 2 x 16kg kettlebells, 25reps/ 5mins.
• Snatch – 100 reps/ 5mins. Males, 24kg kettlebell. Females, 16kg kettlebell. (20kg/ 12kg for over 50).
• Run – 5km, 25mins.
• Row – 2000m. Males under 8mins. Females under 9.15mins.
• Stamina – RPT Century. Under 10mins.

Veteran

• FMS score – minimum 14, no asymmetries.
• Deadlift – Males, 2xbw. Females, 1.5xbw. 1 rep.
• Squat – Males, 1.5xbw for 5 reps. Females, 1.25xbw for 5 reps.
• Pull ups – Males, 24kg, 5 reps. Females, 8kg, 5 reps.
• Press – Males, 2 x 32kg kettlebells, 5 reps. Females, 2 x 16kg kettlebells, 5 reps.
• Clean and Jerk/ Long Cycle – Males, 2 x 32kg kettlebells, 25 reps/ 5mins. Females, 2 x 20kg kettlebells 25 reps/ 5mins.
• Run – 10km under 45mins.
• Snatch – RPT Snatch Test. Under 5mins.
• Row – 2000m. Male, under 7.15. Females, under 8mins.
• Stamina – Murph. Under 1 hour 20mins. Males, 10kg. Females, 6kg.

Many people chase just one aspect of performance, ultimately making them unbalanced as both an athlete and a human. If you have a double bodyweight deadlift but can’t run around the block without fear of a heart attack you are unbalanced. If you can run all day but can’t touch your toes you are similarly unbalanced. Addressing all the components of these standards will make you better all round than chasing just one facet. Figure out where you are and address your weaknesses to overcome your inadequacies. This makes planning and future training easy and straight forward, although for many once you start to measure yourself against a firm standard you will see how much hard work is ahead of you. If you’re like many and have an FMS screen under 14 you have even more as you first need to address your movement quality issues.

It’s thought that the origins of the word Jeep, as in the car with the same name, was from an abbreviation of the words General Purpose. GP was the standard term for anything that was a stock issue item in the military and not just confined to motor vehicles. I’ve even owned pairs of GP boots. (Horrible things that I advise never wearing unless you absolutely have to).

When it comes to training we often see people talk about GPP, which stands for General Physical Preparation. This term refers to all training that is nonspecific in nature and designed to give us a broad physical base upon which to grow Specific Physical Preparation, or SPP. But this is also about where most people lose their minds. You see, SPP is only needed for advanced athletes in specific sports. If you’re not advanced you don’t need SPP. And if you’re advanced in one sport, but not in another, then you don’t need SPP for the second sport either.

The first question people should really ask themselves then is whether or not they’re advanced. In the gym this is an easy question to answer as the Russians have kindly given us their definition quite clearly. If you can’t squat or deadlift twice your body weight then you’re not advanced. If you fall short of this magical two times body weight number you do not need a specialised plan for any form of strength training. Simply sticking to a tried and true beginner/ intermediate plan will do more for you than trying to follow Klokov’s routine or thinking you need to do the Russian Squat Assault to bring your squat up from 100kg to 110kg.

And then we get to sports training which is probably the most misunderstood thing in all of the fitness world. You know, besides, hypertrophy, fat loss, diet, “cardio” training, agility work, flexibility….wait…

Sports training, or trying to make people better at their sport in the gym, is a huge waste of time for most. Again, if you’re not advanced it’s a bad idea. Here’s a few basic reasons why:

Most people have poor posture and mechanics. Playing their sport actually places their body under enormous stress – like racing a car that has a twisted chassis and has to continually overcome massive amounts of mechanical resistance. Getting them to spend more time working on adding stress to their body in the gym is likely going to break them sooner, and it’s going to be tough to improve at your sport then.

Most sport can be nailed down to a few key components – game skill, basic strength, necessary fitness, basic biomechanics. If you lack game skill getting a bigger bench press won’t help you. Most adult athletes are so low in skill that what they need more of is game skill to improve performance. This will actually take care of nearly all of their basic fitness needs to play the sport as well. Basic strength is obvious – there’s very little chance that your athlete is beyond beginner status in the gym so they need a basic strength plan that fits in with additional game skill sessions and doesn’t leave them too sore to play their sport. For most adults if this can’t be accomplished in two sessions per week then you have no idea what you’re doing and you should go find a different job before you hurt more people. Basic fitness, along with match fitness also includes basic diet and body composition management. There’s no reason for an athlete, no matter the level to be fat. The final area is where most people fall down – biomechanics. If your athlete moves poorly this needs addressing. Boring out the engine and increasing horsepower won’t do much if the wheels are still all pointing in different directions, and this is why most people will benefit more from corrective type work than from adding load or intensity.

So what we’re really left with, if we’re actually training athletes, is that:

They’ll be better served being treated as beginners.

They’ll benefit more from spending time working on their sports skills.

They’ll need more work on corrective training to fix all the damage caused by their sport, and to allow them to perform their sport more effectively.

But what if you’re not an athlete? What if you’re what is currently being called “an every day athlete”? That is, you like to be in shape, you like to have decent levels of strength, fitness, low body fat, and be able to use your fitness when needed to play with your kids, play a game of tennis or basketball with friends, or even go on a hike. Guess what? You need GP training.

I’m not going to write out a done for you plan as I am not a big believer in cookie cutter plans. However, what I will do is show you a way to set your week up so that you get the most out of it. I will say that most people would actually benefit from a second mobility day placed later in the week, likely on a Thursday, but I have assumed that not many will want to train 7 days per week, leaving little time spare.

Monday – mobility and corrective work only. (On the understanding that you have spent the weekend engaged in some physical activity).

Tuesday – strength with limited conditioning.

Wednesday – as Tuesday, but different lifts and different fitness activity.

Thursday – as Tuesday and Wednesday.

Friday – strength endurance.

Saturday – endurance.

I’m not going to break down how we do each of these sessions but a basic format should be 30 minutes of mobility work, 30 minutes of strength work, and 30 minutes of fitness work. I’d suggest pairing two exercises together that don’t compete such as front squats and pull ups or deadlifts and dips. You can then either do something as simple as 5 x 5 of each, or use an EDT format. All fitness work should be below your aerobic HR. Leave the higher octane conditioning for your sport and don’t burn yourself out in the gym.

Following this simple plan will keep you fit for all general things and minimise injuries. In training there are no magic bullets. Anyone offering you a path that seems to good to be true is lying to you. You absolutely cannot get great results without consistent, dedicated training. Anything that works off the premise off infrequent, low volume training is a waste of time as I explained in this article in Breaking Muscle here. Further, all those intense efforts will burn you out, just like it does to a race car expected to run at high speed all the time. The thing everyone misses is that race cars are in the garage more than they’re on the track. Trying to spend your gym time as all out sprints won’t get you very far for long.

The final benefit of training like this is that you get to enjoy doing a wide variety of exercises. For fitness you can walk, row, swim, ride, run, hike, use kettlebell complexes or swings and snatches. For strength you can use body weight, bars, dumbbells, kettlebells, strong man equipment, and anything else you find lying around. There is simply no need to tie yourself into one tool. This integrated approach to strength and conditioning is exactly why we get such great results with our clients, making them fit for life, built GP tough.

The following is a letter from one of our regular clients. For those  who wish to come train with us it should be considered required reading. I am everything he says – difficult to get along with and expect things my way when you come through our doors. But you will get the absolute best result if you trust that I know what I’m doing and allow me to do my job.

The main reason I initially started writing this review was because I was in fact asked by Andrew to give my thoughts for the website. Importantly, he put no pre-conditions on this and insisted that it be unfiltered and not sent to him in advance for any vetting. Although I’m a pretty outgoing sort of person, and very open with friends, or anyone for that matter one-on-one, I’m actually very private when it comes to posting things on the internet and social media (although I have my moments of weakness) and so it takes a bit to get me to put something out there so publically like this. That said, when I do something, there are no half measures and I do things properly.  Besides, it gives me a good opportunity to take stock and reflect on why I keep getting up some ungodly hour and out the door four mornings per week, having to re-work all sorts of routines and put up with the logistical issues, to bust my ass and pay $132 / fortnight for the privilege. So here goes, my impressions of both Andrew Read the man, and the journey thus far with Read Personal Training (RPT).

I started at RPT in April 2013 and at that point was thoroughly disillusioned with the futility of what I was doing on the fitness front – doing workouts at home a few days per week based on what I had picked up from all sorts of sources; not getting any stronger, leaner or better conditioned but feeling liked I had ‘worked out’; and frequently picking up injuries.

I had always resisted the prospect of using a trainer, misguidedly thinking it was mainly for people who were time poor, lazy, had money to burn or just needed someone to motivate them. I had enough stuff at home, was careful where I spent my money, thought I knew enough and the desire to exercise and remain active had never really left me, so why pay for the services of someone I figured?

However, the time came that I eventually realized that I was beating my head up a wall and not really getting anywhere. I was still in effect paying dearly for my ignorance in terms of lost time, physio bills and the like. After coming across dragon door on the internet, I started searching through the reviews and was impressed by the depth of them referring to just how good this Andrew Read fella was. It was not just a handful of words of gushing praise, but real detail on what Andrew had taught them and how their training and results had just turned around. What did I have to lose I thought?

My plan at that stage was just to go for a few sessions, to iron out a few kinks in my technique, get them to teach me a few exercises, give me a few workouts and I’d be on my way back to my home gym with perhaps a periodic refresher “tune up” to make sure I hadn’t picked up any bad habits.

I recall speaking to Andrew for the 1^st time one day during a work break for about 30 – 45 minutes and being a little struck by the directness and the conviction he had with his views. While it made sense to me on one level, another part of me remained a little cynical and doubting. My own personal failings or outcomes from past experiences have a tendency of leading to one becoming closed off and cynical. That mindset isn’t helped when you see just how many poor service professionals there are in all walks of life, happy to take your money and offering little in return. Andrew took every question I had and served it back with interest, and did not sugar coat anything or put me under any illusions. While he may have been in ‘sales mode’ to some degree, there was also an impression left that he wasn’t going to grovel for my business and whilst not explicitly said, there was an undercurrent of take it or leave it, and a strength of conviction that deep down gave me a good feeling about it.

I was a bit taken back initially too that there was a process I had to follow, a minimum standard I needed to have achieved technique wise, just to be given the all clear to join the group classes. This would usually take 4 – 5 sessions. At $150 / time for an hour a session with Andrew, or $100 for one with Andrew’s partner, Shannon, the mind was thinking, jeez, how much are they going to bleed me dry here? Andrew directed me to Shannon, and any initial misgivings about being “palmed off to a lesser trainer” vey quickly evaporated. Shannon is, initially at least, perhaps more friendly and welcoming than Andrew, and right away I was impressed with her attention to detail and knowledge. She has a huge passion for what she does and a genuine interest in your progression. While I knew I had “issues”, Shannon was shocked at how I had not only managed to lift a 24kg ‘Turkish get up’ exercise into the top position, but had not completely ruined my back in the process! I had in-fact been unbelievably lucky getting to this point without doing major, and perhaps permanent damage to myself!

It felt initially that I was regressing, and it was very humbling not being able to do certain stretching exercises, or complete certain parts of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), let alone going back to “baby” weights. While we were only focusing on one, perhaps two of the core kettlebell exercises in a session, there were so many intricacies to take in on the technique that my mind felt like it was getting a bigger workout than the body! Shannon, also set me lots of “homework” in terms of stretches and routines on the basics to work through before my next weekly session. She was also happy to follow up by email too and answer any questions I had – and as they were quick to find out, I am a pretty inquisitive person!

I seemed to pick things up reasonably well and Shannon was always encouraging, but still firm when she needed to be and when I wasn’t grasping something. What also impressed me was that there were no short cuts taken, and it was about quality, routines, forming new habits and doing things over and over until the basics were ingrained. You didn’t go to the next exercise until the 1^st one was nailed technically!

I recall one Saturday session when I was really struggling getting the hips to “pop” on the swing and just couldn’t get it. Eventually after trying all sorts of things, including various extra little props, filming the sequence on the iphone and replaying back, and calling in an extra set of eyes, being Alby, the 3^rd trainer for RPT, we came to the conclusion that I had one leg probably about 1 inch shorter than the other that meant adjustments needed to be made in my technique to accommodate. I remember looking at my watch and seeing that we had gone about 15 minutes over the hour deadline but Shannon & Alby were not worried about the clock or charging me for the extra time, and were determined to get me over this hump. Once again, the videos were emailed to me and the follow-ups via email were pretty thorough, together with drills to work on and eventually we got there.

Soon after I had reached a point where I was good enough to join the group for classes but soon reached another hiccup, where I need to be proficient in one of the other core exercises, being the snatch before I could do all the stuff in the group class. At his point, I arranged what turned out to be two separate sessions with Alby, who not surprisingly was also extremely passionate, detail focused, “real” and avoided any short cuts. He had no hesitation in resorting to all sorts of tools in his toolbox, be it ‘mind hacks’, analogies, use of props or breaking down the mechanics further to get me doing the movement properly and then grooving it. We had a couple of laughs too along the way, which was good! Alby and Shannon are certainly cut from the same cloth as Andrew and are excellent, and would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them highly to anyone. The only difference is that they are in effect still the protégés, and Andrew the master, having been in the health and fitness industry for an almost unheard of twenty years (where most give up in 2 – 5 years).

So, what are my impressions of Andrew himself and how the journey at RPT has evolved? How would I describe Andrew in a few words?

A few spring to mind: direct; opinionated; uncompromising; confrontational; highly principled; detail driven; perfectionist; demanding; intense & brutal (at times); high intellect; confident; driven; competitive; healthy ego; likes to have the last word; but to name a few. He also has an eye like a dead fish as the old saying goes, and is incredibly focused on the minutia or intricate details of a movement. He can be a difficult man to get to know and break through the hard exterior at first and if he has a soft side, then by jeez he hides it well. Andrew is a bit of a different ‘cat’ that beats to the sound of his own drum, but is like an onion in some ways with a few layers and complexities there. If you give your best consistently, and ask the right sort of questions, he is more than happy to help and you gain his respect over time, but you have to earn it. At other times he doesn’t say a lot and I’ve come to learn that means you are doing well. When you get a compliment then certainly take it!

It wasn’t an easy start in some ways, as just when I thought I was up and on my way, came a few rude awakenings. I soon realized I didn’t know that much at all when it came to what was required, that I had blind spots, and that it would be a long haul, and no quick fix.  He sets the boundaries very clearly about expectations and I quickly learned the hard way also that if one is not ‘present’ and switched on for the training, or if you forget your workout log for example, that you’ll get very publically called on it and he does not suffer fools gladly. One day I recall vividly, I thought he was particularly harsh on me and I felt a little embarrassed and humiliated and left the group session feeling a little sorry for myself. He seems to have a sixth sense though and an hour or so later came a text, not apologizing as such but conceding ever so slightly in a round about sort of way that he may have been a little more tactful in getting his message across. A few texts were swapped, but I learned then that he is a man who has no filter and just calls things brutally as he sees them. I found him a little intimidating and confronting at first and even to this day, I feel like I still haven’t worked him out fully, and have to be a little more circumspect about thinking what I say. I find that Andrew says and does things that still surprise me and take me back and I say to myself “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that!” and that certainly maintains a little edge from my perspective.

I don’t mind pushing back at times and try and put up some sort of debate but he always seems to win in the end and invariably he is proven right. I’ve come to realize that he knows his stuff intimately and his confidence and certainty comes not from arrogance, but from working hard and consistently for 20 years and never resting on his laurels. That said, at the same time he is not closed off and is always learning and pushing the boundaries and looking for ways that better not just himself, but also can carry over to benefit his clients.

I’ll happily debate him on area’s outside his core area’s of expertise but if you step into his domain, by jeez, you’d better know what you are talking about as you’ll get a mixture of short shrift and detailed reasons why. I keep forgetting that he has seen and heard it all before when it comes to excuses and the mental tricks and rationalizations we all play on ourselves. Rest assured, he will call you on your BS and won’t massage your ego, so be prepared for that, and to give your best if you show up.

One can see from Andrew’s extensive writings on “breaking muscle” and even via social media, that this is a man who is a very deep thinker and an absolute professional who takes what he does very seriously, some may say a little too seriously and intensely at times, but nevertheless he has a fountain of knowledge and an unquenchable thirst for mastery and is constantly trying to push the boundaries for not just himself but also his clients. What really impresses you over time with Andrew, Shannon and Alby is that this is not just a job for them, it’s their passion, call it their religion, and is the driving force in their lives. They are consistent, and show up ready to go about their business, day-in-day out and are just on another level, or multiple levels above if the truth is known, than most other trainers. I know Andrew makes sure it stays that way, as he is constantly pushing himself through new and different phases of training, all with different goals that change over time, but also through his attendance at a number of internationally renowned courses with world-renowned trainers. He really ‘walks the talk’ and I feel fortunate that he is always looking for ways to incorporate that wisdom gained into workouts for our benefit.

What also strikes me is that they are always watching and taking note and even though they insist on keeping a log of all exercises done, Andrew seems to intrinsically know what sort of weight you should be using and when you are taking it a bit easy. I have been amazed on more than one occasion how he can spot from a distance exactly the weight you are using on the kettlebell when it does not seem obvious to the naked eye. He even knows when you put them back in the wrong spot and is an absolute stickler for a lot of little things. In many of his articles, the timing of them is often uncanny, as they seem to appear just at precisely the right time, when you need it or when you are thinking about that very thing. It’s almost like he has a sixth sense.

When you get through the basics, you find you are constantly being challenged in class. He constantly keeps you accountable and doesn’t let you off the hook easily. If you make a commitment to class, then if you don’t turn up, there will be a text and if you miss a couple of sessions in a row then he will quite likely call. While there is always an emphasis on correct form and technique at all times, the workouts are constantly varied and he loves nothing more than taking you out of your comfort zone and keeping you there for as long as you can. There are so many wicked ways and means he can actually destroy you in class with even basic exercises or combinations but just when he senses you are ‘fried’ and have given it your all, he seems to know intuitively when to relent a little and grant you a little mercy (while still turning the screw). The penny has finally dropped recently that some of these workouts are beyond the physical, that they are not designed to actually be finished, nor does he expect you to get through it, but are designed more so to push you mentally and take you to another level. This is where it really gets into the realm of personal, rather than just physique development.

Although I do my fair share of good-natured complaining, I’ve also come to realize, that there is a lot of thought, call it science, or what you will, in how and why he puts together a workout and nothing is random with Andrew, it’s all thought out and planned for a reason or purpose. You are not flogged to within an inch of your life every session, but that these are carefully cycled and spaced, but are still intuitively adjusted depending on what the conditions are or how clients have pulled up from previous sessions. That said, he loves throwing curve balls at the group when he feels the time is right for a bit of a jolt as he knows our limits better than we do ourselves.

I’ve done CrossFit before and reckon what RPT does is a far more complete and responsible program. Because there is such strong attention given to maintaining good form at all times, I have found there are very few injuries sustained through training. This is not the case with CrossFit, where it is often all about beating your previous time or the competition, often with less than optimal exercise standards. Sure RPT gets competitive, particularly with the team exercises, but it first comes from a perspective of doing your best and doing it right.

I know for a fact from my own personal experience that there is high duty of care shown towards clients. I recently picked up an injury involving a nerve impingement in the upper back – that had nothing to do with RPT by the way – and Andrew took no chances, insisting I deferred my payments and get the all clear from his spinal physio (who is also an absolute master of what he does) before I was allowed to return to training. I have been nursed through too the past couple of weeks carefully and that just reinforced my faith and gratitude that there are absolute quality professionals out there. The pity is that most people often have to look so hard to find them, often through trial and error.

I’ve thought about why it is such a superior program and one of the main reasons is that all facets are covered in a session, or week typically. Although there is no such thing as a typical workout, there are core elements that are always followed. All sessions have a really strong emphasis on a thorough warm up with a focus on stretching and mobility first, in fact Monday’s sessions are completely devoted to mobility alone, which can be extremely testing and can really work up a sweat. The middle phase of a typical workout focuses on the learning and technical side of getting better at a movement, concentrating on strength development or exercise progression, while still ratcheting up the pace. Then the final phase is often an intense thrash on either a kettlebell or free weight exercise combined with timed blocks on the bike, rower or ski equipment that usually ‘smashes’ you to within an inch of your life. This is mixed in with other sessions where the focus is very much on endurance and getting through a prolonged mental test. There is a balance and purpose to it all and it is cleverly constructed on not just a daily basis but also in terms of longer-term cycles.

There are a number of reasons why I love being part of the group sessions at RPT and can’t see myself stopping it. These include:

• It get’s addictive, especially once you get over a few humps in the beginning and start to see some results or improvements. While I’m a long way from where I want to be fitness-wise, I definitely am leaner, stronger, more flexible and can certainly do things that I either couldn’t do, or do nowhere near as effectively or quickly as I can now, ten months ago.
• You don’t have to think too much if you don’t want to (although I often do, way too much). For most though, you can trust that the workout will attend to all your fitness needs, instead of you having to worry which program to follow or when to do it.
• It just gives me a really good feeling that I don’t have to try and work it out any more for myself, that there are absolutely top quality professionals who are there for you, watching your back and finding new ways for you to improve. There are so many sharks and just cra*py service professionals out there and I’m grateful that I’ve finally stumbled on to some great ones that ‘get it’ and go about it the right way. Some people never get to that point and for mine, it’s another part of the puzzle of life worked out and in control (if I stay the course).
• That I can absorb / immerse myself in something for an hour a day and let off some steam without other distractions or demands pulling at me.
• The camaraderie and the affinity you strike up with other people in the group, from all different walks of life, each with a story to tell, but all sharing in a common goal.
• The attention to detail and the lessons that you learn through these guys, the way they break it down & work blo*dy hard, that often translate into growth in other areas of your life. For example, with learning some of these exercises, there will always be sticking points. Applying this to any field, the more advanced you get, the more your smallest vulnerabilities will be magnified. Moving to advanced levels means diagnosing and fixing the most minute weaknesses.
• A completely changed outlook and perspective on the value of stretching, mobility, movement and recovery.
• An awareness that you don’t need to rely on weights exclusively and that bodyweight workouts can be incredibly tough.
• I’ve gone from someone looking for the quick fix, and being more outcomes focused to someone who really enjoys the process now and have re-assessed and revised my health goals to not be so bothered about how much I weigh and what I can lift, but more so, what I can actually functionally do, and whether I can move flexibly and be free of pain or stiffness, or can keep up well with my son and just remain active and dynamic in both mind and body.
• The way that you are always learning stuff about yourself and your body / training techniques as you yourself evolve. That you can get through testing challenges and grow. That said, there is a great balance as it is constantly rammed home that most of it is not rocket science and that one just needs to keep doing the right things consistently and sticking to it and the results will come over time.

So where can Andrew improve as a trainer?That’s a tough one & who is the best is a very subjective thing. From my own perspective, being someone who has pushed a few wrong buttons with Andrew myself over the journey, there are a few minor, small quibbles in the overall scheme of things such as:

• Personally, I feel he can sometimes be a little too hard and unforgiving (publicly and privately) & I’ve cursed about him more than once and thought ‘you pr*ck’. That said, I’m sure I’ve frustrated him just as much at times myself.
• I appreciate it can be difficult to do this with the dynamics and constraints of a group class, Andrew could perhaps show a little more patience at times if you are not getting the hang of something in class and can at times seemingly judge someone from his own extremely high standards.
• He could lighten up a little more on occasion as I reckon you still can have fun and get results at the same time.
• He would be an even better trainer in my view if he revealed a little more vulnerability at times, and showed a little more ‘light and shade’ as after all there are many ways to ‘skin a cat’ or getting through to clients to effect behavioral change in perhaps more subtle ways and to keep them off guard.
• At times he could have a little more empathy or make allowance for one’s wider circumstances when difficulties crop up in one’s life outside of training that impact on it;

To be honest, I’m nit picking and am trying to write a balanced rather than fawning review here. We all are, what we are and one can’t change their nature to try and appease everyone. Not that Andrew would likely give too much of a damn what anyone thinks of him, from my perspective, the more you get to know him, and when he lets you in that little bit more, the more you like him and respect him. No one is perfect after all. This is his job and he takes it and the business of results very seriously and we should all be grateful for that.

This is a big call, but from my experience over the last 10 months close up, from reading a lot of his articles and having seen various trainers from afar in gyms and other places over the years, and just based on a bit of wisdom I like to think I’ve picked up over the years about life, I would reckon you could make a pretty decent case that Andrew is probably in the top two or three elite trainers in the country. If you are looking for a friend or to worship a guru, to get a little gentle exercise or develop a social network, then Andrew and RPT are probably not for you. However, if you are serious and want to be challenged to get results, to have someone get inside your head, and if you want to be interested and engaged in what you are doing not just physically, but also mentally, and to grow as a person, then look no further than Andrew and the guys at RPT to take you on the journey. I don’t think you will regret it for a moment.

Anyone who knows me or has read much of anything I write knows one thing – I am not a fan of the fitness industry. Despite my entire livelihood coming from working in the fitness industry I do not believe that we are on the right track. When sixty percent of adults in the Western World are overweight or obese, yet the numbers of personal trainers is higher than ever, you’d be hard pressed to say that the fitness industry is actually doing its job and helping make people fitter.

There are numerous problems within the fitness industry but I am going to take aim at one – the direction of the industry is largely given by those who manufacture expensive pieces of equipment and supplements. If you don’t believe me then go to a big fitness convention. There you’ll see that nearly a third of the booths relate to big ticket equipment sales, and another third to supplements, with the final third being actual things that may work. But when two thirds of the representation at an event is based on gadgets and goop, what hope is there of anything of value making it out to the public? And because these money sucking companies are in bed with the groups that are supposed to represent the fitness industry, such as Fitness Australia in our country, you’ll struggle to find any real help if you’re looking to get in shape.

If you roll the clock back about a hundred years to the early 1900s you’d find evidence of these things called Turner Halls. If you look you’ll see something that looks like an old high school gymnasium. You’ll see rings, pommel and vaulting horses, climbing ropes, Indian clubs, and nothing at all that looks like a leg press. “Poor primitive fools” some of you may be thinking to themselves, “They don’t even have a bench press”. Yet gyms like this helped develop the physiques of guys like Sandow, Hackenschmidt, and Saxon – and all without a pec deck, cable crossover, or lat pulldown machine. In fact, it’s only if you track the development of gyms over decades that you start to see the decline. Slowly the floor starts to get filled with more and more stuff, and there’s less and less room to move. Slowly the exercises of choice become ones that require little to no instruction, and it becomes more about how you look than what you can do.

And suddenly our world is filled with obese people stuck in their own bodies, unable to perform basic tasks, just like the people in Wall E.

Coincidence?

As an industry we started to lose people exactly at the time when we told them that they needed technology to stay in shape. That without fancy equipment and access to our million dollar clubs there was no way they could get fitter. And as we started to rely on technology as our sole means to helping people get in shape our skills at actually knowing how to get people in shape have faded away.

The difference between the Turner Halls and our current crop of gyms is simple – we no longer engage people. Sure, there’s some skinny, smarmy sales guy who looks like he’s never worked out in his life telling you how he’s just like you, trying to create rapport and become your friend, but the training itself is boring. Even if you’re the most motivated person in the world if the training isn’t engaging to your brain sooner or later you’ll quit out of boredom. The Turner Halls focus was on physical education, on teaching new movements, enhancing skill, and overall athleticism.

The fitness industry fails because your body is bored.

I’ve fallen prey to this myself. It’s hard not to. Clients come in wanting to train, but their only concept of fitness is what they see on TV with shows like Biggest Loser. (Possibly the worst example of training no matter which version of the show you watch). They want to squat more, they want fast times for WODs – but they don’t want to earn them. Movement quality must come before movement quantity. And for many people their movement education stopped about the same time they entered the school system. Up until age six they were free to run, play, and explore their environment by movement. Then we strapped them into a chair so they could “learn”. We fill their heads with useless information, but we stopped worrying about continuing to teach them how to move effectively. In many cases we outright discourage it. How many times have you heard a parent say that their child is unathletic so they push them towards books, music, or other indoor pursuits instead of realising that by doing so they’re actually making it worse long term? How many of you reading this were told by teachers that you were clumsy or unskilled, and so, out of shame, you stopped trying? How many of you have a Masters degree but you’ve got the movement education of a six year old? The big problem here is that you were six over thirty years ago and the lessons you learnt back then are forgotten.

Fitness will be easy to gain if it’s an enjoyable process, no? But when you walk into a big gym what do you see? Rows and rows of treadmills, usually placed so you can see outside. How funny is that? That they place a piece of equipment that simulates running outside so you can see outside but you can’t actually go outside and run around. If the gym was a woman you know what they’d be called, right?

Fitness professionals are starting to get it. That’s why we see more and more people attending events that we run like the RKC, Integrated Strength, FMS, and many more. A smart gym is actually a big open space that allows freedom of movement. A smart gym is not one that smashes people for the sake of it, but actually educates them and makes them better as human animals that can run, jump, play, and move freely.

The notion of play may seem like it is out of place in a “workout” but it has far more relevance than you’d think. We are designed to be social, interactive, communal creatures. The tribe would gather to hunt together, feast together, and then we’d rehearse how to hunt by playing games, and teaching skills to our younger tribe members. Where has that gone? As my friend Anurag Gill says, “When did it become about keeping people interested? When did it become about using technology as a crutch?” The machine makers know you’re bored – that’s why they put TVs in treadmills in the hope that they can keep you interested. But you’re not. Well, your lizard brain isn’t anyway. It’s bored and ready to slit your wrists if you subject it to one more Pump class with an instructor yelling at you to “feel the burn” at exactly the same point in the sing that every other instructor does. Yes, that’s right, the fitness industry has even dumbed down aerobics – the thing that was already a dumbed down version of dancing – so much that you don’t need to move anymore and nothing an instructor says is in the remotest bit individual. The weird noise you hear as you enter an aerobics room is the collective sigh of despair of everyone’s souls.

People are overweight because the fitness industry has failed. They stopped worrying about your health and fitness and, like all industries, worried only about their profits. While everyone needs to make money, surely at some point you, the consumer, will realise that you’re not getting what you paid for, and demand that they change their business practice to ensure you actually get the service you are paying for?

Movement comes before everything. Especially if you’re past forty. If it’s not already starting to get hard to get up and down from a chair it will be soon. If you don’t have a back that plays up you likely will soon. The way to stop that slow, gradual slide into being immobile is to mobilise now – a pre-emptive strike against old age. You’re old when you make those grandpa noises getting up and down from the ground. But, if you work at it now maybe you avoid it for another decade.

And, maybe, just maybe, the focus on skill, quality of movement will keep you interested enough to actually get you in shape. Hopefully then we can do away with all the phony fitspo pictures on social media, all the hokey slogans and all the falsehoods that the industry relies on to sell you gym memberships (that don’t work). If you are interested, because the training is a moving experience, then you’ll get in shape because you’ll be keen to keep coming back. Not to see how fast you can lift a weight, but so that you can learn the next piece of the puzzle.

And for God’s sake, get off the treadmill.

The new year is almost upon us. For people training hard in big gyms that means that soon you’ll once again be deluged with a swarm of well-meaning neophytes curling in the squat rack and taking up space, ruining your equipment. For about three weeks. At that point many of the newbies will realise that getting in shape is far harder than magazines make it out to be and quickly die out like flies.

But for the rare few who understand that training is a long haul process and actually have the mentality needed to succeed there can be great rewards. The problem is that today’s world isn’t filled with lessons on enduring, or on perseverance but with quick fixes and the need to feel special. Sorry snowflake, there’s nothing unique about you.

Everyone will tell you to set goals – because being successful with your fitness will require some long term planning. But the problem they have is that they’ll fill you with the equivalent of Chinese food – you’ll soon fill empty. Sure, the videos and messages will make you feel empowered and capable but sooner or later you’ll be on your own and have to do the damn work by yourself. All you’ll be left with is the silence of ego as you come face to face with your inability. And right there is where most give up. They settle. They achieve…something…and because they’ve been brought up to believe that a medal for participation is a worthy reward they stop. They stop after losing 5kg when they should lose 10kg. They stop when they achieve a 25 minute 5km, instead of chasing a 20 minute time. Because along the way they’ve realised how much harder they’ll have to work to achieve the real goal. They’ve realised that they’ll have to give up more, work harder, slack off less, and that a life of achieving goals is perhaps the most humbling thing you can try  – because you will spend a large chunk of your life failing at meeting those goals.

Perhaps the best thing you can do to help you achieve your fitness goals for 2014 is to write some warm up goals. Think of them as activation drills for your mind.

Figure out if your goal is a need or a want.Many people say they want to get in better shape, but when it comes down to it they don’t really demonstrate that they do. As an example, let’s say I tell you that I really want to get in better shape, but only go to train twice per week. Do my actions match my words? And so would it be any great surprise when I don’t get in tremendous shape? You see, if that were the case, at some point I settled, I decided that I didn’t want to give up something to get fitter. Whether it be a favourite TV show, drinking alcohol every night, or lavish dinners out with other over eating friends – they all demonstrate the same thing. They all demonstrate that while I want to be in better shape I clearly don’t actually need it. If I needed it, like I need oxygen to breathe, then I would stop at nothing to get in better shape. If your goal is something you need then you will succeed. But if it’s just a vague notion that somehow you’d like a six-pack, in the same vein as you may want a bigger TV, then chances are you’ll fail.

I read this thing recently by another trainer saying that if your trainer didn’t inspire you that you needed to find a new trainer. What a bunch of crap. Unless you’re a billionaire and can afford someone to stand by your side permanently and keep you on track at some point you’re going to need to grow up and stand on your own two feet. You are your inspiration and you are your motivation. If you’re not then what you need falls well outside my set of skills, and what you really need is therapy to get some self-belief. While a good trainer can steer you in the right direction, ultimately it is up to you to walk that path. If you look back at the last point you’ll see how important this is. Without your goal being something that is so important to you it keeps you up at night you will likely never be truly successful. You’ll settle. You’ll fall short. But when you have the inner drive from a goal that is truly worthy, a goal that makes you excited and a little nervous at the same time, then you will find a way to make it happen.

I have three immediate goals for next year. One of them is shared by fellow master RKC Keira Newton – a free standing handstand. I think I am about three to six months away from a solid sixty second hold with good form. To achieve this I will train it daily. some days more than others, but likely an average of an hour a day just for Equilibre work. As  an example I did twenty-one sets of balance work on Friday last week. (After doing about the same number of Monday and Wednesday too). Speaking with Keira today we both realised we were doing just over twenty sets of work, with her hitting twenty-three. I’ve been working at this for nine months now, and was stalled out, but after a week training with Ido Portal and his equally amazing trainers, I have seen the way forward again. Many would settle at this point – not prepared to give up the hour or more a day for the next half year to achieve this goal. But I am more determined than ever to achieve this, and then take another step forward. That next step forward could be anything, but let’s say that it is a one arm handstand. Ido tells me that a one arm handstand will require thirty to sixty sets daily for another three years for most people. And you see again why people never get there – they settle, unable to give up anything to achieve the new goal.

Because if you want to reach your goal in 2014, whatever it is, don’t worry about the goal, but think about what you are prepared to give up to achieve it. If you want to add something to your life then you have to be prepared to give up something else. Are you prepared to give up being slothful in front of the TV? Are you prepared to give up drinking socially with your friends on Friday night so you can get up early to fit two sessions in on Saturday? And not just for a week or two, but forever? Real progress, achieving big goals comes from one thing – perpetual, obsessive dedication. People want to talk about passion. Forget passion. Upgrade to obsession. Bore your friends with your non-stop talk about a single subject. People are scared to put all their cards on the table, to genuinely try hard, just in case they fail. So what if you fail? In the case of my handstand whether I take six weeks or six months or six years to get there doesn’t worry me, because I know that I will end up better off in the long run by simply earnestly chasing something that is a genuine challenge for me. (And personally I couldn’t care less what people think of me. I am the one who has to be pleased when I look in the mirror every day).

So as you write your wish list for 2014, make sure to write down what you’ll give up as well. Because you won’t fit anything new in your life if there’s no space for it. Clear the decks, get rid of the unessential and refuse to settle for half of it.

Train your weaknesses, but fight your strengths. Those words have been said to me more times than I can remember as an aspiring athlete, and now they are often in my head first and foremost when I work with my clients.

The thing about training is that it is supposed to build the body up, to make it better. If we are only making our ego feel justified then we’re not really doing that, are we? Imagine that fitness has four categories, for ease of reference. Let’s call those Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, and Body Composition. There’s obviously more, and some qualities fit in a few of those categories, but this definition will do for now. Let’s say you’re good at one of them as this is pretty typical. Maybe you’re really strong, but carrying some extra pounds, and if you could see your feet you still wouldn’t be able to touch them, and a walk around the block gets you breathing hard and sweating. So what do you do for training? Well, you lift weights of course!

And that’s the problem. It’s hard to constantly work on weaknesses. It’s no fun to do clams, or Ys and Ts, and it certainly won’t get you sweaty or develop a pump. This is especially true if your weakness is body composition related. Training – whether it’s for strength endurance, or flexibility – is “easy”. Easy in the sense that you only need to focus on it for an hour a day or so. But diet is something that is with you 24/ 7 until you hit your goal. There’s no relaxing if you have body composition goals. And eating well is just no fun! At this time of year there are plenty of social events, particularly if you’re in the US. Family gatherings, work parties – it’s a constant stream of potentially poor decisions from now until January for many. So what’s the answer? For our imaginary strong man, it’s go to the gym and lift weights some more.

But does that really address the weakness?

One of the tings about being Australian, yet having been educated globally, is seeing how poorly many Australians behave in the workplace. Turning up late, barely doing the minimum at their job, and deliberately trying to screw employers out of money. Have a think how many times you may have heard something like this, “I didn’t feel like coming in to work yesterday so I took a sick day! High five!”. Yeah, high five to you for being lazy and expecting someone else to do your work. Somehow, in our twisted way of rationalizing things we see that our laziness was us displaying a strength. How is shirking responsibility a strength? And why do we try to portray it as such?

This is a classic example of someone continuing to ignore their weakness – their laziness, or even their dislike for their job – and stick with their strengths, which would be their ability to either lie to the boss about the cause for the day off or their lack of concern for doing the right thing. In the gym this is seen by continuing the high load training and ignoring the fact that their cholesterol is sky high, their waist line bigger than their shoulders, and being so stiff they can’t tie their own shoes up. Who cares what your deadlift is if you die of diabetic complications at fifty?

Of the four elements listed above – Strength, Endurance, Flexibility, and Body Composition – only one is easy. That’s strength. It requires the minimum amount of time expense, and the minimum discomfort. That’s why people attach themselves so strongly to it, and continue just lifting weights when it is clear, even to themselves when they are alone with themselves. The first step in the process has to be recognising and admitting to yourself that you do actually have a weakness and it is time to address it. Allowing your weakness to be perceived as your strength is folly that will only end badly. Whether it’s from overly tight muscles, a heart that doesn’t work well, or high levels of visceral fat and an acidic environment for disease to flourish in, you need to work on these things.

But they’re hard. Having your heart rate elevated for long periods of time is painful. Just ask my clients who entered Spartan Race with me. They were used to hour long sessions, broken up with frequent bouts of rest. But to go long and fast means to endure that feeling of being awful for long periods of time. Mentally that is tough to cope with and breaks many. But the rewards are greater recovery, lower levels of body fat, and a feeling of general well being that can’t be replicated solely through lifting. Likewise, sticking to your diet is tough. The world is filled with delicious temptations and freinds, family, and co-workers who will do their best, whether accidentally or not, to undermine you and ruin it for you.

But address these weaknesses and you will find that not only will you have kept your strength, but you’ll have improved everywhere else too. All round fitness – being lean, strong, mobile, and fit – has an amazing impact on all areas of your life. From your performance at work to your social interactions to your sex life, being truly in good shape has a big impact.

So work those weaknesses. Whether it’s your diet and body composition, or needing to do more aerobic work, get out there and attack them. Be diligent in your practice of the skills necessary to succeed in those areas as you are in your strengths and you’ll find success “easy”.

People like sexy. Marketing departments spend thousands, millions in some cases, making products ooze sex appeal. Hell, you could argue that the entire sports car market is geared towards giving middle aged men some kind of perceived increase in penis size.

For the most part training isn’t sexy. Basic strength training for sets of three to five reps using big lifts isn’t anything that looks sexy. Just the clank of plates against one another, the sounds of exertion, a cloud of chalk, and the smell of sweat. Likewise running for two hours isn’t sexy either. Go out and smash your feet into the ground about thirty thousand times and see just how unsexy that is.

But that’s where the fitness industry, like the tobacco companies, has your best interests at heart. They can come up with ways to make training appealing. Don’t like cardiovascular work? No problem, they’ll design a bike that has a rack for you to prop your magazine on. Or maybe they’ll design a treadmill that comes with it’s own TV built into it. Anything to make it appealing. And they’ll try to make strength training sexy too by making fancy looking machines with pulleys and all kinds of fancy things that look straight out of a science fiction movie.

And in the world of sexy training there’s nothing sexier than “special forces” training. I have to put it in quotes because mostly the people offering this advice clearly have no real idea about the kind of training needed. Having actually been through Commando selection, and spoken with SEALs and some SAS about training I always come back to the same conclusion – no matter how sexy people try to make their so called “spec ops” routine, it usually falls short.

A good case in point is the typical WOD. A standard Crossfit type workout, that you might find at any of the local Crossfit gyms in Moorabbin, Sandringham, Chadstone or Oakleigh, has a strength base and then somewhere between ten and twenty minutes of anaerobic circuit type work. Compare this with what people I know in SEALs and SAS tell me when they say that Crossfit is a horrible base for special operators because of the low volume of work. As I wrote about in this piece I wrote about the kind of volume that a SEAL actually uses in training once you speak to someone truly on the inside you get a feeling for what will work and what won’t.

And this is why WODs don’t work. Look, low rep strength training is a great start. As Mark Divine of SEALFit says, it’ll give you the horsepower, but not the gas tank. This from a guy who favours forty-five minute calisthenic warm ups wearing a weight vest. That alone should tell you something about how highly valued work capacity is. Compare that with the WOD/ HIT mentality where we seek short and sharp workouts then ask yourself how many times you think Mike Mentzer or Greg Glassman ever got dropped in a hot LZ? So who knows better what kind of fitness is more useful, and how to get it?

Let’s look at just one of the Commando barrier tests – the 30km march. Conducted in under five hours wearing pack, webbing, and a rifle. How useful is a ten minute workout for a test that will take five hours? You may start strong, but I can guarantee that if you’ve only got twenty minutes of fitness you are going to really suffer.

But this is where the fitness industry continues its lies. They’ll tell you that whatever new thing they’ve got dreamed up is better than high volume work. Because there’s nothing sexy about telling someone that if they really want to be in special forces shape they should expect to give up their entire weekends to training. I know when I was getting ready for Commando selection I ran daily, swam twice per week, lifted weights two or three times, did body weight circuits another two or three times and would spend at least four hours hiking with a pack on. But telling people the truth isn’t sexy. Think how few takers the serpent in the Garden would have had if he’d said to Adam that the price of taking a bite was being cast out of Eden forever? But he beguiled and enticed Adam – he made it sexy – and it sold. So it is with WODs and even low rep strength plans like Easy Strength. They just don’t work if your goal is a special level of fitness.

Don’t be fooled by sexy fitness marketing. If you want results it must be hammered into place with both high volume and high intensity. That’s where the crazy gains are. Not in starving yourself, thirty minute workouts, and a few “easy” sets. Lift heavy, go long, work hard.

The number one thing that gets people in the gym is to get in better shape. The running joke amongst trainers is that everyone says the same thing. “I want to tone up”. Then we al tear our hair out because we don’t know what you mean and have to kind of guess what that phrase means for you.

My long standing definition of “tone up” is simple. What I perceive people are saying is that they want less body fat and more visible shape to their body. Not in a muscles bulging, veins popping kind of way, but in an athletic and lean kind of way. I’m quite happy that the vogue shape is no longer an over muscled meat head build like was expected in the 80s when the heroes were Arnold and Sly, but a far more athletic look like you’d expect to see at an Olympic Games.

The problem is that most gym centric plans are centered around lifting weights. Well, it’s not a “problem” but it does cause a few other issues. Let’s look at some harsh realities.

Most people eat too much of the wrong foods. Sadly, the only thing the food pyramid has done for our health is to give the world diabetes and make everyone obese. One of the biggest drawbacks on most gym training plans is that they are exactly that – a gym based training plan. It’s great if you’ve got a solid plan for what you do in the gym, but even if you’re a workout maniac your time in the gym will likely only account for five or six total hours for the week. Well, what about the other 162? If you don’t have a plan that takes care of your health for those 162 hours what chance do you have for success when your total time spent focused on training is less than four percent of the week?

One of the problems that comes with eating too much is that most food that people eat is incredibly energy dense. If you were planning to go run a marathon or do some heavy labour that would be fine, however in most cases you are going to need to move a bit to burn off some of that excess energy. Because you know what excess energy is in the body? It’s fat. And while lifting weights can help to build some muscle underneath all that fat the big problem is that even though you might be working hard you’re still just standing still. To get lean you need to move!

Over the last twenty years I’ve learnt a lot about people. Mostly I’ve learnt that the majority of people won’t really work hard unless there is a reason. So let me give you a reason – sign up for a Spartan Race. Here’s why it will help you get in the best shape of your life:

With an actual deadline to get in shape you will put far more pressure on yourself to do the right thing both in and out of the gym.

Spartan stands for – Stamina, Power, Athleticism, Readiness, Tenacity, Attitude, and Nutrition. Note the last one as it makes up far more than fifty percent of your likelihood of successfully getting in bikini shape.

Because you need to cover multiple types of training you will be more likely to enjoy training and actually get in shape. A Spartan Race requires you to be fit, fast and strong. You’re going to run, learn how to handle your body weight better for exercises like rope climbing and getting over walls, crawl under barbed wire and maybe even swim a little. To help that you’re going to lift some heavy weights with big multi joint exercises like the squat and deadlift. All of this means that not only will you add strength, but you’ll also burn a lot of that fat for energy that you’ve got stored on you. And women, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but because you have a slower metabolisms than men, thanks to carrying slightly less muscle, you need more movement, not less. Good thing for you we’re going to be doing all that running.

Athleticism isn’t gained by standing still and lifting weights. There’s a lot of people who have a lot to gain financially by making you believe that all the training you need in life is to lift weights, but that’s simply not true. Just like the Spartans were superior in battle to the part-time fighters they faced who were blacksmiths and painters, real athletes are not built by standing around doing the soft options, but by getting outside and working. The mental toughness and tenacity gained from hard outdoor sessions can’t be matched indoors. And while a treadmill run can work you out, a trail run for the same period of time can leave you feeling refreshed and invigorated. If the purpose of training is to make you better, then surely you should finish sessions feeling energized rather than beaten down? And a good outdoor session will do just that for you.

However, like with all training there are good and bad ways to go about it. The first thing that you should do is find a group that has a qualified Spartan coach, like you’ll find at Read Performance Training. Not only that but all of our coaches know what it is like to enter events like these as well as much bigger events like half and full Ironman races. With experienced coaches in your corner, helping you train for Spartan Race with kettlebells and the right kind of running you’ll be in the best shape of your life.

If you’ve been living under a rock, let me tell you that there’s a new game in town. It’s called Spartan Race. Spartan Race is one of a number of brands of obstacle races worldwide. Here in Australia people may be more familiar with Tough Mudder, but Spartan curb stomps them into submission in my eyes for one very big reason.

It’s a race.

Just like in a real race like a marathon or a triathlon you have a timing chip. So unlike Tough Mudder where the goal is simply to finish, Spartan gives you the added bonus of gloating

rights over your mates.

Our preparation for the Melbourne race began a couple of months ago with regular hill runs out in the Dandenongs. The reasons for this are simple – Spartan Race offers four different length courses to race on. The Sprint is 7km, Super 14km, Beast 21km and Ultra Beast 42km. The Melbourne race was a Super meaning that our team would need to be able to deal with 14km of running. One of the things people misunderstand about these races is that regardless of the obstacles you will still need to run the course. Everyone gets all weird and thinks that if there are twenty obstacles over 14km that you will only ever need to run 700m at once. Well, that ain’t how the folks at Spartan feel about it. I can remember talking to one lady about three weeks before the race and her longest run had been 5km. Not surprisingly we passed her at about the 5km mark while she was walking. Our

regular group run on a Sunday was a 15km hilly loop out in the Dandenongs that would usually take us about two and a half hours.

I am like a kid at a candy store when I get the chance to compete in things, no matter how pedestrian my efforts may be. I just love getting to the start line and testing my training to see what worked and what needed improving. Unlike most of my self-destructive efforts though, this time I’d have clients with me to share the fun. We had a good group of seven, with three staff and four clients. The training leading up to the day had been pretty good, with only a few small niggles from people adding running volume quickly. If I’d had my way we would have had another month to prepare and get them up to speed more slowly, but that’s life. It’s quite common that you will have some kind of issue by the time you actually get to race day, just from all the training. Even at the top level this happens – I remember Randy Couture telling me that he had never fought uninjured in the UFC – but we had gotten through relatively unscathed.

Race day morning comes and despite some great weather in the days leading up to the race, the actual race day was not so nice. As far as I was concerned it just added to the fun, but I wasn’t so sure that everyone would feel the same way. One of the things I like about Spartan is it’s ethos. Spartan stands for Stamina, Power, Athleticism, Readiness, Tenacity, Attitude, Nutrition. The Readiness part refers to a state of mind – the unbreakable mindset. This is not necessarily a zone state, but more a feeling of toughness, that nothing can pull you away from being successful at accomplishing your goal. Therefore, the wetter the better as far as I was concerned. I have to confess that I actually like running in the rain anyway, and take some secret inner bastard pleasure in knowing that it saps other people’s spirits. watching others suffer is always a little bit fun.

Our crew quickly broke into two groups once the race began. We have a few fast guys who took off, with the instructions being to win their heat, while the rest of us stayed and worked together. There were a few stand out moments:

At the first dam we had to swim through one of my shoes came almost completely off my foot. I just sunk in this thick mud as I put my foot in and getting it out was nearly impossible. Lucky I didn’t lose it as this was about ten minutes from the start and would have made the rest very difficult. I salvaged it, hanging off my toes, and swum across the rest of the dam while others walked and then got it back on. From there it was no problem – but I’ll make sure they’re on super tight next time!

One of the obstacles, the Hercules hoist, had 28kg kettlebells for me to be lifted up (20kg for women). That shouldn’t be a problem but they were attached via abseiling ropes which are quite stretchy. You’d pull on the rope and it would stretch and the bell wouldn’t budge. The solution was to almost fall against the rope, using your bodyweight to drag it down and then almost climb up it hand over hand until you were upright and then fall again.

D Ball carry -no, the D doesn’t stand for douche, although many people probably thought so. For men the balls were 55kg and 35kg for women. For people who have never picked up a 55kg ball filled with iron filings, for many it was a big surprise. Happy to say that after smashing that easily I turned around to see fellow RKC Claude Castro, who is also over forty. We then had a great laugh making fun of the X Box generation kids doing burpees who hadn’t been able to cope. Beaten by old man strength!

The big walls that many are scared are no obstacle if you’re in a group. Having had some practice we formed a ladder for people to use – one member stays at the bottom and gives a leg up and they then step on his shoulder to get over. He then gets helped over by the last man over who is waiting on top of the wall to give a hand.

Sandbag carry – The bags weren’t that heavy, although had been made heavier by some rain seeping in, but the loop for the carry was quite long. Up a hill. Because we weren’t in a rush I made no effort to run it, but I think there’s a lot of time to be gained there for next time.

My mother, the toughest woman in the world, volunteered to work for the day. She was in charge of an obstacle called Toblerone, a thing that was like little triangle tunnels. You crawl through them when racing one way, but then loop around and come back to them alter and have to jump over them. She was kind of miffed she didn’t have to hand out any burpee punishments for the day.

The biggest obstacle was the terrain. Skillful use of the land by the organisers made it seem like you were either running uphill or downhill. I can’t remember any point of the course that was actually flat, with quite a lot of uphill work. We’ve already started planning our next race, and realised we need more hills to post faster times. By the end of the 14km everyone’s legs were feeling the effects – certainly more strength runs are needed.

Overall – a great day. We had one of our trainers, Alby Owens, come first in his beginner heat, and two other clients finish top few as well only a couple of minutes behind. All the rest of our group finished midfield – a solid effort for a first time. For a couple of clients this was the hardest and longest thing they’d ever done, as well as the dirtiest. So getting through with just a few bumps and bruises was good.

The main takeaway I had was how unprepared many were. Lots of walking. Lots of people who looked like they could have studied the N part of SPARTAN a bit more (Nutrition for those who have forgotten). Even those who were in decent shape could have improved ab it – like rope climbing. There’s just no reason why people should be turning up at events like this and not know how to climb a rope. Or do a burpee, as many clearly hadn’t been schooled on how to do it properly. Part of me wonders why they sign up for a race with penalties and then ignore the penalties. I mean, if you don’t want that experience then go do Tough Mudder or a road race. But if you want the challenge of the world toughest obstacle race then the choice is Spartan. And if the goal is to be truly ready for Spartan then you’ll need an SGX coach (Spartan Group X). Luckily for everyone at RPT we have one.

One of the things that pops up time and time again in the kettlebell world is the RKC snatch test and how best to train for it. Usually after someone has passed the snatch test they “get it” and stop freaking out about it and greatly reduce the amount of snatching they’re doing. But what if you’re still in the first group? What if you’re still trying to get your numbers so that you can pass the snatch test?

Back when I started using kettlebells the RKC world was all  going bananas over Kenneth Jay’s Viking Warrior Conditioning. For people who don’t know this great book was based on university level research using the kettlebell as a means to increasing Vo2max rather than the usual running, riding or rowing approaches typically seen. The book is really quite a simple plan to follow and the results from the study speak for themselves – if you follow Jay’s approach you will increase Vo2max.

But like with most things people took a good idea and ruined it through poor application. At no point in the book does Kenneth ever mention that you should follow his program as a way to pass the snatch test, yet that’s what people tried to use it for. Let’s look at some of the basic flaws in this premise:

1. The basic plan is set up for men using a 16kg bell, and 12kg for women. For some women that bell may be the same as their snatch test bell, but for men that will be considerably less. The snatch test is usually done with a 24kg for men and a 16kg for women. Like with all things, specificity rules and there’s little point getting used to snatching a 16kg bell if the rules say you need a 24kg.
2. The speed that you snatch at for VWC is set at a minimum of seven reps per fifteen seconds, or just over two seconds per rep. The snatch test is done at a speed of one rep per three seconds. The difference may not sound like much but VWC is done at a pace fifty percent faster than you need to go to do the snatch test. For anything that lasts five minute spacing definitely plays a part. Most people get roughly sixty percent of the reps in half the time, and then need the second half of the test to get the remaining forty percent. Go too fast early on and you’ll certainly pay for it via massive oxygen debt.
3. One of the issues with training at the speed needed for VWC is that many people start snatching poorly, ending their snatch well short of vertical. But at no point in the book does Jay ever tell people to just snatch any old how and disregard form for reps. There’s even a testing protocol to figure out at what weight and how many reps per interval to start at to make sure everything is done correctly. But people started flailing around like an epileptic at a rave and then complaining their snatch technique went to hell. Sorry, but that’s on you. If you aren’t smart enough to snatch with good form and stick to the plan then you have only yourself to blame.

Let’s break this down and look at what should be going on for people wanting to train for a five minute event (or even ten minutes if the goal is the SSST). A five minute event is similar in time to a 1500m row, 1250m ski erg, 100 cal Airdyne if you’re speaking about in the gym fitness tests. If you’re talking about sporting events that take that long then it’s a 400m swim, 1500m run, 3000m ride. To make this easiest to look at, let’s talk about just the 1500m run.

If you were training for a 1500m run would you:

(a) Train exclusively on short distance/ above race paced efforts.

(b) Do only slow/ longer than race distance efforts.

(c) A combination of both fast and slow work, as well as short and longer duration.

Hopefully, you’re smart enough to see that (c) is the correct answer. So why the hell aren’t you doing that for your snatch test preparation when physiologically the way the energy systems are being used is the same? While there is very much a technical element to the snatch test, as there is a technical element in all sports, but the over riding factor in success comes from training the energy systems needed.

My favourite way to get ready for the snatch test is to have a day of heavier work, like snatching a 28kg or 32kg for sets of eight to ten reps per hand, and another day of doing longer sets, but still shorter in duration than the test itself – something like three minutes on for three rounds is perfect here.

Recent research shows that if you were looking to work on the aspects of fitness that would most help in an event that lasted five minutes what you want are two things:

• Short intervals of thirty seconds done at a much higher power output than your race would require. These are ideally thirty seconds in length with a full recovery. A five minute cycle works best here of thirty seconds hard with a four and a half minute recovery.
• Longer intervals of four minutes with a one to one work to rest ratio. These intervals are shown to create maximal levels of lactate and teach the body to better cope with the stress of efforts done at race pace.

Does it seem nearly exactly the same as what I suggested just above? One session of higher weight (i.e. higher power output) and another of longer intervals to teach pacing and lactate tolerance. This is one of the things that always makes me laugh a bit at some of the advice given by certain people in the kettlebell world – they’re not applying critical thinking to the subject at hand. In some cases they’re just big, strong freaks of nature who can do nothing and pass the snatch test. Let’s call them accidentally strong. Because at no point have they actually had a think about what would be the best way to train for a five minute effort. Of course there are differences between running or rowing and snatching, but apart from the technical component you’re still training the exact same energy system for a five minute all out effort doing one as you are the other. It’s about systems, not exercises. So make sure you’ve got the right method for the event, and don’t just blindly start chucking weight around and wonder why you’re not getting anywhere.

There are days when you’re the hammer, and there are others where you’re the nail. Real physical progress requires dealing often with being the nail, coming to terms with it, and returning for the next session eager to try to change that around.

Life in today’s world is soft and easy. Gone are many of the hardships of the middle of the last century. Things our parents struggled with – maybe walking to school in the cold and the rain – are long gone, replaced by over protective parents and an ability to buy just about any modern convenience you wish for on credit. We don’t even have to work hard to buy our possessions now – how sad is that?

As life becomes softer, so do we. The problem is that when it comes to getting in shape nothing has changed. Being fit, strong and resilient still requires hard, consistent effort despite the world not being like that anymore.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen over the last few years has been to isolate oneself in training. Now, bear with me a bit here, but iPods are the work of the Devil. I’m not religious at all, yet I believe this fully. Many years ago I dated a girl whose father was a priest. She explained to me that anything that separated us from our community and isolated us, was the work of the devil. Because the devil doesn’t have to make you evil, only turn you away from God, and anything that isolates you makes you weaker – we are all stronger as a community than we ever will be alone.

But the real problem with iPods is that they stop you from having to motivate yourself. If you are plugged into a permanent source of extrinsic motivation when you train, so that it becomes easier for you, then what happens when you take that motivation away? In many cases what happens is that the voices in their heads are no longer drowned out and when things start to get tough all of a sudden they hear the negative thoughts telling them to slow down, to quit or to give in. A weak mind is the Devil’s Playground opening the way to sloth and gluttony.

This is one of the many reasons why I choose to never allow music in our cave. If you cannot overcome your own inner demons, how will you overcome real stress when confronted with it?

And that’s why I set out to deliberately mess with people when they train with us. Workouts change on the fly to push people past their comfort zones and force them to overcome, improvise and adapt. Challenges are laid out for them that are nearly impossible to beat. Because the first step to overcoming the inner demons, to taking away their playground, is to become much stronger and fitter. As physical fitness and strength increase so does mental toughness. If I can take you from comfortable to so uncomfortable that you want to quit but don’t then every workout after that will be tough, but not as tough as “that” workout. And this is what the Spec Ops community do with their testing protocols. The entire process is designed so that you are taken so far out of your comfort zone they want to see if you”ll succumb to the demons. Commander Dick Couch, a former SEAL team Commander writes:

“It shows you just what you are capable of doing. The guy who has been through Hell Week may say, ‘Boy that was hard, but it wasn’t Hell Week hard”

Developing that kind of calm, even in the face of clear adversity and hardship, requires a calmness that is well beyond many. A thirty minute session won’t teach you this. Neither will sixty minutes (although it will get you closer than thirty). Until you’ve hit bottom there is no way to actually develop this. About a year ago I went for a bike ride. At the time it was November in Australia – you’d expect conditions to be warm. On this particular occasion somehow we ended up riding up a very small mountain that even in winter doesn’t get much snow, and subsequently being snowed on. The complications started for us as we kept climbing to the top of the mountain in the snow while wearing only summer cycling kit. Once there we realised how cold and exposed we were and made the decision to descend quickly to avoid complications. But on the way down we were no longer warmed by the action of climbing, and started getting colder and colder with every minute. After a few minutes of descending both of us were shivering so badly we couldn’t ride in a straight line. Five minutes further down and we couldn’t feel our hands. A few kilometres from the end of the descent I had to leave my partner and go get the car solo as she was unable to continue. It took me nearly fifteen minutes to get to the car and return to her. In her hypothermic state she thought I’d only been gone for five minutes. She was so bad that other riders had stopped to shield her and give her body warmth.

It took two days to recover from a ride that was really not that hard. I remember sitting in a cafe at the bottom of the mountain just eating as much hot food as we could find to try to warm up. We shivered for about six hours after, even though we’d showered and put on dry clothes. My hands took about two weeks to get all feeling back. But the advantage of this ride was that during my preparation for Ironman every other ride was easy in comparison. After being hypothermic and unable to control even the use of my brakes being a little tired after a six hour ride wasn’t such a big deal.

I count myself lucky on that ride. Lucky to have not had more serious repercussions and lucky to have been in the right place to have learned that lesson. But not everyone is that lucky. They’ve not been caught in the snow, wet, cold and wearing only lycra shorts and a T-shirt, and haven’t gone through that kind of baptism. Funnily enough, these people are usually the ones you see plugged into their iPods, being motivated by their tunes, so that they can finish their workout. But that noise they’re adding to their mind is only hurting them in the long run. When the shit really hits the fan you’ll find yourself without music or without any kind of motivation other than what you can summon from within. If you’ve always used a crutch to get by, how will you fare when it’s not there? I would guess that you’ll crumple and fail.

I’ve never seen a tough time in my life that had a pumping soundtrack. There’s no music in the middle of a fight when your opponent is a few points up and seemingly invincible. There’s no soundtrack at the 160km mark of the Ironman bike leg. Nor was there one in the middle of university exams. Ultimately, it’s all you when it counts. Don’t get misled by the Devil into learning to cope using anything other than your own mind. Master the inner voices, learn to quieten them, and you’ll find yourself far more successful, both in the gym and out. Develop that unbreakable mindset and stick to Rule #3.

Through no fault of their own many people fail to really get anywhere with their training. The fault lies squarely with their trainer.

The fitness industry is largely populated with kids who didn’t do very well in school, read far too little, and are dangerously over confident in their own abilities. What this leads to is that old industry stand by of “go hard or go home”. This is a dangerous line to walk for many. There’s no doubt that many could stand to train harder and need a push. However, many actually do train hard and will push themselves again and again and again. Soon the body starts to suffer from real deep fatigue and has to rely on a boost from the adrenal system to accomplish the tasks set out in training. But sooner or later that well runs dry and the client will crash. The result is injury or burn out leading to time needing to be taken away from training.

The reason this can be so difficult to plan for is simple – not everyone you train is at the same point. These days it’s quite common for a trainer to do a majority of their sessions as group training. But the problem there is that some of those people will be training daily, others only twice a week, and all the other options in between. Some of those will be in good shape and display a decent level of strength while others will be beginners who struggle to hold form with even the lightest of weights. And this is where the confusion starts. If you are only training twice per week then each session needs to be all out. There’s no alternative. If you’re relying on two hours of exercise to overcome the damage caused by the other one hundred and sixty-six hours of your week you are going to need to haul ass every single session. At the other end of the spectrum is the client who is training daily. Unless you’re eighteen years old and have a decent athletic history there’s no chance you’re going to be able to sustain hard training every single day.

And that’s one of the biggest issues most people have. Instead of having a week where the intensity of the week waves up and down, they try to make it a flat line, hence training flat. Imagine trying to run your car at redline all the time. How long do you think it would last before it caught fie in an epic meltdown? That’s what your body is doing every time you go to most idiot trainers and they flog you every single session.

Take our week at RPT, as an example. Today we had a few of our Spartan Race crew together and went for a bit of a run. (“A bit of a run” in this case was 15km in the Dandenongs for most of the crew then the three trainers did another lap making 21km). But tomorrow, because everyone will have tired legs, we won’t be doing anything of the sort. One of the things that came up today while we were running, was that one of the guys is starting to get asked a lot of questions by his buddies who are wasting their time at Crossfit. (And before anyone gets all uppity, he competes in surf lifesaving, and until someone can show me a high level surf Ironman who does Crossfit as their main training base I will continue to believe that it is useless as a training method for them). These guys are getting smashed every session – because it’s Crossfit, right? “Our warm up is your workout” and all that hoorah nonsense. These guys are seeing my client training twice daily in some cases and thinking, because they have no other experience outside their own little box, that he also must be getting smashed every session. Not surprisingly they think he is some kind of superman to be able to withstand that kind of workload.

But our week is nothing like that. We had a big day today, so we’re going to have an easy day tomorrow. I’m not going to share our exact training split because if you want to know that you can come and train with us, but old school meatheads will recognise this as the Weider Instinctive Training Principle. What this said was basically tailor your training to how you feel today. There can be problems here – many clients who need the Push will seek to use a lighter weight than they should be, or try to feign fatigue. They’re suffering from laziness. The cure for laziness is a kick in the ass at RPT. But for those who are genuinely tired I’ll drop some of what they should be doing – either volume or load. Otherwise they train flat, and the result is that they perform flat as they struggle to get out of the grips of fatigue. But dropping the overall demand of the session will allow them to freshen up and come back for a harder session tomorrow.

Because that is one of the hardest things for people to grasp – strength training won’t make your muscles hurt like it will if you do higher rep work. Low rep strength work, the kind that is actually what most people should be doing instead of the higher rep (as in ten plus reps per set) nonsense they actually are doing, doesn’t lead to muscle soreness. The body is not under tension for long enough to get really sore. But the CNS fatigue can last a long time. As in about five times longer than any kind of physical fatigue. You won’t feel it, but your CNS can be friend to a crisp, preventing you from being able to really work hard again. At this point a good trainer will recognise the signs and back you off, but an idiot will push again, accuse you of being weak and then wonder why you get hurt. Sound familiar?

That’s our big lesson for today – don’t train flat. Have hard days and easy days. Get to know and understand your body, and respond to what it is telling you to do. This is a long, slow process and will be sped up by having an experienced coach alongside you. You’ve got a coach, don’t you?

Personal training is a weird job. Imagine going to a restaurant, ordering your food and then refusing to eat it when it was served and the waiters and chef standing around urging you to eat it? That’s personal training.

But that’s how PT often is. People pay their money, get out of bed early, meaning they went to bed early too, show up often while it’s still dark outside so they can train, and then…something goes wrong and instead of pushing hard, they turn it into a “client vs trainer” thing. To me, if you go to bed early, get up early, pay your money, and drive to training you clearly display to me that you want to be there. If you didn’t none of that would have happened. It’s not like I turn up to people’s houses early each day, hold a gun against their heads and threaten them with harm if they don’t come to training. Their behavior is clearly all voluntary.

But just like the decision to attend training is voluntary so is the decision to actually train once there. One of the reasons I think so few people really ever get anywhere with their own training is they just won’t push themselves. When the going gets hard they’ll find a way to slow down rather than keep pushing. And that’s where it gets tough as a trainer. There’s a big difference between being a cheer leader, yelling at people for the sake of yelling, and exhorting them to push just a little harder than they currently are. It’s not always an easy line to walk.

Motivation is an incredibly individual thing. Some people respond well to competitive styles of training and the mere thought of a workout that is timed sees them salivating, ready to turn themselves inside out to beat others. Other people respond well to timed workouts not because of competition with others, but as a means of testing themselves – an effort to try to better a previous effort. I’m in this category – I don’t need anyone around me as I love to time trial and test myself against a clock. But competition doesn’t bring out the best in everyone. For some it turns them to water and they crumble.

But everyone at some point is going to need a push. The push can come in a variety of ways. It may be an increase in weight for a particular exercise. It may be a new time goal for a row or run. Often these new suggestions are met with cries of protest. But why did you come train today if your goal isn’t to take a step beyond where you were yesterday?

I often get accused of being elitist in my approach to training. As if having high expectations for people is elitist. The problem seems to be that most people are so accepting of mediocrity and “good enough” that it permeates into the rest of their lives. So when we stand firm on our expectations at RPT – that our sole goal is to make you better than you were when you walked in the door – it probably seems harsh and an impossible standard for many. The thing is that at this point in my career I’m not looking to be a hand-holder, cheer leader or time wasting trainer. If you want to come and work hard then you’ll be welcome. If you come in each day eager to work to make yourself better tomorrow than you are today then you’ll be welcome. But if you’re the kind of person who thinks that training hard is elitist then you’re probably better off going to Fernwood. (And yeah, that’s a diss on Fernwood because I’m yet to meet anyone from that gym chain who has ever gotten into good shape – all because they’re made too comfortable and not pushed).

The most recent comment about elitism came after posting pics of our new signage on Facebook. The sign is me. I’m a forty-two year old with no great athletic achievements. I’m not especially fast, strong, flexible or talented. I’ve never been able to train full time and I haven’t had access to much coaching other than myself. So when someone suggests that a picture of my back is intimidating or elitist it just makes me feel sorry for them, because I’m nothing special. Because they’ve clearly never been pushed. They’ve never willingly gone outside their comfort zone much. And they find seeing someone else do it discomforting. But don’t ever let someone’s opinion like that get to you – wolves don’t worry about the opinion of sheep.

And that’s what will happen if you really push yourself. People will try to bring you down. they’ll make fun of your food choices. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told that my diet is extreme – because fresh fruit and vegetables and good quality meat is extreme apparently. They’ll make fun of you for training so often – because they’re jealous of the changes you’re making in your body and wish they had the same discipline that you do. They’ll tell you that training so hard is dangerous – as opposed to sitting on the couch eating crap? I’ll take my chances with deadlifts and running thanks versus McDonalds and watching TV.

But it all starts with you. Accept that training will be hard. Every time you come in I’m going to try to get a little more out of you than the time before. I’m always going to expect more. Because when I push more, you’ll change more. And that’s why you’re paying me. But don’t turn this into a battle of wills where I urge for more and you resist, thinking you got the better of me. Because you didn’t. It’s you who loses when you won’t push. It’s you who doesn’t lose the weight. It’s you who finishes the week in the same shape you were in at the start of the week. It’s you who wasted all that effort of going to bed early and getting up early. So come train, allow yourself to be pushed and make the most of it. Resistance is futile.

I’m going to be blunt and say a lot of trainers talk a lot of sh$t when it comes to trying to get you to buy their services. No matter the product they’ll tell you that their product will help you achieve your goal – no matter how diverse it may be.

My biggest pet peeve when it comes to lying trainers these days are the whoppers they tell you regarding physical training and endurance events. Firstly, if they haven’t run a a decent marathon, how do they know what it takes to get you over the line in one? I see so many recommendations to work on strength, or that strength is the mother quality, etc., and while it is an important factor of training people there are times when you need to push people in a direction that focuses on helping the client achieve their goal. There comes a point in preparation for an event where long term goals of overall health and wellness need to be put aside and the focus needs to be on event preparation. That means that normally broad training that encompasses many facets of fitness, needs to become singularly focused and narrow. Hey, no one ever said that performance was healthy, or even balanced. For an event like a marathon or an Ironman your entire focus needs to be on endurance and being as fast as possible. Anything else during your event preparation is just a waste of time and energy – trying to set deadlift records during this kind of training just isn’t going to work. Similarly, if you’re training for a power lifting competition deciding to run an hour three times per week is just going to hold you back. It’s all about making sure the training fits the goals – every session you should be asking “Does this move me closer to my goals or further away?”

But what about when your goal is one that is incredibly non-specific, like military recruit training, special forces selection or an event like Spartan Race? Any trainer worth their weight in protein bars will start with the obvious – a needs analysis. Believe it or not, these three are all the same. Even though the military choices are multi-day events you still actually need to train for them in the same way you would for a Spartan Race. Let’s look at similarities:

• They all include running.
• They all include the ability to move your body for lengths of time – requiring strength endurance over maximal strength.
• They all require a tough mindset.
• They require a body that is resilient, robust and able to perform a variety of movements from running to burpees to crawling to climbing.

What we’re looking for when we’re training for our military/ Spartan Race plan is something that covers many bases. We’re not going to use a Vibro Plate or any other gadget that has no great payoff. We want AK-47 results and we want strength, strength endurance, suppleness, resilience and fitness. We need the kettlebell and we need RKC trainers.

The kettelbell allows many things at once – we can work on strength endurance via high rep ballistics with exercises like snatches and clean and jerks. We can work grip strength needed for climbing obstacles with the same exercises and with the addition of heavy farmers walks too. We can strengthen the lower back with exercises like swings and the other hip driven ballistics like cleans and snatches – McGill has done studies on the tonic effect that swings have on the lower back and as anyone who has run distance will tell you that is a crucial area to bullet proof so you can get the miles in. We can also work on shoulder stability which is crucial in protecting shoulders from damage in the event of a fall from obstacles. This can be done with exercises like the get up, press and snatch. Finally, the kettlebell can work in seamlessly with body weight exercises like pull-ups, rope climbing, push ups or burpees. And even better – often you’ll only need one or two kettlebells to get all your training in.

Don’t get carried away with all the strength training and body weight work you’ll be doing. Priority one is still running. You need to be fit and fast and that takes time to develop. If you’re like me and on the wrong side of forty with no real history of running you’re going to need to start  slowly. Running at forty is really different to when you were in high school so take your time. Something like the run/ walk plan in here works really well (and ignore the barefoot part and just use the same plan for normal running).

Secondly, the target needs to be strength endurance, so learn to like high reps. It seems like we’ve gone so far away from sets of ten in the fitness world that people get out of breath if you ask them to do more then five reps. When I hear ridiculous comments like “Anything over three is cardio” I just have to shake my head and wonder how many years it’ll be before that person has a heart attack or develops diabetes. Here’s a sample workout:

Warm up –

10mins Primal Move

Run 1km

Strength –

Ring dips + pull ups for 5 sets of 10 each (use weight as needed).

Single leg deadlifts x 5/5 + Get Ups x 3/3. 5 rounds

Strength endurance –

Snatch/ burpee ladder

Kettlebell snatch x 5/5 + 5 burpees + run 400m

Kettlebell snatch x 10/10 + 10 burpees + run 400m

Kettlebell snatch x 15/15 + 15 burpees + run 400m

Continue adding 5 reps to both snatches and burpees and complete as many rounds as possible in 20mins.

Cool down –

Row 1km + run 1km

If you’re looking for the best in Spartan Race training in Melbourne you need a Spartan Group X trainer. You also need an RKC kettlebell trainer. www.readpt.com has both – aren’t you lucky?

I just want to say first off how grateful I am that there’s so many who are clearly reading my blog. The number of messages and emails I’ve received since writing the SEAL article recently has been great – it’s not always apparent on the internet if people are actually reading your work. If you write a blog and no one reads it, does it still make sense?

The most common question I had was people asking for the exact plan that my SEAL friend uses. Sorry, not going to happen. The main reason for this is simple – it doesn’t apply to the vast majority of people. I mean, with entry requirements like a 100kg squat for ten reps, and his own pull up ability of being able to hit fifty-five strict pull-ups, as well as nail twelve minute planks, do you really think that you’re in that kind of league? And so it’s not what he’s doing now you should be concerned about, but what kind of plan may allow you to build to that in the future.

The main thing I heard from readers though was how older guys should try to plan their training so they can get the most amount of work in. Obviously as you get older things change. And according to all the magazines there’s no way you can keep a high volume of training in your week. Well, that’s not completely true. I;ve found over the last year that I’ve been able to absorb a surprisingly high quantity of training. From twenty plus hour weeks getting ready for Ironman to my current weeks where I often train twice a day, I’ve found that if I pay attention to a few small things that I can still get in some pretty big sessions, and that I am still improving week by week.

One of the main things, that I think often goes unsaid unfortunately, is that I’ve been training regularly since i was ten. That’s over thirty years now with the vast majority of weeks having more than three sessions in them, and with most weeks having at least a session per day, and some with up to three per day. The large volume of base fitness I have allows me to cope with that. There’s no way another forty-year old with no history of training could jump into my training plan. So, if you’re about forty, or even thirty, and looking to start getting in shape then the following isn’t for you. One of the biggest benefits I’ve received from Ironman was a dramatic increase in my aerobic fitness.

One of the biggest mistakes of the modern fitness industry is to tell you that aerobic work is not needed. Nothing could be further from the truth! While sleep and nutrition are the foundations of the performance pyramid, the aerobic system is the thing that underpins all other physical effort. It helps you recover between sets, between sessions and the better your aerobic system is the harder and longer you can work before you begin working anaerobically. For those who don’t understand physiology so well – your anaerobic system is short duration so once you start that process you better hope that you’re finishing soon because you won’t be able to go for long. A year spent predominantly on strengthening my aerobic system has carried over into many benefits for the rest of training.

A quick distinction here about aerobic work – while it is true that after a period of two or more minutes you’ll be starting to work aerobically and sessions that take an hour or more such as running or cycling are largely aerobic in nature, I don’t believe that real endurance work starts until you get out to the ninety minute mark. At that point you’ll start to see all kinds of benefits from better fat utilization and other physical benefits but you’ll also start to develop some great mental benefits too. Need to develop some toughness and discipline? Go on a six-hour ride every weekend for a few weeks. All of a sudden you’ll magically be tougher and those shorter sessions will feel exactly like what they are – exercise snacks that you chew through without any problem. Getting mentally fired up for a five minute snatch test is easy once you’ve put the hammer down and destroyed yourself for hours at a  time.

One of the things about getting older is that you do need to be a little smarter about what you do to your body. Some exercises just won’t make you feel good, no matter how light you take it. By the time you reach forty-plus, if you’ve had an active life you’ve probably got some wear and tear on your body and some exercises will just set them off. For me that includes full lifts from the floor – either clean or snatch – as well as things like heavy front squats or overhead squats. I still do versions of the lifts, like power clean or power snatch but I also tend to just work off blocks. The key point is to find a way to make exercise fit you, not try to cram your issues into an exercise you are ill-suited for. Likewise for me is any type of squatting other than back squats with my lifting shoes on. Every other type of bilateral squat you can name will hurt me in some way other than back squat. Oh, I know front squats are sexy, but they hurt my knees and hips. Back squats in shoes don’t and so most of my big leg work is back squats. I also tend to do all my major lower body work on a single day rather than on two days, or spread on each training day. The reasons are simple. Firstly, it gives my lower body the greatest chance to recover between sessions. Secondly, I run a lot and doing multiple heavy leg sessions per week tires them out too much to run hard. To compensate I push the sled a fair bit and also do a lot of body weight movements like squats and lunges.

The following is my current training plan, as performed last week:

Monday –

1.
Crawl x 1
Brettzel x 5 breaths each side
Side crawl x 1
Armbar x 5 breaths each side
Crab crawl x 1
Plank x 60s
Lateral ape x 1
Cossack x 10 each side
Shrimp walk x 1
Bridge x 5

2.
Crawl x 1
Plank x 60s
Side crawl x 1
Push ups 3 x max (and if possible do a variety of push ups like archer, pseudo planche and regular is a good mix).
Crab crawl x 1
2H swings 3 x 20
Lateral Ape x 1
Get up 5 x 1/1
Handstand holds 3 x 60s

Sled + farmers walks x 3

Tuesday –

Warm up

• Overhead Face the Wall Squat 2 x 5
• Brettzel x 5
• Body weight squats 2 x 10
• Dislocates 2 x 10
• Bridges x 5

Then :

• SLDL 2 x 5/5 + Goblet squat 2 x 5
• Handstand push ups 5/3/2 + pull ups 3 x max

DB KB complex (with 2x24kgs) –

• Snatch 5
• Press 5
• Push press 5
• Jerks 5

Five rounds.

Then:

10mins Airdyne 30:30

Second session, run only:

1.2km easy warm up, 3 x 200m hard/ 200m jog easy, 3 x 400m hard/ 400m jog easy, 1.2km cool down.

Wednesday –

Same warm up as Tuesday, includes everything up to HSPU and pull ups.

Back squat 3 x 5 increasing weight each set.

Leg circuit –

• Step ups using double 16s x 10 each leg
• Sled
• Leg curls with ball x 5 each leg
• Row 250m

Four rounds

Row 2000m at 80%. I did this in 7.51 and my PR is 7.16.4 so ~8mins is “easy” for me.

Second session, run only:

Easy 5km run.

Thursday –

Ride 90mins (10min warm up, then 4 x 15min big gear with 5min recovery, 10min cool down).

Swim – 2km as 20 x 100m.

Friday –

Mostly the same as Tuesday, but with some assistance work on pressing and pull ups – did 3 sets of 10 for both after the heavier sets in the “warm up”.

Then did five rounds of deadlift x 10 + row 250m with an elevation mask on set at 6000ft.

Second session, run only:

5km easy run.

Saturday –

Stretch for thirty minutes, then thirty minutes on handstand practice and core holds.

Sunday –

Trail run, 18km. With 9km done with elevation mask set at 6000ft.

Second session, Bikram yoga. (Only the second time I’ve ever been to Bikram, with the previous time about fifteen years ago. I’ll now be going four times per week, so add another four sessions into the plan above).

And that’s a regular week for me. I still have time to work and I still get everything done. eating and sleeping right are of paramount importance when faced with that kind of load and I listen to my body closely. If something isn’t working for me I replace it immediately with an option that doesn’t hurt me. As my key race gets closer I’ll be adding in body weight circuits after a main strength exercise. The strength format will basically be 5/3/1 with a few small changes (like I don’t believe in single reps for training non-strength athletes). The only assistance work I’ll be doing each day is some body weight strength exercises to help keep my weight down and protect my joints (but no dips on rings because they upset my shoulders).

People need to realise they won’t break if they train more, as long as they are smart and pick exercises and loads they can manage. One of the biggest things about training frequently is that you need to be very smart about listening to your body. It’s no good to hang onto some fabled version of what you think you used to be capable of when your body clearly shows you that it’s not even close to that standard now. We used to have a client who thought he was special. Well, maybe fifteen years ago he was. But when he came to use he couldn’t squat, couldn’t swing, couldn’t do just about anything. And while he had the strength to use heavy weights he didn’t have the form to use them safely. Not only that but his lifestyle was not conducive to working hard consistently and this showed up with him frequently being sick or injured. But as is the case so often in training his ego wouldn’t allow him to reduce the load and pay attention to his body – the result was absolute stagnation of his fitness. As with all things in life this is a delicate balancing act – too little and your body won’t respond. Too much and you’ll get hurt. But if you apply some objective thought to your training about which exercises make you feel better and which just hurt you, as well as what you can realistically fit in, I think you’ll be very surprised with what you can accomplish. Even at forty.

This next post is done with some fear and trepidation. I say this because I know just how silly and misguided many are and how weak their own sense of self-perception really is. I say this because so many people think they’re elite or special, with no actual evidence to back it up.

Recently I was asked if I had some spare time to speak with a Navy SEAL. Due to timing we didn’t even meet face to face, just via skype, and because of the poor connection where I was not even video chat. I could walk past this man in the street and not even recognise him. Although from the conversation that followed I’m pretty sure if I saw him at a gym I’d take a lot of notice. And this leads me to point one – the guys who are actually on the teams and out in the boonies keeping us safe are every bit as special as elite athletes. Not only are they a capable of incredible things physically but they can do them all then jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet, march for a couple of days with little sleep or any kind of optimal nutrition plan then shoot some bad guys dead.

The first thing that stood out in neon when we started speaking was the immense training volume this man goes through. People who read things I write will know that I’ve always been a big advocate of volume for one simple reason – it works. When in doubt, do more. I guarantee you’ll improve.This guy is just back from operations overseas and is working to maintain fitness so he is ready to go again when asked. To reach his fitness goals he is training twice a day most days, splitting up the day so that he does some kind of fitness work (usually running) and then hits strength work later on.

One of my biggest pet peeves with the fitness industry is that people who have no idea what it is like to go on a 48 hour patrol feel like they should tell people how to get in shape for one. I have some news for you – if you are used to only short duration, thirty minute workouts, what do you think will be your body’s reaction to a non-stop 48 hour effort? If volume is the first thing that goes into creating the kind of fitness needed to make a soldier safe, then the second one is the understanding that people need to get out of the mindset of minimalistic training if they plan to work in this field or attempt selection. Fitness, the kind of fitness needed to be successful at these kinds of things, needs to be smashed into place with the hammer of volume. As long as you eat and sleep as much as needed you’ll cope just fine. Yes, you’ll be tired. Yes, you’ll be sore. But your body will adapt and the result will be staggering levels of fitness and strength. When your life and that of your friends and colleagues depends on your ability to stay focused and keep up for extended periods of time your training needs to reflect that. Looking for a minimalist, short duration plan won’t get you in the kind of shape needed to either pass selection or keep your job and stay alive.

Speaking with my friend in black for a bit longer I started to realise just how special he is. We had been talking about Crossfit, and in particular how he and the other older guys (he is late thirties) try to talk the younger, newer guys out of it. Too many torn up hands that impact on weapons handling. Too many sore shoulders from kipping pull ups and bad muscle up attempts. (Not to mention that the workouts are too short, as pointed out above). But then he told me he did Fran as a warm-up to one of his other workouts. In a time of 2.29. For people who aren’t Crossfit aware, a 2.29 is smoking fast. I called him on it and said that I would have thought that if he was telling the young guys not to dit, then posting crazy fast times like that he wasn’t being a good example to his men. And then he told me that he did Fran with strict pull-ups. Now, Fran is 21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups done for time. I’ve never heard of anyone going fast who does strict pull-ups, as all the fast sub-3min times I have seen are by those who use kipping pull-ups. Except this guy. Turns out he can do 55 strict pull-ups, so knocking out 21 in the first round is less than a 50% effort for him.

This kind of leads me back to my first paragraph – if you can’t do 55 strict pull ups, or close to it, you’re not ready to follow this man’s plan, no matter how much you think you’re as fit as a SEAL, or need to train like one. You’re just not that special, own it, and modify accordingly.

For starters, there’s running 4-5 days per week. The optional day often ends up being a row, just to keep some load off his legs. There’s also another day of the week, taken mid-week that has a 5000m row. So for people keeping count he does major cardio every day. It seems that not only is it rule #1 of Zombieland, but if you want to be a SEAL then cardio is a high priority too. But strength plays an equal part and is done four days per week along with two “technique days” where the door kicker does some get ups, handstand push-ups and what you could consider to be movements on these days. One of the things he did mention in particular was that he’s felt a lot better since adding in get ups regularly to his training.

There’s also a lot of core work. I don’t mean he does a few sit ups and a plank for a minute tacked on at the end of a session either. I mean that if you count core work he does it every day. Some days he does over 200 reps including 200 sit ups and some L sit holds for max time. Other days he does get ups between every exercise. He also does really long plank holds. Most of my customers, and most people in general, struggle to hold a plank for a minute. Try 12 minutes. He goes from both arms, to one hand, swaps to the other, then goes back again repeating the sequence for 4 rounds. When you consider that his body needs to stabilise his spine for days at a time while carrying heavy loads this makes a lot of sense. But ask how many people you see with that kind of crazy core stability?

As an example of the extremes of his training, the day he told me about his Fran workout, he actually used that as his warm-up. He then went onto a session involving super sets of dips and get ups, presses and get ups, lateral raises (a shoulder stability complex used by the teams to prehab their shoulders and keep them healthy), some grip work, a 12-15min plank, some extra abdominal work then a big stretch. He likes to work in lots of 5 so most exercises are done for 5 sets. That may not sound so bad, but consider that the day before he ran first thing – averaging 4min/km for 5kms – an easy run for him with an RPE of 6 out of 10. He then chased that down later in the day with some strength work – Power cleans plus row 20 seconds x 5, back squat plus row 20 seconds x 5, bench press plus pull ups plus a get up x 5, dips plus pull ups plus get ups x 5.

After I got done congratulating him on his high level of fitness, work capacity and discipline we spoke for a little bit about what he might be missing. I mentioned that if the amount of hard work he does starts to run him down to replace some of his interval run sessions with longer aerobic runs. I also told him about an observation in one of Pavel’s books that assault teams that spent some time doing swings suffered less hamstring tears. I also mentioned that McGill’s work showed that they had a therapeutic effect on the spine, possibly due to the high rep nature, which allowed them to flush large amounts of blood into the area – a great way to revitalise a back that was likely stiff from carrying heavy loads. I also spoke about some elasticity work – as the body ages it loses it’s ability to be bouncy and produce power quickly. But you can maintain it easily enough with some simple jumping work, even skipping rope is useful, and if you make sure to move in a variety of ways it teaches the body to deal with different landings which is a useful skill if you’re jumping from a plane or running across uneven terrain. Finally we spoke a bit about useful resets for the body such as crawling and rolling, as well as some basic tumbling as part of his warm up. Beyond that, what he is doing is working a treat and the first rule of coaching is don’t mess up the client, so I didn’t try to change anything he is doing.

The big things that stand out for me – he’s got incredible levels of work capacity and strength. Neither of these qualities are built overnight. There’s tons of cardio in there – every day nearly. It always makes me laugh when I see people shun cardio or talk about how strength is the most important thing, yet all evidence from guys like this point to the contrary. Core work is another often missed element. And not in the “I’ll just do a few sit ups at the end of my session…maybe…” kind of way that most do it, nor in the “I lift heavy so I don’t need to do core work at all” kind of way either.

If I were training someone to go through military selection again I’d be right in line with this – high volume, tons of cardio, lots of big lifts and strength work as well as an ample amount of body weight training to make PT beastings no big deal, and tons of core work. As I said before – if you’re not getting the result you want do more. Then do more again. I guarantee that training volume will cure what ails you whether it be lack of fitness, physical weakness or even not having a six-pack.

People are dogmatic. They like black and white. Yes and no, good and bad – they like feeling like they have a single choice to pick from. The problem is that, for many, their education in training is quite limited and they believe that there is only one way forward.

But life isn’t black and white. Life is shades of grey and the blurring of lines between black and white. And when it comes to training there are so many ways to attack various problems that while there are some ways that would be ill advised, there are far more than a single way to address any single situation.

Let’s make this as simple as possible –

Gaining strength generally means you need to work in low rep ranges, take big rests and usually perform exercises well short of either technical or muscular failure.

Gaining size means you need more reps, less rest and may well work to the point of technical or muscular failure. The extra reps equal time under tension which is the prime factor in muscle growth. For many this is a conundrum as they can achieve this with either many low rep sets, or a few higher rep sets. For instance, does it matter whether you do three sets of ten, or ten sets of three if your goal is only to achieve thirty reps? Looking at popular and proven hypertrophy plans from all over the place what you typically see is total reps ranging from twenty-four to as many as one hundred and fifty. While there’s no doubt that the really high rep workouts do lead to big gains in size, they usually tend to be at relatively low loads meaning that there is little strength gain to accompany the size.

When it comes to training with kettlebells there are a few well known guys such as Pavel Tsatsouline, Steve Cotter and Mike Mahler. Pavel, in my mind, stands head and shoulders above the other two in terms of notoriety. What this means is that when people start to use kettlebells they get locked into a particular method of thinking that is dictated by one of Pavel’s books. That’s not all bad. His books have some Grade A quality material and I’ve seen his programs help more people than I can count both in general fitness as well as for things like RKC preparation. But there’s more to life than Power to the People, Rites of Passage or Easy Strength (although that last one could really be attributed to Dan John, which is one of the reasons for the massive amount of flexibility in it, in my mind).

One of my all-time favourite methods of training for both size and strength comes from Charles Poliquin. It combines both single rep strength work as well as hypertrophy work in the five rep range. The system is simple, and here’s an example of how to apply it to the double kettlebell clean and press, while using some old school smarts and pairing it up with a great barbell exercise like the bench press so we can really load up:

Bench Press – 3 sets of 1.

Perform as many warm up sets as needed to get you to your starting weight. Don’t fatigue yourself overly with high rep warm ups. I like a set of 10 with the bar, then 5 at 50%, 3 at 80% and then singles or doubles until I feel I’m close to the weight I need. These are rehearsals for the real singles.

After completing all your singles now do 5 x 5 double kettlebell clean and press.

While that doesn’t seem like a lot, this is week 1. Here’s what it looks like in the following weeks as we add singles in the bench –

Week 2: 4 sets of 1.

Week 3: 5 x 1.

Week 4: 6 x 1.

Week 5: Add 5-10% on your bench and go again, beginning with 3 x 1. You may find you need to go up a size for the kettlebell clean and presses here too.

This routine also works well paired up with pull ups. I like to do all the singles as pull ups and then do the 5 x 5s as rows. Perform this variation twice per week and watch things really grow in a hurry. Your delts and arms will blow up as will your back as you gain some thickness.

My point is this – if you want to gain muscle size with kettlebells it’s more than possible. The really funny thing to me is that what makes muscles grow is time under tension – you need reps to get that – and kettlebells are ideally suited to repetitive movements. Yet somewhere along the line we’ve become told that what we really should be doing with kettlebells is low rep maximal strength work. While they can be good for that a barbell is a much more suitable tool for maximal strength work and is built to handle greater loads – there is a reason why all the big jacked guys use the bar. So if you’re looking to gain size with kettlebells you can – just don’t get sucked into programs that are all about “skinny strength”. Instead look for those that are designed to help you get bigger and will also give you some strength gains.