Some musings form the 2012 Arnold Classic

For those who don't know,
I just returned form the Arnold Classic.
I went with Eric Dawson of TPS who qualified for the Amateur Strongman World Championships.

It was a 2 day event, and the day 1 events were the qualifiers for day 2. Day 1 events were not Eric's strong suits, except the medley.

First event was the log, Eric hit 3 reps, I forget the weight. This placed him in the middle of the pack.

Next was the medley. It consisted of yoke, sandbag and farmers. I think the weights were, as best as I can remember 850 yoke, 250 sandbag, 300 farmers. All for 50 feet. He did this in 34 seconds. Smoking. I think he placed 6th. After 2 events he was in the top 10.

3rd event was the car deadlift at about 800ish, this was not his strong suit, so I told him to be conservative and shoot for 8-9 reps and shut it down. He zeroed on this. This event was his nemesis at the Nationals as well and he worked hard to bring it up.

Final event was the Husafeld stone at around 350-400ish.
Eric set the pace on this and went 179 feet which stood for a while, but was eventually beaten. We had hoped that 2 top 10 finishes would get him to day 2, where the events were his strong suits.

Sadly, Eric did not qualify for day 2, but did do very well, placing 19th or 20th out of the best 56 international amateurs in the world.

There was a ton of talent here. No slouches and the event was very well run.
I am proud of Eric and look forward to him winning next year. It is not an unrealistic expectation.

Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for a video of him, and things that suck at the Arnold.

I got a chance to go to the compound and visit as well as getting a new Metal Jack Bench Shirt.

I also went tot he Lexen meet and saw some great lifting and hung around with Dave and Matt for a while.
Seeing Jeremy Frey and Brian Carroll lift was AMAZING.

If you get a chance to go to a meet where they are lifting, GO.

The Lexen meet was also very well run and might have been one of the best I have been to. They had a on of great lifters.

At the Arnold, they had a ton of douchebags. Seriously, this was without a doubt, the biggest douchefest I have ever seen, they also had some of the most ridiculous fitness gear EVER.
They had a ball bike:

REALLY?

 

 

 



The best part about the ball bike is when I had 6'7" 370 pound Eric get on it and had the guy put him through it's paces all while the guy was asking Eric if he felt the burn. He didn't.

 
The crowd was full of nitwits standing in 25 minute lines for a free sample of anything, most of which did nothing. Everyone wants a magic supplement. 

This is a sample of the crowd.

On an good note, I got to speak with Eddie Coan, the greatest powerlifter EVER, Jesse Burdick,  and saw Jedd Johnson compete at the Mighty Mitts event, and got to hang out with my boy Sean Hyson of Men's Fitness.

I'm working on a video now.

A legend has passed!

It's a sad day in the fitness world, legend Jack LaLane has died.
The younger generation reading this might not know who he was, but those in my age group do. Jack was on television every day for years! I remember watching him as a child. He came up with interesting ways to exercise at home EVERY DAY!
Jack even encouraged the kids who were watching his show to go and get their mom's to exercise along with the show.
He also did a variety of stunts displaying his fitness, including swimming while pulling a boat in his teeth. My kind of guy.
Bow your heads everyone, it's a day we should remember. He was and will be an icon in this industry.

Another great post form Alwyn Cosgrove

Here's a study that might be of interest to you...
Supervised exercise versus non-supervised exercise for reducing weight in obese adults.
Nicolaï SP et al
J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2009 Mar;49(1):85-90.
This research study looked at the effects of training with supervision/instruction (ie a qualified trainer) versus "advice"
Two groups - Group one met a trainer twice a week for 4 months (as a group).
Group two received basic advice to increase physical activity and access to a fully equipped gym (any exercise they did was unsupervised).
The group with supervision lost on average 362% more fat over a 4-month period. (Total fat loss of 13.4lbs in the coached group - and only 3.7lbs in the advice only group)
Interesting side note -they made these improvements without ANY dietary advice given.
This is not a new finding, nor is it that surprising as a good coach or training partner/team can really help with your results. The fact that the group exercised together only served to improve those results further (as social support is one of the key variables in fat loss success) so I'm not sure that the supervision and instruction alone was entirely responsible for the enhanced results - or the social support was part of it. However, it's clear that together it's an unbeatable combination. And perhaps that's one of the reasons why semi-private training seems to get better results than one-on-one training.
You'd also have to assume that there was more instruction in the supervised group as there was more contact with instructors.
Another study came out a few years ago showing that a participant would exercise 30% harder or more (can't remember the exact number) with someone just watching them (i.e. not offering any instruction or encouragement). You can imagine how that could translate into much greater results, when added with a good program, great coaching, great social support and great instruction.
If you are serious about changing your body - hire a coach, or get a great training partner or team to help you. If you're serious about increasing your client's results if you are a trainer or coach - consider running some small group or semi-private options.
--
AC
PS - To pick up our newest DVD - a recorded seminar on "Designing Successful Semi-Private Training Programs" - click here

AlwynCosgrove.com

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From Alwyn Cosgrove

This is re-post from Alwyn Cosgrove's blog. Alwyn is a great friend and a ridiculously smart guy. You should follow his blog too. Don't worry, I'll streal all the good stuff form him and post it here (with credit of course). 

Self limiting Exercise

I was first introduced to the term self-limiting exercise a few years ago while speaking with Gray Cook (we were teaching together at a Perform Better one-day event).
Gray was talking about the book “Born to Run” By Christopher MacDougall and the barefoot running idea.
Running barefoot is what can be classified as a self-limiting exercise – the body cannot over-stride or heel strike because the immediate feedback – pain – auto-corrects the form of the runner. In fact, it is completely self-limiting as there is no way of creating overuse injuries either – the foot and the joint impacts of running will prevent that as you’ll stop running. You can’t do it incorrectly.
It’s a perfect exercise. However – when we introduced the running shoe with padding – we put a problem in there (And thought we were creating a solution).
The body is now no longer given immediate feedback to adjust or correct running form, and the very nature of the thick sole of the shoe can allow runners to perform far more volume than their muscles and joints can handle. The results – inevitable injuries, as exhibited by many strapped up/knee supported runners you see.
It’s an interesting concept and Gray and I discussed it at length as applied to other forms of exercise.
A self-limiting exercise as defined by Gray “requires mindfulness and an awareness of movement, alignment, balance and control. Self-limiting exercise requires engagement”
My further definition is that a self-limiting exercise provides an automatic yet natural obstacle that prevents you from doing it wrong, or doing an excessive volume. I suppose my first exposure to self-limiting exercise was via martial arts training and in particular sparring – if you don’t protect yourself, you get hit – immediate feedback in the form of a punch on the nose!
With speed and agility training – the CHAOS system as devised by Robert Dos Remedios of open-response is self-limiting – athletes are left behind or fall if their technique or direction change isn’t perfect – very different from closed-response (when you know when you’re going to change direction).
But it also applies to traditional exercise. For example – The Turkish Get-up, inverted rows, bottoms-up kettlebell pressing are all self-limiting. It’s hard to do too many bottoms-up presses, you won’t be able to keep the kettlebell in position. With inverted rows – either the core, or the grip strength limits you. And with Turkish get-ups – you’ll either remain stuck to the floor or have a weight drop on your head!
There are more – jump rope can’t be performed incorrectly or to excess, the battling ropes system, the TRX and the stability ball all have built-in corrections or “abort” mechanisms in their very nature.
As I studied the concept of self-limiting exercise more I started to think of it in terms of fat loss training. In fact, self-limiting exercise may be one of the reasons why our fat loss programs at Results Fitness are so successful.
Self-limiting exercise performed in a circuit is essentially training to technical failure, but without the risk of overuse injury or sloppy form – it’s just impossible to do poor, sloppy reps. Yet the energy demands are through the roof. To train with that absolute level of engagement demands so much metabolically, that it can be exhausting and immediate in terms of fat loss results, yet at the same time, being of a low volume due to the auto-correction mechanisms in place.
Anecdotally, I did a recent workout of Turkish Get-ups. I performed a countdown style workout with 60s rest between sets. 5 reps each side, 4 reps, then 3, 2 and finally a single rep.  The last rep took almost as long as the first set of five. The entire workout, including rest periods, took less than 20 minutes and consisted only of 30 total repetitions. It was mentally and physically tough however -almost exhausting. Despite being low in volume, and short - the metabolic demands were off the charts.
Can self-limiting exercise be the future of fat-limiting exercise?
Naturally imposed loads seem to train the weakest links, with a high metabolic cost - naturally!
--?AC
PS - For more on self-limiting exercise – check out Gray Cook’s newest book – Movement – available at Perform Better or Amazon.com

AlwynCosgrove.com