Time for the final chapter of this blog entry. Now many will question what exactly we can learn from these athletes and how this should influence how your own training. Don’t worry I am here to provide the answers; everything will be o.k.

Perform Bodyweight Exercises

 Now I know many people are going to say, “of course everybody does that”, but I feel many people sometimes neglect these basics. Everyone should have pullups, chins, pushups, bodyweight squats, jumps, and other bodyweight movements in their routine. Although gymnasts and sport acrobats are the most prominent examples of utilizing bodyweight exercise; I know that all these athletes include bodyweight training. No matter how big your bench gets, you are never too good for a pushup. Try to include variation in your routines instead of sticking to one style of each movement. Another good tip is to start using bodyweight circuits for your conditioning. It beats the hell out of getting on an eleptical. If you can get some gymnastic rings or ropes to climb then you can have even more fun. You should also try to get down a few gymnastic basics. You don’t need to be able to perform the iron cross but learning how to fall correctly and do a proper forward roll never killed anyone.

No matter how much you lift; you are never too good for bodyweight exercises

Perform Resistance Training a.k.a. lift heavy sh**

 Although I just gone done talking about the benefits of bodyweight training; we also need to talk about getting under the bar. Fitness models, performance coaches, natty bodybuilders, and athletes will all agree; you probaly are not going to attain the athleticism you desire or the physique you want unless you go and lift some heavy weight. One thing that all these athletes have in common is that they can put up impressive numbers in the weight room especially when compared to the rest of the sports world. Being strong for your bodyweight is one of big keys to jumping higher, sprinting faster, and having good muscular/power endurance. Not to mention; it is one the keys to looking better nekid. So unless you are going after someone who only wants to date marathon runners.

For best results; lift heavy weight

Sprint!

 Most of the athletes come from sports that require a lot of sprinting and all of these athletes use sprinting in their training regimes. Sprints will help improve your conditioning, power, and is one of the best fat loss tools available. If you are an athlete make sure a speed day is incorperated into your training and also make sure you use sprints with incomplete rests to reap the conditioning benefits. For fat loss; Thibadeau, Wiggy, Francis and many others agree that few things beat hill sprints and 400 meter sprints.

Few things beat 400 meter sprints for conditioning and fat loss

Perform “Weighted” Conditioning

 PHA, circuit training, lean hybrid muscle training, caveman training, metcon, or whatever you want to call it; it is an valuable conditioning tool in your program. Basically the idea is to perform your conditioning with an weighted object. This can be through barbell complexes, sandbag exercises, sled training, prowler, strongman training, or whatever strikes your fancy. These were probaly most prominently utilized in modern times by catch wrestlers and it is now used by track Olympians, MMA fighters, football players, and a host of other athletes. These exercise will develop your wind as well as your muscular and power endurance. Both of which are not adequately addressed by your typical jogging routine. Not to mention these exercises have no equal for building mental toughness and burning off fat.

Cushing showing the benefits of strongman training

Get tough

 All these sports require a high level of mental toughness. Rugby, AFL, football players, and combat athletes all have to go to war during every game. Gymnast’s and sport acrobatics have to perform crazy stunts that could result in serious injury if they screw up. Strongmen, fitness athletes, and track/field athletes have to go through grueling training to excel in difficult events. In these events their is no in between; you either improved your times since last time or you did not. Conversely fitness plays a role in getting these athletes mentally tough. Fighters have to go through hell in order to make sure they are in shape for a fight. If they don’t then they get the tar beat out of them. Their are few things more intimidating than being too tired too move and having another person ready to punch your face in. Basically go at your workouts as if something was on the line. As if you had to build an armor of muscle to keep yourself from being broken by a football/rugby tackle or as if you had to have the conditioning to go all five rounds. Invest your effort to reap the rewards.

Build Mental Toughness

Hype Up Music: Hush-Fired Up

Quote of the day: “Their is nothing written in stone; except that you must do heavy squats”

Rugby

 Rugby requires a unique blend of speed, power, strength, endurance, and most of all mental toughness. Despite being a professional sport for a relatively short period of time; the athletes seem to make giant steps in terms of athleticism each year. Although actual stats for rugby players sprint and weightlifting numbers are rare due to a lack a publicized test like the NFL combine; South African player Pierre Spies has recorded a deadlifted of 530 lbs, a power clean of 300, a 1.4 meter box jump, and is able to sprint 835 meters before slowing down. This is all while being 244 pounds and being able to continously run for 80 minutes. Add to the fact that most pro rugby players recieve additional training in combat sports and you have a very well-rounded athlete.

Rugger Daniel Conn showin' his game face

Australian Rules Football

Unfortunately few stats are available on the athletes playing Aussie Rules Football. However to be able sprint, tackle, and jump for 80 minutes requires an extreme amount of fitness. They also regularly display high vertical leaps during the games and the mental toughness required to play is astounding. It’s not well-known here in the U.S. so I highly suggest checking out the highlights and matches online to see these athletes in action.

AFL player Ben Cousins

Combat Sports/Martial Arts

 This is sticking a lot of sports into one category but I didn’t want these athletes to make up half of my top ten list. Nevertheless all these athletes require a high amount of power, strength, and endurance. With the sick combination of muscular, power, anaerobic, and aerobic endurance needed to compete in sports such as wrestling and mma; these athletes may be the best conditioned warriors in the sports world. Strength and conditioning expert Jonathan Chaimberg has stated that few athletes can get through the workouts he puts MMA stars such as George St. Pierre and Shane Carwin through. Due to their extremely well-rounded fitness capabilities; combat athletes and martial artist make the list.

Alves vs Hughes:Two Modern Gladiators Engaged in Battle

Track and Field (Power Events)

 By power events; I am referring to the 100-800 meter runners, decathletes, throwers, and jumpers. These guys are strong, fast, and are among the most powerful athletes in sport today. Their sports are completely performance based; you either run faster, jump higher, or throw further or you lose. 2008 Gold medal decathlete Bryan Clay scored a 130.40 on Nike’s Sparq testing system, that is utilized to measure athleticism. Today this is still the highest score ever. For a comparison NFL monster Reggie Bush score a 93.38 on the same test. How exactly Bryan Clay is a relative unknown to the American public while Phelps is a household name still baffles my mind. These are among the most well-rounded athletes in the world. The only questionable attribute is their conditioning and work capacity as most of these events are rather short. However after reading about brutal track and field workouts such as Litvinov sprints; I feel that this may not be a huge issue.

World's Fittest Athlete:Bryan Clay

Fitness Competitions

 By fitness competitions, I am referring to the new breed of sports that attempt to measure fitness. A few example would be the variety of obstacle course competitions spreading across the U.S., Real Deal Challenge, Women’s Tri-Fitness, Crossfit Games, Ninja Warrior, Swedish Athletic Fitness, Muscular Athlete Championship and probaly a boat load more. I see these type of competitions gaining more popularity over the years and hopefully their will be one major assocation to arise. Currently the biggest competitions are the Japanese televised competitions Ninja Warrior and Muscular Athlete Championship. These both have a decent viewership level and are the only ones to regularly attract Olympic Athletes to their competitions. Obviously as a test of fitness these athletes make the top ten list.

Ninja Warrior:One of the few shows I bother to watch on television

Stay tuned for Part three where I show what we can learn from these athletes routines!

 Alright; time for a little fun. First off a typical disclaimer; this blog post is only for fun and is based on my opinion. I know that who is a better athlete is based on the individual and not the sport so please do not leave five hundred comments telling me this. Second I know a lot of you are going to disagree with my opinion. Although I stand firmly behind my opinion simply because it is better than yours, this does not mean I want you to keep your mouth shut like other fitness bloggers may want you to do. If you disagree with my choices; add a comment saying why I am wrong and your choices are right. Keeping your opinions to yourself is stupid and boring, so make like Nike and Just Do It!

Definition of fitness

 First off I am going to establish what standards I am using. If you ask most Americans who the fittest people are, they will typically choose the ones who can run, bike, or swim the longest thus making endurance athletes the top of most of their lists with other sports that involve ridiculous amounts of jogging, such as soccer come in right behind. My definition is closer to the definition put forth by the creators of dynamax balls. I am looking for a balance of strength, power, flexibility, anaerobic/aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, power endurance, explosiveness, agility, mental toughness, and work capacity. Thus making endurance athletes very low on my totem pole of fitness with other athletes placing higher.

For the Average Homeboy

 In these blog posts I am going to look at the training routines of these athletes so we can better understand what we should be doing in our own training routines. However I know many readers will look at this and say “I don’t care about how athletic I am. I just want to be jacked and ripped so girls will hook up with me despite my lack of personality and social skills.” (Just kidding for all those offended) Well this article has something for you too. If you look at all these athletes they have the builds that most guys out their are dying to achieve. During my research for the article I did a quick look at most of the top natural bodybuilding/fitness organizations and the majority of the top athletes come from a background in these sports. Those who started with other sports  typically started their bios with something like this “I was tired of being a skinny xc runner so I picked up lifting and……..”. Point is don’t skip over this even if your goals are purely vanity oriented. Now in no particular order

Gymnasts

Gymnast’s are flexible, strong, and possess amazing control over their bodies. Although weight lifting numbers are hard to find, Christopher Sommer has recorded that  gymnasts he knew and trained can deadlift more than twice their bodyweight without any prior experiences with weights. No clue if this applies across the board but anyone that has tried doing some basic exercises on the gymnastic rings knows how freakishly difficult these movements can be. Obviously muscular endurance has to be extremely high to perform a full routine and Sommer reports of the brutal conditioning sessions gymnasts undergo in many countries. The deadly combination of flexibility, strength, endurance and power get them on the top 10 list.

Gymnast in action

 Sport Acrobats

 I only recently found out about this sport but to say I am impressed would be an understatement. It takes freakish body control, flexibility, strength, and endurance to do these routines. Simply watch some highlights on youtube and it will change your views on what is possible. Despite having some of the goofiest uniforms in sports (to put this in perspective this is coming from someone who spent half of his high school career in a singlet); they are undoubtedly top of the line athletes.

Three words: WTF

Strongman

 Strongmen competitions have been around a while now and have been shown to be one of the most watchable strength sports. Obviously strongmen are strong, however they are also possess many other attributes. Elliot Hulse posted a video a while back showing a strongmen competitor jumping up onto a platform set up to the level of the competitors chin so explosiveness despite no jump training. Strongmen events also require an extremely high level of conditioning, power endurance, and muscular endurnace. Ask anyone who has done a session of tire flips or farmer’s walks and they will tell you that these events will leave you gasping for air. Finally these events make the athletes mentally tough. Competing in events where you flip tires, toss kegs, and pick up giant stones while they are bruising your inner forearms will make anyone feel like a warrior ready to conquer a nation.

Lightweight Strongman: Scott Brengel

Olympic Lifters

  Pound for pound they are among the strongest and most explosive athletes in the world.  A study at the Mexico City Olympic Games showed that Olympic lifters had the highest vertical leaps of all athletes, could beat world class sprinters in a a 30 meter dash, and were the most flexible athletes besides gymnast. Romanian weighlifter Nicu Vlad recorded a 42 inch vertical jump at a bodyweight of 220 pounds with no warm up before the attempt. Combine that with the fact that he can take 200 kg’s and take it off the ground to over his head and you will see why these guys are among the most athletic athletes in the world. Only weakness I could see is endurance and conditioning however no records are out to really test this. However the explosive lifts do provide a solid cardio workout and I would imagine complexes along with sprints are included in most  lifter’s training routines.

Do these pants make my legs look big?

American Football

 I am only talking about certain positions such as running/defensive backs, tight ends, and linebackers when I refer to American Football. However few sports can match the freakiness of these athletes. You will be hard pressed to find other sports in which the athletes are over 200 pounds, lean, running, sub 4.4 40 yard dashes, jumping 40 inches in the air, and lifting heavy weight. Tight End Vernon Davis benched 225 pounds 33 times, had a vertical leap of 42 inches, and had a 4.38 40 yard dash. After this performance the creators of the dictionary eleminated the orginal definition of the word freak from the dictionary and replaced it withVernon Davis’s combine stats. So far Webster has yet to recieve a complaint.

Vernon Davis: NFL Combine Freak

For those of you who are into strength and conditioning; you probaly knew about two awesome events that occurred over the weekend. The first being The World’s Strongest Athlete competition and the second being The Crossfit Games. For those of you who don’t know about these events; google that sh**, come back to read this, and never make that mistake again.

World’s Strongest Athlete

Lessons from Nic Peterson

Most of those who check out the GI Nutrition blogs reguraly probaly know about the man who is probaly our most popular blogger; Nic Peterson. He flew over to New Jersey to compete in the World’s Strongest Athlete competition despite no training in the actual events. On top of this he had a bad month of eating and training right prior to competing against some of the strongest athletes in the country. Most people would have pulled out, pissed their pants, or a combination of the two. However he went out, kicked a**, and finished middle pack among some of the world’s strongest bad asses. Afterwards I was able to talk to him via facebook and he already had was taking note of what he did wrong, how he was going to fix it, and getting himself psyched for next year. Lesson Learned: No being a b****, work hard, kick a**, and most importantly Be Relentless.

Lessons Learned From Pat Cole

I remember watching videos of Pat Cole box squatting 415 pounds on his sixteenth birthday and thinking “Who is that kid?”. Luckily an article was published on Elite FTS  gave me an answer to that question. Pat Cole was a typical skater punk who came into Defranco’s weighing in at a whopping 150 pounds and suffering from motivation problems. Doesn’t sound like the typical kid, walks into gym and wows everyone with his great genetics and natural talent story, because it isn’t. However he dedicated himself  to his training and when he could no longer play football he turned his passion towards training for Shot Put. Today he is no longer the typical tiny skater punk but the winner of the high school division in World’s Strongest Athlete. I believe he is also the first person who wasn’t a football player to place first. Lesson Learned: Screw Genetics and Excuses. Get in the gym and work hard. You will get out what you put in.

Pat Cole: Former Skater-Current Machine

Lessons Learned From The Crossfit Games

If you want to start an argument on a strength and conditioning forum just mention the word Crossfit. Crossfit style programs can either be done well or extremely poorly. Many times it can end up being just a bunch of random exercises thrown together with no rhyme or reason. The smart people will recognize that is not a program for football, basketball, or any sport; in fact it is a sport in itself. I personally take it as a solid gpp program (if done correctly) with fun workouts and  a cool competition system. Like any sport their needs to be solid programming and each year improvements are being made.  The programming is becoming better each year and here are the latest trends.

Strength Bias

 Looking at the programs of the athletes; nearly every single one of them had a strength bias. A lot of people may wonder why this would occur in a sport that focuses on metcon workouts. Here are the reasons. One is that better strength allows for better muscular endurance. A person that can press 250 pounds overhead has a better base to build off from than a person who can only lift 180 pounds over his head in a workout that might include multiple pressing movements with lighter loads. A better bodyweight to strength weight also allows you to jump higher, sprint faster, and move more explosively. Anybody that watched Dhani Jones on the discovery channel saw him do extremely well in sports that he was unfamiliar with. It was because, as Joe D. explained: he built up a big base of strength and then added that power, speed, and conditioning making him a formidable athlete no matter what the sport. Lesson Learned: Get strong with your lifts, perform sprints and jumps, and do some bb complexes and strongman training for conditioning. This is the key to becoming an all-round bamf.

Crossfit meets Westside

 Two examples of solid programming in the crossfit community was the Gant Grimes Hybrid and the Max Effort Black Box. These programs addressed strength seperately rather than hoping that randomized met-cons would help improve it. Recently Louie Simmons started running powerlifting certs for crossfitters and so far it is starting to make a solid impact. Two of the top 10 finishers at the 2010 crossfit games, Matt Chan and Tommy Hackenbbruck ,both utilized the Westside methods. Matt Chan in an recent interview claims he followed the program to a T. The result is that they got bigger, stronger, leaner, and more explosive. They typically would do the Westside program with some sprint work or a heavy/short conditioning sessions afterwards such as strongman movements, sleds, ect. Basically the same thing you see most coaches who adapt Westside for football players do. On their off days they would do the longer metcon sessions. Lessons Learned: Westside Rocks! Lift heavy stuff, sprint, jump, do some strongman or weighted conditioning and you will be an awesome athlete no matter what the sport.

Matt Chan: The Westside Crossfitter

Music for the Strong: Skillet-Hero

“Obsessed is the word the lazy people use to describe the dedicated.”

 Just wanted to give a quick summer update to let everyone know I am still alive. So far this has probaly been the craziest summer of my life. Now things are a bit smoother now that I am getting some form of income but life is still crazy. However I have been able to experience things 90% of people will never experience and if you aren’t out living life then why bother to live in the the first place? Anyways here are some important lessons I learned this summer.

Lessons from PCF

 I had the opportunity this summer to intern at one of the top crossfit gyms in the area. As I have mentioned before I have a strong interest in competing Crossfit competitions so this was extremely beneficial to me. One of the first things I realized was the many aspects of exercise I didn’t know. I had never done any explosive olympic type lifts, anything with gymnastic rings, kipping pullups, ect. My previous experience was mainly Defranco style workout, Rosstraining, and the Crossfit workouts at Mason which did not include most of these movements. Therefore many of my workouts suffered. I now know that I have to dedicate more time to these movements. Second thing I learned is that mobility work is the sh**. Before being introduced to basic mobility drills by Jon; I had always just skipped over any article relating to mobility. After I was quickly diagnosed as being extremely tight during his oly lifting class; I started doing mobility work every day and I have noticed huge gains. Don’t skip over this stuff; it is just as beneficial as the actual lifting and conditioning.

Many Roads to the Same Goal

 Many different styles of training work. Some may work better but in all honesty; it is the effort that is most important. Simply take a look at bodybuilding style training and nutrition. They are the easiest examples to use simply because their training and nutrition is highly publicized. Their are tons of guys with great builds using a different variety of methods. Serge Nubret used high volume body part training, Mike O’ Hearn uses power bodybuilding, Scott Abel has made some solid competitors with an extremely odd exercise colection, Ian Graham bases his training off track and combat athletes, Josh Bunch prepares his athletes with crossfit and the list goes on. Nutritionally we see the same divergance; we got the typical 6 meals a day, intermenient fasting, high protein w/low fat, ketogenic ect. Point is some great competitors have been made using a very wide variety of methods. Are their some methods that are probaly better than others? Most definitely. But assuming your approach is not completely retarded then you will see some results as long as the intensity is there. However knowing some people are reading this and saying “I know several people who work out crazy hard and see no results”; I want to put a disclaimer. One I said they will see some results; obviously getting on a better program will be more beneficial. Two most people do not put that much effort into their training programs. Three 90% of the programs people do these days are really just that retarded.

Just that retarded

 Stuff I am Checking Out

 Right now I am checking out three peoples sites that I wasn’t reading regularly before. I have been looking at Anthony Colpo’s and Martin Berkhan’s sites quite a bit. Anthony Colpo’s perspective is one that I find interesting because he speaks out against the anti-fat community but he is not on the super-fanatical low carb side either. Martin Berkhan is probaly the one I have been paying attention to the most out of the three. He goes against much mainstream advice with his fasting recommendation, he posts pictures of himself drinking beer and devouring cheesecake, he lifts three days a week, his only cardio is walking, and yet he remains freakishly ripped year round. Not only that but his client transformations are freakish. They are getting ripped fast and without the huge energy drain you typically hear about when bodybuilders go on a huge cut. I have been experimenting with his style of dieting recently and I am so far pleased with the results so I am going to continue to give it a test drive. Last website I have been checking out recently is the Adonis Effect. Don’t know too much about what they recommend work out wise but I find their theory on optimal body composition and it’s effects on social status interesting. The one thing I do really enjoy is that they bring in a lot of social lifestyle, and dating coaches into their podcasts which is something I think more people should incorperate into their programs.

He has his cheesecake and eats it too