Monday, April 28, 2008

Do Not Try This....Ever!

The Combat Core DVD Set is Coming!

The official release date is Memorial Day - May 26th!

What you will see in the DVD set are some of the most intense torso training exercises ever filmed! The DVD set is the perfect compliment to the best selling manual and will include over 140 exercises!

Want a sneak peak?

In the DVD, Mike Hanley introduced me to the Progressive Plank with Chains!

Here is the setup:

Have the lifter or athlete setup in a plank. Once stabilized, start adding chains (or sandbags) across their back. We used a total of 6 chains in all! Once all the chains are loaded the timer begins. Every 10 seconds take 1 chain off. Continue on until all the chains are removed. The total time will be 1 minute plus the loading time. Each chain weighed 20 lbs, which means at the highest weight, Mike had 120 lbs of chains on his back! Talk about muscular endurance.

Check out how it all started...

Jim Smith, CSCS
Author, Combat Core

Monday, April 21, 2008

Athletic Performance from a Different Angle

Athletic Performance from a Different Angle

Hey guys, this weekend I had a chance to sit down with my longtime colleague, John Alvino. John is a strength and conditioning specialist and an advisor for Men’s Fitness. I know firsthand that John gets amazing results with the athletes he trains. He is well known in the industry for getting his athletes completely ripped, and stronger than ever. I asked John to tell me a little bit about his fat loss protocol for athletes. Here’s what he had to say:

John, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about fat loss and athletic performance. This is a topic I rarely address with our newsletter because we are typically so focused on building strength, power, agility, flexibility, etc…

Tell me, why is it important for athletes to maintain a lean physique and how can they do it without affecting their performance?

Most athletes want to become leaner to improve their sports performance. Unfortunately, most of the fat loss methods out there actually act as an enemy to athleticism. A typical fat loss program involves eating low calories, which significantly hampers the athlete’s ability to recover. Athletes tend to experience a decrease in performance as well as a lack of energy when they employ these fat loss protocols for too long.

For your body to function optimally, you must take in an adequate amount of nutrients in order to aid in recovery, prevent injury, and keep your immune system healthy. Fat loss training methods tend to completely ignore this fact about the human body. Thus, most fat loss programs end up making you weaker, slower, and less explosive. Moreover, typical fat loss methods actually encourage the fast twitch muscle fibers to take on characteristics of slower twitch fibers (for those of you who don’t know, it is your fast twitch fibers that provide you with explosive strength and quickness). These are very serious consequences to a high level athlete. Fortunately, there is a better way.

My fat loss approach actually encourages more athleticism, more power, and more explosiveness, as well as a higher level of anabolic hormones (testosterone and growth hormone). My athletes find that as they get leaner, their conditioning for their sport actually improves, as does their energy levels. They feel lighter on their feet, yet stronger and even more explosive than they were before. That’s because my program is specifically designed to burn fat while encouraging dexterity, speed, and a maximum maintenance of lean muscle.

I usually have only 12 weeks to train an athlete prior to their returning to camp for pre-season. Although their primary goal is to get stronger and faster, I also like to get them as lean as possible. In the 12 weeks they work with me, it is quite typical that my athletes lose 20 lbs of body fat, and yet they make great gains in their strength, power and conditioning. My athletes excel in the strength and conditioning tests upon returning to camp: exercises such as vertical jump, 40 yard dash, 225-lb for reps on the bench press, power cleans, squats, etc.

Here are a few keys to successful fat loss for an athlete:

Do not lose more 2 lbs per week.

Doing so can result in water loss, lean muscle loss, and rapid glycogen depletion. This is turn causes weakness, loss of endurance, fatigue, reduced mental focus, and increases the athlete’s susceptibility to injury.

Don’t cut carbs too low.

Carbohydrates are an athlete’s primary source of energy. It is essential not to restrict carbohydrates too much for too long. This will directly decrease power output and performance in general.

Emphasize cardiovascular activities that engage fast twitch fibers.

By doing so, you ensure that you will not lose power or lean muscle mass as a result of your cardio training. Also, by training this way, you will actually be better prepared for the rigorous requirements of the training regimen of your particular sport, as well as the demands of the sport itself.

Avoid working out exclusively in the high rep range.

High reps are a common prescription in any fat loss program. The athlete’s perception is usually that a high rep workout is a better and more thorough workout. They sweat more and the workout often feels more taxing; thus, they mistakenly feel that this means they are burning more fat. There is a big price to pay for this misconception.

The truth is that the high rep protocol is yet another reason performance can decrease. The weight that is used is just too light to adequately engage the neuromuscular system. This, in conjunction with the high volume of these workouts, this protocol often contributes to muscle wasting, and causes the athlete to become slower and weaker.

Thanks John – awesome information!

Just so you guys know, Alvino is not the typical “bodybuilding” trainer. All of his fat loss techniques have been refined and perfected on the top level athletes he has trained for the last 7 years.

Check out his program here – Click Here

Smitty
The Diesel Crew

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Combat Core - Sandbag Loaders

Combat Core - Sandbag Loaders

Exercise: Sandbag Loaders

Execution:
Hanging from a pull-up bar the lifter will load a sandbag or medicine ball to a partner or onto a platform. This compound torso building exercise ties in the upper back and lats with the abdominals and hip flexors.

Benefits:
- compound movement incorporating many muscle groups
- support grip strength endurance
- a variety of trunk postures can be executed, not just linear flexion / extension movements
- controlling the extension (eccentric) phase of the movement creates a balance of the musculature surrounding the hip

Increase difficulty by increasing the weight in the sandbag, increasing the required loading height or by decreasing the rigidity of the implement (i.e. slosh ball or water keg).



Check out the most valuable abdominal training resource ever created - Click Here

Jim Smith, CSCS
Author Combat Core

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Combat Core - Reactive Rows

Exercise: Reactive Rows

Benefits:

- improved transverse deceleration of the torso
- improved anti-rotation / bracing of the torso
- improved thoracic mobility
- improved upper body reactivity
- improved grip strength

Modifications:

- Increase weight of DB
- Remove stability points (hand and knee on bench) and perform free standing




You've never seen this level of strength before - don't miss out - Click Here

Jim Smith, CSCS
Author Combat Core

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Dynamic Planks

The Next Level of Core Training - Dynamic Planks

When you think about the most basic abdominal exercise, the first one that pops into your head is probably planks.

Planks are where a person lays out into a push-up position but instead of being on their outstretched hands, they rest on their forearms. In this position, the athlete or lifter will remain for a specific length of time. If the time exceeds one and a half minutes that is considered pretty good.

The benefits of planks include rehabilitating a back injury, glute activation, developing proficiency for bracing the torso with intra-abdominal pressure and an isometric contraction of the abdominals and developing muscular endurance of the muscles that stabilize, support and engage movements of the torso.

But in accordance with the Principle of Overload and the Laws of Chaos, there is a progression for all resistance training means. Progression of an exercise will increase the difficulty, which increases the demand and work capacity of the lifter and in turn, provides more adaptation and benefits.

So what is the next training progression for planks? Here are some of the most common modifications :

  • Raising one foot off the ground (ensure the lifter doesn’t shift to the side to compensate by forcibly firing the glutes and bracing harder
  • Add a weighted vest or back pack
Further unique adaptations can be obtained if we are relentless in our pursuit of our ultimate goal – real world strength. It is this real world strength that is developed not only with fixed, patterned strength training movements, but with random, rapidly adjusted reactive means. This is truer to real life and everyday movements.

Here is the modification that will produce the results we want. The lifter will setup in a conventional plank but with their feet on an elevated box and their forearms on a mini-trampoline.



This is a plank x 10!

This variation is much more difficult to stabilize because as the lifter adjusts, so does the base of support (the trampoline) they are resting on! We can of course increase the difficulty by externally loading the lifter or having them lift one leg, but we want to make this exercise really difficult. By having the lifter raise up onto their hands, more vibration can be achieved.



Now hit a plyometric push-up with the goal of restabilizing and restoring a static posture as quickly as possible. This creates a full body tremor that improves the integrity of the elbows, shoulders and hips.



Now, let's perform a one arm plank on this setup. This requires a greater glute and opposite oblique contraction to counterbalance the movement. The goal is to minimize the hips shifting and remain rigid. This movement can be held for time and increased in difficulty by a partner-assisted agitation.



For a more advanced movement a plyometric push-up can once again be engaged, but this time we will land on one arm.



Not only does this have amazing implications in a rehabilitative setting, but decelerative properties for the torso, back and shoulders as well. Sports that require ballistic upper body expressions (which is essentially all sports) or sports with high incidences of shoulder or hip injuries can benefit from this vibrational environment. The more vibration we can introduce, the more rapid the contractions, primary and antagonistic, of the engaged muscular and the greater stability of the kinetic chain. This creates a balance and teaches the athlete how to stabilize in opposition to random stimuli.

Check out http://www.combatcorestrength.com

Jim Smith, CSCS
Author, Combat Core