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Warm Up:  5+ minutes of cardio….get your head into the game!  Get your body into the game!

Active stretching
Arm swings, leg swings, spinal rotations, hip rolls, knee rolls

Abs:
Lower: hip roll, leg raise, ball raise
Outer:  iron crosses, boat rows
Upper: crunches, sit ups, bicycles

On ball:  crunches, hyperextensions, forearm rolls (crosses), supine crosses,
Supermans.

More core!  Funky push ups, inchworms, bear crawl, stability drills.

Body weight squats, dumbbell squats, lunges, (walking, step backs, 4 directional)
Leg curl on ball

Dumbbell chest press, fly.

Rear delt fly
Side lat raise
Rotator cuff exercises

Seated row, diagonal crosses (high to low, low to high)

Yoga:  sun salutations, hip openers, spinal twisting.

General parameters:  3 times a week every other day with weights.  3 sets of 12-15 repetitions with one minute of recovery between all sets.  Body weight exercises can be done every day.

Cardio should be done 6 days a week, minimum 20 minutes.  The better shape you are in, the better golfer you will be!!

Shopping list:

Boneless/skinless chicken breasts
Eggs
Egg beaters
Flank steak
Salmon
Low fat yogurt
Whey protein
Brown rice (minute)
Cottage cheese (reduced fat)
Natural peanut butter (reduced fat)
Oatmeal
7 grain reduced carb bread
Almonds
Protein plus power bars
Spinach mixed greens
Broccoli (Fresh if possible, frozen ok)
RED, Yellow and Green Peppers
Tomatoes
Onions
All other vegetables you like…the more diversity the better!!
Cantaloupe
Bananas
Apples
whatever other fruit you like the more diversity the better!
Light oil based salad dressing

Let’s think about smaller portion sizes (remember the palm of your hand is a snack 4-6 Ounces)
Let’s think about eating more frequently (if more than 2.5 hours has gone by, you are slowing down your metabolism!)
Let’s realize we need Carbs Earlier in the day for energy, Taper off the startches at night.
Nuts and fruits as snacks
Cook in bulk and freeze stuff….we have microwaves for just such issues!
Spice your food!  Pesto, Red Pepper, Garlic!,

Calories in and calories out…you’ve got to work it off if you want to change the way you look and or feel!

Think about food pairing. Your body works best when food groups are combined. For example:  if you eat;
1/2 a whole wheat bagel with light cream cheese, two eggs cooked in olive oil and a piece of fruit for breakfast, you are including carbs, proteins, and fats.  This is a well balanced meal.

If your mid-morning snack is a protein bar with less than 300 calories you are good, then for lunch you have sliced turkey, tomato and spinach with mustard on rye, with a small salad, vinaigrette dressing you are good.  Did I mention water?! Dinner would be salmon, salad, and brown rice.

How about some more? Tuna sandwiches, chicken or steak burritos (go naked or in a bowl instead of the tortilla).  Start using less cheese, and more salsa…the more color the better . How about eggs everyday…yeah, boil em, scramble em, fry em (that would be in olive oil).  Did I mention water?

Fresh fruit and or vegetables…think fruit in the morning…vegetables at lunch and dinner no fruit or fruit juice after 4 pm.  Did I mention water? How about mixed nuts for a snack…think one handful is a snack, two is a meal.  Eat more fish…salmon is the best.  Did I mention water?  I really like having balance bars around as snacks. Power bar also makes a new product called Protein Plus.

Start eliminating sugary snacks…like soda…and start thinking green tea! Make subtle changes each week, don’t shock the system. Start with adding fresh fruit and vegetables and more water then start eliminating things. Every meal is a chance to change your body. Chew your food with the awareness that each bite is literally re-creating you!!

I’ve been in and around gyms for more than 20 years and nothing drives me more crazy than seeing people utilizing their “work out” time to socialize, tell stories, or generally waste time.  We live in a nation of obesity and disease.  When we go to the gym, we need to start off by walking into the facility with intention.  Acknowledge why you are going to the gym at all.  Ask yourself what your goals are: both long and short term. What do you want to accomplish? How will it be measured?  What is your plan?  Is it a cardio day? An upper body day? A core day? If you “fail to plan, you plan to fail!”.

Bearing this in mind, the next step is to realize that being in the gym is for you and you alone.  It is your time, your body.  Give yourself the respect you deserve!  Now let’s get down to business.  Intensity is where it is at. Period!  We need to keep an eye on the clock all of the time.  Reduce your time between all sets and all exercises to less than one minute.  Buy a heart rate monitor that measures calories.  Statistically “resistance training” burns 450 calories per hour.  Even at 7 days a week, this will not result in losing even a pound of body fat.

STEP IT UP PEOPLE!  I think that you should be burning about 600 calories per hour when training with intensity!  When utilizing a heart rate monitor, keep an eye on your working heart rate during exercise, then see what it is at after one minute of recovery.  Use these numbers as parameters for the rest of your workout.  I like to get up into the 160 range uaring exercise, and try and recover to the 130 range in my prescribed one minute of recovery.  This guarantees intensity!  And Intensity guarantees results!

People, get off your asses, get outside, get some fresh air…move your lazy asses!  Seriously.  The psychological aspect of it is that we are not comfortable outside anymore.  We make mother- nature out to be way more than she is.  We need the right shoes, the right outfit, the right sunscreen…the list goes on.  What we need, is to walk out the door of our house/office, and briskly walk for at least 10 minutes, then turn around and come back.  How hard is it?  When is the last time you actually walked down your own street?  Actually took note of who has the nicest garden.  How about getting away from the office for twenty minutes?  Really, set down your phone, and walk out the door…once you are out there, pick up the pace…like you are running away from the place!  Believe me, you will like this!  Just remember to come back after 20 minutes or so!

I have been a huge advocate of doing cardio 6 days a week.  With 4 of the days simply being tempo (at least 65% of max heart rate…preferably 75-85%) and two of the days being different.  One of the different days should be your interval day.  This will be hands down your hardest workout of the week.  I recommend starting with a 5-7 minute warm up, then going 100%….this is all out effort for one minute, then taking a one minute rest. Make your initial goal to do this 6 times.  Once you have reached 6 times, add an additional minute per week until you are at 12.  Once you have reached 12 X 1 minute sprints, think about increasing your work time or decreasing your recovery time.  The second “different” cardio day is your long slow distance day.  I am a huge fan of this. Especially since I’ve spent more than half my life training and racing endurance sports.  So, your long slow distance day consists of moving aerobically for more than an hour.  Intensity here is not the issue, duration is!  Most people will set aside a weekend day for this.  My day has always been Sundays.  Everyone who knows me knows that I will be on my bike all day Sunday.  And if there is too much snow out, I will be on my snowshoes or skis.  Now, I’ve been doing this stuff for years, so when I say all day, I mean all day.  There is nothing like getting up at 7 am on a Sunday and going to church…the church of the perfect pedal stroke, the perfect circle, the perfect breath.  It is solo time, time alone, time to reflect and breathe, to become intimately familiar with aerobic thresholds and your bodies energy systems.  It is a good time to realize that there is no rush, no time limit, just you and your breath.  I like to ride for 2 to 3 hours, and stop for coffee, or breakfast somewhere….like in the next town.  Then get back on my bike and go for another 4-5 hours.  Sure I keep an eye on my heart rate monitor…but mostly just to see how many calories I’m burning, and what my average heart rate is.

The point is, just get out and move! Establish a ritual, it is your time, and literally, it is your life!  Remember, we are talking about strengthening your heart and lungs….last time I checked, those are the things that keep you alive!

Think about it, when was the last time you were sick or injured?  How many sick days have you had, how much of an impedance is having a sprained ankle, or a cut finger?  Most people take their health for granted until it is taken away from them.  How is it that we can give 40+hours a week to work and commuting and then another God knows how many hours to trying to recover from those 40? But we don’t take any time for ourselves?  For our health, for the very thing that sustains us?

Take out a piece of paper…hell, open up your training diary/log. Don’t have one of those?  Get it together.  Seriously!  We are going back to school here folks, but this is what I have my clients do to wake them up a little bit. Write the number 168 in big bold numbers at the top of the page.  Know what that is?  It’s the number of hours in a week.  Now let’s start allocating time.  You need 8 hours of sleep a day, that’s 56 hours a week.  Now you have 112 hours left.  I know some of you are already being defensive and thinking that somehow you don’t need, or ever get 8 hours of sleep.  Once again, pull your head out of the sand, and allocate this much time for recovery, Period!  Next, let us examine this thing called work.  Yeah, so we all work overtime and have to commute, and life is just miserable….mostly because you are not managing your time!  Then look at your family time.  Your social time.  Your shopping and errand running time.  Now look at your time.  At this point most of you are already in the red and don’t have any other left over time, right?

Now let’s take a minute to prioritize some stuff.  This is the epiphany moment of selfishness that most of us desperately need.  Would you be able to go to work, take care of the family, go shopping etc… if you were sick or injured?  What good is all that time, if YOU are not available and healthy to be part of it?  So, with this attitude, let’s start committing some numbers to paper.  Let’s take our 112 available hours, let’s put our work out time up front.  We need 1.5 hours a day minimum for optimal performance health.  We could get away with as little as 25 minutes a day.  But that is pure maintenance, bare bone, basics…not hard, focused results oriented training that most of us need!  Commit a number to your paper.  How serious are you about your results?  You know that hot bodied fitness model looking creature you see in the coffee shop every morning?  Bet your ass, that he/she is spending at least 1.5 hours a day chiseling that body.  So, let’s say you commit 1 hour a day.  This takes us down to 105 hours that we have left to devote to work, family and other activities.  Yeah, no shit, it’s true.  And most of us bitch about 40+ hour work weeks.  Even if you work 60 hours a week, you would still have 45 hours left over to screw around with.

Now imagine this, you get to see me or one of my trainers how many hours a week?  one, two, three…hell five if you’re super lucky right?  In my mind, that means you have at least 163 hours to screw it up!  When I train someone one day a week, I am trusting that they are doing their homework.  That they are eating correctly, doing their cardio in the right volume and intensity, and that the other days that they are in the weight room, they are pushing themselves as hard as I push them.  Is that realistic?  Think about it, because this is what most of you are asking for.  All the results with none of the time invested.  Check your priorities.  Invest in your self first.  I promise the rest will be much better when you start taking care of number one first!

Once you think you’ve got a handle on this most basic of lifestyle management, please read the “intensity” entry in this same blog column.

Strength and Conditioning basics for MMA fighting:

If you’ve been following this column, you know I am training to fight, as well as working with some of the top up and coming fighters in the Denver area.  I have also had the opportunity to prepare an Olympic wrestling hopeful a few years back.  Based on these experiences, it is apparent to me that the name of the game is ‘energy systems’ manipulation.  If you are going to be on top of your game when it comes time to step into the ring, you not only need to have a solid skill set both on your feet and on the ground, but in my opinion, you have to be the better conditioned athlete.  Conditioning will always give you the upper hand.  When you fatigue, your reaction time and strength both diminish quickly, allowing your opponent to dominate you…regardless of your skill level.  It takes countless hours of training skill sets. Think about how many times a week and for how many years you need to train to become a black belt in any one of the many martial art styles used in the ring.  Now think about how simple it is to commit 3-6 hours a week to conditioning.

I am going to give you the most basic solutions for fight conditioning.  It is easy to get ahead of yourself and think about all of the things you could be doing. But unless you block the time and make the commitment to some good old fashioned suffering each and every week, you are never going to be in the shape you need to be in to fight competitively.  What I am going to lay out today, consists of the most basic foundational movements for fighting, they are all body weight based and require little to no equipment. What they do require is a full mind and body commitment. If you are confused about what that means, please see my blog on “intensity”.
I see a lot of people in the gyms these days trying to do the “300” workout, or doing crazy WOD stuff off of cross fit, or trying to copy Brian Urlacher’s workouts.  It’s funny as hell to me, because the majority of the people I see doing this stuff don’t have the core stability required to do the most basic lifts properly, then they are so out of shape, that they make it through the first set and sit down with their heads in their hands wondering why they are doing what they are doing at all.  Occasionally, I see a well conditioned athlete going through the proper preparatory movements, getting warmed up, mentally and physically, then attacking the exercises and keeping a close eye on his heart rate monitor or stop watch in between every set.  These guys don’t just drip sweat in the gym, the radiate the type of energy that is absolutely necessary for taking your fitness to the next level.  It’s about training with purpose, not just going through the motions.

Here’s what you need; a clock with a second hand, a pull up bar, a dipping station or bench to do dips off of, a heavy bag or jump rope, and if you are on top of it, get your heart rate monitor out and put it on!  Again, since these are all body weight exercises, it is easy to do a couple of “warm up circuits” and work your way into the target zones in the later sets.  Set your circuit up like this:  push up, dip, pull up, leg raise, crunch, body weight squat, heavy bag or jump rope.  The goal of conditioning to fight is to train your body to work as hard as or harder at the end of three minute round than it did in the first minute and furthermore, to be able to make it through at least 5 rounds without gassing!  Over time, we can add much more complex exercises that are much more “sport specific”, but right now, we are working on three to five minute rounds with one minute of recovery between rounds.  This is simple; it mimics what you are doing when you are in the ring.  Think about all the time you’ve spent sparring, grappling, whatever on the clock, and how quickly you find yourself trying to back peddle, or make space so you can catch your breath.  We are going to fix that!  You should be doing this workout at least twice a week, and up to four times!  You should plan on making it a “foundational” or “daily” routine once you get used to it.  By that, I mean, give yourself 6 weeks of practicing it, and then use it as a recovery day session, or for rainy days when you aren’t motivated to get into heavy squatting, power cleaning, and box jumps!

You are going to use the first circuit to determine total time it takes you to complete the circuit, then you are going to try and beat the number of reps and the time on each of the following circuits.  The constants are going to be the exercises, and the one minute of recovery you get between each circuit.  So, here we go:  push ups to fail, then immediately to dips to fail, pull ups to fail, stay hanging on the bar and do leg raises to fail….you can do these however you see fit, I like to start with slightly bent knees and bring my feet all the way up to the bar, once I start swinging, or getting tired, I switch into just throwing high knees, (muy tai style), drop to the floor and bust out 30 bicycles (twisting crunches, opposite knee to opposite elbow), then pop up and jump rope or throw kicks on the bag for 1 minute.  That is your circuit!  Again, this is pretty simple stuff.  The key is to make it sport specific, and to keep your focus on what it is you’re training for.  I see fighters all the time busting out these lame ass push ups with hardly any range of motion, I wonder where their heads are at when they are doing them.  When I’m doing push ups, I think about throwing jabs.  Do I just want to leave my hands out there, or do I want to snap them back to cover up my face?  The answer should be obvious, your push up is essentially practicing a jab, touch your fucking chest to the floor! Dip is the same thing, the last time I checked, when someone is in mount on me, and I want to shrimp out, I need to push there thigh down and away, this is the same motion as a dip…think about it…put it into perspective, and do a full range of motion dip….get your nipple line down to the bar!  How about pull ups?  Think about being in a clinch and not just pulling your chest to the bar, but literally pulling the guys fucking head off as you pull yourself up!  Bicycles, yeah, ever get excited about throwing elbows and knees?  Here is your opportunity to practice….and rumor has it, that it’s the most effective abs exercise we know of!  Body weight squats…keep your chest up, ass down, every watch Rampage Jackson throw somebody on their head?  Yeah, think about that.  Every throw originates from explosive hip drive.  Make it happen!  When you finish with bag work or jump rope, think about what you are training for, how bad do you want it?  Why are you here?  Who is going to be in better shape? You or your opponent? Remember, that there is always someone else out there training harder.  Is it you, or the other guy?

Again, we are trying to mimic your rounds in a fight, so keep your rest to a strict minute. PERIOD!  This is what will get you results. Once you get through two or three rounds of this, it is going to be all too easy to mentally surrender, and want to take a longer recovery time.  This is where you lose the fight.  You are not training to be comfortable, fighting and competing is not comfortable.  Train to be mentally and physically tough.  When you are recovering, take a sip of water, and work on breathing in through your nose, and out through your mouth, try and lengthen your exhalations, as this will allow your body to push out the built up CO2 in your system and recover much faster.  Write down how many reps you got on each exercise so you can try and beat it on the next round!  Work up to 5 total rounds and repeat for 6 weeks.  Take note of how much easier it is to look your sparring partner in the face and know you are going to dominate him in every round because you are not going to gas out!