Crossfit?

I don't know if any of you have heard of crossfit training, but it is generating a considerable buzz on the interernet as well as in the fitness community. I checked out the crossfit website today. They have some good ideas and they are doing some intense training. They definetly mastered the overload principle.
Lets take a second and think about what we aretrying to accomplish through our training. Will I loose weight and build muscle at the same time? Sure, you will lose weight from increaseing your heart in their program desings. In the crossfit style of training you will build lean muscle, which is what we all want. These are positives to crossfit training.
As an athlete, will I get bigger, faster, & stonger? No. Unless you are taking in 10,000 calories a day it will be difficult for you to gain the weight you are looking for.
The key to becoming faster is to train the fast twitch fibers at 100% effort. The crossfit way of doing exercises with reps in the 50, 100, 200 range will not train the muscle to be explosive. Fast twitch fibers have to have recovery in between sets to allow them maximum explosion for the next set.
Over time you can gain strength from the crossfit design. As you condition yourself your body will be able to do more weight. You will not reach your full potential strength or power.
My reasoning behind this blog. I recently performed the combat test for the Brentwood Fire Department. While at the test site I met a guy who told me he just recieved his "crosscit certification." He then informed me his time on the combat test was the fastest until I did my test. He wanted to know what I did for training. I told him how and why I train. My method resulted in a time of 1:54; his crossfit training got him a time of 2:04.
My point is, I train for told body strength, power, & endurance. Crossfit trained him for muslce endurance.
Like I said, what do you want from your training?
Stay Strong
Matt Holder, M.S. CSCS

That Time of Year

Its that time of year 70 degrees sunshine it doesn't get any better than this. This means it is time to get outside. Leave the gym behind and train in the fresh air. I like to take my kettlebells and a sandbag to the park by my house and go at it on the playground. No rules or guidelines. No rep set sequence, just hard nose kisck @$$ work.
This type of training can be great for those of us who have little time. Within twenty minuets you can be out of breath fully pumped from head to toe. The playground offers lots of different options. Monkey bars for pull-ups, mixed in with presses with the bag or bell. Squats, lunges, or swings for the lower body. I'm sure if you look you can find a place for push ups and dips. Use your imagination when on the playground.
Just being outside makes you feel good. It puts a smile on your face gives you a little boost and changes up a borring routine.
Yesterday before my son's baseball game I took my 45lb sandbag to the park where the high school football team plays. With the bag on my back I ran stadium stairs. When I reached the top I would do 1 arm press, and then the next time up I did 1 arm row. At the bottom over head squat with some sit ups on the bleechers. I trained for about 30 min, it didn't take very long to recieve a whole body work out.
Don't be scared to try something new. Get out of the routine you have done for the past five years and get into the sunshine. Trust me you will benefit from it. If you don't have a sandbag or kettlebell go anyways. You can still run, do pull ups, push ups, body wieght calesthenics, what ever.
Those of you who are reading my blog let me know what you think so far. What do you like and what do you not like? Have you tried any thing I have posted? How did it go?
Stay Strong
Matt Holder, M.S. CSCS

Who I am!

My first blog, where do I begin? Lets start with what I want to accomplish. My goal is to build a platform for me to share my experiences as a strength & conditioning profesional. I am a private strength coach. Not a personal trainer! A personal trainer is the skinny kid who follows you around holding a clip board while you use a machine. I do not use machines, because they do the majority of the work for you. Why train from a stationary position? In the real world do we ever perform any type of movement from a stationary position? I teach people how to use thier bodies the way it is designed to work. I came up in the iron game doing the same bodybuilding routine that everybody does for many years. I got tired of monday chest day, tuesday legs, etc. Also, lets be honest, who has time to spend two hours in the gym five days a week to working a different body part each day? Not me. I needed a way to train my whole body in a short time period two or three days a week. I say two or three days, but the truth is I train when ever I can. Maybe three days this week, one next week, or whatever.What kind of workout do you do? I get this question on a regular basis. I can't put it in a catagory. All I can say is I train hard whenever I can.
I worked last summer with the Vanderbilt Universtiy Strength & Conditioning department coaching the football team. What I learned changed my thought on training forever. First, Coach Sisk, Coach Teeple, & Coach Turner are great guys to work with. They treated me better than any other training facility I have worked in. They introduced me to kettlebell training. What is a kettleball? Basicly it is a cannonball with a handle. The kettlebell is the single greatest training tool I have ever used. I will further explain and show pics of my clients working with the bell in the future.
After training with the kettbell I started to look for other outside the box training modalities. Giant tires, sledge hammers, sand bags, body wieght calisthenics, and any other way I could think of to train I did it. Man can I notice a differnce in how I feel and look from this non-tradional style of training. My overall total body strength has truely benefited from what I like to call homegrown training. Clients who have been with me for some time also have noticed their strength levels increase. MY clients and I do what the majority of people do not want to do. Push ourselfs to the absolute limit and then go a little further.
Continue to check my blog periodically as I add pictures and training tips to benefit your training.
Matt Holder, M. S. CSCS

Point Proven

If you have been reading my blogs you know I am testing for the fire department in a week. My best friends little brother is a firefighter and he has been helping me prepare for the physical test. On saturday we met at the local high school where I got my first taste of the test. Before I made it to the end my legs were burning and I was breathing heavy. I like to think I am in good shape, but I quickly found out I am not in the shape I need to be in for this test.
Because of how I train on a regular basis I finished the course and recieved a respectable time. Another guy came with us to practice for the test. He is your typical gym rat, performing your typical routine, he was unable to finish the course.
The biggest reason he did not finish wasn't because he is week or out of shape. He has good size and is strong in the weight room, but it ends their. He did not posses the real world strength and mental attitude required to finish the fire fighting test. His exact words "I thought I had been doin good in the gym, but I come out here and its not the same. This is when I decided to tell him why he strugled and how I can help.
People ask me all the time what kind of work out do you do? I tell them I train my body to work the way it was dedigned to work, and I do the same for my clients. It is not for everybody! My style of training is for the individual who is tough minded, self motivated, and willing to put blood sweat & tears into it. My dad always told me if it was easy everybody would do it.
The gym rat is supposed to be calling me to set up so time to train. I hope he does, so I can open his eyes and change his world.
Stay strong
Matt Holder, M.S. CSCS

Sand Bag Training

The other day I was training with my 80lb sand bag. Sand bags are great for training the entire body. It is heavy (great for strength), and it is unstable (forces you to be stable through out your body). Sand bags can also be used for conditioning purposes as well.
I use them a lot for both strength and conditioning. The video shows me performing the first exercise combonation in a three combo series. It breaks down like this.
Sand bag 1a) SB burpee w/ clean & press 3x10 1b) SB Swing 3x10 I used the SB to do the swing it worked pretty good, but I think next time I will use my KB
2a) SB back squat 3x10 2b) Any ABS exercise with the bag on your chest
3a) SB Rev. lunge 3x6 each leg 3b) SB Snatch 3x10
4) pull-ups MAX
Try this out and let me know how it works for you.
Stay Strong
Matt Holder, M.S. CSCS