Resolve

John is in round 11 of "The Twelve Rounds of Christmas."
He is exhausted, frustrated, and feeling like he's gonna break...
and two seconds after this picture was taken,
he picked up the bar and kept going.
This is what I'm talking about!

Fitness means different things to different people, and you can read how we define it at QuantumFit here. However, as in many human endeavors, what seems like the most important parameter to one person isn't to another, especially if you're in a competitive sport. We care as much about our mile time as we do our Deadlift, but a competitive Powerlifter doesn't give a crap about his mile time; he or she would need to sacrifice that aspect of overall fitness in order to maximize development in another area.  Now, our view is that if you want overall, lifelong fitness this is not the way to go... but our opinion probably won't change that Powerlifter's mind, and that would be their choice to make. They'll define fitness based upon their goals and passion, and (hopefully) strive to be the best they can possibly be.

What I'm getting at is that, depending upon your specific goals, you may have a path different from ours to "fitness." If you want to maximize your overall fitness, the method we use is excellent. Honestly, there are similar methods out there which could get you good results, too, though they may be more efficient at one aspect and less at others. If you were a competitive athlete, your sport might require you to train in a completely different fashion.

Even with all this, there are some constants; if your training is going to require you to do a Back Squat, you need to learn how to do it properly. If your sport requires you to work in short, intense bursts of activity (as the majority of sports do), then you'd better train along that model or you'll find your body underprepared for the demands you'll be placing upon it.

However you're training, though... however you define fitness and whatever path you take to reach the goal, one thing is a constant.

Resolve.

You must be resolved to reach your goals, and be resolved to the very hard work you're going to have to do to get there. Despite all the times we've heard the phrase "there is no magic pill" in the context of fitness training, still most people seek after it... and it's just not there. There is very little I can think of which feels better than feeling fit. I mean, really feeling fit; not just knowing that you workout regularly and are in shape, but specifically that feeling you get when you've just lifted more weight for a Squat, Deadlift, Press, or whatever, than you ever have before and, better yet, someone in the gym is thoroughly impressed with your strength. Or that feeling when you've just run an 800m faster than you've ever done it before and, better yet, you crossed the finish line ahead of someone who used to outrun you. These are the feelings which make people fall in love with the work it takes to be fit.

Resolve is key. Yeah, some days suck; you don't feel well, you're tired... and when you do tackle the workout, your time isn't as good as your last performance was, or you miss your target weight in your lift. It happens. We have bad days... and you must be resolved to keep going. Don't let yourself get discouraged; if you're working, you're making progress. Always be moving forward! Because, those days you don't reach the immediate goal, you've still taken steps toward the overall goal; becoming as fit as you can be, however you're defining it.

There are a lot of ways to make the journey to elite personal fitness a little easier. Have a coach to guide you (pick me! pick me!)... learning the proper way to execute training movements is essential. Also, have a support community; the folks you train with are a huge help in keeping you focused and motivated! You can get advice on nutrition, recovery, ways to keep training fresh... there are plenty of resources.

But in the end, the work is yours to do, and you've got to be resolved to making it happen. No matter how much it sucks at times, or how impossible reaching your goal of becoming optimally fit seems, I swear to you it isn't.


Everyone can maximize their fitness level, everyone can achieve elite personal fitness, and while one person may ultimately be stronger or faster than another, I guarantee you that the level of personal fitness you can reach will amaze you! And when you start breaking your personal records, and when you've lifted more weight, run faster, jumped higher, been leaner, and felt stronger than you've ever felt before... all that hard work will suddenly have been worth it!

Then, a funny thing will happen... many of the things which sucked before, which made you cringe, and made you think about just skipping your workout... you'll suddenly look forward to those challenges, and that's when you'll be addicted to the life-long pursuit of fitness!

So, when you go to the gym it's no big deal if you forget your stopwatch, or your training log, or your bottle of water... but never come to the gym without your resolve. It is the most important element of training there is.

If you're ready to make your resolution, make it stick! Get involved in our Resolve 2011 Contest!

Cold Weather Running

How much does this suck?

I'll be up front about this: running in the cold sucks. I mean, completely. It was 6 degrees this morning, and there's just little to no chance of me going out for a run in weather like that, unless maybe my defenses were breached and I'm trying to survive one more day of the Zombie Apocalypse.

I tend not to make my athletes run in winter much, for a few reasons; our available road surfaces and parking lot aren't usually well cleared, there's nothing in it we can't get doing other things except practicing running form itself, and since I avoid it at all costs myself I'd feel a little cruddy about making them do it.

But, is it actually problematic? Is there any health detriment to running in the cold? Obviously, there's nothing catastrophically problematic as folks do it all the time and they're not dropping like flies. As far as your lungs go, there seems to be a real chance of increase in the occurrence and severity of exercise-induced asthma, but no actual damage (unless it's really cold. Safety tip: don't jog around the block if you live at McMurdo Station). If you're asthmatic and it's not well controlled, or you're prone to exercise-induced asthma, or both, explore cold weather running with prudence.

As mentioned in this article at Runner's World, "you should be far more concerned about your exteriors than your interiors." But prudent selection of cold-weather clothing will make cold weather running safe as houses. Possibly an asthmatic house, but a pretty safe one.

I still don't do it much, though.


Depending on the intensity, distance, terrain, and time interval(s) involved in your running program you can elicit a pretty wide range of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and metabolic pathway responses. However, there's nothing in running you can't get by engaging in other activities except, as mentioned above, practice in the mechanics of the activity itself.


During the cold months, there are plenty of substitutes to engage in; rope jumping, rowing, various combinations of bodyweight exercises or light-weight/high-rep movements (such as Wallballs or Sumo-Deadlift High-Pulls, Kettlebell Swings, etc). And all of these movements work across a range of time domains almost as broad as running does, with the exception of very low-intensity, long distance running. These are the kinds of things we do, and then when it gets back to being  at least 50 degrees running starts popping up again in the programming.


So, if you're inclined to bundle up and clock up the mileage this winter, go for it! However, if you want to find other metcon options and save the running for more temperate weather, that's OK too. Some will tell you that suffering through a cold weather run is somehow good for the soul, but I think they're masochists. :)

The Burpee

THE BURPEE

There is probably no body-weight exercise which recruits more of your body's resources for a single rep than the Burpee. There is also (probably) no body-weight exercise which inspires more groaning, cursing-of-the-coach's-name, or dread than the Burpee. This of course merely serves to underscore its effectiveness as a training movement, because if it didn't totally suck to execute, it wouldn't be worth doing, would it?

There are numerous online resources which show you how to execute a Burpee properly; some of these are excellent and some are terrible. Anyone reading this blog has probably already done many hundreds 'neath my watchful eye, and if you haven't yet and aren't sure whether the tutorial video you just Googled is a good one (you haven't Googled "burpee tutorial video" yet? Go ahead, I'll wait... OK, good.) come on in and I'll teach you. I can say that the first few hits you just got are some interesting variations...

One thing is for certain; the burpee is tough to do quickly, because there are at least 3 full-body-length ranges of motion to move through! One tip to improve your 150 Burpees time is to skip the second position pictured above; if you have the coordination and strength for it, you can drop directly into the top of the Push-Up from the standing position.

Here are some fun variants of the Burpee:

• Long-Jump Burpee: the athlete jumps forward, not upward.
• Tuck-Jump Burpee: the athlete pulls his knees (tucks) to his chest while jumping.
• Jump-Over Burpee: the athlete jumps over an obstacle between burpees.
• Box-Jump Burpee: the athlete jumps onto a box, rather than straight up and down.
• One-Armed Burpee: the athlete uses only one arm for the whole exercise including the pushup.
• Dumbbell Burpee: the athlete holds a pair of dumbbells while performing the exercise.
• Parkour Burpee: following one burpee on the ground, the athlete jumps upon a table and performs the second burpee on the table, then jumps back to the initial position
• Hindu Push-Up Burpee: instead of a regular push up, do a hindu push up
• Pull-Up Burpee: Combine a pull-up with the jump or do a pull-up instead of the jump.
• Muscle-Up Burpee: Combine a muscle-up with the jump or do a muscle-up instead of the jump.
• Double Burpee: Instead of one pushup do two in a row to cancel the drive from landing after the jump and to make the next jump harder. Each part of the burpee might be repeated to make it even harder.

If you're not up to those yet, or indeed even a standard Burpee, you can scale it in several ways: by doing the Push-Up portion as a Knee Push-Up, by stepping into the bottom of the squat instead of jumping there from the Push-Up position, etc.

If you're ever stuck for a workout (on the road, don't have time to get to the gym, snowed in, barricaded in a shopping mall during the Zombie Apocalypse) you can find some good Burpee workouts in our Portable Workouts section.

Want to make your Burpees easier to execute? Try this: over the course of your day, every day, periodically bust out 3-5 Burpees. It's up to you to find a time and place (doing this in the check-out line at the market might get you some stares and if you choose to do this, please, PLEASE have someone on hand with camera-phone so we can post the video), but make sure you get at least 5 sets in per day. After a week, add a rep or two to each set. Do this for 2 months. Then, go for a set of 20 and see how much easier it is.