04-24-2011

Flipping the Switch!

The bar sits loaded on the rack as the weight makes the center of it bow and you can hear the metal whine as the load tries to break its will. Steel, cold hard unforgiving steel…never failing never faulting just honest pure existence. If you are up or if you are down the steel never judges. The steel waits for you like an old dog on the porch dependable and quite.  It doesn’t care if you are going to load 100kg on the bar or 300kg on the bar, it doesn’t care if you are strong or weak…it only cares about one thing. Pushing you into the fucking ground the first chance its gets…It is not personal, or emotional. It is the nature of steel to return to the earth from which it was born and it is your desire to prevent that from happening which determines the level of achievement unique to you.

You sit on a bench only feet away from the bar….the sounds of the weight room are still very present to your senses. The smells the sights the energy of other people in the room, some are positive some are negative some are indifferent but all present.  You sit, your personality on your sleeve talking openly waiting  allowing the future not to be known to the conscious mind, relying on others and other thing to prevent reality from becoming a part of your current and soon to be past. As the clock clicks closer and closer, one second at a time each stroke of the second hand begins to tune the mind like and instrument. Each tick on the clock and the world around you becomes smaller and smaller. No longer are you aware of the people on the other side of the weight room, no longer are you aware of the music playing in the background. Each continued moment in time the weight room becomes smaller and smaller and the people of importance become fewer and fewer. The smiles are gone, but not due to anger but because stillness requires focus and focus requires the internalization of passion. It is hard to remove yourself from the external universe when you carry a smile…. a smile is an open invitation from you to the world. It’s only moments now until the time to perform arrives, and it is now you, your training partners and your coach all thinking and breathing the same energy. All those that are still in your world at this point are here for one reason and that is to see you succeed over obstacles that lie in front of you. In a matter of minutes or perhaps seconds even those closest to you will become nothing more than sound bites in the movie of this moment. No longer are there conversations, no longer is there coaching. You begin to prepare your mind for what you need to do. You take a moment to draw upon the mental stimuli that you use to reach your inner world.

Allow me to let you in….

 I can feel the pounding of the base…the music is driving me and the thump is intoxicating, the self talk has begun. In my mind I feel the world around me as a giant energy source, I close my eyes and I pull from everything and anything that might be near. The words of encouragement…mine. The slaps on the back as I move around the room…taken. The eye contact from the animals on my level…acknowledged. The insecure dickhead guy in the corner arguing with his girlfriend… Stolen...and his girlfriend’s curious glances? Fire to my high octane male furnace and its boiling over and I can no longer sit still. I start moving around the weight room in circles, because that is the only way to guarantee that I will be back to where I need to be. I am  not  stalking or being aggressive…even though that is a very important step in the process, but that comes in time.  No, I circle because it’s the only way to pull energy in from all around the room, taking from everywhere….and anything.  When it is time to move into work mode…the circling stops the energy I have  borrowed,  I pull into me….I can feel the energy like electricity…its tangible…its more than a thought it is a physical existence and when  I pull it in I can feel it fill the center of my body until I am full. I feel that  if I didn’t use it I would become physically sick. I stand before the alter of iron and I look to the sky…always to the sky, and then I pull from the earth, asking for strength from both above and below physical and spiritual, I see myself as everything and everything is me.  I can see with my mind the energy rushing into me and at that point I silent myself and harness the madness…reigning it in. As my hands make contact with the iron for the first time the world explodes, the safety is off and it is time to release it all  back into the world…all the good all the bad, everything must go a total yard sale of emotion. For some it’s pretty….for me it’s ugly….100% mother**cker time and there is nothing that can stop it. It’s the first time that I see myself in the mirror and all the years of training all the days of work have come down to this one lift. A new standard a new level of excellence, and I look at myself long and hard in the eye. For me to flip the switch it’s simple. “Hey! Let’s go motherfucker!” This is what I use it is my switch and when it’s time to flip….I can turn it on like a light with one programmed highly aggressive challenge….I smash myself against the steel, I drive against it hard…I try to wake the iron, shake it from its passive slumber! This is one fight that I'm not  going to lose and the steel needs to know who’s knocking. From this point forward it is nothing but effort…no thinking...no turning back…blank raw madness! Color, noise, pain effort and passion….raging out against the world, and when the lift is done I feel nothing…no adrenalin, no anger, no sadness, no happiness only completion and when I breath in again I feel my world return and the people around me become alive because if I have done my job correctly, I have given all of their energy back and in return shared with them some of my own, with exception to the dickhead in the corner I gave his energy back to his girlfriend… This is why great programs and great training groups are so powerful….that energy passes around the room again and again…and again.

There it sits….cold, hard steel. No emotion, no thoughts just steadfast steel waiting to return to the earth. “In time…in time, just not today.”

04-17-2011

So I have been in Sweden a few days now and last night I went out for dinner with a couple from the city of Stockholm and it was amazing. They took me and Charles through the cobblestone streets and eventually to a standing room only restaurant that sells traditional Swedish cuisine….so in this particular instance we had Swedish Meatballs, and they were phenomenal much like the ones my mum would make. The location of Biosig in association with Eleiko is top notch, I have never been in a facility that not only has a fully equipped Eleiko weight room but also lecture halls and free internet while still being a hotel….trust me the last two matter! I remember being in Melbourne and receiving a $458.00 dollar internet bill after just eight days…uhgh talk about a kick in the wedding tackle. Anyway, I digress what I want to talk about is how to train on the road when you are at a lack of time even a potential lack of equipment. When I am away from my routine the hardest part for myself is the maintenance of my anaerobic capacity work…Yeah imagine that one, f**k this is a real piece of news. Anyway, when I am in the USA I train three to four hours a week of Krav Maga on top of my weight room sessions. This has been the way for almost 18months and for the last 4.5 months it has been at altitude! So if I don’t stay with my conditioning I get kicked in the face after some dude kicks me in the balls. I have never been a puker but at 105kg lean mass I will tank oxygen wise and for me its lights out not puke….my world gets very dark…and pass out. True story!

The weight training is one…sometimes two body part a day…double sessions if no capacity work

The Conditioning is general unless I have access to heavy bag facility like Gym Box in London England or bum in need for a few dollars cash.



Day One

The beast workout (yeah I named it…you will figure out why)

Chest A.M

A1. Incline supinated DB-bench press 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec rest 40X0 tempo

A2.Flat DB-Neutral Grip bench press 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec rest 40X0 tempo

A3.Incline DB-Pronated Grip flys 5sets x 6reps 90sec rest 40X0 tempo

Chest P.M

A1. Dips 3sets x 10-15reps 60sec 30X0 tempo

B1. Flat db-neutral grip press 3sets x 10-15reps 60sec 30X0 tempo

C1.Decline pronated grip flys 3sets x 10-15reps 60sec 30X0 tempo



Day Two

Hamstrings A.M

A1. Lying Leg Curl 5sets x 6reps 15sec 40X0 tempo

A2. Standing Leg Curls 5sets x 6reps 15sec 40X0 tempo

A3. Seated leg Curls 5sets x 6reps 120sec 40X0 tempo

Day Two

Capacity Work (15-30min and this is non rest work…just changes in intensity and movements)

Day Three

Back A.M

A1. Semi Supinated Chins 5sets x 6reps 15sec 40X0 tempo

A2. Seated low Rows 5sets x 6reps 15sec 40X0 tempo

A3. Seated pull downs 5sets x 6reps 90sec 40X0 tempo

Upper back and Rotator

A1. Trap 3 3sets x 12reps 45sec 40X0 tempo

B1. Cable Scapular Retraction 3sets x 12reps 45sec 40X0 tempo

C1. 45° cable rotators 3sets x 12reps 45sec 30X0 tempo



Day Four

Quads A.M

A1. DB hack squats 5sets x 6reps 15sec 30X0 tempo

A2. Walking Lunges 5sets x 6reps 15sec 30X0 tempo

A3. Split squats (cable) 5sets x 6reps 120sec 30X0 tempo



Day Four

Calves P.M

A1. Standing Calve Raises 5sets x 10-12 45sec 21X1 tempo

A2. Seated Calve Raises 5sets x 10-12 45sec 21X1 tempo

Anaerobic Capacity Work (15-30min)



Day Five

Triceps A.M

A1. Lying Skull Crushers 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec 40X0 tempo

A2. French Press Rope 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec 40X0 tempo

A3. Cable Push downs 5sets x 6reps 90sec 31X0 tempo



Biceps P.M

A1. Reverse Scott Curls 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec 40X0 tempo

A2. Scott Curls 5sets x 6reps 10-15sec 40X0 tempo

A3. Incline Db-curls 5sets x 6reps 90sec 40X0 tempo



Give it a try!

04-13-11

During the last year I have the opportunity to train at facilities all over the world and it has allowed to me to see the best of the best and the worst of the worst.  Both in gym equipment and personal training habits, but the one thing that is fascinating to me is the type of training that you will see from country to country.  You see, as a small town Canadian kid I always thought that I would go to London and everyone would be training like Dorian Yates and if I traveled to Scandinavian countries they would be giant Nordic people lifting massive amounts of weight, old women caring handbags made of metal…You know that sort a thing. However, in the end it seems worldwide people are doing the majority of the same things the same way…I assumed at first that it must be just the Americans and Canadians that drinks form the well of fucked up training practices taught by assholes that  aren’t strong enough to pull up their own pants. …Yet I am sadly mistaken.  You see I am not just a meathead that walks into the weight room to smash things around and make noises. Do I like to do these things? Yes, is it what I like to be around in the weight room? On occasion, but I understand that isn’t for everyone and I am a lot more open to things than people realize. For example, there is a training center out in South Tacoma Washington that is primarily cross fit…and you know what? These guys know how to train, period. Yes, their primary clients are cross fit minded but Trident Athletics has taken a base system and expanded on it.  They work really hard and they work really smart. Their head instructor and owner is a BioSig and PICP coach that is currently and continuously seeking a better way to achieve success with his staff and clients. So even though there are a lot of people that will be shitting their pants because I am not jumping up and down on the cross fit name like an angry grizzly on a deer carcass, but here is the reality.  It comes down to the individual coach or trainer and how they are dealing with their athletes specifically because the shit bag training that I see around the globe is predominately perpetuated by shit box coaches. They are all reading the same books and taking the same lectures, and pumping out the same bosu ball nonsense. Here is the deal, if you want success in the weight room as a coach, trainer or individual you need stop and take a look around. If you see a guy or gal that walks into your facility and not only do they look like steel but more importantly they have the ability to move steel you should pay attention. I don’t care what they are doing, but if they have the ability to perform when the rubber meets the road they are worth watching for a minute. If that same person has a coach or a trainer then for sure you will want to see what they are up to, maybe even stop and pay for their time to hear what they have to say.  The reality, the vast majority of elite coaches and trainers in gyms from London to Perth are making sure that not only are their athletes breaking balls every session they are learning how to be better students of the game.  They are growing their own education to make sure that they are spending their client’s time in the most productive way possible. 

04/02/2011

I have spent the majority of my life on this planet as an athlete, coach or something in between. It has allowed me to see the world and meet a lot of people from a number of different professional backgrounds, but regardless of what we believe the vast majority of people are being misled by continuous onslaught of misinformation.  I often wondered if it was me who truly was the peddler of mistruths and distraction because at times it seemed that I was the only one speaking my language and it wasn’t until I started training with Jud Logan in Ashland, Oh that I finally started to feel like my ideas were not strength training blasphemy! Certainly I have stepped off the path for a number of different reasons and on the ventures from the path I have learned a lot about what I was doing that was not only right but also very, very wrong! These trips from the path were during times of personal exploration in to the realm of curiosity, trying to make a bigger stronger me in not only the physical sense but also the mental and spiritual sense.  However, it was the trips away that made the path that much easier to walk.  Each trip away either strengthened the abilities that I already had or provided clarity by teaching me to release or let go of belief systems or simple false truths that were walking with me making the path more difficult to navigate. 

It is  this process of letting go of old thoughts and taking on new information and ideas that may not have been previously, easy to conceive or accept that has allowed me to enjoy continuous success. It allows me to wear a number of different hats depending on the direction of my goals. I maintain this sense of direction by setting clear goals, but the road or path in which I use to get to my goals are as free or open to influence as anything in my life.  You have to understand, that all that matters is that you reach your destination! How the road takes you or for that fact. How you ‘allow’ the road or path to take you is completely open to interpretation.  Too many young coaches or trainers from all around the world have not even taken a step and begin to doubt or question whether or not they have the tools to reach the destination that they had in mind. Or worse yet they begin only to stop because they allow someone else to tell them what direction they want to go! Listen if I can give you one piece of advice, you must set your destination first and start moving. Second; seek out the people and sources that have the information that help you make your destination more attainable. If they are providing information that anticipates an alternate destination that's ok, they are moving one way and you are simply moving another. If there is one thing that I hate is motherf***ers that try to force their ideas on people with the intent to confuse or mislead because they want to be the only destination. Their destination is profit or self-gratification over all else! These people and or organizations are doing us all a great disservice, because they don’t take into consideration that there are a lot of directions and outcomes that one can experience as a traveler in this industry.  

Remember, that in the end it is your path to walk, it’s your destination to arrive at and over time the destinations will change and the information that you require will grow. Take the time to make sure that the tools you pick make your journey easier, but don't  slow you down.

Derek Woodske

Master course conductor

Poliquin Strength Institute

ANNA SLOTNICK!: Location, Denver Colorado

ANNA SLOTNICK!: Location, Denver Colorado

For the majority of my younger years, I was rail thin. Looking back now, it was kind of gross-- no curves, no tone, my figure was literally straight up and down, like a 12 year-old boy. But I could eat whatever I wanted-- literally, ice cream for breakfast and Doritos for dinner, and I wouldn't gain an ounce. I was what we call "skinny fat"-- thin, but no muscle mass whatsoever. I was not physically active-- besides when I was going to tip the bottle of booze (which I later found out I was allergic to), or going to light that bowl of chronic (am I allowed to say that on here?). Upon leaving home and going to college, you can only imagine how my bad habits grew worse.

My first year of college I gained a good 25 lbs; my lightening fast metabolism was slowing; my eating, drinking, and drug habits were even worse, and my inactivity was getting the best of me. One day I saw a picture of myself; I was disgusted, and decided enough was enough.

So I hit the gym hard. I was clueless though; all I ever did was run on the elliptical and train abs. I  decided to say goodbye to alcohol and marijuana, and felt even better. I started to clean up my eating, and began seeing results. I loved the way I felt after a work out-- strong, accomplished, empowered-- it was a natural high almost. I was instantly addicted. Fitness became my passion and I wanted to share it with everyone around me. I decided that I was going to study exercise science in hopes of becoming a personal trainer and maybe one day open my own gym.

That is when I found Ben Demko, my first personal trainer (who I trained with for almost 2 years), one of my best friends, and now my boss and PICP Level 1 Coach. He showed me how to train the whole body-- the nervous system as well as the muscular system. He taught me the fundamentals of training-- weight, rep, tempo schemes, hypertrophy, strength, weight loss, endurance, you name it.

NASM Certified Since 2010 Certified Trainer with Expert Rating 2010 CPR / AED Certified Student Metropolitan State College of Denver. Major; Adult Fitness and exercise Science. Minor Nutrition.

I am now a certified personal trainer still making that effort to get my degree and graduate from Metro State here soon. I am currently training for my first NPC bikini competition. I model on the side for fun and networking. I believe that my body is my billboard, and with discipline and will power, you really can achieve anything you set your mind to. Realize your potential, then kick the shit out of it. Pain is an illusion... well for the most part. Weights before dates. Champions train, losers complain. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. Fear earns you nothing, so find a way, or make one. Push yourself; struggle to get those last few reps that hurt oh so good, then move on to the next exercise. Determination is the bridge between goals and accomplishments, so let's cross that bridge.

To Contact Anna Slotnick for personal training or Modeling.
                              

When do we bring the strength back to strength training?

04/8/2010

 

 

 

 

When do we bring the strength back to strength training?

I have been involved in weightlifting for the past 19 years in one form or another, always evolving with the increase in education and exposure to those around me. When I began training I was 14 years old in my parent’s basement with a green set of metal plates from York Barbell. They came in the mail, and probably took about nine weeks to arrive! I also had a plate stack universal that I trained on religiously, fueled and motivated by the images of the comic book characters that filled my closet. In those days I only sought one thing and one thing alone; to get as big and strong as possible so that I would look like a guy that you wouldn’t take lightly in the local pub. I wanted to be the guy that had forearms that looked like bowling pins from the elbow to the wrist and hands thick and calloused to show all the old timers in town that I was not afraid to work. Even if that work was with the weights and not a wrench or a saw. In the beginning it was all about strength and power, developing a body that would impress was purely a side effect of hard heavy training. Train like a man to look like a man was the mentality that I had as a beginner and that mentality appears to have been lost in the industry that I have spent half a life time as a part of.

In my humble opinion it appears to me that we have drifted into a marketing controlled world of exercise that has lost focus on looking strong and powerful, and moved towards an existence of toned and attainable. It’s easier to drop your body fat levels and carry minimal muscle mass then it is to not only be strong but fit. Developing Strength takes time and work. It takes a lot of hard focused work, utilizing movements that require a lot of attention to detail and correct execution. You simply cannot perform the same ADHD training program four times a week and see the results that you desire. Being strong is a sign to the world around you that you are dependable and steadfast. You have the ability to take a task and see it through to its completion. Being strong is a sign that you will weather the storm for not days but weeks, working to see the outcome of your dedication. Strength is the characteristic of great men, and it’s this characteristic that needs to be reestablished in the world of fitness training and exercise. It’s in our DNA to want these things even if the social programming that we are blasted with everyday works to blunt this belief. If you think that this isn’t that case just look at the natural reaction to the things that we see. Take the newest “Twilight” movie; it was the belief that the main characters were two eternal lovers. The emotional girl and the aloof unattached male that cloaks his masculinity in mystery, but then comes the young character to the scene that plays a protective wolf. When the actor removes his shirt for the first time during the film the women in the theater gasped and cheered. No longer was there mystery, there was a man that would take the shirt from his back to save the damsel in distress, and in doing so revealed a body that was cut from stone, a physical representation of dependability and strength for all those in the audience to identify with, proving that it is an instinctual response not just a psychological one to be attracted to strength.

Strength must not be lost in the migration of social norms and standards. Strength must maintain its importance in the fabric of society. We must maintain the importance of strength in our society, not allowing the devolution of the physical progression of man.

Derek Woodske,cscs,lmbt

Poliquin Strength Institute Instructor

woodske.picp@gmail.com

PICP Level II (Lower Body Structural Balance)

09-13-2010

Last night at the Danish training center they held and inter league soccer match that saw a large crowd make their way to the Stadium. It was pretty cool to be here for that, and to see the crowds come out like you would enjoy in the USA at a college or professional football game. We went into the restaurant under the stadium and watched the game that was actually being played on the field over our heads! After the game came to an end we were somewhat surprised to see the Patriots vs Bangles game come on the main televisions for the remainder of the evening. American football is quite popular here from what we can tell and they enjoy pools and betting on the game like we do in North America.

The PICP II course outline is designed to teach the student coaches how to evaluate the functional structural imbalances of the lower body, and the muscles that are not functioning correctly. In doing so we will then go through the exercise progressions of the step-up, split squat, lunge, squat, calves, posterior chain. This course is an intensive five day work load that teaches the progressions of the functional exercises of the lower, in doing so the coach should leave PICP II with an understanding of not only the things took look for in the lower body but also how to program the correct sequences of exercises to ensure proper health and progression of the athlete. In level two, the instructors also go over the functional tests to determine the proper balance and function of the muscle, and they teach the student coach how to identify inconsistency in the athletes muscle through tests and screens.

This course kicks but for any coach or trainer that has to work with clients and athletes dominated by the demands of their lower body.