I’ve been going barefoot since 2009 – walking, running, hiking, training, playing, and just otherwise being barefoot for the vast majority of my lifestyle. It’s been great and I love it, but that’s not what this post is about. You see, in that time, I’ve had to adapt my social skills to include a large selection of quick responses that must be ready at a moments notice. If you’re already a barefoot runner, then you know exactly what I mean. You just never know when someone is going to publicly announce their opinion about your feet, and it’s immensely satisfying to be able to respond to these poorly thought-out remarks with flair. And let me warn you, these foot-stalkers can come out of nowhere!
Case in point. I was running with my dog on one of our usual routes, a portion of which is frequented by walkers, runners, and cyclists. It was pretty cold that day, and it was raining with a thick, foggy haze, too. Then it happened. A single humanoid figure started to appear in the fog ahead – walking toward us. My dog, Ronin, perked up immediately, raising his imposing posture to appear as large as possible (not hard for him) and directing all of his attention on the mysterious, approaching figure with a “let me at ‘em” expression. I whispered “easy boy” and reminded him that he had already eaten breakfast that day.
It was at this moment that something just told me that I wasn’t going to get past this person without receiving at least a small dose of teasing – maybe it was the high-tech shoes he was wearing, or his awkward stride, but deep down, I knew what was about to happen. I was going to get the “treatment.”
I prepared myself as best I could with only the few moments I had. As we got closer, I could see that it was an older gentleman with a cheerful smile, which quickly turned to a scowl as he said to me, “my word! Your feet must be freezing,” to which I responded, “daaaa, guuhhh, duhduhduh – yeah.” And we kept running past him – hardly breaking stride. Needless to say, it wasn’t my most shining moment, but I was now determined to succeed next time this happened! So, I literally spent the rest of my run thinking about what I should have said (does that make me weird?). Next time, I wouldn’t be caught off guard! Continue reading Barefoot Running Lingo + Things NOT to Say When Running Barefoot
George Hood. That’s the name of the man who will be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after holding the plank exercise longer than anyone else ever has – obliterating the world record by nearly 30 seconds…wait…I mean minutes – 30 minutes.
Maybe you’ve done a plank before, and maybe you thought you’ve done pretty well. Depending on who you talk to, a three minute plank hold is generally considered the gold standard – and anything beyond that is just gravy. Once you’ve hit 3 minutes and beyond, your core is already plenty strong – or so they say. However, I think a growing number of people have already proven that much of successful planking is all in your head. Mental toughness was certainly a deciding factor with the 5 minute plank challenge I posted last year. And I mean, come on, once you’ve done it for 5 minutes, you’re in the elite club, right?
Well, don’t tell that to George Hood, a former Marine and now 54-year old personal trainer from a small city in Illinois. This man is a multiple world record holder and added one more feat to his list of accomplishments after he held a plank for over an hour and twenty minutes – coming in with an official time of 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 5.01 seconds. Hood fought every minute to capture that record, too. It was not a walk in the park, but an act of sheer effort and uncompromising willpower.
Take a look at some of the clips taken during the event. He noted that it started to get difficult around 50 minutes, and the last 8 minutes were brutal. I’d rather walk the plank than try to endure this – har har har.
QUESTION: How slowly can you do just one pullup or chinup? That’s right. Today, I’m not concerned with how many pullups you can do, but how long you can endure a single, measly repetition. My challenge to you is to perform one pullup or chinup as slowly as you possibly can and post your results in the comments below.
I think it’s a good idea to have the ability to stop at any point during most strength training exercises (excluding some ballistic exercises: e.g. the clean and jerk). Having isometric strength throughout the full range of motion will ensure that you’re not training something that your body is not ready for yet. If you can’t stop and hold a pose during a particular range of motion, then chances are, you’re having to force yourself past that point when you’re doing sets of multiple repetitions, which isn’t an efficient, nor effective, approach to training. We should train to be strong throughout the entire range of motion of each exercise we perform.
Now, I’ve already posted several pullup training tutorials and workout programs over the years (see links at the bottom), and many of you have written to me expressing how proud you are of yourselves since you’re now able to dominate this popular, yet challenging, exercise. But today, I want to find out how long you can survive just one maximum-duration pullup.
Here is a video of my first attempt from earlier this morning.
Dr. Mike Evans asks, “what is the single best thing you can do for your health?” Obviously, there are tons of factors that contribute to overall health and fitness, but what one thing offers the greatest return on your investment? Here’s a clever video where he outlines his research-based solution…
This article and video is about how to do pushups with optimal technique. There are a ton of pushup technique videos and tutorials circulating the web, and I’ve viewed many of them over the years. But adhering to a couple of vague and generic technique tips isn’t enough to ensure proper pushup form, and unfortunately, most pushup performances these days leave a lot to be desired. I wish there wasn’t a need for me to post a pushup technique tutorial, but from what I’ve seen so far, most people still don’t know how to do this exercise correctly – let alone with optimal form.
Of course, you have the usual culprits of over-extending the neck backwards, and letting the hips sag, both of which detract from spinal alignment, and thus, greatly inhibit maximal strength and power potential. But even people who do pushups with a “flat back” often still haven’t learned how to truly push something with optimal alignment, range of motion, breathing, and ultimately with the greatest force production potential. You’ve got guys and gals who can successfully flex their triceps, delts, and pec muscles, but still don’t know how to actually transfer immense force into something in front of them (i.e. the ground) again and again.
Given that this is such a foundational strength training exercise that provides a host of benefits, I wanted to finally give it the attention it deserves. Check out the following video to learn exactly how to do pushups with optimal technique – including some subtle nuances in the movement that have the potential to sky-rocket your performance and pushup numbers. Even if you’ve been doing pushups for a long time, you’ll probably learn something new that will help you to do pushups even better.
The burpee is a simple and effective exercise that is often used for fat loss, muscle building, and general strength and conditioning. The burpee also has a reputation for being quite unforgiving. By design, it’s not easy, and for a lot of people, the burpee is a bit too challenging to start off with. That’s when the CST strategy called movement sophistication really shines. You can not only make exercises more challenging, you can also make them easier by changing, swapping, or removing certain components, which is exactly what I’ve done in this instructional video.
Here are 5 incrementally more challenging versions of the burpee exercise that will help you build a foundation of conditioning in prep for the traditional burpee and the many advanced variations thereof. Even if you’ve done burpees before, you’ll find benefits from working on the components in this video.
Case in point. I was running with my dog on one of our usual routes, a portion of which is frequented by walkers, runners, and cyclists. It was pretty cold that day, and it was raining with a thick, foggy haze, too. Then it happened. A single humanoid figure started to appear in the fog ahead – walking toward us. My dog, Ronin, perked up immediately, raising his imposing posture to appear as large as possible (not hard for him) and directing all of his attention on the mysterious, approaching figure with a “let me at ‘em” expression. I whispered “easy boy” and reminded him that he had already eaten breakfast that day.
