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With the busyness of the holidays, and the arrival of my daughter just before the New Year, I’ve had my hands full for the last several weeks. Things are mostly back to normal now – a new normal for us.  (Click to enlarge) We’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programming very soon. The results from last year’s survey have helped me form a solid direction for Physical Living in 2012. Big plans, folks. Big plans indeed. I’ll keep you posted!
CST Coach, CST-KS 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. George Hood Breaks The Plank World Record
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. My First Attempt at the 1 Minute Pullup Challenge
Note: No Dinosaurs Required! We all have days when the motivation meter is running low, and for whatever reason, the last thing on Earth you’d like to do is subject your body to exercise – or move at all, for that matter. There’s something I’ve done over the years to get my butt into gear and make sure I’m accomplishing my daily goals and sticking with my training program. You may think this is a little weird, but it works for me, and I’m going to share it with you today. It’s not complicated, and will only take a minute to explain, but before I teach you my little trick, I’m going to have to introduce you to someone. His name is Mr. Sifferman, and he’s a professional – at everything. In fact, Mr. Sifferman is everything John Sifferman ever wanted to be as a strapping, young lad. He’s the idyllic, real life superhero that never in his life had to wear spandex to get the job done. He’s fit, healthy, strong, and most importantly, free to do whatever he pleases. He eats, drinks, sleeps, and trains like clockwork – every single day. And he never misses day. Ever. He seems like the guy who must live at the gym, but he rarely spends more than an hour a day training. He makes hard things look easy and can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to. But Mr. Sifferman’s finest quality is that he always makes not only the right choice, but also the best choice whenever evaluating any decision. Sure, he’s strong enough to lift a car off of helpless, trapped women, and also has the endurance to finish ultra-marathons, but his most esteemed quality is one of simple resolve and unrelenting discipline. By now, you won’t be surprised to hear that Mr. Sifferman can hike the White Mountains barefoot, dance a mean Tango, and sneak up on ninjas in broad daylight. On top of that, not only did he single-handedly dominate Garry Kasparov in a game of chess, he even beat Chuck Norris at a game of tic-tac-toe once (and has the scars to prove it). Given that last accomplishment, the man is clearly legend. So, now that you’re acquainted with Mr. Sifferman, you’re probably wondering what my little trick is, right? It’s easy. Whenever I need to get something done, I just ask him. There’s something deep inside of you that has the courage, motivation, and willpower to make the hard, right choice instead of the easy, wrong one. See yourself as who you could be, who you have the right to be, and who you really are. Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right. – Henry Ford If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends and tweeps:
CST Coach, CST-KS P.S. If you liked this post, then please signup for the newsletter, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates and other interesting info. P.P.S. Either you’ve just witnessed a super-effective Jedi mind trick or I have a severe case of multiple personality disorder that comes with benefits! 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… Pretty revealing, eh? And maybe a touch humbling, too. But we know all this already, right? The biggest takeaway for me is that there’s a huge difference between doing nothing, and doing something. And this is one of the first baby steps in Physical Living philosophy: do something physically active every single day. In other words, create and follow a daily physical practice. Or to put it mildly, use your body for something other than carting your brain around. This can be anything: walking, running, hiking, weight lifting, bodyweight exercise, swinging clubbells or kettlebells, recreational sports, or any other of these 100 suggestions to help you disguise exercise. Just doing something is better than nothing, and doing something that exerts you is will usually yield more benefits than doing something that doesn’t. So, get crackin! If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends and tweeps:
CST Coach, CST-KS P.S. If you liked this post, then please signup for the newsletter, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates and other interesting info. P.P.S. Thanks to Todd Hargrove and Chris Highcock for finding this! I thought I had seen it all, but I guess I was wrong. I’m sorry, but this just hurts.
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