Springy Steel

Update

2011-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,

Here’s a quick update after a long time without blogging.

As the two or three readers of my blog may have noticed, I haven’t been very active on the internets over the last couple of months.

I had to undergo surgery last October and will have another one next year.

While my training is pretty restricted at the moment and quite different from before, I never stopped with it and trying hard to recover while at the same time improving all the other things I’m allowed to do at the moment.

Yesterday I took some pictures and a very good friend of mine suggested putting them on my blog. I guess if any of you are also going through some hard times right now or in the future, they can serve as some kind of motivation to keep going.

After all the research I did concerning Shaolin and Chan I’ve learned that it is much more than just Kung Fu or a simple religion, it is either in everything or it is nothing at all.

I promise when I’m done with all of this I will come out stronger and wiser. Never give up and keep fighting! It is just about how bad you want it…

Interview with Power-Quest

2011-04-12T02:10:00.001-07:00

Here's the link to an interview I did with Dominik Feischl and Jürgen Reis for their great podcast called Power-Quest a couple of months ago. We talked about training, nutrition, my past development and future plans.

I want to say a big THANK YOU!!! to Dominik and Jürgen for giving me this great opportunity, I really appreciate it and enjoyed the interview.

Oh, and by the way, Power-Quest is the biggest German speaking fitness podcast and they have interviewed famous top coaches from all over the world, it's a true gold mine for everyone interested in real training and nutrition!

http://www.power-quest.cc/

Thanks again guys & now I'm off to China :)

Active flexibility work

2011-04-10T01:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I decided to work on my active flexibility again.
I haven't practiced martial arts for a couple of years now and it seems the isometric stretching using the horse stance (which focuses mostly on the inner thighs) combined with the lack of kicking have created some muscular imbalances in my legs. My physical therapist told me that my inner thigh muscles are crazy strong and my adduction ist too strong compared to my abduction.
I always wanted to be able to hold a high kick so this is a very good chance to achieve it. I did a video yesterday to have a starting point to mark my progress. I was surprised that my active flexibilty is not too bad considering I haven't realy practiced it.

L-sit & HSPUs on pushup bars

2011-04-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

At the moment I couldn't care less about a certain number of reps in my training (for the most part). I just like to try challenging BWEs and experiment with them. A couple of days ago I started to play around with my pushup bars again. I'm also slowly and carefully re-introducing one arm pulling into my training. Seems like I didn't lose too much strength and I feel the dynamic tension exercises certainly helped to preserve it!

PS: The pants are the same as the Chinese team was wearing during the Olympics in Beijing 08, maybe that's why I had such a good session :)

Training Update

2011-04-02T11:03:00.001-07:00

A quick update on my current training:

I'm still working on the planche and making slow but constant progress. Seems very close :)

More over, I can finally do pull ups again, I don't dare to do one arm work or weighted stuff yet. Shoulder still feels awkward but it's cool to be able to do them again!

I've also discovered bodyweight biceps curls with my gymnastic rings, awesome exericise that can be adjusted to any level of strength and will make your biceps grow like weed ;) You can find an excellent tutorial on youtube by a strong guy named slizzardman.

I also started to do a high volume of shoulder prehab like scapular push ups (which also help the planche) and rotational stuff with elastic bands. Feels good on my shoulder :)

Finally, I really enjoy walking on my hands and playing around with the differnt handstand positions. I don't know the name of the following exercise but it's great for lower back and core strength. Still lots of room to improve but that's the great thing about training, right? ;)

That's it! :)

Some infos & reading suggestions

2011-02-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

First of all, my friend Dominik just announced the Gorilla Camp II. Dominik just returned from a training vacation in Costa Rica with Steve Maxwell and brought back a wealth of new awesome knowledge. This is gonna be AWESOME! For more info make sure to check out his blog:

http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/2011/02/gorilla-camp-ii.html

Next, if you’re interested in the training, psychology and nutrition of a Navy SEAL, my friend Harry managed to interview one of them:

http://mpbody.blogspot.com/2011/02/getting-to-know-navy-seal-1.html

Also, my favorite blogger in the nutritional field is by far Dr. Kurt Harris. He recently returned to blogging with a couple of super awesome and interesting, no BS blog posts. IMHO all of them are MUST READS, but especially the latest one:

http://www.paleonu.com/

Finally, Don at Primal Wisdom (who recently posted about the (non) importance of Omega 3 supplementation) put up a very nice and entertaining post about raw vegan diets, a great read:

http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/02/raw-truth-about-raw-vegan-diets-primal.html

PS: The only forum I used to participate in was the Fighter Fitness Forum, set up by the great Björn Friedrich. I’ve been using it for quite a long time and thanks to Björn, got introduced to lots of great training information. Nevertheless, while there are a handful of super cool and strong guys, the amount of negativity and bad-mouthing has become more and more in the last months. Lots of very strong keyboard warriors there, I can understand people like Dominik and Jürgen who avoid message boards and I finally decided to do the same. As I get quite a bit of PMs via the forum, please use my email or facebook if you want to stay in contact. :)

Review - The ultimate pull-up program/Das ultimative Klimmzugprogramm by Dominik Feischl and Dr. Till Sukop

2011-01-29T09:06:00.001-08:00

The pull-up, many times called the upper body squat and recently named the king of upper body exercises by famous strength coach Charles Polliquin may be THE missing link in your training and completely deserves those titles. While many untrained folks can always crank out a couple of push-ups, most of them struggle performing even a single pull-up.

Being one of the harder bodyweight exercises (and with virtually no limit to make it even harder), many people develop a love-hate relationship with it, some of them, actually and unfortunately the majority even discard it and go back to useless and ineffective machine training. As a result, they miss out big time on the benefits of this exercise! I can’t emphasize enough how important and awesome this simple and very primal movement is! I can tell you from my own experience with pull-ups, that adding them to your tool box will result in amazing changes in body composition. When I started doing them more than a decade ago I gained quite a bit of lean mass in a few months and many folks noticed and commented on it.

Besides the obvious cosmetic effects, the pull-up also yields tremendous results in usable or functional strength and what many don’t realize, it’s also one of the best abdominal exercises out there.
As mentioned above, many people struggle with the pull-up and give up on it. That’s exactly where Dominiks and Tills new product comes into play. Step by step they explain and show progressions that will lead the trainee from zero to hero. If you put in the effort, it is guaranteed that you will get the promised results! The approach and methods they use are structured in a very intelligent way, time-tested and well researched (unlike some other bodyweight programs out there…). What's more, numerous clients can prove the effectiveness of the program.
Besides the different progressions, there’s also a very detailed introduction where Till explains proper pull-up mechanics to make sure you get the most bang for your buck and don’t get hurt. Moreover, he explains some important details, for example where to look to pull stronger, and I think even experienced folks can benefit from this.

Finally to complete the course, Dominik and Till describe four great and highly effective training templates that keep training for your ultimate goal interesting, varied and (quite;) challenging.
By the way, there’s also a PDF manual included in the product that explains all the hints, progressions and templates again!

Summing up, while the program is definitely more geared towards beginners in the pull-up game, even advanced trainees will get new ways and hints on how to incorporate the exercise into their training. In my opinion, Till and Dominik have done a great job and many people can benefit from this program! Also, with the extremely fair pricing and the 100% money back guarantee you can’t go wrong. Give it a chance!

You can get the program following this link:

http://www.klimmzuege-trainieren.com/start/

Check out Dominiks amazing pulling power:

Some snippets of today's training

2011-01-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

I hit a new PR with my free HSPUs, 11 reps

I didn't want to do high rep pistols today so I decided to try some weighted pistols again. Haven't done them on a regular base for quite some time and just wanted to check where I am right now

加油！！！

PS: Sorry for the bad quality...

My Progress with the Planche Shaolin Beer

2011-01-14T06:09:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update: I've been mixing some dynamic elements to the static progressions by Coach Sommer. I usually do 5 x 3 of these pushups, the video show the last set, imo the first were a little bit better.

The advanced tuck planche was also one of the last sets, couldn't hold it any longer. My max is about 15 seconds in the first set.

More over, I had the honor to visit the Shaolin temple in Vienna and talk with their master! He also gave me their very own 100% organic beer brand to taste. Awesome stuff, I love it! You can get it online too:

http://www.shaolintempel.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=100

More Chi to you! :)

Training when injured

2011-01-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, I’ve injured the back of my upper arm a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, the injury was worse than I initially thought and I had to change my training quite a bit. I can’t do any pulling exercises and had to stop my OAC training. Fortunately I’m able to do most pushing movements without any pain.

The most important things I learned from the injury are: Don’t focus on the things you can’t do, get creative, concentrate on other exercises you want to master and finally, DO NOT STOP MOVING!!! An injury is no excuse to get lazy. In my opinion, if the body doesn’t get external input that it needs to move daily it will get lazy too and the injury might take forever to heal.

This doesn’t mean that one should train through pain, no, but fortunately the human body has many, many muscles and joints that can be moved. ;)

Nevertheless, I still think it is of utmost importance to move the injured body part too, as long as it is not or only slightly painful (of course, the degree of pain depends on the injury, there are injuries where you shouldn’t go into pain at all).

What does that mean? Loads and loads of joint mobility and strength exercises in the ROM that is possible at the moment.

I’m going to show you an example of what I am doing:

I have been doing lots of joint mobility for many years so there was not much I could add in this regard.

Because of the fact that I can’t do pull ups without pain I tried to find a pulling exercise where I didn’t feel any pain: towel curls with a kettlebell. I never do curls and really dislike them in general (not because they are bad per se but because I simply do not enjoy them) but boy do they hit the biceps. I started with the 24 and worked up to the 32kg bell. The cool thing is, because the exercise is completely new to my body, I actually gained so muscle mass in my biceps without even trying.

I also wanted to find a way to keep the OAC groove. This is where dynamic tension comes into play. If you don’t know the system, Kung Fu master Harry Wong has a great book about it, which was even endorsed by Pavel Tsatsouline. If you have never done this kind of training and you really put all of your effort in it, be prepared to get an unbelievable pump. I usually do 5 x 3/3 reps as I want to keep the tension as high as possible. Just make sure to shake of the tension after each set.

I’m extremely curious how this kind of training will translate to my pull ups when I’m finally able to do them again. So there’s actually a cool thing about my injury, I can test the strength building value of this system J

I’m also making lots of gains with my free HSPUs. Because of the fact that I can’t do any KB ballistics, my arms regenerate much faster and I can train them every day and still stay fresh.

I’ve started to train for the planche again, using Coach Sommers method. Last time I did it, I neglected wrist pre-hab and paid for it, a mistake I won’t make again this time. At the moment I’m at the advanced tuck planche, doing 6 x 10 seconds to get one minute, 3 times a week.

And finally, leg training. As I’ve written in the past, my pistol training revolves around perfect form (at least I try to) so my focus is quality over quantity.

I’ve added one legged towel curls for my hamstrings. I got to say, this is one of the best exercises I have done for the health of my legs. The cool thing about the exercise is, that it trains both functions of the hamstrings, meaning hip extension and knee flexion, which I have neglected for a long time, resulting in a strength imbalance and minor knee pain. Since I started doing them my knees feel so much stronger, something I never achieved with swings or one-legged kb deads.

Last but not least, I’m doing quite a bit of dynamic and static flexibility training.

By the way, here’s a small tip for all of you who are into stand up martial arts: In the past, the order of exercises in my morning routine was joint mobility first, then dynamic stretching. These days, I always do my dynamic kicks first thing in the morning, followed by joint mobility. Since I started doing it my cold dynamic flexibility has increased dramatically. If you want to try it, please let me know about your experiences with it.

Summing up, I hope I was able to show that being injured doesn’t mean one can’t train or even make progress! If you really want it there’s always a way to do something, no excuses!

Take care & a happy new year to all of you!

PS: I just received the new pull up program by Dominik Feischl and Dr. Till Sukopp and I will write a review as soon as I have watched it! I greatly respect Dominik and Till and judging from their previous work, I know that this is a top quality and excellent product, every serious trainee can benefit from. Please check it out here:

http://www.klimmzuege-trainieren.com/start/

Seminar @ Crossfit Ansbach

2010-10-13T02:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a group picture of the kettlebell seminar me and my friend Dominik Feischl held last weekend at the Crossfit facility in Ansbach/Germany (if you're close, go check it out, they have everything one could wish for:)!

I want to thank all of you, you were an amazing and highly motivated group!

Today's Kettlebell Seminar

2010-09-18T14:39:00.001-07:00

Very strong group today! Thanks a lot my friends, it was awesome to work with you and we had a great time!

Special thanks to Dominik "Eisen Man" Feischl and Karl "Farmer Karl" Humer! ;)

Keep swinging it!!!

Training on the road, another seminar and a new supplement

2010-09-07T04:53:00.000-07:00

Travelling & Training

I just returned from a month of travelling through Thailand and of course I kept on training. Training on the road can be quite challenging and often times one needs to become a little creative but IT IS NEVER and excuse to just stop alltogether! I still trained daily and implemented many things that Steve Maxwell taught us in July.

Besides extensive joint mobility and Qigong, I did loads of HSPUs, Maxwell’s Forced Reduction Pistols, traditional high rep Hindu workouts, 100 Burpee challenges, dynamic tension exercises and partner drills that Steve taught us. Whenever I had the chance I did pull ups, even some rope climbing and of course beach sprints. Besides that, being in Thailand, I also did a lot of snorkeling and swimming.

As you can see, there are always possibilities to get some great training, it is just about how much you want and love it! J

Another upcoming workshop

On October 9, I will do another kettlebell workshop together Dominik Feischl, this time at Crossfit Ansbach in Germany! We will present a well-rounded package including the traditional GS techniques and more strength-oriented exercises.

If you’re interested, just contact Dominik or myself and we will send you a detailed announcement!

Finally a supplement that works

Following Robb Wolf’s recommendation, I started to take Now Foods Super Enzymes and I have to say, that stuff really works! For the first time in some years, my digestion is really awesome (my numerous trips to China really messed up my system…). Having a good digestive system is extremely important for so many things, so if you experience similar problems just try it and see if it makes a difference. You can get the stuff super cheap at iherb.com

Sample video of some basic kettlebell exercises

2010-07-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Just to add to today's post about the upcoming workshop with Dominik Feischl, here's a short video where I demonstrate some of the most basic kettlebell exercises. The two hand swing, one hand swing, hand to hand swing and the clean. If you listen carefully you will also note that I use different breathing techniques throughout the set, namely anatomical breathing and performance breathing.
This is of course just a short glimpse of what we will present in the actual seminar, just to give you an idea!

Kettlebell Seminar in September

2010-07-29T03:27:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in a previous post, Dominik Feischl from Naturtraining and myself are going to do a one day kettlebell seminar at Dominik’s place in Upper Austria on September 18!

As many people have asked us, we will put our focus on the most basic and important kettlebell techniques. You will learn the techniques of the so called fluid style coupled with the most important strength movements of single and double kettlebell training and how to apply it for S&C and GS (kettlebell sport) training as taught by the famous Steve Cotter, who has learned from the best in the field.
You will also learn different breathing patterns and how to apply them to different types of exercises and loads, how to design a training program that suits your goals, how to warm up specifically for kettlebell lifting and healthy joints and much more!

Moreover, kettlebell.eu will provide us with the highest quality kettlebells on the market, so you’ll be able to try their bells first hand and even buy them if you wish.

If you’re looking to better your technique, make it safer and at the same time improving your performance, this is the perfect opportunity, and it's only 67 Euros! Dominik and I are looking forward to meet and train with you and we will put all our efforts into delivering you the best possible teaching!

Steve Maxwell & Dominik Feischl - Seminar

2010-07-28T10:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, legendary strength coach Steve Maxwell and our very own Austrian gorilla Dominik Feischl joined forces and held an amazing two day seminar at Dominik's nature training camp in Upper Austria. Of course, this was an opportunity not to be missed and I'm very glad that I took part in it. The amount of information presented by Steve and Dominik was simply amazing and I'm still digesting and trying to remember all of it.

Due to Coach Maxwell's vast experience there were lots and lots of different topics covered, ranging from Steve's famous joint mobility program, which consists of techniques from all over the world, to traditional bodyweight exercises, ancient martial arts conditioning using implements like clubbells and maceballs, tireflipping, stone lifting and much more. Coupled with Dominik's amazing and highly effective pull up and handwalking training strategies and his ideas about simplistic training outside in the nature, it was a very well-rounded schedule, guaranteed to satisfy every attendee's hopes. More over, Steve gave a few very interesting and extremely important theory lessons, covering topics like goal-setting, overtraining, regeneration and the significance of barefoot training.

Last but not least, Steve was very open to answer any questions we had and very willing to share his knowledge. Looking at him, it is quite easy to see that he is the real deal! At 58 years old, he possesses the body of a much, much younger man and has the mobility of a child. Everything he has reached was done through educating himself about different training methods and self-experimenting. He is not super-human and admitted that he made quite a few mistakes over the course of his training life and tried everything to educate and prevent us from doing the same. Maybe that's what I liked most about Steve's philosophy, he is not about boosting his ego with big lifts, actually he said that he couldn't care less about a heavy backsquat. It is all about health, longevity and being mobile. What can you do with all of your strength when your body has aches and pains all over and you can't move the way you want or were supposed to? Steve is the living proof that age is just an arbitrary and meaningless number if one approaches aging with intelligence and diligence.

Of course, this blog entry can't do justice to the whole seminar and it wasn't my aim to just write what we did and I hope that the pictures will give a much better impression of this truly unpaired experience and its amazing atmosphere. Nevertheless, if you want to read a more detailed schedule of the two days, please check out my friend Harry's awesome blogpost about the weekend.

http://mpbody.blogspot.com/2010/07/steve-maxwell-workshop-day-1.html

Finally, I want to say THANK YOU to Steve and Dominik and of course to all the cool and hard training guys I met there! Nothing better than meeting like-minded people to share such an amazing experience!

Today's training & a couple of news

2010-06-11T04:49:00.000-07:00

Some general info on my current training status

I'm making very good progress with the One Arm chin (OAC), I started a program designed by Alexander Lechner, a very cool (& STRONG!) guy. If you understand German, go and check-out his very informative blog: http://www.einfaches-training.blogspot.com/

At the moment I completely ditched weighted Pullups in favor of the OAC, I still can't do more than 3 days of it or my elbows start to hurt.

In terms of pressing-strength, I'm working on the One Arm Handstand. Made good progress, unfortunately it seems I overdid it and my wrists started to hurt, so I will let them recover before I attack them again ;)

Also, I've started, once again, to incorporate glute-ham raises and I can almost do a negative. Still not sure how healthy they are for the knees and I may discontinue them as my right knee always feels awkward afterwards. Besides that I do quite a few hip extension movements, mostly bodyweight and sometimes double kettlebell one legged deadlifts (those really fry the hammies and the glutes and are a great balance exercise too).

In terms of kettlebells, besides teaching basics to a couple of clients I mainly use the double longcycle in my own training. I love simplicity and this may be one of the hardest exercises ever besides hitting every single muscle in the body.

Supplements
I've cut back on all supplements as I feel more and more that most of the mare a complete waste of money. At the moment I only take a little dose of fishoil and magnesium.
Mike Mahler was kind enough to send me a couple of bottles of his liquid magnesium oil. Lot's of people had amazing results with it and contrary to oral supplements it is supposed to increase DHEA levels. I'll keep you updated. You can check it out here: http://www.mikemahler.com/magnesium.html

Foam Rolling & Trigger Point
I've been using these techniques for a couple of weeks now and it is simply amazing. Every hard training athlete should religiously use it, it's that amazing. In a couple of days my hip pain got much, much better and the muscle tonus around my thighs completely changed. I can understand now what Pavel meant by healthy muscle tonus in one of his books.

Meditation/Qigong update
I've ditched the Zen stuff as I've come to the conclusion that I already sit enough. Besides the Little Nine Heaven Qigong I've also started to practice Zhan Zhuang training, one of the oldest forms of Qigong. It's harder than it looks and (at least for now) the feeling is even more intensive than the one I get while practicing L9H. So far I've worked up to 15 minutes.

Kettlebell Workshop
As my friend Dominik Feischl has already mentioned on his blog, we will do a kettlebell seminar in September, soon there will be more infos about it on kettlebell.eu, Dominik's awesome Naturtraining-blog and of course here ;)

http://kettlebell.eu/
http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/

Finally, today's training

Some mobility, breathing and 30 minutes of Little 9 Heaven after getting up.

Went to work, luckily there was only one client so afterwards I did my own training.

I started with 15 minutes of joint mobility, then it was all kettlebells ;)

The cool thing about the place is that I have access to all of the different kettlebell sizes and I did a Steve Cotter inspired weight pyramid:

C&J with 2x 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 28, 24, 20, 16, 12; 5 reps each

Double Cleans with 2x 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 28, 24, 20, 16, 12; 5 reps each

Double Jerks with 2x 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 28, 24, 20, 16, 12; 5 reps each

Rack holds with 2x 32, 28, 24, 1 minute each

Stiff-legged double deads with 2x 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 28, 24, 20, 16, 12; again 5 reps each

Finished with 50 1A Swings with the 16

After that I did some core training, leg-raises (different variations like one-arm holds) and gatherings.

Then I did mobility and flexibility work.

Finished with 15 minutes of Zhan Zhuang practice.

Will do some foam-rolling in the evening.

Ultimate C&J Challenge - Update

2010-05-17T05:17:00.001-07:00

Just a short update, I'm now officially number 5 in the ranking list:

http://fitnessyoucanuse.com/SSST.html

Ultimate C&J Challenge with the 40kg: 82 reps, new PR!

2010-05-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

The first time I tried the UCJ challenge about a year ago and got 66 reps. Today, fueled with coffee & chocolate and motivated by one of the greatest albums ever made, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", I decided to give it another try and got 82 reps, which should get me to number 5 in the ranking list.

I have to say it was close to my limit, several times I felt like throwing up my lungs and my legs felt like pudding, mostly due to the caffeine I ingested before. I'm glad that I fought through it though and hit a PR. My beautiful white competition bell from kb.eu did a great job! *g*

Btw, you can check out the rules for the UCJ (and the the various Snatch challenges like the SSST and UST) following this link: http://fitnessyoucanuse.com/SSST.html but basically they are: You got 10 minutes to do as many clean & jerks with a 40kg kettlebell as possible. Enjoy!

Some bodyweight stuff I did today

2010-05-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today's Training - New Experiences

2010-04-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share my training today because I learned some very nice stuff and had new experiences.

The day started early at 5.45 with some Little Nine Heaven Qigong, after that I went to a friend who is a physical therapist in Vienna, helped him with a couple of clients and learned A LOT. Actually, I'm going to do this every week from now on as it is something I'm quite interested in.

After that we did some brutal core workout that he created which hit every single muscle and of course function of the core. Most of the exercises demanded loads of stability and balance and were extremely challenging as I haven't done them before. SAID at its best!!!

After that we played around with some difficult push up variations and a slackline which was great fun and very different from what I do in my normal training. If you have the equipment I challenge you to try: One leg on the slackline, one leg in the air, the two hands on two gym balls that are not allowed to touch. Now do a push up *g*
Another cool variation we did: Close grip fist push ups, feet on a soccer ball, fists on a bosu ball. Much easier than the first one but still quite challenging.

After that he did some myofascial release therapy on my thighs, I screamed my heart out ;)

In the afternoon I did my own training, started with 10 minutes of joint mobility and a few double c&j with the 16s to warm up.

After that I did 6 min of jerks with 2x24 and got 45 reps, not too bad considering my lack of GS focus.

Then I did 15/15 1A jerks with 32, followed by 15/15 with the 24 and finished with 25/25 swings to relax my back after the jerks (IMO very important, I'd never do jerks as the last exercise)

I also added a couple of sets of leg raises, headstand leg raises and played around with handstands.

In the end I did a joint mobility exercise that is quite fun and VERY fundamental: Getting up from the ground without using your hands. I tried lots of different variations and tried to get up from every possible angle. This ended up very similar to some of Scott Sonnon's stuff but I just improvised and did whatever I felt like to do. This exercise is really dandy for the hips and great fun too, I encourage everyone to try it! Btw, the follwing (excellent!) blog post inspired me to do it: http://www.sukiebaxter.com/?p=1

32kg Kettlebell Snatches 25/25

2010-04-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

After one week of no training at all (except for Qigong & joint mobility of course) due to feeling ill and an old hip injury that is still causing some problems I finally started training again yesterday.

Today I decided to do some GS style 32kg KB Snatches to see where I stand. Considering the fact that I was sick and didn't really focus on snatches except for some very low volume with the 16kg bell in my training I was very surprised how easy it was. I had some more reps in the tank but didn't want to risk ripping my hands.
Looking at the vid I think I must concentrate on keeping the bell closer to my body in the downswing (not that it's my only problem...)

Also, I learned that bacon & eggs, sausage, beans, coffee and chocolate are definitely not a good pre-workout snack... ;)

The Shaolin Workout - Some wise words by Shifu Shi Yan Ming

2010-03-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I re-read (actually, I should say skimmed through ;)) the book "The Shaolin Workout" which I bought a few years ago and which was written by (I would say former ;) Shaolin monk Shi Yan Ming, who runs a Gongfu school in NY. Actually, I had the honor to attend one of his workshops, I think it was in 2002, before he opened a branch of his school in Vienna/Austria. Honestly, I have never seen a faster person before. Yan Ming could kick his own nose so fast that if you blinked you missed the kick. More over, he has a very positive personality which motivates everybody to give their best.

So, lets come back to “The Shaolin Workout”. Besides a short history lesson about the temple in Henan province and its origins, the book is of course all about the 28 days workout, which teaches the very basic moves of Chinese wushu (wushu is a more acurate term for Gongfu and literally means martial arts), namely the typical stances, stretch kicks, short combinations and some joint mobility. While this is a great introduction for everybody who wants to delve a little bit into the world of wushu, in my opinion, the true gem of the book are the one page long daily meditations at the end of each workout day. These meditations are not simply typical sitting meditations (which Yan Ming calls non-action meditation) but tips and lessons that apply and should be practiced 24/7, the so called action meditations. While all of them are pretty good I picked a couple of quotes from the text that are not too long and that I really enjoyed. I hope you will too. Oh, and if I made you curious, the book is really cool with lots of great quality photographs and definitely worth the money.

Btw, of course the quotes will make much more sense if you read the whole text. Now onto the quotes ;)

To be relaxed in your body, and relaxed in your life, is how you live fully in the present, experiencing this moment, here and now. As you go through your day, relax. Stay loose. Be flexible in your body and in your mind. Enjoy your beautiful life every minute of the day.

If I want to do it, nothing is difficult. If I don’t want to do it, nothing is easy.

Everyone is handsome. Everyone is beautiful.

If you’re negative and lack self-confidence, other people can smell it on you like an old fish. If you’re positive and self-confident, other people can smell it like a blossoming flower. Positive people will be attracted to you.

Keep it simple. Flatten your heart. Be mindful of the beautiful gift your life is at this moment.

My body is a gift from my parents and from Buddha. I was given it to use. I will not waste this precious gift.

My life is a work of art, I am the artist. What kind of artwork do you want it to be? Create it!

Paradise is inside me. You create your own life. You make it heaven or hell. When you open your heart and mind to the world, the whole world opens up to you. When you polish your body and mind, you polish your life. You radiate calm, confidence, and peace. You’re living in harmony and balance, wherever you are. That is paradise.

I can’t love others if I don’t love myself. I can’t expect others to respect me if I don’t respect myself.

You can’t break bricks with just your mind or just your hand.

Whatever you’re doing, finish stronger than you began.

The person who has little wants a lot. The person who has a lot wants even more.

No matter how much wider your TV screen gets, it’s still the same old you sitting there staring at it.

Short but intense bodyweight leg blast

2010-03-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

As per request ;), here's the leg part of a workout I did a couple of days ago. Inspired by GS style timed sets, I did a 12 minute leg workout. That is 12 minutes straight without resting.

The workout consisted of different squat variations, namely pistols, crane dips (very similar to pistols but IMO with a slightly different feel to them), airborne lunges, lunges to the front and back, bethaks, conventional squats and cossacks. I switched exercises (or sides for the unilateral ones) every minute, and didn't really go for a certain number of reps. The important thing was, to make sure I worked through the whole 12 minutes without stopping (by the way, 12 is just a random number, you're free to work for a longer period of time ;)).

The cool thing about this type of training is, it is highly intensive (of course, only if you put enough effort in it ;)) and effective, meaning, you get a lot of work done during a relativly short period of time. More over, it can easily be adjusted to all levels of strength and conditioning, from beginner to advanced.

Finally, if you design this kind of workout, just make sure to rotate harder exercises (like pistols) with easier ones (bethaks), which will serve as some kind of active rest.

I hope I inspired some of you to try it out or create one by yourself! I'm sure you and your legs (or the body part you choose) will love it, especially the next day ;)

All the best!

Teaching Kettlebells

2010-03-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

At the moment I’m teaching two small groups of people on a regular base. One group is somehow advanced, the other group are complete novices in terms of kettlebells. While the advanced group is certainly more “interesting” from a technical and exercise selection point of view, I can see and feel over and over again how important the basics are to kettlebell lifting when I teach beginners.

As we all know (but more often than not forget), mastering the basics is fundamental to any kind of success, doesn’t matter what sport or task in general. The cool thing is, by teaching the finer points of the most fundamental kettlebell exercises, by repeating them again and again, by watching others perform and correcting them, observing the different body types and skill levels, I always learn so much for myself and what I can do to better my teaching and my own technique. The point I’m trying to make is, as Steve Cotter once said, one should always try to stay a student (in all aspects of life) first and foremost. This way, everyone will benefit and life stays exciting ;)

PS: I hope everyone noticed the manly weight I used in the second pic ;)

Oversplits, finally! :)

2010-03-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Some peolpe asked me to do oversplits, so today I decided to try them for the first time. Actually, they're not as hard as I thought and great fun too ;)
Pavel's concept of lengthening the spine and pulling the hips out of their sockets came in very handy and work awesome for this kind of stretching.
I wouldn't try this if you can't slide down into a split using your leg's strength only. Also, it is very important to focus on locking the knees and tilting the pelvis.

Enjoy, as Pavel would say ;)

PS: Unfortunately, the video quality is not the best...

Daily Qigong/meditation – working in

2010-03-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

In the western world, training is mostly related to training our skeletal muscles to grow bigger and/or srtonger. But same as our muscles, our inner organs also need daily training to keep doing their job the best they can. This can be done through deep and slow belly-breathing, which is one of the components of Chinese Qigong and of course meditation too. (btw, try to incoporate this same breathing in your everyday life too, besides other good things it will also enhance digestion)

In these days, most of us are stressed out with their jobs or studies (or both), in this case, strenuous trainig or working out, only leads to more stress for the body, especially if it is not compensated with relaxation and recovery techniques. Qigong and mediation can play a vital part here. I’ve been practicing Qigong almost every single day for a couple of years now and don’t want to miss the feeling and well-being I get from it. I’ve also recently started to incorportate some sitting meditation from time to time.

Many forms of Qigong also incoporate some form of joint mobility training, therefore they are also a perfect thing to do on recovery days or days you don’t really feel like training hard. I’ve also found that while practicing such things (especially meditation and to a lesser degree Qigong), you will notice that there will suddenly be answers to questions you couldn’t answer before, or you will be more certain on some decisions you couldn’t decide on.

I will link a video of a very basic Qigong form called “Little Nine Heavens” done by Steve Cotter. I think everyone who tries it will immediately feel some benefits. You can do it every morning afte getting up or right after your workout, or whenever it is most convenient for you. I strongly encourage you to start some form of Qigong or meditation! For meditation, there is a very nice blog post at whole health source, check it out: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/meditation.html

What about fruits and veggies?

2010-03-08T06:19:00.001-08:00

When we look at most nuritional recommendations, normally they share one common ground: lots and lots of vegetables and some fruit. They seem to be the holy grail and one can’t go wrong with them. Yet, many people who up their vegetable intake will suffer from bloating and indigestion. Consider this: Vegetables don’t want to be eaten, but they can’t run away to protect themselves so they had to find different strategies to protect themselves. And so they developed certain substances that can get problematic for many people. One famous example would be Steve Maxwell, who blogged about his diet about a year ago. He eats only very little veggies and generally avoids eating fruit. His diet mainly conists of some meat and dairy products and only some veggies.
Personally, I also don’t do too well on too many veggies, and I don’t go too crazy about them like I did in the beginning of my WD days. Actually, besides vitamin c, we can get ALL the nutrients we need from animal food in much better form, and the body’s need vor vit c is greatly reduced on a lower carb diet. I still eat quite a few veggies because I do enjoy the taste and variety, but I don’t freak out if one day I don’t get any. If you want to do further reading on why veggies may not be that good, check out the hyperlipid blog http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/ , which has some convincing arguments.

Grains – are they really the evil?

2010-03-06T04:49:00.001-08:00

One of the food group that should be avoided on a paleo diet are all kinds of grains (and legumes) because of their anti-nutrients and high GI. But are they really that bad? From my reading and experience with myself I have to say yes and no. In my opinion, most people would do themselves a favour if they avoided at least gluten grains alltogether, the evidence against them just seems too strong to ignore it (especially if one has some allergies, auto-immune type diseases or some kind of non injury related pain). Besides that, there are many healthy, traditional cultures that inculde(d) grains in their diet and do/did just fine. Examples would be the Japanese (especially the famous Okinawans, who also consume lots of tubers) and of course other Asian cultures too. But one should notice that their staple grains are the least offensive of the grain family, white rice, which is stripped of all the good AND bad nutrients. Also, the Kitavans are very famous for having excellent health while following a high carb diet, but their main carb source are tubers like sweet potatoes.
Since I’ve gone Paleo, I had grains a couple of times and every time the “outcome” wasn’t too nice ;) Even brown rice flakes, which would be one of THE holygrails for conventional diet wisdom left me bloated and gassy. So for me, grains on a regular basis are definitely out, same goes for legumes which result in an even worse reaction. I still think that this is not the case for everybody and many will do fine on certain types of grains. You really have to experiment with yourself and listen closely to the signals your body is giving you.
Personally, my main higher carb sources will be sweet potatoes and the occasional white rice.

For me, the most important takehome lesson is, eat real food with a tendency to the paleo approach. From there you can start adjusting things like macros, food groups and meal timing and notice how you feel.
Another tip would be to try to eat regional and seasonal. I think, besides modern, processed food and gluten, the huge variety of food from all over the world we have access to year around, can also play a role in why we suffer more and more from certain allergies.

My experiences with nutrition

2010-03-05T02:32:00.000-08:00

Over the next couple of days I’ll share some thoughts I have about nutrition, training and health. Note that these are mostly based on my experience with myself and the reading I’ve done. I don’t claim that it is true or will work for everybody.

Over the years I’ve tried many different nutritional approaches, starting with the typical high-carb, high-protein and low-fat diet, the Warrior Diet and some versions of the Paleo Diet. For me, if nutition was only about low bodyfat it never really mattered what and how much I ate as long as I was active. But over the years I’ve come to the conclusion, that nutrition should first and foremost be about health. In my opinion, everything else (weight, performance,...) will follow if one concentrates on achieving health. I believe that if one achieves a certain degree of health the body will naturally find it’s prefered weight. The rest (like body composition) just depends on your activities.

The last couple of months I experimented with the Paleo Diet, still using some high fat dairy like cream, butter and hard cheeses (so it was more in line with the PaNu approach by Dr. Kurt Harris), which have certain very valuable nutrients like CLA and Vit K2. More over I just love dairy although I can’t overdo it or I will become a mucus producing machine.

I was very excited about all the benefits peolpe seem to experience on this kind of low carb diet and was also kinda scared about the performance drop in the beginning, when the body switches from mainly carb fuel to fat fuel. Honestly, nothing really happened except that I didn’t get that carb related afternoon tiredness most get on high carb diets, but I was already used to that because of the Warrior Diet. Of course, my nutrition was already quite close to the paleo approach, so I guess, people with a bad diet will experience more drastic changes.

I’ve also found out that, in terms of food timing, I have a natural tendency to follow the Warrior Diet approach, having one big meal at night. BUT the big difference is that I don’t make a religion out of the undereating. If I want to have more during the day, I will not think twice about it. For me, this is the freedom Ori Hofmekler talks about ion his book. I’m sure that this will be very different for every single person, as some do better with a bigger breakfast, some can’t sleep with too big of a dinner and so on. This is highly individual, so please don’t buy into that garbage that we are all meant to do this or that. In the end it has to work for you and make you happy, not the pockets of some salesmen ;)

This was just a very general overview. In the next days I will post more specific topics, starting with my view on grains. Btw, if anyone has question on my exact dietary habits, feel free to ask. ;)

Headstand leg raises

2010-01-13T05:26:00.000-08:00

Want to train your lower back but don't have any kettlebells/barbells at hand or you just want to add another great tool to your toolbox? Headstand leg raises are an awesome and highly effective bodyweight skill to train your lower back and at the same time making your hamstrings more flexible. And the best thing: You can do them everywhere and you don't need any (or very little) equipment.

In the beginnig, you should start with your lower back against a wall. When you get used to this new movement it will be quite easy to transition to the free standing ones. After some time (I would say when you can do 10 - 15 reps fairly easy), you can add some weight to your legs. In the video I used 2 x 2.3 kg and it makes the exercises a lot harder.

Add hanging leg raises and maybe windshield wipers and you have a great core workout! :)

Great new article by Ken Blackburn

2010-01-11T07:14:00.000-08:00

IKFF's Ken Blackburn just posted an awesome new blog entry I think everybody could benefit from:

Plan Your Outcome

Historically, this is the time of year we all make our “New Year’s Resolutions”. We create all kinds of goals that will take us to the next level.
“I am going to lose 20lbs”
“I will go to the gym 5 days a week”
“I will reduce my monthly expenses”
“I will stop waking up at 4am, sleep walking to the refrigerator, eating half a jar of peanut butter and returning to bed looking like a deranged homeless guy” (Yep, that’s me)

Actually, my girlfriend says I look like a “gargantuan infant with a goatee covered in Jiff”. Go ahead…picture it…I don’t think it’s a compliment…ha ha

Read the rest at http://www.ikff.net/resources/ikff-blog.html

The BWE WTH?!? effect

2010-01-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most have heard about the kettlebell WTH effect, meaning that kettlebells enable you to do do things you haven't even trained for (for example, sprinting faster without training for it).

Well, there's certainly lots of truth to it BUT, in my opinion, the "BWE effect" is even stronger. A couple of months ago, Ido Portal wrote a very nice post at the Gymnastic Bodies forum http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2989

One of his conclusions was, that the carryover from bodyweight work to external resitstance training is greater than vice versa. Today I was able to see this for myself.

As many of you know, I train mainly BWEs at the moment, kettlebells only play a minor role. I haven't really done a kb press workout for months, but did/do loads of handstands, HSPUs and planche work.

Yesterday I got my new 40kg bell so of course I wanted to try it out. At the end of my regular workout, I did some swings, cleans and jerks with it, all felt very strong.
So I cleaned it and easily pressed it with both sides. I was really surprised because I was never able to press it with both sides and the one side were I could do it was with, lets say, not the best form.

I don't mean to say that BWEs are the magic cure for everything and, of course, to get to a higher level in any exercise, one must practice this certain excercise, but they certainly ROCK and will always be a staple in my training ;)

My new baby ;)

2010-01-08T02:27:00.000-08:00

I just received my new 40kg competition style kettlebell from kettlebell.eu. I'm very excited about it because it's the first time I ordered from this company.
The quality of the bell is absolutely amazing, especially the handle, it's the best I've seen to date.
Moreover, delivery was very fast and the packaging was very safe too (much better than what I was used to from other companies).
Last but not least, the owner of kettlebell.eu, Mark Dorninger, is super nice and very helpful.
From now on, these are the kettlebells I'll recommend to everybody. Go visit http://kettlebell.eu/ ! They have a huge variety of competition and fitness bells.

How to achieve the splits

2010-01-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

Many people saw my split videos on youtube and asked me how they could achieve this too. I hope with this entry I will be able to answer all the questions.

Note that my routine is based on the great works of several people and my own experience. I didn't use a single prescibed method but rather "absorbed what is useful and discarded what is (for me) useless" to quote Bruce Lee.
I used the books "Beyond Stretching", "Relax into Stretch" and "Super Joints", all written by Pavel Tsatsouline and the book "Stretching Scientifically" by Tom Kurz, which I like the most (by far), especially for achieving the sidesplit. If you dont know Tom Kurz, the following video will say more than a thousand words:

Both Pavel's and Kurz' method are based on very similar priniples but use slightly different approaches. The stretching method used for the most part will be isometric stretching, in the end of this post I'm going to link a few articles that will explain this method in detail and are helpful in general for achieving greater flexibility/the splits.

Now onto stuff that is useful for the real world ;)

To achieve the splits, one must build strength in the increased range of motion (ROM). Simply trying to lenghten/stretch the muscles will only work so far and it will take forever to get flexible. Remember, a strong muscle ist a flexible muscle.

Now this is done via two ways: The first and most important for beginners are dynamic strength exercises through the full ROM, examples for this are ATG squats, pistols, deadlifts, lunges, kettlebell swings, cossacks... (and don't forget to get a strong core and upper body too). Kurz advises to use high rep stuff like bodyweight squats first to condition and strengthen connective tissue and muscles.

After that, one should add resistance to increase the difficulty of the exercises and thereby increase strength gains. The most important thing is to always use the full ROM, if flexibilty is the main goal (there are some sports were limited ROM exercises are more useful, for example partial squats for high jumpers).

The next step are the isometric stretches, meaning moving into a stretch and tensing the muscles for a certain period of time, then releasing the tension and going deeper into the stretch.

For the sidesplit, I found that the best method by far is Tom Kurz' Horse Stance method (you can check it out in the linked articles). Don't get me wrong, Pavel's method works too but in my experience it is much, much easier to build the necessary strength with the horsestance, it's more comfortable and quicker too. For the frontsplit and open frontsplit (back leg's knee facing to the side), both use quite similar methods.

Personally, I like to do 3 sets of the horsestance, inbetween those sets I will do two sets of front splits in each direction combined with splitswitches (can be found in "Super Joints" and in the video at the end of the entry), which are very healthy for the hips and also help your nervous system relax and feel safe even more. Beginners could do some cossacks and a couple sets splitswitches in the beginning of the stretching session instead.

I do this 2-3 times a week. That, combined with the strength exercises is really enough. At the end, I always do some light stretches for the outer hips, quads and hip flexors to avoid muscle imbalances, but nothing hard/taxing.

So, to sum it up, don't do too many exercises, focus on a couple of stretches (front and side splits) and build strength and the flexibility will come with it.
I find that it doesn't matter if my strength and flexibility training are on the same or seperate days, I would say this is a personal choice, it never affected my progress.

Also, I saved the most important "tip" for the end of the entry: CONSISTENCY!!! Don't jump from program to program every couple of weeks and expect results. Increasing flexibility needs time and everybody is different, so allow your body as much time as it needs to adapt. Some people get it faster, some need more time but we are not in a hurry. Stay with it and you will get it. If you only stay with it for a couple of months and you don't achieve the splits, don't say the program doesn't work and jump to another one because the same thing will happen again...

Also, all the reading and knowledge won't do anything if you don't apply it in your training and work hard! To end with a Brucle Lee quote: "If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." :)

Here are the links:

http://www.stadion.com/column.html

http://www.trickstutorials.com/index.php?page=content/flexibility

And one of my own vids:

Good Luck!!!

Today's workout

2010-01-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

And to make the triple and give and example, here's todays workout:

a.m.: joint mobility and Qigong

p.m.: joint mobility

Planche Progressions (advanced tuck planche for 60 sec + a few sets of pseudo planche push ups)

Pistols 32kg 15/15 24kg 10/10 16kg 5/5 BW 10/10

5 sets of glute ham raises

3 sets of high rep deadlifts with 2x32kg kettlebells

(those were all done in between the pistol sets)

couple of free HSPUs

side and front splits, light outer hip, quad, hip flexor and external thigh rotator stretches;

Hindu squats to loosen up (got that tip from Tom Kurz, works great)

Also, I've found a very, very motivating article called "The Myth of Discipline" written by the famous Charles Poliquin, you can check it out at his website:

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=161

This article was posted by Ido Portal at Coach Sommer's Gymnastic Bodies Forum. I think everybody will benefit from reading it ;)

My Training

2010-01-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

I get many emails about my current training, so I hope this post will help to clear things up. The problem about giving away training plans/routines is that everybody is different and needs to adjust factors like intensity, volume,... to his/her age, training age, health and so on. Having said that, the following is just a short overview to get an idea about what I do at the moment.

I have been using kettlebells for quite some time now, together with bodyweight exercises they have always been a staple in my training regime.

In the past, my weekly routine consisted of 3 stength days and 3 conditioning days. The conditioning was mainly done with kettlebells, on the strength days I did mostly bodyweight exercises with added weight like pullups, pistols,... To get an idea about the exact routines, check out my old training log at the fighterfitnessforum http://www.fighterfitnessforum.com/ftopic9364.html It's in German but should be easy enough to understand most of it.

I made great progress with this but found that it lacks specialization for some of the goals i'm trying to achieve.
That's why I cut back on the kettlebells (for now), doing mainly swings to keep my groove and conditioning.

The rest of the training will be dedicated to bodyweight exercises, inspired by Dragondoor's new book "Concivt Conditioning" with some slight modifications: I replaced the One Arm Pushup with static Planche holds, which I will do 3 - 4 times a week, according to Coach Sommers plan from the (amazing) book "Building the Gymnastic Body". I will have 2 core sessions per week, consisting of hanging leg raises and variations, headstand leg raises (not included in Convict Conditioning) and backbridges. The rest of the exercises are the One Arm Chinup (OAC), Pistols (weighted and bw) and Handstand Pushups (with the goal of achieving a One Arm Handstand Pushup). I may add one legged deadlifts on the pistol days. All the exercises, except for the planche, are done two times a week, I will train 6 days a week. This is a slightly lower volume than I'm used to, I will see how it works out. The good thing about this is, that I can dedicate much more energy and focus to every single exercise.

Oh yeah, I do joint mobilty and Qigong (Little Nine Heaven system taught by Steve Cotter) every day and I practice my splits according to the method in Tom Kurz' great book "Stretching Scientifically" 3 times a week.

I hope this post will help some people.

Here's a video of me doing partial One Arm Handstand Pushups, still a long way to go ;)

You can also check out my other videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jingangquan

Welcome to my blog!

2010-01-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

This is my first entry and I'm very new to the whole blooger world so please excuse any "mistakes" I made/make ;)

As the title and my profile say, this blog is mainly about my training and nutrition. I constantly use my own body to experiment with different training strategies and nutritional approaches, always trying to improve my health and fitness. As one of my mentors, the much respected Steve Cotter said, I'm a lifelong student and if I find better ways, I have no problems changing my views. I hope my experiences will help others to achieve their goals too.

Now that we got over with this boring introduction, lets get to my first topic:

Last saturday I attended the "Nature training winter camp" hosted by Dominik Feischl in Upper Austria. Dominik is a very nice guy and an exceptional athlete and what he had prepared for us was simply amazing. (Here is his blog: http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/). We spent the whole day outside, doing pullups and its variations (handwalking!!!), strongman stuff like tire flipping and carrying, bulgarian training bags, hill sprints, running through the woods and doing some crazy stuff with tree trunks. The weather was freezing cold and after a couple of hours it even started to snow but every single participant was extremly motivated and the atmosphere just got better and better with every minute.

In the end of the day we all went to a traditional Austrian restaurant having our well deserved and needed "post workout meal", talking about training and nutrition (btw, the bread basket stayed untouched, more about my nutrional approach in one of the upcoming posts ;)). It is simply amazing how much I was able to learn from everyone, we were a bunch of likeminded people but everybody brought his individual ideas and concepts to the table. My good friend Harry also wrote about the camp on his blog, you can check it out here: http://mpbody.blogspot.com/2010/01/wintertraining-in-thomasroith-2009.html

Summing up, it was an amazing experience and I can't wait to attend Dominik's next training camp this coming summer. Also, there's much more to come from us ;)

Here's a short video Domink made on saturday, you can see me doing some tire carrying, doing pullups and legraises at the end of the clip.

A bunch of crazy people ;)