Removing the negative

I have been training a client of mine who is an office worker. This guy is very athletic, and strong. His FMS show that is ASLR wasn't great and needed improvement.

So for the first phase of training (4 weeks), we hammered away at the correctives for the ASLR. Little improvement.

Than we got talking in the gym during a session, and I said half jokingly "all those hours sitting at your desk are helping your hamstrings". The next session my client comes in and tells me he got himself a "stand up" desk.

Over the following weeks ASLR is a solid 2. This just comfirms the point that if you want to see an improvement in anything, you need to first remove the negative!!

Stay Strong,

RB

The Marc Owens Medical Fund

Just a quick blog post today.

Please click the link below and make a donation to the Marc Owens Medical Fund.

Marc has a very aggressive stage IV cancer, and needs to raise €1m. Currently his fund has raised €200,000. So please support, donate to, and pass on Marc's story.

Thanks guys

Stay Strong

RB

Marc Owens Medical Fund

Lymphatic Drainage Technique Seminar with Paula Bergs NMT

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being exposured to techniques that can enhance the performance and health of our lymphatic system, by Paula Bergs NMT.

The lymphatic system is part of our immune system, and is basically a detox system.

The lymphatic system has multiple interrelated functions:

- It is responsible for the removal of interstitial fluid from tissues
- It absorbs and transports fatty acids and fats as chyle from the circulatory system
- It transports white blood cells to and from the lymph nodes into the bones
- The lymph transports antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells, to The lymph nodes where an immune response is stimulated.
- Lymphatic tissue is a specialized connective tissue - reticular connective, that contains large quantities of lymphocytes.

Paula was a wonderful and very funny teacher, and it was a pleasure to learn from her.

Stay Strong,
RB

Book Review: Ultimate MMA Conditioning

This is the best book I have ever read on Energy System Development. It is also the best training related book I have read in a long time.

Joel Jamieson covers all the details about the 3 main energy systems in this book. He outlines how the aerobic, anerobic, and alactic systems work, how to assess each one, and what methods you can use to improve both the power and capacity of all 3 systems.

Joel goes on to outline how he goes about improving the following using an 8 week block training system:

General Endurance
General Strength
Explosive Speed & Power
Power Endurance
Fight Preparation

The final chapter goes on to outline how Joel goes about programming for the 8 weeks coming up to a fight, which is great information also.

This book is in no way a "cookie cutter" approach to ESD, but is a book that gives you the blue-prints to be able to design an effective ESD system no matter what the sport. So this book is about a lot more than just MMA. Believe me. In fact I am of the opinion that if Joel were to re-name this book, more coaches would read it. I feel some coaches maybe put off by the title, and think that it is "just an MMA book".

The main point that I took away from the book was that you can not separate "strength" and "conditioning", as both should actually go hand in hand within a holistic approach to improving performance.

This is a brilliant book, that is extremely informative and easy to read. I highly, highly recommend it!

Stay Strong,
RB

Book Review: The Fungus Link

This was a book I heard Paul Chek recommend on the Underground Wellness Podcast show, which if you are not subscribed too, you need to subscribe NOW! Do it.....!!

This is a very interesting book by Doug Kaufmann. Kaufmann speaks about the role of fungal infections in human disease and illness, and makes that point that a fungal infection is nearly always in some way part of a chronic illness or allergies. He discusses the role if fungus in arthitis, digestion, respiratory disorders, depression, skin probloms, hearth health, allergies, womens health, and pain.

Kaufmann discusses the need for more doctors to study myocology (the study of fungus). He just like Dr. Hymann, and Dr. Liponis of Ultra-prevention believes the big pharmaceutical companies are destoying our health and are only concerned about keeping people sick for their profits. Healthy people are not profitable for pharmaceutical companies, remember that!! Kaufmann actual states that a lot of antibotics used by well meaning Doctors can indeed infect patients with a fungus. This then in turn can lead to a casade of other seemingly non-related health problems.

Kaufmann closes the book off with his Phase 1 and Phase 2 diet programs to eliminate a fungal infection. Fungus thrive on sugar, so Kaufmanns diet program is very similar to a Paleo type diet. Kaufmann states that for the most part, this diet had cured or at least relieved to a great degree his patients symptoms, and/or allegies.

This is a great book, and yet another I would highly recommed. I will be ordering his Vol 2 & 3 books soon.

Stay Strong,
RB

Book Review: Ultra-Prevention

This is a book all doctors should read. As it is written by two medical doctors, who have gone against the modern western model of medicine to treat chronic illness and long time health issues. Now in the opening of this book both Dr. Hyman and Liponis do admit that western medicine is excellent in times of acute life or death situations, but as a model for long term health they feel that a lot of things are severely lacking.

The book in broken up into three sections

Part 1: Modern Myths of Medicine
Part 2: The five forces of illness
Part 3: The 6 week Ultra-Prevention Plan

Part 1 would make for some very interesting reading to most lay people. For me I just found myself nodding my head in agreement with what both doc's had to say.

The Myths they dispelled were as follows:

1. Your Doctors know best - The doc's say they dont, and that most are heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.

2.If you have a diagnosis, you know what is wrong with you - They doc's say that this is bullshit! The doc's talk about a man who was diagnosized as having alzheimers disease, who really just had a case of lead and mercury poisoning. The doc's got this gentleman to stop drinking the tap water from his house (as it had a high lead content), and also told him not to eat fish that had been contaminated with mercury. This mans alzheimers disappeared. The man never had it to begin with. He just had the symptoms of alzheimers, but this was not his problem.

3. Drugs Cure disease - The doc's say bullshit yet again. They believe drugs only treat symptoms and not causes, and also believe that drugs designed to treat a certain illness can in fact make you even more ill due to the side effects that it may have. Like taking anti-inflammatory medication for back pain, but ending up with the development of stomach ulcers because of the side effects that this medicaton has on your G.I. track with excessive doses.

4.Your Genes determine your fate - The doc's say there is two types of genes. Genotype - your genetic blueprint. This cant be changed. But then there is a Phenotype. Phenotypes are the genes that are influenced by your diet, lifestyle, activity, enviroment, etc. These can most certainly be changed.

5.Getting old means aging - The doc's say with the proper nutrition plan, lifestyle habits, and mental clarity in place, getting old does not not mean aging. By this they mean just because you get older things like alzheimers, arthitis, and low sex drive do not and should not be accepted as just simply "getting old!"

6. Fat is a four letter word - The doc's dispell all the bullshit that most of us reading this already know about fat. Its not the fat people. Fat is good for you. The doc's are a bit cautious about fat from animal meat, but they dont specify their stance on organic grass fed/finished meet. Conventional meat I would be in full agreement with them. But again for the most part we would all agree with the doc's here.

7. You can get all the vitamins you need from your food - This chapter was the only one that suprised me. But the doc's did make a good arguement for the need and use of certain vitamins. They believe that with the enviroment we live in being so toxic that supplementing with some form of vitamins is probably needed in modern society.

In Part 2 the five forces of illness the doc's discussed were as follows:

1. Malnutrition (Sludge)
2. Impaired Metabolism (Burnout)
3. Inflammation (Heat)
4. Impaired detoxification (Waste)
5. Oxidative Stress (Rust)

Part 3 then discussed the doc's 6 week Ultra-Prevention plan.

Step 1: Remove

1. Clear the sludge
2. Elimanate Waste
3. Remove the rust
4. Cool the heat
5. End the burnout

Step 2: Repair:

1. Repair the digestive system and optimize nutrition
2. Repair and enhance detoxification
3. Repair the Rust: Oil the oxidative stress system
4. Repair immune function and reduce inflammation
5. Repair metabolism

Step 3: Recharge:

1. Restore normal sleep
2. Move your body
3. Stress management
4. Other Ultra-prevention techniques (keep a journal, etc)

Conclusion:

This is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone in the medical, health and fitness, nutrition, or psychology field. A very enjoyable and informative read.

Stay Strong,
RB

Trying to improve speed!

Ah! God bless their little hearts. With their weight vests, and bungee chords and whatever other gadgets they had.

A group of players the other day who do little to no gym work went out to do a "speed session". You know to get faster and all that jazz ;-)

Little do they know that if you want to get faster you need to get STRONGER first and foremost. And before you can get Stupid strong you better have some level of movement quality!

Speed and moreso improving acceleration as we know from Peter Weylands research is about the FORCE THAT YOU CAN PUT INTO THE GROUND. The STRONGER you are the MORE FORCE you can produce into the ground. Sir Issac Newtons 3rd law - " for ever action, there is an equal and opposite re-action". Good man Issac. Ive always said that your a sound man!

So lads listen up. Put your little gadgets and magic fairy dust aside, and get into the weightroom. You really want to know why you're slow. Its call "a severe case of weakness!" So get strong, AFTER you have the movement quality in place to do so.

So in summary - To improve your speed

1) Improve movement quality to at least the minimum of the industry standard which for me is the FMS
2) Get strong
3) Get more Powerful
4) Work Acceleration Techniques

The End!

Stay Strong,

RB