Kettlebells are just a tool, but their myriad uses make them the best tool available. [Photo courtesy CrossFit Stars]

I’m a big fan of kettlebells. Kettlebells are by far the most effective and convenient conditioning tool around. I would choose a single kettlebell over a gym membership any day of the week. The freedom that the kettlebell gives is unmatched by any gym machine, and you can use a kettlebell to workout anywhere. You can use one at home if you’re in a hurry, drop it in the trunk of your car and workout at the beach on a sunny day, or take it with you on a week long boat trip.

Why Do Kettlebells Work?

Kettlebells are highly effective for a number of reasons. Here are my top three:

1. The calorie burn. Kettlebells demand the use compound movements, which work nearly every muscle in your body. This triggers a dramatic hormonal response that burns a lot of calories both during and after the workout. A 2010 study showed that kettlebell work can burn up to 20.2 calories per minute.
2. Cardiovascular capacity. Kettlebell workouts will challenge your cardiovascular capacity when you are in a “flow,” performing back-to-back exercises without resetting. Another study conducted in 2010 proved that kettlebell work can tax both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.
3. Explosivity, stability, and core strength. The kettlebell swing and the kettlebell snatch are ballistic movements that dramatically improve both strength and explosivity. Moreover, the off-centered handles of the kettlebell provide a continuous challenge for shoulder and core stability.

Having said all that, kettlebells are just a tool. They must be used correctly to get the desired results. Being lazy or having lousy form can hurt you. I can’t stress enough how important it is to respect the kettlebell and make sure that you get your form checked by a professional who knows what they are doing.

If given time to learn proper technique, the kettlebell can become your best workout buddy. I’ve had months when I was under a lot of pressure or short on time and all I could do was move around a heavy kettlebell for 10-20 minutes and that was more than enough to get a serious workout for the day.

Below are nine workouts (3 beginner, 3 intermediate, 3 advanced) that you can do anywhere using a single kettlebell. The beauty of these workouts is that they will take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Beginner Kettlebell Workouts

Weights:

• Male – 16kg
• Female – 8kg

Workout #1:

Every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 10 minutes:

• 10 kettlebell swings + 5 burpees

Workout #2:

5 Rounds:

• 30 seconds goblet squats
• 30 seconds rest

Rest 1 minute

8 Rounds:

• 20 seconds kettlebell swings/10 seconds rest

Workout #3:

For Time (time cap of 10 minutes):

• 50 kettlebell swings
• 50 sit ups
• 40 kettlebell swings
• 40 sit ups
• 30 kettlebell swings
• 30 sit ups
• 20 kettlebell swings
• 20 sit ups
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 sit ups

Intermediate Kettlebell Workouts

Weights:

• Male – 20kg
• Female – 12kg

Workout #1:

10 minute EMOM:

• Odd minute: 16 alternating single arm swings
• Even minute: 10 clean and jerk (5 each arm)

Workout #2:

5 Rounds:

• 30 seconds alternating single arm kettlebell swings
• 30 seconds burpees
• 30 seconds goblet squats
• 30 seconds rest

Rest 1 minute (including 30 sec rest from last round)

4 minutes, as many reps as possible (AMRAP) of:

• 1 Turkish get up (right arm) + 4 single arm kettlebell press
• 1 Turkish get up (left arm) + 4 single arm kettlebell press

Workout #3:

For Time:

• 50 right arm kettlebell swings
• 50 left arm kettlebell swings

Advanced Kettlebell Workouts

Weight:

• Male – 24kg
• Female – 16kg

Workout #1:

10 minute EMOM

• Odd minute: 10 kettlebell swings + 5 burpees
• Even minute: 10 kettlebell snatches

Workout #2:

10 minute AMRAP

• 10 suitcase deadlifts (right arm)
• 10 single arm swings (right arm)
• 10 snatches (right arm)
• 10 suitcase deadlifts (left arm)
• 10 single arm swings (left arm)
• 10 snatches (left arm)

Workout #3:

8 rounds for time (time cap of 10min):

• 2 Turkish get up (1 left arm + 1 right arm)
• 4 clean and press (2 + 2)
• 6 snatches (3 + 3)

Get a Kettlebell, Lose Your Excuses

These workouts can be done anywhere and in any space. All you need is a 2 meter x 2 meter area to workout. The better you get at handling the bell, the more creative options you’ll have with your workouts. The kettlebell gives you no excuse for not getting a workout in even if your day is as busy as hell.

Which weight kettlebell should you choose?

Sizing Up: How and When to Increase Your Kettlebell Weight

The post 1 Kettlebell, 9 Workouts You Can Do Anywhere appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

That would be enough of a warm up to tackle more than 90 percent of workouts if you’re a recreational athlete. But imagine if we could increase the quality of your training by 5-10 percent just by improving your warm up. Think about how that would add up after an entire year of training.

The mindset you bring to your warm up has a big impact on everyday performance. If you approach your warm up with a purpose, your training day will reach a completely different level. Structuring a warm up is important for developing this purpose. We can divide that structure into five distinct stages.

Stage 1: Answer Why

The most important phase of the warm up starts in your head. It begins when you open your training journal and review your goals. As humans, if something is not right in front of our eyes, we forget about it. That’s why it’s important to keep our goals in front of us all the time.

Start by reviewing your general goals. This happens by answering one question: Why am I here?

Consider these two scenarios:

Scenario 1:  You walk into the gym feeling exhausted and sore. You take the time to sit down and review your goals. You’re here right now because of one thing – you want to win. Having that in front of your eyes brings a completely different energy level and focus to your training. It is the small difference that makes a big difference.

Scenario 2: You walk into the gym feeling exhausted and sore. You put on your trainers, spend a few minutes on the rower, and mindlessly go through your dynamic stretches and mobility in an attempt to feel better. Then you jump right into it.

• Which training session do you think will be more beneficial to you as an athlete?
• Which training session is going to have more focus and intensity?

Stage 2: Answer What

The questions don’t end here, though. After answering the why, it’s important to answer the what. What are you hoping to accomplish in this session? There are usually so many different elements during a training session that it can be difficult to focus. However, if we focus on just one element, it changes the dynamic completely.

So for example, your focus could be, “I want to give 120% in the rowing intervals and walk out leaving nothing in the tank.” Or it might be, “I know I have a technical problem with my clean, and I’m going to focus on keeping the bar close every single time I clean it.”

Answering the what question gives us a small daily goal to work towards. The continual accumulation of these little goals will eventually take us where we want to go. This strategy gives us small victories to celebrate every single day.

Stage 3: Perform a General Warm up

The general warm up separates you from the outside world and tells your mind and body that training has started. It’s the time when you leave everything behind and shift your focus to the why and what. I tell my athletes the general warm up is like flipping a switch. The switch turns off everything else in the outside world and brings your attention to the task at hand.

“If you approach your warm up with a purpose, your training day will reach a completely different level. Structuring a warm up is important for developing this purpose.”

The general warm up is simple in nature. Anything cardio-based will get the job done. A five-minute jog, a 1000m row or even 80-100 cals on the Airdyne will be more than sufficient to break a sweat and get you in a training state.

For some people, the general warm up phase may be same every time, because the habit gets them in that mentally focused state. Others prefer to do something different every time, as they like to have variety in their training. For me, it doesn’t really matter what you do at this point, just as long as it gets the job done.

Stage 4: Stretch and Mobilize

I can’t stress how important this phase is. This phase ensures that we’re going to hit all the right positions within our movements. For example, if you’re overhead squatting today and your shoulders and lats are tight, good luck keeping that bar in the right position.

The problem I usually see here is that people don’t spend enough time mobilizing a particular area. An athlete walks in the gym, grabs a band, spends twenty seconds in a single position, and boom – they think that they’ve mobilized that joint or area for the day. Well, I’ve got some bad news for you. You didn’t mobilize anything, and you just wasted a good twenty seconds of your life.

If you haven’t read Becoming A Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett, I encourage you to. In the programming section, Kelly mentions you need to spend at least two minutes in a position for there to be any positive effect whatsoever.

For this phase of the warm up, mobilize anything that’s tight or necessary to perform a task for the day. You don’t want to spend sixty minutes doing general mobility work before a training session. Save that for afterwards.

If pull ups are your weak point, adding them into your warm up routine will improve them significantly.

Stage 5: Work on a Specific Warm Up

The specific warm up is where the magic happens. For most people, the specific stage of the warm up is where you do the exercises to warm up for whatever task comes next, and that is absolutely correct. But the specific warm up stage has a lot more potential. Dan John says “If it’s important, do it every day.” I’ve found the specific warm up stage is great for working on weaknesses while the body is still fresh.

For example: Imagine pull ups are a serious weakness for you. So you decide to put a small 1-6 pull up ladder in your warm up every single training day for the next six weeks. That’s 21 pull ups a day, five days a week, for six weeks. That comes to 630 pull ups by the end of the six weeks, and that’s just during the warm up. Do you think your pull ups will improve? Hell yes.

I’ve tried this countless times with my athletes and it works, no matter what the exercise or the weakness. If you do something over and over again, you will get better. And the best part is that you won’t even feel like it’s a lot of work because it only adds a couple of extra minutes to your warm up.

How to Develop a Warm Up Habit

The warm up is an important stage of your training that should not be taken lightly. Approaching the warm up with a purpose is a habit anyone can develop, but it will take time and dedication.

Here’s my recommendation. Implement stage one for the next week. Make sure you do it every day and never miss a day. Observe what this does for your training. Take a note of how you’re feeling and record it in your journal.

On week two, add stage two so that you are performing both stage one and stage two each day. Continue this pattern by adding a warm up stage each week onto your daily structure. By the end of five weeks, you will have implemented all five stages. Stick with all five stages for another two weeks, so that they become a sequence you perform automatically each time you set foot in the gym.

Breaking any task into small, manageable pieces makes accomplishing it simpler and easier. Beyond that, it all comes down to how determined you are to achieve your goal.

The post Ramp Up Your Warm Up: Prepare With Purpose appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Sports injuries are not a badge of honor. Some recreational athletes will push past their threshold and get injured, then push some more. That’s being stupid, not heroic. Progress requires consistency, and being injured is the biggest enemy of consistency.

If you’re already injured and wondering how you can still progress in your training, ask yourself the questions below.

What’s the Objective?

If your objective is to win the CrossFit Games or become world champion in any sport, then keep grinding unless your injury is serious. Competing is probably how you make a living, so you can’t afford to take time off. But even competitive athletes can only push their bodies so far before they’re finished. The wear and tear of competition often forces them to retire early. These days we have professional athletes retiring in their mid-twenties and early thirties. Performance and health do not necessarily go hand in hand.

If you’re not a professional athlete, you want to be healthy and continue training for the rest of your life. If you aren’t getting paid to do it, then you have no business pushing your body beyond its breaking point. This doesn’t mean that you stop pushing yourself, but if your body is giving you warning signals, listen to them. Stop training and go see a professional.

Listen to your body. If the objective is health, then put health before training.

(Source:  Jorge Huerta Photography).

What Can I Do to Reach My Objective?

The best thing to do for injuries is to avoid them in the first place. When they happen, they can leave you depressed and drained of willpower. They force you into a negative mental state because you feel that you are not capable of doing what you want to do. You can choose to wait around in that negative state until you get better, or you can find something that will allow you to make progress towards your goal.

Injured athletes at any level will benefit from identifying an objective during the recovery period that’s directly aligned with their original goal.

Recently, a good friend suffered a severe lower back injury. Doctors recommended he stay away from lifting weights and anything that involves high impact for at least three months. He had been preparing to compete at a big local fitness competition that will take place in six months.

After he was injured, we sat down and discussed the one thing that would bring him closer to his objective. The answer became obvious: conditioning. We decided that we would work on his conditioning through swimming and shadow boxing. Both activities are great for improving cardiovascular capacity and would cause no disturbance to his injury.

Another athlete at my box injured his rotator cuff and was completely devastated because he wouldn’t be able to lift for at least 3-4 weeks. We sat down and asked the magic question. His original objective wasn’t to compete – he just wanted to be fitter. His background was in bodybuilding, where it was all about pumping iron all day long. He wasn’t the kind that took mobility seriously, and this left him a little too stiff for his own good.

We concluded flexibility was the one thing he could work on to help him get fitter while his shoulder healed. He started going to a yoga class three times a week, and couldn’t believe the difference it made in the way he moved when he went back to lifting again.

Always ask yourself what you can do. Then focus on that thing in order to stay positive and keep moving toward your goal.

Does My Injury Demand Complete Rest?

Injuries that demand complete rest are not common. Most injuries in this category are spinal injuries, which usually require that you stay in bed for days or even weeks.

If you have a less serious injury, then train around it. Don’t be silly and go back to the gym and train through the pain to prove you are tough. If your shoulder is injured, train your legs, core, or even your other shoulder. If your knee is injured, train your upper body or your other leg.

Here’s an example of a training session for someone who has a lower body injury:

• 3×10 Shoulder Pass-Throughs
• 3×5 Bat Wings
• 3x (1-6) Pull Up Ladder
• Work up to a Bench Press 3RM?
• 10-1 Bench Press Ladder @ Bodyweight? (rest 30 seconds between sets)
• Accumulate 300sec in a Hollow Hold

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do without involving your lower body at all. This workout included strength, structural, and even strength endurance work. The same thing is true for upper body injuries.

Here’s an example of a training session for an upper body injury:

• 2×5 Wall Squats
• 3×10 Air Squats
• 3×15 Walking Lunges
• 6 Rounds of Air Squats: 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest

Rest 3 minutes, then:

• 6 Rounds of Frog Hops: 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest
• For Time: 800m Sled Drag @ Bodyweight

Don’t try to be tough and train through your injuries. Be smart, assess your limitations, and find ways to train around them.

Find a Way to Move Forward

Your mindset will determine whether you achieve your goals or not. Anyone who has achieved anything worthwhile will tell you that they didn’t get things right the first time. When they encountered a setback, they remained persistent, flexible, and open to feedback.

Treat an injury the same way. Be persistent about attaining your objective, but stay flexible and open to feedback about how to get there. Doing the same thing that hurt you in the first place will prevent you from attaining your objective. Find a new approach that allows you to accommodate your injury while still progressing toward your goals.

More on Injury Prevention and Rehab:

The Mental Side of Injury: How to Adapt and Overcome

The post How to Be Unstoppable in Spite of Injury appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Their success came from something much deeper: mindset. Any athlete who wishes to climb to the top must find inspiration from the greats and adopt these four powerful mindsets.

1. Expect Greatness

Legendary athletes knew they were going to be great before anyone else did. They saw it, felt it, and obsessed over it until they finally reached it. They refused to be put down or told they were not good enough.

Before Stan Smith became one of the biggest names in professional tennis, he was rejected from being a ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because event organizers felt he was too clumsy. But Smith refused to give in to the naysayers and proved them all wrong, winning Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and eight Davis Cups on his path to becoming the #1 tennis player in the world.

We live in an era where mediocrity is the norm and doing the absolute bare minimum is acceptable. We are consistently judged and expected to adhere to standards that are average at best. No one else expects us to be great; we must expect greatness ourselves.

2. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

I’ve never known anyone who wasn’t of afraid of failure. Tony Robbins once said that fear is “false evidence appearing real.” Take a look at all of the things you’ve feared in the past. Chances are, most of those fears have never come true.

Babe Ruth, perhaps the most famous slugger of all time in baseball, set a record for career home runs (714) that stood unbroken for almost forty years. But he struck out almost twice as often as he knocked one out of the park (1,330 times, in total). In fact, for decades he held the record for most strikeouts. When asked about this, he simply said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

Failure is not a reason to quit, it’s just feedback. Great athletes look at failure as an opportunity to learn, evolve, and improve.

3. Challenge the Status Quo

In 1954, the world record time for running the mile was 4:01. It had been stuck there for more than a decade, and many people thought this record was unbreakable. Medical journals reported that it was physiologically impossible for the body to run any faster.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister did the impossible: He ran the mile in 3:59.4. Barely a year after Bannister’s world-record accomplishment, someone else ran a mile in under 4 minutes.

When something has never been done before, it doesn’t mean that it will never happen. Great athletes are fueled by the chance to reach seemingly insurmountable goals. When people say that something is physically impossible, a great athlete sets out to prove them wrong.

4. Be The Hardest Working Person You Know

Working hard is relative and can often be a point of debate, except when it comes to the best in the world. The best athletes work and train harder than anyone else. Some might even call them obsessed, but you have to be obsessed to accomplish great things.

Kobe Bryant is said to have once showed up for a high school basketball practice at 5am, not leaving the court until 7pm. To win the CrossFit Games four years in a row, Rich Froning put in training hours that surpassed all of his competition. When Muhammad Ali was asked how many sit ups he did, he said, “I don’t count my sit-ups. I start counting when it hurts and I feel pain, because those are what really count and make you a champion.”

Obsessing about the amount of work you do is a prerequisite for being great. Training smart and taking care of yourself is paramount, but if you want succeed, set the bar high and work hard.

Turn These Mindsets Into Action

These four mindsets can lay the foundation to achieving your greatness. But turning them into actions that will help you realize your potential requires two concrete steps:

1. Set high expectations and unrealistic goals. Every day, tell yourself how great you’re going to be. Spend 5-10 minutes visualizing your success. It may feel unnatural at first, like you are lying to yourself about your abilities, but be patient and the tide will turn in your direction.
2. Remember all of the things people (including yourself) say that you can’t do. Make a list and a plan to start attacking them, one at a time.

Achieving excellence comes at a steep price, but you won’t get there at all without the right mindset. If we take our cues from the best of the best, we see their greatness goes beyond physical capacity or mental toughness. If you want to reach the highest level, you will have to expect it of yourself and accept nothing less. Know that you’re going to have to work hard. All of the time. Now get to it.

More Motivation and Mental Strategies:

• Find the Winning Edge: Believe You Are a Champion
• Is What You See What You Get? Focus Your Internal Camera
• Is Perfectionism Holding Your Training Back?
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Teaser photo courtesy of the Dutch National Archives | Wikimedia Commons.

Quote graphics by Breaking Muscle.

The post 4 Mindset Lessons From the Legends appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, if you ask people around you if they are truly satisfied with their bodies, their answer will most likely be no. Most people try over and over again to get the body they want, but without much success. Only the lucky few reach a point where having their ideal body is no longer a destination but is a part of their identity. So why do some people make it and some don’t?

The following five mindsets play a big role in why you’re thinking yourself out of the perfect body. Put in the effort to change them, and you can have the body you want for life.

To have the body you’ve always wanted, you need to get out of your own head.

Mindset 1: I’m a Logical Human Being

We all think we are logical human beings. After all, being logical is what separates us from the other species that live on the planet. But the truth is, we’re not always logical.

For example, you know you have several pounds to lose to reach your goal weight. But when you look at the dessert menu, you can’t help yourself but to order one, and maybe even share another with a friend.

Where’s the logic in that? If you were logical, you would think, “I need to lose a few pounds, and desserts probably won’t help. Therefore, I’ll skip dessert.” Right? But we don’t make most decisions based on logic. Most of our decisions are based entirely on feelings and emotions. Once you start to grasp this concept, you will take leaps toward achieving your goals.

Mindset Shift: Acknowledge your tendency to make decisions based on feelings. plan ahead to avoid making bad decisions on the spot.

Mindset 2: A Supplement Will Get the Job Done

We want everything to happen faster. Faster Internet, faster cars, faster planes, faster workouts, faster fat loss – it’s all about doing things faster.

However, the notion of “faster” doesn’t translate into other areas of our lives. Everyone is always looking for the new supplement that will transform their bodies without putting in any effort, a.k.a., the “Magic Pill.” The billion-dollar supplement industry is the driving force behind this claim, and while supplements have their place, they are not magical. No magic pill will give you a fitness cover model’s body without any work, so stop looking for it.

Mindset Shift: Let go of the concept of the “magic pill,” and know you will have to put in a lot of hard work and dedication to earn the body you want.

Mindset 3: I Need to Set Goals

Losing weight, gaining muscle, or other transformation-related goals top New Year’s resolution lists each year. But what happens when you achieve your goal? What happens after you get the body you want?

Failing to plan for life after you meet your goal is one of the top reasons why people fall back into their old habits after a period of dedicated diet and exercise. Once you hit your target weight, it’s easy to let loose for a bit. The next thing you know, you’ve put all the weight back on.

The people who maintain their ideal body for a long period of time make changes that become a way of life. The body they want is not just a goal, it’s part of their identity – part of who they are. That’s something that’s very hard to change.

Mindset Shift: Create a daily routine that makes eating right and training a sustainable ritual, not a one-time goal.

Ditch the excuses and get to work.

Mindset 4: I’ll Start When…

You’ve heard the excuses before: I’m going to start exercising in the New Year; I’m going to get on a new diet next month; I’m going to join the gym when I have some time after this project. The list goes on and on. This mindset is one of the hardest to change.

If you want a new body, take action now. Not next week, not tomorrow, and not even tonight. What can you do in this moment that will bring you closer to your goal? Maybe it’s drinking water instead of soda. Maybe it’s joining the closest gym to your house. Or maybe it’s booking an appointment with a nutritionist. Whatever it is, do it now.

Some of my favorite movies growing up were the Rocky series. The movies are full of priceless wisdom. For example, in Rocky III, when Rocky was slacking off and saying that he would start training seriously tomorrow, Apollo Creed responded with, “There is no tomorrow.”

Mindset Shift: Take the advice from Apollo Creed: “There is no tomorrow.” Take a step toward your goal today.

Mindset 5: My Plan Isn’t Working

If I had a dime for every person who told me they are doing everything right when it comes to training and nutrition, but they are not reaching their goals, I’d be a very rich man.

Let me ask you a question: What do you do when you get really sick? The logical answer would be to see a doctor. Let me ask you another question: If someone tells you they’ve been sick for a year or more, what would you tell them? The answer again is obvious: go see a doctor. Your body composition is directly related to your health and well-being, so treat your body with respect, and don’t take it lightly.

Mindset Shift: If you know what you should do but are having trouble with follow-through, seek help from someone who is already where you want to be or from a reputable professional.

No Replacement for Hard Work

To create the body you want and keep it for life, you have to evolve into the next version of yourself – sort of like you, but 2.0. Put habits and rituals in place today that support your goals. The body you want is not a destination, but a lifelong journey.

More Motivation to Get the Body You Want:

• The Real “Ideal” Body Type Is Up to You
• The Intelligent Athlete’s Guide to Fueling Performance
• The 2 Essential Principles of Lifelong Motivation
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

Photos courtesy of Mohamed Ashour, CrossFit Stars.

The post Why You’re Thinking Yourself Out of the Perfect Body appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I get this question a lot.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve hit a plateau because of your body type or genetic potential, because that’s simply not true. Just take a glance at any high-level powerlifters or Olympic lifters and you will understand what the human body is capable of.

Here’s the ugly truth. If you’re not following a well-structured program, chances are that you’re going to plateau sooner or later. When it comes to absolute strength, I’ve found that if an average CrossFitter hits a plateau, it almost always stems from poor programming.

If you’re not following a well-structured program, you’re going to plateau sooner or later.

Eliminate Other Elements

Diversity in CrossFit is a blessing and a curse. Focusing on one element can be challenging with so many different things to train. You want to get a bigger squat, a bigger snatch, a faster 2k time, and a quicker Fran – all at the same time.

This is definitely doable. If you tackle all energy systems simultaneously, you can make progress, depending on your athletic level and quality of the programming. But if you focus on one element and stick with it until you get it up to the required standard, your progress will be much faster.

If you want to get stronger, you have to focus on strength work. Take 2-3 months to do a strength cycle focusing on your weakest lift, and you’ll make tremendous gains. Doing a lot of metcons and work capacity training while on a strength cycle is a common reason for plateaus and lack of progress, so make sure you tone these elements down or eliminate them completely.

Use Tried and Tested Protocols

There are many ways to prescribe an effective strength cycle that are beyond the capacity of this article. As a simple recommendation, stick to Prilepin’s chart when programming for strength. If you don’t know much about Prilepin’s chart, I advise you look it up.

I’ll give you four strength workouts from my good friend and mentor Bobby Maximus at Gym Jones. These time-tested workouts are based on Prilepin’s chart and will work for the following movements:

• Bench press
• Back squat
• Overhead squat
• Deadlift
• Front squat
• Push press
• Strict press

The workout formats are:

• 5×3@80% 1RM

Rest 3 min between sets

• 6×2@85% 1RM

Rest 4 min between sets

• 4×4@80% 1RM

Rest 4 min between sets

• 6×1@90% 1RM

Rest 5 min between sets

The first workout places the least demand on the CNS, which causes less fatigue and risk when it comes to injury. On the flip side, you’ll probably make the least amount of strength gains when doing workouts that look like this.

This balance of risk and reward is turned on its head by the time you get to the bottom of the list. The final workout is demanding, will fatigue the CNS, and carries an increased risk of injury. However, you’ll probably make the most strength gains when doing strength workouts in this format.

Tricks of the Trade

The above formats show what the main lift of a well-planned strength workout should look like when paired with relevant percentages. But remember, these workouts are by no means all you should be doing.

In order to break through your sticking point in your next strength cycle, I recommend the following:

• Understand that linear progression works, but not forever. So make sure you do a deload week every 4-6 weeks.
• Don’t overload your body by trying to do too much work on other elements. It’s fine to do gymnastics or Olympic lifting technique work, but stay away from long metcons and endurance work for the duration of your cycle. You can do small metcons that are 7-10 minutes long, but limit them to no more than 2-3 times a week.
• Work your weakest link. I know it’s sometimes frowned upon to do isolation or accessory work inside a box. However, sometimes you need it to progress in a big lift. Simply stated, if the world’s strongest lifters at Westside Barbell heavily emphasize accessory work, we mortals can’t afford to skip it.

Raw strength is at the base of the strength pyramid. 

Raw Strength Is the Root

Absolute, raw strength is at the base of the strength pyramid. Give me an athlete with a high level of absolute strength, and I can increase his or her strength endurance, power endurance, and competition readiness in no time. Give me a weak athlete, and this same process will take a lot longer.

We all love CrossFit because of the variety it offers. But a CrossFit athlete who wants to get stronger must focus on the specifics of getting stronger. The more advanced the athlete becomes, the more this principle applies.

Put variety aside until you put that plateau in your rear view mirror.

More Like This:

• Don’t Get Stranded on Your Training Plateau
• 10 Ways to Plateau, Burn Out and Avoid Getting Strong
• You’re Not Getting Stronger Because You Don’t Know How to Move
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Mohamed Ashour.

The post CrossFitters: Stuck In a Strength Rut? Implement These Strategies appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The moment you start doubting whether you’ll able to finish marks the cave’s entrance. Congratulations – you have just arrived at a crucial point in your workout. The bad news is, this is only beginning.

The Worst Feeling in the World

Let’s examine the 2000m row. You start out and your pacing is great, so you think, “Wow, this is easy. I could maintain this pace all day.” Then after the first 500m, you start to feel a little tired. Your heart beats faster, you can’t pace your breathing any longer, and the voices start creeping in. At that point you start to doubt whether you can actually finish or not. You’ve entered the cave.

You keep going, trying to maintain your starting pace. But by the end of the second 500m, you’re absolutely miserable. Your legs and arms are sore and your breathing is completely off. And the worst part is when you look up at the erg and realize you’re only halfway.

Now the tone of the voices changes. They scream that you’re only half way. They tell you this is the worst feeling in the world and you’ve endured nothing like it before. You should just stop, right now. Your body just can’t take any more of this.

The next 500m will make you or break you. If you manage to survive, then you’re in the clear. If you quit, you’ll stay stuck in that cave and it will haunt you for a long time. You’ll always be scared of it, and every single time you start hearing the voices, they will take control.

The 3 Phases of Pain

The pain cave is not a pretty place. But if you’re serious about performance, it has to become familiar territory that you can dominate, not simply navigate. You have to be willing to throw yourself in the fire and suffer in order to get it done.

Through training myself and other athletes, I’ve found three distinct phases of the pain cave. Each phase has different action steps that can lead to domination.

Phase 1: The Entrance

When you leave the house in the morning and get in your car, you have to know where you’re going. Otherwise, you’ll drive nowhere. The same principle applies to the pain cave. If know you’re going to have a hard time, then you better have a really good reason for it.

“Before you get started, know this: you have to decide you will keep going, no matter what.”

Remind yourself of that reason before you begin. Write it down, visualize it – it doesn’t really matter, as long as the reason is in front of your eyes. The stronger the reason, the more you’ll be able to push yourself.

Before you get started, know this: you have to decide you will keep going, no matter what. As Mark Twight so eloquently put it, “Keep going. It’s not as hard as your muscle or your lungs are telling you it is.”

Phase 2: The Encounter

Once you are way in the pain cave and rapidly closing in on your threshold, the voices will start talking and your muscles will start aching. This is the part that will make you or break you, and this is the part that will finally define you.

You won’t be able to ignore the doubting voices, but what you can do is talk over them. If you just listen to the voices, they will eventually put you down. That’s why every athlete should develop his or her own power phrase.

The power phrase is a statement you tell yourself when you feel like the voices in your head are getting too loud and the pain in your lungs is becoming unbearable. It’s something you and only you can develop. The power phrase is your beacon in the darkness. It’s what will pick you up when your mind and body are telling you to stay down.

I’ve seen phrases as simple as, “I’m strong, I’m relaxed, I’m confident,” to ones as extreme as, “I’m a lion. Lions feel no pain. A lion keeps going.” As I said, the powerful words will be your beacon when you’re in the middle of the darkness, so choose wisely.

The second element you need to develop is the poker face. The best poker players have a strong poker face with absolutely no facial expression. Their opponents can’t tell if they truly have the winning cards or if they are bluffing.

The same thing applies to the pain cave. No matter how you’re hurting on the inside, you can’t let anyone see your pain. You must always stand up proud, keep your shoulders and head high, maintain no facial expression, and control your breathing. If the voices are your opponents, you can’t show weakness. Otherwise, they will crush you.

Phase 3: The Exit

As you approach the end of the workout, you’ll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Oddly enough, you’ll start pushing yourself harder because you know the end is near. Finally, you finish. You are proud of yourself, and you celebrate that victory by falling on the ground flat on your back or your stomach.

The truth is, you should never lose control, even when you’re out of the pain cave. You don’t know what’s going to hit you next. Practice walking with your head up high – victorious and proud even after you’re done.

“If you’re willing to put in the work every single day you walk in the gym, you will undoubtedly come out on top.”

A workout, or “the cave” should never beat you to the ground. I know your heart and body will be aching for you to fall, but you should never listen. Walk away and keep your head high, even though your lungs are screaming on the inside. Always stay in control. The more you practice being in control, the closer you’ll get to dominating the cave each and every time you enter it.

Practice Staying in Control

The cave is a horrible place because we hand over control. The moment you start screaming, shaking your head in doubt, and giving in to the pain is the moment you surrender. If you practice staying in control, the game completely changes. Managing the pain will be easier and you will feel more calm. As a result, you will be a more efficient machine.

When you give in to the pain, you tense all your muscles, which causes movement inefficiency. This causes you to lose control of your breathing, and finally the pain kicks in and takes you down. Practice staying in control. It will be your salvation.

The pain cave is a dark place, and successfully navigating it is no easy mission. It takes a lot patience and suffering. However, if you’re willing to put in the work every single day you walk in the gym, you will undoubtedly come out on top.

You’ll also enjoy:

• 3 Lessons We Can All Learn From the CrossFit Games
• Do Athletes Have a Higher Pain Tolerance?
• HIT or Myth? The Truths and Fallacies of High Intensity Training
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Mohamed Ashour.

The post 3 Strategies to Conquer the Pain Cave appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Motivation is our inner desire to take action, accomplish our goals, and fulfill dreams. For a lot of people, getting motivated is easy to start with, but staying motivated is seemingly impossible.

I’m sure you’ve all read plenty about goal setting and how to keep your goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound). However, you’ve tried that before and it didn’t aid you in achieving those goals. You have also tried going public and posting your goal on Facebook and Instagram, hoping that the public accountability will keep you motivated. But that didn’t work, either.

How do the high-achievers stay continually motivated to achieve their goals? In my experience, two main elements are an absolute must if you want to stay motivated all the time.

Strategy #1 – A Goal Big Enough to Keep You Awake at Night

Here’s the kicker. Most of us need external elements to keep us motivated. We listen to motivational speakers, or even find a daily motivational quote to try and ignite the fire within us. But why do we need to see or listen to something to motivate us? It’s because the goals we’ve set to ourselves are mediocre at best. That’s why I believe the “achievable” part in SMART goals is a disaster.

We are lazy by nature. If we set goals that are just achievable, we will only put in the effort needed to reach an achievable goal, and we will be lucky if we achieve it. Will Smith said “Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.” Being realistic doesn’t motivate and inspire. Being realistic puts limits on our imagination. Being realistic is the number one enemy to goal achievement.

Let’s go back in time a hundred years. If everyone had been realistic back then, we wouldn’t be where we are today. If we had told people back then that we would have athletes doing Ironman races, squatting over 450 kilos, running the 100m sprint under ten seconds, and running a sub-four minute mile, they would have thought we were crazy. And I’m just talking about human physical aspects here. I didn’t say anything about technology. Imagine if we had told anyone a hundred years ago about having an iPhone.

“Being realistic doesn’t motivate and inspire. Being realistic puts limits on our imagination.”

Here’s an action step for you – revisit your goals list. Look at your current realistic goals, and set new goals that are double, triple, or even ten times higher than where your sights are currently set. Whatever you do, don’t be realistic. The bottom line is, if the goals you’ve set don’t scare you, they are just not big enough.

Strategy #2 – There Are No Other Options

I’ve worked with a lot of people, from athletes chasing competitive goals to average Joes who want to drop a couple of pounds. The one common element is that they will almost always achieve their goals if they have no other choice.

Necessity brings the unimaginable out of us. You must have heard these stories before. An average woman lifting a burning car to pull her father from underneath it, or a man who just saw a car accident, ran to the car, and ripped open the car door with his bare hands so he can get to an injured stranger.

Anyone who has been to Gym Jones knows being put in situations that can make or break you is a daily and common occurrence in the gym.

It was my second year going back to the gym for my Level 2 Seminar. I had come off a nineteen-hour flight and was extremely tired and jet lagged. Our first day in the gym, we tested the 2,000m row. Back then my 2,000m row time wasn’t that great. That day I rowed a 7:08sec. The standard at Gym Jones was a sub-7min for 2,000m, and I was genuinely disappointed in myself.

Next day, I went to see Rob MacDonald, the general manager and training director at Gym Jones and also the coach giving the seminar. I asked him if I could redo the 2,000m row. Rob smiled, and right then I knew there was a disaster coming my way. He called everyone into the gym and said, “Ramy here is messing with my schedule. He wants to re-do the 2,000m row and we’re supposed to be doing intervals. So the way I see it, he has two choices. Choice #1: He goes for the row and rows a sub 7 – 2,000m. If he fails, he leaves Gym Jones and never comes back again. Choice #2 is to go back to his place and continue the day as planned, and I’ll just pretend that he didn’t say anything.”

“The question, ‘What will happen if I fail?’ needs to have an answer so big that failing ceases to exist as an option.”

At that point, I knew I had to step up. One of my dreams was to become a fully certified Gym Jones instructor one day, and right then, I knew that this wasn’t going to happen if I quit or if I failed.

Naturally, I went for it because to me I had no other choice. That day, I rowed the 2,000m in in 6:59sec. I was so tired and broken down afterwards, I didn’t say anything for the next hour.

Now imagine if you consistently put yourself in situations like these. Situations where you either achieve your goals, or else. What if your life depended on achieving your goal? How would you deal with it? How motivated would you be to achieve it?

The Take Home

If you want to stay motivated at all times, make sure the goals you set for yourself are big enough to keep you awake at night. You need to think about your goals consistently and obsess about how you’re going to achieve them.

And make sure there can be no other choice. The question, “What will happen if I fail?” needs to have an answer so big that failing ceases to exist as an option. Put these two elements in place and watch your motivation go through the roof – and stay there.

More Like This:

• Be a Thinking Athlete: A User’s Guide to the Brain
• 5 Things for Lifters to Stop Worrying About
• Why Motivational Memes Are Misleading
• New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

Photo courtesy of Mohamed Ashour,CrossFit Stars.

The post 2 Essential Strategies for Motivation Mastery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I’m sure you’ve all read plenty about goal setting and how to keep your goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound). However, you’ve tried that before and it didn’t aid you in achieving those goals. You have also tried going public and posting your goal on Facebook and Instagram, hoping that the public accountability will keep you motivated. But that didn’t work, either.

How do the high-achievers stay continually motivated to achieve their goals? In my experience, two main elements are an absolute must if you want to stay motivated all the time.

Principle #1 – A Goal Big Enough to Keep You Awake at Night

Here’s the kicker. Most of us need external elements to keep us motivated. We listen to motivational speakers, or even find a daily motivational quote to try and ignite the fire within us. But why do we need to see or listen to something to motivate us? It’s because the goals we’ve set to ourselves are mediocre at best. That’s why I believe the “achievable” part in SMART goals is a disaster.

We are lazy by nature. If we set goals that are just achievable, we will only put in the effort needed to reach an achievable goal, and we will be lucky if we achieve it. Will Smith said “Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.” Being realistic doesn’t motivate and inspire. Being realistic puts limits on our imagination. Being realistic is the number one enemy to goal achievement.

Let’s go back in time a hundred years. If everyone had been realistic back then, we wouldn’t be where we are today. If we had told people back then that we would have athletes doing Ironman races, squatting over 1,000lb, running the 100m sprint under ten seconds, and running a sub-four minute mile, they would have thought we were crazy. And I’m just talking about human physical aspects here. I didn’t say anything about technology. Imagine if we had told anyone a hundred years ago about having an iPhone.

“Being realistic doesn’t motivate and inspire. Being realistic puts limits on our imagination.”

Here’s an action step for you – revisit your goals list. Look at your current realistic goals, and set new goals that are double, triple, or even ten times higher than where your sights are currently set. Whatever you do, don’t be realistic. The bottom line is, if the goals you’ve set don’t scare you, they are just not big enough.

Principle #2 – There Are No Other Options

I’ve worked with a lot of people, from athletes chasing competitive goals to average Joes who want to drop a couple of pounds. The one common element is that they will almost always achieve their goals if they have no other choice.

Necessity brings the unimaginable out of us. You must have heard these stories before. An average woman lifting a burning car to pull her father from underneath it, or a man who just saw a car accident, ran to the car, and ripped open the car door with his bare hands so he can get to an injured stranger.

Anyone who has been to Gym Jones knows being put in situations that can make or break you is a daily and common occurrence in the gym.

It was my second year going back to the gym for my Level 2 Seminar. I had come off a nineteen-hour flight and was extremely tired and jet lagged. Our first day in the gym, we tested the 2,000m row. Back then my 2,000m row time wasn’t that great. That day I rowed a 7:08sec. The standard at Gym Jones was a sub-7min for 2,000m, and I was genuinely disappointed in myself.

Next day, I went to see Rob MacDonald, the general manager and training director at Gym Jones and also the coach giving the seminar. I asked him if I could redo the 2,000m row. Rob smiled, and right then I knew there was a disaster coming my way. He called everyone into the gym and said, “Ramy here is messing with my schedule. He wants to re-do the 2,000m row and we’re supposed to be doing intervals. So the way I see it, he has two choices. Choice #1: He goes for the row and rows a sub 7 – 2,000m. If he fails, he leaves Gym Jones and never comes back again. Choice #2 is to go back to his place and continue the day as planned, and I’ll just pretend that he didn’t say anything.”

“The question, ‘What will happen if I fail?’ needs to have an answer so big that failing ceases to exist as an option.”

At that point, I knew I had to step up. One of my dreams was to become a fully certified Gym Jones instructor one day, and right then, I knew that this wasn’t going to happen if I quit or if I failed.

Naturally, I went for it because to me I had no other choice. That day, I rowed the 2,000m in in 6:59sec. I was so tired and broken down afterwards, I didn’t say anything for the next hour.

Now imagine if you consistently put yourself in situations like these. Situations where you either achieve your goals, or else. What if your life depended on achieving your goal? How would you deal with it? How motivated would you be to achieve it?

The Take Home

If you want to stay motivated at all times, make sure the goals you set for yourself are big enough to keep you awake at night. You need to think about your goals consistently and obsess about how you’re going to achieve them.

And make sure there can be no other choice. The question, “What will happen if I fail?” needs to have an answer so big that failing ceases to exist as an option. Put these two elements in place and watch your motivation go through the roof – and stay there.

More Like This:

• Motivation: What Is It and How Do You Build It?
• Overcoming Self-Imposed Limitations: Mind Training Strategies From Gym Jones
• This Is Fitness: Move Beyond Instinct and Become Uncomfortable
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Mohamed Ashour, CrossFit Stars.

The post The 2 Essential Principles of Lifelong Motivation appeared first on Breaking Muscle.