Formosa Fitness

Intensity is a learned skill. It's an ability to be acquired. Not everyone can work at a truly advanced level, but everyone can start where they are. That is what's required.

Wherever you are on the road to true intensity, you will get out of a workout only what you put in.

I have been writing more intense programs for classes lately with the idea of upping the ante. The idea is to create an opportunity for an intense experience. Notice I didn't say "to create an intense experience." I didn't say that because I can't create that experience for the client, just provide a setting for it to happen. The individual person must make that happen themselves.

Take P90X, kettlebell circuits, or whatever you consider intense and think about it for a minute. If I program 50 pushups into a workout, some people will consider that hard and some easy. But beyond hard/easy, it's up to the person to make the set intense for themselves. Some will say it's easy and do 50 lousy reps. Some will say it's easy and do 50 correct reps. Others will say it's easy and make the exercise slightly harder on their own, usually by focusing intensely on what they're doing. The intensity involved for each of these three people is very different. Only the last person likely got an intense experience, thereby priming his body for higher levels of training and getting maximum results.

Ironically, the same situation exists for the people that think the set is hard. It's hard, but is it intense? Not likely. The first problem is concentrating on the number 50. Many people will focus on the number only and skip doing correct form. Intensity is lost because the correct muscles and movements aren't even being trained. When I tell someone to do pushups and they hump the floor instead, they could do a million of them or 5, no true intensity is experienced and the set is wasted. The person THINKS it's intense but let's be honest -- the incorrect form is a way to ESCAPE intensity. Doing correct form is too intense. Or so they feel. So hard and intense are often confused.

Not everyone can or will accept this path towards building intensity. Not everyone will get it. It takes courage to put the ego aside and admit that you've been doing "junk volume" that is just a bunch of low quality work.

So when you're doing P90X or whatever, focus on keeping the intensity of the experience as number one, not reaching a number. Internal measures, not external ones, are the key to progress.

  Edit: ugh, I'm not explaining this very well. Much easier in person.

This is a clip from a new video aimed at trainers on the lunge. Many of you will recognize most of these moves from our classes.

Why do I make every single client in every single group or private session lunge? Of all the basic human motor patterns, lunge is usually the first one to go and needs the most work.

Those of you who are not trainers would be shocked at the number of people that can't lunge safely, let alone productively. And I should know because I couldn't do it either at one time. This was one of those movements that I never did in the gym. I've harped constantly on this blog about "work on what you can't do" and that attitude comes from my past experience. I couldn't lunge correctly so I put this movement into the don't-do-it-because-it-hurts category. But then I started working on it, the pain cleared up and now I not only lunge safely, but I can actually use heavy weights with it to produce results.

From what I can tell training clients, the lunge as a movement pattern starts to deteriorate in the early 30's for most people. As it gets worse, the squat starts getting effected. And then people gravitate towards machines that don't require them to lunge or squat leading to a downward spiral as far as movement goes.

Fight that spiral by learning to lunge. Maintain those movement patterns if you want longevity!

Some of you may have noticed in this clip I put up a while back that my knees didn't always come up to 90 degrees, let alone past it. Some might have criticised me for poor form and it was a bit off that day. But one point of note: my TRXs hang from the wall, not the ceiling, and this is very important in progressing TRX exercises.

Free hanging vs. wall hanging makes a big difference. If you hang from the ceiling, you can start your exercises with the feet directly under the connection point or even shallower. I mean shallower in the sense that you could start the exercises with your feet behind the connection point, meaning that gravity will assist you in bringing the feet towards center. The TRX wants to fall directly under the connection point to the ceiling due to gravity. If you're doing atomic pushups or other exercises where the feet come into the body, having the feet behind that center point will make them easier.

Conversely if your feet are in front of the connection point (as they must be if it's attached to the wall) then the exercise will be much harder. This is so because you're fighting gravity the whole way. And the further you get from the connection point, the more resistance you will encounter.

It's called the pendulum principle. Here's the official explanation:

So where and how you hang the TRX can greatly effect the difficulty of the exercises. Hope this helps.

I get requests like this from time to time and I used to do this, but no more. I've learned that it's not a good idea.

So as a general rule, I don't write programs for free for people I don't know because no one has made a commitment to the training. People haven't come in and see what I do, I haven't seen their conditioning, diet, and specific lifestyle, etc. and so there's no relationship of trust there nor is there any meaningful info for me to work from.

Second, programs almost always have to be tweaked using feedback from the client and what I as the coach see. Without that, none of this works very well.

Finally, most people don't stick with generic programs anyway because they may not understand the exercises or the other variables mentioned and may implement them incorrectly. They also usually won't stick with it because there is no coach that has taken the responsibility to fix the problems and progress the client towards results. That's what I do, in person, at the gym.

As I'm learning, coaching is an art and there are more variables than people realize in designing programs. The coach-client relationship is one of the most important of those variables and it has to be there for a program to take shape. If I don't trust the client to do what I say do and the client doesn't trust me to know what I'm talking about, then a generic program sent through email or written on a forum would just be a waste of my time and the client's.

If a client wants to establish a training relationship through email or other online means, then that's different. But it won't be free.

Live and learn.  

That's all I wanted to do yesterday for my leg workout and that's just what I did. I jumped rope for about 2-3 minutes and then did 14-20 reps of deadlifts on a relatively light weight, around 120lbs. or so. Rinse and repeat for 30+ minutes.

It was great and a good example of simplicity in a workout. I never stopped moving for over 30 minutes and got a real sense of fulfillment out of it.

I didn't want to go heavy on the deadlift at all. Deadlift is one lift that will knock you out if you go heavy. It will wipe you out and I just didn't want to feel that way. I wanted to feel good so I went light. Loved it.

The combo was easy to manage so I could keep up a constant pace.

I have 2-3 of these types of simple workouts that I fall back on when my mind needs to take a break from all the complex programming. Worrying about sets, reps, ladders, etc. can be a real pain in the butt sometimes. Sometimes we just need to go into the gym and enjoy moving.

This idea that gyms must be open 24/7 is prevalent now in US because some gyms made opening hours like that their business model many years ago. And I often get requests or complaints that I don't offer an open gym membership. Thing is, I've thought about it many, many times and I just can not wrap my head around doing it. In fact, I'm fairly convinced such models are killing gyms.

Think about it for a minute: if I want to be open from 6am to 12am everyday, how many employees would I need to hire just to watch the gym? At least four by my count. Could I afford to hire top-notch coaches to watch the gym and assist members for that time? Haha, yeah right. I'd have to hire teenagers that couldn't get a job at McDonalds like everyone else. Ever wonder why the counter girl at your gym is completely clueless?

So I'd have to hire teenagers to watch the club and I'd have to have a TON of customers just to pay their salaries plus rent. Volume alone drives many of the mainstream gyms. Customers become nameless, faceless individuals. Right now, I know by first name every single one of my clients. I know their strengths and weaknesses, and their goals. Not so in a 24/7 commercial gym. 

Because volume drives the model, the salesmen are the first or second highest paid employees, NOT the trainers. The trainers are snot-nosed kids most of the time. The gym can't afford better. Have to drive that volume. So the gym makes money off selling memberships -- not from giving good workouts and services. Once you sign up, the gym hopes you WILL NOT come in since you'll use the equipment, contributing to wear and tear that means equipment will have to be replaced. I'd have to use the same model to stay open 24/7.

This would affect my equipment selection. Kettlebells, power clubs, barbells, etc. are skilled fitness tools. You need skills to use them. That means instruction and a system to provide it. The quality of training MUST be higher. You can't just set lose a typical client in a gym full of kettlebells and barbells. They won't have a clue what to do.

So I'd have to start getting machines because they allow the unitiated to, ahem, "workout." They are far less likely to hurt themselves on machines that hold the weight for them and guide the motions.

So hey, how about that great neck machine over there in the corner? Isn't it great? And only costs about US$2000 to buy and it works ONE body part. Wow, what a bargain. And permanently takes up about 9 square feet, too. Awesome since rent is free, right? Hey, I'll take a dozen or so. Got the pocket money right here.

Since I've been open I've made myself a student of the gym business. IMO the above scenario is an absolutely insane way to run a gym. Most of these big box gyms that use this model are barely breaking even. They cut each others throats in price wars by charging US$8 or less a month and compete to see who can offer the least service. Yeah, no thanks.

By focusing on small classes and personal training clients, I keep the costs waaaaay down and offer a level of service the big boxes can never give. Okay, maybe we don't have spas and all that but I'm not focusing on everyone as a client anyway. The fact is I need a fraction of the customers a big box needs to stay profitable and I get to have a relationship with everyone that comes in. I wouldn't ever trade that for 24/7 opening hours and faceless clients.

So now you know why we operate the way we do. I hope this peak behind the curtain has been informative.

So the trainer world was all abuzz last month about android applications (I thought they were talking about R2-D2 from Star Wars) and random workout generators. If you didn't have an I-Phone or android app for your clients you were some sort of loser or something. Sorry but I didn't want that cutting edge to slice my throat. LOL.

This nonsense is one thing that's wrong with the fitness industry. These apps often just generate a random workout that the, ahem, "client" then does.

Technology is not the answer, folks. Neither a trainer nor their programming can be replaced by a random workout generator. If that was all we did, then by all means fire us. But it isn't. And providing some sort of "workout" using such technology is NOT the answer.

Look, making people tired isn't hard. If that's what you want, then grab your weight and run around the block until you drop. There, you now owe me US$100 for the "program" I just gave you. Cash or check?

Exercise selection based on the client standing there in front of you, queing each exercise and correcting errors, adjusting programs, etc. these are all things that only real live flesh and blood humans can do. Sorry. Your I-Phone isn't that smart and no, Steve Jobs can't replace that.  

Getting and especially staying fit is a long term journey filled with all the intricacies of being human. Let's treat it like it means something, for goodness sakes. Don't settle for a generic program that was randomly generated by a phone. And realize that on that journey, it sometimes helps to have a guide in the form of a coach -- someone with the knowledge to get you unstuck in the journey.You can't replace a human trainer.

I've lost it and don't know where to find it. My pressing strength, that is. I was able to military press the 32kg kettlebell for 5L/5Rx3 sets a while back but no more. I tried twice this week and got 3R/0L. Ugh...

I don't know what happened. I guess maintaining this milestone got lost in the shuffle.

I put up the 28kg kettlebell for 4L/4Rx5 sets today no problem. But I can't get the 32kg out of rack position on the left. I tried again after the workout and managed 2 on the left but the second one was shaky.

Double military press is the same. I can do double 24kg kettlebells for reps but can't get double 28kg out of the rack position. If you can't do it even once...

Part of the problem in the double miltary press is likely the weight difference. Double 28's are about 20lbs. heavier than double 24's (8kg difference). That's one heck of a weight jump.

Back to the drawing board.

These are my updated prices as of April 4th, 2010. Edit: slight changes below. Please take note. These are CASH ONLY prices if you come pick the kettlebell up yourself. No shipping.

基本壺鈴

4kg 4公斤 NT$600 or 2 for NT$1000

8kg 8公斤 NT$1500

12kg 12公斤 NT$2500

16kg 16公斤 NT$3000

20kg 20公斤 NT$3500

24kg 24公斤 NT$4000

28kg 28公斤 NT$4500

32kg 32公斤 NT$5500

Competition models 專業壺鈴

16kg 16公斤 NT$4000

24kg 24公斤 NT$5000

Does anyone think they'll get this result

by working out like this?

I hope not.

If you have a goal (and you'd better) then the method must match that goal. Otherwise, you're on the path to no where. If you want to look amazing, be prepared to do a hell of a lot more work that using pink dumbells. If you want to be a powerlifter, don't train like a bodybuilder.

Most people don't realize that their method (assuming they have one) will NEVER get them the results they want. NEVER. The intensity and proper exercise selction just isn't there.

Decide a goal and find the path towards it. Check the progress now and then. Are you climbing the mountain or circling the base of it?