Formosa Fitness

There are four ways to work out: low intensity/low volume, low intensity/high volume, high intensity/low volume, and high intensity/high volume.

Now most of you know my opinion of low intensity/low volume efforts. This is for relaxation, recovery, etc. only. Almost no one I know should be working out at this level unless you're taking a recovery break. You don't need to adapt to this level of training unless you were completely sedentary before starting your exercise program.

The other three options all take some time to adapt to. But here's the key: if you don't commit to doing high volume or high intensity on a fairly regular basis you WILL NOT adapt.

Contrary to popular belief, my job isn't to make people sore. That's fairly easy to do actually. My job is to get people fitness results and that happens through adaptation. You adapt to the work you do. But if you don't do it and do it regualrly, you'll never adapt.

This becomes an issue with people that want to come in once or twice a week. I always insist that these people buy some of the equipment we sell to use at home because 1-2 times a week just isn't sufficient volume or intensity. What will happen is that the clinet will always be sore or borderline injured because the consistency is not there.

The methods I use are also pretty intense. That's why we only have 30 minute classes -- I pack a big punch in a small time frame. You must experience that intensity regualrly to overcome it and make the big gains that this method can bring you.

So those of you doing P90X, Crossfit, kettlebell training, or other fairly high volume and high intensty methods should be careful to make a commitment to the training. Letting things interfere with it and then trying to go back at the intensity and volume that you left it will not pay off in the end.

Contradiction in terms? Not in my mind.

I've been really restless lately with my workouts. I feel like I've been working in a little box that gets smaller by the day. And I'm not as happy inside that cozy little box as I used to be. Sure, the walls once provided a comfort -- boundaries can keep you safe. But I've always been interested in some things that I lately felt were off limits. Well, says who?

Years ago, I was interested in bodybuilding and that never totally went away. Lately the old desires have returned.

The reasons are many. For one, I feel some of my limitations as a trainer more and more lately. Fat loss circuits on the kettlebell are great, but in all honety, most people need to work on getting stronger. Increasing lean body mass is one major key to fat loss and that means strength training. Strength training also is crucial in eliminating muscle imbalances. Lately I feel like I've been letting some of those weaknesses slide.

Paul Chek's statement also still sticks in my head, "Isolate, then integrate." I addressed this in internal martial arts years ago and it's rearing it's ugly head again -- sometimes you need to isolate muscles before you can integrate them into full-body movement. 

It's a big problem when clients can't tense their glutes or abs in planks, for example. Or when I need someone to squeeze their hamstrings and they can't do it. Most people have never done anything like that. The feeling of the muscle must often be isolated and built up BEFORE it can be integrated but that's hard to do when you only have full-body exercises at your disposal. People need to feel individual muscles and gain control over them.

Then there's my personal desires. I loved bodybuilding when I did it. I LOVED going to the gym and the way it made my body feel. Sometimes the functional fitness stuff seems like we're just trying to make people feel tired.

The functional fitness dogma against the pump is one of the worst things IMO. Getting the pump feels incredible. Your body responds to training by making you feel tens times bigger than you are. If you've never felt it, it elating. And yet, us functional fitness people often snicker at it. Why take away one of the most pleasurable feelings you can get from exercise? Why do that?

So this is me thinking out loud. I've already changed my personal workouts and the classes a bit to reflect my current thinking. More to come soon.

Good name for a workout, huh? This is something I came up with during my workout this morning:

deadlift 10 (last few should feel really hard)

heavy swing 20

pullups (or chins) max

rest and repeat

I've seen few people that had a proper pull vs. push strength ratio. The fact is most everyone lacks significant pull strength.This workout hits that hard.

Now this workout seems to contradict good workout design by not balancing push vs. pull, but the lifts are different as is the emphasis of each. The deadlift is a lower body grind pull, the swing is a lower body ballistic pull at higher reps (I initially did 10 reps but found 20 worked better), and the pullups are an upper body pull.

This triplet makes a great workout ender or a workout by itself. So get to pullin'. :)

You're probably not. This is something I'm seeing more and more of. Do you get cramps in your feet when you stretch? Little muscle jumps and twitches? Catch a cramp on the warmup? Get dizzy when you stand up too quickly?

All these are signs that you likely aren't drinking enough water. And this is very common.

Hard training requires that you give your body what it needs and no, contrary to popular perception, your body doesn't need Pepsi Cola. When you train hard and don't get adequate water, you're just asking for trouble. You'll start cramping, you will feel dizzy, and your recovery will be greatly slowed.

If you're going to make the effort to train hard, why sabotage your progress with something like this?

But how much is enough?

You're going to need around 2 liters of water (2000ml or around 68 ounces) a day to stay hydrated. Hard training and weather/climate may demand more or less water. So ask yourself: am I drinking 2000ml of WATER (not coffee, not Coke, not "juice" or anything else) a day?

If not, then I highly suggest buying one of these:

so that you can measure your water intake every day.

Take it from someone that knows first hand: working out hard and not drinking your water can be a very bad idea. Don't wait till you've developed a health problem to take water intake seriously.

So here I am knocking it out. I had done the challenge three times in three days trying to get the clip perfect. Today's form was off on the knee up part. Each one should be 90 degrees or more and some of these are a little less. Plus the last 5-6 rows aren't perfect. But no more. :)

I'm ready to move on. So I'm going with this third try instead of trying to get the challenge perfectly.

It took me a few weeks of hard training to get it. The atomic pushups and low rows have a lot of value to them. They are great exercises to add to your program and only a fraction of the good stuff that you can do on the TRX.

TRX classes are going smoothly so if you are interested in it, give me a shout.

This is one of those things that makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Proof, once again, that the population at large is playing with very little good info on fitness. So here's your new "news" for the day:

"High-intensity interval training is twice as effective as normal exercise," said Jan Helgerud, an exercise expert at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. "This is like finding a new pill that works twice as well ... we should immediately throw out the old way of exercising."

Studies on intense training have been published in sports medicine journals and have largely been based on young, healthy people. Experts say more studies are needed on how older and less fit populations handle this type of exercise before it can be recommended more widely.

Intense interval training means working very hard for a few minutes, with rest periods between sets. Experts have mostly tested people running or biking, but other sports like rowing or swimming should also work.

Helgerud recommends people try four sessions lasting four minutes each, with three minutes of recovery time in between. Unless you're an elite athlete, it shouldn't be an all-out effort.

"You should be a little out of breath, but you shouldn't have the obvious feeling of exhaustion," Helgerud said....

Helgerud says the time people spend in the gym could be slashed dramatically if they did interval training instead. He said officials have been too afraid of recommending intense training for fear it would be too much for some people.

"I'm much more afraid of people not exercising at all," he said. "Inactivity is what's killing us."

When compared to people on a normal exercise routine, like jogging, research has shown those doing interval training can double their endurance, improve their oxygen use and strength by more than 10 percent and their speed by at least 5 percent. Even studies in the elderly and in heart patients found they had better oxygen use and fitness after doing interval training.

And yet 99% of people think that walking on a treadmill while watching Oprah some how consitutes a fitness regimen. And then they wonder why it doesn't work. 

Interval training is a great way to exercise. Start adding it to your regimen and watch the fat disappear.

Looking for a challenge? Here you go.

This is the 40/40 challenge. 40 atomic pushups followed by 40 low rows.

Drew Brees TRX game day challenge

The TRX lower body challenge. Three goals to shoot for.

March is burpee challenge month for me. The challenge is to do 50 each day, 5-6 days a week. So far, so good.

The burpee is a very complex exercise. I can use it to spot deficiencies very easily. Because of its complexity, it's also very good for hitting lots of problem areas.

Take, for example, ankle inflexibility. I have stiff ankles so I was turning the foot out too much as I kicked my feet up for the jump. As a result, I was pulling the inside of my knee and got injured. When I looked at what I was doing, I realized my error and started pointing my feet forward, allowing for a greater stretch, and the knee pain disappeared.

I also see lots of problems with the squat. A lot of times we can't get low enough and I'm still debating whether or not we should keep the heels on the ground or if raising the toes is okay. Heels on the ground would force people to work on their inflexibility.

Many clients have trouble with the "pushup" portion of the move, although I don't have them actually do a pushup. Many lack the upper body strength to do it, showing a deficiency in that area.

Others have problems thrusting both feet out and back at the same time due to a lack of core strength.

Finally, the jump is ....ahem.... a little less than one for many folks. This is due to weak legs or just conditioning. I like to see a fairly vigorous jump unless you're in the final reps.

I've found that isolating the problem components -- the squat, the leg thrust, etc. -- allows clients to improve on form, which in turn both increases movement quality and allows clients to do more reps. At this point, I'm starting to think of it as a movement assessment.

Take a look at your form and see what you're lacking. Improve those qualities and use the burpee as part of your workout to fix those problems. Have fun training.

One year ago today that we opened our doors. Thanks for all the support and here's looking forward to many more years serving the Taiwan fitness community.

Monday will be the first anniversary of our opening shop so it's time for some reflection on lessons learned.

I taught martial arts the first four months we were open and IMO it was a disaster. I managed to attract about four students in four months and that's not a sustainable path.

Readers from my old Formosa Neijia blog may remember that I argued for professional martial arts instruction in Taiwan and saw no reason it couldn't be done back then. I gave an example of one of my teachers that quit his bank manager job and became a successful full-time MA teacher. He was my model. Well guess what? His website hasn't been updated in three years, his schools are gone, and he apparently fell off the face of the planet. So much for my model of success.

Supporting my family is my main concern now and everything MUST be viewed through that lense. Young guys obsessed with nothing but MA can't understand this but putting the arts first in your life is a recipe for disaster long term. I've seen people that do that and I completely rejected it. The MA teaching either had to support my family or it was out. Devoting my life to "art" at the expense of family was irresponsible and I wasn't gonna do it. So it is out.

Can professional traditional MA teaching be done? I think it's extremely difficult now. CIMA especially doesn't satisfy any basic human need. There's nothing that it does that can't be done better by another type of training. Fighting, relaxation, health, etc. are all attainable by other modalities like MMA, fitness, or meditation CDs. As an art form, CIMA is unique in what it can do but art isn't at the top of most people's expenses every month.

Since art is the main thing, most teachers are teaching for free locally making it extremely hard to compete with them if you charge. I was trying to get people practical benefits but that isn't what most people want.

For example, I got an email from a guy who asked if I was a qigong master. I told him about the qigong systems I taught and what benefits he could get from the practice. He wrote back, "Yeah, but are you a qigong master?" I was a bit perturbed and asked him what it was that he wished to learn. He evaded the question and said that was okay, maybe I'd be a "master" one day and then he'd come study from me. How frustating is it dealing with people like that, hmmm? And he wasn't the only one.

The hardest lesson I learned from the experience is that when something isn't working at all, drop it like a ton of bricks and that's just what I did. Did it hurt? Hell yes. It was excruciating. Most of my identity for about as long as I can remember was wrapped up in that practice and without it, I didn't know who I was. But I had to find out and I have spent the better part of a year doing just that.

Fitness is a very rewarding career and my CIMA background colors everything that I do. I just taught an hour long lesson last week about the connections between kettlebell and MA training. And I could have kept going. That makes us unique here and that's a huge plus. I'm confident that uniqueness will pay off long term.

More to come.