Lyonhart Fitness

Writing Your Story

A quick thought for today:

Purpose. What are you living for?

Truth. Are your beliefs grounded on reliable data?

Action. What are you doing to align your day-to-day life to your ultimate purpose?

These are the elements of your story.

Does your story move you? 

Take time, in quiet solitude, to examine your life.

Are you really living with a purpose that inspires you?

Can you articulate the truth you base you life upon?

Are all of your actions in accord with your intentions?

Take charge of your story and live it to the fullest!

 

3 Steps to Higher Movement Quality

Real, holistic, health-first fitness is not just about moving heavier weights, doing more reps, and ‘pumping up’ your muscles.  Think about it, most exercises in modern fitness systems are so simple to the point of mind-numbing boredom.  I mean really, how many push-ups, sit-ups, bicep curls, treadmill runs, or whatever, can you do and not feel like there should be something more.  Listen to that intuition because it’s your body screaming at you that it is craving sophistication in your fitness.  Doing the same things over and over and over may yield results at first but eventually will lead to diminishing returns.  You must step up to the next level! 

Here’s how:

1.  Learn the Technique:  Once you have chosen to start on a CST program, begin at the beginning.  Start at the most basic level, even if it seems too easy, and learn all the fine points of the technique

2.  Train with Intensity:  When you feel confident in all the details of the technique then it’s time to turn on the juice.  Ratchet up the exertion level to attain a training effect.

3.  Increase the Level of Sophistication:  When you are performing at high intensity and start to feel that it is becoming easier for you to handle it is time to consider moving up in complexity.  In essence you are returning to Step 1 and learning the technical variations of the next level.

Repeat this process in an incremental process (baby steps!) and you will find yourself feeling and moving better than you ever have before!

For a perfect entry-level resource to learn this fundamental CST concept you can do no better than checking out the FlowFit DVD.  Or if you are ready to move on to the next level then step up to the incredible sequel: FlowFit II.

Get  Forward Pressure  to apply this protocol to a specific plane of motion – and learn some awesome sophistications on the basic, tired old push-up.

If you want comprehensive program that will bring you incredible attribute development AND superior movement sophistication then get started with the program that more and more military, law enforcement and first responders are using:  TACFIT

 Be well.

Jeff

Competition Is Healthy

This is so true on many levels of human endeavor.  Competition is not destructive but absolutely necessary for real growth.  Without it we remain linear and stagnant, which in reality means we deteriorate and die.

Read this blog post to get a pretty accurate perspective on the value of competition:

Competition Breeds Success

I challenge you to find your external motivator that will push you beyond you self-imposed, debilitating limitations.  This is a universal requirement for anyone to reach their true full potential.
It could be your friends, training partners or a carefully chosen coach. 
Don't neglect this important aspect of your training.

Be Well.

Jeff

Smart Practice: Violin and Running

As one who has a foot in both worlds, I firmly believe that there are many parallels between being a musician and being an athlete.  The lessons and methods learned in one of these pursuits can quite easily be applied to the other.  This may seem in congruous on the surface as they have such different manifestations on the superficial level.  But at the core true musicianship and true athletic endeavor share the core value of FLOW.

Here is one example of what I am talking about from the blog of Danny Dreyer, founder of ChiRunning and ChiWalking.  Check it out HERE.

How is ChiRunning Like Playing the Fiddle?

Funny you should ask that. I was just out running this morning and came up with the answer.

Since I moved here to Western North Carolina almost three years ago, I’ve been learning how to play the fiddle (when in Rome…). I have a great fiddle teacher named Jamie Laval and I highly suggest you check out his website if you’re interested in any form of Celtic or Scottish music. He’s one of the best around.

I’m still very much a beginning fiddle student and so Jamie has me do these great warm-up exercises where I’m learning finger placement. I begin by playing one note at a time with my first finger, and then matching it with an accompanying string so that I get the right pitch. Then I do the same thing with my second finger and so on until a four fingers of my left hand have practiced their respective positions on all four strings. When I can hit a good pitch with all 16 notes I get to move onto playing the songs I’m learning. What this does is get my fingers to always land on the right spot on the finger board so that playing the song is much more fluid and  accurate. I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my playing when I do these warm-up exercises.

So, I was out on my run this morning doing my 1-minute intervals on the trail. It was a one-hour run and I started out the first five minutes pretty easy and then got into alternating one minute of race pace focuses with one minute of easy resting pace. As I progressed through my workout, I noticed that my body was feeling more and more relaxed and the speed intervals were feeling easier and easier. So, I started doing 2-minute race focus intervals with one minute of rest. Throughout my run I gradually increased the length of the fast intervals and kept the resting intervals at one minute. By the end of my run I finished the last ten minutes at race pace feeling very little effort because I’d spent the better part of the run warming up and working on focuses.

My goal is to get to the point where I can run at race pace for an hour without stopping for a rest break. My race is at the end of August, so I don’t see any problem with working my way up to that. And, as you can see, it is absolutely the same thing I’m doing with my fiddle practice. It’s built on the premise that if you do your technique work up front, the rest just falls into place. I meet many people who think that speed comes strictly from strength and I couldn’t disagree more. Speed with running, just like speed with the fiddle, comes with efficiency, accuracy, and most of all relaxation. If you don’t have all three, you’re going to have to work harder to get that speed you’re looking for. It doesn’t matter whether you’re watching Salina Kosgei (the Kenyan woman who won this year’s Boston Marathon) or Itzak Perlman, they’re both doing the same thing underneath it all.

Be Well.

Jeff

Announcing Lyonhart Distance Coaching

I'm pleased to announce an exciting new service I'm providing through Lyonhart Fitness. Whether your goal is weight loss, enhance sport or activity-specific performance, or optimal fitness for all of your life, I am here to help you reach them. The fact is everyone needs accountability and someone to guide them to go beyond their limitations. I would be honored to work with you in an intensive one-on-one coaching relationship with the . . .

Lyonhart Fitness Distance Coaching

Quality distance coaching provided by certified CST Coach Jeffry C. Larson:

• Customized program design

• Monitoring of daily workout blog

• Weekly feedback via email

• Weekly video evaluation (via YouTube or other video hosting site)

• Video tutorial of customized exercises and/or compensations

• 4 or 6 week programs with an option to build into longer-term Training Hierarchy Pyramid

• Contact me for more information and rate quote: Jeffry.Larson@LyonhartFitness.com

 

Be Well.

Jeff

Workout Time Management - Part Two

OK, maybe now you are ready for the next level of time investment into your daily personal practice. You want to feel better, move better and live better and you are able to devote 20 minutes a day to making that happen. That’s all you need – a block of 20 minutes sometime in the 24 hours of your day. Again, maybe you wake up a bit earlier or maybe you finally decide to watch a little less TV at night. Wherever you find the time just be sure to commit to it fully. Make an iron-clad appointment with yourself and don’t skip it no matter what.

Instead of multiple modalities in your time block, like I talked about in the last post, now you are going to devote the entire 20 minutes exclusively to one of the 3 rings of Circular Strength Training. You will further categorize your workouts according to intensity as measured by the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale of 1-10. What you will end up with is a 4-day cycle that looks like this:

Day 1:  20 minutes – Intu-Flow Joint Mobility: Cardinals and Circles, Head-to-Toe, Core to Periphery  – RPE=1-2

Day 2:  20 minutes – Prasara Yoga: poses such as Forward Fold, Down Dog, Upward Dog, Sleeping Warrior, Prone Scorpion, Spinal Twist, Corpse Pose, each pose 30-60 seconds with slow and smooth transitions in between – RPE=3-5

Day 3: 20 minutes – Bodyweight exercises or Clubbell routine: at the most basic level is the Golden Three (Trinity Squat, Quad Hop, Spinal Rock) chained together in continuous motion -
RPE=6-7

Day 4: 20 Minutes – Same routine as Day 3 but increase the intensity: faster, more weight, less rest/more reps, etc. – RPE=8-10

This protocol is designed as a wave of intensity that you can repeat over and over. Recovery, compensation and skill progression is built in. The optimal scheme is to repeat this micro-cycle 7 times resulting in a 28-day program. Try it. Record your progress and measure your results. You’ll be amazed at what happens. I have been through this same 4X7 cycle many times and have reaped huge benefits every time.

Test Yourself

The path to mastery is a journey of life-long learning, improving, and refining of mind body, and spirit. It is goal-less in the sense that we are not motivated exclusively by reaching some external goal or product. Our inner commitment is such that we don’t ever say “OK, this is enough, now I have learned it all”.

It is true that there will be plateaus in our development in which there seems to be no progress. These are challenging times which can sometimes last quite a while. But if you persist in your practice with intentionality, surrendering to your coaches instruction, you will eventually surge your way up from your plateau to a high level of competence.

There also will be times where you will be challenged to the extreme limits of your capabilities. While it may seem to be a paradox with the goal-less journey, there is a definite place for competition and testing. This is the last of George Leonard’s Keys to Mastery.

Key #5: The Edge

The ‘edge’ I am talking about here is the testing of the extreme limit of the attributes or skill set that you are working on: strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, mental control, etc. One must be aware of the effects when engaging in this kind of testing. Pushing the envelope like this requires marshalling huge amounts of mental and physical energy. It will be tremendously taxing so proper preparation and recovery are a must.

The specific form of going to your edge will depend upon your particular path. It could be a tournament, a 10K road race, the CST Trial By Fire, a martial art belt test, a personal record Kettlebell lift, or any kind of test or record attempt is appropriate for you. It may be something you do individually or as part of an organized event.

Whatever the results of the search for your edge its important not to become overly attached to the actual results. Remember, you are in this for YOU, there is no place for determining your individual self worth by comparing yourself with anyone else. Be confidant in the fact that no matter what the results were, by engaging in this test you have continued your transformation into a better person than you were before. You have taken a giant step on the path of mastery.

The Power of Persistent Practice

One of the important elements that your coach can provide is a program of instruction, a method to follow, or some kind of structured curriculum. This is extremely valuable but even the best program in the world is worthless without consistent effort on your part to carry it out. You must keep showing up to your class or personal training sessions day after day and week after week. Its absolutely necessary for you to continue on your program on your own during those times when you are not with your instructor. No one else can do this for you. You must do the work.

Key #2: Practice

A common scenario for anyone starting out on a new physical activity or sport is initially to have great enthusiasm and desire to practice constantly. Then after a few weeks or a couple months this level of excitement begins to wane and begins to feel like of a mundane routine. This is a critical point of decision for it is here one must choose whether or not to pursue the path of mastery.

When we think of the word “practice” the common understanding is that it is a task or chore that must be accomplished. There is usually some external goal or product that is in mind as the reason to continue our labors: losing weight, winning a competition, getting those six-pack abs, etc.

Those on the path of mastery begin to see the concept of practice differently. They realize that their training in their sport or activity is valued for its own sake apart from any concretely defined endstate. Their practice IS their path and it begins to merge with their self identity. During their practice they are not focused on some external future consequence, they are fully in the present moment, fully in the now.

This doesn’t mean that practice is always fun. There are many peaks, valleys and plateaus on the path. We must recognize this and be prepared for it committing ourselves to continue with our daily training come what may. If you approach practice with this attitude eventually you will come to feel it as an integral part of your life. When you miss your practice for a period of time for whatever reason you feel incomplete, like something is missing.

So be sure to show up to your next class, keep your appointment with your trainer, set your personal workout time and actually DO IT. This is the time to focus on you. Don’t allow yourself to stray off your way, your road, your path to mastery. Trust me – you will be very glad you did.

Stay On Track - Share Your Resolutions

Millions of folks make personal resolutions at the beginning of the year. It is a time-honored tradition. Some forget about them in a week, others make an effort but lose steam after a few months and a few press on to eventually achieve what they set out to do at the beginning of the year.

One of the best ways to give you a good start on your resolutions and set you firmly on the road to accomplishment is to write them down and share them with others. By writing them down you more clearly define your goals and they begin to be an objective reality for you. By sharing them with others you give them external energy and you can create a support network for yourself which is so necessary to get anywhere in life.

So it with these thoughts in mind that I share with you my athletic and fitness goals for 2009. This is not all I will be doing this year, I will be exploring other topics in the margins, but the following are my major areas to focus on.

- Run a marathon under 4 hours: This is a long standing but elusive goal for me. But this is the year I’m determined to make it happen. I’ll have three chances for this in marathons throughout the year at Knoxville, Louisville and Chicago

- Trial By Fire with #25s: 30 minutes; So far I have only done the TBF with #15s

- Practice TACFIT progression Alpha to Zulu

- Master the Long Cycle with the 16kg Kettlebell: I’ve just begun to study the RMAX Kettlebell Foundation with a 12kg kettlebell and I will use this protocol to advance to this goal.

- Bodyweight: 200 lbs / Waist: 35 inches: These are not arbitrary measurements for me. After much self-observation over many years this is what I have determined to be optimal for me.

- Master the Hand Bridge and transitions: As in the Spider Monkey Flow. This has been a sticking point for me for a long time.

- Master requirements for 1^st kyu in Iaido

- Win a local or regional Iaido/Weapons Forms competition

- Master the requirements for ChiFusion Full Instructor Certification

- Train others in CST: my unit, personal training clients, online

- Continuing Education: attend one CST seminar/workshop; attend one martial arts seminar/workshop

Now that I’ve shared my 2009 goals, how about you? I want to hear what you have resolved to achieve for the coming year. Go ahead and put yourself out there on record. Don’t be afraid to commit. That is the first, and most important, step.

Let me know how I can help you to accomplish or even formulate your personal objectives. It would be my honor to assist you in reaching your maximum potential. You have the power within you to reach amazing heights in fitness and personal improvement. Let 2009 be the year you take charge and reach great heights.

 

Less is More

Its that time of year again.

One year is coming to a close and a new one is about to begin.

For me this is always a time of significant meaning. I find myself frequently reflecting on what I have accomplished in the past year and then projecting forward to formulate goals for the new year. Its a process I take pretty seriously. My wife often thinks I take TOO seriously and its true I am sometimes guilty of trying to over-achieve.

Its a trap I have fallen into before. In wanting to reach so many lofty goals I find myself burning out trying to achieve them all. Its a lesson I keep on learning and I think over the years I have begun to get just a little bit smarter.

I have always been a goal oriented person, and I still believe that's a good thing. My problem was that I just had too many goals. Its easy for me to sit down and develop a laundry list of objectives I want to achieve in a wide array of areas. There's just so many things I am interested in. In martial arts for example I have studied Judo, Kendo, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Historical European Swordsmanship, Jeet Kune Do, and the list goes on. Another passion of mine is reading. I love reading American history, military history, European history, science fiction, classic literature, physiology and exercise science, biographies, etc.

I believe that all that I have studied and accomplished so far on this Earth has been good and beneficial. Just look at my last blog post (The Right 'Fit') and you will see what I mean. In fact what I am saying now may seem inconsistent with what I was saying there but it is not really. Practicing a variety of physical pursuits can offer much to increase one's overall fitness and movement palette. But right now for me personally at this stage of my life I feel it is time to focus more narrowly.

My widely scattered interested have left me feeling diffused. I now want to choose just a few areas of interest and specialize in them exclusively. By digging deeper into fewer wells I will be able to go deeper and actually accomplish more.

I have actually been thinking about this for quite a while. I've bounced back and forth in different directions but more and more I am learning to listen to that still, small voice inside that leads me to know what is true, in other words - what is right for me.

I must also say that there has been another voice that I have listened to that I value highly in helping me steer in the right direction: my wife, Liesl. She knows me better than anyone and knows how to bring to back down to earth when I get a little too starry eyed. She is also the one that has taught me the most about keeping a balance in life. This has been a very important lesson for me as I found myself out of balance in the past. You have to look at your whole life: family, work, your passions, your health, money, etc.

For example, for some time now I have had the notion of expanding on my running activities by breaking into triathlons. In and of itself this might sound like a fine idea. But as I looked at my training schedule and calendar and everything else I am doing these days I didn't know how I could fit it in and I told Liesl about this dilemma. She helped me to see that I was beginning to extend myself just a little too far once again.

So it was then that I decided to stick to running and pass on the triathlons. When I went back to my calendar with this in mind things seemed a lot simpler and easier to manage. As a result I am making plans to run in three marathons this year but no triathlons. That's the kind of thing I mean when I am talking about going deeper into fewer areas and achieving bigger results.

I am going through a similar process now in all areas of my life. Come the new year I will have narrowed down my interests to a core list of activities for the next year and beyond. One of them, running, you now know. The rest I will share with you later. Stay tuned!