3 mile easy run with my dog after lunch, one quarter mile walked, last 100 meters were sprinted – all barefoot – about 30 minutes total, didn’t time it.

Running-specific compensations from the RMAX Powered Running DVD

Mid-afternoon FlowFit level 3 session for 17 rounds in <17 minutes.

Flock of Pigeon flow and Forest Flow from Prasara Yoga Instructional DVD to cooldown and compensate.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

After dinner, I did Intu-Flow Intermediate level, with some other exercises added in where I needed it most.

I followed the joint mobility session with a FlowFit session/test. I did FlowFit level 3 for 14 rounds in 13:45.

One of the requirements for the Circular Strength Training Certification is to be able to do 14 rounds of level 3 in 14 minutes, so I passed my self-test.

Let me tell you, if you want a program that will have you working up a sweat in less than 10 minutes, then give FlowFit a try. I was making it a point to keep my exertion as minimal as possible – I just wanted to pass the test, really – but I started really breathing and I’m drenched. I’ll probably have to drink at least a quart of water before bed just to replace what was lost. This one is ideal for burning fat all over your body and building muscles in places you probably didn’t know you had them!

I haven’t done FlowFit in awhile, and surprised myself with my performance.  I didn’t expect to be able to maintain optimal technique for all 14 rounds, but that’s what happened. I finished each working set in about 45-50 seconds, and then rested for the remaining 10-15 seconds while shaking out my legs and torso.

I will be finishing the evening with some Prasara BodyFlow yoga flows. I’m going to work on Forest flow and Flock of Pigeons Flow to hit these legs.

Later!

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

In a few days, the Real Time Physique (RTP) Body Tranformation Challenge will officially begin (May 1st, 2009). This is a completely new body transformation contest that the world has never seen before, and there are two powerful reasons why. First, it’s because no internet-based body transformation challenge has ever given away such an amazing prize package to the winners. Picture in your mind… flying to New York and staying in a 5 star hotel -  awakening to lower Manhattan as the eastern sun rises over the Atlantic ocean.  You’ll be escorted to a “VIP” high class gym to train with 2 world-famous fitness celebrities. After you’ve had your share of fun, you will finish the day with a Broadway show after a private dinner. Did I mention the $500 cash prize money?

The second reason this body transformation challenge is unique is because there has never been one that is based on accountability. Social support is a major secret to compliance in a fitness program, and that’s exactly what this event capitalizes on. If you have ever tried to transform your body in the past with less-than-satisfying results, then the social support factor that comes from accountability will be the motivational push that makes all the difference this time – helping you to “get out of your own way” and claim the summer body of your dreams.

Here’s the skinny…

Adam Waters, a Fitness Professional from Australia has researched, practiced, and developed this concept of implementing “real-time accountability” into a body transformation system. Adams reputation precedes him as one of the worlds greatest accountability and success coaches, and is one of the worlds most widespread fitness blogger’s on the internet. Adam’s work has been published in Men’s Fitness, USA and Men’s Fitness Australian editions.

An interesting twist is that my friend, Tom Venuto is co-sponsoring the RTP challenge. In the world of changing physiques through diet, nutrition, and body transformations, Tom Venuto is among one of the top experts in the world. He’s not only my go-to expert for everything nutrition, bodybuilding, and killer physique-based training, he’s also someone that I’ve enjoyed personally working with for the last couple of years. Tom is known for his ability to translate research journal jargon into real world practical advice for those of us who don’t have PhD’s. He’s also the author of the Internets best selling diet/nutrition program in history called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (where I work as the manager) and the founder of the Internets largest fat loss support community, the Burn the Fat: Inner Circle (where I work as a contributor and forum moderator).

I can’t think of anyone more qualified than these two to be heading up a Real Time Physique Body Tranformation Challenge.

After announcing the fitness challenge last week, Tom and Adam have released the transformation challenge trailer (movie)…

Watch the trailer below and find out how this accountability-based body transformation challenge could transform your body in the next 84 days…

The deadline to register for the RTP transformation challenge is this Thursday at 11:59pm EST (less than 3 days!). Nobody will be allowed in after that date since the contest starts May 1. To learn more about the RTP transformation challenge, visit:

http://www.rtp-transformation-system.com

To learn more about how an accountability-based body transformation competition can help you get more motivated to transform your body than ever before in your life, be sure to check out Adam’s personal body transformation and the many testimonials on this page:

Clubbell training with 15 lb clubbells:

Repeat 2X, warmup, no rest:
10 swipes, 10 mills/arm, 10 hammer swings/direction

Clubbell Work Set:
100 double swipes – 6 sets of 15, 1 set of 10
100 single arm mills – 6 sets of 15/arm, 1 set of 10/arm
100 hammer swings per direction – 50, 30, 20 reps

Rating Perceived Technique: 8+
Rating Perceived Effort: swipes = 8, mills = 5, hammer swings = 7
Rating Perceived Discomfort: 0

Bodyweight Training For Leg Strength, 1 set per exercise, went until about 60% exertion, 10 seconds rest between exercises:
Bodyweight squats
Reverse Lunges
Forward Lunges
Lateral Lunges
Forward/Reverse Lunges
Plie Lunges
Dragon Twisting
Pistols

Rating Perceived Technique: 8
Rating Perceived Effort: 5
Rating Perceived Discomfort: 0

Finished with Forest Flow from the Prasara Yoga Instructional DVD. Will do Flock of Pigeons Flow later tonight before bed. I’ll be in the car for about 10 hours tomorrow, so it will be scattered with frequent bouts of joint mobility to decompress my spine throughout the trip.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

It was such a nice day, that I did all of my training outside in the sunshine. I began with a very thorough session of joint mobility training using the Intu-Flow longevity system. I spent about 40 minutes in total working each joint through mixed levels of sophistication. I spent a lot of time on my shoulders, arms, and legs especially.

Then, after playing with the dog for a little while, I practiced some FlowFit rounds to prepare for the upcoming focus in my training cycle. Here is one of the rounds I filmed for you:

Flowfit – levels 3 and 4 demonstrated

I’m pleased with my performance, although I think my leg swoop was a little off today. I thought it was funny when the sun came out during my upward facing dog – it had been cloudy up until then. I may take the dog for a walk later, and I plan on practicing Forest Flow from Prasara Yoga before the end of today. I am also happy that there is very little muscle soreness after yesterday’s high intensity clubbell training session.

Have a great weekend, and, if you’re with me, enjoy the first day of your 100 Day Challenge!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. you can find more info about the Flowfit conditioning program here:

I climbed a few trees today around noon, just for fun, and continued with some more joint mobility. I’m really trying to “clean the slate,” especially my spine mobility.

After work, I did a 15 lb clubbell training session…

Repeat 3X to warmup, no rest:
10 double clubbell swipes
10 single-arm mills per arm
10 hammer swings per direction

Work Set…
Swipes – 5 sets of 17, 1 set of 15 (30-60 seconds between sets)
Mills – 10X10/arm, (no rest)
Hammer Swings – 2X25/direction (no rest)

Rating Perceived Technique 8+
Rating Perceived Effort 5-9 (9 is for grip during swipes)
Rating Perceived Discomfort 0

3 Run-throughs of the Spider Monkey Flow from the Prasara Yoga Instructional DVD. Also did some full body vibrations afterwards.

Notes: surprisingly, my legs are not sore at all from last night’s session. I did squats, squat jumps (forward, backwards, and laterally), reverse lunges, front lunges, lateral lunges, forward/reverse lunges, and single leg squats. I finished with some basic BodyFlow to relieve some of the tension in my legs and I think this had a major effect on my post day DOMS (which is about 1/10). I just enjoyed another banana berry protein shake (recipe here). Now, it’s time to make the dog some dinner.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

Two words: social support. If you can find a way to make yourself accountable, then you will be much more likely to succeed (video about accountability here). Scott says that 85% of successful people have some form of accountability in place to ensure success, so make sure that you don’t skip this critical step.

This blog will form as one aspect of my accountability, but I have some people that will keep tabs on me day to day. I plan on applying this 100 day challenge to many areas of my life:

1) physical goals
2) nutrition goals
3) business and work-related goals
4) educational goals
5) spiritual goals

I will use this blog to chronicle my progress towards my physical and athletic goals as best as possible by providing updates via my training journal. I’d love for you to join me, so that we can work together to make positive changes in our lives one day at a time. Here are the details and my instructions…

The 100 Day Challenge

Start Date: April 10, 2009
End Date: July 18, 2009

If you want to participate, then you need to write a list of goals down and some action steps to achieve them. Here is the process that I recommend:

1. Write specific goals that are measurable and realistic to achieve in the 100 day timeline. You should have an ultimate goal that you want to achieve at the end of the 100 days, and some mini-goals to help you get there. WRITE THEM DOWN – don’t just think of them!!!

My physical goals…

Prepare for the CST Certification Seminar in August, which includes completion of a clubbell Trial By Fire in under 30 minutes, Flowfit Level 3 for 14 rounds in 14 minutes, mastery of all basic ranges of motion from Intu-Flow, and mastery of the five A-series Flows from Prasara Yoga.

Mini-goals that I need to focus on:
100 continuous clubbell swipes with double 15 lb clubbells
Spider Monkey Prasara Yoga Flow
Tumbleweed Prasara Yoga Flow
Flock of Pigeons Prasara Yoga Flow
Joint Mobility of the thoracic spine
Progressive FlowFit conditioning and practice (establish a starting point)

2. Make sure that your goals are not conflicting with one another – they should all work together. If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither of them.

3. Ask yourself why you want to achieve these goals. Make it personal, and get to the very roots of why you really care. Establishing these emotional reasons will help ignite the fire that will keep you going. If there’s no purpose, you won’t achieve much – even in 100 days. Again, write these down!

4. Believe that you will achieve your goals. You need determination and faith in yourself that you CAN DO IT. A good exercise would be to write your goals down as affirmations – affirming yourself that you will reach your goals and enjoy the “fruits of your labor.” Rewiring your subconscious mind for success will greatly enhance your results.

Some of my affirmations:

- I am so happy and thankful now that I am a certified CST Instructor.
- I feel strong because I am the strongest I’ve ever been now that I can complete the clubbell trial by fire in record time, and I even do yoga!
- My strength is only dominated by my ability to flow from activity to activity.
- I will set some world records using the foundation of training I’m building today.

5. Write down your daily action steps that will help you reach your mini-goals and goals. If you need a day-to-day game plan for changing your habits and working towards your goals all the time, then check out this blogpost “Have the Perfect Day, The Best Day of Your Life”

Some of my daily action steps:

- wake up at 6:00am to get a jump start on my day and begin it with my daily personal practice – walking dog and full body joint mobility.
- practice FlowFit 3 times weekly at various exertion levels.
- practice clubbell training minimum of 2-3 times weekly, progressing upon each former session in preparation for the Trial by Fire.
- always finish my strength training sessions with prasara yoga practice as compensation for my rigorous training.

There it is, a 5-Step process for pursuing your goals starting today. The official start date of The 100 Day Challenge is this Friday, and I will be 100% on board with my action plans by then. I welcome your participation, and would love to hear your feedback about the process and your results here on my blog. Of course, you don’t have to start at the same time we do, the important thing is that you commit to positive change and take action on it RIGHT NOW, while it’s at the forefront of your mind.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. If you want a guaranteed program for achieving your specific goals in exactly 100 days, then I highly recommend Dax Moy’s The Magic 100 Program. If you use this program and fail, you’re hopeless! There’s no way you could NOT succeed:

Earlier in the day, I picked up the 45 lb clubbell for some two-handed swipes – it was more practice, not training.

Today, I went for a 2 mile walk with my dog Ronin. We ran about a half mile of that, and sporadically sprinted about 50 meters a couple of times. I don’t like just walking or just running, I’d rather mix it up a bit and challenge myself in new ways. Ronin did much better on the leash today than yesterday. He didn’t pull except when a couple of dogs charged him from a neighbor’s yard.

After my walk, I spent about 45 minutes on a very thorough, and much needed full body joint mobility session using the Intu-Flow Longevity System. I spent extra time on my arms and legs, but each joint got a thorough wash. I feel great by the way!

Then I did some 15 lb clubbell practice – swipes, mills, circles, casts, and cleans mostly. I kept my exertion low, around 3 or less. I need to focus more on recovery today, than trying to stimulate an adaptation. It was purely technique practice.

Notes: my legs are still pretty sore from some bodyweight training yesterday (squats, lunges, jumps, pistols, etc.), so I’m going light on my legs with the clubbell practice. Tonight, I’ll practice Spider Monkey flow from the Prasara Yoga DVD which I just learned this past week. I think Spider Monkey is the hardest of the 5 flows for me. I’m having trouble transitioning from starfish to the single-leg downward facing dog (can’t remember the name). It’s a very strength-challenging yoga flow.

Until next time!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and CST athlete

I wanted to see how many consecutive clubbell mills I could perform without resting or putting the clubbell down.

In 30 minutes, I accomplished 400 consecutive mills (400 right arm and 400 left arm) without taking a break. I did hand switches every 10 repetitions, and maintained this pace of 13 reps/min (per arm) for 30 minutes.

The only reason I stopped was because my wife was pulling in the driveway with groceries and 400 seemed like a good stopping point. Had she not arrived, who knows what I may have accomplished. My intuition tells me that I would have stopped at 500 just to play it safe – I was beginning to experience some fatigue in the muscles around my left elbow towards the end. My former PR with consecutive clubbell mills was 100 (both left/right). So, 400 was quite a jump for me, but still only half of what my coach, Adam Steer has accomplished in one straight set (Adam did 800 not too long ago!).

Needless to say, I’m thrilled with my progress knowing that I am only able to do this because of impeccable attention to my technique over the past couple of years of my clubbell training. It’s funny to think that when I first picked up my 15 lb clubbell, I couldn’t mill it even once. Even after I had the general technique down, I was wasted after 10 reps on either side and had to put it down to rest. It just shows what is really possible if you apply yourself to something. Here’s an example of the clubbell mill with my 15 lber…

Clubbell Mills

After the clubbell test, I finished with a long, slow session of joint mobility to decompress my joints, lubricate them, restore bloodflow, and relieve tension all throughout my body. My day after soreness was noticeable, probably a constant 3/10 on the scale of discomfort. I spend the day mostly resting and did some low intensity exercises with the 5 lb clubbells to aid my recovery.

What is your personal best for today/this week? Please post your comments below.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Clubbell Athlete

P.S. To learn more about clubbell training, visit the official site here: http://clubbell.tv

I spent some time today practicing with my 15 lb clubbells, doing swipes and mills mostly – not pushing into exertion. My milling is virtually effortless, which I attribute to regular practice and good execution of the 7 Key Components of Structure.

This afternoon, I also did a hammer swing test to see how fast I could perform 100 repetitions – 50 clockwise, and 50 counter-clockwise. Here’s the footage I filmed:

100 Hammer Swings with 15 lb Clubbell


After a dinner of some honey dijon pork chops from the farm down the road, I did a slow joint mobility session for my spine, shoulders, and hips – getting really deep into the range of motion.

I finished the day with some basic BodyFlow to release some tension in my legs.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Clubbell Athlete

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about clubbells, then visit the official site here: http://clubbell.tv