Yes, like a walker for people who have trouble walking – THAT kind of walker.

There was no note, no card, nothing to explain why, I, a perfectly healthy and mobile young man received a walker via FedEx delivery.

I had a few theories at first.

My brother Joe bought me a high-tech cane as a joke awhile back, and this could have been an upgrade – you know, just in case. Or, my brother Jim could be sending me something to make fun of me because I’m always doing my “mobility moves.” This could be a secret message that someday my silly mobility moves won’t mean jack when I’m immobile. Regardless, I started putting this fold-out contraption to use right away.

I tested it for its structural integrity and then performed a set of parallel bar dips, then some bodyweight rows. Before long, I was experimenting with some moves I had always wanted to try.So, here is a quick video demonstrating some exercises you can do with parallel bars:

Playing with Parallel Bars for Strength Training

These are just strength training exercises, and my technique isn’t perfect during some of them, but I wanted to give you an idea of how many training options we really have at our disposal. It turns out my brother Jim bought this for me because he had been trying to find a way to do parallel bar dips at home, and this was his best solution.

We don’t always have a perfect training environment, or perfect training equipment, and it’s important that we take inventory of what we do have and use it to our advantage. That doesn’t mean compromise on safety, rather draw on what we know to be safe.

I’ve been reflecting lately on how much we have that is extraneous and on what we could live without. The truth is that specialized training equipment is a luxury we enjoy from an abundant lifestyle. My recent experience with MovNat reminded me of this – that we should be able to practice and train anytime, anywhere. If we don’t have a gym membership, no problem. If we don’t have space in our house for exercising, no problem. We’re people, we adapt to the situations around us, and we don’t necessarily need to try to micro-manage and control everything about our lives.

Don’t get me wrong though, I love playing with new equipment, and as long as I have it, I’ll use it. However, I may just build some parallettes after all to prevent any future faceplants…

To your health and success,

CST, CST-KS, NSCA-CPT
Fitness Professional

P.S. Find instructions for do-it-yourself parallettes here.

Here’s the instructional video…

Natural Movement Outdoor Strength Training Session


Here are the training session specifics as referenced in the video:

Crawl 20 meters, Sprint 50 meters
Crab Walk 20 meters, Sprint 50 meters
10 continuous, running long jumps
10 jumps over a bench or box

Repeat 2-4X, no rest:
Pullups to failure
Shadow boxing for 1 minute – punches, kicks, elbow strikes, and knee strikes
400 meter run – alternating sprinting with trotting

Repeat 5X, no rest:
Squat walk for 10-15 paces
5 second rock bottom squat hold
5 Bodyweight Squats
1 forward leap

Repeat 1-5X, no rest:
Carry something heavy (20-40% of your bodyweight) for about 15 feet
Throw it as far as you can

You can repeat the entire training session circuit 1-5 times depending on your conditioning level. Also, don’t feel locked into doing each exercise exactly as it is demonstrated. Use what you have available, and adjust the exercises as necessary. If you can’t jump over a box that high, then just do some lateral hops. If you can’t do pullups, then do negative reps or band-assisted pullups. Find a way to make it work for your unique situation.

This training session was inspired by Erwan Le Corre, the creator of the MovNat system, but this does not represent the MovNat practice or philosophy. Perhaps, someday, I’ll be qualified to teach MovNat to you, too. For now, that was just me having some fun in my backyard.

If natural movement seems daunting to you, then I would recommend you invest in a program that will help you unbind your movement, restore your range of motion, and help you regain your natural athleticism. The Intu-Flow wellness system is the best program for this purpose.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Natural Movement Enthusiast

Intro:  The following workout is designed to help you build muscle, lose fat and improve your conditioning via the neuro-immuno-endocrine response. This occurs after about 14-18 minutes of training for the average person.  Always incorporate a warm-up (including a practice set or two performed slowly) and cool-down. If you are not at a high fitness level, you might need to adjust or scale the exercises to match your fitness level.

3-5 min warm-up (joint mobility is preferred, quick tutorial here, full DVD program here)

Repeat for 15-20 minutes, 1 repetition of each exercise, no rest between exercises, 0-15 seconds of rest between each circuit. Work up to being able to do one set every minute, if possible:

• Bodyweight squat
• T-Pushup (1 per side)
• Bodyweight squat
• Lateral lunges (1 per side)
• Bodyweight squat
• Mountain climbers (1 per side)
• Bodyweight squat
• Wrestlers bridge held for 1-3 seconds (aka yoga wheel pose)
• Bodyweight squat
• Spinal Rock (aka reverse situp)

Rest for 0-15 seconds and repeat for desired number of rounds.

Increase the challenge by doing more sets in less time, or by replacing the bodyweight squats with single leg squats.

3-5 min cool-down (including some whole body vibration drills is a great idea, quick tutorial here, full DVD program here).

Note: If you’d like a full conditioning program to help you burn fat and build muscle by maximizing the neuro-immuno-endocrine response, then I recommend the FlowFit program here:

Workout 2:

Intro: The following workout is designed to help you lose fat and improve your cardiovascular and athletic conditioning. Always incorporate a warm-up (including a practice set or two performed at low intensity) and cool-down. If you are not at a high fitness level, you might need to adjust or scale the exercises to match your conditioning level.

3-5 min warm-up (joint mobility is preferred, quick tutorial here, full DVD program here)

Repeat 3-6X, no rest between exercises other than what is stated, 1-2 minutes of rest at the end of each circuit:

• Sprint 50 meters, walk back to starting point
• Full Squat into Forward Leaps to 60% perceived exertion (balance both height and distance of jump)
• Bear crawl 50 meters, walk back to starting point
• Walking lunges to 60% perceived exertion (with weights if necessary)
• Crab walk 50 meters, walk back to starting point
• Alligator walking to 60% perceived exertion
• Lateral side-stepping 50 meters, each direction

Rest 1-2 minutes and repeat for desired number of sets.

Increase or decrease the number of sets, distances, or rating of perceived exertion to change the difficulty of this workout circuit.

3-5 min cool-down (including some whole body vibration drills is a great idea, quick tutorial here, full DVD program here)

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

Moving on all fours is great for a lot of reasons…

1) It can be done anywhere and doesn’t require any equipment
2) It is an integrative movement, not an isolation movement that can improve strength, endurance, power, balance, coordination, and agility.
3) It can be used for fat loss, muscle building, or general conditioning goals.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to begin to rediscover the value of moving on all fours. Pretending like you’re an animal stalking prey makes it all the more fun…

How to Move on All Fours: Basic Crawling Fundamentals


That is literally just a sampling of the huge array of possibilities when it comes to moving on all fours. The bear crawl and the crab walk are the most popular, and most useful, but there are infinite variations to explore.

Remember the key points:

1) Maintain a mostly flat back when you can do so without straining.
2) Keep your weight proportioned equally on all four of your limbs. Don’t sit too far back on your feet, and don’t lean too far forward on your hands. Find the sweet spot in the middle, where you could hold the position for a long time.

You’ll want to make it a goal to treat crawling as an exploratory exercise – not so much training as it is practice. Try to crawl with very little effort. Focusing on your breath will help with this. With each compression of the lungs, exhale. Focus on the exhale, and the inhale will take care of itself. When perfected, the movement will breathe your body for you – you won’t even have to think about it. You should be able to carry on with a normal conversation while crawling after you’ve mastered it.

Just like running and jumping, you’ll want to try and crawl softly, quietly – move like a ninja or a panther. This will teach your body to absorb shock and distribute it all throughout your body, instead of catching all of the shock in a local joint or soft tissue.

After you’ve got these fundamentals down, you can go off in so many different directions with crawling, and I think it’s best to crawl in a more natural environment. Try crawling on grass, sand, pavement, and gravel – on flat, uneven, and hilly surfaces. You can crawl forwards, backwards, laterally, and diagonally. You can move very slowly, as a grinding strength exercise, or you can hop and skip on your 4 limbs, too.

Here’s a 100 yard bear crawl test I did last year for some of the members of the Burn the Fat: Inner Circle.

Bear Crawl Test – 100 yards

And here are a couple more videos demonstrating quadrupedal movement from some parkour athletes:

And two great tutorials by my coach, Scott Sonnon. The real value here is not just in the detailed exercise instruction, but with the inclusion of example Flow Chains to play around with. Just keep in mind that these drills were crafted for very specific purposes:

The Kong

The Ape Step

Do keep in mind that there should be an element of discipline employed when you try any new exercise, especially a sophisticated one like most quadrupedal movements. In the same breath, I do want to recommend that you PLAY with these movements moreso than you train with them. They’re natural, and they’re fun, and should be enjoyed. If you like focusing on very specific technique cues, then go for it, but please don’t let the seemingly complicated nature of these movements scare you out of trying them. Self-exploration is the key, and there’s really no right or wrong way to explore your natural expression of human movement.

If you like these natural human movements, then you’ll love the biomechanical exercises from Scott Sonnon’s BodyFlow program.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Natural Movement Enthusiast

Contrary to popular belief, just increasing the number of reps, sets, and time spent on jump squats isn’t the only way to progress – or the best way to progress, for that matter. Increasing the quality of your movement is one of the best ways to progress, and we do this through increasing our movement sophistication. There are endless ways to increase the movement sophistication of the jump squat, and here are some examples.

How to Fire Up Your Jump Squat by Increasing Sophistication


So, after you’ve become adept at the bodyweight jump squat, you should add in an element of travel. Start with short forward leaps into a jump squat. You can then work on backward and lateral jump squats as well.

When you’re ready for a greater challenge, incorporate an element of rotation. Start small with 90 degree turns both clockwise and counter-clockwise. Progress to 180 degree turns and then 360 degree turns.

After you’ve spent some time practicing rotating jump squats, then it’s time to combine both travel and rotation into the exercise. Here is a sample progression:

1. forward jump squat into 90 degree turn
2. forward jump squat into 180 degree turn
3. lateral jump squat into 90 degree turn
4. lateral jump squat into 180 degree turn
5. reverse jump squat into 90 degree turn
6. reverse jump squat into 180 degree turn
7. forward jump squat into 360 degree turn
8. lateral jump squat into 360 degree turn
9. reverse jump squat into 360 degree turn

*Note: Increasing the distance that you leap or the height of your jump will also contribute to further challenge, so you could potentially spend a lot of time on each of these levels by just working on those two factors.

If you’d like to really challenge yourself after that, add in a plyometric box or bench/step to change your height. It’s best to start with a low height step at first and progress to higher objects slowly. The entire sophistication process outlined above can be repeated with the inclusion of a step. Forward jump onto box, Lateral jump onto box, Forward jump with 90 degree turn onto box, etc.

You can always make an exercise more difficult, more challenging, but the key is to do it with the underlying goal of improving movement QUALITY. Practicing natural movement should be a goal of any trainee or athlete, and there should be PURPOSE behind it. If you’re doing reverse squat jumps onto a 36″ box with a 360 degree turn, then good for you, but you’re not done experiencing the potential of your movement quality yet. You can do these on a single leg, or with a weight vest or external resistance. You can always make it harder, but you need to know why – for what purpose are you doing these exercises? If you’re just burning calories, or trying to increase your max lifts, then you’re missing out on the pure joy of exuberant natural movement. There is so much more to be had than just rote technique and routine. Just some food for thought…

Here are some additional resources relating to jump squats:

Proper Squat Form, and How to Achieve Greater Squat Depth

Single-leg Squat Practice Tips

Bodyweight Training for Functional Leg Strength Exercise Examples

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Bodyweight Training Aficionado

P.S. A great bodyweight training program that has movement sophistication built-in to each exercise is the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. I had a great interview with the program co-creator, Adam Steer, about bodyweight training on this page.

This is my first official clubbell competition, and I competed in the 15 lbs division.  Here are my results…

Total Double Clubbell Swipes completed in 10 minutes: 160

Total Single Clubbell Mills completed in 10 minutes: 128 (129R, 128L)

Total Score: 288 Points

Notes:

A hot day and a mild headache are perfect conditions for high rep clubbell swinging! I warmed up with some joint mobility exercises from head to toe, core to periphery – most were taken from the Intu-Flow program. During the swipes event, I tried to focus on nothing except me and the clubbells. I just wanted my mind and body to be entirely wrapped up in the act of swinging, since I knew that my grip would fatigue eventually (around rep 80). I didn’t focus on numbers or the time except the occasional glance. It was just me and movement.

I did make one mistake during the swipes. After coming out of shoulder park, I should have placed them into back position before casting forward.

After the swipes event, I spent some time doing full body vibrations ala RESET style and some more joint mobility to stay loose and recover for the mills event. I also stood in front of the fan with an ice pack on my head, trying to drown out the headache and bring my body temperature back down. 25 minutes later, I was back at it again.

I was very confident going into the mills event, knowing that I shouldn’t need any rest since I’ve done high rep mills before. However, I can say with assurance that I left every single repetition I had in me on that platform with the mills. That last rep with the left arm was all I had left. I had never done a timed event for mills, so I sped through it a little too fast than I should have. Good learning experience!

All in all, it was a good experience and a fun time. Can’t wait to get a pair of 25’s to start playing with!

If you’d like to learn more about club swinging or get involved with clubbell sport, then here are some resources:

Official Clubbell Site:
http://clubbell.tv

Clubbell Shop:
https://rmaxinternational.3dcartstores.com/Clubbells_c_8.html

My Clubbell Resources here on the blog:
John Reviews the Clubbell Training Tool

Two-handed clubbell training highlights video

Interview with Clubbell Inventor and ICS World Record Holder Scott Sonnon

Interview with CST Head Coach Adam Steer about clubbells and more.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Clubbell Athlete

P.S. In case you’re not familiar with International Clubbell Sport, here are the official rules as summarized by Scott Sonnon on the Cross World Clubbell Competition Facebook page:

Double Swipe (2 clubbells): most number of repetitions in 10 minutes without clubbells touching the ground. One repetition requires both clubbells to be completely behind the head, and then completely behind the knees. Clubbells can be held or rested on the, but not below the knees, on the feet or ground.

One Arm Alternating Mill (1 clubbell): most number of repetitions in 10 minutes without clubbell touching the ground. ONE HALF repetition requires passing centerline in front with elbow locked until passing centerline to the side, with the clubbell finally (at least partially) passing the centerline behind the head. Hands can be freely alternated at any time. However, total repetitions equal the common number between the two hands; i.e. if 124 mills completed right side, and 126 left side, then only 124 total points are counted.

No more than 30 minutes between the two events for rest.

Due to consistency of weight distribution, only authentic clubbells can officially compete, but you can participate unofficially with any club. The clubbell is the most difficult design to swing, which is why.

Winner of each weight class will win a t-shirt. We’re working to have a trophy as well.

Weight classes:

10lbs Clubbell
15lbs Clubbell
20lbs Clubbell
25lbs Clubbell
35lbs Clubbell

Barefoot Sprinting

It’s only fair that I do it barefoot, since I don’t expect Ronin to wear shoes…

Truth be told, it’s a miracle that I was able to run across that field today. I was told be several doctors and specialists that I would never run again. Back in high school, I developed a serious case of patellar tendinitis in both of my knees due to over-training in long distance running. This created a chain-reaction of events all throughout my body that led to several scattered, debilitating injuries. I had to sit out my senior year Spring track and field season due to the many injuries I had accumulated – right when I was at my peak. This is a long story, so I’ll cut right to the lesson.

Your body is a gift, and gratitude is one of the first steps to healing. It took me 3 years of seeing my doctor, a sports medicine specialist, an orthopedist, and several different physical therapists to heal my injuries incurred from overtraining. But first, I had to take complete responsibility for my injuries and for the healing itself. I couldn’t place my trust just in my medical team whom I saw for only one hour a day, because it’s what I did the other 23 hours of the day that really mattered. I had to OWN my pain, embody it, and thank God that I had experienced an opportunity to learn and grow.

I had to adopt some PREhabilitative exercises in order to cement my healing and ensure that I could continue to exercise without pain and without limitations. I collected bits and pieces from various different sources, and it wasn’t until I found the RMAX Powered Running Program that I had tried a complete system for prehabilitating your body for the rigors of running.

If you’re a runner, or used to be and would like to get back into it, then I highly recommend you invest in your health and your hobby by checking out a copy of RMAX Powered Running. This DVD will teach you a very specific warmup and cooldown routine to help you bullet-proof your knees from injury (and the rest of you, too!). It will also cover some of the different biomechanics of different running stages: walking, trotting, running, and sprinting – to ensure that you have good running technique at every speed.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Barefootter

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

Bodyweight Training for Functional Leg Strength


You can setup these leg strength exercises any way you want depending on your goals.

Circuit workout – Repeat the entire circuit 1-3X, 0-15 seconds of rest between exercises – go to 50% exertion on each set for a high volume session and 80% exertion for a high intensity session.

Bodyweight Squats
Reverse Lunges
Forward Lunges
Reverse/Forward Lunges
Lateral Lunges
Plie Lunges
Dragon Twisting
Jumping Squats
Plyometric Lunges
Single Leg Squats

Superset workout – make 5 pairs of non-competing exercises (ie don’t pair bodyweight squats with jump squats). Perform first exercise for 30-45 seconds, rest 30 seconds, then perform second exercise for 30-45 seconds, rest 30 seconds, and repeat for desired number of rounds. Exertion should be between 60-80%.

A1: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
A2: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
(repeat 1-3X)
B1: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
B2: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
(repeat 1-3X)
C1: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
C2: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
(repeat 1-3X)
D1: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
D2: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
(repeat 1-3X)
E1: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
E2: 30-45 seconds of work, rest 30 seconds
(repeat 1-3X)

Hybrid or Complex Workout – Combine all exercise into one long Kinetic Chain by performing one repetition of each exercise and immediately moving into the next exercise. Completing all ten exercises equals one set. Repeat 5-20X, and rest 0-60 seconds between sets.

Bodyweight Squats
Reverse Lunges
Forward Lunges
Reverse/Forward Lunges
Lateral Lunges
Plie Lunges
Dragon Twisting
Jumping Squats
Plyometric Lunges
Single Leg Squats

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. For an all-in-one bodyweight training program that will train your body not only in 3 dimensions, but also through the 6 degrees of freedom, check out the Flowfit conditioning program:

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: