Day 2 of Raw for 30 Days!

Today was good. Not a lot of sleep but energy was good.

4:30am - wheatgrass juice + blue green algae and chlorella
4:45am - water w/ 2 tbsp raw appl cider vinegar
5:30am - hot green tea w/ raw honey
7:30am - apple w/ raw almond butter
9:30am - trail mix (same as yesterday)
10:30am - rice protein, almond milk, strawberries, bananas (blended together)
1:00pm - blended green drink (same as yesterday), 1 tbsp flax oil 
4:30pm - iced green tea and trail mix 
6:30pm - seaweed salad, raw green salad w/ ginger vinegrete, hot tea
9:30pm - blended drink w/almond milk, rice protein, banana, raw almond butter

 Supplements same as yesterday.

No training today but I taught a 3.5-4 hour kettlebell instructor certification course.

Day 3 tomorrow feeling great!

"Through the storms and the gigs and the good and the bad there ain't no doubt. We knew from the very first show what it was all about..." Rancid, Last one to Die

Stay Healthy and Strong,

Scott

Getting a Little Strength Back and Raw for 30 Days Begins!

Alright - today was a big day. Aside from being 12 days away from my birthday, and today being the day we pulled the trigger on a sweet new business venture, I finished my 6th 4-week strength training cycle and had PRs in all lifts and today is day 1 of my Raw for 30 Days to ring in my 37th year on this planet!

The Strength Stuff

The ECF Gym - Atlanta, GA

Basically my strength has gone down the crapper since losing 30-40 pounds last September. Truth be told I don't care about competitions anymore. All I want now is to rebuild my strength while maintaining good levels of conditioning, flexibility and mobility. My main focus lately has been on my practice of internal martial arts. However, I do love lifting weights so I wanted a good, simple strength program to rebuild the strength I'd lost due to such rapid weight loss.

Enter 5/3/1

5/3/1 - Get it at www.jimwendler.com - Now!

I decided to follow Jim Wendler's now legendary 5/3/1 supplemented with some kettlebell work and have made good, slow, steady progress.

When I weighed a sloppy 220-225 my best lifts were a 350 squat, 255 bench, 375 deadlift and a 135 overhead press. I had considerably better lifts in powerlifting competition with the use of powerlifting gear (squat suit and bench shirt) but that isn't important. Right now just basic, raw strength development is my goal. I may or may not compete again. Meets are a blast-but it's so far off my radar of interests right now I don't even care to think about it.

Last September I made a huge nutritional change and began eating about 80% raw vegan and about 20% cooked vegetarian or pescatarian food. Basically 80% raw fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds with about 20% beans, eggs, fish and a little bit of rice and sprouted breads. This resulted in a 40 lb drop in weight in about 3 months from 220-225 to 180-185. With this drop in weight came the equivalent drop in strength. I decided that since I was going to continue eating mostly raw vegan (I'm actually gravitating towards >80% - more on that in a second) that I wanted to do the impossible and rebuild my strength even though my weight is decreasing.

So I set the initial goal of regaining the numbers I had at 220-225. On 12/23/11 & 12/24/11 I tested my gym lifts and hit the following: squat x 245, bench x 185, deadlift x 275, overhead press x 115, and bodyweight was 186 lbs. Yes these numbers sucked and I know many women who warm up with these weights but honestly I don't care. With how good and healthy my body feels from the reduction in fat and clean nutrition I'm fine with it.

The following week, using these numbers as my baseline I began Wendler's 5/3/1.

This week marked the end of my 6th 4-week cycle (I did the program as laid out, 4 days per week, 3s in week 1, 5s in week 2, 5/3/1 in week 3 and deload in week 4-and didn't alter anything). My results this week were bodyweight at 184 lbs, squat x 275 x 1 rep (30 lb increase), bench x 205 x 1 rep (20 lb increase), deadlift x 315 x 1 rep (40 lb increase) and overhead press x 120 x 2 reps (only 5 lbs over my initial max but this was for a double not a single, so it's definitely an improvement).

While these numbers are nothing spectacular, it is improvement. The program is great, it's flexible and doesn't require a ton of time in the gym-it's perfect for me considering most of my interests are outside of the gym and the gym and training / coaching people is my business which consumes a considerable amount of my time.

Day 1 of 100% Raw Vegan

Breakfast

Alright, 30 days is underway! Today was great, it wasn't much of a challenge as I had been eating this way most of the time anyway, but today starts 100% total immersion in raw vegan eating! I just finished my last meal for the day as I type this and I feel great. Energy has been great all day, despite averaging 4-5 hours sleep at night. I thought coffee would be the toughest thing to cut out, but I feel good so far.

Here's a totally awesome video of Danny Dalton, a raw vegan bodybuilder - this is what inspired me to pursue raw instead of just vegetarian nutrition. Oh, don't forget to tell this guy he needs to eat tons of meat to build muscle!

I am not going to list my daily nutrition in detail every day, but I do want to give an overview.

bodyweight - 190 lbs (okay,  pigged out a bit last night! Damn sprouted grain bread and raw almond butter!)

3:30am - wheatgrass juice + 2g blue green algae and chlorella

4:00am - fresh juice: kale, spinach, celery, cucumber, carrot, apple, pear, lime & raw apple cider vinegar

7:00am - strawberry & banana slices w/ cinnamon, apple, blueberries

8:00am - (prior to deadlift training) a couple handfuls of raw almonds and walnuts

9:30am - (post training) 1 orange and 1 grapefruit

10:00am - hot tea

12:30pm - green smoothie compliments of my Vitamix: kale, spinach, collard greens, dandelion greens, broccoli, chard, apple, banana + a handful of pumpkin seeds, 1 tbsp. flax oil

1:30pm - (business meeting at Panera Bread) unsweet iced tea w/ lemon

3:30pm - home made trail mix: raisons, goji berries, dates, walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans (all raw)

5:30pm - large salad: mixed greens, tomato, carrot, mushroom, almonds, walnuts, raisons, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

6:30pm - hot tea

7:30pm - raw oatmeal (raw oats, almond milk, 1-apple, raisons and cinnamon - made in Vitamix)

*Also drank a LOT of water throughout the day

Supplements - vitamin C, vitamin D3, chlorella, blue green algae, bee pollen / propolis, zinc, magnesium

Training - early morning - meditation, qigong, tai gong, taiji practice; mid-morning - deadlift, 45 degree back raise, sit-ups, kettlebell swings.

So that's basically it. I plan to follow a similar approach for the 30 days. I probably won't be so detailed in future blog posts but I plan to try to post daily updates or at least 4-5 a week and discuss more that I learn following the raw vegan approach as well as the effects I'm experiencing. So far, so good!

"And the times have changed my friend, I'll be here til' the bitter end, and I'm here to make my stand, with a guitar in my hand." -Social Distortion, Still Alive

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Strength Training for Fighters - It's Going in the Wrong Direction

I've had the pleasure of working with fighters from different disciplines including boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu jitsu and Muay Thai and one thing I've found is none of them were "strong enough".

I hear so often that strength training isn't important and that fighters should just focus on technique. This is bad.

A fighter, just like any other athlete, needs to be concerned with strength, power, speed, agility, mobility, flexibility and specific skill work. 

Of course the levels of each depend on the requirements of the sport and what the athlete's current level of preparation is.

What a lot of fighters don't realize is that there are essentially two types of physical preparation for their sport - general physical preparation (GPP)-which constitutes strength training, power training, speed training, agility training, flexibility training, etc-and specific physical preparation (SPP)-which is essentially fight training, technique work, sparring, etc.

Kettlebell training is great supplementary work for fighters, just make sure to do it AFTER you've done your squats, presses and deadlifts!

It seems lately that when fighters spend their time in the weight room it revolves around more "conditioning" work - i.e. light weight / high rep circuits and CrossFit type stuff - not dedicated and progressive strength training. Obviously this does not allow for maximal strength development. Unfortunately fighters are becoming "over-conditioning" and do not possess very high levels of strength. The typical argument here is that fighters don't need strength work, just technique. I say, why limit yourself?

When you say strength training, people automatically assume you mean a super fat, highly immobile powerlifter. No. That's not the case. I say that if you have two fighters squaring off, both of equal skill levels, and one of them spends a bit of time getting stronger while the other only focuses on technique development, I'm putting my money on the guy who's lifted some weight.


I remember a couple years ago talking to my friend Brian Gausman during one of our training sessions about fighters and strength training. Brian is a pretty damn strong guy himself and knows a thing or twelve about MMA and fight preparation so this comment from him was absolute gold-he said, "If strength isn't important to fighters then why the hell are so many of them getting popped for steroids and performance enhancers?" Logic at its finest. That's Brian for you.


It's also important to note that increased strength has a positive impact on speed. Doubt that statement? I remember reading an old squat training article by the great Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell in which he made the comment that sprinter Ben Johnson had made a 620 lb squat at under 200 lbs bodyweight. I'm sure if you checked the training logs of many other good sprinters you'd see some impressive squat numbers.

Think of strength training as one tool in the tool box - don't make it the ONLY tool, but why wouldn't you spend some time developing that physical quality, just as you would spend developing the cardiovascular system, specific skills, etc.?

The best cure for this is to lift barbells. Heavy ones.

Please understand I am not suggesting fighters start killing themselves under 1-rep max loads like a powerlifter-but I am suggesting that adding more weight to basic movements like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, barbell rows, etc. is a great thing for all fighters to do.

Granted, most fighters don't need to be as strong as Derrick - but adding a plate or two in an awesome lift like the deadlift would be time well spent for ANY fighter!

Also - keep in mind, strength training is only one spoke in the physical preparation wheel, there is mobility / flexibility, aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, speed, power, agility and specific physical development.

Thus a fighter's time spent lifting weights should accomplish his or her goals with the fewest number of exercises and not interfere with the other physical qualities that need attention.

BJJ purple belt Jason Gaskill doing a little technique work with kettlebells. Heavy kettlebell clean and presses can make a great tool in a fighter's strength & conditioning tool box.

I recently helped a BJJ purple belt prepare for his first appearance at Pan-Ams and his strength workouts consisted of two days. One day of squats & deadlifts, supplementary work was box jumps, glute/ham raises, heavy ab work and reverse hypers followed by kettlebell work and sled dragging for the duration of his matches. The second day consisted of bench press, supplementary work was plyo push-ups, chins, rows, arm and shoulder work followed by kettlebell drills and sled dragging, again for the duration of his matches.

That's all. Two days a week. Why so little? Because he had four days of BJJ training, 2-3 days of low intensity cardio (cardiac development work) and 1-2 days of anaerobic work (various types of sprints).

Results? He dropped about 40 lbs, got a lot stronger, and into the best shape of his life. He also had the best showing out of everyone from his BJJ team that participated at Pan-Ams.

Keep in mind that you don't need to go in the gym and spend hours and hours doing every exercise or machine under the sun. A basic program of squats, deadlifts, bench presses, chins, rows, overhead press, some jumps and heavy ab work will do wonders for most fighters.

How strong do you need to be? Who cares. Just strive to add more weight to the lifts-whether it's for 1 rep, 3 reps, 5 reps-I don't care. More weight and / or more reps mean you've gotten stronger. Leave the fancy formulas to the Exercise Physiology geeks. Just use good technique and common sense and you should be fine.

There is no reason to turn your weight room time into another conditioning session - you should be getting plenty of that from your road work and your sparring and skill training - save the weight room time for what it is intended for - to get stronger!

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Meditation

Scott Trying to Calm Down his Monkey Mind

Meditation is something I've been struggling with over the past couple of years. When I first started meditating it was tedious. All I ever heard was meditate for 30 minutes every day. That didn't make sense to me.

As I understood it meditation was supposed to be a complete quieting and calming down of the mind. If I magically entered some enlightened, zen-like state, how was I to know when 30 minutes was up? If I came out of my meditation at 29 minutes, would my efforts have been a waste?


Even if I could last the 30 minutes, was I doing it wrong if I had thoughts? If I couldn't let the thought pass and dwelled on it, was I not meditating correctly?

I read as much as I could, I listened to meditation programs on CD and MP3, I read some more.

Then something happened.

Shifu Leading Meditation

When training with my Shifu, grand master Shi Deru, at my Shaolin School's annual Qi retreat this past February, he guided us through meditation each day.

That is when it hit me.

Meditation is simply about being present and rediscovering your true nature.

Rediscovering your true nature happens when you can disconnect from your ego-by ego I mean your physical self, all the things here in the physical plane that make you, you.

When you can fully quiet your mind and observe your ego - it hits you - you are not you. Your real nature is that of being, of pure consciousness. The problem is you will begin thinking about it and lose "it".

If you are meditating, simply be. Be present. That is all. Sit cross legged on the floor or a chair with your hands placed one on top of the other thumbs touching, just make sure your feet are grounded and your back is straight. Begin to relax every muscle in your body, but don't go limp. Be alert, meditation is not about zoning out-it is about pure awareness-just be relaxed. Breathe. Listen to your breathe. If a thought enters your mind don't freak out. It is fine. Just observe the thought and let it go. Do not attach to the thought. If your "monkey mind" (as Shifu refers to it) begins to take over that's ok - just calm down and focus back in on your breathing.

That is it. That is meditation.

Rediscover Your True Nature-Your True Self

At our retreat when Shifu was asking us all about our experiences many people gave great answers - but I particularly liked Shi Xiong Chen Zhe's response, he said, "When I meditate, I feel almost invisible."

Don't become particularly wrapped up in how long you meditate. I think it is a mistake to think that the only way you will achieve any sort of benefit is to meditate for exactly 30 minutes every day. If you do this you bring meditation into the realm of time which is a complete contradiction. Meditation is about being present, not yesterday and not tomorrow but now. Simply sit quietly, focus on your breathing and relax. Finish your meditation when you finish. Whether it is in 3 minutes or 3 hours.

This idea was confirmed to me when I listened to the excellent audio-book "The Joy of Living" by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

In it Rinpoche states (and I am paraphrasing) "that it is far better to meditate properly-when you are calm, relaxed, happy and at peace-for multiple two or three minute sessions throughout the day, than one longer session where you are forcing yourself to meditate". Please keep in mind that is very loose paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

Meditation is not magic-it is simply learning to be present and identifying with your true nature, your true self.

When walking just walk, when sitting just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

However, I would venture to say that ANYTHING that brings us into the present that does not require a lot of thinking or analysis, may be considered meditation.

Think about it, a weightlifter going for a record attempt, a rock climber hanging by their toes and fingertips off a rock face, a skydiver plummeting toward the earth, a martial artist practicing a form. All of these things bring you immediately into the present.

I don't think there is a better description than the ancient zen proverb that Alan Watts reiterates in his excellent book, The Way of Zen, "When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble."


Thanks to Tom Kreutzer for the photos!


Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott

Introduction to Indian Club Training Workshop - 6/23/12 at the ECF Gym

Are you interested in getting healthy, strong and mobile shoulders, improved posture, enhanced recovery from upper body training sessions and much more?


Indian Clubs are a great form of training and make an excellent addition to GPP for all strength and power sports as well as offering tremendous benefits for the general fitness enthusiast.


This workshop will teach you the fundamentals of Indian Club training as well as help you refresh and build upon your current skill level.


The course will run from 9am - 12pm.


If you currently have a pair of 1 lb. Indian Clubs you may register for $60. You WILL need tobring your clubs to the workshop as we are ONLY providing clubs to those who register for that option.

If you do not have clubs we are offering a registration option for $85 which will provide you with a set of 1 lb clubs in addition to the workshop.

Cost is:
-$85 if you need clubs
-$60 if you already have clubs

Registration and payment:

If you are registering and need clubs, the cost is $85. Choose this payment link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7SJAFDVEQUBXL

If you are registering and already own a set of 1 lb. clubs that you can bring with you the cost is $60, choose this payment link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6AK887HHRRBSQ

The instructors will be Scott Shetler and Angel Rosario. Scott is the owner of Extreme Conditioning & Fitness Gym and his partner Angel was a personal student of Dr. Ed Thomas-the man responsible for popularizing Indian Club training in the United States-for over four years in the early 90's.

Scott with Dr. Ed Thoms at the ECF Gym

Here is a brief description and sample of how we are using Indian Clubs at the ECF Gym:

Location of workshop:

ECF Gym
2375 Button Gwinnett Drive
Suite-500
Atlanta, GA 30340

For more information contact Scott at:
770-403-1363
scott@extreme-fitness.org


Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott

Appreciating the Simplicity

I guess there is this phase everyone goes through at some point in their life. The simplicity phase. Well, I guess it isn't the simplicity phase as much as it is the appreciating the simplicity phase.

It reminds me of when I first started playing drums, my first drum kit was a tiny little 4-piece set. A bass drum, floor tom, rack tom and a snare along with a crash cymbal , ride cymbal and high hats. Then, after becoming a "basement rock-star" my set had grown to two bass drums, 4 rack toms, 2 floor toms, a snare, 4 crash cymbals, a ride cymbal, two china cymbals, splash cymbals and hi hats - make no mistake, I was the second coming of Charlie Benante (If you don't know who Charlie Benante is your taste in music is awful). Then I started playing out in a band, mostly small clubs but a few large venues around the Cleveland area. My set barely fit on the drum risers and stages plus hauling all that crap around sucked. By the time I finished my "music career" in an indy-rock / punk band in Atlanta I was back to that original 4 piece kit. It's funny, Modern Drummer Magazine ran a cartoon one time that went "Your first drum kit (picture of a basic 4 piece kit) --- Your drum kit after you build some chops but before you start playing out (picture of a drum kit that looked like Neil Peart from Rush's kit - about a billion drums and cymbals) --- Your drum kit AFTER you've been playing out (picture of the basic 4 piece kit). I loved it cause' it was the evolution of my drum kit (which is now sadly sitting in my basement under about an inch of dust).

Eventually you grow tired of all the flash and flair and whittle things down to the most basic and simplest form. This applies to everything-training, business, life-you name it.

One of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a long time was sitting on the beach in Pensacola-after two days of Qigong training-just breathing in the salt-sea air and watching the waves. I don't know how long I sat there, 10 minutes, an hour, time didn't exist and shit just started making sense because there was no thought - it was pure being.

If you look at anything long enough you see this trend, and for good reason. The basics never fail. Simplicity - fewer working parts - this leaves less to go wrong.

It's always better to be really good at a few things than mediocre at a bunch of stuff.

You see this trend in strength training right now - when I first started going to the old school YMCA in Madison, OH as a teenager it was all about squats, bench press, overhead press, deadlifts, barbell and dumbbell rows, chins, dips and sit ups. Then it was every machine under the sun, Nautilus, Atlantis, Cybex, Strive, Life Fitness; then back to hardcore but with bands, chains, box squats, assistance work, special strengths, bench shirts and squats suits. Now it's back to a barbell, power rack, bench and deadlift platform.

That's why I love kettlebell training - it's about as simple as you can get. A ball with a handle. Put it overhead. The more reps you can put it overhead the cooler you are.

   About as simple as it gets - an iron ball with a handle. Put it overhead and don't set it down.

Plus if you really analyze your training log I'm pretty sure you'll find Pareto was right - 80% of your results come from 20% of your exercises. The rest is all fluff.

The benefit to focusing on getting really good at a few things is it allows for greater technique mastery - no point in doing something if you can't do it well.

Derrick keeping it simple - 600+ lbs of simple.

I came across old training logs during my recent gym move and was comparing them to my current log and the one thing I noticed was that the squat, bench, deadlift, kettlebell clean and jerk, and pull-ups have been the only things that have made a continuous appearance through all the training cycles I've done since 2003.

I'm pretty sure there's a reason for that.

This picture has absolutely NOTHING to do with this blog other than I met Chuck Zito and thus I am awesome now.

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Raw for 30 Days

June 13, 2012 will be the day I ring in my 37th birthday. I usually don't go overboard for my birthday or do anything too crazy so I decided to go all out this year. Last April I made the decision to stop eating meat, about 6 months later I decided to experiment with raw vegan nutrition and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. From September of last year until now my nutrition has fluctuated between 60% - 80% raw vegan food daily. I decided that for the entire month of June I will do 100% raw vegan nutrition. 30 days raw! Here we go...