Practice Makes What?

Repetition is king when it comes to perfecting a skill and it doesn't matter whether its olympic lifting or martial arts - you still need to put the time in.  I understand for most training at the gym it's just a hobby, a pastime, but you have to understand without some level of repetition you're just turning up to a class.  I always want the best from the people who show up and the simple fact is it's not going to be something new and shiny each week.   You have to work hard at the basics and, yes, you will learn new shiny things but the shiny things are nothing without the basics and the repetition.  It used to be the case that having a black belt really meant something.  You were feared and rightly so, because you had worked hard, learned a lot and could apply in real time the skills you had learned.  However, in today's world very few people are truly prepared to hang on in for the journey so they created short cut martial arts and handed out black belts to children and adults who truly were not deserving.  So eventually the black belt became not as prized.  The same with the MBA business qualification.  They saturated the market with that and now nobody cares if you have it.  I understand the need to keep the student motivated, but as a student you must understand you need to put time in and then everything will come good.  So if you want a good round kick throw a hundred kicks a day.  You want to power clean better then get under that broomstick and do 50 a day.  Nothing is stopping you from being great except yourself. 

Don't Be Selfish - Give your Partner Everything

When you train with someone in class they are your pupil and your friend.  I'm there as a coach, a guide, someone to point the way and lay the foundations of training. We all have different teaching styles.  I'm a group corrections man - unless I see someone who really needs help. I'm hiding in the shadows. I'm not walking about all the time in your face otherwise I'd be stopping you every two minutes to give you something else.  That being said, it gives me nothing but joy when I see guys training and offering each other advice and making that person better.  You are a teacher yourself and the best way to solidify your knowledge is to pass it on to someone else. They will ask you questions, and you sometimes have to think about the answers which is a good thing.  Don't look at it like 'oh hell, I'm partnered with a newbie'.  You were that guy once, and someone probably helped you along.  Come out your comfort zone once in a while and get a new partner and help someone out - that's what you are there for - to be a better person.  The benefit in Krav Maga, or in any of the other fighting systems, is that often with a new start you get someone untainted and raw and they fight in a more realistic way.  Remember, if you get drama outside its more than likely from a regular guy not someone with a lot of training.  They move completely differently.  So, wether your are in one our martial arts, Crossfit or technique classes, bear all this in mind and don't be afraid to help others out. Give them the benefit of your own learning curve. Help them avoid the mistakes you made and see your own skills and confidence accelerate. 

Ripped is the new skinny

I’ve noticed lately that some of my Facebook friends like to post inspirational pics of fiercely ripped women lifting serious weights while wearing insufficiently supportive sports garments (see link). These pics are usually accompanied with bullying, if trite slogans: “Good things come to those who work their asses off”;  “If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up”. Unlike said friends, I’ve never found those images particularly inspiring and frequently hide them so I can continue with my day, unirritated.

What’s my problem? Being strong may be better than striving to be simply skinny, but being fitness-model ripped isn’t necessarily the healthiest place to be either. 

My beef with fitness models is that they tout an impossible ideal. What isn’t clear from the photos is that they represent a moment in time which is completely unsustainable in the long term. To appear ripped you have to have less than 19 per cent body fat. To maintain a super low body fat percentage you probably aren’t going to be eating enough to feed your muscles and make gains.

For me, lifting is about challenging myself and understanding my body in a way that transcends all the patriarchal crap sent our way daily by way of advertising, and popular media. I don’t train to be bench Barbie, I train because it makes me feel invincible. The numbers that matter to me aren’t my chest, waist and hip measurements but my bench, squat, and deadlift kgs.

Mercy

http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/the-best-motivational-fitness-quotes-28-pics/

The Deadlift

“There is no easy way to do a deadlift - no way to cheat, which explains their lack of popularity in most gyms around the world”

Mark Rippetoe, Starting Strength

The deadlift may be a challenging lift but it’s a breeze to incur a deadlift injury. After all, it’s the exercise most closely akin to lifts you might have to perform in real life - lifting heavy shit off the floor - when the only advice you may be able to recall for the occasion is “bend zee knees!” 

While it’s a lift that primarily utilises the muscles of your lower back, it involves more muscles than any other lift you’ll perform. Everything that stabilises the “core” - the abs, obliques, the intercostals, plus all of the muscles of the upper and lower back are going to get seriously tested, as well as the glutes, traps, lats, delts, teres major, the quads, the hamstrings and, assuming you’re not using lifting straps, grip strength. In short, it is the Daddy of all compound lifts. 

Why is the deadlift such a bitch? Anything that challenges your back has the potential to be a bit of a scunner but the main issue with deadlifting is that  it starts with a concentric contraction and ends with an eccentric. Unlike the squat where you are lowering yourself into a “hole” before “exploding” put of it, with deads you are already in the hole which is what makes them so hard. You are not a coiled spring drawing on your power, you are heaving something off the ground from a dead stop (hence the name). 

Here’s how you do it:

Your stance should be narrower than for the squat, just a little more than hip-width apart. Toes are slightly angled out - less so than in the squat. The bar should be over the ball of your foot, an inch or so from the shin. Grip the bar so that the thumbs just clear the legs. Bend your knees and sink your bum. Keeping your chest high by lifting the shoulders up and back. The most important thing to think about is to ensure your back is flat/neutral and not rounded, throughout. 

Remind yourself that this is not a squat. You are not looking to get your thighs below parallel to the ground, you are only bending at the hips and knees enough that you can grasp the bar with straight arms. 

Keep tension in the lats by pulling the bar to touch your shins. The bar should maintain contact with the shins, then the knees, then the thighs, throughout (you might wish to invest in some sexy tube socks or wear tracky bottoms on legs day because there will be scraping). It might be helpful to think of the hands as merely hooks from which the bar dangles. Your arm strength will not be utilised at all. Simply grip the bar and let your legs and hips do most of the work.

Take a deep breath, face forward, look slightly down, and pull the bar up your legs, straightening the knees, pushing the pelvis forward. At the top of the pull, pull the shoulders back, lift the chest and lock the knees. Don’t exaggerate this thrust forward, your spine should still be in a neutral position. To complete the lift, lower the bar to the ground in the same way in reverse. You can let gravity do most of the work. You don’t want to waste your energy lowering it down super-carefully. Although if you drop it from a height while lifting anything less than a majestic amount of kgs you’re going to look like a bit of an idiot. So try not to do that. 

When the bar touches the floor reset yourself, mindfully, for the next rep.

Do not let you vanity drive your deadlift. Think of your spine! If you can’t lift with perfect form ie a flat back, you’ve got no business lifting that weight. I should know. As I sit here typing, awkwardly propped up with cushions on my sofa, I’m counting the minutes till I can take my next painkillers. What did I do? I hurt my back. How did I do it? Trying to deadlift too much.

Mercy

http://doubleyourgains.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/how-to-deadlift.jpg