Exercise of the Week: Divebomber Push-Up (with VIDEO)
Hi Everyone:
This is a follow up to an earlier post on the divebomber pushup. The post got a lot of traffic and some great feedback, so I decided to post it again, this time with a video.
Click the link below to watch the video. There is a feature on the video player that gives a description of every exercise in a particular playlist. When watching the video, just click on the area titled “Exercise Description” and a it’ll appear immediately.
Feel Free to link to this post or copy the link and send it out. If you want to make your own video playlists, custom workouts or just see and read how hundreds of exercises are performed, come over to Hybrid Fitness and check it out for yourself. See you there.
Keep training hard!
Jason
www.hybridfitness.tv
Think you’re fit? Give Hi-Max Training a shot
We’re lucky enough to be working with a strength and conditioning coach by the name of Tom Kelso. Tom is formerly the Director of Sports Performance for Pinnacle Performance Training and has recently taken a position with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as an Exercise Specialist and Programming Director. Tom is a very knowledgable guy and the audio interview we did with him was outstanding. Those clips will be available at Hybrid Fitness when we go live. In the meantime, register your name and email address on the site so we can keep you informed.
Here’s a video of Tom in action, working with one of his clients. This particular type of training is called HIMAX Training. As Tom describes it, normal HIMAX sessions result in about 12 - 15 exercises/intervals per 1/2 hour session and around 20 exercises for an hour session. They factor in about 10 minutes of stretching as well, so the actual work duration is around 45-50 minutes. As Tom says, “most who come to us are looking to lose fat and look better, thus we try to push them to their limit to maximize energy expenditure”.
Check out the video and feel free to post your comments.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_H1njipjjQ&hl=en&fs=1]
Think you’re fit? Give Hi-Max Training a shot
We’re lucky enough to be working with a strength and conditioning coach by the name of Tom Kelso. Tom is formerly the Director of Sports Performance for Pinnacle Performance Training and has recently taken a position with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as an Exercise Specialist and Programming Director. Tom is a very knowledgable guy and the audio interview we did with him was outstanding. Those clips will be available at Hybrid Fitness when we go live. In the meantime, register your name and email address on the site so we can keep you informed.
Here’s a video of Tom in action, working with one of his clients. This particular type of training is called HIMAX Training. As Tom describes it, normal HIMAX sessions result in about 12 - 15 exercises/intervals per 1/2 hour session and around 20 exercises for an hour session. They factor in about 10 minutes of stretching as well, so the actual work duration is around 45-50 minutes. As Tom says, “most who come to us are looking to lose fat and look better, thus we try to push them to their limit to maximize energy expenditure”.
Check out the video and feel free to post your comments.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_H1njipjjQ&hl=en&fs=1]
The Number to Fear is 23
Alright, so I never try to be one to promote fearmongering, but I’m watching the news this morning and one of the many stats being hyped is 23%. Of what you ask? Percentage of Americans with Diabetes. According to the CDC, approximately 24 Million Americans have diabetes (which is up 3 million over the last 2 years) and another 57 Million Americans have a condition called “pre-diabetes”. Basically saying these pre-diabetics are well on their way to developing diabetes, they just haven’t hit the “official” diabetes numbers yet.
Like I said, I don’t like to promote fearmongering, but…..I don’t doubt these numbers for a second. Yes, America is the land of the over-diagnosed and the over-medicated. Yes, the first thing we do as a nation is get a pill or some other “quick-fix” for whatever ailes us.
As a nation, are we getting more out-of-shape and less healthy? Damn right we are. The ridiculousness of the whole thing is that it’s actually very easy to avoid. It takes a little knowledge and some will power.
Where do you start? Start by educating yourself. There’s lots of information out in cyberspace and a bunch of it is complete crap. Make sure your source(s) are reliable. This blog is a great place to start because we have some programs, meals and nutrition information for free. Take a look at the links on the right navigation bar of this blog and you’ll see other great sources for nutrition, training and products.
Next, formulate a plan. Work out a fitness schedule and weekly nutrition plan. If you can get your calories under control, you’ll be amazed how fast you can make body composition changes. Figure out how many days a week you’re going to exercise, either in the gym, outdoors or in the comfort of your own home.
What if I don’t have access to a gym? You don’t need a gym to get your heart rate up, your sweat flowing and your fat burning. This is where the whole “will power” element comes into play. Just get up from your chair, out of your house or office and get moving. If you absolutely can’t get out, spend a little bit of money and get some gear that allows you to train at home. Honestly, it doesn’t take much. You don’t need to have hundreds of movements to make a program from. In fact, most of the fitness professionals I know rely on a very small number of exercises that they cycle through. Couple that with some basic cardio training and you’ll be well on your way.
Don’t be one of the 23%. Don’t become one of the 23%. Don’t even think about the number 23 (sorry Michael Jordan and Jim Carrey).
This is very brief information, I know. Trust me, I could write for weeks and not get all the information out. With that said, got questions? Post them to comments. We’ll answer you back.
If you’re serious about getting in shape or taking your fitness to the next level, go to www.hybridfitness.tv and sign in to the box on the upper right. It costs you absolutely NOTHING, we’ll send you free fitness tips on a regular basis, we DO NOT SPAM ANYONE and we’ll let you know when Hybrid launches. You can’t go wrong.
Keep training hard.
Jason K.
www.hybridfitness.tv
Makeshift Gym + Intervals = ???
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Makeshift gym + Intervals = Success!
Thought I’d share another success story for you. I’ve got a client who, together with her husband, make a very comfortable living. Without going into detail about their financial situation, suffice it to say they live in a million-dollar home and drive luxury cars. Why not, they’ve earned it!
They could easily afford memberships to the ritziest clubs in the city. Instead, they opt for a different situation. The wife trains with me a couple times per week. We begin most sessions with a short warm-up run, followed by a set of high-intensity sprint intervals. We run back to the house and hit the “gym”. The gym is a small section of the garage with a handful of equipment. Literally, it consists of a sandbag, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, a couple sets of dumbbells and a selection of sportbands. Why work out in her garage when she could be working out in style and comfort at a club? Simply because she’s only focussed on results. Who cares how big a gym’s pool is or what kind of bottled water the sell (overcharge for)? If you’re goal is to get in shape, it’s not about where you train, but how you train.
The intervals, along with the resistance training, has transformed her body (almost) back to what it was in college. It has nothing to do with the brand of cardio equipment, the size of the fitness room or the price of the membership. Honestly, the total cost of ALL her equipment is still less than one month’s membership at the top clubs in the city and easily less than 2 months at mid-level clubs…including the YMCA! Plus, she doesn’t have to drive anywhere or factor in that extra time in the morning. (BTW, thanks to Iron Woody Fitness for providing the gear at great prices!)
So the bottom line is, it’s not where you train but how you train and how HARD you train. You can get instant gratification from your training, but it’s always going to be directly related to the work you put into it. If you train hard and train consistently, you will succeed. If you need to hire a trainer to keep you on task, do it, but make sure you’re getting the most out of the time. If you don’t feel like you’re being pushed hard enough, speak up…it’s your money, after all.
So quit reading this blog and get training! Well…maybe read a few more posts, forward the URL onto your friends and family, THEN get to training. 
Keep training hard!
Jason K.
www.hybridfitness.tv
P.S.: If you haven’t yet, take a look at Iron Woody Fitness. I can’t say enough good things about them. I purchased a few sets of bands several years ago and I still use the same bands today. Trust me, they’ve seen their fair share of use, but they continue endure the punishment I throw at them. That goes for the bells I’ve purchased as well. Bottom line is, they have great products, superior customer service and rockin’ prices. Yes, we’re an Iron Woody affiliate and proud of it.
Another H.I.I.T Success Story
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As many of you probably know, at Hybrid Fitness, we’re BIG proponents of High Intensity Interval Training (or H.I.I.T). Taku and I have integrated HIIT successfully into the programs of countless individuals of varying backgrounds and athletic abilities. I’ve personally used HIIT to train for a marathon. Honestly, every training session was focussed around short, maximal-effort intervals which had enormous carry-over into my general conditioning and a profoundly positive impact on my VO2 Max. More on that later.
Most recently, I’ve been working with a client who wants to get lean and back into her college shape. She has 2 kids (both very young) and a demanding, high-stress job in the tech industry. Needless to say, she has many factors in her life and schedule that preclude her from really taking the time she needs to get to the gym on a regular basis. She wants to get in better shape and wants to run, but the problem is, she HATES RUNNING. She has a mental block that prevents her from really turning on the effort and I’ve explained many times that a slow jog for a few blocks will never make any sizeable impact on her conditioning or aesthetic goals.
Not a problem.
I introduced her to HIIT about two weeks ago and I made her a promise. If she sticks with the HIIT training, she’ll see a difference in her body composition in a few week and an increase in her conditioning almost immediately. We literally have 3 HIIT sessions completed at this point and she called me yesterday to say she went running over the weekend (on her own) and noticed a profound increase in her running ability. Mentally and physically, she’s noticed a difference and that’s with only 3 HIIT sessions under her belt. To clarify, this is not someone who’s just started working out, either. She has a lifelong athletic history, though she’s never chosen to push herself or had someone push her.
I could write all day about the benefits of HIIT, but suffice it to say, it’s working wonders for my client and it can work wonders for most anyone. This includes competitive athletes. Honestly, entirely too much emphasis is put on LSD or Long Slow Duration training. Athletes of most any sport and certainly the average person looking to get in shape or better shape will benefit from incorporating some type of HIIT training into your program.
Look through some of our past postings for additional HIIT articles and audio clips.
Post your thoughts, HIIT success stories or questions to the comments section and we’ll address them directly.
Keep training hard!
Jason K.
www.hybridfitness.tv
Low-Tech Tools = High-Performance Results
We’ve posted a number of blog articles about the variety of training tools available. Additionally, we’ve posted dozens of “low-tech” training programs at hybridfitness.tv, which involve everything from sandbags to sportbands to kettlebells to bodyweight. Why do I refer to them as “low-tech”? Because they don’t have a bunch of cables or attachments, they don’t cost thousands of dollars, they’re not difficult to learn and they take up very little space. On the contrary, they’re easy to use, easy to transport, inexpensive to purchase and you need very little space to train.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I’ve been going to the gym since I was 16. I love to run intervals on a treadmill or push my limits on a Concept 2 rower as much as anyone and I love to load up the lat pulldown or cable cross machines and see how much weight I can move. If I’ve got an extra $8000 laying around and a few hundred square feet of extra space at my house, I could get myself a couple of these machines. But for 99% of the population, the prospect of outfitting a home gym is out of the question.
Where does that leave you? Easy. Look to the low-tech solution.
With a few different bands of varying resistance, you can replicate most machine movements. Throw in a kettlebell or two and you’ve just expanded your options. Top it off with a couple sandbags and you literally have everything you need to get in shape, increase your muscular strength and endurance and skyrocket your conditioning.
We don’t sell these products directly, but everyone at Hybrid Fitness has purchased them for our training clients as well as personal use! With that said, we recommend you try them for yourself. You’ll be amazed how challenging an overhead squat is with tiny resistance band, or how a simple set of kettlebell Up & Overs will test your mental and physical limits. Visit our Training and Exercise of the Week sections for lots more exercise ideas.
Are you ready to give low-tech training a shot? We recommend you look to Iron Woody Fitness. Their customer service is second-to-none and they have everything you need at the best prices on the net. Plus, they’re just great people.
Remember: You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get in the best shape of your life. All you need is a little guidance, some motivation and some imagination.
Good luck and keep training hard!
Jason K.
www.hybridfitness.tv
Training OUT of the Zone
You hear talk all the time about “training in the zone”, “being in the zone”, etc. I want to convince you to train OUT of the zone. By “zone”, I mean your comfort zone.
People naturally gravitate towards what’s easiest. We avoid tougher, more challenging training and stick with what we know. It’s the reason people fall into ruts, athletes stop progressing and individuals stop seeing changes, despite putting in long hours in the gym.
I went to the climbing gym today, as I do every week. My climbing partner and I got in a discussion with some other climbers about a particular route and why it would be so challenging. It had a lot of overhangs, but technically, it was rated far below what this climber is capable of doing. In theory, it should be an easy climb for him.
The climber said “I don’t do overhangs”. Right away, we asked him why? He said he wasn’t comfortable with them and would rather spend his time getting better on the vertical routes. We started discussing comfort zones and how important it is to work on the weak areas of your sport. The climber fully understood the importance of this, but still avoided the tougher overhangs whenever possible. This same mentality exists in any sport. I’m certainly not saying it happens with everyone, but the key is to recognize that there are weak spots with your training, then work to overcome them.
For many people in many different sports, conditioning is a huge factor. I’ve said it before, but it can make or break an individuals performance. Interval training can be extremely beneficial when it comes to increasing your aerobic and anaerobic endurance, but performing intervals can push the body’s heart rate to extremely high levels and bring on a level of fatigue that many have never experienced before. As a result, they avoid it outright.
The same is true when it comes to strength and skill training. This also goes for recreational athletes and people just looking to get in shape. If you stick solely with what you know, the body will never be able to push beyond it’s current level. Try new skills, lift heavier weights (safely and within reason) and switch up your “cardio” training. You’ll be surprised just how fast the body adapts to overcome it’s new stress.
Got some specific training issues that you feel are hindering your performance or results? Post them here and we’ll address them specifically.
Keep training hard!
Jason K.
www.hybridfitness.tv
How to stimulate your metabolic rate
Diet and Exercise Changes Can Affect How Your Body Uses Energy
People who participate in fitness related activities strive to build, shape and tone their bodies to achieve their goals. The primary factor affecting this change is the body’s metabolic rate.
What Is Metabolic Rate?
Your metabolic rate is the energy expended to sustain your body’s functionality. This includes the internal organs such as the heart, kidney, and stomach and all of the small cellular reactions taking place in your blood that keep your cells working so that your body can keep you alive.
Exercise
The most significant effect on metabolic rate is achieved through exercise. During moderate to vigorous activity you elevate your metabolic rate expending hundreds of additional calories. This can be accomplished by aerobic activities. The more vigorously you exercise the more calories you use per minute. Regular resistive training (weights, body weight, and medicine balls) can also help. The benefits are lower blood pressure, better endurance, stronger muscles, joints and bones. The more muscle mass you create, the more calories you burn. Every pound of muscle that you build burns an extra 50 calories of stored energy. (One pound of human fat equals 3500 calories.)
Sleep
We all know we need sleep. Apparently, good sleep helps us lose weight. Interrupted sleep increases a hormone in our bodies called “ghrelin” that increases appetite. So try and get your 6-8 hours a night. Read a book before you sleep. Practice meditation and gentle stretching before you go to bed. It can help relax you and you’ll enjoy a deep and restorative night’s sleep.
Diet
Eat small regular meals.
Eating small meals or snacks at regularly timed intervals seems to result in a slightly higher metabolism. The reasoning is that if someone eats small meals consisting of a balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats their metabolism burns energy more evenly over the course of a day. Skipping meals or making the wrong food choices can alter your metabolism making it erratic and confusing your body as to how it is to process energy. If you are changing your eating habits to eat more frequently please make sure you are not adding calories to the change.
Consume protein
It takes more calories to digest protein. A high protein diet intake may also reduce hunger. Why? Sugars in the diet (carbohydrates) stimulate the pancreas. The pancreas produces insulin. Insulin is the chemical hormone that your body produces to facilitate the uptake of sugar into our bodies. Replace high carbohydrates and empty calorie foods with proteins such eggs, fish, nonfat diary products and lean meats. The correct balance of non-meat sources such as whole grains, minimally processed, soy based foods as well as rice and beans may also create complete proteins.
Avoid restrictive dieting
Limiting caloric intake too severely can decrease your resting metabolic rate. A reaction known as the “somatic response” your body goes into energy conservation mode. In other words, it slows down to cope with the food decrease. This response creates a yo-yo response to your metabolism speeding it up and down and making it difficult for your body to kick start your energy burning center (i.e. Muscles). As illustrated before, eat small regular meals throughout the day and you’ll be more likely to burn stored energy more effectively.
Summary
Enjoy flavorful foods and small portions of food. Increase your exercise intensity aerobically and participate in regular strength training 3-4 x week, Practice these things consistently and you’ll soon see your body the way you want it to be.
Abu Pigott D.C.
