I've Seen This Somewhere Before.

It is I. Returned, for the moment, from an hiatus of sorts. Just finishing up a 4 week cycle that consisted of 1-2-3 ladders of dead lifts, one arm dumb bell presses and towel rows. I got the dead lift back up to 315 and the press up to 50 lb DB's. The towel rows are good for grip strength. Throw a rolled up towel over a bar and row away.
This will be short today as I am realizing that I don't really have all that much to say.

The Leisure Movement

I decided the other day that we have built a society that values mindless productivity over mindfull leisure. I would like that to change, and with the aid of a friend, I have started the Leisure Movement. The primary tenets are that you have an understanding of and an appreciation for the act of leisure. Just doing something, especially if it is work, it pointless and overrated. One can be more productive and less angst prone when one is looking out the window on a nice day rather than toiling away at some ridiculous form of work. So get out there, spread the word and stop work before it stops you.
I have been spending the last few weeks working on Pavel's Simple and Sinister program and I am liking it. Check it out if you have some time.

Funny How Blogs Die

I feel like someone sneaking back into the house after having attended my own funeral. There has been a lot of activity lately and that has parked adding to internet chatter way in the back of the lot. I will now walk out of the shadows take the long trek across the vast, empty space and dust off this blog and see if it will still start.
First: New things in the L.A. area, Tav Byerhoff, formerly of Bodytribe Fitness in Sacramento gives classes on Wednesday morning at 7 AM at the foot of Ocean Park Blvd. in Santa Monica. If you are familiar with Chip Conrad's work you might want to check this out. Tav's group is called Ritual Fitness.
Second: Ken Froese offers groundflow classes in Culver City on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. (e-mail him for times and location) This looks interesting and fun although I have not, yet, been to one of the classes. I will probably go next week after my stupid back gets better.
I promised a few tidbits on content versus quality so here they are:
I believe that being able to satisfy the interwebz insatiable appetite for more, more, more has diluted the quality of the information to such an extent that it is almost laughable. I have friends who want to start blogs on various subjects and are not looking for writers but  for content producers. The depths to which this has sunk is indicated by the proliferation of content mills that pay writers ridiculously low rates to just produce internet friendly content (one or two paragraphs) to fill their gaping maws. This has produced an environment in which writers are having an increasingly hard time making a living. Most of the writers I know, who are making a living, started out and got established when print was still the dominant medium. Chew on that for awhile and buy a book, a real book and keep it by your bedside. You can read them without turning anything on. You can also throw them across the room, mark up the pages with highlighters and scratch notes in the margins. The funniest thing I saw recently was a book on how to survive grid crash that was only available as an e-book.
I attended a Strong First Kettle Bell course last weekend and it was great. I hope to write a review of this for publication soon and I will keep you posted.
See you soon. If I can get this thing to turn over. I might have to push start it.

Link-a-palooza

Over two weeks since my last post. I have been in a state recently and not up to the task. I have, however, found some new stuff for you to read.
A new article by Mark Rippetoe about Crossfit that reinforces what we already know. It needs to be said again and again as new people investigate the method. These folks need to have access to this information if they are to make an informed decision. Maybe if more people walked in the door demanding that safety concerns be addressed then the CF gyms will be forced to comply. Free market and all that.
Tony Gentilcore's site is great. Be sure to visit his Resources page for links to other sites.
Aleks Salkins site had this great article on movement. Directed toward getting you to check out Primal Move, while not a bad thing it did end up sounding like a sales pitch.
Gold Medal Bodies is a good bodyweight and gymnastics site.

Now that my readership has precipitously declined I must work hard to regain  your interest. Tomorrow on this subject we will talk about content quantity versus quality.

The workouts for the next 8 weeks:
Day One:
5 rounds/Rest as needed
Trap bar Dead lifts x 5
Ring Rows x 5
Goblet Squats x 5
Single arm KB swings x 5 to 20 ea.
Ab wheel x 5 - 10
Day Two:
5 rounds/Rest as needed
Trap bar Dead lifts x 5
One arm dumb bell press x 5
Goblet Squats x 5
KB snatch x 3 - 10 ea.
Farmer Walk x 40 meters

These will be alternated each workout and I will try to get in 2 - 3 days of outdoor workouts.
so it would look something like this:
Sunday - outdoor
Monday - workout 1
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - outdoor
Thursday - workout 2
Friday - off
Saturday - Maybe a row  or some sort of fun thing.

So that's it for today.

Movement Jam.

Musicians always steal licks. They work them over and over until it becomes theirs, adding a little here, taking away a little there. We can do the same thing with movements. Learning a series of movements and then combining them into a warm up or a whole work out. We can do a jello jam where all the movements are done in slo-mo. I am working on Chip Conrad's warm up now and tweaking it as I go to address areas where I am deficient. This process allows us to continually move forward as our mobility and skills increase.
Give it a go.
Today starts the last 4 days of the 5,000 KB swing thing.

FRIDAY'S WORKOUT
5 rounds/RAN
10 KB swings
1 Press @ 85
15 KB swings
2 press @ 85
25 KB swings
3 press @ 85
It took 20:00. I have recorded a time of 19:32 and this may have been closer to that than I know because I forgot my stopwatch today and just had to use a clock with no second hand.

The Holistic Athlete

I drove out to Palm Desert last Saturday to attend a workshop at Desert Crossfit. The presentation was being given by Chip Conrad of Bodytribe Fitness.
I have been aware of Chip and his Bodytribe for a while now and have always wanted to attend one of his workshops. I went expecting amazing and got so much more.
This event was like the fitness version of My Dinner With Andre. I left with a whole new outlook. Everything around me had changed.
Chip has managed to mix a perfect cocktail, a blend of the physical and metaphysical that becomes more than the sum of the parts.
If Chip is coming to your area then you need to go see him. Just drop what you are doing. Pack a tasty lunch. Get in the car and go. You won't regret it.
Below is a clip from the bodytribe you tube page.

Civilization. Fail.

My father was a sail boater. Most of the time we would putter around calm little inland lakes but every now and then he would take us out on the ocean. Most parents today would be appalled at the idea of taking a couple of 5 and 6 year old kids out on the ocean with nothing but a life jacket between them and drowning.
My Father lived for these moments. Once we got past the harbor and break water he would start to light up. His eyes would take on an unearthly glow as though there were a fire burning inside. The rougher the water got the hotter he would burn. He would whoop like an insane person every time we dropped off a big swell or hit a wave head on. It was in these moments that I began to see, at a very early age, the effects of the prison like confinement of life in the modern age and the freedom that was offered by embracing the more primal side of one's nature. Coming back, soaked in sea water and shivering from the cold he would get progressively more compacted the closer we got to the landing spot. As he climbed off the boat you could see the crushing weight of  civilized life resettling itself on his shoulders.
I have never forgotten that lesson.