Functional Training

Motivation

Food

Holiday Training Plan

By Robert Orr, RKC 

It is difficult to find and keep motivation to train during the holiday season. This is especially true during the days between Christmas and the New Year. The distractions are endless. Family, football, food, travel and cold weather will all turn into excuses if you let them. Here are a few tips to get you through the holiday season:

Plan to take a couple days off. Two to four days off from your training will not put an end to your training goals. These days off are often what your body needs to recover and re-energize. You may see an increase in both strength and endurance when you return to training.

After your short break, cut back on volume and intensity. Slowly build these back up. Rushing back into the intensity may lead to injury or burn out.

Short workouts provide the answer you are looking for. They won't keep you from your family duties and may give you a break from the holiday chaos.

Sample workout:

     Clean and press - 1 minute.

     Single leg dead lift - 1 minute.

     Swing  - 1 minute.

     Figure 8 - 1 minute.

Repeat 3 or 4 times.

Perseverance: Overcome Yourself

By Robert Orr, RKC

Horace Greeley stated, “Go west young man and grow up in the country.” Imagine the courage and perseverance settlers must have possessed. Imagine what our country would be today if our fore fathers didn’t have these qualities. Do you have these qualities?

In the last newsletter we touched slightly on perseverance.  Webster’s Dictionary gives this definition: To persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement. The short definition packs a powerful punch. Go ahead; read it again, you know you want to. 

To persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement.

It doesn’t make things any easier. Let’s break the definition down to English. Perseverance is enduring hardships in the face of adversity caused by your environment or more importantly, in your own head. This article will focus on you as your own opponent.

The only person ultimately responsible for failure in your given quest is you.  It is bold, arrogant or not well thought out to say you can and will persevere regardless of outcome and will continue despite opposition. Choose one. Prior to any attempt at a quest, use critical thinking or dawn your thinking cap and ponder difficult questions like the following: 

The answers to these questions are important and vital to the success of your quest. A successful quest will require answering these questions several times over. You must overcome your own mind before you can attempt any quest. Often failure has occurred before the attempt is made because you haven’t answered the right questions. You haven’t sold your spirit on a successful outcome and you are not confident.

Once you have sold yourself on the fact you can be successful, you must make a plan. Your plan should include all aspects of preparation for success. You need to ensure your physical and mental preparation is equal. During my preparation for the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) Certification, I worked on my conditioning for snatches. It came to a point where I knew I was more than physically prepared but I didn’t have the mental confidence to complete the snatch test. At this point I relied on visualization to convince my mind I had done it hundreds of times already. I imagined the feeling of every repetition in every part of my body. When it came time for the test, I passed with no difficulty what so ever. As far as my mind is concerned, I had done before. In fact, I tested myself last week to see what would happen. With little snatch preparation over the past few months I was able to complete the test without effort. This proves the saying, “the more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.”

If you have no doubt that the reward of success is greater than the cost, you will succeed.

Don’t worry; you already have the necessary tools to combat your own mind. Here is a brief overview. 

Daily Dietary Recommendations

By Robert Orr

Before you continue, realize there are hundreds of fad diets on the market. Using most of them result in the weight loss you desire. Here is a list of a few popular diets or eating lifestyles Atkins, The Makers Diet, The South Beach Diet, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, GI Diet, Glycemic Index Diet, Biggest Loser and don’t forget Dr. Phil’s Diet. You can probably think of someone that has tried each of these diets. The problem with most of these diets is they aren’t fun and they are difficult to stay on for an extended period of time. As soon as you stop your chosen diet, the weight is gained back fairly quickly. Needless to say, most people aren’t successful when they choose a diet.

Let me propose an alternative. Make a decision to change your lifestyle and stick with it. The goal shouldn’t be weight driven, don’t shoot for a goal weight instead shoot for lower body fat or to change your body composition. You will feel healthier and your body weight won’t matter so much. In other words, there isn’t as much pressure. It sounds hard doesn’t it? It isn’t as hard as it sounds. Your diet shouldn’t mean you are on a diet. Heed this, there are no shortcuts. If something claims to be a miracle, it is bad for you. Follow these tips to aid your decision making to help you shed weight and keep it off.