Increasing your work capacity and outlasting your opponent on the mat is one of the keys to getting more pins.

You may not be the strongest wrestler, or be the most technical but never let anyone out work you.

I put together a quick conditioning session guaranteed to increase conditioning for wrestlers in the preseason.

It takes about 20 minutes and will have you sucking wind now so you won’t be this winter.

Set your Gymboss timer for 20/10 work-rest for 8 sets!  Complete 4 rounds.  Rest one minute between rounds.

READY?  GO!

Keep it simple stupid!  You’ve heard that saying a million times before, right?

Well, your training is no different.  I’m here to tell you it’s really not that complicated.

Every time you turn around there is a new ebook, manual, fitness dvd, training system, etc,. etc, etc.  Hell, any time I want to find out the latest fitness fad all I have to do is click the little blue button on my DirecTv remote and voila, there are nearly two dozen infomercial channels!

4 minutes a day using only a screw driver and this pulley and you too can have abs of steel.  Insanity, kettleworx, P140X, they are everywhere.  You get my drift.  The fitness world has become so inundated with junk, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees!

I had a new client come the other day.  He wanted to get stronger and gain some weight.  He told me he had been training pretty hard for a while but just wasn’t getting the results he wanted.  He handed me his workout logs from his local country club gym and I was shocked!  He said he had been working with a trainer, if that’s what he called himself.

This man’s sheets were filled with cable this and ball that.  I told him to promptly throw those things away because they weren’t going to help!  I told him it wasn’t this complicated.  What do you mean, he says?  Well for the sake of time, here’s the short answer.  This is all you need to do to get real results!  Here is what I told him:

Squat

Deadlift

Pushups

Pullups

Pressing

Heavy Rowing

Climb Rope

Dips

Sprint

Jump

Take this list and it’s variations and get to work.  It’s all you really need.  These are the nuts and bolts to any successful training program.  No fancy equipment, no craziness, no insanity, just good ol’ fashion blood, sweat, and tears!

Master these movements and your results will sky rocket!

Just K.I.S.S.

I have a quick training update for you today.

A few weeks ago I started experimenting with KB complexes.

Today, I stepped it up with a double KB complex.  There’s nothing like challenging your manhood on an early, hot, sticky, and nasty morning!

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

This week I’m deloading so that means a lot of practice and fun training.

I always have fun training but it’s a nice mental break on a deload week when you can just walk in the door and decide what you feel like doing!  During the course of a normal training cycle, I plan everything.  I have specific goals in mind.

Deloading is a time to rest your joints.  It’s also a time to practice those things that you tend to shy away from because you’re not quite sure how to integrate them into your training.

Over the last several months I’ve purchased my first kettlebells.  I’ve been practicing the basics and like to think I’ve gotten them down pat for the most part.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been exactly sure how to rotate them in to my normal training cycles.

So, to celebrate America’s Independence Day, I decided to do a little kettlebell practice.  The first move I hit was a combo of the double kettlebell clean, front squat, and press.  I combined that with pullups and hit five reps of each for as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.  The second movement I practiced was the double swing with a band pushups for the same 15 minute block.

Take a look.  Feel free to offer an feedback on my form.

What do you do to stay lean and mean?

I’m not on some crazy quest for Abercrombie abs.  I enjoy beating up the iron too much for that.

However, I do love conditioning work.  No, not crazy 45min slow pace cardio sessions, but quick intense finishers or stand alone conditioning session that last no more than 25 minutes.

Staying strong is paramount, that’s why I keep conditioning sessions relatively short and only hit a max of 3-4 each week.

It’s all about staying lean and mean!

I’m on a quest to beef up my bodyweight training.

I need to get stronger at several moves.

One that has always given me trouble is the handstand pushup.

I read a while back that strength is a skill and in order to get better you MUST practice.   I’m going to start practicing more, at least a couple of times a week at the beginning of my training sessions and see how things progress from there.

If you don’t practice, your skill will suffer.

10 Swings

10 Band Pushups

On the minute for 10 minutes.

GO!

I read a pretty kick butt post this morning from one of my mentors.  He asked a pretty simple question.

When are you strong enough?

I don’t think I’ll ever be strong enough.  At least I’ll never think I’m strong enough no matter how much I progress.  I guess that’s what will keep me hungry and competing every time I bang on the iron.

I mentioned in one of my last posts about the rope climb being one of my new all time favorites. Rope climbing is one of the toughest things you can do.  Doing it with just your arms will get you unbelievably strong.  Your forearms and upper back will no doubt get packed with slabs of solid muscle.

Take a look below at some fun I had with climbing ropes recently.

Drop a comment and let me know what you think.

Stay strong.

My all time favorite lifts are the squat, deadlift, pullup, and pushup.  You know, the basics.  I’m all about the K.I.S.S. principle when training.  There’s really no need to complicate things.  I think with all the fancy equipment and hundreds of TV training gurus out there today, people tend to over think their training.  It’s not that complicated.

Believe me!

Just think for a minute. What did people used to do before globo gyms, celebrity trainers, and the internet?  Take a few minutes and google some of the old time strongmen.  Those guys were  incredibly strong and unbelievably well conditioned.  They didn’t do anything fancy.  They lifted heavy, sprinted, jumped, and ate clean.

I mentioned some of my favorite movements above but I’ve been expanding my horizons lately, trying to get better at things the give me a little bit of trouble.

Take a look at some of my new favorites!

Today I have a quick conditioning update straight from the Real World Strength gym.  Here there are no treadmills, ellipticals or recumbent bikes.

Here at Real World Strength and Conditioning we use jump ropes, bodyweight, sprinting, jumping, sleds, ropes, sandbags, sledgehammers, among others to stay lean and mean.

Take a look below…

If you live in the Richmond, Virginia area and you’re looking for real world training that delivers real world results contact me today for your free trial.