Get out of your comfort zone

Wow it has been a while since I have posted, thankfully the holiday season is officially over I can hopefully get back to a more consistent schedule. We are now in 2012, out with the old in with the new! A new year always seems to inspire change (hopefully we change for the better) and with a new year comes New Years resolutions. I for one have many changes planed for 2012!

The most common fitness related resolution is to lose weight and get “back” in shape. If this is your resolution I really hope you stick with it, please don’t become another new year fitness failure by giving up on your resolution in March.  So while I really hope “this is the year” for you fitness beginners I don’t want to talk about fitness newbies, I want to talk/challenge the workout veterans, the people who don’t need a calendar date to inspire them to go to the gym. I want to challenge the people who already take pride in their health and body composition.

My challenge to the fitness veterans is to “get out of your comfort zone” every once in a while! As you know I am a student of the fitness game. I am constantly trying and learning different fitness methods such as MovNat (the summary of my experience is long over due), CrossFit, Olympic lifting, kettlebells, Gracie Ju Jitsu, Boxing, and triathlon. As a result of all my fitness adventures I have learned many things including:

Final day after a week long MovNat workshop

• Skills do not transfer very well - Trust me you are not as generally prepared as you think! You may be the baddest dude in your yoga class or have the fastest Fran time at your crossfit box but as soon as you do something totally different (out of your comfort zone)

Is your workout boring? (Also did someone win the deadlift challenge?)

Deadlift challenge update:

There is a winner!!! Drum roll please……..It is I!!! On December 7th, I finally reached my goal of a 400-lb deadlift. Weighing in at 175-lbs, a 400-lb deadlift is 2.28 x my body weight! It took exactly 3-months to add 100-lbs to my deadlift. For both Jessica and I to add 80-lbs and 100-lbs respectively, to our deadlift, in just three short months is outstanding progress (excuse us while we toot our own horns)! Also for all you ladies out there worried that lifting heavy will make you big and bulky, for the last three months Jessica has been deadlifting more than most guys and did not gain any weight and does not look like a bodybuilder. So if you want to become stronger (who doesn’t) we can help show you how (our 12-week strength plan is just about finished).

400-lbs The weight barely fit on the bar.

Jessica - She lifts really heavy and does not look like a body builder yet women still think that lifting heavy will make them look like a guy on steriods

Now for the topic at hand:

Is your workout boring? Guess what? So is

Are you defending (or doing) stupid exercises?

I am always amazed how often people defend stupid and unsafe exercises. This video (shown below) has been making its rounds on the Facebook “fitness scene” and despite the fact that even a fitness newbie can tell that this particular video shows probably one of the most unsafe exercises I have ever seen, being taught to what look like inexperienced lifters, yet despite all this, I still can’t believe  how many people defended this atrocity.

The two most common comments for defending this stupid exercise can be summed up as:

1. This is a crossfit video, so you have your usual crossfit crybaby comments.
2. Calling the people that posted the video ignorant for not knowing that the exercise the people in the video are doing is actually a real lift used in strongman competitions called the axle clean & press

I have addressed the crossfit crybabies in the past, so I would like to address the 2nd comment, how ignorant we all are for not knowing this is a strongman lift. The video below shows a “strongman” doing the lift.

First thing to note about the “strongman”