How Conditioning Can Boost Strength

Thanks to my good friend, Coach Chris “Jersey Beast” Lopez, for this cool guest blog post!

The Benefits of Strategic Conditioning

When you hear someone talk about conditioning (especially combat athletes), it usually refers to the training they are doing to boost their endurance or drop weight. Very rarely do we hear about conditioning that will also directly boost strength and strength endurance. But if structured correctly, adding conditioning to your strength training split can directly increase cardio capacity, strength over time, performance, speed of muscular contraction, and even raw strength itself! Check out the video! Continue reading

Lessons in the Mud

Warriors Are Mudders Too!

This past Saturday I, along with my brother Dave and my brother-from-another-mother, Jason, ran the ultimate Adventure Race, the Tough Mudder!  If you are not familiar with the Tough Mudder, let me explain.  It is a 12 mile race with 25 military style obstacles between mile 1 and mile 12.  Oh yeah, and lots and lots of mud!  Continue reading

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Sometimes it seems so easy to just give in, give up, and go along with the status quo.  Such a relief to just let go and allow yourself to become that proverbial  fat, dumb, and happy person.

Carving your own path can be too challenging and fraught with many risks and dangers.

Going with the flow, following the pack, doing what normal people do (whatever that is these days!), is so much less trying.  Traveling the well worn path with the masses rather than the road less traveled makes so much more sense to most and  requires so little thought and effort.  It’s safe.  The risks are minimal, the rewards are known.  It’s a sure thing.  Continue reading

Don’t Fall Into This Trap

The other day as I was running around teaching classes at the gym, working on various upcoming projects, and writing articles, I suddenly found myself running short on time for my own workout.  I had planned to have an hour to myself before going to pick up the kids, but somehow it didn’t quite work out that way.  As I looked at the clock, calculated how little time I actually had left before having to run out, it didn’t seem possible to accomplish the workout I had planned for the day.  Continue reading

15 Ways To Be Awesome In Training

Sometimes we all need a little reminder of our own innate greatness.  Take a minute to read through the list below and watch the video.  Keep these things in mind as you go about your day today. Continue reading

Work Smarter OR Work Harder?

In the ever evolving and changing world of fitness training there seems to be a long standing rivalry between 2 divergent camps of philosophy that never quite goes away. The 2 camps I’m referring to are the Work Smarter Not Harder Camp (WSNH) and the Just Work Harder Camp (JWH). These 2 rivals have very strong proponents on both sides of the fence and some really strong opinions about each other. Continue reading

Lessons From The 500

Yesterday morning I woke up (as I’m sure most of you did too) and decided that the day’s workout would be devoted to mental toughness.  The particular form my mental toughness training took was to complete a 500 rep push-up challenge by the end of the day. Continue reading

Combat Conditioning and A Challenge

The video below is a brand new combat conditioning circuit I put together for martial artists.  It will be especially good for my Buyu (warrior friends) training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.  If you are ready to put your body, mind, and spirit to the test, this circuit is guaranteed to kick your conditioning into high gear. Continue reading

Why Do You Do That?

Here’s a quick video I put together Friday afternoon to answer a question posed by one of my non-training friends.  I had described to him some of the brutal and intense workouts I put myself through on a weekly basis and he couldn’t quite wrap his head around why anyone in their right mind would want to do that to themselves. Continue reading