Tag Archives: warrior fitness gym

5 Reasons to NOT Train with Me

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A bit tongue in cheek, but here are 5 excellent reasons why you should NOT train with me:

1)  If the price of your gym membership is the only deciding factor in where you train, please go to a commercial gym.

2)  If you do not care about ever achieving your fitness goals or getting results from your training, please go to a commercial gym.

3)  If you do not appreciate hands-on instruction and lots of personal attention and accountability, please go to a commercial gym.

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4)  If you do not care about learning correct movement, form, and exercise technique, please go to a commercial gym.

5)  If you have no interest in experiencing the powerful results conferred by properly designed training programs based on years of experience and learning, please go to a commercial gym.

5.5)  If you are perfectly content with being mediocre and never, ever challenging yourself or pushing your limits, please go to a commercial gym

If however, none of the above fit or describe you in the slightest, than I implore you to experience the difference here at Warrior Fitness Gym and come train with me.

What Business Am I In?

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The text for this post came from a speech I gave last week to my BNI (networking) Group…

what-business-are-you-really-in

You may think you know and understand the business I am in, being that I own a gym.  Perhaps you think I am in the business of helping people lose weight, or get in shape (whatever that means).  Or, maybe the business of helping people get stronger or improve athletic performance.  You would be wrong.  Certainly those things are components of what I do, but they are not the complete picture.

Without stepping on the toes of my friends in the financial planning and life insurance industries, I will unapologetically tell you I am in the business of Long Term Care.  How can I say that?

Fat loss, muscle gain, increases in flexibility, mobility, and performance are not end goals, in and of themselves.  They are ALL merely byproducts of better movement.  Whether you are an athlete, martial artists, soccer mom, or business man, and everyone in between, better movement will always equate to better performance, better body composition, and better health.

Exercise Improves Life

Exercise improves all facets of life.  People who exercise regularly are better at their jobs, kids do better in school, they get sick less often, and in general have much higher levels of energy and health.  Exercise does not just improve your biceps, it improves your brain.  That pump you feel in the muscle when doing a curl is caused by blood flow.  That blood flow is not isolated, that is physiologically impossible – it increases all throughout the body, including the brain.  Think about this – your head is roughly 1/8 of your entire body.  If you simply sit at a desk and work with your mind all day long, no matter how smart and productive you may be, you are only using approximately 1/8th of your entire potential.  Descarte was wrong – the mind is not separate from the body.

I say I am in the business of long term care because I teach you much more than mere fitness.  I teach you how to train for life.  People do not stop moving because they get old.  They get old because they stop moving!

Warrior Fitness is not a set of disparate parts cobbled together, but a system based on my life long experience as a physical culturist.  To be able to recreate what I have put into it, you would have to study Japanese, Chinese, and Russian martial arts, strength training, bodyweight exercise, Kettlebell training, oldtime strong man training, sports science, yoga, qigong, etc…

I have put in all the work; done all the research, experimented with the protocols and the programming.  I have given my clients, both locally here at Warrior Fitness Gym, and worldwide the product of it all– a fully developed, cohesive  system  of training the body, mind, and spirit for health, fitness, and performance –  Warrior Fitness

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My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation Part 4

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Guest blog post by Eric Guttmann, U.S. Navy Officer, Author, Fitness Enthusiast and More!

My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation Part 4 – THE RESULTS: Leaner, Stronger, Faster.

 

For 8 weeks prior to my Navy Physical Readiness Test (PRT) I developed a program focused exclusively on Tire Flipping.  If you have been following these articles then you know that the main goal was to achieve 100 consecutive tire flips with the 300lb tire with an emphasis on tying the breath to the movement.  I will now report on the results that this type of training had on my body and performance as measured by the U.S. Navy.
The Navy’s Physical Readiness Test (PRT) is a two part process that is now called the Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA).  The first part, conducted 1-2 days prior to the physical test measures your height & weight and compares it to a chart that determines if you are within Navy standards.  If you are overweight then you get your bodyfat measured by a tape measure test.  They measure your waist and neck circumference and plug it into a chart with your height and weight that spits out an approximate bodyfat percentage.  Males need to be under 22% bodyfat to pass this assessment and be “within standards.” If you score higher than 22% then you FAILED the PFA.
Because of my bodybuilding and strength workouts I have ALWAYS been over the “magical” weight for my height in the last 17 years of military service and have gotten used to getting my bodyfat measured at every PFA.  Here is what happened at this PFA.  For the first time in 17 years I actually dropped below 215lbs, my exact weight was 211.4lbs.  I did not alter my diet at all, in fact my diet was a little off because I have been eating a lot of Cuban food in Miami and when I take my kids out to eat I would be eating ice cream and desserts with them.  I do make an effort to eat “clean” 80% of the time.  The only thing I did different was the physical training.  So it seems that extended tire flipping, which for this article means 100 consecutive tire flips, is a weight loss mechanism.  Judging by the way my abs and obliques were more defined I would also forward that it is a fat-loss mechanism.
Now here is the really interesting part.  I mentioned that as part of my regimen I added gravity boots.  Hanging upside down helps to decompress the spine and provides extra blood flow to the head.  For the last 17 years my height has always been the same, 73 inches.  When they measured me my height was a little over 73 inches and I heard the Petty Officer who took my measurement say “he is over 73 inches so mark down 74.”  This means I was probably ½ inch taller for them to round up.  This really blew me away!  You hear of people shrinking with age, but have you ever heard of anyone adding a little height to their frame?  This for me is confirmation that the gravity boots add an important component to recovery, spine health, and longevity!
Armed with my two official measurement of 211.4lbs and 74 inches the Petty Officers administering the PFA go to the “magical” Navy chart that determines if I am within “standards” and lo and behold for the first time in 17 years I did not need to do the tape measure test!  Thus, tire flipping and gravity boots have the capacity to alter the body by making it leaner and taller, but let’s see what happens when you are tested physically…
The Navy PRT consists of two minutes of sit-ups, two minutes of pushups, and a 1.5 mile run for time.  There is a chart that determines your score based on the number of repetitions for your age and gender.  There is a max number which means you “aced” the test.  For a 39 year old male (that would be ME) my max scores were 95 situps and 76 pushups.  I achieved the 95 situps and 76 pushups with ease.  I did not do a single situp or pushup in the previous 8 weeks.  I DID do Dru Patrick’s Last Man Standing drill to train my core on my recovery day. Now, the really interesting thing happened with the run.
I do occasional sprint workouts when I get into a groove, but I checked my training journals and had not done any type of running or sprinting for six months.  In other words, the last time I ran was my previous PRT.  Since I do not like running, what I do at the PRT is find a guy with a pace I like and just trail in behind him.  The key is to pick the right pace, too slow and you feel antsy, too fast and you will get smoked before your time.  This time I decided to follow the beat of my own drum and just concentrate on my breathing, just like I do when I do the tire flipping.  While the breath pattern was different the idea was the same – use the breathing discipline I developed through tire flipping and apply it to the run.  I ended up doing a “weird” pattern almost intuitively that was: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and 4 short exhales.  I felt that the key was in removing the excess waste products and that is what the 4 short exhales at the end of the breathing cycle sought to accomplish.
Keeping the breathing pattern up for the first mile was easy, but after that I noticed that I wanted to change it.  Here is where the discipline kicked in and I forced myself to keep the pattern.  Lo and behold to my surprise I ran it in 11:45, 30 seconds FASTER than my previous runs!  It was also the first time in 5 years that I ran the test in under 12 minutes!  While part of it may be due to being a little lighter, a lot had to do with the breathing discipline and conditioning developed through tire flipping.

In conclusion, the Heavy Metal Strength Meditation was a success!  I dropped 4 lbs of weight and you could make the case that most of it was fat loss, I increased my height, I “maxed” the situps and pushups with ease without training those specific exercises, and I ran the best run I have had in five years.  In case you are curious and want to try it here is the curriculum I followed: My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation Part 3

Very respectfully,
Eric Guttmann
PS As you can see joint mobility is an integral part of the recovery day, to get my FULL Mobility program click HERE:
If flipping a 300lb tire 100 consecutive times is a little out of your league right now then get in combat ready shape using Extreme Military Fitness by clicking HERE and after the 12 weeks you will be primed and ready to tackle on the Heavy Metal Strength Meditation:
If you like the energy in these articles then get Listen Up and read 1-5 pages in the morning to put you in the right mindset to tackle on any task or life change you want to accomplish, whether it be physical, mental, financial, or lifestyle.

Read Eric’s complete bio HERE

How I Healed My Neck with Mobility & Breathing

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Several years ago, back in about 2004, I severely injured my neck.  At the time it happened, it didn’t feel too bad.  I thought it was something I would just shake off and keep going.  However, when I woke up the following morning, I realized I was in severe pain and couldn’t move my neck.

After panic subsided and I managed to crawl out of bed into a hot shower, I figured the warm water would loosen it up and I’d be fine.  The hot water provided some initial relief, which allowed me to begin to move slightly, but not by much.

Neck pain

Fast forward to later that day at the doctor’s office.  She examined my neck, checked my range of motion (which was non-existent!) and then prescribed muscle relaxants and talked about surgery.

Surgery?

Drugs?

Ummm… no thank you!

Back at home, lying in my bed feeling sorry for myself, I began to think about how I could start to help myself and heal my own neck.  I began to work on mobility far from the source of my pain.  Starting with the fingers and hands, I worked my way up my arms and into the elbows.  Since this felt okay, I tried the shoulders.  That hurt.  So I backed off.  Again and again just working shallow range of motion on the rest of my body until I could reach, and begin to move the neck.  Each time I was able to do a little more, go a bit farther.

When I was finally able to work into my neck, these are the exercises I did:

This was not an instantaneous process by far, but gradually, bit by bit, day by day, and week by week, I was able to increase the range of motion and decrease the pain.  Eventually, I was able to completely restore the full, pain free mobility back to my entire body.

In the video above, I also mention some breathing exercises I did along with mobility to help heal myself.  The main exercise is quite simple, yet extraordinarily powerful.  Using your mind to locate the source of pain, inhale directly into the pain.  Visualize the breath bringing healing energy into the area.  Then exhale from the pain.  Visualize your breath pulling the pain out of the body and expelling it.  Repeat until you feel the pain begin to decrease and the area feel warm and energized.

If you would like to learn more about healing yourself with mobility, breathing and posture, I highly recommend you check out:

The Warrior’s Health System: Reintegrating Breathing, Movement, Alignment

 

 

 

 

 

The Worst Reason Ever

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The other day my daughters and I were sitting in a local diner having breakfast.  As we sat there looking at the menus and discussing  what we were planning to order, my 4 year old looked at her older sister and said – “Hey!  Get your elbows off the table!”

“No way!” replied my 12 year old, “why should I?” Continue reading →

The Most Powerful Form of Training

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“Look at this guy – he’s a beast!”

“You’re an animal!”

“He’s got beast strength!”

In the fitness world it’s become very common to refer to extremely strong and capable individuals as “Beasts” or “Animals”.  We use these terms to separate them out from the regular crowd, to distinguish their strength as something more than human.  These people push past their puny human limits and transcend into the realm of beast-like strength. Continue reading →

Why I Hate Kickboxing

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For months now people have been asking me to implement a Kick Boxing program at Warrior Fitness Gym.  I’ve been resisting the pressure mainly due to one important factor – I hate kick boxing. 🙂

Allow me to clarify.  I hate what real kick boxing has devolved into, the dreaded “cardio” kick boxing.  To me, cardio kick boxing is almost worse than Zumba as far as fitness goes. Continue reading →

Healing Yourself With Mobility – Part 3

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Healing and Mobility Part 3 – Everyday healing of neck, vertigo, and surviving training mistakes with mobility

 

Guest blog post by Eric Guttmann, U.S. Navy Officer, Author, Fitness Enthusiast and More!

In everyday matters joint mobility also saves the day.  If for some reason you sleep with a craned neck and you wake up with neck pain you can easily and quickly get rid of it or reduce it significantly before you even head out to work by doing joint mobility.  I have done so on various occasions and believe me that it is better to work with a “little nagging pain” that goes away that day than endure the day with the kind of pain that makes you think about taking a pain killer or that seriously interferes with your quality of life.

Joint mobility also PROTECTS you by giving you a resilient body that can handle training mistakes a lot better.  As an example I was in Cartagena, Colombia, (yes, the same city where the Secret Service got in trouble) with the Navy and I woke up early to do incline sprints on the 300 year old walled city.  The particular incline I chose was made of cobblestones and had holes in it.  On my second sprint up this incline I completely twisted my ankle 90 degrees.  Because I had already warmed up my ankle to FULL mobility I was able to finish the sprint, and more importantly FINISH my workout like nothing had happened.  In fact, when I came down to do another set of sprints after I twisted my ankle a local came to me and said to me in Spanish “I saw what had happened to your ankle” somewhat concerned for my ability to safely walk on back to the hotel.  I simply laughed, shrugged it off, thanked him for his concern and FINISHED my work out by doing FOUR more sets of sprints.  I know for a fact that if the same thing had happened to me in my college days I would have been done for, because the same thing DID happen to me when I was in track and field and it took three weeks to heal!

Joint mobility has also helped me with my wife.  She had a case of vertigo a year ago and I taught her joint mobility, as the medicines the doctor gave her only made her feel worse.  The joint mobility (and acupuncture I gave her) where the keys to her recovery.  To this day she does the neck series everyday as a preventative and feels great every time she does it.

As I mentioned in my previous article, many of my friends I teach these drills comment on how their lower backs loosen up and become pain-free after the mobility series.  In fact, it was at the prodding of these friends that I decided to do my FULL mobility DVD, because they wanted something they could study in their homes after I left.

Now, in the first article I mentioned my father’s statement of “If you do something everyday, then everyday you will be able to do it.”  Every morning I go through my routine and establish full mobility in every joint.  I easily touch my wrists to the ground every morning.  Now I ask you, if I establish full mobility every morning and touch my wrists to the floor easily and gracefully every morning, am I going to have full mobility and easily touch  my wrists to the floor at 100 years of age?  The answers is ABSOLUTELY YES! All I have to do is keep doing my FULL mobility routine every morning.

I have been practicing joint mobility for five years now ever since I had the epiphany with my healed ankle.  I have been studying, incorporating, experimenting and refining my routine based on the works and/or my personal interaction with Pavel, Steve Maxwell, Scott Sonnon, Navy kinesiologists, Chek Practitioners, Z-Health, Mike Mahler, Chuck Habbaken, Bud Jeffries and others.

If you want to get your hands on the best mobility training out there and the EXACT one I have used to heal myself multiple times from the injuries sustained through training and life then click in the link below:

 MovingFreelyDVD-219x300As an added bonus I am including a FREE BONUS which is my SECRET stretching routine to open up the hip and lengthen the spine which I found are the keys to maximizing my Qigong practice (which would be the second thing I most recommend for longevity).

Done together the joint mobility and stretches can be knocked out in under 26 minutes, yet your health and quality of life will expand to new and greater levels that will seem like a 1000% return on your investment.

Another bonus is a makeshift mobility test that you can do to gage whether you are at a Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 joint mobility.  If you train others you can also use it to gage where your clients are at and to monitor their progress over time.

So order this DVD now and try it for yourself. I know that you will feel immediately freer and open, even diminishing or completely getting rid off nagging pain if you are carrying any, at the end of the instructional session.  That is right, I am saying that after going through the instructional part just ONCE you will feel an immediate improvement in your mobility!  Commit to doing it everyday and you WILL have FULL mobility for the rest of your LIFE!

MovingFreelyDVD-219x300If you live in the New Jersey area and prefer personal instruction in mobility then I highly recommend you check out my friend Jon Haas’ school, Warrior Fitness at 4004 Sylon Blvd, Hainesport NJ, 08036, or give him a call at 609-556-8712 to set up an appointment or attend a class.

Read Eric’s complete bio HERE.

Little Dragon

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dragon

I just finished watching, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, for probably the 10th time since it came out in 1993.  It still amazes me that in such a short life, Bruce was only 32 when he died, he was able to have such a huge impact on the world.  Bruce was my childhood hero.  The man who inspired me, and so many others, to train in the martial arts.  It staggers my imagination thinking about how much he accomplished by the young, tender age of 32.  International movie star, world renowned martial artist, teacher, author, father, husband.  A man truly ahead of his time.  A revolutionary thinker forging a place for martial arts on the world stage.

How much more could he have accomplished had he lived?  What else would he have done?

In the movie, when Bruce was just starting out his teaching career, he placed a pebble in Linda’s (his girlfriend and future wife) hand and told her to drop it.  He then explained to her how dropping a simple pebble in a pond creates larger and larger ripples moving out from the center.  She drops it and he smiles, “It has begun.”  40 years after his death, the ripples of his life and his teaching still move us and affect us.

Dying Young

I remember back in my sophomore year in high school English class, we were studying poetry and we read a poem called, “To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman.

To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields were glory does not stay And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade, The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl’s.

Our assignment was to write a similar poem about a famous person we admired who had also died young.  I chose to write about Bruce Lee.  The day our poems were read in school, I was absent due to being sick.  One of my friends told me how much our teacher loved my poem and how she had read it to the class as an example.  I was shocked.  I didn’t try to write for a an “A”.  I wrote from my heart.  From my passion.  This was an important lesson for me – people recognize and respond to passion.  You don’t have to be the most educated or the most skilled, but if you do something – anything – with passion, people will feel it.

Live With Passion

The moral of the story, kids, is that you don’t know for sure how much time you have.  Don’t waste it.  Live your passion to the fullest.  Don’t wait for next year, next month, next week, or even for tomorrow, it may never come.  Do it now, TODAY!

Bruce-Lee

In the movie, Bruce Lee said, “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”

What are you still doing here reading this?

Go out there and create a life worth remembering!