New Places

What’s up,  party people. Just thought I’d give an update as to why I haven’t been posting lately. Right now I’m at Ft. Meade going through school, I’ve had the honor of training with some good people at Crossfit Ft. Meade, Primal Fitness, and Crossfit Diesel.  I help out with a CF level one cert and got to meet Jon Gilson who is probably one of the best instuctors out there. If you want to learn how to keep the attention of the people you’re training in your gym, check out his stuff.

Got to meet Josh Everett at the CF Oly cert I attended last weekend. Now, I didn’t really say this to his face but, Josh is my hero!  I’ve been watching his stuff on the CF main page for a while now and the dude is a perfect mixture of badass, confidence, with just a hint of cockiness and  humility. The guy is one of the most humble I’ve ever met  and he loves helping you with your figure out whats wrong with your snatch. I got a 20 pound personal record in the snatch that day. I got video of josh doing a clean and jerk of 315 pounds . Josh is about 180 5’10″. I met Mark Toorok, owner of primall fitness and got to hang oout with him at the (B)East coast parkour jams. Parkour is a new beast. It’s a welcomed beast. Casey Raiford at CF Ft. Meade is  probably one of the coolest crossfitters I’ve ever met. You can see him on the crossfit forums all the time or go to www.crossfitftmeade.com . He has a really cool post about chalk monkeys right now. Go check it out.

Get over the razor’s edge

Shawn

Hard work. That’s it.

Look, I know everone wants to go into the air conditioned gym and sit down in the fancy machines and get your fitness on. I know that not everyone is cut out to pile on the plates and lift with all your might for reps of 5′s to singles. I know that outside is a scary place for people now. You can’t plug a playstation into a tree and you can’t be away from facebook for more than a half-hour because you want to chat with your peeps. I know that you want to believe that the shakeweight is the next greatest thing in gym equipment and that al it takes is 4 minutes a day ans that some powder and pills sold at gmc are going to cure all your problems. Guess what, they’re not.

Don’t kid yourself. A gym membership to a sea of machines doesn’t work. It works for those that run the gym and for those that sell the machines to the gym owners. It puts the money right where they want it to go, in there pockets. All that quickfix stuff on tv and at the store appeals to that easy side of all human beings, they know that’s why you will buy it. Are human beings really suppose to have it this easy?

Lets go back 10,000 years ago. Back when our ancestors had to chase there meals down, or forage and climb trees for it. Back when they had to haul water from it’s source and build there own houses. Think about it for a minute. 2 million years of evolution, 2 million years of survival, of being the top dog through hard work. Why is it now that people think that it’s so easy to maintain themselves physically and mentally when it took our ancestors a ton of hard work to be great warriors and athletes? Think about what it would take to hunt, kill and process a mammoth with crude, handmade tools. It took some damn hard work.

Understand that at the same time doing all that hard work is also the genetic pull towards laziness and an easy life. Deep down inside we all know that hard work is the path. The ease of the future is what drives us away from hard work.

So we tend to think the experts on TV have our best interest and we tend to believe them and there fancy commercials when they know that you can’t resist that temptation to be lazy. They don’t care about you. They take advantage of the system to get all the money they can out of you because they know that when someone comes along and preaches hard work, you’ll laugh at them and pop a pill in your face or drive to the gym to get on your recline bike and petal it while you watch your favorite episode of Top Model or read a book.

Don’t believe the hype. Pick up a barbell. Pick up a sandbag. Do some sprints. Throw something heavy. Jump. Climb. Do what you know your body was meant to do. Do it for years and guess what, you’ll get strong and fit and you won’t get winded walking from your house to your car in the driveway. Eat the food your ancestors ate. That’s all they had and that’s all we were meant to eat.

Eat alot. Train hard. Get strong and quit complaining that you try everything and nothing works. Get your lazy ass off the couch, clean the cookie crumbs off your shirt and do somethng hard for a change.

Get over the edge.

Yes, your sons should be afraid.

Here’s a cool video of my 4year old learning the deadlift and doing a workout with a 25 lbs sandbag and burpees.

She just ran a 5K with me and ran half of it without stopping. we made it in 50 minutes.  Not bad for a paleo kid.

link

Karl Steadman Interview

Ladies and gentlemen, Razor’s edge is going to try something new. Karl Steadman, owner of Crossfit 3D (former co-owner of Crossfit Manchester) is going to answer you’re questions on Razor’s Edge Athletic Club on facebook. Karl Steadman does the level 1 Crossfit trainer certs, is a level 2 CF trainer,CF kids and CF olympic lift trainer and has been training athletes in one form or another for 10 years. If you want Karl to answer a question or 2, go over to Razor’s Edge Athletic Club on facebook, become a fan and post a question in the comments area under his into. Later on, Karl will answer the questions and they will be posted once they are all answered.  One more thing, his wife is 6 months pregnant and is still training, maybe we could get some good answers about that!!  Go ahead, click on the link to the right of this blog and ask Karl a question, You Blokes!

Get over the razor’s edge,

                  Shawn

Redeployment Training or Deployment Training part 2

Thought I’d give an update on my training and weight loss. I have a PT test here soon and I am currently weighing in at 180. Since I packed on the pounds downrange without weighing myself every once in a while to see where I was at, I needed to quickly loose some body fat before I had a weight in. I was training like a powerlifter and eating like one(a superheavyweight) I decided to change my training and focus more on metabolic conditioning. I still did several weight sessions a week but decided to through in a small metcon after and have days specifically for metcons that were at least 20 min long. I cut out the milk and went strictly paleo diet.I was taking a little fish oil and was taking several teaspoons of coconut oil a day. By the time I had my weigh in I was 198LBS(down from 212) and was able to pass the taping just barely. Normally if I’m a little passed 184, I will bust tape. Must have put a little muscle on from Starting Strength and the powerlifting.  That’s a good thing. Shortly thereafter, I redeployed back to Bamberg, Germany, went to a 16 block zone quantity with paleo foods. Fruits were really easy so I used them alot, mostly apples and oranges. I started acumilating equipment from different places. I’m not a big fan of going to the post gym, way to many distractions. I still have some strict weight lifting days and at least 2 metcons a week that are more cardio based between 5- 15 minutes but are hard as hell( go at them full speed). I really focus on recovery and mobility now. I switched back to and unweighed, unmeasured paleo diet since I wasn’t really moving after a month at 185lbs. Now I’m down to 180. I want to get better at the bodyweight stuff(handstand pushups, one leg squats, handstands). I’m still using coconut oil and more fish oil(carlson’s 4 tsp a day), and now I’m getting my feet wet in the triggerpoint/self-myfascial release stuff( absolutely love it) and mobility. I’ll keep you updated with how that’s going and I’l probably post about it soon. If you want to see what my crew or I’m doing, Go to Razor’s Edge Athletic Club on facebook and become a fan.

Razor’s Edge Athletic Club

Razor’s Edge Athletic Club is up and running. You can go to facebook and see what we have going on http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Razors-Edge-Athletic-Club/242138331758

Holiday Eating /An Email From the Dinosaur

What’s up, party people. I want to start by saying I hope everyone had a safe holiday season and got some great training in as well as got the chance to chow down on some savory grub. I used this holiday season as a test for myself. I normally just forget about my diet, go all out and gain about 10 pounds from the egg nog and the deserts. This time I made a promise to myself to take it one day at a time through the holidays and stay as paleo/zone as possible. That’s kind of hard when you go out to eat in Bavaria, Germany and don’t speak a whole lot of the Deutsch. The Germans don’t like to change out sides either. They like to keep the meal the way it is on the menu. It gets down right frustrating sometime. Any time I went out, I aimed at 100 percent and probably got about 90. I made sure that I didn’t eat any grains or white potatoes and was a little lenient about the rest. I did go to a great Mongolian grill that allowed me to open up a little and go with tons of veggies and meats. They even had kangaroo and bison meat. I was able to chow down and not feel guilty.

I just wanted to put this out to you folks because it is an achievable goal to go to a restaurant and keep your diet in tact. Just make a pact with yourself that when you get there you will attempt a 100% meal. Change your sides out for veggies instead of potatoes and rice. Tell yourself you will not eat any of the complementary bread or tortilla chip. try to go with an olive oil or a vinaigrette for dressing , stay away from the pastas.  When you get your meal, pick out the surprise foods that you didn’t know you would get and give it to someone who doesn’t care about what there insides or outsides look like and when they make fun of you for it, tell them that at least you have the responsibility to control yourself from eating 5 plates of fried bananas and give them a nice complement on there stretch pants and let them know that you had to make a few new  notches inward on your belt. Remember that you have goals and remember what you have to do to achieve those goals.

                                                                               The Dinosaur Himself

I thought I’d share this email that I sent to the Dinosaur Man Brooks Kubik. I became interested in the Steinborn lift recently and was interested in the type of collars I would need to hold the plates on the bar. For you that don’t know what the Steinborn lift is, it is the original back squat done without a rack. You place the barbell up on one end, squat down while placing the bar on your back, knock out some squats and stand the bar back on its end again. Just from this description you may be able to tell that this could be a very dangerous lift for someone who gets overzealous with the weight on the bar. It seem that someone else agrees with me. Here is the following correspondence between myself and the D man.

Mr. Kubik,

             First, I would like to say that Dinosaur Training is one  
of the few books that I constantly reference for my training and for  
my team members that I train.This book inspired me to step out of  
the gym and train with nothing but heavy rocks for a one month  
period during the time I was stationed in Iraq. Before I read 
Dinosaur Training, I thought I was training hard. I knew from 
training on my own that there was a metal focus that was important 
to lifting heavy. I’ll tell you what though, I didn’t have a clue  

what mental focus or training hard meant until I read this book!! 

Thank you for writing this book and opening doors to another world 
for me.

     I have become intrigued by the Steinborn Lift. The idea that a  
human can lift huge amounts of weight by standing the bar on end,  
squatting down, positioning the bar on the back, standing up, 
squatting down and standing the bar on the other end is completely 
astounding. I was wondering what kind of clamps or collars you would 
recommend to hold the weight on the bar if I wanted to progress to a 
heavy weight in this lift.

 Thanks,
      

     Shawn

Shawn,

I’m glad you enjoyed DT and that your workouts “rocked” while you were 
overseas!

As for the Steinborn Lift — I would NOT try it. Bottom position 
squats in  a power rack are much better and safer.

The Steinborn lift is really tricky — and you are in a very 
vulnerable position when you squat down under the bar — very easy to 
twist a knee or your lower back/hip.

So i would leave this one to the history books — and as I mentioned, 
do the bottom position  squat.

Brooks

There you have it, folks. From the man himself. Funny thing, I had just order some custom-made bar protectors from John Beatty(Fatbastardbarbellco) to protect my bar when I do the Steinborn lift outside. I’m still going to do the Steinborn lift but now I’m just going to be extra, extra cautious. Let me know what you think about the Steinborn lift in the comments and if you think it’s dangerous or not. Until next time, eat clean(clean enough), train hard and stay safe.

Get over the razor’s edge,

             Shawn

Quit Beating Yourself Up! Part 2

We beat ourselves up with the shoes we wear:  Seriously, we pop out of the womb with no shoes on but, for some strange reason, we believe that we are supposed to find the shoes with the biggest, baddest heel padding so we can protect our tootsie wootsies from the mean, nasty, evil world! Come on!

Your foot is an intricate machine full of tiny bones and tons of nerve endings. You were meant to develop a lifetime frendship with our planet through your bare feet. You were meant to build strong healthy feet through walking and running, develop a greater sense of oneness with the environment around you, to feel every rock, pine needle, thorn and vibration underneath. Moccasins and sandals still allow this, I really don’t think nike shox do. We just keep buying the next better cushioned shoe and the technology just keeps getting better and better. The injury rate, however, stays the same.

How do we fix this: Your feet are weak. Take off your shoes and walk around as much as you can. Buy shoes that don’t have any cushion and wear those instead of your clunkers. Look around. There are many companies that sell low profile shoes. Vibram five fingers are pretty low, so are Chucks , selected Innov8, Adidas, Asics and Pumas. Need low profile shoes for work? try Vivo Barefoot. They aren’t cheap but they are pretty low profile. Just a layer of kevlar protects you from the ground.

When you start building more of a tolerance for barefoot walking, try a little barefoot running. Don’t run a 5k barefoot on your first try, just run down the street. You might notice that heel striking really hurts, that means it’s time to get up on the balls of your feet. You were made to run on the balls of your feet. Your foot arch is a natural spring designed to lessen the impact you take from running.  All a clunky running shoe does is delay the issues you’ll have eventually from running on your heels. STOP THAT!!! Run the way you were designed to.

Now that you have started running the way you were meant to, you may feel some soreness in areas you didn’t know you had. It’s ok, just slow into the running . go outside and run 2-3 minutes down the block and that’s it. After a few weeks, start picking it up a little. Little by little you will be able to run the same distance you could without shoes, It will take a while, just have patients. I ran a 5k after 3 months of switching to Poserunning, which is a barefoot style. At this time you will be pain free in alot of your problem areas. Just give it a try and you will see. Your body will than you.

Get Sharp,

Cut it up,

Shawn

Quit beating yourself up! Part 1

I think it’s funny that with all the resources we have in our modern times that we have so many issues. What I mean is that all over the world(especially in the US) people are fat, have pains all over the place and are usually in a wheel chair for the later half of there life and they think that this is just the way life is. I also think it’s funny when someone comes along with a common sense idea that is backed up with research and alot of use in the field, we tend to blow it off as stupid and continue on the slow, downward spiral, path with the rest of the sheep. I decided to name a few thing that we commonly do to beat ourselves up and ways you can change it. Here’s part 1.

1.) We beat ourselves up with what we eat: You would think people would understand the consequences of putting crap into there bodies but, when someone comes along and says 12 lbs of Funions covered in nacho cheese is bad for you, they get looked at crazy,  they get shut down and ridiculed for being some kind of health nut. Ancel Keys was wrong , people, the food piramid is wrong and daily trips to the Burger King followed by daily Klondike Bar eating contests with yourself is really, REALLY wrong.

      How do we fix it: We need to treat our bodies the way we would treat a brand new BMW with all the extras. You wouldn’t get a brand new BMW and then start pouring dirt in the gas tank and shove cow turds  in the transmission would you? Of course not, so why would you do the same thing to yourself? Your body isn’t built to take anything you feed it. If you eat like crap, you feel like crap, you live like crap and train like crap. You need quality food. How quality, you ask? I hate to keep referencing crossfit, but they seem to always be on track. Coach Glassman sums up quality food as eating meat, veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar. That is super quality and that is the way we are suppose to fuel our bodies. It’s the paleo diet, and no you don’t need bread. Get rid of it, your body will thank you.

During your withdrawal period, that fun transition time between shoveling truck loads of fried twinkies down your gullet and putting some real food in your body, give yourself some quality fish oil. Take a high dose for a while until you stop sweating and begging for a hit off the hostess pipe and adjust acording to your lifestyle. Never take fish oil out of your diet, it works wonders. I currently take about 6 grams of EPAs from carlsons fish oil daily, I would recommend taking about 15 -30 daily depending on how far you have let yourself go. You might want to take 6-15 if you are or plan to become and elite athlete. Quality fish oil can be expensive but it is well worth it. It will battle the nasty inflammation in your body and keep you from becoming enflamed once your wellness meter is on the right track. I bumped my head on a concrete pad a couple days ago and I was waiting for my head to swell and for a nasty headache to emerge. Absolutly nothing happened. No bump, no headache and no bruising. Another example is that I normally have horrible reactions to the site that I receive a vaccine. I normally get a bump, a bruise and pain throughout my whole arm. I got a flu shot the other day and nothing happened. I can barely tell that I got a shot let alone the crap that used to happen.

                   In summary, you are not suppose to go through life constantly battling high levels of inflammation. Changing the quality of food you put in your body can completely change these levels and maybe, just maybe, you might feel like doing something else besides flopping on the couch and absorbing large quantities of TV. You’ll never now until you try it. You never know, you might just like it.

 

Cut it up!

Shawn

 

GET OUTSIDE!!!!!!

      

I never let myself start playing World of Warcraft. I know that If I ever started playing it, my family would never see me again. I use to play MUDS back in the day. MUDS were like WOW but it was all text and you used your imagination instead of graphics. I was pretty crazy about that so I could imagine how I would get with WOW. What I’m getting at is this: Don’t let your kids sit around and play video games, or zone out on the computer. Get them outside and get them active in something. Find activities for them to do, get them into after school activities, let them see that there is a great world out there besides the electronics in the house. If you’re an adult and are caught in this crazy cycle of plugging in everyday, all day and never unplugging, FORCE YOURSELF to get outside and trying other things. Find a cool activity like any type of exercising, kickboxing or MMA, find an adult gymnastics class or mess around with a little Parkour, how about rock climbing and bouldering, how about playing with your kid at the park, join a club. Do something!! You were never meant to sit in front of a computer your whole life. It’s a great tool and it’s a great way to find information. Find that information and then go outside!! You don’t want to be like this kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdsH3IoNGXk