IGX

chubbyhubby wrote:

Rant! wrote:$1,000 says this will never get mentioned on the message boards at @fit.

It's already up here, but it doesn't seem to be getting much interest.

chubbyhubby wrote:

Rant! wrote:$1,000 says this will never get mentioned on the message boards at @fit.

It's already up here, but it doesn't seem to be getting much interest.

Contrary to widespread opinion, it now appears that there are three separate levels of condition… 1) muscular strength…2) cardiovascular ability… and 3) a previously mentioned unsuspected level of condition that I have named metabolic condition.

Muscular strength can be built to a very high level with little or no improvement in cardiovascular ability. And it is well
established that the exercises and activities that have traditionally been used for the improvement of cardiovascular
condition will do almost nothing in the way of increasing muscular strength; in fact, it frequently happens that
cardiovascular training actually produces a loss in muscular strength.

Thus, it frequently happens that a particular athlete has only one or the other… either strength or cardiovascular
endurance, but not both. It is almost certain that the two distinct types of training have been used; one type of exercise
for the development of strength, and an entirely different type of activity for the development of cardiovascular ability.

Yet even when an athlete does have both strength and cardiovascular endurance, something of very great value is still
missing… the third level of condition, the previously mentioned metabolic condition is missing. As a result, the athlete
can work very hard for a brief period of time… or, instead, he can work at a much lower level of intensity for a
prolonged period of time. But he can not work with maximum intensity for a prolonged period of time.

In effect, he can engage in brief anaerobic activities with a very high intensity of effort… or he could perform aerobic
activities with a greatly reduced level of intensity for a much longer period of time.

At first glance it might well appear to be literally impossible to expect anything more from an athlete; after all, a muscle
certainly cannot work with maximum intensity for much more than approximately one minute… and even then, the
output will rapidly decline during the activity, simply because the athlete will be exhausting the working muscle fibers
much faster than the resting fibers can recover.

In order to perform aerobic work (steady-state work) it is necessary to limit the level of intensity… the percentage of
stimultaneously working fibers must not be too high. An athlete must always have enough resting fibers ready to take
over and continue the work as they are needed. If the percentage of working fibers is too high, it is simply impossible
for the resting fibers to recover rapidly enough to take over the work as quickly as they are required.

When the unavoidable implications of the previous two paragraphs are understood, it then seems logical to assume that
muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance must always remain some distance apart… must always be developed
by separate and greatly divergent types of exercise. The real facts indicate otherwise.

In the supervised research program in cooperation with the physical education staff of the United States Military
Academy at West Point, New York, more than 100 military cadets were used as test subjects. To the best of our
knowledge, this was the largest, most comprehensive, most carefully conducted, and probably the most extensive
research program ever conducted in the area of strength training. In due course, a book will be published on the subject
of this research probject; but in this chapter I am limiting my remarks to one small but very important aspect of training
that was clearly demonstrated during the West Point project.

During this probject we were interested in all aspects of condition… we wanted to increase muscular strength as much
as possible, and as quickly as possible… but we also wanted to produce large scale increases in cardiovascular condition…
and we wished to demonstrate that both results could be produced by exactly the same style of training.

In a period of less than six weeks a group of 19 footbal players increased their strength an average of approximately 60
percent… that’s right, 60 percent, an average increase of 10 percent per week, a rate of strength increase previously
considered to be literally impossible by most experts. And it must be clearly understood that these test subjects were
not average subjects; instead, they were highly conditioned football players who were already quite strong at the
beginning of the special training program; subjects with an average height of just below 6 feet, 2 inches, and an average
weight well in excess of 200 pounds.

Producing such an almost unbelievable strength increase in such a short period of time would certainly have been a
significant result even if absolutely nothing was accomplished in the way of cardiovascular improvement but, in fact,
an equally significant improvement in cardiovascular endurance was produced simultaneously… produced as a result
of the same very brief training program that produced the spectacular strength increases.

Therefore, it appears that many of the experts have been wrong; in fact, it is neither necessary nor even desireable to
conduct two distinct types of exercise programs, one program to produce strength increases and a second program to
improve cardiovascular condition. In practice, it is easily possible to produce both results from the same program.
And, in order to produce the third level of condition, the previously mentioned metabolic condition, it is absolutely
necessary to train in this fashion. It is necessary to train in a fashion that will unavoidably produce rapid and largescale
increases in strength, in cardiovascular condition, and in metabolic condition.

And just what is metabolic condition? It is the ability to work at a high level of intensity for a prolonged period of
time… the ability to work at a level very close to 100 percent of intensity for a period of at least 20 minutes, instead of
one minute previously considered possible.

Work the muscles that hard for that period of time? No, that is impossible; but, it is possible to work the overall body
that hard for that period of time… or, at least, it is possible if the subject has been trained properly. Proper style of
training is the subject of this chapter.

In order to produce significant increases in muscular strength within a reasonable period of time, the muscles must be
trained as hard as possible… must be worked to a point of failure within a rather limited number of repetitions and over
a short span of time. In practice, best results seem to be produced when an exercise is performed for at least seven but
not more than twelve repetitions… and when the exercise is continued to the pont where it becomes literally impossible
to perform another repetition in good form, continued to the point where 100 percent of momentarily available muscular
strength is no longer capable of moving the resistance through a complete range of possible movement without a
sacrifice of form.

Obviously, if such an intensity of work is employed, it is impossible to do more than one set of an exercise without a
rest period between sets; thus, traditionally, the practice has been to perform one set of an exericse, then rest for three
or four minutes in order to give the momentarily exhausted muscles time to recover their strength, and then perform a
second set of the same exercise, then rest again, and so on. Such training will eventually build great strength, although
it is not the best or fastest way even for the purpose of increasing strength; but, it will do very little in the way of
improving cardiovascular condition.

Cardiovascular benefits will not result from such training for obvious reasons… 1) because the pulse rate and the level
of breathing will never be brought to a very high level… and 2) because the brief periods of hard work will be spaced
with rather prolonged periods of total rest (between sets) that will permit the pulse rate and level of breathing to drop
before additional work is started.

Cardiovascular benefits seem to be produced best when the pulse rate and the breathing rate are both raised to a high
level… and are maintained at a high level for a prolonged period of time, 10 minutes, 15 minutes or even longer. Just
how long such levels need to be maintained for the production of maximum cardiovascular benefits is a question that
has not been satisfactorily answered; but, a period of 15 to 20 minutes will certainly produce large scale cardiovascular
benefits even when such training is repeated only three times weekly.

During the West Point project the subjects were trained only three times weekly… only one set of each exercise was
performed during each workout… every exercise was continued to a point of momentary muscular failure within a
limited number of repetitions, seven to twelve repetitions. Very little in the way of rest was permitted between exercises,
the minimum amount necessary to prevent cardiovascular failure… and the total elapsed training time during each
workout varied from as little as 14 minutes to a bit more than 30 minutes.

If such a workout is conducted too fast at first… fast in the sense that little or no rest at all is permitted between
exercises, then the subject will literally go into shock and be unable to continue… not because his muscles have been
required to do something impossible… and not because he has exceeded his cardiovascular ability in the normal
meaning of the term… but apparently, because he lacks the metabolic ability to continue. At this point in time I do not
know exactly why a subject fails under these conditions… but, obviously, such a failure clearly indicates that the
subject is asking his body to perform something that is momentarily impossible.

If, for example, we work a starting trainee to a point of failure on a hip and back machine, immediately work him to a
point of failure on a leg extension machine… we can reasonable expect him to quickly reach a point where he simply
cannot continue, a point where he starts to show obvious signs of impending shock, which would be followed by total
collapse if he was forced to continue working.

And yet, this collapse would occur at a point where neither his muscles nor his cardiovascular ability has been exceeded…
the muscles we were asking to work are rested fresh, and able to perform… the pulse rate is well within safe limits…
the rate of breathing is within reasonable limits; but, the subject cannot continue and will go into outright shock if
forced to continue.

Just what is lacking? I do not really know, but it is obvious that a demand is being made that the body cannot meet.

If there is interest in totally unsupported theories, then I do have a theory… a theory that I have no great confidence in
at this point; I think that the body may simply be unable to provide the required chemical changes that are necessary to
work that hard for a prolonged period of time. The required oxygen is available, and the circulatory system is capable
of distributing it rapidly enough… the required nutrients are also available, but perhaps the body cannot provide the
required metabolic changes at such a pace.

In any case, regardless of the actual cause and effect situation involved, the results are obvious… the subject simply
cannot continue to work.

Therefore, at the start of such a training program, a brief amount of rest must be permitted between exercises… not
much rest, but some rest, perhaps one to two minutes, depending upon the individual trainee.

However, as training continues from week to week, the pace of the training should be increased… so that, after
approximately four weeks, little or no rest is permitted between exercises. By that point in the training program the
subject should move from one exercise to the next exercise as rapidly as possible, with very little rest between exercises.

Now, bear in mind that a fast pace of training certainly does not mean that the exercise movements themselves are
performed rapidly… on the contrary, the movements should be fairly slow and perfectly smooth with absolutely nothing
in the way of sudden movement or jerking. A fast pace of training simply means that no rest is permitted between
exercises.

Once a subject becomes capable of training in this fashion without going into shock as a result, then it becomes
possible to work his muscles to a point of momentary failure while maintaining both the pulse rate and breathing at
very high levels throughout the entire workout. And, since it was impossible for the beginning trainee to work in this
fashion, it is thus obvious that something besides strength and cardiovascular ability has been improved… the subject
has also greatly improved his metabolic ability.

And just what advantage does such a factor give an athlete? Well, how would a coach like to have a football team that
literally did not require rest for a period of 30 minutes? Such a team could return to scrimmage immediately without
the necessity to huddle… thus giving their opponents no chance to rest.

As an example of just how big a factor this can be, I will cite one example, a typical example from our experience at
West Point. During his seventh workout, this subject required 24 minutes for his workout… but less than six weeks
later, during his twenty-first workout, he performed an identical workout in only 18 minutes even though he was then
using approximately 60 percent more resistance for the same number of repetitions.

His workout length was reduced by 25 percent, while his level of resistance was increased by 60 percent… thus his rate
of work per minutes was increased by more than 100 percent, more than double. Instead of doing 100 units of work in
24 minutes, or 4.1 units of work per minute, he was doing 160 units of work in 18 minutes, or 8.8 units of work per
minute.

And he worked at a more than double rate while showing a far lower pulse rate… during the seventh workout his pulse
rate was in excess of 200, but during the twenty-first workout his pulse rate was always below 180.

Also, at the end of his seventh workout, the subject was near a point of collapse, and it took him several hours to return
to a normal condition… whereas, at the end of the twenty-first workout, the subject had improved his recovery ability
to such an extent that he could have repeated the workout after a rest of about 10 minutes.

His strength was greatly improved, and his capacity for work was also greatly improved… but just what effect was
produced in regard to cardiovascular ability?

Significant improvement was demonstrated on all 60 separate tests conducted for the purpose of determining
cardiovascular improvements. For example, the subjects we trained improved their time in the two mile run by an
average of 88 seconds in a period of six weeks; as compared to an improvement of only 20 seconds produced by the
control group of matched subjects that were not trained in this fashion. Both groups were involved in spring football
training.

Much more detailed accounts of this style of training will be published at a later date, and in the meantime several other
large-scale projects are being conducted in an effort to determine the exact results of such training; but it must be
clearly understood that this style of training is of such a high intensity that very little of it is either necessary or
desirable. Do not make the mistake of assuming that longer or more frequent workouts of this kind will produce even
better results. On the contrary, brief training is far more than a possibility… it is an outright requirement for good
results.

It is almost inevitable that at least some experts will immediately jump to a hasty conclusion; whereupon, they will rush
into print to deny that anything new is involved. But I hereby warn them clearly in advance that the effects and results
I am concerned with here apparently are new… and while I certainly do not even pretend to understand all of the
biological factors involved, I am at least aware of the obvious cause and effect.

The West Point project was not the first example of such a style of training… on the contrary, we have been training a
large number of subjects in this fashion for the last several years in Florida and elsewhere. More than 400 individual
workouts were conducted at too fast a pace. One subject was forced to stop near the middle of one of his workouts…
forced to stop because I was trying to train him at a pace that he could not maintain.

But all of the other subjects finished all of their workouts, and even that one subject finished all of his other workouts;
although, I am certain that many of them did not believe at the time that they would finish, and equally certain that most
of the subjects would never have pushed themselves at the necessary pace if left to their own devices.

WildGorillaMan wrote:I got yer eleet fitness right here.

Herv100 wrote:

WildGorillaMan wrote:I got yer eleet fitness right here.

Probably the best youtube workout instructional ever

syaigh wrote:And of course, sticking it to the affiliates for more money. Maybe it will be clear now what the goal of @fit really is and the good ones will leave.

http://sicfit.com/blog/20207-ReebokCros ... ands-Blend

• The original affiliation fee was $500/year. At my Level 1, @ssman said that it would never go up, because @F wasn't about making money.
• The original Level I cert was originally listed at $1000, however, $500 of that was "paid" to an affiliate if they sent a person to the cert...so if the affiliate chose to, they could send people to the Level I for $500 by giving the person the other portion back.

friedquads wrote:

chubbyhubby wrote:

Rant! wrote:$1,000 says this will never get mentioned on the message boards at @fit.

It's already up here, but it doesn't seem to be getting much interest.

It'll get locked down soon enough by the iron hand of Lynn(e) Pittz...

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:That's an interesting and optimistic piece from SicFit.

If affiliate owners think Reebok is NOT going to get their money's worth on this, then they are in for a bit disappointment. A corporate entity does NOT get into business with someone with the idea that it won't be a lucrative move.

If you are a Reebok|CrossFit trainer and you do work like an owner, but you are compensated like an employee, what's to stop you from building up a clientele on Reebok's salary and then taking them with you and affiliating by yourself with CFHQ? A non-compete? Please. The cream of the Reebok|CrossFit crop will invariably leave and open their own facilities just as Coach described with regards to the best personal trainers in globo gyms. This will lead to instability of leadership and sub-par coaching and community continuity. Advantage: Affiliate.

CharlieBob wrote:

If you are a Reebok|CrossFit trainer and you do work like an owner, but you are compensated like an employee, what's to stop you from building up a clientele on Reebok's salary and then taking them with you and affiliating by yourself with CFHQ? A non-compete? Please. The cream of the Reebok|CrossFit crop will invariably leave and open their own facilities just as Coach described with regards to the best personal trainers in globo gyms. This will lead to instability of leadership and sub-par coaching and community continuity. Advantage: Affiliate.

Bold for emphasis.

Is this guy for real?? Because a big ass corporation with lots and lots of money for endless litigation won't mind a bit if you break contract and try to fuck them....

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Ash Uber Alles wrote:

Dan Martin wrote:First, it was the so-called after school learning centers because the little shitheads weren't getting enough math and reading in school. Now, you have to send your kid somewhere to get physical education. WTF?

the schools do a shit job with PE classes now. In order to really be involved in physical activity you have to do it on your own, ie sports, camps, outside group classes, etc. Its a shame. Even when I was in school (I'm 36) we had some PE teachers that all they did was make the kids run for 30 minutes each class... that's not PE, that is lazy.

Back in my yoot, elementary and jr high phys ed was like friggin' sports camp: a different sport/unit every month with shitloads of skill work and general conditioning.

I wasn't so thrilled about it at the time, but in hindsight I'm glad it was so rigorous.

Quackmire wrote:

CharlieBob wrote:

If you are a Reebok|CrossFit trainer and you do work like an owner, but you are compensated like an employee, what's to stop you from building up a clientele on Reebok's salary and then taking them with you and affiliating by yourself with CFHQ? A non-compete? Please. The cream of the Reebok|CrossFit crop will invariably leave and open their own facilities just as Coach described with regards to the best personal trainers in globo gyms. This will lead to instability of leadership and sub-par coaching and community continuity. Advantage: Affiliate.

Bold for emphasis.

Is this guy for real?? Because a big ass corporation with lots and lots of money for endless litigation won't mind a bit if you break contract and try to fuck them....

Yah, that's pretty dumb. All a non-compete has to say is that a Reebok/@F trainer cannot be employed by any other @F affiliate (or start an affiliate, is that within the law to restrict starting a business?) within whatever radius is enforceable at the time. Pretty simple restriction to make, and I'm guessing the brushstroke isn't so broad as to make it unenforceable, as there are plenty of other training jobs/opportunities outside of @F. I'm sure the affiliates will try to do the exact same thing with non-competes, as Reebok/@Fs will be trying to steal their trainers as well, probably offering nicer things to both trainers and clients, such as: showers, A/C, heat, floor coverings, painted walls, business systems, real insurance, and a simple steady paycheck without all the fucking stress of being a small business owner. I'm sure none of them would want that.

Bring your popcorn, this will be blogged.

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Reebok has discarded several programs they've picked up. Spinning, Step, Slide, etc.

WildGorillaMan wrote:I'm just going to say it: Reebok has been pretty much a joke of a brand since they passed their zenith in the 80s. They were a distant 3rd when I was a front-line drone in the sporting goods business 20 years ago, and I've never seen any evidence since then that their market position has changed for the better. Kids don't get all jazzed and line up to buy a newly-launched flagship basketball shoe from Reebok.

Doesn't anyone else think it's weird that the deal came from Reebok and not straight from Adidas? Who in the @fit world even wears Reebok? That just makes me feel like the deal is disposable in their eyes. I can't get over the feeling that Adidas only bought Reebok as a perennial whipping boy/straw man to play against as their own version of the Washington Generals.

Seen in that light, I think the savvy affiliate owners will actually end up doing well in the long run.

Ed Zachary wrote:The trainee had no knee bend to get under the bar while sporting his vibrams, the instructor was actually doing an ugly muscle snatch, and they've both been doing @fit for a couple of years and they are still weak as piss and look exactly the same as the last time I saw them nearly 2 years ago. In fact man/boy looks to vein worse shape than before.