Fraser's Blog : Suspension Training

The "Shanghai Dangerous" Workout

Fraser — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

After wistfully looking out over the park outside his hotel for 4 days, Fraser finally gets a chance to blow off some physical energy after a recent training event in Shanghai.

Check out this 5 circuit workout that can be done in it's entirety or broken into a number of short intense circuits depending on your time and energy.

Amazing what can be accomplished with nothing but a TRX, pull up and dip bars and a jump rope!... and don't forget the randomly occuring concrete block if you want to add a little spice to things.

The details are below:

Fraser's Top 10 Training Songs... Part 1

Fraser — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Music is the kind of thing that can take your training to an entirely new level. There’s something to be said for the song that lifts your energy, hardens your will and motivates you to dig down that little bit deeper!

While I can’t promise that the following selection will appeal to every musical taste, every one of these songs takes my own training to an entirely new level and if truth be told, makes me drive faster :-)

In the video below I've tried to give you a little snippet of the song with a brief description as to why I like to train to it and attempt to capture what it is that does it for me about each one.

This list was actually a lot harder to pare down than I thought it would be. As a result I'll post 3 lists of ten over the next few weeks. The songs are in no particular order but I will guarantee if we ever workout together and any combination of these is featured in your playlist - you’ll see my energy peak!

I hope you find something here that gets your own training juices flowing.

Enjoy!

The "Infamous TRX Workouts" - Weeks 7 & 8

Fraser — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

To borrow a phrase from Bruce Buffer of UFC announcing fame "... and now, iiiiiiit's TIME!" This is it! It has all come down to these last two weeks. The climax! The penultimate finish!

I hope that you are ready to bring it because these final progressions are not for the faint of heart!

Metabolic Circuit Changes:

Yet another level of progressions across all exercises
NO transition rest! That's right... none, nada, zip, SFA! You have to move directly from one exercise to the next using as little time as possible... OUCH!
Work time stays at 45 sec for ALL sets
Set rest is reduced back to 2 min

The combination of the highest level of exercise progression with a bare minimum of rest makes this final progression nothing short of evil.

Strength Workout Changes:

The strength workout stays the same as in weeks 5 & 6 but continue to challenge yourself with increased load as you move through this element of the program. For a refresher on the exercises, click here and scroll to the bottom for the exercise library.

TRX Metabolic Circuits: Weeks 7 & 8

TRX Metabolic Workout A Video: Week 7 & 8

TRX Metabolic Workout B Video: Week 7 & 8

TRX Strength Workouts: Weeks 7 & 8

So there you have it! The final 2 weeks.

Were you to have tried this progression in Weeks 1 and 2, there is a high probability that you would have unraveled like a cheap sweater! Now with 6 weeks of conditioning under your belt though you should feel primed and ready. Good luck

5 Tips to Staying Motivated

Fraser — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Last week I talked about 7 ways to increase your intensity. While that's all fine and dandy, often times the crux of reaching your goals is simply getting going each day.

Newton' First Law is the law of Interia. It goes something like this - "Objects in motion will stay in motion & objects at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force." Now I'm sure you're wondering how Newtonian physics relates to your motivation levels? Well let me tell you.

We've all felt the power of being in a training rhythm. We get a few positive days of training in and we start looking forward to the next one. If we miss a workout we're even more motivated about making up for it the next day. We're psyched about what we're accomplishing with every workout and we're reaping the rewards of our efforts. More energy, looking better, loads of confidence with a clear mind. I for one am just plain miserable if I don't do something physical every day. This is the upside of inertia.

Sadly there are a lot more people on the downside. Trying to break out of sedentary habits; exercise is uncomfortable at best; things shake and bounce, and unusual levels of soreness accompany workouts. In this state, the body is doing its best to send very persuasive, negative messages to just stop what we're trying to start! Simply put, the whole effort feels a bit like Sisyphus struggling to push his stone uphill. These are tough conditions to fight through and perserverence is a challenge to be sure.

So as you can see, inertia is really a double edged sword.

Several other important characteristics of inertia to consider are that:

The bigger the object is, the more external force it takes to get it moving in a different direction
On earth, inertia is continually affected by gravity which results in friction.

Training has its own gravity that slows it down and conspires to siphon off our positive inertia and bring the whole show to a stop. This friction takes many forms:

Family obligations
Work blowing up
Not enough sleep
Travel
Poor energy / nutrition

Any one of these things can threaten our motivation.
So what can we do to keep ourselves on track and achieving our goals. Here are 5 Tips to Staying Motivated

1. The hardest step is the first one!
Ironman legend Scott Tinley once wrote "... and so I went for a run, because I've never come back from a run feeling worse than when I left." How many times have we felt unmotivated and lethargic but then we forced ourself to do the workout - Within minutes of beginning we feel a giant charge of energy? By the end we are often overcome with a sense of well being, thrilled that we expended the effort and wondering how we ever struggled to get going. This is a lesson that it seems needs to be learned over and over again. The reality is that "I don't feel like it." are words spoken by someone sitting, not someone training. Know that if you can just get going, you're going to feel GREAT!

2. An overnight success is the result of consistent toil.
Louisa May Alcott wrote that “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they may lead.” Long term goals are powerful but the reality is that they cannot be reached in a single leap. It takes many small seemingly insignificant steps to attain something truly significant. To this point focus some energy on identifying simple, attainable short term goals. "By the end of this month I will complete a set of low rows with my feet at the anchor point." or "I will train 3 times this week" or "Today I will complete this workout in 30 minutes". It is these daily, weekly and monthly goals that lead to sustained motivation and the realization of those highest aspirations.

3. Don't make excuses, Make it happen!
Excuses are what happens when the "friction" outlined earlier wins. Let's face it, life's busy and it will lay down it's challenges. It's inevitable, much like the following quote “Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up, depends on the stuff you are made of.” So are you going to succomb to life's challenges or will you rise above them? Here are some examples:

Your day blows up at the office. Have a short metabolic "contingency workout" that you jam through on these days as opposed to blowing your whole session off. A shortened workout is better than none at all! Try adding 40 Suspended Burpees (20 on each side) to the 40 / 40 challenge.
You have a business trip - Take your TRX, pop one of the DVDs in your lap top and train in your hotel room before or after your day. Before you leave commit to doing a certain number of workouts while you're on the trip (see tip 2)
Your kids have a soccer game during your usual workout time - Take your TRX and hook up to a tree by the field so you can get your training in and watch your kids at the same time.
There is an athlete I work with who is an exec with a demanding job, two busy kids and one of the best age-group triathletes in the country. How does he fit in 25 - 30 hour training weeks on top of everything else? One of the ways is by involving his family. His kids ride their bicycles next to him on his training runs giving him interval splits, yelling encouragment and feeding him water.
This Friday the Pittsburg Penguins will play the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals - As a good Canadian boy you can bet I'll be watching BUT I'll also be doing one of my TV workouts to make sure I can enjoy the game without missing my training.

I think you can see where I'm headed here. There is almost always a way to make it happen!

4. Peer Pressure Works
While you might be perfectly happy to hit snooze 26 times at the 5:30 AM alarm if it is only yourself to answer to, this scenario is quite different if you've planned to meet someone to train with. Knowing the phone will ring and you will face a "Where the hell are you?" is a sure way to respond to that alarm the first time. Find a workout partner or hire a trainer. This external pressure to commitment does wonders to keep your adherence high.
Another tactic is to tell your family, friends and co-workers what your are setting out to achieve. This will serve to elevate your motivation as now that it's out in the open you will have to rise to the occassion and produce results or face the spectre of admitting defeat publically. One final way which I was introduced to through John Berardi of Precision Nutrition is outlined in "The Blackmail Diet" by John Bear. In this case Dr. Bear arranged for $5000 to be paid in trust to the Nazi Party unless he lost 70 lbs in a year. He ended up losing 76 lbs and the Nazi Party missed their payday.

5. Commitment, Discipline & Sacrifice
I've always been humbled by the achievments of many of my clients. They've excelled in their field and made amazing contributions and to do so have shown unusual levels of commitment and discipline. Every one of them has made sigificant personal sacrifices to reach the levels they have. Unfortunately in many cases, one of these sacrifices has been their health. In his book "Outliers", one of the arguments that Malcolm Gladwell makes is that it takes about 10000 hours of practice to achieve true excellence in any field, regardless of innate talent. Now 10000 hours is a lot of time. It works out to almost 10 years, practicing for 3 hours per day - EVERY DAY!
I've always found it interesting that my clients have stuggled with turning the same lens that they use to achieve success in business on their health.

Success in health requires the same commitment, discipline and sacrifice that success in any other field requires. You have to commit to the process of eating well and training regularly and with intensity. You have to muster the discipline that is required to get your workout done, day in and day out and not succomb to poor food choices. In order to have this discipline you also have to be willing to miss out on a few things that others don't. Wake up an hour earlier to get your workout in, pay a little bit more for organic food or locally grown fruits and vegetables. A close friend of mine used to have the mantra of "Weights before dates!"

Now am I saying you have to be ready to commit to 3 hours a day of training or you might as well forget about it? Of course not. In fact - quite the opposite. 30 minutes of good focused exercise per day on the TRX can bring astonishing results, especially when combined with solid nutrition. I will say that the reality is that most people don't achieve their fitness goals because they do not hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to applying a modest yet consistent measure of commitment, discipline and sacrifice. Understanding that this is a requirement and taking personal responsiblity for the outcome is a great way to help keep yourself motivate.

In addition to these, some of the techniques outlined in the "Increasing Your Intensity" post like Tracking your Results and Self Messaging will also work well. As usual, there are many ways to stay motivated. What do you do to keep yourself going?

The "Infamous TRX Workouts" - Weeks 5 & 6

Fraser — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

We're half way through the program and now the real fun begins! This week sees a full scale change across all programs!

Metabolic Circuit Changes:

More advanced exercises
A decrease of transition rest to only 20 sec
Here's the big one... An increase to 45 sec of work for ALL sets
Set rest mercifully goes back up to 3 min

These adaptations to the program again result in a significant jump up in intensity and metabolic demand.

Strength Workout Changes:

Strength workout moves to an upper / lower split format and away from the all body program that was done in the first 4 weeks
A host of new exercises and progressions from the previous weeks
Every exercise is involved in a superset couplet if not a triplet that will increase intensity

These shifts in programming and exercises will provide a series of new training impulses that will keep you from hitting a plateau and increase the overall intensity.

******* UPDATE *******

TRX Metabolic Circuits: Weeks 5 & 6

TRX Metabolic Workout A Video: Week 5 & 6

TRX Metabolic Workout B Video: Week 5 & 6

TRX Strength Workouts: Weeks 5 & 6

Strength Workout A Exercise Library

Incline Barbell Press

Strength Workout B Exercise Library

Dumbell Deadlift

Front Squat

Split Squat with Elevated Reat Leg

Step Up

Back Extensions

Stiff Legged Deadlift

Standing Vertical Barbell Twist

Now it is time to wrap it up with weeks 7 & 8.

"The Infamous TRX Workouts" - Weeks 3 & 4

Fraser — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

I hope that you've had a great first 2 weeks of the Infamous TRX Workout and you're beginning to feel comfortable with all of the exercises and the general structure of the training. You may have had a few initial aches and pains that should be starting to subside. It's now time for the next stage of progression.

Strength Workouts A and B stay the same but you will notice some differences in the Metabolic Conditioning workouts.

Transition rest has been reduced by 10 seconds
Set rest is decreased by a full minute.
You will also notice some progressions in each of the exercises.

******* UPDATE *******

These changes represent both a significant decrease in recovery which will increase the metabolic demand of the the training along with an increase in intensity. Be sure to note the decrease in volume in week 3 back to 3 sets to help you manage the increased demand of the program and pay close attention to the videos for the changes in techniques.

TRX Metabolic Circuits: Weeks 3 & 4

TRX Metabolic Workout A Video: Week 3 & 4

TRX Metabolic Workout B Video: Week 3 & 4

TRX Strength Workouts: Weeks 3 & 4

To see the programming for the first 2 weeks or detailed videos of each of the strength exercises click here

Good luck with these next 2 weeks and have fun!

Are you ready for weeks 5 & 6?

Weeks of Fun and the "Infamous TRX Workouts" - Weeks 1 & 2

Fraser — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Just as promised last week - the first two weeks of training have arrived!

This workout program fuses traditional free weight exercises with TRX metabolic circuits and the top nutrition.

First a bit on how you should go about organizing the program:

This program is designed as a four day a week strength training program
There are 4 separate workouts
Two are traditional free weight days divided up into workouts A and B
Two are TRX metabolic circuits divided up into workouts A and B
You might divide your week up as follows:

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7
Strength A TRX A Recovery Strength B TRX B Recovery Recovery

The metabolic circuit component of the program is split into two workouts, TRX Metabolic Workout A and B. These were developed by Fraser Quelch and Chris Frankel and are meant to compliment each other. Each should be done once per week.

The structure of these workouts is clearly outlined in the charts below and the way they should be executed is clear in the accompanying video in terms of exercise technique, tempo etc. The videos are great to follow along with as they provide a complete, real time circuit that can be repeated as often as the week requires it to help keep you motivated.

TRX Metabolic Circuits

TRX Metabolic Workout A Video

TRX Metabolic Workout B Video

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The Strength Workouts were developed by Alwyn Cosgrove. They utilize traditional free weight movements as their core. Be aware that any of the strength exercises marked as #a or #b means that these two movements should be performed as a superset with no rest between them. If you have any questions about the exercises included in these workouts, please refer to the video links below that feature John Berardi cranking away at his local gym.

Strength Workout A

Strength Workout B

Strength Workout A Videos

BB Deadlift

BB Lunge

Incline DB Press

Bent DB Row

Swiss Ball Crunch

Incline DB Curl

Strength Workout B Videos

BB Squat

DB Step Up

DB Military Press

Close Grip Chins

Swiss Ball Prone Jackknife (this can also be done on the TRX)

Cable Triceps Pushdown

Have fun and be sure to post your results and experience in the forum.

Best of luck!!

Now it is on to weeks 3 & 4!

A Powerful Partnership and 8 Weeks of Fun

Fraser — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Well I have to admit - there's some stuff we've been keeping pretty quiet around here - waiting for the right moment. Well, that moment has now arrived!

Over the past 3 months or so we've forged an exciting partnership with John Berardi of Precision Nutrition and Alwyn Cosgrove of Results Fitness. Now I've introduced these guys through the blog and you've likely had a look at Gourmet Nutrition and taken in some of Alwyn's concepts so you all know how highly I regard both of them. In my opinion, they are among the best in the world at what they do.

(A thorn between two roses )

So when we decided to collaborate together to create a world class strength training program that combined traditional lifting techniques with a TRX metabolic circuit and cutting edge nutrition, we were all pretty excited. We then took this program and the academic ran some of his community members through it to compare the differences between the TRX metabolic circuits vs other cardiovascular based approaches. On the Precision Nutrition website this is know known as the "Infamous TRX workout"

A friend who frequents the PN website wrote me the following when he saw the reference "Makes me think of The Three Amigos: “Oh, no, Dusty…. this El Guapo is so famous that he’s IN famous.”

Anyway... John is still grinding through the analysis of the results but in the mean time we can take the entire 8 weeks and push it out to you for your own enjoyment!

The program is a progressive, 8 week plan that includes 2 days of more traditional strength training with 2 days of TRX metabolic circuit training. It's designed to be combined with the precision nutrition program.

The first two weeks of the program will be posted first thing on Monday morning for you to start to hammer on. Stick with it for 8 weeks and you are bound to see some serious differences in strength, conditioning and body composition.

So rest up from the April Spring Fever Challenge, and get ready for 8 weeks of fun as well as a new May Challenge from the devious mind of our very own Chris Frankel.

Stay tuned and be sure to check out the blog for the first two weeks of training on Monday!

Have a great weekend!

Neil Mallinson BRINGS IT for Todd Durkin's Mastermind Group

Fraser — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Check out this 2 min heart pounding demo that TRX Master Trainer Neil Mallinson throws down for Todd Durkin's Master Mind Group. Neil flows seemlessly from one movement to another in something that would work great as a workout in and of itself or a metabolic set that could be repeated. Certainly his position at the end of the video suggests that there were some "moderate" demands involved.

His demo includes Jump Squats, Suspended Lunges in 2 Planes with Power, the Suspended Press and a near miss with a projection screen that sounded like it had T.D. nervous about replacement costs.

Enjoy this one!

Check Your Ego and Move Your Feet!

Fraser — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

OK - I've heard one too many times about how the TRX rubs against your arms during the chest press.

If you find the strap is rubbing against your arms you can do one of two things:
1) Simply elevate your hands until the TRX is slightly above your arms.
2) To use a lower hand position, drop your elbows and slightly externally rotate your arms

Using either of these techniques will enable you to do the chest press without any friction at all.

If you've applied these two techniques and still the TRX is rubbing against you then perhaps... just perhaps, you are not as strong as you think. The primary reason for rubbing is that a user will choose an angle that is too steep for their ability so the body seeks another way to stabilize the action. Pulling the straps into your body provides that stablity but at a cost - Rubbing. This is especially true with strong, heavier individuals who have been training using a traditional approach and often lack the requisite stability.

So - Check your ego and move your feet!

Think of it this way - I can't bench press 300 lbs. If I'm dumb enough to load the bar up with 3 plates a side and then get stuck underneath it, is it the bar's problem or mine?

In this way you can get a super challenging chest workout that is easily tailored to your ability and offers a way to integrate a number of interesting set arrangments like drop sets and giant sets that can be more cumbersome using other methods.