The "55" workout

I'm a big fan of the "55" workout.  In it's traditional form it is usually done as push-ups and air squats.  With that in mind, the idea is this:
you do 1 push up and 10 squats, then 2 push ups and 9 squats, 3 push ups 8 squats, and so on.  You repeat the pattern until your last set is 10 push ups and 1 squat.
At that point you've done 55 reps of each (10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=55).

It's a neat idea.  What I really like about it though is that you can use that model of Any 2 workouts.

For example, you could do squats and pushups, or pushups and crunches.
You could also do walk 10, 'sprint' 1, walk 9, 'sprint' 2.
You could cross up your running and work out and do run 10, do 1 burpee, run 9, do 2 burpees, etc.

This morning I did dubs and C&J
1 double under, 10 clean and jerks, 2 double unders, 9 clean and jerks.
By the end, it was Brutal.  In trying to do it "for time" and racing through as fast I could, the exhaustion level gets so high you start missing your double unders (catching a foot).  Each double under missed, for whatever reason (especially at that point in the workout), feels like 10 successful ones as effort goes -- And 55 double unders and 55 clean and jerks as fast as you can go...heck of a workout!

Play with it and see what you can come up with.  Using the "55" model and randomly picking Any 2 things will give you quite the workout, with no guides and no real planning!

Motivation (motivational quotes)

and not the T.I. song.

Sometimes you just need a little motivation, and I am a sucker for good quotes.

Today I'll share 20 of my favorites (in no particular order):

1. Those who say it can not be done should not get in the way of those who are doing it
2. Falling down is how we grow, staying down is how we die
3. You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can't have it
4. Pain is inevitable but misery is optional.  We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy if we choose to.
5. The price of anything is the amount of life you are willing to exchange for it.
6. We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
7. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do
8. Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm
9. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
10. Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.
11. Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.
12. Never judge the one who tried and failed, judge the one who failed to try at all.
13. Adversity introduces a man to himself
14. Opposition doesn't built character, it reveals it.
15. Fear is a liar.
16. Don't strive for perfection, strive for progress
17. If you are never failing then you are never trying hard enough.
18. 'Obsessed' is the word lazy people use to describe the dedicated.
19. Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're finished.
20. I do because I can.  I can because I want to.  I want to because you said I couldn't.

Crossfit Workouts:

I love Crossfit - I am a believer in it's ability to change people.

It's perfect muscle confusion, it's scale-able, and most people can do it.
If you have never done anything before, you can scale it back (if you just did the warm-up everyday you'd have a pretty good workout).
If you are a super beast, it can still drive you into the ground.

See it's based on a perfect model of "you get out what you put in".  Every workout is for time and requires a built in gut check.

All that said, sometimes you can't get to a computer, you want something different, you need more, or you need less, or sometimes they put up workouts like they did yesterday:
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

(not designated a hero, not even named) I looked at it and wanted to go sit in a corner and cry just at the thought of it.  Any one of those would be a pretty good workout.

Soooooo,  for those interested, I've compiled a list of 75 Crossfit style exercises.  

Some of these are from Crossfit and a lot of them are from my own torture, er "conditioning" camps that I run for high school soccer programs.

I then placed them into 3 categories (without overlap even though many of them could):  Cardio, Major, Minor.

From here you can choose 1 from each, or just 1 cardio, or 1 cardio and 1 minor, or 1 major and 1 minor, or 5 minors, etc.

CARDIO:

10 Cycle

10k Run

400 Meter

5k Run

Backwards Run

Bunny Hops

Burpees

Carry/Be Carried

Crossover

Double Unders

Frog Leaps

Inverted Bicycle legs

Jumping Jacks

Lateral Leg Scissors

Lunges

Plyometric Dice Drill

Row

Run*

Shuffle

Sprint

Straight arm Rows

Suicides

Vertical Leg Scissors

MAJOR:
 

Back Squat

Clean

Clean and Jerk

Dead Lift

Deliver Milk to the Orphans

Farmers Walk

Front Squats

Handstand Push Ups

Jump Squats

Kettle bell dead lifts

Kettle Bell Flips

Kettle Bell Gun Slinger

Kettle Bell Lawn Mowers

kettle bell sumo deadlift high pull

Kettle bell swings

Medicine ball cleans

Muscle Ups

Overhead Squat

Overhead Walking Lunges

Partner Medicine Ball Sit Ups

Partner Medicine Ball Vollyball

Power Clean

Push Jerk

Push Press

Rope Climbs

Rower-Facing burpees

Shoulder Press

Snatch

Sumo Deadlift High Pull

The 55

Thrusters MINOR: Air Squat Ball Slams Bench Press Leg Raises Box Jumps Crunches Dips Elevated Push Ups GHD Bench Pulls GHD Sit Ups GHD Back Extensions Hand Release Push ups Knees to Elbows L Sits Leg Raises Pull Ups Push Ups Ring Dips Sit Ups Toes to Bar Wall Sits Wall balls

Resolutions / 30 Feats of Strength for 30

So, I'm curious how many of you do resolutions each year...
Some people do them every year, without fail, in fact, the only thing that fails is, well, all of their resolutions.

I am not, nor have I ever been a proponent in the NYR, but it doesn't bother me for people who do (as the man in black would say "get used to disappointment")

However, with that said, I am embarking on a new journey this year and it does happen to correspond with (around) new years:
My birthday is in early January and this year I am turning 30.  What does that mean?  It's funny to google turning 30 and see that for men 30 is supposed to be the melt down crisis (research shows that women breeze by 30 like it's nothing and freak out at 40, men completely freak out at 30 and breeze by 40... whatever) and though I am not planning a psycho-billy-freakout, I do want to do 'something'.

So, here's my plan:

For the next year, for the time that I am 30, I want to complete "30 Feats of Strength for 30" all revolving around... 30 (or 300, or 3,000).  I'm still ironing out the list but will post it soon enough and then I will chronicle this journey.  I am intentionally making the list things I have never done (have never been able to do) and that I believe I actually can Not do (yes, I am violating the fuzzy "only make goals you can accomplish" foolishness of the NYR).

So, have any suggestions?  I need some good ones ;)

Also, one of you twitter people (of which I suck) come up with a great hashtag for this (somehow "great hashtag" feels like an oxymoron...)

Tis the season for... what?

It's cold in many places -- though not here.... we had a few days weeks past where we hit high 20's, but this week and last we're in the 60's, even 70 a day or 2 -- anyway, I digress...  For those of you who actually Are experiencing winter, what are your thoughts on winter running?  Do you?  Don't you?  Love it?  Hate it?  How?

Few things to remember:

When you walk out out the door into the cold, you should Feel Cold!  If you walk outside in the cold and think "ah, I feel nice and comfortable" then you will be Roasting hot, sweating (and THEN freezing) in a mile or 2.  You're body will warm up as your muscles warm up and you want your clothing to allow you room to do so comfortably.

Keep in mind that a good part of your body heat is lost through your head.  For me, I find it better to lose the sweats and jacket and just wear gloves and a beanie.

On the gloves and beanie:  refer to number 1.  Only wear them if the temperature warrants it, and then try to (most of the time) wear thin!

Your body can (and will) always heat up - but once you're going, you can't really cool your body temp back down comfortably.  You will begin to sweat, which will then cover your body in moisture.  Wearing a coat of water in the cold then becomes a whole new problem!

Altra Instinct 1.5 shoe Review

Levi Dodd

October 2012

Altra Instinct 1.5

                                                                     

Award winning (Editor’s pick for “Most innovative”) Instinct 1.5

     

                                           
                                             

Altra is a cool company.  Their story goes back about 30 years and their zero-drop movement can be traced back almost 10 years.  Today they have 7 men’s shoes and 7 women’s models, all featuring zero-drop platforms.

The other cool thing I like about Altra is that their founder, Golden Harper is a runner.  No really.  He grew up running since birth and has the hardware to prove it:  set a marathon time of 2:45… at age 12 (which happens to be a world record, if you’re into that sort of thing…), has a personal best 5k time of 14:45, and won the Mountain 50 Miler in a time of 9 hours and 12 minutes, just to name a few.

It’s the type of company you can’t help but root for.

Now, here’s my little confession.  Despite all that, I wasn’t really sold on this particular shoe they sent me.  I wasn’t sure I’d even like it.  At all.

What I knew was that Altra was taking aim at a (what I thought) niche market of people with their zero drop shoes that still looked and were designed as a ‘normal’ shod running shoe – same cushioning, similar stack height, but zero drop.

I got the shoes and they sat in the box for several days, I was almost afraid to test them because of my pre-conceived notions on the stack height and their claims of “fully cushioned ‘A-Bound’” technology. 

I can now gladly say… boy was a wrong!

I laced them up, tried them on, and just wore them for a few days.  No running, just wore them.  I found that I like them… a lot.  I didn’t have to adjust my gait at all, nothing felt weird or strange (or evil… as I had assumed) and, in fact, they felt quite natural.  After several days of casual wear I took them out for their first run.  The run felt great, the room inside the shoes was amazing, the fit was spot-on, no thumping, no scuffing, no mis-hits from the stack height.  As I continued to run in them I continued to be very pleasantly surprised at the feel of these shoes (did I mention the superb fit?). 

Now, what’s obvious is this:  there’s virtually no ground feel in the sense that one thinks about feeling pebbles, small cracks, etc.  This was obviously be design, and, to be perfectly honest, it was pretty nice.  I used these for the cracked, worn, broken sidewalks around the old parts of town and on gravel road beds and I could still ‘feel’ the road but didn’t have the dull pains experienced on more technical surfaces. 

After getting a good feel for the shoes and seeing the strong points of the design from Altra (excellent fit, air mesh, zero drop, perfectly flat sole, wide last, And A-Bound cushioning) I couldn’t wait to try them out on Crossfit.  For Crossfit, these shoes are perfect.  I LOVED them for that (these will be my go-to Crossfit shoe from now on).  They’re very light, perfectly flat, and zero drop (all musts haves) but the cushioning provided put them way above my other minimalist shoes for many of the Crossfit workouts.  The flat base and wide last provide a perfectly stable platform for squats, cleans, etc.  The light weight and natural fit make them work great at dubs, and (here’s where barefoot and my minimalist shoes always killed me) on box jumps they are perfect!

For the same reasons, were the sole more aggressive, this would make a great trail running shoe.

To recap the high notes here:

·         First off, most importantly and already mentioned, the shoe is Zero drop.

·         The Instinct 1.5 is a lightweight shoe (tipping the scales at about 9oz) – much lighter than traditional shod shoes.

·         One of the greatest things about this shoe is the fit-they Nailed it!  The heel is snug and holds everything in place while the toe box is designed perfectly – nice and wide, plenty of room for toe splay and a very natural, comfortable fit.

·         The shoe is cool (temperature wise… but looks too ;)  and I really like quick dry air mesh

·         The liner is full length (nice touch) and is seamless

·         Perfectly flat, wedge like sole (again – great platform for cross training, exercise, and Crossfit)

·         The entire shoe, sole and all, is completely flexible!

·         Ground feel:  I expected to hate ground feel but found it not to be a determent to my knees or my stride.  What I did fine was that they were Great for more ‘technical’ roads, good for when the feet are tired, and awesome for workouts or other activities where you have lots of jumping, hard landings, etc.

·         The shoe comes with 2 sets of insoles – one a little thicker and squishier than the other.  Put the ‘Strengthen’ insoles in and you’re good to go.

·         One note.  I talk a lot about the excellent fit – what I found (fault of my own) was that I ordered mine slightly too small.  They run slightly small (1/4 size) so keep that in mind when ordering yours.  Even still (I should have gotten mine a ½ size larger) it was only short in the length, the width at the toes was still fantastic.

So, on the conclusion end of things:

I like Altra.  I like what they’re doing, I like the void in the market they are filling, and I like that you can look back at their previous versions of shoes and see that they keep getting better with each new shoe they put out.  As an aside, knowing what they did in this shoe and what Altra’s strong suits are, I would be very excited about their newly released “The Superior” trail running shoe… I’d love to get my hands on a pair of those, and if I do, I’ll pass along what I learn!

Skora Running FORM: product review

Levi Dodd

October 2012

SKORA FORM

If you’ve never heard of Skora running, don’t feel bad, I hadn’t either.  

But if you choose to not immediately go find out more about them, I can assure you, you will regret it.  I'm quite confident that this is only the beginning...

Skora is a new company (as most of you know I have a huge soft spot for start-ups!) and they are bringing a fresh look to the market as they enter.  Their mantra is “Run Real” and I must say, they’re making great strides (see what I did right there?) towards that end.

The Skora Form is one of their first 2 shoes they are bringing to market (now shipping) and with it, they did a lot of things right.

Skora is immediately setting their entire company around minimalism and their idea of “Run Real”.  Their shoes are zero drop, minimal in cushioning, no support, stitch-down construction (more on that later), anatomical last, outsoles mimic foot shape, no heel counter, and a sole made to fit the natural shape of your foot and encourage medial to lateral movement.

Check this out this product Video (less than 90 seconds)

I’ll go ahead and say one thing right off the bat, the shoes look fantastic!  My first thoughts upon unboxing were that they were almost Too pretty to run in!  I Love shoes, and as a pure minimalist in that department (I only wear zero drop shoes:  running, casual, dress, hiking, mowing the lawn, everything) I really miss my old shoes style – these fit the bill!  Not only are they a great running shoe, they look great underneath a pair of bluejeans.

• The FORM is a lightweight shoe (tipping the scales at about 8oz) – much lighter than traditional shod shoes.
  
  
• The anatomical last, curved outsole forefoot, curved outsole heel, and absence of a heel counter make this shoe fit very well – the whole shoe is built… like a foot.
  

•  Skora has really differentiated themselves in the material of the shoe.  One of my favorite things about this shoe is the fact that it’s made of Pittards Goadskin leather with their “WR100X” leather lining.  This stuff is Awesome!  It’s genuine leather, super soft and supple (feels like old perfectly broke in leather right out of the box) feel, all while being extremely breathable (was thrilled about that part) And water resistant!
  
  
• The entire shoe, sole and all, is completely flexible!
  
  
• Ground feel:  I actually expected to be unsatisfied with the ground feel and was pleasantly surprised.  There really is good ground feel, but not as much as you would experience in a pair of Nadas or VFFs.
  
• The stack height is still quite low (9mm all the way across) and so it offers substantially better ground feel than say an Instinct or an A86, but again, not as much as The Most minimalist shoes I’ve tested (and this is a choice by Skora’s design team).  The sole itself is quite thin and it doesn’t have excessive padding and sports no extra hyped up support or protection (which is great)
  
  
• I, personally, really like the aesthetics of the “cool” lacing design, but also appreciate the functionality of being able to choose the level of “snugness” a little better as well.
  
  
• Another + for this shoe is the fit.  They wanted to focus on a glove like fit and I think they really achieved it.  I like that it has a narrow “snug” heel and then it widens just a bit as it goes forward.  The toe box is wide (all the way out to the end of the toes-not just where the toes join the foot) and allow for good toe splay.  Excellent foot fit.  I will say that I feel they probably run about a ½ size large, so keep that in mind when ordering.

So, on the conclusion end of things:

I really appreciate what Skora is trying to do and I Love new companies!   I knew I would like this shoe, but didn’t really expect to love it as much as I did.  I’m running in it (makes a good trail running shoe as well), doing some Crossfit in them, and they are also my go to casual shoe everyday now.  You will Love the goat Leather.