Saturday, September 19, 2015

“You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” This is a quote from Fight Club. It's a bit dire. It doesn't make us feel warm fuzzies. We have been told for so long that we are unique in personality and natural gift. This may be true in those aspects of life, but when it comes to starting a workout plan when you are a beginner or intermediate you just aren't a damn snowflake. You don't need to pay someone $100 a month to program something specific for you. Go spend $19.99 and buy an ebook like 531, Strength Lab, 5x5 Stronglifts, The Cube Method, or any of the other multitudes of options out there. If you have only been lifting seriously for a few years you can follow any program (and actually follow it for 6 months) and get great results. For the casual lifter or the inexperienced one it's that easy. Once you are an advanced lifter you can start to become a unique snowflake of specialness, but not in the way you think. The uniqueness comes in the form of where your weaknesses are and how crappy your technique is. Even at this point your uniqueness is more about coaching movement patterns than about getting a whole special program out for you. At most you will get a corrective exercise or two to add in. Don't over think your program. If it has big compound movements in it as the main chunk then you are probably on the right track. If you are wanting to compete in a muscle or strength sport then having a coach is going to matter more. Scour the internet for what world record lifters trained like the first decade of serious lifting is pretty much like this: Lift weights, eat food, and lift heavier weights as time progresses, and more food. There's no crazy trick. It's just dedication and consistency. Oh crap .... I forgot I do online coaching and programming.....ignore this post.

When to pay for online coaching/programming:

1. You want to compete.

2. You want accountability and have no friends.

3. You want to sound important by saying you have a personal coach doing things for you.

4. You want someone to blame other than yourself if you decide to not follow the plan and get poor results.

5. You want shout outs on social media (once again because you have no friends)

Talk Soon

Dan Mason

Dan is a nationally ranked amateur

strongman competitor in the 242lb

and 275lb classes. He holds instructor

level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai,

and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He as been

training people for strength and martial

arts since 2004.

RoninSTR@gmail.com
Periscope: @RoninStr

Instagram: @RoninStr
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVA3x_kvPOFMsxouGjhYRnQ

Monday, September 7, 2015

We all are familiar with "To Do Lists" or "The Honey Do List." What are your initial feelings when you think about these. Are you excited to accomplish these tasks? Do they feel like a burden? Does the list just get so long that you never finish so you just top making them? Today let me introduce you to the concept of the "Crush Life List" or "Kill the Day List." Use whichever you prefer. How different would your motivation be by just changing the title? This simple change does a few important things, at least for me. First, it makes me feel like more of a bad ass even if "do the laundry" is on there. Also this title lets me know that accomplishing these tasks won't just knock a task out it will help get me somewhere in life. Third it makes what gets put on the list more selective. For example laundry probably wouldn't make the list in most cases, but if you have no clothes to wear and you don't want to wear smelly dirty gym clothes tomorrow it should probably be task number 1.

This all sounds fine and dandy but there are a few rules we should follow that have served me well. First there are definitely things that should not make the list. These include anything that you do every day or things that you do automatically. So if you are like me and train hard 4 or 5 days a week and have been for a number of years then "go the the gym and workout" won't be on the list. If you are trying to establish that as a habit then it definitely should be. Everything on the list should be an activity that is not happening every day and gets you closer to reaching your personal goals. Lastly try not to go crazy. 4 or 5 things on this list per day will be about perfect. You probably can knock them all out in a few hours. So buckle down and get them done. It's great how streamlined your day becomes when you have clear goals and expectation. The distractions go down and productivity goes up. Think of where your life could be if you nailed 4 things this productive every day for a year. That list of 4 little goals turns into 1460 accomplishments in that time.

Let's take me for an example. Here's today's kill list:

1. come up with 2 awesome shirt concepts and draw them up

2. Finalize dates for upcoming strength seminars

3. Dry run the lectures of the seminars to figure out a timeline

4. Outline a loose marketing strategy for upcoming challenge groups

5. Write a blog post

I knocked this list out in 2 and a half hours. If I nail 4 points like that every day. By next year I should be making a good chunk of change on my side gig here and will be helping tons of other people just like me reach their personal goals! How cool is that?

I want to challenge you guys to make a Crush List and get it done. Do it for a month and let me know how it goes. What were the struggles? What were the rewards? Comment below or email me. I really am interested in seeing what building this practice does for you guys. I know it has laid some amazing groundwork for me.

Talk Soon

Dan Mason

Dan is a nationally ranked amateur

strongman competitor in the 242lb

and 275lb classes. He holds instructor

level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai,

and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He as been

training people for strength and martial

arts since 2004.

RoninSTR@gmail.com

Instagram: @RoninSTR
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVA3x_kvPOFMsxouGjhYRnQ

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Why the Heck are You Wearing Flip Flops When You Train!?

Let me start by saying, if you aren't following me on Instagram this isn't going to make sense to you initially. So get your phone out and go follow @RoninStr right now....it's okay. I'll wait. So you checked out some of my training videos and got super inspired by my awesome quotes. If you didn't get motivated just say you did and make me feel better. Anyway, you may have noticed I do a lot of training in my flip flops at LA Fitness. There are a bunch of reasons for this so here goes.

1. I am lazy: I hate taking the time and effort it takes to put on socks and tie my shoes. There is also the hidden cost of the time it takes to wash your socks and fold them into those little balls.

2, I hate jail: I worked at one for 3 years so I can legitimately say I am not a fan from experience. Shoes are the inconspicuous little prisons you put on your feet. Just let them be free!

3. I am an attention whore: Everyone gives you crap when you walk out in flip flops but if you put up some semi-respectable weight while wearing them everyone wants to be your best buddy.

Alright now for some serious reasons that may actually give you some principles to kick ass in the gym, competition, and life.

4. It is harder to squat in flip flops. I used to squat in Weightlifting shoes. The raised heel improved my squat depth immediately due to the decreased range of motion needed in the ankles to reach proper depth. Add to that that flip flops offer no ankle stability unlike normal shoes or high top Chucks. Squatting in toe thongs has improved my squat in competition immeasurably.

5. It's harder to bench and log press. On bench the heel lift of an Weightlifting shoe will let you tuck your feet under further while still having heel contact on the floor. This results in a tighter body position, better leg drive, and a better arch. On log presses you have to stay way tighter through your mid-line to load your heals for the dip and drive/push press action.

6. Flip flops make your mental game stronger. You know that every lift is harder in them with exception of the deadlift. If you can squat 405lbs in flip flops with no belt what could you do in a belt and oly shoes?

I used to be a minimalist when I first started lifting. I never wore a belt, gloves or wrist wraps. It was just chalk and balls. As I got into lifting I started buying all kinds of fun gear: Knee sleeves, elbow sleeves, belts wraps. You name it and I had it or wanted it. I noticed my numbers were getting better but if I wasn't wearing my gear I was horrible. So I started dialing the gear back until I am where I am now, On a typical gym day I wear a shirt, gym shorts, and flip flops. I will put wrist wraps on when I bench and it starts to get over about 335lbs but that's pretty much it. This has forced me to go a bit lighter on lifts in general which in turn has made me improve my form in order to get more weight to move. Also when you are forced into correcting form and using lower weights the rate of injury goes way down. I am definitely better for going minimalist when training.

That being said when I compete I use every piece of gear that is allowed as it does make a huge difference. I will start incorporating whatever gear I will be using in competition about 3 weeks prior to the show. This way I get 2 weeks to get a feel for it and then a whole week of rest.

So give it a try. Just take one piece of equipment off that you are used to using for a month and see what happens. I promise your technique will get better and you will feel like more of a hard ass than you have in a while. All you need is chalk and balls.

Talk Soon

Dan Mason