Josh Hillis' Fat Loss and Fitness

One of the Coolest Things I've Ever Seen

Traveling Rings - Like Freerunning/Parkour on gymnastics rings.

It's www.swingaring.com.

Check out THIS VIDEO

From the LA Times: "The 75-foot-long, 15-foot-high steel frame supports 10 rings, each set about 8 feet apart and suspended 7 feet off the ground. The idea is to swing down and back as artfully, and inventively, as possible, ideally without hitting a pole or rogue ring."

Do you think normal gymnastics rings are fun?  This takes it to a whole new level.  Currently, there are only two sets of "travelling rings" in the United States: The origional Muscle Beach Rings in Santa Monica, California, and the relatively newer Riverside Park Rings in Riverside, New York.

The Travelling Rings are a relic of the gymnastic past of Muscle Beach.  From back when Muscle Beach was about feats of strength and strength stunts.  Back in the day when you needed some skill to back up your muscle.  The Muscle Beach Bodybuilders of today would be considered "all show and no go" by the old timers.  Or maybe the old timers just would have called them pussies.

The swingaring website asks, "Have you ever dreamed you could fly?"  With skill you can swing or freestyle from one end of the 75 foot structure to the other with all the grace and style of Parkour, but flying in mid air and without any obstacles to surmount.  Like Parkour, it has this skateboarding/surfing/snowboarding feeling to it.  It's all about flow and style.

If you don't want to spend the money to fly to Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, CA, or Riverside Park, NY to play on the rings, it turns out you can have your very own travelling rings built in your backyard for only $8000.

I wrote the first part of this article over a year ago, when I first heard about the rings.  After going there and getting to play on them myself a few times, I wrote this in my blog:

So I finally made it back to the rings in Santa Monica.  I'm totally addicted.  I got my first "leg over" and my first (albeit jerky) "dislocate".  A leg over is basically tossing a leg over the back ring before you release, and a dislocate is a flip.  Note that my dislocate didn't look anything like hers - mine looks more like a two-leg-"leg over". Anyway, I'm really pumped, I'm officially elevated from the average dude just trying to swing up and back. I can't wait to actually get good at this.

Unfortunately, I only have the strength, at this point, to do about two flips on each run. Then after that, I have a pretty hard time making it up and back. I really need to work on my pull. The natural thing to do your first time is a "hammer pull".  I was lucky that someone taught me a stronger pull - I do a 1/2 turn pull (which I guess is called a back pull).  The back pull is ok, but the guys doing a cross pull (full turn) get about twice as much power. There are even a couple guys who do a cross pull into a one arm dip - basically a one arm muscle up. The amount of power, height, and speed that they get is unbelievable. So next time, I really want to work on my pull - basically my power. Also I'd like to get a lot more fluid. It looks so cool when people travel smoothly and with style.

Here is what it's like - an advanced swingset. There is something unbelievably fun about swinging through the air. Just the act of "traveling" from ring to ring is fun. Then, working in some style and some tricks, ti really is like flying. It's like snowboarding in mid air. It can be a total rush trying a new trick, at the beginning of the rings with everyone watching. Or it can be totally chill just cruising through space with nothing but the sound of the wind rushing past your ears. Down at the opposite end of the rings it's all quiet, there's nothing between you and the sun and sand and the ocean view, you're elevated up in the air, and you've always got to do a few spins as you swing out on the last ring, before turning around and coming back. The crew down there is amazingly cool also. Everyone is a superhuman athlete. It's my kind of people. I'm totally sure that if I lived here I'd be hanging with them.

Now I just want to go there every day. Unfortunately I don't think that I can get all the way down there every day. The times over these last three weeks that I have gotten away to swing on the rings or to bust out a workout have done wonders for me though.

This really is the most amazingly cool expression of fitness. This is what I'm all about - a really big, hella fun toy that requires huge amounts of strength and coordination to play with. It really is like parkour, but flying. These guys are all monsters in terms of upper body pulling strength, and it's just from playing on the rings.

It really reminds me that anything you do - if it isn't fun, and it isn't with really cool people, it's usually a total waste of time. The way most people approach fitness, as a means to an end - is only ok. If people could find ways to pursue high levels of fitness - for fun, and because it's fulfilling and meaningful to them, the quality of their health and fitness would skyrocket, much less their satisfaction and the quality of their life. That point where your fitness becomes your favorite part of your day, something to look forward to, a time to play - that is when you'll be fit for the rest of your life.

By Josh Hillis
author of The Stubborn Seveon Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar
(NASM-CPT) National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
(NASM-PES) National Academy of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement Specialist
(RKC) Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
(RKC/CAS) Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
(CF) CrossFit Level II Trainer
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2005

Review of Combat Conditioning

When I first baught this book, I couldn't believe how cheap it felt. This is mostly a complaint about the presentation.

The three exercises presented: The Hindu Squat (a squat up on the toes), a Hindu Pushup (kind of like a "dive bomber" pushup) and a wrestler's bridge exercise. All three exercises are very common in the wrestling/brazilian jiu jitsu world. Combat Conditioning was one of the first books on conditioning for martial artists and grapplers that talked about performing high repetition functional exercises. Hindu Squats were the gold standard for martial artists until kettlebell swings came on the scene.

The Hindu Squat has criticised been criticized because it re-enforces poor squatting form, which is arguably the basis for all athletic movement. If you are new to functional strength training, it could hurt your ability to learn to deadlift, squat with weight, clean and jerk, push press, or snatch. There is no progression from Hindu Squats to other functional compound movements.

That being said, I know many wrestlers who do the Hindu Squat, they are just very aware that it's a very different squat from a normal squat. If you choose to do it, just make sure that when you are doing your normal squats your are extra vigilant about your squatting form and don't let the hindu's create bad habits (like letting your knee slip forward or not sitting your butt back) when you do normal squats.

Hindu Pushups are a VERY difficult variation on pushups. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion Steve Maxwell feels that someone shouldn't be allowed to get on a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu mat unless they can knock off 40 Hindu Pushups in a row. One of the hardest workouts I've ever done in my life was at the Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist Seminar, we did a group workout involving 10 minutes of pullup ladder's followed by 10 minutes of Hindu Pushup ladders.

Combat Conditioning and most other martial arts training programs share a common bond of high rep strength training with functional movements for generating an uncommon level of conditioning. Where they differ is that Matt Furey (auther of Combat Conditioning) is oddly against training with weights. CrossFit's philosophy is that if gymnasts (bodyweight strength training) and olympic weightlifters (barbell strength training) are the strongest and most powerful athletes out there, why not borrow from both? The kettlebell community believes that there is a place for everything, bodyweight, kettlebells, barbells, just use the right tool for the job at hand. So that would be my advice - if you do Combat Conditioning, mix it up with equally functional compound movements with weights.

By Joshua Hillis
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
CrossFit Level II Trainer
and
currently studying National Academy of Sports Medicine Sports Fitness Specialist
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

 

© Josh Hillis 2005

The Ten and a Half Commandments of Functional Fitness

1.) If your sport requires you to spend most of your time sitting or lying down, then you should sit or lie down in training.  If your sport requires you to be on your feet, you should spend most of your training time on your feet.

2.) Functional movement begins at your core and then moves out to your limbs.  If the movement doesn’t generate most of it’s power at the core, it’s not functional.

3.) Functional movement must improve your ability to run, jump, climb, throw, punch or play your sport.  Doing the pec deck fly at your local gym does none of these.

4.) Functional training should spend some time at the duration and intensity of the sport.  If you cage fight for three-five minute rounds, it would be effective to do intense functional training in three five-minute rounds.  Going for a slow sixty minute run has nothing to do with training for your sport at all if you fight for three five-minute rounds.

5.) Mix up your functional movements.  If you are a wrestler, you need to push, pull, and squat in the course of a match.  Training should include all of those at the same time.  Doing circuits of pushups, pull-ups and squats is more like the actual demands of your sport than doing bench press one day and pullups the next.  Have you ever had a wrestling match where you only needed strength in one direction?

6.) Training should be intense.  Most sports require intensity their performance.  Training should mimic that intensity.

7.) Intense workouts cannot be long workouts. 

8.) Your body adapts when it rests.  When you workout, workout hard.  Then when you rest, rest completely.  If you’ve hit a plateau, you’re probably overtrained.

9.) If you try to mimic the actual movements of your sport during weight training, you are going to fuck up your skill training.  Skill training for your sport and weight training are totally different things and you should train them separately.

10.) Variation is your friend.  Deadlifts, swings, snatches, and push presses are all “the same but different”.  They all build on each other synergistically, and doing all of them trains your body to adapt it’s strength to different situations, and reduces the chances of overuse injuries.

10.5) Functional traning is hella fun.  Try it and you’ll be stoked.

By Josh Hillis
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
CrossFit Level II Trainer
and
currently studying National Academy of Sports Medicine Sports Fitness Specialist
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2005

How To Get Big for Skinny Hard Gainers

How to Get Big
(for skinny hard-gainers)

Ok, I was in the same situation. I've always been skinny, always been a hard gainer. For years I thought I couldn't put on weight no matter what I did.

I was 6 ft 135lbs for most of my life. Even after high school when I stopped running cross country, I still didn't put on much weight.
    
At 23 I did Body For Life. I started eating on the BFL plan and gained nothing. So I doubled it. Then I tripled the carbs and left the protein doubled. I stopped doing cardio completely. I started taking fish oil or flax oil a couple times a day. Last but not least, I started eating half a bag of chips ahoy cookies every night after dinner. I worked upper body once a week, and lower body once a week (pretty standard bodybuilding stuff - lots of sets and reps), and spent the rest of the time sleeping. I gained 2lbs a week. When I got to 165lbs I stopped.

At 26 I was back down around 155. I was training for a russian kettlebell sport meet. For those unfamiliar with kettlebell sport, you take a 53lb kettlebell and snatch it for reps, and that's one event, and the other event is taking two 53lb kettlebells, and jerking them for reps. It was pretty simple training - twice a week I would do one handed snatches with 53lbs and the two kettlebell jerk with 106lbs as much as I could in sets of five until I didn't have the strength to do it safely anymore. On top of that I started counting my calories. Turned out that I naturally eat about 1200-1400 calories a day. So I jacked that up to 3000 calories a day. It was WORK to eat that much. On top of all of the good healthy food I was eating, I had to make sure I was drinking fruit punch and eating cookies again just to get enough calories. By the time the Washington State Kettlebell Championships came around I weighed in at 170. With just snatches and jerks I put on hard muscle that was all legs and back and traps and shoulders, it was crazy. 

170 was a long way from the 135 I'd been most of my life.  Here I am jerking two 106lbs (two 53lb kettlebells) for reps at the Washington State KB Championships.

Also, both times I was also eating lots of protein powder and meal replacement shakes and a little bit of creatine. I'd throw it all in the blender with all the fruit or soy milk I could find.

What you can take away from this:
1.) For me to gain, I had to eat a shit load of food. It was work to eat that much food. I ate lots of good food, and then I piled bad food on top of the good food.
2.) I didn't lift often, but when I did I lifted heavy and I lifted as much volume (lots of sets and reps) as my body could safely do.
3.) I didn't do any "cardio".

By Josh Hillis
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
National Academy of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement Specialist
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
CrossFit Level II Trainer
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2005

The Stripper Workout

The Stripper Workout for hitting your Body Compostion Goals...

...Being Strong and Lifting Heavy Doesn't Bulk You Up Like a Guy

  This workout and diet advice comes from "The Official Stripper FAQ" (http://www.stripper-faq.org/) . While I don't agree with all of it (I'm totally against working out out on an empty stomach), most of it is really good training advice. I stumbled on this after talking to some strippers at my gym who do heavy barbell squats with perfect form. Considering they are pretty much the only people in my gym doing squats with perfect form (besides my clients), I was intrigued.

This article is really good information because the most common concern I get from female clients is that they are "worried about bulking up from lifting heavy weights." Which is always funny considering all of the guys in the gym trying really, really hard to bulk up, and most of them are having a pretty hard time doing it.

I edited out the parts about stripper clothing and breast augmentation, even though there were some really good parts. One funny part was about breast augmentation was how "...if there was a surguery where guys could look instantly hotter there would be lines around the block and Medicaid would cover it." Also there was an interesting part about how asymetrical clothing will hurt a girls income, because symetry is subconciously extremely attractive, and asymetrical clothing throws that off no matter how balanced your body is.

I also highlighted (bold) the parts I thounght were really interesting and good advice.  Alright, here we go!

from: http://www.stripper-faq.org/

Your body

What kind of shape you're in makes a bigger difference in your earnings than anything else. An hour of exercise a day can mean $200 more a night. It's important that you understand that your body is how you earn a living, as such you have to take very good care of it. In the world of strip clubs the name of the game is low bodyfat. Sure some men like extra padding but no one likes cheese. It's an unfortunate truth but the slimmer you are the more money you will make. You don't have to be fashion model skinny but you do have to be tight if you expect to make good money. I personally find that a combination of yoga and weight training is ideal for the kind of look that men like.

I do Ashtanga yoga four days a week, run one-day and weight training one day. The most effective weight training exercises for woman are squats, lunges and stiff-leg or sumo deadlifts. None of these lifts should be done on machines- free weights only. Machines are no where near as effective. Train heavy and train hard. Yoga and dancing are both very catabolic activities (they break down muscle tissue) you will not get bulky.

I use the following:
Squats 3 sets of 20 reps, 120 seconds rest between sets.
Stiff-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 reps, 120 seconds rest between sets.
Rest 5 minutes
Dumbbell lunges 4 sets of 12 reps, 90 seconds rest between sets
Hanging crunches 4 sets 90 seconds rest between sets

The squats should be to failure, it should be VERY hard to hit 20. Like having a baby hard. Squats will make a bigger change in your physique then anything else. When you do your yoga and running do it in the morning on an empty stomach. If you have a real fat problem an hour of running or jump rope a day before breakfast with a low/no carb diet can take of a lot of fat in a short period of time.

Different diets work for different people. Regardless of what you choose it has to be something you can stay on permanently. You can't just diet when you think your getting fat, as a dancer you have to maintain a consistantly low level of bodyfat. For me carbs are the problem. The only real carb heavy meal I eat is breakfast, I usually have a bowl of cereal or hot oatmeal. Then with lunch slightly less, usually just a sandwich with some whole wheat bread. For dinner almost none, a very small scoop of rice or vegetables with a small steak or chicken breast. I avoid salad, pasta and other high-carb meals. I occasionally eat fried chicken or hamburgers, I just keep the portions very small and try to eat it early in the day. Avoid low-fat foods or at least read the labels carefully, they tend to have a lot of sugar and nothing gets you fat faster than sugar- not even fat. I also try and break my meals down into several small ones. If it's a sandwich or something I eat one half then and one half an hour or two later- this helps you metabolize your food better. This may not work for you but I know many dancers on this or very similar programs who are able to stay in very good shape even with lousy genetics ( I was 20lbs heavier before I started doing this and I've been able to maintain my weight for several years). The point is you need to find something that does work, staying in good shape is critical to your livelihood.

from: http://www.stripper-faq.org/

By Josh Hillis
author of The Stubborn Seveon Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar
(NASM-CPT) National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
(NASM-PES) National Academy of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement Specialist
(RKC) Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
(RKC/CAS) Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
(CF) CrossFit Level II Trainer
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2005