I'm Giving Martial Arts Another Try :)

Here is a video Darren Clark from CMA Martial Arts (AKA CrossFit Langley) uploaded. It showcases some of the boys doing strength training and martial arts, what a combo! You get Body, Mind and being Kick Ass combined!

I have been wanting to get back into martial arts for some time but had some concerns about getting injured.Darren takes a very safe approach to his training avoiding a typical high risk injury situations and focussing on standup striking and kicking skills along with ground work submissions, chokes and positioning.

So far I have done three days of training with Darren and have truly enjoyed all of it. If you are in the Langley BC area, come on down and see what kind of program Darren can set you up with!

Box Squats - 405 x 6 Reps PR - 46 Years Old @ 192 Pounds

Another PR (Personal Best) for this old man (46)! On my quest to get a single rep back squat of 4 plates per side (405 pounds) I have been getting used to having the weight on my back by doing some heavy Box Squats. Based on the fact that I did 6 of them with 405 pounds on my back means I should be pretty close to a 1 rep 405 without the box and of course going to full depth.

In this video I setup the box height pretty close to parallel but when I go for the single I will try and get a bit more depth on it so there is no doubt that it is a good rep :) But again the idea of doing the Box Squats with the same 405 pound weight for reps is to get used to the heavy load on my system.

I also included some video of old man Darren (52) owner of CrossFit Langley doing 423 pounds for 8 reps kind of easy, if you can call 423 pound Box Squats easy that is ;)

The finish for this workout was 20 reps of regular Back Squats @ 245 pounds in as few sets as possible. I went for one big set of 20 and got it which was kind of another PR for me that day!

Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch Preview

I have been humming and hawing as to if I should get the new Apple Watch since it looks like it could be the best Smart Watch and Fitness Tracker on the market and I am sure in many ways it may in fact just be. That said I have come to the conclusion that the Apple Watch is just not right for me.

One of my main focuses for having a Fitness Tracker Smart Watch combination is to monitor my workouts as accurately as possible so I know to near precision how many calories I am burning and how much effort I am putting in. So this means I need to go with the most accurate heart rate monitoring available and that is still going to be a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor. Believe me I have tried many variations of wrist based Optical Sensor heart rate trackers and none of them cut it, including the new Fitbit Surge. I am still waiting to see how the Apple Watch stacks up in this department but I am not optimistic to say the least.

The other concern I have with the Apple Watch is... Well it's just too nice and too expensive to be worn on my wrist while I beat the living crap out of it during my weight training and other fitness activities.

So that brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive. How did I get to this point and why did I go with the Garmin VivoActive? I have used many Fitness Bands and Fitness Watches in the past including some from Fitbit, Polar, Jawbone, Mio and Basis. Many of these Fitness Trackers worked well for me but once I tried the Polar Loop with its super accurate chest strap based Heart Rate Monitoring, I decided that this combination was the way to go at least for me. That led to trying out the Garmin VivoFit with HRM, which led to the Garmin VivoSmart with HRM, that led to what I am using now which again brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch bundled with a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor.

Each new rendition of Garmin products has offered more built in technology and connectivity making each device more and more useful to me. At this point the Garmin VivoActive does what I need it to do, no more, no less and it does it really well.

Here is a breakdown of what I find most useful about the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch:

• It's a 24 hour Fitness tracker that tracks my basic movements and figures out my daily caloric output.
• The VivoActive can be paired over Bluetooth with a Chest Strap Monitor to accurately read my Heart Rate during workouts.
• The Garmin VivoActive has a built in GPS that tracks my outside walks, runs and bike rides along with elevation, pace, speed distance and more...
• The Garmin VivoActive is water proof to 5 ATM (50 meters) so you can swim with it.
• The VivoActive has a very readable "all the time on" color touch screen with backlight when required.
• The Garmin VivoActive can gets up to 3 weeks of battery life. (Or a Solid week for someone like me using many of the power draining features.)
• The VivoActive is very light weight and low profile.
• The Garmin VivoActive is stylish and looks more like a watch than a fitness tracker.
• The VivoActive is also a Smart Watch with vibrating Text, Email, Social Media, Calendar and incoming Phone Call notifications.
• The Garmin VivoActive can also control your Phones music playback, show you the Weather conditions and of course keep you updated on your current daily activity output.
• The Garmin VivoActive can take advantage of the Garmin Connect IQ Store where new Watch Faces, Apps and Widgets can be downloaded to the VivoActive for personal customization.
• Good hardware is one thing, Garmin has also done a nice job with their software for both your Smart Phone and when using Garmin's Web Based Interface.

So for now I am sticking with my Garmin VivoActive over going with an Apple Watch. Well at least until the Apple Watch 2 comes out ;)

450 Pounds x8 Reps Dead Lift Personal Best - 46 Years Old at 192 Pounds

Sorry, but this time I didn't have my camera rolling so no video, you will just have to take my word for it :) I wasn't really sure how I was going to do repping out at 450 pounds. In the past I have done as many as 5 reps so getting an additional 3 was significant. My goal is to hot 500 pounds for a single so I should be really close now.

Hopefully my next video will be me deadlifitng 500 pounds!

How to Deal with Sports Related Injuries

If you train hard in any sport at some point in time you will most likely get an injury, and if you have never gotten an injury then perhaps you aren't trying hard enough ;) I say that jokingly but there is some truth in it since there is a fine line in between going hard and going too hard...

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor do I have anything other than my personal experiences with injuries and training while injured to go by so don't listen to me since I am obviously under-qualified in this area at least from a medical standpoint.

Be sure to watch my video on the subject of working out while injured since I go into much more detail than here in this written article where for the most part I will be summarizing.

Ouch - I think I hurt something?
The first thing you need to consider is how serious is the injury sustained. If you are unsure of the severity then go see your doctor. If you feel the injury is not too serious then give yourself a day or two to feel the injury out before you train that part of the body since more harm can be done if the injury is worse then initially thought. Of course treat the area with ice and/or heat to bring down any inflammation. Work on mobility and range of motion during this time doing some light stretching and easy use. Within 2-3 days you should get a pretty good idea if the injury is minor or something more serious.

I did something but I think I'm going to be OK!
Once you have established that the injury is not too severe, you can start to ease into things again but keep in mind, a small injury can get much worse if you overdo it so go easy when training around injured areas. Don't forget if you have one area of you body with an injury, often times you can train other areas just as hard as normal so take this time to focus on other non-injured areas.

Work arounds when training an injury:
When you do start to work the injured area again, make sure to start with much lighter resistance than usual, do higher reps and make sure to do extra stretching and warming up to lubricate the area. Play around with using different machines that take the strain off of supporting muscles since often times they are the muscle areas that get injured the most. Try using different grips and limited range of motion to find an exercise where you can hit the area that is recovering while not aggravating it even more. A general rule of thumb is if it hurts when you do it then stop doing it.

No pain no gain!
Most doctors are going to tell you to stop training for a couple of weeks and it's probably good advice but if you are like me then you are generally willing to deal with a longer recovery time by continuing to train the aggravated area to some degree rather than lose all your gains. Yes it will hurt a bit while training but again keep it limited and use work abounds. Your recovery is also going to take longer so either deal with it or go on your doctors advice and take a vacation.

Yes there have been times when I had to lay off an injured area completely for several weeks but these where pretty major injuries. I have trained through tones of minor injuries and if you listen to your body you can usually find good work abounds that will get you through the recovery process and keep your strength up along the way.

Know your limits:
The best advice I can give you is to know your limits and always stay on the healthy side of them. Sure it's great to get one rep PR's but sure enough, that's when many of those more serious injuries can take place. If you're not a power lifter then perhaps keep your reps to 5-8+ per set and stay out of the danger zone. An injury is a sure fire way to reduce your PR or "personal bests" so keep that in mind...