Mad Dawg School of Fitness

Tough Mudder Training Schedule

saulj — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:07:08 +0000

Below is the schedule for the Tough Mudder training until August 1. These are pretty much set but there may be some changes. Please check the events calendar online before the workout. Comments or questions should go to either Heather or Saul.

Sat., May 19: Edgewood – This will be a baseline test for the first mile and the whole 2.5 mile Sylvan exercise loop. We will probably have another try at this Thursday, May 31 if you can’t make this one.

Sat., May 26: Memorial Day — Long HIKE (not run) on your own.

Sat., June 2: Monkey Bars, location TBD

Sat., June 9: Swim test – location TBD but probably either College of San Mateo or Burlingame.

Thurs., June 14: TM Thursday trail run with Heather. Location TBD.

Sat., June 16: Possible open water swim and workout. Tentative location at Lake Del Valle, but we may find something closer.

Sat., June 23: Regular sat workout

Sat., June 30: Regular sat workout

Wed., July 4th 5k + Parade Run in RWC. Come by the MDSoF booth!

Sat., July 7: Regular sat workout

Thurs., July 12: TM Thursday trail run with Heather. Location TBD.

Sat., July 14: Monkey Bars (S&S in SLC, UT)

Sat., July 21: Regular Sat workout (S&S in SLC, UT)

Sat., July 28: Long hike (Black Mountain or in SF)

Monthly Workouts Posted

saulj — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:28:36 +0000

As you know, we have a workout that we work on every 6 weeks. Currently, we are working on Nasty Girls. The final attempt for Nasty Girls will be on May 23.

We have added the rest of the workouts for the year to the calendar. In addition, we have added a number of other events, like the 4th of July Parade Run we are sponsoring on July 4th.

Stay tuned for the Tough Mudder training as well. Heather will be leading a run every other Thursday eve. in addition to some swim workouts and trail runs.

Bench Press is a Gateway Drug

saulj — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:58:22 +0000

Susan just asked me if me I thought bench press would help with someone strength training to address osteopenia or osteoporosis. First of all, let’s see what the National Strength and Conditioning Association says about what stimulates new bone formation:

Specificity of loading: This means if you are most concerned with adding bone mass to the hip area, to decrease the risk of a life threatening hip fracture, don’t do bench press.
Exercise selection: Better to use full body exercises, like back squat, deadlift, etc. rather than isolating exercises, like leg curl or biceps curl, especially those that load though the spine and hips. Hmmm, not looking good for our friend the bench press…
Progressive overload: Ability to increase load (or leverage) over time.
Training Variation: There are many variations of the bench press, but many more for the squat, press and deadlift… It’s always good to vary the stimulus.

While it may not look good for the bench press, here’s what happens in real life: People who have osteopenia or osteoporosis probably haven’t done much strength training. One of the hardest things to teach people when they are learning to strength train is how to be tight. In addition, it is also hard to get people to understand and feel how they can use their whole body to lift rather than just their arms and legs.

We think the progression to powerful movement (and bone health) is position, movement, strength, power. A huge part of part of powerful movement is the skill of being able to hold your lower body stable when your upper body does work and, conversely, holding your upper body stable when your lower body does work. Given that information, we think of the bench press as a great way to introduce athletes, a gateway drug if you will, to learn how to be tight. For instance, if you were to superset, i.e. perform them back to back with a rest after both are done, the bench press and the deadlift, you would have a great lesson to an aspiring lifter how one part of the body has to be stable so the other part of the body can do the work. By flipping between those two exercises, it would be easy to teach that athlete both proper positioning and safe movement.

Not every exercise has to be a functional movement (although, if you are strength training a senior, pushing your body off the floor, or off the toilet, is a highly functional exercise if you ask me). Strength training often requires assistance exercises to get “balanced” so that you can safely perform the lift that will actually get the results you need. Make a plan first, like my beautiful and talented wife does for her personal training clients, then choose the exercises.

Occupy Strength Comes to NorCal!

saulj — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:19:04 +0000

CrossFit One World is going to host the NorCal edition of Occupy Strength here in the Bay Area. It is going to be max efforts for clean, squat, bench and deadlift then a metcon.

This is one is going to be really fun, I bet the post-event party will be worth the entry fee. Freddy, Brad, Chong have a great way of having fun _and_ having a great workout.

The event will be on Saturday, August 11 and count on being there all day. I am super sad that I won’t be able to make this one, we will be in Modesto for Susan’s High School reunion.

More info here.

There are only 70 spots available so sign up today, it’s only $65. Don’t miss this one!