Ordinary People. Remarkable Results.



Andy Coley 2010




Andy Coley 2012















By Coach Cj Swaby

There are few people that inspire me. Those who do, you'd probably be surprised who is on my short list. Generally they are not Fitness Guru's, Celebrities, Nobel Peace Prize Winners. They do not interest me. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. People who have the ability and the character to turn their life around and overcome not only the odds, but more importantly themselves. People who act as a torch to light the path for others to show that it is possible. What you believed could not happen is in fact actually very doable. Andy Coley is one such person. I had the pleasure of meeting him on a course recently. I   was impressed and inspired by his story and his achievement of losing over 6 stone, and cultivating a healthy lifestyle. I hope you will be too.

CJ: So Andy, you've managed to lose a considerable amount of weight recently. What is your story and how did you do it? 

AC: I have been "large" for years and years, mostly due to stress eating and a complete lack of regular exercise.  I had tried various diets from the cabbage diet to slimming world with a mixture of success from 1-3st lost since about the age of 20.  My size was something that bothered me and at the start of 2011 I finally decided that enough was enough and I started going to "bootcamps" run by George "Topsy" Turner of Innovations Fitness based in Portsmouth. 

Topsy is an ex Navy Personal Trainer who I was introduced through a friend. I turned up to my first session at the start of Jan 2011 and paid for a block of 10 sessions at the outset, so I was committed! The first session was a car crash as I'd not eaten or hydrated correctly beforehand and I spent about 25 minutes with stars in my eyes nearly falling over. With some advice on what to eat for the next session I came back and got on much better. 

The classes are great fun and being one of only a couple of blokes in a class of 20 wasn't a bad reason for turning up too! Gradually with Topsy's help plus going to the sessions twice a week, by August I had lost nearly 6st and felt fantastic.  It was also Topsy's stag do then and I wanted to make sure I was fit for that as we went up to Scotland for an active boys weekend away! The Sessions are indoors in the winter and outdoors from Spring to Autumn and are always different each time. 

From September 2011 onwards I started to get out and jog, building up to a 5k Santa fun run which I did in December in a time of 33mins, without walking once. Through 2012 I've been doing 10k races, the first one in Feb and then others in March and May. I did the May one in 58mins which was fantastic as I wanted to finish in under an hour.  I'm now building up for the Great South Run in October which is 10miles which I'm going to run in under 90mins. 

CJ: What was the key turning point for you, when you thought "enough is enough and I have to do something about it?" 

AC: At the end of 2010 I seperated from my wife, we'd been married for 11 years and things had been rocky for a while, various issues peaked and we decided it was best to split whilst we were still able to be friends. I moved out of the house and back in with my parents, that December I saw myself in a picture from Christmas Day (at just over 23st) and realised how large I was and that was the turning point, after all, I now had all this time for me so I took control of myself.

 CJ: Now that you've lost all that weight and created a healthier lifestyle, what has been your biggest challenge to maintain it? 

AC: Now I'm in a much happier place, being very busy on my courses has definitely taken some focus away from the exercise and I've been having to get it back into my schedule. I'm always at bootcamp twice a week though other sessions (like jogging) have been harder to slot in. Maintenance is definitely key to you keeping motivated.  Over the last few months I've put a few kg back on (having gotten down to 17st) so have to get back to cutting out some of the stuff that's crept back in food wise and stop finding the excuses not to loose the next 10kg.  Also weirdly I still see the large "me" in the mirror, perhaps as I see the change so gradually every day, my old clothes and the comments of friends whom I've not seen for months plus the scales makes me know how much I've changed, plus photo comparisons of course!

 CJ: What impact on your life has this change had? 

AC: Amazing impact in my life, I feel so much healthier and fitter now than I've ever been, I'm smaller than I was at the age of 18 (I know as my scout uniform stashed in the cupboard is too large) and that this is part of my life forever, one that contains fitness and exercise. Fortunately I've always been confident although this has made me even more comfortable in my own skin.

 CJ: Have their been any downsides to your transformation? 

AC: Yes, having to spend a fortune on new clothes! (44in waist down to 36in - XXXL clothes down to XL etc), the charity shops have been doing great business from me :o) although it's a downside I'll readily take. 

CJ: How important to you is it to have the right people around you to support your transformation? 

AC: Absolutely a million percent essential, I'd never had come as far without the support, inspiration and motivation from Topsy and with the help of my friends from Innovations Fitness. We help each other during the sessions and outside of the sessions, most of us use the Endomondo application which is great for giving peptalks when people are out running or exercising. 

CJ: Who has been the single biggest inspiration to you along your journey? 

AC: Topsy for sure! 

CJ: For someone who is in a similar space to where you were all those months ago, What would Andy's Top 7 Weight Transformation Tips be? 

AC: Here are my Top Tips 

1) You can do it, really believe it, set a positive goal and make it in gradual and sustainable stages. I simply lost 1-2lb a week to loose 6st (I find that visualising 32 bags of sugar and wondering how I was even able to move whilst carrying them each minute of each hour of each day for years as a pretty good motivator to keep going)

2) Get a personal trainer or join a socialable circuit class which motivates you, I've joined so many gyms and find them lonely and boring.

3) Work out and communicate with people outside of the classes, make the experience of loosing weight fun! 

4) Check out potential class websites and on facebook and you'll see how good the interaction is between people that go.

5) Use a phone application like Endomondo which enables you to track your workout/progress. This also gives you motivation from friends and family along the way.

6) Stay fit, healthy and above all positive 

7) If your legs hurt see a physio or get a sports massage and check your trainers are right, it makes a massive difference having the correct kit. 

CJ: Andy, I understand you have some pretty interesting plans for the future around weight loss and health, what are they? 

AC: Yes as well as than continuing my own journey with fitness and improving myself further with longer runs (half marathon next year for sure) I have been learning NLP and Hynotherapy and I am going to use these new skills to motivate and help others who want to the same changes. I plan to run seminars, bringing together trainers, nutritionists and motivational speakers so that people have the help and support I've had in an accesible way. 

Any of us can loose weight - we all know that, dont we? We just need to indentify what it is that is really holding us back from making the change, I've seen so many wonderful people make dramatic and positive changes that have made the difference and I know we can all do it. Whatever your reason is for exercising from loosing weight to fitness to running a marathon, set your goals and Believe, Commit, Succeed (to use the tagline from Innovations Fitness)! 

CJ: Andy, its been a pleasure and thank you for your time. 

AC: Many thanks Cj and I know that you are an inspirational trainer yourself, everyone you work with is better for the experience :)

Andy Coley is the Director of Website Design & Marketing company Sussex Net

Topsy is the Director of  the successful Health & Fitness Company Innovations Fitness and is based in Portsmouth.

Front Squat vs Back Squat

Front Squat VS Back Squat -Which Camp are you in?

By Sabina Skala

After my last blog on strength training I have been asked why I favoured Front Squat over Back Squat (Front Squat was mentioned by me as one of the fundamental exercises I use to develop strength, I didn’t include Back Squat in those). The answer is - I do favour using Front Squat with my athletes and clients for several reasons, however I do not think that Front Squat is better than Back Squat and vice versa. Am I contradicting myself here? ... Not really and here is why...

Imagine you walk into a commercial gym. How many people do you actually see squatting? I am guessing - none or few. The few you see squatting are usually doing Back Squats either using a Smiths machine or if they are using free weights their Back Squat looks more like a very poor version of Good Morning. But hey... they will stack more weight on the bar and smash those squats and work on slipping a few discs in their back as well - why not kill 2 birds with one stone. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from new coming clients that they do not want to squat as they have hurt their back or knees squatting, squat is evil!. My answer always was, is and will be - it is not the squat that is bad - it was your technique!

Both Front and Back squat are complex movements that require flexibility and great core control. Flexibility is not something people would work on much, especially back flexibility seems to be a forgotten area. We would love to jump onto heavy lifting straight away.
We need to remember though - even a building build out of the best materials will fall if the foundations are poor. Your body structure has to be solid before you attempt a heavy load.
Back squat is a great lift and hits your hamstrings and glutes more than Front Squat (which is quad dominant), also the latter is always going to be lower than your max back squat. So why on earth do I teach front squats and overhead squats before even starting talking about back squat.

The key word is in the previous paragraph - and it is STRUCTURE. All my clients so far (and I mean ALL - no exceptions) had some sort of tightness/mobility issues with their back when I started training them. It can be easily assesed with wall squats (wall squat pictures can be found by the end of this article - click HERE http://cjs-fitness.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/power-clean-tutorial-first-pull-week.html).

Wall squat is a great back mobility exercise, which I include in most of my warm ups and it is a fantastic tool to find out where the tightness in the back is. It also teaches the correct position that should be adapted whilst squatting.

From a coaching perspective, I find teaching the Front Squat first is easier than the Back Squat. I can get someone to squat deep, with an upright spine, much faster than I can get them to do this with a Back Squat. In my experience - cheating the Front Squat is nearly impossible. If you start leaning too far forward, you will drop the bar. People are more likely to learn how to "feel" the correct position when they front squat. Once their Front Squat is sound then I can assure you 100% - you will have no problem of them leaning too far forward when they start working on the Back Squat. The body awareness they build when learning and working on Front Squats transferrs to correct Back Squat techinque and your clients engaging their core and upper back muscles more. I do not even talk about, yet teach Back Squats until my people have an excellent Front Squat Technique. Period.

Another advantage of Front Squat is that it is easier for the people to get into the deep bottom position than with a Back Squat. Glutes and hamstrings get worked most in the deepest portion of the squat, when the top of the tighs is below parallel. I see so many "Back Squat depth cutters" in the gym on daily basis. Not only they are not getting any stronger, but they fool themselves that they can go heavy. Their squat depth gets progressively worse as the load on the bar increases. I wish they dropped the weight, give Front Squat a go and work more on their body structure as they squat. I can assure you they would get a few inches lower!

If you look at all the goodness Front Squat offers, you may think why did I say at the beginning of the article that I didnt think Front Squat is better than Back Squat. Here is why....

Both of the above lifts are great for athletic development providing they are performed with excellent techinque (I hope that the above paragraphs explain why I initially tend to focus on Front Squat when working with clients). Back Squat is often called The King of the Lifts - to me both Back And Front Squats deserve this name. They both hit the quads, the glutes, the hamstrings, the spinal erectors, the lower back, and even the upper back, lats, shoulders, and arms if you squeeze them hard enough and put in enough work.
True is - they both hit the muscles slightly differently.

Back squat is still considered better hamstring and glutes builder than front squat (which is superior quad builder comparing to the Back squat). However I came accross this study: study “A Biomechanical Comparison of Back and Front Squats in Healthy Trained Individuals” by Gullett, et al. that states: “The front squat was shown to be just as effective as the back squat in terms of overall muscle recruitment, with significantly less compressive forces on the knee". Agree or not...it is something to think about.

The Back Squat is also highly “loadable”, which is a great advantage. You can add a lot of weight to it rather easily providing the correct form is maintained. Your back squat 1RM will always be higher than your Front Squat 1 RM which is important in terms of strength gains etc, again - providing the technique is perfect.

Summarizing - both back squat and front squat are great, compound exercises, both are fantastic tools you can use in strength development. However when you select which tool is better for your athlete, always make sure that you find the right balance between the exercises that are general enough to hit the body as a unit and allow the appropriate loading, with exercises that attack a specific athletes weaknesses in a way that solves the problem and allows the athlete to progress. Front Squat will ruthlessly show if there are any mobility/technique problems, that prevent your athlete from getting stronger. Therefore unless you train power lifters, or your athletes show great back mobility - use Front Squats first and complement them with Romanian Deadlifts (to supplement hamstrings and glutes work) and / or hip thursts. Once Front Squat technique is perfect, back squats can be included in the training program.

Sabina

Strength development - this can change your training

By Sabina Skala

Can you get stronger without getting bigger?

You can find thousands of articles on neuromuscular adaptations to strength training. The adaptations are called NEUROMUSCULAR for a reason. A lot of people associate strength with size. It may but does not necessarily be true. The size matters if you want to be the strongest man on earth, Strong Man competitors are big for a reason. However if you remember my fellow country man Mariusz Pudzianowski, 5x World Strongest Man winner – you will know that he was probably one of the smallest guys out there and yet he won 5 Strong Man titles - more than any other athlete in the history of the sport).

The body adapts to training and gets stronger/bigger/faster/smaller etc because of the neural, muscular, hormonal, skeletal etc changes that are the result of chosen training stimulus.
Is it possible then to get stronger without getting bigger? Yes it is… it all depends how strong one wants to be. If we talk about maximum strength - the size is important, however if we talk about relative strength (absolute strength to body weight ratio/ or maximum force exerted in relation to body weight) - it is a different story.

I came across an article on the internet a while ago. The author described strength as a “skilled act”. I really liked this description, as you can TEACH your body to be STRONG.
Lets focus on sports that require great amounts of relative strength and /or power and at the same time there are weight limitations involved. Sounds familiar? Some examples are - combat sports (i.e boxing, mma, bjj, etc), gymnastics, ballet (yes – I do consider ballet dancers athletes), ice skating, climbing. Sports like box or MMA – have their weight groups, ice –skating, climbing, dance and gymnastics – the lighter and stronger you are the better.

Training all of the above, or training women (“I don’t want to get bulky” is probably what PTs hear first from a female client) should focus mostly on the neural adaptations to strength training. Let me make it clear – research shows that it is not possible to induce ONLY neural or ONLY muscular changes. Both always take place, however there are certain protocols that allow increase in strength without or with minimum increase in the muscle cross section.

What exercises are best for strength development. My 6 “fundamental” exercises are:

Deadlift
Front Squat
Overhead Squat
Bench Press
Pull Up (weighted or not)
Shoulder Press/or & Push Up (weighted or not)

Once and athlete’s form is proficient in all of the above - then we can start playing with variations. Note that all the above are multi-joint, compound exercises.

The chart below ** will explain the repetitions range you should be aiming for depending on what your goal is.

** Mel Siff “Supertrainng”
1RM – 1 Rep Max – maximum weight you can lift/push / pull etc 1x only

Even more detailed guidelines as per “The Kinesiology of Exercise” by Michael Yessis’:

1-4 reps per set @ 2-4RM increase pure strength but do not increase muscle mass
4-9 reps per set @ 5-9RM increase strength together with muscle mass
10-15 reps per set increase muscular strength, muscular endurance and muscle mass
16-30 reps per set increase muscular endurance with little to no increase in muscle mass
31-50 reps per set or circuit increase muscular endurance with no effect on muscle mass
50-100 reps per set or circuit increase muscular endurance, cardio-respiratory endurance, and there will be a possible loss of muscle mass (or fat) but absolutely no increase in strength

With all the guidelines above – just stick to the numbers and be consistent and honest with your training. Be honest with yourself – of poor technique or mobility hinders you from lifting heavier – don’t stack more weight on the bar, work on technique and mobility as this is the problem. Changes will happen, as long as you are smart about your training.

Why are the numbers of sets and reps and RM% so important?

The answer is - that certain ranges of reps result in greater neural adaptation. When an athlete is a novice to strength training we can be certain that the initial strength gains will come mostly from neuromuscluar adaptations rather than hypertrophy. If you notice your muscles “pump up” during or shortly after the session, don’t panic or don’t be too happy (depending of what your goal is). This is a short term increase in size caused by fluid retention. It should fade away within 1hr – 90 mins after the training.

Lets look at the main mechanisms of neural adaptation:

1. Increased Motor Unit recruitment - neural adaptation to training that rapidly increases the strength of a novice who hasn’t yet experienced hypertrophy. What is a motor unit - motor unit is made up of a single motor neuron as well as all of the muscle fibers that neuron activates. This refers to our skeletal muscles, which are made of hundreds of thousands of fibers. These muscle fibers are activated by motor neurons when they receive signals from the brain to contract the muscle. A single motor neuron can control several hundred muscle fibers at a time, depending on the size and function of the muscle. Why is it good to recruit more motor units and how it relates to strength gains? Even when you engage in very low intensity activities like lifting glass to your mouth, your brain recruits motor units that have a smaller number of muscle fibers to allow you to lift the glass. However when you are lifting something extremely heavy or applying a lot of force your body will contract more available motor units to allow you to perform the activity. It is a very clever mechanism, imagine what would happen if your brain told your muscles to contract fully when lifting a glass up, you’d be knocking yourself in the face every time you want to have a drink. Motor unit recruitment is a TRAINED and LEARNED ability. The more motor units you can recruit the more muscle fibres you can activate – the more muscle fibres you can activate – the more force you can apply. Training not only increases the frequency of motor unit firing, it also increases the total number of motor units that effect a muscular contraction. In other words, more motor units work together, and they all fire more rapidly. Trained individuals can recruit more motor units than novices.

2. Coordination of Motor unit recruitment – as mentioned above – as the athlete training progresses, their ability to utilise MULTIPLE motor units increases. Please note that each muscle fiber in a motor unit is functionally identical (which means it is either slow twitch or fast twitch, never both in the single motor unit).

3. Following on the previous point another adaptation is enhanced Motor unit activation. The frequency of motor unit firing increases with the training, as well as the total number of motor units that affect a muscular contraction. More motor units work together and they fire more rapidly (faster).

4. Improved technique and skill acquisition – out of the two similarly sized men the one whose technique is competent will be able to generate more force than the novice. Also will do it in a safe manner.

5. Cross education - and increased involvement of the neural pathways contribute to strength gains too. For example, an untrained arm will gain significant strength in concert with a trained arm, because of interaction between the nerves of either arm at the spinal column. This cross-education is one of the clearest demonstrations of neural adaptation.

Understanding how your body works and adapts to training is the key to a successful program design. Before trying to make your training look fancy etc, stick to the basics and follow basic principles. Classics is never overrated - once the sound fundamentals are in place, you can play with your training more.

Sabina

How To Improve Your Skipping in 2 Minutes

By Coach Cj Swaby


Discover how to quickly improve your skipping in this short video tutorial.

Boxing Classes Now Live!

Coach Cj Swaby

This April discover the benefits of boxing training at South London's best boxing gym, Earlsfield Boxing club. Est. 1945.

Earlsfield Boxing Club take great pride in knowing that not only are we one of best equipped boxing clubs in London, but one of the most awesome too.

For the past 15 years, Performance Coach, and Boxing Coach CJ Swaby has been getting the boxing gym residents in tip top shape for competition, and for general fitness, now is your chance too.

The Boxing Classes will run twice per week on Mondays, and Saturdays. There is no sparring involved, but you will learn the art of boxing and develop some seriously freakish fitness (boxercise this is not!)

For full details and to book your space on the classes click on the link below.


BEGINNERS BOXING CLASSES IN LONDON

Power Clean tutorial - First Pull week

THE POWER CLEAN TUTORIAL PART 1

Following last week's post, we will have a closer look at power clean. Out of all oly lifts - power clean is probably the exercise I use most with my athletes. There are many ways to teach power clean. It happens that I have to change the approach and teach it differently to different people. Here - I will go over the phases that PC consists of and look at the mistakes and limitations that may show up during performing 1st pull or even getting your athlete into a correct starting position.

Starting position:

The correct starting position is crucial to completing a successful lift. Remember - the bar will be moving fast - there is no time for adjustments. The key points below (especially shoulder and hip alignment) allow the greatest mechanical advantage when pulling from the floor, thus translating into optimal triple extension and power clean performance.

Feet hip width apart (when you later perform a "jump" it is better when the feet are under the hips - as you are able to generate most force from this position - unlike when he feet are to near or outside the shoulers)

Bar is pulled close to your shins and held with a hook grip

Back is set in a flat position (lumbar curve maintained) with head and eyes looking straight ahead

Shoulders are positioned in front of the bar (this is very important as it helps to keep the barbell close to your body when pulling from the floor)

Hips are slightly higher than knees

One more teaching point is the elbow position - as you can notice in the picture elbows are rotated outward. It may seem that this position serves no advantage in the initial pull from the floor. However, as you will see in the upcoming posts (by the time we get to the high pull and catch) - this positioning allows the elbows to be pulled high and vertical as the athlete quickly drops under the bar to receive the weight (this happens at the top end of the triple extension). More about it later on...

FIRST PULL
Now that we’ve reviewed good starting position lets go over the “first pull" of the power clean. The initial pull from the floor is done controlled without jerking. Hips and shoulders rise together as the athlete pulls the weight from the floor.

The first pull is slower than the 2nd pull etc, however slower doesnt mean SLOW, it is CONTROLLED and SMOOTH done without JERKING the bar off the floor.

Bar is lifted to knee hight and travels UP and slightly BACKWARDS (see pic)

Push feet through the floor

Hips and Shoulders raise at the same time

Bar stays close to the shins (the closer the bar to the body the Easier the lift feels, think about you and the bar as one unit)

Feet remain flat, the balance is spread evenly shifting towards the heel

Torso is rigid and arched, chest "proud"

Shoulders remain slightly in front of the bar

Arms straight, elbows rotated outward

Head in a neutral position, eyes looking straight ahead

Mistakes & Correction:

I will only touch on the most common mistake and limitations here. We will cover them more indepth and go over different scenarios during the June seminar where me and CJ will be teaching alongside 2 great coaches - Mike Mahler and Brooks Kubik (for details look up: http://www.mikemahler.com/events/dinosaur-training.html).

One of the mistakes you will see most often is when an athlete leads with the hips. If that happens, the hips are taken completely out of the movement with nearly all the stress being placed on the lower back. If your aim is to develop power and explosion in the hips - the above is not a very good idea at all, it also may cause lower back injury. Remember -, push feet through the floor, hips and shoulders raise at the same time

Some (or most) of the mistakes may actually be a result of poor flexibility. Lets look at the flexibility requirements for the 1st pull.

Hamstrings - If tight can be improved by i.e stiff legged deadlifts, general hamstring stretches

Chest and shoulders flexibility (affecting the back position) - ways to improve - shoulder dislocates (like in the pic below), wall squats & sots, specific shoulder stretch (more covered in the Dinosaur Training and Beyond seminar manual)

Back (back mobility should increase with improvement if hamstrings, shoulders and chest flexibility improves, however there are some supporting exercises that can be used to better it) - i.e wall squats (squats performed facing a wall with toes touching the wall like in the pic below), SOTS, bridges (or modified bridges)

Learning olympic lifts is a complex process and flexibility is often an issue that tends to be overlooked. However, if you have time to perfect the techinique - practice, fix what is limiting you and be honest with yourself about it (if it is flexibility - spend more time improving it, if it is strenght - train to get stronger) and I can assure you - it will be a time well spent. Overlooking or ignoring limitations will sooner or later result in an injury. Only well executed lift will have a positive impact on improving your athletic performance.

Till next week.

Sabina

Its Not Unusual

By Coach Cj Swaby



Tom Jones is a welsh singer who has been belting out the tunes since the 1960's. To this day he is still considered by some a sex symbol, its common to see adoring female fans screaming at his concerts.

While Mr Jones obviously had his fair share of Testosterone circulating through his blood stream, I wonder what would have happened if you threw in a hormone optimisation protocol and some serious resistance training? Perhaps even the occasional Odd Lift?

Great increases in strength, reduced body fat, increased lean muscle mass, better moods greater health and vitality, a greater sex drive?! - are these all possible achievements? Well, its not unusual.

But What Are Odd Lifts?

Odd Lifts are basically uncoventional lifts you are unlikely to see at your local Fitness First, LA Fitness or Virgin Active or other such chain of commercial health club.

Because of the rich sensory control required to execute these lifts, and the weird and unusual joint angles your body can be taken through, Odd lifts are considered advanced level of training. Embedded in the notion of "advanced" training is the label of "dangerous" and by default "Really, its not for you" hence you will not see the exceptional menu of Odd Lifts that are available, practiced at your local gym.

The possibilities are vast,from Sott Press, to Two Hands Any How, to one arm snatches. Most were practised by strongmen and strongwomen of old, to the present day. There is even an Odd Lifts Strength Association with regular competitions (don't believe me? check it out. Then come right back)


Do you have to do Odd Lifts in your training? No you don't. Conventional Lifts work fine. What I would say is this, If you do what the average person does, you will get average results. That's fine, but I believe in the exceptional. Odd Lifts can develop freakish strength specific to the lift, plus when effectively integrated into your training, they can have great carry over to conventional lifts, or your chosen sport.


Executing The Sotts Press





In the coming weeks we will be covering some of the more popular, and lesser known Odd Lifts in detail (and a few legendary figures in the iron game). If you want to learn how to execute the Odd Lifts first hand, or want to learn how to become hormonally optimised with expert Mike Mahler, then you will definitely want to check out the Dinosaur Training and Beyond Workshop in June 2012 in London, UK.

In the meantime enjoy the two video clips below. One is an expert in their field, unique and a little bit unusual, the other one not so (I'll let you decide which one is which!)