DeanCoulson
What is your Motivation?
There are times when people ask me about motivation and what drives me on to achieve the things I want to do. The thing is, I could tell you, but it would probably not resonate with you. Everyone is different and what motivates me won’t necessarily motivate you, even if our goals are similar. So you have to ask yourself…..”what are my goals?, what do I want to achieve? and how can I realise them?”
However, many people have dreams but few realise them and there are a variety of reasons and I find a lot of them are to do with fear.
Fear
Fear of failure, fear of losing friends, fear of success (after all success might be an unknown to you and mean the people you know and care about may resent the fact) and even fear of fear! Fear is a big driver on holding people back and even though this is about motivation, fear can stifle you dreams if you let it.
But wait, many people don’t realise than fear is just an emotion, a feeling, just as happiness is and sadness and anger. My point is is that fear cannot hurt you! in fact motivation is a big factor in overcoming your fear! the bigger the motivation the bigger the chance that despite feeling fear, you will do it anyway.
Motivation
Another reason for a lack of motivation is the result of your individual programming and who you associate with! Surrounding yourself with the right people has a massive influence on success. If you want to do something and everyone around you is telling you that you can’t, what do you think you will want to do? On the flip side, if everyone around you is full of encouragement, where do you think that could lead??
Two Motivation Types?
The other point on motivation is that there are two types. Internal and external.
External motivation is provided by other people giving inspirational speeches or talks, or a training partner or coach encouraging you to push hard to achieve your desired results. This is great to give you a kick start, but I am sure you have experienced that once you finish training or come away from a motivational talk, your motivation and desire can fade. Now I am not saying that it is pointless, it is far from it but after a while your inner voice will then fall back into how it is programmed and will start finding every reason why not to do something and encourage you to do what you have always done.
This is why you have to reinforce your desires through Internal Motivation!
I have mentioned on here before about your inner voice, your subconscious, which takes in every bit of information from around you, what you say and how you say it , what you listen to and see on the tv, what other people are saying and even what you are reading. It is like food for the brain and like food you can consume good stuff that keeps you healthy and Junk that makes you feel crap.
Because of that it is very easily to fall into a habit of capitulation that your inner voice will reinforce, just as you have programmed it to do.
Change your habits
The good news is that you can change the way you think to help sustain your motivation and to get exactly where you want to go. Change they way you speak, use more positive words, “keep going” is way more positive than “don’t stop”. Even though they are taken as meaning the same thing, one is a negative sentence and one is positive and your brain will read it as such.
Use positive affirmations about yourself, tell yourself how great you feel, how great you are. You may not beleive it, but your inner voice doesn’t judge and just accepts it! Pretty soon you will be able to change you old habits to new good habits that with push your motivation through the roof!
Make sure you are hanging around and talking to more like minded people more often, than comes under external motivation, but both internal and external go hand in hand to get you where you want to be.
Visualisation
One final technique is through the use of visualisation. Thinking about what you want achieve isn’t enough, but by using visualisation you think about it, but to the point that you see every detail of where you want to be, how it sounds, smells, looks like and how it feels. The more information you can use the more believable it is, especially to your brain.
Motivation is a great thing, DO NOT let yourself keep your dreams as dreams, REALISE THEM. Make it happen, find like minded people, Bin the media (TV and newspapers), read inspiring books by inspiring people, think positively and talk to yourself in positive way regardless whether you believe it and just see what happens!
I have added some links to some books I recommend on motivation from amazon…..
Take your life and move it forwards.
Take care
Dean
Dirty Dozen from Synergy Athletics
In my garage gym tonight, it is getting to a point now that I have enough equipment in there so that I can avoid going to a commercial gym and just get on with what I want without interruption. Had some AC/DC cranked up loud and away I went. I needed to tonight as it was bloody freezing in there, -5 degrees C outside so I thought I’d better get my arse into gear to keep warm!
Today I decided to use a training session devised by somebody else. it is always good to learn from others, whether it is another idea of how to apply what you know or something completely different.
My friend from across the pond, Joe Hashey from Synergy Athletics knows a thing or two about designing programs and being a bit off the wall in his training methods, so when I saw his idea for the dirty dozen training protocol as I pondered on a training session a few weeks back I thought that I had to give it a go.
Now the premise is simple, pick 12 exercises and perform 12 reps of each exercise, sounds easy right? well you would be wrong, the first time I tried this it kicked my ass, I was completely gassed. Lucky for me my general physical preparedness (GPP) is at a level where I can recover quickly between rounds. After 3 though I had had enough.
The program is designed to alternate between strength and conditioning exercises. Of course it isn’t an out and out max strength program and lends itself more to conditioning and strength endurance, but it makes for one hell of a training session. As Joe says, “it is more a method of training and is designed to be short, flexible with the equipment available and what you want to get out of it”.
Which Level?
Your fitness level will define the amount of rest you take. By splitting it up into 3 levels of difficulty it allows you to have your rest defined in advance so you know when to grasp some extra air.
Beginner
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 6 more times
Intermediate
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
3) Strength
4) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 3 more times
Advanced
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
3) Strength
4) Conditioning
5) Strength
6) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 2 more times
At the end of the 12 exercises, Rest for 90 seconds and repeat for 2-5 rounds depending on your fitness level. Make sure you push hard!!
My Sub Zero Dirty Dozen
With it being -5 degrees C in the garage gym tonight there was no excuse to go slow, I have to keep moving to keep warm!
I fired in an intermediate session with the following exercises, I have got a shiny new weight vest and decided this was the day I was gonna christen it. All the exercises were done wearing the vest:
- Alternating Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Squat
- Dumbell inverted strap row
- Lunge jumps
REST 20 seconds
- Pushups
- Burpees
- Alternating Dumbbell Rows
- Squat jumps
REST 20 Seconds
- Dumbbell squat thrust to RDL
- Med Ball Slam
- Dumbbell Curls
- Full Jack knife (V sits ) sit ups
REST 90 seconds and repeat for 4 rounds
Man that weight vest made a BIG difference, totally blasted me away, but was an awesome work out. Remember you can make this method up with any 12 exercises that you want. I got the session on my flip cam but made a hash of it with it being in a confined space and static on a tripod. I might throw it up on you tube later, it probably makes for a better clip since my head is missing through out 
Thanks again to Joe hashey at Synergy Athletics for allowing me to share this with you here.
Be strong, stay healthy
Dean
Conditioning Accumulator
Hey there everyone, hope you are all having a great day!
Just had a great conditioning session and I thought I would share it with you.
I always like to challenge myself with new routines to keep things fresh, Sometimes you have just got to think out side the box and change things up every now and then. The principle for this conditioning session being an interval accumulator.
What the hell are you on about I hear you cry? well it is simple. Pick an exercise that you want to focus on (in this case I used the heavy bag, but it could just as well be any exercise), but to break it up add or “accumulate” more exercises in between. So after every round keep adding another exercise to it to make it harder and to push you that bit further. It is too easy to pick easy exercises and not push yourself. Remember the harder you go the more rewards you will reap.
This is the conditioning circuit I did, The heavy bag conditioning accumulator. Not everyone has access to a heavy bag, so it could easily have been push ups or squats or burpees. But please remember that it is this exercise that you will do the most of. For me I wanted the session to move fast with big body movements and get plenty bag work in.
Lets get on with it, here it is…..
Heavy Bag Accumulator:
30 seconds per exercise with 10 seconds between exercises (this is really to just get into position so it doesn’t cut into your interval time for the next exercise).
Start with Heavy bag, you could keep the bag work the same or mix it up to keep it interesting. I like to add speed work and power punching, basic movements but are still gruelling and then do an “all in” round where anything goes. Then add an exercise after it and so on.
i.e.
- Bag, Rope, Bag, lateral burpee, (Rest 30 secs)
- Bag, Rope, Bag, lateral burpee, Bag, Rope, (Rest 30 secs)
- Bag, Rope, Bag, lateral burpee, Bag, Rope, Bag, Squat, (Rest 30 secs)
- Bag, Rope, Bag, lateral burpee, Bag, Rope, Bag, Squat, Bag, Med Ball Burpee, (Rest 30 secs)
- Bag, Rope, Bag, lateral burpee, Bag, Rope, Bag, Squat, Bag, Med Ball Burpee, Bag, MB Squat jumps, (Rest 30 secs)
As you can see the intensity of the session increases as you go on and it requires you to push through your fatigue to keep on track.
The whole thing can be completed it 20-25 minutes, so there are NO excuses for lack of time!
Stay strong
Dean
Awesome Intervals
I always look forward to a conditioning session, call me masochist but I need to be pushing my limits every training session. To get anywhere in life you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. There is no growth in comfort, so if you are not going to put in 100% effort when you train and push the envelope you are not going to get where you want to be.
Mix it up
There are an abundance of exercises that can be used with different goals in mind. I enjoy the challenge of creating new routines, with different training protocols such as Intervals, Circuits, Tabata etc. If I do stick with a routine it is because I am getting a measure of progress, say if I am measuring endurance or power, whether my work capacity is improving or if I want to achieve a certain level of conditioning.
Awesome Intervals
Check out this interval circuit I tried out today, my focus was on power and endurance. This is as tough as you make it so I suggest you dig deep, bite the bullet and get it on!
- Lateral Burpee Pushup
- Explosive Step ups
- Dips
- Box Jumps
- Med Ball Slams
- Skipping rope (Double Unders)
- Med Ball Squats
- Narrow Push ups
Inverted Rows – Finisher
Although a standard definition of an interval is performing an exercise then performing rest, I have enhanced this protocol by grouping the above exercises as one unit and so performed 30 seconds of each without rest until the circuit is complete. Then I rested for a minute. You can judge your work capacity this way by seeing how quickly you recover after completing each round of exercises. I performed six rounds of this interval circuit and man it was a killer.
I finished the session off with bodyweight inverted rows, a great way to hit your back in an explosive fashion, in this instance I set a rep range so I could push more out before reaching failure.
A little over 30 minutes and you are done. Of course if you are pushed for time or if you are just starting out you can cut the amount of rounds or reduce the amount of exercises to suit your needs. Just don’t do it to make it easy!
To get a great overview on why conditioning is so important, get over to straighttothebar.com and check out my article.
I haven’t listed exercise descriptions here, but if anyone is unsure about how to perform the exercises then drop me a comment below.
Be strong
Dean
Medicine Ball Plyometric Training
Hey, hope everyone is doing great, feeling good and getting into great shape.
I cranked out an amazing conditioning session today and thought i would share it with you.
Latest Craze
People are always looking for the latest and greatest craze to get them into shape, some new fad that all the “celebrities” are doing. Hell, I know some people try that crazy shit out, just because they won’t put the effort into a hard session that would actually give them the results they want. I have given up telling them because they won’t listen, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped!
Training Tool
Anyway, today focuses on a training tool that has been around for the longest time, boxers and athletes have been using them for years for explosive conditioning drills and yet I rarely see them being used or in gyms and even if they are in a gym they are gathering dust! the training tool I am on about (and I assume you have guessed by the title of the article) is a medicine ball.
Medicine Ball
A med ball has a multitude of uses, comes in various shapes and sizes and can be used in countless exercises. Today it was used for explosive or plyometric training. Most body weight exercises are suited to this type of training and almost all bodyweight exercises can be enhanced with a medicine ball. Plyometric training is designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system.
Todays session revolved around 5 exercises:
- Med Ball Squat Jump
- Med Ball Slam
- Med Ball Burpee
- Med Ball Power over
- Med Ball V-up or jackknife sit up.
Each exercise is meant to be performing an a fast, explosive manner. In this case the tabata training protocol (20 seconds activity followed by 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds of each exercise). For this session it meant short sharp bursts of each exercise before moving swiftly onto the next exercise.
Of course you don’t have to do 5 exercises, you could pick any between 3 and 5. Mix it up by changing the timing to 30 seconds of activity, then 30 seconds rest. or even pick a rep range and perform for repetitions. Change the exercises around, pick different ones. Keep it interesting!
Above all else, it is meant to be difficult, push the envelope!
I would love you to drop me a comment about this workout or anything else you want to discuss. Just hit me up with a comment or an email!
Stay strong, stay fit and I will speak to you soon.
Dean
