A GUEST IN THE SHOP

I had the great pleasure of hosting a friend of mine in the SHOP a few days ago.  Bryan Guido Hassin, whose list of credentials is longer than my … well, it’s pretty long:  Rice alum with two undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering as well as a Master’s degree in Computer Science, an MBA from IMD in Switzerland, and a successful entrepreneur many times over.  Bryan was in town to pitch his latest entrepreneurial adventure (Smart Office Energy Solutions) to potential investors (I’m already an investor because I believe both in his business and his abilities).

Bryan stayed at my house while he was in Dallas, and of course my house rules clearly state that anyone who spends time in my house must also spend time in the SHOP before departing.  I put Bryan, along with one of the SHOP regulars Craig Stansberry, through a serious workout, and he recapped it in a serious blog post:

INTENSE WORKOUT AT THE SHOP

I love having guests in the SHOP, and not because I get to destroy them with a really hard workout.  For the record, Bryan was exhausted at the end of the workout because he pushed himself that hard.  Some of the movements may have been new to him, but he is no stranger to good, old-fashioned hard work.

Anybody can make someone tired (for example, go do 1,000 pushups), but my purpose with Bryan (or anybody else) was to help him improve.  As he concluded at the end of his blog, he learned three important lessons from just one SHOP workout:  the benefit of early morning workouts, the importance of pre-workout fueling, and the value in anaerobic activities.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a short clip that shows some of the action.  A few things to note about this video:

a short training montage from the SHOP

• It was 30 degrees outside (same temp in the SHOP), so we’re all in Under Armour and hoodies.
• It was 5:15am, so there wasn’t any natural light (plus the garage door was shut)
• My explosiveness is significantly greater than my other buddy’s (Craig Stansberry, professional baseball player).
• My Flip camera’s battery was acting up, so we got very little footage from the workout.

That’s all for now.

A SNOWY SUNDAY IN THE SHOP

REMINDER:  The SHOP has moved!  www.shop-training.com!

It has been snowing non-stop for about the last 3-4 hours!  This is unheard of here in Dallas…although it happened last year too (record snowfall at that).  I don’t think this happened in the previous five years at all!

I had plans to take my Prowler up to JJ Pearce high school with a few buddies…the rain and snow put a stop to that idea though.

It has been a while since I busted the Prowler out due to holidays and traveling and such, but it’ll be back!

Anyway, the snow may have changed my plans, but I was still able to get a solid training session in.  Today was a heavy focus on soft tissue work (foam rolling, lacrosse ball), flexibility and mobility (primarily hips for me), core work, and finally some conditioning.  It looked like this:

CORE

Turkish Get Ups

Using the TGU as a warm up and mobility drill

2 reps with a 50 lb. DB

1 rep with a 70 lb. KB

Standing Ab Wheel Rollouts w/ Weight Vest (20 lbs.)

6 reps with a 20 lb. weight vest

CONDITIONING

KB Swings x 12

Burpees x 10

Rest 1 minute

Repeat for a total of 5 rounds

1 round of the KB swings/burpee conditioning

 

I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold Sunday morning!  Especially since I followed it up with a pumpkin protein shake, a coffee, and some venison roast that I smoked yesterday.

A SOLID SATURDAY

REMINDER:  The SHOP has moved to www.shop-training.com!

My goal for this blog in 2011 is to hit it hard and hit it regularly.  Obviously it would be nice to post a variety of themed blogs…training-related blogs, book reviews, collections of articles, etc. so I am going to do my best to make that happen.  I’m off to a good start with two blogs on the same day!

As the title indicates, and as Ice Cube would say, today was a good day!

I started out with jiu jitsu practice at 10am for about 2 1/2 hours!  I have big goals for my jiu jitsu training this year.  I want to get my blue belt, I want to train several hours per week, and I want to compete in at least one tournament (whether it will be gi or no gi is to be determined).  I actually spent my time today about 50/50 between gi and no gi.  I also got roughed up pretty good by a purple belt and a blue belt…my face is all scraped up.  When I got home Lauren thought I looked pretty funny and she asked “you actually enjoy this?”  YES, absolutely.

I also got to try out one of my Christmas presents this afternoon…a smoker!

Using some hickory wood chips I smoked two venison roasts and some backstrap:

It was my first time smoking meat, and I my backstrap, which was thin and small, probably got a little too dry (that won’t stop me from eating it).  The roasts, on the other hand, turned out damn good.  Juicy, flavorful, and they will probably only last about another day.

First meat smoking session…a SUCCESS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

REMINDER:  The SHOP has moved to a new location!

www.shop-training.com

Don’t forget to update your RSS feed or your bookmarks!  I will post updates to both blogs for a while, but then I will drop this one for good.

Happy 2011!  Hopefully everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Lauren and I went to Santa Barbara, CA for the holidays and had a great time.  As you would expect, I got plenty of training in.  Lauren’s aunt even setup a training session for me with an RKC so that I could learn a few kettlebell moves…namely the Turkish Get Up (“TGU”) and the KB Swing.  The TGU happens to be one of my favorite moves now…it trains so many things at one time:  core strength, mobility, stability, coordination.  I personally like to do them without any weight (or with light weight) as part of my warm-up.  On other days, I load them up as heavy as I can for singles or doubles.

 

One of my buddies from the Rice baseball team is in Dallas and he’s been coming over to the SHOP in the mornings since he is gearing up for Spring Training.  We had a pretty solid session yesterday morning (Friday) that went a little something like this:

 

A  DB Snatch – 4 x 3 with 100 lbs

 

B  Single-Leg Squat (Goblet hold) – 4 x 6 with 50 lbs

 

6 reps on each leg with a 50 lb DB

 

C1  Chest Supported Row – 4 x 12 with 100 lbs

C2  DB Lunges (walking) – 4 x 7, 7, 7, 6 with 100 lbs (each hand)

 

It’s still dark because it’s only 5:30 am! And it’s about 30 degrees!

 

D  Towel Pullups – 14, 10. 8

E  DB Rows – 3 x 8 with 100 lbs

 

FINISHER

Mountain Climbers (using furniture gliders under my feet on the carpet)

5 x 20 seconds on the minute

 

It was a solid session!