Beach Project: Week 3 Day 2

Today we had a pull up bar. It was somewhat jerry-rigged, but then again almost everything can be and is. Today's warm-up consisted of wind sprints and broad-jumps and yes, it did look a lot like some torture a high school gym teacher would inflict on an unsuspecting co-ed P.E. class...of, course that was just the warm-up.

Today, we learned the clean and press, an absolutely essential technique for developing strength to lift a heavy object over your head (you never know when it'll come in handy, trust me.) Not to mention the amount of involvement the hamstrings, glutes, core, shoulders, and traps have in this one movement.

These were followed by box jumps onto a single tire. I would have preferred everyone to jump onto a stack of two tires but the cursing that ensued prevented me from insisting. I will definitely have to acquire some plyo boxes, because then no one will be afraid of falling into a huge hole (tire!)

Pull-ups were done on a 2 min time limit(?) and once they couldn't do anymore "strict" pull-ups they were allowed to climb up the wall and ease themselves down (I call these "let-downs" for more than one reason.) The whole point of training with us is to reach that point of muscle failure every time we train (if muscle failure is the means to reaching the particular goal for that day.)

I would say everyone reached and surpasses that point. I will be excited to hear about everyone's weekend, and how they couldn't feed themselves (thanks, Sandra!)

Beach Project: Week 3 Day 1

Not enough can be said about the Tabata drills. We did this one for a warm-up today and used full burpees as the exercise of choice. I can definitely see an improvement in everyone's conditioning this week. Those who were gassing out early are now showing some endurance!

Everyone learned how to correctly snatch a dumbell in this session, and pretty much got it. I definitely will start offering an "orientation" class from now on, teaching all the complex lifts necessary for complete fitness.

The last superset was a rocker/back ext. set. I first learned the "rocker" during my time as a competitive gymnast in high school. This exercise seemed to be the bane of everyone's existence (which is ok for me, the ends justify the means.)

Beach Project: Week 2 Day 2

This time I had an ace up my sleeve for some of you over-achievers. I added an extra evolution in case everyone had some left in them. Everyone was game today and so I hit 'em with 4 sets of Tire flips/ broadjump burpees. It's funny how much people hate those burpees! Following this was an evolution in extreme core utilization that I felt went well.

Today's class was very gratifying. I believe that everyone earned their just desserts and will definitely be enjoying them in the next few days.

As always, don't forget to do your homework.

Leo

The Beach Project: Week 2 Day1

We now have a whiteboard. If this statement doesn't seem monumental then you just don't understand how important the whiteboard can be. Just think, you are in the psychological haze that is "the last couple of sets", and you have no idea how many are left or in some extreme cases, what exercise you were doing a milisecond ago. Well, the board saves you every time by proudly proclaiming the day's agony in full black and white (sometimes blue, red, or green and white.)

Today's session was a success. I spent about half an hour going over the day's techniques and then we launched right into it. There were some pretty rough spots for the participants, most notably the dumbell cleans/ fireman carry superset. The music was brought to us by Evolution's loaner Ipod (lot's of 80's metal...)

Once everyone has had a few sessions to nail down the techniques of the "heavier" exercises, the training will be like clockwork. I will be able to just write down the day's evolutions on the ol' whiteboard and just fix technique as I see fit (and of course, motivate the last bit out of everyone.)

That being said, I see the huge promise in the training that is being provided and I think I will continue to provide "Projects" in the future.

The Beach Project: Week 1 Day 2

Today was a great session. After the aesthetic issues that I ran into on Day one, I went ahead to Lowe's and fixed the lighting issue. Now the "warehouse" has a nice industrial feel. I don't think Ross will feel bad about putting holes in these walls with the medicine ball (if it is even possible.) I also bought some music (thank you, itunes) so it wasn't just the sound of agony echoing in the space.

I got some really good feedback about the training as well. These "evolutions" definitely brought everyone to the brink, which is the only way to get the results that everyone is looking to earn. That's right I used the word "earn", not "get" or "achieve" or "buy". The act of earning denotes going through some kind of labor for some reward or status. Everyone definitely without a doubt "earned" whatever good comes from the training.

I hope to see the rest of you that have shown interest in doing some real meaningful work. I am excited at the prospect of helping you reach that next level, whatever it may be.

The Beach Project Testimonials!

The people who jumped on the chance to train in this Project (privately) have finally reached the first month last week and I am happy to say that I am already harassing them for testimonials. Why? Because the project is doing what I said it could do FASTER than I thought it would!

I will have some official testimonies up soon but I will unofficially let you all in on what my clients have been telling me.

Client #1: She said her clothes don't fit anymore...they hang off of her now. She also said that her stress level has reduced and she feels better everyday.

Client #2: Her reason for seeing me and doing this project was two-fold. She wanted to lose body fat but she also was experiencing constant back pain. Now she says she doesn't feel any pain anymore.

Client #3: He just wanted to get into shape for martial arts. His cardio and strength were lacking big time and he gained a lot of weight. Two months later he weighs 20 lbs. less and his old coworkers don't recognize him.

Client #4: She couldn't run more than a couple blocks without collapsing into a heap. Now she runs with the dog and actually keeps up.

Client #5: He also wanted to get into shape to fight in the ring and knew that I could get him there physically. At first, he could do about 20 push ups at best. Now he does inverted wall push ups fairly easily. Incredible.

The Beach Project was designed to drop body fat and increase energy but I can see that it achieves so much more, especially for those who haven't really engaged in exercise before. If you want to become one of these good statistics, just email onicombat@gmail.com or call (703) 593-6321.

For those of you who want to learn how you can get these results, come to the Beach Project Seminar on May 19th at 6:30pm at the Advanced Spine and Laser Center. 9477 Silver king Court, Fairfax, VA 22031.

I'll see you then!

Leo