A Change of Thinking....

The Always Inspiring John Grimex from "Strength and Health" Magazine in 1943

AS some of you out there know, along side beign a strength coach, I spent a number of years as a professional dancesport competitor and instructor. The other day one of my former students sent me a different kind of question. She's in the process of planning her wedding and her question was, "Brett do you think that after someone get's married, it's a good time to let themselves go?"

I pondered this question for a few moments thinking about all of the old jokes that are out there about someone saying, "yep, now that I'm married I don't have to workout anymore," and so on and so forth. But, I had never actually had someone seriously ask me that type of question. 

I answered her by saying that I personally don't believe there's ever a "good time" to let yourself go. Staying fit and eating clean are two of the weapons that we have in our arsenal to stay healthy, young, and vibrant.

Her question got me thinking about a comment made by another one of my clients. This particular client is in their mid-forties and, through her training and eating, she's doing things now that she never thought were possible. She's also doing things now that she hasn't been able to do since her mid-twenties, only she's doing them better. She's noticed huge changes in all aspects of her life including aches and pains disappearing, a skin condition that she had previously has gone away, she doesn't get stiff and sore doing daily activities like gardening or shoveling her and her neighbors driveways during the winter, and more. When she excitedly tells some of her friends about how much easier her daily life is since she's been training they've actually said to her, "So. Why would the person training you care about stuff like that?"

These two examples really make me think because it really shows how many people only think about eating correctly and exercising correectly in the context of how it'll either make you look or if it'll get you into your "skinny" jeans. It really is amazing how many people miss the boat on the whole deal.

This is also the reason why you'll see so many people who'll decide that they're sick of being fat and sick, so they'll go on a diet. They'll starve themselves for a little bit of time until they reach a certain weight or a certain size. Then they'll stop and go back to living the same lifestyle that got them sick and fat to begin with.

I'm proposing a chang of thinking, one to a health first mentalilty. One of the people that I most respect in the fitness industry is Scott Sonnon. Coach Sonnon has a wonderful fitness hierarchy that I think more people should look at and follow.  It's a health first hierarchy. Start with your health and vitality in mind, exercise and eat in a way that will allow you to live the healthiest life that you possible can. Next, focus on your mobility and your quality of movment. Really, how healthy or fit are you if simply standing up from the ground is hard work? Learn to move like a child again. Then, move on to focusing on exercising and eating that will help you with your daily life. What's going to make the particular struggles that you face on a daily basis easier to deal with. Then work on your attributes, what you can do during your workout. Then, focus on your physique and how you look.

I'll be willing to bet that if you start to train and eat with health, movement, and improvements in your daily performance as your focus, you'll build the body that you desire.

Just look at the picture on the top of this post. The Legendary John Grimek, Olympic-style weightlifting Champion, Undefeated Professional Bodybuilder, Awe-inspring Strongman. And there's a reason why the magazine that this photo came from is titled, "Strength and Health."

Yours in strength and health,

Brett Stepan

A Little Bit Of Alpha Crew Philosophy

I believe in the sanctity of the human body.
I believe in the divine right of every body to possess a body that is strong and beautiful and radiant with energy.
I believe that the care of the body is a sacred responsibility – the first that we accept and the last that we lay down.
I believe Nature is the great physician, and health is the inevitable reward of those who sit at her feet and learn her ways.
I believe that sickness is the offspring of ignorance, and that the greatest teacher of humankind is he who bears the flaming torch of right living to those who dwell in darkness.
I believe that in the true art of healing there is no mystery and no vagueness, and that he only can help the sufferer who faithfully interprets the methods of nature.

         I believe that physical betterment and moral welfare go hand in hand.

These words were written by golden age physical culturist Lionel Stongfort, and I believe that there is great truth in them. These words are part of the Alpha Crew Credo.

These next words are from a high school football coach who gave, I believe, one of the all-time great inpirational speeches check it out on youtube at http://youtu.be/G1GWBB7qrBA
Another great one for the Alpha Crew Credo:

Today gentlemen, I am honored to coach you
More honored to be leading you onto the field of battle
But theres another honor to be bestowed upon you
And that is in the answer that comes with that question:
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Thats right, and you need to remember that all through this game
I will conquer what has not been conquered
Defeat will not be in my creed
I will believe what others have doubted
I will always endeavor to pull esteem, honor, and respect out of my team
I have trained my mind and my body will follow
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
I will acknowledge the fact that my opponent does not expect me to win
But I will never surrender
Weakness will not be in my heart
I will look to my comrades and to those who are a part of me in this world and those who have trained me
And I will draw strength from them
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
I will gladly go out into the field of battle
And I will move in everything I can do
And I will reach my field of battle by any means at my disposal
And when I get there, I will arrive violently
I will rip the heart from my enemy, and leave it bleeding on the ground
Because he cannot stop me
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
To my side I have comrades, comrades that have been with me through thick and thin
Who have sacrificed their blood, sweat and tears
Never will I let them fall, never will I let them down, and I will never leave an enemy behind
Because our opponent does not know my heart
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
No one will deny me, no one will define me
And no one will tell me who and what I am and can be
Belief will change my world
It has moved continents, it has moved countries, it has put men on the moon
And it will carry me through this battle
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Defeat, retreat: those are not in my words
I dont understand those definitions
I dont understand when things go wrong
I dont understand mistakes
But I do understand this:
I understand victory,
And I understand never surrendering
No matter how bad things go my heart and my mind will carry my body through limits and weakness
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Today will be that day
Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now, right here
In your house and in your homes
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
History will remember me
I will not let worrying affect my cause
I will define myself
I will write my own pages
And no one will tell me what I cannot be
I will never give up
Not until Ive given everything I got
Because who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!
Who am I? I AM A CHAMPION!

Talk with you all later.

Yours in Strength and Health,

Brett Stepan

Fitness Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm.....

At the risk of dating myself with a late 80's/early 90's reference and the risk of copywrite infringement from either Arsenio Hall (he did the bit "Things that make you go hmmmm." on his awesome talk show) or C and C Music Factory (they had an awesome hit song of the same title) I just had to use this reference because there are so many things in the world of fitness, conditioning, strength training and health that really just make you go hmmmmmm. We looked at BMI in the last post, so I won't talk about that, but let's take a look at a few others:

1.) I don't know if you've heard about the Calorie Restriction Society, by they are an organization that promotes the belief that we can live longer and healthier lives by limiting the amount of food that we eat. If you visit their site you'll notice that they also put up huge warnings about the dangers of cutting out too many calories and cutting calories too quickly which include things like: Loss of strength and lean muscle mass, loss of bone mass, depression, disruption of hormones, diminished sex drive, diminished energy and more.

According to their site they eat an average of 1,400 and 2,000 calories a day.

Now, I want you to notice that a society that's based entirely on eating less still has a bottom number of calories of 1,400 a day for someone to eat because this is what's needed to ensure proper amounts of vitamins, minerals, macro-nutrients, etc.

So, if a society that's all about starving oneself for health never has you drop below 1,400 calories a day because of the dangerous consequences to one's health, why do so many people try to use diets that have them eating as low as 1,200 calories, 800 calories, or 500 calories a day? Hmmmmmm.....and some of these diets even have the word "healthy" in their title; double hmmmmm....

2.) I'm still amazed how often I hear this, "lifting heavy weights for low reps will make you huge, while lifting light weights for high reps will make you toned." Because of this numerous people that don't want to get big and bulky will choose to lift light weights for 100's or even 1,000's of reps and wonder why they're getting nowhere. Let's take a look at this:

 In this photo John Inzer is deadlifting close to 800 pounds. John competed in the 165 pound weight class. As you can see, John's pretty darn toned, those arms and shoulders are pretty damn impressive. On top of that, John moved huge amounts of weight for low repetitions. Yet, John competed while weighing only 165 pounds. Now I don't know about you but 165 doesn't seem huge and bulky to me. I'm personally at 181 or so and I wouldn't consider myself huge or bulky even though I'm almost 20 pounds heavier than that. Hmmmmm......

This picture is of the Great Gama. He was one of the premiere wrestlers in the world during the early 1900's. He stood about 5'7" and weighed in at around 260-265 pounds. I'd say that the Great Gama was a pretty big and powerful dude. Yet his training consisted of hundreds and even thousands of reps of bodyweight training and club swinging. He was performing high reps without the heavy weights, yet he was huge. Hmmmmm.






So is it really true that low reps with heavy weights will make you big and bulky while high reps with lighter weights will get you toned? Hmmmmmmm.....not on your life. Last time I checked muscle tone was caused by tonus, or, residual tension in a relaxed muscle. Tonus, as related to muscle tone, is caused by a mixture of high resistance and high intensity training coupled with a low body fat percentage. Sounds to me like you get get pretty toned from lifting heavy weights for low reps (just check out most of the Olympic lifters and Powerlifters out there, especially as you get into the lower weight classes, Shawn Frankl comes to mind).

3.) How is it that so many marathon runners never actually run the full 26.2 miles while training; instead hitting around 20 miles or so at their tops (usually they'll say that they train this way to avoid injury and over training), but then they're suprised when they hit the 20-mile wall while their actually competing? Hmmmm....isn't this kind of like a basketball player only practicing for three quarters, or a hockey player only practicing for 2 periods, and then wondering why they got gassed during the last period or quarter? Hmmmmm......

4.) It's funny that aside from some plumbing differences and the need to interact with different dominant hormones, men and women's muscle tissue is identical. Identical muscle tissue, technically speaking, will respond to the same stiumli in pretty much the same manner. So why is it then that so many women think that they need to train differently then men in order to get the toned body that they want? Hmmmmmmm

5.) I keep on hearing that Pilates lengthens your muscles. Now, I'm not saying anytihng against Pilates here, but take a look at this picture:

Now tell me, if Pilates is supposed to lengthen your muscles how come no one in this picture is over 7 feet tall. If your muscles actually lengthend your bones would also have to lengthen in order to accomodate the longer muscles, therefore wouldn't your arms and legs, and midsection have to become longer too. Sorry folks, again, not saying naything against Pilates, but you're either born with long muscle bellies or short muscle bellies. You can train them to be the best that they can be, but you can't turn long into short or short into long.

Arnold here could do Pilates until the cow came home and he's never going to look like are dancing guy on the Right. Also, dancing guy could hit the weights all day and he's not going to look like Arnold.

I have nothing against Pilates, but it doesn't actually lenghten your muscles. Exercise will build your body to the best that it can be, but it won't change the type of muscle bellies that you have.

6.) Take a look at these two pictures for a second, if you will:

The one on the left is a gymnast and the one on the right is an Olympic Weightlifter. They're both pretty damn impressive specimens in my book. Both men grew up and train in sports where every workout consists of full body workouts. So they'll usually train 5-7 days a week, training their entire body at each session, and in some cases training their entire body a few sessions per day every day. There's no body part split where they'll train their chest on Monday, their back on Tuesday, their shoulders on Wednesday, etc.

So how come everyone seems to think that you need to split up the body into seperate pieces and isolate every part in order to create an impressive body. To loosley quote Strength Coach Jason Ferruggia, "you don't see a foot ball team working just upper body plays one day and lower body plays the next. You don't see Martial Artists working on just left leg kicks on one day and right hand punches on the next. The football player practices the entire game of football every day and the martial artist practices their entire art everyday."

So why try to split the body up? Hmmmmmmm......

Well, I could go on forever on a topic like this, but I'll stop here. Keep training hard and smart and feel free to leave a comment below.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Why BMI (Body Mass Index) Sucks!

Is This Obese?
Would you say that Brad's Obese?

How About Jason?

Maybe Kevin? Is He Obese?

How About LeBron?

Maybe Stallone? Is He Obese?

How About Jessica? Is She?

What About Darra?

















Are any of the above Obese? I'd say not on your life, but according to the Body Mass Index (or BMI for short), each and everyone of these folks is either overweight or obese. And that right there should really show you why the BMI is a bunch of horseshit!

The BMI was designed to replace the old height/weight charts created by health insurance companies. But the question remains, is it accurate and useful in any way?

You can calculate your BMI by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. Or, if you'd prefer to spare yourself the mathematical trauma, just head over to The Department of Health and Human Services, they have a little calculator there that will do the math for you. 

Now, according to the BMI, in order to be considered "at a healthy weight," you have to score at or under a 24. A 25 through a 29 score means that you're overweight, and a 30 or above means that your obese.

Let me start out with myself as an axample. I'm currently 5'7" tall and weigh in at a pretty ripped 181.5 pounds which puts me at a BMI of 28.4, meaning that I'm very overweight and closing in on obese. In order to reach a "healthy" BMI I would need to drop to 153 pounds. Let me do some math here, At 181.5 pounds and a body fat percentage of 8% I currently have aprox. 14.52 pounds of fat on my body. If I were to lose every ounce of fat on my body (which is not a healthy thing to do) I'd weigh 166.98 pounds (let's say 167 to make it easier.). This would still leave me with having to drop an additional 14 pounds of healthy muscle mass in order to make it to what the BMI says is healthy. Do you have any idea how emaciated and sick I'd be if I actually went through and dropped that much weight? My health would plummet!

To loosely quote legendary Strength and Conditioning Coach, Charles Staley, "Since a pound of muscle burns approximately 18 calories a day, my metabolic rate would be lowered by 513 (this would be my personal metabolic drop rather than coach Staley's) calories a day. Also, this dramatic loss of muscle would certainly profoundly reduce my strength levels. While I have more than enough strength to get through my daily activities, muscle mass and strength both gradually decline as we age. So I always look at muscle like "money in the bank:" the more I have now, the more I'll still have when I'm 60, 70, or 80 years of age. So the bottom line seems to be, if I choose to adhere to NIH's guidelines, my health and functional status will surely decline!"

A very true statement indeed. I'd personally shut my metabolism down by 513 calories a day and lose a ton of healthy, health promoting muscle and really end up screwing myself over if I decided to stick to what the BMI tells me is healthy.

In fact, basically any athlete or anyone that has any type of muscle mass would have to do the same because, if you have muscle mass on your body you are obese according to the Body Mass Index.

Now let’s also think about the large number of people who will score very acceptable numbers using the BMI, but who in fact are overfat. Despite what many people think, it’s common to find people who appear to be of normal or even low bodyweight, who in fact are overfat, because they have such low levels of muscle mass and high levels of body fat.
.
As an example let’s take another person that’s my height, but they weigh an “acceptable” 150 pounds. Now, let’s put them at a 50% body fat. In other words, half of their bodyweight consists of pure lard. This person will obviously have serious risks of numerous diseases, they’ll be sickly, they’ll have premature aging, and more general maladies; yet, because of their BMI they would be considered “healthy.”

Hmmmm, this BMI thing is starting to look really screwed up don't you think?

Let's review for a second, if someone's athletic, muscular, lean, fit, and healthy; chances are they have a BMI that says that they're overweight or obese. Yet, is someone is in terrible shape, overfat, sick, and weak they can still have a BMI that is considered heathly.

I don't know about you, but I'd have to say that the whole BMI thing is a load of crap!

So, how do we know if we're at a healthy or unhealthy bodyweight? Pretty simple, go and have someone that's qualified measure your body fat percentage. Chances are that if you're at a lower bodyfat (I'd look at the 8-12 for men and the 10-15 for women, in general) you're probably living a pretty healthy and active lifestyle. You're probably not insulin resistant, you probably don't have adrenal fatigue, your hormones are probably doing pretty well, you're probably training hard and eating clean, and you're probably getting the right amounts of sleep and maximizing your overall lifestyle. It's really hard to get to those type of low percentages if you're not exercising hard, if you're eating like crap, if you're not sleeping, etc.

To quote coach Staley again, "I don’t know why this is such a hard pill to swallow— it’s bodyfat, NOT bodyweight that determines your health and functional capacity. There will never be a height/weight chart, regardless of what anyone chooses to call it, which can predict optimal bodyweight, because such charts never take a person’s muscle mass into account."

If you still think that BMI is the way to go here's a few more people that are ocnsidered overweight or obese by the BMI standards: Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Gina Carano, Christian Santos, Herschal Walker, Adrian Peterson, Vin Deisal, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, anyone in the NFL, anyone in the NBA, anyone in Major League Baseball, Jon "Bones" Jones, really anyone in any weightclass sport that's above the welterweight division, etc. etc. etc. I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Talk with you all later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Submission Grappling 101 Seminar on May 26th

Submission Grappling; with it's blend of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Judo, Sambo, Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling, and Catch Wrestling; is an exciting sport and hobby that also sets a strong foundation for self-defence. Join me on Saturday, May 26th at 2:30pm to explore some of the basic foundation of this fun sport. Topics that we'll cover include:

* Basic Ground Positioning: From Stabilizing to Escaping
* Basic Arm Locks: how to set them up, finish them, and escapes
* Basic Chokes: set-ups, finishes, and escapes
* Basic Leg Locks: set-ups, finishes, and escapes
* Grappling Warm-up drills
* Grappling Based Fitness, Strength and Conditioning Drills
* And More....

Registration Begins On Friday, May 4th and runs through Friday, May 18th. You must register before the 18th in order to attend. Registration fee is $50, feel free to email me at bolerobrett@aol.com or message me at Brett Stepan on Facebook.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Skinny Vs. Fit: Pictures say 1,000 Words Part 2:

Skinny

fit

For years I've been talking about how there's a huge difference between being skinny and being fit. So many of the skinny women that I know are far from fit and far from healthy. Many fall into the "skinny-fat" mold where they may have a "healthy" BMI and are thin, but they carry around excess body fat and no muscle. They open themselves up to numerous diseases and premature death all for the reward of fitting into a small dress size or smaller jeans. I don't know about you but that seems pretty silly to me, if I were a girl I'd much rather look like the fit Miss Gina in the second picture above. Damn the skinny jeans and what Hollywood says is good, fit is much healthier and much more beautiful than skinny!

I think that the above pictures really prove that point.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

The Only Limits That We Have Are The One's We Place On Ourselves!

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."--Philipians 4:13

I started today's post with one of my all time favorite Bible verses simply because it's so true. We are all capable of anything, and the only real limits that we have are the one's that we place on ourselves.

One of my favorite people in the world of Martial Arts and Fitness is Dr. Scott Sonnon. Scott was born with numerous disabilities including severe dislexia and an abnormality with his nerves that caused him severe pain. Add on to this, being born in poverty with addiction and abuse being a way of life, and numerous counselors telling him that he should never try to make anything of himself in either the phyiscal or mental realms and you have a pretty sad story. However, Coach Sonnon overcame those limits. He became a member of Mensa and has won World Championships in a variety of combat sports including San Shou Kung fu, Sambo, Sport Jujitsu, and more. Not only has he become a huge success on both the physical and mental fronts, but he's also a huge success as a human. His business is huge, he's financially successful, he has a wonderful family, he has amazing friends and students, and he's truly strong physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Apparently those people that told him to "be realistic," and to limit himself were wrong.

The same can be said in my own life. After suffereing from a degenerative bone disease in my hips, growing up in a family where addiction was part of life, and breaking my back I was told that I couldn't do many things. Yet, I've gone on to be a successful dancer, martial artist, kettelbeller, powerlifter, olympic lifter, acrobat, and coach. I remember many people telling me over the years, "Brett, be realistic, only a handful of people can become champion dancers/ successful teachers/ successful coaches/ authors/ or what ever else they didn't think that I could do." Yet every time I've gone on to prove them wrong.

So, what is it that's holding you back, that's stopping you from becoming what you want to become or doing the things that you want to do.

Even though people will tell you that there's a one in a million shot at becoming the next Michael Jordan, Georges St. Pierre, Eddie Van Halen, Bill Gates or whatever, people told them the same thing! Yet, each of them was able to take the steps and make the sacrifices and become who they are.

The only thing that's in your way is yourself; but, once you learn how to step out of your own way you'll see that there truly are no limits to what you can do.

Going back to Philipians 4:13:  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan