One of the Greatest Movements you can do!

Alright, I know. I say the word snatch and I'm going to have half of you giggling like 6th graders. However, having a good snatch is one of the most important things you can do for your health and fitness. Okay, I'll admit it, now I'm giggling a little too. It's kind of like when you're talking about the importance in kettlebell training of having a good rack. You can't help but giggle. Now, back to being serious.

The snatch is truly one of the royalty of exercises. Let's think about it for a second: it works basically every single muscle group from head to toe. It really hits the ultra-important posterior chain. It develops incredible speed, explosivensess, power, strength, coordination, balance, agility and more. It's the largest possible range of motion that you can use while still holding onto your exercise apperatus simply because you pull the apparatus from the floor to lock out over your head in one movement. It helps to promote a better functioning brain due to the numerous split-second movements that need to happen. It builds muscle, bone and connective tissue and makes them stronger and more resilient. It burns body fat. It helps to kick your hormones into healthy high gear. And, it kicks your heart and lungs pretty hard too. Oh yes, the snatch is right up there with the deadlift, the squat, and the clean and press/ clean and jerk as being one of the king of exercises. In fact, I'd hit the snatch a million times over for core development over most any other type of "core" training (yes there was a pun intended there, I'll admit it. But, it's still a true statement.)

And you'll never get bored with the movement. The variety that's involved with the snatch is unreal. With just the barbell version you have a power snatch from the hang and from the ground; a split snatch from the hang and from the ground; and a squat snatch from the hang and from the ground. Add to that both a snatch grip high-pull from the hang and from the ground and you've got a shit-ton of variety right there.

Then you can look at including 1-arm and 2-arm dumbell snatches, 1-arm and 2-arm kettlebell snatches, sandbag snatches and Bulgarian bag snatches and more. Hell, you could pick up a heavy log or stone and use them as well. You also have rotational versions, single leg versions adn more. The variety can be pretty much endless.

Maybe one day you grab the ol' barbell and work on 5-10 sets of singles, doubles or triples to really work the hell out of your entire musculatur. Then a few days later you finish up your workout with a good 10-minute kettlebell sport set. Then a few days after that you hit a strong 15:15 Bulgarian bag sprint session to really get the ocnditioning up.

Overall, the snatch is one of those must have movements in your arsenal. It's just that phenomenal of a movement. Now, go train hard and smart and check out the new blog at www.brettsmartialarts.blogspot.com. I'll talk with you more later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

New blog posts coming soon and a new blog as well

Wow! I can't believe that we're closing in on the end of September and I haven't posted once this month. I better get back to work.

Starting in the next few days I'll be back posting on a regular basis, and I'll also be adding a new blog at www.brettsmartialarts.blogspot.com. It'll be related to all things martial arts.

I'll leave you with a quick golden nugget as I leave: "You can't outtrain poor eating."

Talk with you all soon.

Yours in strenght and health,
Brett Stepan

Looking forward to teaching these upcoming seminars!

Saturday, September 15th:
Personal Protection: Using natural instincts to survive handgun, knife, baseball bat, club, and empty hand attacks.

Saturday, September 22nd:
The Truth Behind Eating For Fat Loss: Busting the myths and exposing the real truth behind calories, fats, protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals, nutrient timing and more.

Saturday, September 29th:
Pain Free and Youthful Forever: Joint mobility drills to free yourself of aches and pains, sicking points, and more and how to once again move with grace and agility.

Saturday, October 6th:
Strength Training 101: The Proper mechanics for the basic bodyweight exercises, barbell exercises, and kettlebell exercises.

Each of these seminars will be starting at 3pm on their respective Saturdays. For more information or to register feel free to contact me at bolerobrett@aol.com

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

A little bit on fat loss

After looking at my training philosophy many people will ask me this,"Brett, can your methods be used for losing fat or for weight loss?" I always laugh a little, but the truth is people just can't see how training with powerlifting, Olympic lifting, Strongman, Kettlebell, and gymnastic methods with some sprinting thrown in can lead to dropping the fat. Especially when I don't tell people to count calories, or cut calories.

So, no cutting calories, no wasted hours of aerobic based training, just strength training and sprinting mixed in with intelligent eating. Can it work?

I could bore you with the details of literally hundreds of testimonials from my clients about the amount of fat they've dropped, or I could put you into a nice slumber talking about the science behind why these methods work. But I'm not going to.

Instead I'm just going to use myself as an example.

A few months ago I weighed in at a pretty powerful 191.5 pounds. Currenlty I"m weighing in at a pretty lean and bad ass 172.0 pounds. That's a 19.5 pound drop in weight.

While that alone may not be anything to write home about, you have to stop and think about the fact that I haven't tried to lose weight at all.

Let me repeat that, I'm currenlty down almost 20 poudnds without even trying to lose weight.

Instead I've been up-ing my caloric intake from between 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day to 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day. I train 5 days a week for between 20-40 minutes at a time. Four of those sessions are pure strength building sessions with the fifth being a rope skip sprinting session.

Yet, I'm still down almost 20 pounds.

The only dietary changes that I've made, aside from adding calories and eating more, is the macro-nutrient ratio and the nutrient timing of my food.

The only training changes that I've made is to add a little more emphasis on pure strength development.

So, if someone can use my methods and drop the weight without trying to, without the mindless hours on the treadmill-to-nowehre or the stationary bike, and without cutting any calories (but actually adding them); do you think they'll work for someone that's purposfully training to drop the weight?

You bet your ass they will.

Talk wtih you more later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

A quick but humorous thought:

Wow, it's been since mid-July since my last post. Man, I've got to get back to doing this regularly.

Anyway, today's post is going to be short but sweet.

It's funny that about a decade ago or so I kept on hearing the following from so many people:

"Brett, once your in your thirties it'll be tough to stay flexible."

"Brett, remember, when your in your mid-thirties your metabolism is going to slow down."

"Brett, it's going to be harder to stay as lean and fit once your in your thirties."

"Brett, you won't be able to keep on getting stronger once your in your thirties."

And so on and so forth.

I find this funny because I"m now 36 and I haven't seen any of these statements to be true. I'm currently the strongest that I've ever been. I'm in better shape than I've ever been. I have better flexibility and mobility. I'm leaner. My metabolism is so quick that I have trouble eating enough to keep weight on. My muscle mass keeps on increasing. And more.

So, to all of you who told me that things would start getting harder in my 30's I just have to laugh a little. It's really not the age, but how you take care of the body that counts. I'm looking forward to the next decade and sending out a similar message to all of you that are repeating those same statements about being in your 40's.

Now, go train hard and smart.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

A Training Day In The Life Of: Missy Edition!

Alright, for today's post I wanted to share a training day in the life of my beautiful bride, Melissa. So here's Missy's training day from this past Tuesday:

15 minutes of warm-up including foam rolling, joint mobility, cable work, dynamic stretching, loaded dynamic stretching and bodyweight movements. Then on to the work:

1.) Sumo Deadlifts:  5 sets of 3 reps with 275 pounds. Resting just enough between sets to let me do my sets.

2a.) 1-arm Kettlebell Rows: 4 sets of 8 reps per side with 88 pounds
2b.) Walking Lunges:  4 sets of 8 reps per side with bodyweight plus 70 pounds.
Perform 2a.), rest 30 seconds, perform 2b.) rest 30 seconds, and repeat until all of the sets are done.

3a.) 1-leg Natural Leg Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps per side with bodyweight.
3b.) Standing Abdominal Roll-outs: 3 sets of 6 reps with bodyweight.
Perform 3a.), rest 30 seconds, perform 3b.), rest 30 seconds and repeat until all of the sets are done.

5 minutes of joint mobility for a cool-down.

Missy was tearing it up really well.

Talk with you more later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Drop that Body Fat!

Did you know that if you increase the level of growth hormone being produced in your body, your body will naturally burn off excess body fat?

It's true.

According to Dr. Ronald Klatz, "the amount of growth hormone after the age of 21 to 31 falls about 14 percent per decade, so that the total 24 hour growth hormone production rate is reduced by half by the age of sixty." This, along with deminishing levels in the production of androgenic hormones like testosterone and progesterone is part of the reason why the average person begins to lose muscle and gain fat as they age.

However, it doesn't have to be that way.

Now, performing bouts of long duration exercise like jogging and riding the bike can help you lose weight, a huge amount of that weight loss will be from lost and eaten away muscle tissue, including muscle tissue from the heart and lungs which can lead to "Jim Fixx" syndrome. Along with that, this long duration training will also shut down your production of growth hormone and the androgenic hormones.

Heavy resistance training, on the other hand will stimulate the production of growth hormone and the production of the androgenic hormones and help you lose weight. And that weight loss will be mainly from body fat, not from muscle.

By training your anearobic energy system, through heavy resistance training and sprinting, you'll not only drop the excess body fat, but you'll also slow down the aging process (it's wonderful what increased natural production of growth hormone and the androgens does), improve your immune system, create stronger bones and tendons, create stronger muscles, stabilize and keep the body more injury proof, and you'll look much better in or out of your clothes.

There's a caveat though; you have to work your ass off. Use heavy, multi-joint movements (squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, etc.) with smaller rest intervals between sets. This will flood your system with lactate which is part of the way that it tells your brain to produce more growth hormone and more androgens.

So, if you want to drop the fat, drop the bike. Instead pick up some heavy-ass barbells and start working.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan