“If you want something bad enough, you have the power to make it happen - no matter what other people have to say, no matter how tough the odds at first appear to be. I'm not telling you this to make you feel good, I'm not telling you this because it sounds nice. I'm telling you this because I know it's true. I've lived it. And you can too.”

Richard Machowicz







“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save & preserve it.”

Plato 427-347 BC
 



Gymless Training Blog

Born To Run

Alistair Ramsay - Monday, March 12, 2012
After a long time sitting in no-mans-land on my to-read-list, I was recently given a copy of Born To Run written by Christopher McDougall and immediately set about it. I have to say, given my dislike of endurance running I was surprisingly gripped by this book which takes you on a journey into the world of ultra marathoners and a long-lost tribe located in Mexico’s copper canyons, The Tarahumara, who excel at covering unfathomable distances at great speed.



One chapter I particularly enjoyed was when the author took a look at the potential benefits to be derived from running barefoot or as phrased in the book.... 

“Lost in all the fireworks between Ted and Caballo was an important point: running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot” 

I for one am certainly a big advocate of getting your feet out of their cotton wool packaging and allowing them to work as evolution intended. Much to the despair of my girlfriend I am a proud owner of some Vibram 5 Finger shoes and since making the switch to these admittedly ridiculous looking trainers for my sprint workouts and long hikes I have noticed nothing but good things happening to my often troublesome right knee. I can only put this down to stronger feet, enhanced alignment and better biomechanics brought about by going barefoot. If you have any interest in the topic of barefoot running then this chapter is for you. The author gets up and close to some leading running coaches and physiotherapists sold on the benefits of barefoot running and examines the big players involved in a multi-billion dollar trainer industry which may ultimately be built on nothing but empty promises! 

“The de-conditioned musculature of the feet is the greatest issue leading to injury, and we’ve allowed our feet to become badly de-conditioned over the past twenty five years” Gerard Hartmann 

So has the book ignited my desire to compete in some ultra endurance events? Erm, in a word, no. Whilst I can certainly see the attraction in completing these immense challenges (and tip of the hat to those that do), an optimal prescription for health and fitness it is not. Give me some strength training, sprints and mobility work any day of the week. That said, Born To Run is an extremely well written and totally absorbing read and one that is most definitely worth adding to your collection!

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The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation

Alistair Ramsay - Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Quick heads up for you today. Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, has a brand new book out called The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation.


The book is a practical, action-oriented guide for how to eat, exercise and live in accordance with your evolutionary make up – a step-by-step, “cut to the chase” resource to make a smooth and quick transition into a Primal lifestyle. I pre-ordered my copy months ago and it arrived over the weekend. After poring through its contents for the last few days it is safe to say this is another great addition to the Primal series. In his original book The Primal Blueprint, Mark hits the nail on the head with his philosophy on lifestyle, nutrition and fitness. If you want to shed excess body fat, get stronger & leaner, increase daily energy levels and improve other markers of health you would do well do follow his advice. This book distills his Primal Blueprint philosophy into an easy to follow, twenty one day plan where he tells you exactly what to do to take control of your health and fitness for the rest of your life.

Mark is looking to score this book on the New York Times best-seller list to gain exposure for the Primal Blueprint message, so he’s put together a loaded special offer which I am happy to help promote. Basically, if you order 1 or more copies between October 18 and 24, and email your receipt to a special email address Mark  will kick you back with a bunch of freebies. It’s a win-win. You get a great book for less than 15 bucks, a bunch of free gifts, and you and Mark both help take the Primal movement mainstream. Check out the full details of this special offer (including terms and conditions) by visiting MarksDailyApple.com today.

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GTS Customer Review

Alistair Ramsay - Tuesday, September 06, 2011

"I have purchased almost every major bodyweight exercise program out there. I have viewed hundreds of online videos and read dozens of articles, all devoted to bodyweight training. So, when I happened upon this program called the "Gymless Training System" I wasn't expecting much. My first assumption is that it would be a small 50-60 page ebook containing pictures of standard exercises like push-ups, squats, and jumping jacks which would be thrown together for a few circuit routines. However, I am glad to say that my assumption was wrong.

To begin with, Alistair offers a free preview of his program with no strings attached. You can download the basic edition without even having to provide an e-mail address. This preview includes 80+ pages of content taken directly from the full edition of the Gymless Training System. It provides the reader with a solid overview of what the GTS program is all about.

The GTS is divided into three parts. The first part is the full foundation of the Gymless Training System and is over 200 pages long. It's a comprehensive bodyweight training program that includes exercises, workout templates, and training guidelines. Of course, warm-ups, cool-downs, cardio and nutrition are also covered. Alistair does a great job on the exercises. Not only does he include quality pictures of each exercise but he provides performance tips and common faults as well. For visual learners, Alistair provides video clips of the exercises on his website. The workout templates are really solid. These aren't the typical circuit or interval routines commonly found in bodyweight training programs. Overall, it's a well though-out program that anyone can use to improve health and fitness without the cost or inconvenience of a gym membership.

Parts 2 & 3 of GTS expand on the guidelines by showing readers how to use low-cost tools to enhance the workouts. Part 2 focuses on the use of resistance bands which compliment bodyweight exercises rather well. Part 3 emphasizes the use of a suspension trainer. Both of these tools are becoming more popular these days, for good reason. Both bands and suspension trainers can be used to make exercises harder or easier, as long as you know how. The good news is that Alistair has laid it out for the you so there is no guess-work involved. These parts include the same high quality exercise pics and descriptions as the first part. They also include details for integrating the tools into the bodyweight workouts. For those so inclined, Alistair also includes stand-alone workouts for each tool.

Since using components of the GTS program I have noticed improved strength and endurance. Most importantly, the various templates have increased my enthusiasm for my "gymless" workouts.

If my review of the Gymless Training System was based on a star rating, I would give it a 5 out of 5 stars."

Steve Zorn (www.personalsafetyunlimited.com)

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Why The Hunter Gatherer Holds The Key To Our Survival

Alistair Ramsay - Thursday, September 01, 2011
Before heading away last week I took a trip down to my local bookstore to find some holiday reading and stumbled upon a number ot titles including Pandora's Seed : Why The Hunter Gatherer Holds The Key To Our Survival written by Spencer Wells. The following passage is taken from the blurb on the back of the book:

Humans evolved to hunt in the wild, not for crowded, urbanised living. The latest research reveals that when we settled and developed agriculture 10,000 years ago we may have created modern civilisation, but we also opened a Pandora's box of problems - becoming sedentary, overpopulated, disease-prone and selfish. In fact, everything from our sweet tooth and stress disorders to environmental damage and even terrorism can be traced back to this mismatch between our genes and our lifestyle.

As a fan of the primal/paleo/evolution philosophy on health and fitness this was an easy sell on me.



A week on and after enjoying the book from cover to cover I thought I would give it a little shout out on this blog. Whilst not a health and fitness book per se, there are chapters which are very relevant to the fitness world, namely where the author examines the abundance of empty calories available in the developed world on the back of 10,000 years of agricultural innovation and the undeniable link this has on the booming obesity epidemic. The following quote in particular I thought was worth sharing:
 
"Many people are not aware of, or ignore, the dangers associated with the increasing proportion of highly processed, sugar laden 'fast food' so readily available in the developed world....couple this with a lack of physical activity as more and more people leave manual jobs in factories and farms for service-sector jobs with long commuting times, and it is a recipe for disaster"

Away from the dangers of excessive processed food, the author also provides numerous other thought provoking discussions including; the link between chronic stress and the drone of modern life, genetic technology and the potential danger a future holds where selective breeding is common place and the impact modern living is having on the planet around us. Highly recommend adding to your booklist.
 
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Wondering what to read next....

Alistair Ramsay - Saturday, May 07, 2011
….you could do a lot worse than Gary Taubes latest book ‘Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It’


I finished reading this book over the bank holiday weekend and was very impressed, immediately adding it to my recommended books list. In the past I had read the Diet Delusion aka Good Calories Bad Calories, a great book, but unless you had a particular interest in nutritional science you would find it very hard going to work through. In WWGF, Taubes makes the same ideas available to a wider audience.

This is not a diet book per se, rather a look at the way the body metabolises and utilises different fuels. In doing so Taubes explains why some foods are more likely to end up being stored as fat (hint...sugars and refined carbs!)

Here are a few of the questions and ideas addressed in WWGF.....
  • The hormonal and enzymatic reactions responsible for fat storage and what foods trigger them
  • Why one person can get fat and another stays lean when eating a very similar diet
  • Why eating the wrong foods, drives hunger and overeating
  • Why not all calories are created equal when it comes to fat gain/loss
  • Flawed conventional wisdom on what we should be eating and how it came to be
  • Why under-eating is a not a viable long term fat loss solution
Overall, an excellent and thoroughly informative read. Definitely recommend adding it to your nutritional education.
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Wise Words From Gary Taubes

Alistair Ramsay - Thursday, April 28, 2011
"A calorie of protein provides the same amount of energy to the body as a calorie of fat or carbohydrate. Lost in the distillation is the fact that the effects of these different nutrients on metabolism  and hormone secretion are so radically different, as is the manner in which the body employs the nutrients, that the energetic equivalence of the calories themselves is largely irrelevant to why we gain weight"

Gary Taubes - The Diet Delusion




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Real Men Do Yoga

Alistair Ramsay - Tuesday, April 26, 2011
“No, you won’t have to stand on your head. There will be no strange and painful contortions here. No chanting, no incense, no gurus.......Yoga is an amazing exercise system with 5,000 years of road testing behind it”

The above extract is taken from an entertaining book called Real Men Do Yoga authored by John Capouya which I read last week. The book is an honest and refreshing insight into the physical benefits any man can derive from practising yoga on a regular basis.

An obvious underlying message to the book is that practising yoga is not just for the girls. The book is littered with testimonials from elite male athletes including star NFL Running Backs, Receivers and Lineman, Major League Baseball Pitchers, WWF Wrestlers, ATP Tennis Players and Pro Tour Golfers who have all used yoga to great effect within their own training programs. All these testimonials from high level athletes are woven together with other success stories from regular guys holding down regular jobs and still deriving great benefit from practising yoga.

As I mention regularly on this blog, yoga has been a real game-changer in my own training. After lifting a lot of weights through school and university (without ever spending a second thinking about mobility) I ended up with very limited flexibility. I was strong, but I could not move. Over the last few years I have spent a great deal of time addressing these flaws through dynamic joint mobility work and regular yoga and the results have been very postive. Whilst still no yogi, my flexibility and movement is vastly improved as is my balance and body control. The carry-over to my strength training and sprint workouts has been superb. More efficient movement, quicker recovery and fewer injuries!

If yoga sounds like something you could be interested in you could do a lot worse than start with this book. It is perfect for the beginner, easy to read with clear advice, instructions and illustrations (no yoga jargon or sanskrit names). The book also includes chapters on injury prevention and contains several sample workout routines of varying difficulty. It definitely has my recommendation.

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Recommended Books - Achieving Victory Over A Toxic World by Mark Schauss, MBA, DB

Alistair Ramsay - Monday, March 28, 2011
"An inspirational story that will lead you to eye-opening revelations about the impact the enviroment has on your health"


As the title of the book suggests, the information contained within is all about understanding/defending yourself against the toxic bombardment your body faces on a daily basis (unfortunately there is no escaping this in the polluted world we now live in.)

Split into three parts, the first section details the brave struggles the authors daughter endures with her battle against epilepsy and how this triggered the authors obsession with toxicity and ways to prevent/offset its harmful effects.

The second section hammers home the reality of the toxic world we now live in, examines some of the most prevalent toxins and discusses other topics such as the link between toxicity-ageing and toxicity-obesity (the discussions on this latter point were particularly thought provoking.)

To conclude, the final section is all about how you can take steps to overcome the toxic world including a section of simple, actionable steps we should all be taking to help prevent toxicity negatively impacting our health.  All in all, a very readable and informative book. Definitely recommend adding it to your health and fitness library.
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Movement First. Performance Second.

Alistair Ramsay - Monday, February 28, 2011
One of the best books I have read on improving athletic performance is ‘Athletic Body In Balance’ by Gray Cook.

For those who don’t know Gray Cook is the creator of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and widely regarded as one of the smartest minds in the field of strength & conditioning, athletic performance and injury prevention.

One of my favourite concepts discussed in ‘Athletic Body In Balance’ is the performance pyramid used to highlight imbalances or weak links in an athletes development.

“A performance pyramid is a simple diagram designed to provide a mental image and understanding of human movement”

The performance pyramid is split up into three levels (functional movement, functional performance and functional skill) stacked on top of each other in that order.

Functional Movement - Ability to move freely, without restrictions, pain or energy leaks.

Functional Performance - Power (the ability to produce large amounts of force in a short space of time)

Functional Skill - Specific sports related skill development

In an ideal world your performance pyramid would look something like this:


In this example you have ample movement skills to control the power you are able to produce. In addition you have enough power to make your sports skills truly effective! However, as Gray talks about in his book many performance pyramids will look somewhat different. For example, here is an overpowered performance pyramid.



In this example the athlete’s movement skills are too limited to control the power they are capable of producing. The likely result.....injury!

This is pretty much the exact scenario that blew my rugby career. I spent a good deal of time at university getting bigger and stronger in the weights room but payed virtually no attention to my ability to move effectively. The diet of heavy strength training made me progressively tighter and more restricted in my movement. The net result......I tore my knee to pieces!

The injury was not the result of an acute impact with another player. I was simply stepping off my knee at full flight, too much torque went through my leg for my restricted movement skill to handle.  Career over!

Take home message - Before adding too much horsepower to your body, make sure your basic movement skills are up to scratch. I thoroughly recommend getting a copy of Athletic Body In Balance, performing the self-assement and implementing the appropriate corrective exercise strategies into your training routine. In the long run you will produce a more balanced, stronger, pain free body. That has got to be good right?


PS - Whilst I have highlighted the overpowered performance pyramid this is not the only undesirable scenario. Gray also talks about underpowered and underskilled pyramids in the book. I think this is a brilliant way to honestly analyse and assess your strengths and weaknesses and target your athletic development accordingly. I wish I had been armed with this knowledge when I was still playing competitive sport!

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The Lightening Bolt

Alistair Ramsay - Friday, January 07, 2011
Over the last few days I have been digging into a book I received for Xmas.......titled "9.58"

As you can probably guess "9.58" is all about the life story of one of my all time favourite athletes, the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt.

"The book is about a skinny kid from the Parish of Trelawny, where they harvest the best yams in the world. It's about growing up playing cricket and football in the warm Jamaican sun, then discovering that he could run fast, very fast......it's about what makes him tick, where he gets his motivation and where he takes his inspiration. It's about the highs and lows, the dedication and sacrifices required to get to the top. It's about fast food, partying, dancehall music, fast cars and that lightening bolt pose. It's about radiating sport's biggest smile."


There are two quotes from Usain Bolt that I want to pull out the book and share with you.......

"Once i've beaten you, you won't beat me again"

This quote reflects his motivation and attitute towards his competitors. Ever since he was in primary school competing in the schools sports day he has closed down the gap with those faster than him until eventually one race he beats them. From that point on, in his mind he knows he can beat them and they will struggle to ever get past him again. I liken this to chasing down fitness goals. In the realm of bodyweight strength and conditioning it is similar to chasing down a new feat of strength. For instance it took me an age to perform a muscle-up. But once i nailed it once, i knew I could do it and the movement became that much easier. The same motivation could be used for fat loss. Once you drop below a certain weight, vow never to return above it. I'm sure it would be an effective strategy!!

"I'm not a conventional athlete, I don't follow any of the rules..........they would have been horrified by my diet of chicken nuggets throughout the Olympics, but it worked for me"

The guy ate chicken nuggets, three meals a day for two weeks and blew the competition away in Beijing. As something that goes against everything I have learnt and preach I would dearly love to know how he did this....feel free to email me with your theories :-)

Have a great weekend



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