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When it comes to training, nothing will get you leaner, stronger and more athletic than running sprints and lifting heavy stuff. Look at the picture above, the endurance athlete spends his time doing long hard cardio sessions that increase cortisol, burn muscle, and make him crave simple carbs. The sprinter spends his time running sprints, doing some quick but intense weight lifting, and probably does some explosive plyometrics as well.

If you aren't running sprints start doing them now! I don't care if you are sprinting hills, stairs or hitting the track, sprinting makes you lean, fast and explosive! And you don't have to do a ton of it. Just one or two sprint sessions a week will transform you if your diet is in check. Some long slow cardio (steady state) is ok but should be done at a very easy pace. Think walking instead of jogging. Do it outside instead of on a hamster wheel and understand that is really just for healing purposes not to get you lean. This is something most people don't understand. Long, hard cardio sessions are actually counter productive to losing weight and feeling better. They are too stressful and unnatural. People are meant to walk/hike and then sprint to for short bursts, not to push their heart rate way up and keep it there for an hour or so!

As for lifting, if you want to be a pit bull instead of a poodle, stick to the compound movements like squats, deadlifts and heavy presses or go outside and play with some strongman implements. Only the wanna be's spend any real time using machines or doing isolation movements. The men pick up heavy stuff and move it around.

To give you an example, one of my great grandfather's was a long shoreman in Boston Harbour. Every day, all day he would pick up heavy sacks or boxes and carry them out of ships and onto the docks. When my dad was growing up he was into manual labour too and used to challenge his grandpa, the shoreman, to arm wrestling contests and other tests of strength. My dad tells me that his grandpa used to kick his ass every time! The man's grip was unreal! Why? Because every day he picked up heavy, awkward stuff and carried it. Kind of like today's "functional" training eh?

I try to run sprints 1x per week and lift heavy things 4x per week. The 6th day of training is usually dedicated to kettlebells, which I find compliments the other training. To give you some examples, here are the workouts I did Monday and Tuesday, the previous workouts are listed in posts below.

Monday:

• Bike, 10 minutes slow and easy to the park
• Hill Sprints, 10 sprints at full speed with enough of a break between to catch my breath
• Bike, 10 minutes home slow and easy

Tuesday:

• Log Clean and Press
• using Fat Gripz to make it harder to hold the handles and work my grip strength more
• worked up to 60% of my max single and did 4 x 3 reps
• Pull-ups
• varying the grip each time
• alternating between log presses
• 7 x 8 reps
• Dumbbell Military Press
• 3 x 8, heavy and with Fat Gripz on the handles
• Dumbbell 1 Arm Row
• 3 x 8, heavy

So there you have it. Sprints one day and some heavy lifting the next, my time well spent. The rest of the week will consist of more lifting and some play time with my kettlebells. What are you doing to get stronger, leaner and more athletic?

If your answer is sitting on the couch because you need some motivation here are some videos for you:





Looking for a personal trainer in Calgary? I can help you lose weight, get in shape, or build muscle. Whether you are an athlete or just getting started, I can help. Email me at nathan@kettlebellplanet.com to learn more.