Most people a week before going home for Christmas are thinking about Christmas trees, eating 15lbs of Turkey in one sitting and how to stitch up Uncle Tommy with a whoopee cushion.

I’m usually in this category, but this year found myself in the freezing valleys of South Wales with the UK’s top strength and conditioning coach Phil Richards who has worked with Glenn Ross (the UK’s strongest man), pro-boxer Amir Kahn, numerous top level Rugby teams and a variety of other athletes from endurance runners to swimmers.

He has also interned with doctors and strength experts like Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell so I knew I was in for some AWESOME information and I wasn’t disappointed.

Phil literally blew my mind with what he has learned and studied, but most importantly, applied on a level where rapid results aren’t a nice surprise every now and then but an absolute must if you want to keep your job. One mistake in program design or nutrition protocols and you’ve got some big-ass hairy rugby playing Samoan brute on your back wanting to know why his contract hasn’t been renewed.

The beauty is that Phil is all about performance, yet takes a stand point of building health first and the results speak for themselves. 

Some of what he talks about you may have heard from one of those airy-fairy yoga types. What I now know  is how to apply these principles  in a strength and conditioning setting so that the overall result is a person who is super healthy but also an animal in training!

Unfortunately many people believe you have to be EITHER a tree hugging yogi or an iron-bending strength freak. Life is much more healthy, productive and enjoyable when you learn to merge what are all great principles.

I’m going to be drip feeding this information to you throughout early 2010 and also getting strong results from the new Intense Conditioning guinea pigs for 12 weeks to prove the theories.

You can still be a guinea pig for the completely revamped 12 week nutrition, strength and conditioning program – check out what to do ——-> Intense Conditioning Guinea Pigs (Its free)

In the meantime here is a very brief version of a small part of what Phil taught me (some of which was already fairly certain in my mind) and how you can apply it straight away.

Please post your thoughts and questions in the comment box below!

In no particular order:

1) There is too much focus on carbs, fat and protein in fitness nutrition with little regard for first getting the body into an alkaline state which is able to fight off disease and illness and, from a performance point of view, give you incredible levels of energy. This is like trying to build a house on quick sand!

Nothing works without healthy, hydrated blood so pay careful attention to eradicating where possible, sources of pollutants in your life and those foods which cause an acidic environment. Failure to do this is what has our bodies literally swimming in toxic waste. This acidity is often mistaken for tiredness

Spend as little time as physically possible on your mobile phone.

Remove all mercury fillings from your mouth which, no matter how hard you train and how much organic food you eat, will pollute your body such that the concentration of heavy metals in your saliva is greater than the legla limit for municipal dumping in the UK. Preferably get a dentist to do this….

Do not, under any circumstances other than life or death, drink tap water.

Eat organic food wherever possible in particular meat to avoid all the steroids and hormones injected and the pesticides eaten by the animal.

Start and end the day by alkalizing your body to counter-act some of the unavoidable nasty effects of modern life such as polluted air and halogen-filled shower and swimming pool water.

This can be done by consuming small, inexpensive amounts of sodium bicarbonate, iodine drops and green drinks.

2) Consume 80% raw foods and keep meat consumption to just 10% of your diet.

Before you start hyperventilating as I nearly did at the thought of such low meat consumption, try it and see how much your energy levels and digestion improve.

Unfortunately in trying to ‘eat like our ancestors did’ many people forget that meat would only have been consumed once per day in the evening after a days hunting and that was only on a good day.

Vegetarians and vegans tend to have sky high energy levels for a reason. However, they may be like a kangaroo on speed but are also often very weak and lack testosterone to push hard in strength training sessions, hence a need to keep a degree of organic meat in your diet.

Fill up your calorie levels with healthy fats if you want size and, as I have said for a long time, restrain carbohydrate consumption to after training only when insulin sensitivity is naturally higher.

3) Commerical protein supplements are largely just sugar in a tub

Supplement with highly recommended amino acids and a pure carbohydrate supplement before, during and after training for animal like training sessions. Avoid all the commercially produced protein shakes and make your own in this way.

If you feel a need for extra protein at other times use a good rice protein isolate and pea protein isolate supplement.

Other supplements are best taken transdermally (through the skin) and have fast effects on cellular metabolism – magnesium being a great example.

4) Don’t forget the sun!

The sun gives us life but modern medicine and villainized it with talk of unhealthy sunbeds.

If you live in a sunny place – make sure you get 15-20 minutes of high noon sun every day to keep you in a good mood and to get the most effective source of Vitamin D which is critical for many processes from cancer prevention to strong bones and teeth.

Phil has had great results with pro athletes who have come from sunny climates to the UK’s soccer and rugby leagues and within months been suffering from depression and inuries. A few short sunbed sessions each week of around 5 minutes did wonders for mental and physical performance so don’t underestimate it. Yes, long doses of sun exposure can be harmful but regular doses of UVB rays are positively beneficial even if they come from a sunbed.

5) If you can’t gain – don’t train.

I love this phrase from Phil and it served as a reminder that often we train for the sake of training with no regard for whether we will actually improve strength or performance. Often we are just compounding fatigue for no benefit. Clearly there are times you need to push hard when you don’t want to, but there is a time and place.

On a more detailed level, don’t fill your sessions with 8-10 exercises just because you feel you should – know exactly what you are doing and why rather than fluffing out your program sheet! If you perform 3-4 exercises with intensity you will see gains in strength and lean muscle within days or weeks.

I’ll be proving this with the Intense Conditioning Guinea Pigs over 12 weeks from January to April!

Phil had me Zercher squatting 115kg (failed at 120kg) which wasn’t very nice.

6) If you are looking to improve strength and power you need to invest enough sets in it!

Phil has found that the nervous system only really starts firing after 7-8 sets so you need to be looking at the best part of 10 sets of deadlifts, box squats, hang cleans or any other ‘big bang’ exercise to see your performance increase week in, week out. This does wonders for mental strength believe me.

7) Random acts of violence are good…

You must know exactly what you’re doing and why in training, but don’t forget the mental and physical benefits derived from occassional random act of slef-inflicted brutality – more on this soon…

Conclusion

There is much, much more I need to teach you on this and other training and nutrition topics but hopefully this will serve as little reminders or sparks in your brain going into 2010. We also need to look at why all this ’say no to cardio’ bull needs reviewing.

Stay tuned and pop any comments or questions in the box below!

Don’t forget if you want to be on the new and improved Intense Conditioning 12 week test check out what you need to do – some of the original applicants have let me down so there’s a few spaces left! I know the Guinea Pigs will see amazing results but I need the testimonials!

If you haven’t heard about Intense Conditioning you should have!

I’m going to be relaunching it next year but need some more testimonials and so I’m on the hunt for some more Guinea Pigs.

I’m looking for 5 men and 5 women to start the program on Monday January 4th for 12 weeks. If you are going on holiday for a couple of weeks or are going to email me loads of excuses why you can’t do this and can’t do that, please don’t apply.

Flexibility with programming is built into Intense Conditioning but I do NOT want people who are going to email me every 5 minutes asking if they can change this and change that.

You need access to kettlebells or dumbbells and if you can get to a gym with barbell it’s useful but not necessary unless you’re strong already, and you need to not be averse to doing running intervals of 200-400m plus a nasty little test at the start.

There are rules which MUST be adhered to if you want to be eligible for the competition of winning 6 weeks fitness mentoring from me. 

The winner will get training and nutrition programming from me for 6 weeks which I usually charge £120 for.

Now given that the program is not a ‘build muscle, burn fat’ program it will not only be about who loses the most fat although if you do things properly, this will happen and fast.

The winner will be the one who I judge to have performed best doing the following:

- Improves the most in the tests (although I am aware that it’s not particularly difficult to go easy on the first test!)

- Improves their physique the most (don’t expect massive amounts of muscle gain – it’s not that kind of program although you can expect greater muscle density and minimal body fat)

- Blogs the most and keeps posting notes and links on Facebook and Twitter (there will be guidelines for this)

- Makes the biggest improvements in their attitude to training and goes through the biggest mind shift during the course of the program.

- Makes the most referrals leading to sign ups for the program (I’ll show you how you can actually easily make commissions just by creating simple links on Clickbank and sticking them in your blog posts so you actually get paid to do the program!)

- You must post front and side photos and measurements at the start of the program with the day’s (or day before) newspaper every single week.

If you are not willing to post photos on the internet which I can use for marketing purposes please do not apply to be an Intense Conditioning Guinea Pig!

There are no rules as to who can and can’t do it other than those mentioned above!

This program is not for beginners but similarly you don’t need to be a machine to do it! You will become one over 12 weeks FACT.

You will be pushed beyond what you’ve done before but all with short, intense sessions so you must be willing to work very hard.

You must also be willing to pay attention to deload weeks and technique practice days as Intense Conditioning is not about just drilling yourself into the floor but integrates strength and conditioning for all round athletic ability.

If you are not willing to treat yourself like an athlete and become more like one, then please don’t apply!

If you’re up for this and are willing to stick it out for 12 weeks, following all the rules then please post who you are and why you will make the perfect Guinea Pig below including your email address so I can contact the winners!

Let’s get it on!!!!

Jon

The chances are if you’re reading this you know me fairly well and you know I don’t mess about when training myself or other people!

Because of this, I get many emails from new friends asking if they could handle the Intense Conditioning program, so here’s the no-bullshit lowdown including stuff you may not know….

1) ‘Fat loss’ programs piss me off.

I don’t see the need! You wanna look like an athlete, train and eat like one. As a result you become an athlete and you look like one as part of the bargain. Intense Conditioning doesn’t just add a little muscle and burn fat like many internet programs.

You become a machine in the process!!

Stronger, leaner, fitter and able to do stuff most people can’t because they’re always chasing Turbulent Times on the mission to lose 1% body fat and look a bit better which never really brings satisfaction!

2) Does this mean you have to be super fit? Not necessarily.

Many have completed the program when at first they were crapping themselves at the thought of pushing their limits. What made them get great results was simply having the balls to dive in!

Believe you will never get anywhere on ANY program if you won’t dig deep!!

Many are ladies who are sick to the back teeth of living their life in search of losing the next 2lbs. On IC fat loss happens EASILY because they are NOT focussed on fat loss and these girls were progressed through the various stages until one day they look back and “Holy Crap I am now a machine!”

This is a key secret to long-term fat loss. Train like an athlete. That means you train when you don’t want to, you have goals based on times and weights and performance and you are committed to your goal rather than kind of interested when it suits all the other stuff in your life. The fat loss is inevitable.

 Jemma trains with me using the very same training!

3) You can upgrade to a nutrition program that enables you to find the best of two VERY FAST WORKING nutrition protocols to minimise body fat whilst maximising energy through a quick questionnaire.

You don’t get this on any other program I’ve seen as most trainers have a one-size fits all approach. That’s the difference between online trainers and people like me who work with people who dont’ always have time to eat 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat 6 times per day.

4) The first 4 weeks involves at least 2 practice / development days.

This means you can practice all those wicked exercises you see me and other top pro’s doing but think you’ll never do it. These then become full on strength days which you don’t need a gym for – then the results accelerate like a rocket!

Stop dreaming about doing them and start practising without the pressure of a full on workout. THAT is how you train like an athlete and that is how you end up looking like one!

At some point, the stuff you see in my videos…I couldn’t do. There’s a lot more I want to do that others can but I am ON THAT TRAIL! I’m working to wards it no matter how long it takes. Hell if I never get there at least I’ll enjoy the journey and the challenge.

You’ll probably train LESS on Intense Conditioning than you do now. The quality is there without the unnecessary quantity.

5) I build fitness machines not things that look the part but can’t perform on any stage other than….the stage (read most body builders and fitness models….not all but most) Take your pick as to what you want to be and achieve with your life! I know where I am!

6) You get 12 WEEKS of reports on creatine, protein, the best music, caffeine, flexibility (well that’s more of a whole new book!) etc

7) Anyone with an ordinary level of fitness can start the program.

Don’t expect to be ordinary at the end. If you aren’t fussed about performing like an athlete, stick with the famous fat burning programs if you can live with yourself knowing you look quite good but would get your ass kicked in most fitness challenges!!!

If you can press 2 weights over your head, run 1500m without stopping and do 20 burpees and 10 push ups, you’re ready to roll -everything is adaptable as you require!

The truth is, I’ve been in the training game long enough to realise that my life is much more fun and productive when I am surrounded with people who are willing to knuckle down and work for results and send me emails saying how they kicked their own ass in training and loved it!

I love helping people but only if they are willing to help themselves and this program requires a steely determination not present in many of those who blindly follow the fat loss experts like sheep CONSTANTLY waiting for that magic tip that will rock their world!!!

Some of the guys who have come out of Intense Conditioning have inspired me with their dedication and I love knowing I have followers for life now they’ve seen what their missing.

Hopefully you’re next.

And stop waiting for a better time or ’til I get a bit fitter’!! Life exists in the here and now and ‘that day’ will never come!!!!

You want to impress people with your body and abilities? Start today. Start eating like you mean it, train like you mean it and live like this day, TODAY, is your only chance to get out and kick some ass!

If you want physical AND mental transformation I know you’ll love Intense Conditioning so go get it and if you don’t change your entire perspective on fitness within the first few weeks, I’ll give give you your money back.

Rock on!

Jon

PS Seriously, this is the dogs b*ll*x —–> Intense Conditioning

I’ve got a bit of a problem with traditional strength training.

Don’t get me wrong I love the old 5×5, 6×3 and all the other variations for building strength and power.

However, I’ve always got bored with training solely for strength and so tried mixing these in with my conditioning work.

What happened was, I ended up getting so sore following heavy strength sessions that I pretty much limped through the conditioning sessions, giving it 70% if I was lucky!

I then set about trying to find a way to work on strength and power without affecting my conditioning training. I was getting greedy and couldn’t settle for the traditional opinion that you have to work on different elements of physical performance one at a time.

And so Intense Conditioning was born and will be released on June 1st 2009.

As well as delivering 12 weeks of hardcore conditioning tests, I’ve combine plyometric work with isometric and low rep strength training to develop unstoppable conditioning and obvious increases in functional strength and power (never mind the shedding of body fat!)

Isometrics are very underrated and many people don’t even know what I’m talking about so hopefully this extract straight out of Intense Conditioning will help clear a few things up!

Read on then get ready for Intense Conditioning…

**************************************************************

When talking about muscle contractions there are essentially three categories of contraction.

The concentric contraction of the muscle describes the phase in which the muscle shortens under tension. For instance if you perform a bench press, your chest and tricep muscles (amongst others) shorten as they contract to move the bar upwards.

The eccentric contraction of the muscle describes the phase in which the muscle lengthens under tension. For instance, when you perform a squat, as you descend with the bar on your back, your hamstrings are lengthened whilst still under tension.

This leaves the third category – isometric contractions.

An isometric contraction of a muscle is when tension is produced in the muscle without any shortening or lengthening as described above.

An example of this would be if you stood in front of a wall then tried to push it over.

You would feel tension in most of the muscles in your upper body, yet no movement would actually be occurring.

You may well be wondering what the point of this training is!

First, it is an excellent way to stimulate neuromuscular adaptation* without the need for really heavy weights which can be impractical, inaccessible and require lengthy periods of coaching to be safe and effective – none of which are practical for a program delivered via the internet for people who want to be able to train anywhere!

(*Neuromuscular adaptation is improvement of the signals which run from your brain to the muscle you are asking to work. This causes more muscle fibres to be called into use thus increasing the amount of weight you are able to move and the speed at which you can do it.)

Second, performing concentric and eccentric contractions with heavy weights over a sustained period of time usually leads to an increase in muscle size.

Whilst this is highly desirable for some, for others it is actually a bad thing. Some ladies simply do not want increased muscle size, and some athletes are required to remain in a particular weight bracket for their competitions.

Also a tennis player, for example, has no need to increase muscle bulk and so must find ways to increase strength, power and ultimately speed around the court without adding extra weight which may have the opposite effect.

The third key reason for ensuring a percentage of any strength and conditioning program is taken up by isometric training, is that it enables the individual to work on those points in a movement in which they are weak.

For instance, when you press a dumbbell or kettlebell overhead, you will find that you are most likely to fail on the last rep at about the half way point of the movement.

Within a traditional repetition, you will pass through the weak point in under 0.1 seconds giving you little time to train your body to be strong at that point.

This can lead to very slow gains.

Using isometric training enables you to work at exactly the point you normally struggle at, thus focussing on the very spot which is the weak link.

Finally, the fourth key reason for using isometric training in this program is that heavy weight training can often lead to considerable muscle soreness. This will lead to sub-standard conditioning sessions in this program which won’t be tolerated!

This is not to say that isometrics are in any way better than typical methods of lifting, but in this particular program it makes perfect sense!

There are other advantages to isometric training*:

·                                            Only simple apparatus is required

·                                            You can fix the joint angle for maximum effect

·                                            Smaller energy and time expenditure

·                                            Greater potential for teaching and coaching as you are holding the same position for longer

There can however be drawbacks to isometric training*:

·                                            It can tire the nervous system if used excessively

·                                            If you have high blood pressure it is not recommended due to due to the holding of breath required during exerting maximum tension

·                                            It will only enhance muscle performance close to the specific angle used in the isometric contraction. (This can however be overcome by performing repetitions at multiple angles).

·                                            May reduce the functional range of dynamic movement and reduce the elasticity of soft tissue.

*Lists adapted from Siff.M (2003), Supertraining

It should however be noted that the potential drawbacks can be minimised through correct breathing and relaxation techniques as well as sufficient rest breaks.

These are explained fully in the Intense Conditioning program which enables you to ramp up your conditioning levels and increase strength and power at the same time. Keep an eye out!

I finally got my hands on a 50kg power bag.

What happened? I created my first effort for the 10 minute YouTube workout challenge to be run in June.

You can do better?

I wanna see it (and try it!)

Stay tuned for more on the challenge!

Here’s some evidence as to why interval training must be a regular, tough, sweat-fest of a session on your training timetable!

This really is just some of the piles of research I have next to me!

Let’s look at some answers to sceptics, aerobics fans and those who ‘don’t have time’…

But I want to improve my stamina for running / cycling etc

Gibala et al (2006) compared low volume sprint training with high volume endurance (typical of running fanatics).

Both groups performed 6 sessions over 14 days.

The HIIT group performed 4-6 x 30 second intervals @ 250% of VO2 max (very hard!) with 4 min rest inbetween.

The endurance group performed 90-120 min cycling at 65% of VO2 max (moderate).

The HIIT group did 2.5 hours of training over 2 weeks whilst the endurance group did 10.5h.

The results?

Muscle oxidative capacity improvements was similar in both groups so muscle endurance capabilities will have improved at about the same rate, but the HIIT group spent 8 hours less doing it over 2 weeks!

Aerobic exercise burns fat so it’s better for fat burning

5 well trained distance runners were tested at each of the following:

2 hours @ 24% of VO2 max (low intensity)
10 minutes @ 81% of VO2 max (relatively high intensity but continuous)
2 minutes on 2 minutes off @ 89% of VO2 max (high intensity intervals)

(Brockman et al, 1993)

After one hour of finishing the sessions, oxygen consumption was significantly higher following the intermittent exercise.

After just 40 minutes, oxygen consumption had returned to base level in the walking test. This means no more fat burning until you do mroe exercise.

This means metabolic rate was much higher – more calorie / fat burning whilst at rest!

I’ve heard you burn more calories at the time of aerobic exercise.

This MAY be true but check this study out!

A 20 week endurance program was compared with a 15 week High Intensity Interval Training program. (Tremblay et al, 1994)

Over those weeks, the endurance group burned 120mJ of energy during exercise whereas the HIIT group burned 57.9mJ.

Surely endurance wins then?

Not when you consider that the HIIT group showed more pronounced reduction in body fat!

So they trained for 5 weeks less but lost more fat – SHORTER TIME TO RESULTS!

When they adjusted the results to compare fat loss in proportion to the cost of energy of the exercise sessions, the HIIT group lost 9 TIMES as much fat.

It should be pretty clear now why I force home the point that how many calories you burn in a session is largely irrelevant – ignore calorie counters on cross-trainers etc – waste of time.

Get in, smash it, go home.

Jon

Some people are asking just how tough Intense Conditioning really is going to be and wondering if they really work hard enough when they train.

Well, here’s the workout I did this morning – the video is from when I did it last year.

It will answer both questions.

This very workout is in Week 9 of the Intense Conditioning program with a couple of slight tweaks.

Quite simply it will kick you in places you’ve never been kicked.

Guys, this is what I mean by a true metabolic weight session – the intensity when done properly is mind-numbing!

If you want abs, a lean athletic body, unstoppable conditioning, bigger muscles or anything else you need to be willing to give it everything.

This doesn’t mean selling your soul to fitness or living at the gym!

However, you need to be able to zone out of your troubles for those 45 minutes when you give 100% to whatever session is in your program – and love it!!!

You also need to be following your nutrition plan all week.

By all means reward yourself ONCE per week but remember what REWARD means.

You don’t earn – you don’t get! Be strict with yourself.

Anyway here’s the session – go on I dare you to try it…. (VIDEO BELOW)

4 Rounds of….

20 swings
20 snatches (10 each side)
20 swings
20 jerks (10 each side)
20 swings
20 snatches (10 each side)
20 swings
40 single arm rows (10 each side)
20 swings
50 push ups