Getting Your Priorities Straight & The Twisted Conditioning Model

Well here we are rolling into February. Hard to believe the pace that life attains. It feels like not 10 seconds ago it was the 1st of January, and already another month has passed. But it's been a good month. I hope it sped you all toward your goals and that it has been a blessed time for you and your family.

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?" ~Mark 8:36

This quote should really make you think and maybe not even make you concentrate so much on the monetary aspects of this multi-layered piece of wisdom, although that is part of the idea behind this quote. Everything in the modern human existence competes for the attention of your soul. For your time, your attention and your devotion. I think to pursue true happiness and to be a fulfilled human being you have to prioritize what you allow yourself to get absorbed in. By setting your priorities straight and realizing the eternal value of your own soul you create an environment of peacefulness and productive happiness.

Here are some thoughts on how to help prioritize your attention so that you can gain as much of the world a you want without sacrificing your soul.

1. Realize that the physical things in life are just temporary. Your soul lasts forever. Things in modern society compete so loudly and with such veracity for our attention that they would lead us to believe that they are of greater importance than they really are.
2. Be a grown up about what you prioritize. We all have to work, but I know many adults who also spend an inordinate amount of time with other things that are truly a waste. Making a living is important. Family is important. Spiritual, Mental and Physical care are important. Translation: Spend time on the things that last. Don't spend every waking hour working or paying attention to idiot distractions like TV, video games, arguing on the Internet over pointless topics, etc.
3. We come back again to balance. When you realize the eternal importance of how you spend time it's easy to find balance. By devoting appropriate amounts of time to the things in life that demand your attention, you find the fastest road to success. That doesn't mean the most money that means the money you need as well as fulfillment and strength in family.
4. Learn to say "No." You must take responsibility for preserving your time and the focus of your being. I like to do and be involved in many different activities. But when it's time to get the job done, you have to concentrate on the task at hand. And you have to understand that there's only a limited amount of time and attention that you can give to anything. You have to control what and when.
5. Whatever you do, do it well. When you're working. work. Then concentrate on something else. When you're playing. play hard. When you love. love with all you've got. Be the best you can be at everything you do. There is great fulfillment in giving your all to a task. There is great success in true effort.
6. Realize that we're only here for a short time. The things that last will be the people that you effect, not the extra money you made, not the extra hour you spent at work, not the extra 4" on the width of you TV screen. The love that you gave, the peace that you propagated, and the helpfulness and kindness will last.
7. God loves you. He wants a relationship with you through Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing in anyone's life. After that, be a blessing to your family. Develop your mind and body. Make some money. Bless some other people. Have fun. That should give you most of the important priorities in life.

Give freely of yourself, but jealously guard the focus of your soul. Everything wants a piece of you. Only give a piece to what's really important.


NEW STUFF

Well I've been talking about it and I just got a pre-production copy of the first in "Dennis Rogers' Old Time Strongman Feats" series. "How to Drive a Nail Without a Hammer."

I'm just going to quickly and flatly tell you that it was awesome!! I've been doing the drive-a-nail-through-a-board-with-your-hand feat for a while and I learned some completely new and unique stuff. It's going to be the only DVD of its kind with actual broken down, step-by-step instructions as well as assistance exercises and multiple styles of the feat for you to perform. Everything you need to know about how to do this is on this DVD.

If you can't do it, by the time you finish watching this DVD, it'll simply be because you haven't built enough strength to perform the feat, it won't be because you don't know how to perform it. Dennis tells me it'll be available in probably two weeks.

Dennis was also named TeamiXL Athlete of the Month for February. You can go to their website and read a very cool interview with him. www.teamixl.com


TRAINING TIP

For today's training tip we're going to answer a question or two that we've received in email or have been posted on our forum.

Today's question will help clarify some questions or thoughts some of you may have about Twisted Conditioning and its training model, about how it's applied and The Three Levels of Conditioning. Maximum strength (low rep barbell), intermediate or sprint level type strength (strongman), and endurance strength (alternative conditioning).

QUESTION:
Coach Jeffries,

I just listened to your interview on SportSpecific.com and had couple of quick questions about the three levels of conditioning you talked about. Is there an order, which you do the levels? i.e. M-W-F you do max strength, sprint type endurance, then pure conditioning. How many weeks to these phases last? 4, 6, 8, etc. or are they cyclic? What would be your rep change from week to week? Thanks in advance for your time and knowledge!!

Brian Sabo

ANSWER:
That is a basic set up of our program. Generally I like to train the max then sprint, then endurance levels in that order. However, this is very conditional to what you want to achieve in your training. For instance do you need to emphasize a particular level to prepare for a particular event or sport, etc. Also I like the idea of being prepared for many possible physical situations. So I think it is good to switch the order around and this will help you learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. For instance reversing the order, (endurance, then sprint, then max), will tell you exactly how good your endurance is by letting you know how strong you are after doing the endurance work first. I've also moved toward mixing levels at the same time. For instance max lifts mixed with intervals of conditioning work. It's one thing to be able to hit your max when you're rested and fresh, it's another to be able to get close to it when you're breathing hard and your heart rate is high. Also if you know your own body well enough, you can set the programs up to work within whatever style you prefer and still get good gains in all the areas. i.e., 3 days a week, 4 or 5 days a week, or everything on one day or different levels on different days, etc.

I don't generally use a true cyclic approach or a particular length of phase in training. I'm generally trying to train all of the attributes all of the time. However I may modify the training to emphasize one or the other according to a goal I want to achieve. Obviously you can't stay at 100% every time, but I think you can stay pretty close without burn out as long as you're smart about your recovery and build your bases. This is a major reason I like to do single rep heavy training, because it keeps me the strongest and freshest with the least burn out. It's also why I switch my conditioning around and use variety in conditioning. I try to always be at a particular standard of strength and conditioning and use that as a measuring stick for the effectiveness of whatever my current training is. I like to keep fairly consistent, 15 to 20 minute conditioning sessions and then mix in a longer true endurance challenge once a month or so.

I'm not really changing repetitions, I'm more changing weight I'm using and range of motion. I'm always doing low (read one, two rep), rep strength work. I'm always doing some moderate rep/sprint type/strength type work and some endurance work. I'm also usually doing some kind of increasing distance partial rep work. I stay with the same repetitions, I just change the weight I'm using if I need to ramp up or back off and rotate the exercises and combinations to experiment a great deal. The reason I don't change a lot is that I feel you get a pure advancement in your abilities by keeping the same standards and yet this allows me to build in variety. I also think that life and sport require all three levels at the same time, therefore you need to be constantly working all three.

Thanks for the question Brian and glad you heard the interview on Ryan Lee's SportSpecific.com.

God bless you and those you train.

If you want to learn more about the specifics of Twisted Conditioning, then go to our website, www.strongerman.com. It's the only book of its kind, teaching you how to truly build world class strength and endurance together without out conflict in your training.