Category: fitness

The Dragan Challenge is a a great way to train endurance. It consists of one movement — the alternating curl and press. The curl isn’t strict, using momentum is fine since endurance and not isolation is the goal. The actual challenge is about beating Dragan Radovic but for us mere mortals, it’s about doing 100 reps with the dumbbell that you can control. When you reach 100, move up in weight.

According to Draganchallenge.com there are now standards:
Elite Category – 100 reps with 2 x 20kg dumb bells
Intermediate Male Category – 100 reps with 2 x 12kg dumb bells
Female Category – 100 reps with 2 x 8kg dumb bells
And this workout can be done for time: the fastest 100 lifts with a chosen weight.

Here’s a heavy version:

I didn’t realize there was a challenge called this but I’ve been doing clean and press in an endurance fashion for years. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I don’t know why but there’s a rhythm to it and once I get in the groove, I just keep going. This is one reason I make people do 5:00 of clean and press for our kettlebell certification. I feel it’s that important.

And of course I love to hear how losing fat through weight training is impossible. Training like this certainly can do it. Plus, this is a great way to train for endurance when you’re dealing with a lower body injury. Don’t stop training like everyone else who never gets results — find a way like this to train around it.

I’ve always wanted to use that line. Building a base of fitness is one of the most important things you can do. A major obstacle for most folks is that they’re so inconsistent at the beginning, that they never build up any base level of fitness. Having no base, they start all over every single time they come in. This is the road to no where.

Beginners will constantly tell you how hard it is to exercise but they can’t see that it gets easier once that baseline of fitness gets built. They often think that it will always be just like this and that reduces further the will to continue. This becomes a downward spiral.

Another problem is being consistent but not exercising enough each week for the body to get used to it. 1-2 times a week is just scratching the surface. Setting a base like that will be next to impossible. And then what happens when you inevitably miss a session or two? You weren’t coming enough to set up a baseline to begin with and now….

So what should you do? Get in the habit of exercising by doing it at least 3x a week, minimum. If fat loss and conditioning is the goal, 5x a week is your goal. Figure you’ll shoot for 5x a week and maybe make 4x some weeks. Shoot for less and you’ll get even less.

How long will this take? Give it a six solid months and you’ll have a base. Building a base is like having money in the bank. Keeping $5 in the bank isn’t gonna get you much interest. And when you withdraw any, it’s gone. $50,000 will get a lot more and if you need to withdraw every now and then instead of deposit, you won’t ruin everything and have to start all over.

So get to work.

There, I said it. I hear from folks a lot about they’re sick and can’t do X or Y. What I never, ever hear is that their choices directly influenced them getting sick.

We eat certain foods. That’s a choice. We choose Coke over water. That’s a choice. We didn’t pack an umbrella. That was a choice. We choose to drink to excess and that’s a choice too. Are we really going to keep pretending that those choices don’t have consequences?

They do and they add up. You will pay the Piper eventually but when that happens, make sure you see your role in MAKING that happen. Don’t just say, “I got sick.” Think of the bad choices that led to you getting or staying sick.

Sickness is unavoidable in some circumstances, it’s true. But getting your life together by exercising vigorously and regularly, eating nothing but clean, healthy food, sleeping enough every night, etc. builds up a pretty good immunity. When you make these healthy choices, it’s like putting money in the bank — when you need it, it’s there. When all you do is spend, spend, spend then you’re broke when illness comes knocking at your door.

So if you’re sick all the time, ask yourself what YOU are doing to contribute to that.

New equipment gives new workout options but this stuff still reinforces the basics, as it should.

Strength and power training with intelligent programming that also delivers conditioning and fat loss results! Gotta love it!