Steve's Club

Character in action.

Skill work

Row 1500 meters

 

"Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind-you could call it character in action."

-Vince Lombardi

 

Good attitude.

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude" -Zig Ziglar 

Julius just started training at Steve's Club this week. Although he's only 11 years old, has a lot going for him. Not only is he a smart kid that excels in school but is also very athletic. Today, him and his older brother Jordan (14 yrs old) did 10 min AMRAP of 100 meter Waiter Walks (holding 25 lbs locked out overhead), 10 High Jumps (to rings that were set half foot above reach) and 10 box jumps. Julius got 5 rounds for a solid performance.

While brains and athleticism are great qualities to have, a more important quality at least as a predictor for success and happiness is attitude. Attitude is everything in this world. A bad attitude will turn people away faster than anything else. Worse yet, a bad attitude will quickly lead a person to failure.

Julius has the right attitude for the job. Let's just hope Julius sticks to it and stays the course. 

Stress.

(Dynamic Effort Day)

Power Snatch, 10×2 (65% of 1RM)

1 minute SIDE plank holds/rest 1 minute/1 minute SIDE plank hold

Mid Atlantic 2009

3 Rounds for time of:

10 Deadlifts (275, 185)

50 Double Unders

There is something to be said about putting a group of young athletes (and non-athletes) in a room and providing them with supervision and instruction to unleash hell. This is basically what we do everyday at Steve's Club. But unlike the streets, we offer a safe, positive and controlled environment for them to release and "just let go" of life's stresses.

Iron and rubber and some rudimentary gym equipment are they're tools of choice.

While we know weight training offers many wonderful physical benefits, it can be very therapeutic as well. For a variety of reasons, being a teenager is one, a lot of anger and frustration continues to mount before enough pressure is built up and the individual explodes.

This happens everyday. Just watch the 5 o'clock news.

Every teenager, athlete or not, needs a place to go to just get away from everything. To unmount and release the anxiety and tension that builds by the day. A place to turn the negative into positive.

The best part of my day is watching them leave with smiles on their faces as if a 1,000 lb vest was just taken off their chest.    

Charlie jerks 225lbs for a new PR!

Charlie jerks 225lbs for a new PR! from steve liberati on Vimeo.

Strength, mobility, balance and coordination.

Strength:

Push Jerk, 1 RM

DB Bulgarian Split Squat

Conditioning:

10 minute AMRAP 

Walking Lunges to ball

10 Jumping Squats

5 Strict Deadhang Pullups

 

It is tempting to just throw weights on the bar and tell them to lift. BUT before overloading them, I think its very important for young kids and teens to grow into their bodies first and perfect the basic body movements first. Coordination, balance and mobility are a must especially when working with sports based populations. For majority of kids they are growing and lack coordination, mobility and have inappropriate hip function from sitting all day (tight weak hips that also lack function).

As a result, programming is fairly basic including a steadfast diet of lunges, squats and pushups in various variations, combinations and rep schemes. Before we start we always do mobility and activation drills and then follow up with some strength work. Newer kids stick to single leg and lots of dumbbell work, whereas the older more advanced kids train with barbells and follow a Westside type format including max efforts (heavy sets) and dynamic efforts (speed sets). 

I've took a few pics today of a few of the newer kids in action and as you can see they have some work cut out for them. But this is fairly common issue with many of the kids when they first start. In a few short months, you'll see these issues disappear.  

Fall cleaning at Steve's Club.

Plank hold contest

Winner goes to Checko. Great job Checko!

WOD:

5 Rounds

KB High Pulls from the ground

5 Pushups/lateral jump over parallette bars/5 Pushups

Today we didn't use a clock. Usually our "metcon" (short for metabolic conditioning) are done "for time" as fast as possible, on the clock. But not today. Every now and again I think its good to forget about the time and just focus on clean executed form and quality of movements. Especially when it comes to pushups and KB Sumo Deadlift High Pulls from the ground form normally falls apart in a rush for the fastest time. Does that mean intensity cannot still be high without a clock? Absolutely not. The workout was done as fast as possible with little rest in between exercises, but instead more attention is given to proper form, and less attention is placed on time.

Going forward, look for more untimed workouts as we focus on form and perfecting each rep rather than rushing through it and getting sloppy. Fall cleaning is in order! 

Strength:

Seated Press, 1 RM

Bent Rows, 1 RM

Conditioning:

3 Rounds for time:

15 Hang Power Cleans

15 Burpees

Why I don't care about success.

Strength:

Box Back Squat, 8×3 (60% of 1RM)

Press, 8×2 (60% of 1RM)

"Conditioning"

“Car Bomb”

21-15-9

Chest to bar Pullups (sub: Kroc rows)

Box Jumps

Why I Don't Care About Success

 

"Success isn’t about achieving something in the future, but about doing something right now that you love." ~Leo Babauta

‘Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.’ ~Albert Einstein

Rap music: Good or bad?

Strength:

Power Snatch, 8×3

Weighted Pullups, 8×2

Anchored Sit-ups, 2×15

Conditioning:

21-15-9

DB Thrusters

Ring Dips

I'm not a huge music guy (I don't even have an IPOD!) but I do enjoy listening to good music just as much as the next guy, especially when working out and driving in the car on my 45 minute commute to the gym. Music has a strange way to move, inspire and change our mood. But I'll be the first to admit that I don't always listen closely to the lyrics or know who sings what song and the name of it.

For some reason, I enjoy listening to rap music when I workout. Not gangsta rap, but more like Lil Wayne, Nas, Jay-Z, Eminem, Kayne West (before he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the Music Awards) and a few others. 

Many would say rap music is junk and has little substance to it. I probably won't argue much with you. But I'm also not going to defend rap music either and explain why I believe its worth your time. I believe in "to each his own" so if that is what you like that by all means enjoy it. 

I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but I will admit that certain rap songs can fire me up at times and help to raise my game on a workout. Yes I know its mostly psychological, but if it works it works right?  (all things being fair...not including drugs or anything harmful to myself or others of course).

My point here to this post is while rap does "fire" me up for a workout (positive energy), it is safe to say that it fires others up as well. Sometimes this can be channeled into a good thing (such as working out) and other times it can be channeled into a bad thing (negative energy), such as getting into a fight, a drive-by shooting, or getting "messed up" (drunk or high).

While music can move us in different ways, it is extremely important for one to have self-control to use that energy in a positive light.

I wish more young people understood this and used the energy to do something good.      

Austin Malleolo visits Steve's Club and gives a short talk about his journey.

Austin visits Steve's Club from Albany CrossFit on Vimeo.