Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
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Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
Warning Not all exercises are suitable for everyone. Please consult your doctor before beginning this exercise program, especially if: • • • • •
You have any pre-existing medical conditions You are taking medication of any kind You are suffering from injury or illness, or are feeling unwell You are pregnant You have not exercised for a long time
The creators, producers and distributors of this program do not accept responsibility for any injury or accident incurred as a result of following this program.
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Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
Foreword
By Rajko Radovic BSc. Sport Science,
Loughborough University
There is no better introduction to this book than simply to have watched one of Dragan’s $10,000 challenges. Witnessing a man in his fifties outlasting five…ten…even fifteen athletes, has to intrigue even the most skeptical of us and leave us with one burning question: HOW DOES HE DO IT? Dragan (my father) has always believed that physical evidence is far more powerful than words, and that is why he has always let his actions do the talking. But, before you begin reading this fascinating book, hoping to find the answers and learn the secrets of lifelong fitness and vitality, I want to briefly share with you my unique perspective on the fitness phenomenon that is Dragan Radovic -- the perspective of someone who has observed his remarkable journey first hand. Most of all I want to 3
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
share with you what I feel is the greatest value of this book; what I consider to be the most remarkable aspect of everything Dragan represents, which should offer tremendous inspiration and motivation to men and women everywhere - old and young: When I was 14 years old my dad jokingly asked me, “When are you going to catch me up? When are you going to get fitter than me so that I can finally sit down and get old happily?” It was a longstanding joke with my dad to ask this question, but of course to a young man who considered himself to be an athlete, it was also a challenge! That particular year, instead of just laughing, I responded, “I’ll tell you when dad…when I turn 21! Because I’ll be at my physical peak and you’ll be 50 years old, by which time you’ll be well past it!” At the time although I was joking, in my mind I was actually very confident that what I was saying was true and inevitable. It was a fact of life! At 21 years of age, I thought, a man is in his prime, and conversely at 50 years of age a man is definitely physically ‘over the hill’! I smiled as I thought to myself ‘sorry dad, but you know it’s true.’ Perhaps at that point most other fathers would have accepted that their child was probably right but Dragan, being a man who has spent most of his life proving people wrong, simply said to me, “I will be the fittest I’ve ever been in my life when I reach fifty, so you’d better start training hard if you want to catch me!” 4
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
I laughed! This statement was coming from a man who had been involved in fitness from a young age. How could he possibly expect to top the excellent physical condition he achieved in his twenties, at the grand old age of fifty? The years passed by fast. Before we knew it I was indeed 21 and dad was fast approaching his 50th birthday. Had I been right? Had time finally caught up with Dad, and worked in my favor? I was in great shape. I was studying Sport Science at Europe’s top sports university, and stronger and fitter than I’d ever been. My resting heart rate was just 35 beats per minute, and I was training hard every day as an intercollegiate basketball player. I was indeed at my physical peak and I guess you could say I was in the prime of my life. That summer I visited my dad. He had just beaten his own records in free squats and dumbbell lifts (I won’t mention the number of reps because it’s almost unbelievable) and I found out that the week before with almost no running training whatsoever, he’d run a 10 mile road race in a very good time…barefoot! Was he fit? It was safe to say he was indeed far fitter than at any point previously in his life! Of course to me there was nothing particularly remarkable about this because I’d seen the gradual progression year to year and it seemed entirely normal. But, one day after a tough training session together, as I watched my dad going about his business while I tried to ignore my incredibly sore muscles, I suddenly recalled the bet we had made seven years previously. It dawned on me that, at that time, I had been so sure my dad would be old and ‘past it’ when he reached 50, that in my mind it was virtually a FACT. And if I had won the bet, nobody would have blinked an eyelid to hear that a young sportsman aged 21 had become fitter than his 50year-old father! But the remarkable thing was, even at my peak I still wasn’t fitter than my 50-year-old dad! It was at this point, for 5
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the very first time in my life, I recognized the incredible value of what my dad was proving to himself, to me and to society. I suppose the story could end there. My dad proved his point, that you can still be fit and look fantastic when you get older. But the amazing thing is that the story didn’t finish there. As I approach 26 and my dad approaches 55, I now expect my dad to be a little fitter each year! This goes against logic and everything I’ve ever seen or been led to believe. What is more important than any of the fitness records that Dragan sets and the $10,000 challenges that he wins against teams of 10 men is the fact that at the age of 54 my own father can still physically do everything I can do at age 25 – at my physical peak! I’m not just talking about the fact that he can lift more weights or do more squats, or that he still has better muscular development than me, but that he can still jump on a basketball court down at Venice beach and play at 100% intensity with a group of tough young ball players! It is the fact that he can still wrestle for one hour with a world champion grappler. It is the fact that he can do hard physical labor on the house with more energy and capacity than men half his age. It is the fact that he can jump a fence, swing on a branch or sprint across a field, not gingerly or carefully so as not to damage one of his brittle bones or strain one of his tight muscles, but with bounding energy! He still does all these things as if he were a young man because he has the physical body and capacity of a highly trained 25-year-old athlete – at twice the age! This book is not just about “How to look great at fifty.” Of course we are all fundamentally concerned with looking good, and Dragan has discovered the secret to achieving that. But even more importantly this book is about a way of putting on hold the ageing process and being at your physical peak well past the age that any doctors or experts would have ever suggested was possible. 6
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As Dragan’s son, it feels quite normal for to have a 54 year old dad who can still physically do everything I can do. But when I look around and realize it isn’t normal. Most of my friends’ parents are not the same. It is then that I realize that he has discovered something truly amazing. Knowing that if I follow his methods I can expect to be in the physical condition I’m in now (if not better!) for the next 30 years, is an incredibly inspiring and wonderful thing. That is why I have wholeheartedly taught and followed Dragan’s methods for the past 7 years. I do not do it because he is my father or out of loyalty to the family business, but because he is the only man I know who is truly showing the way with actions not words! I hope you can change your life by reading this book, like so many have already. Just open your mind to the possibility of a different way. Be inspired!
Rajko Radovic
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CONTENTS
Foreword .................................................................................... 3 A personal note…....................................................................... 9 Just Good Genetics? ................................................................ 11 Ageing & Diminishing Vitality .................................................... 14 A Matter of Perspective…......................................................... 17 My goal for you…...................................................................... 21 Why Do We Exercise?.............................................................. 24 Explain It To An Alien! .............................................................. 25 What is Vitality? ........................................................................ 26 The Importance of Vitality ......................................................... 30 Measuring Vitality ..................................................................... 31 Two Extremes of Fitness .......................................................... 32 What Fitness Is Not…............................................................... 35 Fitness Defined… ..................................................................... 39 Cardiovascular Conditioning..................................................... 41 Summary .................................................................................. 46 1. The “4x4” Principle................................................................ 51 2.Maximizing Energy Output..................................................... 58 3. Simultaneous Cardio- and Muscle Training .......................... 76 4. Minimal Time Investment ...................................................... 94 Getting Started........................................................................ 110 It’s Time to Test! ..................................................................... 115 Your Fitness4x4 Training........................................................ 123 Vertical Lift Guidelines ............................................................ 127 Squat Guidelines .................................................................... 131 The “Dragan Challenge” ......................................................... 134 Frequently Asked Questions................................................... 135 In Closing… ............................................................................ 145 Feedback................................................................................ 146 Questions ............................................................................... 147 Going Further ….. ................................................................... 148 Personal Stats Page ............................................................... 149 Progress Chart........................................................................ 150 8
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
A personal note… As I take my first steps into the 6th decade of my life I have come to one conclusion: it is the Fitness4x4 exercise concept that has allowed me to experience a level of vitality unmatched by any period in the previous 50 years of my existence. I recall the best days of my 20s when I believed that I was at my highest fitness and best physical condition. At the time I would have thought it a joke if someone had suggested that a 50-year-old man could be in the same condition. Yet here I am at 53 years of age, undeniably fitter than I was in those days of my ‘peak fitness’ and capable of physical feats that are simply beyond anything I could have done at that time. Today I am experiencing an added quality of life which was not there in my ‘younger days’ when my appreciation of sound health was yet undeveloped and my good physical condition taken for granted. Growing older made me understand life in a different way and mature mentally. The combination of physical vitality and mental maturity has created a new dimension in my life – an experience beyond words. It saddens me to see that so many others of my generation are resigned to an “old person’s lifestyle” and can only nostalgically reminisce about their youthful vitality. This is not how life is meant to be. It is not natural (as we are led to believe) – it is avoidable and, to some degree, reversible. Fitness4x4 has been constantly evolving over the past 14 years and, with it, my physical condition. Today I am at my peak fitness and I don’t speculate about fitness theoretically – I practice what I preach, and I teach others what I have experienced to work effectively. Since I turned 50 three years ago I have been breaking my previous year’s record regularly – I am confident that this trend will continue for some years to come. 9
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
Fitness4x4 has allowed me to extend the energy of youth beyond my most optimistic expectations. I have no doubts that it can do the same for you if you give it a chance. Good luck,
Dragan
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Just Good Genetics? Today, at the age of 53, I enjoy the unique privilege of being able to stage fitness contests against fit young men who are half my age or younger. My unusual fitness level impresses people who watch my contests, but many seem to think that it is good genetics that enables me to be in the condition that I am at this age. I strongly disagree with this assumption. No doubt, genetics play a part, but without Fitness4x4 I would be no different to millions of others of my generation.
Several of my first cousins, who are the same age as me, are surely of the same genetic stock but are still no different to what you would call typical 50 year-olds. I remember them to be very healthy young men – always healthier and stronger than myself. It is obvious to me that the noticeable differences in our physical conditions today are the direct result of our different lifestyles, not our genetics. I am grateful for undeniably good genetics but it is Fitness4x4 that has allowed me to have the health I enjoy today. 11
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
When I was a very young child I caught pneumonia and had my first experience of being in hospital. Waking up in the hospital room the very first morning was a terrifying experience for me. I looked in the direction of the glass doors, hoping desperately to see my mother or my father. The minutes stretched to eternity. Today, fifty years on, I can vividly recall that experience and feel the same fear and despair. If I dwell on that experience long enough I begin to feel sickness in my stomach. My childhood and school days were frequently interrupted by visits to hospitals. It seemed to me that my classroom friends were growing bigger and stronger by the week, while I stagnated. Towards the end of my high school I was one of the smallest and weakest in my class. Every fall and winter my knees and shoulder joints would trouble me and I would often wake up with pain in my shoulders, my knees or both. I was diagnosed with some form of inherited rheumatism which, I was told, was to stay with me for life. By the time I entered College I was tired of being physically inferior to the other boys and not being able to make a contribution to any of the sports teams. I knew I had to do something to catch up with those more athletic boys and I began to take an interest in exercise. Soon I started to notice the improvements in my physical condition that came from exercising. I made considerable physical improvements during my years at College, gradually overtaking most of my classmates. In my final year of College, the class had a fitness test. Among other exercises, we were tested on our free-squat performance. With just under 200 squats, I was the best in my class and earned the respect of my classmates. I felt like a fitness star and I was very proud of my achievement! Many of my classmates could not manage more than 40 or 50 squats, which made my 12
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200 squats seem impressively high. I thought that I was at the pinnacle of my physical condition! More than 30 years have passed since the day that I proudly completed those 200 squats in my College fitness test. Now at the age of 53, it would be normal for me to be nostalgic about those days of youthful vitality, energy and vigor. It is very common to hear the woeful expression “I wish I was young again.” The reason people say that is because they miss the vigor and energy that they had when they were young. I do not long for the vitality and vigor of my youth, simply because my present physical condition is superior to what it was in my twenties. The 200 squats that gained me admiration from my classmates, would today be hardly enough for my warm-up, quite literally. My present level of fitness allows me to perform 1000 squats in 30 minutes and to lift 35lb dumbbells over 1000 times continuously in less than one hour. Both of these tasks require about 2 million units of energy (this is explained later in the book). To put this in a different perspective, the 1000 squats that I do as a warm-up today would probably have exceeded the combined score of the rest of my class at College. My highest expectations in those days, as to how fit I would be at 50, would still have fallen short of what my present physical condition is. This is a great privilege.
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Ageing & Diminishing Vitality Why has ageing been made synonymous with all the negative changes that the human body goes through in the course of time: crumbling health, shrinking muscles, diminishing vitality, loss of energy, lethargic feeling, etc? Is it because that is how it was meant to be naturally, or simply because that is what happens to most people? Was our Creator’s intention (call it “Nature”, “God”, or anything you wish) that we enjoy vibrant health only during the short episode of life we call “youth” and spend the rest of our lives in a state of progressive decay? Isn’t life already short enough as it is? Why should only a small fraction of it be enjoyed in vibrant health? These issues did not enter my mind when I was in my twenties – good health was naturally there for me and I took it for granted. But the realization that things might not always be that way came soon. At my 30th birthday party, a friend of the family (who was also a doctor) came up to me to offer some friendly advice about my training (my father had told him about my strenuous exercising): “Dragan, I respect your devotion to exercise and healthy living and I know you like to exercise strenuously, but as your friend and as a doctor I would like to remind you of something important. At age thirty you are certainly not old, but neither are you young anymore. Your body changes, whether you like it or not, and it cannot take the physical strain that it could have taken when you were ten years younger. Be careful – don’t over-exert yourself and get all kinds of injuries…” 14
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Although my father’s friend had the best intentions, his short monologue was the most unpleasant birthday message I have ever received. His words echoed in my mind for many days to come. Were his words the truth about life and ageing? Had I just begun a long, unpleasant, downhill slide to the pits of physical existence just because I was not in my twenties anymore? Was this really the beginning of the rest of my life, with my youth behind me? Had my body passed its fitness peak already? These and similar questions kept coming back to me and I didn’t know the answers.
More than twenty years have passed since that occasion. I have no idea whether this doctor is still alive or where he might be now. But I will never forget our dialogue in which I had so little to say. I often feel that I would like to have another conversation with him, particularly when I reach new peaks of fitness now after 15
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the age of 50. I wish I could tell him that his well-intentioned advice was way off the mark and how at 53 I am still looking into the future to discover what my true physical potential is. Today, my exercising is even more strenuous than it was in my twenties, and I don’t see myself slowing down in the near future. My doctor-friend was wrong. I strongly believe now that the human body does not have to become more fragile and delicate after the age of thirty, forty or even fifty. Now that I have passed 50 years of age, I have learned – through experience – that losing physical vitality as you get older is not a fact of life. What is factual is that we will one day get old and become a shadow of our younger selves, and eventually die. But, as far as the ageing process is concerned, we do have a say in the matter. It is our choice whether to get old fast and ascribe it to “natural causes” or to stay young for a good portion of our lives and be grateful for the opportunity. The state of one’s health and vitality is not a predetermined destiny. You cannot rely on the position of your stars or read your astrological chart to find out whether the cosmic authorities have allocated some vitality. Instead, you need to turn to yourself and use your own resources to keep your body in good health. It is essential to recognize the difference between “ageing” and “premature ageing”. They are not one-and-the-same, as most people perceive them. Distinguishing the two opens a very important door in life: we have a choice!
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A Matter of Perspective… We all observe and understand exercise from our own individual perspective, which is based upon what we have learned, seen and experienced. You might say that this perspective is the set of glasses we wear. For example, two people might see exercise in two very different ways depending on the ‘glasses’ they are wearing. A man placed in solitary confinement in a prison cell may see exercise as a way to ensure his basic survival and preserve his sanity. In contrast, a rich housewife in Beverley Hills might see exercise as simply being an enjoyable leisure option, as her attractive personal trainer takes her through a fun workout. So what exactly is exercise, and why do we do it?
In Fitness4x4 we aim to replace your old glasses (your perspective on exercise) with a brand new pair that sees exercise in its simplest and most objective form. Through these new glasses you will be able to observe exercise and fitness with a new clarity. What you see may surprise you and challenge what you thought was fact. But one thing is for sure: if you choose to stick with the new pair of glasses and adapt to the new perspective, you will take your own physical well-being to a new level. 17
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
The Fitness4x4 concept is a fascinating new approach to exercise that is on one hand so simple and logical, yet on the other hand so radical and controversial. It is controversial because much of what Fitness4x4 states theoretically (and proves physically) goes completely against traditional understanding and teachings on exercise. However, if you approach this book with an open mind, you will find everything you read to be very logical. You may even find yourself asking, “This makes complete sense - why has nobody else thought of it before?” Perhaps because there is a difference between thinking and actually doing! I’ve spent the past fifteen years ‘doing’, and as you read my book, that is exactly what I want from you. Start doing and let the results speak for themselves. Another thing some people say to me is, “I’ve seen what exercises you do and I’ve heard about your concept and frankly it’s nothing new. I’ve seen those exercises before, and the idea of using the upper and lower body is an old one!” I would respond in the following way… Think of your favorite song or piece of music. It is made up of a series of musical notes, or chords in a particular combination. In fact every song ever written is made up of a collection of simple musical notes. However to say that all songs are basically exactly the same because they use the same notes is clearly missing the point. What makes every song unique and special is how these simple notes are combined; the speed they are played; the performer playing or singing them, etc. In Fitness4x4 there are four very clear principles that make up this new and revolutionary concept of exercise. How these four principles are neatly woven together is what makes this concept so effective! 18
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
So as you progress through the book, if you are tempted to say: “Enough theory Dragan….just tell me what exercises I need to do to get in shape!” try to remember that every exercise Fitness4x4 teaches you to do is only valuable because of how it fits into this unique theory of training. The exercises themselves are like the musical notes on their own they are nothing, but within the right framework they produce something special. We all want to discover some secret new set of exercises that will miraculously get us in shape with minimal effort. That is precisely why the various miracle abdominal machines sold on TV were so popular – people believed that with a miraculous new gadget or exercise routine, they could find a short cut to those great abs! In reality the only weight that people lost was from their wallets. 19
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
In the past ten years I have been frequently asked, “Dragan, what’s the secret to your abdominals?” Most people assume I perform thousands of crunches per day, or have a secret set of abdominal exercises. The truth is I have barely performed sit-ups or crunches at all in over ten years! The secret to my abdominals is quite obvious to me, yet when people hear my secret they often dismiss it as being a cover up, or simply untrue. The truth is the secret to every aspect of my physical condition is something I call Energy Output Capacity. It is not what special set of exercises you do, or what special contraption you use! . The body’s ability to produce energy is what dictates vitality, and is what allows me to be in the shape I’m in, and to have great abdominal definition permanently – in season, off season…any season! Fitness4x4 is not just a new exercise method – it is a liberation! As you begin to focus all of your efforts and thoughts on dramatically changing your body’s ability to produce energy, you will find you no longer have to battle in vain with all of those things you thought were your priority – i.e. losing a few inches around your waist; building bigger biceps; developing a sixpack; toning your thighs and butt etc. etc. These things become peripheral concerns that you are able to achieve much more easily once you understand grasp your main goal. This book will help you to see what that main goal really should be…
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My goal for you… Above all else, this book is written to be a source of inspiration. Even more than teaching you a new method of exercising, my intention in this book is to make you curious. To have you wondering ‘how on Earth is it possible for this man to do what he does at his age?” If I have you asking that question then you have already opened your mind to new possibilities. And I want to share with you the very realistic possibility of achieving greater fitness and vitality with every year of your life that passes. . My intention is to give you something far more than just another fitness book with a new set of exercises and eating plans. My intention is to give you exactly what I have – ageless vitality. And it may require a revolution in the very way you understand exercise. It may challenge everything you thought you understood. But it will offer you something greater than you may have ever imagined. I could never have imagined achieving peak physical condition after the age of fifty, but now I know that it is entirely achievable by anyone willing to open their mind to a new way! I have spent the past thirty years of my life working in health clubs in almost every continent. I have dealt personally with literally thousands of individuals seeking to change their physical well-being. Almost every individual I have dealt with in that time has explained to me in detail their very specific and unique fitness needs, and how they can’t seem to achieve their ideal shape. On a daily basis people ask me, “Can you help me lose weight? How can I get as ripped as you? Can you help me get bigger?” etc etc… My answer to these questions is always this: “Perhaps I can help you achieve your goal and perhaps not. 21
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I am not in the business of weight loss or bodybuilding. But what I can offer you is far, far greater. I can show you how to change the very core of your physical being. If you can recognize the benefit of this, then I will help you change your life.” In my profession I make only one guarantee. If you follow my principles you can change the very essence of your body as a producer of energy. As human beings we are producers of energy. Most of us tap into only a fraction of our capacity to produce energy. You might say that most people are like partially charged batteries, gradually losing power and energy every passing year. I can show you how to become a fully charged battery, regardless of your age! In fact many people who take up Fitness4x4 are able to increase their energy output capacity by more than 500% regardless of their starting point. And when you have a body that has a 500% greater capacity, is it not logical that you are in a vastly superior position to now consider some of those other fitness goals, such as weight loss or muscle gain, or indeed any other specific fitness goal? The aim of this book is to show you the value of optimum vitality, and teach you how you can achieve it with minimal time investment.
The legendary Bill Kazmire congratulates Dragan after another successful challenge.
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Your Task As you come to terms with the theories and principles behind Fitness4x4, there are times when it will be necessary to simply put down the book and just do it! After all, I did not get where I am today by theorizing! To help you get started I have designed a series of tasks for you to fulfill as you progress through the book. Some of these tasks are physical and others require some thought, but all of them are essential. Tasks will always be found in RED type. It is important to stop your reading and complete each task before progressing if you are to genuinely benefit from this program. As your Fitness4x4 training begins and you discover your own upper body fitness capacity, the theory and the practice will start to become so tightly meshed that they form an unbreakable bond. When you reach this stage your physical well-being will be forever changed! In section one of the book we start with the basics, by defining exactly what is meant by the terms fitness, exercise and vitality. When you truly understand these terms, it is like putting on your new pair of glasses. Without them your progress is slow because you do not have a clear view of your path, but with your new pair of glasses you will find that you don’t just walk in your new direction…you run! The main section of the book is an explanation of the Four Principles of Fitness4x4, the very foundation and framework of this exercise concept. In the final section of the book you will learn how to begin your Fitness4x4 training, and start achieving optimum fitness and vitality. 23
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Why Do We Exercise? This is the very first question I ask upon beginning my fitness seminars. Though it seems an easy question to answer, it has proven to be more difficult to answer than one might expect. Stop for a moment, take a pen and complete the following task:
TASK 1 Without referring to any books, in the space below answer the following question: What is the purpose of exercise?
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Explain It To An Alien!
Imagine for a moment that you are sitting at home when suddenly an alien appears by your side. The alien informs you that it has been transported to Earth to observe human life, and asks you to go about your normal day-to-day business. It will simply watch and ask questions. When evening comes, you tell the alien you are going out to exercise. The alien does not know what ‘exercise’ is, so before you depart you must try to explain in the most logical and understandable way what it is you are going out to do and why? Take another look at what you wrote on the previous page and ask yourself whether it would be understandable and logical to the alien? All too often our purpose for exercise is not an objective one. When you come back to basics, you will discover that the only objective purpose for exercise is to achieve and maintain optimum vitality. All other purposes for exercise are subjective. When we define the purpose of exercise, it shouldn’t just make sense to a sportsman, a doctor or fitness professional from the 21st century – it should make sense to an uneducated man from the 12th Century! So if you said the purpose of exercise is to be in shape, to lose a few pounds, to be a better sportsman, to be bigger, to relieve stress or even to have fun, your reason would not be universal and would not make sense to all people from all walks of life. For example, losing weight might seem like a sensible aim in our culture, yet there are cultures that would find the desire to lose weight most unnatural and instead favor large, full bodies. Maximizing vitality, on the other hand, is much closer to a universally acceptable purpose and accepted by all people past and present, because you would be talking about a state of physical well-being. So how do we define vitality? 25
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
What is Vitality? Dictionary Definition: “Persistent Energy” Vitality is a human quality that reflects a person’s state of physical well-being. It is the one major thing that determines whether we are physically young or old. Children are perhaps the most obvious examples of physical beings with great vitality: they can run, jump, play and fight all day long! However as we age, this ‘persistent energy’ appears to gradually decline. Our vitality, which is a reflection of our physical well-being, gradually declines. But how do we measure our own level of vitality from year to year, to know if we are indeed ageing or not? How do we know at any age whether we have excellent vitality or poor vitality? How do we know precisely what physical condition we are in? To answer this question, let’s consider the following example:
The old farmer and the young farmer
There are two men working on a farm. One man is 20 years old, and the other is 90 years old. Both are full of energy in their daily activities and both complete the same amount of work each day. Which one is more vital? We can reasonably assume that the 20 year old must have greater vitality, but how could we prove this? Perhaps the old man is full of life and seems to always be full of energy. So how can we objectively say who has the greater vitality? There is a simple way: -
We must test them! If day-by-day we gradually increase the daily physical workload of the old man and the young man, there will come a point when 26
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one day, one of them will no longer be able to keep up with the physical demands of the work. This person will no longer have the energy to perform the tasks. Or, they may be able to perform the tasks, but physically they will find it harder and harder to recover each day, until the point where they simply cannot recover. Clearly the person who can produce the most energy in a given time, and repeat this energy expenditure time after time without physically breaking down, is the person who is more vital. In other words vitality may also be defined as the ability to produce energy. Actual Vitality Maximal Energy Capacity Pseudo Vitality
Maximal Energy Capacity Average Daily Energy Output
Average daily Energy Output Old Man
Young Man
If we only look at the average daily energy output of both men, we can only find out how much vitality they appear to have (pseudo vitality), and for both men it is the same. In order to establish objectively which man has the superior vitality, we must test to find out the maximal energy capacity of both individuals. It is then that we discover who has the greater ‘actual vitality’.
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Vitality is determined not by age, but by energy capacity.
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Vitality is an objective measure of a person’s level of persistent energy. It is entirely possible that a person aged 40 may have greater vitality than a person aged 20, if the 40-year-old’s body can do more work, produce more energy and recover faster. In the above example of the farmers (and in numerous examples in real life), until we perform a test, it is impossible to say who is more vital – the young man or the old man. The reason we cannot say is that ‘pseudo-vitality’, or the appearance of vitality, in everyday life is dependant on a variety of factors such as: a person’s state of mind; what stimulants they may be taking, skin condition, sun tan etc… If we simply look at how vital a person appears to be (pseudo vitality), we cannot make an objective assessment.
TASK 2 Take a few minutes to answer the following question What is the importance of vitality to you personally?
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The Importance of Vitality Most people are not aware of the true level of their physical vitality and are thus ignorant of the abundance of joy that is available from being in one’s best health. Some are opposed to the idea of exercise. “I don’t need that,” they say. “There are other things in life besides health and fitness,” as if to suggest that if you are in your best health, somehow, you do not qualify for other joys of life. It seems that such people believe they have evaluated all the things of value in life and found a “happy medium”. Small-town mentality This attitude reminds me of some people from the small town where I was born who, with inexplicable confidence, talk about the downfalls of other places in the world and praise the place where they live although they have never been anywhere else! Until you have experienced a high level of vitality, you cannot know the limitless opportunities for joy that it presents. To me, to say that vitality and health are “just one among other important things in life” is like saying that the Sun is one of the many important planets in our solar system. It is not! Without the sun, we would not be alive to even know about other planets and philosophize about their importance. Vitality is the essence of a good quality of life. Having a high level of vitality allows you to fully experience and enjoy all the other dimensions in life more fully. Without vitality, any of life’s other endeavors and successes will be constrained and not fully realized. So how do we measure vitality? 30
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Measuring Vitality We measure a person’s vitality by their level of fitness. Fitness is the very tangible and measurable thing that defines your vitality. We may say that fitness is the missing link… Which brings us to the important issue of What Fitness Is, and common misconceptions about fitness, or What Fitness Is Not. Let’s first begin with an exercise:
TASK 3 When you think of the best ways to improve your fitness, what are the activities that spring to mind? List your top five fitness activities: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Two Extremes of Fitness In Fitness4x4 we have a somewhat different view of fitness to the norm. To help you understand how we arrived at our definition, try the following… Imagine you have to buy a car, but you are limited to a choice of only two. They are both very different, but they are the only cars available, so you must choose one of them. The first one is a Drag Car. It is an incredibly powerful machine with a huge thundering engine capable of reaching unbelievable speeds. It has raw power, but terrible fuel efficiency and cannot take long journeys! Also because it is so highly tweaked, it just might break down at any moment – burning wheels; exploding engines, etc! But it certainly looks awesome and is hugely impressive! The second car is almost the exact opposite. It is a highly efficient solar powered car with a space age graphite body, capable of driving mile after mile without re-fuelling. It will quietly take you as far as you want to go, but it is not particularly impressive to look at and it is very slow. Picture yourself standing in the Car Yard, with only these two cars to choose from. Which one do you choose? Probably you are thinking, “Isn’t there a third car that is somewhere in between these two extremes?” In fact the salesman tells you there is a third car that has the best qualities of both of these cars and none of the drawbacks…but it comes at an incredible price that is way out of your league. So you are stuck with a choice of two. Which one would you choose?
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When it comes to exercise, most people are split between a choice of two opposites just like the two cars we just described. You can chose the strength, power, muscular development and the physically impressive rewards of weight training (the Drag car!) or you can choose the endurance, efficiency, leanness and cardiovascular fitness that is gained from running, cycling, aerobics and other such activities (the solar powered car!). And the reality for most people is that there really is no third choice. Some people believe there is a third choice – that you can have the best of both worlds by splitting your workouts evenly between cardio and weights - but reality proves this to be untrue. That is why you do not see the winner of Mr. Universe leading the pack at the New York Marathon, or the Marathon champion on the stage posing next to Mr. Universe! To have both of these extremes of fitness – muscular development and cardiovascular fitness is theoretically possible using conventional training methods, but it comes at a price most people cannot afford to pay. And that price is time investment. For a handful of people who can afford to spend all day everyday combining bodybuilding and cardio training, there is a middle ground, but for the majority of the world’s population, this is far from being an option.
The Third Choice
In Fitness4x4 however we believe there is a third choice – a middle ground that is within reach for everybody. You might think of it as being the BMW 7 series. It is not quite as fast as the drag car, yet it is faster than many sports cars! It is powerful but it will not explode or break down at any moment because it is also incredibly strong, and can drive for hundreds of miles. It is in essence the best of both worlds. Fitness4x4 is perhaps the only training method in the world that offers the perfect balance between muscular development and cardiovascular fitness. And most importantly it is within any 33
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
person’s reach because of the principles you are going to learn in this book… The most obvious real-life illustration of the fact that very few people truly occupy this middle ground of total body fitness is in the Vertical Lifts challenge. Whatever the fitness or strength background of the challengers, the result is always the same: Nobody has the combination of cardiovascular conditioning and muscular conditioning in the upper and lower body to come even close to winning the challenge!
But with the right approach to training and an understanding of the Fitness4x4 principles, we can offer you the keys to that BMW! We can offer you complete fitness, but first you must recognize precisely what fitness is and what fitness is not…
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What Fitness Is Not… Fitness is one of the most commonly used words in exercise, yet it is perhaps the least understood. Not only will the precise definition of fitness vary greatly depending upon which dictionary or Sport Science manual you read, but even more so depending on who you talk to. For example a swimming teacher might say, “if you can swim 30 laps non-stop, you’re pretty fit.” But it is entirely possible that the world’s best marathon runner can barely swim, and might be totally exhausted after 2 laps! Fitness therefore is not a skill – rather it is a measure of one’s vitality. All too often we interpret somebody to be fit based on the wrong criteria, usually their appearance. For example, women all around the world will often wrongly equate slimness with fitness, saying, “she looks really fit”, with reference to a slim fashion model. In most cases the waif-like model would probably fall very short if measured against an objective definition of fitness, and would actually show up to be very unfit! Similarly many guys who bodybuild may appear to be very fit because of excellent muscular development, yet internally their cardiovascular conditioning and physical ability to produce energy is very poor. Therefore we cannot assess a person’s fitness level by appearance alone. A similar assumption is that top-level sportsmen must be very fit. However in Fitness4x4 we do not make this assumption because it can be entirely wrong. Some years ago I worked as Manager of a sports club that featured a high level squash team (similar to racquetball). Traditionally squash has been known to be a sport requiring tremendous fitness, and thousands of people across the world actually take up squash as a means of ‘getting fit’. In this squash team were various elite players, one of whom was a man in his early 40’s known to be one of the best players in the 35
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league. Being such a good player, it was assumed by most that he must be very fit. It therefore came as a terrible shock when one day he suffered a massive heart attack, and sadly died. Nobody expected a fit squash player to die of a heart attack – it didn’t seem to make sense. And yet from another perspective it was not totally inexplicable or mysterious. Why, because sporting ability is not an accurate indicator of fitness – it is an indicator of skill. Sometimes in sport, the greater a player’s skill, the better they are able to conserve energy and use tactics to replace physical effort. Most of us will at one time or another have played against a wily old opponent who has learned to play extremely effectively with minimal effort. In these cases it is not their fitness that makes them great players, but their skill. And yet all too often we incorrectly associate sporting participation with physical fitness. We presume that a person who plays tennis six days per week must be pretty fit. The fact is we cannot objectively evaluate a person’s fitness until we test them! In Fitness4x4 we make no assumptions – we simply test. And that is the wonderful thing about fitness: it can be tested. The test is objective. It does not see a person’s appearance, a person’s sporting status or a person’s age. It simply asks, “What is your body capable of doing?” Once you have changed your body’s energy capacity, you are then in a far superior position to focus on the subjective issues such as appearance and muscle size.
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Appearances Can be Deceptive
I have an old friend in California whom I visit perhaps once each year. Like most old friends, he never hesitates to let me know how he thinks I’m looking. Sometimes it is complimentary while at other times it is quite the opposite. As much as I try not to be influenced by opinions of my appearance, like most people I cannot help but take notice. On one such occasion several years ago, I visited my friend in the middle of winter after a particularly difficult few months during which I had changed jobs and been forced to sell my house. Consequently I was pale skinned, I had lost some weight and clearly the stress was showing in my tired face. As I spent the evening with my friend and his wife, he eventually said, “You know what Dragan, you look terrible. I think your age has finally caught up with you. Are you not training anymore, you look like you’ve lost 20lbs!?” As much as I tried to ignore his words, I found myself beginning to wonder, “maybe I really am getting old – maybe I am starting to go downhill.” It was an unpleasant and very depressing thought. So as I entered the local health club the following day I decided to do an experiment: to test my energy output capacity. I knew that at my peak I could perform 1000 free squats and 1000 vertical lifts of 35lbs in the same workout. Performing such a feat was an incredible demand physically and mentally, and was not something I could do if I was not in top condition. So I said to myself, “let’s see what my energy capacity really is, and then I’ll know if I’ve aged.” 1000 squats and 1000 lifts later I very proudly took my shower and drove home with tremendous satisfaction and relief, because I knew that in terms of vitality, I was not a day older! The point is that our appearance is a subjective thing. To our mothers we may always look wonderful; while on the very same 37
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day our friend may tell us we look fat, thin, old or unfit. Vitality, on the other hand, is objective and never wrong. It goes beneath the surface to the very core of what we are, and it tells us exactly how it is! That is why a person who makes physical appearance their overriding objective in exercise, before changing their body’s energy capacity can never win. In contrast, the person who makes vitality the foundation of why they exercise can achieve the impossible – they can freeze the ageing process. They can simultaneously achieve the best shape of their life (bigger muscles or a smaller waist), but they recognize that changing body shape is one of the many peripheral reasons for exercise – not the central reason. Just a few weeks later I saw my old friend again, having spent a few weeks eating, training and sleeping well in a sunny climate. I had gained a few pounds of muscle, taken a good rest and got a good suntan. I laughed when my friend told me I was looking better than he’d ever seen me look in his life. I was now 50 years old and he’d known me for 40 years! I deliberately took no notice of his compliment even though I knew he spoke with total honesty, and instead that night I again visited the gym. An hour later, having again achieved a high energy output, I smiled as I thought to myself,
“How deceptive appearances can be!”
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Fitness Defined… We define fitness as: physical exertion at duration.” In order to extended duration (and must have:-
“The ability to sustain controlled high intensity for an extended maintain high-intensity activity for an therefore be considered fit) a person
1. A highly conditioned Muscular System* (A combination of muscle strength, muscle endurance and suppleness).
2. A highly conditioned Cardiovascular System* (Efficient lungs, heart and vascular system)
*We use the term Muscular System simply to refer to the muscles of the body. We use the term Cardiovascular System in its broad sense to encompass the cardio-vascular and cardio-respiratory systems of the body.
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Most fitness authorities would not dispute these two requirements. What most people miss, however, and where Fitness4x4 diverges from the mainstream, is that these requirements must apply equally to the upper-body and lowerbody. In order to develop the two systems outlined on the previous page, the following requirements must be fulfilled:1.
Muscle conditioning - requires working against a resistance. This resistance is most commonly in the form of a dumbbell weight, a machine weight or a person’s body weight. In both cases it is resistance to movement that stimulates muscle conditioning.
2.
Cardiovascular conditioning - requires exercising within your target heart rate Training Zone.
The following pages cover some basic theory of cardiovascular training and the heart rate training zone. If you are already familiar with the training zone theory, then the following section will simply be good revision for you. If you are not familiar with the training zone concept, then the following section will be of great value to you, as an understanding of ‘the zone’ is crucial to effective cardiovascular conditioning.
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Cardiovascular Conditioning The Zone
“Cardio Respiratory Endurance Conditining requires being in your Target Heart Rate Zone”. (American College of Sports Medicine 2003)
In the 1960’s a man called Kenneth H Cooper coined the term ‘aerobics’ to describe a type of training that focused on developing fitness by elevating one’s heart rate to a sufficient intensity and keeping it there for a sufficient duration. This intensity and duration could not be defined as a precise number, but rather a range within which one’s heart rate should remain for the duration of the exercise. After many years of research at the ‘Cooper Institute of Aerobics’ it was established that training within this range (zone) allowed for optimum fitness improvement. This range was later termed the Target Heart Rate Zone, or Training Zone.
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Training intensity
(calculating your training zone) Your own training zone is calculated as a percentage of your theoretical Maximum Heart Rate (the max. no. of times your heart can beat in one minute). This maximum heart rate is an approximate figure that changes with age, since with age there is a linear decrease in the human heart’s capacity. However, from this theoretical maximum heart rate, we can calculate your zone by using the following formula:-
Max H/Rate
=
220 – (your age)
Target H/Rate Zone
=
70% – 90% of max H/Rate
Here is an example of how I calculate my training zone: 220 – my age (54)
=
176
70% of 176
=
123
90% of 176
=
158
Therefore my training zone =
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123 – 158 bpm
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
TASK 4 Calculate Your Own TRAINING ZONE. Use the box below to write in your figures and make your calculations (You may require a calculator). (To calculate 70% of 176, I simply do the sum 0.7 x 176)
70% = 90% = YOUR ZONE
=
____ ___ - _______
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Training Duration Minimum: For effective cardiovascular training it was also discovered that the heart rate must be maintained in the Target Zone for at least 15mins. This is an approximate figure, but is a useful benchmark to define the minimum length of time for which a person should perform a ‘cardio’ workout. Maximum: The maximum length of time a person should remain in the zone is less easily defined. Many fitness theories define even 50%70% of max as being considered fitness training. However, since it is humanly possible to maintain such a low intensity heart rate for many hours (e.g. endurance runners, cyclists, swimmers), in Fitness4x4 we do not recognize this intensity of training as being effective for fitness. In Fitness4x4 we define the target zone as being between 7090% of maximum. Not only does this ensure a high level of exercise intensity and quality, but it also places a natural limit on exercise duration. A high quality fitness training session, of sufficient intensity, will not comfortably exceed 1hour. Furthermore, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that 30mins is perfectly adequate for excellent cardiovascular training. Therefore the recommended cardiovascular conditioning is: -
time
frame
Minimum
-
15minutes
Maximum
-
60 minutes.
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for
effective
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The Zone
Why is it a range and not an exact figure? Even within the training zone, clearly there is a difference between training at 70% of your maximum versus training at 90% of your maximum. That is why the Target Heart-Rate Zone can be sub-divided in the following way: 70-80%
=
Moderate Intensity fitness training
80-90%
=
Higher Intensity fitness training (Cardio Peak Performance)
The higher in the zone you are able to maintain your heart rate during training, the greater your fitness improvements will be. However, the higher the percentage of your maximum Heat Rate that you train at, of course the more difficult it is to achieve the required duration of training. For optimum results one must seek to train at maximum intensity for maximum duration, providing you stay within your zone! By this method, your training session begins when you enter the zone and finishes when you exit the zone – i.e. h/rate exceeds 90%of max. N.B. This is an effective way to train. However it is not essential to train until you exceed the zone. Maintaining your heat rate comfortably anywhere within the zone for 15-60 minutes is perfectly adequate and effective.
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Summary The Essence of Fitness The essence of fitness is the combination of muscular capacity and cardiovascular capacity in the upper and lower body. Neither of these elements of fitness is adequate in isolation. In other words, as I have already mentioned, from a Fitness4x4 perspective neither a marathon runner nor a bodybuilder is truly fit – they are both at different ends of the scale. True fitness is being somewhere in the middle of this scale. Once you recognize what true fitness is, deciding how to exercise can be very easy. You simply have to ask yourself: “Which exercise method can provide me with the most effective cardiovascular and muscular conditioning for the entire body, in the minimum possible time?” And that is how I arrived at the training concept known as Fitness4x4.
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Task 5
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Learning to Squat
You have completed the introductory section of the book, and it is time to break up the theory with some practical work. (For the following task you will not need to get changed into workout clothes). The correct squat should to some degree resemble the body position of a downhill skier, in order to limit strain on the knee joint and activate the large gluteal muscles. On the following page is a checklist of points of technique for the free squat. Stand in front of a mirror and follow each step, checking your technique as you go. Perform a few squats until you are satisfied that your technique is good. See also the photo sequence on the following page for examples of good and bad squat technique.
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1. 2. 3. 4.
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan Stand with feet shoulder width apart Ensure that your feet are pointing directly forwards Slowly lower into a shallow squat Do not allow your knees to drift forward past the imaginary vertical line that extends up from your toes as you lower into the squat. Instead, concentrate on pushing your butt as far out behind you as possible. By doing this, your knees will remain above your feet and not out in front of your feet. 5. In order to maintain balance, allow your torso to bend forwards. This will help maintain your center of gravity above your ankles. As you bend forwards, maintain a neutral back position – neither flexed (hunched) nor hyper-extended (arched). 6. Initially only bend your knees to a maximum of 90degrees – thighs parallel with the ground. However if you are not accustomed to squatting it is advisable to only lower yourself into a partial squat at first. In time you may feel able to increase the depth of your squat to activate a greater number of lower body muscles and also increase energy output. 7. In the lowering phase take a controlled inhalation, and as you rise up exhale smoothly. Controlled breathing will not only aid performance by allowing maximum oxygen intake, but will also reduce the blood pressure in the body during squats. 8. Allow your legs to momentarily relax at the top of the squat. This will allow sufficient recovery to enable you to perform a higher number of repetitions.
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Squatting Technique
1. Starting Position
2. Shallow Squat
3. Full Squat
4. Hunched Back
5. Knees forward
6. Knees inward
The top row of pictures shows the correct technique for performing squats. Notice the back is kept straight, head up, butt back as if sitting into an imaginary chair, knees remain over the toes. The bottom row shows some common mistakes: fig4 curving of the back; fig5 – allowing the knees to come forward past the toes; fig6 – bending the knees inward. 49
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Principle 1 The ‘4x4’ Principle
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1. The “4x4” Principle Where did the name come from? The term “4x4” comes from the world of motor vehicles where, as most people know, it means that all four wheels of the vehicle are powered by the motor. Most motor vehicles are “2x4” (twowheel drive), with only two wheels connected to the motor. In the sphere of fitness, the same applies. Most fitness enthusiasts use exercises that predominantly exploit the energy resources of the lower-body (the legs). They walk, jog, cycle, climb, roller-blade, dance, ski, ice-skate… In that sense we can say that they are only “2x4” fit, regardless of what their fitness status might be. In the case of Fitness4x4, all four limbs of the human body are involved in the process of getting fit – that’s what “4x4” stands for. By Fitness4x4 standards, even the world’s best marathon runner might be considered “average” or “below average” depending on the condition of his upper-body. In Fitness4x4, not only are the upper-body and the lower-body both involved in exercising but both have an equal contribution to the overall condition of the body – this is what we call “complete fitness.” So, for example, those runners and joggers who pay little or no attention to their upper-body’s condition are only partially fit. Their upper-body’s contribution to their overall condition is minimal. In other words, the upper-body and the lower-body are out of balance (in terms of fitness). In a usual jogging session the energy used by the lower-body is largely out of proportion to that of the upper-body. In such circumstances, the upper-body can never become fit and vital.
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If your upper-body (which represents more than 70% of the total number of muscles in the body) is unfit and your legs are very fit, you are still “average” in terms of overall fitness. The only way to attain overall fitness is to have both parts of the body equally conditioned. Have you seen a car stuck in the soft, sandy surface of the beach? The motor making a loud noise, the back wheels spinning and sinking deeper and deeper into the sand whilst the driver, in a frenzy, keeps pressing the accelerator pedal to the floor trying to get the car to move. Yes, that is a “2x4” car and the driver will need a push to get unstuck. Pressing harder on the gas pedal won’t do it. Two wheels are spinning whilst the other two wheels are immobile and unable to make a contribution to the overall effort. Likewise, the upper-body of the jogger makes an insignificant contribution to the overall effort of getting fit. It just bounces up and down whilst the legs do all the work.
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Millions of fitness enthusiasts are devoted to regular jogging in their pursuit of long-term fitness. But if they do nothing for their upper-body fitness they will be stuck in the sand, just like those two-wheel drive vehicles. This is because more than 70% of all their muscles are getting little or nothing from the exercise. Through the entire jog, these muscles remain passive, or very lightly used. From the perspective of the upper-body, cycling, stepping and other leg-dominated exercises are ineffective forms of training since those exercises do not make the upper body vital and fit. If you want total fitness – your entire body fit and vital – you have to realize that your legs, on their own, are not going to get you there. Increasing your jogging time or the intensity of your jog is like stepping harder on the accelerator pedal of the car stuck in the sand. You are only “spinning your wheels.” As far as your upper-body condition is concerned you won’t get an inch further away from where you first started. This is not to say that jogging, cycling, etc. are not valid forms of exercise. The point is, the upper-body needs to be exercised too, and in equal proportion with the lower-body, in order to bring the body into balance. Jogging and other such forms of exercise can never achieve this on their own. Combined with Fitness4x4 training, they can. Pursuing total fitness with only one half of your body is like driving a two-wheel-drive vehicle off road – you won’t get very far. The analogy of the 2-wheel-drive car is not just a nice analogy – it is quite literally the reality of the everyday struggle to get in shape for most people. It is often not down to lack of effort or commitment, but rather a limited understanding. Sometimes people say to me, “It’s okay for people like you Dragan. You’re so lucky to be naturally in great shape, and you hardly have to put any work in.” 53
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Such a statement is usually made with reference to the fact that in terms of time investment, I train very little compared to most exercise enthusiasts, yet appear to benefit far more. There is only one reason why. I have gradually transformed my body into a 4x4 vehicle. This is not something you can do overnight! To change a 2-wheel drive car into a 4x4 vehicle is a complete overhaul, not a sudden and miraculous change. Once you achieve that overhaul however, from the outside it may begin to look easy. Watching a 4x4 vehicle gliding over the sand makes you wonder why the normal car is having so much difficulty. It is simply a question of efficiency. Not skill; not luck; not genetics…simply hard work and more importantly efficiency. The Fitness4x4 training concept is simply a means of making your exercise as efficient as possible, by bringing your body into balance. This is the first and most important principle of Fitness4x4. But how can you know if you have achieved the perfect balance between muscular and cardiovascular conditioning (fitness) for the entire body? The answer is it will be very clearly reflected in your body’s ability to produce energy – your Energy Output Capacity! This is something we will explore in the next chapter. For now, lets take a look at another key exercise in Fitness4x4, the Vertical Lift…
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Task 6
Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
How To Vertical Lift
After gently warming up your body – paying particular attention to your shoulders, upper-arms, forearms and hands – grasp a light dumbbell in each hand. The movement is executed one arm at a time, as follows (see photo sequence on the following page): 1. Stand with feet comfortably apart 2. Hold both dumbbells in front of your thighs, with
straight arms.
3. Bicep-curl one dumbbell and raise it to your shoulder. 4. Push the dumbbell straight upwards until your arm is
vertical. 5. Lower the dumbbell to your shoulder and then back to
the starting position by your leg. Count this as one repetition. 6. Repeat the process with the other arm.
The movement must be performed in a smooth, controlled manner, with minimal movement of the legs. Start out slowly and deliberately. Perform just a few movements to familiarize yourself with the technique. Later you will begin your workout! 55
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Vertical Lifting Sequence 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
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Principle 2 Energy Output
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2.Maximizing Energy Output The foundation of health and fitness
Most exercises are done to achieve a cosmetic improvement of one kind or another, such as building bigger muscles, losing inches here or there, or changing the shape and appearance of a particular part of the body. This is like decorating a house that stands on top of a foundation of which you know very little and probably take for granted. Think about a house that you are planning to buy. You look at the shape and size of its windows, doors, roof, bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms, ceilings, floors, and countless other features, but you may fail to give a single thought to the state of its foundation. Maybe you assume that the foundation is solid, and since it is in the ground and has no practical use for you, you spend your efforts on what is above. If after a few years your walls start to crack and you realize that the house may collapse, you have to do a great deal of work at great expense (in time, effort and money) to avoid losing your house. Only when that happens do you realize how important the foundation was and how ignorant you were in regard to the role it plays. Exercising with the sole purpose of bulging your biceps and chest, or firming up your butt so that you look sexier is like 58
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decorating your house before reinforcing its foundation. Whatever you may achieve will be of a temporary nature and with no substance. In my professional life I have encountered many individuals who worked eagerly for many years on their “façade” while ignoring the ”foundation” of their health. Then, one day, the façade begins to crumble and however far they stretch their efforts to redecorate it, they cannot reverse or cover up the damage. What is the foundation? In the sphere of human health and fitness, what is the foundation? Would it be the shape of your body? Would it be the way you feel? Your weight? The size of your muscles? How fast you can run? How far you can swim? I believe that it is none of the above. It is something much more fundamental than all of the above measures of well-being: The condition of your foundation – your true vitality and biological age – is indicated by the energy reserves in your body, not by the outward appearance of the body. In my experience, very few people are conscious of the importance and relevance of the body’s ability to produce energy versus its outward appearance and aesthetic value. In Fitness4x4 we refer to this foundation as the body’s EnergyOutput capacity.
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What is Energy Output? In order to exist, the human body requires energy. Our daily physical, mental and emotional existence demands a certain amount of energy, which the body continuously produces. Even while sleeping, our bodies expend this energy in maintaining our vital functions. This basic energy requirement (which varies from person to person depending on size, metabolism, lifestyle and a range of other factors) is referred to as the Base Level Energy Output. In Fitness4x4 we are not concerned with the base level and it is considered a constant. But when we exercise or perform some other physical activity, an extra amount of energy is generated, over and above the Base Level. This extra energy is referred to as ENERGY OUTPUT (or simply EO). Energy Output is the only objective thing that allows us to compare the effectiveness of different exercise methods. That is why it is such an important concept in the Ftiness4x4 method. Without an understanding of Energy Output, you will be lost in the vast jungle of fitness methods, all of which claim to be the most effective. In Fitness4x4 we say in order to claim you have the best exercise method you must be able to compare your method with other methods with an objective denominator. And that objective denominator is ENERGY OUTPUT. If the EO of an exercise routine is low, then the quality of that routine will also be low, and the positive impact on the person’s health and physical condition will be relatively weak.
Most people describe their gym workout by the length of time spent in the gym. For example, “I workout one hour everyday!” or “is one hour of exercise too much or not enough?” Neither of these comments makes any reference to Energy Output – or how much work was done during these workouts! Because no 60
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EO was specified, it becomes difficult to comment on the quality of the workout, and impossible to answer the question, “is one hour enough?” The EO of the workout could be either Ten Thousand units or Two Million units, and thus an hour could either be too much or not enough! (The issue of time investment is discussed fully in Principle 4).
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Work on the engine before you look at the features! Recently a friend of mine was buying a car. He found one that he liked a lot. It had a navigator gadget, modern alloy wheels, wide tire, a very sophisticated and powerful sound system and enough other fancy extras that it would require another chapter in this book to fully list them! He hardly mentioned the motor reliability, fuel consumption etc. I guess he took that for granted and, in a way, considered it to be of secondary importance. Many a time I sat across the desk from a prospective club member who was presenting me with the list of results he/she expected from joining my gym. Almost everything, from losing weight to flattening the stomach, toning or building muscles, getting in shape, etc. was on the list, except the fundamentals of health and well being – the body’s energy capacity and vitality. Nobody ever came to me and said: “I want to bring back the vitality and energy I had when I was younger. I want to tune my body and have it function as well as it can. Yes, I’d like some cosmetic changes too, but first things first.” It seems that, like the friend who was buying a car, everyone thought that the “energy and vitality” portion comes as a “bonus” - an attachment to the package and not the other way around as the Fitness4x4 exercise philosophy proposes. When man invented the car the core of his intention, his sole motive, was to provide effective and comfortable transportation from place to place. The most important thing was getting the motor to run and efficiently transfer its power into the motion of the wheels. That was what initially a car was all about. The shape, color, decoration of the interior etc. was in the second plan. Logically their thinking was: “Once we solve all the problems with getting the car to move from place A to place B we 62
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will address the cosmetics and other issues”. What purpose would it serve to have a great-looking car that can hardly get anywhere? In time this all changed. That which initially was the prime consideration (the functionality and reliability) is now taken for granted and hardly considered. Those thing which were initially of secondary importance (the cosmetic aspect of the car), became the key factor. Let me translate this into fitness. As I already mentioned, most of the prospective club members who came to join the club asked first how they can lose the fat from a certain area of the body or how they can build muscle or reduce the size of a part of the body, how they can firm up certain area, improve their posture, get a better shape etc… All of these goals are recognized as important aspects of one’s physical well being, but according to Fitness4x4 philosophy, they are still issues of secondary importance. It is the body’s functionality and the capacity to produce energy that in Fitness4x4 represents the foundation of one’s well-being. So if you want to know how you can build your biceps or flatten your flabby tummy, regardless of how much - or rather how little energy your body has, you are, in my opinion, looking for a fancy car which won’t get you far and won’t serve you long. Having the size of your biceps or the flatness of your tummy as your main concern is like focusing on the upholstery and exterior of the car without checking whether the engine is roadworthy. Do your decorations and cosmetic improvements after you’ve made your “motor” perform to its full capacity. So if we agree that Energy Output is a crucial aspect of exercise, then we must know how it is calculated… 63
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Calculating Energy Output
Whenever a physical object is lifted vertically upwards, energy is expended. The heavier the object or the greater the distance to which the object is elevated, the more energy is required. To calculate how much energy has been expended we simply multiply the weight of the object by the distance it traveled (Newton’s Laws of Physics). If the weight is lifted a number of times, then the total EO is calculated as shown below. (see picture on next page) •
The weight is 40lbs.
•
It is lifted a vertical distance of lifted a vertical distance of 55inches.
•
The weight is lifted 100 times.
EO = WEIGHT x VERTICAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED x REPETITIONS 64
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40lbs x 55” x 100reps = 220,000 units.
Every exercise that involves weights can be calculated in this way, using the above formula.
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Energy Output and Exercise Quality In the mainstream approach to fitness there are virtually hundreds of potential candidates in a vast pool of exercises from which a workout can be structured. It is generally believed that using a variety of exercises is the best way to condition your body. In Fitness4x4 we state almost the exact opposite. Only a handful of exercises represent the pool from which a Fitness4x4 routine is made up. WHY? Because… Not all exercises have the same EO capacity! Many popular gym exercises have extremely low EO and could therefore never be part of a 4x4 routine. Here is an example of two exercises you might observe at your local gym. Although they both appear to be of a similar difficulty, they are vastly different in their EO: 1.
20 vertical lifts of a 45lb dumbbell
2.
20 shoulder shrug with 90lb barbell
TASK 7 On the following page Calculate the Energy Output of the above two exercises, using the formula provided on the previous page. To help you with your calculations, some of the numbers have been provided for you. When you have finished your calculations, compare the difference in energy output. (You may need a calculator).
Remember: ENERGY OUTPUT = weight (lb) x distance (in) x reps 66
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Exercise 1:
Vertical Lift
Weight
=
Distance Moved = 50 inches No. of Reps
=
ENERGY OUTPUT
=
____ x _50 in_ x ____
= ___________units
Exercise 2:
Shoulder Shrug
Weight
=
Distance Moved = 2 inches No. of Reps
=
ENERGY OUTPUT
=
____ x _2 in_ x ____
= ___________units
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Comparing Energy Outputs In a typical Fitness4x4 training routine, it is quite possible to produce 1million units of energy in 30minutes. To achieve a comparable EO using the shoulder shrug (and other such ‘low energy output’ exercises) it would take more than 10 hours of non-stop exercise!! (Take a calculator and work it out!) This is not only an absurd amount of time to exercise, but is probably humanly impossible too! Every year new exercise methods and routines come out on the market, claiming to be the ‘best way of achieving total fitness’. How can we compare the different programs in this vast ocean of exercise methods, all of which claim to be the best and undoubtedly have avid supporters who claim the method was the ‘best thing they have ever done’. The only way of comparing methods is to have an objective method of comparison. Clearly, how difficult you think the workout was; how tired you feel; how ‘pumped’ you feel; how enjoyable it was, etc. are not objective measurements of a workout because two people could do exactly the same workout and have totally different opinions at the end of the routine! Energy Output is the simplest one of the most complete measurements of the quality of different fitness training methods, because it is objective – not based on personal opinion or subjective feelings.
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It’s All About Energy Output I was once at a party with my friend Bill – an exceptionally conditioned athlete. Bill specialized in uphill running and had been doing it for many years. His favorite distance was ten miles. Most runners would struggle to keep up with his pace for even the first couple of miles. Only those who have tried uphill running can understand how much more demanding it is than running on the flat. In the course of the party I overheard the following dialogue between Bill and another runner: “Bill, I hear that you’re a runner. What distance do you run?” “Normally ten miles, sometimes less,” answered Bill. about you?”
“What
“The same – that’s my favorite distance,” replied the runner, “I usually do it in one hour and fifteen minutes. How long do you take, Bill?” “About one and a half hours, depending on how good I’m feeling on the day.” “Well, that’s not bad,” responded the runner politely. From this man’s response, it was obvious that he wasn’t very impressed with Bill’s running ability. He evidently assumed that Bill runs on a level surface, as he and most others do. Since one and a half hours is not a particularly impressive time for a ten-mile fun, this would put Bill in the category of an “average runner.” Because of his assumption, the other runner felt that he was in a different league to Bill. He was right – they did not belong in the same league, but he was wrong in thinking that Bill was in the “lower league” because of his inferior running time. 69
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Although they ran the same distance in a similar time frame, one aspect of their exercising was very different – the energy their bodies exerted. It probably takes three times more energy to complete Bill’s up-hill run than what it takes this runner for his run on the flat – but who would think of that when the important dimension of every exercise routine – the INTENSITY – is normally overlooked. After their conversation ended I went up to Bill, tapped his shoulder and, with a smile, repeated the runner’s polite comment: “An hour and a half! That’s not bad, Bill.”
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Exercise Quality If the Energy Output of an exercise routine is low, then the quality of that routine will also be low, and the positive impact on the person’s health and physical condition will be relatively weak. Most people describe their gym workout by the length of time spent in the gym. For example, “I workout one hour every day!” Is one hour “too much” or “not enough?” We cannot make this judgment because the Energy Output is not specified. It could be 100,000 units or 2,000,000 units and thus an hour in the gym could be either too much or not enough. Fitness4x4 is not primarily concerned with the cosmetic results and side effects of exercising. Weight loss, muscle building, body shaping, entertainment, strength and other by-products of exercise do not indicate directly and objectively the state of the body’s vitality. Although these aspects of well-being are important, I have concluded after extensive experience with thousands of clients in health clubs around the world, that the only way to attain lasting results, such as weight loss, lean muscles and greater muscle mass, is to first develop true innerhealth by maximizing your body’s capacity to produce energy. Otherwise, whatever outward change you attain will be superficial and short-lived. The only thing that directly relates to and quantifies physical vitality is the body’s capacity to produce energy. By sufficiently increasing your Energy Output Capacity, you will provide a firm foundation on which all other improvements in your well-being can be permanently built.
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TASK 8 In order to calculate your energy output for a given exercise, you need to know the vertical distance moved and the weight being lifted. The signature exercises of Fitness4x4 are the Vertical Lift (upper body) and the Squat (lower body). In these exercises, the range of movement (the distance moved) depends upon your height and length of limbs. Every individual is different; therefore you must measure your own distances in order to calculate your energy output. Note: In the case of squats the weight being lifted is actually your body weight, minus the weight of your lower leg (which is not being lifted). For the sake of simple calculation we suggest that you subtract 10% of your body weight to find your approximate ‘squat weight’. (e.g if you weigh 200lbs, your approximate squat weight is 200 – 10% = 180lbs)
Follow the steps on the next pages to find out your range of movement in the Vertical Lift and the Squat: 72
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Vertical Lift Range of Movement 1. Find a high wall. 2. In your closed hand, grip a pencil so that the lead is facing away from your body. 3. With your hand by your side make a mark on the wall to indicate the lowest point your dumbbell will travel. 4. Raise your hand above your head and reach comfortably up with a straight arm. Do not overstretch, simply make another small mark on the wall to indicate the highest point your dumbbell will travel. 5. Take a measuring-tape and measure the distance between the two points. Record the figure here: ______inches. You now have your Vertical Training range of movement, which will be needed to calculate your Energy Output score. Please also write the distance in the Personal Stats table at the back of this book. 73
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Squats Range of movement 1. Find a wall. 2. Choose a point on the side of your hip from where you will take your measurements. 3. Stand upright, next to the wall and mark a horizontal line on the wall at the same height as your chosen point on your hip. This will mark the highest point of your squat. 4. Now lower into the squat position with perfect technique, only traveling as low as you would squat during your workout. 5. Make a mark on the wall in line with your chosen point on your hip. 6. Take a measuring-tape and measure the vertical distance between the two points. Record the figure here: ______inches. This is your squat range of movement and will be used to calculate your squat energy output score. Record this figure on your Personal Stats page at the back of this book. 74
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Principle 3
Simultaneous Cardiovascular and Muscular Conditioning
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3. Simultaneous Cardio- and Muscle Training Traditionally, cardiovascular exercise and weight training have been seen as being poles apart from each other. When one thinks of fitness training, there are a handful of exercise methods that spring immediately to mind: running, cycling, walking, aerobics...etc. In contrast, when one thinks of resistance training, immediately one pictures heavy barbells and dumbbells being pushed around by big men. The vast differences (physically and training-wise) between a bodybuilder and a runner highlight this disparity perfectly.
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The advantage of Fitness4x4 is that it combines the two types of conditioning into one activity, allowing you to get the best overall results in the shortest possible time. If I simply tell you that my Vertical Training routine is not only an effective muscle-conditioning workout, but also an extremely effective cardiovascular workout, you may be skeptical, since nobody lifts weights for cardiovascular conditioning. But I don’t make this claim on the basis of how I feel, or an intuitive guess. During my lifting contests, we monitor my heart rate and sometimes display it on a large chart during the contest, as indisputable evidence of a superb cardiovascular activity. As you can see on the chart below (which was recorded at a contest in Las Vegas in 2000) my heart-rate very quickly rose to 70% of my maximum heart rate, entering the cardio zone, and continued to rise to the 90% mark and beyond. In normal workout conditions I would not drive my heart rate beyond the 90% zone, but since this was a contest and the dumbbells were heavier than usual, it pushed my heart to its performance limits.
Chart created during lifting contest in Las Vegas 2000: Heart Rate vs Time
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Several fitness experts and exercise physiologists, who prior to seeing the show were extremely skeptical about the value of my program as a Cardiovascular workout, were taken aback as they watched my heart rate activity on the display-board. They simply could not believe the ability of such a simple exercise (one which they perceived as a weight-training exercise) to be used as a complete upper-body aerobic workout. Of course lifting a 40lb dumbbell also requires an element of strength, and that is where the muscular development takes place. Clearly a runner, cyclist or even a swimmer does not benefit from such upper body muscular conditioning simply because they are not working with sufficient resistance to movement. 1. Muscular Condition (total body) 2. Cardiovascular Condition 3. Vitality (Energy Output Capacity)
All forms of exercise are a manipulation of pace and resistance, and it is to what degree you balance these two variables that will determine the effect of your training. For example a bodybuilder will use a very high resistance to movement (heavy weights) and perform at a very slow pace of movement (less than 10 reps per minute). The consequence is tremendous muscular conditioning, but very little cardiovascular benefit. In contrast a cyclist will use very low resistance to movement (one pedal revolution requires little resistance) but a very high pace of movement (100 cycle revolution per minute). The consequence is very good cardiovascular conditioning using the lower body, but not very much muscular development. 78
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The principle of simultaneous muscular and cardiovascular conditioning is so significant that it is important for you to understand it fully. On the following pages, this concept of combined Muscle Training and Cardiovascular training is explained in greater detail. To achieve simultaneous muscular and cardiovascular conditioning, you must first understand how to balance PACE and RESISTANCE…
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Pace and Resistance Contrary to popular understanding, cardiovascular training and resistance training are essentially the same thing. The only variables that separate strength training from cardiovascular training are the amount of resistance used and the number of repetitions performed (i.e. the duration). Example: The Cyclist Cycling is typically seen as being a method of achieving cardiovascular fitness. In Fitness4x4 however we recognize that cycling is merely resistance training of the legs - with low resistance, hundreds of repetitions and at a high frequency (or PACE) of movement.
Is Cycling Resistance Training? The importance of the finding a balance between pace and resistance is neatly illustrated by the following analogy… 80
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“The Sand Shovelling Contest”
Two competitive men, Ali and Dan, were debating who was the fittest worker in the company. Both were respected as being in excellent physical condition, but an objective test was needed to settle the matter. To resolve the argument, an experienced foreman who was visiting the sight set them the infamous sandshoveling contest, which over the years had always separated the best from the rest! The old foreman weighed out 6 tons of sand into two identical piles. The challenge was simply who could shovel all of their sand into a nearby hole the fastest. Ali chose to use a BIG shovel, while Dan chooses to use a SMALL shovel. The race was on…
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What Happened? Because Ali’s shovel was considerably bigger than Dan’s, he could therefore move a lot more sand with each lift. He set to work as fast as he possibly could, but the problem was that lifting such a big shovel-load of sand was extremely demanding. Ali was very strong, but after just a few minutes of shoveling as fast as he could his muscles were beginning to fail and he was getting very out of breath. At first he found he had to take breaks, but he eventually found a pace of work he could manage, and was able to get through the whole pile of sand. It took him just 25minutes! By the end of it he was panting hard, his muscles were exhausted and he was all out of energy! Dan chose to use a small shovel because he was not particularly strong and he would not have been able to lift Ali’s shovel even just a few times. But, Dan was very fit and he knew that with a light shovel he could work much faster than Ali. So he set off shoveling at incredible speed, shoveling at least 4 times faster than Ali. The actual shoveling felt easy because it was so light, but he began breathing hard very quickly as a result of working so fast! Still, Dan felt good because he knew he was very fit and could work at this rate for a long time. So working at a very high pace, Dan eventually cleared all the sand in exactly 25 minutes! By the end of it he was sweating hard and panting heavily, but his muscles were not exhausted. Dan was surprised and disappointed. Every time he’d looked up, it had seemed that Ali was moving slowly or even resting, so he’d been sure he was going to shovel all the sand fastest. He was also sure he’d worked much harder than Ali, and yet the final result was the same – they both cleared the same amount of sand in the same time.
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The old foreman had been watching the contest eagerly to see if his long-standing record of 15minutes would be beaten. At the end he approached the two exhausted men and shared his wisdom… First of all my friends, I congratulate you both on an outstanding display of physical fitness. Very few men can shovel all of the sand in less than 30minutes! Dan, you worked at an incredible pace for the entire 30 minutes! You did not slow down once, and you were extremely efficient in your movement. Because of your fitness you were able to maintain a work rate that very few men can match. But you could not beat Ali because you were not shoveling enough sand each time – your shovel was too small! Still you made up for this with your impressive speed of work. Ali, you are clearly very strong as there are very few men who can lift that big shovel even once! Many men have tried to use the big shovel but after one or two minutes have thrown it down in exhaustion! But you took rest when you needed it and relied on your superior strength to pull you through. In Dan’s eyes, you appeared to be working very slowly, but what you lost in speed, you made up for with the great quantity of sand you were able to able to move with every single lift of the shovel. I’m sure you will both be very disappointed to hear that my record is exactly 15 minutes, even though I am an older man! It’s not a trick or even extreme dedication – it is simply knowing where to improve…and that is where I shall offer you both some advice if I may. Both Ali and Dan were amazed and slightly embarrassed that despite being considered two of the best young workers in the company, even their best efforts were nothing compared to the 83
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old man’s performance! They were eager to hear the foreman’s advice: I will start with you Dan. Your heart is very strong, but your muscles are weak! Like many shovelers before you, you have focused entirely on your ability to work fast, without considering that you are achieving very little with each lift of that small shovel. If you do not recognize this, you will continue trying to work faster and longer, but you will see only small improvements in your ability to work effectively. You will never win the shoveling contest. But if you build on your impressive fitness base I am sure you can one day beat my record. Ali, your muscles are very strong and capable, but that alone is not enough. Without a strong heart and lungs, your body cannot supply your muscles with energy, no matter how strong they are. You will only ever be able to work hard in short bursts and eventually even this will fade. However if you can master the art of balancing your strength and fitness so that you can work without stopping, you will have the potential to be the most efficient worker. When both of you learn the importance of balancing your strength and fitness, no man will be able to match you! The strongest man in the world won’t match the quantity of work you can do in 30 minutes because he will not be fit enough. And the fittest man in the world will be unable to match you because he will not be strong enough. You will have the perfect balance of muscular capacity, a strong heart and lungs, and efficiency. When you reach that stage you will achieve what I call vitality. The two men were amazed by his words and even more amazed when in front of their eyes he took a medium sized shovel and cleared an identical 3rd pile of sand in just 15minutes! For days Dan and Ali could not stop talking about what they had seen and 84
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they made an agreement to follow his advice and beat his record! …But 3months later very little had changed. And 5 years later even less had changed! Dan still took great pride in being able to work at a faster rate than any other man, even though his actual workload did not improve. He was still considered one of the fittest workers in he company, but it was getting harder and harder to maintain and he could feel himself having to slow down a tiny amount every few months. He didn’t mind not being strong – there were always people like Ali to do the real donkeywork, and he liked being known as the fit guy! Ali still took great pride in being the strongest worker in the company. He could lift more than any man and he could still do a lot of work in a day, but he did find he was starting to get out of breath very easily and his wife had started to say he was getting fat. Still he was a respected worker now and he could afford to take rests while the young guys ran around. Every now and then they would see the old man and shake their heads in amazement. He was still stronger than most of the young guys and the amazing thing was he just didn’t seem to get tired! “It’s just one of those unbelievable things that you can’t explain”, they thought to themselves as they wandered off home after another day at work. If these two workers had taken on the old man’s advice, they would be able to comprehend his superior performance. Similarly, when you fully understand Fitness4x4, certain physical feats that many people consider unbelievable actually become easy to understand and perfectly logical! The old man simply found a perfect balance between pace of movement (how fast he shoveled) and resistance to movement (the size of the shovel), to maximize his energy output. I’m sure you can put your own names and faces to the characters in the story, because this story is representative of 85
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the two camps into which most exercisers fall – the Strength camp and the Fitness camp. In Fitness4x4 we know that there is a middle ground. Interestingly, many fitness people dismiss this middle ground as being a ‘no-mans-land’. To the contrary, we believe that this middle ground is the secret to optimum vitality and lasting physical well-being.
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The Negative Angle The nature of fitness exercise (CV exercise) has typically always been to use low resistance to movement and high pace of movement in order to stimulate the heart and lungs and improve fitness. There are numerous examples of this, including running, cycling, swimming etc. In Fitness4x4 we define this particular relationship between Resistance and Pace as being a ‘Negative Angle’. (see diagram)
“The Negative Angle” (high) PACE
(low) RESISTANCE Low resistance to movement and high pace of movement produces the ‘negative angle’.
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The Negative Angle Training for fitness by creating a negative angle (low resistance & high pace) is undoubtedly an effective method of achieving cardiovascular conditioning. For example an activity such as running, which uses high pace and low resistance, can clearly elicit a very strong response from the heart and effectively improve cardiovascular (lower body) conditioning. What training with a negative angle will not do is provide the most effective muscular conditioning. Effective muscular conditioning can only occur when the muscle is activated against a resistance. That is why people use resistance training to condition, develop and tone muscle. That is also why traditionally fitness training and resistance training have been poles apart.
Task 9 In the box on the following page, write down how many steps per minute you take on average when walking and when jogging. If you do not know, simply write ‘Don’t know’. Now take a short walk and perhaps a gentle jog outside your house for just a few minutes. Using a stopwatch, count how many steps you take per minute while walking and while jogging. Enter your answers into the box below. You are now in the minority of people who are aware of their pace of movement (frequency of steps) for walking and jogging. 88
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PACE Walking
Running
Estimate?
________
________
Test?
________
________
(pace measured in steps per minute) Very few people (including runners) are aware of the number of reps they perform per minute – their PACE of movement. In Fitness4x4 it is essential to have an understanding of the relationship between pace and resistance. Running is a perfect example of an activity with a high Pace of movement. Such a high pace is only possible when the resistance is very low. In Fitness4x4 we know, for example, that any activity which can be performed at a rate of more than 40 repetitions per minute (not a precise figure) is a low resistance movement, and will therefore not elicit great muscular conditioning. Make a note of your pace of movement (per minute) for various activities and ask yourself whether these activities are high resistance or high pace? The answer will determine the physical effect these activities have upon your body. 89
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Creating the Positive Angle In Fitness4x4 we recognize that by manipulating the Pace and Resistance variables, it is entirely possible to create a situation where a person is simultaneously achieving:1. EFFECTIVE Cardiovascular Conditioning. 2. EFFECTIVE Muscular conditioning. This is achieved by increasing the resistance to movement and decreasing the pace of movement, whilst maintaining a cardiovascular response within the Target Heart Rate Zone. This new relationship between resistance and Pace is called a ‘Positive Angle’.
“The Positive Angle” (high) RESISTANCE
(Low) PACE Increasing the resistance and lowering the pace of movement, creates a ‘positive angle’, where one can achieve effective muscular and cardio-vascular conditioning simultaneously. 90
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The Positive Angle Defined: What is considered a ‘High Resistance’ and what is considered a ‘Low Pace’? Resistance In Fitness4x4 when we refer to a high resistance, we do so within the context of ‘Fitness’ training. Since we have already defined fitness training as having a minimum duration (approximately 15mins), then it follows that a high resistance is:“The highest possible resistance to movement that allows a person to performed the movement continuously for at least 15minutes.” If a resistance is too high then a person will not be able to perform the movement for sufficient duration. For example a 300lb bench press may be considered very high resistance (and therefore also high energy output per rep). However, it is unlikely that a person will be able to perform continuous reps of 300lb for 15 minutes, indicating that the resistance is too high. Pace In Fitness4x4 when we refer to pace of movement, we know from our research that if a person can perform more than 20 repetitions per minute, this is not a low pace of movement. For example running or cycling, often involve performing more than 100 repetitions per minute, which clearly indicates that the PACE is high and the resistance must be LOW. It therefore follows that low Pace of movement is:“A movement against resistance which can only be performed a maximum average of 20 repetitions per minute, for a duration of at least 15 minutes.” 91
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In Fitness4x4 we are interested in maximizing cardiovascular conditioning and muscular conditioning simultaneously. How is this done? By decreasing the PACE, increasing the RESISTANCE, but maintaining the appropriate heart rate and workout duration. When you can achieve this with upper and lower body, you will not only maximize cardio/muscular conditioning simultaneously, but you will also: • •
Minimize time spent! Maximize Energy Output!
Creating a positive angle between pace and resistance is the secret to total body conditioning in a short time. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is very hard work to train for an extended period of time against high resistance! Therefore you must initially find an achievable balance and then gradually work to optimize the angle. It is this unique understanding of the PACE vs RESISTANCE relationship that allows Fitness4x4 to claim to be the most effective form of fitness exercise.
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Principle 4
Minimal Time Investment
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4. Minimal Time Investment One of the secrets to the effectiveness of Fitness4x4 as a training method for life is the fact that the further you go in Fitness4x4, the less time you spend in training. Some time ago, I presented a seminar on fitness during which I performed a challenge against ten athletes, both to add excitement to the seminar and more importantly to add credibility to the Fitness4x4 concept I was promoting. Towards the end of a very successful seminar however, I was suddenly caught by the following question posed by a highly educated Doctor, “Dragan, we can all see that you are very fit and can perform feats that most people cannot. But I know a triathlete whose fitness level would match yours, if not supercede it. He competes in Ironman Triathlons, and his resting heart rate is just 27beats per minute. He cycles 100miles most days and also swims and runs, so he has total body fitness! Therefore my question to you is what makes your theories on exercise any better than this man’s? Why should we believe your theory and not his theory on exercise, when he is in just as good physical condition as you?” It was a tough question, especially with the eyes of every person in the audience on me wondering whether or not I would have an answer to such a question. I thought for a moment, and then responded in the following way, “From what you tell me Doctor, your triathlete colleague and I have a number of things in common. We both have similarly low resting heart rates, which suggests we both have a high level of cardiovascular fitness. We are both at peak fitness after the age of fifty. We can both perform physical feats that many people half of our age cannot, 94
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and we are both in excellent physical condition. Would this be a fair summary so far?” The Doctor agreed that we were both extraordinary athletes, especially considering our age. Pulling a $100 bill from my pocket and holding it up to face the audience, I continued… “Then let us say that this $100 bill represents both myself and your triathlete. In many ways we are similarly rich in terms of health and vitality, and indeed to most observers we are similarly at the peak of fitness.” I then turned the dollar bill so that all that could be seen was the paper-thin edge of the bill, and asked, “Does anybody know what this side of the bill represents? This side of the bill represents a factor that we have so far avoided mentioning and not even considered, yet I believe it is perhaps the most important factor in this discussion. The thin side of this $100 bill represents the amount of time I have invested in exercise in the past year, by training on average three hours per week. I want you now to imagine the thickness of the bill that represents your colleague’s time investment in cycling 500miles or more per week, as well as running and swimming great distances every day. There is no comparison. I would probably need an extra pair of hands to hold the thick bill that represents the hundreds of hours that your colleague dedicates to maintaining his physical condition!” Often the time investment factor is not considered when comparing the effectiveness of different exercise methods. Very few people consider that somehow with less time spent on exercise than most gym users of all levels, I am managing to not only challenge the fittest and strongest athletes in the world, but also to improve my fitness year after year! 95
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I consider the minimum time investment principle to be one of the secrets of optimum fitness for life, but it can only be applied with an understanding of exercise intensity. Often people will attempt to “save time”, combining their exercise with other unrelated activities. Examples of this are: watching TV or reading a magazine while exercising; armchair exercising, or even participating in fun recreational activities and sports. While it can be argued that all of these activities have a positive effect on a person’s fitness level, in Fitness4x4 we take an opposite approach: we separate recreation from fitness training. By making this separation you will understand how it is possible for three hours training per week to keep you in optimum condition. You will begin to understand the concept of training efficiency versus training duration. It may not sound impressive to say, “I spent thirty minutes at the gym today”, because usually quality is judged by quantity, but in that thirty minutes you may achieve more than many people achieve in two hours of low intensity training. And then you will be able to use the free time created time to truly enjoy whatever recreational activity you choose, without feeling the need to half-heartedly combine recreation and exercise. Let your leisure time be leisure time and your exercise be truly purposeful.
How intense is your training?
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The Power Co-efficient Exercising just 30 minutes per day to stay in peak physical condition certainly seems like an appealing notion to most people. In fact 30minutes sounds like a relatively short time period for a workout. But why is a 30-minute workout considered a short session? Whenever I tell someone that I exercise, on average, 30 minutes a day, the usual response is: ‘Is that all?’ – obviously implying that I should exercise more! The reason for such a response is that people often judge the quality of a workout simply by the duration, without an understanding of what we call the ‘Power Coefficient’. The Power Coefficient is what tells us the EFFICIENCY of your exercise, not just the time you invested in it. We can calculate the Power Coefficient of a workout with the following simple formula:
Power Coefficient = Energy Output
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The Power Co-efficient is one simple indicator of the quality of your exercise, and the intensity at which you are working. It is also an objective means by which we can compare the intensity of two different workouts.
Example: If an average person exercises for one hour and exerts an Energy Output of 180,000units, we can calculate his/her coefficient in the following way: 180,000 units ) 60minutes = 3000 If, however, a Fitness4x4 practitioner exerts an Energy Output of 1,500,000 units in one hour (which is quite realistic for advanced practitioners), his/her coefficient will be almost ten times greater! 1,500,000units ) 60minutes = 25,000 Unfortunately, if we only looked at the duration of the two workouts given in the example, we would naturally assume that they were of a similar quality and intensity. It is the relationship between the duration and the Energy Output that gives us a picture of the true quality and intensity of the workout.
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“High Powered Training” The principle of Energy Output alone does not paint a full picture. Without consideration of the fourth principle (minimal time investment) a person can legitimately state that their workout is of the highest quality because they achieved a high Energy Output. A perfect example of this might be a hiker who achieves an Energy Output of one million units. If we fail to consider the time element here, this appears to be an outstanding workout. But when we consider that they may have taken 8 hours to complete the hike, this no longer rates as an optimal workout because the Power Co-efficient is relatively low. Optimal training is achieved when a person can create a high Energy Output in the minimal duration. That is why a highintensity 30minute Fitness4x4 workout can be legitimately compared with a conventional 1 or 2hour workout. The simple difference is the Power Co-efficient.
Task 7 • Person A produces an energy output of 1million units in one hour of training. • Person B produces an energy output of 1.5million units in two hours of training. Q) Who has the greater power co-efficient?
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Conclusion – The ideal Training Duration? In answer to the question on the previous page, 30 minutes may be perfectly adequate workout duration for one person, whilst being totally insufficient for another person, depending on the nature and the efficiency (power co-efficient) of their training. Most gym users who exercise for one hour usually exercise with a low Power Coefficient. Consequently, a 30min workout to such people is naturally assumed to be only half as good as a 60 minute workout. They are seeing the workout through their own “spectacles” and that is precisely why a 30minute workout usually prompts the response,
“Is that all?” This statement is made when a person only uses one criterion to evaluate the quality of a workout – that is duration. When duration is coupled with Energy Output, this paints a totally new picture.
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The Psychology of Minimal Time Investment The time investment principle has great importance psychologically, especially for individuals who do not have much time to devote to exercise but seek results. In times of low motivation, time pressures and stress, the thought of a 30-minute workout is considerably less daunting than an hour or an hourand-a-half workout. One of the primary reasons most people do not maintain a good exercise regime is because the time investment required in order to see positive results is usually too high. A two-hour training session every day is a daunting thought to almost anyone other than a professional athlete! An understanding of the Fitness4x4 principles is crucial because it creates the possibility of a short workout yielding the same results as a conventional workout of double the duration! However this relies entirely on a person being confident that his/her 30-minute Fitness4x4 workout is worth 60 to 90 minutes of conventional workout time – and this requires being able to objectively prove why. When discussing the ideal workout duration, it is important to make a distinction between a ‘standard’ 30-minute workout and a Fitness4x4 30-minute workout! The reasons for doing them may be the same, but the outcome may be entirely different.
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The Mind and the Body
In Fitness4x4 we believe there must be a strong connection between the mind and the body during exercise, if it is to be of optimum value. Many times in my professional life, I have watched people sitting on exercise bikes, pedaling away whilst reading a magazine, or watching a television placed conveniently before their faces. And many times I have asked myself the question - “How far apart can the mind and body go, whilst being part of the same entity, and while so closely dependant on each other? What are the consequences of this distorted relationship, where each part pursues its own path? And is this separation of these entities to the detriment of the other?” Observing the faces of many participants in various aerobics classes one can often see the absence of concentration; the absence of participation of the mind in the activity of the body. The mind provides the initial stimulus for the body to move in a certain way, but then wanders away to be entertained by the music or other convenient distractions. When the mind and body work together, exercise becomes an experience of energy creation and total productivity, rather than a mindless routine, of minimal value to the athlete involved. This is one of the secrets to achieving maximum results in minimum time
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The Practicality of Minimal Time Investment One of the most commonly asked questions is, “What is the best form of exercise.” Depending upon whom you ask, you would inevitably get many different answers. E.g. “Yoga is the best exercise because it is completely non-impact and comfortable for the body, and you can keep doing it into old age.” “Walking and swimming are the best forms of exercise because my Doctor told me so.” “Cross-country skiers are the fittest athletes in the world, so that must be the best all-around exercise.” These are just a few of the responses you might hear. Interestingly though, the area of time-investment does not feature in the answers you might receive. It is almost as if the question was actually ‘What is the best form of exercise to do if I have all the time in the world to dedicate to doing it?” But we all know this is not the question we are asking – we are asking what will give the best results…and with the least time investment! The point is perhaps best illustrated in the story of The Young Commuter…
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The Analogy of the Commuter… A man who works in the city relocates to a new house in the countryside. His place of work is now 30miles from his new home, so he will now have to commute to and from work everyday. He does not yet know the best route to take to get to work from his new home - he just knows that on Monday morning he must get to work! Being busy settling into his new house over the weekend, Monday morning comes along and he hurriedly jumps into his car, stopping at the end of his road to ask directions from a local man. Commuter: Local Man:
What’s the best way of getting to the city? Well there are lots of routes you can take from here, and I’m sure everyone would give you a different answer, but personally I think the best way is…
The local man sends the commuter on an incredible journey that features breathtaking views; follows only the most recently built roads; never crosses any steep hills, and is very popular among all visitors to the area. But it is not until 4hours later that the commuter finally arrives at work to a very angry boss! For how many days do you think the commuter would follow this route?
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The answer is so obvious in this analogy, but interestingly in the world of fitness many people are not so ‘street-wise.’ We are all so readily convinced of the value of various exercise methods and gadgets, that we rarely stop to consider: WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY GET FROM THESE METHODS IN THE TIME THAT WE ARE ABLE TO COMMIT TO THEM. When it comes to choosing an exercise method we must ask two simple questions: 1. Will it get me from A to B? 2. Is it the most efficient way I can get there? Exercise is fundamentally about getting from A to B safely and efficiently. There are numerous other facets to exercise that of course we can choose to consider, in the same way as the commuter can consider the various advantages of the route suggested by the old man. But why is it that we can predict with some confidence that a week later the commuter will no longer be following the old man’s route? The chances are that within just a few days the commuter will have found the shortest and most efficient route to work! Exercise and physical fitness is a means of enjoying a high quality of life. The sooner you recognize that, in exercise terms, you are not unlike the commuter in the analogy, the sooner they will uncover the secret to achieving optimal physical vitality for life. There are many routes to the same destination – the challenge is to find the most realistic and most effective means of getting yourself there.
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Practicing Fitness4x4
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You have now reached the section of the book where your new training begins. At this point it is important to summarize the key practical aspects of Fitness4x4:•
You have learned the correct technique for vertical training (squatting and vertical lifting). Refer back to the guidelines on pages 48 and 55 before you begin.
•
Remember, Fitness4x4 must begin as a supplement to your existing training regime. Do not expect to be able to use only the Fitness4x4 method immediately to fulfill all your fitness needs. Initially simply try to practice the basics and apply the Fitness4x4 philosophy to your other training. In time Fitness4x4 will become more and more prominent in your training regime, and can eventually form the core of your training.
•
Fitness4x4 training involves the occasional use of a heart rate monitor, for testing purposes and general monitoring of intensity and improvement. You may wish to purchase your own monitor, or ensure that you can borrow one on a regular basis.
•
Fitness4x4 training requires a gradual physical and mental adaptation. Certain upper body muscles, tendons and ligaments must develop endurance and stability, in order for Fitness4x4 to offer its full potential. Similarly a relationship between the cardiovascular system and the muscles of the upper body must be cultivated, in order to achieve true upper body fitness. These adaptations take time, but must be approached gradually and carefully to avoid injury in the early stages.
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Why Vertical Training? In Fitness4x4 we have discovered that there are two simple exercises that are the foundation movement for developing upper and lower body vitality. •
The Free Squat (lower body)
• The Vertical Lift (upper body) These two exercises are how we measure your upper and lower body fitness levels. They are also the most efficient and effective for producing energy output, muscular conditioning and CV conditioning, in a short space of time. Together these two movements make up what in Fitness4x4 we call “VERTICAL TRAINING”. It took approximately fifteen years to discover that these two movements are indeed the most effective and efficient of all exercises. Because of the large range of movement and the involvement of major muscle groups, these exercises make it possible to generate extremely high energy output levels that other exercises simply do not allow. As you progress in your training, you will find out why the squat and the vertical lift are the most effective exercises. Once you have mastered these two movements, you can progress to other variations of Fitness4x4 training such as the ‘4x4 Powerwalk’, ‘4x4 Strength Training’ or the ‘4x4 PowerHour’. All of these variations of 4x4 training are powerful extensions of the Fitness4x4 concept and you may find a favorite method that best suits your specific needs. But remember at age 54 my training still revolves around two simple exercises - the squat and the vertical lift! WHY? Not because they are the most fun, or 108
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because I don’t have other more interesting options, but for one simple reason: I know that these two exercises (vertical training) will keep my entire body in excellent physical condition and maximum vitality even at 54 years of age! And most importantly they require less time to produce greater results than any other method of training in the world! That’s why for me there is really no choice!
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Getting Started Week 1 The first week of Fitness4x4 training is crucial. At this stage, less is more! If you can limit yourself during this first week, your progress during the second week will be considerably better. Week one is about adaptation and acclimation to new exercises, and not about intensity or results. During week one maintain your customary workout schedule, and simply fit in the following tasks around your other training.
Day 1 Targets (i)
Perform 50 perfectly controlled shallow squats. Concentrate on good technique, slow pace and synchronized breathing. You do not need additional weights for this exercise. Note how deep you are squatting and maintain the same depth of squat for all 50 repetitions. Remember: do not do deep squats yet!
(ii)
Perform 50 continuous vertical lifts. (25 on each arm). Select a dumbbell that you can comfortably curl and press with perfect technique on both arms. I recommend using a dumbbell that is approximately 10% of your body weight. For example if you weigh 200lbs, you would use approximately 20lb dumbbells. This may seem light, but the aim here is simply to master the movement and start preparing your upper body for Fitness4x4 training.
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workout on day one, you must perform an exercise you are accustomed to. Congratulations: you have begun your Fitness4x4 journey!
Correcting the Imbalance Since in most people the fitness imbalance is approximately 9:1 in favor of the lower body, the biggest challenge to all beginners is to begin to correct this imbalance. Therefore the most important exercise to begin with is the Vertical Lift. This exercise will rapidly increase your upper-body fitness. Correcting this imbalance is absolutely essential in Fitness4x4.
DAY 2 Targets (i)
Perform 100 shallow squats Once again concentrate on perfect technique. Analyze your knee movement by standing sideways to a mirror. Your knees should make very little movement backwards and forwards. Extend fully at the top of each squat. You may rise up on your toes at the top of each squat to engage the calf muscle, but this will greatly increase the difficulty of the squats.
(i)
Perform 3 sets of vertical lifts, with a three minute rest period between sets. Each set should consist of 30-50 repetitions. You should still be using approximately 10% of your body weight in each hand.
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Take time to stretch out your quads, biceps and shoulders primarily, at the end of your lifting. Note: it is better to follow the above order and begin with the squats as opposed to the lifts. In this way the squats can use the large leg muscles to assist in warming up the body in preparation for the vertical lifts.
Day 3 Remember, our focus is to start developing your upper body fitness, and bring it into balance with the lower body. Try not to speculate intellectually and scientifically about the energy balance of the body – that will get you nowhere. Let your body tell you through its own physical experience what it means to have complete fitness. I am sure that, once you have experienced such fitness, you won’t put up with anything else. Targets I advise taking a rest day from Fitness4x4. You may perform any other exercises that you are familiar with today, but not Fitness4x4. If your upper body is sore, or you feel any tenderness in the elbow or shoulder joint, do not do any exercises that will exacerbate the problem. It is advisable at this point to read back over any sections of the book that you may have found unclear.
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Day 4 Today you are going to perform a simple variation of a Fitness4x4 training method called the ‘Dragan-walk’. In order to do this you will need a light pair of handweights (approx 5lbs for ladies and 5-10lbs for men). You will also need a place to walk. It is possible to perform this exercise on a treadmill but this can be dangerous and many health clubs will not allow you to take dumbbells onto the treadmill. Targets (i)
Dragan-Walk for 15minutes For the first 3minutes of the walk simply allow the weights to hand by your side as you warm up. Following this warm up period you will begin the vertical lifts movement with the upper body, while maintaining a brisk walk. Try to take large strides and synchronize your arm movements with your steps.
Day 5 Today you are going to perform a higher number of vertical lifts. To help you achieve this, you will split the total into three achievable sets, however if you wish you may complete the full set of 150 repetitions in one go. Targets (i) (ii)
60 full squats 3 sets of 50 vertical lifts (3x50) (Maximum of 5minutes recovery between sets).
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DAY 6 Today it is important to allow your shoulders and arms (primarily the anterior deltoid and biceps tendon) to recover. Instead you will focus on the lower body and performing one large set of squats. Unless you are very experienced in squatting, ensure that you follow the guidelines below and only perform a shallow squat (see picture). This session will give you a feel for high repetition squatting. Targets (i)
100 – 150 Shallow squats. Do not squat deep. Simply maintain a good pace of movement and keep the squats continuous. This picture shows the deepest you should go for a shallow squat.
DAY 7
REST! Next week you will begin the Fitness4x4 testing stage, which will require all of your energy and muscles that are not sore! 114
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It’s Time to Test! Week 2 Now that you have familiarized yourself with the Fitness4x4 movements, and exposed your muscles to new exercises, it is time to evaluate your current fitness levels. If you are suffering from muscle soreness (DOMS) or have not fully recovered from week 1, then allow yourself as many days recovery as is necessary before beginning the testing stage. There are three tests to undertake during week two. You may spread them throughout the week however best suits you.
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TEST 1: Upper Body Energy Output This test is designed to measure the energy output capacity of your upper body, using the vertical lift exercise. Test Protocol: 1. Re-familiarize yourself with the vertical lift points of technique and photo sequence on page 55. 2. Record the duration of your test using a stop watch. Begin timing when you perform your first lift. 3. Select a dumbbell with which you are confident you can perform a minimum of 50 reps. (each arm counts as one rep). 4. Try to maintain a PACE of movement of approximately 16 lifts per minute. 5. This is a continuous movement. Once you have begun you may not rest until you have finished. Do not stop and start again. 6. Perform as many lifts as you can without loss of technique and without pain or discomfort. When you cannot comfortably perform any more complete reps, stop! Complete the test sheet on the following page and record your results in the designated boxes. You must record:1. 2. 3. 4.
Your TOTAL number of lifts. Your lifting duration (mins) Your upper body Energy Output Score. Your Power Co-Efficient score.
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Test 1 Record Sheet NAME AGE
DATE
Dumbbell Weight (lb) Vertical Lift ROM (inch) Repetitions (Each arm cycle counts as one rep)
Test Duration Energy Output Power CoEfficient*
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Test 2: Lower Body Energy Output This test is designed to measure the energy output capacity of your lower body, using the free squat exercise. Test Protocol 1. Re-familiarize yourself with the correct squat technique described on pages 47-48. 2. Start the timer when you begin your first squat and stop the timer after your final squat. 3. Begin slowly and carefully to allow joints and muscles to warm up. 4. Maintain the same depth and pace of movement throughout the test. 5. Maintain a smooth and controlled squat technique. As soon as your technique begins to suffer as a result of fatigue, it is advisable to stop. Complete the test sheet on the following page and record your results in the designated boxes. You must record:• • • •
Your TOTAL number of squats. Your squat range of movement Your squatting duration (mins) Your lower body Energy Output Score.
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Test 2 Record Sheet NAME AGE
Date
Squat Weight (lb) Squat ROM (inches) Test Duration Energy Output Power CoEfficient
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Test 3: The 15-minute Fitness Test Test three is designed to test your upper body fitness capacity. For this test you should ensure that your upper body muscles are fully recovered, and you will require the following two things: 1) A Heart Rate Monitor 2) An assistant to help you record data while you perform the test. (In the absence of an assistant it is possible to complete the test using a video camera, which will record all the relevant information). Test Protocol: 1. Attach the heart rate monitor and record your resting heart rate on the following page. 2. Complete the personal stats information on the following page, making particular note of your Heart Rate Training Zone. 3. Select a dumbbell that you are confident you can vertical lift continuously for more than 150 reps. 4. You will begin the timer on your first lift, and aim to keep lifting continuously for a duration of 15 minutes. 5. Keep a count of your lifts (reps) and try to maintain a PACE of approximately 16 lifts per minute. Every minute you will be required to inform your assistant of how many lifts you have completed. 6. Continue lifting until you can comfortably do no more, or until you complete the 15 minutes.
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2. Record readings for heart rate on every minute. (If the heart rate figure is not steady as the minute arrives, record the average heart rate during the last 10seconds of each minute). 3. Record the number of lifts performed each minute. If the subject is lifting considerably faster or slower than 14-18 lifts per minute, the assistant must inform him/her to slow down or speed up accordingly. 4. Ensure that the subject does not lose technique, injure himself / herself or exceed physical limits. 5. If the subject exceeds their heart rate training zone, it is advisable to stop the test. 6. If the subject stops before 15minutes, record the time at which they stopped and the reason for stopping in the Notes section of the result sheet.
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Test 3 Record Sheet Name Age Date Training Zone Resting H/Rate Dumbbell Weight Time (mins) Reps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
H/Rate
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Your Fitness4x4 Training Now that you have evaluated your current Energy Output capacity and fitness level, it is time to begin your gradual improvement. It is time to gradually bring the upper body into fitness balance with the lower body. On the back page of this booklet is a Progress Table. There are six rows per week – one for every session (six Fitness4x4 workouts per week is the maximum recommended). Your Fitness4x4 session should last between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on two factors: 1. How advanced you are in Fitness4x4 training 2. The intensity level of your workout Your total exercise time should be between 1 and 4 hours per week. How you distribute that workout time throughout the week is up to you, but it is best to establish a regular pattern. Enter your start-date in Week 1 on the Progress Chart and fill in one row after each session. The Fitness4x4 concept is surprisingly simple, time-efficient and highly effective. The secret lies not in mastering complex techniques, but in always paying attention to the state of balance between your upper-body and lower-body EO capacity. You must not lose sight of this important principle if you want to succeed in Fitness4x4. In the early stages you may find that it is best to simply use your Fitness4x4 training as a supplement to your existing training. As your capacity improves however, it can begin to take a more prominent role in your exercise habits. It is recommended that you take a rest day from Fitness4x4 once a week to allow the body to recover from this form exercise. The 123
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Fitness4x4 method is applicable both to upper-body training and lower-body training. Since the imbalance of most people is in favor of the lower-body however, we emphasize the importance of upper-body conditioning, using the Vertical Training routine workout. Your Goal Each week you should aim to see a slight improvement in your maximum energy output. This can be achieved either by improving on the number of reps performed, or by increasing the resistance to the movement. Vertical Lifts •
• • •
Set yourself a target of how many lifts you would like to complete each week. Keep it realistic, but also try to keep making small increases. Your upper body has tremendous untapped potential for fitness, so you should expect to make considerable improvements from your first efforts. It is advisable to remain on a dumbbell weight until you can perform at least 300 lifts. You may then progress to a heavier dumbbell. It is not recommended that you increase the pace of movement beyond 18 lifts per minute, as this increases the chances of injury as a result of poor technique You may use wrist straps if you have difficulty holding on to the dumbbell after some time, but if you can find a technique of not gripping the dumbbell too tightly, you will find that you can overcome the grip problem.
Squats •
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•
•
It is possible to add resistance to the squat by carrying a weight or wearing a weights vest, but this should only be considered when you are able to perform 500 free squats without difficulty, and should be approached cautiously to prevent back injury. Always begin your squats at a slow pace to allow the knees to warm up gradually.
Ensure that you record your progress in your Progress Chart at the back of this book. You will not improve at every single session, but be consistent and set your targets high, and remember that I made my biggest improvements after the age of 50!
Share your Success When you begin to make progress in Fitness4x4 I would like to hear about your improvements! Email me your success stories and improvements via the Fitness4x4 website, as they will be a source of inspiration and motivation to others who are beginning, and also to me! Email:
[email protected]
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Advanced Stages of Fitness4x4 The second stage of the Fitness4x4 training endeavor is the most rewarding part. At this stage, the communication between your upper-body muscles and your cardiovascular system is well established. The choice of dumbbell weight is determined not just by the condition of your muscles but also by the condition of your cardiovascular system. This is never the case with beginners since their upper-body muscles are not conditioned enough to engage the cardiovascular system fully and effectively. At this level of Fitness4x4 training, nothing is left to guesswork or improvisation. This is a more complex subject and more information can be found via the Consultation Program. In the final stage of Fitness4x4 development, which happens after an unspecified period of training, your body is in near perfect balance: both the upper-body and lower-body potentials are fully realized and you reap the maximum benefits from your training whilst investing a minimal amount of time. For example, most of my senior students (who are at this stage of Fitness4x4 development) will comfortably perform 500 or more squats as a warm-up, or 500 or more Vertical Lifts with 25 lb to 40 lb dumbbells. Both of these tasks take less than half an hour, but require more energy than 1½ hours of conventional gym exercising.
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Vertical Lift Guidelines Safety
The movement must be performed in a smooth, controlled manner, with minimal movement of the legs. Start out slowly and deliberately. Gradually, as your body temperature and heart rate increase you may wish to gently increase the pace of movement. Do not attempt to overexert yourself in the first few sessions. Initially you may find that one muscle group becomes fatigued much more rapidly than the others (e.g. forearm, bicep, etc.) causing you to stop the workout before fully engaging other muscle groups. This is normal, since the upper-body is unaccustomed to such high-intensity continuous exertion. Before long your muscles will adapt to this new method of training and, if you stick to the program rigorously, you will make considerable improvements that you can record on the Progress Chart. There are a number of other important factors that must be observed in order to reach high levels of performance:
Breathing
Regular, controlled breathing is essential for optimum performance. Try to adopt the following breathing pattern: Exhale during each overhead press movement and inhale during the downward phase. As your cardiovascular system becomes engaged it may be necessary to increase the pace of breathing, however try to synchronize the pace of movement with your natural breathing rhythm. 127
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Control •
Always execute the movements in a smooth, controlled manner.
•
The upper-body and legs need not be rigid but avoid excessive swinging, bouncing and twisting movements.
•
Extend the dumbbell above your head during the press movement; however do not aggressively lock out your elbow joint.
•
Always perform each lift in two phases: the curl to the shoulder and the press overhead. Do NOT try to raise the dumbbell from your waist to overhead in one ballistic motion. Curl and Press!
•
Similarly each time you lower the dumbbell from the overhead position, stop momentarily at the shoulder before lowering the dumbbell to your thighs.
•
Do not grip the dumbbell excessively tightly. Maintain a firm grip, but do not squeeze the dumbbell. Squeezing the dumbbell tightly will cause unnecessary forearm tightening and can cause wrist pain.
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Mental Focus It is vital that you focus completely on the movements that you are performing or you will not achieve the necessary EO for maximum results. Try to minimize any distractions, such as TV screens, telephones, etc. If it is not possible to avoid these distractions, simply block them out of your mind. Do not interrupt your Fitness4x4 routine to make conversation or chat. The vertical movement may initially feel frustratingly monotonous. If you prefer to perform the workout to music, remember that the pace of lifting should be set by your own body, not by the beat of the music. Performing the workout in front of a mirror will help you to focus on the movements and maintain good technique. Remember that intense exercise requires mind participation. If you intend to reach your optimum vitality, you will begin to appreciate the concentration and mental involvement required to train at maximum intensity. This concept however is entirely absent in most health clubs, where the mind and the body are often completely disconnected.
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Pulse Rate The heart rate is a simple and accurate way of monitoring the cardiovascular intensity of exercise, and is therefore essential information to the serious athlete. The best way to monitor the effectiveness of your Fitness4x4 training is to obtain a heart rate monitor that you can wear whilst exercising. This is not essential in the first stages of the Fitness4x4 program because it will take a while for your upperbody muscles to adjust to this type of exercise. However, once your muscles have adapted to the new routine, you will be able to lift at a sufficient intensity to engage your heart and lungs for 15 minutes or more. This is the second stage of Fitness4x4 training – simultaneous cardio and muscle conditioning – and it is at this point that it will be important to monitor your heart rate. In the absence of a heart rate monitor, it is possible to measure your heart rate manually. However this will require stopping your workout or simply measuring at the end of your workout because it is very difficult to accurately measure heart rate manually while you are active. How to measure Heart Rate Manually • • •
Find your either your radial pulse (at the wrist) or your carotid artery pulse (either side of your windpipe), depending on which one is stronger and easier to find. Count the number of pulses (heart beats) in six seconds. Multiply this figure by 10, to find out your heart rate in beats per minute.
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Squat Guidelines Perhaps the simplest and most complete of all lower body exercises, the squat is the principle lower body exercise used in Fitness4x4. It is also the exercise used to evaluate lower body Energy Output Capacity. The reasons we use the squat are quite simple:1. The squat is a natural human movement. People have been squatting for centuries! Every time you sit down and stand up, you are squatting, because this is a movement the body was designed to perform. This is how we know it is safe. 2. The full squat involves almost every muscle of the lower body, so for muscular conditioning it is highly effective. 3. The squat is a very high Energy Output exercise, therefore also very high on the Fitness4x4 hierarchy of exercises.
The Safety Paradox Although squats are generally accepted to be a perfectly and effective lower body exercise, when it comes to repetition squatting, concerns about the knees often arise. of the most common statements made with regard to the number of squats I practice is,
safe high One high
“Surely it is bad for the knees to do so many squats.” In fifteen years of regular high rep squatting, I have never had any kind of knee problem. In fact, before I began regular squatting my knees were weak and problematic, yet since 131
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beginning regular high rep squatting after the age of 35, they are stronger than ever in my life. I recall being in my early thirties when a young fitness trainer informed me that the amount of squats I was performing (approximately 300 in one go) was dangerous. I replied that to the contrary I found squats to be very safe and very effective. The young instructor, who ironically happened to be wearing knee supports, with a shake of her head said to me, “You may be okay now, but in ten years time if you keep doing what you’re doing, your knees are going to be totally shot!” About twenty years have passed since this young girl’s warning, and I have probably performed well over a million free squats since that day! I no longer perform only 300 squats at a time, but often 1000. My knees have never felt stronger! The reason really is quite simple. If a movement is safe to be performed ten times, then logically it must be safe to be performed one thousand times, providing the body has reached such a high rep count gradually. Strangely enough many people assume that a safe movement somehow becomes unsafe after a certain number of repetitions. This is illogical and is simply not the case. To find an example to support this you simply have to consider a movement such as flexion and extension of the ankle joint – walking! When we walk, the ankle joint performs thousands of repetitions, carrying the entire weight of the body! Have you ever heard it suggested that to take fifty steps is okay, but to take one thousand steps is dangerous? Of course not! Simply because if one step is safe, then one-thousand steps performed in the same way must also be safe. If your technique is correct on the very first repetition, and does not alter, then it will still be safe one hundred, five hundred or even a thousand repetitions later. The human body is not a 132
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machine that rusts or wears out with use. On the contrary the human body thrives on good use and adapts to become stronger and more capable the more you demand from it.
However if your squat technique is incorrect, then whether you perform ten squats or one thousand squats, they may be potentially damaging. Similarly if your technique alters as you fatigue, then your squats may become damaging to your knees, but this will not be as a result of high repetitions, but as a result of lack of conditioning or concentration. It is therefore important to know how to squat correctly. Follow the guidelines on page 48. N.B In this book I will only deal with the free squat and not the weighted squat. A weighted squat will produce a greater energy output, but is a progression that should only be made when a person has mastered the free squat. The weighted squat requires a slightly more complex and refined technique than the free squat.
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The “Dragan Challenge” The real exposure of Fitness4x4 to the general public began with the introduction of the Dragan Challenge. The first high-profile challenge was sponsored by GreenFoods Corporation and took place at the Expo West Convention 2000 in Las Vegas. The show was a success and numerous GreenFoods Challenges were subsequently staged across the U.S. and Canada, the biggest of which was at the Arnold Fitness Expo in Ohio, in which Physical Magazine put up a $10,000 prize for anyone who could outlift me. Perhaps as many as one thousand individuals have competed in these contests, often in teams of 3, 5 or even 10 people in an attempt to snatch the prize. . In five years of hundreds of contests I have never lost, and never had to pull out of a contest due to injury or illness. Perhaps there is a bit of luck involved, but I firmly believe that the large part of it is because of the level of fitness I have acquired from Fitness4x4.
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Frequently Asked Questions One of the aspects of my work is to travel around the United States and other countries to give educational seminars about Fitness4x4. When I propose my system as the most effective form of workout, I usually come up against objections from people who are already enthusiastic about one sport or another. Quite often, it is the same questions and concerns that are raised in the seminars and so I have listed some of the most frequent remarks below. Perhaps they will address some of your initial concerns: 1. What’s in it for me? What will I get out of applying Fitness4x4? What concrete benefits can I expect in my life? This book is meant to help everyone to shift his/her angle of perception of exercise. Certain facts stated in the booklet, such as the upper-body vs. lower-body energy imbalance, are true for most people. The other fact is that most people exercise well below their true fitness capacity and consequently get modest results at a relatively large time investment. Being aware of those two very important issues will make you change your approach to training and help you increase your EO capacity, whilst minimizing your time investment. An example of this is a 44-year old man who saw one of my contests, got inspired and made an astonishing increase in his free-squats routine, from 130 squats to 1,000 squats per workout, within one year. His upper-body performance level improved from 40 to 250 continuous push-ups, also in the space of only one year of twice-weekly training. What triggered this 44-year-old man’s incredible improvement was the new realization of his true physical capacity, which happened as a result of applying the 135
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principles of Fitness4x4. Besides that, hardly anything else in his life was different, including his diet. 2. I already do a lot of physical activity. I am fit and healthy. I don’t need Fitness4x4, do I? Fitness4x4 is a training method that can be applied to any exercise program. If you state that you are already fit and healthy, that is probably so. The questions to be answered are the following: •
How fit is your upper-body (how much energy can it exert in 1 hour)?
•
How fit is your lower-body (how much energy can it exert in 1 hour)?
•
How much time of your week do you invest to keep your present physical condition?
•
Do you agree that total fitness can only be achieved when both the upper and lower-body are equally fit?
The answers to these questions will lead you to conclusions about the effectiveness of your existing training routine, its time efficiency and whether or not you need Fitness4x4. Whatever you feel is right, is right (for you). There are many who, when confronted by the undeniable fact of the imbalance of their upper and lower-body, choose to turn a blind eye to that fact, deeming it irrelevant to their overall fitness. It is the choice of every individual to allow his or her upper-body to develop its full fitness potential or to leave it under-developed. 3. I do rowing, so my upper-body fitness is already very good. 136
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Rowing is undeniably a total fitness exercise, since it engages the entire body. If you are a devoted rower and you do it properly, with sufficient intensity and duration, then you are already practicing Fitness4x4. Still, dumbbell lifts and freestanding squats (the main exercises in Fitness4x4) will allow you to pursue separately the development of the maximum energy capacity of the upper or lower-body. Furthermore, you can precisely determine the EO capacity of either part of your body (e.g. upper-body EO=750,000 and lower-body EO=1,100,000) and compare them with each other (e.g. upper-body EO-73% of lower-body EO). Last, but not least, a pair of dumbbells is much less bulky and far cheaper than any rowing machine and certainly longer lasting! 4. I am already improving my cardio fitness through other methods, and I do weight training for my upper body – why do I need Fitness4x4? There are many examples of people who are very cardiovascular fit, and also in great muscular condition in the upper body through weight training / bodybuilding. Of course one cannot look at such a person and say “you need Fitness4x4 to get in shape!” But that does not mean that Fitness4x4 could not dramatically improve this person’s training, and potentially reduce their time investment in training. Furthermore, a strong upper body is not necessarily a fit upper body! When it comes to comparing various fitness methods, it is best to simplify things with the following four questions:
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1. Is your current training method providing you fitness and muscular development for the upper and lower body? 2. Is your current training method causing you injuries (i.e stress injuries from impact)? 3. How much time are you having to invest in your training method to maintain/improve your current condition? Question three is probably the most crucial question and is what puts Fitness4x4 above most other methods. There are many examples of people who are very fit and look fantastic – but how many of these people can afford to train only 3hours per week to maintain their condition? Fitness4x4 allows a person to train at an intensity difficult to match in other methods, and it is this intensity that allows the potential for minimal time investment and maximum results! 5. I do rock-climbing. exercise.
It’s the most complete form of
Rock-climbing is without doubt a great muscle-conditioning exercise and one of the most complete forms of exercising, but it does not necessarily condition your cardiovascular system. In the instances when the climber combines intense hiking with rock-climbing, then both the muscular-system and the cardiovascular-system are conditioned. However, you have to consider the following: •
Rock-climbing and hiking require considerable time investment and space.
•
Rock-climbing is impractical and very difficult for overweight individuals (the weight of the body demands proportionately strong hands to support it during climbing. Therefore hand-strength is a ‘bottleneck’, meaning that 138
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however strong and capable the rest of your body might be, the ability of your hands to hold onto the rocks is ultimately your limiting factor). •
Only individuals of a certain body-type have the privilege to fully reap the benefits of rock-climbing.
•
Most people do not have the environmental conditions for rock-climbing.
•
Unlike Fitness4x4, which is a completely structured form of exercise (the exercises and intensity of every session are regulated), rock-climbing is always improvised and with variable and unpredictable EO.
6. What about Tae Bo? Fitness4x4 is about maximum, measurable energy-output and about the balance between the fitness levels of the upper and lower-body. As mentioned in answer #3 above, in Fitness4x4 you don’t have to guess or subjectively evaluate the effectiveness of your training (e.g. “it was really hard”; “I’m totally exhausted”, etc.). Instead, you precisely calculate the energy used in your upper-body training session or your lower-body training session, separately. This allows you to assess the upper-lower-body energy balance. It also gives you a firm indication of your fitness and allows you to accurately monitor your progress. 7. I’m a marathon runner. Why would I want to develop my upper-body – it might slow me down? It is very important to decide for yourself which of the following two groups you belong to: 1. Competitive career runner 2. Running-for-fitness runner 139
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If you happen to be a career runner, you probably invest a lot of time and energy in your running routines and have very little extra time and energy to allocate to other forms of training, including Fitness4x4. But, if you run for fitness, then Fitness4x4 can do a lot for you and you should learn about it. I suggest you cut your running time in half and invest the other half into Fitness4x4 exercising, which will bring your body into balance. You might be surprised to find that even with your training time cut in half, your running ability will be unchanged or even improved. 7. My doctor told me that swimming was the best all-round
form of exercise. Swimming is a very good form of exercise. But we all know that there’s swimming, and there’s swimming! Most people swim at insufficient intensity and are under the false impression that they are “getting in shape.” Many of them are doing little more than merely floating in the water whilst gently moving their arms and legs, and still consider it to be a workout. Have you ever watched a water-polo game? Well, those guys are really swimming and achieving very high EO. That kind of swimming is probably the best and the most complete upper-body exercise. But, when it comes to the legs, no swimming exercise can compare to freestanding squats, cycling, hill power-walking, etc. You must keep in mind what I said earlier: there’s SWIMMING, and there’s swimming. Please tell this to your doctor! 8. How will vertical lifting improve my abs?
The “vertical training” used in Fitness4x4 is an excellent abfirming exercise. In the past few years I have done very few 140
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sit ups or other stomach exercises, and yet my abs today are as firm as you see them on the front page of this book. The secret lies in the ratio between the weight of the dumbbells you lift and your lean body weight. E.g. (10 lb dumbbell weight) divided by (100 lb lean body weight) = 0.1. The greater this ratio, the greater the effect on the abdominals. You might find this claim unconvincing, but if you ask any structural engineer about the forces that act in the waist area when a heavy dumbbell is held in an overhead position, he or she will tell you that the waist area must be well reinforced to allow the structure (your body) to stand whilst the heavy object is suspended above, at the furthest point from the center of the structure. 9. I heard that you recommend squats as a lower-body
exercise. I have injured knees and a bad back. What should I do? Squats are the best leg exercise. Freestanding squats are much more productive (in terms of the total EO) and much safer for your knees and lower-back than squats with weights. A Physician or Physiotherapist should deal with any injuries or physical disabilities. Fitness4x4 training can be applied to the healthy areas of the body, whilst the injured parts are being healed. 10. My aerobics class uses lots of energy and we use upper
and lower-body. That’s enough, right? Countless times I have heard people describing their aerobics class as “very intense,” “very demanding,” “high energy,” etc. But I have never herd someone actually quantifying the energy or the intensity of his or her class. Why? Because nobody can! Nobody has any idea how hard their class is objectively – on the EO scale. Let me give you one example: 141
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If a person weighing 150 lbs hikes up a hill to an elevation of 1000 ft (12,000 inches) from where he started and it took him one hour, I can evaluate the EO of his hike as follows: EO = weight x height = 150 x 12,000 = 1,800,000 units Now I can compare his hike EO with either my Vertical Lifting session or my free squatting session and get an objective idea of how hard and demanding that hike was. But if he just said that he went for an hour of intense hiking, I would have nothing to evaluate the energy used in that hike and form an objective conclusion about its effectiveness. 11.
I’m a woman and I’m worried that if I start lifting dumbbells I’ll get muscular arms. Fitness4x4 does not build bulky arms or shoulders. A woman building large muscles from Fitness4x4 is an extremely unlikely scenario. In fact, even young men who can build bigger muscles more easily than any other section of the population, will not build large muscles using Fitness4x4 alone. This is because there are a large number of reps and lots of energy exerted in the Fitness4x4 workout – such training is not suitable for building the size of the muscle, but rather its strength and endurance. Your muscles will certainly firm up and will increase their energy capacity several times but not their size.
12.
I practice “Power Yoga.” It is very demanding physically. Why would I need Fitness4x4? In one of my previous answers I stated that the Fitness4x4 workout is a precisely structured exercise routine and the EO of each session is calculable. When I finish my Fitness4x4 session I can tell you, for example, that my EO 142
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was 1 million units, based on the total weight I lifted and the distance to which it was lifted. Six months later my EO might increase to 1,200,000, meaning that my fitness level improved 20%. In Fitness4x4 you are always conscious of your EO capacity, and you know how much that is numerically – you don’t describe your workouts in vague and subjective terms such as very hard, really effective, exhausting, etc. Could you tell me numerically, how hard is your Power Yoga class? 13. For me nothing compares to a good run! Fitness4x4 doesn’t get me out of breath like running, so I feel like I’d get fitter running. Is this wrong? This is a very common statement among individuals who are accustomed to a particular mode of cardiovascular exercise such as jogging or cycling. The first thing to understand is that often the above statement is true! However, the reason it is true that you might get a tougher workout running or cycling is not due to Fitness4x4 being an inferior method – rather it is due to the following two things:1. Your intensity during the 4x4 workout may be insufficient. For instance changing the weight of your dumbbell by even just a few pounds will dramatically increase the intensity of the exercise. 2. Lack of upper body fitness capacity! Until you develop your upper body fitness capacity, your upper body will be unable to give you a tough workout. If you increase your dumbbell weight you will find that your muscles fail before you’ve had a chance to even break a sweat. But then when you take a dumbbell weight that you can sustain for 15 minutes, now you find that because it is so light your heart rate is not elevated sufficiently! This is 143
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the problem faced by a beginner to 4x4, but it is easily solved. One solution is to introduce greater leg effort while you perform the upper body activity. For example walk uphill while you do your vertical lifts. But the key factor is to keep developing your upper body fitness capacity and soon you will find that no other activity can give you the kind of tough workout that 4x4 can!
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In Closing… Congratulations on having made it to this point in the book. I hope that your eyes have been opened and you have been inspired to join me on the lifelong path towards ultimate vitality. Remember that this book is only an introduction, intended to give you a new perspective and to get you started in the right direction. The Fitness4x4 concept is simple, yet the theory is deep and complex. It is not expected that you understand it fully on your first reading. Much of the theory will only be fully illuminated by your physical experience of putting the principles into practice. A purely academic understanding of this concept would only be a shadow of the profound understanding that you will gain from applying the principles to your daily life. You may already be asking “What next? Where do I go from here?” On the following pages are some ways to further your progress and understanding. If you have truly benefited from Fitness4x4, let other people know --- share your newfound understanding, it may help someone else too. And tell us about your progress – we want to know. I wish you every success and the very best of health,
Dragan
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Feedback We are interested in your feedback. Now that you have read the book and applied the principles to your training, we would like to hear about your progress. Please send us an email and let us know: • • • • • • •
How has this book helped you? Have you been able to apply the principles in your life? How has your understanding changed as a result of reading this book? Have you noticed any physical improvements? Has your training / lifestyle changed as a result of reading the book? Are you unclear about any particular sections? Any other comments.
Please send your comments to:
[email protected]. We regret that we cannot guarantee an individual reply to your message, but all feedback is carefully considered. The best items of feedback may be selected for posting on the fitness4x4.com website, with a response from Dragan. We will include the name and location of the sender (e.g. John Doe, Los Angeles), unless you specifically ask us not to in your message. 146
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Questions
It is likely that you have many pressing questions about the book and about Fitness4x4 training. If you would like to address a question to Fitness4x4 founder Dragan, please send it by email to:
[email protected] We cannot guarantee individual responses to email queries, but a selection of questions will be posted on the website and answered personally by Dragan. Please let us know if you prefer your name not to be mentioned on the website in the event that your question is selected for posting.
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Going Further …..
When you have digested the information in this booklet and started applying it to your training, you will almost certainly find that lots of questions will arise about this new method of training. This booklet is only intended as an introduction to the principles of Fitness4x4 and not to cover every aspect of the program. In order to gain a more comprehensive grasp of Fitness4x4, utilize the following resources:
Consultation
The best way to truly refine your understanding of Fitness4x4 is to receive private consultations with Dragan, the originator of the program, either in person or by telephone. For pricing, locations and availability, send an email to
[email protected]
Advanced 4x4 Training Programs
The original 4x4 workout known as the ‘Power Hour’ is soon to be released on DVD / video. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list to purchase a copy, please send an email to
[email protected]
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Personal Stats Page NAME AGE
SEX
Body Weight (lb) Squat Weight (lb)
(Bodyweight minus 10%)
Vertical Lift ROM* Squat ROM* (inches) Resting Heart Rate Max Heart Rate
(220-age)
Training Zone
___
(70%-90%) *ROM = Range of Movement 149
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Progress Chart
Workout
Exercise
Duration
Weight
Range
Reps
EO
Example:
Vertical lifts
10mins
20 lbs
50inch
100
100,000 units
Week 1 Date: (_/_/__)
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
Week 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
Week 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
Week 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
Week 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
Week 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 Weekly total - Energy Output:
At the end of each week add up your total energy output and record in the corresponding blue box.
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