On the 27th December the great Dan John came to town and set up camp at the excellent (but bloody freezing) gym Informed Performance on the north side of Dublin.
I have been meaning to get this up for ages but the holidays and clients wanting to get their new year off to a good start has delayed me. So sorry for all those that were expecting this sooner.
Prior to going to the seminar (it was on for 2 days but could only attend the first) I was a big fan of Dan John and had read his excellent book – Never let Go http://www.davedraper.com/fitness_products/product/BDJN.html and one of his DVD’s – Everthing’s over my head. Both of which were quite good and he reminds me very much of the writers from Hardgainer which were such (and still are) a strong influence on my training philosophy i.e. work on the basics regularly and get stronger.
So to get the ball rolling he started off on his philosophy of strength (well after he showed us how to improve your standing broad jump instantly – snap your hips and stop using your thigh so much and kettlebell swings).
1. Reps – if you want to get good at anything you need to do it over and over again. I think Malcom Gladwell put it best in his book The Outliers http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html when he presents his theory of what makes successful people and it largely comes down to putting in your 10,000hrs of practice.
For example, if you play a sport or simply just want to look better Dan suggests you ask yourself what are the three most important things you need to work on? So is spending 20mins doing stomach exercises really going to matter when you are 2stone overweight or could that time be spent more wisely? If you play ANY sport are those biceps curls going to make you run any faster/powerful or move with more mobility? It frequently amazes me how many guys train like bodybuilders doing pretty boy training when they NEED better performance. Get practicing and remember it takes 20 years to become an overnight success.
2. Talk about movements not muscles – this relates to the above point and Dan spoke about the importance of having exercises that focus on push/pull, posterior chain, squat, explosive movements, one leg/hand, anterior chain and gait (e.g. holding a weight overhead and walking) in every training program. Funny how the majority of programs I see people do in gym or those given out by trainers are mainly machine or body part split programs – so 10 years ago!
Importance of explosive exercises
3. If it’s important do it every day – and if it’s not do not do it at all. For me I need lots of work on my olympic lifting so I do it most days of the week in some form. For others this might mean you need to keep your diet on track daily and train regularly. Stop doing things that do not matter.
4. The body is one piece – again getting back to training the body as a unit and NOT certain parts. Doing some isolation work in a training program can help. However, the majority of people work on specific areas too much which can lead to injuries and sub-optimal results. I have trained clients for years with full body training in almost all sessions with great results. This might be something you are missing from your training.
5. Pick things up – Dan explained the importance of just basically picking things up and putting them down e.g. the deadlift. These basic exercises give you much more bang for your buck when done correctly than using machines in a gym.
6. Put things over your head – Dan said that this is the primary area most people fall down on. Just put a weight over your head and walk with it. Not only will it help with core and shoulder stability but will get your hear rate up and improve your conditioning. Try a set of walking lunges with a dumbbell held overhead and tell me it does not work!
Walking lunges with weight OH
From there Dan made some other good points like – if you only had 15mins to train what would you do? This is a super question as it is something I preach all the time as I tell clients there is lots you can get done in just 15mins with the right exercises and a bit of determination. So if you had just 15mins would a leg exercise feature – YES! Pressing moevements like a standing press or push up – YES! A power clean, kettlebell swings or wall ball maybe – YES!
This is an example of what can be done in very short time –
or
From there me moved into quite a few great exercies to use for warming up such as –
Goblet squats, push up variations, walking with kettlebell overhead and this one i really liked
It’s kind of sad the way most people warm up and if you were just to do a few of these, a dynamic warm up and foam rolling then within 5mins you would be more than ready to rock and roll!
Oh we did these for core work also (and the turkish get up) –
From there we took a break and I did a workout (crossfit the chief variation) and some deadlifts (worked up to an easy single at 190kg) – all completed in just 30mins. Again showing that time is not a limit for getting in productive training. I must say that Dan had his eye on me when I was doing my power cleans and did a super job of correcting my hip strike on it later in the seminar.
After the break we went into teaching the olympic lift the snatch and here is the great man in action again –
And here –
and here –
We then went into the clean where he corrected my form and in the process showed when and where we should be pulling from on this exercise.
Overall it was a great day and I would urge you to get to one of his seminars asap. A big thanks has to go to Informed Performance for getting him over.
It was great to learn from a guy who is at the top of his game, a great speaker and very welcoming to everyone at every level of fitness and strength. I for one know that 2010 will be a more productive year for me and my clients having attended this seminar.
Post your thoughts and comments below.
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