More Old-School Motivation by Jack

It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded a classic video by one of my favorite old school trainers.

Here’s a video from the Jack Lalanne show WAY back when. I think you’ll enjoy it.

oh, an to answer a unique mailbag question right off the bat, the term “Jumping Jack” was coined by this man.

Sparta Workout Playlist Pt. 4 – ’90′s Mania’

Redman – time for some Akson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbCQKCdzs30

Tupac – You can’t See me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CiPmskwksQ

Metallica – The Struggle Within

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53MpdIm3-lg

Nas – Hate Me Now (ft. Puff Daddy….yes, that was his name back then)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSJN3WWR3E

Aaron Waters – Fight (Power Rangers Soundtrack)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCisd4tumLQ&feature=related

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Personal Bonus Track (this song’s awesome, but it’s not 90′s)

Eminem – Won’t Back Down (ft. Pink)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQbNP0gSZvs&feature=related

Progressive Overload: A Way of Life

Progressive overload is an exercise term created by Dr. Thomas Delrome during World War II. It’s defined as ‘the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training’. In plain English, it means taking things one step further than you were before.

I’ve preached and preached about the importance of progressive overload throughout my exercise site, but at as I think about it more and more, I realized that one of the secrets to life fulfillment is a constant need of progressive overload in ALL aspects of your life.

Motivational speaker Anthony Robbins once stated that one of the 6 human needs of a person is the need for personal growth. Simply put, “we either grow or we die.” That’s the same way with every living thing on this planet.

So how do we ‘grow’ in all aspects of your lives? The same way we grow and develop our muscular and skeletal system: PROGRESSIVE FRICKIN’ OVERLOAD. Many people outside of fitness simply call this, “stepping out of your comfort zone.”

Doesn’t that make sense? When we want to be better at something, anything, we step out of our comfort zone and eventually we grow to meet the demand, just like in exercise. It just takes small, incremental, steps beyond where we were before to exhibit this growth. Eventually, we’ll take a look back and realize how far we’ve come.

Let’s take Donald Trump, for example. His comfort zone could’ve easily been working under the wing of his father, Fred Trump, also a very successful real estate tycoon. In fact, if it wasn’t for this own ambitions, Trump could have easily been a male version of Paris Hilton, one who rides the coattails of her father’s success.

Instead, Trump decided to break away from his father’s work and set out on his own journey. Like a beginner not stepping up to a 500 pound deadlift, Trump didn’t try to start huge (Trump Tower wasn’t even on his radar). He started in smaller increments, steadily and gradually pushing past his comfort zone. He started first at the Penn Central Rail yards, rebuilding and reestablishing them, before transforming the old Commodore Hotel to the Grand Hyatt. Little by little, property by property, he built them up, even survived a real estate crash of the early 90s, to steadily build the empire we all see today. Yes, Trump’s Casinos have seen some hard times, as did many real estate moguls for the past couple years, but my opinion about real men of power being able to endure, I’ll save for another day.

So, how do we relate the exploits of ‘The Donald’ to our own lives? It’s simple. Life’s fulfillment comes from feeling like life is a journey, from one point to another, and not a spinning wheel that goes no where. Learn something new, try something out, take on a project you wouldn’t have before. Make every year ‘your year’ so that way when another candle is added to your cake, you can look back and say, “that was a great year. Here’s to an even better one.”

Stay DRIVEN, folks. Spartan, out.

‘What quarter-life Crisis?’

Yes, ladies and gents, a once young-gun Troy B has made it to 25 years old. Old enough to have some wisdom under his belt, but young enough to not need Viagra (pfft, like I ever would).

So what is the point to this writing? Honestly, it’s just a written reflection on where I am and where I’ve been. The journey from 24 to 25 alone has its share of ups and downs

Troy @ 24 – Happy relationship with a girl he was betting to marry, willing to settle for a life of…decent fun. Low risk, moderate reward. The Spartan? He was just this name that was throught up at 23, and died at 24. The Spartan had no room in a ‘maturing’ life of Troy…

…until ‘The Spartan’ was all Troy had left.

Troy @25 – Who the hell knows? It just started. But, from the moment the once surefire, gonna-marry, relationship came tumbling down, something inside changed. The ‘rules of life’ that I was laid out at 24 not only felt boring and uncomfortable, it just felt downright wrong, like I was betraying myself.

(yes, grammar folks, I switched to writing in 1st person…)

Come to think of it, I really WAS betraying myself. I realized I never lived life by anyone else’s rules but my own. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m a Renegade.

I had a very proud, yet oppressive father growing up. He knew what was best for me, but he laid down the law HARD. I remember being very rebellious and we would but heads a lot. I knew there were times that he loved me, yet he didn’t LIKE me at all.

I just find it ironic. He’s been gone for nearly 5 years, and now I follow his rules, principles, and advice, only because they break everyone else’s rules.

So maybe, just MAYBE, I was never meant to go through this quarter-life crisis that everyone is constantly talking about. Maybe it was because I went through it a year early. That crisis of not having life figured out any longer, not having a plan, and seeing that the fabricated plan you had during college, along with the college lifestyle, just doesn’t work anymore. Some people, like me, have a crisis that the life laid out for them is truly NOT the life they want.

For that…maybe I should be thankful.

So, my fellow quarter-lifers…what can we learn from this? Above all else, self-honesty. If you’re going through a period of unsureness, just take a look inside you first, before taking a look at the world. The world as a whole is beyond our immediate change. All we can do is choose what’s best for US. Your world cannot change if your core isn’t how you want it.

Still not sure? Well…contact info is above…maybe a fresh set of eyes is all you need.

Mailbag Question: Plateau Busting

“…over the past year I lost approximately 20 pounds and dropped two dress sizes.  I am finding that for the past few months I’ve kind of hit a plateau that I can’t seem to break.  I’ve tried to vary my routine but seem to get discouraged easily since my results are slower than they typically were.   Do you have any tips for getting over that hump?”

-Hilary, Chicago IL

The plateau effect is the plague of many people trying to hit their fitness goals. Their progress slows down, they start to lose motivation, which only slows their progress down even more, and eventually all comes to a standstill.

One thing to consider, though. The human body is a very high capacity machine, and the amount of physical capabilities it has is actually compounded as you progress.

What does that mean in plain English? It means that you can push yourself higher than even you can think possible. People plateau because they may not be feeling that same feeling of challenge as when they started. That’s one of my driving reasons I chose Crossfit as my ‘go-to’ format for my own training (but more on that another day).

Variety is good, but without performance PROGRESS, you can’t expect aesthetic results. So, how do you progress from here?

1. Progress the load: don’t be afraid to go heavy. Women lack the tastosterone needed to incrase muscle volume. What WILL happen is that the muscle will become more dense and active, increasing your metabolism.
2. Progress the volume: Volume is just a multiplication problem: reps x sets. Either bump up an extra set or a few more reps.
3. Progress the rest: You can do A LOT in this field to progress rest. A simple way is just to decrease the amount of seconds you rest (if you don’t time your rests, that’d be a good progression to start), or for a metabolic kick (see my old article on ‘complexing’) work another body part while you rest what you just worked. In fact, messing with what part of the human body is working and what is resting can  REALLY cut some time off your overall gym trip while seemingly upping the intensity.

Just remember, at one time or another you started watching your nutrition and working out. That alone was a progress. You’ve come a long way from way back then. Most of all, stay aware of your intensity throughout your workout, and no matter how you do your workouts, keep that intensity high.

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As an added bonus, time to add 5 more tracks to the music library. Been feeling a little thrashy as of late, so hip-hop fans, drop me some good songs. In the meantime, crank these bad boys up…

Sevendust – Karma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTQStt3p5tw

Digital Summer – Disconnect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbwKFltfGCk

Static X – Push It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0MfBG5-Uo

Nightwish – Bye Bye Beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pckMm9k7cJw&a=sh-WmjsYlWI&playnext_from=ML

Ramstein – Du Hast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxSLwLzkAYY

Always Leaving your Old Self Behind

I recently came across an old Nike ad that I never saw before.

This was exactly how I felt last week when going through Crossfit Roselle’s infamous ‘Eva’. Now I’ll admit I’m no king of cardio. I grew up with asthma because of my parent’s second hand smoking, as well as not so great genetics. Eva was 50% cardio, 5 rounds with each of them starting out with a 800 meter run.

Round three is where I heard the voice of giving up, the voice of quitting, the voice of the man that’s easy to be, but no one wants to be him. It was just like in the video. One foot in front of the other I went, until I returned from the run to continue the rest of the workout. From there, I knew there was no stopping me, because the one chance I had to give up was gone. From there, I was in it to finish.

Every time I train, every time I learn, there will be that moment of discomfort. It’s always a combination of physical, mental, and emotional discomfort. All can get in the way of your progress…but that’s the meaning of ‘progressive overload.’ Putting yourself at least a little past your comfort zone.

Without that push, there is no progress, and you’ll eventually platau…but I’ll dive more into that next time, where we once again open up the mailbag.

For now, enjoy the video, and STAY DRIVEN!

Spartan’s Mailbag: Lifting Every Day

Dear Troy,

Is it a bad idea to do strength/resistance training every day? I’ve been doing about 30 minutes daily and my muscles are perpetually sore, but in a “hurts so good” way, not so much an “ouch, I can’t move” way. Just curious, as I’m the type who needs to do some…thing daily for it to become habitual.

-Scarlett, Pheonix AZ

Dear Scarlett,

The big misconception is that you’re building muscle with every rep and every set…actually, you’re building the muscle during your rest, recovery, and nutrition.

If you just HAVE to do some sort of resistance training every day, then I would vary the intensity and volume day by day. Let me break it down.

Intensity is the heaviness of the weight you’re lifting. The heavier weights can be used for actual muscle and strength building while lighter weights can be used to develop muscle stabilization and endurance.

Volume is just simple math: Reps times Sets. The higher the intensity, the lower the volume most of the time (the old ‘heavy weight, low reps’ philosophy), and vise versa.

In your particular case, with your need to do something every day, I would alternate between higher intensity days and lower intensity days. In fact, I suggest that instead of doing a ‘low intensity’ lifting day, that you actually use your light weights to create a cardio style circuit (aka, a Complex). Pick about 4-6 different exercises, hitting various parts of the body, and do a set of 10 reps for each exercise, back to back, with no rest until all 4-6 moves are done. 30 seconds rest, and repeat for 2-3 rounds.

The primary purpose is more of a cardio workout instead of a strength building workout. It bumps up your heart rate and cardiovascular systems while ‘maintaining’ your muscle.

Great question, Scarlett. For anyone else, feel free to hit up my e-mail (in ‘Contact Info’ above), or facebook if you’re my friend. Better yet, I made myself a Twitter that you can come follow and contact me from: TroyTheSpartan

Enjoy your week, bring on the questions, and STAY DRIVEN!



Sparta Playlist Part 2

Here it is, 5 more tracks to add to the master playlist. From new school hip-hop to old school rock, enjoy.

JR Writer – Get Em

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DVp5Y8iojA

Tech N9ne – Here Comes Tecca Nina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od4vOAT5G6U

Linkin Park – Faint

http://www.youtube.com/user/linkinparktv?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/8/LYU-8IFcDPw

Iron Maiden – Aces High (song starts at 00:37 in the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GghCs_C65v0

Paul Stanley from KISS – Live to Win (video is a Rocky tribute)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYt6ZQ70FTw

Thanks to Rico and Rachelle for their song suggestions, and thanks to many of you who submitted great questions for the mailbag. Coming up is the answers. Stay tuned!



The Power of Choice…

When it all comes down to it, there’s only some much room for ‘destiny’.

In fact, some don’t even believe in destiny. Why? because those people believe in choice.

What do I believe? I believe life is 10% what happens in it (Destiny) and 90% how you react to it (Choice)

I chose to do my workout before I wrote this, and I chose to rest yesterday, and workout the night before. I chose to do each and every workout I’ve done since the time I set my sights on improving my body. The shape I’m in isn’t destiny. It’s every single day making the best choice for me.

Every day you have a choice. Whether to live life to its outright fullest, or to grow physically, mentally, or  emotionally, or to go up to a special person and just say ‘I love you’.

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Coming soon to Sparta Fitness and Motivation:

• Mailbag Podcasts: Send your questions and have them answered on air!
• Fitness Fundamentals Teleseminar: We uncover in detail the Four Pillars of Sparta and how they will set the foundation for your fitness goals
• VIP invitations for a test group, testing out the Sparta custom workout mixtape. 

More details of all  coming soon!

Sparta’s Workout Library Begins

It goes without saying that music can truely power you through the hardest workouts. The right songs can invoke confidence, courage, energy, even sheer agression.

In The Dungeon, our tastes of music is very ecclectic and mixed. Our shuffled Winamp goes from J-Rock to hip hop, to heavy metal without a hitch. So, here is a ‘starter kit’ of the Sparta workout libarary. Something for everyone.

50 Cent – Get Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSg4m1hpEFI

Jaime Foxx – Winner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD9Kb5RlsP0

Metallica – All Nightmare Long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeE1Y8S6jVc&feature=fvst

D-Technolife – Uverworld (yes, this song is from a Japanese anime)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31BFmbxqJHA

Papa Roach – Getting Away With Murder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdmG0k8S8k

DMX – Get it on The Floor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pi04OEwVnM&feature=related

Rick Ross – Push it to The Limit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk2jeE1LOn8

TETRA-FANG – Supernova (more J-Rock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwDxqnSuflk

Godsmack – I stand Alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYjZK_6i37M&feature=channel

Bullet for My Valentine – Scream, Aim, Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqI-6xag8Mg

More songs will be added to the Libary Weekly so check back with Sparta for more song suggestions. If you have some of your own, feel free to comment below. So, crank it up, push it hard, and STAY DRIVEN!