Continuing along the theme of freakish fringe female “sports” we investigate the burgeoning interested by Chinese women in pole dancing. Pole dancing? What a unique idea! I’ve never seen that before. (Ok, I’m lying).

It turns out this is the latest fitness craze in China, particularly in the cities. It is not, however, without it’s share of controversy. 29 year old accountant Xixi is not happy at all about the craze, but Jiang Li wants to be a pole dancing superstar. Go Jiang Li.

The Chinese Olympians excelled at everything else, so maybe they can get pole dancing in as an IOC-sanctioned Olympic event. It is far more interesting to watch than synchronized swimming and the floor routines passed off as sport. But until that happens, if I want to take in some complex, athletic pole dancing routines, I know where to go. (Don’t tell Val)!

Source: NY Times by way of OMB

A race that Val did not enter, but I believe would have won had she been there, the first ever Australian Stilleto Sprint.

The race was won by 18 year old Brittney McGlone, setting a “world record” in the 80 meter sprint in Sydney Harbour. Brittney finished well ahead of the other 264 contestants running in 75 mm high heels.

Several women suffered broken heels, sprained ankles and bloodied knees, but Brittney walked away with the esteemed stiletto trophy.

The Purposeful Primitive himself, Marty Gallagher is now writing a weekly column called “Marty Gallagher’s Primitive Synergy-Iron, Mind, Cardio and Nutrition”. It will appear at the Dragondoor site every Tuesday.

Marty’s first installment is The Purposefully Primitive Manifesto-Who we are-Why we do the things we do in the way that we do them.

In the article, Marty breaks down the four disciplines of resistance training, brain training, cardiovascular training and nutrition.

From the article, here is his template of the four disciplines:

Resistance subdivision
1.    use free weights
2.    trigger hypertrophy
3.    feed and rest battered muscle
4.    exceed capacity in some way

Cardiovascular subdivision
1.    monitor frequency
2.    monitor duration
3.    monitor session intensity
4.    use a periodized cardio game plan

Brain Train subdivision
1.    willpower is finite
2.    enthusiasm is self-sustaining mental fuel
3.    master instantaneous pre-lift psyche-up techniques
4.    master sustained psyche for long term adherence

Performance Nutrition subdivision
1.    lean protein & fiber carbs are the backbone
2.    eat wholesome, tasty, nutritious foods in ample amounts
3.    detoxify the chemically poisoned body
4.    coordinate performance nutrition with exercise to oxidize bodyfat

It looks like we are going to get some great information from Marty if his first article is any indication. Marty is among other things, a professional writer, so you will find well-written material from him. By the way, his new book, “The Purposeful Primitive” is excellent and available from Dragondoor and Amazon to name two sources.

Most of the best conditioned people in the world are Navy SEALS. Their training is legendary and it has to be since their life depends on being better than the other guy. The surprising thing is while their work capacity far exceeds what we do or need, they use the same types of basic training that can get the rest of us in top shape for whatever we do in our lives. Here is a solid strength routine:

This is part of a series of short training videos put out by the US Navy. Take a look at “Core” and “Basics 101″.

Hat Tip to Straight To The Bar

By this time, Natalie Woolfolk is in Beijing, preparing to compete in Olympic lifting for the USA in the 2008 Summer Games. Before she left, she got in some training at Mike’s Gym.

Thanks to Covert Mike for telling me about the video and directing me to Catalyst Athletics. There are so many things to watch and take note of in this video like the progression exercises she does, all the technique nuances, but the one thing that really jumps out is just how fast she is! She makes the lifts look like I can go in the gym and do it like that. <dream sequence ends>.

Tonight’s workout pretty much sucked so afterwards, I enjoyed some Pork and Beans. Now you can too.

Long after games are won and lost and scores forgotten, certain memories of how the game was played last forever. Here is a great example…

Hat Tips to Skip Hathaway and Kim Komando

While talking about Woopra in the previous post, I referred you to One Man’s Blog. There is some interesting stuff over there and when you consider his tagline, “specialization is for insects” you expect there will be variety. (Some Crossfitters also use that tagline to define the highly variable style of fitness training they do).

If you like a good brawl, and really, who doesn’t? What is considered by many to be the “best” (or worst, depending on perspective) hockey brawl in the history of the sport occurred in 1987 between the Junior National teams of Canada and the USSR on Czech ice. It looked like it would go nuclear. When the goalies throw down, it is ON! Take a look.

By the way, there are 2 Stanley Cup playoff games today.

Last night Jon Curry and I trained with power cleans and squat cleans. I went more with the former. Many lifters and strength coaches consider the power clean one of the top three most beneficial compound lifts with the deadlift and the squat. For that reason, athletes at all levels train with this classic lift. A lot of power goes into this movement, (hence the name). I like power clean after the deadlift and before the squat.

Take a look at this video and notice the good technique. I need to get more of the shrug into the lift if I want to increase my poundages as well as exploding the lift.

A couple of good “add-ons” to the power clean are the front squat and the push press. I added in some of the push presses yesterday when I got as heavy as I was going to go.

Taking a heavy barbell and picking it up off the floor and lifting it over your head is a great feeling, (as is dropping it to the floor after a successful lift and knowing you won’t get kicked out of the gym for doing it!)

Ah, yes, another lift I wish I would have been introduced to 30 years ago! I do get a kick out of the fact that I am probably the oldest guy in my gym doing the cleans, squats, snatches, deadlifts and definitely the kettlebell stuff and the guys I train with are 15-20 years my junior. The rest of the folks just don’t know what they are missing!

From the AKC, (NOT the American Kennel Club), but the American Kettlebell Club, comes this video of a 66 year old, 200 lb man deadlifting 450 lbs, easily. I can’t even do that now at 52, so I have time to “beat that” by the time I hit 66!

I went light today, but it was enough to make me go take a nap afterwards, which I thoroughly enjoyed, thank you very much!

I warmed up with AbMat sit-ups, back extensions, push-ups, snatch drops, snatch lands, snatches and some overhead squats.

Going up a level, I did snatch grip deadlifts while standing on a plastic Step Reebok platform, (I knew they were good for something). Those lifts were 155×3/200×3/200×3.

I alternated between,

Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs): 5×135x10.
Bench Press: 95×10/135×10/155×5/175×5/195×5/205×5.

Some day, like my dogs, I too might be AKC registered. Seriously, that group has got hellacious ways to train with kettlebells.

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