Tuesday, 01Mar11

Happy March Everyone, with only 20 days till Spring & 111 days till Summer…

Why look like this,  when you could look like this,  on the beach.

                                                     It’s all up to you!!!!!

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Tonic Tuesday : This is a level I & II class with advanced exercises.

Intervals look like this:

Movements are:

1. Reclines 
2. Hip Thrusts (heavy)
3. KB cleans 5r/5l (heavy)
4. DB Burpees (10#)
5. Sandbag power swings
6. Dbl KB front squats

One minute recovery between rounds.

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To all NLP Members: Protocol

• All members who joined Nxt Level before December 2010, will be allowed to attend the level II classes.  Going forward all new members from January 2011 must attend a level I class.  The level I classes are for those new members not familiar, with the training format and need to learn the skills of Kettlebell work as well learning basic gross motor skills i.e. squats, lunges, deadlifts & presses, correctly.  Nxt Level is unlike any other facility on Staten Island.  We teach members the different skills to not only enhance their performance & workout  experience, but also to learn to execute safely basic functional movements.
• All trial workouts for new people, or members who bring a guest that are interested in joining Nxt Level, will be allowed to workout only during level I classes.  They will not be allowed to workout in a level II class. If a member wants to workout with their guest, the member should also be prepared to take the level I class.

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Glute Camp: A Better Butt Without Surgery: by Nick Bromberg

Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” was released in 1992, but its pop culture relevance might be higher now in the era of Kim Kardashian, whose bountiful rear end has inspired many women to try getting a bigger butt of their own. That has led to the increase in popularity of the Brazilian Butt Lift, a surgical procedure that involves liposuction of the fat from the midsection and shifting it to the gluteal area.

Sound gross? It certainly isn’t pretty. The fat is essentially filtered, and the “good” fat is deposited in the butt for a curvier appearance. But fat is, well, fat, and gravity eventually wins the battle every single time.

Muscle, however, doesn’t lose to gravity. Want a better, firmer butt than anything you could get from plastic surgery? Try an exercise we’ll call the American Butt Lift.

It’s more commonly known as the hip thrust. From a sit-up position, squeeze the glutes and raise them quickly off of the ground and into a bridge. Repeat. Add weights to your waist as needed. That’s it.

“The hip thrust is the best glute exercise in existence,” says Bret Contreras, a fitness expert who specializes in the glutes. “It activates more glute fibers than any other exercise. It works the hips and thighs in proper proportion so it doesn’t lead to overdeveloped thighs in the long run. And since it’s very easy on the joints, it can be performed very frequently. In fact, for optimal results, it can be performed in every single training session.”

Another surefire exercise is the hip extension. When you sit up from a chair, you’re extending your hips. The glutes are strongest when they are at or near full extension. So simply mimic the act of sitting down and up from a chair –- without the chair. Athletes refer to this as the squat.

“Exercises that hone in on hip extension,” Contreras says, “are in fact better for glute shaping while still elevating the metabolism to the same degree.”

When you’re proficient with your own bodyweight in hip extension movements –- something that doesn’t take long with consistent effort –- there’s virtually no limit to how much external resistance you can add.

And ladies, no matter what some “celebrity” trainers may lead you to believe, simply touching heavy weights doesn’t make you “bulky.”

 “I explain this to women and then tell them that if they’re worried about getting too big, then there would be a point between now and then where everything looked ‘just right,’” Contreras says. “I tell them that as soon as we reach this point in time, we can stop training hard and just coast along. This seems to satisfy most women, but of course it rarely happens because through proper strength training as time goes on, women tend to keep looking better and better.”

It’s also important to not forget the hip flexors, located in the front of the hips. Prolonged periods of sitting –- hip flexion –- can shorten the hip flexors and cause an anterior pelvic tilt, a condition that causes the spine to curve inward more than normal. Stretching the hip flexors can open the hips back up, which will maximize the effectiveness of hip extension exercises.

Some models actually favor an exercise that simulates anterior pelvic tilt, according to Contreras, because it gives the illusion of a bigger butt. But he recommends against it, citing the risk of back pain and injury and just sticking with the thrusts and extensions.

With good form and hard work, you can have a bikini booty by summer that needs no exaggeration. And no surgery.

If you signed up for the HRC let us know…… post names and team name.

Tuesday, 22Feb11

 SIGN UP FOR THE     !!!!!

Tabata Tuesday

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New York Super Spartan: Mark your calendars for this event

         SUPER SPARTAN: Dominate in the SUPER SPARTAN and qualify for the Death Race!

Registration Fees – Super Spartan Fee Schedule

Individual	4-Person	10-Person	Until
$75.00	$280.00	$650.00	June 24th
$95.00	$360.00	$850.00	July 24th
$105.00	$400.00	$950.00	September 10th
$115.00	$440.00	$1050.00	September 21st (registration closes)

Armed Forces/Students get a flat rate of $65 Individual and 4-Person Group Discount of $240

Location InformationWolfe’s Pond Park – START TIME 9:00 a.m.

Hylan Blvd and Cornelia Avenue (Between Seguine Avenue and Luten Avenue)

Staten Island, NY 10308

MAP & DIRECTIONS

Race Directors Notes:Message from Nick

When scouting for a venue in the New York area, my local ambassador in the area said you have to check out Wolfe’s Pond…so I did. I have been putting on events for 15+ years and racing for over 20 years and have never seen the obstacle that is waiting for all those Spartans brave enough to enter as I have seen at this venue. Very unique venue located on Staten Island with skyline views of the city, beaches, sand, wooded single track…need I say more? This Super Spartan venue will bring athletes through the main event site area twice before the finish of this 8 mile course. This will give those family members and friends that want to come out and watch plenty of times to watch those Spartans challenging themselves against what mother nature has created and what we at Spartan Race have creative.

After you register – Train with NLP and progress!

Our unique results oriented programs combine several effective tools including Kettlebells, Olympic Lifting and Underground strength techniques for extreme, time efficient & effective fitness.

We guarantee that your workouts will be short but the results, unbelievable.

Our Functional training-based programs are combined with other modalities such as medicine balls, sand bags, battling ropes, gym rings, superbands, sleds, rowers and body weight exercises. Our programs are adaptable to all levels of fitness and ability.

No walking on a treadmill for hours, no staring into space or reading a boring magazine, just real world training designed to give real world results.

This real world strength & metabolic conditioning training that makes getting leaner, stronger and make healthier choices realized.

Friday, 31Dec10

Last Routine of the Day… for the year 2010

• Reclines
• Sandbag Lunges
• Heavy DB OH Presses
• Slam Ball cleans / slams
• Cuban Presses
• KB Swings

1 minute at each station continuous… with a 1 minute rest after each round of the six exercises.

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“A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.”
- John D. Rockefeller

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Monday, 16Aug10

This is a timed routine of:  

30 seconds work /30 seconds rest for 5 rounds non-stop

• Pull ups (assisted or unassisted)
• Stability ball knees to chest 
• Sandbag squat cleans  
• Double kettlebell shoulder press 
• Sandbag sit-ups 

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Some of you have been concerned when using kettlebells that they are leaving marks on your arms. I have found a soulution for you, it is called Kettle Guard please see the link for more info…

http://www.kettleguard.com/     

or you can purchase, online, the Under Armour 6″ wristband at $8.99 at…

http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/pid8000006-6-Wristband&cross_sell=8000004

 or…

There is a cheaper alternative to the Kettle Guard, watch the video below…

Tuesday, 23Mar10

Metabolic Tuesday

30 second couplets w/15 seconds between, four rounds with 1 minute between rounds. Complete each couplet for 4 rounds before moving on.

• KB swings
• reclines

• pushups
• sandbag front squat

• burpees
• kettlebell highpull

• rower or bike

• db push press
• walking lunge

• sit ups/toss
• MB russian twist

The Illusion of Fitness: Lies We Want to Believe

   The fitness industry is full of lies we want to believe. 

   The promotion of old wives tales as fact is the cornerstone and hallmark of the typical product or supplement campaign: Using this just 10 minutes a day can give you flat abs, or taking this will help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days.

Affronting common sense, brilliant marketers leverage media to spin these yarns to a captive audience that wish they fit into their high school jeans and looked like the woman on the ab saucer. The seemingly too good to be true simply is, yet otherwise smart people are prone to buying into the hype and accepting falsehoods as truth.

According to a report published by the Federal Trade Commission, Americans invest more than $30 billion a year in weight loss products and services. We spend hard-earned money on pills to make us thinner, contraptions to “tone and sculpt” and, in some well-intentioned instances, gym memberships to get fit. Lots and lots of money is being spent, while all the while, simple logic shows us that old-fashioned exercise that doesn’t require a TV or juice bar, and a moderate diet, are the magic bullet we’re seeking.

The power supporting the lies and gimmicks that are the foundation for a multi-million dollar industry: We, the general public, really want to believe the lies because we really don’t want to work hard.

Since the industrial revolution, technology has pulled people from the fields and hard, manual labor and inserted them in to the office cubical. Innovation has impacted even the most minute manual chores: We move leaves with a blower instead of a rake and sit down to mow our often postage-size lawns. Technology has created an attention deficit populous who prefer sound bites to analysis and 60-second meals to home-cooked.

This “easy way” attitude has carried over into our own health and fitness. We look for ways to look like the cover of Vogue or GQ without the effort. We want to pop a pill or drink a “shake” and lose our love handles. We want to sit in front of the TV and squeeze, pull or crunch our rolls, flaps and jiggles away.

In our most ambitious moments, we let ourselves believe that fitness is accomplished in 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, on the elliptical machine… in front of the TV. We embrace this minimum prescription for fitness, working as little as we have to, yet expect that taking the easy way will deliver real, measurable results.

The latest infomercial selling a product that burns fat, tones muscle and will make you popular sells a million units while a set of good old boring dumb bells sits in the closet or is used as a door stop.

The truth isn’t marketing spin or hype: We have to work hard if we want to achieve the fitness we value and desire. We have to get off of the couch, pick up the dumb bells, and move our bodies. We have to actually work as part of working out.

What is an effective workout? An effective workout increases your work capacity. Effective workouts increase you ability to lift, move and recover.   An effective workout is functional: The movements are multi-joint and multi planes of movement. 

Effective workouts – workouts that really will increase your fitness, help you drop fat and increase muscle — are hard. You can’t read the newspaper, talk on your cell phone or sit down in front of the TV and achieve an effective workout.

An effective workout is intense. It should result in some gasping for breath and significant burning in the muscles. An effective workout doesn’t allow the time to be stationary long enough, or moving around so little, that you can read the Advance or People magazine. You’ll never feel like an effective workout was easy.

Anything worth accomplishing is not easy. In fact, anything of value is difficult to obtain. There’s no easy way out, but it’s worth the effort. Being fit is really hard work, but it will deliver the results you’re seeking.

   Coconut Bliss

If your like me one of the biggest temptations in my lifestyle is ice cream. Unfortunately iced cream is made from milk and sugar and any variety of artificail flavors. If your trying to follow the Paleo Diet then I knew it wasn’t the real stuff we could eat. Enter “Coconut Bliss”. They use Coconut Milk which as we all know is paleo and loaded with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) identical to those in human breast milk. Meaning it is comparable with what nature designed for us. For sweetener they use Agave Syrup which keeps the glycemic index down. And for flavors they only use whole organic foods. It’s dairy free, soy free, gluten free, sugar free, low glycemic, and all organic & fair trade ingredients! I mean these folks thought of everything! Did I mention it tastes great? I picked some up at Wegman’s Market in Woodbridge, NJ. Below is the company’s website.

Coconut Bliss

Monday, 22Mar10 

Strongman Monday

4 rounds at 45/15 w/ no rest 

• Pullups 
• Sandbag run
• Over the shoulder keg carry
• Deadlifts 135#
• Burpees
• DB Cleans

NUTRITION

30 Day Paleo Challenge: April 15 – May 15, 2010 

View Below for Paleo Challenge Info 

• By eating the foods that we are genetically adapted to eat, followers of the Paleo Diet are naturally lean, have acne-free skin, improved athletic performance, and are experiencing relief from numerous metabolic-related and autoimmune diseases. thepaleodiet.com
  
  

Paleo Challenge: April 15 -May 15, 2010 

Saturday, 20Mar10

Primal Moves

4 rounds of 45 seconds work/ 20 seconds rest

 Have you seen these two individuals?     

Watch how a woman does Primal.  

Monday, 08Mar10

Day Class = 11:00am ROD

5 rounds of 40/20 on the 

• Jumping pull ups
• Dumbell push presses
• kettlebell clean/squat
• Mountain Climbers
• Rower

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Strongman Monday Night         

6 rounds of 20 seocnds work/10 seconds rest at each station

Finish all 6 rounds before moving on.

Take 1 minute rest between each station

• Sandbag cleans / alt shoulders 
• Deadlifts w 155#
• Dbl Kettlebell swings
• Dbl KB Front Squats 
• 30 lb dumbell push press
• Tire Flip

Saturday, 16Jan10

Sycamore Slaughter

Stay at the station and complete 6 rounds of 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest.

• Reclines
• Sandbag Shoulder Passes 
• Kettlebell swings
• Battling  rope
• Rower or Hex bar deadlifts
• Slam Ball Slams 

Take 40 second rest between rounds

Tuesday, 12Jan10

Thrust-a-squat

•   5 sandbag thrusters
• 10 squat thrusts
• 15  push-ups
• 20 air squats

5 rounds for time.