Cardio

Master RKC Phil Ross Running
Technically, I’m on my one week vacation, but I had some thoughts coursing through my head as I was on a 4 mile jaunt this morning. For those of you who have been following my Dirty Dozen exercise blog posts, don’t worry, the installments for the final two movements, #11 The Kettlebell Snatch and #12 The Push-Up are forthcoming. They happen to be my two favorite exercises, so I’m really looking forward to getting the information out.

Why should I run? I do kettlebells, bodyweight and a significant amount of Martial Arts–do I really need to run? Can’t I simply move my bodyweight around, do a weight training circuit, swing some bells or maybe do a little yoga? Ever since the 1970’s I’ve observed a running regimen. I have many reasons not to, there are a vast amount of alternative cardio training methods that I could employ, but yet, I still run.

I run because I hate it.

That statement sounds silly on the onset, but there is a method to my madness. I hate to run, but I love the results and the euphoria when I am done. Years ago, when I was around 18 or so, my instructor and I were discussing running. Despite the fact that I was reasonably fast and had good form, I hated to run. He proceeded to explain to me that it was very important to do something that you hated to do, especially if you were a fighter. It was part of the sacrifice that forged the mettle of your soul. When you are fighting, a lot of things go through your head. You see, if you are in a tough bout and this guy has you in the corner and is pounding away on you, you start to think. You think about the miles that you ran, how much it hurt and how hard you pushed, all of the sacrifices you made and then you start firing back. You didn’t make all of those sacrifices and go through all of that pain to lose to this clown! NO WAY!

If people see me, they think that I have no issue keeping my weight down. WRONG. I can easily put on 10 pounds in one weekend. My grandfather on my mother’s side’s nickname was “The Whale”, my paternal grandfather had 7 strokes and 2 heart attacks and the third one finished him at the age of 72. My father passed away due to congestive heart failure at the ripe old age of 66. Walking around at 5’8” and being 285 lbs is not the best way to achieve a long, healthy life. I am of Italian-American Heritage and love to eat. Therefore, I’m in a constant battle. Running helps me win the life-long war. I want to do everything in my power to avoid the pitfall of succumbing to my natural genetic disposition. Look at it this way, if I want to eat something that is not super healthy, I think about how much I have to work to get rid of it, I then choose a healthier option. However, if I put in a good run and have some hard training sessions, I reward myself. I don’t really do “Cheat Days”, I prefer to partake in “Reward Meals”. It’s a good thing to reward yourself for the sacrifices that you make.

If you don’t make sacrifices, you don’t have discipline. If you have no discipline, you are soft. If you allow yourself to become soft, you will not have what it takes to deal with real adversity and emerge triumphant. Adding running to my training regimen is one of the easiest ways for me to keep my weight down.

Running clears my head. When I first start my run, the toughest part is to “get my feet to hit the floor”. Once I get out there, the rest is easy. Although runs can be difficult at times in the beginning, the first 1/2 mile of a run stinks. Everything hurts, I feel slow and tired. However, I push. Before you know it, I’m cranking away! I do a great deal of thinking when I’m running, but my clarity only comes after I’ve gotten into my zone. I come up with ideas, release frustration and get lost in my thoughts. I do not run with any music, I practice Zen Running. I count my breaths, give myself little goals like, “run to that telephone pole” or “make it to that corner.” By focusing on minor goals, the run does not seem as overwhelming. The task, like most, is better handled by conquering the smaller pieces. I am in-tune with my environment and I listen to sounds, pay attention to sights and am aware to what is happening in my body. Once I have this going for me, the rest of the run is awesome! I’m “In the Zone” and thoughts flow freely. Now I can begin to push my body. The blood fills my quads, my lungs burn and my breath becomes more labored as I pump my arms harder and pick up speed. Yeah, this is the fun part.

You never know when you’ll have to run. I’ve seen those shirts that say, “Running Promotes Cowardice.” Cute. What if you have to catch someone? You have to run then. I may have to run after someone or run to the aid of one of my family or friends. In the face of a catastrophic event you will need to exit the area in an expeditious manner. There are plenty of other occasions that will require you to get from Point A to Point B and quickly. So, you will need be able to run. As with any other skill, if you are not practiced at it, you will not be able to accomplish it. The mechanics of your stride will not be smooth nor will they be efficient.

Running is a basic human movement. As humans, we are supposed to be able to run. Human beings were designed as one of the world’s best long distance, warm weather runners as referenced in this article from Popular Mechanics. We are basically hairless, stand upright and have an endocrine system suited to producing sweat to keep our skin cool and dissipate heat. We can out run a horse or a deer. If you want to consider “Paleo”, we used to track our prey down relentlessly in prehistoric times. So if you have a body or training regimen that does not facilitate running, you are not doing what your body was designed to do.

Running is a very inexpensive activity, especially if you look at the ridiculous amount of money people spend on fitness gadgets, unused gym memberships and expensive machines that wind up collecting dust. Depending upon how much you run, you will need to buy a new pair of shoes once or twice a year. You can get a great pair of shoes for under $100.00. I run outside, so I don’t have to spend money on a treadmill. If I were meant to be a hamster, I’d live in a cage and have a penchant for seeds and grain. Running on a treadmill is not the same as road, beach or trail running. Get outside! Compare the costs of a good pair of running shoes to what a road bike costs–entry level competition grade road bikes are around $7,000.00! I know others who have bikes that cost more than my car. No offense directed toward my cyclist friends, but with three kids, two of which are in college, spending a years worth of tuition on a bicycle is not in the cards for me!

Running is time efficient. In about a half an hour, I can get a great run in. I don’t want you to think I’m picking on the cyclists again but how long does it take to get a meaningful bike ride in? To be fair to my cyclist buddies, let’s consider swimming. Unless you live in a warm weather zone or have an indoor pool, look at the time that it takes to get in the car, head to the pool, change, swim, shower and then drive either back home or head to work. It’s a great deal of time compared to throwing your shorts, t-shirt and running shoes on then heading out the door.

This blog is primarily dedicated to what I consider distance running. Generally, I don’t run less than three or more than five miles. Sprints and more often intervals, were a large part of my running training when I was competing. However, I don’t feel the need to do a lot of sprinting, because I do a great deal of other explosive training work and use my running as more of a restorative training session. Plus, I generally end my runs at a pretty good clip.

There are many more compelling reasons to run. The aforementioned are the main ones for me. I’m certain that you’ll come up with your own. Good luck with your roadwork. Running is one of the basic human movements, and should be worked into your training regimen.

Strength & Honor

Coach Phil

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About Master RKC Phil Ross: Master RKC, 8^th Degree Black Belt, Specialist in Bodyweight Strength, PCC and CK-FMS Certified. His name is synonymous with Martial Arts and Fitness. He is known as the area’s Kettlebell King and has successfully competed on the National Level in… Read more here.

Rule # 1 Cardio - Zombieland

The world isn’t black and white. It’s shades of grey. As kids we all see things very black and white – good and bad, yes or no, like or dislike. But as we age and gain some perspective we start to see things from multiple viewpoints and this empathy allows us to deal with the many compromises that are needed to successfully navigate all the various relationships we have from family to work.

But shades of grey don’t stick in your head like black and white messages do.

Squatting hurts your knees is a great example of a very black and white saying that has sadly stuck around for years beyond what should have been its use by date.

The one that ticks me off the most though is that cardio makes you weak. It’s funny; because when I was in the military we believed that cardio made you a more effective soldier. When I competed in martial arts tournaments almost qualifying for the Olympics we believed that cardio made you a better fighter too. But somehow people who stand still and only lift weights tried to get it in our heads that cardio is bad for you.

Recently I have been on a yearlong experiment to blend strength training with cardiovascular work. Initially this was a bit of a joke. You know, “the first rule of Zombieland is cardio” and all that. But as I started travelling down that path more and more I became more and more determined to prove the detractors wrong. Fitness, actual move-your-body-all-day long-fitness has been prized by warriors since time began. And that people were now saying it was unnecessary grated heavily against me.

In the RKC we have the expression “to press a lot you must press a lot”. It’s pretty self-explanatory and says succinctly that if you want to press heavy then you need to press with both volume and load to be successful. But somehow when we wanted to reverse engineer something like running fitness instead of being told “to run a lot you must run a lot” we got this confused message that implied deadlifting more would make you run better. I’m not sure if anyone else watches marathons but the Kenyans who win don’t look to me like they have big deadlifts!

So to see if you could get that kind of fitness I created a plan that would force me to see if I could have both strength and cardio. I spoke with my editor at Breaking Muscle about an ambitious plan to go from standing still lifting weights to completing an Ironman triathlon (3.8km swim, 180km ride, 42.2km run) in twelve months. Unfortunately for me she loved the idea, which meant I had to figure out how to get in the kind of shape that would allow me to complete one.

And so I began.

I ran a bit, I swam a bit and I rode a bit. Gradually those distances started to increase, as did the number of times per week I could sustain that kind of training. I’ve had all sorts of problems during training from numerous muscle tears to being hit by cars but I’m now at the point where I am coping with about twenty hours of endurance training per week. While my lifts in the gym suffered greatly to begin with, and still do a little due to the always present fatigue in my legs, they’re back close to what I was lifting before starting all this. My pull up and push up numbers are good (dropping some weight helps with those tremendously). And most importantly distance of any kind no longer scares me. My regular Saturday morning run is longer than a half marathon – I’ve got enough gas in the tank to out run any horde of zombies now.

The first lesson I learned also was one of those often laughed at RKC jokes – “to have strength endurance, first you must have strength”. Well, if you replace strength with the word speed you end up with the same thing. To go long quickly you need speed endurance. The way to gain speed endurance is to run both far and fast, just like in our pressing analogy, except this time we’re replacing the load you lift with how fast you run.

My weekly running consists of:

Two easy moderate length runs of up to forty-five minutes (think of these as the “light” days in Rites of Passage – a way to build volume without breaking your body down at all).
One hard day of speed work (I need to emphasise not sprints, but faster than race pace work. This is like a heavy day and has a big recovery cost on the body and should always be followed by an easy session such as one of the moderate forty-five minute runs).
A long run of up to three hours. (Again, treat this like a heavy day and make sure that the next run is short and easy).

My strength plan is KISS perfection:

Day 1

Squat 3 x 5
Handstand push ups + pull ups 3 sets of AMRAP
Extended push ups + extended pull ups 3 sets

Day 2

Deadlift 3 x 5
Handstand push ups + pull ups 3 sets of AMRAP
Extended push ups + extended pull ups 3 sets

The extended sets are done following a concept I first got from Jerry Telle where you start with the worst leverage and then gradually progress to the strongest. So start with close grip push ups for max reps, then rest about ten seconds and go to shoulder width push ups for max reps, then to wide push ups for max. For pull ups start with wide grip pull ups for max reps, then shoulder width for max reps, then shoulder width chins, then finally close grip chins. These are a great way to build some muscular endurance without adding much size – vital to keep weight down if your goal is to travel fast.

(I also need to add that normally I would perform some abdominal/ core work but I have a strained hip flexor right now and I’m avoiding stressing it as much as possible. I would follow the same sort of format though in going from a harder version of an exercise to an easier one such as hanging leg raises to lying leg raises).

I would add that if I were training just for an event like a Tough Mudder I could easily add in one or two more weights sessions. However on top of my running I also ride and swim and two is the number I can still fit in without seeing performance drop off.

Because I’m doing so much fitness work I don’t need swings or snatches. I hate to break it to you all, but unless you’re a novice runner or completely inexperienced with weights (like many endurance athletes) neither of those will make you a better runner on their own. You need to combine strength training with running and run both far and fast.

And when the zombies do come….

I’ll see you next to me while we laugh at all the cardio haters who didn’t make it.

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Andrew Read

Andrew Read, Senior RKC, is head of Dragon Door Australia and Read Performance Training. Recognised as Australia’s leading functional strength trainer he is a regular contributor to Blitz, Inside MMA, International Kickboxer, Oxygen, Ultrafit and Breaking Muscle. His coaching background spans nearly twenty years having worked with many Olympic and world championship level athletes.

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