Heart Throttle

Ha-ha! Yes! I got you suckered in with the words, “heart throttle” because you’re like… a pervert or something.

I have an awesome upper body workout for you, as well as a new finisher I invented while in San Diego at the Turbulence Training Summit. But first, let’s take a look at the random picture of the day:

Hi there Mr. Wrestler with the Shake Weight. I’m enjoying myself at the TT Summit and now I’m going to walk away because I’m kinda’ scared and this is a long caption

Yep, that’s pretty random. But the weather was incredible. I even got up early before my first meeting so I could walk around and “soak up” the California environment. You see, I’ve never been to California, so this was really new to me. It was a nice, crisp morning and I’m guessing it was around 65 – 68 degrees. It was awesome.

I knew I had a big day ahead to talk about my upcoming project, so I had what I call a “wisdom-soaking accelerator” breakfast of eggs and oatmeal sprinkled with pecans. Then when I received a bill of $25, I asked the waiter if the oatmeal came with a TV, but alas, it did not.

Between Wednesday and Saturday, I probably took about 15-20 pages of notes. That’s how much I learned. It was incredible. The trainers were very enthusiastic, and very hungry to learn to be better, including myself. I’ll be honest and politically incorrect, that’s what separates the good trainers from the bad ones. The good ones must always challenge themselves to learn more because fitness evolves. We must always strive to learn more.

People from all over the world came to learn from Craig Ballantyne about fat loss, including my Australian friend, Scott Rawcliffe. When I first met Scott, I was hoping I would hear this awesome Australian accent, but he let me down. He’s from Canada. He got my 7-month old son a plush kangaroo though… but I’m still bummed about the accent Scott.

Craig Ballantyne and myself – it’s all smiles here, but you should have seen my face in boot camp

The boot camp workouts were borderline evil, yet fun. Does that make sense? Craig Ballantyne had us use towels for resistance and it was epic. My lats were sore for days. It also gave me ideas for upcoming boot camp workouts

Friday started off with a boot camp workout with Craig Ballantyne, in which my shirt was soaked within minutes. Then it was a fun-filled, information-soaking day that really flew by. Friday night I hung out with some awesome trainers, with the perfect blend of socializing and sharing awesome ideas for fat loss. Chris Lopez shared some of his kettlebell secrets. If you want to use kettlebell workouts for fat loss, then check out his site here => Kettlebell Workouts. It was cool to finally meet him. He has 5 kids and still manages to train people and stay really lean.

Saturday was a conditioning boot camp session, and I burned 1,895 calories in 4 minutes. Alright, I sweated though. Then it was followed by another day of learning and getting inspired. Saturday morning I spoke on stage and I was a bit nervous. I got to share my story of losing over 100 lbs and the trainers picked my brain with a little Q and A. I thought that was great because they wanted to get some ideas to help their clients I’m sure. That’s the kind of trainers that attended.

Craig challenged us to have a vision for our lives and business. His vision and mission is to transform 1,000,000 lives by the year 2020. That’s why I got certified as a Turbulence trainer. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and something bold. I actually wrote my vision down on the plane ride home. I want to leverage myself more so I can help more people. That means I have a lot of work to do, and that’s ok.

The TT team is outstanding and it was nice to finally meet them, including TRX specialist Lesa Gutenkunst.

Saturday night was epic. One of our trainers from England put on a show for the San Diego community including a pit-stop at a fast-food restaurant to knock out some burpees right there in the middle of the joint with the look of astonishment from the folks inside. Nice.

By the way, this was my view from my room… San Diego is beautiful

I wussed out though so my buddy and fellow TT trainer Daniel Woodrum bailed and stopped by the Ghirardelli store for a sundae. See? I’m human. Daniel has a great blog with some tips and you can check it out here => TruHealthQuest. The sundae hit the spot. I fasted the next day and it was pretty easy since I was flying out. Daniel and I hit the 24 Hour Fitness for a meathead upper body workout that was epic before we left for the airport (I like the word epic). It went great:

1A) Hammer Strength Row (6)

1B) DB Chest Press (8)

2A) Chin-ups (8)

2B) 1-Arm DB Shoulder Press (10e)

3A) Dips (15)

3B) Static DB Curl (8) (This is when you hold a DB in the static position while doing curls with the other arm…. I should probably do a video of that one)

“Heart Throttle” Finisher – I made this one up and it complimented our program quite well because my glutes are still a little sore

Do the following superset resting only as needed. (Daniel and I kept it rocking until we were done – BOOM). In the first superset, you will perform 10 reps. In the next superset, you will perform 9. Continue in this fashion until you reach 1 rep of each.

1A) Lunge Jumps (10 ea leg, 9 ea leg, down to 1 ea)

1B) Explosive Push-ups (10, 9, down to 1)

Good times… so here is my challenge for you:

Write down the vision you have for your new body, whether it’s 5lbs, 50lbs or even 100 lbs lighter. What clothes are going to wear? What are your friends and family saying? Do you see yourself doing an activity that you couldn’t do before? Write it down – it’s very powerful. Then create your action plan to get there.

Finish strong,

Mikey, CFNC, CTT