My grandpa turned 96 today.

A farm boy at heart, the perfect picture of what they call farm boy strong. He’s still got a vice grip handshake, stubborn as a mule (even though he says Grandma is the one that is just a stubborn old German), cuts his lawn, rakes his leaves and shovels his own snow (and my parents too if they don’t get up early enough to beat him to it)

He visits Coach his buddy (and my dog) daily, goes outside to throw the ball for her, picks up the yard of her droppings, picks up the apples that have fallen off the big tree in the yard, takes out the garbage, and organizes whatever else he seems to think needs organizing.

We try to keep him off the ladders, he’s not quite as steady as he use to be…but that doesn’t necessarily stop him.

“Gotta keep-a-goin” is his phrase when he’s telling you everything he does in day.

He tells stories of his 75 year old neighbors in wheel chairs…

Arthritis provides a little limp, and no one, including him, can really tell if its in his knee or hip…not that he’s actually ever had it checked out.

Why share this with you.

Well there aren’t to many to make it as far as he has, and not that he has many words of advice, but here are some simple observations from my time with Gramps which seem to have lead to a pretty full life for him:

Read (even if it is just the obits-the first page he turns to in the newspaper)

Watch the old movies and study history

Get out and socialize

Take time to play with the dog

And…

Always keep-a-goin’

Happy Birthday Gramps!

I’ve had several people ask me if this time of year gets really busy with people making fitness resolutions. With all of you that I work with now honestly not that much changes. Many of you are already pretty established and have made training part of your lifestyle.

That doesn’t mean we couldn’t all use a little motivation or a change to our program here and there though. So we’ve got several new offerings in the works for the first part of this new year.

YOGA
First up and beginnning right away is a Yoga class every Sunday, 1:30 at the warehouse (1231 Wheaton, Troy).
For everyone currently taking a class or working with me the class is FREE. Everyone else is $10.

Show up starting this Sunday January 8th with your mat and be ready for a little yoga with Tim.

Coming Soon
Membership Site
This is pretty exciting, and I’ve been planning it out for the last few months. Every Boot Camp workout, a bunch of pictures and videos of exercises for stretching and mobility work, proper warmup and activation, as well as aerobic workouts, metabolic training workouts, some of the workouts from the warehouse, and some nutrition handouts will all be posted on this site. Best part is, when you train with me access to the site is free. This way you’ll never miss a training session. You’re traveling for 2 weeks, no problem just log on and you’ll see exactly what we’re doing while your gone, plus you’ll have plenty more ideas listed right there for other FUN stuff you can do.  Even better, now you don’t have to live in or around Grosse Pointe or Birmingham to take the classes, for under $10 every month you’ll have access to everything we’re doing and you can do it on your own. Very exciting!!

Nutrition Accountability Program
You can’t out train poor nutrition. To keep you on track a little better we’ll be starting a little accountability program where you can DAILY report everything you eat-and drink-to me. More info to follow but I’m pretty confident this will help a lot of you reach some new levels in your training.

Automatic Billing
If you take my classes you’ve no doubt realized I’m just about the worst business manager in existance. It’s time I get my act together, get organized and become more efficient. Details coming very soon.

I hope to have this all set in place by the end of January, with some minor tweeks to be made after that, but it’s all looking very exciting for a great 2012

Here’s a little video for a good “jump” start into the new year.

Thank you to everyone who turned out for and sent your well wishes for the party at the warehouse last weekend. It was a great success and meant so much to me to have everyone there.

Thank you, Thank you

Real Detroit Muscle
Christmas Party and Open House

Mark your calenders, Sunday December 4th from 3-7 is the
Real Detroit Muscle Christmas Party.

Well the official title is Christmas Party/Open House/Competition Event, because first, it’s Christmas time and it will give me a chance to play the Christmas music I so love; second,  if you haven’t been out to the warehouse to see what we’ve been up to then it’s time you check it out; and third, you can’t very well leave there without at least scratching the urge to flip a few tires, climb the peg board, push the prowler and a host of other ‘fun’ activities.

We’ll have appetizers, drinks and of course plenty of desserts, and this is open to everyone, so drag along family and friends who can all watch as you humble yourself on the Prowler Challenge.

We are adding something new to the RDM lineup for 2012. Open to anyone training with me, in team training or Boot Camps is FREE Yoga Sunday at the warehouse. Times will be posted soon, but to kick off this new offering we are going to start out the Christmas Party with a Yoga Class. From 3-3:45, the first 25 people that respond to this email get to take part in the first class at Real Detroit Muscle.

At 3:45 we can get the party going.

Drop in whenever you’d like but here’s the list of when we will do a few of the competitions.

4:15 Tire Flip

4:45 Pullups from the rings

5:15 Prowler Push

5:45 Box Jump

6:15 RDM Triathlon -tire flip, prowler push, farmers walk

See you there
1231 Wheaton, Troy
(east side of Rochester rd, just south of Big Beaver and the 1-75 overpass)

Maybe because it is hard to pick up on, but if you know what you are looking for it should be pretty easy to figure out.

What you ask?

I am in the habit, good or bad not sure, of looking at any and everybody, any and everywhere, training.

The one thing I see often and am not at all a fan of is guys out running, or worse, walking, with their shirts off. Actually it really bugs me. I won’t go off on a tangent of why but driving home today I see a guy with his shirt off, walking. Immediately I have this self talk

“Really, it’s 70 degrees out. It is not hot, there’s no reason you need to be carrying your shirt. Your camo shorts aren’t that cool, your chest isn’t that great, AND YOU’RE WALKING!”

Granted he did need sun, he was very white. Also upon further inspection he wasn’t a scrawny little guy, he did have some nice muscle.

Then, I had to eat my words-almost. He started sprinting!

Full out, feet pounding hard into the pavement, arms pumping mightly, sprinting.

I was so excited (odd I realize) I couldn’t believe it, he was out doing a sprint workout. I’m going to guess he went a fairly good distance of about 300 yards but couldn’t tell exactly because now I’m looking in my rear view mirror, practically swerving over the curb to my right, still in awe of this guy out SPRINTING.

I almost had to pullover and congratulate him.

He had it right. If he wants to keep that had earned muscle, then get a great aerobic workout by sprinting.

He should still be wearing a shirt though.

Yesterday I saw a really, really good looking guy out running in Royal Oak- with his shirt on.

I have to say, great looking green shirt guy in RO had nice form, kinda slow but definitely acceptable, but Camo shorts boy just got some major points on my workout credibility scale.

Now if I could only blend green shirt guy with camo shorts boy, he’d be the perfect guy-to drive by and watch train at least.

Long slow cardio, as typical aerobic work is commonly referred to, definitely has it’s place, but to turn a few heads of your own, or more importantly to get some great training in, give this workout a shot.

We’ve done this at the warehouse a couple times and it’s great. You can use a track for an easy way to measure distance or just use some landmarks out on the streets. We use the other warehouses.

This is a hard run to start out and finishes with sprints. Your rest time between sets should be 1-2 times the amount of time it took to run the distance. Once you get to the shorter distances, increase the recovery even more to 2-3 times the sprint. Finish each distance before moving to the next. (I used the warehouse distance just to show that you can use just about anything to guide your workouts)

2 sets of 4 warehouses (about 800 yards)

3 sets of 2 warehouses (about 500 yards)

4 sets of 1 warehouse (about 300 yards)

5 sets of mailbox sprints (about 100 yards)

Getting a massage is often looked upon as an indulgence. Something we treat ourselves to every now and again while away at the spa and off on vacation.

Maybe we schedule one after a long race or endurance event, but how many of us have a regular schedule of massages, and what does it really do for us?

Our bodies are made up of soft tissue-fascia, muscles, ligaments and tendons-any time there is stress or overuse to the soft tissue it causes inflammation to the area which decreases blood flow, in turn decreasing oxygen to the affected area, therefore producing tiny microtears leading to a buildup or scar tissue. This scar tissue can restrict movement and often leads to referred pain. Massage is a great way to break up this scar tissue and help restore movement function.

Using a massage therapist for deep tissue work, seeing a chiropractor for Active Release work, or finding someone qualified in Graston will all help in dealing with the short tissues.

You can also work on your tissue quality yourself by using the foam roller as well as a tennis or lacrosse ball. It’s not quite as relaxing as that hour long massage that puts you to sleep, in fact it can be pretty darn painful, but it does a great job targeting the small areas of scar tissue and bring about blood flow back to the affected area making it very useful when used as a warmup and prep of the muscles before a workout.

The average person who spends hours sitting at their desk every day needs a lot of stretching and foam rolling to help lengthen the muscles that have been put into perpetual shortening with the typical posture of shoulders rotated forward, back rounded, pelvis rotated anteriorly, all of which shortens the muscles of the chest and front part of the shoulder and neck, adds undo stress to the lumbar spine and shortens the hip flexors. Using the roller and adding a stretch for each of these areas will help to open those muscle back up and correct that poor posture.

Here are a couple videos I shot this winter. The first shows basic rolling on the foam roller, the second targets a few hot spots with the tennis ball.

This new video shows Sara rolling out her traps and pecs with the lacrosse ball against a corner of the wall. This is something ALL of us need. Grab a tennis or lacrosse ball and give it a try. Don’t have a lax ball, ask me, I’ve got a few!

I’m pretty late with this post, I should have done it about 2 months ago.

One of the things I hope people take away from the classes and training sessions is more knowledge about how to set up their own routines while traveling, on off days, while off to school, and even when you’re taking a break from class for awhile.

There are a ton of exercises out there and we do a lot of variations in class but a really easy way to pick a few exercises is to think in terms of motion. Get the big movements included in your training and you will always have a decent little training session no matter the format you choose to use.

Pick an exercise from each of the following categories: (I’ve combined a couple categories for simplicity sake and used primarily body weight or exercises that can be done easily with a band)

Quad Dominant Movement: Squats, Lunges

Hip Dominant Movement: Hip bridges, Straight Leg Deadlifts

Upper Body Push (Vertical or Horizontal): Band Presses, Pushups, Down Dog Pushups

Upper Body Pull (Vertical or Horizontal): Pullups, Recline Rows, Scapular Pushups, Band Pullaparts

Single Leg Movment: Squat Squat (with or without foot/feet elevated) Lunge, 1 leg squat

Core (abs and back, both dynamic and stable): Plank, Side Plank, Cobra Hold, Mountain Climbers

Then at the end add a little dynamic movement of sorts – Sprint, Jump Rope, Burpees, High Knee Runs

The lists can go on and on, but this can give you a good start.

After you pick your exercises, choose a format.
1. Do _ exercises for _ reps and repeat the cycle for _ minutes
2. Pair exercises up in 2′s, 3′s or 4′s, and cycle through those for a shorter amount of time then in 1.
3. Do one exercise for a specified amount of time-anywhere from 15-60 seconds. Take a rest of about the same amount of time then move on to the next exercise

Again we can go on and on with innovative ways to create effective workouts with basic exercises.

Here is a format we used for jumping rope today in class. I needed a quick 10 minute workout last night and I wanted to Jump Rope. Instead of my usual 30 seconds on 30 seconds off, I decided to pick 2 different types of jumps, do them back to back each for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds. So using that format here is a little workout for you to try out.

Do the first exercises for 20 seconds, followed immediatly by the second exercises also for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds. Complete 5 rounds (5 minutes) of each pair.

1. Pushups/Crab Walk
2. Squats/Lunge Jump
3. Dynamic Plank (one hands, and with your feet together, jump your feet side to side)/Cobra Hold
4. 1 leg squat touchdown with a jump/other leg same thing
5. Scap Retractions/Pulups (or jumping pullups/recling rows)
6. Jump Rope like described above. Today in class we did feet together for the first one, then alternating feet for the 2nd one.

Now you have no excuses for missing your workouts!
Go out and get them done.

Here is one of our campers on vacation with his family and friends taking the whole gang though a couple boot camp workouts.
The Huebners and Clarks

I was driving the other day on one of my typical routes to work and noticed a store I had never seen before.

I’m not sure if it’s new to the area or what is more likely is that I really don’t pay attention to much of the store fronts on this particular road (probably not good news to the business owners paying premium fees to have frontage on Woodward!)

I had to Google the name as soon as I had a chance, Lifelong Mobility. Now in my mind I am thinking yes that and strength are 2 of the things I want people to develop now and continue working on all through their life. (Balance too. Grandma turned 90 a couple weeks ago and I watched as she had to catch herself from toppling over by grabbing onto the back of the couch )

However, this store uses mobility in a little different manner then I was thinking. They sell wheelchairs, scooters, bed raises, stair lifts etc. The mobility on my brain is always how to create efficiency of movement which can work to increase the range of motion around a joint, as well as decrease your chance for injury.

In class I try to incorporate several mobility drills into either the warmups or the actual workouts, and lately I have found myself doing a lot more of these type of exercises to help keep my stubborn hips and shoulders moving in a good range of motion.

I ran across a great article posted on T-Nation that goes over the exercises and best techniques for the most common areas of limited mobility. You’ll recognize several of the exercises but the author does a great job of sequencing several of them in a row to really target specific areas.

Every one of us has areas of greatest need and this article will give you the couple exercises you should do on a daily basis to help increase your mobility.

Check it out here

Last week in class we did a workout that would be very easy to take on the road with you and alter however you need.

We did 8 different 3 minute mini workouts trying to get in as many reps as possible in each mini workout, then recorded the totals to try and beat sometime in the future.

The only thing required for this workout is a jump rope and timer.
Go Hard for 3 minutes then take about 2 minutes between sets and move into the next exercise.

1. Jump rope – aim for 600 jumps, it’s tough but possible
2. Pushup/Squat – do 10 pushups then 10 squats that makes 1 set, get as many sets as possible.
3. Burpees
4. Down Dog Pushups
5. Lunge
6. Run – mark off a distance of about 25yds and record your number of lengths
7. Bear Crawl
8. Jump rope

I had to modify this workout a little for myself to make it fit into the training I had done the day before and what I was planning for the next day, so I made it truly a cardiovascular workout. This one was tough for me!

1. Run
2. Bear Crawl
3. Burpees
4. Jumprope

…and repeat.

That’s it just those 4 exercises, 2 times through, 24 total minutes of work.

The next time you’re looking for a great little workout give this a try and modify the exercises however you’d like, but GO HARD.

Just Because It's Really Cute

One of the ultimate upper body exercises. We’ve all tried them, may even do them regularly in our workouts, but how many of us have really mastered them with perfect form.

While this is definitely a chest and tricep exercise, when doing these correctly your lats are engaged and work to pull you toward the ground.

While I’ve yet to completely master this exercise (they’re always hard for me) here I walk you through the steps of the perfect pushup.

Perfect Pushups from Jen Dunbar on Vimeo.

And a little video of some fun at the Super Saturday Workouts at the Warehouse.

Tire Flips from Jen Dunbar on Vimeo.