Dutch Lowy

Lately post have been scarce on here. I want to take a second to explain why and what i have been up to.

In all of our quests for knowledge the more we learn the more we know we don’t know. I have been doing boatloads of reading and studying and just recently been feeling like i have no business trying to teach people. It is not a fun feeling to have but it all depends on how you approach it. For a couple weeks i dove into all the info i could find and as you know, went into radio silence. I fully intend to come back and pass on the best info i have.

As a teacher or coach its rare that we come up with original ideas. We merely act as conduits for the info that we believe is correct at the time. As i have played that role for over 5 years now i have seen that info change quite a bit. This is neither good nor bad it just is. As a coach you have to believe in what you teach and be able to support your ideas. This is what i have been spending my time searching for lately. It has been fun and i am excited to continue passing on as much solid info as i can to you.
Thanks for sticking with me!!
Dutch

You all know that i love Pr’s so i thought i would toot my own horn and post some of my recent PR’s.  I hope you enjoy.

Dutch @ CFDC x Dallas Barbell Club from dean xu on Vimeo.

This past weekend i had the pleasure of competing in the Oly Athlete Open. It was a great experience… At least most of it. More on that later.

The event consisted of a olympic lifting meet (3 attempts at the snatch and clean and jerk) and an AMRAP (5 thrusters 135lbs, 10 burpees, 20 double unders). It is my hope that in the future events like this continue to be simplistic. Many of the CF competitions popping up become excessive and overall exhausting for everyone included. Spending a whole day focused on competing with multiple workouts and many heats just gets kinda old. I think it would be really fun to have 1 maybe 2 workouts in a competition and allow people to go all out once rather than having to go on an all day slugfest of workout after workout. Not only are the competitors more at risk of fatigue injuries but its just hard to watch as a spectator. I think it would be more exciting to just watch one workout and possibly some sort of tie breaker at the end.

Back to the Oly Athlete open. I must say that i had a blast. I am excited that olympic weightlifting is gaining momentum in the CF community. There were actually quite a few pretty good lifters competing. I was impressed by everyones willingness to compete in something they had never tried before.

I am pleased with my performance but at the same time a bit annoyed. I finished second in the lifting portion and had a chance to take the victory with a PR Clean and Jerk of 133kg. I missed the jerk and reviewing the video i was much closer than i thought. It felt like a million kgs. I also took the first loser spot in the AMRAP which absolutely Crushed me. I won the overall event by 1 point. The aftermath was a bit scary since i spent about 45 minutes on the floor followed by another 45 in a chair not moving and trying to understand where i was. Needless to say, i don’t currently feel like my fitness is “Elite.”

I have been asked a couple times if i was going to the CF/USAW event in CO Springs and i won’t be going. I think it would be a fun event, however i am not looking forward to the beat down i got last weekend. I am excited that it will get more people interested in weightlifting which is a damn good thing. I hope that this event can get people fired up and spread the good word about weightlifting. Good Luck to all of you that are going and have fun!!

I have talked alot about giving you and your athletes tools to get better rather than just serving them up some fitness for the day. I want to talk today about a conversation i had this weekend with Matt Murski. A long time friend of mine and mentor. He never ceases to amaze me when i talk to him.

Recently we were talking about longevity or sustainability in CF and clients in your gym. As Cf is currently i don’t think it is sustainable. Give me a shout out if you have modified your training from an all out CF model to something either more specific (sport focus) or more sustainable (lower intensity, or less frequent). In case you haven’t noticed, i have shifted to a more specific focus (weightlifting).
Sorry i got off the point for a second. back to our conversation. We were talking about what Matt is doing in his gym. He started talking about giving people abilities vs workouts. He said something to the effect that he wants people to walk out the door everytime they come in thinking “Damn i never knew i could do that.” In this way he is able to keep things fresh and exciting while developing abilities. He doesn’t just dose them up with a workout and send them home to lick their wounds, he teaches them something new…Every Day! Do you do this?

As a side note, and i totally agree with this, if his people want a body comp shift he directs them to nutrition and lifestyle advice instead of giving them a workout. If this is your goal, check in with the Whole 9 Crew.

I posted a video a couple months ago showing one of my warm ups for any general movement you may be doing. In my opinion this can be used to get ready to run a marathon or snatch 100kg. Obviously for each task you will need a more specific warm up with some more skill based movements.
Below are a couple of the bar warm ups i use when getting ready to lift. Another great warm up is the Burgener warm up.

Stay tuned for some cool down/stretching stuff.

As i mentioned last week in my post about Whole 9 Life i have been working directly with Dallas and Melissa for the last couple months. Obviously I have a pretty high opinion of them and it is well deserved if you have ever spent time with them in any capacity.

Dallas and Melissa will be in the D/FW area on October 15 and 16th running two workshops. The first one is for everyone ( i already forced 3 people to sign up) and the second is for coaches and trainers to learn about implementing Nutrition with their clients and athletes. You can see the outline here.

As an additional treat to everyone attending, I will be presenting as well. My outline is also on their registration page so go there and check it out. My portion will be short (about 2 hours) and very interactive. As usual my outline is not set in stone and i like to have tons of group interaction and questions so please come prepared to contribute to a discussion.

Spend the first half of the day with Whole9, learning how to build good nutrition practices with your clients, gym community, friends and family members. Then, I will speak on goal setting, programming, scaling techniques and sustainability applicable to both a group and one-on-one setting, all designed to make you a better trainer, programmer and leader in your gym.

A full outline of Trainer’s Workshop materials (both from Whole9 and mine) is available on the registration page. Space is limited to only 20 people (and our Foundations workshop remains a pre-requisite), so register early and secure your seat for this special event.

Questions or Comments?? Post them here!

In case you haven’t heard of Dallas and Melissa, go check them out at Whole 9 Life. I have never met them personally but know of them through reputation and other people in the community that i really respect. Recently i reached out to them for some assistance with nutrition and essentially life since nutrition is life. They have been epic in their attention to detail and commitment to helping me solve some very personal problems. Not only have they been very knowledgeable and helpful as far as solving the problem but they have also been very attentive. It is comforting to get emails that start with “I was thinking about your situation…” When i see that line in an email i get all tingly cause i know there was some serious thought put into this message. When was the last time you received an email like that? Was it from a coach/mentor that you respect?
Anyway the point is the more i interact with these two the more i am impressed with their level of professionalism and knowledge. I always come away from a phone call or email with a very specific direction to take and more importantly a legitimate reason behind taking action. Its actually quite refreshing. Thank You.

Not to worry, you all have the opportunity to experience Dallas and Melissa. In case you didn’t know they travel the country, much like i used to, spreading the good word one day at a time. Here is a link to their workshops. If you are local (D/FW) don’t fuck this up. They are coming to CF Denton County October 15-16. There is even talk of doing a joint event on sunday so keep your ear to the ground for that one. Sign up for the nutrition workshop here and the trainer workshop here.

See ya there!!