Wednesday, July 30, 2014

ORIGINAL STRENGTH WELCOMES TWO NEW INSTRUCTORS

by  | Jul 29, 2014


Thursday, July 17, 2014

A NINJA'S GUIDE TO ORIGINAL STRENGTH


By Coach Fury, Ninja Fitness Trainer, Original Strength Instructor
DVRT Master Instructor, Senior RKC, Strengthzilla.

Hey Ninjas, Fury here. I’ve been receiving some great questions regarding the upcoming ORIGINAL STRENGTH FOUNDATIONS PART 1 WORKSHOP we’ll be hosting at the Mark Fisher Fitness this Fall. I hope to answer some of them here. Mind you, this is only scratching the surface of what you'll learn during the OS weekend. Personally, I have seen great results using OS with my students, friends, my mom and myself. I drink the Kool-Aid. I drink it all up.
Onto the questions.

What is Original Strength anyways? Original Strength is a system created by two very strong and even smarter guys, Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert. At its heart, OS is about reclaiming the mobility, strength and resiliency we were all born with. The group’s motto is: YOU WERE MADE TO MOVE.  Do we grow weak, immobile or fragile because we age? Or is it because we lose touch with the same types of stimuli we were constantly exposed to as kids.  What if we tap back into those stimuli? We were all born with a strength training program encoded into our big baby melons. We breath, move our eyes, gain control over our huge domes, roll, rock, crawl, walk, march, skip and run. OS reintroduces all of us to these things. Not only do our bodies like this, our brains LOVE this. The mind and body love OS so much that we refer to much of the movements as RESETS.

Why do we crawl? There is a ton of awesomeness packed into something as relatively simple as crawling. Think back to your MFF consult. Remember that FMS screen we did? Sure you do. It was the thingy with the board and the bands and the sticks. Now think about some of those movements we tested. There was the one called Rotary Stability where you straddle the board on all fours, extend one arm and the opposite leg, tap knee to elbow and then re-extend the limbs. Pretty much a crawling pattern right? How about the push-up where you had to lift the body off the floor as a single unit (TSPU)? Yeah, crawling will help that too. In fact, crawling can and the other elements of Original Strength will have a positive impact on every one of those movement patterns we screen.
Can you really get strong using OS? YES! Yes. And yes. We’ve been doing a lot of crawling in class lately. Everyone knows it’s not easy. Imagine doing it for 10 minutes straight without putting your knees down. I think that would qualify you as being pretty strong. Now drag a weight or a sled with you as you crawl. It's rough stuff.
Now here’s the really cool thing, a lot of OS is based on regaining our REFLEXIVE STRENGTH. This means getting out smaller stabilizing muscles to not only work but fire off quickly and efficiently. When this happens, our big gun muscles (primary movers) get to focus on the jobs they are supposed to do as opposed to covering the slack of the stabilizers. We simply move better and can lift more safely and effectively when our core is firing properly.

Some of the strongest and most mobile folks I know use Original Strength.

What you might not expect is that you’re recovery, resiliency and stress management will also likely improve.

Can anyone go? Abso-friggin-lutely! The beauty of OS is that it is for everyone. Much like the mission of MFF, OS is trying to make the world a better place. We get trainers, doctors, everyday fitness enthusiasts, people who work with children, folks that have been banged up and people fighting off the aging process attending these workshops. 

Now those are some of the basics. Here are the details on the workshop itself.

Mark Fisher Fitness
411 West 39th Street
NYC 120018

September 27: 9am-6pm and September 28th: 9am-1pm.
Taught by: Coach Fury with Corey Beavin and Master OS Instructor, Joe Sansalone.
Price: $477
Use the early bird promo code: OSNINJAS to save $80 which brings it to only $397 for the 1.5 day workshop. 

Saturday, July 5, 2014

SHARPENING SWORDS AT THE RKC

by Steve "Coach Fury" Holiner
Senior RKC Instructor, DVRT Master Instructor and Original Strength Instructor
Kaiju Overlord at Mark Fisher Fitness

Fury here and I'm prouder than ever to be a Senior RKC. You see, last weekend I participated in my first RKC Kettlebell Certification as a Senior. I also got to work with my buddy Master RKC Phil Ross and my OG brother Ari Harris, RKC II in my home of New York friggin' City! Any way you slice it, this was going to be a great weekend. I'm happy to say that this small group of bright and strong candidates made it unforgettable. This was my first RKC in a bit and I was a little anxious as to how people would prepare for it. The RKC is a family and I sincerely view each candidate as a member of that family. The big questions are always, will they respect my family and will they represent my family to the best of their ability. 
It took about an hour to get my answers but we'll get to that shortly. Unexpectedly, this weekend also illuminated a philosophical point that I hadn't been able to express in words until now. Are you ready? Here it goes.

I always view certifications as a "sharpening of the sword" rather than a forging of steel. It's my belief that a quality instructor will come into a certification both mentally and physically prepared. We all know what our testing requirements will be. We can physically train for that. For me, gaining that strength is where our steel gets forged. The honing and sharpening of the blade occurs within learning the technique, it's execution and MOST IMPORTANTLY in how we instruct others to do it. Plain and simple. Coaching is what separates us from our strong students or clients. We are simply training partners or rep counters to them otherwise. How we teach is what elevates us from just being strong, to being fitness professionals. Think about that for a moment. Great coaches are constantly sharpening their sword.

We make Hattori Hanzo swords at the RKC. 
I got into this field late in life. I will likely never be the strongest guy in the room. That doesn't mean I can't be the best coach in the room. Am I there yet? Hell no. I will always be sharpening my blade so I can instruct with precision and cutting efficiency. 
Now this is where we get back to the candidates. Would they respect my family? Would they represent my family to the fullest? Absolutely. This crew came in to learn, kick ass and chew bubblegum, but they were all out of bubblegum. Every glorious individual came in ready to own it. And own it they did. 100% pass rate. No favors. No leniency. They were so ahead of the game that Phil, Ari and I got to teach them a lot of bonus material. The certification was essentially an RKC Level 1.5. 

The RKC is the perfect place for Instructors to come and sharpen their blade. If you're going to be a sword, you want to be a Hattori Hanzo. Trust me on that. 

Finally, to the group that nailed it at the NYC RKC last weekend, welcome to the family. we're proud of you. 

-Fury out

Steve "Coach Fury" Holiner is a proud member of the Ninja Army training staff at Mark Fisher Fitness in NYC. Fury's available for classes, semi-privates, instructor training and programming at MFF. He also has availability for private training at Five Points Academy and Catalyst S.P.O.R.T. Check out www.coachfury.com, facebook.com/coachfury and Twitter @coachfury for more info.