Welcome to the NEW MartyGallagher.com!

Written on 12 July 2007 by paperboy

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

For the first time in over two years, MartyGallagher.com has gone through a major site re-design! I think we were due, don’t you think?

Among the changes:

More changes are coming, including reverting the header to the one we use in the Forum, as well as enhanced content features.

You might have also noticed that we have some things missing, most notably the Main sections of the old site (Pure Strength, Cardio, Riverhorse, etc.). We are holding on to this content and have plans to re-release them in another form. Stay tuned!

Here’s the best part…

All of this was designed to bring more traffic to our site and get the Purposefully Primitive Fitness word out to the masses!

“How can I help?”

Underneath every blog post, you’ll find a whole bunch of tiny icons. Each icon corresponds to a social bookmarking site, such as Digg. If you like a particular blog post, I highly highly encourage you to click on these buttons! The more people that click on them, the more popular that blog entry becomes, and the more people will see it. You’ll need to create an account at the particular site you’re bookmarking to, but a lot of us already have that. Please help us spread the word!

As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Also, if you have any problems with the site, please use our new Support Ticket system!

Marty and I would like to thank everyone who has been a part of this site from the beginning. Your continued support and generosity is greatly appreciated, and Marty will be back soon with all-new stuff. We have lots of things lined up, so make yourself at home and enjoy the ride!

Lee

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Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas Part III

Written on 14 February 2007 by Marty Gallagher

The deadlift is an incredibly easy lift to understand: pull a loaded barbell from the floor to lockout in a smooth and uninterrupted motion. Pavel and Brett were competing in Vegas at the National AAU push/pull (bench press/deadlift) competition. Each man would need a few warm-up attempts before taking the first of three competition deadlifts. At around 3 on Saturday afternoon we finished up the last of Pavel’s super-nuclear coffee and wandered downstairs from his room to the competition meet site; the powerlifting competition was being held in one of the numerous casino rooms in the same hotel. We headed down to the meet site and found some good seats. Now we got down to the business of “hurry up and wait” that precedes every national level event. The pace of the competition was glacial: each lift that required a weight change took an eternity as the placid and seemingly medicated head judge took his sweet time telling disinterested boy plate-loaders what combination of plates were needed to assemble 100 kilos or 250 kilos, or whatever. What normally is quick and easy was – at least in this competition - a tremendous effort that apparently never got easier. It damn sure never got quicker; normally it takes 1-minute to segue from one lifter to the next, but at this competition it was taking 3-5 minutes per lift. From a coaches perspective the unexplainable and consistent delays threw timing off dramatically. Finally the competitive moment of truth was at hand. It was time for Pavel and Brett to turn pro. Some do and some don’t: some rise to the competitive occasion: most melt in the white hot spotlight of athletic competition. To say Pavel’s approach to deadlifting is unorthodox would be a massive understatement. He is a unique person and has naturally developed an off-beat approach, a signature technique, for his competitive lifts.

Classically when an athlete is deadlifting in competition and if they anticipate a 520-pound deadlift they begin the warm-up process (designed to raise the temperature of cold muscles and grease neurological nerve pathways) with say 135×12. The then at 5-minute intervals the lifter would take 225 for perhaps 3 to 5 reps, then 315 for 3, perhaps 405×1 and 455×1 before a 1st attempt with say 479. Pavel lay backstage flat on his back, quiet, oblivious to the surrounding cacophony, seemingly asleep. When the spirit moved him he leapt to his feet and pulled 430 for 1. No warm-up, no nothing. He immediately lay back down in total chill mode. About 10-minutes before the competition started he took another 430-pound attempt, this one more explosive than the 1st effort. Again he lay back down. With only five athletes before him, Pavel roused himself and began to focus. When two lifters were ahead of him, Pavel began a serious psyche-up. When a single lifter was ahead of him he donned a set of headphones and listened intently to the music for perhaps 30-seconds. No even long enough to hear a complete song. He handed me his headphones and charged the lifting platform in a state of pure psyche. He ripped 479-pounds to completion far more aggressively and with far greater authority than either of his 430-pound backstage warm-up efforts. Brett made an easy 501 opener after methodically working his way through a classical deadlift warm-up procedure. Pavel moved to 501 on his next attempt and that too was pulled with authority – this despite his psyche-up procedure being derailed be the inordinately long amount of time it took four tired kids and one lackadaisical head judge to successfully change a poundage from 463 (the previous lifter’s deadlift) to 501 for Pavel’s second attempt.

In my little garage gym, my 13-year old could have changed the bar weight from 465 to 500 inside 30-seconds without rushing. It took this crew a full five minutes and in those five minutes the patented Pavel Psyche, a huge component in his arsenal, deflated. Faulty timing caused his 501 lift to suffer: he pulled the poundage with pure muscle; his trademark explosiveness, hamstrung by mistimed psyche, was down 40%. Brett pulled 541 pounds with picture perfect technique on his second attempt. He took the lead in the 181 pound class. Pavel was first up for his final deadlift. He was determined to get his psyche right on this attempt but the slow-motion parade actually got slower. The judging and loading was devolving, it was an unmitigated disaster: the snail’s pace and miscommunication caused the now-volatile, psyched-up Russian to prematurely charge the platform. The weight loaders were leisurely leaving the lifting platform when Pavel bounded onto the platform in a psyche-trance so deep he saw and heard nothing - I know for a fact he heard nothing because he had himself so psychologically jacked-up that he stormed the platform still wearing his musical earphones….it was a lifting scene I shall never forget…the slow-motion weight changers slowly vacating the lifting platform…these were male teens who stop and talk or rib one another, totally detached from powerlifting or deadlifting…they are here because someone got them to commit their time. As the boys were lazily vacating the platform the obese head judge slumped in his chair with sleepy dreamy eyes half closed. Suddenly a crazed looking man with Charles Manson eyes charges from the wings - his manic animation cause all eyes to follow the darting figure as he bull-rushed the barbell.

The boy loaders were still standing next to the just loaded bar on the platform. The crazed man (“He looks like an assassin!” The guy next to me says) with the wild eyes was at the barbell and dropping down, obviously getting ready to pull the barbell upward - this despite the fact the sleepy referee hasn’t issued the requisite “Bar Ready!” command signifying to the next lifter that it is his turn. Suddenly the spotters yell in unison. They are the first to collectively grock that this dude was going to pull this barbell RIGHT NOW! WHOA! STOP THE MUSIC! They yell in unison and the sleepy, droopy head judge suddenly springs erect, bolt upright - a crisis has erupted! A real emergency is taking place during his slothful, placid, peaceful reign! Now all his training and expertise would be needed to avert a procedural disaster. He actually stood up out of the chair for the first time in the eight hours I’d been watching him. This amazing feat, akin to the 98-pound woman lifting a car off a toddler, was made more all the more dramatic by an amazing discovery: The Pavelizer, having launched his fail-safe psyche-up frenzy a tad prematurely, had forgotten to remove his headphones playing his psyche-up music. He was attempting to deadlift over 500-pounds while wearing headphones - and no ordinary headphones - these had blinking glow lights that shot down the side of headpiece that connected one ear piece to the other: bolts of light shot around Pavel’s head in a tight arc as he prepared to pull the poundage…it was surreal and hypnotic.

STOP HIM! The head referee screamed; his flaccid face flush and crimson. He waved his arms and looked ready to keel over from a coronary thrombosis - the spotters yelled picked up on the crisis and yelled, “SOMEONE STOP HIM!” This was odd because they were within arms length and the logical people to “stop him” – yet none of the boys wanted to touch the Mad Russian Septemberist – he might assassinate them or beat the piss out of them…I guess they were right to be afraid of this crazed Russian Commando Psycho wearing the glittering headband trying to lift almost 250 kilos. They shrank back in collective fear. The four officials sitting at a table adjacent to the platform were the craftiest of the lot and the first to see what was happening…”HE’S WEARING HEADPHONES - HE CAN’T HEAR YOU!” The referees shouted as they stood and pointed. The PA announcer picked up on it and announced to the audience – “He’s wearing headphones! He can’t hear us!” Pavel pulled the weight oblivious to all the terrorist hubbub he’d unleashed. The weight was too much and he dropped the bar and turned to walk off. Only then did I remove the headphones from his head. Being a great coach and noting that the 1-minute time period had not elapsed I yelled, “He’s still got time on the clock - can he have another attempt?!” NO! Came the immediate response twinged with much anger. “Wearing headphones and making a valid attempt at poundage DOES NOT entitle the lifter to a second chance!” Collectively the officials were pissed: they suspected Pavel’s glittering headphone was some counterculture statement or protest: somehow this “event” challenged the sanctity and piousness of the power competition. In actuality he was just a guy that had gotten so fired up he forgot – but the men in the blue jackets sensed some deep ploy was afoot – perhaps some weird protest akin to the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games Black Power salute given on the victory podium by John Carlos and Tommy Smith…

After the hubbub died down, Brett missed 552. Brett the 181-pound class champion. Pavel took silver. A good day for the boys. Afterwards we decided to grab a steak at highly recommended local joint off the beaten casino path. I’d had enough excitement for one day. I shall never forget the sight of the crazed Russian with the electric headpiece charging that platform and the riot that ensued.

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Boys will be boys

Written on 11 May 2005 by Marty Gallagher

I got a call from one of my deep background sources the other day and about ten minutes into the conversation Mongo as well label him, let slip that hed been involved in physical violence the previous day. I had to get into a fight yesterday. Really? Yeah, once again, this guy thought he was bad and felt he had to demonstrate this to Brandy. Whos Brandy? Oh, she was the stripper we were sitting with. This guy thought he was a great boxer. So many questions were suddenly answered. So Mongo, what exactly happened? It was all very dramatic once hed decided it was on. He stood up and flung that little table that you sit at right out of the way, my beer went flyingnot cool. Then he drops into a pretty little Sugar Ray Leonard boxing stance and the second I stand up he launches a right cross at my jaw. Whatd you do? I grabbed his ass. I got hold of one of his hands and jus reeled him in like he was a marlin. He hit like a girl. Zero power. It was like hit me! Yawn. This was in the middle of a strip club? Well not the middle but up against one wall. Did you hit him? No. I didnt need to. I crushed the dog piss out of him. He might have broken ribs. I quit squeezing the moment I heard the snapping sound. Good God! Where were the bouncers while this is happening? Its dark and music was blasting Freebird and this happens real fast and I was there as a guest of the owner and I train with one of the bouncers.

So when they showed up I had the situation in hand. I had Sugar Ray in a headlock squealing like Ned Beatty in Deliverance, the bouncers were like, hey mongo do you want us to help you kick this guys ass! So what happened? So I let the guy go and he starts with the mouth, You wont fight me like a man! If you fought me like a man Id kick your ass. Meaning what? Oh, he wanted me to box him. Like Marquis of Queensberry or something. He gets himself so worked up he takes another shot at me and this time hits me in the eye! Pow! A second time? Yes! I said, you son of a bitch! thats when I think I broke his ribs. Then what? Now I have him in a sideways bear hug and hes like a broken rag doll. My face is right next to his so while Im crushing the life out of him Im talking to him. Oh great. Were you giving him stock market tips? No actually I was telling him if we were in a private home instead of a public establishment I might do bad and perverse things to him. He finally got the message. Well thats good. Alls well that ends well. Something like that.

The moral of this Aesop Fable is when you find yourself drinking beer with a silverback gorilla; dont poke a sharp stick in his eye.

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Looks like Purposeful Primitive methodology is gaining traction!

Written on 30 March 2005 by Marty Gallagher

Looks like Purposeful Primitive methodology is gaining traction! (thanks John!)

The secret is there is no secret.

————————————————————————————-

Sweat equity: Actresses can’t go out and buy a buff body for an action role. They have to earn it — with diet and exercise — just like the rest of us.

By RENE LYNCH - Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD — In Hollywood’s competitive climate, accolades often go to performers who either pack on the pounds (think Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones or Charlize Theron in “Monster”) or let their frames waste away (Christian Bale in “The Machinist”). There’s another category that will be hard to miss at the movie theaters this season: the phenomenally fit. Jessica Biel is a vampire slayer with deltoids to die for in “Blade:Trinity,” Hilary Swank shows off a chiseled back as a boxer in “Million Dollar Baby” and Jennifer Garner sports tightly toned abs as an action hero in “Elektra.” The actresses won’t get much praise, though, from the general public, whose sentiment runs along the lines of: “If I had a trainer and a personal chef, I’d be in the best shape of my life, too.”

Not so fast, say the fitness consultants to these stars. It’s true that celebrities enjoy perks, such as private training and nutritionists, and have plenty of time and motivation — such as big paychecks and costumes that leave nothing to the imagination. But, the consultants say, the Laws of Physiques aren’t suspended for the rich and famous. Biel, Swank and Garner earned their bodies the old-fashioned way: eating right and exercising. A combination of cardio and weight workouts were central to all three actresses’ regimens. As for diet, all three women ate three moderately sized meals and two or three snacks per day, kept a close eye on portion sizes and drank plenty of water. Having a trainer at your side is nice, said fitness consultant Bobby Strom, who helped whip Biel into shape for “Blade,” but “I can’t get on the machine and work out for Jessie. I can push, but she has to do it. She has to make the commitment. She has to choose what she’s going to put on her plate.” Biel echoed that. She recalled that at the height of her training, women were pulling her aside to ask, “What’s your secret?” It was a question that Biel identified with — and resented just a bit. “I was, like, ‘Secret? You want the secret?’ The secret is, there is no secret,” Biel said. “There’s no pill, there’s no diet, there’s no magic drink. I know how hard it is.”

The trainers agreed to describe their clients’ workouts for their big screen roles to show that there’s nothing easy — or particularly mysterious — about getting in shape, whether you are a celebrity or not. And you don’t have to spend as much time in the gym as the stars do, they said, adding that an hour’s time, five to six days a week, will make a difference. With evidence that the low-carb diet craze is fading, the fitness experts say they are hoping that 2005 will bring a more moderate approach to diets and exercise — and perhaps a different definition of beauty.”They’re strong, but they’re still feminine,” said Strom. “We’re talking about girls with meat and bones and athletic, healthy-looking bodies, not these 105-pound sticks. I like that. I think that’s a good message.”

But pop-culture expert Robert J. Thompson of Syracuse University isn’t as certain. “Anyone trolling around for some New Year’s resolutions already had a tough bar to reach. Now there’s this whole other category of Hollywood stars taking the impossible dream and making it even more impossible.” Before her latest role as a take-no-prisoners vampire slayer in the new movie “Blade: Trinity,” Biel, 22, already had a body most women would covet. Strom’s assignment went beyond simply getting Biel into shape for a grueling, physical shoot in which the actress would perform her own stunts. He also had to transform her athletic body into that of a hyper-stylized vampire assassin with an hourglass figure. First, there was weight training — something she’d never really done before — and she had to rev up her cardio activity with martial arts and kickboxing. The toughest tasks, Biel said, were Strom’s torturous jumping squats, which tightened up her legs and core muscles.In all, she was working out and training about two hours a day, five to six days a week, including her fight training for the movie. “I was just coming home and crashing. I had never really worked out that hard before. I don’t think I dreamt once, I was just so tired,” Biel said. “I was thinking, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’” A few weeks into the new regimen, Biel felt her body changing from the inside, but fretted that she wasn’t seeing similar changes on the outside.

Eventually, she got a glimpse of herself on film. “I said ‘Wait, that’s me?’ ” Biel recalled with a laugh. “I felt like it happened overnight. I was working out and eating right, and working out, and nothing was happening. And then, boom, overnight, I had muscles!”

For Biel, the biggest change was in her diet. Sugar was one of the first things that Strom stripped out of her diet, said Biel, who admits to having a severe sweet tooth. “I really went into withdrawals,” she said. “I felt like I understood what it must be like to be an addict.” Eventually, those cravings eased, although Biel occasionally indulged her yearning for sweets.”I absolutely ‘cheat,’ and I don’t apologize for it,” said Biel. “But I do plan for it, I make up for it (with a few stricter meals), and then I don’t have to feel guilty about it at all,” she said.

With the “Blade” shoot behind her, Biel has eased off the training, but still makes exercise a priority. Now, though, she ratchets up the intensity and incorporates weight workouts into her routine — “I like the muscles.” Swank walked into the gym model-thin, and struggling to keep weight on as she spent hours each week in a ring with boxing coach Hector Roca, preparing for her role in “Million Dollar Baby.” Shooting was just nine weeks away. “There wasn’t a moment to lose,” said Grant Roberts, who was hired to focus on Swank’s nutrition and weight training. Swank, 30, was practically a vegetarian, too. “Honestly, I don’t know how she was standing up, with all that boxing.”

He immediately revamped Swank’s diet so she could add the weight she needed to convincingly play a boxer, and give her the strength to survive workouts that sometimes lasted more than four hours. While Garner and Biel were consuming just under 2,000 calories a day, Swank was eating up to a whopping 4,000 calories a day, nearly all of it carefully calculated protein and essential fats. She often had to wake up in the middle of the night to down another protein shake to meet her caloric goals. Swank said the biggest change was not in her body, but in her mind. She credits her trainers with helping her to change her attitude in an old-school way, one that has long worked for boxers who need to conjure up the ferocity to fight. She’d fire herself up with an internal pep talk while she imagined the fearsome boxer she wanted to look like.

“I’d be lying in bed, thinking, ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to get up’ and then I’d start telling myself: ‘If you want to grow, you’ve gotta get up. … This is a great experience. You’ve got here to get in shape and change your body,’ and I’d really, really think about what I wanted to look like,” she said. “By then, I’d jump out of bed. “She did the same thing with her weight training, which she found particularly challenging. She realized that when she found herself thinking “I can’t do this; I’m too tired,” she dragged through the workout. But when she took the time to change her attitude, or, as she puts it, “get out of my own way,” she ripped through the same workouts with greater ease. “The mind is a very powerful tool,” she said. While the diet for Swank is too severe for the average person, Roberts points to it as an example of how powerful a tool food can be. By the time the cameras began rolling, Swank had gained 20 pounds, nearly all of it lean, hard muscle. When Garner was shooting for “Elektra,” the action movie that comes out later this month, she had to be ready for hair and makeup by 5:30 a.m. Filming was unpredictable, and often went far into the night, so night workouts weren’t an option.

Instead, Garner would practically roll out of bed to meet Valerie Waters, who has been training Garner for years for her TV series, “Alias,” at 4 a.m. The workout lasted 60 minutes, from warm-up to cool down, giving Garner just enough time to shower before dashing onto the set. “You don’t need to spend all day in the gym,” Waters said. Along with concentrated workouts, Garner is a big believer in Waters’ nutrition plan, and eats every three hours like clockwork. The actress typically cooks for herself, so she knows precisely what she’s eating and can keep an eye on portion sizes. Meals revolve around small servings of protein and high-quality carbs, Waters said.

Waters recalled going to a movie recently with Garner, where all around, people were munching on popcorn and candy and slurping sodas. Midway into the movie, Garner, 32, pulled out a baggie she had packed with carrots and hard pretzels. In other words, don’t tell Waters that celebrities have it easy. “Do you think that she really wants to get up at 4 in the morning? No,” Waters said. “It’s just as hard for her to get up after a few hours’ sleep as it is for everyone else … you still have to not eat the cookies; you still have to not have that glass of wine.”

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