Please Go To My Updated Website!

I am going to be switching over all my blog posts to my newly updated website from now on. This will help simplify my life. Also, my new business name is Reality-Based Fitness (www.realitybasedfitness.com) but the www.coachkeats.com domain name will still work. The podcast is now at www.realitybasedfitnesspodcast.com

Thanks!

Keats Snideman

NEW FACILITY IS OPERATIONAL!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the joint venture facility between my friend and colleague Patrick Ward and myself is up and running! I will now be doing all my training and soft-tissue work out of this awesome facility (minus the few in-home and track sessions I still do). Here's the address:

2009 E. Fifth Street, Suite #12 Tempe, AZ 85281
My contact #602-738-0562

I will be starting small group (and maybe large group as demand grows) kettlebell conditioning classes very shortly for those readers who live in the Phoenix area so stay tuned for more information on that! When groups get big enough, Patrick and I will work together to ensure quality instruction and exercise performance/technique.

Here's a some pics followed by a video of how the place is looking right now! Video:


Also, here's a collection of progressive photos on a flickr page made by Patrick's wife!

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing people at the new facility! We will have a grand opening party sometime in September after all our equipment is in.

Keats

Minimalist SprintAthlete Drills

One of my favorite aspects of fitness development is the development of speed. More specifically I am referring to sprinting speed. You see, I have this theory, (which I feel is based on a pretty solid platform of both anecdotal and scientific evidence) that maintaining your ability to lift heavy objects, perform explosive movements, and even sprint, that's right sprint, will maintain the body in a much superior way than those methods which focus on endurance type of activities (i.e. slow jogging or "plodding" marathons, etc...).

Yet, it seems as people age, that is exactly what they are drawn to: slow, long-distance type of activities such as marathons and triathlons. Now don't get me wrong here, if you are one of the people that just love endurance type of activities I wouldn't try to take that away from you; I'm just not convinced that it's healthier than more brief, explosive type of activities such as sprinting. As a master's sprinter myself (I'm biased of course!), I find that performing regular sprints and conditioning work called "tempo" training, along with heavy and explosive free-weight exercises, keeps me pretty fit and strangely enough, allows me to perform endurance type of activities quite well without having to train for these activities specifically.

My theory is that the better you get at repeating high-intensity bouts of exercise, the easier it become to do activities that are relatively lower on the intensity scale by comparison. Indeed it is not uncommon for elite level endurance athletes to possess some pretty decent strength and speed due to the increased amounts of speed and power work that are being done these days.

In order to perform speed work though, you must have a basic clue of the proper running mechanics. To help learn and feel the proper technique involved with faster running, it is often helpful to perform sprint drills to help learn and rehearse the mechanics of proper sprinting form. The following video demonstrates, via the help of my Friend and colleague Patrick Ward, the basic "minimalist" drills that one could do prior to a sprinting or even just a running training session:


Enjoy! They'll be many more videos coming soon about my thoughts on this most important topic.

Keats

First look at Reality Based Fitness Facility!

Today, Patrick Ward and his wife Ivonne filmed our first video walk-through for people to see our new facility in Tempe, AZ! We also ordered some really nice rubber flooring that will come in the next 10-12 days. We will film more as we go along!



Thanks,

Keats

Podcast #5 is up: The Kool-Aid Drinkers..Oh yeah!

The 5th podcast of Reality Based Fitness is now up and ready for listening and downloading! In this podcast, Patrick Ward and I announce the opening of our new Tempe training facility followed by a review of the most recent NSCA (National Strength & Conditioning Association) national convention that took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Then, we get on with the topic of the podcast: Kool-Aid Drinkers!

More specifically, we get into the narrow and dogmatic viewpoints of some individuals when they drink the "kool-aid" of specific gurus and experts and fail to see the other side of the coin so to speak. The topics we discuss are:

1)Running Shoes and Over-pronation

2)Perfect Posture

3)Low-carb Diets for Everyone, and

4)Dangerous Exercises.

For those of you old enough to remeber the Kool-Aid man, here's a blast from the past:


We have some great interviews coming up in future podcasts including famous strength and conditioing coach Mike Boyle, who we hope to interview within the week!

Thanks for reading,

Keats

Video on Balance Training

Here is a video that my twin brother Franz filmed last weekend as I was driving he and his family to the airport after a trip out here to the desert. It's a discussion on Balance training and some of the misconceptions about how to train it. Our voices sound a lot alike so if don't get freaked out if you haven't heard us together!

Enjoy,

Keats

Reality-Based Fitness now a reality!

This week I was fortunate during my slow days (July is typically a slower month around here in the fitness biz) to have the time to drive around to look for a facility to rent so Patrick Ward and I can run our respective business' out of.

Well, after many, many months of searching for a place, the wait is over! That's right today (Friday, July 17, 2009), Patrick and I signed a lease for a 1000 Square foot facility located in Tempe, AZ! It is a nice sized wearhouse space with a room up front designated for soft-tissue therapy. The facility will be called Reality-Based Fitness (same name as new podcast) and will hopefully become one of the premiere places to go for cutting-edge training information and classes, world-class soft-tissue work, and effective lifestyle and nutrition strategies for enhanced living and physical performance.

I'll post some pics and videos later this weekend after we clean up the place in 118 degree heat (no electricity until Monday)! I am very excited about this opportunity and hope we will be able to help many people achieve a much higher quality of life.

Thanks and stay tuned for more details!

Keats