Some forums are password protected because they are meant for certain groups exclusively. These forums are:
Girl's Locker Room--for women only
Teenager Hangout--under 18 only
Ear Muffs--over 18 only

If you would like access to one of these forums and you fit the appropriate demographic, PM one of the site Cadres for the password. We will verify that you do, in fact, belong there, and we reserve the right to ban anyone who attempts to gain access fraudulently. Seriously people, is it really worth it?

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We discovered that the topics of swimming, nutrition, and martial arts were each large enough that they merited their own sites. So we branched out. Each site is still pretty new, and we are working hard to continually put new content up on these sites. Please be patient, help us out by posting in the forums, and check back often for updates!

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First, you can submit more than just a Death Certificate (workout) or Autopsy (article). You can submit a blog entry, book page, forum topic, images and videos, or a poll for others to vote on something. You can also create your own Team.
This is all done from the "create content" section; the link can be found once you log in. A new menu will come up with your username at the top.
Simply click the create content and select which type of content you would like to submit.

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The demo archive is a work in progress. We will do our best to get it up soon, in the meantime, try doing an online search for the exercise. Many of our exercises can be found on other sites. If you still cannot find an explanation/demo, post a question in our forum under "Exercises", and someone will offer you a written description of the exercise, or post a question in the comments of whatever DC you're trying to do.

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Fatal Fitness is: perseverance, sacrifice, integrity, dedication, pushing beyond what is comfortable, accomplishing what you thought was impossible, and challenge.
In short, it is a website, a community, an attitude, and a system of pushing physical boundaries to facilitate positive change in all aspects of life, such as intestinal fortitude, mental strength, and a sense of accomplishment that helps you be more productive at work, at home, and even in relationships. Not only can you increase your physical fitness with us, you can use it to launch a more meaningful existence. Push it, seize it, live it.

Read more about Fatal Fitness:
About Fatal Fitness
Standing in the Shadow of CrossFit
Why Fatal Fitness or What the Hell are You DOING Here?

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Most fitness programs are offsprings of traditional bodybuilding programs. They use a process called periodization, which is a method used to facilitate progress through progressive overload, and like the term says, it's done through a series of periods, or phases, which should be carefully planned out. Unlike programs like this, Fatal Fitness uses another process called muscular confusion, which works by not allowing your body to fully adapt to stimulus like it wants to, which leads to homeostasis. Technically, this should not happen with proper systematic overload (through periodization), but the goal at Fatal Fitness is not continual muscle growth (bodybuilding). The muscle confusion serves to also alleviate boredom and give your body new challenges to overcome without the monotony of just adding weight or volume.

Other stuff that makes us different:
Using Fatal Fitness for Character Development
Drinking the Kool Aid

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Neuromuscular adaptation to exercise, most notably resistance exercise, can be summarized as thus: muscles, when faced with resistance, recruit as many motor-units as necessary to overcome the resistance. The nervous system responds by “re-wiring” itself, to more efficiently be able to perform the same work again with less motor-units. Muscle cells are fortified with increases in myofibrils within the cells and an increase in the size of the cross-section of the sarcolemma (muscle size). Typically speaking, after 8 weeks of repeating the same types of work loads, the neuromuscular system will have rewired itself to a better level of efficiency; after which point the adaptation is heavily focused on myofibril production and increases in the cross-section of sarcolemma. Studies also show that resistance exercise also leads to similar improvements in bone density, in the
connective tissue and even in the nervous system’s performance.

The principle of “muscular confusion” is to take advantage of the body’s natural adaptive abilities. By constantly changing the types of challenges placed upon the muscular system, the nervous system is forced to constantly adapt; constantly “re-wiring” itself for better and better muscle recruitment. The muscle cells themselves do experience hypertrophy, but mainly in the sense of myofibril density, and less in regards to hypertrophy of the sarcolemma.

In short, the principle of muscle confusion leads to fewer “plateaus”, and greater improvements in performance, endurance, recovery time, and strength-to-mass ratio, without a heavy focus on the aesthetics of size gain.

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While the similarities are numerous--intensity, functional, challenging, we both post daily workouts--CrossFit has a much different focus than we do. We focus a lot more on bodyweight exercises, whereas they do more Olympic lifts than we do. The workout structures are different (see our FAQ on our workout structure for more details). We also like to run more and as far as we know we have more pool workouts.
The bottom line is that we are a small group of people who simply like working out this way. We felt like sharing that with the public. We don't really know a lot about CrossFit; we focus on doing our thing and trying to make it better.

For more info on the differences between us, check out Standing in the Shadow of CrossFit

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We use a 5-phase rotation. Each phase is 8 days--6 workouts with 2 rest days. Each day has a specific focus, such as one day will be themed on developing power, another will be for strength, another endurance, etc. The 8-day rotation was developed by user AnthonyUSAF, and the 5-phase program was developed by Boomer.

The DC for each day will follow the theme outlined in the structure. It was designed this way for several reasons--to still allow an element of randomness throughout the workouts for muscle confusion; it allows a variety of fitness components to be worked so you get a more balanced approach; you should never see the same rotation twice.

In addition, each day's focus also contains an "Extra" cardio recommendation. This is meant to give individuals needing more cardio the extra training they need (athletes, miltary, law enforcement, etc.). These Extra recommendations can be found by clicking the Calendar in the top menu.

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For starters, we have our own terminology, which will help you better understand us. Here are some common terms we use:
Death Certificate (DC)--the workouts
Autopsy--an article
The Morgue--our forums
The Mortuary--image galleries
Athlepedia--our health and fitness wiki
The REAPER--our fitness test. It stands for "Really Elite Athletic Performance Enhancement. Really."
FF or FFitness--Abbreviated term for this site
FFuel--Fatal Fuel
FFluid--Fatal Fluid
FFighter--Fatal Fighter

In addition to these FFitness-specific terms, there are a number of other terms or abbreviations that you should know:
x4ct--by the 4-count (see exercise FAQ)
1RM--one repetition maximum
40/20, 60/30, 20/10--HIIT paces (see exercise FAQ)
BB or BBell--barbell
BP--bench press
BW--bodyweight (exercise with no weight)
CF--CrossFit (our elite fitness counterparts)
DB or DBell--dumbbell
DL--deadlift
FS--front squat
GJ--Gym Jones (another elite fitness site)
HIIT--high intesity interval training
KB--kettlebell
MBall--medicine ball
OH--overhead, as in OH Squat or OH Press
PR--personal record
SLeg--single leg, as in SLeg Squat
TGU--Turkish get-up
WO--workout

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Check out our starter page: http://fatalfitness.com/?q=getting_started_with_fatal_fitness

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Our workouts are designed to be challenging while still allowing you to do other activities. Some people play sports in addition to our workouts, while others use our workouts exclusively. Also keep in mind that we cycle through variations of "heavy" days and "light" days. In the end the decision is entirely up to you as to whether you want to do more.

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We don't hate bodybuilding, nor do we hate bodybuilders. The sport of bodybuilding (if done properly) requires extensive knowledge and training, and that is admirable. The whole fitness realm, in a way, owes a lot to bodybuilding--guys like Vince Gironda, Joe Weider, the guys at Muscle Beach--and they made a lot of significant discoveries. We simply have a different focus here--ours is more geared towards functional fitness and well-rounded conditioning. What we don't like is how many people just don't realize that bodybuilding serves a specific purpose. It is not the be-all-end-all for everything under the sun. We don't like people who don't know any better who diseminate disinformation and tout it to the masses like it's gospel.

Our goal is to help people by educating them on how to distinguish between stuff that is meant for bodybuilding and stuff that will help them in a more multi-faceted way.

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The single greatest factor in producing results for those who need to eat healthier is--brace yourself--a food log! Studies have shown that people who keep food logs lose more weight, and faster, than their non-food-log-having counterparts. Furthermore, most people have a rosy perception of their eating habits, and find that in reality their habits weren't really all that great. Keep a food journal/diary/log/notebook and you'll start to see things in a different light--and you'll start to see positive changes.

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The problem is that you've probably been doing the same thing for too long. You body adapts to a program in about 4-6 weeks, and gets more efficient, thereby reducing progress, or plateauing. Another thing is that you're probably not incorporating any weightlifting into your routine. A purely cardio/pilates/yoga routine will get you a little smaller, but it won't change your body composition in the way you're probably looking for, which is to look toned and tight. To do that you need to train with more weights and less cardio. The reason is that cardio alone doesn't do much to change your body composition (lean mass vs. fat mass). Cardio only can also make you lose weight but still look fat. Lifting weights will boost your metabolism (which is determined by lean muscle mass) and help you get more firm. Furthermore, the cardio you're doing--long duration, low intensity--isn't helping you torch calories as much as it could. In order to get rid of those last few pounds, your focus should go from lots of long duration, low intensity cardio with little or no weight training to more weight training and cardio of higher intensity but less duration.

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In short, the symptoms of soreness you feel after a workout is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). It was believed that lactic acid buildup was the cause of this, but there is other evidence to suggest that the cause is the release of hydroxyproline. Here are a few resources that should help you out:
http://drsquat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5102
http://cbass.com/Lacticacid.htm
If you read the first article, you'll see why you should not "seek out" DOMS as an indicator of how your program is going.

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No, it is not true. Think about this--damn near all the guys in the gym are trying very, very hard to bulk up, and a lot of them are still struggling. You would also have to eat a LOT of food. Bulking up just doesn't happen all that magically, so using heavy weights on a limited basis isn't going to transform you into a man-chick. Women just don't produce enough testosterone to seriously bulk up, and even if they did...see above. If that answer doesn't do it for you, consider that professional female bodybuilders work out hours a day AND use performance enhancing substances--and they STILL have to work very hard to bulk up like they do.

Our answer is that you need to train every component of fitness in order to be well-rounded. Neglecting strength training exercises (as opposed to endurance/stamina) just isn't practical, and you have nothing to worry about.

And here's a great article about the stripper workout, and those girls don't look bulky, do they? Do they? http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/articles/2005/...

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Because the fat-burning zone is outdated and inefficient. Plus, it's based only partly on fact and spun to make it seem like it's the greatest thing in the world. The truth of the matter is, to lose weight it's calories you need to burn--it doesn't matter if they're from fat, carbs, or protein--to lose weight. The other reason is because you can burn up to 9 times more by using high intensity interval training than with slow, monotonous, lengthy cardio sessions. Not only does your body torch more calories from the higher intensity, you also continue to burn calories post exercise, which doesn't happen with long bouts of cardio. Plus, the more monotonous your cardio regimen, the more efficient your body will become at that exercise, thus rendering it less and less effective. So not only will you save a lot of time with HIIT (you can do a whole HIIT session in 25 minutes, including the warmup and cooldown, as opposed to 45-60 minutes of slow cardio), you'll burn much more calories, be less inclined to hate your workouts, improve VO2 max, and you won't plateau. HIIT is better in every way.

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Pushing yourself too hard can be just as detrimental as not doing anything.  Every person is different; some require more time to recover, while some people almost seem to need none at all.  The general guideline is that you should take about 48 hours to allow a muscle group to recover.  It is perfectly okay to take extra time off if you feel you need it.  However, on some occasions your body may be sore for a week following a workout.  This doesn’t mean your body needs to wait that long before working out again.  In these cases, waiting 48 hours and continuing your program will be fine.

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Our warm-up: Anesthesia
Our cool-down: Demerol

For more on the warming up and cooling down, read: Reincarnating the Warmup and Cooldown.

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Here are a few of our defaults. Any time one of these exercises is posted, it will be according to these defaults unless otherwise stated.

burpees--will always be accompanied by a pushup in the middle unless otherwise stated
pullups--will always be strict, dead-hang pullups unless otherwise stated
flutterkicks--will always be by the four count; all other ab exercises are normal unless stated x4ct.
intervals--will always be 40/20, 60/30, or 20/10 (your choice) unless specifically stated

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A pullup is where you grip the bar with your palms facing away from you while a chinup is when you grip the bar with your palms facing toward you.

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We're referring to different ways to grip the bar. Using the standard pullup as an example:
pronated = palms facing away from you (also the predominant grip for the standard bench press)
supinated = palms facing toward you (also the predominant grip for the standard bicep curl)
alternating or mixed= one palm facing away, one facing towards
hook = grip with the thumb first gripping the bar, with the fingers overlapping (see here). Used mostly in Olympic weightlifting to lift heavier weights without straps

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We program in an automatic two rest days per every 8-day cycle. Some days, you just don't feel like taking a rest day, which is fine. What active rest is, then, is using a DC as a "light day" so you're not completely screwing yourself by missing the rest day.

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We're talking about paces for doing high intensity interval training.
40/20=going for 40 seconds moderately, alternated with 20 seconds of vigorous intensity.
60/30=going for 60 seconds moderately, alternated with 30 seconds of vigorous/near-vigorous intensity.
20/10=going for 20 seconds extreme intensity, alternated with 10 seconds of rest.

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At or greater than should-width apart, firmly planted with the toes and knees pointing in the same direction.

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As far as you can. The conventional wisdom that says to go only to 90 is flawed. The position with the greatest stress on the knees is at 90 degrees, so it doesn't make sense to pause at that point. Furthermore, the deep squat is a natural position (think how babies squat).

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Kipping pullups are a type of pullup that utilizes the entire body. While a kipping pullup is easier on your direct pulling muscles, they are much harder on your grip and a lot more cardiovascular than strict pullups. It's a full body movement where you generate power at your hips. It utilizes many of the same principles needed to master other power type exerices, and it also allows for greater work in shorter time. So there are many benefits to kipping pullups. For some places, such as Gym Jones or CrossFit, kipping pullups are the default pullup. They are very effective.

Our default pullup, however, is the traditional pullup. We actually treat regular pullups and kipping pullups as two separate exercises. On the occasion that we utilize kipping pullups--usually it will be to keep you moving constantly--we will specify that kipping is to be used. This also brings up other questions, such as, "Don't you want to keep moving like that anyways?" Our answer to that is, when we ask you to train pullups the strict, traditional way, we're stressing your body in that specific, particular way (like if we're working on strength days). When we want you to get the benefits of the kipping pullup, we integrate it into the Death Certificate.

Check out Josh Hillis' article on kipping for more info: http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/articles/2006/...

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By the four count is the way many exercises are counted in the US military. For most exercises, it simply equals out to 1 four count rep is 2 normal reps. So if you were to do 25 pushups at the four count, it would equal 50 pushups. By default here at Fatal Fitness, only flutterkicks are always done at the four count--every other exercise will be normal unless otherwise stated.

Example: http://www.fatalfitness.com/flutterkicks

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Check out our Autopsy

Single Leg Squat vs Pistol vs Single Leg Touchdown

.

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You can substitute the exercise with something similar that you can perform. If you find that you can at least do a few of the prescribed exercises, do as many as you can before changing to something else. Unless you feel pain [other than "this sucks" kinds of pain] you should strive to challenge yourself. If you cannot use the recommended weight, it's okay to lower the amount to something you can manage and work up to it over time. If you don't know which exercises are good substitutions, just post a comment under that DC and we'll help you out.

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That really has a lot to do with you. There is a great resource on Runner's World that can aid you in selecting a shoe that's right for you.

We do, however, recommend that you only use running shoes for running and not for weight training. The reason is because the cushion of running shoes are not ideal for lifting weights (esp. squats), and a shoe with less cushion should be used. Regular sneakers, wrestling shoes, or even no shoes are great for this (if you are confident and don't mind the risk). Most facilities, however, require that you wear shoes.

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Because we use a wide array of equipment at Fatal Fitness it wouldn't be feasible for us to tell you everything to purchase, however, at a minimum, we recommend having access to at least the following:

-at least one kettlebell
-pullup/dip bars
-an Olympic bar with plates or bumper plates
-a pool

Everything else is just extra. Some other items that will serve you well:

-rings
-a jump rope

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That would all depend on your current level of fitness (or the level you're about to reach). For example, for an active male of normal size, a 36 lb KB would likely feel "just right", while a 53 lb KB would almost seem like too much.

We recommend in that case, that you get the 53 lb KB. The reason is because the smaller ones would get to be too easy, too quickly and you'll end up having to upgrade soon anyways.

Since they come in all variations and sizes nowadays, it would help if you could try out several of them. We suggest picking up a set that's just beyond your fitness level. If you have money to burn, then by all means, get several sizes.

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There are a million places you can go for great equipment. Here are a few we recommend.

Rings: Ring Training
Kettlebells, etc.: Muscle Driver USA

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The REAPER was not designed to be maxed out. It was designed to allow you to gauge your fitness, give you a reason to continue pushing yourself, and to give people a quick way to track progress. We believe that all three of these are important.
Just getting on the board is, for starters, pretty good. In our view, a score of 200 or more is great. 300 is considered excellent, and anything over 400 is considered elite.

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The REAPER is not meant to be maxed out (although, if you can do this, you are superhuman). There are actually a few reasons why we made the scoring this way.

1. The main reason is because in our experience, people have a tendency of maxing out a PT test (such as the APFT) and then they no longer try to improve. We wanted to offer everyone a chance to improve no matter what their level of fitness, and that means those few monsters out there that are just extraordinary at everything. We want them to constantly improve too.

2. We made the scoring for each event as if it were the only event. This way, if a person excels at any one event, it still presents a challenge.

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Total [women]	Score
46		100
45		96
44		92
43		88
42		84
41		80
40		76
39		72
38		68
37		64
36		60
35		56
34		52
33		48
32		44
31		40
30		36
29		32
28		28
27		24
26		20
25		16
24		12
23		8
22		4

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Dips

Total [men]	Score	Total	Score
65	100	40	50
64	98	39	48
63	96	38	46
62	94	37	44
61	92	36	42
60	90	35	40
59	88	34	38
58	86	33	36
57	84	32	34
56	82	31	32
55	80	30	30
54	78	29	28
53	76	28,	26
52	74	27,	24
51	72	26,	22
50	70	25,	20
49	68	24,	18
48	66	23,	16
47	64	22,	14
46	62	21,	12
45	60	20,	10
44	58	19,	8
43	56	18,	6
42	54	17,	4
41	52	16,	2

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1500m Swim

Time [men, women]	Score	Time	Score
20:00, 25:00	100	25:00, 30:00	40
20:10, 25:10	98	25:10, 30:10	38
20:20, 25:20	96	25:20, 30:20	36
20:30, 25:30	94	25:30, 30:30	34
20:40, 25:40	92	25:40, 30:40	32
20:50, 25:50	90	25:50, 30:50	30
21:00, 26:00	88	26:00, 31:00	28
21:10, 26:10	86	26:10, 31:10	26
21:20, 26:20	84	26:20, 31:20	24
21:30, 26:30	82	26:30, 31:30	22
21:40, 26:40	80	26:40, 31:40	20
21:50, 26:50	78	26:50, 31:50	19
22:00, 27:00	76	27:00, 32:00	18
22:10, 27:10	74	27:10, 32:10	17
22:20, 27:20	72	27:20, 32:20	16
22:30, 27:30	60	27:30, 32:30	15
22:40, 27:40	68	27:40, 32:40	14
22:50, 27:50	66	27:50, 32:50	13
23:00, 28:00	64	28:00, 33:00	12
23:10, 28:10	62	28:10, 33:10	11
23:20, 28:20	60	28:20, 33:20	10
23:30, 28:30	58	28:30, 33:30	9
23:40, 28:40	56	28:40, 33:40	8
23:50, 28:50	54	28:50, 33:50	7
24:00, 29:00	52	29:00, 34:00	6
24:10, 29:10	50	29:10, 34:10	5

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3-mile Run

Time [men, women]	Score	Time	Score
15:00, 16:30	100	18:15, 19:45	52
15:10, 16:40	99	18:20, 19:50	50
15:20, 16:50	98	18:25, 19:55	48
15:30, 17:00	97	18:30, 20:00	46
15:40, 17:10	96	18:35, 20:05	44
15:50, 17:20	95	18:40, 20:10	42
16:00, 17:30	94	18:45, 20:15	40
16:10, 17:40	92	18:50, 20:20	38
16:20, 17:50	90	18:55, 20:25	36
16:30, 18:00	88	19:00, 20:30	34
16:40, 18:10	86	19:05, 20:35	32
16:50, 18:20	84	19:10, 20:40	30
17:00, 18:30	82	19:15, 20:45	28
17:05, 18:35	80	19:20, 20:50	26
17:10, 18:40	78	19:25, 20:55	24
17:15, 18:45	76	19:30, 21:00	22
17:20, 18:50	74	19:35, 21:05	20
17:25, 18:55	72	19:40, 21:10	18
17:30, 19:00	70	19:45, 21:15	16
17:35, 19:05	68	19:50, 21:20	14
17:40, 19:10	66	19:55, 21:25	12
17:45, 19:15	64	20:00, 21:30	10
17:50, 19:20	62	20:05, 21:35	8
17:55, 19:25	60	20:10, 21:40	6
18:00, 19:30	58	20:15, 21:45	4
18:05, 19:35	56	20:20, 21:50	2
18:10, 19:40	54	20:25, 21:55	1

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Situps

Total [men, women]	Score	Total	Score
120, 84	100	95, 59	50
119, 83	98	94, 58	48
118, 82	96	93, 57	46
117, 81	94	92, 56	44
116, 80	92	91, 55	42
115, 79	90	90, 54	40
114, 78	88	89, 53	38
113, 77	86	88, 52	36
112, 76	84	87, 51	34
111, 75	82	86, 50	32
100, 74	80	85, 49	30
109, 73	78	84, 48	28
108, 72	76	83, 47	26
107, 71	74	82, 46	24
106, 70	74	81, 45	22
105, 69	70	80, 44	20
104, 68	68	79, 43	18
103, 67	66	78, 42	16
102, 66	64	77, 41	14
101, 65	62	76, 40	12
100, 64	60	75, 39	10
99, 63	58	74, 38	8
98, 62	56	73, 37	6
97, 61	54	72, 36	4
96, 60	52	71, 35	2

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Pushups

Total [men, women]	Score	Total	Score
130, 91	100	105, 66	50
129, 90	98	104, 65	48
128, 89	96	103, 64	46
127, 88	94	102, 63	44
126, 87	92	101, 62	42
125, 86	90	100, 61	40
124, 85	88	99, 60	38
123, 84	86	98, 59	36
122, 83	84	97, 58	34
121, 82	82	96, 57	32
120, 81	80	95, 56	30
119, 80	78	94, 55	28
118, 79	76	93, 54	26
117, 78	74