Anywherefit Pull Up Challenge

Blair Morrison from Anywherefit has challenged his fans and followers to his latest video challenge. This time, in partnership with STEELFIT. The idea is really pretty simple; make and submit a video of a Pull Up "centric" work out, in honor of the STEELFIT passion for pull ups. The Workout should be fun, creative and can include just about anything, as long as it incorporates pull ups as the leading character.

Blair and his buddies got the ball rolling with the video below; setting the bar high. I have been following the Anywherefit blog and it appears like there will be many takers. STEELFIT can't wait to see the submissions.

The kicker.........winner of his challenge gets a STEELFIT Pull Up Bar........we will be watching closely!!

Bridges and Bars......

I can't begin to tell how many guys have been asking about bars that can be installed outdoors and able to stand the test of the weather extremes. The reality is that most products on the market are NOT made to withstand the elements of long term, sustained exposure outdoors.

Powder coated or other painted finishes are what is most commonly used and often described as weather proof. However, a couple years down the road, and the paint is chipping and rust is coming through......just like my black, wrought iron patio furniture. The painted finishes are just that; painted finishes.

So, Steelfit set out to find an alternative that would stand up to the test of time and the most extreme conditions possible. The steel industry's most durable solution, metalizing, is a substitute for painting steel that protects steel for decades longer than paint alone. This is a proven process, which has been used around the world for 90 years. Metalizing is the most versatile and effective coating available today for protecting mega steel structures, such as bridges and other exterior steel surfaces subject to the most extreme weather conditions.

Metalizing is a process by which a metallic coating is deposited onto a surface. Aluminum or zinc is sprayed onto a blast cleaned steel surface to form a protective coating. The metalized coating is both a barrier and a galvanic coating, which protects steel for 30 years or longer. Sealers and paint topcoats may be applied over the sprayed metal. The combined materials protect the underlying steel better than any of the materials.

Bottom line....there is no stronger or more durable finish and paint industry has been unable to counter with a painted only solution that compares in any way.

Introduced this month on the Steelfitstore.com, our wall mount bars and new Free Standing Bar are both available in a optional metalized finish.......serious durability for guys serious about bars.

So what does your STEELFIT pull up bar have in common with bridges around the country? They are built for long term durability and are finished in a top coat that is designed to withstand the elements....and then some. Bridges and Bars.....very cool!

Anniversary Celebration...Why Steelfit?

It was exactly a year ago that the Steelfit blog came to life along with the "pursuit of the perfect pull up".... and so much more. Looking back at the year, I thought I would re-publish that first post:

Why Steelfit?

There was a time when I thought that a good day in the gym meant working my way through a circuit of weight training equipment, doing 5 miles on a treadmill and dropping in some occasional free weights for affect. Most of the workouts were either pulled out of magazines or were a series of other simple isolated muscle group exercises I patched together.

It was a few years now that I was introduced to Crossfit by my friend Blair Morrison. Blair is a world class athlete and competitive CrosFitter. Check out his blog at www.crossfitmobile.blogspot.com. Needless to say, after my inaugural "Filthy Fifty", I was hooked and wouldn't look at exercising the same way again.

While CrossFit and fitness overall has become a passion and an integral part of my life, the ingenuity and creativity demonstrated by Blair and others like him is what inspired me to start Steelfit. There were more than one occasion when we would be working out in the early morning in Washington DC and I would be introduced to a new toy just acquired or proudly made by hand the day prior after a trip to the Home Depot; a giant slosh pipe, beer kegs for pressing/cleaning or a pair of parallettes made of PVC pipe. This always got us talking about the endless possibilities for using all sorts of things for the purpose of adding interest and challenge to a work out.

It wasn't long before I was ready to test my own sense of inventiveness. When the topic of conversation became the "lame" wall mounted pull up bar in our gym (too close to the wall to kip) or the only other options that were incorporated into a rack system, the mission seemed obvious. With a brother in the steel fabrication business (and the ability to build just about anything I could dream up), Steelfit was born along with a 12 foot, multiple station, varying grip, group pull up bar. The combination of my passion for fitness and my partners expertise in steel started us down a path that resulted in the formation of STEELFIT Strength Systems LLC.

As I travel, I try to check out boxes whenever I can and am always impressed with the ingenuity and creativity demonstrated in putting them together. While there are plenty of standard products out there, I love checking out the "bars" to see what the local guys have built.

The purpose of this blog continues to be a place to share ideas as a live "laboratory" or focus group of sorts. I will post images of new designs we have created and show previews of some of the custom pull up bar systems and other gym build outs we are working on. If you have seen something cool or have been thinking about a way to improve a current piece of equipment, share it.

The only limit we have is our imagination !!!

Bartendaz...Cool!

This past week was all travel, with the better part of the week in New York City. I LOVE NY! Took the time to get out and run a bit all over town and got a workout in at Crossfit Hells Kitchen one early morning.

As I was running uptown, across town and all around town, I started thinking back to some videos I had seen and some articles I had read on some guys in Harlem that had really popularized Free Style Pull up Work..... Bartendaz. Bartendaz Inc is the fitness division of Constellation a non-profit organization that unites physical fitness, martial arts, youth empowerment and hip-hop to push our youth and our communities to higher standards of physical, social and moral excellence. They promote a lifestyle that comprises the notion, that being healthy, intelligent and street smart is cool. Check out Bartendaz.com

While the moves the Bartendaz master also include push ups and parallel bars, its the incredible pull up bar work that has always piqued my personal interest.

They have been everywhere (articles, TV, etc) and a quick google search will return video after video. Take a look at a quick preview.



Earlier this year, I had been experimenting with some of the moves and as the year draws closer to the end, I will re-introduce some of this work into my morning gym time.

Pancakes on Sunday.............

So tired of whipping up the pancakes every weekend for the kids (complete with butter, syrup and sausage on the side), to simply be a spectator. My eggs, Greek yogurt and high fiber cereal just was not cutting it this Sunday morning after a 10 mile tempo run.

While I have not jumped fully on board the Paleo way of eating, I have certainly researched it a bit, embraced some components; weaving in and out of the principles behind it. While overall it makes sense, I do believe that a target body composition and a healthy, fit lifestyle can be achieved easily with other eating choices that modify the core approach and are guided by good nutrition. For someone who LOVES food and the experience of dining as much as I do, just not ready to go Paleo completely.

A friend recently told me about some great Paleo pancakes he was treated to. Of course, a little google action yielded a bunch of recipes with all sorts of promise. However, I kept it simple and experimented on the version my friend shared. Nothing more that a banana, almond butter and and egg. Of course, I had to tinker a bit and add some vanilla extract and a little Cinnamon, but kept the core recipe in tact. Other recipes I noticed included almond flour, ground almonds and/or coconut milk....adding way too much on the calorie side for me to rationale wanting to try. For the recipe, just mix all of the ingredients together:

1 Egg
1 Banana
1 Heaping Tsp. of Almond Butter
Dash of vanilla
1/4 tsp of Cinnamon

My version was easy enough to make. They are ultra delicate though, so you need to be careful when flipping. It will feel like you are creating a globby mess, but they will flip eventually and hold their pancake shape. The result is light, airy and pretty tasty. The basic recipe makes about 6 cakes.

Kids put their noses up to my plate as they slathered their traditional cakes with the "works". Never mind them because on this Sunday morning, I had pancakes too. The protein shake will prevail tomorrow.

As far as Paleo, I will experiment here and there, but no real desire to live like the cavemen.

Born to Run...or Pull...or...

I am definitely digressing a bit this week. My friend Ed turned me on to the book "Born to Run" and I literally ran through it is just a couple of hours. The book written by Christopher McDougall was a terrific read. Unlike my friend Ed, I didn't find myself wanting to leap out of my chair and go for a run, but it did fire me up to continue my search for whatever it is I am seeking......

In the book, the author sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. The story culminates in the author's participation in the race of a lifetime: a fifty mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country putting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultra-marathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot Ted.....a barefoot running wonder.

The book was so much more than the "how to run correctly" manual that I thought I was picking up. It is an incredibly entertaining story which weaves in and out of the central theme with drama, colorful characters, suspense, mystery, science and sport. The athletic achievements featured throughout are the bonus round in this epic adventure. The "ease" with which they chronicle runs of 20, 30, 50 miles and more, is enough to make anyone feel like a lazy slacker if not passionately engaged in chasing some goal or dream.

So, while the critics, other reviewers and my friend Ed are sure to find certain key points in this read.........it is this feeling of "laziness" that I felt that compelled me to read on more than anything else. As a goal driven soul, a tale with such an incredible pursuit at hand played right into my game.

Of additional personal interest was the fact that the author is not a kid, nor were several of the athletes featured in the book. In fact, there was some science introduced at one point that actually made us 40+ fitness enthusiasts feel good about our ability to perform athletically for years and years with minimal loss of effectiveness.

A truly inspiring read featuring impressive accounts of individual fitness achievements. At the same time an inspiring story about a guy who set out on a pursuit and wouldn't give up until he found the answers.

For us, our pursuit continues: McDougall's book was the kick in the pants I needed to push on. Incidentally, I have been logging more miles the last two weeks too!!

Beliefs vs. Limiting Beliefs.....................

Sitting in a 2 day leadership meeting at the "day job" this week eventually turned to this topic; the idea of building a culture of belief and confidence vs.the oposite, where a belief of not succeeding is widely accepted and therefore, realized.

The example used to clarify the point was Roger Bannister and the under 4 minute mile he logged many years ago setting a world record. Until him, it was widely believed that no man could run a mile under 4 minutes; it was said that it "can't be done". And yet, after he shattered this milestone for the first time, many have hit this high level of performance since. Great success spawns great success and vice versa. Once it was proven that it could be done, it set a new benchmark for others to "believe" and acheive.

Belief: Beliefs are about how we think things really are, what we think is really true and what therefore we expect as likely consequences that will follow from our behavior.


Limiting Belief: Behavior is not what you want, but you think you cannot change it. Each of us carries core limiting beliefs inside of that make us believe we are not good enough. LImiting beliefs can be self imposed or imposed upon you by others.

So how does this all track back to Steelfit and our self proclaimed "Pursuit"?

I can think back to many days in the gym where I uttered the word "can't".......... "can't do a muscle up or can't do kipping pull ups", etc. These self imposed limiting beliefs created mental road blocks that required a lot of energy and influence from others to eventually overcome. In another situation that comes to mind, two friends of mine hade been hooked on Crossfit for well over a year, but when it came time for pull ups, the band free variety was elusive. In both cases, they simply said, "they can't do it". Well, with some coaching one of them broke the barrier, followed quickly by the other........funny how that works.

There are shelves and shelves of books written on the topic of Limiting Beliefs vs. Empowering Beliefs. Lessons to be learned for sure. A couple of take aways for me personally 1) Be concious of limiting beliefs that may have been imposed upon you by others.....we all have the power to make our own beds; don't let others tell you what you can't do 2) Surrounding yourself with like minded folks has and always will have benefits and will support achieving higher levels of performance.

For Steelfit, our pursuit of the perfect pull up is a belief and a passion....nothing limiting and nobody to hold us back.