Perfect Handle Twist

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

Hey team, ya know what I've noticed? You can use the different parts of the perfect products in many situations in a million places. Like the perfect pullup handles can be used in any gym or device because they have that perfect turning factor just like the perfect pushup devices & that is priceless! As you can see in my photos.

Any questions about anything? Fire away & fall back: just write this blog back with suggestions or questions in anything to make our days or yours go easier! PS... You will notice that I have the "perfect counter" hooked up at the top of a pullup cage to count either my head at the top or my feet kicking the top of the cage! "PERFECT"!

Marcus Colburn

A Sound Body Is Important

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

We used to have a saying in BUD/S: "YOUR BODY CAN DO 10 TIMES THE WORK THAN YOUR MIND." Only what we didn't mention was the fact that when you realize how much more your body can handle than your mind thinks you can, you automatically set the bar higher, resulting in great advances in achievements!

Taking care of your body is an important facet of taking care of your mind and soul. Study after study has linked the importance of exercise in preventing chronic disease including Alzheimers, dementia, diabetes, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases that shorten your lifespan, zap your energy, decrease your quality of life and in some cases also lower your self esteem.

"PERFECT" products are valuable resources to help you maintain...a sound body and a sound mind: NUFF SAID!

"HOOYAHS"

Shock Your Body with the Perfect Pullup

Guest blogger: Coach Marty Heilman

Hey fellow trainers, let me tell you about 3 of my older warriors that I am training. On Tuesdays and Fridays I have a "mini" group of 3 funny and sexy warriors -- 2 are female and "Conan" is a 60 yr old retired barbarian.

1) Julie was a frustrated gym member for 20 yrs. She would come in and do her "robotic workout" day after day and then go home and drop right back to her sedentary lifestyle. One day about 10 months ago Julie and her friend Corine, whom I'll call "Dreamy", overheard a conversation I was having with a fellow trainer. The next day they asked me if I would "train them" and the rest is history. Within 30 days both had made significant improvements in their physical and mental well-being. They would come in glowing, with giant smiles on their faces, eager to see what surprises I had in store for them. After introducing Julie to the Perfect Pullup lifestyle she dropped 4 DRESS SIZES and hasn't been this invigorated and full of energy since her early twenties.She says that for the first time in her life she looks forward to SHOPPING.

2) Corine, ( Dreamy), is the same way and is in constant motion and a ball of energy. Her posture has improved 100 fold. Both Corine and Julie say they owe it to the PPU and the way it has changed their lives.

3) Bill, aka Conan, joined our little group a couple of months ago. He showed up with just about every type of pain a person of his stature and age could complain about -- but not any more. He is extremely active now and the majority of his "pain complaints" have disappeared! His initial response to the Perfect Pullup was NO WAY but that only lasted for about 30 seconds. After he did his first "jumping pullup" he was amazed at what he could with the PPU approach.

By using Perfect products I am able to introduce a new form of body weight training that SHOCKS YOUR BODY in a way that is user friendly and non-intimidating and most importantly, it is FUN FUN FUN.

See you all real soon and keep the questions coming!

Coach Marty

Get Your Head As Invigorated As Your Body!

CM SEAL Team blogger: Mike Ryan

Charlie Mike Fans! By now you have probably been exposed to Marty Heilman and some of the incredible exercises he's developed for Perfect Products. But the images only scratch the surface of Marty's expertise. And I believe his dedication and commitment to pushing the boundaries of fitness merit a more formal introduction.

Marty is a rare breed. I can count on one hand the number of times I left a training session with my head as invigorated as my body. That's Marty's secret to success - and why his classes and seminars are standing room only. Marty's workouts are kind of like getting kicked in the nuts during a Tony Robbins seminar. Though pushed to the point of puking, you somehow feel the need to thank him. Marty keeps you motivated, and the workouts keep your body in a state of constant adaptation to new stressors - just like all workouts should. He's a functional fitness freak. And if you attend one of Marty's classes I guarantee you'll be sore in places you never knew existed.

Just try some of the exercises he'll be posting and you'll get the point.

My favorite part of Marty's workouts is at the end. He circles up the class and screams into his headset, "Turn around and take a look at everyone else in this gym! I guarantee nobody in here today worked harder than you just did! Nobody else just burned 1500 calories in their workout!" It really pisses off the 'big and round' crew. I can tell because they are wringing their soft, weight glove covered mitts.

So enjoy his posts and give the exercises a shot. You'll be better for it.

Mike Ryan

V2: The Perfect Milestone!

Teammates – we’ve reached a milestone at Team Perfect – with more than three years of lessons learned and volumes of after action reports on our first product (Perfect Pushup Original), we are about to conduct our first launch of a second generation product: Perfect Pushup V2. The V2 (aka Version TWO of the Original Perfect Pushup) will officially launch June 2009.

After more than 4 million sold, we’ve learned a few things on how to further per-fect the product. Here a few things we’ve learned:

1. Better grip stability – shouldn’t rotate on the handle after heavy use.

2. More comfort – make the grip grippier and more padded to ease carpal tunnel challenges for some – we stole a line from assault weapon design and hard core mountain biking while we tested and evaluated more than 100 different grips.

3. More ball bearings – for better rotation under heavy load.

4. More stability – both laterally and directionally to provide better rotation and muscle alignment during advanced movement patterns.

5. More structure strength – for those working with a weight vest to take their workouts to the extreme – the V2 can handle it and then some.

6. Better non-slip platform – a better base pad with grooves to increase surface area and adapt to dirt and uneven surfaces to ensure positive ground base connection.

7. More selection – Colors!

After three years of design work, we hope you find this next generation Pushup as Perfect as we do. Either way, we want to hear from you on what you think – the only way we can strive for Perfection is with your feedback.

Meanwhile, keep dropping down and pulling up - Enjoy your journey of strength and Stay Fired UP!
CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN

P.S. For the launch of the V2 we’ve recruited the big guns in fitness to write up some new workouts – SEAL swim buddy and Academy classmate, Stew Smith will be hammering out new routines with the V2 in mind – HOOYAH!

Shipping to APOs: The Perfect SOP

Teammates – Here’s the Standard Operating Procedure for ordering Perfect products if you’re a service man or woman serving overseas.

1. Call this toll-free number: 1-877-974-7733. Choose Prompt #3 to place an order.

2. Hours of operation: 8am – 5pm, Monday through Friday, Pacific Time.

3. Have your credit card and APO address handy. For security reasons, we do not accept credit card numbers through email.

4. All military orders receive a 10% discount.

5. Finally, let us know how our products hold up for you in the field. Suggestions, feedback and comments (positive or negative) – we want to hear from you. Send your stories and pictures to getfit@perfectpushup.com, post comments to CHARLIE MIKE, or join our newest Perfect community: The Perfect Fitness Forum.

Though many of the products we invent at Perfect Fitness are based on my experiences suffering through daily SEAL physical training routines, we spend countless hours searching for products that are truly Perfect – and by Perfect we mean they in some way Perfectly simulate the natural movement of the body so you can get the absolute best possible result. If you have a suggestion on making a product even better – we’re all ears – we care about your health and your success – so let us know your thoughts!

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Drum Roll for Perfect DIP Bar

CM Teammates – drum roll please or perhaps a 21 gun salute (Okay – that’s a bit much) – but after months of prototyping (and many, many broken prototypes) it’s time to let you know about our latest product launch: the PERFECT DIP BAR. Why is it Perfect? Good question: first, it mounts onto your existing Perfect Pullup without tools (however, we do suggest you swap out your bottom bracket of your Perfect Pullup with the included Perfect Dip Bar bracket). It attaches/removes within 7 seconds (yes – we’ve timed it) – but the best part is: it’s the first adjustable bar that adjusts to your Perfect shoulder/elbow width to ensure you get the maximum tricep engagement while maintaining PERFECT shoulder – elbow – wrist alignment.

We’re Fired Up about it and we’re looking forward to hearing from you about it – first ten comments (success stories – positive – negative – whatever) posted to me on CHARLIE MIKE get a free t-shirt!

CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN

Perfect Counter Design: Part III

Guest blogger: Gray Holland from the design firm Alchemy Labs.

Making it Work - FOR REAL: [July 27th 2008]

After rebooting the counter’s functional design, and winning the Perfect teams support, we had to hustle to still make the Christmas release. The key to maintaining the timeline was incorporating this new soft base without loosing the existing development ground work. Through the guidance of Perfects president and co-founder Mark Friedman, we divided the development tasks: focusing the factory on the counter unit itself and Alchemy concentrating on the base. The base had a fair amount of surface complexity, which would be lost using solid modeling CAD software, thus we used our surfacing expertise within Alias Studio to execute a class “A” surfaced part for tooling release.

Packaging it All Up: [November 5th 2008]

After several tweaks to the tooling database to streamline the manufacturing process the final data was released in mid September. But there we still open issues for this project given its late development, namely that the packaging graphics for the Counter box were due, but there was no real Counters to take pictures of yet. So we used the production CAD data to render the final shots needed for the packaging, providing the last part of the development puzzle, and getting the Counter ready for its “just in time” launch for the 2008 Christmas season.

Perfect Counter Design: Part II

Guest blogger: Gray Holland from the design firm Alchemy Labs.

Making it Work: [June 27th 2008]

Next steps began with evolving the 3D CAD sketch into something that really worked. We started by building a visual prototype to test the idea. We rapidly moved forward on the refinement and prototyping simultaneously because the design direction was clear to everyone. 3D files and cut-a-ways views illustrated the build of materials [BOM] for the factory in order to get preliminary manufacturing feedback. We were very excited that things were going so smoothly, releasing our first prototype in record time; It looked like we would not have any problems hitting our Christmas launch date.

First Prototypes - The Reality Check: [July 1st 2008]

The first prototype looked great, exactly like the original vision of the concept. But after reviewing it with Alden and the Perfect team, I had an anxious feeling: Had we created a design that was flexible enough for the exercise itself? After doing further testing with the prototype, we came to the conclusion that we wanted more flexibility in the base of the Counter. We found the more the user became fatigued in their workout, the more difficult it was for them to repeat the same rep height every time. In fact, we concluded that we wanted up to 2 inches of travel for the Counter to better match the users needs. The donut shaped foam button only gave us about a half of an inch of travel, but we quickly saw this problem as an innovation opportunity.

Next we moved forward to test our flexibility idea with some quick mock-ups. With no time to model and cast up this new idea, we identified another product that was close in form and function—so raiding the nearest hardware store requisitioning a bunch of plungers to test our concept. By cutting them into different shapes and studying their resulting behaviors, we were able to develop the “perfect” shape: maintaining the original design statement while adding this new flexible base functionality.

Perfect Counter Design: Part I

Guest blogger: Gray Holland from the design firm Alchemy Labs.

Recently Alden asked me to chronicle our collective effort for the Perfect Counter design and development process. The heart of the project was the partnership between Alchemy Labs [included Kevan Hollenback, Frank Denier and myself ] and the Perfect development team [with Alden Mills and Mark Friedman and their manufacturer].



Project Specification: [May 5th 2008]
The project started out as a simple counting device, defined to measure push up reps while using the Perfect Pushup. It would measure how many and how fast you could do them, even how many could be done within a specified amount of time. The Perfect Pushup raises the user's chest 4.5 inches off the ground, and thus the floor no longer serves as the feedback on a completed pushup stroke. This device should elegantly solve this issue. An engineering sketch was handed to us—it was a simple box with a large button on top. We set out to create the design for this device with one very important goal: To develop and for launch it for Christmas 2008!



First Inspiration - Concept 1: [May 16th 2008]
Normally a product is finished being manufactured by May for a Christmas release that same year, and we were just about to start the Counter’s design. Inspired by Alden’s challenge we jumped in head first! Within the first week we had the big idea visualized. Usually we would take more time to develop and create a range of ideas, but the timing on this program necessitated following our gut. We quickly made a 3D CAD model to illustrate the idea and pitched the design directly to Alden: The design leveraged the circular language of the Perfect Pushup product line and talked to the nature of how the Counter “fit” between the two pushups during use. Most importantly this concept tried to distribute the point of contact with the users chest over the largest area possible in order to make it as comfortable to use as possible. To accomplish this we developed a donut shaped foam pad with the counter display plus controls all located centrally. This Counter “puck” was screwed onto a translucent plastic base, allowing for some level of height adjustment and making the Counter “float” above the ground [like the users exercising themselves].

Next week: Part II -- Making it Work and First Prototypes

Meet Gray Holland, Perfect Counter Designer

Guest blogger: Ian MacColl, Team Leader for Design at Perfect Pushup

Charlie Mike Teammates, I would like to introduce to you a great Perfect Team member: Gray Holland of Alchemy Labs.

Perhaps first, however, I should introduce myself. I am the new team leader for Design here at Perfect Fitness. I come from a background of leading teams at Wham-O and IDEO and am responsible for new products and branding moving forward. I have known Gray Holland for almost 20 years and he is one of the best designers I have worked with over my career. We went to college together in Pasadena, at the Art Center College of Design, and we are now professors and teach together at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

After graduating from Art Center College of Design in the Transportation Design program, Gray moved to Detroit to work at General Motors on, among other things, the original electric car. From there he moved to San Francisco and founded Alchemy Labs in 1993, a practice built on emerging digital technology and strategy. He has consulted with a variety of companies including Nike, Disney, TiVo, Seiko, and BMW.

We are honored (and, of course, FIRED UP) to have him working so closely with us on the exciting new products you will start to see this summer and fall. For the next three weeks, Gray will chronicle the Perfect Counter design process with the readers of CHARLIE MIKE.