For anyone that's looking to succeed in their goals - whether they be muscle growth, fat loss, or generally just to stay healthy; you must really know what you're putting in your body. Healthy nutrition is an uncompromisable foundation for achieving real results. Yes a good fitness plan will help you, however it can only go so far towards your goals alone. Plus if you've got a decent fitness plan, but no idea about nutrition, then you're only slowing yourself down and making yourself lose motivation because you can't see any results. The people that infuriate me (infuriate me even more because I used to be one of them) are the ones that go to the gym, work up one hell of a sweat and really push themselves, to then come home and gorge on chocolate and shitty foods. It's a terrible thing to do but many people are culprits with this sort of thing. It's easy enough to do, my best advice would be to not keep junk food at your house. Now this isn't me saying swear off all of the foods that are bad for you, because that's just madness, everyone needs a treat every once in a while. Something that I, and many others that I know do; is allow themselves a treat day. For example, Ez (Fitness Made EZ) actually attempts to slip into a sugary coma every time he has this treat day - but that's fine, because he does it once a week, and trains fucking hard the rest of the week whilst being very careful with his nutrition. Also, people that think that not eating is the solution to losing weight, you're very very mistaken. Starving your body of essential nutrients is dangerous. If humans weren't meant to eat then they wouldn't be born with a digestive system. In the long run, the longer that you starve yourself for, the longer your systems are going to be eating into whatever muscle that they can find to and the less muscle you'll end up with. So if you're looking to lose weight and maintain muscle, or even just lose weight in general, please do not starve your body, just get smart about what you should be taking in.
It took me a long time to find out the real essential facts about nutrition, but that's because I had no help or guidance whatsoever, and I don't want others to be in the same situation. When you really manage to get your head around it, its really not as difficult as it looks either. Personally, I try to make sure I don't take in too many calories daily, I like to keep it below 2000, there's a lot of ways to get a decent amount of calories and still feel full at the end of the day, you just have to be careful and make sure that you know the nutritional values of the things that you're taking in. Think about investing on something like a calorie counter book, I did, for 4.99 its one of the most useful and worthwhile things that I have ever purchased. Its got nutritional details about every possible base food that you can think of. Once you've got yourself armed with something like that, then you can deal with your nutrition head on. For example, a lot of people will opt for a low carbohydrate, high protein diet when looking to do what bodybuilders call 'Cutting' - that's basically the process of really stripping off every inch of fat from your body to uncover serious definition in your muscles. While this approach is good and also definitely works, its not good for you in the long term. The main focus of weight loss with a low carb, high protein diet is water weight. It will also force your body into starvation mode; this is because your body likes to run on glucose/blood sugar, which is supplied by carbs. When your body doesn't get this, it feeds on the glucose and blood sugar found in muscle, causing a major breakdown in your muscle which simulates weight loss. Also, due to the increased amount of saturated fats in a high protein diet, it can cause heart problems, so basically, use that diet if you're looking to lose water weight, maybe if you're a fighter. However please don't try it for longer than a week or two, you'll see adverse effects.
The best advice that I could give to people, is to keep your diet well balanced and well informed. Watch your calorie intake each day, I'd say keep it 200-500 under your GDA, watch your carbohydrates, you don't have to pack them into your diet unless you're on an intense training program. Your protein should be kept at its GDA if not higher. Other stuff such as fats and fibre - be smart about. Try and make sure that the fats that you take in are essential fats such as the ones found in tuna, cod, broccoli, spinach, hazelnuts, walnuts etc. There are so many ways to get your essential fats. Also as some of you may have realised things like broccoli and spinach also help you to get your fibre intake, two in one! Any fruit or vegetable is a good source of fibre, plus fruits like bananas are packed with natural sugars and pure energy. Each morning I just have a cup of green tea or black coffee, with two bananas, and that alone makes me sail through my workouts with no difficulty whatsoever.
So now I've talked about food, lets talk about drinks. Honestly, the best thing to drink would just be pure, clean water - there's no extra additives, no calories, nothing to drag your diet down. However things like green tea, black coffee, and very weak cordial aren't bad for you. Drinks such as Coke, lemonade, and even fruit juice, are a big no no for me. Simply because they contain way too much sugar that your body doesn't need at all. Though I know that many people love their alcohol, particularly on a weekend, and being a student myself I know how hard it is to resist a good night out. So if you are to go out drinking, and this is still by no means telling you to go out and drink - try to stick to spirits and mixers; they contain a lot less calories than beers and ales etc. However if you're itching for a pint, go for Guinness over lager - this is for the simple reason of because it may seem heavy, it actually contains less calories than any other beer or stout.
Okay that's all on food and drink, obviously any questions that anyone has I'll be happy to answer. Just going to devote a bit of time to the subject of supplements. Obviously people with different goals will go for different supplements. I've said this many times before, but anyone who's looking to lose some fat - I'd recommend giving Warrior Blaze a go; it has definitely worked for me where some supplements have failed me. However you can't just sit back and be lazy whilst taking them, they rely on you as much as you rely on them, get a good diet and an active lifestyle and they'll help to boost your goals. I've also said before for protein shakes to try Promax because it really helps to put on lean definition. I'll also be trying a course of Syntha6 in the near future so look out for reviews on that. If you're going to pick a protein shake, just pick something low in calories and low in carbs and fat, preferably with a fair amount of amino acids and glutamine. Also try and get your hands on some BCAAs. I know for a fact that myprotein.com sell them for a very reasonable price. For those who don't know, the function of a BCAA is increase production of insulin, which mainly focuses on helping circulating blood sugar to be taken up by the muscle cells and used as a source of energy. So not only should they give you a boost whilst training, they should also stimulate increased muscle growth; helping you on your way to gaining some serious muscle. As for normal daily supplements (that is, the ones that aren't produced for the sole reason of helping fitness goals) I'd definitely recommend purchasing some Vitamin B tablets, they mainly help to keep your energy levels higher; Also things like Milk thistle (Helps to clean out your liver and kidneys and keep your systems healthy), Cod Liver Oil capsules (Helps to keep your joints healthy) and even just a Multivitamin supplement are helpful aswell when looking to keep a healthy lifestyle. For example, cod liver oil gives you extra support for your joints as you may put stress on your joints while training. Milk thistle helps to keep toxins out of your body and helps to keep your body working at optimum levels. Vitamin B helps to give you that extra energy kick when you need it and so on and so forth.
Well I hope that everything that I've run through in this post has been of use to people, its just mostly the information that I wish I'd had access to when I started training all in one place. The bottom line is, getting healthy and fit isn't just about dragging yourself to the gym every so often, its about a lifestyle change, to give your body what it needs to be healthy in all areas. As always, I'm open to any questions, suggestions or general feedback that people may have. If you've missed this information before you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Wrightyx and my Twitter username has now changed to @Wrighty__ - so you can either add me/message me on facebook, or follow and tweet me on Twitter. Failing all of that you can just drop a comment under this post and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Hope you all enjoyed the read.
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Health, Fitness, Sport; and everything in between.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Sunday 16 September 2012
Isolating target areas
Right, so anyone that has me as a friend on Facebook will be aware of how I threw this post open to the readers, for them to decide what they'd like to see me talking about. I posted asking people to get in touch telling me what areas/muscles of their bodies that they'd like to work and promised to post exercises that I believe will really work that area. Bearing that in mind, I'm going to answer all of the replies I had for that post. The main areas that I've been asked to look at were abs & obliques, arms, and legs, so we've got a fairly comprehensive list there. It's probably just easiest to start at the top and work my way down so I'm going to kick things off with some arm exercises. I'll also post links to descriptions of the exercises.
Due to the fact that its female interest in arms I'll focus this more on toning them up rather than building any significant muscle. People may disagree with me, but in my opinion the best way to tone without putting on muscle mass is to keep the weights that are being used fairly low and throw in some bodyweight exercises too. However what you have to remember is to successfully tone, you're going to have to reduce your body fat as much as possible to make it easier for the exercises to work. So pick a weight that really isn't too heavy for you and go through any of these following exercises.
Tricep Kickbacks - Kickbacks
Single arm Tricep cable pulldowns - Pulldowns
Bench Dips - Dips
Dumbbell Bicep Curls
Zottman Curls - Zottman
Ok so you've got a few different exercises there, hitting the biceps and triceps and also my personal favourite - the Zottman curl, which incorporates your forearms into the exercise. Anyway, on to the abdominal area, I was asked specifically to focus on obtaining V lines. As I've talked about before this involves heavy emphasis on your internal and external obliques, but you can't leave your transversus and rectus abdominis muscles out so I'll throw in a couple of exercises for those too. All of the descriptions for these exercises are in the 'Blasting your core' post, I'm just naming my favourites.
Side Plank with lateral Dumbbell Raise (This really cuts into your internal obliques, and the added dumbbell raise really tests your stability, making the exercise that bit more demanding)
Leg Raises into twists (This is one of my personal favourites, as you're working your transversus and rectus abdominis, whilst working your internal and external obliques. Due to the movement of the exercise it can be seen to work all of your abs. I'd recommend doing this to failure)
Heel Touches (This isn't covered in the other post, but its fairly simple. Lie flat on your back, and pull your feet up towards you so they're still on the floor and your knees are bent. Lift your shoulders off the floor in almost a crunch motion - proceed to try and touch your heels with the corresponding hand, complete this as many times as you can.
Killer Twists (Again a brilliant exercise for your core as it works on your stability and strength whilst really cutting into your obliques)
Mason Twists (This exercise relies on your transversus abdominis strength whilst working your obliques, check earlier posts for the description)
Suicide Planks (These focus purely on your transversus abdominis, an absolute killer exercise)
So there you have more than enough abdominal exercises to really cut into your core and achieve those hallowed V lines. On to leg exercises, and most of these shouldn't need any description, however if you feel that you need one, there are plenty in earlier posts.
Lunges with dumbbells
Barbell Back Squat
Goblet Squats (Holding a kettlebell or dumbbell like a goblet, perform a squat)
Prisoner Squats (Perform a bodyweight squat with both hands on the back of your head)
Bent Legged Deadlifts
Calf Raises
Side Lunges (With Dumbbells)
Okay so they're all of the areas that I've been asked to focus on, so I hope everyone that wanted them tries them out, and please let me know how they work out for you. If there's anything else that people would like me to talk about then please get in touch and tell me. You can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Also, I'm aware that I haven't posted workout pictures of Friday's session with @JonesGx - I apologise for this as it slipped my mind in the midst of the workout. I shall do my best to get some snaps this friday, mainly of the more complicated exercises that I've posted about. I'll also post the full heavy workout that we've been experimenting with, and hopefully you guys will have a go at it too. I'll try and get another post up as soon as I can. In the meantime, get in touch with me and let me know what you'd like to read about. I'll also be comparing notes with my friend @GarethFrazer1 on essential bodybuilding facts. So until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Due to the fact that its female interest in arms I'll focus this more on toning them up rather than building any significant muscle. People may disagree with me, but in my opinion the best way to tone without putting on muscle mass is to keep the weights that are being used fairly low and throw in some bodyweight exercises too. However what you have to remember is to successfully tone, you're going to have to reduce your body fat as much as possible to make it easier for the exercises to work. So pick a weight that really isn't too heavy for you and go through any of these following exercises.
Tricep Kickbacks - Kickbacks
Single arm Tricep cable pulldowns - Pulldowns
Bench Dips - Dips
Dumbbell Bicep Curls
Zottman Curls - Zottman
Ok so you've got a few different exercises there, hitting the biceps and triceps and also my personal favourite - the Zottman curl, which incorporates your forearms into the exercise. Anyway, on to the abdominal area, I was asked specifically to focus on obtaining V lines. As I've talked about before this involves heavy emphasis on your internal and external obliques, but you can't leave your transversus and rectus abdominis muscles out so I'll throw in a couple of exercises for those too. All of the descriptions for these exercises are in the 'Blasting your core' post, I'm just naming my favourites.
Side Plank with lateral Dumbbell Raise (This really cuts into your internal obliques, and the added dumbbell raise really tests your stability, making the exercise that bit more demanding)
Leg Raises into twists (This is one of my personal favourites, as you're working your transversus and rectus abdominis, whilst working your internal and external obliques. Due to the movement of the exercise it can be seen to work all of your abs. I'd recommend doing this to failure)
Heel Touches (This isn't covered in the other post, but its fairly simple. Lie flat on your back, and pull your feet up towards you so they're still on the floor and your knees are bent. Lift your shoulders off the floor in almost a crunch motion - proceed to try and touch your heels with the corresponding hand, complete this as many times as you can.
Killer Twists (Again a brilliant exercise for your core as it works on your stability and strength whilst really cutting into your obliques)
Mason Twists (This exercise relies on your transversus abdominis strength whilst working your obliques, check earlier posts for the description)
Suicide Planks (These focus purely on your transversus abdominis, an absolute killer exercise)
So there you have more than enough abdominal exercises to really cut into your core and achieve those hallowed V lines. On to leg exercises, and most of these shouldn't need any description, however if you feel that you need one, there are plenty in earlier posts.
Lunges with dumbbells
Barbell Back Squat
Goblet Squats (Holding a kettlebell or dumbbell like a goblet, perform a squat)
Prisoner Squats (Perform a bodyweight squat with both hands on the back of your head)
Bent Legged Deadlifts
Calf Raises
Side Lunges (With Dumbbells)
Okay so they're all of the areas that I've been asked to focus on, so I hope everyone that wanted them tries them out, and please let me know how they work out for you. If there's anything else that people would like me to talk about then please get in touch and tell me. You can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Also, I'm aware that I haven't posted workout pictures of Friday's session with @JonesGx - I apologise for this as it slipped my mind in the midst of the workout. I shall do my best to get some snaps this friday, mainly of the more complicated exercises that I've posted about. I'll also post the full heavy workout that we've been experimenting with, and hopefully you guys will have a go at it too. I'll try and get another post up as soon as I can. In the meantime, get in touch with me and let me know what you'd like to read about. I'll also be comparing notes with my friend @GarethFrazer1 on essential bodybuilding facts. So until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
A Quick Word Of Thanks
Well, this blog has been up and running for just over a week now, and its already reached over 650 views. That's thanks to everyone that has taken the time out of their day to read the topics and hopefully have passed it on to other people, which is something that I appreciate so much. So instead of this post focusing on advice, I just thought that I'd take the time to thank some of the people that have really helped in the progression and sustainment of this blog. So as with most logical things, I'll start from the beginning. Nick Lingard was a huge help to me when I was first starting to take fitness seriously, keeping my motivation up, helping me with different workouts, and generally teaching me to not give up, and push through whatever obstacles I might encounter throughout workouts. Incidentally, he also provided the basis for the Killer Workout that you can find earlier on in this blog. He also now runs a small supplement business, with great prices and great advice on what would be best for you to achieve your goals. He's definitely helped me in that way too; you can find him on twitter - @Lingard_ - He's also the person that taught me about different parts of the abdominal muscles and which exercises work best for each part. Greg King has also been a phenomenal help for me and my training - regularly giving me new workouts which test me further and further every time. His knowledge of how to get the most out of your training and which exercises are the most effective is out of this world. I know that I've said this before but there are very few people who can stand up against him as a personal trainer, and I don't think anyone could put in the amount of effort he does without pay; he's been a huge help in my bid to lose the pounds and tone my muscles - You can follow him on Twitter - @Greg87King . Next up there's Warrior Supplements, I've only moved on to taking their supplements recently thanks to Nick, but the results I've seen since taking their product Blaze are just phenomenal, also the level of customer service that you get from them is just brilliant, even on Twitter (@WarriorSupps) they're very interactive with customers. So if you want to buy any supplements that actually work, from a company that actually cares about its customers, I'd definitely go with Warrior without hesitation.
More recently, I've received a lot of help and advice from Paul Corkery (EZ of Fitness Made EZ). He even helped me with the layout and colours of this blog! Honestly, you just have to check out his Facebook page to find out that he knows exactly what he's talking about when it comes to health and fitness, and also even boxing. Take some time to check out his Youtube channel aswell, you'll be blown away by the information and help that he throws at you. In all honesty, his pages and updates inspired me to start writing this blog and share what I've learned with every one too. He also holds the same motto as me, that information shouldn't be kept to yourself, it should be shared with others to help them develop just as you did. So if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), His Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) or his Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/glyphmedia). Last but not least, there's Grant Jones, a friend of mine who's recently been taking the time to come and train with me, and has exchanged information on different fitness/fighting topics with me. The bag drill featured in the boxing workout was all courtesy of him. He's been a great person to train with and I've definitely learnt quite a bit in the short time of training with him. If you'd like to follow him on Twitter its (@JonesGx).
I'd also like to thank everyone else who's been frequently reading my blog and constantly sending me messages of support and thanks for what I've been writing (Yes that means you Stav!). I can't thank you all enough for the great support and genuine interest that you've all been showing and it just helps to spur me on and keep this blog going with new and different posts as often as possible. Like I've said in every single post, I'd love to hear from everyone, just get in touch, leave a comment on here, follow and tweet me (@_Bazinga_Punk_) or add me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Wrightyx). I'm also happy to help people with nutrition and supplement advice, also I'll gladly tailor specific workouts for the people that ask. If you're reading this and you don't know me, it doesn't matter, just get in touch with me with any questions or suggestions that you may have and I'll do my best to answer everything to the full extent of my abilities. Maybe even share your fitness success stories with me, its always great to hear those! So again I just want to say a big thank you to you all, you're all inspiring me to carry on. So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
More recently, I've received a lot of help and advice from Paul Corkery (EZ of Fitness Made EZ). He even helped me with the layout and colours of this blog! Honestly, you just have to check out his Facebook page to find out that he knows exactly what he's talking about when it comes to health and fitness, and also even boxing. Take some time to check out his Youtube channel aswell, you'll be blown away by the information and help that he throws at you. In all honesty, his pages and updates inspired me to start writing this blog and share what I've learned with every one too. He also holds the same motto as me, that information shouldn't be kept to yourself, it should be shared with others to help them develop just as you did. So if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), His Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) or his Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/glyphmedia). Last but not least, there's Grant Jones, a friend of mine who's recently been taking the time to come and train with me, and has exchanged information on different fitness/fighting topics with me. The bag drill featured in the boxing workout was all courtesy of him. He's been a great person to train with and I've definitely learnt quite a bit in the short time of training with him. If you'd like to follow him on Twitter its (@JonesGx).
I'd also like to thank everyone else who's been frequently reading my blog and constantly sending me messages of support and thanks for what I've been writing (Yes that means you Stav!). I can't thank you all enough for the great support and genuine interest that you've all been showing and it just helps to spur me on and keep this blog going with new and different posts as often as possible. Like I've said in every single post, I'd love to hear from everyone, just get in touch, leave a comment on here, follow and tweet me (@_Bazinga_Punk_) or add me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Wrightyx). I'm also happy to help people with nutrition and supplement advice, also I'll gladly tailor specific workouts for the people that ask. If you're reading this and you don't know me, it doesn't matter, just get in touch with me with any questions or suggestions that you may have and I'll do my best to answer everything to the full extent of my abilities. Maybe even share your fitness success stories with me, its always great to hear those! So again I just want to say a big thank you to you all, you're all inspiring me to carry on. So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Tailored Workout - Boxing
Right, I recently had a request from a friend to come up with a workout to test him and get him fitter and stronger. I decided that as he was a boxer, I should try my hand at tailoring a workout specifically to optimise his goals towards his sport. It took a bit more research than usual, but it was definitely a challenge to make sure that I had all bases covered from the sport's point of view. After hours of research, I finally found out what I needed to know - which was the specific muscles used whilst executing certain movements such as punching and parrying. There are four main body parts involved with the movement of punching for example - these are your legs, your core, your lats, and your pecs. So with information such as this, I decided to focus the workout on the areas that I had found. I decided to incorporate a bag drill (courtesy of @JonesxG ) and a footwork drill, which was modified by my guinea pig for this workout. Obviously before posting it on the blog I wanted to make sure that it had been tried and tested to save people from wasting their own time. Also, I'd recommend that a cardio routine be added to this workout. For serious fighters I'd recommend doing that cardio daily; If necessary, I'm also happy to provide a cardio workout to go with this weights routine. So without further ado, here it is -
Core Circuit -
Suicide Planks
Balance Sit
Side Plank Raises
Leg Raise into twist on bench
Weighted cable crunch on swiss ball
Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Wide Grip Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Back Squats - 3 sets, failure
Barbell bent over row - 4 sets, failure
Clean and press - 4 sets, failure
Bag routine - 3 minute round. 30 seconds - combinations, next 30 seconds - fast hands (low power needed), next 30 seconds - knockout/heavy blows (give it all you've got) - Repeat that again to make it 3 minutes long. (Note for this routine, keep your feet moving at all times, do not stay static!
Bent legged deadlifts - 3 sets, failure
Press ups (Feet on bosu ball, hands on medicine balls) - 4 sets, failure
Calf Raises (Weighted) - 4 sets, failure
Lat pulldown - 4 sets, failure
Lateral raises - 4 sets, failure
Footwork routine (Ladder Drills) - If your gym has an agility training ladder then that's ideal, if not then you'll just have to mark out an area in your head for this. For anyone that hasn't used an agility ladder before, the premise is really simple, its a line of boxes that you have on the floor, the aim is to complete the ladder placing one foot in each box as fast as you can. I recommend doing this with a dumbbell in each hand. Also try sidestepping through the ladder, completing it in almost a zig zag motion.
Repeat the first bag routine.
So as you can see, you've got a core circuit that targets your Transversus Abdominis and your internal obliques, but also your Rectus Abdominis aswell. This means that you've targeted your deepest and most powerful abdominal muscles to ensure that you really get the full range of power out of them. Again, there's huge emphasis on legs, pecs and lats in this workout, and with the compound movements you'll also be working your shoulders, especially with the clean and press. Your biceps and triceps are also worked hard through compound movements rather than isolation. I've included the bag and footwork routines to keep your body working the muscles that need to be worked; keeping them warm and active at all times. Plus with the footwork routine, you're trying to up your agility as well, which is very important for boxers. You can mix the ladder drills up, maybe stepping both feet in the same box one after the other to make it more difficult, even doing the routine backwards! Just keep changing it up to really work yourself hard! A small note about cardio, skipping is also a good way to improve your agility and warm your body up, however I would recommend other cardio on top of that too. Also, make sure you're stretching your muscles properly before and after! Can't be having any injuries occuring! If you're confused about any of the exercises in the workout, particularly the core ones, you can find them in earlier posts in this blog. The core ones are all contained in the 'Blasting your core' post.
Again I hope that this post has been useful to you all, especially all of you fighters. I'm also happy to tailor workouts for certain sports, just have to ask me people! Responses are always welcome to this blog, suggestions, general comments, questions, and any other feedback. Please get some of your feedback in, let me know if there's anything I can improve on. Constructive criticism is always welcome. So you can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Failing that, you can always leave a comment underneath this post or any other and I'll get back to you as quick as possible! Stay tuned to the blog for tomorrow's training pictures with @JonesGx and possibly another post tonight if I get enough feedback, but until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Core Circuit -
Suicide Planks
Balance Sit
Side Plank Raises
Leg Raise into twist on bench
Weighted cable crunch on swiss ball
Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Wide Grip Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Back Squats - 3 sets, failure
Barbell bent over row - 4 sets, failure
Clean and press - 4 sets, failure
Bag routine - 3 minute round. 30 seconds - combinations, next 30 seconds - fast hands (low power needed), next 30 seconds - knockout/heavy blows (give it all you've got) - Repeat that again to make it 3 minutes long. (Note for this routine, keep your feet moving at all times, do not stay static!
Bent legged deadlifts - 3 sets, failure
Press ups (Feet on bosu ball, hands on medicine balls) - 4 sets, failure
Calf Raises (Weighted) - 4 sets, failure
Lat pulldown - 4 sets, failure
Lateral raises - 4 sets, failure
Footwork routine (Ladder Drills) - If your gym has an agility training ladder then that's ideal, if not then you'll just have to mark out an area in your head for this. For anyone that hasn't used an agility ladder before, the premise is really simple, its a line of boxes that you have on the floor, the aim is to complete the ladder placing one foot in each box as fast as you can. I recommend doing this with a dumbbell in each hand. Also try sidestepping through the ladder, completing it in almost a zig zag motion.
Repeat the first bag routine.
So as you can see, you've got a core circuit that targets your Transversus Abdominis and your internal obliques, but also your Rectus Abdominis aswell. This means that you've targeted your deepest and most powerful abdominal muscles to ensure that you really get the full range of power out of them. Again, there's huge emphasis on legs, pecs and lats in this workout, and with the compound movements you'll also be working your shoulders, especially with the clean and press. Your biceps and triceps are also worked hard through compound movements rather than isolation. I've included the bag and footwork routines to keep your body working the muscles that need to be worked; keeping them warm and active at all times. Plus with the footwork routine, you're trying to up your agility as well, which is very important for boxers. You can mix the ladder drills up, maybe stepping both feet in the same box one after the other to make it more difficult, even doing the routine backwards! Just keep changing it up to really work yourself hard! A small note about cardio, skipping is also a good way to improve your agility and warm your body up, however I would recommend other cardio on top of that too. Also, make sure you're stretching your muscles properly before and after! Can't be having any injuries occuring! If you're confused about any of the exercises in the workout, particularly the core ones, you can find them in earlier posts in this blog. The core ones are all contained in the 'Blasting your core' post.
Again I hope that this post has been useful to you all, especially all of you fighters. I'm also happy to tailor workouts for certain sports, just have to ask me people! Responses are always welcome to this blog, suggestions, general comments, questions, and any other feedback. Please get some of your feedback in, let me know if there's anything I can improve on. Constructive criticism is always welcome. So you can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Failing that, you can always leave a comment underneath this post or any other and I'll get back to you as quick as possible! Stay tuned to the blog for tomorrow's training pictures with @JonesGx and possibly another post tonight if I get enough feedback, but until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Get Motivated!
Since I've started writing this blog, I've had quite a lot of questions about how I keep myself motivated and keep working harder and harder without giving up. The short answer is that I've drilled the motto into myself that giving up is not now, nor will ever be an option. Everyone will find different ways to motivate themselves, because lets face it, we've all had days when we know that we should go and work out, but just can't find the motivation to get out of bed. I've had those days, and personally I feel like absolute shit at the end of the day because I know that I could have tried harder. At the end of the day, by being too lazy to do something that you thought was important to you - all you're doing is letting yourself down. One of my personal favourite ways of motivating myself is simply just taking a look at myself in the mirror and seeing the changes that my new lifestyle is bringing. One of the best feelings in the world in any area, is working fucking hard, and seeing that hard work pay off over time. However there are so many ways to motivate yourself, maybe pick someone that you'd like to model your body on, or inspire yourself with some words of wisdom; even listening to music that really lifts your spirits is a brilliant way to get motivated. In fact, I find that listening to music whilst working out definitely helps my performance and will to go on.
Getting motivated is all about finding what works for you. You definitely need to find a workout that you enjoy doing, I mean, who wants to do something that they don't enjoy? Find a workout or exercise that challenges you, but isn't so hard that you want to give up halfway through it. Its always good to push yourself, but be careful how far you push. If you've got the right balance, then you can push yourself, and beat personal bests - which feels absolutely amazing because you know that you've made a lot of progress. However if you push yourself too far, it can lead to injury and low morale after working out, no one wants to feel like that. When you first begin your training, write down all of your stats - what weights you can lift, cardio times and records, bodyweight etc. Then work to improve them gradually, with a final goal in mind - keep that goal in your mind, and remember why you want it so badly. The more organised that you are with your training, the more that you can monitor your goals and use them to motivate yourself. My point here is, that to really gain motivation, you have to dig deep within yourself and get serious about your training. Yes its supposed to be fun as well, but just because you're taking it seriously doesn't mean that it can't be fun.
So don't just give it a go for a week and give up, don't let yourself lose focus of what you want to achieve. Get yourself out of bed in a morning, look yourself in the eye through a mirror, and tell yourself that you can do it, that you won't settle for anything less than your goals; and as you begin to see results, keep telling yourself the same things, any progress is good progress. A huge tip that I can't express enough is be patient! You won't see results overnight, but if you stick at it, and work hard then you will definitely see results. After all, you'll get back exactly what you put in when it comes to effort and results. Its just like EZ (Of Fitness Made EZ) says - 'Whilst perfection may be unattainable, we all have the ability to strive for excellence'.
I hope that what I've written here for you is of some use for your training. No matter how hard it gets, just keep training and keep moving towards your goals, because when you reach them you will look back on your efforts and realise that they were all worth it. However, when you get to your goals, don't stop putting the effort in, even if its just to maintain yourself. If you've got any questions, suggestions or just general feedback then please feel free to comment under this post or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ . You can also find me on Facebook under Alex Wright. If you haven't already, I'd urge you all to Like Fitness Made EZ on Facebook and follow him on Twitter - @FitnessMadeEZ - After all, he's the most motivational source that I know of. Let me hear some of your suggestions for future topics and please keep sending your feedback.
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Getting motivated is all about finding what works for you. You definitely need to find a workout that you enjoy doing, I mean, who wants to do something that they don't enjoy? Find a workout or exercise that challenges you, but isn't so hard that you want to give up halfway through it. Its always good to push yourself, but be careful how far you push. If you've got the right balance, then you can push yourself, and beat personal bests - which feels absolutely amazing because you know that you've made a lot of progress. However if you push yourself too far, it can lead to injury and low morale after working out, no one wants to feel like that. When you first begin your training, write down all of your stats - what weights you can lift, cardio times and records, bodyweight etc. Then work to improve them gradually, with a final goal in mind - keep that goal in your mind, and remember why you want it so badly. The more organised that you are with your training, the more that you can monitor your goals and use them to motivate yourself. My point here is, that to really gain motivation, you have to dig deep within yourself and get serious about your training. Yes its supposed to be fun as well, but just because you're taking it seriously doesn't mean that it can't be fun.
So don't just give it a go for a week and give up, don't let yourself lose focus of what you want to achieve. Get yourself out of bed in a morning, look yourself in the eye through a mirror, and tell yourself that you can do it, that you won't settle for anything less than your goals; and as you begin to see results, keep telling yourself the same things, any progress is good progress. A huge tip that I can't express enough is be patient! You won't see results overnight, but if you stick at it, and work hard then you will definitely see results. After all, you'll get back exactly what you put in when it comes to effort and results. Its just like EZ (Of Fitness Made EZ) says - 'Whilst perfection may be unattainable, we all have the ability to strive for excellence'.
I hope that what I've written here for you is of some use for your training. No matter how hard it gets, just keep training and keep moving towards your goals, because when you reach them you will look back on your efforts and realise that they were all worth it. However, when you get to your goals, don't stop putting the effort in, even if its just to maintain yourself. If you've got any questions, suggestions or just general feedback then please feel free to comment under this post or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ . You can also find me on Facebook under Alex Wright. If you haven't already, I'd urge you all to Like Fitness Made EZ on Facebook and follow him on Twitter - @FitnessMadeEZ - After all, he's the most motivational source that I know of. Let me hear some of your suggestions for future topics and please keep sending your feedback.
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Monday 10 September 2012
Supplements!
After doing a quick scope around the Internet, I found that there was nowhere near enough information on supplements and reviews of how they work and what they really do for people. Well, you can find pages of information - but its all written in scientific jargon, making it pretty useless to anyone who doesn't have a science related degree! Over the past few years, I've experimented with a few different supplements and its probably time to share what I've learned about them. You can see reviews like this all over the Internet, but I guarantee that this one is one of few that are true, with no bullshit whatsoever. The majority of the supplements that I myself have tried are obviously 'fat strippers' - little did I know that they weren't really needed as much as I thought. Anyway, here's the list:
Thermobol - Thermobol is a Maximuscle product designed to help you lose those unwanted pounds and boost your metabolism through its 'Thermogenic' qualities. Thermogenic is just a fancy word for a product that is designed to boost your body temperature to boost the speed at which your body burns the calories that you take in. Plus, its made by such a high reputation company so it must work, right? Wrong. I tried using this product and saw very very poor results overall, even when I was training hard 5 times a week. I didn't feel any different whatsoever whilst using this particular supplement, would not recommend it at all.
Jack3D - This is one of the most powerful supplements that I have ever taken. Its a pre workout supplement, designed to give you a real boost throughout your workout. One of its key ingredients is called Schizandrol A, this particular ingredient helps your brain to tell your body that lifting a heavy weight is indeed possible and helps you to push out those impossible final reps. The only side effect I noticed was a sensation of tingling all over my skin, it scared me at first, but once I knew that it was a harmless side effect, I learned to love it. It also contains a fair amount of creatine, so helps to give your muscles that extra pump when training. When I was taking this supplement, I literally felt like I was walking on air, and for the small price of 20 pounds, its possibly the most effective supplement that I've ever tried. Would highly recommend it.
Acai Berry Extract - Surely most of you have seen the adverts for acai berry on the Internet? Seeing it advertised as a miracle product for weight loss? Well its complete bullshit. I managed to get my hands on a fair amount of the stuff for free, and I'm sure as hell glad that I didn't pay for it. Its terrible. Has no effect on your body whatsoever, I'd definitely advise against going anywhere near it.
Grenade Thermo Detonators - Grenades are a product designed to help you annihilate the fat on your body, and they're advertised as powerful. Trust me when I say that this is no understatement, these pills are very very powerful, and should definitely be used with caution and their instructions are not to be ignored. After taking my first ever serving of this product, I felt as if I'd just been charged full of electricity, ready to work out until I dropped. Seriously though, the instructions for this product need to be followed closely, especially regarding your morning serving, make sure you eat very soon after you take it and you should be fine. I found that if I didn't eat after taking my morning serving then I felt sick. I also managed to lose a few pounds whilst taking this for a week, so I'd recommend it as a weight loss supplement.
Maximuscle Promax - This Maximuscle product, unlike its fat burning counterpart, really does work. Its a simple protein shake, however unlike most other shakes, it has a very high protein content, whilst maintaining a low fat and carbohydrate content. Thanks to this, it replenishes your protein reserves, aids recovery and helps you to gain muscle mass without gaining any fat. It also contains a huge amount of glutamine, which is a godsend when it comes to recovery. I took two shakes a day when training, and would not feel the after effects the next day thanks to this product. For anyone wanting to gain lean mass and definition - this product is definitely for you!
Warrior Blaze - Again another fat burning pill. I'm still currently taking this supplement, and it must have aided my weight loss somewhere along the line considering the fact that I've managed to lose around 2 of the overall 3 stone that I've lost whilst taking it. However you definitely have to couple it with a strict diet to get the results that you want. As well as aiding with weight loss, its caffeine content also gives you that extra boost whilst training, without the horrible crash at the end. I've never experienced a side effect from it, so overall, I'd recommend this product as the best fat burner on the market right now. If you want to learn more about this product and the other supplements that Warrior sell, follow them on twitter - @Warriorsupps .
So there's a breakdown of the supplements that I've taken up to this point. I know that its a small list but you don't need to be taking every supplement under the sun to achieve your goals. For example, if you're trying to gain some serious muscle mass, all that you need to do is adapt your diet and workout, and maybe take some protein shakes at the same time. If you want to burn fat, then cut the shit out of your diet, get strict with what you're putting in your body; adapt your workout to suit the goal of calorie burning, and again maybe buy a fat stripping supplement such as Blaze or Grenades. In my opinion the worst thing that you could do is rely too heavily on supplements and not make any changes to your lifestyle, for one - its almost the same as a quick fix, and secondly, its bloody expensive. What happens when you run out of money and have to stop taking your supplements? You'll probably lose muscle and gain weight. All you're doing is wasting your time if you don't use your supplements correctly. The bottom line here, is make sure you're doing your research and being smart about your nutrition if you're intending to take supplements.
I'm hoping that I can get a few training shots up in this blog of my heavy lifting session with @JonesGx ; try and demonstrate a few of the key exercises that we do and hopefully encourage some of you guys to tweet me your training pictures too! Lets try and make this blog a little more interactive! I hope you've all found these supplement reviews to be useful. As always if you've got any feedback, feel free to leave a comment on here or follow me on Twitter @_Bazinga_Punk_ - and keep an eye out for more posts, including the pictures of Friday's session. Also, get tweeting your training pictures to me, maybe some of exercises I've gone through in this blog? Something to think about! More posts to follow soon!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Thermobol - Thermobol is a Maximuscle product designed to help you lose those unwanted pounds and boost your metabolism through its 'Thermogenic' qualities. Thermogenic is just a fancy word for a product that is designed to boost your body temperature to boost the speed at which your body burns the calories that you take in. Plus, its made by such a high reputation company so it must work, right? Wrong. I tried using this product and saw very very poor results overall, even when I was training hard 5 times a week. I didn't feel any different whatsoever whilst using this particular supplement, would not recommend it at all.
Jack3D - This is one of the most powerful supplements that I have ever taken. Its a pre workout supplement, designed to give you a real boost throughout your workout. One of its key ingredients is called Schizandrol A, this particular ingredient helps your brain to tell your body that lifting a heavy weight is indeed possible and helps you to push out those impossible final reps. The only side effect I noticed was a sensation of tingling all over my skin, it scared me at first, but once I knew that it was a harmless side effect, I learned to love it. It also contains a fair amount of creatine, so helps to give your muscles that extra pump when training. When I was taking this supplement, I literally felt like I was walking on air, and for the small price of 20 pounds, its possibly the most effective supplement that I've ever tried. Would highly recommend it.
Acai Berry Extract - Surely most of you have seen the adverts for acai berry on the Internet? Seeing it advertised as a miracle product for weight loss? Well its complete bullshit. I managed to get my hands on a fair amount of the stuff for free, and I'm sure as hell glad that I didn't pay for it. Its terrible. Has no effect on your body whatsoever, I'd definitely advise against going anywhere near it.
Grenade Thermo Detonators - Grenades are a product designed to help you annihilate the fat on your body, and they're advertised as powerful. Trust me when I say that this is no understatement, these pills are very very powerful, and should definitely be used with caution and their instructions are not to be ignored. After taking my first ever serving of this product, I felt as if I'd just been charged full of electricity, ready to work out until I dropped. Seriously though, the instructions for this product need to be followed closely, especially regarding your morning serving, make sure you eat very soon after you take it and you should be fine. I found that if I didn't eat after taking my morning serving then I felt sick. I also managed to lose a few pounds whilst taking this for a week, so I'd recommend it as a weight loss supplement.
Maximuscle Promax - This Maximuscle product, unlike its fat burning counterpart, really does work. Its a simple protein shake, however unlike most other shakes, it has a very high protein content, whilst maintaining a low fat and carbohydrate content. Thanks to this, it replenishes your protein reserves, aids recovery and helps you to gain muscle mass without gaining any fat. It also contains a huge amount of glutamine, which is a godsend when it comes to recovery. I took two shakes a day when training, and would not feel the after effects the next day thanks to this product. For anyone wanting to gain lean mass and definition - this product is definitely for you!
Warrior Blaze - Again another fat burning pill. I'm still currently taking this supplement, and it must have aided my weight loss somewhere along the line considering the fact that I've managed to lose around 2 of the overall 3 stone that I've lost whilst taking it. However you definitely have to couple it with a strict diet to get the results that you want. As well as aiding with weight loss, its caffeine content also gives you that extra boost whilst training, without the horrible crash at the end. I've never experienced a side effect from it, so overall, I'd recommend this product as the best fat burner on the market right now. If you want to learn more about this product and the other supplements that Warrior sell, follow them on twitter - @Warriorsupps .
So there's a breakdown of the supplements that I've taken up to this point. I know that its a small list but you don't need to be taking every supplement under the sun to achieve your goals. For example, if you're trying to gain some serious muscle mass, all that you need to do is adapt your diet and workout, and maybe take some protein shakes at the same time. If you want to burn fat, then cut the shit out of your diet, get strict with what you're putting in your body; adapt your workout to suit the goal of calorie burning, and again maybe buy a fat stripping supplement such as Blaze or Grenades. In my opinion the worst thing that you could do is rely too heavily on supplements and not make any changes to your lifestyle, for one - its almost the same as a quick fix, and secondly, its bloody expensive. What happens when you run out of money and have to stop taking your supplements? You'll probably lose muscle and gain weight. All you're doing is wasting your time if you don't use your supplements correctly. The bottom line here, is make sure you're doing your research and being smart about your nutrition if you're intending to take supplements.
I'm hoping that I can get a few training shots up in this blog of my heavy lifting session with @JonesGx ; try and demonstrate a few of the key exercises that we do and hopefully encourage some of you guys to tweet me your training pictures too! Lets try and make this blog a little more interactive! I hope you've all found these supplement reviews to be useful. As always if you've got any feedback, feel free to leave a comment on here or follow me on Twitter @_Bazinga_Punk_ - and keep an eye out for more posts, including the pictures of Friday's session. Also, get tweeting your training pictures to me, maybe some of exercises I've gone through in this blog? Something to think about! More posts to follow soon!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Sunday 9 September 2012
Blasting your core!
Ok so as promised I'm back with the second of today's posts, my favourite exercises to really annihilate your core muscles and put you well on the way to those hallowed 6 pack abs, with the 'v lines' that everyone seems to love so much. Apart from the aesthetic effect, having a well chiseled core is very very important when it comes to working out and exercise in general. Having a strong core is key when weightlifting, it helps you keep a strong posture and therefore helps you execute your lifts perfectly without damaging yourself. Its also important for sports players, sports like football and hockey require a strong core in order to demonstrate strength whilst in possession of the ball. In boxing its important to keep a strong core, it gives you a powerful basis to work from and can also soften the blow of a body shot. The benefits to having a strong core really are endless! A lot of people will leave ab exercises out of their workout, some because they find them too difficult, others just due to a lack of knowledge regarding them. Its also always important to be selective of your exercises, you need to make sure that you're not just working the same parts of your core. Your abdominal area consists of four different major muscles, these are:
Transversus abdominis - This muscle is your deepest abdominal muscle, it cannot be seen or touched from outside the body, this muscle will have a major effect on your posture; its very, very important that this muscle is kept strong.
Internal Obliques - These are a pair of muscles, almost as deep as the transverse abdominus, they lie on either side of your torso. Together with the transverse abdominus, they have a tremendous effect on your posture. They're involved in rotation of the spine.
External Obliques - These are a more superficial muscle, lying further out than the internal obliques. They still have an effect on your posture, but not as much as the deeper muscles.
Rectus Abdominus - This is the most superficial part of your abdominals, the outer muscle, which give the aesthetic effect of the six pack when worked properly.
So now I've run you through the four major parts of your abs, its time to get into the exercises. Its good to have knowledge of the four muscles as you can learn which exercises are affecting where in your torso, and therefore not spend all of your time working the same part and neglecting the others. Anyway, here's a few of my favourite exercises for your abs, I'll also explain which areas they target the most whilst running through them. As always, any exercises that you're still not sure about, feel free to research further.
Plank (This will target your Transversus muscles, working deeper than other exercises and helping with stability)
Suicide planks - Beginning in a plank position, and then proceeding to move into a press up position, repeating to failure. (These target the same muscles as a normal plank, just with slightly higher intensity)
Side Planks with T raise - Beginning in a side plank position with dumbbell in free hand, proceeding to raise the dumbbell in an arc until your body lies in a T shape, repeating to failure. (Works internal obliques)
Reverse Twist - Lying on your back on a swiss ball, making sure that your hips and shoulders are still in contact with the ball. Move your arms out in front of you and hold both hands together. Proceed to twist your arms to the side, hold when you feel the exercise in your obliques, return to start position. (Also works internal obliques)
Balance sit - Lie down on your back on the floor. From this position, raise your legs off the floor and also raise your upper body off the floor. Hold this position to failure. (Works Transversus muscles)
Swiss Ball Jackknifes - Begin in a press up position with your feet on a swiss ball. Proceed to pull your legs in towards your body, rolling the ball with them. (Works rectus abdominus and transversus muscles)
Mason twists - Whilst on a bench, hold the same position as a balance sit. Hold a kettlebell with both hands, proceed to twist from left to right to failure. (Works both the Transversus and internal obliques)
Swiss Ball Resistance twists - Set up a resistance cable pillar so the attachment is at the bottom of the pillar. Pick an attachment that is easy to keep hold of. Place a swiss ball a foot or so away from the pillar. Whilst lying on your back on the swiss ball, pull the attachment so it sits behind your head. Proceed to perform a crunch (Works rectus abdominis muscles)
Deadbugs - Whilst lying on your back on the floor, bend your legs in towards your body, and raise your arms above you, preferably holding a barbell with no weights on. Proceed to lower your arms and legs at the same time, making sure to keep your lower back pressed into the floor. Repeat 15-20 times. (Works rectus abdominis muscles)
Killer twists - Holding a medicine ball, keeping your legs slightly bent, begin holding the ball on one side of your body adjacent to your hip. Proceed to move the ball in an arc, twisting your body until the ball is above shoulder height on the opposite side of your body. Repeat both sides. (Works external obliques)
Leg Raises into twists - Begin lying on a bench, making sure that you have a decent grip on it. Proceed to raise your legs upwards, at the top of the movement, then proceed to move your hips off the bench, twisting to the left, to the centre, to the right. Drop legs and repeat to failure. (Works external obliques and rectus abdominis)
So there you go, my favourite ab exercises, targeting every section of your abdominal muscles. Giving you the aesthetic effect of your 6 pack and V lines, whilst also working deep in your core to help with your posture. Of course you don't need to perform all of those exercises in the same workout. Just try to make sure you're performing at least one exercise for each abdominal group and you'll definitely see results. At this point, I'd also like to thank two people for a couple of these exercises. You can find them both on twitter - the first is @Greg87King - who has been with me since day one of my training, helping me with different workouts, you'd be hard pushed to find a better instructor. The second, whom most of twitter are well acquainted with, is @DannyBoyRoe - he also has a 6 pack abs workout which you can find on Youtube (trust me, its worth a look) - you'll notice from there that the balance sit was lifted from him, brilliant exercise.
I'd also like to bring your attention to Fitness Made EZ. You can find EZ on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) and also on Youtube (www.youtube.co.uk/glyphmedia) . He's been a big help with this blog, and he ultimately inspired me to begin writing these posts. His pages are full of bullshit free, down to earth advice on health and fitness. Many people could stand to learn a lot from this man. When it comes to this subject, he's definitely someone that you should be checking out. Also, if you're a fighter, he's definitely a source that you'll need to research, with a lot of experience. He also sells his own Gym wear, just check out www.flexdem.com - I've already ordered some merchandise from him, and I suggest that others follow suit. Oh yeah, and he occasionally gives freebies away!
As for me, I welcome any feedback, questions/suggestions that anyone would like to give me. Perhaps you could give me some pointers? Its all about sharing the knowledge that you've got, don't hold it to yourself and waste it! So if you've read this, and you have Twitter, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ - Failing that, drop me a comment under this post and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Makes my day to hear all the good feedback. If I get enough decent feedback I'll also create a Facebook page for updates on this blog, thats all down to you! So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Transversus abdominis - This muscle is your deepest abdominal muscle, it cannot be seen or touched from outside the body, this muscle will have a major effect on your posture; its very, very important that this muscle is kept strong.
Internal Obliques - These are a pair of muscles, almost as deep as the transverse abdominus, they lie on either side of your torso. Together with the transverse abdominus, they have a tremendous effect on your posture. They're involved in rotation of the spine.
External Obliques - These are a more superficial muscle, lying further out than the internal obliques. They still have an effect on your posture, but not as much as the deeper muscles.
Rectus Abdominus - This is the most superficial part of your abdominals, the outer muscle, which give the aesthetic effect of the six pack when worked properly.
So now I've run you through the four major parts of your abs, its time to get into the exercises. Its good to have knowledge of the four muscles as you can learn which exercises are affecting where in your torso, and therefore not spend all of your time working the same part and neglecting the others. Anyway, here's a few of my favourite exercises for your abs, I'll also explain which areas they target the most whilst running through them. As always, any exercises that you're still not sure about, feel free to research further.
Plank (This will target your Transversus muscles, working deeper than other exercises and helping with stability)
Suicide planks - Beginning in a plank position, and then proceeding to move into a press up position, repeating to failure. (These target the same muscles as a normal plank, just with slightly higher intensity)
Side Planks with T raise - Beginning in a side plank position with dumbbell in free hand, proceeding to raise the dumbbell in an arc until your body lies in a T shape, repeating to failure. (Works internal obliques)
Reverse Twist - Lying on your back on a swiss ball, making sure that your hips and shoulders are still in contact with the ball. Move your arms out in front of you and hold both hands together. Proceed to twist your arms to the side, hold when you feel the exercise in your obliques, return to start position. (Also works internal obliques)
Balance sit - Lie down on your back on the floor. From this position, raise your legs off the floor and also raise your upper body off the floor. Hold this position to failure. (Works Transversus muscles)
Swiss Ball Jackknifes - Begin in a press up position with your feet on a swiss ball. Proceed to pull your legs in towards your body, rolling the ball with them. (Works rectus abdominus and transversus muscles)
Mason twists - Whilst on a bench, hold the same position as a balance sit. Hold a kettlebell with both hands, proceed to twist from left to right to failure. (Works both the Transversus and internal obliques)
Swiss Ball Resistance twists - Set up a resistance cable pillar so the attachment is at the bottom of the pillar. Pick an attachment that is easy to keep hold of. Place a swiss ball a foot or so away from the pillar. Whilst lying on your back on the swiss ball, pull the attachment so it sits behind your head. Proceed to perform a crunch (Works rectus abdominis muscles)
Deadbugs - Whilst lying on your back on the floor, bend your legs in towards your body, and raise your arms above you, preferably holding a barbell with no weights on. Proceed to lower your arms and legs at the same time, making sure to keep your lower back pressed into the floor. Repeat 15-20 times. (Works rectus abdominis muscles)
Killer twists - Holding a medicine ball, keeping your legs slightly bent, begin holding the ball on one side of your body adjacent to your hip. Proceed to move the ball in an arc, twisting your body until the ball is above shoulder height on the opposite side of your body. Repeat both sides. (Works external obliques)
Leg Raises into twists - Begin lying on a bench, making sure that you have a decent grip on it. Proceed to raise your legs upwards, at the top of the movement, then proceed to move your hips off the bench, twisting to the left, to the centre, to the right. Drop legs and repeat to failure. (Works external obliques and rectus abdominis)
So there you go, my favourite ab exercises, targeting every section of your abdominal muscles. Giving you the aesthetic effect of your 6 pack and V lines, whilst also working deep in your core to help with your posture. Of course you don't need to perform all of those exercises in the same workout. Just try to make sure you're performing at least one exercise for each abdominal group and you'll definitely see results. At this point, I'd also like to thank two people for a couple of these exercises. You can find them both on twitter - the first is @Greg87King - who has been with me since day one of my training, helping me with different workouts, you'd be hard pushed to find a better instructor. The second, whom most of twitter are well acquainted with, is @DannyBoyRoe - he also has a 6 pack abs workout which you can find on Youtube (trust me, its worth a look) - you'll notice from there that the balance sit was lifted from him, brilliant exercise.
I'd also like to bring your attention to Fitness Made EZ. You can find EZ on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) and also on Youtube (www.youtube.co.uk/glyphmedia) . He's been a big help with this blog, and he ultimately inspired me to begin writing these posts. His pages are full of bullshit free, down to earth advice on health and fitness. Many people could stand to learn a lot from this man. When it comes to this subject, he's definitely someone that you should be checking out. Also, if you're a fighter, he's definitely a source that you'll need to research, with a lot of experience. He also sells his own Gym wear, just check out www.flexdem.com - I've already ordered some merchandise from him, and I suggest that others follow suit. Oh yeah, and he occasionally gives freebies away!
As for me, I welcome any feedback, questions/suggestions that anyone would like to give me. Perhaps you could give me some pointers? Its all about sharing the knowledge that you've got, don't hold it to yourself and waste it! So if you've read this, and you have Twitter, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ - Failing that, drop me a comment under this post and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Makes my day to hear all the good feedback. If I get enough decent feedback I'll also create a Facebook page for updates on this blog, thats all down to you! So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Cardio Exercises & Routines
Ok, so I realise that most of the posts in this blog with regard to exercise have focused on mostly weight loss through the use of weights rather than cardio. So I thought that I'd just devote this one post to Cardio routines that definitely helped me get so much fitter and strip off some fat. As always with cardio however you do run the risk of losing a bit of muscle mass, but as long as you compensate with a decent enough weightlifting workout - it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Obviously depending on your goals you could opt to do more cardio than weights, in which case you can say goodbye to really intense muscle mass, so the alternative is to do maybe 1-2 days a week cardio, with 3-5 days a week weights to keep your mass up. With regard to using cardio primarily to strip fat and gain some fitness - I found that high intensity interval training did the job very nicely. Obviously you can choose what form of cardio that you'd like to try with interval training, from cycling, to running, to swimming, even to rowing. Any form of cardiovascular exercise can be converted into interval training. I myself opted for a mixture of running and rowing as I felt that they worked best for me, but everyone's different. Cycling is also a good cardio exercise due to the fact that its low impact, so if you've got weak joints or arthritis, then cycling or even swimming will be perfect for you. Anyway, if you're not clued up on interval training; it speaks for itself. The whole premise is to perform a cardiovascular exercise at different intensities for certain intervals of time. For example, my old interval training program for running was performed on a treadmill - It was 12 minutes long, and each minute was a different interval. I'll run through the 12 minutes below.
1. Speed - 9.5 kph, Gradient - 2%
2. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2%
3. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.5%
4. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
5. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 0.5%
6. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 0.0%
7. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
8. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
9. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
10. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
11. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
12. Speed - 15kph, Gradient - 0.0%
As you can see, it's a pretty straightforward routine, with regard to calories burned during the exercise, it should range from 300-400 calories for an average person. Obviously the speeds and gradient can be altered to suit you, and you can lengthen and shorten it. However I'd recommend that the sprint at the end is kept, its a good way to finish off the exercise. Think of it as the home stretch, giving your all for 60 seconds at the end of the routine. You'll have to dig deep, but trust me its worth it. This is where I see the cardio machines having a slight advantage over an outdoor cardio exercise as you can adapt the gradient and speed with ease. You can do this outside as well, its just with the gradient side you'd have to choose your route carefully. As well as cardio such as running, cycling, rowing, swimming etc; there's exercises such as skipping. Some of you may feel slightly stupid doing it, but trust me, its a brilliant exercise for improving agility, speed, stamina and co ordination. You can also try various punching drills on a punch bag, just 10 minutes on that will help you work up a real sweat and it definitely works as one hell of a stress reliever. One cardio exercise that I wouldn't like to recommend is the X Trainer - this machine relies very heavily on momentum rather than constant effort. With these machines, if you put in enough effort at the start, you can cruise through the rest of the exercise with little effort at all, there are plenty of other cardio exercises that you can do instead of this that will give much better results; so don't waste your time. So to sum up, the key to interval training is to mix it up, keep your body guessing! Have fun with it, you don't have to stick to a certain plan, you can make your own rules and change intensities when it suits you; its a very accommodating and effective way to train.
Obviously the other form of cardiovascular training is just straight up, measured sessions. You can measure your cardio on time, distance or even calories burned. Even though it might seem straightforward, its important to choose the exercise that best suits you and your goals. I mean if you're looking specifically to gain stamina, then obviously distance will be your key goal, and if you're training for a race, then time will be your priority. If you're not training for any particular sport, then this leaves a variety of different cardio exercises open to you, and my best advice for those people, is to again mix it up, try everything! Just bear in mind that running/jogging has been proven to work your core very effectively. Also, swimming is a brilliant full body workout and the amount of calories that you can burn by doing it is unbelievable. Cycling is again an amazing exercise, with a big focus obviously being on your legs. However, the key to successful cycling is cadence and rhythm, don't try and hammer the pedals to build up to a decent speed and then drop because you're completely gassed. Keep a steady but decent paced rhythm, honestly it helps so much. If you decide to try rowing (machine) then be careful to execute the proper movement, otherwise its a waste of time. The exercises that I've run through are just few of many. My advice to you all is to get out there, research different cardio exercises, and try them all, that way you can find out what works best for you and what you enjoy the most; because lets face it, there's nothing fun about doing an exercise that you hate, and as cardio is so important, you need to be doing something you like to keep your motivation up and to help you keep doing it over and over. I hope that everything I've talked about has been of use to you, I'm going to focus my next post (which will be either later today or tomorrow) on core exercises and my personal favourite core exercises that promise to blast your abs and leave you wanting more! As always, any feedback, questions, or suggestions, you can comment on here or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ . So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex
1. Speed - 9.5 kph, Gradient - 2%
2. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2%
3. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.5%
4. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
5. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 0.5%
6. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 0.0%
7. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
8. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
9. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
10. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
11. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
12. Speed - 15kph, Gradient - 0.0%
As you can see, it's a pretty straightforward routine, with regard to calories burned during the exercise, it should range from 300-400 calories for an average person. Obviously the speeds and gradient can be altered to suit you, and you can lengthen and shorten it. However I'd recommend that the sprint at the end is kept, its a good way to finish off the exercise. Think of it as the home stretch, giving your all for 60 seconds at the end of the routine. You'll have to dig deep, but trust me its worth it. This is where I see the cardio machines having a slight advantage over an outdoor cardio exercise as you can adapt the gradient and speed with ease. You can do this outside as well, its just with the gradient side you'd have to choose your route carefully. As well as cardio such as running, cycling, rowing, swimming etc; there's exercises such as skipping. Some of you may feel slightly stupid doing it, but trust me, its a brilliant exercise for improving agility, speed, stamina and co ordination. You can also try various punching drills on a punch bag, just 10 minutes on that will help you work up a real sweat and it definitely works as one hell of a stress reliever. One cardio exercise that I wouldn't like to recommend is the X Trainer - this machine relies very heavily on momentum rather than constant effort. With these machines, if you put in enough effort at the start, you can cruise through the rest of the exercise with little effort at all, there are plenty of other cardio exercises that you can do instead of this that will give much better results; so don't waste your time. So to sum up, the key to interval training is to mix it up, keep your body guessing! Have fun with it, you don't have to stick to a certain plan, you can make your own rules and change intensities when it suits you; its a very accommodating and effective way to train.
Obviously the other form of cardiovascular training is just straight up, measured sessions. You can measure your cardio on time, distance or even calories burned. Even though it might seem straightforward, its important to choose the exercise that best suits you and your goals. I mean if you're looking specifically to gain stamina, then obviously distance will be your key goal, and if you're training for a race, then time will be your priority. If you're not training for any particular sport, then this leaves a variety of different cardio exercises open to you, and my best advice for those people, is to again mix it up, try everything! Just bear in mind that running/jogging has been proven to work your core very effectively. Also, swimming is a brilliant full body workout and the amount of calories that you can burn by doing it is unbelievable. Cycling is again an amazing exercise, with a big focus obviously being on your legs. However, the key to successful cycling is cadence and rhythm, don't try and hammer the pedals to build up to a decent speed and then drop because you're completely gassed. Keep a steady but decent paced rhythm, honestly it helps so much. If you decide to try rowing (machine) then be careful to execute the proper movement, otherwise its a waste of time. The exercises that I've run through are just few of many. My advice to you all is to get out there, research different cardio exercises, and try them all, that way you can find out what works best for you and what you enjoy the most; because lets face it, there's nothing fun about doing an exercise that you hate, and as cardio is so important, you need to be doing something you like to keep your motivation up and to help you keep doing it over and over. I hope that everything I've talked about has been of use to you, I'm going to focus my next post (which will be either later today or tomorrow) on core exercises and my personal favourite core exercises that promise to blast your abs and leave you wanting more! As always, any feedback, questions, or suggestions, you can comment on here or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ . So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex
Friday 7 September 2012
Women's workout
Absolutely amazing response from you all, I really appreciate it and its spurred me on to keep this blog rolling and hopefully be of use to everyone! Also, if you're interested in learning other fitness tips, then like Fitness Made EZ on Facebook, or follow @FitnessMadeEZ on Twitter - The most straight talking and knowledgeable source that I've ever encountered when it comes to the subject of fitness. Anyway back to the real reason for this post - the women's workout. Had a few requests to post this so I'm more than happy to! Glad to get both men and women involved in the training. This workout is going to be a hell of a lot different to the previous ones, going to focus a lot more on toning, flexibility, and general weight loss. I see a lot of women complaining that they hate their legs, or their arse, or their stomach, so those are the areas that I've focused on when collating this workout. Also try to bear in mind that this particular plan is a beginner's plan, if people try it and find it too easy then I'll be more than happy to post an advanced version. I've tried to keep it cardio based, with fairly low weights to allow for losing fat and just toning the muscle that you already have. It's a circuit of 11 exercises, each exercise can be executed for one minute, 45 seconds, or 30 seconds each depending on what kind of intensity you're looking for. Try and repeat the circuit at least twice, possibly more if you're opting to do the exercises for less than a minute at a time. You'll need a kettlebell (8kg if possible), a bench, a swiss ball, a medicine ball, and a set of dumbbells (not too light, but not too heavy, possibly 3-6 kg).
Goblet Squats (Holding Kettlebell with both hands, perform a squat movement)
Mountain Climbers
Plank
Press Ups (feel free to do these on your knees if you're not confident with them)
Lunges (With or without dumbbells, alternating legs)
Swiss Ball Crunches
Leg Raises (Lying flat on a bench, bend at the hips to raise your legs into a 90 degree angle with your body)
Kettlebell Deadlifts (Holding the handle of a kettlebell in both hands, use a wide stance and perform a deadlift motion)
Kettlebell Swings (Adopt a wide stance, grip the handle of the kettlebell with both hands, bending your knees slightly, proceed to swing it forwards, using your hips for momentum
Killer Twists (Whilst holding a medicine ball between both hands, stand with your legs shoulder width apart, bending your knees slightly. Begin the motion with the ball held out by your hip, then proceed with a sweeping motion to the opposite side of your body, twisting your upper body as you do this - The ball should end up as far behind you as you can stretch, around shoulder height)
Kettlebell Twists (From a seated position, holding the kettlebell with both hands, raise your legs slightly off the floor, also raise your upper body off the floor at the same time. Whilst holding this position, proceed to rotate your upper body to full extension, alternate left to right)
So there you go, your beginners female workout. As you can see there's a large focus on core and legs and its cardio based too. Try to push out as many reps as you can in the time that you've allocated. Try and perform this workout three times a week, resting between training days. Hope this is useful to everyone and as always, if you have any questions or suggestions you can comment on here, or follow and tweet me at @_Bazinga_Punk_ - all responses will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Goblet Squats (Holding Kettlebell with both hands, perform a squat movement)
Mountain Climbers
Plank
Press Ups (feel free to do these on your knees if you're not confident with them)
Lunges (With or without dumbbells, alternating legs)
Swiss Ball Crunches
Leg Raises (Lying flat on a bench, bend at the hips to raise your legs into a 90 degree angle with your body)
Kettlebell Deadlifts (Holding the handle of a kettlebell in both hands, use a wide stance and perform a deadlift motion)
Kettlebell Swings (Adopt a wide stance, grip the handle of the kettlebell with both hands, bending your knees slightly, proceed to swing it forwards, using your hips for momentum
Killer Twists (Whilst holding a medicine ball between both hands, stand with your legs shoulder width apart, bending your knees slightly. Begin the motion with the ball held out by your hip, then proceed with a sweeping motion to the opposite side of your body, twisting your upper body as you do this - The ball should end up as far behind you as you can stretch, around shoulder height)
Kettlebell Twists (From a seated position, holding the kettlebell with both hands, raise your legs slightly off the floor, also raise your upper body off the floor at the same time. Whilst holding this position, proceed to rotate your upper body to full extension, alternate left to right)
So there you go, your beginners female workout. As you can see there's a large focus on core and legs and its cardio based too. Try to push out as many reps as you can in the time that you've allocated. Try and perform this workout three times a week, resting between training days. Hope this is useful to everyone and as always, if you have any questions or suggestions you can comment on here, or follow and tweet me at @_Bazinga_Punk_ - all responses will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Heavy Workout
Well I promised another update today on the full body heavy lifting workout that I was going to take a swing at. At the same time I thought that I may as well share my own updates on the training that I've been doing. I like to do my weigh ins every Friday, and today I wasn't really expecting much; but I surprised myself. In the last week, I've managed to lose 1.4 Kilos (3 Pounds). I also managed to shave 33 seconds off my best time whilst cycling to the gym, so all in all a positive day for me with exercise. Has anyone else got any success stories to tell about their training? Tweet me if you have! Anyway, I trained with a friend today, who also has twitter - @JonesGx ; I traded him workout tips and this brand new workout for a few tips on the punch bag, and all I can say is what a fair trade it was. Definitely put me through my paces when it came to his end of the bargain. Right well enough of me rambling on, here's the workout. Just as a side note, there was a core set at the end of this workout, but I'll be sharing that in the coming weeks depending on interest as its slightly more advanced than the usual ab exercises.
Bench Press (Normal Grip) - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Wide Grip Bench Press - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Incline Bench Press - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Barbell bent over row - 3 sets, rep to failure
Barbell clean and press - 2 sets, rep to failure
Stiff Legged Deadlifts - 3 sets, rep to failure
Barbell Squats - 3 sets, 10 reps
Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets, rep to failure
Push Ups (Hands on medicine balls, feet on Bosu ball) - 3 sets, 12 reps
Tricep Pulldowns - 3 sets, 15 reps
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl Bar) - 2 sets, 12 reps
So there you have it, an 11 exercise full body workout designed to build muscle. Like I said there's also a core set after it that I'm keeping under wraps for now. If I get enough requests for it then I'll happily post it, maybe with a couple of extra exercises. If anyone wants an opinion on today's workout, then I'm sure @JonesGx will be happy to oblige if you tweet him and ask. Also, he'll probably be happy to share his training technique (especially on the punch bag, that shit is insane) - the intensity is ridiculously high and takes a lot of endurance but it clearly pays off. If anyones been paying attention to my Twitter or Facebook, you'll also have noticed that there will be a post following this one shortly. In that post I'll be running through a workout specifically designed for women. Hope this keeps you going until then!
Keep testing the limits
Alex.
Bench Press (Normal Grip) - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Wide Grip Bench Press - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Incline Bench Press - 2 Sets, Rep to failure
Barbell bent over row - 3 sets, rep to failure
Barbell clean and press - 2 sets, rep to failure
Stiff Legged Deadlifts - 3 sets, rep to failure
Barbell Squats - 3 sets, 10 reps
Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets, rep to failure
Push Ups (Hands on medicine balls, feet on Bosu ball) - 3 sets, 12 reps
Tricep Pulldowns - 3 sets, 15 reps
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl Bar) - 2 sets, 12 reps
So there you have it, an 11 exercise full body workout designed to build muscle. Like I said there's also a core set after it that I'm keeping under wraps for now. If I get enough requests for it then I'll happily post it, maybe with a couple of extra exercises. If anyone wants an opinion on today's workout, then I'm sure @JonesGx will be happy to oblige if you tweet him and ask. Also, he'll probably be happy to share his training technique (especially on the punch bag, that shit is insane) - the intensity is ridiculously high and takes a lot of endurance but it clearly pays off. If anyones been paying attention to my Twitter or Facebook, you'll also have noticed that there will be a post following this one shortly. In that post I'll be running through a workout specifically designed for women. Hope this keeps you going until then!
Keep testing the limits
Alex.
Thursday 6 September 2012
Technique, Flexibility and Posture.
Feeling pretty talkative tonight so I thought I'd follow up the killer workout with a quick post on correct posture, stretching, flexibility, and range of movement because you know, safety first...Anyway, something that really gets on my nerves when in the gym, and is frankly painful to watch - are people using terrible technique and showing lack of discipline around the free weights, because its dangerous. As I've mentioned before, the worst mistake someone can make whilst working out, is not using the right posture and therein the right technique, not only does it completely counteract the exercise that you're trying to do, but it puts you in danger of snapping some shit up and being unable to train for possibly months on end. For example of an upper body exercise, bicep curls - regardless of whether you're using dumbbells or a barbell or an EZ Curl bar, your body should not be swinging or leaning! All of the movement should come from your biceps, triceps, and elbows. You may not even realise that you're swinging or leaning, my tip for that is try performing the curls with your heels and shoulders consciously pinned to a wall behind you - if your technique was wrong, then you'll find the exercise considerably more difficult, if not, then your technique is bang on. For an example of a lower body exercise, bent legged barbell Deadlifts - now there's a hell of a lot of technique in that exercise, even if it seems simple. You have to first consciously make the right movements and keep the correct body position whilst moving through the whole exercise. After you've done that, it begins to happen subconsciously, however I find that its good to force yourself to go over correct positioning and movement consciously throughout the exercise, its just good practice. For example when I'm performing a deadlift, I'm conscious of keeping my back straight, my shoulders back, my legs bent, and my hips pushed back with my core engaged. It seems like a lot when its written out, but it all fits perfectly in the execution of the exercise. Honestly, try looking on youtube for videos showing the correct execution of an exercise that you may be unsure of, there's hundreds of them readily available.
One thing that really does help correct posture and technique is definitely stretching, and stretching often. I'll try and list my favourite exercises and do my best to cover the whole body, I'll even post links alongside them to show images of their execution. The stretches that I'm about to list were shown to me by the same person that helps me with workouts, and if you've got twitter you can find him at @Greg87King ; so if the following exercises are useful to you, be sure to drop him a tweet and let him know how awesome he is.
Calf Stretch - From a standing position, place the ball of one foot upon a slightly raised surface/wall, being careful to keep the heel firmly planted on the floor, slowly lean forward into the stretch, hold when you feel it working. - Calf Stretch
Hamstring/IT Band Stretch - From a standing position, place one leg in front of you on a raised surface, keep your heel on the surface and point your toes towards the ceiling, also keep your back straight. When you feel the stretch in your hamstring, proceed to then rotate your foot inwards until you feel a stretch in your IT band (the outside of your upper thigh) - Standing Hamstring Stretch
Hip Flexor Stretch - From a kneeling position, place one foot out in front of your body, keep your hips square, and slowly push your body forward whilst slightly twisting your body, holding when you feel the stretch. - Hip Flexor Stretch
Quadricep Stretch - Whilst standing, bend your knee so one foot is behind you with the other planted on the floor. Grab your foot with the hand of the same side, and gently pull it towards your hamstring. Quad Stretch
Groin Stretch - From a sitting position on the floor, bring the soles of both feet together. Proceed to slowly push your legs down towards the floor. Groin Stretch
Chest Stretch - Begin on the floor on your hands and knees, place one hand on the floor and the other arm on a swiss ball next to you, drop your body towards the floor until you feel a stretch. Chest Swiss Ball
Stretch
Lat Stretch - From a kneeling position, place both hands as far in front of you as possible, one on top of the other, with the bottom hand being faced palm up, and the top palm down. Then proceed to extend your arms away from you on the opposite side to the bottom hand, and sink your body towards the floor - hold when you feel the stretch. Lat Stretch
Bicep Stretch - Place your arms behind you, stretched as far as possible. Hold your hands together with your palms facing away from you. Hold when you feel a stretch. Bicep Stretch
Tricep Stretch - Place one arm over your head, bending your elbow, proceed to use your free arm to lightly push down on the elbow. Hold when you feel the stretch. Tricep Stretch
Shoulder Stretch - Place one arm across your body, using the other one to pull it in closer, hold when you feel a stretch. Shoulder Stretch
I think I've covered the whole body in those stretches, of course thats just a basic framework, feel free to add to it. As well as stretching, you can try to lengthen your muscles in other ways, such as using a cylindrical object, preferably something made of a strong, unflexible material. Try just placing your muscles on top of it and rolling them over it. For example, if you sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you, and place one calf on top of the cylinder, and the other on top of that leg, then just move your body forward/backward so the cylinder rolls over every part of your calf, and where it hurts the most, hold that position until you feel the pain begin to ease. This can be done in a plank position with the cylinder on your quads, a seated position with it on your hamstrings, or a side plank position with it on your IT band. Honestly doing those sort of exercises really does lengthen your muscles and improve your flexibility tenfold. Couple them with stretching and you'll see an immense difference. Flexibility is such a key factor when performing exercises with regard to helping you keep the right technique.
The last point that I'd like to make, is the point of using a full range of motion in your exercises. Too often I see people in the gym (mostly males) performing various exercises with a weight that is blatantly too heavy for them and therefore they perform about half of the actual rep. Take the bench press for example - Dropping the bar about an inch towards your chest is not a repetition, it is a waste of your time and will have no real effect. If you can't seem to push out a full rep, then its more than likely that the weight you're trying to lift is too heavy for you. In which case just drop the weight, there's no harm or shame in switching to a lower weight to make sure that you get full range of movement and therefore maximum benefits. Full range of movement is so so important when it comes to weightlifting, because you will progress rapidly if an exercise is done properly. The technique and execution are just as important as the monstrous weights that you're lifting, so think about that when you're next in the gym. As always any feedback is appreciated and welcomed - questions, suggestions etc. Either comment on this post or follow and tweet me @_bazinga_punk_ , thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
One thing that really does help correct posture and technique is definitely stretching, and stretching often. I'll try and list my favourite exercises and do my best to cover the whole body, I'll even post links alongside them to show images of their execution. The stretches that I'm about to list were shown to me by the same person that helps me with workouts, and if you've got twitter you can find him at @Greg87King ; so if the following exercises are useful to you, be sure to drop him a tweet and let him know how awesome he is.
Calf Stretch - From a standing position, place the ball of one foot upon a slightly raised surface/wall, being careful to keep the heel firmly planted on the floor, slowly lean forward into the stretch, hold when you feel it working. - Calf Stretch
Hamstring/IT Band Stretch - From a standing position, place one leg in front of you on a raised surface, keep your heel on the surface and point your toes towards the ceiling, also keep your back straight. When you feel the stretch in your hamstring, proceed to then rotate your foot inwards until you feel a stretch in your IT band (the outside of your upper thigh) - Standing Hamstring Stretch
Hip Flexor Stretch - From a kneeling position, place one foot out in front of your body, keep your hips square, and slowly push your body forward whilst slightly twisting your body, holding when you feel the stretch. - Hip Flexor Stretch
Quadricep Stretch - Whilst standing, bend your knee so one foot is behind you with the other planted on the floor. Grab your foot with the hand of the same side, and gently pull it towards your hamstring. Quad Stretch
Groin Stretch - From a sitting position on the floor, bring the soles of both feet together. Proceed to slowly push your legs down towards the floor. Groin Stretch
Chest Stretch - Begin on the floor on your hands and knees, place one hand on the floor and the other arm on a swiss ball next to you, drop your body towards the floor until you feel a stretch. Chest Swiss Ball
Stretch
Lat Stretch - From a kneeling position, place both hands as far in front of you as possible, one on top of the other, with the bottom hand being faced palm up, and the top palm down. Then proceed to extend your arms away from you on the opposite side to the bottom hand, and sink your body towards the floor - hold when you feel the stretch. Lat Stretch
Bicep Stretch - Place your arms behind you, stretched as far as possible. Hold your hands together with your palms facing away from you. Hold when you feel a stretch. Bicep Stretch
Tricep Stretch - Place one arm over your head, bending your elbow, proceed to use your free arm to lightly push down on the elbow. Hold when you feel the stretch. Tricep Stretch
Shoulder Stretch - Place one arm across your body, using the other one to pull it in closer, hold when you feel a stretch. Shoulder Stretch
I think I've covered the whole body in those stretches, of course thats just a basic framework, feel free to add to it. As well as stretching, you can try to lengthen your muscles in other ways, such as using a cylindrical object, preferably something made of a strong, unflexible material. Try just placing your muscles on top of it and rolling them over it. For example, if you sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you, and place one calf on top of the cylinder, and the other on top of that leg, then just move your body forward/backward so the cylinder rolls over every part of your calf, and where it hurts the most, hold that position until you feel the pain begin to ease. This can be done in a plank position with the cylinder on your quads, a seated position with it on your hamstrings, or a side plank position with it on your IT band. Honestly doing those sort of exercises really does lengthen your muscles and improve your flexibility tenfold. Couple them with stretching and you'll see an immense difference. Flexibility is such a key factor when performing exercises with regard to helping you keep the right technique.
The last point that I'd like to make, is the point of using a full range of motion in your exercises. Too often I see people in the gym (mostly males) performing various exercises with a weight that is blatantly too heavy for them and therefore they perform about half of the actual rep. Take the bench press for example - Dropping the bar about an inch towards your chest is not a repetition, it is a waste of your time and will have no real effect. If you can't seem to push out a full rep, then its more than likely that the weight you're trying to lift is too heavy for you. In which case just drop the weight, there's no harm or shame in switching to a lower weight to make sure that you get full range of movement and therefore maximum benefits. Full range of movement is so so important when it comes to weightlifting, because you will progress rapidly if an exercise is done properly. The technique and execution are just as important as the monstrous weights that you're lifting, so think about that when you're next in the gym. As always any feedback is appreciated and welcomed - questions, suggestions etc. Either comment on this post or follow and tweet me @_bazinga_punk_ , thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.
Killer Workout
Trying to keep this thing updated daily, hopefully if you readers can help me pull in some more viewers then I'll keep posting. So please, if you like what I'm writing and you're finding it useful - then comment on here or tweet me and let me know, it'd be much appreciated. I've decided yet again to share another workout with you all, one that I've already shared with a few friends who found it...challenging to say the least. Its definitely not a beginners one but I'll happily adapt a beginners version of it if people just let me know. Anyway, I tried a variant of this workout for a couple of months a while ago after being given it by a friend to take a swing at. Amazingly, all you need for this particular workout is a kettlebell (16kg is perfect) and two sets of dumbbells, one light (4-8kg) and one heavy (8-12kg). I found that after two months of doing this workout three times a week - I had become fitter, stronger, lost a lot of weight, toned my muscle up more and also I had become more flexible. You may have seen a variant of this workout elsewhere, but I've done my best to make it harder than the original and also thrown a core circuit in there for good measure. I'm also certain that anyone were to stick to this workout for 1-2 months, they would see a huge difference and so many positive results. As a side note, all of these exercises must be executed for a minute each as a circuit, the aim being to push out as many reps as possible in the 60 seconds, no stopping! I recommend that the circuit is completed 3 times aswell. So instead of rambling on about it, here it is -
Core Circuit -
Plank - Failure
Leg Raises to twists (Perform a leg raise, then whilst holding the exercise at the top, proceed to lift hips off floor, twist left, then into the centre, and finally twist right) - Failure
Swiss Ball Jackknifes (Press up position, placing feet on swiss ball. Keeping arms extended, retract legs, pulling the swiss ball forwards, return to original position) - Failure
Side Plank - Failure
Goblet Squats (Using Kettlebell)
Mountain Climbers (Beginning in press up position, then raising each leg into the body, simulating almost a running movement)
Kettlebell Swings
T Push Up ( Perform a push up with each hand holding a dumbbell, after the initial push up, explode upwards, raising one dumbbell in sweeping motion until your body is in a T shape, alternating sides after each push up - use the Lighter Dumbbells)
Jump Lunges (Holding Light Dumbbells)
Bent over T Raises (Assume a bent over position, knees slightly bent and pushing hips out whilst keeping your back straight, raise dumbbells outwards until your upper body is in a T position - use lighter dumbbells)
Side Lunges (Holding heavy dumbells)
Push Up Row (Assume push up position, perform push up, then proceed to row one dumbbell into your body, alternating sides after each push up - Use lighter dumbbells)
Kettlebell Deadlifts
Dumbbell bent over row ( Assume a bent over position, knees slightly bent and pushing hips out whilst keeping your back straight, row dumbbells up into your body - Use heavier dumbbells)
Lunge into twist (Hold one heavy dumbbell at chest height between both hands, perform a lunge, at full extension of the exercise, proceed to twist your body in the direction of your front leg, alternate sides with each lunge)
Front Squat into Shoulder press (Lighter Dumbbells)
So there's your twelve exercise circuit. I'd suggest treating the core circuit and the main circuit as completely separate, but still ensure to complete them 3 times each. No cheating either, It'd help if you took someone with you to stop you cheating when you hit the wall. If you manage to complete this circuit and the core circuit all 3 times, then you should seriously be immensely proud of yourself, if you find it easy, then be even more proud. Also, I'd recommend a 3-5 minute break between circuits depending on how 'pumped' you're feeling. Make sure you have a decent warm up and stretch thoroughly before you begin, and make sure you stretch properly when you're done as well - because if you don't, you'll find yourself in a fair amount of pain the next day. So anyone that reads this and decides to try the workout, good luck, and just remember to keep pushing through it, its not impossible. Also, any feedback on the workout would be greatly appreciated so as always you can either comment under this post, or follow and tweet me @_bazinga_punk_ - and lets spread the word about this blog. I'll be mentioning any feedback I have within the blog and on twitter too. So throw all of your questions and thoughts towards the blog my way in one of the two ways I've suggested. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
Core Circuit -
Plank - Failure
Leg Raises to twists (Perform a leg raise, then whilst holding the exercise at the top, proceed to lift hips off floor, twist left, then into the centre, and finally twist right) - Failure
Swiss Ball Jackknifes (Press up position, placing feet on swiss ball. Keeping arms extended, retract legs, pulling the swiss ball forwards, return to original position) - Failure
Side Plank - Failure
Goblet Squats (Using Kettlebell)
Mountain Climbers (Beginning in press up position, then raising each leg into the body, simulating almost a running movement)
Kettlebell Swings
T Push Up ( Perform a push up with each hand holding a dumbbell, after the initial push up, explode upwards, raising one dumbbell in sweeping motion until your body is in a T shape, alternating sides after each push up - use the Lighter Dumbbells)
Jump Lunges (Holding Light Dumbbells)
Bent over T Raises (Assume a bent over position, knees slightly bent and pushing hips out whilst keeping your back straight, raise dumbbells outwards until your upper body is in a T position - use lighter dumbbells)
Side Lunges (Holding heavy dumbells)
Push Up Row (Assume push up position, perform push up, then proceed to row one dumbbell into your body, alternating sides after each push up - Use lighter dumbbells)
Kettlebell Deadlifts
Dumbbell bent over row ( Assume a bent over position, knees slightly bent and pushing hips out whilst keeping your back straight, row dumbbells up into your body - Use heavier dumbbells)
Lunge into twist (Hold one heavy dumbbell at chest height between both hands, perform a lunge, at full extension of the exercise, proceed to twist your body in the direction of your front leg, alternate sides with each lunge)
Front Squat into Shoulder press (Lighter Dumbbells)
So there's your twelve exercise circuit. I'd suggest treating the core circuit and the main circuit as completely separate, but still ensure to complete them 3 times each. No cheating either, It'd help if you took someone with you to stop you cheating when you hit the wall. If you manage to complete this circuit and the core circuit all 3 times, then you should seriously be immensely proud of yourself, if you find it easy, then be even more proud. Also, I'd recommend a 3-5 minute break between circuits depending on how 'pumped' you're feeling. Make sure you have a decent warm up and stretch thoroughly before you begin, and make sure you stretch properly when you're done as well - because if you don't, you'll find yourself in a fair amount of pain the next day. So anyone that reads this and decides to try the workout, good luck, and just remember to keep pushing through it, its not impossible. Also, any feedback on the workout would be greatly appreciated so as always you can either comment under this post, or follow and tweet me @_bazinga_punk_ - and lets spread the word about this blog. I'll be mentioning any feedback I have within the blog and on twitter too. So throw all of your questions and thoughts towards the blog my way in one of the two ways I've suggested. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
Wednesday 5 September 2012
For all of you muscle gain lovers out there!
Thought I'd keep this rolling thanks to the moderate interest in what I've been writing and the positive feedback. Also I just wanted to put the thought out there that I'm open to suggestions on what topics to write on and happy to answer people's questions on anything to do with fitness, weight loss, muscle gain, nutrition, supplements etc. The last two posts that I've come out with have focused largely on the topics of weight loss and nutrition to that effect. So in the interest of covering all bases, I thought I'd share some of the knowledge that I have when it comes to muscle gain. First of all, if you believe the stories of people putting on a stone of muscle in a matter of weeks, you're being fooled. I doubt that even an aggressive course of steroids could achieve that kind of muscle gain. Gaining that muscle weight is hard, and don't let anyone tell you different. It takes a lot of time and effort, and to achieve the best results, you can't just rely on a workout. You have to change up your lifestyle, what you're eating and drinking, your supplement choices, and your mindset. You have to be willing to accept that gains take time and that you can't just give up after a few weeks because you're not seeing the results that you wanted.
So I'll start with the workouts. I went through a phase of trying to put on muscle (A pretty stupid idea seeing as I still had a long way to go with weight loss, and I wouldn't really get much definition). Regardless of that, it definitely worked, people apart from myself even started to see a difference and that's how I feel that my method to this is some valuable information to share. With regard to my workouts, I started looking up big compound exercises, and researched some workouts that others had used, then I kind of just mix and matched them. From Terry Crews, to Arnie, to the Hodge Twins (Look them up on Youtube, they are honestly the most straight talking, useful source on muscle gain) I really did put in the hours to find out what formula could work for me. I split my week's training into 4 separate days, with another 1 consisting of cardio. Each day I'd target a different muscle group. I'd separated them up into Back and Arms, Chest and Arms, Legs and shoulders, and core. I decided not to opt for the generic 'chest and tris' and 'back and bis' because I felt that I could get more results out of just doing isolation exercises on my triceps and biceps on any given day. I'll list the workouts by day below this paragraph. I found that it was better to split all of these groups up as it ensured that I didn't over train. I aimed to work out and absolutely annihilate the target muscles in the space of 45 minutes, which I found to be more than enough time to do so. One of my pet hates are people that spend 3+ hours in the gym and think that they're getting amazing gains out of it, and I just want to scream at them "YOU'RE OVERTRAINING!!!". Over training is the worst thing that you could possibly do in the gym alongside getting your posture wrong. It is so so detrimental to your muscles, because after you've drained all of your energy reserves you start to pull the energy to go on from your muscles, and actually begin to burn it. So please, don't tire yourself out and ruin your training due to being ill informed. Anyway, on to the breakdown of the workouts.
Back and Arms -
Clean and Press - 4 Sets
Lat Pulldown - 4 sets
Hammer strength row - 4 sets
Barbell Row - 3 -4 Sets
Dumbell Pullovers - 4 Sets
Tricep Dips - 4 Sets
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl Bar) - 4 Sets
Chest and Arms -
Bench press - 3 sets
Wide grip bench press - 2 sets
Guillotine Press - 2 sets
Press ups (Hands on med balls) - 4 sets
Tricep Pulldown (Cables) - 4 sets
Hammer Curls (Dumbbells) 4 Sets
Legs and Shoulders -
Squats (Barbell) - 4 sets
Deadlifts - 4 sets
Military Press - 4 sets
Shoulder press (Dumbbells) - 4 sets
Calf Raises - 4 sets
Front raises - 4 sets
Core -
Plank
Deadbugs (Lay on your back, bring arms up above you, retract legs into a bent position, lower arms and legs simultaneously)
Resistance Twists (Cables)
Killer Twists (Med Balls)
Weighted swiss ball crunches
Mountain climbers
Inverted sit ups (weighted)
Side plank
Also, when doing a heavy day; I find it best to do all exercises to failure, until you literally cannot push out that last rep. Of course in the interest of safety you'll obviously need a spotter in some exercises, whether its someone who accompanies you, or a random good Samaritan from your gym. Now onto nutrition, its important when looking to gain muscle that you engage in a high protein diet, the best natural sources of protein can come from nuts, eggs, tuna, chicken and other meats.
I separate chicken from other meats as its probably the leanest and best source of protein in my opinion, plus its damn tasty. Also, look to buy some protein shakes for building muscle, but also for recovery - after trying a few different brands I found that Maximuscle's own Promax worked best for recovery and building as it has a high concentration of glutamine within it. If you're interested in buying supplements, I have a friend who runs a small supplement business - from creatine, to protein, to fat burners - he's got it all. He's also a PT and is great with nutritional and exercise advice and what not. He's on twitter and his tag is @Lingard_ ; if you do decide to buy from him; tell him that I sent you please. Also, creatine can help with muscle growth but be careful and cautious whilst using it as excessive consumption can be detrimental to your kidneys - and you kinda need those! Well, you could survive with one...but nobody wants to be short of a kidney! On that note, I shall bid you farewell for now! More posts coming very soon!
Remember, if you have any questions or suggestions for topics on this blog, or any feedback at all, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ .
Keep testing the limits!
Alex
So I'll start with the workouts. I went through a phase of trying to put on muscle (A pretty stupid idea seeing as I still had a long way to go with weight loss, and I wouldn't really get much definition). Regardless of that, it definitely worked, people apart from myself even started to see a difference and that's how I feel that my method to this is some valuable information to share. With regard to my workouts, I started looking up big compound exercises, and researched some workouts that others had used, then I kind of just mix and matched them. From Terry Crews, to Arnie, to the Hodge Twins (Look them up on Youtube, they are honestly the most straight talking, useful source on muscle gain) I really did put in the hours to find out what formula could work for me. I split my week's training into 4 separate days, with another 1 consisting of cardio. Each day I'd target a different muscle group. I'd separated them up into Back and Arms, Chest and Arms, Legs and shoulders, and core. I decided not to opt for the generic 'chest and tris' and 'back and bis' because I felt that I could get more results out of just doing isolation exercises on my triceps and biceps on any given day. I'll list the workouts by day below this paragraph. I found that it was better to split all of these groups up as it ensured that I didn't over train. I aimed to work out and absolutely annihilate the target muscles in the space of 45 minutes, which I found to be more than enough time to do so. One of my pet hates are people that spend 3+ hours in the gym and think that they're getting amazing gains out of it, and I just want to scream at them "YOU'RE OVERTRAINING!!!". Over training is the worst thing that you could possibly do in the gym alongside getting your posture wrong. It is so so detrimental to your muscles, because after you've drained all of your energy reserves you start to pull the energy to go on from your muscles, and actually begin to burn it. So please, don't tire yourself out and ruin your training due to being ill informed. Anyway, on to the breakdown of the workouts.
Back and Arms -
Clean and Press - 4 Sets
Lat Pulldown - 4 sets
Hammer strength row - 4 sets
Barbell Row - 3 -4 Sets
Dumbell Pullovers - 4 Sets
Tricep Dips - 4 Sets
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl Bar) - 4 Sets
Chest and Arms -
Bench press - 3 sets
Wide grip bench press - 2 sets
Guillotine Press - 2 sets
Press ups (Hands on med balls) - 4 sets
Tricep Pulldown (Cables) - 4 sets
Hammer Curls (Dumbbells) 4 Sets
Legs and Shoulders -
Squats (Barbell) - 4 sets
Deadlifts - 4 sets
Military Press - 4 sets
Shoulder press (Dumbbells) - 4 sets
Calf Raises - 4 sets
Front raises - 4 sets
Core -
Plank
Deadbugs (Lay on your back, bring arms up above you, retract legs into a bent position, lower arms and legs simultaneously)
Resistance Twists (Cables)
Killer Twists (Med Balls)
Weighted swiss ball crunches
Mountain climbers
Inverted sit ups (weighted)
Side plank
Also, when doing a heavy day; I find it best to do all exercises to failure, until you literally cannot push out that last rep. Of course in the interest of safety you'll obviously need a spotter in some exercises, whether its someone who accompanies you, or a random good Samaritan from your gym. Now onto nutrition, its important when looking to gain muscle that you engage in a high protein diet, the best natural sources of protein can come from nuts, eggs, tuna, chicken and other meats.
I separate chicken from other meats as its probably the leanest and best source of protein in my opinion, plus its damn tasty. Also, look to buy some protein shakes for building muscle, but also for recovery - after trying a few different brands I found that Maximuscle's own Promax worked best for recovery and building as it has a high concentration of glutamine within it. If you're interested in buying supplements, I have a friend who runs a small supplement business - from creatine, to protein, to fat burners - he's got it all. He's also a PT and is great with nutritional and exercise advice and what not. He's on twitter and his tag is @Lingard_ ; if you do decide to buy from him; tell him that I sent you please. Also, creatine can help with muscle growth but be careful and cautious whilst using it as excessive consumption can be detrimental to your kidneys - and you kinda need those! Well, you could survive with one...but nobody wants to be short of a kidney! On that note, I shall bid you farewell for now! More posts coming very soon!
Remember, if you have any questions or suggestions for topics on this blog, or any feedback at all, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ .
Keep testing the limits!
Alex
Tuesday 4 September 2012
New Workout/ Intermittent Fasting
In the spirit of keeping things moving ahead, I thought I'd share my first day of training after creating this blog. I've been experimenting lately with the topic of intermittent fasting - for those who aren't familiar with it, the premise of intermittent fasting is to in essence starve yourself for one or two days a week; its a technique used by some bodybuilders, and slated by others. Feel free to look it up in your own time, I mean as well as weight loss benefits, its been shown to generally improve someones health and immune system. After researching it, I opted not to starve myself for a day, but to restrict my calories to 600 per fasting day due to the intensity of the training that I do. The first week that I tried this, as well as cleaning up my eating and exercising regularly, I lost 5.5 pounds, and managed to lose further weight the next week, so to me - this actually seems to have worked! I also felt more energetic and generally healthier.
So today has been a fasting day for me, they're getting less and less difficult for me the more that I do of them. I usually wouldn't train whilst fasting but various reasons have meant that training has fallen on an IF day. Thankfully it didn't affect my ability to work out as I got my exercise out of the way earlier in the day. A godsend for me whilst partaking in IF has been the discovery of several 300kcal meal recipes, most of these tend to be filling, tasty and overall a winning formula whilst restricting your calorie intake. I'll do my best to post links for these in the near future. With regard to what I've eaten/drank today; here's the very minute list -
Home made fruit salad - 250g - 100 calories
Black Coffee
300kcal Beef Stew
Baked Potato - 134 kcal
Water - 5 pints
So as you can see from the list, I've fallen just short of the 600 mark, but anything between 500 and 600 calories is perfectly fine for me, and I tend to drink a hell of a lot more water when fasting, it helps to simulate the feeling of being full. I also took one Warrior blaze capsule upon waking, they definitely help when it comes to finding that extra energy whilst working out. Now, on to the workout. I live around 7 kilometers, give or take a few hundred meters from my gym, so instead of wasting money catching a bus, I find it easier to cycle there. This way I burn a fair amount of calories, get a decent warm up/cool down, and overall keep my fitness up. I managed to complete the 7 K's today in just over 18 minutes, and managed to keep an average speed of just over 23kph - which to me is a fair effort on a mountain bike.
I also had the opportunity to start a new workout today, again given to me by the same gym instructor that I mentioned in the introduction post. For those of you who have twitter, his account is @Greg87King . He is quite easily the best PT that I have come across, he knows his shit and he's always coming up with decent exercises of his own. The workout that he planned out for me today isn't by any means a long workout, but damn its the most challenging that I've yet to face. It consisted of a core circuit of 3 exercises, 12 reps on each, 2 sets of each. After the core circuit it then branched out into two separate circuits, both containing four exercises each, again with 12 reps, and again with 2 sets, with the option to add other sets after progress has been made by myself on the workout. Overall, it targeted the whole body, with emphasis on core and stability. The exercises and my best descriptions of them are as follows (Feel free to research the exercises yourselves as my descriptions might not mean anything to some.
Core Circuit -
Swiss Ball Nudges (Kneeling, placing forearms on swiss ball, then being careful to engage core, keeping back straight, rolling ball forwards onto elbows)
Swiss ball crunches with cables - (Using cable machines to add extra resistance to crunches on a swiss ball, holding the cables behind your head and raising core upwards.
Side planks with side raises - Whilst in a side plank position, using resistance bands to perform side raises with free arm.
Circuit 1 -
TRX Inverted Row (Attach TRX straps to wall fitting, facing the wall, place heels against it, lean back, and row towards wall.
Medicine ball press up - (Using two medicine balls and a bosu ball. Turn Bosu ball upside down and place both feet on it, place one hand on each medicine ball, and perform a press up movement. Can also be done without Bosu ball)
Kettlebell Swings - (Speaks for itself really, be careful to note correct posture and movement for this however)
Dumbbell front squat into shoulder press - (Again speaks for itself)
Circuit 2 -
TRX Press - (Facing away from wall, place heels against it. Lean forward, and perform a press up motion)
Kettlebell Deadlift - (Speaks for itself, research technique)
Floor Row - (In press up position, wide stance, one dumbbell in each hand. Engage core, row dumbbells up into body one at a time, alternating with each repetition).
Single leg squat - (Find something to help balance, but not take your weight. Remove one foot from floor, proceed with squat movement.
So as you can see with what I've written out there, the workout is not long, but it does focus on stability as well as strength. Now I realise that this may not fit people's goals, but I usually try to fit a heavy day into my weeks training dedicated to weight lifting and strength drills. I will also share that workout in a post on Friday. With all the exercises that I've listed above, I'd advise beginners or people not familiar with the exercises to either research the correct posture and movement associated with them, or even ask one of the instructors in your gym, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help. With most exercises its important to have the right posture and movement or else you're just gonna snap your shit up. Hope everything I've shared with you today is useful in some way or another.
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
So today has been a fasting day for me, they're getting less and less difficult for me the more that I do of them. I usually wouldn't train whilst fasting but various reasons have meant that training has fallen on an IF day. Thankfully it didn't affect my ability to work out as I got my exercise out of the way earlier in the day. A godsend for me whilst partaking in IF has been the discovery of several 300kcal meal recipes, most of these tend to be filling, tasty and overall a winning formula whilst restricting your calorie intake. I'll do my best to post links for these in the near future. With regard to what I've eaten/drank today; here's the very minute list -
Home made fruit salad - 250g - 100 calories
Black Coffee
300kcal Beef Stew
Baked Potato - 134 kcal
Water - 5 pints
So as you can see from the list, I've fallen just short of the 600 mark, but anything between 500 and 600 calories is perfectly fine for me, and I tend to drink a hell of a lot more water when fasting, it helps to simulate the feeling of being full. I also took one Warrior blaze capsule upon waking, they definitely help when it comes to finding that extra energy whilst working out. Now, on to the workout. I live around 7 kilometers, give or take a few hundred meters from my gym, so instead of wasting money catching a bus, I find it easier to cycle there. This way I burn a fair amount of calories, get a decent warm up/cool down, and overall keep my fitness up. I managed to complete the 7 K's today in just over 18 minutes, and managed to keep an average speed of just over 23kph - which to me is a fair effort on a mountain bike.
I also had the opportunity to start a new workout today, again given to me by the same gym instructor that I mentioned in the introduction post. For those of you who have twitter, his account is @Greg87King . He is quite easily the best PT that I have come across, he knows his shit and he's always coming up with decent exercises of his own. The workout that he planned out for me today isn't by any means a long workout, but damn its the most challenging that I've yet to face. It consisted of a core circuit of 3 exercises, 12 reps on each, 2 sets of each. After the core circuit it then branched out into two separate circuits, both containing four exercises each, again with 12 reps, and again with 2 sets, with the option to add other sets after progress has been made by myself on the workout. Overall, it targeted the whole body, with emphasis on core and stability. The exercises and my best descriptions of them are as follows (Feel free to research the exercises yourselves as my descriptions might not mean anything to some.
Core Circuit -
Swiss Ball Nudges (Kneeling, placing forearms on swiss ball, then being careful to engage core, keeping back straight, rolling ball forwards onto elbows)
Swiss ball crunches with cables - (Using cable machines to add extra resistance to crunches on a swiss ball, holding the cables behind your head and raising core upwards.
Side planks with side raises - Whilst in a side plank position, using resistance bands to perform side raises with free arm.
Circuit 1 -
TRX Inverted Row (Attach TRX straps to wall fitting, facing the wall, place heels against it, lean back, and row towards wall.
Medicine ball press up - (Using two medicine balls and a bosu ball. Turn Bosu ball upside down and place both feet on it, place one hand on each medicine ball, and perform a press up movement. Can also be done without Bosu ball)
Kettlebell Swings - (Speaks for itself really, be careful to note correct posture and movement for this however)
Dumbbell front squat into shoulder press - (Again speaks for itself)
Circuit 2 -
TRX Press - (Facing away from wall, place heels against it. Lean forward, and perform a press up motion)
Kettlebell Deadlift - (Speaks for itself, research technique)
Floor Row - (In press up position, wide stance, one dumbbell in each hand. Engage core, row dumbbells up into body one at a time, alternating with each repetition).
Single leg squat - (Find something to help balance, but not take your weight. Remove one foot from floor, proceed with squat movement.
So as you can see with what I've written out there, the workout is not long, but it does focus on stability as well as strength. Now I realise that this may not fit people's goals, but I usually try to fit a heavy day into my weeks training dedicated to weight lifting and strength drills. I will also share that workout in a post on Friday. With all the exercises that I've listed above, I'd advise beginners or people not familiar with the exercises to either research the correct posture and movement associated with them, or even ask one of the instructors in your gym, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help. With most exercises its important to have the right posture and movement or else you're just gonna snap your shit up. Hope everything I've shared with you today is useful in some way or another.
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
Monday 3 September 2012
Introduction
Hey everyone, I'm Alex; If you're looking for a blog thats no bullshit, honest advice and opinions on fitness regimes, nutrition, training supplements,weight training and ultimately weight loss then you're at the right place. Right now I've started in my mission to obtain a better body, to transform an overweight and lacking body into a temple. I'll be posting different stats from my training every week, including personal bests, weight loss, key exercises and nutritional information. This blog isn't just a progress blog, its me trying to help others and pass on the great advice that I get from all sorts of sources. I usually try and fit in three days per week for a full body workout, the nature of these workouts right now are to burn fat and preserve muscle. Other days in the week I try to fit in some form of cardio, mostly cycling usually due to it being such low impact, with the odd day of running.
Right now I'm relying on the workouts being created by a trainer from the gym that I go to as I've always found them to be both challenging and highly rewarding in their results. When the season is in progress I also play hockey, and am looking to start something like boxing in the near future - looking to keep high intensity sport on the cards. Each week I'll be sharing my workouts in this blog, including cardio with stats and rep information. I'll also be sharing my nutritional information and any supplements that I'm currently taking with some honest opinions on them and hopefully you all find them useful to an extent. Most of my inspiration and ideas come from Fitness Made EZ - whom you can find on Facebook and Twitter; and also the Hodge twins, who are also known as TwinMuscleWorkout, you can find them on Youtube and Facebook.
With regard to my physique, I've never been blessed with a slim figure, though it has improved over the last two years with regular training. However now is the time that I'm vowing to push myself further and achieve the six pack abs that I've always dreamed of having. Hopefully there are many others in my current situation that empathise and are also interested in improving their physique and getting fit and healthy. I'd welcome any tips and knowledge that others have to offer aswell. After all, sound knowledge and information are the key to any successful regime. If you've got anything to share with me then please follow me and message me on twitter at @_Bazinga_Punk_ - all advice is welcome. Anyway, here are a few stats to give you an idea of what I'm working with at the moment, and what I'd like those stats to become.
Height - 5ft 11'
Weight - 102.3 kg ( 16 stone)
Weight lifting stats -
Bench press weight - 75-80kg depending on number of reps.
Squat (Barbell) - 120-130kg depending on number of reps
Deadlift - 70-80kg
Shoulder press - 35-45kg
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl bar) - 25-30kg
Cardio Stats -
Average Cycling speed - 20-25kph
Average running speed - 6-8mph
As you can see there's a lot of room for improvement, especially on the cardio front, so I'll be doing my best in the coming weeks to beat personal bests and push myself further. Supplements that I'm taking at the moment are Warrior Blaze, which I take daily, and Promax, which is less frequent but still at least one shake a week to replenish protein and glutamine reserves in my body.
I'll be updating this blog as frequently as I possibly can, and I hope you find it useful. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
Right now I'm relying on the workouts being created by a trainer from the gym that I go to as I've always found them to be both challenging and highly rewarding in their results. When the season is in progress I also play hockey, and am looking to start something like boxing in the near future - looking to keep high intensity sport on the cards. Each week I'll be sharing my workouts in this blog, including cardio with stats and rep information. I'll also be sharing my nutritional information and any supplements that I'm currently taking with some honest opinions on them and hopefully you all find them useful to an extent. Most of my inspiration and ideas come from Fitness Made EZ - whom you can find on Facebook and Twitter; and also the Hodge twins, who are also known as TwinMuscleWorkout, you can find them on Youtube and Facebook.
With regard to my physique, I've never been blessed with a slim figure, though it has improved over the last two years with regular training. However now is the time that I'm vowing to push myself further and achieve the six pack abs that I've always dreamed of having. Hopefully there are many others in my current situation that empathise and are also interested in improving their physique and getting fit and healthy. I'd welcome any tips and knowledge that others have to offer aswell. After all, sound knowledge and information are the key to any successful regime. If you've got anything to share with me then please follow me and message me on twitter at @_Bazinga_Punk_ - all advice is welcome. Anyway, here are a few stats to give you an idea of what I'm working with at the moment, and what I'd like those stats to become.
Height - 5ft 11'
Weight - 102.3 kg ( 16 stone)
Weight lifting stats -
Bench press weight - 75-80kg depending on number of reps.
Squat (Barbell) - 120-130kg depending on number of reps
Deadlift - 70-80kg
Shoulder press - 35-45kg
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl bar) - 25-30kg
Cardio Stats -
Average Cycling speed - 20-25kph
Average running speed - 6-8mph
As you can see there's a lot of room for improvement, especially on the cardio front, so I'll be doing my best in the coming weeks to beat personal bests and push myself further. Supplements that I'm taking at the moment are Warrior Blaze, which I take daily, and Promax, which is less frequent but still at least one shake a week to replenish protein and glutamine reserves in my body.
I'll be updating this blog as frequently as I possibly can, and I hope you find it useful. Thanks for reading!
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
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