Pete's workout's

Wed 7 Oct 09

New warm-up!
I have just finished the book "Never let go" by Dan John (mini-review: Good training, bad dietary ideas), as usual I picked up a few new ideas. In one chapter he talks about a warm-up he got from Alwyn Cosgrove (a Scottish trainer based in the US who swears a lot & has a few interesting ideas ). Most people usually warm-up on the treadmill, stationary bike, slow rope jumps, bootcamp style bodyweight exercises (jumping jacks, push-ups etc), or similar, but he suggests why not do light weights circuit focussed on form. That way you'll be practising moves you want to improve on without cutting into recovery.
I'd never thought of that before, so I went ahead & designed my own variation, my rules were pretty simple one explosive type move, a squat type move (I included 2), a push & pull both vertical & horizontal, I also included a goodmorning. So the warm-up looked like:

All done in circuit style 4 rounds of 5 reps of each.

Hang Power snatch
Overhead squat
Back squat
Goodmorning
Shoulder press
bent over row
Pull-up
Push-up

as I said this is a warm-up so the weight should be light. Give yourself 60 secs between circuits, but no rest between exercises, one should flow into the next. Focus is on form & you should be sweating by the end, but not physically tired. Most males of who've been training for strength for a while will find 30-40Kg easy enough on the bar for a circuit, most females (who usually have less upper body strength) might want to start with an empty bar, but start lighter (whatever your sex) if you need to - even a piece of PVC pipe or broom handle may be enough for you as it's form that you want to work on during this weight is unimportant -


I found this more fun than my usual warm-up & only took as long as a traditional warm-up, I'll be using it the next few months.

Workout

Neg Squat 1x 1 doubled blue band x 6 2x8 I do this to an adjustable squat stool set at parallel. I use a safety squat bar, so my hands are free & I can aid the lift with my hands on the way up. The first set is with an empty bar & the band wrapped between my legs, so I need to abduct hard to keep the knees apart. The other sets done without the band.

90° Good morning 3x6 Again using safety squat bar (super comfey & no roll!)

Shrugbar Deadlift (hook grip) 3x6 Still practising the hook grip, it's getting easier as time goes on

Weighted 75° hyper extensions 3x12

T-bar row 3x6

T-bar Kelso shrug 3x10

Neural grip pull-up 10x2 Didn't have much pulling left could only manage sets of 2, so did 10 sets to finish.[center]

I've decided to clean out my cupboards a bit, so I'm using up a lot of supplements I've had lying about, so for the next month or so I'll be taking for pre-training:

BCAA's
L-glutamine
Citulline malate
L-lysine
L-histidine
L-carnitine
CEE
β-alanine

I had a thought (revelation you might say) about the use of L-arginine producing amino acids (like taking L-arginine itself or citrulline malate). L-lysine works as an antagonist to the negative effects of L-arginine for those of us who suffer from cold sores, so why take any of them without L-lysine? Infact as arginine alone appears to suppress the immune system enough to get a cold sore, then surely any athlete taking an L-arginine increasing amino acid would consider L-lysine a vital add on to counter any immune system reduction? I'm not sure of the science behind the above statement, I've not seen any research, but it does make a kind of logic - enough that I think I'm going to start recommending that L-lysine be taken with any L-arginine increasing product, just to be safe (& it'll certainly do no harm as L-lysine doesn't affect the ability of l-arginine to do it's stuff in the body).

Thurs 8 Oct 09

Barbell bench press 2x6, 1x1, 1x6

resistance band scapula push-up 4x10 (hard as wrist a bit painful - hopefully not tendinitis)

High pull 3x6

Barbell Shoulder press 2x6, 1x1, 1x6

Barbell roll-out on knees 3x5 New one - felt I'd gone as far as I wanted for now on side bends, so brought in this one. You do it like you you do with those ab wheels, but the extra weight really makes a difference in the resistance. It looks like this video, but I started with two 10Kg plates & will work up in weight on the bar & reps Click here to view video of some guy doing it

L-flye 2x10 up in weight, down in reps. I'm using double progression on this move, so it'll be up in reps the next few weeks

That's it...

Bit late getting these next few up as been ultra-busy...so here we go:

Sun 11 Oct 09

Pilates (around 30 mins)

Jog 42:07 pretty slow

Mon 1 Oct 09

BB parallel squat 4x6
Supersetted with
Stiff arm pullover 4x 18

From the bottom squat 2x8
Supersetted with
Stiff arm pullover 2x18

Squat lockout 3x6 (each rep held for 5 secs)

Seated calf raise 3x10

Leg curl 3x12

Neck harness 2x12 (front & back

Side neck 2x12

Barbell grip for time 1xmax

Tues 13 Oct 09

Dips 1x12, 2x8

Dip shrugs 3x10 1xmax (bodyweight)

High pull 3x6

BB shoulder press 2x6 1x0 1x0 1x0 1x1 (went up - maybe a little too much )

Was going to do abs & some rotator stuff, but had to do an interview with a girl from Lush Cosmetics about them donating all the profits from a bath bar to the Hunt Saboteurs association (support them, go & buy the bar - checkout here to buy online)

Wed 14 Oct 09

Just a quick jog this morning for 41:25

Thurs 15 Oct 09

Hmm, today & tomorrow ultra-busy. Dropped in some pull-ups & some strand pulling, couple of 15 minute sessions during the day & evening, not a lot, but just keeping things ticking over for a few days...

26 Oct 09

Haven't had time to update for a bit been mega-busy.
I've been developing tendinitis in the right wrist over the last week I been chatting with a guy who trains a lot of tennis players & he suggested I use wrist wraps until the problem goes away then work hard at some wrist strengthening moves. It's so annoying getting stuff like this, but we all go through it. I got my wrist wraps from the Vegan sports shop which is worth checking out if you haven't. As a side note I bought this pair
Anyway, I started yesterday on a new cycle I'm adding in a version of fst-7 mixed with some extreme stretches for the quads, so in theory if my myo-fascial sheath needs stretching that should do it (both these systems claim to help expand the sheath surrounding the muscle, the theory being that as the sheath expands the muscle them finds it much easier to expand into the bigger 'container' ). Once the wrist clears up I'll be giving it a go on the arms as well, as my limbs are lagging a bit, so it'll be hypertrophy focussed leg routine for a few weeks:

Anyway the latest workout was yesterday:

AM

jog 18:20 (running with a newbie, so quite short)

25 minutes Yoga

25 minutes abs

PM

Partial Deadlift 3x6 9from just above the knee)

Parallel back squat 4x6
supersetted with
stiff arm pullover 4x10

Squat from the bottom 2x8
supersetted with
stiff arm pullover 2x10 (had to swap to using a tri-bar as tendinitis playing up, from now on I'll be doing it with that)

Band squat 1x10, 2x12, 4x10 (this is the FST-7 7 sets of 10-12 reps done with 30-60 secs rest between each set - tough!)

Extreme quad stretch

rest for a couple of minutes

Standing calf raise 3x10
supersetted with
Guillotine grip machine 3x10

then had to rush off for a roast dinner round a mates

Had really bad either food poisoning or stomach bug didn't eat or drink for a few days at all (couldn't, which for me is REALLY bad).
Both strength & size are down as still not up to reasonable eating. Going to focus on intensity, rather than weight lifted for a week or so, not worry what's on the bar as it'll just cause distress (as it'll be well low). If I have the stamina, I might train slightly longer duration for a while just to get some pump & non-contractile tissue growth..we'll have to see how things go, this illness has knocked me back bit, but I'm fighting back!

Thurs 28 Jan 2010

Haven't updated my training log for a while.
Got a new kettlebell & med ball today.
Med ball is going to have to wait until it's warm enough to go out & train outside, but the KB has been played with in a haphazard fashion. Swings are pretty easy to get a basic hang of (you can tend to dip the legs too much, but having seen Dan John's KB DVD a few weeks ago I think I got the form reasonable for a first go. 16Kg is too light for most of us guys I think. One arm it may be ok for repping out, but 2 hand I think a 20/24+ would be one you'll be using within a few months I suspect for that. I have tried a clean & snatch, but felt I'd like to wait for the 12Kg KB to arrive before I really had a good go at those as I'm not that confident of the form quite yet & a 12 will be light enough that any mistakes won't hurt so much I haven't tried flips, or any of those letting go type moves indoor as I know me & it's really not worth it until I suss out how to do it properly (imagine a kettlebell sailing away into the distance - now imagine a computer , CD player, or anything delicate & belonging to your partner right under the landing spot - that'd be me doing that!).
I think that's about it for this update I came, I played & then I probably played again a bit later today as well

Anyway thought while I was here I'd do a quick update on what I'm doing right now.

Sat 27 Feb '10

Had quite a few weeks of pretty much all kettlebells, learning form etc. I'm up to 20Kg quicker than expected. Need to buy a few heavier KB's (think I'll buy 2 or 3 more that should cover me for a few months at least, a 24, a 28 & a 32).

My girlfriend actually felt well enough to do something with me the other day (she's got fibromyalgia, so it tired quite a bit of the time these days ) . So we did a modified session of some KB's & some box step ups & plyo/jumping stuff she wanted to do, as well as some handstand/headstand stuff. Was a great day (she did suffer for days afterwards mind you!).
Today I'm lacking a bit of motivation so maybe do some full body stuff try & get the old blood pumping!
Next week I'm back on a barbell based cycle with some Kettlebells thrown in to keep improving form.

Yesterday I got a 24Kg & 32Kg & today a 28Kg kettlebells. Had to help move house for a friend yesterday, so not had chance to test them out yet. I think the 32 will be good for a swing for now (although I will give cleaning a go today). Lifting them, they should keep me going for a while.
Me & Coach Gary were & we are both just starting on KB's so we decided on a little challenge (not sure if I mentioned this before, but I don't think so). We'll both be heading towards the goal of doing this complex with the 32Kg kettlebell (I'll start this with the right hand, but you can start with whichever hand you like):

Lift with a right hand clean & strict press ('strict' will mean in this case no side lean in the press & feet at about shoulder width - no push pressing, side pressing or jerks)

Then without a break lower the bell back to the rack ('the rack' in kettlebell terminology is holding the bell at chest height-yes it makes things confusing I know) & go straight into a right leg pistol holding the KB (pistol is a one leg squat)

then attach the bell to you via a dip belt & do a tactical pull-up (no thumbs)

repeat using the left arm & leg, same pull-up.

Kind of like a modified 'beast challenge' (which is using a 48Kg kettlebell - beyond me at the moment). But a 32Kg seems doable with a bit of practice I believe.

Here's a look at the 'beast challenge' so you get an idea of our contest using the 32Kg bell (remember the real 'beast challenge' is 48Kg!)