iamshendy

An in this month’s Men’s Health magazine was talking about lifting heavy weights to increase fat loss. While I was searching for that article, I came across this article from Men’s Health that echoes my thoughts on workouts. The biggest things that hit home for me in this article are how I’d summarize my workouts:

Keep it random

Random exercises, random muscle groups, random routine. From what I’ve seen of the CrossFit workouts, this seems to be a key to their success. Max weights with little reps, max reps with little weight, endurance exercises, long cardio sessions, short interval cardio sessions, cardio sessions mixed with intense lifting, cardio sessions mixed with endurance exercises, you get the idea. By keeping it random, you’re keeping your body on edge. You’re still allowing appropriate recovery time, but your body does not build up a resistance to that same flat bench press all the time. I find you are less likely to see that plateau.

Power lift for fat loss, and cardio increase

Power lifts (which I also call olympic lifts) are the old school lifts that typically incorporate a lof different muscle groups in one lift. Exercises like squats, dead lifts, power cleans, thrusters are just some that you can do that will actual expand your lung capacity. You can tell because your lungs are practically bleeding when you’ve finished.

For my money – power lifts are the most fun you can have at the gym. There’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you get while doing shoulder thrusters with a 175lb barbell over your head. They also come in handy when you just can’t get that barbell back on the rack.

Use intervals

I’ve spoke to the benefits of interval training before. Either specifically to cardio, lifting, or to your workout as a whole – mixing intensity keeps your heart on edge as well. You’ll sweat like mad if you’re doing them properly.

Anyway – just a quickie that I came across, but hope you can apply it within your own workouts.

Go hard!

Shendy.

Here’s the play list I currently have on my iPod “Shuffle”. I use “shuffle” in quotes because i smashed my Nano last year and currently has no display. Rather than replace it I use it for the gym/running/biking as a shuffle. I’ll throw a picture up when I get a chance.

Anyway – playlist:

• Aerosmith – Fever
• Against Me! – Up The Cuts
• Against Me! – Stop!
• Big & Rich – Rollin’ (The Ballad Of Big & Rich) (Album Version)
• Billy Talent – This Is How It Goes (Album Version)
• Bon Jovi – We Got It Going On
• Buckcherry – Crazy Bitch
• The Eagles – Take It Easy
• Fort Minor – In Stereo
• Fuel – Ozone
• Godsmack – Whatever
• Godsmack – Get Up, Get Out!
• Guns N’ Roses – Welcome To The Jungle
• Hellyeah – Hellyeah
• Jay-Z – U Don’t Know
• Jay-Z – Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)
• John Fogerty – Gunslinger
• Junkie XL – Clash
• Kid Rock – American Bad Ass
• Korn – Got the Life
• Linkin Park & Jay-Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From You
• Linkin Park & Jay-Z – Jigga What/Faint
• Linkin Park & Jay-Z – Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer
• Marilyn Manson – This Is The New Shit [Album Version
• Marilyn Manson – Rock Is Dead
• Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
• Metallica – Master Of Puppets
• Metallica – Enter Sandman
• Metallica – The Memory Remains
• Metallica – The Unforgiven II
• Metallica – For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Methods of Mayhem – Get Naked
• Methods of Mayhem – Narcotic
• Motley Crue – Planet Boom
• Mötley Crüe – Angela
• Mötley Crüe – Kickstart My Heart
• Nickelback – Something In Your Mouth
• Nickelback – Burn It To The Ground
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Get On Top
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Storm In A Teacup
• Thornley – Easy Comes
• Tom Petty – Saving Grace
• Traveling Wilburys – Rattled
• Traveling Wilburys – Heading For The Light
• The Used – Pretty Handsome Awkward
• Velvet Revolver – She Builds Quick Machines

If you have some good tunes for working out – add them to comments. Looking forward to seeing whatcha’ got.

Shendy.

And just because you got the best ride
Don’t mean you the best guy
Like the car, you cant let everybody test drive

I look at you, then you me
Hungry and thirsty are we
Holding the lion’s share
Holding the key
Holding me back cause I’m striving to be…
Better than you

I don’t got the bright watch, I got the right watch
I don’t buy out the bar, I bought the nightspot
I got the right stock
I got stockbrokers that’s movin’ it like white tops

Damn though mans I’m just tryin’ do me
If the record’s two mill’ I’m just tryin’ move three

I’ve just recently stumbled on to Gravatar. It’s a technology that allows supported sites to display your avatar – just by leaving your email address. You sign up for their service (free), upload an image and you’re good to go!

I found this kind of handy – and it forced me to create an Avatar (finally).

They’ve been around for 4-5 years but are continuing to grow momentum. Automattic (the makers of WordPress acquired them just over a year ago. As more sites continue to support this technology – I only see it becoming more useful.

Anyway – check it out.

Shendy.

In keeping with my attempt to improve my cardio (and still shed that Christmas poundage), I hit the treadmill again today (have done it or elliptical every day except yesterday).

If I haven’t said it yet – I am really a fan of interval training. I find there’s nothing else that will get you sweating as quickly – I’m soaked within 5 minutes. I used to do a pyramid approach that worked like this:

Going up the pyramid

• 15 second sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 30 seconds sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 45 seconds sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 1 minute sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 1 1/2 minute sprint followed by 1 minute jog

Once you’ve hit the 1 1/2 minute sprint, you head back down (reverse order). This gives you about 15-20 minutes depending on how long your warm up and cool down are.

I recently read an article in an old Men’s Health magazine in which some famous sports trainer recommended 1 minute on, 1 minute off. That is – 1 minute light jog (he actually said rest", and then 2 minutes at your target heart rate 220 minus your age). While I have a hard time gauging if my heart rate is 192 (do the math), I do sweat like a pig. I also get a cramp on the left side of my body (which tells me I’m working hard). I run past the cramp and am fine.

Anyway – long story short, cardio kicked off my workout for about 20 minutes (5 2 minute sprints in there). On to the rest of the workout:

• Bench Press – 10 reps @ 135lbs
• 10 Wide Push Ups
• Bench Press – 4 reps @ 225lbs
• 10 Wide Push Ups
• Bench Press – 4 reps @ 175lbs

It was at this point that I hit FAILURE. I guess the 150 Push Ups yesterday took their toll. I actually couldn’t get the bar back on the rack! I had to flip it on to my quads (ouch), and then power cleaned (CrossFit comes to the rescue again) it up to my shoulders so I could turn around and re-rack it.

The rest of the workout went well – and I stayed away anything that involved a bar. But failure came pretty quick as you’ll probably see:

• Incline Dumbbell Press (8 reps @ 60lbs, 8 reps @ 55lbs, 8 reps @ 50lbs)
• 3 Sets Cable Flies (10 reps @ 40lbs
• 3 sets Decline Press (Machine) – (8 reps @ 40lbs per side, 2 sets of 8 reps @ 30lbs per side).

The way my schedule worked out last week, I’m actually on 7 days in a row at the gym. I’ll be hitting it for the next 3 days as well and taking a much needed rest on Sunday for a big cheat watching Super Bowl.

Go Hard!

Shendy.

Check out this behemoth Joel and I tackled today:

“Barbara”:

Five rounds, each for time of:

• 20 Pull-ups
• 30 Push-ups
• 40 Sit-ups
• 50 Squats (body weight)

For those following at home – that’s 100 pull-ups, 150 pushups, 200 sit-ups, and 250 squats. A lot of people look at the CrossFit workouts and shy away or are amazed by what’s required for these workouts. My routine would not be the same without CrossFit, so I thought I’d put together a few tips to help you tackle these workouts, and hopefully incorporate some of the elements into your routine.

Don’t get overwhelmed

The biggest mistake you can make with a workout like this is to approach it with a can’t-do attitude. Your never going to get anywhere if you second-guess yourself. You. Can. Get. It. Done.

Break it into chunks (divide & conquer)

In Computer Science, we learn about problem solving through divide and conquer. Which is the basic process of dividing a big problem into several easier to solve problems. This is how I approach these workouts and find it works well. Can’t do 20 pull-ups in a row? How about 4 sets of 5? When it comes to the end of these things, I’m sometimes doing 20 sets of 1… I also find that your stamina really gets put to the test in these as sometimes you have to break them apart. Otherwise the next set around you’ll find you can’t even do 5.

Do what you can (weight, reps, etc)

If you can’t do the reps – go to failure. This means doing as many reps as you can do, until you physically can’t complete 1 more rep.

If you can’t do the weight – drop it. Do as many as you can with the weight prescribed (assuming you’re comfortable enough to know you’re not going to cause injury), then drop the weight. For exercises that require body weight (like the ones in “Barbara”) try doing a substitute as follows:

• Pullups
  • Do assisted pullups with as little weight as possible (the weight acts as a counter balance).
  • Do lat pull downs
• Pushups
  • Do bench press with a lighter weight
• Situps
  • Lower your reps as mentioned above.
• Squats
  • Try leg press with a lower weight

Sometimes it’s about quantity, not quality

A lot of people are amazed when I tell them I can do 100 pull-ups. To be honest, I never thought I would be able to do 100 pull-ups across the span of my life, let alone in one workout. I get my pull-ups done 5-10 at a time (which is an improvement over the 1-2 I could do last year). One of the best techniques for a lot of pull ups is Kipping. You use a shoulder rotation and your momentum to pull you over the bar. The other thing I find that helps is raising your knees as you pull up to give you momentum.

Keep your eyes on the prize

The biggest obstacle in these workouts is your mind. If you can overcome it, you can get through it. Think of how good you’re going to feel about yourself when you get this done, think about your next cheat day, whatever your motivation is – keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this.

Hope that helps – I look forward to seeing comments on any of the workouts I post here, but especially the CrossFit ones as they tend to be a cut above the rest.

Shendy.

Quick and Dirty – courtesty of Keith Peters @ bit101

http://www.bit-101.com/xpath/

Also – I’ve had the good fortune to see Keith speak at FITC the past couple of years. Cool dude.

Shendy.