Realistically I can use my atlas stones to do the same thing. However, the Globe is a little more versatile since its weight adjustable, the primary source of weight moves during the lift, and its much more portable than several stones.
I really felt this one in my biceps, hands, back, chest, and shoulders. With the ball adding another 14lbs I didn't think trying to pick up a 125lb kettlebell would be such a chore.
Showing posts with label Full body workout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Full body workout. Show all posts
Friday, August 24, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Easy body weight workout
Ok, so I need to shift focus back to some training. This one is another easy as hell workout to do with just your own body! Pretty cool, right?
The rep schemes are what can be a little complicated. Theres options. Lots of options. Plus rest time and all that mess. So what Im going to do here is just outline a few workouts to give you an idea and hopefully depending on your environment you can formulate your own workout from there.
So the basics is a 1-2 upper body workout. This requires something that you can do a pulling movement from. We want to hit not just chest but back as well. Is a continuous superset of 10 reps. You can use a sturdy shelf, pullup bar, branch, picnic table, regular table, rings, or what have you to perform some sort of pulling motion. The chest work is just done with pushups. You can use any variety of pushups based on your skill level but it needs to be a pushing motion. So heres what one workout I did awhile ago-
Pushups 10 reps
Pullups 10 reps (cheated like crazy)
repeat for 10 sets. Minimal rest.
So in the case of that the idea was to hit 100 total reps. Trouble is my pullups are ,and have been for a long time, terrible. So had to almost go into a kip. Ideally this would have been better off replaced with a hanging row or something that I could have unloaded some of my body weight off my arms. But at the time I only had a branch that somehow was sturdy enough to support my 255lb ass outside the hotel I was staying at. The "fitness" room was total garbage.
Heres another;
Pushups 20 reps
Pulls 20 reps
Squats 20 reps
Repeat for 5-10 sets
Once again alter as you need to. A good option if you can do the pull motion is to get yourself a band. They're relatively cheap and extremely easy to transport. But with this workout I altered squats to be more of a squat jump. 20 body weight squats really didnt do much for me. Even for 140 reps.
Last example;
Pushups 10,12,14,16,18,20,18,16,14,12,10 - Mixed it up with wide, reg, and narrow hands
Squats (same) - Squat jumps
Pulls (same) - Hanging row (low branch with feet on a rock)
Situp variation (same) - did V-ups at the time
This one wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been in my head before giving it a run. When you add so many different exercises that are unrelated the rest time increases before returning to the same muscle group. So the superset I mentioned first really hit the upper body hard. Add in some legs and ab work and suddenly those arms are getting a lot more rest.
So anyways next time you're traveling and need a good workout in a pinch try one of these or any mix you can think of. Better to get some volume work in then just take a day off.
Usually.
The rep schemes are what can be a little complicated. Theres options. Lots of options. Plus rest time and all that mess. So what Im going to do here is just outline a few workouts to give you an idea and hopefully depending on your environment you can formulate your own workout from there.
So the basics is a 1-2 upper body workout. This requires something that you can do a pulling movement from. We want to hit not just chest but back as well. Is a continuous superset of 10 reps. You can use a sturdy shelf, pullup bar, branch, picnic table, regular table, rings, or what have you to perform some sort of pulling motion. The chest work is just done with pushups. You can use any variety of pushups based on your skill level but it needs to be a pushing motion. So heres what one workout I did awhile ago-
Pushups 10 reps
Pullups 10 reps (cheated like crazy)
repeat for 10 sets. Minimal rest.
So in the case of that the idea was to hit 100 total reps. Trouble is my pullups are ,and have been for a long time, terrible. So had to almost go into a kip. Ideally this would have been better off replaced with a hanging row or something that I could have unloaded some of my body weight off my arms. But at the time I only had a branch that somehow was sturdy enough to support my 255lb ass outside the hotel I was staying at. The "fitness" room was total garbage.
Heres another;
Pushups 20 reps
Pulls 20 reps
Squats 20 reps
Repeat for 5-10 sets
Once again alter as you need to. A good option if you can do the pull motion is to get yourself a band. They're relatively cheap and extremely easy to transport. But with this workout I altered squats to be more of a squat jump. 20 body weight squats really didnt do much for me. Even for 140 reps.
Last example;
Pushups 10,12,14,16,18,20,18,16,14,12,10 - Mixed it up with wide, reg, and narrow hands
Squats (same) - Squat jumps
Pulls (same) - Hanging row (low branch with feet on a rock)
Situp variation (same) - did V-ups at the time
This one wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been in my head before giving it a run. When you add so many different exercises that are unrelated the rest time increases before returning to the same muscle group. So the superset I mentioned first really hit the upper body hard. Add in some legs and ab work and suddenly those arms are getting a lot more rest.
So anyways next time you're traveling and need a good workout in a pinch try one of these or any mix you can think of. Better to get some volume work in then just take a day off.
Usually.
Friday, July 13, 2012
WTF are we doing in the weight room?
Its amazing how three capital letters can summarize how I feel sometimes when I see these programs that are put together for athletes.
Well lets back track a little. Im getting a quick lift in today. Have a big 7's rugby tourny tomorrow and need to make sure I still have some energy left in the tank. I happen to see the board and this is what I come across:
Chest-
Bench 15,12,10,8,6,4,2
Incline (same)
Incline Flys 4x8
Pushups x100
Shoulders
Lat and front raise 3x15
...and some other nonsense.
I actually took a picture but don't feel like linking it.
Anyways, heres my gripe with seeing this shit.
What ATHLETE needs this sort of training? And before you answer think of where Im coming from. An athlete needs to develop the muscularity to to become better at their sport. Now, I know exactly which sport this 'workout' belongs to but thats neither here nor there. The point Im getting to is how would this workout benefit any athlete in the existence of sport?
Got an answer yet?
I sure as hell don't.
Training chest and only chest, as far as Im concerned, is good for 2 people; Bodybuilders and those who only care about looking good naked. Thats it. This sort of workout should never touch an athletes regimen much less a high schoolers or jr. high.
Especially considering the sport, or any sport for that matter, an overdeveloped chest is usually more a problem than a good way to train. Try having a kid do a pullup, or a simple row, or hell even just walk upright for more than a few steps. Its difficult to find this outside of a gymnast these days. Piss poor posterior strength and shitty workouts.
So whats the fix?
Well for one no workout should just focus on one muscle group in athletics. Time is valuable and that time needs to be spent honing their abilities. If we train 1 or 2 muscles groups a day we WILL need to train 6-8x's a week to hit everything. Thats a lot of hours spent just doing isolation work when combo lifts and functional movements can clear that all out in a hurry. Unfortunately I still see this quite a bit. Apparently a coach or athletes reads a cute little article about their favorite bodybuilder or fitness buff and wants to do that workout. I usually goes something like this day to day;
Chest/tris
Back/Bis
Abs/cardio
Legs
Shoulders/arms
Once again if you're only concern is looking good naked then knock yourself out. Hell in another decade that probably will be my workout. But I figure until they cart me off the field and out of the ring on a stretcher that day is still a long ways off. So anyways back to the topic...
Stick to the basics! Especially with younger underdeveloped athletes. My favorite splits are like this;
Upper/Lower (Squat, single leg, glute ham / Bench, row, pushups, pullups)
or
Push/Pull (Bench, squat, pushups / Floor pull, row, pullups)
or
Combo (upper/lower same day all inclusive)
All of those splits are typically 2-4 days a week. You can make the split days up to 6 days but combo are best limited to 3 maybe 4 a week to allow a recovery day. Once again the point is that strength in the weight room should transfer to the game. Not just lift for the sake of lifting.
A good S&C coach from a long time ago once told me "You need to train to be good at your sport, not train to be a good lifter." This message apparently does NOT get around much. Especially considering the workout I just posted at the beginning here.
Now if you go back to those splits I mentioned things can get a bit more complicated. Did you know that you can get stronger without just using conventional lifts? Oh yes, its true. It happens quite a bit actually.
An example to increase leg strength and power just simply do full intensity sprints uphill or bleachers. As long as theres sufficient rest and intensity is near max the body will adapt and grow stronger. Similar to doing things such as playing the game more or doing similar tasks that emulate the game situation. As long as these tasks are performed to full intensity with some rest the body will adapt and grow AND continue to develop USEABLE skills.Then theres the topic of plyos, jump training (yes they are two different things), throwing, playing, etc.etc. but thats for a later date.
So just think of this next time you're cranking out that 8th set of 45lb barbell curls with your 140lb buddy ask yourself "Is this shit really going to make me a better athlete?" If you even have to stop and think, without any doubt, hell, if you need to even ask that question, then the answer is more than likely NO. Everyday you put something together always check it with the question "will this make me better?". And at the end of the day if you dont feel like you have gotten something accomplished then you really need to get back on that drawing board.
Well lets back track a little. Im getting a quick lift in today. Have a big 7's rugby tourny tomorrow and need to make sure I still have some energy left in the tank. I happen to see the board and this is what I come across:
Chest-
Bench 15,12,10,8,6,4,2
Incline (same)
Incline Flys 4x8
Pushups x100
Shoulders
Lat and front raise 3x15
...and some other nonsense.
I actually took a picture but don't feel like linking it.
Anyways, heres my gripe with seeing this shit.
What ATHLETE needs this sort of training? And before you answer think of where Im coming from. An athlete needs to develop the muscularity to to become better at their sport. Now, I know exactly which sport this 'workout' belongs to but thats neither here nor there. The point Im getting to is how would this workout benefit any athlete in the existence of sport?
Got an answer yet?
I sure as hell don't.
Training chest and only chest, as far as Im concerned, is good for 2 people; Bodybuilders and those who only care about looking good naked. Thats it. This sort of workout should never touch an athletes regimen much less a high schoolers or jr. high.
Especially considering the sport, or any sport for that matter, an overdeveloped chest is usually more a problem than a good way to train. Try having a kid do a pullup, or a simple row, or hell even just walk upright for more than a few steps. Its difficult to find this outside of a gymnast these days. Piss poor posterior strength and shitty workouts.
So whats the fix?
Well for one no workout should just focus on one muscle group in athletics. Time is valuable and that time needs to be spent honing their abilities. If we train 1 or 2 muscles groups a day we WILL need to train 6-8x's a week to hit everything. Thats a lot of hours spent just doing isolation work when combo lifts and functional movements can clear that all out in a hurry. Unfortunately I still see this quite a bit. Apparently a coach or athletes reads a cute little article about their favorite bodybuilder or fitness buff and wants to do that workout. I usually goes something like this day to day;
Chest/tris
Back/Bis
Abs/cardio
Legs
Shoulders/arms
Once again if you're only concern is looking good naked then knock yourself out. Hell in another decade that probably will be my workout. But I figure until they cart me off the field and out of the ring on a stretcher that day is still a long ways off. So anyways back to the topic...
Stick to the basics! Especially with younger underdeveloped athletes. My favorite splits are like this;
Upper/Lower (Squat, single leg, glute ham / Bench, row, pushups, pullups)
or
Push/Pull (Bench, squat, pushups / Floor pull, row, pullups)
or
Combo (upper/lower same day all inclusive)
All of those splits are typically 2-4 days a week. You can make the split days up to 6 days but combo are best limited to 3 maybe 4 a week to allow a recovery day. Once again the point is that strength in the weight room should transfer to the game. Not just lift for the sake of lifting.
A good S&C coach from a long time ago once told me "You need to train to be good at your sport, not train to be a good lifter." This message apparently does NOT get around much. Especially considering the workout I just posted at the beginning here.
Now if you go back to those splits I mentioned things can get a bit more complicated. Did you know that you can get stronger without just using conventional lifts? Oh yes, its true. It happens quite a bit actually.
An example to increase leg strength and power just simply do full intensity sprints uphill or bleachers. As long as theres sufficient rest and intensity is near max the body will adapt and grow stronger. Similar to doing things such as playing the game more or doing similar tasks that emulate the game situation. As long as these tasks are performed to full intensity with some rest the body will adapt and grow AND continue to develop USEABLE skills.Then theres the topic of plyos, jump training (yes they are two different things), throwing, playing, etc.etc. but thats for a later date.
So just think of this next time you're cranking out that 8th set of 45lb barbell curls with your 140lb buddy ask yourself "Is this shit really going to make me a better athlete?" If you even have to stop and think, without any doubt, hell, if you need to even ask that question, then the answer is more than likely NO. Everyday you put something together always check it with the question "will this make me better?". And at the end of the day if you dont feel like you have gotten something accomplished then you really need to get back on that drawing board.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Back to picking up rocks
Its been awhile but my wrist is starting to cooperate again enough that I can get under some Atlas Stones and start training again. Ive learned a few things a long the way and definitly was more prepared for todays training session than in the past.
For starts I brought along some Slaters Brand tacky. Enough tape to roll my wrists. And a canister of WD-40 for remove the tack afterwards.
The tape is just protection for my forearms from getting torn apart. Everytime Ive left a few pieces of my arms behind on those rocks so this was a nice bonus. Unfortunately I need a better way to tape my left wrist. I still aint sure what I did to it but after the fact its still bothering me. Definitly more than before training.Although it didnt hurt at all during lifting but fast forward almost 5 hours and Im in some pain. Oh, hey, Icy Hot, whats going on?
Aight, I gotta say the tacky helps a HUGE amount. Had no idea it had that sort of impact on the initial lift. Then again if your hands/arms are half glued to the object then it all makes sense. In turn this helped my tech out quite a bit. Instead of being slow off the ground I was much faster and lapped easier. I got my arms over the stone and resulted in a higher elevation- before it was around 45" but today got all my lifts over 54". Plus was able to get more reps during conditioning work.
12 reps @ 240lb
circuit - 2 reps 240, 5 reps @ 165, 10 shoulders @110
conditioning;
165 for a minute on, minute off repeat 4 rounds.
110 for sets of 10 shouldering. alternating shoulders and bouncing off ground.
Finished the day with some speed bench and called it. Its game time.
For starts I brought along some Slaters Brand tacky. Enough tape to roll my wrists. And a canister of WD-40 for remove the tack afterwards.
The tape is just protection for my forearms from getting torn apart. Everytime Ive left a few pieces of my arms behind on those rocks so this was a nice bonus. Unfortunately I need a better way to tape my left wrist. I still aint sure what I did to it but after the fact its still bothering me. Definitly more than before training.Although it didnt hurt at all during lifting but fast forward almost 5 hours and Im in some pain. Oh, hey, Icy Hot, whats going on?
Aight, I gotta say the tacky helps a HUGE amount. Had no idea it had that sort of impact on the initial lift. Then again if your hands/arms are half glued to the object then it all makes sense. In turn this helped my tech out quite a bit. Instead of being slow off the ground I was much faster and lapped easier. I got my arms over the stone and resulted in a higher elevation- before it was around 45" but today got all my lifts over 54". Plus was able to get more reps during conditioning work.
12 reps @ 240lb
circuit - 2 reps 240, 5 reps @ 165, 10 shoulders @110
conditioning;
165 for a minute on, minute off repeat 4 rounds.
110 for sets of 10 shouldering. alternating shoulders and bouncing off ground.
Finished the day with some speed bench and called it. Its game time.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Atlas Stone Conditioning - "Pick things up and put them down"
A little while ago Im strolling up to the track shed with a box in hand and a truck full of cement when a few inquiring minds simply asked -
"wtf?"
"Relax everyone..."
I just recently acquired my Slaters Stone Molds to create some awesome pieces of equipment. Although my first time through making them wasn't the best, bunch of air bubbles and rough spots, they still are doing the trick very well. You can check out my experience here -First Time Stone Making.
I wrote up a small workout a few weeks ago as well. I got to admit I felt much stronger than compared to now- I blame Memorial Day weekend on that one. BBQ bloat is a rough recovery amongst other things....anyways on to the workout which I now have video this time.
Just a warning my tech is crap so dont look for helpful hints on stone lifting. You won't find it here.
The workout broke down like this-
3 rounds 1 minute stone loading over a bar.
10 sets of single load @240lbs
4 sets of 8 shouldering and lifting 115lb then moved to the 170lb stone second set.
Im definitly investing in some tack next week if I am going to continue doing this to myself. Grip is becoming an issue and dust is screwing that up more. Plus if you notice a few minutes in I suddenly have a wrist wrap on my left hand. I dont know what the hell I did but the damn thing is hurting good right now. Even a day later as Im writing this is hurts to open my fingers and spread them apart. Probably not a good sign.
But hey at least my finger is feeling better. Nail is drained out and its still attached...for now.
"wtf?"
"Relax everyone..."
I just recently acquired my Slaters Stone Molds to create some awesome pieces of equipment. Although my first time through making them wasn't the best, bunch of air bubbles and rough spots, they still are doing the trick very well. You can check out my experience here -First Time Stone Making.
I wrote up a small workout a few weeks ago as well. I got to admit I felt much stronger than compared to now- I blame Memorial Day weekend on that one. BBQ bloat is a rough recovery amongst other things....anyways on to the workout which I now have video this time.
Just a warning my tech is crap so dont look for helpful hints on stone lifting. You won't find it here.
The workout broke down like this-
3 rounds 1 minute stone loading over a bar.
10 sets of single load @240lbs
4 sets of 8 shouldering and lifting 115lb then moved to the 170lb stone second set.
Im definitly investing in some tack next week if I am going to continue doing this to myself. Grip is becoming an issue and dust is screwing that up more. Plus if you notice a few minutes in I suddenly have a wrist wrap on my left hand. I dont know what the hell I did but the damn thing is hurting good right now. Even a day later as Im writing this is hurts to open my fingers and spread them apart. Probably not a good sign.
But hey at least my finger is feeling better. Nail is drained out and its still attached...for now.
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