It’s been an interesting month or so…

September 3rd, 2009

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The gym work has been terrible, my health not much better, but spiritually I feel as though I am moving onto to a higher understanding. I have been undergoing reiki training and attunements the past 5 weeks, and during this time I have felt a little off the pace physically. I have felt lethargic, lacking in motivation and severely lacking in motivation. Hardly good signs for trying to achieve peak conditioning by Feb 2009. I have barely trained during the past month and my diet has been shit!

But never fear, I am back in the gym this week! Trained back and bi’s Tues, Chest, Shoulders and a little tri’s Weds and will be hitting Legs tonight. This week is a feel week, just allowing the weights to break back into its strength. Next week I will refocus on the diet and start back onto the supplements, kicking off with protein and glutamine, and when I am back to full strength in a couple of weeks I will then launch off with some creatine.

It’s been a long winter down under, and just about everyone I know has been ill and all for a substantial time as well. I guess I was no different :( – but that is behind me now. My body has been well rested, and the forced break may actually help me break through to the next level.

I have just been given a great motivational kick in the ass this morning! On facebook someone had uploaded some pics from when I was 19, looking slim, young, toned and even with abs! Wanting to look that good again is going to be hard work, but that has always been the aim with this website anyway.

Will look to do an updated photo end of October time! That gives me 2 months to get everything back on track ready to go all guns blazing for the big 4 month countdown.

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Change of plans!

July 29th, 2009

Well the crazy strength training program has been shelved for now :) – I was challenged by a colleague to enter a bike race in Dwellingup http://www.dwellingup100.com.au/ – and being one who loves a challenge I couldn’t really resist!

That being said I will probably end up sacrificing some muscle and indeed some strength, but on the plus side I will probably lose a bit of the soft stuff whilst doing wonders for my general fitness. Getting fitter now, may actually help me train better when or if I get back on the crazy strength program!

Therefore, for the next 7 weeks, I will be hitting the Spartan Workout 3 times a week, with 2 cardio sessions a week, and hopefully at least 1-2 bike rides a week, weather, light permitting!

I will try and keep everyone posted on the results!

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Strength Workout from HELL

July 13th, 2009

Hey guys, anyone who read the following link Old School Training will have understood what my next crazy training program was. Well tonight was session 1, week 1 and I am pleased to say I survived!

I normally like to get in and out of the gym in less than 45mins, but tonight I was there for a staggering 90 mins!!! I think there was a few extra calories burnt lol. The workout actually started on chest, and that just felt a breeze, however I will stick with the weight in mind, as no doubt as the weeks and sessions progress it will get progressively harder!

I followed this up with the squats, and again that was fairly easy – I put this down to doing a real light weight, high reps workout last week on legs, hopefully it increased the stamina in my pins just a little bit.

Followed this up with deadlifts, and whilst I did the whole lot, it was taxing and my body was starting to struggle just a little bit.

I was then hoping to do clean and presses, but my flexibility when holding on a bar on my shoulders from the front is poor, and as the legs had been abused from both squats and deadlifts, I felt they needed a rest. So instead I simply did behind neck presses, whilst standing in a squat rack. It was fairly hard, but mainly because my shoulders are rooted :) – hopefully this angle of pressing may actually improve my shoulders a little bit. Will see how the weights go, as I could possibly push more weight, but am happy to build this up a little bit.

To end the session I wanted to hit another back workout, whilst the back did get worked during deadlifts, and certainly lower back to another degree during squats, I wanted something to really compliment the chest work. So I opted for bent over rows, and bashed out 100kg for the duration. Felt good, and hopefully for a change my back will get a greater workout than my chest.

I was originally going to train Mon, Wed and Fri, and then cut the Spartan workout. However I will switch the workout for now to Mon, Wed, Thurs and then a Spartan on a Saturday. Crazy, Yep, Overtraining, quite possibly – so why am I doing it? Simple it seemed to work on my body before, and I am willing to give it a go now!

Wed workouts all seem designed to be progressively harder and heavier than the other 2, so hopefully the body can adapt to the workout. If it fails, will have to drop the Spartan and focus on the program instead!

Stay Tuned folks!!!

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The Spartan 300 Workout, Crazy Saturday Training

July 13th, 2009

For those of you not in the know, my fellow gym goers and I have been hitting the Spartan workout most Saturdays to give the body a different type of action. The spartan workout brings together general cardio, strength, core muscle strength and muscle toning. It’s all action, all body, all pain ;) but it’s also a great challenge.

I first came across some of these video’s on Youtube, there are heaps of variations on there but this one covers the basics.

We do a few things differently, for instance with the deadlifts, I try to rep as many out as possible without allowing the bar to touch the floor. This is more taxing on the muscles, especially the lower back. The most I have rep’d out in one session is 35reps on a 60kg load. Had about 30sec-1min breather and then continued!

I have tried the window wipers, but generally can’t get the feel for them, so stick to old fashioned sit-ups using a slant board/bench.

As I am so bottom heavy (big legs, smaller upper body) I struggle to chin, so I focus instead on lat pull downs. Sometimes I try to chin as many as possible, normally around 4-6 max, then blast the rest out on the lat pull down machine.

That aside I think its almost par for par, but it takes me about 35 mins to complete. Sometimes depending on how I am feeling I need to break between sets – other times I blast through them. Once I finish my new program I will be dedicating about 2-3 weeks of non-stop Spartan workouts, just for the heck of it :)

So just thought I would share it with the world!

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Old school training program next week

July 7th, 2009

Training has been going rather well since returning from the UK, but next week I am throwing convention and common sense right out the window! I will be embarking on a training program which most would say is slightly crazy, if not very insane! Wisdom and convention are being thrown out the window, especially as the program is specifically designed at increasing strength gains over growth/size gains!

What makes it more crazy is that the program being adopted is really only suited to 1 exercise, not 3 or more :) – but when you get closer to 30 you need something crazy, something that only a warrior could bring to raise the stakes just a little bit.

I look back to my old olympic weightlifting and essentially, in bodybuilding context, I would have been overtraining my legs. However my legs responded to that stimulus, as did my body which was pretty lean at the time. One crazy program I followed before for 6 weeks was the Russian Squat Program, in order to follow the program you needed to know your 1 rep max lift, then the program was based upon percentages! It was painful, but glorius at the same time.

It also enabled me to build solid legs which have never shrunk even when I haven’t trained. So I am taking this principle across to other parts of my body, going real old school and training 3 times a week but only focusing on the following exercises: Deadlifts, Squats, Benchpress, Power Clean and Press and then either chins or lat pulldowns for some additional back development. It is almost powerlifting focused, and hopefully I can make significant strength gains whilst on this program – any size gains will also be appreciated. I hope this program gives me a stronger base so that when I change my training back to normal bodybuilding style, I have increased enough strength to get a significant size boost when I resume.

Anyway, please read the following kg weights I am to achieve on this program. It is aimed at building/increasing strength to 105% of what it was previously. Going to be painful, fun and crazy – just the way i like to train.

training

I am sure most experts would say I am absolutely off my rocker, and perhaps I am :) but this has me salivating at the prospect of hitting these exercises over the next few weeks. Please note I don’t yet know what my clean and press weights would be, still need to do a 1 rep max to determine that one.

Anyone who would like to know what their russian squat program weights could be should check out this cool little script online: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/RussianSquatProgramGenerator.html

Watch this space, and wish me luck! :)

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