Image by Michal Novotny

Monday, February 2, 2009

100 Pullups for Time, Did only 94 pullups

Time: 2:30:84.04

Intensity Rating: 5/10

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Max rounds in 20 minutes of:

• Bodyweight Squat, 20 reps
• KB Swings, 10 reps
• KB Windmill, 5 reps

Completed 8 rounds in 20 minutes

Intensity Rating: 6/10

Fridy, February 6, 2009

For time:

• Dive Bombers, 15 reps
• KB Snatch, 3 reps
• Dive Bombers, 12 reps
• KB Snatch, 6 reps
• Dive Bombers, 9 reps
• KB Snatch, 9 reps
• Dive Bombers, 6 repss
• KB Snatch, 12 reps
• Dive Bombers, 3 reps
• KB Snatch, 15 reps

Time: 11:36

Intensity Rating: 8/10

Monday, February 9, 2008

Max rounds in 9 minutes of:*

• Chinups, 5 reps
• Medicine Ball Uneven Pushups, 10 reps
• KB Swing, 15 reps
• Pushups, 20 reps
• Squat Thrust w/o Pushups, 25 reps

Performed one round, + chinups and med ball pushups

2 minute Rest

Max rounds in 7 minutes of:**

• Chinups, 4 reps
• KB Swing, 12 reps
• Squat Thrust w/o Pushups, 20 reps

Intensity Rating – 5/10

Performed 2 rounds

Notes: Intensity rating is personal thing. I guess you can even match it to how high your heart rate was. An exercise can be difficult, but it might not be intense. This is probably why the Caveman guys wear a heartbeat monitor when they workout (maybe an Idea I should pick up).

10 Burpees for a beginner would probably be on a scale of 9/10,, but for someone more advanced it could be a 5/10. It really just depends on personal abilities.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

So this was the workout that came up through my index card experiment :

4 rounds for time of:

• Sprint 2 blocks
• Jog back
• Ankle Grabbers, 20 reps

Time: 13:37.13

Intensity Rating: 7/10

Notes: I haven’t sprinted in a LONG time. (See, Olinek, this is why I need index cards or some system in place. If I woke up and just decided to do what I felt like, then I would never sprint). But the sprints felt really good. I felt like I was good at them. The only problem was my recovery time. The sprints were good, but the jog back was lacking. I need to find a way to work on my recovery time.

Let’s start off by just defining Interval Training and how it differentiates from long duration, moderate paced training.

Interval training is basically just a period of harder exercise interspersed by periods of light exercise or recovery exercise, so you have your work interval which is your sprint or fast walk or you know, there’s many ways of doing it, and then you have your recovery interval which is where you’d slow down. That’s basically it.

Obviously, you’d do your warm up and your cool down before it and then you’d do several intervals in a workout and that’s it basically.

Here’s a sample interval training session.

This can go for bikes, elliptical, StairMaster, treadmill, whatever, so you would do your warm up and obviously you would do the same you’re going to do sprints on a bike, you would use your bike for warm up because you need to warm up specifically for the task at hand.

You do that for about five minutes and build up your intensity and then just around five minutes you drop the intensity down for about 30 seconds and then you’re ready to do your first interval. So, I always like to have people work around 30 seconds to 60 seconds as a general fat loss interval or someone who has intermediate fitness who has been doing fitness training.

If someone is a beginner then they can go with lower intensity but for longer intervals up to two minutes or so.

After you do your five minute warm up, then you set the machine up to an intensity that generally corresponds to what I call an eight out of 10 or nine out of 10 intensity with a six out of 10 being your regular cardio workouts so it’s something you can do for 30 minutes plus and 10 out of 10 would be as fast as you could possibly go.

So, we’re working around eight or nine for our intervals leaving a bit in the tank there.

What can an Advanced Athlete, who’s been doing Turbulence Training or following a similar High Intensity program do to drop those last stubborn pounds?

Cut back on processed carbohydrates, sugar, and grains, while increasing fruit, vegetable, and raw nut intake. And stick to the Turbulence Training workouts.

Should I eat 6-8 times a day, or 1-3 times a day for optimal health, performance, and physique?

They can all work, you just have to find the right diet that suits your personality, lifestyle, and schedule. It’s more about what you eat and how much, not so much “when you eat”.

How should a busy professional, who always seem to be on business trips, approach health and fitness?

Plan ahead. I travel 6-10 days per month and I plan ahead and everything stays the same. No excuse to skip workouts or eat bad!

Awesome tips from Craig Ballantyne! If you haven’t done so already, check out his eBook, Turbulence Training.

There are a hundred different theories out there when it comes to program design. The truth is my own methods have evolved over time. Bodyweightculture .com has a lot of great threads floating around about this very issue. One thing I’ve noticed is that the newbies always ask pretty much the same questions regarding program design. So I just wanted to lay out some principles for these guys to point them in the right direction. Big guys, please feel free to add to my list. I want to keep these principles as general and as common as possible. Read more.

Cover image by yourclimbing.com

Image by sallycrochets

Burpees are an intense exercise, no doubt. When you combine Burpees with an intensity technique such as interval training, what you get is incredible, puke-inducing, fat burning workouts. Here are few you should try out:

Burpees Tabata Interval Workout: Continue reading

Image by can3o55o

Click here To Learn how to Perform over a 100 Bodyweight Exercises

My Sensei (Karate Instructor) taught me one important thing: if you want to get better at front kicks, then do a lot of front kicks! In other words, practice makes perfect.

A really great approach to program design is to create workouts that revolve around your goals. Simple enough? But not enough people do this. They get caught up with all the other hoopla and nonsense that surrounds health and performance improvement.

For example, if you want to improve your running, then why not just go out for a run? Depending on your goals, you may want to perform a few timed trials per week, or distance runs. Throw in a few power cleans and snatches, some sprinting, and walla! You’ve got yourself a program.

Same things for pullups. People think they need to hit their back harder in the gym, or they start isolating their shoulders…etc. etc. etc. No, just get up on the bar and pull your body up to it. Rinse, and repeat! One of the best pullup programs out there is the Armstrong pull up program, because it actually revolves around doing pullups.

Ok, so what about people who are doing pullups and running, but still do not see much improvement? Well, then it’s time to start looking at other things – other weaknesses. Maybe your biceps are too week, or your hamstrings are too tight.

For more great Bodyweight Exercises and Training Techniques, check out Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. Click here for more information.

This article promotes a product. If you purchase this product, I get a percentage of sales. Click here to read my disclaimer.

I’m not an economist, and so I don’t really know where the economy is headed. According to the media and some “experts” the economy is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I’m not scared. I got bodyweight training and money-saving tips to help me out. Here are four tips to help you stay in shape during the tough times:

Free Classes at a Community Center

Believe it or not, there are free fitness classes out there! The most common ones tend to be yoga classes. For a few weeks I went to a Yoga class at a Swaminaryan (one of the many South Asia-based religions out there) Temple. The yoga really helped me balance things out with my five-days a week intense workouts schedule.

Unfortunately, the class was discontinued for one reason or another. However, recently I found a great free Yoga place in New York City. On St. Marks Place in Manhattan, there’s a place that offers free Yoga classes and workshops. The entire place is basically run on donations. My Yoga classes sometimes turn out to be cheaper than my lunch!

If you look really hard enough, or look at all, you can usually find some place that’s offering fitness classes free or cheap.

Interval training is one of my favorite methods of cardio. Go out onto the grass and sprinting and jogging. I also enjoy high intensity jump roping and often alternate jump roping with kettlebell or bodyweight exercises. There’s really not much more left to say about this, except to point you to some sample workouts:

• The Secret to Burning Fat and Building Lean Muscle Mass
• Sprint Workouts: Increase Aerobic and Anaerobic Capacity
• Time Interval Training

Workout with the Family

If you’re going to go to the gym, then just do it with the family. I remember once I walked into LA Fitness, just for the hell of it, and asked them about a membership. Then I stated my dad was interested. The guy I was talking to told I’d get a great deal if I brought my parents by tonight. Of course I never did (cuz I have garage gym), but the point is that you can usually get huge discounts if you bring in more members with you.

• Bonus Tip: This is probably the best time to join a gym. A lot of big chains are struggling to keep members, and may just have discounted or free offers you can use. I also read an article in Mens Health, or one of the magazines, where a guy went to gyms for two years without paying a cent! He just lived off of free membership and apparently there were a LOT of gyms around where he lived. Or maybe he just drove to a different town each month.

The best way to save your cash is not even go anywhere. Just stay at home, and crank out a fewpushups. Here are some sample workouts:

• 6 Bodyweight Routines from YouTube
• The Most Insane Bodyweight Routine on the Planet!

• 6 Methods to Design an Intense Body Weight Workout

I hope these tips prove to you just how easy it is to get in shape with very little money. Do you have any of your own tips you’d like to share?

Additional Resources

Workout Without Weights – Coach Eddie Lomax’s eBook is still the number one source, in my eyes, when it comes to bodyweight training. Check it out here.

Turbulence Training – Another great resource for getting your workouts done with minimal to no equipment is Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training. Check it out here.

When I ask you how strong you are, all I want to know is how much you can lift, and for how many repetitions you can lift it. When I talk about conditioning, I want to know how fast you can recover and repeat a particular task. When you combine these two aspects, you get:

1. How much can you lift?
2. How many time can you lift it?
3. How much rest do you need in order to repeat the same performance.
4. How many times can you keep going – perform, rest, perform, rest – until complete burnout.

That is Strength and Conditioning.

The Program:

Week One:

Choose three lifts and train three days a week. For each day, train just one lift. Your job is to find out how much you can lift for 5 repetitions. No more, no less. 5 repetitions. I don’t care how you accomplish this task. But find your five rep max.

Week Two:

After a thorough warm up, take your five rep maximum, and perform as many repetitions as you possibly can until your form deteriorates. Make sure you have a spotter or some sort of safety precaution. The reason this is important is that when most people try to find their five rep maximum, they go through a few sets first, which tires them out. This second week is to make sure that your five rep max is really,truly your five rep max. But, don’t stop at five. If you can do one more, two more, three more, then just keep going. Do your one set, record how many repetitions you were able to perform, then go home.

Week Three:

Lets assume that you were able to Push Press 165lbs for 8 reps. This week, you’re going to find out how much rest you need until you burn out completely. To figure this out, start off with a 3 minute rest period between each set, and keep going until you are unable to get in 8 repetitions with proper form. Lets assume that you were able to perform 4 sets at 165lbs for 8 reps. Good job, go home.

Weeks Four – Eight

Drop your time by thirty seconds and attempt to do 4 sets at 165lbs for 8 reps. If you hit the 4 sets, the go home and drop the rest period by another 30 seconds next week. If you were unable to get in 4 sets, then go home and stay at the same rest period.

Week Nine – Twelve

The final 4 weeks are devoted to maximum sets. Lets assume that on week eight you were able to perform 4 sets at 165lbs for 8 reps with 1 minute rest between each set. Now the goal is to keep the rest periods at 1 minute, and see how many times you can keep repeating the task. Keep performing 4 sets of 8 at the same weight until you are unable to perform a set 8 repetitions with proper form. Record your total number of sets and go home. Try to perform at least one more set each week.

Week Thirteen

Take this week off and contemplate the meaning of life.

Week Fourteen

Check your five rep max. How does it feel?

Image by abbyjane Here is a really great bodyweight workout using simple, basic movements that’ll take just 15 minutes of your time:

Perform 5 rounds of:

2 minute interval:

• Pullups, 5 reps
• Pushups, 10 reps
• Bodyweight Squat, 20 reps

1 minute rest

Here’s how to do it:

1. Set the timer for 2 minutes, and perform as many rounds as you can of each of the exercises listed for the suggested repetitions
2. After the 2 minutes, rest for 1 minute
3. Repeat four more times

Some ideas on how to make this workout harder:

1. Increase the time interval. You can perform 3 rounds at a 3 or 4 minute interval, or 2 rounds with a 5 or 6 minute interval, followed by a minute rest.
2. You can replace the exercise for difficult ones. For example, perform Side to Side Pullups instead of regular pullups, hindu pushups instead of regular pushups, and squat jumps for bodyweight squats.

Some ideas on how to make this workout shorter:

1. Shorten the rest period to 30 seconds
2. Use alternative interval schemes such as Tabata – 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest.

One of the best ways to help you with your intervals is to use the GymBoss Interval Timer. It costs just $19.95, and you can program it to help you keep track of any sort of intervals you may use. Click here to grab yours today.

Image by Michal Novotny

I would like to restart my training diary on this website. I feel as though keeping a training diary on this site will help others see exactly how I incorporate the principles I present on this website into my practical life.

I would also like some feedback from my audience. Feel free to ask me questions about my program and give any suggestions that I can personally employ. Enjoy!

Training for Week of Monday, January 26, 2009

Monday, January 26, 2009

For time:

• Dive Bombers, 15 reps
• KB Snatch, 3 reps
• Dive Bombers, 12 reps
• KB Snatch, 6 reps
• Dive Bombers, 9 reps
• KB Snatch, 9 reps
• Dive Bombers, 6 repss
• KB Snatch, 12 reps
• Dive Bombers, 3 reps
• KB Snatch, 15 reps

Time: 11:04.67

Intensity Rating: 8/10

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Three rounds for time of:

• 1 Pullup
• 2 Front Squats
• 2 Pullup
• 4 Front Squats
• 3 Pullups
• 6 Front Squats
• 4 Pullups
• 8 Front Squats

Time: 15:58.91

Intensity Rating: 7/10

Friday, January 30, 2009

For time:

• Shoulder Press, 5 reps
• Chin Ups, 4 reps
• Push Press, 15 reps
• Chin Ups, 4 reps
• Push Jerk, 25 reps
• Chin Ups, 4 reps
• Push Press, 15 reps
• Chin Ups, 4 reps
• Shoulder Press, 5 reps
• Chin Ups, 4 reps

Time: 9:14.49

Intensity Rating: 6/10

General Notes/Thoughts: Overall a very good week. I have lost a considerable amount of weight, but somewhere along the way I realized how much fun I was having. And so I think I really just got caught up into developing interesting workouts.

I’m sorry I can’t give you guys a proper assessment in terms of my progress, but the truth is that I really haven’t been measuring my progress that closely. I used to weigh myself and measure myself all the time, but I just got tired of it. I just decided to get in the intense, consistent workouts without worrying about the results. But maybe that’s what helped.

I’ll be heading off to India in about 2 weeks, so my plan right now is to rachet up the intensity, then chill while in India. I’ll probably still workout, but I think if I’m going to a wedding I can expect to be eating a lot of bad food.

After I come back, I’ll see which direction I want to take my training.

Specific Notes about Workouts:

Monday – Divebombers are great for shoulders, tris, and chest. KB Snatch is more of a cardio exercise now. Need heavier KBs, or something heavier than 35lbs.

Wednesday – Pullups were tough. Front squats are amazing for the legs. Keep doing them. Need to work on pullups strength

Friday – Good shoulder and back workout. Short, difficult, but not that intense. Chinups were ok. Can def add reps to it. Pressing was tough, esp the shoulder press. Check form on push jerk.

Total training time this week: 36:15.07

My Fitness HutThe Burpee is one the most basic yet intense bodyweight exercises around. If you can do a pushup and bodyweight squat, then you can do a burpee. Unfortunately, not enough people incorporate the burpee into their fitness programs.

What is a Burpee?

There are a lot of discussions out there concerning what a burpee exactly is. Lets move step by step here. Continue reading