Tag Archives: Chin Ups

Sep200911

james

0

Killer Time Saving Workout

Ok straight into it today with another quick, challenging workout. This workout is designed to tick off the boxes of strength, fitness and fat loss. And sitting here writing it up , I’m not sure which is harder, doing the workout or general moving for the next two days!

Set up a barbell for deadlifts and a kettlebell for swings. I used 100kgs and 30kgs respectively. In between these two exercises you will do pushups. Choose a level, easier or harder, for the pushups depending on your strength.
After you have warmed up you will do the three exercises in a circuit. First round do 20 reps, second round do 15 reps and third round do 10 reps (that’s of each exercise). Rest ad much as you need to but as little as possible throughout.
Remember if you aren’t questioning why you are doing this at some stage, then chances are you aren’t working hard enough.
After you have done all three rounds, take s few minutes to gather your breath and you breath.
Next move onto the chin up bar armed with a stopwatch. All you want to do here is start the timer and do one chin up. When the timer gets to one minute, you want to do two chin ups. Continue adding one chin up per minute until you can no longer keep up. This may seem easy to begin with but it will catch up to you quick enough. I managed to get up to eight reps before calling it quits.
That’s it. Roughly 30 minutes in length but one supreme workout the did have me questioning why I was doing it!!
Let me know how you go.

Sep200903

james

0

Time Saving Super Workout

There are all sorts of names floating about for this type of workouts (complexes, circtuis, Cross Fit Style) but all that matters is that this is one half hour of strength, conditioning and pain that will get you in shape quick!

This workout is a modified version of the Beastly Circuit from Ashley Jones who is the Strength and Conditioning coach with the rugby team, the Crusaders.

Take one barbell (I have done it with 30kgs and 35kgs total weight, trust me, that’s plenty!) and perform the following exercises for six repetitions each before moving onto the next exercise in the series.

1. Deadlift
2. Power Clean
3. Front Squat
4. Push Press
5. High Pull
6. Bent Over Row
7. Romaniam Deadlift

So that’s 42 reps without any rest. Be sure to use a weight that you can lift on your weakest exercise of the series. You might find that your grip struggles at some stage, push through the pain but not if it compromises your safety.

Once you have done your 42 reps, jump on a stationary bike and go as hard as you can stomach for two minutes.

That’s one of six rounds. it should take between 20-25 minutes to complete all six rounds and that’s when the real ‘fun’ begins!

To finish you need to do one round, yes only one (how generous of me!!) of the following:

1. Chin Ups – Max Reps
2. Dips – Max Reps
3. Step Ups – 20 Each Leg
4. Body Row – Max Reps
5. Hindu Pushups – Max Reps
6. Jump Squats – 20 Reps
7. Pushups – Max Reps
8. Static Lunges – 20 Reps Each leg

You are now officially done! Total time should be 30 minutes or just under. If you aren’t questioning why the hell you are doing this workout from about the five minute mark onwards, then you need to lift the intensity.
You should be cursing my name by the time you hit the final stage, and you should be as happy as Larry once you are finished!

Once it’s all over you will have completed one of the toughest workouts I’ve tried and you’ll also be closer to your strength, fitness and fat loss goals.

Jul200909

james

3

Full Body Blitz

Check out this new workout I have used with some of my clients this week.

Last week I was talking about how getting stronger can make your fat loss efforts more productive. This workout will cement that idea in your psyche. The more you can lift through this workout, the more calories you will be burning (during and after the workout) and the closer you will be getting to achieving the body of your dreams.

It starts off with a Crossfit inspired combo. Here you want to use a weight that is challenging (question why you’re doing it challenging!) and rest as little as possible. Check your time on the stopwatch and try to beat it next time.
Then we move on to three mini circuits working the whole body. Keep the rest short and intensity high.
A1) Clean + Press
A2) Dumbell or Kettlebell Swing
21 reps, 15 reps, 9 reps for time (Rest as little as possible)

B1) Front Squat
B2) Push Up Rotation
4 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds rest (ie B1, B2 rest 60, B1, B2, rest…)

C1) Romanian Deadlift
C2) Swiss Ball Jack Knife
3 sets of 15 reps with 60 seconds rest

D1) Bulgarian Split Squat
D2) Chin ups (or pulldowns)
4 sets of 8-12 reps with 60 seconds rest

Jun200922

james

0

8 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Workouts

Following on from the success of the post 8 More Ways To Instantly Improve Your Eating, here is the workout version. Too often we get caught up focusing on minutia instead of getting the basics right. If we take the back basics approach, more often that no there is a lot to gain. Enough rambling, lets get to it.

  1. Stand Up. If you can do an exercise standing then….do it standing. We sit down way too much these days so the last thing you want to be doing when you are trying to improve your health, fitness and physique is to be exacerbating an existing problem.
  2. Avoid Machines. The most advanced machine known to man is, well, man itself. (Perhaps I should have said the human, but I didn’t!) Body weight exercises, free weights and other forms of resistance such as kettlebells, sand bags, resistance bands will get the job done. The only ‘machine’ worth using is an adjustable cable. If you don’t know how to exercise safely and effectively without machines get someone (ideally me…or at least someone qualified to do so) to show you what to do.
  3. Work the whole body. Yes guys, there are muscles on the back of your body. A full body workout isn’t just chest, arms and abs! Your strength in general will increase if you can squat or deadlift more weight. Strengthen your butt and hammies and you will be able to run better and fill out your jeans at the back. Increase the weight you can row, or the number of chin ups you can do and all of a sudden your bench press increases. Get to it and work the muscles you can’t see in the mirror.
  4. Go unilateral to save your back. Huh? Uni what? Think single leg exercises. Step ups, lunge variations and single leg deadlifts. These will work your legs just as much as the bilateral versions (two legs) but because you aren’t using as much weight you will decrease the amount of stress on your spine.
  5. Get up (and down). One of the best ways to get your heart rate up is to get your body moving vertically. Think about it this way. Star climbing, jumping, hill running. All of that is seriously hard work. If you want to keep the intensity up in your workouts, either throw in some sort of jumping exercise (jumping, skipping, burpees) or alternate between floor exercises and standing exercises. This little trick will send your body into a calorie burning frenzy!
  6. Weights first, cardio last. If you are doing any sort of cardio, metabolic or conditioning work make sure you leave it to the end. The reason I suggest this is two fold. First of all you want to be lifting the maximum weight possible for all of your exercises. If you are fatigued from intervals, you won’t be doing this. Secondly, if you are fatigued , physically and mentally (and you should be after some serious conditioning work) then the chance of injury will be higher. Follow this formula. Warm up, weights, intervals -> go home.
  7. Change it up. Whatever you are doing, even the most perfect workout, will have a shelf life. I’d suggest that somewhere between 3 and 6 weeks is the most you should follow the same program for. Even if you are making physical progress you will find that your potential progress might be limited when you get bored with a program. If you really like the program, mix it up, do something different for 3 weeks and come back to it.
  8. Have goals. Last but definitely not least, goals will make or break your success. Have at least one if not many. A goal might be just to workout 3 times per week. It may be to deadlift 210kgs for 5 reps (that’s one of mine right now), or it might be to train consistently for 4 weeks. Whatever the goal is doesn’t matter. If you don’t have one, why are you training?

I could keep going on but I’m sure you’ve had enough listnening to me! Lets have at it. What is your number 1 method to instantly improve your workout?

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