Workout of the Month

Recently I suggested 'Workout of the Month' to Men's Health where I would stick up a different workout each month and guys could have a bash at it. The goal is to have your own structured and progressive routine but the odd time just have a go at something different. Last months Workout of the Month was chin to dip ladders. Starting at just single repetitions you work your way up in this sort of fashion and see how high you can go -

Chin up - 1 rep
Dip - 1 rep
Chin up - 2 reps
Dip - 2 reps
Chin up - 3 reps
Dip - 3 reps

etc etc until you get to 6 on each then start again at one. If you are anything like me and need variety to spice things up then throwing in something totally different every so often is not just great for you physically but mentally you feel great trying something new.

For the December workout I stuck up my recent arms routine for the guys to try.

The focus of my current arm session is on forearms and overhead triceps work. This is one of my favourite workouts, but I will warn you, this is pretty advanced and will leave you with arms like balloons !!

The exercises work like this -

A1 - Reverse EZ bar curl

Tempo - 4 , 0 , 1 , 0

10 - 12 repetitions

Rest 35 seconds then perform A2

A2 - Dumbbell skull crushers

Tempo - 4 , 0 , 1 , 0

10 - 12 repetitions

Rest 35 seconds and return to A1

ONLY ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED FOUR SETS OF BOTH A1 AND A2 DO YOU MOVE ON TO B1 AND B2!

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B1 - Dumbbell hammer curls on preacher bench

Tempo - 5 , 0 , 1 , 0

8 - 10 repetitions

Rest 35 seconds and perform B2

B2 - Dumbbell overhead triceps extension

Tempo - 3 , 0 , 1 , 0

13 - 15 repetitions

Rest 35 seconds and repeat B1

AGAIN WORK FOR FOUR SETS JUMPING BETWEEN B1 AND B2 UNTIL THE GUNS GIVE IN AND BEG FOR MERCY.

How does tempo work ?

The first number refers to the negative portion of the movement ie the lowering part so for A1 you start at the top and count 4 seconds down.

The next number, in this case 0, is the time spent between the end of the eccentric lowering portion and the return to the concentric portion. If the number is zero then you move immediately from the negative back to the concentric lifting phase without pausing.

The zero at the top of the concentric phase, if also 0, means that you do not rest here either.

Tempo and rest periods can be manipulated for different results but for the purpose of Workout of the Month its all about the pump baby - yea , whoop whoop !!

17 weeks . . .

One of the Men's health forum regulars has set up a website to track his weight loss between now and his wedding in 17 weeks time.

Check it out

He has invited a few of the forum regulars along on his weight loss journey and now we have a total of 7 guys who will look like Brad fit in fight club by this time next year :-)

All the guys

Challenges like this are great for a number of reasons.

Goal setting - Having a goal can be the difference between constanly moving forward or stalling at the start line. Everytime you think about having a burger or a bottle of coke you are reminded of the goal in the back of your head and that can just be enough to keep your hands off the cookie jar , hands, hands, keep my hands off the cookie jar . .

Accountability - It takes a lot of balls to stick a pic up on the net and admit that you need to lose a bit of fat. These guys are doing just that and now need to get stuck in and follow the challenge or the whole group will feel let down. When the site went live and people started joining up there were actually quite a few that didn't make it . The guys that are involved are not only doing it for themselves and their fat loss buddies but they must also prove to the guys that didnt get on board that their place was worth it. To those involved, you are now accountable to the blog readers too - good luck :-)

Support - It is important to have other guys around you that can help lift you up when you are flailing and vice versa. I am lucky in that Rachael is as mad about training as myself and we can keep each other motivated but for many guys and girls they lack that support at home. Being accountabile and having the support from those around you should both be seen as positives.

Best of luck guys . .

Supplements . .

Supplements are simply that . . . supplements. They are not meant to replace food or give you big guns in a week. They are simply a nice add on when everything in your diet is already spot on. Some people believe a 2 pound tub of weight gain will help them add two stone . . . it won't. Think a few fat burners will strip the belly off ? nope - that won't happen either.

Ok, now that I've cleared that up what are they good for?

Well my diet at the mo is textbook as I switch from the anabolic diet bulking phase back to my own diet plan. I have been working on a pretty advanced split routine and would like to drop a bit of body fat to compliment this new routine. This time round I have decided to do my usually diet plan but with a few extra supplements thrown in.


PROTEIN POWDER

I have been taking the Boditronics whey for a while now and find this spot on when I can't get time to eat. Protein shakes are purely for convenience as I can neck them in work when working with clients, something you can't do with a fillet steak and a bowl of veg. A tub of protein lasts me ages as I never really drink the stuff, its just a back up.

FISH OIL

I used to eat a load of fish but soon sickened myself and now rely more on land animals for my protein intake. I started adding fish oil in to help bump up the good fats and have experimented with various dosages in my diet. I know I respond a lot better to a low carb high, higher fat and higher protein diet and so I bought a load of fish oil from myprotein.co.uk to help keep my good fats up.

To quote Dr Berardi and the research he has in turn quoted -
Delarue et al (1996) showed that fish oil supplementation (6g/day added to the diet) dramatically changed the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates.

During an OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test - drinking a big 75g whack of liquid sugar and measuring the subjects for 2 hours afterward), the fish oil group burned 27g of fat vs. 20g in the placebo group. The fish oil group also burned 28g or carbs while storing 36g and the placebo group burned 51g of carbs while storing only 14g.

In addition, baseline insulin was 30% lower in fish oil group and insulin responses to OGTT were 50% lower in the fish oil group. What this tells us is that fish oil allows the body to burn more fat and store more muscle glycogen, repartitioning fuel away from fat cells toward muscle cells.

POST WORKOUT

Again I opt for Boditronics to fill that post workout window. I know Maximuscle have their own brand as do most other big supplement companies but I think in general the ingredients are pretty similar. I order all my protein from Boditronics to save on delivery but you should feel free to shop around and see whats out there. The choice now when it comes to supplements is just ridiculous. This shake already contains creatine and glutamine so I don't bother adding those to my supplement list in the form of extra supplements.

ANIMAL PAK

I recently found myself arsing about on ebay and with a few quid in my paypal I decided to buy a few Animal Pak products. First off, Animal Cuts. Again my diet when I go to lean out is pretty much textbook with cheats thrown in when I feel like it. I thought i'd see how I go with a fat burner combo sort of pack added in. To compliment the Animal Pak Cuts I also threw in a tub of their multi vitamin for good measure. The AP multi vitamin is geared more towards guys that train a hell of a lot and therefore has dosages higher than those found on the super market shelves.

BIOTEST

As I was buying the Animal Pak stuff I noticed the ebay site also had some Biotest stuff. Biotest is the supplement company linked to t-nation and although their stuff is pretty expensive to get in the UK I treated myself to a tub of Tribex, which is basically a testosterone booster.

Again this stuff is all just a nice add on and pretty poinltess if your diet looks like sh*t. As always I will keep you all posted until i change my mind and decide to bulk up again!

:-)

Euro Training. .

Sorry for all the videos in one go but this has to be a favourite.

Me heading off to work . .

This actually looks like fun as you are trying to power the thing along and steer at the same time.

Lose weight the easy way !!

New Plan

This move will not be in my new routine ..




















I love the upper / lower split. In all my years it has been one of the best mixes of frequency, volume etc that has worked for me. What I would like to do know though is bring up a few weakness which calls for a bit of isolation work.

Arms day - Often seen as old school and pointless I still love working the guns the odd time on a guns only day. With my new plan I am going for an arms day which will include rotator cuff and grip work. You can't lift what you can't hold so the plan for me here is to strengthen the weaknesses between my hands and upper back in the hope it improves my larger compound lifts.

Legs day - As I have just started the Olympic lifts I plan to keep them in early on legs day and work for heavy weight low reps to lighter weights at the end on things like lunges and suitcase dead lifts. The kettlebell we have in work is too light for me at the mo so I may have to order my own and fit that into my next routine.

Chest and Back - One of the reasons I loved the upper/ lower split was the fact you could mix together push and pull giving the ultimate upper body pump. By having a separate arms days I will devote chest and back to just chest, back and some rotator cuff work - maybe even a bit of grip work here too.

Tempo - For years I overlooked tempo. If a client went too fast I would slow them down - too slow and I would speed them up a touch with the goal being a smooth repetition. With tempo I will know the speed of each rep exactly to make sure it corresponds with my goals of hypertrophy. If, for example, two guys are going for 6 reps each and one person is pumping them out while another guy is doing a 4 seconds negative with a one second concentric and no pauses then the total time under tension will be different. Different time under tension can equate to different results.
On legs day I will be using explosive tempo and for everything else I will play about with various bar speed.

Variety - The problem with being my own coach is the lack of variety in my own routines. While I can make clients do all sorts of torture stuff ( :-) ) I know I fall towards the stuff I love and therefore this routine will see me making some sort of change to every exercise except for the Olympic ones. Suitcase deadlifts / pullover chin ups / various external rotations etc - all new stuff.

Grip - Leading on from variety I plan to play about a lot more with my grip. The upper body needs a bit more variety whereas legs can respond well to the basics as long as the rep ranges change.


Offset grip












Rather than just holding dumbbells with a standard grip I want to play about with the offset and reverse offset grip. This changes the distribution of weight and can make exercises harder or easier. An offset grip, as shown, will make a curl harder as you twist from a semi supinated to supinated position as the weight is unbalanced. A dumbbell skullcrusher on the other hand with an offset grip will actually be harder as you have to grip the handle more rather than allow the plate to rest on your hand.

When doing dips we all use a hammer grip (proper dips, not bench dips). A hammer grip is semi supinated with hands pointed towards the body. I plan to use this grip on incline dumbbell bench press rather than my old pal the flat barbell bench. The semi suppination gives a better range of movement and is a bit nicer on the shoulders. As my incline is also my weakest (as it is for most) I hope strengthening this will cross over to the likes of flat bench and shoulder pressing. I have been using bars far too long and really need more dumbbell stuff.

Rest periods - I never timed my rest periods. For me it was always about being at one with the weights and knowing instictively when you where ready to go. Then a load of years ago I started timing rest periods just out of curiousity and my rest was far too long. Since then I have played about with rest and for this program it will be textbook to allow for reovery between my lifts - most of which will be super sets.

So there you have it. For the next few weeks I will implement changes and perform a split routine - after this I may go for the upper lower again to see how I go - who knows. Bodybuilding is like a game of chess - you perform a sweet move and the body counteracts - its all about trying to implement something new and mix it with the basics until checkmate then mix it all up again. The details of my routine will come through over the next few weeks.

PICP Level one

Charles Poliquin - he knows his shit










First off - apologies to the regular readers. My blog has been quieter than an estates agents these last few days.

Secondly I must apologise to London. On my many visits to the big smoke I have often swore under my breathe at the price of everything. A tube here and a train there and before long you're skint. London you have nothing on Dublin!

Rach and I headed off to Dublin on thur night with the plan being Rach could arse about the shops while I study my plums off on the level one poliquin course. When we arrived it wasn't long before we discovered Rachaels car was broke. To cut a long story short her visit to Dublin evolved into a whistlestop tour around all the different garages and mechanics! (she drives it like she stole it!)

For me the course was the dogs balls. As a big fan of Charles Poliquin I had high hopes. Lets just say this course exceeded expectations every way. To get on the level one course you need to get 92% on an exam. On the first day of the course we studied structural balance work and again had to pass exams with a high pass rate - 92% on the paper with a practical assessment to top it off.

What did I learn?

Lots of new stuff regarding strength, balance, injuries, periodization etc etc

I never knew it was so important to work on the neck to improve the alignment of the cervical 7 which can then bring about an improvement in arm size. Combine that with a variation in offset and reverse offset grips and various grip work and before you know it - big guns!

The course reminded me of the benefits of german volume training - something I haven't done in maybe 10 years. I also had my eyes opened to some great ideas in regards to relative strength and fucntional hypertrophy. Keep an eye out for my new routine!

Shattered . .

Barbells and dumbbells have been the staple of my workouts. As you all know I am not a big fan of doing one foot curls while on a Bosu thingy that could induce a slight form of sea sickness. For me, training is about lifting the big stuff then adding weight to make the big stuff bigger. Her indoors pretty much sings from the same sheet as me, again as you all know by now. On that note we had the opportunity to attend a course at the weekend with Sam Dovey and John Buckland from Kettlebelltrainer.co.uk.






















I had been a bit ballsy in asking but Sam was keen to host a course just for myself and Rachael as the dates he had didn't really suit us. With everything set we headed to London and met up at Genesis Gym in Wembley. If you get the chance or live close to this gym you NEED to train there. Lots of big boys lifting lots of big weights - awesome. The atmosphere in this type of old school hardcore gym is hard to find but reminds of the days when I stared training in Centaur here in Belfast - a truly hardcore dungeon gym where every rep counts and statements like 'high reps to tone' could get you killed.

Not to get too side tracked you can see a snip of Genesis gym on youtube -



Yes that is a proper monolift squat rack which saves you having to walk back and forwards with big weight. As you lift the weight up the supports swing out of the way and you bang out reps until your spotter swings the hooks back in. A top piece of kit that I have never even seen before in the flesh (These should be used in competition but I have yet to see one being used in Ireland - guys and girls walk out with a loaded weight on their backs)























Ok, back to the course. The aim of this course was to teach us Olympic lifting / Powerlifting and Kettlebells. Now I know my squats, benches and deadlifts pretty well but to me 'Snatch' was a movie by Guy Ritchie staring Brad Pitt and that guy that used to date my ex Kelly Brook a few years back. It was also our first lift of the day. The Snatch is a complex move - even worse than driving while drunk and texting (just kidding, I would never text while drunk) We moved through the other moves and their associated common faults and teaching points - within a few reps you could feel everything click together. Just wait til you see me in 2012 banging out reps of 400 kg snatches at the Olympics!

After a lot of practise on the various stages of Olympic lifting it was on to Powerlifting. Again, as you know, Rach holds a few titles in the sport and I take full credit for her awesome style :-) but we still got to work through each lift with the guys and chat about various ways to improve on the big three. For me it was great to have someone double check my technique. In the gym I often witness weird and wonderful variations of lifts and assume I am shit hot but hey its always good to have your bad habits assessed by someone else - especially as I can only see my form from one angle whereas these guys could asses my posture from various points of view. Then we moved on . .

I had maybe swung a Kettlebell once or twice in MMA but that was as far as I had got. Like Swiss balls and Powerplates I just saw Kettllebells as another gimmick that was making money for the right guys in the industry but they seemed to snowball in popularity and become the staple of many MMA and strength coach workouts. Too many top guys were using them for me to just ignore the benefits.


Old schooler swing a 'bell' . . .


Speedos have been around a while too.
















The problem with many tools used by Personal Trainers and the like is the fact that many choose just to rely on one tool. I saw guys using Kettlebells for everything just as Swiss balls had been used for everything from squats to benching. After attending the course with Sam and John I have gained a new respect for this piece of kit. While none of us believe it can truly replace the big lifts, nor should it, they can be a great tool to add to the box. My goal of the course was to learn a bit more about the explosive lifts in the hope that they could benefit my own 'slow' lifts such as the squat and deadlift and give me more ideas when working with clients - I was looking forward to trying the Kettlebells out properly and feck me was I busted. A fews swings here and the odd clean there and I was seeing stars. I was so impressed with how these bad boys could be used that in future I may work along side Sam and his coaches in developing courses here in Ireland! Will keep you all posted.

To sum up the weekend we ended up missing our flight and had to sleep in Luton airport in the hope that Easyjet would have some seats when we awoke. 15 hours later we were on our way home . . . shattered but excited and looking forward to putting some new skills to use.

A big thank you to Sam and John again for the eye opening, fun day which has renewed my confidence in courses.

Next week I will be in Dublin from Thur to Sun attending a Poliquin course. Again a def one to have under the belt.