Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Training progression and circuits

I read an article about Jason Statham's (British actor beast) workout routine and I decided I needed to actually organize my workouts. So I made a list of just about all the exercises I could think of and tried to come up with an easy way to lump them together. I created warm up routines, of which I do two before moving on to gymnastics style moves and suspension training. Here is what I did today:

Warm up 1: 10 minutes of interval sprints - run on the treadmill varying the speed between 6mph and 8.5 (that's as fast as I can go, but go faster if you please)

Warm up 2: star jump (jumping jack) + squat thrust combos. Do 1 star jump followed immediately by a squat thrust, then do 2 star jumps followed immediately by 2 squat thrusts and so forth until you get to somewhere between 5-10 reps of each exercise.  Then work your way back down to 1 rep each and you are done and should be warm, sweaty and breathing a bit heavily. Now on to the real workout.

Gymnastics moves: same idea as above for warm up #2, start each circuit with 1 rep of each exercise and work your way up to about 5-10 and then work your way back down to 1 rep. However, here give yourself at least 30 seconds rest between circuit sets.

Combo 1: suspended rope dips + chin-ups + box jumps

Combo 2: L-sit (on dumbbells) move into Planche + pushup (any variation you like). Hold the L-sit and planche for as long as you can. Work up to about 5-10 reps of pushups and then work back down.

Suspension/Rope training: 

High back pulls (4 sets of 10-15 reps) (pull the rope straight back keeping your elbows high so that you are pulling the rope to about your chin)

Biceps Curl. Keep your arms still and curl using only your biceps. Superset this with a timed rope hang, which entails simply grabbing the suspension rope and hanging for as long as you can, trying each time to increase how long you can hang.

Rope pulls: attach a weight (today I used a 45lb/20Kg plate) to the end of the rope using a slip-knot (since there are already holes for your hands this is pretty easy to do. Place the weight plate the rope's length away from you. Grab the other end of the rope and pull the weight along the floor to your feet as quickly as you can. Mix it up a bit - pull the weight while standing on one leg, then alternate legs. Pull the weight toward you and then (holding the rope) sprint to where the weight was before you pulled it to you, turn and pull the weight, repeat until death ;-)

Suspended planks. These are good fun. Place your feet in the hand holes of the suspension rope. Then get up in the plank position - you can mix it up using either your elbows (traditional), your hands with elbows straight (advanced) or the swiss ball (fucking really hard!) Rest 20 seconds. Turn your body to one side and do a side plank (same varieties as above) and while suspended draw your knees into your chest. Make sure that you do not swing back and forth and that you maintain a proper side plank position. Rest 20 seconds and repeat on opposite side.

Cool down by stretching.
Also, I find it is important to use what Statham refers to as "active rest". Active rest is not just standing there, but rather a low intensity activity like walking around. Don't just stand there, stretch, walk, move while "resting" unless you really cannot.

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