Workout of the Week

Refer to last Saturday's video for reference.

Choose a challenging but manageable weight. Take stock and be honest about what you can lift today. If you need to adjust in the middle of the workout, do it.

Complete as many rounds of the following in 30 minutes as possible. Record your loads.

5 H.S. Burpees

5 Pullups (or assisted if necessairy)

5 Barbell Pushpress

5 Tuck Jumps (jump, knees to chest in the air)

Now MOVE!

Thursday Night Blowout

No Blowout this week kids. See you this Thursday, 8:00pm at West River Health & Racquet Club. 

Email me or post to comments here to reserve your space.

Tip & Technique: Burpee Combos

Power, speed, coordination, maximum energy expenditure, time efficient.

General goals for any good workout. Hence why I'm a fan of one of the world's most detested movements, the dreaded burpee...

The thing is, say you've become proficient at your body weight, are looking to incorporate some heavier loads, but don't want to lose the skill sets you've developed, or the high intensity endurance you've developed. There's a thousand ways to do that, high intensity weight training is a very complex, very advanced area of training. So, in order to transition in there, I'm going to build on some skills we've already covered.

So begins, the Burpee Combo Series. We'll be getting more and more complex with these combos over the next few weeks, so be sure that if you decide to try these out, make sure you've got a serious hold of one before moving on to the next. This week we're building off last week's movement, the hang squat.

I'm using a standard bar with practice plates on the in order to not disrupt the view of the movement. Choose a weight that is challenging to you. I'd probably go up a bit on this in a real workout, but that's just me. Be honest with yourself. Start slow and build up.

Now MOVE!

Taking another Look

It's about time we went back to take a look at some of the underlying principals of our training philosophy. Why do we train the way we do? How can we make our workouts more efficient?

For the next few Thursdays, I'm going to go back over our 10 Foundations. Starting...now.

Part I: Train your body weight.

Start with body weight. If we can't move our own body weight efficiently through space, what right do we have to be lifting external weight? Become proficient at moving your body through space. Develop, or relearn healthy movement patterns that will decrease your chance of injury and increase your effectiveness in your workout.

If we look at training for athletic performance, you're not going to see a basketball coach worth his salt putting his players on heavy squats before they can handle themselves on the court. Why should the rest of us be any different?

Life demands athletic performance of each of us every day. I guarantee you, if you learn proper body weight squats, body weight rows and pushes, you will progress at substantially higher rate with increased safety over more traditional training. That way, when you get around to lifting the heavier external loads, you'll be using you time much more efficiently and see elevated gains as a result.

Workout of the Week

As always, be honest with yourself. Pick loads that are challenging, but safe for your performance level, turn up the music and MOVE!

Refer to the video archive for movement instruction.

30 hang squats

2 man makers

25 hang squats

4 man makers

20 hang squats

6 man makers

15 hang squats

8 man makers

10 hang squats

10 man makers

5 hang squats

12 man makers

 

Hang squat load:

Man maker load:

Time:

Thursday Blowout

Thursday blowout went on hiatus this week. I'll see everyone next Thursday, 8pm at West River Health & Racquet. Email me or post to comments to reserve your spot.

Tip & Technique: Hang Squats

"Slow down!" "Count to ten" "If you go that fast, you're just using momentum, not actually lifting that weight!!"

Sound familiar? I'd venture that any one of you that's spent any substantial amount of time in a gym, or varsity training center has heard that one. The thought is that if the weight moves too much, then it has momentum that takes a portion of the work from you so that, in effect, you don't have to exert as much through out the entire movement and thus lose the benefit of the movement.

Ok, well...I only have one question. If that load has momentum, where the hell did it come from? A barbell doesn't have the ability to spontaneously generate dynamic momentum. A dumbbell isn't going to accelerate its self out of your hand of its own volition. Now, stick with me here, this is the part a lot of hard headed fitness folk out there have a hard time following. If an object you are moving through space has momentum, chances are...YOU GAVE IT THE MOMENTUM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

That my friends is called power development. (Force x Distance)/Time = Power. Time is the speed. You have to move something of weight relatively fast in order to impart dynamic momentum that takes load away from your slow, grinding type of strength. 

I give you, the hang squat. This is a plyometric movement, so therefore it has a huge demand and is a very complex movement. So proceed with caution. This is a fantastic movement, but like all others, can be dangerous if you're not honest with yourself about your ability and fitness level.

Your goal is to go from standing with a barbell held down at arms length into a deep squat with the barbell out in front of you at shoulder height, then back up to standing. You drop down, the bar comes up. You come up, the bar drops back down. Repeat immediately. 

Like always, you're going to see this one on Tuesday, so get to practicing. 

Now MOVE!