Core Stability. Not just abs.

 

 

If you can do a movement sitting down OR standing, always pick standing. This added force you use do the movement and keep stable is a huge benefit to your core.

Also picking movements that are done over head, or force you to have a weight transfer from from your hands to your feet will help build the REAL core that you have wanted.

Some examples of these useful movements and weight transfers are hand stand pushups (see above picture), Olympic lifting, standing dumbbell curls and standing shoulder presses.

keep working hard everyone! here is a great upper body core workout for you.

Workout 8-1 

Complete 7 rounds of the following for time…

• 7 x triple unders (21x double unders or 63 singles)
• 7x chest to bar pull ups
• 7x Power snatch (95#/65#)
• 7x handstand push ups

If you need an alternate to these movements. post in the comments!

-Mike 

Tuesday Gym Tips (it is a numbers game)

Sick of using the same reps/sets/exercise patterns? well stop using them. Lets make things interesting by using some great techniques and creative thought to make your workout more interesting.

A majority of the fitness population have heard the same advice when it comes to strength training. 3 sets of (some amount of reps), why not 4 sets? why not 2 sets? Lets talk numbers.

Take a few minutes before lifting to figure out what area of your body you want to improve that day.

Get to the gym and warm up with body weight exercises and stretching (10 minutes).

Pick the major muscle groups you're going to be hitting and start warming them up with light sets of movements that work that specific muscle group. Doing these light sets are important and will reduce the possibility of injury.

Since you have hit the major muscles, your secondary muscles are now warmed up and ready to be focused on. since they will be partially fatigued at this point but still feeling ready for work, hit them hard. Drop sets/ ladders/ pyramids/ partial rep sets with light weight burn sets/ heavy low rep sets.

now that you have hit the major and minor muscle groups to be focused on. hit some of the weak points you missed, calves, forearms, core, lower back.

At this point you should be pretty well roasted and praying that it ends soon. This is the point where you can walk out, or keep going for that extra mile.. literally. Follow up your workout with intense cardio, (double unders, interval sprints, sprint a mile, high box jumps, tabata style interval training". 

Now that you have put in all the possible energy you could expend. Be sure to spend the next 30 minutes and eat and drink. Consume the amount of calories you need to replenish or eat slightly less if your looking to lose weight. Water is just as important and food, drink plenty of water to ensure you aren't dehydrated.

Workout 

21 - 15 - 9 Reps

Wall Ball Throws ( 20#, scale down to jumping air squats)

pushups 

Between each round, run 400m with wall ball, or 10# weight 

Go hit the gym!

Personalizing Your Routine

          Sorry for this recent disappearance. I have been trying to make as much time as possible for clients and the gym so i can make my impact. I now have 9 full time clients and they are all making progress in what ever way that they were looking to make. But all of them are increasing their health.

        No routine will work for everyone, that is why a personal trainer is useful for helping create a workout built for you. I have a baseline routine i start people off on. It revolves around 3 days (upper, lower and total), but some people need more attention to certain points. Some of these special points of attention are agility, core, rehab and endurance. They don't need their own day, but touching on them more often than other things may sometimes be useful.

1) Find your weak points and work on them.

2) Use your strengths as a break from working hard on the weaknesses
    Ex: I have weak triceps but a strong chest. Hit your triceps and then do a chest exercise (which also works your triceps) to work on your weaknesses more than your strengths.

3) Push yourself harder than you think you can.

4) Don't let things get in the way of eating healthy and making time for the gym.

5) Ask for help if you are unsure of a movement, Also google is useful. I love when people ask me if their form is alright. It is a free 5minute PT session.

6) Someone in the gym knows more than you do. They are the ones to watch and learn from.

7) When creating your routine, always include a warm up exercise in the beginning, and a warm up set at the beginning of each muscle group.

8) Don't over-train a certain muscle group, or do to much of a single type of cardio.

Use any of that information if you find it useful. Even if you know about these things, it is good to hear it again from time to time.

Workout 7-23

With a 20 minute clock running

Jump rope 2 minutes 

perform as many push ups as possible until failure

(write down your # of pushups)

(start from the beginning again)

keep performing jump rope and max pushups until you run out of time. your score is the # of pushups you complete

You can do jumping jacks, Rowing machine, 2 minutes of running, 15 Double Unders as a sub for the jump rope. you can do pushups on your knees as a sub for standard pushups. 

Post your score in the comments.

The Next Step, High Intensity Training (Turning Steal)

Do you know those exercises you hate to do? you should do more of those. 

Recently i was asked what the next step would be to see more gains. They had been seeing great results and they want to go further. This is a common question I hear quite often. As a personal trainer, my first response to someone would be to get some personal training with me of course. A personal trainer can restructure workouts and diet plans. There are a few tricks and tips i can share to help out the avid fitness buff looking to get more out of their workout.

Decrease your rest! Stop texting, facebooking, tweeting, and socializing in general. I understand that the gym is a great place to pick up girls or guy, but if a girl/guy sees you absolutely crushing a workout and focused, shoot them a smile. If all goes well they will slip you their phone number and leave it at that.

If you usually take a minute of rest between sets, take 45 seconds. If you aren't used to doing super-sets of multiple exercises, start incorporating them into your routine (back to back exercises with no rest).

Do core movements between other exercises to get your abs worked out while not spending more time in the gym. Doing this also keeps your heart rate up and you will get more out of your time in the gym.

Drop Sets are great for taking a good routine to the next level of training. Example: A set of hammer curls by itself can be a great exercise if you push yourself to keep good form and get enough reps and sets in. After you are about to fail with your set, pick up a lighter weight (5 - 10 pounds lighter) and do another set right away. and then take your rest. This can work for almost every exercise.

Diet is a big part of progress, if your trying to gain. Eating one more meal can make a big difference on how your body recovers and receives its energy. If you are trying to lose weight, tracking your calories and allocating calories per meal is an important way to make sure your not over eating on a meal to meal basis.

Hydration is something i assess with every client and anyone i give a fitness consultation too. It is just as important as whether or not they smoke or drink alcohol. Everyone can drink more water, even if its just a glass more per day.

Sleep is necessary for everyone in different ways. Getting enough sleep per night to rebuild and function is important for body builders. and maintaining a healthy sleep cycle is important for those trying to lose weight so they can get thru the day without napping and to keep a healthy metabolism.

Consistency is a defining mark of an individual looking to maximize their progress. 5 meals every day, enough water every day, working out on a regular basis and not eating the wrong foods on a weekly basis.

Once you have met most of these by yourself and you hit your next plateau is when you should consider getting a personal trainer. If you are unable to push yourself to achieve what was just laid out in this list, you should also get a personal trainer to push you to reach your goals.

Workout 7-10 (Turning Steal)

 5 Rounds of

Single Arm Flat Bench (12-15 reps on each side)

Rotating Shoulder press (12 - 15 reps)

Front plank (1 minute)

Drink some water

5 Rounds of

15 Walking Lunges (15 on each leg)

20m of max distance frog jumps

2 minute of Farmers carry (hold weight in right hand for one minute,

And then carry it for another minute in left hand)

5 minutes of continues ab work

If you can think of an ab exercise, 

do it until you cant anymore and then do the next one 

that comes to mind until the 5 minutes is up.

 - Mike

 

Want To Be Heathy, But Won't Work For It

Being in good health is expected in our society.

We expect to do as we please and just avoid certain things and live our lives happily. It takes hard work and dedication in fitness and diet to almost promise a healthy life. But even then there is some things out of your control such as genetics and accidents. The things that can be controlled should be controlled daily.

Eating healthy, stay active and drinking water.

As a personal trainer i have clients from the age of 19 to 75. It is amazing to me to hear the stories of fitness and health from the 75 year old and try to apply it to the younger clients. But somethings from back in the day don't work anymore due to science proving them to be unhealthy. You have a chest cold? smoke a lucky strike!.

I wish i could help every single people that i come to, but i only have so many hours in a day. i love that i am getting booked up client wise, but i am always looking to help everyone (the reason for this blog), so please take any information and use it how you see fit. 

Workout (Body Armor) 

Body armor is a workout routine i designed for mixed martial arts and to keep your

upper body and core as strong as possible. building up muscle "Dense muscle" helps take

imparts from opponents and give you all around mid line strength.

Dumbbell shoulder press (3 sets of 6 - 8 reps)

Incline chest press (4 sets of 8 - 12 reps)

Flat flys ( 3 sets of 12 - 15 reps)

Roman chair crunches (3 sets till failure)

Russian twists (3 sets till failure)

Crunches (300 total, go until failure, take a deep breathe and go again)

Consistancy, not quick what you think. Caveman Style.

When i say consistency is key, my clients get it confused sometimes. 

Diet and fitness: keeping up with a healthy balanced diet every meal of every day is what makes the   biggest amount of improvement in how people look and feel. I do allow cheat meals, not because people need them, but because we are all human and we like to enjoy certain things, some of which might not be the best diet choice.

       -Earn your cheat days: Before major eating holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) i like to host workouts where my clients/friends/family have a chance to earn their meal and help make up for the massive amount of calories about to be eaten.

However, consistency to me also means keeping in touch with our ancient background. If something has worked for humans for hundreds of thousands of years, don't change it. Caveman had to chase down their food, kill it, and carry it home. This is the core to my training. My diet also revolves around what was available to humans for the majority of time compared to the recent discoveries of farming and the industrialization of food production.

What is the best choice for footwear?

In a recent law suit, sketcher's shape ups have been sued for causing injury in the feet, knees and hips of wearers. The "Ground breaking" design of the semi circle arch causes stress fractures to bones and increases stress on joints and forces them to move in a way they aren't meant to move. They also have been proven to not cause anymore benefit to the body than regular walking. Source

Barefoot Running: I don't care if you have to wear those silly looking nylon shoes/socks that are banned by most military branches, these are a better option for you than any other footwear. Decreasing the padding underneath ones foot causes them to run the way the body is supposed too (lightly heal striking is okay). We are lucky and cursed to have shoes to protect our feet, but in the process we have become used to landing heavily on our heals which is not very efficient for us.

"most proponents add, because landing near the front of the foot will require less oxygen and effort and allow you to push harder at any given speed and ultimately run faster or longer."

Live like a caveman/cavewoman the best you can, from your diet and fitness to how you travel from point A to point B. 

Caveman Workout

LSD Run or Swim (Long Slow Distance, how far you can travel in 1 hours worth of time at a moderate pace). 

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes

5 pullups (or jumping pullups)

10 pushups

15 Air Squats. 

Note*If you fail to compete a round when the minute ends, just start right into pullups for the next round. 

Bonus -  if you had to cut some of the sets short, just make up the reps you missed out on at the end. Great bonus right?? 

Personal Trainer Mike

Handstand Pushups, Step by Step Instruction

Handstand pushups seem useless used just for showing off, but the movement is actually useful. It is a body weight movement you can do anywhere and works your shoulders, stabilization muscles, and core. There is a process to get to the handstand pushup but i will start with the simple pushup. Hands shoulder width apart, feet on the ground and just get very proficient in them. After many many pushups i suggest using a step up box and putting it under your feet so your feet are slightly elevated. Eventually increasing the height of the box until you can put your feet on a bench and do plenty of pushups. (See Picture Below)

As you increase the height of your feet you will also increase the amount of weight that is transferred to your hands also to work the muscles and develop the movement needed to get to the handstand pushup (or at least to the next step).

The next step is to walk your hands back towards the bench to get closer to the position your upper body will be in while in the handstand position. Practice this form of pushup while keeping your feet on the bench for stability. 

We are getting closer! while you are in the position, do nice controlled pushups. Get comfortable while being upside down and pause in different spots in the course of the pushup movement to build your confidence.

The next step is get in the normal pushup position with your feet flat against a wall and to walk your feet up the wall and to walk your hands backwards until your body is in a 45 degree angle. This may take some practice and you might want to remove your shoes if you care about your wall.

Put a mat under you so you feel safe from fall damage which may happen but you aren't going to fall to far. Practice walk ups and then walk back down the wall until you are back in the normal pushup position and Repeat! 

Keep building your strength control and confidence until you can walk up the wall far enough so that you are almost vertical and hold that position to get the feeling of a handstand hold (also a great workout in itself). While in this position lower your head onto a mat slowly, if you can't push back up, that's okay. keep practicing until you have the upper body strength to hold the handstand for 30 seconds and then slowly lower. 

After a while you will feel confident from all the practice and steps, and with someone present you can have them spot you so you feel safer from falling away from the wall!

The Final extra step!

Practice single arm dumbbell or kettlebell presses and holds. continue building up your strength and stability and eventually you can attempt single arm handstand holds and pushups!

Keep up the hard work and don't quit!