i'm a rule breaker

A look at what I did and how I break the rules:
i love picking up heavy stuff. that's well known, but this current cycle revolves around me getting ready to go for a 6k run through muck, mud, trees, wet grass and hills ( I've also been promised some walls and ropes to climb and nets to crawl under).


today's a lower body day so it went something like this.

rope pushdowns
yes, i know i said this was a lower body day buts here's the crux, I'm abusing the crap out of this exercise at the moment. I'll do it as many days in a row as i can keep adding reps or weight to it. then when i plateau I'll give it a rest. often I'll do them while i get everything else set up.


leg curls

just did 1 warm up set then jumped right into the heavy stuff ( i know where my limits are by now so sometimes i have extended warm ups and some time they are brief). I do these lying on the floor with a dumbbell currently ( i will post more on leg curls later)


squats; taking it easy at the moment working with these. the emphasis here is trying to get rock bottom, which for me, barefoot is just below parallel. I thought i was going wayyy down but nope, only about 2" below parallel. after watching myself on video, Olympic squaters impress the hell out of me. mentally my ass is on the my heals but the evidence says otherwise. today i kept my time down to no more than 15 minutes on these. so lighter weight, higher reps.

walk outs. okay, i can't help myself. k like picking up heavy shit, heavy being a relative term. some guys would laugh at these weights (westside) I like these for the challenge, but also for the core and structural work

now here's where it gets funny (ozzy pops into my head singing 'breaking all the rules")

i went for a 20 min jog. this is about achieving what i need for the fitness of running through muck. getting my respiratory system in shape. It also adds volume to the leg work. because of the previous leg work, I'm already warmed up at the get go instead of the normal 4:30 it usually takes when i run.

when i got back to the gym i finished off with some step ups. just couldn't help myself. i wanted to really finish the legs off and i did. i like to step up high as opposed to low (like a pump class or something)

so:
pushdowns 4 heavy sets and a back of set of 12 reps
leg curls 3 heavy working sets
squats 3 sets 20,15,12.
walk outs 2 heavy sets
jog 20 min.
step ups 3 sets

the entire session lasted just over an hour.

this set up makes the rope pushdowns we use/do a bit more user friendly. now you know i like to take the hard road, however, with the rope over the top bar, the friction generated at heavier weights makes the rope increasingly difficult to move, hence why it makes a good anchor wrapped around a tree when you're trying to lower something. this is simply a thick pvc pipe slid around the safety pin of the power rack . still hard to do the exercise but your rope will last longer and you'll get more even increases in your strength curve/ weight ratio.

'I hate everything we do, but I like the result'
Well I'm glad you like the result but if you hate the work, go find something you like. You shouldn't be miserable chasing your goals. There is no easy way out, but there should be some physical activity you like.?. Don't like the gym, take up surfing.
'I hate everything we do, but I like the result'
This statement always gets under my skin, but gives me some good practice at self control. I get to hear it a lot. Be clear in your goals, be clear about the results you want, for goodness sake, start being a bit realistic.

life and training is all about the journey; the destination is one brief moment in time that will come and go and become a faded memory with only picture of rememberance or maybe a trophy that soon looses its emotional appeal. the journey can take years, decades.


not only should you stop and smell the roses, you should watch the bees and feel the texture of the petal and the prick of the thorn.
 
Primordial Athletics is all about the effort required to bring about change, to rise above the status quo. 
despite the latest crap on late night tv and whatever fad happens to be passing through the era, there is no quick fix, (not a healthy one at any rate), there is no easy way. Gyms are full of people enslaved to the local market machine mentality that never go anywhere. 20 years down the track they are exactly the same as when they began. don't spin in circles. find something you enjoy.

find something you like
find something you love.
 
you should be saying 'i love what we do and i love the results'
 
don't like busting your ass in my training sessions?
take up surfing,
become an amature runner
take up athletics
join a softball league
take up martial arts
hell, become an yoga yogi.
 
yes we get great results, but you should look foward to your sessions, not dread them. Life is full enough of hard slogs.
love what you do
and
invest in yourself with effort.

lookin for the cold

granny didn't have much money, they were about a poor as you can ever be. but she did have a great bid air conditioner stuck in the window of a little ante room. when we were kids we'd run in from the blistering Arkansas summer and sit in front of that big damn noisy machine and freeze our nipples hard. if water had ever been spilt on the floor we'd have been able to ice skate on it. it was cold enough that you couldn't wait to go back outside and warm up again.

i went for a run today. it was hot and muggy and granny and her air conditioned ante room is what i remembered.

pushdowns

I'm always looking for new (more difficult) ways of doing things.
normally at the gym we use bands; which ones we use are dictated by the users strength and goals for the session. but i figure, I've got this rope lying around I'm going to try something different.
now what I've come up with is pretty hard. toss the rope over the power bar and push down. KISS.
here's the nuts and bolts.
vary your reps and set ranges like you normally would (i.e. whatever you need to achieve your current goals)
you need a thick bar to throw the rope over. the thin bar is to small a fulcrum
adjust your hand grip every few reps left over right; right over left
if you do this exercise you can't help but get strong triceps and tendons. it will make everything across the shoulder girdle stronger. think kinetic chain.

no rowing machine, so what

no rowing machine, no problem.
jump stretch bands; giant rubber bands
I'm generally the first person to avoid a rowing machine. I mean, I'd much rather be rowing a boat. you're just not going to have the same result, in any way, on a machine in the gym.
having said that, I'm willing to give things a go, so I've been putting myself through some various cardio pases on the rowing machine; my version.
what i have found so far:
*the movement pattern is very different from a machine, this however allows for a greater variety of movement and greater range of mimicking various rowing options. (think paddle trajectories and specificity.)(if you're an martial artist this has some pretty neat implications)
*eccentric movement: the bands make this a pretty good lower back exercise due to the nature of the eccentric contraction. I've never encountered a rowing machine with eccentric movement, the bands however have you under resistance as you return to the start position.
*constant pressure. rowing against the band keeps you under a constant contraction throughout the movement. pretty good idea for contact sports (mma) where relaxing means dying.
*grip; i found the bands, especially when i used a handle gave my forearms a good thrashing.
*cardio output. to bring yourself into a cardio range you need to apply more mental discipline, especially if your doing short bursts ( that would be 1 min. minimum).
*you can't gage distance work so you have to play with time; work versus rest; i also counted strokes (ugh-no puns please) during work sets. by watching the time and counting the reps i was able to monitor my work load.

like everything i will keep these on board for a while and then cycle through them. by using revolving parameters i can keep them in my cycle for a longer period of time. (until i feel they've outlived their usefulness.)
my client find these punishing.
this adds another multidimensional weapon to your arsenal.

top 10 ways to develop super strength

1) pick heavy shit up off the ground

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and......

10) pick heavy shit up off the ground