A series of firsts
By · CommentsIn my last post, I talked about starting the Russian Kettlebell Challenge program which is a 12 week program. I’ve completed two weeks of the program and am mid way through the third where I’ve achieved a number of firsts.
Now the first four weeks of the program could probably be tackled by someone with little to no fitness while I came into this program with good strength and above average cardio. However, I feel I perform best when rigidly sticking to a program so that’s what I’ve been doing.
While the first two weeks may have been a little on the easier side, the so called 12 Minute Man Maker that pops up twice a week has left me on the floor sucking wind more than once. I will confess, I’ve added to one of the shorter workouts that’s over in 15 minutes as I’ve felt it’s just not long enough, then again that’s all over in just over a week and a half.
This week I’ve achieved a series of firsts: the first time I’ve managed a set of 40 swings, the first time I’ve managed 200 swings in a workout, the first time I’ve dropped below 78kg in 10 years and on Monday I pulled off an alternating kettlebell swing.
As the program states, I’ve been practising some of the harder kettlebell movements as from week five I’ll need to bring clean & presses and snatches to the workout. I’m getting pretty good at snatches with both hands and cleans with the right, but I still bang my forearm on the left side.
The big achievement lately though is weighing in at 77kg. That officially drops me from middleweight to welterweight leaving me one weight class above my goal weight. I’m working really hard on the diet front, and while I may not see too much more weight loss until after week five, I know I’m on the right track.
Not bad for a guy who weighed in at 86kg just six months ago, and a whopping 102kg 11 years ago.
Time for a new challenge
By · CommentsAs part of my new efforts to lose weight, I’ve been poking around to find a plan or program that will suit my needs. While free styling is enjoyable, I always wonder if I’m hitting all the right spots so tend to favour fairly rigid programs that tell me exactly what to do.
I’ve settled on the Russian Kettlebell Challenge or RKC, based on the sports science developed in the former Soviet Union where they were able to take athletes and turn them into champions despite a lack of facilities and equipment. In fact, one of the warm up exercises is a wall squat, squatting with your toes against a wall to force you to use proper technique. Very Soviet.
It’s a 12 week program, longer than Rushfit’s 8, but starts off fairly light with some simple conditioning work and practise of the more complex kettlebell moves. I’ve tried out the harder moves already, and it’s clear that practise is very important if you don’t want a heavy kettlebell bouncing off your forearm.
I’m keeping up the mixed martial arts, and throwing some HIIT training in as well. The program lists rest days as do what you like, rest or workout but don’t do any extra lifting.
I also decided to test my heart rate after today’s workout. My resting heart rate is 68, immediately after completing my workout it was 152, then two minutes later it had dropped to 96 which puts me at above average fitness for a man of my age. Good to know but I’m shooting for more than just above average.
The quest for lightweight
By · CommentsOver the past year or so my weight has been up and down like a yoyo, although if I’m being brutally honest it’s been more up than down. Recently I’ve been pushing hard and gotten myself back down to 81kg, although I was 79kg back in February.
It seems every time I drop below 80kg, something happens that causes me to go back over 80kg again like an injury, or often just a general lack of motivation. But now I’ve decided that I’ve got to really push hard to get down to my goal weight so if there’s any yoyo effect, I’m well within the healthy weight range.
I’m a big fan of mixed martial arts, in fact I’m also a student these days, and I often like to see which weight class I fall into. Currently I’m a very light middleweight, and should drop to welterweight by the end of the month but my real goal is lightweight which is 155lbs or just under 71kg.
That means that I have around 10kg to drop so I’m making a few changes. Firstly, out goes any sugar which can be avoided, if something is naturally sweet like fruit or honey, it’s fine but added sugar is to be avoided. I’m sure there will be the occasional lapse but I plan to stick pretty close to this rule.
Second, out goes long slow cardio like distance running, in comes a combination of cardio and weights or HIIT training. Today’s workout was a good example of that, alternating between a minutes skipping and a minute worth of functional weights. Tomorrow without access to my usual gym, I’m doing a Tabata boxing session.
Finally, and this is probably the hardest of the lost, stick to the bloody diet! I know the rules, I know the portion sizes, I know the ins and outs but I still slip up far too often. My wife and son are headed up to Auckland for a long weekend towards the end of May, I’m targeting that weekend as my ONLY cheat from now on.
Hopefully, by the end of next month I’ll be sitting nicely in the welterweight division, heading for lightweight. Then, watch out Benson Henderson! (just kidding)
Achievement unlocked: Ready to rumble
By · CommentsSo yesterday I attempted eight rounds of the MMA inspired workout I mentioned in my last post. After a quick warm up (5km run) I knuckled under and pushed myself as hard as I could to finish in less than 15 minutes.
There were a couple of times during the assisted chin ups and inverted shoulder presses that I got very close to muscle failure, but I was able to push through the pain and fatigue to finish in 13:23.
So where to from here? I’m going to do it all again tomorrow!
I’m in better shape than I thought
By · CommentsSo my January was going OK exercise wise, with the late starts at work, the longer day light hours and just the general good feeling that summer give I was going well. Marine Fit, Navy Seal workout, a hill run with a 291m vertical climb and I even blew the dust off my dumbbells.
Then with the beginning of term looming work turn to complete chaos and I was finding all sorts of excuses, the main one being that I was just too tired. I skipped day after day on that excuse but when I did make it out for a run I noticed something really odd, I was going faster and faster. I haven’t run anything further than 6.5km since February 2011, instead preferring to focus on getting a decent cardio workout to combine with some form of resistance training, usually callisthenics.
I had a good run last Saturday and thought that I’d gotten through my flat spot, only to find myself skipping Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday I’d decided enough was enough and threw my running gear into a bag and took it to work so that I could run at lunch time.
I decided to combine Thursday’s run with a workout I found in the January 2012 issue of Australian Men’s Health. It’s pretty simple, four exercises, no rest in between and six rounds starting with six reps of each and dropping a rep each round until the final round is just one rep. The four exercises are Hindu push ups, assisted chin ups, inverted shoulder press and upright power row.
The article in Men’s Health mentions that if you get through the full six rounds in less than 15 minutes to add an extra round next time starting at seven and if you can complete eight rounds in less than 15 minutes, according to MMA trainer Chad Waterbury you’re “ready to rumble”.
I finished six rounds in just over 9:30 so resolved to start at seven next time around. On Friday I ran a new personal best for both the 5km and the mile, shaving 0:44 off my previous best for the 5km. I think I set that PB when my Nike+ was misconfigured too, when I first used it, it added roughly 20% on to my distances but this time I know I did that 5km in 23:00.
Not content with that PB, I then sat down and powered through Hard Corps Abs from Marine Fit. Two of school’s gun rowers were impressed with my core strength too as I busted out the atomic sit ups, one of the most painful exercises known to man I’m sure.
Today I put in another good run of 5.5km (23:43 for the 5km too) followed by the Men’s Health MMA workout again. This time I got through seven rounds in 12:09, somehow I think eight rounds in under 15 minutes is a realistic goal for next week.
I also jumped on the scales at work and found I’m a little heavier than I thought, coming in at 80kg although I did have shoes on. Therefore I have around 10kg to drop but I think it’s a realistic goal. I’m still 22kg down on the heaviest I ever weighed.
And my final word of warning to those out there, it takes a lot of hard work to get that extra weight off. Most of that weight loss came from training for half marathons when I was putting in 30-50km a week, and take it from me, that’s very hard work, hard enough that I think twice before I bite into a Big Mac.
Suggestions for this recipe please
By · CommentsSo last week I tried out a recipe out of Men’s Health which looked pretty good. It’s just chicken and brown rice cooked in beer, sounded pretty good on paper but just didn’t quite work for my wife and I.
So I turn to the internet to give me some suggestions on how to fix this recipe. I should probably point out that the original recipe called for wheat beer which I didn’t have so used an APA instead, so that could have contributed to the failure.
- 250g chicken breast
- 2 cups of cooked brown rice
- 1 cup of chopped vegetables
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- 1 bottle of beer
Season chicken then brown on all sides in a pan. Remove chicken and stir fry vegetables for one minute. Add in cooked rice, chicken and stock then heat until the liquid boils. Add the beer then cover and bake in the oven at 150 for 10 minutes.
So what could I replace the beer with? My initial thought was just water to keep the amount of liquid the same but perhaps I could use something to enhance the flavour. Ideas?
No plan survives contact with the enemy
By · CommentsSo I’ve changed my plan a little bit with regards to my exercise. The old plan of alternating between MarineFit and Navy Seal six days a week was a good one but it lacked one important factor: It just wasn’t fun. The problem with that is that if it’s not fun I’m likely to start finding excuses to not do it so time for a change.
I’ve decided to go back to my old reliable method: running. I enjoy running, it’s a good way to stay in shape and requires not additional equipment, especially since I got a new pair of running shorts and a new pair of socks for Christmas from my wife.
I’ve also decided not to really push the envelope with distances, wallowing in the shallows of 5-8km runs and supplementing it with weight training once I’ve built up a decent level of running fitness.
Yesterday I managed a really good 6.5 km run at lunch time with a good time and felt almost perfect the whole way around. Almost because I managed to roll my ankle on some uneven ground around the 1km mark, thanks earthquakes!
Thanks to that little hiccup I had to give myself today off running because the ankle doesn’t feel quite right. It’s not particularly painful, more stiff than anything but I know running on it will slow down the healing process and I’d rather avoid that.
A good week’s work
By · CommentsSo as part of the new year, I’ve increased my effort to stick to my workout plan more strictly. This week I managed to hit the mark perfectly, completing six workouts this week.
I’ve picked up a couple of military style workouts that combine callisthenics and cardio in the form of body weight exercises followed by running. Now running is something I’ve always enjoyed and found quite easy but the callisthenics before hand make for a much tougher workout.
Running the numbers, I’ve put in some pretty hard work. So far this week I’ve done:
- 300 star jumps
- 255 press ups
- 180 sit ups
- 75 mountain climbers
- 75 eight count body builders
- 75 leg raises
- 30 Hindu push ups
- 75 flutter kicks
- 60 squat thrusts
- 75 bicycle abs
- 15 tricep dips
- 42 pull ups
- Run 28km
Not bad huh?
Need to cut out the slacking
By · CommentsSo it wasn’t that long ago I finished Rushfit and got myself into the best shape I’ve been in a long time. Then I started slacking, suddenly my exercise wasn’t as important as it should have been. I’d make a plan, then push it back a day, then another day and next thing you know I’m working out two days a week.
Then I got really slack and let it slip to the point where one week the only exercise I got was supervising students while they were ice skating. Sure I skated for two and a half hours, but the sheer number of students on the ice meant I didn’t really get my heart rate up.
This week I’ve put that slacking to rest with some hard workouts that have me feeling much better about myself. Monday and Tuesday of this week I spent my lunch break doing the Marine Fit workout I’ve previously mentioned, fortunately with little to no pain from the running.
Wednesday was a tough one as that was the day of our staff Christmas lunch. As luck would have it, I found a workout online that I thought looked really interesting. It’s the strength training segment from Navy Seal boot camp, I told you they were tough! After a good warm up, you do 15 press ups, 20 sit ups and 3 pull ups with no rest in between, then rest for two minutes and repeat three more times.
Thursday and Friday had me really finding my groove, getting up at 6am to fit in the Marine Fit workout before breakfast, followed by a nutritious breakfast of course. With the weather being nice and the sun coming up nice and early, it’s quite a pleasant way to start the day.
Tomorrow I’m planning something a little easier and giving myself Sunday off. I had previously used Friday as my rest day while doing Rushfit and found it worked quite well for me, going to have to tweak my schedule a bit so that I can get back to that too.
Ah, progressl
By · CommentsI must say, today I was pleasantly surprised when I put myself through the Marine PFT again I actually found it all easier and managed to improve on last week’s score of 141.
After getting some pain in my knee after last weekend’s runs, I took a few days off to heal up. I actually saw a physio during the week who said I have weak glutes and a tight IT band which pulls my kneecap off track. A few stretches and some proper rest days later and today’s run was almost completely pain free, well in the joints anyway.
So on to the meat of the matter, how did I do today? I saw improvements in all three activities and put together a final score of 167, putting me in the second class for a male of my age. I’m pleased to have seen some progress despite only getting in two workouts since the last PFT, but I do wonder if that had to do with having a target to aim for. Either way, I’m pleased and aiming to raise my score even higher.
I want to get to 200 before Christmas and there’s an obvious area for improvement: the pull ups. If I can move that up from a mere five to double figures, I can achieve that goal.