Hey Guys,
Sorry for the long delay in updates. I intend to restart the training blog entries soon. In the mean time, I placed a supplement order today at iherb.com and received a referral/discount code for new customers that I want to share.
iherb.com referral code: KUW012
Just enter this code at the check out area. Good luck and try to always improve.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Quick update
Hello again loyal follower(s),
Things have been busy the past few weeks here. New job, new hours, and new responsibilities. It taking a little adjustment, but I think I can start updating more regularly ( I know, I've said that before). We'll see how it play out.
Quick work out updates:
The explosive fitness work out are going great. I've had to adjust my work out frequency drastically. I'm up to about 3 weeks between my EF work outs. Seems like a long time not to be training, but the time is spent recovering and training in other ways.
My morning body weight training is going well. I make small changes depending on the day, but the general play is 50 push ups, 50 toe touches, and 50 body weight squats. I add some variety by doing front pulls and other band/chest expander exercises about every other day and I do a few reps on the old ab wheel a couple days through the week. I've also been using this as my grip training time a few days through the week.
I've been a bit lax lately on my resistance aerobic/cardio training. I plan on rotating my resistance aerobic/cardio training with some hill sprints and/or Tabata type interval training. I'm hoping implement this plan later this week or next.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or email them to me. Thanks. Until next time, take care and always try to improve.
Steven DG
Things have been busy the past few weeks here. New job, new hours, and new responsibilities. It taking a little adjustment, but I think I can start updating more regularly ( I know, I've said that before). We'll see how it play out.
Quick work out updates:
The explosive fitness work out are going great. I've had to adjust my work out frequency drastically. I'm up to about 3 weeks between my EF work outs. Seems like a long time not to be training, but the time is spent recovering and training in other ways.
My morning body weight training is going well. I make small changes depending on the day, but the general play is 50 push ups, 50 toe touches, and 50 body weight squats. I add some variety by doing front pulls and other band/chest expander exercises about every other day and I do a few reps on the old ab wheel a couple days through the week. I've also been using this as my grip training time a few days through the week.
I've been a bit lax lately on my resistance aerobic/cardio training. I plan on rotating my resistance aerobic/cardio training with some hill sprints and/or Tabata type interval training. I'm hoping implement this plan later this week or next.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or email them to me. Thanks. Until next time, take care and always try to improve.
Steven DG
Monday, October 19, 2009
Static Contraction, Explosive Fitness, and Partial Movements, Oh My!
Greeting fellow health and fitness enthusiast(s),
In the past, I've mentioned that I use a training method called Static contraction and use a explosive fitness machine. I realized that I really didn't explain this type of training or the machine. So, I'll explain them from my perspective, give some info, and provide some links.
Static contraction training (SCT) is a form of isometrics (more on static contraction in the following paragraphs). Most of use have heard of isometrics. If you haven't, isometrics are a type of strength training in which the joint angle doesn't change and the muscle doesn't shorten, thus a static contraction. There are 2 ways to accomplish this, either by exerting force on an immovable object (too heavy to lift or move with the desired muscle(s) or exercise) or by flexing the muscle. The first way is self explanatory. The second way is pretty straight forward as well and most of us have done it. An example is imagine someone asks you to show them your muscle, if not too modest or embarrassed you will position your forearm and upper arm at some position and contract your biceps muscles while your arm stays at the same angle. Congratulations, you now know the basics of isometrics and to an extent static contraction training.
Partial movement training and lifting. This is another thing that is straight forward and simple, however, many people try to overcomplicate. Essentially, all that is happening is that only some of the range of motion is utilized. It can be any part of the movement but for our purposes, we'll focus on the strongest range of motion. Every movable joint has an angle range that is much stronger than the rest (the strongest range is dependent on joint and the individual). Heres an example, imagine your jaw bone when eat or bite. If you try to take a bite with your mouth fully open, you probably won't have a huge amount of biting strength. Now, is you don't open your mouth as much or just barely, there should be a tremendous increase in your biting power. To my knowledge, many of the old time strongmen used some type of partial movements in their training and/or acts. Two of the most impressive and amazing feats performed was the hip lift and the back lift. Both of these have a relatively small range of movement, but literally thousands of pounds were lifted (Google Paul Anderson back lift).
Static contraction has been around since any animal has exerted force on an object or flexed a body part without changing the joint angle or muscle length. The rise of modern static contraction training (SCT) is the result of work from John Little and Pete Sisco. Between the two of them, they discovered the optimum exercises and range of motions for maximum muscle fiber activation among other things. For more info on Pete can John, here are a few links
Pete Sisco:
His site http://www.precisiontraining.com
Some articles he wrote on bodybuilding.com: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sisco.htm
John Little
His site: http://www.maxcontraction.com/little.htm
SCT and heavy partial movements place a tremendous amount of stimulus on the body. This huge amount of stimulus (with adequate recovery) not only strengthens the muscles but the ligaments, tendons, and bones.
When using isometrics and/or STC with conventional equipment and immovable object, measuring progress is difficult. To perform work outs using this training method special equipment was needed. This equipment didn't exist in a practical home use fashion, until Tony Reno invent it, thus explosive fitness equipment was born. The equipment is now a couple model generations old and has undergone many changes since it's conception. The machines continue to evolve and I believe that design is very close to perfect. It's really ingenious in concept. It's a closed system, where the only moving part is the deflection of the material from the force exerted and the force is measured by a meter. A friend of mine calls it "the pressure place." For more information, check out the explosive fitness site.
Explosive Fitness:
Home Page: http://www.explosivefitness.com/
Road map and timeline page: http://www.explosivefitness.com/TheStreamline.html
I hope that this was able to provide some insight into my training. The above mentioned methods and equipment are a component of my current strength training program. They may not work for everyone, but it works for me. Now that you know about it, you can try it, and see if it works for you. Please feel free to leave any questions and comments below. Until next time, take care and try to improve.
Steven DG
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The past couple weeks in review and my gymnastic experience.
Greeting loyal follower(s),
As promised, I'll catch you up on my training and some reasons that I've been so busy of late. The past couple weeks, I've been on the search for a new job. I wasn't having a great deal of luck, but one of my part time jobs offered me a full time position. So, I decided to take it and my first full work day starts in a few hours. Unfortunately, my shift begins before my jujitsu class starts and my shift ends after the class dismisses. :( Sadness to say the least.
Over the past 2 weeks, I decided to hit jujitsu hard and grapple as much as possible. I trained with, practiced with, and taught as many people as I could in the time frame. In that time frame, I believe that my skills, abilities, and conditioning improved. I diversified my training partners, I used as much of the height and weight spectrum that was available to me. Unfortunately, during this time an injury occurred, not to me but one of the under belts. Long story made short, while doing some grappling, the guys face hit my elbow and broke his face. It was an accident but I still feel bad about it. However, things happen. If you read this Shawn, sorry buddy and I hope you're recovering well.
Last Thursday, I had a gymnastic experience. One of my jujitsu buddies is also a gymnast. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a fan of physical culture and training and I wanted to get a feel for gymnastics. My friend gave me a crash course on the still rings, pommel horse, and high bar. A brief summary of the experience, fun but hard. I learned some basic techniques and I also learned that I am not built for gymnastics (especially the pommel horse and high bar). For those 2 events, my arms are way too short, my torso is too long, or a combination of the 2. I could go into details, but just think about the positions that are performed on the pommel horse and my above mentioned build (hint: I dragged my junk). Hopefully, that's been enough said.
The gymnastic training effect was awesome, today is 5 days after and I still have some muscle soreness. I've decided that I'm gonna get some rings to train with (not gymnastically). The rings made simple exercises exponentially harder. Pull up and chin ups, normally, I can do a couple hand fulls, not so on the rings. Dips, usually not a problem, HARD on the rings. Push ups, normally not an issue, on rings an entirely new level of muscle activation. All I can say is awesome.
Well folks, that's all that I have for today. If you have question or comments, please leave them below or if you know me personally drop me an email. Until next time, take care and try to improve.
Steven DG
As promised, I'll catch you up on my training and some reasons that I've been so busy of late. The past couple weeks, I've been on the search for a new job. I wasn't having a great deal of luck, but one of my part time jobs offered me a full time position. So, I decided to take it and my first full work day starts in a few hours. Unfortunately, my shift begins before my jujitsu class starts and my shift ends after the class dismisses. :( Sadness to say the least.
Over the past 2 weeks, I decided to hit jujitsu hard and grapple as much as possible. I trained with, practiced with, and taught as many people as I could in the time frame. In that time frame, I believe that my skills, abilities, and conditioning improved. I diversified my training partners, I used as much of the height and weight spectrum that was available to me. Unfortunately, during this time an injury occurred, not to me but one of the under belts. Long story made short, while doing some grappling, the guys face hit my elbow and broke his face. It was an accident but I still feel bad about it. However, things happen. If you read this Shawn, sorry buddy and I hope you're recovering well.
Last Thursday, I had a gymnastic experience. One of my jujitsu buddies is also a gymnast. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a fan of physical culture and training and I wanted to get a feel for gymnastics. My friend gave me a crash course on the still rings, pommel horse, and high bar. A brief summary of the experience, fun but hard. I learned some basic techniques and I also learned that I am not built for gymnastics (especially the pommel horse and high bar). For those 2 events, my arms are way too short, my torso is too long, or a combination of the 2. I could go into details, but just think about the positions that are performed on the pommel horse and my above mentioned build (hint: I dragged my junk). Hopefully, that's been enough said.
The gymnastic training effect was awesome, today is 5 days after and I still have some muscle soreness. I've decided that I'm gonna get some rings to train with (not gymnastically). The rings made simple exercises exponentially harder. Pull up and chin ups, normally, I can do a couple hand fulls, not so on the rings. Dips, usually not a problem, HARD on the rings. Push ups, normally not an issue, on rings an entirely new level of muscle activation. All I can say is awesome.
Well folks, that's all that I have for today. If you have question or comments, please leave them below or if you know me personally drop me an email. Until next time, take care and try to improve.
Steven DG
Friday, October 9, 2009
Training for the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT)
Greetings health and fitness enthusiasts,
Today, I have a special treat for you. Some tips and tricks and training advice for the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). For those of you unfamiliar with the APFT, it
is the army's way of evaluating a soldier's fitness levels. Personally, I don't believe
that it's the best test to evaluate fitness levels (especially after you learn some of
my tips and tricks ;) ) but it's at least standardized. The test consists of three
events in the following order: Push ups- maximum number of repetitions in a 2
minute time limit, sit ups- maximum number of repetitions in a 2 minute time limit,
and a two mile run for time.
Each event has a set of standards that are based on age and gender. Each event is
score between 0 and 100 points. The minimum total passing score is 180 points with
a minimum of 60 points per event.
Tips and Tricks
Push ups: The key here is technique and practice. DO NOT FLARE the arms. This puts extra strain on the shoulders, increases the chance for injury, and uses up energy that could be put to use doing more push ups. I like to start out with my hands close together and slide them wider as the test continues (slide not lift, lifting can lead to disqualification). This does 3 things: 1) it shifts the exercise from weaker triceps to the stronger chest muscles, 2) reduces rate of fatigue, 3) reduces the range of motion and travel distance to do a push up. Foot placement is an over looked key to adding a few more reputations. This depends on the size of your feet, place them up to 12 inches apart and bring your heels together. Sit ups: Again, technique and practice. Make sure your legs form 90 degree angles and spread your knees/legs/feet apart to where you have the lease amount of resistance from your body (make sure things don't get in the way and make it harder). 2 mile run: Keep moving. Don't stop moving, even if you must slow to a walk. The air borne shuffle is a good method depending on your needed/wanted run time. If running on a track, hug the inner loop as much as possible. This is a shorter distance than running on the outer loop.
Training
Push up and sit up training: This is the method that I used while in the reserves. Take the number of push ups or sit ups that you want/need and divide that number by 2. Then do 3 sets of them. Example: if you want 60 push ups and sit ups. Do 30 push ups then 30 sit ups. Keep your rest under 1 minute, then repeat 2 times. Adjust this accordingly if you have a high goal or not where you want to be. Try to add 1 or 2 reps per week. Depending on your current physical training program. Do this work out 1 to 3 times per week. Running tips: Don't be a heel striker. Try to minimize landing on your heels when running. Heel striking not only slows down the run but increases the chance for injuries such as shin splints. 2 mile run training method 1: The only way to get better at running is to run. Here are a couple training methods to prepare for scoring well on the PT test. You must condition for both distance and speed. There are a few different ways to do this. Here are the methods that I used. Break your runs into a distance day and a speed day. On distance days you want to work up to about 2.5 miles, you may choose more or less. I like 2.5 miles because it allowed me to have more reserve capacity when running just the 2 miles. Speed days choose shorter distance and run it as fast as you can, then take a break short break. Repeat until tired, alloted time is up, or desired number of reputations have been completed. Try to shoot for at lease 40 yards. Alternate speed and distance days. Try to do this 2 or 3 times per week. 2 mile run training method 2: The speed distance method: This method combines the speed and distance days into 1 and is best when used on a track or area with defined 1/4 mile increments. Calculate the number of laps needed to get the distance. 2 miles divided by 1/4 mile track equals 8 laps. Take the time you want/need and divide that by 8 this gives you the time per lap in minutes multiply by 60 to get seconds per lap. 13 minutes divided by 8 equals 1.625 minutes times 60 equals 97.5 seconds per lap. Now that we calculated our lap time, this is the maximum time per lap to make our goals. Try to keep the laps under this time. After each lap rest/walk/catch your breath for 1 to 2 minutes. After your break, run the next lap and rest. Repeat this until tired or number of desired laps are completed. After each work out, try to reduce rest time by a few seconds per work out, don't try to make jumps over 5 or 10 second per. Eventually, the rest time will reach 0 and all laps will be completed in succession resulting in the desired run time. 2 mile run training method 3: Combine the previous 2 methods. Alternate between speed run, distance run, and speed distance run. This adds more training variety.
Training schedule:
You may decide to incorporate this into an existing program or use it as a main plan. Experiment and see what works best for you. You may decide to do push ups and sit ups 2 days a week and run 3 days per week, push ups and sit ups 3 days a week and run 2 days per week, or alternate your weeks.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Until next time, take care and always try to improve.
Steven DG
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Exercise Jargon: Terms with descriptions and my thoughts
Greetings loyal follower(s),
You have my apologies for not updating this blog over the past few days. I intend to dedicate a particular time to update the blog in the future. To summarize the past week, things are busy but are going well, I'm still training and improving (I'll share the details tomorrow or later in the week), and have been brain storming on what to share.
I've decided to share some words that are thrown around a lot. Though, technically not jargon, many of the words I feel are overused/underused and/or not fully understood. I hope to enlighten and share my thoughts about some commonly used terms.
Aerobic activity/exercise: Activities that primarily use oxygen to fuel the metabolic processes. These are mostly lower intensity activities such walking, standing, jogging, etc. These activities are usually performed for extended amounts of time.
Anaerobic activity/exercise: A short duration but higher intensity activity that does not use oxygen for metabolic activities. These are strength and power related activities such as sprinting,
weight lifting, etc.
Atrophy: The wasting away of body tissue. When applying this to fitness and exercise, it is the lose of strength and/or muscle and bone mass. The old saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it," pretty much sums up the basics, excluding injuries, diseases, etc.
Cardio activity/exercise: Cardio is short for cardiovascular which is the circulatory system of the body. The circulatory system consists of the heart and blood vessels. The heart pumps blood which carries oxygen and nutrients to the tissues of the body and waste products and carbon dioxide from them.
Cardio vs. Aerobic: This is a pet peeve of mine. I've heard so many people say, " Today, I'm doing cardio," or something similar. This bothers me for a couple different reasons, 1) if you're living, you're technically doing cardio. Right? Reason 2) suppose the definition of cardio you want to use is specifically applied to exercise by elevating your heart rate. Well, lift a heavy weight a few times and see if your heart rate is elevated. It will be. This is just a pet peeve of mine. If you contest my reasoning, please leave a comment below.
Conditioning: This varies between who you ask. So, I went to a very knowlegable source that would clearly define conditioning. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, www.merriam-webster.com, " 1 : the process of training to become physically fit by a regimen of exercise, diet, and rest; also : the resulting state of physical fitness." Sounds good to me.
Hypertrophy: An increase in the volume of an organ or tissue caused by an increase in the size of the cells of the organ or tissue. In exercise and fitness this generally refers to either muscular hypertrophy or ventricular hypertrophy (both explained below).
Muscular Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the size of the muscle cells in skeletal muscle which results in bigger and/or stronger muscles. There are two types of muscle hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic and myofibral. This will simplify and separate the two different types. 1) Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in volume of the muscle cell (bigger but not necessarily stronger). When weight training, this is usually in the 12 to 15+ range. 2) Myofibral hypertrophy is an increase of the myofibrals of the muscle cells (stronger and more dense but not necessarily bigger).
Ventricular Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the size of the heart chambers that pump blood. This condition can occur from disease, but let's focus on the positive health and fitness possibilities. If this occurs as a result of physical training your body has adapted to be more efficient and pump more blood to the body with each heart beat.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think that this will be enough for tonight. If you have any questions, comments or want more terms explained, please leave them below. Until next time, be good and always try to improve.
Steven DG
You have my apologies for not updating this blog over the past few days. I intend to dedicate a particular time to update the blog in the future. To summarize the past week, things are busy but are going well, I'm still training and improving (I'll share the details tomorrow or later in the week), and have been brain storming on what to share.
I've decided to share some words that are thrown around a lot. Though, technically not jargon, many of the words I feel are overused/underused and/or not fully understood. I hope to enlighten and share my thoughts about some commonly used terms.
Aerobic activity/exercise: Activities that primarily use oxygen to fuel the metabolic processes. These are mostly lower intensity activities such walking, standing, jogging, etc. These activities are usually performed for extended amounts of time.
Anaerobic activity/exercise: A short duration but higher intensity activity that does not use oxygen for metabolic activities. These are strength and power related activities such as sprinting,
weight lifting, etc.
Atrophy: The wasting away of body tissue. When applying this to fitness and exercise, it is the lose of strength and/or muscle and bone mass. The old saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it," pretty much sums up the basics, excluding injuries, diseases, etc.
Cardio activity/exercise: Cardio is short for cardiovascular which is the circulatory system of the body. The circulatory system consists of the heart and blood vessels. The heart pumps blood which carries oxygen and nutrients to the tissues of the body and waste products and carbon dioxide from them.
Cardio vs. Aerobic: This is a pet peeve of mine. I've heard so many people say, " Today, I'm doing cardio," or something similar. This bothers me for a couple different reasons, 1) if you're living, you're technically doing cardio. Right? Reason 2) suppose the definition of cardio you want to use is specifically applied to exercise by elevating your heart rate. Well, lift a heavy weight a few times and see if your heart rate is elevated. It will be. This is just a pet peeve of mine. If you contest my reasoning, please leave a comment below.
Conditioning: This varies between who you ask. So, I went to a very knowlegable source that would clearly define conditioning. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, www.merriam-webster.com, " 1 : the process of training to become physically fit by a regimen of exercise, diet, and rest; also : the resulting state of physical fitness." Sounds good to me.
Hypertrophy: An increase in the volume of an organ or tissue caused by an increase in the size of the cells of the organ or tissue. In exercise and fitness this generally refers to either muscular hypertrophy or ventricular hypertrophy (both explained below).
Muscular Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the size of the muscle cells in skeletal muscle which results in bigger and/or stronger muscles. There are two types of muscle hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic and myofibral. This will simplify and separate the two different types. 1) Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in volume of the muscle cell (bigger but not necessarily stronger). When weight training, this is usually in the 12 to 15+ range. 2) Myofibral hypertrophy is an increase of the myofibrals of the muscle cells (stronger and more dense but not necessarily bigger).
Ventricular Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the size of the heart chambers that pump blood. This condition can occur from disease, but let's focus on the positive health and fitness possibilities. If this occurs as a result of physical training your body has adapted to be more efficient and pump more blood to the body with each heart beat.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think that this will be enough for tonight. If you have any questions, comments or want more terms explained, please leave them below. Until next time, be good and always try to improve.
Steven DG
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Today's work out: 1 October 2009
Greeting loyal follower(s),
I hope that your day is going well. Just finished with today's strength training session. I believe that it was simple and straight forward. Pressing exercises or work out A using static contractions on the explosive fitness machine.
Warm up: Rotations and active stretches followed by some push ups, resistant bands military presses, squats, and some toe raises. I didn't perform many of the exercises, they were just for helping me warm up the areas that I intended to work.
The work out went very well. I set 3 new personal records and 1 cycle record. So, progress in 4 of 5 exercises and a high percentage in the remaining exercise.
Work out A:
Exercise---------------Percentage from previous work out or cycle best.
Bench Press-----------104.32%
Triceps Press----------102.75%
Shoulder Press--------101.72%
Leg Press-------------103.46%
Toe Press------------- 99.81%
Push ups: 25 reps
Squats: 25 reps
Toe raises: 25 reps
Bull dog push ups: 25 reps
Cool down: Static stretches.
The last exercises are to get some blood and nutrients flowing to the used muscles. That's all for today. Until next time, stay well and always try to improve.
Steven
I hope that your day is going well. Just finished with today's strength training session. I believe that it was simple and straight forward. Pressing exercises or work out A using static contractions on the explosive fitness machine.
Warm up: Rotations and active stretches followed by some push ups, resistant bands military presses, squats, and some toe raises. I didn't perform many of the exercises, they were just for helping me warm up the areas that I intended to work.
The work out went very well. I set 3 new personal records and 1 cycle record. So, progress in 4 of 5 exercises and a high percentage in the remaining exercise.
Work out A:
Exercise---------------Percentage from previous work out or cycle best.
Bench Press-----------104.32%
Triceps Press----------102.75%
Shoulder Press--------101.72%
Leg Press-------------103.46%
Toe Press------------- 99.81%
Push ups: 25 reps
Squats: 25 reps
Toe raises: 25 reps
Bull dog push ups: 25 reps
Cool down: Static stretches.
The last exercises are to get some blood and nutrients flowing to the used muscles. That's all for today. Until next time, stay well and always try to improve.
Steven
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)