Nik Squats 120Kg x 10 slowed to three quarter speed

Recently I was in the gym when my colleague Nik started his Barbell Back Squat warm-up set of 120Kg (265 pounds) x 10 reps.

Nik was kind enough to let me film his movement, and I've slowed it to three quarter speed in the video below.I wanted to add a brief Blog to the video just to highlight a couple of things that can be observed:

1. Unrestricted movement at the knees - yes they can safely travel in front of the toes as outlined in this previous Blog.
2. A wall ball is placed behind Nik to provide feedback on his depth. Nik uses the ball to help remind him of depth late in the sets when he gets tired - one less thing to think about. The wall ball is soft so it also allows contact without the jarring that we might see if we used a hard plyo box.
3. Speaking of depth - what we see in the video is squatting to a very functional depth - deep enough to really test the glutes, quads, calf mobility and postural strength.
4. Nik's spinal posture is (at least in my opinion) amazing to the depth he is squatting. Not a butt wink to be seen - and this should be our goal when squatting to any depth - a rigid neutral spine is your best protection from injury. Keeping that strong neutral spine is more important than squatting lower with poor posture.

One last thing - no weights belt... No worries!

Get Ripped - Intermediate Metabolic Training

In a previous Blog entry I gave an example of how you might use 'Metabolic Resistance Training' with a beginner using exercises that might be suitable for the skill level and training age of your client.

Today I'm going to continue this theme, and provide a video showing how you might design a metabolic workout for an intermediate client in the gym so we can really fire up the calorie burning and maximise EPOC. I personally think this type of training is ideal for a time efficient but effective workout. It's probably best used as part of a "split" program - this workout targets primarily the upper back  so an intermediate client might train like this using 3-4 different sessions per week, covering all the major muscle groups over a one week cycle.

In my previous Blog entry I also provided some broad guidelines that you could download for how you might use Metabolic training with clients at different training ages. The workout in my video clip might be suitable for a client who has been training regularly for 6-12 months, and has achieved a reasonable level of overall strength & fitness.

 The video illustrates a possible approach for intermediate clients, but a few important guidelines include:

1. No rest between exercises - at the end of a set, have a timed rest of around 1-2 minutes before repeating.

2. Stick primarily to compound movements, this workout contains 4 x compound upper back movements and one isolation exercise.

3. Intermediate trainers are ready for the introduction of more challenging exercises. Note the full body pull-ups here - you could use a powerband to modify the pull-up if required.

4. You should not feel fully recovered before beginning the next set. This type of training is designed to achieve high levels of fatigue at force you to failure.

I hope you take some ideas away from the video, happy training!

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Acknowledgement to Vubui on Flickr for the pics I have used in this Blog entry. You can see his pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vubui/

Jacobs Ladder Workout...

Anyone serious about getting fit and/or training outdoors in Perth needs to get to Jacobs Ladder and take on the challenge of the stairs.

Forecast 37 degrees in Perth today so I got up to Jacobs ladder this morning and began at 8.53 am (not that anyone was counting minutes). 

Huge workout, managed to crank out eight ladders in total. Full workout duration was 37 minutes, time spent actually working (i.e. running, walking, crawling up stairs) was around 9 minutes so my work:rest ratio was around 1:3.

I did this same workout 5 days back, it took me 40 minutes all up so I managed to shave three minutes off the previous time. I don't want my workout to take any longer than 40 mins so I'm now trying to run Jacobs 8 times in less time rather than add more volume to the workout.

OMG blasted by 16 minutes of exercise today

My inspirational training partner Jez joined me for a circuit today and it really knocked me on my backside.

We've been training some high intensity circuits & last week we did a similar upper body circuit, we worked super hard and managed to complete the circuit three times. This week we threw in some leg stations and we paid the price.

Today's circuit was: Eight stations, 45 seconds of work with a 15 second change-over. Most stations require working to failure, we have three minutes of active rest after completing the circuit.

Why was this week so much harder than last week? I've boiled it down to two reasons:

1. The two extra stations I threw in were lower body. Because my body had to re-direct blood flow from upper to lower body during the circuit, it blew me away.

2. I didn't eat enough food today. I was working on an empty fuel tank and I think my blood glucose levels got belted - maybe hypoglycaemic.

For the PT, this shows that giving clients an eight minute circuit (twice) can deliver a ripper workout. It doesn't require much equipment, just a really motivating PT to get the client working at high intensities.

If you want to see what my circuit looks like, check it out at this link.

If you want to learn how to design this type of workout and see what it feels like to complete one - you'll need to come to my PT workshops at Central Institute of Technology.

Awesome BOSU workout today...

Today I did an awesome workout with my hard-core colleague Jeremy and two very brave students also came along - Nat and Wes.

Thanks Jez, Nat & Wes for being great training partners. Nat and Wes will make excellent Pt's in the future, no doubt about it.

Some details about today's circuit:

Six stations, all lower body, one minute per station (15 second change-over).

Yes - a six minute circuit. We completed it three times - so 18 minutes of work all up, but we had three minutes of active rest in between.

Can anyone really get a decent workout in 18 minutes?

You'll need to come along to my PT workshops to find out if this could possibly work for you!!

Check out a plan of my workout: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1En-A3c9i3-dCUeEP40WQqoqfft8-r9dkP7_8ckoXckM&hl=en#