Fun Training Over The Last Few Days

 The last few days have been not too bad and the weather is getting nicer and warmer out. On Wednesday, I went to the bigger park near by the one I usually go to and did some Isometrics and Suspension Training with my straps. Warmed up with the Isos doing full body work. Wrapped my WorldFit Iso Trainer around a Tree Branch and got in some good bodyweight training that actually left me a little sore at the end but not a whole lot.

Pull-Ups: 4, 3, 2, 2, 1

Dips: 3x5

High Tension Amosov Squats: 3x12

Rows: 3x8

Simple Push/Pull/Squatting and rested as long as needed between sets. The Dips were more of a bitch than anything and trying to control all my bodyweight holding onto nothing but the handles and my legs not touching the ground. Tore a little bit of skin doing them but the healed up pretty quickly. For more info and training ideas for this type of training, check out Matt Schifferle's Suspension Calisthenics. Great stuff. 

This was not even my first workout of the day, it was my biggest one though. Earlier, I did some Neck Mobility and Joint Loosening. Waited a little bit and then did some Bridges but mainly focused on rocking since it has been a minute doing any consistent bridging. I did the following exercises to stretch my back, neck and plenty in the hips, lower body and core.

4x5 Back Bridge Rocks using the hands as support, heels up and slowing touching my forehead and nose to the mat.

4x5 Front Bridge Rocks using the hands as support. 

4x5 Each Side To Side Rocks in the Front Bridge. 

Felt great and my entire body went into a relaxed state for quite a while. 

Thursday was a hell of a training day where I went to the park in the morning, much earlier than I normally would and wanted to get a bad ass session with the Heavy Dopa Band. Did my circuit of 5 Exercises for 10 Reps each of the following:

10 Chest Presses

10 Rows

10 Squats

10 Alt Skis

10 Propellers

20 Rounds.....

Even timed this workout. Focused mainly on Technique and Breathing. Let the speed come naturally and finished the workout (1000 total reps) in 32:31. The rest of the day was decent and had to cancel on somebody due to things that were out of my control. 

Yesterday was a good day to do Isometrics and Bridging Exercises. Did my Isos in the morning before handling stuff with my apartment. Got to visit a family member, hung out, had lunch, showed them some Isometrics to help with certain issues to build strength. Was a great visit and went for a walk out in the nice fresh air. After I got home, cooked some Steak & Rice, watched Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Best of the Indy series next to the Last Crusade) and capped off the night doing my Bridges. 

Rocked 10 times in the Back Bridge using the hands for support, touching the mat with my forehead and nose, heels up. 

Slight Rest.

Held a 3 Minute Nose To Mat Bridge with arms crossed to the chest and heels up. Took 18 Breaths.

Slight Rest.

10 Front Bridge Rocks using the hands as support.

Slight Rest

20 Side To Side Front Bridge Rocks (10 Each Way) using the Hands as support. 

Slight Rest.

3 Minute Front Bridge Hold. Took 15 Breaths. 

Hell of a workout and felt invigorated. Took a nice cold shower, chilled out for a bit then went to bed. 

Want to get into Bridging? Get arguably the best one on the subject and that's Advanced Bridging by Logan Christopher. 

What's on the agenda for today? Cleaning up the house a bit, Isometrics, maybe Bridges and Band Work but who really knows. See where it leads. Might film some stuff but haven't figured out what yet. Hopefully you all are having a good weekend so far and plenty to do. Have a blast, don't go too crazy and be amazingly awesome.  

Want to get in contact with me? Go to my linktree below where you can email me or find all my socials. Looking forward to hearing from you. 

A Micro Workout For The Core

 When I trained at the gym back in my teens, I had no idea what Core Training meant or even understood the importance of it since all I knew back then was if you were to develop abs you had to do hundreds of crunches, that's really all I did for my abs. Although I did lift and all that, I rarely ever focused on the abs or obliques. Paid a price for it a time or two. When I transitioned to Bodyweight Exercises, it became very clear that there was more to Core Training than just upper abs, lower abs, obliques and lower back individually. They needed to be trained as a unit in order to perform better.

My first taste of really tackling those muscles was the bridging from Combat Conditioning and from there, I started gaining strength and flexibility in that area. I got Combat Abs and was learning the basic exercises from there, the next course I used in Core Training was Gymnastic Abs that Ed Baran put out which became a favorite. It had some cool stuff and really helped strengthen areas I was lacking from the others. It kept going from there.

One of the things that really tested my Core Strength and flexibility was doing the Bridging Gymnastics where you would fall back into a bridge, kick over and kick back. I was never into the Human Flag or those crazy barstarzz workouts but the Bridging Gymnastics was pretty fun to do. At a point in time, I was doing workouts 2-3x a week where I would do kickovers and flipping back on my head and hands in the bridge up to I think 30 reps in a workout and that was exhausting as hell. I stopped after a while and moved onto more of the Power Wheel, Ab Isometrics and Animal Movements.

Over the last few years, training the Core comes and goes and I'll do things like Bridging, V-Ups, various holds, the Ab Wheels to the point where I managed to do one standing rollout and back (haven't been able to do it since so maybe it's time to train that again), farmer's carries and hoisting up the 50 lb sandbell many times. I don't train necessarily for a 6 pack (not really my thing) but for function and resilient to injury as much as possible. One workout I've done on a few occasions is a Tabata Style Isometric workout that I learned from the Red Delta Project which you can find here...It's intense and it's only 4 minutes long. Another that I tried out was not only just as intense but I did it a little differently to make it interesting.....

It's based on the Gymnastic Abs exercises I learned and made them into a Tabata Workout with a 1 min finisher. It's very simple and you can do them in the beginning stages or advanced, depending on where you are.

Hollow Body Hold for 20 seconds

Rest 10

Side Plank (Start whatever side you want) for 20 seconds

Rest 10

Arch Body Hold for 20 seconds

Rest 10

Side Plank (Opposite side) for 20 seconds

Rest 10

Repeat this 1 more time for a total of 4 minutes. The finisher is 1 minute of V-Ups using as good form as possible on the reps. If you have the control, keep the legs as straight as possible with little to no bend in the knees and arms straight overhead. All together, this really is a 5 minute workout you can do practically anywhere and gives you a Core quite a kick. This is great if you're short on time or want something done quick before whatever it is you're doing. If you're ambitious and have enough strength, do the Iso Holds and V-Ups but add in the Gymnastic Bridge to really stretch the abs, spine and everything else. Just hold as long as you can even if its for less than 10 seconds, add 1-5 seconds per workout until you can do a minute or more. Including rest time, you can get a complete Core Workout in under 10 minutes. If you have progressed to more advanced holds and movements, work them in or do a workout on their own. It's up to you.

Hundreds of Crunches & Sit-Ups can get boring and some exercises can put a damper on your spine and neck so utilize Holds & Movements that help strengthen those areas instead of hurting them. A strong Core doesn't need to be a 6 pack, but strong enough to take a hit and/or perform better with all your other exercises along with resistant to injury. Having a bad back is no joke I've been there and it can be painful as hell and it becomes much more common as we get older, train your abs with intensity beyond just the muscles, strengthen the lower back, obliques and groin area (save the jokes). You don't need to do hundreds of reps of an exercise unless you have a goal in mind.

Build that Core, stay strong and keep being amazingly awesome. Looking for workout ideas to build your abs? Check out the Darebee Ab Workouts for FREE!!! Some of the best exercises for building Core Strength is from Movement 20XX from Vahva Fitness.

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Horny Goat Weed