Simple Supersets Aren't Always Easy

The overwhelming amount of information out there today have made fitness routines look and seem so damn complicated that it turns many away who are doing what they can to better themselves. Very few people even teach and preach the simplicity of exercise anymore. Even when it comes to calisthenics, they often show the more advanced exercises that aren't sustainable for realistic health and strength. It really is a pain in the ass. 

Why make exercise so damn hard to understand? Mostly due to marketing and catering to a specific audience that is gullible enough to buy into the crap that many try to pan off as the ultimate program and you'd be a fool to not get your hands on it. The truth is, many "influencers" today don't have a fucking clue what real simplistic training is, hell I can guarantee that more than 95% of people who "teach" fitness today care more about how their ass, arms and abs look in comparison to knowing and understanding the training principles of past strongmen and women. For men, look to guys like Brooks Kubik, Arthur Saxon, Otto Arco, Maxick, Bill Pearl, Reg Park and a few others. For Women, the list might be a bit less but if I had to pick one woman of the old timers that represented strength, femineity, power and grace it be someone like Peggy Stockton. In today's world of women's fitness, less than a handful really have the ability to showcase realistic strength and the three I can think of are Kirsten Tullock, Melody Schoenfeld and Tera Scott. 

Now, when it comes to simplicity and a good routine, a favorite of mine is doing Supersets or doing exercises back to back and continuing that for a period of time instead of just sets and reps schemes. It's a different dynamic to formulate a workout that doesn't take a ton of thinking but it does take a certain mentality and the ability to harness a good level of conditioning that's foundational. In this case, it takes inspiration from one of the greatest pro wrestlers and that's Bob Backlund. I've written about him a time or two so I'm sure you can find those. This routine is based on his foundational exercises; the Step Up & the Ab Wheel. He would do hundreds of these exercises a day sometimes more than an hour each in the same session and it made him one tough son of a bitch and one of the most underrated conditioned men of his time. 

You can do different formats of training with these exercises but some of my workouts lately have been just doing a few reps of each back to back but I keep going for an extended period of time. This is by doing 10 Step Ups per leg and immediately do 5 reps of the ab wheel. Sounds too damn easy right? After all that's really a pathetic looking superset meant for beginners but I can assure you, it's anything but. It's one thing to do a few sets, it's way different when you continually do it without taking a break for up to 20 minutes straight or longer. When you're going that long, the reps not only add up but you're testing your strength and conditioning as well. They become more than just a few reps each, they become a brutal aspect of a session you wouldn't expect to be hard to do. Give it a go, try for ten minutes and see what's possible. The objective is to keep going without a break or even with as little rest, for this case, if you need a rest, you only have 10-20 seconds per set. Work at a pace that isn't Speedy Gonzales but enough to get the heart rate up and keep going. Speed will come naturally but the longer you go, tougher it can become.  

There you have it, no complications, no need to think too much on what to do, you just do it and see what you're capable of. You can do more reps of each per set if you wish but also keep your form as smooth as possible so you don't hurt yourself. The faster you do these exercises, the greater risk to becoming sloppy, it's not a sprint. Again, let the speed come naturally, form doesn't have to perfect but it does make a difference in how you apply the tension and the awareness of the exercises themselves. If you really want to take it to another level, take a deck of cards (Black Cards for Step Ups, Red For Ab Wheel Rollouts) and do these until the deck is done. Try to do a total of 500 Step Ups & 250 Rollouts, that's really going to test you. 

Have fun and keep being amazingly awesome. 

Weight Loss, Animals & Rollouts

 Yesterday I weighed in for the first time since this injury came back and last I checked I was around 248, just a touch below 249. The pain levels vary from a 3 to a 9 depending when it flares up but when I'm in pain, I literally have little to no appetite so whenever I ate, it was when it was at bay enough to eat. That didn't happen a whole lot. I'd be lucky to eat once a day, very lucky to eat 2 meals but they weren't very big. When I weighed in, I was shocked that I lost quite a bit of weight in a short amount of time. It came up at 238.8 lbs and that scared the hell out of me. It was mainly the little appetite I had and the mere fact that I haven't done workouts to maintain muscle mass.

Sometimes things like that give you a wake up call. It's good to lose weight but at the same time when you're in pain and you can barely even eat or walk around long enough to do much, losing weight can suck and not the healthy way to do it. My appetite is slowly coming back but it's no where near what I can normally eat. Regularly, I can eat a good steak and rice or have nearly half dozen eggs with bacon without issues but I haven't eaten any of that and even if I did, the stress prevents me from even finishing my food which isn't good. 

My workouts have been almost nothing but stretches, squatting down throughout the day to ease the pain from walking and occasional animal workouts. The animal training is getting better little by little since I've focused on mainly just moving with technique, coordination and paying attention to my flexibility. I did try to focus on speed at one point but something didn't click yet so I switched to being more methodical, deliberate and just the technique with a slower pace. It started working where I went from doing 7 rounds of a flow (from Movement 20XX) that was a struggle to 12 rounds (5, 5 and 2) doing movements that focused on coordination, flexibility and agility. That animal workout yesterday felt great and didn't feel pain and did some heat and ice afterwards. 

I wanted to try something today that I was hesitant to do since I didn't want to fuck anything up. I wanted to see what I can do with the Ab Wheel and test out my Back & Core Strength. After the first couple reps, it started to feel good, kept going and nothing felt wrong or anything and before I knew it, I did 25 Rollouts in a row. That was enough because I didn't want to push it any further than I had to and it was a good mini workout. Didn't feel pain but I knew where the point was on my back and it was annoying than painful so I took it as a good sign that my strength is coming back even microscopically. 

The thing I really need to figure more out now is being able to sleep decently. Since this whole thing started back up, 4 hours of sleep a night was my luck of the draw and if I was relaxed enough during the day, I would doze off for a bit but not long. It sucks and the thing that helps with recovery mostly is sleep and I barely get that. It is what it is but I'm doing what's possible right now. With this weight loss as well, it may help the recovery process but it's not the ideal way to drop weight and I can't let myself develop atrophy and lose the muscle I worked so hard to build. Hasn't been easy and have had bouts of anger, depression, frustration, doubts and being on an up and down mental state. Just hate it man. 

I hate seeing anyone suffer and it's not living a good life if you're in pain to the point where you alienate yourself from loved ones. I've done it and I'm not proud of it because I can be a very social person. When you have been in such pain that you go into this dark and depressive episode where you don't want help and distancing yourself from the people you love, if you let it go on too long, it becomes something you never wanted. Do what you can if you're in pain but don't let it destroy your humanity. Keep being amazingly awesome and stay healthy physically and mentally as long as you can. You never know what could pop up on you.   

A Traveler's Guide To Fitness On The Road

If you're someone who travels a lot or goes on trips ever so often, it is important to keep fit while on the road. The best type of training you can take with you is really your own bodyweight where you can do your push-ups, squats, lunges, isometric training and all sorts of kick ass things. However; some people prefer to have equipment with them to travel with as an add on to bodyweight exercises. 

In order for traveling with equipment to be efficient, the best recommendation is to keep it to a minimum as best as possible. I don't think it's allowed to travel with a kettlebell or a barbell with plates unless you got a hefty truck to haul that stuff than maybe. If you're traveling by plane, buses, cab/uber rides, it's not the best idea to travel with equipment that weighs more than a couple pounds if that. Some of the best equipment I've ever traveled with that I can pack into my bag and be able to lug it onto a plane or other transportation has been my Lifeline Bands, Ab Wheel & my Isometric Belt. The first two are pretty easy to find and snatch up, the Isometric Belt was specially made by one company but you can get straps or better yet the WorldFit Iso Trainer is a great choice for maximizing your Isometric Training. 

Not every place you go to has a gym and not every single hotel has one (many do but it's mainly a few machines and a little dumbbell rack that is pretty lame in my book). Hell when me and the wife traveled to Tahoe one year, we stopped in Winnemucca, Nevada and that was a night we both want to forget since the first hotel we tried looked like Bates Motel on steroids (we don't talk about Winnemucca) and had to change hotels at like 1-2oclock in the morning. Neither one had a gym and that was ok, had my Isobelt, Wheel & even my 20 lb Sandbell. There's a bad dad joke I made about one of the restaurants that we passed by there that has a reference to the Three Amigos. 

Back to to the task at hand. Being in shape anywhere you go is important and it's vitally important to be aware of how you move around in a place you've never been to or handle certain situations that can pop up on you. It's why I love being able to have certain things on hand that I can to use to stay strong, durable & conditioned whenever something is called upon. Going camping is really important to be in shape for unless you're one of those people who likes to go Glamping and not have to worry about tents and having to build a fire. When we go camping, we set up a tent and areas for food and stuff and it's my job to chop the wood and help get a fire going. Chopping wood is a workout in itself and it builds up a hell of an appetite so we bring along plenty of food. My wife chops wood with me every now and then because she does enjoy it since she's a bit of a tomboy having grown up here her whole life. 

Make the most out of your travels and be resourceful when it comes to training. You can find just about anything to workout with anywhere you go if you know the right ideas and being intuitive. Traveling to Tahoe & Disneyland most of my life, I learned a lot about making the most of what you have. Learned how to hike in Tahoe and going swimming everyday, doing sprints near the cabins, picking up heavy rocks and climbing those torturous stairs at Zephyr Point. Getting in up to 10 miles a day at Disneyland and holding wall sits while waiting in lines for rides in the summer air. Climbing stairs at hotels with bags and not always using the elevator, going on hikes up here sometimes wearing my 40 lb vest to really test my conditioning. It can be really enjoyable.

Travel well and keep exercise equipment to a bare minimum or just use your own bodyweight and use workouts from Darebee to help you find great circuits that kick your ass regardless of where you are. Be adventurous and soak in the best moments. Life is full of wonders guys and we never know what will happen tomorrow. Keep being amazingly awesome and safe travels wherever you go. 

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