Static Dynamic Routine

This workout is perhaps my favourite....I mean I like ALL my workouts - they contain variety, novelty and a good general challenge. But this workout has that 'tension' as I make the move from the static exercise to the dynamic.

I know during that transition that I am a few seconds away from SERIOUS physical demand that requires real focus and application.

Wam Up (5 mins)
Main (25 mins)
1a) Rowing (1x500m, level 7, 28spm: 1'35")

2a) Chair Sit (60s) to Pillar Jumps (2x10)
2b) Handstand (2x60s) to Alternate One Arm 3kg Medicine Ball Throws (2x10 - 20 in total per rep)

3a) Lever (5s) to Pull Ups (3 x to failure - 12, 8, 6)
3b) RLLs (Straight Leg - 1x5)/Deadlift (1x5 RM to 'almost failure' with > BW weights)

The rowing is really an extension of the warm up. The 'meat & potatoes' occurs in parts 2 and 3.

Section two, performed as a pair, involves three lots of 2a and two sets of 2b. The same goes for section three. So for example, for section three I start with the Lever and Pull Up (L2PU) combination, and then move to RLLs. Second time through I do L2PUs and then move to Deadlifts. I complete with a set of L2PUs only.

Rest as necessary between groups of exercises (so between 1 and 2, and 2 and 3). But no excessive intra-set rests!

As always the emphasis is on the negative phase of the exercise - particularly with pull ups. Also with PUs, you need to pull up so your neck is well above the bar and lower to almost straight arms. Use that full range of motion. Oh yeah - and NO kipping or wild swinging.

With the Medicine Ball throws, explode that ball upwards on EVERY throw with everything you have. Try to catch it one handed as well - with the same hand.

The planches have been pushed to the climbing/sport specific workouts but reckon I should move them to part of my Lau Gar warm up.

Brutal!

The Shopping List

There is an old drinking game I used to play as a student which involved sitting in a circle with a group of friends. It was called 'The Shopping List'. One person names an item of shopping such as "Butter". The person to his/her left would then repeat the list thus-far and then name an additional item ("milk"), and so it would go on around the circle - where each person in turn had to repeat the list correctly and add an additional item.

Failure to repeat the list would involve a drink related punishment and the task of repeating the list once again would fall to the previous participant. If s/he failed the process was repeated.

My Lau Gar instructor has recently adopted a similar approach to training which is based upon the Shopping List game above. If you need a short, tough workout, then try this:

The Exercise

Select five exercises. I suggest 1) Skipping, 2) Crunches, 3) Press Ups, 4) Burpees, 5)Pull Ups.

The aim is to do exercise one for 30s and then rest 30s. The repeat exercise one for 30s, move straight to exercise two and then rest for a further 30s. Round three means repeating exercise one for 30s, exercise two for 30s, exercise three for 30s and then rest for 30s. And so it goes on until you have completed all five exercises.

This should be the hardest ten minutes of your life. You can vary the exercise choice to emphasise a body part, or you can shorten the rests, extend the duration of the exercise or add another iteration of exercise - as long as you maintain intensity throughout.

Changes

Given the nature of current Lau Gar workouts I think I might have to re-plan my training to allow rest and recovery but also to allow me to achieve my goals - particularly the gymnastic ones, AND allow me to climb and fight.

Calvin advised some time ago that I try a form of synaptic facilitation (Clarence Bass covers this in detail here), which is a form of Pavel's 'greasing the groove' approach to training. I think now might be the time for me to try this approach. I need to put some time in to accommodating the demands I make upon my body.

As always I know that I am trying to cover many bases, but confident of how I understand feedback, I should be able to pull something effective together!

The 'Stupid', it Burns!

So, anyone out there following government nutritional guidelines would appear to have been eating 400 less calories than appropriate!

• The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said.

It just drives me crazy that anyone would realistically think you can simply 'choose' to stop short or over shoot your body's daily requirement of calories without some kind of compensatory factor kicking in.

Bit of Bouldering

Just did some bouldering at the local wall today. I have definitely maintained much of my strength even thought the volume of climbing I have been doing this year has fallen rapidly.

My strength felt good but I was not pulling on holds as small as usual for as long as usual. I thinkthat this might be as much to do with my increased weight over the past year. Bigger thighs are no use in the vertical!

I felt tired yesterday so skipped the planned workout. Monday's rope-climbing was clearly brutal. I could feel it in my back and shoulders for the following two days and knew even on Friday that I was below baseline. I should be stoked for something next week - reckon I might train on a different day and see what happens. As always, I will try to listen to my body and let it guide me.

Importantly, today was all about 'play'. Mixing with friends with some good natured banter.

The Hospital

The last post enclosed this quote:

• Anyone who caught Channel 4’s ‘The Hospital’ will probably never eat carbohydrates again. At one point, the lead doctor in the show – who spends his days fixing gastric bands to supersized patients - belted out an inspired tirade against ‘beige’ foods; crisps, potatoes and bread among other things.

I went in search of the actual program which you can see here. It is quite funny that despite a room full of experts (doctors, surgeons, nutritionists), meeting streams of people who are fat despite dieting and pursuing lots of exercise, they still think it is "calories in vs calories out" and a lack of self discipline that is the problem.

The quote about beige kicks in at 12'30" but even this doctor responsible for this incisive comment seems to believe you can simply restrict calories or increase calories out to lose fat. Hmmm - can these guys prove this approach works? Are they sure that reducing 'calories in' in a complex biological organism will NOT cause a compensatory and involuntary reduction in calories out?

It does sound controversial that a fat person is, at a cellular level, in calorific balance, but they are. If you can't access your fat stores then you can be fat and starving. Starving people will eat. Hunger is a powerful driver. From an evolutionary perspective those that did not respond to this signal died. Simple as.

At 23' comes a really nasty part where the 'experts' just CANNOT believe that at least one of the patients is lying about her diet and exercise (they are accused of lying by the narrator). The whole thing is pushed largely in to the realm of psychology.

Where exercise is found to work there is no conclusion drawn beyond the idea that calories out were increased and so burned off the fat. Such an explanation ignores the consequence of exercise on insulin sensitivity....

The broad advice is to follow our old friend "the balanced diet". N'owt worse than a mistake repeated eh?

Beige

My default Homepage on my home PC is to MSN. I often cast a casual eye over it, but every so often I get drawn in - usually to the health news. Today I got pulled in to this article on aging and nutrition.

As (the few) regular readers will kwow, I am sucked in by confirmation bias! This article is no exception, ticking all the paleo boxes including inferences to AGEs and so forth.

What is significant, and the reason I post, are the two sections copied below. They really go to illustrate the wider and growing awareness of the 'tenets of paleo'.

Anyone who has visited the legendary Arthur De Vany's website will be aware of his caveats about eating 'beige' food. Well this very term cropped up on MSN:

• "Anyone who caught Channel 4’s ‘The Hospital’ will probably never eat carbohydrates again. At one point, the lead doctor in the show – who spends his days fixing gastric bands to supersized patients - belted out an inspired tirade against ‘beige’ foods; crisps, potatoes and bread among other things. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet, but they do make you put on weight (especially if you do little exercise) so do not overdo it and always go for natural rather than processed sources, which contain more sugar. Too many carbs also make you feel – and appear – drowsy: never a good look."

The MSN article goes on to kick soya:

• "Once hailed as a food with a long list of superpowers, health experts are now questioning whether soya could in fact pose a serious health risk. Research in Japan (a country which should know a thing or too about soya) suggests that high levels of soy-based products can play havoc with your thyroid gland, leading to major weight gain and fatigue. Soya apparently blocks the uptake of the chemical iodine, which keeps your thyroid healthy. And it is not as easy to avoid as you would think; it is estimated that soya is found in 60% of processed foods, including breakfast cereals, cheese, cakes, noodles, soups, and sandwich spreads. Experts recommend limiting intake and eating natural, unprocessed foods to avoid any problems."

I get the 'piss' taken out of me more than most for my paleo philosophy. I have quite a few critics who trot out the old 'balanced diet' shite and think that because they are thin (skinny fat in reality), they must be 'OK'. But, it should not escape us that the 'consensus' is definitely coming round to our way of thinking in all but name.

Let them mock...I am not for turning.

Post-HG Lifestyle

Ever wondered what happens when a hunter-gatherer (HG), stops hunting? Sure you could read the works of Weston Price or Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but I think I have found a better example: