WORLD CLASS WORKOUTS – CrossFit – The Leapin’ Leprechaun

September 14, 2010


Ian of CROSSFIT LOS GATOS performs The Leapin’ Leprechaun.

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NJ Football Workouts Inspired by CrossFit Football

September 13, 2010


from the UndergroundStrengthGym.com in Edison, NJ Two Gridiron Gladiators are tearing up The Underground on a leg workout, inspired by http Heavy Zercher Squats, Trap Bar Deadlifts, Kettlebell Swings and afterward they hit 4 rounds of glute ham raises, sled drags and prowler sprints. Feel free to share this video with friends, coaches, family, athletes and / or colleagues. Lead from the Front! –Z– UndegrroundStrengthGym.com http CrossFitFootball.com

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www.GutCheckFitness.com Spring Workouts ? no more hibernating!

July 21, 2010

It’s that wonderful time of year again when the flowers start blooming, the days are warmer and many of us look into the mirror wondering how to lose that winter layer and where to even begin. Have no fear my former hibernating friends I have some quick, easy and fun suggestions to help get you out the door and into fighting shape come summer time.
First, become your own Drill Sergeant. When I joined the Army I was 80lbs overweight and in terrible shape. My “friendly” Drill Instructor was not only able to help me lose that extra 80 but an additional 20 more pounds. How? Tough love! He used it on me, I use in on myself and now you’re gonna use on yourself. This means accountability. No more oversleeping or skipping workouts for happy hour. You’re going to make a plan to get into shape and stick with it. If you fail to plan you plan to fail. I tell my clients at Gut Check Fitness “Don’t focus on the scales. Focus on getting healthy and fit and the weight loss will happen. Let weight loss be a by-product and incredible shape be your goal.
Second, keep it simple. What I mean is you don’t have to go purchase some fancy exercise gizmo or join an expensive health club, use what’s available. The oldest and most effective workout program in the world is the military Boot Camp style. You can make it as easy or hard as you want. Start out with basic calisthenics. My favorites are pull-ups or modified pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, dips, lunges and squats to begin with. Where you begin depends upon your fitness level. Beginners may start with 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps, more advanced can do 20-25 reps and for all my HOO-RAHS out there, I like to do a descending pyramid from 50-40-30-20-10. Is it tough, yes. Does it work, yes! I recommend doing your calisthenics circuit 2-3 days per week, like M-W-F for instance. Tip; to make this more challenging and obtain better results, add a pair of 10-20lb dumbbells to your routine or I like to use what’s available, like rocks, bricks, logs, etc. It keeps it fun and definitely makes neighbors wonder what the heck you’re up to.
Third, Change up your cardio. Weight lifting and calisthenics help build muscle and the cardio really helps ya get rid of the unwanted fat. Unfortunately most people are guilty of going out the door and doing the same old run or ride every day at the same old pace. Guess what? They see the same old results! You’ve gotta change it up and do what I call, “shock your body.” A couple of my favorite additions to the workout program to really spice it up is to add hill or stair repeats and speed work. These two alone will definitely shock your freshly unhibernated body. Go to your favorite hill or stairs then run or ride up them for 3 or 4 times or for about 15-45 minutes. Next workout, hit your local track or street for some speed work, either run distance or time, for example 400 m repeats or for 1-2 minutes. Again, depends on your fitness level and how hard you want to work. I recommend some form of cardio most days of the week, generally at least four or five. Here’s my schedule, Monday – off, Tuesday – hills/stairs, Wednesday – easy trail day, Thursday – speed workout, Friday – cross training, Saturday – Gut Check Fitness Workout & Sunday – mountain biking with my friends. Every couple weeks I change it up. You do the same. Change can definitely be good when it comes to getting more fit. Remember, the road to getting fit and healthy should be a fun ride. Find things that you enjoy to do, whether it be swimming, cycling, running or surfing then go for it. Now’s the time to get out there, to try new things and get into the best shape of your life and “that’s an order private!

Joe Decker World’s Fittest Man

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5 Killer Workouts you can do in 20 Minutes

June 12, 2010

So you don’t have much time but you still want to make progress. As cyclists, we tend to think that short workouts aren’t worth doing as our goals are to ride fast for many hours. Well here is the secret to getting the most gains from less time training. Go hard. I’m not talking about picking up the pace a bit but really going hard. Sprints, hill attacks, other tough intervals and circuit workouts that demand a huge amount of oxygen and create a lot of lactic acid. The accumulated oxygen debt will overload both the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems leading to improvements in both.

As well high intensity intervals and off the bike cross training workouts spike your bodies production in growth hormone and testosterone leading to an improvement in body function without resorting to cheating. As we age these hormones decrease so spiking them up with exercise will help with fat burning, recovery and growth of new red blood cells. It literally will turn back your bodies internal clock letting your feel and perform younger. Not bad for such short workouts.

Enough of the preamble. You’re reading this because you want results, so on to the workouts.

Due to the intensity of my workouts you will want to warm up at least 10 minutes before doing the workout. As you get fitter you will need a longer warm up for optimal performance but a quick one will do to reduce the chance of injury from trying to do these workouts cold.

Tabata Interval Blocks

The basic Tabata interval is becoming well known. The basic premise is 20 second hard / 10 seconds easy, repeated 8-10 times. 8 repeats is a 4 minute block.

If you are pushed for time, do a quick warm up and then 10 x 20 second hard sprints with 10 seconds easy pedalling between the reps. This is a 5 minute workout. Don’t be deceived by the length. Even the fittest athlete will get a training overload if each interval is attacked at maximum effort. Due to the intensity level these are best done on an indoor bike trainer. I’ve done them outside and by the sixth or seventh interval I’m weaving all over the road.

If you have a little more time to work with then I recommend doing a couple of blocks. After warm up, do 8 x Tabata intervals (4 minutes) then a 4 minute recovery and do it again. Two blocks of Tabata intervals overload just about every system in the body and it only takes 12 minutes. As you get fitter you can attempt to add another set during times you want a huge training load.

20 minute Time Trials

Some of you may be familiar with 20 minute threshold repeats. These are up a level in intensity. You can do them indoors or out but if outside find a 20 minutes long hill climb for the lucky folks that live in the mountains or level terrain into a headwind. You don’t want the terrain to give you a break so try to find a route that has no downhills. The rest is pretty simple. Cover as much distance as you can in 20 minutes.

A variation of these I use for my clients is a 12-15 km time trial as this takes most fit cyclists around 20 minutes. If you picked the pace right your legs will be burning but you will be just barely able to keep the pace going for the full distance. Because lactic acid is accumulating faster than your body can process it, the last 5 minutes really hurt. These will raise your aerobic capacity and improve your ability to process lactic acid. If you do time trials in competition they are really good for getting a feel for pacing as well. Go out too hard and your legs will blow up. Go out too easy and you won’t be as fast as you could.

Mini Velmax Intervals

Velmax intervals are a simple but effective workout that we usually do for 25-40 repeats. In this case you will do 20 to fit in the time limit hence the mini. The intervals are pretty simple 30 seconds at 135% threshold power or 8-9 out of ten perceived exertion if you don’t have a power meter. The recovery time is 30 seconds. So you go hard at the beginning of each minute and recover at 30 seconds in. Fairly easy to keep track of no matter how fatigued you get. The first few are hard but doable. Each one after that gets harder until the last few feel like your legs are going to fall off. While you have to get proper recovery between this type of workout they really bring results fast if you put an honest effort in.

Full Body Circuit Workouts

The last two workouts are not on the bike. Sometimes you find yourself without equipment but still want to get a workout in. Other times you will use these types of workouts to balance out the rest of the body. Cycling hits certain muscles hard but neglects others. If you lack muscular endurance in the core and upper body it will affect your performance on the bike. A strong core will increase your power to the pedals both seated and standing. While I’m giving you two workouts, there are almost infinite possibilities when it comes to programing cross training workouts.

To do these workouts you will need nothing more than a pair of dumb bells. For guys I recommend a set of 20 lbs and for women a set of 10 lbs. If you don’t know how to do the exercises, do a Google search for “crossfit exercises” or do a search for the name of each exercise. There are YouTube.com videos of most of the exercises.

Before we get to the workouts, a few points about how to do them. Do each exercise in order and once you’ve gone through one circuit start over at the beginning until you have done the planned number of rounds. The aim is to get the workout done as fast as possible while maintaining good form in the exercises.

Don’t rest unless you have to. This type of workout will have a lot of lactic acid and get you huffing and puffing. This is good. This type of workout leads to an increase in your bodies production of growth hormone and testosterone. For those of us over 30, levels of these hormones decrease. This increase will lead to easier fat burning, better recovery and increased performance.

Workout 1

3 rounds

20 Thrusters
20 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls
20 Burpees

Workout 2

3 rounds

10 Manmakers with Dumbbells
20 Dumbbell Swings
30 Bodyweight Squats

When you first do the above workouts, work at your own pace. Give yourself at least 48 hours between workouts. Try to better your time each time you do them. These are tough but effective. Depending on your fitness level these can be done is as little 6 minutes.

Overview

By making each minute count and overloading the system, you can get great results with very little time spent training. As a cyclist if you focus on quality over the winter with a longer, moderate ride once or twice a week you will see a big improvement by the time spring comes around. The lack of time is just an excuse.

My name is Winston Endall. i’m a bike shop owner and cycling coach. Over the last 12 years I’ve worked developing my Speed Factory Training System to allow real people like you to maximize their fitness. My system lets people with jobs and families build a high level of cycling performance with the minimum time spent each week. Speed Factory combines bike workouts, crosstraining and flexibility work to make you a stronger overall athlete in as little as 4 hours per week. For more information go to my site http://www.cyclecambridge.com

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Watch Home Fitness Workouts – Turbulence Training

May 28, 2010

If you have spent too long on the internet looking for decent free information on how to get rid of fat from stubborn areas like the belly, arms, thighs, love handles etc.. Then you probably would have come across hundreds of products that claim to give you the answer to your problems for a very little effort.

 
Click to Visit the Official Homepage of Turbulence Training

Without being able to find sufficient proof that it is a standalone diet however, it

is mindful of the training program, and how to optimize its effectiveness that is

worthy of study and discussion.

 

In essence, the crossfit diet that seems to recommended, is very much along the

lines of the established Paleo Diet, which focuses on certain food groups that

humans have become adapted to eating throughout their evolution.

 

Essentially, it gives credence to food groups available through the natural order of

things; meat, fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and pulses. It is

believed that by sticking to these natural ingredients, a healthier lifestyle can be

achieved and maintained.

 
Click to Visit the Official Homepage of Turbulence Training

 

Its teachings are sound of course; as the diet significantly reduces our exposure

to manufactured ingredients, and relies on natural sources of salts, sugars and

fats to give flavor and taste to our foods.

 

However, in today’s modern society of course, sticking to a diet of such structure

and rigidness requires a lot of determination and commitment. However, for those

already working with the crossfit training program, this should not be so much of

a problem of course’ dedication and commitment are somewhat standard operating

procedures for such people!

 

However, the dietary program itself can help many more areas of society than those

wishing to boost their fitness levels of course.

 

If you think Turbulence Training is too complicated, let me make things easier to understand. You get a complete step by step plan to follow for 16 weeks in which time you are guaranteed to lose at least 8% body fat depending on how well you follow it.

 
Click to Visit the Official Homepage of Turbulence Training

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CrossFit Workouts

May 6, 2010


It’s tough, demanding and probably one of the best workouts your body can handle. Check out CrossFit, the latest fitness trend.

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