I’m in Melbourne this weekend for a friends wedding. We drove our awesome new car over and got here on a single tank!
While packing my kettlebell caught my eye and got tucked in the boot just in case.
This morning I got up and did this little session.
12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 reps
2 handed swing
1 leg bent row x reps each side
2 handed high pull
Goblet squat
Overhead press x half reps each side

It was quick and not as hard as it could’ve been. This suites me fine, seeing as my conditioning is down for now. I want my workouts to be a little easy just to get back in to the habit of training. Feel free to add a few more rounds. Alternatively, this could be a great finisher after a weights session.

Yesterday I did a minimal equipment workout. It was fun and a good smasher too. There’s actually 3 workout ideas which I combined into one monster fun session. If you don’t have kettlebells any dumbell which will let your knuckles sit underneath them.

Warmup:
T-spine rotation
Ball rollout scapular stretch
Spiderman walk 10m
Inchworms 10m
Bear walk 10m
Crab walk 10m
Leapfrog over the bench x10

Workout 1: Cosgrove’s evil 8 barbell complex
Obviously I didn’t make this up, Allwyn Cosgrove did. The aim for women is to get the whole thing done in 15 minutes at 40kg.

A1 Bent Deadlift
A2 Romanian Deadlift
A3 Bentover Row
A4 Hang Clean
A5 Front Squat
A6 Push Press
A7 Back Squat
A8 Good Morning

Complete 6 reps per exercise with no rest. Rest 90s then complete again with 5 reps then rep down to 1 rep.

I got 17:20 at 30kg which is a 5kg improvement on last week but a little slower. I’m gonna keep working at this weight until I can get it done in 15 minutes. The hardest bit was keeping the barbell on my sweetie traps for the squats and Good Mornings.

I took 5 minutes to go on a kettlebell hunt. I ended up finding a 8kg and 10kg. I swear the gym has 2 of each but who knows were the matching ones were. The 8kg one was hiding in the spin room, OF COURSE! So it was uneven training for me.

I performed this is the same reverse pyramid fashion that the previous exercise was done in but with only 30 seconds rest and switched which hand had the heavier bell each round.

B1 Double Kettlebell swing
B2 Renegade Row (modified from knees)
B3 Plank 15 seconds (hands on bell handles)
B4 Windmills

I didn’t remember to take a time for this. I took enough time to put stuff away and grab equipment.  Then….

Round 3:
C1. Sled push 20m
C2. Bench leapfrog x 7
C3. Bench stepups x 6
C4. Army getups on bench x 5 (each side)
C5. Farmers walk 20m (20kg plate in each hand)

Repeated for 4 rounds. This was performed without rest. For the sled push I just pushed a weights bench on carpet.

I finished up with a bit of medicine ball stress releif.
D1. Medicine ball slams x 10 (4kg)
D2. Medicine ball seated twisting throws x 10 each side (4kg)
4 rounds

Play a bigger game

by Frank Forencich on September 30, 2010

“Wanna play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe?”

“Uh, maybe some other time,” you’ll probably say.

You’ve been there, done that, and you’ve got better things to do. The game was interesting for about a week or so, back in second grade, and that was about it. You played it with friends and parents, ran through all the variations and soon came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much to get excited about. The patterns and the outcome quickly became predictable and you moved on to other, more interesting pursuits.

This progression makes sense, of course. Games only capture our attention when they’re pulling us to the outer limits of our capability, drawing us into new territory, new ideas and new dimensions of understanding. Games are delightful when they reveal new relationships or help us develop new skills, but once we gain mastery, the game becomes dull and we start looking for bigger challenges. Such is the natural orientation of the human mind and spirit.

So why then, do so many of us get stuck at the conventional level of the modern health and fitness industry? Why do we spend so much time and energy on the Tic-Tac-Toe of weight loss, muscular development and athletic performance? Why do we publish and read the same boilerplate publications month after month, year after year, recycling the same predictable game through our minds and our culture?

After all, we have effectively mastered the health and fitness game. The formula for success is simple, familiar and well-documented:

Train vigorously and rhythmically in a movement style that you love, eat real food, rest deeply and often.

That’s the whole thing in a nutshell. There’s little news here and almost nothing left to discover. Like Tic-Tac-Toe, the health and fitness industry has become a grinding and thoroughly predictable bore. So the obvious question: isn’t there a bigger game out there?

I suggest that there is. The most pressing challenge of the century– our bigger game–is to create a new, more functional relationship between the body and the biosphere, one that sustains the health of both. This bigger game is about far more than the shape or condition of individual human bodies. It’s about more than the creation of isolated health islands or pockets of physical fitness. Rather, it’s about culture, relationship and rapport: rapport with our bodies, rapport with each other and rapport with the living world.

Compared to the predictable Tic-Tac-Toe of conventional fitness, the Big Health game is endlessly fascinating, engaging and challenging. It’s an infinite game: wide as the biosphere, as deep as the history of life and as intricate as human culture and society. When we play this game, we’re working and playing, not just with the tissue and performance of individual bodies, but with memes, culture, and what David Abram calls “the more-than-human world.” (See Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal) This combination makes the game endlessly fascinating, multi-dimensional and dynamic. Not only that, any wins that we manage to achieve have immense potential for transformation; this is a place where we can make a vital difference.

So how do we play this bigger game?

The ground rules are simple, but the field of play is immense: Begin by familiarizing yourself with the fundamentals of the human body: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and biomechanics. Learn the basics of health, nutrition, training and the psychosocial fundamentals of stress. Then move on to the extra-somatic layers: learn the basics of land, habitat, biology and ecology, including the lives of non-human animals and their relationship to the natural world. This grounding education may take a decade or more, but it’s essential.

Once you’ve got the basics in place, start creating new stories and cultural narratives. Investigate new relationships and recombinations of existing ideas, structures and processes. Use your knowledge of Big Health to create new ways of living in this modern and very perplexing world. As you play, walk the walk, not just for weight loss, eternal youth or a faster run, but for the fate of the biosphere, for healthy habitat and a viable human future.

As movement teachers and health enthusiasts, we are ideally suited to play this game and lead others in this direction. We know the state of the body; we know how it works and we know how tremendously challenged it is in the modern world. We know the threats and we know–better than anyone perhaps–what needs to be done.

So keep your eyes on the bigger game! Step up for the body and the biosphere. Don’t get trapped in the smaller dimensions of convention.

Go big.

See the original article

Kevin and I took the camera out to share our walk with everyone.

Click on the image to see the full set.

If you have a beautiful walk you do, how about sharing it on your blog. Leave me a note

The new beginings: As of tomorrow I start a 6 month course studying Commercial Cookery at TAFE. I’m very excited about this but more than a little nervous. I’ll be the mature age student who’s vowed to pay attention. I remember how annoying this was when I was a snotty 18 year old fresh out of high school. I guess I’d better not be too annoying as everyone will have knives, and I’m in the South so they know how to use them. I’m hoping to gain vaulable knowledge on the commercial aspects of running a food business and then in the second half of the year you’ll see me hopefully launch my own food service. Exciting!

As for training, I’m taking the rest of the week off. I’ve been training pretty hard for a while now and have a few injuries and niggling things that need attending to.  Then I’m gonna start from the ground up and really get things rolling.

So many girls seem to write about their DOMS with such heroic glory. I can’t think of anything less fun. Thankfully I don’t get DOMS. My lats were a tiny bit sore last night after doing my first full workout of unassisted chinups. I can feel them when I reach up to stretch but I can move my arms. I did get DOMS about 3 weeks ago, the day after a training session without my BCAA/EAA supplements.

Here’s a few reason’s why you might want to try BCAA’s

• BCAA promote protein synthesis in muscle.

• BCAA taken during training have been shown to increase both growth hormone and insulin, thus increasing anabolism and anti-catabolism.

• BCAA, unlike other amino acids, are used to provide energy.

• A 1992 Italian study showed that BCAA taken prior to a workout not only prevented a decrease in post-workout Testosterone levels, but caused it to increase.

• BCAA have been shown to decrease post-workout soreness.

• BCAA, according to a 1997 Italian study published in Medicina Dello Sport, when taken 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after a workout, were shown to increase lean body mass and improve strength in the bench press and squat.

• BCAA have been shown to increase exercise endurance, especially exercise conducted in high temperatures.

• As little as 4 grams of BCAA can kick start the body from a catabolic state to an anabolic state.

What all of this means is that your body repairs faster. Faster repair means less soreness and as your muscles repair, they grow.

Flavoured BCAA powders are tasty too. I have been using Scivation Xtend for about 2 years now. I love the lemonade flavour. Others swear by apple and grape. Recently I decided to give local crowd Next Generation a go with their product ‘refuel’. I’ve got the lemon-lime flavour. It’s not as sweet as Xtend but tastes like Bickfords lime cordial so I can’t complain.

Feeling sore, why not try a BCAA formula.

Fellow PNer Joanna posted this amazing video on her awesome health and fitness website. I had to share it as it combines 2 of my loves. Dog tricks and fitness.

It’s been a pretty unsettled week for me. Stephen went away to Melbourne on Wednesday morning and I had my Dad for dinner in the evening. We had the most yummy Thai salad, which I will share soon.

He brought bad news, that his Mum had been taken to hospital after her cancer had taken a turn for the worst. He was heading out to see her on Friday and to share her 90th birthday. It turned into a late night so I slept in Thursday morning because I didn’t have to rush home from work to spend time with Stephen. However, shortly after I got to work Dad rang with the bad news that Mim (his Mum) had passed away. She was an amazing woman. One of the first female pilots in the US. A high-school science teacher, who inspired thousands of kids. She was always full of energy. She was still flying planes and going to the gym 4 times a week this time last year. Her sense of humour has spread right through all our family and it’s so obvious we are related when we get together. The last 6 months would have been very tough for her as she always wanted to be doing things and meeting with people and her body wasn’t able. I am happy that her suffering is over and that she can now find a new body to have adventures in. I feel compassion for the people who where closest to her; my Dad, uncle and aunt and her amazing sister, Catherine who’s hearts are very much broken right now.

Much to my disappointment (and I’m sure Mim’s) I dropped the ball a bit for the rest of the week. Partaking in morning tea on Thursday morning, and a big meal out with my dad Thursday night. Followed by a few not to great meals out while I’m here in Melbourne. I am however proud to say I made all my trianing sessions. Squeezing in Thursday night in the last 30 mins before the gym closed. All my sadness made me strong and I did 3 sets of unassisted NG chins. Friday’s training was a bit of a comedown. My mind wasn’t on it and I was weak as a kitten. Flattened from the sad news, preparing for an important meeting and packing to travel. Saturday I ran stairs at our accommodation. 

Last night I had an idea I was going to hunt out chilli mud crab for dinner. It ended up being a bit of a Szechuan feast. This morning I woke and decided it was time to refocus and remember my goals. Look out world here I come.

30 rounds for time (29.30)

I’ve had a mad crazy day of appointments, catching up with people and digging holes in the rain in the middle-of-nowhere and was seriously talking myself out of my EEW. So I grabbed 30 5c peices and made a pile on my desk, cranked my iTunes and banged this out. I have to use the coins as markers or I forget to count or start internal negotiations. Before my workout I was ready for a nap. Now, I feel PUMPED.

Steph, this one’s for you. I don’t know if JD’s still got you doing HIIT but this one’s a kicker. Great for us girls who aren’t so cardio fit, or have cardio ADD.

200m ‘sprint’
5 burpies (the proper, with pushup kind)
5 squat (BW)
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes

This week’s effort: 9