CrossFit Workout DCCTM Cycle April 15-21

DAY 1 (ideally done after a rest day)

Soft Tissue Work 7- 10mins; work on areas that YOU need to mobilise

Warm Up from board

A1. CG Bench Press; 2wu’s +4×8; rest 60s
(heavier than last week; controlled 3s decent; scapula control)
A2. Power Snatch; 2wu’s +4×3; rest 90s
(Heavier than last week but perfect; focus on tech; dump btw each rep)

B1. Pulldowns; 1wu +3×8; rest 60s
(heavier than last week but perfect; focus on scap retraction not arm pull)
B2. Bulgarian Split Squats; 3x8e/s; rest 60s
(Add weight; start on your less competent leg)

C1. Back Extension; 3×16-20; rest 60s (done slow to moderate)
C2. GHD Sit Up; 3×15; rest 60s (done slow to moderate)

D. Run 7mins @75%
(focus technique, breathing and efficiency)

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DAY 2 (ideally done after rest day)

Soft Tissue Work 7­-10mins; work on areas that YOU need to mobilise; for most this will include ankle and hip to prepare to BSq SUPER deep today
Warm Up from board

A1. Back Squat; 2wu’s +4×8; rest 90s
(For warm up sets sit in SUPER bottom position for 5sec for first 3-5reps; heavier than last week; controlled 3s decent; focus on upright position and SUPER depth)
A2. DB Strict Press; 2wu’s +4×8; rest 90s
(moderate but perfect; have db’s touch should tips if poss; pull scapula into back but no lean back)

B. Stiff-legged Deadlifts; 2wu +3×5; rest 180s
(moderate, not heavy but perfect; no rounding at all; focus on glute, ham stretch and squeeze; use approx. 60-75% of weight from last weeks Deadlifts)

Demo http://www.catalystathletics.com/exercises/exercise.php?exerciseID=86

C. Wall facing Handstands 3-­5 sets; hold for 15-30s; rest 90­-120s
(walk up with wallwalk; at top toes touching wall only; focus on hollow; be prepared to roll out)

D. Airdyne; 20sec @95-97%; Walk/Rest 3:30 x3 sets (drive power through the legs)

 DAY 3 (ideally done after rest day)

Soft Tissue Work 7­-10mins; work on areas that YOU need to mobilise; for most this will include ankle and hip to prepare to BSq SUPER deep today
Warm Up from board

A. Back Squat; 2wu’s +5×4 @70%RM; rest 120s
(For warm up sets sit in SUPER bottom position for 5sec for first 3-5reps; controlled 3s decent; focus on upright position and SUPER depth)

B. All done at moderate / consistent effort / start slow and steady and build

AMRAP in 12mins @80%

2 Push Ups (HSPU if you can; although must be unbroken)

4 Ring Rows (strict muscle up with NO DIP if you can)

12 Swings @12-24kg (choose a weight were you can go unbroken)

40 Singles alternating landing foot

-rest 5-7mins-

AMRAP in 10mins @84%

Row 225m/185m

12 KB Push Press @8-16kg (2 kb’s; if not kb’s left use db’s; choose a weight where you can go unbroken)

-rest 5-7mins-

AMRAP in 8mins @ 88%

10 Ballslam 9/15kg (must be unbroken)

10 Burpees (must be unbroken)

 

Don’t forget to post times to the blog so I can see how you are going and adapt program to suit your needs.

Tips for Staying on Track on Holidays

You have been training hard, eating lots of real food, feeling great and achieving the results you have been aiming for. Then you realise you are going away on holidays for the next couple of weeks. Will this mean all of your good work will go to waste?

Here are a few tips to make sure you stay on track the next time you take a well deserved holiday:

Eat good sources of protein, carbohydrates and fats in your main meals:

When you are on holiday you want to enjoy some foods you don’t normally have, some ice cream, alcohol, chocolate etc. The key is making sure that you are fuelling your body properly in the rest of your meals and keeping the bad options to just treats. The mistake people make is just eating anything because they are on holiday and finding it hard to come back to the gym after their trip.

Make training work in with your holiday:

The best way to make sure you keep training when away is to incorperate it into things you would be doing anyway. If you are going down to the pool, take your training gear and go to hotel gym for 30mins before and then you will be ready to jump straight in the pool. If you are going to the beach for the day, go for a swim and do some squats and push ups on the sand. If training doesn’t feel invasive on your relaxing time you will be more inclined to do it!

Keep active and lift something every other day:

When visiting new places you tend to do a lot of walking and moving around anyway, so this is a good thing. Try and stay as active as possible on your holiday. The hardest part is keeping your strength up, so try every 2nd day to lift something heavy. Whether you can find a gym and lift some barbells, dumbells, kettlebells etc or do some bodyweight exercises in the park or your hotel room.

With these simple tips you can enjoy your holiday and also keep healthy and you find it is not so hard to come back to the gym after a trip away!

Position, Position, Position!

This is what I say to myself before I am about to perform a heavy set of Back Squats.

I always find Squats challenging and I know the difference between being in the right position and the wrong position can result in making or missing the rep.

In all exercises, position relates to your set up as well as the actual movement itself. You can’t recover from a poor set up position. Think about setting your spine first by engaging your glutes and bracing your abs. When setting up for a Deadlift, you need to be aware of being in the correct starting position even before you think about trying to pull the weight off the ground. I see many clients rush through their set up and their lifts are a lot worse because of it.

Once set, you also need to think about your position during the movement. When beginning my Back Squats, it’s hips pushed back, drive knees out, chest up, lower back tight, weight in heels. If I hit all these points I should be in a good position to come up out of the bottom of the squat and make the lift!

On the other side of the coin, if you Squat with your knees rolling in, your back rounded and end up getting crushed at the bottom, not only are you in a bad position to complete the rep, but you are well on the way to causing yourself an injury. Position is everything and should be what your main focus is during all your training.

The Benefits of Tempo Training

At Ignite we have just started to introduce more Tempo work into the main programming. You may be seeing a strange sequence of numbers and letters like 21X0 written after exercises. So, what does it mean, how do you do it and what are the benefits?

The tempo prescriptions dictate the speed in which the lift should be performed. The numbers are the count in seconds, while an X indicates as fast as possible.

The first number corresponds to the lowering (eccentric) part of the lift, the second number is whether there is a pause at the bottom, the third refers to the ascending (concentric) phase and the forth tells you how long to hold at the top of the lift.

Example: Overhead Squat 3×3 Tempo 21X0
(3 sets of 3 reps, take 2 seconds to lower to the bottom, pause 1 second, drive up as fast as you can, go straight into the next rep).

So now you know how to do it, what are benefits?

Firstly, it is great way to improve movement patterns in both beginners and advanced clients. For beginners, focusing on controlling the movement allows them to get a better feel for what muscles they need to engage and become more conditioned to the exercise. For other trainers tempo can make sure they are using weights that is appropriate to their level instead of going too heavy and degrading their form.

Another advantage is the reduced risk of injury, as controlling the tempo of the lift puts more stress on the muscles and less on the supportive structures such as the joints and connective tissues.

Finally, tempo will improve your strength! It will give the muscles a new stimulus to adapt to, as well as increasing the time under tension during an exercise. If you have any weaknesses in your movements it is also a great way to strengthen those areas making you stronger through the whole range of motion.

Once you have had a chance to try out tempo training, comment on your thoughts and experiences.

You Can’t Out-Train a Bad Diet!

No matter what your goals are, whether you are interested in athletic performance or just looking and feeling great, training more is not the answer to poor food choices.

You train to increase athletic ability, while you eat to change body composition.

Despite what most Dietitians and “Health Professionals” tell us, losing weight and staying healthy is not just about burning more calories than our bodies are taking in. Sure, if you constantly eat highly processed foods, but the calories you burn is always higher you may lose or maintain your current weight, but you are just constantly chasing your own tail. What if you become injured? Or you go on holidays? Or you become sick? Or you don’t keep up the amount of exercise you are doing as you get older? Or you over train? If your eating habits are poor it will eventually catch up with you and you will put on weight, or even worse suffer from lifestyle diseases such as Diabetes or Cardiovascular Disease. If your food intake is always healthy, then none of those situations will have much effect on your total weight.

Food is the fuel that runs your body and provides it with the proper nutrients it needs. You will be surprised how much a diet full of real unprocessed food will both increase your training results and change your body composition for the better.

If your current idea is to do extra exercise only so you can eat poorly, reassess your thought process. You train to increase your strength, fitness, posture, co-ordination, while you eat a diet full of lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruits,and good fats for body composition and weight management! 

5 Very Handy Apps for Health and Training

Welcome to the digital age! If you don’t have your iPod in your shoe or a GPS tracker clipped on, then you can’t possibly achieve all your hopes and dreams, right?

Take that as a touch of tongue-in-cheek there.

Fact is, while technology has its positives, it can never substitute for hard, grind-your-teeth training. This doesn’t mean that you can’t geek out and use some techie tools every once in a while!

So here are five apps currently on my iPhone to keep me informed, in touch and on top!

1. All-in Yoga (Arawella Corporation – $0.99)

A really handy app to guide you through some yoga poses. Covers everything from basic breathing to advanced and “guru” poses. Lately it’s been my Sunday recovery session, and I’m feeling bendier for it.

2. CrossFit Workout of the Day (LOLriffic Stuff – free)

Matched up daily to main site. A portable way to keep track of what HQ has in mind.

3. Interval Timer – For Fitness and Workouts (Deltaworks Limited – free)

Simple and effective. You can program high, low and rest intervals for any specified period of time. Anything from Tabatas to Thai boxing.

4. Mark’s Daily Apple (free)

All things encompassing a Primal and Paleo lifestyle. A great read with some well-researched information.

5. myWOD – All-in-One Log for CrossFit ($0.99)

Track your workouts over time, and share your achievements online. Data recording at its best!

Try these out and see what you think. They’ve been handy for me when I can’t get into the gym or on a lazy Sunday!

10 Fitness Challenges (Part 2)

How did everyone go with the first two challenges? If you are still working on them, I have two more to add. For both of these you will need to ask the help of the trainers.

3. Deadlift your body weight
Deadlifts are an important part of your strength program to make sure you can safely lift objects without injuring your back. It is also important that you listen to the trainers so you do them properly. Your first aim is to lift the same amount as your own body weight. Once you have had some experience you will be aiming for over 2x body weight!

4. Master the Overhead Squat
Squats should be the basis of all training programs, no matter what your goals. Once you are experienced with the front and back squat, your challenge is to practice the overhead squat. Strength wont be enough for this lift, you need good flexibility through your ankles, knees, hips, back and shoulders if you want to be proficient in overhead squatting, as well as balance and core stability. So some mobility work may be in order. For those of you with solid technique already your goal is to overhead squat the same amount as your body weight.

I hope you are building a list of goals and ticking them off as you go. Post to comments any successes as well as your own ideas for challenges.

A Simple Summer Heirarchy

Namaste! Hope everyone is going well and training hard!

A very simple one for you all to get you lookin’ good for summer (or winter where I am). It’s a lifestyle heirarchy to ensure you devote most of your time to where it counts most.

In order of importance:

#1. Nutrition

Get your food right. Five meals per day, au naturale, with a nice balance of protein, fats and carbs. Plenty of water, a little coffee and definitely no juice or soft drinks. Consider nutrition to be the base of your beach body!

#2. Training volume

Make sure you’re getting into the gym consistently over the next month or two. Four times a week is a minimum.

#3. Training intensity

KISS – increase your weights by just a fraction (say 2.5kg) each week. Aim for one more rep on each set of your body weight exercises. Take 1-2 seconds off your running and rowing times, and aim to beat your timed workout times each week.

#4. Sleep

At least 8 hours a night. Minimise or eliminate the alcohol and keep hydration levels high to get a good night’s sleep. You can’t train hard on a tired body, and the last thing you feel like doing is preparing a meal at the end of the day.

The Reason we use Free Weights

We incorporate all different kinds of free weights into our training, from dumbbells, to barbells and kettlebells. There is often debate about their advantages and here are the reasons we choose you utilise them.

1. Movements incorporate stablising muscles:
By using free weights in at exercise your body is forced to not only use the muscles needed to move the weight, but also all stablising muscles around the joints as well as core muscles.

2. Your whole body is involved:
Multi-joint exercises using free weights such as squats, deadlifts and presses need your whole body working together as a system in order to perform the movement. This means you are using more muscles at once, helping to strengthen them and burn more calories as you are doing it.

3. Exercises match the normal movement patterns of your body:
Training with free weights allows your body to move as it was intended to and not on a predetermined path. Exercises are able to replicate daily activity as well as sport specific movement patterns.

4. Increase strength and power output:
By using your whole body to perform normal movements you can work up to training yourself with heavier loads and more taxing exercises, leading to greater strength and power improvement.

5. Help with balance, proprioception and co-ordination:
The control of free weights requires your body to improve it’s awareness and not only are you getting stronger, but also increasing your control over your body’s movement.

6. Perform uni-lateral movement:
Free weights enable you to train one side of your body, also focusing on rotation and anti-rotation exercises.

7. More mentally stimulating and challenging:
By learning more advanced movements such as the Olympic lifts with barbells you can work your mind as well as your body, keeping you focused during training sessions.

8. Variety and Fun
With just a single kettlebell you can perform many different exercises, and when you master one there is always a new one to learn. This variety keeps workouts fun and your motivation high.

So next time you pick up a barbell, think of all the benefits to your body you are about to gain!

How to progress my Pull ups and Dips

For a lot of clients their first major goal is to be able to do an unassisted Pull Up. Until they can, they become best friends with the coloured bands. If you are working your way through the blue, red, orange and yellow bands with your dips and pull ups, then here are some simple tips to help you progress.

1. Aim for 5-10 consistent reps on each set before moving on.
If you are currently using the red band, your aim is to complete at least 5 reps each set. You should stay with that band until you can perform at least 8-10 reps on each set, before thinking about progressing.

2. Put more emphasis on your technique, than moving up the bands.
If you are only just getting your chin to the bar in your pull ups using all arms, or your not getting the full depth in your dips then there is no point trying to move up to the harder band. Completing 10 challenging pull ups with good form on the orange band, is better than doing 5 pull ups with the yellow, where you are only going three quarters of the way to the bar.

3. Practice both without and with the band.
You have just done your first unassited pull up, but can’t do anymore, how should you progress? In the case where you have the strength to do 1 or 2 unassisted pull ups or dips, you are best to attempt as many as you can each set and then add a few extra reps with the help of the band to be able to do at least 5 each set.

4. Try not to get frustrated
You may get 3 sets of 8 dips one week, but only manage 3 sets of 7 the next. This is common and could have been caused by the other exercises you have done during the week. If you had done a hard timed workout with lots of push ups the day before it could effect your dips in this program. Try to see the progression from the start of your program to the end of 8 weeks.

5. Be consistent
Like all of your training goals, if you are consistently getting into the gym 3-4 times a week and working on your nutrition, then you will be rewarded with improvements!