Home Training

Kids still ill so tricky to get time to train, but managed to cram in about 25 mins before dinner tonight.

Bodyweight Circuits

12 x stepups each leg

12 x elevated press ups one hand on med ball (so do each side)

12 x forward lunges hands up

12 x horizonal rows

12 x 1 leg deadlift each side

12 x hammer press

8 x pistol squats with chair

8 x deep pressups with chairs either side

3 times round with no rest

Finally got in a little stretch while watching tele a bit later.

James.

www.MySplitsChallenge.com

Full splits!

Yes. Come on santa.

Finally a chance to train...

The last few days have been an, almost, non stop eating and drinking fest. I had the office party to attend where we went to Bruge in Belgium for a couple of days then the day after we got back it was my Dad's birthday where we all went out for a big lunch with lots of food, cake and wine and I have been itching to train since Thursday.

So anyway I had 25 minutes to spare just now and I did this:

warmup then this circuit 3 times round no rest until the end
Bulgarian split squat x 12 each leg
Elevated spiderman press ups x 12
Step Ups x 12 each leg
Chin Ups x 8*
Hamstring Bridge and Curl (suspension straps) x 12
Bodyweight Dips x 12

*I managed only 6 chin ups on my final circuit which actually is amazing since only a few months ago I do just about do 1 chin up in total.

Feeling great and my lungs are still burning and my legs all wobly - YEAH!

Oooh

Too many bad calories this weekend. I am sweating out the bad stuff and i feel rubbish.

Oh man

Not more cake

My log

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Yum

Waffle and hot chocolate

Coffee

Best coffee in ages

That was better

Deer. Very tasty.

Dinner in Belgium

Not my sort of food

Training hard

Beer in belgium for lunch

Missed TKD tonight soo.....

I tried this first:

12 bulgarian split squat
10 x diamond push ups
x 3

12 pistols with chair
10 x horiz rows
x 3

8 dips
8 pullups
x 3

12 rdl
12 side to side thingys
x 3

New Workout

I think I am gonna go back to do weights of some sorts for my legs, squats, lunges, step ups etc, I think I need to add more load. One leg stuff is great but it does take twice a long and I need to save time on workouts.

As an experiment here's what I did tonight:

12 x Squats with bar behind
10 x Press ups with one hand on med ball (each side)
rest 30 secs repeat

12 x step up with bar behind
8 x Horizontal Rows
rest 30 secs repeat

8 x single leg bent deadlifts
8 x chest fly on FlexStraps
rest 30 secs repeat

Then into a circuit (intervals)

12 x front lunge with bar behind (each leg)
10 x Spidey Press Ups
12 x backwards lunge with bar behind (each leg)
8 x Pull ups
8 x cosack squat each leg
12 x ham curls on Flex Straps

I didn't push it hard after being a little ill but I am gonna add load with a barbell or dumbells or kettlebells to the leg training

All Good.

Halted Progress

I am still a bit ill but might go training tonight and gently get back in to it

Been ill

I have not done any training since last Tuesday. I have had a wiered cold but also all my muscles felt really weak so I figured it best to lay off any strength work and / or any deep stretching - this means I have no recent photos to post. I still did light stretching and leg swings as that's quite relaxing to do and non stressful on the body.

Leg conditioning

I am going to spend a couple of weeks working the conditioning aspects of stretching, as I have done for a while now but just with a focus on it - that's all. Tonight's workout was:

12 x squat with bar behind
12 x lunges with bar overhead, each leg
12 x single straight leg deadlift, each leg
12 x back lunges with bar overhead, each leg
12 x wide squat with bar behind
12 x single leg bent leg deadlift (RDL)
90 seconds static wide sitting stance
rest 1 minute
repeat

Then I relaxed and ate some natural yoghurt and blueberries

And from the side...

This photo was taken about 3 seconds after the one in my previous post - so the same split session - and gives a better idea of angles.

You can see there is much work to do to get full 180. I feel resistance at back of hips but strength wise in hip flexors, lower back, middle back and abs - So lots of posture work to do then.

Comments welcome of course.

Sunday Splits Pics

Sunday was early morning TKD then a good stretch after. I worked side splits today and notice some improvement but that there is a long way to go for full 180 and complete mobility.

Strange facial expressions are essential when being the subject of a photograph.

The split looks ok but you might notice it's 180 and a long way off at that. I was actually feeling this at the back of my hips rather than inner thigh.

Friday Home Training

Last night I was mega worked out from a GA Level 1 in a Circuit Style keeping the intensity up.

1) Horiz Pull ups x 10

2) Dive bombers x 10

3) Narrow Horiz PUs x 10

4) Weaving PushUps x 10

5) Bridge and Curl x 10

6) Hammer Press x 10

Rest 1 minute

Repeat

Rest 1 minute

Repeat

Then I did a 5 minute abs programme like this:

1 min Side plank

1 min side plank other side

1 min plank

1 min cross over mountain climbers (these work man)

1 min hanging knee ups

Then I massaged my right hamstring because I have got an annoying niggle.

Saturday - REST

Thursday TKD Day

Light stretches AM

TKD PM

Great Session. Small room. Lots of punching, kicking, elbowing on the pads. All Good.

Did a front splits stretch and I have basically maintained the advances I made on Sunday. All Good

Wednesday Training

Light stretches I think. Can't remember, but I also did LOADS of work on the shop

So, What happened next

After my Super Stretchy Sunday I did TKD on Monday night. It was quite a light session, I did leg swings when I could and kicked carefully after my deep stretching of Sunday. We did lots of patterns and some boxing drills.

And today I did leg conditioning:

12 x squat with bar behind
12 x lunges each leg with bar over head
12 x single straight leg deadlifts
12 x back lunges with bar over head
12 x single leg deadlifts
12 x assisted pistol squats
Rest 1 minute
Repeat

Then I did some light stretches and moved in to the Splits Specific Warm Up but missed out the dynamic warm up and moved in to side splits stetches. Concentrated on the hips as that is where most resistance for me is found. Then I massaged them a bit then back to the routine.

All good

James.

www.MySplitsChallenge.com

And the other leg...

...good progress made this side as well for the True Front Split.
GET IN!

Having Fun yourselves?

James.

www.MySplitsChallenge.com

COME ON!

Get In. True Front Split coming along nicely. Major development this week, I have actually been stretching to a routine and did extra hip flexor work and massage.

True Front Split Progress

Definite progress here, I had done the splits specific warm up before this stretch session. This involved lots of lunges and similar exercises. All Good Stuff. I did a bit of hip flexor massage too. Today my hips and upper legs are MEGA worked out.

Gravity Advantage Level 1

Perhaps I am spending too much time on GA and not enough on stretching? I know about priorities but you can't just neglect the upper body for 3 months while you do stretching instead. I fully believe that you can incorporate everything to some degree but at certain times you need to focus certain areas more. 

So I am still going to do GA but I will not focus so much on it and I am going to focus more now on my legs and stretching and see if we get results. I am also going to incorporate some of my own ideas in to the mix to see if I can create something unique and reusable.

How to get tired legs

Tonight I did:

12 x squats (bar behind shoulders)

12 x lunges (bar over head) each leg

12 x deadlift (bar hanging)

12 x backwards lunges (bar over head)

12 x single leg deadlift

12 x assisted pistol squats (hold on to a belt from my chinup bar)

rest then repeat

I then tried doing some stretching but my hips were so shattered that I could hardly hold position well or long enough to get a decent stretch. So I just did some light stretching.

However, I can now see that my hip flexors are indeed like concrete. I also am losing a little faith in PZ's book and method but I also have to admit that I have not settled in to a decent programme yet. This is one of the hardest things about this course, and that is devising a programme. I think I might just create something that others can follow easily and get results.

Food For Thought.

Tidy

Wife went away for a dy days. You wouldnt have known.

A little pain.

Not inside legs but hips that are stopping me at the moment.

Up The Anti

Tonight I just had to get working out. I increased the reps on the GA Level 1 because I have not felt that my muscles are 'used' enough. It is a strange feeling, I am absolutely spent after doing the usual number of reps but the next day I feel no side effects so tonight I up'd the Anti.

Which ever way you look at it, for the past few weeks I was doing two sets of the GA Level 1 Exercises but tonight I did three sets in a slightly different routine...

1A: 10 x Horizontal Rows
1B: 10 x Spiderman Pushups
3 times round
rest
2A: 10 x Narrow Horizontal Rows
2B: 10 x Diamond Grip Pushups
3 times round
rest
3A: 10 x Bridge n Curl
3B: 10 x Hammer Press
3 times round

I was hammered after it and felt muscles brimming with activity.

No lower body stuff and no stretching. Still, tomorrow for that.

Still doing it and PROGRESS

Since last week, (blogging once a week is poor I know) , I had a few days off but then back in to it on Saturday afternoon with a bodyweight training session including lower body single leg deadlifts (bending leg) - all good and balance is getting better. Upper body is still GA Level 1 and it is going good although I am not noticing much physical difference yet but my diet is sooo bad just now that I guess I am just burning the calories that I am consuming rather than those distributed around my waist.

Sunday was TKD in the morning, sparring was better but had a good front split routine stretch afterwards and I have definitely improved both hip flexors and hams - all good.

Every day I have done light stretches and leg swings although my back is still sore (18 months on) so I might go to see a back specialist. Monday night I did bodyweight conditioning again, GA Level 1 FAST with 10 reps on first circuit then Max reps (or at least 10) on second circuit. Followed by squats, single leg deadlifts then ELC with the rubber bands (I broke another green one) and a good stretch in front splits routine again.

Tuesday I had a rest apart from light stretches and leg swings in the morning.

A note about ELC: not entirely convinced of the use of bands. Cable pulls might work better because of the direction of pull but that would take a lot of rigging up. I guess I'll try the bands in a different setup tonight. 

All Good.

Just get it done

as probably the busiest man in the world ;o) I have to fit in quick workouts where I can and because the main focus of my training is not just body conditioning or fat loss or whatever, the main focus is Tae Kwon-Do so my training is gear around that. As it happens my training at the moment is about general conditioning to improve my posture, grow some muscle and fire those dormant ones. So I have to fit all this in with my quest for full splits, TKD 3rd Degree and improve my kicking.

So anyway I didn't have much time so I managed to do a good bodyweight session using FlexStraps hung from my chinup bar:

1) Wide grip horizontal rows x 10

2) Bridge n Curl x 10

3) Narrow grip horiz rows x 10

4) Hammer Press x 10

5) Press ups on the bloomin' straps x 10

6) Dive Bomber Pressups x 10

Squeezed in 1 round of this then it was kids bath time then squeezed in another round after bathtime and before dinner. Well, it's not perfect but it is certainly better than doing nothing at all, yeah yeah - ya feel me?

Ahem, so as far as the splits goes. My front splits progress is hampered by rock solid hip flexors and only slightly moving hams. I don't think there is enough stretching technique advice in Paul's material so I am gonna revert to the breathing methods I used 10 years ago or so where I make real quick progress. I'll still keep the routines the same and follow the conditioning for legs and kicking.

I'll keep you updated, innnit

Cheery bye

James

Side Kick

Good job I missed the white teddy, Edie would have been devastated if she woke up in the morning and saw him with a black eye.

Things that need to improve: 

1. Balance
2. Left hip turn out
3. Angle between right hip and torso
4. Less arch of lower back (pelvis tilting too much, posture related I am sure, WORKING ON IT!)
5. Right foot position, technically I guess it should be angled down a bit.

What Fun

Splits Pics

Here's another pic of side splits taken today:

Stretching

On the stretching front I am still having pain in my hip flexors, but I think that is just because they are SO stiff. After they are warmed up and light stretched they feel a little better.

However, I am still having problems settling into a good routine. I think part of this is because I have such imbalance in my body I almost have to start at the beginning to sort things out. For example, my balance is shocking so doing 1 leg deadlifts is hard going just to stay standing. Also my posture is pathetic, trying the sitting 'L' and getting good posture is Hard As You Like! not in my hamstrings (they are at least a little flexible after 14 years of kicking people) but my back strength and flexibility seems crap!

I'll continue working and hopefully settle in to a good routine soon. I really must make excellent progress by March 2009 - that is my goal.

Blitzed

So, I have been well busy the last week and I haven't posted much but I have been training. Last week was quite TKD heavy with classes, teaching and an all day seminar on Saturday 11th called Impact Day (each year TKD Impact puts on a days seminar, which is good).

Last night though I had a great 25 minute workout doing GA Level 1 with fast reps in a circuit. I ended up doing slightly more rows and weaving pressups than normal but on the 2nd time round the ciruit I became blitz'd - muscles where burnt, all good.

I finished off doing a 1 set max press ups (only 18 wavering press ups after this workout) and about 5 between chairs getting really low to try to push my shoulder blades together.

Above all I felt ace after this workout.

Tad sore today

Last night I did:

20 squats, then 20 straight leg deadlifts 3 times round
Splits Specific Warm up from the ES DVD - wicked this, lots of long low stances, felt it working good.
Had a good stretch through the front splits routine and spent slightly longer on some positions that others.

Today my hamstrings are a little sore, maybe from the stretch and my hips are a little fatigued maybe from the long low stances in the splits specific warm up - its all good.

Not much stretching in the routine for the calf though even though PZ talks about stretching the calf before the hams?

FEELING GOOD, but a bit bad

Last night I did the GA Level 1 upper body stuff but instead of supersets I did it as a circuit. So I did...

Joint Rotations
Light Warmup (Squats, press ups, horizontal rows with legs bent)
then into the cirtuit...

8 x wide grip rows
8 x narrow grip rows
8 x weaving press ups
8 x dive bomber press ups
8 x bridge and curl
8 x hammer press
Rest 1 minute
then repeat
then finished off with some reverse crunches.

It was a good way of doing the routine and I enjoyed it too although I didn't sweat much but my house was cold and I only had shorts on.

Then I had a good massage (using tennis ball) on my back and glutes and hamstrings while watching HEROES -YEAAAAHH.

So all that made me feel good. But Ethan was awake a lot and I probably slept for about 1 hour then Edie came in at about 5:30am and that was that. I feel bad. No Sleep and my left knee still is giving me hassle. Not going TKD tonight but will train at home with lower stuff and have a good stretch.

L8RS.

Posture Exercises

Last night, or the night before, I can't remember which (vino?), I went through the posture exercises on PZ's DVD and I was shocked at how terrible my posture was. My middle back is tight and sore when in the correct posture and my hip flexors are struggling to handle the strain of sitting in an 'L' position.

I have since thought that my posture in general is poor and does me no favours in my TKD at all. I would say my pelvis is tilted forward and my lower back is to arched which I think might make weak stances but also might explain my tight hip flexors (or they might be the cause). So I did a quick Google and found this:

http://posture-exercises.blogspot.com/

It seems a good resource and I am going to investigate it further and with a combo with PZ I hope to improve my posture.

Change'd it Up

I didn't really change too much at all. But I totally concentrated tonight on doing quality reps for the GA Level 1, it made the suspension exercises (rows, bridge & curl, hammer press) slightly easier by carrying less weight i.e. I had the straps at an angle rather than just straight down - this meant I could really concentrate on form, it works big time I felt it good. 

Then I did some lower body stuff, lunges (50), single leg deadlifts (12), back thingys (12), side bends (40), kicking position side bend things (15 each leg twice).

I am gonna look through some more of the ES DVD just now.

Glasses

Damn it!

Splits Pics

I am trying to encourage all Elastic Steel practitioners to post pics of the splits progress to a forum on the PZ domain. Here is the link to the forum: Splits Photo Postings

There is only me who is not too embarrassed and have posted a pic. Dave TKD says he will post soon, but I think he is already well in to the splits, but I really think it will motivate others to improve if they post their photos.

Let's see what happens.

Feeling Good

So after my post on Thursday about not wanting to go training...

...obviously I went training because that is what I do, I go training, I do TKD, that is me. I had a massive headache and didn't do any fighting but at least I went and did training. I had a good stretch at the end in Front Splits routine.

Friday Night

I read PZ's post about changing up the routine went things get a little boring so in my GA workout tonight (which I can squeeze in to 30 mins just now) I really concentrated on quality reps and I found it to be a great boost as I could really feel myself working. It was a good session on GA level 1.

I must say here that doing the rows, bridge and curl and hammer press are about twice as hard on Suspension straps than they are on fixed apparatus. I mostly use straps suspended from my chinning bar but when I am down the play park or in the training hall and using the fixed bar things are much easier. 

ALL GOOD.

Not again

So this i feel about going training tonight.

Come On!

So last night I did a good lower body session involving:

Joint warmup

light stretching

straight left deadlifts x 20

Criss Cross Ab things x 20

Single leg deadlifts x 12, both legs

Criss cross x 20

Single straight leg deadlifts x 12, both legs

Criss cross x 20

Back Extensions, 2 sets of 20

Leg raises, abductor and adductor, 50 reps each exercise each leg.

Then moved on for a good stretch in the front splits routine.

NOTES:

Single straight leg dead lifts are hard! Mainly because of my poor balanace and lack of muscle control in the range. I will stick at these.

Back Extensions I find tricky because of the lack of flexibility of my shoulders. I know what I gotta work on here.

MY HIP FLEXORS ARE JUST LIKE ROCK! They are so stiff it is almost unbelievable, still I will keep at it.

Updates

So Thursday last week I worked a lot but am pretty sure I did a lower body workout and a good stretch for front splits. 

Friday I did GA Level 1 again - wicked.

Saturday - rest

Sunday - TKD and GA Level 1

Monday - TKD

A Good Week

Monday

Did my now usual Level 1 from Gravity Advantage Bodyweight Manual and followed it with some planks and ab stuff.

8 x Wide Grip Rows, 8 x Narrow Grip Rows, Rest, Repeat

8 x Weaving Pushups, 8 x Divebombers, Rest, Repeat

8 x Bridge & Curl, 8 x Hammer Press, Rest, Repeat

12 x 1 leg Deadlifts, 20 Wide Squats, rest, repeat.

I think I also did some reverse crunches. I can't remember, I have been so tired recently because I have been working so hard on www.buyXsocks.com

Tuesday

I didn't do a thing training wise, except for early morning joint rotations, squats and I have also added a really strict daily set of horizontal rows in the morning.

Wednesday

This was our 4th Wedding Anniversary and we went out for a meal that evening. However I managed to squeeze in a 40 minute session for Level 1 GA. Man, every exercise is a nightmare. So hard. The bridge and Curls just mash my grip and my inner forearms. The Divebombers become a nightmare by rep 5.

More to come...crying baby right now...

Happy 4th anniversary

I did train earlier in the evening.

Staying Active

So I was meant to be doing some training tonight but I got caught up learning to book keep for this www.buyXsocks.com and other stuff.

Anyway, I am staying really quite active. Here is the first stage of making an Apple Crumble: getting the apples...

Back in the saddle

So I was a bit ill tail end of last week so laid of the training for a few days. Cracked on tonight with GA Level 1 and added some abs stuff like planks and reverse crunches. Then I did the deadlifts and wide squats.

I did some kicking specific stuff to work the hips and lower back: 

Stand with leg on chair back or similar, side kick position then lean over the floor by your standing leg and then pull your body back upright. Works sides  and hips. Then do the same but turn away from the kicking leg, so like a back kick position and this works either side of your lower back. NICE.

The new pressups, divebomber and weaving, are mega. 8 of those are hard going. The rows as well, hard as you like. On some reps it's like I just have no power and can't pull myself closer. 

However, I am improving lots and quickly. ITS ALL GOOD.

I finished with a light stretch routine. Main stretch is tomorrow with some more pics.

So where we at

well well well, I have just been so mega mega busy that I haven't blogged here for ages. I do have minor reasons for not being so active on the MSC blog and that is this www.buyXsocks.com which is my new online shop which just sells socks, one brand of socks to be precise and that brand is X-Socks.

Check out buyXsocks.com right now

So where am I at with training and stretching?

Well, I will admit to not doing too much stretching recently there have been no excuses. I mean I have been stretching but just not sticking to a set plan and as a consequence I haven't seen the results I was seeing earlier.

However I have still been training my body and still going to TKD. So for physical condition I am doing the Gravity Advantage programme by Paul Zaichik at the moment, and will continue to do that for a few months. It's not really a programme in the sense that he tells you exactly what do in terms of reps and sets and on which days, you have to decide that for yourself and it was only after doing some research and asking PZ for help on his forums that I have settled on a plan. I upgraded myself from The Fundamentals on GA to Level 1 on GA - so last nights workout consisted of this (and it was really really hard):

• 8 x Wide Grip Horizontal Rows straight in to 8 x Narrow Grips - rest then repeat once more
  
• 8 x Weaving Pushups (oh man, how hard are these!) straight in to 8 x Dive Bomber Pushups (mental hard) - rest then repeat once more
  
• 8 x Bridge and Curls straight in to 8 x Hammer Presses - rest then repeat once more
  
• Side Planks then one leg dead lifts then knee ups on pull up bar
  

Hard as hell for me was the pushups and I am really quite strong on pushups, but various forms of the standard one. These new ones are totally hard and 8 reps was a real struggle, in fact in my second set for the dive bombers I went on to my knees at rep 6

So, 'its all good', and tonight I'll probably have a good light stretch.

Don't forget to check out www.buyXsocks.com

Poor show from me

basically had two weeks off doing any real training. Been real busy

Training hard

Yep hard at it while on hols.

This is not the answer

I'm really tired, OK. I wonder what Craig Ballantyne would say here about my training methods. I do have to say that I am relaxing, I am not training or stuff.

I am torn...

Chuckle chuckle, ha ha ha ha, ha ha, ha, hmmmmm

Am I tired or what?

Yep I am tired but I think it has more to do with my children being up most if not all night last night. All I want to do tonight is sit down, chill out and have beer. No Chance of any training at all, I can say that for sure.

I am also working well hard at the moment on a new web site that sells socks and lots and lots of other work for someone else to.

So, work for a bit, shower for a bit, beer for a bit.

Roundup

Yokey Cokey, here's a quite roundup cos due to my laziness (or otherwise actually being busy with doing actual work) I haven't blogged my progress. Blogging is fun but can take a while and this last week at work has been HECTIC as you like, but anyway if you are interested at all (and you should be because not only am I famous* but my training methods are superb and I am convinced that given a motivated person I can make that person as good as they can be...

Sunday 03-08-08
Went to TKD this morning. Good atmosphere, training not particularly hard but I maximised it where I could. We had guests stay for the last two days and we've been out to dinner and lunch but I have been choosing wisely so as not to get huge. I did some physical training tonight all FlexStrap / Suspension training related and finished with 30 split squats on each leg - no stretching tonight.

Monday 04-08-08
TKD tonight. I maxed out on doing exercises where I could, i.e. when playing games I chose the 'exercise' option rather than 'play game' option. I noticed, however, that my traditional punches felt well powerfull tonight which might be something to do with all the horizontal pullups and building back muscles. (yep, apparently a stronger back makes you punch harder according to Alwyn Cosgrove and various other CSCS's). I stayed after we finished and did the side splits stretching rountine and really worked my hips, I got some good movement in them.

Tuesday 05-08-08
REST. Which was nice.

Wednesday 06-08-08
TRAINING.
12 Horizontal Rows, 8 Single Leg Deadlift. x 3 No rest
10 Suspended press ups, 12 front leg lunges. x3 No Rest
10 ab fall outs, 10 single leg half bridges. x3 Rest
This was hard man - hard.
30 Side Planks and 50 reverse crunches
NO STRETCHING

Thursday 07-08-08
TKD tonight. Training part was not hard but really tried to concentrate on being strong and certain in moves. Still not enough application of techniques, I will have to change that. Sparring tonight and for a good few weeks yet was against people well within my limits. My knee op has left me feeling uncertain on my feet when changing direction under pressure and getting kicks in under pressure. So against an 'easy' partner I can work these thing progressively with a much lower chance of injury to me. It's the way to go for a few months I think.
Finished the night by doing a good 30 minute stretch after the class. I work front split routine both sides and noticed good progression in hip flexors and hamstrings. ALL GOOD. I used chairs either side so that I could progressively lower my hips while keeping my body in a good position. Happy Times.

Friday 08-08-08
I tried a slightly different plan tonight. Rather than supersets of 2 execises 3 times round I had 6 exercises which I did one after the other then repeated that 3 times. I found it much easier than the supersets, therefore it is not stressing me as much.

12 Horizontal Rows
12 Wide Low Squats with isometric hold at the low point
12 Elevated pressups with hold at bottom
12 hamstring curls / half bridge things with legs suspended on straps
12 Chest fly things on straps, 12 bowing lunges
Then repeated 3 times. It wasn't 'easy' just 'easier' than grouping them into pairs and repeating 3 times.

All Good.

Saturday 09-08-08
Play Park Fun again this morning. Edie is doing well at climbing, developing good skill. I also managed to squeeze in some horizontal rows, press ups, dips, pullups.



*technically, I am not famous. But hey we're all friends here right? Right? ...Guys, friends right? Guys? Guys?

Just working for the weekend

It's been an entire week. A week of not posting progress to my blog. I am lazy. Well, I guess I have had a lot of work on this week with my new internet shop starting soon (another story for another day) and lots of work on OneOutdoors so I haven't made time for blogging - just time for training and stretching.

In summary, training good and stretching good. Will post in detail later.

Dedication

In case you don't know, dedication is what you need if you wanna be a record breaker. Interprete how you will but you need to be dedicated to do anything well, you might not be a record breaker but you could be as good as you could be.

I must therefore be more dedicate to my blogging, with this and my other more work related blogs.

What have I done since last blog:

• Working
• Working
• Working
• Training
• Stretching

More details later once I have listened to my iPod audio reminders.

PEACE OUT!

;o)

I split my sides laughing

So anyway I thought I would post a photo about my side splits, I have already posted my pre-ElasticSteel front splits but I never did for the side splits. 

I started the ElasticSteel program just about a month ago, my first post was on July 2nd. I have worked hard on body conditioning but still haven't got into a proper rountine - I must work on that.

I thought I was much wider than this photo shows, which proves that documenting your progress is a sure way to keep you on track with your goals. I guess I am reasonably wide, what I have noticed is my back flexibility improvements - it is still poor and rather stiff but is certainly getting movement in it and improving, as are my hamstrings. 

Also I am addicted to working out using suspension training and currently completely impressed by gymnastic ring work and am very much looking forward to the Olympics.

ALL GOOD, let's see where I am next month.

Thursday home training

Morning: joint rotations and light stretching routine

Evening:  I hammered out:

1. 12 x horizontal rows on the FlexStaps, then 12 x one leg deadlifts. x3
   
2. 10 suspension press ups on FlexStaps, then 8 assisted pistol squats. x3
3. 20 Side planks raises each side, 50 elevated half bridges
4. 50 reverse crunches (not all in one go, far from it)
5. 60 adductor and abductor lifts both sides
6. Rest for a bit
7. Side splits routine. NICE. Lots of progress actually - might be time for more photos.

Points to note: after Wednesday and Thursday working the legs hard, today (Friday) they are quite tired. Not painful really, just quite tired. Stretching and training has gone well so far.

PLEASED. COME ON!

Wednesday Training

Went to TKD tonight in Dorking. Not my usual class but thought it would make a change and as it goes it was certainly worthwhile - we got to do some balance related drills which are 'all good' for me post knee op.

A bit later in the class I took people for some muscle exercises and I got them to do some wide squats, then static conditioning in wide squat, then reverse plank (hammer hamstrings) then we did the Front Splits routine. I went quite low actually, those hip flexors must be 'a movin'

COME ON!

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby because Wine was involved and Tuesday cos I am writing about yesterday - which was Tuesday.

So, I had a night off from any training at all. I sat, had a glass of wine, after putting together a climbing frame for the children. I worked a little on the new sock webshop we have appearing soon.

I still haven't created a weekly plan to structure my training.

Still, it's Wednesday today - what could be better?

I don't like Mondays

Soooooooo, yesterday then. MMMM, what happened. I did some joint rotations and a few squats and light stretches in the morning, when to work (all day, which is unusual for me) then came home and got the unmistakable vibe of "There's no way you are going out to TKD tonight James, there's just no way"

So, of course I try to get ready to get out the house but I am made late and I hate being late so I didn't go, BUT I didn't let her off that easily. I trained at home instead.

Up goes the Pull up bar and the suspension training straps and it went like this:

Horizontal rows to max 3 sets with 30 seconds rest. (I am weak) 15, 10, 10
Press Ups to max 3 sets with 3 seconds rest. 25, 20, 15
Wide squats. 50
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 25

Then I moved in to Extended Length Conditiong (ELC) and used the green band but I was short for time and the TV wasn't even on to distract her so rather than go for 3 different exercies for inside, outside and back of leg I went for the circular motions to work all sides in one go.

Then I moved in to deep stretching for the front splits routine. My hip flexors are getting more flexible, slightly, my hams are calf muscles are getting stretchy too - i can definitely feel progess here.

Years ago I had a book called Stretching, by (I think) Bob Anderson (Mr. Anderson!) and I gound that his advice of relaxing in to a stretch really helped me get really quite flexible back then. So I have modifed the front splits routine slightly in that I use supports either side of me. I can use my hand on these props to take weight and allow my legs and hips to relax in to their new position. I am finding this gives me a better result than not using the props.

It is about time I took some more photos, perhaps later this week.

(I am going to have to think hard about next Mondays message title, I am running out of songs I know)

Just another Sunday Morning Call

05:15 

"Daaadddyyyyyyyyuh, can we go to the play park yet?"

"urgh, ugh, erm, s'abit too early darling. Can you go back to bed for a while please?"

Well, it didn't last long so we were at the play park by 07:30 - of course we were the only ones there so I didn't feel too stupid doing horizontal pullups, elevated press ups, dips, pull ups during the brief opportunities when Edie was tearing around the climbing frames.

Did I do any stretching? No.

However, tonight, after relaxing post family party (which was good fun)I did some light stretching, some basic kicking drills, then in to the side splits routine which I seem to be able to get really stuck in to. I noticed tonight that my hips currently seem to be my hips, so I shall be concentrating on grinding out the knots but massage and foam rolling.

23:37 - tired.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

Ethan, 5 months, let us sleep well although Edie, 3 years, came in at 05:30 so an early workout was on the cards. With Dora the Explorer on in the background I changed up the routine and tried to max out on each exercise in sets. I did:

Horizontal Rows on FlexStraps, then suspension press ups on FlexStraps, then a bunch of different types of squats, then lots of elevated half bridges, then reverse crunches, side plank raises, adductor and abductor lifts and finished with a set of pull ups. A good workout taking in the Gravity Advantage fundamentals and a good selection of the ElasticSteel stuff too.

What next?

Well, we're 'doing' the garden, so I shoveled gravel out of the garden for 4 hours. I must have done about 500 deadlifts with a shovel full of gravel. Then I had to shift 10 rubble sacks full of gravel which must have weigt about 40 kilos each. Then I had a shower and rested, until the carnage continued with the children.

Tonight, after dinner and before wine, I did some ELC and then a hard stretch following front splits routine on both sides. I think my hip flexors are moving, great news.

What now? Sitting in bed, writing this after dealing with my youngest waking just a few minutes ago - I am such a hero ;o) - and listening to a Russel Brand podcast.

Tomorrow? I'll start the morning with joint rotations, light stretches and maybe a bunch of wide squats then I'll go the play park with Edie and do some climbing. The whole rest of the day is wiped out with a family thing so maybe in the evening I'll do some ELC and Side Splits rountine.

I must find some time to practice towards my 3rd Degree too.

Night.

How to fit it in?

OMG - when to fit it all in, all the training. I mean, it's not just getting fit or going to the gym that most others do but when there is kicking and stretching goals to attain then the time investment increases considerably.

I have a family, 2 kids, 2 jobs and so I need to spread my training out in to smaller sessions. I can't spend 2 hours in one go each day, the max I can spend is an hour at an one time each day. Then I might be able to grab 40 mins in the morning.

I have been study Paul Zaichiks ElasticSteel and Gravity Advantage books again to get a better idea of whats involved. I have decided that I need to create a plan that will see me covering what I need to on a weekly basis, I'll post tomorow with a plan.

Wine tonight and training tomorrow morning.

training - little and often, rather than all in one go.

Memory Lapse

So, Tuesdays training? What happened? I have no idea because for some reason I forgot to take an audio of it so now I haven't blogged for a few days and I can't remember what I have done, at all. I mean I know I have been to work and stuff but other than that I can't remember - too many bangs to the head maybe?

Anyway I am sure Tuesday was a proper workout and I am sure it involved stretching. Wednesday, much the same. Thursday, a bit different, I didn't go TKD training other than to hand in supporting information for my CRB form. When I got home I had to get involved with dinner, I mean I have to eat but I am reducing portion size and changing habits, then after a little rest I did some light training working some horizontal pullups, then pressups, then lots of lunges, criss crosses, reverse crunches, adductor and abductor lifts all followed by some light stretching.

And now it is friday.

Just another manic monday

Firstly, where the goddam did that blog title come from - I've not even had any wine tonight, OMG I am going to have to keep it now.

Anyways, no splits specific training today. Went to TKD tonight and realised that I am rubbish at it, I mean totally pants. What was useful from going? I got to practice some patterns and a little bit of sparring which basically told me that me that I have no confidence what so ever when doing unpredictable stuff. But yet I am happy training up for pistol squats, possible the hardest squatting exercise I will ever likely do. (unless I carry someone on my back and do a pistol squat, which I wont ever do, probably).

On my way home, from now on, I am going to record my feelings after every TKD class I go to, just like a I do with my workouts and stretching. I have been using a microphone thingy attached to my iPod, here's the link to the micromemo for iPod.

Bedtime now, well I might just read a little of Recoil which should just about take me round to when our youngest wakes up, so very little sleep for me then.

Sunday Training

Took the TKD class this morning, pretty good really and all students seemed interested in bunch of new exercises. All seemed to go well. However, I really needed to get some more training done so I did that in the evening:

After a warmup I went in to Extended Length Conditioning working the Hamstrings and the innerthighs, doing Hamstring Force and Adductor Force. I find the Hamstring Force quick tricky to get the right muscles to the resistance band, but that'll get better quickly. I find that working the Hamstring Force II a better option for working right up high in my hamstrings, close to my bum. I find that currently the limiting factor with the Adductor Force exercises is the strength in the arm holding the restistance band. It is not my grip (although that is also poor) but it is the strength in my arms, this will get better though with more training - just gotta keep working hard.

Then I moved in to some deep stretching and worked the Front Splits routine both sides. As a general observation I can feel that my hamstrings are tight and my hip flexors are REALLY TIGHT. However, I can feel some positive progress since my bench mark tests just over a week ago.

All in all, feeling GOOD.

Amazed

Late last night I flicked through the ElasticSteel splits DVD because I haven't really had the chance yet. Well anyway, the posture section was very interesting - PZ talks about your upper back possibly hurting and YEP MINE DOES BIG TIME.

summary: lots to work on

Saturday Workout

Well, after going to the play park this morning and doing horizontal pullups, chins, dips and press ups all over the place I still felt I needed to do a workout in a formal way. It went a little like this:

1) 10 x Horizontal Pullups, then 15 elevated spiderman pressups. 3 times round.

2) 8 x assisted pistol squats, 10 x elevated One Legged half bridges. 3 times round.

3) 8 x Bodyweight Chest Flys, 8 x chinups: twice round. 

Then I did some side plank raises, 30 on each side. I'm sure I did something else as well but I just can't remember - I have been taking audio notes on my iPod but tonight I didn't and as a result I have forgotten.

Then I did some ELC which was disrupted because of kids bathtime / bedtime.  And at time of writing I have desperately been trying to spend some time stretching but children are waking and sleeping and waking and sleeping tonight.

I am a little frustrated but I guess I am yet to settle on a real routine of action and I am sure when I do things will slot in nicely.

Wine now. 

Play park fun

Early morning jaunt to the local play park. Absolutely nothing to do with stretching and getting the splits but absolutely everything to do with nurturing activity.






Here's a couple of vids:






That's all folks.

Of to Park Now

Gonna be fun!

Friday Night Training

Same a last week actually. I had some vino and a curry - not good for the athletic figure I know but am going to the park tomorrow with the bairns and will train hard later in the day.

Thursday Night Home Paining

nah, I meant 'training' not 'paining'.

I am shattered. Good things though. My FlexStraps arrived today, as I mentioned earlier, so I attached them to my PowerBar and got cracking with a workout based on exercises from the Gravity Advantage and the Elastic Steel books, here's what happened:

1) 10 x Horizontal Pullups, then 30 standard press ups. I did this 3 times round, 2nd time I did 20 pressups, 3rd time I did 15. Pressups particularly hard tonight maybe because of the elevated press ups I did yesterday.
2) Lunges to front and rear x 10 each leg (once front and back counts as one rep), then 10 x Hamstring curls on the straps. I did this 3 times round.
3) Pressup position Ab pike thingy (feet suspended on straps, hands on floor making pressup position then bring knees to chest) x 12, static press up stability hold (straps close to floor, hands on straps and just hold the position) for 30 seconds, this made be work hard ! I did this 3 times round.

Then 50 kick backs each leg
20 side plank raises each side
Static Conditioning: Horse Stance 1 minute then rest then another minute. OMG, was I hammered after this, HARD! Then 1 minute each leg on the lunge stange thingy. This did totally knacker me and totally tired my muscles out just as Paul Zaichik implies in the ES book.

Then I moved in to some deep stretches. I worked the Side Split routine in the Elastic Steel manual and I found that my back and sides are not very flexible, really quite tight actually. However, I have worked side splits a lot over the years I have done TKD am confident that it wont take too long to see improvements here. On the other hand it is gonna take a while to see improvements in front splits.

Still all is good.

Suspension seems great

I am sometimes sucked in to new fads and things, however I like to think that I just get excited about doing new stuff. So anyway, I have always been into bodyweight exercises just because I don't like the gym and pumping weights - except that recently doing the Turbulence Training workouts I have changed my views on lifting weights. 

So anyway I, much like many other people I imagine, thought that bodyweight exercises just were press ups, chinups, situps, dips, squats and lunges. My eyes were opened so wide when I discovered BWC and PZ on You Tube and my interest in using bodyweight as resistance is now at the highest it has ever been. 

I found the Universal Strength Apparatus and then the well marketed TRX and I was going to buy one of them but they seemed pricey. So I attached a couple of belts to my chinup bar and started doing some brand new exercises. 

My hands started to find it tricky getting the right grip so I trawled the internet for a cheaper alternative to the USA or TRX or how to make one. With some luck I found the Flex Staps which were only about £25. 

The FlexStraps arrived today, yes I bought them, and first impressions are that they seem excellent value. Good hand grips and adjustable lengths from high enough to do horizontal pull ups and low enough for stability press ups or various ab exercises where you feet are suspended. 

I shall use them later properly. very cool.

Static Conditioning

I have always wondered about the benefits of static conditioning exercises. Also, I have heard of people refer to 'isometric' exercises, and today I find out they are the same thing, as per this article.

Isometrics seem to help a muscle grow in size and help muscles get stronger, but only at the angle the joint is in at the time the isometric exercise is done. However, the article says there is some evidence to suggest that with some muscles there is some transferrence of strength gains to other angles. The writer goes on to say that isometrics need to be done at many angles to strenghten the muscles at different lengths, which would take ages implying that dynamic exercises would be better. i.e. Squatting with a load.

Strangely he finishes the article by giving reference to many good and renowned and currently fashionable static conditioning exercises such as the Plank and Side Plank.

So are isometrics any good or what?
I don't know really. All I know is that we have done lots of them in TKD training in terms of leg raises and leg holds. There is a question on the Paul Zaichik forums asking what a certain static exercise is doing and Paul replies by saying that stregth is developed in surrounding muscles and that the induced fatigue helps with getting a good deep stretch in afterwards.

Here's a wikipedia article on isometrics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_exercise

This article on bodybuilding.com says that isometrics help you recruit more muscle fibers than dynamic exercises do. This is obvioulsy beneficial.

Reading internet articles they all really say the same thing, "good for the angle that you are training in". Now to me that doesn't really seem much use to me, surely you want to have strength throughout your range of movement. I have posted a question to my pal Alex Poole so I'll post here what he comes back with.

I need to do some work now.

I love my kids...

...but tonight I wanted to get a conditioning workout in (every other day), we have just got them both to bed and, to cut it short, I was up and down the stairs putting our 3 year old back to bed and helping her understand that she needs to sleep.

So, my workout time was severely hampered which meant I only had time for:

1) 10 x Horizontal Pull Ups, then 20 elevated press ups: 3 times round
2) 10 x single leg deadlift each leg, then 10 half bridges with single leg, both legs: 3 times round.

The single leg deadlifts are the ones with a bent leg, so basically you are squatting on one leg but not as deep as a pistol squat and your hanging leg is behind you like Paul Zaichik demonstrates here in his Warrior 3 and Dead lift exercise.

These single leg exercises are great, my muscles were working hard when doing these. I 'll deffo be including these more often.

Of to bed now and I didn't eat any cake tonight or drink any wine at all. :o)

Stretchy Stretchy

Tuesday night I did a little teeny weeny workout:

Little warmup

1. 50 or so sqauts of various types include squats with legs together as suggested here.
2. 10 or so back raises with hands clasped behind back as suggested in ES manual. I find though that I must be severely hampered in flexibility when hands are behind my back because I can hardly lift at all even though with hands anywhere else I am quite strong in this area.
3. Adductor raises, 50 each leg
4. Abductor raises, 50 each leg

Then I moved in to ELC.

ELC - Extended Length Conditioning
This is my second ELC session. I chose these exercises:

1. Extended Abductor Force (one green band)
   
2. Extended Hamstring Force (one green band)
3. Half Adductor Fly (one green band)
4. Single Leg Deadlift (I find this currently gives me a better hamstring workout that Hamstring Force at the moment and it works my balance.)

Deep Stretching
I went on to to some stretching following the splits routine at the end of the ES book. My technique is to position and feel the stretch then breath out and deepen the stretch while relaxing, old for 15 - 30 seconds then back of then repeat. I am slightly sore today from the stretching but nothing too bad. I am hellishly tight around my hip flexors though.

One problem I have is with my knees. I have had keyhole surgery on both for meniscus tears and the most recent being in Jan 08 for a cleavage meniscus tear in my left knee. While my knee nows feels more stable I can't sit back on my heels for complete Range Of Movement. As as result I find that I can't do the 'Sitting Hamstring Stretch' in the Front Split routine from the ES book when I have my right leg in front where I am supposed to sit back on my left heel.

I can't do it yet because it is painfull inside my knee when weight is put through the joint. My ROM has improved lots since the operation and this is just the last little bit to get back. My question is if there is a similar stretch I can do to give the same benefit. I'll post the ElasticSteel forums and see if I get an answer.

That's all for now, and tonight I must not eat Cake or drink Wine.

Cake!

Perfect splits training. Not. I must get a grip.

OW!

After the Monday night workout I am FEELING IT especially as a result of the side plank raises. My legs have a very different fatigue than doing weights.

Monday Night Fun

So, I didn't go to TKD class tonight so I did a good bodyweight workout based on the Gravity Advantage exercises and some from the Elastic Steel manual. All geared towards getting stronger upper body and stronger core.

Super Set 1 x 3: Horizonal Pullups x 10, Elevated Spiderman Pressups x 12.
Super Set 2 x 3: Bulgarian Split Squats with rear leg on strap x 10 each leg, Hamstring curls with legs on straps x 12.
Super Set 3 x 2: Bodyweight Chest Fly x 10, Standard Chin Ups x 8. (Wow, I actually managed to do 5 chin ups in one go. That's amazing for me)
Super Set 4 x 2: Abdominal Pike thing (press up position with feet on straps and brings knees to chest) x 12, Side Plank raises x 20 each side.

Then I finished with a bunch of reverse crunches.

All in all a good workout, I loved the elevated spiderman pressups - I felt like a superhero. The bulgarian split squats put a surprising amount of pressure at the rear of the leg that's on the ground and I can really feel my body working. Chin ups are hard going, I have never been any good at these but now I am determined. I start from an absolutely still hanging position and the just pull up, each pull starts like this without any swinging.

In suspense?

I am addicted to bodyweight training and I have a real desire to prove to other that your bodyweight is plenty of resistance to get very strong indeed. I remember either reading or hearing an interview with Alwyn Cosgrove who said something like:

If you can't do pistol squats then you have no business to start adding resistance.

I also remember him saying that you really need to be able to stabilise your load to create functional strength. Bodyweight training is a great way to do this.

So after years and years of very basic bodyweight exercises, and the explosion of video sharing on the internet, I found BodyWeightCultre and they (and ElasticSteel) show the USA being used to what seems great effect. So I did a little research and found also the TRX which seems well designed also but really quite expensive. A little more research found me something that looks like it will do all I need it to do just now and a fraction of the costs, it is the Flex Straps - less than £25 to my door, should arrive sometime next week. I will be able to do away with my belts and use handles instead of wrapping the belt round my fists.

;o)

Make up for it

In response to curry and wine last night (I cave too easily) I managed to get in a semi-decent workout based on exercises in either the ElasticSteel manual or the Gravity Advantage manual. Here's what I did this morning, at about 7:30am:

Superset 1 x 3: Horizontal Pull ups using straps rather than bar x 10, then squats with purple resit-a-band x 25

Superset 2 x 3: Double leg curl and bridge using straps (rather than swiss ball) x 12, then elevated press ups (feet elevated on straps) x 12

Superset 3 x 3: Pistol Squats (assisted, holding straps) x 8, then 25 reverse crunches.

Resting 1 minute between supersets.

Pistol Squats are an important progression for me, with both my knees now having been operated on (meniscus tears) I generally don't have that much confidence in them. My left, operated on in Jan 08, is taking ages to heal, but I generally need to build strenght and range of movement under load - so 2 leg squats are fine, progression is pistol squats. I will do them assisted until I am confident I am strong throughout the range of movement.

After these 3 supersets I did:

Side Plank Raises x 25 each side, Adductor and Abductor lifts x 30 each leg, Kick Backs x 25 each leg. Statics: horse, lunge, balance, leg raise - all terrible generally due to my balancing ability of a 90 year old human.

So what has all this go to do with doing the splits then?
Well, Paul Zaichik in the ElasticSteel manual talks about being generally conditioned in the legs and core. His Gravity Advantage book Fundamentals level has some overlap exercises. I have been busting a gut doing Turbulence Training workouts recently - so I thought I would combine all of what I need at this conditioning stage of my splits quest. I need to be conditioned throughout my body and I need to keep on top of my bodyweight and I found that working the supersets help me loose fat, so I shall continue.

When shall I fit in the Extended Length Conditioning? Either on off days or opposite end of the day to my general workout. I have done one session of this and it has brought back great memories. When will I do deep stretching? Probably right after the ELC. When will I do kicking techniques? I'll build some more strenght first before doing more work on kicking, we do some in class anyway.

So far so good, but I also had more vino tonight. We have guests.

Training tonight?

No Chance!

Training tonight?

Curry for dins. Not much chance for training.

Splits Benchmarks

So I post here, at the start of my ElasticSteel quest for full splits I post my benchmarks. Is that the right word? Maybe it isn't, what I mean is 'I post my standard of splits at the start of my training'.

I have trained in TKD for almost 14 years. I worked hard at side (box) splits but not front splits. I worked hard for about 2 years of training and since then (sadly) have sat back on my standard. I am very interested to see what a little (or a lot) of application can do over a few months:

Front Splits Left: (this is embarassingly poor):

Side (box) splits:



Front Splits Right: (this is embarassingly poor also):


So, front splits both sides is quite poor. Box splits are ok, there are some grinds in the hips which I need to iron out but otherwise I can feel that there is progress to be made easily.

Back to front splits. By the looks of it, the front of both legs (hip flexors and quads) are really tight, so I need to work a lot on them. I can feel movement to be made in my hams though.

That's it for now.

PS: I did ask my wife to miss out my bald spot in the photos so I apologise if anyone got struck by the flash bounceback.

Exercise Descriptions

Ok, because I haven't got chairs to do Pulls on I hung straps from my chin up bar like this:

Now, the pic doesn't actually show me doing horizontal pull ups, just me messing about.

Then there are the bulgarian split squat type things using the strap again:


Then there are the bodyweight chest press things using the straps:

What fun! I am sure a USA or TRX or FlexStraps would be much better but they seem too expensive so my belts will have to do just now.

ES Conditioning Workout 1

Ok, so last night I did some bodyweight conditioning to merge the conditioning bit of the Elastic Steel manual and the fundamentals of the Gravity Advantage manual. I will create A and B workouts and do them on alternate days for one month, then up the ante for another month and then assess the situation.

So for last night I did:

1. Superset 1 (x3): Press Ups Max Reps then Horizontal Pull Ups 10 reps
2. Superset 2 (x3): Similar things to Bulgarian Split Squat x 10, then stability leg curls
3. Superset 3 (x3): Bodyweight Chest Press (using suspension strap things like a USA or TRX) x 8, then 8 standard pull ups
4. Finish strength with 1 set of 10 Horizontal rows

Then I moved on to a couple of exercises from the Gravity Advantage manual Fundamental section that I need to work on, I did 2 supersets of: 20 Side Plank Raises then 25 reverse crunches.

That's about it.

I don't have suitable height chairs to place my bar on to do the horizontal rows but I do have a pull up bar so I suspended some straps and attached my bar to the straps which allowed me to do the horizontal pull ups.

If you have heard of suspension bodyweight training then you might know of the USA (universal strenght apparatus) and the TRX . My make do strap system follows these principles and let me do the rows and the bulgarian split squats and the leg curls and the bodweight chest press. Versatile.

Photos of my straps and exercises tomorrow. Ooh, and a benchmark on my current stretching.

L8rs.

We Have Kick Off

Tonight I started bodyweight conditioning stuff to replace the TT workouts that I have been doing. I am doing a combo of the ES manual and the GA manual and some inventive stuff of my own,

Full posting tomorrow and will photo post splits benchmarks tomorrow.

What to replace my workouts with?

So, the past 12 weeks or so, on the days that I wasn't doing TaeKwon-Do, I trained at home following Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training. Basically I needed to get fitter, stronger and I needed to burn some fat. I could just continue doing more TT workouts but I want to move on to strictly bodyweight exercises for a few reasons:

1. When my TKD school starts (imminently) I want to make the physical conditioning part of the classes a little different to the general pushups, situps, etc
2. I like the culture of using your own weight as resistance.

The conditioning exercises in the Elastic Steel manual are generally lower body and or core. I also got the Gravity Advantage book from the Elastic Steel site as this is upper body and core.

To keep improving my fitness and conditioning I can't just neglect working out in pursuit of doing the splits simply because while I might become highly flexible I might well become fat (ter)!

Looking at the conditioning exercises in the Elastic Steel manual and the Fundamentals in the Gravity Advantage book there is some repetition. I see no reason why I can't make a full body workout from the GA and ES books to work on say days M, W, F and then work specific flexibility training on other days. I will post what workout schedule I compose, when I do it and how long it takes.

So for the next 12 weeks I'll do this instead of Turbule Training and see what the results are.

Conditioning benchmarks

Ok, so a few more of these:

Dynamics:

1. The Roll Ups are fine, 50 no probs.
2. Kick Backs, a great exercise IMHO, 50 each side.

Statics:

1. Horse Stance: erm, just about managed 1 minute. This needs a lot of work and I can really see how this will benefit me.
2. Front Stance: just as embarassing, about 1 minute each site. Lots of work needed here.
3. Balance, worst of all, I almost can't stand there. I managed about 10 seconds each side before my balance was gone. I noticed though that my Hams and very top of calves are very tight.

That's all for now. More to come later.

Elastic Steel Splits DVD

So, I had a flick through the Elastic Steel: Everything you ever wanted to know about SPLITS dvd this morning. My first impressions is that while there is some common ground between this and the book (to be expected) there is actually a whole bunch more content which means that hopefully it will keep my routines interesting to me and students.

I found it very helpfull to see the exercises performed in motion, it gives me a better idea what to aim for.

Later today I am gonna have a play around with some other exercises and do another couple of benchmarks on the conditioning.

Quick Rant: dealing with people who say 'This is easy'

Ok, so in my experience I have seen many people put varying amounts of effort in to doing exercises. "You only get out what you put in" being a popular old saying that springs to my mind.

So, take any exercise such as leg raises (Abductor lifts) while lying in the ground - these can be quite hard going if you have the position correct. It can also be extremly easy to do if your body position is wrong.

In my current TKD class I have someone who all too often says "oh, this exercise doesn't touch me" and it is plain to see that they are doing it wrong. They are a senior grade and, in my opinion, should have the attitude where they are always looking to improve themselves in the training. They should be looking to do the exercises as well as they can and try to get maximum benefit and NOT doing the exercises wrong to make themselves appear 'really fit' and worthy of their station / rank. In actual fact in just makes them look bad as if "Look, they can't even do the exercise correct", doesn't set a very good example does it?

Anyway, what I am getting to (and not very quickly) is this; when this person is behaving as described and when they don't take criticism well how do you approach it? Last night I said to this person that they could in fact do the exercise properly and then they might get some benefit from it, I got snorted at in return. I mentioned it again and they tried it properly for about 3 seconds and then plainly found it too difficult and so returned back to doing it poorly again. I should say this class was not my own so I had to tread carefully just in case I upset the person too much and I lost the instructor a student.

Perhaps I am just too hard, too much of a perfectionist, stupid, difficult, not very forgiving or actually just like doing things for a purpose. My advice, is do the exercises correctly to actually get some benefit from them.

Rant over.

Comments Welcome.

PS. My legs are still quite wobbily.

Further Conditioning Testing

So this morning I had a bit of time so I did some more benchmark testing on the basic conditioning exercises from the Elastic Steel manual.

I did the joint rotations, warm up, light stretches (which I am loving at the moment) and then moved in to the conditioning exercises where I did:

1. 50 Lunges on each side. The last 10 each side I found my balance was going, after checking I noticed I needed to tighten the abs. Legs certainly wobly afterwards. Also, with this exercise I tend to 'feel the burn' in the rear leg.
2. 50 Half Bridges on chair. The last 20 of these had my hams in trouble. Lots more work needed here.
3. 100 Side bends (50 each side). I notice that I am not that flexible on my sides.
4. 50 Adductor lifts. Yup, the burn was there from about rep 20.
5. 50 Abductor lifts. Surprisingly weak here however we did something very similar at TKD training last night. I got to 25, then I had to do 5 reps and rest for 5 seconds until I got to 50.

I had to stop there to deal with breakfast time. At the time of writing my legs certainly know they have been worked. Despite many of these exercises being very familiar to me I am surprised how much I have neglected there worth over the years - I shall continue to work them hard.

Cheery Bye,

Mr Wobbily Legs

Basic Conditioning Test: Dead Lift

Yesterday I thought I would have time to go this:

1. Joint Rotations
2. Warmup
3. Light Stretches
4. Basic Conditioning

...mainly to just give me a benchmark on the conditioning section of Elastic Steel. As it happened I only got on the the first exercise of the basic conditioning where it seems I am allowed to choose either squat, dead lift or lunges - I chose deadlift.

I carefully performed and stopped at 100 dead lifts (I still wanna call them 'Squats' though). It was not easy, I got in to a good solid rythym and then found the last 15 or so quite tricky to stay balanced. I will be far from '100' on almost all the other conditioning exercises.

I have been working hard over the last 12 weeks on getting better conditioned by doing the Turbulence Training Dumbell and Body Weight exercises - basically this means that over the last 12 weeks I have probably done almost 900 squats with weights...

(24 squats with an added 15 kgs in each hand per session, 3 sessions a week, for 12 weeks gives me, erm, 24 x 3 = 72 a week, x 12 = 864 weighted squats)

.... so that must have had some effect on my strenght and muscle condtioning for my legs and glutes.

I'll do some other exercise on Friday and let you know the score with those too.

Light Stretches: Comments

So, also played with the Light Stretches in the ES manual yesterday and here's what I have to say:

Some are familiar, some aren't. The Mermaid Stretch took some work to get the right position, I think. Unless I am doing it wrong it seems the the adductor of the bent lent (in front of you) is getting the stretch. There is a similar stretch position to this which actually works the same sort of area that the 'Ankle Over Knee' position works.

Talking of 'Ankle Over Knee' - this is very familiar to me and have done lots of this over the years through TaeKwon-Do classes. However, both my knees have been operated on and they both seem a little lose. By this I mean that instead of just feeling the stretch in the good place of the hip rotator and glutes, I also feel an annoyance at the knee as if the hip wont turn out any more and then the weak joint at the knee gets 'the good news'. I'll post a question to Paul Zaichik on his forums to see what I can about this and I'll try to post a quick video to help explain my issue.

Ah, the same 'good news' is felt in the knees when I do the butterfly stretch (another one that I have done for what seems like a billions times) despite my be able to open my hips flat to floor. Any Comments?

Ah, the Cobra stretch felt good tonight. Probably because I have been hunched over a desk ALL DAY.

Joint Rotations

Playing with the exercises in the ES book and the joint rotations are slightly different to what I am used to and seemed to make me focus on what I was actually doing. Then again, there could be many reasons why I was more focussed, perhaps just because it is a new program to me. However, I do like these new joint rotations.

BUT...

The Head Circles get me. I remember about 20 years ago being told by my school gym teacher not to do head circles because "It is bad for you. Therefore you need to do head up and down then head left a right".

Also, in my 14 years of TaeKwon-Do we have never done head circles just ups n downs and lefts n rights.

Would someone knowledgable care to tell about this?

Quick Comments on Elastic Steel Method of Athletic Conditioning Book

Here's a few words about the Elastic Steel Method of Athletic Conditioning Book from Paul Zaichik

- [ ] I admit to thinking that despite having the book for a week
or so it has taken some time to digest the stuff and decide
when I should do things and in what order. The content seems
to be modular but that some modules must and should always
come before other modules. It seems that I can break the book
down in to 'Workout Genres' then work on them for a while and
then move on to the next module.

- [ ] I am a little confused by the content and how it all fits
together. I mean, I understand that Joint Rotations and Light
Stretches should happen first but then I get a little
stumped. I might do the Mobility Swings when I feel I need
to, just whenever, and I might do the Upper Body Stretches in
a separate session. But I don't see the need to do Mobility
Swings if the session i am about to enter is the Conditioning
Exercises. Someone tell me if I am wrong please.

- [ ] I see the kicking chamber position circles and the extended
leg circles and the kicking technique section as another
module which doesn't necessarily need to be mastered before
moving on developing splits.

- [ ] I see the Extended Length Conditioning as something that I
should only do when the general conditioning exercises have
been mastered. I understand it here that it might take weeks
or months before I start with ELC exercises, but that's ok.

- [ ] The Splits section I think is 'Deep Stretching' - the
question here is am I only supposed to do this once
Conditioning & ELC have been mastered? I don't necessarily
think so, I think Deep Stretching should be done after joint
rotations and warmup and light stretches, perhaps in a
separate session. I'll post to the ElasticSteel forums and
see if Paul Zaichik replies.

- [ ] Thinking about this from an instructors point of view, if you
get new students you need to give them a taste of all areas.
You need to get them strong, you need to get them kicking and
you need to get them stretching. As their training develops
they should get stronger and then perhaps they can put more
emphasis on Deep Stretching. But I think it would be wrong to
not let students try stretching before they are highly
conditioned.

- [ ] Anyhow, after quite a lot of reading my opinion of the
ElasticSteel book is really good and very motivating.
However, I don't think it is really for complete beginners to
training, kicking and stretching. I think it takes someone
who has some experience with these things to get the most
from it. I will work hard and follow the advice and routines
as closely as possible - after all I wanna do Full Splits and
I just know that it is in me.

James - on my way to Full Splits

OMG - What Have I Done?

This is either very good or very bag. I have discovered that I can blog to blogger using either:

1. the web
2. email
3. my mobile phone

Basically, there is totally no reason now why I can't post every update possible about my progress and My Splits Challenge to myself.

Cheerie Bye,

James.

Blog from phone

Just testing

Test email blog

Just a quick test to see if bloggers 'blog by email' thing works.

 

James.

Why MySplitsChallenge Blog

I have been doing martial arts as an adult since 1994 and through training hard have become quite flexible, I have just never been able to do full splits or have excellent control of my kicks. don't get me wrong, all those years of training has give me GOOD control of my legs but I just wanna achieve EXCELLENT control. Oh, and I wanna do full splits. Also, I need to get stronger legs.

I had a knee operation in Jan 2008 and I started Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training workouts a couple of months after that. Then my interest in new and exciting workout ideas grea. I investigated various body weight exercises and discovered BodyWeightCulture.com on YouTube and then stumbled upon ElasticSteel Method of Athletic Conditioning and i thought to myself "Yep, I want to do FULL SPLITS like that"

I purchased the splits DVD, ElasticSteel manual and Gravity Advantage books from the ElasticSteel shop. They took a while to arrive and there was a problem with my order which the ES gang promptly rectified so I got my full pack sometime last week.

I did my last workout of the TT program last Friday and I plan to start the ES stuff this week. I'll keep you informed every step of the way on MY SPLITS CHALLENGE.

Cheers

James.