When Your Trainer Is Away - Workout 2 - The Filthy Fifty

Hello again....okay, workout 2 - The Filthy Fifty!

This workout is adapted from a CrossFit workout and is designed to give a real blast to your heart, lungs and muscles....in fact all of you! Its not an easy one, but like all CrossFit workouts, it can be scaled to suit your fitness levels. Heres how its done:

Warm up strecth for a good 10 minutes first of all.
Then start the stopwatch before your first rep.
Complete all of the exercises below in order as quickly as you can.
Stop the stopwatch at the end of the very last rep.
Now, as i said this one is not easy so take as much rest as you need whilst completing the exercises. It is done against the clock but you dont want to kill yourself!
Do not move onto the next exercise until all 50 reps have been completed.

In terms of scaling it to your levels of fitness you could try just 10 reps of each exercise or perhaps 25 reps. You want to find a level that is challenging but fun. Also if you need to use lighter weights or use the assissted machine for the pullups/dips thats fine. Just make a note of what you did.

So here it is.....the list:

50 step jumps (3 risers) - both feet together
50 Pull ups - use assissted machine as necessary
50 Dumbell Swings - 14kg dumbell
50 Lunges - 25 each leg
50 knee raises - on dip station (elbows on pads lifting knees up)
50 Thrusters - 10kg dumbells - hold dumbells at shoulders, squat down then stand and press above head)
50 ball back extensions - tummy on ball, feet on floor, hands by temples, slowly lower and raise
50 Shoulder presses - 15kg barbell
50 Burpess - from standing, lower into press up position, jump feet back and then in, then stand.
50 Ab crunches - full sit ups or crunches.

So 500 reps in all!! The weights are just a guide. Have a look through the exercises, familiarise yourself with them all and choose a weight that you think will be testing. And remember you can all do this......it just needs to be scaled to your own level. Go on...give it a go!

Post what you did and your times to the 'comments' link below. It will be interesting to see what everyone gets.

Yours in training.....
Dave

When Your Trainer Is Away! - Workout 1 - The Cooper Test

Hey all. If you have followed the link from the email i sent out then you are in the right place. If you are just here on the off chance then welcome and why not try out these two workouts anyway.

Workout 1: The Cooper Test.

A great test of fitness the Cooper Test measures your ability to run a distance on a treadmill and then relates that to tables comparing your age and sex with the distance you managed to cover. This will give you a 'below average -to- excellent' score for how well you did. Its simple to perform:

Warm up and stretch for a good 5-10 minutes first of all. Then get onto a treadmill at the gym and set the gradient to 1%. Then run at a pace that you can maintain for 12 minutes. ie Dont start off at a thundering pace and then have to walk by the end. Try and keep it a fairly constant pace. All you need to do is then record how far you have covered in that time (press the 'distance' button at the end). I have a table of results based on age/sex that i can then send out to you once you have let me know what you got. If you have done this test already then its time to do it again. The aim here is to beat your score from last time! (Disclaimer!: And remember, if it is the first time you have run for a while just take it easy. Have a good stretch before hand. We are looking for a first distance, not a record. Once you have a first score its then that you can try and beat it!)

So thats it. Run for 12 minutes. Done and dusted! Your score (distance) will show you where you are for cardiovascular fitness at your age and if it is something that you could do with improving.
Post your time (and age!) to 'comments' below and then see how my other clients got on. Like all things its not about having the best score its about doing the best you can for yourself right now.

Have fun and let me know how you get on.

Dave

100 Push Up Challenge!

Now heres a good website featuring the good old fashioned push up. Superb, all body exercise and a very good strength indicator.

100 press ups people, lets get on it!

http://hundredpushups.com/

Post initial test results and progress to comments. Good luck - you're gonna need it!

Runners Knee and Tight IT Bands

For those of you that ever suffer from any knee pain whilst running (or after) then it could be down to the fact you have a tight IT band. This strip of muscle runs from your hip to you knee and can cause the knee cap to track incorrectly if it is tight. ie it pulls it over to one side. Watch this video (not me this ti...me!) and try some of these stretches and massage techniques before and after running to help alleviate the problem. This is a major cause of a lot of knee pain suffered by regular gym go-ers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9aJtO0VCqw&feature=related

The foam roller massage does hurt a little but bear with it and it should really help. When you find a sore spot, just stop and rest on it until the pain subsides then continue. Work on spots like this until it is more comfortable to roll the foam along it.

MBT's and POSTURE TRAINERS

An article for any of you that have been thinking about getting a pair of the MBT or FitFlop posture shoes. They seem to be all the rage at the moment but do they really work? Read here for a quick review and a bit more information:

http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/831917-sneaker-preview-these-shoes-were-made-for-walkin...