THE PHYSICAL STUFF
5 Rules you must follow:
- Prepare the mind and body for exercise. Approach your workouts with a positive attitude by looking forward to giving your best, experiencing new challenges and driving better performance from yourself. By deciding to have a good attitude you are on the right track for getting the most out of the up and coming session.
- Physically - You must eat. By not eating before a session yu are leaving yourself open to feeling faint, dizzy and have zero energy supply to do what is required. The body needs fuel and it is important that you learn to fuel your body with the quantity it requires. A general guide is to get some good food into your body 2-3 hours before training. I suggest a meal 2-3hrs before and a small snack 1 hour before. A snack might be a handful of nuts, a paleo bar or a banana.
- Water, water and more water. I don't mean going for a swim or drowning yourself with fluids but YES...you will be going to the toilet very often if you have had a good amount of water. If your training first thing in the morning have a bottle before you go out and take a fresh one with you also. If it's an afternoon session you will need to get a number of litres into the body before you being. As a general rule if your urine is yellow...keep drinking! If it's clear then you are ready for a workout.
- If it feels like your shoulder is going to pop out of its socket...it will. Be smart about the way you move and how the body feels. PAIN is an indication that something is not right, don't ignore it.
- Get a coach. I have had a coach my whole life and I was lucky enough to be exposed to some fantastic advice, direction and content that has positively shaped me as a person. There are many great coaches and there are many out there just trying to make a buck. The good coaches will WOW you. Your ambitions will feel within reach and you will feel stronger and more comitted having them on your team.
Exercise selection is a key process in designing a results focused fitness program. It requires the body to be challenged in it's main movement functions being hip extension and flexion, with an upper body push, pull and rotation. There are a few exercises that once mastered make most other movements conceivable and achievable. Progressing and regressing is key. What do I mean by that? Master the below exercises in there most simplest form and then progress them in their complexity.
Progress and regress the programmed workouts using the below examples to suit your ability and capacity so that you maximise results long term and reduce exposing your body to poor positioning and injury.
WARM UP EXERCISES
PUSH UP
Incline push up (hands on wall or bench), Kneeling push up, Toes and hands push up wide feet, standard push up, Change width of hands, Raise a foot off the ground, Change stability eg push up on medicine ball, depth push up on parallel bars chest below hands, decline push up with feet on gym ball hands on parallets, weighted push ups, bench press with barbell, dumbbell bench press, KB bench press with rubber tubbing for stability challenge, speed bench, heavy bench etc.
CHIN UP
SQUAT
DEAD LIFT
PVC pipe dead lift (limited range - increase to full range picking up off floor), Kettle Bell dead lift limited range, KB full range dead lift, Bar bell dead lift, dumbbell dead lift, sumo dead lift, sumo dead lift high pull, Stone dead lift, random items (rocks, slabs, kegs) dead lift for challenge and positioning, snatch with PVC pipe, snatch with KB, barbell snatch.
DIPS
Dips on bench with feet on ground and knees @ 90 degrees, dips on bench with knees straight, dips on bench with legs raised on bench also, dips on bench with body suspended off ground, dips on parraletts, weighted dips, ring dips
HANDSTAND PUSH UP
Shoulder press barbell, shoulder press dumbbells, Shoulder press random objects, Push press, Push jerk, Handstand, Legs inverted limited range push up (increase height of legs, decrease bend in body), handstand push ups on wall, walking handstand push ups on wall, walking handstand, walking handstand push ups, weighted handstand push ups.
LUNGES
Step ups, sled walk (pull a sled whilst walking, farmers walks (carry as much as you can and walk- these can be really strenuous but the skill is easy and the muscular development required for lunges is great), lunges on the spot, lunges on the move, lunges with rotations, lunges with weights, weighted lunges with rotations, lunge jumps.
ROWING
Seated row using rubber tubing, machine seated row, standing barbell row, one arm row, bent over row
No equipment - Lye beneath a handrail and throw some rubber tubing over it and pull bands to chest, progress to gripping the bar and pulling your chest to the bar. A regression would be using bands tied around a post and standing upright and pulling them to your chest. Progress to pulling your chest to the post (start with feet in close), progress further by using straps around the pole and increasing the angle between your body and the post (start with weight on heels leaning backwards with arms at full extension)
Other exercises you will come across include:
Everyone needs a stretching routine that works for them to loosen up, lengthen tight muscles and recovery from a hard day of work and training. Here is a very basic routine that I go through in about 15 minutes after every workout without fail. It is quick simple a target your large muscle groups. On 3 other days I tend to do a further 30 minutes work on my gluteus, hips, hamstrings, back and thoracic regions to work through some specific areas that I find get tense. You need to find what works best for you and I believe this is a great platform to launch your recovery.
