Birthday Workout.

Cheers all,
Yesterday was my B'day and I decided to celebrate this with a special workout. It goes like 20 rounds of
1. 5 pullups
2. 25 Squats (normal stance)
3. Stair run (4 floors)
4. 10 Pushups
5. 25 Squats (Wide stance)

Combining into 100 pullups, 200 Pushups and 1000 Squats...The whole workout took little over 2 hour. The toughest part were pullups considering the fact I can only do 4 pullups in one go..and I needed to replace pullups with chinups to finish the routine...
As for workout goes 2 sets were toughest after the I got used to it and finished strong with gas left to 5 more sets which i would have done If lunch had not arrived..

Surprisingly I am half as sore as i expected it to be, which is really good and i would be able to hit gym today..

Another year gone and I am stronger then what I was previous year, hopefully next year would be better.

Stay strong,
Harsh

Ten things that work much better than any food supplement under the sun

Doug Hepburn and APOLLON WHEELS

Below is the extract from Brooks Kubik, The Dinosaur Strength Training Notebook:

Ten things that work much better than any food supplement under the sun

1. Squats.

2. Abbreviated training programs that focus on heavy duty compound exercises with barbell and dumbbells.

3. Supplementing your barbell and dumbbell work with heavy awkward objects (bags, barrels, beams etc).

4. Dropping the heaviest dumbbell you can find on the head of any self proclaimed ''weight train authority'' who tells you that ''genetics are everything.''

5. Ditto to anyone who advocates slow motion training. Twice.

6. The heavy pulling movements that Olympic lifters use...the exercises that have been building the biggest, thickest, strongest backs in the world for close to a century: power cleans, power pulls, power snatches and the clean and press.

7. The type of HEAVY dumbbell lifting detailed on my training tape, The Lost Art of Dumbbell Training.

8. A no nonsense, never say die, never give up attitude...a strength of mind and power of will that allows you to SMASH through any sort of adversity or obstacle.

9. Plenty of good, nutritious food.

10. Heavy partials to build tendon and ligament strength.


First preference for anyone should be good nutrition, supplements should come second. Making good food choice is also cost effective.

I have made 2 comparison below :

Comparison 1
Take for example, 5lbs Whey Protein costs around Rs 3500 here in India and makes 75 serving days which will last about 90 days.

At same price you can get following for 3 Months, daily
1. 5 Eggs daily each @ Rs 2 = Rs 900
2. 500 ml milk @ Rs 25 per Liter = Rs 1125
3. 100 Gm Cottage cheese @ Rs 140 per Kg= 1260

Totals comes to about Rs 3285

Comparison 2
Now Total protein content in a 5lb jar @ 23 gm per scoop = 1725 gm (based upon label, can't be sure if supplement company are screwing us here.)

1. 5 Eggs daily each @ 6gm per egg = 30 gm daily and 2700 Gm for 3 months
2. 500 ml milk @ 6.5 gm per glass = 13 gm daily and 1170 gm for 3 months
3. 100 Gm Cottage cheese @ 20gm per 100gm = 20gm daily and 1800 for 3 months.
This amounts to 63 gm daily and 5670 gm for 3 months.

Though a vague comparison but we can conclude that natural protein source is better than any supplement both quality and money wise.

I am gonna ditch whey protein from this month and concentrate on good nutrition.

A Day at the Gym - Female Training 3

Check for Part1 and Part2 before reading this.

Here a basic routine is given based upon Exercise mentioned in previous post.
Do not forget to do proper Warm up before starting. Here is a good warmup routine courtesy Lauren Fitness.

Best Warmup Ever from Lauren B on Vimeo.

Routine:

Workout A

1. Warmup
2. Knee Dominant.
3. Horizontal Push.
4. Horizontal Pull.
5. GPP
6. Streching.

Workout B

1. Warmup
2. Hip Dominant.
3. Vertical Push.
4. Vertical Pull.
5. GPP (Diffrent from one used in Workout A)
6. Streching.

Reps and Sets:
Start with 3 sets of 8 reps and each week try to increase rep by at least 1. when you have reached 15 reps increase the difficulty of the exercise by adding more weights or making it more challenging. For eg if you were doing pushup from wall, then now try to do these from a bench.

Exercise Selection:
Pick an exercise from here. Feel free to modify exercise as per your needs.

Schedule:
If you workout 2 times a week choose :
Monday : Workout A ; Friday: Workout B

If you workout 3 times a week Choose :
Week 1 :- Monday : Workout A ; Wednesday: Workout B; Friday: Workout A
Week 2 :- Monday : Workout B ; Wednesday: Workout A; Friday: Workout B
Repeat

I recommend to go for at least 3 days a week , also try to maintain active life style on rest of the days.

Also feel free to add moderate intensity cardio like skipping, bike, brisk walk on off day 2-3 times a week for better recovery and to boost additional fat loss by calorie deficit.

A Day at the Gym - Female Training 2

This is in continuation with the previous post and will cover brief description of basic exercise, For detail explanation and videos please search youtube. If you have any doubt regarding exercise please feel free to post in comments section and I would be happy to answer.

All of the below exercise require very little use of equipments and can be done in home with just using Dumbbells or just by taking a bag and filling it with something like sand.

All the below exercise are full body exercise and muscles are not isolated.

The Exercise are divided into 4 Categories for upper body, 2 categories for Lower body followed by GPP (General Physical Preparedness) work.

For core workout add Planks at the end of your workout.

Upper Body

1. Horizontal Push
The Primary Horizontal push exercise that would be used here is Pushup. For detail description click here.

A. Beginners
If you are not strong enough to do a regular pushup then do them by elevating the surface. Put you hands on wall, bench and you can go one step further by using your partner.

B. Intermediate
Instead of elevating your hand keep them on floor. Keep your core tight and do not let your hips to sag.


C. Advance
To Increase the difficulty, elevate your feet to a higher surface like bench or a stability Ball.


Muscles worked: Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, Core.


2. Horizontal Pull

For Horizontal Pull various row variations would be used.

A. Beginners
Basic row can be done using using a dumbbell and bending back at 90 degrees. and pulling the Dumbbell towards Chest.

B. Intermediate
An Intermediate version would be tow use two dumbbells or a Barbell and not using the bench for support. Remember here not to bend lower back

C. Advance
An Advance version would be Renegade row, Its performed by using Hex dumbbells First get down in a pushup position with dumbbell in each hand, now pull one dumbbell toward your chest while keeping other hand on ground. As an added benefit you would get a good core workout.

Muscles Worked: Back, Biceps

3. Vertical Push
The Primary vertical push exercise that would be used here is overhead press. i.e lifting stuff over your head.

A. Beginners

Most basic exercise would be overhead press using either a pair of Dumbbell or a barbell.
keep dumbbells on your shoulder and lift the weight up.

B. Intermediate

An Intermediate version is to use Push press either with a Dumbbell or a barbell, keep weight in front of your shoulder dip down a bit and explosively lift the weight up. This method will allow more weight to be lifted.

C. Advance
Though a body weight exercise, the advance progression would be a Pike pushup, which can later be advanced to a Handstand Pushup.

Muscle worked: Shoulders, Triceps, Core

4. Vertical Pull
The Primary Vertical Pull exercise that would be used here is Pullup. We can use three grips while doing pullups.
1. Pronated : Palm facing away,
2. Nuteral: Palm facing each other
3. Supinated: Palm facing you, also known as Chinup.

A. Beginners :

Basic exercise that you can do is an inverted Row, you can increase or decrease the level of difficulty by increasing or decreasing the height from where you are hanging.

B. Intermediate :
Next Step would be an assisted pulling using a band or taking help from partner.

C. Advance
Once you get strong enough next step is an un-assisted pullup. You can go 1 step further by adding external weight.

Muscle worked: Back, Biceps

Lower Body.

1. Hip Dominant
By Hip Dominant we would concerning overself with posterior chain, with main stress on Glutes and Hamstring.

A. Beginners
Most basic Exercise is a Glute Bridge, Its a more like an activation exercise. To increase the difficulty place your feet on a stability Ball

B. Intermediate
Second progression would be a Lunge.

C. Advance
An advance version would be Romanian Deadlift or a stiff legged Deadlift.

Muscles Worked: Glutes, Hamstrings.

2. Knee dominant.

By Knee Dominant exercise we would be concerning overself with Anterior chain with main stress on Quads.

A. Beginners
The First exercise that we would be doing is a step up. Start with your body weight and then add resistance using Dumbbells

B. Intermediate
As a next step move to Squat, start with your bodyweight at first and progress by using a dumbbell or barbell. Detail Explanation here

C. Advance
An Advance exercise is a single leg squat.



Muscle worked : Whole Leg. (Main stress on Quads)

GPP (General Physical Preparedness)


1. Burpees

2. Box Jump

3. Push, Pull, Carry heavy stuff

4. Kettlebell/ Dumbbell Swings.

Watch Out for Part 3, which covers basic programming.

Have Fun................

A Day at the Gym - Female Training 1.

Here is a typical day at the gym, you walk into the gym and see ladies in a corner on treadmill, bike or an elliptical trainer working at moderate - low intensity, followed by 20 minutes of Abs work and sometimes if lucky 5-10 minutes on weight training machine like multi gym, leg press, leg Extension.

This routine sucks big time and would not take to your desired physique. Reasons are:
1. Low intensity vs High Intensity : Low intensity exercise only burn calories while you are exercising, on the other hand High Intensity exercise ramp up your metabolism and you keep burning fat even long after you have finished doing your exercise.

2. No Fun: Jogging on treadmill is no fun and same abs routine day in and day out is even more boring. so if you do not enjoy your workout its highly difficult to stay motivated.

3. Back pain: It has been shown that endless sets of crunches are bad for your back, so if you are having back troubles then you can relate your crunches to that.

4. Knee Problem: Due to the Pelvic bone structure Females are highly prone to ACL injury so running is actually bad for you. More over Running is a high impact movement and as its said, "you should be fit to run not run to get fit". To further worsen the problem Leg extension is one of the worst thing you can do for your knees.

5. No result: Low intensity cardio may work, the first time you begin exercise but after some time you would stop getting result. Moreover you would end up having a skinny fat look, also called Pear look.

Apple vs Pear Shape.

Most women tend to have problem with there lower body. Most of them are not satisfied with how there hips and thigh looks. Majority of these women have skinny upper body thus giving a Pear shape. Pear shape is most likely due to Genetic/ hormonal issue, but bad eating habits make it worse.


Now hours of slow cardio and doing twists will not help. The solution is :

1. Strength Training : Refer Next post.
2. Proper Nutrition : Refer Here and here.

Blast from past - Jack Lalanne

Here are two great videos by fitness legend "Jack Lalanne" . These videos may be old but they are still relevant.

Why are people tired ?
In this video he explains why people are all pooped up when they wake up in the morning, they feel lazy all the time. He explains 3 main reasons for these :

1. Lack of Exercise.
2. Empty calories.
3. Nervous Tension.

Enjoy the video


10 point self improvement plan.

Here is 10 point self Improvement plan by Jack :

1. Exercise
2. Nutrition
3. Positive Thinking
4. Good habits
5. Grooming
6. Smile
7. Posture
8. Help others
9. Relaxation
10. Faith

Enjoy the video

The Exercise Part 2 - Pushups

Push ups are excellent exercise for whole body, they work chest, shoulders, triceps and core. No matter if a person is a beginner or an advance athlete he needs to do a push up. Push up being an open chain movement is lot better then Bench press. In push up you whole body moves compared to just arms in a bench press.

Correct way to do a Push up
Like every exercise there is a correct way to do push up. Following key things need to be remembered while doing a push up.

• Shoulder width: Hand should be placed at a width slightly greater then shoulder width.
  
• Tuck your elbows: Never flare your elbow, they should be at around 45° angle to the body. This is very important to maintain shoulder health.
• Tightness through out the body: Keep tightness throughout your body, brace your abs and squeeze your glutes. You should keep a straight line from head to toe. and your whole body should move as single unit.
  
• Full range of motion: Its very important to work through out the range of the motion. Touch your chest to ground at bottom position and lock your elbows at top position.
  

Here is an nice video by Crossfit on good form and common mistake while doing push ups



Push up progression for Beginners

Here is another nice video by Crossfit on push up progression for beginners.

• Push up on walls
• Push up on knees with hands elevated.
• Push up with hands elevated and a wide stance.
• Push up from knees with hands on ground.
• Push up from hands on ground and wide stance.
• Normal push up.
  

More Push ups variations

Here are some other variation of pushups.

• Push-up from Knees
• Wide Grip Push-ups
• Close Grip Push-ups
• Diamond Push-ups
• Fingertip Push-ups
• Knuckle Push-ups
• Chinese Push-ups (or Dive Bombers)
• Bench Push-ups
• Isometric Push-ups
• One-legged Push-ups
• Push-up with T Rotation
• One-arm Push-up
• Explosive (or Plyometric) Push-ups
• Clapping Push ups
• Staggered Push-ups
• Explosive Staggered Push-ups
• Elevated Feet Push-up
• Alligator Push-ups
• Circle Push-ups
• Walk Through Push-ups
• 90 Degree Push-ups

These are just a few variation, there are many more ways in which push ups can be performed.

The Exercise Part 1 - Squat

Squat is the basic exercise that is used everyday in our daily life but unfortunately we have lost the mobility to do so. Below is a picture of a kid doing a perfect squat.


Here are few pointers that needs to be taken in mind.

• Big Chest : Try to make a big chest and squeeze your back and look straight ahead, this will prevent the rounding of the back.
  
• Bend from hips: Initiate the motion from the hips and try to sit back between your legs.
• Push from the heels: At any instant the weight should be on your heels and you should be able to wiggle your toes. Push the ground while coming up.
• Knees out : Always push your knees outwards and you knees will thank you.
• Go deep : Go as deep as you can, if you can not reach parallel then you need to work on your hips and ankle mobility.
  

One of the best Source to lean Squat is below video from Coach Dan John. It runs for about 50 minutes , great stuff.



Here he have used two techniques for teaching how to squat.

1. Goblet squat

Do this without a dumbbell, hold a goblet like position in front of you and squat down. and in the bottom position with the help of of your elbows push your knees outwards.


2. Potato sack squat

Insure that the weight is on your heels, keep your chin up and chest puffed, grasp hands and drop between your legs just as your going down to pick a sack of potatoes. touch the floor with your hands and get up.

Please note that before loading its important that your are squating with good technique. bodyweight first

Strength Training - Body weight training.

Strength training is very important for good physique, but what if you do not have access to a gym for whatever reason ? The answer is body weight training. You can get a descent workout by only using your body weight , here are some exercises for lower body and upper body.

Lower body
1. Squat variations. Squats are great exercise for building lower body strength if you do not have enough strength or flexibility the body weight squat could be really helpful. The key here is to go as deep as you can and at lest you should go below parallel. As your strength increases you can progress into 1 leg squat also known as Pistol. It requires great strength and flexibility.

2. Lunges. Lunges are also very good exercise for lower body and the good thing about this is that it will help you build stability. there are 5 types of lunges that you can do.

a. Static lunge or split squat
b. Forward lunge or walking lunge
c. Reverse lunge
d. Step up lunge
e. lunge with back foot elevated or Bulgarian split squat.

3. Single leg Deadlifts. As with single legged squat deadlifts are great way to build stability, here its advisable to add some external loading to make this exercise more challenging.

4. Burpees. This is one of the best lower body exercise you can do It comprises of following 5 steps:
a. squat down and put your hands on the floor
b. kick your legs back until you are in a pushup position
c. Do 1 pushup
d. Bring your knees back in
e. Stand up again and do a small jump.

5. Jumps and Plyometrics. various jumps like Box jumps, tuck jumps , jumping jacks can be very effective in developing speed and will also help in burning some extra calories. Do remember that these can be very taxing and do not overdo them.

6. Sprinting / running. You all must be aware of these but just to remind that long distance low intensity running won't help you much. The best thing is to do interval training i.e running for 30 secs fast and 1 min slow and repeating this for 10 mins. you can change the intervals based upon your current fitness level.

Upper Body
1. Pushups. Pushups are really great exercise not just for just chest or triceps but also for core. You can progress through following style of pushups

Pushups from knees --> Push ups with hand at shoulder width --> Pushups with
feet elevated --> By elevating 1 foot from the ground --> By elevating both the feet from the ground --> By using 1 hand only --> By using 1 hand and elevating the opposite feet.

Altering the hand position will also effect the muscle being worked out. If you narrow the grip most emphasis would be laid on triceps but if you widen the grip chest muscles would be worked out more.


2. pullups. Pullups / chinup are great exercise to develop strength in back , lats and biceps.

Unfortunately there are not much upper body body exercise , but if you have weights like dumbbells or stuff like bricks, sand bags you can still get a pretty descent workout.

But If you really serious about strength and want a great physique its best to join a gym or build a home gym if you have enough space and money :)

If you want me to cover any of these exercise in details please leave a comment.

Strength Training

As Mentioned in my previous post, Strength training is very important now let me give you a few pointers on what to do and what not to do in gym.

1. Choice of Exercise
Choice of exercise is vital for your success. 80 % of your workout should consist of full body exercises or multi joint exercise. Single joint exercise should be avoided at all costs, your training program should revolve around following exercises:

a. Squat : Squat is one exercise that every one should start doing if they are not doing it. The key point here is to go below parallel thus working your whole leg.

b. Deadlift : Deadlift is another great exercise which everyone needs to add into there workout if looking for some serious strength gains. While doing Deadlift special care should be taken to use glutes and hamstrings for lifting weight instead of back.

c. Bench Press : Bench press is one exercise that needs no introduction, but still I when I look in gym I see half of the people doing it wrong or only doing half motion. Do not forget to balance this with heavy barbell rows.

d. Overhead Press : One of the great upper body strength exercise ignored by most. Preceded by an exercise like Clean and you can get a killer workout.

e. Pull ups: Pull-ups or chin-ups are great exercise for back and biceps. If you can not do pull ups then you can ask some one to support you. Pull down machines are not as effective as doing a pull up.

f. Rows: Rows are excellent exercise for developing the back. you can either use the barbell version or dumbbell version. Importance of rows with respect to Bench press is explained later in this article.

2. Selecting a routine
Your workout routine should be either full body or upper body / lower body split. You should never split your routine based upon muscles like one day chest other day shoulder generally what body builders do. This type of routine is highly unproductive unless you are genetic freak or you are on drugs.

3. Do not overdo
Your workout session should not go beyond 1 hour and 3/4 days per week is more then enough for most the people out there. Your body needs proper rest and nutrients to grow. and if you are spending any more time than this then you are really increasing the chances of being over trained.

4. Stay away from machines
You should stay away from machines with possible exception of cable pulley system. your most of the training time should revolve around free weights only which include barbells and dumbbells. Two reason why you should avoid machines are :
1. These movements are not functional i.e you won't use them in your daily life hence they are not effective and can possibly lead to injury.
2. These exercise are way too simple and you can't expect good results just by using machines.

5. Corrective Lifting.
Most of the people have developed a bad posture through bad habits and doing wrong exercise will lead to muscle dysfunction and even worsen the problem. Now imagine you have rounded shoulder and you only do Bench press and no rows. What would this lead to ? strong chest and week back, which will further worsen the problem. But if you dump the bench and replace it with heavy rows and other corrective exercise then you can possibly improve your posture.

I have just touched the tip of ice berg here and will be posting some more information in coming weeks, so keep checking out.