I keep getting asked what is the best way to tone up the abs and hips. Well you can not make your body lose inches from a desired spot. Working out and your body does not work like that. You need to work the body as a whole unit. I don't train isolation. One of the best ways to build muscle and drop body fat without spending tons of time on a hamster wheel(AKA the treadmill) is by doing complex's . I wish I had been doing these a lot sooner in my training before. These workouts are very hard and short but the hit the entire body. You can use bodyweight,dumbbells, barbell,sandbags and even kettlebells with them. The following workout was :
The Workout is
A1) 10 Pushups
A2) 10 Bodyweight Squats
A3) 10 Lunges
A4) 10 Planche Knee Ups
This should be done for 5 rounds with little or no rest.Two to three times a week at the end of the workout. If 10 reps is to hard do 5 then trying to build up to 10 reps after that go up to 15 reps then build up to 20 reps. When you can do 20 reps with no rest. for those that do not have weights take a back pack and add a book or books for extra resistance . Also if you can't do full pushups do them from your knees until you get stronger. The is a simple but effective workout please give it a try.
The crossfit qualifier's is now open. Even though I did not register I wanted to see how I would do on the workouts. I will try to do all 5 workouts and I may have to substitute some of the exercises because I don't have all the things that crossfit uses. I was able to get 61 burpees in the 7 minutes. I think some of my reps would have been called back. This was a very rough workout I can see I have lots of room for improvement.
Well first off I want to thank Zack Even Esh because of him I found out who Travis Stoetzel is. Travis is a certified coach under Zach Even Esh from the Underground Gym. I started watching Travis's videos on youtube about a year and half ago and all I saw with this big ripped up dude doing some hardcore no BS workouts. Travis at the time did not have a program out so I just read everything he would put on his blog and his videos trying to do what I could without any set programming. Then it happened Travis came out with Bags ,Bells and bodyweight program.I bought it the instant it came out. I used the barbell in place of the sandbag as there was no way for me to get one and I wasn't going to let a piece of equipment get in my way. During week 6 it happened I hurt my shoulder doing power cleans something moved inside. I was in deep pain and went to the Dr. who told me I had rotator cuff injury plus shoulder impingement. Well what was I going to do. I lowed my weights and continued eating good and training with what I could do. I sent Travis and email with my before and after picture's and those are on his testimonial page. Fast forward in September 19th I had cochlear ear implant surgery as I only have 7% hearing left. I was told to not workout at all for 6 weeks. This was a nightmare the pain from the surgery was bad enough but not working out was killing me.I lost weight and got flabby no matter how hard I tried eating well.The last two weeks of 2011 all I did was work and not workout because of the holidays. Then Travis came out with the 28 day AMF program and I saw my picture on his testimonial. I had been playing with IF fasting and researching it. I felt that I could have achieved better results if I was able to do my upper body. So I read up more on If fasting and came up with my own program on that. I may just write about it and sell it. You see unlike most I am also 42 and I do not recuperate like Travis or someone younger than me but I do not use that as an excuse. So far the last 28 days I have been busting my butt doing Travis's AMF program with IF fasting I think I have made some very good improvements when I take my pictures tomorrow I will be able to tell. I will take a deload week. The only workout I plan to hit hard is the crossfit open workout.After this I will do another 4 week cycle because I still have not hit my goal.In the video's you will see is from my gym that I share in my coop it is not a hardcore gym heaviest dumbbell is 80 pounds and I had to be them for . 90 percent of the time I am alone in this gym today I had people there but that was not going to stop me at all. One benefit of having hearing loss is that I take the implant off so I don't hear anyone at all. I just get in the zone. So this is for Travis I hope I did you proud on your program.
I get asked a lot by people what do I train for. My workouts are not for bodybuilding anymore. I look at pictures when I trained this way and my muscles looked different than they do know. I don't train to get bigger. I feel in love with the Strength and conditioning aspects of BJJ when I competed because that was something that I always so go in competition . So I train a lot for power endurance and trying to have the most amount of functional muscle with least amount of fat.There are so many tools out there that are marketed to get you in condition. But what if you do not have money or your gym does not have the equipment?Does this mean you are doomed? I did 3 power endurance workouts today one was Thrusters with 95 lbs for as many reps possible in 4 minutes. From there I went into burpees to pullups as many reps as possible in 5 minutes. Then I did 2 rounds of dumbbell overhead walks followed by 80 pound dumbbell farmer's walk with no rest. The only time I rested was as long as it took to set up the camera. Remember as you get tired your form starts to break just like when you wrestle or do BJJ. This is why we train like this.
Last week and article in Sports Illustrated came out on a wrestling Coach Mike Powell who was fighting a disease called Polymyositis. Before this Coach Powell had always been the strongest guy in the weight room. He would do all the drills with his wrestlers and challenge them and he would always beat them. This article was very moving to me. If you want to know more just google the article in Sports Illustrated. One of the workouts that he challenged the wrestlers with was 1/2 your body weight Clean and Jerk Press for as Many Reps in 4 Minutes. So I decided to do this workout today I was a little cautious as this is the exercise that hurt my shoulder in June. I was able to get 31 reps in 4 minutes with 85 lbs nothing great but I did it. Considering all that someone like Coach Powell has been dealing with I feel lucky for all that I am able to do. below is the video of my workout.
