December 25, 2007 by jleeger.

Sorry!  I missed Sunday and yesterday…been busy hanging out with the family on the holidays.

Tuesday is officially a Max Strength Lower Body day.  If you’re still up out there on the East Coast, and want to burn off some of that Christmas dinner, do this:

5 sets of 5 Squats, with the heaviest weight you can manage

4 sets of 8 RDL, same as above

20 Side Planks, 20 Bicycle Situps, 20 Supermans

Wall sit for time

Rest 2-3 minutes between sets, and practice your houtian during that time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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December 22, 2007 by jleeger.

Go to class today!  If you didn’t make it, practice on your own at home…no workouts.  If you feel like you need extra work, aren’t sore, and have the energy, work on the most challenging exercise for yourself.

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December 21, 2007 by jleeger.

Max Strength Upper Body Day

1-arm Pushups - 2-5 sets of 3, 2-3 minutes rest - Do one warmup set of regular pushups, rest 2-3 minutes, do  one set of side-to-side pushups, rest, and then do two to five sets of one-arm pushups.  You can make them easier by giving yourself a leverage advantage (do them on a chair seat, or step, etc…).

Chinups - 3 sets of max, 2-3 minutes rest - chinups have your palms facing you.  If you don’t have anyplace to do chinups, do the Chair Rows that Steve Cotter does in the video George posted.

Handstands - 3 sets of max (reps or time), 2-3 minutes rest

Biceps/Triceps Superset - 3 sets of max reps, no rest - Use a band, dumbbell, kettlebell, etc, to do biceps curls, as soon as you’re done, do overhead triceps extensions.

Core - again, you should have done your core stability work in your warmup.  Add three sets of 20 each of these - side planks for reps,  superman reps, v-ups

foam roll, stretch…get ready for class tonight!

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December 20, 2007 by jleeger.

Lower body explosive day…sorry it’s out so late!  I don’t advise doing this workout on Friday or Saturday if you’re planning on going to class those days.  Class can be explosive enough without adding to it.  Wait till you have a day between the workout and class.  Sunday will do.

Here it is:

Warmup (I don’t include a specific one, but have gone over the concept in a past post)

5 sets of 3 each - Box Jump, Vertical Leap, Long Jump - record your best distance for each.  Take 2 minutes of rest between each set of three.  During your rest period, practice one Houtian form for 1  minute, and rest for the other minute.

1-Leg Rear Lunge with Knee Lift - 3 sets of 10, 1 minute rest - get some kind of weight to make this challenging.  Your standing leg should be on a step.  A stair in the house will do (it’s what I use).  Step back off the step with the moving leg and go down into your lunge.  Keep your body upright.  As you step up, bring the back leg all the way up, bringing the knee as high as you can in front of you.  Don’t put the foot back down till you go back into your next lunge.

Band Pullthroughs, or Straight-leg DL - 3 sets of 12 - 1 minute rest- - if you have a band that gives you enough resistance, wrap it around the handle of a dumbbell and put the dumbbell on the other side of a SECURELY closed door.  Pull the band through your legs and up.  You can bend your knees a little, but try to rely on your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back for this exercise.  Similar to a kettlebell swing, which is a good replacement, if you have one of those handy…

Weighted Abs - do 3 sets of 15 of your favorite weighted abs exercise.  Remember - you should already have done your core stabilization work in the warmup!

Cool down, foam roll, and stretch….

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December 19, 2007 by jleeger.

Wednesday is a day off.  Practice your Bagua!

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December 18, 2007 by jleeger.

Alright, Tuesday is here, and hopefully George didn’t kick your butt too hard last night.  As promised, tonight is Max Strength for the lower body.  The trick to building max strength is using a weight that you can only lift 1-5 (or 6) times.  For most, 1-leg squats should do the trick.  Check out Steve Maxwell’s form on the YouTube vids George posted.

Superset the two adjacent exercises in the list below.  Do 4 sets of as many as you can of each, with 1-2 minutes of rest beween supersets.

1-Leg Squats and

1-Leg Hip Raise, foot on a chair or bench (if you have a stability ball at home, do it like this: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.oxygenmag.com/content/oxy53/ham_curls.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.oxygenmag.com/main.php%3Fpage%3D1%26id%3D282&h=448&w=247&sz=25&hl=en&start=35&um=1&tbnid=Ah5oh55uYnWXgM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=70&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhamstring%2Bcurl%2Bexercise%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN)

Odd-Object Rear Lunge, front foot elevated - Put your front foot on a platform of some sort.  A step works for me.  Lunge backward with the other foot.  Keep your upper body upright.  Grab anything that’s heavy in your house so you can only get through 5-6 ea. leg.  It’s tough…for me, I have to wear my weight vest and hold both of the 50lb dumbbells I have…

and

1-leg RDL - again, grab something that makes this more challenging from a resistance perspective.

Finish yourself off with wall-sits for time.  Do three sets of as long as you can manage, resting 2 minutes in between sets.  During those two minute rest intervals, you can work your abs.  Do the following three exercises during each rest interval and one more set at the end:

Bicycle Situps - 20 ea.

Sprinter Situps - 20 ea.

Superman - 20

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December 17, 2007 by jleeger.

Monday is here.  Hopefully you’re planning on going to class tonight.  If not, plan on practicing at home.  After your practice, you can do this GPP workout:

20 Burpees  w/ Jump  and Pushup

2 minute wall-sit

1 minute bear-crawl

50 bodyweight squats

10 pullups

repeat 3-5x, depending on your level of fitness.

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December 15, 2007 by jleeger.

Here’s the plan.

From here on out, I’m going to structure workouts the following way:

Mondays = day off, presumably you’re heading to class, and George is going to kick your butt anyway.  No extra workout is needed.

Tuesday = Lower body Max Strength - since Monday with George is usually a GPP-type workout, we can focus on the Max Strength efforts on Tuesday.

Wednesday = Day Off = practice on your own, and go to class

Thursday =  Explosive Lower Body (since we don’t want to do this type of work tomorrow, and 48 hours should be enough recover time from Tues.  If you find that it isn’t, let me know)

Friday =  Upper Body Max Strength Effort

Saturday and Sunday = Practice practice practice

That being said - GO TO CLASS TODAY!  If you didn’t make it, PRACTICE!

Have fun everyone!

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December 13, 2007 by jleeger.

Here’s a good template to use for your daily workout:

Muscle Activation (more about that later)

Core Stabilization (low-back exercises, any static abdominal exercises, etc.)

General Warmup

Main Workout

Foam Rolling

Stretching

We haven’t discussed stretching a lot, but it is something that is critical, and something you should be doing, if not every day, at least after every time you work out.  Research has shown that static stretching before activity leads to decreased muscle-firing rates, so if you do static stretches, save those for after everything else.

Here’s the workout today:

10 Tiangan your choice - go as slow as you can

50 Pushups

10 Jiben Shoufa your choice - again, as slow as you can, focus on the movement

20 Pullups

30 Sprinter Situps

10 1-leg squats ea. leg

Repeat 3x.  Rest as much as you need to, and change the tiangan and jiben each round.  After all that, take a few deep breaths and do:

2 minute static  San Ti Shi hold.  Try to get your posture perfect - sit back as far as you can, let your low-back flatten out like a sitting bear’s, the top of your head is pulled straight up, your body is completely relaxed, with all your weight resting on one leg.

Foam roll yourself, stretch, and relax!

After all that, take a day off tomorrow!

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December 12, 2007 by jleeger.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note on program design again.  I’ve been reading a lot about the Russian Conjugate Method of periodization recently (and actually started implementing it two weeks ago).  It looks to be a highly effective method, applicable to most athletes.  Basically, it looks like this:

Day 1 - Max Strength Upper Body Day

Day 2 - Explosive/Jump Lower Body Day

Day 3 - Off

Day 4 - Endurance Strength Upper Body Day

Day 5 - Max Strength Lower Body Day

Days 6 and 7 - Off

The schedule above is good for the beginning of such a program.  As the “season” moves on, it would become more intricate, incorporating GPP days, agility/speed drills, etc.

This post is inspired by a conversation George and I had about strength.  I can’t remember the exact quote, but Luo Laoshi told George that the stronger person has a better chance of victory.  I think if you combine strength, speed, and power development, in a system such as the above, you put yourself in a much better place than others.

For today, let’s have a Max Strength Upper Body day -

Get a good warmup - 20 burpees will do

5 Sets of 3-5 reps - 1-arm Pushup

5 Sets of 3-5 reps - Pullups (if you can do more, try adding weight to your pullup)

3 sets of 10-15 - Regular Pushups

3 sets of 8-12 - Chinups

2 sets of 12-15 - Scarecrows, or Band Chest Expansions, or Reverse Flyes

Abdominals - 2 sets of 20, of four of your favorite ab exercises

Stretch!

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December 10, 2007 by jleeger.

I just read a review on Amazon of Herbert Benson’s book “The Breakout Principle.” Dr. Benson was one of the first scientists in America to systematically examine the practices of Eastern meditation and the processes that occur in the body as a result. What struck me in the review of the book, was that it outlined what I’ve found to be true during periods of R&R after intense periods of practice. Here’s a direct quote:

* Stage one begins with a hard mental or physical struggle.
* Stage two involves pulling the Breakout trigger, completely severing prior thoughts and emotional patterns - the doing “it” part.
* Stage three is the `peak experience’, or performance element of the process.
* Stage four is a return to a `new-normal’ state, meaning one with enhanced mind-body performance patterns.

This is the reviewer’s breakdown of the book’s message. Basically, don’t forget to take a break now and then.

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December 10, 2007 by jleeger.

Just a quick note, then the workout -

Take some time to sit down and figure out what’s really important to you today.  There are as many ways to live, to make a living, and to survive, as there are people in this world.  Use your time on this Earth wisely!   Your life is YOUR TIME!  TAKE IT!  Make time for the things that are important to you!

Ok, here we go!

Today, do these exercises throughout the day, as you’re able.

Pullups

Bodyweight Squats or Wall Sit or 1-leg Squats

Romanian Deadlift

Pushups

Do them all day long, as many reps at a time as you can get out!  This is a great protocol for folks with office jobs, etc.  You can actually improve your strength a great deal if you keep close track of how many you do every day, and increase it over time.

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December 9, 2007 by jleeger.

What do you need to successfully work out at home?  And how do you do it for cheap?

Well, the easiest way is to use your body weight.  However, some folks have to start slower than that.  Here are some good implements to consider adding to your home gym:

The first thing I recommend is a stability ball.  If you get one, get this one: http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4716_A_CategoryID_E_397

Those things can burst!  And you want to lessen the chances of that as much as possible!

Next, a jump rope…the cheap plastic kind are best.

Then, bands - they make great, versatile training tools.  There are so many types to choose from, I won’t go into it in depth.  Try to get a couple of sets, that way you have different resistance levels.

There are many ways to do pullups, but I think if you can use rings or pullup straps, you have a much more diverse training tool.  Here’s a link to rings: http://www.ringtraining.com/ and here’s one for straps: http://www.amazon.com/Lifeline-USA-1-JG-Jungle-Gym/dp/B00069CN2S

You can make these on your own too: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/Bodyweight.html

And…a BALANCE BOARD.  Any type will do, but I’ve been SERIOUSLY impressed by the Indo Board…

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December 9, 2007 by jleeger.

Posterior Chain

Today’s WOD is going to be a “Posterior Chain” exercise day. Most folks focus on the muscles on the front of their body because they’re the ones they use the most, and more importantly, they’re the ones they can SEE.

The “Posterior Chain” is comprised of all the muscles along the back of your body. Typically these muscles are associated with “pulling” motions.

If your shoulders are rounded forward, or you hunch over, or your lower back bugs you, you should probably be doing a posterior chain workout at least once a week, and prioritizing the posterior chain work in your other workouts.

Here we go!

Warmup - Back Bridge (30 seconds) + V-ups (30 reps) - 2-3x

Bodyweight Rows - 3-5 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

Chinups (palms facing you) - 3-5 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

1-leg Romanian Deadlift - 3 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

Pull throughs - here you take a band, or cable handle (if you have access to a gym), or even a towel or rope (for isometric pulls), set at floor-level. You have your feet set back a bit from where your upper body will be, and you pull the band through your legs. It’s a bit like a weighted hyperextension, which will suit as a replacement exercise as well. - 3 sets of 2 shy of your max reps. If you’re doing isometrics, hold for as long as you can sustain a full contraction

Band Expansion/Reverse Flye - you need a band for isotonic movement, or towel for isometrics… - hold the implement in front of you, arms straight, and open your arms out to the sides till it touches your chest. Same reps/sets as above.

External Rotations - this is a good rotator cuff exercise, and most people need to do it at least once a week, if not two or three times. You need a band/cable or dumbbells. Basically, you’re bending your arm 90 degrees at the elbow, and rotating the upper arm (humerus) externally (away from your body) against the resistance. If you have a band, it’s best, because you can do this exercise with your humerus perpendicular to the ground (your arm at your side), and then parallel to the ground (out from your side) rotating your radius/ulna up and back from parallel…here’s a good photo of the perpendicular one -

for parallel, just raise your arm out to the side.

3 sets of 12 will do. 2 sets of 12 each if you’re doing both movements.

Stretch your posterior chain!

That includes your rotator cuff! Here’s how to do that: http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-12-05.htm

Have fun!

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December 4, 2007 by jleeger.

Hi Everybody,

I’m heading to Michigan to see my dad for a few days, so I won’t be posting again till Sunday.  Keep up the hard work.  Do some of the previous workouts when you have time.  And above all, PRACTICE!

Josh

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