Friday 27 February 2009

Easy Week Workout 3 - Hotel Room Improvisation

Headstand x 2 - slowly moving into and out of position
Handstand Push Ups - 2 x 3 - partial - head a few inches away from the ground
Reverse Hyperextension - 2 x 10 - using hotel furniture to stabilise my torso
Inverted Under-Table Pull Ups - 2, each with a 15 second hold
Box Jumps - 3 x 20 - using the same piece of furniture you see in the Hotel room back raises video.

There was a great gym downstairs at the hotel I was staying at but unfortunately I had forgotton my sports gear. I literally had only my work clothes and there would have been no dignified way to do a workout! So I improvised, which gave rise to two new vidoes, which Mrs M kindly took.

I did the sets in an almost random order, but obviously roughly like a circuit. Again, I was focusing on avoiding fatigue and staying away from too much effort. I wanted to give my muscles a chance to do some repair work.
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Thursday 26 February 2009

Easy Week Workout 2 - Dumbell Snatch, Abs and a 25-Rep Finisher

Dumbbell Snatch - 5 x 5 with 28kg, using legs as little as possible to protect the knee.
Ab rollouts from the knees (with dumbells) - 3 x 10, middle set with 10kg weight vest

Finisher - 25 reps of the Sandbag Lift, Squat and Press Combo with an added press up after each rep. ... Read more

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Easy Week Workout 1 - Random Upper Body Gymnastics

Frog Stand (30 seconds x 2)
Headstand - controlling my body into and out of the position (x 2)
Handstand Push Ups (partial, 3 reps then later 2)
Inverted press-ups with feet on bed and10 kg weight vest (1 x 10)
Inverted Under-Table Pull Ups 2, each with a 10 second hold
Ab rollouts from the Knees (using dumbbells) with 10kg weight vest (10 x 2)

I am between gyms this week and having an easy week to let my body recover from several weeks of effort. The list seems like a lot but you will see I never did 3 sets of anything. I did it in a random way, avoided working too hard and rested when I felt like it. I came away feeling relatively fresh. ... Read more

Saturday 21 February 2009

Deadlifts and Pull-Ups with an Upper Circuit Finisher

Frog Stand - 60 seconds, arms nearly straight, form becoming poor towards the end.
Pull Ups - 5 x 5
Stiff-Legged Deadlift - 2 x 5 @ 110kg, 1 x 10 @ 100kg, 1 x 1 @ 120kg
Kneeling Rope Crunches - 3 x 20 @ 37.5kg

Finisher: 400 Upper Body Blaster - 10 minutes 5 seconds

In spite of what I thought would be a crippling knee injury on Wednesday, today's workout went surprisingly smoothly.

My research suggests I sprained my Medial Collateral Ligament. I was so tired coming to the end of a set of 15 that I positioned my foot lazily on the first part of the movement and had insufficient momentum to pull myself forward, which caused my left leg to bend too much and at an angle. Ouch.

I have been taking serrapeptase to reduce what little inflammation there is and avoiding unneccessary walking and stairs, and it seems to be healing well. The Web sites say 3 weeks before doing anything with the leg but I am quite sure I'll be carefully doing something by the end of next week. I presume that timeframe is aimed at someone with the average diet.
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