Monday, July 25, 2011

And we're back!

Welcome back folks. Hope everyone had a nice time off. Perhaps some actually relaxed and did some fun, recreational things.

Re some of the comment posts. I (Rus) was not the only one who thought an extended break is good. Routine makes us soft. Plain and simple. Even if you're training the entire time. We try to combat this with constantly varying workouts but the stress on the body becomes a routine in itself. So we want to minimize routine to optimize the training. We call it periodization. If you want to know more, look up a concept called "law of accommodation". Vladimir Zatsiorski wrote a bit on the topic.  http://www.amazon.com/Science-Practice-Strength-Training-Second/dp/0736056289/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311629927&sr=1-1

Moving on.. Here we are again, merging yet another group from the on ramp to ...... whatever..... It is a very exciting time for everyone and it's always fun to watch new camaraderie form. You all do a great job of working together so it works out great for everyone. As we keep going, we want to remind everyone where our knowledge and practice come from. BHIP is a Strength & Conditioning program very similar to that of many other athletes. We consider every one of you an athlete and approach the training as such. With that in mind, we can only gauge the effectiveness of the programming by your performance. You do with the strength and conditioning gains whatever you desire, but in training, we need constant strives for performance gains. So if this week you dead lifted 100lbs and ran a 10 minute mile and in 3 weeks you lift 135lbs and run a 9:27 mile, we can safely assume that the training worked and your performance went in the direction we planned. If your performance does not improve but rather diminishes, then we can assume that the training did not facilitate performance gains. So keep pushing yourselves and you will see some interesting things happening. But first and foremost, HAVE FUN with it. No one will do things that they don't enjoy for very long.. it's been shown that discipline is elusive, regardless of how much self-control you think you have. We all cave eventually when doing things we don't enjoy.

People can exercise only so much self-control

Also, we are working on making some next-level stuff up for you guys as far as the training goes. We are encouraging people to get into small long-term groups (~5) that you will be directly and indirectly working with and contributing to. This is optional and is more of a challenge based thing, but it should be pretty fun if enough people get on board. We will provide more information later on, but for now start thinking about who you'd want to work with. Preferably someone with comparable or complimentary skills and strengths.

Here's something to do in the meantime:

AFAP - (as fast as possible)
50-40-30-20-10
- Jumping Jacks
- Sit ups



* Note: Just to be clear about sit ups. Sit ups WILL NOT build you a visible six pack and they WILL NOT burn belly fat and more than anything else will. There is no such thing as spot-training. What they may do, if done too frequently is start developing a nice thick sheet of muscle on your abdomen. To me, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you're trying to shrink your pant size, then all you're really doing is pushing a layer of fat with a building sheet of muscle under said fat layer. It's counter productive. What sit ups WILL DO is create mobility and a stable structure to squat better. That's why it is important to go all the way up, lead with the bellybutton and get the belly button in front of your pelvis. If you think about it, our sit ups are merely reverse squats. So keep your back straight and think about full range of motion.

Six packs have more to do with body comp and that's done more in the kitchen rather than the gym.

Enjoy your week back.

12 comments:

  1. Yay! I can't wait to knock this out, it was great joining your group. Also, I DID, take the week off with the exception of a few recreational hikes and my burpies didn't suffer too much ;O.

    Thanks for the Periodization link, you know I'll read it!

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  2. Awesome to be back and now I have a reason not do so many (any) sit ups!

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  3. Bloody Brilliant! Jumping out of a sit-up and flying into a jack between the splits felt like a reverse burpie! 7: 52

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  4. What one of my recreational hikes looked like:
    https://picasaweb.google.com/brookh/20110721ZionNP?authkey=Gv1sRgCJXCzJmd1vXxiQE#5632770279690957458

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  5. Kudos for putting another nail in the proverbial coffin of the 'spot reducing' myth.

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  6. Great to be back - two great workouts so far. I went 10 lbs higher on my deadlift than the last time we did it a few weeks ago, and hit my goal for the summer. Time to set my sights higher! -Andrea

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  7. 12:35 Thanks to the Tuesday Thursday crew, you helped me out alot.

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  8. 7:55. Did it in the parking lot during my daughter's flute lesson.

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  9. 7:21. THanks to Louis and Brian for working out with me, motivating me to move faster!
    -Andrea

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  10. 8:01 - Thanks to Andrea for the same. I could've done the situps faster, but the "butt burn" started to kick in and made things uncomfortable. Any remedies for this?? I actually enjoy doing situps otherwise.

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  11. @Brian: Wear shorts? jk :)

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