 The program I am on these days has been calling for some pretty awesome core exercises; and, along with my personal additions I am feeling stronger and stronger through my midsection every day! Windmills (like the pic above), unilateral farmers walks,jackknives, Pallof press, and weighted roll outs all demand such unique engagement of the core, and the structure of them all has had insane results. I have also added 2-3 times per week a little ab and push up routine along with my morning runs. I hit toes to bar, straight sit ups, GHD sit ups, bicycle crunches and some planks here and there with those. Then 2-3 times per week I do the two transverse abdominal exercises suggestion by Tim Ferriss in The 4-Hour Body. The conclusion? Do core work people!
Of course I could go on for days geeking out about the best stuff to do and why certain things are better for you depending on who you are and what you need. But this is all about just throwing out the idea that core work should NOT be passed over. You don;t need to do it as much as I am doing it, hell, just mixing in some basics throughout the week would suffice. But don't avoid any of it. A weak core will result in weak lifts and most likely some form of injury, very quickly. Add a little circuit of planks, side planks and mountain climbers (4 rounds of 30 seconds each) post-workout, and just like that, good things begin to happen! My workouts today started off with some 60% 40 meter sprints (8 of them), some modified handstand push ups, some toes to bar, some hurdles, some bar skin the cats and that was it! Then later, I hit deadlifts (5x1 at 447#) and some additional posterior chain support along with band resisted jackknives. Then it was a 7-mile bike ride on my single speed to have dinner with Ori, and 7 miles back! An wonderfully active day! Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage
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 I sort of fell off the table a little this past week; while the new workout program has been going really well, I have been getting way too little sleep, and my nutrition ha seen better days (can anyone say cookies and coconut ice cream?!!). Anyway, I decided that it was about time to kick it into high gear this summer with a few experiments and what better time to start then now? Today marked the day of a month-long trial of a nutrition program introduced to me by a client/friend who tried it out with great success. It caught my eye because of it’s simplicity and because its similarity to the program I was just about to start: Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Body” plan. I still plan to try that one out, and really break it down as best I can, but I’ll just wait at least a month until after I give this one a try.
The only differences between what I’ve been doing (up until this past week) and this program is the timing of my meals and the specific distribution of macro-nutrients. I’m eating eggs, chicken, turkey, fish, lots of veggies, sweet potatoes, nuts, whey protein and oats (oats are the only addition to my plan), it’s pretty great. I’m taking out any sort of oil, no condiments at all, no sweetener of any kind, and while tea and coffee are a little questionable on this I will probably cut back to about 3 or so cups of tea a week. The main aspect of this is that I am eating at the same times every day: 8:15, 11:30, 2:45, 5:15, 7:15 and 10pm. In fact, I have even set an alarm on my phone to go off at these times to make sure I don’t miss a meal (something I tend to do all the time). Also, this will just help me keep my portions a bit more under control (I do have a tendency to grab a bit “extra” here and there, and I think for my body type, that has been a very limiting factor in me getting to where I want to be). So, that’s my food; I’ll be sure to give updates as I go along, as this is purely experimental. I always talk about trial and error in the journey of finding what works best for you, so here I am doing just that! Now, on to the workouts for the past week. Monday: Afternoon – 5x5 floor press 3x10 skull crushers 3x10 barbell curls 3x8 each prone I, T, Y 2x8 external rotation 3x15 sec. Pallof press hold Evening – outdoors - 3 rounds of: 25 box jumps (Regionals standard) 30 push ups (games standard) 35 OH squats w/ 52# sandbag Fun all around, and yes, you saw that correctly, I did bi’s and tri’s!! So much fun to get a little isolation work in, I’m excited to work a little vanity and all joking aside, I expect it to help my other lifts and movements later on (isolation DOES help, but there’s no need to do it all the time!). The evening workout was brought over by big Dan from Outlaw CrossFit and we headed over to the school to get it done. I finished in 17:01 and really felt the main difficulty was the OH squats with a sandbag. Tuesday: This day was pretty brutal. I rode my bike into DC, did an easy 2-mile trail run, rode further into DC, did 5x5 back squats at 295# (along with a whole slew of other exercises), rode the bike to a park and did a 10-1 ladder of KB swings, toes to bar and a 120 meter hill shuttle run; then, rode my bike the 8 or so miles back home. Yeah, this is why I was feeling so beat up on Thursday! Wednesday: Just did my strength program, getting 5x5 strict press at 135#, pretty light but felt very stable. My supplemental work felt very good as well. My legs were starting to feel a bit fatigued and my energy levels about hit rock bottom by around 3pm. I had to get to a baseball game then and it was one of the toughest things to sit through with such low energy. This is when the nutrition fell off a little, I guess my craving for sugar and complete fatigue did not mix well and I just gave in. Oh well! It all tasted so good! And, I didn’t really feel bad or anything after, I just enjoyed it. Thursday: Rest day. Sore as hell!! Friday, today: Officially started the meal plan and get some great deadlift work in, 5 solid sets of 3 at 375#. I know my strength numbers are not where they were a few weeks ago but I am not worried at all, they will get up there so soon, I can feel it! I am really looking forward to tomorrows workouts; we have a baseball tournament up in Harrisburg, PA and I’ll get my isolation work in at some gym out there, then, its off to the explore the town looking for an awesome place to get a crazy workout in! Well, that the wrap for the week. I’ll be posting more regularly stating this weekend! Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage |
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