Monday 21 May 2012

Flash and Thunder: Training Week 4

To all of our tough mudders, brothers and sisters,

Week 4 was business as usual with a few key changes to make our session more interesting, fresh and exciting. It's not only important to change your program so your body doesn't get use to it, it's also important to change so your mind doesn't get use to it. The only person you have to beat to get the best out of a workout is you. Not that we are against gyms but our pet hate is people thinking they have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to reach their fitness goals, the possibilities to workout and achieve yours goals are actually far greater (and a lot more fun) outdoors. The proof is in the video below, how many people can you see in the gym in this video?



Smith Machine
As we said before, we are not against gyms. Both of us are gym members, for the reason that some exercises and equipment is not accessible on the outside. In this little piece I will explain how the Smith Machine can be a handy piece of equipment for just one workout. Now, free weights are great because you can develop your own range of movement but machine equipment such as the Smith Machine are undervalued. With machines you don't have to worry about the balance of the bar, just pushing and pulling, and therefore you can increase the weight and work the overall muscle harder. Listed next are 10 exercises that we were able to do in one session with one machine, ready? 1) Squats, 2) Romanian Deadlift, 3) Lunges, 4) Bent Over Row, 5) Overhead Press, 6) Upright Row, 7) Behind the Back Shrugs, 8) Drag Curls, 9) Close Grip Bench Press and 10) Standing Calf Raise. All exercises were completed in 3 sets with 6, 12 and 20 reps and 1 minute rest in between each set.

Before we start with this weeks training, let's talk about your diet. Since we have dramatically increased our sessions per week over the past month energy levels have been depleting fast our ability to back up sessions was becoming increasingly difficult. Here is the biggest tip we can give you - drop your sugar intake. If you are giving yourself sugar to get through the day, whether it be in your morning coffee or that chocolate bar you have in your top draw (yeah, we know about that), you have to get rid of it. If you want energy increase your carbs and proteins. Don't be scared of carbs either, just make sure you work it off by exercising. The secret to losing weight or maintaining those abs is to make sure your expenditure of energy in kilojoules is greater than your intake. We have first hand seen the effects of sugar to the body, and believe us once you get rid of them you will be grateful for it.



Our first session of the week was on Monday 14th of May down at McGillivray Oval with the North Cottesloe Surf Club Sprint crew. The session entailed 15 x 80 meter sprints with jog backs, this means no resting between reps. Jog backs as it sounds means to jog back to the start line and begin again when you get there, and the 80 meter sprint is generally done at 85-90%. These sessions are short and sharp which is great but the effort must be displayed in order to get the most out of the session.

Some of the North Cottesloe boys in action
Tuesday morning training was cancelled due to illness but we were both able to make up for it that afternoon by completing our own gym sessions. Thursday night was our next sprint session, and all we were hoping for was something a little easier than Tuesdays session. We didn't get it! Thursdays session included 3 sets of 5 x 200 meter sprints to be completed under 32s with 1 minute rest between each rep and 3 minutes between sets. An average time for a 200 meter sprint for us sits around the 28-30 second mark (this is performing at 90% capacity), but to maintain 32s was going to be hard. The session was completed successfully and we were certainly sore the next day!

As always our ritual of Sunday morning beach sessions continued this week down at the Scarborough amphitheater. The thing that made this workout different to any other is that we bought a 4wd tyre to training, that's right, we marched into Bridgestone and asked for a second hand 4wd tyre and we got it for free. The tyre companies have to pay to dispose of old tyres so they are more than happy to give them away, all we did then was go to Bunnings and bought a sledgehammer. Unfortunately our expert camera and video editor decided to take a trip to Germany this week so our video will be delayed until return but we certainly got some great footage from some awesome exercises that we performed. Some of the regular exercise in our Cross Fit session still appeared such as skipping, boxing, sit ups and pushups, but now with the tyre we can throw it, carry it and best of all bash it. Makes for a lot of fun!

As we are both Sport Scientists and Personal Trainers, one thing that we know all to well is the FITT principle. FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time, they are the 4 variables you can change to enhance your workout. By far the most important training variable is INTENSITY! All the others will not count for anything if you don't give it everything you have. You can increase the frequency of your training, you can change the type of training you do and you can vary the amount of time you train for but if you train half assed you will get nowhere. To get fitter you must break barriers, to build muscle you must struggle and to get abs you must come close to failure, but you won't, because when you give it everything you have you can't fail!

Pain is temporary, failure is forever
  
Now to finish up with some great news, this week Flash and Thunder have been invited to train down at The Cell in Bibra Lake. This is a hardcore gym run by ex-TRG cops that are going to make us work, they will make us sweat and probably bleed. We also may have found a couple of sponsors that will be assisting us to get to Tough Mudder in Sydney later this year, and lastly we have registered for the Western Mudd Rush to be held in Perth later this year, you can too at - http://westernmuddrush.com/

We are fund raising for Wheelchair Sports WA so please jump on www.everydayhero.com.au/flashandthunder to help us raise funds for West Australians living with a physical disability.

You can also 'like' us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/flashandthundercharity or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/flashandthunder

As always please share this blog with your friends, it increases awareness of your own capabilities, as they say in Tough Mudder 'if you can do this, you can do anything you put your mind to'.

Only 124 days to go!

 - Flash and Thunder










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