My journey to fitness and beyond: PB's

My journey to fitness and beyond: PB's: "It’s been a month of PB’s (personnel bests) and I feel as if all my hard work is coming together. Coach has been pushing me hard and the b..."

PB's

It’s been a month of PB’s (personnel bests) and I feel as if all my hard work is coming together.  Coach has been pushing me hard and the benefits are clear to see.  We have been concentrating on volume training and the gain in strength and flexibility has been enormous.   

We started out with 10 x 10 squats and I finished this week with my PB on the squats at 130 kg.  10 reps at 130 kg is very hard work and requires everything you have in your arsenal.  I could feel the blood pressure building in my head as I reached the 95 rep.  5 more to go and my legs were like jelly but I couldn’t afford to faultier now.  I wasn’t coming this close to stop now.  They were the 5 hardiest lifts of my life.  I could hardly walk to the rack my legs were on fire and I could feel my glutes stiffening up already. 

My PB’s were coming thick and fast, the hard thing now is to improve on them.  I think it’s going to take time and some serious training.  I’ve reached a stage where I can’t get past my current set of PB’s.  My training is going well and I’m enjoying my time in the gym.  Just because I’ve reached a level where I should have been years ago, it’s not time to stop.  Now is the time to redefine my WHY.

One of my big reasons for training was to improve my riding, well I’ve done that the other reason was I wanted to be fitter to enjoy my old age and do more with my family.  They all seem to be combined and in order to enjoy one it must improve the other.  I still want to ride harder and faster and in order to do that I need to work just as hard at staying fit.  As I said before, as you grow older you lose 10% of your body strength each year if you don’t do something about it.  My son is just about to embark on his journey into the biking world.  I want to teach him all I know and some day, race him round the IOM TT.  How great would that be but in order to achieve that dream, I need to be fit.  So that’s my big WHY.  It will keep me motivated long into the future (get your skates on son).

As for the rest of my regime, it’s going very well.  My intake of water is still around 6-8 bottles per day and I have found I need it more than ever.  I can certainly tell if I’ve only had 5 bottles by tea time.  My two shakes a day are going really well, I might have to up my intake very shortly as I am starting to get hungry before my 21.00hrs drink.  So I am thinking about having a shake before and after my training and then my usual drink at 9.  What I don’t want to do is start eating rubbish to fill myself up.  So far I have managed to stay of most of the whites and only eat meat and veg.  It has taken some getting used to and now it’s not a problem I don’t think about it anymore.  I say most of the whites because the soup has pasta in it, not very much but it’s in there.

Over all I’m really pleased with my PB’s and the way my training is going, the gym is still great fun and I’m getting a lot out of it.  I still get the odd ache here and there but that just confirms I’m pushing myself in the right direction.  I keep saying to myself “if I can talk I’m not working hard enough and if I can’t talk I’m working a bit too hard”  I think that’s how it goes.  Any way onwards and upwards, it’s a big drive on the abs next week.

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My journey to fitness and beyond: Jump

My journey to fitness and beyond: Jump: "My first day back and it was Plyometrics. 8 exercises that were lung busting, nothing out of the ordinary but hard none the less. One of..."

Jump

My first day back and it was Plyometrics.  8 exercises that were lung busting, nothing out of the ordinary but hard none the less.  One of the exercises was very simple but very daunting.  3 boxes stacked on top of each other.  The idea is to jump on top of the boxes and land with both feet together and as lightly as you can.  I couldn’t get my head round it, why couldn’t I do it ?  It wasn’t as if it was 5 feet tall the boxes were up to about my groin.  It was all my head, a standing start, explosive movement to land on top of the boxes.  I jumped into the air and landed on the box’s, I had to tuck my feet under my arse.  I was in the squat passion but I was on the box all I had to do now was stand up tall.  I needed more arm movement and a much better drive from my legs.

5 jumps onto the box doesn’t sound like much but after all the other exercises and the third time round it was proving to be a night mare.  I still had the farmers walk and my old mate the Kettle Bell to go and a set of Viking Warrior sit ups.

 My lungs were at bursting point and my legs were like jelly, I was having problems walking and the Kettle Bell was about to destroy me.  “That’s it, well done, good effort mate”.  I could hear coaches voice but I couldn’t think.  I wanted to drink but I couldn’t swallow, the sweat was running into my eyes and dripping off the end of my nose.  How the hell did I get through that ?

It was an explosive start to the tour and just the way I wanted it to continue, I wanted to make good gains this tour and work as hard as I could.  I knew the harder I pushed the harder coach would push me.  I hadn’t gone mad on leave so I had only put on a couple of pounds and besides I wasn’t worried about my weight.  I knew that in a few days I would be in the swing of things and a few pounds would be gone very quickly.  My goal this tour was to put muscle on and double my strength.

We hit the weights very hard in the first few weeks and we greased the grove with a lot of pull ups.  My press ups are really good now and I’m making great gains in most of my exercises.  Circumstances have changed and we have lost the area we used for our MMA training.  So our ground game has taken a bit of a back seat for now but we are working on making another area.  In the meantime we have been hitting the pads and working on our kicks and knees.  I’ve finally got some real power in my hooks and elbows.

It’s taken a long time but my foot work is getting there.  I’ve always known that foot work is very important, where they are in relation to your hands and keeping your balance throughout a move and when you are struck.  The difference in power from a hook thrown from the waist and a hook thrown using your feet, i.e. twisting the foot and following through is unbelievable.  The difference in power really is the difference between hurting your opponent and putting him on the floor.  Even my kicks are stronger because of good feet positioning, I’m still having problems working out my distance.  I like to be close, I don’t know why it puts me in range of coach and he lets me know.  I have a good jab and I don’t use it to its best because I’m too close and because of that I’m making  my own kicks hard for myself.

It’s been a great start to the tour and with coach’s help I want to start making big improvements to my strength.  There’s only one way to do that and that’s with hard work every day and watching what I eat.

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My journey to fitness and beyond: IOM TT

My journey to fitness and beyond: IOM TT: "My leave period as always was fantastic and it was great to be back in the arms of my family. The weather was fantastic and I couldn’t..."

IOM TT

My leave period as always was fantastic and it was great to be back in the arms of my family.  The weather was fantastic and I couldn’t wait to get out on my machine and test my fitness.  To be honest I didn’t feel any different, it was just fantastic to be ripping up the roads and getting some good lean angles.  It wasn’t until my fuel light came on that I realised I had been in the saddle for over an hour.  In the past at this stage I couldn’t wait to get off and stretch my aching body.  Not this time, no pain in my ankles, no pain in my wrists and I felt great.

The big test was about to take place as I rode down to Liverpool with my better half on the back.  The ride down was fantastic, it took about 3 hours and it was a joy.  I couldn’t say the same for the wife, the pillion seat is small and high up and so are the foot pegs.  God love her she didn’t complain but she was a bit sore from the riding position of the GSXR 1000 K9.

The Isle Of Man was a blast, I couldn’t wait to hit the roads and the sun was blistering.  I did a full lap of the TT course with the wife on the back and yet again I was on fine form with no pain anywhere.  The big test was about to take place, I dropped the misses off at Creg-Ny-Baa a pub at the end of the mountain course and on a great corner.  This was it, the mountain was all mine, I was going back to the hair pin to start my first run.  The first run of many over the next few days and my runs got faster and faster as I learnt the mountain course.  As long as you’re not an arse the police leave you alone and I was touching speeds of 170mph, the fastest I’ve ever been on a public road and it was all legal.  I was working overtime on my bike, moving from left to right, very heavy breaking and some serious gear changing.  It was absolutely amazing, not just the riding but the simple fact I was riding as hard as I could and for hours at a time.  My only rest periods were to fill up and to check on the wife, she was fine at the bar J

After 3 days of hard riding over the mountain I thought it would have taken its toll on me.  But that wasn’t the case.  At no point did I ever get off my bike and complain about a body part, nothing was hurting and I was ready to go again.  It wasn’t my ankles that surprised me the most, I think I knew deep down that all the exercises I had done on them to improve both strength and flexibility had worked and I knew that from the simple fact they didn’t hurt me at all, no matter what I was doing.  The biggest surprise for me was my wrists, there were times on my bike in the past I couldn’t change gear or keep the throttle on due to the pain of fatigue and forearm pump.  It would come on relatively quickly as well and get worse as the day went on.  Not this time, the difference was amazing, I could break really hard, accelerate even harder and pull the clutch without a grimace.   Where do it start to explain the difference it has made to my riding ?  It goes without saying my grip strength has been a major factor and that alone has improved my riding ability.  Because I now have abs that actually work and support me, my arms are no longer supporting my weight and this frees up my hands for controlling the bike.  Having stronger legs and abs means I can move more freely on top of my machine.  I’m in full control all the time and my bike is never running away from me.  I can physically lift my bike out of a corner early to get the power on quicker and it makes all the difference.  My riding has been transformed, not just my racing but my road rides as well.

Even the long ride back home to Scotland was good fun, after nearly 5 days in the saddle I can safely say I past my own fitness test.  I had achieved my aim and in style, not an aching muscle or bone in sight.  At the very start of my fitness I picked a “WHY” and it had to be big enough to keep me in the gym, to motivate me to keep training.  The TT was one of my WHY’s and I feel I have achieved so much more.  Biking is a major part of my life and to consider I thought about leaving it because it was hurting me is now unthinkable.  An hour a day, that’s all it’s taken to turn my sport around.

“All men die but not all men really live”

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: “Hurricanes”.

My journey to fitness and beyond: “Hurricanes”.: "How do I beat the last month I’ve just had ? By training harder I suppose but that’s not how it feels. I am training harder and ..."

“Hurricanes”.

How do I beat the last month I’ve just had ?  By training harder I suppose but that’s not how it feels.  I am training harder and that’s because I’m fitter and stronger than I have ever been.  The MMA has been fantastic, so much so I have bought my own MMA Shorts, do I look the dogs nads or what ? 

Because I’m now training at the level that demands a good diet I have been introduced to shakes.  Protein drinks are the best way to ensure you are getting what you need to recover and build muscle.  It hasn’t gone smoothly and I’ve had to try a few different ones to find the one I can drink.  I like vanilla and strawberry as a rule but not with protein drinks.  I have found the chocolate to be the best and the easiest to get down. 

The strawberry shake really tested my gag reflex and it was like trying to swallow really fluffy marshmallows that wanted to come back each time.  My eyes watered and my knees came up to my chest as I prepared to launch my shake.  Luckily for me and coach I kept it down but I didn’t enjoy it.  I’m now drinking Chocolate Muscle Milk twice a day and it’s really nice.  I have my first one straight after training with a banana in it and my second one at 21.00 (9 o’clock) in the evening.

The second additive I’m taking is Creatine Caps.   I take 3 in the morning when I get up, 3 more an hour before I train and another 3 straight after I have trained.  I also eat an orange with my second set of Creatines.  My water intake is going well and I’m averaging about 7 bottles of water a day.  That’s just over 2 litres and I’m now used to it.  That doesn’t include what I drink when I’m training.

The Creatine is designed to help with Endurance, Strength, Power and Recovery.  I weighed myself for the first time in a long time today and I was surprised to see I had gained 7lbs.  I’m really happy with that as I’ve lost a lot of fat from around my chest, face and on my love handles and as I said before muscle is heavier than fat.  I’m looking a lot leaner and a bit more defined.  The biggest changes I can see are in my shoulders and chest and my arms are bigger.  One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is my stance, I stand and sit straight and I feel so much better.  On the odd day I get a few aching muscles but not very often and it doesn’t last long.

I think I’m reaching the level where I’m now progressing each time I go in the gym.  I’m getting personal bests (PB’s) at every exercise I do.  I’m feeling really good and enjoying the process.  The MMA training is coming on well and to aid in our cardio training with have introduced an exercise called “Hurricanes”.  This is a heart busting exercise and really tests your resolve to keep going but it’s a fantastic feeling when you have finished.  The exercise consists of 9, 15 second runs with 15 seconds rest between runs on the tread mill at a speed of 16 kph.  That’s the first set of 3, the second set is the same run but this time in the 15 second rest you do 10 Butterfly Sit Ups.  The third set again is the same run but this time with 10 Butterfly Sit Ups and 10 Wood Chops (5 each side) or 5 cleans.

Between sets 1,2 and 3 of the Hurricanes we do 9 wide pull ups and 30 assorted press ups, Greasing the Groove. J  The press ups are done in 3 sets of 10 and range from Military, Marines, Wide, Triangle, one leg up and feet raised.  Followed by 3 wide pull ups.  It’s a very hard work out and quite an achievement to get through.  The last exercise of the session is the bonus and normally this is the Jujitsu Press UP.  This is my nemesis exercise and beats me every time.  I’m getting closer to it each time and it want be long before I have mastered it.

Leave time is coming up and I’m looking forward to it, I have plenty planned for my bike and I’m interested to see how I will do with my added fitness.  I have a track day planned and a 4 day trip the IOM to fly around the TT Circuit.  What a combination, my fitness and no speed limits over the mountain, can’t wait. 

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: Blue in the face.

My journey to fitness and beyond: Blue in the face.: "It’s been a very quick month and a lot has been covered. My strength training is coming on well and so is my MMA technique. Beca..."

Blue in the face.

It’s been a very quick month and a lot has been covered.  My strength training is coming on well and so is my MMA technique.  Because of the work I have been doing towards my strength and MMA, my conditioning has improved massively, my cardiovascular system is now 100% better than the day I started my journey.

I’ve been working really hard on my strength training for the simple reason it has been my weakest area.  Coach has been alternating my training between strength/speed and speed/strength but the emphasis has been mainly on the strength.

My bench press has come on in leaps and bounds and the improvement has been very quick.  Most of that has come from knowing the move and what’s required to get the movement right.  It’s not as simple as lying on your back on the bench and taking the weight of the bar on both hands and pushing it up and down.  Your whole body is involved and must be linked together, any leaks and you want get the lift you are after.  I always thought it was up to me where I put my feet and they weren’t involved in the lift.  Your feet are very important and should be flat on the floor, pulled back with a wide stance.  Your glutes should be tensed, so tense you couldn’t get a credit card between your cheeks.  As coach said to me “if you can fart during a lift your glutes are not tight enough”.  You need to fill your stomach with air, this will lock all your abs and give you a solid core.  The next thing is to pull back and down on your shoulders to activate your Lats and keep shoulder integrity.  This is very important and I have found it hard to do.  Gripping the bar is just as important, on the Olympic bar are a number of scribe marks, I use these to get the right grip every time.  The final piece of preparation is to lie under the bar with the bar above your eyes.  All this and I’ve not done a lift yet.  It’s a good job we’re not counting.  I put the same amount of preparation into the lift, thinking about my breathing, taking the shortest route down (to the nipples), keeping my wrists straight and not bouncing the bar off my chest.  Visualisation is the last thing I do, I do the whole lift in my head from start to finish.  This has been a new concept for me and it makes a world of difference.

As you can see there is a lot that goes into the bench press and the more I do them the quicker I will become and I hope a lot stronger.  It also ensures I don’t hurt myself and injure the muscles I’m trying to improve.  I’ve also learnt to spot.  I spot for coach when he is lifting, that’s great in theory.  I’m supposed to lift the bar of the rack and take the bar from him at the end of the lift or step in should the occasion arise.  There’s just one minor problem, the weights coach presses are much heavier than I can lift.  I’ve got away with it up to now, fingers crossed.

The same amount of instruction and encouragement goes into all the exercises that I do in the gym.  Because of this all my exercises are improving all the time.  Basic strength has been my weakness and this has been glaringly obvious in the bench press, incline bench press, squats, dips and pull ups.  The gains I have made over the last few weeks have been massive, when I say massive, I mean massive for me.  (I wonder if I could match coaches daughter, just a thought?)  J

The MMA training has been fantastic, there’s no other way I can describe it.  Coach has been throwing me around the gym like a rag doll and I’ve not laughed so much for years.  I had a right good go at learning the Arm Triangle Choke, the Guillotine Choke and the Rear naked Choke.  I just think coach wanted to see how many colours he could get out of my face.  The next move we learnt was the Arm Bar from the Guard and from the Mount.  I was determined not to Tap Out, that lasted all of .2 of a second.  What I have learnt is that Arm Bars are bloody painful.  I don’t think there’s an exercise on this planet that could train you to cope with the pain from a well delivered Arm Bar.

These last couple of days we have been trying out a number of kicks.  The first time coach kicked me, my God.  Both my feet left the floor and an earth shattering thump ripped through my body.  I thought my hip was broken but I wasn’t going to show it.  Only 4 more to go, each one got worse and I could see a smile coming on coach’s face.  That was his weak leg, now it was the other side, I’m not sure if I could take any more of this.  My blood was boiling and I knew the next kick was going to hurt.  I should mention at this stage that I had a pad against my hip, not that it was helping.

The last time I was kicked like that I was working at a stables, I flew out the door and landed on my arse.  The difference this time, I couldn’t put my hands on my hips or kneel.  I had to grit my teeth and get on with it.  I lined myself up and belted the pad as hard as I could.  I wanted coach to feel the same as I did.  “You can kick it if you like” I couldn’t believe it.  I should have known better.

As always at the end of every training session we shook hands and left the gym giggling like school girls about our training and my attempts at certain moves.  It’s been a really fantastic month, I’ve enjoyed every moment of it, I’ve learnt more about myself in these last few weeks than I have in the last few years.  The best thing of all, there’s still loads more to do, loads more to learn and improvements to be made in all areas.

All in all, fantastic !!

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: Duck !!

My journey to fitness and beyond: Duck !!: "Our boxing sessions have now moved on a stage. I have always been a follower of MMA, so to move onto MMA training is great. So o..."

Duck !!

Our boxing sessions have now moved on a stage.  I have always been a follower of MMA, so to move onto MMA training is great.  So once a week we now have Fight Club.  This week it has all been about technique and learning some very new moves.  Ground and pound is a totally new experience and it certainly shows up any weak points you may have in your training program, sorry not the training program, me.

I have a lot of work to do on my core and I need to be a lot stronger.  It’s amazing how hard it is to move someone on the floor.  Everything is working hard, it’s 5 minutes of full on wrestling, it’s not just strength you need but a certain amount of technique.  I’m afraid to say I’m lacking in both departments.  It takes all my strength and will power to get through one round.  It sounds crazy but I'm looking forward to being fit enough to get through 3 rounds and then a title fight of 5 rounds. 

The ground and pound training is very hard, the sprawl is a great move as is the scissors but they take so much out of you.  The simple act of driving your elbow into the ground dummy for 5 sets gets you breathing air in from all orifices.  Throw in the scissors and it’s a whole new ball game.  Trying to manhandle coach off me or trying to get up with coach pinning me down is unbelievable.  I couldn’t get over just how quickly I wanted to give up.  The energy is sapped from your body and leaves you totally exhausted.

One of the new exercises as part of the MMA training is the Swiss Ball Bump.  I love it, I do my best to cheat but coach catches me.  I don’t know why I try to cheat I get caught every time.  There are certain rules in the gym:-

1.       No hands on hips

2.       No leaning on anything

3.       No leaning over, unless you’re about to throw up

4.       No cheating or short cutting Exercises

5.       No back chat at any time

6.       If you don’t like it **** Off J

Any infringements of the rules and you have to do an exercise of coaches’ choice at the end of the session.  That’s on top of the bonus round.  There’s always a bonus round and it changes daily.  Think of an exercise or think of a number or pick between 1, 2, & 3 that kind of thing.  I like the bonus round it’s good for a laugh and a final push to finish with.

Anyway the first time with the Swiss ball was Ok until coach changed it to a one leg exercise.  I don’t think I’ve had the upper hand as of yet but I’m working on it.  The other exercise is the stick pull, again a great exercise and great fun.  It all comes down to grip strength and speed.  The stick of death has many uses in our gym and one of them is the new abs of death.  Put it this way I’m glad it’s the last exercise of the day but I do like hitting coach with it J.

Each training session is finished with 10-15 minutes on the pads.  I’m getting much better on the pads and coach has learnt to duck.  An honest mistake and he took it well.  I’ve been reading back on the blogs.  It sounds as if coach is a hard nut.  He is J, “don’t do it if you’re not going to do it properly and be committed”.  I think that’s fair and coach is very fair in the gym.  He pushes me hard and I like it.  I need pushing and I don’t mind being shouted at.  Having said that when coach shouts it’s only ever encouragement, I get praise when I deserve it and a kick in the lats when I’m being slack.  My whole attitude to training has changed and the way I train.  I understand a lot more about my own body and why it’s important to train, especially as you get older.  I want to be riding my bike well into my 60’s, I want to enjoy my old age, I don’t want a walking stick or a Zimmer frame.  Before I started my training I was actually thinking about getting rid of my bike because I thought it was my bike that was hurting my ankles and the same for my wrists.  Little did I know it was all caused from a lack of strength and a lack of flexibility.  Strength is the first thing to go as you get older and as you slow down you start to stiffen up.  I will never be Mr Universe but with a little bit of hard work each day I will enjoy what life has to offer and well into my old age.

Thank you Coach.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: The Turkish Get Up !!

My journey to fitness and beyond: The Turkish Get Up !!: "It’s been a really good week, I was introduced to squats, the clean and the Turkish get up. A few more moves on the pads and plenty of..."

The Turkish Get Up !!

It’s been a really good week, I was introduced to squats, the clean and the Turkish get up.  A few more moves on the pads and plenty of foot work.

The squat is light at the moment and that’s because of a number of reasons, the first one is I need to learn the basic movement, to the point it is second nature.  It’s all part of the muscle memory that I spoke about before.  At the moment I lean forward and this puts pressure on my lower back.  Most of that is due to a lack of confidents, something I have always suffered from.  That again is something that coach says we will be working on.  My knees are weak and so when I push to stand up my knees come in.  To counter act this coach has put a red band around my legs, just above my knees.  In order to keep the tension on the band I have to force my knees out as I push to stand.  It’s very simple and works a treat. 

The clean has proved to be a difficult one to learn.  Lifting with straight arms is very alien, throw in a shrug at the top and turn the elbows out and grip with your thumb under your fingers, at the top push your elbows high.  “What was the first move ?  I couldn’t move, what do I do ?

“Lower the bar to just above your knees and drive it up and keep your arms straight until after the shrug”  I’m sure that’s what he said.  “I don’t understand”  after he stopped laughing and calling me a biff we went through it again and again.  The next words I heard were “ you’re a natural” now I know he’s at it but I did get there in the end and it was me being a biff.  I need loads more practice and I’m sure over the next few months I’ll be getting plenty.

The Turkish get up, I think coach thought this one up and it’s with my best pal the Kettle Bell.  What an exercise this is.  It wasn’t my best start to an exercise.  As coach explained the exercise to me I could see a smile coming.  I just knew it was going to be a mare.  He showed me the exercise and explained each move as he did it, no problem.  That didn’t look so bad and how hard could it be to stand up with a cannonball ? 

I lay on the floor on my back and coach passed me my mate.  I pressed it so it was now above me in my right hand.  My right knee was bent and my left arm was out to the side.  “Lift your right shoulder and sit up” I could hear the commands and I knew what to do.  Why wasn’t anything happening ?    Nothing was moving, it was like I had been pinned to the floor by an invisible force.  I knew what was coming, “my daughter is ..............”

Coach took the Kettle Bell from me and I started to stand up “where are you going?  You’ve not finished yet.”  He passed me a dumb bell and I away I went.  I made it to my feet but I was now facing the wrong way.  By the time I had done 3 on each side, I had no idea where the door was.  Room for improvement, I think is the expression.

Most of the exercises are coming together and it’s like anything you do for the first time it takes time to learn the move and understand the drill.

It’s been a really great week, I’ve had a laugh in the gym and it all seems to be coming together, even the yogurt is getting better.  I’ve got a load of home work to do when I’m in my room.  Nothing too drastic just a few exercises to do before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.  The wall press to improve my shoulder flexibility, I have a large stick to do some other inward stretches, again to help my shoulders and a few exercises to help regain the muscle strength in my back.  My water intake is going well and my eating habits are getting much better.  I’m not the fastest eater in town as it has been pointed out to me, but never the less, I’m eating well and my gym sessions are all the better for it.  I don’t feel hungry at any stage through the day and I’m really enjoying my tea with no sugar.

All in all, it’s been one of the best things I’ve done, I feel much more alive and I have no aches or pains.  It’s been so long now that it totally slipped my mind.  The pain in my ankles has gone.  I can’t remember when it went or when I started walking without a limp but here I am walking normally and totally pain free.  I’m still doing the ankle exercises as they are great for balance and building up the strength in my calves. 

An active body is an active brain, mine should start very shortly  !!  J

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: Gum Shield.

My journey to fitness and beyond: Gum Shield.: "I went on leave as planned and it was fantastic and made even better when I bumped into some old friends who I hadn’t seen for about 4 ..."

Gum Shield.

I went on leave as planned and it was fantastic and made even better when I bumped into some old friends who I hadn’t seen for about 4 months.  The first thing they said was “you’re looking well and you’ve lost weight”.  Not a great deal but enough to be noticed by those around me that hadn’t seen me for a while.  It’s a great feeling to know your hard work is paying off.  It was even better when I put on my trousers and discovered I needed a belt to keep them up.

My leave went by in a blink of an eye and I was on the plane back to work.  The first day back is always a rest day and the gym sessions would start the following day.

I felt as if I had only just got to bed when the alarm went off.  So I started the day of as I intended to continue the tour.  I opened my first bottle of water for the day.  It was going to take a few days to get back into the swing of things.  There’s no time like the present and there’s no point in putting it off.

Coach was waiting for me at the gym with a grin like a Cheshire cat.  What on earth has he got planned for me ?  Through his grin he told me the workout had changed, the first change was that the training period was going to last for an hour.  As I was a boxer in my past, very distant past I might add.  We are now going to be doing some boxing training to spice things up.  So an extra 15 minutes and he was going to thump me, all on my first day back.

It turned out to be a really good session, I was a bit stiff and sore from leave but it was good to get back into it.  The first part of the session was speed and strength training followed by 20 minutes of boxing orientated abs.  It was my first time on the pads and it was great fun.  Pad work is very new to me and I have a lot to learn.  It does help if I can count from 1-20 and know my left from my right.  It’s been a while and I’m a bit rusty, as it showed.

The following morning was a different story, I ached from head to toe and it felt like I had started again from scratch.  I’m glad to say it only lasted for a couple of days and I was fine after that.

The pad work is coming on well and I’m getting a bit faster and a bit less like a robot.  Just as I think I’m getting it, coach makes me switch to south paw.  I lead and jab with my left and that feels very normal to me but change it round and lead with my right and I have no idea what to do with my feet.  I’m also terrible at throwing a punch and backing off at the same time.  It will come with practice and I’m sure there’s plenty of that to come.

There’s just one thing I cannot get my head around.  As soon as I put a gum shield in I can’t breathe, my mouth is open all the time and I could drink Lake Windermere dry.  Take it out and all is well, what’s that all about ?  I even put tooth paste inside it, I’ve got no idea why I tried that.  One thing is for sure, I want be doing it again.  I just need to learn to cope with it.  But when I ask a question with it in even I don’t know what the hell I’m on about.  Coach says I talk too much anyway and if I’ve got the energy to talk I’m not working hard enough.

I was doing round the worlds and windmills today with the Kettle Bell as well as my normal exercises.  The round the world was a shock to the system but once I got going it was OK.  I can’t say that for the windmills, they were hard to do and got worse the more I did them.  It’s not an exercise you can do fast to get them out of the way, even if coach would let me.  The shocker came when I had to do a renegade push up with two Kettle Bells.  At one point I thought I was going to head plant the floor.  I didn’t and it went very well. 

My first week back has been really good, the boxing has been great fun and I really loved the abs of death.  Walking backwards and being thumped in the abs for two circuits of the ring.  I know boys will be boys, we don’t grow up we just get older.  As for the Kettle Bell, I think there’s still more to come.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: I like Yogurt !!

My journey to fitness and beyond: I like Yogurt !!: "I’m about to go home in the next couple of days and I can’t wait. It’s been a great tour, I’ve learned some much about myself and my o..."

I like Yogurt !!

I’m about to go home in the next couple of days and I can’t wait.  It’s been a great tour, I’ve learned some much about myself and my own abilities and it’s been great to work with people of the same mind set and attitude towards work.

As for my fitness it has been a rocky journey but I have made progress.  There have been times when I could have quite happily have thrown the towel in.  I didn’t and I’m so pleased I stuck at it.  The pain in my body has subsided and I really do feel good.  At the time, the pain I was feeling in my muscles was all I could think about but I can’t remember it going away.  Why is that, it kills you one day and gone the next or that’s how I remember it.  There are certain exercises that we do that I like better than others.  That doesn’t mean I do them any better or there any easier.  I find them enjoyable and to a certain degree relaxing.  I know that sounds daft and doesn’t sound right, relaxing when at work in the gym.  For some strange reason the harder I worked the better I felt and it puts things into perspective. 

I’ve discovered that exercise is great for stress release, if you do a stressful job it is vital that you do some kind of exercise to release that stress.  I’ve been told this before and until now I have never experienced it.  There have been times when the stress of work has got to me, it really has.  I love my 45 minutes in the gym.  I never thought I would ever say that but it’s true.  In the past my association with the gym has been pain, no gain just pain.  Very boring and if I could have found a way to skive I did.  30 minutes in the gym doing circuits that just hurt you.  Doing the exercise wrong and then suffering for the next 4 days.  No wonder I hated the gym and avoided it as best I could.  The bad old days are behind me and those 45 minutes are mine, I don’t think about anything else other than my next exercise.  It’s great and a totally new experience.

It’s been a tour of firsts and looking back, great fun in the process.  Yoga or yogurt as I like to call it is for “women or TV personalities who need to make a bit more cash”.  A statement I made to coach when he said we would be doing Yoga.  There’s a TV in the gym and a DVD player, its ideal for the Yoga and well placed so we can see it.  Well most of time, it depends on what position I’m trying for, or should I say failing for.  How can the sweat poor out of you and you haven’t moved off the same spot.  At one point I thought I was in an earth quake, I wasn’t it was just me and my muscles complaining about the load I was placing on them. 

There were times in our Yoga sessions that I thought I wasn’t going to make it through.  I crash landed to the mat a few times and discovered I can actually touch my toes.  If I’d have done all the reps I probably wouldn’t have made it to the end.  Each time I do a session it gets better, my flexibility has improved and I’m very nearly completing all the exercises.  So to all the women out there, I apologise for the outburst and I take it all back.  Our Yoga sessions last for about 90 minutes, it’s 90 minutes of hard work and not for the faint hearted.  Actually I think I’m doing the most extreme Yoga there is but there’s no way I’m saying anything to coach or it’ll just harder.

Me and the Kettle Bell are good friends now, it’s a bit of a one sided friendship.  He’s always there and he loves to hurt me as often as possible.  A bit like the coach really!!  Before I could exercise with the Kettle Bell I had to pass the Viking Kettle Bell Test.  Well I couldn’t, so I was put on a routine that would build up my strength, stamina, cardiovascular system and my grip strength with the Kettle Bell.

As I’ve stated before, the Kettle Bell is an amazing piece of kit.  It gives you an all over work out and really works the cardio.  There’s not a muscle in your body that isn’t working, and there working over time.  When we started with the black cannonball I thought it was just the one exercise you could do with it.  Yet again I was very wrong as I was to find out.  My very first shoulder press was a disgrace and reduced coach to fits of laughter and claims that his daughter was much stronger than me.  I’m sure I’ve heard that before but I’m not saying anything on the grounds it might hurt me.  If it wasn’t bad enough trying to manhandle a cannonball with a handle on it around he attached a resistance band to it for dead lifts.  If you don’t have much room in your abode and you want to keep your budget to a minimum, the Kettle Bell is the answer.  It doesn’t boil water and it doesn’t ring, but it makes you work bloody hard.  It’s a must have piece of equipment and who else has a canon ball in their house?

Coach probably.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: “Greasing the Groove”

My journey to fitness and beyond: “Greasing the Groove”: "Has anyone heard of Plyometrics ? No nor had I. I thought it was something to do with maths. I wish it had been now, not t..."

“Greasing the Groove”

Has anyone heard of Plyometrics ?  No nor had I.  I thought it was something to do with maths.  I wish it had been now, not that I’m any good at maths but my God, who thought up these exercises ?  So much for an easy time, I don’t think there is such a thing.

But I do need to be honest, as soon as you say that you know the next words are going to be a lie.  But really,  this past month has been very hard work and yes I’ve been sore and getting out of bed at times has been groan, moan and Oh my God, putting my boots on was another story and getting up from the dinner table was pathetic but much enjoyment was had by all.

Now for the honesty bit, I’ve had a great time, all the exercises we have been doing have been varied, with different degrees of difficulty.  We’ve been working Chest and Back, Bi’s Tri’s and Shoulders, Kettle Bell Full Body and Ab Screamer, Leg Strength and of course the Plyometric session.   They have all been great fun and I’ve really enjoyed myself.

I can’t see any change in myself and I’m not expecting to, even I know it’s too early for that but I keep looking anyway.  What I have noticed is my tolerance levels.  My fitness has started to improve very slowly.  I’m still working for about 45 minutes and I’m making it to the end now.  My heart rate is maxing at around 180-190 depending on what I am doing.  My cardio has improved no end, which means I can train for longer and recover quickly.

My warm up sessions are great, I stretch off and I work my ankles until I feel lose and ready for my work out.  It’s all done in slow time and as part of the warm up, if I’m about to try a new exercise for the first time I put that in as a warm up and it prepares me for what is coming.

It doesn’t always work as I’m still having trouble counting and anything past 10 is a guess.  It’s amazing how the brain can’t work at the same time as doing an exercise.  Maybe it’s just me but you try skipping, counting and breathing very heavily at the same time.  My excuse is I skip so fast I can’t keep up.......I wish !!

The problem now of course is I understand the exercise and I know how to do them correctly.  My fitness has improved along with my strength but it’s the neural pathways that have been woken up.  It’s like driving a car to a new destination for the first time.  You don’t know the route and it takes you longer than normally.  Once you have travelled it a couple of times it becomes second nature.  Well that’s muscle memory or as coach puts it “Greasing the Groove”.  Like me a beginner will make the most gains in their first 6 weeks.  You are going to get fitter and you will gain strength but the gains are coming from knowing the exercise and opening up new or old neural pathways.  You can really see the problem areas now.  As soon as my core is fatigued I can’t do a basic press up and because I’m so weak between the shoulder blades my press ups are suffering.  I don’t have the strength to push up from the bottom of the press and my core is allowing me to wave or dip in the middle.

Because my shoulders are weak it has a knock on affect on all my other exercises such as dips.  For some reason I don’t dip I lean forward and my legs stick out behind me.  I can’t come out of the dip and so I have to put my feet down.  Coach says I’m only doing ips and he’s never seen anything quite so feeble.  Having said that he’s only going to allow me to try and get it right over the next few days.  If I can’t grasp the correct technique he’s going to move me onto something else.  Because I have a lack of strength in my shoulders it’s putting too much pressure on my rotator cuffs.  I dread to think what he’s got up his sleeve.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

My journey to fitness and beyond: A young man's game

My journey to fitness and beyond: A young man's game: "The heat was constant and it made for some very arduous working conditions, everything we seemed to do was very intense and confirmed why I ..."

A young man's game

The heat was constant and it made for some very arduous working conditions, everything we seemed to do was very intense and confirmed why I needed to sort my fitness out.  Not only that I didn’t like being in the body of a man twice my age with arthritis.

My first step to a new body was to learn or relearn some old exercises that I thought I knew.  For years I have been doing press ups and sit ups.  Not one of them was correct and I could do loads of them.  All of a sudden I couldn’t do 10 press ups or 4 sit ups.  Had I really turned into Mr jelly ?  Don’t ask how many pull ups I could do as it was just disastrous and as for the weights, I felt like Mr Muscle from the TV adds.

I was fully aware that my co-ordination wasn’t that good when it came to multiple exercises, I’d also lost the ability to count.  What was that all about ?  I had no idea there was so much involved in doing a press up correctly or there were so many different ones to do.  Form, it was all about form.  Not how many you could do but how many you could do with good or correct form.  Once you have lost form, it was time to stop.  Not leave the gym but change to a different exercise.  I made for the door a couple of times but coach is much bigger than me and it wasn’t worth running.  We moved onto a number of exercises that would improve my strength, agility and stamina.  There were two major floors that needed addressing, the only problem as coach explained to me was I had very poor strength in my core and the muscles in-between my shoulder blades were non excitant.  The Rhomboid and Trapezius, my Lats and Rotator cuff muscles had never been retrained since my accident and would take a long time to build and strengthen.  As for my core, a lack of use and a poor diet was showing.  It was going to take time and there was no quick fix.

By the end of week one I was sore all over, there wasn’t a muscle in my body that was not screaming at me.  The simple task of washing my hair in the shower was hard work.  In my ignorance I decided to go on a diet in an attempt to lose weight.  I thought it would help if I was lighter or just a bit lighter, maybe I could do more press ups and pull-ups if I was lighter.  How wrong could I be?

I think it was about day 3 of week 2 when I couldn’t finish the 45 minute workout period and I was feeling terrible.  If this is how keeping fit makes you feel, you can keep it.  I was feeling very low and disheartened about myself and what I was doing.  I ached all over, I felt very ill and I couldn’t see the benefits of my hard work.  My ankles still hurt, in fact everything hurt, I was in bits.  Maybe 45 was too old to start a young man’s game and I should stop before it gets any worse.

It was a couple of days later at the end of the week when coach asked me why I was only eating enough to keep a hamster alive, a very small one at that.  So I explained I was trying to lose weight to make my life a bit easier in the gym. 

The explanation I got back was on the nose and very easy to understand.  Coach sat me down after my very small tea and educated me on my diet or my lack of it and the effects it was having on me.

Your body is like a fuel tank and needs to be full before it goes on a journey or you’re not going to finish it.  That was exactly what I was experiencing in the gym, I was running out of steam and finding it very difficult to finish.  If you only eat enough to put ¾ in and train, each time you train you are emptying the tank a bit more and a bit more.  What this means is your not burning fat at all, you are forcing your body to start to feed on itself.  Because the body doesn’t know when the next refuel is, it turns that food into fat, i.e. it stores it for later.  Any amount of training requires energy.  So you need to eat properly, the right food at the right time.  It sounds very complicated but it’s not. 

Put in very simple terms, the first thing I had to rectify was my eating habits.  I needed to eat 3 good meals a day, I now have a good breakfast to start the day.  It varies between a yoghurt or porridge, followed by an omelette with peppers in (they are hard to digest) or two fried eggs with bacon and sausages.  A cup of tea with no sugar and that’s me until lunch.  I don’t think about food because I’m full.  The next meal is at 12 and I eat what’s available but I stay away from the whites and the same again for my evening meal.  Whites are sugar, bread, salt, pasta and potatoes, no matter what form they come in.  I’m not a great lover of veg and could quit easily miss it out but I don’t.   I try to eat it as often as I can and normally as a salad.  My evening meal is at around 6 and that gets me through until breakfast.

I was also told not to be obsessed with my weight, as I train and get stronger I was going to put weight on.  That’s because muscle is heavier than fat.  The ideal situation would be my weight staying the same.  As I put on muscle I would be losing fat so my weight would remain about the same.

One other aspect of my diet is my consumption of water.  I’ve never been a great water drinker and to be honest, I found it very dull.  I found it hard to start with but you get used to it and the difference it makes in you is very visible.  I now drink a minimum of 6 bottles (3 Ltrs) of water a day.  On a good day I can do 8, it all depends on what I’m doing.  Water not only hydrates you and cleans out your kidneys and liver but it helps with fat loss.  Who’d have thought it, losing weight by drinking a set amount of water each day. 

I’m all for that.

My journey to fitness and beyond: The Beginning

My journey to fitness and beyond: The Beginning: "Hi to everyone, I’m very excited about the future, being a newbie to the blog world this could end up anywhere. To give you a quick backgro..."

Fitness Test

It was one of those decisions I had made and I wasn’t really fully aware of what I’d done.  How hard could it be ?  At some points in my life I had been as fit as a butchers dog, the only problem with that was the simple fact I wasn’t 20 anymore and over the years I had abused my body and ignored what it had been telling me.  My back was fine, what needed fixing was my head.  Does a break fully repair ?  I’d not experienced any pain in my back since I’d received my acupuncture but I was fully aware that I had lost a lot of strength and movement in the area between my shoulder blades.  The rehab I was given in the army wasn’t the best and was designed to get me back to work and that was about it.

Just to go back a few years and explain the last statement, I broke my back in a motor bike accident that very nearly paralysed me.  Luck was on my side and the doctors decided that nature should run it’s course and surgery would be the last option.  So after a long spell in hospital and some rehab I was returned to normal work.  More importantly I was back on a bike, a nice shiny new one with all the gear to go with it.  In the mean time my old bike had been sold for garden furniture during my hospital stay.  What more can I say ?

 My ankles on the other hand, were just painful all the time.  Years of abuse from jumping on and off tanks and lorries, followed by surgery to pin my left ankle back together after yet another bike crash and then sat behind a steering wheel had left me like an old man with arthritis.

The fit test consisted of 7 exercises and would last for 40 minutes.  Was that 40 minutes in the same hour ?  I can’t remember the last time I did a 40 minute exercise period.  I had already been told to take my resting heart rate before I got out of bed.  I was about to do it again before my warm up.  At this point I had no idea why.

The exercises were to be a best effort and would determine my current fitness level.  The exercises were as follows:-

a.       Pull Ups

b.      Vertical Leaps

c.       Push Ups

d.      Toe Touch

e.      Wall Squat

f.        Bicep Curls

g.       In & Outs

Was I surprised at the results of my 40 minute exercise period ?  Yes I was, I thought I was better than that and it just proved I was very, very unfit.  My max heart rate was the next test and a piece of equipment that was going to prove to be very painful.  The KettleBell, a very simple looking object that produced some amazing results and very quickly.  A cannonball with a handle on it, mine was a cool 16 kg’s and the other one in the gym was massive 24 kg’s. 

After being taught the Kettlebell Snatch, I was going to do as many as I possibly could and then my max heart rate was going to be taken.  I didn’t last long and I never changed arms as directed to do so when the time came.  I could only manage just over a couple of minutes, my thighs were on fire, my arms hurt and I thought my lungs were going to explode.  No sooner had I finished, I had an overwhelming desire to throw up.  What a great start, if this is what it’s going to be like, it was going to be a long rough road.

My first day over and it was a bit of a shock to the system.  I’d gone from no exercise over the past 3-5 years to bursting point of my lungs.  It was a great relief to me to hear coach say “the next few days and weeks would be much easier”.  He was now going to work out my work loads according to my rest and max heart rate readings.

It can only get better, I hope.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

More than I could chew.

Had I bitten off more than I could chew?  More than likely! I was in the gym and surrounded by my peers.  Not to mention some very big machines and some even nastier looking weights.

OK, so I was overweight and a bit podgy, but it was nothing too outrageous, I wasn’t the next news flash and I wasn’t about to keel over.  Or was I? My first lift left me out of breath and very red faced L   I had a lot of hard work ahead of me, but where do I start, how do I start and more importantly how do I keep it going.  I knew from past experience that sustaining a fitness program was not my forte.  It’s been the usual case in the past, start with the best intentions and to get a new pair of trainers, shorts (I don’t look great in shorts and that’s enough to put me off) and a set of water filled weights.  Before long the trainers are gathering dust under the bed and the weights are keeping a door open somewhere in the house.

A very good friend of mine was about to take me under his wing, after much abuse and laughter in my direction in the gym.  He sat me down and said “it’s not the end of the world just because you’re unfit and very weak”.  That really inspired me, NOT.  “you’ve got some hard work ahead of you, but you’re not on your own, but don’t mess me about, if you want to get fit and stronger I’ll help you, I can teach you and advise you but the hard work will be coming from you.”  I wanted to get fit and I most certainly wanted to get stronger.  It was that deep nagging feeling in the back of my head, “commitment, commitment, commitment”.  I hated the gym and I’m allergic to pain.  What the hell do I do?  Nothing like pressure or being put on the spot.

It was decision time and I couldn’t put it of any longer.  It was a long time coming, I was finally working with the people I respected and in a job I felt most comfortable with.  Afghanistan probably isn’t the first choice for most people to work in.  As for me it made perfect sense, time served in the military and now a second chance to get my fitness back and to be trained by the best in great conditions.

My training starts now and the first objective was to complete the Fitness assessment.  A number of exercises designed to test my agility, strength and general fitness levels.  Was I looking forward to it ?  No I wasn’t, was I ready for it ?  No I wasn’t.  Was I going to pass it ?  Probably not.