Dirty Dozen from Synergy Athletics
In my garage gym tonight, it is getting to a point now that I have enough equipment in there so that I can avoid going to a commercial gym and just get on with what I want without interruption. Had some AC/DC cranked up loud and away I went. I needed to tonight as it was bloody freezing in there, -5 degrees C outside so I thought I’d better get my arse into gear to keep warm!
Today I decided to use a training session devised by somebody else. it is always good to learn from others, whether it is another idea of how to apply what you know or something completely different.
My friend from across the pond, Joe Hashey from Synergy Athletics knows a thing or two about designing programs and being a bit off the wall in his training methods, so when I saw his idea for the dirty dozen training protocol as I pondered on a training session a few weeks back I thought that I had to give it a go.
Now the premise is simple, pick 12 exercises and perform 12 reps of each exercise, sounds easy right? well you would be wrong, the first time I tried this it kicked my ass, I was completely gassed. Lucky for me my general physical preparedness (GPP) is at a level where I can recover quickly between rounds. After 3 though I had had enough.
The program is designed to alternate between strength and conditioning exercises. Of course it isn’t an out and out max strength program and lends itself more to conditioning and strength endurance, but it makes for one hell of a training session. As Joe says, “it is more a method of training and is designed to be short, flexible with the equipment available and what you want to get out of it”.
Which Level?
Your fitness level will define the amount of rest you take. By splitting it up into 3 levels of difficulty it allows you to have your rest defined in advance so you know when to grasp some extra air.
Beginner
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 6 more times
Intermediate
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
3) Strength
4) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 3 more times
Advanced
1) Strength
2) Conditioning
3) Strength
4) Conditioning
5) Strength
6) Conditioning
REST 20 seconds and repeat 2 more times
At the end of the 12 exercises, Rest for 90 seconds and repeat for 2-5 rounds depending on your fitness level. Make sure you push hard!!
My Sub Zero Dirty Dozen
With it being -5 degrees C in the garage gym tonight there was no excuse to go slow, I have to keep moving to keep warm!
I fired in an intermediate session with the following exercises, I have got a shiny new weight vest and decided this was the day I was gonna christen it. All the exercises were done wearing the vest:
- Alternating Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Squat
- Dumbell inverted strap row
- Lunge jumps
REST 20 seconds
- Pushups
- Burpees
- Alternating Dumbbell Rows
- Squat jumps
REST 20 Seconds
- Dumbbell squat thrust to RDL
- Med Ball Slam
- Dumbbell Curls
- Full Jack knife (V sits ) sit ups
REST 90 seconds and repeat for 4 rounds
Man that weight vest made a BIG difference, totally blasted me away, but was an awesome work out. Remember you can make this method up with any 12 exercises that you want. I got the session on my flip cam but made a hash of it with it being in a confined space and static on a tripod. I might throw it up on you tube later, it probably makes for a better clip since my head is missing through out 
Thanks again to Joe hashey at Synergy Athletics for allowing me to share this with you here.
Be strong, stay healthy
Dean
Medicine Ball Plyometric Training
Hey, hope everyone is doing great, feeling good and getting into great shape.
I cranked out an amazing conditioning session today and thought i would share it with you.
Latest Craze
People are always looking for the latest and greatest craze to get them into shape, some new fad that all the “celebrities” are doing. Hell, I know some people try that crazy shit out, just because they won’t put the effort into a hard session that would actually give them the results they want. I have given up telling them because they won’t listen, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped!
Training Tool
Anyway, today focuses on a training tool that has been around for the longest time, boxers and athletes have been using them for years for explosive conditioning drills and yet I rarely see them being used or in gyms and even if they are in a gym they are gathering dust! the training tool I am on about (and I assume you have guessed by the title of the article) is a medicine ball.
Medicine Ball
A med ball has a multitude of uses, comes in various shapes and sizes and can be used in countless exercises. Today it was used for explosive or plyometric training. Most body weight exercises are suited to this type of training and almost all bodyweight exercises can be enhanced with a medicine ball. Plyometric training is designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system.
Todays session revolved around 5 exercises:
- Med Ball Squat Jump
- Med Ball Slam
- Med Ball Burpee
- Med Ball Power over
- Med Ball V-up or jackknife sit up.
Each exercise is meant to be performing an a fast, explosive manner. In this case the tabata training protocol (20 seconds activity followed by 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds of each exercise). For this session it meant short sharp bursts of each exercise before moving swiftly onto the next exercise.
Of course you don’t have to do 5 exercises, you could pick any between 3 and 5. Mix it up by changing the timing to 30 seconds of activity, then 30 seconds rest. or even pick a rep range and perform for repetitions. Change the exercises around, pick different ones. Keep it interesting!
Above all else, it is meant to be difficult, push the envelope!
I would love you to drop me a comment about this workout or anything else you want to discuss. Just hit me up with a comment or an email!
Stay strong, stay fit and I will speak to you soon.
Dean
Weekend Training Madness
Having had a very busy week work wise, I have had little time to put together any substantial training sessions. However, just because there is maybe little time, doesn’t mean you cannot train.
Today’s training session comes courtesy of my garage gym. It’s not big, but it’s functional and has everything I need to push the envelope and come out drenched with sweat and drained of whatever energy I went in with.
Make no mistake, you don’t need a commercial gym to get a solid workout. My aim today was an alternative total body strength session, none of the usual weight exercises here, although I did use dumbbells I also used other training modularities.
I added a mix of upper and lower body exercises to cover all bases and was still done in 45 minutes, no chit chat, no waiting for equipment to be free, no distractions.
If you are serious about training and getting fitter and stronger, then start thinking outside of the box and have fun…..well if you can call it that! I always enjoy myself no matter how hard it may be.
Here is my Weekend madness, I covered upper and lower body with an alternative strength session and ended with a tabata finisher and core work to round things off…..
Warm up
Started the warm up with some upper body work with a bungee and light shadow boxing. Just stretching out and warming up specific areas I am looking out for.
I moved onto minute drills of boxing/punching a maize ball and skipping for 10 minutes, no need to go all out, the aim is to get thoroughly warmed up for the session ahead.
Strength Session
Heres the session…
1a) Dumbbell Snatch
1b) Kettlebell swing
I completed 2 warm up sets and then 2 max sets, the a and b represent that the exercises follow straight after each other in a “super set”. Keep the rest period after each superset to no more than 60 seconds.
Then a complex of….
2a) Weighted Chin ups.
2b) Weighted Push up*
2c) Weighted Strap Row
2d) Weighted Squat
6 rounds of the above circuit. I was going for numbers within an amount of rounds. I made sure to stop 1 rep short of failure to try and keep some in the tank. Although I tried to give myself a minute between each to make sure I got the best of every set, I wasn’t stringent with that rule, I rode the fatigue meter. If I felt ok I went in less time, if I needed a little more for recovery then i did it. The complex doesn’t have to be 4 exercises, you could just start with 1 or 2.
* – Vary the push up style in each round. I did normal, close grip and walking push ups to add variety. There are many other variations that you can choose from.
Finisher
To stoke the metabolism I added a finisher based on the tabata protocol (20 secs training, 10 secs rest for 8 rounds) to the session for good measure…..
3a) Burpees
3b) Medicine Ball Slams
Core Circuit
To finish off I hit 3 rounds of…
4a) Hanging leg Raise
4b) Hanging knee twists.
4c) Ab wheel roll outs.
Again, don’t go to failure, perform an exercise until you know you have a rep left and then stop.
The End
Remember this, there is always time in a day to train even if it 20 minutes. And you don’t need to drag yourself to a gym, train at home and before you say you have no equipment, it is still no excuse, your bodyweight is an excellent tool, use it!
Do you have any great alternative circuits? if so, fire some comments in for everyone to read.
Stay strong.
Dean Coulson
Spice up your Training Tabata Style!
Med Ball Slam
There may be some of you thinking, so what is this tabata thing all about? well I ain’t gonna bore you with the science behind it other than it’s named after someone and it is a great conditioning protocol. Thats all you need to know!
Tabata Style!
So how do you train tabata style? the answer is any which way as long as it involves 20 seconds of fast paced exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, with each exercise having 8 rounds. It can make for a tough 4 minutes if you are flat out. It can be bodyweight, with weight, a mixture, anything that you can go at a fast pace.
Short on Time?
These drills are perfect when you are short on time. They are anaerobic and crank your metabolism right up, with it sitting raised for up to 24 hours after the event. Thats right, higher metabolism = more calories burned even resting afterwards!
Of course that means exactly squat if you then go and eat crappy foods. It may sound boring but the nutrition part goes hand in hand if you want to shave some lard off!
Anyway, it just so happens that today I was short on time so after a warm up on my heavy bag, I tagged 4 exercises together to really crank up a tabata style workout!
doesn’t have to 4, hell it could be 3 or 5, point is though is that you have to be able to maintain this fast pace to its end
Example Workout
I cranked out this workout earlier, using a combination of bodyweight exercises and a medicine ball for good measure!
Here goes:
- Flex strap rows – inverted bodyweight rowing with straps.
- Med ball Slams.
- squats and alternating with lunges with the med ball.
- Pushups (variations).
I added a core finisher at the end of ab wheel rollout’s and hanging leg raises, it is up to you whether you want to tag anything on the end!
it may sound easy, but keeping a fast pace and doing these exercises for 8 rounds each can result in 16 minutes of hell. If it is easy, make it harder, the challenge it to yourself, not to me.
What are your favourite exercises you could plug into tabata training?, fire the comments in and lets find out!
stay fit and train hard
Dean Coulson
Integrated Circuit Training
Integrated circuit training is a great full body conditioning concept with the idea of combining several exercises in to one circuit, which should be done as fast as possible. The idea of training in such a fashion is to get a good balance of power, strength and endurance during your training session. An additional benefit of training this was is to teach your body how to dig deep and push through fatigue, which will inevitably happen training this way.
Literally anything goes within the circuit and anything can be used. It could be based on just bodyweight or other devices could be thrown into the mix. Doing this type of training will force you go through the fatigue and make you dig deep to get through it.
Undoubtedly by doing such drills you will build an indominable spirit and toughen your mental resolve along the way. You can blend an endless assortment of exercises into a circuit, which may be brief, but will inevitably be intense conditioning circuits. To give you an example:
- 15 Burpees
- 15 med ball slams
- 15 pushups
- 100 rope turns
- Shadow boxing
Each exercise in the circuit should continue on from the last without stopping. Once the round is complete then you can rest if you need to but keep it minimal (no more that 30-60 seconds). Repeat this for 8-10 sets. Try and aim for the fastest time. This can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be, but I encourage you to push the envelope and dig deep.
This routine can be made harder by varying the burpee, by adding a pushup at the bottom for example, Pushups could be normal, push throughs or plyometric. Keep the rope turn cadence high using high knees or double unders for the rope. Shadow boxing can be done with or without a light weight. It is possible in the later sets that the shadow boxing could be taken as active rest if really needed. Another ICT circuit example could be:
- Pushups
- Pull-ups
- Burpees
- Chin ups
- Squats
Again repeat for rounds as fast as possible. The principle is there to think outside the box, make your own circuits, the possibilities are infinite.
