Workouts

Here’s my workout on weeks I have games (which is most weeks):

Monday: full warmup, play game.
Tuesday: TRX based full body circuit training workout (:30 minutes)
Wednesday: TRX based core workout (based off Drew Brees Core Workout) :15 minutes; run Windsprints* (in field behind my house) :15 minutes . *Details below
Thursday: TRX based full body circuit training workout (:30 minutes)
Friday: TRX based core workout (based off Drew Brees Core Workout) :15 minutes; run Windsprints (or do interval work on sliding board)*
Saturday: TRX based full body circuit training workout (:30 minutes)
Sunday: Rest

* For my windsprints, I put on my soccer cleats with a stop watch in one hand and my interval trainer timer in the other. http://www.gymboss.com/ (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little thing). I warm up by jogging for 5 minutes at a moderate pace. I then shoot for 8 total intervals of 100% effort sprinting for 20 seconds; then rest or jog in place for 10 seconds. I then jog at a moderate pace until I hit the 15 minute mark. The field behind my house is shaped like a bowl, so there is a slight incline at both ends; one full 20 second sprint gets me from one side to the other about perfectly. It’s conveniently almost the length of a soccer field.

For a change, or if the weather is bad, I also use a recumbent exercise bike in my basement (rarely); or do intervals on my sliding board: http://www.goaler1.com/G1_10__Slideboard.html

It’s something hockey players use; I discovered it rehabbing a torn groin and it’s a ton of fun. I go for 2 sets of 8 intervals: 50 seconds full bore go and 10 seconds of rest.

I also do interval training doing burpees with and without the TRX.

- Now ‘inside all this’ I change everything up. So the TRX workouts are constantly changing; I bring in different moves, I mix up the way I do them. Sometimes I just do straight up P90X or weight workouts. I mix up the interval work as noted above. I’m not a big fan of the bike anymore; but I’ve spent many hours over the years on that damn thing whilst rehabbing injuries… so I tend to associate working out on it with injuries. Mental thing.

I tend to do 3 weeks ‘go for it’ and then take a week ‘easy’ where I just lower the intensity much. Also if I just am dragging, didn’t get proper rest or just am not feeling it… I take a day off. I am not as fanatical as it might appear.

Diet

I got this sent to me today, so asked if I could post it (anonymously) and then reply in the thread; he said go for it:

Hey there Scott: I enjoyed reading this thread, and wanted to ask what information you followed in creating your meal plans. I’m real interested in trying out your meal plan, but have some of my own “trials” to tend too…What do you substitute for protein? It appears you have most other parts of the food groups covered. Have you shopped around for your Vibrams? Is there a “best” place to purchase them? Drop me a line, and thanks!

I have always believed in doing a balanced diet. I used www.thedailyplate.com or www.sparkpeople.com to plan my eating, though I just free form it now (though I STILL plan it out).

The key to eating is simple – plan it out. Do NOT eat on impulse when hungry, you will make bad decisions and you will eat too much. That’s it.

I no longer believe in supplements or pills or vitamins. Eat food. Depending on your beliefs – not going there – human beings were created or evolved to eat food, not take pills, powders and potions. Skip it all. Just cut it out.

I need protein? I drink a glass of skim milk. Or I have a sweet tooth? I get protein, essential fats and fiber by making a toasted peanut butter (organic, no sugar added) on whole wheat bread (no HFCS). For fruits and veggies I make up smoothies, detailed on my blog and in here on the Pub. I eat a lot of plain old oatmeal – I found an organic one that is great; or plain old oats will do (I have a cup of it for breakfast and then a cup later in the afternoon as a snack… with some fruit/veggie smoothie to go with it). I drink (lots of) water, (lots of) green tea and… that’s pretty much it other than a glass of organic skim milk every day. It’s a lot easier than it all sounds. For protein I eat a lot of chicken or lean beef. I’m not a big seafood guy, though I wish I was.

I can cook from recipes – I am good following directions, though I really can’t cook. No instincts or talent for it; but there are thousands of recipes out there. I plan out what I want to eat (well, what my family eats) with my wife on Sunday and then I grocery shop for it all. It’s not hard to eat well if you PLAN it. You cannot get to 6pm and be dying of hunger and then think… hmmm, what should we eat?

Now all that said, I have two kids and a wife. They are not all on this fitness bandwagon with me – though they are not trying to sabotage it either. We just eat better because we do. We get pizza on Fridays – I just eat some oatmeal before it comes and stick to eating two pieces of pizza. Then, I’m good. I LOVE hot wings; but try to stick to getting them only once a month. I have serious control issues with chocolate, so I buy dark chocolate and have two pieces of it a day as my ‘treat’ if I don’t go off the rails with my workouts or eating; so all I’m doing is planning it and practicing portion control.

In social circles, I practice portion control and eat everything every one else does. It’s easy to gorge on stuff in those situations; so I just pay attention and make up my mind beforehand what I will be having and stick to it. I don’t pound beers anymore, I have a drink or two or the equivalent beer or two. Then I just stop. And I try to keep that to once a month or so, I don’t miss it really. I can hang out, have a great time and not drink even if everyone else is.

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On the Vibram Five Fingers – I have the KSO’s and love them. As time has gone on, I find I hate having to take them off; because I love wearing them. They just feel ‘right’. I feel that working out in them has increased my balance and strength in my ankles and feet. It’s amazing how you use your toes for balance, though in shoes you would never realize that. Doing Yoga barefoot opened my eyes to that; doing that sort of thing now (and all this working out) in them REALLY makes a difference. I don’t run in them, and there’s a WHOLE movement of folks into that; but that’s not my deal. I toss them in the washer once every 2 weeks and they are just fantastic for traction. I bought them direct from Vibram; cost me the same as REI or anywhere else, and I know they are not counterfeit that way. Total thumbs up on these ninja booties.

This summer, my workouts have progressed with the TRX Suspension Trainer. I am doing circuit training on it now (for the last 2 weeks as I type this) and am back to running sprints (Tabata Protocal – 8 cycles of 20 seconds full 100% intensity sprint, 10 seconds rest) since my toe has healed (soccer injury… what else?). I am also doing Interval training (modified Tabata Protocal, 10-14 cycles of 50 seconds 100% intensity, 10 seconds rest) with my Goaler-One sliding board (dryland hockey training).

I’ve also gotten myself some Vibram Fivefingers KSO shoes, my ‘Ninja Booties’ I call them, and have found that they are absolutely ideal for working out. I still run in my soccer shoes – which seems logical to me given my goals – but these goofy shoes from Vibram are indeed REALLY cool. You get serious work using your foot as it was designed (or evolved depending on your beliefs!) and I’ve found that my balance, form and spatial awareness is improving in MUCH the same way barefoot Yoga taught me the same thing. These shoes have incredible grip, something that is often overlooked in the reviews and videos the barefoot runners all ignore. In my opinion – these are the best thing to happen to working out. They are recommended by almost all the Kettlebell and Crossfit guys you can talk to. I am loving them. I’ll post more about them after a few more weeks of using them.

The biggest change though past all that has been to finally – for the first time in my entire life – eat right. 100% no excuses right. My Achilles heel has always been a lack of vegetables and fruits in my daily diet. Forever. Now, I found my solution – I stepped up last month and bought a Blendtec blender. This thing is a rocket ship of a blender – something on the order of almost 1600watts. I am making green smoothies daily, laying off the carbs and having almost 8-10 cups daily of fruits and veggies. Add that to sensible, sane eating – yes I still have pizza once a week and such – but the vast majority of the time, I am eating really quality lean meats and smaller portions of it. Lots of plain oatmeal – which I’ve come to love; lots of water, these green smoothies, ice tea and lean proteins. No sugar, no white flour, no corn, no corn based products, no high fructose corn syrup. And if any ‘slips in’ then it’s in moderate levels. No binging.

I have also been – since June/July – totally off all supplements. All of them. No protein powders, no pre-workout, post-workout, ‘recovery’ or ‘sports’ drinks. No pills.

My goal? I want to get my bodyfat down to single digits. I started this summer at 13-14% body fat based on my Accu-Measure caliper. That is here (from June 2010):

Now up to getting past vacations and dialing in the diet more, just before starting circuit training, at about 11-12% (middle September 2010):

And finally today – 2 weeks really clean eating, circuit training hard, feeling really good and strong at about 11% (end September 2010):

So… getting there.

Soccer starts again for me at the end of October and by then I want to be in the single digits. Now that this is on the web… I gotta get it done!

My daily mantra: Earn it!

And check this out – this woman is an ANIMAL!

Here are the quickie Plus points:

1. It works you in all planes of movement. Even free weights do not do what this does to you in terms of involving your entire body and activating your core in nearly every move.
2. It keeps me on my ‘bodyweight’ workouts that I need and require. Less stress on joints (especially coming off of a right knee arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus tear) and more focus on overall fitness instead of focus on any one fitness pursuit (strength, cardio, flexibility). It works on all levels at the same time. Call it ‘functional’ fitness, call it what you like – it’s applicable in the real world and keeps me going.
3. Instantly change your moves – ie. the angle of your move by adjusting your feet and viola – you can increase or decrease your intensity levels instantly.
4. Allows for creativity. You can take basic moves and create all sorts of extra stretches and extensions to totally revamp what’s happening and increases the usefulness and range of motion in every move. This system – which is truly as simple, and hardcore as you make it – allows for this on not only every movement, but on EVERY rep too. It’s incredibly freeing after years and years of strict form based movements to then take the same strict forms and allow for ways to increase the range and or plane the move works in… instantly on the fly.
5. It’s really the simplest form of workout, requiring only an anchor point that creates so many possibilities. You can get and find moves all over the Net – on the TRX Forums, the TRX blog, on YouTube and add them into your program as you see fit. It’s your body moving against gravity in multiple planes and constant motion. It’s perfectly suited to circuit training because adjustments are so fast and quick to do between moves.
6. You can do entire workouts alone to the highest level of intensity without need for a spotter.
7. There is no limit, seemingly, to the creative ways to incorporate this into most any routine.

Cons:

1. It costs $150 to get; you can do the moves with ropes or straps, but you lose all the flexibility to adjust on the fly and won’t have the handles and foot rests on a rope to work with. This thing is worth the money, it’s just a functional piece of engineering genius and the materials and quality are top shelf across the entire apparatus. It’s so simple stupid to work with, but yet durable and functional at the same time. Brilliantly done, and deceptively so to those that just look at it.
2. A novice with no workout experience to draw on might be a bit lost on how to properly do the moves. It comes with a great DVD and training book; but once you want to move past that you really need to understand proper athletic exercise mechanics to craft and customize your routines.
3. Your joints are taxed with overload – it’s based on moving and your joints – especially your shoulders and hips – are in most every single move. For every single upper body move, your shoulders are involved as at least a pivot point. Until you have the strength and stamina in your shoulders to do the advanced moves through an entire routine, it’s a bit overwhelming. I hit this thing thinking I was in shape, I got a quick lesson in humility.
4. It’s an equalizer. No matter how big, strong or fit you think you are… you are on even ground because of bodyweight – with everyone using it. For some folks, that can get inside your head. Not me, but it’s something to consider. I can rip off push-ups in the hundreds per set, but on this getting 25 hanging with my hands suspended, face-down under the anchor point on the ceiling is a most humbling experience.
5. You need an anchor point. It has a door attachment you can use as an anchor point, but that limits a lot of the ‘bigger’ moves (aka. doing a pendulum move with your feet suspended). You need enough space, not a LOT of space, but enough space to lean and move side to side.

Since Fall 2009, I have been doing a lot of slide board work; with the Goaler-One 10′ G-1 slideboard. Utilizing a interval type of approach and working hard against time, it’s been a killer new way to get cardio in that is DIRECTLY applicable on the field moving side to side and pivoting like I do as a defense man running backwards, and pivoting to frontwards and side-to-side like I do.

I’ve been following the P90X structure – hard for 3 weeks; cardio/core for 1 week.

It’s been nearly 3 years since I went at P90X and I need some new, different challenges to keep things interesting and fresh.

Enter:

My wife’s cousin has been doing this for a while and talked it up for about a year or so to me.

From first glance at the “Basic Training” workout that comes with the “Pro Pack” and if you’ve done P90X and/or Yoga… you’ll be right at home. Big movements that utilize your body weight and gravity to increase over all body type of moves and not specialty moves.

Tomorrow is Day 1 for me; let’s bring it!!