What To Do When You Overdo It

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 11:31 pm  
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Last night was a CNS-tapping, high volume workout that was made harder by my actions of the previous day.

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Raising the Training Bar

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 am  
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A little over a month ago, in “Random and Structured Training” I wrote of the differences of each type of programming and said I trained sort of in between the both with my training approach.

I am in the midst of the third week of highly structured and programmed training after signing on with my friend, pro strongman Scott Brengel of EastWestStrength, (not sure if he is my “friend” anymore)!

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Training Log, Week Ending 8/9/09

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 9:37 pm  
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IMG_0182

Monday, 8/3/09

No training. Second day of DOMS  worst than the first!

Tuesday, 8/4/09

Military Press, x 5: 95/115/132/142/152/.

Bulgarian Training Bag, 60 reps each:

  • Swings: 4 x 15
  • Swing + Jump Squat: 6 x 10.
  • Lunges: 3 x 20.
  • Halos, 10 each side: 3 x 20.

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Strongman Training As GPP

Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 11:14 am  
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I followed a recent thread over at Performance Menu about the idea of using strongman training as a type of GPP instead of Crossfit brand of GPP. The contention of the poster, quoting a Marine, was that some strongman training might be more suitable to what soldiers do regularly in the field.

I posed this question to pro strongman competitor, Scott Brengel who responded in this guest post.

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Got (Chocolate) Milk?

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 3:03 pm  
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It may be time to save your money on expensive post-workout drink concoctions and go to an old reliable, milk, or more specificially, chocolate milk. Now, how can that not be good news! Besides recovery, according to the studies, milk may be effective against DOMS.

Here are some of the delicious details concerning the chocolate milk and click for the entire story of milk for exercise recovery.

Chocolate milk

The study is not the first to explore the potential benefits of milk consumption. A 2006 study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism assessed a group of cyclists who rode until their muscles were depleted of energy, then rested for four hours before cycling again to exhaustion.

During rest they were given either chocolate milk, which has an optimal ratio of 4:1 for carbohydrates to protein, an isotonic sports drink or a high protein sports drink.

The researchers concluded that the carbohydrates and protein ratio in milk complemented each other, because carbs replace energy while protein rebuilds muscle.

They speculated that chocolate milk is better for recovery than plain milk because of the presence of extra sugars.

Cyclists who had chocolate milk rode about 50 per cent longer than those who drank the protein drink and about as long as those who drank the isotonic preparation.

At the recent Beijing Olympic Games chocolate milk was conspicuous by its presence with high profile athletes such as American multiple gold-medal winning swimmer, Michael Phelps regularly seen drinking it.

Bicarbonate soda was another legal performance enhancer said to have won favour among some athletes. Others included mushrooms, caffeine, cherry juice and honey.

Source:
Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 33(4): 775–783 (2008)
‘Acute milk-based protein–CHO supplementation attenuates exercise-induced muscle damage’
Authors: Emma Cockburn, Philip R Hayes, Duncan N French, Emma Stevenson, and Alan St Clair Gibson.

DOMS, In Full Effect

Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 10:10 pm  
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With Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, (DOMS), the second day is usually the worst and if walking up and down stairs sideways isn’t a good indicator, I don’t know what is. My thighs feel like they were tenderized with baseball bats. Tuesday, I was at the track (no Dave, not the one with horses and betting windows) and did walking lunges non-stop for 400 meters. Today, I’m at the gym wanting a workout that doesn’t involve my legs bending more than a few degrees. My main friends have been Motrin and fish oil, but if misery loves company, another friend, Brent “Oak” Oakeson, also having done the 400 meter walking lunges, called to find out if I was hurting as much as he was.

As we lamented our hammered legs, George Gutierrez arrives to Met-Rx with fresh sticks, wanting to do a kettlebell/run combo. I was more than happy to get him going and time him. I just wasn’t going to join him.

George did great. He did 3 rounds of 400 meter runs and 30 swings, adding 10 each round from the last time and still knocking off 1:45 from just a few days ago, to finish with 8:07. Afterwards, George was still fresh enough to continue some technique work with the 20 kg bell. I think George is digging kettlebells!

My workout was toned down considerably from George’s. After warming up with several sets of push-ups and sit-ups, I did some halos and clean and presses with the 20 kg kettlebell. My main workout was simple:

3×30 kettlebell swings, 20 kg, 10 both hands, 10 ea hand2×30 kettlebell swings, 20 kg, alternating hands. There was full recovery this time between sets.

Played with the bells some more afterwards, but that was enough for today. I want to load up for a good squat session tomorrow.