Cartrin, try bumping up your weights and working to failure.
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Cartrin, try bumping up your weights and working to failure.
I've started working with a new trainer in a small group training environment who told me he is really going to target that part of my body (after a very thorough and unusual fitness assessment). I've already seen some improvement since starting the metabolic/functional fitness style of training a few months back. We are going to redo the assessment in September and shooting for being able to chest press x amount weight by then - goals are good :) The group training uses the same functional/metabolic style of training, though his classes are more challenging than those I've been taking. I can do them though, and without soreness the next day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
That exercise you linked to looks brutal...errrr...awesome! Another goal to try once I get better at full pushups ;)
WOW...sounds like a great workout! Good for you!
Now, maybe I am wrong but- I thought that working to failure and a little muscle soreness was food for you, in terms of making gains in strength. Is this wrong? (Wahine?). From what I've seen, if you don't push some you don't make many gains. So the thought is, if you aren't getting sore ever in your upper body, are you doing enough work to make the gains you'd like to see? If I'm wrong here someone set me straight. I come from a long ago body building background, and that's what I remember. (Cory Everson era)Quote:
Originally Posted by Catrin
good question, interesting to see if Wahine weighs in. I work in my sessions until my arms won't do it anymore - so I am reaching that point. My new trainer said the general lack of.soreness is a good sign that I am hydrating properly. Now, that being said, my deltoids were sore this morning - our "fun' workout yesterday was wild, fun, but just plain wild!Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
I've been trying to both ride and do the special Sunday workout, but something must give. Will have to stick to the weekday sessions and just go to the weekend version when the weather is bad.
Soreness in moderation is a good thing. :rolleyes:;)
Seriously, a little muscle soreness is good. It means you've taken the tissue a little beyond it's current capacity and that is a good way to stimulate growth. You're body will still respond to exercise even if you are not sore, but it might be a bit slower. If your muscles are so sore that you can barely move the next day, the longer recovery required to get over that workout might outweigh the benefits of pushing that hard. So what you want is a soreness that is kind of like a friendly reminder that you did something hard but not so sore that you have to change the way you move or your activity level.
That's the rule of thumb for power muscles, those are your big muscles that are prime movers like your delts, pecs, lats, glutes, quads, hams, calves.
Postural muscles are a different story. That includes the deep muscles of your core. If your deep core muscles get that same type of soreness, good for you. But if not, don't worry about whether or not you're working them enough, you'll still get good gains with consistent work. Those muscles are meant to function at a submaximal level and that's how they are wired to your nervous system. It's very hard to work them at a level that will cause delayed onset muscle soreness because of that hard wiring and it's not really necessary. In fact, if you try to do hard ballistic movements to work them that hard, your body will automatically switch to cheating with the prime movers because that's their job and you might not work those core muscles as much as you would think.
Thank you. You still want ideas for your classes? I wrote up the "Wheel of Death" workout that we do once in a while, for another forum.. I will see if I can find it and copy it here.
Another one I like is when we do Quadmill stations. It works best with about 8 people. One station is the Quadmill "caller" and then we have 7 other stations with various things from bosu work to stability work to weight matrices....two minutes on each station.
We do "Hold Down the Fort" when we can use the indoor soccer field. There is stationary exercise paired with a cardio move on the field. You have a partner, and you do one while they do the other, down the list of paired exercises.
Bridges/ run down and back
Push ups/ skipping
Dumbbell matrix/frog hops (long jumps)
Med ball v,ups/box push
And so on.
Ooooooo, that all sounds great. I love getting new ideas from other trainers. I hate doing the same o'. I love the idea of partnering up and having one partner do cardio while the other does a strengthening exercise.
I love the names of the workouts. When I have a group of 5 we often do variations on "The Star of Power", where we are positioned in a cricle and do various exercises combined with passing a med ball in a star pattern - crunches and squats mostly. We do 2 med balls at a time and I love it because everyone is so focused on throwing and catching that they forget about how hard the squats or crunches are.
I would definitely like to see "The Wheel of Death" workout.
This makes a lot of sense, thank you. I've a strong lower body, and figure if I can do an almost 5 minute plank that my core has to be pretty strong as well, but strengthening my upper body has been quite the challenge, as mentioned earlier. The two group trainers I work with have quite different styles, so my body should find it difficult to adapt to the differences between them. My deltoids and triceps were sore yesterday, and a little this morning, so something seems to be working :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Wahine
I divide my two weekly group training sessions between them - and the new one emails out a "WOW - workout of the week" for us to do on our own. As the few I've seen so far appears to focus on some intense cardio/lower body work I just might skip this during the height of riding season - or just do it every other week, we shall see. I tend to push myself too hard as it is, especially in mid/late summer.
Wahine, we have done something like your Star of Power, and at one time he had three dynamax balls in motion :eek: :) It was torture and fun at the same time! This Sunday we were doing things like partner foam rolling/stretching, a pushup series, bear crawls and a rather lengthy shoulder series with kettlebells. It was upper body "fun day".
The Wheel of Death.
It's set up in a circle, with 8 spokes. You go out a spoke, do the station, come back in and do an ab station and then go back out the next spoke. The spokes are ladders, low hurdles, and rings. The outer stations were split jumps/squat jumps; bosu squat matrices, plate matrix (upper body stuff with a plate) box step up and step downs, push up matrix, stability ball stuff, bear crawls, and a medicine ball slam set. The ab/core stations on the inside of the circle were supermans, single leg pikes, side hip bridge touches left and right, push up to bridges, boxes crunches and v-sit crunches. After about three times around you really start feeling it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
Love it! I have class tonight and I think I will plan for a wheel of death.
Our group instructor sends us a WOW (workout of the week) once a week for us to do on our own. There is a large whiteboard where we record whatever metric he's asked us to track and there is sometimes a little friendly competition amongst us.
Here is an example of this week's WOW - they typically do seem to focus on cardio and lower body...I don't always do the WOW as it is the height of the riding season but our current heat wave means I've not been able to ride near as much as I should be. Obviously I will need a strong dynamic warmup before starting step 1...I will do this tonight between work and a party I am attending.
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Step #1:
Rowing Intervals for Max Distance x2 Rounds
Step #2:
Complete in as few rounds as possible of:
100 Body Weight Back Squats
*On the minute – rack the BB and complete 5 Air Squats*
*Record total distance for step #1 and total time for step #2*
--------------------------------------------------------------
Having never done a back squat, ever, means I need a substitution :) If I can maintain proper connection with the back pad on the Freemotion squat machine for that many reps then I will do the squats on the machine.
Oh yes, we did something in group training yesterday that I've not done before (though much of the content in this new group is new to me). We combined a rubber strap thingie that went around our waist with a rope our partner held behind us. Then we started to run while our partner tried to pull us back....at the end we each did 8 burpees then switched positions for the return trip. We did this for 8 minutes...doesn't sound so hard when I read it...
added: The 100 body weight squats were much easier than expected. I was able to use the machine rather than another alternative that wouldn't have been as good.
Today's "Funday" workout revolved around a theme - the regional Fireman Combat Competition is next weekend and our trainer has helped to train firemen/women and has two brothers who are firemen. He decided to base the workout around the challenges they face in this competition to give us a tiny idea of what they have to do.
After a quite effective and lengthy warmup, we had two segments of various partner exercises at different stations. He tried to partner us up with someone the same basic size (especially for the final exercise). Each team spent 3 minutes at each station and each partner rests while the other did the exercise..
Segment 1:
A. Carrying 20 pound dynamax ball or 30 lb medicine ball on the shoulder, walk up 5 flights of stairs, skipping steps was allowed, must hold rail with the other hand. At the top switch to other shoulder, no skipping steps on the way down. At bottom switch partners.
B: Farmers Carry with 1 kettlebell down a cone course. Switch hand/arm on way back.
C: Beat up tire on the ground (standing on tire) with hammer, choice of 12 or 8 pound hammer. This is great stress relief!
D: Kettlebell single arm standing row (unsure what to call this) from ground to shoulder - touch ground and switch hands quickly before pulling up again - this is to simulate the part of the challenge where they must pull a rope tied around a heavy object to the top of a tower.
Rest :)
Segment 2:
A. Beat up on tire again, this time tire is up against the wall simulating beating a door in.
B. Farmers Carry with two 40 lb kettlebells down another cone course.
C. Monster rope with a 30 lb plate tied to one end. Take other end of rope and run with it a certain distance and return. Amazing what it felt like when the slack was taken up :eek: (that was only 50 lbs combined, firemen have much, much more)
D: Partner places heels on valslides, wrap arms around partner from behind and drag partner 50 meters. Switch and repeat.
This workout was very good, and also thought provoking to consider the level of effort that our firemen and women must reach in order to maintain the appropriate level of fitness to do whatever they must do. We just got the tiniest of tastes, can't imagine doing what they must do with a 70 lb pack plus breathing artificial air.
Our trainer sends us a "WOW" (workout of the week) that he assigns us to do on our own. I am out of the office today so am headed to the gym shortly to tackle the WOW for the week. It certainly gives my legs something different to do! Still can't ride as my bike hasn't been to the shop yet (later today).
Set a running clock, 4 minutes for each round:
Round 1: 300 M Row, then with remaining time, perform as many reps as possible of Double Unders (I will do singles)
Rest 2 minutes
Round 2: 300 M Row, then with remaining time, perform as many reps as possible of ABMAT Sit-ups,
Rest 2 minutes
Round 3: 300 M Row, then with remaining time, perform as many reps as possible of Box Jumps
Rest 2 minutes
Round 4: 300 M Row, then with remaining time, perform as many reps as possible of Front Squat (I will do less than the recommended weight as I've form issues with weighted front squats - for some reason I want to lean backwards which means I've a real problem getting the rest of my form right? Working on this)
It's going to be a blast! Of course this needs a good dynamic warmup.
We had a "laborous" Labor Day workout yesterday, 21 people showed up for it! After an intense warmup we broke into three groups and spent 10 minutes at 3 different stations. Two of the stations were a combination of three exercises, the first was an AMRAP - (as many rounds as possible).
The first station consisted of 200 meters of rowing, 10 burpees, and 20 frog jumps.
The second station was deadlifts and pushups. 10 rounds in 10 minutes that went like this:
Round 1: 2 deadlifts, 2 pushups - rest for remainder of minute
Round 2: 4 deadlfts, 4 pushups, rest
Round 3: 6 deadlifts...etc - add 2 for each round, the final round was 20 deadlifts and 20 pushups.
The deadlifts/pushups must be completed within that minute. If/when you reach the point where you can't do it all within that minute - then you cut whichever round you are on in half and just do that number for the remainder of the rounds. I got to 12 deadlifts/pushups and missed the minute cutoff by 1 pushup - which meant that I got to do 6 deadlifts/pushups for the remainder of the rounds. It was a fun challenge!
The 3rd station featured 100 meters of walking lunges, jog back, then a descending number of pullups (or full range of motion TRX rows) and a sit-up variant. Only 3 rounds, this wasn't an AMRAP. We did get a decent rest between the second and third station.
Great workout, though my hammies are a bit sore today. I figured out that I did 66 deadlifts in those 10 minutes @95 lbs :eek: :cool: No wonder my hamstrings are a bit sore today! They are the only part of my body that actually ever gets sore - I might get fatigued but rarely actually sore.
I am finding that all of this hard work, as fun as it really is, is translating to more strength on the bike and my old over-use injuries are become much harder to tweak. My group trainer promised this would happen - he knows his stuff! I've had to give up one day of riding a week to make certain I don't over-do things, but it has been worth it & I think I am becoming more physically more well rounded.