MN5's 2010 get ripped plan
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Spent the weekend prepping and painting the inside of my house. For a change it certainly wears you out. I was doing a bit of ceiling work and holding brushes and paint above your head for ages certainly wears you out despite me being a finely tuned athlete with enormous UBS ( haha ) <br />
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Definitely good for something different, nothing beats a bit of manual work especially if it is harder than you thought it would be. -
Nothing particularly new to report....stalled and in a couple of cases regressed on all lifts and took a couple of weeks off weights ( actually whilst out in the country I did chuck some rocks around for no particular reason ) anyway, started again and hey presto, a PB in the Power cleans. Cool ! others staying as good as they ever were which is good. Obviously a rest is good for the joints every now and again. <br />
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Still no abs though. Curse you Mr Macs and Mr Monteiths. ( and the occasional Colonel and scary clown from Maccas....) -
funny how it works aye! you 'rest' for a while and then crack back into it near or better than your PB's. What are you doing for Abs bro? I'm having success with knee lifts for lower abs, cable twists for lat abs, then a variation on a normal crunch for upper abs. Have def noticed way more strength and a tad more definition... like you I'm also cursed by the see food and eat/drink it syndrome!! Only the cable twists involve any weights, rest are just body weight excercises.<br />
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Cardio seems to be the key factor in coaxing that 6 pack out into the open!! esp as us fullas tend to hold our spare weight on the hips and puku. -
[quote name='Paekakboyz']funny how it works aye! you 'rest' for a while and then crack back into it near or better than your PB's. What are you doing for Abs bro? I'm having success with knee lifts for lower abs, cable twists for lat abs, then a variation on a normal crunch for upper abs. Have def noticed way more strength and a tad more definition... like you I'm also cursed by the see food and eat/drink it syndrome!! Only the cable twists involve any weights, rest are just body weight excercises.<br />
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Cardio seems to be the key factor in coaxing that 6 pack out into the open!! esp as us fullas tend to hold our spare weight on the hips and puku.[/QUOTE]<br />
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Bugger all to be honest dude mainly through laziness and hearing the old cliche that "great abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym!" <br />
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Best abs I've ever seen ( please excuse how blatantly gay this is about to sound ) belong to a mountain runner mate of mine who does next to nothing in terms of resistance training but runs over 100km most weeks and is a bit younger than me. <br />
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Whilst metabolism, age, different training etc will prevent me from ever really getting close to him I'd like to think there are a few things out there to do to make em a bit better. Obviously cleans and deadlifts help in terms of strength but we won't be grating any cheese on them anytime soon ! -
You do an awful amount of twisting with your torso when running and I'm sure mountain running is even more demanding. Your mate will probably have low body fat (so you can actually see the abs) and good strength from all his running. Core strength makes a huge difference in running performance.<br />
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If Bartman chimes in I'm sure he'll set the record straight but my understanding is that you can do all the ab workouts you want but if you are still porky from your eating plan etc then they will remain hidden. I mean our AB front row will have mean core strength (apparently Hayman had immense core strength) but you don't see any of them with a 6 pack.<br />
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So reducing kai intake and/or increasing cardio is probably the only way to go (stink aw!). -
Keep up that gret work Paekak and MN5<br />
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For many of us its all about burning fat to get a peak of the abba dabbas. I'm a believer that the biggest factor to fat loss is Kai intake (what and how much). Combine that with the right sort of training and you will see them. I've been amazed at what I've seen over the last year or so. I'm not anywhere near Bart, but feel great from how I eat and exercise. <br />
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Based on what I've seen work for me is that the big fat burning exercises that combine upper body/lower body coupled with some "ab exercises" can melt some that spare tyre away or pop that balloon.... Love stability rollouts or stability ball jacknifes or plank with the stability ball, mountain climbers or maybe chuck in some floor wipers. The only time I ever do situps is to get the heart rate going to warmup in a mini warmup circuit I do to get the blood flowing. <br />
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As for running, I do high intensity intervals for 15-20minutes and also sprints in mini circuits. I don't want to run for that long and don't really feel the need to in order to keep the fat off. -
You're reading it here first boys but as the wife is doing some weight watchers points thing I said I'd be virtually giving up booze as well ! ( lucky I said this after the piss I consumed at and after the game on saturday, a binge drinking effort to rival anything I ever did in my 20's ! ) <br />
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crikey.....but if she can virtually give up her treats then so can I ( I hope ) <br />
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I feel I'm training like a bit of a beast at the moment but I'd really like to look the part a bit more ( ie be a bit leaner if not necessarily lighter )<br />
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Its gonna be a fucken tough slog but hopefully worth it and the few beers I allow myself to have during this period will taste like amber gold I'm hoping..... -
you won't miss them brother - and when you do drink, you'll enjoy more, but drink less when you do have a session. Last year after the national BB champs, we had a bit of a do, and I put 24 beers on ice. Next day, there were 16 still floating in the chilly bin. SO that was 8 beers over 8 hours, and the first four in the first hour. I think though, I was more interestesd in eating!!
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A nice lunchtime session on the skipping rope outside whilst dodging raindrops cleared a few cobwebs. I also discovered a new training partner, my two year old boy who kept shouting "again, again" when I finished jumping. Little bugger is a great motivator !
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[quote name='BartMan']spot on - it's the fat covering the abs that you have to get rid of, and there is not such thing as spot reducing me old china. It is all about eating for abs - we all have them, and most of us have them covered!![/QUOTE]Although if you've exercised your abs so they're bigger, there's more chance of them showing through! <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
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Bit of a disappointing workout this morning, today was push press day and due to me completing it fairly easily last week I added 2.5kg to the weights, sheesh, barely completed the first set and crapped out on the others ( locking out in particular was pretty lousy ) much of this I put down to lots of skipping rope in the garden yesterday ( bloody sore calves this morning ) cos I honesly thought I'd do ok. Not as much spring to get me started perhaps ? I'll keep the weights the same for next week and hope for a better result. Do any "experts" out there think this may be the case as to why things didn't go as planned ? <br />
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On the plus side I did some super bicep curling ! also yesterdays skipping was pretty decent despite flicking a little stone into my boys head ( he toughed it out and didn't cry....much ) -
[quote name='MN5']Bit of a disappointing workout this morning, today was push press day and due to me completing it fairly easily last week I added 2.5kg to the weights, sheesh, barely completed the first set and crapped out on the others ( locking out in particular was pretty lousy ) much of this I put down to lots of skipping rope in the garden yesterday ( bloody sore calves this morning ) cos I honesly thought I'd do ok. Not as much spring to get me started perhaps ? I'll keep the weights the same for next week and hope for a better result. Do any "experts" out there think this may be the case as to why things didn't go as planned ? <br />
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On the plus side I did some super bicep curling ! also yesterdays skipping was pretty decent despite flicking a little stone into my boys head ( he toughed it out and didn't cry....much )[/QUOTE]<br />
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I really enjoy skipping rope MN5. It is one of the best cardio exercises available. Yes, calves will be tender if you haven't done it much before. But they'll toughen up quick. I use a timer called a "Gym Boss" (Google it) which allows me to go for 1 minute rounds. -
[quote name='davidav']I really enjoy skipping rope MN5. It is one of the best cardio exercises available. Yes, calves will be tender if you haven't done it much before. But they'll toughen up quick. I use a timer called a "Gym Boss" (Google it) which allows me to go for 1 minute rounds.[/QUOTE]<br />
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Very much, my problem is that it's something I do every now and again as opposed to regularly which explains the soreness ! <br />
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Starting to bust out a few fancy ( by my standards ) moves whilst doing it as well. Gotta be good for the lungs. -
Busted out a few weighted chins ( palms towards me ) yesterday ( as opposed to the curls I have been usually doing ) and my word the "abs" ( if they can be called that ) are sore ! triceps a bit achy too, biceps feel fine. Obviously the movement is a bit different than curling and as a result it's hitting a few different muscles. Will keep them up I think ! <br />
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In keeping with kiwi ingenuity I got a cord, put the weights on it and tied it round my belt. Worked fine ! -
So it was pissing down in the capital the other night and the light bulb in the garage went out so any safety conscious trainer knows that lifting in the dark isn't wise ! Therefore instead of benching I decided to do some humble push ups in the lounge for the first time in yonks. 2 sets of 40 then a few "clap" ones after a ( long ) rest to finish off. Holy shit, the chest hasn't been this sore in ages ! Two days later and I'm still flinching ! Definitely gonna work these into the routine methinks ! First couple of sets weren't a problem but the last one sure was.....
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Continuing in the "exercises I haven't done for awhile" vein I tried some skull crushers for the first time in ages instead of CG bench pressing. Fark me the tris were sore the next day ! hard to lift huge weights while doing these but sure felt the burn ! <br />
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Also busted out some unweighted chin ups ( palms towards me ) for shits and giggles and they went pretty well. -
[quote name='MN5']Continuing in the "exercises I haven't done for awhile" vein I tried some skull crushers for the first time in ages instead of CG bench pressing. Fark me the tris were sore the next day ! hard to lift huge weights while doing these but sure felt the burn ! <br />
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Also busted out some unweighted chin ups ( palms towards me ) for shits and giggles and they went pretty well.[/QUOTE]<br />
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If you've been working on the guns these chin ups can be pretty easy (until the burn sets in). I like the variations you can get with pull ups - just like press ups. A slight change of hand position and you are targetting a different muscle group. No need for fancy ($$) equipment either. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up a decent pull-up bar at home. I'm a tad to heavy for door frames!! and to my shame I don't have a shed!! -
[quote name='Paekakboyz']If you've been working on the guns these chin ups can be pretty easy (until the burn sets in). I like the variations you can get with pull ups - just like press ups. A slight change of hand position and you are targetting a different muscle group. No need for fancy ($$) equipment either. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up a decent pull-up bar at home. I'm a tad to heavy for door frames!! and to my shame I don't have a shed!![/QUOTE]<br />
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I usually don't bother too much with overhand ones basically cos I can't quite get as many reps ( naturally, as they are a bit harder ) and cos I figure they don't target the guns as much as underhand ones. As I tend to deadlift a few days before I rely on that to target the back muscles ( basically one all out set is what I do, then I see stars and lie down for a few seconds :shock: ) <br />
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I'll usually chuck a bit of weight around my belt when doing underhand chins but didn't this time and got a few reps in.....<br />
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I do the chins on a nice strong beam in the garage which has lasted well but prior to that had done them on the door ( Pull ups obviously ) when the wife wasn't home to tell me off. Unfortunately she knew I had been doing them because my belt scraped a bit of the paint off the door. DOH !