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Martial Arts, Maximal Strength, Mental Strength, Strength

Full Body Functional Strength Workout

Great training session coming up for you today.

As I said in my last email I like to switched things up and it is about time I dragged my arse back to where it should be, back in beast mode.

4 sessions down for the week, with yesterday being a kettlebell session with one of my PT clients, world champion kick boxer and all round gent Kenn Forrest.

I am training Kenn for his next fight at Clash of the Titans, an event organised by the UK’s leading martial arts magazine, martial arts illustrated. It attracts fighters from all corners of the UK and is always a great rumble.

Kenn is a true warrior in every sense of the word, a heart of a lion, with warrior like killer instincts on the mat. The guy towers above me at super heavyweight and kicks with the speed of a light weight, an awesome combination.

This guy will nail it next week, no pressure mate 😉

Anyway, back to today’s training.

Today is all about hitting the muscle explosively and then immediately going for hypertrophy.

Working in exercise pairs the first exercise is going for explosive power with no more than 5 reps, paired with a second exercise which is body weight only and doubling the reps of the first exercise doubling the reps.

Do warm up sets first to get things moving, remember you should always perform a thorough warm up including joint mobility and muscle activation before training ALWAYS! it should be an integral part of each session you do.

To give you an idea of weight, you want to pick a weight you could do 6 reps for and do one less to help save your central nervous system. The second exercise double the first rep count and is done 30 seconds later.

Once you have found the weight, you want to perform each pair 3 times. Each time you complete the pair rest for 45-60 seconds and go again.

a1) Db chest Press

a2) Push ups

b1) Pull ups

b2) inverted strap rows

c1) db military press

c2) Pike push ups

d1) dbl kb box squat

d2) Pistol squats

e1) Hanging leg raise

e2) Ab wheel rollout

I got an awesome buzz from this, grinding it out and working with intensity is key, stick to the timed rest to get the most out of it

Click Here to Download the work out

let me know how you got on.

To you strength and health

Dean

Conditioning, Endurance, General Physical Preparedness

Inferno – Density Conditioning

Hi Guys

Todays session was all about ramping up conditioning and for me getting back on the fitness trail.

I have let work get in the work of late if I am honest, my life work balance has been seriously F**ked up so I haven’t been getting the training in that I would have liked.

All work and no play makes Dean a Pain in the arse to live with, who would have thought that living your passion and working it would lead to more irregular training. No ones fault but my own, but there you go, shit happens and I am only human!

Partner that with ongoing injury niggles and rehab (shoulder issue and post op with my knee) and I backed away, not my usual style at all, but when you love what you do every day with such intense passion, it just doesn’t seem like work and things take over.

So the line was drawn, time to get back in the saddle, time to up my game, hell it is time to bring my A game, after all no other game is worth considering.

Time to nail everything down now, upped the strength and conditioning this week and set myself some short and longer term achievements I want to make.

I don’t normally set fitness goals other than more reps, heavier weights etc, but this time it is different.

Bodyweight mastery is what my goals are this year, but I will be supplementing this with various other drills using various tools and objects.

As I said, the name of the game today is density conditioning, the beauty of this drill today is that you can regress or progress it, do 1 part, 2 or all 3 depending on time or fitness levels. That being said you should always push to get it done, no excuses.

So 3 parts, each 7 minutes long, 4 exercises per part each done for 8 reps…

Part 1

8 Push ups

8 Dbl KettleBell box squats

8 Inverted strap rows

8 Db Lunges (Each Leg)

Rest for 1 – 2 minutes based on your general physical preparedness (GPP). Aim to get the rest below this though.

Part 2

8 Thruster Push Ups (Push up and squat thrust combo)

8 Six Step get Downs (6 high knee sprints followed by a sprawl into a push up position). Aim to move through this as fast as possible

8 Med Ball Slams

8 Side Lunges (Each Side)

Rest for 1 – 2 minutes based on your general physical preparedness (GPP). Aim to get the rest below this though.

Part 3

8 Push up to Db renegade Row

8 Ab Wheel Roll Outs

8 Burpee Push Ups

8 Squat Jumps

Remember the name of the game is discomfort, No one got anywhere doing the easy stuff, you have to put yourself through the forge, both physically and mentally if you are going to succeed.

If you don’t have the equipment substitute bodyweight exercises instead, just get the job done!

Yours in strength

Dean Coulson

Conditioning, Endurance, Mental Strength, Power, Speed Strength

Awesome Intervals

I always look forward to a conditioning session, call me masochist but I need to be pushing my limits every training session. To get anywhere in life you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. There is no growth in comfort, so if you are not going to put in 100% effort when you train and push the envelope you are not going to get where you want to be.

Mix it up

There are an abundance of exercises that can be used with different goals in mind. I enjoy the challenge of creating new routines, with different training protocols such as Intervals, Circuits, Tabata etc. If I do stick with a routine it is because I am getting a measure of progress, say if I am measuring endurance or power, whether my work capacity is improving or if I want to achieve a certain level of conditioning.

Awesome Intervals

Check out this interval circuit I tried out today, my focus was on power and endurance. This is as tough as you make it so I suggest you dig deep, bite the bullet and get it on!

Lateral Burpee Pushup
Explosive Step ups
Dips
Box Jumps
Med Ball Slams
Skipping rope (Double Unders)
Med Ball Squats
Narrow Push ups

Inverted Rows – Finisher

Although a standard definition of an interval is performing an exercise then performing rest, I have enhanced this protocol by grouping the above exercises as one unit and so performed 30 seconds of each without rest until the circuit is complete. Then I rested for a minute. You can judge your work capacity this way by seeing how quickly you recover after completing each round of exercises. I performed six rounds of this interval circuit and man it was a killer.

I finished the session off with bodyweight inverted rows, a great way to hit your back in an explosive fashion, in this instance I set a rep range so I could push more out before reaching failure.

A little over 30 minutes and you are done. Of course if you are pushed for time or if you are just starting out you can cut the amount of rounds or reduce the amount of exercises to suit your needs. Just don’t do it to make it easy!

To get a great overview on why conditioning is so important, get over to and check out my article.

I haven’t listed exercise descriptions here, but if anyone is unsure about how to perform the exercises then drop me a comment below.

Be strong

Dean

Conditioning, Mental Strength, Power, Speed

20 Rep Shuffle

Hey there, just wanted to post up my training session from today.

You don’t need much equipment to put yourself through a gruelling training session. As you can see from the picture, a box, med ball, a pair of dumbbells and something to jump over is all I used, hell you could get away without any at all, your bodyweight would take care of the rest.

Today was a conditioning day and so used a modified version of the conditioning circuit I gave my class last night, they rocked it and I missed out, so not to be out done I swapped it about and changed the rules using repetitions instead of being against the clock.

The difference between reps and time is that depending on time limits, reps can be harder, no clock saving you, you just gotta rep it out!

I picked 10 stations, 20 reps per station and no rest until the circuit is done. By completing 5 circuits it gives you 100 reps per exercise!

Box jump – Standing jump on and off a box, bench etc
Dips – Off the box or bench
Frog Jumps – Squatting down palms on the floor and jumping up
Dumbbell punches- Light dumbbells, arms moving in and out in front of you
Prisoner Squats – Hands behind your head, squatting down and up
Med Ball Slams – Pick a med ball above your head and slam to the ground fast!
Dumbbell Lunges – As you lunge down, press dumbbells into the air
Lateral Burpees – Perform burpee, jump sideways over an object and repeat
Pushups – Different variations (Wide, Normal, Narrow, Pike, Divebomber)
Skipping rope – High knees, keeping a fast cadence

So 20 reps per station, with the exception of 2, You ain’t gonna get much from 20 dumbbell punches and 20 rope turns, so I upped them to 100 each.

Train Hard, keep lean!

The beauty of the 20 rep shuffle is that it is versatile, exercises can be changed, number of reps or number of circuits. But remember… IT IS MEANT TO BE HARD….. No shirking off!

This is a great way to burn fat, save lean muscle and build explosive power and build a high level of stamina, muscular endurance all in one simple workout.

I would love you to drop me a comment about this workout or anything else you want to know

So there you have it the 20 rep shuffle…….With a twist

Stay strong, stay fit and I will speak to you soon.

Dean

Conditioning, Strength

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

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