Conditioning | DEAN COULSON

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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, Power, Speed

Medicine Ball Plyometric Training

Hey, hope everyone is doing great, feeling good and getting into great shape.

I cranked out an amazing conditioning session today and thought i would share it with you.

Latest Craze

People are always looking for the latest and greatest craze to get them into shape, some new fad that all the “celebrities” are doing. Hell, I know some people try that crazy shit out, just because they won’t put the effort into a hard session that would actually give them the results they want. I have given up telling them because they won’t listen, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped!

Training Tool

Anyway, today focuses on a training tool that has been around for the longest time, boxers and athletes have been using them for years for explosive conditioning drills and yet I rarely see them being used or in gyms and even if they are in a gym they are gathering dust! the training tool I am on about (and I assume you have guessed by the title of the article) is a medicine ball.

Medicine Ball

A med ball has a multitude of uses, comes in various shapes and sizes and can be used in countless exercises. Today it was used for explosive or plyometric training. Most body weight exercises are suited to this type of training and almost all bodyweight exercises can be enhanced with a medicine ball. Plyometric training is designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system.

Todays session revolved around 5 exercises:

Med Ball Squat Jump
Med Ball Slam
Med Ball Burpee
Med Ball Power over
Med Ball V-up or jackknife sit up.

Each exercise is meant to be performing an a fast, explosive manner. In this case the tabata training protocol (20 seconds activity followed by 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds of each exercise). For this session it meant short sharp bursts of each exercise before moving swiftly onto the next exercise.

Of course you don’t have to do 5 exercises, you could pick any between 3 and 5. Mix it up by changing the timing to 30 seconds of activity, then 30 seconds rest. or even pick a rep range and perform for repetitions. Change the exercises around, pick different ones. Keep it interesting!

Above all else, it is meant to be difficult, push the envelope!

I would love you to drop me a comment about this workout or anything else you want to discuss. Just hit me up with a comment or an email!

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

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

Conditioning, Mental Strength

Animal Training for Warriors

A while Back I visited a wild animal park with my Family, it was amazing to see so many animals, in particular the Big Cats. They are the epitome of what we should strive to achieve on a fitness level. These beasts are awesome, I stood there and watched as a 25 stone tiger climbed a telegraph pole effortlessly to get some meat. It was truly incredible.

These amazing animals are in phenomenal condition, they exude power and conditioning by the bucket load. It was good to see the keeper being inventive and keeping them in shape by making them climb telegraph poles! Can you imagine climbing a pole at 25 stone especially as gracefully as these beasts?????

We can learn a lot about animal training from creatures such as this. For one, the only thing they use is bodyweight, no trips to the gym for them, just hunting food and surviving in the wild. Granted they are pretty well equipped to do so!

Although it ain’t sound practice to go live outside in the wild and go killing things to eat to get into awesome shape like these animals, sometimes it is worth looking at mammals and to emulate them in training.

The next time you are going to do some conditioning, think about adding the following into your training……

Bunny Hop

Start in a squatting position, hands behind your head and hop around.

Bear Crawl

Walk on all fours with your butt in the air, move left hand and left foot together then right hand and right foot at a brisk pace.

Crab Walk

Again on all fours, but this time with your stomach facing upwards. Walk forwards backwards and sideways.

Frog Jump

Start in the squat position with you hands on the floor in front of you.Jump forward and land on your hands and feet at the same time.

Inch worm

Start with your feet shoulder width apart, bend forward until your hands reach the floor. Walk your hands forward as far as you can without your stomach touching the floor, then reverse the process, walking your hands back to their starting position.

Kangaroo jump

Begin in a squat position. Jump forward and upwards at the same time, fully extend yourself during the jump. Make sure to land back in a squat position and repeat.

Alligator walk

go into the bottom position of a push up with your arms by your sides and without your torso touching the ground.Move forward left hand and left foot then right hand and right foot.

Get to it

The beauty of these exercises is that they can be done anywhere. The next time you think about doing sprints or shuttles, try doing them this way, I guarantee that you will immediately feel the burn.

in fact try the following shuttle complex….

mark out 25 metres, pick 4 of the exercises above and do them without rest. Rest 1 minute and repeat 8 times.

And before you say it, who cares what people might think or say when you are seen doing these movements. Who cares!!! Get them down doing it, I guarantee they will soon shut up!

Train hard, train strong!

Dean Coulson

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