Endurance | DEAN COULSON

Home
Archives: Endurance

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, mindset, Motivation

Crazy Fitness Challenges – Intention is Everything!

Ok last week I decided that this was the week to get my crazy challenge done and that was to do 1500 burpees in 1 day.

You may remember my last post was about not getting it done, I laid bare, I put it out there that it is OK to fail and not get what you want or where you want to be every time it’s attempted.

But I also said that it shouldn’t be any excuse to give up either. This is where the winners are separated from the losers. Winners, will get up, dust off and move forwards again, Losers will think it is too much stay in their comfort zone and back off, like a boxer wanting his ultimate dream of winning the title. Do you think they lie on the canvas after a setback? if they can and want it badly enough they will get back up.

I am a naturally positive person and so always look at the best of things even if they are going to shit. This is both a blessing and a curse, because you have got to realise that you can be the most positive person in the world and things will still be shit for you, because you still have to do things and by doing things that cause you discomfort and pain.

I know this first hand. For Example I can and will frequently completely wreck myself training, I have a gung ho style, which completely takes over with a serious amount of determination and drive. I am driven to be better than was the day before, I compete with myself to be better. I don’t just train in a traditional sense with Barbells and dumbbells, I look for all manner of things, which are now becoming more and more popular these days.

I have always pushed the boundaries of everything i do.

What stands me apart and I am sure many others is how you push, how you handle the set backs, how you handle the failures. If someone dares to say I cannot do something then that is a challenge, a gauntlet laid down.

Impossible Is Nothing!

NO ONE tells me I cannot do something.

NO ONE is going to try and shape my future because they either

don’t want you to succeed
don’t want you to high light them as a failure because they can’t or won’t do what they can in their lives to succeed
Try to manipulate you for their own gain. or
All of the above.

Despite the failure of the challenge I set myself the week before, it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Even though I didn’t do it first attempt, I never thought for one second it would be unattainable. My intention was sound and I believed I could do it, no question, no doubt. 1500 was just a number I was just going to get it done.

Don’t get me wrong, for the amount of burpees in one day it may seem like a big number but I didn’t see it that way. Near the end my legs were getting tired, but I still kept going.

Remember it only seems impossible until either you or someone else does it.

“Our Beliefs determine how high we set our sights”

Ambitious beliefs lead to ambitious goals. Limiting beliefs lead to impotent goals. You will rarely accomplish more that what you set out to, and can’t hit the target if you’re not aiming for it.

“The man who can drive himself further when the effort gets painful is the man who will win.” –Roger Bannister

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a sub-4 minute mile. Prior to this monumental event, the 4-minute mile barrier was considered by some to be physically impossible. But the next month the barrier was again shattered by John Landy, and in the following few years broken by almost a dozen more runners. Now, there are almost 900 men who have run a sub-4 minute mile, including a former high school student and a 40+ year-old man.

The only limits are those that you set upon your self.

If you want to do something do it, find a way, set your stall out, do what you need to do and get it done.

If there is something you want in your life, then go out and get it, life is simply too short. It is only deemed impossible because it hasn’t been done. Why not make it possible by doing it?

To your strength and Health

Dean Coulson

Conditioning, Endurance, General Physical Preparedness, Mental Strength, Strength

The Dirty Dozen – Conditioning Program

I find strength and conditioning has no bounds other than the imagination of the person creating it. Yes it helps if you have experience in this field as I do, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

This session will help you increase your strength endurance or functional strength and conditioning. it will also improve your general physical preparedness, or the ability to recover quickly after periods of intense exercise, whether that be high intensity interval training or resistance training.

The premise of this training session is a simple one.

Select 12 exercises and perform each one for 12 reps… Simple

But when does simple equate to easy 🙂

You can perform this anywhere, if you haven’t got access to a gym then get creative and use body weight. there is always a way.

I have performed this outside in temperatures below freezing and in gyms. it doesn’t matter where.

This principles of this session were actually devised by somebody else, so I take no credit them other than the effort I used to perform it. It is always good to learn from others, whether it is another idea of how to apply what you know or something completely different.

My friend from across the pond, Joe Hashey knows a thing or two about designing programs and being a bit off the wall in his training methods, so when I saw his idea for the dirty dozen training protocol as I pondered on a training session a few weeks back I thought that I had to give it a go.

So pick 12 exercises and perform 12 reps of each exercise, sounds easy right?

Well you would be wrong, the first time I tried this it kicked my ass, I was completely gassed. Lucky for me my general physical preparedness (GPP) is at a level where I can recover quickly between rounds. After 4 though I had had enough.

The program is designed to alternate between strength and conditioning exercises. Of course it isn’t an out and out max strength program and lends itself more to conditioning and strength endurance, but it makes for one hell of a training session. As Joe says, “it is more a method of training and is designed to be short, flexible with the equipment available and what you want to get out of it”.

Which Level?

Your fitness level will define the amount of rest you take. By splitting it up into 3 levels of difficulty it allows you to have your rest defined in advance so you know when to grasp some extra air.

Beginner

Pick 12 exercises, perform 2, rest 20 seconds and move onto the next 2 until the 12 are complete

1) Strength

2) Conditioning

REST 20 seconds and repeat 6 more times

Intermediate

Pick 12 exercises, perform 4, rest 20 seconds and move onto the next 4 until the 12 are complete

1) Strength

2) Conditioning

3) Strength

4) Conditioning

REST 20 seconds and repeat 3 more times

Advanced

Pick 12 exercises, perform 6, rest 20 seconds and move onto the next 6 until the 12 are complete

1) Strength

2) Conditioning

3) Strength

4) Conditioning

5) Strength

6) Conditioning

REST 20 seconds and repeat 1 more time

At the end of the 12 exercises, Rest for 60-90 seconds and repeat for 3-6 rounds depending on your fitness level. Make sure you push hard!!

My Dirty Dozen

I fired in an intermediate session with the following exercises, I have got a shiny new weight vest and decided this was the day I was gonna christen it. I am not sure that was the brightest idea but there you go 🙂

All the exercises were done wearing the vest:

Alternating Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Squat
Inverted strap row
Lunge jumps

REST 20 seconds

Pushups
Burpees
Alternating Dumbbell Rows
Squat jumps

REST 20 Seconds

Dumbbell squat thrust to RDL
Med Ball Slam
Dumbbell Curls
Full Jack knife (V sits ) sit ups

REST 60-90 seconds and repeat for 4 rounds

Man that weight vest made a BIG difference, it totally pushed me to my limit. Remember you can make this method up with any 12 exercises that you want.

Give it a go, post up the exercises and rest and rounds, make it a challenge!

Be strong, stay healthy

Dean

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

Page 1 of 8

First

Last