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

Mental Strength

3 Things to avoid on Holiday

Hey everyone, recently got back from holiday and had to put up my thoughts on training when you are away on vacation, so here they are…………

DO NOT DO IT

I repeat

DO NOT DO IT

you should be kicking back and be relaxing!

Don’t Do it!

Here are 3 possible examples of what you might get the urge to do…………..

1) Go out running! For one thing it is just plain cazy to go out running it the heat, it looks so painful! shuffling along leaking more water than you can take in and on top of that you end up lost?!?!? WTF??? No way! not when you could be lying by the pool chilling out!

2) Try to build a sand Castle the size of a small mountain!!! too much effort required!!! Lets your kids do it whilst you lay on the beach and listen to the waves come in!

3) Participate is some crazy assed sport that a holiday rep drags you too.

Ok, so they sound crazy right? but you would be amazed how many people cannot switch off and chill out on holiday!

I have recently spent a great 12 days on holiday with the family. It is always great to get away from it all and really relax and not worry about anything including training.

Your body requires rest and and recuperation through out the year but spending time relaxing away from your normal environment is a great way to recharge your batteries.

The Old Days

It wasn’t always that way for me. Before I had my little lad and was just gung ho training, I went on every holiday armed with my skipping rope and my bodyweight as my tools of choice for training whilst I was away.

My wife thought I was crazy, but alas that made no difference, if I had a half hour going spare, I would pulling myself up trees, squatting, push ups you name it. Skipping was my favourite, however I don’t recommend skipping on a beach, it just doesn’t work, no matter how much you try!

For the people that know me I am known for my drive and intensity when I am training, I just keep going and going. If I can make an exercise harder I will, I really do have a masochistic streak. However as I have gotten older I have also gotten wiser and now I do not do a thing when I am on holiday other than relax and have fun. In the scheme of things you won’t lose much by way of strength or conditioning. Sure it will dip, but letting your body rest and recuperate are more important values in my book.

Some may argue that they need to exercise and believe me, I hear ya, but the bottom line is this….

You, your body and your mind need to back off every once in a while. Realistically you should factoring in a week of complete rest or decreased training volume every 8 weeks or so. Go find something else to do, just take it easy.

And nobody knows that more than me!

You got any comments on holiday training craziness then fire away, I would love to hear from you.

Stay Healthy

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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