Personal Progression

It's great that my project is making such superb progress, I'm so happy for her that she's making great gains every week.
With all of her improvement, gains and huge leaps this week I decided to test myself, see how far I can push my body and see what effect my training is having on my strength.
At present I weigh 83kg.

Well, it's been an amazing few days for personal bests!

In February 2013 I was squatting 100kg for 3 reps and I could deadlift 100kg (but it wasn't pretty)

On the 8th of April I set a new barbell squat personal best of 135kg.
Last week (19th April 2013) I achieved a new personal best deadlift of 185kg

19th April 2013 - 185kg deadlift

Yesterday (22nd of April 2013) I decided to have another crack at the deadlift. I lifted 195kg - that's just short of 2.5 times my bodyweight.

22nd April 2013 - 195kg deadlift

Today I was due to train legs as part of Phase 2 of my Jumping Power programme. I also wanted to have another try at maxing out my barbell squat. After my training I felt a little less than confident and decided not to go for a new personal best today. I started on some accessory training and decided that I would have a try after all, I didn't want any negativity in my training. The only thing holding me back was me.
I was especially fortunate that Will Wayland was in and training today.
After I'd worked my way up to 140kg Will offered to spot me if I needed him.
As I loaded up the bar with 145kg I felt nervous. I wasn't totally sure that I could lift this load.
I got under the bar and told myself that I could do it, I wouldn't let myself down.
I did it, lifted 145kg with no physical assistance.
So today I got a new personal best of 145kg on my barbell squat.

At this point I mentally slapped myself and decided I could do it.

22nd April 2013 - 145kg barbell squat

Thanks again to mi-gym for giving me a great place to train; somewhere full of positive and enthusiastic people and full of awesome equipment (thanks to Jordan Fitness)


Here's another little personal story:
Quite some time ago I worked for a major health club chain, we decided to have a 'Deadlift Challenge' on the gym floor to get more members involved in lifting weights and stepping away from the cardio machines (this mission of mine has been going on quite some time).
At this time my training was predominantly bodyweight so I had no idea what I could lift.
Over the course of the day all the 'big' guys came over to show off, they were generally starting to struggle at about 100kg. A few went over 100kg and got towards 150kg.
I'm not afraid to admit that at the time I felt intimidated by these 'big' guys and I didn't even attempt a lift of over 90kg for fear of appearing weak if I failed. After all, I only weighed a little over 80kg.
Funny thing is, I weigh the same today as I did back then.
You don't need to be huge to be strong, and a little confidence goes a long way.

The past few weeks have drummed home again and again that training is as much mental as it is physical. First believe that you can achieve your goals, then go out and smash them!

6 Week Project: End of Week 2

This week we trained twice as I'll be away for our usual Friday session. We met as usual on Friday, then again on Monday to touch base and train.

Once again we aimed to complete the same workout with the addition of a complex:

Pulling exercises for pole dancing strength:
3 x 3reps pull ups (unable to pull up, so jumped up and performed a slow descent)
3 x 5reps 12kg ball slams
3 x 3reps Band lat pull
3 x 5reps Assisted high pull up

At the start of the pulling section she proudly told me that her pole dancing manoeuvres are feeling easier and she's definitely increased her useful strength with regard to pole dancing. This was great to hear as I knew it'd boost her confidence and give her more faith in the programme.

Complex pattern:

Entire sequence performed with a barbell as one complex movement pattern without letting go of the bar

Bent over row, deadlift, hang clean, overhead press, front squat, put bar down and repeat x5.At this stage we used a 20kg bar with 2x 5kg plates on (30kg total weight)

She found the complex quite challenging, more challenging than she expected. Her technique is quite good and her form stayed good to the last rep.

This exercise will help increase her metabolism and therefore aid fat burning. 

Heavy Lifts:
3 x 5reps Barbell squat @ 45kg
3 x 5reps Deadlift @ 55kg
3 x 5reps Kettlebell bent over row @ 24kg (2x 12kg)
3 x 5reps Lateral raise @ 5kg
3 x 5 reps Front raise, straight arms @ 10kg (2x 5kg plates)

Once again, massive gains in this department. Further proof that she's still finding her groove, learning the exercises and getting confident. After the first set of squats it was clear that 45kg was too light to be challenging, so we added another 5kg. Barbell squat is now 50kg. That's a HUGE 10kg jump from 2 weeks ago. I think she's still got a little more in the tank too.

Deadlift we kept at 55kg for now.

She also mentioned that even though the lateral raise and front raise are still difficult, they are significantly easier than when she started.

Circuit to finish off
3 rounds of:
10 low bar pull ups (feet on floor in front)
10 press ups
10 Medicine ball squat & throw @ 6kg (Crossfit 'Wall Ball')
10 Kettlebell swings @ 16kg

Once again, amazing effort in the circuit this week! She completed the circuit in 3:38 (week 1 was 4:44) that's over 1 minute improvement!

At the end of this session she confided in me that she'd been having doubts as to her progress. Friends that have done 'crash diets' have seen rapid weight loss. 

Fortunately the progressive and productive session tonight restored her faith in the programme.

We're looking at healthy, sustainable results to produce a healthy, happy client at the end.

Up to 50kg squats now. Great work!

Our second session this week was only 3 days after the usual session, so for this additional session simply did the following:

Complex pattern:

Entire sequence performed with a barbell as one complex movement pattern without letting go of the bar

Bent over row, deadlift, hang clean, overhead press, front squat, put bar down and repeat x5.At this stage we used a 20kg bar with 2x 5kg plates on (30kg total weight)

This time after the complex had been completed, she rested for 60 seconds and repeated the complex once more.

She finished the second complex visibly out of breath and sweating. 

Even at this stage it was a surprise to her that short bursts of intense exercise can result in shortness of breath and perspiration.

Heavy Lifts:
3 x 5reps Barbell squat @ 45kg
3 x 5reps Deadlift @ 55kg
3 x 5reps Kettlebell bent over row @ 24kg (2x 12kg)
More gains! Clear evidence that a person become neurologically 'strong' before their muscles adapt. Simply learning the exercise and gaining confidence will help you work more efficiently.

We kept the squats at 50kg as this was still tough after increasing load on Friday. 

The 55kg deadlift looked a little easy tonight, so after the first set we added another 5kg to the bar. In 2 weeks her deadlift has gone from 50kg to 60kg. I'm so impressed and proud of her results.

As we won't see each other for another 10 days I've set some 'homework'. Not only will she be practicing our little circuit on her own, she'll also be using the Tabata Interval Protocol in her own time up to 5 times this week. I've told her that she can choose any bodyweight exercise she likes for this interval training.

The musical tracks in the link above are mixed by myself to give a 20 second 'work' phase followed by a 10 second 'rest' phase. This is repeated for 8 work phases. The whole workout is only 4 minutes long.

Once again, I can't express how proud I am of the gains and achievements she's made already.

She's a superstar!

2013 London Marathon

Today was the 2013 London Marathon, 26.2 miles of running around the streets of London.
I've never been a distance runner, but I can appreciate a physical feat when I see one. So this year I wanted to go along to watch and cheer on the brave runners.
Two of the members at mi-gym were running, as was another friend, so spotting 3 individuals in 37,000 would be an exercise in my perceptive skills if nothing else.

Having never watched the marathon before I wasn't sure what to expect. If I'm honest, I was expecting to be a little bored watching 37,000 people jog past. I couldn't have been more wrong.
We jumped on the train in the morning and headed to Poplar in East London to settle in at the 20 mile mark. After this waypoint it's basically 6 miles in a straight line to the finish line.

Just stop a moment and think about how far twenty-six miles actually is. That's a massive distance, and these people are going to run it!

We arrived at our spectator spot just in time to see the last of the elite runners run past. This alone was incredibly impressive, these men and women had been running for TWENTY MILES and were still going at what I would regard as a sprint. Wow, I'm already glad we came.

I couldn't help but clap and cheer as wave after wave of club runners and normal people came running past. I could see the determination in their faces, I could see who had been training and who was moving forward on sheer force of will.
It was incredible to see such a range of ages, body shapes and ability levels all taking part in the same herculean feat of endurance.
Seeing people run past wearing signs that read 'running for mum' or 'I'll never forget dad' restored my faith in the human race. These people had set out to do something, and today was the day that they were actually doing it, and I got to share in a tiny part of that.
The atmosphere was absolutely magical.
We spurred joggers back into running, we gave words of encouragement to runners who had stopped to stretch, one lady runner smiled up from her stretch and simply said "It's the best and worst day of my life". Then off she ran.

There were old people, big people, beautiful ladies with full faces of makeup, skinny people, muscular people and those who just looked ready to drop.
There were people talking on the phone while still running, people texting (or tweeting) and some that just looked completely 'in the zone'. 37,000 individuals running across London, each with their own reason for being there, each with their own story.

I still cringed every time I saw the bleeding nipples from twenty miles of chafing, but the runners didn't seem phased, they just kept on running.

Before I knew it we'd been standing, cheering and clapping for over 3 hours, and I was still smiling.

Other than an idiot spectator who decided to stand in the road in the way of the runners, and seeing a few trips, there wasn't a hint of negativity all day.

All in all it was a massively positive day and I can't wait to go back next year to support the brave runners in London.
Well done to everyone who took part.

And lastly, huge respect to all of those crazy enough to run the marathon in a large costume. Amazing.

Here's a few of my pictures from the day:

Excuse me sir, you're just in the way

One to one Parkour coaching

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when a 36yr old lady contacted me about learning Parkour.
This particular lady came to a couple of my Parkour classes earlier in the year, although she enjoyed the activity, she was conscious about training with a group that were all so much younger than her.

This week she called me up and asked about 1:1 training. I was glad that she still wanted to train and learn Parkour so we set it up.
So we agreed to meet at mi-gym to warm up, then onto some general movement and mobility work.
Once warm I took her through takeoff and landing techniques followed by some ground level jumps between lines we marked on the floor.
I was being especially careful in making sure she could jump and land correctly before we did anything outside.

After the basic technique drills I was very happy with how capable she was. We then jogged 1km to the training spot I had planned for the main portion of our session together.
Conscious that she might be nervous jumping around in public, I chose a spot that wasn't in the middle of town, but also wasn't too enclosed or secluded.

We began with quadrupedal movement forwards and backwards at a moderate height, then we repeated the precision jumps we had drilled earlier, only this time we were jumping between walls instead of between lines on the floor.
My lady student was perfectly comfortable and unfazed by the walls or the height (only around 3ft at this point) and was landing the jumps with grace and balance.
I then got her to link multiple movements together, foot placement and plyo jumps between obstacles.
Other than a little hesitation at the start, she took it all in her stride.

Finally we went for a small cat leap and some shimmy movements after landing the cat leap. The only thing that I threw at her during the outdoor training that she wasn't able to do was a climb up from cat leap position.
Even when I allowed he to use her elbows on top of the wall, she still was unable to get herself up.

The Parkour climb up and the muscle up are very similar movements. With a climb up you are able to use your legs to push your body upwards as you pull with your arms.

As it was almost the end of the session we went back to mi-gym and finished off with some of the pull up and muscle up exercises I posted about recently.
We'll be revisiting these exercises next week to help her get the strength required to complete a climb up.

All in all a great session and a great student.

Parkour 'Cat Leap'

mi-gym.com photoshoot

This week a very good friend of mine, Jamie Hammond, brought his studio setup along to mi-gym. We didn't really have a specific photographic agenda, just wanted to experiment with the lighting and the venue to see what we could create.

We shot everything on my Canon 550D and used 3 lights to get these shots.

Huge thanks to mi-gym.com for letting us use the space.
All the equipment featured is from Jordan Fitness
It goes without saying that the shoot was powered by Superlife Nutrition

Rachel from mi-gym

Train hard, play hard

Close up of Brad Wendes

William Wayland of www.powering-through.com

Jordan resistance band

All fun and games at mi-gym

Jamie the photographer trying to lift

Brad Wendes - gymnastic rings

Box fit

Brad Wendes barbell curl

Brad Wendes - Kettlebell goblet squat

Brad Wendes hanstand

Brad Wendes & Kelly Stevens

Loving the Superlife Nutrition Super Protein