Learn Parkour with Brad Wendes

Here's a link to a higher resolution version of the Learn Parkour movie made with Zoe Salmon earlier this year.

The shoot was a lot of fun and I think she genuinely enjoyed herself!

Vimeo Learn Parkour Video

Brad Wendes & TV's Zoe Salmon

If you would like to Learn Parkour, contact Team Kinetix for details on classes, workshops or one-to-one coaching.
Alternatively, follow Team Kinetix on Facebook for updates, regular pictures & videos.

Eccentric leg training

Following up from the popular articles and video on French Contrast Method for leg power I got together with Will Wayland to show you how you can further enhance that training with the use of Eccentrics and Isometric training.

This video is an introduction to eccentric leg training, we'll follow it up with some new ways to use eccentric training and also how, when and why to use isometric training.

What happened next?

I was thoroughly impressed with the results of the Six Day Shred, the next question was 'how long does it last'?

Well the simple answer is that within 24 hours I looked the same as I did on day 3. That is slightly leaner that the start, but nowhere near as defined as I was at the peak.
The 'pump' had gone from my muscles by the morning of day 7.

Say goodbye to your gains

So I went through 6 days testing my willpower and almost killing myself with water for less than 24 hours of improved physique.

Was it worth it: totally!

Would I do it again: no way!

As an experiment I've learned a lot and have kept some aspects of the diet in my regular life (reduced sugar intake, staying appropriately hydrated and cutting carbs slightly).

From a vanity point of view it's not worth putting yourself through all that for a day at the beach and pretty pointless for a holiday as it only lasts a day.

However, if you're a competitive bodybuilder, this method may be the difference between first place and tenth place. Alternatively if you're a fitness model, this method could land you that Calvin Klein underwear job. 

It really depends on how important 24 hours of improved physique is to you.

The dangers and difficulty of this method put me off trying it again unless I had a very good reason to.

Carbs, glorious carbs!

Day 5 of the 6 Day Cutting Plan and today is the day I'm finally allowed some carbs! 5-6 meals, each containing 50-75g of carbs - YUMMY!

Here's the plan for today:
"In the first one or two meals, have fruits as your main carbohydrate source. Starting the carb-up with fruit replenishes liver glycogen very fast. We believe that the faster liver glycogen is filled, the more effective the rest of the carb-up will be. 

Continue drinking up to 10 litres of water today, don't gradually stop water intake. When you cut water intake later on, it should be a shock to the system.

For meals three and four, move to starchier, faster-absorbing carbs (potatoes, pasta or rice if it's tolerated well). Meal number 4 should be at around 4:00pm.

Now the "fun" begins. Water intake should be cut completely at 4:00 or 5:00pm. One or two more meals should be consumed after you cut water. Have only one if you're already looking "full." Have two if not. These meals should contains carbs derived from simple sugars: pancakes and syrup, pie filling, waffles, chocolate, etc. (see, it's not all bad!)

Also on Friday, take a herbal diuretic or black coffee (if it's not going to stop you sleeping)"

So, that's the plan. Here's how my day actually went:

We have a big corporate performance tomorrow, it was confirmed yesterday, so I now need to source Victorian costumes for the guys, sort out our driver and make sure everyone knows where to be and when.

I also need to get my new CRB check done to start working in more schools around the area, apparently this NEEDS to be done this morning.

So I had breakfast at 8:30am.

Breakfast was 1 banana, 1 apple and a Super Protein Shake.

I then went to the City Council offices to sort out my police check. At 10:00am I was out of there and ready for meal number 2.

Meal 2 was 2 apples and 250g of chicken breast.

While in the City centre I picked up some essentials and sourced the remaining costumes.

It was now 11:00am and I was due to teach at 1:15pm.

Unfortunately I'd felt like I may have looked silly carrying a gallon of water into the Council offices, so I'd gone 2 hours without any water.

Back on it at 1:00, made up for lost time: glug glug glug....

Home by 11:30 and time to cook lunch.

Lunch was 175g sliced, grilled white potato with garlic and sea salt, 2 sausages and a little gem lettuce.

Water consumption continues.

From 1:15 - 3:30 I was teaching in a primary school, limited water consumption as my gallon bottle prompted so many questions from the 10yr olds.

3:30 I head to the shops on my way home to pick up pancakes and syrup for my first sweet treat! Simple carbs, how I've missed you!

Interesting that I'm now over my sugar cravings and although I was 'allowed' simple carbs, I had no desire to pick up a chocolate bar at the checkout...

At 4:15pm I was eating my 4th meal.

Meal 4 was 100g golden syrup pancakes with butter and maple syrup - yummy!

I can't even tell you what it tasted like as it was devoured in seconds.

As of 4:30pm my I've cut water consumption completely - only 8 litres consumed today, let's hope it was enough!

Carb, glorious carbs!

Now I'm rushing because I'm meeting Becki's parents at a restaurant at 5:30pm and have tickets to the theatre for 7:30pm tonight.

Meal number 5 at 6:00pm. We went for an Italian meal before the theatre.

Meal 5 was a thin base pizza with roughly 100g chicken breast, half a red onion, 75g of bacon and 2 spring onions on top of the pizza sauce and cheese (estimates). Followed by a sticky toffee pudding and ice cream (gotta get those simple carbs!)

I accompanied dinner with 1 small glass of full sugar Coke.

I wasn't sure what to do about fluid consumption this evening. I know my aim is to 'dry' out by body, I had no access to diuretics or vegetable glycerine, so I opted for a filter coffee followed by a 330ml bottle of beer. Hopefully that should be enough to continue flushing my system - I needed to pee twice at the theatre, so all seems good.

By 11:00pm I was gasping for a drink and needed to pee. I certainly feel 'dry'.

By midnight my pee had some colour to it and smelled like urine - it's been clear and odourless for a few days now.
Let's see what happens overnight. This is where the magic should happen!

Back on track

Day 4 of the 6 Day Cutting Plan has been a good one. I've regulated my electrolytes by taking a sachet of Dioralyte for every 5 litres of water consumed.

I'm also trying not to drink more than 1 litre per hour as that's about the limit that my kidneys can process.

After yesterday I'm being as sensible as possible while sticking to the plan.

Breakfast at 8:30am was a banana and a Super Protein Shake.

Then I headed to mi-gym to meet Sam and train at 9:00am. Today was a tough one for the upper body:

- 3 sets of 5 bench press @ 70kg
- 3 sets of 5 Kettlebell flyes @ 16kg per arm
- 3 sets of 5 reverse flyes @ 8kg per arm
- Superset 3 sets of 5 pull up & ring dips
- 3 sets of 8 ring push ups
- 3 sets of 10 IYT with 2.5kg per hand
- 3 sets of 10 fat grip barbell curls @ 20kg - with 10 second isometric hold on the last rep

Straight after training I had another Super Protein Shake.

As I only teach in the evening on Thursdays, today was a mainly admin day at home, so should be fairly easy to regulate food and water.

Mid-morning snack at 11:00 was 4 pork sausages, a little gem lettuce and 2 boiled beetroot (15g carbs total, not crap sausages)

Lunch at 14:30 was 2 scrambled egg and another 2 sausages.

More water consumption in the afternoon before going out at 4:30pm to teach our weekly Parkour & Free Running class.
Home at 7:30pm and chilled while drinking more water.

15 Litres finished by 9:00pm - BOOM!

(thanks to Joe for sending this picture over)

Feeling good, not craving chocolate and looking forward to eating properly tomorrow (drinking 10 litres before 4:00pm will be tough, but I get pancakes!)

BRING IT ON!

Getting shredded in 6 days

Everyone wants to be shredded sometimes!

At the beginning of October I'll be going on a (long overdue) week long holiday, we're going on a cruise around the Eastern Mediterranean.
It's pretty hot over there, even at this time of year, so I may end up taking my shirt off or spending some time sunbathing by the on board pool.

With this in mind, I decided to try out a cutting technique known as 'drying out'. This is pretty common practice for competing sports models and physique competitors.
I'm looking at a 6 day process of loading myself with water while taking on a high protein low carbohydrate diet to make my body 'flush', then tactically carbing up at the end of the week as I completely drop my fluid intake. I'll also be training pretty hard in an attempt to become glycogen depleted.

I'm fully aware that the definition produced by this process will last 2 days at most, but it's a good excuse to experiment on myself.

Just for the record: These techniques will not make you look "ripped" if you are in fat! While most people can drop a significant amount of fat along with the water in these six days, this is not primarily a "diet." It's designed to help already lean people get super lean. It's also worth mentioning that this technique IS NOT a sustainable weight management program, it's purely a short sharp fix for an athlete / model to get in shape for a competition / photoshoot.

It's also worth mentioning that energy levels will be down by the end of this process and that a 'dry' or dehydrated body will not be performing at maximum efficiency.

Ryan Reynolds looking 'ripped'

These techniques are often used by actors to quickly get into shape for a topless scene. It's entirely possible that Ryan Reynolds used this type of fluid manipulation to increase his definition for this infamous scene in Blade: Trinity

(not necessary for this article, I just quite like Ryan Reynolds)

<EDIT> - If you intend to try this yourself, please be aware of the dangers of too much water. Please read about the effects I experienced and how I rectified them before even considering something like this - Day 3 pitfalls of too much water

Here's the programme I'll be sticking to this week:

(This schedule assumes a Saturday bodybuilding competition, photo shoot, or day at the beach)

Monday: 10 to 15 Litres of water, 50g or less total carbs

Tip: Buy three 5 litre bottles of water with a handle. This will let you see exactly how much water you have left to go. And the handle makes it easy to carry around with you everywhere — which you'll pretty much have to do to get in three gallons! 

Pro Tip: Don't ever be too far from a toilet / ditch / bush.

Tuesday: Same as above

Wednesday: Same as above

Thursday: Same as above

Friday: Begin a gradual carb-up. Today eat five or six meals, each containing 50-75g of carbs.

In the first one or two meals, have fruits as your main carbohydrate source. Starting the carb-up with fruit replenishes liver glycogen very fast. We believe that the faster liver glycogen is filled, the more effective the rest of the carb-up will be.

For meals three and four, move to starchier, faster-absorbing carbs (potatoes, pasta or rice if it's tolerated well). Meal number 4 should be at around 4:00pm.

Now the "fun" begins. Water intake should be cut completely at 4:00 or 5:00pm. One or two more meals should be consumed after you cut water. Have only one if you're already looking "full." Have two if not. These meals should contains carbs derived from simple sugars: pancakes and syrup, pie filling, waffles, chocolate, etc. (see, it's not all bad!)

Along with this simple sugar meal, have two tablespoons of vegetable glycerine (found in most health food stores). Also on Friday, take a herbal diuretic or black coffee (if it's not going to stop you sleeping). Although the proper thing to do is go by the label directions with these type of products, best results are usually achieved by taking three servings on Friday: one about an hour or two before you cut water intake, one when you cut intake, and one before bed.

Another trick is to take an Epsom salt bath (400g of Epsom salt in very hot water) for 20-30 minutes before bed. This is what bodybuilders did to help shed water before diuretics became popular. (The salt and mega hot bath drastically increase perspiration.)

Saturday (photo or beach day): Breakfast depends on how you look.

• Looking flat? Have another simple sugar meal.

• Looking good? Small portion of fruit and protein.

• Holding water? Protein only (shake with very little water).

Forty-five minutes before pumping up for your shoot, take in two tablespoons of glycerol in one can of full-sugar soda. 

Voila; hardly any subcutaneous water and muscles full of water.

I'll keep you posted on my progress, may also put up some before and after images.

Full article on this method from T-Nation can be found here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_mass/shredded_in_6_days

Increase Vertical Jump & Learn to Muscle Up

These are probably the 2 most common requests I get when talking to people about training: "how can I jump further / higher?" and "I can do loads of pull ups, but I can't muscle up. How can I learn?"

I posted these videos earlier in the year and the feedback has been great! 

Big thanks to Will Wayland at Powering-Through.com and to Scramblog for sharing the videos. As always, big thanks to mi-gym.com for letting us experiment and film there.

I've since had emails from people all over the world asking further questions on the techniques and telling me what great progress they've made on their jump / pulling power.

So here's a quick reminder of the French Contrast method for increasing jumping power:

Remember, this type of training is suitable for no more than 6 weeks at a time. You may also want to work an eccentric phase and an isometric phase to increase your speed of movement (do I feel another couple of videos coming on?)

Being strong is great, but if 2 athletes are equal in strength, the one that is more reactive and can deliver the power faster and more efficiently will be the better performer.
Power is nothing without control; would you drive a Ferrari with ineffective brakes and suspension?


And so onto my pulling power video. Everyone seems to want to muscle up!
Again, I've had lots of feedback on this one with great positive comments on people's progress.

If you take nothing else from this video, remember this one thing: PULL HIGHER!
Most people train pull ups to get their chin above the bar, by the very nature of a muscle up we need to get the body higher (up into full front support really). So you need to train HIGH pull ups, pulling your elbows back and getting the bar to the bottom of your chest. If you can't do this yet then train the eccentric contraction; get yourself high on the bar (by jumping or standing on a box if necessary) then lower yourself down for the count of 5 or 6 seconds. Repeating this in 3 sets of 5 reps and you'll soon be very aware of your lats!

The other part of the muscle up that is often overlooked is the top phase. Remember the muscle up is a pulling and a pushing exercise.
So you need to train your dips, ideally ring dips. And as with the pull up, you need to increase your range of motion; try to get your thumbs to touch your shoulders then push up from there. You'll almost certainly find that you are weak at the bottom of the range. You can use a band to assist you initially, or train the eccentric phase (down).
If you find these dips are completely out of reach to begin with, you can also use push ups with the elbows tucked into your body to isolate the triceps.
Although to be brutally honest, if you can't perform a dip be aware that you may have a long way to go before you can muscle up.

The video touches on Isometric contractions to build strength too. It's worth training static holds for 15 - 30 seconds both at the top of your pull up and the bottom of your dip (or push up).

One last point on the muscle up; don't struggle up there one arm at a time or use your elbows on top of the bar.
A very good coach once told me:

"Practice makes permanent" 

That is to say that practice only makes 'perfect' if you practice perfect technique. Practice the wrong thing and bad habits will be hard to break.
When learning to muscle up always try to perform the transition (from pull up to dip) with both arms at the same time. Always aim to perform the movement correctly, don't teach your body bad habits just to get on top of the bar.

Good luck!

New toys! Fujifilm mirrorless cameras

There's been a lot of talk over the past year or so about the 'mirrorless revolution' in photography. All the major brands are releasing mirorless cameras with fairly large sensors and decent digital viewfinders.
Even some pros are picking up the Fujifilm X-Pro range instead of their trusty 5D MkIII or D4. I always felt this wasn't for me, I like the reassuring 'thwack' of a mirror slapping out of the way, I like the weight of my 7D with a big L lens on the front, I like holding my camera to my eye and seeing out of the lens. Most of all I love the quality of images that a modern DSLR with decent glass on the front can produce.

But sadly we all have to fly with budget airlines occasionally and my kit bag sits at about 15kg with no spare room for so much as a toothbrush!

I was on  shoot earlier this year and one of the camera guys showed me a lovely retro-styled Fujifilm X100s. He told me that he went travelling around India and left the DSLR at home, relying entirely on this compact camera to catalogue his travels.
It was a thing of beauty with an optical viewfinder, a fixed 35mm (equivalent) lens and an APS-C sized sensor (same as my 7D). I immediately wanted one!
The Fujufilm compacts have been built to look like retro rangefinders or old Canon AE-1 SLR cameras.

The Fujifilm X100S is a thing of beauty

The following day I went to my local camera shop, Cameraworld in Chelmsford, with a desire to acquire the Fujifilm X100s, for all those occasions that a DSLR isn't suitable for, or is just too big to lug around.

I held it, played with it and was completely sold...

...until the gentleman behind the cash register told me it was £1000.

Now as beautiful (and arguably practical) as it is, there was no way I was going to pay DSLR money for a jumped up compact with a fixed lens!

I was deflated. It's not the price itself that bothered me, but the value of the camera. It's not worth £1000 to me. It's got a decent sized sensor, a fast, very sharp lens and full manual control (and it's so pretty) but it's not worth that kind of money to me as a 'toy' camera for BBQs and daytrips.

Fortunately there was a successful local photographer in the shop who overheard my semi-rant about the price vs. value of new toys.

Now here was a man who owns 2 professional camera bodies and spent more money on lenses than I care to imagine.

He actually agreed with me, the 'value' of this camera to him as a toy didn't justify the £1000 outlay, no matter how pretty it is. So he told me that he'd bought the smaller Fujifilm X20 and he loves it!

Fujifilm X20; just as pretty, less than half the price!

The X20 has a smaller sensor, but has a manual zoom lens that covers 28-112mm (4x zoom), full manual control and a built in flash. It also has the retro styling and optical viewfinder. It's also significantly smaller, lighter and only £400.

So I ended up with a smaller (but equally pretty) camera that's cheaper, more versatile and is much more 'valuable' to me.

This camera has been with me all summer, sometimes as a backup to the big 7D and sometimes as the only camera on my person.

I can't really fault this little camera at all. There's no noticeable shutter lag, autofocus is swift and precise. The lens is sharper than I had expected and the top mounted exposure compensation dial means you don't have to fiddle too much to get your exposure just how you want it. The X20 also shoots video at full HD.

Low light with no flash is noisier than I'd like, but it's much better than a mobile phone camera and if the situation requires, I've got the 7D with off-camera flash and lamps galore.

As a backup it's a great camera. As a BBQ / days out camera it's perfect for my needs.

It's got a nice sized rear LCD screen and an intelligent fully-automatic mode so it's family friendly for those "can you take a picture of me please" moments. But it's got all the manual and semi-automatic modes you'd find on a pro camera for maximum creativity.

The next problem will be trying to justify to the missus why I need "all that camera kit" if I keep taking the little camera everywhere...

Summer 2013

Wow, that's all. Just wow!

This summer has been the busiest summer of my life, it's been amazing. Sadly that's left me zero blogging time since the spring, but I'm back on it now.

So, the summer!
As well as the usual batch of summer events, fetes and festivals we'd usually perorm or coach at, we (Kinetix) agreed to run one of the sites for national kids camp company 'Megacamps' (check them out: http://www.megacamps.net) oh and we hosted free outdoor Parkour workshops & Bootcamps in the parks around the district all summer for the local city council, as well as me taking on a new personal training clients, then there was the SX Urban Games tour performing in every major town in Essex throughout July and August, oh and our regular classes carried on without interruption... (breathe) ...aaaand a very good friend decided to get married in Ireland right in the middle of August (more on that in another post).

So, it's been a busy summer, 14 hour days, 6 or 7 days per week, travelling all over the UK and Ireland, but life has slowed down to a manageable pace again now.

This summer wouldn't have been possible without my amazing staff at Team Kinetix and without Becki sorting out the timetables of 20 people for 8 weeks at a time (behind every great man and all that...)
So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, you guys are like family to me.

Anyway, enough gushing, get to the point!

With all the events we've run this summer, I've managed to get a lot of time behind the camera to hone my photography skills, I've really learned a lot by taking pictures almost every day.
So, here's the shameless plug of my Flickr page: BradWendes on Flickr check it out, feel free to criticise!

Here's some of what I've been up to while not blogging:

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