The week got by so quickly that I can't recall what I did the other nights. Its the weekend now and it had to be cloudy. Sigh.
WOD 13th November 2009:
Today's a rest day. I love my rest days as much as my workout days.
Taking it light today so that I can do a more decent workout tomorrow - probably another pullup regime on the way home from work tomorrow night!
WOD
8th November:
Hit the tracks again on Sunday morning for interval trainings. Felt great to be in the sun all over again!
Knocked off 'earlier' today from work. 'Passed out' fatigued and slept through the journey home, making the 40min journey feeling like 2 hours.
WOD
Felt like shit when I woke in the morning as I've been overworked. Felt great again later in the night as I was leaving the company. Felt better knowing I'll be spending some little yet precious time with myself & my barbell & my 9 year old bunny.
Wanted to go heavy, but the moment I hoisted the barbell, I could tell I'm tired from the inside.
WOD
Yesterday was a rest day, was really just too tired out by everything - work, workouts, etc.
Today I felt better, did a quick pull up session before I headed home from work.
WOD
Had the intro to intervals with OTC today at Clementi stadium - its alot better than the NUS stadium - notably, because the steps are higher which means the box jumps are really killer! Its twice the height (which invariably implies that the NUS ones are really much shorter)
Today's session was scaled down as OTC experienced the pukies - too much KFC in the morning! But it was a good session. Its definitely alot more fun to be sprinting with a guy - more competitive, more fast pace!
WOD
Finally got to my run & sprints today - tomorrow will be an intro session to interval training with one of the volleyball folks!
We're looking at 3 sets, each set comprising of:
Went to the monkey bars again at the park nearby to do pullups and parallel bar dips. Looking forward to Sunday - it'll be intro to the NUS interval training regime with a small group of us followed by a Kayaking session at Sentosa!
Some things we'll probably be doing:
This is my 200th post! And for that I took it 'easy' with my WOD considering the 100 pullups I've done cumulatively over the past 2 days.
WOD
Its back to my pullup regime again - am loving how my 'sides' / 'lats' are swelling and a little sore from yesterday's pullup regime!
WOD
Big squats. Box jumps. Lunges. Pistol squats. Sprints. These give you an ass.
The kayaking session was postponed due to the rain, so I did some barbells & chinups before dinner.
WOD
Now, there are different time domains in which you can increase your work capacity. For instance, a low time domain would be 2 seconds, which would be a 1 rep max power clean. A workout such as “Cindy” is somewhere in the middle at 20 minutes. And a longer one would be a marathon.
If you spend all your time doing long distance training, you’re only increasing your work capacity at the far end of the spectrum. And it will actually bring down everything at the beginning of the the spectrum. In essence, you will decrease your work capacity at everything lower than a marathon.
As the picture above shows, the marathon runner is is skin and bones. What would happen if you asked him to lift something heavy? He would crumble. What about splitting wood, or piling sandbags? He would be crushed.
Link
Was pretty tired after work today so I did a 2km run, followed by chin ups. Planned to do some sprints too but was too darn tired - so I passed on sprints.
WOD:
Wanted to go a little more heavy than yesterday but the searing pain in my wrists during my 3rd push press meant that I had to cut out anything that involves a rack position. Even getting the barbell up to the backsquat position was painful.
WOD:
The late nights sure are taking away the energy levels to a certain extent - but today I feel better than yesterday.
WOD
Top 10 Reasons Heavy Weights Don’t Bulk Up the Female AthleteRead more...
Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men. In fact, according to Bill Kreamer in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men. Testosterone is the reason men are men and women are women. After men hit puberty, they grow facial hair, their voice deepens, and they develop muscle mass. Because men have more testosterone, they are much more equipped to gain muscle. Because women do not have very much testosterone in their bodies, they will never be able to get as big as men.
I really felt like lifting and I thought it'd be a good session today but the moment I heaved the barbell to the rack position, it felt really heavy & I felt sluggish.
WOD:
Today's a long day at work, so took it very light today- just some pushups.
WOD:
Went over to Sentosa today to do some kayak paddling, the store front located just infront of Azzura (not too far from Beach Station)
Took yesterday as a rest day before hitting the weights today again. Tried out a combination of a deadlift & a barbell thruster which goes like this:
Deadlift the barbell.
Hoist it to rack position.
Do a barbell thruster.
Return the barbell back to the ground.
That makes 1 rep.
WOD:
5 deadlift-thrusters
30 pushups
Followed by 2 rounds of
10 barbell thrusters
20 pushups
Spent alot of my time at work trawling up and down spiral staircases - so I'm taking today's session lighter - just one round.
WOD:
1 round of
Managed to pop down to NUS in the mid-day for a HIIT session - it feels good to have the slight burning sensation on my skin now. I could do this everyday if I didn't have to work.
WOD
2 rounds of
Did the same exact workout as that two days ago - this session not being timed though. The clock was distracting me somehow and I just did without it.
But I lifted good, and fast, and hard. I'm really more suited to working out at night!
WOD:
2 rounds of
Finally got down to run & sprint session - a strong and spirited session - I think I really run a whole lot better during the late evenings / night - which is timely as it means I can do it the moment I reach home after work. And on hindsight, I'm kinda glad that I'm not in a relationship too.
Due to the bad (right) wrist, I'm taking away the barbell thrusters and replacing them with back squats and push presses.
WOD:
2 rounds for time
Was feeling under the weather yesterday so all my sporting events were shelved. And thankfully I'm nearing full recovery today so I right after I came home I did a 'recovery' (literally) workout. Short one, but this time doing strict shoulder presses with 77 pounds!
WOD:
Today's my rest day (I had to work today) - so I'm taking a nice long sleep tonight, and having tonnes of fruits for supper - 2 bananas, 1 orange, and some prunes.
The Shoulder Press is an important functional movement that we incorporate into our workouts. It is a great exercise for developing strength in, what else, the shoulders. In addition, the trainee develops balance and stabilization in the shoulder girdle, core strength(that's right, heavy presses work your abs) and has a great carry over to athletic activity. The path of the Press is very similar to the force applied in sports such as football, rugby, and basketball just to mention a few.
The act of lifting a load overhead is also very similar to movements such as carrying a box from a high shelf or lifting a child overhead for a ride on the shoulders. Without strong, stable shoulders, we wouldn't be able to accomplish a myriad of activities that we face on a daily basis.
Cross Fit Malaysia
1st October WOD:
2 rounds for time
WOD:
2 rounds for time
Had a brilliant volleyball training session today back in NUS - the sun was so hot that it made this in the sky:
Taking today's WOD easy due to the bad wrists - I realized its due to the improper 'rack' position when I do a barbell thruster.
WOD:
2 rounds for time of
Today is rest day - don't you wish you had this at home:
Its back to sprints today, followed by a short session at the chin up bar.
WOD:
It was either sprints or a barbell WOD for me but the soreness in my hamstrings made the decision-making process easy - no sprints today!
To avoid aggravating my bad wrists I stuck to front squats today, and also in an attempt to correct & practice my rack position.
WOD:
5 rounds for time
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruits, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat." -Greg Glassman
Finely tuned, a good diet will increase health, energy and sense of well being while reducing fat, packing on muscle and optimizing physical performance. Diet is critical to optimizing human function and CrossFit believes that Barry Sears' "Zone Diet" closely models optimal nutrition. CrossFit's best performers are on the Zone diet. The Zone diet accelerates and amplifies the effects of the CrossFit regimen.
Link
I'm putting off the purchase of rings as for now as I doubt the chinup bars around my estate don't have the necessary height clearance for muscle-ups. And because of that its making consider getting more weights for my barbell.
(Can anyone advice me how tall must the bar be for the necessary height clearance when performing a muscle-up?)
I should rightfully be front-squatting, back-squatting and deadlifting more than 15kg a side. But I still need to work on my overhead squats, so maybe a 2.5kg increment on each side (to 17.5kg a side) will be perfect. (See my previous purchase)
So right now its 2 x 5kg plates and 2 x 2.5kg plates from JiezFitt versus the gymnastic rings.
Advice anyone?
Wanted to go heavy and with some variation today but after the first set of 10 barbell thrusters, my right wrist was starting to hurt so there was a change of plan - which meant no more barbell thrusters, push presses, or even hoisting the bar to a front squat position.
WOD:
Did a nice swim in the morning today back at NUS, this time as an Alumni! This means signing in from NUS Staff Club instead of the usual entrance most of us are used to.
Only upon returning to NUS did I realize how much I missed my Year 4 - I nearly went to school everyday with either my swim attire or shoes to hit the track for HIIT.
On that long road away what keeps you motivated to return faster, or just return at all. The way u feel when your done? The sense of accomplishment? How you look? The sound of little footsteps behind you edging their way ever so close? Fear of failure? Whatever the case we are all better for it...so whats ur magic?Read more...
Did a quick run & sprint session today right after work - hopefully later tonight I'm feeling good enough for some barbells or another pull up session down at the park.
WOD:
Decided to take it light today as I was still very sore from the 60 pull ups I did the other day - so I went for body weight training today - push ups and air squats!
WOD:
In yesterday’s post, I explained that the notion of the fat-burning zone is a misunderstood concept, and that a higher intensity of exercise yields more results than a low-intensity session (when we look at it from the caloric expenditure standpoint). If fat loss is one of your goals, caloric intake and expenditure is something you should be mindful of, and burning more calories during exercise will help to increase that expenditure and subsequent weight loss. But since the majority of our workouts at Invictus fall under 20 minutes, many may think that doing longer steady-state cardio work might be the best way to really accelerate their fat loss. It is true that an hour on the treadmill may indeed burn more calories than some heavy lifting followed by “Helen,” but you will reach that conclusion only if you look at a very small piece of the whole picture.Read more...
To understand this, we need to address the concept of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. Oxygen consumption serves as an approximation of your metabolic rate, and therefore how many calories you are burning in a given period of time. EPOC, then, is the effect seen following exercise in which the body is burning more oxygen (and more calories) for a period of time anywhere from a few minutes to more than a day. This results in an elevated metabolism and creates what Alwyn Cosgrove calls an ‘afterburn.’ A study performed in 2002 at Ohio University found that following heavy resistance training circuits, EPOC was significantly elevated over baseline for 38 hours.
Using this data, let’s go back to that treadmill example. Suppose the machine tells you that you burned 300 calories in your hour spent on the treadmill. EPOC occurs as a result of aerobic training as well, but the magnitude and duration of the increase is less than that seen with resistance or interval training. Now let’s say that at the same time you were on the hamster wheel, your friend did the aforementioned heavy lifting followed by Helen. It’s likely that he didn’t burn as many calories as you in his exercise session, but let’s now look at the whole picture, i.e. all of the time following the workout. If your friend worked hard enough to bump his EPOC up to where he’s burning a paltry eight additional calories per hour, 38 hours later when his oxygen consumption returns to normal, he’s burned more calories than you, and he accomplished it in a much shorter workout. And then think of how it would affect him if he went and worked out the next day too! Would EPOC go even higher? It is not certain whether EPOC is cumulative, but even without an additive affect, the benefits are easy to see. Would you rather be burning more calories in the 23 hours a day you’re not at Invictus, or just burning the same old amount as usual in the 23 hours you’re not at a traditional gym (not to mention that you’d only be running and not developing your strength, flexibility, accuracy, etc.)?
If you have a weight loss goal, don’t resist your strength work. Stick to the program and talk to your coaches about making minor modifications to your fitness and nutrition programs to help you achieve your results most efficiently.
Today is my rest day, and fortunately my right foot is nearing recovery, less the pus. Totaling the effects of the past 4 days of WODS, I crashed only 2 hours after dinner and to find myself awake slightly past midnight.
But the soreness from everything (especially considering how long since I last did pullups)? Deep, delayed, and priceless.
Meant to have a rest day today but in the end I went to the chin up bars below and cranked out 60 pull ups - feels absolutely brilliant!
WOD
The workouts are making me hungry at work but not as hungry as before as I'm missing out on the sprints due to the bad cuts on my right foot. But I really love eating 3 meats & 1 vegetable chinese rice at work (though I can still manage more!)
WOD:
My right foot has swollen due to my safety boots which have been rubbing against the cuts on my foot. Now it really hurts to walk and it sure is going to hurt tomorrow if I'm going to be walking a lot.
WOD:
3 rounds for time
Hit the beach for a good game of beach volleyball, and some beach soccer which totally tired us out.
This artcle from Again Faster is so truthful and raw, that it can hurt those who've been doing it wrong all along but thought they were right. I quote:
Contrary to the popular ideal, working out three days a week is a shitty path to fitness. While a tri-weekly program will sustain weight loss, muscle size, and (perhaps) strength, it will not enhance recovery ability, metabolic capacity, and power output beyond set levels.
Keep in mind that “as hard as possible” may vary from day to day, based on accumulated training load, but your perceived intensity must always be at 100%. Simply, you need to give every ounce of your being every time you’re in the gym. It may not result in world-record times every day, but it will result in progress.
“As often as possible” is easier. Get out of bed and get to the gym. The effects of consistency are absolutely astounding. You’ll make progress, even if you neglect just about everything else. I’ve seen this first-hand. Those who climb the record boards at CrossFit Boston are those who show up. They may drink their weekends away, supplement a solid Zone lunch with Twinkies, and sleep six hours a night, but in the end, they’re in the gym. They have great gym days and bad gym days, but most importantly, they have gym days.
My back had a deep nice (though slight) sore in my back, and as a result I kept falling asleep non-stop at work! Decided to have another go at the same workout today!
WOD:
Back to the overhead squats and high pulls today, with the highly under-rated pushups!
WOD:
This is something I agree wholeheartedly. But this is something most males & females here in Singapore (and Asia) would never agree - they're probably think its mad, crazy, sick? I quote:
Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads.
They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.
Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope.
Went heavier on today's workout - am glad how I'm slowly improving, but 30kg of weights still feels really heavy. After I get decent timings I'm going to add more weights and build on strength again.
WOD:
The cold and rainy weather really puts me into sleep mode today. Was a little too lethargic to be running properly in today's workout.
WOD:
Took a nice dive at the pool since it was a sunny and warm day.Took an extended rest from the workouts as I've only recently upped the intensity of the barbell workouts and did some sprints lately.
WOD:
Not a rest day today, planning to have it tomorrow instead. Its back to the barbell today - pushups, deadlifts and thrusters - possibly one of the best combinations you can have if you've got limited time.
WOD:
The emphasis in conventional wisdom on isolation exercise and training has led us down this path. I still followed the traditional isolation separations “Chest/tri day”, “Back/bi day”, “leg day” etc. even after going primal. I no longer believe this is the way to go. I am now all about full body circuits and compound movements. Train the entire body and let it do the hard work (or easy work when you think about it ) of symmetry and proportion. In my opinion, this is the ultimate way to a balanced, symmetrical, healthy physique.
Some disadvantages of isolation training:
- Sever DOMS (muscle soreness)
- Joint Strain
- Disproportionate muscle mass leading to discomfort and long term posture and pain problems
- Workouts get.. well boring
Advantages of full body exercise and compound movements:
- Athletic build
- Symmetry and proportion
- More entertaining workouts
- Body designed better to natural and functional movement
Came home from work and did a run with some sprints - it sure is nice running through the cool night air.
WOD:
I had a great saturday of beach volleyball at Siloso beach, and the sun was not only sunny but to the point of being scorching. I'm now nicely tanned!
Time to go for greater volume as I've had to cut back due to a month's hiatus from proper MetCon workouts. Hence, no more 3 rounds of 10, but its back to 20-15-10 instead.
It sure is tiring 're-ascending' to prior levels of fitness.
WOD:
This video from Rogue Fitness, is not just a show of pure power and grit and mental strength, it also depicts why its so easy to fall in love with such a sound, rigorous, and well-tested fitness regime. In short, its wholesome - and that's just an understatement.
Rogue Fitness from Bill Henniger on Vimeo.
Okay, its time for me to learn these:
I found this while reading Faster Again - a work & power output calculator for Cross Fit's WODs!
Supposing I use my WOD on the 24th of August:
There are imaginary lines running down my back - and these lines ache from either the overhead squats or the high pulls. Either way, it sure feels good.
The downside to this is that I have problems hoisting the barbell rightly over my head for the overhead squat.
WOD:
2 rounds for time
Been neglecting Overhead Squats & High Pulls as well as pushups - so today's session is dedicated to these 3 moves! I'm particularly weak in overhead squats somehow, my form goes out of wack at 77# so I reduced it to 55# instead.
I just realized - with proper nutrition (clean protein & lots of greens) and the right mix of barbells, and sprints - I'll eventually put back all the mass I lost over 4 years of studying and pretty heavy running. This struck me as I saw my old pair of jeans in the cupboard which I wore during my NS days. I seriously loved that pair of jeans - well worn, comfy, ample space to allow big strides, and a nice print. And I think I'll be wearing them soon again, since I can't wear my 'newer' ones anyway.
Read more...Went back to sprints today again, to make up for the 'lost sprints' in the past month. And fortunately tomorrow is my rest day too!
WOD:
The workouts yesterday left me a little phased out in todays workout - taking alot longer than I used to.
WOD:
3 rounds for time
Yesterday was a great day out with the good folks from NUS - a major prawn-catching (and eating) session from the afternoon till the night! Plus, there were great pictures with the big-cow DSLR camera! Its amazing how nice the pictures turn out, especially with some processing too.
I did a swim this morning. And whenever I reached the pool, the sun gets obscured by clouds (damn).
WOD:
Thanks, Jamie for the reply.
I just tried on a few pieces of clothing that I haven't worn after starting CF and they're tighter in the shoulders, chest, butt, and quad area.
I guess I could give more info about myself. When I had first started CF I had "10 pounds" I wanted to lose. Pretty much I wanted a lose the bit of flab on my stomach and to get leaner all around. So, not a lot. I was pretty active to begin with.
I want to look strong, but I also don't want to be gaining inches. I hope this makes sense.
Its gonna be a great day out tomorrow with the good folks from NUS!
Managed to pop by the pool after work today. Did 500m of swim followed by 5 laps of sprints.
WOD:
Had one hell of a splitting (or more like compression) headache yesterday, which left me knocked out on the bed right after work. I woke up early in the wee hours in the morning, totally disoriented before heading back to sleep again. Not totally headache-free yet so I'm taking a foot off the pedal for my WOD's. So no sprints for the time being till I'm ready to throttle.
WOD:
2 rounds for time
Had to work today, means I missed out on the sorching, bright sun during the earlier part of the day. Came home, did a quick workout.
WOD:
2 rounds of (77# barbell)
Read more...
It sure is really hazy and cloudy today. What happened to the glorious sun that we had just a few days back?
This is something we all should do one day at the stadiums (from Crossfit Eaton)
Read more...
20 minutes AMRAP
Run 400 meters
50 Squats
Woke up with moderate, nice sores in my arms, quads, hamstrings and calves. That's what the absence of regular sprint sessions can do to your lower limbs.
Decided to catch some sun at the neighbourhood pool and do a few short laps. Point to note: the sun gets partially blocked by the surrounding blocks after 4.30pm. But fortunately I tan easily!
WOD:
Next week will be beach volleyball / frisbee / touch rugby with the fellas at Sentosa!
Had a mini-WOD later that evening:
All with the 77# barbell! I'm ready for another week at work!
Read more...
Not much sun today but better than nothing!
Took a relatively 'slower' swim today at the pool, caught some sun, and thankful that the pool is very much less crowded on a public holiday morning.
Upslope sprints!
It'll be HIIT / sprint training later today! Everyone's telling me I'm bulking up - and I can feel it - my clothing are beginning to not be able to fit anymore. And those that were too huge back then - now fits perfect.
WOD:
I love the simplicity of this red adidas original's polo:
WOD:
10-10-10 for time
Time taken: 5min 50sec with 77# (3rd August 2009)
Time taken: 8min 26sec with 77# (18th June 2009)
Followed by
A spectacular missed lift at the Crossfit Games
Woke up on the 2nd Aug with a nice sore over my chest. I think my metcon has gone down the drain over the month - thankfully I'll be onshore soon!
Finally I'm able to do 10 reps of pullups and parallel dips with a 15kg dumbell!
And I still dislike deadlifting with dumbells. Somehow.
It feels awesome to be able to come back to my barbells after an extended period of time - I just have this feeling that it's easier to go heavy with barbells for Thrusters and Deadlifts.
WOD:
10-10-10 for time:
7th July 2009:
WOD:
2 rounds of
10th July 2009:
WOD:
2 rounds of
7th July 2009:
WOD:
3 rounds of 10
Was ill in the early part of the week, and it feels great to bounce back to health again! When all you've got is a globo-gym, you'll miss running on real grit and earth.
Read more...Taking it slow today at the pool but the general public was much slower and got pretty irritated by the slow-mo's blocking the lanes. And then as usual there were the fast, free-style swimmers who don't look where they're heading.
WOD:
Here's the food I've been indulging in for every meal, every day, for the past 2 weeks:
And 2 rounds of
The food's great here! Pictures to be posted in due time
I'll have my weight taken tomorrow if I can remember it to see how my weight gain is going along!
29th June 2009
WOD:
2 rounds of
3rd July 2009
WOD:
2 rounds of
4th July 2009
Finally got back to land and did a short HIIT session.
WOD:
Had a sprint/HIIT session today, but had to cut it short due to the overwhelming heat. The whole stadium was practically empty apart from us and the SAFSA soccer team waiting for training to begin at the grandstands - which is a good thing as it's distracting to be doing sprints when its crowded.
WOD:
2 rounds of
Read more...
Angela told me yesterday that she went with a bunch of her friends who were runners to get their body fat % tested. All of her friends appear to be thin, yet Angela's body fat was 10% lower than all of her running amigos. She said they were all pretty upset about it. I would be pissed too if I was running my ass off with no change in BF%, while one of my buddies was getting lean and ripped by cranking out 15 minute WODs 3x per week. This should not be surprising to you by now. Long slow distance exercise burns muscle which lowers your metabolism, so you get fatter. Skinny fat is the term that describes someone who looks thin but has high BF%. The loss of muscle caused by "cardio" is detrimental to your fitness and your metabolism. The answer is to build muscle with constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity. There is no need to do traditional cardio and very little, if any benefit from doing so. Great job Angela, way to show those "cardio queens" what's up. My money is on you that you would beat them all in a 10k run also.
Cross Fit East Sacramento
Had a rest day on the 19th, and had work today so I had a relatively 'toned down' (read: repeated workout) today - just pullups and bar dips again, fully bodyweight.
WOD:30-20-10 for time:
Did sprint interval training today - it's comfy to dress down into my PT kit and shoes to just sprint and sweat it out. But I'm getting fairer at work, and that sucks.
WOD:
Today is rest day - I can feel my shoulder joints (rotor cuffs?) swelling. I think its the barbell thrusters & the push presses.
I realized I got quite a few good friends who started work on the 15th of June - and still, obviously a bit 'bored' at work. Remember to work out guys/gals! It keeps you all less lethargic at the workplace.
15th June 2009:
Felt the after effects of swim sprints I had the day before, so I did a simpler workout - barbell thrusters & deadlifts. Was not a good workout, so took abit longer than the usual.
WOD:21-15-9 for time:
Time taken: 7min 28sec with 77# (16th June 2009)
Time taken: 9min 54sec with 77# (11th June 2009)
Time taken: 9min 26sec with 77# (7th June 2009)
Time taken: 12min 26sec with 77# (5th June 2009)
Did swim sprints/intervals for around 45 minutes - thrashed the water as hard as I could from one end to other, paused for a quick breather, and thrashed back. Repeat as long as your heart and quads burn.
Just like running versus sprints/intervals - you can mimic the same methodology in the pool to work on your MetCon and your 2 other metabolic pathways.
Had a post workout snack consisting of 2 chicken wings and a thick milkshake - that's the best you can get in the mall I suppose, without blowing a hole in your pocket.
My 5kg plates don't fit in my old waterbag - I'm hoping to get hold onto the Army's Section Commander's bag (filled with a 5kg plate) to simulate a weighted vest for my chinups, parallel bar dips.
And I've currently bumped up my oatmeal with peanut butter, bananas, oranges, and raisins! Hoping to find some walnuts someday.
Cross Fit Burpees - SAF has mixed up burpees with squat thrusts. Burpees is horrendously tiring!
Starting Strength - Many women are afraid that if they put down the pink dumbbells and so much as touch a barbell that they will turn into hulking she-males. These same women might also assume that women train one way and men another.
Did a HIIT session today after a (long) nap, only to have it cut early because of the rain.
This session is not timed:
Its happening on the 23rd of August so you might want to check it out over at Legs & Paddles 2009
In the past few days I noticed that quite a handful of ladies in my estate actually run around the field beneath my home near 6am in the mornings. Slow, long endurance runs in fact.
While its better than lazing on the couch, it really isn't worth the time and effort to jog at slow (relative) speeds. But it keeps them in shape so probably there's no reason (from their point of view) to deviate from the regime that they've been doing. But I'd still rather do my workouts which go fast and hard, and I'll be done in less than 20 minutes.
While I must admit that I've been a huge ardent fan of long distance runs in the past few years, but it took its toll on my body - I lost all the bulk I built up in National Service and just kept getting thinner and thinner. Thankfully for Cross Fit now I'm reversing the years of damage.
WOD:
21-15-9 for time:
Had a failed Tabata session yesterday due to a wrongly-set Timer, got lazy, and then headed to shower - which leaves me fresh for today's workout with the 77# barbell.
WOD:
21-15-9 for time:
Today's my rest day - got help from Feng to plan and revise my workout regime, starting with Tabata tomorrow.
If you are not already in shape, then you are not ready.
An often implemented component of the crossfit system is Tabata Protocol. Simply put, this consists of 20 seconds of your most intense possible work output followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for a total of 4 minutes (8 rounds). Your score is the least number of reps performed during any round (so it doesn’t help you to go easy at first and finish hard).
Cross Fit Tabata Protocol
Tomorrow's WOD: Tabata with 1. regular air squats 2. pushups 3. situps 4. barbell thrusters 5. burpees
Read more...
Its back to overhead squats today - used 10kg-a-side and worked on my form.
WOD:
10-9-8-7-6-5 repetitions per round of Overhead Squats
Time taken: 8min 01sec (8th June 2009)
And I had the same post workout meal again - chicken breast fillets.
I realized I just saw a someone whom I'd described as a 'dirty tan' - burnt reddish to the point of browning - gross.
Did a workout at home - another reason why I love Cross Fit's methodology is that its not a long draggy affair, but with blistering results. A workout usually takes less than 20 minutes. And it conditions 2 (out of the 3) metabolic pathways (see here) which is neglected in our 'typical' Singaporean sport - endurace running, cycling or swimming.
WOD:
21-15-9 for time:
Cross Fit Singapore is holding complimentary classes on the coming Saturday, 13th June:
EVENT 13th June 2009 . 9AM
For those of you who have yet to make your way down to our premises, we invite you for a complimentary introductory class.
This class will be your first installment to the 9 fundamental movements of CrossFit.
So bring your friends along! Its a perfect opportunity to get yourself started – right from the basics and fundamentals.
I found this while surfing at Saffyz's: a Dragon Boat team which you can join as a member.
The AustCham Singapore Dragon Boating team (otherwise simply known as the Aussie Team) is an active dragon boating team, based in Singapore. Whilst officially representing the Australian business contingent in Singapore, anyone is welcome to join in. The current team comprises people from Australia, Singapore, Britain, Germany, New Zealand, America, and Malaysia amongst others. New members are always welcome, so come on down to any of our regular practice sessions, meet some people, have a drink and join in the fun!
(this website is added under "Local Sports & Recreation Clubs")
Did the "Barbara" WOD today again - probably one of the better Bodyweight Cross Fit WOD's available.
WOD : Barbara
5 rounds for time:
Two teams were playing serious soccer against one another (got referee too) and on the topic of sports (via Cross Fit Journal):
Sport plays a wonderful role in fitness. Sport is the application of fitness in a fantastic atmosphere of competition and mastery. Training efforts typically include relatively predictable repetitive movements and provide limited opportunity for the essential combination of our ten general physical skills. It is, after all, the combined expression, or application, of the ten general skills that is our motivation for their development in the first place. Sports and games like soccer, martial arts, baseball, and basketball in contrast to our training workouts have more varied and less predictable movements. But, where sports develop and require all ten general skills simultaneously, they do so slowly compared to our strength and conditioning regimen. Sport is better, in our view, at expression and testing of skills than it is at developing these same skills. Both expression and development are crucial to our fitness.
Sport in many respects more closely mimics the demands of nature than does our training. We encourage and expect our athletes to engage in regular sports efforts in addition to all of their strength and conditioning work.
I've done a total of 270 pullups for the whole of this week, not including tomorrow. Its quite amazing how the skin can constantly adapt to the volume of abrasion and form thicker layers of skin.
Tomorrow is a day with barbells and possibly HIIT!
Read more...
The first week of work is over - I think I'm managing to the hours well because every night when I get home I feel awfully restless and as a result I've done 4 CrossFit-like workouts and 1 HIIT session over the past 5 days.
Its the weekend now - more workouts on the way. No beach volleyball this weekend though, pity. So I'm going to go heavy with the workouts this weekend and get a nap on Sunday so that I'm ready for work. Going to go hard and heavy next week, as I've been taking it easy in the first week.
Okay I felt too restless and did a workout with the 77# barbells - thrusters and deadlifts.
WOD:
21-15-9 for time:
I'm trying to keep this as a Rest Day, but its still early in the night, so there's no saying if I'm going to change my mind about it later. No soreness, no DOMS, and my shoulder feels a whole lot better. 77 lbs barbell thrusters later? Possibly. Coupling it with the fact that I'm reading Cross Fit Hardcore now makes it one huge step closer to reality. But going heavy on Friday might mean I can't go as heavy as I want on the weekends (which is what I plan to) - but I should just fug it and go heavy right? I think I should deadlift too - it has banished my lower back aches that I had prior to doing deadlifts seriously.
But whether workout or rest day, I'm having cake and enjoying it.
Okay, ignore the last post - I succumbed to temptation and took a walk down to the park to do pullups and bar dips again.
WOD:
30-20-10 for time:
Today is I (unwillingly) declared it a rest day because I know I'm itching to go overhead and all with Cross Fit but the slight pain in the shoulder made me think twice.
Tomorrow I might get back to overhead squats, barbell thrusters, and if I'm feeling good enough, a trip down to the pull up bars.
Did a HIIT & bodyweight session today after work - good stuff to unwind to at a day's end.
This session is not timed:
I'll be scaling down the loading in my workout for this week or two due to the nagging pain in my shoulders.
Did the same workout as yesterday with the same loading:
WOD #1: Modified Fran (10kg a side)
21-15-9 reps for time:
My shoulder joints are hurting so I toned down the weights on the barbell back to 10kg a side, for a highly-modified "Fran" workout
WOD: Modified Fran
21-15-9 reps for time:
Headed to a friend's gym for a workout, that was stocked with lots of weights and a barbell - pleasant surprise!
Did a workout with them, introduced Barbell Thrusters [.mov][.wmv] & Push Presses [.wmv] to them. Going overhead is definitely not easy! After the workout I tried out some Overhead Squats, slowly getting better despite the acute pain in my shoulders since I bumped the weights of the barbell at home from 20kg to 30kg.
Everyone else in the gym was either running slowly on the threadmill or on the stationary bike, while watching TV. Going overhead (while standing in between all of them) surely invited curious stares.
If my shoulders are feeling right, I'll be hitting out some Barbell Thrusters tomorrow evening. Possibly 3 rounds with 30-20-10 reps (if I can take it). If not I'll modify it to Push Presses.
Had my weekly dose of Touch Rugby with the Turducken Greens today - had another Try, but later in the game had a few more attempts that failed short of the Try line.
I haven't tried Thrusters with my (35kg / 77pound) barbell yet, especially since Push Presses are bad enough. But by 2-3 weeks time I'm expecting to be able to crank it out decently so that I can do a modified Fran WOD - I might substitute the Pull Ups for 4 times the amount of push ups or burpees.
Tomorrow is a workout with a long-time friend - its going to be fun!
Went heavier today in my workouts, all for time again. I repeated the "Two's Magnificent" WOD followed by a run to the park for a repetition of last night's workout.
WOD #1: Two's Magnificient (#65 barbell)
21-15-9 for time:
Today's the first workout with the new (approx.) 65 pound barbell - which is the equivalent for the female's Cross Fit WOD (like in Fran) - am I'm struggling.
The first set felt bad, the second felt worst, but surprisingly the third one felt good - Getting better in the MetCon? I hope so. This will be the first of many more to come. And pleasantly enough I realized midway through the workout that the rubberized 5kg's kept the bar pretty much noiseless, as compared to without it - give its a somewhat 'solid' feel to it.
Due to lack of proper 'amenities', I'm modifying and creating my own Workout Of The Day (WOD) - this one, I call it Two's Magnificient - only two moves (still getting used to the heavier weight)
Interval training is highly under-rated while endurance running, on the other hand, is highly over-rated peculiarly in Singapore. Another mistake I keep seeing in the (globo) gyms is that a large majority of males don't squat because they believe that running will be enough to 'keep their legs strong'.
Makes you wonder where all that 'science' came from - the Army? Or the schools?
Anyway this post is meant to share Cross Fit's reason for interval training: the primary energy system that is utilized, namely, 1) Phophagen (sprint) 2) Glycolytic (mid-distance) 3) Oxidative (distance)
Metabolic Conditioning, or “Cardio”
Biking, running, swimming, rowing, speed skating, and cross-country skiing are collectively known as “metabolic conditioning.” In the common vernacular they are referred to as “cardio.” CrossFit’s third fitness standard, the one that deals with metabolic pathways, contains the seeds of the CrossFit “cardio” prescription. To understand the CrossFit approach to “cardio” we need first to briefly cover the nature and interaction of the
three major pathways.
Of the three metabolic pathways the first two, the phosphagen and the glycolytic, are “anaerobic” and the third, the oxidative, is “aerobic.” We needn’t belabor the biochemical significance of aerobic and anaerobic systems; suffice it to say that the nature and interaction of anaerobic exercise and aerobic exercise is vital to understanding
conditioning. Just remember that efforts at moderate to high power and
lasting less than several minutes are anaerobic and efforts at low power and lasting in excess of several minutes are aerobic. As an example the sprints at 100, 200, 400, and 800 meters are largely anaerobic and events like 1,500 meters, the mile, 2,000 meters, and 3,000 meters are largely aerobic.
Aerobic training benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body fat – all good.
Aerobic conditioning allows us to engage in low power extended efforts efficiently (cardio/respiratory endurance and stamina). This is critical to many sports. Athletes engaged in sports or training where a preponderance of the training load is spent in aerobic efforts witness decreases in muscle mass, strength, speed, and power. It is not uncommon to find marathoners with a vertical leap of only several inches! Furthermore, aerobic activity has a pronounced tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity.
This does not bode well for most athletes or those interested in elite fitness.
Anaerobic activity also benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body
fat! In fact, anaerobic exercise is superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss! (http://www.cbass.com/FATBURN.HTM) Anaerobic activity is, however, unique in its capacity to dramatically improve power, speed, strength, and muscle mass. Anaerobic conditioning allows us to exert tremendous forces over brief time intervals. One aspect of anaerobic conditioning that bears great consideration is that anaerobic conditioning will not adversely affect aerobic capacity. In fact, properly structured, anaerobic activity can be used to develop a very high level of aerobic fitness without the muscle wasting consistent with high volumes of aerobic exercise!! The method
by which we use anaerobic efforts to develop aerobic conditioning is “interval training.”
Basketball, football, gymnastics, boxing, track events under one mile, soccer, swimming events under 400 meters, volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting are all sports that require the vast majority of training time spent in anaerobic activity. Long distance and ultra endurance running, cross country skiing, and 1500+ meter swimming are all sports that require aerobic training at levels that produce results unacceptable to other athletes or the individual concerned with total conditioning and optimal health.
We strongly recommend that you attend a track meet of nationally or internationally competitive athletes. Pay close attention to the physiques of the athletes competing at 100, 200, 400, 800 meters, and the milers. The difference you’re sure to notice is a
direct result of training at those distances.
Interval Training
The key to developing the cardiovascular system without an unacceptable loss of strength, speed, and power is interval training. Interval training mixes bouts of work and rest in timed intervals. Figure 3 (pg. 5) gives guidelines for interval training. We can control the dominant metabolic pathway conditioned by varying the duration of the work and rest interval and number of repetitions. Note that the phosphagen pathway is the dominant pathway in intervals of 10-30 seconds of work followed by rest of 30-90 seconds (load:recovery 1:3) repeated 25-30 times. The glycolytic pathway is the dominant pathway in intervals of 30-120 seconds
work followed by rest of 60-240 seconds (load: recovery 1:2) repeated 10-20 times. And finally, the oxidative pathway is the dominant pathway
in intervals of 120-300 seconds work followed by rest of 120-300 seconds (load:recovery 1:1). The bulk of metabolic training should be interval
training.
Interval training need not be so structured or formal. One example would be to sprint between one set of telephone poles and jog between the
next set alternating in this manner for the duration of a run.
Left: 10kg Aibi. Right: 5kg Jiezfitt.
The first time I really started to realize what breathing fire felt like, was a few months after that first Fran. We were doing Cindy (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 bw squats AMRAP in 20 min.), & I was closing in on my first time doing 20 rounds. If you’ve never done Cindy, that would mean I did 100 pullups, 200 pushups, & 300 bw squats in 20 minutes. As i neared the last few minutes, I felt like I was going to puke & pass out at the same time. It was actually the closest I’ve ever been to puking during a workout - to this day. I remember Christy yelling at me to “not stop - no matter what”.
Source - Cross Fit Alexandra
Headed down to NUS for a HIIT session followed by Engine Canteen's Nasi Padang for lunch. The sweltering heat reminds me of the heat in Bangkok - its so hot that you can see sweat stains on everyone's shirt.
This session is not timed:
3 rounds of:
Goodbye NUS Sports & Recreation Centre!This is the 100th blog post here, chronicling everything from my very first workouts, my discovery of Cross Fit's wonderfully torturous workouts, fell in love with HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), took up new sports (Ultimate Frisbee, Touch Rugby), re-ignited old sports (Basketball, Volleyball), fought hard for my IPPT, found some like-minded local blogs (Eat & Train and Reworking Fitness)learnt more moves with Cross Fit (Overhead Squat & Hand Stands- Thanks Coach Kevin!) as I dropped by into Cross Fit Singapore and fell into a Fran Workout.
Top 6 Women:
Sarah Dunsmore CrossFit Durham
Feng Yi Chew
Caroline Attmore CrossFit NC
Dawn Hutchison CrossFit Wilmington
Michelle Benedict CrossFit Fort Bragg
Chastity Slone Practice CrossFit
Cross Fit Games: Midwest Final Results
Feng is a Spectacular athlete who took 2nd at the mid-west qualifers this weekend. PCF will b cheerin for u also in Cali. Feng is an athlete to watch, and demonstrate serious composure all around.
Practice Cross Fit
Am setting this hot, humid Sunday as my Rest Day (maybe not, might do a Pullup & Parallel bar, and since I'm at it, I'm making a mention of my very first 'official' follower - Kate.
Today I finally had a try (that's a score in Touch Rugby terms) - managed to break through the opposing team's defensive line. But I think I only did so because the sun was too hot and everyone was fatigued. I still cant side-step like how the other ruggers and younger players can. But running along instead of against the defensive line can mess up the opposing team's defence. Plus, it opens up gaps in the defensive line and its easier to spot chances - I should do it more often.
Food science, dodgy science, nutritionists, health-fix gimmicks, fad diets - the lines that separate these are now no longer as distinct as they used to be. The flux of information over the various media has made nutrition for the average person, let alone an athlete, a complete web of confusion.
At Mark's Daily Apple - they subscribe to the Primal Eating Plan - a diet that revolves around the caveman (Grok the Caveman, to be exact):
In fact, most popular daily diets look at overall calories as the main factor in weight loss and weight gain. The age-old conservation of energy Conventional Wisdom says that “a calorie is a calorie.”
.. ..
I start with these four basic principles to guide my Primal Blueprint eating style:
1) 80% of your body composition will be determined by your diet. Yes, exercise is also important to health and to speed up fat-burning and muscle-building, but most of your results will come from how you eat. I’ll write more on this later, so just trust me on this one for now. Suffice to say, people who weigh a ton and exercise a ton, but eat a ton, still tend to weigh a ton. I think I’ll have that made into a t-shirt…
2) Lean Body Mass (LBM) is the key to life. I’ve said it many times on this site: lean mass (muscle and all the rest of you that is not fat) is directly correlated with longevity and excellent health. Rather than strive to “lose weight”, most people would be better off striving to lose only fat and to build or maintain muscle. Since other organs tend to function at a level that correlates to muscle mass, the more muscle you maintain throughout life, the more “organ reserve” you’ll have (i.e. the better the rest of you will work). Refer back to rule #1 and eat to build or maintain muscle.
3) Excess body fat is bad. Most human studies show that being significantly overweight increases your risk of nearly every disease (except osteoporosis - because ironically it responds to weight-bearing activities). Fat just doesn’t look that great either. See rule #1 and eat to keep body fat relatively low.
4) Excess insulin is bad. We’ve written about it here a lot. Chronic excess insulin may be even worse than excess sugar (and we know how bad that is). All animals produce insulin, but within any species, those that produce less insulin live longer than those who produce a lot. Eat to keep insulin low.
Read it all here.
Had a basketball game at NUS today - it was roasting hot.
Finished off the session with:
The rain made the tracks slippery and thus difficult to sprint all out in today's HIIT session.
This session is not timed:
3 rounds of
NUS Engineering Canteen's Nasi Padang - Chicken Chop & Fish Fillet With An Egg 
Avoided the legs today due to a slight injury in the quads, but should be fine by tomorrow so I should be doing a timed run or HIIT.
Gerad left a comment lately - he's looking for tips on starting out at the gym. I'm not really qualified to be teaching/educating, and all you've read so far are based on my own learning, which are largely based on Cross Fit. And you can gather alot of information on what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing, from Cross Fit Journal (.pdf)
On page 1, there's quite a brilliant summary:
Notably, in point #2, alot of these movements call for use of a barbell - which can be a problem for those without sufficient space at home, or those whose neighborhood gyms don't have any, or too few. I got mine from AIBI, and they threw in free delivery. I must say I've no regrets to this day.
The 9 Cross Fit fundamental movements are
Today's 'workout' is a bout of various sports over at Sentosa, we had some beach volleyball, taught the guys Touch Rugby and played it, and later taught them Ultimate Frisbee and played that too - I'm glad they enjoyed the 2 new sports.
Sunny skies at Sentosa with some cloud cover.Please, stop running anything short of 90%. If you can't push yourself, time yourself every lap, put it in your blog, and you'll be likely to never 'cheat' in your runs again.
"Kardio"--defined as any non-quality, junk volume, cardio-respiratory training that involves machines including but not limited to: Stairmasters, Spin-Bikes, Ellipticals, and Recumbent Bikes. Kardio is usually an unconscious drive to burn more Kalories.
Ok Gang, here goes:
From time to time we hear athletes ask us if they should "do" some more "cardio".
After a little probing on our parts, we consistently discover that what they mean is "I'm worried that this Crossfit stuff doesn't burn enough calories". (Calories being the second part of the Trifecta of bad training jargon that makes our skin crawl. The third being "core". As in, "can I burn more Calories doing Cardio while working my Core?") What what is our answer? An analogy will serve us well here.
If we were building a fire that would "burn calories", traditional mono-structural, steady state, typical elliptical machine exercise is equivalent to the first piece of kindling on the fire. That is, it will not burn bright, or hot. Crossfit on the other hand is like big dry pieces of wood that will melt your coat and singe your eyebrows.
The key piece of information here is that there is not better way than Crossfit to:
1)Actually improve your "Cardio"-respiratory endurance. (no one has ever, ever thrown up on an elliptical machine)
2)Develop metabolically expensive muscle tissues (read, tissues that consume more calories by nature).
One of the most brilliant aspects of Crossfit programming and one that is not often discussed is the fact that you can Crossfit, and NOT have to consume a ton more calories. This phenomenon means that there is ultimately less oxidative load on the body AND the body will consume more calories at rest.
The Crux of the discussion is this:
Diet is the best Calorie control mechanism. NOT EXERCISE. When we hear, "Do I need more Cardio?" What we really think is, you don't, you just need to better monitor what you eat.
But what if I like Stairmastering, and Ellipticaling? Well, you should by all means do them and treat them like your sport. Crossfit will definitely get you in shape to be able to stairmaster like a world champion stairmasterer. But be very clear. If you intent is to burn more calories, I mean do some more cardio, you are ruining your fitness by destroying your hard earned, speed, power, strength, flexibility, VO2max, and god forbid...your work capacity. If you want to have a slower Fran time, you should do some more cardio. If you hate going so fast at Jackie, you should do more Kardio.
But, if your sport IS actually running, AND you use Crossfit to get in shape for it. You should run. And run hard.
Just don't kid yourselves.
Source
Felt like getting away from the workout but turns out I did it, and as always, a little music always does wonders. I feel at peace with myself now, after the workout.
This session is not timed:
21-15-9-5 of
A new look - I like this one because:
I got this inspiration from Peanut Butter Boy - mixing peanut butter with my oat porridge. His mentions the use of peanut butter with cereal - which means the peanut butter doesn't mix - but oat porridge will.
Had a 'light' sprint session today - yesterday's long walk (possibly 10-14km?) coupled with the previous days' training has left my legs too sore to sprint properly.
This session is not timed:
This article on scaling down the weights by Crossfit Auckland can be quite a displeasure for those in traditional bodybuilding to read, since they believe that the only way to grow more 'powerful' is big, heavy weights & low repetitions.
Then again, this is something very peculiar of Crossfit - the ability to debunk traditional training myth and science, and excelling at it!
Your body is an amazingly adaptive organism. After a single bout of exercise, it starts creating more blood, more vessels to transport that blood, more mitochondria and muscle cells to receive oxygen and nutrients, and a ton of other little jobs in order to better cope with the exercise stimulus the next time it happens.
In order for our body to develop to its utmost potential we need an optimal dose of exercise. But what is optimal?
The more power we can produce during exercise, the bigger the adaptive response.
Power = work/time. So to produce more power, you can do more work (heavier weight) or you can take less time (lighter weight). Most people (us males especially......) tend towards the heavier weight option. But if you take it too far, the formula actually works against you.
Example
If an 80kg male did the benchmark workout 'Fran' (21/15/9 reps of thruster and pullup) with the prescribed weight of 40kg in a time of 13 minutes, power output would be 64 watts. 13 minutes is a fine time for Fran if you're still learning the ropes. But it certainly isn't the 3 minutes that most well rounded crossfitters can do. You can argue that the time will come down with practice, but why not bring the weight down first?
Fran with a more manageable 30kg instead of 40kg might give a time of 6:30 minutes - twice as fast.
And more importantly almost twice the power output - 116 watts.
Increasing your power output is the best way to get better at CrossFit, and to see the results you want to see. Don't be afraid to scale the weight - just say 'I'm going to increase my power output today!'
Article from Crossfit Auckland
Running is something that traditional bodybuilders tend to avoid, and I hear it all the time among my gym-going friends.
While its true that persistent, long distance runs will release cortisol which, breaks down valuable muscle, avoiding runs all together isn't exactly healthy.
Everyone should run, but don't run leisurely, make every run feel like you're doing your IPPT's 2.4km run. If you tend to go leisurely, bring along a stopwatch - the running time should be able to spur you on and deter you from going leisurely. Sure beats jogging slowly for 5km.
This session is timed:
Lap Time
1 - 2.04 min
2 - 2.21 min
3 - 2.22 min
4 - 2.25min
Total time elapsed: 9.14 min
I figure each lap is slightly over 500 metres.
This is followed by another session at night.
This session is not timed:
Today's HIIT was cut short by the heavy downpour, but wasn't too bad a session still:
3 sets of:
NUS track before the downpourThis session is not timed:
50 deadlifts
20 parallel bar dips
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
20 parallel bar dips
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
20 parallel bar dips
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
20 parallel bar dips
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
20 parallel bar dips
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
Got down to East Coast Parkway for a blading session - wasn't too sunny, and no crowds. But there certainly is a difference in the blades that you rent for $7 for 2 hours versus $10 for the same.
The overly-high speed bumps on the cyclist tracks have finally been removed, making it less dangerous for the novice bladers.
My tanned legs. In the end we spent lots of time at the chinup bars, monkey bars, and parallel bars. Still had some soreness, but went ahead to do another 40 chinups yesterday.
Dinner was a great protein feast, this burger has at least 4 meats in it - beef patty, chicken ham, turkey ham, an egg, and some other meat which I can't remember!
Today's a mild session of HIIT - still recovering from the previous HIIT session 2 days ago. Compound it with the new moves I'm learning (Overhead Squats) and my re-ignited pullup regime (over 150 in 2 days), I can see why I'm abit fatigued.
This session is not timed:
1.2km warm up run
5 of 20mx4 shuttle runs
Training on an average of 6 days a week, with workouts of rather varying natures, you can't stop eating. Here's my night snack - Bread with chicken ham & pork jerky (bak kwa) & cheese and milk.
Today I tried out the Overhead Squat (Read Attempting The Overhead Squat)- shaky at first, but really great as it got by. Alot of core stabilization is recruited during the lowest point of the descent (squat) - no wonder its so good for midline stability.
Point to note - the barbell ascends and descends in a straight, vertical line. If you picture that, it gets easier - and no, avoid the use of mirrors if you can, especially during deadlift set up positioning.
And the barbell starting position for the overhead squat will always, determine if you'll tip over forwards or backwards - so be very careful and conscious.
This session is not timed:
21 overhead squats
50 plyometric pushups
15 overhead quats
50 pushups
8 overhand pullups
8 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
5 overhand pullups
5 underhand pullups
There's no soccer tomorrow due to lack of players - I suppose I could have another session of HIIT.
A total of 62 pullups performed! Woke up the next day with my lats with a deep nice sore.
Did an afternoon swim at the pool - 15 laps, giving 1.25km in distance.
Had some milk and some fried squids from Old Chang Kee and a short rest, before proceeding to HIIT:
2 rounds of:
Debunking traditional bodybuilding myths? Think that isolation curls are the best?
This is a rather detailed insight provided by Mr Brown as on how to get about bicycle commuting in Singapore:
4. THE DISTANCES
Distance is relative. It is very often all in your mind. Of course don't ride a 25km distance for your first time or you will shack yourself out and lose interest. Eventually, that distance will not feel that bad, as you get fitter and more road-wise. The first few weeks riding to work is the hardest, especially when you have not exercised for a long time. But the human body is a very adaptable machine.
It takes me a hour to travel 25km from Katong to Clementi when I have to meet friends there. Most trips in Singapore are short. On average, I find most of my trips to work or to town, are about 7km to 12km, which takes 30 to 40 minutes. Longer rides, from one end of Singapore to another, take about an hour. You never need wait for the bus, never have to walk to a station, fight for a cab, or circle around looking for a parking lot. And you usually ride to the doorstep of your destination, a real time saver.
![[Enlarge]](http://www.adidas.com.sg/rcmovingoutsale.jpg){kind=link}