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I’ve never looked back and I don’t tend to bother with the web host forums and the spammy review sites anymore.

Now onto more fitness related stuff – I’ll soon be doing P90X so expect some new posts reviewing my progress.

It’s not an easy or obvious answer. It all depends on what you’re training for. That’s why a one-size-fits-all training programme doesn’t exist.

The guy on the left is a marathn runner and could beat the guy on the right no questions asked – in a marathon that is.

But if it comes to sprinting then the guy on the right would run circles round the other one.

It all depends on what you’re training for.

I decided to wear my heart rate monitor for the duration of Saturdays session – you can see from the read out that it doesn’t push the cardiovascular system much but it certainly helps with stamina, flexibility and balance.

Its also a great core and quad workout too. They both burn hard. If anyone thinks yoga doesn’t do great things for strength then they’re massively mistaken.  Its doing great things for me all round.
One area its really boosting is foot and ankle strength too.  An area that doesn’t get much training but in yoga it hits them hard because of the constant balancing.  Some of the poses make your feet kill!!!

On Saturday I also did a 30 min All Round MMA workout with the Bas Rutten audio.

Sunday I greased the groove with loads of pull ups, push ups, etc. I’m noticing very little improvement in my pushing ability still.  Will have to work harder on that methinks.

Monday
Well today I’ve done a strength session….

• 3 Pull Ups + 2 Pull Ups & 1 Chin Up.
• 1 Wide Grip Pull Up.
• 10 x 4 sets of Decline Push Ups.

Then 30mins of yoga to finish off with.

No ju jutsu either.

Well now to my review of how those 50 days have gone.  What I’ve learned, what I’m gonna do now and how well I’ve progressed.

One Workout is Easy – 50 Workouts is Hard

Its not starting up thats necessarily hard for people.  Its the consistent ploughing on regardless of what happens around you.  You can see this by the number of unused gym memberships around the world.  The number of weekend warriors and keyboard kung fu masters.  Doing a workout is tough but doing it the next day and the next day is hard – but the rewards are awesome.

There’s No Excuse

Well sort of.  Its easy to know what to do when you’re honest with yourself and have a bit of imagination.  When I say fit in this instance I mean general fitness not athletic fitness.  If I can fit in workouts between an insane work schedule (~60hrs per week) then anyone can.  This brings me onto the next one…

There’s a Lot to Learn

Although I’ve learnt shed-loads over the past few weeks I still have a lot to learn about my body, how it works and whats best for it.  I’ve read Ross Enamaits books (Infinite Intensity & Never Gymless), Pavel Tsatsouline, numerous forums (BWC, RT, MAP) and articles (TN) but I still consider myself a beginner and naive.  The learning is one hell of a motivator though.  I love trying new exercises and incorporating new ideas into my workouts.

I’d say my body is one hell of a good guide too and if you listen to your’s you’ll find it tells you a hell of a lot.

Sleep Is Good

I used to think sleep was a pain in the arse.  A weakness of the human condition that needed to be crushed with some form of genetic engineering.  However, after increasing my physical activity the need for sleep has become a very welcome healer and miracle worker.  In fact I can say exactly how I’ll feel given certain amounts of sleep:

• 6hrs – Very bad, all over body aches from poorly healed workout stress.  Very groggy, confused and lethargic.  Very irritable and grumpy.
• 7hrs – Can just about survive the day but mentally not 100%.
• 8hrs – My preffered minimum and after 8hrs I feel great.  Muscle soreness is virtually nil, mind fresh and body springing.
• 9hrs – Bliss but it’ll push me into staying up later than normal.
• 10+ hrs – Fantastci but it starts to reverse my hours.  After this long a sleep I often don’t sleep ’til 3am that night.

More Structure

Shit Food Makes You Ill

When you get used to eating good food with lots of organic grains, meat and fish then eating heavily processed foods and high carbs like chocolate makes you ill.  I had a tin of Quality Street 2 weeks ago and it made me ill for the entire weekend.  I couldn’t move, had body aches, felt sick and very lethargic.  It makes for a very useful self-regulatory reaction to poor food.

Stats

Here’s a few before and after stats for the past 50 days.  Its helping me see what I need to improve on and where I’m lacking.

• Pull Ups: 1 – 4
• Plank: 0:40 – 2:03
• Forearm Killers/Wrist Roller: (2 + 1 + 1/2) – (3 + 2 + 1)
• MMA Workout: 2 x 2min rounds – 3 x 3min rounds

But I hit todays strength goals with extreme vigour and my morning routine was upgraded with a mini circuit of pull ups, chin ups and push ups.

The Main Strength Circuit (3 times)

• Pull Ups: 2
• Ankle Raises: 12
• Decline Diamond Push Ups: 2
• One-Legged Squat (to table): 5
• Wide Grip Pull Up: 1 (needed boost on last set then sloooow on the negative)
• Wrist Twists (sledge): 8 each hand

Core Workout (3 times)

• Sit Ups: 5 (5 sec pause going up & 3 secs down)
• Sand Bucket Side Bends: 10
  
• Turkish Get Up (using dumb bell): 5
• Sand Bucket Lift: 10

I still did a mini workut of pull ups, chin ups and push ups but didn’t do the planned strength workout.

I’m going to start putting the plans for each day down on Sunday ready for the week ahead.  Its too easy to forget an exercise or muscle group when you’re doing the workout.

Considering a deficiency in Riboflavin can cause a range of horrible skin conditions such as dry cracked lips, ulcerations, etc.

The key B vitamins and their uses are:

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) – Vital for central nervous system health.  Deficiencies can cause mood problems and malaise.
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) – Needed for all the bodies major cellular systems such as metabolism.
• Vitamin B3 (niacin) – Required for DNA repair and production of steroid hormones in the adrenal glands.
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) – Essential for the metabolism of proteins, fats and carbs.
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) – Promotes red blood cell production and balances your sodium levels.
• Vitamin B7 (biotin) – Required for cell growth and the metabolism of essential fatty acids.
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid) – Required for new cell production and growth.
• Vitamin B12 – This B vitamin is involved in every cell of the body but is especially important for metabolism, cell growth and fatty acid metabolism.

As you can see all of the above are pretty damn Essential for your health.  With even a slight lack in any one of those it’ll make your training worthless.

My current records:

• Chin Ups: 2 + 1/2
• Pull Ups: 1
• Push Ups: 30

I’m hoping to get those up to 10, 5 and 50 in two months.  Think I can do it?

So what the hell is it?

Well it can boost your reps of any exercise like push ups, pull ups, etc by a HUGE amount.  It works by a simple fact of nature – adaptability.  Now I’d read in a number of books that strength comes mainly form the nervous system and not the muscle.  To get an idea of this then look at Pavel Tsatsouline (in the pic) who is one hell of a strong guy but he isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Strength gains can be most pronounced by having a well-primed and healthy nervous system.

“Greasing the Groove” is all about exploiting your nervous systems adaptability and its dead simple:

Lots of reps

Application 1: Push Ups

That’s it – pretty much.  Lets take an example though.  Maybe you want to increase your push up capacity to the big 50 or 100.  Rather than training push ups twice or thrice a week in traditional sets.  You’d do a few each day – when I say a few I mean like 20-100 across the entire day.  In a way you’re ‘greasing up’ your nervous system for that big push of 50 push ups.  Your priming your body by giving it constant stimulation.

Application 2: Pull Ups

Another example would be to try and increase your pull up capacity.  Have yourself a pull up bar at home or in an easily accessible location.  The easier the better!!  If you can mount one outside your kitchen or bedroom door that’s perfect.  The more times you pass it the better cos you’re gonna use it every time.  Even if you can only do 1 pull up.  Just keep doing that one every time you pass.  In no time at all you’ll be doing 20 pull ups non-stop.

One set of five every day is better than five sets of five every five days.

Don’t Fail!

Doing this style of training to failure is a definate no-no.  You’ll only burn out your CNS so just don’t go there.  High reps and heavy weights are what you need but don’t take the reps in any one set above 6!  Anything more than that and you’re just going to get hypertrophy more than strength or endurance.

Rest

Just because you won’t feel like you’re loading your body as hard as the traditional intense training methods.  You still need rest!  No negotiation there.  Rest is paramount and in fact your nervous system needs it more than your muscles do.  A burnt out CNS will cause more problems than burnt out muscle.

Who Invented/Discovered This?

See the guy in the pic I mentioned earlier?  Well he did – Pavel Tsatsouline.  He’s a Russian, and as we all know the Russians are strong.  You only have to look at the Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren who was used to play a Russian in Rocky 4 because all the Russian actors were crushing broken Soviet navy ships with their bare hands.

You can read his original article here.