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

Core

• Ab Roller – 5 x 2 sets
• Sit Ups – 10 x 2 sets
• Back Extensions – 10 x 2 sets
• Plank – 1:20

Forearms

• Wrist Roller – 3 + 2 + 1
• Wrist Dips* – 10 x 2 sets

Iai Jutsu

Being a Wednesday it was my usual Iaijutsu and I got to practice a couple of new katas.  I can feel my reishiki and first kata coming together really nicely now.  I can’t wait to graduate up to a proper steel iai (Japanese sword) because I’m still using a bokuto (wooden sword) at the moment.  In a few weeks though I hope to get my hands on the real thing!

* This is a new exercise I’ve started to use.  Not sure of its proper name but I’ll do a post on it at some point.

Although I’ve started to notice something with these workouts.  Althoguh I put the main exercises in I don’t bother with the ‘messing about’.  So this time I’ll just give a section on the messing about to show the extra bits I do when ‘fidgeting’.

Main Core

• Sit Ups: 10 x 2 sets (hold for 5secs during up then hold 5 secs during down)
• Dumb Bell Side Bends: 12 reps x 3 sets
• Band Rotations: 12 reps x 2 sets

Main Forearms

• Wrist Roller: 3 + 2
• 1:30 of Iaijutsu.

Messing about…

• Band Resisted Punches: About 20 each arm.
• Chinnies: 10
• V-Ups: 3
• Chin Ups: 2

Nothing major and not part of the main workout but I thought its worth highlighting – I dunno why.

Oh actually.

People who regularly exercise are known to fidget more generally.  So physical activity perpetuates itself in a way.

You can read more about that here: Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.

In case you haven’t noticed I’m also following a new programme.  I was going to leave it until after the lay off but thoguht I’d dive right in and get started.  I will make my strength day and plyo day more relaxed though.

Core

• Elevated Crunches: 3 sets of 10 (holding for 3 up, then 3 down)
• Dumb Bell Clean: 3 sets of 10
• Dumb Bell Side Bends: 3 sets of 10
• Band Twists: 2 sets of 10 reps either side

Forearms

• Wrist Twists with Sledge: 10 + 6 + 6 reps.  (moved hand out each set to increase difficulty)
• Wrist Dumb Bell Curl: 10 + 5 reps ( was a lot harder than I expected – maybe I burnt myself out on the twists?)

Rested for about 30mins then…

• Wrist Roller: 2 + 2 reps

The Circuit

I did this around 2hrs later after my dinner had digested because I normally end up feeling sick as a parrot after every ICT.  Last thng I needed was salmon chunks in my nose!  This time I decided to do a full 30mins of Bas Rutten All Round Fighting audio.  It had punches, knees, sprawling, etc.  All in 2 minute rounds with 1 minute rests.

After the full 30 mins I decided I wasn’t tired enough and so did an intense 5 minute freestyle circuit of:

• Jumping Squats: 30 secs
• Sledge Hammer Slamming: 30 secs
• Push Ups: 30 secs
• Sledge Hammer Slamming: 30 secs
• Jumping Squats: 30 secs
• Push Ups: 30 secs
• Mountain Climbers: 30 secs
• Sledge Hammer Slamming: 30 secs
• Sit Ups: 30 secs
• Push Ups: 30 secs

I can’t 100% remember my core workout but I think it was along the lines of:

• Russian Twist*: 20 reps.
• V-Ups: 10 reps
• Plank: Time (~60 secs)

I did that lot 3 times and then decided to do 3 sets of weighted wist bends (10 reps).

It really, REALLY works the abs like I never expected.  I can only do it fully from a kneeling position otherwise I hit the floor with a severe ’splat’ effect.

Mini core circuit then of:

• 3 sets of 10 Ab Rolls (form knee).
• 3 sets of 10 Dumb Bell Waist Bends.
• 2 sets of 5 Band Woodchops (I don’t like these – they don’t feel hard enough).

I recorded a plank time of 1:15.

That doesn’t look a lot but it doesn’t take into account the other ‘messing about’ I did such as attempting standing wheel roll outs, lots of reps of diagonal wheel roll outs (apparently targets the obliques), etc, etc.

Pull Up Bar Circuit (band assisted)

• Pull Ups: 2
• Chin Ups: 3
• Pull Ups: 2
• Chin Ups: 3

Rest 60 seconds…

• Pull Ups: 3
• Chin Ups: 1

Did that lot first thing in the morning.  Late afternoon I did…

Forearms

• Wrist Roller: 3 sets of 2 reps.
• Wrist Twists: 2 sets of 10.
• Rest 15 mins.
• Wrist Curls: 3 sets of 7

Core

Decided against a circuit this time as I was in the middle of a conversation online so sent responses between sets!

• Crunches: 2 sets of 10 (holding for 2 secs on incline and then decline too)
• Back Extensions: 2 sets of 10 (I hate these!!)

1:15 of Ju Jutsu

• Warm Up
• 3 variants of Kote Gash.
• 4 variants of Sangaku.
• Kosh and grappling technique (don’t know the name but you throw their hand behind them and twist round to the ground.  Knee in neck then thumb-lock).

Bas Rutten Workout

• Did 3 x 2min rounds of the All Round Fighting audio as a warm up.
• Then 15mins of the All Round Workout 2.

This has been a marathon day with workouts throughout but I now feel relaxed and nicely tired.  One of the great thing I like about working out is the relaxation and that warm glow after wards.  Mmmmmm – natures opiates.

Forearms

• Forearm Killer: 1 + 3 + 2 reps
• Wrist Twist: 10reps x 3 sets

Core (3 circuits)

• Crunches: 10 slow and controlled
• Flag (kinda): This was hard and not entirely well executed but it certainly worked my abs.
• Plank: 60 secs

Other than that I reckon my arms and legs DO need to take it easy.  After the 30mins two days ago I’m still pretty sore.

Me Post Workout

Well we’re onto the fifth day of training.  I don’t know if its just in my head but I do feel better in some respects.  I’m not complaining either way!

Explosive Strength

• Squat Jump: 8 reps
• Single Clap Half-Pushups*: 6 reps
• One-legged Ankle Hops: 20 reps
• Push Jerk: 5 reps

I’m doing this circuit 4 times.

* I had to do half-pushups (where you put your knees to the floor) simply because I couldn’t explode high enough to do a clap with a normal push up position.  A half-pushup is a good one to do until I get better methinks.

One thing I noticed with the ankle hops is that as my legs tired the effort started to move into the quads from the calf.  It took some re-adjusting to get my calf to take the full brunt of the exercise.

Core

This is my third in the 6-day split and we’re back to the first one I did which goes like this:

• Crunches: 10 (hold for 5 secs)
• Lying Hip Swings: 20 reps
• Plank: 30 secs (35 on second set)

I’ve started to notice a difference in my core already.  It feels a lot more….’solid’ – for want of a better word.  I can feel it move and shift with more force.  I don’t know if this is all in my head but this is the hardest workout regime I’ve dedicated to my core (pathetic I know!) so maybe I’m getting the newbie-accelerated benifit of it.

— UPDATE —

Forearm

I couldn’t help sneaking in a forearm killer later on.

3 sets and I did better than last time too with the reps being:

2 + 2 + 1.5

Today I’ll be concentrating on upper body isometrics and core work:

Core Workout (3 circuits)

• V-Ups: 15 reps.
• Supermans: 15 reps.
• Chinnies: until burnout.

Additional Core (experimenting)

I just wanted to throw some extra work in to get a feel for some of the other exercises in the books.

• Dumb Bell Side Bends: 12 reps x 2 sets (11Kg)

Isometrics

• Neck Work: Down, right, left, back (all 5 secs each) – 2 sets
• Jab and Cross: Short, mid and long ranges (all 5 secs each) – 2 sets