Online training community & programs – CrossFit

My mate got me on to crossfit. It’s a website/blog where they post a daily workout, and the community post their times/reps in the comments section. The cool thing about this is the workouts. They’re different every day, they’re high intensity, they include functional exercises that benefits everyone, and best of all, they’re scalable for everyone!

I’m definately going to look further into this and take on some of the WODs (workout of the day). The random/different exercises every day interests me the most, your body wouldn’t get used to the routine like your normal programs. Would make rugby training and game day seem like a walk in the park 😀

Heres a couple vids, WOD:GI Jane

2 Min Defence (awful music):

Josh Everret’s smashing of Crossfit’s King Kong WOD:

Cable woodchops

Lock arms and do not use them at all.  Only allow movement through torso.

My new gym program

Ok, I’ve finally sat down and figured out my new ultra-awesomo gym program for the next 6 weeks.

First I created a list of gym exercises that I have warmed to. This makes it a little easier to organise & pick what exercises to throw into each rotation.

I have two programs that im gonna alternate each week. Each rotation (2 weeks) ill drop my rep target for each set by 2 reps (eg: 9,7,5). Each program consists of a two day split of [chest, shoulders, arms, core] & [legs, back, core]. I will superset the paired sequential exercises.

Week 1, 3, 5:

Split 1:

• Chest
  • Barbell bench
  • Incline dumbell bench
• Shoulders
  • Power pulls (barbell deadlift to upright row)
  • Rotator bar (barbell shrug , raise elbows at side to shoulder height – elbows at right angles, then anterior raise with elbows locked as they are)
• Arms
  • Chin-ups (underhand)
  • Lying tricep ez-bar extentions
• Core
  • Leg Raises
  • Swissball Woodchops

Split 2:

• Lower
  • 2 finger squats (front barbell hack squats)
  • Leg press
  • Straight leg deadlifts
  • Abductor swings
• Back
  • Bentover Row
  • Lat pulldowns
• Core
  • Leg raises
  • Swiss woodchops

Week 2,4,6:

Split 1:

• Chest
  • Swiss dumbell bench
  • Incline barbell bench
• Shoulders
  • Anteiror single-arm dumbell raises
  • Power barbell shrugs
• Arms
  • 21’s barbell curls
  • Tri cable pulldowns
• Core
  • Lying bench leg raises
  • Weighted swiss crunches

Split 2:

• Legs
  • Squats
  • Leg curls
  • Split squats
  • Eccentric lateral cable strides
• Back
  • Barbell pull
  • Back extentions
• Core
  • Lying bench leg raises
  • Weighted swiss crunches

Hopefully with the alternating programs & updating them every 6 weeks with new exercises ill get enough variation to keep shocking the system.

Also comparing this program with a max set count of around 12 per session i should be able to workout more intensely than my previous prescribed program  of 40 sets (of 9 reps) per session.

I’ll keep ya updated on how its going 🙂

Contemplating gym program overhaul

 My current program is pretty good. It’s a hand me down from one of the AirNZ Cup players so it should be what I require. It currently involves 2-3 sessions a week. Each session involves a FULL body workout which takes me just under 2hours! (Which is supposed to be way too much time in the gym). It consists of 3 supersets of 3 exercises of 6 sets of 9 reps. I must say that i’ve finally got used to the supersetting everything, and the 6 sets. It was such a struggle at the start! I have two different routines that i swap weekly. Then every 6 or so weeks i get an updated pair of routines.

Now this is all good, but my problem is that im not putting on the size I used to when I was creating my own gym program. I think this is mainly because I would split my workouts into diff muscle groups giving me more time to do more exercises for each muscle group. A huge pro of my current programs is being introduced to new exercises & the rotation of new exercises. I find it a bit hard periodising and rotating enough different exersies into my own program. My new plan is to create a new program with a 2 day split. Sessions will be  mon-sat mornings. Im used to gyming at 6am now, hard part would be doing it 5 days in a row. I used to hit the gym 6 days a week so i think i can handle it. During the rugby season ill only be able to gym mon-thur, which is better than 2 sessions that I could only allow myself when i was gyming at night. (Tue & Thur were rugby training, fri night off cos game sat, sun = recovery).

New gym project action list:

• create ultra-massive list of gym exercises (categorise by muscle group)
• look into perodisation that will suit me
• create 2 alternating gym program
• get into a good sleep pattern so i can continuously hit at 6am
• buy more protein
• look into creatine prices & see if i can afford it