No gym, no problem

Spending few days at North coast with family means no gym, but yet I can do some work outs.
I took the ab wheel, the jumping rope and a 10 Kgs DB with me in the back of my car.

North Coast WOD #1
Part1: 2 minutes Jumping Jacks
Part2: Ladder training
1,2,3,........10 reps HSPU
10,9,8m......1 reps Ab Wheel Roll Outs

North Coast WOD #2
For time
500 Push Ups
500 Crunches
2 minutes Jump Ropes

North Coast WOD #3
30 minutes AMRAP
10 HSPU
10 DB/KB Swings
10 Jump Squats
10 DB Renegade Rows
10 V Sit Ups
10 Ab Wheel Roll Outs
100 Jump Ropes

North Coast WOD #4 on the beach
1500 m Run
100 Burpees

Ramadan and working out

The holly month is coming up and you are probably wondering what to eat between dusk and dawn and when to train to maintain your physique.

First of all; Ramadan is mainly about fasting, praying, reading Qur’an, du’a and charity. So, we are just trying to fit in our training sessions and schedule our meals in a way that doesn’t affect our Ebada (acts of worship) in the holly month.

Training in Ramadan

There are two opinions about when to train in Ramadan?

1-      Train after Taraweeh, thus you have eaten two meals, drank lots of water and have the ability to take your intra-workout supplements and shakes.

2-      Train fasted 2 hours before Iftar, thus you can eat your main meal after working out and you can eat many times in the feed time (from dusk to dawn)

Last year I used to work out right before Iftar, the dehydration was really hard and I got a kidney stone by the end of the month. But I used to do HIIT sessions after weight training routines and I used to sweat too much.

I think this year I will train mainly after Taraweeh. If I had to train before Iftar any day, I’ll prevent any high intensity training and I’ll drink lots of water after Iftar.

Anyhow, don’t stop training in Ramadan; you don’t want to lose muscle and strength or gain fat. If you are not going to gain muscle in Ramadan, then at least don’t lose what you have.

In Ramadan, you may have only 30-60 minutes to do your workout, so your best thing is to do the major movements. Do squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, bent over rows, inverted rows and you may add biceps curls and triceps extensions.  Don’t do assistance exercises that may make you over exhausted and dehydrated that may cause muscle loss.

And you know what?  KEEP IT HEAVY!!

Yes, do heavy weights and low reps. 3X5 to 5X5 would be great for training in Ramadan.

For gains during Ramadan eat several times after Maghrib, drink lots of milk and water and don’t do cardio or HIIT.

If you train to lose weight, do your cardio after a light Iftar or after Taraweeh and drink a lot of water.

Nutrition in Ramadan

-          Avoid junk food, I know it’s not an only Ramadan tip but the temptations are high during Ramadan, don’t get week.

-          High protein, high carbs meals are what you should be eating during the feed time if you are aiming to gain or maintain.
If you are aiming to lose weight you have to eat carbs as well. You can eat carbs before and after your cardio session, for energy and recovery.

-          Eat light protein meal before bed, like cottage cheese, berries, ground flax seeds.

-         An advantage of working out after Iftar is that you can take your intra-workout supplements and post workout shake.

-          Sohour meal may contain eggs, oatmeal, broad bean, peanut butter, banana, veggies, meat, chicken breast, nuts, honey, dates, flax seed oil, olive oil and a lot of water.

-          Dates on Iftar are Sunna. Dates are very healthy, they contain unique blend of glucose and fructose and have very high potassium content and are very good for energy.

-          Don’t eat excessive desserts that are hard to fight specially during outings and gatherings. I know it’s hard to fight Kunafah, Qatayef and Phyllo (Baqlawah) but don’t eat much.

Sleeping in Ramdan

The holly month is a month of acts of worship so it's not easy to find time to sleep and you know that sleeping is important for muscle growth and recovery.
Sleep the available hours at night and try to take a nap or two during the day, 30-60 minutes each.


A final tip; plan your day before the month begins and don’t over think of your training and nutrition during the month. Make a plan previously to clear your mind during the month for praying, reading Qur’an and doing all acts of worship. Enjoy the greatness of holly Ramadan and make your training and nutrition just as simple act as breathing, don’t give them larger attention and forget what really Ramadan is about.



Thank you

IR.

Posterior Deltoid Exercises

 Posterior Deltoid (A.K.A reae deltoid or rear shoulder) is a muscle that most people (including myself) train with only one exercise in the shoulder routine, although the shoulder routine should contain 2-3 rear shoulder exercise, typical to the number of exercises of anteriot deltoid (ie. front shoulder).

This muscle is not trained often enough because:

1- Some people usually neglect the whole rear parts of their bodies except the latissimus dorsi muscle, ehich is totally wrong. Some members at my gym don't train their rear deltoid muscles or the hamstring muscles at all. They have to recinsider this.

2- Posterior deltoid exercises are relatively difficult and the muscle itself is relativley weak compared to the anterior deltoid muscle that you can press a quit impressive weight training it.

3- Not everyone really knows the importance of strength and muscle balance, the same reason whay some models or amateurs don't train legs.

Here are some posterior deltoid exercises that are not difficult yet effective

1- Bent Over Lateral Raise

2- Seated Bent Over Lateral Raise

3- Lateral Raise on an Incline Bench

 









4- Lateral Raise on a Flat Bench

5- Reverse Flyes

6- Cable Rear Delt Rows

Finally, posterior deltoids not only they are impressive when they pop off the back of your arm, but they are important to provide the shoulder with stability on all other exercises.

Don't ever skip the rear delts exercise.

 

3.6.2013 WOD

Today I couldn't make it to the gym, so I did a crossfit workout at home with the weights I have there.
This WOD was posted a couple of weeks ago by Jonathan Coyle.

Here we go :
2 rounds for time
12 Burpees
12 Thrusters #115/75
12 Burpees
12 Power Snatches
12 Burpees
12 Push Jerks
12 Burpees
12 Hang Squat Cleans
12 Burpees
12 Overhead Squats

Crossfitters, this wod is a killer.
I could do only one round this time, but I'm willing to kill the two rounds the next time.
So, go follow this beast and do your workout.

26.5.13 shoulders day

It was shoulders day, I started with pull ups, did some classic bodybuilding shoulders exercises and finished with TABATA and some ab work.

Start
Pull ups 4 sets x 10 reps

Shoulders
Shoulder press machine 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Seated dumbbell shoulder press 4 sets x 8-10 reps
One arm dumbell lateral raises 4 sets x 8-10 reps
One arm cable rear delt fly 4 sets x 8-10 reps

TABATA (HIIT)
4 minutes TABATA of 75 lbs Push press (8 rounds of 20 sec. push press and 10 sec rest)
This was killer

ABS
Weighted full sit ups 4 sets x 15-20 reps (not less than 25lbs)
Planks 5 sets x 40 seconds hold

Enjoy ;)

23/5/2013 Home workout

This workout was posted by @josiephelps on instagram
Here we go:

Barbell work
7×1 High Hang snatch. AHAP- rest 60 sec

WOD
For time:
50 Double Unders
30 HSPU
20 TTB
50 Double Unders
20 HSPU
15 TTB
50 Double Unders
10 HSPU
10 TTB

Then I added
4×40 seconds Plank hold
10 minutes working on Back Lever ( not even close )

So, what you're about to do now:
1) Get up and do your workout
2) Follow this killer crossfitter

Training injuries

To apply the quote "no pain, no gain" to your fitness life, you don't have to hurt yourself or get injured. The pain is to push yourself harder and feel the burn. The pain is to do your workout after a long working day. The pain is to sit with your friends and eat tuna salad while they are eating pizza and chocolate fudge.
That's the pain that you get used to, the other pain that you don't want to experience is the pain of injury, not only the physical pain, but the psychological pain you feel from not being able to workout for a while. If you are a fitness freak, then you know what I'm talking about, specially if you had an injury before.

The most common training pains

1- Wrist pain
Prevent excessive bending of the wrist in exercises such as push ups, chest press and shoulder press. This may cause what is known as Carpal tunnel syndrome. 

2- Foot and ankle pain
This is caused by twisting the ankle in an awkward way or running in a bad shoes.

3- Knee pain
Poor harmony between your hips and your feet causes knee injury. You try to move quikly but your hips and feet do not coordinate together and the knee gets all the stress. Do lunges along with leg extensions to strengthen the knee.

4- Shoulder pain
Rotate your arms to balance your shoulders and never start working out without warming up your shoulders, whatever muscle group you are going to train. Your shoulders always get some work to do.

5- Back pain
The same to your back, always stretch and strengthen your back. Wall sits and planks help with that.

6- Neck pain
Avoid excess stress on your neck when doing overhead press. Make sure your back and neck are well supported when doing chest press. Don't lower your head when doing push ups.

Ten Most Common Causes of Training Injury

1- Incorrect Technique

It's easy to tell that a guy is going to hurt himself by watching him stressing on his neck benching or arching his back curling. Don't be that guy.

 

2- Too Much Weight

Extra heavy weight increases the opprtunity of getting injured. As long as you are controlling the weights and doing a good form, it's ok to increase the weights, just know when to stop. 

 

3- Bad Spotting

Behind every strong lifter is a good spotter. The good spotter is always sensitive and alert to the possibility if failure.

 

4- Incorrect Use of Cheating & Forced Reps

Cheating and forced reps are advanced techniques that allow the lifter to train beyond normal. Taken past the point of failure, the muscle is literally forced to grow. When incorrectly performed, a cheating or forced rep can push or pull the lifter out of the groove. The weight collapses and a spotter must come to the rescue.

 

5- Training Too Often

It negatively impacts the body's overall level of strength and conditioning. Overtraining saps energy, retarding progress

 

6- Not Stretching

Stretch helps relax and elongate a muscle after warm up and before and after weight training

 

7- Inadequate Warm Up

This quick, light movement of warming up raises the temperature of the involved muscle while decreasing blood viscosity and promoting flexibility and mobility. That's what you feel, right?

 

8- Negative reps

The weight you can handle in negative exercises is likely to be the heaviest you'll ever lift, so you have to be very careful and relying on a very good spotter.

 

9- Poor Training

It's best to save the big weights, low reps, forced reps and negatives for nondiet growth periods. While dieting requires reduced poundage, this doesn't mean you can't be intense in your workout, it just means you need to use lighter weight.

 

10- Lack on Concentration

Getting an intense level of concentration not only get you motivated and lifting heavy but it prevents you from injury as well.

 

 

 

Sources:
www.menfitness.com
www.getbig.com