Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Today I met with Jo to give her a workout in the park near her house. She gave the sandbag a try. It's 40lbs and it seems that is to heavy. So I plan on dropping it to 30 and trying it again. It's such a great tool once you figure out how to handle it and what weight works for people.
For my personal workout I was dragging ass. My body and mind were fatigued from work.
5 rounds for time
Ball slams 20
40lb bag thrusters 10
Kb hang cleans 10 each arm
15:08
Then run 1/2 mile to the park and attempted kipping pullups. To no avail. I can hang and I can swing but I can't pull up....AAAGH! Also worked on parallettes knees to chest. Ran side shuffle up the hill and ran home. Played a little with some parkour jumps over a little wall.
I got this next list off this other guys blog. I really like it!

1. Train frequently, hard, and not to failure.
2. Overload your whole system, not just your bicep.
3. You grow during rest, not during training.
4. Use whole body, systemic, exercises.
5. Vary your workload with planned lower intensity days or weeks.
6. Rest properly
7. Focus on progression
8. Eat adequate calories. If you overeat,...you will wear the extra calories.
9. Strength means getting good at lifting heavy stuff, being able to endure doing it for duration, and managing it in extreme ranges of motion with good mechanics.
10. Training should make you healthier, stronger, more flexible, more enduring, and leaner.
11. There are NO secrets, only the truth waiting to be uncovered, reorganized, or adjusted.
12. Don't take any of this stuff too seriously, there ARE bigger things in life.

He also wrote this on his blog and I agree with him totally.
Aside from athletes, women as they approach middle age, are morbidly undermuscled. This is what getting old is about. The most dangerous component of this affliction, is the weak neck. I see more women with a forward projected, skinny neck, than I can shake a stick at. Aside from injury and poor posture, an undermuscled frame is the cause. General strength training with overhead lifting will increase trapezious and neck strength to a degree. So will deadlifting and pulling exercise. You will not find this in Pilates, Yoga, or Spinning. Weight machines frequently isolate to an abnormal degree, proper muscle function. Actually picking up heavy stuff and lifting it is the first step. The second step is direct exercise for the muscles of the neck region. I'll cover this further in a future article and I will feature it in my upcoming DVD, "Concrete Conflict and Conditioning".
Tom Furman

1 comment:

Ken Black said...

Tom is a smart man Jen. I am looking forward to his DVD.
I have the same problems with most of the female clients and pullups. I believe it is a mixture of fear and strength/muscle recruitment. Good on you for trying. Keep at it you'll get them soon.