Circus Time

Today, Balance board pushups, ring dips, archer flies, Iron crosses (not full extension yet)

Wanderlei

I've been looking for new core exercises recently and I found one on Wanderlei Silva's website. I dont know what its called but i call it the break dancer. You basically just kick your leg out and switch to the other side. I did this in a tabata set and i got pretty tired at my mid-section.

Goin the distance

Today I tried doing Tabata squatting with the cinderblock in the crush grip. I got to 3 minutes until i switched to the smaller block. Which is two extra sets further then last time. Hopefully I can pull off a full tabata. If at somepoint I do get it. Should I increase the weight or just try and get more reps in? I also did some pullups and then hammer curls and then towel pull ups and then some rows.

Thrusting

Yeah chief I went for the squat thrusts with 35lb dumbells. After the third set on my tabata i was fucked. Had to drop em and just squat. Vicious. Then I did some abage. I stretch out and have six inches with my legs and my shoulders just off the ground. Then I crunch back in. And do this till I blow up. I also hit up the ab wheel from the knees. I also did going up the stairs upside down feet first. Its in one of the parkour videos on the right. Its good for the tris and shoulders.

The CORE

When I get home in December there are a few things i have to do: submit my brother and Quoc, beat Brooks in a race(are you reading this Brooks?), and the v-sit/planche. So, I've been training my core to max. Anyway, I'd like to hear your core exercises or just make a list.

Core exercises:

Hanging leg raises
Exercise ball crunch
Exercise ball push-up position crunch
6 inches
Bicycles
Mountain Climbers
L-raises
normal crunches and what not

Also, i just created an awesome exercise. Get a chair with high arm rests, sit in it and crunch your legs into your stomach, and then do dips... great for a bunch of stability muscles!

Slump

I want into a no workout slump for the last 8 days. I haven't done shit. I know there is no excuse to spend half an hour a day getting jacked but I have become a lazy bastard, thinking about applying for Ph. Ds and worrying about comprehensive exams. The sad thing is I wasn't actually preparing for any of that shit, just worrying about it. I've been reading books and trying to catchup on a years worth of magazine subscriptions which I will definitely not renew. So today I stopped being a hobo and did some a light workout.
Cinderblock arm raise squats 2 x 30 (15 with each arm)
Cinderblock crush grip squats 3 x 15
Hand stands. Like 5 or 6 I have been amazed at how easily I can hold 2o second hand stands. Its like the more I slack the better I do at shit.
Some serious ab work on this chair I am sitting at. Its like hanging out on the parallel bars ( arm rests). V sit, L sits, leg raises etc. Crazy good on the tris, delts and abs

Sage Arts

To train the mind you must first train the body.

Yesterday, I went to the temple Butsuji, a buddhist area located within the mountains. This place is famous for its spectacular scenery in the fall, when the leaves change their colors. I traversed this peaceful place with three others.

After a morning run, i stretched, showered and prepared myself for the trip. Upon arriving, a sense of calm and peace wash over you... and i was sage mode. Thereafter, i begain meditating much like kamana. I became one with nature. The above pic is me after a few hours.

New Exercise of the Week!

Start in a frog stand so that your shins/knees are resting on your elbows/triceps.
Hold that for five second then press up and release your legs from your arms and hold them there for two seconds. So your body is in the fetal position and you are holding yourself up with your arms. See picture three in the January 19th post. Then put your legs back on your arms for five seconds and continue this for a set of 5.

McGuire Mudrun - Hauser and I ran a 10k mudrun this past weekend. I had previously run one time since the last race we did together which was about a month ago. The run involved wall climbs, mud crawls, running through waist high water, crossing the creek via a brief swim or rope bridge. It was pretty sweet. Hauser and I came in 26 and 27th out of about 950 people. Funny thing was I wasnt even sore the next day. If we can get 3 more people we will have a team so saddle up friends.

Trailer

I'll have a new post when I get home. I am currently in Philly to talk to a professor about school. My new post will detail how well Hauser and I did at the McGuire Mud Run and one of my newest exercises that I have just recently discovered. Bonus info: It works your forearms, abs, triceps and shoulders.

Look for the update on Wednesday (Thursday if you live in Japan).

PS Thanks for everyone posting it is actually motivating to have people talking about all the exercises they are doing.

PS2 Lucky for all of us Brooks now has Facebook so he can go on there as much as he does on here and MySpace. Which is never.

PS3 is apparently really cool but I doubt I will ever buy one.

Breaking through

I just finished my toughest tabata workout thus far in my career of tabataing.
Today i started with a 20 min fartlek that turned into 6 short sprints before i came back to my place. Then i took a little breather and stretched for about 5 minutes...

And then squat thrusts (if thats what they are called... you squat down a with weight and then military press it). Wow... pain like ive never known before (or at least in the past few years). I got two and a half minutes of this and then i pussed out into squat jumps. I think ill keep doing these for the next few weeks and see how far i can go with them.
after that came abs, shoulders (punching with light weight), and shadow boxing

Mind training... studying japanese. I have a big japanese proficiency exam coming up on Dec. 7 so i need to prepare for that. Im trying to get about 5 hrs a day of good studying.

IRON MIND

I have been working out my brain lately and I thought I'd share it with you. I'm doing a naturalist training program called Kamana and its awesome. Everyday there are different exercises to do and then reflections at night about the day. I highly recommend looking into it. I've also started visiting a Sit Spot several times a week. It's basically a spot in front of a tree in the woods where I sit and pay attention. It's amazing what you can hear and smell and see when you pay attention.

www.wildernessawareness.org is the website for the wilderness awareness school in Washington state. You can find more about Kamana there. 

New Diet!!!

Ive been trying to run at least 4 times a week. These runs range from medium to light runs usually lasting about 25-30 minutes. After running, i usually go into my resistance workout.

Ive noticed that doing tabata leg workouts after running are killer. I did squat jumps the other day and my legs didnt lift off the ground after the second minute.

However, i feel i am improving and im adding a new phase to my workout... shadow boxing. I will try to do this 4 times a week in conjunction with my other workouts.

Also, give me some feedback on this... i was reading about Arnold's workout philosophy and he advocated to do ab workouts every day. Well, i did some recently and i ran today and my sides started getting all tight and uncomfortable... continue everyday or not? im trying to do five sets of varied ab exercises.

My Friends Blocky & Cindy

Today's workouts were all on the rings. Assisted iron crosses. Flies. Dips, pushup leg raises.
And a little warm up with my two friends. One is a squat with arm raise. A standard kettlebell move. The other is one I came up with just today. It is a squat with a crush hold on Cindy! Here is some visual stimulation to help conceptualize.

MIxin it up.

Missed some update days. I haven't missed any workouts though. Nothing real new from what I've been doing. Although I did hold a V-sit for 3 seconds which was a huge improvement. I also need to work on finding a band to do assisted Iron crosses because the chair isn't cutting it.
In the pull up world I did 4 x 5 the other day real slow. 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down. It was fun to mix it up there. I also have a new workout for the V-sit that involves putting your hands on the edge of the counter or some other edge and then holding your legs up. This way if your legs dip down they don't touch the floor and you still work your abs even though they dip below parallel.

Remind me to talk about my new kettlebell.