A Typical Remedios Workout

Here's a Typical Remedios Workout I did this morning:
Time: 4:45
Garage Workout

I. Warm up circuits with med ball
Big circles, squats to press, mountain climbers

II. Workout
Straight sets:
- BB Snatch Pull 95x5x5 (explosive)
- Deadlift 115x2x6, 165x2x6 (strength)

Supersets:
a1) 1 leg BB RDL's 45x4x10
a2) DB Flat bench press 65x4x10

b1) Seated one arm band pull 60 lb resistance (bodylastic bands) 4x10/arm
b2) Pike Push Ups feet on bench 4x10
---killer superset!----

c) Assisted Side to Side Pull Ups on chair BWx4x10 (straight sets)

*** Core ***
c1) Med ball Wood Chops 4x10/side
c2) Plank Walk Up - 30 secs

III. HIIT:
6 cycles = 30/30
3 minute cool down

IV. Foam Rolls

Note: Explosive, Power, Strength. High volume work. I've been getting up earlier to get these workouts in all week long. Felt good. All these exercises are under the power training principles - full body, athletic based. No isolation movements. Added deadlifts in there as well. I prefer to do intervals at the end of each session. I like to do the first sets of exercises as straight sets and then superset the rest of the way (except for the pull ups this morning).

Have a great weekend!

Andy

Dos Remedios' Power Training

Stepping out of the box a little bit here and working on a new program. I was really enjoying the power lift exercises like the hang clean and high pull move which I learned through Turbulence Training...the cleans, jerks and snatches I learned in Rosstraining and Hybrid Lifts I learned in Chris Lopez's Programs - but again if there ever was one exercise I will never get tired of would have to be the deadlift (sorry had to bring that move up again! hahaha!)

Seriously though, as much as I enjoy doing these guys' programs throughout the year (and really: I can switch from these guys programs on a month to month basis and not get bored ever) - I stumbled across a book at Barnes and Nobles on my birthday back in January and as a treat purchased Dos Remedios' Power Training Book at a mall. Flipping through the pages I didn't realize that there was so much more exercises out there that I have never tapped into. I was really training hard recently during my 12 week transformation at Turbulence Training...recently took a well deserved break trying to figure out where I wanted to go with this the next few months through the summer. So since January till my week off from training, I was also reading Dos' book - trying to understand his philosphies to see if this would meet some of my own goals.

I learned so much from that book. Just like Rosstraining (another great fitness book)...I'll admit: it's a valuable book based on his principles. But learning the philosophy is one thing...applying it takes alot more.

If there's one thing I always wanted to do was to be good at from the start was program creation i.e. utilizing sound exercise principles to achieve a certain goal be it fat loss, conditioning, strength, mass building. But experience was the best teacher for me and I'm finally able to recognize where my niches are now and not be lost in space with my workouts any more. I was lost and mislead so many times in the past from fitness magazines - to be able to do solid, legitimate programs like Turbulence Training, Rosstraining and Fitandbusydad's - really opened my eyes even wider. I'm far from being a personal trainer but I'm smart enough to know what works for me and what doesn't to reach my own goals.

Dos Remedios' Power Training could be another one for me here.

What I really enjoyed here these past months of reading his book was the other benefits of the barbell - which is more than just a piece of gym equipment to do presses on a flat bench (the most overrated exercise I think in gyms these days and the most prone to injury as well). Just like the Kettlebell...the Barbell was something that drew my interest this past year in it's uses once again. I was like "Wow..it is just more than just flat bench presses". You can do anything from a wide variation of squats, variation of deadlifts, goodmornings, shrugs, rows, presses...barbell complexes to hybrid lifts - you name it. It can definitely be done with this potent piece of gym equipment! I was always intimidated by it since my friend suffered a complete tear of his pectoralis tendon almost a year ago today.

So these past few months of reading Dos' book and learning new things along the way -I've decided to give his Power Training philisophies a good honest spin. Only did 2 routines this week so far which have been really fun and challenging. To actually go through Dos' routines these past few days made me appreciate just how effective they are not only for developing strength and power for sport as well as functional strength but also to work on that athletic look that I like.

This should be fun!

Learn new things in fitness - it's good for you!

Just another Manic Tuesday...

Been another busy Tuesday again..never really had the opportunity to really get online at all today. This evening things were able to settle down a bit - my only chance to catch up with my blog. Feeling much better today and feel like things are back to normal for me. So today's events were: getting up to get the kids to school, groceries, working on my home gym (got some good stuff to share soon), working on a backyard project with a friend, picking up my kids from school, taking them to McDonalds for lunch (had a nice tasty grilled chicken wrap for those wondering what I ate), bathing them and then taking them to intro soccer at 5 pm and then still preparing their dinner!

Definitely a fit and busy dad day for me, Chris! =)


Did an off day routine in the garage this afternoon. Was pretty damn good. With what time I had on my hands all day (if any at all) - this really kicked my butt.


Again...been doing some work in the home gym these past few days that's kept me quite busy on my off days - re-arranging things and adding a few things which I hope to share here soon.

Have a great one!!

Andy

50 Inch Vert - Eye Popping.

This video of Leonel Marshall of the Cuban Men's National Team just boggles my mind each time I watch this video. Athletic Training and conditioning put into use right there (and some natural God given talent and skills too.)! Phew!

Nuff said. Check out the video:

Sunday Morning Ramblings....

I've read up a study that was made last year (internet is so awesome) that showed that six in ten people who sign up to a gym quit within 6 months. Perhaps it is in the interest of those who make money from such things for people not to be shown the correct way to train. No direction = no progress. Where are the revolutioners from the New Year...where are the people who've made the initial commitment that are no longer to be found?

A gym membership down the drain...these days with the recession and money being so, soooo tight - that's alot of money wasted if you've only used that gym card 6-8 times during the last 6 months!!!! Think about it!

What about to those that have reached significant goals and then get stopped at the crossroads. You have to figure out what is going to continually work for you and commit to it. Don't stall out. Fill that tank up with more goals!

Back to the gym environment we all seem to go to... I hear this in the gym: "Work to failure...work to failure...train heavy...run on a an elliptical for 30 minutes 6x/day - you'll get results." Sounds similar? Throughout gyms I hear the 5 sets of ten to twelve reps of each exercise -- pushing the human body over it's limit, wasting time for needless reps and exercises. How bout this one: three to four exercises per body part/one body part per day...again does this sound too familiar? How about those endless circuits to no end? It does sound plenty familiar to me in so many ways - as I was one of them once...sounds alot like a page from Muscle and Fitness Magazine. Those endless hours in a gym...not getting a single positive thing to take from all that overtraining of our bodies. Lot more is never a lot better. I'm a firm believer nowadays that that's just a myth and a pile of &*(&S*#t.

Not getting to your fitness goals? Look what's right there in front of you. Do you have a legitimate workout program and solid nutritional strategy to compliment it? If you do, blow the dust off from those pages - and do it to a tee as best as you can (if you have to modify here and there...that's fine - as long as it fits your actual program scheme to stay the course.)

Again have faith and believe in the approach you choose. There are better more time efficient ways to go about it here. Go with the shorter, yet intense training approaches in your repertoire and you will reap the benefits (again this is assuming your nutrition is good). There are plenty of legitimate programs...it's just a matter of taking it full on and staying consistent.

Again, it is a mindset. It is all in your mind that your muscles will shrink or you will not gain as much if you train less. If you eat smart and train smart - shorter, yet intense workouts will work for you. I can put my money on that approach any day...

You'll get to those goals in no time.

Andy

Full On Weights Again..phew!

Full on weights again. Under the weather just a bit - but really feel my legs really heavy from the leg work from yesterday. Talk about breaking yourself in after a whole week off. I can really feel the effects of full on weight training once again. I can hardly walk and almost doze off to lala land earlier at work. Eats are good but I think 2 days off is a good thing at this point.

Here's a quote from the Man, Bruce Lee to end this short blog post:

"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."

Have a great weekend! Train hard...but always train safe!

Andy

The Power of the Deadlift

Just want to ramble about the Deadlift exercise today...

Boy...the great feeling of the deadlift exercise - by far the best exercise in the universe. I love the deadlift. It works every muscle from your traps, back... all the way down to the muscles of your legs. I believe if there's any true exercise that can really develop multiple parts of your body - in just one move - this has to be it. It works your traps, core, back, legs... and I'll admit you do feel that sense of power when lifting that iron off the floor up to your hips in one solid move. Honestly...you can do this move for a few strength sets and that would be your workout for the day.

I did a few deadlifts the other day and although light as it may seem (I am barely getting back to lifting weights again) - I felt it the next day. I honestly felt it really good.

Deadlifts are primarily a "hip dominant exercise" that primarily works the thighs, hamstrings, and butt. But that's not the only muscles that are worked here!!! Not only does it work those big muscles of our body (legs)...it also hits the traps, the BACK, the lats, the quads, the glutes, the arms and forearms - and your CORE - all in one controlled, fluid move which only proves a point that the deadlift produces more results than the bench press and the squats.

I remember I was doing some nice deadlifts while doing a TT-specific program called the TT Hard Core Fat Loss program during the 12 week contest that just ended recently (2nd Place)...and here's just a pic I took around my 8th week:



Do the deadlift!