Day two: Go Hard or Go Home

I just got back from work and I am really feeling the burn. They do say Go hard or Go home, don't they? So before I hit the hay, let me tell you about my SPARTAN GYM REGIMEN! 

Aside from my weak knee (and possible high blood pressure), I am rather a healthy kind of guy. Running the 10 km's should not be a problem. I won't be able to manage in 30 minutes like some of the elite athletes, but I think I could do it in under an hour. The hard part will be the obstacles. With each one taking a massive toll on your strength, it will be hard to keep on going when the body just wants to sit down and have a glass of water.


I had a chat with my kick boxing instructor who is the fittest person I know (next to Superwoman [mentioned above] and Alicia keys, but that's a different kind of fit!). We have agreed on compound exercises, work outs that target as many muscles as possible in one movement. The reason for this is that it is simple to get lost in isolating the popular muscles, these are easy to train but when this happens you are not doing yourself any favours.


Real strength comes when your body works together as a whole. Have you ever had do drag around an unconscious friend? Maybe they drank too much, maybe you knocked them out. Either way, they are heavy! This is because most of their muscles are not working. When you normally carry somebody (if there is such a thing), it is easier because the-not-too obvious muscles are still active. When the person is unconscious, you are basically lifting all their mass without any help. Now think of this in reverse, if it is normally easy to do a certain movement, take for example, climbing a rope or jumping over a puddle. Would it not be easier if even the little muscles in your body are working hard?


Going from this idea, I added a little Kombo tweak to the recipe, by deciding to superset the exercises. What? Yeah... I said, SUPERSET! So, I take the first two and do them back to back, the same goes for the next two, and the two after that. This brilliant idea was to ensure that the workouts have a cardio fitness aspect to them (just in in case running 10 km is harder than I thought!). I was basically moving as much as possible, as fast as possible and as often as possible.


Thanks to my big dreams, I'm exhausted! I may have underestimated the effect of sitting in front of the t.v and eating junk for the last three months. Tomorrow is going to hurt, I can tell already. In the end, it will pay off. Because... THIS IS SPARTA!


My focus is also to have the strength to pull my body over walls and swing across monkey bars with ease. To accomplish that, I did some back exercises (my fav!). 


The exact exercises were as follows:

Back and shoulders

Exercises
Overhand pull-ups - 4 Sets of 12 Repetitions
Clean and jerk with a front squat - 4S/10R    
Weighted twisting back extensions - 4S/12R    
Seated rows - 4S/8R                
Upright rows - 4S/8R            
Reverse flys    - 4S/8R            
Dumb-bell deadlifts - 4S/12R    
    
Core workout - 4S/12R
Weighted sit-ups - 4S/12R        
Reverse crunches - 4S/8R        
Hanging leg raises - 4S/8R


Here is a little video I found to show how useful a strong back is:

Ok, I admit that doing clap pull ups is not exactly useful, however you HAVE to admit that it's pretty damn cool! Well, that's all for today folks, tomorrow I'll cover diet tips... Yum Yum!


Peace out, 


Sonny

Day one: Our Journey Begins

Wow, my first blog entry. I don’t mean my first for the Men’s Health Assault course...I mean my first blog entry EVER. I feel that this is a moment to remember...Quick, pop the Champagne. Ok, Ok, not just yet...

Growing up, I always thought that the exercise in military movies looked so cool. I mean who wouldn't want to say "yeah I'm as bad as Samuel L Jackson, Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme all rolled up into one!"

When I found out about the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest challenge in 3 weeks time I found myself thinking "I really want to do it..." It seems I had already decided before actually thinking about it.

Now I have always thought that playing a sport is the best thing in the world. I am happiest when I play any sport. It doesn't even matter if I'm good or bad, new to it or a seasoned pro... It’s the competition that I crave, it is getting stuck in with a team of like minded individuals and giving it you’re all. Sports literally helped me survive High School. There was always a game to look forward to when studying was mind-numbing. It was an avenue to vent my extra energy and keep me out of trouble. I literally made lifelong friends through my football, athletic and hockey teams. This carried on to university, where I initially felt overwhelmed with the sheer number of new faces; Warwick has something like 17000 students. Showing up to taster sessions for clubs led me to make new friends and try out sports I had never done before such as American Football or Muay Thai (Thai Boxing).

So I couldn't help but fall in love with the work done by Right to Play! RTP is a childrens charity that believes in giving all kids an equal opportunity to get involved in sport and games. It doesn't matter what background they are from, everyone enjoys a game. They work with 15,000 coaches, teachers and leaders from around the world to give 688,000 children activities to get involved in.
They basically use sports to give children what I was lucky enough to have...Fantastic!

I have been fighting a knee injury for a while and as I thought of chickening out of the race, I managed to convince myself that this was because of my knee. I admit, not very Spartan of me but even Spartacus had a few doubts (Yes I know those are two different T.V shows, but, they are really good shows!). The laws of the universe intervened, as I browsed the Right to Play website, I read a fantastic article about how children in Uganda would step up to a leadership role when a coach was late. This was a trend noticed, studied and rewarded. The children would mobilise themselves and get the games going all on their own. RTP coaches are now travelling and identifying these junior leaders and teaching them valuable leadership skills that will not only be useful in sports, but will really become a way of thinking and a part of their lives. This took me back to July 2010, I was in Uganda working on an Engineering project and a small kick about with my fellow volunteers grew into a daily football game with the local community. The children from the local area quickly got involved.  We had teams, refereeing and even half time refreshments! A simple kick about grew into something huge, I can't quite explain the feeling but it was clear that everyone was having a blast.

You can check the article out here:
http://www.righttoplay.com/uk/news-and-media/Pages/NewsBlog.aspx?ID=59

How could I not go for gold now? I immediately got in contact with my age old friend and football Nemesis Leo Matlock (he now works for Right to Play as the Educations Partnership Manager) and he introduced me to Megan Prosser (who is the Marketing and Events Manager for RTP) and the rest. as they say, is history.

I have now committed to the run and I am doing it in the name of none other than Right to Play. More importantly, I cannot wait!

So what is the race? Well it's a 10 KM race with 16 crazy obstacles. These range from crawling, jumping, rolling and sprinting. All require strength of both body and mind. After you are battered, bruised and exhausted...Well then comes the Men's Health Wall of Fame...a massive 8ft wall to climb over. Here are a few snaps of what is to be expected...

A full view of the course is available here:
http://www.mhsurvival.co.uk/page64.asp?utm_source=LONDON+MH+Survival+2011&utm_campaign=63b66d00c1-Mh_Survival_News_21_10_2011&utm_medium=email

Over the next few weeks I will be writing up about my excruciating training to become more Spartan! I will log work outs, dietary information and much more, as I attempt to become fighting fit in just three weeks. Keep an eye out for regular updates (Twitter and Tacebook should be involved very soon) and don't hesitate to get in contact with me...
Any questions? I want to hear them!
Any advice? I want to hear it!
Any comments? Give me a shout!
Running the race too...Let me know!

Your involvement will really help me keep motivation on a high! So let's do this!!!