No Gym?? No Worries!!!

Get a banging chest workout without a Gym? That sounds crazy!! Well, for those of you that have a travelling oriented lifestyle, this will come as great news. It’s not crazy.

Lately I have been embracing a very gypsy lifestyle and having been in 9 cities over the last 3 months, paying for a new gym each time has not been an option. As a result, I dedicated my time to researching and eventually mastering the art of home work outs. This has actually turned out to be rather nice with 6 people having asked me to design them similar exercises that the can mainly do at home. This said, a no gym routine applies to those of you who have difficult working hours, new born children or gymophobia.

In this post I would like to concentrate on what I thought was not possible, really training the chest. Push ups of course is the standard go to move for such a task, yet repeating sets of push ups just is not appealing or effective. Over time I learned that the saying is true, a little creativity goes a long way. It is very possible to turn the ordinary push up into a very effective chest, deltoids and tricep work out.

The standard push-up, remember form is everything:

The wide hand push-up to concentrate on the chest:

The close hand diamond push-up to focus on the triceps:

The military push-up. Calling on mr back and triceps:

*** The above three can also be done with your legs elevated by using a chair, bench, desk...

The clap push-up. This really engages your back muscles and calls upon your explosive strength.

The one push-up. This really isolates the exercise to one side. Remember to have your feet wide apart and expect your body to slightly twist. This exercise relies heavily on your tricep so ensure that you can manage close grip push-ups before you try this:

The one arm clap push-up. Did somebody just say “this ish got real” ?

Split Walking Chaturanga push-up. This will make you feel like spiderman!!

Finaly, a personal favourite and intense challenge. The Bring Sally push up. I was introduced to this one by my friend Mr JH Engineer and cannot thank him enough! I have not yet managed a complete round, but one day soon, Sally will be conquered.

*** Finally please note that push-ups with bad form will take a toll on your lower back. Please ensure that your back is straight, you are looking forwards and most importantly, your bum is not waving around in the air!

Enjoy. Lombz.
"We bow down before no man"
- Afterwads (the two Spartan from the entry above) when they came to the Persian King's presence, the guards ordered them to fall down in homage and when refused, force was used, the Spartan's resisted and this was their reply to the King.
* 'Histories' by Herodotus (7.136)

Zombies, RUN!

Hello there one and all...

I have just landed in Denmark and its great! Warm, Warm, Warm! No Kenya unfortunately, but after braving the English weather, I was very appreciative of what is known to be warm Danish weather (9 degrees).

As a matter of fact, it was so warm that I decided to venture outside for a jog! I put my head phones on, got my tunes jamming and hit the road. What an experience, the fresh country air filling my lungs and the great feeling of my soles pounding the forest trail.

There was one problem though. After getting up at four in the morning to travel, I knew my whole play list off by heart. The lack of spontaneity made running feel a little tedious. This is the next topic I would like to address.

Firstly, why is running so popular? Well it’s easy. Anyone can do it and additionally it is free. We all have a pair of muddy trainers from the golden days right? It seems that at the start of each year many of us decide to resolve to getting fit and it follows that the muddy trainers are dug up, used for a short while and then as we get bored, they go right back into storage.

It is, however, very easy to mix it up and retain some excitement. Here are a few easy tricks that you can incorporate into your regime:

        Interval training: It’s not so much about how long you run, but how you run it. Believe it or not, High Intensity training burns a lot more calories than a slow jog over a longer period. If you are short on time or distance, then vary your speeds. Start of with a 5 minute and once you are nice and warm dive into a 1 minute sprint, switch up into a 2 minute fast run and then jog for 2 minutes. If you want you can even through in a walk at some point. Trust me, if you train like this and keep switching, by about the 6 round, you will need the walk!

Change your routes: Your muscles have the power to remember actions. Combine this with your brains ability to remember routes and eventually your usual running route will not provide large gains. To keep progressing, it is paramount to find new routes and try making them vary. Running off road is great because of the fact that the ground is not uniform, this helps with the variation.

 Milestone visualisation: It is very easy to get tired and think “I have done enough today, let me stop for now”. This is especially true when tackling a great running distance. If so, then the best way to conquer your mission is to break the route down in your head. These mini goal posts help to keep you motivated because when you reach a new one, you can renew your drive and push onto the next one. Eventually you are at your final destination and have ran 5, 10, 15 miles!

Mixing these tips will get you great results- but there is more.
Don’t tackle the same run every day. I advise taking one long run, two interval runs and one medium jog a week. Furthermore, try to ensure that no two weeks have the same order. This additional variation helps to shock your body; it is forced to keep on guessing what strain it will be put through next and because of this your progressive gains will be all the more intense.

Keep this in mind and soon you will be running like a beast! Speaking of beasts, I have stumbled upon a great iphone application that I cannot wait to try! Zombies, RUN! Is a game currently being developed that is designed to get you to run. The concept is fantastic: once loaded into your iphone, the user puts on his/her headphones and embarks on their running routine. All the while a story unfolds through the application that has you spacing the world by running away from zombies. The more you run, the more the story unfolds, the more levels you unlock and better still, the more you run! This hand app is complete with a statistic analysis that will calculate the calories you burn, speeds you reach and distances you cover. Be sure to check it out!

http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/22/zombies-bad-for-brains-good-for-workouts/?iid=hl-main-lede

Time to get me an iphone.

Peace,

Lombz

For the Ladies.. Lovely Legs

Hello there! Happy Monday!!

Been a while :) Life has been hectic with interview prep, but fingers crossed, the magic will happen soon enough!
I do hope you have been good? The snow that covered London over the weekend was not appreciated!! I know that its all winter wonderful and stuff but if your not skiing and the snow comes on the weekend what's the point?? All you end up doing is staying indoors? I can understand getting snowed in on a work day but judging from the number of positive statuses on face book...I must be one of the minorities...

I recently had a request from a lovely lady who wants to focus on her legs....We all know how legs have power over the gentlemen of this world ;)

What I designed is intended to be a home work out, this is good news..it means no gym fee's no equipment required. This is all body weight and I assure you, it will get the legs looking sexy!

Lovely Legs: Under take this sequence of exercises twice, taking a maximum 60 seconds break in between each exercise. the goal is to reduce the amount of rest time to 40s  then 20s, then none at all (with only a one minute break in-between rounds).

  

     Lunges:

     Do 15 per leg

 

      Calf raises:

      Do 25.

      Be creative, you can use a book instead of a step or just tiptoe on flat ground.

      Make sure the top of the tiptoe action is as far extended as can be.

      Reach your fingers to the sky as you do the move, it helps.

      Squat:

     Try to get as low as possible and remember to keep your bum poking out throughout the move.

      Perform 15.

      Step back lunge:

      Alternating side Lunge

      Both are in the following video.

      Perform 15 per leg per exercise.

       Chair salutations:

       Try to keep your body in a position that represents sitting on a chair.

       Hold this for 20 seconds. Have a small break and then do it again for another 20 seconds.

     Hyper Squats:

     These are the same as normal squats but you do not go as low. Perform them very quickly and try to do 30 in one go.

             

      In other news, I have reached day 60 of the P90X challenge!! Celebration time come on? Not just yet, 30 more days to go. However this is my 2/3 point progress.

                                             

                         Before:                                                         60 Days in:

           

I am happy that it is working, so a massive thank you to Tony Horton. Check him out here:

https://twitter.com/#!/Tony_Horton

Have a great week!

P.S: Yes I have a thing for Keri Hilson :)

Train till you Puke!

Hello all,

So in Sunny England now for some interviews!! Yeah right, somebody lied, its freezing here and I am holed up under my duvet covers trying not to freeze to death. Well I ask, what’s the best way to keep warm? Maybe a cup of hot chocolate, watching the Emperors New Grove with a darling sweetheart by your side...

Or, maybe a crazy work out to get the heart rate pumping and the body sweating? Though I am sure a darling sweetheart could accomplish the same thing. Enough jokes, please lend me your ears (or eyes in this case...), Have you watched immortals? Well  Thesesus, or shall I say Henry Cavill, did not use any photo shop in this work out, no CGI...that crazy rippedness is all him! How?? Forget about the 300, if this is Sparta, then Cavil must be Spartacus because he went through a gruelling 500 repetition work out...The best thing about it? No Gym required, its all Body Weight!!!

I tried it. I managed 3.5 rounds. I got dizzy. I threw up...I will definitely do it again!

The work out:

-         - A circuit of 4 exercises.

-          -You do 25 repetitions of each exercise, resting for 8 deep breaths between each exercise.

-          -After the 4^th exercise, rest a minute (trust me! You need it)

-          -And repeat 4 times...essentially doing 5 rounds of 100 manouvres

The Exercises:

-         - Hindu Press Up (25)

-          -Hindu Squats (25)

-          -Burpees (25)

-          -Bicycle Crunches (25)

Happy suffering!

So why did I throw up? Well I let my ego get the best of me and tried the work out on an empty stomach, not to mention being dehydrated because of the English artificial heating. PLEASE head my warning, eat well and hydrate before, during and after attempting to do this!

Tomorrow I will explain the importance of eating and eating well in detail. Right now I have some preparation to do for 3 interviews next week...

Wish me luck!

Sonny

PS: on an interesting note, Cavill had below 8% body fat for immortals and now has to gain 10 KG of muscle as he is going to be the new year’s Super Man. Mr Cavill, I have no doubt that you will smash this goal, I just cannot wait to find out how!

Happy New Year

Hi there peeps and peepettes...

Happy New Year, it’s been a while!! I know that I have been awful at blogging but for once it is not my fault! With hardly any constant access to the internet, I have not been able to sort the Spartan aspect to this blog... I got a massive telling off and was called out for being lame L

As with any ego, I now gotta get blogging or dye trying..haha...

You will be happy to know that the point behind the blog has not been wasted. I have been p90x-ing hard! I have now lost 3 kg’s and now stand at 11% body fat...looks like the goal to become the beast is not too far fetch'ed! GRrrrrr....Mind you after meeting up with Odongo, an old neighbour (he now is a rugby pro – Yes that is my claim to fame)...I have realised that as Cassie said, you have a long way to go.

So a current picture with my improvements so far:

Starting tomorrow I will go into depth with every exercise I do, or get people to do...

Speaking about people, I was chatting to Miss Justice League randomly about sexy thighs (I am frightful to agree with her on the aesthetic powers of certain assets), this got me pondering about how the goals of men and women differ. 

Bolstered by a FB inbox for a workout plan and Big Sean’s song about A$$ A$$ A$$ A$$ A$$ A$$....I have decided that I will take some time to figure out a fitness regime that is sexy acceptable. Currently my thoughts are very much on less cardio and more weighted exercise mixed in with mega diet...I shall blog about it in depth after some consultation and brain storming.....

Finally found the mother of all lower ab exercises, every single person I know says I want to lose belly fat. I should point out that this doesn’t happen through massive amounts of crunches.It’s actually a combination of:

·         - Diet

·         - Cardio

·         - Ab Blasting

In that order! An Ab blast is when you perform say various exercises in quick succession...This means that your abdominals are triggered by the constant motion, which also provides localised cardio fat burning benefits. This means that in about 15 minutes you can actually get through say 250 manoeuvres.

So an example Ab blast:

·         25 sit ups

·         25 crunches

·         25 Leg raises

·         25 Bicycle kicks

·         25 Russian twist

·         Front Plank (90 seconds) and side Planks (60 seconds)

These are done one after the other without any rest, and for those true Spartans out there, repeat it!

Back to the killer lower ab exercise (the exe at 1:39):

Sleep well amigos!

Oh dear, it's Plyometrics

Hello everybody...

I just finished today's round of training and I had to jump right onto the laptop as I fear that I will not be able to move later on.

Plyometrics aka the mother of P90. Or as I like to call it, Death!
I'm not kidding, this was awful, tiring, sweaty...nasty and I loved every second of it. Its hard to describe, almost like aerobics on steroids. There was a lot of jumping and definitely the most bad ass cardio workout possible whilst in one room.

Each exercise lasted only 30 seconds with the fourth lasting 1 min. This is then all repeated.  The whole circuit lasted one hour. Here's a great link to a number of exercised. This wont be exactly the same but will give you a great idea of what's involved. I recommend that you try get at least 10-12 exercises and then perform them in the 30 second bursts as described above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp-ldXBE1XA&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPBDADCC47E415A878

Today my brother called me and pointed out something about yesterdays posts that I would like to clear up.
Please do not attempt all the exercises in a row, Its not about the number you do, its about how you do them.
Each exercise was conducted in one minute intervals, where I did as many as I can do. After 4 exercises, I would take a minute break. Once going through all 12 exercises, its all repeated!

So take exercise 1 for example, I did not perform 53 in one go. I first did 30 and moved on to exercise two. After the 12, I came back and did another 23. So my dear brother, instead of burning your self out, remember this:

Today I bid superwoman farewell for a short time, she is going to the land of America and I just wanted to add,  bonvoyage :)

Sonny

A quick explanation

For those of you joining me on my p90x journey. It has been pointed out to me that due to the staccato nature of my posts, I should explain exactly what I'm trying to do.

This blog started because I was going to tackle the event of a life time..the Men's Health Survival of the fittest.
A 10 km race with about 16 crazy obstacles to overcome.
I finished the race in 56 minutes and had the time of my life.

As I trained for the event, I felt my life improve. I was more disciplined with my job applications, going to bed early and watching less TV. No energy can also be attributed to not having a gym buddy any more to motivate and support.
Then I got ill and all this went back to zero. For the last month, I have reversed my progress so much and missing an important deadline gave me the kick in the bum that I badly needed.

So I decided I needed to get my discipline back on lock with another challenge...I chose to find out what all the hype was about p90x. This is going to be especially hard because I am going back to the motherland on Monday, a nation filled with awesome nights out and too much drinking. On top of this, it will be December and we all know what xmas brings...cake, and relaxation..So I decided that I will try and make the magic happen.

I hope that this blog proves entertaining for you and would love to hear your comments. I hope that you can use the information here to design your own work outs and also get fighting fit. As a fitness junke, I have learned a lot in the world of health and would love to share my knowledge with you as I learn more from this challenge!

As with any challenge, we need a before and after picture. I can do one better. I will provide a before-before (whilst at my prime), a before, and at the end an after.

1) A picture from a year ago:

2) A current picture:

3)After? well that's for us to find out..please get involved, send in you pics and lets try get in the best shape of our lives together!