OLLIE GETS A SLED

Whenever we return from our Sunday madness workout little fat Ollie always gets plenty of attention,
but I have noticed he always heads over to where I store the sled, looking at it longingly and sniffing around it
he loves to climb in to boxes and bags as anyone who has left their kit bag in my house knows, within seconds he will be rummaging through it and covering it with fur!
So I decided to give him his own shoe box sled, and I have spent most of this afternoon pushing the little fat git around in it! every time I get up he runs over and jumps in his sled thinking its playtime again.

            HA! HA! no one will find me in this bag of toilet rolls!

                                    "No it's my bag go away"

                             "I do love a comfy bag to sleep in"

                                Ollie really is a bad influence!

YOUR TICKET TO THE GUN SHOW

Big guns!
Regardless of what any guy in the gym tells you everyone of them loves training arms, lets be honest now
who doesn't love that feeling when your arms are so full of blood that you think the skin is going to split if you flex em!

The beloved bicep enter any commercial gym and witness the guys who do one set of leg presses (if that)

and fifteen different exercises for their biceps, which all have exactly the same movement pattern!

The only thing is I see so many guys doing multiple sets of arm curls and Tricep extensions and the dreaded dumbell kickback! week after week with little or no gains to show for it,
In my own personal experience the best results in arm growth came when I concentrated on heavy pulls and pushes, then finish off with a single exercise for each Bicep/Tricep,
I still get a kick out of seeing guys faces when you tell them "if you want big arms work your triceps"
the Tricep takes up two thirds of the upper arm! so if you want to fill out your shirt sleeves those concentration curls ain't gonna do it mate!

There is something truly magical about a well developed horseshoe 

shaped Tricep!

                                          See what I mean


I know I keep on about Tricep kickbacks but I just truly hate them with a passion, and how any rational person with any exercise knowledge thinks they can build their Tricep by doing these is beyond me, I mean look at the mechanics of the movement how much weight can you really lift like that with good form?
and the guys that do these regularly are never anywhere near the dip station!
if you want a bigger upper body go to that chin and dip station and don't walk away from it till your workout is over!
One of my own personal favorite pushing exercises are medicine ball push ups, same as a traditional push up but with both hands on a med ball, after a few sets of these my Triceps swell like they are having some kind of allergic reaction, and they obviously hit the pectorals front deltoids and if your going for reps will tax your core to boot! now thats what I'm talking about bang for your buck baby!


Do this for four to six weeks forget about fly's, incline's, decline's and all the angles and variations just concentrate on pulling and pushing vertical and horizontal period!
you will be doing some good old honest to goodness multi joint compound movements that will pay off big time and I assure you your arms will love you for it!
eat well rest well and GROW!

GET A GRIP!

One of the most neglected areas of the average gym goers training is grip strength, I know this because I too neglected this aspect of training until it really began to hold me back, I was also guilty of relying on lifting straps and hooks!
over the years I had read articles on why you should not use them, then other articles advocating them saying why should you let a week grip hold you back in say the deadlift or rows when you can simply strap up, this is fine if you train purely for aesthetics but when you are walking through the airport with your 17 inch arms but have to keep stopping to change hands with your suitcase because you have the grip of a little girl not cool! not a lot of functional carry over there right? hence I consider the farmers walk one of, if not thee most functional exercise in terms of direct carry over to everyday life! 
Back to the straps, I began to use them as a crutch, every exercise that involved a pulling motion I would strap or hook up from the start, which only served to exaggerate the imbalance, and as we all know imbalance leads to injury,
Then I introduced farmers walks to my routine regularly switching between using them as a warm up then on other days as a finisher, if I was deadlifting for example I would do them as a finisher so as not to fry my grip prior to deads, but man they are a killer as a finisher on a deadlifting day! 
I would do four or five  laps of the outer edge of the tennis court at the gym with a pair of 85lbs, one full lap then rest for one to two mins then go again and within three to four weeks of doing this twice weekly my grip improved tremendously,
all of my lifts improved and not just the pulls, I had much greater control and confidence when pressing heavy dumbells, also my upper back traps and my posture reaped the benefits from this relatively simple but effective addition to my training,
Now weighted carries of all manner and description are a regular part of my training and if you look through this blog you will see everyone at the Sunday madness doing farmers walks or some version of a weighted carry.
Now I don't even know where my straps and hooks are, and to be honest I don't care either!
So forget those wrist curls your doing pick up something heavy and go for a walk, time yourself or set a distance then aim to beat it, if you don't have space just pick up something heavy and hold it for as long as you can and get yourself a vice like grip.

Ido's Blog

Ido's Blog

I came across this guy Ido portal on the my mad methods site, this guy is Awesome!

I have a great respect for gymnasts and the strength and control they posses but this guy is on a different level, he makes every movement look effortless and graceful,

If I had this kind of strength flexibility and control I would truly be a happy man!

Check out his blog and watch some of the videos there.

Now thats what I call a workout

Take a look at this beautiful photo, all you need to get strong fit & conditioned is right here, and the whole lot will probably cost you less than two months gym membership!
All you need is an open space and a little know how and the options are endless! no need for computer displays and digital heart rate monitors and f#*cking tv screens showing CNN! training needs concentration and focus! if you can read a magazine or newspaper or watch tv while your working out guess what? YOU AIN'T WORKING OUT! and if you must constantly check your heart rate learn to take it from the radius and use your brain! personally when my heart feels like its beating in my throat and my lungs are on fire I'm pretty sure my heart rate is up there! I dont need a fancy watch and a gizmo strapped around my chest for that, and neither do you.

FRESH MEAT FOR THE GRINDER

Welcome to the PUNISHER

The Sunday madness has new recruits! and a former client of mine Zaid from the GOLD'S GYM days makes an appearance with Neo another former regular from Gold's, though I use the term regular loosely, Its great to see people so eager to get out in the fresh air and sunlight to push themselves and try some good old fashioned alternative hardcore training!
No polished chrome, 7ft mirrors, or air conditioning, just DIRT, SWEAT, LACTIC ACID, & PAIN! and not a treadmill or recumbent bike in sight, this is our HEAVEN & This is how we turn relatively rational individuals into MONSTERS (or sweaty heaps of meat on the ground), Sunday madness is like crack cocaine! one hit and your hooked you just have to come back for more! there is something special about training in a group in ridiculous tropical humid heat no matter what level your at, everyone is there to support each other and push each other and themselves! and there will always be someone right behind you ready to laugh there ass off at your suffering! but thats just fine! the group that suffers together stays together, the bonds created through shared pain are unbreakable! (and if you believe that bullshit you deserve to suffer!)




This weeks workout THE PUNISHER! the brainchild of the mad scientist THING, well I'm not sure about the scientist part, but mad is correct (if you ain't trained lately you get punished!) and THING'S gonna make sure of it!

                                     Ain't that right Neo?

I do my best to look mean while I fight the urge to burst into tears!

                                     The recovery area

Standing in disbelief that after all we have done I'm about to attempt this!

                    Yeah baby if you ain't inverted you ain't sheeit!

                                   Oh! oh! HEAD RUSH!

                          THING gives us all a lesson on form

And coping with cramp!

The local street sweepers give up just watching and get in on the action

The THING in his natural environment, a human ribcage on the end of his fist!

                     Zaid thinks "maybe I can make a break for it"

After much 100 plus Neo makes a full recovery

Ritchy and Neo do the one glove tango

Another workout over we all head back to normality some of us thinking to ourselves "what can we do next week" and others thinking "f*#ck this s#*t! I ain't coming back here!"

The Ten Commandments of Recovery | Dan John

The Ten Commandments of Recovery | Dan John

For anyone who does not know, Dan john is a lifting and throws coach, he is also one of my favorite strength training authors!

he has a great no nonsense no bullshit approach,

One of the major factors in anyones training is the ability to RECOVER, and in my experience as a fitness professional the single most neglected aspect of most peoples training, especially those new to training,

I have lost count of the amount of young guys who have come to me in order to bulk up and want to train five days per week! how the hell do you expect to grow if you are always in the gym or playing sports?

I have had guys train with me where we focus on a whole body approach using the big basic movements ie squats or deadlifts then a vertical push and vertical pull or horizontal pull horizontal push three days on four days off eat well sleep well & GROW!

only to find out that after the session there was no time to eat and the next day they played basketball for four hours or gone on to do two hours rugby training the very next day instead of resting!

now we are talking about sixteen to eighteen year olds here that basically are metabolic furnaces how the hell are you going to gain mass that way? all they ever focus on is the body of work, the amount of activity. never how to factor in the right amount of recovery time to allow their body to adapt and come back stronger for the following sessions,

Diet and recovery are just as important if not more so than the training itself because without these two in place all your hard work and effort is not going to amount to much trust me!

This being said read the above article it is a great companion to coach Nicks ten nutritional commandments,

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! the more you know, the more you learn, the more you understand, the greater your returns will be!

Sunday madness FIGHT CLUB SPECIAL

Another Sunday Madness workout under our belts,
and a couple of new faces to add to the archives, Sunday Madness really is infectious!
Thankfully we had some cloud cover this week which made the workout much more comfortable,
we changed the format slightly using the basket ball court, 15 swings per corner then alternating side skips full lap of the court, sled rows and presses alternating ropes, weighted carries, med ball slams, we also added bench plyo jumps and bench vaults which I haven't done for years but thoroughly enjoyed, and done directly after 20 plyo jumps really got the heart rate up!


As usual the gloves come out at the end to finish off anyone who has any energy left.

        We start off with our usual various med ball throw warm ups

Newcomer Richard shows how ballet lessons really pay off when it comes to explosive power!

                                Preparing for the plyo jumps

                                    On to the bench vaults

                               Preparing for the main set up

                                         And we are off!

How the hell did our smiling assassin get away with rowing an empty sled? we shall be having words about this!

     Brett says "why bounce the ball when you can simply blow it "

                                   Taking a well earned rest

                           "Hey this orange tastes like rubber!"

                                 "Referee! LOW BLOW!"

So we come to the end of this weeks adventure in training land, and perfect timing just as the heavens opened up for a truly tropical downpour!