Conditioning - HIIT 31/08/12

Yesterday was the first day of adding in conditioning work into my training. To frame what I did, I'll take a bit of time to explain one of my favourite forms of conditioning: interval training.

Interval training (otherwise known as HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training) is a method of exercise that is characterised by periods of high-exertion exercise interspersed with periods of rest or low-intensity exertion. During HIIT your heart-rate undulates according to the periods of high-intensity and rest/low-intensity. 

HIIT elicits metabolic expenditure that is much greater per-minute of exercise than most other generally accepted longer forms of conditioning, as well as increasing metabolic rate and fat oxidation for up to two days after the exercise is completed. This means you can do as little as 15 minutes of exercise and reap the same benefits as that of a 45-minute jog. 

Now, HIIT can take many forms, so long as the exercise used is something which can jack the heart-rate up intensely. Many use treadmills as a fool-proof measure for this, but there's a plethora of other options available. This can include things like skipping, rowing machines and even barbell exercises. 

The structure of HIIT varies, but its foundation is using timed periods of high-intensity interspersed with rest/low intensity over a given number of 'rounds'.

For example, a 20-minute HIIT treadmill workout would be structured something like this:

Round 1 

Minutes 0-4: Base walking pace (Low intensity - 6km/h)

Minutes 4-5: Sprint (High intensity - 18km/h)

Round 2

Minutes 5-9: Base walking pace 

Minutes 9-10: Sprint

Round 3 

Minutes 10-14: Base walking pace 

Minutes 14-15: Sprint

Round 4

Minutes 15-19: Base walking pace 

Minutes 19-20: Sprint

Cool-down

Minutes 20-25: Slow walking pace (4km/h)

Neither the times nor the speeds are set in stone, but the structure is what is important. After these 25 minutes you will be sweating buckets and gasping for air (unless you go too easy on yourself), but you will have gained more benefits than a conventional longer form of aerobic conditioning and saved a whole heap of time in the process.

My HIIT was not on a treadmill as I do it in my garage, so naturally I utilised the tools at my disposal: my gym. So I loaded up the Olympic 7-foot bar to 30kg and did the following barbell complex:

(From the floor)

Deadlift

Bent-over row

Hang clean

Front squat

(Bar back to floor)

Power clean

Jerk

(Bar back to floor)

This complex was 1 rep. I then set the timer to 2 minutes and did as many quality repetitions as possible. No poor form or 'tired' movements, just trying to keep everything crisp and clean. Then after the timer went off, I had a 1 minute rest. This was repeated 5 times. 

Minutes 0-2: Barbell complex

Minutes 2-3: Rest

This was repeated for 15 minutes, and by the end of the 15 minutes I had a slack jaw from all the heavy breathing and was dripping sweat as I walked. My whole body felt loose and hot; using the barbell complex making me tired all over. It was a great success, and so I'm thinking I will continue to use this particular complex and next time try to increase the intensity before eventually increasing the weight ever so slightly. 

I felt like I earned my sleep last night. 

Workout A - 30/08/12

Workout 1

PRESS

Barx10

40kgx5

50kgx5

55kgx5

50kgx5

50kgx5

50kgx9 PR

INCLINE FLYES

16kgx17

16kgx16

SQUAT

50kgx5

70kgx5

90kgx3

105kgx3

115kgx3 PR

CHIN UPS

BWx10

BWx8

BWx8

HAMMER CURLS

2x16kgx10

Ok so this was brutal. After the press my shoulders and triceps were on fire, but I hit all my reps so I'm glad I didn't start too high. After the flyes my chest was exploding and so I decided to just go for a PR on squats instead of run the x5-5-5-5-5+ template just this once. Chin ups were an abomination, I had less than a minute rest between sets and so I just tanked on them. My forearms and biceps were flamed after curls. 

First impressions of this routine: I like it a lot from this first look. I'm using weights that are a challenge to my strength, and because it's focused on volume it means I can keep good form and simply temper my workouts via intensity and move up at my own pace. Need to get used to the higher endurance of the program, so I'm definitely going to low-ball the numbers and work my way into it. Starting too high is the death of many routines. 

A NEW PROGRAM

I'm a pretty big advocate of letting others take care of your training for you. Sometimes we lose sight of the forest for the trees and can no longer see what is actually good for us. I managed to convince a very clever guy to check out my current status and write me up a program to take me to that next level while I'm still in the midst of my cut. He's also thankfully advised me on what macronutrient levels are ideal at this stage and what to be eating. I'm very excited to leave my training in the lap of the gods in a sense and give up some control to keep progressing. Without further ado, here's the program:

Day 1

Bench x5-5-5-5-5+ {Press on alternating weeks}
Flyes 2x15-25 (each set to failure) {Lateral raises on alternating weeks}
Chin ups x max reps x 3 sets (sets across ie 3xBWx20)
Squats x5-5-5-5-5+
Curls 2x12-15

Day 2

Press x5-5-5-5-5+ {Bench on alternating weeks}
Power Clean - working up to heavy doubles
Deadlift x5+ (working up to a max set of 5+)
BB Row 4x8

Day 3

Bench x4-6 PR, 12-15 PR {Press on alternating weeks}
Chin ups 3x6-8
Squat x4-6 PR, 12-15 PR {Front squat on alternating weeks}
Curls 2x12-15

The next question is: What's with the x5-5-5-5-5+ rep scheme?

The concept is pretty straightforward. On either the first or second set (your choice) you're aiming to get a top set of 5 (close to your 5RM but not a PR), and the remaining sets are 10% below that, with the final set (5+) aiming to get to 8-10. So any exercise with the x5-5-5-5-5+ tag will look like this:

Squats:

Warm ups

90kgx5

100kgx5

90kgx5

90kgx5

90kgx5+ (aiming for 8-10)

Pretty simple right? I hope so, I'm very excited to try it out and see how I fair, the volume will make it a very intense program but I'm looking forward to that. The macros he's suggesting is 250g Protein/200g Carb/ 50g Fat. I'm quite close to that level as is but I will need to up my protein by about 50g a day to reach it. He's keen for me to continue to eat lean meats (tuna, chicken etc) and good carbs (potatoes, rice, oats), trying to minimise fat intake obviously and cutting down on poorer carbs like breads and sugars.


He's also suggested 3 days of conditioning, one long and one short. For the short day I'll be doing barbell complexes in an intense fashion, and it's yet to be seen what I'll do for the long day, I'll work it out though. 


LET'S DO THIS 

Cut update - Week 6

Been trying to stick to my plan more stringently the past week, as I felt my motivation and strict diet starting to wane in the two weeks preceding that. This week that paid dividends, with more weight loss than expected. I'm also starting to see some more physical manifestations, including separation through my quads as well as my obliques starting to come through just a tad. Still far from satisfied, so I may extend the cut from the 8 weeks planned to 9-10 weeks. This is simply because I don't seem to be at the stage I thought I would be at by this weight, so instead of going down to 76kg I may keep going until I'm satisfied.

Starting: 82.0kg

Week 1: 80.6kg

Week 2: 79.8kg

Week 3: 79.1kg

Week 4: 78.5kg

Week 5: 78.0kg

Week 6: 77.3kg

So this is a big bump in weight loss, which I cannot complain about at all. At this stage of the game a 700g loss is pretty massive, which dispels my idea that I would need to start adding in cardio 3 times a week.

Overall I'm more lethargic than I wish I was, but nothing that can't be fixed with some water and a long coffee. Can't wait to finish up on this, look good and start smashing out PRs like there's no tomorrow. 

Workout A - 23/08/12

Workout 37

SQUAT

Barx10

60kgx5

70kgx5

85kgx5

95kgx5

3x110kgx3

DB BENCH

18.5kgx10

28.5kgx5

31kgx5

36kgx6 PR

PRESS

5x60kgx1

INCLINE 

60kgx10

60kgx7

HAMMER CURLS

18.5kgx8

18.5kgx10 PR LOL

This was a great workout. I had lots of energy, squats were so fast and easy it was awesome. Going to add 2.5kg a workout until I stall, then simply drop sets until I stall with triples. 120kg squat here I come. Bench was a revelation, was throwing around the 36kg like toys until about the 5th rep, left side is a tad weaker than the right, this will fix that for sure. 

Press was fast, close to my body and with short rest times. Incline and hammer curls were super-setted, hence the burnout on the last set of incline. It felt good to do my two power exercises then muck around with intensity, MMC and rest times. Changing the format of this workout day to:

Squats

Press 

DB bench

DB incline

I'm going to start pressing twice a week to get it up to a higher level and break this plateau, and relegate all my benching to 'size' work. Don't really care too much about bench strength since I'm on a cut, may as well work hard on my press.

Cut update - Week 5

So after 5 weeks of cutting things are starting to settle in. The cravings for high carb foods are still pretty strong, but I can resist for the most part. My guilty pleasure are some beers on the weekend. I feel like for the last couple of weeks I've been getting a tiny bit lax, so I should be thankful that I have continued to lose weight:

Start: 82.0kg

Week 1: 80.6kg

Week 2: 79.8kg

Week 3: 79.1kg

Week 4: 78.5kg

Week 5: 78.0kg

So it's steadily going down. The only thing that's irking me is that even though my weight is dropping, I'm looking no different than I did a week or two ago. I know better than to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as I'm sure that one day I'll wake up and start looking way leaner and cut up. It's just a bit hard to stick to the gameplan when it feels like I'm not coming out on top.

My diet is pretty much the same, I'm eating 4 eggs/ 3 quiches (bacon, potato, pumpkin, cheese, onion, egg) for breakfast (30g protein), 300g of tuna for a snack (50g protein), and chicken for lunch (50g protein), then whatever is going for dinner to get in some carbs and fats (last night was roast and veg). Still hitting around the 2200 cals mark, sometimes on the weekends going over (going to Montville and eating awesome cheeses and other foods did not help).

I feel much weaker during training, it seems like after squatting I'm tired for bench, and the same with my deadlifts last week; though my pressing and pull ups didn't suffer. On another note, I'm going to start doing OHP twice a week to get it up, going to do some after my bench today. Exciting!

Workout A - 15/08/12

Workout 35

SQUAT

Barx10

60kgx5

70kgx5

85kgx5

95kgx5

107.5kgx7 PR

BENCH

Barx10

40kgx5

50kgx5

65kgx5

75kgx5

87.5kgx4 PR

INCLINE DB

2x26kgx10

HAMMER CURLS

2x16kgx8

Pretty good workout, squats went well and bench was a disappointment. It's now obvious to me that I have simply dropped a rep on all my pressing movements, no matter how hard I try. I will get it back and much more once this cut is over.

A lot of people are confused over why I'm not just doing sets of 5 or something. It's not that hard to understand: I add 2.5kg more than last week, and do it for as many reps as I can within reason. It's essentially mixing Madcows with the 5x5 ramping and the '5+' aspect of 5/3/1 or Greyskulls Linear Progression. 

Pressing was absolutely shit today, hence why I didn't do dips. 

Cut update - Week 4

So I've now been cutting for 4 weeks, and things are going exactly to plan. I thought I had fallen off the wagon when I had 4 beers on Friday and a bit too much to eat on Monday, but today's weigh-in told a different story. 

Start: 82.0kg

Week 1: 80.6kg

Week 2: 79.8kg
Week 3: 79.1kg
Week 4: 78.5kg

So I'm consistently losing over 0.5kg a week, and even though the trend seems to be that the loss is slowing down, I don't think it's a continuing pattern and will probably settle at around 0.5kg a week from now on. This means that I am probably at the halfway point of my cut, so I'm hoping that by mid-September I will be sitting at around 77kg and looking bigger than I did at 82kg.

I was feeling a bit discouraged in the past week because I haven't seen any physical changes, but I should know by now that changes are cyclical. Probably in the next two weeks is when I will really start to see some definitive changes, and will start looking bigger and bigger. I'm pretty melancholy about cutting, but it isn't as ball-breaking as I had heard. Probably sitting at around 14% right now, maybe less. 

Will probably post some pictures next week, prepare for the obligatory NO HOMO. 

Mobility update

A little while ago I mentioned that I wanted to improve my mobility to be functionally strong and powerful through a complete range of motion. So far it's going well, I'm into the habit of having a big foam rolling session on my legs and back each week, as well as a tennis ball session on my upper body. My left side tightness is down to a painless minimum, I feel like my new squat form is helping shore up my strength on both sides, and is also re-training my recruitment patterns to involve my posterior chain more.

I roll my hip flexors, then my adductors and abductors, then around my knee and my ITB (dear God). I realised the reason I can't do overhead squats without losing balance is because I have shocking thoracic extension, which essentially means I have poor upper back mobility and hence struggle to retract my scapula all the way. To fix this I've been foam rolling my back, as well as getting a tennis ball into my upper back, traps, and lats. I've also been loosening up my front delts and chest a lot to try and get some sort of antagonistic release. All the work seems to be paying off, as I already feel freer in my rotator cuff region.

I need to up my game and do more myofascial release to truly become a 'supple leopard', but I'm improving my habits slowly, and that's what matters. 

Workout A - 08/08/12

Workout 33

SQUAT

Barx10

60kgx5

70kgx5

80kgx5

90kgx5

105kgx7 PR

DB BENCH

16kgx10

26kgx5

31kgx5

36kgx5 PR

INCLINE BB

2x60kgx10

DIPS

BW+20kgx8

BW+20kgx7

Squats felt great, I am really learning to be patient under the bar and grind out sets. It's a new state of mind which is really paying off, and these were all ATG too. 

Last time I did DB bench I was struggling to get sets of 5 with 28kg, so this workout was an unknown quantity. Felt strong on these, hopefully will be throwing around the 40s in the next few months. Incline was awesome, I love the mind-muscle connection I get when doing it, and the burn in the last few reps was insane. Just couldn't get the last rep of dips, my chest, front delts and triceps were truly mulched from all the pressing beforehand. This workout really does just feel like a chest rape, but I think it's a good thing because my chest size and width is a weak point, and it's nice being able to do my squats and bench and then just worry about exhausting the muscles. 

Also, the dumbbells are 5.5kg each, and the two spring collars are 250g each, so that means 6kg straight off the bat in case anyone was wondering. 

Cutting - 3 week update

I started cutting 3 weeks ago, and here are my results so far. 

Start: 82.0kg

Week 1: 80.6kg 

Week 2: 79.8kg

Week 3: 79.1kg

So that means over the past 3 weeks I've lost 2.9kg, with the bulk lost in the first week as expected (from lowered glycogen stores from lack of carbs and subsequent dropped water weight). 

So, by my calculations I should only be cutting for another 5 weeks before I reach a level of leanness which I will be happy to maintain for a while and still improve my strength on a weekly basis. 

This means that in 5 weeks I should hopefully have lost another 3kg, as I will be happy to take a 500g loss every week if it means keeping my strength on upper body lifts and marginally increasing lower body ones. 

Also, I made a whole heap of mini quiches for breakfasts, it turned out to be a great idea because I just grab 3 and eat them cold with a coffee in the morning, saves time and regulates my breakfast intake. Made a batch of 18 with 12 eggs, cheese, corn, 100g ham and red onion. Delicious. 

Which means I'm having eggs for breakfast, tuna for a snack, and 3/8 of a chicken for lunch. Not feeling too much weaker either.

Workout A - 02/08/12

Workout 32

SQUAT

Barx10

60kgx5

70kgx5

80kgx5

90kgx5

102.5kgx7 PR

BENCH

40kgx8

50kgx5

60kgx5

70kgx5

85kgx6 PR

INCLINE DB

2x25.5kgx10

DIPS

2xBW+20kgx8

Really disappointed I didn't get 8 with squats, my right knee caved on the 3rd rep and it scared the hell out of me, managed to recover but the 8th would have been touch and go if I'd attempted it. Bench was good, but wanted 7. So tired by the time dips came around.