Fast and Furious Fitness

So, today was another “long” workout. Not really long by the typical gym trainee standards - but, it lasted about an hour, and I was hammered at the end of it all. Sweat was dripping off me, and the summer’s just beginning here in all honesty. Each body part was worked throughly, and to the max.

And, I feel GREAT - not worn down or exhausted.

I worked every thing today - as I usually do. What made it better today is that I slowed it down just that extra bit, to enable me to focus and recover on form/execution of ALL the exercises.

And while doing so, I discovered another trick to the Sumo Squat. Without further do, here it is: - While coming down on the squat, really “bang” your foot down i.e. “stomp” while bringing your leg back from the extended “up” position. You’ll find this gives you a better workout in terms of breathing, and also in terms of muscle being worked.

Slowing it down just a little bit also gave me an opportunity to focus on something else which is of paramount importance - but, I’ll let you figure that one out. (Not so subtle) hint: It involves O2.

So, all in all, nothing really new - but, yet another great workout for the books. Which is going to be followed by another one.

And that, dear reader, is exactly how it should be. String together one great workout after the other, and you’ll be holding the keys to - and entering - a whole different world altogether.

I’ll end on that note. Oh, and I’ve been recieving a ton of comments (or should I say pingbacks) from sites - which I really do appreciate - but what is happening is that the comments don’t contain anything meaningful - its more like “xysayzkf http://sss.xxysa.” or “rock stars here - http:// . . . “. Please, by all means, visit the blog, and leave comments - but make sure they at least look like a human being wrote it.

Okay, enough for now. As always - get fit - FAST!

Rahul

All,

I just realized I’ve been talking about quite a few exercises, but haven’t quite updated the “information” page on the left hand column to reflect all the new exercises I’ve been talking about. My bad - today, I’ll address one of those exercises: The Sumo Squat.

The Sumo squat is an advanced exercise, which will build and condition the hips, inner thighs, glutes, lower back/lower abs simaltaneously in a single movement. This exercise is an advanced exercise “a killer”, so make sure you a) have the basic squat down pat before trying this, and b)loosen your groin/thighs up - VERY important, and you’ll soon see why.

Here’s how to perform the Sumo Squat: -

1. Begin as you would in the regular Hindu squat, except with your toes turned a fair bit more outwards. A minimum angle to shoot for would be 30 degrees, but you can go as far as 60 on this one.

2. Hold your arms out to your sides such that both arms are perpendicular to your torso. Maintain this arm position throughout the movement.

3. Squat down, while maintaing this position. Breathe OUT while squatting down.

4. Explode back up - only, while exploding up, move your right leg, up, and towards your extended arm, so that the side of your foot touches the palm of your hand. In one smooth movement, bring it down again such that it touches the other foot - you should be standing on the other leg during the “up” motion - and return to the starting position.(same angle with the foot position). Squat down again.

Note: The movement should be a “fluid” movement, and not a jerky movement - yet another reason you need to be warmed up pretty well in order to do this one.

5. Repeat this movement on the left leg. That’s one rep.

6. Continue ad nauseam for as many reps you can manage.

Again, make sure you loosen everything up before doing this - it’s very easy to strain (or worse, injure) your groin or other muscles doing this movement if your not “loose” enough while doing it. Also, this may seem like a slow movement, but it’ll have you puffing pretty quick. Try it, and see for yourself!

This one will take some time to master - but when you do - WATCH OUT!

Stay tuned for more information on other “advanced” exercises as well - I’ll be covering them in future posts!

All for now,
Rahul

Dear Reader,

After the squat, and it’s variations, the next exercise that should be in everyone’s routine is the pushup. This one exercise alone will strengthen your entire body from head to toe, and is well worth the time and effort invested in performing the exercise - which, if done correctly, is not a lot of time at all. I get a 100 odd pushups in about 10 minutes or so, and that ain’t a long time to train.

1. Pushups train the ENTIRE body - when done in all it’s variations, pushups train the forearms, fingers, arms, wrists, shoulders, traps, entire back and - gasp - even your legs (thighs, hips, buttocks, and calves). Your feet get work as well, so this is literally an “entire body” exercise.

2. The “pushing” movement involved while doing pushups builds strength throughout the ENTIRE body. Pushups, when done correctly give you a solid cardiovascular workout as well. Try doing a 100 pushups (or, however many sets it takes you to get there) in GOOD form in 10 minutes or less. It ain’t easy. And the deep breathing involved while doing pushups makes you get stronger throughout your entire body.

3. Pushups can be done by virtually anyone, and require NO equipment except your body. And due to the fact that your entire body participates in this exercise, it is often easier to do for trainees that are just starting out, or trainees that are slightly overweight.

You may not be able to do too many pullups - but, the pushups is something just about anyone can work up to.

And NO, pushups are not the “easy” exercise they are made out to be. They DO have major strength benefits. You’d think this would be obvious; the Marines do a huge number of these on a regular basis, and last time I checked, a Marine was pretty damn strong. Likewise for boxers and wrestlers - pushups done in high repititions along with squats and bridging form the basis of their workouts as well.

Pushups give you REAL, FUNCTIONAL strength that just cannot be gotten from other pushing exercises involving weights. And that’s something you can’t beat.

Here is a 10-12 minute workout that’s guaranteed to get the lungs pumping, and the entire body working as a whole: -

- 25 regular pushups
- 20 tablemaker pushups
- 5-10 Reverse pushups
- 10 Arms extended pushups
- 15 regular pushups
- 10-15 tablemaker pushups
- 5-10 reverse pushups
- 10 arms extended pushups
- 10 fingertip pushups

(Information on how to do the exercises can be found on the site - see “information section” for same)

So, about 110 - 130 odd pushups, in about 12 minutes or so. I cannot also emphasize enough the importance of FORM and BREATHING; do either of these incorrectly, and you might as well not do the routine.

And for those of you that are wondering - yes, I’ve used this routine. Used it in today’s workout, as a matter of fact. . .

And if you can do that without breaking too much of a sweat (though I’ll be honest - I don’t know too many people that can), then no problem. Let me know, and I’ll put together a routine for you that’ll have you puffing in on time - and, it will involve nothing other than pushups.

Bottom line - train your pushups hard, and without fail! The rewards you reap in terms of physical strength, conditioning and fitness will be well worth it.

Rahul

All,

It’s amazing - no matter how many times I do an exercise, even if it’s a seemingly simple one such as the Hindu squat, I end up finding new ways of making the exercise more productive. This ties in with what I had said earlier about mastering an exercise and what that really entails, so if you missed that one, probably not a bad idea to go back and read that once as well.

Anyway, that brings me to today’s tip - how to make the Hindu squat a “different” and in some ways harder exercise by really focusing on the breathing and the entire body during the exercise, rather than simply the “front” of the thighs, which are seemingly the muscles that are the most “important” in this exercise. Before the tip though, I will say that your legs need to be in good shape before you try this, so if your just starting out, stick with the regular squat for now and incorporate this one as you progress.

Turn your toes out slightly, or, perhaps a bit [em]more[/em] than slightly. Say about a 30 degree angle, give or take. . . And, THEN perform the Hindu squat. Make sure to keep the form GOOD i.e. hands behind your back as you descend, and make sure the “upward” motion of your hands bring you up rather than just your legs. Keep your back straight as well. Do this, and you’ll find the inner thighs, abs, and even glutes getting involved in the movement. Net result - a better workout for the ENTIRE body! And, this tip will eventually help you get higher numbers as well, as you are using more muscles during the exercises.

And always, breathe correctly - that is half the game right there. Rememeber too that the Hindu squat is NOT an isolationist movement for the thighs or even legs alone - like most of the other exercises I advocate, the ENTIRE body is involved. That can’t be stressed enough.

Something else I found interesting is that there is a direct carryover between this exercise (I’ve spoken about this before I believe, but with different exercises), and the Sumo Squat. Once I really started to work the Sumo squat, I quickly found out how much my inner thighs were lagging behind the rest of my legs. Not any longer, though.

Try this one the next time you squat, and let me know how it goes. I’ve personally added on quite a bit of mass following this routine, and done correctly, you will too!

That’s it for the day - as always, the comment feature is there if you need it.

Get fit - FAST.

Rahul

All,

If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you’ve heard me speak about the benefits of backing off sometimes, in order to let your body recuperate, and shake that “fatigued” feeling that often comes from overtraining. Other reasons to give it a break once in a while could be illness, perhaps an upset stomach, and so on and so forth - there could be many reasons.

Anyway, the benefit I am going to speak about (or rather, reiterate) today is how taking a break can REJUVENATE you - not just for your workout, but for the entire day as well. And this doesn’t have to be a regular “scheduled” break either.

I’ll give you an example from my own training today. Today (Friday, at the time of posting this) is generally a day when I take a break from my exercise routine, and allow the body to recover. THIS week however, I took a break on Thursday, therefore, today I was primed, and set to go when I started. And boy did I GO - my leg workout started off with 100 Hindu squats done in 3 minutes. And note that these were neither done slowly, nor fast - they were ALL done in correct form, and the right cadence, with the right breathting. And this persisted with the rest of the exercises, right till the fag end of the workout, which tells me I’m doing something right.

The above may sound “normal”, but it’s not - sometimes, you just get that “solid” feeling during and after a workout, which makes you feel like a zillion bucks, and makes you feel as if you’ve REALLY “got into” both the muscles being worked, and the exercise. In addition, this sort of training rejuvenates you for the entire day - at the time of writing, I just finished a 40 minute workout, and I’m not exhausted!

So - the most important thing is to a) listen to your body and b)not worry too much about “schedules”. Ok, it’s not a good idea to completely ignore schedules to the point of not training regularly, but when it comes to taking a break for serious trainees - gut feelings sometimes work best. For instance, if I hadn’t heeded my body’s signals on Thursday, I wouldn’t be sitting here blogging about a fantastic workout today. Enough said on that one!

And, given that I’m feeling so good - I’m going to talk about another topic I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while. Stay tuned for the next post - coming shortly after this one!

Rahul