You Are Exactly Where You Want To Be

Interesting article from Charles Staley (quick read):
http://www.staleytrainingprograms.com/products/edt-dvd/edt-articles/clean-315.htm

Cool Bench Workout

So almost all of the workout stuff I'm going to post here has come from either T-Nation, Mike Mahler, Charles Staley, Craig Ballantyne, or Men's Health magazine. I'll try to give credit where I can, but please know that I am *not* trying to represent this as my own work.

Here's a cool bench routine that is geared mostly toward building strength. There are 4 parts to it. Before you start you need to have a good idea of what your 1 rep max (1RM) is (i.e. the most weight you can lift one time). Also I am assuming that you have done what you need to do to warm up.

Part 1
This protocol is known as the rest-pause technique. You pick a weight that is about 70% of your 1RM. Bench the weight 5x, rest 20 sec, 4x rest 20 sec, 3x, rest 20 sec, 2x, rest 20 sec, 1x and you're done. You've done 15 reps of a medium weight in about 1.5 minutes. I really like this scheme alot.

You could wait 60-90 seconds and do it again if you weren't going to do Parts 2-4, but I've read that you shouldn't do it more than twice cuz it really zaps your central nervous system. You can also tweak it and go lighter weight, but only 10 seconds between sets, or go heavier and rest 30 seconds between sets.

After Part 1, I'll usually go do my legs and then come back for Part 2.

Part 2
This is where we go heavy. Do 5 sets x 1 rep @ 90-95% of your 1RM, rest 60-90 sec between sets.

Part 3
Drop the weight you just used by 15-20 lbs. Do 4 sets x 1 rep, rest 60 sec between sets. For set 5, do 3-5 reps. Even though you could do more than 1 rep on the first 4 sets, you are trying to lift the bar as quick as you can. Something about mass x acceleration = power. By lifting explosively but not burning out and fatiguing, you are using your fast-twitch muscle fibers and that's a good thing according to the experts.

Part 4
This is just a real quick burnout set. You don't actually go to the point where your muscles fail. I do 1 set x 20 reps @ 55-60% 1RM.

So this actually has between 25-30 total reps if you don't count the burnout set. It seems alot of rep schemes are in that neighborhood, i.e 5 x 5, 8 x 3, 3 x 10, etc.

Give it a try and see what you think!

School Starts

School just started and Trey is a 4th grader! He has a really good teacher this year and a couple of good friends in his class this year. He just started playing fall soccer for Andy Roberts in the Harford County Parks n Rec League. Team looks good, lot of 9 yr olds, typical mix of skilled and unskilled players. Trey really has a good foot; he's almost too unselfish- I hope he takes more shots this year because he has the 2nd best foot on the team.

Labor Day weekend is here and my work is getting ready for the next version of our software to come out, which means everyone is slammed with stuff to do. We went from an 18-24 month cycle to a 12 month cycle which means every August and September is going to suck. Oh well, I guess that's why they call it work.

My ribs healed finally and I have resumed going to jujitsu class again- I have to get my attendance more regular so I can test for 3rd degree brown this winter.

I'm going to start posting some non-Fluker news here; namely exercise and workout stuff, as well as self-defense stuff. Hopefully my millions of readers will digg it (geek inside joke there).

Winter/Spring/Summer Update

Gee, almost a year since the last post. Nice. So Christmas '07 was a resounding success; kids scored majorly, lots of friends around, Guitar Hero and Runescape addictions were formed, etc. All the kids got laptops which just blows my mind. Elementary school kids with better computers than I have at work! My mother-in-law decided to try to make a 50' x 100' skating rink in the backyard. Total debacle but good unintended comedy. Had plenty of bonfires and several Jaeger Bombs over the course of the cold months. :-)

This past Spring Trey played soccer for the Cecil Soccer League again, instead of playing baseball. The level of play is way below that of Harford County's league, but there were a couple skilled players on the team. Trey really improved his ball handling and passing skills. He is so much fun to watch!

Other Spring events included Trey's 9th b'day, my 44th, and Amy's 39th. Tempus fugit. Trey finished the school year having made the Honor Roll all four marking periods, which is awesome.

I started going intermittently to an MMA class in Rising Sun (Okinawan Karate and Ground Fighting Rising Sun MMA). It was great. Thanks to Sensei Ron Tyree, Anthony Renna, Vince Renna, Shannon Shade, Ritchie, and the rest of the guys there. I got my ribs snarfed and missed 8 weeks of class there, as well as my normal jujitsu class.

Last summer we did Disney; this year we resumed our normal trek to Myrtle Beach and had a blast. We found sharks teeth galore, had awesome weather, etc. My neice brought a friend this year so there were 2 boys and 2 girls and everything was "even" and the squabbling was greatly reduced, which meant less stress for the grownups.

We just had our annual Angie B'day/End-of-Summer Party and had a large turnout. Shocker, we had a bonfire and a good time was had by all.