Putting theory into practice

UPDATED with links to videos showing proper exercise form.

I've had some offline questions about how I'm actually applying the training principles I outlined in an earlier post.

So, this post will break down my current approach (as I've said, you have to change things up periodically). My training "split" looks like this:

Saturday - conditioning
Sunday - strength / power, upper body
Monday - rest / active recovery
Tuesday - strength / power, lower body
Wednesday - conditioning
Thursday - strength / power, upper body
Friday - rest / active recovery

Here is an example of a conditioning routine I did the other day. You should complete this in approximately 20 minutes, including warm up.

warm up - 60 jumping jacks, 15 bodyweight squats and 20 "huggers" (swing your arms back and across your body as if you are hugging somebody)

6 rounds (no rest between rounds)...

1A) prison squat x 20 seconds
1B) hold the "down" position x 10 seconds

rest 60 seconds

4 rounds...
2A) pushups x 20 seconds
2B) hold "up" position x 10 seconds

rest 60 seconds

2 rounds...
3A) plank x 20 sec
3B) right side plank x 10 sec
3C) plank x 20 sec
3D) left side plank x 10 sec

rest 60 seconds...

4) 60-second banana x 2 reps (in this case, just hold the banana position for 60 seconds, don't do the rocking)

rest 60 seconds

5) high knees done in a Tabata sequence (Tabata sequence is 8 rounds of 20 seconds work, immediately followed by 10 seconds rest, rinse and repeat 7 times; so, the total 8 rounds takes 4 minutes)

While 20 minutes might not seem like enough time to really "get in shape", you have to try this approach to see how effective it really is and how the results are applicable to other areas of your life. I recently ran a personal best 5K race after not having done ANY training runs in the 6 weeks leading up to race day. My conditioning was done solely through workouts like the one above. Conversely, if I had being doing "traditional" 5K training and then tried to do the workout above, I probably wouldn't have been able to complete it!

Again, keep in mind the key principles:

- high intensity, short duration
- movements that use multiple muscle groups and / or your whole body
- strength and conditioning should go together

The next post will lay out sample upper body and lower body strength / power routines.

Let me know if this was helpful. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

No excuses,

Jesse