Check out a related post for making your own parallettes here.
Box jumps - one heck of a plyometric exercise that can be added into virtually any circuit or interval workout. However, technique plays a huge role in affecting the level of effectiveness of this wonderful (and wonderfully simple) exercise.
Many people who do box jumps cheat a little bit. One of the fundamental components of the box jump is the hip extension and here’s where the cheaters cut the corner.
Take a look at the following sequence:
If you notice, the person doing the box jump doesn’t do a full hip extension when he lands on the box. A full extension can be reached either through completely standing up (hips over feet) at the top of the box or through a powerful leg/hip explosion off the box that causes the legs and hips to straighten out and extend.
To illustrate, take a look at another sequence:
The full hip extension is one of the most powerful movements that the human body is capable of. Many compound movements, such as the squat, deadlift, clean, or simply standing up or moving into a sprint from the starters position - all are based on the hip extension. As such, it is important to complete a box jump with a full hip extension and work those muscles to the max. Doing so will work the quads, hamstrings and glutes all that much more while increasing the energy requirements of the movement and causing increased cardiovascular stress.
Everyone’s favourite iPhone interval timer, WOD Timer, now has a new home on the web! Go on and take a peek at the site in all its Web 2.0 glory. We spared no expense at getting this setup. Well, actually I did it myself over the weekend. I’m still fairly proud of it though. And please, as always, I’m looking for feedback. And if you want some promo codes for the iPhone version, let me know as I’ve been known to give a few away. We also offer hand-picked Bitcoin promo codes & cryptocurrency referral links for using crypto trading bots, crypto signals, copy trading, and other tools. You can also visit https://coincierge.de/bitcoin-system-app/ to participate in crypto trading actively with exclusive offers.
Check the site out at www.wodtimer.com.
Here’s a muscle-up sequence from December 2008. Just found it buried in a folder. Thought I did a pretty good job of putting this sequence together. Not entirely sure why I never published it before. Think the music does a nice job of adding an ominous feel. I mean, filming myself doing muscle ups in my ghetto basement gym at night in the middle of December isn’t creepy enough.
Well, in all truthfulness, WOD Timer v1.1 was actually available several days ago. It’s true, I finally fixed most of the glaring bugs and added a couple new features.
Some of the new features include vocal audio cues, interval time progress bar, UI updates and changes and additional settings. In the spirit of WOD Timer's recent updates, bookmakers are also enhancing their platforms, integrating new features for an improved user experience. With kèo cá cược nhà cái now dynamically updated, users enjoy vocal cues, a progress bar for live events, refreshed UI, and more settings for a personalized betting journey.
For more information, check out the video below. And please, if (or when) you download the app, leave some feedback in the app store!
What are parallettes? Parallettes are essentially a pair of bars used to simulate the muck larger parallel bars used in gymnastics. Parallettes are also a great piece of equipment that can be made easily and very inexpensively. Parallettes can be used for a variety of bodyweight exercises that are perfect for strengthening the upper body and core and will help develop better balance. They are similar to pushup bars but generally a little bit longer.
You can, of course, purchase parallettes, but they can easily be made with some PVC pipe and a tiny bit of time.
To start, you will need the following items from the local hardware store (I purchased mine at Home Depot).
Instructions for one parallette:
That’s it! Here’s a diagram of the sections of the parallette
And here is one of my parallettes:
Low Carb Recipe - Flax Seed Fried Cheese Strings
Simple - cut some cheese strings in half, dip them in egg, cover them in flax seed (they should be as eggy and flax seedy as possible) and fry them in canola oil (or oil of choice). Don’t let the oil get too hot. Probably best just when it’s about to smoke. Fry them only until the outside is getting a little crispy or the cheese is really starting to ooze. Turn often and keep a close eye on them. Takes only about a minute or two.
TheFitBlog.net has just released a Google Gadget for calculating body mass index (BMI). This gadget can super easily be embedded on a web page or your iGoogle site.
Download the BMI Calculator gadget.
I try not to let things that bother me get to me. In fact, for the most part I try to keep completely ambivalent about what other people are doing when those things would otherwise fire me up. But at the gym, it’s a different story. I’m not sure if it’s due to a chemical change around my brain from heavy weight lifting or if it’s maybe the confined spaces that the gym often presents, but I get my gitch all in a knot when I see someone exercising in a way that, IMHO, is a waste of time.
I am aware of the consequences, of course, for expressing my frustration to another individual - that he or she is spending their time at the gym wastefully. Not everyone who does this is a skinny, off the bus freshman. There are times when I watch an obviously serious muscle-head doing something that baffles my mind. But let’s just say that I know how to pick my battles.
And I don’t only see in-gym time wasting by members. Amazingly enough, these things happen quite often with an assumingly well equipped and experienced trainer at their side. Good grief! It’s no wonder why so many people get discouraged by their efforts. Yes, ladies and gents - it’s likely because what they are doing at the gym is simply wasting their time.
So which exercises cause my stomach to turn inside out? Here are three exercises that I commonly see at the gym that are more or less completely worthless.
The three above mentioned exercises all have the same thing in common - they are localized exercises and target very specific muscle groups. The movement involved is minimal and the same muscle groups can be as effectively worked out during more compound exercises.
My take is simple - if an exercise involves a limited movement, constrained by body position or lack of leverage, it likely isn’t an exercise worth your time. Concentrate on more compound exercises. Not only will you see better results, but you will cut down the time it requires to get in a good workout.
Here’s my new fav workout. Hit the exercises one after another any work with a medium to high intensity and not only with you feel great, you will be in and out of the gym in no time (barring waiting for the equipment - something that I had to do this evening).
Going for a 5 or 10 km run is a fantastic aerobic exercise that will burn lots of calories. However, the normal run is generally a moderate intensity exercise.
Long bouts of moderate intensity exercise may actually preferentially burn more muscle tissue than one would like [1]. The goal, after all, is usually to burn calories from carbohydrate storage and maintain muscle.
Some studies have found that brief intervals of high intensity training are more effective at maintaining muscle and building their capacity for lactic acid oxidation [2].
Lactic acid builds up as muscles undergo intense strain. You may recognize this as the burning sensation you might sometimes feel as you’re trying to lift that last rep or trying to sprint the last 100m of a good jog. During the recovery from bout of the high intensity, lactic acid is broken down. This process uses energy from carbohydrate storage or fat [3]. Translation - interval training may be better than a moderate intensity run for losing fat and getting lean.
So next time you’re heading out for your weekly (or monthly or whenever you can get yourself off the couch) run, perhaps head down to the track instead and run 5 or 6 400m sprints, each followed by 2 minutes of rest. It may take less time than a 10k jog, but it may be just as effective.
Canadian Thanksgiving just passed and along with it, many people likely passed out due to the infamous turkey coma - the indulgence of food to the point of requiring the pants unbuttoned. In the process, I’m also sure that most of us who are keen on keeping our diets fairly well in check likely through it all out the window and took part in the indulgence, joining in quite willingly to the feeding frenzy. Personally there were a couple of times over the course of the long weekend that I let out the sigh - the pre turkey coma sigh - the universal language for “oh my god I’m stuffed”.
But for the lucky few who survive to tell the story, turkey leftovers are dealt around and for days on end, the smell of turkey fills the air at offices around the country as employees microwave tupper wares filled with Thanksgiving’s bird.
Fortunately, Turkey is a great source of protein and skip the bread and mashed potatoes and substitute with veggies to have a great and cheap paleo meal! Even the gravy, assuming no added sugar, is completely paleo friendly.
Remember - meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar, which unfortunately doesn’t include pumpkin pie… although Thanksgiving exceptions are generally overlooked.
