7/31/12 UFC WOD

Nine rounds for time of:
155(Men)/85(Women) pound Squat clean, 7 reps
8 Burpee box jumps

LiveStrong Running Series #4

Use of Weighted Vests in Endurance Sports

Endurance athletes are always looking for ways to improve performance. Adding more weight to your body would seem to make your body work harder during exercise so that your muscles and respiratory system becomes more efficient, thus improving your endurance. Gaining weight for the purposes of training is not practical, but adding weight in the form of a weighted vest might be.

About Endurance Sports

Endurance sports involve performing prolonged aerobic activity over an extended period. Examples of endurance sports include cross-country skiing, road cycling, marathon running and long-distance triathlons. When you train for endurance sports, you seek to adapt your muscles to working for long periods of repetitive activity. You also seek to improve the efficiency of your oxygen use so you can go longer with less effort. Adding load through a weighted vest might help with these training goals.

Research

A study in the “European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology” published in 1987 found that athletes who trained with a weighted vest for four weeks experienced lower levels of lactate in the blood during nonweighted runs than athletes who did not train with one. High levels of lactate in the blood hasten fatigue. Wearing a weighted vest also increased athletes’ VO2 max -- or ability to use oxygen during exercise. A January 2012 study in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” found that training with a weighted vest can improve running time and agility slightly, which can also help with endurance sports such as skiing and trail running.

Safe Weight

Although a weighted vest can offer some training benefits, you don’t want one that is too heavy. Too much weight can increase your risk of injury and make you too uncomfortable to complete your activity. Stick to one that is just 5 percent to 10 percent of your body weight, recommends the American Council on Exercise.

Concerns

Adding a weighted vest to already strenuous activities can be harmful. Weight vests can increase body temperature in warmer environments, putting you at risk for heat-related complications. A weighted vest worn during extreme training sessions such as 20-mile or longer runs could hasten fatigue and make you more vulnerable to injury.

References

• American Council on Exercise: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks if Individuals Hold Dumbbells in Their Hands While Doing Step Aerobics or Other Cardio Activities?
• European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology:Metabolic Response of Endurance Athletes to Training With Added Load
• Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Effect of Weighted Vest Suit Worn During Daily Activities on Running Speed, Jumping Power and Agility in Young Men

Article reviewed by Kirk Ericson Last updated on: Apr 10, 2012

From: LiveStrong

 

7/26/12 UWLC Solo Workout

PEAK 8

It is much more taxing than it appears

7/25/12 UFC Solo Workout

From CrossFit Football

10,000 lbs

Complete 10 rounds for time of:

1 Squat - 365 lbs
1 Press - 180 lbs
1 Deadlift - 455 lbs

*The goal is to lift 10,000 lbs as fast as possible. 

*If you must scale, adjust the weights so you can complete the 10,000 lbs in the least amount of the sets. You still can only do one rep at a time and must cycle through all three lifts to complete a single round.

LiveStrong Running Series #3

Weight vests are popular fitness tools used for increasing the amount of work required of an athlete over a distance or set of repetitions in exercises that cannot easily be loaded with traditional means like dumbbells and barbells. Maximum speed sprinting can be loaded with a weighted vest if a few key principles are followed, according to track coach Ken Jakalski.

Appropriate Loading

Appropriate loading is essential for sprint speed development. Legendary sprint coach Charlie Francis suggests using resistance only heavy enough so as not to disturb running mechanics and ground contact times. Francis suggests using a load only between 5 and 10 percent of bodyweight to improve sprinting acceleration performance. For the average male sprinter this is between 8 to 20 pounds. Younger sprinters with less overall strength will require lighter loading.

Appropriate Strength

Strength developed in the weight room can be transitioned to improved sprinting performance using loaded sprints, according to strength and conditioning specialist Josh Bryant. However, adding extra load to an already jarring exercise in sprinting can be risky if appropriate background conditioning has not been done. Protect yourself by improving your squat ability in the weight room and performing a build up of unweighted sprinting, says Francis.

Appropriate Duration

Russian exercise physiologist and training theorist Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky advocates using weighted vests during sprinting for only two to three weeks at a time and often intermixed with unweighted sprinting for maximum results. Any longer than three weeks, according to Verkhoshansky, and the athlete risks developing less than ideal sprinting technique changes.

Caution

High-intensity sprinting, especially under load, carries with it an increased risk of musculoskeletal trauma. Work with a qualified track and field professional to ensure that your use of weighted vests is done with high movement quality to ensure the best conditions for maximum safety and performance.

References

• "The Pros and Cons of Using Resisted and Assisted Sprinting"; Ken Jakalski; 1998
• "Key Concepts in Elite Sprinting"; Charlie Francis, 2008
• "Bridge the Gap: Sprint-Resisted Training"; Josh Bryant, CSCS; 2009
• "Supertraining"; Mel Siff, PhD and Yuri Verkhoshansky, PhD; 2009

Article reviewed by Greg Duran Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

LiveStrong Running Series #2

How to Develop Top Sprinting Speed

Step 1

Fasten a weighted vest to your body when you do sprint workouts. This will adapt your body to added resistance and make you feel lighter once you take it off and play a sport. Wear the vest throughout the course of the day as well during your nontraining hours.

Step 2

Perform heavy weight training exercises to strengthen the muscles involved with sprinting. Target the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves with exercises like squats, leg presses, lunges, dead lifts, stepups and calf raises. Use a resistance that is so heavy you can lift it only eight to 12 times in a set.

Step 3

Incorporate plyometric exercises into your routines. Plyometrics involve a slow lowering movement followed by a fast movement. These exercises can help improve your explosive power during sprints. Do exercises like squat jumps, leaping lunges, tuck jumps, side hops and bounding. Bounding is a form of running where you take extra high and long strides.

Step 4

Run down hills to do overspeed training. Spend five to 10 minutes jogging at a light pace to warm up, then finish at the top of a hill. Sprint down the hill as fast as you can, walk back to the top and repeat. This type of drill causes you to take longer than normal strides, which will translate to faster sprinting speed.

Step 5

Stretch before and after your workouts and sport activities. Perform dynamic stretches before and static stretches after. Dynamic stretches move your body through a range of motion, which acclimates you to the movements involved with sprinting. Do stretches like ankle bounces, leg swings, arm crossovers, spinal rotations, shoulder shrugs and alternating toe touches. Static stretches are held for a given amount of time and they can help reduce soreness and keep your muscles lengthened. Do stretches that target the quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves, which are all involved with sprints.

References

• ShapeFit: Sprinting, Sprinters and Speed Training
• Sports Fitness Advisor: Lower Body Plyometric Exercises
• "Stack"; Speed Drills from Champ Bailey's Trainer; Nick Palazzo; February 2005
• Brian Mac: Dynamic Stretching Exercises

Article reviewed by John Hagemann Last updated on: May 26, 2011

From: LiveStrong

7/24/12 UFC Solo Workout

Instructions: 

Start timing

Row: 2000m

Complete 21-15-9 reps of each exercise in order as fast as possible.

Push-Ups

Deadlift

Front Squat

Sit-Ups

Finish with a 2000m Row

Record your time.

7/24/12 UWLC Solo Workout

Back + Biceps

Cardio: 25 Minutes

Reverse-Grip Pulldowns: 4 sets of 10-12

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets of 12-15

Bent over Two-Dumbbell Row: 3 sets to failure in 15-17 reps

V-Bar Pullup, use bands or L-Sit to elevate legs: 3 sets of 10-12

Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl: 4 sets of 12-14

One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curl: 4 sets to failure in 12-14 reps

Spider Curl: 3 sets to failure in 15-20 reps

Cardio: 25 Minutes

7/23/12 UWLC Solo Workout

LEGS

 Cardio: 20 Minutes

SUPERSET

 Leg Extensions: 3 sets to failure in 18-20 reps

Seated Leg Curl: 3 sets to failure in 12-15 reps

SUPERSET

Hack Squat: 4 sets to failure in 50 reps

Air Squats: 4 sets of 50 reps

Cardio: 20 Minutes

LiveStrong Running Series #1

How to Improve Sprinting Times

Sprinting is found in many sports such as track and field, football and soccer. Sprint speed can make or break your game. Speed does not come without practice and discipline. To increase sprinting speed, certain exercises are required to prepare your muscles. It is important to set aside time two to three times weekly to work on your sprinting speed. This helps your body become accustomed to the physical demands sprinting requires.

Basics

Step 1

Position yourself at the starting line with your strongest leg in front. This is known as your dominant leg and provides much of your speed and stride. Practicing a good starting stance helps your body become accustomed to it.

Step 2

Align your back and legs. Body alignment will increase your stride throughout your race. Don't slouch or lower your buttocks to the ground. This will only slow you down when you start off. The slow start pace affects the rest of your sprint.

Step 3

Maintain your body alignment as you start off at the starting line. Breaking this alignment will not only slow you down but will also cause your body to become tired easily. Poor body position also raises risk of injury throughout the race. Push off from the starting line with your back leg, bringing your front out to set your stride in one fluid motion.

Step 4

Relax your muscles while you are in mid-sprint. When your muscles are tensed your body tends to slow down, causing you to take shorter strides. Do not clench your fists or squint your eyes. These are tell-tale signs that you must relax. Breathing deeply as you sprint will help ease muscles and help you work with them.

Drills

Step 1

Run up steps to increase stride length. Stair running improves your stride by increasing the distance your legs must move to make a step. Stadium stairs are best when using this training technique.

Step 2

Stand in front of a mirror and place your feet and legs shoulder width apart. Lean forward onto the balls of your feet without bending your toes, heels slightly elevated. Bend your right arm at your side to a 90 degree angle. Bend your left arm behind you at a 90 degree angle. Switch arm positions by pumping your arms back and forth as you would during a sprint. Keep your arms close to your body and at a 90 degree angle for two sets of 20 repetitions each.

Step 3

Count your steps as you sprint. Counting steps will help you increase your stride. The easiest way to do this is counting every other step, starting with the first. Your step count will go from one to three to five to seven, for example.

Step 4

Stand straight with your legs and feet shoulder width apart. Slowly lift your right leg, bending your knee at a 90 degree angle. Lift the heel of your left foot until you are standing on the ball of your foot, without bending your toes. As you lift, increase the angle of your right leg and push out. Repeat with your other leg for two sets of 20 repetitions each.

References

• BodyBuilding.com: "Four Easy Steps to Improving 10 Yard and 40 Yard Dash"; Roger White
• Brian Mac Sports Coach: How to Improve Your Sprinting Speed; Patrick Beth

Article reviewed by Linda Tarr Kent Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

From: LiveStrong

 

7/20/12 UWLC Solo Workout

Calves and Abs Workout

Cardio: 20 Minutes

Standing Calf Raises: 2 warm up sets of 8-10, 4 sets to failure in 12-15 reps

Seated Calf Raises:  4 sets to failure in 12-15 Reps

One-Legged Standing Calf Raise: 4 sets to failure in 12-15 reps

Hanging Leg Raise: 3 sets to failure in 20 reps

Cardio: 20 Minutes

7/20/12 UFC Solo Workout

AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, COMPLETE:

Reps: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 , 3 , 2, 1.

Barbell Thrusters

Pull-Ups

Weighted Sit-Ups

Cumulative Damage and Repair

The Body Heretic: It Scorns Our Efforts

By GINA KOLATA
HE promises are everywhere. Sure, you smoked. But you can erase all those years of abusing your lungs if you just throw away the cigarettes. Eating a lot of junk food? Change your diet, lose even 5 or 10 pounds and rid yourself of those extra risks of heart disease and diabetes. Stay out of the sun - who cares if you spent your youth in a state of bronzed bliss? If you protect yourself now, skin cancer will never get you.
Maybe it should be no surprise that America's popular and commercial cultures promote the idea of an inexhaustible capacity for self-rejuvenation and self-repair. After all, if America as an idea has meant anything, it has meant just that - the possibility of continual transformation - becoming wealthier, more spiritual, more beautiful, happier and feeling younger.
That optimism has helped create a society of unmatched vitality - a source of bewilderment, alarm and envy to the rest of the world. But Americans often forget, or aren't aware, of how unusual they are in this respect, notes Dr. Daniel Haber, director of the cancer center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"I grew up in Europe and I travel in Europe," he said. "And there's an amazing contrast." Europeans are far more fatalistic about their lives, he said. They believe "you need to enjoy life," so they smoke, they bask in a sun, they take pleasure in a leisurely, indulgent meal and they don't feel compelled to go to a gym.
Americans, Dr. Haber says, believe in control - of their bodies, their mental faculties and their futures. So shedding some pounds or some unhealthy habits is not merely sensible. It suggests a new beginning, being born again.
Maybe that is why people may feel betrayed when Peter Jennings explains that he stopped smoking, at least for a while, and still got lung cancer. Or why, two decades after his death, people still talk about Jim Fixx, the running guru who lost weight, stopped smoking, ran every day and dropped dead of a heart attack.
In fact, science is pretty clear on all of this: There are real limits to what can be done to reverse the damage caused by a lifetime of unhealthy living. Other than lung cancer, which is mostly a disease of smokers, there are few diseases that are preventable by changing behavior in midlife.
But that is not what most people think, said Dr. Barnett Kramer, the associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health. Instead, they believe that if you reform you'll erase the damage, in part because public health messages often give that impression. "It is easy to overestimate based on the strength of the messages," Dr. Kramer said. "But we're not as confident as the messages state."
Eating five servings of vegetables and fruit has not been shown to prevent cancer. Melanoma, the deadly skin cancer, occurs whether or not you go out in the sun. Gobbling calcium pills has not been found to prevent osteoporosis. Switching to a low-fat diet in adulthood does not prevent breast cancer.
At most, Dr. Kramer said, the effect of changing one's diet or lifestyle might amount to "a matter of changing probabilities," slightly improving the odds. But health science is so at odds with the American ethos of self-renewal that it has a hard time being heard. Here, where people believe anything is possible if you really want it, even aging is viewed as a choice.
"It's hard to find an American who doesn't believe that, with enough will, he or she can achieve anything - we've been brought up to believe that," said Dr. Barry Glassner, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California. Health, he emphasized, is no exception: "It's the same whether you're 40, 50 or 80. It doesn't matter whether you are male or female, black or white. "
But in matters of health, the strongest willed person simply cannot wipe the slate of life clean and begin again. This is true even with lung cancer and smoking. Those who quit may greatly reduce their risk of lung cancer. But they cannot eliminate it.
"The best you can be is a former smoker - you can't be a 'never smoker,' " said Dr. Kramer. "It's not all or none. It's a matter of changing probabilities."
In fact, in every area of desired physical self-renewal, the probabilities make it hard to argue that life allows one to start over.
At health clubs, pear-shaped people in their 40's and 50's obsessively lift weights, trying for those defined muscles that, even in youth, come only to those with a certain genetic predisposition. But by middle age, the overweight tend to stay that way, and the body has a harder time increasing muscle mass. So even the greatest personal trainer will not produce rippling abs.
At the cardiologist's office, middle-age men, learning that their arteries are starting to clog, swear they'll never eat chips and hamburgers again, and that they will take up jogging. Some do and a small percentage even stick with it. But no amount of exercise or diet change will make the plaque in their arteries disappear. Despite common public health recommendations, walking for half an hour a day, five days a week probably won't make most people lose weight. And while a regular regimen of walking or running will likely improve your stamina and cardiovascular fitness, there is no guarantee that it will reverse heart disease, prevent or forestall a heart attack or in any way extend your life.
The effects of other measures, like changing lifestyle or switching to a diet rich in raw vegetables, are even less clear when it comes to preventing cancer, said Dr. Kramer. "Even if they do affect the cancer," he said, " it may be that it's over an entire lifetime."
So what are Americans, with their faith in starting over, to do? When it comes to making oneself over, said Dr. Glassner, they have two options. One, he said, "is that you can consider yourself inadequate or inferior" for failing to force the years to melt away. The other is to shift the definition of rejuvenation from a arduous restructuring of the self to a paint job.
"Now, instead of losing the weight you're going to go for cosmetic surgery," Dr. Glassner said.
That is not really an answer. Collagen injections or surgery may give people more youthful looking faces, but only for a while. And liposuction won't help for long if the body restores the fat that was suctioned off the patient's arms or buttocks.
Then there is a third possibility for the resourceful, Dr. Glassner said. An overweight person can simply redefine himself as a "food adventurer."
There is one group, however, for whom a strong sense of control over the future may be an unalloyed good: the sick.
"Protective illusions," says Dr. Shelley Taylor, a psychology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, can be a good thing. In her research, she found that among people with serious diseases, those who felt they still had control over their lives coped better with their illnesses.
The optimists fared better psychologically even when they became more ill - shattering the illusion of control. "What you often see is people use something like cancer as an opportunity to discover value in their lives, and meaning," Dr. Taylor said. "They reorder their priorities. They focus on relationships more. Control and optimism shift to things that can be dealt with."
For those in good health, there is still another option, though it is decidedly a minority position. This is simply to scale back on one's self-engineering and take more pleasure in simply getting from day to day.
The American essayist Joseph Epstein nicely expressed this view in an essay, written when he hit the age of 60, which he gave the mordant title, "Will You Still Feed Me?" In it, Mr. Epstein expresses the virtue of just enjoying the ride.
"At 60," he writes, "one probably does well not to expect wild changes, at least not for the better. Probably best not even to expect a lot in the way of self-improvement. Not a good idea, I think, at this point to attempt to build the body beautiful. Be happy-immensely happy, in fact-with the body still functional."
Of course, many in midlife will still decide to hit the gym, to eat better, drink less, relax more. And that's a good thing, if only because they will feel better for being fitter. But they shouldn't expect it to erase the effects of all those years that came before.

FROM: THE NEW YORK TIMES

7/18/12 UFC Solo Workout

  Warm Up: 1200m Row

 

5 Rounds

10-push press (115 Men, 65 Women)

10-burpee pull-ups

 

Cardio: 1.5 Mile Run

Cool Down: 10 minute jump rope.

7/18/12 UWLC Solo Workout

FOR YOUR SHOULDERS ONLY

Cardio: 20 Minutes

Smith Machine Overhead Shoulder Press: 5 sets of 8-10 (Behind the head, to base of skull, no lower)

Cybex Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 8-10, 1 drop set to failure

SUPERSET

Side Lateral Raise: 4 sets of 10-15

Front Raise: 4 sets of 10-15

Dumbbell Shrug: 4 sets of 12-20

Reverse Machine Flyes: 1 warm-up set of 8-10, 7 working sets of 12-15

Cardio: 20 minutes