Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

Shoulders and traps for me this morning. High rep work was painful. The sort of pain you get that just won't go away, even if you leave your arms by your side and lift nothing.

Especially if you leave your arms by your side!

But it was good. Legs tomorrow though...

I'm happy with my beach body, if I'm lucky I might get some help from greenpeace getting to the sea

My ankle seems to be sorting it's self out now, but I've managed to get some good cardio training in on the cross trainer and bikes. I've booked back up with the personal trainer again, going to get a focus on getting rid of the spare tire round the waist and building a bit of upper body strength.

I've given up trying to get rid of my love handles. Unless I go an an extreme diet they're not going to go away.

Valley of the Lillies Half Marathon today in 1:52:35, which is two minutes slower than last year so I was somewhat disappointed. However, due to a really harsh winter, I did ALL my training indoors on a treadmill, so I was actually just secretly hoping to break the 2 min mark.

Anyway, it's over. Thank goodness. Now to start training for the one in June...maybe

Half a marathon in under 2 mins? Did you use a rocket?

Been for a run myself just to clear my head a bit.

Kwacky wrote:Half a marathon in under 2 mins? Did you use a rocket?

Pick on a bloke who's dehydrated and cramping, why don't you? Been down at hospice tipping over wheelchairs today as well?

Chest and shoulders. Plus some deadlifts for good measure.

Started some diet and lifestyle changes recently to try and get rid of the belly..

I've cut down on portion sizes and am moving to a more protein orientated diet, after being a bit carb focussed for the distance running. Trying out home made smoothies for breakfast as the personal trainer recommended starting the day without any carbs.

It all started so well...

The magazine headline said "LEAN IN 28 DAYS! Get ripped without cardio"
If you've followed any of my gym posts you'll know that cardio is a four-letter word to me, until it comes to the bi-annual fitness test!

So for the last 2 weeks I've been trying out the 'Lean Mass-15' programme, courtesy of Muscle and Fitness magazine.

The basic premise behind it is that you are always working. Even when you're resting!
This active rest period consists of using a very light weight, often the opposite muscle group to the main one you're working on, whilst you're recovering from your main effort. Say for example you're doing bicep curls, you put your main effort into those, then between sets you may do tricep extensions, or even push ups. As soon as you do 15 reps of your "rest" exercise, it's straight back into the bicep curls.

And so on, until the workout is over. There's very little rest, mainly coming from changing the weights on the bars etc.

Sounds great, I hear you cry. But wait, there's more. Instead of focusing on strength, this programme is apparently designed to ellicit muscle hypertrophy. Or in simple terms, it's designed to get you bigger, not necessarily stronger (although you would expect at least a slight increase in strength as your size goes up). Kwacky's comment about "fluffy muscle" keeps ringing around in my ears eveytime I pick up these poxy weights!!!
Anyways, I digress. The reason that you're lifting lighter weights is because you're lifting them more. Most of the sets start at at least 16 reps, some go as high as 20 reps, then come down as you go through the sets. According to my weight training app (JEFIT) I lifted 19 tons yesterday doing back, biceps, forearms and abs.

That's right. NINETEEN TONS!


It's too early to say if it's working yet, but in the time it's taken to write out this small essay, my forearms are burning like crazy and my legs are still aching from Tuesday, so it's definitely doing something!

Keep us updated. It'll be interesting to see how you get on. Before I had my headaches issue a lot of the work I did was counter-exercise similar to this programme. You don't rest you simply swap over muscle groups. You get a very long afterburn from it as well.

Back into the gym last night. It's amazing how 3 weeks away can see your fitness and strength drop. I was puffing like Dot Cotton after 20 minutes.

Chest and arms mostly with some trap work thrown in to try and get them back up. They seem to have gone into hiding.

3 weeks off? Might as well be 3 years! Sucks balls, don't it?

I was dead. I put about 10kg on the skullcrushers for fear of the bar dropping on my face

I've finally started to maintain a running routine with the lead up to this year’s City2Surf (Sydney event) in August. 10 weeks out I will follow a pretty specific training program but for now I'm just trying to get into the running "habit", it's so easy to come up with excuses. I'm currently offshore on night shifts, so every second morning I'm running 5-7 kms on the treadmill after shift (the distance depends on how demanding the 12 hr shift has been and how knackered I am) and every other morning doing a 30 min session of running related yoga stretches. I'm aiming at breaking the magic hour mark for the 14 km race, after qualifying for the lead group last year by doing a 65.35

And... I know Itchy will be interested in this one, last night I registered for the Melbourne Tough Mudder at Phillip Island on 22 March 2015. In a team with a bloke from out here and we are trying to convince a few others to join in. So once I have the August run out of the way I'm going to have to swap to a more inclusive training regime for the Mudder!!

Nice one mate.
If there's one thing I learned about the mud runs it's that your body is better prepared if you're used to doing distance. I wasn't and I suffered for it with my ankle.
Otherwise, whatever you do you're going to be knackered.

But I'm pretty sure you'll have a blast.

Itchy wrote:Nice one mate.
If there's one thing I learned about the mud runs it's that your body is better prepared if you're used to doing distance. I wasn't and I suffered for it with my ankle.
Otherwise, whatever you do you're going to be knackered.

But I'm pretty sure you'll have a blast.

How hard was the mud and obstacles on your gear? I have a rather pricey set of adidas boost runners and am a bit worried they will get totally wrecked. Would it be worth buying a pair of lesser value to trash on the Mudder?

Just trained chest in my man shed ,going for a balti later to balance the ying and the yang

kiwikrasher wrote:

Itchy wrote:Nice one mate.
If there's one thing I learned about the mud runs it's that your body is better prepared if you're used to doing distance. I wasn't and I suffered for it with my ankle.
Otherwise, whatever you do you're going to be knackered.

But I'm pretty sure you'll have a blast.

How hard was the mud and obstacles on your gear? I have a rather pricey set of adidas boost runners and am a bit worried they will get totally wrecked. Would it be worth buying a pair of lesser value to trash on the Mudder?

I just looked at the Adidas Boost. I would avoid them mate.

In reality, you can do the Tough Mudder in them. But you're going to be constantly struggling for grip on the sections where there is an abundance of mud. My mate did the Airfield Anarchy one in his old trainers as he was going to bin them afterwards, but he was slipping all over the place. I had bought a pair of these...
http://www.sportsshoes.com/product/adi5 ... ing-shoes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Any dedicated trail running trainers will see you right, ones that will provide you with at least a modicum of grip in the slippy bits. I spent less than £40 and they did the job very nicely. As for durability, I left them covered in mud wrapped in a bin bag for a month. After an hour in the bath with some fairy liquid and a toothbrush they came up like new. Like, seriously, you wouldn't know they'd done 10km of running through crap!

Other kit was a Skins compression top, fairly pricey for a top but, once again unless you catch it on barbed wire or something it looks like new once washed and will last quite a while by the feel of things.
Some lycra shorts for about £8, and then just a pair of light shorts over the top and a t-shirt, this hides the layer of fat revealed by the compression top!

Wouldn't bother with anything else like gloves or anything, but that's me.

Your running background will see you right in terms of cardio/endurance, I'd maybe do a little upper body work to ensure you at least have a shot at stuff like monkey bars etc...
Anything else your team-mates will be able to help you over/through the obstacles.

Cheers for your info Itchy..

In regards to the Adidas Boost, did you mean just avoid them for the Mudder or as a runner all together?? I've been running on them for over a year now and they suit me perfectly, especially my old knees, I tried a few pair of shoes back to back and these were by far the most suitable for me. But like tyres, runners can be an very individual taste. But as for the Mudder, you raise some good points I hadn't considered with shoes and those trainers in the link look good!

I already have some Skins (well knock offs) so will definitely use them, and I won't bother with gloves either, once they were wet, they'd be a right PITA.

After the City2Surf I absolutely plan to include upper body work in my training, Mudder have a couple of good training programs to follow and I get free use of the gym while I'm out here offshore too.

Thanks again for your input Itchy, much appreciated!