The New Dragan

Dragan

Right so.

This is the new journal to follow on with my work on the Workout of the Week. Those workouts will be coming thick and fast and you can do them if you want to. I suggest you do at least one a week. When it comes to choosing which one to do then I suggest you do the one that is the LEAST appealing to you. Explore your weaknesses, it's interesting and you will learn a lot about yourself.

If I ask someone with a great deadlift to do a tough DL session they will do it in an impressive manner and everyone will be impressed. If I ask them to do a tough circuit like "The Grind" for 5 rounds for time and push them all the way then I can guarantee they will walk away asking themselves some questions. They will feel weak and uncomfortable with that feelings. Inadequate rest times will have robbed them of strength, the grow fatigue will rob them of willpower. They will be in unknown country, and they haven't even seen the bats yet.

Now then, below is Day 1. I performed this yesterday. As a quick aside on the whole overtraining argument I perfromed this yesterday after setting new Personal Bests in the Push Press, the Power Clean, and the Bench Press ( while fatigued ) on Saturday. On Friday I rested, on Thursday I did a horrible Tag Team Workout, on Wednesday I did a manky deadlift session and on Tuesday I had done last weeks workout of the week. The take home argument here is that your body can do a lot, if you ask it, and as long as you are structuring the work the right way it will adapt and grow stronger. Do 10 Max Effort days in a row and you'll die, do an ME day, a circuit day, and endurance day, an accumlation day, a power day and come back to ME again and you will be stronger for it.

My knew mantra is "I am not made of glass."

You will get a lot from the WOW's and the Workouts posted here if you give them a lot. If you run at them headfirst and let the strength of your efforts carry you then improvements will come thick and fast.

Now then, Circuit training has been around for years, and has been studied pretty heavily since the 1950's by various people. Many of the idea's and phrases you will see here are lifted from www.gymjones.com and www.crossfit.com . When i take a workout from them verbatim then i will say so, but everything else is developed in the way i want to stress the human body. Think of this as a live experiment. So, are you in, or are you out?

So, down to business!

The What :

Workout Type : Accumulation
Day : Sunday

REST : 5 mins between parts.

Part 1 :
20-15-10 reps of
Single Arm Dumbell Snatchs (20% of BW - split between arms)
Staggered Push Ups on a Plate*
Hanging Knee Raises
Deadlifts ( 80% of BW)

For TIME!!!

* Start with left hand on a plate in front of you, do a push ups, switch hands at full extension then do a push up with right hand on the plate.

Part 2 :
Tabatha Squats 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest for 8 intervals.
Record Lowest Score( lowest number of reps in one interaval )

Part 3 :
Min by Minute Dip Ladder.
In the first minute do 1 Dip, in the second minute do 2, in the 3rd do 3 etc - take full rest when not working. Record score.

The Why:

An Accumalation workout is basically a small collection of mini workouts combined together. They are clearly and specifically laid out to enduce "goal pressuse". You know what you need to do, you know you get to rest, you will give it everything you have. The aim is to give the body a pounding at the start, today the goal was PC and Core and man this took a hammering. After that legs were in for it. Hamstrings should get worked though part one, but part two calls for lots of quads and glutes as well, so these should compensate for fatigued hamstrings.
Part 3 is attacking one particular bodyweight exercise, the dip. By this point your energy is low but the bodypart you are using, while being called into play on the Push Ups, is warmed up ( bet you were wondering why push ups were in there ) but should not be fatigued. This is the last section, on a fresh bodypart. You should be hammering it out. These ladders are no fun. They seem easy, until you realise you probably rest a lot more during your "normal" sets than you should, or maybe more than you need.
Everything that gets hit today gets worked hard. Heart rate should be through the rook after part one, lungs should be burning after part two and sense of acheivement should be heightened after part 3.
Today is a rest day for me, Endurance for those who don't want to rest.
If you feel the need to do something, if you are sticking to this system of workouts for a few weeks then either run 5k or row 3500m. The choice is yours.

Dragan

Monday :

Training Partner : T-ha
Location : Pinnacle
Goal : Just **** about

Workout :
(with a thick bar, felt weird, forearms are toast today actually - weight is plates only )
Hang Cleans 20kilos + Presses , 5 and 5 , then 2 chins
Hang Cleans 40kilos + Presses , 5 and 5 , then 2 chins
Hang Cleans 50kilos + Presses , 5 and 5 , then 2 chins
Hang Cleans 60kilos + Presses , 4 , went to adjust grip, left the bar on my legs in the ATG position and it rolled down my legs as I lost my grip causing me to fall backwards. Hilariously funny for all involved except me.
Hang Cleans 60kilos + Presses, 1 and 4 ( making up for my missed set ) , 2 chins.
Hang Cleans 40kilos, 17 reps, taking on break to readjust grip.

Dumbell Rows :
45 (12)
60 (10)
60(9)

Random Single Arm Snatches, just couldn't get 47.5! Soon.

Shoulder Presses
22.5 (12)
32.5(5 - then I lost the left dumbell backwards! TIMBER!!!! )

Ass loads of Random Chins, good powerful ones, getting my whole head above the bar.

Face Pulls and Push Ups Superset
160 face pulls for 20, push ups for 20, by 2

Thoughts :
1) Nice session with no real rhyme or reasons. Lots of training talk done, lots of mutual decisions reached about the joys of a slow lean out while maintaining performance of the vicious "cut" that we have both embraced in the past.
2) Went for a burger afterwards, which was ****ing lovely!
3) Went home and pounded a litre of milk and 32 Oreo's. Oh yes I did!!!! Doing the 300 later, so will pound on calories from now until then!!!!

Dragan

Tuesday :
“300”
25x Pull-up +
50x Deadlift @ 135# +
50x Push-up +
50x Box Jump @ 24” box +
50x Floor Wiper @ 135# (one-count) +
50x KB Clean and Press @ 36# (KB must touch floor between reps) +
25x Pull-up
300 reps total

Time : 26 mins and 32 seconds.

Thoughts :

Quite simply put this is a workout that 6 months ago I simply would not have been able to do. Mentally and physically I would have just stopped……given up. Is it a tough workout? Yes. It really is. I will provide the best breakdown I can so anyone who wants to give it a go will see that sure, it's tough, but it's doable. A few people on this site could give it a very good run indeed.

I was surprised by how well the first group of chins went. I pretty much got them out in 5 sets of 5, which for me is good work. The deadlifts, while taxing on the glutes and hams in particular were also good. I broke the 50 into two sets and knocked them out. By now though, your lungs are feeling it. Push ups were tougher but I decided to structure my efforts and knock them out in groups of 10, taking a few seconds in between to recover. My shoulders were sore from the last few days activity, but this part was still okay.

At box jumps it all went a bit pear shaped. I had the platform set to 24" and started my jumps, got to 10 and had to stop. My lungs were on fire. What the ****? Churn out 10 more and had to stop again. Then 10 more, then 8 and so on until I finally hit that final jump. These had killed me. My abs, my legs, my lungs. All burning.

Floor wipers were bad, by now fatigue had stripped me down and I was feeling tired and sorry for myself. But the end was in sight. I knocked these out as best as I could, getting groups of 10, taking a quick rest and then going again.

The KB Clean and Press had me in ribbons. Everything was hurting by now, and my lungs were just getting worse and worse. A small pool of sweat was building up on the mat under me as I churned these out, occasional dropping the weight, hands on knee's sucking in air. The end was in sight though, just one last hurdle.

The final 25 chins were the hardest thing I have ever done in the gym, plain and simple. The were done in singles. I would try for 2 and fail. My strength was gone, my endruance was gone….pretty much everything. Eventually I got through it, stumbled over to my phone and hit STOP on my stopwatch. 26 mins and 32 seconds. I was happy with my time, I was happy with my effort.

Dragan

Location : Pinnacle
Type : Deadlift 1RM Progression

60(3 x 2)
100(3 x 2)
140(3)
180(2)
220(1 – that’s a new PB!!!! By 15kilos!!!! )
140 + all chains for singles x 12

Talk about feeling happy! I was ecstatic! I was urged on by this massive dude in the called Conor! He’s a big country chap, 21 years old, 120kilos in weight and about 6 foot 5! He’s a junior strongman with a 230 deadlift and 115 shoulder press! Big strong boy!

When I did the 180 it FLEW up so I said “**** it, add on two more wheels and go for it.” So I did and it did. Needless to say I was a very happy boy!

After that I just did singles on chins, adding weight and worked my way up to 30 kilos! I failed at 35 so am happy with that as well. All in all a nice session, and I was delighted to finally get a lift that I have been thinking about for a long time!