It's a busy time for me with the 'soft' opening of RCC gym. Which basically means my PT clients, RGC golf members and Riffa Views residents are now allowed to use the gym without one-to-one training. A big part of me is relieved to have other people in the gym while the there is a small part of me that will miss the exclusive 1-to-1 atmosphere of a training studio. I have had some incredible results with people over the past year and i believe one of the reasons is that my clients genuinely relished the training environment - something i think is missing from modern day 'social' gyms.
Putting Shaun through his paces ...Could i train my guys like this in a modern gym?
Modern gyms target the social experience of training, not the work ethic
So with a heavy heart, RCC turns into a public gym - and I am committed to keeping it as 'kick-ass' as allowed. There have already been enquiries about the lack of TV screens on the cardio equipment, i will bite my tongue and soldier on!
In today's blog i'm going to actually write a training program. A few people had begin to notice that none of my blogs so far had actually been about exercises in the gym (well maybe one)
RCC-1
The first real training program i will give you is called RCC-1. As you can imagine i was up all night thinking of a title (not really) and came up with this. As it the first program, it shall be about the basics and will need little or no equipment to complete. So there are no excuses when it comes to doing it.
Warm up
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 20 years (or trotting away on a treadmill watching tv shows) you should know by now that you need to warm up before exercise. Im not talking about a "shrug of the shoulders, deep breathe and clap your hands" warm up... Im talking about a structured sequence that targets:
a) Every plane of motion (Frontal, Sagittal, Transverse)
b) The muscles you are going to use in the session
c) Corrective exercises for your individual issues
d) Pulse raising to prepare for rest of the session
Yes, thats a warm up ladies and gents... that may look and sound like a whole session, buts its not.
World Class athletes will spend 30-60 minutes preparing for top level matches
Go to any high level (or sometimes lower level) sporting contest and you will see the teams go through a planned, extensive warm up. These teams know that each person must be fully prepared to hit the field and perform from the first minute, you should be no different in your approach to gym training.
Since I cannot write an individual warm up for everyone that will read this blog, i will assume you have:
- A desk/office job, which leads to tight hip flexors and chest which means slumped posture
- Weak core muscles because you are always on strength machines, talking on you BBM
- Mild back ache because your glutes don't fire properly (and you sit on your ass a lot)
- Generally been doing the same 3 minute x-trainer warm up and need a change to stop going insane
By the way, I write this blog fully suspended for greater core activation and to avoid bad posture :)
Warm up
- Complete 500 skips (yeah, yeah... just do it)
Perform these exercises x 1 for the reps shown:
Skipping rope dislocations - 15 reps
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/1/XUiQiFD_nu0
Fire hydrants (prone hip circles) - 10reps/side
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/JxSqPK8q6CQ
Dynamic blackburns (prone butterfly movement) - 10 reps http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/YSjcNTrwSac
Kneeling warrior stretch - 20s/side
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11?feature=mhum
Plank - 30s (yes its in the warm up... it's too easy to be a normal session, get over it)
Supine scorpion (10reps/side)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkwBObP_SsA
Curtsy lunge (10reps/side)
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/u/3/CHc3XUkTpG8
Jumping jacks (50 reps)
Activation
Just think Shoulders, Glutes and Core.
Complete a continuous tri-set (3 exercises back-to-back) for 20 seconds each = 3 minutes.
A1) Sprinters crunch http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/fM-jwo9hiiE
A2) Supine glute bridge http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/kcHQ8QvJnYM
A3) Side-to-side hand walking http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/3/6V_41EDWrKs
Main session (perform A1/A2 x 3 before moving onto B1/B2 and so on...)
A1) Side plank - 20s/side http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/agrp2YvaSBc
A2) Swing lunge - 12/side http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/ZEYUuJ2ClcI
-50 Jumping jacks-
B1) Push up-side jumps 8/side
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/x6YQKYTEguw
B2) Garhammer raise - 12 reps
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/YB7NB1DHQxs
-50 Jumping jacks-
C1) Bear crawl - 20m forward and 20m backward
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/oXQd6ARwLxg
C2) Burpees - 10 reps http://www.youtube.com/user/Nathanbahrain11#p/search/0/BRc2tPxbPWc
Finisher
Alwyn cosgrove's 'Infamous' leg finisher is perfect for ending a bodyweight session, i put my own spin on it by including a maximum set of standard push before (because im a nice guy):
1 x Max. push ups
24 x speed squats
24 x speed lunges
24 x jump lunges
24 x jump squats
....Roll around on the floor for a minute (curse me) then you're done!
More of this kind of exercise can be found on www.youtube.com/nathanbahrain11
Im spending the rest of this week filming and uploading on all the mobility exercises we use at RCC on my YouTube channel, check them out for some good, no-equipment, exercise ideas.
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