Daily Workout: Short Bridges and Headstands and Tai Chi

Here was my workout today!
-Short Bridges: 3 sets of 60
-Headstands: 3 sets of 2 minutes
-And some bonus stuff!

Beginning...

Ending!

Hold it!

In addition, I did some clean and presses with my carry-on bag and pushups in Dallas, and did a bit of Tai Chi at the Santa Monica Pier.

In tight pants too!

Now I'm off to bed...zzzzz.....

Three In One Challenge, Week 5, Day 1: Changing It Up

After about 2 weeks of weird and funky stuff with my blog, I'm back baby (hopefully for good this time).

Without any further to do, let's check out some stat work:

Neck: 16"

Shoulders: 47.5"

Chest: 40.5"

Waist 3 inches above your belly button: 32.5"

Waist at your belly button: 32"

Waist 3 inches below your belly button: 34"

Hips at their widest point: 39.5"

Thigh 9 inches above the top of your kneecap: 23"

Thigh 6 inches above the top of your kneecap: 21"

Thigh 3 inches above the top of your kneecap: 17"

Calf at its widest point: 16"

Bicep (flexed) measure the widest point: 15"

Forearm at its widest point: 12.75"

Weight: 166 pounds

Body Fat Percentage: 5.1%

Gotta love that lighting

Thoughts: How do I keep adding weight, yet stay around the same body fat percentage?  I don't get it.  Ah well, who cares...

Today, I decided to completely change it up, and do a bodyweight "split style" routine.  A split style, for those of you who don't know, means working on one or two body parts a day, which allows for maximum muscle growth and strength.  I'm doing a routine that's based largely off of this book, entitled "Convict Conditioning."

Sexy photo

You might ask why I'm changing things up?  Well for a couple of reasons:

1.) I'm bored with my current routine.

2.) I'm in a movie!  I'm currently training for a movie called "A White Lie," which is currently in development.  For my part of the film, I have to be equally adept in the gym and on the dance floor.  For this role, I am gaining 10-15 pounds of functional, strong, dense muscle.  It's a good time.  For more information, please either message me or check out this website: http://www.sbfilms.webs.com/
Also, check out the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SBFilms?sk=info
So for this, I'm doing a bodyweight training routine.  Because of this, I'm starting out slow, so I can help adapt my joints to the rigorous pounding that my body is going to endure through all of my training, which I'm insanely excited about.  Today's workout: back and legs

Here it is:

Vertical Pulls: 3 sets: 50/71/50

Shoulderstand Squats: 3 sets: 60/62/60

Various Grip Work

Here was my other workout: 3 circuits, focusing on form.  Each exercise, when applicable, was done with a count of 2 seconds up, pause, then 2 seconds down.  When I felt the form start to deteriorate, I stopped.  

Circuit 1:

Rack Row: 8/8/8

26" Box Jump: 8/8/7 (keep in mind that these were done from a full squat, or a squat where your butt is right up against your calves).

Circuit 2:

Wide Grip Pull Up: 5/5/5

Single-Leg Bench Squat: 5/5 : 5/5 : 6/6

Circuit 3:

TRX Row: 6/7/7

TRX Lunge: 8/8 : 8/8 : 8/8

Thoughts:

Vertical Pulls:

This is a preliminary exercise meant to get the back and biceps ready for the ultimate back exercise: the one-armed pull up.

Beginning...

Ending

Shoulderstand Squat: This exercise puts more emphasis on the upper body than the lower body.  However, this exercise is meant to focus on range of motion, or ROM of the legs, as with many functional moves (such as jumps or leaps) you have to go from a full squatted position.

I'm laughing at my pain!

Don't hit yourself!

Until tomorrow!

Motivational Monday: Change it Up!

This week's M and M: change it up.  If you don't like how things are going in your life, make changes in your life.  They don't need to be big, gigantic changes; just a small change will be enough.  I did a different workout routine today; radically different than what I'm used to.  And you know what, it works (I'm gonna write about it in a bit).  Whatever kind of change you do, make sure it's purposeful, and that you learn from it, whether it works or not.  You'll be surprised what you can learn.
Enjoy today and everyday.

Workout Wednesday: Street Performers Are Jacked

Workout Wednesday coming at ya!
Here's a video demonstrated why you don't need weights to be ripped.  These guys do street shows for a living, and make good money at it by the looks of it.  Every single one of these guys is just ripped, strong, flexible and powerful.  Check it out.

For the namesake of this video, go to 6:39 and check it out.  Also, I love the guy doing the handstand pushup work. 

Three In One Challenge Week 4 Day 2: Lower Body and Sprints

Ok, so remember yesterday's post when I talked about a split routine?  Well, today was my lower body day.  Now since I can do a lot more leg work in a shorter amount of time, I decided to throw in some sprint work as well.
I did a few supersets (one exercise one right after the other) and gave myself very little rest.
Circuit 1 (Done 4 Times):
Deadlift: 10 reps @ 165 pounds
Jump Tucks: 20
Circuit 2 (Done 4 Times):
TRX Lunge Hop: 10 reps each side
TRX Hip Press: 10
Then to finish off, I did some High Intensity Interval Training on the rowing machine (which is an amazing device for getting jacked by the way):
30 seconds hard, 60 seconds easy...5 times through.
Sound easy?  Try it: you may not think so after doing it.  My legs felt like jelly after this.
Here's to tomorrow, and a day of work, filming, fasting and working out!

Three In One Challenge Week 4 Day 1: I Kick Things Up a Notch...

I'm back baby!  But rather than being all sentimental, let's get some stats in, since I was a week off.
Please keep in mind that these stats are over a course of two weeks, so there's a bit of inaccuracy.

Neck Measurement: 16”

Shoulders at their widest point: 47.5”

Chest (measuring tape right across your nipples and under your arms): 40.5” +0.25 inches

Waist 3 inches above your bellybutton: 31.5

Waist at your belly button: 31.75”

Waist 3 inches below your belly button: 34.75"

Hips at their widest point: 39”

Thigh 9 inches above the top of your kneecap: 23"

Thigh 6 inches above the top of your kneecap: 21.5"

Thigh 3 inches above the top of your kneecap: 18"

Calf at its widest point: 16"

Bicep (flexed) measure the widest point: 14.75"

Forearm at its widest point: 12.75"

Weight: 167 pounds +3.3 pounds

Body Fat Percentage: 4.8% +0.1%

Beats Per Minute: 60

Terrible lighting...

This time I'm surprised by my weight; I usually don't gain weight very well, but this made me a little happy, especially because the body fat percentage was so low.  Let's hope it stays that way.  
For my workout this week, I decided to do a bit of a split routine.  For those of you that don't know what a split routine is, a quick way of thinking about it is that you work on specific body parts on a particular day.  So if we did a three day split, it might look something like this:
Monday: Chest and Triceps
Tuesday: Abs and Cardio
Wednesday: Back and Biceps
Thurday: Abs and Cardio
Friday: Shoulders and Legs
You can use whatever kind of split system you want.
Me?  I decided to go more general, and do an upper body/lower body split.  Monday was upper body.  Here's the breakdown: I did 4 circuits, with each circuit focusing on a couple of body parts (chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, back).  A lot of these exercises used many different muscles, so in a way, it's not exclusive...either way, you'll see.
Each circuit was done 3 times through without resting.  After each circuit was done, I did one minute of jump rope.
Let's check it out:
Circuit 1 (Chest Emphasis):
Incline Dumbbell Press: 15, 10, 6 @ 45, 50, 55 pounds
TRX Atomic Pushup: 10
TRX Pushup: 15
Circuit 2 (Triceps Emphasis):

Close-Grip Bench Press: 8 reps @ 115 pounds
Rope Pulldown: 8 reps @ 85 pounds
TRX Triceps Extension: 8 reps 
Circuit 3 (Back and Biceps Emphasis):
Pull Up: 6 reps
TRX Row: 15, 10, 6
TRX Swimmers Pull: 8 reps
TRX Biceps Curl: 8 reps
Circuit 4 (Shoulder Emphasis):
TRX Incline Press: 8 reps/side
Thrusters: 8 reps @ 30 pounds
TRX I/Y/T: 5 reps each
TRX Split Fly: 5 each side
After that was done, I stretched for a good 15 minutes, mostly my hips and legs, but some shoulder work as well.  
If this photo is any indicator of my workout, I'm in for a good time come challenge day; it's two weeks away, I can't wait!

Tickets to the gun show?

Motivational Monday: Be Patient and Find the Good in Everything

I'm back!
So excited; I got an email last night around 2:30 am that said my account was fine and I was able to start posting again.  Best thing of all: no one got anything in my account.  Huzzah!
This ties directly into my M and M posting: even though I was initially frustrated about this whole "not being able to post" thing, but it gave me the opportunity to completely re-tool my workout plan for this latest challenge I'm doing.  Not only that, but I was able to take care of a lot of things that were important to me, all the while helping out friends and getting a lot of things done or on the road to being done.  So the moral of the story is: stay patient; something that you initially think is a setback could be a great opportunity.

Motivational Monday: Keep Going!

So for today's Motivational Monday, let's look at what happened yesterday: Daylight Savings Time.  Our clocks were pushed back an hour.  That throws a lot of people off, including yours truly.  I did a marathon filming session yesterday (about 10 hours), then drove home from New Jersey (about a 4 hour drive).  And on Saturday, I was going from about 7 am till about 2:30 am.  So needless to say, I'm a wee bit tired.
But regardless of that, you've got to keep going.  Did I get a bit of a slow start this morning?  Sure, but that doesn't mean that I should stop.  After a bit more sleep than normal, I got myself moving, went to work, worked out, and now I'm about to head of to a personal training session.
Bottom line: get things moving, even if you don't want to get up.

Three In One Challenge Week 2 Recap

Hey guy.  Sorry I haven't been on the ball the past few days, but I've pulled one hell of a marathon weekend.  Video below to explain.

I'm so tired!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pass out...zzzz....

Three In One Challenge Week 2, Day 4: Spartacus 1.5 and I Talk a Bit About Form

Ok, so another quick blog entry; it's been a pretty hectic week, and it's only going to get worse as the week continues.
But that doesn't mean that I'm gonna get down on a workout!  It was a bit warmer today, so I decided to work out outside and give the Spartacus 1.5 Workout another go.
Here you go:

Power!

Keep in mind that this is an advanced workout, and the reason why I created this workout was that the regular Spartacus Workout wasn't doing it to me anymore.

That being said, I decided to try and slow down and really pay attention to my form: improve my range of motion; regulate my breathing; make sure I was taking care of my shoulders.

What was the result of doing this pain-in-the-ass training?  A sweat inducing workout that had me exhausted both physically and mentally, but leaving me spiritually refreshed.

Here's to tomorrow, and the weekend of hell.

Three In One Challenge Week 2, Day 2 and 3: Double-Whammy!

So because I was restructuring things a bit with how I'm doing the workouts.  Currently everything is still in the works; tomorrow I'll have some time, so I'll be able to dabble a bit into the suggestions that y'all presented to me.  But for tonight, with a lack of time and me possibly having an ridiculously insane weekend, I'm gonna get right to it, and make it short and sweet and to the point.  But don't worry: I'll give you some eye candy very soon ;-)
Tuesday: I did my Spartacus 1.5 workout AKA Functional Spartacus Workout.  For those of you just tuning in, here's the skinny: each exercise lasts 60 seconds, with 15 seconds rest in between each one.  Once you do all 10 exercises once, rest for a couple of minutes, then go through it twice more.  Pick a moderate to light weight for your dumbbells.
Check it:

I am Spartacus!

If you feel like going for a full minute is too hard, that's fine: start with 30 seconds per exercise.  If you need to stop (as I sometimes do), feel free to take a couple of seconds to catch your breath.  This is an advanced exercise routine, so start slow.

Now for Wednesday:

I did my little TRX killer workout.  I'm starting to build up my muscle and cardiovascular endurance while allowing myself a bit more rest.  Here's what I did, 4 times:

TRX Hamstring Curl: 20

TRX Low Row: 20

TRX Lunge (Left): 20

TRX Lunge (Right): 20

TRX Pushup with a Pike: 20

The hardest art: the Pushup.  My arms, legs and core were quivering.  It was also the only exercise where I had to take some rest during my repetitions.  Not ok.  Tomorrow I'm really going to work on TRX form to see what kind of pushup would work best for me in the TRX.  This workout is also highly advanced, and if you haven't worked with someone who's a TRX Trainer, find one; they'll help you get the most out of this device.  Or you can talk to me, as I'm a certified TRX Trainer.  No really, it's true...why are you all laughing at me?

Anyway, enjoy this video of the exercises:

I'm such a cute lil' host :-)

That's all until tomorrow, when I'll hopefully have some time!  Wish me luck; I began fasting #2 tonight; hopefully it will go better than the last one!  Time will tell...

Workout Wednesday: A Man After My Own Heart!

People are copying me!
Well, not really.  But what I want you guys to check out for this edition of Workout Wednesday is what this guys does for his pushups.

I like the "Around the World"

Don't some of this look familiar...oh wait a second!

Hey I'm doing the same thing!

I have also done the side-to-side pushups, but have not recorded them.  Never tried the "Around the World" push up, but it looks interesting; very similar to the kind of stuff I do when break dancing, just a little, well, goofy.  I'll give them a shot though and let you know what I think of them.

The point is: I'm on the right track, cause others are doing the same things I am.  That makes me feel really good.  

In the meantime, enjoy!  I didn't do my Three in One Challenge blog posting yesterday, but that's because I was re-vamping it a bit.  

Stay tuned!