IRVofNorth

Pretty normal week training wise thus far.

Monday:

A1 - double clean and military press 5x5: 20kg

A2 - renegade row 5x5: 24kg

B1 - turkish get-up 1x5: 16kg

Finisher - pushups 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

also Defendo practise for 75 min

Tuesday:

A1 - double front squat 5x5: 24kg

A2 - double swing 5x5: 24kg

B1 - Windmill 1x5: 24kg

Finisher - bodyweight squats 75, 75

Wednesday:

Defendo practise 75 min

Yesterday I wanted to try longer sets on bodyweight squats, those were pretty grueling two sets. In todays Defendo practise we mostly trained punches and kicks. My training partner managed to give me a rather hard shot on the nuts. Luckily I can take comfort from the fact that his shin got hurt too since I wear a metal protective cup

Here's a picture of me doing windmill from yesterday. I looked absolutely terrified of the bell in all pictures

http://i.imgur.com/AePds.jpg

I had an okay session yesterday

A1 - Alternating military press 5x5: 20kg

A2 - 2 kettlebell bent over row 5x5: 24kg

B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5: 16kg

Finisher - Pushups: 10, 10, 10, 10, 8, 7 (I was aiming for at least 50 total)

I also measured my weight in the morning: 81,1kg. It seems I'm steadily losing about 0,5kg per week for last few weeks, which is awesome I'm just trying to eat healthy and good foods, and am not counting calories at the moment.

Today I trained in the morning. These friday workouts are a bit nasty, as I once again felt like puking after most sets. Luckily I survived without anything nasty happening. I guess I have to stop eating granola before training

A1 - 2 kettlebell Clean and squat 5x5: 24kg

A2 - 1 kettlebell snatch 5x5: 20kg

B1 - Windmill 1x5: 24kg

Finisher: bodyweight squats 50, 50, 50, 50

Those look pretty cool. I'll have to give the 50-40-30-20-10 stuff and burbees a try once I'm in better shape.

From what I've understood having your feet straight isn't all that important. The important part is having your knees go to the same direction as your toes and not letting the knees buckle inward at any point.

Personally I can't even keep a narrow stance and my feet pointing straight comfortably while squatting, so I use almost the same stance as he does in the pictures. I don't really know why, but I'm guessing my wide hips make that stance more comfortable.

Just got back from Defendo practice. It was a pretty nice one, as we went through pretty much every basic technique from punches and kicks to releases from common chokes. My concentration just wasn't all that good, as I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night, as some asshole decided to start a loud party around 2 am. Well, at least now I've bought enough ear plugs to last me through world war 3 if needed

I also remembered this cool advertisement video made by Defendo Alliance. So in case any of you are interested about what kind of a self defence system Scandinavian Defendo is, this might give you some idea

Personally I don't like crunches, especially while holding extra weight. Last time they just ended up making my lower back pain worse. Kettlebell windmills and turkish get-ups are interesting, but my shoulders tend to get tired far before my midsection. Ab wheel and various plank positions are pretty awesome. I've also had good experiences with various simple mobility drills centering around midsection. I feel they have made my core stronger in differend positions, improved mobility and reduced lower back pain.

I was wondering if other people here use finishers at the end of their workout? I've been doing simple experiementing for couple weeks and have really liked them. I mostly do them to better my conditioning and hopefully help me lose some more fat I also take a minute of rest after every set of finisher.

Currently after upper body day I do pushups, usually 10 at a time for total of 30-40 reps. I aim to do a bit more every workout and thus far I have been able to add few reps every workout. At the end of a lower body workout I've done bodyweight squats, usually 50 at a time for 150-200 reps. I first tried hindu squats, but they were way too easy and light. Regular bodyweight squats have felt far more challenging and seem to have helped strenghten the bottom position of the squat. Next I'll propably try lunges, as bodyweight squats are starting to get too easy now.

So, what finishers do you use and why? Tips and links and the like are also welcome

Okay, this is the second time I try to keep a training journal here. A little background: I've been training with various intensity for about 4 years now. During 2009 I really got into bodybuilding and hired a coach to help me. During that time I got into "best" shape of my life, meaning I weighted only 74kg (162lbs). But mentally I was a mess, as this ordeal left me with huge amount of stress, zero social life and some sort of eating disorder.

During spring 2010 I started doing kickboxing for varitation, but couldn't affort it for long. I also stopped going to the gym during the summer. During fall I trained for a brief while in mma and bjj, but all sorts of stuff happened in my life and I ended up stopping training alltogether for couple months. This year I've been training again and currently I train at home with kettlebells 4 times a week and 2 times a week in Scandinavian Defendo. Currently my goal is to go full vegan again (I'm about 90% at the moment) and learn to live and eat healthy without disordered eating patterns.

Anyway, here's my current shape, taken after training and shower today:

http://i.imgur.com/V89FC.jpg

There are some more pictures in the Post your 2011 "Before" photos here -thread

Yesterday my morning workout was:

A1 - 2 kettlebell clean and military press 1x2: 24kg, 4x5: 20kg

A2 - kettlebell renegade row 5x5: 24kg

B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5: 16kg

Finisher - Pushups 10, 10, 10, 10

In the evening I trained in Defendo for 75 minutes

Today my workout was:

A1 - Kettlebell front squat 5x5: 24kg

A2 - 2 Kettlebell swing 5x5: 24kg

B1 - Windmill 1x5: 24kg

Finisher - Bodyweight squats 50, 50, 50, 50

My grip was completely fried after yesterday, so I almost dropped the bells two times while doing swings

It feels nice to be back. I have liked browsing this forum because it has a good positive atmosphere. I'll try to be more active this time around

After seeing other peoples pictures I mustered up the courage to post my own. All these photos were taken after training today.

This is my current shape, the photos are taken in a relaxed position. I now weight about 82kg (180lbs)

http://i.imgur.com/V89FC.jpg

My best bodypart is propably my legs. They just don't have much definition at the moment

http://i.imgur.com/zFRkL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ltLom.jpg

I know there is at least some muscle under there, but i just need to get rid of the flab covering it

http://i.imgur.com/41kHK.jpg

It's been a long time since I last logged in here. For some reason I find it hard to be active on any web sites But at least I've been working out all this time, instead of just sitting on a couch

I recently hired a coach to help me complete my fat-loss goals and train me for the fire academy entrance exams which are on spring 2010. He's an omnivore, but has a positive attitude towards my veganism. I'm currently training six days a week; three days in the gym with weights and interval training, one day of kettlebells and two days with low intensity cardio. The workouts are long and hard ( ) but I'm doing them as intensily as I can. I also have a new diet plan, which brings nice varitation to the old one. I'm also taking some more supplements, like two types of creatine, zinc-citrate and magnesium-citrate.

I last measured my weight and did tape measurements on 18.04.09. This is after 10 weeks of dieting.

Weight:85.4 kg (188.3 lbs). Thus far I have lost 6.6 kg (14.6 lbs) and my weight has been stuck roughly the same last three weeks.

Belly: 89cm

Right thigh: 61cm

Right calve: 39cm

Chest: 102cm

Upper abdomen: 86cm

Shouders: 116cm

Right bicept :30cm

Neck: 36cm

I'll be doing new measurements next saturday, and there should be some change finally

another weekly update

Anyway, I have made suprising progress this week, despite not eating completely to the plan on three days and working a nasty schedule. I worked 6 days this week for 8-12 hours a day. Because of this i had to move my Thursday and friday sessions one day forward and was too exhausted yesterday to train for the full session. I'm thinking adding 2-3 more fruits to my daily plan since I've started feeling constantly hungry last few days.

I can't believe how hard it seems to be to buy rice protein. I ordered it from two stores, which after a week notified me that they had run out of it and have no idea when more is available. I've been trinking soy protein for last 5 days as "emergency backup". To much of my suprise I haven't had any problems with it. No extra stomach ache or gas at all. I's been a year since I started to get symptons from soy, I wonder if my body is starting to recover or something.

This is my current program:

Monday

A1 - Double clean and military press 5x5

A2 - Alternating renegade row 5x5

B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5 (both sides)

Tuesday

A1 - Double front squat 5x5

A2 - Double swing 5x5

B1 - Windmill/Double windmill 1x5 (both sides)

Thursday

A1 - Alternating military press 5x5

A2 - Double bent-over row 5x5

B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5 (both sides)

Friday

A1 - Double clean and front squat 5x5

A2 - Snatch/Double snatch 5x5

B1 - Windmill/Double windmill 1x5 (both sides)

I've made suprisingly much progress this week. I took the measurements today morning, as I had to leave for work early yesterday.

Weigh: 87,1 kg (192lbs), a 1,8 kg drop from last week

Tape measurements

Belly: 94cm (-1cm)

Right Thigh: 60cm (-2cm)

Right Calve: 39cm (-1cm)

Chest: 101cm (-2cm)

Upper Abdomen: 88cm

Shoulders: 115cm (-4cm)

Right bicept: 31cm (+1cm)

Neck: 37cm (-1cm)

After a week it was time for measurin again. I did lighter training this week to give my lower back and shoulders a rest. This is the plan I used:

Monday, wednesday and friday.

A1 - Hand to hand military press 3x10 (left and right): 12 kg bell (26,5 lbs)

A2 - One arm row 3x10: 16 kg bell (35 lbs)

B1 - Suitcase squat 3x12: 16 kg bells

B2 - Two arm swing 3x15: 20 kg bells (44 lbs)

I took a minute of rest between sets and concentrated on fluid motion and getting my heart rate up to pump blood all over my body. I have been walking a lot while working this week, so I didn't do much extra low intensity cardio. The new daily schedule messed up my eating two times as I accidentally ate one wrong meal and one extra meal. I also had some protein powder problems. I ordered some rice protein last week, but they didn't bother to inform me that they had run out. Then I ordered it from another shop, but their delivery is taking longer than I thought. I'll hopefully get the shipment on monday. This is why I had to improvise and eat a fruit with sprouted beans on non-training days. Still I've made improvements in my body comp

- Weight: 88,9 kg (196 lbs) another small, but steady drop

- belly: 95 cm (-1cm)

- right thigh: 62 cm (-1 cm)

- right calve: 40 cm

- chest: 103 cm (propably measured it differently last time as this change makes no sense)

- upper abdomen: 88 cm

- shoulders: 119 cm (-1 cm)

- right bicept: 32 cm

- neck: 28 cm

I'm starting the 5x5 ketlebell program on monday and I'll post more about it later. I also really need to start logging in more than once a week, as I end up rambling way too much now

I use MyProtein brand. Unfortunately the taste is a bit strong and salty. 1 dl is about 30 grams of pea protein powder, containing about 24,6 grams of protein. I ordered it from their website couple of months back. There's now a new shop in finland that sells pea protein. I don't know the brand, but might try it out someday.

I ordered some unflavored rice protein and it should be arriving tomorrow. I'll have to see what that tastes like

Things are looking up. After a month of unemployment I got a new job and I'm starting on monday I'll have to tweak my eating plan a bit, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. This also means less worry about money, so i can focus more on training and the like

Anyway, yesterday was measuring day, and I also took some tape measures this time.

Weight: 89,3kg (196,9lbs). Not much of a drop, but still improvement. Slow and steady wins the race i hope

Tape measures:

- belly 96 cm

- right thigh 63 cm

- right calf 63 cm

- chest 100 cm

- upper abdomen 88 cm

- shoulders 120 cm

- bicept 32 cm

- neck 28 cm

All measures vere done unflexed. I'll be taking all these measures once a week from now on to monitor my progress.

I'll be taking next week lightly, to allow my lower back and shoulders to recover. Then I'm moving on to the next phase of the program. It's a 5x5 program with slightly differend exercises than before. I'll be posting it as I go on. After it's over, it's back to the gym for me For next week I'll be focusing mainly on low intensity cardio, with three to four light KB training sessions. My new job contains lot of standing and some walkin, so that'll hopefully burn some calories as well

I've had problems with pea protein for a long time. The taste is unpleasant and it's hard to mask it with anything. Thus far only decent shake i've made was to blend lot of berries along the protein, which mask the taste to some degree. Worst thing I tried was adding cocoa powder. It tasted absolutely foul and I had to spit it out, and pour the rest away

I use about 1 dl of the stuff at once to get good amount of protein. On the other hand the more it is used, stronger the taste will be.. What recipes have you invented to make this stuff drinkable?

Hemp seeds and flour aren't all that expensive, but more "exotic" stuff like hemp protein can cost up to 100€ per kg.. that price is just crazy I haven't yet seen vega sold anywhere, but then again there are only very few vegan supplements or protein powders available. You can get soy protein everywhere, but I can't eat it due to food sensitivity. One company sells rice protein and there's a new shop that opened this month that sells pea protein.

My internet was down for couple of days. I did my normal workout's on monday and thuesday, and did some circuit training on wednesday. I've seen some improvement on the circuits, as it takes me almost 5 minutes less to complete it than it did when I started I've also done some foam rolling lately and it seems to have helped with my nagging back-pain a bit.

Diet-wise I'm feeling pretty good. I normally have lot of cravings for salty snacks, but I haven't felt those so much lately. I'm also feeling suprisingly full of energy despite the low calories. On the down side there are at least couple of times a day when I feel rather hungry

thanks

I wasn't familiar with stevia, so I googled around a bit. Seems like it isn't sold in Finland due to EU regulations. Apparently it hasn't been confirmed that it can't cause cancer, or something to that effect. Some websites might sell it, but at least "normal" stores don't seem to.

I've used dexterose earlier as a part of a pea protein shake, but it tastes a bit funky Today is my rest day, so I'll be trinking the shake with only protein and eat two fruits with it.

Yesterday I did circuit training again:

A - Hindu squat 25 reps

B - Fat man chin up 6 reps

C - push up plus 10 reps

D - Jumprope 100 reps

I was rather busy yesterday, so I did this workout about 45 minutes after waking up. Next time I need to drink a lot more before working out, since I felt really dehydrated after the workout.

I'm making saturday morning my official measurement day. I'm going to take my weight on an empty stomach and some measurents. This time I only weighted myself since I didn't have much time. Weight: 89.8kg (198lbs)! I know that most of it is probably water, but I'm on the right track

Saturdays are also my cheat days, so I cooked some spinach lasagna and thrive diet banana pie with my girlfriend. It's a bit brown due to the hemp flour, but it was delicious!

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6691/piirakka0120proswa6.jpg

Today is my rest day, so I'm just going to focus on active recovery. Take a long walk or two, stretch and do some foem rolling. I don't have a official foam roller, so I'm using a meter long bit of a sewer pipe for the same thing

I'm also trying to lose weight at the moment. I'm currently weighning 92kg (202 lbs) and my goal is to lose at least 10kg (22 lbs), preferably 15kg (33lbs). Making meal plan might be a annoying, but there are some websites that can be a big help. Personally I use a site called Kalorilaskuri.fi, but since it's in finnish that won't do you much good There's a site called fitday that was advertised on t-nation few days ago. It's supposed to be a good online food log and it's free too. You might want give it a look.

There's some good basic guidelines to dieting. Personally I tried to minimize eating rice, pasta and bread. Eat fresh food and as little processed food as possible. Fat isn't the devil, so eat some nuts daily too For protein reguirements I was aiming to at least 1g per kg, but easily ended up getting lot more than that. My eating and training plans can be found in my training blog here.

work hard and best of luck to you're training

A1 - double kettlebell front squat 4x5: 20kg (44 pounds)

A2 - double kettlebell swing 4x5: 20 kg

B1 - Windmill 4x5: 20 kg, both left and right side

I do the squats to parallel, since if I go lower my back begins to round. Pretty good workout, it was also my first time using 20 kg bell for the windmill, but it wasn't very hard after all My lower back has been a bit stiff lately, probably from sitting so much

Being eating according to plan for two days now. I noticed I had trouble remembering which meals I had already eaten so I printed a excel sheet so I could mark the meals down

I've been working out at Nääshalli for half an year but I'm thinking of going to Wolf as well. Next week I'll see how it's like there as me and my friend are taking the free "tour" there.

 

Now I've been slacking of doing mostly cardio at home or went to Nääshalli and visited Fressi once this week as they gave a free one day ticket to me the other day.

 

Hey, maybe if I'm changing to Wolf we could become training buddies?

Wolf is a pretty amazing place. It's pretty large and there's lots of free wights and machines and it's not usually too crowded. I've always trained alone this far, but being training partners might be fun I'll just have to see how the job hunting goes.

Thanks for the very warm welcome

 

Actually I live in Tampere too If I remember right you're also member of the Vegan Fitness group in IRC-gallery? I've been lurking there for some time, but almost never post anything

OMG! Just checked out your profile and all that. Great stuff!

 

In which gym are you working out?

I used to go to Kuntokeskus Wolf, but I've been working out at home after the bike accident. I'm currently unemployed, but after I get a job I'll start going to Wolf again. It's a pretty awesome place

I read you're journal here, but couldn't figure out what gym you go to? It seemed bit like Wolf, but I'm not sure

Wow, that's and absolutely amazing physique

I'll jump on the 5x5 bandwagon too. I've mostly used either full body or upper-lower split.

The Waterbury inspired 5x5 program has been most effective strenght-wise for me. I did three full body workouts per week with three compound and two isolation movements per day. This was brutally effective in getting my squat and deadlift numbers up, but also burned me out so fast that I had to take it easy end recover every fourth week.

Hi, I am also dieting and have similar stats and goals. I think your diet looks solid but I hope you will vary the food some since 12-24 weeks on beans can be hard.

Very true I'm trying to get some varitation on the foods using differend spices and some sauces from the Thrive Diet book. Sprouting also helps, as the beans taste more fresh and sprouting supposedly removes some of the gas producing stuff from beans.

Yesterday I did some circuit training, since the streets are currently way too icy and slippery to go jogging.

A - Hindu squats 25 reps

B - Fat man pull-ups 6 reps (I really suck at pull-ups so these gave me hard time )

C - Push up plus 10 reps

D - Jump rope 100 reps

I took 30 seconds of rest between sets and 2 minutes after each circuit. I repeated the circuit 5 times. I don't really know anything about making up these kind of work-outs but at least this seemed effective. Jump rope gets my heart rate through the roof and I felt like goughing up a lung after the last circuit

Today I did the kettlebell clean & press and renegade row with my 20 kg bells and tgu with 16 kg bell. It was my first time using 16kg bell on tgu, but it was easier than I had anticipated.

Here's my breakfast today, some green tea and salsa

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7002/salsa0120prossv0.jpg

Thanks for the very warm welcome

Another one from Finland! Robert, soon we'll need our own section from the forum. lol

 

Welcome here mate, don't worry about veganism, just listen to your heart and it'll work out eventually. You know, not even Rome was built in a day. I'm sure you already know this but starting a routine is always tough and needs time and so even beginning a vegan diet needs time to adjust yourself into.

 

And here's a vegan 21-year-old girl from Finland. I'd love to know from which city/town are you from.

Actually I live in Tampere too If I remember right you're also member of the Vegan Fitness group in IRC-gallery? I've been lurking there for some time, but almost never post anything