- "As for GAINZmaking, everybody knows its difficult to build upon, or even maintain, GAINZ during the holiday season. All those unhealthy but tantalizing foods really take their toll. The ensuing food coma doesn't help at all either. And besides the foods, time for most people is usually at a premium so hitting the gym may become less of a priority. The best advice we can offer for limiting "ANTI-GAINZ Season" is to 1) dedicate time, no matter how little, for making some legit GAINZ and 2) doing your best to "catch up" after the madness is over (...its not really madness but you know what I mean...).
Step 1 is pretty obvious, and I'm sure sounds a tad douche-baggy. But c'mon, you know you have to put in work, so I have to say it. Step 2, however, is a bit more subtle because it requires more than a pitiful attempt at a New Year's resolution of the GAINZish variety. Catching up requires going into overdrive until you reach your pre-ANTI-GAINZ Season fitness level. This is harder than it sounds; not being able to run as far or fast, or lift as much or as explosively, as before is very discouraging. But the cool (kewl: for the youngsters) thing about GAINZ is that you get what you put in to it (yes, a stupid cliche, but true). Its like a 1:1 ratio....put in x amount of legit time and effort making GAINZ, get out x¹ legit GAINZ. Simple, fair formula. So the key is not to get discouraged when trying to get back into shape because the results will come (sooner than you think) as long as you follow the steps. And by gosh, feel free to conjure up some will power to at least mitigate the damage from A-Gz Season."
The second piece of scripture that Bode's article reminded me of is actually a three-part series intended to show you all that GAINZ can be made while traveling (even during the Holidays). Check out the first two parts here and here. I've copied and pasted the third part below since it is f'ing awesome and I'm not ashamed to say as much (and it's not too long). Simply linking to it wouldn't do it justice. Enjoy!
******************* Originally posted January 14, 2008 *****************************
Well folks, I kept my word. I made some sick GAINZ during my weekend foray into the arctic-like wilderness. Keep in mind I didn't use any weights....just my resistance bands, my imagination, and my sheer determination. Here's the transcript:
- Stretch legs good and deep for impending explosive leg workout. Warm up by jumping rope.
- Begin explosive leg workout by performing ten reps of side jumps (jumping as high as you can to your left, then back to your right, repeat). The goal here, as for the rest of the explosive stuff, is power, speed, height, and force. Literally jump as high, fast, and powerfully as you can. Nothing else matters. Weight(s) do not matter. In essence, you're training your mind as much as you're training your legs because you want your movements EXPLOSIVE. That means your muscles must move as fast as possible, the signal of which comes from your cranial gooo.
- Continue explosive leg Perry'alysis with 10 reps of regular two-footed high jumps. Start with your legs bent in a squat position and explode up as fast and high as possible. Land softly and repeat. In total, I performed three sets of the side jumps that are explained above, with two sets the regular two-footed jumps mixed in between. This may not sound like a lot, but it really is because its EXPLOSIVE. Reps and sets don't matter much in explosive training because once you get even a little tired, you lose explosion and the exercise becomes moot, even worthless.
- Get ill with 180-reverse-jumps. 3 sets per side, 4 reps. Basically what you do here is jump as high as you can while performing a 180 degree turn (reverse). I did these by jumping over a trash can.....it was sick. I'm glad my friends were out snowboarding because I would have scared them with my intensity. I remember saying this a lot: "HIGH....FAST.......IF YOU AIN'T DOING THAT, YOU AIN'T MAKING GAINZ!!" I also do these jumps with a forward (clever) twist, but I happened to be on reverses for this session.
- End explosive legs with alternating lunge jumps. Here, I assume a lunge position, explode up, switch leg positions in mid-air, land, then repeat for 12 total reps. Did 3 sets. Got ill. Don't hate the GAINZ-MAKER, hate the game.
- Proceed to shred core. Did 20 regular crunches, followed by 20 obliques crunches per side. Followed that up with 15 full leg-lifts. Followed that up with 10 push up-crawls......basically start a push up by descending, as you bring your right knee to your right elbow, push up, repeat with left knee to left elbow. Then I performed a bridge for 40 seconds (usually I do this on the swiss ball, but I digress). Oh yeah, then I did the core routine again (that's 2 sets per, Pythagorus).
- Now here's where the real fun begins...pull out the resistance bands and get straight ILL! For chest I did presses and flyes.
For delts I did lateral and front raise supersets, as well as rear-flyes. For arms I did biceps curls and triceps extensions. I continued with core too with oblique twists. (Stayed away from legs since I already did the explosive stuff). By the way, I jumped rope for 30 seconds between all sets to keep my heart-rate up. Thanks, Terrell.
The whole workout took about an hour. I think I might have done some other stuff like one-legged hops, but I'm not sure when.....the training got too intense to think clearly. But as this post intended to prove, GAINZ can be made anywhere, anytime. Heck, I could have called it a day after the explosive legs and core workout. But, I really like the resistance bands and will include them in my training from now on. Mama GAINZ even likes the bands...she almost cried when I told her I was taking them on my trip (yes, Wesay GAINZ lives at home, but that is another story for another day) [Editor's note: Wesay finally manned up and got his own GAINZmaking pad a while ago]. Final point: train hard, eat right, make GAINZ (anywhere, anytime), get resistance bands!!
****************************END**********************************************
See, that wasn't so bad. The combination of our scripture and Bode's article provides you with the gameplan and motivation to make GAINZ during these trying times (funny how I'm acting like the Holidays are terrible or someting, but you get the point). Now go out there and perform! Just be sure not to scare friends or family with your intensity....remember, the it's the Holidays!
- Begin explosive leg workout by performing ten reps of side jumps (jumping as high as you can to your left, then back to your right, repeat). The goal here, as for the rest of the explosive stuff, is power, speed, height, and force. Literally jump as high, fast, and powerfully as you can. Nothing else matters. Weight(s) do not matter. In essence, you're training your mind as much as you're training your legs because you want your movements EXPLOSIVE. That means your muscles must move as fast as possible, the signal of which comes from your cranial gooo.
- Continue explosive leg Perry'alysis with 10 reps of regular two-footed high jumps. Start with your legs bent in a squat position and explode up as fast and high as possible. Land softly and repeat. In total, I performed three sets of the side jumps that are explained above, with two sets the regular two-footed jumps mixed in between. This may not sound like a lot, but it really is because its EXPLOSIVE. Reps and sets don't matter much in explosive training because once you get even a little tired, you lose explosion and the exercise becomes moot, even worthless.
- Get ill with 180-reverse-jumps. 3 sets per side, 4 reps. Basically what you do here is jump as high as you can while performing a 180 degree turn (reverse). I did these by jumping over a trash can.....it was sick. I'm glad my friends were out snowboarding because I would have scared them with my intensity. I remember saying this a lot: "HIGH....FAST.......IF YOU AIN'T DOING THAT, YOU AIN'T MAKING GAINZ!!" I also do these jumps with a forward (clever) twist, but I happened to be on reverses for this session.
- End explosive legs with alternating lunge jumps. Here, I assume a lunge position, explode up, switch leg positions in mid-air, land, then repeat for 12 total reps. Did 3 sets. Got ill. Don't hate the GAINZ-MAKER, hate the game.
- Proceed to shred core. Did 20 regular crunches, followed by 20 obliques crunches per side. Followed that up with 15 full leg-lifts. Followed that up with 10 push up-crawls......basically start a push up by descending, as you bring your right knee to your right elbow, push up, repeat with left knee to left elbow. Then I performed a bridge for 40 seconds (usually I do this on the swiss ball, but I digress). Oh yeah, then I did the core routine again (that's 2 sets per, Pythagorus).
- Now here's where the real fun begins...pull out the resistance bands and get straight ILL! For chest I did presses and flyes.
For delts I did lateral and front raise supersets, as well as rear-flyes. For arms I did biceps curls and triceps extensions. I continued with core too with oblique twists. (Stayed away from legs since I already did the explosive stuff). By the way, I jumped rope for 30 seconds between all sets to keep my heart-rate up. Thanks, Terrell.The whole workout took about an hour. I think I might have done some other stuff like one-legged hops, but I'm not sure when.....the training got too intense to think clearly. But as this post intended to prove, GAINZ can be made anywhere, anytime. Heck, I could have called it a day after the explosive legs and core workout. But, I really like the resistance bands and will include them in my training from now on. Mama GAINZ even likes the bands...she almost cried when I told her I was taking them on my trip (yes, Wesay GAINZ lives at home, but that is another story for another day) [Editor's note: Wesay finally manned up and got his own GAINZmaking pad a while ago]. Final point: train hard, eat right, make GAINZ (anywhere, anytime), get resistance bands!!
****************************END**********************************************
See, that wasn't so bad. The combination of our scripture and Bode's article provides you with the gameplan and motivation to make GAINZ during these trying times (funny how I'm acting like the Holidays are terrible or someting, but you get the point). Now go out there and perform! Just be sure not to scare friends or family with your intensity....remember, the it's the Holidays!
Yours in GAINZ,
-Wesay GAINZ
No comments:
Post a Comment