Powered by Potatoes

I ran into an ex today from 10 years ago, and we all know that this is never an enjoyable experience.  Especially when you have just shovelled a hot potato pie and the scene of the crime is still evident all over your black sweater.  Might I add that it wasn’t just the remains of one pie, but four.  I literally looked like I had been excavating in a pastry mine.

Yes, I did consume 4 pies, in one sitting.

My colleagues and I have been preparing for our CKT with the grand master of kettlebells, Steve Cotter www.ikff.net which entails an average of 6 hours a day of high intensity kettlebell training, coupled with a series of fitness tests.  I know, a weekend in heaven, right?

Which explains the pie eating.  We are currently 5 days from the big event, and its time to super load our muscles.  When training or competing in an endurance event for longer than 90 minutes, your normal ‘energy’ stores will not sustain you and you will land up running out of gas.  You want to maximise your storage of glycogen in your muscles through carbo-loading.

It is advisable that 3 days before the event, you start to tapper your exercise and increase your carbohydrate intake to about 9-10g of carbs per kilogram of body weight and replace fats with carbs.

Carbs yield energy at a much faster rate than fat, and it is essential to ensure you maintain your energy levels and strength throughout an event of an extended period.  Carbs are thee best performance enhancing substance and best of all its completely legal.

However in my case, I have more than just the concern of sustaining my energy levels throughout the weekend.  I have a metabolism that would eat Ussain Bolts 100m record for breakfast.  Do I need to mention those 4 pies again?  I have been informed that the intensity of training we will be undergoing, will consume anything between 4000 and 7000 calories a day.  I shall be returning to Umhlanga on Monday morning in a hose pipe. I am aiming to consume at least 48 pies before my departure on Friday.

I need to up the anti.

When carbo loading it is important to remember that your meals should also include protein, as when competing not only are you flying through your glycogen stores like Sebastian Vettel on a Sunday afternoon but you are also using up excessive amounts of amino acids.

Include foods such as sweet potato, wholegrain pasta, rice, cereals, raisins, bananas, figs. Especially foods that have a high GI as they release energy at a faster rate.  Avoid fatty foods such as butters, fried foods, cheeses and desserts as you want to gain water weight and not body fat.

I also suggest you include carb concentrates like honey, jams, syrups and energy drinks to boost your intake and avoid caffeine and alcohol at all costs, as besides the fact that it wouldn’t be the most ideal set up being hungover during an endurance event but these fluids dehydrate you immensely.  Try and avoid fructose (simple carbs found in fruit) as they can give you gastrointestinal trouble and we wouldn’t want that.

Prepare your body for the stress it is going to undertake, look after your body – it is the only place you will ever live.

Most importantly best of luck to the Flux team for this weekend, I look forward to getting stronger, wiser and even more passionate about kettlebells with you all.

Two tickets to the gun show

I’m currently packing Swiss mini’s with 2mm pinfire cartridges and unfortunately sales for tickets to my gun show are not going well. Partly because I never used to hog a workout bench, and spend 40 minutes admiring my reflection, whilst flexing my biceps and playing with a dumbbell. I really should have committed myself to that challenge. After all, that’s how the Roman gladiators did it.  If it wasn’t for all those bicep curls they could never have fought off the Greek armies the way they did.

If only this was true.

If you really want to look big in a tank top t-shirt, drop the dumbbell, its isolating your muscles and head to the pull-up bar. Its the best bicep exercise known to man and builds ‘wings’ that really make you fly – believe me, if more people new the truth Red Bull would be out of business.

Pull-ups are authentic as opposed to weight lifting. When executing a correct pull-up your skeletal-muscular structure aligns naturally and forces natural power output.  After all, not long ago we were all hanging from trees and used this form of strength development to literally survive.  Pull-ups work your ‘wings’, rhomboids, traps, biceps, forearms and hands in one swift movement.

The armies of the middle ages had unbelievable strength centuries before the invention of the barbell or dumbbell. Lifters have replaced the phenomenal pull-up with exercises such as the bent over row to stimulate the same muscle groups, but humans have not evolved to execute this movement. The ‘lats’ are the largest muscle in the human torso – develop them, reap the benefits and discover your potential.

Pull-ups are awesome, they build incredible strength and look cool when you doing them, far cooler than anyone could look in a gym vest doing a bicep curl.  Once you smashing out rep after rep you will discover true feats of strength – its the oldest muscle building exercise in existence.

Whilst the humbling pull-up adds stamina and strength, as well as giving your hips and abs a great isometric workout, this exercise will too become easy.  So as anyone in the fitness and strength game know, you need to up the game.  Challenge yourself to closed pull-ups, move onto uneven pull-ups and work your way to defeating the one arm pull-up.

Moving your total body weight in one swift movement and with one arm, takes years of dedication and enormous proportional strength but teaches you physical control, gives you extraordinary co-ordination and builds unbelievable agility.

You want to sell tickets to your gun show?  Spread your wings and fly