FK.DW 040709

Last day of strength testing (Hooray I hear you cry). It also happens to be FK.UK's owner and moderator Chet's birthday today so Many Happy Returns to him.

The bench press is an exercise that is often eschewed in functional fitness circles as being of the domain of the bodybuilder and not truly functional at all. It is, however, a great pushing exercise that strengthens the whole posterior chain when done correctly with a full range of motion and correct body positioning and is worth using in a workout, even rarely.

Saturday 4th July 2009

Buy In

General Warm-up and warm-up reps

Strength/Skill

Front Squat Max Attempts

Bench Press Max Attempts

Conditioning

5 Rounds for time:

Run 400m

25 GHD Sit-up

25 Back Extension

If you don't have access to a GHD/Roman Chair do full range sit-ups and either good mornings or supermans as a substitute.

Cash Out
2 x Wall Toss test
30 seconds

Post weights, times and any comments or questions to the discussion topic found here.

Have fun!

FK.DW 030709

Today's testing is slightly different in that we will be looking at the two major Olympic lifts (the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk). For these, instead of the usual build up to a max effort, we are going to limit the number of lifts to 5 singles of each because fatigue will quickly affect each of the lifts and with poor technique comes a heightened possibility of injury.

If you are not experienced in the Olympic lifting then we strongly suggest you check out the official British Weightlifter's Association site to find a qualified coach near you to teach you the basic movements. If that is not possible then there are some excellent videos available over on the Catalyst Athletics resources site that will help you out.

Friday 3rd July 2009

Buy In

General Warm-up and warm-up reps

Strength/Skill

Pulls-ups max reps on a single attempt (Kipping is allowed)

Snatch 5x1

Clean and Jerk 5x1

Conditioning and Cash Out

100 Rope jumps

30 Double unders

100 Rope jumps

Post weights, times and any comments or questions to the discussion topic found here.

Have fun!

FK.DW 020709

Continuing on with our Strength testing protocols, this time looking at the Deadlift and the press-up. Instructions for the protocols can be found here, along with a link to a calculator to determine your 1 rep max from your 3 rep max lifts if needed.

Thursday 2nd July 2009

Buy In

General Warm-up and warm-up reps

Strength/Skill

Deadlift Single Rep Max testing

Press-ups max reps on a single attempt

Conditioning

Swim 1000m or Cycle 5000m

(if you can't do either - 5KM run)

Cash Out

Hand Stand practise - 1 minute total inversion

Use a wall if necessary.

Post weights, times and any comments or questions to the discussion topic found here.

Have fun!

FK.DW 010709

So here it is, the inaugural FK.UK Daily Workout. Hopefully you are all as excited to do these workouts as we are to create them.

The first week is taken up by testing protocols to give you (and us) a good baseline from which to gauge scaling and to give you some numbers to aim to beat as you improve in your training. Detailed instructions can be found in an earlier post (here) so it is strongly suggested you read that before commencing.

Buy In

General warm-up followed by warm-up sets of the exercises below

Strength/Skill

Back Squat Single Rep Max testing

Press Single Rep Max testing

Conditioning

For time

Run 400m

30 Pull-Ups

40 Press-Ups

50 Squats

60 Sit-ups

Run 400m

The idea of this one is to induce a change in muscular endurance in addition to any metabolic conditioning effect. To that end, you want the workout to take between 7 and 10 minutes to complete so scale the reps on the calisthenics accordingly so you finish within that domain.

Cash-Out

Dot drills - Hopscotch x 4, hopscotch with twist x 4, skier x 4

(examples of the above dot drills can be found here (link is safe for work/family. A simple Dot board can be drawn on the floor using chalk or marked out with tape)

Post weights, times and any comments or questions to the discussion topic found here.

Have fun!

Introducing the FK.UK Daily Workout

FK.UK, Britain's fastest growing and best functional fitness site is proud to announce that starting Wednesday we will be bringing you an FK.UK Daily Workout.

The format will be designed so each workout takes roughly an hour to complete, sometimes less, rarely longer and will encompass a buy in phase, a strength or skill based section followed by a conditioning routine and then some relatively easy challenges to act as a cash-out. There is no prescribed warm-up, do whatever you feel you require to get you ready to perform. We will be incorporating activities like cycling and swimming in addition to the running/rowing we all currently perform, but substitutions will be posted in the event that you don't have access to a pool or bike.

The regular schedule will be 2 on, 1 off, 3 on, 1 off with the rest days as active rest meaning you do something less strenuous like flexibility work or some accuracy drills. This schedule is altered slightly for the first week to reflect the mid-week nature of the start (and the fact that Wednesday would normally be the designated rest day)

The Workouts should be posted the lunchtime the day prior to their completion in order that you can hopefully arrange to have the required equipment (so you could also do them ahead of time if you wished). Potential equipment (not mandatory obviously) includes sand bags, tyres, sledge hammers and the like in addition to the regular barbells, pull-up bars, rings and ropes but substitutions will be suggested in case you don't have access to these tools.

Scaling will be incorporated into the workout and each conditioning routine will have a goal effect which will determine how you scale. For example, if we want to work on a purely metabolic level we would have a workout that lasts 5 minutes or less at high intensity; a conditioning routine looking for muscular endurance might be scheduled to last anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes. You can scale reps or weights as you see fit based on recommendations from our team of trainers so that you finish in the time domain required.

The first workout will be posted on Tuesday for Wednesday. The first week involves max effort testing to determine the 3 or 1 rep max (depending on training history and experience) for use in scaled workouts. This will be re-evaluated on a regular basis.

Obviously you don't have to follow the DW, there are many other fine workouts you could do instead, we just felt it was high time this site started to post a workout so we can compare notes and create a workout regime that hopefully fits all members needs.

This blog site will have detailed workout descriptions and a discussion topic for each will be created over on the FK.UK boards so we can discuss the workout and compare results. If you aren't already a member of the boards then follow the link to create an account.