If you skim read
Dec, 2020

The workout.
Today is ” half cindy” day . That’s 10 minutes ( normally 20 minutes) of 5 pull ups (or ring rows) 10 push ups, 15 squats
Read MoreTodays workout, is in violation of our rules.
We don’t assume that you have access to a pull up bar! But today we stayed in the flat because we have a pull up bar there (with rings on). We wanted to do a version of Cindy. The Crossfit workout of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. AMRAP in 15 minutes (it should b 20 minutes, but Im 59, so I cut myself some slack now and then.)
Read MoreWell its Saturday, and day 2 out of this training block of 3 days.
Todays workout is 12 minutes of :
10 burpees, 5 dumbbell push press L, 5 dumbbell push press R
This is nastily crafted as yesterday you had the push up grind. Today you will really want to drive your hips on the push press and you’ll probably want more of a sprawl on the burpee.
Still, super compensation, aside, it was surprisingly yuk!
Enjoy.
Todays Healthy Food Option
To add more variety to this blog, I’m inviting guests into share their favourite meals. First up is a Cajun chicken dish from Fresh Fitness foods.
Chicken – P: 27.83 | C: 0.73 | F: 3 | Kcal: 141.24
Broccoli – [ P: 2.52 | C: 3.2 | F: 2.42 | Kcal: 35.66
Rice – [ P: 2.8 | C: 26.5 | F: 0.75 | Kcal: 123.5 ]
Cajun Chicken Ingredients
Method
Roasted Broccoli Ingredients
Method
Zesty Rice Ingredients
Method
If you want to try Fresh Fitness Food go here https://www.freshfitnessfood.com/ then use the discounts GABDOU10 for 10% off and GABDOU for £50 off your first order.
Have a great weekend, stay active, eat healthily, see you tomorrow, and join the mailing list
Here are some action picks from todays curry task. Everything you need to make a 4 block curry meal, with a bottle of beer.
Using yesterdays pulled chicken and some stock made from the bones, it was chicken curry time. 93g of rice (3 blocks) 120 g of chicken (4 blocks) buried in a sauce of stock and tomatoes, plus tomato puree with onions, ginger, toasted and crushed cloves, coriander, garlic, curry powder and a bit of coconut milk powder.
This sort of meant there was room for an extra 9g carb block (1 block). I sneaked in a beer at 12g of carb, so 3 g over But I knew I was going to do this so I slightly cut back a previous meal.
Nice, but I should have put a bit of chilli in. For me the ginger and clove is enough of a bit, but today it would have been better with a bit of chilli.
THE WORKOUT
An escalating ladder of 1 D/B snatch L&R, 1 push up, 5/10 V sit ups. Then 2 D/B snatch left/right, 2 push ups, 5/10 V sit ups ( 5 for kate, 10 for me.) The V sit up work stays the same each round) ( next round is 3 D/B 3 push ups)
As high up the ladder as you can as you can get in 13 minutes. Depending on the stimulus, you may want a light, medium or heavy dumbbell.
It was surprisingly disgusting .
This is day 3, so tomorrow is a rest day!
Maybe you like the idea of being a reality Tv star, or you want to meet Ant Middleton, but lots of people want to get onto programmes like SAS: Who Dares Wins and Special forces Ultimate Hell Week.
Interest in military fitness regimes has also been stoked up by books such as “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins and our relentless diet of war films.
Having been involved in the training of a few wannabe participants, chatted to a contestant who got a good way through the process, and having analysed the challenges, I thought it would be helpful to offer some general training and preparation advice.
I have a motto, stolen from an ancient greek warrior. In a crisis, you do not rise to the challenge, you sink to the level of your training. Success in these types of programs , and indeed success in applying for a position in the army, and their elite corps, requires you to be properly trained for the challenges you can anticipate.
Lower down in this article you find details of how military fitness testing goes, and the standards they expect. However, here is your take home message. To successfully survive one of these regimes, I say you need a good back ground in being “outdoors”. Do you love going for hikes in the rain and getting soaked. Do you know how to manage wet clothing. Are you ok with sleeping outside, and essentially are you ok with operating on limited sleep and getting up at 2, 3am and going for a run. Do you love camping. Would you turn down some super sex for a 10k run?
If your preparation only involves going to the gym, at sociable times, the chances are you’ll be screwed.
Let me rephrase this. You need to be able to put up with crap they don’t even have names for. Are you used to insect bites, going for a pooh in a bush, stinking and running in boots. Have you had blisters on your blisters, and can you work through the discomfort of a wet pant band working their way into your crotch.
Do you like the cold? Well you better like those morning cold showers and going out in all sorts of weather. On the plus side, getting used to the cold has benefits. A few years ago, “Thermal loading” was all the rage!
There is another type of training you should consider. It’s mindset. Doing a lot of mindset work would probably help; learning how to break big tasks into little task: it may be 4 am in the morning, you may have run 8 miles, you may be at the end of your tether but, maybe you can get to that tree thats 50m away. Ok, now let’s try that house 40m away. Not letting the enormity of the task overwhelm you is important.
This involves dealing with fear The science fiction fans amoung you will recall this monologue from Dune
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
To be successful you probably need to distinguish the difference between fear and recognising danger. Fear is often described as False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is an impractical emotion. Recognising danger and taking appropriate action is good. Being paralysed by fear isn’t.
Lord Moran, ( Winston Churchill’s physician, and a trench doctor in WW1) said “Courage is a moral quality; it is not a chance gift of nature like an aptitude for games. It is a cold choice between two alternatives, the fixed resolve not to quit; an act of renunciation which must be made not once but many times by the power of the will. Courage is willpower.” (The Anatomy of Courage).
This is part of working out how you think . Are you already looking for your excuse, or are you thinking, “I’m going to give this 100%”. Having a victim mentality can quickly bring your performance to an end. Combating a perfectionist mindset is also part of the magic. You’ll be slower and feel like you cannot succeed. Ignore that and just continue.
It’s worth remembering that 90% fail (the real) SAS selection, and most of these simply give up. The instructors rarely have to fail people.
The last thing you need to prepare for is lack of sleep. This is truly awful. Here are the consequences of not sleeping (Ref):
Humans can bear several days of continuous sleeplessness, but it screws everything. It may lead to deteriorated functioning, impaired perception, reducing concentration, vision disturbances, slower reactions, as well as lower capabilities and efficiency of task performance and to an increased number of errors.
It screws with your thinking which means wrong decisions, and emotional disturbances such as deteriorated interpersonal responses and increased aggressiveness.
Being woken up at 2 am to do a run or burpees is really, really awful. It is however a reality that soldiers at times need to operate in a sleep deprived state. There are some interesting tips and hints here but, it seems that you’ll need to set yourself some middle of the night exercise sessions. “Exposing soldiers to fatigue in a training environment teaches them how it affects them and their performance. Learning the consequences in a protected environment will help them identify the issues caused by sleep deprivation, so that they can know how deal with them before reaching combat. Likewise, understanding why you’re tired can help you power through the day”(National Sleep Foundation)
If you are from a farming background, you probably have some experience of sleep disturbing work like lambing, milking and chasing poachers. I knew a financial broker who got up to trade at 3am. I think after a few years he went a bit mad: but that could have been the drugs and the booze.
David Goggins, the navy seal, suggested an interesting task. It’s called a 4x4x48. In other words you go for a 4 mile run every 4 hours for 48 hours. That will give you a very good idea of what sleep deprivation feels like, although, I’d start at something like 2 x 4 x 12, and build up!
So, thats the background . What follows are the physical tests along with some official guidance from the military like this US Navy Seal training guide. Download and read it. Its free and useful
With these points in mind, you need to prepare for the actual standards. Either you have the knowledge to develop an effective training regime to master these, or you need a PT /or a coach
I say you should not only be familiar with these challenges. You should do them, often, as part of your training. I think you should see these as the absolute minimum standards. Whilst I’m not sure, I’d prepare to do these tests with boots on.
The Royal Marines’ Pre-Joining Fitness Test allegedly involves completing two 2.4km runs on a treadmill that is set to a 2% incline. The first run must be completed in less than 12 minutes 30 seconds. You will then have a one-minute break before completing the second run in under 10 minutes and 30 seconds. This time is the absolute minimum requirement, and the expectation is that you will record the best time possible. You can use this chart to assess where you are
There are 4 body weight challenges. You should aim to ace them all. Why would you humiliate yourself on TV if you can only do 10 push ups if you know that 60 is the standard.
The pool assessments include jumping off a high diving board (3m) in normal swimming kit and swimming a maximum of 4 lengths (approx 100m) of breast stroke followed by retrieving a brick from the bottom of the pool which is 3m deep. Train these skills. That brick retrival can be tricky. Learn to swim outdoors, in the cold, in clothes. For God sake have a life guard nearby. I think there are some outdoor swimming places like this one in the Royal docks in East London.
To train these, you’d better be a regular at your local Tough Mudder or Spartan Race. You need a t-shirt that says “I do love an obstacle race”. As I have said else where, if you don’t like getting wet, feeling cold, being woken up in the middle of the night, you really don’t want to apply for one of these programs, or the actual army for that matter. Familiarity with rope climbing and ab-sailing can probably be obtained at your local climbing centre. In the East End we have the Mile End Climbing wall
If you want to apply to be on SAS Who Dares Wins click here
If you are insane enough to want to do this, feel free to ask me for some in real life (if you are in the East End of London) or Online PT sessions.Click here
There are a lot of very dull, unimaginative push up regimes on the internet. My aim is to get you 100 push ups in, about, 6 weeks.
For the purposes of the first part of this this post, Im going to assume you can do 10 strict push ups in one go. (If you have none, skip further down)
The 1st thing i need you to do is to do a test, one today, one tomorrow. today I want you to attempt the most continuous push ups you can. Record it.
Tomorrow, I want you to attempt as many push ups as you can in 2 minutes . You can take as many breaks as you like, you can do lots of singles. Does not matter. Just do as many as you can in 2 minutes.
This gives you an interesting base line to begin with.
For now, you have two alternating protocols to follow
1) Without being too prescriptive, I need you to get to 10 sets of 10 push ups, with no more than 90 seconds rest. At this stage, this means, shooting for 10 reps, then resting for 90 seconds, so the reps could look like this.
10, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 6, 8.
2) 3 sets of maximum push ups. go down and do as many push ups as you can, rest 2 minutes, then do it again 2 more times.
So, do 1 on day 1, 2 on day 2, then a rest day. then 1 and 2 again.
That should get you started for now.
BUT WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO PUSH UPS. Ive seen lots of people with no push ups struggling on “box” and knee versions. Whilst they are interesting if you are really really weak, i have never seen anyone successfully get a full push up by using these shortened versions. The 2 best techniques to use are the eccentric phase and Isometrics. Put simply, get into the top of a push up, and lower yourself down as slowly as you can. Do this 4 or 5 times with 60 seconds rest ( more if you need it.). Then while lying on the floor, try and push yourself up. Put as much effort in as you can, and push for 7 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds and go again. ( say 4 times). You may not move, but you are building the specific strength to do so.
The old favourite push up test. Loved by some hated by many. This is supposed to be the amount of push ups you can do before exhaustion. Surprisingly this is not chest to floor, but elbows to 90 degree.
Allegedly, those with weaker upper body strength, can drop their knees to the floor and test from there
Age | 17-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-65 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Excellent | > 56 | > 47 | > 41 | > 34 | > 31 | > 30 |
Good | 47-56 | 39-47 | 34-41 | 28-34 | 25-31 | 24-30 |
Above average | 35-46 | 30-39 | 25-33 | 21-28 | 18-24 | 17-23 |
Average | 19-34 | 17-29 | 13-24 | 11-20 | 9-17 | 6-16 |
Below average | 11-18 | 10-16 | 8-12 | 6-10 | 5-8 | 3-5 |
Poor | 4-10 | 4-9 | 2-7 | 1-5 | 1-4 | 1-2 |
Very Poor | < 4 | < 4 | < 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Age | 17-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-65 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Excellent | > 35 | > 36 | > 37 | > 31 | > 25 | > 23 |
Good | 27-35 | 30-36 | 30-37 | 25-31 | 21-25 | 19-23 |
Above Average | 21-27 | 23-29 | 22-30 | 18-24 | 15-20 | 13-18 |
Average | 11-20 | 12-22 | 10-21 | 8-17 | 7-14 | 5-12 |
Below average | 6-10 | 7-11 | 5-9 | 4-7 | 3-6 | 2-4 |
Poor | 2-5 | 2-6 | 1-4 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1 |
Very Poor | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
There isn’t a decent home or gym routine that doesn’t have push ups in. Many strong men of old insisted on them daily, getting clients to progress from floor pushups to between chairs to get that extra range of motion.
In my “Andrew Stemler Fit at Home” regime, I say, Do them everyday . Make them a daily habit.