During the month of May I decided to include (at least) 100 press ups (aka ‘push ups’ for my North American friends!) a day. End result? 4080 press-up completed by 31 May. Unsurprisingly, I got a lot better at press ups.

Having enjoyed the “Press up Project”, I decided to do (at least) 50 chin ups a day for the month of June (well at least as much of June as I have access to a pull-up bar; holidays will likely mean no bar access (well at least not of the pull up sort)). As of today 16 June, I have completed 930 chins. Am I enjoying it? Yup, I quite like having a set piece of work to get done every day, not to mention getting better at chins!

Dan Gable, a U.S. Olympic gold medalist and wrestling coach once said:

“If it is important, do it everyday. If it’s not important, don’t do it all.”

While this definitely applies to the training context (ie warming up, mobility, hydration and nutrition strategies, etc), by no means is, or should this be limited to the training realm.

Slightly amending Gamble, I would suggest “If it is important TO YOU, do something to NURTURE AND DEVELOP it everyday.”

Equally, I would further revise Gamble’s second remark to say “If it’s not important, OR UNDERMINES WHAT IS IMPORTANT, don’t do it at all”.

Take a moment to think about those things that are important to you. What do you do daily, to recognise and acknowledge that importance? Similarly, what, if anything do you do that undermines those things you deem important?

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KWOW 5

Ascending & Descending Ladder of

Double KB C&P

Chin ups

1. Using double KBs of the same weight, do 1 double C&P, followed by 1 chin up. 2x double C&P, followed by 2x chin ups. Continue ‘climbing’ the ladder until you reach the number which is half of your max reps for strict chin ups. That is, if you can do 10 strict, unbroken chin up, you would climb until you were doing 5x C&P and 5x chins. Descend the ladder without repeating the top number (ie in the example used, 5 is the top and done only once, then 4, 3, 2 and 1). Rest as required. Form and technique trumps time.

2. Scaling: make this easier by scaling chin ups (eg bar in rack, ring rows, bent over rows); using lighter KBs; completing fewer reps with light KBs. Make this harder by doing weighted pull ups; 2 chins for every 1 C&P; multiple ladders, completing fewer reps with heavier KBs.

3. The number of reps completed will be the top number of the ladder. That is, if you climbed to 5 reps, 5×5, meaning 25 reps!

4. Look to add a ‘rung’ to the ladder as you progress. If you can climb to 5 now, work to climbing up and down to 6, etc. I’ve got my eye on climbing to 10 before the year is out!