The ab life for me

Just a quick one today.

As always things are hectic here at C&J. After a shaky Easter period we have patched up the cracks and the fitness regime is once again working with military precision.

The mayhem of the monthly challenge is back, courtesy of a Bear Gyrlls extreme challenge and we are now back outside as summer begins to show its welcomed presence once more.

After the dark days of bulking during the winter months, the focus is now on fat burning and lean muscle gain. Additionally its all about mental and physical preparation for when Jonny delves into jungle chaos.

So we’ve been hitting the cardio hard!

We have also been smashing the abs. But I’m not going to lie, its been a challenge!

From our experience,we have found that Abs do not come overnight. A washboard physique takes serious manual labour.

A few days off and curry and your back to square one.

So we have found a few battle strategies to help in our pursuit.

One: We incorporate Ab workouts into every session.

Two: We have a weekly rugby league score prediction challenge, of which the punishment is Ab related exercises. (See our previous blog for more details. https://candjactive.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/i-bet-the-new-season-will-get-me-in-shape/

Three: We have to complete 3 sets of varied Ab crunches with 20 reps each morning and night and snapchat each other as evidence.

Now I think 3 is our most effective method to date. At first it is a struggle, but due to the evidence aspect,you are forced into it. Anyone who doesn’t snap the evidence inevitable gets punished with extra sets in the gym.

So a few weeks on, this daily task is now becoming a way of life. And it last our abs are starting to feel the effects!

So as the sun steadily heats up for its  settlement we are feeling quite confident that we will be ready!

Until the next time.

C&J Active

(Your everyday fitness friends)

The ‘pair’fect way to train

It really is the age-old question. How do we keep ourselves motivated?

From the day it all began and probably until the day it all ends, we have and will continue to fight for this self-starting solution.

I bet its everyone’s inner frustration.

Even those who sail the seven seas and have time to write a book about it, will have days were the demonic laziness casts out its chains and cripples them.

Anyway I think you get the picture.

Now, what has this got to do with C&J I hear you ask?

Well I’ve been pondering where we are at training wise a lot lately and its no secret that the dynamics of our regime and even our rants about it, have undergone a mass fluctuation. It’s evident just from looking at our WordPress stats. It looks like a roller-coaster I wouldn’t like to ride, put it that way.

And what’s interesting, is that a clear pattern has emerged.

What’s always been great about us, is how Jonny and I lead polar opposite lifestyles and are bought together through shared interests. However in recent times, this contrast has proved both testing and costly.

Let’s consider a real life example. I think this will be the best way to summarise our dilemma.

Jonny and I were training hard for our head to head battle. Hours of heavy labour and man hours were being spent in the gym.

Things were shaping nicely.

With only 2 weeks to go confidence was sky-high and the competition was heating up.

And then all of a sudden the unthinkable happened!

As Jonny’s expedition preparations came to fruition he realised that he had an important and grave task to complete. As he put it ‘the next few days are not going to be pretty’.

He had to take a shot of death, and from what I can gather, his words pretty much hit the nail on the head.

He was struck down with typhoid fever and was forced into a shivering fit of isolation, whilst his reluctant antibodies were plunged into chaos.

Not pretty!

But anyway this quite simply, left me in the lurch.

All of our sessions were cancelled! C&J Active had come to a halt. It was now C active and I had to go it alone.

Don’t get me wrong this didn’t deter me for one second! As far as I was concerned it gave me an advantage, a chance to take charge with a clear run to victory.

So with this in mind I hit the gym pretty much everyday, as originally planned.

At first it was great. I was picking up momentum and my confidence was swelling.

However as time wore on, and it was becoming clear that Jonny was out for the count, my productivity started to wither.

I was still hitting the gym hard, still attacking the same routines, but I just couldn’t ignite that fire to dig deep. I mean progress was good, but it just wasn’t enough to deliver the goods and reach my goals.

And then Easter approached! Alcohol and poor diet plagued us both and suddenly C&J was plunged in turmoil and our head to head was forcibly postponed.

So it was today, as we embarked on our recovery session, that confirmed what I knew all along.

It was a great session and suddenly we are back on track.

Just having someone with you to train sparks and feeds that little thing called motivation. It feeds it like fuel to a flame, and then fans them flames just as they threaten to extinguish.

Having someone to slap you if you consider giving up, having someone to distract you from the excruciating pain as it hits you, having someone to remind you of that end goal and to remind you that you can actually do it; it all acts as a winning formula for success.

Training in pairs is truly underrated. The power of shared goals should never be underestimated.

So it’s no secret that the clock now ticks away on our time before Jonny’s descent into the jungle. How will we continue without the power of 2? Will we conjure up a new solution or will we simply wing it? Or will we have no other option but to scour the surroundings for a new fitness friend? One things for certain there are no quitters in C&J’s gym so it should be interesting to see what happens…

Until the next time!

C&J Active

Your everyday fitness friends

The Kettlebell Cure

We had it all planned out my mate Jonny and I.

Driven by the cunning lure of new year’s hope, we jumped on the bandwagon.

After the Christmas distraction we vowed to excel in our efforts to get in shape!

I should have known, it was never going to be that easy.

Even statistics show, new year resolutions are destined to come crashing down; most of the time before they even take off.

Interestingly however I sense that I am not easily being deterred, as the stereotypical failings of drunken promises usually dictates. One of the benefits of working in a pair is that if your motivation begins to lack, your partner can soon pick you up with renewed vigour.

However just as the workout machine had began gathering pace, a spanner was thrown into the works. Jonny sent me a text with glum implications. His uni timetable dictated that our workout time was reduced to a minimum. He has been slapped left, right and centre with exams and with a dissertation deadline fast approaching, he would now be benchpressing books for the forseeable.

My next resort was to utilize a gym membership that was gathering dust.

However me and January gym crowds don’t mix. As much as I applaud those venturing on a new year fitness mission, I had an overwhelming feeling that this wasn’t the solution to my fitness dilemma.

I had to come up with another plan.

And my lightbulb moment came to me whilst in Aldi supermarket picking up a few essentials.

As I wondered around in autopilot, all of a sudden something caught my eye. There was a whole section dedicated to gym equipment.

Amongst the gear I noticed a diamond in the rough. Kettlebells were scattered below a pile of foam gym mats.

What’s more they were cheap.

Perfect!

As Jonny and I began developing our methodology for efficient training, he introduced me to, you guessed it, the kettlebell. Its a tool of any fitness guru, and one that my good friend swears by. So with great reluctance I hand over the keyboard to the man himself to explain some of the more particulars of kettlebell training and how he first discovered this piece of kit.

Well at some point I had to participate in the blog and take a break from planning (spoiler alert) our first major challenge, that we will soon reveal . . .

There’s no better topic for me to involve myself in than my favourite piece of gym equipment, the kettlebell. For me it started when I was a short skinny 15 year old trying to bulk up. I was introduced to a tiny little kettlebells gym in my home town of Harrogate.

The training was unlike anything I’d done before (usually circuits or playing rugby) and I knew it was the training for me from my very first session. In essence the kettlebell uses multiple muscles to complete movements that are repeated over a fairly high number of repetitions; subsequently increasing muscular endurance. The exercises mainly work your legs, lower back and shoulders.

Furthermore as the kettlebell’s centre of mass is extended beyond the hand, it increases your grip strength; which as keen climbers is an effective method for Chris and I to train. Ill prepared trying to climb to the heavens can be hellish work .

Due to the nature of Kettlebell training, it also has the benefit of increasing cardiovascular endurance. This makes it perfect for all sorts of people. Whether your training for a sport, trying to lose weight or like us training for a challenge, kettlebells are an ideal way to train.

Furthermore kettlebell competitions seem to be rising from nowhere all over the country. What was once a style of training for the soviet army, now seems to be ever growing in popularity.

Spoiler alert, as we look to venture out and learn more, I may well drag Chris to witness these kettlebell competitions to see what this unknown sport entails.

So that’s my bit done. I’d best hand the keyboard back to Chris before he attempts to wrestle it of me. Hopefully one day soon (Dissertation, Exams and Challenge planning permitting) I’ll have permission from the keyboard master to type again.

Thanks Jonny, (insightful as always)!

Now where was I.

Oh yes.

Grinning like a Cheshire cat after my kettlebell purchase I couldn’t wait to get home and try it out.

I am currently applying Jonny’s kettlebell ab workout. Basically it involves various types of sit ups whilst pressing the kettlebell. Not only does it work your abs, but also; your deltoids, trapezius, biceps, tricips, latissimus dorsi and forearms. Simply put it pretty much works all your upper body.

Big spoiler alert! If you want to check out exactly how the workout works, keep your eyes peeled as our brand new youtube channel is coming very soon!

In the meantime I have come to the conclusion, my new years resolution isn’t dead and buried yet. I think it just takes a little bit of extra something to make sure you don’t become another sorry statistic.

Until the next time.

C&J Fitness

(your everyday fitness friends)

End note:

(It’s worth noting that if your interested in working with kettlebells you should of course attend a kettlebells class near you to learn the various movements safely. Don’t worry about finding one, with the recent growth in popularity classes are a common feature in most local gyms.)