Mangaehuehu Hut

I had hiked passed this hut once before, and ran past it twice, but never stayed at it. So when I was looking for short hike to do somewhere around Ruapehu this was an easy choice. DoC lists this as a 6.8km, 3 hour hike to a hut on the Southern side of Mt Ruapehu (elevation gain is approximately 400m each way). The hut is a standard 18 bunk hut, complete with a fire place.

I left Auckland just after 7am, knowing I would arrive to the car park at roughly 12am. One of the reasons I chose this hut to hike to is if I arrived there and the hut was full, I could still double back to Blyth or Lipton hut, with daylight to spare (just). The walk is roughly half beech forest and half open tundra. Starting at the car park on Ohakune Mountain Road, the walk takes a small climb to Rotokawa, a small alpine Tarn with a great view of the mountain before dropping down to Waitonga Falls. Until this point the tracks are beautifully maintained as see a lot of tourist traffic to and from the falls. After the falls is when the tracks become more rugged. They are reasonably well marked and maintained, but would be describes as ‘technical single track’.

A wide boardwalk around Rotokawa

Only a few minutes after the falls comes the only significant un-bridged river crossing, and it is only ankle deep. When the water is low it is a simple process to keep your feet dry crossing on rocks. If the water is high you can still mange this, but it might be safer to just deal with wet shoes. From here the track climbs to the turn off to Blyth and Lipton hut, or on towards Mangaehuehu.

Swing bridge and single track/ boardwalk.

The track continues though Beech forest with a couple of single person swing bridges switching between boardwalks and single track with frequent views of the Mountain. The walk is a fairly easy stroll with no major climbs so it’s very enjoyable.

The hut sneaks up on you and pops out from around a corner with an excellent view of the mountain. The hut was warm and cosy (with the fire going), and had everything one would expect from a standard DoC hut. I prefer this style of hut, where the majority of beds are in the main section of the hut with the fire place, it’s less private, but I enjoy sleeping near the fire when it’s cold.

Can just see the corner of the hut

The round the mountain track, which this hut is a part of, see very few visitors per year, so this isn’t a particularly busy hut, despite it only taking me 2 hours 15 to hike in. I’m very keen to hike to this hut in winter, so stay tuned for a winter hike report.

The view from the hut in the evening.

The hike out is the same but in reverse, the only “strenuous” section would be the stairs up from the Waitonga Falls. The Around the Mountain (Ruapehu) track is my favourite track I’ve done so far, so this track is one I highly recommend. 

Slant Board

The ‘Knees over toes guy’ has had a quite the rapid rise in views this year and I certainly took notice given my own struggles with knee pain. I’ve watched nearly all of his YouTube videos trying to gain an understanding of his exercises and methods, and have started to implement them into my own training. In particular I liked the look of his revers set up progressions, as I know this type of movement can be a trigger for my knee pain. I started with a very small range of motion step forward, then stepping off a low box, which he calls a ‘Patrick step up’. The next progression for me was carefully increasing the reps to where I am now performing 5 x 20 reps each side 3-4 times per week. I will continue this for several weeks before moving on to the next progression which is the ‘Poliquin Step up’

Some basic progrssions.

The Poliquin step up requires a slant board, which I didn’t have, and would be prohibitively expensive to import (to New Zealand) so I decided to build my own. I wasn’t sure what the best dimensions were, so that was the first thing to figure out. Ideally, I would have built it as wide as my powerlifting cage would allow, but a better option was 500mm wide so that I could stack it on top of my lifting blocks. It needed to be slightly larger than my size 11 feet/shoes so 300-350mm would be more than large enough for the top. The angle was the next question. A full 45 degrees is much too steep, so I was considering 22.5 degrees (half of 45 degrees) until I saw in a video Ben Patrick (the knees over toes guy) said it was about 30 degrees. Having built it, this does feel about right, however I also think 22.5 degrees would feel fine too it that’s all you can manage.

I wish I has access to the right skills and tools to be able to draw all of the parts out on paper, measure, cut and assemble everything, and have it come out perfectly, but I don’t. To work around this, I cut the boards in stages. Using 20mm plywood I cut the top first with the angled cut facing down (because it looks terrible due to my lack of ability with a skill saw). I then cut the back of the slant board at the correct angle, so that I could measure and cut the bottom to size (this saved by having to use trigonometry, I can, I just can’t cut accurately enough). Then finally I could place these boards together and trace the triangle for the sizes (again saving me doing trigonometry).

Everything was screwed together and given a good over all sanding to make it all look good. I taped strips of sandpaper tape for grip (also known as grip tape) and the board is done.

I’ve used the board in testing a little bit and it feels good, and very solid. Hopefully this can be of some help to others who are looking at the knees over toes videos and would like to get into some of the exercises.

Mace and Indian clubs

Indian clubs and maces are an ancient training tool that has seen a recent resurgence. This is due not just to the cool factor, but their use in shoulder strength and mobility training. In full disclosure I haven’t quite worked these into my training since I’m always short on time; however I would like to work them in as a shoulder warm up/full workout.

To build the maces and clubs I bought two cheap spin-lock barbells on sale. I bought a 5ft and a 6ft with the plan to cut them down for two Indian clubs and a mace or two. I took them to the engineering shop next to work where they cut the bars down to 2x 590mm, 1x1000mm and 1x1200mm. They then welded some round stop ends to prevent the bar from slipping out of my hands when using them. I gave these a quick coat of silver zinc and my new Indian clubs and maces were ready to go.

Note the round stop end for the grip and spinlocks for the weights.

I chose the sizing based on an estimated size for the Indian clubs and the length for the longest mace. The longest mace is sized similar to the Shoulderrok so the the weight lands below your butt when swinging it. The shorter mace could run into your butt while swinging, but that's just how the sizing worked out.

You could adjust the position of the weight closer to the hands.

This worked out as an incredibly cheap way to get four plate loaded clubs/maces that wouldn’t see a huge amount of use. I wouldn’t suggest this for a commercial setting, but I also don’t see myself using these for more than a few short minutes a few times per week a most. For details on exercises to perform I would take a look at bodytribe on Youtube.

More rolling plate storage

When I found myself with a little spare cash and a yearning for dumbbells I decided to get the most practical option I could for my gym. I settled on Olympic, plate loaded dumbbells which could be loaded up to 45kg each. Plenty of weight on a dumbbell for me, and I could also use the weights on my barbells if I wanted to. Note: I don’t use these often in my training, but they have been very handy for some weighted single leg training and were worth the investment for me.

I bought 80kg of 5kg plates, 16 in total for the times I would need to load up both dumbbells and I needed somewhere to store them. My previous rolling storage rack didn’t have the room but was a great design for my needs so I decided to replicate it.

I measured the height of the plates when stacked on top of each other, and the overall width of plates for the dimensions of the base. I used some scrap 20mm plywood for the build. The base is 510mm x 250mm. The sides are 90mm high, measured to just touch the radius for the plate for a snug fit. The rollers are the same as the previous rack, 4 wheels at $5 each rated to 40kg.

This was a very straight forward build, and it allows me to push the plates out of the way under a shelf when not in use. Keeping a tidy gym is important especially in a small space so getting weights off the ground and easily movable goes a long way. It is my strong suggestion to keep your training space tidy to make that element of training as easy as possible.

Lifting blocks

A Reduced range of motion deadlift.

A few years ago, I was training a younger, but very tall athlete and wanted to shorten the range of motion of their deadlift to work on form in a little easier position. The best way to manage this is to place the plate up on lifting blocks. This makes it easier for the lifter to get into potion if they are tight, and can also make the position a little easier to learn.

The top of the blocks are 18mm plywood, 500mm x 500mm. These are screwed to 75mm square posts I had left over from an old fence. Since I don’t plan on using these for very heavy pulls I’m not worried about damaging the plywood. However if you want to build something like this for heavy pulls the only change I would suggest is covering the top plywood in some rubber gym mats.

Top and side view

These are also quite handy for single leg work like step ups and for exercises like the Jefferson curl. I’m glad I built them, even if it seems like they might have limited use, I end up using one every week.

Example of with and without blocks

And that's it, if you have some scrap plywood and timber laying around consider building some blocks if you don’t already have something similar.

Rolling board/sliding board

This piece of equipment doesn’t need an explanation so I’ll keep this brief. When performing natural hamstring curls inside my house I was able to use a cloth or sock to slide against the vinyl flooring. However, when I shifted this exercise and workout into the garage gym this method wasn’t going to work. The other option most people use is furniture sliders, but they wouldn’t work on the concrete either.

I decided that setting up a small rolling board would be the best option. The wheels were only a few dollars each and hold 20kg + each. The off cut of plywood is approximately 200mm x 200mm. All four wheels can spin a full 360 degrees (I don’t suggest the wheels that lock in place).

This board works perfectly for the natural hamstring curls, and would probably work well for ab rollouts and other exercises too, though I only use it for the hamstring curls.

You don’t have to let a change in environment dictate what exercises you can and can’t do. Adapt as necessary.

Yearly themes

We all know New Year’s Resolutions suck. I don’t need to explain why picking an arbitrary date in the future (the first of January), isn’t a great way to make a lasting change to your life. Nor is it a good idea to set a big goal for the year, which will take most of the year to achieve. It’s too hard to track progress, stay on track, and finally to actually complete a goal. It had been my goal for several years in a row to complete 5 sets of 5 pistol squats. But every year I would get side tracked, not put in the work required, and would eventually ‘fail’ at my goal. (Note: goals are very important but they need to be SMART – see Chris Duffin’s video for more)

The question then stands “What to do instead of New Year’s Resolutions?” I stumbled upon a good alternative, without quite knowing what I had two years ago. Having listened to a lot of the Jocko podcast, the term “Get it done” embedded deep in my mind. I felt like that would be the perfect ‘phase’ for my year. My daughter was about 6 months old at the time and I was trying to find/create a new routine for myself. The particular issue I was having was that I would leave small jobs un-done, leaving them to be done in a rush at a less ideal time. I wanted to get into a routine of doing the dishes, washing, packing my lunch and generally cleaning/tidying in the evening before bed, so all jobs were done before the morning. Sounds simple enough, but how’s the resolution to “be more organised” going for you? Not well I suspect. A much more useful option for me was to say in my head “get it done”, it sounds so simple, and yet it was extremely effective. It was also helpful to bring me back on the path when I slacked off.

After the first year of having a yearly “phrase” I discovered why this worked so well. I had inadvertently been using a yearly theme. CGP grey explains why a yearly theme is so beneficial in his video here, and it is well worth watching.

Some of the non-fiction

And some of the fiction

Given the successes of 2019’s phrase, my phrase for 2020 was “Put in the work” (again inspired by the Jocko podcast). To me this separated out into two parts of my life to focus on. The first was my workouts; I struggled to get my workouts on track in 2019. In 2020 I wanted to get back to regular workouts, and in particular to build up my strength endurance for gymnastic bodies (I’ve written before about my workout plan). So “put in the work” got me out into the gym getting my workout in, especially the extra volume. The second part of this phrase was for me to do more reading in 2020 (Covid really help out this goal). Originally, I had planned to read 12 books (Setting a number on a goal like this generally isn’t particularly helpful), and I eventually read 52 books that year. There was a mix of young adult (The Mortal Engines quartet was my favourite) and general non-fiction (‘When breath becomes air’ was so powerful and beautifully written that when I finished it I when straight back to page 1 and started reading again).

This year’s phase/theme is “Do all then things” (Odd I know, but it speaks to me and that’s the important part). This (hopefully) builds on the success of the previous two years. I want to get back into being efficient and getting things done around the home, and continue the progress I made in my workouts. I also what to build on the work I put in reading so widely, by beginning writing again (so far so good). I love to hear if this post helps you come up with a yearly phrase or theme, and later how you go with it.

Morning Movement/Workouts.

I’m not much of a morning person, and definitely not a morning exerciser. A typical morning for me starts at 6:30am. I get up after hitting snooze several times; make coffee and bacon for a quick breakfast then sit down to watch a 20–25-minute minecraft let’s play video. It’s a little bit odd, I know, but it makes for a relaxed start to the day. Obviously this morning routine leaves a lot of room for improvement. For the last year I’ve been trying out some different simple morning workouts, by getting up only 5 - 30 minutes earlier. My only condition was that it couldn’t be so strenuous that it required a morning shower as we had a long season of water restrictions this past year. I wasn’t looking for major strength or endurance gains; mostly I was looking for a little morning movement/mobility.

By far the easiest and most successful morning workout was a 25 minute walk. I was listening to a back episode of the UMSO podcast when a 20 minute walk was mentioned as a good method of fat loss, so I decided to give it a try to lose a couple of kilos. This was extremely easy, just get up 30 minutes earlier; go for a walk around the block while listening to a podcast. I normally did this around 4 times per week, and lost about 2kg during that time.

Another simple morning workout I tried only took an extra 5 minutes before I left for work. Tim Ferriss call these “Jane Fonda’s” in ‘Tools of Titans’, its Ryan Falherty’s 7 way hip. This ‘warm up’ is 7 different movements, 10-20 reps each, done in succession on one side, and then the next. Each movement hits the external rotator in the hip/glute area and can really get it burning.  This sequence is set up as a warm up/pre-hab for running, helping knee stabilization by strengthening the hips. I found this sequence very tough, but short enough to push through and it’s worth putting in the effort for the amount of train running I do. I also noticed some quick endurance gains on this workout which also carried over to some of my gymnastic training. I highly recommend giving this a go.

These don't look like much, but it burns by the end of the set.

A similar idea to the 7 way hip for me was to get in some volume in the mornings of hindu squats as a form of knee prep/pre-hab. I would do 3-4 sets of 20 hindu squats, super set with toe lifts (lift the big toe only, then the little toes, not moving the big toe). This was a really good morning warm up for my knees. Although when my knees were inflamed I wasn’t able to do these.

Hindu squats are great if pain free

The gymnastic bodies stretch course is a morning workout I keep attempting, as it’s a good morning wake up and nice to start the day limber. However, these courses are on the long side (40-45 minutes), and get super tough by the end. Well worth doing, but I find it hard to get in the head space for such hard stretching so early in the morning. I really should do more, I just dislike stretching.

My stretching needs more focus

Ideally every day would start with a walk or some stretching, or possibly some pre-hab knee work, but if I can manage a couple days per week, I’ll call it a win. Aim to get a little better every day (or every week). I hope this has given you some ideas for short, simple working movements to add into your movement practice.   

Plate loaded backpack.

20L jerry can

I first heard about this style of loaded pack on a Joe Rogan podcast (I can’t remember which episode) and looked it up right away. I enjoy weighted hikes as I think they are excellent training in their own right and are overlooked for how important they are to prepare for longer hikes. So seeing this simple plate loaded backpack I was keen to acquire one for my own training.

The pack is really quite simple; it’s an old-school army ALICE pack with a bar on the back for loading plates. I bought a re-creation frame and straps from an army surplus store and drew out what I would need for the plate loading. The plate on the back is 200mm x 350mm and 3mm thick, the pipe is a standard 50mm pipe, 180mm long at approximately 70 degrees. I had this all welded up at an engineering shop next door to where I work. I can’t remember what I paid, but it wasn’t much, it’s ridiculously easy for a metal work shop to put together so I suspect most shops would be open to a cash deal.

With the plate made it was up to me to fix it to the pack frame. I bought four small U bolts from a hardware store, then marked and drilled where I would need them to go. I needed to cut down the top set as these would rub against my plates when loaded. The bottom bolts wouldn’t reach the plate due to the angle. I normally use one small spacer off this plate to allow the plate to sit well (Two spaces are pictured to make room for the bag below, more on that later). I finished the plate with silver zinc spray paint to prevent rust.

Total unloaded weight is 5kg (the steel is heavy) and I could load up 50kg plus on this frame.

A few modifications

One option is to ditch the plate loading and just load up the pack frame. I bought a shelf off a retailer in the US for about $5 which makes it easy to load containers to the pack. I bought a 20 litre jerry can for this purpose so I can load 20kg for water on the pack, roping or strapping it on. This works great as a slightly unstable load (a good proxy for hiking where the load is more fixed and the terrain more unstable). However this looks a little too “play army” for me so I don’t often train this. (Full respect to the armed forces, I’m just not part of them and don’t want to mistaken for a serviceman).

The shelf also makes it easy for me to attach a small carry bag to the pack which I set up when I take my dog out for longer walks where he will need a drink. I needed somewhere to pack some water for him and me, a dog bowl, raincoat, first aid kit etc. To make room for the shelf, and full pack I needed to pack the plates out from my back a little further, hence the extra packer.

Last but certainly not least are the straps I have for this pack frame. They are made by a New Zealand company (Twin Needle and Thread) and they are incredible. They are thick, wide, comfortable and extraordinarily well made. They make this my most comfortable pack by far, and I couldn’t be happier with them. The small pack is also made by them and it is of the same supreme quality. They were even able to custom make the pack for me with molle webbing on both sides.

This project took a little bit of organisation to collect all of the parts and put it together but has been well worth it for me. This is my go to set up for taking the dog for a walk around the block, exercising him, and me at the same time. This keeps me partially prepared for when I can get away for a longer hike.

Also good for weighted calisthenics

Door knob climbing holds

Inspired by ninja warrior I always keep my eyes out for potential climbing holds/ odd “fitness” equipment. With this in mind I spotted these 6 old door handles in the store room at work. They are internal ‘orbit’ (i.e. round) door handles which were missing all the other parts, which was fine by me, I only wanted the handles. So when the time came for a big clean out of the store room, I was able to liberate these handles from the skip bin.

These were a little bit tricky to work with since they were obviously not built to be climbing holds. For one thing, the back of the handle is meant to fit over a large hole in a door. I used some scrap plywood to build a base, and drilled a centre hole to accommodate the back of the handle. In addition, there were parts of the handle that stuck out the back side, which I needed to drill space for as well. This is what makes the base look like Mickey Mouse. With the base built, I used some medium size tek screws (an extra beefy screw) to mount the door knobs next to my campus/hang board.

Finished base and tek screw

The handles are quite tricky to hang on and take quite a bit of odd grip strength to work with. They only rotate about 45 degrees right or left, so not a lot of spin, but the turning doesn’t really seem to be a factor in the difficulty of these grips. Also your fingers can run into the screws a little, so the fixing isn’t quite perfect.

All set up

Honestly these will probably get very little use as I don’t see them being worked into my current training program, however they were free and a bit of fun. It’s always worth keeping your eye open to find something fun for your gym/training space.

My knee

My knee has been such a leading issue in my training the previous year that I think it needs its own post to lay out the whole story, and to fill in the blanks in other posts with my many references to ‘my knee’. This post might even give you some idea for dealing with your own injuries.

Going back 16 years (to the age of 16), I broke my ankle. It took quite a bit of physiotherapy to get it moving again; I only ever regained about 90% of its full ROM, and the foot arch was dead flat from that point on.

Fast forward a few years and I found I could wear vibram5 fingers with no foot pain (I was getting foot pain in most other shoes); however I did hyper flex the large toe on that foot (most likely because I was missing ankle ROM). This old injury can pop up every now and then too (Like during this beach hike).

Fast forward some more to around 2013, I injured the knee loading a truck at work. It was some sort of meniscus issue, eventually it calmed down but was never quite right after that. By 2016/2017 it got to the point where I decided I couldn’t jump hard anymore. Not that it would definitely hurt, but the risk was too high, if I did hurt it, the knee would be swollen for a week.

By 2020 it had been getting worse, it would hurt more often and I was struggling to figure out what was setting it off. Sometime it was just getting in or out of a car with ‘bad form’.

The knee prep series from Gymnastic bodies seemed okay while it wasn’t sore, but wasn’t possible if it was aggravated. Hindu squats and toe lifts (lift big toe only, then the other four toe only, not moving the other each time), were okay, but didn’t seem to help a lot. Ryan Flaherty’s 7 way hip (Google it, or check out Tim Ferriss' podcast) seemed useful to help stabilise the hip, but I got to the point where I felt like I could tick that off as “not the issue”. I tried various knee strengthening movements but I always felt like I was strong enough in all of them (nothing ever stood out as a weak point), and couldn’t find a standout which seemed like it was helping.

Then after my 69km run at the Blue Lake 24 hour run (there will be a full post on this) my knee was trashed (surprising I know). It took a long time to calm down and for me to find something that seemed to help. Currently I’m finding foam rolling (particularly VMO, IT band and quad) appears to be helping and getting me out of pain.

Before finding the foam rolling, I even went to a podiatrist and got a set for inserts to support my arches. These were hell the first week, but seem to really be working now. This was at odds with my natural method/ancestral health thinking, but I had to try something to get out of pain. I figured my foot was flat post injury and I wasn’t likely to ever to be able to fix it on my own so I needed help.

I can make and arch, but mostly it sinks

The next step this year in getting help is going to be seeing an Osteopath which a friend of mine has suggested. (Caveat – I don’t know of the science behind Osteopathy, but it looks like it will be some skilled manual therapy and a practised look at my mobility/positions/structure. I don’t see much downside here and a lot of potential upside) My current thinking is that 16 years of less than perfect loading has not been kind to my knee, so any help I can get to fixing this going forward I will be looking into.

One last thing at say here, when I started this blog nearly 10 years ago I would not have had the money to pay for a Podiatrist or Osteopath (maybe I could have got them at the time of injury under ACC but I was 16, and could have no idea how it would affect me in the future). So I totally understand not being able to afford this. If you are in a similar situation, I would suggest you do everything you can to get your feet right (Check out Chris Duffin - foot love), make sure your hips are strong, stretch and foam roll. Then if you’re still having trouble find a professional who can help, sometimes we need help.

My current workout program

2020 was the year of the pistol squat

I thought it would be worth writing up my current workout plan which I have been running for roughly a year now. The main thing to mention up front is that this program is not the optimal way of doing things. The exercise selection, sets and reps, timing, energy systems etc, none of this has been optimised. There is currently no periodisation. This is not my version of a secret sauce, become batman/mega athlete program. That is all to say if you are looking to design a program, this is not a template, only a rough collection of ideas.

So what’s the point, why this program? The point is I will do this program. I can, and will follow it for weeks on end, actually get something done, and move the needle forward. This is the most important point - the best program is the one you will do. So I’ll lay out what I’m doing and why, as there might be some useful information here for someone looking to build their own program to follow.

The what, how’s and why’s

The central feature of this plan was to put in a lot of gymnastics volume, working on muscular endurance. This is something I struggle with, and which always held me back when working on the gymnastic bodies (GB)programs. Secondary to this was to try and at least maintain some of the other movement in the GB program. I only have about 30-45 minutes max during my prime workout time to get things done, so no there is time for extras like grip work or conditioning (Eventually I will work this sort of thing back in, but not yet)

So the first feature of my program - Day one is Monday. I’ve rested during the weekend, and I’m most likely to have time and desire to train on Monday. The things I most want to get done go here. But, if life gets in the way for any reason, I bump this workout back to Tuesday or even Wednesday. That way, if only one workout gets done in a week, it’s the main workout.

Monday:

A: GB Front lever progressions (Hollow rock progression)

B1: Ring row, aiming for 5x15

B2: Push up, aiming for 5x20

B3: Shoulder dislocates, sets of 5

B4: Deadlifts 5x5 at 80kg

C: GB planche progression

A little breakdown is necessary here. It isn’t ideal to start a workout with difficult core work, but I am terrible at these progressions; so it’s best for me to do them first to get the work in. The push ups and ring rows are the main muscular endurance work here and I started by aiming for 5x10 and 5x15 respectively, adding reps where I could. I’m nearly at a point where 5x15 and 5x20 will be my new standard. My plan is to keep this at a maintenance point for some time, while I push more energy into the core and planche progressions. The shoulder dislocates are a good movement to cycle in during upper body work, I suggest applying these liberally. The deadlifts are currently just to give me a little volume to help out my squat, and the plan is to get to 5x5 at 100kg. I’m keeping these very light, as these are not the main point of the workout and I don’t want them to detract for the rest of the workout. The planche progressions are currently maintenance, but I plan on pushing to improve these later this year. This whole workout takes me about 40 minutes, so right on the maximum amount of time that I have available.

Many, many push ups

Tuesday

A: GB Side lever progression (Core based movement)

B1: Front squats 5x5 at 50kg

B2: Arch ups, aiming for 5x10

B3: Wrist prep sequence

The side lever progressions are another tough one for me as its all core work, but again, putting it first and early in the week has meant I’ve been about to make progress on it over the year. The front squats are technique work as I’m not great at them. The plan is once I can do them at 80kg with good form to switch to overhead squats as the technique work here. Front squats and eventually overhead squats will probably take the place of deadlifts on Monday at some stage. The arch ups (an extreme version of a hyper extension) are a low back exercise from gymnastic bodies which I think is extremely valuable for lower back prep work. The plan here is to get back to doing the twisting arch ups then maintain them (these are what I would call a moderately advanced low back strength movement – proceed with caution). The wrist strengthening sequence is out of the GB handstand series, google around and you’ll find something good to follow. These are well worth including in your program for injury prevention. This workout normally takes a little over 30 minutes, so there is room for me to add something at a later point in time.

Wednesday

Wednesdays are tricky as I have my young daughter with me in the gym, so it needs to be something toddler safe, so this is kind of a work in progress (I used to do Thursday’s workout here, but it just wasn’t working out)

A1: GB handstand work

A2: Knee prep sequence

This has been the workout which most often gets dropped out. I’m least interested in the handstand work right now, and lately my knee has been giving me a lot of trouble making the knee movements too painful (I have a post in the works outlining my knee trouble). For reference the knee prep is several movements involving loading the knee in different ways, including different twisting movements from the GB program (Have a google around if you are interested).

Thursday

I’m really enjoying this workout which is a follow on from my lockdown program. This is my “add one rep” workout. (I have a whole post on this workout, so I’ll be brief here).

A1: Pistol squats

A2: Natural glute-ham curls (very big assist from the hands)

A3: Pull ups

A4: Ring dips

I started this as 5 sets of 5 adding a rep every week; working towards 10x5, then the final goal is 10 sets of 10. The glute-ham curls are only 5x5 (the first 5 sets), and eventually I’ll switch them out for a full glute-ham raise. After the 5 sets of glue-ham raise, I’ve been switching to working on hollow rocks and arch body holds, currently its only around 3x12 (reps/sets) but the goal is to work towards 5x60. This may not be totally possible, but putting in the work will be helpful. Each round takes just under 5 minutes, and I am currently closing in on 8x5, so approximately a 40-minute workout. Thursday works well for this workout since it’s far enough away from Monday/Tuesday’s strength work (In both directions), so I can push hard and get some good work in.

Pistol squat, pull up, ring dip

Friday

Day off, generally I’m pretty worn out by now, and I have a lot to get done on Friday’s.

Saturday

Most of the time Saturday is a 10km road run, but whenever possible I prefer a trail run. 

Out for a training run

Sunday

For the last little while Sunday has been 5 sets of 5 heavy back squats, currently at 120kg. The goal here is to slowly and carefully push my max squat up. Heavy squats had been done on a Monday, but they got too heavy with the rest of the work happening on a Monday. Not sure how long I will keep the heavy squats here, but its working for now.

What I’m Missing.

A big thing I’m missing here is stretching, I’m trying to get up early to get some early morning stretching down, but it’s a struggle (I have a whole post in the works discussing AM workouts).

I need more stretching

Also missing is BJJ, previously I was aiming for Tuesday and Thursday, but energy levels with a new child was difficult, and 2020 was not the year for physical contact in large groups. The plan is to get my act together for a better 2021.

So that’s my current workout program. Hopefully there are some useful ideas in there for you. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own.

Add one rep per week

Just add a single rep per week, it’s that simple. This is a plan I have made use of in the past, particularly with difficult gymnastic bodies exercises and with weighted pull ups. If the goal was five sets of five, I would aim to start at three sets of three, then 4x3, then 5x3. Generally, I could reach this point pretty easily. My next step would be to add at least one rep, every week. Sometime I could add more reps, and sometime I had to add a 6^th set just to get the volume in, but the goal was always to add one more. I’m not sure where I got this idea from, so I can’t credit it, but it can’t have been my idea.

A new workout I added this year after lockdown takes this plan and runs with it. This time, the plan is to pick three movements, and for each one I only add one rep, and no more per week. Starting at 5x5 and eventually the goal is to finish at 10x10. This will take a little over one and a half years, all going well.

The workout is pistol squats, pull ups and ring dips. Currently the pistol squats are the most difficult in terms of muscle firing/proprioception/ROM while the ring dips are the hardest in terms of strength. The pull ups are going so well I’m considering changing the grips, or moving to L sit pull ups. In this workout I am also adding in a little bit of additional hamstring training (natural hamstring curls, big assist from the hands), hollow rocks, and arch body holds. This workout is a good place to add this volume as my core isn’t hit too hard by the low reps sets; however the core is not the main focus. I’m ok with these core movements lagging behind, or dropping them entirely to focus more energy on the main three movements.

Pistol squat, pull up, ring dip.

The point of the workout is to get lots of volume and to slowly increase my strength in these basic movements. I should progress slowly enough not to burn out, accumulate too much wear and tear or go too quickly leading to injury. It’s also great to have a workout that requires no planning, I just get stuck in and do it every week; I’m enjoying the predictability of it. Being able to do 10 sets of 10 for any of these movements is a high goal to aim for, but a very achievable too. A year and a half (I think) is a reasonable timeline to achieve this in, so we’ll see how I go.

So far I have gone from 5x5 to almost 8x5, progress that I’m really happy with. Each week I could possibly squeeze out a couple more reps, but I’m enjoying not running on redline, which is also good for injury prevention. Hopefully this gives you some ideas for ways you might structure this into your own training, whether short or long term. I hope it benefits you.

Lockdown Running

“What stands in the way becomes the way” – Marcus Aurelius

The New Zealand lockdown started on Wednesday 25^th March 2020 and ended on Monday 27^th April 2020 (roughly 5 weeks). Late in 2019 I had started to plan out my year of trail running for 2020. I wanted to peak for running 100km at the blue lake 24 hour event in September (post coming), and for a fastest known time (FKT) attempt of the Kaimai North-South Track in February (more details about this to come). My plan was to get in one big trail run per month. I was also choosing trails with a lot of elevation gain, ideally 1000m+.

After the FKT attempt in February I was ready to start my hard training runs in March, and was planning to run the Bell-Tahuanui track loop on Mt. Pirongia on Wednesday 25^th March (I even took the whole week off work). But this was not to be; instead on the first day of my week off it was announced we were going into lockdown, I would be stuck at home for 5 weeks.

A note on how I treated the Lockdown: We knew that the stricter the lockdown, the shorter it would be. With this in mind, I only left the property for food shopping once per week, and to walk the dog on a 2km loop once per day. While there was nothing legal to stop me from running the roads near my home, I chose not to. This isn’t some weird form of virtue signaling, or boast of how difficult my lockdown was. I just found that by deciding to stay at home, I was able to limit the moral fatigue that comes with choosing to leave the house.

If there was a hill or staircase near my house I would have found a way to accumulate 1000m of elevation gain for a training run. However, the closest hill was in an adjacent neighborhood which I deemed to far to travel to. After seeing a Frenchman who ran a marathon on his balcony I planned to run laps of my house to get in my training. I wasn’t alone is this, and many people on local running groups were planning the same, some even set up virtual events.

I paced out my course at approximately 50m (I live on a small flat section, with a small house in the middle) To run a 5k would be about 100 laps, and a 10km would be about 200 laps. My usual training run would be a 10km run on a Saturday or Sunday, so instead of a road run I substituted laps around my house.

Round and round like a hamster wheel

My start and finish point was my back deck where I kept a drink and white board, recording every 10 laps. I would run 20-25 laps in one direction before reversing to run the opposite direction. This training was harder than I expected; even when I felt like I was running fast, my fitbit/strava still recorded it as a rather slow pace. The constant turning made it difficult to ever get up to a good pace. During the lock down I ran 7km (150 laps), 4.4km (100 laps), 10.7km (200 laps) and 2.6km (50 laps). I considered running a half marathon or even full marathon, but I didn’t want to sacrifice my pistol squat training program. I can run a half/marathon anytime, but I probably won’t get another chance at my pistol squat program.

While this wasn’t amazing training I did get to run which felt great and I could call it an achievement for the day. You don’t have to be in lockdown to do this either, channel your inner crazy person and find a ridiculously short track to run far too many laps of. It’s mental training to set an odd goal which is easily achievable and you get to make a small win for the day or week.

In costume for a virtual event

My lockdown workouts

“What stands in the way becomes the way” – Marcus Aurelius

The New Zealand Covid-19 lockdown started on Wednesday 25^th March 2020 and ended on Monday 27^th April 2020 (roughly 5 weeks in level 4 lockdown). I had started a pre-planned week’s holiday on the Monday 23 March. I could see that a lockdown was probably on its way, so I started my lockdown workout that Monday. I wasn’t privy to any special information, it was a good bet were we heading to a lockdown given the way other countries were handling their more advanced outbreaks.

I saw a lockdown as an opportunity to get a lot of volume into my training, particularly to work on pistol squats which I had always struggled with. With pistol squats on the plan, I thought about what else I might add. I always enjoy pull ups and wanted to increase my max set (Here is a link to my outdoor pull up frame). With a pulling movement picked out I wanted to add a pushing movement. Push ups were an option, so were handstand push ups, but dips for me are approximately the same difficulty as pull ups, so they became the third movement. I considered adding ab wheel roll outs or hollow rocks, but thought that might end up being too much, or that the core work would negatively impact the other three movements.

Pistol squats, with and without a heel raise

With three movements chosen the next step was to plan the program - the sets, reps and days. I had Pavel’s grease the groove in mind when I decided to do one set, on the hour, for 10 hours each day (7 or 8am till 4 or 5pm). Note: I haven’t read the book for a long time, so I’m not sure my plan exactly aligns with Pavel’s, but the concept is similar. This workout plan was in addition to my normal workout routine (which I will also post about soon).  This meant I had to be fairly conservative with the total volume. This is an important point, if you are planning to add something like this hourly workout while still continuing your normal workout the volume can catch up on you quite quickly.

Pull ups and dips are a good pair

Starting on the first Monday I did 3 reps of each movement, 10 times per day Monday-Saturday, with Sunday as a rest day. This was 30 reps per day, per movement, plus whatever my regular workout was. Each set took less than 5 minutes. This first week went really well, pull ups and dips were fine, and I was starting to accumulate a lot of good pistol squats (with and without using a heel raise). Week two I increased the reps to 4 per hour, a total or 40 per day. Again things went well.

On Monday of week 3 I went up to 5 reps, 50 total per day. This is where the wheels fell off. Tuesday and Wednesday I was too burnt out for a workout of any kind, I had reached and exceeded my limit of volume in the last two weeks. After taking some time off, I tested my max pull ups on Friday and did 18, a new personal best, up from 17, so I guess the plan was a success.

Week 4 of lockdown I was able to do a full week of 5 reps each hour of pull ups and dips, 3 reps per hour pistol squats. I dropped the reps for the pistols down since I was able to switch to full sets of pistols with no heel raise, which I considered a huge win. I also felt that increasing the volume of pistol squats would be extremely difficult, and would likely lead to a lot of failed reps. I wanted the focus to be on better technique above all.

One major issue I found with this workout was increasing upper back tightness and pain. The huge volume (volume is of course relative to the individual) of pull ups was a lot of strain for my back and I was really feeling it. Not injured, just hurt.  Every house I added in some scapular and lat movements/stretches from the Gymnastic bodies program. Adding the stretches helped get the pain down and keep it at bay, but it was still a lot of volume. The other issue was the burnout in week 3. Both of these problems would have been mitigated with a slower progression, but I had planned for the 3,4,5 progression and wanted to stick with it, since the lockdown was only meant to be 4 weeks. If I could go back and change it I would try 3,3,4,4,5.

While the program didn’t go exactly to plan, I did achieve a good outcome. I got much better and more consistent at pistol squats, max pull ups went up, and I got in a lot of dip volume too. If you are ever in a situation where you can spare 2-5 minutes per hour for a few reps, maybe give this style of workout a try.

Note: Both my wife and I worked from home through lockdown.  Although we also have a toddler at home so only one of us could work at a time so the other could take care of our toddler.  My work allowed my flexibility to steal 5 minutes an hour in the garage; and my toddler often enjoys joining me in the gym. I know this won’t work for everyone, but it’s worth keeping in mind as an option or idea.

Pistol squats - Heel lift progression

Using a small heel lift

My recurring goal for several years has been to complete five sets of five good pistol squats, but I could never quite manage it. The main issue was my left ankle, which is missing some ROM after a bad break when I was 16 years old. It was always a struggle to get enough ROM in that ankle, and to link that up with the specific proprioception and muscle firing to perform a good pistol squat on that side. With consistent, focused training I would make headway slowly, but it was always difficult to lock in the progress and achieve consistent pistol squats within and between sets.

There are endless articles and videos teaching the pistol squat and various progressions, but I’m going to focus on the one small progression that I got a lot of benefit from.  I haven’t seen the specifics of this progression discussed in this way before. If you are early on in pistol squat progressions I would highly suggest looking at Al Kavadlo’s work, and would consider reading his new book on the topic (I have not read it, but his work is always good). My specific progression technique worked for me because I had sufficient strength and balance, but was missing both a small amount of ROM and the muscular control at that end range. The lack of muscular control is because I have been missing that range of motion since I was 16 years old.

What I needed to do was practice the movement as close to the perfect position as possible to grease that groove. One option often used is to hold a weight out in front of you for a counter balance, then slowly reduce the weight to remove that assistance. I could do pistols with a 2kg weight, or even a 1kg weight, but the specific adaptions didn’t feel correct to drop the weight entirely.

Instead I tried using a very small heel lift (using a heel lift is a standard suggestion by most trainers). I was able to do full pistol squats with the heel lift compensating for my missing ROM. I started with a 7mm piece of plywood and could manage several reps quite well.

I wanted a system where I could very slowly lower the heel lift and therefor reduce the assistance for the missing ROM. One option would be a deck of cards, slowly removing cards, which is something I did consider. Instead I found some scrap acrylic sheet of various thicknesses. In fact, I dropped into a local acrylic product manufacturer and asked from some samples; they pointed me to their off cut bin and said take what I like. I found pieces approximately 5mm and 3mm thick. 

Scrap acrylic and plywood - Cost $0

Using these blocks I could warm up with 7mm, and then switch to 5mm for my main sets. Later when this was easy I could switch to 3mm during the middle sets, eventually performing pistols without the use of blocks. The trick here is getting in lots of good reps, as close as possible to the desired outcome. Now I just do my first 2 reps of a workout on the 5mm block, before my main working sets with no blocks.

The right hand picture shows me using a 5mm block, the position is almost identical, but slightly easier to hold. I am able to keep a straighter back as using the block requires less ankle flexion. 

Combined with this method was collecting many reps daily over our covid-19 lockdown, which I will discuss in detail in a further post. This allowed me to get to a point where I could do 5 sets of 5 pistol squats with what I would consider good form. I am constantly working for better form (particularly a straighter back) and better control but I am very happy with my progress. If you need something to help lock in good reps of pistol squats try a small heel raise and reduce this as you get better.

A note short note on pistol squats: I think pistol squats are a movement worth doing and they are worth working towards even if you can’t do one. The end range position is something important to train as it often comes up in nature (particularly when hiking or climbing in rugged environments). I’m not worried about a rounded back during pistol squats, as the back isn’t loaded, though I think it’s worth working to reduce the amount of flection. I think heavy back squats are great if you have access to the equipment and can do them safely.  I train both back squats and pistol squats.

If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments.

I’m Back

Yes, that’s right, I’m back to writing after nearly three and a half years off.

From a 40km 'training' run

I guess I should explain the name change first. The old name (Back to primal) was never something I felt suited me, but it was the only name I could think of at the time which put together some of the themes in my thoughts. Both the natural method and a more ancestral view of health and fitness (Paleo/primal diets etc) were central to my journey at that stage. While I still feel strongly connected to these two themes, they are less central to my own path now; not to say they won’t take a greater role again in the future.

For a long time now I have thought of myself as an enthusiastic amateur (so much easier to say than to spell for a dyslexic like myself). I love getting stuck into a topic or pursuit as an amateur. I’m there to have fun, improve myself and learn new things, without needing to compete at a high level or ever be the best at a thing. This is how I feel about gymnastic strength training, powerlifting, trail running and Brazilian jiu jitsu. So the change of name makes it a bit easier for me to write about these different topics, without feeling like I have to keep tying them back to the natural method or ancestral health and fitness.

So, what have I been up to for the last three years? The biggest change in my life has been having a child (figure of speech, really it was my wife who had the baby). As of writing (Jan 2021) I have a two and a half year old daughter.  I have spent the last three years trying to figure out what my new ‘normal’ routine is before everything changes on me as our child grows.

So with that said the last three years have been a strange time for me fitness wise. I have continued to train as I can, with the time and energy available to me. I have some posts to write discussing what I chose to focus on, and the how and why of it. I have been enjoying trail running, the more difficult the better, including 24 hour and ultra distance events (as an enthusiastic amateur).  I’ve been able to maintain, or slightly increase my general strength, I can knock out good sets of 5 pistol squats, my back squat is the best it has ever been (5x5 at 120kg) and a max set of 18 pull ups. While these numbers are not in any way ‘impressive’ I consider them to be a good base level of strength for a generalist.  I also received my blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu (I will mention this very infrequently; as a blue belt I have very little of value to add to the internet about jiu jitsu other than to say it is well worth trying out).

Going forward, I’ll write up some of the more interesting things I been up to in the last few years and will continue chronicling my trail running and hiking adventures. I like to test my limits in the most extreme ways that I can, so expect to see fastest-know-time attempts and challenge runs that I set for myself, as well as the training and preparation for these challenges. I also have a few more homemade pieces of equipment I have made, which I will write posts on.

Stay tuned from more regular posts, weekly is the plan but I’ll see how that goes.

Hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit