Results matching “Bird”

If you've ever watched a Bruce Lee film and marveled at his strength, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility or muscularity, this book should take pride of place in your collection. Unlike many other writings covering everything from Lee's training methods to nutrition, this book is based not on the recollections of people around him; but on Lee's own notes.

1. The number of devices he designed (many of which are still in use - such as the hand and forearm equipment used in gyms throughout the world, just look at the WSB videos) and new exercise methods is astonishing. He employed ideas such as Static Contraction, Interval Training, PHA (a forerunner of Circuit Training) as well as many of the bodyweight exercises Matt Furey has been trying to stamp his name all over in recent years.
2. The second is that despite clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of his training - and there are few who would question his physical prowess - he has remained unequalled for over 30 years.

One chapter of the book came as a bit of a surprise - that on nutrition. After stating that Lee didn't spend time studying up on nutrition (largely leaving things to Linda), it covers a few commonsense principles that guided their diets. In fact, without going to great lengths, Lee's diet was quite healthy by current standards.

The surprise was the fact that between the making of Way of the Dragon (known as Return of the Dragon in the US) and Enter the Dragon there was a marked change in physical appearance (much lower bodyfat), and yet there was no change in his diet. The only changes were in the training routines during this time.

As for the book itself, it is a large, high quality volume replete with photos showing Lee training, acting or giving demonstrations. These alone are a great source of inspiration.

You may have noticed that the tree is temporarily unavailable. Unfortunately this is a result of recent attacks from the SunTzu worm, and I've taken it down for a few days whilst I look at other ways to put the information back online.

For anyone seeking information on the Bird - or other - families mentioned on this site, all of the data is certainly still available. Drop me a line.

You may have noticed that the tree is temporarily unavailable. Unfortunately this is a result of recent attacks from the SunTzu worm, and I've taken it down for a few days whilst I look at other ways to put the information back online.

For anyone seeking information on the Bird - or other - families mentioned on this site, all of the data is certainly still available. Drop me a line.

Another Christmas treat - once again from Finland - decided to fill the kitchen this morning. Joulutortut, or Christmas stars, are pastries with plum jam that seem to go well with almost everything. Despite the large production line, eating them only took a matter of minutes. At least it seemed that way afterward.

To make the jam (for the filling) :

100 ml pitted prunes (dried plums)
100 ml water
50 ml vanilla sugar
pinch cinnamon

Soak the prunes well (overnight if you have time), add the sugar, water and spice and bring to the boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 mins.

The pastries themselves are simply sheets of puff cut into 9 equal squares. Cut a Maltese cross into each square (the pictures here will show you what I mean) and put a spoonful of jam in the centre. Fold the corners in to the centre (making the star shapes), brush with a little milk and pop into the oven at about 225° for 10 minutes or so.

Be warned - make a large batch. These are great for snacks.

For a while now I've been buying organic fruit and veg at least some of the time. Once it becomes popular (as I'm sure it will be - just look at the range of organic milk now available), it'll become cheaper; and a bit more reasonable. So for now, a few items at a time is enough.

This morning my flatmate (housemate I guess, but that sounds a bit weird) mentioned that buying organic fruit and vegetables online is now reasonably cheap. Certainly better than current supermarket offerings. Has anyone already tried this? I'm currently looking at Organics 4U (www.organics-4u.co.uk - a video (.mov, 27mb) shows samples of some of the boxes) and Organic Vitality (www.organicvitality.co.uk). Looks good.

It all started last week when Alberto mentioned the unusually named YTWLs. Whilst googling to find out exactly what these were I stumbled across the article '8 weeks to monster shoulders' by Alwyn Cosgrove and Chad Waterbury on T-nation. A good read.

Trying out the flexibility tests - particularly the one involving touching fists behind the back (or coming somewhere near it) I discovered that a) I'm not equally flexible on each shoulder, and b) it's much more painful doing the left arm over / right arm under test. I suspect I'll need to address this difference before adding any real strength to the shoulders.

The pain (only whilst doing the test) is at the base of the right anterior deltoid, and there are several ways to stretch this (Exrx proves its worth yet again). My current thinking is to add a little deltoid stretching to the end of current bench workouts; and to add the serious shoulder strengthening to the workouts after a few weeks or so. The ROM isn't too bad at the moment - I simply want to attain the same flexibility on each side (and get rid of any pain in the process) before I start strengthening things.

On to the workout itself. A busy weekend gave the lat a chance to recover properly, and this morning I ended up doing a quick ME BENCH session. Only a day behind schedule - will no doubt catch up tomorrow.

Of the two major exercises the first is a combination I haven't really played with : close grip benching with a low incline. This warmed up the triceps and shoulders nicely for the subsequent seated half presses, and a new PR came along for the ride.

Finished up with a bit of anterior deltoid stretching - I'm keen to see whether this will have much impact over the next couple of months.

Bench press (15°, close grip) 2×20@20/44. 2×10@30/66, 10@40/88, 8@50/110, 5@60/132
Seated half press 4×12@40/88

Despite having been in Glasgow for a few months now, I left it until today to begin the quest for a decent Chinese supermarket. I think the final straw came the other night when I grabbed a few things for my first batch of Glögi (a Scandinavian mulled wine), and found myself buying tiny amounts of cloves, cinnamon sticks, almonds etc (if anyone wants to knock up a batch, the recipe is below) from a nearby - large - supermarket.

I was directed to the Chung Ying near Glasgow's Caledonian University (which happens to be just far enough from the main shopping area to be largely tourist-free) - an excellent find. Stocking up on spices turned out to be much cheaper than attempting the same thing in any of the larger chains; not to mention the fact that the quantities of each item had increased enormously.

It still seems as though the more I eat, the better and cheaper the food becomes. Perfect.

Now, a recipe for Glögi:

1.5 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
.5 cup raisins
1 bottle red wine
2 lemons, juiced
1 orange, juiced
.25 cup sliced almonds

In a large pot, mix water, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and raisins. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. Gradually heat through (but don't bring it back to the boil). Ladel into cups (avoiding the larger items) and add a few of the boiled raisins and the almonds. Enjoy.

NB : This was first suggested by a Finnish friend of mine, who was mildly surprised that I'd boiled the raisins. If any Finns out there (not mentioning any names) have an opinion on boiling/not boiling the raisins, I'd love to hear it. Either way, it's great on these slightly cool winter evenings.

What's this site all about?

A couple of years ago I got a bit of a surprise when an old man ran past me down a flight of stairs (admittedly there was a Bingo hall near the bottom of them). Shocked to discover just how unfit I'd become, I set about getting myself into some sort of shape.

After a couple of weeks enduring mind-numbing stints on a stationary cycle, I invested in a bench, bar and a small pile of plates. I also grabbed a copy of Mens Fitness (for the first and last time) as it had a 10 week routine for those just starting out.

Before starting, I went through the routine and changed a few things to exercises that I could do with the equipment I had (for example, all of the dumbbell things were out). I decided not to follow the suggested diet, instead simply trying to eat reasonably cleanly and in the same calorie ranges as the magazine suggested.

10 weeks later I was bigger, stronger and well and truly hooked. The main benefit - in my eyes at least - was the strength, and I started reading about Powerlifting. The magazine hadn't mentioned exotic things like box squats and rack pulls, in fact there wasn't even a word about a power rack; and I turned to my trusty friend, Google.

Whilst trying to find out exactly what box squats were I came across Kris Lindqvist's blog 'Under the Bar' and was amazed to find that not only had someone answered any number of questions I already had, but generated a wealth of new ones. An incredible feeling.

Gradually my home gym evolved, now consisting of a rack, Olympic bar & plates, dumbbells, and of course the original bench and weight set. The workouts themselves have gone through a constant process of refinement, but have been based on the WSB 4-day-per-week template since shortly after I finished the original 10 week course. Lifting is now much more than a 10-week thing - it's a permanent part of my life.

There's an empty space in the cupboard beside the breakfast cereals. Normally it's home to a large container of protein powder (usually a mix from ISO, a local sports nutrition shop); it's now simply marking time whilst I debate the real benefits of protein shakes.

I'm not for a minute suggesting that I'm already getting too much protein, or that protein shakes are bad for you or any of the other nonsense I've heard over the past couple of years. Simply that the main reason for drinking shakes rather than eating high-protein foods seems to be one of convenience. However, with the kitchen easily coming in as my favourite room in any house, that argument seems a little misplaced.

I'm curious as to just how much emphasis everyone else puts on protein supplements as opposed to real food.

Yesterday I decided to grab myself a hot water bottle as a temporary hand warmer for the garage. After all, it's only the iron that gets really cold overnight. Instead I ended up grabbing a small heat pack; dropping it into boiling water for a few minutes heats up the gel inside for about an hour. Perfect for a winter workout.

Today's session was really just testing my bench (curious as to any short-term loss from not doing it for a while), as well as making sure there was enough room to do things like bent rows and shrugs. Apart from the slightly unusual feeling of straddling the bench whilst doing them (there really isn't anywhere else for it to go) everything was fine. I suspect I've lost 3-5kg on the bench - which will hopefully be quickly recaptured.

Bench press 20@20/44, 10@40/88, 5@50/110, 5@60/132, 5@70/154, 3@75/165
Bent row 4×8@60/132
Shrug 20@60/132, 3×10@90/198