Kettle Bells always seemed like a tool that I have been really interested in using. As I’m not aiming to become The Hulk chest pressing colossal amounts has never been my main aim. The more training I do the more I realise how vital strength, explosive power, speed and flexibility are all equally important, not just in reflection of the body I am aiming for (which I guess is that perfect balance) but mainly as an athlete and just to be healthy.

All of these things originate from one area. Your core. If your core isn’t strong then your not going to be powerful, or flexible, or fast. I do massive amounts of core excercies at the gym in every session now however my core excercises and my strength building exercises are quite seperate.

I think this is where kettle bells could step in. They bridge that gap between building general strength in your arms, chest, shoulders etc whilst I think being a fantastic core workout. Over the coming weeks this is definitely going to be something that I learn more about. so many athletes (such as boxers) seem to like them they must be doing something good.

Training has been going well recently. The only major thing to note is that I (stupidly) have been focusing a bit too much on weights and not enough on cardio. It’s so so easy to fall into a “train one body part a day” type of routine. Not having it! Need to make sure I’m doing at least 30 mins of cardio every day. That’s my goal this week at least.
Quite pleased with todays picture. One thing of note is that my cheat day has played havoc with my skin. Seems to every week. Besides this I am happy with the progress made, just need to lose a bit more fat.

There are a couple of videos on YouTube that show Rain training and I thought it would be good to have these videos as a reference here.  I can then watch them and analyse them to find new exercises that should hopefully help to achieve the body I’m looking for. After each video I will list all the exercises I see him performing. Obviously I’m no expert so this shouldn’t be taken as a “workout” but more of as a discovery into what excercises he used.

Here is Video#1

I did like the original Bueno theme, it was nice and simple, very diary-like and to the point however after a couple of months of looking at it it was beginning to bore me. Thought we needed a nice, clean, fresh look.

In the future I want to add an image gallery that makes it much easier to navigate and see each of the photo’s in chronological order, side by side. I think eventually a newsletter might also be cool to let you know what i’ve been up to. We shall see.

What do you think?

Here is Photo 10. Overall I can see an improvement but there is still a long long way to go yet. Need to turn up the cardio and lose some more fat. Still think I’m probably on target for it taking 52 weeks to get the body I want

I could possibly start using bulk protein powder and mix it up with different pre and post workout shakes but in all honesty I don’t have the time, inclination or knowledge to do that properly.

For the price you really can’t beat it. A friend of mine is on Maximuscle’s Cyclone but I just can’t afford that (£90/month for two shakes a day) and the taste is supposed to be awful.

This time however I did shop around a bit instead of buying straight from Monster Supplements.

I found a fantastic ebay store that offered two 2kg tubs, any flavour, 24 hour courier delivery (it came in approx 17 hours from time of purchase), plus a free gift (two protein bars) and a decent maximuscle-esque shaker all for £59.99.

For once I opted to try some different flavours and went for Strawberry and Double Chocolate, they both taste great although I probably do prefer Chocolate Orange. It’s nice to have a bit of variety. I did wonder how a shake could be “double” chocolate and for the record, yes, as expected, it’s just chocolate however I guess normal chocolate gives you a bit more flexibility to mix it with other things than chocolate orange.

Overall I have been pleased with the results I have gained from pHd synergy. Don’t fix what aint broken right? I look forward to getting through these two containers.

As soon as I got home I began watching youtube videos to help improve my technique (once i get a bee in my bonnet…). Beneath is the video that I found most useful to generally help you improve, not that I’ve tried it yet but next time I will. It’s simple, makes sense and highlights some of the most common pitfalls of front crawl.

Watch it and get improving your technique NOW!