Practising what you preach

The first time I met someone who told me they did the workouts in the magazine, I was genuinely shocked. I don’t know why. I mean, they’re good stuff. The training advice we present is contemporary, functional and most of all, effective.

Still, when they told me they followed the workouts, I couldn’t help mask my surprise. I guess it was more that someone actually read them. It still weirds me out when people tell me about stuff they’ve read in the magazine. I’m like, ‘yeah, I know, I probably wrote it’.

We just finished Issue 36 of the mag, it went off to print yesterday, and is out on sale next week (look out for it, it’s a bloody good one this month, but then I say that every month. Although it really is good). I’m working on Issue 37 of the magazine at the moment. That’s the one that goes on sale in early April.

I got an email from Barry Gibson not so long ago with his one of his latest sadistic, *ahem* sorry, effective training routines. It used a powerbag (or a home-made sandbag), something I have access to. I actually asked Barry to do his article on that particular piece of kit, as we received one into the office not so long ago and I asked him to review it, expecting him to thoroughly beast it. He did, and he reported good things, so killing two birds with one stone, it made sense that he do a training article on it too.

The powerbag

So I went into the gym tonight, complex written out and in hand, and faced Barry’s sandbag challenge. The program goes like this:

· Burpee clean and press x 8
· Zercher squat x 8
· Shouldering x 8 (4 reps per side)
· Zercher lunge x 8 (4 reps per leg)
· High pull x 8
· Floor Press x 8
· Body lock hold and carry x 100m

You do the complex for time, treating the above as one round with a minute rest between rounds. I managed three rounds, with my time for each round coming in at an average of about 3.15.

I’d like to thank you now Barry. My legs, back and arms hurt. In a good way, of course.

Seeing as I’d spent an hour doing BJJ then the above powerbag complex, I thought I’d earned myself a treat. David Swann, our resident chef-fighter and author of our fantastic monthly recipes, also available in the ‘Performance’ section, sent in a really interesting recipe, again for Issue 37. When I saw it, the first thing I asked Dave was “Isn’t that a bit naughty?” “I suppose it is,” he said. It’s a cheeky Chorizo Pasta dish that isn’t exactly low on calories but is high in taste. Perfect for a post-deadline celebration or when you’re not in fight preparation.

The oh-so-tasty Chorizo Pasta dish

I’ll admit I look at David’s recipes each month (and of course the awesome photos by his dad Robert Swann) and generally think, “mmmm I’d love to try that”. For some reason, I never do. I like simple to cook dishes that I don’t need to think about.

So seeing as I’d given Barry’s complex a go, I thought I’d really go the whole hog and try cooking Dave’s recipe. And man oh man, am I glad I did. Sure, it was one hell of a guilty pleasure (especially as I washed it down with a large glass of red), but it tasted goooood!

So there you have it. We do practise what we preach here at Fighters Only.

Originally posted over at the Fighters Only blog – Go check it out!