Leg Day light work

Stormy and muggy day today in the great NW. Quite unusual for this time of year, but I will take the cooler weather given it was about 82* in my room this morning at 2 AM. 

Legs are hurting today from the workout yesterday. It’s crazy to me how much of a difference missing a leg session or two makes. A lot of people inquire about what I do for leg day at the gym so I figured I should probably start to keeping track of it (maybe there is value there I can eventually monetize).

Before I go into further detail let me explain three things: 

1) I've been doing this consistently for the past 7 years. I don't use a belt, pads, straps, braces etc... I started with proper form at lower weights and have worked my way up from there.
2) I use a box when squatting to help control how low I go. I tend to go more than parallel without the help of a box so using one helps keep me at 90*. When I increase weights I place a 35 LB plate on the top to give me an extra inch or two of leverage, which makes quite a difference. 
3) The only supplements I take are BCAA's or amino acids, because I typically lift on an empty stomach, and occasionally creatine, although not in a while. 

So here is what a typical leg day for me looks like:

Squats -

•  1x5 @ 135 

Box Squats - 

• 1x3 @225
• 1x3 @295
• 1x3 @ 315 
• 1x3 @ 365

Box Squats with 35lb plate -

• 1x3 @ 385 
• 1x3 @ 405 
• 1x2 @ 405 

Cool down - Box squats (no plate)

• 1x5 @ 315 
• 1x5 @ 225

 Hamstring Curls 

• 4x5 each leg @95 lbs 

Various Plyometrics (will explain these in more detail in the near future) 

So as you can see, it's nothing too complicated. Sometimes I feel like people make things like getting in shape to be so complex when in reality it’s not at all. I like to think that L.E.S. is more, and by LES I mean lift, eat, sleep, and repeat. If you have those things in check, it’s tough to oppress results. 

-CJ 

PS: Here is why people tend to ask me about what I do for leg day-

L.E.S. is More

I’d like to set this up as a little intro into a 3-part series called “L.E.S is More”

L.E.S is a simple acronym for Lift, Eat, Sleep, or as I’d like to think, the bare essentials of getting into shape or living a healthy lifestyle. 

In today’s world we are able to access much more information than we were 10-20 years ago thanks to advances in online capabilities. Why this can be a good thing, it can also lead to information overload. How do we know what is healthy? What lifting method works the best? What supplement will help me do X & Y? With all the new information available, it seems we tend to forget the basic things that built the platform for those questions to even be asked. This is why I encourage people to step away from the overload and focus on the three most crucial elements to any successful body or lifestyle transformation.

Lift. Eat. Sleep. 

Each subsequent post will go into a little more detail of how LES can actually be more, and how to take advantage of each component to achieve maximal results.

Trust me; I used to be that guy on the other side, trying to find the latest supplement or latest and greatest routine. It wasn’t until I stepped away and really thought about what my goal was. I wasn’t training to be the next Ronnie Coleman or Bo Jackson; I just wanted to maximize what my body could do for my personal satisfaction. Subsequently I realized the differences between doing those special routines and taking those magic pills/powders are clearly immaterial & PFW (s/o to my fellow accountant’s lol). 

So please stay tuned and on the lookout for the next couple posts. Step away from the information overload, assess what your true goals are, and focus on the basics of: Lifting, Eating, and Sleeping. Give it some time and hopefully you will be achieving those goals like I am…

Valentines Day #ForeverAlone Travel Workout

I definitely should have made sure to post this actually on Valentine’s Day but after I got off work, and through the workout I had to pack for my flight back to Portland today. 

Given yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I was in Missoula without a Valentine, I thought the name would be jokingly fitting in a few ways:

1. It’s Valentine’s Day, without a date, on the road, safe to say that "forever alone" feeling was probably present.
2. After actually finishing this workout, I'd prefer to be alone to give myself some time to catch my breath and get some blood back in my brain.
3. By finishing the workout itself you put yourself one step closer to being in better shape, boosting your confidence and resulting in a newer self to increase ones chances of not ending up forever alone. 

Without further ado, the Forever Lonely Valentine’s Day Workout:

4 Rounds Total 

• 100 Air Squats 
• 75 Sit ups 
• 50 Sky Jumps 
• 25 Pushups 
• 20 Rear 
• 10 Hand Stand Pushups 
• Run 1/4 mile on the treadmill. 

Overall it’s a tough but satisfying workout. Like I mentioned before, not a lot of Hotels will have the ample amount of free weights so to counteract this, workouts must have and maintain a high intensity.

Additionally Montana was fun for what it was. I'm not sure if I would go out of my way to comeback aside from seeing Yellowstone, but it was nice to be able to cross it off the list. Not sure I agree with a lot of the locals who told me it was just like Portland (LOL) but they were good people none the less. Although I think this picture would be a good indicator of how quiet this place actually is:

-Colin

Travel Workout - Chest

Being physically fit is very important to me. Working full time now, I strongly believe that being physically fit and mentally fit are highly correlated. Growing up and playing sports though high school, the stubbornness in me neglected lifting weights for the sheer fact that I was able to rely on natural talent and felt as if I didn't need to do anything more because I still achieved All-League and All-State honors in my respective sports.

Man, how far I have come from my 16 year old self...

Currently I'm in Missoula, MT helping out the Montana office because they are a little short on staff this time of year. I was able to fly down to Denver for the weekend and experience my first two Crossfit workouts at Crossfit LoDo in Denver, CO. I will give you my overall impression on Crossfit later but here is a chest workout I did this morning in the hotel fitness room:

4 Rounds as fast as you can of:

• 10 Dumbbell Bench presses (I used 50 lb DB's as that's as high as they go)
• 25 push ups 
• 20 Sky's (Jumping high as you can off  2 feet and exploding back up as soon as your feet hit the ground)
• 10 Standing Cable flys (25 lbs each side)
• 10 Burpees 
• 1/4 Mile on the treadmill on highest speed 

Overall it was a great workout and worked up a solid sweat to get me feeling right to start the day. Personally, there is nothing better than working up a sweat before most people get out of bed.

The key to workouts like these, using more body weight than free weights is to keep the tempo and intensity high. I don't think I fully caught my breath until I was back in my room getting ready for the day ahead. Its hard to do because you have to push yourself when nobody else is watching, but once you do it a few times and see that you do in fact survive and begin to see results it can become very addicting.

" Ain't nothing to it, but to do it"
                       
-Colin

Welcome

I'd like to think of this post as my first real introduction to this blog and site. Over the past year or so I have been gathering information, compiling my thoughts and trying to find something that I could substantiate and put into words on paper. It wasn't until this past weekend that I realized that I was possibly over thinking what this "should" all be about.

This is Peakless.

Peakless is about always trying to improve something in your life one step at a time.

We ALL know what we aren't happy about in our lives, and to some extent we know what we need to do (If not then that's another story but we will eventually get around to that). But for whatever reason, stepping outside of our comfort zone and putting the energy into making changes or improvements are more difficult than we realize and we stop short because it seems like its going to become more work than its actually worth.

I've had my internal struggles, just like anyone else. Nothing in life is promised, but we can control the way we handle certain situations or the effort/energy we put into different tasks.

So here we are. I am finally about to quit delaying this and make the changes I know I've needed to make the past year or so of contemplation.

So with all that said I'd like to spend the next posts telling you more about myself and the things that I plan to accomplish in the near future and the things I would love to help you accomplish in the near future as well.

-Colin