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Injury Disclaimer:
Before beginning any strenuous exercise program consult your physician. Drewblet and the entire ZSDW disclaim any liability, personal or professional, resulting from the misapplication of any of the training procedures described in this publication. If at any time you feel short of breath, chest pain or significant discomfort, stop and consult your doctor. Start slowly and use common sense when exercising. Is gud disclaimer, nohn?

Intro:

Hello, and welcome to Drewblet’s Fitness Centre! Here, we tell you about all sorts of exercises, teach you some nutritional facts, and teach you some different workouts! Yay!

AHEM! So. Well. Um. . . anyway, this gym is super! Ready to join? Here’s your membership card!

ACTUALITY: This page, as the door greeter mentioned, will list quite a few exercises, move on to routines, and also talk about diet. Most of the things you hear about dieting is utter bullocks (If you’re up on your UK English, you should know this. You get the idea, though.). Most of the diets are bullocks, too. I look at it realistically, or at least I hope so.

THIS PAGE IS ENTIRELY BODY-WEIGHT WORKOUTS. NO EQUIPMENT REQUIRED. Only a pull-up bar, if you want it, but you could just go to a playground when there’s no one there and use the jungle-gym, or one of the pull-up bars that many parks now have built in. I do have a pull-up bar, at any rate, so I'm special.

I lost 30 pounds (and got me a "zesty bod," to quote Richard Simmons) on this info, but I also added some other stuff that I didn’t know at the time, so not necessarily this info.

Section I – Exercises:

This section is about various exercises you can do. A later section will cover workouts (the combination of exercises that you undergo).

Section I – I – Exercise Preamble:

These exercises provide a full body challenge that can be tailored to fit your individual goals, fitness level and schedule. Practice each exercise slowly to get the hang of it and ensure proper form prior to including it in your routine. If at any time you feel pain, stop immediately and consult your physician. There’s ‘the burn,’ and then there’s pain. Spend at least 5 to 10 minutes warming up prior to commencing vigorous exercise. Failure to do so may result in injury. I learned this the hard way, and hog-blammit, did it hurt. Later on, I’ll do a full page dedicated to stretches, although I do cover some stretches on this page.

Some of the terms I’ll use are:

Rep (Repetition): When you have completed a motion or range of motions that are involved in a particular exercise.

Set: A series of repetitions done without rest.
Muscle Failure: The inability to do another repetition of the exercise using correct form.

Negative Repetition: When you can no longer complete the exercise using correct form, you break form to reduce the workload and do a few extra reps.

Two Count & Four Count Exercise: Some of the exercises are designated as “4 count,” while others are 2 count. The jumping jack is one of these. This is a term that defines the proper rhythm for a series of movements. For example, with a 4 count exercise count with each movement out loud: 1, 2, 3, 1; 1, 2, 3, 2; 1, 2, 3, 3; etc. for the desired number of reps. For a 2 Count exercise, the count would be 1, 1; 1, 2; 1, 3; etc. So, when I tell you to do 10 jumping jacks, I mean do 10 groups of 4 jumping jacks, so what I really mean is for you to do 40 jumping jacks. A’ite?

Deck: The surface that you’re exercising on.

Section I – II – Warm-ups:

You need to do warm-ups to get your heart rate up (can’t lose weight if your heart rate ain’t up), release endorphins, and start up with releasing the growth hormone. The growth hormone is pivotal to muscle development;. As a matter of fact, according to ‘Men’s Health’ magazine, the growth hormone accounted for 50% of muscle development in weight trainers during a 20-day testing period. Also, if you’re a teen starting on exercise (I were), it won’t necessarily stunt your growth like all the doctors (not the doctor-doctors, just the kind where you don’t have to go to school.) want you to think will happen.

Also, try to think of warming up as warming up some rubber, and think of your muscles as that rubber. Cold rubber not stretchy, it breakum, and so can your muscles. Rubber has to be warm in order to do what it does best.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to do all these warm-ups at once.

Here are some, guess what, warm-ups:

The Jumping Jack (4 count):

I betcha remember this one from PE (physical education), doncha? For those unfamiliar, what you do is stand up with your arms at your sides and your feet together. Then jump up and, all in one motion, spread your legs your legs out and move your arms up over your head, touching your fingers. After that, jump up again, and return to the starting position to complete one rep. Remember, though, that this is a 4 count exercise.

Half Jumping Jack (4 count):

Basically the same as the traditional jumping jack, but, instead of bringing your arms over your head, you stop them when they’re about horizontal.

Fore and Afts (4 count):

Stand straight up, and, with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands on your hips, slowly bend forward. Once you’ve gone as far as you can in that direction, slowly straighten back up and then bend backwards, stretching your abs as you do so. So, (1) straight, (2) bent over, (3) straight, (4) bent backwards. A variation of this is putting your hands behind your head, elbows pointing out, rather than on your hips.

Trunk Side Stretch (4 count):

Put your arms behind your head, with your hands grasping the opposite elbow. For some people (like me) your arms are too long to go behind your head and stay there, so over the head is no problem at all. Wherever you have your arms, put your legs shoulder width apart and slowly bend to the right, stretching your side. Straighten up, and then bend to the left. Straighten up one more time to finish a rep.

Up, Back, and Over:

Stand straight up, hold your arms at your side, and put your feet shoulder-width apart. Quickly swing your arms upward, reaching for the roof, and stand on the balls of your feet, with the feeling of stretching your entire body. Then, swing your arms downwards and circle them behind yourself as high as you can get them, bending over slightly and coming back down on your feet. After that, swing your arms back over your head, feet still flat, and then go back to the starting position to finish a rep. This one is a good stretch.

Swordsman Stretch:

Starting with your feet about shoulder width apart, step forward with your left foot as far as comfortably possible. Your forward knee should be bent and your rear leg straight. With your left leg forward, raise your right arm to the front so it’s parallel to the deck, and place your left straight out behind you. With a feeling of simultaneously pushing with palms to the front and rear, stretch your torso. Shift to the rear, reversing foot and arm position and repeat.

Cobra Stretch

Lay flat on your stomach in a relaxed posed with your arms by your side. Bring your palms up below your shoulders and slowly push up arching the back and working your belly towards the floor. Slowly turn your head to the left, then the right and return to starting position. The entire evolution should take at a minimum of thirty seconds.

Trunk Twisters (4 count):

From a sitting or standing position, place your hands behind your head with the elbows pointed out to the sides. Twist your torso to the left as far as it will go, return to the front, twist to the right as far as you can then return to the front to complete one repetition.

Windmills (4 count):

With your arms extended to the sides and feet about twice shoulder width apart, bend down and touch your right hand to your left foot. Pause, and return to starting position. Work the next side by touching your right foot with your left hand. Return to start to complete the repetition. Don’t bounce while stretching.

Bent Over Windmills (2 count):

With your feet twice shoulder width apart, bend over until your torso is parallel to the deck. Extend your arms to the side. While staying in a bent over position, alternate touching opposite hand to the opposite foot
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Section I – III – Chest, Arms, and Shoulders (Upper Body):

The Pushup:

Ah, the almighty pushup. Who the heck doesn’t know how to do this? Oh, why not, I’ll tell you anyway. Place your hands flat on the deck shoulder-width apart, feet together, back straight. Now, in a steady, controlled fashion, push yourself up until your arms are straight. Once your arms are straight, lower yourself in another steady, controlled fashion. Keep on going down until your chest has touched the deck, which is the starting position. That was just a rep. A variation of this would be to rest your fingers on the deck rather than the whole hand. This would build up finger strength, but the problem is that it's hella hard to start off with

REMEMBER: A beginner doesn’t have to worry about doing it his way; they can just put their knees on the deck, and, when they’ve built up their strength, move on to their feet.

Triceps Pushups:

This puts a higher amount of pressure on the triceps muscle, which is located on the back of the arm. Make an L shape with your pointer finger and your thumb. Kay? Now, if you didn’t have your other fingers out, put them out. Form a triangle by touching the tips of the pointers and thumbs together on both hands. This is what you put on the deck. Get it? So, form a /\ with your two hands and, rather than just putting your hands down, put them down in that position. If you still don’t get it, read the description again.

Pull-ups:

Just reach up, grab onto a bar, palms facing forward, shoulder width apart, and pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar. Slowly let yourself down to finish the rep. If your hands are facing towards you, then it’s called a chin-up, or a reverse pull-up. A wide grip pull-up is a pull-up with your hands at about twice shoulder-width apart, working your muscles differently.

Elevated Pushups:

To work you chest in a different way, do an elevated pushup, which is just a normal pushup with your feet elevated. They can be put up on a chair, a coffee table, stairs, etc. In my opinion, these are easier that classic pushups, but they might be harder for you.

Wide Arm Pushups:

Same as a normal pushup except place your palms on the ground at wider than shoulder width apart. Places increase emphasis on the inner chest.

Plyrometric Pushups:

This is fairly advanced, but good for developing your explosive (sudden movement) abilities. So, start off with a normal pushup, but start off in the pushed-up position. Slowly lower yourself as usual, but when you reach the ground, explode upwards. Don’t just push; push as hard as you can. At the top, your hands should be off the ground. You don’t gotta, but it can be a thrill beyond words to clap when your hands clear the ground, or to tap your chest. When your come into contact with the ground, control your descent, decelerating. When your chest reaches the ground, that was a rep.

High Jack, High Jill (4 count):

A great stretching exercise that works the chest. Start with both hands lightly clenched, with one arm over you head, and other buy your hips. Using a rapid pulling motion, simultaneously pull both arms to the rear stretching your chest. Pull twice on one side, then switch sides and pull twice to complete a single rep.

Press, Press, Fling:

Place your arms to the front parallel to the deck with your palms facing down. Vigorously pull your elbows to the rear twice in rapid succession with a feeling of stretching the center of your chest. At the beginning of the third movement, turn your palms up and throw your arms to the rear with a feeling of pushing your chest forward. Simultaneously come up on the balls of your feet. Return to the starting position to complete the rep.

Shoulder Rotation to Side:

Fully extend your arms, straight out, with the sides facing the deck. Rotate your arms forward in small circles with the palms facing down. Halfway through the allotted time, reverse the circles and rotate your arms to the rear, with the palms facing up.

Shoulder Rotation to Front:

Fully extend your arms to the front, with the undersides parallel to the deck. Rotate your arms toward each other in small circles with the palms facing down. Halfway through the allotted time, reverse the circles and rotate your arms away from each other, with the palms facing up.

Tiger Pushups:

A great exercise known by lots of different names. Start in a modified push up position with your legs spread about twice shoulder width apart, and your butt up in the air. Your hands are a closer to your feet than in a normal pushup. Keeping your buttocks in the air, start a sweeping motion towards the space between your hands by touching your forehead followed by your chest to the deck. Continue your forward momentum and push your chest up and forward through your hands straightening your arms. Return to the starting position. It’s kinda like a wave motion.


Section I – IV – Abdominal Exercises:

REMEMBER THIS: Don’t interlock your fingers behind your head when doing abdominal exercises. Doing so might increase the chances of a neck injury.

Lower Abs:

Reverse Crunch

Start by lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet about six inches off the deck. Place your hands by your side and roll your pelvis towards your ribcage in a slow controlled manner, bringing your knees up over your chest as far as you can. Keep your upper body straight. Your hips should rise slightly off the floor. Return to starting position to complete the repetition.

Hip Thrust

Lie on your back with your hands by your side and your legs straight up. Using as much of your abdominal muscles as you can, thrust your hips off the ground. The feeling is as if you’re trying to touch the ceiling with your feet. Lower your hips to the floor to complete the repetition. Don’t worry if you can’t keep your legs perfectly straight.

The Corkscrew

Same basic movement as the “Hip Thrust,” except during the thrust, alternate twisting you legs to the left and right in a corkscrew like motion.

Reverse Crunch/Hip Thrust

This exercise combines the Reverse Crunch with Hip Thrust. Execute the first part of the Reverse Crunch, as your knees reach the top of the stroke, press your feet towards the ceiling executing a Hip Thrust. Upon lowering your hips, Bend our knees and return to the starting position of the Reverse Crunch, completing the repetition.

Flutter Kicks (Four Count Exercise)

Start on your back, with both feet six inches off the deck. Raise one foot in the air to a 45 Degree angle and begin alternating your feet, don’t allow your feet to touch the floor.

In Board/Out board

Start on your back with feet six inches in the air. Keeping your legs straight, raise both feet to a 45 Degree angle. At the top, spread both legs out the side and return to the starting position in a circular motion. After completing one set of going one way, reverse the motion for same number of reps.

Good Morning, Darlings

Start on your back with feet six inches in the air. Keeping your legs straight, spread your legs out to the side keeping them parallel to the deck. Return to starting position to complete the rep.

Obliques:
‘What the heck are the “obliques” supposed to be?’ Is a common question. It certainly was mine. The oblique muscles are those muscles located on the side of your abdomen. So, there are those muscles that you always see at the front, the ‘six pack’ muscles, and then there are the muscles on either side of them: the obliques. Yup.

Cross Leg Crunch

Start on your back with your knees bent and your right leg crossed over your left and the foot resting just below the knee. Place your left hand by your left ear with the elbow out. Concentrate on using your abs and raise and twist your left elbow to the right knee. Lower to the floor and repeat for the required number of reps. Switch sides and repeat.

Cross Reach (4 count)

Start on your back with your knees bent and your legs up. Using your abs, reach with your right hand to the left side as if you’re grabbing something off a low table. Return and do the same to the opposite side. These are nightmares at the beginning.

Russian Twists (4 count)

Start balanced on your backside, with your torso and legs off the ground. Grasp your hands in front of you and twist from side to side for a count of four to complete a single rep. Twist in a slow controlled manner through a full range of motion.

Iron Cross (4 count)

Starting on your back with arms extended out to the side, raise both legs so that your legs are perpendicular to the deck. Lower your legs as far as you can to the left without touching the floor, pause, return to the top, and repeat the sequence to the right. Return to the top to complete the rep.

Oblique Crunch

Start with your legs in a modified fetal position folded to your left side. Keep your back flat on the floor, with your right hand touching your right ear, elbow out. Do a standard crunch concentrating the feeling in your obilques. Complete the required reps and switch sides.

Oblique Leg Lift

Lie on your side on your left hip, both legs extended straight with your bottom leg bent underneath. Using your oblique muscle, raise your top leg and torso with the feeling of trying to bring them together. Repeat for the required reps then switch sides.

Alternating Knee to Chest (4 count)

Start with your back flat on the deck and both feet six inches off the floor. Placing your hands by your ears and elbows out, lift your torso off the floor and touch your right elbow to your left knee. Return and alternate. Complete one turn on each side to complete the rep.

Upper Abs:

Basic Crunch

Start on your back with legs in the air and thighs perpendicular to the deck. Place your hands by your ears, elbows out. Use your upper abs to raise your shoulders off the deck with a feeling of crunching your abs together. Lower your shoulders back to the floor to complete the repetition.

Crunch (One Leg)

Same as your basic crunch, except extend one leg so that’s it’s perpendicular to the floor. After completing your reps, switch sides.

Crunch (Both Legs up)

Same as the basic crunch, but with both legs perpendicular to the deck.

Knee Ups

Start with your feet six inches off the deck. Rise up and touch your elbows to your knees. Lower to starting position without letting your feet touch the floor. Keep it going until complete. For a variation, twist your torso and alternate working

Skydivers

This is a great exercise for working your lower back as well as your abs. Start with balanced on your buttocks with your lower back, feet and thighs just off the deck. Grasping your hands lightly in front of you, hold the position for the required amount of time. Rotate over on your stomach and take a superman like pose balance on your pelvis with your thighs and as much of your torso as possible off the deck. Hold for time specified.

Killer Twists (4 count)

This is a killer exercise, and should not be attempted until you’ve achieved an advanced level of fitness. Damage to your lower back could result. Start balanced on your backside with legs and torso in the air and your hands by your ears. Using a four count, cross your left foot over your right while twisting your torso to the right. Reverse the motion. Complete two movements on each side for a single rep. Concentrate on going slow and smooth, no jerking motions.

Section I – V – Legs:

Mule Kicks

Start on your hands and knees. With a feeling of kicking behind you like a mule, extend your leg all the way to the rear and up at a 45-degree angle in a slow controlled manner. Return the leg to the starting position without letting your knee touch the ground. Complete the required number of reps and switch to the other side.

Prone Flutter Kicks

Lying on your pelvis and torso, extend your arms out in front of you and flutter kick your legs as if swimming. Try and keep your thighs off the floor as much as possible. Kick at a controlled, steady pace for the required amount of time.

Alternating Lunge (4 count)

Step forward with either leg slightly farther than your normal stride. Keeping your upper body erect, bend your back knee until it is just barely above the deck. Hold for a count and return to start. Complete the sequence on the other side to complete a rep. Be very careful not to let your knee touch. Slamming it into the deck is a handy way to injure yourself.

Mountain Climbers (4 count)

Start in a crouched position with your legs spread forward and aft, and your torso leaning forward and weight distributed evenly. Perform the exercise by exchanging leg positions back and forth. Do each side twice to complete a single rep.

Standing Broad Jump

Start with standing normally with your hands by your sides. Squat in place explosively jump as high and as far forward as you can. Turn around and repeat.

Calf Raises

Stand normally with your feet shoulder width apart. In a slow controlled manner, rise up on your toes as high as you can. Hold for a count, and then lower to slowly to starting position to complete the rep.

Squats

Start with your about feet shoulder width apart, and your palms pressed together in front of you. In a slow controlled manner descend until your thighs are parallel with the deck. Keep your toes and knees in alignment, and your eyes focused straight ahead. Return to start. Don’t bounce or jerk; avoid injury to your knees.

Vertical Jump

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart and your fingers by your ears. Execute a squat and explosively jump up in the air as high as you can. Upon landing, immediately resume a squat position with a controlled decelerating motion and jump again. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Eight Count Body Builder

This exercise is a great way to finish off a challenging workout by putting it all together. For example the you can do a Squat Thrust, Two Pushups; spreading your legs out and returning to start with a count of eight to complete a single rep.

Section II – The Routines

REMEMBER THIS: you remember when I mentioned the growth hormone in the warm-up section? Clinically proven, the best way to get the growth hormone going is to do little sets of 10 reps, with 5-12 seconds of rest in between.


Putting the exercises together into a routine that meets your personal needs and goals is one of the major advantages of a bodyweight based program. Look at the routines here as a place to start. After you’ve worked the program presented, feel free to experiment with the sequence type exercises and number of repetitions. If it doesn’t feel right, change it. Just give each change a couple of weeks to settle in. If you’re feeling bored with the routine, change it.

Section II – I – Pyramids and the "Killer Circuit":

“The routines described here are a good place to start. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try your own.” Remember you that.

Both Pyramids and Killer Circuits are simple in concept, but powerful in practice. They allow you to get a quality workout in a limited period of time. You can use them to rapidly increase the number of reps you can do of a given exercise, or concentrate on a weak area. Yay, you!

Pyramids

The pyramid (Figure 1) can be used with any combination of exercises, but is usually limited in number to three, each emphasizing a different muscle group or body area. It can be very challenging. The workout has a warm-up, an area of maximum effort, and a warm-down period built into it. Start on one side of the pyramid, and work your way up to the top. How tall (number of levels) you make the pyramid is totally up to you and your level of fitness.

For an example, let’s use pushups, corkscrews and alternate lunges. For each level of the pyramid we’ll do 2 pushups, 2 corkscrews, and 1 lunge (a single rep is one on each leg) multiplied by the level. So to start at level 1 you’ll do 2 pushups, 2 corkscrews and a single repetition of alternating lunges. At level 2 you’ll do 4 pushups, 4 Corkscrews and 2 reps of lunges and so on. By the time you reach the top of an eight level pyramid, you’ll multiply the base number of reps times 8. So at the top you’ll do 16 pushups, 16 Corkscrews and 8 reps of lunges before starting back down. Go from one exercise to the next and one level to the next with little rest between each. Enjoy the challenge! :-O Is impossible, I know.

Killer Circuits

Circuit training is a great way to get in a quality high intensity workout in a short period of time. Very simply, it’s defined as the execution of a defined series of exercises in a specified sequence done as a set for a specified number of times around the circuit. Oh, I do go on. For example, your circuit may consist of:

10 Pushups, 10 Crunches, 10 Squats, 10 Triceps Pushups, 30 sec Prone Flutter Kicks, 10 Calf Raises, 10 Elevated Pushups, 10 Reverse Crunch and 10 Lunges.

When you finish the lunges, you’d have completed one full circuit. Start over again with those 10 pushups. Depending on your level of fitness, you could complete anywhere from 5 – 20 trips around the circuit. When I started, I could barely complete 3, so don’t worry if you aren’t doing too well, yet.

Create your own circuit by combining exercises in combination to work on. As in pyramids mix up the exercises so you work a different body part for each exercise.

In addition to rep based circuits, another challenging method is to use time. During the circuit you have a defined active and passive (rest) phase of over time. Using the above example, a time-based example may look like:

30 sec Pushups, 15 sec rest, 30 sec crunches, 15 sec rest, 30 sec Squats, 15 sec rest, etc... continuing on as with the rep based.

As your fitness level increases, you can use any combination of increasing your exercise time, and/or decrease the period of rest between each exercise. Personally, I hate the time-based method, and you know that my opinion is the only one that counts. :-D Right?

A WONDERFUL EXERCISE ROUTINE AND SOME STUFF ON NUTRITION COMING VERY SOON. VERY SOON.

Yes, I'm finally getting back to work on my pages.