Topic: Kyle's "As The Day Goes By" Training Log

[J Kyle Smith]

Week 1

Since I have decided to get serious with parkour I think it's about time I start a training log.

So far I have been practicing parkour for about three months with little improvement. So I'm making my mind more focused on working out to get into the right physical and mental condition. I'm going to call this my "As The Day Goes By" training technique because I tend to incorporate exercising into my daily routine when I see the opportunity.

So far my static routine, that I have begun at the beginning of the week, involves weight lifting at two different weights and reps every-other day. One day I call my strength day (more weight, less reps) and my endurance days (less weight, more reps). I also plan on running two miles every Sunday afternoon when the weather permits.

I am also planning on devoting at least and hour to an hour to a half a night to practicing parkour in my house till the sun stays up later.

Here's my typical week day schedule:
7:00 am - Wake up
8:15 am - School
4:10 pm - School ends
5:00 pm - Work
7:00-8:00 pm - Get off work
8:00-12:00 - Eat/ Homework/ Nothing
12:00 Bed

Since my days are mostly busy I am trying to incorporate workout routines within the day, not making time to workout (except for my 8:00-12:00 hours). I will begin logging in the next post. Feel free to comment on any things that might be worthy of changing into my routine.

Quick Stats:
Age: 17
Weight: 139 lbs
Height: 5' 9"

P.S. This journal will be updated the day after I completed the routine. So if the dates seem off, it's not because I'm confused, or forgetful, it's because I need to complete the day before I can update it.

Goals for the week:
-Find a stable workout routine!
-Get my kong vaults down
-Learn a more efficiant wall run

[J Kyle Smith]

Wednesday February 3rd, 2010

2x30 Pull-Ups in my school's bathroom. Sounds strange but I found a use for...

...this bar circled in red on the top of most bathroom stalls. (note: this image was taken from Google, I did not photograph it.)

The Bench:


Strength Routine (4 rounds, of each position at 20 reps of 25lbs, I'm weak haha), I use dumbbells the Gold's Gym weight bench (as pictured above). I set the bench at four different positions.
Position 1: Decline Presses
Position 2: Horizontal Presses (Bench Press)
Position 3: Incline Presses
Position 4: Military (Shoulder) Press

I do these at least four times a day, once when I get home between school and work, then when I get home from work, then after dinner, followed by an hour after that.


Hour long practice. During this time I spent it practicing kongs, my most troubled vault, over the arm of my couch and up and down my stairs. Took some small breaks. Did this listening to new age music (always helps relax me and feel more alive). Also did some PK rolls and ten minutes of stretching after the workout.


Colbert Half-Hour Ab Routine:


While watching one of my favorite TV personalities I decided to make the time more beneficial towards myself. I took the Gold's Gym bench and started using it as an abdominal routine, and began working out during the greatest show ever!

First segment- Crunches, I put the bench on decline setting, and almost drop my torso all the way. I don't fully go down, so I can gain the ability to catch myself as I fall. I do this for the entire segment

Commercial Break- Rest #1

Second Segment- Abdominal Leg Rise. Pretty much a crunch, but instead of having my legs through the bars, I put them down the slope and raise my legs as high as I can. I also do this through the entire segment.

Commercial Break- Rest #2

Final Segment- Not sure what to call these, but I lay my body downwards on the bench at an incline, chest facing the bench. I put my legs on the bottom of the top bars as anchors. Then lift my chest up and then back down. Till I find a name I will just call these "Reverse Crunches."

For the final hour of the night, I do my favorite part, rest. haha. During my resting time I try to stretch, relax my mind and read inspirational items to get me more pumped for the next day.

[Rebecca Myers]

Haha, I do random pushups/situps/etc during TV shows all the time.

[J Kyle Smith]

Hey glad your getting into some training and deciding to log it. I would suggest getting more sleep though. Your really gonna need it with the lifting you are doing. I'm not sure how training throughout the day would go but its worth a try. I'm also not sure how combining strength and endurance together would work out. I would suggest going for just strength to start. Have you heard of Starting Strength?

Yeah, about that sleeping thing. I'm not really good at it. haha. Earlier this school year I was trying to get myself to go to sleep earlier, through the use of light drugs (over the counter melatonin supplements). But I stopped doing that because I never believed in a chemicals to help you sleep.

As for Starting Strength, I have never heard of it.

[J Kyle Smith]

I don't personally own the book but a lot of people on hear recommend it. It will definitely help you with squats which will become very important. I would look into it. Just a quick question. Don't you think doing that bench routine four times a day is kinda overkill?

After doing that routine for a week I am starting to suspect that. I mostly thought of doing that much because of my lack of upper body strength. I am thinking about finishing up this routine for the week then edit it. Since you recommended squats I might just do the bench routine twice a day, and then work on doing weight squats in place of the other two rounds. Thanks for the feed back, after all that's why I started this training log. Any other suggestions?

[J Kyle Smith]

Your definitely headed in the right direction. I would recommend establish a conditioning routine and sticking with it. I would not necessarily recommend conditioning twice a day though. Conditioning three times a week( like Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) would be a good start. Looking into Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe or gymnastics conditioning would be a good idea. I use gymnastics rings and a pull up bar for a lot of my upper body conditioning.

Also try and eat very healthy and I would suggest trying to figure out a way to get more sleep. Hope this helps.

Thanks man. I'll check out Starting Strength. About the eating right, I think I'm doing pretty decent, I started out with giving up carbonated drinks March of 2009 (when I first heard of parkour). And I have been slowly trying to get myself to eat healthier also. And I'll be sure to work on that sleeping thing. haha

[J Kyle Smith]

Oh, just one more thing. In terms of conditioning; there are a lot of different ways to condition your body. Find a method that you like best and stick with it.

I'll be sure to experiment around to see what to stick with, right now I'm just trying to find a good workout plan. So for a while this workout schedule might be changing a lot till I find some stability.

[J Kyle Smith]

Thursday Febuary 4th, 2010

Woke up around 7 O'clock, went to school. While at school I did 2x30 bathroom pull-ups.

I got home (no work today, WOOT!) and what do I do? I do my first set my Endurance Routine, which consist of the same posistions in my strength training but at 15lbs, and 35 reps, at all four posistions.

Then I did the very thing I have been dreaming of doing since the beginning of the week. I took a nap! It was only about an hour long nap, but it felt good with all sleep I have been lacking for the past two weeks. As soon as I awoken I did my next set of endurance training. Then it was off to eat.

After dinner I practiced handstands on the side of my dining room's wall, my arms were still weak from the weights that I could barley lift myself. After that I began to practice wall-runs on my front door, my parents hate it when I do this.

After practicing wall runs on my door, I decided to go onto a jog to a local park and practice wall runs on a wall near there. I was an idiot to think I can practice wall runs at night when my depth perception is at its worst. I spent a couple minutes of practicing until I cut my hand (I always cut my hand on this wall, the upper edge is so sharp). I then called it quits and left. Returned home and did my next set of weights.

When I returned home I took about an hour of rest (posting my first journal entry actaully) then resumed my workout. I spent about half-an hour, not my planned hour long workout, mostly because I got in that extra time after dinner. I did several "kong runs" up my stairs then moved onto leg strength. Since my right leg is significantly weaker than my left I decided to hope up-and-down my stairs several times on my right leg, then switched to the left so I could get a more even workout. After I finished I did my final set of weights, then followed by stretching.

So that was my Thursday Training Journal, I will upload pictures later (I am unable to do so right now, since I'm at school). Feel free to comment!

[J Kyle Smith]

Friday February 4th, 2010

More of a rest day today, during school I scouted out spots to practice on, and just did about 30 pull-ups. Also did a small AB routine on my bench, didn't count how many.

[J Kyle Smith]

Satureday February 6th, 2010

Solo Practice Day

Woke up at noon, late I know, got lunch and took a shower. Around 1:30 pm I went out to begin my usual Saturday routine. I usually practice along with the two others in my group on Saturdays but since they were both busy I decided to go out on my own.

I went to a local park, one that I have never practiced at before, to find something new and refreshing to practice at. When I arrived I began working on my kong/ monkey vaults on a bench located near the playground, I was majorly impressed on how well I had improved. Although they were not perfect diving kongs, they were way better than any others I had done before.

After practicing my kongs for a bit, I decided to try monkeying off a rail as tall as my waist but with a six to six-and-a-half drop onto wood chips. I did pretty decent, tripped up twice, first time wasn't bad, the second time I got the wind knocked out of me (the more embarrassing thing is that a car drove right by the park when I fell, haha). Took a break from that and then "disciplined" myself with doing 50 muscle dips (5 sets of 10) on a jungle gym located at the park. I soon moved onto underbars, did that for about 15 minutes. After under bars I moved onto handstands and reverse muscle ups on the same rail I was using for underbars.

After an hour at the park I moved onto a park I was more familiar with. While at the park I worked on wall climbs on the dumpster wall near the park, and worked on cat leaps on a smaller ledge about my height. After completing those routines I moved onto the park itself and worked on gate vaults and climbs (climbing is actually my personal favorite thing of parkour). Spent about half an hour there and returned home.

Although not as long as I wanted my practice session to be, I was extremely surprised how well I have improved just from conditioning, and small practice routines throughout out the week. I'd say I completed my goal of improving on my kongs.

[J Kyle Smith]

Sunday February 7th, 2010

Mostly lazy day, played some Mass Effect 2 but did it to my "Video Game Work-outs" which consist of:
- 15 crunches and 15 reverse crunches every time I died/ failed a mission.
- 30 crunches and 30 reverse crunched for every mission complete
- Push-ups during every loading screen (there are a lot of long loading screens on Mass Effect 2)

Around 5:30 I went out on my weekly 2.3 mile jog around my neighborhood, I clocked in at 20 minutes 52 seconds (Better than last week which was about 22 minutes)

Also weighed myself in at 139 lbs after running.

Week 2's goals:
- Raise my weights to 10 lbs more
- Work on my speed vault
- Run my 2.3 miles in a half minute to a whole minute shorter

Plan to Reach the Goals:
- Just add on 5 lbs tomorrow and an other on Wednesday
- Practice speed vaults onto my trampoline and couch
- Work on agility exercises when ever I have the chance.

[J Kyle Smith]

Monday February 8th, 2010

Did three sets of twenty on:
Decline Presses
Bench Presses
Incline Presses
Military Presses

Each at 25lbs per dumb bell.

Power went off for about an hour, so what did I do? I did the APK Work Out of the Day! Minus the Pull-ups, do to lack of a decent pull-up bar (http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/5039/1/)

Yet again did my Colbert Half-Hour ab routine and did my crunches and reverse crunches with 10lbs on my chest!

After that I went down stairs to work on my precisions, and diving kongs. I really discovered stoles as a useful object for practicing parkour. Used it to precision on my stairs and set it at the distance I wanted to jump for my kongs.

Did some final stretches and went off to bed.

[J Kyle Smith]

Tuesday February 9th, 2010

No work till Thursday!

Did three sets of 20, 25lbs squats.

Went outside for about 45 minutes and found a perfect place to work on diving kongs on a low safe surface.

Finally did my first planche progression workout when I did the APK Work Out of the Day. Did 20 minutes of sets of 20 pseudo-planche push-ups with a rest interval of a minute in between. Those were much more difficult than I expected, but the soreness I feel today tells me that they worked.

Played some Mass Effect 2, did the following routine while playing:
- After every mission completion: 30 crunches, then 30 crunches with 10lbs weights.
- After every death: 15 crunches, then 15 crunches with 10lbs weights.
- After every time I got out of combat I did 5 pseudo-planche push-ups
- During every loading screen I did 10 pseudo-planche push-ups

Did an other Colbert half-hour ab routine.

[J Kyle Smith]

Wednesday February 10th, 2010

Did three sets of twenty on:
Decline Presses
Bench Presses
Incline Presses
Military Presses

Each at 25lbs per dumb bell. I'm trying to make this an every-other-day exercise.

Did random pseudo-planche push-ups throughout the afternoon.

Not that much happened this day.

[J Kyle Smith]

Thursday February 11th, 2010

Did three sets of 30 of 25lbs each dumbbell squats.

Twenty reps of ten pseudo-planche push-ups.




Comment: For the past couple of days I have been quite busy with school and work, really disappointing me in my work outs

[J Kyle Smith]

Update



For the next couple of days I am unable to update this training journal due to the death of my great grandmother. I will try to resume my usual workout plan, but till then I have been occupied with get togethers, and cousins staying over in preparation for the funeral.

[J Kyle Smith]

Update:

Now that the funeral is over and that my cousins are gone from my house, I can finally resume my work out.

Inspirations I have discovered:
While at a informal memorial service I was talking to an uncle of mine from England who was married into the family, he is a professor mathematics at the University of Texas at Dallas, and discussing topics from calculus to personalty types really inspired me in my thirst of knowledge.

Also today during the actual funeral, seeing everybody that my great grandmother touched and learning even more about her successes in life really inspired me to try harder. Even at the age of 82 my great-grandmother was extremely social and independent, everybody loved her. The biggest thing that touched me was her belief that if you believe in it enough it will become possible through the subconscious acting upon it. And learning about her quest for finding spiritual enlightenment has really inspired me to look for my true self and maybe find some interesting results on the way.

So my goals for this week will consist of a more rounded curriculum.


Goals for this week:
- Spend an hour less on the internet each day
- Resume working out
- Increase my workout time to 1 hour of conditioning per day (Will time over all duration of workout)
- Do homework first when I get home from work/ school
- Find a way to impress my boss at work, he seems completely unimpressed with everything more
- Smile more at work

[J Kyle Smith]

Wednesday February 17th, 2010

More Updates:

I think I deserved that break. It allowed me to refocus onto the goals I made in the last update, and helped me come up with a better format for this training log. The new changes will consist of a more organized blog and a list style so those who want to read and read, and those who want to just look for a brief overview can also. I will also try to make every Sunday (or Saturday) a test day in which I count how many push ups, pull-ups (if I have a bar available), sit-ups, squats, and standing jumps I can do in a minute for each exercise; and also time how long it takes me to run 100 yards. Also on Sundays, I will begin on measuring my weight after my two mile run.

Well here's how my day went:

School Hours

At school I sneaked in the random work outs as usual, mostly my bathroom pull-ups. I also decided to do something really interesting; Instead of take the door into the bathroom stall to take a dump, I climbed over it and landed on the other side.

Summary:
- 30 Pull-ups
- Random wall climb

After School Hours

Came home, worked on homework for digital electronics, can't get this damn circuit to work, taking it in tomorrow to see what's wrong. Went out from 5:30 to 7:00 around the neighborhood to practice. To my surprise, every park was taken up by so many kids along with a cross country meet at the largest park (well sports complex) near my neighborhood. I eventually found the least crowded park and began my work out.

Warm-up- My warm up wasn't really that much, it mostly was a small jog I took to find an available park.

Workout- A mixture between upper-body strength and lower body strength. I can't say I really counted by I did multiple sets of pull-ups, chin-ups, L Pull-ups, L Chin ups. The continued on with a small ab routine of upside down crunches, I didn't really find these that useful since my body swung too much. Then went onto a soccer field that I'm estimating was about 40-50 yards long. I preformed 5 lengths of lunges, I was originally going to shout for 10, but I later decided that was too much.

Cool Down- Went to a pavilion close to the park on top of a hill and did slow stretches in the pavilion. Then finished off by meditation, well as close as I can get to it, for about 10-15 minutes.

Evening

Watched the Olympics, GO WORLD!

Verdict

I enjoyed today, it's not everyday that I get to go out and practice on a school night. I found multiple inspirations while out working out, one of them was a little kid who was just looking at me in awe and amazement at what I was doing then tried to do it after I did, made me think about how much parkour we know as kids but we forget because we abandon our instincts. An other inspiration was the Olympics, watching those athletes preform and just thinking about all the pain they went through to get there is so inspirational.

I hope this new blog/ list style is more organized and will help the community provide more input. I will try to add photos and videos when I'm out practicing with my group to show my improvements also. Thank you APK for the inspirations, and happy parkour to all!

[J Kyle Smith]

Thursday February 18th, 2010

School Hours

No work outs during this time, a bit disappointed in myself. Then again I was really tired, and had to make up work.

After School - Work

Very optimistic at my work, was probably one of my friendliest days to the customers at work. I was preforming fine until I made a mistake in a man's order, my first time to ever do this since I began. My boss got on to me, which is understandable. Didn't have my car tonight, so while waiting for my dad to pick me up I practiced precision jumps on those curb things that are used to let a car know when is pulls up all the way, in the parking lot in front of my work.

After School - Home

First thing I did when I got home was two sets of each position on my weight bench of 20 reps at 25 lbs. After dinner I did an ab routine consisting of leg holds during the commercial breaks and sit-up like exercises during actual events.

Summary:
- 2x20 25lbs, per dumbbell of the following
      - Decline Presses
      - Bench Presses
      - Incline Presses
      - Military Presses
- Multiple Ab Routines, this one is one that I don't know the name. It's when you do a sit up on one side, and then the other then the center. Did this while watching the Olympics
- Leg Holds
- Pseudo-Planche Push-ups

[J Kyle Smith]

Friday February 19th, 2010

School Hours

Did about 30 pull ups during school and while waiting to be picked up ran several sprints.

After School - Gym

Went to a local open gym, the gym's last night to be open , spent three and a half hours there (from 8:30 to Midnight). Work on some many things there, primarily my diving kongs and front flips. Gyms are such a great place to go to, the people there are some of the most helpful people I have met. Awesome night is the best I can say. haha