The Nomad Way x Cardiff

If you haven't read my post on this weeks culinary misadventures, I'll some it up in three words:

I. ATE. EVERYTHING.

That being said, training hasn't been too bad. I could have found a gym, we were only five minutes from the city centre, but I feel like we've been extremely spoiled with gym time lately and I wanted to simplify things, lest I should start using the 'no gym access' get out of jail free card, and that's not what I'm about.

Session one, after a particularly arduous day of shifting around heavy lumber in the sun all day I decided to make it as simple as possible for a late night session... We ate a whole chicken each and did one thousand press-ups. 

Told you it was simple.

I mixed the tempo and variety of press from set to set, shifting from slow eccentrics, taking 30 seconds to perform ten to explosive reps getting both hands out in front of my body ala superman. Over the course of a thousand reps I think I tried every variety of push up imaginable with no extra equipment (except for a heavy green resistance band which I used for around 100 reps to mix things up a bit.)

Video on Instagram (@theandrew.tracey)

Generally speaking, I only rested whilst my brother performed his reps, so my heart rate was pretty jacked up for the full 90-100 minutes, this makes the workout a pretty fierce calorie burner without falling into the usual pit falls of traditional long efforts (they're boring as all hell.)

All in all, a simplistic but brutally taxing pressing workout, performed in a space with a footprint smaller than a single bed (I know specifically because we piled one on top of another to create the room, shoutout to my other brother Wills who had to wait for us to finish before he could hit the hay haha.) Next time your gym-less try this before you jump on the poor excuses express.

Session two then,  in the interest of balance was a similarly simple, high volume affair, this time focussing on pulling movements. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say our lifestyle is extremely laborious, we're pretty much pulling, carrying or dragging something heavy all day. A lot of people don't make it past day one with us. Couple this with DOM's from the eccentric portion of a thousand push-ups and it's needless to say that I was *acutely* aware of my lats, this was real fun... 

Started with a hundred mixed grip pull ups, different rep ranges, different tempos, just had fun with it. For me, the pull up is the most criminally under utilised exercise. Mainly because it's hard and makes you realise that a large portion of your 'size' may not be as functional as you would have hoped...

You can do these nigh on anywhere if you've got a good eye, so you know... No excuses chaps.

Next we loaded a dumbell up to 30kg and set off on a rowing odyssey- 5 dumbell rows left handed, 5 right no rest between, pass the weight to your partner, off he goes. Only rest as long as they take to complete their set.... For 30 minutes. On paper, it's probably the same amount of volume (in terms of reps and sets) as the average back workout that you'd find in Men's Health or the likes, the difference being you're only utilising the most effective compound exercise and foregoing any fluffy 'accessory' exercises. Oh and you're barely resting long enough to catch your breath, so that's going to count for a gold star in terms of your body composition. Give it a whirl, you'll hate it; I promise.

We polished the night off with some double rope climbs and a mixed bag of legs raises and twists on the ropes, because we're borderline insane. Just the way you love us.

My aim with this blog is to show you, that whatever lifestyle you're dealt, there is a way to include fitness and build a body you can be proud of. For me, this cross section of a few days away from home I've just shared with you is a shining example of making use of what you've got to get the work done.

I hope you can take away something from this and apply it to your own fitness journey, comments/ suggestions/ questions are more than welcome, get yourself over to my Instagram (@theandrew.tracey) for more interaction!

Peace out!

AT