Articles tagged sport

It has been an incredible term for rowing. I wasn’t satisfied with my position as “uncontrolled power” in the second boat so I challenged the head coach Rob Jeffery to trial M1. I made it!

Queens’ M1 dominated Lent Term, beating every other Cambridge college in every competition except Robinson Head where we came second (potentially due to changing race conditions). Bedford Head was brilliant as we completed the 2 km course in 5:59, beating our time earlier in the day by five seconds. Here are the complete results for this term:

Race	Position	Full results	Date (2010)
Winter Head 2 Head	First	By time, category	January 23
Robinson Head	Second	College list	February 5
Bedford Head	First in IM2	By time, category	February 14
Lent Bumps	Blades! (+6)	Bumps chart	February 23–27

Getting blades in Lent Bumps was a life achievement. My favourite bumps race was against Trinity Hall. We went out expecting a tough race, with a difficult bump around grassy corner. We hit them much earlier with a strong bump just after First Post corner. Our middle four are heavy enough to cope with the strongest streams and the power difference between the crews was obvious. I think they were expecting to last longer.

Until a video of that race appears, you’ll have to make do with the epic overbump on Fitz. Apparently this is the highest overbump since 1924. It was a scrappy row but we made it and that’s what matters in bumps:

I must also mention the hilarious crab by Queens’ M3 on the first day of bumps. John Baxter manages to cartwheel out of the boat around the 1:50 minute mark. He is then shockingly hit by stroke’s blade at the boat passes over him, leaving him pretty dizzy but thankfully without injury. Check it out:

The men's side of the boat club have won everything in Michaelmas. It's an astounding achievement and I was proud to be part of one of the results.

Here's a list of accomplishments in date order:

1. Top college VIII in Autumn Head 2009
2. First in both divisions of University Fours 2009
3. Top college VIII in Winter Head 2009
4. Top college in the senior division of the Fairbairn Cup 2009

This has to be the best Michaelmas ever for Queens' College boat club.

Biceps Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Incline Dumbell Curls	1* 1	10 6 - 8	2 x 50 2 x 70
EZ - Curl Barbell Curls	1* 1	10 6 - 8	100 140
Nautilus Curls	1	6 - 8	120
* Warm - up Set

Chest Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Incline Barbell Press	1* 1* 1* 1*	12 1* 8 8	135 220 310 425
Hammer Strength Seated Bench Presses	1* 1*	10 6 - 8	220 350
Incline Dumbbell Flys	1* 1	10 8	2 x 75 2 x 110
Cable Crossovers	1	10 - 12	2 x 90
* Warm - up Set

Quads, Hamstrings and Calves Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Leg Extensions	1* 1* 1	15 12 10 - 12	130 200 270
Leg Presses	1* 1	12 10 - 12	770 1265
Hack Squats	1 * 1	12 10 - 12	440 660
Lying Leg Curls	1* 1	10 - 12 8 - 10	130 350
Stiff - Legged Dead Lifts	1	8 - 10	350
Single - Leg Curls	1	8 - 10	50
Standing Calf Raises	1* 1	10 - 12 10 - 12	900 1300
Seated Calf Raises	1	10 - 21	250
* Warm - up Set

Triceps Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Triceps Pushdowns	1* 1* 1	15 12 8 - 12	80 130 180
Lying EZ - Curl Barbell extensions	1* 1	15 8 - 10	100 140
* Warm - up Set

Delt and Trap Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Smith Machine Presses	1* 1* 1	15 12 8 - 12	120 240 340
Seated Laterals	1* 1	12 8 - 10	2 x 50 2 x 70
One - arm Cable Laterals	1 * 1	20 8 - 10	35 70
Dumbbell Shrugs	1 * 1	12 10 - 12	2 x 140 2 x 185
* Warm - up Set

Back and Rear Delt Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Poundage
Hammer Strength Pull downs	1* 1* 1	15 12 8 - 12	135 320 285
or Alternate Each Workout
Nautilus Pullovers	1* 1* 1	15 12 8 - 10	220 320 440
Barbell Rows	1 * 1	12 8 - 10	285 375
Hammer Strength One-arm Rows	1	8 - 10	245
Cable Rows (overhead grip)	1	8 - 10	Full Stack
Hammer Strength Rear-Delt Machine	1	8 - 10	2 x 55
Bent - over Dumbbell Raises	1	8 - 10	2 x 95
Hyperextensions	1	10 - 12	40
Deadlifts	1* 1	8 8	310 405
* Warm - up Set

Just finished a really intense gym session. Doing squats and the clean and press in the same session is difficult, especially using quite heavy weights. I was pleased with my squatting performance: this session I managed a set of 15 at 60 kg then three sets of 12 at 80 kg. Not particularly heavy but very good for toning my problem areas — basically my whole upper-leg and lower-torso. By doing squats slowly and strictly, I felt that my whole body was receiving a good workout.

Recently I have been finding it difficult to crack down and focus during my workouts; instead they have been cut short or spent talking to friends. These problems need to be corrected as soon as possible to enable progress to continue. One advancement I have made is my decision to concentrate on working out my core through shoulder exercises: by removing the back rest, achieving isolation of the deltoids (particularly the lateral, anterior) is easier while the balancing aspect provides great core exercise. Performing exercises like this — utilising the core as a stabiliser — provides real-world strength applicable in sports and every-day circumstances.

Anyway, back to the current events. On Tuesday I went up to London to observe the grading in the Kodenkan Ryu Ju-jitsu dojo. It was really impressive and a good indicator of where I am heading after a good few months of hard-work and perseverance. Seeing some of the more-difficult techniques first-hand was one of the best aspects while another was realising that I knew a portion of the advanced-white syllabus. Overall, I enjoyed myself and it left me waiting for the next Ju-jitsu lesson on Monday. I met a variety of people, from bankers to lawyers, who will I hopefully get to know better over the next year.

At the moment I am making progress towards reducing my body fat (now just over 15 %) and increasing strength, but not particularly size. My idea of the kinda size I want to be is one man — Jean-Claude Van Damme (Universal Soldier era); this man is a famous martial artist and actor, who has impressive strength but has speed, proportion and agility; he managed to bench 160 kg at his peak so I may have to adjust some of my targets upwards, making sure to keep all of the exercises at the same strength level.

When you look at Bruce Lee, after learning about the body and training, you realise that his level of conditioning was astounding: he must have had about 2 % body fat, one of the best power to weight ratios ever and been totally packed with muscle and little else. Some of the amazing things he managed to do include:

• exploding a 100 pound punching bag with a massive sidekick while training
• collapsing steel reinforced head protection gear
• have an inch punch that could send 200 lb men flying for 15 feet

Anyway, my current achievements follow, taken from the mass that I can lift confidently for one repetition in these exercises, not my one-off achievements:

Exercise	Mass lifted /kg	Current lift /kg
Clean and press	77	80
Bench press	122	117.5
Power clean	114	95
Deadlift	192	180
Squat	167	115