The Benefits Of Taking The Stairs...

These 215 steps of the 'Escadaria Selarón' were an essential part of our leg day this time two years ago.

Here are the benefits of stair walking/sprinting:

Muscle Tone & Strength - The calves, the quads, the hamstrings and the glutes, that's all the muscles of the leg get a bloody good workout.

Full Body Workout - Although the bulk of the effort is shared by the legs, the pumping of the arms and shoulders help propel you upwards and forwards.

Fat Dynamite - Need we explain? Try climbing at least 100 steps a day and see what happens.

Cardiovascular Fitness - It's a great way to strengthen the heart and lungs. You'll find that after doing a few flights of stairs your chest will be beating like a drum (don't overdo it though).

Abbreviated Workout - Some brainy scientists have established that it provides fat burning and cardiovascular benefits three times faster than walking or running on flat ground.

Safer For Knees - Compared to running or walking on a flat surface, stairs are low impact. And as long as good technique is maintained, and there are no pre-existing issues it can be a much better alternative.

Bang For Your Buck - It's cheap as chips! Works your lower and upper body. Torches fat. Provides cardiovascular benefits. Saves time. Better for the knees. That's six for the price of one, or your unhealthy life back.

Challenge Yourself: lunge, hop, take two steps at a time, walk side ways, if your brave enough walk backwards or use weights (try piggybacking someone).

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Chewing The Veggie Fat...

We spent yesterday training with Chaka Clarke's SpartanFam at Primrose Hill and chewed the veggie fat about health and spirituality over a raw vegan burger with Shaka Lish and freerunner Timothy Shieff at inSpiral Lounge afterwards!

inSpiral is situated at 250 Camden High Street, London, England and is a vegan cafe, music venue, organic bar and health store. It's well worth checking out. Non-veggies will be surprised at just how good the food is!

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Praia do Diabo in Arpoador...

What a place!? It's located between Ipanema and Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! AKA 'Home' for the last two weeks. We'll miss it. But we'll be back very soon.

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Brazilian Bodyweight Business 2012...

Earlier this year we had the pleasure of meeting Rogério Rodrigues of Rocinha CrossFit, in Rio.

Disarming us with his Brazilian charm he talked us into giving an impromptu bodyweight class to a small group consisting of CrossFitters, physiotherapists and boxing/MMA coaches.

Luckily our travelling companion, Mr Anton Guidera, brother of fizzYcaL and man behind the East Midland's bar mecca, 'The Compound', was there to take the lead whilst our blogger-in-chief, Ify, assisted.

Afterwards Rogério took us on a tour of the Rocinha favela and introduced us to the work that he does at the Instituto Dois Irmãos.

Checkout the photos of the full day here.

Thanks to the camerawomen Adriana Lopes and Larissa Queiroz.

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Rogério Rodrigues and Rocinha CrossFit...

[Rogério Rodrigues with Boxing Coach and promoter Cesario Figueiredo]

By some accounts Rochina is Latin America's biggest shanty town (favela) and according to wikipedia it is the 9th largest in the world.

A recent campaign by the Brazilian government to reduce the strong hold criminal elements had over Rochina has now made it one of Rio's safest favelas. But the poverty it suffers is still very real. What it lacks in wealth it makes up for in the richness of spirit and dynamism of some of its residents.

Rogério Rodrigues is one such resident. He works as a volunteer coordinator at the Instituto Dois Irmãos, a non-profit organisation created to provide educational and cultural activities for the people of Rocinha.

It was at the Instituto Dois Irmãos that he met volunteer and US Marine Chris Clark and it was here that the idea of Rocinha CrossFit, Brazil's first non-profit CrossFit affiliate was born.

Press play for the full inspirational story:

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Take The Stairs...

Earlier this year we took to hot stepping Rio de Janeiro's, 'Escadaria Selarón'.

Its creator, Jorge Selarón, the Chilean-born artist, covered the set of stairs in fragments of mainly blue, green and yellow tile matching the colours of the Brazilian flag.

It's doubtful that back in 1990 when he started the project he envisaged his tribute to his adopted country would become so iconic. It's probably more likely that he envisaged the holidaying writers of a blog, called GETfizzYcaL, making it's 215 steps an essential part of their leg day.

Because you are fighting more gravity than you would from running or walking on flat, stair walking and sprinting provide the following benefits:

Muscle Tone & Strength - The calves, the quads, the hamstrings and the glutes, that's all the muscles of the leg get a bloody good workout.

Full Body Workout - Although the bulk of the effort is shared by the legs, the pumping of the arms and shoulders help propel you upwards and forwards.

Fat Dynamite - Need we explain? Try climbing at least 100 steps a day and see what happens.

Cardiovascular Fitness - It's a great way to strengthen the heart and lungs. You'll find that after doing a few flights of stairs your chest will be beating like a drum (don't overdo it though).

Abbreviated Workout - Some brainy scientists have established that it provides fat burning and cardiovascular benefits three times faster than walking or running on flat ground.

Safer For Knees - Compared to running or walking on a flat surface, stairs are low impact. And as long as good technique is maintained, and there are no pre-existing issues it can be a much better alternative.

Bang For Your Buck - It's cheap as chips! Works your lower and upper body. Torches fat. Provides cardiovascular benefits. Saves time. Better for the knees. That's six for the price of one, or your unhealthy life back.

Challenge Yourself: lunge, hop, take two steps at a time, walk side ways, if your brave walk backwards or use weights (try piggybacking someone).

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Facenastics: A Bar-Barian Experience - Nov 2012

(L to R: Jay Anthony, Lee Wade Turner, Māris Šlēziņš, Sai Ngo & Deividas Smailys)

The late great Godfather of physical fitness, Jack Lalanne coined the term and popularised the practice of facenastics - the bending, flexing and gurning of the face in order to maintain youthful good looks.

Māris Šlēziņš, President of the World Street Workout Federation seems to have taken up the mantle of Godfather Jack's good work via the practice of 'facing' a more urban static based fear-inducing spin-off.

Support for the new trend has been hugely forthcoming in fitness quarters and the likes of Jay Anthony, Lee Wade Turner, Sai Ngo and Deividas Smailys of the Bar-barians were eager to teach 'facing' along with other types of bodyweight exercises at their workshop at Train Manchester last month.

Regular readers of our blog will know we have a slight soft spot for bodyweight training and callisthenics. One form we practice frequently has similarities to gymnastics and is generally performed on pull-up bars and parallel bars found in parks. It has become popularly known as 'street workout' and friends of fizzYcaL, Sai, Lee, Jay and Deividas are amongst some of the known faces in this up and coming form of fitness.

With the success of their first UK workshop, which Rick Seedman and Mark Leitz of the US Bar-barians co-presented, the UK faction (with assistance from their Lithuanian brother, Deividas, and soon-to-be Bar-barian, Miguel Ulloa) presided over an even bigger group of hungry to learn exercise enthusiasts this time a round.

Still able to recall the challenging second day of the first UK workshop we thought we would take it easy and just attend the first day of the basics. The 'Bar-barian basic' however is not like your ordinary basic. Simple exercises like push-ups, pull-ups and dips are given an overhaul that challenges you like nothing else.

For example, one such challenge was a group dead-hang pull-up session. 5 or 6 people dead-hang from bars, one person does a set of pull-ups, stops and dead-hangs, then the other person does a set, stops and dead hangs and so on. As soon as someone lets go of the bars the team is out and the number of pull-ups that everyone collectively did is added together and compared to the other teams' totals to find a winning group.

It was great to be reminded of, and introduced to ways of making even the simplest of exercises fresh, fun and challenging. By shaking up the routine and using super sets, giant sets, pyramid sets, timed sets, games and group workouts the Bar-barians showed how easy it was to stop exercise plateaus without having to introduce equipment.

Such has been the success of the Bar-barians bodyweight message and their exposure this year that the audience was made up of people with broad exercise and fitness experience. And what was really good to see were more female participants getting stuck in and switching on to the effectiveness of 'street workout.'

Them BoxRox dudes were on hand both days to capture what went down. So make sure you checkout the video of day one above, and day two below to see what you can look forward to when you attend the next one. Keep it locked here.

(photos by MNL)

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The Accidental Headbutt To The Ass...

Marcelo is a maverick who makes his living strapping himself to tourists and hurling himself off one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest mountains, Pedra Bonita.

We were fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your point of view) to meet the man and get strapped to him. But before we did he made us feel really at ease by driving us up Pedra Bonita’s thin winding uphill roads at top speed care freely overtaking and brushing past oncoming traffic.

And if we had fears of the roadworthiness of Marcelo’s vehicle he soon put them to rest by reassuring us that he had made it himself. He was even kind enough to give us an itemised run down of the different vehicles he’d salvaged to put her together.

By the time we’d driven all the way up to the peak of Pedra Bonita we were feeling a little anxious and in need of a brief toilet pit stop. The other tourists that had gone before had generously filled the bowls with last night’s dinner.

So feeling ill prepared, with ‘ill’ being the operative word and a bladder full of water mixed with an evening’s worth of caipirinha we ran off Pedra Bonita strapped to a man whose mental state we were beginning to doubt (perfect timing).

Below is a video of GETfizzYcaL’s blogger-in-chief doing that very jump. Marcello was nice enough not to mention the accidental headbutt he receives to his ass on landing, however please do feel free to take the mick!

Slightly, only slightly exaggerated jokes aside Marcelo is a top bloke and we recommend you seek him out if you ever go hand gliding at Pedra Bonita. For more information visit Clube São Conrado de Vôo Livre.

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No Shortage Of Bars In Rio...

Rio de Janeiro has no shortage of exercise bars or drinking bars. Get dropped anywhere in Brazil's cultural capital and we're pretty sure you'll find both types of bars within 100 meters of you.

Pictured modelling a few of Rio's many bars is our travelling companion, Mr Anton Guidera, brother of fizzYcaL and man behind the East Midland's bar mecca, 'The Compound'.

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Why We've Been Away So Long...

We've been slacking with our blogging and social media duties and it's all down to Rio de Janeiro!

Rio! Rio! Oh beautiful...Rio! The Brazilian city seduced us and now we're back we got the post-holiday blues.

Be assured normal service will resume once the tears have dried :-(

And we'll be sprinkling this here blog with a few photos of our adventures and lots of Brazilian themed posts. Stay tuned!

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Soon...

[pic via brazilcarnival.com.br]

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A Bedroom Fit For A Ninja Warrior...

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Warning! It's Venice Beach...

Man behind the lens and friend of fizzYcaL, MNL just came back from a trip to Venice Beach, California.

Yes, yes we know, what kind of friends are we for not stopping him from going!

Our protests were desperate and passionate. We did warn him of the dangers of the great weather, the warm sea, the beautiful beach, the abundance of sport and fitness facilities and of course the friendly people. He brushed our concerns aside.

On his return he presented us with photographs which he selflessly took and we submit them below. You view them at your own risk:

Clearly damaged and in a state of distress from the trip MNL wrote:

"The whole area is well designed (redeveloped in the early 90s I think) - easy to access and get around, everything is walking distance or short bike-ride away, but at the same time it doesn't feel cramped at all, despite being quite popular, as you would imagine. Everywhere you look there's people on bikes, there's lots of kids, there's also some long-boarding, paddle-boarding and other-boarding going on. There's several dedicated graffiti areas, etc. There's also some slightly surreal/funny stuff going on, like the hug deli, or the free advice dudes...you know, just to take the edge off, I guess ;)"

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Hooks Gym: The Home Of London Shootfighters...

Fans of Mixed Martial Arts and self-confessed fitness addicts we thought a submission wrestling class at Hooks gym the home of London Shootfighters would pose a challenge...but not too much of one. How very wrong we were!

London Shootfighters is a premier mixed martial arts school in West London run & owed by Alexis Demetriades & Paul Ivens. The duo aim to replicate their successful business formula at their new sister site in Oxford and have plans for another base in Manchester.

The fellas's tried and tested expertise of the fight game and the power of their brand brings some of the world's top talents knocking on their door.

Their current stable includes young guns John "The Hitman" Hathaway (15-1) and newcomer Michael "Venom" Page (1-0).

John, a former rugby player from Brighton is carving himself a very, very impressive career in the UFC with his most notable win against the experienced Diego "The Dream" Sanchez. Michael, a former kickboxing champion dominated his first professional fight with the showmanship and flair of a young Anderson Silva.

Now back to that submission wrestling class. Buoyed by the fight imagery and motivational phrases like "Greatness Is Within" adorning the gym's walls the pleasantries and hand shakes were executed with a touch of unusual vigour on our part. The warm up and stretch session led by another promising fighter, Esi Muradi, soon shook off the bravado and prepared us for wrestling drills 101 courtesy of Mr Ivens.

Various clinches, takedowns and basic arm bars were the order of the day and broken down well enough for even wet behind the ears pupils like ourselves to master. Once these moves were firmly drilled and understood some very intense wrestling sparring was introduced to end the session.

Co-ordination, rhythm, timing, memory as well as strength, agility & cardio were taxed and paid in full. Our hour and a half introduction to submission wrestling was as much a challenge for the brain as it was for the body.

Before we got to Hooks Gym we had bags of respect & appreciation for the fighter & the fighter's IQ and by home time we had even more. The plan had been to sample the fully equipped gym afterwards but with dizzy head and pounding heart the vast free weights, top quality machines and wealth of cardio equipment was left to be sampled for another day.

Thanks to Alexis (pictured below, right), Paul and the rest of the London Shootfighters crew for the welcome and to friend of fizzYcaL T.J. Kennedy (pictured below, left) of Hybrid Fighting Method who came with us.

Now we know what to expect we'll be back and better prepared for round two!

Interested in joining a class? Checkout session times and club info here.

Everyday Superheroes (Continued)...

Here's the second and final part of the UK Bar-barians London parks tour produced by "A Man Named Luke" and simply entitled "UK Bar-barians: London Parks Part Two."

If you didn't catch the first one check out our post for it here.

UK Bar-barians: London Parks Part Two - The Parks

The second instalment of the UK Bar-barians: London Parks series is upon us - check it out here.

The four calisthenic hot spots covered in the vid are Peckham Rye Park, Victoria Park, Wandsworth Common and the mighty Primrose Hill Park:

Peckham Rye Park



Jay begins the video strolling into Peckham Rye Park situated in Southwark, South East London (SE22). Peckham Rye Railway Station is a 15 minute walk, East Dulwich Railway Station is a 15-20 minute walk and Honor Oak Park Railway Station is roughly a 25 minute walk.

The park’s features include football pitches, a skate park, an adventure playground and a bowling green.

The outdoor gym that Jay uses is a recent addition. Along with pull-up bars of two differing heights and a dip station with three varying levels the gym also includes a chest press, leg press and cross-trainer all of which use the bodies own resistance.

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Victoria Park



Second up is the massive Victoria Park which Lee gives us a tour of. This park is in Tower Hamlets, East London (E3) and can be reached by London Fields (15 minutes walk), Hackney Wick (10-15 minute walk) and Homerton (20 minutes walk) Railway Stations.

Tennis courts, basketball courts, football pitches and a boating lake can be found at Victoria Park.

The calisthenic facilities located at the park are parallel bars, a pull-up bar on two levels, vaults, balance beams and a double pole climb.

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Wandsworth Common



Over in South West London, Wandsworth to be exact Jay explores the popular Wandsworth Common (SW18). Known as just 'The Common' to locals it can be reached by Wandsworth Common Railway Station which is only a 10 minute walk away.

The Common has a number of facilities including tennis courts, a bowling green and a lake.

The calisthenics stations are spaced out around the main part of the common. The parallel bars, balance beams and the monkey bars are located fairly close together whilst the pull-up bars and the double pole climb stand alone.

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Primrose Hill



For the final park in the tour, both Lee and Jay meet up at the undisputed heavyweight of London's calisthenics parks - Primrose Hill (NW3). This park is located in Camden, North West London.

Chalk Farm, St Johns Wood and Swiss Cottage Tube Stations are all within 15-20 minutes walk from the park.

Primrose Hill offers wide open spaces which are ideal for most recreational field games. It is also a popular spot for masochistic joggers who like to punish themselves on the unforgiving hill.

The fully equipped calisthenics area includes two different size pull-up bars, low hurdles, various sit-up stations, monkey bars, ring pull ups, parallel bars, diagonal hurdles, a ladder frame, a jump touch beam, pole climb, push-up bars, low bars and balance beams.

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