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AWESOME TRANSFORMATIONS – Brent Fikowski before CrossFit (and 7 of his Workouts)

Brent Fikowski rose to second place at the 2017 CrossFit Games and consistently operates at the top level.

He is an incredibly hard working athlete that has spent many years honing his skills and fitness in order to be able to compete at such a high level.

BRENT FIKOWSKI BEFORE CROSSFIT

Here he is when he started out on that journey.

And here is is earlier on in his CrossFit career.

Check out more fun transformations by clicking the link below:

20 Amazing Body Transformations of CrossFit Games Athletes

WORKOUTS FROM BRENT FIKOWSKI

Firstly, let’s get a little more insight into the mind of Canadian Athlete Brent Fikowski…

Now have a read through these 7 workouts and choose the ones that you like the look of. Mix and match if you find new exercises that you want to try.

7. BRENT FIKOWSKI STRONGMAN WORKOUT

6 rounds with 1:1 work:rest.

  • 20m Yoke
  • 2 legless rope climbs
  • 20m Farmers, 20 calorie bike

Benefits of Strongman Training

INCREASED STRENGTH

When you’re carrying giant logs and moving Atlas stones, it almost goes without saying that you’ll notice a bump in your strength levels.

Strongman workouts are based on compound and functional movement patterns, which use several major muscle groups at the same time. Couple this with a heavy weight load, lower repetitions, and higher sets, and you’ll see explosive strength gains.

Studies show that Strongman workouts are just as effective as traditional resistance-based workouts at improving your strength levels. But it’s not just your major muscle groups that will see the benefit; your grip strength will also dramatically improve.

HUGE MUSCLE MASS GAINS

There are two important factors in muscle mass building:

First, you want to apply the strategic tearing down of the muscle tissue and the subsequent rebuilding via nutrition and rest. Strongman workouts provide the precise amount of wear and tear on the muscle tissue to safely tear it down so that it can be rebuilt bigger and stronger than before.

Second, growth hormone levels in your body facilitate a better recovery state and directly influence muscle growth. Heavy lifting, which is what Strongman workouts are all about, has been shown to trigger a higher release of growth hormone, which can support muscle mass growth.

6. STRENGTH AND POWER WORKOUT

“Another solid training session.”

  • Seated box jumps in a weight vest
  • 315lb pause clean
  • Front squat doubles
  • Banded deadlift triples

Consider the following benefits of power training:

-Increase in use of your fast twitch muscle fibers, particularly type II which improves your muscular development. Improving muscular development and definition enables you to move through your day with greater power which may help to prevent injury and may decrease the fatigue levels as the day progresses.

-Improved neuromuscular adaptations—this usually leads to quicker reaction time and understand that regardless of your age, fitness level or gender, you will benefit from reacting quicker. Not just during sports, but in everyday life. Think of tripping and NOT falling—this may be in part due to your ability to react quickly. And, there is evidence which suggests that improved reaction time attained through appropriate/supervised power training may help to prevent falls in older adults leading to fewer hip fractures.

-Improve efficiency within your energy system that lives right in the muscle (i.e. ATP-PC). Without delving deeply into exercise physiology, suffice it to say that you have three basic energy systems and the one described above is ready for immediate use. This system is low in capacity, but high in intensity (i.e. power) and you may train your body to improve it. Conjure up the image of an Olympic short-distance track sprinter—they tend to possess a well-tuned, highly trained ATP-PC system, enabling them to explode off of the blocks and down the track. And, while some of their ATP-PC capacity may be genetically pre-determined, effective power training creates that “winning edge” that wins races.

5. UPPER BODY STRENGTH WORKOUT

Some upper body strength work from today:

  • Banded strict press
  • Floor press
  • Prone rows

A STRONGER UPPER BODY

Training your upper body will increase the following muscles:

  • Pectoralis major and minor (chest)
  • Rotator cuffs
  • Deltoids (shoulders)
  • Latissimus dorsi (middle back and sides)
  • Trapezius (upper back)
  • Biceps
  • Triceps
  • Forearm muscles
  • And other stabilizing muscles

A strong back is essential for good posture. A large percentage of the population live very sedentary lives, either through being hunched over a computer, plonked behind a desk or sat at the wheel of a car all day. As a result, most suffer from posterior imbalances. The chest muscles tighten, the back muscles weaken and the shoulders round forward (a condition known as kyphosis). Strengthening the muscles in the back encourages you to hold your shoulders back. It also improves your core strength, forcing the body to sit up tall.

4. PRESSING WORKOUT

Always make time to press! The bar can only go up in weight. Not chasing any PRs today but technique is headed in the right direction. 185,235,265 pounds shown.

  • 1,1,1 strict press
  • 3,3,3 push press
  • 5,5,5 push jerk

Bilding Epic Core Strength with Pressing Exercises

It’s no secret that overhead pressing requires our stabilizing muscles to kick in and create a strong posture and torso. In this scenario, we’re talking about the EMG activation of the rectus abdominis, external oblique, and erector spinae.

When testing athletes in bilateral and unilateral dumbbell shoulder presses (along with seated vs. standing), activation of all three selected muscle groups were higher in the standing population, and even more so with unilateral pressing. This study looked at dumbbell presses, but barbell pressing will engage the core as well and will have a similar response.

3. BENCH AND BURPEE PYRAMID WOD

Second part of today’s AM session.

  • L-sit holds
  • 6/9/12/9/6 Bar facing burpees / overhead squats 95kg / chest to bar pull-ups
  • Heavy bench press (not shown)

Burpee workouts will help build conditioning and mental strength. The burpee is an excellent tool to develop a powerful engine for CrossFit.

HISTORY OF THE BURPEE

The exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the burpee test. He earned a Ph.D. in applied physiology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1940 and created the “burpee” exercise as part of his Ph.D. thesis as a quick and simple way to assess fitness. The exercise was popularized when the United States Armed Services adopted it as a way to assess the fitness level of recruits when the US entered World War II. Consisting of a series of the exercises performed in rapid succession, the test was meant to be a quick measure of agility, coordination, and strength.

2. SNATCH WORKOUT

Not every training session is filled with glorious PRs and perfectly paced conditioning workouts. However the less-than-perfect days provide the greatest opportunity to grow as an athlete. You are given a shot to learn, overcome adversity, and adapt. So will you capture this moment? Or just let it slip?

Here are some lifts from a snatch workout:

  • 3×3 at 80% (230lb) every 2:00
  • 4×2 at 85% (245lb) every 1:30
  • 4×1 at 90% (260lb) every 1:00

1. WORKOUT TO BUILD EXPLOSIVE POWER

Getting explosive today! ?➡?

  • 2 aggressive power snatch + 1 deadball throw
  • 5 rebounding vertical jumps / first three with banded resistance.
  • 5 rounds of each with ample rest

Here are more interesting and unique workouts for you to try:

7 Functional Bodybuilding Exercises for Performance AND Aesthetics from CrossFit Games Athlete Marcus Filly

7 Creative Exercises to Keep Your Crossfit Training Constantly Varied

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