Sky High Training is anything but your average gym, and so I took this opportunity to switch up my workout from my regular weights session in favor of a more intense circuit based around plyometric and instability movements.

The first circuit consisted of TRX suspended push ups, whereby the TRX straps were around my feet, and I was using a home-made push up rack to press up and down on. The next exercise for this super-set was TRX flyes, with my feet up on a laddered-wall. (acting as a suspended decline fly). 3 sets of these, each time increasing the number of reps, finally pushing out 43 suspended push ups, before ending on rope pullups, which targeted my upper back, bicpes, and rear deltoids – the opposite muscles that were being hit during the TRX push ups and flyes.

The second circuit consisted of Twin Olympic Bar Chest Presses, where two olympic bars were pushed into the wall at one end, and weights loaded on the other, allowing me to lie on the ground and push one up in each hand, (this also makes a great flye movement), followed by Barrel push ups, whereby I had turned and oil drum on it’s side and started off with my feet on the ground (acting as an incline push up, targeting my upper chest, before moving on to a step box for my feet, and ending on a medicine ball). These two exercises really did hit my chest hard, and left me feeling as though I’d just done a full set on the bench press with maximum weight!

The last two exercises were a real test of strength – especially at altitude, where I was far less efficient at buffering lactic acid from my muscles. I built up from a jump box to a swiss ball for my feet, while holding on to a hoop in each hand, both attached to a suspened strap. This was an extremely hard exercise to perform inverted flyes on, but WOW, did it hit my inner chest. The next exercise was more for my lower chest and was a form of tricep dips, but learning slightly forwards while holding a dumbell between my knees.

This routine was anything but my normal workout, but definitely one that shocked my system and pushed me through a plateau. I can’t wait to get back into my regular gym and hit chest like I usually do. I’ll post the videos as soon as I have them edited over the next day or two.

LEG TRAINING: Better Form For Bigger Quads

At the end of last year I took a good look at myself and wrote down everything that I wanted to improve on. While the list was long, and gave me plenty of goals to work towards in 2012, one thing stood out – my legs. Over the years I’ve made some good improvements, adding further lean muscle and improving my conditioning for every show, but my legs had always been a weak part for me, perhaps more so due to my shoulders and chest, which I seemed to have been blessed with from both my parents. This year I was determined to make some improvements, not only in size, but also in strength and conditioning. After all, this new Muscle & Fitness series that I was filming each month had me being pushed to my limits, and to be able to last the distance I knew I had to improve my endurance and stamina too. This past weekend I got in the gym and filmed my entire leg workout (quads), breaking them down into 5 key exercises: Leg Extension, Squats, Leg Press, Single Leg Lunge, and Single Leg Extensions. (Click on each exercise to see the video). Something new that I’ve started incorporating into my workouts, (legs especially), is self myofascial release, using a hardened roller on the muscle to release muscle tension and activate more muscle fibers. Find out more about this roller here.

 ast year was not only a great year for me in terms of setting up my own production studio, and once again getting in the best shape of my life (for my 21st competition), but it was also a great year for a couple of my followers, who both became published fitness models after attending my UK Sports Model Workshop. Both Rhys Whyborne and Chris Zaremba had a feature in UltraFit magazine. Both looked amazing, and a special shout out to Chris, who at 55 got the cover of Fitnorama, and also started up his own website – www.fitnessoverfifty.co.uk

If you are looking to make a name in Fitness? Now is your chance! By
attending this Sports Model Workshop, you’ll not only learn everything
about training and nutrition to achieve your best look, but you’ll also
learn about how to market yourself and get in front of the camera with
a professional photographer, for a chance to be featured within one of
the UK’s latest fitness magazines. There will also be the chance to
appear in my monthly article as a featured model!

Whether your goal is to step on stage and compete, launch a career within the fitness industry, grow your Personal Training business, or simply understand how to get in better shape, you will gain a valuable insight into how to achieve this, and get hands on experience with a professional team that will help teach and coach you to be your best.

If you’re interested in finding out more and booking your place to be professionally photographed, check out what the 2-day workshop consists of here. The next one will be held in central London on May 26/27th.

Rob Riches

Muscle & Fitness Ultimate Sports Challenge: Sky HighPro Boxing At the end of 2011, I began filming for my new Muscle & Fitness series – Ultimate Sports Challenge, which saw me take up MMA training for a day. (You can see the teaser for Muscle and Fitness here.) I’ve just finished filming my second challenge, which was Pro Boxing, where I was put through a gruelling set of drills and circuits at a gym over 7000ft above sea level up in the Big Bear Mountains in Southern California.     You’ll be able to read my full report of my MMA workout in the April issue of Muscle & Fitness UK (out early March), with the full 40-minute video on their website – www.muscle-fitness.co.uk around the same time). Until then, you can see some exclusive behind-the-scene pictures on my website here.

	New Website Launching
	I launched my first website back in 2006 shortly after my first competition to show how I prepared for it and to give others hope that if I could do it, so could they. After almost 6 years, more than 4 revisions to the site, and 21 competitions, I’m finally taking it to the next level with a complete rebuild to both my website and my brand. My new all-new website will be live sometime next month, after several months of designing and implementation of invaluable tools that will help you build your ideal body. It’s been built by a team of professional designers and coders, and will be your one-stop-shop for all things health and fitness.
	Snowboarding @BigBear
	I’ve been a fan of snowboarding ever since I first tried it when I was 14. Over the years I’ve managed to get to the mountains only a handful of times, and as a result, really haven’t been able to advance my skill on the board. This has me annoyed the last few times as I like to see progression in the things I do, especially if I enjoy them. This year after filming a couple of shows in the mountains, I decided to make it a priority to snowboard as much as I could, at least for the rest of the season, which at Big Bear can run all the way into April . I managed to get a great deal at a real nice cabin right on the lake, called Big Bear Cabins, and also got a 10% discount off any booking for my followers all the way up to June 31st. (RR2012). I’ll be posting pictures from my trip in my gallery on my website here.

Maybe it was because I had the camera there or maybe because I had a couple of days off from lifting, but either way I felt as though I was able to go heavy and felt good doing it.

Below is the first of 5 videos that I filmed showing each of the exercises. (I’ll upload the rest as soon as I have edited them.

It’s the last day at Big Bear today and my ‘treat meal’ was good ‘ol fashioned pancakes. (unlike my healthy protein pancakes that I’ll usually make once or twice a week). To add some protein along with the carbs, (which help reduce the sugar spike, lessing the chances of the calories being stored as fat), I ordered an egg white omelet (with mushrooms and a little melted cheese – c’mon it’s treat meal…!) and 6oz of cottage cheese. Then it was back on to the slope for a half day of snowboarding to make use of all that extra sugar!

I checked out of my cabin that I had been staying in, (courtesy of Big Bear Frontier Cabins), which I managed to get a 10% saving for anyone booking a cabin before July 30th, by using this coupon code: RR2012). After a protein shake, and a much needed coffee, it was  back in the car to drive back to Los Angeles as a couple of models we’re shooting there after working at the LA Fit Expo all weekend.

The two models today were India Paulino (first pic), and Oksana Grishina, and the photographer was Chaz Photographics. These were to be used for markting images for the supplement company that they’re sponsored by.

After a weekend of eating light, and especially after this morning’s pancakes, I couldn’t wait to get back to my usual healthy eating. For dinner, I cooked up a chicken breast with a 3-egg white scramble, cottage cheese, and a side of broccoli, mushrooms and red peppers.

It feels good to cheat once in a while, but nothing feels as good as being lean and healthy!!!

This got me thinking about fitness, and how whenever I compete, I always go back to the start with my nutrition and workout programs and set these up ready for the stage. Without the right set up, I wouldn’t be in the condition that I plan to be when the time is right. Do you have the right plan and set up to achieve your goal?

If you don’t, here’s a link to my weekly workout plan, and if you need any personal help,  I’ve got 50% of meal planning or program design.

After a morning run, which I’ve started doing recently to help further improve my stamina for my next Muscle & Fitness Ultimate Sports Challenge, I hit the slope twice. 5 hours in the morning then had to come back to my cabin to eat (with a shake in between my morning oats and whey), and slept for two hours before heading back out to the slope for a few more hours for the night session.

Even when I’m away from work, I’m never far from a video camera or always snapping pictures on my phone, and during the evening session I attached my GoPro camera to my helmet and filmed a few of the runs and jumps I’ve been building up to throughout the day.

I’m currently importing the video tonight and will edit when I’m back in LA tomorrow. But not before a few more hours on the slope after another morning run – this time incorporating in a few hill sprints to ramp up my metabolism, making the pancakes I have after not seem so bad…

One of my many goals for 2012 was to  branch out a little from my usual workout and incorporate some more functional ways of staying active, and have fun doing it. I first began to snowboard when I was 14 – going with my cousins to the French Alps, and over the years have gone only a handful of times. Since moving to Los Angeles almost 5 years ago, I’m much closer to Big Bear Mountain (less than a 2-hour drive from where I now live), and so have made it a goal to snowboard as many times this year as I have over the past 10. I filmed a couple of shows for one of clients we manage at the studio at Big Bear at the start of this year, and managed to get a day’s boarding in a few weeks earlier when I came up for my birthday, and now try to come back a couple of times each month (during the remainder of the season, which is about mid-march).

Previously I’ve always rented, but now that I’ll be coming back practically every other weekend, I wanted to invest in some quality kit. While filming one of the shows at Blauer ski & board shop, I got to know one of the pro-boarders for DC (best known for skateboard shoes), who managed to hook me up with a great set up that consisted of DC board, Burton bindings, Flow boots, and DC Pants/Trousers, gloves and an RVCA t-shirt.

I’ll get some video of me boarding and post it on a future blog.

I’ve traveled light as I’m only staying two nights and will be on the slopes for most of that time. For food, I cooked up some chicken and chicken thighs (after trimming all the fat), along with some yams, sweet potato and butternut squash (all diced and steamed), and some steamed broccoli and green beans with pan-fried red onion, mushroom and red peppers. I cooked up enough for 5 large meals, and the rest being made up of protein shakes, and oats in the morning.

Even with heavy traffic on the way up, (doubling the usual 2-hour drive up to Big Bear), and an hour in the board shop (I was the last one at when they closed at 10pm) I was still feeling up for a quick run, especially as I had started one back in LA earlier that day only to hold off ready to train legs just a few hours later.

It’s not that I love running per se, it’s more about ‘where I run’, and ‘when I run’. Usually it has to be early morning or late at night, when it’s the first or last thing that I do in the day. As for where it is, I have to be running outside, usually around Downtown Los Angeles or somewhere like up in the mountains, like I did tonight.

5g glutamine, 1x CLA, 1x L-Carnitine, 5g BCAA, x3 fat burners (courtesy of Muscle Pharm that I picked up at last weekends Olympia weekend), and I also took a scoop of Whey, which I hadn’t been doing since I started my pre-contest diet for the WBFF, but as I wanted to maintain more of my size this time round and not focus entirely on getting ripped, I figured I would include some whey and glutamine together to at least stop the scales from tipping towards catabolism if I were to push it hard with some HIIT training.

Cardio was 30 minutes on the stationary bike, followed by a circuit of lying leg lifts, side rotations with a 20lb dumbbell, and floor crunches – each performed for 30 reps, and the circuit performed 3 times.

It felt good to get back to doing cardio and abs again today. After I was finished, I added a few extra simple carbs to my oats by way of a chopped banana and a teaspoon of raw honey, and for my protein, I used to sample packets of hydro builder (strawberry) and blended it with ice and a teaspoon of raw almond butter.

For a full breakdown of my training split, please log onto Rob Riches – All Access

For the rest of the day I was back in the studio editing some videos for our clients that we work with, and the answering the usual emails and social sites. I made another hydro builder shake, this time adding in a handful of frozen berries along with the ice and almond butter, and later, made an egg omelet using 5 egg whites, 1 whole egg, and whisked that with some ricotta cheese and almond milk, adding in some spinach and mushroom.

Everything was looking good until I realized I had left my headphones at the studio from when I was editing, and was faced with a workout  without music – not something I like doing. I don’t know about you, but I like to lock myself into my music (usually hip-hop or vocal trance), and focus on my lifts without being distracted from what’s going on around.

As determined as I was today, the lack of music did effect me, although it couldn’t have been that much as I was still able to put in a personal best this year on the leg press. Still, it would have been nice to hit that best with a beat!

Below is an overview of my leg session.  To see the full work set, please check out Rob Riches – All Access

8 sets of Squats

5 sets of Hamstring Curls

6 sets of Leg Sled Press

5 sets of Leg Extensions

The first two exercises could have gone either way, in terms of making this a good workout, or just another day of lifting, but by the time I came on to the leg press, I knew my recent dedication and commitment to my training, and the recent inclusion of creatine into my stack, was paying off, as the weights were still climbing up, and my legs we’re starting to look as though they were filling out again after loosing some size from several months of cardio and dieting. What started out as a beatless workout, ended on a high note. I can’t imagine what it could have been if only I had my headphones with me. I guess I’ll just have to wait until my next leg session early next week!

After the usual whey and glycomaize post-workout shake and banana from leaving the gym, I had consumed the majority of my daily carbs within my first two meals. Once home, I didn’t feel like eating anything too heavy, so made an egg white omelet with mushroom and spinach, and wrapping it in a couple of Ezekiel tortillas, topped with some pea shoots and micro-greens. (I cooked 6 egg whites, mixing in a couple of capfuls of apple cider vinegar to add some flavor). Two were certainly a decent amount of food, and quick and easy to make. I might make a few of these this weekend for snacks between some of my larger meals.

For the rest of today’s meals, I kept it pretty low-carb, opting for steak and turkey as my protein sources, and mixing a big green salad together to add some ‘bulk’ to each meal, along with some fats from the RAW almonds, and apple cider vinegar to add a little more taste.

With yesterday’s commitment to my birthday shoot in Canada, and assurance that I’ll show up in better shape than when I was on stage just a few weeks ago, I am starting to tighten up my portions again, and keep my carbs centered around breakfast and post workout – at least for now.

As much as my body may have been telling me otherwise, I got up, pulled on my shorts ate my oats, drank my shake, and drove to my local gym to train calves. It started off OK. For a moment I thought I had shaken off whatever it was that was slowing me from my usual bounce in the mornings, but from about the 4th set onwards, I knew I had started something with my body that I wasn’t going to win. My body had told me to get more sleep and rest – an early sign being the twitch in my biceps the day after I had trained them so hard with triceps. The best I could do was see out the end of my training session, before heading home to give my body what it needed – fuel and rest!

Below is an overview of my calf workout. To see the full workout, plus many exclusive training videos, check out my new fitness site – Rob Riches – All Access

7 sets of Seated Calf Raises

3 sets of Seated Leg Press

6 sets of Leg Sled Calf Press

Once back home, I immediately hit the bed, waking up feeling somewhat refreshed almost 2 hours later, and not surprisingly a little hungry. Not wanting to cook up much of the good food I had in the fridge (too time consuming), I opted for something quick and filling, and made one of my pancake mixtures, adding 6 egg whites, a scoop of vanilla 100% Gold Standard Whey, half a cup of flaxmeal, half a cup of oatbran, 6oz of rice milk, and blended them in a mixer, making two medium sized pancakes, (see image at top of page), plus had two lightly toasted slices of Ezekiel bread with a teaspoon of RAW honey spread over each one.

With my body feeling somewhat rested, and adequately fueled up, I could head into the studio to start my day – some 2 hours later than usual! (Thankfully this week’s schedule isn’t quite as rigid as it normal is, and there’s no filming to do, only editing and admin work).

One of the many things I’ve been doing at the studio is setting up my next Sports Model Weekend camps with some big name photographers and even bigger name fitness magazines. I’ll be holding three by the end of January next year, with workshops in London, Canada, and Los Angeles, with each person attending getting a professionally edited shot of them, and the chance to be published in a magazine. For more information, click on any of the workshop images below.

After several hours hard work on the computer, it was time to eat again. Not having pre-cooked up all my meals the night before, (and certainly not this morning, no thanks to my body’s seemingly urgent need to sleep some more), I used what we had in the fridge at the studio from a left-over cooking show.

I sliced a chicken breast, adding a squirt of organic tomato and mustard sauce (no hydrogenated oils, syrups, much sodium or sugar added), along with some pink sea salt, crushed chili’s, and Italian seasoning, and BBQ’d them, smothered in my homemade-leftover sauce, topping it over with some lightly toasted Ezekiel bread (sprouted grain, wheat-free, gluten-free bread, that’s a complete protein), and some spinach and other green veg. It tasted amazing!

Back to the computer for several more hours before eating again, and my next meal wasn’t that much different, except instead of the Ezekiel bread, I used a couple of Ezekiel tortilla wraps that I had picked up at the local store, along with some other greens and veg.

After having pretty much the same breakfast as yesterday, I looked at my supplement cupboard to see which ones I could stack to really give this arm workout everything I had. After several minutes rummaging through everything from protein powders, pre-workout testosterone boosters, and everything else in between, I finally settled on a similar stack that I remember taking at the beginning of the year when I had decided to compete again and wanted to add a little more size before starting my strict 12-week diet plan.

Below is an overview of my Bi’s & Tri’s workout. To see the full work set, please go to Rob Riches – All Access.

6 sets of Bicep Curls (EZ Bar)

5 sets of Dumbbell Curls (2 seated, 3 standing)

4 sets of Arm Curl Machine

3 sets of Weight Tricep Dips

3 sets of French Extensions

5 sets of Tricep Pushdowns

This consisted of a 5g serving of creatine with 200mg of ALA to help with greater absorption into the muscles instead of the usual 50g+ of sugars that are normally required for creatine to have any noticeable benefit, plus 4 capsules of an arginine, ornithine, and lysine blend, helping add a vasodialition effect and muscle pump, along with a 5g serving of BCAA to aid muscle recovery during the intense workout I was about to endure.