Day 9 Rest
Day 10
Warm Up
Press/Pull and SPrints
Every 3 minutes Complete 8 reps each arm with DB 1 Arm Press, Followed by Max Reps Dead Hang Chin Ups
5 working sets at 45# for the DB. The Chin Ups got rounds of 8,8,8,6,6,6
4x40yd sled pushes with 115 lbs, 1 min rest between each- Sled pushes suck the life out of you. Don't need many, and even with rest they are just horrible to recover from. Original plan was to do 8, however, after 4 I felt 4 more would be past the Maximum Effective Dose, and would not get anything out of it, as my legs were smoked alongside my lungs. I switched over to some short regular sprints to finish out the session
Every 30 sec for 4 minutes, 40 yard sprint
Day 11
Hinge/Complex Day
Warm Up- My HS Holds are getting better. Finding the balance points along with beginning to start to shift weight from side to side. 5 sets of 30-45 seconds with 45 seconds rest has been a great all body warm up, especially through my shoulder carriage. The static holds have already strengthened the entire area after only a week and a half. Feels great.
Every minute on the minute, 3 Touch and Go Power Cleans at 155 for 8 minutes. This is a bit of power endurance work. 155 is roughly 75% of my 1RM. Focused on trying to pull with hammies a lot, as I know my technique is not the best. Some reps felt great and nice and light (good pull, good technique), other reps felt heavy and like shit (poor technique)
KB COmplex
With a KB in each hand complete 5 reps at each movement for 6 rounds.
I used 16 kg Kettlebells, since I have 16's and I have 24's. I wish I had 20's as I would have liked to move up. The 24's would have been too much. 16's were challenging in late rounds. Rested about 45-60 sec in between rounds as time was of essence today.
KB Clean, KB Front Squat, KB Snatch, KB Push Press
Snatching 2 KB's at the same time is challenging, but coordination is something I need to work on, so hence why I implemented these. I tried to do this with two 45# DB's but the fluidity is not there with DB's as it is with KB's for some reason.
Day 12
Rest
Day 13
Warm Up
Squat/MetCon
Back Squat Hypertrophy Work. 5 sets of 8 at 245. Rest 90s-2 min between. These felt good.
Did a 10 min AMRAP that was suggested by a buddy who worked out with me.
15 Power Cleans at 95# and 30 Double Unders. I did not have my favorite jump rope with me and used one that I was not comfortable with so my double unders sucked. This overall smoked me pretty good. Along with the squats, my knee feeling a bit weird, sleep schedule, life, I probably will take an extra rest day tomorrow and hit it hard on Monday
Day 14
Rest
Day 15
Hinge/Complex
Today was supposed to be sprints but tomorrow playing basketball and will be doing plenty of sprinting there and not getting any weights in so combining my hinge day, with a complex that focuses on Press/pull since that was supposed to be the flavor of the day tomorrow.
For my hinge work trying out some cluster training. Basically doing 3 sets of 10 but breaking reps up with rest in between the reps, and rest in between the sets.
3 sets of 10/2 @75% of Power Clean and Push Press with ~15 sec between the double reps. Rest 2 min between sets. I used 155 on these. First two sets I did 12 total reps because I do not know how to count/tell time. Last set did 10 reps. Once again focus was on pulling properly which I am starting to do more. Really trying to stay back and use the stretch of hamstring to drive weight up and not pull early. The push presses felt heavy. Partly because I kept coming forward, and I did not warm up the push press, just went at it.
Complex was a DB complex. Did 30 man-makers for time. Was hoping for sub 6, and finished in 5:58 with 35# DB's.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Rationalization for Warm Up- Part 1 The Handstand
With the birth of my little one 4 months ago, my wife's return to work, balancing schedules, etc. time is of the essence. I need to try to fit as much "stuff" into a limited training window as possible. My training time needed to be "nutrient" dense. I also have never been a fan of really warming up. Usually I just get into it. This is a way to trick myself into warming up for more intense work.
There are some skills or items I decided I wanted to focus on in the coming months. One of the area's I am lacking in is grace. Some may say I lack some social graces, and I will not argue, however, I lack grace in movement. Part of this could be due to just lifting weights and doing CrossFit moves, and I have limited flexibility, but most of this is due to the fact I move like a big oaf. I am amazed and awed by the likes of Ido Portal and his proteges, who have such fluid movement. So little by little I am going to work on correcting my oaf-ness, and start to acquire some skills which require awareness, balance, coordination, control, strength and endurance of the entire body and hope to gain some fluidity. I know I need to start at the basics.
Both of the skills I am working on will hopefully progress to higher level skills. This month and going forward until I get to a point where I get bored and need change, or a point where I have mastered the skill, although I am not sure mastery of either of these will be a short term endeavor, I am focusing on two hand balancing skills. First is the handstand. The other is the frog stand. I will tackle the Handstand first. Both work in conjunction with the other, but while the frog stand can help in the end goal of my handstand, my focus for the frog stand is a front planche.
I admit, I would like to be the guy doing a handstand in front of the Sphinx in Egypt to post on my Facebook wall. Its a cool trick. But looking deeper into the handstand, or what makes it so cool is the amount of body coordination and focus it takes. They also improve balance, flexibility, and strength and core stability. It also gives you a new perspective on life. Yogi's feel it invigorates your circulation, along with a bunch of other positive benefits from being inverted, although I am not so sure there is any research to prove this, a quick search of PubMed revealed nothing.
For me, I am starting with just a handstand hold against the wall. I can hold a basic handstand against the wall for 60+ seconds, but I decided to start small and build on it. Already within the first week of working on this, I am more comfortable with my balance, and am kicking off the wall and maintaining my balance point for a few seconds and increasing. Kicking up into the handstand without hitting the wall and holding it has happened here and there, and is only improving. Ideally, I will gain the strength in my arms, and the balance to hold a free handstand, as well as a one handed handstand against the wall with each arm. All of this will require strength, balance, flexibility in the wrist, hand strength, as well as core strength. Ideally, learning how to walk on my hands would be cool, however, the above three feats are a happy start, and goal for now. What this exercise does is warms up my entire body. My shoulders feel greased, my core engaged, my hips engaged as I squeeze my butt and push up my legs. When I am inverted I focus on maintain tightness throughout and keep my toes pointed skyward. It really is a full body static hold which gets the heart and blood pumping.
Monday, December 3, 2012
The Start
Welcome to the start of the ramblings and ideas of a Mid-Life "Athlete". Webster's defines athlete as a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina. Not quite sure this is a valid description of who I am, as I there are many who I look at as athletes, and I am not them, nor can I do what they do, so does that make me an athlete? I do consider myself athletic, partake in athletic events of sorts, train for those endeavors (kind of, I mainly train for overall health, fitness, and well being, and with that comes the training I need for any physical endeavors I may partake in), however, how skilled I am at them, is in the eye of the beholder.
Is being skilled in exercise really a valid classification of an athlete? Does one have to compete in an exercise to be considered an athlete, or just do exercise? I used to play sports, however, I was not very good, so would not consider myself an athlete when I played. Anyways, I am going to write as much interesting stuff as I go forward as I can. Usually it will be on a whim of what may be fancying me at the moment, but I will also use the time to discuss important issues in conditioning, health, fitness and well-being, including nutrition as it pertains to the mid-life athlete, or common exerciser. As I approach, who am I kidding, I have already approached mid-life, I find that the demands of health and exercise vary slightly from what someone 5 or 10, or 15 years younger, can withstand. What is healthy or important for someone in their 20's changes as we get older. Hormones change, needs of the body change, and there is carry over to how we should exercise, eat, sleep, etc. So hopefully I will use this space in the coming weeks, months, etc. to enlighten myself, and possibly enlighten someone who has so much time on their hands they are actually reading this.
To start, I am going to just journal my workouts for the past 10 days, as I have started an experimental regimen, and curious as to what the results will be in 8-10 weeks. I should have taken some before pictures, or measurements, or some baseline test, but just going to go by how I consider myself looking, feeling and performing. Not quite sure what my goals are. Basically, looking to focus on body awareness, strength, power development, some hypertrophy and maintaining some resemblance of cardiovascular stamina, while trying to be stay lean, and potentially compete in a 100% Raw Powerlifting Meet in March. To accomplish this, all the while maintaining my overall health, and getting all my workouts in under 50 minutes!
I decided on a four lift rotation. Any lift within the class could be my cup of tea for the day, basically whatever I feel like. Coupled with this is a metabolic session of three rotation.
Here are the first 9 days. I will add thoughts to why I am doing what I am doing and reasons for them at a later date.
Day 2 (Hinge, Complex)
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 (Press/Pull, Metabolic Conditioning)
Day 5 (Hinge, Sprints)
Day 6 Rest
Day 7 (Squats, COmplex)
Day 8 (Hinge, Metabolic Conditioning)
Day 9 Rest (December 4, 2012)
Lifts will be Squat (Back and Front rotating), Hinge Movement, Press/Pull, and Hinge. My conditioning sessions will rotate between Sprints of some kind, a Barbell or Dumbbell Complex, and a longer sustained metabolic conditioning session of 10-20 minutes.
Day 1 (Squat, SPrint) (November 26, 2012)
Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Squats 5 sets of 8 (225,235,235,235,235,235)
One Legged KB Romanian Deadlifts (3 sets 12 @ 24 kg KB)
Sprints- 8 x 40 yard
4 corner agility drill, 3x each side
Day 2 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Hang Power Snatch- Every Minute on Minute 2 reps @ 115 for 10 minutes
BB COmplex @ 65, 75, 85, 95
8 reps at each exercise of
Power Snatch, Overhead Squat, Snatch Grip Push Press, Good Morning, Snatch Grip Push Press
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
1a.) Bench Press- 4 sets of 8 @ 185 rest 60 sec
1b.) Bent Over Double KB Row with 24kg- 4 sets of 8
3 rounds for time of a partner wod
Partner 1 Row for Meters
Partner 2 Run 200 M, 10 Slam Balls @ 40#, 10 Ring Dips
Day 5 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Power Clean- EMOTM @ 155 x 2 reps for 12 minutes
5 x 100 M Sprints. Walk Back is rest
Day 6 rest
Day 7 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Front Squats- EMOTM x 10 min; 2 reps @ 215 (~70% of 1RM)
BB COmplex- 65,75,85,95,105
6 reps at each movement of
Rotational Deadlift (3L and 3R), Bent Over Row, Hang Power Clean, Thruster, Back Squat, Good Morning
Day 8 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Deadlifts- EMOTM x 8 min, 3 reps @ 335 (~67% of max)
Petranak Baseline (Row 500M, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups, 10 Dead-hang pull ups)
Rest 2 Min
Repeat.
Wind and fatigue make Dead-hang Pull ups tough. 5:02 first one, 6:31 second
Day 9 Rest
Is being skilled in exercise really a valid classification of an athlete? Does one have to compete in an exercise to be considered an athlete, or just do exercise? I used to play sports, however, I was not very good, so would not consider myself an athlete when I played. Anyways, I am going to write as much interesting stuff as I go forward as I can. Usually it will be on a whim of what may be fancying me at the moment, but I will also use the time to discuss important issues in conditioning, health, fitness and well-being, including nutrition as it pertains to the mid-life athlete, or common exerciser. As I approach, who am I kidding, I have already approached mid-life, I find that the demands of health and exercise vary slightly from what someone 5 or 10, or 15 years younger, can withstand. What is healthy or important for someone in their 20's changes as we get older. Hormones change, needs of the body change, and there is carry over to how we should exercise, eat, sleep, etc. So hopefully I will use this space in the coming weeks, months, etc. to enlighten myself, and possibly enlighten someone who has so much time on their hands they are actually reading this.
To start, I am going to just journal my workouts for the past 10 days, as I have started an experimental regimen, and curious as to what the results will be in 8-10 weeks. I should have taken some before pictures, or measurements, or some baseline test, but just going to go by how I consider myself looking, feeling and performing. Not quite sure what my goals are. Basically, looking to focus on body awareness, strength, power development, some hypertrophy and maintaining some resemblance of cardiovascular stamina, while trying to be stay lean, and potentially compete in a 100% Raw Powerlifting Meet in March. To accomplish this, all the while maintaining my overall health, and getting all my workouts in under 50 minutes!
I decided on a four lift rotation. Any lift within the class could be my cup of tea for the day, basically whatever I feel like. Coupled with this is a metabolic session of three rotation.
Here are the first 9 days. I will add thoughts to why I am doing what I am doing and reasons for them at a later date.
Day 2 (Hinge, Complex)
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 (Press/Pull, Metabolic Conditioning)
Day 5 (Hinge, Sprints)
Day 6 Rest
Day 7 (Squats, COmplex)
Day 8 (Hinge, Metabolic Conditioning)
Day 9 Rest (December 4, 2012)
Lifts will be Squat (Back and Front rotating), Hinge Movement, Press/Pull, and Hinge. My conditioning sessions will rotate between Sprints of some kind, a Barbell or Dumbbell Complex, and a longer sustained metabolic conditioning session of 10-20 minutes.
Day 1 (Squat, SPrint) (November 26, 2012)
Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Squats 5 sets of 8 (225,235,235,235,235,235)
One Legged KB Romanian Deadlifts (3 sets 12 @ 24 kg KB)
Sprints- 8 x 40 yard
4 corner agility drill, 3x each side
Day 2 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Hang Power Snatch- Every Minute on Minute 2 reps @ 115 for 10 minutes
BB COmplex @ 65, 75, 85, 95
8 reps at each exercise of
Power Snatch, Overhead Squat, Snatch Grip Push Press, Good Morning, Snatch Grip Push Press
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
1a.) Bench Press- 4 sets of 8 @ 185 rest 60 sec
1b.) Bent Over Double KB Row with 24kg- 4 sets of 8
3 rounds for time of a partner wod
Partner 1 Row for Meters
Partner 2 Run 200 M, 10 Slam Balls @ 40#, 10 Ring Dips
Day 5 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Power Clean- EMOTM @ 155 x 2 reps for 12 minutes
5 x 100 M Sprints. Walk Back is rest
Day 6 rest
Day 7 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Front Squats- EMOTM x 10 min; 2 reps @ 215 (~70% of 1RM)
BB COmplex- 65,75,85,95,105
6 reps at each movement of
Rotational Deadlift (3L and 3R), Bent Over Row, Hang Power Clean, Thruster, Back Squat, Good Morning
Day 8 Warm up with 5x30-45 sec Handstand Holds
Frog Stand- accumulated 60 sec
Deadlifts- EMOTM x 8 min, 3 reps @ 335 (~67% of max)
Petranak Baseline (Row 500M, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups, 10 Dead-hang pull ups)
Rest 2 Min
Repeat.
Wind and fatigue make Dead-hang Pull ups tough. 5:02 first one, 6:31 second
Day 9 Rest
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