Pulling

What a 375 lb DB looks like

Sunday pulling day, went well.

Wide Neutral-Grip Cable Row - 5, 5, 5, 5, 5......110, 130, 140, 150 160(3)

Weighted Pullups - 5x6......42s on all sets

For time
40 Single Arm DB Rows - 70 (40 per arm)
40 Chinups
Time: 13:40

Preacher Curl - 50(10), 60(7), 60(6.5)

Focussed on strict form on the cable rows, no momentum and nice and upright, wide grip is certainly harder than the usual v-bar grip.  Weighted pullups went well, was very close to not getting 6 on the last 2 sets.  Part 3 was being made up as I went based on my time, the rows took maybe 6:30 or so, overall good workout.

Pushing

Decided to give military press a go today, when my back was hurting I couldn't go heavy on overheard work, so it felt nice today.

Military Press - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3........115, 125, 135, 140, 140(2)

For time
30 Shoulder to Overheads - 135
Time: 6:36

3 Rounds for time
10 True Pushups
10 Incline Pushups
10 Pushups
10 Dips
Time: 13:41

Overhead Rope Extension - 3x10.....80, 80(8), 80(7)

That's a little under what I have pressed in the past but not doing it for so long contributes to why it's lower, when I say lower I mean about 1 rep lower.  Part 2 was mainly push jerks, but Im sure a few push presses found there way in there too.  Part 3 is decieving the TPU and dips are the hardest by far but overall my arms were dead.  Good workout.

Legs

Dave Lipson

An early morning(ish) Friday leg workout, I don't like working out Fridays anyways, let alone early and on leg day, but it feels all the better when I am done.

DB Bulgarian Split Squats - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3.........65s, 70s, 75s, 80s, 85s

Front Squats - 135 (8, 7, 6, 6, 6)

5 Rounds for time
10 Travelling Lunges - 50s
10 Jump Squats
Time: 7:30

Leg Extension with 5 second negative - 5, 5, 5.........110, 125, 140

That feels awesome when it's done, the split squats got real heavy on the last set, never done 85s before.  The front squats were different than normal, still atg squats, but I wanted to try a clean grip.  The difference between a clean grip and cross armed grip is pictured below.  They felt pretty good, but I could definately feel the difference, I probably could get more reps had I done this with a cross grip, but it felt nice to try a different style.  Last time I did part 3 I got 7:11 but missed the first round so it was 4 rounds in 7:11, pretty sure my time today would beat that if I knew how long 5 rounds took me then.



Clean grip vs cross armed grip



Conditioning

Peter Egyed

Conditioning day, I decied to try a routine I performed a few months ago, back then I did this workout in 23:36 and it killed me, so I am very pleased with the outcome.

4 Rounds for time
25 Burpees
400 Metre Row
Time: 18:56

Isometric Back Extension Holds - 3x30 seconds
Leg Elevated Ab move - 3x10 (per side)

That's almost a 5 minute improvement, which I am very pleased with, after round one I believed I would do better but not that much better.  Both exercises were hard and my shoulders and lungs were burning, happy with result.  I don't know if I'll be able to do back extensions anymore, the pads are right up against my cist on my lower stomach so it's a tad uncomfortable, no worry though there are plenty of other things I can do.  This routine was followed with a nice stretch and a massive bowl of curry chicken with rice.

Pulling

Rob Miller

An appreviated pulling day, I only had a bit of time so I decided to give a crossfit classic a shot that would fit in well on this day.  Whenever it has shown up on the main site people say it's a brutal workout, which I now understand.  The original calls for a 45 pound dumbbell, I decided to scale to 35.

10 Rounds for time
3 Weighted Pullups - 35 pounds
5 Pullups
7 Kipping Pullups
Time: 25:30

Deadlifts - 3x10......135 on all sets

That's all I had time for, but wow part 1 was brutal.  Rob Miller, pictured above completed the rx'd version in about 15 minutes, I do weigh more than him but I know he can add over 100 pounds to his pullups.  Last time I did a lat intensive workout they were sore for week and I didn't get my strength back for 2, lets see how this does it.  I realized part way that through that this totalled 150 pullups, damn that hurt.

Pushing

Rob Orlando

Push day

Incline DB Bench Press - 5, 5, 5, 5, 5.......65s, 70s, 75s, 80s, 80s(4)

Weighted Dips - 5, 5, 5, 5.......45, 50, 55, 60

For time
50 Bench Press - 135
Time: 9:42

V-Bar Pushdowns - 3x8-10.......100, 100(8), 100(8)

First set of incline presses were done on different bench with higher incline, the more adjustable bench became available for the remaining sets.  Also the final set I had a lift off, meaning I start from the top and not the bottom like sets 1 through 4.  I haven't done weighted dips in a while always left them to just my bodyweight, I thought 45 would feel harder and be all I'd need to use but I had to keep going up to make it hard, in the end I was pushing a total of 240 pounds with full ROM so I am happy with that.  Part 3 was random, became many sets of 4 and 5.

Legs

Today I decided to go heavy on front squats again, been a while with all the damn issues with my back, but I wanted to give it a go today.  I should also mention that today the squats were to just above parallel, or to 7 risers.  I squatted this way for years before when I hurt my back and ass to grass wasn't going to happen, I just stuck with this way.  I think I may rotate back and forth between ATG and to just above parallel, this way is a good way to really load up on the quads.

Front Squats - 10 sets, here's how it broke done
135x10
155x8
175x6
195x4
225x3
225x3
225x3
135x12
135x12
135x12

AMRAP in 10 minutes
12 Squats
12 Lunges (6 per leg)
12 Jump Squats
12 Jump Lunges (6 per leg)
Score: 4 rounds

Leg Extension - 3x20.......140

10 sets was great, I decided to go all out first time back, knowing it could completely turn on me.  The good news was my back held up fine, the 3 sets of 225 I had to focus on keeping my midline stable, the bad news is my legs hurt...well duh!  I have squatted 275 that style before so obviously taking the time off affected that but I know it will build back up.  My legs were very heavy going into part 2, which is normally AMRAP 20 and double the reps of the exercises, but 10 sets of squats took about 40 minutes (after proper warmup and all) so the last 2 parts had to be short.  They burned like crazy nonetheless......awesome!

Conditioning (Birthday workout)

Greg Amundson doing below workout

Birthday workout, damn it sucked, it's what I call SMMF.....which stands for "same movement mother ________" you can fill in the rest.  So the entire workout was one movement.  I picked a crossfit classic called G.I. Jane, which is as follows;

For Time
100 Burpee Pullups
Time: 18:23

The requirements for the workout as chest must hit the floor and chin must clear the bar, the only place I could do this was under a 8 foot high bar, which in the only video I've seen of someone do this workout was the height they had too.  My shoulders were lit up, I got 15 done at first then broke them up into slow sets of 10 until 85 then did a brutal set of 15 to close it out.  First 50 done in 8:15 so my second half wasn't terribly slower than my first.  Either way it was tough, one movement for 18 plus minutes becomes very mental, but I am glad it was over.  Now to enjoy the rest of my birthday!

Random

Muscle Fibres after intense workout

No workout today, just random post, wanted to mention that today it's hard to find muscles that aren't sore on me, gladly my lower back isn't really one of them.  My quads, chest, lats and glutes a little are standing out the most, I even made sure I paid more attention to stretching.  I accidently bumped into a bench today with my quad, a very light tap but damn that quickly reminded me how sore they still are, damn that leg routine was Sunday.

Also I ran a client through my 12 days of Christmas workout, found here;

http://paulsfitnessblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-8-2011.html

His final time was 40:19, which is 35 seconds quicker than mine.  This guy is an interesting client, he's 6'3 and 225 pounds, stronger than me but also loves to run and can run farther than I can so his aerobic capacity is really good as well.  I thought he'd beat me by more than 35 seconds, but he was none too pleased with me after the routine was over it was certainly tough.  I kind of it like when clients beat my scores on various workout, shows where my weaknesses are.  Also, one of my female clients performed this routine today;

http://paulsfitnessblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-26-2010.html

Her time was 18 minutes and something, she puts most males to shame and has a great aerobic capacity, but c'mon it's a girl, she didn't like that I used the same height on the box level that I did for myself, I didn't like that I got put to shame by a girl haha.

Pulling

John Welbourne

Pulling day, decided to do the opposite from the last one, more or less

Wide Grip Pullups - 5xmax reps........12, 10, 8, 8, 8

Underhand Pulldowns - 4x5........160, 170, 180, 190

With a 25 pound dumbbell, perform as many chinups as possible, when done immediately perform 10 underhand inverted rows, do 4 sets and rest as needed between sets........8, 6, 6, 6 (each set followed by the rows)

Single Arm DB Preacher Hammer Curls - 3x4-5......30s (5, 4, 5)

I must have been out of it last week, wide grip pullups are suppose to be harder than regular chinups, but this time I got 46 total reps, oh well.  Everything else went well, not sure why my third set of curls was higher than my second.  I also realized on the curls my left arm was stronger than my right, but yesterday on the pushdowns my right was stronger than my left, weird imbalances.

Pushing

Todays includes barbell bench press, one of the most popular exercises in the gym, yet one that I do the least, not because it bothers my shoulders or anything but because I hate it.  Still good exercise, I didn't go for a true max as I worked out alone and had no spotter

Bench Press - 155(5), 185(3, 3, 3, 3, 3), 155(7)

Single Arm DB Push Press - 3, 3, 2, 2, 2........55, 65, 70, 75, 80

For time
10-1 of dips, with each set followed by 8 pushups
So you perform 10 dips then 8 pushups, 9 dips then 8 pushup, 8 dips then 8 pushups, all the way to 1 for the dips while pushups stay at 8 reps.
Time: 13:30

Single Arm Reverse Grip Cable Pushdown - 3x8.......20 on all sets

This felt like a good workout, the 185 on the bench press was good, not as heavy as I can go, but as heavy as I'd want to go with no spotter.  I was pleased the push presses went as well as they did the heaviest I have ever gone is 85 pounds but that was for a single, this felt like I could have done 85 for a double, maybe I'll try next workout.

Bodyweight Leg Day

Spender Hendel

Update on back, while it's still tight, I had a massage yesterday and her opinion was that while it loosened what it was suppose to (the deep tissue massage) it tighted up another spot, my old injury.  When this heals she believes I will be back to normal with no back pain, so I guess I just have to wait.  Today is suppose to be leg day, and that's the main day where my back injury would get it the way.  I was going to skip it, but decided to do something fun that only included body weight.  I went out to a track at my old high school and did a leg circuit, the kick was that I was doing all this in a foot of snow, my winter boots, 2 pairs of workout pants, and 4 shirts.  My face got numb, my hands got numb (even with gloves) my legs did not, they got warm.  My car said minus 12 going in, but it was the wind that sucked.  The workout was simple;

7 Rounds for time
40 Travelling Lunges (20 per leg)
20 Jump Squats
Time: 20:13

I was going to do 5 rounds, but that got done too quick, then I was going to do AMRAP 20, but I was 5 squats away from 7 whole rounds so decided to leave it at that.  My legs got very heavy dragging them through the snow, it's not a long leg routine not like what my leg days normally like, but considering I was going to take the day off I am happy about it.  Damn walking back to my car sucked, 2 mini hills were hard on there own, I am used to working out in the cold from my college days.  People may think I'm weird for doing a workout like that, but personally I think it's weird when I hear the excuse "it's too cold to workout".

Conditioning

My post workout meal...mmm beef curry

Today the back was still hurting, but it won't prevent from a simple yet challenging bike ride and row workout.

Bike 3 miles at resistance 10 - Time: 9:13

Row Intervals, rest as needed between rounds
500 metres - 1:46
400 metres - 1:27
300 metres - 1:05
200 metres - 41 seconds
100 metres - 18 seconds
500 metres - 1:56 seconds

My goals for this workout was to get sub 10 on the bike ride, which I did, and get sub 2 minutes on both the 500 row intervals, which I also did, although the second was a bit harder.  Overall it was a taxing workout, the last 100 metres on the first 3 and last row interval was like tortue my legs were so spent and I had to dig deep to keep going.

Pulling

Update on back, still messed up, and I was pretty pissed about it too, well I still am just not as much.  The fascia release massage was suppose to help and now my back has completely seized up, it's embarassing when I can't even show my clients simple exercises because I can hardly move.  I know it's not normal soreness that's suppose to happen, this isn't right.....ok rant over, at least I can still do chinups

Chinups - 5xmax reps........13, 10, 8, 7, 7

Pulldowns - 5, 5, 5, 5.......140, 150, 160 170

With a 25 pound dumbbell, perform as many pullups as possible, when done immediately perform 10 inverted row, do 4 sets and rest as needed between sets........7, 5, 5, 5 (each set followed by the rows)

Single Arm DB Preacher Curl 3x5.....25, 30, 30

This really got my arms working, after part 1 my arms were already feeling it, maybe because it was 7am but probably more because 45 chinups is going to hurt anyways.  Part 3 didn't have a time component, more of a performance side, plus it felt good adding weight to my pullups again.  As I sit here typing this this I have to be careful not to flex my biceps or forearms even slightly or else they cramp, I oddly enjoy that feeling.

Pushing

Kristan Clever

A brief side, my deep tissue massage yesterday went interesting, I'm not sure if the pain I feel in my back and glutes is good or bad, but I actually feel worse than I did before, maybe something went wrong, or maybe this is normal.  Anywho, pressing day.

Rack Bench Press - 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2........205, 225, 235, 245, 245, 245

Incline Bench Press - 4x5 (135 on all sets)

5 Rounds for time
6 DB Military Press - 37s
6 DB Push Presses - 37s
10 Pushups
Time: 11:53

Tricep Pushdowns - 3x10......100 on all sets

I have to start by saying that part 3 was way harder than anticipated, all because of the military presses, I know shoulders fatigue fast but wow, the push presses were fine, the pushups got hard but nothing out of the ordinary.  I felt strong on the rack bench, I really focussed on proper setup before I lifted, that seemed to help.

Legs

Leg day, oh how I missed it, well not really.

Reverse Lunges - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3........135, 155, 165, 170, 175

Reverse Lunges - 40 reps at 135 (20 per leg)

6 Rounds for time
10 Leg Press - 180
5 Front Squats - 135
Time: 13:06

Leg Extension - 3x20.....125

Part one got heavy, I actually lost my balance on a rep and almost went over but luckily caught it, part 2 felt light at the beginning but got pretty heavy pretty fast.  Part 3 included front squats, full ass to grass front squats for the first time in weeks (not counting Saturday).  It felt great, I fear my legs will be sore but that's ok too, good leg workout.  This was followed by a deep tissue massage, it hurt, but felt good at the same time.

Conditioning

Eric Magee

Conditioning, and my return to exercise after my rest week, and boy did it feel good slash hurt like a son of a bitch.  The routine was a personalized version of a 12 days of christmas routine, I have performed a routine like this once before over a year ago, my time was just over 35 minutes I think, one of my clients recently performed this routine, which can be found here;

http://59percentoverweight.blogspot.com/2010/12/and-partridge-in-pear-tree.html

I wanted to make it tougher, and I believe it worked as as my time was slower, here is the version I performed.

1 x Pullup
2 x Toe to Bars
3 x Hang Power Cleans - 135
4 x Jump Lunges (4 per leg)
5 x KB Snatches - 24 kg (5 per arm)
6 x Burpees
7 x Situps
8 x Box Jumps - 24 inches
9 x Deadlifts  - 135
10 x Pushups
11 x Shoulder to Overhead - 135
12 x Front Squats - 135
Time: 40:54

12 rounds, with them getting progressively longer as you add in a new exercise at one rep higher then go back down the ladder.  Thank God front squats was only one set, 135 isn't rediculously heavy but at that point you are so fatigued it sucked, plus I decided to go shoeless for some reason, they felt weird with no shoes.  The shoulder to overhead sucked too, but those last 2 were the one only 2 that were broken up.  The snatches I took a break between arms, and arguably was the hardest one, I decided to up the weight to 24 kg instead of my initially planned 20 kg, plus I had to do 8 sets of it (or 40 per arm).  The burpees became painful as well, as did the hang power cleans, everything else was time consuming and energy wasting.  It felt good to get back into the swing of things, this is a routine I will perform in one years time.

Goals

Goals, this post is my goals for the new year, hopefully to be acheived before 2012 hits and mankind no longer exists, heh nah I don't believe what the Mayans predicted, but here it goes.

Goals:
Weight - 190 (while my bodyfat remains below 10%)

Decline Bench Press - 265 for 2 reps
Cable Row - 250 for 2 reps (maxes the weight stack)
Military Press - 155 for 2 reps
Get 225 pounds overhead
Weighted Chin up - BW plus 100 pounds for a single
Front Squat - 265 for 2 reps
Deadlift - 315 for 3 good reps, if my form is shit then I won't even bother
20 BW chinups in a row

I am deciding to leave out explosive lifts, I realize I can't go for a true max at this point without bumber plates, so until I have access to those I will have to put clean and jerks and snatches on hold, I will still have them in my routines just not heavy.  This is a good combo or pushing and pulling, and upper and lower body, so hopefully I can achieve these goals in the future.

First 2011 post

First post of the new year, not a workout but simply some news.  At the beginning of the new year I usually decide to take a rest week, and I think it's due more than ever from this past year, especially the past month.  My back, my knee, even shoulders have been sore when they shouldn't be, so I am going to take a week off to let everything heal up.  I will start working out next Saturday hopefully with a 12 days of Christmas workout, one that I will personally design to challenge me, and most likely harder than the one I did before.  I will designate 20 minutes each day to stretch myself out, mainly focussing on my back, hips and shoulder joints.  If I find an interesting article I will post it here, but otherwise there will probably not be many posts till next Saturday.  Also at some point expect a post on my goals for 2011.

(PS I did have a sort of rest time about a month ago but that was due to illness and I was unable to consume my regular foods so I wouldn't count it as an actual rest week.)