With a good rest day behind me, where I had caught up on reading and putting up a few posts, it was time to train. I cut into my training time however answering calls and playing with the dogs, so I had to adjust my now shortened time to train. As I got to the gym, I saw it was busier than usual. I did not have the patience to wait or waste any more time, so I got busy on training one my many weaknesses…pull-ups.

The session started with 3 rounds of the Crossfit Warmup:
Samson Stretch, 30 seconds a side
30 push-ups
30 AbMat sit-ups
25 back extensions
5 pull-ups
25 bar dips
15 overhead squats with a 6′ stick
I also added in 3 sets of 10 each Zercher squats to the warm-up at 45/65/85#

8 sets of singles for the weighted pull-ups, all staying at the top for as long as possible and coming down slowly on the eccentric and then hanging with active shoulders for a bit. Not a lot of weight besides my own was added, but started with bodyweight once, then 10/20/25/25/35/30/30/45/45/. On the last two, I needed an assist to get my chin over the bar.

I did two finishing sets of asymmetrical dumbbell Waiter Walks with 27.5 and 35 lbs over 200′.

‘

Most of you reading this know who Dan John is and know that he is not one of those hairdressers with two first names. (Unless that is a closely guarded secret not being shared with the fitness community). Much has been written about Dan, so I am not going to add in much more than my .02 worth except to say if you have not read his stuff, you should.

His site is loaded with great articles and he has a newsletter called “Get Up” which should keep you busy reading for some time. I am just finishing reading his book “From the Ground Up“, which can be downloaded free as a pdf file. Seriously, if you train with barbells and haven’t read it, you need to go there now and get a copy. Read it and then go back and re-read it.It is that good, IMO.

Dan is also a frequent contributor to the forum at Performance Menu. (Hey, even Moynihan is a Dan John fan)!

For current Dan John stuff, go to T-Nation.

As Dan would advise, pick it up, put it over your head or carry it or throw it. Remember, the body is one piece.

One of my favorite local bands to listen to while I am working out is The Bonedaddys from Santa Monica, CA. I have had more PRs set while listening to their music, (before, not during the lift)!

THE BONEDADDYS serve up a wild party mix of African, Caribbean, R&B, New Orleans and Rock & Roll rhythms but the bottom line is always a soulful and dance-able ambiance. An irreverent group of characters centered around percussionist Mike Tempo, THE BONEDADDYS are in their second decade creating music that has been described in performance as an unstoppable, sweat-ridden orgy of rhythm.

Go here to see them perform live. (Requires Flash 9). You can hear more of their music at their website or iTunes. This is music for the waist down, so get sweaty wid it!

One of the things I would like to start using in my training is still rings. They are widely employed in Crossfit workouts and there are several options for portable ring sets to hang from a squat cage in the gym or a tree in the park.

A fitness blog I missed in my previous post has information on traveling rings and much, much more including Crossfit and links to many of the best fitness sites is called "Lean and Hungry Fitness" run by Jim Biancolo. Jim recently achieved a goal of 100 burpees in under 10 minutes. That is sick!

After three days of high intensity training sessions, I am enjoying a rest and recovery day day by reading some of my favorite and some new fitness blogs.

First, I would like to thank Scott Bird of straighttothebar.com for the kind words words for the MarkFu today.

Scott calls his site a “celebration of strength” and covers powerlifting, parkour, strongman, grip training, kettlebells and anything else connected to strength training. There is an abundance of “rest day” reading here for me and you too. Here are a couple other blogs I know you will enjoy and learn from…

Mark “Rip” Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore, the authors of Starting Strength have a blog that I just found and like. If you like to move heavy weight, you want to hear what they have to say. In my blogs, I talk about a workout called the Crossfit Total. This was designed and implemented for Crossfit by Coach Rip. last year, I had two groin pulls and Coach Rip put together a daily lifting program which helped heal those injuries. Their books and now their blog are a “must read”.

Another Crossfit coach, Michael Rutherford has an excellent blog called the Fitness Conduit. Coach Rut is the man when it comes to putting together tough workouts using dumbbells. Last year, at a Crossfit seminar in San Diego, Coach Rut put me through a meat grinder of a workout which included burpees and farmer walks around a large San Diego block 3 times. I derive some of my workouts from Coach Rut’s site.

Both coaches, “Rip” and “Rut” give you what’s important without fluff. Excellent coaches, both.

Marty Gallagher’s Purposefully Primitive Fitness published an excellent article title "The Purposeful Primitive Progressive Pulls" and from that article came a "raw and retro" workout that I did today. It is all about the pulling and I did the week one workout of six, hence the name "progressive".

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Sequim strongman collapses, dies
July 26th, 2007 – 8:41am

(Sequim) — A
Sequim man considered one of the strongest men in the world has died.
Twenty-seven-year-old Jesse Marunde died last night after collapsing while doing
exercises at his home in Sequim. Friends of the family confirm he died last
night after stopping his workout when he felt dizzy. Marunde and his wife Callie
had just celebrated the birth of a baby about six weeks ago. Marunde also has a
nine-year-old son from a previous marriage. Marunde finished second in the 2005
"World’s Strongest Man" competition. He continued competing in similar
competitions and ran a gym with his wife in Sequim.

http://www.sequimgazette.com/Articl…HT_LIFTER_DIES/

My condolences to Jesse’s family and friends. Rest in Peace. More…

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Strength and conditioning coach Charles Staley was in the gym doing an Oly lift workout and said this when asked by someone which muscle that lift works.

"I specifically remember one particular workout "back in the day" at the Dutchess County YMCA in Poughkeepsie (yes, there really is a Poughkeepsie!) New York.

I was mid-way through a power clean session when a well-meaning but hapless inhabitant of a nearby Smith machine asked "Hey- could you tell me what muscle that works?"

"Ya know when you’re, say, on a football field, and someone throws you the ball, and you sprint and catch it?" I replied

"Sure"

"It works that muscle."

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Those of you who have trained for any length of time know the importance of recovery meals after the workout to replenish your body and maximize your gains. Those of you who are not yet aware of the benefits of a post-workout recovery meal can find out everything, here.

Written by my friend, Ori Hofmekler, "Recovery Meals-The Key To Muscle Gain", tells you everything you need to know about how to get the most out of all the total effort you just expended in the gym or out on the road.

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Ordinarily, it is probably not a great idea to mix a cardio workout with a heavy lifting session especially when legs where involved in both.

My plan was to go to the gym and do a few rounds of the Crossfit warm-up which would give me an overall body boost that would be a good lead-in to a skate at the beach.

What started as a simple warm-up turned into a full-blown pair of five sets of front squat and shoulder press sessions.

That went well…

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