Just yesterday in my Year End Review, I said no more PR’s until next year. Well, I just couldn’t wait! I joined a crowd of people getting in their last workout of the year before the gym closed at noon. All three squat racks were in use, but I planted myself in a prime piece of rubber matted real estate with a good bar and a pile of plates. Time to deadlift! Time to PR!

To warm up, I did 4 sets of Burgener’s and 4 x 30 ab mat sit-ups.

I loaded the bar with 155# and did 5 deadlift reps. I add 140#, to 295 and lifted it 3 times. Now, on to the fun stuff…

Deadlift Singles, 7 x1:

335/365/425pr/435pr/355/355/355.

Nice to finish the year with a bang! Happy New Year to everyone and I hope that 2008 allows you to reach your dreams and get your PRs!

With the books closing on 2007, I don’t expect to be setting any PR’s but in that respect, I had a good year of increasing totals and lowering times, most notably in the deadlifts. More on that later.

I had injuries heal and got new ones to replace them. My right scapula is now good, but the left is kind of wobbly from overdoing sets of barbell snatches. I have tendonitis in the right elbow from either an errant kettlebell swing or a barbell clean that got too far away from me. I stayed pretty healthy with only a couple of bouts with allergens during the Santa Ana winds recently.

I found myself skating less, but swinging kettlebells more. In August, Val bought me my first KB, a 20 kg hunk of metal with a handle. Previously, I used a kettlebell only as part of a Crossfit WOD. Now I have four different weights and Val bought me instruction with a RKC trainer as a Christmas present and can do swings and snatches with the 24 kg kettlebell.

I have continued to mix up my workouts like the Crossfit programming model. Gone are the days of single activities such as speedskating, running and mountain bike riding, all of which I did largely at the exclusion of much of anything else, save an occasional trip to the gym.

Speaking of Crossfit, while I still enjoy doing their WODs and subscribe to their journal, I am no longer a “Kool-Aid drinker”. I never was someone who was attracted to cult-like organizations and their zealots, but I do continue to learn much about fitness from Crossfit.

My interest has steadily grown in powerlifting and Olympic style weightlifting and will get quality training wherever and whenever I can find it. I am even sticking my toe back in the water, so to speak with running, an activity I gave up years ago. I have no intention to ever be a big mileage guy, though.

I am enjoying the complexities of learning the Olympic lifts and I benefit greatly from the simplicity of bodyweight exercises I get from Ross Enamait of rosstraining.com and Crossfit. Mixing up workouts has been the best thing to happen to my physical training and I credit Crossfit for that and Crossfit Marina, with the Serranos as trainers and Brent O as a competitive foil for my sessions.

I have been more consistent in going to the gym than I have in many years and almost always look forward to my sessions there. I also like training at home or in a park. To that end, I have been buying useful fitness “toys” like Elite rings, fitness bands, weighted vest, weightlifting shoes, racing flats, jump ropes, chalk, a stopwatch, an Ab Mat and a kick butt ab roller from Lifeline. There are more things I will be getting in ‘08, but training at home is a now a viable alternative.

In ‘07, my diet largely went to crap and my weight crept up. That will change in 2008. ‘Nuff said about that.

I made some modest gains lifting over the year, and in all cases form has improved but much needs to improve in that area over the next year. At the beginning of the year I could clean 145 as a 1RM and the last time I tried, I was doing 175 lbs, but I am certain I can beat that right now. It will just have to wait! The Crossfit Total, (CFT) consisting of the best lifts in the squat, overhead press and deadlift was 760 lbs in January and is now 910, with the biggest increase coming with a 415 lb max deadlift, which increased by 75#. My overhead press increased by 25 lbs to 185 and my squat went up by 45#, a bit of a disappointment. My 5K run time at the beginning of the year sucked and stills sucks with no improvement to speak of at 28 minutes.

This year saw, what I believe were growth changes to the Barbarian Blog and I will continue to tweak it next year.

There were a lot of “Good times” in 2007 as Brent was fond of saying, (where have you been dude?) and more to come next year. Stay tuned.

Check below for a couple of workouts done this weekend…

Saturday:

Kind of an active rest day and ran around the block a couple of times which took all of 19 minutes for just under two miles.

Sunday:

Ran 2 x 800 meters

Sit-ups: 50/40/30

Push-ups: 50/40/30

Overhead Squats: 50/40/30

Back Extensions: 50/40/30

One arm Overhead Squats: 25# overhead, holding 53# with the other hanging arm x 12 and again x 20. 18/25#, 2 x 20.

Kettlebell Swings, 24 kg: 10/10/10/10/10

Kettlebell Snatches, 24 kg: 10/20/20

As 2007 winds down. I seem to be in a pattern which is getting me in the gym later and later and that has to end with the close of the year. My energy levels are definitely past the peak, so that is one of several reasons to get in earlier. But for tonight, it was late again. I started by doing a couple sets of the standard Crossfit warm-up and then did 4 sets of the Burgener Warm-up, two of which were with a stick and two with an empty bar. I did some Oly progression lifts but kept the weight light.

3 Front Squats + 3 Push Jerks, 45/65/85/95/115.

For some more work, I added in 5 x 20 Kettlebell Swings with the 24 kg. I did both two-handed and one-handed swings.

For those of you who enjoy powerlifting, you probably know who Mark Rippetoe is and if you don’t, you should. Mark is the author of Starting Strength, Second Edition, Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming.

Craig Rasmussen of Elite Fitness Systems posted the second installment of Texas BBQ Part 2: More Shop Talk With Mark Rippetoe.  You’ll also want to go back and read Texas BBQ, Part 1. In part 2, Rasmussen asks Coach Rip about the fine points of the back squat, deadlifts and programming. 

I was also happy to read that a dvd is forthcoming. That will be great addition to his body of work.

You can also find video of Coach Rippetoe teaching the lifts at the Crossfit site.

The back squat is something I have been neglecting of late, so tonight I was up for a dynamic effort (DE) session and since time was short, I stayed focused and as a result, walked away with a good workout.

Dave Tate, founder of EliteFTS says this about dynamic effort sessions,  “Dynamic effort is defined as lifting a non-maximal load with the greatest speed possible.” 

So, it is all about the speed. This trains the nervous system to lift fast and you will need that speed to lift heavy, (and who doesn’t need to do that?) My lifts tonight were from 60-80% of my 1RM, which I would obviously like to increase.I warmed up by squatting with an empty bar and then loaded 135# and did a few more. I was ready to go and set the bar to 190#. Each set would be done with two fast reps, deep and with good form with 90 seconds between sets.

190#  5 x 2

225# 5 x 2

250# 2 x 2

I have been alternating wearing weightlifting shoes and flat Chuck Taylors and although I wore the lifting shoes tonight, I am still undecided which I like better for back squats. Anyone have any opinions on what the footwear of choice is for squatting?

Here is a funny animation from Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and animator, Walt Handelsman for all of us baby boomers working out like maniacs. For a Christmas present, I received from Valerie, 3 sessions with kettlebell instructor Steve Belanger, RKC, of Old School Barbell Club in Westminster, CA. His Kettlebells and Beyond website can be accessed here. I met Steve about a year ago when he was an instructor at a Crossfit Kettlebell seminar at Valley Crossfit. This combination stoked my interest in kettlebells and it made sense to seek Steve out for some training. For my first session today, we went through the mechanics of the swing and the snatch and will spend more time the next session on the clean and the clean and jerk and whatever else Steve has in mind.We concluded the first session with a nice cardio rip.

5 rounds of 10 two-handed swings with a 28 kg kb and immediately over to 16 kg snatches, 5 each arm. Rest 30 seconds and get some more.         

I am looking forward to the next session with Steve. He is a very personable guy and a good coach. Thanks Val!A few hours later, if the KB stuff wasn’t enough, I went to the gym and lubed up with 3 rounds of the Burgener warm-up before doing some light Oly lift work.

Power Snatch + Full Snatch + 3 Overhead Squats: 45/45/45/65/65/65/65.        

Power Clean + Hang Squat Cleans + 3 Front Squats: 65/95/115/135/135/135/115. 

I admit there was a little guilt for my Christmas Day indulgences, but I had plenty of energy for the stuff I did today. 

Now that I am finished with the shopping part of Christmas, I can settle in to watch a great game between the Packers and the hated Chicago Bears. Wrong! The Bears punched the Packers repeatedly in the face and beat them badly. The Packers are locked in as the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs with one regular season game remaining.

I definitely had some frustration to vent and channeled it into a good cardio workout outside my front door.

For starters,

Ran 800 meters

Push-ups: 30/30/40/35

Sit-ups: 35/35/35/

Overhead Squats: 25/15/15

That warmed me up for the frustration-releasing part…

Kettlebell Swings, 20 kg. 21-15-9 and alternated each of the three sets with a 400 meter run.

After a brief rest,

Kettlebell Snatches, 20 kg, 20/20/20/20, 10 each arm. I started each set with 3 high pulls to lock in good form.

Ah, I feel much better now!

This time of year, it is easy to fall out of your training regimen. The demands of the holidays can take their toll and maybe this is the time to back away from the training. If it is not, then how do you stick with the plan and still find time to enjoy the holidays?

Back in the day when I was a runner, winter was an especially challenging time, especially when it was really cold, like -20°F Wisconsin-cold. I was in and out of it all day long working, so the worst thing for me to do was to think about going back out in it once I got in my warm and comfy apartment. The key for me was to get home and put on a pre-made cassette tape of music I liked, starting off mellow with John Klemmer’s saxophone and eventually building to a blazing crescendo of the appropriately titled “10th Avenue Freeze Out” by Bruce Springsteen.

From there, With a Zen “empty mind”, I changed into my workout clothes and then started into some gentle stretches. I would started getting toasty with all my layers of clothing. Soon, the music and my built up cache of trapped body heat had me up and out the front door. After that initial blast to the face of cold air, I settled into what was usually a pretty good run.

The coldest day I ever ran was a 4 miler with the wind chill at -90°. That was actually easy to get psyched up for because of the challenge of running in such an extreme temperature.

My “back door” was my “Rule of 10″ which stated that if I really could not make this work after 10 minutes, for whatever reason, I gave myself permission to turn around and go home, still getting in a 20 minute run. The “Rule” was seldom invoked however. It still works for me today, but the “Rule of 10″ now is the “Rule of 20 or So”, taking into account I am older and it takes longer to warm-up and find the flow ;-

Create or find a pre-training routine that works for you where the end result is you end up doing your workout in spite of the distractions, real or perceived. Isn’t it amazing how your brain can come with with a dazzling array of excuses, justifications and rationalizations for not training today and then negotiating with yourself on how you will “make it right” tomorrow. Yeah, right, dude! When you do have a scheduled “day off”, take it, relax and enjoy it. You deserve it and the crescendo will again build for tomorrow’s workout.

This time of the year, there isn’t a wait at the gym. It’s pretty quiet in there now. People who would normally be there are running up their cortisol levels at the malls trying to satisfy everyone on their gifts list. They are eating and drinking at Christmas parties, adding a little extra weight as they go along, all the while obsessing they are “getting fat” and “losing conditioning”. I say, enjoy it while it lasts because come January 2, they will return along with the “Resolutionistas” who are bound and determined, once and for all to have the bodies they know they must have for “beach season”. They will try to impose their will on the “indigenous peoples” who never left. It’s just all part of the annual gym cycle and part of what makes going there interesting in the first place. I’ll curse them for the riff-raff they are, but for now, it is pleasant to train as if this is my own personal gym and chat with a few of the natives who will have to fight off the returning hordes in January with me.

Most of my session tonight seemed like a warm-up and that was fine because I am battered. Tendonitis in the elbow, traps and scapular muscles tight and strained and a bit fatigued in general. Nothing too serious; just at the bottom of the cycle. This is the time to take it easy and be smart about training so as not to add to the aches and pains.

I started off with a good 800 meter run in the brisk outdoors to break sweat and clear the mind. What came next was,

Kettlebell Swings, 1 x 20 with the 35#, 2 x 20 with the 53#.

Kettlebell Snatches, 35# 3 x 20.

Burgener Warm-up with the empty 45# bar, 3 sets.

Overhead Presses, 5 x 5, 95/115/125/135/145.

Still not fully recovered, I started slowly tonight and eventually came away with a good effort.The Appetizers:

3 rounds of the Burgener Warm-up3 x 15 Overhead Squats w/dowel3 x 20 Kettlebell Swings, 35#5 x 3 Hang Squat Cleans + Push Presses, 45/65/95/95/135.

The Main Course:

Deadlifts, DE, 10 x 260% of 1RM @ 250#, 5 x 270% of 1 RM @ 295#, 5 x 2, with 1 minute rest between each set.