After feeling it from last night’s rack pulls, (the first time doing them), I find this great article by Ben Tatar on the deadlift. At my gym, Scott P. said once I get to 400# I can “take the skirt off”. Now that the skirt is off, this article will help get me to “monster” status!

As if getting older isn’t bad enough, Eric Cressey maintains that due to compressive action on the spine from squats and Olympic lifting, I could be getting shorter! Seriously, in his #91 newsletter, Cressey has some excellent advice for back health, especially if you are lifting heavy. Since I am already having a back issue or two at any given time it seems, I have the need to heed! Of note: I used to train early in the morning and Cressey explains why this is not a good idea. Read the rest of this entry

Following President Bush’s final State of the Union address to Congress, I headed off to the gym for a quick ME deadlift workout. After warming up with 2 sets of snatch grip deadlifts while on an elevated platform lifting 155 x 6 and 245 x 5 and concluding with a standard deadlift of 245 x 3, I continued by going with 61% of my 1RM.265 x 3 reps, with 6 sets and 90 seconds rest between the sets. The next grouping was done at just over 72% of 1RM. 315 x 3 with 6 sets and 90 seconds rest between each.The form was solid and the lifts were done quickly and easily. Finally, the last thing I did was 3 reps of Good Mornings at 45/65/95/133/155.I left with plenty in the tank so this was a good workout tonight. 

I don’t train much in the morning these days except on the weekend. It is a nice change-up though and the rest of day goes better it seems. The energy in the gym is good and there are a lot of the familiar faces I see during my regular times in the “box”. But it is mostly about the energy and my workouts are usually good with occasional PR’s having been set. This contrasts with my training days at Crossfit Marina when all my sessions were early in the morning, including Saturday. Those Saturdays were hard days, thanks to Steve’s “chippers”. I sucked at them most of the time, but I doubt I would have done them often on my own, and I still don’t. Having said that, I recently did a rather hellacious “chipper” on my own. Misery truly does love company!

Today, the energy was great in the gym but not necessarily in me, as I was not sufficiently recovered from last night’s training and did not seem to get much past the warm-up stage. No matter though, I left with a good workout.

I began with an 800 meter run. I did 3 rounds of the Crossfit warm-up and the same number of Burgener sets with an empty bar.

I drilled on the Snatch + Overhead Squats, x 3 with 45/45/65#. Continuing, I did Hang Squat Cleans + Push Presses x 3 for 65/65/95/105/110.

The workout concluded with 3 sets of 10 Reverse Hypers @ 55#

I brought the slosh pipe over to the gym to let some of my gym rat friends try it out and everyone was quite impressed at how difficult moving 40 lbs sloshing water is. I had so much fun that this turned out to be the focal point of tonight’s training.I did 7 Zercher carries over distances of 75-100 yards going in one direction and turning it around and walking with the damn thing locked out overhead for 75 yards. I did this 5 times. I know this will hit me tomorrow, but what a great way to work the stabilizer muscles and the core.

I wanted to get in some kettlebell work and so I did some snatches with the 2o kg., 5 x 20.

For a finisher, TGU’s, Turkish Get-ups; something I almost never do but tonight did with a 25 lb. dumbbell 10x and then 2 more with the 20 kg kettlebell.

This was a strenuous Friday night at the gym, but a hell of a lot of fun. Good times!

Keeping with yesterday’s theme of simplicity, I came, I squatted, I went home. That simple and that fast.

My warm-up was empty bar back squats for a couple of sets of 15, then 135 x 5 and 155 x 5, both with 3 second pauses in the hole.

The entree was 9 sets of 2 reps.

225/225/240/245/250/260/260/275/225. 60-87% of 1RM.

Got nice and low for each, but was wobbly on the first set of 260. The second set was much better.

Remember Eric Heiden? You know the guy with the massive legs wh0 won 5 Olympic medals in speedskating in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. Well, it seems in the lead-up to that medal run, Eric had a very creative and old-school approach to conditioning as pointed out by Tom Furman in his blog Physical Strategies.

When I first started inline speedskating in the early 90’s, young kids would even make the “Eric Heiden” comment to me when they saw my legs. No way though, did my legs ever approach the size of strength of Heiden’s. But even today, people remember Eric. He was a freak. A fast one at that! (He was also a Wisconsin Badger)!

Tom, in another posting has a good rant about diet and the current state of fitness in the country. I like his line, “Trouble always finds you. You cannot outrun a donut”. (Ok, I get the first sentence, but I may have to meditate on the second one)!

My workout today fit the bill for simplicity and throughly whupped me. After warming up and jumping rope at 100/100/100/140, I went into

4 rounds, 25 kettlebell swings, American-style with a 24 kg bell25 jumping pull-ups

Just what the doctor ordered!

I know why I seldom drink. I never liked the hangover. I have a hangover of a different type today…a football hangover. After watching a slo-mo train wreck for over three hours, interrupted only by a constant barrage of inane commercials, I am lamenting the demise of yet another playoff run by sloppy and poor play by the Green Bay Packers capped by a Brett Favre interception in overtime, in a near repeat of the now infamous “Fourth and twenty six” play and a Favre pick.

The Pack was a solid pick to advance to the Super Bowl, but the G-men from the Meadowlands had other ideas and played like they wanted it more and were thusly rewarded. If it sounds like I blame Brett, well not really. It was a team effort of errors.I’ll shake this off pretty fast though, but today, I get through the “hangover”.

So, my “Hangover WOD” started off by sets of

rope jumping, 100/100/116/158/120 and then 3 rounds of the Crossfit warm-up and the Burgener warm-up.

The main event was some practice with the snatch using a stick, an empty bar, and light weight at 60% of my last reported 1RM. 45/55/65/65/65.

The session went well and should be enough to shake off the remnants of my disappointment. Next begins the annual vigil of the Packer faithful waiting to find out if Brett Favre returns for another season. (I say Yes).

Technorati Tags:Green Bay Packers, Snatch, New York Giants, Super Bowl

AAfter a good, solid effort in the busy gym today, I went out and bought the things needed to make a Slosh Pipe. More on that in a bit.

I have been wanting to do a session of overhead squats and today was just the day to get it done. Before those, I started off with some warm-ups which included,

800 meter run

Skip rope: 100/100/85/100.

Burgener warm-ups x 3.

Hanging Squat Clean & Press, x 3:45/65/95/115/125.

Overhead squats, warm-up: 45 x 15/45 x 10.

Overhead Squats, x 3: 85/95/105/115/125/135/145 pr.

After the gym, I went out to buy the pvc for the slosh pipe, glued an end, filled it with water and capped the other end.

That slosh pipe is harder than it looks. While it only weighs about 40#, it required a great deal of stabilizing muscle recruitment for all that water moving about. The 9′ tube was filled 2/3 full of water, giving it plenty of room to slosh around. I did 3 sets each of 2 x 50 yard Zercher walks. It will be interesting to find what muscles are sore or just gassed tomorrow and the next day. Overhead pressing will be attempted another day!

Technorati Tags:Danny john, Overhead Squats, Slosh Pipe

My main objective tonight was to do a lot of kettlebell snatches and I got to it…eventually. Everything that led up to it was definitely worthwhile, cardio and bodyweight in nature. At first, it just seemed like an extended warm-up, but it became a long, yet varied interval workout . Here’s how it it looked:

Rope jumps: 6 x 100 jumps.
Jumping Squats, 45# bar: 15/15/15/20/20/20.
Pull-ups, band-assisted: 10/10/10/10.
Ring Dips: 10.
Push-ups: 40.
Sit-ups: 30/30/30.

Now, I was ready for the kettlebell snatches, done with a 16 kg bell: 8 x 20.

To finish off the evening workout, I did
25 air squats, followed by 3 x 15 goblet squats with the 16 kg kettlebell.