A spur of the moment change from a kettlebell swinging session to going for a run, er, jog rewarded me 33 minutes later with a nice endorphin buzz which isn’t as pronounced as lifting stuff or even doing other metcon workouts. 

I remember, with fondness, the days I used to train for marathons and other shorter distances. Some days were exceptional, some truly sucked, most were average but all had the after-glow of the familiar “runner’s high”. 

As nice as that buzz was last night, I do not expect to be running all that often, but it does offer a nice change of pace.

Val liked the idea so much, she joined me and was thrilled that I would even want to go for a run and invite her. Of course, when she floated the idea of running a 5K race with her this weekend in Seal Beach, she was met with a quick rebuff. I know she would like nothing more than for me to resurrect my running days, but that isn’t going to happen.

Our little 5K trot in Back Bay took a leisurely 33 minutes.

Technorati Tags: endorphins, runner’s high, kettlebell

For quiet, lazy afternoon in the gym, I just winged it and came up with a good one. It was strenuous but not taxing.

BB Deadlift Singles, w/1 min. rest between each

3×310# 70%+ 1RM

3×320#

2×330#

1×340#

2×360# 83% 1RM

BB Overhead Presses, w/:45 rest between each

5×135# 73% 1RM

3×145#

2×160# 86%+ 1RM

My allergies are still a nuisance more than anything and so it took a long time to get warmed up enough to do the fun stuff. 

Like a lizard on a rock, getting warmed by the morning sun, I went through the motions to loosen things up.

When that happened, I took something from a recent Gym Jones workout called Six Way Barbell Complex. It consists of six movements, the snatch, overhead squat, back squat, good mornings, bent over rows and deadlifts done as a set of six reps each.

I did sets of 45#x2 sets/75#x2/90#x2 for a total of 108 reps and a volume of 7,560 lbs.

That was a good one and did a nice job of getting the heart rate high for all the reps.

After a rest, I brought out the 70# kettlebell for some swings. By this time, there wasn’t a whole lot left for reps over ten and so I did sets of 10/15/10/10/10/10 and called it a day. This, added to the previous volume gave me 12,110 for the session and I left happy and hungry.

Technorati Tags: Gym Jones, Six Way Barbell Complex,

Most of my workouts recently have been barbell and kettlebell routines, but one other type of workout I also do has of late been largely ignored because I have been having so much fun doing the others. Yet, bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere and anytime and all you have to bring is your body.

T-Nation has an excellent article on bodyweight training by strength coach Brad Kaczmarski.

After you have read this article, you can get much more in the way of routines and information over at BWC.

There are plenty of other great BW exercises to be found on the internet, including basics by Craig Stovall.

Now drop down and give me 20, slacker!

Technorati Tags: bodyweight training, T-Nation, BWC

The familiar tickle in the throat, low level headache and drop in energy tells me it is time for another bout with allergies. This one didn’t stop the workout or even slow it down much, but I still decided to keep it fairly short.

As usual, I did a variety of warm-ups to get into the swing of things, (I did some swings). These included 3×30 abmat sit-ups, 3×15 dislocates and overhead squats and some light back squats at 45×10/65×10/135×5/185×2/225.

The “termite guys” brought in their 70# kettlebell and we did some swings with it.
30/15/20 h2h/30 1H/20.

Next, I did some Rest-Pause Squats, 10×255# with a minute rest between each single, timed with the Gymboss.

As I said, it was short, but still a solid session.

Technorati Tags: squats, rest-pause training

“One” was pressed.

Not getting enough sleep will wreak havoc on a good training session and that is what happened today. In a workout that seemed to last for hours, my ass was dragging. I was to have a training partner for tonight but he was a no-show and it was just as well.

I changed my workout a couple of times during an extended warm-up and settled on Overhead Presses, Push Presses and Push Jerks.

For the long warm-up I had a good mixture of exercises,

Ring Push-ups: 25/25/25
Back Extensions: 25/25/25
Sit-ups: 35/35/35
Dislocates/Overead Squats: 15/15/15
Dips: 10/10/10
Ring Body Rows: 10
Burgener Warm-ups x 3

Overhead Presses, 5×5, from the ground up: 90/110/120/130/135.
Push Press, 5×3: 110/120/130/140/155/175.
Push Jerk, 3×3: 100/120/135/160/90.

As long as the warm-up was, the presses seemed to take even longer. Clearly, I was in no big hurry. It did end up a decent session.

Technorati Tags: overhead presses, push presses, push jerks

For a change of scenery, Val and I went to the track to train. She was testing her healing groin pull and seems like she is well on the road to recovery.

I brought some kettlebells and and a Lifeline USA Power Wheel to the track and while Val ran, I did my workout in the cool grass of the track’s infield.

Since I was at the track, it is only right that I do some running; only 800 meters, but what the heck!

Here’s the rest:

2×43 Walking Lunges

2×13 Kettlebell Swings, 

24 kg2×10 Kettlebell Snatches, 24 kg

5 rounds, Kettlebell Combo, 5/5 of swings, snatches, cleans and presses. 1 minute rest in between.

3×10 Ab Pikes w/Power Wheel, and finished with

3×10 Ab Rollouts w/Power Wheel.

It was nice to get out of the “box” and train outdoors. We met up with one of the guys I lift with, Dave, a semi-pro football player who was running sprints.This was a short, but intense workout and tougher than I thought it would be.

Technorati Tags: Lifeline USA, Power Wheel

From the AKC, (NOT the American Kennel Club), but the American Kettlebell Club, comes this video of a 66 year old, 200 lb man deadlifting 450 lbs, easily. I can’t even do that now at 52, so I have time to “beat that” by the time I hit 66!

I went light today, but it was enough to make me go take a nap afterwards, which I thoroughly enjoyed, thank you very much!

I warmed up with AbMat sit-ups, back extensions, push-ups, snatch drops, snatch lands, snatches and some overhead squats.

Going up a level, I did snatch grip deadlifts while standing on a plastic Step Reebok platform, (I knew they were good for something). Those lifts were 155×3/200×3/200×3.

I alternated between,

Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs): 5×135x10.
Bench Press: 95×10/135×10/155×5/175×5/195×5/205×5.

Some day, like my dogs, I too might be AKC registered. Seriously, that group has got hellacious ways to train with kettlebells.

Technorati Tags: RDL, Bench Press, Romanian Deadlifts,

A slow starter that finished strong is what I had going today. Before I went to train, I had the chance to see Danny McDermott coach his young Oly lifters in their well-appointed garage gym. After watching these kids snatch, I realized that whatever it was I have been doing is not the snatch! Well, at least I got an invitation to come back and train with these guys!

My warm-ups today consisted of 3 rounds of dislocates, overhead squats, and Burgener warm-ups. I continued with:

MT Bar Squat Cleans, 3×3.
MT Bar Snatch Lands, 3×3.
MT Bar Snatch Drops, 3×3.
MT Bar Snatch, 3×3.

Next up were Hang Squat Cleans, 7×3:
65/90/100/110/120/135/145.

It became more up-tempo with 32 kg kettlebell swings at 15/21/25/25/.

To wrap it up today I did 2 x100 meters of the slosh pipe; 1 was a Zercher carry the other, an overhead carry. Started slow, but finished strong!

Technorati Tags: Squat Cleans, snatch land, snatch drop, slosh pipe, kettlebell swings

Of course better known as “March Madness“, my two teams in the hunt, Marquette and University of Wisconsin, both won their 1st round brackets.

In my “madness”, I worked out when I should have probably stayed home and in bed. With my energy levels way down and a tickle in my throat, I made it to the gym with low expectations for a snatch workout with John Curry.

Jeff and Jim, the two termite guys, weighing 270 and 305 lbs and 6′5″ respectively brought in their 32 kg kettlebell and I started swinging with them. My two handed kettlebell swing sets were 15/15/15/15.

I got ready to snatch with 3 sets of Burgener warm-ups and those indicated firing on all cylinders might not happen today. Starting light with the snatch, I did 45×3/55×2/65×2.

Continuing, my snatch sets were 75×2/80×2/90/90/100/100/105/105. On the weights I did twice, it was because I did not get into a full squat and they ended up as power snatches. I got it on the subsequent lifts.

Next, were Good Mornings: 135×5/155×5/155×5/135×5.

The finisher was 3×100 meter slosh pipes; 2 were Zercher Walks and the other was an Overhead Walk.

The training turned out better than it started and certainly better than I expected and I figure I was at about 85% of my mojo.

Also did 200 push-ups throughout the day.

Technorati Tags: NCAA, March Madness, Snatch, Good Marnings, Slosh Pipe, Swings