Tonight’s workout was difficult, as expected as I did exercises I
haven’t done with any consistency in some time, especially the
pull-ups, which had been hampered by my “tennis elbow”.

What wasn’t expected, was how crappy I felt afterwards. I initially
thought it was just because I had been neglecting these that I was so
discombobulated but then I realized I hadn’t eaten all day and I was
under-hydrated. Just plain dumb.

Anyway, the workout was all bodyweight stuff.

200 reps of push-ups, pull-ups (assisted) and squats in the fewest amount of sets needed to hit 200.

Push-ups: 40/30/30/21/25/20/16/20 = 202. 8 sets, for just over an average of 25 reps.
Pull-ups: 20/20/20/25/25/25/25/20/21 =201. 9 sets, for a 22.3 rep average.
Squats: 50/50/30/50/20 =200. 5 sets, for a 40 rep average.

I’m glad this one is done. I gotta go eat something!

Technorati Tags: Pull-ups, Push-ups, Squats, bodyweight

On a hat tip from Scott at straighttothebar.com:

The Wall Street Journal in the March 18th edition written by Laura Johannes, ran an article, “Getting A Handle On Weight Training”.

This is a very short article, meant to introduce their readers to the kettlebell phenomenon and includes a quote about safety and form from Pavel Tsatsouline.

Here is another link to go to if you want to increase your push-ups, mil-style, from Stew Smith. This one comes by way of leanandhungryfitness.com. This is a minimum 10 day plan I am going to give a go.

What was supposed to be a “day off” turned into a pretty good kettlebell session. I have had few good workouts lately and due to a general lack of interest in lying around the house, I grabbed a 24 kilo bell and headed to the gym to see what I could muster up. Mike C. brought his 24 kg and I decided to use them both.

Since there was not much of a warm-up, I got right into it:

Double Kettlebell Swings: 10/10/10/10.
Double Alternating Presses: 10/10/10/10. My cleans suck so I did not even try to clean them both at the same time.
Kettlebell Snatches: 5-5/10-10/10-10.

The swings were the hardest as I have never gone higher than 32 kg, but I got them where they needed to be.

Technorati Tags: Kettlebell snatch, kettlebell swings, kettlebell presses

Somewhat typical of Sunday workouts for me is the slow start they usually get off to and this was no different. I have had some solid efforts this past week and so it is natural things are moving slowly.

The plan was to do DE back squats but it took a little while to get to that point. Time needed to be spent on a good warm-up which I did and consisted of,

Sit-ups, 3×30
Back Extensions, 2×20
Reverse Hypers, 2×20
Kettlebell Half Swings, 2×10, and concluded with some light
Back Squats, 45×10/45×10/90×6, which got me ready for,

DE Back Squat doubles, % if 1RM
60%, 185#, 2×2
65%, 202#, 2×2
70%, 217#, 2×2
75%, 235#, 2×2
80%, 250#, 2×2
85%, 265#, 2×2

Could have stopped there but didn’t…

Overhead Presses, 45×10/65×10/90×5/90×5/90×5.
Overhead Squats, 45×5/65×5/90×5/90×5/90×5.

Finally…

Kettlebell Swings, 24kg., 3×10/10
Kettlebell Snatch, 24 kg., 4×5/5

Time to leave before I find something else to do!

Technorati Tags: DE Back Squats, Kettlebell Swings, Kettlebell Snatch,

Got off this morning with a few sets of kettlebell swings and ring push-ups before the deadlift mist rolled in.

KB Swings, 24 kilo, 20/20/20
Ring Push-ups, 25/25/25
Burgener warm-ups, with drop snatches, MT bar x 3
Power Cleans, 45×5/90×5
Snatch Grip Deadlifts on a platform, 155×3/200×3/200×3
Deadlift 245×3

With the warm-ups over, let the deadlift singles begin.
335/365/400/405/405f/335/335/335/. I “mist” the second 405 after just barely making the previous.

Did not have enough to go higher today, but a few reps at 90%+ never sucks.

Technorati Tags: snatch grip deadlift, deadlift, power clean, Elite rings

KB Swings, 32 kg; 10/10/10 H2H/10/10.
Hang Power Snatch, 5×5; 45/55/65/75/90.
Hang Squat Snatch, 5×5; 45/55/60/65/75/90/off the floor,90×3/100×3/110×3/.
Hang Power Clean, 5×5; 90/110/110/115/120.
Clean Deadlift & Shrug, 2×5, 3×3; 90/130/155/175/185.
Push Press, 5×5; 75/85/90/120/130.
Front Squat, 5×5; 90/110/120/130/140.
Overhead Squats, 3×5; 45/90/90.

Whew! That was a fun session and took quite a longer than an hour, but I got whupped! Someone brought in a 32 kg kettlebell which was the first time I swung that bad boy. I liked it and gonna get me one. Although I only tried once, quite a while back, my last full snatch was a PR at 110 lbs. Curry and I are both looking to get a good looking 135#, 62 kg snatch.

Technorati Tags: Kettlebell Swings, Hang Power Snatch, Hang Squat Snatch, Hang Power Clean, Clean Deadlift and Shrug, Push Press, Front Squat, Overhead Squat

“The race is not for the swift, but those who endure“-from the Steel Pulse song, “Bootstraps”. That was one of the songs on the iPod when I went out for one of my infrequent runs. In fact, this one was the longest run I have done in many years.

Using some of the very basic techniques of POSE running, arms held high, high cadence, small steps, erect posture, I started off to just run 5,000 meters, but instead felt good enough to go just over 5 miles. Not fast, but non-stop and nothing hurt.

I am sure my kettlebell and other metcon workouts have made the run easier and the cool, California evening along with some good tunes made it an enjoyable change of pace workout.

Over the last couple of years, as I switched over from mostly endurance-style training with inline skating to the many varied Crossfit workouts, I have enjoyed trying a lot of different ways to train instead of locking myself into just skating, mountain biking or running as I had done in years past.

I now do bodyweight exercises, intervals, like Tabatas, a little running, multi-joint compound exercises, metcons, powerlifting, kettlebells and Olympic lifts and the supporting exercises to help master the technical nature of the the snatch and clean and jerk. While I won’t excel at any of them, just to be able to do all them with a level of competence and improvement is enough for me. As long as I can mix it up, I am happy. And while I still push myself, deep down I know I really don’t have to since what the hell am I training for beyond simple fitness. The PR’s and goals are great, but I am enjoying the journey and I definitely enjoy “sampling” all the great ways there are to train the body and the mind. Lately, it has been kettlebells and Olympic-style lifting.

For Christmas, Val got me a training video and workbook from US Olympic Weightlifting coach, Jim Schmitz. Since I don’t have a coach, this set is the next best thing to learning this style of lifting.

Tonight I pulled a routine from his workbook. Now I realize, I lifted a session that is meant to be done 3 times a week for a month before advancing to the next module and I won’t be adhering strictly to the routine because then the variety I have been enjoying in my training so much goes away. Of course, my progress in these lifts slows considerably, but that is ok.

It took a little longer than I thought to do because there was so much, but the weights were light and focus on proper form was more important.

After a few rounds of the Burgener warm-up, I went right into Schmitz’ routine for beginners & intermediates.

Hang Power Snatch, 5 x 5: 45/50/55/65/75.

Hang Power Cleans, 5 x 5: 75/90/100/110/130.

Clean Deadlift Shrugs: 130×5/145×5/155×3/185×3.

Push Press, 5 x 5: 90/100/115/125/135.

Front Squat, 5 x 5: 75/90/110/130/155.

Overhead Squats, 3 x 3: 45/90/110.

Bench Press: 135 x 10/135 x 8/135 x 6.

Hell of a lot of reps and a hell a lot of fun too. I’ll do something like this on Thursday with Jon Curry and make it heavy on the snatch related lifts.

So many lifts and workouts, so little time!

I warmed up using tips from “Kettlebells 101″ dvd. This consisted of 2 rounds of 10-15 reps of Figure 8’s, Halos, Goblet Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Squats, Half Swings, Slingshots and some High Pulls, all with a light kettlebell.

With the 24 kilo kettlebell, I did 6 rounds of kettlebell swings for 30 seconds followed immediately by 30 seconds of box jumps on a 24″ plyo box. I got at least 15 swings each round. Total time, of course, was 6 minutes.

Following a rest, I did 5/5 snatches with the 24 kilo bell and switched to this:

3 rounds of high pulls alternating with snatches; 10 of each for each arm and a total of 60  for each of the two exercises.

Buster Martin, at age 101 and father of 17 is poised and ready to run his first marathon! Are you kidding me?

Now this inspires me! Not to run another marathon, but to know it’s cool to drink and smoke and then train and STILL live to be 101 years old. This guy must be a genetic freak! I would love to train with him and kick back a few cold ones at the end of it and listen to his life stories.

More, from ABC News,

 Martin says that in the last weekend, he’s completed a 13-mile half marathon that took him a little more than five hours. It would have been faster, he says, but he says he stopped for a beer and a cigarette. 

I am in awe of Buster!

Hat Tip to rosstraining.com