Month: January 2018

Is This The One?

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Ski Erg (678m)

Workout – 10:00

  • 10 Samson Walking Lunge
  • 15 Russian KBS (35#)
  • 20/20 Lateral Leg Swings
  • 10 Lateral Step Overs

Hips were really lighting up from so many leg swings. Got through 3+18.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 10 Ring Rows
  • 15 MB Cleans (20#)
  • 20 GHD Sit-ups (Parallel)

My back acted up at 10 cleans in round 3. Slowed a bit and finished in 6:40.

Active Life – Back Max

3 Rounds

  • 60m Single Arm Farmer Carry (35#)
  • Every 10m – 5 Single Arm Russian KBS (53#)
  • 30s Rest
  • Repeat with other arm
  • 30s Rest

Stayed light after the back tweak. Finished in 14:22. Hopefully my back is nothing.

Add Weight to the Kossacks

Friday was a planned rest day because I went out with the crew to Brew Ha-Ha. I should probably start planning Saturday as a rest day because I’ve been getting so busy with projects around the house and shop that I don’t want to stop to workout. So I’ve had 2 days off, though I’d done something 5 days in a row before that, so still only a 2 rest day week.

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

Warm-up

  • 10 Alternating Kossacks
  • 10 Reverse Lunges
  • 10 Jumping Lunges

Workout – 3 Sets

  • 8/8 Kossacks (3s pause, 35# KB)
  • 10 Jumping Lunges

Adding weight to the Kossacks was harder than expected, especially with the pauses.

Conditioning

Rowing Kalsu

  • 100 cal Row
  • EMOM – 5 Burpees over the rower

I’ve done this once before but with the wrong method of not having to do burpees during the first minute. My time was 7:52. Today I did it correctly and it took 8:40. I only needed 6 calories at the end so I’m pretty sure I would have beat my time if I’d done it the same way.

Active Life – Back Max

3 Rounds

  • 10 Alternating Push-up T (5 count hold, 1 push-up between sides)
  • 5/5/5/5 Side Plank + Hip Abduction (3 count pause at top)
  • 10 Plank Push-ups
  • 15s/15s Standing Straight Leg Hold

Raising my leg up on the side planks is one of the hardest things I’ve tried in a while. It was supposed to be 10/10 but I had to switch it up after I get into that very first set. Between those and the Kossacks I think my hips may be feel rough tomorrow. This was fatiguing on the shoulders too .

Still Not Squatting the Olympic Lifts

My chest is still sore. Low back felt a little tight this morning. Last night working in my shop I did feel a few things going on in the low back when I was moving a shelf around inside a table. I’m not feeling any kind of tweak effects today though. 👍

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

Warm-up

  • 10 Eccentric Knee Flexion (30#)
  • 10 Paused Wall Balls (20#, 10′, 3 second)

Workout – 3 Sets each arm

  • 30m One Arm Farmer Carry (110#)
  • 1:00 Rest between arms

It was supposed to be 60m but I had to screw around with my DIY Farmer handle too much and it was awkward so I only went side to side in the gym. Good enough for today.

Warm-up

5 Sets

  • 3 Hang Snatch High Pull
  • 3 Hang Power Snatch
  • 3 OHS
  • 3 Hang Squat Snatch
  • 40 Jump Rope
  • 15 Double Unders

I did 2 sets with 20kg and then 25, 30, and 35. Worked up a sweat!

Weightlifting

Snatch High Pull + Hang Power Snatch

  • 45kg
  • 55
  • 65
  • 75
  • 70
  • 70

I wish I felt comfortable enough with my back to start squatting these. I much be tired though because I almost didn’t get under 75kg!

Conditioning

12:00 AMRAP

  • 1 Snatch (135#)
  • 3 C&J (135#)
  • 30 Double Unders

The snatch was supposed to be a squat and the Rx weight was 155. Scaled back and even this got my back really tight. Was able to keep moving but ran into some trouble with dubs in the middle rounds otherwise I think 12 rounds was within reach. I finished 10+4.

Active Life – Back Max

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Sit-ups
  • Plank (rest of the minute)

Not at bad as I was expecting. I did all planks on my elbows today.

Ready for a rest day tomorrow!

A Sumo Kind of Day

My chest is still pretty sore! Out in the garage in the evening. Have I mentioned how nice it is to have the bigger speaker out there? 🙂

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

Warm-up – 3 Rounds

  • 10 Sumo Inchworms
  • 10 Sumo Good Mornings (45#)

Workout – 4 Rounds

  • 15 Sumo Deadlifts
  • 10/10 Sciatic Nerve Flossing

I went 135-165-185-185#.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 500m Ski Erg
  • 2:00 Rest

Times were 1:44.6, 1:44.6, and 1:46.2. Couldn’t hold on. My legs and low back got fatigued from the deadlifts.

Active Life – Back Max

12:00

  • 10 Alternating Push-up Shoulder Tap (2 breath hold)
  • 10 Alternating Thoracic Extension Rotation (2 breath hold)
  • 20s Table Top Hold

Got through 6 rounds plus the 10 shoulder taps.

Keep Planking

I’m sore all over. Ankles, legs, abs, chest, biceps, shoulders.

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

Warm-up – 2 Rounds

  • 10 Squat Press Outs (25#)
  • 5/5 Pistol Negatives on a Box

Workout

  • 5/5 Front Rack Box Step Ups (24″)
    • 45#
    • 75
    • 95
    • 115
    • 125
    • 135

The workout says to find a 5 rep max per leg, which could be different. I didn’t feel like going for a true max with something like this. It could be dangerous with no good way to bail, especially in my garage with the car in front of me. For 115+ I rested 30 seconds between legs. Right leg was always first. Not sure if it affected the left much, but left always felt weaker. Not sure I would have made it with 145 unless I compromised my back.

Conditioning

6 Rounds

  • 40 Double Unders
  • 10 Dumbbell Hang Power Clean & Jerks (35# DBs)

Missed too many dubs. Unbroken with the dumbbells. Finished in 8:20.

Active Life – Back Max

10:00

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Side Plank (Right)
  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Side Plank (Left)

Are you serious? I didn’t expect to last, but made it unbroken. I did switch between elbows and hands – 2 rounds elbows, 2 rounds hands, 2 rounds elbows, 2 rounds hands, 1 round elbows, 1 round hands. That was a challenge, especially in the last few minutes when my mat was soaked with sweat. My core seemed ok. It was my shoulders burning in the last couple of minutes.

How Many?

I had some plans to workout yesterday since one of my 4 workout days in a row was an easy recovery day. Got busy around the house so I rested. My legs started getting tight later in the day, but I’m surprised my shoulders weren’t feeling anything from the overhead carry and thruster combination.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Air Squats
  • Bar Taps

Conditioning

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • Pull-ups
  • Box Jumps (24″)

Got some new grips from Bear Komplex and they’ve really improved the design since my last pair. They didn’t eat into my fingers at all, but will take a bit of use to get roughed up and be able to hold chalk.

I was able to do all of the pull-ups unbroken and did jumps with a step-down. I was having the hardest time keeping track of what round I was on though. It started when I did 8 jumps in the round of 7 and then I repeated the sets of 3. Extra credit I guess. Finished in 6:04.

Active Life – Back Max

 

3 Rounds

  • 12 Alternating Single Leg Deadlift (115#)
  • 12 Romanian Deadlift (115#)
  • 12/12 Kroc Row (53#)
  • 12 Evil Wheels
  • 30s Double KB Overhead Hold (44# KBs)

Bumping up to 12 evil wheels was a challenge after everything has been sets of 5 or 8 so far. The double kettlebell hold was a challenge.

Skill / Conditioning

2 Cycles

  • 4 Rounds
    • 20s T2B
    • 10s Rest
  • 20s Rest
  • 4 Rounds
    • 10s Bottom Squat Hold
    • 20s Bottom-to-bottom Squats
  • 40s Rest

I’ve done sets of 6 for a straight 8 round Tabata of T2B so I figured 7 was a good number. Turned out perfect. After 7 unbroken rounds I hit failure in the very last round and had to do 4 plus 3 singles. I did sets of 14 squats in the first cycle and in the second cycle I did 3 sets of 12 with 13 to finish. I forgot how much these squats burn.

Shoulder Drift

It’s nice not having to leave the house with this weather. Garage didn’t want to warm up this afternoon though. It was about -11° outside with the windchill.

Active Life – Singe Leg Bias

Warm-up – 3 Sets

  • 8/8 Eccentric Ankle Dorsiflexion

Hey! I didn’t get sore the last time I did these. Will that continue?

Workout – 3 Sets each leg

  • 12 Single Leg Deadlifts (125#)
  • 1:00 Rest

I did warm-up with 12/12 @ 45#. These have left me sore every time so far.

Active Life – Back Max

4 Sets

  • 6x
    • 10m One Arm Overhead Carry
    • 5 One Arm Thrusters
  • 30s Rest
  • Repeat with other arm

The notes said these are really difficult so I figured I didn’t need to plan any conditioning work for the day. 240 thrusters would be plenty! Boy… was I right.

I thought I was being conservative starting with 20 pounds, but after the first arm took 2 minutes I knew 1) I had to go faster and 2) this was going to get real nasty. It’s a bit of a balance because the faster you go, the more the weight wants to drift, causing you to use more muscles to keep it stable.

I did my left arm first each time and went with 20-25-30-35 pounds. Rested about 2, 3, and 4 minutes between weights. My shoulders are going to feel this one.

Listen

My back is a little tight today.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done active recovery days, so I may start doing them once a week. Start today.

50:00 Airdyne

I can actually listen to podcasts or watch videos with the new speaker. Before, the fan of the Airdyne was too loud for my old speaker, so you couldn’t follow the words. Time flew by because I was able to concentrate on something other than the clock and I felt good, so I increased from the planned 40 minutes. Went 14.88 miles (23.95km). I’ve gone 50 minutes once before, almost 2 years ago, but today went almost 3km more.