Primal bodyweight

I've been reading Mark's Daily Apple lately. I'm not sure how gimmicky it is, but it sounds good to me so I've given way to my personal biases. So yesterday I did the "lift heavy things" portion of this approach. (My workout on Friday fell into the "sprint" category.

It means doing fairly high reps of the following five essential movements (x2): squats, push-ups, pull-ups, presses, and planks. (The type of each -- ie: wall squat vs. pistol squat; knee push-ups vs. one-handed push-ups; pike presses vs handstand push-ups, etc -- depends on what you can manage.)

Bookended with 1000 m easy-ish rows, I did two sets of:

25 proper push-ups (from the knees)
25/leg Bulgarian squat
10 two-leg assisted pull-ups (likely what Emma called "pseudo pull ups on low bar")
5 (barely) pike presses
90 sec hands/feet plank

Part of what makes me partial to this program is it's acknowledgement of the benefit of "move frequently at a slow pace", which to me is the same as "active lifestyle" (ie: walking 4 km a day just to get my kid to preschool and back, wearing 35 pounds on my back for two hours while walking around the market, etc.) which should be worth something when you can't pump iron all the time. Also, the approach to eating seems practical, rather than hardcore paleo.

Today my quads are pretty sore from those Bulgarian squats.

Me 'N GB

Pounded out a heart rate killer today.

Adapted from the cross fit WOD: three rounds for time of 50 double unders and 10 pistol squats (each leg). Time was 15:05. That's a bit high.

Tuesday = KFit with bands

Even thou John taught the class it was relatively tough. Good Ab exercises: sit ups the length of the room (sit up, scooch over a bit, sit up rpt), pseudo pull ups on low bar, walking blank down other length of room x2

I feel good to be back working out. Tomorrow is zumba and thurs will do more strength stuff

Scaled a crossfit to my demise

I am finally willing and able to work out again. Many reasons why its been such a long break.

Last night: a great game of Frisbee.
Today: Three rounds for time of run 200m + 5 pull ups, run 200m + 10 dips, run 200m + 15 push ups, run 200m + 20 back extensions on the GHD, run 200m + 25 sit ups. Time was 38 minutes and change.

Looking back, FUCK ME! that's 15 200 m runs. Not sprints, mind you, I was on the treadmill. I did each one at 1% grade and 10.5 MPH except that last 2, which I did at 10 MPH. Me and my new buddy had a blast!

Monday = KFit

Ok, I'm back on the program :)

Started the week with a KarateFit class and ankle held up-ish.

A natural

Yesterday we had an inside day, and I was doing some BW exercises while Tim watched TeeWee. He was inspired, and got in on the action.

Pretty good form for his first try, huh? Of course "up and down" consisted of nodding his head forward and back. But dude can count to 10, so there! He showed off this skill by counting my squats.

Anyway, shortly after this he decided that push-ups (and planks) were better "on Mommy bi-bi-bi-big back", which pretty much shut down the operation (I cannot do a single push-up with 30+ extra pounds). We played pillow dight [sic] instead.

Showing the kids how it's done

There was a window of lovely weather today, so I jogged over to the park and did some hill sprints.

Nine sprints, each about 12 seconds of full-out, with a 70 second rest in between (40 to walk back down the hill, 30 just letting my breath come back).

I ran the last two sprints to the cheers (jeers?) of a group high school boys who'd gathered at the top of the hill for their gym class. And yes, my ninth set was gratuitous. Punks.

♫ sunshine on my shoulder ♫

4 rounds of bike ridin' 10min, bookended by 70s of skipping and split & jerk practice. So 5 rounds of skipping.

Have a great weekend everybody - to the crickets that are still here ;-) We're off to New Denver in K-country tomorrow. Not really. We are going to the Kootenays. Not to be confused with the Kokanees or Kanannaskis (which is the actual K-country). We'll be shacked up for a week readin, sleepin, drinkin wine, mountain watchin, and doing BW exercises.

Here are pics from our last camping trip in August. It was stellar. When are you guys coming out again?




Look at this young buck!


For the rest, click something.

Spray Lakes #18, Aug 2011

vulture

bench: 145 x5,5,10
deadlift: 265 x7
barbell row: 147.5 x5,5,10. Should have done sets of 8 but I missed that part when I looked up my weight.

Yesterday, I practiced my snatch and jerk with the empty bar. And I jumped rope.

weekend in banffff

no hiking, no mountain biking, strolling at the most. it was glorious. there was brisk mountain air and snow. josey's sister and brother-in-law were here. they were very big fans of the mountains.

today, i did
snatch: 107.5x3x3
clean: 147.5x2,3,3
push press: 140x3,3,3,3,3
curls: 82.5x8,8,8

<some time later>

4 rounds of bike ridin' (10min) & dumb bell sit-ups (10# db's x13) & back extensions (13) & v sit rotations (12#x26)

In pursuit of a faster 5K

Twelve hours after chasing some U20-yr-old varsity soccer players around the frisbee field, I punished my legs and lungs with a short and anything-but-sweet set of "eights":

Four rounds:
Run 800 m
8/leg split squats (rear leg raised)
8 low bench push-ups (used the side of the kiddie pool at the park!)
= die.

Downhill runs (#1, #3) took 3:20 minutes. Uphill runs were 3:35 and 3:45 minutes respectively. Time between runs = 1:30 min (including squats, PUs and a short rest).

Wish I could say I did eight rounds. Maybe I'll put this one on repeat and add on sets each time. (Ugh, just the thought puts me in traction.) I'm such a wimp.

Caribbean

A week on the yacht and a few days by the beach = a bit of swimming, some kayaking, and nothing else!

Latté on a stick

We were completely behind schedule on everything this morning, starting with an 8:30(!) sleep-in. So that I would have time left in the morning for my pre-nursery-school-pick-up latté, I picked a short-as-possible workout, and did it as quickly as I could.

5 rounds for time:

50 squats
Run 400 m
= 14:42 minutes.

That's a PB on this workout. Previous times were 16:15 and 16:50, and the fastest I've ever done it was 15:35. I'm pretty sure I counted everything right (sidewalk chalk and all).

Yeah, the lure of the coffee is that powerful.

Later at the park, I did some chins, some bench dips, and some kid-assisted swing planks. And by kid-assisted, I mean I held a plank with my hands on the swing (already pretty hard), while Tim climbed the plank. Talk about taking it up a notch!

fall

snatch: 105x3,3,3
clean: 145x3,3,3

bench later with a reset to 142.5. and that try to improve my grip thing w/ 225 lbs.

skip

more biking and skipping (no chins).

5 mins biking, 1 minute jumping rope x5

flop and a failure

press: 115x5,5,6
snatch: 105xcomplete abject failure. not sure if this was from my chin up orgy yesterday or there is a more fundamental issue going on (like being old and not recovering from monday)
deadlift: 260x6
curls: 80x8,8,9

Might as well jump!

Did 5 easy-peasy rounds of 5 minutes on the bike. Then I did 3 chins and skipped rope for a minute. This was not meant to be exhausting, just to get me moving. Then I stretched while still doing chins. In total, 30 chins and 5 minutes of jumping rope. Getting better at the rope thing.

Not getting better at this

5K = 25:16 minutes. And I was trying. Ugh.

(Maybe I'll improve when I start getting more than six hours sleep each night? Say, in five years or so?)

Plus 60 lunges (3 x 20), even though we played a long game in the rain last night.

one year ago

I landed in TZ and ate more rice and beans (and fries and beer) and had no access to a squat rack. Plus, I was only three months into a ten month battle with a torn rotator cuff (I can still feel it back there, ready to pounce). I got fat in the wrong places.

cleans: 142.5 x3,3,3,3,3

<more later>

bench: 157.5x5,5,4. fuck. i had a lovely spotter, too.
squats: 255 x5,5,5
lying tri ext: 60 x8,8,8

Another rainy day row

Plus big presses!

Here's the rundown:

1000 m row - 4:32 min (fairly intense but not a race)
split squats - 45 lb x 8/leg (back leg on bench w two risers)
1000 m row - 4:30
presses + push presses - 65 lb x 4+1, 3+2, 3+2
1000 m row - 4:30

Stretch + latté.

I bailed on the split squats because I didn't want to suck at frisbee tonight. If the game is canceled, I'll punish myself tomorrow. Tuesdays: nursery school is half an hour longer!