Tuesday, October 4, 2011
For today's workout I performed the following
21, 15, 9 double 8kg kettlebell bottoms up thrusters and kettlebell swings in 4:34
4 x .75 miles on spin bike on the 2 min
30 double 8kg kettlebell cleans and push presses
Even though my shoulder is feeling better I'm still going light with the overhead movements. I'm focusing instead on the speed and control of the movements to get a good workout. I'm loving how the double bottoms up movements put my brain through all sorts of happy mental gymnastics to keep both the weights balanced especially during the more dynamic movements. I would however, caution against doing these until you have a very stable base in single bottoms up kettlebell movements and to start out light. It's all fun and games until someone takes a kettlebell to the noggin.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 10
Monday, october 3, 2011
Today I started out the day with
10 x .4 mile sprints on the exercise bike on the 90 second
then a few hours later
Rock climbing top rope
5.10b, 5.10a, 5.10c
15, 12, 9 double 12kg kettlebell thrusters supersetted with 90, 60, 30 jump rope
15 min beach run
Today I started out the day with
10 x .4 mile sprints on the exercise bike on the 90 second
then a few hours later
Rock climbing top rope
5.10b, 5.10a, 5.10c
15, 12, 9 double 12kg kettlebell thrusters supersetted with 90, 60, 30 jump rope
15 min beach run
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 9
Sunday October 2, 2011
Today I performed the following
GTG (Grease the Groove)
7 sets of 12 TRX Rows with my feet below the anchor
3 x .8 miles on the 2:30 on the exercise bike
7 sets of 5 rest 1 min between sets
Double 12kg kettlebell clean, press, squat, push press, squat
Completed in 11:35
My legs were still a bit sore from the previous workout and today was also going to be a decently heavy leg day, so I skipped the leg portion of the GTG and focused solely on the rows. The kettlebell complex work is taken directly from Geoff Neuport's kettlebell muscle. Since I'm still going light with the upper body movements, one of the things that I really like about Geoff's program is that it focuses more on the speed of the bells to generate force and build muscle more than the weight of the bells.
Today I performed the following
GTG (Grease the Groove)
7 sets of 12 TRX Rows with my feet below the anchor
3 x .8 miles on the 2:30 on the exercise bike
7 sets of 5 rest 1 min between sets
Double 12kg kettlebell clean, press, squat, push press, squat
Completed in 11:35
My legs were still a bit sore from the previous workout and today was also going to be a decently heavy leg day, so I skipped the leg portion of the GTG and focused solely on the rows. The kettlebell complex work is taken directly from Geoff Neuport's kettlebell muscle. Since I'm still going light with the upper body movements, one of the things that I really like about Geoff's program is that it focuses more on the speed of the bells to generate force and build muscle more than the weight of the bells.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 8
Saturday, October 1, 2011
I started the day of with presses and pull ups.
5, 5, 5 Double 16kg KB presses
3, 3, 3 Double 16kg KB Bottoms Up Push Presses
1, 1, 1 24kg KB Jerk each side
Followed by
5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2 Pull ups
This is the heaviest I've lifted overhead and most pull ups I've done in months due to a mild rotator cuff strain. All of the movements were pain free and felt good. The jerks with the 24kg bell actually felt way too easy. I've done jerks with a 36kg bell around this time last year at the RKC II, but expected to lose quite a bit of strength after mainly doing overhead lifts with 8kg bells. The toughest lift in this sequence was the BU push presses. I think this was the first time I've done this exercise. It forced me to engage my grip and mind all that much more to keep both the bells in a safe and stable pressing pattern.
I'd put my pull up max somewhere around 7 or 8 right now, which isn't too shabby considering I haven't been training pull ups at all, mainly using GTG TRX rows.
Later that afternoon I met up with a prospective Goruck Tough classmate and went for a run on the beach. The tide was in so the sand was a bit firmer for parts of it. Still, having a workout buddy made the run more enjoyable and pushed my pace a little bit faster than I normally run on sand.
We covered 2.4 miles in 32 minutes.
One of the best realizations about this run was that I didn't have any shin or foot pain like the last time I trained for the San Francisco Goruck challenge.
I started the day of with presses and pull ups.
5, 5, 5 Double 16kg KB presses
3, 3, 3 Double 16kg KB Bottoms Up Push Presses
1, 1, 1 24kg KB Jerk each side
Followed by
5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2 Pull ups
This is the heaviest I've lifted overhead and most pull ups I've done in months due to a mild rotator cuff strain. All of the movements were pain free and felt good. The jerks with the 24kg bell actually felt way too easy. I've done jerks with a 36kg bell around this time last year at the RKC II, but expected to lose quite a bit of strength after mainly doing overhead lifts with 8kg bells. The toughest lift in this sequence was the BU push presses. I think this was the first time I've done this exercise. It forced me to engage my grip and mind all that much more to keep both the bells in a safe and stable pressing pattern.
I'd put my pull up max somewhere around 7 or 8 right now, which isn't too shabby considering I haven't been training pull ups at all, mainly using GTG TRX rows.
Later that afternoon I met up with a prospective Goruck Tough classmate and went for a run on the beach. The tide was in so the sand was a bit firmer for parts of it. Still, having a workout buddy made the run more enjoyable and pushed my pace a little bit faster than I normally run on sand.
We covered 2.4 miles in 32 minutes.
One of the best realizations about this run was that I didn't have any shin or foot pain like the last time I trained for the San Francisco Goruck challenge.
Monday, October 3, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 7
Friday, September 30, 2011
Today I performed 6 GTG sets of 25 incline pushups and 20 knee tucks.
The knee tucks that I do are a variation of the Convict Conditioning ones. I do these ones either flat on the ground or on a bench, without my feet touching down in between reps.
My main workout was as follows
Morning
10x5 double 16kg KB front squats on minute
8x7 double 16kg KB deadlifts on minute
Afternoon
7 rounds for time
6 12kg double KB snatches
10 jumping pull ups
Completed in 7:51
Jumping pull ups are a surprising exercise; they get the heart rate up in a hurry and if you do enough of them the arms will definitely get a nice burn.
Then I finished off the workout with
10x400m on exercise bike on 2 min
Today I performed 6 GTG sets of 25 incline pushups and 20 knee tucks.
The knee tucks that I do are a variation of the Convict Conditioning ones. I do these ones either flat on the ground or on a bench, without my feet touching down in between reps.
My main workout was as follows
Morning
10x5 double 16kg KB front squats on minute
8x7 double 16kg KB deadlifts on minute
Afternoon
7 rounds for time
6 12kg double KB snatches
10 jumping pull ups
Completed in 7:51
Jumping pull ups are a surprising exercise; they get the heart rate up in a hurry and if you do enough of them the arms will definitely get a nice burn.
Then I finished off the workout with
10x400m on exercise bike on 2 min
Sunday, October 2, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 6
September 28
In an effort to increase my leg strength, in particular my internal quads, and muscular endurance I've been doing more biking. It's been a great low impact exercise. Today's workout centered primarily around a spin class followed by some weight and interval training. It was as follows
1 hour spin class
8x3 12kg Bottoms Up Floor Presses ea arm
20:10 tabata row 8 rounds
Towards the end of the spin class we did standing isolations where we focused on keeping our upper bodies as still as possible. These were a great leg burn. I chose to do the floor presses BU to work my grip strength and shoulder stabilizer muscles. The Concept II rower is one of my favorite forms of cardio training. It's low impact and works the whole body.
In an effort to increase my leg strength, in particular my internal quads, and muscular endurance I've been doing more biking. It's been a great low impact exercise. Today's workout centered primarily around a spin class followed by some weight and interval training. It was as follows
1 hour spin class
8x3 12kg Bottoms Up Floor Presses ea arm
20:10 tabata row 8 rounds
Towards the end of the spin class we did standing isolations where we focused on keeping our upper bodies as still as possible. These were a great leg burn. I chose to do the floor presses BU to work my grip strength and shoulder stabilizer muscles. The Concept II rower is one of my favorite forms of cardio training. It's low impact and works the whole body.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
World's Toughest Mudder Training - Day 5
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
My WTM cap arrived today. Sometimes having a tangible reminder of what I'm working towards gives me that little extra push. Today was a good day of working out.
Indoor rock climbing
Total of 15 boulder problems 9 v0, 5 v1, 1 v2 all on sights (climb 1st attempt without previous knowledge of the climb)
1500m row 6:17
30 BU KB cleans w/ double 16kg bells
2.2 mile run on soft sand 34 minutes.
During the last Tough Mudder Norcal my climbing experience helped out on a good number of the obstacles. Most notably on the Funky Monkey monkey bars. The pics are from my second time through this obstacle just for fun.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.276312655719903.72087.259946717356497&l=35b46b40f8&type=1
As I was going through someone yelled out to keep the arms bent. I can only guess they've been watching a steady dose of American Ninja Warrior. True, for that application bent arms will help, but for monkey bars it makes the obstacle a whole lot harder than it needs to be. When rock climbing if the arms are kept straight during most climbs, then the weight will be on the bones instead of the muscles. I kept my arms straight, body relaxed, and swung from one bar to the next. Next time you're at a playground watch how the kids do it. Do they fight the monkey bars keeping their little arms bent the whole time, or do they swing effortlessly from one bar to the next. Kids are some of the best teachers when it comes to ergonomics and movement.
I haven't been on the rowing machine in a while so this was an easy warm up ro focusing on form and fluidity. The wheel was set at resistance level 7.
The bottom's up cleans did a great job of working my grip and lats. Without knowing what the obstacles on the WTM will be, I have a gut feeling that grip strength will play a significant role.
The soft sand run was a great workout and served to remind me that the bay area is an incredible playground that I need to take advantage of more often. Running on sand is great for several reasons - it does a great job of working my stabilizer muscles and proprioception, it reinforces foot strikes directly below the body and strong push offs, and it forces me to increase my stride rate to increase speed because longer strides are fairly ineffective on soft sand.
My WTM cap arrived today. Sometimes having a tangible reminder of what I'm working towards gives me that little extra push. Today was a good day of working out.
Indoor rock climbing
Total of 15 boulder problems 9 v0, 5 v1, 1 v2 all on sights (climb 1st attempt without previous knowledge of the climb)
1500m row 6:17
30 BU KB cleans w/ double 16kg bells
2.2 mile run on soft sand 34 minutes.
During the last Tough Mudder Norcal my climbing experience helped out on a good number of the obstacles. Most notably on the Funky Monkey monkey bars. The pics are from my second time through this obstacle just for fun.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.276312655719903.72087.259946717356497&l=35b46b40f8&type=1
As I was going through someone yelled out to keep the arms bent. I can only guess they've been watching a steady dose of American Ninja Warrior. True, for that application bent arms will help, but for monkey bars it makes the obstacle a whole lot harder than it needs to be. When rock climbing if the arms are kept straight during most climbs, then the weight will be on the bones instead of the muscles. I kept my arms straight, body relaxed, and swung from one bar to the next. Next time you're at a playground watch how the kids do it. Do they fight the monkey bars keeping their little arms bent the whole time, or do they swing effortlessly from one bar to the next. Kids are some of the best teachers when it comes to ergonomics and movement.
I haven't been on the rowing machine in a while so this was an easy warm up ro focusing on form and fluidity. The wheel was set at resistance level 7.
The bottom's up cleans did a great job of working my grip and lats. Without knowing what the obstacles on the WTM will be, I have a gut feeling that grip strength will play a significant role.
The soft sand run was a great workout and served to remind me that the bay area is an incredible playground that I need to take advantage of more often. Running on sand is great for several reasons - it does a great job of working my stabilizer muscles and proprioception, it reinforces foot strikes directly below the body and strong push offs, and it forces me to increase my stride rate to increase speed because longer strides are fairly ineffective on soft sand.
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