08092009 – hip extensions / situps

after a long weekend in WV (“camping,” albeit with a full kitchen and fireplace), I needed a little detox. 5 hour hike, good. 2 bottles of wine Sunday night followed by a day of feeding my hangover (biscuits and gravy, 7-11 chicken tenders, taco bell…), bad. Very bad. GREAT weekend though, and we both avoided setting the forest on fire and getting arrested, both wins.

So today:

Warm up (3 rnds):
2 min on bike
20 walking lunges
10 pushups
10 ring dips (tan band)
10 35# push press

Workout:
50-40-30-20-10
Hip Extensions
Sit ups (ab mat)

9:45

I hadn’t done hip extensions since I started subbing, assuming they’d hurt my lower back. But since it turns out the lower back pain is just referred pain from my hip rotators (thank you TEAL center), I thought I’d try adding these back in, balanced by something I knew wouldn’t hurt and a warm up that was guaranteed not to as well. Aaaand, success! The hip extensions both felt fine and were significantly easier than the situps, I was sailing through the reps. This one was fairly killer (read: I laid face down on the ground for a solid 2-3 minutes afterwards, but intensity was good and it was a nice change up in rep scheme and new move for a metcon. Tomorrow needs to be push ups / pull ups though, I’m overdosing on situps. But oddly still suck at them?

04092009

I had to physically restrain myself from picking up barbells this morning watching the 930 class do CFT. I love me some 1 RM, but I would have been paying for it later. On a positive note, it appears that the Teal Center’s work and instruction on twice daily rolling out is paying off. I’m sore from yesterday’s ring rows, but little to no back pain and I slept on my side for the first time in weeks. So I’ll continue to behave myself. Rock.

Warm up: (x3)
Roll out
10 lunges each side
10 DB Press, 15#
10 SPT
5 dead hang pullups

Workout:
5 min on Ol Yeller, goal was gauge above 4, but there was some slipping as my quads tuckered out
-30 seconds rest-
8 rnds tabata situps (total was 91)
8 rnds tabata step-ups (total was 58)
4 rnds widowmakers

Ha, I made up the widow maker recently, since I can’t do the squat or jump portions of the man maker. So I do a 10 second plank hold with a 10# dumbell in each hand, push up, row the left DB over head and do a 10 second extended side plank, come down into a push up, row the right side up into an extended side plank for 10 seconds, and then end with a push up. That’s 1.

Rolled out after and headed on my way. Thanks again to Curtis for sitting down and writing out a long list of possible workouts from my very short list of things I can do.

02092009

Thought I’d try and get in the habit of actually charting the gimp workouts I’m doing.

Yesterday:
10 minute bike, gauge above 3
-rest-
5 minute bike, gauge above 4
-rest-
2.5 min bike, gauge above 5
-die quietly-

then

tabata:
8 rounds situps (93 total)
8 rounds ring dips, tan band (42 total)

hmmmm, wonder where that weakness is.

today:
warm up: (3x)
10 SPT
10 hip extensions
Walking lunges, 1 length of gym
5 skin the cats
2 sampson stretch / hip roll out / hip rotator stretch

workout:
21-15-9
HSPU (blue band / green band)
Ring rows

9:44

This was fairly terrible, I’ve VERY weak at both movements. I was unintentionally kipping the ring rows because i can’t seem to pull with my back (who needs skill work on ring rows? this girl), which led to a little soreness post workout. This is one of the more ambitious ones I’ve tried in a long while (it felt better today, what are you going to do?). I took copious breaks, which is kind of a problem, but it was due to muscle failure and concern of injury rather than metcon limit, which is a good thing.

Tomorrow:
rest day. new 2 on, 1 off schedule.

200809 – goat list

thanks to AliMc for the list format and idea on this one. Useful to have down, I think.

INCOMPETENT – NEEDS MOST WORK
General metcon endurance – I’m slow
Running (POSE)
Snatches
Dead hang pullups (can’t do even 1)
Ring dips (same story)
HSPU (still on the blue band)
L-sits (could hold the H sit all day, but leg extension needed)
Thrusters – these are my kryptonite
Push Jerk – form weakness
Cleans – form weakness
KTE / TTB – hand ripping is an issue

FAIRLY COMPETENT – NEEDS PLENTY OF WORK
Pushups (max of about 30 at a go, enough for most rx’d workouts but not all)
Kipping pullups (max of 5 in a row, short term goal of getting this to 10 in a row)
Front/OH squats – form weakness
Ring rows
Bench press – related to pushup weakness
Push Press – muscle weakness
Handstands – on a wall no problem, would like to get to freestanding
Sprints – under 200 meters and I’m a champ
Medball clean – lack of shrug
Farmers’ walk
Wallball – haven’t done in awhile, form was way off last time I did them

COMPETENT – LOWER PRIORITIES
Deadlifts
Double unders
Back squat
Rowing
Box jumps
Lunges
SDHP
Burpees
Situps
KB swing
GHD situps
Back/hip extensions

I went and fed all the cows on the ranch this morning, and then did 3 sets of 100 situps on a Swiss ball. Headed back to OKC to fly back tomorrow. Short visit… I mostly rested :)

excuses

So here’s the thing… I suck at blogging. I have a short attention span, and it seems to take a lot of time to fill this business out after every workout. So I took another month off. And luckily for me, there’s not much catching up on to do. I’ve been injured for most of the last month (that nagging back pain after workouts turned into “I hurt 24/7.” So I finally went and saw Dr. Nagel and started subbing every workout per his instructions. The two critical “don’ts” were impact and compression of the spine. Now nearly every move we do involved impact or compression… anything with a barbell or heavy dumbells was pretty much out. No running, jumping, or skipping (and you know how Brian loves to program skipping… but I digress). Nothing terribly dynamic, which took out more than a few kipping pull ups or push jerks. Oh, and squats were also verboten as my hips are messed up from the weird muscle spasms in my back. To cap it off, rowing seemed to be tweaking my back out as well. Now since I can’t actually rest, what have I been doing in the gym? Mostly rolling out. Seriously. Like for half an hour or so everytime I come in. In between stretches, I lacrosse ball the muscle groups on either side of my spine (which have contracted into knots in an attempt to support my spine during a few very dumb almost injuries during workouts – namely 95# power cleans on the chief and one very ugly should-have-failed front squat). Lacrosse ball on my hip flexors and that spot underneath the glutes that reeeeeally hurts when you roll it. After fully loosening everything up, here’s the list of things I’ve been mixing up in tabatas or intervals:

Sit ups
Ring rows (never done these before, am awesomely terrible at them but they’re a new favorite)
Ring dips / dips off a bench
Bench press for max 3/5RM
Light DB push press
Dan’s bike of death
L-Sits
Push ups
Dead hang pull ups
Lunges
Step ups (carefully, not coming down hard)
Plank holds
Side plank holds
One legged squats

And that’s really about it. And then I roll out again and leave very frustrated that I don’t feel like I’ve worked out. I’m back in Oklahoma this week though (school starts next week), and actually taking a rest for the first time since this all started. 5 days totally off. Except for the few ranch tasks I got handed… which I think don’t count. Right? So hopefully this will heal up soon and I can go back to getting my ass handed to me by workouts. Although I’ve been thinking in the realm of training weaknesses, I probably need to stop with the extra heavy strength training and focus the other direction. I’m plenty strong for my size, but I’m very very slow. So scaling down weight and focusing on speed and precision of form (to avoid another injury) is going to benefit me more as an athlete than merely trying to get significantly stronger. More runs, more endurance, more skill work days on lifts–making sure form on all of the is flawless and then finishing with a small metcon. Thoughts, complaints, or general life advice?

SLEEP: plenty.

ZONE: mostly.

120709 – 180709 : last catchup posts

July 12
AMRAP in 10 minutes of:

10 Bodyweight Deadlifts
15 Box Jumps, 24/20 lbs

7 rounds + 10 deadlifts and 7 box jumps at 155#

Did this one chasing Erika, and had her on the DLs but lost time every round of box jumps. This was a 10 on output though, I did not rest and did not break sets of deadlifts as I remember. My box jumps are just REALLY slow. Leaderboard work though! Love me some DLs, but my back is still not happy.

ZONE: not detailing it while catching up, but its been fairly solid 10P/7C/15F. Not super hungry in this heat.
SLEEP: usually 8ish hours

July 13
Snatch
1-1-1-1-1-1
Rest

3 rounds for time
50 Hip Extensions
50 Situps

65# – 75# – 85# – 95# – 75#
4:52 (pack scaled – 30 of each)

Hip extensions felt GREAT, I was a speed demon on those. But the situps felt slow and weak. Think part of the lingering issues with my back may be due to a strength imbalance between the back and the abs. More OHS/KTE/situps in my future to fix this. Scaled because Sally and I started about 7 minutes before curtis needed to leave. And it was day 6 on…

July 14
4 Rounds for time:
Run 800 meters
Rest 5 minutes between rounds.

3:41 – 3:44 – 3:25 – 3:28

Well I suck at running, so I didn’t think I could skip this one. But ran the first 800 and my left lateral tendon (cause of last summer’s surgery) failed on my and the front of my knee went numb. This has happened before, its not a huge deal, but still a little sceery. So I switched to the rower (where there’s no impact for the lateral tendon to need to stabalize) and finished out the sprints. Disappointing day.

July 15
rest day… after 7 days on. I have to stop making plans to work out with people. Went in to keep Sally company and ended up learning the butterfly kip (thanks Scott!). By no means chin above bar, but I’ve got the basic motion down. Was sore after these for days (biceps and elbows?), but SO much less energy than kipping. Stringing 4-5 together by the end.

July 16
Press
5-5-5
Push Press
3-3-3
Push Jerk
1-1-1

SP: 65-75-80
PP: 85-95-100
PJ: 110-115-125

I hate these. Apparently I’m not an angry enough person for them? I was push jerking my push presses and push pressing my push jerks. But still a PR on the Push Jerk. Poor form on all of them (collapsing under the weight a little) tweaked my back again though.

July 17
21 Deadlift, 225/150 lbs
15 Situps
Run 400m
15 Deadlift, 225/150 lbs
30 Situps
Run 800m
9 Deadlifts, 225/150 lbs
45 Situps
Run 400m

14:41

This one was AWESOME! Runs sucked, as knee is still a little unstable from the 800m a few days ago. But Justin kept me running and I finished with an alright time despite a little walking of those runs (oops). DL form was solid but started to get very uncomfortable by the end.

Went home and roasted myself some venison I shot while I rewired two lights in my house. Kickass day is what I’m saying.

ZONE: 10/8/14 (eggs / broccoli, venison and sweet potatoes, venison and zucchini, omelet, sorbet)
SLEEP: 8 hours, but 1 quality

July 18
rest day. my back is shot. that “tweak” from the last two weeks is full on “pissed.” spent the morning in class, will be icing the rest of the afternoon… and then writing “overtraining is poor training” 1000 times on the white board :)
ZONE: solid, but drinking tonight
SLEEP: 9 hours but terrible quality

050709 – 110709 : catch up posts 2

July 5 – 6:
rest days. drove from Cheyenne to Fort Knox, KY, with my sis riding shotgun. Apparently you can’t bring firearms on base… so our plan to stay with family was twarted (cous is a battalion commander on base). So we met up with them early the next day for a few hours to play with the little cousins and catch up. Drove through WV the next day and got back into DC at 2 am.
Zone: 50-50 beef jerky/raisins/almonds and chinese buffet type food stops
Sleep: almost none

July 7:
Push Press
3-3-3-3-3

Rest

Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3

Push press: 105 (pr)
Front squat: 155 (pr)
Total): 260

Got the last front squat rep after almost failing forward. Fought hard for it, but think I should have bailed. Lower back rounded in an evil way and is NOT happy.

Zone / Sleep: no idea

July 8:
Hang Power Clean
3-3-3-3-3

“Annie”
For Time:
50-40-30-20-10
Double Unders
Situps

65-85-105-95-85
Annie: 8:51

Love annie, today was the first time the situps were the limiting factor. Back still a little tweaky.

July 9:
Stadium Workout

30 Wallballs (20lbs/12lbs)

Row 300m
30 Box jumps (24″)
30 KB swings (24kg/16kg)
30 DB Push press / Push jerk (40lbs/25lb)

30 Deadlifts (225lbs/135lbs)

16:47 (first leaderboard time)

This was AWESOME. Teamed with Sally, Pete, and Pat and I was the slow man on the totem pole. Wall balls were embarrassing, which was strange since I usually love those. I had the agreed upon hardest cycle, straight through the list above, then second on DL. Push press nearly finished me, but then did the DL almost unbroken (wasn’t switch gripping, dropped the bar after 27 from sweaty hands and then finished out). Killer, but a great mix. Really love team workouts, I push SO much harder than I would otherwise.

July 10:
Fran

21-15-9
Thrusters (95#/65#)
Pullups

9:14

This one’s my nemesis. Its the one I tore up my shoulder on originally, and its two moves I frankly suck at. But in the name of benchmark workouts, I was shooting for at least sub-ten rx’d (first time with rx’d pullups). Made that goal, but rested far too much.

July 11
yoga day – missed all the morning classes because of my plants class in the city, but went to an evening ashtanga class that kicked my ass

one last ranch shot. couldn't resist.