Month: March 2012

R9D61 – Bootcamp 3.2.2 Bodyweight Abs

They asked for an abs workout so this is what I did to them today. It was not as hard as I had imagined it would be, but then again I sneezed this morning and thought my body had exploded à la Mr Creosote.

Still it could be worse, I could be at Planet Fitness having Krispy Kremes after my elliptical “workout”

 

 

 

 

 

Bootcamp 3.2.2
20 shoulder crunch
20 hip crunch
10 legs up 3+1
10 bum lifts
10 hanging leg raise

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

20 in and out
10 roll to boat hold
20 ARX bicycle
10 full sit up
10 hanging leg raise sides

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
10 pullups

20 side crunch
20 side to side flutter
20 full rainbow
20 russian twists

20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each

20 standing knee to same elbow
20 standing knee to opposite elbow
40 happy dance
20 standing knee to same elbow
20 standing knee to opposite elbow
40 happy dance

20 Crunchy Frog
10 rollback hold
20 ARX scissor switch
20 shoulder crunch 3+1 to hip

R9D59 and 60 – RKC at Work and Bootcamp 3.2.1 Cardio

Week 2 of bootcamp starts with cardio. For some reason, maybe because I am slightly under the weather, my heartrate was the highest I have ever seen it during this workout. At one point I think I saw 172 on my HR monitor which for me is insane!

Beats the elliptical that’s for sure!

In order to bridge the gap from last week I snuck in an RKC workout at work again on Friday. It’s becoming my escape route from skipping workouts on the weekend – a bad habit I need to break! It was the same basic workout, Clean and Press with swings plus 5×5 snatch at the end.

D3 3.2.1 Cardio

1x section
10 SB Burpee
5ea SB runaround
10 SB pushup boing
5ea SB face around
10 SB plank to sphinx rollup
20 SB mountain climber
10 SB hamstring roll in

2x section
20 Hit The Floor
10 Suicides
20 Switch Kicks
20 in and out abs

2x section
4x 8Jump rope with 4jump half turn
10x 8 sprint 4 switch lunge
10 stance jacks (foot touch)
10 vsnaps

2x section
5x long jump run back – single double triple repeat
2 knees up side run lengths
10 2 line forward and back suicides with pancake
10 ski abs

x2 section
5 burpee
5 burpee with 4 run
5 burpee with 4 run and 4 in and out
20 plank jacks
10 plank jacks with in and out

1x section
10 SB Burpee
5ea SB runaround
10 SB pushup boing
5ea SB face around
10 SB plank to sphinx rollup
20 SB mountain climber
10 SB hamstring roll in

Bonus

Shoulder burners

R9D58 – Bootcamp 3.1.2 – Bonus!

Wednesday was bootcamp again, it’s our third round and this was day 2 and I was very happy to have a former athlete of mine and another former gymnast from the club turn up to participate. Attendance of the regulars was down but it was really nice to see that we have a few more bodies participating this time around.

That said, it was not an easy workout for them to have as their introduction to bootcamp. It was weights day and since we had done so much chest and triceps work during bodyweight, I decided to concentrate of shoulders and biceps. It was a pretty gruelling workout since we were working such a small muscle group and I hope it wasn’t too much for them. We will see. At least next class is cardio so they should get a better idea of what it’s like to get their heart rates up!

Here is how it all went down:

D2 – 3.1.2 Weights

x10x2
Double Curls
Double Press
High pull
Wallball
Chin ups or turnarounds

x10x2
Alt curls
Alt press
Front and Back Shrugs
WallBall
Chin ups or hand turns

x10x2
Double curls back to wall
DB good mornings
Warrior 3 double curls
wall sit strict press
DB halo

x10x2
Shoulder raise side
Shoulder raise front
Shoulder raise side to front
Shoulder raise front with row
Wallball

x10x2
Double Curls
Alt Curls
Outward curls
Hammer Curls
French Curls

Abs – 25 (free)-15-10 with DB

in and out
bicycles
full situp
russian twists

Quick Note About “Safe” Starch. And While You Are Here – Eat Meat!

I’m a little up in the air about this. My gut feeling is that during times of NIMGU (that magical post workout hour when your insulin is well mannered and disciplined) it’s fine to have some starchy carbs such as rices or potato (mostly yam) since the effect of insulin resistance is out of play during that hour. Any other time? Not for me, but for my kids I would say it’s a valid way to add a small amount of carbs to the diet. Growing bodies and specifically young athletes have a requirement that is different from a full grown adult who is working at a desk all day and working out a few nights a week. My gut tells me it’s OK, but not in moderation, I think moderation is too often. I would say it’s OK rarely, maybe twice or 3 times a week the day after training. I don’t have any specific scientific support for this but what I do know is that the body of a young athlete is far better and more efficient than an over 30 or over 40 recreational athlete at dealing with a slightly elevated level of carbohydrate on an infrequent basis.

Anyway, here is the article I read today which kind of indicates that “safe” carbs aren’t really that safe and that the more you eat the worse they are.

I think it’s important to note here that we are talking about measurements of degrees. If your diet is good enough that you are debating whether or not to have 200-400 calories of sweet potato or rice then you are probably on the right track generally speaking. If you think you can have fires for lunch every day because Simon says potato is OK then you are missing the point…

..And you should put down the fry and immediately do 40 squats, 20 burpees and 15 handstand pushups.

As a bit of an afterthought I want to link the excellent article in rebuttal to the latest studies saying meat eating will lead to premature death. I cleared the air about this one with my kids, so now it’s your turn.

Gary Taubes – Science, pseudoscience, nutritional epidemiology and meat. I know, thrilling title but it’s important!]

If you are interested in a more in depth article outlining this reckless use of bad science, here you go.

R9D57 – Bootcamp 3 Day 1

Disappointing showing today for day 1 of the third session, we only had 1 outside person show up but all 4 of my kids were there so it was still well worth doing the scheduled workout. I hope we get some better participation than that for the rest of the session.

In other news gym training is going very well for most of the girls, we have seen some real improvements from each of them the last couple of weeks. Finally they are able to do routines on some events alone without me having to babysit which, although WAY behind schedule is a good thing. I am sure it will all get done before competition but there is still a very long way to go until the routines start to look polished. Sadly they are not all doing floor routines alone at this point and they should be doing 5 a day alone with tumbling. We need to get there in a hurry or competitions are going to be tough. But looking on the bright side we are miles ahead of where we were just 3 weeks ago so I am cautiously optimistic.

Bootcamp 3

D1 – 3.1.1

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

10 air squats reg
10 2 way lunge front and side
10 1 leg squat knee raise
10 air squats half bounce
10 pullups

20 in and out row
20 roll to boat hold
20 bicycle with leg extension
20 arms up in and out
20 pullups

10 pushup
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise toe touch
10 pullups

ONTO BOXES AGAINST WALL

10 dips legs bent
10 dips legs straight
10 dips one leg raised
10 leg lifts

10 dips legs bent
10 dips legs straight
10 dips one leg raised
10 leg lifts

regular pushups 10 decline 10 incline
military pushups 10 decline 10 incline
sphinx to plank step or drop 10 decline 10 incline
pushup side raise 10 decline 10 incline

20 Crunchy Frog
20 superman banana with vsnap
20 laying triple bicycles
20 full situps

10 shoulder hip raise
10 shoulder hold hip raise leg up
10 hip raise alternating arm reach
10 hip raise single shoulder to foot touch

R9D56 – Base And Back

Yeah I know, finally a P90X2 workout! Seems like forever since I actually put a DVD in the machine, in fact, my last P90X2 workout was Feb 11. So much for round 9 being P90X2. However, I have worked through the program doing the workouts and only have Phase 3 left to conquer which includes the oddly named PAP Upper and PAP Lower. In fact I am not sure that I have ever done the Base and Back workout, it seemed completely new to me and going back over the last few months I can’t find a time when I did! Looking at the day (56) I think it is about time to move on to the last phase, the Performance Phase since I have been doing the same things as Strength Phase for a while now. I figure I can work in some of the PAP system into the Bootcamp and be completely done with P90X2 in another 30 days leaving 2 months of Bootcamp 3 to go until the summer hits in full swing. I’m probably going to be doing P90X2 workouts for the rest of the Spring and Summer however just to make sure I get a good feel for them like I do with P90X. Of course, I am hoping not to be disappointed in the PAP system, I am going in completely dark on purpose to give me the best shot at muscle confusion. Because I don’t typically use repetition sets in my bootcamp workout I find them frustrating on the DVDs, I just hope it’s not a 6 move set repeated a dozen times! We’ll see…

As for the base and back workout I found it pretty easy to be honest, I did around 110 pullups out on the deck which is the best thing about this warm weather we are having. I found the plyo portion to be easy since I do most of that stuff for bootcamp anyway and in much tougher circumstances. I am not really getting any better at pullups, I still struggle to do more than 10 sets of 10 and I haven’t yet tried to do my 10 in 10 test which would be 10 sets of 10 pullups in 10 minutes. But I spent most of my life, from being a chunky kid in school who couldn’t climb the rope to a hulking monster at the gym who still couldn’t do the whole stack on the lat pulldown machine and stayed clear of the pullup station, not being able or willing to do any pullups at all. I remember a couple of years ago when I first started trying them in the gym I couldn’t do more than a couple. I used to watch this one guy who would come in and do 6 or 7 in a row and I would think it was magic or voodoo, especially since he had big triceps but not big lats. However it didn`t take long before I was able to squeeze out a couple, and with the help of heavy pulldowns on a Cybex machine I finally graduated to being 3 or 4. I figured if I could do that many I could just pretend I was at the end of a tough workout!! In any event it wasn`t until Tony and the gang came along that I really started to improve and for that, I thank them!

R9D55 – Bootcamp 2.12.2 Cardio. Last Day Of Session 2!

Sadly today was the last day of session two and we are losing at least one participant for the next 12 weeks. Having said that, we are hopefully going to gain a few more for the summer session that will start sometime mid June.

D24 – 2.12.2 Cardio

2x section
20 squat jumps
20 belt kicks
20 swing kicks
20 vsnaps

2x section
20 Hit The Floor
10 2 line Suicides
20 switch kicks
20 double switch sit up

2x section
5x long jump run back – single double triple repeat
10 river jumps
10 2 line suicides with burpee
10 ski abs

2x section
20 squat half turn
10 switch split 180 3+1
20 jack MK switch 1+1
50 happy knees to elbow

2x section
10 depth charge from knees SJ TJ
10 side to side suicide shufle
10 side to side suicide front and back
4 side knees up full line
10 roll and hold

Bonus
2X
20 jacks
10 airborne X
5 Diamond Jacks

R9D53/4 – Bootcamp 2.12.1 Weights and RKC

*EDIT: Now paleo is curing cancer… Go cavemen!

 

I finally stuck to my guns on Tuesday and did an RKC workout at work even after Bootcamp Monday. The RKC that I do at work is a little different because there is no pullup bar but it goes something like this:

Warmup:
3x
10 pumps
10 weighted squats
10 halo

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
5C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
4C&P per side
20 swings

3C&P per side
3C&P per side
20 swings

3 Snatches per side
4 Snatches per side
5 Snatches per side
4 Snatches per side
3 Snatches per side

My back was very sore after last Friday which can only mean one thing… I haven’t been doing enough KB work to keep my back in shape. Being as it is that I have whined incessantly about not doing enough there is lots of room for improvement. Luckily after this round of RKC I already feel much better.

D23 – 2.12.1 Weights

20 squats
20 lunge walk or barbell lunge
20 weighted MKs
10 weighted long jump
Farmers Waddle 4 lines

Farmers Waddle 4 lines
10 weighted long jump
20 weighted MKs
20 lunge walk or barbell lunge
20 squats

No weight

20 super skater per
20 1 leg squat knee raise
20 MK
20 air squat

With DBs or BB

15 Double curl
15 weighted box dips
10 alt curl each or BB curl
15 weighted box dips
15 double hammer curl or french BB curl
15 weighted box dips

15 strict press
15 side raise or front BB raise
15 high pull
15 front raise
15 strict press

15 Double curl
15 weighted box dips
10 alt curl each or BB curl
15 weighted box dips
15 double hammer curl or french BB curl
15 weighted box dips

15 strict press
15 side raise or front BB raise
15 high pull
15 front raise
15 strict press

COMBOS

15 DB thruster
15 double db curl and press OR BB full clean and press
10 front side high pull or BB front front high pulll

R9D51/2 – Bootcamp 2.11.2 Bodyweight and RKC At Work

Bootcamp this week was odd from my perspective, for workload reasons I had shortened the workout and although I had a nagging feeling it would be too short I left it as it was. Turns out my instinct was correct and we had to double up some of the parts to make sure the kids had enough to do 😉 That said, it was a good bodyweight workout using the boxes and trying to encourage not using knees for pushups. It also marked the return of pullups, something that I think we should not skip any more… I had a good RKC workout on Friday and then some smaller undocumented activities all weekend but no official workout.

I also wanted to nail down a couple of dates while I am at it. I went completely paleo at the start of October 2010. I started standing at my desk around June of 2011 and I hit my current comfortable weight of 230lbs once in May of 2011 and then again (after some summer slippage) in September of 2011 and have been there ever since. So in fact it hasn’t even been a year yet that I have been in this “new body”. I really need to search for some more “before” photos. Even though the famous yellow shirt photo makes me physically sick to see, I have others…

I am sick of repeating that I need to do more days in a week, so I am trying reverse psychology this week.

Here is what bootcamp looked like.

Easy…

10 air squats
20 walking lunge
10 squat jump
20 squat belt kicks
10 pullups

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

10 in and out
10 crunchy frog
10 v snaps
20 russian twists
10 full situp
10 bar leg lifts
10 full situp
20 russian twists
10 v snaps
10 crunchy frog
10 in and out

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

10 air squats
20 walking lunge
10 squat jump
20 squat belt kicks
10 pullups

Harder…

10 air squats half bounce
20 Mary Katherines with knee touch
10 squat tuck jump
20 front kick back kick
10 pullups

10 clap pushups
10 side tri rise
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side hold with foot touch
10 pullups

10 in and out arms up
10 crunchy row
10 boat to roll hold
10 side crunch
10 situp double twist
10 bar rainbows or leg lifts

Tired?…

10 box dips
10 military pushup
10 diamond pushup
10 shoulder pushups
10 hindu pushups
10 wide leg pushback

Bonus…

shoulder burn – front clap, overhead clap 10 – 1

R9D50 – Bootcamp 2.11.1 Maybe I’m Imagining Things (3 things)

So part way during the bootcamp class I became aware that I was struggling a little more than I think I should be. In my exhausted state I figured it was because of my lax approach the last few weeks (I only managed 3 workouts last week) and that my conditioning was starting to suffer. Then I realized that in my hurry I had grabbed a can of Red Bull on my way out of the house and what I was feeling was the rush of adrenaline and caffeine from the (sugar free) energy drink. Now I am not a big fan of energy drinks other than to keep you alert while driving. I have a tendency to zone out a little when we go on long car trips so I often will consume a Red Bull or 5 hour energy before to make sure I’m up for the mind-numbing trip. But when it comes to exercising I have long believed that the stimulation that you get from energy drinks is not doing you any good. So I decided to look into it.

I found a few things that give balanced reviews of not only the drink themselves but also the idea behind the marketing and so on, but since it was the specific health aspect I was interested in I read on to discover that what I was feeling was probably a caffeine overload. Since most energy drinks contain caffeine and also Guaranine (which has an active ingredient of… you guessed it, caffeine) then the amount of caffeine you are taking in during a very short time can be upwards of 3 cup equivalents. In short, after reading up on the subject I found a startling conclusion that was reached by almost everyone who has studied the effects of these kinds of drinks:

  •  Energy drinks should not be consumed before or during exercise or manual labor.
  • Energy drinks are not a substitute for water or sports drinks for hydration.
  • Monitor your kids. Children or adolescents should not consume energy drinks.
  • Do not mix energy drinks with alcohol. Period.
  • Do not drink energy drinks if you have hypertension, have an underlying medical condition, or are taking any kind of prescription medication.
  • Do not drink energy drinks if you’re pregnant.
  • Do not exceed the recommended daily allowance (usually one can per day).
  • Know the signs of too much caffeine (jitters, restlessness, fidgeting, anxiety, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat)

The point that was made over and over was the distinction between “energy drinks” and “sports drinks” such as Gatorade, Powerade etc. Although for some people the distinction is not clear, sports drinks are designed for SPORTS and to be consumed during or after sports or both. Energy drinks, as far as I can tell are designed to place your body into an alert, high performing state which can emulate intense exercise. Having and energy drink and exercising is like pouring gasoline on a barbecue, it’s just not a good idea and the intensity of the result may cause heart attack, stroke, seizures and yes, definitely death. They must be thinking of Angel Wings when they say “Red Bull give you wings…”. I guess I will be taking my old standby water bottle from now on!

The second thing is sleep. I am guilty of not getting enough sleep and although I have been operating on 5 hours a night for many m any years I can’t deny that I feel better after 7 or 8 IF I CAN DO IT! Most often I can’t, my body just wants out after 5 hours. I ran into a good infographic today which tell sof the health risks of getting what I would call chronic lack of sleep:

Lack of Sleep Infographic
As for bootcamp, it was intense and enjoyable, and a repeat of a class from a few weeks back. I like it because it has plenty of backwards running, something that increases agility, focus and works the legs in a new and painful way! We also welcomed back a visitor to the class and like I have said on previous occasions I love having new victims to torture especially if they try to make both classes in a week. The second class is almost always a new height in pain and suffering for them. But kudos to her for coming back and partying with us a second (and hopefully third) time!

D21 – 2.11.1 Cardio and abs

2x section
20 Hit The Floor
10 2 line Suicides
20 switch kicks
20 in and out abs

2x section
4x 8Jump rope with 4jump half turn
10x 8 sprint 4 switch lunge
10 stance jacks (foot touch)
10 vsnaps

2x section
5x long jump run back – single double triple repeat
20 side to side hopjump with squat foot touch
10 2 line forward and back suicides with pancake
10 ski abs

2x section
5 burpee
5 burpee with 4 run
5 burpee with 4 run and 4 in and out
20 plank jacks
10 plank jacks with in and out

1x section
2 foot tap circles
4x 1 foot tap circles with med ball carry 3 lengths
4x 20 foot taps, 5 burpee holding ball
each line ball place and return (place ball on line return to wall)
10 full situp with med ball
10 side crunch each side