Month: January 2011

R5D4 – 6 Harder Than Anticipated

As I suspected when I started, I completely forgot I was supposed to be doing a 4th day and went straight from day 3 to rest to starting over. So for day 4 it was back to RKC swings, then the TGU for day 5 and yesterday I disappointed myself with a mix of deadlifts and chinups. There are a couple of things I would like to say at this point. The Turkish Get Up workout which is supposed to be mixed with the WOD is actually a 20 minute workout by itself once you are done the warmup so adding a WOD at this point is a bit much to ask. Once I get the hang of the TGU, probably after the RKC minimum phase I can add more. Maybe I should have added my day 5 workout on since it was short and left me a little miffed and short on calories burned. I had planned the following: Deadlifts with 135# plus chinups as follows: 1 per minute, adding one per minute. Minute 1 – 1 deadlift, 1 chinup Minute 2 – 2 deadlift, 2 chinup Minute 3 – 3 deadlift, 3 chinup and so on.. I had hoped to get to 20 but my brain intervened and said I should aim for 15. My body intervened quickly after that and due to my lack of experience in deadlifting I was done after 8 rounds. For some reason, I was just too careful to do more. I am not yet familiar enough with the deadlift post-surgery to know how far I can push it. I was scared that I was going to put out my back and that the rest of the week would be spent in pain. So I quit. I did however do an extra 35 chin ups so that I wouldn’t feel cheated and that at least my workout wouldn’t be under 10 minutes. Sometimes I think sticking to P90X would be easier, I wouldn’t run into issues like this however, being your own workout boss is worth it’s weight in gold. At one point during the weekend I had to carry an 80lb bag of salt into the basement and I was surprised to feel the difference the RKC is already making to my core stability.

Yesterday which was planned to be day 7 was usurped by having to coach for 3 hours. I had enough of a workout lifting none too light teenage gymnasts to warrant me doing any more once I got home.

R5D3 – Chest / Tri Old School Lifting

benchclothesIt was refreshing to be doing bench again, and much to my surprise I was able to top out easily at 275lbs which was almost a shock given how much weight I have lost and how long it has been since I benched last.

I took a similar approach that I have always used, a simple increasing set to my max but with set reps as follows:
14-12-12-12 @ 135 (50 rep / 6750 lb total)
10-10-10-10 @ 185 (40 rep / 7400 lb total )
9-7-7-7 @ 225 (30 rep / 6750 lb total)
5-5-5-5 @ 275 (20 rep / 5500 lb total)
10-10-10-10 @ 135 (40 rep close grip)

I have to admit I was quite pleased with myself but decided that I needed an extra 2 45lb plates in order to make my life easier. Looking back this may seem like a lot of reps or sets but only 16 sets, only 140 reps and a total weight of 26,400lbs. Considering I have topped out at over 100,000 lbs in the past doing 2 body parts, 26,400 seems reasonable at this point. I would like to get a 50,000 lb workout and just see what the reps and sets look like. Maybe once my weights get up a little higher that will be a good daily total. I just don’t want the reps to get too high, going over 15 reps on anything is borderline too high but since my body is used to it, I am not about to stop now. I was never a big fan of 1 – 3 rep sets during training and seemed to gain enough mass and strength without them.

As for the triceps, well, I am not about to fall back into the isolation training from my past. I figure that with the benching, the close grip finishing and the dips I do on other days, my triceps should get the work they need. If not, I will add an extra set or two to close grip since that is what makes my triceps grow the fastest.

R5D2 – Tentative / Lazy / Bad Timing

I was all ready to go today with day 2 of the RKC but after I got home, looked after the baby while my wife went to the gym and ate some of the delicious chili I made I was not really feeling up to it. So I decided to wait until after I coached meaning when 8pm rolled around I had to drive home and face a workout. This was not ideal, however, I stuck to my guns and at least did my 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups and also did several cleans to try and understand how you are supposed to do that without extensive bruising to the forearm. I figured I had better work it out now before I have to do lots of them during the next stage. I was supposed to do a WOD also but I couldn’t face it even though I had toyed with the idea of doing this:

10 Burpees
1 Chin Up
9 Burpees
2 Chin Ups
…
1 Burpee
10 Chin Ups

Oh well. It’s chest, bench and dips today so I should be able to handle that even though I have to coach, again, at 8pm.

BTW I did the TGU with the 45lb KB, something which I have not tried before and I was, at several points, fearing for my life, specifically my face which was directly under the bell. Nothing like motivation to keep hold of the bar.

The Next Fit Test – The 300 Fit Test.

300

Apparently this is what the actors did as their workout to get ready for the movie “300”. This is Spartaaaaaa!!

25x Pull-up
50x Deadlift @ 135#
50x Push-up
50x Box Jump @ 24” box
50x Floor Wiper @ 135# (one-count)
50x KB Clean and Press @ 36# (KB must touch floor between reps)
25x Pull-up
300 reps total

Ouch…

R5D1 – Swinging Back Into Action

January 11, 2011

 

RKC 1_1

Up there is the Minimum workout for 2 of the days of week 1. The second part is below which will be augmented with the WOD, or should I say, a WOD of my choosing. In order not to get stagnated on doing specific ones, I will try to pick from the previous week WOD only.

RKC 1_2

As you can tell, the second workout is pretty easy, a warmup and 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups. That’s why I will be adding something in. Since I am also splitting out a day for deadlifts and bench I will try to find a WOD with bodyweight moves and pullups if possible.

So last night was day 1 of the RKC Program Minimum which is basically just two handed swings working to perfect form. I still have a hard time with the form, constantly thinking about my body position, hand position, swing height and so on. I have to assume it will get easier once I find a groove for the swing. The active rest is something you can make as easy or hard as you want. I tried to keep my HR below 160 so I ended up doing Jumping Jacks, push ups, chin ups and free squats for my rest along with some light jogging in place. I managed to get through 5 sets of swings and therefore 6 sets of active rest. I’m a little sore today across the lower back and glutes which is a good sign. I don’t think being sore just on the lower back is what I need right now.

My feeling about kettlebells right now? Pretty positive, it seems to be a thorough full body movement and a pretty taxing workout. You have to be careful about the height of your swings, too high is a real danger to your back as you try to slow the weight down at the bottom. But overall, I think I am going to like this.

My Goal Is To Be Overweight

BMI simonWe all know that the BMI is bullshit for most people. I know that it was once touted as the most accurate measurement of “healthy” weight but it just fell short. In demonstrating this I have included my personal table that I hang on to in order to let me know just how obese I am. When I started out, not just this time but at least one other time in my life I was pushing against 295lbs. I don’t want to say 300 because that is a mental block I have, much the same as women have a mental block about the number 200. Regardless of how much you weigh, a 300lb man is, without question, a problem. It’s just that we were brought up on average people of average size and for the average male (who is apparently 5’8.5″ in Canada and 5’10” in the USA) being 300lbs would be a major problem. What I did know, at almost 300lbs was that I was fat. I wasn’t prohibitively fat, I could still work out fine, look OK in a t shirt and jeans but I was definitely an imposing figure. There are pictures in this blog of me which I won’t traumatize you with again, I also have pictures of my at under 200 from when I graduated university before I really hit the weights hard in my 20’s and you can see that although I am much larger, I don’t look unfit/fat, just, well, a bit fat. So what is the point? Well, according to my chart, I was “Severely Obese” which basically translates to near death as far as I can tell but if you go by what the papers say, it makes me pretty average in the USA! So, obviously something had to be done and long story short, I plummeted from Severely Obese into Class 2 obese with little problem. Getting into the Class 1 obese category took longer but by August of 2007, my wedding, I squeaked into Class 1. I made it back in again January of 2009 and again in May of 2009 but seemed to bounce back into Class 2 with regularity. By October of 2010 I was rising to the top of the Class 2 class and getting concerned. Without answering the question of why, it just was a long roller coaster. I was working out the whole time, even doing P90X with regularity as my weight continued to climb prompting me to tell lies to myself about gaining muscle and maintaining my strength. You can even follow my workouts here, since I started this blog in June of 2009 and even though I was working out I wasn’t paying attention. Sure, my weight went down after I started, round 1 of P90X got me about a 20lb loss if I recall correctly but the issue that I clung on to with both hands was that I was working full time and coaching 2 nights a week which wiped me out while doing longer than necessary workouts. As I have evolved and learned during the last 19 months of documenting my physical work I have come to realize 3 things:
1. I have an excuse for everything
2. Excuses don’t work, working smarter not harder works.
3. If I am not documenting my weight, I am probably not eating right.

So there I was, doing P90X, doing P90X / Insanity together and still as my fitness improved, my weight really didn’t do much. It wasn’t until my parents came to visit that I realized that I wasn’t really in control of what was going in with my diet and therefore my weight. I stumbled upon the Paleo method of eating and a light bulb went off in my head. It was the same thing I had done back in my rugby playing days to get into shape and drop some weight to get ready for the University rugby season. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon October 11, 2010 (Canadian Thanksgiving) and here I am.

This wasn’t supposed to be a post about the Paleo diet, or about my weight history, in fact, the whole point of this post is the amusing notion that my goal weight of 220lbs is, according to the BMI scale, still Overweight (and borderline Class 1 Obese!). But with a lean mass of 200lbs I am thinking that 220lbs is a pretty aggressive goal especially for someone who has never had a bodyfat % lower than 12% (and that was in University while I was spending up to 3 or 4 hours a day working out).

I suppose I could be disappointed that even after dropping 34lbs I am still borderline Class 2 but since I was 248.4 this morning I am not about to complain. I am on my way to my goal, to be Overweight!

Round 5 Day 1 – The Plan And The Future

lots of kettlebellsSo as you can no doubt tell, I did kind of bail on Round 4 leaving with about 2 weeks left to the 3 month mark. However, the timing was problematic, with Christmas, new weights, new methodologies creeping in I thought it was finally time to move along. I am coming to the realization that this time around, P90X, the reason for starting this blog in the first place, may not actually have a place here. It’s a little sad, and since I am going to commit to having a cardio day during my workout days then a revisit to Kenpo or Plyo may be in the cards. However, the days of following Tony along through mind numbingly boring set after set of curls or pushups are gone. That and his unbearably inane commentary. So what next you ask? Well, as you can probably guess it will involve kettlebells, Olympic Lifts, WODs and a dab of cardio. Here is the plan for the first month, more to follow later as I get into the schedule for the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge). I am also going to try and stay within a calendar time frame rather than a set 90 days, I would like to finish Round 5 around the start of April when my parents and sister come to town to see the baby. Once the weather is nicer, I will have more flexibility in what I can do using the deck outside as a workout platform, so things will change by necessity.

I need to be flexible with the days off, so what I want to do is commit to a 4 day stretch, sometimes it may get to 6 days in a row, other times I may be forced into a 2 or 3 day hiatus. Either way, the rotation is going to be 8 day. 2 4 day stretches containing everything I need. The variety will no doubt come from the WOD which I will mostly take from the Crossfit site but reserve the right to do a named workout should I feel the desire. I won’t be counting days off this time around either which will probably fit me in around the 75-80 day mark. I’m kind of making this up as I go along right now so bear with me. I need to satisfy certain things, I need bench, I need pullups, I need the RKC and I need some form of cardio day to keep my endurance up. I also need deadlifts, clean and press and for the time being some form of squat without getting under a bar. So here goes.

Day 1 – RKC Minimum Swings (The RKC Minimum is 4 weeks, then transition into Rite Of Passage)
Day 2 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 3 – Bench and dips (Chest, shoulder, tri)
Day 4 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

Day 5 – RKC Minimum Swings
Day 6 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 7 – Deadlifts and Squat (Legs and Back)
Day 8 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

R4 Finale – Fit Test Weekend

start-finishLast time I did this I thought I was in pretty good shape, I was part way through Round 4 when I did the Insanity Test which you would assume would make me already pretty fit. The P90X test results are from the end of Round 1 and my failed attempt to go back to the gym, right before starting round 2. That being said, I am pretty disappointed in the heart rate section. I don’t know if it was because I did burpees to get my heart rate up and therefore was using more muscle groups that doing Jumping Jacks. Whatever the reason, my recovery does not seem to be very good. However, subjectively I feel like I am recovering quickly. Maybe I should leave an Insanity workout in my schedule just to keep my cardio and endurance up a little. Does a resting heart rate of 70 seem high to anyone else? Sitting here at my desk, my heart rate is a more comforting 60bpm…

So now I have my results I don’t really see any glaring areas that I need to improve upon other than 2 things. First I obviously need to change my body composition, which is underway. Second I need to show some measurable improvements in my strength because shorter workout times have me worrying about losing strength and muscle mass. So all that remains now is to put together Round 5 – The Exit Strategy.

P90X Fit Test

Resting Heart Rate   70 (+0)
Pull-Ups   16 (+9)
Vertical Leap Inches   18 (+5)
Push-Ups   50 (I got bored after 50…again)
Toe-Touch+2″ (+3″)
Wall Squat (Seconds)   90 (+30)
Bicep Curls (Reps | Wt )   25@35lbs
Total Poundage   875 (+75)
In & Outs   50 (+0)

Heart Rate Maximizer (Done after Burpees not Jumping Jacks, so not really comparable)

Immediately After   150
After 1 Minute Rest   141
After 2 Minutes Rest125
After 3 Minutes Rest116
After 4 Minutes Rest95

Measurements

Weight 249.0 (-29lbs)
Body Fat % 21.7% (-5.12%)
Chest 46.25 (-3.75″)
Waist 43 (-1″)
Hips43.00 (-3″)
Neck17.75 (-1.5″)
Right Thigh 26 (+1″)
Left Thigh27 (+2″)
Right Bicep 18.25 (+.25″)
Left Bicep19 (+1.25″)

Insanity Fit Test:

Switch Kicks – 145 (+20)
Power Jacks – 50 (+0)
Power Knees – 114 (+0 Very odd)
Power Jumps – 27 (+27 did 0 last time)
Globe Jumps – 11 (-3)
Suicide Jumps – 12 (+1)
Push Up Jacks - 50 (+0)
Low Plank Oblique – 40 (+4)

Previous P90X Fit Test

Resting Heart Rate   70
Pull-Ups   5
Vertical Leap Inches   13
Push-Ups   50 (I got bored after 50…)
Toe-Touch-1″
Wall Squat (Seconds)   65
Bicep Curls (Reps | Wt )   40@20lbs
Total Poundage   800
In & Outs   50

Heart Rate Maximizer

Immediately After   150
After 1 Minute Rest   123
After 2 Minutes Rest106
After 3 Minutes Rest99
After 4 Minutes Rest93

Fitness LevelsDay 1

Weight278.00
Body Fat %26.82%
Chest50
Waist44.00
Hips46.00
Neck19.00
Right Thigh 25
Left Thigh26
Right Bicep 18
Left Bicep17.75

Previous Insanity Fit Test:

Switch Kicks                125
Power Jacks                  50
Power Knees                 114 (on weak side)
Globe Jumps                   14
Suicide Jumps              11
Push Up Jacks              50
Low Plank Oblique     36

R4 D75 – Improvisation

squat-deadlift1So I have been short on time lately, with the baby getting into new activities and the wife wanting to spend 2 hours at the gym I find that I am having to squeeze stuff in when I can. Yesterday I felt like I should work on my deadlifts and chinups so I organized a quick 25 minute workout like this:

5 rounds of:

5 deadlifts, 10 chin ups, 15 pushups or dips

It wasn’t a killer, but since these were my first real deadlifts since way before my back surgery (we are talking over 1o years here) I thought it best to take it easy. I was using 135lbs and I have to admit, even though the technique was a little rusty, it came back fast but I didn’t feel all that comfortable doing them. I think it was because I have a tendency to lift my butt first like most novices do and while that was OK before my back problems, now not so much. If I hope to get my deadlift weight up, I am going to have to remedy that slight break in form otherwise I am going to defeat myself with fear. For those of you who have never pinched a nerve in your back or herniated a disc, I can’t explain the pain other than to say that once you feel it, you will wish you never had. That’s probably why I won’t ever squat again…

I also wish I had been able to do bench instead of push ups but since I only have 1 Olympic bar at the moment, that was not possible. Even though push ups are great, they are not taxing enough when you are looking for a HIT workout.

So I am all set for my fit tests this weekend and I have to hash out the details of my next round before day 1 on Monday (hopefully).