R5D12 – Modified WOD and TGU Plus Why Do HIIT (and not cardio)

gymnastsWhat burns calories best? Should I run 3 hours a day to burn fat? Why are you making us work so hard? All valid questions from my little proteges at gymnastics. Being as it is that I am their Strength and Conditioning coach, they often come to me looking for (simple) answers. Running 3 hours a day vs working out 30 minutes a day? Sounds like the stuff I tell my wife about wasting her time on the treadmill. Once again, the interwebs come to the rescue.alicias

HIIT kicks cardio’s butt.

The study to show HIIT (painful, hard workouts) beats lower intensity longer cardio sessions (A bit, well, dry)

Yet more information about why not to eat grains including rice!

In honour of the benefits of HIIT, I literally drove myself into the ground yesterday.

Using a 90lb barbell and a 18″ box (due to height restrictions in my basement):

10 Box Jumps
1 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
9 Box Jumps
2 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
8 Box Jumps
3 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
7 Box Jumps
4 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
..and so on until…
1  Box Jump
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls

I collapsed and I think I set a new HR record of 166 bpm which for me is pretty good. I usually peak at 160 and I really felt those extra 6! I don’t really know why I was so tired after, however, I also did my RKC 5 TGU per side so that may explain it.

I shouldn’t complain, my competitive girls work harder than I do… I make sure of that!

R5D9-10 – Cardiopocalypse

new hatBeing at home with the baby is a unique set of challenges in a lot of ways, not least of all when it comes to working out. I had to do my bench sets with the baby looking on with an even stranger look than when I did the RKC the other day. It is a little disturbing however I managed to get through the following:
15-15-15-15 @135
10-10-10-10 @ 185
7-7-7-7 @225
5-5-5-5 @ 275

The following day I had come to the realization that the baby will sleep 45 minutes. So I put her to bed, jumped on the treadmill and did 45 mins of cardio. I was insufferably bored. I though I hated cardio before, I should have done a Shaun T workout instead. I don’t know how far I went, in fact I don’t even care I hated it so much. I can’t wait for the spring to come so I can do some short sprints outside. As far as I can tell, cardio on a treadmill is nothing short of Chinese Water Torture. Never again, I have come to the end of my treadmill world, it’s over.

Why? Because running on a treadmill will not prepare you for ToughMudder!!

RKC Week 3 next!

R5D8 – Plan So I Don’t Forget

I am coaching tonight but before I do, this is my plan:

For Time:

  • 50 tuck jumps
  • 1 sumo deadlift high pull
  • 10 plyo box jumps
  • 2 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 9 plyo box jumps
  • 3 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 8 plyo box jumps
  • 4 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 7 plyo box jumps
  • 5 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 6 plyo box jumps
  • 6 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 5 plyo box jumps
  • 7 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 4 plyo box jumps
  • 8 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 3 plyo box jumps
  • 9 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 2 plyo box jumps
  • 10 sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 1 plyo box jump
  • 50 tuck jumps

Then, once coaching is done, I want to do my TGU workout to get me back on track. That will leave me with bench for tomorrow and a day off on Saturday when my wife is out of town and I have the baby to look after.

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.

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…

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 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).

R4 D71 – Nice Turkish Get Up

For my North American pals, a get up is an outfit in English

I was planning to take today off, since the last 2 days of kettlebell exploration have left me sore in some curious places. I thought it would be a good idea to try the Turkish Get Up skill that so many people exalt as a wonderful full body exercise. I had toyed with the idea once before but shyed away from it due to the fact that I believed it would be an exercise in futility. After all, if I have trouble getting up after a burpee, why would this be any easier. Well, I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. The skill, although difficult given my large frame and small flexibility was eminently possible. In fact, I shocked and delighted

turkish_delight

(you knew that was coming) myself by being able to do both sides the first time I tried. It really is not that hard of a skill however, the work required to complete the skill is mind blowing. I had started out thinking that I was just going to see if I could do it and try to perfect my form however I ended up doing 3 sets of declining numbers:
2 sets of 3
2 sets of 2
2 sets of 1

This was done on each side giving a total rep count of 24 reps. Before I am accused of lying by omission I did not use my new 45lb KB for this, that would have been impossible and reckless, instead I used a 25lb DB from the basement and did the skill on the hardwood floor in front of the computer watching the demo. That is not something I would recommend, by the way. By the time I was finished, my body was well worked, I could tell that the core requirements for this skill are intense and that curiously the hardest part for me was not getting to my knees but standing from the kneeling position. I guess doing lunges with a weight overhead is not something I have done before. Also, I suppose if I had done overhead squats before now I would have had less of a challenge balancing a weight overhead as I try to move about. I added 5 sets of 5 pull ups just for fun since it feels like forever since I did pull ups and they felt great! The workout in all took about 25 minutes with rest and almost falling down. Long enough to cook sausages… 5 minutes Turkish, 5 minutes. By the way this short clip contains several of my favourite quotes from Snatch, most notably “Protection from what? Ze Germans?” but it is probably nsfw…

R4 D70 – In The Swing / Weight Achievement (32.2lbs)

goalslolLet’s get to the weight first, since that is the most interesting.

This morning, the scale said I was 250.6 which is a total loss of 32.2lbs. I was hoping to get under 250 by the New Year and I think I will but it wasn’t until I got to putting the numbers into my documentation that I realized something quite amazing. I am currently at my lightest weight since my back surgery in December of 2002. Not only that, I have no record of me being under 250lbs at all. I know I was back in 2001 when I went to Australia but I also know I was in the gym for about 3 hours a day back then just so I could get my weight down which really makes it artificially low. In fact, I have not been this weight without the help of a crazy workout schedule since I was at Western and weighed around 200lbs. I have long been a victim of the notion that in order for me (me, personally that is) to get my weight lower than let’s say 260lbs I had to work out like the Tasmanian Devil and eat nothing but oatmeal and salad. I was convinced that my weight was tied to my workout schedule with no room for error. How foolish I was! I remember times when I was spending 2 hours a day EVERY DAY in the gym. Times when I would do 4 day splits of 3 hours with cardio on top. It was nuts! At least now with the baby and our new life, my new schedule makes sense and is working. So congratulations to me, job well done, so far!

Day 70 was more kettlebell work. I decided I should try to perfect the swing technique and without really knowing what was a lot of reps I set out to do around 30 minutes. I have to say, the smallest difference in the height of that swing makes a world of difference in the effort department. I ended up doing 10 sets of 5 single arms each side and 5 doubles for a total of 150 reps. I still don’t really know if this is enough but the timing was about right and the effort level seemed OK and ultimately I am just learning so I was concentrating more on the hip snap and the proper form to worry about total work. I have to admit, this kettlebell thing is pretty addictive. It is a decent whole body workout and it really the epitome of functional fitness. Now to work it into the schedule properly… It is now the 29th, I need to get through this week and once everything settles down after the New Year it will be time to move onto Round 5. The big question is, what to do? Something I will have to address while I am battling through the last few days of this phase.