Gymnastics / Bootcamp – Page 18 – Something Beats Nothing Every Time

R9D41-3 – Bootcamp 2.8.2 Bodyweight And The Week That Wasn’t

I had big plans to exercise every day last week but as it worked out with Valentines and other interruptions it was actually a disappointing week. After bootcamp on Wednesday I ended up taking Thursday off, doing an RKC workout on Friday and then yesterday doing P90X Kenpo for a laugh. I am sure my Firstbeat Athlete coach will have my intensity below the acceptable line for the week which means I have to work extra hard starting on Monday which is also Family Day and my Birthday. The bodyweight workout was almost another carbon copy because like I have already said once, we are hitting our stride with workouts that we are all enjoying trying to master. So the bodyweight bootcamp for this week was not full of surprises, just hard work. In contrast my RKC workout was something I haven’t done in a while and it was refreshing to get that work done, and by the same token, doing Kenpo for the first time in weeks or maybe even months was great. I know I loved Kenpo then during the P90X program I started to loathe it but for a day when you want a light cardio workout and want it to go by quickly then Kenpo is ideal. Almost every time I think I want to have a light day I will go with Kenpo, I mean I am not going to go with any kind of yoga am I?!

Here, just for reference is the workout.

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

10 air squats reg
10 lunge no step
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

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 walk in to hip raise
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

R9D39/40 – X2 Shoulders + Arms Plus Bootcamp 2.8.1 (Cardio)

This was my second time doing the shoulders and arms workout and I have to admit I am disappointed that the arms workout doesn’t include any dips. For myself, I find dips to be second only to close grip bench for building massive tricep strength. The fixation that Tony has with tricep extensions is annoying for me. So I usually replace the ineffective tricep extensions with dips on myÂ home made dip stationÂ which wobbles like crazy and in doing so creates all sorts of minor muscle fatigue that you just can’t beat. I think it cost me about $20 to build and I love it! Other than the frustration with the triceps and the fact that this workout is basically P90X shoulders and arms standing on one leg, I quite enjoy it.

Monday brought more pain in the form of Cardio Bootcamp. I had taken Sunday off knowing that I will be working out probably 5 or 6 days this week and so I was ready to fire on all cylinders when Monday evening rolled around. I had added and modified the workout a little and had planned for this to be the toughest bootcamp so far. When I think back to how we started I am so proud of the participants in my group. We came from a small room doing 21 movements to working out on a full floor with Olympic weights and stability balls and medicine balls and cranking out 52 movements in the same hour long class. This was by far the toughest cardio workout we have done, and it looked like this:

Bootcamp 2.8.1 – Cardio

2x section
10 SB burpee lift ball
20 SB plank run
10 SB pushup boing
20 SB elbow plank run
10 SB plank jacks

2x section
20 hit the floor
10 Suicides
16 log jump 4x one direction
20 in and out abs

2x section
8x burpee with jump half half
16 log jump 8x one direction
5 horse stance jacks with pulse (4+8)
10 vsnaps

2x section
3 suicide lines with run back (1,2,3)
3 suicide lines with run back with pancake
3 suicide lines with run back with pancake tuck jump
10 ski abs to finish

2x section
10 frog jumps
10 frog jump half
10 tuck jump
10 tuck jump half
20 plank jacks
10 plank jacks with in and out

Bonus leg burners

10 squats
8 squat 2 tuck
6 squat 4 tuck
4 squat 6 tuck
2 squat 8 tuck
10 tuck jumps

Catching Up

R9 D33 – Bootcamp was supposed to be cardio butI switched it for bodyweight instead. It was a repeat of the last bodyweight class we did (2.5.2)
Thursday off
R9D34 – Friday at the gym we did a big mashup of wallball, plate stacking, cleans, clean and press, strict press, burpees and pretty much anythign else I could think of including pullups
R9D35 – X2 Chest Back and Balance to make up for the accidental day 1 of phase 2
Sunday off
R9D36 – Bootcamp 2.6.1 Cardio – A tough one, we retook the test from the last cardio day and switched the order. It’s a killer.
Tuesday off – sick with something but not Lupus, it’s Â never LupusÂ
R9D37 – Bootcamp 2.6.2 Weights. There were almost tears, but we repeated the last class because to be honest we are really hitting our stride now with the workouts, they are tough, varied and manageable. Still, the ladies have a long way to go to get to 100% and that’s how it should be.

R9D31&32 – Bootcamp Weights Plus Finally A Gap Day Workout (Plyocide)

<– Plyocide depth charge alternate, step up then step into tuck jump.

Bootcamp this week was poorly attended but nevertheless it was a tough one using 35lb plates in addition to the 8lb med balls. This was only the second time the participants had been able to move heavy weight around and I think it went well. This is what was involved:

Spin row warm up

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

add med ball

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

add plate

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

Abs – 25-15-10 free-med-plate

in and out
bicycles
full situp
russian twist

Shoulder 15 with med ball

halos
weighted box dip
upright row
box dip left leg up
shoulder front fly
box dip right leg up

Shoulder 10 with plate

halos
weighted box dip
upright row
weighted box dip
shoulder front fly
weighted box dip

Abs – 25-15-10 free-med-plate

in and out
bicycles
full situp
russian twist

Bonus Round

Pushups with plate on back – Mostly failed
Squat half bounce 20 with mb
Squat half bounce 10 with plate

It seems like a lot, but it went pretty fast. We did go overtime but only because we had to wait for the ladies to arrive in the snow.

Last night I decided to be good to my word for the week and try not to take off the day between my bootcamp classes which will make today the third workout in a row of fairly high intensity. I did plyocide last night and the one thing that came out of it was my realization that you don’t need a plyo box to do the depth charge move.

Tony has you step up onto a plyo box, jump down and explode up into a straight jump. Since I have 8 foot ceilings and no plyo box (even if I did I wouldn’t be able to use in inside) I have to modify this and I have found a perfect replacement. Instead of skipping the move completely, if you start on your knees you can step up to standing (alternating each leg) and it’s just like you are stepping up onto a box, then I perform a tuck jump just to stick it to Tony and his straight jumps. It’s a little harder, takes some balance but it’s a great substitution.

R9D27 – Bootcamp 2.5.1 Cardio

<— That’s how a cardio workout should end, not stepping off the treadmill with your magazine and your bottle of water with a slight glow to your face…

Today’s bootcamp was gruelling. Sometimes I think of things that sound like fun without really realizing just how difficlut it is goin got be especially when combined with the rest of the workout. I realized after 3 of the sections today that this was a killer workout. It’s exactly what I want and what I want for them but man it was tough. I have also come to realize that the movements that exist in P90X2 are in version 2 for a reason, because they are tough. Seeing my group struggle to complete stability ball work is a real eye opener, and I realize now that you need an enormous amount of strength or coordination or both to make the stability ball workouts work for you. Fortunately I can simplify it for them but I am amazed at how hard they found the balance portion at the end of the night.

D8 – 2.5.1 Cardio and abs

Bike warmup 30×5 with 10 rest or row 1000m

2x section
20 alt toe touch suicide
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
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
10 SB burpee
10 SB run around
10 SB pushup boing
10 SB face around
10 SB sphinx to plank rollup
10 SB Mountain climber
10 SB Shoulder hamstring roll in

R9D23 – Bootcamp 2.4.1 – Bodyweight With Pullups (Monsters…)

The workout was followed by some degree of disappointment by a couple of my kids. They claimed it was not hard enough regardless of the fact that last week they felt the same but it took them 4 days to get their legs to work properly following our leg workout. I guess we will see on Wednesday how they feel about it. Maybe they are monsters in the gym, maybe…

The workout looked like this, since it was bodyweight day.

Legs x20x2
air squat
back lunge front kick
Squat side reach
Hip flexor burners – knee, extend, pulse

Absx20x2
in and out
rowing frog
rollback hold
side to side scissor
hanging leg raise

torsox10x2
pushups
plank right foot left hand
wide leg prone fall to push back
pullups or rack pullup

legs 10x
warrior 3 to lunge
warrior 3 to squat
warrior 3 to knee touch
hanging leg raise

torso
plank 360 spin x 4
pushup side balance leg raise x 10
crown shoulder press x10
elbow, plank, shoulder touch, clap and back x10

As is the norm at this point, the pullups took an inordinate amount of time, keeping the class on track is tough, but necessary to develop true strength through the back and upper torso. I am a staunch believer in chin ups as the holy grail of upper back strength.

R9D20 – Death By Bootcamp Cardio

The bootcamp cardio this week was a bear. I often forget that I am going to have to participate and half way through the class this week I was regretting it. Not only that, we went so quickly that I almost ran out of the workout on the sheet! I had modified a couple of moves from the plan and the real workout went like this:

Spin warmup – 10-20-30-40-50 x2

or 500m row x2

heels
knees
jacks
123’s

Jump rope side to side 30
Ski down 30
Llunge switch 30
Med ball mtn climbers x40

Med ball run around 5+5
Med ball circle 5+5
Med ball toe touch 360 x4
Med ball plank plyo touch x20

Med ball mary katherines x20
Med ball hop over line x2
Med ball hop touch line x2
Plank or elbow jacks x30

Hit the floor x20
Frog jumps x20
Suicide 3 x20
Jab cross x20
Hook uppercut x20
Jab cross hook uppercut x20

Belt kicks x20
Switch kicks with lunge switch 8’s x10
Step back lunge x20
Level 1 drill pushup burpee with running x10

In and outs 20
Weighted Russian twists 20
Boat roll back 10
Weighted Russian twists 20
Plank side reach under with leg raise 10 per side

I think the plank reaches at the end almost killed everyone. Not enough that they were out of gas by the plank jacks but once they made it through the switch kicks and the level 1 drills I think they were just glad to lay down. Not for long though, I don’t think anyone even managed to keep their hips off the ground for the duration of the reaches even without a leg raise added in.

I guess that’s why it’s bootcamp though, it’s meant to be hard, it’s meant to be brutal and not something you are supposed to “get used to”.

Bootcamp 2 W2D1&2 – Cardio & Bodyweight Upper

I’ve been so wrapped up in the P90X2 reviews that I neglected to list the workout from Monday’s bootcamp. It’s now Wednesday night and we just completed Bodyweight Upper day so I will add that here too.

Week 2 Day 1 – Cardio

Wide leg squat to toes
Weighted Mary Katherines
2 foot slalom jump – 4 lengths
Long jump/straight jump – 2 lines

Air squats
Weighted Walking Lunge
Super Skater Kicks
Step up, jump down + Straight jumps over box

Burpee tuck jump
Hopping slalom 2 lines
1 leg squat with knee lift
jump 1/2 turns

Weighted shelf stack with abductor lift
Toe tap 360
Flying kick with back kick / scissor leap with needle
8 knees, 4 pushups, 2 plyo pushups, tuck jump

Bonus Round (x2)

20 jump ropes
10 block jumps
10 up and over the block
10 clear jumps

Week 2 Day 2 – Bodyweight Upper

Holding Stability Ball warmup

5 – 10 reps as needed

Pushup
Military
Plyo
Plank to Sphinx
Pushup Balance

plank knee to elbow
plank knee to both elbows
plank x crunch – superman to elbow/knee touch

Stability pushup bounce
Stability pushup clap
Stability plank to elbow no step
Stability elbow balance Stability shoulder support leg raise
Stability shoulder support bicycles
Stability ab roll in
Stability leg hold leg raise
Stability ball passover

Medicine ball twists 4 in 4 out
Medicine ball around the world
Medicine ball leg lift
Medicine ball pushup switch
Medicine ball single military
Medicine ball single leg pushup
Medicine ball pushup balance
Medicine ball plank to floor plank to sphinx

Bonus – NOT COMPLETED

Stability elbow roller crabs
Stability pullups?
The impossible possible – feet on Stability hands on Medicine pushup

This was a tough workout, it’s hard to get across the value of balance work when the participants are so used to working hard on moves that increase the heart rate. I think this workout was very valuable, we will have to see if they agree long term.

R8D66 – Bootcamp2.2 – P90X2 ARRIVED!!!!

Bootcamp was a good class last night, the weights area still not completed so we were on the floor with dumbbells and I think most of the participants are getting a sense of how much stronger they are getting now. The workout was simple:

Strength – burn holds – flex for 5 release for 1 repeat 5x increase weight repeat

To Burn:
Forearm
90 degree bicep hold
side fly hold
front fly hold
laying tri ext 90 degree hold

WOD – 10 reps 3 sets

Wallball shots
double curls

double swimmers press
box dips with lap weight

double press with simulated chest fly
high pull

laying fly
laying pullover

But obviously the big news is that P90X2 arrived on my doorstep last night. The package is pretty click, just like most Beachbody products are, there’s a nutrition book, a big manual that outlines the workouts and the science behind the system and of course a little black book of DVDs. My diet is set, so I am really just in this for the workouts, and since I tend to do a lot of thinking and tinkering with my own bootcamp class I am hoping to both validate what I do and also pick up some more great moves for class. Today is something called X2Core which sounds like it works on your foundation strength, tying your core strength to your other bodypart movements. I will try and write a review of each workout as I do it this time and give my opinion. I just hope that it’s not a let down like I found Asylum to be. The funny thing is that in the manual they give you an optional workout schedule not with Insanity but with Insanity Asylum… Interesting…

Basal Metabolic Rate (How Much Should I Eat?)

Since the bootcamp is Monday and Wednesday this week I took Tuesday off in order to manage my workload a little just in case I ran out of gas forÂ Wednesday’sÂ class. I have been mulling over the content and format for this session and I think once the new gym area is set up I will take a leaf out of the Crossfit world and try to incorporate some strength / max weight work into the class before some lighter MetCon work. For today I don’t think it will be possible even though I suppose I could do squats, the gym and the placement of the equipment isn’t ideal.

That’s later, for now I want to answer another question I get very often… How much should I eat. Once you introduce people to calories and the idea that your body requires a certain amount to function then they get curious and wonder how much they need. It’s an inexact science still, and the numbers depend on a lot of factors. We know that it’s not necessarily calories in Vs calories out since there are “good” and “bad” calories but still there are guidelines that can be used to establish a starting point.

Your body is made up of muscle, bone and fat. Your muscle and bone require significant calories to maintain their state and as such contribute to your basal metabolic rate which is the minimum amount of calories your body needs to fuel itself just sitting still. If you fall below this number, your body will catabolize itself to make up the shortfall either by burning stored fat or by burning lean tissue. Which one it picks is partly due to your diet composition, partly down to hydration levels and partly due to hormonal balances. But to keep this basic lets just say that in order to maintain your lean mass you need to eat a minimum amount of calories. Since our body is only using fat as a “just in case” source of energy we will ignore it in our calculations, especially since it requires basically no calories to exist. So in order to calculate our calories we need to know our lean mass. This is easily done by getting your bodyfat measured with calipers, a fat scale or a water tank dip. These methods will all give you differing accuracies as far as the results but in the case of the scale, it’s a good tool to use on an ongoing basis to give you a start point and an average measurement. For me as I stated the other day my numbers look like this:

Weight 231 lbs or 105Kg (1Kg=2.2lbs)
Bodyfat 15%
Lean Mass (total weight x .85) = 196 lbs or 89.1Kg
Fat Mass (total weight – lean mass) = 35 lbs or 15.9Kg
you could also do Fat mass as total weight x .15 and get the same results.

So I calculate my BMR (not the bullshit BMI!) with theÂ following Cunningham Formula:

500+(22xLean Mass in Kg) which for me is 500+(22×89) = 2458 calories

We take this BMR number and multiply it by a variable between 1.2 and 1.9 to get our caloric requirements for the day. The difference in activity will determine whether you use 1.2 or 1.9 or a number in between.

Again using myself as an example my calories required for the day would be BMRx1.2 up to BMRx1.9 or in numbers:

2458×1.2 = 2950 calories
2458X1.9 = 4670 calories

For most people who are not competitive athletes and spend less than 4 days a week in the gym you are probably good around the 1.2-1.4 mark. For someone who works out vigorously at least 4 days a week (note there is no time duration here) then you can probably bump that up to 1.5-1.7. There are probably very few people in the general population who would need to be in the 1.7-1.9 range.

So in my example I would start out eating around 3000 calories a day and see what happens to my weight, my energy levels and my tolerance for either hunger or the ability to eat that much fruit and veg! The key is to give yourself a place to start and then to adjust as time goes along. As long as you are measuring what you are doing and what is happening, you will know what adjustments to make. But you need to know what the numbers are if you are going to make informed changes.

In the end, do something, have some information about what you are doing because something beats nothing every time!