Gymnastics / Bootcamp – Page 8 – Something Beats Nothing Every Time

The Last Few Workouts

Thursday – 30lb shoulder cleans with medicine ball, 50lb deadlifts with heavy bag, 95lb deadlifts with barbell. 10 each x 10 rounds.
Friday – Off
Saturday -Â 30lb shoulder cleans with medicine ball, 50lb cleans with heavy bag, 95lb cleans with barbell. 10 each 10 rounds.
Sunday – 100 deadlifts 95lb barbell sets of 10. 100 shoulder cleans with 30lb med ball sets of 10.
Monday – Off
Tuesday – 50 deadlifts @95lbs. 50 deadlifts @ 135. Plus a little clean practice at 135lbs. Shoulder still problematic.

For the rest of this week I need a pullup workout, a dip or chest workout and a HIIT bootcamp workout plus 1 or 2 135lb barbell workouts.

My basic plan for now without gym workouts looks like this:

Deadlift / Squat Day
Clean / KB Clean and Press Day
Pullup and Dips Day
Multifunction HIIT / bootcamp Day
Plus whatever I can manage on my 3 gym days which at the moment is 1. Very Little and 2. About To Change.

If I can get to a point where I can do 2 days of HIIT at gym with the kids then I can start to work more aggressively on adding more weight to my deadlifts and maybe squats. I don’t think I want / need to exceed 135lbs for my clean and press at this point especially with a hurt shoulder. It will also give me what I consider the Absolute Minimum for consistency and that is 5 days work out of 7.

Time to stop talking and start doing…

A Word About P90X3 and Summer WOD Pictures (of the workout!)

As you all know very well I am a very big P90X fan, so much so I am actually a Canadian Beachbody Coach. However, the rumours surrounding the release of P90X3 have me a little worried. For a start, the big THING is that it’s only 30 minutes. Now, I have done a LOT of P90X and P90X2 workouts and for the most part after round 1 they are usually only about 40 minutes. I tend to shorten the warmup a little but I don’t listen to Tony ramble on, I skip to the next movement or even better skip ahead and then catch up while he and his pals rest and hang out looking cool and making pseudo sexual jokes about chokes and oil. My hope is that this next iteration is exactly that, as I always say to my kids at gym, More Work Less Talk! There should be some changes, I am guessing that they saw the Tapout XT video series and decided that was exactly what P90X needed, a little butt kicking MMA conditioning. So I am cautiously optimistic and I will happily ignore the 30 minute spiel and hope that it doesn’t include the warmup or cool down so they will be basically the same amount of work with less “50 years old” chirping from good old Tony.

For myself I am WAY behind where I wanted to be a few weeks ago but I am feeling OK. I wanted to have been to the Crossfit box at least a handful of times by now which I haven’t. I had hoped to be doing the gym conditioning with the kids which I haven’t either mostly because of my very sore shoulder which I have half a mind to go to the clinic to get referred for xrays or an ultrasound because it’s still hurting like hell from 2 weeks ago when I did dips at the gym with the kids.

Speaking of the kids, here are a few pics of the workouts they are typically doing at the moment. So for those of you following along at home (ex-gymnasts) keep up if you can!

Home Bootcamp

I am trying to get back into the multifunctional workouts so last night I inadvertently did half a bootcamp, only doing 1 round of each section instead of 2. It’s the same workout that I think the kids will do tonight. It took me 35 minutes and I was bagged at the end, just goes to show what horrible shape I am in at the moment.

x2
10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

x2
20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise

x2
20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge
10 pullups

x2
20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each

x2
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
20 side lunge
10 pullups

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
5 Worlds slowest burpee with clap

Mud Hero 2013

It was always my goal, right since I learned of my surgery in April to do the Mud Hero on August 24. I figured it would be a measure of my recovery and a test of my mettle.

I didn’t realize how much of a challenge actually deciding to go would be since I had thought that I would be almost fully recovered and ready for anything. That was hardly the case. The week before the race I was sore every day, my back was actually feeling very delicate up to the day of the race and even on the way there, I was still debating in my head whether to cheer my girls or suck it up and run. Since there is only really ever one answer to that dilemma I put on my big boy pants and headed for the start.

I was actually really surprised by how easy the course was this year solely due to the fact we knew what to expect. I remember last year not knowing how far or how hard to run and that lack of knowledge really sapped my energy. This year, knowing exactly where we were going and what to expect made it all the more easy. That’s not to say that I didn’t find it hard, it was terribly difficult given my lack of mobility for certain movements especially when it came to ducking under things, such as the first mud pool under the logs. There was not much running done by any of us, my loyal and wonderful athletes and co-workers stayed with me, and despite obviously being able to do much more than I kept up with the encouragement and added so much to the enjoyment of the day.

The course was very similar to last year, however they had bolted the car boot and bonnets closed so no surprises there and the water slide which almost made a lady out of one of our male competitors last year instead of letting out into a small forest went straight into a deep mud pool. They had added another mud pool with tubes up which you had to climb which was a little challenging given my girth but I am proud to say that I did not skip any of the obstacles and only finished about 15 minutes behind last year’s time.

It was an amazing feat for me, I am so happy I decided to run, I am certain I would have regretted not going if I had stayed off the course. I must also say a huge thank you to my wonderful wife who, instead of running the course, took the time to hang out with our daughter to watch her daddy make a mess of himself.

All in all, a huge success, and I guess the next few days will tell just how close to a full recovery I am but for now I can say that I made my pre surgery goal of competing in the Mud Hero only 4 months after back surgery… and I am old too!!

BSRD48 – A Matter Of Perspective

It’s time to start summer conditioning at the gym. The difference between summer and season conditioning is that summer conditioning may or may not be related in any way to gymnastics. It’s more a general functional conditioning system to help the kids get in overall better shape in order to handle the rigours of training more easily. I have a feeling that I may be getting the new influx of kids sooner rather than later and the average age of my group is about to take a massive nosedive. That said, I will have a new group of kids who are not used to the kind of conditioning my groups do and summer training will give them a chance to acclimatise to the system before we start hammering them with required skills and gymnastics specific drill sets. That said, my current kids still have at least a couple of weeks and maybe even the rest of the summer. So tonight, it’s the second day of my summer WOD system. On Tuesday we did a kind of Chelsea version with the following:

5 Burpees
10 Vsnaps
15 Squats

5 clean (50lb)
10 pushups
15 Squats

Today is a little different, we are going to do our version of Fight Gone Bad, in other words 5 minutes work with 2 minutes rest x3. It looks like this with one version for an athlete with a bad shoulder and the other for the rest of us.

Regular:
22lb push press
26lb Sumo Deadlift High Pull
box jumps
30lb ball clean x10 with 25m run
wallball

Modified:
Vsnaps
20lb weighted squats
Box jumps
wall handstands with jump
stand roll back to shoulder stand to stand

BSRD4 – The Work Begins

Today was a tough day.

Physically I am paying the price for deciding to quit the percocet before it gets it’s grip too tightly on me. I’m sweating for no reason, I am nervous, anxious and feeling really on edge. As the day wore on, it got better, but I was a real basket case this morning. It was a rainy day here so I was resigned to trying to walk on the treadmill which was unimpressive. Unfortunately it’s just not up to the task of running with me on it at such low speeds. It was jerking around like crazy and the walk was therefore a total bust as far as being emotionally uplifting. I did try out the bench just to see what the position was like and for future reference if it was even possible to keep the weight off my back as I lifted. The test went well, if I brace my legs just a little I can carry all the bench weight across my shoulders and my back is almost completely protected. I didn’t go too far with it, just a kind of see what happens session and it did lift my spirits a little.

The big news of the day is that Lightning is home again, his numbers (creatinine) went from 1000 down to 355 which is basically a manageable number. We do have to give him subcutaneous fluids which will no doubt be an adventure but for the time being it looks like he has dodged a bullet. Hopefully this will give us another couple of years at least with him regardless of his bum leg and his obesity.

By the evening, I felt so much better that I decided to go to the gym to see the girls and have them explain in their own words what happened at competition. All I can say is that is went badly. Very very badly. A hard to swallow end to a very challenging day.

Bootcamp Wednesday – Long One!

20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise

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

20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise

10 Knees at wall assisted squats (Sissy Squats)
20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge

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

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

20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge
10 assisted squats half distanceÂ (Sissy Squats)

10 pullups
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
10 front kick back kick each side

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

10 pullups
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
10 assisted squats full distanceÂ (Sissy Squats)

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
5 Worlds slowest burpee with clap

Still booting

With March Break and so on we had a disruption in service, however all is back to normal now and I am going to commit to keep more up to date. The problem with not keeping up is not only do I lose the record of what I have done and what I need to do but I get a bit aimless in my workouts away from bootcamp and start to slack off.

Last week we did a bodyweight class with bosu that looked like the list below. After that I alternated with Olympic lifts (deadlift and clean) and a bench day, also a MMA day where I hung the bag in the garage away from everything breakable and did about 40 minutes of kicking and punching along with a little kettlebell swinging. However it all feels a little haphazard and unfocused. So I am going to try and put together a couple of weeks plan here and stick to it. I have to say I have been keeping up with the 5-6 days a week which I am happy with but I have also not been keeping good enough tabs on my dairy intake which I think is keeping me a little bloated.

Anyway, here is last week, I will post tonight tomorrow if that makes sense!

Balance Of Death

x2 in a row 1 off bosu 1 on bosu
10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

Sit on bosu

20 in and out
20 crucnhy frog
20 knees to elbow alternate
20 in and out abs hands on upside down bosu
20 side crunch per side

x2 1 on BOSU 1 on SB
10 SB pushup boing
10 SB Burpee lift ball
10 SB Plank to sphinx
10 per SB elbow plank side raise

Feet on SB

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

20 Crunchy Frog
20 vsnap
20 laying triple bicycles
20 full situps

Arms on SB 20 360’s
Arms on SB plank to sphinx
10x feet on SB walk out and back
20x feet on ball face down roll ball in to chest
20x laying hamstring pull

20 laying leg lifts
10 per rainbow leg lifts
10 per scissor hold on count
25 per side to side scissor rapid

BONUS ROUND!!

Burpee ladder – 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
on the minute every minute (10 min burpees)
rest in plank position.

Just to be clear

I wanted to post a little something about my recent foray back into what most would consider weight training. That is to say good old fashioned bench press! I really just wanted to make sure I had documented the type and the volume of workouts that I have been doing. Let’s take this week for an example. On Monday I had a short bootcamp which was mainly just abs since I had decided I would use march break as a rest week of sorts. However on Tuesday I decided to go with bench press and close grip bench. Bench was first and since it’s been a LOOOONG time since I did any benching I was only able to get up to 265lbs but I started at 95 which was, well, rather embarrassing actually. I did the following:

4×10 95
3×10 115
2×10 135
2×10 165
2×10 185
2×10 225
2×5 265

I calculated the total out to be a shade under 20,000lbs which is a little light compared to the 30K I used to do for major bodyparts. Since I was pretty happy with myself and I knew I realized that I needed some bicep work I figured I would do some straight bar curls the next day to get a solid workout done. I made out the same calculations and got to a total of around 10Klbs which isn’t bad however I only managed to get up to 115lbs. Not too impressive. I guess I am a little restless because I haven’t been planning or recording like I used to. The Olympic lifting is great but I find I am often sore across the low back and have to make up a workout to keep it safe. Whatever it is, I have found myself back on the bench and enjoying it, I still feel that no matter how fit I am, there is nothing like feeling that raw beast strength.

On The Rebound?

It’s no coincidence that my ongoing struggle with this mysterious 8lbs I have gained is going hand in hand with myÂ inabilityÂ to keep up to date here. My focus is on work and family rather than on my fitness at this point and I need to redress the balance.

Last week was a strange one, I was on training all week and so after bootcamp monday I did a workout on tuesday but I can’t remember what it was. I think it was probably Tapout XT and tehn another bootcamp on Wednesday. Thursday was olympic lifting, Friday I was off and Saturday I think was a P90X2 workout. Sunday my wife and I went to the new gym up the street for a laugh and I did some push press work and some chinups. It’s now Monday and we are back to bootcamp which should look something like this:

Decending ascending

15 Curls
10 Curl and press
5 Burpee curl and press

15 high pull
10 high pull front raise
5 high pull front raise side raise

15 crunch
10 crunch vsnap
5 crunch vsnap bicycle

15 flat leg lift
10 leg lift vsnap
5 leg lift vsnap full situp

15 squat
10 squat mk
5 squat mk front lunge

15 curls
15 high pull
15 crunch
15 vsnap
15 squat

5 burpee curl
5 burpee curl and press
10 military
10 military row
15 pushup
15 pushup in and out

isolation
10 knee curls
10 laying tri cross extension
10 laying pullovers
10 laying fly