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.

R9D30 – Phase 2 – I Messed Up Already (but at least I’m not curling detergent)

So I was supposed to do Chest + Back + Balance & X2 Ab Ripper this weekend as a start to Phase 2 but somehow I got confused and did X2 Shoulders + Arms & X2 Ab Ripper instead. I am not sure where the confusion came from but it is what it is, I need to do a Plyocide workout then do CBB and I will be back on track. It’s bootcamp tonight and probably rest day tomorrow, Wed is bootcamp again and then hopefully Ply on Thursday.

But I’ve been thinking.

I’m not as tired as I should be, I am getting an unsettling feeling that I need to do an extra day per week working out so I think I will do plyo tomorrow between the bootcamps. For a few weeks not I have been taking Tuesdays off but I think it’s about time I picked up that day and did something with it since I tend to take Friday or a weekend day off too (which is inexplicable!). Whatever it is I am consistently having the feeling that I am not pushing hard enough regardless of the fact my back has been sore for a week now. But maybe that’s why… The fewer workouts are working against me.

I’m working my way through Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade, it seems like an interesting read about old school calisthenics and bodyweight conditioning. I will report more once I have read more. It’s in line with my current philosophy that you should be able to train yourself without weights and without a gym using only your imagination and your body weight. Even such extreme things as one arm handstands or handstand pushups should be in the realm of the ordinary athlete if they are training appropriately, but how many people do you know who can do a handstand at all never mind a handstand pushup…

I see so many ridiculous “home workout” clips on line with people using soup cans and detergent bottles as a substitute for the gym weights, it’s just an incorrect interpretation of a flawed approach. I guess teaching proper pushup technique, pullups and squats isn’t sexy enough to make the papers. All those other videos just serve to make the “trainer” look like a fool. Seriously, bodyweight training is a proven, ages old method of developing the human body to perform as it was designed, and I can’t say I can imagine any caveman picking up a couple of rocks to do bent over tricep kickbacks. The whole fitness industry is as flawed as the diet industry, people are lost and confused and I think it’s time to exit the ride and get back to solid ground. Much like we did in the 80’s after the aerobics craze died out and people started going back to weight bearing exercise I think it’s time to get serious again and revisit our past. It’s in line with the nutritional approach of the paleo lifestyle, simplify and get better, faster and more useful results.

 

 

R9D29 – Work Out At Work

Today our cafeteria at THE HOSPITAL decided they would offer potato chips (freshly fried) as the “vegetable” with their entree. Sometimes I just have to shake my head. It’s almost as bad as Planet Fitness offering their members pizza, bagels and tootsie rolls. At the far end of the spectrum I decided I would go to our small but adequate workout space and do my RKC workout for the day. It was short and tough but it kept me awake for the afternoon meetings!

10 minutes of standing spin bike, squats, pumps and halos with the 45lb.

3+3 clean and press with 20 swings
3+3+4 clean and press with 20 swings
3+3+4+5 clean and press with 20 swings
3+3+4 clean and press with 20 swings
3+3 clean and press with 20 swings

5×5 high pull rows

5×5 snatch

Add a short cool down and I was in and out in under 40 minutes. The only downside was that I had to opt for 2 bananas and some of my personal raw nuts and seeds mix for lunch. But hey, it’s better than potato chips!

R9D28 – Bootcamp 2.5.2 – Bodyweight

Bootcamp was a fun time last night, another piece of hard work but some stuff we haven’t done in a while specifically some hip raises forhamstrings which left my hammies screaming. The big news though was one of my girls sprained her ankle on bars, luckily it should be fine but there were tears that’s for sure. Fortunately we are far enough from competition that I think it will be a non issue.

Here 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 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

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

 

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

R9D26 – Balance And Power, Phase 2 And Standing Desk Update

I’m going to start at the end first.

It’s not pretty, but click on the graphic to the left to see some interesting stats.

It’s been almost 7 months that I have been standing at my desk at work. There are a couple of things I have noticed that are a bit of a surprise to me.  First I think I am getting more work done. I don’t know if it is because I feel more alert and mentally active due to being physically active but whatever it is my productivity seems to be up. I have noted before that it’s “easier” to wander off and do things and that is no joke. Whenever I am home watching the TV or forced to sit during meetings I develop an aversion to getting up. It’s like the chair gets hold of me and drains my will to live. At least when I am standing at work it feels like I am ready to go do something, whatever it may be and that has had an effect on my mental outlook. I find myself more helpful, more willing to go out and assist with things, possibly because I don’t feel like I am glued to my desk but rather hovering near my desk in preparation for something to do. My posture, including my back ache is much improved and for someone with my history of back problems that is reason enough to maintain my standing. My leg ache was gone after a few days, I don’t have any issue doing my workouts in conjunction with standing and even though I thought my traps and shoulders would be a big problem, that issue never developed. I find that I do unconscious active stretching throughout the day and that helps to keep things moving. It’s been a major change to my work habits, but I think it has been a positive one. 2 weeks ago I had to spend 2 full days in a Kaizen event for work and sitting all day made me irritable and twitchy, I stood up whenever I could but it made me miserable to be in a chair all day. By the end of the second day I knew I had made the right decision to remain on my feet. You should try it, it’s not as tough as you may think. People may think it’s weird, but that’s OK, working out every day is weird to some people too. I am not the only one either, there are plenty of people here, here and here that are enjoying the benefits and some ingenious ways of building the desk here and here too.

(Who uses standing desks?) More people than I’d realized, especially techies! Former Twitter developer and founder of BankSimple Alex Payne. Creator of Instapaper Marco Arment. Podcaster extraordinaire Dan Benjamin. Novelist Philip Roth. Former U.S. Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld. Lifehacker editor Jason Fitzpatrick. Now, newly, my fellow San Diego techie Mitch Wagner. Who else?

Balance and Power is a workout that I have come to enjoy. I am a fan of balance work and I think this particular session does a great job of balancing the strength aspects with the coordination work to give a good all around workout. It’s not developing strength, but it’s developing the supporting mechanical systems to promote strength. I really enjoy it, it’s too bad it’s over for a while.

Phase 2 will start this week. I have bootcamp to lead Monday and Wednesday and I may try to kick off Chest+Back+Balance on Tuesday since my bootcamps this week are bodyweight then cardio. I am ready for phase 2, the building phase was good but I am eager to add some more challenging weight work to my schedule and kick it into high gear. I am a little frustrated with using my indoor chin up bar but there’s not much I can do. It will be above zero all week this week , so I may actually go out onto the deck whenever pullups are on the cards. I am fortunate that this winter has been mild so far and I really should have taken advantage of it more by getting out there. I did bring my gym rings indoors too and I should find a place to hang them. Lots to do!

 

R9D25 – My Yoga (Rediscovered Beginnings)

I made 2 startling discoveries over the last day or so. First, doing Yoga last night I realized that I was able to go from plank to runners pose without my leg getting stuck under my protruding belly. Since I had previously blamed the lack of ability to transition on my legs, I now look back in amusement at my state of denial:

Due to the overwhelming volume of my thighs (thanks to 18 years of rugby for that) I may never be able to go directly from plank to runners pose. My leg just won’t fit under my body and until I make it down to the 200lb mark I don’t think it ever will.

Turns out I only needed to get to 230lbs for that part to get sorted out. I am not saying my leg makes it all the way to my hands but it’s far enough that I can stand up from the position.

In that discovery I also realized that even though I had claimed in 2009:

I know Tony, and by ‘know’ I mean we spent some time together last year in my basement while I took on the original P90 program.

I hate Tony.

It was in fact back in 2005 when Nicole and I first got into P90. She had bought a copy of Yoga Booty Ballet and I had reluctantly agreed to give P90 a shot after seeing the infomercial on late night TV. In my joy I think I am going to create a page of my entries outlining my original P90 progress. I fear it was not long in it’s duration, we will have to see.

Back to Yoga for a second. I did the workout last night in the true spirit of yoga. It was 9pm, I went down to the basement where it is quiet, I turned off most of the lights leaving just one casting a weak glow across the room and capitulated to Tony’s direction. It was a little surreal, but extremely relaxing and I even found that my flexibility seemed to be improving. Maybe it was the murkiness of my surroundings but the workout took on a completely new feel for which I was extremely grateful. I finished feeling relaxed, refreshed and full of achievement!

 

R9D24 – Bootcamp 2.4.2 – Taking It Up A Notch

It was weights day at bootcamp and I thought it was about time I introduced the gang to the barbell and some olympic style lifts. Maybe I was being a little too ambitious but I figure if Crossfit gyms all over the nation can teach this stuff to people who are ill prepared and occasionally ill equipped physically then I should be able to get my (already fit) bootcamp peeps to do it. I also wanted to get some kettlebell style swinging with dumbbells (since we don’t have actual kettlebells) into the workout schedule since it’s a great full body workout as I regularly say.

The workout looked something like this:

x10x2
Double Curls
Double Press
Dips
Squat high pull
chin ups

x10x2
Alt curls
alt press
dips
swings
chin ups

x10x2
db high pull
db clean
db clean and press
pullups

x10x2
bb deadlift
bb clean
bb clean and press
pullups

x10x2
Laying chest fly and press
Laying chest pullover 2 way
Shoulder fly side to front
Shoulder fly front to row
pullups

Each section could be performed with barbell or dumbbell but it was the teaching of the simple clean that had most people stumbling. I guess there are 2 factors here, one that pulling  a weight viciously towards your chin is perturbing for some and second that being a woman probably makes the move a little more difficult to master given the “obstacles”. They seemed to pick up the dumbbell swings OK however my comfort level with that particular move using dbs is not high. I would far prefer to get a set of 5 25lb kbs and do it that way, but I am not sure if the gym is willing to pick up the tab for that quite yet!

Since it is winter here and the temperature in my garage has been below freezing for some time now my olympic lifting has taken a far away back seat so after class I took a few minutes for myself and threw some 45’s on the bar and did the following:

10 Deadlift
10 Power Clean
10 Strict Press
10 Power Clean and Press

It has been a while since I did these movements together so I was a little wobbly, also I don’t usually do that much weight, since I typically do more reps but I was happy to crank out what I did especially given it was after a bootcamp class and I was nursing an already sore shoulder. Sad as it may sound for someone of my size but those were all PRs for those lifts since I started making notes on it over a year ago. I am fine with the notion that I may never deadlift 500lbs, my head is no longer 100% in that space and although it is hard to let go of the demon inside I think I have a much stronger muzzle on him now. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the gym.

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.

R9D21/2 – X2 Core And Plyocide

I have to admit to feeling lazy this past week. I feel like I have eaten too many nuts and it’s making me lethargic. If I was still addicted to the scale I am sure that I would find a couple of pounds extra. However, in the spirit of the New Year I am going to try and limit my exposure to the scale to once a month. There are always times that you will find yourself straying off track a little, the problems arise when you get off track in more than one area and don’t recognize the issues. Once you get one wheel off the road you are in a precarious position, a little correction and you are back on track, a slight distraction and you are in the ditch. For me personally it doesn’t take much, for example this week I worked out 5 of 7 days but one of those days was an easy day (Mobility) and so I feel like I didn’t get the work I needed. Maybe it’s getting used to the P90X2 workouts too, rather than the crazy kettlebell and Olympic Lifting I am used to. Whatever it is, I am tackling this feeling of lethargy by not taking tuesday off. Last week and the week before I took it off because it is the day between bootcamps and I thought I would burn myself out. However I am finding that I am underworked so in the spirit of listening to my body I will squeeze another workout in tomorrow. As it happens, the schedule calls for yoga which is kind of a good fit for me.

Speaking of the schedule, I am going to finish up this week and move on to phase 2 which looks like this:

Phase 2 – Strength:

1. Chest + Back + Balance & X2 Ab Ripper
2. Plyocide
3. Rest or X2 Recovery + Mobility
4. X2 Shoulders + Arms & X2 Ab Ripper
5. X2 Yoga
6. Base + Back & X2 Ab Ripper
7. Rest or X2 Recovery + Mobility

It’s much the same but there are more specific strength components than there are in the Core of Total Body workouts. I am really looking forward to this because the workouts that I love the most from P90X are the bodypart specific workouts. I am also going to post reviews of PAP upper and PAP lower to complete the collection.

On the injury front I strained my rotator cuff last week spotting the girls at gym and it’s been insanely painful. It’s a little better now but it meant no pressing during the workouts this week. I am sure that compounded my feeling of lethargy and in return for laying and trying to rest my shoulder I made my back sore (maybe from overstretching..). Quite some time ago I had a very sore toe, and in fact it wasn’t just the toe, it was my whole front of my left foot was sore to flex or contract. I panicked and thought I may have gout so I treated it with strawberries. I am not sure exactly what it was but I am thinking that I may have bruised the ball of my foot doing something during the summer in my VFF’s. Whatever it was, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that it is gone which is a relief. Other than that I am pretty healthy at the moment other than the viral thing that we all got during Christmas. I have been feeling good after my workouts but I still know that I could use to get an extra hour or two of sleep each night. I just can’t seem to get myself to bed on time. I think that is my final frontier, if I can conquer my bad sleep habits, I think I may have this wellness thing licked.