I had a busy day, not only was work a bear with a bizarre domain expiry causing havoc for our domain name but also I was asked to sub for 2 people meaning after a long day at work I rushed home, got changed in the foyer of the house and rushed to the gym with seconds to spare. I then coached until 9pm and although I got a lot accomplished (my kids did really well) I was completely exhausted when I got home. As I lay in bed trying to get to sleep I realized I was having a hard time because of how sore I was. I am not sure if it was just because I was relaxed and pain seems more severe at that point or if I was actually incredibly sore. I thought for a while about it after I got up today and realized that I need to pay more attention to this. I think it may be a function of not getting enough sleep, even though I now sleep in 2 days a week getting an extra 2 hours kip. Not only that, but pushing towards 240lbs has meant I am slightly down on calories and being a former fat guy, I never really noticed before how not having quite enough calories can affect your performance and well being. Anyway, I am sounding like a broken record so let’s review what the kids did last time out. Last night I introduced them to the Skills Ladder, it is a spreadsheet of common gymnastics skills that they should have and it occurred to me that I should have the same thing for myself, give me something to aim for, not only in number but also in the development of new skills.
I also think what I am discovering is something that a few great teachers have discovered, that variety in not only movement but intensity is important. I think my body does it naturally, only because I have been training hard for so many years I am used to what it tells me but I think that I need to make a bigger effort to recognize that each week or two cycle needs heavy and light days just as I used to have during my gym rat days. There is no reason why I shouldn’t take this Crossfit inspired / RKC mashup any less seriously and maybe it is time I actively worked in not only rest days but also light and heavy days. The RKC kind of makes me do this with 5 minutes of TGU being the only work of the day, but I have been bastardizing it with extra work in order to satisfy my own feeling of accomplishment. More work to do… it never ends.
I also put together a version of Filthy Fifty for them, in name only, it really bears no resemblance to the famed Crossfit workout. However, it does consist of a nothing-short-of-epic 655 movements. I am not talking about crunches here either, it’s a mix of everything from chin ups to pancake burpees to inversions on the rings. By the way, Pancake Burpees are simply burpees where instead of a leg extension to front support at the bottom, the athlete is required to lay flat on the ground (not to be confused with the push up burpee or the hands off burpee where the hands are lifted off the ground while laying or the clapping pushup burpee). I also want to state for the record that I do not give the kids anything that I haven’t tried in full for myself. I may be slower at getting up, and I may need db’s to allow me to burpee properly but I test all these routines myself. The kids, in an amazing turn of events are getting fitter, more capable and more enthusiastic. Now if I could only get the lazy ones to show up more than once a month…
I found this