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.