pull ups – Something Beats Nothing Every Time

R5D20 – 5×5 Weighted WOD

mv30_su2_2 On the way back from work today I bought myself a 50lb MIR weighted vest. Since I lost the last 40lbs I have wanted to reward myself with something, since I was supposed to do so when I reached 250lbs. It makes sense that I should get a weighted vest since I am now doing less when I do pull ups since I weigh less. So I researched a little online and it seems that MIR has the best vests and FitnessSource in Richmond Hill had one in stock. Let me just say that if I ever meet Mr Mir I am going to run him over with my car for inventing something so blatantly evil.

I set out to do back day, something with 135lb deadlifts and pull ups. I decided that a quick 5 deadlift, 5 pull up combo would be just the ticket. I wanted to be done in under 30 minutes so I put a time cap of 15 minutes on the 5×5 sets. I then put on the vest and got to work. I had taken 30lbs out of the vest so that I was wearing 20lbs to start with, a good idea since after the first set of pull ups I was astounded at how Â hard they were. Regardless of that, when I picked up the box that the vest came in I couldn’t believe that it was the same as the weight I have lost, I momentarily had my mind blown!

I blew through the first 5 sets in 5 minutes before I hit difficulties. It took me another 8 minutes to do the last 5 and since I knew I wasn’t going to make another, I stopped at an even 10 rounds. I was pretty gassed but happy at the number however it wasn’t until I took off the vest that I realized just how heavy 20lbs is. Even though this was the first workout I have done, I am already very happy with the purchase. I don’t think I will ever be running in the thing but for doing bodyweight workouts which is my focus right now, it is amazing. I can’t wait to do some squats, pushups and box jumps in it and even try to get through an insanity workout with it on! So

R4 D71 – Nice Turkish Get Up

I was planning to take today off, since the last 2 days of kettlebell exploration have left me sore in some curious places. I thought it would be a good idea to try the Turkish Get Up skill that so many peopleÂ exaltÂ as a wonderful full body exercise. I had toyed with the idea once before but shyed away from it due to the fact that I believed it would be an exercise in futility. After all, if I have trouble getting up after a burpee, why would this be any easier. Well, I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. The skill, although difficult given my large frame and small flexibility was eminently possible. In fact, I shocked and delighted

(you knew that was coming) myself byÂ beingÂ able to do both sides the first time I tried. It really is not that hard of a skill however, the work required to complete the skill is mind blowing.Â I had started out thinking that I was just going to see if I could do it and try to perfect my form however I ended up doing 3 sets of declining numbers:
2 sets of 3
2 sets of 2
2 sets of 1

This was done on each side giving a total rep count of 24 reps. Before I am accused of lying by omission I did not use my new 45lb KB for this, that would have been impossible and reckless, instead I used a 25lb DB from the basement and did the skill on the hardwood floor in front of the computer watching the demo. That is not something I would recommend, by the way. By the time I was finished, my body was well worked, I could tell that the core requirements for this skill are intense and that curiously the hardest part for me was not getting to my knees but standing from the kneeling position. I guess doing lunges with a weight overhead is not something I have done before. Also, I suppose if I had done overhead squats before now I would have had less of a challenge balancing a weight overhead as I try to move about. I added 5 sets of 5 pull ups just for fun since it feels like forever since I did pull ups and they felt great! The workout in all took about 25 minutes with rest and almost falling down. Long enough to cook sausages… 5 minutes Turkish, 5 minutes. By the way this short clip contains several of my favourite quotes from Snatch, most notably “Protection from what? Ze Germans?” but it is probably nsfw…

R4 D45 100 Pullups

Supposed to be back and biceps but I am not a fan of the chin up bar in the basement so I decided that I would just hit the bar in the garage and see how I do at 100 pullups. I didn’t realize that there is a WOD (Angie) that calls for 100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats and now I know that I feel even worse about hardly making it through the 100 pull ups. Could I have finished Angie? Not the way I felt after 16.5 minutes of pull up misery. Even though the pull ups would be by far the worst part of the workout, still, I was pretty beat up after my first attempt. It seems ridiculous when you think that for Cindy and Chelsea both contain 100 pull ups along with other things and I didn’t have a huge problem with them. Anyway, it didn’t help that it was only about 4 degrees in the garage and it was also Friday, my worst performing day of any week. Tony Horton calls himself pull up boy, myself, I think of myself as push up boy and since pull ups have always been a problem for me (in fact, I never did pull ups until 2 years ago, I just couldn’t) I probably shouldn’t be so hard on myself.