Humble pie anyone?????

So today's workout was very last minute and unexpected due to the arrival of my good friend and fellow trainer, Evan Johnson. I had my day all planned out to focus primarily on back but as of 9 pm last night, that wasn't going to be the case. Seeing how Evan is a tri-athlete, he preferred to hit things from a more total body approach which would also challenge all energy systems. NOT FUN! With that said, I told him about Blair Morrison's last WOD: Trans-Continental Workout #4. We obviously had to scale back on the weight used, but that didn't help much as I was still dying! If you're not familiar with Blair and his workouts, perhaps you should take some time to look him up. Here's the workout he did yesterday:

With 1 minute rest between all sets, do the following for as many repetitions as possible:

1 minute of deadlifts

1 minute of thrusters

1 minute strict pullup

1 minute pushup

Repeat for 2 more rounds!!

This workout was down right brutal for someone who is new to this particular style of training. I love the challenge but hate having to trace my steps, picking up pieces of my pride all over the gym floor. Round 1 wasn't too bad, 2 I was feeling it, and the start of 3 I wanted to quit! Like Blair, the thrusters and pull ups were so F-ing hard, especially the pull ups. 1 minute of strict pull ups seemed impossible especially entering rounds 2 and 3. Evan seemed to get through it a little better than I did and mad props to him. He does have a better threshold for this type of training than I do, but this is what this blog is all about! Seek, find, and then exploit the weaknesses in my body and then target them. Now we didn't take down repetitions, but again, this was very last minute, in terms of programming, so we just went with it. I'm just happy I finished. We did do another similar workout after completing Blair's WOD. It went as follows:

1 minute of chest flyes

1 minute of med ball woodchops (30 seconds a side)

1 minute step ups (30 seconds a side)

1 minute of reverse pec decs

This wouldn't have been so bad on it's own, in fact it would have been relatively easy, given the single joints movements but doing anything after what we had just gone through was the cherry on top. After the hour was up, I trained two clients and then did 30 more minutes of straight back work. I went with 2 supersets: dumbbell bent over rows with chin ups and then seated rows with lat pulldowns. I finished off with 1 RM deadlifts. Probably not a good barometer of strength at this point but I just had to see what I had left in me. I pulled 345 for 1 and that was a wrap. Unfortunately, I have no video to document this crazy day of training. Good thing, I wouldn't want anyone to see me doubled over in pain. Embarrassing, but I will get better!! Thanks to Evan for training with me and thanks to Blair for the WOD idea. I had enough pie.............for now. Thanks!

Presses, presses, and more presses!

Shoulders were on the menu today. My arms, especially my triceps, yes the ones that I didn't feel like I hit that hard on Tuesday, are sore as s#@&!! I did push presses followed immediately by HSPUs for 3 rounds. I worked off of two 25 lb plates for elevation but realized I was a little too narrow in my hand position. I'll have to pay more attention to detail next time. I did presses after with 65 and 70 lb dumbbells. Rested and then hit up some lateral drop sets and then cable "X's" to polish 'em off. Abs followed right after. Good workout, but I think my body needs a bit more intensity. Time to crank it up a notch!

Workout #2 for the day!

Ok, so I was bored and tired of sitting on my ass so I hit the gym for round 2. I didn't have much time but something is ALWAYS better than nothing. Here's the workout:

C2-1000M row 3:52
Mile run 7:49
C2-500M row 1:54

Day 3--Grass Roots

So this is day 3 of my back to grass roots training. So far I've hit up chest, abs, arms, and legs and my workouts have been much more intense. I've been pretty sore from the first two days and I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling the heavy leg workout done today. I started with squats finishing at 315 for 1. My next exercise was on the Free Motion Squat and I did 3 sets of 6 lunges at 200 lbs. My glutes were on fire after 3 sets here. I then switched gears and performed my RDL's. I finished at 275 for 3 reps. Immediately after the RDL's, I finished with seated leg curls. I felt like I definitely had more on the squats and the RDL's. More so on the RDL's. I think my new found energy is coming from the extra sleep I've been able to get with all my clients being out of town. Whatever it is, I like it! I only have video on the squats and RDL's.

"I feel like I've got small children in my arms!"

My old friend, Rath, always used to say use that expression whenever he did arms and that's exactly how I felt today. It was a nice change in routine but I felt like there was so much blood in my arms that I had a hard time getting full extension on my tricep movements. I guess time will tell how hard they were hit come tomorrow. I didn't take footage of this workout because it would have taken forever trying to set up the camera every time I moved between exercises as I did supersets. I started with 2 arm overhead extensions and alternating dumbbell curls. My last set of overhead extensions ended with 90 x 8 and 45 lb for the alternating dumbbell curls, dropsetting on the last set. My next two movements were seated tricep extensions and flathead curls on the Free Motion line. I worked with 120 lbs on both exercises for 8-10 reps. The last two movements were tricep pushdowns on the Free Motion Dual Stack and dumbbell hammer curls. I used light weight here and went to failure here for 3 sets. The workout lasted only 45 minutes, short, sweet, and intense!

Finally

After 2 days of doing NOTHING but eat, I got myself back in the gym. I've decided to change things up a bit and go back to grass routes for a bit to re-focus. The workout called for chest and abs today. I'm still trying to get that 360 mark in 6 weeks but after today's workout, that might be a little ambitious, haha. Perhaps it's all the crap I have been putting in my body that made me feel pretty weak today. We'll see in the next couple days how my body feels now that all the festivities are over. No excuses though, we are all accountable for our own actions and the decisions we make. I'm back on though, so things should start to pick up. I topped out, again, at 315. I didn't have a spotter to attempt more but I'm not sure I had any more to give. Things are moving much slower than I anticipated. I guess things can only get better if I'm feeling like it's that bad.

Happy Holidays to all!

So with so much commotion going on on Christmas, I didn't get that workout in like I had planned. I'm pretty pissed about that but it's tough when you have to split time between two families. There's always tomorrow and I will finally get that chest and tri workout in. In any event, I'm looking forward to the start of the new year. Too much holiday food and odd schedule leads to nothing good. Time to refocus and get the diet and workout back on track. I trust everyone is enjoying their holiday. Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve Workout

It's Christmas Eve and no that doesn't mean we get the day off from training! There's always time to get in a workout and if I'm not doing it, someone else is. I decided to give myself another day off from hitting chest due to soreness but knew I had to get something in so I did back squats and RDLs! Back squats went as follows: 135x15, 185x10, 225x2, 245x1, 275x1, 295x1, and 245x2. I almost crashed on the 295. That felt really heavy for some reason. I must admit that I didn't properly warm up, which I should have given how cold it was in the garage. I followed up with RDLs (romanian deadlifts): 185x4, 205x4, 225x3, 245x2, 255x1, and 275x1. I felt really strong here, much stronger than I did on the squats. Looking back, I should have done two more sets because I probably could have gotten up to 3 hundo. Oh well, next time. Tomorrow is Christmas and I don't plan on taking a day off, but we'll see. Tomorrow could mark a long run in the morning before all the festivities. One way or another, something will get done!

And 1............

I got some cardio in today due to being a little too sore to hit up chest and tris from yesterday's back, bis, and abs workout. My serratus anterior was extremely sore so I decided to give myself a day of rest before I hit up some heavy chest work. If foe some reason, I'm still sore tomorrow, I'll hit up some squats. In any event, I ran 3 games of 2 on 2 hoops to do something active. Good games guarding Chris, who had some handles, so it was good work checking him all game. I look forward to hitting up chest tomorrow. I gotta build the foundation up towards my 1RM goal of 360.

Post blizzard and cabin fever........

After being stuck inside for what seemed like an eternity, I was pumped to get into the gym. I tried to hit it hard on Tuesday despite waking up late, not getting in a normal breakfast, and feeling tired from going to watch the Deadskins get pummeled by the Little Giants. 25 year aged bourbon and half a cigar later made me feel like crap this morning and I felt the effects as I went through the 1 pm workout having only a yogurt and some Muscle Milk since 7 am to fuel me. I did supersets with kipping pull ups with Rocky's and bent over rows with floor wipers. I moved onto Free Motion plank and rows and hi pulley crossover rows with decline situps to finish up back. I started with alternating dumbbell curls to start biceps and did 3 way hanging leg raises. I ran the rack up to 40 lbs on the curls and my biceps were on fire. I'm not used to doing a lot of reps so the change up was a good shock to my muscles. My next exercise was standing barbell curls supersetting with side bends. To finish off the bis, I hit up some Free Motion flathead curls to smoke 'em out. I didn't have much left in me so the weight being used was pretty embarrassing.

Blizzard in DMV!!!

So it's Saturday December 19 and for the first time in a long time the weather forecast proved to be spot on! It's been snowing since last night and hasn't shown any signs of letting up anytime soon. Although this kind of weather pretty much keeps everyone indoors (except for the kids to play), I can't let it slow my progress down. I am going to shovel and get my cardio in despite the steady snowfall and the 10 inches of snow that blankets the ground. I started off with a slow jog to warm up. Then the workout consisted of a 160 meter run/jog followed by 10 thru 6 burpees and sit ups for 5 rounds. I didn't expect this to be that hard but it was BRUTAL! I'm not sure if it was how many layers of clothing, the cold air or something else that made this workout so incredibly hard but whatever it was, I was dying! I had to stop and take breaks between rounds 2 and 4 just to be able to finish. I was really looking forward to shoveling the snow - seriously, I'm not being sarcastic. Not exactly the same thing as having a snowball fights or sledding but I guess I still "played" in the snow.

Adam Paik - Shoulders and Traps

So I'm finally caught up with all the vids. Today, Friday, I had to hit up shoulders and traps. I started with kip ups to HSPUs. These were pretty easy I must say, I'll have to go elevated so I can increase my ROM a bit. I moved onto superset explosive modified barbell shoulder presses with Hammer Strength shrugs. The barbell shoulder presses smoked out my front delts pretty fast, as you can tell, I slowed down considerably from the first set to the last. Dumbbell lateral raise rack runs and smith machine wide-grip upright rows were next on the agenda. I didn't video this or the next two exercises because it was just too hard without someone actually doing the recording. 3 sets on the rack runs and my shoulders were screaming but I forced myself to hit up some DB snatches and windshield wipers for abs. The last exercise I did was the "T" outs from side plank. I didn't have to use much weight to make this move effective. All it took was a measly 12.5 lb DB to finish me off. My shoulders were exhausted and my shoulders very rarely feel taxed like this so it was a very good feeling! I'm looking to be sore from this workout.

Pistols and plyos!!!

Thursday was leg day and I REALLY wasn't feeling heavy squats and deadlifts so I decided that pistols and plyos would suffice. I started with pistols from 8 down to 4. These were much easier than I anticipated but I knew what I had coming wasn't going to be fun. I followed up the pistols by warming up with 24 and 42 inch box jumps. I finished my box jumps at 48 inches with a one to two step drop in. Not thrilled about the one to two step drop in because I used to be able to to do a 48 inch box jump standing still and only needed a three step drop in for the 54 inch box jumps. It's true what they say, if you don't use it, you lose it. After the warm-up, the real workout began. I started with a pistol, to a 1 legged 24" box jump, jump down and do another pistol all on the same leg then switching off to the other leg. I moved up to 30" single leg box jumps and then finished with lateral 24" box jumps to finish. My legs were pretty fried but I hit up 4 sets of RDL's on the Free Motion Lift. Legs, FINISHED!

Building that anaerobic threshold!

Sorry for the delay guys, but this is Wednesday's workout. I'm basically alternating weight training and cardio every other day. So I hit up the 1000M (2-500M rounds) on the C2 followed by Tabata treadmill at 11 mph. I didn't think it was going to be that bad considering it was going to be less than 8 minutes worth of work but the workout definitely earned my respect. I struggled on C2 posting two 500M rounds of 1:44. That has to get better. It was my first time doing the Tabata treadmill and 11 mph proved to be plenty fast. The first couple rounds seemed easy but it got difficult in a hurry. I finished it nonetheless.

Push day

500m split--Paik and Bacs

Here is the whole clip of Bacs and I hitting it hard.

Christening Crossfit Doneright!

So Bacs, owner of Crossfit Doneright, invited me over for a quick workout on the C2. The C2 is not my first choice of cardio because it's straight up brutal! We were testing to find out what our 500M split times were. I went first and cranked out a time of 1:33, which was much faster than I thought I was capable of doing. Bacs went second and bested me by 2 seconds!!!! I'll work on it.

Short and sweet!

So I hit up back today. I didn't have much time but I tried to make it as effective as possible in the little amount of time I had to work with SO I kept rest to a minimum and banged it out. I wasn't able to hit the heavy weight, but it was challenging anaerobically nonetheless so it's not a total loss.

And it begins...............

Ever wonder what it means to be "Fit?" Well, I have and the answer rocked my world. I always considered myself to be "fit," but I soon realized that I'm not as "fit" as I would like to be nor would anyone who was actually "fit" would describe me to be. I found motivation from two sources, who I will not name at this time, but will give credit to once I get where I am trying to go. I have always prided myself for looking the part, through years and years of traditional weight training protocols, but now it's time. Time to, not only look and appear to be "fit," but to actually BE "fit!" I'm not going to throw out the protocols that have gotten me to where I am currently, but rather build a hybrid approach to achieve my goals. And so it begins.....