Becoming an Athlete

We did a really nice 3-movement circuit, repeated 3 times. I only went through the circuit twice, as my main workout is planned for 9/30. Circuit: a) 25lb medicine ball squat + overhead throw(AKA wallball ): 15 reps b) 20 lb dumbbell plank row: 10 reps c) 95 lb jump shrug: 10 reps After this we did heavy bag work, with emphasis on rotational movements, such as hooks, Thai round kick, and knee to liver 3 rounds: 2 min work, 5 minute rest* *Normally there wouldn't be so much rest, but we had 3 people working on one heavy bag.

Because I had lifted the day before, and because my girlfriend was tired, we did an HIT style workout. High Intensity Training (HIT) is all about brief, infrequent whole body workouts taken to complete muscular failure. Forced reps, drop sets, and partial reps are some of the intensivesness enhancing techniques used to make sure you take the set past the normal stopping point. I don't train this way exclusively, but its a nice change when you are feeling mentally ready but your body has less than full capacity. HIT advocates are usually about as "preachy" as CrossFit advocates. They are on the polar oposite ends of the training spectrum, but both are producing great results for their target audience. In any event, give HIT a look-see: http://www.drdarden.com/ Because my back is still less than 100% from the squat-induced injury, I'm still going light on deadlifts and squats. 1) Swiss ball crunch: 28 reps 2) Deadlift: 165 x 9 (weak lower back still) 3) Front squat:...

My buddy Chris asked if we could start lifting together. Today was focused on core strength and correcting some structural imbalances. We ended with a little body weight circuit for time. What I have Chris doing is: Core circuit x 2 1A) Weighted Crunch thing* 1B) Left Side Deadlift 1C) Weighted Crunch thing* 1D) Right Side deadlift Structural work 2) Snatch grip high pull from ground: 4 x 8 Endurance circuit for time 3A) Hindu Squats: 50 reps 3B) Pushups: 25 reps 3C) Inverted Row: 25 reps All I did were the last two portions Snatch grip deadlift to high pull: 135 x 8, 8, 8, 8 Endurance circuit for time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds. * Weighted crunch thing: This is a great abdominal exercise. Lay across a swiss ball with your hips near the top of the ball. Have a partner snatd on your feet so you don't roll back. With a dumbbell in each hand, hold your arms vertically. Perform a normal crunch, minimizing hip involvement and be sure to keep your arms vertical throughout the movement.

Another tough but do-able workout. 1) Side deadlift: 95 x 10 (on each side) 2) Front squat: 125 x 12, 10 (WEAK!!) 3) Bent Row: 115 x 15, 9 4) Dumbbell side raise: 10s x 15, 15 5) Bench press: 165 x 13; 155 x 10 6) Barbell curls: 75 x 10; 65 x 15 7) Barbell Complex: 1 set of 75 x 6 reps - Each "rep" is comprised of (Clean - 1 rep) (Push Press - 1rep) (Alternating Lunge - 1 each) (Straigh leg DL - 3 reps) (Pushup - 3 reps)

Sadly, I was goalie on Monday night's game. I just started playing indoor soccer, 5 on 5. This was my second time to ever play soccer. I didn't even know the full set of rules on what a goalie can and can't do. I must have blocked about 15 or 20 shots and let about 10 by. The cool thing about it is the reaction time it requires to actually block a shot. The down side was I didn't get to do nearly enough running.

At 8:30 AM, my team at work ran a volunteer event with Habitat for Humanity. I spent 3 hours tearing down sheet rock, scraping off roofing, loading and unloading wheel barrows of the stuff into dumpsters. Evening workout: Deadlift: 185 x 6,8 (back still less than 100% post-injury) Jump lunges: 10,12 Wide grip bent row to neck (AKA High Wide Bent Row): 75 x 15,15 Negative-only chin-ups: 30 seconds, 40 seconds Bench press: 155 x 15,15 Overhead press: 95 x 7 I was EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!

Dips: bodyweight x 10, 12 Bench press: 165 x 11, 13 Inverted row: 12, 12 (feet elevated on bench) Barbell pullover: 65 x 10,10 Side deadlift*: 115 x 10L, 10R, 5L, 5R Side deadlifts are simple but even harder than reagular deadlifts. Stand sideways next to a barbell, and grab it with one hand. Simply stand up and go back down as you would for regular deadlifts. The off center loading make it a great core workout, plus a good way to bring balance between your left and right legs. After that we went to the parking lot and pushed a car again. This time a Hyundai Accent. My total efforts were: 2 tries of 75 yard (slight uphill slant) 1 try of about 200 yards. This one killed me!

Sunday was incredible. We had great temperatures and low humidity, so I was eager to do as much as possible. Noon-ish workout: Front squats: 115 x 2 x 15 Overhead press: 105 x 2 x 15 Pullup: bodyweight x 2 x 6 Bent Row: 95 x 2 x 15 Swiss ball crunch: 20, 10 2:30 - 4:00: Hiking for 4-5 miles through some moderately difficult terrain. The hike was nice. We broke a good sweat and kept the pace very brisk. 11:20 PM: Indoor soccer HOLY COW!!!! This is like running 20 yard sprints non stop and in every conceivable direction for an hour. INCREDIBLE!! We had enough players for subs, but I still got a lot of time on the field.

3 rounds of jump rope (3 mins, 30 sec rest) Scaled version of Arlene's 9/11/08 WOD 4 "tabatas" -bicycles -pushups -round kicks 4 rounds sparring It was a solid workout.

100 pushups 100 bodyweight squats My 5 year old son did the squats with me. He rocks!!!!!!

My legs were shot from pushing the truck the day before, so I jogged a brief 2 miles. .....Slowly

Total reps for time: Dips: 44 Chin-ups: 44 Barrier Jumps: 44 We then took my truck to the high school parking lot and took turns pushing it around. It was late at night, and noone was there, and the lighting was good. It was an ideal spot. My truck is a Dodge Ram Megacab!!! It weighs 6529 lbs, according the Dodge's website! Three tries of this and my hamstrings and calves were GONE! Each effort was roughly 60-75 yards. I was impressed that my 5'2" girlfriend could move it at all!

So I started with afternoon sparring and conditioning. Later, the kids rode their bikes and I roller bladed with them to a park to play some soccer. I did some pullups and such on the playground while they played. Late that night, I did a workout that almost made me puke. In least amount of time possible: 1) Pushups - 100 2) Hindu Squats - 100 3) Inverted Row, feet elevated - 50 I was able to manage sets of 20 on pushups for the first 3 sets. After that it was whatever I could get; 12, 10, 4, whatever! I did it all and it felt like maybe 20 minutes. I had the shakes and wanted to puke for about 30 minutes afterwards.

Gosh its been a while since I did some hard core conditioning!!! My thighs were weak coming in from the train sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. My friend Andy is the "ring leader" of our sparring group. He was so eager to get to it that we skipped right over warm ups and just started banging! 6 rounds of sparring (3 mins on, 30 seconds rest) Then we did conditioning which was scaled down from AJ's 8/28 WOD: http://arlenescrosspit.blogspot.com/2008/08/wod-82808.html Workout: 40-20-20-10 reps. each of: box jumps sprawls dumbbell swing (30 lbs) I BARELY got two circuits of 20. 40 was just not happening today!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish , is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting. Fartlek training is generally associated with running, but can include almost any kind of exercise. I took my kids and their bikes, my girlfriend, and dog to the park. We started with sprints across the parking lot for the baseball park. My dog gets top honors for acceleration. My daughter on her mountain bike just edged him out in top speed, though. We then jogged / rode across a few dirt trails before we ran out of trail and headed back to the paved trail. every no...

02 SEP was my first real workout since hurting my back. My goal was to perform 50 reps each of dips, chin ups, and drop lunges for a measured amount of time. I couldn't find my stopwatch so instead I did this: Chin-ups: 40 reps Dips: 40 reps Drop lunges: 60 reps Jog: 2 miles. I like this workout and will do it a few more time over the next 2-3 weeks. I can tell my endurance has dropped significantly, and this will get it back up.