Fast

I wanted a workout today that involved very high rate/intensity work. This was high speed ICT. Many would say I should be doing 10 Burpees per circuit but I was looking to keep the pace fast for the entire workout.

10x Diagonal Medicine Ball Chops (right)
10x Diagonal Medicine Ball Chops (left)
10x Medicine Ball Slams
5x Burpees

repeat 10x

Warm Fuzzies

Sunday needed to be a momentum day for me. I thought about what would be a challenging but rewarding workout. I pulled out this Deck of Cards workout from quite a few months ago. This was rewarding because I was able to see a lot of improvement over the last time I did it, I cut off almost 5 minutes.

Deck of Cards

Diamonds = Burpees
Hearts = Push-ups
Spades = Squats
Clubs = Knee Hugs

Jokers = Max plank hold, stop timer

Too much rest

Making money overtook fitness for the weekend. The wife took over the garage gym for a garage sale and I got scheduled for double shifts at work. So I got two rest days this week, Thursday and Friday. I can’t help but feel like a loser every time I do this but life happens.

Practice

Thursday June 26

Spent some time today working on some body weight stuff. I still have quite a way to go on Handstand push-ups, glute ham raises and single leg squats. Did some weighted or slow negatives.

June 25

How clever can one get about intervals? I ran intervals today. WooHoo!

60/60 x5
30/30 x5

Make Do

I have a long wish list of equipment to get for my garage gym. Number one on the list is a power rack of some sort. Planning on working on a home made version like the one I found here. Until then I use tie down straps hanging from the rafters. Not that safe I know but you gotta do what you gotta do. Got some good power work out of this one on Tuesday (6/24).

Warm Up:

3x Pull-ups
10x DB Push Press (30# x2)

Workout:

2x Push Press (200#)
5ea Slashers (40# DB)
5x

Then:

Swings 35#
SB Get-ups 50#
Band Pulls
Burpees

1 minute each
4x through with 1 minute rest

R and R

Took Sunday (6/22) off as a rest day. The sad thing was that on Monday I woke up and my legs were ruined. The temptation then hits me, as always, to take another day off. However, if I have learned one thing in the last year it’s that a good GPP or MetCon workout will go a long way to speeding recovery. So I took a basic GPP workout from Ross Enamait’s book Infinite Intensity.

Warm Up:
10-9-8…1
Push-ups
Squats

Workout:
Burpees
Jumping Jacks
High Knee DB Press
Med Ball Slams (instead of Heavy Bag work)

30 seconds each
5x through, no rest

Core Work:
6x Knees to Elbows
12x Supermans
High Rep Chinnies

4x through

Plank Hold for time

Scale or Die

Saturday's workout was a Gym Jones adaptation. I generally have to scale their workouts due tho the fact that the are generally insanely brutal. I hit this one pretty much as written but had to back off on the weights a bit.

Warm Up:
10-7-5
Renegade Man Makers
Weighted Sit-ups

Workout:
20/10 Thrusters or Squat Cleans (I switched at random) x15 (7:30)

Then:
3ea Lunge with 95# Sandbag on shoulder
5ea Lunge Jumps
Repeat 2x, switching SB. Rest 1 minute
repeat each 2 set circuit 3x

Then:
Pull-Up Ladder 1-6

Cool Down:
1 Minute SB Overhead Static Hold

Little Vitctories

I thought that this workout was "Cindy" from CrossFit. However, I don't see it on the CrossFit page. Either way, I've done this one before and I think it is a good gauge workout. I'm still short of completing double digit rounds on this one but I'm getting there. What's also cool is that when I started working on pull-ups one year ago I could do exactly 1. I did all 5 pull-ups on every circuit of this workout today and even tacked on an extra set of 5 in the 30 seconds I had left at the end. This might not mean much to some people but it was a big deal for me.

Warm Up:
10x Box Jumps (24" Box)
10x Squat Cleans (2x30# DBs)
3 Rounds

Workout:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-Ups
15 Squats

Max rounds in 20 minutes.

Time to Get Up

I’ve become committed to the Turkish Get-up. My first feelings about this exercise were indifferent at best. It seemed like a lot of movement for not a lot of benefit. However, I’ve realized that the extended nature of the movement is what makes it a great exercise. It’s almost like steady state conditioning. With that in mind I concocted a way to expand the conditioning aspect of this strength movement. What I came up with what I call “Constantinople”. The name came from the fact that Istanbul is in Turkey and Istanbul is…well you get the idea.

Start with a dumbbell or kettlebell in the left hand. Do a get-up to the top. Immediately do 5 left handed swings finishing with a toss transfer to the right hand. Drop down and come back up with the right handed get-up. Immediately do 5 right handed swings, finish with the toss transfer back to the left hand. Drop back down to the initial position. This is one “Constantinople”. These seemed especially suited to density training so here’s how I used them.

Warm Up:
30M Lunge
20 Sit-ups
3 Rounds

Workout:
10 Minute Density Blocks

Block 1: Constantinoples
Block 2:
2x DB Snatch Left
5 Burpees
2x DB Snatch Right
5 Burpees

5 Minute Density Block

Sledgehammer Swings

Warren Zevon and Enhanced Interval Training

For whatever reason EIT kicks my butt. The bunch at Gym Jones described the feeling nicely here with Warren's help. I made the mistake of posting out a 400M run from the back door of my garage gym. Consequently, I've got no good excuse not to do EIT. Some people may not have as much trouble with it as I do but every time I do its a vicious challenge. Today's party hit conditioning as well as developing upper body strength.


Warm Up:
5x Burpee Pull ups
5x DB Push Press
Repeat 5x

Workout:
Run 400M
Then:
21-15-9
HSPU (Pike)
Dips
Run 400M