Saturday, May 23, 2009

WOD:

Variation of “Sparrow’s Dozens”:
12x Deadlift @ 115/95#
12x Pull-up
12x Push-up
12x Wall Ball Shot @ 20/14#
12 Rounds

Notes: This WOD was inspired by a workout I read about from some guys I really respect and consider mentors.  I was trying to program something in the 45 min range and found this workout and thought it would fit pretty well.  It turns out that there are a few people in the gym that this was not hard enough to last into the 45 min range and I am really happy about that. Others that took about 60 min.  Remember that there is nothing right or wrong with that, it’s just feedback of where you are right now.  Change some things and the result will be different. The first step is just notice what you eat and when.  Just notice it, don’t do anything other then pay attention for an extra 5 min a day on what you eat and when you chose to eat it.

When workouts get up to 60 min in duration, which this did for some, recovery becomes very important.  If you don’t practice the recovery techniques you will be very sore, very tired which could case someone to skip the following workouts until they do recover.  Not good.  That’s time that could be spent getting more quality training in.  Granted not everyone is as intense about this but for those that are, recovery is 50% of the game!

This wraps up the week and there were some great workouts and really good performances this week.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone progress and experience “transcendent physical performances.”

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

WOD:

15-10-5 Reps – For Time
Thrusters/Push-ups

Cool down:

Various Carries

Notes: This workout was under 2 min.  I wanted to create something that was 90 sec long.  This was about right.  90 sec of all out work has an interesting effect on the system that is quite different than if you were do this 2x or 3x.  After everyone was “recovered” the natural thought is, “ok, what tricks do they have up their sleeve,” but the truth was, no tricks just a cool down.  

90 sec. all out has many different options in terms of workouts; we could have done 500m row for time, 400m run, etc.  But really, I just wanted to focus on one effort, pretty simple so thinking about reps etc is easy, and cap off the week with super high wattage output.  

The Carries are some lifts that I pick up from Dan John, one of my favorite lifting coaches and just all around good guy.  The list of carries is pretty big, so even though the WOD was 2 min. the workout took about 1 hour to finish.  Dan has a way of making things real simple.  Lift stuff overhead, lift stuff off the ground, and carry stuff for distance or time.  That’s it.  Carries, and their variation do wonders for tying together the upper body and lower body.  The little piece in the middle that everyone likes to call the “core.”  

We had some really great efforts this week from a lot of people and it’s great to see.  

Hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day weekend, see you all soon.

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Pic of my brother Jared, special drop in for a few days.   “I make fitness headlines, what do you do?”

WOD:

7 Rounds – 1 minute per exercise for a total of 3 minutes per round
3 Minutes rest between rounds

Jingle Jangles
Burpees
Dumbell Thrusters 

Notes: This workout is designed to be directed at the oxygen energy pathway.  Basically a minimum of 3 minutes of work with a rest equal the the work period will do just that.  Because we are in group settings I keep it at the minimum levels to not blow everyone out, these are hard enough as it is.  

We do about 99% of our endurance work in the form of High Intensity Intervals.  The reason being is that Slow Long Distance has a negative impact on muscle mass, which is part of the reason why distance athletes do it, less mass is easier to carry.  By directing the effort to tap the 02 system in interval fashion gives us a really good endurance affect yet the cost is not there in terms of loss of strength and muscle mass. 

I picked excersises that demand a lot of oxygen as it is and had everyone at each station for 1 min before moving to the next station.  The idea is similar to Fight Gone Bad, 1 min is about the maximum before the intensity drops off too much.  Move to a different muscle group and repeat for a total of 3 min.  

Everyone did a really good job tonight pushing through a tough WOD! 

See you all soon!