ExRx.net

I decided I'd post my workouts here. I already log my workouts on paper and online, but I think it might be useful to me and others if I post here.

You can discuss this journal here:
http://exrx.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20648

I welcome questions and comments!

***

4/7/08
Around 1 pm I had my hip stitches pulled. Around 8:30 pm I went to the gym and did this:

5 chinups (dead hang)
5 pushups
AMRAP in 20 minutes, deliberately taking it slow.
Did 11 rounds.


4/9/08
Went to Kendo, did lots of one-arm overhead striking drills and some suriashi (stepping) practice until my hip got tired.

4/12/08
At the gym, tried a two-part workout:

5 Rounds of:
Bench Press x 5 x 50kg
Body Rows (feet on bench) x 5
Time: 4:48.25

Rested 5 minutes

Walking Lunges 60 steps - 2:35.40
3 minute rest
Walking Lunges 60 steps - 2.30.85
4 minute rest
Walking Lunges 60 steps - 2.35.30

Wobbly after the lunges but less than a week before I couldn't even sit down without pain.

4/14/08

Went to the gym and did this:

3 minute rest between exercises unless noted otherwise.
Shoulder Press: 5 x 30kg, 1 min rest, 5 x 40kg, 5 x 45kg, 3 x 45kg (wanted 5, couldn't do it)
Push Press: 3 x 5 x 45kg
Thrusters: 3 x 5 x 45kg

My Thrusters weren't explosive like they are supposed to be...more like a slow front squat plus a push press. I can't explode yet, I'm too weak. But I did them as best as I could.

Then I taught kickboxing to 3 beginners for 36 minutes and then I did this:

25 jumping chinups
25 pushups
25 situps (feet locked under the bench)
25 squats
Time: 4:03.95

Next time I'll do double that, my eventual goal is a full "Angie" - 100 of each of those four.

4/16/08
Went to the gym and worked out.

"Cindy Lite" from the Crossfit Morris County website seemed like a good idea.

10 rounds for time:
5 pullups (I did slightly jump-assisted chinups)
10 pushups
15 squats
Time: 12:59.07

10 minute break

Deadlift 2 x 3 x 60kg, 90 second rests.
Deadlift 1 x 3 x 80kg

3 minute break

Weighted Situps (feet hooked under a bench), 1 minute break unless otherwise noted, standard plate unless otherwise noted, plate high on chest.
5 x 0kg, 5 x 2.5kg, 5 x 5kg, 5 x 7.5kg, 5 x 10kg, 5 x 12.5kg (DB), 5 x 15kg (DB), 5 x 20kg, - 3 minute break - 5 x 10kg.

Gripper 45kg reps - 20-20-17, 60 seconds rest
Gripper 40kg holds - Left: 60s - 60s - 60s, 90 seconds rest.
Gripper 40kg holds - Right: 60s - 60s - 60s, 90 seconds rest.

4/17/08

Went to the gym and did my usual warmup (foot drills, mobility drills, Inside/Out shoulder warmups)

No-weight goblet squats (technique work) x 10
No-weight potato sack squats (technique work) x 10

Jumping Rope 5 x 3 minute rounds, 1 minute rest.

Just cardio today.

4/18/08

Afternoon: Around 15 mile bike ride, done in chuncks of 6 miles, 3 miles, 6 miles.

Light Metcon work at home, while watching the end of "Fight Club."

3kg Med Ball Warmup:
10 Potato Sack Squats
10 Goblet Squats
10 Squat-to-Press (directly forward)
10 Standing Bent-Arm-Pullovers
10 Good Mornings
10R/10L Windmills

3 rounds, 30 seconds rest between rounds.

5 minute rest while I set up my Tabata timer online.

Tabata (20s, 10s, 6 rounds)
V-Ups: 14-13-13-13-14-13, total 80 reps, min/max 13/14
Back Extensions: 20-20-20-20-20-20, total 120 reps, min/max 20/20

Plank Position on Med Ball:
22s (hands slipped)
55s

3kg Medicine Ball Floor Presses x 50R, x50L.

***

Just light metcon, enough to break a sweat and get my body revved up and give me motivation to do my mobility drills.

4/19/08

Rest day, supposedly. But it was beautiful and sunny for a change so I went for a 1 hour bike ride. No idea of distance, lots of up and down ramps and embankments and riding on gravel roads.

4/21/08

Barbell Complex
Deadlift (from the top) x 6
RDL or SLDL x 6
Hang Power Clean x 6
Front Squat x 6
Push Press x 6
Back Squat x 6

3 x 10kg (bar only), 1 minute rests
1 x 20kg, 1 minute rest
1 x 25kg, 2 minute rest
3 x 30kg, 3 minute rests

Rested 5 minutes

Back Squat 3 x 20 x 35kg, 5 minute rests

Rest 3 minutes

Pullups 4 x 6, 1 minute rest, mixed grips (chinup x 6, pullup x 6, mixed grip L pronated R supinated x 6, mixed grip L sup R pro x 6).

Leave Gym x 1 rep

Sprinted home on the bike (about 800m, in short spurts thanks to turns and traffic).

I intended to do this complex I saw on DeFranco's Training but I forgot the bent rows. I wrote it down, watched the video before I went to the gym, read it over twice while I walked through the moves, and yet forgot to do the rows. Huh. No idea why. So I did the pullups after to get some more pulling in.

Wanted to go more rounds or heavier on the complex but the cleans derailed me. My hip was too tired to explode, so they were more like muscle cleans. During round 3 at 30kg I knew I couldn't do another round without a long break. So I stuck out the high rep back squats to ensure I got some good cardio work in and technique work on my back squat.

4/22/08

2 x 6 mile bike rides, spaced 30 minutes apart (had an appointment to go to).

4/24/08

Barbell Complex (as above, but including rows) x 3 x 20kg, 1 minute rest (general warmup)

5 minute rest

Dumbbell Snatch: 1 x 5 x 20kg left, 1 x 5 x 20kg right.*

3 minute rest

"Travis Bickle"- 50 pullups, 50 pushups, 100 steps walking lunge.
Pullups mixed grips, mostly wide grip or shoulder width grip pullups, about 15 were chinups. First 10 pushups clapping pushups.
Time: 15.24.00

3 minute rest

Barbell Complex (as above) x 3 x 20kg, 1 minute rest (general warmdown)

Gripper 40kg Static Hold, 30 second left, 30 seconds right.

Post-workout stretches (warrior, IT band, glutes, 30 seconds each).

* Intended to do "Magic 50" - 5 rounds of 5L/5R snatches, 5L/5R swings, 10 burpees, but after these snatches I felt dizzy and weak, so I realized I wasn't up for it yet even with long rests.

I'm very disappointed with my time on my metcon. I should be at least 3 minutes faster on that, even account for my weakness on pushups. Most of the metcon time was pullups and pushups, the lunges were tiring but not slow.

4/25/08

Went to the gym and did kickboxing. One hour total with warmup, 3 rounds jumping rope, 3 rounds shadowboxing, 3 rounds mixed bag work before my hip was too tired.

(Editing later - forgot I ended with 5 x 10 decline situps on a crunch board, rested 10-15 seconds or so between sets).

Evening: About 16 miles worth of bike riding in 6, 4, and 6 mile stretches.

Tomorrow is a day off, I'm going to go to a spa and relax all day.

Injury update: my face has been feeling better post-op, but today it aches and it's swollen up a little. My hip was feeling fine until round 2 of shadowboxing when I tried a sprawl (bad idea). My push kick and right middle kick really stressed the left hip too much.

4/27/08

Tomorrow is a heavy squat day so I'm taking it easy. Yesterday I spent about 4 hours in a spa relaxing. Today:

Did all the "Easy" and all but 2-3 of the "Medium" difficulty drills on Magnificent Mobility and practiced some other drills from Inside/Out with my DVDs. Plus did some Squat-to-stand drills and some overhead and back squats with a plastic bar while facing a wall. Hard but it keeps me thinking "butt back, heels down" and not "lean forward."

Afterwards did planks:

Plank 60 seconds
Side Plank (left side down) 30 seconds (barely, hip tired out)
Side Plank (right side down) 30 seconds (no problem).

Then some random bike riding to shop. Tried to take it easy as much as possible.

Left cheek/eye feel a bit swollen but looks okay, left hip feels fine but tires very quickly. But I managed to do 10/side of hip corrections, something I couldn't do a week ago even once on my left hip.

4/28/08

First WS4SB workout.

Warmup: Magnificent Mobility drills, some Inside/Out drills, barbell complex (see above) 3 x 20kg, 1 minute rest between complexes.


1) Back Squat - 10 x 10kg (1 min rest), 5 x 20kg (1 min rest), 5 x 30kg (1 min rest), 5 x 40kg (1 min rest), 5 x 50kg (2 min rest), 5 x 55kg (5 min rest), 5 x 60kg (5 min rest), 5 x 65kg.
2) L-Chinup - 9 / 7 / 5 reps, 90 seconds rest.
3) DB Bulgarian Split Squat - 5 x (2*7kg), 3 x 6 x (2*7kg), 90 seconds rest.
*4) BB Shrug - 3 x 8 x 100kg
*5) Rear Delt Flyes - 3 x 12 x (2*7kg), 90 seconds rest.
6) Gripper - 3 x 20 x 45kg, Static Holds L30s, 30s, 20s and R 30s, 30s, 30s.
7) Weighted Decline Situps - 4 x 10 x 5kg

Finished with some stretches, and spotted for my friend doing bench presses (and coached his form on a Grappler's Complex).

Notes:

Overall a good workout but it took forever, mostly changing weights and resting between exercises (maybe a bit too long). I'm going to cut the gripper work (see below) and try to cut the time between exercises more. The squats will take as long as the squats take, they are the main exercise for the day.

Back Squats - 5 x 65kg is 5kg more than I thought I'd do. My back squat has never been good, but I'm cleaning up my form. Depth was near rock-bottom.

L-Chinup - not my best L-Chinup numbers, but I was really surprised I managed 9 the first set.

Bulgarian Split Squat - off, very hard. I intended to warm up at 10 reps with 2 x 7kg DBs and I realized that was too much. I managed, barely, the 6 minumum reps I was aiming for. My left hip is very weak, these will help. Used knee pads so I could feel the floor without de-weighting at the bottom.

BB Shrug - I just guessed 100kg would be okay. It was, barely, I was seeing stars after the 8th rep of the third set. Clearly a little too high to start with. Superset with Flyes felt good.

Gripper - I'm going to move this back to an off-day. This workout took a lot of time, and doing gripper work didn't help make it shorter, and I can easily do this at home after I do some metcon work.

Weighted Decline Situps - I went conservative on the weight because the bigger plates are hard to hold and I'm worried about spin-lock dumbbells rolling into my face. I'll go for 4 x 15 before I up the weight.

We'll see how I feel about this workout tomorrow. I did like the progression on squats, doing lots of "work up" sets made me feel like I could stop when my form broke down but still have gotten a good workout.

4/29/08

Woke up a bit sore, and doing even a few goblet squats for practice was hard. Light cardio today.

Did some mobility drills and then;

Plank: 60 seconds
Left Side Plank: 30 seconds
Right Side Plant: 30 seconds

and then more mobility drills and some overhead squats with a plastic bar.

4/30/08

Today was nominally an "off day" but I to ride to work and then to the train station and hike around on foot for a while. Call it about 5 miles of regular riding and a 3 1/2 mile full-speed sprint, plus walking.

My right knee hurts a little. Looking back at my logs last time this happened I was doing Bulgarian Split Squats. So I'll try them again next week, see if it's a form issue. If not, I may need to drop them for short-stroke lunges.

Good news is that my hip and eye socket are healing well, better than expected. The bad news is my doctor told me "no contact at least until I see you again in a month." Ugh. That's going to cost me sparring with a half-dozen or so top-ranked MMA pros in late May. On the other hand, I'm officially cleared for some running and weight training...a little late.

Peter

5/1/08

Second WS4SB workout, ME upper and DE lower.

Warmed up with some broad jumps and mobility drills and some sawtooth/footwork drills.

Rest between sets 1 min unless otherwise noted.

1) Broad Jump - 5 x 3, 60s rest. longest jump 208cm (4th set, 3 rep).
2) Bench Press - 10x10kg, 5x20kg, 5x30kg, 5x40kg, 5x50kg, 2 mins, 5x60kg, 3 mins, 5x65kg, 5 mins, 4x67.5kg.
3) DB Swings - 10x10kg, 3x12x20kg.
4) DB Bench Press - 10x(2*7kg), 20x(2*17.5kg), 3 min rest, 16x(2*17.5kg)
*5) One-Arm DB Rows - 10x30kg, 10x30kg, 8x30kg.
*6) Band Pull-Aparts - 3x12xwhatever (some Gold's Gym stretch band I have from a garage sale). 90 seconds rest between supersets.
7) Ab/Back Circuit - 2 circuits of V-Ups, Leg Raises, V-Ups, Back Extensions at 20 reps each, 90 seconds rest between sets.

- Originally planned on squat jumps but screwing around in my warmup with broad jumps made me realize they were more measurable in terms of progress.
- My previous broad jump record was a mere 170cm (I joined in the junior high PE tests last year) so I'm pleased.
- My bench press previous 5RM was 65kg, so I'm already back to my previous max, 4x67.5 is a new 4RM for me. Next time five at that weight. My bench press has always sucked, but I've fixed it up a lot with some cues I gleaned from Starting Strength.
- The Row/Pull-Aparts were hard! I use that band for pull-aparts for my warmup, but immediately after rows it was a killer by the end of set 2.