Quick workout

Nothing much..

Warm-up:
2:00 jumping jacks
Joint rotation

Work-out:
3x12 kettlebell one-armed cleans, each arm, 1 pood
3x5 pull-ups

A Brief Meet at Sidney Lanier

Returning to Sidney Lanier is always fun because it's just an incredible place to goof off and play. I arrived earlier than anyone else, so I spent the time with a long warm-up and conditioning period. Being by myself, I got to play with some exercises that I haven't done before, which allows me the opportunity to properly assess its effectiveness in our group sessions. In any case, my warm-up and conditioning looked liek this:

Joint rotation
25m QM x2
25m reverse QM x2
10m walking lunges
10m reverse walking lunges (new)
5 plyometric press-ups to one-handed hold on ledge (new), each arm
15 overhead press-up holds (new) x2 (failure after 3 on the second set)

I'm not quite sure what to call the overhead press-up holds.. You get into them by laying on the ground prone, placing your hands above your head close together ALMOST as far as they can go out (about an inch in from that), then press your body up. This is mostly done with the abs and was a RIDICULOUSLY difficult exercise. So a "press-up" is really not the appropriate term since it's an ab exercise, not an arm. In any case, it brought me to the point of being sore on the drive home from having to keep my torso upright. Lol.

Also, the reverse lunges were a lot more difficult than expected, and I really feel it in my hamstrings right now. I quite like that, even though it was difficult to complete the full 10 metres. Definitely going into our group sessions.

In any case, when Corey and Will arrived, we started goofing around and doing some fun training, and I showed them some more exercises. All good fun.

Themed Training - Technical Endurance/Tabatas

Today was supposed to be a themed training on technical endurance preceded by three Tabata sessions (Squats, push-ups, and atomic crunches) to sufficiently tire out the muscles. Due to the winter break and whatnot, only Frank and Trey showed. Here are the numbers (my numbers are from yesterday, though I did most of the Tabatas with them without counting as I timed):

Andy:
Squats - 14 14 12 8 9 11 9 8
Push-ups - 11 9 9 10 6 8 3 3
Atomic crunches - 6 4 7 3 2 1 1 1

Trey:
Squats - 10 11 6 9 6 6 4 10
Push-ups - 7 7 5 2 4 2 5 3
Atomic crunches - 1 3 2 4 3 4 3 5
(Note: After the first attempt, Trey began to swing into them to complete the crunches; by the end, he kept his legs tucked)

Frank:
Squats - 7 8 12 6 11 6 9 10
Push-ups - 13 12 7 3 3 1 1 2
Atomic sit-ups - 1 1 0 1 2 6 4 5
(Note: After the third set, halfway through the fourth, Frank kept his legs tucked up. The last two cycles consisted of normal sit-ups)

Overall, I'm still pretty pleased. You can tell where we all are weak! You can also see that Frank burned himself out too quickly on the push-ups.

Now, the idea for the themed training was to do short endurance runs with obstacles in the way and the like. After Trey and his friend Kelly got lost forever getting back to us (or so they say), I was tired enough to just let us play around. Everyone's muscles were pretty wobbly, and just the casual technical training was enough for everyone to continue to feel it, so no worries. We'll hit it harder come February when we do this again.

Weights!

Warm-up:
1 mile jog
Joint rotation

Work-out:
3x5 pull-ups
3x5 bar dips
5x5 squats (140lbs)
3x5 Overhead press

Cool-down:
1:00 slow jog
10:00 stretch

Much lighter today, after heading some advice from Rafe. I was also feeling a bit dehydrated, so I made sure to give myself adequate rest. My stomach churned a little afterward, but I just sat in the car for about five minutes before driving. Seemed to be okay. I'll be alternating full-body lifts every week, and trying to increase the strength gains therein bit by bit. We'll see how that goes.

I also want to start focusing a lot more on endurance, which is the bane of my very existence. I'm not sure how much of a drive I'll have to do that, but we'll TRY.

Late Night HIIT

1:00 jog for warm-up
7:00 HIIT sprints
10:00 stretching/dying

It's late, I've felt dehydrated all day, but also lazy cause I haven't done anything all week. My stomach hurts, now. Probably trying to rehydrate before going and then after. I had water all day, but I still felt dehydrated. Either way, I don't think I'm going to vomit, but I COULD if I wanted to. Ugh... Well, progress is progress.

VA State Jam - VTech

Over the weekend, Virginia met up again in Blacksburg, Virginia this time at the Virginia Tech campus. We were joined this time by a good deal of traceurs from the North Carolina community and trained in freezing and wet conditions. Miserable cold aside, it was a blast. We also managed to get into the gym on Sunday, which is something that I hadn't done since I left Hamilton. I spent most of the time developing my tricking (non) skills and managed to get back tucks down. Not cleanly or anything, but just doing them is good enough for me for now.

The weekend was great and there was ton of training that went on, a lot of silliness and games, and an overall great community vibe. It was wonderful to train with old friends again, and meet people I never had the chance to train with before. Really shows the strength and power of the community. Until next time, VA! And NC!

Themed Training - Continuity of Movement

Okay, so it was wet, and we didn't do the theme I had planned. No big deal. We started out with some conditioning that was really quite fun and bizarre. Traverse with arms on the ground, feet on wall, chest down until you reach the stairs, reverse QM up stairs... Traverse in crabwalk with feet against wall (SUPER hard), QM up stairs... Burpee along a distance, then the hoppy thingies. Not much at all, but that's fine. We played around, did some vaulting, wall-runs, tacs, and goofed with pseudoplanche press-ups, wall-assisted planches, tuck planches, handstand press-ups. Light, relaxed, playful. That's always nice on a rainy day. Besides, we got the Tech weekend coming up. I'll post again then.

Until then, happy training to you all.