Fun of a different kind!

Sunday Funday workout today included the Partner 100's. This was during the last 30 minutes of class

Set a 30 minute timer for the following

100 Pullups (only modification allowed are band-assisted or an assisted pullup machine)
200 Pushups (elevated pushups only allowed modification - no knees)
300 Abmat situps
400 Air Squats (butt to dynamax ball for a valid rep)

The partnership is responsible for the reps, not each individual. So while my partner ran/jogged 200 meters I do the exercise. Upon her return I run 200 meters while she starts where I left off and so forth until we have either completed everything or the 30 minute timer goes off.

No partnership completed all of the reps in the 30 minute time period, though one partnership got more than halfway through the squats. We will re-do this soon and hope to beat our score from today. Fun - painful - but fun!

It is humbling for me to have to use the assisted pullup machine because of my shoulder, BUT I was able to do my fair share of the pushups even if they were elevated, I've not been able to do pushups without pain for some time so this was a good sign. I am unashamed to say that I am just a little sore this afternoon, and am enjoying a recovery beer ;)

Beer is a good recovery beverage :).

A short ride yesterday, a longer ride this morning before my Funday workout and it was a bit over the top :eek:

After warming up we did the following:

Round 1:
Beat up a really big tire with a sledge hammer 20 times
Run 400 meters
10 box jumps
Run 200 meters
50 monster rope slams
Run 100 meters
25 pushups
Run 200 meters
10 bouncing med-ball slams
Run 400 Meters

2 minute break

Round 2 = same as above but rowing rather than running

Round 3 = same as above but running AND rowing the full distance each round (so run 400 meters and row 400 meters).

I am feeling it this afternoon - I was certainly feeling it at the end but I am sure we all did. This was after a bike ride this morning...

ummmm, no more mixing riding AND Sunday Funday workouts in the future... I will have to choose from week to week but it WAS fun ;)

I thought my deep squat was pretty good... Well, it turns out it IS pretty good when I am back-squatting more than my body weight, pretty bad in some other situations. I think it is only good during back-squats because the weight is keeping my heels down. So, me and my body are going to be discussing this with each other - and with some rehab/pre-hab guidance from my trainer I AM going to get this down this summer. No more fun and games, and this will also help my riding with ankle/hip flexibility. Thankfully squats don't hurt my knees :) Also doing some balance work which is seriously needed...and can only help on the bike as well!

We've been learning some new things - kettlebell snatches (thank goodness for KB wrist protectors), and the full Turkish get-up with kettlebell (video here, there is a 10 second commercial at the start). The resolution isn't the best but it gives a decent idea - I also kept the sound down as I am in the office. Right now I am only using lower weights to learn technique and to test the shoulder (which is fine so far). Pushups seem to be much harder on my shoulder than things like this.

In May I will be dropping back to two group training sessions a week and taking everything else outside. Looking forward to a nice long season of riding, geocaching and continued strength training!

This morning I had the hardest 90 minute workout in my life. By far, and no exaggeration. It was the finale from our group trainer for a 10-week long "warrior challenge". I did a LOT of work in those 90 minutes, and a few things that I've never done before. I had considered either going for an easy spin or geocaching this afternoon...but neither is happening. I think I might be sore for my 6am group training tomorrow morning...I hardly ever get sore regardless of effort level so we will see. It was a lot of fun though!

hmmmmm New Holland Dragon's Milk (very dark ale) is my recovery beverage this afternoon!

That sounds challenging, Catrin.
I've had a little break from training. Last Thursday, the instructor was on her honeymoon and they couldn't find a sub. Today, I have a cold, and it's also a holiday here, so not even sure there was a class. Plus, I wanted to be here when Oakleaf left for the marathon, so here I am. I'll do some weights at home, but I am really not feeling that well. I guess riding yesterday didn't help.

I wondered if Oak was staying with you. Really hope her day goes well!

Veronica

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Originally Posted by Crankin

That sounds challenging, Catrin.
I've had a little break from training. Last Thursday, the instructor was on her honeymoon and they couldn't find a sub. Today, I have a cold, and it's also a holiday here, so not even sure there was a class. Plus, I wanted to be here when Oakleaf left for the marathon, so here I am. I'll do some weights at home, but I am really not feeling that well. I guess riding yesterday didn't help.

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It was, but I feel pretty good today outside of sore glutes/hamstring. I was the only one who showed at my 6am group training this morning and he took some time to make certain we I warmed up/stretched my sore bits properly.

Glad you were able to host Oakleaf - really hoping her day goes very well today :)

Today's boot camp kicked my zzz.
And, it was mostly cardio. One minute intervals of everything, with the usual weights/core stuff in between some of the intervals. Others were cardio intervals of different things in a row.
It was warmer this morning (54) and very humid. When I got to the gym, the heat was on :eek:. I think the AC finally went on, and all but one of the fans were on, but this got to me. I was sweating buckets and feeling it a lot more.
The only time I ever feel like this is always related to heat. I don't do well with sudden changes to warm; I really need to acclimate slowly.

In my 30 minute session today, my trainer kicked my butt with something he calls "Crazy 8's". Appropriate name! I am going to miss our solo sessions, but I still have the benefit of his training 2-3 hours a week with the small group training sessions!

3 sets of the following 5 exercises for time - 8 reps for each and 16 total for the lunges (after warming up of course):

• Zurcher Front Squats
• Racked TRX Rows
• Deadlifts (personal record today - even if it was only for 4 reps)
• Dips (table dip, no rings...AS IF I could actually do that one)
• Kettlebell Lunges

2 minute break between sets, and the weight went up significantly for the Zurcher squats and deadlifts.

After THAT was over, we had 5 minutes left in my session so we headed back to the squat rack. I did back squats for 5 minutes but there was a twist :) Every 30 seconds I racked the bar and did 5 air squats.

When those 5 minutes were over my time was done....and I was done ;)

First time I've done the Zurcher front squats, that totally gets around my shoulder/elbow flexibilty problem and I could do them properly :)

Hopefully I will get to ride tomorrow, planning on an easy ride - it is supposed to be in the 60's and not windy!!!!!!

This was an excellent metabolic conditioning workout. I was the only one who showed up for group training this morning. By the time the 28.27 minutes it took me to perform the following, I was DONE. There was an appropriate warm-up prior to this. I didn't have anything left afterwards, but before long as I was charged up and ready for whatever this day might bring. Nothing in the following requires special equipment so it is easily modified, outside of (perhaps) the TRX rows.

100 air squats
30 second high plank
90 pushups
30 second high plank
80 TRX rows
30 second high plank
70 knees to chest sit-ups
30 second high plank
60 burpees
30 second high plank
50 modified deck squats
30 second high plank

The thought of 60 burpees leaves me speechless.
Today, in the middle and near the end of my class, she had us run outside, around the little cul-de-sac twice and back in the opposite door. At first, I was up with the big girls and then one of them sprinted. Oh boy. During the second set, though I was able to pass a couple of younger women who I know do tris. Hard for 6 AM. We did a lot of core and weight work, too.

It sounds like you did great! Frankly, I would rather do most anything than run & that includes bear crawls.

Burpees aren't my favorite though I didn't do the pushup part because of my shoulder, especially after all of the earlier pushups + TRX rows. He modified the burpee also to have my hands come down on a dynamax ball rather than the floor. I think the regular way might have been easier but I did get the 60 done :cool: The last 20 were rather slow...

We did all sliders on Tuesday. Lunges, gators, hamstring curls, mountain climbers, push-up taps....you name it.
The coolest one, also one of the hardest, was how we did shoulder flyes. On your knees, sliders under hands, hands wide stance out past shoulders to the sides, and then slide in, to under the breast bone.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

We did all sliders on Tuesday. Lunges, gators, hamstring curls, mountain climbers, push-up taps....you name it.
The coolest one, also one of the hardest, was how we did shoulder flyes. On your knees, sliders under hands, hands wide stance out past shoulders to the sides, and then slide in, to under the breast bone.

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Hmmm, this sounds like fun - I am going to have to try it out tomorrow! I am planning on dragging a sled around the track tomorrow with an assortment of weights for one mile, and a slider-based warmup sounds like a good idea :)

Tuesday I had my final solo session with my trainer. He used it as a kind of 'graduation' and put me through a combination of every kind of squat you there is, mixed with a different core exercises. It was good to see the areas where I've improved, and while we needed to modify two things on the menu, only two things had to be modified :)

I did not have much time today so decided in advance to do a sled mile. I warmed up a bit and put on the harness for the sled. This exercise has me dragging the sled behind me, the sled itself is just a small platform that only weighs 5-6 pounds..

The idea was to start w/25 lbs, then go up 25 each lap until I hit 100 lbs, then reverse the process back to 25 pounds. 200 meters per lap. I did fine for the 1st half but when I dropped from 100 lbs back to 75 lbs I noted my old quad injury complaining a bit & decided to make that my last lap with weight. It was a great workout regardless & the first time I've done it without a coach. I wound up short two laps (with weight, I walked 3 laps cooling down), but I think that was a wise idea. This is a whole body exercise that targets the quads and to have come out of it with a re-injury would sort have defeated my purpose :o Perhaps I am finally learning...

This is a pretty quick way of combining cardio and lower-body strength all at the same time :) It also makes little kids look at you really oddly - we had an elementary school field trip going on at the same time!

I NEED to get better at broad jumping! This morning we did a series of exercises, but the number we were asked to do was different for each one of us. After we warmed up, we broad-jumped 50 meters and we had to count how many times it took us to broad jump that distance, no steps in-between each jump.

This was the heart of the workout - our starting reps for each round was the number of times it took us to broad jump that distance, for me that was 45. Thankfully he had mercy on us as he thought most of us would have smaller numbers - we didn't- so we cut the number in half. My goal was 24 rounds - so my first round of the following was 24 of each. The goal was to work down from our starting number all the way down to one. I didn't make it...but then again, none of us did in the 30 minutes we had to complete the work. Our homework is to finish during the coming week. I've 19 rounds to go - some of us got more than 5 rounds done, but not many.

Burpees
Valslide Jacknives
Goblet Squats (30-72 pounds)
Release Pushups
TRX Racked Rows

We've an endurance event coming Memorial Day weekend, the Memorial Day Murph. The Murph is a Crossfit workout named for a fallen soldier who used this as his own training - and while it has become traditional to do this on Memorial Day weekend, this year it is being used as a military charity fundraiser. Many from my training group are participating, including our trainer. There is a reason why he is giving us these types of workouts.

It was SUPPOSED to rain today, so I went to the gym to test myself before next Saturday's Memorial Day Murph workout. This has become pretty common and is a military charity fundraiser. I wasn't sure if I should go for the "half-Murph" or the full. The full workout features the following:

1 mile run
100 Pullups
200 Pushups
300 Squats
1 mile run

While my shoulder forces me to scale two of those exercises (inclined pushups and racked rows on the rings rather than pullups), I think I am ready for this. I spent some quality time on treadmill this morning and Cindy (a Crossfit workout that features the three exercises) and did the "half-Murph". I got this next week - I am a SLOW runner so I will likely be one of the last to finish but I will finish - that is all that matters.

BTW, you can break up the three exercises anyway you wish - the only thing that can't be "broken up" is the running. I will probably do 20 sets of 5 racked rows, 10 inclined pushups and 15 squats. My shoulder is fine with doing lots of pushups...as long as my hands are in the diamond position AND I don't do more than 10 at a time :) We do what we can - and it will be fun and is for a good cause! Right now, at least, it looks like the weather will be perfect with 60ish temps.

Looking forward to riding tomorrow morning - right now I am waiting for the new owner of my mountain bike to swing by and pick it up!

We finished yesterday's workout with a friendly, and fun, competitive Hungry Hippo! Our trainer posted a video of the final round on Facebook, but since it isn't a public page I can't provide the link here. I tried... Occasionally we do things like this, it makes me feel like a kid again :)

Hoping to ride tonight after work. Riding this year is like pulling teeth, I enjoy it when I do but it is SO hard to get started for some reason.

FINALLY starting to see some upper body development after a year of intense work - upper body strength will always be my weakness but it is comforting to see some change. The basic lifting movements no longer cause discomfort - so I FINALLY get to the point where I can start doing some extra work to improve my form in things like the push press and OH squat. This morning had some fun with a basic barbell complex. I was the only one who showed to this morning's "group training", so my coach really focused on my form.

Hoping to ride some tonight if I get home early enough!

Been working on mobility issues for a long time, but yesterday I had a major milestone - I was finally able to perform a proper front squat without looking like a backwards banana :) This is HUGE, and comforting as it means my restrictions in that area really have been mobility related rather than mechanical.

NOW just to get that to extend to the bike :)

FUN workout today, and I inflicted it upon myself :) Well, our coach sends us a weekly challenge to do on our own and this was it for this week. This is called the Grinder, and it is a great conditioning workout:

100 Abmat situps
90 double unders (or 270 single jump ropes which is what I did)
80 TRX chest presses
70 calories on the rower (started out too hot/fast on this)
60 wall ball shots
50 kettlebell swings
40 TRX rows
30 Burpees
20 BB Deadlifts
10 30-meter sprints

I actually cut the sprints in half since my heel was tight, but did everything else. It was a great 41 minute workout! I am considering a gentle ride this evening if I get home in time, If not tonight then a less gentle one tomorrow ;)

I had enough time with the "sliders" this morning (yes, my cheap gym bought real ones) to fill a lifetime. A few other fun things, too, including going outside, running one way and back, around the cul de sac 2x. As long as the tri people aren't there, I'm always first.
Now, I'm leaving for a ride with a friend. Quite unusual, for me to do this after a gym day, but my schedule is different now, so it will be fun (and slow, on purpose).

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Originally Posted by Crankin

I had enough time with the "sliders" this morning (yes, my cheap gym bought real ones) to fill a lifetime. A few other fun things, too, including going outside, running one way and back, around the cul de sac 2x. As long as the tri people aren't there, I'm always first.
Now, I'm leaving for a ride with a friend. Quite unusual, for me to do this after a gym day, but my schedule is different now, so it will be fun (and slow, on purpose).

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Glad to hear they got some "real" sliders. I will eventually get some for home - but I will get the cheap furniture movers which is, of course, what they are :) Hope you had fun on the slow ride!!!!

Metabolic Rowing :)

10 sets of :30 max effort rowing with :30-:60 between sets. I managed to row 2,338 meters in that time period which DOES count the easy strokes between intervals.

I am starting to like the rowing machine quite a lot, once I figured out how to not fight myself on the rower.

Evil one is obsessed with the sliders. I hadn't taken her class in about 3 weeks, and I truly thought I was going to die yesterday. I am so sore this morning, I bagged an easy early AM ride to stretch for 30 minutes.

Went to my gym for a brief unscheduled workout mid-morning to celebrate/de-stress from an hard deadline at work and for the first time in a LONG time was able to not only do Kettlebell Thrusters at all - but even properly and with no pain! I've not been doing any pressing exercises for some time due to my recalcitrant shoulder but after only 2 ART treatments the response of my shoulder is amazing :)

The treatment seems brutal at the time - but the results are profound!

"Hurricane Training" this morning. This is comprised of nine sprints that drop down in time after every set of 3 rounds - starting with 25 second sprints, then 20, then 15. Incline = 10, though he sets the speed differently for each one of us - I started with a speed of 5, my last round was 6.5 - the fastest I've ever been on a treadmill. In between each sprint there are two exercises, and a 2 minute rest after every set of 3 rounds.

This morning we did a deceptively simple set of exercises for 15 minutes. We did not start nor end with these. Our coach had me doing something a little different from my team-mates since pressing is a problem for me right now because of my shoulder - so the following is what I did.

3 fast rounds of the following:

3 kettlebell cleans
3 kettlebell front squats
3 TRX high rows

:45 rest, then do another 3 rounds, rest, etc. for 15 minutes.

At first 45 seconds seemed a very long break, that changed quickly. We followed this with sled-push races :)

I REALLY needed a good workout today, and our 15 minute "finisher" at the end of group training this morning certainly provided that. He called it a "modified Cougar"

15 KB swings
10 Goblet Squats
10 TRX Rows
10 Pushups

15 KB Swings
9 each of the 3 exercises
15 Swings
8 each...etc...down to 1 with 15 swings between each set.

I DID get them all in 15 minutes and even beat my team-mate. Done...and I was DONE by the end. Finishing first was a surprise to me, but he did have a heavier kettlebell to swing than I did. That does have an effect at some point - we did a LOT of swings!

Sharing more wildness in the workout world, and this time with a picture of my group! Sunday is always conditioning day, and it turned out to be "Hurricane Training Day". Normally this is on the treadmill with short fast sprints at an incline of 10 and two weighted exercises between each sprint. Today it was something else: sleds.

SOUNDS easy, push a sled with a 45 lb weight as fast as you can for 15 meters, turn it around and come back. Do 2 kettlebell exercises while your partner repeats push. Do each three times, then another of 3 with a different set of kettlebell exercises. Third set had banded planks rather than KB exercises. Here is a picture of us getting ready to go!

This is a little blurry, I am the one at the far end waiting to go. I love planks (mainly because I can do them for long periods of time), but they really change when you have a resistance band around your body! We held the position until our partner returned with the sled for us to push - our coach does believe in using guilt as a motivator from time to time ;)

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That sounds like torture.
I am ready to fall down dead tired. I went to boot camp 2 days in a row, as I am trying to get back on track after vacation, and now we have 3 days in CA for a wedding this weekend. My favorite instructor is now teaching on Monday and Tuesday. She did a really different workout on Monday and I felt great. Although today was different, there was some repetition of muscle groups, which was not good. Yesterday, I was peer pressured into using 2 risers on my step. She said it was just for resistance stuff, but we did do some cardio on the bench and I was fine, but it feels awkward. I have the cardio capacity, but I'm always afraid I am going to kill myself. I am particularly bad with the long resistance bands... sometimes I cannot figure what to do by watching, and I have to get personal "corrections." I hate this; I can do the exercises, but I can't figure out how to get into position to do them. Thankfully, she doesn't use the bands very often for upper body, sometimes for lower. It feels such a long way from when I was the one asking if I could touch someone to help them be in the correct position in my classes.

DH started Boot Camp at the fitness center at work yesterday. He didn't think there would be so much running! It's all outside (yesterday was about 40 at 7 AM) and he feels pressured to "look good," because of his position in the company. His comment this morning was "at least I can walk," but he is going to have to modify some of the stuff, because after 3 days of riding in Vermont his knees aren't feeling too happy with running up and down the garage stairs 12 times.

Your post made me smile Crankin! I can see how the combination of riding + Boot Camp when he isn't used to the latter can hit the knees - glad to hear that he is wise enough to not fear modifications. I've a bit of a problem with not wanting to do that but my coach no longer gives me the choice, he plans my modifications into his program :o

Yesterday I was the only one to show for the 8am group training and he knows me so he KNEW I needed an azz-kicking/stress busting workout. He was all ready for me. The last ~18 minutes of the workout looked like this:

Kettlebell ladder the 1st (this took me 9:38 to complete)
44 lb kettlebell goblet squats: 20 down to one by twos (so 20, 18, 16, etc)
TRX Rows: 1-10 by ones

Kettlebell Ladder the 2nd: (8:17 to complete)
62 pound kettlebell swings: 10 down to 1 by ones
TRX Chest Presses: 1-20 by twos

I seriously needed this workout - and it has entered my list of favorites!

I would think the instructor would be supervising first timers.... "If you are new to this, you might do only XX stair repeats..."?

He said several of the participants were sitting down on the ground. He has the cardio capacity and the legs to do the running. His body is just not used to it. The instructor didn't make anyone do stuff when they couldn't. I showed him how to modify the side slides/touch the ground.

This is "Warrior Cardio" week for my group training, and while our coach's warmups are always intense, for the last week of the month they progress in intensity so we are ready for the main event. This morning part of our second warmup included mountain climbers on sliders. Sounds simple, but we had one foot in the air - the only foot on the ground is the one attempting to do the mountain climber. I did it - it was just a few inches for each one but I DID it :) The main event that we were warming up for was intense, but fun! I think that I am a sick woman....

"Warrior Cardio" week has rolled around again - it is always the last week of the month. My butt was thoroughly kicked this morning! Our "finisher" was the following:

Prowler sled push for 200 meters
100 monster rope over-head slams
50 wall balls (in my case it was 42 wall balls and 25 goblet squats)
25 Head Cutters (burpees with a kettlebell)

All of this followed a 10 minute body weight pyramid and a 6 minute KB clean and mountain climber combination.

I was the second slowest, so far, in completing this work in 15:24. I am NOT ashamed of that time, it was a royal butt-kicking - which is a good thing for a holiday week! Back tomorrow morning for another one before heading out of town for the rest of the week. BTW, the fastest time so far was 8:45 :eek: THAT was awesome, and from a man in my age group.

We did dumbbell 100's today. That is 100 of each exercise before you move on to the next one. 10% of body weight in each hand, for me that's a 12 on each hand. I had to downgrade when I got to the curls.
bench press
squats
rows
lunges
curls
catch and release
horizontal pull ups
side lunges.

.If you hit failure before 100 you have to (pick one) row 500m, jump-rope 100, jumping jacks 100, quadmill, run of set of soccer field lines, and then between each dumbbell set you had to do some core in this order, choose one, going down the list.
10 log rolls
20 pikes
30 alternate pikes
40 sky divers
50 hip dips
and I forget what was after that as I only made it to the horizontal pull ups.

"fun", right? :D