Fun of a different kind!

[Catrin]

Today was the annual mile lunge day.
Right.
I opted for the 1/2 mile option; that's more than enough. Anytime you paused for any sort of a break, you had to pick one of the following and do it to failure: bridge, side bridge, push through, curls, presses, skydivers, single leg extensions.... I added burpees to the list since I've been doing my friends' "30 Burpees a Day Holiday Challenge" on Facebook.

I LIKE this one, and I agree that 1/2 mile of lunges done properly is quite sufficient. I had group training today (and will Thursday), and we are having a special group "Funday" workout tomorrow morning. I know he is going to kick our azzes in an epic way, so there will be a good brekkie in the morning. Great way to get in your burpees for the day! I am going to remember your 1/2 mile lunge challenge for when I am working solo.

[Catrin]

I needed a good conditioning workout this morning since I missed our Funday workout yesterday, so I took this one on again. Even managed to shave a couple minutes off my origional time! Would love to do this in sub-30 minutes, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. It is a lot of fun though!

Our coach gives us a "weekly challenge" every week to do on our own, and this week the challenge had a Christmas connection - it was the "12 Days of Christmas" workout. It is pretty simple, with each round add the next exercise, just like the song. I had to change the overhead work since I can't do that, so this version has my modifications.

1 Burpee Pullup
2 Deadlifts (body weight)
3 Medball Cleans (originally Medball Clean & OH Toss)
4 Tire Flips (originally handstand pushups or pike pushups)
5 Box Jumps
6 Pushups
7 TRX racked rows
8 Split Jumps
9 Kettlebell Swings
10 TRX Crunches
11 Medball Slams (actually did the slams the second time)
12 BB Front Squats (originally BB squat and press)

[Crankin]

Sounds very hard, but good.
The "evil one" is no longer teaching at 5:30 AM, starting this week. Everyone was complaining, so I was elected to talk to the fitness director. It worked...

[Catrin]

Sounds very hard, but good.
The "evil one" is no longer teaching at 5:30 AM, starting this week. Everyone was complaining, so I was elected to talk to the fitness director. It worked...

Glad to hear you no longer have to deal with the evil one! 5:30 in the morning is just too early for that sort of thing!

Yes, it was a very good workout, but I didn't realize how hard it was until I finished it. And immediately got dizzy....but then again I AM a dizzy broad sometimes I am pretty sure that THIS kind of dizziness is from not drinking enough. I really like this workout as a kind of benchmark - it does have a little bit of everything! I think I want to do it every 6-8 weeks, no more frequently.

I was describing this workout to someone and it took her a bit to realize that it isn't just 1 time through Day 1, then Days 1 & 2, then Day's 1-3, etc. Guess she didn't get the song reference

[Catrin]

Amazing the difference it makes when you take my shoulders out of the equation. I think my coach has been as frustrated (or more) than I have been about my inability to gain upper body strength due to my mechanical shoulder complex problem that is also strongly affected by my neck. I am VERY happy with something that happened yesterday as those of you who also deal with physical limitations will especially appreciate.

My shoulder/neck problem means that, not only a strong resistance from my body to gaining arm strength (shoulder girdle is prevented from getting in the right position), but we have learned that I simply cannot go overhead or do vertical pressing. No bench presses, no pushups, no overhead squats, jerks, etc. Pity, for I want to do Olympic lifting but I am precluded from MOST of the lifts - but not all That is another topic.

Yesterday our coach had bench presses on tap for my group. In the past I've attempted this with an unloaded bar and had to stop due to the inability to show proper form and, at times, pain. This time he had something totally different in store for me while the others worked on heavy bench presses. He is good at dividing his attention!

We have some lovely new weight machines - these aren't cable machines either (plates instead). One of the new ones is a standing squat machine that basically takes the arms totally out of the equation but the arms are in a good position for the lift - not just hanging down. Perfect for someone like me. I was able to go up to 190 pounds - and that felt light. I felt like I could have gone MUCH heavier - and my coach was more surprised than I was. I can do close to 500 pounds on the leg press for multiple reps so I figured some of that would translate, and apparently it does. He paid very close attention to my form and called it good

We are focusing on what I CAN do, and stop trying to persuade my body to do what it doesn't want/can't do. We really have been doing this, but even more now.

[Catrin]

Gave myself a great workout this morning. The goal was supposed to be to keep my heart rate as close to 140 as possible without going over. I failed at that but it was fun!

11 rounds of:

115 pound deadlifts, 8 reps each round
12 box jumps
15 monster rope slams (I changed the type of slam)
10 dynamax ball slams or cleans

I needed to do this for at least 20 minutes and that turned out to be 11 rounds. As time went on I had to take slightly longer breaks between rounds to at least attempt to stay close to the upper level of my zone 2 heart rate. Interestingly enough the deadlifting was the easiest part!

[Catrin]

We had a great group workout this morning that featured sandbags, trap-bar deadlifts, TRX, nice shiny new kettlebells and bosu pushups!

I am also making a coaching change. Still working with my usual coach, but once a week rather than twice. Adding on a fantastic kettlebell coach that we have! There are few in North America with his level of certification in different KB disciplines. His coaching style is very different and he is GOOD at what he does. He is also 65, and understands how to work with those with back/shoulder/neck/etc issues. I am excited to learn more about kettlebells! His training is no less intense than my other coach, but it is presented in a very different way - and my body feels much better afterwards - especially my neck. It is good to mix things up - I look at this as having the best of both worlds without having to pay any more money!

[Catrin]

Today I inflicted 3 rounds on myself of:

50 meter 45-lb KB Farmers Carry
50 meter broad jump burpees
50 meter sprint
50 meter KB lunges (22 lbs)

Unashamed to say that this was a butt-kicking! My goal was 5 rounds, but ran out of time on my lunch break. Don't really think I had 2 more full rounds in me anyway. This is an example of the weekly challenge that my strength and conditioning coach gives us. It took me ~31 minutes to do the three rounds, and I don't think that is half bad for this old bird

Of course, now that it might be actually warm enough to take my bike to my favorite park, I've mountain bike event volunteer duties this weekend! Oh well, it will be fun to see old friends.

[Catrin]

Today's workout was rather ironic since I did a solo 500 kettlebell swing workout yesterday (single arm, alternating). I've been working to develop my own home kettlebell gym at home because, frankly, I need to get my butt back in church - and with the summer coming I don't want to be tied to my gym on the weekends. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I need options and I know a lot more about how to develop my own workouts and warmups. I can do a LOT with 3 kettlebell weights, a Jungle Gym and some stretch bands. So, I chose to do that kettlebell endurance workout yesterday because I am doing a 10,000 swing challenge, but I also thought today's workout wouldn't feature kettlebells. That coach does use them, but he doesn't often focus on them...until today. You saw that coming, didn't you?

So today we did 3 rounds of pure kettlebell fun! 1 round of 5 KB exercises - one of each (each arm), 5 times. Round 2 featured the same 5 exercises, 2 reps of each, 5 times through (both arms of course). Round 3 saw 10 reps of each exercise each arm - and for all rounds you complete one side before moving to the other side. To say this was a blaster is an understatement! The 5 exercises were KB swings, cleans, squats, presses, and snatches. The first three are easy for me, the second 2 not so much - which is why I am working with a kettlebell coach. Frankly I shouldn't have done those last 10 snatches, my form was terrible but I did the best I could.

[Catrin]

On one hand I am complaining because I am coughing too much to ride my bike or trail run yet. On the other hand, this weekend I've done all of the following and it has felt great - outside of coughing when running. That WILL pass, and this didn't even tire me. I shouldn't complain

Today I started with 3 sets of heavy barbell weighted hip extensions, and practiced kettlebell cleans between each set. This was on my own before my crazy Sunday Funday group got started - I can't attend as often as I once did so I enjoyed being there today.

We started our group conditioning session with mobility, core and stability work, afterwards there were the following two "main events":

1 racked row
2 pushups
3 bosu getups

The goal is to double each exercise each round until reaching a 10 minute cap OR to reach 10,20,30 reps. I lost count and just continued for the 10 minutes.

15 minutes of the following:

200 meter run plus 5 story stair climb

5 KB "woman-makers" - I won't call them man-makers because I am not a man! Our younger women were giggling and calling them "b*ob makers" This was rather different from others I've done in the past. This version calls for a chest to KB pushup (KB is flat on the ground, not standing up), while remaining in pushup position place one hand behind the back, then the other. Then complete a cheetah movement to get the feet up by the KB, take it by the handle, then stand up and press it overhead. That counts as one movement. It takes a bit of time to do 5 of them well!

400 meter row


Outside of the coughing from the running I felt pretty darn good. This was after my usual Saturday 500-swing kettlebell workout at home yesterday. Now I rest until Tuesday morning! If it were warmer I would at least go walking.

[Catrin]

Great workout today in my new group. My KB coach is very understated, but he proves time and time again that one doesn't need a full hour for a bu**-kicking (it IS an hour long). After warming up & joint mobility work he divided us into partners. He does keep training partners together.

The partner rounds today looked like this:

I did relatively heavy single arm kettlebell swings while my partner completed 10 hip extensions each side, 10 kneeling KB presses (each side individually), 10 KB rows, each side individually. Then he did his swings while I completed the prescribed exercises. We did 4 total rounds, the last two rounds featured single arm cleans rather than swings. Overhead strength is my weakness and we keep pounding away at it like always. The difference now, however, is that I am seeing signs of increasing strength and THAT has NEVER happened regardless of how hard I've worked!

This was a GOOD workout - now I will be taking the next two days off as I've the Dirty Girl Saturday morning