VolkeFit: Tempo Back Squats and Soul-Sucking Metcon

A. Back Squats
30x0 (descend slowly, stand up normally) in two waves
3,2,1
rest
3,2,1  (225, 235, 245)


B. 7 rounds, for time:
-3 wall walks
-4 squat cleans (135 lb)
-5 strict pull-ups
-6 KB swings (60 lb
-7 calories on the air bike.

Way harder than it looks.  25:17

Gold's with Nick: Seeing how the other half works out

November is supposed to get colder so garage workouts are getting moved indoors.   Nick has a Gold's membership and I'm going to do a one-month trial so we can do our workouts there.

We went to the "Golds Gym Executive" location downtown today.

It's a very nice facility, in its own way.  Obviously, quite different from CrossFit gyms that I'm used to, but it seemed like a great place to work out if you are doing more traditional (ie non-CrossFit-style) workouts.

Given that I was out of my element there, Nick led me through a typical weightlifting workout that he would do. It was fun.  It included lifts that I've done the odd time in the past, but not all that much, and it showed in the amount of weight I could lift vs. the amount Nick was doing.  And he's a humble guy, so he was probably holding back so as to not show me up.

Because -- HOLY SHIT -- Nick is way stronger than me.  I mean, it's something anyone could tell if they looked at the two of us side-by-side, but today really hammered that home.  At one point, I looked at his arms and realized they were twice as big as mine.

I guess his lifting weights regularly for over two decades had some benefits.

The workout included:

-Bench presses (I maxed out at 155 lb x 5 reps... or was it 8?   Nick did 215.  Fucking savage).
-Bent over dumbbell rows (Tyler 70 lb x 8; Nick 100 x 8.  )
-Dumbell bench presses (Tyler 2x40lb for 10 reps; I can't remember Nick's.  It was way more)
-Dumbbell flies (Tyler using a pair of 20 lb x 10 reps for 2 sets; Nick used 40lbs.  He's Schwarzenegger, I'm Devito.)
-Lat pull-downs (I think my weight was 125 or 150.   I did sets of 10.)
-Close-grip bench press (Tyler: 115 x 10; Nick 165 or something)
-Bicep curls (I think I used 2x 20lbs here, 10 reps.)


At the end, we played around with power cleans and rack jerks. Gold's doesn't have bumper plates -- at least not at that location -- so we had to stay within a reasonable weight range so as not to drop them.

Oly lifting is something Nick hasn't done a lot of, so I gave him a bit of instruction on the technique.   It soon became clear to me that he could easily eclipse all of my personal bests if he spent a few days working on them.

I did sets of 135 x 5 for the cleans and 155 x 5 for the rack jerks.

The locker room at Gold's is very nice.   I'd hang out there if it wouldn't be weird.

VolkeFit: Stairs will be hard tomorrow

A. 12-min EMOM:
-1 power clean (135 lb)
-2 push press
-1 squat clean

Done. 


B. Using 135 lb, do 50 front squats.  Do five wall walks every break.

I'm not sure if I was supposed to do this for time, but I didn't.

In order to minimize the wall walks, I did the squats in sets of 20, 15, and 15.



C. Airbike ride at a medium pace for 10 minutes.

Done. 

VolkeFit: Stairs will be hard tomorrow

A. 12-min EMOM:
-1 power clean (135 lb)
-2 push press
-1 squat clean

Done. 


B. Using 135 lb, do 50 front squats.  Do five wall walks every break.

I'm not sure if I was supposed to do this for time, but I didn't.

In order to minimize the wall walks, I did the squats in sets of 20, 15, and 15.



C. Airbike ride at a medium pace for 10 minutes.

Done. 

Regina Boxing Club: No Regrets

A.3-Part Partner workout

1) While one partner runs, the other partner does:
-9 burpees
-9 squat thrusts
-then 6 and 6
-then 3 and 3

Once the first partner is done, the other one goes.

There is a 6 minute time cap.  When both are done, both do sit-ups for the remaining time.

My partner Fabio and I got done with more than 3 minutes left.

2) While one partner runs, the other partner does:
-12 URpees
-12 push-ups
-then 9 and 9
-then 6 and 6

Then switch.

Time cap is 7 min.  More sit-ups!

3)While one partner runs, the other does:
-15 squats
-15 mountain climbers (L+R=1)
-12 and 12
-9 and 9

Switch.

8min time cap.

Do part 1) in time remaining.

B.Time for Punching!
-3 minutes - hitting the bag in the combinations Pat calls out.
-3 minutes of trading off with a partner - one runs 2 laps and the other does 4-punch combos.
-3 minutes trading off, hitting partner's hands.  My partner for this one was an older guy who really liked to joke about doing cocaine.  At least, I think he was joking.

B-Squad: Planks for the Row-mantic evening

I'm not proud of this blogpost's title, but it's early and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

A. Planks 
5 rounds with back-to-back-to-back 30-second stints each of
-Front plank
-Left plank
-Right plank

1 minute rest between rounds


B. Rowing

7 rounds
-90 seconds rowing at 80 per cent (I kept it between 1:50 and 2:00 per 500m)
-60 s at 50 per cent

No rest between rounds, so you're on the rower for 17:00 straight, which not my idea of fun.

Total distance rowed: between 4200 and 4300 m


The Boy joined me at the gym tonight.  The planks were tough on him but he did great with the rowing.  He was told he only had to do 5 rounds, but he opted to do 7 instead, and rowed around 2.5 km total.   I'm very proud of him.

Basement with Nick: Tag teaming Babs

A. Warm-up:

Partner 1 does 25 ball slams
Partner 2 rides the AirDyne at a medium pace
Switch


Do this for a total of 100 slams.


B. ABS!

30 seconds each of:
-bicycle crunches
-leg raises
-horizontal scissors
-weightless Russian twists


C. Tag teaming Babs
(Babs is short for Barbara.  This is a slightly abbreviated version of the five round WOD)

4 rounds, equally dividing the work, of:
20 pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 sit-ups
50 squats

1. 3:50
2. 3:35
3. 4:01
4. 4:20

VolkeFit: That's one tough snatch

A. Five minutes working to a tough power snatch

After an extended warm-up before starting my 5 minutes of work, I got 155, but failed badly on 165 twice.


B. 9 minutes:


3 power snatch (75 lb)
3 box jumps (24")
then 6 and 6
then 9 and 9
etc.

I finished the set of 15's and got one snatch.    That wasn't a lot, really.  I was trying to keep my technique solid and deliberate on the snatches, and that seemed to sap the energy right out of me.


C. 5 minutes of AirBike for calories

63.  

Regina Boxing Club: "It frickin' hurts, Pat!"

A. Alternating with  a partner, one person runs 2 laps, while the other chips away at:
20 burpees
40 squat thrusts
80 push-ups
100 mountain climbers
80 tricep push-ups
60 squats
40 horizontal jumping jacks
20 burpees

We got it done within the time cap... not sure what that was.

This is one I could re-do with Nick in the basement one day, subbing AirDyne for running.

B. Bag work
Rounds of three -- I lost count of how many -- with three different 30 second drills, repeated once.

Some of them:
-30s freestyle bag work
-30s body shots
-30s power shots
(repeat)

One minute of:
-jab ladder up to 5, with a cross at each step
-10 plank horizontal jumping jacks
-10 jumping squats

C. Core work
30 second stints of a bunch of stuff:

-crunches
-cockroaches
-bicycle crunches
-this really hard thing that I basically couldn't do
-Russian twists (no weight)
-sit-ups

Garage with Nick: I'm down with the Get-Ups

A.  Ab-tastic!

30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest:
-Leg raises
-vertical scissors
-horizontal scissors
-bicycle crunches

Repeat.


B. Turkish Get-ups

It was a little odd for me to be demonstrating this to Nick, as my technique is an affront to the entire  Republic of Turkey.

We did 3 sets of 5 per arm, going up to 35lb.


C 75 push-up-less burpees

Took me 3:30ish.  Not super fun, but at least it was over quick.