Heavy Metal

Sammy Hagar fans, rejoice. Heavy metal in the forecast for today. This is a strength building beauty here.

Warmup: 5 to 6 mins of moderate intensity cardio

Deadlift: Build to - 3 reps of all you can lift x 5 sets

Bench Press: Build to 3 reps of all you can lift x 5 sets

No time here, it's okay to take a couple of minutes between sets, you're trying to challenge limits of strength here, not endurance. Eat some serious food tonight.

Nick's Total Effort:
Deadlift: 225# x 3 + 245# x 3 + 255# x 3 + 265# x 3 + 265# x 3 = 3765 total poundage

Bench: 135 x 3 + 145 x 3 + 155 x 9 = 2235 total poundage.

I can't remember the equations for work and power, etc. I know if I had the time I could figure out either total work or power, or one of the two. I'll have to bust out the textbook. Now I have to go eat so I have some energy for softball tonight. I am working towards hitting 300# on the deadlift and 200# on the bench for this workout, it's nice to have this journal going so I can actually track myself a little easier now.

For Today

Clubber Lang:

Do as many rounds as you can in 20 minutes of:

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats (bodyweight)

Follow with a 30-minute cycle ride or 20 min run.

Nick's Rounds: 9
Dude, this was more intense than I thought it would be, which just goes to show how smart I am. I'll be sore tomorrow. Kudos to the crossfit.com peeps who can rip off 30 rounds, those guys are crazy.

Monday 7/28/08

Today's Workout:

18 Holes of Golf, Preferably while walking.

Sorry, no workout for me. On Sunday I took in 10 hours of fairly intensive manual labor, followed by two hours of sand volleyball. I feel kind of rickety, no gym workout can duplicate the actions and efforts of actual work and sport, although in my program I try to do so the best I can. So today is basically a rest day, with only 72 (that's a damn lie and you know it!) swings between myself and the couch.

My Workout Slurry

Because getting some good nutrition is especially vital right after a workout, I follow my busters with these options:

1. More cardio intensive days:
24 oz. Water
2 Scoops Fruit Punch Gatorade Powder
1 Scoop Strawberry Whey Protein

2. Heavier Lifting Days
12 oz. Water
2 Scoops MRP Shake. I'm into the Cytosport Muscle Milk at this time, although one is probably as good as the other.

Today's Workout:

Today I added a longer route to my cycling. It's about 15 minutes longer with a bit more incline than my other route. I will bust this one out on some of my non-workout days. Not sure of the mileage.

Today's time: Not sure, I stopped it at a stoplight and forgot to restart it. Rats

One of the workout bonuses of living where I do: I leave from home and roll straight down to the Minnesota River, than turn around bike uphill for about five miles coming back. Extra fun.

Nick's Friday Session

Sorry for the delay, I was lazy after this:

Warm-up

Squats: Warm up to: Five sets of all you can handle for three reps.

My limits: I did all five at 185#

I haven't been religious about doing squats like I used to be, I think I can get this up to 200# pretty quickly. I'll try and work in at least one brutal squat session a week.

My shoulder is feeling good, but I'll give it a little more time.

Rest Day

I was super sore this week and I had to rest two days in a row. I will hit it hard again tomorrow. I never want to get soft.

crossfit!!

Tuesday work out

6 minute warm up

3 minute stretch of just legs and back.

I used two 15 lb dumbells for this:

Left leg back:
1x1
1x2
1x3
and so on to 20.

Rested 4 minutes

Right leg back:

1x1
1x2
1x3

and so on to 12.

I stopped because of my leg hurting.

Woo-hoo!

Rest Day. Actually, I've been beating myself down pretty hard all summer, so I've decided to take the week off in order to let some nicks and dings heal up. It's always a good idea to incorporate some 'off-loading' into a fitness plan so that the body can fully recuperate. This is an important time to watch what you eat.

Major Squatage

Todays Workout: Squats

After my sorry showing last week in the Back Squat Count-up, I decided I definitely need to improve my leg strength and conditioning. As luck would have, I hurt my shoulder a little bit about a month ago, and it apparently isn't one of those injuries that clears itself up as I go, so I need to take some time off from strenuous overhead lifting. My next series of workouts will be leg intensive, and there might be some lower back and ab work thrown in. I will try not to fall back into the traditional 'leg day' mentality, so it will be a challenge to make things interesting.

For Today:

5 Rounds of Back Squats, 3 Reps a round. If you have back issues or are afraid of heavy squats, do one-legged squats instead, and do 7 reps per leg a round.

3o Minute intense bike ride.


When doing the back squats, warm up to the 3 rep weight with a 3 set scaffold. Do the bar, then do something you can hit easily about 8 times, something a bit tougher 6 times, and then begin the 5 round set.

My current squatting goal: 3 reps at 1.5 x my bodyweight, which = 261 lbs. I assure you I am nowhere close to that (I should take some pics of my legs :)); I guess I'll know for sure where I'm at tomorrow.

Jayson's Training for Today:

Bench Press- Body weight

10x185

10x185

10x185

7x185

6x185

I am hoping next week I can finish this. It seems so easy but the last ones get super hard and I struggle to get the last ones up.

Situps

100 situps with 9lb medicine- this in on a decline bench going all the way down and back up.

5 sets of 20.

Next week I am going to do 5 sets of 30. My abs have always been strong from the Army. If I could just kick the good food and beer habit they might actually show up! :)

Oh jeeze...

Today I bring you: The Section 8 Portage. I created this baby after my recent Boundary Waters Canoe Area excursion. The 173 rod portage between Section 8 Lake and Upper Slim Lake gave me the realization that my prior workouts were not getting me in shape, so upon returning I embarked upon the crazy plan that I am now sharing via this blog. In honor of the meanest walk I've ever taken (ANY walk sucks with a 60# backpack and a canoe on shoulders, but this one was especially bad, including one spill in a mud puddle, numerous switch-backs up and down treacherous and slippery rock faces, several downed trees to climb over, and plenty of mosquitoes) I created this 173 rep workout. Enjoy. Oh yeah, don't forget it's for time as well.

"Section 8 Portage"

25 - Pushups

20 - 20# Dumbell Push-presses

30 - 135# Deadlifts

25 - Bench Jumps (Use a typical workout bench, make sure it is stable)

40 - 25# Dumbell Clean and Press (Do 1 side to 20, then switch and do the other side)

10 - Pullups or Chinups

23 - Pushups

If you finish by emitting the loudest, most soul-cleansing string of profanity that you've ever heard, you've successfully navigated the Section 8 Portage

Nick's Time: 20:15
It wasn't as bad as I remembered it being the first time I did it, so my intensity training might be working. The 25# DB Power Cleans were mean, but I could add a little more to the push presses.

For Today: Vertical Push/Pull

I really need to name some more of these workouts so that I can organize them more efficiently. For today's go round, I was originally going to do a plyo-pushup/jump squat countdown, but seeing as it still hurts to walk after Wednesday's fling, I switched up the schedule. Instead, do 5 rounds for time of:

10 Chinups
10 Dips

If you can't do 10 chinups or 10 dips for five rounds, use an assisted machine, or do negatives to help complete the required number of reps. A negative pullup is when you use a bench or partner to get into the 'pulled-up' position, and then you slowly lower yourself using a 5 count until your arms are extended. You can do the same with dips, starting in the extended position and then lowering yourself slowly using a 5 count.

Nick's Time: 15:07
I set the assited dip/pull machine at 80. I started out fast the first two rounds, but by the fourth round I had to split them into two sets of five with a rest in the middle. It was fairly strenous, I can hardly type this my hands are shaking so bad. The beauty of it: I'm on my way out of the gym after 20 minutes, and I still feel like I got a pretty strenuous workout in. I might follow it up with a bike ride or some cardio if my legs weren't so friggin' sore.

Jayson's Daily Hammer Plan

Workout today!

Counts up seated row:

1x70lbs

2x70lbs

3x70lbs

4x70lbs

5x70lbs

6x70lbs

7x70lbs

8x70lbs

9x70lbs

10x70lbs

11x70lbs

12x70lbs

13x70lbs

14x70lbs

15x70lbs

16x70lbs

17x70lbs

10x70lbs

13x70lbs

12x70lbs

I could not make it to 20 without cheating the movement so I stopped. Great bicep workout, along with back. All together a tough but really good workout. I enjoyed it!

Yesterday

Sorry, Thursday the 17th was a rest day. We were to friggin' sore from Wednesday's leg torture, plus we had to get our softball on. Yes, we are pathetically near-middle aged men re-living our childhood fantasy by acting like we own MLB on some softball field every Thursday night. It's awesome. We got killed again, which sucked.

Point being: It's possible but boring to stay in shape just by running, biking, and lifting weights. Playing a sport or two throughout the year gives you some competitive fitness and fun that can't be replicated. I play softball all summer and fall, and then I play volleyball year round.

Also, you should try learning or playing at least one new sport every year. Even if you don't stick with it forever, it's still good fun, and your fitness will benefit greatly from the new experience. This year I'm aiming to do some sort of martial art (Karate, Taekwondo, etc.), Hooverball, and maybe do some climbing.

Jayson's Regimen 7/16/08

I did one legged squats where both feet are one the ground and you squat back with either the left or the right while holding dumbells at your side. I don't know what they are called but I used to do them in the Army to help with our run times.

Here is my workout:

6 minute warm up

3 minute stretch of just legs and back.

I used two 15 lb dumbells for this:

Left leg back:

1x1

1x2

1x3

and so on to 20.

Rested 4 minutes

Right leg back:

1x1

1x2

1x3

and so on to 15.

I ran out of time as I only have an hour at lunch but I don't think I would have lasted very much longer. Sounds easy with this low weight but go ahead and give it a try. My legs feel like jello and I can barely walk up stairs.

I plan on taking a long bike ride tonight to keep my muscles in my legs loose.

Breakfast:

Coffee

Peanuts- 330 calories and some good fat.

Lunch:

Roast beef, ham, turkey, salami with cheese sandwich- NO MAYO -509 calories

Milk 125 calories.

I will probably down a protein shake later and eat a nice meal tonight.

and most important! 4 oz of water every hour all day long to stay hydrated. Drink more if you feel thirsty!!

Today's Agenda: Count-Up (Back Squat)

I'm going with another count-up again today; yesterday I actually did nothing, the deadlift workout was a post from last Friday's torture. I really enjoyed the count-up method though, so I am going to apply it to a different compound movement today: the back squat. Back squats tax every system in the body, so it should be a lot of fun!

To explain the count-up again: Start your watch and let the timer run to 1 minute. Once it hits the 1:00 mark, do 1 back squat. Rest until the timer hits 2:00, then do 2 back squats. Rest until the timer hits 3:00, then do 3 back squats, rest until the timer hits 4:00. Continue this pattern until your squat reps fail to match your minute count (say between 12:00 and 13:00 you only get ten squats in). Obviously, the more reps you do, the lest time you have to rest in between. Record the last minute that you were able to get all the reps in, that is your score for the workout.

I'm doing these at 135#, if you get to the 20:00 mark, end the workout. Next time, increase your weight.

Nick's # of Successful 135# Rounds: 8
Again, this gets brutal fast. Apparently I haven't been doing my squats lately. When I finished the 8 minute 8 reps, looked at the clock, and saw I had about ten seconds of rest before it got to 9:00, I knew I was in trouble. I got 6 reps in before the clock hit 10:00. I was wiped, except I went for a twenty minute run after that. Going to hurt tomorrow.

Jayson's Journal, Day One

I managed to recruit my budy Jayson into this program; we're inventing it as we go. Here's his first day:

3 minute strectch

5 minute warm up

Five rounds for time of:
1. 10 reps x 185
2. 10 reps x 185

3. 9 reps x 185

4. 5 reps x 185 brutal almost passed out. Rested 5 minutes and did abs

5. 6 reps x 185

No pull up bar so I did lat pull downs

5x120 10 reps each

100 situps with 9 lb medicine ball

5 sets of 20.

RESULTS:

My abs are done! my hands are shaking and I am now super hungry.

I have about 670 calories in my body right now. Chicken and bread and coffee.

This is going to get rough.

Today's Menu: Count-up

Today is actually a rest day, but I wanted to throw in a workout I did last Friday so that it can be remembered for posterity, and so that I may kick the crap out of it next time I need an idea for a workout to do.

A count-up is another simple but sadistic (the theme of my program) workout. All you need is one stopwatch and a compound exercise. A compound exercise is one that works the body across multiple joints. A bench press is a compound exercise because it works the muscles across the shoulders (pecs, delts,) and across the elbow (tri's and bi's), plus you use your legs and abs for stability. A bicep curl is a simple exercise in that you are only working one muscle group across one joint. Quite frankly, unless you're starring in the latest rendition of Pumping Iron, doing simple exercises are a waste of your time. A Pull-up or a heavy bent over row will do more for your biceps than isolation curls.

I digress. To run the count-up, pick a compound movement (I choose my favorite, the deadlift, for this round). Take a stopwatch and hang it where you can see it. After warming up, start the stopwatch. When it gets to the one minute mark, do one rep of your compound movement. Rest. When it gets to the two minute mark, do two reps. Rest. When it gets to three minutes, do three reps, rest, etc. As the minutes go up, the reps go up and the rest goes down. It sounds easy, but by the twelve minute mark with the deadlifts I was almost crying, and failed to complete the 12th round, so I scored at an 11.

Score: 11

Bench Press/Pull-up + Hill Run

Today's Menu: '104'

5 Rounds for time of:

10 reps of Bodyweight Bench Press (I'm not there yet, still only pushing 115; my skinnyness couldn't come close to benching my bodyweight 10 times, but I'll get there.

10 Reps of Pullups

Run 'block hills' behind the gym in Jordan, 4 laps, in a run/rest for 1 min/run/rest pattern.

Time: 20:16 for the bench/pull combo. Suprisingly painful, but the pumptitude is spectacular.

I skipped the hill runs in exchange for some softball practice with some of the guys from my high quality D rec squad. We need all the practice we can get.

Ex Post Facto: Countdown/Timed Ride Combo

...I think it means 'after the fact'. Been a while since any of my legal classes, so my Latin is rusty. I just wanted to post my Saturday workout in here, even though it's Monday and I am just starting this journal. It's a killer 50mn routine involving:

- A pushup/jump squat countdown
- A timed bicycle ride around Shakopee

The countdown is simple, brutal, simply brutal. Do this:
- 10 Pushups (do plyo-pushups for as long as you can: push off the ground explosively, clap hands in mid-air before returning to ground).
- 10 Jumpsquats

Rest for 10 seconds, then do 9 pushups, 9 jump squats. Rest for 10, then do 8 and 8, 7 and 7, etc. When you get to 5 pushup/5 jump squats, eliminate the rest and go right to 4 and 4, etc. Keep going until you get down to 0!

Do two rounds of this. I'm working towards three rounds, but right now two are sufficient to put me on the ground for a while.

-Follow the countdowns with a bike ride on a planned loop. Try to aim for about a 30-min ride, which is a good length to be able to push hard without totally killing yourself. TIME THE RIDE! Putting yourself on the clock and then trying to beat yourself the next time you go out is a great way to challenge and push yourself. I use a stopwatch in almost all of my workouts.

This combo is pretty tough, eat a solid meal the morning of and a solid meal afterwords. Try and keep it healthy, duh.

Cycle Time on 7/12/08: 32min 55sec, which topped my prior time of 34:06.

Welcome

This site is created for the purpose of tracking my workout program. It's mainly for my own personal useage, but if you find my methods compelling, feel free to rip them off, I know you'll pay for trying.