Saturday, March 7, 2009

What-Was-I-Thinking Saturday

I stole this from a Crossfit site:

5 rounds, 40 sec work, 20 sec. rest:

KB 1-arm rows, L, R
Plank
KB 1-arm swings
KB 1-arm push press
Tuck jumps
Static squats, KB in rack position, L, R

It actually wasn't that bad except for the 40 seconds of tuck jumps. I opted to go for quality over quantity, really trying to get my knees to my chest each rep for max core involvement. Note that I said "trying to get" as opposed to "getting"! I also didn't want to take too long between reps because I didn't want to lose the cardio conditioning effect, so I'm sure my form was compromised on some reps especially toward the end of the 40 seconds.

Yesterday's workout was ripped off from the same site. It was the "Kettlebell 300":

25 v-ups
25 snatches, R
25 snatches, L
25 pushups
50 swings
50 burpees
25 clean & press R
25 clean & press L
50 mountain climbers

I sort of impressed myself with the snatches. I used my 12 kg bell and even on the left side, which is the one that I sometimes have trouble stabilizing, I only had to take one midset break. And my forearms are hardly dinged up at all! I actually struggled more on the clean & press, partly because I was fatigued and partly because when all's said and done 26 pounds is a lot of weight for a rather small female to press overhead 25 times with good form (no help from the legs) and minimal rest.

The 50 burpees were hideous, but you really didn't need me to tell you that :)

Anyway, I got through the whole thing in a little less than 20 minutes. Next time I do it I'll shoot for 18-19 minutes.

I sort of like this whole concept of making workouts harder by increasing density (more reps in the same time, or the same number of reps in less time) as opposed to just grabbing heavier weights, although of course that has its place too and I probably need to be doing that more regularly.