Thursday afternoon lower body workout

Last time doing this one, thank goodness!

superset: DB deadlifts, 5x5x50's, BB front squat, 1x5x95 (to parallel), 4x5x75 (full range of motion)

superset: BB split lunge, rear leg elevated, 3x12x75; BB step-up, 3x12x65

Triset: SB back extensions, 3x10; BB SLDL, 3x10x95; BB torso twist, 3x10x35

I didn't sleep well last night and was also pretty fatigued after ballet, so never really felt great during the workout. I might've put it off to another day but won't have a chance to lift weights tomorrow or over the weekend, and I really want to be done with this program so I can focus on my kettlebell training.

Strength Workout A (upper body) plus kettlebell practice

plus whatever else wanders into my mind as I write this post. I call my blogging style "stream of semi-consciousness."

Which is better, I suppose, than stream of self-consciousness. I wasted too many years of my life being self-conscious. It wasn't until I was well along in my 30s that it finally sunk in that most people are far too preoccupied with their own concerns even to notice what others are doing let alone think harshly of them for doing it. And those who do get off on judging others ... well, let's just say they've got Issues, so really it's not worth worrying what they think. Unless of course they happen to be related to you, but that's a subject for elsewhere.

Anyhoo, here's what yesterday looked like:

Alternating sets: incline BB press, 5x65; bentover BB row, 5x75, 5x80, 5x85, 5x90, 5x95

Superset: flat DB press, 8x40's, 2x10x40's; wide underhand grip recline row, 3x10

Tri-set: DB rear delt T-raise, 3x10x8's; BB curl, 10x30; 2x10x35; pushup, arms on SB, 3x10

I also did more cleans and getups, 5x5 cleans each arm, alternating with 5x1 getups each side, all with 12 kg. I'm feeling a bit more confident about my cleans. My wrist doesn't flop, my upper arm is staying pinned to my torso, and the bell isn't swinging as wide. It's still very much a work in progress, but progress is happening.

I'm going to see if I can get my husband to practice the shoulder-packing drill with me. That's the one where you lie on the floor with one arm extended overhead as if you were about to do a get-up, and your workout partner pulls on your arm to bring you to a sitting position. If your shoulderblade is properly depressed and retracted and your lats are firing, your shoulder should stay in place and you should come up "all in one piece." If that doesn't happen it means you've got some work to do before you'll be able to press heavy loads safely. This is one of those drills that's useful whether you're into kettlebells or not because we all need to be able to stabilize our shoulders so we can lift stuff (laundry baskets, luggage, moving boxes, offspring) safely.

So, that was yesterday. Today was an ETK Rite of Passage day, meaning more clean & press/pullup ladders and swings. Mondays are "light" days in terms of volume, and Wednesdays are "medium" days. Saturdays, therefore, are "heavy" days, but since I'm still in Week One the volume isn't all that horrific. The clean & press/pullup ladders today were still only 3 ladders x 3 rungs, and the timed swing interval was only 4 minutes long. It was an intense 4 minutes, though: 50 swings, rest 10 seconds, repeat until time is up. My usual cadence is about 40 swings per minute, so it took me roughly 75 seconds to complete a set of 50. All told I got in almost 3 complete sets in my 4 minutes. 140 reps total, I think.

I'm also thinking I should start watching my diet a little more, just to make sure that when I go to the RKC instructor certification course I weigh in at less than 123. I'm around 118 at the moment, which in itself is fine but the upward trend together with other hormonal weirdness makes me a little nervous. My other alternative is simply to plan on using a 16 kg kettlebell for the snatch test, but considering that I've never snatched a kettlebell heavier than 14 kg in my life it's a daunting prospect.

Not that daunting, though. I can do it. It's not that long ago that I was only using 8 kg on snatches and not feeling very good about them. Last Monday I did 60 in 5 minutes using a 12 kg kettlebell and easily could have done more if the program had called for it. I'm pretty sure they were all quality reps, too. My lockout at the top looked convincing to me, I felt in control of the bell throughout, and there were no bruises on my forearms afterward.

Strength Workout B Phase 3

Lower body this time. I ended up going kinda light on the weights because this is the first week of the program and also a couple of the exercises were either new to me or ones I hadn't done in a while.
Here's what it looked like:

superset: DB deadlift, 1x5x35's; 1x5x40's; 1x5x45's; BB front squat 1x5x65; 2x5x75

superset: BB split squat, rear leg elevated, 2x10x75; stepups, 2x10x25's

tri-set: SLDL, 1x10x60; 1x10x70; 1x10x80; SB back extension, 3x10; standing vertical barbell twist; 3x10x35

On the front squat I opted to go very light and focus on full range of motion, as I would if I were performing the exercise with a kettlebell. In the context of the other training I'm doing I felt as though that made more sense than using heavier weight and stopping at parallel.

On the dumbbell deadlift ... eh. Next workout I'll go heavier. Ditto on the SLDL. I'll probably keep the same weights on the second superset but add volume.

I also taught my first 1-hour cycling class in forever. A few of my regulars are training for endurance events this summer and have been wanting a longer class, and since the studio was free it was no problem to extend the class time by 15 minutes. Everyone hung in there and did very well, including me :) Long cardio is so not my thing, but it was fine. It's easy to pace yourself when you know exactly what's coming next.

Tomorrow will be my second ETK Rite of Passage practice. Same 3x3 clean & press/pull-up ladders as Monday, plus swings, sets of 25 with 10 seconds rest between sets, for a total of 6 minutes. Thursday I will work on cleans & getups, and probably also do TRX Metabolic Circuit A Phase 3 for the second time. (Oh, rapture!) Not sure what Friday will look like--possibly Strength Workout A again. It doesn't involve any overhead pressing so I don't think it'll interfere with my ETK Rite of Passage practice on Saturday.

Strength Workout B

This will be my last time doing this particular workout. Weeks 5-8 of the Infamous TRX Workout also have two strength workouts per week but they're pretty different: Workout A is all upper body with some very low rep stuff in the beginning (good for maxing out strength gains), while Workout B is all lower body and core. I don't love split routines, but for 4 weeks I can deal.

Today's session went okay. Well, sort of. Another exerciser was using some of the equipment I needed for the workout, and while she let me work in, I couldn't keep my rest periods exact. Since I was starting to run into time constraints I finally ended up subbing in dumbbell cross-body arm extensions for the cable rope pulldowns just so I could get my workout done in time to teach cycling at 12:30

So, the workout:

general joint mobility stuff to warm up and activate my glutes and lower traps, then a couple sets of squats with relatively light weight as a specific warmup.

Then it was down to business:

BB squat, 1x6x145, 2x6x155
DB stepups onto 16" bench, 2x6x30's, 1x8x30's
DB military press, 3x6x25's, supersetted with pullups, 3x6
DB cross-body arm extensions supine on stability ball, 3x10x15, supersetted with stability ball jackknives, 3x10

Then, cycling. I had a new playlist all ready in case the California Supreme Court did the right thing in regard to Prop. 8 (songs you might hear at a gay wedding reception :)), but since they didn't I used one of my other playlists. I should maybe make one that's all protest songs.

Strength Workout A(gain)

I gotta say, I'm glad I'm on week 4 and won't be doing this particular workout again. This was only my 4th time doing it, but even so, I'm bored. I have workout ADD and it's a problem, truly, because certain of my physical goals (kettlebell mastery, stronger feet, improved balance and flexibility) cannot be achieved except by doing the same thing over and over until it sinks in.

Anyhoo, as you may recall but probably don't, Strength Workout A is the one that starts with deadlifts. My plan for this week was not to try to break any new ground in terms of weight, but rather to increase the number of reps performed at the weights used last week.

Here's how it went:

Deadlifts: 2x6x115 (warmup); 1x6x145; 1x6x155; 1x6x165

I felt okay about my performance all things considered. My grip gave out on rep 5 of the last set so I needed to take a second or two to regroup before performing my last rep. Still, not bad. I don't see many guys deadlifting close to 150% of their bodyweight. Heck, I don't see many guys deadlifting 150% of MY bodyweight :)

Next up was barbell forward lunges: 3x8x95. Again, same weight as last week but more reps.

Then, dumbbell incline press supersetted with dumbbell bentover rows:

Presses: 3x8x40's
Rows: 3x6x45's

Finally, stability ball crunches supersetted with incline curls, 3 sets of 10 each exercise. I completed the first set of curls using 20's for all reps, but hit failure midway through on the second 2 sets and had to finish with 15's. I pretty much knew I that would happen but I opted to start with the 20's anyway because I think using the 15's for all 10 reps would've been a bit too easy. The other option would have been to do more than 10 reps with the 15's, but given that I despise doing biceps curls I preferred to get it over with in as few reps as possible.

I think Phase 3 of the Infamous TRX program is an upper/lower split, though I couldn't swear to it. I've been trying not to look ahead at what's coming, because I don't want to get ahead of myself. I did, however, take a peak at the TRX conditioning workouts for Phases 3 and 4 and they look truly terrifying. Not only are the rest periods shorter, but the work periods are longer--up to 45 seconds from 30. The exercises are getting more challenging as well. I think there's even some plyometric action coming.

(Note: If you have a suspension trainer you owe it to yourself to attempt pistol jump squats. Do them once, acknowledge their greatness, and vow never to speak their name again.)

In other vaguely workout-related news, I am now the proud owner of a pair of Converse All Stars. Lifting barefoot at my gym is not allowed, which basically I consider to be a sensible rule given that there are any number of overenthusiastic teens who consider it to be good lifting form to fling their weights at the floor at the end of each set. But the obvious downside is that most athletic shoes are too cushy to be appropriate for, well, any exercise that you would do standing up. Converses, however, are low-tech, not particularly cushy, and a respectable choice when going barefoot is not an option.

Mine are bubblegum pink. They are adorable. I tend to go in for pink and adorable. I like to think it makes me even scarier somehow.

Oh, yes, and my workouts this week ....

I've been slacking a bit, sort of. I didn't feel great Monday, so decided to take a rest day. I actually felt a little worse on Tuesday, but sucked it up and worked out anyway before teaching spinning. It was my third time through Strength Workout B of the Infamous TRX Workout:

Joint mobility to warm up, then 2 sets of barbell squats @100 lbs to warm up, then

Barbell squats, 3x6x150; 1x12x115

DB step-ups onto 16' bench, 3x6x30's

superset: pullups, 3x6; DB overhead press, 2x8x25's, 1x6x25's

superset: SB jackknife, 3x10; cable rope pulldown, 3x10x50

I woke up feeling a little funky in my lumbar spine which is why I didn't try to go real heavy on the squat. It just wouldn't have been smart. In fact, I should probably have backed off on the weight even more than I did because I feel as though my range of motion was compromised.

I didn't feel wonderful on Wednesday either, so I took another rest day. Well, it was an active rest day since I had ballet.

In case you were wondering, pointe shoes hurt. Think about having all your bodyweight resting on the tip of one big toe. That's basically what's happening when you''re doing something like an arabesque or pirouette en pointe. I weigh about 115, which is a lot of weight to be resting on an area that's maybe half a square inch. When the pain gets too bad the natural tendency is to fall back a bit so your weight is spread out over a little more surface area ... but that's wrong and it looks ugly and if you do it in class all the other ballerinas will make fun of you and poke you with sticks.

Okay, not really. Still, next time you go to a school dance recital check out the pointe girls if there are any. Unless it's a company school the odds are pretty good that 3/4 of the girls won't really be up on their pointes. If one of them is your daughter, try not to be offended by the old bat behind you who's muttering, "Pull UP, ladies!" under her breath. She's doing it with love. At least if she's me, which she very often is, she's doing it with love.

I had another ballet class today, and also struggled through TRX Workout A, Phase 2. Same parameters as last time, except this time I went for 4 rounds.

PR Friday

This was a strength day. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, the strength workouts in Phase 2 of the Infamous TRX Workout are the same as in Phase 1. That's okay, though because I'm still making progress.

Here's what I did after my bodyweight warm-up:

Deadlifts, straight sets, two light sets just to get things going (I think I used 95 lbs, did 8 or so reps each set) then:

1x6x135
2x6x155
1x3x165 (can I have a WOOT! here?)
1x12x125

No straps, no hooks, no belts, no gloves even. Just me and my muscles, getting it done!

The last two sets, BTW, were just because I felt like it. They're not part of the program as written by Alwyn. But I really felt as though I had it in me after my third set to go a little heavier, and I wanted to give it a shot. Then after that I wanted to do a back-off set because again it just seemed appropriate. I was really excited about my grip not failing during the final set, because it took me a good 45 seconds to do the 12 reps and that's a long time to be holding a barbell that weighs 10 lbs more than you do!

Okay, I'll stop blowing my own horn now. No, I won't.

Next up were barbell lunges:

2x8x85
1x6x95

Then, dumbell incline presses supersetted with dumbbell rows. Again, personal records were set. I used 40's for all sets of the presses and 45's for all sets of the rows. I had no one to hand me the weights, but even so they got in place just fine. I even got 8 reps my first set. Only 7 on sets 2 and 3, though.

I finished with dragon flags done on an incline, and incline dumbbell curls, 3 sets of 10. I used 20's for 1 1/2 sets of the curls, then went down to 15's

Then I ran a few intervals on the treadmill.

After that I had a nice chat with one of my coworkers who is a natural healer. I don't really understand what it is that she does--it's not exactly massage, although touch is involved, and it's the sort of thing that if I didn't know her and know some of the people she has helped, I would probably think was utter New Age quackery. Anyway, we were talking about overcoming our reticence to market ourselves and actually charge money for these skills we've got. I was telling her she really needed to get a website, start networking, and all that good stuff, because if she doesn't start charging enough money at least enough to get her bills paid she won't be able to provide her service to anyone because she'll be too busy working at some job she hates just so she can put food on the table.

I probably need to take my own advice, at least somewhat. I've got enough saved from my 18 years practicing law that I'm not too worried about making mortgage payments and so forth. On the other hand, there are some special skills I want to acquire so I can share them with people--a kettlebell certification is high on the list--and that means working with a good trainer, and that'll cost $$$. I've also thought about a yoga certification although money is less of an issue there because a YogaFit certification isn't that pricey and it'd be adequate for 85% of my needs.

Deadlifts and more!

Today was my second time doing Strength Workout A from the Cosgrove/Quelch/Berardi TRX experiment:

BB deadlift, two light sets to warm up, then, 1x6x135, 1x6x145, 1x6x155

BB front lunge: 3x8 each leg x 75

superset: incline DB press, 3x8x35's; bent-over DB row, 3x8x40's

superset: SB crunches, 3x10; incline DB curls, 3x10x15's

I was very happy with my performance. I used to have to use straps if I wanted to deadlift that much weight for more than a couple reps. I also had no trouble getting the 35's into place for the incline press. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I'd had a training partner to assist I could've pressed 40's.

After I finished lifting I felt like doing a little cardio, so I did a few intervals on the treadmill: 6x 30 sec. work at 9 mph/60 sec. recovery at 4 mph. I haven't been doing much running lately so I went a little slower during the work periods than I have in the past, but honestly I could've picked it up some. Next time I will :)

Strength Workout B

I'm liking these workouts :)

Squats, 1x8x65, 1x8x95, 3x6x135

DB step-ups, 1x6x25's, 2x8x25's

superset: DB overhead press, 1x6x25's, 2x8x25's; chinups, 7, 6, 6

superset: SB jackknife, 3x10; rope cable pulldowns, 3x10x50

Then a little later I taught a fairly challenging cycling workout. I usually do one big endurance drill for the folks who are training for an event, plus some high intensity intervals for the people who are there for general fitness and fat loss. The intervals might be tabata-style, or there's another thing I like to do, where the length of the interval does not change but the rest period gets shorter. That was what we did today: 30 second work intervals, with rest periods dropping from 1 minute to 15 seconds, then going back up to 1 minute, then down to 15 seconds again. The other thing I do is vary the length of the work interval while keeping the rest period constant.

It's even more fun than it sounds, trust me :D

An Alwyn workout

Pretty sure this was a Cosgrove creation, anyhoo. It's Strength Workout A from the Phase 1 of the "informal experiment" he did with John Berardi and Fraser Quelch to see which is more effective for fat loss: strength training and cardio, or strength training and TRX conditioning circuits. Since I did TRX Conditioning Workout A yesterday, Strength Workout A seemed like a sensible thing to do today.

After five minutes or so of various TRX exercises to warm up, I did straight sets of deadlifts:

8x65 warmup
8x105 warmup
6x135
2x6x145

Then I moved on to straight sets of barbell front lunges:

3x8x65

Then dumbbell incline presses (1x10x30's, 1x8x35's, 1x8x30's) supersetted with bent-over dumbbell rows (3x8x35's).

Then stability ball crunches (3x10 x yawn) supersetted with dumbbell incline curls (3x10x15's)

And that was that.

According to Berardi's seven rules I could go have some grain now if I wanted it. But I'm not in an oatmeal mood, and the only other grain I like is the highly refined sort that comes in Absolut bottles. So, forget that.