Achy breaky Friday

This morning I did the second workout in the program I created for my client S. Dude doesn't know what he's gotten himself into!

After warming up with a circuit of bodyweight exercises and joint mobility moves I did the following:

specific warmup:

3 pistol squats supersetted with 5 pushups, hands on bench and feet on ball

superset: pistol squats, 3x8 per leg; pushups, hands on bench and feet on ball, 3x15

superset: overhead kettlebell squats, 3x8 per sidex10 kg; 1-arm kb rows, 3x20x10kg

tri-set: superplanks, 3x10; SB prone skiers, 3x10 per side; side planks, 3x 1 per side x 45 sec.

circuit 2x, no rest:

20 kb swings (14 kg)
pushups, AMRAP in 60 sec.
20 kb swings (14 kg)
bodyweight squats, AMRAP in 60 sec.
20 kb swings (14 kg)
mountain climbers, AMRAP in 60 sec.
20 kb swings (14 kg)
alternating front lunges, AMRAP in 60 sec.

I did that first thing in the morning, then trained some clients. Had a cancellation at 10 am so checked out a Zumba class. It was a hoot! I've never done much salsa dancing, and lately I haven't even been doing jazz so my hips don't get much swivel practice!

It's actually not a bad workout, though I have a feeling some of the steps might cause knee stress in some exercisers. I think it'd be fine for most people, but for anyone with a predisposition to have pain in the knees I'd be a little concerned about all the time spent in a slight pigeon-toed stance, with the knees flexed and buckling inward. Still, if you know that's an issue for you it's easy enough to modify even if it means you're not doing an authentic merengue.

Puke-it-up Wednesday

First I warmed up with some general bodyweight exercises. Then I did a specific warmup consisting of 2 pullups and 6 dumbbell bench presses with 25 lbs. Then the fun began:

superset: pull-ups with kneeups/kneeups, 3x4 pullups with kneeups, followed by 4-6 kneeups only (the program called for 8 pullups with kneeups but I'm not that strong yet); db bench press, 3x8x35

superset: db reverse lunge, 3x8x30, decline spiderman pushups, 3x12

tri-set: hanging leg raise, 3x8; SB rollout, 3x10; plank with arms on ball and feet on bench, 3x30 sec.

tabata 2x: jump lunges/pushup setups/in and out jump squats/prone cross-toe/jump squats/running pushups/tuck jumps/inchworms

I'd been planning to do at least three rounds of the tabata, but after 2 times through I felt very ready to stop. I still had 90 minutes of ballet ahead of me, and we've been doing more jumps and turns lately so I didn't want to fry my legs too much.

Thought for the day: even good legs tend to look like boudin blanc when stuffed into pale pink tights.

RKC Tuesday

This was supposed to be the same as last Friday's workout, but on my last set someone was hogging the pullup bar so I had to improvise

Rounds 1 & 2 looked like this:

1 KB c&p each side, 30 lbs, 1 pullup, no rest
2 KB c&p each side, 30 lbs, 2 pullups, no rest
3 KB c&p each side, 30 lbs, 3 pullups, rest 1-2 min

Round 3:
KB c&p 3, 2, 1 reverse ladder
4 pullups
2 KB c&p each side
2 pullups
1 KB c&p each side
1 pullup

25 kb swings with 30 lbs, rest 10 seconds, repeat until 6 minutes is up.

Then I taught my cycling class.

Lower body Monday

superset: BB back squats, 5x115, 5x120, 5x125, 5x130, 5x135; 1-leg RDL, 5x5x 2 30 lb kbs

superset: box jumps, 5x5x20"; low bb front squats, 5x10x45

unpleasantness: 20 sec. jump squats, 20 sec bodyweight squats, 20 sec. squat hold, repeat a total of 3 times without resting.

30 min. elliptical

I'm not sure how "clean" this is, but ...

I just fixed myself a chai hot chocolate, and for fake food it was pretty yummy:

mix 1/2 cup skim milk and 1/2 cup water and heat to boiling, then add a chai tea bag and let brew for at least a minute. Remove the tea bag and stir in an envelope of sugar free fat free hot chocolate (the 25 calorie kind), and voila!

Gratuitous cuteness

I'm not quite sure what this photo has to do with health and wellness and getting super ripped and all that good stuff, but it's too darned cute not to share.

"Christian Thibaudeax can bite me" Sunday

Alternating sets:

BB flat bench press: 90x5, 100x1, 95x5, 105x2 (woot!), 85x10
pullups: BWx5, BW+10x1, BWx5, BW+15x1, band assistedx12

KB complex, 5x12 kg: 10 swings, 5 clean & press each side, 10-15 hand to hand sumo deads, 5 high pulls each side, 5 overhead full squats each side, 10 hand to hand swings

Each round of the complex took about 3 minutes to complete, so with a 1 minute rest between rounds I had a nice little 20 minute metabolic conditioning routine.

I think I like this combination of heavy resistance and metabolic work.