August’s focus is on explosive fitness. We wanted to have a “fun” month where we do a bunch of crazy stuff to build total-body fitness and endurance, and torch the bodyfat.
For this month, we go to a light/medium/heavy setup with a day where we continue the SFP2.0, which is a fantastic workout, and throw in a “Crazy Barefoot Nature Day” inspired by MovNat. We are thinking of adding another workout day towards the end of the month. I’ll keep you posted.
Today was “hard” day. The last one for the month. I wanted to really bust it out and do all five sets, with minimal rest. That did not happen.
I don’t know. I was tired or something and just couldn’t get it going. I did four sets of everything.
One thing I tried to focus on was form. I read a great article at the Gym Jones website. In case you did not know, they trained the Spartan warriors in the movie “300.” Fame aside, I really love their training philosophy. You can read more at their website, but this article about quality reps really made me think.
I did my push presses a little deeper, which went ok. TGUs went fine. When I did lunges just a little deeper (according to Gym Jones: non-weight-bearing knee “kissing” the surface but not carrying any load), man did I feel a major difference! It was hard to finish all four sets. Keep in mind, I’ve got a 16kg kb in one hand and a 24kg in the other, so it’s not like I didn’t have reason to struggle! I’m gonna be feeling that for a few days.
New record on the weight loss. I finally broke through 170, coming in at 169.8 lbs this morning (pre-workout).
Monday was the standard 20 minutes of (formerly) medium, now considered “easy” training.
Tuesday I was going for 8 sets of snatches with the 24, but hit 9 instead. I would have done 10, but my first set had been with the 16. Yeah, I know I could have done an extra set and gotten 10 with the 24, but decided not to push it. I will save that for next week.
Today is off day and I hit a new weight record: 171.6 lbs. Yeah, baby. I figure I’ve lost about 6 pounds of fat, and gained a little muscle in the process.
The plan is to keep eating clean and working out until I get the fat amount down to where I am ok with it, then changing my eating to focus on building muscle instead of burning fat.
There are different lists available on what people consider the basic human functional movements. If we consider those to be pushing, pulling, squat and deadlift, this workout does it all with only two exercises.
Perform 5×5 getups, then do 50 swings
Rest 1 minute
Perform 4×4 getups, then do 40 swings
Rest 1 minute
Perform 3×3 getups, then do 30 swings
Rest 1 minute
Perform 2×2 getups, then do 20 swings
Rest 1 minute
Perform 1×1 getups, then do 10 swings
Puke.
You could also reverse one of those exercises. After 5×5 getups, do 10 swings. Work your way down on getups, but up on swings. Or vice versa.
Man, where is the month of July going? It’s almost over and Clif and I finally sat down and tried to map out a plan for August. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but difficult as well.
Thursday, I did “heavy” training as described before. Timed it and did 4 sets of everything in about 40 minutes.
Yesterday, I totally replaced our original variety day with the Steve Maxwell circuits I toyed with last Friday. I did 4 rounds of everything, and man, was that a great workout. I urge you to check out his post, if you haven’t yet. See last Friday’s entry.
Weight hit 172.0, a new record.
Last night we went camping as a family. I really wanted to get up early and do a run in the park we were in, but with the windy night and the air mattress being only half inflated, I was just too tired. So after we got home in the afternoon and sat around a while, I decided I needed to do something.
Clif and I have been talking about what we call a “crazy barefoot nature day” inspired by Movnat. We live near an elementary school which has playground equipment for things like pullups, jump ups, etc., a fence to leap over, big rocks to throw around, and a big grassy field to run on. There are lots of reasons this type of training is good for you, not to mention fun, so I encourage you to check out the MovNat site and learn more.
Anyway, I spent about 30 minutes jogging over there, then finding anything I could to keep moving. I did some pullups on various implements, including some slow negatives because I can’t do many actual pullups. I jumped onto a platform a bunch of times, vaulted a fence. I tried to do things about 10 times. I got a large rock from the landscaping and threw it as many different ways as I could (no, I didn’t break anything). I held the rock and walked up, over and down a picnic table a few times. I crawled on hands and feet, both frontwards and backwards, across the grass. That was actually harder than I thought it would be.
The grand finale was a few barefoot sprints according to the “Tabata protocol” where you sprint all out for 20 seconds, then recover jog for 10. Yeah. That’s right. I managed four reps of that before I ’bout died. It’s supposed to be great for your endurance, though.
That workout was a lot of fun. I will be doing more of that next month, as that is what Saturday is going to consist of.
Monday I did the three-set version of the training, still using push press at the beginning, then lunges, then loaded cleans. I kept track of time and did it all in about 20 minutes. I felt like I had worked out, but not gone too hard. Just right.
Tuesday was SFP2.0, and I increased my number of 24kg sets of snatches from 6 last week to 7 this week. Did the same 4 x 1 minute sprints, with my Rocky montage sprint at 1:11, my best time so far.
Weight dropped below 173 for the first time, hitting 172.6.
My “heavy” training day on Thursday turned into 4 sets of 4, rather than 5 of 5. I was trying to shorten the breaks to no more than one minute, and I was mostly successful. I felt like I had really worked it good after that.
Thursday was the first day my weight was lower than last Saturday’s. I was at 173.4.
Not feeling like I was getting a lot from my variety days on Friday, I half-heartedly started into it, then tried some of the exercises Steve Maxwell suggested in a recent blog post. In reality, I didn’t do much yesterday.
Today was another 3 mile run in the pattern of last week, except I went a different direction on the trail than I went the week before. Also, I was faster. First half-mile sprint was at a 7:00 pace (that’s blazing for me!), then a mile at 7:20, then the last half-mile at 7:30. All better than last week. I was hoping to break 173 lbs weight upon my return but couldn’t get past it. Ended the week at 173.00000.
On my run, I ran past the training grounds for the Parker (Colorado) Fire Department. They have this obstacle course there. Here’s a vid:
I only mention that because it was the inspiration for a comment I made to some friends later in the day that they should put an obstacle course in their back yard. Thinking about it later, it seemed like such a fantastic idea, I should put one in my yard!
Monday I did the three-set version of the medium/hard routine, with a minor change. I used to start with loaded cleans and end with push press. Those work a lot of the same muscles. I decided to swap them, with the intention of dropping loaded cleans off the back of the turnip truck if I ran out of time.
So now I start with sets of push-press alternating with the TGUs, then do lunges, then loaded cleans if there is time, which there was today. I did the three sets without setting down the kettlebell.
Yesterday I did SFP2.0 again, this time hitting SIX sets of 24kg (up from two last week). I felt great about that. Other than the huge blood blister I got on my left hand when the downward part of the snatch went a little wrong and pinched my skin. Did the same 4 x 1 minute sprints. Rocky montage was at 1:20, slower than last week. Stink! That’s the second sprint. Maybe I shouldn’t have busted it so hard on the first one.
Today is off day.
Thursday, the 9th of July was a “heavy” day. I struggled to get all five sets in, and I don’t think I quite accomplished it. Still took significant breaks, but I began to run out of time.
Friday was variety day. While I still didn’t think I did that great I could already feel some improvement in the pistol. Maybe it was just some “muscle memory” and getting more familiar with the admittedly awkward exercise.
I also made the decision to cut the long runs, since it turns out they are less effective for fat burning, and do more intense work. So I did a three-mile run, and incorporated splits of 1/2 mile, 1 mile, and 1/2 mile, with 1/2 mile of easy jogging for recovery in between. That was a great run.
My normal running pace is around 9-9:30. I did my splits at a 7:20 pace for the first two and 7:55 for the last one. I felt pretty good about that.
The other benefit of that run was I dropped below 175 for the first time in recent memory, actually hitting 173.8!
Today was supposed to be the first day of doing VO2 max snatches with the 24kg. Too bad I’m not strong enough or my hands tough enough! That thing is much heavier than the 16. I was able to do two sets with the 24, after warming up with two sets of the 16kg.
For the rest of the time, I wanted to use the 24kg, so I did sets of swings and high pulls just to keep the thing moving.
Since I am now trying to burn more fat, I wanted to kick up the intensity of the 30 minute run so I threw in 4 x 1 minute sprints. All out. One is uphill, on the road, one uphill off-road, then two downhill on road. I did it at certain places, and had 4-5 minutes of slow jogging to recover in between the sprints.
The uphill, off-road is my “Rocky” montage. It took me 1:15 to do it today. I want to get that down below 1:00. Why? Because Mick says I have to!
Weight this week at 176.6. No loss yet.
