Thursday, March 4, 2010

Round 3 / Day 6: Original Turbulence Training Workout B + RKC Get-Ups + P90X Ab Ripper X

Given all the crap I crammed into this morning's workout, I'm a little surprised that it took less than an hour.

I started with Workout B from the Original Turbulence Training program. It begins with a couple rounds of Y-Squats, Close-Grip Push-Ups and Forward Lunges -- a sequence that's identical to the warm-up in Workout A. And then the fun starts.

The workout is made up of three supersets -- each done three times.

Superset One:

Squats: Hold dumbbells, squat down and back up, and don't round your back. Keep your knees behind your toes. If this is too easy for you, you can do One-Leg Squats (Pistols) instead. Right now, I can only manage to do a few Pistols -- without dumbbells -- using my right leg, so I opted for Squats. (8 reps)

Chin-Ups: Do 'em from a dead hang. Simple and straightforward. (8 reps)

Superset Two:

Dumbbell Split Squats: Start in a standing position, with a dumbbell in each hand. Lunge forward, pressing the front of your back foot into the ground and bending your back knee. Lower your body (keeping your torso vertical) until your front thigh is parallel to the ground. Pause, and reverse the motion but without stepping back (i.e., stay in a split-squat stance). When finished with all reps for one leg, switch to the other. (8 reps per side)

Stability Ball Rollouts: Kneel on a mat and place your clasped hands on the top of a stability ball. Slowly lean forward and roll your hands over the ball, allowing the ball to move away from your body. Keep your abs braced and your body straight, and go as far as you can. Contract your abs and reverse the motion. Repeat. (After countless Ab Ripper X and Cardio Abs sessions, this was a piece of cake.) (10 reps)

Superset Three:

Dumbbell Rows: Nothing new or fancy -- just regular old dumbbell rows. Rest your left hand and left knee on a workout bench. Lean over, keeping your back flat, and grab a dumbbell in your right hand. Start with your arm fully extended and slowly row it up and down. (8 reps)

Mountain Climbers: Just like Plank Runs from Insanity, but slowed down. Start in a plank position, pick one foot off the floor, and slowly bring your knee up to your chest. Do all your reps with one leg, then switch to the other leg. Keep your abs braced throughout. (12 reps per side)

And with that, Workout B was finished, and I moved onto the New RKC Program Minimum portion of my morning session. On the menu today: Turkish Get-Ups.


As I mentioned yesterday, I suck at Get-Ups, but with some more practice (and some luck), I'm hopeful that I'll have this licked soon. The Program Minimum requires five uninterrupted minutes of Get-Ups from alternating sides, but I put in a few extra minutes to try to land the proper form. I ended up having to do a few Get-Ups with a lighter weight (I used a 25-pound dumbbell) before I was confident enough to try a few with my 18 kg kettlebell. I'm happy to report that I didn't drop the kettlebell on my face, crush my skull and die.

Afterwards, I popped in the Ab Ripper X DVD for some Tony time. I'm pretty sure I can now recite from memory all of Tony's lines from this workout.

Speaking of Tony, I was amused to read this quote from Myron Davis, a professor of health promotions at Weber State University, who was recently interviewed about P90X: "I think he's got a lot of good things [in the program]. The problem is, I couldn't stand him."