Friday's Workout

Finally -- a (sort of) easy CrossFit skills workout!

At the friendly neighborhood CrossFit gym this morning, we worked on dead hang chin-ups by doing 3 sets of 5, and then 3 sets of 3. Thanks to months of chin-ups in various P90X workouts, this was a breeze. Noticing the ease with which I cranked out my first set, Coach T started adding weights. But even with a heavy dumbbell jammed into my crotch, this wasn't much of a challenge. I know the point of today's session was to develop neuromuscular connections and to master the technique, but three chin-ups per set are nothing compared with the high-rep sets in Chest & Back, Back & Biceps, and 30-15 Upper Body Massacre.

Thank you, Tony.

On the other hand, today's metcon was a killer:

• 10 ascending-rep sets (i.e., 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10) of Sumo Deadlift High Pulls

alternating with

• 10 descending-rep sets (i.e., 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1) of Barbell Thrusters

Here's what a sumo deadlift high pull looks like:



I finished in 10:54, but I barely put any weight on the barbell (75 pounds). Also, the girl in my 5 a.m. class who usually SMOKES me in metcons finished over a minute after I was done, which leads me to suspect that I miscounted my reps/sets and ended up doing less than I should have.

Or she miscounted and did too many.

Or I am awesome. Which is highly unlikely.

Round 3 / Day 85: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre + Killer Abs

Arms. Too. Sore. To. Type.

Round 3 / Day 64: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre

I'm supposed to be kicking off another Recovery Week today, but there are a few workouts that I skipped when I was out of town a couple of weeks ago, so for the sake of being totally anal about it, I decided to go back and knock 'em off.

After today's workout, I'm sort of regretting that decision.

30-15 was a kick in the balls. Even after I ramped down to 10 pull-ups per set instead of Tony's 15, attempting 12 sets of 30 push-ups and 12 sets of even 10 pull-ups was neither fun nor successful: I ended up quitting before finishing my last two sets of push-ups and pull-ups.

Round 3 / Day 32: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre

More like 20 / 10 for me. (It's my recovery week, after all.) Nonetheless, it totally knocked me on my ass.

Round 3 / Day 16: Insanity Pure Cardio

Insanity Pure Cardio was a great change of pace today. But I have to confess that I skipped the Level 2 Drills and Push-Up Jacks -- my arms were just too damned sore. As expected, I woke up feeling like I was hit by a truck; yesterday's 30-15 workout truly massacred my upper body. On the plus side, with the start of Daylight Savings time,  I knew the kids would probably end up sleeping in -- and because I woke up bright and early, I had some extra time to exercise before I had to get breakfast on the table. I'm usually rushing to get the kids dressed and fed immediately after my workout, which means I usually greet my boys in the morning by sweating on them.

Round 3 / Day 15: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre + Killer Abs

In just 60 minutes, the One-on-One 30-15 Upper Body Massacre workout video perfectly encapsulates the very best and worst of Tony Horton.

First, the bad: Tony has plenty of time between exercises to indulge in his usual preening theatrics -- which, admittedly, have finally become more amusing than irritating to me. (Tony's like the loud, close-talking uncle who drops in for dinner and cracks stale, vaudeville-era jokes while poking a finger into your chest to punctuate his punchlines; it used to piss you off, but now you just roll your eyes and chuckle at how he can't seem to help himself.) And once again, Tony plugs his overpriced PowerStands, though to be fair, he also points out that if you bought a door-mounted P90X Chin-Up Bar, you're not going to be able to do all the pull-up variations in this workout.

But enough about the negatives. The good stuff vastly -- VASTLY! -- outweighs the bad. I kid you not: This is hands-down the best upper-body bodyweight resistance workout I've come across yet.

Details after the jump.