Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

The hotel gym has no pull-up bar, no rings, no barbells, no heavy weights. Just a bunch of elliptical machines, stationary bikes and treadmills, along with a few weight machines. Not good.

I ended up doing a bunch of handstand push-ups, some dumbbell bench presses (yes, it's been a while), and some side presses.

Metcon:



"Death by Burpees":

Start a timer and -- with a continuously running clock -- perform one burpee at the start of the first minute, two burpees at the start of the second, three burpees at the start of the third minute, and so on until you can't finish your set of burpees in a minute's time.

Result: I got about halfway through my fourteenth minute/round before time ran out and I collapsed in a sweaty puddle. The first ten rounds seemed remarkably easy, but I suddenly hit a wall in round 12, and quickly went downhill from there.

This was a gut-bustingly fun workout -- and desperately needed after last night's bacchanalia -- but I got some weird looks from the other people in the hotel gym.

Saturday's Workout

I had a hard time deciding today whether to rest completely or to go balls-out, and ended up splitting the difference. Instead of a full-blown workout, I settled for a brief PTP session:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• A few handstand push-ups

Eazy duz it.

Sunday's Workout

I woke up late, and only had a half hour before the kids got up, so I managed to squeeze in only a quick Power to the People workout:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 pull-ups

It's been more than a week since I last did the PTP routine, but surprisingly, my numbers haven't gone down. My strength hasn't increased, but it hasn't decreased, either. Maybe this stuff works after all!

Saturday's Workout

Power to the People, right before bed:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups

Saturday's Workout

After a few days off from my Power to the People routine, I'm back at it:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups

To that, I also added a few handstand push-ups, toes-to-bars and knees-to-elbows.

Later today, I'm going to catch up on the Mobility WOD stretches I haven't yet done. But after that, I'm just going to plant myself on the couch and read Greg Everett's book on O-lifting:

Saturday's Workout

Groove: Greased.

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 5 weighted push-ups

I'm finally getting to the point where I need to order more weights!

Thursday's Workout

More groove-greasing:

• 2 sets of 3 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups

Tuesday's Workout

Still greasing the groove, Power to the People-style:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups

In other words, nothing to see here. Move along.

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats

Metcon:

• 10 X 50m sprints (starting from a prone position, lying stomach-down on the sidewalk)

When I got home, I did a truncated Power to the People workout, with just deadlifts, side presses and weighted pull-ups.

Simple, straightforward stuff today, but still satisfyingly tough.

Tuesday's Workout

Power to the People!

• 2 sets of deadlifts
• 2 sets of side presses
• 2 sets of weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

Also:

I did Ab Ripper 200 and the first half of P90X X Stretch. Ah, Tony -- I'd missed your crazy-eyes, helmet-hair and dumb jokes.

Saturday's Workout

M and I didn't get home last night until almost 1 a.m., and I was ready to collapse before we managed to open our front door. I'd been up since 4:20 a.m. (CrossFit class waits for no one), and I desperately needed my beauty sleep.

Thankfully, the kids spent the night at their grandparents' place, so we got a couple of extra hours of shut-eye before dragging our asses into the garage to exercise.

"Isn't it pathetic?" M mused. "For once, the boys aren't here, and we could have gone out to brunch or the Farmer's Market or something. We could have gotten a ton of stuff done. But instead, we decided to work out in the garage."

Answer: Yes, we are pathetic.

M worked out to her Chalene Johnson DVDs while I did another day of my (customized and expanded) Power to the People program:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

And then, for no good reason (other than because we weren't in danger of being interrupted by a five-year-old demanding food), I pulled out my Insanity DVD set and did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit routine.

Big mistake.

At the time, it felt nice to get reacquainted with the pace and exercises in Shaun T's workouts. Having not done an Insanity workout in weeks, I even felt a wee bit nostalgic about the pulsing, mildly-annoying background music. The moves were just as challenging as I remembered, and I certainly broke a sweat.

But did I overextend myself today? Definitely. I'm zonked. After dinner, sitting beside my two-year-old as he watched a cartoon, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I realized that I'd collapsed on my toddler, and was using a small child as a pillow.

Thursday's Workout

More strength-building, Power to the People-style.

• 50 air squats
• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 push-ups
• Handstand practice

Turns out that prior to today, I was doing side presses incorrectly; I was doing basic shoulder presses, without really engaging my lats. Yesterday, Coach T showed me the proper movement, which looks like this:



Needless to say, I currently suck at this.