Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats

Every time I descend into a front squat, as if to remind me to get all the way to the bottom of the movement, the theme song to "The Wire" (a.k.a., the best TV show of all time) automatically plays in my head: "Way down in the hole..."

Squat deep.

Metcon:

For time:

• 10 push-ups, 1 pull-up
• 9 push-ups, 2 pull-ups
• 8 push-ups, 3 pull-ups
• 7 push-ups, 4 pull-ups
• 6 push-ups, 5 pull-ups
• 5 push-ups, 6 pull-ups
• 4 push-ups, 7 pull-ups
• 3 push-ups, 8 pull-ups
• 2 push-ups, 9 pull-ups
• 1 push-up, 10 pull-ups

Result: Simple, straightforward bodyweight-oriented WOD. But it still took me 5:20 to finish.

Rest Day

If you're working out like a madman every day of the week, you may want to build in some more rest time. I was super-reluctant to do it, but once I did, I haven't regretted it.

I've previously mentioned the importance of recovery, but I've only recently put it into practice in a consistent way. I've now reduced the frequency of my balls-out exercise sessions to three or four times a week, and taking just about every other day "off."

By "off," however, I don't mean that I'm just sitting on my ass, eating Triscuits and watching HBO. (For starters, I don't eat grains anymore. Also, we dropped our HBO subscription a few months ago -- right around the time I came to grips with the fact that "The Wire" ain't never coming back.)

Instead, on my so-called "off" days, my focus is on stretching and mobility. I'm still making my way through Kelly Starrett's Mobility WODs, and I'm staying pretty active in a low-intensity, Primal Blueprint "move frequently at a slow pace" kind of way. And when I'm feeling up to it, I'll do some sub-max effort, low-rep Power to the People moves to improve my form on deadlifts and side presses.

Back when I was P90Xing like crazy, the very thought of taking more than one day off per week was anathema. I was certain that if given the opportunity, I'd backslide into my couch-potato ways. But with my current routine, I've learned that: (1) my body absolutely needs some time off between CrossFit workouts to adequately recover and attack my next WOD with the appropriate level of intensity; and (2) the workouts at my CrossFit affiliate are actually two-a-days, in that they include both a max-effort strength session and a metabolic conditioning WOD. According to my trainer, even though I'm only visiting the gym three times a week, I'm squeezing in six workouts.

So far, so good. Since adding more rest days to my weekly routine, my strength and form have noticeably improved, and I've also boosted my metcon WOD results. Plus, I'm getting more shut-eye (when it's not Monday, Wednesday or Friday), I have a lot more energy, I'm able to bring maximum intensity to my workouts, I'm not (as) grumpy from constant fatigue, and because I'm still doing my best to eat clean, my body composition hasn't suffered.

Then again, maybe I'm just finding excuses to be lazy.

P90X Day 1: Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

Holy shit. That was the most intense upper body workout I've had in a while -- even though it barely involves the use of weights (other than my own body weight).

Granted, before today, I hadn't been diligent about exercising my chest and back. I typically rush through a few sets of presses, flys, and rows, and then call it a day. Usually, the TV in our home gym is on, and I spend too much time between sets distracted by episodes of The Wire on DVD (which I've seen before, but cut me some slack -- it's the best TV series of all time). In sum, I've been fucking around instead of focusing on my workout.

Clearly, fucking around is not an option with the P90X Chest & Back program. Sandwiched between a few minutes of cardio warm up, ballistic stretching and cool down time, the core program consists of twelve upper body exercises, each of which is done 'til you can't do no more. And then you repeat the entire workout.

The Chest & Back routine includes:

• Standard Push Ups
• Wide Front Pull Ups
• Military Push Ups
• Reverse Grip Chin Ups
• Wide Fly Push Ups
• Closed Grip Overhand Pull Ups
• Decline Push Ups
• Heavy Pants
• Diamond Push Ups
• Lawnmower
• Dive Bomber Push Ups
• Back Flys

And repeat! That is, until you crumple into a puddle of your own sweat.

Ab Ripper X was next -- it's only 16 minutes long, but after an hour of Chest & Back, I was barely able to squeeze out the 339 reps required to get through this core-strengthening workout.

I'm exhausted, but this is exactly what I needed: A good, old-fashioned, boot-camp-style ass-kicking. I still have 89 days ahead of me on this program, but I can already tell that this is going to be fun.