Couple of Days

Tuesday Night kettlebells:

We ended up doing a workout that is pretty simple just a lot of work. Basically you are just doing cleans, clean and press and snatches. But, you do alternating arms. So one rep right and alternating swing to switch hands then one rep left and back to the right arm. We ended up doing 15 an arm of each exercise, 20 and arm and 50 an arm. That totals 1040 reps or something but the bulk of them are swings. Jeanie was the only one who got all 1040 reps the rest of us got just at 1000. There were 6 of us: me, jeanie, pammie, tammie, robin and teowanna.

Wednesay Morning Cardio:

I did spinning with Larry and Martha which is always fun. I don't do quite the level of exertion that they do because of KB's the night before but I still sweat like a pig. The banter back and forth between the two of them is a scream and Martha picks excellent music.

Wednesday Strength Training:
Rosemary joined us which was fun. We did buffalo bar squats off a box. we hadn't done squat in a while and I hate them but did ok. I think we worked up to like 200 lbs. for 3 off a box, not bad.

then we did deadlift/squat/good morning things with our new Monster Multi Strap, don't know how much weight but it wasn't that heavy.

We finished with something that I don't remember. Oh well, Tonight is Kettlebells again but I don't know what we are going to do.

Meningitis

When my traps get fired up I get horrible tension headaches. I tell everyone that I have Meningitis when this happens so that I get more sympathy. When we did the double Judo Chops two thursdays ago it really messed up my traps. I haven't been training very hard because I keep getting headaches.

I did manage to do something yesterday. I ran 3.86 miles (I had to pee so badly that I stopped short of the goal of 4 miles). I did this in 41 minutes which wasn't too bad.

Strength Training:
Pushups off the straps 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 reps
Rows with a green band and the Rev. Hyper. He loaded 200 lbs and attached the green band. We sat on the ground with our feet on either side of the machine and rowed. 5 sets of 20 reps
Standing incline dumbell presses w/ 15 lbs. 1 set of 25, 1 set of 50 reps
Something else but I can't think.

Inauguration Day

I may take tonight off. Last Thursday we did double judo chops and I think I pulled something in my upper lat/trap region on my left side. It is not injured but it does hurt mighty powerfully and so I think I will just teach tonight. I don't know what they will do - will post the workout tomorrow.

yesterday I did 55 minutes on the elliptical on level 8-10. for strength training we did power cleans w/ the bar and then the bar +10lbs. Front squats in the smith machine down onto a stability ball and then butt lifters on the cool machine we have.

truth be told I sort of half-assed the strength workout because my mind was other places. it is cold here in South Carolina (or at least cold according to me) and that makes me really lethargic. I can't stand to be cold.

Yesterday's Workout

Cardio am: I ran 4 miles. I varied the intensity but in the middle I did 2 minute increments on 5.0 and 6.0 for 20 minutes. I was pretty happy. It took just over 45 minutes to do 4 miles.

Strength Training: Just because i hadn't worked my back enough we did an upper body circuit. 20 reps of everything and each round he added a new exercise. Here is what we did
Bench with 1 chain
Suspended Pullups off the floor
Plate raises w/ a 25 lb plate
T bar rows w/ 45 lbs. and fat handle grip
Rear Delt flyes with 10 lb chain
Assisted dips
bicep curls w/ 45 lb straight bar

I was fried.

Tonight I think we are going to do a twist on the VO2 mac protocol. I haven't worked it all out yet but I am thinking that we are going to use a heavy bell and a light bell and go in 15 sec increments but the first with the heavy bell you just get what you can and then when you go to the light bell you try to double what you got with the heavy bell. I have to think more on this and will let you know what we actually end up doing.

KB and this morning

KB last night we did 30 minutes of static work: static squat for 30 seconds, walk back and do 5 pushups off the KB and then walk back up and do another 30 sec static hold and then 10 swings. We used heavy bells - I had a 24 Kg. Then we just did 100 stiff leg DL's and some more swings to round it out. Good solid work for the evening.

Cardio this morning - I ran and was excited about it because I haven't done any running since last saturday. I wanted to just run and my goal was 4 miles. I went a little over 3 and then ran/walked to get to 4 miles. Not very good since I didn't reach my goal.

Upper Body Strength - some stuff I can't remember. I wasn't that motivated so I didn't really work that hard.

Boy am I tired

I ended yesterday with Yoga here at the gym. Our new classes for 2009 began and I decided to come back in and take the class. I am glad that I did. The instructor (who happens to be the demon that taught the spin class that morning) put us through a great workout. The funniest thing that one of the gym dogs, a cocker named Dita, came over during the mediations part and started a tug of war with my sleeve. I was laughing so hard my abs hurt - next time you mediate try doing it with a little dog growling in your ear.

I haven't fully fleshed out tonights KB class but I am thinking that I will set up a ladder of movements like heavy swings, rows, squats. I don't know, I will let you know tomorrow what we end up doing.

I am running tomorrow and just downloaded the new Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum between the Numbers novel to listen to. I can't wait:)

Today's Workout

First, KB class last night was better than I thought. I got 600 reps w/ the 16 Kg and 200 with the 12 Kg. Dan got 600 - 700 reps with the 20 kg and Pam got 785 using both the 16 and the 12 Kg. That was awesome.

This morning I arrived at the gym ready for spinning at 5:30 am but Martha was already here and told me she had to start early because of a work thing. So, we started and she taught the class and I thought I was going to DIE. She is a spinning hellcat. At least she plays awesome music and is good company or else I would have given up. We went hard for 45 minutes and then I just peddaled the last 15 minutes. Yikes!

For strength training we did floor presses with a 12 kg kettlebell suspended by bands on either side of the bar 4 sets fo 12 - 15 or so.

Rows with the same set up for 4 x 12

Lat Pulldowns alternating grips for 4x20 w/ 90 lbs.

behind the back tricep pushdowns - don't know the weight because it was behind me. 4x20.

1,000 reps in 2009

Tonights KB workout is going to be the first 1,000 rep challenge of 2009. I don't know who will be here but hopefully we will have 4 or 5 of us.

I am going to throw out a challenge. Since we have officially been doing this workout for over a year I figure 2009 will be the time to make it even more challenging. I am going to ask everyone to get out their normal 1,000 rep workout KB and then get the next size up. The challenge is going to be to incorporate the heavier bell in as many of the lifts as possible. It may mean that some of us do not actually reach the goal of 1,000 reps but we shall see.

That means tonight I will be working with the 12 kg and the 16 kg. I know I can get the swings with the 16 kg but I am hoping to do my cleans and maybe some of snatches as well.

This past saturday we ended the class with 50 snatches per arm and I did them with the 16 Kg. I have not done any high rep work with the 16 since losing 21 lbs and was unsure how strong I would feel. I felt great, my forearms and wrists were tired but I think I will do well adding this heavier weight in tonight.

Let you know tomorrow....

New Year's Resolutions

I have 2 fitness focuses for 2009. First, I want to do a local triathalon. It is a sprint: .5 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 3.2 mile run. That is in June so I am starting to get ready for it now. The second is the Georgia State Powerlifting Meet which is held in August or September. My numbers for that won't be stellar but I have always said that I want to squat 300, bench 200 and deadlift 300 so maybe this will be the year. Hopefully, my training logs will chart my progress and keep me honest in my training.

This am I did the elliptical for 45 minutes. I worked up to 12 on the resistance and did one of the cross training routines.

Strength Training - Legs

Deadlifts w/ 135 lbs 5x5
High Step Ups (past hip height) 10 a leg then 20 leg press w/ 135 lbs.
Step ups 20 a leg - 50 leg press (repeat twice)
Step ups 20 a leg - 100 leg press

that was it. tomorrow is the first KB 1,000 rep workout for 2009. I hope we all rock it out.