A little higher intensity work with M on a SS offday.

3 rounds:
4 lap run (elevated "track" at the Y - maybe 300m total?)
200 m row
front plank
6 side kicks (3L, 3R on heavy bag)

The track at the Y is elevated around the periphery of the basketball court and is tiny. In fact, it's so short the sides are banked - reminds me of roller derby every time I see it. Not bad for intervals though. We did the row and plank as a partnered switch - had to hold the plank until the other person finished the row.

Man, I'm uncoordinated with the kicking.

Starting Strength - Week 1

press (2x5x45 then 3x5x55)
low-bar back squat (2x5x45 then 3x5x85)
power cleans (2x5x45 then 3x5x65)

3x5 dips

2x30 sec front plank
2x10 medicine ball twist pass (with M)

Loads still feel light but I'm trying to stay patient. Still getting flexibility back at the bottom of the squat. Weight is low on the power cleans to feel the technique but I'm sure that will change soon enough.

Intermittent

Still a little sore from the weekend's escapades in the mountains, but wanted to keep consistent, especially with the more aerobic conditioning. Ran some easy intervals at Coles:

running intervals (60-60 s work-rest, 20:00 m/mi rest, no incline)
4x 8:34 min/mile
4x 8:00 min/mile
2x 7:30 min/mile

3 rounds:
60 s front plank

Definitely not speedy today, but enough to get the HR up (150s the first few rounds, then up to 180 by the end). Felt good and under control, will work on increasing the pace.

Rocky

Warm-up:
Burgener warm-up

Crossfit WOD 080712 (scaled from 15 to 10 reps)
10x [1 power snatch + 5 OHS] (2x45, 2x55, 2x65, 2x75, 85(f), 85)

60s front plank
10 hollow rocks
60s front plank

Quick and light workout between lifting days. Overall good speed on the PS and OHS felt solid, lost the one set at 85 on the first OHS, balance was just off. Hollow rocks were a real core burner, need to work on my form - kept losing the shape but I think I may have been going too far backwards.

M and I dragged ourselves out of bed to do a little stair work at East River Park. Went sailing with Eddie Saturday, nice little cruise on At Last from Glen Cove to City Island in the Bronx. Beautiful day and Eddie let me take the helm for much of the trip west; I had forgotten how tiring just holding the tiller could be.

6 amphitheater stair reps

30 s plank hold
10 plank walk-ups
10 side plank twists

6 amphitheater stair reps

30 s plank hold
12 plank walk-ups
10 side plank twists

6 amphitheater stair reps

Cool down:
GHD situps (partner leg hold on park bench)
handstand practice (back to wall)

Stair sessions were continuous and steady: ran up one set and down the next, across and back to get 6 reps (~2:00 per session).

Hand(stand)s against the wall!

Warm-up:
court jogs
Burgener warm-up

6x [2 power snatch + 2 OHS] (45, 65, 76, 85, 95, 105 [dna OHS])
1x8 heaving snatch balance (45)

3 rounds:
10 GHD situps
10 back extensions

handstand practice (back to wall)

Put a little Oly work in on a non-lifting day. 105 felt unsteady and heavy at the top, so I bailed on the OHS, but otherwise everything felt pretty solid. The recent squat work is helping my flexibility at the bottom of the snatch/OHS.

Played with some handstands against the wall. Never got up to more than 10 s or so - never realized how hard the lateral balance is.

I guess it's an improvement

Warm-up:
dynamic squat stretching

4-3-3-3 low-bar back (5x45, 5x95, 3x135, 2x165 then 185x4)
7x3 bench press (45, 65, 85, 95, 105, 115, 125)

Every minute on the minute (5 min):
2 pull-ups
3 KTE

Returned to Coles after its recent makeover, and I think it's a net win: despite a proliferation of new cable machines, there are now 2 real power racks (yes, more than one person can squat at the same time now). Took it easy today, been a little while and nursing a few lingering injuries: right shoulder (old climbing injury, recently reaggravated), left hip flexor (strained squatting a few months back), and forearm pulley muscle (bouldering stupidity). Think the forearm's healed, but the hip flexor still tweaky on the squats. Felt better when I concentrated on keeping the knees tracking a little wider at the bottom of the reps. Might switch to more high-bar/front squat work to see if that helps. Bench felt better than I expected, shoulder wise. Will work in some climbing work this week as well.

Junior high status: heavy and single

Warm-up:
dynamic squat stretching

3x1 low-bar back squat (95x5, 135x3, 185x2, 225x1)
KL: 275/295/305[f]
GF: 225/245[f]/235[high-bar]

3x1 bench press (115x5, 135x3, 145x2)
KL: 165/175/185[f]
GF: 175/185/200[f]

20 single-unders
20 box jumps (18"?)
20 Arianes (10 per leg)
20 bicycles
20 plank walk-ups

Went heavy for singles today with G. We worked on proper low-bar form, and Guillaume was getting nice and below parallel at the bottom; he ended up putting up the most weight by switching back to high-bar, but I think after a few sessions he'll be much more comfortable with low-bar form. For me, 275 went up easy and 295 went up hard, never even reached the bottom on 305 but should be doable. 295 is my current 1RM PR (from a while ago), so getting back to full strength. Bench felt allright, but still limited by right shoulder soreness; not bad though.

Finished up with an excellent, grinding core workout. Amusingly, a foul-mouthed tennis player found us blocking his access to the water fountain and cussed us out in the middle (while I was apologizing and getting out of the way, BTW). We ignored him, but my hat's off to G for confronting him about his rudeness in the locker room (*toasting my post-workout cappucino to you*).

OHS

bbell complex, 55#
OHS to 115#

7x2 OHS: 125, 3x130, 2x135, 140 (put bar down between reps)
5x5 bench: 115, 4x125
3x5 (each arm) TGU/WM: 20,25,20 (all barbell)

overhead squats felt good today. Reached a new PR for doubles, though I'm not sure it counts since I had to rack the bar in between reps. I think I had psyched myself out and my foot position was terrible on the first rep. Last rep went down smooth though. Bringing the bar back down to my neck is borderline terrifying at this weight.

Also had a fun time with barbell Turkish Get-Ups since Kenway had recommended them a while back. Decided to add a windmill component. I'm glad I tried the lightest bars they had because at the end of the second set I was pretty close to dropping the bar on my head. I was definitely getting some weird looks with this one.

The gift that keeps on giving

warmup:
3x10 pull-ups, dips, air squats

workout:
crossfit WOD 080402

5 rounds for time: (subbed 3 rounds for drinkin' time constraints)
30 GHSUs
25 back extensitons (subbed 45# good mornings)

SS: 9:09 [(1:34)(1:09), (1:54)(1:08), (2:15)(1:09)]
ED: 11:45 [(2:01)(1:19), (2:55)(1:17), (3:12)(1:01)]

So this post is going up late, since we did this workout on the 4th, but right now my inner thigh is really freaking sore. Those GHSUs are killer!

Last time I did this with full five rounds.

Core Dump

"Core Dump"

For time:
100 KTE
100 Good Mornings, 45#
100 Sit-ups
100 OHS, 45#

SS: 31:05
KL: 27:10
ED: 33:20

This was a great workout, a bit of a grinder, but so is Angie, the one this is modeled after. The workout hurt each of us in various ways. The OHS gave me a lot of trouble towards the end, but were a breeze for Eric, and he made up a ton of time on them. Kenway was consistent across the whole workout. I know he didn't rest at all on the good mornings. I felt pretty good about the KTE, but there was some definite core failure towards the end there as I was completely unable to get my knees up without resting.

All in all, the workout was good. Also, I had some egg-nog an hour before working out and didn't meet pukie, which is also good.

Labored Day

warmup:
SS CFWUx3, 1000m row, get-ups and windmills
KL WOD 070902 (5 rounds 30 GHSU 25 back ext) 13:34

5x5 front squats
SS 115, 4x135
KL 135, 4x145

cooldown:
3x10 weighted push-ups (35# plate)

Felt good to push the squat ROM, still feeling quad tightness from the 400m lunge workout. Front squats were definitely harder than normal (ed. note from Scott - fuckin' heavy) but it was worth it to loosen up the muscles and get the reps in.

Also caught up on the core workout from the other day, subbed sitting on bouncy aerobic ball with feet fixed in back extension machine for GHSU. Felt the core working for sure, tricky maintaining the ball in place though.

Let's Be Core-ful Out There

warm-up: inverted rows

workout:

3 circuit rounds, 30 sec rest between sets of
15x KTE
10x 25# windmills
20x 35# decline sit-ups (ED 25# round 3, KL 25# round 2-3)
15x pull-ups
30x squats
20x push-ups

cooldown:
3x10 overhead press 65#

Long workout today, but felt pretty good. Putting the windmills in for rapid movement was a mistake, so next time we'll probably remove them. Also, next time we should make it harder for sure. The goal was to really work the core today, and honestly I don't think we were quite successful. It was difficult, and we really had to grind it out, but the core was not as smashed as it could have been. Next time we'll have to add some good mornings and OHS.

Plugging away at the core

Warmup:
KL jumprope, 10x Turkish get-ups 25#plate
10x push-ups feet on swiss ball, 10x pushups hands on inverted bosu
ED 7min stationary bike @ level 9, 100RPM, HR ~140BPM
10x push-ups

7x3 weighted push-ups
KL 2x35, 3x45, 55, 60
ED 2x35, 3x45, 55, 60

5x5 KTE

5x5 push-ups, hands on inverted bosu

Did today just to keep things flowing, especially given the fact that Eric worked upper body with Scott yesterday. The weighted push-ups are a good alternative to the bench press, feels better on my cranky rotator cuff. And putting feet up on a bench would be a good progression.

I'm interested in exploring neat, alternative ways to work on the core, especially with stabilizing/balance components - for example the one-arm overhead weighted walking lunges from the other day's video. And, of course, the OHS; I luvs the OHS...

Core day

Warmup
2x situps, pushups, back extensions, OHS
L-pullups (3!)

3x10 Turkish get-ups (25# plate)

3x1 min front planks

5x5 OHS
65, 85, 95, 105, 105 (failed)

Tired today so thought I'd make it a relatively light day. The OHS was shaky, been a little too long - still getting numbness in left hand and arm with the higher reps, stopped the last set when it went numb right away.

Smashing the core

Warm-up:
snatch balance
back squat
overhead squat
overhead lunge

2 rounds of:
15 back squats, BW (135#)
15 front squats, 3/4 BW (105#)
15 overhead squats , 1/2 BW (70#)

3x1 minute front planks

Sets unbroken for the first round, broken for the second (10-5,5-5-5,10-5); an improvement over the last time I did this. I should add a third round the next time. Also, the front planks can probably go up 15 seconds a round.

Back in action!

Warm-up:
500 m row
back squat
snatch balance
overhead squat
good mornings

2 rounds of:
15 back squats, BW (135#)
15 front squats, 3/4 BW (105#)
15 overhead squats , 1/2 BW (70#)

3x1 minute front planks

Back is still tight from last week's deadlift extravaganza, so I decided to go lighter today. This was inspired by the CrossfitNYC gang. Sets were broken 10-5 the first round, and 5-5-5 the second. Detraining happens fast.

Core strength

A nice post by Randy Hauer on core training for weightlifting. No surprise that front and overhead squats figure prominently. Lots of other worthwhile reads on his blog, check it out.

Core training

Interesting plank variations here and here. The latter also has a nice photo showing when the hips drop too low, which leads to strain on the lower back.

Good general information on abdominal training here.