Garage Gym Warrior Fitness

10/30/09

WOD:

Overhead Squats: 5 x 10

Power Snatch: 3, 3, 1, 1, 1

Athletes:

Jack........ 45, 45, 45, 45, 45 - 65, 95, 95, 125, 130, 130

I know what you're thinking, "Hey Jack, what's up with the WOD today?" Well.. as much as it pains me to say this, I have an admission to make. I can't overhead squat. "Whaaahuh?", you say, "But Jack, we've seen you OHS. Hell, we've even got pictures of you putting up weight." Ok, technically this is true. Then again, there are pictures of me flying a Schweitzer 300C and I'm not a helicopter pilot either. I mean come on, there are pictures of me with two strippers and a midget in Vegas and I'm not... you know what, never mind. In fact, forget that last part entirely... pretend I didn't mention that.

What I'm trying to say is that while I can do what is by strict definition, an over head squat, they suck. They are not pretty, not solid and just not any good (almost exactly like the last Nicolas Cage movie) . My left shoulder doesn't move far enough back, my knees tend to wiggle and I look like I'm trying to lift a pregnant yak. Now, there's a fix for this. It's pretty easy actually, the fix is to start over. I mean to take the ego out of it and start completely over. Pick up a broom stick and work unweighted until it looks like it's damned well supposed to. Take the time to stretch the shoulders and focus on doing the movement right not trying to move weight. The solution is to build a solid foundation, then and only then, to start piling on the weight. Pretty obvious really but rarely done. It's hard to go backwards. To feel like you're going back to the beginning. Yet sometimes this is exactly the best way to move forward.

I see a bit of broom work ahead of me in the next few weeks but one day, with a lot of hard work, two more strippers and possibly another midget (she preferred to be called "petite" BTW), I know I'll have a real over head squat.... maybe.

10/29/09

WOD:

4 Rounds of:

- 15 Ring Rows

- 15 Bench Tricep Dips

- 20 Push Ups

- 15 Knee Hugs

Athletes:

Jack........ 11:09

Susan...... 13:13*

We got started a little late tonight due to traffic. Fortunately this gave your humble narrator an opportunity to spend some time in the gym pondering the significance of continually varied workout plans. Then we hit the warmup. Once that was complete we once again started with a little work on snatches. This time is was a version of the Burgner warmup. Susan seemed to gel with this pretty well and I could see that the movement was becoming more and more comfortable to her.

We proceeded with a few other movements which he hadn't done before and then verified that all the movements for the workout made sense. Now... this doesn't look that intimidating when you just see it on the board. 15 reps here, 20 reps there, a little of this and a little of that. How hard can it be? Well, because of the way the workout is put together it actually turns out to be fairly bad-ass. The first round seems ridiculously easy until the push-ups. Only then do you realize that maybe those 15 tricep dips on the bench are going to come back to haunt you. By the second round it's getting a little harder to finish every movement straight through. The second set of push-ups is serious work, since when were push-ups this hard? It's downhill fast from there.

To her credit Susan just shook her arms and got down to business. Even on the last set of push-ups it was boom-boom, rest, boom-boom knock another two out and rest one second. She never quit and just kept pushing.

10/28/09

Rest Day

"There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying."
-- Francis Bacon

 

10/27/09

WOD:

5 x 5: Deadlift

Athletes:

Jack:........185, 205, 235, 250, 255

Susan made it in but with her back still a little iffy (no pain, no problem but also no confidence in it yet) she decided to take it slow. We started working on the snatch and used that as the second part of the warmup. Her technique came along well, but Susan still has a hard time making this a one step movement. She seems to keep trying to make it into a clean and jerk. Not exactly what we're going for here. Towards the end she was getting the idea.

After seeing the WOD from yesterday Susan insisted on giving it a shot. She was quite vehement and I was loath to deny her a chance to see how she stacked up. In other words, she decided that yesterday's WOD would be more fun and I couldn't say no. Normally there's no cherry-picking WODs but with her back still tender we made an exception.

Me? Hell... I knew what time it was, it was deadlift time!

10/26/09

WOD:

4 Rounds of:

- 10 Jump Squats

- 25 Knee Hugs

- 10 Jump Squats

- 25 Push Ups

Athletes:

Jordan...... 14:31*

Camilo...... DNF

Jack........ 10:47

Susan...... 13:15* (make-up day workout)

After the warmup, we started this party with a little work on snatches. To quote Mark Rippetoe, "The snatch is hard and requires a learning effort and a bit of practice. And as such, it is useful, more to the athlete himself than to powerlifting." In other words, it's a complex movement requiring the athlete to coordinate their entire body. It's not learned over a session or two, it's learned over years. The rewards are quite significant though.

Let's take a look at the dead lift. We're lifting the weight from the ground to the belt relatively quickly, say moving it 2 or 3 feet in one second. A power clean moves the same weight to the rack position, another 2 or 3 feet in roughly the same amount of time. The power snatch on the other hand moves the weight all the way to the top, 2 to 3 feet over the clean, but again in the same amount of time. The entire movement is completed in about a second. What does this mean?

Long story short, it takes a lot more energy to move the same weight 3 times as far, when compared to the deadlift, in roughly the same amount of time. Why does this help the athlete? Because it's not enough to just be strong, an athlete needs to be explosive. They need to be able to generate force quickly and the power snatch is one of the best exercises for this.

In keeping with the theme of explosive strength, we introduced jump squats today. As soon as the butt touches the med-ball, the athlete launches themselves straight up and touches the target with every jump. Full range of motion every time. These suckers'll get the blood pumping.

Camilo had to tap out, apparently eating a massive lunch before training didn't workout like he'd planned. Hm... who'da thought?

10/25/09

WOD:

6 Rounds of:

- 1 lap / 400m run

-- 3 Minute Break --

Athletes:   R1.....R2.....R3.....R4.....R5.....R6

Steve:..... 1:27 - 1:39 - 2:05 - DNS - DNS - DNS

Jack:...... 1:29 - 1:29 - 1:29 - 1:31 - 1:32 - 1:31

 

The sun was shinning, the birds were singing and there was no one on the track. Man, I love training on Sunday mornings. Steve... usually does, unfortunately a complete lack of sleep (hey, someone has to live the millionare playboy rock and roll lifestyle) put a bit of a hitch in his stride for the run.

The theoretical goal here was to run 90 seconds laps with 3 minute breaks. Once you can consistently do that, you can go ahead and start cutting down the breaks... apparently this is where's we're at right now. Let me tell you, dropping even 15 seconds of the break during the last round is going to be painful. Don't hold me to it, but I'm going to see if I can drop 30 seconds. 

Running on the dirt track is really growing on Steve and I. Guess as you start getting old the simple things become more and more enjoyable.

10/23/09

WOD:

Power Snatch: 5 x 5

Athletes:

Jack........ 65, 75, 95, 105, 115

It's been a long time since I've seen these up close and personal, I forgot how much fun they are. I did my best to remember everything Joe from Performance One taught me and could even hear his advice with the New Jersey accent yelling, "Closer to the body, closer to the body." Or when I'd pull too early, "Come on, what're ya doin'? Slow pull until above the knees, the bar has to touch your belt.  And keep it closer to the body! Roll those shoulders back, come on."

Properly done this is a very quick lift. Dynamic, explosive, it's everything you want in a movement. It builds both strength and speed leaving virtually not part of the body left unused. Well done it looks like  a strength version of ballet, poorly done it looks like you're trying to lift a pregnant yak over-head. Me... I'm apparently more of a farmer but at least the weight goes up. There was quite a warmup and a lot of form work before the WOD, good stuff I tell you..

I think we're going to be seeing more of these at the gym in the near future.

10/22/09

Rest Day

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but setting out aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
-- Michelangelo

 

A taste of things to come... my spidey sense is tingling and telling me that we're going to be learning now to power snatch some weight soon.

10/21/09

Rest Day

"Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use."
-- Ruth Gordon

 

10/20/09

WOD:

- For Points (add up every rep):

2 min
- Jump Rope
- Sit-ups

1:30 min
- Jump Rope
- Sit-ups

1 min
- Jump Rope
- Sit-ups

30 sec
- Jump Rope
- Sit-ups

 

Athletes:

Susan:...... 179, 47 - 113, 25 - 95, 14 - 36, 9 Total: 518

Jack:....... 252, 80 - 160, 48 - 96, 25 - 43, 14 Total: 718

Man do I love this workout. On the surface it looks easy, I mean... how hard can a nice little 10 minute workout be when it's just jump rope and sit-ups? Yeah, apparently harder than it looks. This my friends is a sprint. Start to finish, no pacing yourself, no resting in between rounds, no magic technique just a full bore 10 minute sprint to the finish.

Susan seemed to be holding up better than your humble narrator at the beginning. Evidently old age is catching up with me because my ass was dragging. Monday's work out left me with what some CrossFitters refer to as "some residual muscle stiffness". Right... I call it pain and suffering. Susan, hell she wasn't even limping.

Just a few weeks ago Susan was skipping on the jump rope, putting one foot in front of the other. this time she had her form down and was pumping out reps at a ferocious pace. More to the point, she wasn't missing while the SBG (Short Bald Guy) was in danger of tripping over his own feet on a few occasions.

Good job, tomorrow is definitely going to be a rest day my friends.