Trying layaway to hit payday in Ray’s Way

Sep26
by Duf on September 26, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Ray's Way

So today I once again took another shot at Ray’s Way.  This was an official attempt, complete with Round Timer running on my Iphone.  I tried something I never did before, laying away rest time.

The way the routine works is you have a 3 minute work session and then two minute rest session.  Any time you have left during a work session gets added on to your rest session.  So if I finish my last push up with 30 seconds left in the work session, my rest session is now 2:30.

Well I felt pretty good early on so I got a bright idea.  Instead of using all that extra rest time early I will bank that for later in the sets when I am really tired.

I finished my first work set with 90 seconds still on the clock.  Instead of standing around for the full 3:30 rest period I started early, with well over a minute left to rest.  My thought process was that by doing this I would be benefiting myself during crunch time in round 5.

I started every round with rest period still left on the clock until the final round.  I felt pretty good for 4 of the 5 rounds but I finished round 4 with less than 10 seconds to go, not a good thing with one round remaining.  I wound up failing in round 5, having to step off the dip bars briefly after rep 13 to readjust hands and then breaking plank on the push ups after rep 15 when I knew I wasn’t going to finish in time.

I was pretty disappointed because based on how I felt early I was pretty sure I was going to be able to complete the circuit on time and unbroken as it requires.

In the big picture it was a significantly better effort than two Tuesdays ago when I failed in round 3.  I’ll just keep plugging away.

Today’s Work Out

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Ray’s Way – 5 round of 15 dips, 8 pull ups, 20 push ups (fail in round 5)

Half Back Lever holds (bend at knee)

Two 30 second frog stands

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So this is what it feels like to weigh 540 pounds

Sep25
by Duf on September 25, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things

You may recall that last week I was feeling pretty wiped out during my first leg day after the long road trip.  I felt fatigued and weak, capping out with a one rep of 335 pounds in the dead lift.  Well this week I am feeling better.  In fact I felt well enough to take down one of my shorter term deadlift goals, one rep at bodyweight x 2, as I pulled 365 pounds off the floor.

I felt solid up until that point with both my squat and deadlift sets so I figured I may as well give 365 a shot even though 335 felt pretty damn tough.  I knew the strain lifting this much weight was going to be extreme.  I even scouted out the amount of open floor space in front of me, making sure that if I passed out I would have a clear landing area.

Unlike 335 which feels very uncomfortable going up but not bad once I get up to the lock out position, 365 felt miserable the entire way.  There was no prolonged pause at the top position, as even with my reverse grip in place, I could feel gravity starting to open up my hands.  I plunked the weight back down on the floor with a satisfying clang.

In the brief time period I had the weight in the air I got to walk in the shoes of a 540 pound man.  Let me tell you, it isn’t a pair of shoes I could move in for very long, wow.

My next DL goal would be to hit the 400 pound mark but that feels like it would be an awful long distance away.  I think I would have to go to lifting straps to even think about it.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

20 pull ups

15 prisoner squats

Barbell squats – 12 x 135lbs, 8 X 185lbs

Dead lift – (OG) 10 x 185lbs, 10 x 235lbs, 5 x 285lbs, (MG) 1 x 335lbs, 1 x 365lbs

Leg extension with pause at top extension- 12 x 130lbs

Seated leg curl – 12 x 130lbs

Standing calf raise – 10 x 295lbs

 

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Working the jaw

Sep24
by Duf on September 24, 2013 at 5:53 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

Untitled-0-00-27-14[1]I had some of my workout time burned up with side conversations about football and the Grand Canyon hike, hence less sets than desired.

Today’s Workout

5 mins cardio warm up/ stretching

20 pull ups

Following super-setted together

Standing Fat Gripz alternating dumbbell curls 25lbs x 12, 40lbs x 8, 50lbs x 2

Bar dips 15 reps x 3

Standing narrow grip Fat Gripz cable machine curls 90lbs x 10, 100lbs x 10

Chair dips 30 reps x 2

 

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Making Ray’s Way pay

Sep23
by Duf on September 23, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Endurance activities, Ray's Way

tridufThis weekend my main organized exercise was running the 10K loop that kicked my ass something like 3 weeks prior.  I haven’t done any running since then but I did of course manage to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in the interim. 😉

To make things less miserable this time Cindy and I started running 90 minutes earlier, shortly after sunrise to keep the temps down and minimize the sun beating on us later in the run.  We also ran the opposite direction on the course which gets some of the more difficult and visually maddening sections out of the way early instead of late in the run when you are fatigued.

Both of these changes made the run more tolerable, at no point was I feeling like I needed to stop.  As I felt tired I simply reminded myself what true exhaustion feels like, as in when you are traversing the last 5 miles out of the canyon.

Our pace was very mild, only averaging 9:44 per mile but at least I felt better completing the distance.  Plus when we do this 10k loop it is done with no water stops, a tough thing in south Florida weather conditions.  I am going to need to keep doing weekly long runs from here until the Tough Mudder in early November to get a solid cardio base.

So today at the gym I once again hit up an untimed Ray’s Way as my exercise of choice.  Last week I did an untimed session with the goal of just completing the 5 rounds of 15 dips, 8 pull ups, 20 push ups.  I did complete it but my time was slow and my last two sets of 15 dips were broken. (came off bars)

Today for some reason I did much better.  Not only did I keep every set unbroken, it felt like I did them significantly quicker than last week.  I am thinking about doing it again Thursday and utilizing round timer to see if I can complete it within the official time parameters.

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Back to the wall

Sep20
by Duf on September 20, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

Today I came up with a weird combo of movements to circuit train, wall hand stands, hanging L-sits, and push ups.  Each round I would vary the movements by hand position/angle to keep it diverse.  My overall body soreness level is quite high currently so I couldn’t go too nuts.

Today’s Workout

12 rounds of 20 second wall handstand, 10 second hanging L-sit, 10 push ups

Totals – 4 minutes of wall handstand, 120 seconds of hanging L-sit, 120 push ups

Each movement had variation each round

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