Not as big of an improvement as I hoped for. Energy level feels a bit down. Still bummed about the 10 mile run yesterday that wasn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1ynNCF5tQo
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I have been wanting to try one of Lee & Jay’s 20 by 12 workouts for awhile now. I bypassed last month’s because of a busy schedule and not really wanting to do the high impact box jumps due to my shady knees.
This month’s challenge goes like this:
4 rounds of:
12 chin ups
12 push ups
12 jumping power squats
12 body weight dips
12 knee raises on dip bars
Going into the challenge I was a bit hesitant to do the jumping power squats, again because of their potential knee implications, but other than that everything else seemed totally doable. Having the reps for each set at 12 didn’t sound very daunting.
I had watched a number of 20 by 12 attempts. Some of the elite level guys managed to do the entire circuit in less than 10 minutes, the not so elite have taken over 20 minutes. I figured I would wind up solidly in the middle.
Well after one rotation through the 5 exercises I knew this was going to be tougher than I anticipated. By the fourth set I was gasping for air and just looking desperately for the finish line.
The only exercise that I could not do all four sets unbroken were the chin ups. I had to break my last two rounds into a couple mini-sets. I was pleased that the jumping power squats went relatively well although they are indeed tough. In the later rounds I felt quite light headed after completing them.
Watching the attempt back I saw several spots where I could have saved decent time by just being smarter about taking breaks. I probably wasted close to a minute resting where I shouldn’t have. For instance, although I was panting like a dog after doing dips, I should have jumped right into the knee raises since it utilizes a different body part that wasn’t as fatigued.
It took me between 18:15 and 18:30 to complete everything. It wasn’t a great number, I was hoping to get closer to 15 minutes. I am pretty confident if I try again I will be able to shave a couple minutes off based on my experience the first time around.
Although I wasn’t thrilled with my time I was happy with my form during the exercises, it was spot on pretty much the entire time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCuE81jmWvI
At lunch time I did an accurately timed 5150 practice run. I discovered my timing must have been inaccurate on Tuesday as I only got 38 pull ups and 80 push ups this time around. Oh well.
Don’t fall in the trap
Feb15
I noticed when I was reviewing my main blog post from last year on this date that I had allowed my weight to bounce up as high as 190 pounds. I found it odd that this weight gain came while I was in the middle of doing the longest runs of my life as I trained for my first half marathon.
Well putting that number in print and the good natured ribbing of my friend regarding the number was enough to motivate me into action.
Sure it would have been easy to make excuses for the weight gain, shrugging my shoulders and attributing it to just “getting older” but deep down I knew better. When I took an honest look at myself I realized I was using my extended amounts of endurance training as an excuse to eat poorly. It’s a very common trap people fall into, rewarding themselves with food for exercise. The problem arises when you wind up totally negating the benefits of the exercise by doing so.
I remember when I was young one of my baseball coaches was a very regular runner. I always thought this was odd because despite his running routine he had a HUGE beer gut on him. Later I realized it was because he drank like a fish and used his running as an enabler to justify even more consumption.
Anyway, when I saw the 190 pop up on the scale I decided I was going to take more responsibility for that number instead of blaming other things for it. I started doing more conscious eating where you actually think about what you are sticking in your mouth instead of just slamming calories down the gullet mindlessly. “Hey I worked out, now I can EAT whatever I want!” just will not work for the vast majority of people.
I teamed up my cleaner diet with more diverse and intense exercise routines. The end result has been my dropping 20 pounds, down to my lowest body weight as an adult and maintaining it for the last 5-6 months.
It is no coincidence that my slew of personal PR’s have occurred during that time period.
I did a 5150 (5 minute warm up) practice run at the gym today. I forgot to bring my watch so I had to try to rely on squinting at a far away clock on the wall of the gym. As a result I’m not sure how accurate my time keeping was. Well my numbers were good if the timing was accurate, I think I got 43 pull ups and 85 push ups.
I broke the pull ups into 10-10-10-8-5 and the push ups into 25-20-20-20. I wish I knew how close I was to the 5 minute time period. I’ll have to do another run at home soon.
I had ideas about trying Lee’s February 20 by 12 tonight after work but I am stopping to pick up Valentine’s Day pizza for my wife so I don’t think I will have time to do it. I need to have fresh legs for this one because of the jumping, deep power squats.
Yesterday I was quite excited to see a package that arrived from Newfoundland. It was a Crossfit Islander t-shirt from my buddy Dawalli (James)
I knew about James a lot sooner than he knew me. His muscle up tutorial on YouTube was one of the first ones I ever watched. It remains one of the best examples out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TrSecnDjw
James has a very interesting background, having lived in Korea for a number of years before recently returning to his native country of Canada to open up his very own Crossfit Gym. It’s been very cool to see his dream come to life.
I identify with Dawalli not only because of his similar interests in the bodyweight/bar community, he also is of similar age to me, only a couple years younger. He can do some amazing things physically and is much more advanced than I am. Watch his 250 double under jump roping exhibition if you have any doubts.
Aside from his impressive physical accomplishments James seems to be just a good all around guy who oozes support and motivation at every opportunity.
Anyway I immediately put on the t-shirt to do some post work wall HSPU’s. The shirt will immediately go into the elite rotation along with my Crossfit Clitheroe hoodie, and Tough Mudder and Bar-barian shirts.
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So I started my Monday work out with a GUTS set. Once again I had a less than inspiring effort. I cut the dip and push up sets at the point where I would be doing single reps with extended breaks in between. I just didn’t feel like stretching it out. It worked out to 30/20/40 reps, about 15 short of my best.
I have always had a cyclical thing going on with my physical abilities. When I was real big into bench press I was always frustrated when one week a certain weight went up easily and then the very next week it would feel heavy as hell.
I also have been one of those types of person that has their moods affected by the cycle of the moon, to a pretty dramatic degree at times. Well I theorize that my strength/endurance level ebbs and flows on a similar monthly cycle. It feels like I am definitely in an ebb right now although I seem to be able to knock out 20 pull ups come rain or shine.
Neill who runs the Incite Fitness YouTube channel, one of my favorites, did a couple videos outlining using static holds to build killer abs.
Now to many people it seems strange that you can get defined abs by simply holding still but it’s true. Static holds will really help your abs.
For years and years my ab routine was just crunches and work on the various ab machines at the gym. I never had much ab definition at all.
Well since I started with serious body weight training I really had some big improvements. The fact that these improvements came about after my 40th birthday is an even stronger endorsement of the technique.
Now of course if you abuse your diet, no amount of ab work is going to help you get a six pack. I am walking around a full 20-25 pounds lighter than I used to be for most of my 30’s.
Take the time to watch Neill’s videos and try the routine, scaling it to your ability. I guarantee you will get some impressive results.
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