Get Moving!!

Today's workout was pretty fun. We had the First Anniversary of the Unity Martial Arts dojo. For the anniversary, we had some guest instructors in from out of town. They took us through a workout that included several moves from the katas, including several animal stances. We also ended up doing quite a few push ups.

Our group of two-green-stripes did one of the katas as part of the demonstration period. I also had a chance to do an application from the kata, more of a soft style application. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone appreciated the demonstration.

Also, in my research, I read a recent article that looks at our activity levels and how they affect our health. Big surprise that moving more throughout the day helps you to maintain a healthy weight. The article definitely reemphasizes my choice to take small breaks during the day and move around.

Ready to Go Again

After yesterday's rest day, I think I'm ready to get back at it. Tonight's workout will focus on weight lifting, after a good warm up.

For my workout, I plan to do the following:

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Press, Push Press, Push Jerk Workout
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Press            1,1,1,1,1
Push Press    3,3,3,3,3
Push Jerk      5,5,5,5,5

I finished up the workout around 8:30 pm my time. Not too shabby, really. I felt pretty strong during the workout, which is great. I think the rest day yesterday really helped a lot.

Here are the weights I used for the different exercises.

Press           75, 95, 105, 110, 115 - (I hit a PR on the last rep.)
Push Press   95, 105, 110, 115, 120
Push Jerk     95, 100, 105, 110, 115

The work out really went well. The last few sets for the push jerk were pretty tough. However, I kept concentrating on doing the movement correctly and it really helped me get the weight overhead. I love this workout!

Rest Day and Planning

Today is a rest day for me. I'm ready for it. I haven't been getting the sleep I should be getting. There are so many things I could say about this topic, like how my health should be a higher priority. That I should get adequate rest and sleep to maximize my fitness gains. That when I sleep well, I perform better. Unfortunately, none of this has helped me get my butt in bed.

Maybe 'staying up late' should have been what I gave up for Lent.

Work Hard, Rinse and Repeat

Last night's workout for the class was a repeat of what I did Monday morning. Most everyone had a good workout doing it, although I'm sure they'll be a little sore today. Also, I did have to take some time to demonstrate to everyone how to do the snatches correctly. I expected this to take some time, so it wasn't a surprise. One key component that I kept going back to was "pulling yourself under the weight" instead of simply lifting with the arms. Focusing on that cue helped everyone do more of a snatch instead of a muscle snatch.

This morning's workout included more weight lifting type exercises. I wanted to focus on the complete body during lifting, so I had us do the following WOD.

As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 10 Minutes of:
7 Thrusters
10 Ab Mat Situps

Using 50#'s, I managed to get 9 rounds + 5 thrusters. I really wanted 10 rounds, but I guess I'll have to dial up the pace next time to get it.

Throwing Weight Around

During today's workout, I threw in some new movements. We've been working on basic movement and I wanted to try something different. The Olympic Lifts are an awesome way to work on strength and explosiveness. I think I need to add more of this to the workout plans.

Of course, during the warm up, I spent a little time going over the snatch to make sure everyone knew how to perform it safely and correctly.

5 Rounds for Time
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10 Dumbbell Snatches (5 each hand) (20#)
10 Walking Lunges (5 each leg)
10 Inclined Push Ups

I finished the workout in 7:07. I probably should have increased the number of rounds, as well as added more weight to the snatches. As it was, I was pretty tired at the end, but felt I still had something left. Maybe a push for a faster time would have worked as well. Well, live and learn.

I Think I've Broken All the Rules

I was recently reading an article about "Ways to be Obnoxious While Exercising" and I think I've broken every single one of the rules at one time or other.

Let's review, shall we?

1) Wearing Spandex - Spandex is almost a requirement when riding a bike. =D

2) Make Your Workout a Competition - I think this is the definition of Crossfit. I mean, I keep looking at my times and comparing them with everyone else. That's kind of the definition of competition, isn't it?

3) Be the person who sweats everywhere -This is just ridiculous. This is like saying, "Don't exercise so hard that you sweat." Well, if I want improvement, don't I have to work out hard?

4) Wear Shorts When It's 20 Below -  No matter how cold it is outside, when you exercise, you want to wear less clothing. I may not have worn shorts at 20 below, but I have exercised in just a t-shirt in 20 degree weather.

5) Doing laps when kids are playing in the pool - I've had this experience. I even made sure to do laps in the lap lanes, instead of the open swim area. However, kids seemed to find their way into my lanes anyways. = /

6) Ride your bike in the middle of the street - Where else are you going to ride, the sidewalks? I don't think so. I will admit, I usually ride close to the white line. However, bicycles are not causing traffic, they ARE traffic.

7) Grunting - I pretty much fail at not grunting. I mean, when I do my Olympic lifts I grunt on almost every repetition.

Rising Early is Hard to Do

Getting up early is hard to do, for everyone. I had a tough time getting to the early class this morning. Unfortunately, no one else showed up either. I ended up not doing much of anything.

One thing I did manage to get done this morning is put together the initial version of my Fitness Assessment document. This is something I plan to use when talking to people about their fitness goals and what they plan to do during the workout periods. I also ask specific questions about their nutrition plan.

The cool thing about all of this is the wife initially suggested building the document. She also recommended a friend who needed a personal trainer. I might have my first client very soon. I just hope I live up to her expectations.

Doesn't Anyone Want to Play?

So I attended the focus class at Unity Martial Arts. A focus class is where we take on aspect or advanced idea from Cuong Nhu and work on it. Tonight we 'focused' on the animal styles borrowed from Vovinam, one of the seven styles that Cuong Nhu is built on.

After an hour of that, I normally have my class. Unfortunately, tonight no one was much interested. Seems that everyone had to run off and take care of things right after class. Sad, too. I had planned on giving everyone the same test we did in yesterday's morning class.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Monday Morning Test

I had a class this morning and decided to test out our fitness. So I put together a workout to run through several different exercises, with a small amount of rest between the exercises.

During the warm up, I worked more on Cuong Nhu Philosophy. We did the normal jump rope routine before push ups, sit ups, Samson Stretches and squats. On each rep, we would say one of the philosophy points. Today was all about the 5 D's of a Winner.

Work Out
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Max Reps in 1 Minute for Each
(rest 30 seconds between exercises)
Push Ups
Squats
Sit Ups
Supermans
Burpees


I did a decent job, but not great.
PUs - 38
Squats - 40
Sit Ups - 33
Supermans - 32
Burpees - 12

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Trying to get back into the swing of exercising today, after the weather and my head cold worked their 'magic.' Don't have a lot of time, so most likely it will be a good warm up, then Tabata Cleans with either a Medicine Ball or Dumbbells.

Just have to do something!

Workout Delayed

Well, I'm still fighting my head cold, but I think it's on the way out. I went to my class, though, as the teacher.

I had the class do a version of yesterday's workout. Instead of 10 rounds, though I scaled things back. Also, instead of having them go across the whole distance, I had them half the distance.

As usual, the workouts stayed around 10 minutes. The evening workouts are usually shorter, since the class has already been going for about an hour.

Tomorrow morning's class should be interesting.

The Monday Class That Wasn't

I woke up this morning to see snow on the ground and more falling all the time. Living in the South, I figured no one would be at the class. I decided to go anyways, though. Even though I had a head cold, I knew I could at least go in and go through a modified version of the Crossfit warm up.

I was right about no one being in class this morning. It's kind of sad, since I had a new workout all figured out for everyone. The plan is below.

10 Rounds For Time
Dot Drills (go through each of the drills before moving on)
Lunges
5 Hand Stand Push Up (progression)
Bear Crawl

Well, since the Monday morning class didn't do them, then I guess the Tuesday evening class can do a scaled down version (probably fewer Rounds).

Cuong Nhu Testing

I went to test for my second Green Stripe today. It was pretty intense. I've been doing Coung Nhu for almost a year and I feel like I'm learning and growing a lot. I still need to work on the philosophy portion of the art. After all, martial arts without philosophy is just sport.

After yesterday's lifting and today's test, I'm pretty worn out. I know I'll sleep good tonight. Tomorrow will probably be an easy day. I'll prepare for Monday's class and do some skill work. Double Unders sound just about right.

Friday Night Weights

Tonight is all about weight lifting. My goal for this month is to get stronger. I mean, I weigh 195 and have a dead lift of only 300 or so. I definitely need to bump that up.

Warm Up:
About 3-5 min Jump Rope (including cross overs and double-unders)

3 Rounds of
3x5 Pull ups
3x10 push ups
3x5 Stripper Stretches
Samson Stretches (10 seconds each leg)

Burgener Warm Up

WOD:
3x5 Front Squats (95, 115, 125)
3x5 Press (75, 95, 105(f), 95)
3x3 Power Cleans (95, 105, 115)

Seems a little light, but I just need to be consistent. Coming from an endurance background, strength has always been one of my weak points. Of course, Coach always says to attack your weak points to get better all around, so that's what I'm doing.

During the warm up, I kind of surprised myself with how easy it was to do cross overs and double-unders.Of course, I've been including the jump rope as part of my warm up for a little while now. The key to good double-unders is being consistent with your single-unders first.

Planned Rest Day

Today is a planned rest day. I will most likely try to find the stuff I need to "roll" some of the soreness/stiffness from my muscles. For some reason, my hips and glutes are a bit sore. In addition, I seem to have some tightness in my hips. Hopefully, along with some stretching, adding foam rolling to my recovery days/down time should help loosen me up.

Tomorrow is more lifting! I love weights.

Class Report and Morning Exercise Routine

Led a CX Fitness class through Tabata intervals with push ups and sit ups last night. Hilarity ensued when they tried to finish the last couple of sets of push ups. Lots of grunting with little movement. =D

This morning was a "Thirsty Thirty" workout. Kind of a scaled down version of the Crossfit Filthy Fifty. I included fewer exercises and fewer reps to keep the intensity higher and to allow the class to finish quickly.

Push Ups
Tuck Jumps
Jumping Jacks
Squats
Sit Ups
Burpees

By the time I got to the burpees, I was breathing REALLY hard. I broke the burpees up into sets of 5, just to get through. Finished in 7:47. My companion finished in 9:34.

Oly Lifting... I've Got a Long Ways to Go!

Did some oly lifting this morning after a decent warm up. I didn't have a lot of weight on the bar. Instead, I tried to concentrate on decent form and explosiveness. I worked on 3x5 Power Snatches. The first couple of sets went pretty well, since I used lighter weights. As soon as I started the third set, though, I could tell my form was off.

For the first couple of reps, I wasn't finishing the pull and ended up receiving the weight slightly in front of me. I reset myself and thought about 'throwing' the weight up. Suddenly, I was able to get under the weight better and catch it in the right place. NICE!

I didn't do much else, since I was a little pressed for time. Mostly just did some work to activate the most muscles.

Full Workout below:

Warm Up -
Three rounds 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 10 squats
Burgener Warm Up

Workout -
3x5 Power Snatch (65, 75, 85)
1x5 Back Squat (85)
1x5 Push Jerk (85)

New Month, New Movement

Every month, we work on a new movement. Learning to move your body into odd positions, things you're not used to, help give you a better feel for your body and what you can do. For February, we're concentrating on
H A N D S T A N D S.

Handstands help develop better strength in the shoulders and give us a feel for body position, even when upside down. Luckily, we have a good location to practice, with padded floors and free standing posts to allow you to kick up without worrying about hurting yourself too much on the fall.

I surprised myself a little bit by easily getting into a pretty straight head stand on the first try. Of course, the next move in the progression will be a Frog-Stand (for balance) and some kick-ups (for strength and balance).