Opened our new CrossFit Oldtown facility 4 months ago and have been having a ton of fun coaching and making a positive impact.
Been sneaking my own workouts in here and there; hit and miss.
Finally decided to hit a few more and miss a lot less; time to simply have some fun!
Day 1, Monday 5/18
4:30AM:
Sled Push x 50 yards, Sled Drag x 50 Yards = 20 Minutes.
10:30AM:
1. Strength Couplet
Heavy Push Press and Heavy Back Squat – Worked up to a heavy set of 5 reps, hit a triple, then single.
A solid 205lb x 3r in the Push Press – I took my time; 7 sets in around an hour!
2. Core work: Strong ABS
5 rounds:
20 Sledgehammer strikes, 20 Sec L-sit holds
Can you imagine how strengthening your Abs positively affects every aspect of your life?
Aesthetics (six-pack abs)
Posture
Relative Strength
Body weight Strength
Pre-hab
Pain free life
And more…
Ab Strength is always a factor in our tough metabolic circuits and your core strength should automatically improve by doing them.
However, sometimes, it’s OK to not have a gut-busting metabolic workout and instead have a Skill day, sub-maximal GPP day, pre-hab day or simply an active recovery day…
(Can you believe Mr. “Rest Later” is saying this?)
On these alternative days we turn off the stopwatch (but don’t slow to a crawl either) we do work on the full range of motion of the movement; it is a good day to concentrate on Ab strength!
After a particularly tough barbell strength day (Max efforts or moderately heavy couplets) it is good to throw in some active recovery (AR). Barbell lifts load the spine and take its toll on the body so some AR involving the Abs is a great prescription!
Now, there are plenty of AR circuits I like, plenty!
One of the more advanced is L-sit rope pullups and light overhead squats.
(I’ll give you a simpler version also)
I like to perform 7-10 reps of each alternating between movements.
I like to work at a moderate pace and get 6-10 rounds (60-80 reps of each)
So…for me it might look like this;
10 L-sit rope pullups
10 Overhead squats
7 rounds
I push the intensity on the L-sit pullups and keep the overhead squats moderate.
During this circuit you’ll:
Make your abs stronger
Increase your recovery ability
Help bullet proof your abs and protect your back from injury
Now I realize L-sit pullups can be challenging!
Instead you can substitute Abmat situps, skin the cats on gymnastic rings, or hollow rocks on the mat.
Another one of my favorite extra workouts is;
5 rounds
20 abmat situps
10 burpees
Keep the movement going but not frantic.
If you can’t keep pace then scale the reps but increase the rounds.
Perform 5-10 rounds
12 abmat
6 burpees
Make sense?
I realize I covered a lot and left some open windows. This is a topic that has many layers and depths.
I have had some of you ask me about this recently so I thought I’d post and see…
Is this something you’d like to hear more about?
Also…
I shot a quick video showing L-sit rope pullups and Overhead squats from a few different angles, I hope it helps;
Efficiency, mid-line stabilization, shoulder mobility…the Overhead squat is tough to perform but well worth the effort and practice. If you’ve mastered it and are ready to test your mettle here are 2 great couplets for six-pack-abs and real world strength.
1. Heavy Workout: Overhead Squat 5×5 and Deadlift 5×5
Warm-up, work heavier each set and work back and forth between the OHS and DL. Your top set should be difficult or even a Max.
2. Repetition or recovery workout: Overhead Squat (90% of heaviest load used on heavy day) x 5 reps and L-sit rope pullups x 10 reps. Repeat for 5 total rounds. This can be done for time or recovery.
These movements will make you functionally Strong!
Here is a quick in-action video showing some moderately heavy Overhead squats:
I wanted to work some strength, skill, and conditioning – I went with a simple Barbell complex to get the job done!
Standard: Never put the bar down
Hang power clean x 3, Push Jerk x 3, Front Squat x 3
I set the watch on a three minute repeat timer – so a new round started every 3 minutes. My goal was to work heavier each round .
I burned through 5 “warm-up rounds” by slowly ramping the weight up. Round 6 was OK, I felt out of my groove on the push jerks so I repeated it…and there I decided to stay for 5 total rounds.
So in the end it was a 30 minute workout.
5 ramp up sets at 3 minutes each = 15 minutes
5 working sets at 3 minutes each = 15 minutes
I now have data to improve upon for my next workout.
There are plenty of places I can go to increase my work capacity: Increase weight – decrease rest – increase sets – increase reps – and more….
Setting a timer or stopwatch to your strength work can add a new dimension to your training. There are plenty of ways to get stronger!
A while back I decided to get better at legit L-sit pullups, and man am I happy I did!
I have been pretty consistent in this last 9 months working Rope L-sit pullups twice a week.
The rope gives an incredible benefit to your grip and forearm strength – The L-sit solidifies your abs in the type of real world stabilization you want and the pullup with the before mentioned rope and L-sit is a killer for strong arms!
Due to my concentrated work on the Rope L-sit pullup I have spent LESS time on a lot of other movements like kipping pullups and the king of upper body movements the Muscle-up!
Funny though, with my increased strength my kipping pullups are better then ever AND I set a personal record on consecutive muscleups = 15!
Yep, 15 fully extended and consecutive muscle-ups!
How?
By getting stronger…
Give it a shot – Get stronger and watch what happens!
“Accumulating injuries are the price we pay for the thrill of not having sat around on our asses.”
~Mark Rippetoe
At 41 I’m not done…but I guess at this stage in my training I realize some things are worth pushing through, others worth working around, and a few not worth doing at all!
“Walk away and taste the pain
Come again some other day
Aren’t you glad you weren’t afraid
Funny how the price gets paid”
~RHCP
On a rare occasion I miss those days of stair diving, bushwhacking, head-butts, and other shenanigans…
More occasionally I miss pushing the upper limits of the O-lifts.
I actually hit two personal records earlier this year but it’s been a while…
Inspired by my Old Town Teams progress on Cleans I ponied up and practiced some moderately heavy reps for the first time in a long while:
Apparently after 41 years I’ve become a teeth grinder…Last December while gutting through a moderately heavy and high intensity workout I gave myself a monster headache…it lasted 2 weeks!Now I admit a well-adjusted normal person would have gone to the doctors…but to heck with normal plus that’s what Google is for right?
I searched “Exertion Headaches”…some symptoms, no real answers…
Due to this headache syndrome on that day back in December I haven’t been able to hit my normal intensity during workouts. So for the past few months I backed off and worked on some other things. It’s been fun, but frustration kicked in and I ratcheted up the intensity this past Monday…Wham another non-stop headache.
It’s easy to be hard, it’s hard to be smart…
On the second day of this headache an anvil dropped from the sky and hit me on the head (good thing I’m hard-headed) I suddenly remembered the conversation I had with my dentist only last week…
Doc: “‘You’re a pretty strong gripper, I see teeth grinding, I want you to wear a mouthpiece during your workouts.”
Me: “No F’in’ way”
Doc: (nervous chuckle) OK…Do you have headaches, jaw pain, (and a list of other symptoms)?
Me: “No F’in way”
Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt…
I couldn’t even think about the headaches, all I could think about was wearing a silly mouthguard.
Well on Monday, I gave myself a headache, on Tuesday the Anvil hit and I finally put 2 and 2 together…I instantly went out and bought a mouth guard.
The result?
Chomping on a mouthguard I’ve had some of my best workouts in months.
Gotta call the Doc and apologize…
Fri 3/7
Warmup: Row 1,000 meters
Strength: [Sumo Deadlift 305 x 5, Push Press 145 x 5] 5 rounds
Conditioning: “Annie” = Double-unders and Abmat Situps
Comments RSS 
