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Workout of the Day

WOD 1 – in the afternoon…

Camber Bar Box Squat 1RM

Thick Bar Sumo Deadlift 4 x 6, 1RM

Bent Row 3 x 10

Elevated plank holds with 200# chains 3 x max time

DB and plate pinches for max time

WOD 2 – in the evening…

For Time:

30-20-10

Wall Ball

Pullups

It has been quite a sabbatical for me on the old blog, mostly due to the insane amount of time, effort, and fun put into this year’s Anywherefit adventures.  Couldn’t have asked for a better turnout or experience than what I got, so for all those who partook, THANK YOU!!!! 

But, the time has come to train.  The next 4 weeks (I’m actually already in week 2) will look something like this:  Back Squat/Deadlift @ Super Training in the afternoons + a short metcon in the evening on Day 1.  Rest day.  Heavy pressing and pulling in the afternoons + a middle distance conditioning session in the evening on Day 3.  Rest day.  Olympic lifting in the afternoons + a super long, monostructural style session in the evening on Day 5.  Rest day.  Rest day.  After 4 weeks of this structure I will add a 4^th training day per week.  After week 8 I will add a 5^th training day.  After week 12 I’ll cycle back down to 3 per week. 

My goal for the next 6 months is simple: get bigger and stronger.  Now I’m not saying balloon up and try to cut weight by conditioning my ass off before the Open and Regionals, but to make a serious effort to eat, lift, and sleep enough to be 10 lb heavier than I am now.  I sit around 185# pretty comfortably, so the goal will be 195# by April with squat numbers up over 450#, Deads over 500#, and more consistent Olympic lifts.  I’ve enlisted the help of Mark Bell to jump start the strength side of things and my plan is to scale back conditioning sessions to more of a maintenance pace.  1 short effort per week (sub 5 minutes), 1 medium effort (10-20), and 1 long and slow (1 hour+).  In the meantime I’m planning on eating like a horse and sleeping more than usual.  The proof will be in the pudding at the end, but I think it will be fun to try something a bit different.  And not to worry, much of this training will be done outdoors and by creative means...

So far, I’m loving the things I’ve done at ST with Mark.  I’m training alongside my old friends Justin and Travis from CF East Sac and Ben Alderman of CF Gold, so that makes things even more fun.  A lot of great techniques and methods to be learned from the powerlifting world when it comes to producing force, but perhaps the most influential is this: don’t bitch out on the assistance work.  All the good mornings, GHD raises, grip drills, rows, and core stuff that these guys do is no bullshit.  It makes you straight up strong through the middle.  Not saying it’s the reason I did it, but I’ve been going for 3 weeks and PR’d my snatch last weekend at 255#.  Of course, I followed that up with a pretty shitty display on the clean and jerk, but the snatch part happened nonetheless.  Today we box squatted with a camber bar, something I’ve never done before.  Tricky and weird is the best way to describe this longhorn looking thing (the picture below is the best I could find on the internet.  Don't worry, I haven't gained THAT much weight).  It swings a lot when you try to stand up so you have to really be in control of the movement.  The other part of today that I loved was the weighted planks with chains.  Totally hits you in the gut the same way a heavy back squat does.

As for the conditioning set, I waited until this evening and knocked it out at Clint’s gym in Fair Oaks.  The only goal was to go unbroken and I achieved that.  I felt surprisingly good on the pullup bar for not having done a lot of pullups lately, but I can tell my arms are going to be very sore from it since they’re still having a hard time fully extending.  My time for this was 3:09.

For those of you keeping track, only 9 spots remaining for AWF 2013 this February in South America.  Get on it people!!!