Muay Thai

Workout 31 March 2009:

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 30 minutes

Focused on cleaning up my straight punches today. Also did some work with the low kick, making some small adjustments. Finished with a punch pyramid that exhausted me far more than normal. Good session.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"There are few things engraved in stone, except that you have to squat or you're a pussy."

Bench

Workout 30 March 2009:

Bench Press 5 sets of 5 reps at 170lbs

Results: All reps completed without failure
Previous best: 5x5 at 175lbs (13 Mar 09)

Going along with the common theme of taking it easy on my back, I did the only heavy lift that doesn't significantly involve the lower back. I also took 5lbs off from my previous best. The weight moved well, so I could easily have done another 5x5 at 175, but I don't want to re-injure my back again. One more week without heavy lifts then I should be ready to ease back in.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"My opinion about barbell rows is as follows: fuck barbell rows. Really. Fuck them. Stop wasting time worrying about barbell rows and get your deadlift up to 500. By then you'll have your own opinion and you won't have to worry about mine."

Push and Pull

Workout 29 March 2009:

Time for 21-15-9 reps of:
Strict chin-ups
Handstand push-ups

Results: 18'34
Previous best: none, new workout

After almost three long weeks, my back is about 80% healed. Today's workout is a modification of the L-pull-up and HSPU workout (see 16 Feb) that places much less stress on the back. The HSPUs felt more difficult than normal and I had to break up the reps more than I would have liked. The chin-ups, however, felt strong. By strict, I mean no kipping and full range of motion (full extension of arms at bottom to chin over the bar).

I had my second session of myofascial release and massage yesterday, again focusing on the back and hips. The physiology behind why this technique works so well is very interesting. Your muscles are all surrounded by a continuous sheathe of connective tissue called fascia. If you've ever bought meat at a grocery store, you've probably noticed the thin grey-white stuff that surrounds the meat and separates muscles. That's fascia. It's purpose is essentially two-fold. First, it acts like a scaffolding system linking your whole body together; think of it as an internal skin continuous from your head to your toes. Muscles move bones, and bones then move all the surrounding tissue linked by the fascia. Second, it serves a protective and barrier function. It protects muscle from injury, and also can serve as a barrier to infection to prevent it from spreading to surrounding compartments. In a future post, I'll discuss what happens when fascia does its role too well.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"The vast majority of women cannot get large, masculine muscles from barbell training. If it were that easy, I would have them."

Muay Thai

Workout 27 March 2009:

Muay Thai training, 30 minutes

Today was a low-intensity, skills-training day. The time was spent focused on improving jab, cross, and hook technique. No kicking until my back returns to normal.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Your muscles cannot get "longer" without some rather radical orthopaedic surgery."

Front Squats

Workout 25 March 2009:

Front Squat, 5 sets of 3 reps

Results: 145-155-165-175-185lbs
Previous best: 145-160-170-180-190lbs (12 Nov 08)

It's been a couple weeks since I last did heavy squats due to my back. I decided to do "light" front squats today. Compared to back squats, more of the work is done by the legs with front squats. The 185lbs felt very heavy since I allowed for minimal lower back recruitment. Can't wait to be fully healed.

I also had my first of 10 sessions of myofascial release today, focusing on my lower back and hips. Amazing. Second session on Saturday. More on this in future posts.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"If you can't train and work in a warehouse at the same time, you probably have ovarian cancer. Consult your gynecologist."

Muay Thai

Workout 24 March 2009:

Muay Thai training, 30 minutes

Lots of leg work today as well as some long punching combinations. Today I kicked the highest ever with my right leg. PNF stretching and foam rolling techniques are working well.

Barbara

Workout 23 March 2009:

Barbara (3 rounds)
Three rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Rest 3 minutes between each round

Results: 6'46 / 7'19 / 6'35
Previous best: 5'06 / 5'29 / 6'39 / 6'07 (4 rounds, 21 Jan 08)

The rapid-fire sit-ups and squats started to bug my back by the second round, so I decided I'd stop after three rounds. Since I was going to skip the last round, I decided to pull all the stops on round three and finished that round with a great time. Adding to today's difficulty compared to my previous best were substituting the more difficult ring pull-ups for regular kipping pull-ups and doing sit-ups on the AbMat.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in [with me]."

Triple Threat

Workout 22 March 2009:

For time:

Walking lunge 100 ft.
21 Pull-ups
21 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
18 Pull-ups
18 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
15 Pull-ups
15 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
12 Pull-ups
12 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
9 Pull-ups
9 Sit-ups
Walking Lunge 100 ft.
6 Pull-ups
6 Sit-ups

Results: 24'52
Previous best: none

New workout today. I was aiming for completing it in the 20-30 minute range, so I ended up right on target. Since I didn't have access to a regular pull-up bar, I did the pull-ups on my rings. This of course made the workout a bit more difficult. I could probably do this sub-20 with regular kipping pull-ups. I did USAF-style sit-ups on an AbMat.

When doing lunges, there are a couple of points to remember. First, keep your chest up the whole time; no slouching forward. Second, as you lunge, the knee of your back leg should just "kiss" the ground; put barely any weight on it. Finally, when stepping out of the lunge, concentrate on pressing through the heel of your forward foot. This allows you to properly recruit your glutes and hamstrings.

The AbMat is the newest piece of equipment in my home gym. It's a rather unassuming piece of foam and wood. However, in my opinion, it greatly improves the standard sit-up. First, it supports your back and spine and eliminates pressure points on your lower back. More importantly, it increases the range of motion and doesn't allow your abs to relax as you lay back. I can normally do about 30 sit-ups before my abs start to feel uncomfortable. With the AbMat, my abs were burning 15 sit-ups into my first set. If you have about $30 to spend, I'd recommend picking one of these up.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"The bulk/cut approach holds that you can either add muscle or lose body fat, and that all training should be concerned with one or the other. This assumes that aesthetics is the criterion by which progress is measured, that pictures therefore tell the story, and that picture magazines can be the arbiters of success. This type of thinking completely ignores the performance aspects of training, and performance is much more easily and rapidly influenced. Rapid, quantifiable progress keeps motivation high, much higher than waiting for a six-pack that may or may not show up."

Turkish Get Ups

Workout 21 March 2009:

As many turkish get ups (24kg kettlebell) as possible in 20 minutes, alternating arms

Results: 18
Previous best: 32 with 16kg kettlebell (15 Feb 09)

Today's results were better than I was expecting. Given my lack of heavy lifting and the uncooperative back over the last week and a half, I was expecting to barely press out 16 TGUs. My form certainaly was not as good as when I use the 16kg kettlebell, but that will come as I improve my static shoulder strength and core stability using the heavier weight.

If you don't have a kettlebell, TGUs can be done with a dumbbell. Alternately, if you're not willing to try this movement out, do a 5x5 set of heavy push presses.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
A guy asks if a hack squat is useful since his college does not have any squat racks.

"I recommend that you change colleges."

Muay Thai

Workout 18 March 2009:

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 60 minutes

Another tough session today, especially since we worked some extended leg combos. My back is no longer bothering me to any significant degree, though the recovery/relative inactivity has cost me a bit of hip flexibility on the left. The right hip flexibility is about the best it's been in years, which isn't saying much, but I was kicking at a reasonable height today without too much pain.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
A guy gives a very detailed description of bowel trouble while squatting and asks if Rip or his trainees have had similar problems.

Rip's response: "Jesus, Andrew, I could have gone a long time without having to hear about this. The obvious fix is to take a newspaper into the bathroom and not to come out until the whole thing is read. Just before you train. Works for me every time."

Pull-Up Ladder

Workout 17 March 2009:

Pull-Up Ladder
With continuously running clock, do one pull-up the first minute, two the second minute, three the third, etc., continuing as long as you are able. Stop when you cannot complete the required reps for a given minute. Use as many sets as needed to complete the reps each minute.

Results: 17 rounds + 10 pull-ups, 18'00
Previous best: 16 rounds, 16'00 (16 Jul 08)

I'm very happy with today's results since I essentially did 20% more pull-ups than last time. I didn't expect to be able to complete a full 17 rounds, let alone an additional 10 pull-ups into the next round. I used a different pull-up bar this time that is a little thicker than the bar I used previously. Up to a point, a thicker bar is a little less taxing on your grip, so this probably contributed to today's success. I also did not wear gloves. Although in general, gloves can improve your grip, when doing high-rep pull-ups, they tend to bunch and slide and can actually be disadvantageous. The best option is to use chalk and no gloves, however my gym does not allow chalk. Given these contributors, it will be interesting to see if I can beat today's results using the smaller bar next time.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
In response to the question: "Is adding an hour walk...[to your workouts]...helpful, detrimental, or irrelevant to strength improvements?"

"Walking for an hour is not exercise. It's shopping."

Dips, Push-Ups, and Sprints

Workout 16 March 2009:

For time:
50 ring dips
400m run
50 push-ups
400m run
25 ring dips
25 push-ups
400m run

Results: 20'00
Previous best: 27'32 (40/400/40/400/20/20/400; 22 Nov 07)

I'm still a bit tentative about my back so I chose a workout that wouldn't stress it too much. That being said, today's workout went very well. I'm very happy cutting 7'30 off my previous best while doing 25% more dips and push-ups. The extra couple of rest days last week definitely helped restore some of my endurance.

If you don't have rings or can't do ring dips, do twice the number of bar dips.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
Answering the question: "Does a bigger motor slow the car down?"
[i.e. does gaining muscle from doing heavy lifts decrease your ability to run]

"No. But a bunch of junk in the trunk does."

Muay Thai

Workout 15 March 2009:

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 60 minutes

My back is slowly getting better and as much as I wanted to do some heavy lifting before class today, I don't want to risk re-injury. Hopefully I can do some light squats tomorrow.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Your form's going to break down under heavier weight. That's just the nature of the universe."

Thai and Bench

Workout 13 March 2009:

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 30 minutes

Since my back is still healing, we focused on punches today. I was able to do some leg work with my right leg, but my back doesn't want me to do anything with the left yet.

Bench Press 5 sets of 5 reps, 175lbs
Previous best: 5x5, "175" but actually 165lbs (11 Mar 09)

I wanted to do a heavy lift today, but the only thing that won't aggravate my back is bench press, despite how much I dislike the lift. Since I lifted alone, I used my bumper plates in case I needed to ditch the weight. The 175lbs felt much heavier than Wednesday, more than they should. So, I decided to see if my "45lb" bumpers were the same weight as my "45lb" iron plates. The bumper plates were 44.8lbs, which is acceptable. However, the iron plates turned out to be 43.2lbs. In addition, I checked my bar weights. The new bar is 44.8lbs, which is fine since it's supposed to be 45lbs. However, the old bar was 37.6 lbs, almost 7lbs lighter than it should be. So, by using the iron plates and old bar, I was actually lifting about 10lbs less than what I should have been. On Wednesday therefore, I benched 165lbs. Today I did a true 175lbs. While I'm not going back through my previous logs to change values to reflect the weight discrepancy, don't expect to see any gains in lifts for the next couple of weeks while I adjust to using the new weights.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Women who claim to be afraid to train hard because they “always bulk up too much” are often already pretty bulky (fat), or “skinny fat” (thin but weak and deconditioned) and have found another excuse to continue life sitting on their butts."

Bench and Thai

Workout 11 March 2009:

Bench press 5 sets of 5 reps, 175lbs

Results: All reps completed without failure
Previous best: 5x5 at 170lbs (8 Feb 09)

Today's benches went well. I am approaching the limit of what I know I can safely do alone, though I did work out with a partner today. Next time when I go for 180, I'll need to make sure I have a spotter. As always, never bench press alone unless you are 100% sure you can do all the reps, and even then, it's never a great idea to bench without a spotter.

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 60 minutes

Today was a bit more conditioning focused which worked out well for me since my back is still partly out of commission after yesterday's cleans. I didn't do any work on kicks, and did some light knees. I'll probably take an extra rest day tomorrow.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
On resting between reps in a set:

"It varies with the length of the set. Fives or fewer get a breath to reset. Longer sets might take two breaths. During the last few reps of a true 20RM squat, just do what Jesus tells you."

Super Liz

Workout 10 March 2009:

For time:
45 double-unders
45 reps, clean 115lbs
45 ring dips
45 double-unders
Do not move on to next exercise until all 45 reps of previous are done

Results: 25'30
Previous best: 30'00 with 110lb cleans (19 Jul 08)

Remember Elizabeth from a couple of weeks ago, 21-15-9 of cleans and ring dips? Here she is again, but even worse. Adding the double-unders isn't too bad, but doing 45 consecutive cleans is brutal. My back had not fully recovered from the heavy deads a couple days ago, so it was screaming about 30 reps in. The dips felt solid and I'm getting better at stringing together multiple DUs in a row.

A double-under is much like a regular jump rope jump except the rope passes under your feet twice for each jump. The key is to get your wrists spinning very quickly and use your arms as little as possible. Look straight ahead and don't forget to breathe. If you can't do double-unders, either do 45 tuck jumps or 90 single rope jumps for each set of 45 DUs. A tuck jump is like a regular straight jump into the air (no jump rope), except you tuck your knees to your chest at the top of the jump. Be sure to keep your chest up the whole time.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not."

Deads and Muay Thai

Workout 8 March 2009:

Deadlift 7 sets of 1 rep

Results: 305-315-320-325-325-330-330lbs
Previous best: 255-275-295-315-330-340-350lbs (5 Mar 08)

I felt off today and knew right at the beginning that I wasn't going to be able to match my previous best, or even the 345 I pulled two weeks ago. So, instead of trying to beat my max pull, I decided to start much heavier and make smaller adjustments between reps. Looking at today's results another way, I lifted more weight total, 2250lbs vs 2160lbs. A small victory, but next time, I'm going for a new max PR.

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 60 minutes

On top of feeling off this morning, the deads further drained me. Although I still got in a good workout, I didn't go as hard as usual. Good news is that my hip flexibility continues to improve.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"I was driving home the other night, listening to the radio, and the guy filling in for Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM was talking to some other guy about Nazis, UFOs, the Kennedy Assassination, time travel, and George Bush, and how it all relates to OneWorldGovernment. This, of course, made me think about barbell training..."

Row and Pull

Workout 7 March 2009:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
Row 250 meters
Sumo deadlift high pull 75lbs, 21 reps
Pull-ups, 15 reps

Results: 4 rounds
Previous best: None

This is a new workout and I went in hoping to get four full rounds completed. Although this workout utilizes just about every major muscle group in the body, it emphasized the arm flexors, shoulders, and back. It also was very taxing on grip. I can usually do 20+ kipping pull-ups in a row, but by the last round or two, I was falling off the bar at about 10 reps. I'm hoping for 5 rounds next time, but would be happy with even a partial 5th round.

I don't believe in isolation exercises. They serve no purpose in everyday life since just about any given human movement uses more than one muscle group. Muscles aren't meant to function in isolation. Accordingly, you are only wasting your time in the gym doing dumbbell curls, leg extensions, and calf raises. Of all the isolation movements, bicep curls are among the most useless. You will NEVER catch me doing a bicep curl. Instead, I do workouts that may emphasize the biceps, but always involve other muscle groups. Today's workout was brutal on the biceps, but in the same amount of time that I could have done 6 sets of bicep curls, I also worked my back, shoulders, abs, glutes, quads, and hamstrings and benefited from a very demanding cardiovascular workout.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density enhancement, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning than the correctly performed full squat."

Press-Push-Jerk

Workout 6 March 2009:

Shoulder Press 5 sets of 1 rep
Push Press 5 sets of 3 reps
Push Jerk 5 sets of 5 reps
Rest as needed between sets

Results:
SP: 135-140-145-145-145
PP: 135-145-150-155-160
PJ: 120-125-130-130-130

Previous Best:
SP: 135-140-145-150-150
PP: 135-145-150-155-160
PJ: 120-125-130-130-130(failed 5th rep)

I knew going in to today's workout that I wasn't going to break any records. I'm not happy about the decrease in weight in the shoulder press, especially since I've pressed 155 recently as a one-rep max. However, I am pleased that I was able to complete all reps in the last set of push jerks without a failure. Next time I do this workout, I will try to get the shoulder press back up, and also finally move up in weight on the push jerks.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
On a respectable number of pull-ups:

"Well, I can do 16, and I'm 51 and I weigh 210. So you have to beat me or you're a pussy...and if you do beat me, you're probably using drugs."

Muay Thai

Workout 4 March 2009:

Muay Thai sparring and training, 60 minutes

Awesome workout tonight. Almost met Uncle Pukie a couple of times.

In other news, I'm the proud new owner of a competition-grade Olympic barbell along with 140lbs of bumper plates. With this new equipment, I can do heavy squats without worrying about breaking my weights, barbell, or floor if I need to bail. In addition, I can go very heavy on overhead lifts since I can now drop the weights from above my head, again without worrying about damage.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
On the ethics of meat eating:
"Okay, have you ever been around chickens? They are stupid, uncooperative, inconvenient, ill-tempered creatures. They get what they deserve. Fuck chickens."

Muscle-Ups

Workout 2 March 2009:

30 Muscle-ups for time

Results: 12'06
Previous best: 14'55 (14 Oct 08)

I was a little worried going into today's workout that it might bother my elbows. Whenever I do a lot of muscle-ups or cleans, I tend to get a flare of epicondylitis in my elbows, and since Saturday's workout was a lot of cleans, I wasn't sure how well things would go. However, I was able to complete the workout without a problem. The muscle-ups went very well and I'm happy with shaving almost 3 minutes off my time. I still don't have complete range of motion (I don't start with fully extended elbows), but today felt like an improvement over last time. Since I've done well working on my range of motion for L-pull-ups, now it's time to do the same thing here.

A muscle-up is a combination pull-up and dip done on a pair of rings. You start hanging from the rings with a false grip, do a pull-up, then transition into pressing up from a dip so that you end up locked out above the rings. The most difficult part is fluidly transitioning from the pull to press. Check out this Beast Skills article for information on how to work up to doing muscle-ups. If you can't do muscle-ups but have a pair of rings, do 60 false-grip pull-ups and 60 ring dips instead. If you don't have rings, do 90 pull-ups and 90 dips.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day
In response to:
"If you had to choose between wearing no shoes or running shoes to lift in which would you pick?"

Rip's response: "That is like asking me to choose between stabbing myself in the eye with a fork or burning the roof of my mouth with extremely hot pizza. Can't we just avoid both?"

Muay Thai

Workout 1 March 2009

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 60 minutes

Lots of leg work today. My inflexible hips are not happy and I think I overstretched my adductors again. I'm probably going to need to lay off the legs for a couple days to recover.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Poor form in the gym is caused by insufficient yelling."

In other words, your coach or trainer should not be your best friend, but drive you beyond what you thought your limits were.