yeah, that was a terrific training video! loved the music, too, thats the kinda music i like to help me get fired up.
so jealous of your push-jerks!!! wow!!!
edit - i wonder if the lady behind you was having some kind of ‘a ha’ moment about her tiny dumbbells. she kinda kept looking at them with a little frown after she saw you tearing it up.
Jesus you’re strong. The push jerks are great but you’re also doing chins with added weight? I can’t even haul my fat arse up to the bar at the moment.
Loved the video! BTW, you are push jerking a kimba. I am very impressed.
Noticed the vibrams. I’ve been playing with the idea of getting some and trying them out. I have to get over the toe situation, though.
Buckeye-- Thanks!
Alexus-- Fatboy Slim can be pretty awesome for lifting. Really gets me psyched and keeps me pushing even when it starts getting tough.
As for the woman behind me, I think she might have thought I was a jerk (no pun intended). She tried to make talk with me right before I started the push jerks. I carried a bit of a conversation with her, but I was on a tight schedule yesterday so I had to get down to business right away and because my supersets are timed, I don’t like to talk much while I’m lifting.
It would be nice if she did have an “aha moment”, but honestly, I’m just happy to see her in the gym, little dumbbells or not. She’s lifting, which is more than a lot of women can say. That being said, if she asked me about my lifting, I’d definitely try to open her mind to weights heavier than 20 lbs.
Cal-- Keep working at it! You were able to do them a little while back weren’t you? Are your shoulders still acting up? To be honest, I like chins with weight because something in my brain tells me, “Gee, you could eat tons, gain 30 lbs and still do a chin up!” On second thought, maybe that’s just my stomach speaking.
Kimba–Above is a picture of my training shoe arsenal. From left to right: Do-Win olympic lifting shoes, Nike free runs, Nike frees, Vibram five fingers. I love the Vibrams, but they do take some getting used to. I use them for some of my lifting, but not running. I also wear 'em almost all the time outside of the gym. I’ve been looking at a replacement for my green Nike Frees–the tread is almost completely worn away.
Gotta love chill Saturdays. The gym closes way early today, so not many people come in to lift. Plus, there’s nothing better than sleeping in a little, making a good breakfast, and just relaxing.
Today’s Workout
12 minutes of warmup–jumprope, hurdle over/unders, cariocas, shuffles, spiderman pushups, atomic pushups, medicine ball throws
15 minutes of agility work
5 or 6 sets of:
2 X 155# power clean shrugs
10 X 12# DB lateral raises
bear holds
(can’t remember the exact number of sets)
6 sets of:
3 X 140# front box squats
8 X 95# bent over rows
Y, T, Ls
5 sets of:
4 X 105# BB incline bench
8 X BB RDLs (135#, 155#, 155#, 175#, 155#)
single leg stability ball leg curls
Happy Fun Bonus Time
3 unweighted chin ups + 1 with 15# DB
1 X 25# plate
2 X 25# plate
1 X 35# plate
5 X 55# DB goblet squat
10 X 70# DB goblet squat
Got some chins and front squats on video. I was pretty happy with my front squats today. Right now, I’m using box squats just to ensure good depth while maintaining a good back angle. When I go any heavier than 140#, I notice that I have a tendency to lean forward, putting an unwanted amount of stress on my shoulders. Interestingly enough, from watching the video, it looks like I need to sit back more. Thoughts?
In other news, I like Tony Gentilcore’s blog post on chicken legs today. I wish more men in the gym worked towards having a nice ass. For the record, yes, some of the guys in my gym do squats, deadlifts, etc. and I love them for that, but most of them belong to the sick gunz + chiseled abz club.
your vid isn’t showing up 
(i think this site doesn’t like links from your youtube hub, but is okay with links to non-youtube hub vids if that makes sense)
i haven’t seen the vid… but my understanding of front squatting is that you don’t want to aim to sit your butt back (because then you will need to lean your torso forwards in order to keep the bar over your midfoot so you don’t fall over - then when the weight gets heavier you will lose the weight forwards). rather, you want to sit your butt down between your legs (hips above ankles) aiming to keep your torso as upright as possible.
here is a thread where i asked about it early last year:
Yes, can’t comment on the squats due to the video fail but that’s a puketastic amount of volume. The workout would put me in hospital.
I’m glad I’m not the only one at the gym sweating it up. lol
I always wonder if people are grossed out by that.
For your vid to post from youtube:
Just copy the url at the top of the page your youtube vid is on but not your channel(don’t bother with the embed). You can also preview your post before to see if the vid is there.
Thanks for the tips on how to post videos, guys! It’s working now (a mod probably fixed it or something), but you have me set to go next time I post a video. I can be a little computer challenged at times, so I appreciate the help!
I didn’t catch it earlier, but it doesn’t look like I’m starting my chin ups from a complete dead hang. That’s definitely something to work at.
Alexus, thanks for giving me the link to that thread–there’s some good information in there and it helped clear some things up for me.
Cal–the volume is quite high in this phase of the program. I’ve gotten used to it now that I’m in the final week. The volume should be coming down a bit during next phase. Our first post-season, post-spring break workouts were even more hellish. They basically were whole workouts of metabolic supersets, just to break us down a bit and get us back into decent shape.
Charlie–Gotta sweat it up once and awhile! I don’t really understand why people would be grossed out by sweat–it happens when you’re working hard.
I can sweat quite profusely during my workouts, and because my hair is quite short it often looks like I’ve just stepped out of a shower (except my shirt and shorts aren’t totally soaked). If people are grossed out by how much I sweat during a workout, they wouldn’t like to see me in my goalie gear.
Another rest day for me! Today my mom and I are going to take my little brother out for a walk on a nature trail just outside of town. It’s always nice to get him out of the house, and he really seems to enjoy going for walks, so it should be a good activity.
As well, if I have some time before work today, I’m going to work on making a sled to pull around. My family is somewhat redneck-y in that we have 7 vehicles, so we have a couple of old tires in the shed. Might as well put one of them to use.
even without a full hang I still found the chins awesome.
good work in here JM.
You really control the negative in your chins–very strong weighted work!
hey those front squats are looking good! you are much stronger than me, lol.
you keep your elbows up really well and your torso upright, too.
when you lowered the riser you tried to sit back more and i think it was your trying to sit back more that made it harder than it needed to be for you. your ankle flexibility looks really good (with your knees able to come forwards in front of your toes as much as they need to in order to keep your torso upright). i reckon you could get greater depth (if that is what you are going for with lowering the risers) if you aimed your butt down between your legs (maintaining lumbar arch) rather than trying to sit it back.
crazy chins, too. great work with the negative.
I know the bar is over her traps rather than on her delts. If it were on her delts her butt would need to be brought forwards a tad more in order for her to keep her chest up with the bar balanced over midfoot.
It shows the sitting down rather than back aspect pretty good, though. Damn. Wish I could do it.
Killer slow negatives on your chins. Wow. Yeah, you need to watch the dead hang situ…same with me. Its so easy to cheat it without meaning to. Happens to me often.
Because of ignorance, I can’t comment on the front squat sitting back. That is something I worked on today with the back squat and its hard!
I run in Nike Free Runs and wear another pair to lift, except I wear chucks for deads and I squat without shoes.
Got my lifting in this morning, because I have to work an 8 hour shift this afternoon. It was a tough lift, but I got 'er done. This day calls for work capacity runs, which I usually do on one of my rest days instead of doing today, but decided to do it before my lifting (as called for in the programming). I think this might have had made the lifting much tougher than I’m used to.
12 minutes of warmup done barefoot–runs into backpedals, hurdle over/unders, single leg RDLs, pistol squats, lateral lunges, cariocas, shuffles.
12 minutes work capacity runs–sprint 100 yds, rest 45 seconds, and repeat. In 12 minutes, I got 11 reps.
4 sets of:
1 + 1 X 95# clean complex
4 X 40# DB turkish get ups
bear reach & crunch
4 sets of:
24 X 85# clean grip lunges
pull ups to failure (6, 6, 5, 4)
5 X 55# barbell curl & press
5 sets of:
10 X 85# close grip bench
15 X 45# DB swings
95# BB bent over rows
I love your attitude about other people in the gym. It’s hard for me to stay positive about that at times.
Still kicking ass I see. Are the supersets feeling any better?
Food porn?
Chocolate cheesecake. Made from natural PB, chocolate protein powder, chocolate milk and cottage cheese.
Ironcross–There is always going to be some amount of suckage with the supersets. Some of them are much more brutal than others, but you work through it. Since week one, they have gotten better, but I am progressively adding weight to the bar, so it keeps it tough. For some reason, the clean complex/turkish getups/bear holds superset felt awfully hard today.
Alexus–thanks for clearing up the sitting back/sitting down between the hips dealy. I did some front squats with an unloaded bar and was able to get down into a pretty good spot. Maybe I’ll snag some video tomorrow.
Kimba, Nl, Nadia–Thanks girls! I like doing slow and controlled negatives. The way I worked up to full chinups was through lots of negative work, and I continue to use them now.
I am now finished phase one, but have still not been given phase two by our strength and conditioning coach. Probably gonna have to call him and see what’s up with that.
I don’t want today to be a total rest day, so I’m still gonna hit the gym. It’s gonna be a full lift of happy free bonus fun time.
I don’t know whether I love or hate myself right now. I don’t think today’s lift can be categorized as “happy free bonus fun time”–“self-imposed muscle torture” might be more like it. And yet, it still managed to be fun…and a test of mental strength.
If I’m gonna be a strength and conditioning coach after college, I’m going to have to work on gauging the difficulty of the workouts I’m writing.
15 minutes of warmup–jog into backpedal, hurdle over/unders, cariocas, shuffles, yoga pushups, decline pushups, lateral lunges, medicine ball work
12 minutes of plyos
max chinups–9
5 X 4 bw chin ups
4 sets of:
a. snatches (65#, 85#, 85#, 85#)
b. deep squat progressions–10 sec holds in each position
c. pallof isoholds–15 seconds ea side
4 sets of:
a. 60# DB 1 1/2 goblet squats X 10
b. 85# BB one legged RDLs X 5 ea side
4 sets of:
a. 45# DB incline bench press X 6
b. inverted rows X 8
c. stability ball pike ups X 8
I’ll comment more on it and post video later tonight after I finish work.
Hi- and nice work!!
I love the warm ups
makes me miss athletics
your front squats looked fine
are you getting enough air at the start of them?
