Junior Mint's Log

Training
41

I finished lifting about an hour before my shift started so my brain was still in its “dazed but seeking food mode”. Needless to say, I screwed up a couple of orders and ended up taking my free smoothies at the beginning of my shift. One of our managers was there at the start of the shift–she didn’t seem too impressed by the dazedness and lack of smoothie making skills. Oh well.

Didn’t get a chance to look at my videos before work. Some things I noticed:

  1. I think that my hips are too high are the beginning position of my snatches.
  2. In general, my snatches need a little bit of work. They seemed a bit rusty. A couple times I missed my jumping point and had to catch the bar out front.
  3. There was a fair bit of body english on my last couple of chin ups.
  4. Single leg RDLs need some work.
  5. I tend to drop “f-bombs” a lot while lifting. And, according to the camera, these aren’t under-my-breath ones either. The glorious word “fuck” is heard loud and clear over the din of the track meet going on. Funny because it’s probably one of the few words most people at the gym hear me say.

Kmc–Thanks! I’m pretty sure I’m getting enough air at the start. I’ve been taught to really brace through during the squat, so having a lot of air is key. I’ll be more conscious of it the next time I rip out a set of front squats.

42

another cool vid :slight_smile:
damn you are fast!
i like the lunge-throws and those 1 1/2 kettlebell squats looked brutal!
how did the front squats feel for the form check? they looked really good to me. you seem plenty mobile etc for them. i remember i struggled for a couple months trying to sit back and maintain an upright torso and not fall over backwards before learning that it is impossible to maximize all…
nice lifting :slight_smile:
makes me wanna hit the gym…

43

Alexus–the front squats felt very natural and comfortable. I think I shorten my range of motion when the load gets heavy, so I may take some weight off the bar and focus on squatting deep. Ankle and hip mobility does not seem to be a problem anymore, it something that has come a long way for me.

Yesterday I tagged along with a friend to drop in gymnastics at one of the places in town. I feel it would add another component to my athleticism if I’m able to handle my bodyweight well, so I’m trying my hand at learning some basics.

I can definitely say that gymnastics can be very humbling, and I have a large amount of respect for the people there who were practicing all sorts of skills. The drop in was a mix of gymnasts, parkour enthusiasts, and cheerleaders. And me, of course, who fit in none of those categories.

It was tough, but a lot of fun. My friends was very patient in showing me progressions to a front tuck on a trampoline, as well as working on getting free standing handstands, and a pull over on the bar. I’ll definitely be going again next week.

44

I admired your athleticism in your video. Those medicine ball throws require a coordination that I simply don’t have. I spent my childhood doing gymnastics. I can handle my body in space, but introduce a moving object, and I have the skills of a 5 year old. Sounds like you made a lot of progress on your first open gym gymnastics day. Very cool.

45

Thanks Nadia! I definitely admire your gymnastic abilities just as much as you admire my athleticism. I’ve always been fascinated by what gymnasts can do. It takes some major balls (err…ovaries?) to tempt gravity with flips, roundoffs, and trampoline work. Some of the parkour guys were showing off their side flips–I was in total awe. They were able to make them look so fluid and effortless.

My summer smoothie-making gig is going quite well. It can be quite busy at times, but also very slow at other times, which evens things out. My co-workers are great–we certainly are an interesting lot, but that keeps things fresh and interesting. One major perk to my job is that I am ALWAYS seeing people I know, because we are at a central, bustling location. It’s real cool to catch up with people I haven’t seen for a long time.

So, today I got the second phase of the program from the strength and conditioning coach. Overall, the reps are lower and the weight is higher, so there is a much stronger emphasis on power and strength in this phase. As well, he’s using us as guinea pigs with regards to some recovery stuff post-workout, just to see if it provides any benefit to us, and if we, as college students, can realistically fit it into our schedules.

12 minutes of warmup–jump rope, hurdle over/unders, run/backpedals, cariocas, shuffles, lateral lunges, spiderman pushups, med ball work

12 minutes of skipping, broad jump, and accelerations

4 sets of:
1 + 1 X 115# clean jump and shrugs
6 X 25# DBs curl and press
1 minute back bridge holds

4 sets of:
1 + 1 + 1 X 105# power cleans
lateral plate pinches for time
45 second reclined hold

6 sets of:
4 X 12 lb med ball throw
6 sec X 85 lb dynamic row (as fast as possible without reverting to spastic seizure mode)
10 X 50# DB swing

3 X 5 unweighted chin ups

15 minute post-workout stretch

After eating, recovery stuff today was at least 30 minutes of passive rest (watching WALL-E), as well as ice bagging any sore or finicky spots, which today was my knees. Now, this is not to say that my knees are bad or super sore, I just felt that they needed it.

46

I like the ball drill at the start of the video - that’s something I can get my girls doing in during netball lessons (I’m a PE teacher).
Good mobility on the front squats, and as for the chins, well, you got your chin up to the bar and that’s the main thing! I’m too fat to chin at the moment. Oh the shame!

47

Cal–I LOVE med ball work. It would be a great addition to a PE class! What ages/grades do you teach?

Got through another day at work, then headed into to do some work in the gym. The gym crowd was an interesting one today. I witnessed 2 high school broz curling it up in the squat rack, which made me REALLY pissed off (I had wanted to do some good mornings) and had to avert my gaze from some god-awful deadlifting form. I’m not sure if he was doing RDLs or straight up regular deadlifts, but the guy had quite the rounded back. I mean, it wasn’t a full half circle shaped rounding, but it was back enough to make me cringe. Hell, my lower back doesn’t like it when I try to mimic a rounded back deadlift without any weight in my hands, so it can’t feel good.

Today’s workout:

12 minutes of warmups–jump rope, banded shuffles, cariocas, forward into backpedals, hurdle over/unders, pushup rotations

12 minutes of agility work–skips, broad jumps, 5-10-5 build up and live runs

4 sets of:

4 X 190 lb back squat
8 X 12 lb bent over DB raise
60 sec plank holds

4 sets of:

4 X 110 lb incline bench
60 sec side plank holds

5 sets of:
5 X 70 lb kroc rows (well, rows with body english, but not the extreme reps of krocs–grip wasn’t having it)
6 X 155 lb RDLs
bear hold reaches
overhand plate pinches for time

48

Another long day at work. It’s odd, I’ve been there just under 3 weeks and I’ve become one of the more experienced workers. It’s a decent job–not too busy, and I get to play whatever music I feel like (so long as there’s no obvious expletives). Even though I’m not an 80s child, I decided to rock music from the 1980s all day today. Success? You betcha.

Today’s workout:

12 minute warmup–jump rope, hurdle over/unders, run to backpedal, cariocas, banded shuffles, shuffles, decline pushups, med ball work, handstand holds

15 minutes of agility and speed work–shuttles of varying distances (longest being 30 yds, shortest being 5)

5 sets of:
1 X push jerk (115, 120, 125, 125, 135)
3 Repeated Broad Jumps
20 X Crab Alternating Touches

4 sets of:
3 X 135# front squat
6 X 45# DB bent over rows
Y, T, Ls

4 sets of:
4 X 105# close grip bench
2 X max distance med ball throws
20 X single leg slideboard leg curl
20 X swiss ball leg curl

The 135# push jerk is a personal best–although, admittedly I pressed it out a little to lock out. I think I didn’t drive into my jerk properly which led to me pressing it out. It feel like I could probably jerk 140 or more, but I’d need to work out some of my form issues first.

The front squats felt very good; I was able to pop out of the bottom of the squat quite quickly. 135# felt pretty light.

The slideboard leg curls were hella tough to do single legged, and the swiss ball ones added insult to injury. That’s gonna be the part of this day that I’ll dislike.

49

[quote]juniormint wrote:
Another long day at work. It’s odd, I’ve been there just under 3 weeks and I’ve become one of the more experienced workers. It’s a decent job–not too busy, and I get to play whatever music I feel like (so long as there’s no obvious expletives). Even though I’m not an 80s child, I decided to rock music from the 1980s all day today. Success? You betcha.

[/quote]

love the attitude - genuinely finding the positive in a situation is a great life skill. The experience will add to your CV and lead to other things.

50

3968×2976 2.12 MB

Squash fries and hot sauce-coated chicken strips. Damn solid afternoon meal. The squash fries got a pretty good review from one of my younger brothers, so I’d say they’re a success. Peeling the squash took almost as long as cooking the fries though. There must be an easy way to go about it.

Nl–Gotta find the positives in there, or else the job would burn me out pretty quick. I’ve found that seeing the positives always has kept me motivated, whether it 's during work, school, or lifting. Like you said, it’s a great life skill to have. If one only bitches about work, school, friends, family, others, etc., it gives them a fairly negative look at everything. Yes, working a low-paying job might suck, but hey it puts $$ in my pocket, and my coworkers are pretty cool to hang around with too.

Yesterday I headed to the gym during a pretty solid deluge of rain, which meant that it was pretty dead in the gym.

12 minutes of warmups

12 minutes of plyo drills

3 sets of:
1 + 1 X 95# clean complex (clean, jerk, overhead squat)
6 X turkish get ups (40, 40, 30)
16 X bear hold reaches

4 sets of:
24 X 85# clean grip reverse lunges
pullups to failure (8, 6, 5, 5)
4 X 55# barbell curl & press

4 sets of:
pushups to failure (28, 16, 13, 13)
45# DB swings
12 X inverted rows

Tough workout. Because of the rain and resulting humidity, I was sweating buckets in the gym. Made it tough to do turkish get ups when my sweaty knees would start to slip across the floor. Me and humidity are not friends.

Other than that, it was a pretty good workout.

51

Awesome workout! I hate the sweat-slip thing. It’s frustrating when that’s the main thing preventing you from doing it perfectly.

52

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My lacrosse ball–the Little Bitch of Pain.

Had a fun night with some of my friends. It’s tough to have big get togethers when our work schedules are so different, but most of us had the evening off so we were able to plan something and catch up.

Rest day, so I had to keep myself from heading to the gym. This morning I did about 45 minutes to an hour of mobility work and spent some quality time with my lacrosse ball. My shoulders and hips were quite tight beforehand, but feel much better now.

I starting checking out mobilityWOD last week and decided to put it to use. I did two day’s worth, plus adding some other mobility stuff too. I wanted to do more than 10 minutes worth because 1) I had the extra time this morning, and 2) I wanted it to fill my rest-day-gym-void somehow. I feel this was a worthy sub–and it definitely filled my going-to-gym need (well, not quite, but it did the job).

10 min accumulated in bottom position of squat
4 min in couch position for each leg
pec minor lacrosse ball work
thoracic spine lacrosse ball work
glute lacrosse ball work
flexed hip rocking
adductor mobilization

Surprisingly, I think a lot of my shoulder tightness is due to tight pec minors, not something on the posterior side of my body. My shoulders had loosened up considerably after the lacrosse ball work in that area; in fact, when I lacrosse balled my shoulders, I did not feel any of the tightness and radiating pain I usually do when working through it.

53

Ahh, finally read your log. I followed your first log closely. So strong you are. Very fun video. Love Fat Boy Slim myself.

54

LAx ball and PVC are my bff’s

I like that last sesion.
the bb complex particularly

Kelly Starett’s stuff is good.

I have an ongoing mobility thread in Over 35
where I post cool stuff I found

55

Kmcnyc–I just checked out the thread you’ve made–AMAZING. Mobility isn’t just for you older folks, I definitely have some deficiencies of my own that I need to address. I’ll definitely be around that thread more often.

I pulled my groin (right side) in December and still have some problems with it every now and then. It tightened up all the sudden at work today for no apparent reason, and I really couldn’t get it loose again at work. It’s a deep tightness, not something I can really work out by PVC rolling.

As well, my shoulder mobility still is lacking too. I have trouble reaching full extension overhead without some overarching in my spine. I still have to work at that–I want to do some olympic lifting meets, but am unable to jerk properly without eventually causing some inflammation in my shoulders. Because I only jerk once a week right now, the shoulder has been fine so far. However, I did modify part of today’s because I’m limiting how much overhead pushing I doing. Overhead pulling (ie. pullups, chinups) is fine for the most part, the less body english the better, but a wider pronated grip seems to bother me a little too.

Today I hit up a morning workout, because I had to babysit one of my younger brothers right after work.

3 sets of:
1 + 1 + 1 X 125# clean pull
25# DB curl into pushup (supposed to be overhead press but modified it)
back bridge holds

3 sets of:
1 + 1 + 1 X 120# power cleans
lateral plate pinches for time (best time: 1:14ish)
reclined holds

5 sets of:
4 X med ball throws for distance
6 sec X dynamic row
10 X 50# DB swing

56

I like that session

I have some real neck issues- from wrestling-

doing allot of thoracic work has helped
but I have to be very mindful of any pressing and OH pressing
or jerk work.

I had a good chiro recently who helped allot

57

You remind me that I really need to do more than foam roll if I want to see last progress in the area of mobility and injury prevention. As always, your log kicks so much ass.

58

The smiley face on the LAX ball is cracking me up! I need to get myself one of those. The tennis ball doesn’t hurt nearly enough.

59

Kmcnyc–Wrestling seems to cause neck problems, doesn’t it? I wrestled for a couple years back in high school (as much as my hockey schedule would allow) and buggered up my neck for a little while–nothing too major–but I know how ya feel. Good to hear the chiro fixed you up right for the time being though! I’ve been thinking about going to a massage therapist who does ART to see if they could help clear up some of shoulder issues.

Ironcross–Thanks for the compliment! Good to hear that you’re pushing through your mobility limitations too.

Kimba–The lacrosse ball smiles at my pain. A lacrosse ball certainly is worth buying–it’s much harder than a tennis ball which means I can work right into the tight spots.

Random musings:
-If I have time before work tomorrow I’m gonna run to work and pick up a piece of PVC. We used PVC rollers at school and now nothing else will cut it for me. Even PVC covered in light matting doesn’t feel right to me.

-Rainy day at work = 3+ hours spent drawing and colouring to pass the time
Nice day at work = lots of VAM sightings. VAM = very attractive men sightings.

-Adjusting my sleep schedule is HARD. I need at least 8 hours of sleep per night, and am currently trying to start waking up before 7. No more staying up until midnight every night.

-Being poor college student and living at home for the summer is pretty good for eating healthy: I need to save as much money as possible for school so I rarely eat out or go out drinking (booze costs a fair bit here), and instead just cook up whatever my parents end up buying.

-I’ve started going to the local crossfit gym in town. I’m still following my strength & conditioning coach’s program, but am doing for a little bit extra here and there. Before the flaming starts, I will justify myself:

  1. They are not the traditional pull-a-random-WOD-out-of-their-ass-and-hope-no-one-dies/seriously maims themselves crossfit gym. They actually do training blocks (currently in a hypertrophy phase) and heavily emphasize. They assess the mobility, flexibility, and balance of each client
  2. The coach is excellent at cuing and diagnosing form problems. He is an active learner, excellent communicator, and is continuously striving to improve his programming. As an aspiring strength and conditioning coach, I thought it would be interesting to observe how he coaches, programs, and treats his clients. I am still developing and forming the base of training philosophy, and I feel that it is important for me see what others do, and form my own philosophy based on what I like/dislike in what others do. This coach understands this, and has allowed me to observe and ask as many questions as I feel necessary.
  3. I would like to continue to improve my competency and ability in the olympic lifts. Unlike most crossfit gyms, they do not like the use of cleans, jerks, snatches, etc. for high, high reps. The coach is very good in teaching these lifts and I feel that it would help me to continue to learn from him. ALSO, he is one of the few crossfitters I know that have actually admitted that there are weaknesses to crossfit.

-When I went down to the gym today, he ran me through some shoulder mobility testing, demonstrated how to perform the test with a client, and what to look for. The testing confirmed what I had suspected–I am tight through my pec minor on both sides. As well, I also seem to be tight through my lats and teres minor. Basically, what this all means is that I have to ramp up the mobility work in these areas and eliminate most overhead pressing for the time being. Jerks, military presses, push presses, and the like are out for now. Chin ups, inverted rows and snatches are still fine though :smiley:

Did some power clean form work today. My cleans are alright, I got some bruising at my jumping point on my legs now though. Worked up to sets of 4 at just under 135 lbs. Seeing as how I have done cleans mostly in cluster sets for the past 5-6 months, working in straight sets made the cleans a little tougher. Did a bunch of lacrosse ball/foam rolling after.

60

Today’s lift was in the morning because I had a long day at work. I really like how non-busy the gym is in the morning–makes it easier for me to focus and do work. Plus, no one cared when I threw a jump rope, med ball, and resistance band off the balcony area (where the weights are) onto the track.

15 minute warmup–jump rope, hurdle over/unders spiderman pushups, shuffles, cariocas, banded shuffles and frankenstein walks, med ball throws, and hurdle hops.

15 minutes speed/agility/whatever stuff: box jumps, skips, single leg skips, repeated broad jumps, 5-10-5s, and med ball scoop tosses into acceleration sprints (objective was to catch up to the med ball before it bounced twice)

4 sets of:
4 X 195# back squats
10 X 12# bent over DB raises
front plank holds

4 sets of:
2 X 115# incline bench press
side plank holds

5 sets of:
6 X 95# BB rows
6 X 85# good mornings
bear reaches
overhand plate pinches for time (with two 25 lb plates)

Went to work, worked, then went to the other gym. Did some snatch work and two 800 m runs. Objective was to beat/match pace of the first run. First run was 3:26, second was 3:20. Not bad. Then for funsies, did weighted chinups with a 40# weighted vest (2 sets of 1 each), and did some ring pushups with the vest on with my feet on the ground, and then raised on a box. These sucked, but were fun. Also, I did a buttload of mobility work. Gotta be persistent if I want these issues to stop bothering me for once.