September 9, 2013 Lower Body / Heavy

• Squats: 315*1 340*1 355*1 370*1 380*X-juuust missed 1/2 way up
• Pin Squats: 315*1 PR? Yup. NEW PR!!
• Front Squats: 225*1 250*1 275*1-yup 285*X-nope. Quads are done for the day
• Good Mornings: 205*1 215*1 230*1 GREAT FORM here
• 28kg KB Swings: 30
• Side-Planks: 0:30

37 minutes

TORE through this workout. Really happy, just missed 380. Kind of pissed I didn't try harder, think I gave up to soon. Doing great taking big air before I drop, and getting to the bottom of the squat quicker and more explosively.   After I failed on the 380, I peeled the excess plates off and left the 3 wheels on each side, and inadvertently set a pin squat PR for myself.  Front squats I'm increasing the loads on as well. My record there is only 300, so I'm right in range.  Good mornings, I nailed the form, again taking a big breath beforehand helps with bracing my abs.  Did great.  Finished with some KB swings because I couldn't do kickbacks on account of being unable to find the ankle strap.  Ended session with side-planks.  As always stretched after, and foam rolled. 

March 29, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats (cluster reps): 335*1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
• Bulgarian Split Squats: 95*6 115*6 135*6
• Walking Lunges: 110*5 160*3
• Romanian Deadlifts: 225*4 275*3
• 56 lbs kb swings: 20

43 minutes

This is quickly becoming my favorite workout of the week.  I don't sweat much, ever, but when I do this workout the last few weeks I'm drenched.    The cluster set went well this week; 2 weeks ago my ab cramped up, no such event this time.  Got the reps in.  Moved to Bulgarians next, and even though clusters don't leave you feeling shot, you can definitely sense that your muscles have worked.  I'm intentionally keeping the weight lower on Bulgarians as I try to work on the form of them, but honestly I'm not sure how much higher I could have gone.   Threw some extra weight on the walking lunges.  These are really what did me in; I was feeling it from the Bulgarians already and then those things done right after just toast me.  Did some Romanian deadlifting after and just pulverized my hamstrings which were already fatigued.   Finished with some kb swings; I was so tired at that point that I think they started to be more of a lower back movement on the last few reps.  Great session

February 27, 2013 Conditioning

• Broad Jump: 8' 2.5", 8' 4.5", 8' 6", 8' 3", 8' 0", 8' 5.5", 8' 4", 8' 2", 8' 2.5", 8' 7", 8' 7", 8' 5"
• 56 lbs. KB Swings: 30, 25 (2 minutes)
• Bird Dogs: 40 seconds, 40 seconds
• Ab-Wheel: 15
• Battling Ropes-Rope Slam S.S: 67-10

32 minutes

Well that was fun.  First time ever that I've had every jump over 8', so that's good. Nice high average here.  Put some swings in, and then extended bird-dogs.  Those were actually quite difficult, I usually don't hold them, may have to start doing that.  Did some ab wheel then battling ropes.  In retrospect, doing as many swings as I could in 2 minutes wasn't too bright. I'll be squatting Friday and that will almost assuredly impact my performance.  Hopefully not a lot.  When you do things like conditioning it's easy to forget that they can effect your regular workouts as well, so keep that in mind when planning intense conditioning work. 

December 21, 2012 Lower Body

• Squats: 260*5 310*3-back sore from deads 325*1 335*X
• Pin Squats: 245*4 255*2
• BB Bulgarian Split Squats: 135*3 155*3 175*2
• Paloffs: 80*9 90*8
• 28kg KB Swings: 30
• Inverted TRX Rows: 10

44 minutes

OK, so maxing on deads and then thinking about doing it on squats in the same week was not the brightest idea.  Still I feel like I get out of the hole fine, which indicates my legs & ass are fine, but then I get folded over, which indicates I need to strengthen up my lower back, reverse hypers aren't gonna cut it. Time to put good-mornings in on my deadlift day.  Plus some planks too.  Session wasn't so bad. Upped the weight on bulgarian split squats, knees wobbled a bit though.  Going to up to 90 & 100 next week on paloffs.   Had some extra time so I did some inverted TRX rows after. I actually like them. 

December 14, 2012 Lower Body

• Squats: 250*5 300*5 315*3+X  325*2
• Pin Squats: 245*4 255*3
• BB Bulgarian Split Squats: 135*4 135*5
• Reverse Hypers: 80*2-piroformis 80*5
• Paloffs: 80*7 90*6
• 28kg KB swings: 30

Squatting went well, 3rd set I narrowly missed a 4th at 315. I think next week I'll do 3 regular sets and then just see how high I can get on singles.  Pin squats went well, added more weight.  Tried bb bulgarian splits, figured it'd be easy, almost tipped over 3 times on that first set. Second set went better on both legs, but I wanted to leave the weight low so I can get used to it.  Didn't warm up at all, will next week with the bar, and then 135, and then toss some more weight on, see if I can get 185 at all.  Found another exercise that my piriformis still aches on; weighted reverse hypers. If I do a hold at the top it's not so bad, but a regular version of the movement kills me.  Going to up the weight next week on paloffs.

December 9, 2012 Conditioning

• Unilateral 27.5" plyo box jumps: 10, 10
• Bench Plyo Clap Pushups: 5, 5
• Viking Quest: 200*0:36 400*1:24 800*3:22
• 28kg kb swings: 30
• wide-stance anti-rotational chop: 50*10

29 minutes

Good stuff, getting the unilateral jumping down.  The first few weeks I realized I was basically doing an explosive leg raise.  This time I tried making sure I was moving my hips back and exploding, with good results.  Definitely felt the difference.  Tied a record on the 400m portion of the rowing.  It's funny I always think I'm way off pace on the 800 since I'm usually toasted, but I'm never more than a few seconds off my PR pace.  Finished with swings & chops. 

December 7, 2012

• Squats: 290*5 310*4 325*2
• Pin Squats: 245*4 265*2
• DB Bulgarian Split Squats: 55*5 65*5
• Reverse Hypers (3 second top hold): 65*6
• 28kg kb swings: 30
• Paloffs: 80*6 90*4

42 minutes

Ripped through this workout pretty swiftly.  Slowly accumulating strength in the squat.  I'd like to see what my 1RM is pretty soon, maybe this coming week.  Pin Squats are going well too.  The top hold on the reverse hypers seems to be helping with posture on squatting, at least I think it is.  Also moved up weight on paloffs with good results. 

November 30, 2012 Lower Body

• Squats: 235*5 285*5 310*4 320*2
• Pin Squats: 235*4 255*3
• DB Bulgarian Split Squats: 40*10 55*5
• 28kg kb swings: 30
• Reverse Hypers, 10 second hold: 4,4
• Paloffs: 60*10 80*6

45 minutes

Good session, building up strength on squats again. Pin squats felt great, the first couple weeks I had to fight from getting folded over on them, this time I was able to stay upright much easier.  I gotta up weight on Bulgarians a bit, the 10 rep stuff is ok, but I like heavier weights.   Also upping weight on Paloffs, the light weight stuff makes no sense, I'm trying to build core strength, not endurance.  

November 18, 2012 Conditioning

• Unilateral Plyo Box Jumps: 16.75" (medium box)*10 16.75"*10
• Kneeling start 1/2 court sprints: 5 per leg
• Viking Quest: 200*0:42 400*1:27 800*3:10 NEW PR!
• 28kg kb swings: 30

Good session, mixed it up a little after seeing this video on Joe Defranco's youtube:

absolutely unreal. I wish my gym had those soft boxes, I'd attempt much higher box jumps.  All we have are those metal frames you see to the side in these videos. Good for gashing open shins if you miss your jump..so I decided to try these for the first time after watching that video. I need to work on my landings.  My foot tends to land towards the center of my body, which I guess is a natural motion, but it's not healthy; my knee is still under the my hip, but my foot lands several inches inside of that line, putting stress on several ligaments. Will try to work that out.   Also, you land much harder on these on account of only having one foot absorbing the landing.  Here's a video of my first ever attempts at these:

Next I decided to mix it up some; since I like doing sprinting decided to add in some sprints, but only half court ones, maybe 10 yards, starting with one knee on the ground. I'm definitely faster inside on a basketball court than on a track, but I guess everyone is.  Felt good.  Chopped a second off my 800 meter time in the row, and then went back to kettlebell swings.  Going to start adding those in for conditioning at the end of workouts, they're a great way to finish things.  

June 24, 2012 Conditioning

• 34.5" Plyo Box Jump / 34.5" Seated Plyo Box Jump Supserset: 15-15
• Cartwheels: 10
• Forward Rolls: 10
• Bear Crawls: 40 steps
• 28kg KB Swings: 30, 30

jumping was weird. It was like I was overthinking it and couldn't jump several times. Took me almost 20 minutes to finish the superset, usually takes about 4 or 5. I kept starting to jump but stopping myself.  No idea why.  My hamstrings are tired though, that may have something to do with it. This past Friday I didn't do unilateral deadlifting; I'm going to put that on my deadlifting day from now on.  Not getting any better at cartwheels going to my right, but I'm going to keep trying. I thought the KB swings would be more for conditioning than actual hamstring....whoops. I'm typing this on Wednesday and they've been sore as hell all week.  Going to put swings on deadlifting or squatting day from now on.  Not good times.