October 2008
54 posts
“There is never an absolute answer to everything, except of course that you have...”
– Mark Rippetoe
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Quick Metcon Circuit
Coach Keith set this one up:
5 Deadlift (225lb)
10 Box Jumps
15 Double DB Push Press (45lb)
Repeat 3x.
Total time: 5:42. Meh. My chopped meat hands made the deadlifting more difficult than it should have been and I crapped out on the push presses pretty hard, had to partition the last two sets into thirds. I want to do this one again and murder it.
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Training Session 12 with Coach Keith
Today was my last private training session with Coach Keith at Mid-City Gym (sniff, sniff). He started me off practicing some air squats, the swing for kipping pullups, and some pushups. Couldn’t swing too well today because my hands are tore up. Next we moved into overhead squat practice, this time without shoes. By removing my shoes, keeping my toes from going too far out, and lifting my...
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Kung Fu class
Basic warmup and basic stance work followed by some kick practice. Worked on forms after that, so I helped the newbies on Gung Ji and Evan on Ng Lung Ba Gwa Gwan. After class, Ali, Frank, and I worked the form more and I’m feeling pretty good about it. It has so many similarities to all the other long weapons so it’s easy to get them mixed up, but I’ve got it straightened out in...
Removing Calluses →
Maybe a fun activity for tonight?
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Kung Fu practice
Used today’s ICT workout as a warmup and just got right into practice with Ng Lung Ba Gwa Gwan. Stuck to the first half and just picked it apart. I need a lot of work on this form.
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It's Alllll In the Hips
Set up three stations, one minute at each station:
DB Swing (55lb) x 60 sec (31, 30, 28, 30, 32)
Med Ball Slam x 60 sec (41, 36, 33, 36, 35)
Double Unders x 60 sec (54, 40, -, -, -)
Repeat 5x, resting 1 minute between rounds.
The dang jump rope broke in the middle of my third round of double unders (and my pants kept falling down in the first two rounds, which really slowed me down), so I...
Warming Up to PRs →
“When you’re warming up for a personal best in any lift, you have to take care to address all parts of the equation without creating undue fatigue. It’s not enough to be mentally stimulated. The weakest part of the equation will determine your max, not the strongest.”
Trainers and Coaches Say Relaxation Is Crucial to... →
“Relaxation. It is a trait that is often underappreciated, coaches and athletic trainers say. Yet it can make the difference between doing your best and not doing well, between feeling dragged down or soaring. Coaches search for better ways to teach it. And many athletes, including some of the world’s best, work on it constantly. An ability to relax while pushing hard, exercise researchers...
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Training Session 11 with Coach Keith
Jeez, only one more session left with Coach Keith. After a quick warmup, got right to work on some kipping pullup practice. Mostly just working on the swing - trying to drive the chest forward (open) and then push the back back (closed) without really using the legs. After swinging around like a monkey for a while I was able to throw a few kipping pullups together but I don’t have the...
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Kung Fu class
Assisted the beginners with forms and spent the rest of the time working on Yu Ga Dai Pa. Didn’t get nearly as much floor time as I wanted tonight. Rar. Did my 12 burpees straight.
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Starting the 90 Day Burpee Challonge
Today’s burpee workout clinched it, I’m hopping on the bandwagon and jumping into a modified version of the 100 day burpee challenge that’s recently been spotted all over the Crossfit community. Since I did 100 today, I think I’ll skip 10 days and make this the 90 Day Burpee Challonge. My ground rules:
I’ll be using Ross Enamait’s ‘ultimate’ burpee...
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100 Burpee Challenge (and then some)
The 100 burpee challenge. 100 burpees for time. The cow in everyone’s closet. Did my man Ross’s variation from Never Gymless:
100 Burpees (rest 2 min)
Tabata Squats (16)
Tabata Pushups (8)
Total time for the 100 burpees: 6:06 (PR). I mimicked Coach Keith’s partitioning strategy (10, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 10) and thought it worked pretty well. The manageable sets...
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Metcon Circuit
Another quick finisher for the morning session with Coach Keith:
5 Man-Makers (25lb DBs)
10 Hurdle Jumps (over the squat rack)
15 Squats
Repeat 5x
Total time: 9:02. This was a good one - tough, but the movements were different enough where I could just mow through em without resting.
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Training Session 10 with Coach Keith
Started off with front squat work today. Started with the bar and worked up in sets of 5 until it got heavy, then Coach Keith knocked it down to sets of 3. Went up to 245lb, but only hit 2 reps (twice) because my form started to fall apart. Keith said that’s OK because that’s how I know it’s heavy enough. Anyway, need to really drive the elbows and chest up to keep the weight...
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Kung Fu class
Ran through a No Excuses style warmup for a change of pace. Obviously lower intensity than if I was working out myself:
Wrist Roller
Tiger Claw Squeezing Sand Bag
Double Unders (63, 48, 32, 17)
Tiger Rolling Pushps
Situps
Repeat circuit 4x, starting with 60 second rounds and cutting the time spent on each exercise by 15 seconds each time through (60 sec, 45 sec, 30 sec, 15 sec). I was...
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Kung Fu class
Mostly worked on the lion dance for the wedding this Saturday. I snuck in some practice on Ng Ying Kuen when I could.
I wish I had a new tumblr blog look.
zachry:
My workout regime is varied for a reason, so I don’t get bored. Sometimes a blog gets boring too, no? That’s why they call me curious, I suppose. If I had friend with some sort of chronic wound, I would change out their dressing the same way the first 100 or so times, but then I would mix it up. I would try new alginate coverings, non-adherent absorbent pads, silver impregnated gauzes...
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“We are as dwarves mounted on the shoulders of giants, since we are able to see...”
– Bernard of Chartes in John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, (iii. 4, p. 136), translated from the Latin by A. Shapiro.
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Metcon Circuit
Coach Keith thought it would be especially torturous to combine the back squat with pullups since it was killing my shoulders today. Using the 21, 15, 9 crossfit rep scheme:
Squat (155lb)
Pullups
Total time: 6:58 which is fucking dreadful. Shoulders just kept locking up in the squats, making the pullups really difficult.
There was actually a method to the madness here - Keith said that working...
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Training Session 9 with Coach Keith
Got right to business with Coach Keith today. He started by having me drill the individual snatch components in sets of 3. Had to face away from the mirror to keep looking straight ahead and maintain proper alignment. After it was feeling good, worked in sets of 3 with 3 overhead squats at the top of each snatch using 75lb the whole time.
Next up worked on my squat form, which was feeling pretty...
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Kung Fu class
Beginners warmup, followed by beginners forms. After the beginners begone, we did some lion dance preparation to get ready for Sihing Alex’s wedding this weekend.
Top Ten Reasons Not to Run Marathons →
Don’t do it Zach!
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Kung Fu class
Apparently Sihing Alex had a rough night so I had to cover the Saturday class. I certainly wouldn’t know anything about THAT. Anyway, it was a good, focused crew today. We focused on a lot of body conditioning drills after the warmup: medicine ball throws to the stomach, stomach tapping drill (one star?), three star block, and the FOUR star kicking drill in horse stance. I just realized that...
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Kung Fu practice
In beautiful Prospect Park on a beautiful autumn day. I found a nice level, uncrowded spot and ran through Tiet Sien Kuen to warm up and then practiced Ng Ying Kuen. I ran broke it down to concentrate on some areas that were bugging me and then ran through the whole thing a few times. Went through Tiet Sien Kuen again at the end but didn’t feel anything close to the connection I feel on flat...
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“You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder!”
– Mickey
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Kung Fu class
Took it pretty easy today. Ran the beginners through their warmup and then basically acted as a dummy for the application part of the class. We drilled the chin ji sau and I played the part of the unskilled goon. After the beginners split we drilled more advanced applications of the chin ji sau/gum gao jin sau.
My friend Zach has a new look for his blog →
Gorgeous.
Hip Mobility Roundup →
“Mobility is really important.”
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Training Session 8 with Coach Keith
After a quick warmup of dumbbell swings, pullups, pushups, and air squats, Coach Keith cooked up some metcon murder. First he ran me through this little doozy:
5 Hang Power Snatches (75lb)
10 Overhead Squats (75lb)
15 Burpees
Repeat 3x. Total time: 7:30. I had a really hard time stabilizing the OHS and that took up the bulk of the time here. Need to work on this - shoulders up, poke the head...
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Kung Fu class
Ran through a quick warmup of calisthenics, basic kick work, and then pad work. We went for 1 minute rounds, switching the pads so everyone got 5 minutes of work hammering in some basic combos with a focus on speed. Then we went into free sparring for the remainder of the class.
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Training Session 7 with Coach Keith
Another quick 3 rounds of Cindy for warmup, then into snatch drills. Keith had me break down the movement with the broomstick before putting it all together. Then once I was connecting it a bit, moved onto the empty bar. Form felt good (and I actually had some grip strength today) so we went up in weight. Working in sets of 3, went up to 105lb and felt pretty good throughout. Need to work on...
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Heavy Bag Intervals
Hitting the heavy bag with combinations - punches, kicks, and elbows. Max intensity.
4 x 2 min (30 sec rest)
8 x 1 min (20 sec rest)
16 x 30 sec (10 sec rest)
Total work time: 24 minutes. Rotated between the big heavy bag and a smaller, lighter bag. Tried to stay explosive despite the fatigue. Gruelling.
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Kung Fu class
Did a really basic warmup today and went into Yu Ga Dai Pa practice. Ran through the form a few times and then focused on a few of the problem spots. Also helped the beginners with forms.
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Core Training
Quick home core workout:
5 Standing Wheel Rollouts (rounds 1 & 2) / 10 Kneeling Wheel Rollouts (3 & 4)
15 sec L-sit (from chair)
25 Abmat Situps
Repeat 4x
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Back On the Track
In Binghamton for anniversary weekend, so I headed to the track behind the East Gym where we used to do backflips.
Sprint 100m
10 Pushups
Jog backwards to start
AMRAP in 20 minutes.
I finished 12 full rounds + a 100m sprint. This one got tiring real fast and surprisingly, it was the backwards jogging that got me really tired. Strange.
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Training Session 6 with Coach Keith
The half way point! Time flies when you’re learning to split snatch. Coach Keith warmed me up with a short pullup/pushup/OHS circuit and then we got to work. Started by learning the pieces of the snatch - the hook grip, dip, shrug, high-pull, and finally the overhead extension with a ‘trap door’ squat. He drilled me on the individual movements and then had me string them...
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Kung Fu class
We did the standard beginner stuff for warmup followed by lots of grip training with the logs. Then we went into some cool applications of the fire punch/chop choy. We continued with more of the same in the advanced class and just worked on variations and follow ups.
Body Crawl Series →
Some new ideas for body crawl variations.
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Kung Fu class
Quick warmup of pullups, pushups, and squats followed by some forearm training:
3 min of tiger claw squeezing sandbags
60 reps of wrist levering with 6’ (heavy) pole
100 reps of various dynamic tension grip exercises in horse stance (kiu sau, yao kiu, tiger claw, etc)
5 min three star block
Then we drilled some bong sau / wu dip jeung practice. After we partnered up with it, Sihing Al came up...
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Training Session 5 with Coach Keith
Frustrating day. My back was still tweaked from a missed power clean on Friday, despite resting it for three days. Keith put me right to work anyway. Started with a quick 3 rounds of Cindy for a warmup, then went to work on the squat. Started with the bar and worked up in sets of 5. Only got up to 225 today before I started showing a “soft” back. Keith had me to do some supermans with...
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“One very useful trick which the weightlifter should adopt is a wisely moderated...”
– Arthur Saxon
Milk: the new sports drink? A Review. →
Milk it does, milk it does a body, milk it does a body good. Pass it on!
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Really Quick Metcon Circuit
Coach Keith cooked up another quickie since we spent most of our time on technique. With a 35lb dumbbell:
10 Goblet Squats
3 Clean into Double Lunge (left and right)
1 Press
1 Turkish Get Down/Get Up
Switch sides and then repeat 4x (2x on each side).
Total time: 3:50. Toughest part here was figuring out how to do a Turkish Get Down from the standing press position. I usually start on the...
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Training Session 4 with Coach Keith
Coach Keith began by reviewing the back squat again today, starting with the empty bar and building up the weight in sets of 5. Got up to 255 and my form started to fall apart - had to bail at 3 reps. My elbows were dropping and the bar was sliding down my back. The fix is to keep the elbows and chest up and the head down. I was also losing the hip drive and not staying back on my heels enough....