In the tradition of Thanksgiving morning ‘earn that bird’ workouts, Frank and I met up at Washington Park for a tough one. Working in 5 minute density blocks today, going for max reps:
- 5 min Burpees (75)
- 5 min Box Jumps (67)
- 5 min 50m Sprints (16)
Rest 2 minutes between blocks.
Knowing that it’s just you vs. the exercise for 5 minutes with nothing to break it up is physically and mentally tough. I partitioned the burpees into sets of 10 (which was probably not the best strategy) and did a 10, 9, 8, 7,…1 split for the box jumps. For the sprints, I just did as many as I could but was pretty gassed by then and none were all-out sprints.
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while - setting blocks of time and seeing how many reps of a particular exercise in in that time period. Here’s what we did today:
- 5 min Burpees (85)
- 5 min Double Unders (160)
- 5 min Dips (78)
I rested 2 minutes between blocks. I was pissed at my burpee score, but now that I look at it it seems like I was on pace for 100 in under 6 minutes. I broke it down like this: 30, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10. I’ll have to try to cross that goal off my list one day soon. The double unders were tough after the burpees and really scorched my shoulders. After the first few sets, I was stuck to doing sets of 10. I mostly did sets of 5 for the dips because my shoulders just had nothing left.
Using the principles of density training to increase my pullup AND pushup numbers (shooting for 50). Starting each set at 1 minute intervals, go until you can’t complete the numbers in a 1 min set:
Finished 8 rounds.
Total of 80 reps of each, resting until the full minute is up. I was shooting for the full 10 rounds, but just wasn’t feeling it today. Haven’t been working my strength endurance that much recently and it shows. Pullups were broken after the 5th set.
Using the principles of density training to increase my pullup AND pushup numbers (goal is still 50, though it’s a long ways away). Starting each set at 1 minute intervals:
- 12 x 8 reps
- 1 x 4 (to make it an even 100)
100 pullups + 100 pushups total in just over 12 minutes. I did the pushups immediately after the pullups, so I had to finish 8 reps of each in each minute. Didn’t get all the pullup sets unbroken this time. The pushups definitely added to the overall fatigue, but made it a bit more interesting. I think I’ll up the reps to 9 next time, which means only 11 sets!
Using the principles of density training to increase my pullup numbers (goal is 50). Starting each set at 1 minute intervals:
- 12 x 8 reps
- 1 x 4 (to make it an even 100)
100 pullups total in just over 12 minutes. My favorite part of the article linked above: “When this set and rep scheme becomes easy, move onto the next level.” I don’t know if this will ever be easy, but I got through it with unbroken sets. I think I’ll stick with the 12 x 8 (+4) a couple more times.
