Today's workout was...

[Laura]

Did these at the hotel gym. No pulley for wood chops, so I substituted a few things. New weights in blue.

1A Wood Chop - had to substitute medicine ball chops (10, 12)
1B Plank -- (:75, :45)

2A Dumbbell Squat with Offset Load (15, 20)
2B Dumbbell Alternating Overhead Press (20s, 20s)

3A Single-Leg Bent-Knee Deadlift (15s, 20s)
3B Assisted Chinups - had to substitute lat pulldowns (85, 85)

4A Alternating Lateral Lunge (15s, 15s)
4B 2-pt. Dumbbell Row (25, 30)

My hip flexors are going to be super sore tomorrow...

[John Rauch]

Do you have problems with them normally? I'm not sure what in that routine would use them much.

I did some dumbbell bench (got an extra two reps from last week), squats (also new 5 rep record), and curls. I also did some one-armed shoulder presses when I needed a break from working. Last night was also our night in the rotation to watch my sister's kids, so we took them and ours to the park and I did some L-sits and clapping pull-ups to show off for the kids. Also, lots and lots of underdogs.

[John Rauch]

Mud race training today. We did some trail running an a .5 mile trail carrying weights and doing squats and other calisthenics.

[John Rauch]

I'm taking a break from strength training for a while. I'm sick of it. How's that for motivation?

[Ryan]

Last night was also our night in the rotation to watch my sister's kids, so we took them and ours to the park and I did some L-sits and clapping pull-ups to show off for the kids.

Haha, do your kids brag a lot about how their Dad can beat up other kids' Dads?

Yesterday: 14 miles on the recumbent bike with weighted punches. Lifted weights: Gluts, Biceps, Triceps.

Today: 12 miles on the bike. Weight Lifting: Shoulders, Chest, Upper Back.

[John Rauch]

Last night was also our night in the rotation to watch my sister's kids, so we took them and ours to the park and I did some L-sits and clapping pull-ups to show off for the kids.

Haha, do your kids brag a lot about how their Dad can beat up other kids' Dads?

Yesterday: 14 miles on the recumbent bike with weighted punches. Lifted weights: Gluts, Biceps, Triceps.

Today: 12 miles on the bike. Weight Lifting: Shoulders, Chest, Upper Back.

lol...I don't know, but after seeing me do well at various competitions, they ask me things like, "Are you faster than the Flash?"

"Yes...yes, I am."

[John Rauch]

Well, after thinking about it yesterday, I decided to change up my training program and get away from the rigid barbell and weights mentality for a bit. I've been stalling on some lifts and various nagging injuries have caused others to actually go the wrong direction. So, after throwing out anything based on what I "should" do to reach this goal or that, I've decided to just do what looks fun. I've been eye-balling StrongmanWOD.com for a few months now, occasionally drawing inspiration, but never outright using the workouts, but I decided I'm going to give it a shot for a while and see what happens. Here is today's workout:

Death by Atlas Stone
Posted on May 22, 2012 by RobOrlando
Start a clock and lift an Atlas Stone to the shoulder for 1 rep. On the minute perform 2 reps. Each minute add one rep to your previous set. Continue adding 1 rep per round until you cannot complete the work inside of a minute.

Men >145

Women > 65

I had to modify a little bit, but it was fun and extremely challenging. I was able to keep the weight at 145 lbs., which made me happy. It was much shorter of a workout than I've been doing lately as well, so I added some wall walks following the same format at the end, as well as a light warm-up and cool-down of body weight moves. I used weight plates strapped together rather than an atlas stone, since a) I don't have an atlas stone and b) I didn't want to be outside in the heat today, to use the sawed off tree trunk I'd normally use for this kind of thing. The plates were a little rough in that I couldn't roll them up my torso like you would with a stone or log, but gripping them was slightly easier. Another issue was being inside, I couldn't just drop them on the floor after each rep, so I had to do the negative to each lift as well.

Anyway, I made it up to 4 minutes/4 reps, then started over again and made it to the same number, so I started again at one rep for a third time, without stopping the clock. So: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. With wall walks, I made it up to 5 on the fifth minute, and stopped there.

It was a good workout and I had fun. My stomach and shoulders are kind of bruised up, but I can live with that. I'm actually looking forward to my next workout again.

[Ryan]

It was a good workout and I had fun.

Those are definitely the best.

Today: Ran 2.5 miles, 5 minutes of jump rope, 2 minutes of shuttle runs.

[John Rauch]

Very true. I also ran a little over four miles last night, at a much slower pace than usual. I was talking to someone about the benefit of doing more easy runs with my HR under 160 and thought I'd give it a shot. It was nice and relaxing.

[John Rauch]

Tough one today. From StrongmanWOD.com:

12 down to 1 of Pushups and Pullups
Men @ 45 pounds
Women @ 20 pounds
15 minute cap.

I did the push-ups on rings instead of the floor to make them comparable to the pull-ups in difficulty and I went over the 15 minute cap, but finished anyway.

Then, from TravisStoetzel.com:

Inch Worm w/ Push Ups x 10, 9, 8, 7... 1
Kettlebell Swings w/ 70# x 10, 9, 8, 7... 1

I didn't have a 70 lb. KB, so I had to use my 60.

[Ryan]

Inch Worm w/ Push Ups x 10, 9, 8, 7... 1

I remember the first time I tried to do walk out push-ups, I was really surprised by how sore my hamstrings were the next day.

Today: 10 miles on the recumbent bike. Lifted weights: Gluts, Biceps, Triceps.

We're driving to New Orleans tomorrow, but I'm going to try and get a workout in before we leave. If not, tomorrow will be a rest day and I'll probably start back up on Sun.

[John Rauch]

My flexibility is so bad, they didn't get THAT much of a stretch.

Today's workout from StrongmanWOD.com:

Perform 50 walking lunges with a barbell loaded with your body weight.
Rest 5 minutes and then perform 30 walking lunges with the same barbell.
Rest 3 minutes and perform 10 walking lunges with the same barbell.

I used 185 on the bar, instead of body weight and I had to break up the first and second sets with a short 1 minute rest. I don't think I've ever had a barbell on my back that long before. Then I finished with three sets of 20 45 lb. weighted decline sit-ups and 60 lb. full range KB swings.

[John Rauch]

And wrapped up the day with some trail running. Twice through the 1.75 mile trail with a short rest between. 14:36, 10:36.

[John Rauch]

Let's see...yesterday was supposed to be a rest day, but I spent my morning talking to the half-insane, alcoholic mom of a kid from church who we've been having problems with (shocker, right?) and trying to be polite the entire time sent my stress levels through the roof, so I did some total bro lifting, just to get it out. Lots and lots of sets, pressing and curling, all done with one arm in a static hold at the top of the lift and the other lifting. Crazy, crazy pump, to the point where I had to take measurements, which showed some improvements since the last time I measured, months ago, at least.

Today was training with the race team and we had a lot of fun:

Strength -5 truck pushes (97 Mercury Mountaineer) @3% incline for about 40 meters. The rest was waiting for your turn in the rotation again. The girls pushed the truck two or three at a time.

WOD -Set an interval timer for nine 90 second rounds and set up four stations with various implements: 95 lb. bar, two 45 lb. dumbbells, a 60 lb. kettlebell, and an 80 lb. log ( a real one, not the fabricated strongman logs). Every 90 seconds, do 10 sit-throughs and rotate to the next station. The rest of the time, ground to overhead, however you like, for max reps. The girls had lighter weights/implements, but similar.

I had the farthest truck push of the day and scored 103 reps on the WOD, which was tough, but a lot of fun. Tomorrow, I think I'll get that rest day, not counting a little bit of softball.

[John Rauch]

Weighted push-ups and pull-ups today.