Today's workout was...

[John Rauch]

fitocrazy.com -It's kind of like a Facebook for fitness nerds. The social aspect is silly at times, but it's nice to be able to record my workouts each day and track my progress.

Anyway, I did some grappling at karate last night. Not too hard, just providing resistance for the lower belts as part of a circuit drill thing. It was fun. Today, I did some jumping rope and 8 quarter mile repeats with 30 seconds rest between. I'm trying to get my speed and stamina up a bit. The last four quarters, my HRM was beeping at me for going over my "max" heart rate. As miserable as it feels, somehow I love getting confirmation that I'm actually working as hard as it feels.

[Laura]

Whatever gets you lifting more is right, as far as I'm concerned. My wife has the same relationship with fat loss supplements. I've shown her the proof that they don't do much of anything, but when she's taking them, it's like a reminder to work out and eat better. Funny how that works.

I wear the Bodymedia Fit armband for the same purpose. For some reason, wearing this keeps me a little more honest. It also makes me go to bed earlier, and I'm discovering that proper sleep is like 30% of weight loss.

I forgot to list my workout from yesterday...it was probably my last Base Phase Workout A. I'm going to move on to the next phase next week. This was three sets of 12, so I increased reps across the board. New weights are in blue.

1A Bird Dog
1B Forward Ball Roll

2A Step-up (same weight as before -- 8s/10s/12s -- but I used the high step)
2B 3-pt DB rows (25/30/30)

3A Partial Co-Contraction Lunge
3B Incline Pushup (set 1: first eight were on shin-height bar. set 2: ALL reps were on shin-height bar. set 3: first six were on shin-height bar...my arms were about to give out)

4A Hip-Thigh Extension
4B Bent Over Reverse Fly (12s/12s/15s)

Today was Week 6, day 1 of Couch to 5K. Two five-minute runs and one eight-minute run. Pretty simple. That reminds me...*goes off to download more Podrunner podcasts*

Speaking of the mental aspect of things and motivation, does anyone else use Fitocracy.com?

I signed up for Fitocracy, but quickly avoided it because the last thing I need is ANOTHER social network talking about fitness (I already post here, on Bodymedia.com, on Livejournal, and on JPFitness Forums). I avoid Twitter for the same reason: I have enough daily distraction as it is.

[John Rauch]

Today's workout has put a serious dent in my productivity for the rest of the day. No heavy weights, but I made up for it in volume.

First circuit was five sets of 18' rope climb, three wall walks, and 10 one-leg box jumps at 20".

Second circuit was 10 80 lb. log presses with 10 pistol squats for 10 rounds.

Third circuit was five rounds of 60 second high plank and 10 ring pull-ups.

I'm toast.

[John Rauch]

This just in: I might be running a half marathon Saturday morning.

[John Rauch]

Didn't end up running the half-marathon, but I did do 6 miles wearing a 20 lb. vest last night.

Today was training with the mud/obstacle race team. We did some kettlebell work.

10 rounds of:

20 swings
4 get-ups
10 one-handed deadlifts
10 renegade push-up/rows
10 burpees

I used a 60 lb. KB and it was torturous, specifically on the get-ups. My left wrist is still giving me fits from being sprained, so that was tricky.

[Laura]

Today I started the "Define Yourself" phase (phase 2) of FBB. I started out with the same warmups that I've been doing, minus the one-legged jumps, because I am not going to take risks with a knee that I need for running. Then the strength part was 2 sets of 8...

1A Wood Chop -- started at 25 lbs, realized that was way too easy, moved up to 35 lbs
1B Plank -- Instead of counting the seconds, I just looked at a clock, started the plank at the zero-second mark, and held it until I was tired, then looked at the clock again. :59 for the first one, :65 for the second one.

2A Dumbbell Squat with Offset Load -- 10/15
2B Dumbbell Alternating Overhead Press -- 15s/20s

3A Single-Leg Bent-Knee Deadlift -- There was no way I was going so low as to put the weights on the ground, but I did okay on these. 8s/10s
3B Assisted Chinups -- Finally! I get to work these into my routine. Of course, I kinda sucked at them. I put the weight on the highest possible assist, did 8 reasonable chinups the first set, and 8 sloppy ones with three breaks on the second set.

4A Alternating Lateral Lunge -- 10s, 12s (whoo, these really got my heart rate up)
4B 2-pt. Dumbbell Row -- I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do this with one arm at a time or two, so I did two. 20s/25s

That was a good starting point for the next four weeks. I will be sore tomorrow! Heck, I'm still sore today from Saturday's workout.

[John Rauch]

The wrist thing is really getting on my nerves. I tried bench pressing today and couldn't do it at all with a barbell. Since I was already ready to go, I did some one arm farmer's carries at waist and shoulder level with my new kettlebell and a few other various odd object lifts and carries. Not really a typical push/pull/squat workout, but it was still decent.

[John Rauch]

Hills today. 8x up and down (@1.5 miles) with 40 lbs., 8x with 20 lbs, 4x with no added weight. Karate in a bit. Also, yesterday, I did a little 15 minute circuit with the wife of sumo deadlift/high pulls with the 60 lb. kettlebell and body weight dips, starting at one rep and adding one each time. I made it a little over 16 rounds.

[John Rauch]

Bench, deads, OHP, and squats for sets of 3 until I couldn't add weight. Then after that, I did a couple circuits with lighter bench press, rows, KB swings, and goblet squats to get a good burn going.

[Ryan]

The past week has been crazy in lots of unexpected ways, so my workouts have been sporadic and not as strong.

Saturday-Monday: No Workout

Tuesday: Ran 2 miles, Weights: Gluts, Biceps and Triceps

Today: 20 minutes of HIIT cardio, Weights: Chest, Back and Shoulders

[John Rauch]

225 lb. squat/315 lb. deadlift (10/1, 9/2, 8/3, 7/4, 6/5, 5/6, 4/7, 3/8, 2/9, 1/10) with two wall walks after each set of squats and five L-sit pull-ups after each set of deads. 41 grueling minutes.

[Laura]

Haven't logged in for a couple of days, but I've been hard at work! Yesterday was FBB Define Phase, workout B, for the first time. Everything was 2 sets of 8.

1A: Reverse Woodchop (30/30)
1B: Prone Jackknife (BW)

2A: Step-Ups (high step, 12s/15s)
2B: Incline T Pushups (bar at shin height for all reps, BW)

3A: Single-Leg Squat (tall bench, BW)
3B: Alt Lateral Raise (8s, 10s) -- note to self: don't be a wuss, start with 12s next time

4A: SHELC (BW)
4B: Inverted Row (bar at high waistband level)

The bad thing is that I sill hate step-ups. The good thing is that after the stepups, 3a-b and 4a-b seem positively breezy. Not really, of course, but psychologically.

Today I attempted C25K week 6 day 2 again. Got through the first run just fine, but I failed about 5 minutes into the second 10-min run, had to walk it off, then ran for another 2-3 minutes. I maybe ran 18 minutes total. Gotta try again in a couple days.

Note to self: If you are going to do your weights and measurements tomorrow morning, DO NOT EAT A BOATLOAD OF MOVIE POPCORN TONIGHT when you go see Avengers!!!

[John Rauch]

It's too bad you can't take your own popcorn to the theater. It's actually a very low calorie snack if you find the right brand.

What book is it again that your workouts come from, Laura? I don't know if you've heard of Starting Strength, but it's a great, very simple (simple, not easy) program that sounds like something you'd enjoy. It's only meant to be done 2-3 days/week, so you'd still have a couple days each week to work on C25K or whatever you like.

[Laura]

Oh yeah, I've got Starting Strength at home, and Rippetoe's DVD.

The book I'm working from is Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove (wife of Alwyn Cosgrove, who designed all of the New Rules Of workouts). The tone of the book is pretty heavy on the girly-girl empowerment stuff, which I can live without, but there's also a heavy dose of "stop bullshitting, no more excuses".

[John Rauch]

That's what I love about Starting Strength and other similar programs (Madcow, StrongLifts, et all). They get rid of a lot of nonsense people see and try to do and focus on just making you stronger.