Sprint once in a while

Primal law #5

Sprint once in a while.

Workout of the day

30 sec max effort sprints x 8

The weather has been pretty good lately. Today was sunny and warm. I felt like today was a great day to run some sprints and just be outside. My house is on a pretty quite street as far as not having tons of traffic. I just sprinted in the street. I could get about a block and a half in 30 secs. I would rest for about 90 secs before sprinting again. I did not jog I just walked and rested. Your body needs long periods of rest after short intense sprinting.

Benefits of sprinting:

It is natural. The human body has evolved over time to cover short distances as fast as possible. This evolution helped our ancestors catch their food and escape from possibly being food. Civilization has evolved so that humans do not have to sprint. That does not mean we shouldn't.

Sprinting will reduce body fat. Sprinting requires maximum recruitment of muscles. More muscle requires more energy. Thus burning more fat for longer periods of time.

Sprinting naturally increases Human Growth Hormone. Human growth hormone increases muscle mass, enhances the immune system, promotes weight loss through fat loss and increases stamina.

Sprinting strengthens your cardiovascular system. We strengthen our muscles by doing heavy, low repetition sets with long rests. We should strengthen our hearts the same way.

Sprinting can be fun. Especially when we are playing a game or competing with friends.

I am not saying you need to sprint all the time. Just once in a while. Your body will need plenty of rest after sprints so you should wait about 72 hours before sprinting again.

Workout of the Day

Workout of the Day

15 minute amrap of

5 sandbag clean and jerks (over a tree branch)

5 shuttle sprints ( 10 yrds down and back x5)

I think I finished with 8 rounds and 4 of SB clean and jerks over the tree branch. I lost count early and just rounded down. the weather was a little warmer today and the sun was out. All of the ice and snow has melted off of the sidewalks. The shuttle sprints were just ten yards down and back five times. A hundred yards total. I started to suck wind after the 4th. This made the sandbag c&j's harder.

The Sand bag has been sitting out in the snow and is now wet and a bit heavier. I found a tree in the park that had a low branch. The branch was just out of full reach. So in order to get the sandbag over the branch i really had to commit to throwing this bag up and over. Pretty much like a wall ball but not as high and a little more effort because of the weight of the sand bag.

The Shuttles definitely got me winded. The Sand bag c&j's were kind of a rest but not really.

I have really enjoyed being outside training besides the cold and the snow. Honestly I can't wait for the summer. This photo is my goal for the summer.

For core work I did six rounds of one minute plank hold variations with one minute rest between rounds. The first minute I held plank for one minute. After one minute rest I held plank for one minute with the left leg up. Rest one minute. Hold plank for one minute with the right arm up. Rest one minute. Hold plank for one minute with the right leg up. Rest one minute. Hold plank for one minute with the left arm up. Rest one minute. Hold Plank for one minute.

Maximum rounds in 12 mins

Maximum rounds in 12 min of:

50 meter sprints

10 squat jumps

10 hand stand push ups

I finished with 7 rounds + 4 squat jumps. I got this workout from Marksdailyapple.com's workout of the week. I just tweaked it a bit with the Handstand push ups instead of regular push ups. This afternoon after climbing I jogged up to the park in my neighborhood to get some sprinting going on. Going into this wod I thought 10 rounds was possible. I think it certainly is for most. However I got slowed down on the hand stand push ups. The first 2 rounds were unbroken at 10 a piece. Then I could only manage 5 on the first go and a few more after that. I did feel pretty strong through out the 12 minutes. The sprints and the squat jumps were a great combination.

Core work

50 full sit ups ( touch top of feet)

20 of the following lower complex ( 1 leg lever, then raise your feet back up and do 2 hip raises=1 rep)

50 full sit ups ( touch the top of feet)

My abs will be sore tomorrow for sure.

I had a great day today. Got up kind of early and went climbing in the Flat Irons. Had a great hike to the base of the climb and a great climb. The temperature was amazing today. For climbing and working out in the park. Great day indeed!

Stairs + Sandbag = Pukie

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

Sprint stadium stairs with 40 lb sandbag (60 stairs)

5 thrusters at the top of stairs with sandbag

5 turkish get ups at the bottom of stairs with sandbag

I finished with 6 rounds + 5 thrusters

I grabbed my sandbag and walked down to the high school for some work on the football stadiums stairs. It was pretty exhausting just to carry that thing to the stadium. I did some squats and lunges and presses with the thing on the way. Just to start my warm up.

There were 60 stairs from bottom to top of the stadium. Sprinting to the top with the sandbag had my lungs and quads burning. The thrusters were not easy. The TGU's were a total bitch.

The sandbag was awkward. Difficult to get set and I dropped it on my nose once. I did manage to get every set unbroken however. My goal was 8 rounds, but I underestimated the difficulty of this wod. The most challenging part was walking back home with my bag. My core was totally fried by this point and I had to keep changing shoulders every minute so I could make it back.

The most challenging workout this year

Run 150 trail stairs
21 KB thrusters using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
21 KB swings 45#
Run 150 trail stairs
15 KB thruster using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
15 KB swings 45#
Run 150 trail stairs
9 KB thrusters using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
9 KB swings 45#

By far the most challenging workout I have attempted this year. I finished this in 29 min and 4 secs. I actually thought that I would be able to do this in under 12 minutes. Ya, ummm way off. The stairs going up the trail to a vista over looking Emerald bay were random heights and distances apart. This made the stairs so challenging. Some steps had to be very powerful and others had to be quick. The trail was very steep as well. In the beginning my times for the stairs were around 40 secs, towards the end they were more like 1 min 15 secs. I thought that the first set of thrusters were really difficult. Just to finish them unbroken was a challenge. My friend Dan was working out with me today and he was the extra inspiration to keep me going. The swings were never an issue. Running the stairs were the most challenging part of this exercise, coupled with the swings and the thrusters made this one of the hardest wod's I have done this year.