Tabata this

Tabata- 20 secs work with 10 secs rest X 8

Pull ups 44

Toes to bar 40

Push ups 94

Air squats 130

Studies have shown that when athletes perform tabata intervals, they increase both aerobic (endurance) and anaerobic (short bursts of energy) capacities more than any other type of cardio. Tabata intervals can be used as a fat burning method and can also improve performance in most aerobic and anaerobic sports.

One tabata interval is only going to last four minutes. Trust me, it is going to be the longest four minutes of your life. When you try this, pick a couple of exercises and use lighter weight or body weight only.

Remember, in order to get the best results you have to push yourself. Go for the highest reps possible in 20 secs and then rest for ten. When the 10 sec rest is up get right back to work and have fun. Helps to have some sort of timer handy.

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.

Bear Peak

Today the weather was sunny, warm and zero wind. I called a friend to see if he wanted to hike a local mountain with me. About 3 miles puts you on the top with amazing views of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park in the North. Greys and Torreys Peaks dominating the western landscape and Pikes to the south. On the summit we had zero wind, clear skies and breathtaking views.

After the first mile I was feeling pretty loose and I had tons of energy. I felt like doing more than just hiking so I started to do push ups when we stopped for water or to check out the boulders on the way. I rattled off as many pull ups as I could when ever I found a tree branch low enough to grab on to. Towards the summit I would pick out markers in the distance and try sprinting to them. On the summit I was doing handstand push ups on a boulder and L sits between smaller boulders. I tried to get in some TGU's but the ground was not giving me the opportunity. Great day and a great hike. The world is my playground.

"Pleasure spiked with pain" chipper

WOD

For a time:

30 burpees

5 muscle ups

30 push presses

5 muscle ups

30 sand bag wrap around w/ 40 lb sandbag

5 muscle ups

30 Kettle bell swings

5 muscles ups

30 meters over head walking lunges w/ 40 lb sandbag

30 meters sprint with sand bag

5 muscle ups

30 retaining wall box jumps ( about 6 inches above the knees)

5 muscle ups

I finished in 26 min 20 secs.

This was probably the most fun I have had working out in a long time. I got the idea for this wod from a couple of places. The first was watching this video at the bottom of this post. Basically the guy in the video is doing muscle up s between every lift. My second source of inspiration for this wod is from Blair Morrison of Anywherefit. Blair's creativity is off the charts and his vision has helped change the way I train. Blair wrote this great article for Sicfit awhile back titled " Free of the Gym" and I have read it over and over. I love it!

This paragraph from the article resonates inside me now more than ever.

"Don’t be a barbell brat, lift whatever you can get your hands on. Weakness doesn’t respect proper equipment or hours of operation, so don’t stand on ceremony while you get choked out.

There’s nothing that burns me more than when I ask someone about a trip they took and they tell me, “It was great, but I couldn’t get to the gym.” Wrong. Nut up, go outside, and make your own gym. The biggest obstacle is not a lack of resources, it’s a lack of drive and a crippling self-consciousness. Get over it and your world becomes a playground. Trust me, it’s fun and you’ll be better for it the next time you “get to the gym.”

”

You can read the entire article here.

Some of the equipment I used for this wod was just the same ol crap I have been using from the demolition site. I used a cinder block for the KB swings. I have the sand bag. I used a 20 ft long beam that is lying outside my apt for the push presses. This sucker is heavy as hell. I just get under one end of it. I hang my rings in a tree in front of my apt for the muscle ups. I used the neighbors retaining wall for the box jumps and I just did the lunges down the side walk and sprint back up it. So basically I lift what ever I can get my hands on.

I started off with the burpees because I figured that would be the most difficult part of this wod. I was way wrong. The sand bag wrap around was by far the most difficult part. I have this 40 lb. sand bag and trying to pass it around my body was so difficult. My biceps were completely wasted after just five. Arms already fatigued from the previous exercises and they only got worse during the wrap around. I must have dropped the damn thing 10 times. I had to pick it back up and start again. Exhausting work but somewhat pleasurable. The rest of the wod went by a little quicker. The first round of muscle ups were unbroken, however after the push presses I could only manage 2 at a time until the end. Overall this is the most fun I have had training in months. "Pleasure spiked with pain. That mother fucker is always spiked with pain"

Diane with a Stone

Run 800 meters

21-15-9 of

Heavy ass stone dead lifts

Elevated hand stand push ups

Run 800 meters

"Diane" is a crossfit wod that a few people can finish in under 3 minutes. I do not have access to that kind of weight right now. So , I went back to the demolition site today. Picked out the same stone as last when I did the demolition wod. I think it is heavy enough and awkward enough for this modified version of "Diane".

I finished the first 800 meter run in 3 min 44 sec. Then the heavy ass stone lifts. The stone sits low and is very awkward to get off the ground. I have to get really low and stay focused in the core to get it off the ground. 21 seemed to take forever. For the hspu's I grabbed a couple of cinder blocks from a pile to make them elevated. This raised the bar about 7 inches making the hspu's really difficult. I had to break the first set into 11,7,3. The next 15 lifts were not as bad. However the hspu's got worse. I broke this set as well but more like 7,3,3,2. The last round was not bad either way. I finished the second run in 3 min 50 sec. For a total time of 26 min 48 sec. I got some interesting looks from the people walking by watching me pick up this big piece of rock. One guy actually asked if I needed help. He just laughed when I told him I was doing it for a workout. I had a really good time with this workout. I enjoyed lifting the stone. Hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow because I have a really fun workout planned.

Here is a quick video of a guy doing "Diane" in about 3 min.

Progression Ladder and "Annie"

Every minute on the minute perform 1 pull up.

In the first minute do 1 pull up, in the second minute do 2 pull ups, the third minute 3 pull ups and so on until you are unable to perform the required reps in the one minute.

I finished with 12 rounds + 7.

I woke up this morning not feeling so great. I feel a cold coming on. So I just wanted to take it easy a bit today. I like these sort of progression ladders. You get a nice warm up in the early sets and get blasted in the end. Not my strongest effort in this sort of workout. I was doing the pull ups on a bar that was about 6 inches away from a wall. So this made my pull ups very strict. I could not get any kip out of them.

After the progression ladder I wanted to have a go at "Annie" a crossfit wod that is short fast and effective. 50-40-30-20-10 reps for a time of Double Unders and Sit ups. I have only done this one time before and I think I did it in a 7 min and some change. This time I finished in 6 min and 47 secs. A bit faster. I did not even think to anchor my feet for the sit ups. This would have made it way faster. The double unders were pretty easy. I did every set unbroken. No problem there. I think the best way to improve on this is to have my feet anchored for the sit ups.

I am just going to rest up the next couple of days and hopefully I will feel better by turkey day. I hope to get a good Thanksgiving day workout in. Then I wont feel as bad about all the food and beer I am going to consume.

Demolition Wod

Demolition Wod

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of

5 heavy ass stone lifts

10 sand bag thrusters

20 lateral jumps over junk pile

A building had been demolished on my street earlier this week. I noticed a few heavy items lying around the demolition site while coming home. A few heavy ass concrete blocks. I really wanted to lift something heavy so I played around with the different size concrete blocks to see which one I could lift safely. I found the right one. I couldn't really say how much it weighed but it was a gigantic effort to get it off the ground. I found a few sand bags that weighed about 30 lbs. The sand bags were perfect for thrusters and I just piled up some other crap to give me something to jump over laterally. The lateral jumps were a good twist to doing box jumps. I finished with 6 rounds with just a few seconds left. Everything in this wod felt good. The best part was lifting the heavy concrete blocks. I left a nice hole in the ground were I kept dropping the stone.