A deck of cards goes a long way

I hope every one had a wonderful Christmas. So much food and candy was consumed at my family's home. During Christmas I just ate and ate and ate. My family and I played card games most of the day while drinking coffee to stay awake. After awhile I felt uncomfortable and needed to burn some energy. I used the Deck of cards that we were playing with and put together a little workout.

Spades were weighted squats, Clubs were air squats, Hearts were sit ups and Diamonds were push ups. Face cards are worth ten. I just grabbed random family members for the weighted squats. I picked them up Fireman style. In Front of the fireplace I just flipped a card over and did what ever the required exercise and rep was. Keep going until the deck is finished. The heaviest I squatted was my brother the lightest my sister. A total of 95 reps per exercise. Sometimes you get a couple of spades back to back. Fun and easy to do in my living room with my family chipping in on the. A deck of cards can go a long ways.

1 minute on 1 minute off + playing in a tree wod

1 minute on 1 minute off for ten minutes. For 1 minute 30 kettlebell swings , then rest one minute. If you do not get 30 swings in 1 minute add 100 double unders at the end.

This is a wod I got off of the crossfitfootball website. Except that they are using so much more weight than I can handle. I just used this cinder block near my house. I actually found a stone that I could stuff into the bottom hole to make it heavier. I think the weight was about right. I finished the first and second rounds with just 2 seconds left. The third and fourth with one second left. The fifth actually got me. I was about to swing my last rep when my timer went off.

I rested for about five minutes before I had a go at my 100 double unders. I managed all 100 double unders unbroken. I was happy with that. My max before was 109 unbroken. I actually felt like I could have beat that today.

When I finished with the double unders I was doing some light stretching by a tree. This tree has a large branch about a full reach off the ground. I pulled my feet and legs up around it and locked them so I could hang upside down and do sit ups. Touch the ground then touch my toes. This felt pretty good so I made up a little workout to add to the day.

As many rounds in 10 minutes of

5 hanging upside down sit ups ( touch your toes)

1 muscle up to the top of the branch

5 dips on the branch

I did manage 9. Towards the end the sit ups were getting really hard. The muscle up was the hardest. I could just barely get my chest up on the branch. Then I would have to fight to get the rest of the way up. Once on top of the branch I would do 5 dips. These are harder than they seem. A fun workout in a tree that got me several stares from people walking by.

Max effort hill sprints

A couple of weeks ago I went on a beautiful hike. My friend and I hiked to the top of Bear peak. Along the way I noticed this large hill with a steep trail going towards the summit. My friend and I talked about coming back and running up that steep trail for a workout. Today I set out to do just that. This steep hill is about a half mile from the trail head. So I spent that half mile getting warmed up with shorter sprints and drills. I had on plenty of clothes so my core temperature was up and I was ready to go when I got to the start of the steep trail.

3 x max effort sprints up a steep hill. When I say steep I mean really steep. Like you sometimes have to use your hands to help you along. After a warm up lap I knew I was not going to be able to run to the top of this thing. So I figured I would just go full tilt boogie until I had to stop. That is what I did. 3 full effort sprints until I hit failure. My efforts got me close to the summit but not quite. I would end up in just about the same spot each time. between 1 min 10 secs sprinting and 1 min 14 secs. I wanted to throw up every time. Even though I couldn't run to the top I would still walk or crawl my way to the top. My legs were like Jello after this.

I cooled down for a bit on the walk back to the trail head with some light stretching. As I returned to the trail head I was starting to feel better.

I added a little progression ladder at the trail head. 10 air squats + 1 to 10 of handstand push ups. So 10 squats 1 hspu, 10 squats 2 hspu, 10 squats 3 hspu's and so on until I got to ten. I found a couple of stones to use to help make the handstand push ups elevated. I used a tree for balance. This lasted about 12 minutes. I was totally wrecked after this workout. Ready for food and football.

The snow has arrived

I had plans to run the flat irons trail again this morning. However, a winter storm has showed up. The streets are covered in snow and there are no signs of it stopping soon. I am pretty much a wuss when it comes to being outside in the cold and snow. So, I scrapped my plans to run the flat irons trail today. Instead I improvised a little and ran the stairs in my apt building. I live in a four story apt building that has 52 stairs from bottom to top.

For 20 minutes I would run to the top hitting every step on the way. When I am back at the bottom I would then sprint to the top skipping a step. I found out during my warm up that I could just barely get two trips to the top in under a minute. So that is what I set out to do. 40 trips to the top in 20 minutes. I didn't make it. I finished with 37 in 20 minutes.

Even though the weather got in the way of my plans. I still managed to get something done today and I feel a whole lot better for it. Christmas is a week away and I am excited. Happy Holidays everyone.

Spartan "300" home workout challenge

Spartan 300 challenge

25 pull ups

50 pistol squats (25 each leg)

50 push ups

50 split jumps (L/R=1 )

50 toes to bar

50 reverse burpees

25 chin ups

I came across this link today for a race called the Spartan death race. A crazy 3 mile or 8 mile gauntlet type of race. Looked really interesting. I found some interesting videos on youtube about the race as well. After checking out those videos I came across some old videos of the "300" workout. A workout put together by Mark Twight at Gym Jones in Salt Lake City. Gym Jones is the place where the cast of the movie "300" trained to get ripped for the movie. The "300" workout is no joke. I have done it once or twice before a long time ago and I remembered how brutal it was. Well I decided to put together a little home workout version of this workout as described above.

I finished this version in 30 min and 44 secs. The first set of pull ups I managed unbroken. The pistol squats or single leg squats were brutal. I decided to do a full set of 25 on each leg before moving on to the next instead of alternating each leg. The left leg was a real struggle for me. Hard to do them and keep my heel on the ground. I kept loosing my balance on the way up as well. Not sure what the issue was there. I need more practice with these. The right side was much better. Faster and better technique. Push ups were unbroken. Then came the split jumps. Basically in a lunge position jump and switch your legs and land back in the lunge position. Left side then right side equaled 1 rep. The lactic acid built up really fast in my quads on these. I managed 17 then 15,10 and 8 before finishing. The toes to bar were not bad. I finished them in three sets. I think it was 25, 15, 10. The reverse burpees were awesome. I have never attempted a reverse burpee before. I loved them. Fun and challenging. This slowed me down more than I had expected. From lying on your back position you rock a hard sit up so you can come up to your feet. Stand up then do a hand stand. When you come back down just go to your feet and then back down tell you are lying on your back again. I really enjoyed them. I finished the chin ups in two sets.

A great home workout. I would really like to see someone finish this faster. 20 mins maybe. Try this "300" workout if you think you are spartan tough.

Here is a video explaining the actual 300 workout. Which you should also try if you are familiar with these lifts.

Here is a video of a couple of guys doing the reverse burpees. Fun exercise. Give them a try.

Here is a cool video of Mark Twight training the crew for the movie

Nothing tastes as good as being lean feels

I came across this article on marksdailyapple.com about the psychology of giving up your favorite foods to look and feel better in life. I thought the article was really interesting and I wanted to share it. You can read the article here.

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!