Friday, August 7, 2009

Back again. I have been quite busy with playing around with different workouts for myself and just testing the energy system waters. Some light and short, some heavy and medium, some light and long, etc. I tend to gravitate towards the heavy and short met-cons but forget the importance of short met-cons that involve light weights as well as throwing in some light and long and/or heavy and longer in the mix as well.

Going heavy, first off, takes care of a lot of things for you in terms of going hard. If the weight is heavy enough, you can push the pace almost to a point where you are required to slow down in order to move the weight through the required range of motion. This means, that even though you are fast with heavier weights, you must still respect the weight and move accordingly. Its as though the heavier loads determine the pace for you. You will tend to forget how to push yourself harder if you always do these kinds of workouts. This is why I have been re-introducing myself to met-cons that may have the same type of volume with lighter weights or maybe even more volume with lighter weights but last about as long as its heavier weighted counterpart.  For example, lets say I do a workout with 10 Thrusters at 135 pounds and 10 Pull-ups for 5 rounds and lets say that it takes me 12 minutes to finish this workout. Twelve minutes is a good time but I was limited by the weight of the thrusters. I wanted to make sure my accuracy was high or that every rep counted (no misses). Here lies the problem. So what I did yesterday was an example of changing it up a bit. I did full cleans (squat included) and ring dips. Usually in a workout like this, I would prescribe a heavier weight for the cleans kind of like Elizabeth but maybe even heavier than 135. Instead, I went with 88 pounds and decided to do ten reps of each movement for 10 rounds.  Now, the weight would not hold me back. My mind would be the culprit now. Could I push through when it would feel as though my heart would jump out of my chest? Accuracy doesn’t have to be as high because it chump weight, in terms of what I am capable of squat cleaning or what I have done in the past in met-cons that have squat cleans. Do you see where I am getting at?

I need to do workouts that don’t take very long but are long enough you want to kill yourself rather than finish it in a time you feel you should finish it in. I also need to do workouts with heavier weights that involve more reps other than the usual 1 to 5. Like doing 15 reps at a time with 135 pounds for different movements like thrusters. These are the workouts I need not shy away from. These are the ones that will help take me to another level.

Well, here’s to kicking your own ass.

Thursday’s Workout
10 Full Cleans at 88 pounds
10 ring dips
10 rounds

Time: 13:35 (i think)

Wednesday’s Workout
Park City CF Chipper
For time:
400 meter run
30 Pull-ups
20 Pistols (one-legged squats)
30 Burpees
20 Pushups
30 Double Unders
20 Wall Balls, 20 pound ball
30 Situps
20 Pull-ups
30 Kettle Bell Swings, 1.5 pood
400 meter run

Time: 12:09 (i think)