Five Rounds

Last night’s workout was five rounds of: 10 military overhead press (empty 20-kg barbell for me) 10 hanging leg raises 10 dips 10 pull-ups 10 one-leg deadlifts I’m not sure whether this was supposed to be timed or not, but with the wall clock I timed myself at 23:00. I marked the whiteboard to keep track of my rounds. Anything over four rounds and I lose count. (I can usually manage to count reps.) I hadn’t done hanging leg raises in a while and they went a lot better than they used to. As much as I could, I pulled my legs up without bending them until my feet touched the bar by my hands. As I got tired, after about 5 reps into the third round, I lifted them up any way I could. I like that we aren’t obliged to do this kind of exercise (similar to pull-ups) from a dead hang, but can use momentum and whip the body or legs up any old way. People say this helps develop strength for the dead-hang versions as well. I did a lot of my dips without using the rubberband for assistance, though I used it for five out of 10 reps in rounds 3 through 5. The military presses went well too. I did them as fast as I could. I rested with the bar at shoulder level a couple of times but I didn’t put it down at all. I was happy with this workout. We were all tired when it was time for gymnastics, but we had a great time trying some tumbling moves anyway. We practiced cartwheels, handstand hops, and backward rolls where we tried to press into a handstand halfway through the roll. This was comical even when we started making some progress, because when you’re doing this, you can’t see yourself or get any sense of whether your legs are going up in the air or parallel to the ground. That didn’t last too long because everyone’s shoulders were shot from all the dips and presses earlier, but it was fun while it lasted. Right before we left, I discovered I can now kick up into a handstand on the parallettes without a spotter, without being terrified of falling over backwards. Maybe all the goofy falls out of the backward roll extensions took away my trepidation.