Recently in Home Workouts Category

Home workout today in the basement: 12 push-presses with 2 x 12 kg kettlebells 12 deadlifts with 1 24 kg kettlebell x 6 rounds, then 1 set of 40 push-ups. But no stopping to rest. If I stop to rest, I have to add two rounds. I stopped to rest once per round of PPs starting in round 4. So I did eight rounds and the 40 push-ups. Time: 17:02. The eight rounds took about 12:40 and the push-ups took the remaining four and a half minutes. (I did the first five, then did the rest in twos and singles!)

Last weekend I was Tom Corrigan's assistant for two two-hour introductory kettlebell classes at a fitness equipment store in Lynnwood. We had six people on Saturday and four on Sunday. In both classes was one person who'd been to Cappy's Boxing Gym (where I went for three years pre-CrossFit) and two people who knew quite a bit about CrossFit or had tried it. It was fun to connect with all of these people who are interested enough in fitness to buy their own kettlebells and come to the class. And classes are a confidence builder because I see that I'm able to talk about technique and people respond positively. Tom C. says that to build up to a heavier kettlebell lift--for example my wanting to snatch 24 kilos--I should do this: -Perfect the form by doing the lift for high reps (like 50-plus) at a light weight; -Do heavier presses -Do the high one-arm swing with the slight bend at the top (i.e., the whole snatch except the finishing punch-through) with the heavy weight that I want to snatch. For me that means many snatches at 12 kilos (I can already snatch 16), presses with the 16, and high one-arm swings with the 24. I'll work on those on days I don't go to the gym, starting two days ago and today. Turns out I'm not so close to snatching the 24, because it's hard for me to control it during the high one-arm swings with the elbow bend at the top. By the time I try that, I've already done a bunch of snatches with the 12 and presses with the 16, and besides the fatigue, the 24 is hard for me to grip with one hand. Its handle is thicker and my hands are sweaty by that time. Still I think with good form I can work up to it. After all, when you punch through and finish the snatch, there's no grip issue. The grip problem comes when controlling the change of directions on the top and bottom of the swing. It also turns out my endurance isn't what I wish it were. I've been snatching the 12 kilos for nowhere near 50 reps per side. Today I did sets on right and left with 5-second breaks. The sets were 10, 10, 6, 10 snatches. I'll solve these two problems by doing the high swings with the 16 for a while; and by continuing to add sets of snatches with the 12 instead of psyching myself out by saying I'm going to do 30 without stopping. I'm happy with my pressing strength for now and feel confident I can improve it. My right shoulder, after three Active Release Therapy sessions, is a lot more reliable and solid. I did five sets of two 16-kilo presses per side today. I finished with two sets of 10 suitcase deadlifts, holding a 16 on one side and the 24 on the other side. It was a good workout and fun to do it in the backyard while looking at my flowers.

I didn't want to go to the gym today so I worked out in the back yard: 20 kettlebell deadlifts, 24 kg 15 push-ups 20 kettlebell swings, 24 kg 12 push-ups Three rounds. My time: 10:30 Working out at home today gives me more time for guitar practice before tomorrow's lesson.

12 kettlebell sumo deadlifts, 24 kg 16 V-ups 5 rounds, then 25 more kb sumo deadlifts Time: 7:12 and tired legs today.

Last night’s workout was 5 rounds: 5 right-leg pistols, 5 left-leg pistols, 10 pull-ups, 15 push-ups, and 20 sit-ups. I managed to do all my pull-ups without using one of those rubberbands that seem to make it harder instead of easier. I did the first set without dropping off of the bar, but I had to break up the rest of the sets of pull-ups. For push-ups, it went exactly the same way—I did the first 15 without stopping (to my surprise) and broke up the remaining sets into subsets of 5, then later into subsets of 5, 5, 3, 2. The sit-ups just seemed to take forever for some reason. My overall time was 18:40—about three minutes behind the first person to finish. I was happy because I kept moving, steadily if a bit slowly. This would be a good workout to do at home. I'd be a lot slower because you can't kip on our basement pull-up bar. You'd hit your head on the joist.

Tom and I made two pairs of parallettes yesterday. We had fun doing this beginner-level handy project together. First we bought two 10-foot PVC pipes in the 1-1/4 inch size, 16 end caps, 8 elbows, 8 tees, and a small bottle of Red Hot Blue PVC cement. Use this stuff outside! It reeks! Before we started, I wiped all the PVC with Windex because it was very dusty and the bottle of cement wanted it clean. The measurements we cut from the pipe, for two pairs: 4 long cross-pieces: 18 inches 4 uprights: 6.25 inches 16 horizontal feet (base): 5 inches for each side of each tee Tom did most of the cutting, and I did most of the gluing. Our work space was our patio with a tarp over it. How we assembled it: Using the PVC cement, assemble the base feet first, then insert the uprights. Put an elbow on one end of the long cross-piece. Glue this onto one of the uprights and peer down it to align it properly. Then add the other elbow and upright/base that you assembled earlier. Press the whole thing down on a level surface quickly before the glue sets to make sure it’s all level and aligned. Finishing this project is guaranteed to make you able to do a 60-second L-sit as soon as your cement cures. I wish. Next, I really want to put up a pull-up bar in the yard. We’d use big dimensional lumber, like 6 x 6 by 10 feet long, set two feet down in cement, and a piece of pipe running between them at 7 feet 6 inches above the ground. This is a more intermediate handy project and we keep waffling on whether to do it. I want the pull-up bar but have no confidence in our ability to properly mix cement, let alone get the uprights aligned right. Tom feels that since we have access to the gym (plus a pull-up bar attached to the basement ceiling) we don’t need a freestanding pull-up bar. But if we had one, it would be lots more fun than using our low-clearance one downstairs, for sure. We could use it for hip-pullovers and we could throw rings over it too.

I wanted to work out yesterday so I biked to the high school track to try the two-mile run again. I was slower than ever at 18:48. The track was wet and soft, with outright mud puddles taking up most of the short ends of the oval. I had to tiptoe through those. I ended up with muddy shoes and mud splashed up to my knees. Tom came out a few minutes after me, with a plan to redo the last Suffer on Saturday sequence of drills: run around once, 50 squats, run around, 50 push-ups, run around, 50 sit-ups, run around, 25 pull-ups. He had to scout around for a dry, firm piece of ground to do the calisthenics, and he found a metal utility trap-door in the grass that was just big enough. I was done with my run, but I did the squats and push-ups with him. For his final run, he ran home to do the pull-ups in the basement. I followed on my bike and then did the 50 sit-ups without stopping, with Tom anchoring my feet. It was the first time I did all 50 without taking a couple of small breathers. Having a person holding my feet instead of a pair of barbells made me work a little harder. Trying to give my shoulder time to heal, I didn’t do the pull-ups. I’m going to minimize any hanging exercises for a couple of weeks at least, take Ibuprofen, and avoid overhead squats completely. When my shoulder stops twinging, I’ll start doing some rotator cuff exercises with my 5- or 10-pound hand weights to try to build rotator cuff strength, and then be very conservative with OH squats in the future. Dave said he’ll give me some good substitution exercises to replace the hanging and overhead ones so I can still work out while this is healing. He also suggested fish oil as an alternative to Ibuprofen, saying it has been used safely for muscle repair for many years. I’m skeptical of supplements other than multivitamins and calcium, but I’ll try a conservative daily dose for the short term. Tom, also a skeptic, read up on it and it seems it’s been established as safe.

After trying the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) for push-ups and sit-ups last Tuesday, I decided I ought to also take the two-mile run test. I don’t run regularly so I knew it would be hard to run two miles at all, let alone fast. Tom ran with me around the track at Garfield High School. We finished in 18:22, though I wanted to quit so bad! Eight times around the track seemed unimaginable after the first one. I just said to myself that there was no point in quitting because the only way to find out my time was to finish. (And then, unfortunately, the only way to improve my time would be to do it again and again… ugh!) Still, according to the APFT calculator, my time was well under the 80% mark for a woman my age, and that makes me feel I did pretty well for a non-runner. I only need to improve my time by 1:22 (or 11 seconds per lap) to make the 100% mark. If I hadn’t had to stop and retie my shoes, maybe I would have come within 45 seconds of it.

I feel like a slug after being away all weekend and not working out since last Thursday. I’ve been reading this book about West Point, the U.S. Military Academy (Tom recommended it), and naturally I’m intrigued by their physical training and the basic test they use to evaluate the cadets’ condition. They have to run 2 miles as fast as possible, do their maximum sit-ups in 2 minutes (with someone holding their feet down), and do their maximum push-ups in 2 minutes to pass. This site calculates a person’s required scores based on age and gender. For me, a 40-year-old female, a 100 percent score comprises 40 push-ups, 76 sit-ups, and 17 minutes for the run. My minimum acceptable score would be 13 push-ups, 38 sit-ups, and 22:42 on the run. For a 20-year-old male cadet, 100 percent score requires 71 push-ups, 78 sit-ups, and 13 minutes on the run; minimum passing score is 42 push-ups, 53 sit-ups, and 15:54 on the run. I know I couldn’t do well at the run right now, because I virtually never run. My idea of a running workout is to jog up a half-mile hill in the neighborhood, from Lake Washington Blvd. up to 29th Avenue. So I didn’t try the run today. I’ll take my little timer out to the high school track this weekend and try it. In the meantime, my score today on the push-ups and sit-ups (drumroll): 43 push-ups; 60 sit-ups. I also did some body-weight squats, 8 rounds of 20-second intervals with 10-second rests; 3 minutes upward-facing plank (shoulders on sofa, heels on footstool, rigid body in between)—had to rest at 1:21 and at :30 on that painful one; and 4 sets of 10 overhead squats with a broomstick, practicing for flexibility.

Three minutes of each, taking short breaks as needed: Overhead squat (started out with 10-pound weights and switched after 15 to broomstick) Pull-ups (couldn’t do any! Improvised with partial ones, negatives, hanging leg-raises, etc.) Floor to ceiling (jumping as high as possible from a squat to hands overhead) Push-ups (36) Clean and jerk with 10-pound dumbbells (about 36) Overhead squat (same as above—did 39) Front squats, with or without 10-pound hand weights (51) Overhead squat with broomstick (60) A lot of the drills I do in at-home workouts are too easy because I don’t own heavier weights than 10 pounds. But drills like the overhead squat are challenging in that I’m struggling with a lack of back flexibility. I don’t know if it’s possible to regain that or not. Pull-ups are always hard, and today they were impossible—I guess because I was still fatigued from the Suffer on Saturday workout, strange as that seems. I finally got a timer so I can do three-minute rounds. Maybe I’ll get some 20-pound dumbbells soon. But I don’t really like working out in the basement and I’ll probably never get myself to do it more than once a week in between visits to the gym.