Early AM

Up in the morning with the Virginia sun,
Gonna run, run, run 'til the runnin's done.
1 mile, no sweat
2 miles, gettin' better
3 miles, oh yea

I had to monitor physical training this morning. Fortunately for me, it was raining so we went inside the gym. I allowed the Marines, about 70 of them, to choose between a few different activities. 1. Work on a weakness ie. run, or strength training. 2. Play organized athletics like basketball. Of course those that have less than average scores, they were highly encouraged to do the first choice.

My theory about improving things goes something like this:
1. If you want to improve your run...RUN. (Sprinting is best)
2 If you want to improve your pull ups...do pull ups.
3. If you want to improve your run without running...swings and snatches will help to a point.
4. If you want to improve the number of crunches you can do in 2 min...do hanging leg raises (very effective). Practicing crunches only serves to tighten the hip flexors and cause back pain!

In summary, specificity is the best medicine for improvement. Not really a secret is it? You probably didn't want to hear this either. What you might want to hear is something like this...if you want to improve running, run for a couple times before your event, followed by a set of pull ups! Then a shower and a 6 pack of 12oz curls. I know hundreds of people that train this way; OOHRAH. Heck, I might have done it for a few years. By the way, they never improve.

Back to the gym. The bonus part of the gym is that I can get some constructive training in as well. I was able to work on some barbell lifts for the first time this year. It was a nice change.

Practice:
Deadlift: 185: 5x5 (this was very easy!)
Bench Press: 175: 5x5 (squaked it all out) Not my favorite lift.
Pull up: 12,10,8,6,4 (40)