Lunch time fun

Today I sucked up the heat and headed outside. I quickly found a pull up bar sitting in a small shaded area near a very large tree. I didn't have as much time as the workout required but I made the best of it.

In about 25 min. I warmed up, worked on some skills and almost made it through a VO2 max session. I had to stop 5 min early as I ran out of time. Better than nothing!

Z
RIFGA
Pistol 16K 1 x 5/5, 1 x 4/4, 1 x 3/3 alternated with
Pull Up 16K 5 set of 3 reps
1 leg DL 3 x 5
VO2 max Snatch - 9 reps x 30 sets

The first 10 sets or so seem so simple it is like a nice warm up. That ends really quickly. LOL.

I have to confess I actually planned to do this 2x per week all month. I blew it off. Now I will pay for a few weeks as I adjust to the protocol.

Tuesday

I keep going back to the old Army recruiting commercial...'Some people do more before xxxx in the morning than most do all day. Actually it has been true for the past 18 years but this past month has been crazy.

I was up at 0330ish, after a snooze, to get ready for a bike ride, the gym with the fat-bodies (actually only 2 are fat, the others are just weak) and then my own workout. All before 0700.

The best part is the reward, a fantastic meal at the best chow hall (galley) in the Navy for $2.10. The best chow hall must be a relative term. I tend to think it is an oxymoron. How can something so terrible be the best? I can actually stomach breakfast at the place. Some bacon, toast (that I cook), hard boiled eggs, glass of water and a large cup of 'truck driver' coffee.

Training:
Z drill
Ride 20
Z 10 min warm up
RIFGA
DL - 135 x 10, 295 x 5, 245 x 5
Bench Press 135 x 5, 185 x 5, 155 x 5
Pull up BW 5 x 6 reps + 5 hanging leg raises.

At lunch, misc. kettlebell exercises for demonstration/instruction.

Note: I still dislike the bench press but I am very weak at it so must keep working it.

Read some more PTTP last night. I learned more new stuff.

Remedial UPDATE:
One month of supervising this program:

The fat people are still..FAT. I can't control all the twinkies, pizza soda they eat! They probably drink Gatorade too. Because it is healthy -- another blog post in the making, yea?

The two Marines that were struggling with pull ups showed huge improvements.

One Marine started at Zero Pull ups. I saw him do 4 sets of 3! He should be off the program in a few weeks as he has to do at least 3 on the PFT.

Core strength and the pull up are friends!

Fatigue

Perhaps it's not wise to do heavy deadlifting the day before a scheduled long ride. On my ride this morning, I felt lethargic during the whole thing. The pace was a little quick for me and I feel every mile ridden. I turned of and took a short cut home cutting off about 10 miles from the total. I'm not over trained but I am tired. Heck I was tired yesterday AM when I got up after sleeping through the alarm.

Either way, I plan to change my weekly lifting schedule a little so I am rested before I attempt to ride longer distances. I will do my Friday workout on Thursday and do some 'light' work like the VO2 protocol on Friday. The good news is I only have 1 more remedial day this month and I can get back on a regular sleep schedule.

Ride 30

Read it again...and again

It never fails, I always manage to get something new out of Pavel's books. The next time I read the same book, I learn more and so on. This week I found a copy of Power to the People sitting in an envelope by the door that I borrowed long ago. It has been sitting waiting for me to send back under a pile of mail. When I started purging the advertisements, and clearing the bills, it was there.

OOPS, sorry Dan, I can assure you it will arrive soon, I decided to purchase my own copy.

I thought I may as well read it one time more before I take it to the post office since it was in my hands; calling me like Tolkien's Ring of Power. 'Read ME.' So I did and I learned some new stuff. In fact I am amazed. This time when I read the book I noticed it talked about low volume. How low? 2 sets. That is very low. I could have swore it said 5 sets, my mistake. Perhaps I just didn't read the chapter on cycling and volume the last 5 times I read the book.

So LESS IS MORE! Keep reading, it doesn't say do 2 sets of light weight. What PTTP says is do a set that you can do 5RM. RM means that you do 5 reps barely but leave some in the tank. This is some real weight. I tend to think that if I struggle to get the 6th rep, I have a 5RM. PTTP also states that the second set should be 90% of the first set.

Today I applied my new lessons from PTTP. The second sets probably aren't right at 90% but I will adjust. I'm sure the weights are fairly close. I will actually do accurate math before I do the workout again next week.

Training:
Z
RifGA
DL: 135 x 5, - 275 x 5, 225 x 5
BP: 135 x 5, 185 x 5, 165 x 5 (185 was difficult)
Pull Up: #25 x 5, #25 x 5, BW x 5, BW x 5
Hang Leg Raise: 5x5

Couldn't resist some added sets of BW pull ups as I believe volume here is a good thing.

______________________________

.....Remedial PT update.....

Here is the update on the remedial guy that couldn't do any pull ups. In 3 weeks he has gone from 0 - 2 easy pullups. It will be another few weeks before he hits 3 but it will happen soon enough. The planks have helped. Here is how we've broken down his training for this event.

Planks 5 sets x 30 sec - 2 days per week

Pullup GTG with 1 pull up. When he couldn't do any, he jumped and held himself up as long as he could. When we do this at remedial, I let him take a 3-5 min break between sets. Going to all out failure is not allowed. He is doing pullups 6 days per week.

Today we started some pushups between sets. This will not be done the day before the PFT which the students take every Wednesday (by order of the CO). The frequency of this event has worked wonders.

On Friday AM we do Tabata sprints at the track. This is 20 sec run, 10 sec rest x 8 sets.

Instruction

During chow today I gave a fellow Marine a class on kettlebell basics. This was a pleasure for several reasons:

• Open mind
• Positive attitude
• Willingness to learn
• No complaining

Let me say that he is going to continue to work on his skills as he decided to add this to his toolbox. This is what I am looking for in a student. I will no longer accept anything less.

Training
Z
wall squat
swings
cleans
military press
snatch
get ups

Not sure how many sets or reps.

FInding the Groove

Instruction

This morning, I finally started feeling the correct groove in the bench press; it's about time. I was concentrating on keeping my shoulders packed which is by far the most stable position for any pressing. Not sure why it took me this long to remember this fact. The stability certainly makes the lift feel better.

What do I mean by packing the shoulder?

Put your arm out in front of you, palm down. Extend your shoulder out - forward. This is not packed. Now roll your shoulder back into its socket. Think of pulling back with your scapula. With your shoulder packed, you can emulate a bench press or push up by bending the elbow and moving your hand towards your chest. Keep your shoulder packed in the socket. It is the same when you press or move your hand back out. Keeping the shoulder packed, move or press out. As I said earlier, this is a strong and stable position.

____________

Training:

Z 10 min
RIFGA
Dead Lift - 135 x 10, 225 x 10, 310x1, 225 x 5, 225 x 5
BP - 135 x 10, 155 x 10, 175 x 5, 175 x 5
Pull up -- BW 5 set x 6 reps
Hanging leg raises - 5set x 5 rep

Z drills, through day
Afternoon
Coc Grippers No.T - 1 x 10/10
No. 1 - 2 x 5/5
No. 1.5 - 1l, 1r (actually closed them)

Monday -
ride - 20 miles

Saturday -
Ride 50 miles

"Do you want one of these plates?"

I walked into the Gator Gym this morning and headed for the platform. I noticed HM1 from the physical therapy clinic sitting on a bench under the rack. Heck, I couldn't miss him, he is huge -- thick. I thought to my self, this is going to be a good day.

The amount of weight Doc had loaded on the bar for his bench work was impressive. He layed on the bench and lowered the sagging bar and pressed 5 times. I just calculated and it was #495.

I did a warm up set of dead lifts and was looking for some weight to add to my bar. Doc asks, "Do you want some of these plates?" As he strips off 90lbs for the next set. He has a plan and will execute it which is more than I can say for others pushing 'metro' weights this morning.

Unfortunately, I didn't even use the plates DOC set aside for me. I turned around to help a Marine with his pullups. In that minute, someone took the plates and mounted them on another bar. I simply improvised, adapted and overcame with some other size weights.

Z 10 min
RIFGA
Z drills
Dead lift 135x5, 185x5, 185x5, 5(245 x 5)
Bench 135x5, 135x5, 5(155x5)
Pull up BW 5x5 + hanging leg raises 5x5

185 feels really light and 254 feels like 225 did earlier in the week. Too fun.
The bench still doesn't feel comfortable. I will continue to ease into the groove day by day.