What Was Your Work Out Today?

@Mike - it's odd, I generally look forward to weight-type stuff more than cardio-type stuff. I love walking, hiking and swimming, but I never really look forward to using the erg, say. The type of climbing I do (bouldering) is also more emphasis on short, powerful stuff than endurance. That said, I believe increases to endurance benefit bouldering, in that it can increase the amount of work done by the fast twitch muscle fibres.

Yesterday, I did an evening walk. It was raining quite hard, and my climbing holds were very slippy as a result. So I abandoned my plan of climbing. I did 3 sets of 5 goblet squats with a 32kgs kettlebell; and then 100 swings with a 28 kgs bell.

I then did a high intensity core thing. It was a new workout for me, utlising a pulley I'd just bought. Here is the programme:
https://youtu.be/M31mFyC6tMY

@ Matt - that looks awesome! I've been trying to figure out how to make a DIY Endless Rope Machine. The only machine I miss at the gym! It's actually a climber oriented machine but I find it a lot of fun in a painful sort of way. Great cardio, core, shoulder, tricep and leg workout all at the same time. Lats too.

Unfortunately, the Bighorn Fire in Tucson has gotten worse. Homes in the Catalina Foothills, one of my favorite areas of the city, just on the other side of the mountains, is threatened right now. We have this "ready, set, go" alert system and they are on "Set" right now, being advised to prepare to evacuate at any time. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that for those folks. We're talking around 1000 homes.

So, decided, probably not wisely, to row outside this AM. 75 to 77 degrees this AM, but also more smoke than I thought in the air. Did a great job of keeping the HR under 137 nearly the entire row (71% of max HR), but the pace fell off badly in the second half likely because of the smoke.

2:31 pace/20 SPM, 11.8K meters.

New watch. Working through a 5k program.

Leg day....

Im not too fussed about building up muscle mass in my legs, but leg day helps add a bit of power to the running and also of course they’re a big calorie burner - therefore trained with intensity rather than targeting amount of weight..this session hit quite hard on the cardio to:

• Quad circuit (target 4/5 rounds, 10 reps per set):
○ Pistol squats
○ Barbell squats
○ TRX dumbell-weighted side lunges
○ Dumbell lying glute raises
○ Resistance band seated leg extensions
• Supaset:
○ Barbell stiff legged deadlift
Belt-weighted box calf raises

Djproulx wrote: »

Trainer ride this morning was a Sweet Spot Step Down routine. It is focused on sweet spot intervals while also working on pedaling dynamics.

72 minute session included 25 minutes of warm up cadences/power, and single leg drills. The main set was 4 x 8min blocks ( 4min @205watts, 3min @200w 95-100rpm, 1 min@190w 105-115rpm) w/4 min recovery & 5 min cooldown. I struggled to hold power steady during the high cadence periods. Feels like I'm carrying some fatigue.

Will run tomorrow.

I did similar to your "main set", but that was it for me today. Tried to do a 4 X 2K/4 minute rest on the rower in the garage. Not a good idea. I did that because the smoke in the air is bad right now with the wildfire (now the largest in the US and around 300 firefighters fighting it) being 8 miles from my house. The garage was like 90 degrees and my little fan did next to nothing. I couldn't open the garage door because that would let all the outside smoke in, so I did 2K on the rower and then finished up the other 3 intervals on the AD Pro (Assault Bike).

Proud of myself getting in four intervals and grateful to have an alternative to the rower. I could put the rower in our workout room, I suppose, but it would literally be wall to wall equipment and dog crates in that room.

@Djproulx - I just did the first one and said, "this is NOT a good idea". And did the rest upstairs in our little workout room in the A/C on the Assault Bike, with a fan! My garage was like an oven.

5 minute walk followed by ten rounds of 12-second jogging and 2 minutes walking, then 5 minute cool down walk.

Climbed today. A friend cycled down from North London to have a go on my wall. It was really good fun, and great to see her. It was around 4 hours, at a lot on lower intensity than when I am left to my own devices.

I went for an evening walk, and I seem to have hit 24,000 steps. I really struggle to get enough calories in on days like these.

Well hello! It’s been a minute!
Last week I did PHUL at work gym. Took the weekend off but did ab 15K steps per day. Hoping to get back on PHUL today. Also looks like I may have a sinus infection 🙄 no worries all, I get these annually and they are not contagious.

Anyone else realize their strength has dropped a lot since lockdown?? Can’t wait for it to come back quickly as everyone says. I’m thinking maybe 3-4 weeks til I am back at my previous levels.

Well been taking care of health business in other ways since our state has opened up most things. And working has been wiping me out pretty good - but feels like my body has caught up to the workload so will start adding in some “workouts” again.

20 min yoga, 1 hr speedwalk, 15 min upper body dumbbells. (All after doing 3 hours of massage).

Did a hard, but fun, workout today. Since I don't have significant weights at home (just KBs and dumbbells), I decided to work on some power. You can use the rower to generate power, but it takes being very careful with form and using a high drag factor.

Did a 2K W/U, then 20 X 20 seconds max effort/1 minute rests. The idea is to generate max Watts and sustain it as long as possible. Was able to sustain pretty consistent until the last two reps around 400 Watt Max and a 350 or so Avg Watt (overall, 1:39.1 avg/38 SPM was the baseline for next time). So it was good I was fairly consistent, but I'm not generating nearly enough power, which I suspected. I used to hit mid 500 Watts on power at peaks and be able to average around 420, so I have some work to do. If my ultimate goal is to get back close to a 7:00 2K (I'm not even close right now), you have to be able to generate 302 Watts for seven minutes solid. Nothing for a world class rower or biker, but for a weekend warrior like me, that's a lot!

Smoke was also heavy in the air outside. The wildfires are within around 7 miles or so and up to 14000 acres. Got done and felt like I had chain smoked cigarrettes. Like doing cardio next to a bonfire.

Legs!! First time thrusting since lockdown and oh booty!! Came out hangry!!

cwolfman13 wrote: »

12 miles on my road bike...43 minutes

27 km/hr average. Good speed. Road bike or mountain bike?

I only use my mountain bike now because it gives me a better workout. For me over 43 minutes best I could average is around 22 km/hr

After my power rowing test yesterday, I'm going to start doing something else on my SS (Steady State, moderately easy) rowing days. I upped the DF (drag factor) to around 110 or so this AM and worked on keeping a much more powerful stroke at 18 or 19 SPM, while keeping the HR in check under 140. Was only able to do this for 40 minutes (around 9K meters) until it was creeping above 140. Finished with 20 minutes on the Assault Bike.

Worked hard on form this morning. Worked on powerful leg drive, sequence and sitting up straight/posture. When done right, rowing really works your hips, abs and legs much more than your upper body (what most new rowers do wrong). Really felt it in my lower abs today. Working on all this. This woman is one of the best Concept2 rowing instructors. She's actually teaching a class to get certified online through Concept2 as a Master Instructor. First time they've offered this training/certification virtually (because of Covid-19). Thought about it in the past but with work it's hard for me to travel to workshops. Thinking about taking it and getting licensed to teach.

If you've ever done indoor rowing and wondered about your form. Her videos are all spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6T91GbWsBU