Motivation, Mr. T Style!

I'm back in Yosemite, and did the Physical Efficiency Battery (PT test) today. It's composed of an agility run through a 30' cone course, a sit-and-reach flexibility test, 1 rep max bench press, and a 1.5 mile run. I used mental imagery of Mr. T to motivate myself, and finished the mile and a half in 9:05 at 4000' above sea level. Thanks Mr. T! I was very happy with my bench press, setting a new personal record of 235# at a bodyweight of 172#.

Press Improvements

A friend asked me how to achieve her goal of bench pressing her bodyweight.


First, how cool is it that a gal wants to bench bodyweight? I think its AWESOME!


Here's what I told her:


1) Lift heavy. Alternate bench and press (Some people call it shoulder press, overhead press, or military press - I just call it press because I think Rip is right about this.) every other workout. Do as much weight as you can lift for 3 sets of 5 reps. Add weight every workout, in small, but consistent amounts.


2) Eat big. The major limiter to upper body strength is muscle size. Upper body muscles are smaller than lower body muscles. To get bigger, muscles need protein. You need to eat at LEAST 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. This is a minimum for anyone lifting weights to get stronger. Yes, that's a lot of protein. A lot of food. Remember: you're not going to eat like this forever, but you need to give your body the raw materials to build itself into the kind of body that can do what you're asking it to do - which is lift something heavy. To do that, you need muscle, and muscle comes from protein.


3) Do your squats. And do your deadlifts. These two exercises are responsible for dumping the maximum amount of growth hormone into your system.


4) Get at LEAST 8 hours of quality, uninterrupted sleep per night. REM sleep is the time when your body does its construction work. It takes all the protein you ate, all the growth hormones you got from your lifting, adds in some more growth hormones, and goes to work building new muscle.


5) Every once in a while do ring dips, push presses, push jerks, hand-stand push-ups, prowler sled pushes, or something else that's difficult and involves pushing.

It'll be fun to see her progress this Summer.

Jan 22 2010 - Triple-Under!

Today I did my first triple-under. One of the Get Built members saw a jumprope demonstration at school and threw down the gauntlet. I got one and only one.

Snatch Practice - Drill Set 3 (25kg)
Mid-Hang Sn Jump + Pull x 2 reps x 4 sets
Mid-Hang Sn Pull x 3 reps x 6 sets
Tall Muscle Snatch x 5 reps x 5 sets

GB WOD
30 Ring Rows (3 sets of 10)
Bench 145# x 5, 170# x 3, 190# x 8
Wt Ring Dips +25# x 5 reps x 3 sets
Barbell Curl 65# x 5, 70# x 5, 75# x 5
Wt Chin-Ups +25# x 5, 35# x 3, 44# x 3

The ring dips were hard; I'd never done them with extra weight before.

Jan 14 2010 - Bench Day

GB WOD
1000m Row (3:36)
Bench 120#x3, 145#x3, 170#x11
Dips 2 sets of 12 reps
Ring Rows 2 sets max reps (16,10)
5 Hill Runs (10 to 12.5 sec)

Jan 08 2010 - Transition

Happy birthday to me! Well, it's not really my birthday, but a kind and caring couple has given me an early present - a gym membership! Not only is the gym warmer than my front porch, it's run by CrossFit trainers! So I'll be shifting my programming to take advantage of the warmth, both physical and emotional, that comes from working out with the group of crossfitters at Get Built Chattanooga. (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

GBC WOD:

Overhead Squats 95# x 21 reps
Bench 115# x 5, 135# x 5, 155# x 17

As Many Rounds As Possible in 12 minutes:
1 Round =
. 5 Hang Power Snatches (75#)
. 7 Overhead Squats (75#)
. 9 Hang Power Cleans (75#)

Those who despise or are confused by the metric system will be happy to know that I'll be back to expressing most of my lifting in pounds. The exception will be any supplemental lifting I do on my front porch.

DEC 22 2009 - Bench Reunion

My last bench press was sometime in September, so I wasn't sure how today would go. I was, however, very happy to have the opportunity to push more than I can press overhead. I used the equipment at the local YMCA, so my weights are in pounds.

Strength
Bench Press: 3 sets of 5 reps at 175# (~79kg)
Deadlift 5 Rep Max: 315# for 3 reps (~142kg)

Benching felt good. I'd like to be able to do as much benching as the CF Football site programs. It is a very satisfying movement.

The deadlift concerned me. I didn't expect it to be as hard as it was. What I had forgotten is that at home I have a 25mm bar, while the bar at the Y was either a 28 or 30mm powerlifting bar. The extra grip diamter made holding on difficult. I used a mixed grip (one hand pronated, one hand supinated) and alternated which hand was supinated each rep.