Thursday 13-12-07 - (Accidental) Strength Session!

I kept my promise!  I said I would do a workout today, and did.It started off with the warmup.  This started with sprints up and down the parlour (weaving around my punchbag and around my chains, so I was running in a figure-8 shape).  Immediately after that, 50 jumping jacks.  Then, more rope jumping.  It seems I’m starting to get my “skill” back: I started with some bounce-step, but then went onto alternate-foot step.  This time it went a lot better, going over 30 seconds non-stop with the latter technique (when recently I’ve barely been able to do 10!!).  I did three 2-minute rounds, like normal, and in the 1-minute between-round rests I decided to practise some arm crossovers (just the crossover part, as recommended by Buddy Lee in his Jump Rope Training).  So, it went well.

Now, I was planning on doing a conditioning routine known as the Sweet 16 today.  It was create by Ross Enamait and is in his book Infinite Intensity, and it involves…Actually, I’m not going to tell you!  I’m going to save it for another day, when I actually do it. Anyway, instead I went and did some band-assisted pullups (using one of my Iron Woody band).  I’m terrible at pullups, I admit, but you have to start somewhere, and for me that was with band-assisted ones.  I did two sets of 5 reps (as full a range of motion as I could), followed by one set of negative static holds (hold at highest position for 5 seconds, drop a small amount, hold for 5 seconds, repeat until at dead hang position).  Rest between sets was 40 seconds.  After one negative I couldn’t do any more, so after a rest I moved on to partial ab wheel rollouts (described in my Wednesday 28-11-07 - Home Bag Work post).  I did three sets of 5 reps.  It was now I decided to carry on and turn it into a strength session.  Next I went onto one-legged squats (like a normal bodyweight squat…But with one leg).  I can’t do full ones unassisted, but then I saw my rings (like gymnast rings, but mine homemade using chain and PVC pipe), and it gave me an idea: Do full-range ones, but hold onto the rings to aid with balance and strength (if I can’t get up fully using just my leg, pull up using my arms).  I hadn’t heard of doing them like this before, but I decided to give it a go.  And, it worked excellently!  Again I did three sets and 5 reps (per leg).  Afterwards by legs were well and truly thrashed.  I then went onto pyramid pushups, going from 1 rep to 7.  I only did one set of these, because I did it until I couldn’t do any more (I stopped the rep before I wouldn’t be able to do any more).  By now, my muscles felt knackered.  I noticed I had spent over 30 minutes there, so decided to call it a day and stop.

I ended by walking and stretching.  The squats had surprisingly affected my legs, and by the end they were shaking quite a lot.  Even now they ache a bit.  Tomorrow will definitely be a rest day!!

As a side note, I received Stretching Scientifically today.  Written by Thomas Kurz, it’s all about stretching and from what I’ve heard it is THE best book to build flexibility.  A quick look through it shows it’s very complex and detailed, with a lot of (small) text.  I’ll probably review it soon.