Cousin Bonding

My cousin Tony trains.  And I mean he trains.  He did some ultimate fighting stuff for awhile and I can imagine he was pretty good because this kid is not messing around.  I have been enjoying spending more time with my cousins and getting to know them as adults.  I knew Tony trained, and I knew he worked out in a garage gym, and I needed to get a good hard work out in.  I took a chance and asked him if I could work out with him.

I walked in to this:

Old school.  Bad Ass.  So basic, but so beautiful.  It had everything, including jump ropes, tires, sledge hammers, squat rack, jump boxes, rings, ropes...seriously, they put one hell of a little gym together in that garage.

It was really fun.  It was a really hard work out and very much like Mike's style.  It felt really good and I got to spend some good time with my cousin.  Can't wait to do it again next time I'm in town Tony!!

My box jump....Tony's box jump. bahahaha! Clearly I have some catching up to do!!

Training.

I'm enjoying the variety and intensity of my work outs.  Kind of feel bad ass at the end of them.  And you all know that I like work outs where I feel bad ass.  Dripping with sweat, heavy breathing, legs shaking....

Today was 45 minutes of interval training on the bike.
Followed by 3 sets with 20 reps of each with no rest in between sets.

Deadlifts- 60 pound barbell
Step ups on the bench
Reverse push-ups on the smith machine bar
Thrusts- 30 pound barbell.

705 calories burned.

I've decided to alternate high reps/low weight and high weight /low reps.  What I'm not entirely sure is how often I should switch it up.

Anyone have any opinions? Mike?

Crossfit Copycat

Kidding.

I don't do crossfit.  Mainly because I can't afford to do it.  But also while I have dabbled in other training philosophies, I have found my way back to the one that got me to where I am.  Mike Knox training.  It's high interval, strength endurance, crazy ass, train until you can't move or want to puke training.  And I love it.  And for me it works. And each time I have tried a different style, thinking it's always good to switch things up (and it is) I haven't seen the results I saw.  My body needs to strength train. FOR SURE.  But it needs to sweat.  It needs to sprint.  It needs the endurance training, and I see results.  My body fat goes down, I feel leaner, and I am cardiovascularly stronger. 

Truth be told I wish he was still training me.  I miss working with him.  I miss his work outs, though I am trying to mimic them.  And I miss the support and encouragement.  I'm on my own.

The other day I ran across this article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/01/fitness-test-strength_n_5627523.html?utm_hp_ref=health-fitness&ir=Health+and+Fitness.  And I haven't done a fitness test in awhile.  I decided to give the crossfit one a try to see where I was at.

500 meter row, 40 air squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups, and 10 pull ups. Intermediate score for women is 8:30.  After a bit longer of a warm up then I had accounted for (waiting for the one rower to open up) I started in.  My only caveat is that I could not put a band up for the pull-ups because there is only one place to do that and it was already in use.  So I used the assisted pull up machine.  I put it at a low weight for assistance (70) but I know that the band is a bit tougher.  (I'm working up to a pull up but haven't gotten there. Times like this is when I wish I had my trainer to help push me to that level)

But I finished it in 6:09.  Felt pretty good about it.  Even with the band instead of the machine I know I would have come in under that 8:30.  It only took me 2:30 to row the 500 meters!

Don't get me wrong.  I KNOW I still have a long way to go.  But today I proved to myself I have come farther then I usually give myself credit for.