11/24/07

Started out with 20 minutes of kettlebell and bodyweight practice, mixing it up between wall squats, unanchored sit-ups, chair push-ups, pull-ups, squat flip cleans, maxercist rows, one legged deadlifts, windmills, one footed presses, tactical lunges, etc. At the end of the 20 minutes I worked in my PTP deads.

Deads 5-5
255-230

Front squat:
1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3
used 245 for all

Press: (One powerclean to start each set)
1-2-3-1-2-2(F3)-1-1-1
150 for all

5 minute snatch test
106 (PR)

I will need to stick with the same weights for my front squats and presses next week. Although I got all the reps on the front squats, my form was barely passing, and I know I wouldn't be able to move up next week. The snatches felt pretty good. I am eager to get a 53# kb and see what I can do.

11/23/07

Today I remembered how hard it is to do overhead squats with the bar I have, so I switched the workout to pistols and hang power snatches.

Warmup:
3 rds-
5 one legged deadlifts with 35# kettlebell
10 perfect pull-ups (shoulders really retracted, slow throughout)\
5 wall squats

PTP:
Deads 5-5
250-225

Presses 5-5
60-55

1-2-1-2-1-2 pistols

2-2-2-2-2-2 hang power snatch
115-115-115-115-115-115

Later in the day I downloaded the special supplement to Enter the Kettlebell and spent 20 minutes practising some of the drills. I did tactical lunges, squat flip cleans, bottoms up clean and presses, crush curls, figure eight to a hold, hand to hand cleans and in between drills I would throw in 15 push-ups off chairs or 5 perfect pull-ups. This didn't tire me out at all, as I stopped each set well short of being "smoked."

11/21/07

Made up a little complex for my snatch workout today. One rep is 1 squat snatch + 1 overhead squat + 1 snatch balance. This got the blood moving and was just the right level for today.

PTP Deads 5-5
240-225

Side press 3-3-3
75-65-65

Snatch complex from above
1-1-1-1-1
135-135-135-135-135

Clean & Jerk
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
199-199-199-199-199-199-199

Tabata pull-ups
lowest was a 6

11/20/07

Lifted on my lunchbreak. It was ok, but I prefer the morning.

Density push-ups: 12 on the minute for 8 minutes, got 9 deep into the 9th minute

TGU: with the barbell
1-1-1-1
45-55-55-55

Tabata front squats: 95#
lowest was 5

11/19/07

I almost didn't get to lift today. First I decided not to lift in the morning because I didn't go straight to the office and I didn't want to lift at home because it would have woken Annie and Anja. Then I didn't do it at lunch because I mistakenly believed I had a meeting, so I thought I wouldn't have time. Finally I did get to lift, but it was the last part of the day instead of the first and now I'm getting to bed a bit later than I would have liked.

Warm up:
3 rds of
5 pull-ups
8 kettlebell snatches
5 feet elevated diamond push-ups
1 deadlift (ramping up from 145 to 235)

PTP Deads 5-5
235-215

5-5-5-4-3-2-1 Back squat
185-205-225-225-225-225-225

5-5-5-5-5 Powerclean
155-175-175-185-185

Side Press 3-3-3
75-75-75

The p-cleans are finally approaching my limit for 5 reps. I may try to get up to 195 for one set next week, then hold steady and try to get at least 3 sets at 195 before upping the top weight again. No conditioning today, was going to try out my new Hungarian Core Blaster, but I had already done a lot of big pulls, so maybe a different time.

11/18/07

Today I did Saturday's (yesterday's) workout on Sunday. I didn't manage to fit it in yesterday because for some reason I ended up working more than I do on most week days.
Anyway...
Warm up:
3 rds of
5 wall squats
5 halos
5 windmills

PTP:
5-5 Deads
250-225

Front squat:
1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3
all with 240#

Press:
1-2-3 (12 pull-ups) 1-2-3 (12 pull-ups) 1-2-3 (12 pull-ups)
all with 145

Today I also decided to start each set of presses with a powerclean. It's really a pretty light powerclean, and I love doing them. They have been called the "king of the weight room" because they teach the violent hip extension that is central to ppractically every sport, so why not sneak them in?

5 minute snatches with the 35# kettlebell
101
Not quite a PR, but a decent effort. I experimented with some different length sets. next time I should just stick with 5.

The quick and easy guide to 20 deadhang pull-ups

For my conditioning today I warmed up with a little drill I used to do every morning and evening about two summers ago. This was the trick that allowed me to knock out 20-25 deadhangs and 60-75 push-ups so long as I had a day's rest before, and often even without that. This was in addition to at least one workout and often two daily, usually the CrossFit WOD plus running or heavy lifting two or three times a week.
Basically, the idea is you do deadhang pull-ups to Pavel's "comfortable stop" and immediately drop and do push-ups. The number of push-ups to do is calculated by multiplying the number of pull-ups by 2.5. Immediately upon finishing the push-ups, you get back on the bar and do pull-ups so that the total of the 2 sets of pull-ups is 20, and then do push-ups so that the total of the two sets is 50.
Rest between sets should be kept at a minimum. At most maybe a few quick breaths and a few seconds of shaking out the limbs should suffice. The goal here is to accomplish the work fairly quickly, so that even a second set of 3 pull-ups feels hard.
When you get to the point where you can get 20 pull-ups and 50 push-ups fairly routinely, bump the pull-ups up by 5 and the multiplier up by .5. Now you will be doing 25 deadhangs and 75 push-ups in two sets per exercise.
An example session might look like this:
Set one: 15 pull-ups followed by 38 push-ups
Set two: 5 pull-ups followed by 12 push-ups
As you can see, in this example the athlete would have to decide how to split up the push-ups, since 15 times 2.5 is 37.5. Basically it's not important at all how one decides to split this up as long as the total of the two sets of push-ups is 50. This is because being able to do a lot of push-ups was not a goal of mine when I designed this program.
If you have a goal of doing a lot of pull-ups there are a lot of programs out there. I have had good luck in the past with Grease the Groove, density training, weighted pull-ups etc. The main advantage to this program was that it allowed me to train as fresh as possible as often as possible while practicing conditions that closely mimic the test I wanted to perform. When I tested for 20 pull-ups, I was already used to struggling through the last 5 or so reps, so there was no mental barrier that made me want to drop off the bar before I was truly "done."
I hope this program helps you achieve your goals as it helped me achieve mine.