Saturday Worlout

My back was feeling way better as the day went on yesterday. It always amazes me ho doing some work can help so much more than sitting on your ass does. I am not suggesting going out and hurting yourself, I did skip the Wednesday workout, but I am suggesting that doing as much as you can without hurting yourself is the way to go. The hardest part for me over the last few years with my back has been learning the differences between pain and injury. If you can figure that out and work through pain and work around injury you should be good and be able to work out mos all the time.

Today's warm up started with a 400 meter run, actually by the time I got back from the run the whiteboard had been changed to a 500 meter row. This was followed by 3 rounds of:

• 10 push-ups
• 10 sit-ups (I did abmat)
• 10 air squats

The workout was the bear complex. A good example with explanation of restrictions can be seen here. It was prescribed on the board as follows.

5 Rounds, 7 Sets, For Weight:

• Power clean
• Front squat
• Push press
• Back squat
• Push press

I had done this one before back in August so I was able to see what my performance then was and see how I did compared to that. You can look back at that one if you want here. Coach Jay was there and as with the last time the instructions given did not match what I found online. We were told we could rest with the bar on the floor as long as our hands remained on the bar. I mentioned last time we did this that the instructions I found for this workout indicate you may rest anywhere but on the ground, i.e. touch and go on the ground for the 7 reps. I did this using the touch and go method progressing through 65#, 75#, 85#, 95# (4/3), and 90#. So I did the first 3 sets unbroken without rest on the floor with the weights shown. when I got to the 4th set @ 95# I made it through 4 reps and failed, I dropped the bar. I finished the set off with another 3 but counted only the 4 prior to failure. On the last set I dropped the weight to 90# and did the first 4 as prescribed but stopped for a 3 count on the ground on the last 3 reps. I was the only one doing these without resting on the ground. I guess you still get a workout that way but I assume they define no rest on the ground for a reason. I was thinking I might be able to do more weight on this based on my last effort in August and the fact that I am now a few months into this but I guess I improved a good bit given I didn't rest this time. That weight seems real heave, especially when you are doing a push press from behind the head. I think for next time I will shoot for 95# complete set unbroken.

I have started looking at the workouts the night before going to the gym which I had been avoiding before. I was originally avoiding it because I did not want to see something I did not want to do and not go. I think I am beyond that concern now and looking the night before gives me a chance to look back and see what kind of performance I should be shooting for to improve which I think might be useful.

Cool down was a 500 meter row followed by a bunch of stretching.