Monday Workout - I'm Back

I finally made it back to the gym. I was feeling better yesterday and was going to go to the gym but it was raining and the workout was all outside. I am not afraid of getting wet but I thought it was best that I not spend an hour out in the rain when I have been sick for nearly a week. I did get up at 5:30 this morning though and went. When I walked in Coach Brent asked if I was Ok. He apparently thought I must have really f'ed up my face when I hit myself with the bar last time I was there with him. I explained the birthday break and illness and we got into the workout. The warm up was a 400 meter run followed by 3 rounds:

• 10 burpees
• 10 GHD back extensions
• 10 PVC arm circles

It seemed like it had been forever since I had been in the gym even just during the warm up, that is the last time I listen to Lenny. We started with 10 minutes of skill work doing wall ball sit-ups. Have a look at this to see how it is done. I spent about 9 minutes of the 10 minutes trying to get my ass up onto my feet. I at first started with no ball thinking that would be easier but it turns out it is not. I then tried using a ball to get a bit of extra momentum going but as I learned later I was getting the momentum going in the wrong direction, more on that later. I finally figured it out right at the minute and did maybe 3 reps, yeah me!!! The deal is to get your feet wide and as close to your ass as possible. This is a problem for me since my hip flexibility seems to suck ass for some reason. The other trick is that this move is easier with a bit of weight, the ball, because you can get a bit of momentum going to pull you up. When you bring the ball from overhead you want to reach up with it rather than forward between your legs. This will cause the momentum to help you get up on your feet rather than pulling you forward. Not even coach Brent had done this move before today. Everyone in the class got it pretty quick except me and the coach. We pretty well struggled until the end but if it comes up again I think I would be fine. I will say that given how much I hate wall balls this might be my new least favorite move.

The workout was then prescribed as 20 minutes:

• Weighted abmat sit-ups (20/10) - perform on even minutes
• Push press (95/65) - perform on odd minutes

This is scored by the total number of reps completed in the 20 minute period. I did 267 reps. I started out with something like 31 reps for the first 2 minutes, maybe 16 sit-ups and 15 push presses. By the end I was doing more sit-ups, 19 on the last round, but my totals were more like 24-27. I scaled the push press weight to 75# instead of the prescribed 95# which always kills me on the push press. I was able to do the sit-ups unbroken, kept moving, start to finish. For the push press I was breaking them up by maybe the 5th round. It did feel good to get back to the gym. I need to make sure to do something while on travel this week too.