deadlifts

Today was dead lift day. My lower back has been tender from the kb cert on Sunday. im 30somehting so i dont recover as quickly as i used to. its not a bad pain but it does feel like it needs some time before i go too heavy with dead lifts. I learned to do double unders today and did 90 of them(not in a row). i could only do 5 last time i tried. That was the hi-light of my day. Next hi-light will be the burrito i have at lunch if i get a lunch today. been so busy at work, i've had to live off my shakes lately. i guess thats ok though because its keeping my waistline in check. In fact the other day, i put something in my pocket that was a little bit heavy and my shorts fell down. i was so excited. Joel has inspired not only me but so many people at work to focus on their diets. I pull up his Success blog entry to anyone walking by and they are like "oh my god, sign me up for whatever he's doing". I tell them that he eats very good and works hard. He's one of my role models for sure. Even Hannah will say "Dad, did you notice how good Joel looks!" ok, time to go to work. im starting to babble. Handsome Stephen was back in the gym today and it definitely changed the energy. Everyone was smiling and awake. was good to have him back.

warmup
pvc pass thrus
squats
jumprope

desd lifts
5X185
5X225
5x255
5x285
10x305

play time: ring holds: 45 seconds, 90 double unders(not in a row) Did get 26 in a row and 24 in a row.

Diet:
8am: lean body shake
12pm: kombucha
12:30 real food bar
4pm lara raw food bar
8pm 2 hushpuppies
8:30 bbq tofu po boy with slaw from miss delta mash potatoes
9pm: pecan bread pudding

got called out of class :(

so i got through the warmup before i was paged out of class by work. its been one thing after another lately. i was bummed. The only bright side is that today's warmup was actually harder than some workouts i've done. :)

Workout:
great kb complex(goal was not to set kb down)

Diet:
8am: Lean Body shake
12pm: Lara Raw Food Bar
1pm: Lean Body Shake
5pm: Lean Body Shake

new shakes

so i got some more meal replacement shakes which means i wont be eating donuts for lunch anymore. i got a new kind of shake. i use to drink the muscle milks because they taste like a damn dream and they have a lot of fat in them. I switched to the Lean Body shakes for 2 reasons. They have more protein, more fiber, less carbs, and still have a descent amount of fat in them. They dont taste as good as muscle milks but i'm thinking the nutrient ratio might be worth trying. people tease me all the time and give me crap for drinking my meals. they take all the guess work out of eating an "ideal" meal. if i do them most of the time, i can go nuts around a burrito or pizza when i want to. today's workout was the kind i like talking about at work. There were some bodybuilding guys at work and they asked what i had been up to and how i lost weight. i described today's workout as an example of the stuff we do. I told them that today's workout for some was under 5 minutes and we had fit guys almost puking. These guys lit up with excitement and said they wanted to come. They said they wanted to workout a bit more first so they could get fit enough to come check us out. I told them that i'm still not fit enough to finish most of the workouts and i couldn't be happier. John reminded me today that its all about the big picture; The world outside of our workouts that makes it all worth it. He couldn't be more right. i don't even have another sport yet and i'm so thankful for all that these workouts have done for my mental and physical health. i feel so much more confident and energetic. ok, i'm babbling. i'm still working and needed a little distraction.

workout
fran: 7:49

diet:
3 lean body meal replacement shakes
2 pieces of pepperjack cheese

i dropped my first barbell.

so i recently commented about how i've never dropped a barbell before. lastnight in front of the entire class Nathan ordered me to drop the bar. Its a lot like trying to pee in your wet suit when you're surfing. Its ok to do but you're conditioned not to pee your pants so it becomes difficult to do while surfing. Well, dropping weight is similar for me. I have been conditioned not to do it for so long that doing it felt really uncomfortable. One of my classmates said i drop weight like a girl. You'd think after an entire day with Steve "Rambo" Maxwell i'd be dropping weight in a very manly way. I guess not. I thought dropping the bar would be similar to breaking plates at a greek restaurant. nope. instead it was like trying to pee your pants on purpose. oh well. i ate a donut for lunch today and that's all i had. I'll blame the sugar for why my blog has gone into the gutter. i'll try to get back on track tomorrow. i ran out of meal replacement shakes and all i know how to eat are donuts and cupcakes. I went to my first night class in a while and i'm glad i did. Got to see all my evening friends which was such a treat.

workout:
none.

diet:
2:30pm: apple fritter

cert

so yesterday was our Steve Maxwell Kettlebell Cert. it was quite valuable and entertaining. i've learned lots of things. One memorable thing i learned is that "you don't put your tongue in your grandmother's mouth" Steve put things in terms we could relate with. That certainly helped me with my lunge. Steve was a great guy. I'm glad i attended the cert. i thought i'd be more sore today so i didn't work out today. i feel surprisingly good today so i probably could have worked out. oh well. A day off never hurt anyone. Fun group of people too.

Looking forward to Sunday's Cert

i remember 10 years ago when i was way into bodybuilding magazines reading about this mysterious new russian gym tool that was yielding amazing results. it was the kettlebell. from that day on, i've been fascinated by them. I love everything about them. The raw primitive design, their versatility, their effectiveness, and most of all how graceful they can look when used correctly. when Rhonda introduced us to Recreate i think that was the first thing i got excited about. Then i fell in love with all the people and have been hooked ever since. On Sunday we'll be meeting a kettlebell celebrity. I met Sam Beam of Iron & Wine a few years ago and just today Hannah was asking me if he was the only famous person i've ever met. I think Steve gets to count as the 2nd famous person i'll get to meet. Today's workout was a good one. It was deadlifts and i think i went up too fast. I was sharing a bar with Hercules John and thought id stay on the pain train as long as i could. :). Next time i need to remember that he's way fitter than me and i need to go up a little slower. We worked on muscleups today. i swear it feels like its years away for me. i can pullup to my chest, i can dip to my armpits but i can't even come close to a muscleup. im not bummed or obsessed about it. would be cool to check it off a list of accomplishments but its certainly not haunting me. I figure it will come when it comes. 20 deadhang pullups is still my goal before the end of 2008.

warmup(i only got 2 rounds)
10 pushups
15 goblet squats 16k
20 2hkb swings

wod
2 warm up sets of 5 deadlifts both at 225
5 sets of deadlifts with 5 deadhang pullups between
225/275/315/345x3/345x3

Skill:
muscle up attempts

i feel like i've been on candid camera

So other than the best news ever tuesday night, this week has been a rough one for me. Fallen trees, power outages, phone issues, etc. Work has been one thing breaking after another and much of it has been completely out of my hands and unrelated. I keep expecting someone to jump out from behind a wall and say "smile you're on candid camera. This has all been a practical joke" Hoping today is a smooth one. Today was a GREAT WORKOUT. Thursday sessions often seem to be some of my favorites. We spent a lot of time on the rower today but it was broken up which made it tolerable. Today's workout was a good variety that i felt worked the whole body pretty evenly.

warmup 3x
pvc pass throughs x10
pvc overhead squat x10
5 spidermen

warm up 3 sections

SectionA (i think i did 5 sets)
sandbag half moons x 10
10 k2e(surprisingly this was the hardest part of the workout. had to break them up)

SectionB(I think i got 3 rounds of this(did it after section c though)
mr. spectacular with 45lb kbs x 7
10 ring swings(10 seemed like too few reps and i'm never one to say that)

Section C(as many rounds in 10 min)
Row 250m
db push press 35lbs x 10
got 6 rounds and about a 100m of rowing into the 7th.