Deadlifts Are Back Baby!

Lindsey and I headed to The Gym a little earlier this morning and I was a huge fan of that decision!  I really do function better in the late morning in terms of my ability to perform, and while I know it is good to get training in at times when I do not feel totally comfortable, I know real gains will happen when training takes place at your peak.  My peak is between 9 and 12 every day.

With the second cycle of deadlifts to work on, I was feeling the frustration from last weeks debacle of an attempt.  Today was a bit different.  With only slight scapular fatigue I was able to pull 425# off the ground with ease.  This pumped me up like crazy, and gave me the motivation to get back up to that goal of 500# soon!  My metcon ended up being anther one of my sneaky tough ones:

3 rounds for time of:
50 box jumps 20"
15 KB snatches 53# (each arm)

This was straight up tiring.  I was able to get through every rep (except for a small break at rep 30 on the final set of box jumps) unbroken and I was good and toasted at that point.  I am starting to realize that The Gym is a bit stuffier than it actually feels.  When you walk in here it feel just about perfect,  but the second you start to get after it, the sweat just pours off you.  I am certain this adds a degree of difficulty to the workouts, but I am so OK with that.  I was able to get this one in in 7:17 and think that is a pretty good time.  Here's the video:



Later on in the day I returned to get a little extra work in, and there were three guys ready to get after the 4:15 class.  I knew them all, so I decided it would be good to get in with them and we could all get after it a little.  Here's what we did:

Warm Up:
While one guy does 250 meters row, the others do: max rep jumping jacks, KB swings (26#), hands off ground push ups.  We went twice through this.

We then got 10 minutes of kipping pull ups work, just to work on the mechanics of the move a little.

Workout: 3 un-timed rounds of (no break between triplet, 90 second max rest between rounds):
10 Overhead squats
12 pull ups
6 max distance broad jumps

Score was the farthest total distance of the broad jump.  Man this was fun!  I worked up to 74.5 kilos on the OH squat (that's 163.9#) and felt pretty solid getting 10 unbroken reps.  All pull ups were unbroken, and I was able to get 51 feet on my final round (1 foot farther than my first two rounds).  I really liked this combo of exercises, it left us spent, but productively satisfied.  Everyone walked away with some pretty positive energy and I just love that feeling.  Matt, James and Austin all had good performances, and Matt took the jumps by storm with a solid 55 feet.

Looking forward to a good recovery day tomorrow.  Lindsey and I are going for a 15-20 mile bike ride, then I'll get some good foam rolling and stretching at The Gym later on.  Look for the 6th installment of Courageous Meals coming soon!  Oh, and speaking of meals, I come back and this is the meal in the oven!  Broiled lamb, asparagus and a sweet potato.  So perfect!!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage