Wed 4-3-13: Core
My wife is doing an April Ab Challenge hosted by a friend of ours, so today I joined her…
Core
2 circuits of:
Jackknife 20 reps (10 each, alternate)
Burpees 30 sec
Ab Iso Squeeze 1 min
Mountain Climbers 30 sec
Russian Twists 20 each side
High Knees 30 sec
Plank 30 sec
Squat Thrust 30 sec
Crunches 20 reps
Jumping Jacks 30 sec
Rest 2 minutes between circuits.
Mon 4-1-13: Trees
Climbed trees for about 15 minutes. Found a street with some good trees and climbed up and down each one. Did some other miscellaneous jumping, swinging and hanging, putting together a nice little outdoor workout. Only gathered a few staring spectators in the process…
And only a few scrapes too…
Sun 3-31-13: Bouncehouse Play
Happy Easter!
Today was play day- chasing nearly 10 kids, ranging from 2-12 years old, up, over, around and through a bounce house. I was a monster/wolf and chased little kids/cats around almost endlessly. So cool! I think I had as much fun as they did. Great full body workout and tons of good old fashioned fun play all around.
Tues 3-26-13: Upper Body Push
Upper Body Push
Incline Bench Press
45×10, 95×10, 135×5, 155×10,9,8,8
DB Alternating Bench Press
65 lb DBs: 2 sets of 12 reps (6 each side), 1 set of 20 reps
Arnold Press
4 sets: 10 reps at 30 lbs (alternated arms on 2nd and 4th sets)
Dips
3 sets of 10
Superset of 10 reps @ 25 lbs:
DB Fly
DB Lying Tricep Extension
Feeling a bit run down from poor sleep and coughing kids the last few nights so called it a day. Probably time for a few days off…
Mon 3-25-13: Pullups
Pullups
10 sets of 10 scattered throughout the day.
Whenever, wherever, whatever apparatus I was around.
Fri 3-22-13: Back, Shoulders & Arms
Back, Shoulders & Arms
45 Degree Lat Pulldown
10 sets of 10
30,45,60,75,90,105,120,135,150,150
3 supersets of:
DB Arc Row 10 reps @ 40,45,50
DB Bent Reverse Fly 12 reps @ 10
3 supersets of:
Cable Iso Alternating Row 10 reps @ 90
DB Bent Reverse Fly 12 reps @ 10 (not a typo, did this again)
4 supersets of 15 reps:
DB Curl w/ Fat Gripz 15,20,20,20
Dual Cable Shrug 100lbs
DB Hammer Curl, Press, Tricep Extension Combo
3 sets with 20lb DBs
1st set: alternate arms for 8 reps
2nd set: one side count up 1-5
3rd set: one side count down 5-1
Thur 3-21-13: Leg Challenge
Lower Body
2 mile hike down and back up a local gully trail.
Leg Challenge: 10 reps of each in a row, 50 reps total.
Step Up (10 each leg)
Lunge (same)
Squat
Set 1: Bodyweight
Set 2: +25% of BW (45 lbs for me)
Set 3: +50% of BW (90 lbs)
Set 4: +75% of BW (135 lbs)
This is where I stopped…
BONUS for the freaks:
Set 5: +100% of BW
Or
BONUS for the gluttons for punishment:
Work your way back down- 50%, 25%, BW.
You can use any apparatus to add the weight, I chose a barbell for convenience. You can also modify it for different percentages of BW (10%, 20%, 30%, etc.).
10 Ten Minute Full Body Workouts
Came across a great article at Marks Daily Apple called 10 Full Body Workouts You Can Do In 10 Minutes Flat. Some great stuff in here, bookmark this if you ever need quick and effective ways to move a challenge your body, including some gym workouts but mostly outdoor natural movement challenges.
Tues 3-19-13: Chest & Back
Chest & Back
3 supersets of:
TRX Row 15 reps
Bench Press 45×20, 95×12, 135×10
Bench Press
185 x 16,10,9,10
3 supersets of:
Chin-up 10,10,8
Incline DB Press 60×10
4 supersets of 12 reps:
Dual Cable Wide Pulldown 90lbs
Cable Crossgrip Reverse Fly 10lbs
Mon 3-18-13: Sprints & Glutes
Sprints and Hips/Glutes
Sprints
5 @ 90% 120 yards ~45 rest
Incline Treadmill Sprint
10 sec @ 12 mph, 15 degrees
10 sec @ 12 mph, 19.5 degrees
10 sec @ 10 mph, 30 degrees
Hip Thrust From Floor
10 reps @ 65,155,245,265,265,265, 15 @ 155
RDL
1 cool down set of 15 @ 155
Fri 3-15-13: Shoulders & Arms
Shoulders & Arms
4 supersets of:
LandMine Bent Row 12 reps
Overhead Press 10 reps
5 supersets of:
LandMine One Arm Arc Raise 10 reps
Keiser Bar Row 15 reps
3 supersets of:
LandMine One Arm Curl Press 10 reps
Cable High Reverse Fly 10 reps
3 supersets of:
Seated Cable Preacher Curl 8-12 reps
Tricep Rope Extension 12-15 reps
3 supersets of:
Shrug Hammer Curl 10-12 reps
Lying DB Tricep Extension 12-15 reps
Thur 3-14-13: Kettlebell Challenge
Got another unexpected hour so took four minutes out of it to do a 150 rep kettlebell challenge.
20 swings & 10 deadlifts with each KB, work up from lightest to heaviest with no rest between.
16k, 20k, 24k, 32k, 40k
Total time ~ 4:00
Wed 3-13-13: Full Body Randomness
Got a chance to exercise which doesn’t happen much on Wednesdays and given two workouts this week already I didn’t want to do much so I literally just did whatever random exercise/activity/movement/stretch came to mind.
Randomness
Too difficult to log everything I did but it included planking variations, TRX stretching, core work, hip mobility, research and development (testing out/creating/experiencing) on different exercises with a device called the Land Mine (seen below), bending, twisting, squatting, extending, stretching, flexing and 100 jumping jacks. Just moved my body however it felt like it need
Plank Push-up Countdown
Thought of this a month or two ago on a whim when I wanted a little quick bodyweight workout. Ended up being really challenging. Forgot to post it when I did it but here it is:
Plank Push-up Countdown
This is simply a push-up countdown with 15 seconds of planking between each round of push-ups without resting.
Start in a plank- hold for 15 seconds, then do 10 push-ups and go back to a 15 sec plank, followed by 9 push-ups, another 15 sec plank, 8 push-ups… etc. until down to 1 push-up and finish with a 30 second plank. Total for the set is 3:00 of planking and 55 push-ups and should take around 4:30 minutes from start to finish.
Here’s a video clip of the first couple rounds for reference:
Tues 3-12-13: Upper Body
Upper Body
Alternate 6 sets each:
Bench Press
10 reps @ 65,115,165
185 for 6,8,11
Chin-ups
10,10,10,10,8,9
Superset 3 sets of 12 reps:
DB Incline Press 50,55,55
Dual Cable Wide Pulldown 90
4 circuits of:
Push-ups (Speed x 10, Speed x 15, Plyo x 10, Plyo x 15)
Bear Crawl (20 yards forward, 20 yd backward)
Cable Reverse Fly (7.5lbs) 10,15,10,15
Mon 3-11-13: Glutes, Jumps & Sprints
Hip/Glutes, Jumping & Sprinting
Hip Thrust from Floor (video)
7 sets of 10:
BW,65,115,165,235,255,255
Deadlift
5 sets of 5 at 255
Sprint & Jump
10 40 yard sprints:
Regular x 2, burpee jump & sprint x 4 (video), sprint with hurdle jumps x 2 & handspring, sprint and hurdle jump x 2.
Fri 3-8-13: Shoulders & Arms
Shoulders & Arms
BB Wide Grip Upight Row 7 sets of 12 @ 45-75lbs
3 supersets of 12 reps:
DB Arc Row 40lbs
DB One Arm Bent Rev Fly 15lbs
3 supersets of 10 reps:
DB Eagle Raise 15lbs
DB Curl & Press 15 lbs
3 supersets of 12 reps:
Dual Cable Bicep Curl 40lbs
High Cable Reverse Fly 30lbs
3 supersets of 15 reps:
Kneeling Dual Cable High Curl 45lbs
Dual Cable Tricep Extension 45lbs
Thur 3-7-13: Videos
Video shoot day…
Chin-up (video)
TRX Lunge & Fly (video)
TRX Shoulder Press (video)
TRX Tricep Extension (video)
TRX Push-up (video)
Lunge To Balance (video)
TRX Reverse Fly (video)
BB Shoulder Press (video)
BB Curl to Chin (video)
BB Reverse Curl (video)
BB Kneeling Curl (video)
BB Thruster (video)
BB Switch Curl (video)
Cable Reverse Tricep Extension (video)
Spider-Man Push-up (video)
In & Out Push-up (video)
Walkout Push-up (video)
Tues 3-5-13: The Mantathalon
The Mantathalon
A client and I took on a cool exercise challenge today. My buddy Bryan over at Frontdive Fitness sent me the workout Mantathalon from T-Nation last week so today we gave it a shot. Developed by Martin Rooney (well known strength and conditioning coach) to test modern day athletes, the competition encompasses 5 events. Using bodyweight for weight and proportion, each competitor has 20 minutes to complete one attempt to failure (or 20 rep max) of the following exercises in this order:
1. Bodyweight Bench Press
2. Chin-up
3. Half Bodyweight Overhead Press
4. +25% Bodyweight Dip
5. Half Bodyweight BB Curl
Max score is 100- Add your reps up and see where you rank. Check out the link above for the article and videos with description, form guidelines and ranking chart.
At a bodyweight of 172, for simplicity I used 170 for the bench press, 85 for the overhead press and curl and 42.5 for the weighted dip.
A challenging workout that was fun to give a go at. I probably won’t do it often but might use it every few months to remeasure.
Mantathalon Final Score: 20+20+18+16+16=90
After the Mantathalon added:
Lat Pulldown 3 sets of 10
Seated Alternating Iso Row 2 sets of 8
Seated Row 2 sets of 10
Hang Power Clean & Press 2 sets of 10 @ 85lb
Mon 3-4-13: Lower Body & Plyos
A quick little sunshine workout in my backyard with the littlest Knapp…
Lower Body/Plyometrics
Squat
BW x 40
Baby Squat and Lunge
~13 lbs x 30 assorted reps
Squat Jump to Broad Jump
5 reps each
Jump Squat/Split Switch Jump Countdown (Video of 10,9,8)
10 reps/10 reps each side
9/9
etc.
Crab Thrust (Video)
3 sets of 10
Single Leg Crab Thrust (Video)
1 set of 10
Deep Baby Squats
1 set of 5
Tues 2-26-13: Pull-up/Push-up Day
Pull-up/Push-up Day
Pullups
Neutral, Chin-up, Wide Grip, Alternated Grip, Alternated Grip, Neutral (1 min rest between sets)
10,10,10,8,7,7
7 Supersets of:
Tree Pullups 7,6,7,6,6,6,5 (different branches/grips)
Plyo Pushups 14,12,14,12,12,12,10
Video
4 Supersets of:
Pullups 8,6,6,4
Pushups 16,12,12,8
(last superset with a 35 lb weighted monkey, my almost 4 year old son) 
Mon 2-25-13: Lower Body Power
Lower Body/Power
Hip Thrust
3 sets of 10: 65,115,155
4 sets of 8: 225
Hang Clean
4 sets of 10: 95
**lighter weight to work on form**
Superset of:
Squat 95×15 reps
Squat Jump 95×10 reps, BWx10
Thur 2-21-13: Shoulders, Biceps & Core
Shoulders, Biceps & Core
Warmup:
Powerplate 1 min
Back Lunge To Kick 10 reps (video)
2 supersets of:
Cuban Press 10 reps @ 15,20lbs
Cable Rev Fly (used beginning half of rep only) 25 reps @ 7.5lbs (video)
4 supersets of:
Hang Power Clean 12 reps @ 45,95,95,95
BB Curl (slow eccentric) 12@45, 8 reps @65,65,65
Ball Crunch (legs straight) 25 reps (video)
3 supersets of:
BB Shrug 185×12 reps (14 last set)
Cable Rev Fly 10×15 reps (11 reps last set)
DB Hammer Curl 30×12 reps
An Wheel Rollout 12 reps (10 last set)
Pull-up/Knee Tuck Combo 7 reps (video)
Wall Posture Iso 30 sec
Rope Face Pull 100 rep drop set (20 reps each @ 50,40,30,22.5,15 lbs)
Wall Posture Iso 30 sec
Tues 2-19-13: Upper Body Challenge
Simple yet very challenging:
Bodyweight Bench/Push-up Countdown
For time:
10 reps BW Bench Press (175lbs)
10 push-ups
9 reps BW Bench Press
9 push-ups
… Down to 1 rep each.
Total Time: 9:58
** Dropped the bench press to 155 starting on the round of 6 reps so that I would be able to get through this in 10 min.
