jump to navigation
« …and back down again
Daddy, who’s that sweaty guy on the jungle gym? »

Back from Vacation… almost August 27, 2007

Posted by hardly Bar, Flexibility, Kettlebell, Medicine Ball, Row, Strength Training Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , trackback

Last week was spent doing a lot of 4 wheelin’ in BC in pursuit of trout. When someone tells you that “The Map is Not the Territory”, tell them to go to BC to find out what this means!

Today is back to work, as is Tuesday, and then off to the Oregon Coast. In addition to being a good vacation spot, I can’t think of a better place to run in the sand, then do pushups in the sand, then situps, then dig sand castles, etc. So, while my coming workouts won’t be as structured as before, they are definitely going to be all about ‘functional fitness’!

For today…

Warmup:
- 50 KB Swings @ 20 kg
- 50 Pushups
- 50 Bodyweight squats
- Walk around the room carrying 2 16 kg kettlebells, 2x

Workout:
- 500 M row @ 1:42
- Double kettlebell push press w/16 kg bells: 40 in 3 minutes
- Double kettlebell deadlifts w/16 kg bells: 60 in 3 minutes
- Double kettlebell swings w/16 kg bells: 43 in 3 minutes
- Stair run
- Wallball, 18 kg medicine ball: 20
- Leg Overs: 20
- Thrusters w/45lbs bar: 20

Ah, to get back to working out. The feeling of accomplishment, the profuse sweat, the feeling of nausea. Oh yes, I remember all this through the dim mists of vacation…

Health:

« …and back down again
Daddy, who’s that sweaty guy on the jungle gym? »

Comments

1. Brad Hefta-Gaub - August 27, 2007

Hey, I’ve been thinking about functional workouts lately… Is my Ironman training functional?

Well, you know there was that big accident on I-5 this weekend, and the traffic was completely stopped in all directions for almost the whole day… I was thinking.. if we ever needed to get the family out of town… I could load them all up in the bike train and head north on the Burke Gilman trail… I could ride for days pulling them behind me.

How’s that for functional?

Speaking of functional… Dave, when you going to pick a cooler theme? Add some pictures of yourself lifting these kettlebells and photos of your family or something… Oh, I guess that would be more asthetic than functional. ;)

2. hardly - August 27, 2007

Funny you bring this up, as I was speaking w/our coach on this topic just a few weeks back.

From his perspective, when someone trains for a given sport, they will likely get better at that sport, and this work will improve your functional fitness, though more as as an unintended consequence of the training for that sport. For example, let’s say you had to skid logs or chop wood. Would your current training improve you beyond where you were back when or not? More sporty examples: Does triathalon training make you a better tennis player? Golfer? Race car driver? Pentathalete? Decathalete?

Now, there is no doubt that you could get your family out of town by loading them up on the bike (oh, but will the spokes & axles take it?), and certainly ahead of everyone else that’s dieing for breath as they are walking up the trail because they haven’t been doing ANYTHING to improve their fitness, and they are way overweight, so yeah, you’ve improved your functional fitness. But, for the given expenditure of effort, could it be more? That’s the key question. How does one run an A/B test on this? Where would one look to find hard workouts that improve overall functional fitness?

For me, I know that I’m in better overall shape than I’ve been since I was in High School Wrestling, which was pretty much the top for me. I can simply do more physical things, e.g. work, at a high level, and require much less time to recover than before. Oh, and my resting HR is at its lowest level ever. I’m very happy with these results, and the outcomes work for me.

A cooler theme? What, this isn’t cool? It’s blue. Everyone L-O-V-E-S blue! Seriously, though, I agree with you, the theme bugs. I have some ideas on this that don’t involve horses, bicycles, HR monitors, naked women, etc, and we’ll see if I can get them happening soon. Vacation will, however, take precedence!

3. kimayars - August 27, 2007

I can set you up with a horse banner image… :-) (C’mon, you know you want one!)

Welcome back!

4. hardly - August 27, 2007

What I can’t figure out is why you don’t also have an MP3 of horses clip-clopping in the background when I visit your page?

5. kimayars - August 27, 2007

That’s an idea!!

6. riddenwords - August 27, 2007

Because we don’t understand that “web multimedia” thing…

7. Lisa Sabin - August 29, 2007

What are leg overs? I love reading about your kettle bell workouts.

8. hardly - August 30, 2007

Thanks!

Leg overs are a core body movement, and are a mod on situps. You start by laying down on a bench w/a slight incline and a post sticking up vertically at a right angle to the plane of the bench. Once you’ve settled in with your feet on the lower lower end, reach back over your head and grab on to the post. The movement is to lift your legs up, and then bring your knees and/or toes up close to your chest/head. Then, send the feet back from whence they came. Of course, you then repeat it until you can’t do them anymore, e.g. success

There are a couple of other fun sit-up alternatives we do in class from time-to-time. One of my favs is the one where you hang upside down from a horizontal bar, and then raise your body up so your hands can touch the bar. I can’t do too many of those before getting to, um, success… ;-)