Nothing Wrong With Twice A Day

1 mile jog
8 up hill 40 yard sprints
Heavy barbell squats to failure

Ate supper....

Lat pulls, bench press, shrugs, and more squats at Taylor's house before a little grocery shopping was I was in town.

Night, night.


Tabata conditioning first thing in the morning.
- Mountain climbers
- Cheap as Hell Kettlebell swings
- Jumping jacks
- Overhead sand bag presses

I'll run this 2 minutes circuit at 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for as many rounds as I can handle before I've got to get the kid and me off for the day.

Inexpensive Kettlebell (The Cheap as Hell KettleBell)

A couple of mornings past, I really wanted to add a kettlebell swing/squat as a station in a tabata routine.  If you know me, I'm not spending $1.30/lb or more for anything other than meat.

So heres what I did, and it's working like a gem.

Step 1
Make some small sandbags out of ziplock bags.  I used the nice 1 gallon freezer bags a year or so ago, and made a dozen 10lb bags for different uses.  5 gallons of sand cost me $1.  Measure the sand going in for uniformity.  Once you're happy with the weight of the bag, thoroughly wrap it in duct tape.  Like this for example.  What's that equate to?  A quarter for a 10lb weight.

A year or so ago, I also bought a couple of burlap feed sacks from a local farm supply store.  Any horse tac type store should have these.  I put the sandbags in the bag, and use it for curls, presses...just good old fashioned odd object lifts.  I think they were $1 a piece.  If you don't have a store like that local, never forget about your local charity based thrift stores.  They can use the revenue, and usually you can find all kinds of stuff for homemade goodies like this project on the cheap.

Step 2
Acquire a bag or sack to hold your sandbags.  Make sure its plenty long....maybe 24" or so.

Step 3
You will need a handle for your kettlebell.  I have an old 1" diameter dumbbell handle left over from my very first weight lifting set I got15 years ago.  I don't use it since all of my plates these days are 2" oly.  I was thinking you could use a short length of metal or pvc pipe, or if you could get an old shovel or rake from a yard sale, you could cut pieces of wood to the desired length and make them that way.  Just something round, 1" to 2" in diameter, and about 12" to 18" in length.  Remember, reduce, reuse, recycle.  So far, if you're doing this, I hope you don't any more financial stake in this project other than the ziplock bags, tape, and sand.

Put the sandbags in the sack.

Draw the end of the sack up so that it's narrow and start rolling it around the bar.

Roll as much of the bag on the handle as possible.

Remember to dig your fingers in between the bar and sack inside where it has been rolled over the bar.  If you reverse your grip, the motion of the "bell" will try to pull your fingers off the grip.  Not cool if you're swinging and snatching these babies.

If you look at the physics of how the "cheap as hell kettbell" moves during different workouts, it's dead on.  Of course, it's not rigid so it doesn't allow for every single move the kettlebell offers like for push-ups or dips, but seriously, who needs any implement at all for those moves?

Early Morning Stomp

You know, I've been a good father so far.  I've cooked and maintained a home while my beautiful better half has brought our baby now to 38 weeks.  Now with the birth of my child imminent, I have to turn to the sympathy pregnancy I've gone thru.  Joint swelling, late night trips to the john, abdominal cramping, and the part that really gets me....I've gained pound for pound with her.

No time like the present to not let a good crisis go to waste.  My Thursday morning barrage has brought an invention.  The least expensive, fully adjustable kettlebell ever devised.  That's right.  I think I've got about $2 in a kettle bell that will go from 1lb to 40lb or so....maybe more.  I will continue to stress test the materials cause I think it will go higher.  Just wait....pictures and how to are coming very soon.

This morning.....
feet raised 24" up/push-ups
hands raised 24" up/push-ups
homemade kettlebell swings
mountain climbers
overhead sand bag presses
heavy sand bag on my chest while doing swiss ball sit-ups
bodyweight quick action prisoner squats

Repeated this circuit a few times over 20 minutes, and I am still sweating like a red shirt on star trek.

Power Workout Part 2

Yeah, I've been lacking on the posts.  

10 minute warm up

Hit the weights....
Squats 1x15
Stiff leg deadlift 1x15
Overhead Press 1x15
Bent Over Row 1x8
Maximum Number of Push-ups you can pull in one minute.  Even if you're not pushing, don't break the plank.
Barbell Curls 1x8
Side Bends 1x15

Always keep good records of what you were able to lift in pounds last time.  For this day, never increase reps, always increase pounds.

Airdyne, mountain climbers, or other full body heart pumping cardio for as long as you can go....or stop at about 15 minutes as this workout in it's entirety shouldn't take more than 35 minutes.

Power Workout Part 1

I've said it before.  Power in lifting can be easily defined.  How much weight can you get off the ground, and then up and over your head.  Easy right?

Warm Up
Strict barbell military press 10/5/4/3/2/1 (progressively heavier)
20 rep squat set
Thick handled dumbbell bent over rows
Neck work
Grip work
50 rep set of crunches

Tomorrow, basketball, and more running up and down the stairs trying to get the second floor remodeled in my house.

Check back Sunday for 2 of 3 of the Power Workout Series

The Never Ending

When you've got a baby on the way, a house in "remodel mode", and the Christmas season bearing down on you, it can seem like the great never ending do-dah.  Guilty of not working out and letting other pass times override what little time I have free.

Lifting tonight.

Basketball Saturday morning.

I'm pulling down a new workout idea from The Dinosaur Files for this month.  The mainstay of the workouts, my favorite, the overhead press.  That workout scheme will trickle out of this blog over the next week.

Progression

What is Progression?  If you're weight training, it means a greater number of reps at a given weight in a given movement, or a  greater amount of weight in that movement.  If you're running, it's all about covering greater distance, or covering the same distance in less time.  Progression is a simple increase in work load.

What is work.  Check " P=w/t " blog right here at this site.  The measure of "work" is very simply an increase in intensity in your workout.  Check out the " Intensity " blog here at this site.

Take note.  What did you do last time?  What do you hope to be able to do?  The distance you need to cover from what you can do to what you wish to be able to do is your goal.  Progression is the incremental steps you can take to get from here to there.  If you're not "working", you are always the same distance from where you are to where you want to be.

I like weight training because it it so damn easy to check progress.  "Last week I benched 225lbs for 10 reps.  This week I benched 225lbs for 11 reps" or "I benched 230lbs for 8reps".  Either way it's progression.

Had a friend of mine, Beantown is what I call him, who loves the GPP just as much as I.  We had a few different movements we were working on one night, and the one he really excelled at was throwing an 8lb medicine ball from the ground up and over his head to as far behind his body as possible.  It took him only 2 tosses to traverse the property where we were working out.  It took me 3.  He felt very proud at his ability in this segment of the workout, but when I explained to him that his next test would be to either A) make the distance in 1 movement, or B) do the two throws in less time his response was "I did it in two, you did it in 3?".

Progression is always a test of you vs. you!  I don't care if the guy at the end of your block runs 20 miles a day.  I don't care if the guy at the other end of the block can bench 400lbs, and that you've heard rumor that there's another person 2 blocks over who can squat 1000lbs.  Your fight is the good fight!  You fight to push your body to the limits of what is genetically possible for you.

Don't give up.

I'm The Walleye, and I approved this message.