Agony Without Injury: Deadlifts, Pushups and Turkish Get-ups

Last evening I jumped on a great workout, and it’s reminding me today why I love deadlifts, pushups and Turkish get-ups. Here’s what it looked like:

Workout:

Part 1: Ten-minute countdown

135# Deadlift – 12 reps
Pushups – 12 reps

Part 2: Turkish Get-ups for 7 straight minutes with a 40# kettlebell

Part 1 was not that bad, but it was definitely hard. The deadlifts were harder than the pushups. Each round took me about 32 seconds, leaving about 28 seconds to rest before the next round. I’ve done a similar workout before requiring 10 rounds of the 15 reps with the same exercises, but without the get-ups afterward. So, I knew roughly what to expect.

Part 2? That’s another story. I love TGU’s, but I’d never tried to do them after doing 120 pushups. So with shoulders and a chest that were pretty tired, holding a kettlbell over my head was a major challenge. I had planned on doing 8 minutes with a 53# bell, but right after pressing the bell, I actually dropped it on the cold garage floor due to fatigue. It was immediately evident that a 53# bell was out of the question. I dropped down to the 40# bell and shaved one minute on the timer and went after it. That was a good adjustment.

Now, the aftermath. 24 hours later, I’m teetering between gratified satisfaction from having worked so many body parts, and an earnest prayer for death because everything from my neck to my knees is screaming: traps, shoulders, lats, lower back, glutes and hams. The quads and pecs are mildly sore, too.

Overall, tons of bang for the buck, and was very glad for a rest day today.