Throughout the week I did pull-ups. I had a goal to get in 200 pull-ups by Friday, and I was able to do that. I front-loaded the week too heavily, though. My hands were really raw by Wednesday, so I pared it back and took off Wednesday and Thursday almost completely (10 pull-ups on Wednesday and 5 on Thursday). Regardless, because I’d gone after it so crazily on Monday and Tuesday, I did 200 pull-ups this week, never doing more than 5 reps in any one set. Read on for the rest of the week.
Monday (5/14)
- 4 Rounds:
- 53# Clean and Press Ladders 4 rungs (rest 2 minutes per round)
- 5 pull-ups
- 17-minute countdown
- 53# KB Snatch – 6 reps left
- 53# KB Snatch – 6 reps right
Nothing surprising here. The 17 minutes of snatches gets long, and it’s a grind, but boy, is it effective. Great for the heart, glutes, back, hamstrings, etc.
Tuesday (5/15)
15-minute countdown: 15 Kettlebell Swings with a 70# bell.
As usual, great workout but I faced grip failure. Not too surprisingly, this workout gets “easier” each time, though it’s still not easy.
Wednesday (5/16)
- Bench Press: 2×4 @ 175#
- Four 55# Kettlebell Clean and Press Ladders – 3 rungs
- Deadlift: 1×3 @ 315#; 1×3 @ 295#
- 1600M on Concept II Rower
On Wednesday I got to visit a friend in a huge HS gym when it was empty. Tons of really nice stuff. Too bad, but I actually felt pretty weak on this day. The bench, the KB’s and even the deadlift should have gone up easier than they did, but I still felt fresh afterward, and I was not sore from these things the following day.
I’d never used a C2 rower before, though, and I loved it. Generally I’m not a fan of cardio for cardio’s sake, but on the row machine there is a lot of activation of the quads, glutes, back and arms. It was great. I think I did the 1600M in 6:39 or something with the resistance on 10, whatever that means. I don’t even know if that’s good.
Thursday (5/17)
Stretching.
Friday (5/18)
- Turkish Get-ups: 10 minutes with a 53# KB
- KB Snatches: 3 minutes, as many reps as possible.
The get-ups didn’t feel particularly great; I had to take a few breaks of ten seconds or so. But for the most part the time passed quickly and the shoulders were tired.
After a short break, I went after the snatches. I had a goal to get to 90 reps or better. That would be an average of fifteen reps per side for the three minutes. I started out with 20 reps left, then right, then 15 reps left, then right, then I rested for about 10-15 seconds or so. I then wanted to do 10 reps per side with the time remaining. I got 10 reps with the left and 7 with the right before the clock his 00:00. I’m not sure I could have done much better since I hardly rested at all. Three minutes and my heart was pounding. I finished with 87 reps, which wasn’t too bad, I thought.
