This last week I wanted to go with a heavy emphasis on bodyweight only stuff, working hard to work throughout the day rather than just scheduling workouts. That involved doing a bunch of bodyweight stuff throughout the week with a sprinkling of KB work in there for conditioning. Here was the plan:
Every day, throughout the day, do 3-5 sets of the following:
- 10 pull-ups
- 20 pushups
- 20 squats
- 1 one-arm pushup per side
- 1 pistol squat per side (assisted with KB if needed)
The way I did it was to try to complete the circuit every couple of hours when I was in my office. Obviously, when I was in a meeting it was hard, but the beautiful thing was that it required no equipment but the pull-up bar. So I could do it when out of the office, too, which I did a time or two. I took off Thursday altogether.
Since this was largely max strength and strength endurance type stuff, I decided to supplement the work with some kettlebell interval training for the metabolic conditioning piece. Oh, and on Friday I got a special treat. Read on.
Monday (5/21)
11-minute Countdown: Kettlebell Swings: 18 swings, 70# kettlebell
This was great. I didn’t have to take any breaks, either. In fact, I actually did 20 swings on the last round in order to total 200 reps in 11 minutes.
Tuesday (5/22)
- Bench press: 5×3 @ 185
- Deadlift: 5×3 @285
No surprises here. All reps felt great.
Wednesday (5/23)
14-minute Countdown: Kettlebell Snatches: 7 reps per side per minute, 53# kettlebell
Just another stop on the way to 200 reps in 10 minutes. I’m still a long way off, but this was 196 reps in 14 minutes and felt just fine. I had more in the tank although it still wasn’t easy.
Thursday (5/24)
Stretching.
Friday (5/25)
Five rounds:
- The Olympic (that’s a clean–>front squat–>shoulder press combo) – 5 reps with double 53# KB’s
- Kettlebell Swing – 5 explosive reps with a 70# (bell)
This was exciting as it was my first workout with double kettlebells. I bought a second 53# bell on Thursday and got to work out with it on Friday. It’s true: you can do twice the work with two kettlebells. Crazy.
This was a fairly easy session. I rested two minutes between rounds and felt great doing it.
Saturday (5/26)
Five rounds:
- Double Kettlebell Swings – 10 reps (53# KB’s)
- Double Kettlebell Clean and Press – 5 reps (53# KB’s)
Like the day before, I rested between rounds, but this time only for about 90 seconds.
As for the bodyweight circuit (mentioned above) that I did throughout the week, I did it a total of 15 times, so I averaged 3 times per day, taking Thursday off completely. I kind of liked it and plan to do it again this week, but with a different combination of movements. Tune in next week to see what I did. 🙂
