Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Rise and shine and LHT

I was up early with the SO, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5:00 am, and saw her off to work. My arms were still dead from the swim sprints yesterday, but heck, you only live once. So at 6:00 am, with the dogs still sleeping soundly in our bed, I made my way to the basement to have my way with the weights (or the other way around, depending on your point of view). It was brief, pretty intense given the hour and yesterday's workout, and all in all, quite great.

Here's the deal:
  • Bent over rows - 5 X 5 (70 lb barbell)
  • Bench press - 5 X 5 (70 lb barbell - I know this is a bit weak)
  • Pull ups - 5 X 5 (70 lb barbell - THIS was not weak and more than made up for the slack weight on bench)
  • Squats - 5 X 5 (70 lb barbell - a little soft)
This did not take all that long (maybe 25 minutes). Some of the weights were a bit light, but given that my arms were a shade tender, not a bad call at all.

After walking the kids to school the dogs and I only braved the chill for about 15 minutes before calling it a morning. All this done before 9:30 am. Not bad. Oh yeah, then I got some work done at home, went to the University, delivered a lecture, etc. etc.

There were no photos of lunch or dinner but they were sweet Primal affairs: lunch of mixed greens, home made bacon bits from last night, half an avocado, pecans, cranberries with olive oil and balsamic vinegar - yum! Dinner was steamed broccoli and cauliflower (with real butter), some thick sliced fried ham (in its own fat) - yum yum!

3 comments:

  1. Do you worry about overdoing the strength training/sprinting? I've read Body By Science by Doug McGuff, MD, and he presents some compelling reasons to that our muscle physiology increases in strength most optimally with at least 7 days in between intense lifting events.

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  2. I am following (roughly) the MDA schedule from a few months back:

    - sprinting (on land or in the pool swimming)
    - LHT (weights or bodyweight or combo)
    - rest/move slowly/play (easy swim, easy yoga, walk)
    - HIIT (bodyweight with short duration, < 20 minutes)
    - rest/move slowly/play (easy swim, easy yoga, walk)
    - LHT (weights or bodyweight or combo)
    - rest/move slowly/play (easy swim, easy yoga, walk)

    I try to have an easy day after a hard day, usually walk even on heavy days (with the dogs - they don't know I am sore), and really, really, really listen to my body. When it says give (thigh pull when sprinting or shoulder/delt from lifting) I'll lay right off until it resolves. I should check out that book though as I'm all about optimizing and trying to avoid overdoing it. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. Brent Pottenger (epistemocrat.blogspot.com) turned me onto Doug's book. I read it cover-to-cover and tried my first two workouts (one last week, one this week). I must say my muscles are more sore and for longer after each single aprox. 12-min workout than they've been in a long time! The science behind it (getting the most resistant muscle fibers to twitch and grow) is very compelling. Brent has been seeing excellent progress with the technique. Anything that allows me to do a heavy workout only once per week and see better gains is okay in my book.

    I do still sprint as I think I get good things out of it (like being able to run really fast and not break down in anaphalactic shock!), and I of course still walk a lot, and do box jumps and the like. But the LHT part has evolved for me after reading the book.

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