Vince Brown's bandwagon jumping workout log

[Vbrown]

Enough already.

I'm not really training for anything in particular. OCS isn't in the cards (sorry guys), I'm not in a "tactical" lifestyle, and my martial training is on hiatus for the moment. So that puts me in the horrible position of having every training option open to me. Hard to chose. So I won't. Here's a rough outline of the past 3 weeks.

Weekday mornings @ 6am, light WW, then take the dog and my pre-loaded 45lbs. pack for a walk. Only about 2-2.5 miles. The dog is old and the pack is heavy. But it starts the day off right.

Tuesday and Thursday evening: The wife and I hit the pool. I'll mix it up for anywhere from 1000-1200 yards. Kickboard, sprints, pulls, breath control etc. I cannot recommend swimming enough. It's been awhile since I've swum with any thought to structure and it is just the coolest whole body workout. Plus I can eat whatever I want and I'm still losing weight.

Wednesday and Friday evening: My version of de-sissified burpees. The only change for me is that instead of a pullup bar I've mounted over a dozen rock-climbing handholds in the beam downstairs and do the chins on those, mixing it up every chin. I'll go between 3-5 sets of 15 with 2 minute rest.

Clubbells: Swipes with a squat (squat in the rear position of armpit cast)
If I did 3 sets of burpees, then I'll do 5 x20 and vice versa.
Crucifix squats: 4x25 because they hurt and I don't think anyone else is dumb enough to do them.

SUNDAY: This has become my favorite right now. I have a plywood platform I put across the width of the bed of my truck. I then take the 120 lbs. duffle bag full of rocks and pick it up and put it on the plaform. Then put it on the ground. Repeat. This usually peters out around 6-8 reps. I'll take 5 minutes rest and repeat until the reps are 1-2. This can be 3 sets or like yesterday, 7.

A smaller (80lbs) bag is put in a truck tire and I'll do sprint-drags with it, both forward and running backwards. Usually about 3-4 times, unless I vomit earlier than normal.

Finally, I'll push the truck (while in neutral) till it doesn't move. Rest 5 minutes and try again.

It's been a whole mess of fun as it give me lots of variety and flexibility. What do I want to get out of this type of training? To keep my ass of the couch for as long as possible. My dad had his first heart attack in his mid 40's, threw his back out the first time in his early 30's etc. I've got genetics against me, so I'd best get a running start at longevity.

I'll keep y'all updated of the changes.

Tear it up...what else were you going to do with it? :twisted:

Vince
Alpha CST

[Scott Sonnon]

Vince,

Glad to see you here. You have a great deal to share, especially with such a unique background.

You don't need to have an external event to challenge yourself. Heck, I revitalized OCS because I wanted to challenge myself (and the competitors to push me farther than I could go alone.)

I read you saying that you intend your training to be fun, fit and functional. You keep it varied and you consistent. Reads well to me.

I don’t find anything “wrong” with your program, but since you asked for suggestions I’ll throw in two. I would add would be to explore and record in your Training Log tricks you discover along the way to make each respective activity more efficient - how do you develop the "skill" of each activity. And perhaps another suggestion may be to determine a way to demonstrate progression to yourself of some kind, either with a bi-weekly or monthly 'test' with your favorite exercise.

The only obstacle I've ever encountered with exploratory training is that if unchecked it can fall to maintenance training (within the Training Type Chart). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that if you INTEND to maintain current levels, but if unintended can result in stagnation, diminishing returns and sometimes regression.

I look forward to reading your insights and discoveries amigo!

[Vbrown]

That's some good points, thanks. The trick is finding a self-test that covers the wide range of my training.

I was thinking about every month, self-competing in just 1 of the "events". Swim a mile this month, rep out on the sandbag next month, and double deathmarch again in December.

Part of it is that this quarter and next are going to be the hardest 2 in school (9 classes each) and I owe it to my future clients to do my very best. That plus getting in some remodelling work leaves me less time than I'd like for training. But I don't want to slide into stale maintenence either.

How does that sound?

Thanks for the input.

Vince

[Doug Szolek]

Vince, looks like your life being spiced to the max. Fun program.

I especially like the loading of the weighted duffles into your truck and the truck push; it makes me miss my '79 ford super-cab, my volvo is a tank in it's own right but much lighter to push as it would probably fit in the bed of that truck.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more,

-Doug

[Scott Sonnon]

Vince, sounds good! Keep us advised on your test results!

[Vbrown]

Stuff I've learned thus far:

1. making all the pushups in the burpees phase fingertips pushups, combined with rockclimbing chins, then the clubbell swipes and finishing off with COC #1 makes it so you can't type for 24 hours. Or hold a fork very well.

2. Using my homemade 2 liter Endogenous breathing device during the rest phases of my friday workout is REALLY HARD. But once you get used to the swirling colors, it's ok.

This morning however, I've discoverd just a bit of DOMS with my breathing muscles. That's a little weird.

I'll skip the breathing device when doing the duffle workout tommorrow.

Vince

[Jay76]

Great workout!

Swimming is great, myself, the ocean is not cold and I am not a great swimmer. There is a pool at my gym, chroline though, since its a bad chemical, should I even bother using it??

[Vbrown]

First, don't worry about the chlorine in the pool. You'll most likely get hit by a bus long before chlorine will give you any problems.

Second, it is 100% worth taking some swimming lessons. There are plenty of good folks who teach adults proper swimming technique. You will find far more joy in swimming when you can do it right.

It's a mighty exercise and I highly recommend it.

Vince

Alpha CST

[Vbrown]

My complexed version of de-sissyied burpees have prove, thus far, to be a butt kicker. At least, my butt.

1) Start with a pullup (with the smallest rockholds on the board)
2) At the top, curl into an abdominal raise
3) uncoil and drop into full squat
4) rock up deck squat
5) instead of standing at completion of the squat, from the low position project FORWARD as far as you can into a forward ground engagement.
6) screw up and use the momentum to pull your knees to your chest so that you land in a full squat (hands not touching the floor)
7) rock up into a vertical screw up (ie. handstand) and drop back onto your feet.
8) if you did it right, you should be righ under your pullup station.

Now, repeat. :twisted:

I'm doing sets of 5 at the moment. Last week was 3 sets, so this week will be 4 sets. It's gotten easier as I've learned the movement. The brain is really amazing.

Training is so much better when it's fun.

Vince

[Scott Sonnon]

Love to see that in article format!