Saturday, November 7, 2009
11/07 - Murder train a coming.
Been away for a while getting things sorted out. Moved up Iowa city and starting teaching a class come monday. I also have the good fortune to be interning at Crossfit Epic. Jason is an excellent coach and I feel like I am going to be able to learn alot from him. Going to start programming again starting Monday. Stay tuned for further updates.
Friday, October 9, 2009
10/12 - Death by Inches
I know it is a little ahead of time and maybe poor form for me posting early but I wanted to get a sample training session banged out for my first mock class on Tuesday.
Focus: Indoc
Intensity:Hard
Goals: Teach new movements to those individuals that will be intergral to HIT success at Uiowa fieldhouse. Dose of intensity, minor gut check as to what is involved with this program.
Movement Prep:
Crossfit Style warmup
10 each
Shoulder rolls
arms crossed
arms up
kneck stretch
hip circles
knee circles
3 rounds
15 Air Squats
10 dips
10 pullups
10 pushups
:20 sampson stretch
10 scorpians
Warmup continued on track: 6 laps of the track at conversational pace
Strength: Death by 10m
Note:
(1 sprint in the first minute, 2 in the second, three in the third....)
(1 foot must be over the line and a hand reach down to touch it before starting back the other way. running through is permissible on the last sprint of the round)
This is going to blow out the legs and may make working at weight difficult. Allow athletes to trade down in weight. Focus for the first class of the week is metCON over strength make sure that they realize this.
METcon: "three bars of death"
Notes:
AMRAP in 20 minutes
95/65/45/35 #
Thruster, 5 reps
Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps
-Ahab
Focus: Indoc
Intensity:Hard
Goals: Teach new movements to those individuals that will be intergral to HIT success at Uiowa fieldhouse. Dose of intensity, minor gut check as to what is involved with this program.
Movement Prep:
Crossfit Style warmup
10 each
Shoulder rolls
arms crossed
arms up
kneck stretch
hip circles
knee circles
3 rounds
15 Air Squats
10 dips
10 pullups
10 pushups
:20 sampson stretch
10 scorpians
Warmup continued on track: 6 laps of the track at conversational pace
Strength: Death by 10m
Note:
(1 sprint in the first minute, 2 in the second, three in the third....)
(1 foot must be over the line and a hand reach down to touch it before starting back the other way. running through is permissible on the last sprint of the round)
This is going to blow out the legs and may make working at weight difficult. Allow athletes to trade down in weight. Focus for the first class of the week is metCON over strength make sure that they realize this.
METcon: "three bars of death"
Notes:
AMRAP in 20 minutes
95/65/45/35 #
Thruster, 5 reps
Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps
-Ahab
Friday, October 2, 2009
Inside Baseball
So a little bit about me I guess in in order
I'm Dan Borcherding. I graduated the university of Iowa in 2005 with a degree in Computer science and a Minor in Bio chemistry. I moved out to California shortly there after and discovered what had become a dormant love of physicality. I fell into a group of people that would run in the mountains weekly at distances I previously thought were impossible. After a few years of this I realized that this specialization was leading me down a very specific avenue of fitness. I still love ultra running, but don't want to give up 80% of my physical capabilities to eek out an extra 5-10% performance in that one modality. I began to explore other definitions of fitness. First on that list,because I was used to endurance training, was triathlon. It worked for a while, but in my opinion payed too much attention to one energy system to lead to lasting fitness. I am not saying I have the answer, but I think I have a better picture that what the fitness industry has become.
Today we are relegated too much to "safe" and "effective" means of training. We learn to work muscles in isolation through ranges of motion that we never encounter in real life. Too much emphasis is put on looking good. I am sure that you have heard the term bricks on sticks before. Sure all that muscle is pretty but really it is not useful to the person. Our primary goal is to ensure that our athletes have balanced level of strength. This is going to directly contribute to their quality of life and make sure they can remain active into old age.
A side benefit from the real world type of training that we do is that it happens to build complete fitness, and in some individuals that wish to take it there, elite fitness. I am sure some of you have heard about functional fitness before and probably as many of you have heard a training giving a stumbling definition of how we may someday need to deadlift a car off a trapped individual, or power clean some heavy object overhead. I am going to tell you right now that they are blowing smoke at you. The fact is that the movements that we do in the gym hardly replicate those done in real life, but the compound nature of the movement as well as the multiple muscles recruited to perform these. We are simply choosing exercises that uses the most muscle groups, to move large loads long distances. More on the primary movements we use to promote this balanced picture of strength.
I am going to make a quick digression in this instance to address a topic that is important to any college campus and one women ask me all the time. "Will I get bulky doing this kind of workout?" The short answer for this is no. The long answer for this is that hypertrophy, or muscle engorgement, is encouraged through high repetition, low load through a limited range of motion. If that does not sound familiar to you I encourage you to look at the sea of equipment in a traditional gym. You are moving relatively low loads a number of times through a very limited range of motion. Again this style of training is about balance. The strength in your arms is going to increase in direct relation that that of your legs maintain the proportions you've always had. The only difference here is that you will be stronger and leaner than you have been before.
An important issue to address now is that of intensity and how this program is different from most any program you have done before. To paraphrase the words of Ronnie Coleman traditional body building "is about stimulating, not annihilating." If you had not realized it already this program is going to be hard, sometime very hard, but there is very good reason for that. Intensity is where the good stuff is. Carefully metered out intensity is what is going to develop the most muscle recruitment and most violent neuro muscular response. Intensity is going to get you through those workouts where you need to turn off your brain and just do the thing that needs done.
There are multiple ways that we are going to encourage intensity. The first and foremost is competition against yourself. You need to be able to take a look a back at what you have done in the past and make an effort to put our a higher level of effort. Always having the idea of what you've done previously is a great motivator in putting the effort into the days training. Another piece of this method of training is that specific workouts rarely repeat. As much as this keeps athletes engaged and focused on the task at hand it makes it difficult for them to have an accurate picture of their progress. By recording performances athletes have a mark, appropriate for their skill level, to constantly shoot for and hopefully beat.
How do we measure performance. Load lifted, number of reps, but also time to completion. This method of training really seeks to make a sport out of fitness. By programming a number of repitions of a given weight time becomes the only variable. It becomes an absolute measure of work. Athletes are then able to use this measure to make a one to one comparison between themselves and the rest of the community. The good natured, yet highly competitive nature of fitness as a sport is another huge boost to intensity. It ensure that athletes consistently apply themselves to training and as I am sure you know consistently high quality work will gaurentee your athletes make progress.
I'm Dan Borcherding. I graduated the university of Iowa in 2005 with a degree in Computer science and a Minor in Bio chemistry. I moved out to California shortly there after and discovered what had become a dormant love of physicality. I fell into a group of people that would run in the mountains weekly at distances I previously thought were impossible. After a few years of this I realized that this specialization was leading me down a very specific avenue of fitness. I still love ultra running, but don't want to give up 80% of my physical capabilities to eek out an extra 5-10% performance in that one modality. I began to explore other definitions of fitness. First on that list,because I was used to endurance training, was triathlon. It worked for a while, but in my opinion payed too much attention to one energy system to lead to lasting fitness. I am not saying I have the answer, but I think I have a better picture that what the fitness industry has become.
Today we are relegated too much to "safe" and "effective" means of training. We learn to work muscles in isolation through ranges of motion that we never encounter in real life. Too much emphasis is put on looking good. I am sure that you have heard the term bricks on sticks before. Sure all that muscle is pretty but really it is not useful to the person. Our primary goal is to ensure that our athletes have balanced level of strength. This is going to directly contribute to their quality of life and make sure they can remain active into old age.
A side benefit from the real world type of training that we do is that it happens to build complete fitness, and in some individuals that wish to take it there, elite fitness. I am sure some of you have heard about functional fitness before and probably as many of you have heard a training giving a stumbling definition of how we may someday need to deadlift a car off a trapped individual, or power clean some heavy object overhead. I am going to tell you right now that they are blowing smoke at you. The fact is that the movements that we do in the gym hardly replicate those done in real life, but the compound nature of the movement as well as the multiple muscles recruited to perform these. We are simply choosing exercises that uses the most muscle groups, to move large loads long distances. More on the primary movements we use to promote this balanced picture of strength.
I am going to make a quick digression in this instance to address a topic that is important to any college campus and one women ask me all the time. "Will I get bulky doing this kind of workout?" The short answer for this is no. The long answer for this is that hypertrophy, or muscle engorgement, is encouraged through high repetition, low load through a limited range of motion. If that does not sound familiar to you I encourage you to look at the sea of equipment in a traditional gym. You are moving relatively low loads a number of times through a very limited range of motion. Again this style of training is about balance. The strength in your arms is going to increase in direct relation that that of your legs maintain the proportions you've always had. The only difference here is that you will be stronger and leaner than you have been before.
An important issue to address now is that of intensity and how this program is different from most any program you have done before. To paraphrase the words of Ronnie Coleman traditional body building "is about stimulating, not annihilating." If you had not realized it already this program is going to be hard, sometime very hard, but there is very good reason for that. Intensity is where the good stuff is. Carefully metered out intensity is what is going to develop the most muscle recruitment and most violent neuro muscular response. Intensity is going to get you through those workouts where you need to turn off your brain and just do the thing that needs done.
There are multiple ways that we are going to encourage intensity. The first and foremost is competition against yourself. You need to be able to take a look a back at what you have done in the past and make an effort to put our a higher level of effort. Always having the idea of what you've done previously is a great motivator in putting the effort into the days training. Another piece of this method of training is that specific workouts rarely repeat. As much as this keeps athletes engaged and focused on the task at hand it makes it difficult for them to have an accurate picture of their progress. By recording performances athletes have a mark, appropriate for their skill level, to constantly shoot for and hopefully beat.
How do we measure performance. Load lifted, number of reps, but also time to completion. This method of training really seeks to make a sport out of fitness. By programming a number of repitions of a given weight time becomes the only variable. It becomes an absolute measure of work. Athletes are then able to use this measure to make a one to one comparison between themselves and the rest of the community. The good natured, yet highly competitive nature of fitness as a sport is another huge boost to intensity. It ensure that athletes consistently apply themselves to training and as I am sure you know consistently high quality work will gaurentee your athletes make progress.
Minor Hiatus
Hi folks. I will be taking a short little hiatus these next couple days to prepare some training stuff for a job I have just been offered. I will eventually post all of it, so fear not. I just need to write to an audience that does not have the same belief in the efficacy of high intensity training. I also need to work on developing the foundational skills necessary to crossfit. I am not exactly qualified to do this, but I know enough to be dangerous. Stay tuned, who knows w emight all learn something.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
9/30 - Bacon is good for me
Intenisty: Moderate
Goals: Same as most of the week. Muscle endurance, base building, and reloading from previous hard week.
Overheard today:
GOMAD(Gallon of Milk A Day) - http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/09/22/get-bigger-muscles-walking/
Get bigger muscles by walking - http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/09/22/get-bigger-muscles-walking/
(it is good and related back to intensity)
AM- Crossfit
Helen of Troy
Goals: We are strength biasing the workout today
Warmup: 10 minutes jump rope trying to chain together as many double unders as you can
Strength: 1-1-1-1-1 Deadlift should pull 85% of 1RM again we are reloading not pushing through
MetCON:
"Helen"
3 Rounds
400m run
21 1.5 pood (55lb) kettlebell swings
12 pullups
I subbed in a 500m row for the run because I am getting my running in outside of Crossfit. It made the workout more interesting because it was a lot of upper body.
I will put up the swim in a comment later tonight, but wanted to get these things up while I had a chance.
-Ahab
Goals: Same as most of the week. Muscle endurance, base building, and reloading from previous hard week.
Overheard today:
GOMAD(Gallon of Milk A Day) - http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/09/22/get-bigger-muscles-walking/
Get bigger muscles by walking - http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/09/22/get-bigger-muscles-walking/
(it is good and related back to intensity)
AM- Crossfit
Helen of Troy
Goals: We are strength biasing the workout today
Warmup: 10 minutes jump rope trying to chain together as many double unders as you can
Strength: 1-1-1-1-1 Deadlift should pull 85% of 1RM again we are reloading not pushing through
MetCON:
"Helen"
3 Rounds
400m run
21 1.5 pood (55lb) kettlebell swings
12 pullups
I subbed in a 500m row for the run because I am getting my running in outside of Crossfit. It made the workout more interesting because it was a lot of upper body.
I will put up the swim in a comment later tonight, but wanted to get these things up while I had a chance.
-Ahab
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
9/29 - Meat and Potatoes
Focus: Base Building and endurance
Intensity: Moderate
Goals: We are working out way up to running 5 days a week. Doing this is going to help us build consistency as well as reinforce good neuro muscular recruitment for running. This week we are moving to 4 days a week over the usual three. Therefore we are going to back down the intensity a little bit. I want you to start thinking about the race you are going to do either Saturday or Sunday and begin to get an idea of what you are capable of running. Once we have the hard and fast numbers we will set a goal that is reasonable for us to achieve 12 weeks from now. Personally I project about a 22 minute 5 k this weekend. Not terribly fast, but a good jumping off place to reach my goal of 18:30 in three weeks. I Have set up this aggressive goal for myself because I know that despite the running I have been doing I am in a deconditioned state. If you have been running consistently you may wish to choose a more moderate, yet still challenging goal.
AM- Cals
Same ole same ole.
7 rounds
20 pushups
30 situps
10 pullups
5 ring dips/ 10 normal dips
5 rounds Skill
20 1 pood (35lbs) kettle bell swings
We are scaling back a little bit to help you recover this week because we are going to push the running a bit more. The additional training day might throw a monkey wrench into things if you are not careful, so decreasing overall volume is a good thing.
PM - Run
5 miles - "Steady State"
4x100m strides Starts off at low intensity accelerating to 80% max effort by 3/4 way and slowing back down
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
This website is going to become our best friend for the next 12 weeks. In addition to the calculator McMilllan Running has a wealth of information on what training to run is all about.
Tonight we are going to be doing a "Steady State" run. If I plug in a finish time of 21:15 in the calculator above that translates to a 7:46-8:00 pace run. This is not too fast, but the focus here is not on fast, it is on setting yourself up to adapt to that additional day. We will throw something new in for next week, but will not resume speed training on Tuesday night until the week afterward.
-Ahab
Intensity: Moderate
Goals: We are working out way up to running 5 days a week. Doing this is going to help us build consistency as well as reinforce good neuro muscular recruitment for running. This week we are moving to 4 days a week over the usual three. Therefore we are going to back down the intensity a little bit. I want you to start thinking about the race you are going to do either Saturday or Sunday and begin to get an idea of what you are capable of running. Once we have the hard and fast numbers we will set a goal that is reasonable for us to achieve 12 weeks from now. Personally I project about a 22 minute 5 k this weekend. Not terribly fast, but a good jumping off place to reach my goal of 18:30 in three weeks. I Have set up this aggressive goal for myself because I know that despite the running I have been doing I am in a deconditioned state. If you have been running consistently you may wish to choose a more moderate, yet still challenging goal.
AM- Cals
Same ole same ole.
7 rounds
20 pushups
30 situps
10 pullups
5 ring dips/ 10 normal dips
5 rounds Skill
20 1 pood (35lbs) kettle bell swings
We are scaling back a little bit to help you recover this week because we are going to push the running a bit more. The additional training day might throw a monkey wrench into things if you are not careful, so decreasing overall volume is a good thing.
PM - Run
5 miles - "Steady State"
4x100m strides Starts off at low intensity accelerating to 80% max effort by 3/4 way and slowing back down
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
This website is going to become our best friend for the next 12 weeks. In addition to the calculator McMilllan Running has a wealth of information on what training to run is all about.
Tonight we are going to be doing a "Steady State" run. If I plug in a finish time of 21:15 in the calculator above that translates to a 7:46-8:00 pace run. This is not too fast, but the focus here is not on fast, it is on setting yourself up to adapt to that additional day. We will throw something new in for next week, but will not resume speed training on Tuesday night until the week afterward.
-Ahab
Monday, September 28, 2009
9/28 - Three bars of Death
Focus: Base Building Enduance
Intensity: Moderate
Goals: Today is a reload day. After our day off yesterday we need to pick things back up but not at super high intenisty. We want to think of the goal of the day to work on skills or lifts in which we are not super proficient. We do not however want to break ourselves.
Rant: There is more running in the pipeline for the next 12 weeks. Get used to it. Find a 5k this weekend. Enter it, pay the money, and get ready to put down a baseline.
AM- Crossfit
10 minutes of jump rope starting with single jumps, moving to alternating leg and finally ending with consecutive double under efforts
Strength: 7-7-7-7-7 Front Squats. Focusing on correct form over weight moved.
MetCON: AMRAP in 20 minutes
#95lbs
5 Thruster
7 Hang Power Clean
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
A good place to scale this is at weight moved. I wasn't tooking to blow out my arms early in the day so I dropped the weight to 65lbs. This means that I could move the weight for more rounds without tiring and overall generate more watts that moving a weight that is less comfortable for me to move. This really focuses on the Met Con Portion of this workouts. Again the idea here is moderation, put the bar down, take your time, regrip and go. This workout is supposed to kill your forearms, but I find my shoulder go long before my grip does.
PM - Swim
After three bars of death swimming is going to be a little hard so tonights workout is more kicking than anything else
Mini Beast
Warmup:
300F
200 Kick with fins
100 Pull
Main Set:
5x100F + 10 pushups
5x100k + 20 Flutter Kicks
Optional:
5 x 50 Under overs (25 Underwater/25Freestyle)
5 x 50 Over Unders (25 Free/ 25 Underwater)
Intensity: Moderate
Goals: Today is a reload day. After our day off yesterday we need to pick things back up but not at super high intenisty. We want to think of the goal of the day to work on skills or lifts in which we are not super proficient. We do not however want to break ourselves.
Rant: There is more running in the pipeline for the next 12 weeks. Get used to it. Find a 5k this weekend. Enter it, pay the money, and get ready to put down a baseline.
AM- Crossfit
10 minutes of jump rope starting with single jumps, moving to alternating leg and finally ending with consecutive double under efforts
Strength: 7-7-7-7-7 Front Squats. Focusing on correct form over weight moved.
MetCON: AMRAP in 20 minutes
#95lbs
5 Thruster
7 Hang Power Clean
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
A good place to scale this is at weight moved. I wasn't tooking to blow out my arms early in the day so I dropped the weight to 65lbs. This means that I could move the weight for more rounds without tiring and overall generate more watts that moving a weight that is less comfortable for me to move. This really focuses on the Met Con Portion of this workouts. Again the idea here is moderation, put the bar down, take your time, regrip and go. This workout is supposed to kill your forearms, but I find my shoulder go long before my grip does.
PM - Swim
After three bars of death swimming is going to be a little hard so tonights workout is more kicking than anything else
Mini Beast
Warmup:
300F
200 Kick with fins
100 Pull
Main Set:
5x100F + 10 pushups
5x100k + 20 Flutter Kicks
Optional:
5 x 50 Under overs (25 Underwater/25Freestyle)
5 x 50 Over Unders (25 Free/ 25 Underwater)
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