Good evening and welcome to the world of chill!

Our climate has opted to skip autumn and flowed from late summer directly into pre-winter conditions. But cold conditions are not enough to stop us from working out (we even did a training camp at Dominik‘s premises last winter amid a snow storm – no problem at all!). The advantage of working out in the cold is that the temperature itself is little of a problem, as your body is challenged constantly and thereby warmed from within.

Nontheless, it is of great importance that you keep your workouts short in the cold season – especially the rest pause between sets and exercise blocks should be minimized as you cool out almost immediately and thereby are likely to catch a cold. Opt for a workout that is of short duration but of high intensity.

For this workout, I did likewise. The core of the workout is a system that I read about on Testosterone Muscle, authored by (who else ) Dan John: The Litvinov Workout. Hammer thrower gold medalist Sergey Litvinov has a very distinct training pattern: He combines heavy basic exercises with sprint intervals. This type of workout is very short yet extremely intense and therefore more than suited for our timely needs.

We therefore did:

Warm-Up

Pre-Fatigue

5 + 5 Push Press 24 kg Kettlebell
3 x Rope Climb
- 3 rounds

5 + 5 (or 3 + 3) Turkish Get-Up 16 kg Kettlebell as finisher.

The pre-fatigue training targeted the upper body musculature, as it would not be challenged too much in the upcoming Litvinov circuit. We did a pushing exercise, a pulling exercise and (to my knowledge) the best abdominal exercise – the get-up. Needless to say that this part of the workout was very intense already – just try to read it from Peter’s mimics. The foremost problem with the exercises was the lack of grip strength we were able to show – if you have no feeling whatsoever in your hands, climbing is an utter struggle.

Peter was the only one attending (besides me) this time. Dominik and Rainer didn’t make it and Harald will be in Graz for studying for quite some more time.

Metabolic Conditioning

Litvinov Circuit
Front Squat (16 + 24 kg Kettlebell), 8-15 reps
400 meter sprint (including a hill sprint)
3 rounds

The Litvinov circuit is not to be underestimated! I tried to do the number of squats prescribed but utterly failed by doing 6-5-3 squats in the respective rounds – it simply was impossible to accomplish more than that, despite slow running on my side. Not only fatigue is a factor in metabolic conditioning training, nausea is another critical one. The degree by which I was feeling nauseous during the second sprint already was close to the edge of being bearable. Still, this is what gets you further and nothing else

Post-Fatigue

Kettlebell Complex of

• Clean
• Military Press
• Front Squat

5 repetitions, 3 rounds, using one 16 kg kettlebell

The post-fatigue training was incorporated as the Litvinov circuit is intense but still we somehow felt like it was not enough – the capability of the body to come back is tremendous. Three rounds of this light-weight complex was a good finisher to use up the last reserves

Ironic: After the completion of our workout, the feeling in our hands had returned. We were able to perform better rope climbs after the workout than at its start.

Mission Accomplished! Cold climate couldn't stop us from enjoying a great workout.

I am very much looking forward to the next workout. Dominik has revealed a hard nut to crack as the next workout suggestion

Train on and stay strong,
Simon

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