With a bit of delay: The coverage of our official Christmas-workout, done on the 22th of December 2009.

Unfortunately, the creator of the workout we used was not present – Dominik Feischl was absent due to work issues (curses on his boss), the same reason hindered Peter from being present. It therefore was down to Rainer, Jozy and me. The three of us had a distinct task: Not putting Dominik’s name to shame in the execution of the following workout:

Workout “24″

• 24 Snatches each arm
• 24 Swings each arm
• 24 High Pulls each arm
• 24 Clean + Press each arm
• 24 Pull-ups
• 24 Ring dips

Finisher: Farmer’s Walk.

The prescribed weights were 16 kg for men and less for women (Jozy used the 8 kg Kettlebell). We also swapped Ring Dips with elevated push-ups, as we all were not capable of doing such a lot of repetitions of dips.

The structure of the workout has been to freely choose how much sets of which exercise and in which order exercises were done. We all opted for sets of six repetitions and four rounds thereof.

While the mark has been hit with pull-ups and push-ups, the other exercises were slightly to little of a challenge. After the second round I changed gears and did the exercises with a 20 kg competition Kettlebell – which proved to be a much more of a challenge and the right weight to work with (for me). The weight probably has to be spiced up to make this workout a real ‘killer’.

Our finisher were two rounds (approx. 100 meters) of Farmer’s Walks. Jozy used 2 x 20 kg, Rainer and me opted for 2 x 36 kg – heavy enough to leave us exhausted – perfect! As it was beginning to get really cold, we ended here – short and sweet.

Kudos to Dominik for the workout – we’re off into the Christmas holidays with this. The next challenge will be the Winter training camp at Dominik’s premises on the 2nd of January, 2010.

A late merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of you – and do not forget to train on

Simon

P.S.: Please excuse our memory lapse – we forgot to take photos!

This Tuesday, Rainer, Jozy and me assembled in Linz to perform a very special workout, Dominik prepared for us – although being absent. The main challenge this time was the extreme cold climate we had to face – the temperature was well below the zero degree mark.

Due to this limitations, it was of extreme importance, that we did everything possible to keep the workout short – and intense, to warm ourselves up. As a disclaimer I have to point out that this really is an advanced workout, at least in its original constellation.

The workout consisted of two blocks, which we performed after the warm-up:

Block One

Five rounds of:

• 12 Thrusters (2 x 16 kg Kettlebell)
• 6-8 Pull-Ups
• 30 Strict Sit-Ups

with 30” to 60” rest between rounds

Block Two

Four rounds of:

• 10-12 Double Snatches (2 x 16 kg Kettlebell)
• Box Jumps, max. in 30”
• 8-10 Renegade Rows (2 x 16 kg Kettlebell) with a Push-Up inbetween repetitions

with 30” to 60” rest between rounds

So much for the original workout, as initially proposed by Steve Maxwell. We, however, made a few adjustments to create an effective workout without jeopardizing ourselves with too much load. The weight for the Thrusters was scaled down as necessary, we did only six pull-ups, Double Snatches were substituted with single ones or Clean and Press for those illiterate in the technique, we did a fixed amount of ten jumps per round and scaled down weight on the Renegade Rows as necessary.

As we all were pretty much exhausted at the end of the workout, the load was just fine for our capabilities. However, I have to say that I felt ambivalent about the outcome – I was not really challenged metabolically and had power for quite some more repetitions at the end of the fourth round of block #2 – on the other hand I felt that my power curve had become very flat. It was a matter of a few repetitions to diminish my ability to go on. This normally is where you should stop to not injure yourself. Lastly, I have to admit that I faced the workout with the advantage of having already tested it on last Sunday – where I struggled hard to cope with the intensity.

A few hints on the workout:

• Really scale down the weight you’re working with to one that you can quite easily handle. Because of the high repetition count, a ‘light’ weight can become heavy over time
• If you decide to go pretty heavy, opt to split sets. 12 Thrusters were split into either 2 x 6 or 3 x 4 repetitions to manage the weight, for instance.
• Really look at your form! This is the most important part to keep yourself healthy – work hard, but do not force yourself too far!
• Replace Double Snatches with Single Snatches if the weight is too much for you. If you lack experience in doing the Snatch, replace it with Clean & Press – an equally challenging exercise. Note that Clean & Press requires more strength than Snatches do, as they are less explosive. You could opt for Push Press to make the exercise easier
• Renegade Rows require a lot of full body tension – really look at how you perform and use the right weight! I have found it useful to use a very wide feet stance to retain stability while pulling

If you watch these points, there is little reason not to do this tremendous workout. I really recommend doing it more often – two times a week for a time of about four weeks. You will be amazed how much you will progress in terms of metabolic stress resistance and strength. Regular workouts are the key to success, I’m convinced.

Train on and stay strong,
Simon

Sometimes, we all have to take time off. Sometimes there is just no way around it.

This applies as well to our CrassFit initiative. Due to the circumstances, we took two weeks off before starting again. Dominik proposed the following workout already two weeks ago, so I was longing to finally do it – together with Peter, who accompanied me.

For this workout, we changed locations. The Freinberg park is great to train in summer, but as it gets dark it is hard to do the work there, as you are confronted with absolute darkness. Our new location is a playground on the Donaulände, next to the Urfahrmarkt-Gelände. Darkness is no problem here – the lights of the city provide light enough to see what one has to see.

Pre-Fatigue

After our last kettlebell-workouts, we put the focus on increasing pressing power for the overhead press. One of the best exercises to achieve this is the Sots press – an overhead press from the bottom squat position. While this sounds not much different to a regular press, it is a magnitude more difficult.

We did the following:

3 rounds of

• 1-2-3 repetition ladder of clean, squat + sots press with 16 kg kettlebell (left + right)
• 10 marine dips (on the Jungle Gym)

I struggled a lot with both Sots press and dips, due to my time off (I was sick once during the last two weeks) – more than two presses were impossible to do and I did no more than one dip – the others were excentrical only. I supplemented the set with push-ups to make up for the missed dips.

The Sots press is a lot about technique, I had to learn. One time they worked well, another time I struggled with even one repetition. It all is a matter of experience, I am convinced.

Metabolic Conditioning

4 rounds of
Sprint (approx. 100 meters)
10 + 10 Snatches 16 kg kettlebell
5 Burpees
6 Towel Pull-Ups

The met-con was especially hard to do after an already intense pre-fatigue workout. Doing snatches after sprinting are a delicate matter: You have to watch your technique tightly or you lose your form – and risk injuries. Towel pull-ups are a killer finisher – the grip is already exhausted and yet you have to pull your body up. Here is where you can go beyond your own limits.

A finisher was not necessary after this workout – we already had enough.

On to another great workout next week – I am still feeling it, although it’s Saturday already.

Train on and stay strong
Simon