cesimpson

I had some vacation time to burn before the end of April. On fairly short planning, my family and I left last Wednesday (29 April) morning for Gulf Shores, Alabama. The only real interesting part of the journey was the wrong turn south of Hattiesburg, MS. You can follow along at home, if you’d like.

We didn’t catch it until just north of Poplarville, on Interstate 59. For the record, we should have been going Southeast on highway 98 headed for Mobile. Somehow we missed that turn and stayed on 59. Some quick navigating skills got us onto a little two-lane road through the swamps and piney woods of the De Soto National Forest. You can see, it’s that road that cuts straight east-west from Poplarville, through Wiggins and on to Lucedale. That was a trip all by itself.

Thursday morning we got up and headed out to the beach. The kids played in the sand. We flew a kite on the beach and looked for shells. There was a red flag flying, but I got in the water anyway. It felt nice.

Basically we spent three full days right on the beach. I got up early, swung my kettlebell on the sand for an hour or so. Had breakfast. Swam in the ocean. Played in the sand with my kids. Ate some seafood, drank a little beer, played with my kids some more. Ate some more seafood. Went to bed. Repeat. It was awesome.

On Sunday morning we got up with the sun, loaded the kids and our stuff in the car, and headed back home. We made no wrong turns this time and made it back to STL before the sun went down.

What nice escape.

Wednesday 6 April Workout

Wednesday I put a bar on my back for the first time in several weeks. Just wanted to see how my back was coming along. Turns out, pretty well.

Warm Up

5x Power Snatch + 5x Overhead Squat @ 45#

5x Power Snatch + 5x Overhead Squat @ 65#

5x Power Snatch + 5x Overhead Squat @ 85#

5x Power Snatch + 5x Overhead Squat @ 95#

5x Power Snatch + 5x Overhead Squat @ 115#

Testing the Back

5x Squat @ 135#

5x Squat @ 155#

5x Squat @ 185#

5x Squat @ 205#

3x Squat @ 225#

3x Squat @ 245#

3x Squat @ 275#

3x Squat @ 295#

1x Squat @ 315#

The 315# was hard - really hard - but there was no pain whatsoever in my back. It was 20# below my last PR, but, for the first time under the bar in a few months, I’m more than happy with the results.

Today’s Workout

7x

4×2 Low Box Squat @ 185# : 20sec intervals

(all 80 seconds were taken with the bar on my back)

30x Swings @ 16kg KB

So, it looked like this: Set watch to beep on 20 second intervals. Shoulder the bar. When the watch beeps, do 2x explosive box squats. Complete 4 cycles of that. Rack the bar. Grab the kettlebell, do 30x swings. KB down, shoulder the bar, etc. For a total of 7 rounds.

Tough.

Work up to 1RM Bench Press

5x @ 135#

5x @ 155#

3x @ 185#

3x @ 205#

3x @ 225#

1x @ 245#

0x @ 250#