cesimpson

The last two weeks have been very busy around here. I left you all on the 17th - one day before our tenth wedding anniversary. In that time we’ve had family come into town from Texas, Georgia and Chicago, we’ve spent significant time with my parents, my paternal grandmother, my maternal grandparents, 4 sets of my aunts, uncles and cousins, my in-laws, and two of my wife’s sibilings and their families. We had some sort of Christmas-like celebration on every day from the 19th through the 27th. It was busy and crazy. But we survived.

One of my cousins, in town from Texas, has recently gotten into the Crossfit thing. He showed up to the gym with me one morning and we did a deadlift workout right from the Crossfit site.

Deadlift

Warm Up - work up to heavy deadlift

1x Deadlift @ 405#

10x Deadlift @ 365#

1x Deadlift @ 405#

20x Deadlift @ 295#

1x Deadlift @ 395#

30x Deadlift @ 225#

Most of my workouts in the last two weeks have been of the “kinda screwin’ around” variety. Nothing formal, working what could be worked, resting what needed resting. Lots of foam rolling and general mobility stuff.

I got a pair of Iron Woody 41″ #2 bands from my wife. I spent two workouts playing with those. Bench press, incline press, band-resisted push ups, dips, barbell rows - great. Squats - not so much. I never could get them set up properly for squats. I have the basics down, I think, but I’m open to advice and ideas for things to do with my new bands.

On Thursday night 31 December, my wife and I met several other couples for dinner. We normally go to Zia’s, on The Hill. It’s really good food. Unfortunately, Zia’s had a fire several months ago and is still not open. We went, instead, to a place in Kirkwood called Amici’s. As I understand it, the head of the kitchen and one of the owners worked at Zia’s until he decided to go out on his own.

It was good - not as good as Zia’s, but not bad either. The atmosphere just isn’t the same - doesn’t have that very-old-family-owned-Italian-place feel. ~shrug~ We had a good time nonetheless.

Now it’s back to work, back to regular schedules and reality.

Reality

I’ve gained more than a few pounds in the past several months. That’s not an all bad thing - if the bioelectrical impedance machine and the skinfold caliper are at all accurate, slightly over half of my mass increase has been lean - but I do have some fat I need to drop before it gets out of control.

The plan for the next several weeks is a round of 5-3-1 followed by 5-7 rounds of barbell circuits. That combined with reduced calorie intake (with adequate protein consumption) should keep my muscle mass and strength up and cut the fat off pretty quickly. I’m hoping for about 10# gone in 6 weeks with minimal muscle loss.

Monday 4 January 2010

Warm Up Barbell Circuit @ 75#

5x Bent-Over Rows

5x Hang Power Clean

5x Thruster

5x Jump Squat

5x Good Morning

Military Press

5x Press @ 75#

5x Press @ 100#

5x Press @ 115#

7x Press @ 135#

5x Barbell Circuit @ 115#

5x Bent-Over Rows

5x Hang Power Clean

5x Thruster

5x Jump Squat

5x Good Morning

These barbell circuits were done at 1:1 work:rest ratio. I was breathing hard at the end. My heart was beating fast. My legs were burning with lactic acid. It was good.

More tomorrow.