We are going to bring in some two a day work outs this week. Hopefully everyone is keeping up with their fitness and won't hurt themselves too much this week, but if you have been training, then this will be a good week for you to test your grit and hit it hard in the training room. I am going to do one strength and circuit style workout in the afternoon, followed by a cardio workout in the evenings for around 30-45 mins. With both of these combined, it should take a total of around 2 hours. Not extremely ridiculous or too over the top where its extremely overwhelming. Whatever you decide to do, its achievable. I thought about moving them further apart in the day, but to be honest, I didn't feel like waking up at 0600 to hit a cardio workout hard in a hotel gym where the only thing on is CNN. Not my cup of tea. I will say, however, one thing that makes the cardio bearable are podcasts, surprisingly. Tim Ferris' new podcast, Tribe of Mentors, is a great mental release while on the treadmill, bike, or row machines and they're only about 15-30 minutes so you can knock out a whole podcast during your workout. I really like the information, people and duration. Works great. My afternoon workout will consist of a strength set. I have been doing a weekly routine of deadlift Mondays, shoulder press Tuesdays, squat Wednesdays, Bench-press Thursdays, and miscellaneous Fridays. Those are complimented with some other lighter lifts in the circuit to follow. Maybe some overhead squats, cleans, thrusters etc. I like to throw rows, runs, and bikes in my circuits as well at a high speed low volume intensity to complement the weights in the circuit. Usually this takes just over an hour with a warm up, both strength and circuit, and cool down with some core and foam rolls.
That’s going to be my routine for the week. I would love to hear your routines and what you find works best for you. Have a great week and make sure to foam roll, hydrate and eat well to keep going!
REFLECTION: When you do two a days everyday day for a week, and your not a college athlete, it sure takes its toll. I successfully completed the challenge, but I don't know about you, I'm smoked. On average, my days were a strength and circuit workout in the afternoon; usually around 2-5 time frame. It would last any where between 30 mins to an hour and 15 I think. I would do a solid warm up and do my strength set. I decided it was perfect to do my heavy lifting this week. I have been doing a lot of 4x8's and 5x5's, and 4x12's. I have been meaning to do my heavier, one and two rep max sets, and felt this was the week. And that's exactly what I did. I hit a PR on deadlift, and went the heaviest I have in a while on shoulder press, bench press, and squat ( I matched my PR in squat). After the strength set I would set up a circuit workout that would usually last anywhere from 10 to 30 mins. I did supplement with the new Crossfit workouts of 18.4 and 18.5. Pretty rough. Then I would usually hit some core and foam roller to finish that workout. Once back at the hotel I would head down to the hotel gym for a run, bike, or elliptical. I would either do sprints, intervals, HIIT (high intensity interval training), or just a LSD (long slow distance). Or sometimes both depending on how I felt. I would try and keep my heart rate around 120-130 during the cardio portions. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I felt great. I was killing the workouts and feeling good. Thursday I could definitely feel my body was tried but felt it didn't effect my workouts tremendously. Friday and Saturday were pretty tough. My body was tried, my legs were burnt from the sprints everyday and my legs lost a lot of mobility because I wasn't putting in the extra effort to take care of them. My second workout on Saturday was actually yoga in my room for 30 mins. It helped a lot. I also foam rolled and hit the sauna. My Sunday consisted of a recovery beer and a movie.
I think this week went well and kept me motivated to finish out strong. I looked forward to hitting the gym each day and feeling the burn on the bar and machines. Especially that row machine; It's a love-hate relationship. I also ended up with a cough, congestion, and acking muscles. It definitely took its toll. I lost 10 pounds and am back at 175, which is usually what my body is comfortable at, but for some reason I have been sitting at 185 for the past 4 months. So its good to be back and my running has improved with the lack of extra weight. It was a great week, but am looking forward to next week and crushing just one workout a day.