The Afterburn Experience

[Ron Nelson]

Here's some funny shit. I now feel guilty when I leave the gym and I haven't done any lunges or other single leg movements.
I am hopeless.

Today, just to break the boredom, I made up a metcon workout based on "Cindy." I lowered the number of pull ups and push ups per round to 3 and 5, but I added an unloaded bar to the squats and made them overhead squats (I've been slacking on these lately) for 10 reps per round.

I only got 12 rounds, but then I had to wait for the pull up bar twice (guys have to do their overhead tricep cable pulls and cable curls in the middle to get that stretch or some shit). I also wanted to take it easy on the right shoulder. I'm coaching softball now (fastpitch) and get to throw batting practice everyday (yes, I know how to windmill pitch and I have a wicked drop curve) so my shoulder is a little tender.

After the metcon, I worked the snatch from the hang (DJ calls these whip snatches). Got to sets of 3 at 95# before getting rushed out to pick up the kids.

As for the IF and metcon; no appreciable effect. I might be able to get a couple of more rounds with some food in me, but I've never been a big number guy with Cindy anyway.

[Ron Nelson]

Surprising development after my metcon tweeking. DOMS in the most unusual place; my abs. Must be the OH squats. I likey.

[Ron Nelson]

I realize I should rename this log, but what the hell.

Yesterday for metcon (I just love using that term because people don't know what to make of it) I did some EDT sets for shits and giggles (did someone say secret service snatch test?). I paired relatively light squats (135#) and pull ups for the first set. Got 13 rounds of 4 reps or each exercise.

Then, for even more fun, I used the Smith machine (gast, horror) and did bench throws (you know, push the bar up fast so it leaves your hand) and walking lunges holding 2 35# plates. Should have regrouped because the right shoulder didn't like the throws at all. Gutted it out for 12 rounds of 5 reps of each movement. The lunges were a challenge because I upped the weight.

Today was heavy day. Got to 2 set of 5 in the deadlift using 260# the rest were between 225-245. Paired that with incline presses using a Hammer strength thingy. That sucked. I was curious as to using the Hammer thingy and will not use it again. My ROM was severely fucked up because of it.
Finally did some motorcycle rider rows (see the last CT article over on T-Mag) and one legged squats to a 28" seat. These were cool and I want to get lower. Need to practice.

I highly recommend the Mike Boyle article from today regarding one-legged movements.

[Allen Yeh]

I highly recommend trying out the 1 leg straight leg deadlifts. Ouch.

Your'e still using Tony Gentilcore's template right? One metcon day and one strength day, I started using it yesterday it was fun, well kind of 5 x 5 with front squats kind of kicked my ass as well as the 1 leg SLDL's. They took a little bit of working to master but by the 3rd set I felt I had the hang of them.

[Ron Nelson]

Yeah, I'm rocking the Gentilcore stuff. I like the way it breaks things up and keeps it strong. One thing I've done is experiment with the metcon. Using CF routines and EDT keeps things lively, although I'm pretty sore today from the combination of EDT and somewhat heavy DL's on back-to-back days.

That and the single leg stuff was waaay harder than I realized.

[Ron Nelson]

Went off the plan once again and did an EDT workout for metcon day.

It sucked.

Paired deadlifts with db push presses. Did them in sets of 3 each and kept the poundage kind of heavy. 205# for the DL's and 2 45's for the press.

Next, pull ups and split squats (single-leg-elevated squats?) with a 25# db.
Did 11 rounds of 4 each. In a fasted state, this seemed really hard.
Now I'm really hungry and I have 2 hours until food. Shit.

[Ron Nelson]

So Cosgrove has a new article on that fitness website that got 2 or 3 Glassmans in a recent MI survey. I read the article with interest since it is titled "Real Fast Fat Loss," and figured it would be a lot like Afterburn II (a product I have no intent of purchasing). I think I am correct in my assumption as the plan calls for lots of complexes and multiple sets done with minimal rest.

The new plan is to use the workouts in this article as my "metcon" on metcon days. I am always looking for something new and challenging; this looks like it might justr fit the bill. I'll keep you posted. First metcon is today.

In other news, some of the exercise demonstrations were a little, well, poor. I think some of demos used Chad Waterbury as the model. The kettlebell swings and jump squats were particularly poor. The other model is suspected of being Cosgrove's wife (she's easy on the eyes).

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Ron Nelson

In other news, some of the exercise demonstrations were a little, well, poor. I think some of demos used Chad Waterbury as the model. The kettlebell swings and jump squats were particularly poor. The other model is suspected of being Cosgrove's wife (she's easy on the eyes).

That was my biggest complaint about the article. Good programming, good undulating periodization scheme, interesting exercise selection....videos = terrible!

[Ron Nelson]

But, like I said, Cosgrove's wife was easy to watch doing the push ups and jackknives.

So, I tried workout A as my metcon today:
5x5 of
DB RDL/split snatch/lunge- easy. . .had my doubts as to the effectiveness of this program.

Next, the supersets
A. push up on the Swiss ball with a jackknife at the end
B. bent row/back extention
C. lunge/shoulder press (5 reps each leg)

Again, seemed easy through round 2. When I got to round 4, I questioned my sanity. The rows stayed easy, even at 100 lbs. The push ups were easy; keeping my feet on the ball for the jackknife sucked. Lunges were OK, but the presses wore out my shoulders.

Next, 20 sec. of jumping squats, 20 sec. of squats, 20 sec of a squat hold for 3 rounds.

This was done so horribly on the video, I knew I could get through it easily. Or, at least better than some guy who gets paid loads of money by clients to teach them how to jump squat. I was right about this. It wasn't bad, but the hold of the squat position for 20 seconds made standing rough.

Finally, Tabata bike sprints. It's the Tabata. It sucked. Did 2 rounds separated by 5 minutes of active recovery. I liked the amount of sweat it created and figured it was destroying my metabolism. Bottom line; I'll keep doing it.

In all, not a bad workout. We'll see where it gets me in 4 weeks.

[Steve Shafley]

Heh, I was eying that up too. Looks fun.