"MAKE UP SEX"

Objective: MetCon, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance

Warm up:

5 Rounds
10x Wall Ball (M-20#, W-10#)

Training:

(1) 5 Rounds
Row 250m
5x Getups each hand (M-16kg, W-8kg)

---Rest 2 Minutes ----

(2) 5 Rounds
10x Hang Squat Clean (M-95#, W-55#)
10x Dips

---Rest 2 Minutes ----

(3) 5 Rounds
10x Box Jump (M-24", W-20")
10x Weighted Sit up (M-45#, W-25#)

---Rest 2 Minutes ----

(4) 5 Rounds
10x Burpees
10x Pull ups - Kip

Comments:

We've all had a week off here in Jackson, and "Make Up Sex" is built to get the juices flowing again .... perhaps a little over built.

I felt great at first, despite of a week away from the gym and a bad diet - that is until the third round of the hanging squat cleans. At about rep 6 the Mack Truck hit me, and I suffered mightily for the remainder of the workout. The burpees just plained sucked!

All of the athletes experienced something similar ....

I had plenty of e-mails to answer in my absence. Here are two e-mail questions and my comments. Enjoy! - Rob

QUESTION (1)

Good afternoon

I am sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could pick your brain.

I found your site via the forums on Crossfit at about Christmas time, since then I have been hooked. I used to play professional rugby and during this time spent a lot of time doing crappy gym routines that were constructed by supposed experts… I really wish I had discovered your training methodology 10 years ago!

My current situation is that I am a 31 year old bloke who is still reasonably fit / strong. However, last week I injured my knee (suspected tear of my medial meniscus); this has meant that until my surgery has taken place and I have recovered I cannot run, deadlift or squat… or anything else along those lines. I can however, row, ride, swim and do upper body work.

Have you any workout suggestions in order that I don’t slip too far behind.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Kindest regards
Richard

ANSWER/COMMENT:

Sorry about your knee. I like to view injuries as opportunities to make other areas of our fitness stronger. I can't design a set of workouts just for you, but if you were one of my athletes I'd focus on a couple of areas:

1) Upper Body strength/strength endurance/power - go heavy, go light with lots of reps, and combine the three approaches. Search the blogs and you'll find plenty of upper-body focused exercises and workouts for ideas.

2) Long/Slow cardio - since you can't load your legs, use them to build your endurance cardio - buy a heart rate monitor, and start running/riding distance.

3) Core Strength/Endurance - hammer your midsection - back extensions, GHD situps, weighted situps, go heavy, go for volume, etc. Take the time off from your legs to build your mid section.

4) Overhead work - Push presses, presses, 1-arm variations - these involve little leg work, but great long term benefits.

- Rob

QUESTION (2)

I am looking for effective ways introduce uncertainty into my workouts. By 'uncertainty' I mean that where traditional workouts prescribe a certain effort over time or repititions, e.g. Row 2000m or do 20 squats, an uncertain workout requires the athlete to work until someone else releases them, where the athlete has no way to accurately quantify their distance from completion. A good example of this kind of uncertainty would be a low held squat which must be held until the athlete is released by another person.

One aspect of uncertainty has been written about on the Gym Jones site where the introduction of random and unexpected excercises or challenges that upset the athlete. However, in addition to this I am very interested in the effects or benefits of training where the athlete does not know how far they are rowing or how many squats are required to complete a part of the workout. My own experiences are that with a definite knowledge of distance to completion mental suffering is significantly reduced and the ability to count down to completion is a large crutch which is not available in most real world applications of gym fitness.

I would be very interested to hear about your experiences or thoughts on this kind of training. Thanks for your time.

Francis

ANSWER/COMMENTS:

Francis - interesting idea. We've done some of this through team workouts ala the gym jones model - where one athlete is the timer, and the other athletes work until that athlete is finished.

I believe the gym jones model of breathing ladders - until you can't continue - is also similar.

Beyond that, I haven't messed around with this concept. I wonder though, if it has a "real world" application. In any sporting event, you work to a clock, or a score. In any outdoor activity, you work to a summit, or distance.

So - if there is no transferable application of this stuff outside the gym, why do it in the gym?

One thing I have discovered is that "mental toughness" is mode specific just like other types of fitness. I've got world class outdoor athletes working out at Mountain Athlete - guy and gals who have demonstrated extreme mental toughness climbing - yet struggle initially on the mental side when put through intense, crossfit-style circuits in the gym. The more they train, the more they get used to the gym type of mental toughness - and they improve significantly.

On the other hand, I can push hard through the worse gym sufferfest (mentally tough) - but shake like a little girl high on a exposed climb (mentally weak).

While "randomness" is certainly a tool to use in workouts, and "mental toughness" is something we can build - my goal is not to make people fail in the gym. I know from my own experience, that too many super mentally intense workouts - can just get old, and make me wonder what the point is.

So - if I did employ what you are suggesting, - I would do it sparingly.

- Rob

FRANCIS' REPLY TO MY ANSWER:

Rob,

I sent this query off to Gym Jones as well and received a fairly similar response. However, it is my experience that in outdoor activities, climbing in particular, which have periods of intensity where it is not known exactly for how long the intensity must be maintained this kind of mental training could have significant benefits.

I happened upon the idea of uncertainty training when I tried using a count-down timer to time my front planks and then time the rest. I discovered a marked difference in the level of psychological discomfort when I was able to watch the clock tick by versus when I just waited for the timer to run out. Often I found myself unable to complete the times that I had set when using the clock in line of sight.

Thinking about it now it occurs to me that the application that I have for it in the outdoors is mostly in sport climbing (which may or may not be of interest to you) where I regularly encounter periods of significant intensity and am not able to determine how long they will last for as this is determined by very subtle qualities of the position and shape of holds which are invisible to me from below. In these situations I am aware that I struggle in the same way that I do with the front plank and would very much like to determine a method for training some part of this mental toughness in the gym.

I definitely agree that this kind of training should be used sparingly because of the stress it places on the mind.

If you are still curious I recommend trying this out for yourself. Take one timed exercise, such as the front plank which lacks any countable component such as reps. Determine where you max out for this exercise while counting on a clock and be sure to suffer. Try the same thing again with a timer that counts down to an alarm and see if you can match, or even improve on, your time. I'd be very interested to hear what your results were if you tried this in your gym.

Another approach that was suggested by a friend of mine who was a competitive rower is to compare your 500m sprint time with the console flipped up so you can't see it. He told me that no one in his team could match the splits they were doing while watching the console. This suggests to me that we develop a strong reliance on the measuring tools that we have in the gym for our performance, and we certainly don't have these tools in the outdoors.

Thanks for your time. Happy training.

Francis

********

Stephen Koch has posted a slide show of his recent ascent in the Canadian Rockies. See it by clicking below:

Stephen Koch Andromeda Strain Winter Ascent

Sprint!

G....r.....i.....n....d......

Hammer the legs ...

Then the chest and shoulders ...

Fast, explosive....

Slow, heavy ....

50 Burpees to finish ....

They sucked ...