"CRAVING TWINKIES"

Objective: Strength/Power Endurance

Warm up: 4x Barbell Complex

Training:

(1) Work up to 1RM Box Squat

(2) 5 Rounds
3x Box Squat @ 80% of 1RM
10x GHD Sit ups

(3) 5 Rounds for time
400m Run, with hill
10x Dead lift at 60% 1RM (men), 50% 1RM (women)
These are "dead stop at bottom" deads. No bouncing!

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"CRAVING TWINKIES II"

Objective: Strength/Power endurance

Warm up: 4x Barbell Complex

Training:

(1) 5 Rounds
10x GHD Sit up
10x Sandbag Halfmoons
30m Tire Drag (15m forward, 15m Backward)

(2) 5 Rounds for time
400m Run, with hill
10x Dead lift at 60% 1RM (men), 50% 1RM (women)

Comments:

I had a bad day in the gym this morning. I was sluggish and weak, but I plodded through the session. Bad days in the gym happen to everyone - and how you react to them are important.

Importantly, there's a difference between having a bad day, and not wanting to be there. If you don't want to be there, get out. If your heart and head are absent from the workout, get your body out of the gym, too.

But if you're just having a off day, push through it - you'll feel better on the other side.

The "sandbag halfmoon" exercise listed above is stolen from coach Greg Everett of Catalyst Athletics (cathletics.com). It is a core exercise, which begins with a sandbag on the ground at one side of your feet. Reach down, grip the bag with both hands, and hoist it in an arc, high over your head, to the opposite side of your body, placing it down outside your feet there. Repeat.

One of the things I like about this exercise it's hard to do with a straight back. My back is rounded when I do this exercise.

"Straight back lifting" is one of the artificial elements of the weightroom. The problem is, out in the real world, a lot of times you don't lift with a straight back - the back is rounded.

In the "Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia," author John Jesse again and again points to the disconnect between "straight back" lifting with barbells, and the actual "round back" lifting and throws wrestlers do on the mat. Jesse really advocates using odd objects like sandbags and wrestling dummies to develop the sides of the stomach and lower back which aren't developed adequately with barbell lifts.

In my gym we use sandbags and heavy rocks to help develop this strength. You should too.

- Rob Shaul

Halfmoons.

Jannine powers through.

The rope never gets easy.

Connie races through the dead lifts.