Strength Friday 7/5/13 (Hello, Pushups)

In my quest for lean superhero-ness, Dave and I are hitting the craptastic gym in our Converse to lift heavy stuff and work on skills a few times a week. For about 18 months or so, I’ve been using the Wendler 5/3/1 strength training program. It did a brilliant job of seeing me through my n=1 experiments and definitely increased my strength, but the way my body looks hasn’t changed the way I want it to. So in the interests of both science and vanity, I’m starting a new training program with The Movement Minneapolis that I’ll tell you all about very soon.

(If you’re new to strength training, here’s a great overview of what all the lingo below means.)

WARMUP
7:30 treadmill at 3.9 mph (1/2 mile)
arm circles, straight-leg march, air squats

WORKOUT
a.
7 rounds:
deadlift
115#, 5 reps
125#, 5 reps
135#, 4 reps
140#, 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 reps
time: 12:00

b.
9 rounds:
power skip, 120 feet (a loop around the mats in the back room of the gym)
30 jumping jacks
time: 15:35

c.
5 rounds:
5 pushups (hands on step bench w/ 2 risers. chest to bench, hands right under shoulders)
10/arm 1-arm dumbbell snatch, 20#
time:12:31

CASHOUT
Handstand hold at the wall… just for fun! I managed 3 seconds with no wall!

Dear pushups, suck it!

There was a time when I could knock out 25 chest-to-floor pushups without too much struggle, but that was before the hormone meltdown and the shoulder injury and the bad attitude. Yeah, that’s right. Now I have a bad attitude about pushups.

But I’m working on it.

Instead of pouting and unfavorably comparing present-self to former-self and avoiding pushups because they’re unpleasant, I’ve decided to just start chipping away at them. And the first step was giving my ego the heave-ho and accepting the help of a bench under my hands. It doesn’t make me feel super badass to need the remedial assistance, but it does make me feel like I’m doing good work.

Suck it, ego.
Suck it, pushups.
I’m gonna getcha!

What movement makes you say ‘suck it’?