Friday 15 January 2010

Incomplete 300 Workout Exposes Lost Fitness

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 12th January

Workout: Cheat '300' Workout

25 Chin Ups - 13, 6, 4, 2
50 Deadlifts (Romanian) - 36, 14
50 Push Ups - 36, 14
25 x 2 Assisted Pistols - left leg (15, 10), right leg (10, 10, 5)
50 Floor Wipers - 15, 3, gave up....
25 x 2 Clean and Press with Dumbbell - right arm (10, 10, 5), left arm (15, 10, 5)
25 Chins... did not start them!

Total Time: 23:48

Post Workout Nutrition: this, 25 minutes later.

The pistols are instead of the box jumps for now. Jumping is the final frontier for my knee rehab. I can hop, run up stairs and jog for short distances; but jumping is not well received.

As you can see, I gave up halfway through the floor wipers - I simply couldn't support the barbell. I should have dropped the weight, but did not think of that at the time. I did complete the clean and press, though have to confess they were more like cleans. I was feeling pretty shot by this point, having perhaps not recovered from the sudden savagery of Tuesday's Tabata rowing, so I did not do the last set of 25 chins.

Half an hour later, at the physio, I was trying to explain why I could barely do any of the exercises he was setting me, but he seemed indifferent. Bad timing I guess - but I am determined to make this week a tough one so that next week I can chill out, recover, then come back the following week with some improvements under my belt.

I am going to do the cheat 300 workout regularly for a while, so I will note how many rests I need to take during an exercise and aim to reduce both the number of rests and the total time. This session has highlighted that whilst BBS has kept me fit-ish after the knee operation, I am still some way short of the fittest I have been, and would like to be again.

I appreciate that any exercise or routine, if not done regularly, will be harder and that this performance could reflect unfamiliarity rather than the loss of any base fitness, so let me put it another way: I want to get back to a place where there is a broad portfolio of movements, exercises and protocols my body can comfortably engage in. This may only give the illusion of greater fitness, but it's certainly a lot more fun and makes me think I'm fitter even if I'm not.

2 comments:

Bryce said...

Have you really "lost" fitness, or rather become more fit at some tasks and less fit at other tasks . . .

Perhaps raw strength increased on some things, while strength endurance decreased on others?

Just some thoughts, though I do think it useful to pick a metric to routinely come back to in our training cycles that exposes weaknesses.

Methuselah said...

Hi Bryce - agreed - there's definately a component of specificity at play. I assume that if I do regular 300 workouts I will get to the point where I can do it in a much better time... but I doubt I'll be as fit as someone who could just walk in having never done that workout and get the same time. Going back to it once every few months would be a good way of using it as a metric, which is what I used to do.