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Archive for January, 2009

I noticed that one of the searches hitting my page was for “blackwater” and “davis,” and it made me go back and take a look at my original post. The original post has a mention of the YouTube video for the quads portion of the Blackwater 100, and you have to go over to my Vodpod to find it.

Well, since then, WordPress made it easier to embed videos (or maybe I just figured it out), so I thought I’d update the post and embed the vid. However, going back to YouTube, I see that the original poster of the video has added the Day Two video of the Route 93 crossing for the two-wheelers. So I’ll embed that for ya.

One thing I noticed–which doesn’t bear mentioning except to true dirtheads of a certain age, is that most of the bikes I see there do have the mono-shock rear suspension, by this time. I remember when that was a big deal and people were still debating the efficacy and safety of the design. I think at the time my family visited the race, that was still a very big question, and indeed most bike were still of the two-shock rear suspension.

My brother’s Yamaha XT 200 has two, if I remember correctly. This last year, my Uncle Dan took the bones of that one down to his place in Georgia and is restoring it. I bet it’s a real peach, now! 😀

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Argh. I twisted my knee again last night. It’s not terrible, but it’s darn aggravating having to limp around all day.

Since I didn’t go uptown to work yesterday, I was able to attend the Mary Wash Tuesday fencing practice. So I went, and had another all-sabre day. Which was cool; I was able to instruct some people who have been playing with sabre in some of the finer points of guards and parries.

Alas, at the end, I was bouting pretty hard with a fellow, Drew, when I took a lunge and I twisted my rear knee just enough to know, “uh-oh.” I felt that twinge, and knew that I had hurt it a little. Ever since really hurting both knees a few years ago at my cousin’s wedding, I’ve re-injured each of them a couple times. Each time, I’ve injured them less, and they took less time to come back. But obviously it’s a pain in the… knee.

It actually doesn’t hurt very much, just stiffened up so that it doesn’t bend very well, and I can feel it easily twist out of socket if I hit the wrong position. And I want to train tomorrow!! Darn. Well, I’ll figure out something. If I can’t be very mobile, then I’ll probably just end up doing a bunch of grinds, rather than repetition lifts.

Out here.

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So, we have a new President. Even though I didn’t vote for him, I still wish him God Bless and God Speed. He’s *our* President now. One of the great things about America is that even though the country has elected one person for this office, we still see him as human, and fallible (well, at least some of us do). I don’t expect him to have all the answers, and although there exist checks and balances that not only slow down the good that he could implement, they also would help contain any harm that he could cause.

I have to admit, I was getting a little choked up during portions of the ceremony. All I would have to think about is the fact of this calm, even cordial shift of power from, in this case, the Bushes to the Obamas, and all that that says about our democracy and rule of law, and I’d get that catch in my throat. Even a little as I write this. Yeah–okay, so I’m a weenie. But that’s how I feel. When I walk out of some building and the Flag is flying there, I look up, and I feel it.

I admit it, I’m proud of my country, with all of its goodness, and yes, it’s faults. And even though I didn’t vote for Obama, I certainly understand the multiple layers of importance of his being voted in. I do worry because of this cult of personality that has grown up around him. But as I said, I think there are checks and balances. I’m not one of those who want him to fail in leading the country.

There are attitudes that he brings to the table that I agree with, at least as far as has been reported. He’s given a back seat to the “just do it” mentality that Bush employed. I’m just hoping that he does it in a balanced way. One of the essences of being America is that there IS a time to “just shut up and do it.” But I AM happy to hear that he does listen, and is willing to consider other points of view. America sees that as a strong point at this time in our history.

History will tell how the Bush administrations fared, and what the outcomes will be. It’s too early to tell, of course. Partisan recriminations were off the scale against the Bush administration, and in part as a result of the campaigns that Karl Rove managed. Rove’s drives for the White House were aimed at causing fear and saying that Bush was the one to save you (from terrorism, from gays, from whatever ails you). If you actually watch President Bush as governor of Texas, you see that the man was indeed a uniter, not a divider. Over the last eight years, no matter what the Bush administration did, it was “wrong.” And what you will see in the coming years is a lot of the same actions, much as when Clinton was in office. But because it was done by President Clinton, or will be by President Obama, well, then it’s okay.

Understand, I’m not a Bush apologist. Remember the “Axis of Evil”? I watched that one live–and I cringed. I shouted, “No, no, nooooo!!!!” It’s hard to convince people to come to your side if you call them evil. Duhhhh. I know what he was thinking–Reagan called the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire,” and Bush wanted to stimulate the peoples of those countries to forsake their governments and come to freedom, and to help the US understand the threat, as Reagan did. But it was horrible, and a horrible mistake.

But mostly the Bush administration was torn down by critics because it was Republican, and many people just felt huge antipathy towards Bush himself–without even meeting him. I remember the same thing during President Clinton’s tenure. And it was bad. I thought Clinton was kind of slimy, myself, and there were a lot of weird things happening in the background (forgetting even about numerous affairs of Bill Clinton) that have been conveniently buried by the media.

I still think he was a pretty good Republican president though… 😀 Well, even though his ticket said “Democrat,” anybody that backs Free Trade gets a star in my book. I wasn’t too happy with him saying that we were going to go into Former Yugoslavia–for a year, max. Read my lips… 😉

And a lot of people feel the same way, but even more so toward Hillary Clinton. But I think she’ll be an interesting, dynamic Secretary of State. My problem with her has never been about her intelligence, or her competency, but rather her motivations and direction. I think she is the perfect example of a naked will to power, and will do or say anything to realize it. And you can see that she has always shifted her message, if you will, to reflect that. Iraq war? Vote yes! Not the popular thing to do–uhhh, well, uhhh… And I’m not cool with her visions of universal health care and other such things. But if I had her as my executive, BAM! Whatever it is that I needed done, I would have complete confidence that as it is written, so shall it be done.

So, I’m behind the new President in continuing to try to make our country, and our world, a better place. I think that his new face on the scene really shows that freedom and democracy, and all the civil rights that we as a country implemented can work. That we, as a country are who and what we say we are. And that’s not nothing.

As anyone who knows me, or if you’ve read my blogs in the past, you know that I am not a race-based person. From who my friends are, to who I’ve dated, to who I admire, ethnicity is the last thing on my mind. To me, ethnicity is something about a person I just find fascinating–what is your culture, where did your ancestors come from, what makes you, you? I love that stuff. I’ve got an Anthropology degree to prove it… 😀 (I’ve already posted my agreement with Dr. Joseph Graves in my non-belief in actual biological “race.” I’m not going to go into that argument here. I leave that as an exercise for the student… 🙂 ).

I don’t use “race” or even gender to choose who I vote for. I’ve had seniors, peers, and subordinates of varying ethnicities, male and female, and I have to say that most important thing is the individual and their beliefs and ethics and values, not that of the box they check when they fill out the application.

So, that’s one thing that really bothered me about the Obama victory. As I was watching the final result roll in, and Obama declared victory, Juan Williams of the Fox News Channel and NPR, declared–somewhat smug, but with the wherewithal to be a little abashed, “that the African-American vote was overwhelmingly for Obama, and in some districts it was 100%.” The show went on to catalog that “White” voters were much more evenly split, but with a definite majority for Obama (mostly along party lines). And as we know, many more of the older category of voters, especially “Older Whites” went for McCain, and younger voters (of all ethnicities) went for Obama.

It seems like at least *a portion* of the population is beyond politics of skin color. But now that we’ve had “color” in the White House, perhaps those of us “of color” will feel that they have been heard, and that the next era of voting and governing will be about competency and direction, rather than just “someone who looks like me.” I believe we’ll get there. Heck, this is America. Yes, we can…

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And in other news… it was my privilege to start off the Spring semester with the Mary Washington Fencing Club, once again. Today was an all-sabre day for me. I fenced sabre with every one I fenced, some more experienced, some less. But that’s what I’m there for. I may not be the best sport fencer these guys will ever go up against, but I have enough skill, athleticism, and experience that it’s worth their while (while not paying for a coach).

I don’t care to be specialized in sport fencing, although I DO love the sport. But I’m a martial artist first and a sport guy second, and that’s the perspective I bring to the club. I’m knowledgeable about both in that I talk about real combat, but also about the sport side of things (how to make sure the judge sees what you need them to see, making sure you do have right of way, etc.).

I fenced at varying degrees of intensity for about an hour straight. Well, I took water breaks. But that’s it. And it was fun.

About an hour before I started bouting, I got in a ten minute LCCJ session with the 24 kg. Five minutes each arm. Slow, methodical run-through. Even so, I put the bell down a little after I hit the three minute–each arm… but only for a few seconds. But they were good reps; I made sure to get a good rack position and hold it, elbow to iliac crest, et al.

So, good stuff. Good training on both ends.

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So, last night’s longsword practice was a good recovery from my CFT (Controlled Fatigue Training), from the night before, Thursday.

Not to beat this to death, but I’m still gonna log it. Maybe I’ll stop that at some point, but for now, I’m going ahead and logging it. After all, Thursday’s controlled fatigue training was just… rude… 😀

To vary a bit and see what would happen, I utilized Scott Helvenston’s “Ultimate Aerobic Workout” (UAW) for the Pre and Post Fatigue sessions. I’m not sure if I got it totally right, because it’s been so long since I’ve actually viewed it, but over the years I’ve ended up with a really basic but sweaty calisthenic workout that I’ve derived from his Elite Fitness Systems video. It’s a pretty simple calisthenics routine that you just end up repeating twice for the full workout.

So for this CFT, I just split his workout and did the session once before the Core portion of the CFT, and one time through again for the Post Fatigue.

For the Core exercise portion, I then did the usual kettlebell drill of the upside down pyramid (UDP) using descending weights in the LCCJ. In between the LCCJ sets, I did sets of velocity training. First velocity was sprinting (in place) with 1.5 lb dumbbell, second was kali sticks vs heavy bag, and third was punch/kick/tackle vs heavy bag–each set was a minute.

So it looked something like this:

Pre-Fatigue
“Ultimate Aerobic Workout” — Part I
(UAW-P1)

10 four count jumping jacks
10 dive bomber push ups
10 four count run-over-the-line (hard to explain)
10 triangle push ups
10 four count box jumps (legs together, jump forward, to the side,
back, to the left; at a count of five, reverse)
10 four count jumping jacks
10 four count reverse crunches (leg raise plus thrust legs up)
10 four count run-over-the-line (rotl)
10 four count twisting crunches (elbow to opposite knee)
10 four count box jumps
10 regular crunches
10 four count jumping jacks
10 four count forward lunges (alternating legs)
10 four count rotl
10 two count power lunges (start in lunge position, jump up and reverse feet)
10 four count box jumps
10 four count squat thrusts

Whew!

Core
1 min, each arm, LCCJ (32 kg)
1 min, sprinting in place, dumbbells (1.5 lbs)
1 min, each arm, LCCJ (24 kg)
1 min, kali sticks vs heavy bag
1 min, each arm, LCCJ (16 kg)
1 min, punch/kick/tackle heavy bag

Post-Fatigue
“Ultimate Aerobic Workout” — Part II
(UAW-P2)

Repeats Part I

Breathe. Cool down. Stretch.

The astute observer will note that the UAW Parts 1 & 2 also have the characteristic of alternating velocity moves with strength moves. And intentionally so. The only thing I left out of the UAW for this time was the pull ups. I don’t remember if they start off Parts 1 & 2, or are at the end. Doesn’t really matter. Helvenston’s workout was pretty advanced, and obviously uses the same principles as the CFT. But it also shows that you can play with the variables of intensity and strength training at about any scale.

By itself the UAW is CFT, and a really intense workout if you make it so. I didn’t time the workout, but the longest portion is the UAE. You can usually do the UAW in about 20-30 minutes total. One part runs you about 10-15 minutes, of course. So the whole thing was about 40 minutes, max, not including the afterwork stretching a meditating/breathing. Maybe less.

So for a good, speedy workout, you can try this at home. Just make sure to bring the bucket…

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I decided on how I wanted to figure the wattage of the long cycle clean and jerk (LCCJ). Whereas before, I calculated the snatch based on one stroke, but couldn’t figure the LCCJ, because it’s a two-stroke movement. But since I rack the weight for an undetermined length of time before I jerk it, I didn’t feel comfortable assigning a time count for the whole movement.

The solution, of course, is to just beak it down into the two movements and calculate the outputs of each, then add them up. So: you clean, which is about a one meter arc, rack, then jerk–where the weight travels about another meter.

From earlier, we remember that:

1 kg x meters squared
————————– = 1 W
seconds squared

So that’s:

16 kg x 1 meter squared
————————— = 16 W
1 seconds squared

So then you add:

16 W (for the clean) + 16 W (same calculation for the jerk) = 32 W (total)

Pretty simple, eh? As we saw in the earlier post, one 16 kg snatch generated 64 watts, and therefore 25 of them totalled 1600 watts.

For the same amount of LCCJ you would be causing 32 W x 25 LCCJs, which would equal 800 watts. Half the wattage of the snatch. So you can see why the snatch seems so intense.

Looking back I see that I estimated about 25 16 kilo snatches for one minute, and about 10 32 kg LCCJ for a minute. You know, I don’t remember now if that was one minute each arm (for a total of 20), or just one minute. Well, whatever. For now let’s just compare 10 LCCJ (32 kg) to the same minute for 25 snatches (16 kg). That’s an interesting comparison.

As stated, one minute yielded 25 snatches from the 16 kg kettlebell. Using the method for LCCJ calculation for 10 LCCJ (32 kg), we get:

32 W + 32 W = 64 W (one LCCJ)

10 of those, or course, gives you:

64 W x 10 LCCJ = 640 W

Hmm. That’s compared to 1600 W for one minute of 16 kg snatches (25 of ’em), and one minute of 16 kg LCCJ (if you did 25 of them) giving you 800 W.

Veddy interesting. But here’s the thing: the perceived level of effort for doing those 10 32 kg LCCJs is much higher than the 25 16 kg snatches, at least for me. I guess what that means is that I need to keep getting stronger… 🙂

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So last night’s German longsword training was really good. After showing us the Zorn-Oort, and the various plays resulting from that, we got into some good training about “Windings.” I had some confusion on those. I had read Tobler’s book, and I’ve practiced a good bit with Chris, but I hadn’t been around for one of the Winding-intensive practices. So he quickly went through them again, and I finally saw the light. Now I have a much greater understanding.

Thanks, Chris!

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The other day, I forget what brought it up–but I ended up looking up some formulae for power, both electrical and units of work. I found them on Wikipedia, and ended up writing a couple of them in a little pocket calendar I had bought. When we were kids, my dad used to bring us those from the plant (Dupont plastics plant) where he worked. Little pocket calendar; planners as they might be called these days.

As a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing ever, with all sorts of cool conversion charts, handy mathematical formulae for engineers, that kind of thing. And–maps!! The only thing cooler I had as a kid was a circular slide rule with all these neat formulae on the back of it. Okay, so I never said I was normal… 😀

Well anyway, the little calendar I got is pretty cool. I had seen some moleskine calendar/planner books at Borders before Christmas. I was thinking about getting some for my nephews, but I got other stuff. And I thought about getting one myself. For some reason I’ve been looking for a handy, pocket-sized way to start planning/keeping abreast of my appointments. I guess because people will mention stuff to me, and I always have to say that I’ll get back with them, because I don’t know how their invite fits into my overall schedule.

I also wanted one that had some good spaces for taking notes. And you usually don’t see sort of a journal plus a scheduler together like they had them. These moleskines *were* nice, with a choice of daily or weekly paged calendars, *and* space for note-taking. So that I can write down tasks and such, and thoughts, drawings, reminders, etc. I didn’t get one then, because I was pressed for time and they’re a bit expensive.

My brother got one of the City moleskines, and it’s really neat. I looked around for some of D.C., but to no avail.

Later though, when I looked for them at a few different Borders, they didn’t have them. I searched, but did not find. I saw all sorts of others. Finally, I decided to just buy a cheap one and try it out. It’s pretty neat, a little what-seemed-like-no-name UK brand from Johnson Diaries, Ltd. Hmm. I just looked them up on the web. Guess they’re known out there somewhere…

In any case this one has maps! And a little room for notes, some conversion charts, etc. But what it was really missing was some of those handy formulae for power, energy, voltage, etc (sometimes it’s handy to know, for my job). Oh–that’s why I was looking those up… I remembered I wanted to put them in the little pocket diary. So, I went to Wikipedia, looked up a few formula, and wrote them down on the inside cover. Some of these, I used to know, but disuse has mangled them in my mind. I figure this way, if I pull them out every now and again, I’ll have them down permanently and not have to worry ’bout it.

Anyway–cut to last night. I worked out, as documented in previous posts. Just for funsies, after the workout I got to wondering what the wattage was of one of the lifts I was doing, the snatch.

So, I pulled out the little diary, used the conversion from force to watts. I used the 16 kg bell, I swing it through about a 2 meter arc, and it takes at most, a second.

So the formula is:

1 kg x meters squared
—————— = 1 W
seconds squared

So, inserting the values I have it’s:

16 kg x (2m x 2m)
—————- = 64 W
1 second

I don’t quite remember how many of those I did in a minute, but seems like 25 could be about right (that’s much less than one a second, of course):

64 W x 25 = 1600 W = 1.6 kW (kilowatts)

So, it appears you would expend about 1.6 kW doing around a minute of those. I didn’t do the calculation for long cycle clean and jerk. It takes a little longer than a second to go from the bottom of the swing to the top position, but you have to rack in between, and sometimes I stay in the rack for at least a second. But it isn’t constant anyway, so I don’t know that I would get a good calculation.

I have also computed tonnage for my other days, though lately I’ve not been worried about it. Mainly because I’ve been going by time, not by count (I need someone to count for me when I do longer sets. You know, more than three… 😉 ). But out of curiosity:

16 kg x 25 snatches = 400 kg

400 kilos = 881.84905 lbs

Let’s add that to say, 10 reps for the 32 kg (for the one minute), and 15 for the 24 kg (one minute) and 20 from the last LCCJ from yesterday @ 16 kg for a minute:

32 kg x 10 = 320 kg (of course)
24 kg x 15 = 360 kg
16 kg x 20 = 320 kg (again), plus the snatch set:
16 kg x 25 = 400 kg (snatches), add these up, and you get
——————-
1400 kg = 3,086.4717 lbs

Call it 3,086 lbs. One and half tons. Mind you, I’m only estimating for what each set of both arms resulted in. But that’s, what… seven minutes of work. Not too bad for a workout that only used three little weights. And that doesn’t include the pre-fatigue, post fatigue, or velocity sets, which have their own work expenditure.

Anyway, that’s what you get for being a geek…

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Just a note, here, for your information.

Since I mentioned that “Big Beyond Belief” workout in the last post, I got kinda curious and looked it up. As I said previously, I found it to be a really effective workout for gaining size. I was also curious to see if other people had read it and tried it, so here are some reviews.

Initially, I was amused by the over-hyped copy that the marketers used in the ads. But I thought, “what the heck,” and bought it. Turns out they actually put out a product that I can honestly say was as detailed and good as it said it was (although it still could’ve used a touch more editing). As I said before, it worked too well for me, once I figured that bodybuilding (as done by sport bodybuilders) was not the direction I really wanted to go. I’ve let others use the workout, and eventually loaned my copy out to what became a “permanent loan.”

But most importantly, it introduced to me the “8 training factors,” which I had never before seen put as clearly as they did, or put in all in one place, and perhaps most importantly, shows how they interlock and influence each other. It was the first place I recall people talking about things like short intense training sessions (45 min or less), periodization (the wave like pattern for training), low carb eating, and other factors such as adaptive response to specific stresses.

What is so cool to me is that was waaay back in the early ’90s, before anybody was really talking about this stuff, or at least putting them all together. And the thing is, everything I’ve seen since then confirms everything they said. Their reasons for the stuff they did were completely sound, and therefore it is no mystery why they worked. At the time, almost everything they said was revolutionary to bodybuilders and other physical training types here in the States. Now, it’s basically old hat. The paradigm has shifted.

And to this day, this is still the most specific, most thoroughly explained book on the subject that I’ve seen.

So–I gotta give these guys props. If you’re interested in really gaining size, get that product. It’s all you’ll need (except maybe the book on diet they espouse, “The Anabolic Diet”). Maybe there are other books or programs out there that contain the same info, or are flashier and better written or put together. But I haven’t really been out there checking since my focus shifted, so I don’t know what’s new in that arena. But for the price, you probably can’t do better.

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Yessir–that was a heck of a workout. Tonight I put the Courage Corner to good use using Ori Hofmekler’s Controlled Fatigue Training spiced up with his advanced ideas from his “Super Muscle” ebook.

As I mentioned before, incorporating his CFT ideas into my typical way of training is not really that much of a stretch. In principle, it’s how I often train anyway, but it’s nice to have a refresher and a dose of specific tips. These might help maximize my efforts in this area.

To reiterate, the key concept Ori is trying to get across with CFT is to train to withstand fatigue, and to that end, he stresses pre-fatiguing before doing any of your core exercises, whatever they may be (mostly strength-focused). Again, since you’re training with the idea of simulating fight-or-flight stresses, you finish off with a round of post-fatiguing exercise after you’ve done your core set of focus training (As they say, “It’s always the ‘dead’ lion that kills you.”).

The idea is that humans are built to exist in short states of high stimulation, which sets off a shower of adaptive hormones for recovery. The adaptive, recovery hormones are by-and-large, extremely beneficial to human health. One of the reasons for emphasizing brevity of workout is that if you are stressed for too long a period, you can compromise said bath of hormones, resulting in a decreasing return situation.

A secondary concept is the idea of intervals, which is a wave-like or sawtooth pattern of intensity, which can be carried fractally from a macro sphere to the minute details of a workout. You can have a giant wave, cresting in weeks, and work down to every 30 seconds of portions of the training session, such as what he outlines in the pre-fatigue phase. (Anybody remember the “Big Beyond Belief” workout system by Leo Costa, Tom Platz, and Russ Horine? That was a very well-defined hyper-controlled fractal wave cycle, and it *did* really work. My only problem with it–it DID really work. Ask my bro about that. And my interests are simply not in getting as big as I can.)

Here, for instance, you run for high intensity for one minute, followed by a low intensity run for a minute, then back up to the higher intensity, and so on for as long as you choose. With that minute, you alternate for 30 seconds running with your hands up in front of your face, and the next 30 seconds with your arms extended overhead. Then hands back in front of your face, and continue to repeat for as long as you run.

In the strength (“core”) phases of training, you effect intervals by using an “upside down pyramid” (UDP), going up, then down in intensity as with the running.

The “super muscle” key concept adds (or perhaps I should say, “emphasizes”) super-setting (immediately alternating) power or strength elements with speed or velocity elements. (If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice this is exactly what Pavel Tsastouline’s earlier kettlebell routines did from his Russian Kettlebell Challenge-grind element followed by ballistic element, back-and-forth, and alternating hard lifts with easier lifts.)

This is done because of the adaptive stress philosophy that states that the body adapts exactly to the stress that is applied to the body. In Ori’s case, he wants to encourage the muscle fiber, neuro-wiring, and hormonal bath to adapt to the real-life stresses of being both strong, and explosive, and sustained.

And to repeat, this is right up Dr. De Vany’s bag, too, when he talks about Evolutionary Fitness.

Today’s wasn’t too different from the last posted PT session. The main difference is that I added five lb dumbbells to the pre-fatiguing section, then alternated the upside down pyramid kettlebell LCCJs (strength) with one minute sessions punching and kicking the heavy bag for speed (velocity) sessions. My last velocity minute was a set of quick-snap snatches with the 16 kg bell. After that I hit the abs, then stretching.

To wit:

Pre-Fatigue
5 min run in place, alternate I min high-intensity, 1 min low intensity, 30 sec hands defensive position, 30 seconds arms extended (two 5 lb dumbbells)

Core
1 min, each arm, LCCJ (32 kg)
1 min, striking heavy bag (punch/kick/tackle)
1 min, each arm LCCJ (24 kg)
1 min, striking heavy bag (punch/kick/tackle)
1 min, each arm LCCJ (16 kg)
30 sec, each arm, high velocity snatch (16 kg)

Post-Fatigue
20 reverse crunches
cobra stretches
10 four-count alternate side curls
cobra/cat stretches
10 regular crunches
cobra/cat stretches
10 lower back extensions

Stretching and cool-down

About 30 minutes. And you’ll notice, no rest sets in there. I’d pause long enough to catch my breath or manipulate the workout equipment, and that was it.

There you have it. Enjoy!

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