Van der Werfstraat Wall

Today's workout took me back outdoors, just without the beautiful scenery of Sicily. A few weeks ago, I walked past this stretch of wall on the Van der Werfstraat in Leiden and thought it looked like a great spot to do some bodyweight, parkour style gymnastic training. I decided not to film this in its entirety because I knew it would take a while and it would be very repetitive. I did however, film a clip just to explain what each exercise was intended to look like. The workout was as follows:

10 wall muscle ups

1 handstand wall circuit

8 wall muscle ups

2 handstand wall circuits

6 wall muscle ups

3 handstand wall circuits

4 wall muscle ups

4 handstand wall circuits

2 wall muscle ups

5 handstand wall circuits

This was tough, and I recommend getting gloves. I didn't and wound up with a few cuts on my hans from small shards of glass. The wall was just shy of 9 feet high - perfect height for this type of routine. I finished in 15:14. Chickaro did it in 29:09. We were both feeling it in the shoulders and core, but I gotta say, I really liked using the wall. It requires a different kind of strength to climb and walk on your hands than you build in the weightroom. I think I'm going to incorporate this location into some runs in the future.

From Oct 1, 2009_2

From Oct 1, 2009_2

Clean and Jerk

Today Chickaro and I followed the olympic training model that I used with Hank a few weeks ago, except this time with Clean and Jerk rather than Snatch.

Clean and Jerk: 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1

Got 120 kg easily. Missed 125 twice because I couldn't get out of the hole. Pretty frustrating because the pull was no problem.

Clean Pulls: 2, 2, 2, 2

Used 140 kg

Front Squat: 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1

Finished at 135 kg, a new PR. Go figure that one... couldn't get 125 out of the hole but got 135 at the end of the workout. I think I must have poor foot position on my cleans. Bad habits that need to be corrected.

My legs are feeling it now. A lot of work, but that's a good thing.

Rest Day

As I look back on my weekend in Sicily, a few things stand out from the experience that pertain to this blog.

First, the scope of the physical human achievement throughout history is just simply inconceivable. Trying to compute the time, strength, will, and ingenuity it took to build the things I saw this weekend, to put it plainly, short-circuits my brain.

Then I tried to translate those qualities into the world of today... not so easy. Suffice it to say that it took a different kind of strength to build the Segesta Temple in 400 B.C. than it took to build more modern places of worship like Yankee Stadium. While both are impressive architectural achievements, the former certainly required a more robust physical presence than the latter.

I think this type of physicality is the ultimate example of what we now call "functional strength." It didn't exist in a gym with med-balls and thera-bands and single leg hops. It was all around, all the time. And everyone had it. In primitive societies, men and women were strong and fit because their lives demanded it. In order to build something like Segesta, EVERYONE had to be strong. In order to defend the city in battle, EVERYONE had to fight. At one point or another, they were all warriors, hunters, and architects. Today we're lucky if one in ten of us can get the wheel barrow up the damn hill.

Some will argue that ancient societies had masons and generals responsible for specific tasks the way contractors and soldiers are paid to be experts in their fields now. And I'll admit, some level of specialization probably existed in every era. But not the way it exists today. And those worlds certainly didn't encourage the physical de-conditioning of their non-specialized populations the way our life of room service, remote controls, and catalogue landscaping has surely done. Some take the fact that we can afford to hire someone else to fix our roofs, and pave our roads, and build our walls as a sign of civilization's progress and technological adaptation. I think it's laziness and ineptitude. In sheep's clothing, of course.

I ask this: Why not be able? This is a fundamental question. Whatever the physical challenge, why not meet it? In 400 B.C. Sicily, there was no choice. Society dictated the standards of fitness by what it required of its people. You were physically able, contributing, and valuable; or you were physically unable, detracting, and expendable. Today the standards are set by the individual, and they aren't very high. This is my reflection as I look at pictures I took of Segesta. Weathered and bleached, but unbroken by 2400 years of history, I think it's a penultimate reminder of where our standards should be.

From Sicily

From Sicily

The Sicilian Chipper

For my last day in Sicily, I didn't have much time for sight seeing as my flight was set to leave at 1:00 from Palermo. So we stayed close to home, made some breakfast, and I wandered about the grounds of the place where we were staying. Turns out they have a lot of fun stuff to play with. I devised a short chipper (multiple reps of multiple exercises, 1 set per exercise) to do before heading off to the airport and the taking the trip back to the Netherlands. It ended up being a great workout. Minus the part at the end where I tried to climb the 30 foot, 6 inch diameter street lamp next to the tennis court. Win some/lose some, as they say.

Anyways... all in all an incredible weekend. There was so much to see, do, and experience that I feel like it would take a year to get it all in. Fitness definitely isn't in the DNA or even on the back burner down there. Don't think I saw a single gym, and there were very few people that seemed to know, let alone care, about the health hazards of eating 4 course, pasta laden meals. But, as a tourist, I think being exposed to the entirety of the culture is a necessary part of the experience. And now I can appreciate the benefits and knowledge I've been afforded thus far in an even richer way.

Sunday 9/27

On Sunday we ventured to Segesta, the site of the oldest, intact temple in Italy. The ruins are pristine. No crumbling columns, no eroded foundations. It was built in the 4th century BC by the Athenians and has stood the test of time. It backs up to this enormous canyon, and faces out over the valley where the settlements once were. On top of the hill across the valley are the remains of a classic Greek amphitheater where the citizens of said settlement would trek to see reenactments of plays, battles, etc. The crazy part is, they still hold performances there today.

The only way to get to the amphitheater is by climbing the switchback trail that starts at the temple. Naturally, I took this opportunity to get a run in. It's a total of 1.8 kilometers to the top, so not too far. But the grade is steep. The guide at the bottom told me you climb 1000 feet or so before you hit the top. I couldn't get video of this for obvious reasons, but I snapped a few pictures before and after. It took me just over 9 minutes to get to the top.

Sep 27, 2009

Also, now that I'm back I was able to post the videos from Saturday below

Morning and Afternoon in Sicily

Friday was a rest day, and I didn't get a chance to post anything since I had just arrived and was pretty tired. Today, however, was quite a different story.

In the morning...

I woke up early feeling refreshed and decided to go explore the area a bit. Turns out, there is a vineyard 10 minutes from where my grandparents and I are staying. So, as one could expect, with the sun rising over the ridge and the rows of grapes just starting to glisten, I felt physically inspired by the scene. Looking around for resources, one fact made itself very obvious: there are a LOT of big stones in Sicily. This felt like an appropriate apparatus, seeing that the vineyard was walled in by stacks of stones and stone lifting is a decidedly old world form of exercise. I found one that was big, but liftable, and did 30 deadlifts for time. Kudos to the men who have been stackign stones for eons without the help of cranes. This was awkward, uncomfortable, and heavy. It took me just over 7 minutes to complete, and I don't think the rock weighed more than 150 lbs.

In the afternoon...

Along with my grandparents and a few others, I ventured up to Erice, a medieval mountain city overlooking Trapani. This place was unreal. Incredible structures, untouched ruins, and heart stopping views. If history is what you want to experience, this is the place to do it. The Palace of Venus, a relic from the Roman times, literally hangs over the edge of a 3000 foot cliff. There are numerous churches towering over piazzas and squares, and so many tight alleyways bustling with local and touristy shops. Every corner had an authentic sicilian cafe or restaurant.

With the help of my grandmother and grand aunt, I did a short met con at the base of a temple overlooking the bay and beach below. 21, 15, 9 box jumps and burpees.

L, Strict, Kip

I took Chickaro to the dog park to do some creative engineering at the playground. We brought my fisherman rope with us and used it to construct a set of rings from the high bar. This was a great idea in theory, just not quite suited to the structure of the playground bars (I think it will work great from a tree branch). However, we were able to use it to some success, doing 3 sets of each - maximum repetition L, strict, and kipping dips. We followed this with 3 sets of each - maximum repetition L, strict, and kipping pullups. Each set was broken by 1 minute of rest.

3 times through, Max of each, rest 1 minute between variations:

L dips

Strict dips

Kipping dips

L pullups

Strict pullups

Kipping pullups

Chickaro L- pullup

After finishing, we hung around and experimented with more uses for the rope and managed to come up with some great exercises that I think will be used in future routines.

I'm heading to Sicily tomorrow to visit with my grandparents. Really excited to explore a new location and see a different vision of old world beauty. Expect the requisite creative engineering, a few touristy historical reflections, and some serious scenery.

AM...PM

In the morning...

I went back to the Burcht this morning with my good friend Chickaro from Washington, DC and did a great interval workout. We took this giant carpet roll (which I found a few days before) taped it up real strong and set it at the bottom of the burcht hill. The idea was to do 5 rounds separated by 2 minutes of rest of the following:

10 snatches

10 alternating shoulder press

sprint to the top

We kept our time for each round and added it up for an aggregate total once done. Chick had a little trouble by set 3, but he was jet lagged and it was early...

In the evening...

We did heavy deadlifts from an elevated stance and heavy bench press, followed by core work.

3, 3, 3, 3, 3 deficit deadlift (stood on a 25 kg plate)

3, 3, 3, 3, 3 bench press

I made it to 170 kg (374 lb) on the deadlift, then did an additional set at 180 kg (396 lb), but stopped after one. For the bench press, I did 130 kg (286 lb) easily (which last time I failed on) and finished at 135 kg (297 lb) with a very little help on the 3rd repetition. Overall I felt great on both of these exercises. And having Chickaro here is a great motivator. It's amazing how big a difference training with someone makes, can't emphasize it enough.

Playground bars

After last night's snatch session with Hank at L.K.V., I was feeling pretty fatigued. Decided to do a quick workout I've been wanting to try at the park.

10 minute AMRAP

1 bar climb

1 pull up

1 muscle up

1 dip

1 handstand pushup

I finished 11 rounds plus one climb and one pull up. The video for this came out a little weird, but I'm going to try and get it posted tomorrow.

Chickaro just got to town for a visit so I think the next few days will be fun. Nice to have someone to train with.

Monday is for Snatching

Tonight was great!

I trained with Hank, as expected, sans young child. He employs a pretty traditional, weightlifting specific program: we worked full squat snatches for triples, doubles, and singles, followed by double sets of heavy low-hang snatch pulls, and finished with heavy sets of back squats. He didn't go too heavy on the snatches, instead working mostly his technique, but encouraged me to keep going up. I didn't get 100 kg tonight, but, watching the video clip, I pulled it plenty high enough to make the lift. And Hank thinks my pull is good enough for 110 right now if I improve my focus during the dive and improve my catch positioning. I included clips of each of our last few sets. By comparison, I appear really loose and a little all over the place, but it gives me a good visual of where I can improve.

Snatch

4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1,

Snatch Pull

2, 2, 2, 2

Back Squat

4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2

Interestingly, he told me tonight that it's the mental side of it that he really enjoys. Like, how losing concentration for just a split second could mean he pushes the bar 2 centimeters out during the second pull and thus results in a missed catch at the top. Honestly, his attitude toward training is inspiring. He truly does it because he loves it. He's intense when he's on the platform or under the bar, giving it an honest 100% every lift, but in between he was light hearted and intent on helping me improve. As I've expounded on before, finding your purpose for training is perhaps the most important way to ensure you will continue to do it. Whether it's competition, sense of fulfillment, doctors orders, even vanity... Finding that one purpose that will drive you makes all the difference. Hank's is sport. He loves the sport of weightlifting. Even though he doesn't compete anymore, he continues to "play," thus continuing to stay fit and to live strong.

Amen to that.

Rest Day

I went back to the beach today and read & relaxed. Did some stretching in the sand, but mostly just laid around. It was a beautiful day to just be outside away from other people.

Sep 20, 2009

ERG it

So I went in to meet with the owner of L.K.V., who, it turns out, doesn't want to work out with me. However, he did want to introduce me to Hank. Hank is the last remaining member of the #1 Dutch Weightlifting Club in Holland to still train at the gym. The rest have either moved away or become too busy with family, work, etc. to continue coming in regularly. So, of the original 10 or so, Hank is the last man standing. He's still young, very strong, and ultra nice. He brings his 5 year old son to the gym to watch him workout, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyways, he agreed to train with me consistently Monday nights! I think, along with the help of the owner, this could be an incredible opportunity to learn from some serious Olympic lifters. Now if I could just get some shoes....

My workout today was simple:

5000 meter row for time.

I'd never done a distance longer than 2k, so this was a little scary, and pretty challenging. Having no real frame of reference, I set my goal time at 20 minutes. I was able to finish well under that, at 19:17. I think, when I do this again, a better goal will be 19, and maybe eventually under 18. I definitely felt my legs and back from the squats yesterday, but my heart and lungs held out fine. It was good to get a solid pure endurance effort in... there haven't been enough lately.

From Sep 19, 2009

AM...PM

In the morning...

I was back at Ankerpark doing bodyweight work. The workout was 5 rounds, no time, and no rest.

1 L rope climb

maximum pushups

5 dead free hanging situps

The situps were done from a chain cargo net and were pretty uncomfortable, even with t shirts wrapped around the chain. And they were a LOT harder than a GHD situp. Because the chain swings, its almost impossible to get any rhythm. Also, youre pulling vertically without any fulcrum under your butt. I'm going to work on making it more comfortable for the shins and do lots of these.

I followed this workout with 20, 15, 10, 5, 10, 15, 20 kipping pullups to finish. Took 1 minute rest between sets.

In the evening...

Max effort squat.

3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1

I finished at 185 kg (407lb) but I felt a little touch from the spotter so I don't think it counts for a new PR.

Perhaps the biggest news, the owner of the gym has been jabbering at me in unintelligible Dutch the past few weeks, and it turns out that he wants me to come train with him on Saturday mornings. So I'm going to go in tomorrow and see what I can glean from him. Apparently he used to split snatch 130 kg and split clean and jerk 170 kg. Eeker...

Rest Day

Woke up pretty sore today. My calves were knotted, and my legs felt very fatigued. I went to L.K.V. and sat in their whirlpool (yes, they have a whirlpool!) for 15 minutes, then stretched my legs and core for 20 minutes. Felt much better afterwards. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight, big plans for tomorrow.

From Week 2

AM...PM

In the morning...

Weighted stair sprints.

In the absence of sandbags, I've had to get creative. This morning, I took my duvet cover off my comforter and filled it with dirty laundry, heavy jackets, and every pair of pants I own, wrapped it up tight and carried it to the Burcht. The bag probably weighed about 35-40 lbs. Once there, I did 10 sets of stair sprints carrying the load across my back. The rest interval was the walk down: no stopping at any time, no dropping the bag.

From Sep 16, 2009

From Sep 16, 2009

From Sep 16, 2009

In the evening...

The Lullaby. This workout put me out. Building on a AMRAP variation borrowed from Crossfit Coronado, I did 5 power snatches at the top of every minute, followed by AMRAP burpees for the remainder of the minute. I continued this progression until I reached 100 burpees. As soon as this happened, I transitioned to 5 OH squats at the top of every minute, followed by AMRAP double unders for the remainder of the minute. I continued this progression until I reached 500 double unders. It took me 23:27 to finish. I'd love to see someone do it in under 20 minutes. The weight for the snatches and OH squats is 45 kilos (100 lbs).

Ankerpark

Back at the dog park, I wanted to lay off the lower body a bit. This workout required a lot grip and arm strength because the bars were thick.

5 rounds for time:

5 pullup

1 muscle up

5 bar dips

5 handstand pushup

I finished in 8:04 and coudn't move my hands. The muscle ups got really sloppy, as did the HSPUs. Doing this actually gave me an idea for another workout using the jungle gym that I'm definitely going to come back and try.

From Week 2

Go Heavy

Today's workout was originally intended to consist of max weight thrusters and max weight pullups, followed by Fran with prescribed weight. However, L.K.V. de Spartaan does not have a single free standing pullup bar. The closest thing was a combination pullup bar/roman chair/dip apparatus which obviously would not support kipping. So, I scrapped the Fran in favor of weighted good mornings and knees to elbows. Disappointing, but not shocking.

On the upside, I did well on both the thrusters and the pullups, getting 105 kgs and 50 kgs, respectively. (The pullup bar had cheap handles that wouldn't stop rotating, making this infinitely more difficult, but also uniquely challenging). I included video footage of my 5 thruster attempts below.

Active Rest Day

Today I went to the coast and hiked around the dunes at Noordwijk beach, listened to music, and relaxed. Found some good spots for a sand workout in the future, so stay tuned for that.

It felt good to get into some open space and just let my brain go. I think this is undervalued, generally. It's indisputable that intense training wears on your mind as well as your muscles, making it harder to concentrate and get up for big physical challenges. This goes to the heart of the varied intensity training philosophy. Just as the volume of physical work should vary between low medium and high during the course of a given week and a given training cycle, so should the volume of mental work vary. I believe that when people plateau or burn out, it's largely a result of mental exhaustion. Therefore, days like today are really important. For me, they recharge my nervous system, relieve my stress, and get me itching for the next big thing.

From Week 2

The Gravensteen

So this morning I got up early and jogged to The Gravensteen, which means Castle of the Count. It's a building that now houses the international office of Leiden University, but originally it was home to members of the Dutch aristocracy. At some point in the interim, it was the prison, court of law, and site of execution for all of Leiden. This fact struck me as incredible. The international office (where my academic fate is ultimately decided) is essentially renting space from death row. A potentially ominous sign for my studies here. The only way to karmically balance this situation, in my estimation, was to pay my tax in sweat, and hope the ghosts of Dutchmen past were appeased.

Using an old fisherman rope (15 lbs) I found near the river bank earlier in the week, I constructed this workout:

With additional weight (vest, rope, etc) do 3 rounds for time:

20 strict pullups

10 pistol squats (each leg)

run 200 meters

Upon reflection, that's a lot of strict pullups with weight. By the final set I was mostly doing singles. Also, the bar I used was square. Tough on the hands after that many repetitions. The pistol squats took forever towards the end. I kept losing my balance falling backwards/sideways as the rope shifted on my shoulders.

Overall, this workout was challenging from a strength and technique perspective, but not in terms of stamina. I think I could have finished in under 10 minutes if I could've gotten the pistols down a little better. Either way, the location was incredible. Almost eerie it was so quiet. Will be a challenge finding places to top the Gravensteen.

From Desktop

AM...PM

In the morning....

4 mile run. Got up early and ran the perimeter of Leiden Centrum (central Leiden), passing by many wonderful historic sites. The city is bordered on all sides by water, so it forms a natural loop that is fairly easy to follow. Only bummer about this route is that it's very flat. I would like to find somewhere to run that has hills, but apparently they don't exist in the Netherlands.

In the evening....

3,3,3,3,3 bench press followed by 1,1,1,1,1 elevated bench row. I was going for the maximum weight possible on each and recorded the top successful sets. I finished at 130 kg (286 lb) on the press and 100 kg (220 lb) on the row. Finished with 3 sets of 30 situps and back extensions.

From My First Week

From My First Week