Posts tagged the big top

My name is Tristan, and I’m a foodaholic.  Yup.  Eating healthy or healthier, or just plain not bad eating has always been tough for me.  I like love food.  All kinds.  I don’t like not eating what I want, when I want.  It is harder for me to give up foods that I love than it was for me to give up cigarettes almost 8 years ago.  BUT…

Yesterday Heidi and I got back on track.  Eating was great all day.  Under calories.  Went to The Big Top and put in some real good work.

10 min amrap: (completed 3.5 rds)

• 20 sledge swings
• 20 box jumps (20.5” tire)

10 min amrap: (completed 5 rds)

• 10 pushups
• 10 oh walking lunges (25# plate)

5 min amrap: (completed 6 rds)

• 5 dips
• 5 jumping pullups

10 min stationary bike

It was great.  No back pain.  Felt like I was dying a few times, but that means it was working.

Today was another good day.  Eating was really good.  Under calories.  Since I’m quite sore at this point, I did some light activity when I got home with the kids.  We shot baskets, played pass with a football, and played some catch with a baseball.  Spent about 30-35 minutes moving around out there before dinner.  Now I’m trying to keep moving a little to keep from stiffening up too much.  

On goes the good fight…

Little Man wasn’t feeling up to par this morning, so it was a work from home day.  As the day has gone on, he’s been getting better to the point of normal.  So we were sitting here after we ate lunch and I said, “You want to go to TBT?”  He was all for it.

7 rds / 1 min per movement with a quick 30 second breather between rds:

• kb swings - 44#
• rope slams
• zercher squats - 40# sandbag

Little Man created his own workout.  3 rds:

• sled push - down/back
• 10 pull ups
• 5 laps around gym
• 5 kb swings - 10#
• 6 crunches
• 15 jumping jacks

We are both chillaxin’ right now before we have to go pick up the daughter at school and have a daddy/kids night since the wife is Vegas bound.

T

The wife said that if I bought those new shoes, I needed to go to The Big Top more often than I was lately and use them.  Granted, I paid for them with a gift card so they were technically free, but it was her gift card…so I would be wise to listen.  :)  

So since I was alone this afternoon, I hit TBT.  I’m still getting back into it, so I’m keeping the weights light until I feel my back is strong enough to push the limits again.

For starters, 3 sets of 10:

• kb c+p r - 30#
• kb c+p l - 30#
• bb squat - 75#
• bb c+p - 75#

Then I got down and dirty with a recent favorite:

• bb double clutch walk 10 ft - 75#/each side
• dragon walk back to start
• walking lunge back to bb
• repeat these three movements until out 60 ft then after last lunge back to bb, dc the bb the full 60 ft back to the start

I’d say that I broke the new sneaks in real well.  They may even hate me now…

T

Back to The Big Top tonight for another group workout.

• Max plank
• 2 min, 1 min, 2 min - pullup and kb halo 35#
• Max plank
• 30-25-20 dips (alt with su)
• 20-25-30 step ups (alt with dips)
• Max plank

Arms took the brunt of the workout and my last plank was a joke.  I could barely hold myself up.  Tomorrow will be one of those can’t lift your arms over your head types…  Can’t wait!

T

P.S. - No Vegas for me… Found out yesterday that the trip is technically for 2 people, not 4.  Last year the boss owned the company and paid for all 4 people to go.  This year he doesn’t own it anymore after selling, so he can’t do that.  So I could pay my own airfare and go, but it doesn’t make sense.  It is going to be more travel time over the 3 days than it is worth to pay for.  If it had been free, it would have been worth it.  So, I’ll stay home with the kiddos and the wife can go network.

Back to strength class again today.  Didn’t stay for conditioning class because the kids were being a bit unruly today for some reason and weren’t staying in the loft area on the couches.

• Squats 8 sets x 2 reps (95#, 145# x 6, 165#)
• Weighted lunges 5 x 4 each leg (15#dbs, 20#dbs, 25#dbs, 26.5#kbs, 35#kbs)
• One footed box jumps Step ups 4 x 10 each leg (35#kb when using right leg, no kb on left leg - bad side that is still trying to catch up)
• KB windmills 4 x 5 (26.5#kb, 30#kb, 35#kb, 44#kb)
• MOP 3 x 60 sec

165# squats used to be my warmup weight before I injured my back, so it is kind of a downer, but at the same time I know it is going to take time to get back to where I was.  

T

Headed back to class at The Big Top today.  First time at a class environment in 6 months.  Coach gave me my own strengthening workout before class to work on my hamstrings and glutes since those are weak and help cause my back issues. 

• Weighted lunges 4 rds/20 reps (15# dbs, 18# kbs, 22# kbs, 26.5# kbs)
• Stability ball ham curl 3 rds/20 reps
• Supine bridge 4 rds/20 reps (45# bar)
• MOP (march of penguins) 3 rds/90 sec

Afterwards we did “Pong.” 

• Goerner walking d.c. (65# each arm)
• Dragon walk
• Lunge

Basically, it is three moves done in sequence.  First you double clutch the barbells, pick up, and walk 10-12 feet and set them down.  After that you do the dragon walk (a cross between pushups and stretches) back to the starting point.  Then you do lunges back to the barbells. 

You repeat this by moving the bbs another 10-12 feet, dragon walk back to the starting point, lunge back to the bbs and continue.  You do it 5 times down until after your last set of lunges you walk the bbs back from the end (60-70 feet) to the beginning.

My legs are going to be killing me the next couple of days…

T

I’ve been missing for a while now. I was having a bit of a rough one and didn’t really feel like posting because everything seemed to be negative. Things are trending upward, so here goes.

After I finally got back to The Big Top in November, I had another setback with my back. We had a good sized snowstorm right before Christmas and I decided shoveling was a good idea. It wasn’t. I went back on pain meds and continued feeling crappy.

After a couple weeks of more stretching and pain meds I finally started feeling a bit better and actually better than I felt before I shoveled.

I decided on Tuesday I was going to give it another go at The Big Top. Everyone there was doing a workout called 300 (10 movements at 30 reps each). Coach told me I should not start there and I told him I was going to do my own thing on a scaled version while I work back into it.

So I made my own.

20 kb floor press - 53#
20 squat
20 oh sit-up - 25#
20 lunges
20 pushups
20 t-legs

3 rds.

I’m still sore today. Luckily and fingers crossed, everywhere except my back!

T

I know I’ve been gone for a while.  I guess being laid up for the most part has just taken a lot of the wind out of my sails and really had me not “into” it.  But I’m coming back…

I’ve been hitting up physical therapy for 2 days a week the past few weeks.  I’ve gotten a lot of mobility from it.  I also got a steroid and cortisone injection the week we returned from Mexico.  The combination of the two has helped a ton.  

PT says that after this week’s scheduled 2 visits he thinks he can turn me loose somewhat to work on strengthening.  I like the sounds of that.  Besides stretching a lot, he’s had me work on some strength the last couple of weeks along with core work.  Leg press, leg curl, seated row, seated extensions, standing rows, standing trunk twists, back extensions, squats (butt to bench - and with my back history he says nothing below 90* ever because the risk is more than the reward for me) w/ and wo/ weights, ab crunches, ab bridges, and the such (all on the ball).  He’s impressed with my form.  Especially with the squats and rows where I need to keep my back in neutral position.  

Today at PT was the following.

• Leg curls 50# - no set reps, but did about 50
• Leg press 150# - 2 sets of 15 with a 5/5 count (5 sec press out slow, 5 sec release down slow)
• Seated row 25# ea arm - 3 sets of 20
• Seated extensions 25# - 2 sets of 20
• Ab crunches on ball - 3 sets of 20
• Back extensions - 5 sets of 10

Heidi let me know that after she dropped the daughter off at cheering, she would be heading to The Big Top and asked if I wanted to stop by.  So tonight on the way home from work I hit up TBT.  My first time walking in the building since September.  My first time working out since the first week of August.  I took it extremely easy because I am still afraid I am going to screw up my progress, and because I had done a good amount of work at PT in the AM.

• 20 squats (b2b) (PT has my put something in front of my toes to make sure my knee doesn’t extend beyond the toes so I found something at TBT to do the same)
• 20 squats (b2b) w/ 15 lb db
• Dips - 10, 10, 5, 5 (all banded) then 3, 3, 1, 1 (body weight)
• Bike
• KB floor press 44# - 20, 20, 20

I worked up a sweat and kept it simple for my first time back.  I took my time to make sure my form was on target so we’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

T

…without the coach.  He left today for a week and a half in Iceland.  So he left up about 8 or so different workouts for everyone to work on while he was away.  That is what Heidi did this morning.

I on the other hand am still battling some really annoying pain in my ass.  Literally.  Friggin’ sciatica sucks.  It is just a constant pain.  If I stand for 10 minutes or so, my foot goes numb.  It’s really fun.  Anyway, since I’ve got that going on, I worked some upper body so that I could feel like I was at least doing something.  I did the following while they did their 24 minute amrap.

• 10 bench (95/115/115/115)
• 10 jumping ring pullups
• 10 dips

I got through 4 rounds.  I had to keep taking breaks and readjusting and stretching.  And it still didn’t help much.

No chiro appt until Wednesday and I feel like I used up my working from home excuse last week, so back into the office tomorrow.  If I thought I could be fixed in a few days, I would just use PTO for sick time and call it good, but since I know it isn’t fixed yet and we are just about on week 3, I’ll suffer in the office…

T