One of the hardest workouts I've done to date

And I'm not kidding.  This was the mother of all "short and painful" workouts.  As I've stated before, I'm not a big fan of crossfit, and I don't condone most of the workouts they put together.  While the following workout is "crossfit-esque" it's much more of a thought out plan, staying strict with movement and keeping the volume low on olympic type lifting.  This is what I did yesterday:

Warm up- Range of motion ballistic movements.  Light kettle bells and light deadlifts.

Main- HEAVY dead lifts for 2 sets of 5 reps.  Plenty of rest taken between sets and form had to be just as good on the last rep as on the first.

Then- 1-2-3-4-5 reps with 2 24kg Kettle Bells of: Clean/Squat/Jerk/Man Makers
      This portion of the workout was done for example, on the 3rd set, 3 cleans, 3 squats, 3 Jerks, 3 man makers.  (1 man maker is a push up on the kettle bells straight into one repition of a row-in push up position-on both arms....*note: a "true" man maker includes a clean and push press/jerk after the rows are completed on each arm)

Then- 2 sets of 10 one arm Kettle Bell snatches on each arm with the 24kg bell.


The thing that made this workout hard was not the heavy dead lifts, but the 1-2-3-4-5 of the clean/squat/jerk/man makers set.  Two 24kg kettlebells get real heavy real quick, but because of the low rep counts, you're able to keep the form good while blowing out your entire body.  At no point in the set was I so fatigued that my form suffered, rather my heart and lungs were screaming out!  This fits my philosophy of training quite well, and it's something that I'll use not only with myself, but with my clients.

This was just one small part of my workout week, but a really important one.  I've been striving to gain strength and the dead lift is my most important tool for doing so.  In the weeks since I've started (about 5 or 6) I've improved drastically and gained back much of the strength I had when I weighed 250 lbs, but without the bulk now at 198lbs.  I plan on riding my bike and racing a bit this summer, so while keeping my weight down isn't the most important thing, it is a big consideration.

As for today, it's a toss up.  The weather is beautiful so I'm thinking a road ride might be in my best interest.  It's going to be cold this coming week so I'd rather spend that time in the woods where it's warm rather than on the windy pavement.  No matter what, though, a ride is going to happen for sure today!