Enough on the thighs already!!

As if 150 jumping squats Thursday weren't bad enough, yesterday was "Tabata Something else".

I don't really  get muscle soreness very often - so when I do, I am usually pretty darn sore.  I can always rely on the jumping squats workout to leave me a bit hobbled for the next couple days.  However, I have learned that taking the next day off just makes it worse.  By Friday afternoon, the soreness had set in, but it was not nearly to the extreme that it was last time we did this one. (last time it felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to my quads, this time, it was mere crowbar).  So, I was pretty optimistic that Tabata Something else would work 'em though.

Tabata Something Else: Pullup, Pushup, Situp, Squat - done in Tabata intervals.

Tabata intervals are another one of those innocent sounding things.  20 seconds work, 10 second rest - for 8 rounds - then onto the next exercise - no rest in between.  Really, doesn't sound horrible, it's only 20 seconds after all.  Don't be fooled. Rounds 1-4 are all fine and dandy - but when you get to the last couple rounds, those 20 seconds are forever.

I started with Squats - after the first painful 5 or so, my thighs went numb until the end.  I ended up getting in 102 squats. Which, ain't too bad considering!

Pullups - jumping/minis on the low bar.  I'm slower at these because I do really try to get as much hold/pull time as I can.  I got in 40.

Pushups - First set I cranked out 10.  Then came the voice.....That's right - the big bad voice that you must obey when at the gym - Jonathan.  I, as proud as I am of my pushup, have apparently spent my time cheating.  I needed to do full range of motion - in other words, basically kiss the floor.  That 2 inches makes a HUGE difference!  I ended up only getting anywhere from 3-5 in per round after that.  Final pushup score was 39 - this is odd - I've never done less pushups than pullups!!

Situps - I ended up doing 84 I  believe.  

Final score: 265.

Ironically, the 3 times I've done this one, my score has remained basically the same. 263 the first time and 265 the next two times. Modifications - very different.

This morning, as I got out of bed and tried valiantly to walk to the kitchen for my morning cup o' coffee, I realized if we were doing anything squat related I was gonna be in deep doo-doo.   250 squats in 2 days, 150 of them jumping - had my thighs screaming at me in a big bad rage.

I look - hmmmm...Turkish Getups for weight - ok - not so bad.  Read on - 3 sets of 30 of them.  Ok - not so good.  That's 90 TGU's.   90 -Nine - zero.  Darn tootin' close to 100.  Ok - no worries....it's not squats, although that "lunge" part where it's all legs getting up - may hurt a bit......

Oh, and I forgot to mention the kicker - like doing the bear, you are not allowed to set the weight down to rest.  We started these with a low weight, because we were about to do a plethora of them.  I used the 8kg kettlebell for sets 1 and 2.  It wasn't too bad - although holding your arms up that long, you do feel the burn.   Set one I did 10 each arm then the last 5.

Set 2, I broke it into 3 sets of 5 per arm.

Last set, I decided to try the 12kg - knowing I was getting tired of holding that darn-tootin' KB up for so long, I broke these into sets of 3.

I don't think I did too bad.  Probably could have gone a bit heavier - or done the 12kg for more sets, but first time doing this, I just didn't know.  Next time, I want at least one set with the 16kg.  As I suspected, the up part of the TGU did start inflicting it's torture on my thighs.  Now - I'm hoping that with tomorrow off, and plenty of rest, I'll be able to walk like a normal person again, and not do the gimpy, hobble dance that I've been doing!