Another "Your Doin' it Rong!" and a killer workout

If I hadn't established such a pattern of it, it would've been surprising when I screwed up squats again... But yesterday, personal training day, I decided what I really wanted was for the trainer to give me a good workout. It was way, way, way, way, way too good.

Tip

For a proper squat, go down just past parallel, no more than that!

Before I get to the workout, I want to address squats, again. As any regular reader of this blog knows (and I don't know if such a thing exists), I've been having trouble with squats since switching shoes. It could have been happening the whole time, the shoe switch definitely triggered something. Yesterday, during the workout, Dean told me I was going down too far in my squats and that once I got down there is where I was losing my balance. Interesting. Why did that never occur to me? So I had him call out when it was time to go back up. Result: didn't fall over at all, and only once was there even a bit of concern.

On to the killer workout. This will take up to 30 minutes, but if you last that long I commend you. The workout: 5 rounds, for time of:

1. 7 Heavy Front Squats
2. 0.5 Mile Bike ride
3. 12* Sit-up Slams

*though the real workout calls for 15

The heavy front squat is just that, a weight you can really only do 7 or so of in a set. The half mile bike ride, also self-explanatory, but go as fast as you can. Sit-up Slams take a bit of explanation. All it requires is a bit of flat ground and a medicine ball, preferably one that won't hold it's shape upon impact. Start out by laying down on the floor with your legs straight and your arms straight behind your head with the medicine ball in your hands. Essentially, you'll be in the shape of a lower case 'i.' From there, bring the medicine ball over yourself like you're trying to throw it at your feet (don't let go yet) while simultaneously bringing your feet in quickly to stand up. This needs to be a quick motion, otherwise you'll fall backward and have to try again. The real objective of this motion is to go from laying down to standing with the medicine ball. Once you're steady on your feet, raise the medicine ball over your head and slam it into the ground as hard as you can.

As mentioned, the goal of this is to go for time. You do 5 rounds as fast as you can. I made it, literally, through 2 rounds and had to stop for a long while to recover. Ugh. But hey, not bad for getting lifting and cardio out of the way in like 12 minutes or so, huh? If you try this routine, let me know how it goes, and if I was just being a wuss for stopping after 2 rounds ;)