The Good Old Internet

Last night I slept pretty well. I kept waking up last night but also kept falling right back to sleep. I felt pretty refreshed when I got up, and there was no more angriness in my hamstring when I got up!

While I enjoyed my coffee, I was thinking I wanted to get to my strict presses before there was even light in the sky. Of course, I had to finish my coffee first though because, you know, priorities.

It was around 8:00 AM when I decided to get changed and head out into the garage to work on my presses. Those are not noisy, but still, I like to be quiet that early. They felt good, but a little heavier than they should have. Even the heavier sets were manageable. The final set was the AMRAP of one plus reps at 140 pounds. That weight is fairly heavy for me, but it felt excellent today. I got two at that weight. My girlfriend saw that and said they looked good.

It was not too long after I finished up my strict presses that I started thinking about a WOD to do. I had to hunt down one because we’re still doing the dumb strength focus that doesn’t fit into my goals. I do not wish to do an overly complicated WOD.

After a brief search, I settled on an old shift that was just presses and non-weighted lunges. I have been doing a lot of step-ups the past few weeks but not really any lunges, so it looked like a simple but good one for me. For the presses, I went with the light 25-pound dumbbells. I just did the heavy barbell ones after all. The lunges felt good. I did feel a little tightness in my quad just above my knee, but that’s normal. I was also wearing different shoes than I normally do so that can make them feel off.

The workout was quick and felt good. It served the purpose of getting me moving and getting my heart rate up a bit.

I got a shower and relaxed a bit but found myself thinking I wanted to do a bit more today. I wanted to play with my heavy kettlebell. It is 97 pounds, and I call it The Motivator. I did not think I would be able to swing it at all when I first got it for Christmas, but I surprised myself when I gave it a try.

Today I came up with the idea that I wanted to accumulate 50 swings with it and break them up how I needed to and rest a bit. It was not about killing myself with intensity. The weight is the intensity today and 25 pounds heavier than the one I typically use. I thought I might be able to start out with sets of ten. When I did the first one, it was pretty easy with good flow. The video I recorded looked great. Still, I thought maybe at the last twenty I would have to break up, but I did not have to. Truthfully, I thought about going for twenty unbroken to finish it out but settled on 11 to make the final set shorter. I think I could have done it, but I don’t think I should have. It’s likely that my body’s not ready for that heavy of a weight in a big set.

Over the past few days, I have been in a bit of a mental funk. I’ve been doing WODs and all, but just feeling the ever-present depression that I can normally keep in the very back of my mind creeping up on me a bit. That’s why I chose to challenge myself with the swings. Usually doing these difficult things helps me, and at least so far it did today.

Do difficult things. Your mind and body are capable of much more than you believe they can do!

Music for today was Alkaloid