Death By Tabatas

The subject line wasn't really the title of the workout, but it felt that way. I was tired from the weekend, tired from Monday's workout, and then the warm-up for this workout was more than usual. Here's how it went down:

Five minutes of stretching and foam rolling. I focused on my left IT band, which was sore after sprints on Monday.

Then, 6 times the length of the gym, with a partner, of each of these exercises:

Fireman's carry (or piggy back)
Band resistance (try to run while your partner tries to stop you)
Wheelbarrow (I had to skip this one due to my right shoulder still being sore)

Because I was the second heaviest person in the gym, I partnered with Del. Del was a basketball star at a local college and has played semi-pro football. He is about 270 pounds of solid muscle. But, I can do a 300 pound back squat, so I figured I could carry him piggyback. And I did. The coach got a picture of him carrying me as well:

After we finished the partner tasks, we did pull-ups - EMOTM style. That's Every Minute On The Minute. For ten minutes, we would do 5 pull-ups per minute. The goal was strength - we were supposed to barely finish the 5 reps. Some people (like Del) wore weighted vests to make them more difficult. Some people (like me) used assist bands to make them easier. I could barely do the last one in each set, so I think I picked the correct bands.

Then came the Tabata intervals. In the link, they talk about Tabata sprints. But, you can substitute just about any other intense exercise for sprinting, as long as it is very taxing to do it for 20 seconds and then 10 seconds is not quite enough rest. Normally, when we do Tabata work, it's a single exercise, something like bodyweight squats. But last night was four different Tabata workouts strung together:

Sumo deadlift high pulls

Push-presses

Planks

Back-squats

We got a one minute break between each of the four minute sets.

All but the planks were done with a barbell, but at fairly low weights. I used just a 45 pound barbell for my reps.

The goal of the workout was as many total reps as possible. For the planks, you got one point for each of the possible 160 seconds you were in the plank position.

I did 85 of the high-pulls, 61 push-presses (my shoulder was limiting me a bit), 150 seconds of planks, and then 81 back squats. The spot on the floor where I did my work was covered with sweat. It was a good workout.

Today is a rest day.