Squats

Last night I took my camera to the gym. There aren't any mirrors near the squat rack, and even with mirrors, it's hard to check your own form. It's easier to fix your form when you're just starting - it's like learning to drive...if you never develop bad habits it's a lot better. Here's what I did last night. Remember, if you're a trainer and you're watching this, it's only my fourth time doing weighted barbell squats. Ever. I usually use dumbbells or do Bulgarian split squats. Back in my college days I used a smith machine because my gym didn't have a squat rack. Anyway, I digress.

I'm following the Practical Programming for Novices progression (by Rippetoe). Last night I did 2x5 45lb (warm up), 1x3 60lb, 1x2 80lb, 1x3 90lb (this was supposed to be 3x5 but my left knee felt wonky on the 3rd rep so I quit and lowered the weight), and 3x5 75lb. The video is of the first set. I want to try to work on getting lower, and hinging more from the hips.

I've been following Mark Rippetoe's YouTube videos on weight training. He teaches form, including a all the  mechanics of WHY you should do something a certain way (like I showed in my post on deadlifts). I watched his videos to decide whether to do low- or high-back squat, and what kind of form to use. I'm such a geek, I know. He discusses the merits of a low-bar squat and talks about angles and power and how those two things are related.

Workout of the Day - BRUTAL

Wow. Someone suggested to me The WOD Shop for ideas for bodyweight exercises. A random generator provides insane circuit training routines that you can scroll through until you find one that sounds appealing or murderous, depending on your preferences. I chose one called Hit the Deck. You use a deck of cards. (not sure why the font is messed, Blogger won't let me change it)

For time
Complete the following chipper using a shuffled deck of cards:
Spades = Squats
Hearts = Burpees (I did jumping jacks instead to be kind to my downstairs neighbour)
Diamonds = Pushups
Clubs = Crunches
8 of clubs would be 8x crunches, 6 of hearts 6x burpees, etc.
Face cards are worth 10 reps, Aces are 11 reps

I had the idea that doing an entire deck would probably be too much for me, considering I haven't been working out regularly for over a month. So I decided to set my timer to 10 minutes and see what I could do in that time. Here's what I did:
43 pushups
63 jumping jacks
82 squats
67 crunches
I got through 35 cards.