July 22nd Training Session

Today we had Derek, Moody, John, Alayna, and (other, yet differently-spelled) Jon out for the workout. We wanted to get in lots of work with the ropes, and boy did we ever! Once again we did several different variations on the classic wave, and made Derek use the 50 ft. rope for most of it. Tabatas were used to keep pace and they did a number on us! We also did upright rows, and overhead presses with the ropes. It may not sound tough, but just try it!

Another impressive feat was John doing rope pull-ups. We strung the 16.5 footer over a goal post and the two Jo(h)n's cranked out rope pulls.

Other work with the rope included horizontal and vertical pulls, which are one of the best possible ways to work grip strength.

Once we had done our time with the rope, we headed over to the jungle gym to do some circuits. We cranked out several sets of a circuit that involved rope pull-ups, hammer pull-ups, dips, push up, and squats.

Then it was onto the wall, where we took turns slamming the medicine ball (on the end of a rope) against either side of our bodies. This is a tremendous way to work those oblique muscles, but at the same time you're working that grip strength, yet again, and testing your own endurance. 30 reps at a time (the ball has to hit each side for one full rep), 4 sets each.

Derek came to us wanting to do some fight conditioning, and that's exactly what he got. We strapped him into the harness and Moody threaded resistance tubing through it and took a hold of the other end. We fired up the Tabatas once again, and Derek was charged with striking the pads on his feet (while Moody provided ample resistance from behind) for 20 seconds at a time, then he had his 10 second rest to transition to the floor bag where he worked for another 20 seconds. Moody provided plenty of resistance the whole time, and I think it's safe to say that Derek was wiped! Hopefully we didn't scare him off!