As most of you have notice, the nice spring mornings have yielded to some already brutal double H (hot and humid) mornings. Double H mornings make things harder. You simply can’t do the same thing when it’s 72 and humid versus 50 and cool. This can get frustrating as you watch your pace/energy/reps go in the toilet. This doesn’t mean your getting a worse workout though. Heat taxes your body as a much greater rate and requires that you need to burn more calories and use lose more water/sodium just to stay cool. These hard workout will pay off when fall hits.
There are a lot of signs during a workout that your hydration is low: dizziness, lightheaded, black spots in vision. What’s just as important is you look for signs later in the day as well. For example, if you find yourself losing concentration, tired, overly yawning, or easily agitated after a workout it means you need to work on your hydration a little. During the hot summer, it’s important to not just drink when your thirsty. Try to keep a steady stream coming in all day. Also, adding a little sodium to your diet (if you don’t have BP issues) can help keep your hydration level.
A lot of tough workouts out there this past week (some w/o backbeats) and there was plenty to choose from. This weeks WOW comes from Thursday’s Thunder Q’d by Spot. See the whole BB at http://f3nation.com/2017/05/31/merkin-ladders/.
The Thang:
Warm up the main muscle groups: all in cadence: SSH x 20; Imperial Walkers x 20, 10 count ATM; squats x 20
Mosey down King Street toward Devine to the bottom of the hill.
First Ladder OYO: 5 merkins at the bottom, 25 LBCs at the top; back down; 10 merkins at the bottom, 20 LBCs at the top; back down; 15 merkins at the bottom, 15 LBCs at the top; back down; 20 merkins at the bottom, 10 LBCs at the top; back down; 25 merkins at the bottom (crowd pleaser), 5 LBCs at the top. Plank when done.
Mosey down Blossom Street toward 5 Points.
Second Ladder up the grassy knoll, OYO. Same pattern and reps as the first ladder except with wide arm merkins (crowd pleaser) at the bottom and 2 count flutter kicks at the top. Plank when done.
Mosey to the corner of Queen and Blossom.
Third Ladder halfway up Queen Street, OYO. Same pattern and reps as the first ladder except with diamond merkins (crowd pleaser) at the bottom and Russian Twists facing up hill halfway up. Plank when done.
Mosey to Emily Douglass and grab blocks.
20 four count shoulder presses with the block in cadence.
20 Show Curls for the Girls with the block in cadence.
Return the blocks, and plank in a line at the edge of the field.
Broad Jump Burpees with hand release merkins across the field until time’s up (the crowd goes wild).
Jail break to the COT.
What I like about it: just how much they got done. Three merkin ladders, block work and Broad Jump Burpees with hand release merkins across the field to finish it off. I’m impressed. The key to getting a lot done is having everything planned out (sorry Cess), calling the next exercise as fast as possible, and keeping your instructions to a minimum. Ladders are very easy to explain, and are always an easy way to give a workout a certain level of energy.
Blocks are one thing that can really slow a workout down. Not saying I don’t love some good block work (I do), but you really have to be on your game. Running to the blocks, giving them out, then having every one walk over to the COP, then go put the blocks back. That’s a lot of down time and as a Q: downtime is your enemy. The slowness of the blocks was what made this Q so impressive. Hat’s off Spot.
Aye!
-Stache