Theory to Practice

“There is no great genius without a tincture of madness.”

- Seneca

I’ve been under the hyper-crunch of an impending project deadline, and working so damn much lately, that this year’s summer solstice nearly passed me by, completely unnoticed.  That’s not like me, as I’m apt to wax Pagan come solstice and equinox time.  One thing I have noticed though — and this happens every year — that more and more of my workouts are occurring outdoors.  Sprints (both of the running and biking variety), bodyweight exercises, and outdoor kettlebell routines (for example) are showing up at a greater frequency in my workout journal.  And it just makes sense, huh?  Warmer and longer-lasting days bring that out in all of us.  This is, of course, a good and very Paleo occurrence.  Relatively few and far between now are the very heavy, strength-oriented loadings that tend to dominate my dead-of-winter (and mostly indoor) weight routines.  The speed-strength end of the weight spectrum dominates what indoor sessions I do perform time of year — sessions that might occur as few as once/week.  As an example of this, consider the last indoor session I managed to squeeze in prior to one of my (all to frequently now) long and drawn-out work days:

1. Low Pulls x 4
2. Bradford Press x 6
3. Bodyweight, ballistic Pull-ups x 6

I performed 5 rounds of this complex, with an emphasis on single-event power production.  I emphasize single event here because I’ve found that some folks confuse overall workout completion speed with single rep. speed with an eye toward power production.  Two different animals here, with the latter leaning more toward that of an Oly lift format, and the former being indicative of a Crossfit-style workout.  Another way to think of this is that if I were performing this workout in a Crossfit-style manner, I’d do so with an eye toward maximizing a longer-duration power output — attempting to finish the workout in, say, 10 minutes or so.  Of course, this would necessitate dropping the poundages used and radically reducing the between rep. and between exercise rest periods.  Same workout components with a totally different set of performance guidelines and expected results.  And neither of these modalities is any “better” than the other; about the only thing that can be said is one might be better when considered in light of what your goals happen to be.

Anyway, if you’re north of the equator, get out and enjoy the summer weather while you can.  And get in some extra outdoor time for me while you’re at it, as I may end up resembling a pink-eyed lab rat by September with the way my work is going.  Such is life.  Oh well, this too shall pass, right?  Just more opportunity to adapt and overcome.  By the way, there’s just something about sprinting in the dead of night that accentuates the activity’s “primalness”.

In Health,

Keith