Swim (1000 yard)

Friday, May 27, 2022

Carmody Rec Center

1230

1000 Yard Swim

1x800 FR

1x100 BA

1x100 BR

--

27 minutes

Front Squat - Dips

Thursday, May 26, 2022

CFG - OPEN GYM

1430

Warm Up

row

air squats

lateral lunges

mtn climber t spine rotation

banded fire hydrant

banded side step

Front Squat

5x50

3x60

3x70

1x80

1x85

1x90kg (198#)

Ring Dips

EMOM style

3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-2 = 25 total reps

Humble Beginnings

Back in April of 2015, I was enamored with a gentleman's garage gym which I thought was the Creme De La Creme.  At that point I thought $2000 was an outrageous budget and 1000# of weight was asinine.

Innocently enough, I started out with a barbell and plates, a bench, and some plate loaded dumbbells.

Flash forward 7 years later and I have nearly $8000 invested in a one car garage functional fitness gym with an overflow powerlifting gym in the basement.  I also have $1000 invested in vintage weight plates.  

I have 1 rack, 2 benches, 1750 pounds of plates, 6 barbells and 4 pairs of collars.

I have secured a plethora of functional fitness equipment including 2 kettlebells, 4 med balls and 2 sets of plyometric boxes.

The gym has morphed as my needs have morphed.  

In 2015, it was simply to have a few items at home to practice with.

In 2016, it was a functional fitness gym to complement a globo gym

In 2020, it became a primary gym

In 2022, it is in transition

What do I want to do in this space?

(1) Powerlifting

(2) Functional Fitness

I cannot accomplish both well in the space I have. 

I currently have a Crossfit Gym membership that feels permanent.  I use the Reverse Hyper and Glute Ham Developer; but do not have these at home.  I swim at Carmody Rec Center and cannot recreate this training at home.

Starting from scratch I would go with:

Powerlifting

• Half Rack with weight storage (I like the mobility of the Yoke for use at home)
• Bench
• 45# Barbell
• Bumper Plates (3) 45, (2) 25, (2) 15, (2) 10
• Change Plates 10-5-2.5-1.25
• Fractional Plates

I could get there by selling the Yoke, buying a half rack with storage and upgrading the Beater Bar to a Texas Power Bar

Functional Fitness

• Pull-up Bar
• 14# Med Ball
• 35# Kettlebell
• Climbing Rope
• Gymnastics Rings
• (2) Abmats
• Jump Ropes
• Strongman Sandbag
• Plyo Boxes
• Dumbbells - 15-25-35-50
• Timer
• Bands
• Flooring
• Gymnastics Mat
• Romwod stretching mat
• Crossover Symmetry

To get here, I would need to buy a strongman sandbag and a RomWod mat and get rid of my cheap foam mat

I like having a Concept2 Rower, but it is overkill for a home gym ($990)

That being said, I have some items that I like and am not parting with regardless of use including

• Atlas Stones (paid $60)
• Parallettes (paid $20)
• Brute Force Sandbag (paid $125)
• Battle Rope (paid $30)
• Bulgarian Bag (paid $100)
• Plate Carrier (net $55, sold heavier plates)
• Steel Mace (paid $40)
• Chains (paid $23)
• York Roundheads (ongoing 7-7-20-20-25-50 = $225)
• Vintage Iron Plates (ongoing = $930)
• York EZ Curl Bar, Curl Bar and Ironman Plates ($40 + $8 + $60)

I am attached to these as they are hard to find unique items that are not found in commercial gyms or micro gyms

I do have some oddball stuff that served me well, but now is not necessary

• Technique Bar and Plates (paid $140, sell $100?)
• 15kg Barbell (paid $210, sell $150)
• Standard Barbell Handles and Plates (paid $12, sell 50 cents/pound)

Really should sell ($870)

• Axle Bar - $20
• Back Extension - $200
• Ab Bench - $200
• Titan Silencer Pad - $100
• Mutt Bar - $50
• Hi Temp Bumper Plates - $300

I got a little carried away buying dumbbells and somehow have 15-20-25-27.5-30-35-40-45-50-60#

Push Press - Metcon

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

CFG - Lucas

1200 - 6 of us

Warm Up

deadlift jump

pvc pass through

pvc prone press and raise

inch worm

down facing scorpion

bootstrapper

pvc btn press

deadbug

lat stretch

front rack stretch

Weightlifting

Four sets of:

Push Press (4 reps)

Rest 30 seconds

Prone Plank (90 seconds)

Rest 2 minutes

I went 85-95-105-105 and went the full 90 seconds with prone plank on elbows.

Metcon

Against a 60 second running clock, for a total of five sets, perform as many reps as possible of:

10 Kettlebell Swings (32/24 kg)

Max Reps of Thrusters (75/55 lbs)

Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Score is max number of thrusters completed during the workout. Note reps performed each set as well so that you can track your consistency – or drop off.

This was tough.  I scaled to the 24 kg KB and did Russian Swings.  I was finishing the 10 reps in 18-20 seconds.  I used a 45# empty barbell and managed 11 reps each round in the remaining 40 seconds.

Lagniappe

2x10x90# Reverse Hyper

Rogue Echo Bike 50 Cal Challenge - 3:32

My max wattage was around 550 watts, but it fell off considerably.  My average wattage was around 270 watts.  I need to work on consistency and pacing for this shorter time domain.

Metcon - Strength

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

CFG - Lacey

1200 ~ 10 of us

Warm Up

run

down facing scorpion

quad stretch plus reverse lunge

banded skaters

scap push-up

table top stretch

banded 2-1-2

ankle driver

scap pull-up

Metcon

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:

10 Dumbbell Renegade Rows (50/35 lbs) (L Row, PU, R Row, PU =1)

20 Box Jumps (24″/20″)

Run 200 Meters

I was not sure how this was going to go as I did not feel really energetic during the warm up.  I grabbed 15# dumbbells and an 18" box, but had to scale further.  I ended up with knee renegade rows only performing 1 of the 2 pull-ups.  I finished the 3rd set of box jumps with 38 seconds to go and took off on a Hail Mary run.

Weightlifting

Four sets of:

Weighted Strict Pull-Ups (3-4 reps @ 21X0)

Rest 20 seconds

Strict Pull-Up (Unweighted Max reps @ 21X0)

Rest 20 seconds

Hollow Body Hold (Max effort)

Rest 3 minutes

Somehow I misread this and only did three sets.  I kept great tempo on the first set of pull-ups which were unweighted strict and I got 4 each round.  I did banded pull-ups for the second effort and got 6-6-5.  Finally I kept great from on hollow body holds, but only lasted 20 second.

Finished with Glute Ham Raises.

Garage Gym Competition - Preliminary Results

I love data and the garage gym competition certainly had no shortage of data, capturing and distributing participants by:

Data Captured

Sex

Age Range

Body Weight

Squat

Bench

Deadlift

1024 people submitted scores

193 women

829 men

2 non-binary

Of 829 men

33 were under 12

11 were 12 to 17

48 were 18 to 24

394 were 25 to 34

239 were 35 to 44

39 were 45 to 54

8 were 55 to 64

54 did not make this information public

Of 844 men

59kg - 52

66kg - 14

74kg - 41

83kg - 156

93kg - 238

105kg - 181

120kg - 100

120kg+ - 62

Less than 5% of the men would be in my age range, however the largest constituency (238 or 28% would fall into the 93 kg weight class).

93 kg Weight Class

Of the 240 athletes in the male 93 kg weight class.  

Average Squat was 332#, median was 335# (my 235# puts me at 20th percentile)

Average Bench was 242#, median was 255# (my 190# puts me at 20th percentile)

Average Deadlift was 386#, median was 405# (my 325# puts me at 28th percentile)

Pretty Impressive Numbers for the 93 kg men.  

I feel like the median numbers are outside my grasp.  However, I do have some room for improvement, especially on squat and bench.  I am targeting a 275# squat; 225# bench and 345# deadlift (845# total or 95# improvement).

28th percentile squat

30th percentile bench

32nd percentile deadlift

Ideally I would be competing at 83kg as well.  I am only 4kg away from that number as I am currently sitting at 87kg.

Historic Participation and Improvement

Year over year of 1050 scores, only 8 posted scores in 2018, 29 posted scores in 2019, 165 posted scores in 2020 and 235 posted scores in 2021.  The garage gym competition is growing.

Excluding the 38 folks who had improvements greater than 20%, the average change year over year was 7% over 192 athletes.  97 athletes lost 0-10% and 59 lost more than 10%.

Given that 7% I could reasonably expect a 250# squat; 205# bench; 345# deadlift.  However, I consider myself an experienced lifter with less room for improvement than novices.  7% represents a 50# improvement to an 800# total.

Equipment Discussion

632 used equipment in some form

407 did not

Specialty Squat Bar - 83

Specialty Bench Bar - 22

Specialty Deadlift Bar - 116

Knee Sleeves for Squat - 431

Knee Sleeves for Bench - 32

Knee Sleeves for Deadlift - 88

Knee Wraps for SBD - 46/2/3

Squat Suit/Briefs for SD - 5/5

Wrist Wraps for SBD - 162/352/30

Wrist Straps for SBD - 6/8/162

Elbow Sleeves for SBD - 19/97/9

Slingshot for Bench - 3

Deadlift Suit - 2

Other SBD - 60/18/63

I personally used knee sleeves (431) for squat.  I also used wrist wraps (352) and elbow sleeves (97) for Bench.

The most popular items were squat knee sleeves (431), bench wrist wraps (352) and deadlift wrist straps (162).  I was surprised that 116 (over 10%) of the community had a deadlift bar.  83 participants with a specialty squat bar did not surprise me as the Safety Squat Bar, Duffalo Bar and Transformer Bars are quite popular.  In retrospect, I could have used wrist straps, but I really only prefer those for higher volume sets (as opposed to 1RM efforts).

Cleans - Metcon

Monday, May 23, 2022

CFG - Janet

1200 - 10 of us

Warm Up

fast mountain climbers

good mornings

banded squat with thoracic twist

banded single leg glute bridge

banded side step

pigeon stretch

Weightlifting

Every 2:30 minutes, for 15 minutes (6 sets):

Clean (1.1.1)

(rest 10 seconds between singles)

I went 95-105-115-125-135-135# and felt like all were quality reps with a good receiving position

Metcon (Time)

Three rounds for time of:

15 Deadlifts (155/105 lbs)

12 Hang Power Cleans (155/105 lbs)

9 Front Squats (155/105 lbs)

6 Jerks (155/105 lbs)

I scaled this aggressively to 85# and it was still tough

Round 1 - 2:30

Round 2 - 3:30 (6:00)

Round 3 - 3:15 (9:15)

Finished with (3) sets of 10 reps at 95# on the Reverse Hyper