March 19th, 2012: Superhero Workout Begins!

I love comic book heroes.  There's just something so incredibly awesome and awe-inspiring about them.  They just exude charisma, class, and mad crazy athleticism.  Spider Man can climb up walls like it's nothing, Captain America throws his shield like a pro, and Batman is just...Batman.  I've spent a lot of time in my yard when I was little pretending to kick bad guy butt.  Ok, maybe I do that a little bit nowadays.  The point is that heroes kick ass.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this workout series called "The Hero Training Workouts," created by Chad Howse.  He created a series of five workouts, all geared towards doing something heroic in real life.  Now while the workout names aren't very creative, they focus on real-life situations, and gives you workout to help up your ante.  He has you focus on a couple of key moves to hep create strength in that area, then gives you a workout challenge to help with muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Like today's workout for instance.  It's so creatively called the Chase Down a Purse Snatcher Workout.  As outlined by Chad, he says a couple of things you'll need for chasing down that nasty ol' purse snatcher is, and I quote:

• The explosive speed needed for the start of the sprint and the first 10-20 meters.
• The endurance should the chase go longer than expected

Ok, cool beans.  I'm game.  And I wanna be Batman.  So let's give this workout a shot.  I'll try the workout for eight weeks, gradually changing things and upping the weight if need be.  Because the system varies so much, I can do this workout for a bit longer than your typical, not-superhero workout.  
But first, to make sure that these workout actually make a difference, let's get some stat info.  I decided to go ahead and measure my right and left sides, respectively, because who wants a superhero that isn't symmetrical?  That's just silly.  Anywho, here are my stats:

Weight: 169 lbs 

Body Fat: 6.1%

Neck Measurement: 16”

Shoulders at their widest point (halfway between your nipples and your clavicle): 48”

Chest (measuring tape right across your nipples and under your arms): 40”

Waist 3 inches above your bellybutton: 32.5”

Waist at your belly button: 32”

Waist 3 inches below your belly button: 35”

Hips at their widest point: 39”

Thigh 9 inches above the top of your kneecap: 23”/23.5”

Thigh 6 inches above the top of your kneecap: 21”/21”

Thigh 3 inches above the top of your kneecap: 18”/18”

Calf at its widest point: 16”/15.75”

Bicep (flexed) measure the widest point: 15”/14.75”

Forearm at its widest point: 13”/13” 

Posing shirtless with a fedora, like a boss

Now you may or may not know me, but I always like to add a little extra.  So I did.  I decided to add a nice 30 minute run after the workout, and a lovely exercise called Floor Wipers, as well as my ab work.  Those who followed my old blog would have seen the video for this, but I'll give you a link to the video here, as well as the link for my ab workout here (keep in mind I did three sets of these).

Ready for the workout?  Remember, it's two segments, strength and endurance/challenge set, plus the run afterwards.  I'll separate them.  Let's get super...sweaty.

Strength: 

• Deadlift: 3 sets of 3: 205/210/215
• Floor Wipers: 3 sets of 10: 175/180/185
• Box Jumps: 2 sets of 6 @ 30 inches
• Box Jumps: 2 sets of 12 @ 30 inches

Endurance Challenge: Done as fast as possible: done in 13:35

• 50 Pushups
• 50 Kettlebell Swings @ 35 pounds
• 50 TRX Low Rows
• 50 Bodyweight Squats
• 100 Lunge Jumps
• 60 seconds of High Knees

4x50 meter sprints

30 minute vary pace run (varying the speed that I'm running, but keeping it manageable).  

I will progress and get better; now that I have some idea of how things flow, it'll get so much easier.
Well, until tomorrow!