Kipping On the Assisted Pull Up Machine

Does this make me look fat?

I meant to get to the gym earlier but there's always something to take care of before I get going. It's ridiculously warm today, peaking at 82°F with residual humidity from the past rains. Bugs galore! I don't understand their kamikaze impulses to fly into my eyes, nose and mouth which will inevitably lead to death and dismemberment. The last time one flew into my eye, I managed to fish it out some hours later, and of course, it was only half a bug. Yuck.

Trap bar in front of Olympic bar

I do my first cardio session, then manage a set of pull ups before knocking out a lone set of push ups, and then crunches and planks. There's a woman in the Smith, and someone else in the MaxRack so I amble off to the CF area to look at the Oly bar there. In front of it is a trap bar. It's surprisingly heavy, heavier than the 45 lb Olympic bar. I'm guessing 55 lbs because no one can tell me what it actually weighs. I do some RDLs with just the bar, but it feels a lot like squats. Then I pick up the Oly bar and it feels too light to do RDLs, and I'm too lazy to drag the plates out of the rack, so I try to do a few Clean and Jerks. I don't really know what I'm doing, so just as well that I'm only using the bar. I manage to get 12 reps, and that's made me a tad winded. I go check on the Smith at the other end of the gym. Yaaaay, it's free so I do RDLs there.

You can always tell something's heavy when you find yourself catching your breath hard in the center of your chest. It's a bit like doing tabata intervals, where you go all out for 30 seconds and not only are you gasping like a fish, but your chest hurts like someone hit you in the solar plexus. I like doing Intervals, but since I'm doing 30 minutes, I don't go 100% all out. Maybe 75-80% gauging by the RPM numbers. (If max rate is 270 RPMs, and I'm only hitting 224 sometimes, but mostly 210, then the 75-80% rate is fairly accurate.) My chest doesn't hurt when I do Intervals on the Precor.

Dressed

For fun, I do a few sets of RG BB Rows, but I skip the drag curls and RG BB Curls. I'm running out of time and I'd rather do Intervals on the elliptical. Afterwards, I attempt another set of HGPUs. While I'm on the elliptical, I see Towel Guy at the Assisted Pull Up machine. I hope to god that he's much older than I am, for his sake. He has a passing resemblance to Hugh Hefner in better days, with "distinguished" greying temples. (Heck, I have grey hair too, but I don't think it makes me look distinguished.) Usually I see him on the Step Mill, or at a few of the machines. And he's a regular at the Assisted Pull Up. But today I see him frantically kipping his pull ups. Seriously? It's one thing to try and get your body weight up to the bar when doing real pull ups, but something else if you're on a machine that counterbalances your weight. There's no excuse for kipping there!

I get a decent number of reps before my left elbow complains. The one good thing about using a 12" grip further out on the roof cage is that my body doesn't seem to swing much so I'm not fighting to keep myself steady and straight while doing pull ups. Yaaaay! I'm sure the old guys are jealous.

Friday
6.48 total miles

30 min x-trainer
Calories 142
Miles 3.80
Average Heart Rate 165

HGPU 26
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 50
Crunches 3 x 50
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Trap Bar RDL or Squat?
15 reps

Olympic Bar (45 lbs)
RDL 12 reps
Clean & Jerk? 12 reps

Smith RDLs
Bar (30 lbs) x 12
80 lbs x 12
100 x 12
120 x 12
130 x 12

RG BB Rows
80 x 25 reps
100 x 25
120 x 25

30 min elliptical
Intervals
Calories 307
Miles 2.68

HGPU 25