Getting coffee in my MDA "Grok On" Shirt
*The picture is completely unrelated to the post but i needed a picture. This is me harvesting coffee in what I imagine is the true Columbian tradition for ages… at the grocery store 
Last night I was finally able to work out again. This is after a 4 day hiatus from training. I am sure you are asking yourself “Ok well what happened 4 days ago then?” Well whether you actually are asking yourself that or not, I am going to tell you.
I am sure you have all heard that it is important to “ease yourself into plyometrics and intense bodyweight exercise”. This saying sounds almost ludicrous… I mean… its a BODYWEIGHT exercise for crying out loud. Well I fell victim to this line of thinking which forced me into the 4 day exercise hiatus lol.
It all started with a lack of motivation to really work out hard. I was going to train some legs but I didn’t really feel up to throwing around some heavy weights. I started with some full on front squats. Wearing 60#’s of weight vest and a 60# bar, I did 4 sets of 12 full range squats. Then I did 4 sets of 24 walking lunges while still wearing the vest. So far good workout but nothing really hurting me or motivating me. Next… plyo jump sprints up the stairs and then about 50 meters. Ok these started getting my heart rate up and motivating me to finish my workout hard. I wanted to do some box jumps, but I had destroyed my folding chair (see testerday’s post) and I had not yet built my box jump box so I did….
…Exploders. That is what I call em anyways (I think they might officially be called “squat jumps” but I am not positive). I am pretty sure this is where I did the damage. Bodyweight only (or wearing a weight vest if you are real good), squat down all the way (almost like Mark Sisson’s indigenous peoples stretch) then as quick and as powerfully as you can, “explode” up into standing and into a jump as high as you can. I did 4 sets of 8 of these.
Next thing you know, my legs are in excruciating pain for 2-3 days where I can barely walk unassisted and another day worth of tightness to wear there is no way I am working out. I evan woke my wife up one night because my leg cramped up so bad in my sleep that I woke up screaming lol.
Moral of the story in 2 quick points:
#1. Exploders are awesome! Do them… try incorporating these in your workout. Tabata protocol would be great with these.
#2. Listen to your body. If you need that extra rest… take it. It is the only way for your body to properly rest and recover. It is also the best way to see results!
Have you ever wrecked yourself with plyos? Are you familiar with exploders?
Sidenote: A friend gave me an idea for an awesome primal snack that I am going to expirement with tonight. If it works out well, I will try to get it up tomorrow.
March 31st, 2009 - 8:30 am
When you first told me about these a few days ago, I did 3 sets of 10 and my legs hurt after doing them, but didn’t end up getting sore at all. I’m gonna try these again tomorrow night and maybe try to do at least 50 and see if that does the trick.
March 31st, 2009 - 8:37 am
YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been there!
It wasn’t due to plyos though…
I did the “Murph” thanks to Bee.
My legs were aboslutely shot for 3 days.
so now, thanks to you my man, I will see if i can incapitate my legs again.
Tip, hot and cold contrast showers/bath/jacuzzi/buckets of ice water is what works really really well for recovery.
Marc
March 31st, 2009 - 8:39 am
Roger,
Have fun with them. It could have been the compination of everything I did too.
Marc,
Yeah, I lived in my hot tub for those couple days. Didn’t help lol. i maybe should of tried cold… but I HATE cold.
March 31st, 2009 - 9:08 am
Your awesome primal snack better not have coconut in it!
I don’t know if I have ever done jump squats like you described them. I like to do them while staying on my toes, so I don’t go down all the way. Then on the fifth jump I hold in the squat position for 5 seconds. As many as I can in one minute.
March 31st, 2009 - 9:51 am
I previously mentioned easing into plyometrics — my knees are in pretty good shape for my age, and I just barely qualified (the article I read said before starting you should be able to leg press 2.5 times your body weight, and do 5 consecutive “clap” pushups”). Still, this and the sprints I save for just once a week — the old torn thigh muscle and damaged nerve in my gluteus (both on the left side) already provide chronic pain without me pushing too far too fast!
(Also, blogged yesterday’s Primal Coconut Day for anyone interested in more details
March 31st, 2009 - 10:10 am
Jessica,
It is coconut free. lol.
damaged justice,
I read your primal coconut day post… sounds awesome. Thatnks for the mentions in your recent posts too! I should have taken you more seriously when you said ease into the plyos lol I paid the price.
March 31st, 2009 - 11:07 am
SoG- Oh, I’ve been there. Waaaaaaay too many times.
Plyos KILL my legs. It seems we don’t do a ton of plyo’s in Crossfit (even though box jumps are one of their 9 ‘main’ exercises they haven’t been coming up lately) but when I was training one of my favorite exercises was lunge jumps. Either switching legs or bringing the back leg up to the chest into a one-legged jump (does that make sense?).
Marc killed Murph btw.
Nice work- maybe I’ll do some exploders in my cash out tonight…
-B
March 31st, 2009 - 11:26 am
I did ~140 squat jumps last Tuesday to prepare for the start of bicycling season. Still was sore on Saturday when I actually got out on my bike, the hamstrings being the last muscle to loosen up.
March 31st, 2009 - 12:39 pm
Dude, last time I couldn’t walk from a work out I spent two days in the hospital hooked up to an I.V. (Rhabdomyolysis)
THAT was the last time I didn’t listen to my body…. and now I’m always afraid I’m going to re-injure myself so then I scale my work outs. THEN every time I scale a work out and can walk the next day without pain I call myself a pansy.
Double edged sword I tell you.
March 31st, 2009 - 2:34 pm
Since I’m still fan of traditional strength training (I know, boo, hiss, whatever), I intermingle my plyo with my strength movements; a set of squats, a set of box jumps, and so-on. Makes for a very intense workout, and we all know that its intensity, not variety that is the spice of life, right…..?
March 31st, 2009 - 2:42 pm
Bee,
Marc killed murph? i am calling the cops!
Robert M,
140?!?! that sounds brutal!
Rayna,
Rhabdomyolysis is some scary stuff. Doesn’t sound fun at all! Fit, functional and working or laid up in a hospital bed… you tell me who is the pansy? lol. Recovery is so important… some of us have learned the hard way to listen to our bodies!
Emergefit,
I wont boo and hiss you. I mentioned in this post that I started out with squat. i am a fan of mixing and matching myself. I still bench press here and there too. I have completely dropped a lot of iso exercises like bicep curls and the like though and I think my arms have actually grown in size since!
March 31st, 2009 - 3:06 pm
FDA: Hang on to your pistachios
If you have a stash of pistachios in your house, pistachio ice cream in your freezer or trail mix in your backpack, don’t eat any of it.
Wait until an inquiry into possible salmonella contamination is further along, advises FDA Associate Commissioner David Acheson.
Kraft Foods Inc. notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Tuesday that it found salmonella in roasted pistachios during routine testing. The nuts were traced to Setton Farms in Terra Bella, California, about 75 miles south of Fresno.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/31/pistachio.caution.salmonella/
March 31st, 2009 - 3:13 pm
Lm,
I have some pistachios but they are local New Mexico grown… I think I am ok… I hope lol.
March 31st, 2009 - 5:20 pm
Hoo boy, just rocked a half day of “reactive plyometrics”! Just a killer workout skiing 35″ of fresh powder. Top to bottom, non stop runs on steeeeeep terrain, in trees, at break-neck speeds. Large billowy mounds of powder, beyond bodyweight g-forces and accelerations. I’ve been hitting box jumps, lunges, leg blasters, bounding and other weighted leg lifts all winter and NOTHING has put the hurt on like the REACTIVE nature of skiing steep and deep. I think there’s even a bit of sensory overload that goes down at speed, rapid reactions, direction and power changes, balance, weight shifts and forces from gravity and speed, duration etc. Just putty legs. Best lay off a day or two, we’ll see what the snow does!
March 31st, 2009 - 6:21 pm
All bodyweight functional exercises toast me. Especially the leg stuff. I need like 2 or 3 days off.
TrailGrrl
March 31st, 2009 - 8:15 pm
Nice shirt! I love that he went with American Apparel… they’ve always got an awesome fit.
All the Best,
Andrew R
March 31st, 2009 - 10:53 pm
i did these exploders with weights awhile back when i was playing rugby, overdid it. Took me 20mins to wear just my jeans in the morning! I woke up screaming too haha. Hurt like a bitch man!
April 1st, 2009 - 12:22 am
Exploders are cool lol. I used to do this exercise like 9 years ago when I was on a vertical jump (air alert) program to increase my hops for basketball.
April 1st, 2009 - 2:02 am
Love the shirt and your looking quite lean! In a good way.
April 1st, 2009 - 7:11 am
SOG,
where do I find me a shirt? Is it on MDA site? I didn’t see it.
Marc
April 1st, 2009 - 8:12 am
Tim,
regretebaly.
Skiing is great exercise and is so much fun. I started skiing at age 4. Grew up in a small mountain town with an awesome ski hill! Then for college moved away and haven’t really skied since
Trailgrrl,
I hear that!
Andrew,
I am hoping that on release there will be a black one with white text.
Kev,
I can relate to that all too well. Rough! Yet awesome lol.
Yavor,
Why not experience a blast from the past and re-introduce them to your workout?
Dr Dan,
I appreciate the complement. My abs are coming in like never before! I am waiting for the upcoming 300 test to post a pic though. These shirts are pretty cool.
Marc,
My understanding is that the shirts will become available to the public with the launch of the MDA redesign coming very soon.
January 28th, 2010 - 10:20 am
Thanks for publishing about this. There’s a bunch of good tech info on the internet. You’ve got a lot of that info here on your site. I’m impressed – I try to keep a couple blogs fairly live, but it’s a struggle sometimes. You’ve done a solid job with this one. How do you do it?