NerdStrong Gym - The Upper Body Workout

Coach Andrew is back today.. woot!! It's a strength day today which normally means barbell work.

We started with a pretty good warm up. 2 rounds of 10x Air Squats, 30x Jumping Jacks, 10x Half Moons and finally 30x Mountain Climbers.

Next was the Skill part of the out.. today we did Close Grip Bench Press'. I've done bench press' in the past but not close grip, it really does work an entirely different part of your body. We started with 5 reps at a light weight and then did another set a 5 at the same weight. We then did 3 sets of 3 at a heavier weight. For Derek (my partner) and I we up'd the weight each time before hitting our limit. For the last set Coach Andrew wanted us to do 8 or more reps at a lower weight. We opted for 65lbs and it proved to be a bit to light for me as I hit my 20th rep before stopping.

After that we moved on to Negative Pull Ups, which means you pull yourself up to the bar and then slowly release back down, it's alike a reverse pull up. These are really tough, maybe not as tough as an actual pull up but most of use can't do multiple pull ups in a row. In between sets of pull ups we did Dumbbell Shoulder Press. These were a bit easier until I up'd my weight from 15lbs to 20lbs and then things got interesting.

To finish off the workout for the day we did a Half TABATA Hollow Hold. This is raising your head and shoulders off the ground a few inches while doing the same with your feet and legs. We had to hold for :20 seconds before taking a :10 second break.. we did this four times and by the fourth your stomach/core is burning.

BTW the 7am class has really gown this past week.. it use to be just a few of us but now we have seven to eight members working out.. it's pretty great. Thanks to Coach Andrew for another great workout..