Monkeyin’ Around: Days 10 & 11 (Week 6)

So you all get a double-action recap this week, since I didn’t post one. For new readers, I am chronicling my adventures in strength conditioning for rugby at the Monkey Bar Gym.

By the way, I now have that SNL skit song in my head, “yeah, it’s the Chronic-What?!-cles of Narnia, yeah, the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia” (video link with sound).

So Week 6 of my quest for strength conditioning greatness hit a roadbump with the now infamous Broken Pinkie Incident. (cue the suspenseful music)

Sadly, I am now in the cripple corner and I get “special workouts” from Chad our instructor, my teammates heckle me and I “should remember not to break my finger next time”. Yes, yes. Bite me, okay? Thankfully, I’m still busting my ass and this should only last until I get the big splint off in two weeks and only my actual pinkie finger is splinted, not most of my left hand.

Tuesday’s workout was our second Deck of Cards. Push-ups, Pull-Ups, Lunges and this time, instead of Extensions, we did Around-The-Worlds (ATWs). Draw a card, do the exercise that matches the suit and the number on the card. More than one card in all the same suit, you do the sum.

ATWs, in case your curious, are holding yourself in a plank or push-up position, then you use your core to stay in that position while you take turns lifting up each hand and then each foot, so Hand-Hand-Foot-Foot equals one ATW. Make sure you keep your butt down and you don’t have to lift up your hands or feet a lot, just a couple of inches.

Because I can’t use my left hand, I got to use these nifty power cables attached to a wall at chest height. So instead of push-ups, I stood backwards with one foot out farther, pushing the cable handles away from my body (like a push-up) and to increase the resistance I was standing fairly far out, really pulling the cables away from the wall.

For pull-ups, I faced the fall, the cables were moved to a higher attachment, and I was sweeping the cables down and behind me (kind of like how you use your arms to cross-country ski if that makes sense). And for the ATWs, I used one cable, held it in both hands (mainly my right) and was sweeping it from my far left to my far right, keeping my abs tight, knees soft and you had to make sure you picked up your foot to its toes opposite of which side you swept too. With all of these, my resistance was increased by stepping farther from the wall so the cables were tight and using your momentum.

Since I could do lunges just fine, I started with jumping lunges for the first few sets and finished with standing lunges. I had to make sure my front heel was hitting the ground first, not my toes, and keeping my knees stable and straight.

All in all, a hard workout, especially when we had sets of 28 & 33 lunges, then ended with 34 Around-The-Worlds. My cable work was hard, but since my teammates looked like some of them might vomit, the normal workout was obviously harder.

Last night was our second go-round with the Prison Workout. 12 cleans with a medicine ball, 10 lunges across the room with your ball, 12 overheard presses with the ball, then keep the ball above your head, abs tight, as you walk it back to the start. You count down 12-1 for your sets, but always 10 lunges across the room. Since it was our second Prison Workout, everyone was supposed to increase their weight, increase the sets (like if you only did 10-1 last time), or both.

Since I couldn’t put weight on my hand, I use the power cables again. I stood on the middle of the cable with a handle in each hand at chest/shoulder height and did presses, did the lunges, then did standing squats of my body weight and jogged back. I had done 12 sets last time, so I started again with 12, counted down to five, then rather than continuing to count down, did four sets of the fives, and decided to start counting back up until everyone else was done with their sets. I made it back up to 8. Towards the end, I was tiring, but not as much as my first prison workout so I could’ve probably used a higher-resistance cable. But since I counted back up and did more sets, I figured it was okay.

After our workout, I joined some of my friend for food and a drink, probably stayed out a bit longer than I should’ve, but that’s cool. I can sleep when I’m dead, right?

Tags: Women’s Rugby Women’s Sports Rugby Sports