Friday FUN

Happy happy Friday to all, we have survived another work week!!! [always questionable...] A couple of weeks ago I remembered a song that we used to sing in spanish class in elementary school every Friday, so I have decided to share that with you: "viernes, viernes, viernes es mi dia favorita. lunes es mal, martes asi asi, miercoles mejor, jueves casi alli...pero viernes, viernes, viernes es mi dia favorita." Almost too philosophical and beautiful to handle, I know, but try to embrace it and hold back the tears.

My Friday has definitely started off with a bang. On the menu? Power clean progression, chest, shoulders, and a little taste of core to finish off the morning.

For those of you who don't know me well [at least in the weight room], cleans are my absolute favorite lift. They are raw power and athleticism. I. Love. Power. Cleans. It also doesn't hurt that I'm good at them, which makes everything more fun. I have officially taken about 2 years off of power cleans, so a week ago I decided that reintroduction was necessary. I am so happy to see my old friend. A power clean progression is great if you haven't cleaned in awhile, or have never cleaned. The progression I like is three steps: shrug, high pull, power clean [all with a barbell loaded with as much weight as you feel comfortable with]. I did the full progression 3 times [5 shrugs, 5 pulls, 5 cleans], adding weight each set, and added on an extra set of power cleans at the end for good measure. Girls - I know these look intimidating but they really aren't. Once you do them a couple of times you will feel comfortable, give it a shot!

It can be tough to do power cleans at a 'normal' gym, aka not a college athletic training center. There are generally no olympic lifting platforms, no rubber plates, and the bars aren't designed for cleans [they don't spin]. Butttt.... I made it work, so can you! The bar I used was really rough and I now have scrapes all over my collar bone. It is a really good look for the office. At least it makes me feel intense. Also received the best compliment from a trainer at my gym after I finished with cleans, he came over told me that I had impeccable form and asked who wrote my training program. I smiled, let him know we had great  weight coaches in college, and that I write my own programs. I was proud of myself and love being recognized as an athlete.

For chest, I did three sets of incline dumbell press x10 and superset with pushups x10. The duo is killer, give it a shot. Your chest will be screaming [in a good way of course]. Shoulders were cable lateral raise, three sets of 10 each side, which was a new exercise for me and really isolate the shoulders, I loved it. Dessert, aka core, was 5 sets of 15 med ball bench crunches. You sit on the very end of a bench, hold a heavy med ball between your knees and crunch your upper and lower body together, grabbing each side of the bench for balance. These should hurt, a lot, deep in your core. They are awesome.

Daily anecdote: I had forgotten my wallet at home, so I had to trek home from the gym before going to work this morning. I was greeted to ice cold water during my shower, not luke warm...ice cold. I have never been in more pain. It is 25 degrees outside this morning and that felt warm compared to my shower. I tried to pretend I was in some really extreme circumstance where showering in glacier water was my only option. It only sort of worked...and I'm still wearing my puffy coat.

Workout in a nutshell:
10 mins warmup on stairmaster
3 sets clean progression: 5x shrug, 5x high pull, 5x power clean
3 sets 10x incline dumbell bench, 10 pushups
3 sets 10x each cable lateral raise
5 sets 15 reps med ball bench crunches

ENJOY! And TGIF!!!!