Thursday/Motor Unit Recruitment

Blurry photo above of Adil doing the workout:

8 Rounds of:
10 Kettlebell swings (24kg)
10 lunges (holding the Kettlebell at chest)
11 clapping pushups

The clapping pushups seemed to be the hardest part of the workout which was understandable. Some people were curious to know why we were doing clapping pushups versus regular pushups recently. Its because I am experimenting with you guys! :)

Training with movements that use high contraction speeds (explosive movements) recruit more of the motor units of your muscle to contract. A motor unit consists of a nerve cell and the muscle fibers it innervates. Muscles generate force through motor unit recruitment (and frequency of firing which is also dependent on recruitment). So clapping pushups are a faster way to get your upper body/chest muscles stronger. Also why we do box jumps for our legs.
Haley

Trixie #2

Another pic of gym dog Trixie (Natalie's cute bulldog). We had an earlier picture of her on October 8th post.

Yesterday's strength component of the workout was 4 sets of single Deadlifts at 95%-105% of max. It was awesome to see lots of people increasing their heavy strength. (Lloyd, Eric, Natalie, Simona, Chris to name some of evening crew who had an average of 30 lbs DL increase).

January Challenge

The January Challenge this month was 2 minutes max reps of box jumps. So far Narayan is the leader! However he did get some battle wounds on the last rep:

why we workout

Hi everyone,
Here is a picture Ryan just sent of one of his buddies all loaded up with gear. It made me think of the best reason to workout, go to the gym, eat right, etc. Our bodies are tools and should be kept in good functional shape. You should be ready to handle any physical situation that comes your way. So next time I throw a 45# vest on you while you are doing burpees, you can thank Ryan :)