Today's Workout Part II

After picking up my son and nephew from school, helping my son with his homework and getting him ready for his dance class, I managed to squeeze in a good half-hour strength training workout.

For most of the past few years, I did a lot of circuit training. Basically, I would intersperse strength training, like pushups, chinups, etc., with forms, shadow boxing or bag work.

I've been wanting to split the workouts into two separate sessions for a while. The earlier workout focused on martial arts. The later workout will focus on strength.

While my son, Vitaly, and my nephew, Gavin, played outside, I alternated between leg raises on my power tower and dead lifts. The dead lifts I was taught in high school focus almost entirely on the lower back and glutes.

I start by standing on something sturdy, like some cinderblocks. I take a light barbell, hold it in front of me with my arms down. Then I slowly bend at the waist until I can't go any farther. It not only strengthens the back, it stretches the hamstrings.

Following a few sets of those exercises, I did a couple of small sets of chinups and arm curls.

I closed with two sets each of sideways crunches and a set with the wrist roller. It would have been two sets, but the sword workout took a lot out of me and I hadn't recovered even four hours later.