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NROL4W Stage 3
May. 26th, 2011 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daedalaI just finished Stage 3. Hooray!
The biggest problem with this stage, for me, is that the workouts are so. damn. long. As written, they will take about 90 minutes, if not more. The prescribed rest periods alone will take 37 min (A) or 48 min (B). I found I could handle them more easily by splitting them up: for workout A, I started doing the bodyweight matrix separately, and for workout B, I would do the ab work and the intervals separately. Not ideal, but better than stopping.
Apart from the time issue, I liked the workouts a lot. Someone who sees me irregularly (and usually under stress), and last saw me when I was at the beginning of Stage 2, says my breathing has suddenly, and very strikingly, changed: it's much more relaxed, not so anxious, etc. My breathing isn't always that bad, but it really is under stress; I'm just so used to it that I can't notice it. I think it's the intervals that have helped.
I really, really liked workout A. It's tough and uses some weird-ass exercises, like the one where you hold a light dumbbell over your head, and a heavier dumbbell low, and squat (and then do it again with the other arm over your head). I used 5 and 10 lb dumbbells for that, because of my flexibility problems. I progressed a lot in A, too, which helps; the snatch started at 15 lbs, which was maybe a little low but not a lot, and finished at 25 lbs.
The floor work on B got very tedious, especially since it had the same rest period as the weighted exercises; I have no idea how to make, say, the lateral flexion challenging enough for that. Doing it separately from the first part of the workout helped a lot with the tedium, because part of that was contrast to the heavier work before; so did skipping a lot of the rest. I can see why Cosgrove changed his opinions regarding core work!
( Final Weights of the Weighted Exercises )
Next, I have a week off for Wiscon (yay Wiscon!) and then I go to stage 4, which is just like Stage 2 with fewer reps. (The book suggests 2 or 3 sets. I'm sticking with 2, thanks.) The end of stage 3 is the halfway point, because stage 1 is so long. The end is in sight!
The biggest problem with this stage, for me, is that the workouts are so. damn. long. As written, they will take about 90 minutes, if not more. The prescribed rest periods alone will take 37 min (A) or 48 min (B). I found I could handle them more easily by splitting them up: for workout A, I started doing the bodyweight matrix separately, and for workout B, I would do the ab work and the intervals separately. Not ideal, but better than stopping.
Apart from the time issue, I liked the workouts a lot. Someone who sees me irregularly (and usually under stress), and last saw me when I was at the beginning of Stage 2, says my breathing has suddenly, and very strikingly, changed: it's much more relaxed, not so anxious, etc. My breathing isn't always that bad, but it really is under stress; I'm just so used to it that I can't notice it. I think it's the intervals that have helped.
I really, really liked workout A. It's tough and uses some weird-ass exercises, like the one where you hold a light dumbbell over your head, and a heavier dumbbell low, and squat (and then do it again with the other arm over your head). I used 5 and 10 lb dumbbells for that, because of my flexibility problems. I progressed a lot in A, too, which helps; the snatch started at 15 lbs, which was maybe a little low but not a lot, and finished at 25 lbs.
The floor work on B got very tedious, especially since it had the same rest period as the weighted exercises; I have no idea how to make, say, the lateral flexion challenging enough for that. Doing it separately from the first part of the workout helped a lot with the tedium, because part of that was contrast to the heavier work before; so did skipping a lot of the rest. I can see why Cosgrove changed his opinions regarding core work!
( Final Weights of the Weighted Exercises )
Next, I have a week off for Wiscon (yay Wiscon!) and then I go to stage 4, which is just like Stage 2 with fewer reps. (The book suggests 2 or 3 sets. I'm sticking with 2, thanks.) The end of stage 3 is the halfway point, because stage 1 is so long. The end is in sight!
