Today I had some complications before getting to the gym. Two different reporters wanted to meet with the mayor this afternoon, one at 4 and the other at 4:20 p.m. The area was Old Wailuku town which was perfect because Raw Maui Fitness was just a couple of blocks away. I parked the car at the gym and ran to the location.
Things wrapped up nicely at 5 and I ran back, a good warm-up before the workout. I shouldn't have bothered. Bumper had it all planned out. Damn him.
We started out doing stretches and all that then he had us partner up. One of us sat on the ground and stretched out our arms. The other had to jump over the outstreched arms 10 times, then reverse and go the other way. It wasn't brutal, but it was punishing.
But see, that was just the set up. We cranked out some deadlifts then it was time for the real deal, four rounds of five power cleans and jerks followed by 10 burpees which involved us jumping sideways over our weightlifting bar instead of straight up.
You folks reading this might be confused about the workout, but that part doesn't matter. What does matter is that none of us had any leg strength for burpees anymore after that stupid jump-over-your-partner's-arms routine in the warm-up. I did one burpee and felt my legs tremble during the first round and said to myself "Ah crap."
It was brutal and punishing and turned my legs limp. I looked around and saw my fellow gym members collapsing on the ground for the burpees and then barely making it over a bar only two or three inches off the ground.
The whole clean and jerk thing was nothing. I used 115 and could have probably done 20 pounds more. Sure Bumper said I reversed curled the first set of five but after that you have to do good form. There's no other way to get that much weight up underneath your chin. But whatever, that's not the painful part. I'd rather do 50 clean and jerks in a row than 10 burpees again, especially after the jumping we did beforehand.
You know, I'd better be able to block my brother's shots if we play basketball again with all this jumping that we do. I think when he visits for Christmas I might just invite him out for a game at the park. Maybe if I swat a few shots of his I'll feel motivation to jump again.
Otherwise I'm going to continue to hate burpees.
