Two uses for a deck of cards (besides actual card games, that is):

1. Deck Workout: shuffle 'em up, put them face down, and turn the cards over one at a time. Perform the exercise indicated by the suit:
   • Spades: bodyweight squats
   • Hearts: pull-ups
   • Diamonds: push-ups
   • Clubs: four-count chinnies (left-right-left-right-ONE, etc.)
   Do repetitions in accordance with the value of the card, doing one for aces and ten for all face cards. You might want a multiplier in effect for the squats. And it certainly wouldn't take me long to resort to jumping pull-ups following this protocol.
2. Use the cards to keep track of circuits. For example, to keep track of the 10 circuits in Work Capacity 101 you'd deal out 10 cards, and turn one over after each time you finish a circuit. When they're all flipped, you're done (in oh-so-many ways).

Some fellow Ultimate bloggers are working the Air Alert III vertical leap program. Looks killer.

Two quick Ultimate variants before I hit the sack: Durango Boot and Schtick. Both of these might be fun to play in the gym, since the outdoor season is well and truly over here. Thanks to Seigs for the lead; I had never heard of these before.

A few days ago I mentioned a DIY pull-up bar as an alternative for more expensive models. I just ran across an inexpensive off-the-shelf model though, that looks almost exactly like the one I own. The only differences appear to be that mine was by Champ's and this one is by Everlast. Also, mine had red pads and this one has black. Otherwise I'd say they are identical (from looking at the pictures, at least). Read the user reviews, as they raise the following potential issues: cheap construction (mine has lasted great), possible marring of surface just above the door due to scraping (yes, I get a bit of this), marring of door trim surface due to color rubbing off the black padding (haven't noticed this with my red pads), and door sizing issues (description says, "fits most doorways up to 32 inches"). $25 is quite a price though.

As I've noted, I'm new to dumbbell work, but it factors into the program I'm currently following. Lots of whole-body moves like snatches, clean-and-presses, etc. It's going pretty well, but as I press the DB over my head, especially on some of the more "explosive" moves, if the DB cocks the plates whack against my forearm, very close to my wrist. I expect I'll correct this as my control improves, but in the meantime I've developed bone bruises on both arms, which make for an uncomfortable workout after awhile. So here's my solution:

1. Have a daughter.
2. Sign her up for youth soccer.
3. Steal one of her shinguards.
4. Strap it to your wrist.

The fit is perfect, and you get to feel all protective of this young creature whose leg is the size of your arm.

UPDATE: Having finally tried a real GHD, I have come to realize what a poor substitute this is for the real thing. I'm leaving the page up so as not to break links, but I can't recommend this approach. It was a better idea in theory than in practice.

The Crossfit folks love the Glute-Ham Raise, and it is one of the exercises featured in Infinite Intensity by Ross Enamait (my current program). So of course this warranted further investigation on my part. Really, you don't need to do any research beyond reading The Glute-Ham Developer (PDF, 787KB) by BFS, which is a description of the machine, includes a history of the exercise, a compelling list of benefits, and a variety of other exercises you can also perform on the apparatus (abbreviated "GHD"). The more you read, the more such a device seems like a must-have.

The problem is that GHDs are a bit pricey. Some Crossfitters recently shopped around, and there's always Froogle or eBay. Enamait's home-grown approach is to put a towel on the floor under his knees, secure his ankles, and do them that way. The pressure on my kneecaps scared me off trying them that way, so here's what I came up with:

I'm not recommending you build one of these, as it's surely structurally unsound, will break, and will maim or kill you. But here's how I did it just for curiosity's sake...

My Swiss Ball serves as the rounded pad. To anchor my feet I made two T-shaped attachments from 3/4" threaded galvanized pipe and screwed them to my basement door. Each T is composed of a floor flange, a 5" nipple, a T fitting, two 12" nipples, and pipe insulation for padding (make sure you buy the right size - the insulation should provide two measurements, one for the copper pipe it fits, and another for steel). To affix to the door I drilled all the way through and used bolts, washers, and wingnuts. The wingnuts make it easy to remove these or shift them to different positions. You might think you'd want to permanently affix the flanges to the door and just unscrew each T to move it, but you can't really do this as when you go to unscrew one T it will hit the other.

A couple assembly notes:

• You can just screw everything together by hand, leaving the flanges off. Then attach one flange to the door. Screw on the T assembly. You'll be able to use the "arms" of the T to get lots of leverage, making it really tight. Then get your feet in position to figure out where you want the other T to go, and affix the flange. Remove the tightened T via the wingnuts, and then screw the other T really tight. Reattach the initial T when you're done. One thing you might want to consider which I didn't do is epoxy the threads to make the assembly permanent (not the wingnut threads, of course).
• You might want to use smaller than a 5" nipple for the "upright" of the T. You'll want a fairly snug fit, and if your door has panels like the one above it can be tricky, as it's a squeeze to get your foot in, but then it's loose once it's in position because you're on a panel. I ended up screwing a couple boards onto my door to make the fit snug (not shown, as this was today, post-photo). Shorter than 12" nipples for the "arms" might solve this as well, as you wouldn't span different "depths" on the surface of the door.

So far using it is a mixed bag. It's great for back extensions and full range-of-motion situps. Jury is still out on the Glute-Ham Raise though. Part of the problem is that I'm not strong enough to do these under the best of circumstances, which makes other mechanical problems with my setup hard to diagnose. It seems hard to figure out where exactly to put the ball in relation to my hips and knees. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to come up with a satisfactory solution, given that a proper GHD has a fixed pad you can push against, whereas the ball can roll/slide away from you if you try to replicate the mechanics demonstrated in the document above. The ball is also slippery when sweaty, although draping a towel over it seems like a workable cure.

In conclusion, I'm happy with it for some exercises, but not entirely for the exercise I was shooting for. I'm not sure if this will change with practice or not. I'll keep posting other notes on equipment, although between this and the medicine balls I'm not off to an auspicious start on the homemade front.

This insane David Belle/Parkour video (WMV 4.7MB, hosted by this fellow) crossed my aggregator this morning. You have to get a bit into it for the death-defying stuff. A quick Googling of "Parkour" turns up a ton, including parkour.com, Le Parkour, and Urban Freeflow. All provide links to a pile of videos. Post if you find any that are particularly cool. I like the Nike "Angry Chicken" commercial (WMV 1.2MB, found here).

Today marks the beginning of my training for the 2006 season and beyond. For the next 10 weeks I'm going to follow the program detailed in Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity. Today's workout? The Magic 50. Well, for me it was "The Magic 30", as I'm new to dumbbell work and I started to feel a bit of back-related nerve shooting so laid off. I'm sure my form sucks, and I overestimated how much weight I could do. Also, 30 was pretty damn tiring. I have clearly gotten soft since the season ended. Amazing how little it takes to slide.

The Infinite Intensity program promises to be fantastic though. It's a mix of workouts like The Magic 50, interval training, a variety of core workouts, dumbbell workouts, plyometric moves, etc. All speed, endurance, and strength, no bulking up. I've modified it a bit, but not much. The biggest change is that Enamait calls for a work:rest ratio of four days on, one day off, but I'm going to go 5:2 (rest on the weekends). I'm also doing some substitutions where I don't have the equipment, like twisting medicine ball throws instead of heavy bag work, for example (although as an Ultimate player I wish—perhaps counterintuitively—that I could keep the heavy bag work - all that rotational power in the hips).

I wrote up a cheatsheet for the program, and I managed to squeeze it onto one double-sided sheet. 8-point Times New Roman, 4 columns, with the minimum margins my printer can handle. This makes it sound like the program is complicated, but it's not. What it is, though, is comprehensive, loaded with variety, and yet still, amazingly, focused. The book is a keeper.

A few years ago I bought a pull-up bar from Champs for around $25. The beauty of this particular bar is that you don't need to screw it in or fasten it in any way. I dangles off the trim and gravity and leverage keep it securely in place. A buddy of mine was recently looking for something similar, but most such bars now seem to be $50 and up. Fortunately, you can build your own pull-up bar for around $30 using off-the-shelf threaded pipe (scroll down to "Doorway Chinup Bar").

This is a bit outside my area of expertise, but holy cow, look at this guy handle his bike! (WMV, 488KB)

The Crossfit WOD has a link to several Crossfitters doing a 1-minute burpee race. Very impressive scores, I thought, but the thing I found personally interesting was the form: when I descend from the leap I drop into a squat before kicking out and simultaneously descending into the pushup (like Ross, but not as quick (yet)). But these folks don't seem to squat much at all, and do a simultaneous drop-down/kickout/pushup-descent from a much higher point.

I'm not making value judgements; I just found it curious.

Exercise trumps Zoloft. Less drugs, more sports. Sounds good.