PDXStrength News

Blog 7 – Team Updates, Odd Object 2.0, Team Weekly Challenge

Greetings from isolation, Apocolifters, CHOMA-19, QOTDs, and Quaranteam!

WEEKLY UPDATE

I hope you all had a great first week of the challenge – especially with some of the things maybe not so directly related to time spent working out. The coaches are all proud to report that members have been focused on some of the finer points of the challenge – walks, cooking, taking time to engage with others, NAPS! I for one, have recently moved (closer to the gym) and took my 15 min walks on the beach in Cathedral Park, Fritz has been carrying the load for me when it comes to napping (he should probably get credit for being awake at this point), and we cooked a new recipe I’ve been wanting to try called chankonabe, or sumo soup – for those who don’t know, I have a weird infatuation with niche strength or regional sports, Sumo perhaps being towards the top of my list. Keep up the great work!

A QUICK REMINDER: you have until the end of the day Monday (that’s probably today) to get your scores reported to your coach. We will be releasing the scores during my Thursday blog post. 

COACHING TIDBIT

We still want to give you a little extra content that may help you during your time away from the gym, and would love any suggestions you have for blogs. Let your coach know what you’d like to hear about. 

For this week, I wanted to circle back to the Odd Object blog I wrote a few weeks ago. No, not to really drive home the idea of lever arms or center of mass or force production, but maybe more of a practical list of things you may have around your house for things to use:

• Backpack/Duffel Bag/Suitcase – Coach Courtney and Steve made a video a few weeks back using a backpack, but really any fillable bag would suffice. We’ve all stuffed a suitcase full of (insert random belongings here) only to be told that it weighs too much at the ticket counter. A note here: Be careful about dropping your things. Duffels are probably the best bet if you are looking to throw/drop something. Backpacks and suitcase can hold/haul a lot of stuff but really aren’t sewn or constructed to be all that dynamically durable. I know this from years of destroying backpacks growing up – Sorry, Mom. We all have our own unique talents. 
• Boxes/Bins – Another options to load and hold lots of weird stuff – books, clothes, keepsakes from god-knows-when. Frankly we might even have a bin in the closet or garage that is already full. Same rule applies above. Be nice to your things, we aren’t capacity testing the things in our house here.
• Jugs – I’m generally referring to a gallon jug here. Cheap. Easy to find. A gallon of water weighs just under 9 pounds (you can fill them with anything – laundry detergent, dirt, hand sanitizer). Since it has a handle, you could find it useful as an alternative to any dumbbell or kettlebell work. If you want to get wild, you can find a bigger jug. Remember, about 9#s/gallon. Depending on said jug, you might find these suitable for throwing not because they any sort of durable, but if dropped – and subsequently broken – you haven’t lost all that much (Unless the water gets on you. Then it’s just a little pride. Wall ball, anyone?).
• Bench/Chair/Table – This category isn’t exactly loadable, but we’ve all experienced a little annoyance at the awkwardness of moving and hauling furniture. Again, be careful how you set these down. 
• Pots/Pails – It’s April, and showers bring May flowers. Fill your pot up with whatever you’d like. Don’t forget that pots don’t have tops. 
• Rocks – Find a rock that you find to be manageable. Careful with these. They are not ergonomically designed and are not as forgiving as water. 
• Food – This goes for cans of food or bags of food. We might have a large bag of rice, a sack of potatoes, or dog food that we can fling around. 
• Living beings – Lions, tigers, and bears… Children, dogs, cats… Yeah, maybe not cats. 

This is by no means an extensive list. Let us know if you’ve come up with something else. We’d love to share it with everyone else. 

TEAM CHALLENGE

*checks mic* “AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR…”

The 5-point Team Challenge for week 2 is:

• Create a Team Motto.

… and as a little extra credit:

• Teams will earn 3 additional points for a “#” (read: hashtag) variation of the motto for a maximum score of 8 points. 

Looks like the weather will be perfect for this workout. No worries if you can’t run, we provided alternatives. Thanks Christie for the radical workout. We hope you enjoy it. Not a member and following along, please consider a PayPal donation jocelyn@pdxstrength.com ????

How Do I Know if I’m doing Enough?

Hi PDX Strength Tribe, 

Coaches have been reaching out to our members for the past few weeks now. We are introducing a variety of things in our virtual programming, but some folks are asking for different ways to use the equipment they’ve checked out from the gym. Probably the most common question we are getting is some variation of “how do I know if I’m doing enough?” 

Let me first start off with a quote from Dr. Brene Brown – “You are enough.” Every coach at PDX Strength believes that you, as you exist today, are enough. Every member of the PDX Strength Community deserves our respect, attention, and love without having to earn it through the bastardized norms of fitness culture. 

Now. Let me answer the question on the surface level with the 350 words or so I have left in the blog and understanding that we all have different equipment and goals. 

Before we begin to add to or design our own workouts, we should first assess how stressed our physical- AND mental-selves are (I know. You’re all thinking, “Seriously?! Just get to the sets and reps!” – 300 words left.) But, taking account of your current stress level informs how much additional stress you have the ability to introduce. It will also inform how much rest we need between workouts. We need to be careful here. Our lives and routines have changed, so our recovery needs have as well.

Second, we look at how much intensity we want to apply, or what energy system we want to use. (“JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” – 200 words left.) In general, there are three energy systems – Phosphagen (fast/short/high impact – less than 1:00 – think sprints, max effort, or strength/rep/skill work), Glocolytic (hard but sustainable/medium impact – between 1:00 and 20:00 – think kettlebell swings, wall balls, or burpees), and Oxadative/Aerobic (long effort/generally less impact on the body – more than 20:00 – think longer runs or rowing). 

Then we take into account the general movement patterns in strength and conditioning – divide the body in half (upper or lower) and consider we move towards the body or away from the body (push/press/squat or pull/curl/hinge) – 100 words left still no sets and reps prescription. 

Lastly, know that energy systems and movement patterns need about 24-36 hours of rest to fully recover (the greater the impact to your body, the more rest you need). No, this doesn’t mean that we can’t workout two days in a row, it means we need to rotate the energy systems and movement patterns we use. But depending on your goals you can add in a training bias. If you want to be a better runner, do more aerobic work. If you want to be stronger, do more strength work (5x5s). 

Please note that this isn’t about finding the systems’ (and your) breaking point. It’s about finding a sustainable level of effort over time. 

Now you have yourself the greatest little puzzle since that 5000-piecer you finished this week. 

More questions? Ask your coach. 

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