Deane Barker's Workouts

June 8, 2025

Sun, 8 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear:

10 Rounds
---
25 Cal Bike
30-Second Bar Hang

I saw a video that said a man should be able to hang from a bar for two minutes.

I am not even close to that. I measured myself on Sunday after doing a bunch of pull-ups, and I got 45 seconds. If I hadn’t of done any pull-ups, I would have been happy with one minute.

For this workout, I was getting 30 seconds for the first 4-5 rounds. After that, I started to slip. By the end, I was getting about 20 seconds, before my hands would literally slip off the bar.

(Of course, the condition of the bar plays pretty heavily into this, but I feel like I had good bars…)

April 12, 2025

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: barbell, GHD

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Power Snatch (95#)
Burpees Over the Bar
GHDs

I tried to move through this slow and steady. I don’t know about “steady,” but I was very slow, for sure.

I’ve fallen into such a rut with workouts, that anytime I go outside my “standard” workouts, I just tend to get wrecked.

But, it got done.

March 23, 2025

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, ab mat, overhead bar

5x
---
25 Cal Assault Bike
10 Push-ups
15 Sit-ups
Max Effort Banded Pull-ups

Recovering from a brutal cold. Good mover, but I coughed for hours afterwards.

February 17, 2025

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: GHD

30 Min EMOM
---
Odd: 5 burpees
Even: 5 GHDs

This was good, but not very hard. Cardio-wise it was manageable, but 75 GHDs is a lot. I was a bit of a mess for the couple days following.

The soreness was mainly in my hip erectors. It went below my belly button and then split into two areas of pain, each centered in the hip crease above each leg.

February 11, 2025

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, GHD

10x
---
250m row
5 GHDs

Simple, effective. I’m writing this the next day, and my core is in pain.

The like the push/pull aspect of the hip movement. Rowing is about opening the angle of the hips, while GHDs are about closing that angle.

January 14, 2025

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: barbell

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Hang Power Snatch (95#)
Burpees Over the Bar

Simple, effective. Got all the HPS unbroken. The first and second rounds are fine, but when you get to the round of seven or eight, that becomes a grip problem – you’re taxed a bit, and the reps are still relatively high.

October 31, 2024

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, skier, bike

1,000m Row
1,000m BikeErg
1,000m Ski
Rest 3 min

750m on each
Rest 2 min

500m on each
Rest 1 min

250m on each

I saw some guys doing this the other day. I liked the idea because it’s heavy cardio.

The first ski was a real problem. My triceps kept cramping, and then my lower back went a little nuts. But it got better.

I did it in 36:52.

Postscript

Added on November 2, 2024

So, it turns out I got this one wrong. The rest was 3-2-1, not three minutes each time. The guys who did it said they got it just under 30. But I rested for three minutes longer than them, so if you take that off, I’m still in the mid 30s, which is long.

I set out to do this again today, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was sort on time. So I started at 750, rested 2, then 500, rested 1, then 250.

I got it in just under 20:00.

I figure the 1,000m round would have taken me 13 (with the rest), which again puts me in the mid 30s.

I’ll try it again. I’d like to get it under 30, for nothing but my self-esteem.

Postscript

Added on November 5, 2024

I did it today, all the way through, with the right rest timing. I got it in 33:30.

The ski is what kills me. Going from the row to the ski is murder. Still having tricep cramping issues, though my lower back was good today.

I would love to get this quite a bit closer to 30:00.

Postscript

Added on November 26, 2024

I have become somewhat obsessed with this workout. I’ve done it another 3-4 times since the last time I updated. I can just barely get it under 33:00.

The guys that were doing it the first time I saw it were nice enough to do it again and time it. They got it between 29:06 and 30:32. So, I have a ways to go.

I did note, however, that they did Row-Bike-Ski, rather than Row-Ski-Bike, and I do genuinely think that will help. Your arms will get a rest between the row and the ski.

I’ll try it that way next.

Postscript

Added on November 27, 2024

Okay, with the new ordering, I did it in 32:20, which is my best time yet.

1000s in 10:20 (100%)
750s in 8:04 (78%)
500s in 5:20 (51%)
250s in 2:36 (25%)

You can see from the percentages that my pacing was pretty consistent. Each round took right about the appropriate percentage of time compared to the first round, so I never slowed down from that first round.

If I can get that first round to 10:00, then hold that pace in every round, I’ll get it in 31:00.

October 29, 2024

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, ab mat

5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5
---
Cal Row
Push Ups
Sit Ups

Weird rep scheme on this one, clearly. But I just didn’t want to start at one because doing 1-2-3-4 in the beginning was going to be pointless and annoying.

It’s 124 reps of each.

By round three, I figured out that I should do the push ups with the ab mat right at my hip. Then, when the push ups are done, I can just roll over into the sit ups. Less time, and less dirt on my hands because I’m not crawling around on the floor like an idiot.

Good workout. I actually like this scheme a lot.

October 15, 2024

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: overhead bar, barbell, ab mat

10x
---
20 Air Squats
15 Sit Ups
10 Push Ups
5 Barbell Rows (155#)

This is a study in adaptability. I only ever did it exactly as written above for two rounds.

My lower back starting acting up in round 3, so I switch to 20 walking lunges after that (10 each leg). My back had calmed down by round 8, so I was back to air squats for the last two rounds.

I was about to get abdominal cramps in round 4, so I switched to hanging bar movements for a few rounds – knee tucks, knee-to-elbow, etc. Then my shoulders started to hurt, so I went to leg raises.

Push-ups were fine.

Barbell rows were fine too, but I only picked those because the hands hurt.

So, this was all over the place. But I made it work, and I kept going.

October 10, 2024

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Row x 100m
Push Ups x 2

Last week I did 5,000m of rowing and 150 push ups, and complained that it was too many pushup for my middle-aged shoulders.

Well, this is 5,500m of rowing, and 110 pushups. The pushups were better, for sure. But the row killed me for whatever reason. I had a pretty brutal back workout four days ago, maybe that had something to do with it.

I would joke that I’m just making excuses, but no – something was really wrong here. I was pulling at about 2:45 pace at one point. No idea what happened.

Glad it’s over.

October 4, 2024

Fri, 4 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear:

10x
---
500m Row
15 Push-Ups

This got long. I think I might be too old for 150 push-ups in a single workout, honestly – my shoulders were in brutal condition after this. They hurt just hanging there.

September 21, 2024

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, skier, bike

10x
---
11 Cal Ski
11 Cal Row
11 Cal Bike

This is a modification of my classic cardio workout (EMOM; 10 cals).

I wanted to go straight through, but I’ve done 10 cals in that format in about 22 minutes, which was too short. I thought about going to 12 cals, but then settled on 11.

I finished in 26:38 (1,598 seconds). I have done 10 calls in 22-something (let’s say 22:15; 1,335 seconds). That means that the extra calorie (+10%) added about 19% to the time, which is scary. I have to think going to 12 calories would have been very difficult.

(Note: the 22:15 was a few years ago, when I was younger and in better shape.)

Also, there’s a very, very subtle aspect to this workout which helps. Since I’m not doing an EMOM, the skier and the rower do not shut down between uses. This means that I gain from the run-off at the end.

When I do 10 cals, I probably get, say, 10.5 or something, but then the skier and the rower shut down and clear before the next round, so I lose that fraction. Since they stay running the entire time, I get to keep the slight overage and start from that point. It may seem small, but it no doubt helps.

September 19, 2024

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: barbell

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Power Snatch (95#)
Burpees Over the Bar

This wrecked me, but for weird reasons. My lower back started to blow up after the first couple of rounds. I hurt my back in a heavy-ish snatch back in February, and this is the first time I’ve snatched since then. So, I think my lower back is just out of condition for this.

Also, my shoulders were a wreck. I think it might have just been the snatch combined with the burpees being a lot of shoulder work.

(Also, I’m just not really-well conditioned right now. Seriously.)

It took me a long time to get through this. I had to sit down between a few of the rounds just to get my lower back calmed down a bit.

But, it got done.

September 17, 2024

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, ab mat, heavy KB

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Row x 50M
Sit-ups x 2
Heavy KBS

Solid workout. Didn’t work anything in particular, but it was just a good all-around mover.

I did okay. Kept moving pretty consistently throughout.

September 15, 2024

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, barbell

"Cardio DT"

5x
---
300m Row
12 Deadlifts (95#)
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 S2OH

I’ve programmed this workout before, for the Sunday WOD. It’s a lighter version of DT (which is at 155#) with a row in every round.

I did not do well at it. I don’t know if I’m in poor condition or not, but I could only get the through first barbell complex unbroken. After that, I broke after the deadlifts, and sometimes in the middle of the HPCs.

Very disappointed in this. I’ll try this again soon and see if I get better at it.

August 4, 2024

Sun, 4 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear:

100m each
---
Burpee Broad Jump
Lunge
Bear Crawl
Run

This is a shorter version of the “Impossible Mile” workout. In that workout, you do each of the above for 400m – or one lap of a standard track – which adds up to a mile.

I did one-quarter of that workout. And it sucked. Bodyweight stuff is not my thing – I’m a big guy. The burpees alone about murdered me.

At our gym, we have 6’ x 4’ mats. Nine of these (long-wise) is 54-feet. Six times that is 324-feet, which is almost exactly 100m (328-feet). So I set two cones, nine mats apart, and I had to go “down and back” three times, six lengths total.

By my calculations, it was taking between 8-10 burpee broad jobs to do one length, which means the workout essentially starts with between 50 and 60 burpee broad jumps. That’s a lot.

The lunges, also bad. And the bear crawl – that wouldn’t be so bad, but it comes third, by which time you’re pretty wiped out. Your shoulders are still fried from the burpees.

And keep in mind that the “official” version of this workout is four times this amount.

…no.

June 28, 2024

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: barbell, GHD

10x
---
3 Hang Power Cleans (185#)
5 Burpees Over the bar
7 GHDs

I’m putting this in today, even though I’ve done it a few times over the last month.

It’s a hard workout. I’ve tried it both straight through, and as a 30-minute EMOM. I haven’t finished it.

My diet is a little weird right now (I lowered carbs quite a bit), so I’m low on energy. But, still – it’s hard. The HPCs are heavy and take a lot out of you – more than you’d expect.

Or maybe I’m just out of shape? Who knows…

June 1, 2024

Sat, 1 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower, skier, bike

10x
---
Minute 1: 10 Cal Ski
Minute 2: 10 Cal Row
Minute 3: 10 Cal Bike
Minute 4: Rest

So, this is my standard cardio workout, just resting for a minute after every round. I would finish the bike at about the 40-second mark, so I get just over a minute rest before I go back to the ski.

I’m posting this as a variant, just because the rest after every round almost made it a completely different workout. I did it because I was tired and lazy, but I what I found is that I went harder on every machine, especially the bike.

I was just as wiped out at the end as I am without any of the rest. Weird.

April 27, 2024

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: nothing

30 Min EMOM
---
5 burpees

Simple, but brutal. I’m very heavy right now (270#), so burpees are non-trivial. I was in rough shape by round 20. The last five rounds were a blur.

The main stress was on my shoulders. They take a lot of load lowering me to the ground.

April 23, 2024

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower

5x
---
1,000m row
Rest four minutes

The trick here is that I tried to maintain a 4:00 pace (2:00 split) for every row.

The first row was easy. The second was meh. The third was uncomfortable. The fourth was unpleasant. The fifth was murder.

By the last row, I had started opening my shoulders more and leaning back a bit. That brought my abs into it, which is interesting. You end up leaned back, like a hollow rock/hold. That’s a little harder, but I feel you get a couple extra inches out of every pull.

I did maintain pace for all five rows. Due to vagaries in the clock, I measured it by average 500m split time, trying to keep that under 2:00.

Postscript

Added on September 18, 2024

Over the summer, I got this down to three minutes rest in between rounds, then down to two minutes rest. This puts me back where I was 4-5 years go when I did this in class.

April 6, 2024

Sat, 6 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: rower

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Row x100m
Burpees

My math was wrong on this one. I meant to do the row x50m, but I got a couple rounds into it and I realized the math wasn’t adding up.

Long workout. It’s 5,500m of rowing. It was solid, though, because the burpees work an entirely different set of muscles, so you got some “rest” before you got back on the rower.

April 5, 2024

Fri, 5 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: bike

30 min
---
Max cal on the bike

Pretty simple one, but I’m mentioning it for a couple reasons:

I want to keep track of my calories on this – I’ll add to this post if I do this again
I’m pretty shocked at how well I did. I was on the bike for 30 minutes about a month ago, and I got either 325 or 365 calories (I can’t remember, but it was one of those numbers). Today I got 459 calories.

All throughout the ride, was mentally calculating where I would end up. I was two minutes in, and had 30 calories. I did the math and it was … 450 calories. I thought, “No, there’s no way I can hold that for 30 minutes…”

But I did. Really impressed with myself, honestly. I hate long stretches on the bike.

Postscript

Added on April 14, 2024

Got 477 cals, which is 95.4% of 500, which is the goal.

Postscript

Added on April 17, 2024

Got 483, which is 96.6% of 500.

I was actually going for meters. I friend posted 15,111m in 30:00. I pushed really hard, but only got 14,780. I just happened to switch over and check the cals too.

Postscript

Added on April 24, 2024

Got 492 cals and 14,945m.

Postscript

Added on May 4, 2024

Finally! I shattered my PR with 517 calories and 15,271m. I’m done with this one for a while.

I hit all the marks. At the 3:00 mark I was at exactly 50 calories, and kept pulling away – I was about 102 at 6:00, then 155 at 9:00, etc. I kept the pace above 1,000 cal/hour for most all of the ride.

I think I hit 500 with more than a full minute to go.

April 2, 2024

Tue, 2 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: barbell, bench, box

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
Burpee Box Jump
Seated Strict Press (115#)

Still nursing a back injury, so I did the strict press sitting down, which made it surprisingly harder. I started at 135#, but had to back off to 115#, because you just don’t have as much power. I think it’s because your ability to arch your back is reduced.

The whole workout just murdered me. But it got done.

March 29, 2024

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, KBs

10x
---
25 Cal Assault Bike
100m Farmer's Carry (2 x 70#)

Long, long workout. Probably took me 40 minutes. Solid, though – kept my heart rate up for a while.

Postscript

Added on April 14, 2024

Did this again but instead of the farmer’s carry, I held a 70# KB overhead and walked 100-feet with each arm (so, down and back with the left; then down and back with the right).

March 24, 2024

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: skier, dumbells

10x
---
10 Cal Ski
10 Air Squats
10 Seated Dumbell Overhead Press

I’m nursing a back injury, so this was selected very careful to avoid back issues. I started the dumbbell press with 40#, but stepped down to 35# after Round 3.

Good workout.

March 20, 2024

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, bench press

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
---
25 Cal Bike (same each time)
Bench Press (225#)

Solid workout. It’s 250 calories on the bike, and 55 reps of a heavy-ish bench, so it’s non-trivial.

February 28, 2024

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, barbell

5x
---
15 Cal Bike
10 Power Snatch (95#)
5 Burpees Over the Bar

I’m out of shape. This sucked way, way more than it should have.

February 25, 2024

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: heavy dumbell, skier, GHD

5x
---
11 Cal Ski
9 Goblet Squats (100#)
7 GHDs

The goblet squats were brutal. Weirdly hard on the core.

February 24, 2024

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, bar, KBs

5x
---
15 Cal Bike
10 Strict Press (115#)
80m Farmer's Carry (70# x2)

Garbage workout, but it was good. I got the first two rounds of strict presses unbroken, then dropped to 6+4.

February 4, 2024

Sun, 4 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Est. Time:
Gear: bike, dumbell

10x
---
15 Cal Bike
10 Dumbbell Snatches (50#)

I used this to work on my hand transitions when cycling dumbbell snatches. I’ve never been good at switching hands at the top – I usually set the dumbbell down, which isn’t great. It slows you down and gets you out of position.

But I got through all 10 rounds (total 100 reps) doing mid-air transitions, which was awesome. It makes the reps go by so much quicker. The trick is that you hand them off just after you lock out at the top – so if you lock out with your right hand, you immediately reach up with your left, and sort of “drop” the dumbbell into your left hand.

Good workout. Going back to the bike after the snatches was wildly unpleasant.