Training notation

I was asked recently what my cryptic notation meant.  So here I am to make it less cryptic.

I post most of this to twitter and am limited to 140 characters so things sometimes get truncated, but this is the basic idea.

First things first.  My notation borrows heavily from Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgroves book: The New Rules of Lifting, which I totally recommend.

Anyhow.

Kettlebell Challenge

So an example of the more cryptic is the 200 swing challenge.  In it's most basic form it looks like this
200 SC: 24 x10@ x10

200 SC: A title for what I am doing.  200 Kettlebell Swing Challenge or 200 Swing Challenge
24: The weight I am using.  You can assume Kg when I talked Kettlebells.  otherwise I will use # for lbs and kg for Kilos
x10@: Number of reps completed in a set.  10 reps in this case.  BUT WAIT!?  What is the @???  That symbolizes 10 reps with each hand.  So I am saying I did 10 reps on each side with a 24kg kettlebell.
x10: Total number of sets.

So that line says 10 sets of 10 reps per arm with a 24kg kettlebell.

Sometimes it gets a little longer, but it's all a similar format.  Weight, Reps, Sets

Example:
24 x20 x5 16x2 x20 x5

5 sets of 20reps with the 24kg (two handed swings) followed by 5 sets of 20 reps with 2 16kh bells.

For more conventional lifts
Deadlift: 135# 5x5
5 sets of 5 rep 135# deadlifts

Deadlift: 135# x5 140# 3x5 145# x5
1 set of 5 rep 135# deadlift, followed by 3 sets of 5 rep 140# Deadlifts followed by 1 set of 5 rep 145# deadlift

Sometimes you will see
Shoulder press 55# x10@ x10@ x7/x8
2 sets of 10 reps with a 55# db, and a 3rd set managing 7 with the left and 8 with the right.

Sometimes the exercise names get truncated
Bent Over Rows become BO Rows
bench press becomes Bench
Shoulder press becomes SHPR
etc

For metabolic/interval type work
You may see
Jump rope Tabata.
8 sets of 20 seconds of sprint followed by 10 seconds of rest.  Killer 4 minutes.
OR
Jump rope 30/30 x10
10 sets of 30seconds of work followed by 30s of rest

Anyhow.  That is pretty much it in a nutshell.