Newport

I ordered a copy  of Art of StrengthNewport recently, they were havbing a sale. I watched a couple of rounds when I first got it but hadn’t gottent to try it yet. It was clear from the first 5 mintues that this is a very different animal from Providence. I love Providence so I thought that might make it a dissapointment for me. Today I finally gave it a try.

I had limited time so I was just going to do how ever much I could do in 30 minutes. The rounds run about 5 minutes withe a minute break so that means 5 of the eight rounds, not counting the the TWO bonus rounds. I knew something was up in round 1 when I had to put the kettlebell down just to finish. In round 3 I opted for the 12K kettlebell that rarely gets used, well, it got used today. In round 5 I said I was done, this is halfway through the entire workout.

The workout is tough, good but tough. It isn’t anything like Providence but not in a bad way, it’s requires far more endurance, it’s far more core-centric. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other but I would say that at this point I still prefer Providence.The fact that I can complete Providence almo certainly plays into it, not to mention my familiarity with it. There is one thing I don’t like about Newport, not a deal breaker but not my favorite, I don’t like the complexity of some of the rounds. I’m all for simple so rounds with a snatch – burpee combo push the boundries of what I like the rounds with more complex things like a lateral snatch to an overhead lunge kinda bug me. The problem for me is that this is a really complex pattern that interferes with the ability to just exercise. Practice the movement with no weight will do more to improve you skills than reps with weight.

All that said, I’m looking forward to trying it again on Tuesday, when I have class that is canceled.