Monday, December 29, 2008

3 rep front squat max, new pr

After looking online and seeing today's WOD, I looked up my previous 3 rep max workout, which helped me out a lot. Today's WOD:

Front Squat x 3,3,3,3,3

Since I had an idea of my max, 175 last week, I had a better idea of where to start, and that made all the difference. My workout went like this:

155, 165, 175, 175, 185

So I did 10 lbs heavier than last week. I felt good while doing this, it was easier to keep the core tight throughout and keep vertical. ...LTC Dan said I could patent my 165 effort because it was so textbook. To be honest, that type of complement means a lot more to me than lifting the heaviest weight. On a separate note, Dan is as strong as an ox. He did Strict press today, and in racking the weight basically did a 155(+?) reverse curl.

After that we had a Met Con Ninja workout:

7 rounds for time:
11 Wallball
11 Burpee
11 Pullup

Did this in 20:55, Wallballs are getting easier, never had to break up the pullups (they're easy now), and Burpees are the worst exercise Man has ever invented.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Crossfit in Dallas

Went over to Crossfit Dallas run by John, who I went to high school with. Today was an open gym day, so I worked on my overhead snatch. I tried to find my one rep max, but I think I overdid the warmup. I did 115 like 5 times, but after that I just couldn't put up any more weight. I tried like 120, but just couldn't. After that, I worked on trying pull ups on a fixed bar, using a butterfly kyp. It really is faster than a normal kyp. ...Fixed bar pullups really are difficult, they seemed to torque my shoulder a lot more but that might be from my lack of technique. After that, I tried my 500m row time. I was keeping a conversation while I went the first 200 meters, but after that I had to gut it out and my time was 137.6, almost 10 seconds slower than my pr. Kind of disappointed in that, guess I just need to practice it more.

...Got some new shoes for Christmas, they're Vibram Five Fingers, as you can tell from the picture. Got some Injinji socks so the shoes doen't smell. I got one pair of black socks, and I think they look pretty sharp with pants. Well, I say "sharp," but I still would feel pretty ridiculous wearing them in public.

Hope everyone is having a great Chrismas!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Murph again

This workout was a favorite of Navy Lt. Michael Murphy:

For time:

1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

My time was 65:29, only about three minutes less than my first time back in August. This is a really small improvement, but since my last time was pretty unofficial I question its validity. Regardless, I'm happy with this time. The push ups were the bottleneck, as expected. At one point I was standing there, waiting for feeling to return to my shoulders, when Jerry asked me something. I wasn't sure what he said, but his expectant look said, "What's the hold up?" "Why are you just standing there?" It was actually pretty funny, because I had no response, just got into the plank and start cranking them out.

The air squats were perhaps the easiest, I started pretending I had a weight racked and that helped with keeping my core tight. Never had to break up the pullups, and they were a welcome repreive from the other exercises. The pain in my ankle kept me from really pushing myself on the last mile run. It's like a sharp stabbing pain, and it hurts more so when I try to run. Hopefully a few days rest with the holidays will help.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

three rep max front squat, pr

Came in late today, but I've noticed Sundays tend to be a find-your-max day, so I was betting that its wasn't some met con with a time constraint. I was right, it was 5 rounds of finding your 3 rep front squat max, my rounds went as follows:

115, 135, 155, 165, 175

This is a 25 pound improvement from three months ago. Again I was a little cautious in aggravating the back, so took this opportunity to work on form and find out how much I can do without my core collapsing. Every set felt really good, but the last one was very difficult, I don't think I got the depth that I needed to get make it a real squat. I really flared out my feet so that my hips were open and engaged, making it possible to keep my core vertical and my elbows up throughout the entire motion.

Around the 3-4 set I was forgetting to suck in a big breath to keep the core tight, but I recognized that I wasn't doing it and did it right on the last set for certain, possibly the 4th set as well.

There was a finisher

5 rounds
10 kb high pulls (73#)
10 jumping lunges
10 push ups

The push ups were pretty damn easy, if I do say so myself. I've been attempting to improve my pushup strength by doing sets of sub max reps (like 10-15) at random times during the day. I believe this is called "Greasing the groove", although if I'm wrong about this I hope Jerry will let me know ;)

Although the push ups were fine, the leg work was tough, the fourth and fifth round my legs were feeling numb, and I simply had to wait for some sort of control to return. I can't remember the time, but when the photo is posted I'll edit the post.

I really am impressed with the amount of leg work we've been doing. The biggest part I'm focusing in on is keeping my core tight by holding in a big breath. This skill is where I'm most lacking when it comes to squats, so I figure improving this will result in the biggest/fasted gains in my squat strength as well as reducing the chance of injury.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Quasi-rest day

Well, last night I fell asleep at 7:30 and actually woke up at 4:00 on my own. I should've gone to the 5:30, but for some reason that idea didn't occur to me (it's very strange to think I could attend the 5:30 class). So instead I had breakfast and did some online Christmas shopping. So 2.5 hours later I'm on my way to workout. ...I seriously hope I don't wake up at 4:00 am on my own ever again, such a waste of time waiting to work out.

I felt warmed up/alert enough today, but this was my sixth day of xfit in a row, and my hip, ankle, and shoulder were all feeling a little banged up. In about 2 hours I'm going to see the D.O. to fix the hip and look at the shoulder/ankle. The shoulder is the torn rotator cuff, I expect, but the ankle is swelling-bruising from breaking my Fibula two years ago. Here's the X-ray, it was a spiral fracture that resulted in imobilizing my foot for about eight weeks. If you're having trouble seening the break the bottom picture hilights the break with the yellow lines. The therapist said it would take a long time- "think years"- to make a full recovery with regards to all the connective tissue and muscles. I've noticed over the years that a massage or a lot of ankle work results in bruising around the ankle. The therapist said this was just swelling/blood being pushed out, but after all that running and box jumps yesterday there's also a little stabbing pain in my ankle as well. Now on to the workout...

10 Rounds for time:
4 Push Jerks
8 Burpees
12 Pullups

Like I said I just wasn't feeling it, so I decided to do the express (6 rounds) and go with a light weight (95#). The jerk was very easy, but I could feel the clean work on my shoulder a little, as well as holding onto the bar with pullups. Now that I think about it, I should have used a chin up grip for my gimpy shoulder and a pull up grip for my good shoulder. Now if you don't mind, I have to go perpare lunch (it has been almost five hours since breakfast.)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Noticing a lot of leg work this past week, and today was a lot of met-con.
5 rounds
400m sprints
30 boxjumps
30 wallballs

My time was 39:23. This one was pretty tough as I didn’t get much sleep last night; my running speed just wasn’t there. I think my box jumps are pretty darn good, but they are still slow (although I rarely stop once started). The wall balls were really tiring, and as I write this I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t push myself harder.

Funniest thing happened today. I was on my fourth round of box jumps, and Charlie the speedster was on his fifth round next to me. Randomly, as he approached the boxes he started singing the IU fight song. Now I wasn’t wearing any IU gear, so I was impressed that he remembered. So here we are, doing box jumps, and taking turns singing the IU fight song.

Charlie: Indiana, oh Indiana!
Me: Indiana, we’re all for you!
Charlie: we will fight for
Me: the cream and crimson
Unison: and glory of old IU…

Too funny. And I have to say, it helped take my mind off of the exercise.

It seems like I’m officially now an a.m. crossfitter, being that this was my second 6:45 class in a row. My body/mind is still having a tough time adjusting (like realizing 10pm is late), but hopefully if I just keep waking up early I’ll get to bed early.

The morning classes seem to have quite a different personality, although I’m not if I could pinpoint the differences or the reason why. Perhaps morning people have different personalities than evening people?

Besides the constant pangs of hunger, working out in the morning has been a little more challenging physically, albeit more satisfying mentally. I tried doing a little research, and there is a massive, massive amount of opinions out there, but here are the two that I like the most.

A Dr. in this cnn article states
:

"The best time to work out is in the late afternoon," Zee said. "The reason for that is your muscle strength is at its peak, its highest. You're going to be less likely to injure yourself. It's also a time when people are most awake and alert."

However, there is an advantage to working out in the morning on an empty stomach if you’re trying to lose weight, as this Forbes article states

May recommends it for people whose main priority is losing weight. Working out, doing cardio especially, on an empty stomach will burn more fat calories because your carb reserves are almost used up. That causes the body to turn to fat stores for energy first. (Many fitness experts warn, however, that running on empty isn't the most efficient way to work out.)

I always try to have at least a little snack before heading over to CFOT in the morning to make sure I have the energy to push myself.

Honestly, I think working out in the 5p class would do the best for me physically. I feel like I don’t really need to concern myself with losing fat (although I really do want to lower my fat % some more) , but I do need to work on my explosive strength. I also wonder if working out with depleted carb reserve goes against the spirit of the zone diet. However, I’ve always wanted to be able to get to and leave work at normal hours, and just trying to get to work early doesn’t cut it.

I also want to shake up my routine a little bit. …I feel like I haven’t been as hard-core as I once was, this week especially. Now that I think about it though, I think that’s mostly due to sleep deprivation as my body adjusts to working out in the morning. I also haven’t been following the zone as near as much this week, but I’d like to make that a separate post, soon to follow…

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Working out in the A.M.

This week I've been a lot more successful with coming to the morning workouts. I've noticed a side effect to this is increased appetite. ...Not just a little, but a lot. I'm going from a 4 block meal, 2 block snack regimen to something like a 4-4-4-4 plan, and I still find myself hungry. The difference is crazy, but I like it. Historically, I only see results when I really start eating a lot, so perhaps this will help.

Speaking of helping, I'm also revamping my food plan. For lunch I've relied on the two slices of bread in my sandwich for my carbs, but now I would like to replace it with two bags of steamed frozen veggies. I figure that will help with losing fat.

Today's workout was the deadlift again, but my back is still not 100%. After warming up with 135 lbs with my best form, my back was still feeling it so I tried the conditioning alternate:

20 min AMRAP
8 knees to elbows
8 KB swing @ 52#
8 med ball squat clean
8 pushups

I managed 11 rounds, and was really worn out.

Yesterday's wod was this:

Five rounds, each for time of:
300m Row
25 Ab Mat
20 Jumping Pullups
15 Box Jump
10 Turkish Get-ups
5 Burpees

Rest two minutes between each round.

My times were 5:57, 7:02, 8:07, 8:51, and 7:25

During this one Jerry helped me out with my TGU's which are still lacking in speed. Right now I still think of each step, so they're not very fluid or quick. Jerry pointed out that I wasn't getting my foot far enough back with one of the movements. After that it felt like my tgu time improved, possibly the reason for improvement on my last round.

wow...

I actually woke up BEFORE my alarm went off, so I'm actually going to make it to the 6:45 class!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Monday, "The Beast"

Jerry called this one the beast, but I kind of liked it for some strange reason.

Run both buildings twice (1 mile?)
30 Thrusters
30 Pullups
Run both buildings once (800-1000 meters?)
20 pullups
20 thrusters
Run small building (400 meter?)
10 pullups
10 thrusters

Load:
65lb women
95lb men

my time was 37:47. The thrusters were pretty difficult again, but I'm getting better at keeping my core tight when winded. the squat isn't difficult for my legs like my quads, it feels... I don't know how to describe it. I think it my hip flexors or something, because of the three things I focus on- keeping my core tight, my back vertical, and knees out- it's the knees out that feels the most foreign/difficult. I also think I need to work on my grip, because when I'm thrusting the weight up the bar usually isn't on the meat of my hands, it more like where my fingers and hand meet. This usually makes the thrust part a little more uncomfortable than it needs to be, but I can't figure out how to fix it.

Sunday, hang squat clean max

Today was a rough one, I wasn't running on much sleep and was in a fog. The weight wasn't the problem, it was my technique.

Clean and Jerk
1 rep, seven rounds

I maxed out at 125. I simply had difficulty getting under the bar. I succeeded some when I stopped thinking about it and just thought "violent movement", but I know I can do more.

There was a finisher:

7 rounds for time (11:11)
7 burbees
11 med ball squat cleans

During this finisher I got my squat clean groove back. Finally got the speed that I needed, and the movement came back to me. So mental note, do some medball squat clean for warm ups when doing this workout.

Friday, Diane

Well, it seems like I've been going out on a lot of dates this week, stood up Barbara yesterday and Friday was Diane. I didn't even come close to doing Diane Rx'd, but I really wanted to work on my Handstand push ups. I think I might have a mild strain of my lower back, so I really didn't want to push it with deadlift either.

Diane
21-15-9 reps of:
Deadlift
Handstand push-ups

Load: Women = 145lb - Men = 225lb

I did DL's with 165# and jumping handstand lunges time was 17:32 though.

My body is still struggling to remember HSPU's, the first few attempts fell flat, failing to keep my core tight. After a while though, I was nailing it. Sadly, the lowest my pushups ever went was just around midway full motion, but it's an improvement and I'll take it.

I have to admit I've been ignoring the fact my lower back doesn't feel 100% since the DL max lift day. I've been hoping (incorrectly) that it wil go away, but it hasn't. However, it doesn't feel worse either. I know that if I do the deadlift with correct form it shouldn't strain the muscles, so I just need to work on form. ...But I think I really should lay off back-intensive exercises. It's so frustrating when I strain my back, I just wish it would go away.

Thursday, rest and recouperation

Today I woke up at 12:30, so I figured if I needed 11 hours of sleep and still felt sore my body needed a day off. There's a fine line between pushing yourself and not letting yourself get the recovery you need. I'm still not sure if I've found it, but after looking on the crossfit forums, I found quite a few threads on recovery:

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=29543

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=39646

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=37752

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=2834

I think I'm giving recovery enough attention in that I eat zone meals and am usually sucessful in getting 8 hours of sleep a night, but I think I'm not drinking enough water. I try to drink a lot of water, but I've noticed signs that say that I'm still not adequately hydrated.

The forums also mention having a "half week" (or something like that, can't remember) after three weeks of all out CF. The idea is after three weeks of pushing your body to the limit you have a week where you cut every WOD in half, like if Rx'd is 1 mile run you do 800 meters, 30 pullups you do 15, etc.

I've heard Jerry talk about various wod's being active recovery, but since he's planning wod's for people on various schedules I can't imagine he'll plan something like a half week. I think I'll treat my upcoming christmas vacation as a half week. In the mean time, hit it and hit it hard!

Wednesday, Gwen

Ok so I've been slacking on the blogging, for that I apologize. I'm going to post some make up posts, and will be better at posting on the same day.

Thursday's exercise was Gwen:

As heavy a weight as you want,

clean and jerk 15-12-9 reps touch and go at the floor only, no regrip and no dumping.

I chose 116 since Jerry advised anyone who was thinking of doing 115 to do one more pound since that's what LTC Dan used. Sorry Dan, Jerry made me do it.

Going from the ground really added a different, more difficult, feel to the motion. 15 was actually pretty tough, but somehow I didn't stop. On the 12 rep set something screwing happened because I was getting tired and Jerry said I only got up to 10 (I knew something happened but couldn't figure out what). The last set was surprisingly easy, but the finisher more than made up for it.

Stacey convinced me, like she always does, to do the finisher, and this was painful. 75 Wallballs for time

3:23

I've noticed a difference in style between Stacey, who consistently gets one of the best scores of the class, and myself. Whenever we start an exercise together I consistently start out faster than her. Now the difference isn't too much, but my pace is slightly faster. However, after a while I have to slow down or stop all together for some period of time, whereas she briefly stops maybe once, if at all, and when she resumes it's the same pace as before.

We talked about this a bit, and I think these strategies accomplish two different goals. For someone who's as advanced as Stacey you probably have a pretty good idea how to pace yourself. This comes partially because as you get into better and better shape, your gains get smaller and smaller. For a noob like me I don't know my pace because I'm still unfamiliar with my body's strength since it's making rather large gains quickly. What pushed me two weeks ago might not be as tough today, so I just go as hard as I can for as long as I can and pray I don't die.

Another reason for sprinting out of the starting gate is I figure it will produce faster gains. My dad once told me that if you practiced running by alternating sprinting with slow jog you will see better improvement than a constant pace, although your time would be better if you kept it constant. Don't know if the same applies to crossfit, but I like any explanation for my still lacking (albeit improving) endurance numbers.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Learning how to keep the core tight

[Update 4/5/13: I've come to realize that my breathing technique was not helping me keep my core tight. I used to be in choir, and in the singing world you breathe in by opening up your diaphragm  you try to fill in the bottom section of your lungs and your stomach swells out. This is not how you should breathe in the lifting world. When you try to inhale to keep the core tight, try to fill in the top of your lungs, chest breathe.  Here is a great exercise, called the 90-90 hip lift, that works on teaching how to keep a tight core and engage the proper ab muscles.  The biggest thing (for me) is to keep the rib cage down, don't let it fly up.]

Today's WOD:

3 rounds for time:
Run 800m
30 front squat (100#)
30 box jump

This one took a while to complete for me, 45:43. The main reason for why this took so freaking long is I wanted to make my squat form perfect. After Fran, I've realized I still don't keep my core tight when performing squats, so I tried to make each one perfect. Like Fran, this was tough because I'm breathing hard from the previous exercise, so I waited until I could actually take a full breath and hold it for the squat. That took some time, but I really could tell a difference. I've been having a bit of a sore lower back, nothing too bad, I think it might have happened with the deadlift. Anyway, I noticed when I kept my core tight I didn't feel anything. Near the end I started doing scarecrow squats due to Danny's advice. Keeping my arms up forces me to keep my core tight at all times, but it was tough goings.

Still working on my pose style, whenever I remembered to lean forward it became easier on my quads, and harder on my core. I think I took the right approach today. I could've used a lighter weight, or placed emphasis on speed, but I really wanted to learn how to hold my breath and keep my core tight when squatting when my body is gasping for air. I saw Jack did this in 27:31, an unbelievable time. I'm not surprised, when he runs 800m he full out sprints it. I mean, I don't think my max sprint is as fast as his 800 pace. Someday though, I'll get up there. First, I just need to work on my technique to where squats are so difficult.

Monday, December 8, 2008

"You can't kip Push-ups"

So today was a nice met con workout.

10 Rounds for time:
7 pull-ups
7 burbees
3 minute rest
6 Rounds for time:
10 good mornings
20 ab mat situps
Extra:
65 push-ups for time

Don't remember the exact times but I think the first round went 12 something, and the second round went 14 something. When I did the pushups, I desperately wanted to do 30 push-ups (aka more than my pull-up pr). Instead, I got up to 21 and then could do more. I mentioned this to Danny the today, with which he wisely responded with, "you can't kip push-ups"

Seriously though it's sad that I'm so bad at push-ups. I'm glad I did the push ups, lord knows I needed it. I think I need to start doing 100 pushups for time after every class instead of those situps.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Putting the "Rest" in "Rest Later"

Ok, so this past week was my first real attempt at trying to make it to the morning classes, and I made it with some success. However, the price of waking up early was getting less sleep (seems like I have difficulty going to bed before midnight) Usually I got around 6-7 hours of sleep, but at least once I only got 5 hours. This has been much different from the 8-9 hours of sleep I'm used to.

So now it's the weekend, and my body is telling me I needed more sleep. For example, I went out for a bit on Friday night and went to sleep at like 1. I turned off my alarm and just let myself naturally wake up. This resulted in 12 hours of sleep. This alone is would tell me that my body needed some time to recover, but there's more. I also fell asleep only six hours later, around 7:00, while I was trying to figure out dinner. Woke up at 3:30, but went back to sleep after an hour. Although I set the alarm so I could attend the Grace challenge, when it woke me up I hit the "off" button instead of the snooze button, so I woke up at 10:40. That's nearly 16 hours straight, and 27 hours of sleep in a 36 hour time period.

I used to sleep like this on the weekends when I deprived myself of rest on the weekdays, so I'm really not sure how to handle my attempt at getting up in the morning. I mean, I really do like waking up early and being done with everything early. I prefer leaving work at 5 rather than 10:30 (obviously) . One reason why I think I've progressed so much with crossfit has been allowing myself adequate recovery (sleep) time. I'll post later about how sleep really is important, but right now I've gotta go make breakfast, haven't eaten anything for about 20 hours now!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Another Fran, another PR

Well, Thursday's workout was Fran. When I first learned this, I have to admit that my first reaction was fear. I mean, my lower back is feeling it from deadlifts on Monday, while my quads and pecs were really, really sore from Tabata Something else. I don't like the fact that my first response was to think about excuses for a poor performance, but it was. I then proceeded to chide myself, that everyone here have done the same workouts and experiencing the same thing. Fran in this context shouldn't be used to test you at your optimal rest/recovery, it should test how strong you are while you're doing the WOD's 5-6 times a week. So after telling myself that, I became less and less concerned with the aches and pains my body was experiencing.

I tried to make it to the 9am class, but I was a little too late, only Melissa was there. She mentioned how people have posted some good times, and I said I figured to get a new pr, like a sub 10. She responded with something like, "Oh I think you'll do much better then that." Her comment reminded me that I shouldn't look at Fran as something that will reveal how weak I am, but I should get excited because it demonstrates how strong I am. I'm still not used to thinking of myself as strong (at least in the upper body). When I was warming up at the 5pm class, Chriss commented, unprovoked, that he's noticed I've gotten a lot stronger, and thought I had a sub 9 Fran in me. Earlier this week, when Stacey got back from her six week work detail, she commented that I've gotten a lot faster; Chriss, coming back from an equally long work trip, comments that I've gotten a lot stronger. This is why I joined Crossfit. Well, not to be complimented, but to become faster, stronger, an elite athlete. Ok, so I'm starting to get into a more positive attitude in approaching Fran.

The First round of thrusters was tough, but I felt strong and I only put the bar down once, maybe twice. The pull ups were tough, but I felt like I pushed myself pretty hard. I decided to use the tape grips Crossfit Virtuosity talks about, and I think they did a great job of making it easier on my hands, allowing me to focus on my lats than my hands. Jerry talked about how he doesn't want to see phantom tags, but wanted to see actual contact with our neck/chin/chest with the bar. Although I didn't make contact a couple of times, he also commented if it's clear that your head is way above the bar, contact isn't necessarily needed. This standard really doesn't make it harder for me, it requires more lat strength, but it's the core that gives me difficulty.

The second and third rounds were brutal, and I started feeling light-headed, but I never really felt like I wanted to give up, unlike my first attempt at Fran. During my last round of thrusters, Jerry walked over and told me that I needed to take a deep breath and use that core tension to power the bar up. Unfortunately, I was gasping for air at the time, and holding a big breath of air was proving really difficult. Also, when I had only three more to go, Jerry was like, "Ok just knock out two." I don't know why, but whenever someone gives me a goal that is short of what is needed, I get a strong drive to prove them wrong. So, I responded by finishing up the three without lowering the bar. The last one was really ugly, basically the bar stopped about 3/4 of distance it needed to go, so I ended up strict pressing the bar up into active shoulder, and I imagine it wasn't pretty. The last nine pull ups were surprisingly difficult, I had to bang out the last two one at a time.

After I was done, I just simply collapsed. I tried to yell out time, but just couldn't, although I remember trying to make a T with my hands as I fell to the ground. Although I glimpsed the clock when I went down, it was just for a second. But I didn't care what the time was, I was just happy it was over. I also became a little worried because my hands went numb, like my wrists to my fingers felt like pins and needles. Eventually I got up and then realized I never really heard/knew my time. Mellisa, Matt, and Jack all said 10:5X, and that jarred my memory into 10:55. So after four months and ten days, I lowered my Fran time by 4:38. It's also funny to note that I forgot/was too tired to write up my time on the whiteboard. I mean, fran is the mother of all benchmarks. When two crossfitters meet for the first time, they never talk about their badger or murph time. Inevitably fran comes up within the first five minutes. Regardless, I forgot to post, but I definitely didn't forget the time.

Here's a graph of my Fran times, each one was done Rx'd so they are directly comparable:

This feels like a really big victory. I've been looking for quantifiable proof that coming in to CFOT all this time, eating strict zone for such a long time. Something that will show all of this work hasn't been in vain. This week has been fantastic with people's unprompted comments on how I've improved, and now this. As Jerry pointed out, my first fran was about 20 (19:43) min, my second was around 15 (15:33) min, and now it's around 10 (10:55) min. Can't wait for the next fran, since that's when I'll get my first 5 fran.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Heavy Strict press, pr

Sorry for not posting as regularly as I used to, been trying to change schedules and attend the morning class. Have to be brief, so here goes:

7 rounds
1 rep Strict press

Got up to 115, which is 20lbs heavier than my 5 rep max from September, failed at 120 twice, then failed 116, lowered it back down to 110 and did a couple of those, then failed, then went down to 100 and did 3 perfectly, could have done more but was just tired of the required mental focus.

...Learned that Fran is today. First I was fearful, then I started to tell myself this is an opportunity to demonstrate how much I've developed. Still working on pumping myself up about it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tabata Something Else, pr

Feeling much better after some much needed sleep, I was better prepared for today's WOD, Tabata something else:

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

I started on push-ups because there were more people than chin-up bars, and that killed my effort on the pull ups. I forget my set scores, but my total was 322. By the time I had a chance to write down my sit-ups, I somehow thought I did 93. Then later, I remember breaking 100, that I was at 92 before the last set. Then I remembered thinking I was one rep away from doing what Stacey does after every workout, so it was actually 113.

When I compare my score to two months ago, I improved my score by 22 points, and frankly I'm a little frustrated with that. I mean, I'm glad doing all those abmat sit ups after class improved my sit-up score by 30 in two months; I thought I would see a greater improvement then that. I'm still weak when it comes to push ups, although my pull ups stayed the same. My biggest room for improvement is push-ups, I need to find some program that will help me with those. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if I can do more pull ups (27) in a row than push ups.

We had another "finisher" I chose door number two:
2 rounds:
400m Farmer's Walk
400m run

After the pull ups my forearms were shot. Next time I will use KB's because the 40 lb dumbbells just didn't work.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Sooo tired

Got up at 4am est today to catch my flight back home.... I almost didn't make it today, and if it was a met-con workout I am sure I would've died I'm so exhausted. Instead, it was a strength day.
5 rounds
3 rep deadlift max

I got up to 245, it felt really strong, I think I did a good job on keeping my core tight and not using my back. I tried for 285 after that, but I only managed to get it up once. ...Deadlift gives such a strange sensation, but I have to say I'm getting used to it.

On a side note Jerry mentioned how my post wod abmat sessions might make me look pretty, but it would be good to vary it up a bit with something like planks. Frankly, I don't mind being pretty, but I think I'll have to try out planks.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Holidays

Well, I set my alarm for 6:00 am so I could attend the "late" 6:45 class. This only gave me about 4-4.5 hours of sleep. The alarm went off, I woke up, turned it off, and just laid there for a while trying to figure out if going was such a good idea. I felt exhausted, and I ended up falling back asleep while I debated in my head. Well, fast forward to 11:00, and I wake up again. As I write this, I feel like I should've gone.

Although waking up early for me is extremely taxing, I do have to admit that I always feel like I get more done when I wake up early. Ah well, guess I'll just have to work out on my own until when I get back in town Monday. ...I'm really not happy about the idea of taking a week off of CFOT, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Onion skin ( PR!) and yesterday's workout

Guess I'll start off with yesterday's workout:

three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
21 Kettlebell swing
21 Push-ups
21 Rope Pullups
21 Box jump
21 Good Mornings
150 ft Walking Lunge

My time was 52:02, not the quickest time by any means. I knew this was going to be a tough one because of the rope pull ups. They simply tore up my forearm muscles, the last set I was knocking them out only one at a time. Everything else seemed pretty easy meaning I didn't have to break up a set. Ever since we did Helen, I now know I can do 21 kb swings without stopping. Knowing that, I've been able to push through those times when I want to rest. As I'm finding out how strong I've become, I'm getting better and better at pushing myself even more (more on that later).

The Knees to elbows were fun the first two rounds, but I was really feeling it the last round, wanted to kip so bad! The box jumps were really, really short, so I only needed to use my calf muscles to launch myself up there, so I was pretty damn fast since I never had to step off; I would just jump off, land, and then jump back up. Push ups sucked as usual, and now that I think about it I had to break them up each set, SO ANNOYING! Ah well, with time it will come I suppose. The good mornings were a little tricky, I've felt a bit of a strain on my back last week, and I tried to pay close attention to my lower back so as to not aggrevate it again. This exercise really forces me to open up my hips, which I imagine is a good thing. The lunges were no biggie, but next time I'll try to do them faster.

Today we did "Onion Skin"

5 rounds
max reps strict press (Rx'd at 85)
max pullups

Last time I did this was August 18th, where I did 48 reps with 75 lbs and 54 chins. Today was somewhat better, here's how I performed:

Pull ups: 27, 13, 3, 16, 10 = 69
Strict @ 85: 12, 8, 8, 6, 4 = 38

For the strict press, my reps went down by ten, but the weight went up by ten. On the last one I also hit my head, and although it wasn't hard it did through off my focus.

For the pull ups, I went for a PR, and lo and behold I got it. I'm thinking I'm going to start trying to meet the crossfit standard and always go chest to bar. I mean, it is the standard, and it will get me stronger, right? I'm thinking about waiting until we move into the new place with fixed bars, but I might not wait. ...My bigest problem is getting a good grip on the bar. I think I don't place my hand high enough on the bar, because it really feels like there are eight pebbles being jammed into my hand, and the pain really is a distraction. For example, on the third round I did three, but just had to let go because of the pain in my hands. I don't have any torn calluses, it's simply... pain.

Moving on, I'd like to point out that every time I've attempted a PR this past week or so, I've hit it. It really helps to have a goal, and to know full well your prevous score. That is really starting to provide me with motivation. It's simply been very tough for me to remember my previous performances, but when I do, I notice I do that much better. Now that I'm noticing this and have found my motivation, I think I will really start seeing some results.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Zone food delivery service

So this past week I've been dealing with some knee pain. On Friday I saw the DO, and he noticed an issue with my ankle, hip, and knee. He put me back together, and I d feel a lot better, but he told me that I should hold off on exercise for that day. A little bummed, I showed up anyway to cheer on and help if I could. Since there's no class on Saturday, I didn't work out then either. Thanks to playing guitar hero would tour late into the night, I didn't wake up today until noonish. So that's three days without CFOT, and it makes me a little antsy, like I need my fix.

The knee still feels a little.... off. It feels like my quad is a little tight, pulling at my knee. I'm not sure if that's the case, but that's the best description of the discomfort I can come up with.

Earlier this week a crossfitter from San Francisco, his name currently escapes me, talked about how they had a chef would would prepare zone meals and sell them at the beginning of the week. That got me to start looking around for any type service here in the NOVA area.

I've checked out some websites that review zone delivery services, dietblog.com and freedieting.com, and it really doesn't seem like there's a fresh/local option.
There are two that promise delivery to the DC area, Bon Appetit and intothezonedelivery, but I don't understand the delivery system, my main worry would be the food going bad. I mean, do I have to wait for the mailman everyday?

It's also an expensive option. As is I spend about $75 a week on groceries, and that's for a week's worth of food. That comes out to about $10.72 a day, $2.15 a meal/snack. These food delivery services tend to be around $35 a day, so it would put my budget into all kinds of whack.
However, if the quality's good I would consider it. I think we need to recruit one of old town's chefs and convince him he needs to provide this service to us.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Pr's galore

Ok well Wed's workout was finding your max push jerk, so here goes:
135. 155, 155, 155, 155, 165, 175

I felt really strong starting out on this one, but that bar got heavy quick. I wasn't getting that speed, that violent action that I needed on those 155's. On my failed attempts, I'd get the bar up there, but I couldn't stick it. Jerry told me that I should be able to keep everything tight, that I should be able to look around the room with the bar overhead because everything is on such a tight lockdown. I turned that piece of advice into the mantra of "smile and wave". Obviously, I shouldn't try to wave since that would require use of my hand, but you get the point.

One the 165 I did press it a bit, but after I locked it out I was able to hold it there for quite a while, called out to Jerry to get his attention and show him I took his advice to heart. ...It really was easy to keep that weight up there once it was in the right place.

Same thing with the 175, except I definitely pressed it, I'm not even sure if that last rep counted as a push jerk, but I think if I were a little less fatigued I could do it. Again I looked around after getting the bar up. I got a little cocky and thought "I've got everything so locked down, I'll look up at the bar." That's when I discovered looking up really does change the alignment of your spine, and I quickly recovered/dropped the bar. Nothing was hurt, did feel a little sheepish though.

175 push jerk is a PR, a 25lb improvement from my 150 three rep max on 9/13. I think my max's are slowly going up, but more importantly I think my technique is getting much, much better. I've still got a long way to go, but I'd rather be able to push press 135 with perfect technique than a sloppy 175. I think my movements are making me less and less prone to injury. I've already torn a rotator cuff on push press, I'd rather not do that again.

Speaking of injuries, my knee pain is pretty constant now, which worries me. I'll be seeing my DO tomorrow, so he might be able to help. It's like it will hurt because my knee is supporting weight just standing. I'm looking forward to the thanksgiving holidays to take some time off for the knee, but until then I plan on continuing every day. I would also like to report that hip pain is a thing of the past, thanks to the DO. At some point during this week when I did squats, even air squats, I could feel soreness in my right hip flexors, probably because they weren't used to working in the correct manner. Regardless, I can tell that I'm getting stronger, not just in the meaty muscle way, but also in the core muscle way, and that is way more important.

On to Today's workout, Nicole. Because of the stairs and taking on/off shoes, we did our Nicole in 25 min, when the standard is 20

Nicole:
ARAP 25 min
400m sprint
max pullups

My results were 5.5 rounds, with my pull ups being 24, 14, 11, 9, 11. I accomplished my goals with this workout. My goals were 1) hit a pull up PR, and 2) beat everyone else in the first 400m sprint. I was pretty gassed with the run near the end. For the last two laps I ran backwards for part of the way just so I could use fresher muscles. I mean, there's no CF standard for running, is there?

Concerning Nicole, today was the first day I seriously considered not coming in. My knee was hurting, felt some strain in my lower back, I needed to get work done, etc. But I knew that I would regret not going, and I had a blast today. My reason for why I keep coming back really is the people of CFOT, it is one strong community.

Mental note, I have two blog post ideas, one is the crossfit effect, the other is on having your zone meals deliverd to you.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The face that launched a thousand ships...

Today was a fun day, mostly because I feel like I found the motivation to push myself. We had a really extensive warm up, working on push jerk, push press, etc. The most productive part for me was sitting in the bottom of a squat for 20 seconds 4 times. Lately I've started feeling some pain in my knee, and I think it comes from tracking problems. Danny helped me figure out that I tend to bend my knees every slightly inward, making them support weight. This is an exercise I definitely need to keep doing, because the last thing I need to do is hurt my knees.

...One thing I realized today is I easily get annoyed with myself. I expect to nail all the exercises, and when I don't nail it (and I can usually tell right away when I don't) I get a little frustrated with myself. Jerry noticed a problem with my push press and gave some great advice; I think my annoyance with myself might have come off like I was annoyed with his help, which is far from the case. So mental note Adam: whenever you mess up (and you will) just take it for what it is, learn from it, and move on.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system, today was the benchmark Helen:

3 rounds for time:
400m run
21 KB swings 52#
12 pull ups

I was glad we did had a long warmup, because it was FREEZING outside. I did all of the KB swings unbroken, my main motivation was Harold's post of how he didn't break up his sets. I figured, "if he could do it, so can I." However, I did break up the pull-ups into two sets, why I don't know because I should be strong enough to do it straight through. Finished in 14:43, just a hair before Justin finished. Trying to beat Justin became my second motivation of the workout, and it helped me bang out those last few pull ups. Now, Justin will tell you that HE finished first, but I didn't see it, and I never heard him yell "Time!", so I'm just going to go with the assumption that I won that race.

Monday, November 17, 2008

max squat

Today's WOD didn't take much time, but I was really pleased with today's performance.

3 rounds
Heavy squat 5 reps

135, 155, 160#

Simple, so I really wanted to give it my all. This was a great workout with regards to pushing through. My leg muscles are definitely my most developed, so I have the most control over them. When I went down for my last rep at 160, I could feel my quads and hamstrings straining, contracting into a ball. I was breathing out the whole time, so my core was tight, and I just... I don't know how to say it, I had the ability, the connection, to my leg muscles that allowed me to say, "push harder." They responded accordingly. This is an improvement from my last max attempt, where I squatted 150 3 times on 9/13. I'm not sure if this is a big improvement for two months, but I'll take it.

All in all it was, as I felt it, a very tough effort. I later told Danny that I had to really push for it, and he responded with "Really? It didn't look like it." Of course, that makes me wonder how much I should go for next time.

the three sets took all of 12 minutes, so afterwords I started messing around with L pull ups. On my first attempt on the bar I got like 6, then I think 6, then 4. I then banged a few out on the rope. I saw Danny grip a 14 pound med ball with his ankles, get to the L, and then do a pull up. I tried it, and managed to get one on my first attempt, then two on the second. Danny and I then came up with a game of cath, where we would face each other, hang on the bars, and then toss the ball with our feet. It was pretty funny. ...So it seems that I've found another favorite exercise, L pull ups.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

high reps workout

This was a really difficult WOD today, completely wore me out. Here it is, although I might have mixed something up:

Wod
25 pull ups
50 hang clean jerk
50 burbees
50 wall ball sit ups
50 box jumps
50 push ups
25 pull ups

I did it in 45:01, one of the longest times of the day. At first I wasn't too happy with this, I feel like I should have somehow pushed myself harder. However, I have to remind myself of where i was four months ago. I remember when I couldn't string more than 15 push ups together, and here I basically did 100 today.

The pull ups weren't difficult, found a good grip early on so I did it in like two sets. The hang clean jerk really worked my core, I put it down a lot more than I'd like to admit, but after a first set of ten I broke it down to reps of 5. I think next time I really need to tell myself to just suck it up and do it. The burbees were awful as usual, my anterior deltoids were numb from use, but I'm starting to get the hang of getting my hips down to power my jump up. The wall balls weren't really hard on my abs, but trying to throw the ball against the wall after the burbees was really hard, felt like I would do the sit up, and then just try to flick the ball to the wall with my wrist. The box jumps took a while, I need to figure out a way to hurry up the dismount, feel like I spend too much time stepping down to the ground. By the time I got to push ups I had recovered some, so I got to bang out 15 at once, but the rest after that were pretty brutal. Got the pull ups in like three sets, I felt like I did a good job on pushing through on this one.

...My plan after the workout was to go home, shower, take a nap, then laundry, but I've come to learn that they've shut off the water main for repairs for the fourth time in the past six weeks. Looks like I'll just have to do laundry tomorrow or Tuesday, and hopefully I can find a place to shower soon.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Awesome workout today

Today's workout played to my strengths, running and overhead snatch.

Five rounds for time of:
Hang Power Snatch, 15 reps (95#)
Run 400 meters

First round I did in a little over 4 minutes, but wasn't able to keep pace. The first round i did the snatch in 15 straight, the following rounds I broke it up 5-5-5. I think today I really did a good job of pushing myself, and got the wod done in under 30 min. Overhead snatch really is my best move. I can create such a violent pull on the bar that I really don't even have to lower my hips much in order to get under the bar. My traps are my strongest muscle, and I can explode off of the pull, make the bar fly up, and wham, the bar is above my head. I think I jinxed myself talking about no longer having a sore core, because I felt like I was going to puke from the overhead snatch. Jerry mentioned that the core muscles make a biological weight belt, that the muscles wraping around my stomach suppor the spine and if I keep them tight I can rely on them to push through the bottome part of a squat. Well, it feels like this biological belt was one notch too tight, lightly squeezing my stomach, ready to completely constrict at any moment.

Sometimes I look at my time and think I could have done better, but I am happy with this time, I really do think I pushed, although I'm sure I could've pushed harder :)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Jason, without the argonauts

Today was a hero workout, and my first ever workout with muscle ups; Jason:

100 squats
5 Muscle Ups (MU's)
75 squats
10 MUs
50 squats
15 MUs
25 squats
20 MUs

My time was 33:46, scaling the workout replacing the MUs with jumping MUs. I think my first 10 or so were really jumping ring dips, but as I worked on the motion I started figuring out how to involve the other muscles. I'm having problems punching my head through, but I'm sure the more I do this the better I'll become. Danny was insane and did this workout in like 20 minutes, crazy.




One thing that bothers me is that I no longer feel like I'm going to puke during the workouts. That may seem strange, but the sensation of my core muscles twitching around my stomach was a sign I was using my core. Either my core is getting used to the abuse, or I've somehow figured out another way to rely on hip strength instead of core strength. I try focusing on my breathing when I remember, but right now it's far from second nature for me. Today's MU's required a lot of core strength, but I think I was too focused on my hands and upper body to really keep my core tight. I keep working on my posture all the time, but maintaining good posture/keeping the core tight is still foreign to me.

Upgrading from Mildly Insane to Full Out Psycho

Alright, I'm now learning what happens when you start attending crossfit classes 5 days in a row. After yesterday's workout, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn't Fight Gone Bad. This was a tough one for me mentally. Here's my score:

Wall ball 26, 11, 8, 7, 10
High pull 20, 18, 10, 10, 8
Box Jump 18, 15, 23, 11, 14
Push press 10, 12, 8, 10, 10
500 m 8, 10, 10, 9, 15

5 round total: 311, 3 round total: 207. Can't say I'm too happy with this one, but that's how I fared. I don't want to start making excuses, but my shoulders were shot from the 100 hand stands yesterday, making the push press really tough. However, I noticed that 75#s felt really, really light. I just didn't have any shoulder strength today. More importantly though, I think I was defeated before I began. I was just feeling groggy/tired/just not with it. I wouldn't say I had a negative mindset, but it wasn't positive, just tired. There was only one point were I felt mentally "there" and it was the last half of the last round of box jumps. I think since this was five rounds I just wasn't pushing it in an effort to pace myself.

My whole upper body is sore, as well as my quads from all those burbees yesterday. Oh yeah that's another thing. Yesterday Jerry helped me out with my burpees. He showed me how to correctly go from the plank to what I'll call "frog stance". I was originally going to something like a pike when I jumped my feet up from the plank, bending at the hip and folding myself in half. In this stance I only use my back to extend up to the jump. Now I keep my hips low when I jump, enabling me to use my legs to power up for the jump. I get more hops now, but it works the quads a lot more. Thanks for the tips Jerry, I really am trying to dial in on technique for every exercise we do, from burpees to overhead snatch.

Alright, time for bed; gotta get ready for tomorrow's workout.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mildly insane today with a PR

Ok, we had two options, option A:

10 rounds for time
12 deck-squat slam balls
12 chins
12 burpees

And here is option B, the "psycho" version:

5 rounds for time
25 inverted burpees
25 pull ups
25 burpees

I really want to improve my handstand, so when I learned that an inverted burpee is a deck-squat to a handstand, I decided to do the psycho version. This was tough, as expected. I had trouble getting active shoulder when I try the hand stand. However, near the end I think I started to get it; I know I nailed it once because Jerry spotted me doing it correctly and gave some much inspiring applause. Here's a picture from crossfit.com to demonstrate an inverted burpee:


The high point, other than that moment, was during the first round I got 23 pull ups in a row, a new pr and a 7 rep increase from two months ago. During the third round my anterior deltoids started feeling numb with burpees, but this was to be expected since my shoulder strength needs a lot of improvement.

After the third round, my left knee really started to hurt from it not tracking correctly when performing the deck-squat. I couldn't figure out how to fix it, and knee pain scares me, so I just did 25 Hand stands instead. Without the squat part, this became pretty easy, and I think I started to really get it. Lanette advised that I try jumping into a handstand. Well, not jumping exactly, more like a mini-hop. I tried it once, but it was a little too foreign for me to try out in the middle of such a workout. For those of you like me interested in learning how to progress to the freestanding handstand pushup, here is a great website that teaches you how to get progress to ful freestanding handstand.

I ended up doing 4 rounds in 61:23, with the nerfing of the inverse burbee for the last round. I might have bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm glad that I tried, and I would've done a fifth round if the next class hadn't started.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Max power clean

Well today was max power clean, we warmed up and then tried 1 rep 7 times. I got up to 185, but it wasn't pretty. Although I've never found my max before, the heaviest I've hang cleaned before today is 150 lbs three times about a month ago. Can't really compare the results, but I definitely think it's an improvement, and I know I can go heavier.

My technique wasn't perfect, I was having some difficulty with keeping my stance, not moving my feet. I also think I started too light today, but now that I have an idea of how strong I am I'll be better able to push myself.

We also had a gasser afterwards, it felt good:
10 minutes AMRAP
7 med ball squat cleans 20# ball
7 push ups

Think I got 13 rounds in, maybe 12. Jerry kept telling me to lower my hips, so I think I was trying to use my back on the light weight. I think after a while I got my hips down, and I really tried to emphasize the hip extension to shrug, resulting in a weightless med ball.

Today reminded me of how important it is to know my personal records, so I've decided to post them here now. Now I know that almost none of them are actual 1 rep max, but that's because I've yet to find out. If I've forgotten any exercise let me know.

front squat
150 (3 rep max) done on 9/13/2008

hang power clean
185 (1 rep max) done on 11/10/2008

squat clean
90 (30 times w/ Badger) done on 11/70/08

clean and jerk
165 (1 rep max) done on 10/30/2008

deadlift
265 lbs (strained my back on this one) done on 7/13/2008

overhead snatch
95 (5 rep max) done on 9/26/2008

ring dips
5 reps 9/17/2008

pull ups
16 reps 9/6/2008

Strict press
95 9/3/2008

Jerry also talked to me about one more thing that's affecting my technique: my confidence. To be honest, I'm simply not used to being this strong. It's a little tough wrapping my mind around the fact that what was once tough might be easy. I just need to get aggressive, to take that weight and make it mine, to own it.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

missed it today...

Well, I just woke up, so I missed today's workout. Can't say I'm too happy right now; this is the first time I've missed a Sunday workout while I'm in town. I couldn't get to sleep until like 4 last night, so when the 7;30 alarm went off today I just hit the off button and rolled back to sleep, figuring I was too tired to really workout. Now that I am up, I feel like I just cheated myself. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now (except maybe go for a run).

...Speaking of running, I had perhaps my best 400m sprint ever on Tuesday. Justin and I sometimes find ourselves finishing workouts with similar times, and Tuesday was one of those days. His upper body strength is much better than mine, so he finished the second round of HSPU/ring dips/push ups before me. So when I started the 400m run, he had probably a 50m head start. I made it my goal to try to catch up to him, and as I left the building I stumbled I was so pumped in trying to sprint my ass off. And when Justin looked back to see who was running so hard, I yelled out "I'm coming for you!" He, in turn, kicked his run up a notch. Suddenly this run wasn't a suck run, it was like a game of tag, it was fun. We ran with such enthusiam that a couple we ran by wasn't sure if I was trying to mug Justin or not. We basically tied in reaching the door, but the outcome wasn't what was important to me, it was the fact that after already running 1800m I was able to sprint 400m and had fun doing it.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Thursday and Badger on Friday

Thursday was a tough workout. Appearently it was set up a little differently for the morning class, but I think everyone was ready to go home early so it was modified to be a little tougher, but not as prolonged. The WOD:

5 rounds
250m row
10 box jumps
10 barbell snatch (85#)
10 slam ball
10 burbees
20 abmat

I managed to do it in 25:31, but man this was tough. I think one of the benefits of working out every day is that my body is starting to really "get it" with regards to engaging my core muscles. On a related note I think one reason why I haven't progressed in strict chin strength like I expected is because I now use a kip that relies more on core strength than lat strength to get up to the bar.

But I digress, I really think these past five days of crossfit have already made a difference in my use of the core muscles. I've already noticed a difference in the appearance of my abs, which is freaking awesome. However, I'm finding that the down side of constantly engaging your core muscles when they aren't use to it is a sense of imminent puking while working out. I'm not complaining, rather, I think this is a good thing because it shows me that I'm using my core not like I have in the past, but like I should from now on.

However, the sensation is taking some getting used to. On Thursday I felt my core muscles twitching around my stomach, just waiting to completely crush my stomach, resulting in me up-chucking its contents. It was a horrible feeling that started after the second round. Not wanting to puke, I slowed down a little, but not too much. What I am happy about is that I continued to rely on my core strength during the workout and not on my hip flexor strength, despite the sensation.

Friday's workout.



Friday was my old friend Badger. I've attempted this workout twice before, once in June and again in August. Both times I did not do it Rx'd. Here is how I did:

June (first post injury workout)

Two rounds
30 squat clean (45#)
20 pull ups
800m run
32 minutes - 16 min per round

August (first week back from 2 week vacay)
Three rounds
30 squat cleans (75#)
30 pull ups (this is when I tore up my hands)
800m run
61:23 - 20:28 per round

Friday
Three rounds
30 squat cleans (90#)
30 pull ups
800m run
53:14 - 17:45 per round

So that's an improvement of 8:09 while increasing the weight of the squat clean by 15#s in two months. Another way to look at it is that my squat clean went up by 50 lbs, squat clean endurance went up 33%, and my pull-up endurance went up 44% in four months. All in all I'm happy with the improvement.

Now that I've finally done badger Rx'd, I'll get an even better comparison the next time I do it. Like Thursday's workout, the whole time I felt like I was going to puke; I've never had such a sensation before. It felt like there was a towel tied around my stomach, and every once in a while it would suddenly tighten, as if someone had jerked one of the ends of the knot of the towel. Guess this is what happens when you start using your core in every single exercise like you should.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Max Effort, third day in a row of Crossfit

Thankfully, there was no press movement today:

5 rounds:

Weighted Chins
Max effort x 5
Front squat x Max reps

My best effort with the chin ups was 5 reps with a 20lb weight vest, and I got 55 reps of 115 lbs. I felt like I've gotten a lot weaker, but I think this is all me expecting more from myself. When I compare this to when we first did this workout about four months ago, I see that I've gotten stronger, albeit only slightly. Back then my best chin was 5 reps with 12lbs, and although I started banging out 10 reps of 135lbs, after the second round I had to drop to 95 lbs. So I have improved, but I am surprised at how little I've increased. But I also know that I've improved in technique as well as conditioning, and those needed more improvement then my outright strength.

Speaking of technique, Jerry made a great point about front squats and keeping one's core tight. The abs, when kept tight, work like a biological weight belt. When you hit the bottom of the squat, you should be able to use your core to start your drive back up. Near the end I just couldn't focus enough on finish out more reps. Again, it's that mental part that's giving me trouble. However, I'm sure with time and practice this stuff will become second nature, and then I can start focus on other things, like getting stronger.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

My 100th Post

Yesterday's WOD was a nightmare. I focused on my greatest weakness, upper body press.

1000m run
21 Hand stand pushups
21 ring dips
21 push ups
800m run
15 HSPU
15 ring dips
15 push ups
400m run
9 HSPU
9 Ring dips
9 push ups

I'd call this one Achilles because 1) it would take a Greek hero to do this with ease (or Stacey) and 2) it focuses on the Achilles heel of my fitness. This was as about as tough as I expected. The run was really nice, I finished the 1000m ahead of everyone else, which felt awesome. I still can't do a HSPU, the best I can do is like a half of one. However, I'm getting better and better at doing shrugs while freestanding, without help from a wall. I managed to get all 21 ring dips the first time, but I was so spent that I had to just get negatives for the last two rounds. Pushups, surprisingly, were the easiest of the three. I tried a slightly wider stance so I could use more pec and less tricep.

I'm extremely excited that I can now attend crossfit at 5pm for all five weekdays. I swear I can already see a difference. To see how much of a difference this will make, here's a comparison

Working out SMWF:

16 workouts a month (4 weeks/28 days)

12 restdays

$12.32 a class


Working out SMTWTF:

24 workouts a month

4 restdays
$8.21 a class

This will increase the number of times I workout per four weeks by 33% and lower my class cost average by about the same amount. More importantly, I think this will make a huge difference in increasing my performance because outside of crossfit I do nothing. Meaning, I have a deskjob, I don't play a sport (for now) and I don't go to the pto gym because I don't know what will be coming up the next day. That reminds me, I should cancel my gym membership sometime soon.

This increase won't just make me stronger, but it will expose me to much more opportunities to work on my technique as well as measure my fitness. For example, last week and three weeks ago Jerry had us work on our max clean and jerk, but because it was done on a Thursday, the 5p class never had that experience.

The reasons for the combining of classes is related to Jerry getting his new gym, and it got me to thinking: what will it be like with no blue room? Here's some differences I've thought about:

1. Will no longer have to take off my shoes, will lower my badger time

2. Will have fixed pull up bars, which should lead to a faster time on badger, fran, etc.

3. We will have back squat capability.

This also touches on something else I've been thinking about. Although I love crossfit, I feel like I should try something else out in addition to xfit. Crossfit is to get yourself into the best shape of your life, but a sport/activity lets you put your althetic-ness to work. I've thought about joining Jiu-jistsu, but I'm also interested in seeing how rusty my soccer skills are, or maybe try out something else. Whatever the case, I'm starting to look for ways to put my new strength to work.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Into to the sumo deadlift highpull

Well, it was good to be back. The WOD:

10 rounds or 30 min
100#s
5 squat thruster
7 hang power clean
9 sumo deadlift high pull

I did 7 or 8 rounds before time ran out. This wod made me feel really rusty, like nothing felt very natural. In addition, what slowed me down wasn't really me being weak, but having improper technique causing my lower back to start hurting.

Haven't done thrusters in a while, so it took a bit on an adjustment to go from the rack position to the overhead position. The hang power clean was definitely the easiest, but I couldn't really figure out how to engage my hips, at least it felt that way.

The sumo dlhp was what got me. I mean, just look at this picture: I'm uneven, looks like I'm not keeping my core tight, I only have one of my scapula back, looks like I'm curling my feet inwards, and I'm pulling with my arms before my legs are straight and have engaged my hips. I just couldn't get it to feel like one of my favorite exercises, the kettlebell high pull. I kept front squatting it. I started to feel the strain on my back, which slowed me down a lot. That part was really frustrating, my first round time was like 1:50, but after like the second round my back started to tighten up, slowing me down a lot. I felt like I could do the rx'd weight without hurting my back, as long as I had proper form, so I didn't lighten the load. I also felt like I was capable of doing correct form, I just had to "get it".

Concerning form, with thrusters I really feel something going on with my right hip. It wasn't really pain, it felt more like now that my hips are balanced, some muscles aren't used to working correctly. When I was at the bottom of a squat, I took apicture in my mind of what my body looked like. What I saw was the slight weakness in my right hip causing me to have some bad posture, which engaged my lower right back, emphasizing the strain.

After reading crossfit virtuosity's entry about breathing, I really focused on keeping my core tight while exhaling during the workout. I think helped a lot when I got it right. It's hard to use your back if you're keeping your core tight :)

I think after doing some more sumo dlhps, I'll be ok.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween in Bloomington Indiana


So I decided to go as a Prom Date Ken doll for this Halloween. To keep this somewhat xfit relevant, I thankfully avoided most of the zone-unfriendly candy that was lying around at the various parties. ...I also really impressed some people at one party by doing like 10 chin ups. There was a chin up bar in one of the doorjambs, so I just grabbed a hold and started doing them. Now that I think about it, there really was like a cheering section. I don't know if they were making fun of me, but I was just too tipsy to really care.

I really do think about some day starting up a gym in Bloomington (or Madrid). I would worry about turnover rate running a gym in a college town, but I imagine there would be a lot of grad students out there who would love it (I assume undergrads are too young and caught up in the weight lifting mentality, perhaps incorrectly).

I also had a dream the other night about crossfit. Jerry was holding a special event/wod to rasie money for charity, and part of it involved running across town, like in a marathon. In my dreamI was running as hard as I could, and my form was real low and I felt like I was kicking the ground, as if I was pushing or pulling a heavy load.

Even though my trip back to Indiana only cost me two days in the blue room, I can't wait for tomorrow to get one step closer to getting into better shape.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Clean and jerk Max

Today's WOD:

1 rep X 10 rounds of heavy clean and jerk.

The purpose of this was to find one's max. Here's how my weight progressed:
95, 115, 135, 140, 150, 155, 160, 170, 165, 170

This was a fun workout, the first couple of tries I needed to get my head into the work out. However, as I re-familiarized myself with the movement it got a lot easier. As Jerry pointed out, my pull is great, I imagine my ability to shrug 200# is one reason for that, but he also pointed out that I had issues keeping my core tight, so I dropped it a couple of times due to my core collapsing. It really is all mental right now, this time it was my trouble focusing on everything that gave me some difficulty.

But I think the best thing about today is that it's a Thursday morning class, and I made it!!! I actually woke up at 6:30, had breakfast, and got to the blue room on time. I really wanted to make it because once again I'm going away for the weekend tonight, so I wanted to get in as many days as I could. Next week though will be awesome, I imagine I'll make it to the blue room five days. That's my plan, CFOT for Mon-Fri, first time ever. After four months, I think I'm ready :)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

There is no Spoon

So today's WOD was termed "baseline". I should note that with the first round I messed up and did the air squats after the ab mat, doh!

500 m row
40 air squats
30 ab mat
20 push ups
10 pull ups

Although Jerry suggested doing it twice if your time was under 4 min, I went ahead and did three rounds because, well, because I'm a glutton for punishment. I think my times were something like 7:06, 8:24, and 6:53. When I figured out the time for my last round, I was astounded that I improved my time. I mean, my row the third round took like 2 min, 30 sec more than my first round. I talked to Jerry about this, he mentioned that for me now it's all mental, and I have to agree with him. Those seconds I spend sucking air don't help me rocover, all they do is waste time. I guess with that last round I just sucked it up and did it, and that will be the key for my continuation in improvement. Every now and then I get glimpses of what it's like to just ignore the pain and to push through, to simply not feel the exaustion and just go through the motions.

I really am going to try to attend the Tus Thur classes, even though they are only at unGodly hours. I think stepping up to crossfit 5-6 times a week will also help push me over the edge. It's been about four months of crossfit now, it's well past time to start doing this more than 3-4 times a week.

Monday, October 27, 2008

This one was tough. Haven't done the front squat in a long while, it was good to get back to it. The Rx'd weight was 135, which I thought would be easy, but after the first 10 reps my back was just too wobbly, so after that I did 115#s.

The WOD:
Front Squat/ Burbees / Pull ups
10 - 12 - 15
9 - 11 - 14
8 - 10 - 13
7 - 9 - 12
6 - 8 - 11
5 - 7 - 10
4 - 6 - 9
3 - 5 - 8
2 - 4 - 7
1 - 3 - 6

I did it in 43:19 I think, not sure though. Around the 6th round Danny suggested to widen my stance, and those few inches made all the difference in the world. I was approaching the squat with the jumping stance used in all the lifts we've been working on. Turns out it's ok to move your feet out a little wider for squats. After that it was easy, I felt bad only doing 115# near the end, but I wasn't about to re-rack the weight. Burbees are still tough, when I was approaching the pull up bar I just felt really weak in the shoulders.

Feel like I'm starting to turn a corner, like my technique/strength are starting to get to the point where I can work on my strength endurance/conditioning. Of course, I feel like that's happening every other week, but I guess that's a good thing, right?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Jerk and intro to Knees to elbows

This was a really good workout for me, the WoD:
5 rounds:
10 Jerk @135#
20 Knees to elbows

I nerfed it a bit, using 115# and 12 k2E's, to finish in 18:51. I've never done a knee to elbow before, so I thought to bring it down to 12, and I wanted to go heavy with the jerk, but I didn't want to get such a weight that it could really affect my form. 115 was tough, but near the end I started nailing the form, and that felt great.

K2E's weren't difficult with regards to using my abs, I was surprised with how easy it was the first time around. However, I after a while my right shoulder started to hurt some. I mentioned this to Jerry and he suggested switching from a pull up position (palms facing outward) to a chin-up (palm facing inward). Turns out that the pull up position places some stress on the shoulder with the additional outward rotation. I tried the chin-up grip for my bothered arm, and viola, the pain went away. I would have to admit, k2E's aer a lot more difficult for me than ab-mat because of the use of arms, but next time I'll definitely do the Rx'd version.

This leads me to my next thought, everytime I nerf a workout I look back and then wonder why I didn't do it Rx'd. Usually I do it Rx'd, but I'm still not 100% recovered from the flu (I'm like 95%) and the past two workouts I've really performed less than optimal, so I wanted to try to nail the workout, if not for psychological reasons rather than physical reasons. I'm sure tomorrow's workout, which I believe will be a B-day celebration, will be tough and I'll do it Rx'd.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Trying to push myself

Well, Today wasn't my best performance, not by far. Here's the WOD:
5 rounds for time:
400m run
15 hang cleans @ 75#
12 ring dips

I really tried to sprint the 400m, and I don't know how long it took, but Lindsey, and everyone else, was behind me. The hang cleans weren't at a tough weight, but I really wanted to get the form down. I'm having trouble with my speed strength, the violent pull that's needed wasn't there. I think I put the bar down once, I really wanted to just burn through everything. The ring dips were again tough. I was thinking of doing the express of nine, but I went through nine so quickly I decided to do the Rx'd 12. I think on round 3 and 4 I tied my pr of three (I think 3 is my pr).

So I think working on the technique of the hang clean and the 12 ring dips ate up time. I also just felt... tired. After really pushing myself that first round, that tank got empty quick. Again, I think my weakest point in crossfit is my strength endurance.

Thankfully, I didn't puke today, so it was definitely an improvement. I still have some congestion in my lungs, still have the occasional cough.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pukie paid a visit.

Well, today was not my best day, but it was a good day. Going to post what the wod was later, but right now I'll talk about the experience. After being out with the flu for 10 days, I was surprised with how hard it was to breath. I still have some congestion in my chest, and crossfit proved that pretty quick. I went through the first round ok, the TGU's were my bottleneck. I spent a LOT of time working on those, everything else was ok. I had to break up the KB swings of 72 lbs. Jerry was telling me how it was just 15 reps, but I just couldn't get enough air, and it really threw me off. After going through the first round, all of my heavy breathing brouhgt out the congestion in my lungs. All that phlem moved out of my lungs and into my esophogus. When that happned, my stomach got a little confused, resulting in me puking in the bathroom for a while.

After I got that out of my system, I tried my second round. Did the burpees ok, and then I did one wallball. After that wall ball, I had to go puke a little more. I ended up only doing two sets, and I made the second set only 9 reps.

Jerry commented on how this exercise "cleared out the cobwebs," and I think that was a pretty good description. Afterwards I definitely felt like my lungs had been cleared out of some lingering congestion.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Good news from the DO

First: My hip is "way better" than when I first went to him. Now I only have some issues with the vertebrae between my shoulder blades (this will go away with better posture).

Second: I can workout on Wednesday. Expect to see me at the 5p class!

And now a note about hand maintenance. As the weather turns colder, watch out for the skin on your hands to become even drier. Make sure to use plenty of moisturizer after xfit and at other times.

Really frustrated

Ok, so Saturday was the day I started to turn the corner, where I feel better more than feeling sick. I had the Dallas baptism on Sunday morning, and I didn't get back to VA until last night, so this morning was going to be my chance to get back in the gym. But I just couldn't wake up early enough, getting up at 7:30. Now I have to go meet up with the DO, and I think he'll recommend holding off working out until Thursday. That means it will have been a 10 day gap of not working out. Ugh. I don't have a problem with the first 7, because breathing was really difficult for a while, but the last three I have issues with, and there's nothing I can do about it now. I just wish I could have gone to sleep and woke up earlier.

I would expect the general consensus out there is that I should be able to wake up earlier, that if I really wanted to attending class in the morning wouldn't be a problem. I have to admit I feel this way as well, which is why I'm so frustrated. Ugh. Because I really did want to get to class. Although I don't feel like I've gotten significantly weaker, I miss that feeling of exhaustion after a good workout, I miss seeing all the other regulars, I miss knowing that I'm taking steps to get stronger. Hopefully, the doc will say that working out tomorrow will be ok. If not, you can bet I'll be at the Thur. morning class, guaranteed.

I hope.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Should one exercise with the flu?

So I've been doing a little research about exercising with the flu and have found some interesting stuff:

1. According to one UK study, exercise boosts the effectiveness of a flu shot:
Exercising the muscle where your flu shot is injected may improve the immune system's response to the vaccine, UK researchers report.
And that study concerns itself with exercising only once. Our next study concerns a couple of times...

2. Exercise helps prevent the flu from killing mice. An Illinois study infected mice with influenza, took half and exercised them and took the other half and did nothing.
20-week-old mice that had exercised had significantly (p=0.008) higher survival rates (18 of 22) versus HCC of the same age (10 of 22). However, 11- to 16-week-old mice didn't show a significantly higher survival rate. When all EX mice (47) were compared with all HCC mice (48), EX had twice the survival rate, 59% vs. 29.4% (p=0.003). None of the variables (food/water intake, random activity or symptom severity) proved to be reliable at predicting mortality. However, severe lethargy was apparent one to two days prior to death. And while there was a "marked, age-dependent effect on mortality, there was no effect at all on morbidity, which was somewhat surprising," Woods said.
Note the mice were exercised only until they were symptomatic, so working out while down with the flu doesn't do anything, but it does show that exercise boosts the immune system.

2. According to another article, you should not workout with an infection or a high fever. As one would think, exercising with a fever excessively works your heart:
your heart has to pump blood to your muscles to supply them with oxygen. It also has to pump blood from your muscles to your skin where the heat is dissipated. When you have a fever, your heart has to work extra hard to get rid of extra heat. Furthermore, some viruses that infect your nose and throat can also infect your heart muscle. The combination of the extra work and an infected heart muscle could cause irregular heart beats. You won't lose much conditioning unless you take off for more than a week.
I'm not sure if I should work out while I don't have a fever, (Currently I wake up w/out a fever and get one at night), but I really don't want to work out feeling like I do. That leads me to my next little nugget of info...

3. That same article says that exercise will neither speed nor slow recovery from the flu:
During World War II, American soldiers were drafted and sent to do their basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center before they were sent to fight in Europe. A major epidemic of flu occurred affecting almost all the troops. Half of the soldiers were kept in bed, while the other half stayed in the vigorous exercise of basic training. Both groups required the same amount of time to recover, although those forced to undergo the rigorous demands of preparing for war complained more.
Can't say I blame them for complaining, I still feel like crap.