Ok, so I went to the Orthopedist for the back and ankle pain on Monday.
First, the back pain. It's on my left side, right above my pelvis. It's a throbbing, achey, radiating pain. Doc thought the back pain might be kidney inflammation, but the test results came back negative, so it's muscular. I was hoping it was a kidney infection because that's easy to fix, whereas a bad back can linger forever. stretching my back by touching my toes doesn't hurt at all, but when I twist to my right (stretching my lower left back) the pain flares up some. Anyway, it still hurts constantly throughout the day, but it's lessening in intensity everyday. I've been reading up on the crossfit message board about back injuries, and there seems to be a point where you should exercise the back to strengthen it, but I don't know if that's what you should do if it's still hurting. Furthermore, the muscle injured doesn't seem to be the type that is worked out when you do good mornings, although I'm not sure. So I'm a little confused as to when I should return to exerises that work my core right now, but I'll go with the conservative approach. If you have any advice please feel free to comment I'd appreciate it. Fortunately, one exercise I can still do that doesn't work the back will also help with my ankle issue. So back to the ankle...
There seems to be some scar tissue in one of the ligiments in my ankle, and it's causing the tearing/bleeding/bruising that shows up on my ankle after I work out. While there is no pain just sitting there, the pain occurs when I really work my calf. The therapist took measurements of my calves, and my right calf is 16.5", and my left calf is... 15.5". My left is a full inch smaller than my right! I know calves take a while to recover, but two years after the break you'd think it would be back to normal. FYI, it is amazing how the body atrophies. My leg was in a hard cast for seven weeks, and when they took it off my calf was non existant. Anyway, the pain seems to stem from a lack of strength, so the thearapy is simply calf exercises. That's something crossfit will definitely help with, but until the back feels better, they reccomend I ride a bike emphasizing my left calf.
So it looks like I'll be in the PTO's gym, riding a bike for 30 min or something. Not really looking forward to it, but it's some type of exercise, and I really need that right now.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Missing out
Fairly upset at myself for not going to the move today. I would've been useless because I'm now in constant pain because of my back. I don't know what happened, perhaps the rowing made it worse, but I have a really hard time finding a position where my lower back doesn't feel on fire. But yeah, one of the main things I enjoy about CFOT is that it's a family, and I feel like I've let the family down by not showing up. I don't know why I had such a hard time waking up today, I slept through my alarm and woke up around noon. Ugh.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Three wods in one post,
Here's the video of the power hang clean. I can totally see how I've hurt my back. I keep thinking that the small rounding of my back isn't there, I keep thinking that my back is arched in the good way. Ugh, I need to work on this big time
Tuesday was another DL day, and this time I was pro-active in asking for a sub.
5 rounds
20 KB high pulls
20 box jump
30 ab mat
time was 18:51. I'm not sure if the KBHP's were the best for my back, but I didn't notice any added aggravation.
Wednesday was Onion skin, where I scored 5 better on PU's and 5 better on the press when compared to last time.
Strict press: 12 10 7 6 8
Pull ups: 25 13 12 13 11
we had 5 min for each round total, so 2:30 for strict, 2:30 for PU's. I was soooo hoping to get 30 pu's but that 25th was really, really hard, I was surprised.
And now for Today, Thursday:
5 minutes for each round
550m row
arap slamballs
1:00m rest
550m row
arap kb swings
1:00m rest
550m row
arap air squats
1:00m rest
550m row
arap jumping squats
The Rx'd was to do 400m runs, but my ankle would not have been happy with me.
Speaking of the injured ankle, I feel like an old man today. Something's torn in my ankle, my back is still strained, and my hip feels like it's on fire. Tomorrow I go to the DO for the hip, and on Monday I will see the Orthopedist for the ankle. I am really unhappy at the idea of having so many problems, and that I will have to probably scale these workouts down by quite a bit. Especially with the back, I'm not exactly sure what sets it off, but one of the exercises today did a doosey on my lower back. I think I might have to give it a couple days of rest, and see if it improves. Argh, I'm going to have scale back workouts for a while now, but I'm not sure what or how.
On a more random note, looking forward to moving into the new gym, should be awesome.
Tuesday was another DL day, and this time I was pro-active in asking for a sub.
5 rounds
20 KB high pulls
20 box jump
30 ab mat
time was 18:51. I'm not sure if the KBHP's were the best for my back, but I didn't notice any added aggravation.
Wednesday was Onion skin, where I scored 5 better on PU's and 5 better on the press when compared to last time.
Strict press: 12 10 7 6 8
Pull ups: 25 13 12 13 11
we had 5 min for each round total, so 2:30 for strict, 2:30 for PU's. I was soooo hoping to get 30 pu's but that 25th was really, really hard, I was surprised.
And now for Today, Thursday:
5 minutes for each round
550m row
arap slamballs
1:00m rest
550m row
arap kb swings
1:00m rest
550m row
arap air squats
1:00m rest
550m row
arap jumping squats
The Rx'd was to do 400m runs, but my ankle would not have been happy with me.
Speaking of the injured ankle, I feel like an old man today. Something's torn in my ankle, my back is still strained, and my hip feels like it's on fire. Tomorrow I go to the DO for the hip, and on Monday I will see the Orthopedist for the ankle. I am really unhappy at the idea of having so many problems, and that I will have to probably scale these workouts down by quite a bit. Especially with the back, I'm not exactly sure what sets it off, but one of the exercises today did a doosey on my lower back. I think I might have to give it a couple days of rest, and see if it improves. Argh, I'm going to have scale back workouts for a while now, but I'm not sure what or how.
On a more random note, looking forward to moving into the new gym, should be awesome.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Mlk day
So we had two options for wods, I chose the easier of the two:
10 rounds for time
6 pullups
9 burpees
12 wall balls @ 20# ball
my main reason for this was the burpees, I just didn't feel like I could do more than 9 at a time. Anyway, this one took me forever. My endurance is getting a lot better, but this is definitely my weakness, I've never been good at exercising for extended periods of time. I can't remember my time but I was def one of the slowest.
10 rounds for time
6 pullups
9 burpees
12 wall balls @ 20# ball
my main reason for this was the burpees, I just didn't feel like I could do more than 9 at a time. Anyway, this one took me forever. My endurance is getting a lot better, but this is definitely my weakness, I've never been good at exercising for extended periods of time. I can't remember my time but I was def one of the slowest.
Power clean, new pr
this was 7 sets of 1 rep power clean. My hang power clean was 185, but this was from the floor, so it was a little harder.
155, 165, 175,185, 185, 185, 190
I have the strength to do more, but I am having a dickens of a time getting under the bar. I'm naturally trying to sugar foot it, meaning I try to do a split power clean. Jerry has a vid of my second attempt at 185, in it you can see that I'm bending my arms early, meaning I'm trying to use my arms rather than my traps and hips to hoist the bar up. You can also see me step back with my right foot, which didn't help. The bar crashes into me and pushes me back slightly, causing me to abort and push the bar away as I fall backwards. It's pretty sweet seeing the attempt, actually.
I'm glad I kept trying and eventually got it, and then went a little farther to get the new pr.
155, 165, 175,
I have the strength to do more, but I am having a dickens of a time getting under the bar. I'm naturally trying to sugar foot it, meaning I try to do a split power clean. Jerry has a vid of my second attempt at 185, in it you can see that I'm bending my arms early, meaning I'm trying to use my arms rather than my traps and hips to hoist the bar up. You can also see me step back with my right foot, which didn't help. The bar crashes into me and pushes me back slightly, causing me to abort and push the bar away as I fall backwards. It's pretty sweet seeing the attempt, actually.
I'm glad I kept trying and eventually got it, and then went a little farther to get the new pr.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
One of the Girl's workouts
A modified Jackie:
1000m row
50 thrusters @ 65#
30 pullups
Time: 12:21
This was the first time I've done a workout with the idea of gaming the workout. Meaning, I didn't try to sprint out at the beginning and then die midway through the workout. Remebering the workout where my best over all time was where I had my work rowing time, I decided to get the 1k a touch under 4:00 so I'd be fresh for the thrusters.
Those thrusters were hard! the weight was definitely not the issue, but holding my breath and keeping my core tight at the bottom of the squat took the breath out of me. If you could take out those last couple of inches with the thruster it would have been waaaaay easier. Sadly, that would be cheating. So anyway, I had to break up the thrusters something like 10-10-10-5-5-5-5.
I thought I should try to beat my pr of 27 pullups and bang out all 30 at once, but my core was so spent from the thrusters that I broke it up to 5 sets of 6 reps.
So I think if I had rowed as hard as I could have, and tried to get maybe 15 reps with the first set of thrusters, and gone for something like 15 pull ups it might have been a better workout, but my time would have increased significantly.
I went to the DO on Thursday, and he reccomended I go to an orthopedic for my ankle. Not looking forward to seeing yet another doctor, but if there's something wrong I can't just ignor it. In talking to the DO, he commented on how some people wear out, while others rust out. He said I would be the type to wear out, which is a much better way to go. I know I see a lot of doctors for various ailments, but by nipping injuries in the bud they won't affect me as much later down the road.
bp was 130/82, definitely on the high side. I believe the high bp stems from the the amphetimine, Concerta, that I take, and I don't seem to be the only one who experiences this.
1000m row
50 thrusters @ 65#
30 pullups
Time: 12:21
This was the first time I've done a workout with the idea of gaming the workout. Meaning, I didn't try to sprint out at the beginning and then die midway through the workout. Remebering the workout where my best over all time was where I had my work rowing time, I decided to get the 1k a touch under 4:00 so I'd be fresh for the thrusters.
Those thrusters were hard! the weight was definitely not the issue, but holding my breath and keeping my core tight at the bottom of the squat took the breath out of me. If you could take out those last couple of inches with the thruster it would have been waaaaay easier. Sadly, that would be cheating. So anyway, I had to break up the thrusters something like 10-10-10-5-5-5-5.
I thought I should try to beat my pr of 27 pullups and bang out all 30 at once, but my core was so spent from the thrusters that I broke it up to 5 sets of 6 reps.
So I think if I had rowed as hard as I could have, and tried to get maybe 15 reps with the first set of thrusters, and gone for something like 15 pull ups it might have been a better workout, but my time would have increased significantly.
I went to the DO on Thursday, and he reccomended I go to an orthopedic for my ankle. Not looking forward to seeing yet another doctor, but if there's something wrong I can't just ignor it. In talking to the DO, he commented on how some people wear out, while others rust out. He said I would be the type to wear out, which is a much better way to go. I know I see a lot of doctors for various ailments, but by nipping injuries in the bud they won't affect me as much later down the road.
bp was 130/82, definitely on the high side. I believe the high bp stems from the the amphetimine, Concerta, that I take, and I don't seem to be the only one who experiences this.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
deadlift sub, strength, zone, and blood pressure.
So today Jerry had us do a crossfit game workout:
5 rounds
5 deadlifts Men @ 275#
10 burbees
I tried warming up with a few reps of a light weight, but after that my back got... not sure how to describe it. It got excited? I don't know. Anyway, Jerry then remembered my previous issue with deadlifts and gave me a sub workout "special made just for you Adam". Jerry is awesome because 1) he remembered, and 2) if he hadn't said anything I think I would have attempted this workout, and I might have made things worse. Jerry, thank you for making me feel ok with doing a sub workout.
5 rounds
10 burbees
20 kb swings
30 ab mat
I tried the first round at 46# kb, but my back started to let me know that I used it a little too much in the deadlift warmups. So I backed down to the 36#. That is such a light weight now it's annoying that I have to drop down to that, but I tried to make it as fast and as unbroken as possible.
I think I'm figuring out how to make burbees faster, and I no longer dread 10 of them like I used to.
But it amazes me that the rx'd weight for the games was 275, only ten pounds lighter than my max (and that was the max that injured my back). Crossfit really does demand strength, a type of strength I've never had. According to crossfit weightlifting standards I'm not that strong.
Press: Novice @116
Deadlift: Untrained-Novice @ 285 (probably 245 w/out injury)
Power Clean: Novice-Intermediate @ 185
Squat: Untrained-Novice @ 185 (although this is my 3 rep max)
So on a scale of 1-5, 5 being strongest, I'm somewhere between a 1 and a 2. This isn't typed out of frustration, I'm actually quite happy of the gains that I've made to be where I currently am. Rather, this led to the thought that if you ever want to see fast gains in any one exercise/movement, crossfit isn't probably the best way to go about it. After all, the specialty of crossfit is that it has no specialty. If I really wanted to up my deadlift max, I would have to switch to some more conventional program. However, the improvement in deadlift would be at the expense in other areas in fitness, such as my endurance or cardiovascular health.
By doing Crossfit, however, I will see some improvement in my deadlift, but will also see some improvement in every other aspect of fitness. I will improve my deadlift while improving everything else, albeit at a slower pace. There's a great thread on crossfit's discussion board that talks about the different theories of starting out in cf, and after reading it I have to believe the idea that if you have two people start at the same time, one using the starting strength progam for six weeks and the other doing pure cf, after a year you wouldn't see a difference. I guess I just have to realize that I have a lot to be desired when it comes to strength, but I'm ok with that because so far I've been seeing great improvement and don't see why it should stop anytime soon. I never focus on how I'm doing compared to others, I only focus on the fact that I'm improving, and if I keep improving the sky's the limit.
One reason for the great gains I've had is nutrition. With the exception of vacations, I've been very good at observing a strict zone diet. Whether I should eat more or not is for another post, but I'm starting to observe some of my new years resolutions, and it's amazing to me how many fruits and vegtables I eat in a day. For example, yesterday looked like this (if you want to see my meal plan click here):
Breakfast (the oatmeal dish): 1/2 cup grapes, 1 cup of oatmeal
Lunch (sandwich except I replaced the bread with veggies): 6 cups of mixed brocolli, cauliflower, and carrots.
Snack: 1 Apple
Dinner (Chili): 2/9 cup onions, 2/3 cup green peppers, 2/3 cup tomato sauce
I fell asleep last night at nine, so I didn't get to eat my second snack, which would have had 1 cup of pineapple. I also know that I had one cup too many of veggies for lunch, but it was either eat 6 cups or throw away 1 cup, I also ate a little bit more meat and almonds to make the meal a 4.8 block meal. Actually, to be precise the meal was:
6 cups of veggies
4.5 oz of meat
1.8 oz of cheese
14 almonds
Good thing I like almonds.
Now on to the blood pressure mentioned in the title. I went to the doc's yesterday and when they tested my blood pressure it was a little high (can't remember what). Anyway, he wanted me to check it every day if possible and if it's still up to see him again about it. I was running on something like 4 hours of sleep, and I'm still getting back into the swing of things exercise wise after the two week vacay, so I'm not too worried. Historically, when I don't exercise it goes up quite a bit, but after a week or so of exercise (even non-cf) it goes down to levels that have been called "text-book" by the nurses. So now I'll try to add that stat to this blog for the next week.
5 rounds
5 deadlifts Men @ 275#
10 burbees
I tried warming up with a few reps of a light weight, but after that my back got... not sure how to describe it. It got excited? I don't know. Anyway, Jerry then remembered my previous issue with deadlifts and gave me a sub workout "special made just for you Adam". Jerry is awesome because 1) he remembered, and 2) if he hadn't said anything I think I would have attempted this workout, and I might have made things worse. Jerry, thank you for making me feel ok with doing a sub workout.
5 rounds
10 burbees
20 kb swings
30 ab mat
I tried the first round at 46# kb, but my back started to let me know that I used it a little too much in the deadlift warmups. So I backed down to the 36#. That is such a light weight now it's annoying that I have to drop down to that, but I tried to make it as fast and as unbroken as possible.
I think I'm figuring out how to make burbees faster, and I no longer dread 10 of them like I used to.
But it amazes me that the rx'd weight for the games was 275, only ten pounds lighter than my max (and that was the max that injured my back). Crossfit really does demand strength, a type of strength I've never had. According to crossfit weightlifting standards I'm not that strong.
Press: Novice @116
Deadlift: Untrained-Novice @ 285 (probably 245 w/out injury)
Power Clean: Novice-Intermediate @ 185
Squat: Untrained-Novice @ 185 (although this is my 3 rep max)
So on a scale of 1-5, 5 being strongest, I'm somewhere between a 1 and a 2. This isn't typed out of frustration, I'm actually quite happy of the gains that I've made to be where I currently am. Rather, this led to the thought that if you ever want to see fast gains in any one exercise/movement, crossfit isn't probably the best way to go about it. After all, the specialty of crossfit is that it has no specialty. If I really wanted to up my deadlift max, I would have to switch to some more conventional program. However, the improvement in deadlift would be at the expense in other areas in fitness, such as my endurance or cardiovascular health.
By doing Crossfit, however, I will see some improvement in my deadlift, but will also see some improvement in every other aspect of fitness. I will improve my deadlift while improving everything else, albeit at a slower pace. There's a great thread on crossfit's discussion board that talks about the different theories of starting out in cf, and after reading it I have to believe the idea that if you have two people start at the same time, one using the starting strength progam for six weeks and the other doing pure cf, after a year you wouldn't see a difference. I guess I just have to realize that I have a lot to be desired when it comes to strength, but I'm ok with that because so far I've been seeing great improvement and don't see why it should stop anytime soon. I never focus on how I'm doing compared to others, I only focus on the fact that I'm improving, and if I keep improving the sky's the limit.
One reason for the great gains I've had is nutrition. With the exception of vacations, I've been very good at observing a strict zone diet. Whether I should eat more or not is for another post, but I'm starting to observe some of my new years resolutions, and it's amazing to me how many fruits and vegtables I eat in a day. For example, yesterday looked like this (if you want to see my meal plan click here):
Breakfast (the oatmeal dish): 1/2 cup grapes, 1 cup of oatmeal
Lunch (sandwich except I replaced the bread with veggies): 6 cups of mixed brocolli, cauliflower, and carrots.
Snack: 1 Apple
Dinner (Chili): 2/9 cup onions, 2/3 cup green peppers, 2/3 cup tomato sauce
I fell asleep last night at nine, so I didn't get to eat my second snack, which would have had 1 cup of pineapple. I also know that I had one cup too many of veggies for lunch, but it was either eat 6 cups or throw away 1 cup, I also ate a little bit more meat and almonds to make the meal a 4.8 block meal. Actually, to be precise the meal was:
6 cups of veggies
4.5 oz of meat
1.8 oz of cheese
14 almonds
Good thing I like almonds.
Now on to the blood pressure mentioned in the title. I went to the doc's yesterday and when they tested my blood pressure it was a little high (can't remember what). Anyway, he wanted me to check it every day if possible and if it's still up to see him again about it. I was running on something like 4 hours of sleep, and I'm still getting back into the swing of things exercise wise after the two week vacay, so I'm not too worried. Historically, when I don't exercise it goes up quite a bit, but after a week or so of exercise (even non-cf) it goes down to levels that have been called "text-book" by the nurses. So now I'll try to add that stat to this blog for the next week.
Met-con Ninja
I thought about doing this with a weight vest on, but after talking to Chriss I learned this WOD is about speed.
10 rounds
10 pull ups
10 medball squat cleans
10 box jumps
Near the end I wasn't sure if I was on round 9 or 10, but since everyone else was still working out I assumed it was 9. Time was 25:40, and I enjoyed this workout because I was able to pick up on a lack of motivation and attempted to push through it. The box jumps agitated my ankle some, so I always stepped off the box instead of jumping down. The pull ups were easy until around set 8, when suddenly there was a huge knot in my stomach, felt like all of my core muscles were twisting upon themselves, and it slowed me down a bit. Chriss commented that my medball squat cleans looked really good, and I was proud of that. There were times where my form wasn't very good, where I shrugged the ball so high that I barely had to lower myself to get under it, giving my legs a break. Chriss caught me doing this once and made me do it over again. I didn't mind. This goes back to my issue of when is it ok to have form break down a little. Form is important, but it is also important to up the intensity of the workout, and if you concentrate of form your intensity will go down.
The way I see it, the idea is that one should work on form to the point where your muscles have memorized the movement to the point that you don't have to think about it, and can concentrate on upping the intensity. I think I'm starting to get to that point with some movements (push jerk, burbee, deadlift), and have already reached that point with others (overhead snatch, pull-ups, medball squat clean).
I'm still having some issues finding motivation for these kinds of workouts. I seem to do best when I have a good idea of my previous performance and try to beat that, e.g. my sucess with pullups, strict press max, etc. However, since a lot of these wod's are unlike any other one, I just have to push myself as hard as I can. This doesn't seem to work too well, since I don't have a goal other than "do your best". I'm thinking I should start setting goals before the workout, like, "I'll do this in under 25 minutes" or somethings like that.
10 rounds
10 pull ups
10 medball squat cleans
10 box jumps
Near the end I wasn't sure if I was on round 9 or 10, but since everyone else was still working out I assumed it was 9. Time was 25:40, and I enjoyed this workout because I was able to pick up on a lack of motivation and attempted to push through it. The box jumps agitated my ankle some, so I always stepped off the box instead of jumping down. The pull ups were easy until around set 8, when suddenly there was a huge knot in my stomach, felt like all of my core muscles were twisting upon themselves, and it slowed me down a bit. Chriss commented that my medball squat cleans looked really good, and I was proud of that. There were times where my form wasn't very good, where I shrugged the ball so high that I barely had to lower myself to get under it, giving my legs a break. Chriss caught me doing this once and made me do it over again. I didn't mind. This goes back to my issue of when is it ok to have form break down a little. Form is important, but it is also important to up the intensity of the workout, and if you concentrate of form your intensity will go down.
The way I see it, the idea is that one should work on form to the point where your muscles have memorized the movement to the point that you don't have to think about it, and can concentrate on upping the intensity. I think I'm starting to get to that point with some movements (push jerk, burbee, deadlift), and have already reached that point with others (overhead snatch, pull-ups, medball squat clean).
I'm still having some issues finding motivation for these kinds of workouts. I seem to do best when I have a good idea of my previous performance and try to beat that, e.g. my sucess with pullups, strict press max, etc. However, since a lot of these wod's are unlike any other one, I just have to push myself as hard as I can. This doesn't seem to work too well, since I don't have a goal other than "do your best". I'm thinking I should start setting goals before the workout, like, "I'll do this in under 25 minutes" or somethings like that.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Push Jerk
So I really, really like the push jerk, and today we attempted to find our max.
Push Jerk
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
I think I did a pretty good job of finding my max. I got up to 175, and then failed at 185. after that I did 135 a couple of times to work on my reps. Then we did a finisher:
4 rounds
21 jumping slamballs 15#
400m sprint
This wasn't as near as hard as the last time we did it, when I got to the third rep of the slamball I kept thinking it was going to be impossible, but I just kept pushing and got them done. The 400m sprint actually became fun when I realized that I was just jogging, and I needed to sprint to enjoy it. The ankle held up great.
Push Jerk
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
I think I did a pretty good job of finding my max. I got up to 175, and then failed at 185. after that I did 135 a couple of times to work on my reps. Then we did a finisher:
4 rounds
21 jumping slamballs 15#
400m sprint
This wasn't as near as hard as the last time we did it, when I got to the third rep of the slamball I kept thinking it was going to be impossible, but I just kept pushing and got them done. The 400m sprint actually became fun when I realized that I was just jogging, and I needed to sprint to enjoy it. The ankle held up great.
3 rounds for time:
350m row
30 abmat situps
25 KB swings @ 43#
15 burpees
Time: 19:??
This was a good welcome back workout. My rowing sucks now, it's not as near as good as it used to be, and I'm not sure why. I know from the Helen workout that I can do 21 @ 52#'s without stopping, I went with a lighter weight because I didn't want to agitate my lower back.
The new ab-mat technique of keeping my hands in front of me at all times has proven an added challenge. I had to pause a couple of times, prompting Jerry to remind me that this is my movement.
I think I'm starting to figure out an approach to burbees, my technique has been very... wooden, I think it's starting to become a lot more fluid/faster. Again, I think I might have room for improvement with regards to my mental game, but with a sinus infection and coming back from vacay, I'll take it.
350m row
30 abmat situps
25 KB swings @ 43#
15 burpees
Time: 19:??
This was a good welcome back workout. My rowing sucks now, it's not as near as good as it used to be, and I'm not sure why. I know from the Helen workout that I can do 21 @ 52#'s without stopping, I went with a lighter weight because I didn't want to agitate my lower back.
The new ab-mat technique of keeping my hands in front of me at all times has proven an added challenge. I had to pause a couple of times, prompting Jerry to remind me that this is my movement.
I think I'm starting to figure out an approach to burbees, my technique has been very... wooden, I think it's starting to become a lot more fluid/faster. Again, I think I might have room for improvement with regards to my mental game, but with a sinus infection and coming back from vacay, I'll take it.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday dreaming
...So the alarm goes off, as I get up to turn it off I wonder what the WOD is. Suddenly I "remember" that today was a 5k, and that would just kill my ankle, so I turn it off and just go back to sleep. Then I wake up at like 1:30. Feel bad that I missed out on the WOD, but I also think it's pretty funny that I somehow thought I knew what the workout was.
Friday, January 9, 2009
I am starting to realize...
...how strong I am. I am beginning to see things that I once thought of as hard as easy, and what was once impossible is now doable. Today's workout was some strength, then met-con
Part 1)
Strict press
3 rounds
5 rep max
Part 2)
5 rounds
15 pullups
30 wallballs
I remember my 1 rep max being around 115, and that the drop-off from easy to impossible was really sudden. Did 105 easily, did 110 as a peice of cake, and then tried 120. I did three reps, and was done after that. I attempted 115 later, but that didn't work out either. ...I would like to take this time to brag about my form with strict press. I do a great job on keeping my abs, glutes, and quads tight, never pushing the bar away from me (almost grazing my nose as it goes up), and getting to active shoulder. When I lockout up top, the weight is so well supported I can hold it up there for quite a while. Anywho, enough ego inflating, back to the workout.
When I saw the pullups I thought about how many times I've posted on this blog about how easy pull-ups are for me. "Well," I thought to myself, "time to step it up a notch," and I put on a 10lb weight vest. I joked to Devin about how 10 lbs is like wearing a second tee-shirt, but in rounds 4 and 5 I had to break up the pull-ups 10-5 and 5-5-5. I had to break up the wallballs 10-10-10 pretty much from the get-go, not because of my quads, but my shoulders had a hard time heaving that 20lb ball up into the air. ...I don't know if the vest slowed me down in the wall balls as well, but all in all it took me 22:10. As I look back I wonder if I could have pushed myself more with the wallballs. It's been a while since I left a workout wondering if I didn't push myself enough, but in a way it feels good. I mean, I can take heart in that there are still areas to improve, and I will only get stronger from here.
Part 1)
Strict press
3 rounds
5 rep max
Part 2)
5 rounds
15 pullups
30 wallballs
I remember my 1 rep max being around 115, and that the drop-off from easy to impossible was really sudden. Did 105 easily, did 110 as a peice of cake, and then tried 120. I did three reps, and was done after that. I attempted 115 later, but that didn't work out either. ...I would like to take this time to brag about my form with strict press. I do a great job on keeping my abs, glutes, and quads tight, never pushing the bar away from me (almost grazing my nose as it goes up), and getting to active shoulder. When I lockout up top, the weight is so well supported I can hold it up there for quite a while. Anywho, enough ego inflating, back to the workout.
When I saw the pullups I thought about how many times I've posted on this blog about how easy pull-ups are for me. "Well," I thought to myself, "time to step it up a notch," and I put on a 10lb weight vest. I joked to Devin about how 10 lbs is like wearing a second tee-shirt, but in rounds 4 and 5 I had to break up the pull-ups 10-5 and 5-5-5. I had to break up the wallballs 10-10-10 pretty much from the get-go, not because of my quads, but my shoulders had a hard time heaving that 20lb ball up into the air. ...I don't know if the vest slowed me down in the wall balls as well, but all in all it took me 22:10. As I look back I wonder if I could have pushed myself more with the wallballs. It's been a while since I left a workout wondering if I didn't push myself enough, but in a way it feels good. I mean, I can take heart in that there are still areas to improve, and I will only get stronger from here.
Deadlifts, three rep max
This was the three rep deadlift max again, and since I am just now starting to go to sleep without pain in my back I was cautious. I tried warming up with like 135, Jerry asked how it felt and I said I could feel it in my back. Jerry encouraged me to back off on the weight, work on reps and form, and be conservative. I quickly agreed, and worked out with Stacey and Andrea. ...Those girls are strong! I think Stacey got up 203, and Andrea broke her pr by like 40lbs!
deadlift seems to have become a tricky movement for me, when it once wasn't so difficult. It helps when I think about my hip extension, but I still have a hard time keeping my shoulder blades pinched and my hips low. Jerry commented a couple of times that I needed more knee bend, so I wasn't lowering my hips enough. At first I thought he meant that I needed to bend my knees so that I tilt my shins forward, but I talked with Danny a little while later and realized that he meant bending my knees so that I lowered my hips.
In any case, I didn't aggravate the back today, so with that as the main priority today was a great day.
deadlift seems to have become a tricky movement for me, when it once wasn't so difficult. It helps when I think about my hip extension, but I still have a hard time keeping my shoulder blades pinched and my hips low. Jerry commented a couple of times that I needed more knee bend, so I wasn't lowering my hips enough. At first I thought he meant that I needed to bend my knees so that I tilt my shins forward, but I talked with Danny a little while later and realized that he meant bending my knees so that I lowered my hips.
In any case, I didn't aggravate the back today, so with that as the main priority today was a great day.
Burpee and pullup Ladders
Well, it has been about a week since my last cfot workout, and this one was pretty tough:
Pull-ups, burpees
1+1, 2+2, 3+3,...
AMRAP in 12 min
rest 3 min
go back down the ladder for time.
This was a great workout to reintroduce myself to crossfit. I was doing fine, and was shooting for 12 rounds, when people kept asking Chriss what the time was (no one could figure out how to work the big clock with Jerry gone) when he finally answered, "three minutes", that somehow really demotivated me. I was on round 5 or 6 when he said three minutes, and I couldn't help but think I could just coast towards my goal. I knew I couldn't but now there was this little voice in the back of my head telling me to slow down, and trying to ignore it threw my focus off.
I ended up doing 10 rounds, and did the ladder back down in... actually I have no idea, I can't remember. What I do remember is Chriss telling me to knock out the pullups in broken sets when I was down to round 3 or so, and my response was to simply do them without breaks. The pull-ups were the easy part, it's the burpees that really sapped me of my strength.
This was a good one, and I tried doing some abmat situps afterwards. Danny told me to try keeping my hands in front of me, instead of swinging my arms forward. I responded that I was just kipping, and since we do that in everything else in crossfit why not sit ups. He was like "I'll give you that" and talked about how they said to do it with the hands forward at his cert for the purpose of isolating the ab muscles. Ab mat situps do seem to be an anomoly in cf, since you purposefully disengage your hip flexors to isolate your abs, and cf gennerally looks down on isolation exercises (like bicep curls). Anyway, I'm now doing my abmat situps with my hands always held in front of me, and it does prove to be a better workout for the abs.
Pull-ups, burpees
1+1, 2+2, 3+3,...
AMRAP in 12 min
rest 3 min
go back down the ladder for time.
This was a great workout to reintroduce myself to crossfit. I was doing fine, and was shooting for 12 rounds, when people kept asking Chriss what the time was (no one could figure out how to work the big clock with Jerry gone) when he finally answered, "three minutes", that somehow really demotivated me. I was on round 5 or 6 when he said three minutes, and I couldn't help but think I could just coast towards my goal. I knew I couldn't but now there was this little voice in the back of my head telling me to slow down, and trying to ignore it threw my focus off.
I ended up doing 10 rounds, and did the ladder back down in... actually I have no idea, I can't remember. What I do remember is Chriss telling me to knock out the pullups in broken sets when I was down to round 3 or so, and my response was to simply do them without breaks. The pull-ups were the easy part, it's the burpees that really sapped me of my strength.
This was a good one, and I tried doing some abmat situps afterwards. Danny told me to try keeping my hands in front of me, instead of swinging my arms forward. I responded that I was just kipping, and since we do that in everything else in crossfit why not sit ups. He was like "I'll give you that" and talked about how they said to do it with the hands forward at his cert for the purpose of isolating the ab muscles. Ab mat situps do seem to be an anomoly in cf, since you purposefully disengage your hip flexors to isolate your abs, and cf gennerally looks down on isolation exercises (like bicep curls). Anyway, I'm now doing my abmat situps with my hands always held in front of me, and it does prove to be a better workout for the abs.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Still in Chicago...
Still in Chicago, but will be back in Alexandria tomorrow.
...My flight gets in at 2:30, so the only class I could attend tomorrow is the 5pm, but if I do that then I'll miss the dinner with coach Glassman. Given that the dinner is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I guess I'll just do some crunches and pushups later.
...Have been taking it easy this past week, and it's kind of killing me. I don't feel bad not exercising right now because my lower back is still in pain when I go to bed at night, and the bruising on my ankle is still there, so the tearing is still going on. Those two injuries, to me, mean no running and no real weight exercises. I went skiing earlier today, and that felt fine. Really should start a new sport, and I think jujitsu will be perfect. Of course, after listing off those injuries I wonder if it will end up hurting me (I seem to be fragile). But back to my original point. I'm really getting restless, and can't wait to get back into the blueroom.
I also can't wait to get back to eating a strict zone diet. At home I'm able to eat strict zone 34 out of 35 meals a week, but when I'm away it's very difficult for me to observe the diet. I mean, I try to eat healthily, but it's no zone. The zone diet is also part of my new year's resolution: I resolve to make veggies my source of carbs more often, and lessen the use of milk as my source of protien. The plan to replace bread in the sandwich with veggies should work, and I need to find another meal that uses something other than milk as a source of protein.
P.S. today was the first day where I haven't felt pain in my calf muscle. Gotta ease into those VFF's.
...My flight gets in at 2:30, so the only class I could attend tomorrow is the 5pm, but if I do that then I'll miss the dinner with coach Glassman. Given that the dinner is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I guess I'll just do some crunches and pushups later.
...Have been taking it easy this past week, and it's kind of killing me. I don't feel bad not exercising right now because my lower back is still in pain when I go to bed at night, and the bruising on my ankle is still there, so the tearing is still going on. Those two injuries, to me, mean no running and no real weight exercises. I went skiing earlier today, and that felt fine. Really should start a new sport, and I think jujitsu will be perfect. Of course, after listing off those injuries I wonder if it will end up hurting me (I seem to be fragile). But back to my original point. I'm really getting restless, and can't wait to get back into the blueroom.
I also can't wait to get back to eating a strict zone diet. At home I'm able to eat strict zone 34 out of 35 meals a week, but when I'm away it's very difficult for me to observe the diet. I mean, I try to eat healthily, but it's no zone. The zone diet is also part of my new year's resolution: I resolve to make veggies my source of carbs more often, and lessen the use of milk as my source of protien. The plan to replace bread in the sandwich with veggies should work, and I need to find another meal that uses something other than milk as a source of protein.
P.S. today was the first day where I haven't felt pain in my calf muscle. Gotta ease into those VFF's.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Marathon Delight
This workout wasn't posted before I went in, so I decided to wear my new Vibram Five Fingers and hope that there wasn't a lot of running. ...Well I shouldn't have taken that chance, because this was the workout:
3 rounds:
800m run
50 KB swing (52#)
40 Pushup
30 Box Jump
20 Pullup
My time was something like 60:15. A lot of things happened that slowed down my time on this workout. Putting on and taking off the VFFs takes quite a bit of time (my little toe still doesn't want to go into its own toe pocket), my hand started bleeding after the first round of pullups so I had to stop to tape up, and my ankle still isn't 100% so I had to slow down my run pace as well as slow down on the box jumps. The box jumps were especially frustrating because today they were lower, like only 3 matts high, so I could have really nailed them if my ankle was good. The DO said that the bruising came from something tearing, so the fact that there is still a bruise on my ankle makes me think I should take it easy for a while.
I think I use my lower back too much with KB swings, near the end I really started to feel some strain in my lower back. It was suggested that I think of them more as a front squat instead of a deaadlift, that I was moving my hips too far back. I tried this, and while it was easier on my back, it was a lot harder on my legs.
Running with the VFFs was quite an experience, I didn't feel like I did any heel strikes, so that was encouraging in terms of the progress for my attempt at POSE style running. I felt a few pebbles underneath my toes while running, which was strange. On the last round I didn't feel like I had any endurance left, and was sucking air for most of the time. Then when I had like 50m left, I told myself to run for it and full out sprinted the rest of the way. I really don't enjoy jogging/running for long distances, but I find sprinting fun. The rythem of the body moving, the sensation of speed, it's very... enjoyable.
All in all, I would say today was a ok day. I felt like I could've pushed myself further had I found the right motivation, but it just didn't come today.
3 rounds:
800m run
50 KB swing (52#)
40 Pushup
30 Box Jump
20 Pullup
My time was something like 60:15. A lot of things happened that slowed down my time on this workout. Putting on and taking off the VFFs takes quite a bit of time (my little toe still doesn't want to go into its own toe pocket), my hand started bleeding after the first round of pullups so I had to stop to tape up, and my ankle still isn't 100% so I had to slow down my run pace as well as slow down on the box jumps. The box jumps were especially frustrating because today they were lower, like only 3 matts high, so I could have really nailed them if my ankle was good. The DO said that the bruising came from something tearing, so the fact that there is still a bruise on my ankle makes me think I should take it easy for a while.
I think I use my lower back too much with KB swings, near the end I really started to feel some strain in my lower back. It was suggested that I think of them more as a front squat instead of a deaadlift, that I was moving my hips too far back. I tried this, and while it was easier on my back, it was a lot harder on my legs.
Running with the VFFs was quite an experience, I didn't feel like I did any heel strikes, so that was encouraging in terms of the progress for my attempt at POSE style running. I felt a few pebbles underneath my toes while running, which was strange. On the last round I didn't feel like I had any endurance left, and was sucking air for most of the time. Then when I had like 50m left, I told myself to run for it and full out sprinted the rest of the way. I really don't enjoy jogging/running for long distances, but I find sprinting fun. The rythem of the body moving, the sensation of speed, it's very... enjoyable.
All in all, I would say today was a ok day. I felt like I could've pushed myself further had I found the right motivation, but it just didn't come today.
After running in my Vibram Five fingers...
...My legs have been letting me know that they're not used to running in those shoes. Later that day I started to experience a slight numbness/tingling sensation in my heels, so perhaps I was striking with my heel more than I thought. The next day my calves (along with my chest and lats) were really sore, but this is expected given that I had taken a three day break from working out, and almost a full week from working out at CFOT. It really is amazing how quickly the body loses strength, motivation enough to never quit working out.
Anyway, back to the calves. I know they suggest that one slowly gets used to using VFFs by
starting out with small distances and working your way up, but I made the mistake of assuming we wouldn't have any running and ended up running 2400m in them. I didn't feel anything big the day of, but my calves were really sore the next day. I kind of shrugged this off since the rest of my body was sore. However, it's now been two days since the run and my calves are KILLING me, especially my right one, probably because I put most of my weight on my right leg for box jumps in order to go easy on my injured left ankle.
My other post about vff's is here.
Anyway, back to the calves. I know they suggest that one slowly gets used to using VFFs by
starting out with small distances and working your way up, but I made the mistake of assuming we wouldn't have any running and ended up running 2400m in them. I didn't feel anything big the day of, but my calves were really sore the next day. I kind of shrugged this off since the rest of my body was sore. However, it's now been two days since the run and my calves are KILLING me, especially my right one, probably because I put most of my weight on my right leg for box jumps in order to go easy on my injured left ankle.My other post about vff's is here.
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