Month: April 2012

Buh Bye CrossFit Full Strength

Today was my last workout at CrossFit Full Strength in Phoenix, AZ. I’m starting the drive back to Saginaw, MI later today after I pack and clean the apartment. I’m going to miss everyone here. It’s been a lot of fun making new friends and hanging out with the crew from the box. I’ve learned a ton of new movements and techniques. My strength has progressed more than I could have imagined over 3 months. Hopefully I’ll be back soon.

My hands are beat up from the last few days of pull-ups, T2B, and death by deadlifts. Oh look, more pull-ups today! Two off days are going to feel great.

Yesterday I went in for one last session at the chiropractor. He was able to get in and adjust my neck so much easier than even last Friday.

Warm-up

  • 90s-60s-30s
    • Sit-ups
    • Plank
  • 20 Supermans

Strength

4 Sets

  • 3-5 Shoulder Presses, 2-0-X-1 tempo
  • 90s Rest
  • 2-3 Weighted Pull-ups, 2-1-X-0 tempo
  • 90s Rest

I did a couple of warm-up sets today, starting with the bar for 8 reps and then 75# for 5 reps. Started with 95# for the working sets and moved up to 105#, 115#, and 125# for the full 5 reps each time. Last time we did this I was only able to get 125# up 3 times, so good progress there. I used an 18# KB for the first set of weighted pull-ups and did 5 reps because that’s what we usually do. I should pay more attention sometimes. Switched to a 25# KB the rest of the way and was able to stay in the 2-3 reps.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 30s Rest
  • 15 KBS
  • 30s Rest
  • 20 DUs
  • 30s Rest

Not a timed WOD today, other than the rest periods, which was weird. I used a 62# KB for the swings and did well on pull-ups and DUs. No new tears on my hands and I did all 10 kipping pull-ups in a row on the last round.

I’ll be back in a few days. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it in to Survival Fitness on Saturday if I get home at a decent hour on Friday night. I know I’ll need the workout after 3 days of driving.

My First 300+ Pound Lift!

I ran out of a post-workout supplement I’d been using and I can really tell the difference in my recovery over the last week. I’ve had more soreness and for longer. I’ll have to stock back up when I get home. Didn’t sleep the greatest last night, but went to bed early enough to get a solid night of rest.

Warm-up

2x

  • 250m Row
  • 3 World’s Greatest Stretch (each leg)
  • 10 Leg Swings (each leg and direction)
  • 10 Flamingos (each leg)
  • 10 Burpees

Strength

  • 3-2-1-3-2-1 Deadlift
  • 2-3m Rest

We moved some serious weight today, starting with the strength work. I warmed up with 6 reps at 135# and 3 reps at 225#. I made sure to rest a full 3 minutes between each set. My working sets were:

  • 3x 255#
  • 2x 275#
  • 1x 295#
  • 3x 275#
  • 2x 295#
  • 1x 315#

I had never attempted more than 290# before, but had done it for a set of 5 so I knew I could PR today. 315# was pretty heavy.

WOD

Every minute on the minute for 10m:

  • 3 Deadlifts (85% of heavy single)
  • 6 HR Push-ups

Holy shit balls! For 85% of 315# I went with 265#. A total of 30 fucking reps with very little rest. Not quite sure how I was able to get through every round. I’m already feeling it. The next few days are going to be sore city and sitting in a car for close to 30 hours won’t help.

Back on the Jump Rope

I was exhausted yesterday afternoon and throughout the night. Made it an early night and got a ton of sleep. Today I’m sore from a combination of Saturday’s track workout and all of the burpees yesterday.

I got to the box a bit early and worked on muscle-up technique for 5-10 minutes. I’m getting closer.

Warm-up

  • 800m Run
  • 5 minute Clean warm-up

Strength

6 Sets

  • 1.1.1 Clean & Jerk (10 sec between reps)
  • 2-3m Rest

Used 95#, 115#, 125#, 135#, 145#, and 155# for my sets. The last rep or two were pretty ugly.

WOD

  • 750m Row
  • 25 T2B
  • 75 DUs
  • 500m Row
  • 20 T2B
  • 50 DUs
  • 250m Row
  • 15 T2B
  • 25 DUs

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I did any jump roping, but I didn’t want to skip out on today’s workout so I did it. I tried to concentrate on keeping my head back in a good position instead of chicken-necking. I was successful until I towards the end when I got really exhausted. I could feel my neck coming forward at that point. My row was really slow and sluggish today and T2B were rough on my hands. Yesterday I developed a blister on one of my fingers from pull-ups and it popped during the OLY class. Of Course T2B ripped it wide open today. That’s a lot of reps on the bar. I was last in class by quite a bit with a time of 20:58. I thought it was going to be a good day when I ripped off 27 DUs right off the bat the first set, but it was not to be after that.

Sunday Funday

Yesterday after walking 18 holes of golf I had to rush home, shower, and get out to a restaurant for happy hour and dinner with a bunch of my CrossFit friends. Great fun! Such a good group of people. It’s going to be hard to leave this year, but I’m heading home to my close friends and another great group of folks at the gym there.

Since we started dinner before 5pm yesterday, I was in bed around midnight with enough time to recover enough to hit the 9am this morning. Getting out of bed was rough though. I couldn’t believe how sore I was from the interval workout at the track. After moving around a bit and eating a banana I felt better and decided it would do me good to get in for a tough workout.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 3 World’s Greatest Stretch (each leg)
  • 10-15 of each
    • V Sit-ups
    • PVC Pass thrus
    • Air squats

WODs

Teams of Three. For both portions, team members will cycle through full rounds one at a time, with only one member working at any one time. The goal is to move as quickly as possible, thus minimizing your partners’ rest periods and racking up as many rounds as possible.

Since class was small (imagine that after a night of drinking!) most of us paired up for teams of two instead of three.

15m AMRAP

  • 3 Deadlifts
  • 6 HSPU
  • 9 Box Jumps

Deadlifts were done with 225#, I used 2 AbMats for the HSPUs, and jumped on to some stacked up tires that were taller than 24 inches. I was able to complete all rounds unbroken, which is why I went with 2 AbMats instead of 1. At a team, my partner Adam and I completed 15 rounds plus 3 deadlifts. I went first in this AMRAP. Teams of 2 was actually perfect here and we kept a steady pace of 1 minute rounds. With 3 people I think our rest period would have been too long.

After finishing the first WOD, I was feeling so much better than when I woke up. I’m glad I decided to make it in to class instead of going back to bed or going for a hike.

We rested for 5 minutes before hitting the second WOD.

15m AMRAP

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Burpees

I went second in this AMRAP because Adam is better at pull-ups than I am. In the end it didn’t matter because we each completed 9 rounds for a total of 18. That’s 45 pull-ups and 90 burpees each. This WOD would have been much better with a team of 3. My kipping pull-ups are getting much better because I’m able to feel when I get out of control and dial in the swing. I’m also getting better at adjusting my grip on the bar.

After the workout I headed to Total Wine & More to pick up some beer. CrossFit Full Strength has started to call today Sunday Funday because everyone is encouraged to bring a 6-pack of beer for after the noon OLY class. Last week was the first one and it was fun.

Olympic Lifting Class

After a snatch warm-up progression with the PVC pipe we worked on our snatch technique by doing a power snatch followed by a full snatch. I worked up to 105# I think.

Next we got out the racks and worked on the drop snatch with overhead squat. I got up to 125# there. Tried 135# once, but I had the weight too far forward and my feet were too wide.

I wasn’t quite all there and felt weak during the OLY work today, but it was good to get a final session in with Johnny.