Month: April 2013

Using My Functional Fitness

This weekend was all about home improvement projects. My Dad came down and we got a lot accomplished. Took all day Saturday to tear out a deck and two walkways. Then on Sunday we scraped up glue from a floor I removed, laid down luan, and started laying new flooring. I did a bunch more work on the floor yesterday and only have one closet to finish up. So while I had 3 rest days from CrossFit, my body got plenty of work; my knees feel like someone hit them with a baseball bat.

Ready to get back at it today. Missing Monday kind of screws up my week because I had to fit in back squats today, but I’ll adjust. Worked out in my garage around 11am.

Back Squats

Week 4 of the squat program and things are getting interesting! I warmed up with 5 @ 45# and 5@ 95# and then went right into the working sets. It was a big jump, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy so I didn’t want to burn out by doing another warm-up set.

  • 10 @ 185#
  • 8 @ 205#
  • 6 @ 220#
  • 6 @ 235#
  • 6 @ 250#
  • 4 @ 265#

Last two sets were brutal. A couple of months ago 255# was my 5RM, so I think this program is working.

Push Presses

I knew I wanted to push press today, but had no idea what I would do. After finishing the back squats, I came up with this on the fly. Something new to try. I didn’t originally have the MAX set on there, but once I got about half way through and was feeling ok, I figured I’d give it a shot. Warmed up with 5 @ 45# and 5 @ 95#.

  • 7 @ 105#
  • 7 @ 115#
  • 7 @ 125#
  • 7 @ 135#
  • 7 @ 145#
  • MAX @ 155# (8 reps)

20130430-122043.jpg

Overall this session felt better than I expected considering the shit I put my body through the last few days. During my warm-up squats I wasn’t sure I would be able to do much because my knees were feeling pretty messed up.

Went to Survival Fitness for open gym at 8pm for a second session of the day.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 10/10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S)

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Evens: 3 Weighted Pull-ups
  • Odds: 3 Weighted Dips

I used a weight belt for both, with a KB attached. For pull-ups I went 25-25-25-30-30 and should have pushed it a little higher on the last two sets. Wasn’t easy, but should have struggled more. On dips I used 25-30-35-40-53. Could have pushed more there too.

WOD

I loaded up the small sled with three 45# plates, attached some straps around my shoulders and did a bunch of long drags with it. In between, I was doing some jumps into the middle of 2 big stacked tires and exploding out of the middle for a 2nd jump right away. Not a super intense night, but I was pretty much on my own and got to try a couple of new things.

Finisher

Did some tire flips before taking off.

3 Weeks of the Squat Program

Went to open gym at 5:15 tonight.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 10/10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S)
  • 10/10 Flamingos
  • 10/10 Scorpions

Strength

Finishing out week 3 of the squat program with front squats. Did a few sets to warm-up and then did the prescribed 5 working sets.

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 3 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 160#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 185#
  • 5 @ 200#
  • 5 @ 215#

Felt pretty good, but got tougher at the end. I’m liking this squat program, but it’s about to get real interesting next week, moving up to 6 sets and starting to hit some serious loads.

OLY with XWOD

  • 3-2-2-1-1 Cleans (135-165-185-205-225)
  • 2-1-2-1-2 Kneeling Jump

Cleans felt ok, but didn’t want to push it after all of the frost squatting, when that last one at 225 wasn’t the easiest rep. I only jumped up to my feet on the kneeling jumps, but probably should have gone for broad jump distance or something.

WOD

21-15-9

  • OHS (95#)
  • Ring Dips

A few of us were originally going to do “Elizabeth” but calves are sore from all of the box jumps yesterday and then did those heavy cleans, so we switched it up to OHS instead, which we all need more of. My kipping ring dips need some practice. I finished in 6:56.

That was 4 solid days of training in a row. Will be working on projects at the house all weekend so probably won’t do any workouts. Should be well rested to hit it again on Monday.

Throwdown Thursday

Another competition day. Feeling a little off, due to diet. I’ve been eating like shit and need to clean it up. In late for the 8pm class to throw down with Brent.

Warm-up

  • 30s Band pass-thrus
  • 30s Leg Swings (Both sides, F-B, S-S)
  • 30s Air Squats
  • 30s HR Push-ups
  • 30s Mountain Climbers
  • 30s Jumping Jacks

I’m not sure that’s entirely right, but it was a dynamic warm-up.

WOD

CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.3

18:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 12 Shoulder to OH (115#)
  • 9 T2B

I have to admit, this was never my favorite, even though it has box jumps in it. The shoulder to overheads have always given me trouble at that weight in a long WOD. I got 5+21 last year in the Open and 6+22 back in August. This would be a good test of how far my upper body strength has come.

My box jumps weren’t that great today. My calves were a bit rusty, maybe from the snatch pulls we did yesterday. I was able to do push jerks as 7-5 every single round, which is huge for me. I had to break them up into 3 or 4 sets pretty early on both times I’ve done this before. I had a few rounds of unbroken T2B and then went with a lot of 6-3 or similar. Finished with 8+17!!

I’m supposed to get front squats done today but am beat after that one. I’ll do them tomorrow when I’m fresh.

Some Firsts

In at 10am this morning.

Warm-up

Did a 500m Row.

Strength

Bench Press

Going for a 1RM today since it’s been ages and I wanted to see where I was at. 10 @ 45#, 5 @ 135#, 3 @ 185#, 1 @ 215#, and then failed on two different attempts at 235# to match my PR. My left arm was not having any trouble, but my right was way behind and couldn’t catch up. Then I dropped down for 5 @ 185#. On these, my right arm was still trailing behind. Kevin noticed my elbow was a lot more flared out then the left, putting me in a bad position. Something to work on.

Disappointing bench day. I haven’t PR’d a lift in a couple of weeks and need that rush of beating a record soon!

Snatch Pulls

6 x 2 @ 185#

First time using lifting straps. The first set felt super heavy and awkward getting used to the straps, but it got much easier as the sets went on and the pulls felt pretty good. I still have a hitch where I kind of stop and almost dip back down in my Olympic lifts. Need to fix that.

Pendlay Rows

Something new to try out. Not exactly sure we were doing them right, but they felt like they were working something. Did 5 reps each at 95#, 105#, 115#, 125#, and 135#.

We were close…

WOD

18:00 AMRAP

  • 50 DU
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 Push-ups
  • 20 T2B
  • 10 HSPU

Much harder than I imagined because you hit muscle fatigue in so many of the movements. I was 10 HSPU short of completed 3 full rounds, so 2 + 140. Lot’s of resting in this to give the muscles time to recover and keep from hitting failure until that last round.

Recovery

Feeling more back to normal today, although I did wake up with a headache again. Went at 10am and Kevin and I did our own thing today.

Warm-up

I did a 500m Row and some PVC pass-thrus.

OLY Technique

1 Snatch EMOM for 10:00

I started out at 75# and worked my way up, doing the last 2 or 3 with 135#. It’s been far too long since doing a full squat snatch so it felt a bit awkward today.

Strength

5×3 OHS

Haven’t done heavy overhead squats since I set a 1 rep max of 165# last year. Went 95-125-145-155-160. Pretty tough, but felt good to do them again.

10:00 EMOM

  • Evens: 5 Weighted Pull-ups (20-20-20-20-25)
  • Odds: 5 Weighted Dips (20-20-20-25-25)

I had my belt so strapped on a KB for the weight. I don’t think I can count 5 full reps for my last set of pull-ups. Maybe should have added a 2.5# plate instead of taking the 5# jump.

Finisher

5 Rounds

  • 50m High Prowler Sprint (90# sled + 135#)
  • 50m Low Prowler Sprint (90# sled + 135#)
  • 20 Unbroken DU
  • 1-2 minute rest

On the last round I pushed another 15-20m for extra misery.

Solid workout today, without too much intensity to kill me after being off for 3 days.

The Tail End of Being Sick

Saturday was a planned rest day and I did a bunch of work around the house, including tearing out a floor. I woke up feeling “off” on Sunday with a headache and it quickly turned to an achy body with no energy. Felt like the flu. Needless to say I didn’t do any training. Went to bed at 8 and slept for 12 hours. Today has been better as the day progresses, but I took a sick day from work to rest.

Since I’m feeling better tonight, I decided to see if I could get in my back squats for the week. Warmed up with 5 reps on the empty bar and then 5 at 135#. My working sets today called for:

  • 6 @ 185
  • 6 @ 205
  • 6 @ 220
  • 6 @ 235
  • 6 @ 250

Was a bit rough in the last two sets, but I got through it. Hopefully I’m back close to 100% tomorrow.

Gymnasty Friday

Feeling pretty good today after a tough WOD and some good strength work last night. Trained at 10:30am with Matt, Cora, Kevin, and Steve. Kevin came up with the programming for the day and Matt ended up using it for the Survival Fitness classes too. Was a good one!

Warm-up

Did a 500m row, 3/3 Turkish Get-ups with a 35# KB, some PVC pass-thrus, and then worked up to heavy push presses.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Evens: 3 Push Presses
  • Odds: 10 Pistols

I was planning on trying 185#, but it was really heavy warming up, so I dropped down to 175# and used it for the first four rounds and then bumped to 185# for the last round. Programming called for only 6 pistols, so I was going to try wearing my 20# vest but it was pretty awkward so I did 10 each round instead. I can fly through them pretty fast now and don’t run into many problems.

WOD

12:00 AMRAP with 1 Deadlift EMOM (285#)

  • 5 HSPU
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 9 Air Squats

The deadlift kind of served like a forced break in this. My first round was a little fast, but then I kept the same pace until the last 2 or 3 rounds when my HSPU got a little slower. I came up 2 squats shy of 12 full rounds for a score of 11+19. All of my HSPU were unbroken which was nice. Pull-ups and squats were only broken up due to coming on a minute and having to do the deadlift.

Finisher

10 Rounds

  • 15s Air Dyne sprint at 100%
  • 1:45 Rest

This felt easier than when we did it last Saturday. Didn’t have that sick feeling throughout, but it did hit us all about 5 minutes after. Kevin and I got 287 calories on our AD, which was up from 269.

13.1 Redemption

Another Competition Thursday at Survival Fitness and I was not excited about the WOD since I did horrible on it, but excited that I’d get the chance to improve my score. Went to the 5pm class.

Warm-up

  • 30 Air Squats
  • 20 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 30 PVC OHS
  • Snatches

WOD

The WOD for today was CrossFit Games Open Workout 13.1, which I scored a 142 on during the Open, with a 15:52 tiebreaker at the end of the 135# snatches.

17:00 AMRAP

  • 40 Burpees
  • 30 Snatch (75#)
  • 30 Burpees
  • 30 Snatch (135#)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 30 Snatch (165#)
  • 10 Burpees
  • Max rep Snatch (210#)

I was much faster today and didn’t die as bad on the burpees, although they still sucked. I finished the 75# snatches at 5:01, which I think was about 20 seconds faster than in the Open. Was on the bar starting 135# snatches around 8:35-ish and finished them at 14:58 (I’m going to call that a 6:23 “Isabel” PR, since I still haven’t done it standalone), nearly a whole minute faster, which gave me plenty of time to got those last 20 burpees. I was extremely slow on them though and only had 18 seconds to spare. I didn’t even bother trying to put weight on the bar and try 165# because I would have just ended up hurting myself. I’m glad I was able to hit 150 reps this time and do everything a lot faster.

Strength

Second week of my squat program and front squats were on the menu. Warmed up with 5 fast reps at 115# and then had to do 5 reps each at 160#, 175#, 185#, and 200#. Solid work… not too easy and not too hard.

Garage Work

Headed over to Kevin’s place and did a bunch of hamstring and low back work.

3 Rounds (not for time)

  • 10 Reverse Hypers (120#, 170#, 190#)
  • 7 GHR
  • 5 Good Mornings (135#)
  • 20 GHD Sit-ups

Low back was already feeling a little spicy from they heavy cleans yesterday and today’s WOD, so this just lit it more. Good stuff though. Those GHR are rough and my form isn’t very good on them.

Rested Wednesday

Needed that day off yesterday. Worked out at 10:30 today. Kevin and I split off and did our own thing.

Warm-up

“Russian Twist Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

  • DU
  • Russian Twists (35# KB)

My DU were not the greatest, but finished in 5:03. Did another set of 40 unbroken DU a couple of minutes after finishing.

Strength

10:00 E2M

  • 5 HSPU
  • 5 Ring Dips
  • 5 Pull-ups

All movements are done strict, moving as fast as possible between them. On the last set, MAX out each movement. Finished each of the first 4 rounds in about 40-45 seconds, so had over a minute to rest. This combination was much tougher than expected. I got 5-6-5 in my last set and it was a struggle!

Warmed up a little more with some lighter clean and jerks.

WOD

5 Rounds (205#)

  • 5 Deadlifts
  • 3 Power Cleans
  • 1 Jerk
  • 10 Pull-ups

Rough. The 3rd power clean every round was pretty ugly and the jerk was by far the hardest part of the whole thing. Starting off with those 5 deadlifts wiped me out more than expected. Was shooting for this to take about 10 minutes and I fell just under, with a time of 9:57.

Finisher

We loaded up the 90# prowler sled with four 45# plates. Did 4 rounds of 25m high down and low back, then finished with a 40m low down and high back. Rested 1-2 minutes between each round.

Squats & Presses

My body is feeling a little beat up today, but planned to rest tomorrow anyway, so might as well hit it hard. Matt, Cora, Kevin, and I trained at 10:30am.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Back squat and shoulder press warm-up with light weights

Strength

Second week of the squat program, so while everyone did the 5 sets of 3 back squats around 90%, I did 4 sets of 8 with increasing weight.

10:00 EMOM MOFO

  • Evens: 3 Back Squats (90% of 1RM)
  • Odds: 3 Shoulder Presses (90% of 1RM)

I did my first 3 sets of back squats on time, took off the 4th round of back squats to rest for my heaviest set, and finished it on the 5th round. I had to do 8 reps each set, using 185, 205, 220, and 235. Pretty rough. On shoulder presses, 90% calls for 145#, but I don’t think that would be possible for me, so I used 135# for the first 4 sets and 140# for my final set.

Strength WOD

This one comes from some of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff. They absolutely crushed it. I think Khalipa did it in 4:17.

For time:

  • 10 Shoulder Presses
  • 15 OHS
  • 20 Push Presses
  • 25 Front Squats
  • 30 Push Jerks
  • 35 Back Squats

Rx is 115/75 for this one. My time was 14:03. Great barbell work there.

Conditioning WOD

Just keep moving in this one.

12:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Jingle Jangles
  • 10 V-ups
  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 10 OH Walking Lunges (45/25)

I completed 7 full rounds, 10 jingle jangles, 10 v-ups, and 1 push-up for 7+21.

Finisher

Tabata Mash-up

  • Ring L-sit
  • Ball Slams (15#)

I did knee tuck sits each round.

Took us about an hour and 40 minutes to complete everything today. I have a feeling the legs are going to be wrecked for a couple of days.