Tag: Air squat

Dear Cindy, I’m Moving On

It was good taking a day off yesterday. I’m feeling refreshed, yet a little tired. My leg is pretty nasty looking and by the amount of pulling I feel on the skin when I move, I think it’s going to take a long time to fully heal. The side of my head still hurts too. Going off the Vicodin today though. Went in to the 11am class.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 1m V-ups
  • 1m Russian Twists (30# KB)
  • 1m Side Plank (30s each side)
  • 1m Leg Lifts
  • 1m Bicycles

It’s been awhile since we did one of these 17 minute ab routines.

WOD

We had the choice between 4 different workouts today. There were only 3 of us in class and we all picked the same one.

“Cindy”
20:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats

If you know my story, you’re aware that “Cindy” and I have a bit of a history. I got my revenge on Cindy about 4 months ago when we did it with chest to deck push-ups and I managed 18+11. Today we did a normal Cindy which doesn’t have the strict push-up standard and I got 20+6. I thought I remembered setting a goal of 20 rounds by the end of the year, but seems I set the bar high with 22 rounds as my goal! I think I can get there with a little more push. The push-ups were a bigger struggle today than I remember.

I think I can finally stop obsessing over “Cindy” and move on. There are plenty of WODs in the sea.

Finisher

10 Prowler Sprints (25y high, 25y low, 90# of plates on the light prowler)

These felt pretty easy.

Will probably get in some snatch work later today out in the garage with a couple of other people. The team competition 6 of us are doing next week had a WOD where everyone has to go for a max weight snatch and clean & jerk. I haven’t done heavy snatches since February so need to get an idea of what I can do.

Chicks & Dicks WOD

This morning at 9am, our newlywed couple of Casey and Kinde Malott were back in the gym for their first WOD after the wedding. Matt made it a partner WOD pairing up a guy and a gal for each team. I was paired up with Cora and we rocked it!

Warm-up

21-15-9 *

  • Air Squats
  • Jumping Jacks

* After each round, power skip 150m.

WOD


“Malott 13”

  • 13 Man Makers, Renegade (40# DBs)
  • 13 Around the World HR Push-ups (each one is essentially a 4 count with rotations)
  • 13 Laps of 150m Weighted Run (45# Plate)
  • 13 Over the Box Burpees (24″ – Each partner does 13 and can work at the same time)
  • 13 T2B (4 counts, so 52 total)
  • 13 Tuck Jumps (4 counts, so 52 total)

Our strategy on the man makers put us behind several teams, but we were able to make up a lot of ground and pass everyone in the runs. About halfway through my over the box burpees, I fucked up. For some reason in my head I thought I would jump up with one foot and have the other foot trail. What a train wreck that turned out to be. I hit the box hard, busted up my leg, jammed a finger and landed on top of the box with my stomach. Ouch! So then I had to do the rest of the box jumps on one leg essentially. My T2B were some of the best I’ve ever done and tuck jumps are easy for me. We finished first with a time of 16:00.

Finisher

Death by Russian KBS (by 3s, 53# KB)

Got through the round of 33 and then called it a day. That’s 198 swings in 11 minutes. Had about 10 seconds left before the next minute started, but my shoulders were pretty fried and I worked out each day this week. It was time to shut it down. There was also a strength portion doing heavy shrugs, but we had the option of doing the finisher instead.

PR on the OHS

I went to the 6pm Olympic Lifting class again. Did more drilling on the snatch, some snatch balances, a bit of cleaning, and then starting work on the jerk. Good stuff.

The side of my head is still pretty sore, but the top area feels fine. I really wish I could go off the Vicodin today. At least tomorrow I can finally run water on my head!

Warm-up

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

Strength

5×1 OHS

Was looking to set a nice PR today and it was not a disappointment. I did a set of 5 with the 45# bar and then did 95#, 115#, 135#, 145#, 155#, and 165#. My previous PR was 145# so after getting 165 I shut it down. The lift felt pretty good but I didn’t want to get greedy.

WOD

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 *

  • OH Lunges (35# Plate)
  • Thrusters (40# DBs)

* After each round do 15 AbMat Sit-ups.

I went a little out of my comfort zone by using 40# DBs for the thrusters, but it worked out pretty well. I finished in 16:55.

Ankle Stinger

As planned, I took the weekend away from the gym. Went up north to my parents for a couple of days. All day Saturday was spent working in the garage with my Dad. We built a 18 x 24 x 40 plyo box, a weight rack, some risers for my squat stand, and another small platform that can be used under the box for higher jumps. I drove back home on Sunday morning so I could make it to Gym Jesters at 2pm. We worked on back tucks again, some cart wheels, and hand stands. I got a nice stinger in my left ankle doing back tucks on mats on the floor.

The rest from WODs felt good, but I was ready to get back at it today. I went in for the 9am.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

Strength

5×3 Low Box Squats

Last week I only got up to 175# for the 5×5 and was pretty disappointed. They didn’t feel right at all. I think it was mostly because I was tired from Sunday’s competition. Today was a completely different story. Warmed up with a set of 3 at 95# and then my working sets were:

  • 135#
  • 155#
  • 185#
  • 205#
  • 215#

Last two sets were tough, but felt good. I used a narrower stance this week and really concentrated on pushing my knees out. That’s 40# above the weight I did last week.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 20 Pistols (alternating legs)
  • 20 Burpees

I started out doing Rx pistols but after 3 on my left leg I had to grab a box because the ankle stinger was killing me. Right leg was fine. With the delay to grab a box and get setup, I still finished first in 12:08. Last time doing pistols my low back gave out and I had to use a box and today my ankle couldn’t handle it because of hurting it yesterday. Some day I’ll get back to doing Rx Pistols!

Finisher

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • K2E
  • 4x Scissor Kicks

My grip and core strength is really improving because I was able to do every set of K2E unbroken. The scissor kicks seemed really easy today too.

Garage Strength

Later at night I did some upper body strength work in the garage. I did dynamic effort bench pressing which is all about speed in the reps and one minute of rest between each set.

  • 2×3 @ 45#
  • 1×3 @ 95#
  • 1×3 @ 115#
  • 8×3 @ 135#

The Day After

The day after a CrossFit competition is always an unknown. It’s hard to predict how your body is going to respond to the challenges you put it through in the heat of competing. I’m feeling good today considering I did 4 high intensity WODs yesterday. My rib cage must be a little bruised up from the plate run because I can feel it sore there. Other than that I feel a little tight in some places, but nothing is sore like the partner competition I did this summer. Went in for the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

4 Tabata Rounds

  • Mountain Climbers
  • Air Squats

Strength

5×5 Wide Stance Low Box Squats (14″ box)

These were not my friend and I’m already feeling them in my knees. I think the super wide stance may not be the best for taller guys, but I’ll have to do some research on that. My working sets were:

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#

WOD

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • Burpee Box Jumps (24″)
    • Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 2m Rest
  • 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
    • Goblet Squats (48# KB)
    • Over the Box Jumps (24″)

My legs got a lot of work in the competition and then the box squats kind of finished them off before this WOD. I found it hard to jump on the 24″ box today, especially when I got to the over the box jumps. The 24″ box is never an issue for me. I finished in 17:31.

Competition WOD Test

I’d already worked out 4 days in a row, but screw it, let’s make it 5. I didn’t want to miss strength squat day at the gym since I don’t have a rack to do squats at home yet.

Before lunch I went out to the garage to test one of the competition workouts.

WOD #1

5 rounds

  • 5 Deadlifts (185#)
  • 10 Hand Release Burpees

The pull to get the first rep on each round of deadlifts was tougher than I expected and I could gain some time by repping them out faster. I did a time of 4:28 without any warm-up at all. Warmed up and pushing it, I think I can break under 4 minutes in the competition. It was good to try this out and see how it feels.

I went in to the 5:30pm class so I had a little more time to rest from yesterday’s WOD and I’m glad I did, because it was a lot of the same movements.

Warm-up

4 rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

Strength

5×3 Front Squats

Coming out of last week only getting 2 out of 5 reps at 215#, my goal was to get all 3 reps at that weight this today. Counting the warm-up sets, here is what I did:

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 6 @ 115#
  • 3 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 155#
  • 3 @ 175#
  • 3 @ 195#
  • 3 @ 215#

After doing 95 front squats with 95# in the Deck of Cards WOD yesterday, I’ll take today’s effort. I don’t think I could have gotten 220# up for all 3 reps, but maybe. 215# is still my PR for the front squat, so 3 reps is more than I’ve done. I should be able to set a solid PR on my 1RM next week.

WOD

30 rounds

  • Power Clean
  • Front Squat
  • Push Press
  • Back Squat
  • Push Press

There’s something consisting of these movements called the Bear Complex, which is 7 rounds through without stopping. We did 30 rounds of the cycle instead and we were allowed to combine elements. For instance, we could do a squat clean thruster to take care of the first 3 movements and then a back squat thruster for the last two. This made it a lot easier.

Since I did most of these movements on their own yesterday, I wanted to go light today and try to fly through it. I loaded the bar with 85#. It turned out to be too easy and I finished in 6:43. So then I went up to 95# and knocked out another 10 reps. With the weight I used, I really liked these, but I probably wouldn’t say the same thing if I had gone a lot heavier.

Finisher

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 T2B
  • 30s Side Plank (one side each round, switch sides for the next round)

I did all of the T2B unbroken, but ripped my right pinky on the middle portion of my finger. First time I’ve ever ripped anything there.

The weather is supposed to be great tomorrow so I plan to go golfing and will definitely be taking a rest day from CrossFit.

“Rockin and A-reelin Barbara Ann Ba Ba”

It was a little tough getting out of bed this morning at 9am. My neck and back are a little off, but they did loosen up after moving around. I went in for the 11am class.

Warm-up

3 rounds

  • 30s Jumping Jacks
  • 30s Plank
  • 30s Jumping Jacks
  • 30s Bottom Squat Hold

WOD

“Barbara”
5 rounds

  • 20 Pull-ups
  • 30 Push-ups
  • 40 Sit-ups
  • 50 Air Squats
  • 3m Rest

This was my first time meeting “Barbara”. She sounded like a real bitch before I got to shake her hand, but after we got to know each other a little bit, she’s an alright gal. I like workouts like this where you can have 3-5 minutes of hard work followed by a rest and then do it over again.

My goal right from the start was not to go out too fast, because I’ve done that too many times in a WOD like this one. I also didn’t want to get to the point of fatigue in my push-ups because after that it’s almost impossible to knock out any good amount of reps. I did 10 and 10 pull-ups in round 1, but then went 10-5-5 every other round. Did about 10 push-ups to start each round and then broke up the rest into smaller sets as my arms tired. Sit-ups and air squats were all unbroken except for the first round of squats. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to do with 50 of them so I took 2 short rests. I was feeling better than ever with my air squats so for the last 4 rounds I was able to do them unbroken. In the last round I was actually able to bang out the last 20 at an even faster pace, which felt good.

My times for each round were very consistent:

  • 4:23
  • 4:26
  • 4:26
  • 4:33
  • 4:27

Everything within a 10 second window. I’ll take that type of consistency every time. Total time of 22:15.

Adult Gymnastics at Gym Jesters

Traveling home from San Diego made for a long day yesterday. I got up at 7am to have some breakfast, was picked up from the hotel at 8:30am (Pacific) and the plane landed in Saginaw just before 10pm. I was in bed by 11pm. Today I went to the 11am class and then at 2pm we had an adult class at Gym Jesters Gymnastics Center

Warm-up

4 rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

WOD

Today was a long partner WOD. I was teamed up with Cora and Michelle, the two best women we have at Survival Fitness. We all pushed each other really hard in this one.

    • 30 Sandbag Over the Shoulder (40#)
    • 900m Weighted Run (35# Place)
    • 150m Burpee Broad Jump
    • 50 DB Snatches (40#)
    • 50 KBS (53#)
    • 100m Prowler Push (90# of the heavy sled, 50m high push, 50m low push)
    • 30 Deadlifts (225#)
    • 50 HR Push-ups
    • 100 Air Squats
    • 30 Pull-ups
    • 50 AbMat Sit-ups
    • 2m Plank

We had 40 minutes to do this. I was 8 squats short of getting through the 5th block (did all of the pull-ups). Everyone on the team had to complete both parts of a section before the team could move on to the next area. The team could break things up however they wanted, so in #5 I did rounds of 5 pull-ups followed by 10 air squats until I was all done with the pull-ups. Then I tried to finish off the rest of the squats and couldn’t make it even though I went all out for the last 30 seconds.

Gymnastics

Had a bit of time to rest at home and get some food before heading over to Gym Jesters. Scott and Brent from Gym Jesters started out by talking about the different positions of the back tuck flip and then started putting us through some progressions. First we started out by jumping into the air as well as sitting on the ground and rolling backwards. Next it was up to jumping up, tucking, and landing on our upper back on a high mat.

Some of us broke off to the trampoline, did some progressions, and worked up to doing a back flip while strapped in. After that I jumped into a foam pit from a hit bouncy thing, then into the foam pit just from the wall of the pit. Brent spotted me and I tried a few on just mats. At that point I was pretty good to work on my own. I came close a few times, but I have to work on jumping straight up, making sure to get a fast tuck, and then holding my tuck longer. My biggest problem was coming out of the tuck way too soon.

It was so much fun! I’ve wanted to do a back flip ever since I was a little kid. They just look so badass! Sounds like we might go back twice a month to try different things.

800 Meter Sandwich

Feeling pretty good this morning. My legs are fine and I wasn’t tired getting up at 5:20am. Went in to CrossFit Pacific Beach again for the 6am class.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 10 Samson Stretches
  • 10 Inchworms
  • 10 Zombie Kicks
  • 10 Air Squats
  • 10 Skater Plyos

We also did a little more stretching. I liked doing a bottom squat hold while putting all of the weight over one heel to stretch out that ankle and calf.

Agility

Ladder drills

These were quick but fun.

WOD #1

  • 800m Run
  • 40-30-20-10
    • KBS (53# KB)
    • Box Jumps (24″)
  • 800m Run

As you probably know, I love box jumps. I’m not used to doing that many American KBS, but I tried to keep to big sets and never did less than 10 in a row. Box jumps were nearly all unbroken. The last 800m sucked ass. I finished with a good time of 16:40.

Then it was back to the hotel to lead the last day of the Automattic Bootcamp at 7:30am.

Warm-up #2

50m

  • High Knees
  • Bear Crawls
  • Zombie Kicks

WOD #2

Partners

  • 50 Broad Jumps
  • 80 HR Push-ups
  • 100 Lunges
  • 80 Tuck Jumps
  • 50 V-ups

I was kind of a 3rd partner in this, so it wasn’t bad. Seemed like people really liked the Bootcamp throughout the week.

WOD at CrossFit PB and an Automattic Bootcamp

I’m trying to stay on Eastern time for the most part this week because it allows me to get up in the morning and workout before work stuff starts. I got up at 5am this morning and went to the 6am class at CrossFit PB. There was 7 of is class which I thought was surprising for so early.

Warm-up

2 rounds

  • 5 Front Squats (45#)
  • 10 V-ups
  • 20 DUs
  • Samson Stretch

We also did some PVC work and stretching before getting started.

Strength

Back Squats

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 3 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 155#
  • 3 @ 175#
  • 3 @ 195#
  • 3 @ 195#
  • 6 @ 215#

The idea here was to warm up for a few sets. Then do 2 sets at about 65% of 1RM. For the last set use 85% of 1RM and do max reps. I didn’t do any strict calculations, but I think my weight choices worked out pretty well.

Thrusters
Do a few sets of 3 to get warm for the WOD. I did 45#, 65#, and 95#.

WOD

  • 12-9-6 Thrusters (115#)
  • 24-18-12 T2B

I picked a pretty perfect weight on the thrusters and broke each round into 2 sets. Did well stringing T2B together in round 1, but my hips were shot in the 2nd and 3rd rounds so it was tough to get a kip going. At the end I was actually only doing 1 or 2 at a time. Finished in 8:02.

I rushed back to the hotel where I was putting on a Bootcamp for my coworkers at 7:30am. I skipped the warm-up, but did the rest with them.

WOD #2

8:00 AMRAP

  • 5 HR Push-ups
  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 15 Air Squats

We did this on the wet grass outside the hotel. Not the greatest of locations, but hey, this is CrossFit and we have to be ready for the unknown. I managed to get 7 rounds plus the 5 push-ups.

Finisher

2 rounds

  • 1m Plank
  • 1m Side Plank (30s each side)
  • 1m Rest

I think the Bootcamp went pretty well and ended almost exactly after 30 minutes like I had planned.