I slept well, but went to bed late and got up early, so didn’t get a ton of sleep. Went in to the 9am class this morning because I’m heading up to my parent’s for the weekend later tonight. I’m actually feeling pretty damn good today considering how much crap I ate yesterday.
Warm-up
500m Run
25 Air Squats
50 Lateral Hops (25 each leg)
75 High Knees
100 Jumping Jacks
Good warm-up to get the blood flowing.
Skill
20:00
Switch between exercises each minute and aim to work 30-35s of each minute, which will end up giving everyone different rep numbers.
6 DB Split Cleans (35# DBs)
8 Pistols (alternate legs)
The goal here was to work on the skill with the cleans, so we didn’t go heavy. There was still good intensity and I was sweating like a hog. Probably pretty good that we didn’t go heavy since I just did 30 cleans with 135# last night.
WOD
10:00 AMRAP
2-4-6-8…
SDLHP (88# KB)
Plyo Push-ups (clapping)
Each round, the reps increase by 2. I got through the round of 16 plus 13 additional SDLHPs. Nice short WOD, but don’t let that fool you. As the reps increased, I had to use more and more sets to finish the rounds.
There was a finisher of 40 yard sprints up on the board, but we didn’t have time to get to them. Since I’m heading out-of-town for the weekend, I’m going to try not to WOD. I may get in a long run on Saturday or Sunday though.
One month ago, we started a team Paleo Challenge at Survival Fitness. I promised myself that I would try to go 100% Paleo for the entire challenge, and with one small exception (shredded cheese and croutons on a salad), I did it. I’ve seen incredible results in my fitness, my body composition, and how I feel.
I started the challenge at 12.3% body fat and 181 pounds. In less than 2 weeks, I had dropped to 172 pounds (home scale)! I was losing too much weight, so I increased my protein sources (eggs, meat, fish, etc.) by 50% at each meal. As an example, I went from eating 4 eggs at breakfast to 6. This brought my weight back up into the 175 pound range where I’ve been able to stabilize. This morning at my final weigh-in at the gym I was 178 pounds (not sure how I got back up that high) and 9.8% body fat. That’s a drop of more than 20% of my starting body fat %. I have a visible 6-pack, which has always been a goal of mine. I can’t believe the changes in my body is one short month. A key point is that I had already been eating 80-90% Paleo since I started doing CrossFit, but going 100% made a huge difference!
After taking the rest day yesterday I was feeling great this morning. I attended the 9am class so I could get the benchmark WOD done early. Can you say pizza and Mountain Dew for lunch and dinner? Seriously!
Warm-up
4 rounds
15s Zombie Kicks
15s Jumping Jacks
15s Butt Kicks
15s Mountain Climbers
12:00 AMRAP
150m Run
Rest as long as the run took
I started out pretty fast, but realized 12:00 is a long time to do sprints, so I slowed down to a 30s pace in order to save myself for the WOD. It is a warm-up after all. I think I completed 13 runs.
WOD
We partnered up again so that we could count each other and get a bit of rest.
5:00 AMRAP
Burpees
4:00 AMRAP
Wall Balls
3:00 AMRAP
Air Squats
2:00 AMRAP
KBS (Russian)
1:00 AMRAP
AbMat Sit-ups
I improved in each of the tests:
Burpees went from 82 to 91, an increase of 10.9%.
Wall balls went from 77 to 95, an increase of 23.4%.
Air squats went from 101 to 112, an increase of 10.9%
KBS went from 76 to 82, an increase of 7.9%.
AbMat (“cheater”) sit-ups went from 67 to 81, an increase of 20.9%
Total reps went from 403 to 461, an overall increase of 14.4%.
I had one of the top 5 scores for the first assessment, so I figured improving wasn’t going to be easy. I’m thrilled with a 14.4% improvement. Hard work pays off! I’m really happy with my burpee and wall ball improvements because burpees are such a great overall cardio and full body exercise and I knew wall balls were one of my weaknesses. My air squats are still pretty weak compared to the best in the gym, but getting better. It’s hard to improve on the Russian KBS, except by increasing weight, because you can only do them so fast. In the first test I took one short break, but went unbroken for the entire 2 minutes today. I’m not concerned about the sit-up number because it was doing the cheater standard, which I’m no longer doing.
With all of the rest time, I don’t feel like I had to work very hard overall, even though I pushed as hard as I could go. I may try attend 8pm open gym and do a strength WOD since I’ll be out of town for the weekend.
The Paleo Challenge ends this week and I can’t wait to order a pizza on Thursday! I love eating Paleo, but I need some cheat meals. With that said, I’m glad I’ve stuck to the program for the entire month, with a very minor cheat. I’ve seen incredible results, but I’ll post more about that in a couple of days.
I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) called Saginaw Meadows with a couple that I’m good friends with. Yesterday was our first pick-up. It’s going to be pretty neat to get fresh, local, organic stuff each week, some of which I’ve never eaten. The first week was pretty small because not much has grown in yet, but each week we’ll be getting more and more food. I used a green onion in a breakfast scramble this morning and made a sauté with some greens and tomatoes I had picked up on Friday from the local Farmer’s Market. Good food!
Warm-up
100 Jumping Jacks
100 Butt Kicks
100 Lateral Hops
100 Mountain Climbers
10 Slow Air Squats
10 Burpees
I think I did this in about 5:26, without pushing too hard. I wanted to save myself for the WOD because I knew I was going to need everything I had to survive.
3 rounds
1m Plank
1m Leg Raises
1m Bicycles
1m Side Plank (30s each side)
1m Boats
1m Rest
These long core circuits are great and they are always much tougher than they look. Does core work every get any easier?
WOD
DB “Fran”
21-15-9
Thrusters (45# DBs)
Pull-ups
Here’s one of those heavy upper body workouts where I struggle. We had a 10:00 time limit and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish. I’ve never attempted “Fran” before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I wish my intro was with the barbell instead of DBs, but you don’t always get what you want. 🙂 I really struggled to string together pull-ups, which took a lot of extra time. I knew I’d have to break the thrusters down quite a bit, especially in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. My time was 9:05. I’ll take it. It gives me something to shoot for next time.
Finisher
50 Burpees
This was great practice for Thursday when we have to perform the Paleo Challenge benchmark again, which starts out with 5 minutes of burpees. I pushed myself pretty good here and finished in 2:48. In the original benchmark a month ago I did 82 burpees in 5 minutes, so if I can keep up the pace I used today I can beat, especially since I won’t have such a long warm-up and “Fran” to do before.
I’ve only worked out 2 days in a row, but I’m going to take a rest day tomorrow to make sure I’m not too tired or sore for the benchmark test on Thursday. I’ll be walking 18 holes of golf tomorrow morning anyway, so that will get me some exercise.
Yesterday morning I walked 18 holes of golf and qualified for the Saginaw District Golf Association Invitational Tournament. It got up into the mid or high 90 and was a long day. Perfect timing for a CrossFit rest day! Feeling good and back at it today. When I woke up I knocked out one set of max rep push-ups and decided the Armstrong Pull-up Program just isn’t worth the time. It’s so boring compared to WODs, so I’m done with it.
Matt, the owner of the gym, attended a CrossFit Level 1 Certification over the weekend and will next be working on getting Survival Fitness affiliated as an official CrossFit box next. Pretty exciting stuff. He learned a lot and you could already see it in the way he ran today’s class. I don’t mean anything bad about previous classes by saying that, I just felt like he had more confidence in his teaching of certain movements and pointing out some of our technique issues. It’ll make us all better.
Warm-up
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Mountain Climbers
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m PVC Pass-thrus
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Lateral hops (30s each leg)
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Bicycles
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Jumping Jacks
We’ve been doing a lot of these bottom squat holds and I think it’s helping to open up my hips more. Matt pointed out that I had too much of a round in my back though, so I have to fight for a better position.
WOD
Teams of 2 (45:00 limit)
200 Air Squats
100 T2B
150 Burpees
500m Run holding a 20# MB (both people run at the same time and at the pace of the slowest)
150 Box Jumps (24″)
100 Pull-ups
200 Walking Lunge Steps
200 SDLHP (barbell loaded to 95#)
Only 1 person is working at a time except during the run. The goal is to keep a high intensity and hand off to your partner when you start to slow down. The hand off is hard to do, even when you know you are starting to slow, because you want to keep knocking out reps. I attended the 8pm class, which is the last class of the day and no team had completed the WOD all day. The closest anyone got was 49 reps left by a team of 2 of the fittest women at Survival Fitness. I was paired up with Brent, which was a good pairing because we are both near the top of the men at SF. We flew along pretty good, but the pull-ups slowed us down and then the SDLHP were absolutely brutal. I’m sure I’ll be feeling those tomorrow. We pushed it hard through the entire 45 minutes and fell 33 reps shy of completing the WOD, but set the record for the day. With a little better strategy I think we could have finished. Next time!
Was up early this morning to play a practice round in preparation for the Saginaw District Golf Tournament Qualifier, which is this Sunday. Yes, I knocked out the Armstrong push-ups bright and early to start my day.
My pair of Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0 arrived today in time to use them for my workout. I’m very pleased with them as a CrossFit shoe.
I attended the 4:15 class and planned on staying after for open gym to work on a bunch of stuff and beat up my body.
Warm-up
100-75-50-25 Squats
50-40-30-20 HR Push-ups
I’m not sure you can really call this a warm-up, because it took longer than the WOD. I finished in 17:22.
WOD
21-15-9
Goblet Squats (88# KB)
Burpees
Pull-ups
Sit-ups
I went as heavy as I could for the goblet squats by using the largest KB in the gym and for each round I broke them up into 2 sets. They completely wiped me out for burpees, which I did extremely slow compared to my normal pace. My time was 12:45.
Finisher
Death by Box Jumps
1st minute: 2 box jumps
2nd minute: 4 box jumps
… increas by 2 each minute
Go big or go home right? I used the 32″ box for the first time, which wasn’t too bad. I just had to take my time a little more and make sure I got a good jump in. I made it up to the round of 14, which I finished a few seconds before the minute was over. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make 16 with such a short rest, so I shut it down there. Using the bigger boxes more often will make the 24″ box seem so easy.
After class I rested for a bit as some people started showing up for open gym.
WOD #2
Mini “Diane”
12-9-6
Deadlifts (225#)
HSPUs
I did strict HSPUs as long as I could, then added a kip, then added an AbMat, then added a kip with the AbMat. My time was 4:49. When I think how fast the elite men and women are doing a “Diane” compared to my mini, it’s sick. They’re in a different solar system.
Strength
Back Squats
3x 175#
3x 195#
3x 195#
3x 195#
I was feeling pretty beat after 250 air squats and the goblet squats, but it was nice to get in some moderate weight squatting for the week.
After that I decided to knock out my Armstrong Pull-ups for the day. It was 3 sets with a normal grip, 3 sets with a close (hands 0-4 inches apart) chin-up grip, and 3 sets with a wide grip. Each set was 3 reps with 60 seconds of rest in between sets. The pull-ups felt really good today.
Then I pulled out the jump rope and did some DUs. With the new rope it was nothing to knock out 10+ in a row on each attempt. It spins so effortlessly. Somehow somebody brought up muscle ups, so I tried a few on the bar. I almost had it a couple of times and I’m confident I can get it next time when I haven’t worked out for 2 hours already. 🙂
I’m fucking beat, but it was all worth it. Time to relax for the night. Tomorrow is CrossFit for Hope, which looks like a killer WOD. I’m looking forward to the snatches, which I haven’t done in quite some time.
Rolling out of bed was rough this morning. My lower back is very sore from one-arm snatches and deadlifts yesterday, but even worse, my tailbone feels raw from the 150 sit-ups last night. I can feel them in my abs too, but WOW it hurts to sit! Once I finally got out of bed, I knocked out 3 sets of max push-ups as I went through my morning routine. This may not have been the best idea considering I knew we were doing “Angie” today for the WOD. It’ll make me stronger I guess!
Warm-up
5 rounds
1m Plank
1m Burpees (10 and then rest)
Just last night I was thinking we hadn’t done plank in a while. Funny how that works out. 🙂
WOD
“Angie”
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Air Squats
The one time I’ve done “Angie” Rx was on April 11th and looking back, we had swapped the order of sit-ups and squats. Probably didn’t matter much. My time then was 24:42, with about 12:00 to get through the pull-ups. When I did this, I was still doing “cheater” sit-ups where I only had to touch my shoes. I’m no longer doing those because they’re a joke with my long arms and flexibility. I’ve started getting all the way up so I can reach out past my feet. Originally I was planning to blow that time out of the water, even with harder sit-ups, but the tailbone issue made it rough.
I was feeling pretty good through the pull-ups and completed them in about 8:30, a lot faster than last time. I wore home-made tape grips on both hands which really helped saved my hands since they are in rough shape from the last week. I felt ok on push-ups considering I had already done 100 of them when I woke up. Started with a set of 15, then did 3 or 4 sets of 10. That’s when things started to slow down and sets kept getting smaller and smaller. Sets were all 5 or more though, which is a huge improvement from last time when I was only getting 2-4 at the end.
At this point it was neck and neck between a few of us. Sit-ups absolutely killed me though. They took me forever even with two mats under my ass for padding. Each sit-up hurt like a bitch so I tried as much as possible to come up on the sides of my ass instead of straight up. I powered through and moved on to the squats. Not my best effort in the squats, but I finished in 23:41, which is a PR by 61 seconds. I’m confident I can get sub-20 next time.
Strength
Death by Clean & Jerks
Brent and Ron had already used up all of the 10# bumpers, so I didn’t have much choice but to load up with a couple of 45s and do 135#. I got up through the set of 4 and had to start the set of 5 with no rest. I nearly made it in the minute, but locked out the jerk 1 or 2 seconds after the minute ran out. I took a couple of minutes off and then jumped over to the 115# bar Brent was using and did a minute with 6 reps and a minute with 7 reps to get in some more work.
At some point tonight I’ll do day 4 of the Armstrong Pull-up Program.
No golf today due to rain, so I woke up early. I wanted to eat a small breakfast and hit the 9am class. First things first though, I knocked out my 3 maximum effort sets of push-ups for the Armstrong Pull-up Program. While doing these, I’m concentrating on keeping my elbows in close because I have the tendency to let my elbows fly out during push-ups. My sets today were 35, 32, and 30 with sufficient rest in between each set.
My legs are feeling a little sore from yesterday, but that’s good. I need to do more heavy squatting. I’m sure the wall balls have something to do with it as well. I really enjoyed this video, which looks back at Regionals. Check it out.
This morning I realized I’m starting my 8th month of CrossFit. Incredible! I’ve never stuck to a fitness program for more than 3 months, but now I can’t imagine my life without CrossFit. It has changed my life in so many great ways. I’m inspired by the people sweating next to me during each WOD. This community is something special. We’re all in the box to improve our lives and push our limits.
Warm-up
50-40-30-20-10 Air Squats
50 Mountain Climbers
I could really feel the air squats today.
WOD #1
100 Alternating 1-Arm DB Snatches
100 K2E
* Every minute there is a burpee buy-in (3-beginner, 4-intermediate, 5-advanced) before you can work on the reps. I went with 5 burpees for my buy-in. You can take a minute off from burpees and reps, but then you must work the next minute. All snatches must be completed before moving on to K2E. Time limit of 30 minutes.
Matt told me to grab the 60# DB, so I obeyed. 🙂 I never would have grabbed that one on my own, but I’m glad I did. The last time we did one-arm snatches I used a 40# DB! The 60 was tough, but rewarding and will make me stronger, which is exactly what I need. I started off going 2 minutes in a row to hit 20 reps, but quickly realized that wouldn’t last. I started taking every other minute off and was getting 10 reps during a working minute. Towards the end I pushed for 12 in one set, took the last minute off, and then worked 2 minutes in a row for the last 18 reps.
I hurried to put on one of the tape grips I had ready, but ran out of tape so couldn’t secure the second one to my left hard. Nothing ripped open, but I’ll have to keep an eye on it closer now. I was able to knock out 10 K2E in a row right off the bat, but it was all downhill from there. I worked a couple of minutes in a row here and there, but otherwise took minutes off. Near the end it was really a struggle to get my legs up. I was 10 reps shy of 100 before time ran out. Total score: 190 reps in 30:00, not even counting around 100 burpees.
I headed back to the box in the evening for open gym so I could do some deadlifts. While I was there I figured I’d do a quick WOD that wasn’t too stressful on the body.
Strength
5×5 Deadlifts
Warmed up with 10 reps at 135# and then 5 at 225#. Used 275# for all 5 working sets of 5 reps. Wasn’t planning to try to set any records today, especially with the state of my hands from hanging bar work. More than anything I just wanted to move some weight, so goal accomplished.
WOD #2
50-40-30-20-10
Sit-ups
Tuck Jumps
I ordered a Revolution Rope from Again Faster and was excited to use it today, but they sent the wrong jump rope; it’s a speed rope, which I already have. I was so bummed when I opened the package. Again Faster was quick to reply, telling me to keep the speed rope as a spare and the correct rope is on its way.
My plan was to do “Annie” even with my current speed rope, but I could not string together DUs while warming up, so I did tuck jumps instead. Finished in 8:28.
When I got home, it was time for the pull-up portion of the Armstrong Pull-up Program. Now I’m spent! I may be going crazy for working out so much, one day a week like this shouldn’t kill me should it? 🙂
Did you see the Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0 launched today? I ordered a pair already because I had to send in my broken Inov-8s. I was just looking earlier this week for a pair of the Nano 1.0s, but couldn’t find them in my size, which is a 14. I had a feeling the new model would be coming soon since there was no restocking going on and the Games are right around the corner. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait too long. My first choice in color, the blue, doesn’t come in my size so I went with this grey pair. Good thing I acted fast because size 14 is no longer listed!
Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0
I’m so excited! I can’t wait for these to come in.
After the turnout for “Murph” yesterday, I can’t stop thinking about how great of a community this is to belong to.
I’m a little sore today, but not bad considering that’s 4 days in a row. Since I won’t be able to WOD tomorrow, I had to push to 5 in a row today.
I’m 2 weeks into the strict Paleo diet as part of the challenge at the box. A few croutons and a small amount of shredded cheese on a salad are still the only “cheats” I’ve had. I’m down 8 pounds (172# this morning) and 1.5% body fat. At times, you can see a 6-pack as shown by the picture in yesterday’s post. I can’t believe how much my body has changed in the last two weeks and how much better I’m performing in the workouts. I figured it would take at least a couple of months to get to the 6-pack stages.
I’m increasing my food consumption in an attempt to speed up muscle growth, because I don’t want to lose any more weight; I want to turn some fat pounds into muscle pounds. A lean 175-180 would be ideal. We’ll see how this goes for the next week.
Warm-up
75-50-25 Squats
30-40-50 KBS (Russian)
I used the 62# KB for the swings and finished in 10:05.
I love box jumps, so this is my kind of WOD. It’s always fun doing one of the benchmark girls or heroes so you have something to look back on if you do it again.
I used a 24″ box for jumps and a 20# MB for wall balls. Our 400m loop is more like 500 according to Google Maps Pedometer, so we’re working extra hard. 🙂 I did all of the box jumps unbroken each round and started with a set of 15-20 for the wall balls each time to keep my intensity up. Tried to do most of my resting during transitions from move to move with a few seconds of sitting down to drink some water. Finished in 32:22.
Squat endurance was my weak point in the benchmark for the challenge, but it’s getting better and better. Squats and wall balls felt pretty good today, especially since that’s 5 days in a row that have included a lot of squats.
Today we honor the men and women who have lost their lives fighting for our freedoms. The CrossFit community usually does the Hero WOD named “Murph” after LT. Michael P. Murphy.
A team of 4 Navy SEALs led by LT. Michael P. Murphy on a mission to capture or kill a key Taliban leader, found themselves seriously outnumbered in a firefight with well over 100 enemy troops. Pinned down and under intense enemy fire, their communications operator severely wounded, they were in desperate need for help. Due to the mountainous terrain, their communications could not be received. Understanding the situation, LT. Michael P. Murphy moved to open exposing himself to enemy fire, to use his satellite phone to request immediate support to save his team. LT Murphy was mortally wounded making that call. They continued fighting until Lt. Murphy and two of his three team mates were mortally wounded. His fourth team member, severely injured himself, managed to escape where he was taken in by a local villager until he was rescued 4 days later. He went on to tell the story in a book titled “The Lone Survivor”
For his selfless leadership, courageous actions and extraordinary devotion to duty, LT. Michael P. Murphy received the Medal of Honor, the first service member to receive the medal in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the first Navy recipient of the medal since Vietnam. Memorial Day Murph
As we remember and honor those that have given the greatest sacrifice, we push ourselves a little harder today.
Good flag placement!
WOD
“Murph”
1 Mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Air Squats
1 Mile Run
*Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. It is recommended to do 20 rounds of “Cindy” by doing 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats per round. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got body armor or a twenty pound vest, wear it.
Our mile loop is actually about 1.05 miles, so we worked extra hard! I finished my first run in 6:42, which is about a 6:22 mile, reaching my goal of sub 6:30! The heat and humidity were brutal today. My total time was 44:26 and that second run probably took about 8 minutes. I was dying and could tell I was dehydrated at that point even though I drank nearly an entire 24 oz bottle of water during the WOD. I did end up expanding a blister I formed during yesterday’s workout. At least it hasn’t ripped open, so it should heal faster. All sets of pull-ups and push-ups were done unbroken, and quite a few of the squat sets were as well.
We had 30 people show up on a holiday to do one of the hardest workouts in CrossFit. That’s amazing. I’m so proud to be a member of this community. After the workout, Survival Fitness held a Paleo BBQ, which was perfect since most of us are participating in the Paleo Challenge. Great food with great people. Here’s a look at the T-shirts you get for donating.
Memorial Day Murph 2012 T-Shirt FrontMemorial Day Murph 2012 T-Shirt Back
My buddy Mo came up for a couple of days to visit and wanted to try some CrossFit. Today we worked out in my garage with the limited equipment I have.
Warm-up
Tabata Mash-up
High Knees
Plyo Lunges
Butt Kicks
Mountain Climbers
If you aren’t used to the intensity, this can be a tough 16 minutes, but he hung in there. Plyo lunges were fun in a Tabata.
WOD
4 Rounds
1m Man Makers
1m Air Squats
1m KBS (Russian)
2m Rest
We alternated who started with Man Makers and who started with KBS, but always kept Air Squats in the middle. Doing Man Makers first and KBS as the 3rd exercise was definitely easier. We counted total reps for each round, so this was like 4 mini-WODs in one. I got 82, 81, 68, and 73 reps in my rounds. I had 4 Man Makers for each of the first three rounds, but only managed 2 in the last one, due to time lost in transition. We used my 50# KB for the swings and went with 45# DBs for the Man Makers. That’s a nice jump for me and was challenging.
Finisher
10 Rounds
Sprint Driveway (down and back)
20 Russian Twists
I used a 25# DB for the Russian Twists and Mo actually did leg lifts instead because of a lower back issue. Time to complete that was 6:24.
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 