Tag: Jumping Jack

Sliced Open

This morning I went to the Doctor to get a couple of sebaceous cysts removed. My head is pretty sore and I’m on some Vicodin for the pain. I can’t use any water on the 2 stitched areas for 3 days and no soap/shampoo until I go back next week to get the stitches removed. Should be interesting with working out. I already sweated a ton today. I could get pretty rank in a few days.

After resting a bit at home I went to the first Olympic Lifting class at Survival Fitness held at 6pm and then stayed after for the 7pm class. In the OLY class we worked on drilling the snatch. I’ve really been looking forward to this because I know I can use a lot of work on my technique, which is holding me back from making big gains in my numbers.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Bottom Squat Hold
  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Jumping Jacks

Some of us were already pretty warm from the OLY class.

Strength

5×5 Clean High Pull

I assumed it was a 5×3 because we just did 5×5 last week. Didn’t actually read the board until before my last round. So my first 4 rounds were all 3 reps. I did 135#, 155#, 165#, 175#, and 185#.

WOD

  • 50 Russian KBS (53# KB)
  • 21-15-9
    • Dead Hang Pull-ups
    • Turkish Get-ups (30# DB)
  • 50 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)

I didn’t think this would work up so much of a sweat, but I was soaked at the end. I finished in 17:30, which was the best time of the day. I’m glad my head didn’t really hold me back. The pull-ups were the worst part of this. I was pretty much doing one at a time the entire way so that I didn’t have to tax my arms on the descending portion of the pull-up. As soon as I got my chin over the bar I let go and dropped to the ground.

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#

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.

Sort of Like “Cindy”

I haven’t been this sore since the competition a few months ago. Who would have thought doing gymnastics (specifically back tuck flip progressions) for an hour could beat up on your body this much. I’m sure Sunday’s WOD and the work I did yesterday have a little to do with it as well. I’ve been using the rumble roller a few times a day and it’s painful as hell! My IT bands have never felt like this before.

I’m getting a hot stone massage this afternoon and making tomorrow a rest day so I figured I better get in to the 9am today for a WOD.

Warm-up

  • 100 Butt Kicks
  • 100 High Knees
  • 50 Jumping Jacks
  • 50 Zombie Kicks
  • 25 Lateral Hops (left)
  • 25 Lateral Hops (right)

Strength

Weighted Pull-ups, 5×5

  • 5 @ 8#
  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 12#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 15#

I was able to complete each set today!

WOD

20:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Burpees
  • 10 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 15 AbMat Sit-ups

Remind you of the benchmark girl “Cindy” a bit? Same style but tougher in the long run. My strategy was to keep an even pace so I didn’t burn out early. Twenty minutes is a long time. I went unbroken right up until the end of the WOD and even had a little in the tank to speed through my burpees in the last couple of rounds. Finished 14 rounds plus 5 burpees and 5 wall balls. That comes to 75 burpees, 145 wall balls, and 210 sit-ups!

Finisher

7:00 AMRAP

  • 150m 1-arm Farmer’s Carry (53# KB)

I completed 6 laps (I think! Lost track on the 2nd or 3rd lap) and was about 30m away from finishing the 7th lap. Never had to stop and switched hands around the halfway point of each lap.

I can’t wait for my massage!

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.

An Easy-ish Deck

I made it to the 10am class which gives me enough time to pack and get ready for my trip. Flight leaves at 1:30.

Warm-up

4 rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s High Knees
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers

WOD

Deck of Cards

Suits:

  • ♣ – Russian KBS (53# KB)
  • ♠ – 1m Plank
  • ♦ – Air Squats
  • ♥ – Burpees

Ranks:

  • 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace – 10 reps
  • 2 through 9 – Face value in reps
  • Joker – 150m Run

I finished in 32:36. Planks really sucked because they brought down the intensity and at one point I had 6 of 9 cards come up a spade. Usually deck of cards is pretty brutal but today it wasn’t bad with the selected movements and the fact that the highest rep count was 10.

Finisher

Prowler Sprints – 25m High Push followed by 25m Low Push

Casey A. and I did some prowler sprints at the end of class. The first sprint we had 135# loaded on the heavy prowler and it was pretty easy, so we added another 45# plate for 180# of load and did 5 more down and backs. My legs are getting stronger because the heavy pushes are getting a lot easier.

Labor Day

I’m a little tired today, but it was nice to sleep in my own bed last night. Still coming off the high from the Level I Course.

Warm-up

5 rounds

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

WOD

“Erin”
5 rounds

  • 15 DB Split Cleans (35#)
  • 21 Pull-ups

The last time I did this I used 40#, which is Rx. Decided to step it down a bit today and try to keep intensity higher. I finished in 16:10, compared to 21:13 with the 40s. I could have got by with the 40s and probably broke 20 minutes today with them.

Finisher

50-40-30-20-10

  • AbMat Sit-ups
  • Lying Leg Raises
  • Plank (seconds)

This was killer. I finished in between 19 and 20 minutes.

Strength

Matt was going for his 1RM, so I worked in with him on some sets.

Deadlift

  • 5 @ 225#
  • 5 @ 265#
  • 3 @ 315#
  • 3 @ 315#
  • 10 @ 225#

In that second set at 315 I felt it a bit in my back so shut it down and did the fallback set.

A Partner Ladder

Today I got to make up the WOD for Survival Fitness since Matt and Cora are out-of-town camping. I taught the 11am and then worked out with the noon class.

Warm-up

5 rounds

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

Nice easy warm-up to get the blood flowing.

WOD

Partner Ladder

  • 10->15 Burpees
  • 5->10 Ring Dips
  • 10->15 Wall Balls
  • 5->10 T2B
  • 500m Sandbag Run

* One partner working at a time for the reps. For example, partner A does 10 burpees, partner B does 10 burpees, partner A does 11, partner B does 11, and keep going until both have done the round of 15 reps.

Since we had an odd number of people in class, I teamed up with Marisol and Brian for a team of 3. Brian and I worked at the same time as partner A and Marisol was our partner B. It’s gotta be tough teaming up with two guys and getting shorter rest periods, but Marisol did awesome.

I did Rx ring dips through the round of 7. Then in round 8 I think I did 4 Rx and 4 with a purple band. In the round of 9 I maybe got 3 Rx and then in the round of 10 it was all with the band. I was really hitting a good rhythm with the T2B today and only had to break up the last 2 rounds so I didn’t rip my hands. When I finished the run, the clock read 29:40. I was a bit ahead of Brian and Marisol, so I’m not sure what our official team time would have been. I’m really happy with how this WOD turned out. I was planning for the top teams to be around 30 minutes which was pretty close.

Finisher

3 rounds

  • 1m Plank
  • 1m Russian Twists (35# KB)
  • 1m Table Top (30s each side)
  • 1m Rest

Not going to lie, this sucked after the WOD. Even the planks were hard to get through.

Push Pressin’

I went in to the 9am, which isn’t much recovery from 7pm last night, but I have a bunch of stuff going on later today. Rest day tomorrow, but I’ll probably go golfing in the morning.

Warm-up

2 rounds, 10:00 limit

  • 50 Jumping Jacks
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 20 Leg Raises
  • 10 Burpees

I didn’t make it through the 10 burpees at the end.

Strength

Find 1RM for Push Press. Shoot for 7 attempts with 2 minutes of rest between each.

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 1 @ 120#
  • 1 @ 130#
  • 1 @ 145#
  • 1 @ 155#
  • 1 @ 165#
  • 1 @ 175#
  • 1 @ 185#
  • 1 @ 190#

The best I had done before was 2 reps at 175#. I did more sets than I was supposed to but I didn’t think I would get that high, so my planning for the early weights was off. I really got a good dip and drive with the legs and 190# went up pretty easily. Always good to leave a bit in the tank for next time on a 1RM max. It’s better than failing on a rep.

WOD

10:00 AMRAP

  • 1-Arm Snatches (45# DB)

I was doing 5 reps with each arm before switching. Started off well, but kind of hit a wall in the middle. Ended up with 155 reps. Probably should have gone with 40# and kept a higher intensity.

Finisher

7 rounds

  • 10 Kroc Rows (60# DB, 5 each side)
  • 10 V-ups

Nice finisher to work the midline and get in some more strength work.