Tag: push-up

Thanksgiving Sissy Test

I’m up at my parents for a few days so figured it would be a good time to do the Sissy Test. I missed out on it at Survival Fitness a couple of weeks ago. The only time I’ve done it was back in April, when I used a 55# KB and finished in 41:38.

“Sissy Test”

  • 25 -> 1 Burpees
  • 1 -> 25 Russian KBS (53# KB)

For clarification, you do 25 burpees and 1 KBS swing, then 24 and 2, and so on down until 1 and 25.

I made a ghetto KB using my 50 pounder, some duck tape, and a 2.5# plate. It worked for the most part. I finished in 38:16, which is an improvement of 3:22. Could have even been better, but the handle on my KB got so slick towards the end and I had to keep putting it down to wipe the sweat off my hands otherwise it would have went flying.

Bring on the Thanksgiving feast!

Update

Around 11pm I was bored and everyone was in bed. Death by Chest to Deck Push-ups sounded like a good idea. I got through the 18th minute and 16 reps of the 19th for a total of 187 reps. Not bad after doing 325 burpees earlier today. The only other time I did push-ups was last December when I completed 14 + 12 but was not getting my chest to the ground and had to resort to kneelers.

“Grace” PR

Feeling so much better today. Hit up the 11am.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

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

Midline

21-15-9

  • One-arm OHS (35# KB)
  • V-ups

The one-arm OHS is such an awkward movement. Using a KB did feel better balanced than when I had used a DB before.

WOD

15:00 AMRAP

  • “Grace” – 30 Clean & Jerks (125#)
  • “Cindy” with the remaining time
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

I finished “Grace” in 4:16, which is a 54 second PR since doing it in July. Even with the much faster time it felt much easier. I did the first 7 reps unbroken then did one rep at a time dropping the bar after each rep. Didn’t take any rest time other than setting up for the next rep. With the remaining time I did 9 full rounds of “Cindy” plus 2 more pull-ups. Good workout!

Finisher

  • 50 Russian KBS (71# KB)
  • 400m Farmer’s Carry (40# DBs)

I did the swings unbroken, which isn’t that tough for Russian KBS. My arms wanted to fall off and my grip was really failing in the farmer’s carry, but I held on to those DBs the entire time. Distance was probably 50m more actually because I had to carry them outside and then back in.

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.

“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.

Snatches and Burpees

My legs are a little sore from the back squats, thrusters, and air squats. Got up again and went to the 6am class at CrossFit Pacific Beach. Although it’s easy for me getting up because of the 3 hour time difference I’m really liking getting in my workout so early. Might have to try it when I get back home.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 2 rounds
    • 7 Push-ups
    • 9 Burpee Tuck Jumps
    • 11 Ring Rows
  • 50 DUs

I did really well on the ring rows, but it’s probably because they were higher than I’d normally have them. We did some PVC work and a bit of stretching after the above warm-up. Then we did a few snatches with increasing weight to get to something comfortable to use in the WOD.

WOD #1

5 rounds

  • 3 Power Snatches (95#)
  • 6 Ring Dips
  • 9 Pull-ups

After each round, rest for 2 minutes.

My rep scores for the rounds were 45, 37, 35, 35, and 30. Ring dips were my biggest struggle, but I didn’t use any bands throughout the WOD. Pull-ups also got me in the last round. I think this was the first time I’ve done barbell snatches in a WOD and I really liked it.

I got back to the hotel, ready to run another day of Bootcamp for Automatticians. We warmed up with some air squats to loosen up the legs from yesterday and then did some World’s Greatest Stretches.

WOD #2

The original plan was to do 100 burpees for time with a 10:00 time limit. But only 4 people showed up today and I was pretty exhausted from the WOD at the box, so I switched it up.

10:00 EMOTM

  • 10 Burpees

I went with 10 burpees, which gives me a solid 24 seconds of work. I had everyone else base their number off when I finished in that first minute. I’m glad we didn’t do the original plan for everyone’s sake, including mine. I felt like I was really dying in the last 5 minutes, but was able to keep hitting my 24 second sweet spot.

Finisher

3 Tabata Rounds

  • Standing Bicycles
  • Flutter Kicks

Tomorrow we’re doing a 5K as one of the company meetup activities so it’ll be a rest day from the WODs.

CrossFit Level I Certification

This weekend I was down in Columbus, OH at Rogue headquarters for the CrossFit Level I Trainer Course and Certification. What an amazing experience. Kevin and Brent from Survival Fitness also went down for the weekend. We got to learn from some of the best trainers in the world. Words cannot express what the weekend meant to mean and how much I got out of it. Do one for yourself.

We did two WODs over the weekend. On Saturday, we ended the day with:

“Fran”
21-15-9

  • Thrusters (75#)
  • Pull-ups

We all know this bitch. I’m getting smarter about scaling my weight down and made the right choice here. My time was 5:36.

Then today, we did a triplet:

8:00 AMRAP

  • 8 Chest to Deck Push-ups
  • 10 MB Cleans (20#)
  • 12 Sit-ups

I completed 5 rounds plus 8 more push-ups, 10 cleans, and 1 sit-up as time expired. The MB cleans don’t seem like much but they really add up.

Sunday Morning in San Francisco

Yesterday was an incredibly long day. I was up at 5:30am and volunteered all day at WordCamp San Francisco, spending most of the day on my feet. I got a pretty good night of sleep and headed in to the hotel workout center at around 9:30am.

Warm-up

800m Run on the treadmill

Strength

I used a couple of the machines again today, but went back and forth between the machines instead of doing all sets at one machine before switching.

Chest Press

  • 3x 115#
  • 3x 130#
  • 3x 145#
  • 3x 160#

Shoulder Press

  • 3x 80#
  • 3x 95#
  • 3x 110#
  • 3x 135#

WOD

3 rounds

  • 20 Chest-to-deck Push-ups
  • 30 Russian Twists (30# DB)
  • 30 Air Squats

I finished in 6:20 and probably should have upped it to 5 rounds.

Finisher

20 minutes on a stationary bike set to the hills program. According to the computer I went 5.44 miles.

WODing on the 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!

After arriving at the lake and unpacking the vehicle I did a WOD right away so I could eat lunch.

Warm-up

1 Mile Run

I felt good, went for it, and set a new PR with a time of 6:14. I wish I knew what some of my times were from high school track and cross country so I could compare then to now.

WOD #1

5 rounds

  • 20 SDLHP (50# KB)
  • 20 Box Jumps (31″)

I was excited to see some concrete ledges that are perfect for box jumps. I choose the bigger ledge during the WOD of course. Originally I was planning to do 30 box jumps per round, but it didn’t take but a couple of jumps to realize the ledge was so much higher than the 24″ boxes I typically use. After the WOD I got out the tape measure and sure as shit, 31 inches! The smaller ledge is a hair over 24″ and would have been perfect. I got through the 5 rounds with 20 reps on the higher ledge, but coming back down to the ground was hard on my joints.

I finished in 13:19.

Finisher

5 sets

  • 20 Chest to ground Push-ups
  • 1m Rest

The last two sets were pretty tough so I’m glad I didn’t do 5 sets of max reps which I originally planned.

Kayaking

We have a couple of kayaks at the cottage this year, so I took one out for a couple of trips. Wow, what a shoulder and back workout! The first trips was pretty short, but intense. The second time I went out, I went a lot further and did spurts of high intensity. I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it back. It’s a lot of fun building up speed and really getting the kayak to glide through the water. I’ll be doing a lot of that over the next 10 days.

WOD #2

Just after I got back from the long kayaking trip, Dad asked me to come up with a workout for him to try. Of course I wanted to do it with him, so I told him to give me about 30 minutes to recover.

4 rounds

  • 1m Russian KBS (50# KB)
  • 1m Chair Dips
  • 1m Sit-ups
  • 1m Rest

The old man did really well. He did 3 of the rounds, but I don’t think I saw him stop for any rests during the working minutes, which I can’t say for myself. I had him use a 25# DB for the swings

My Revenge on “Cindy”

My lower back has been pretty sore all day from yesterday’s multiple short WODs involving hang power cleans and deadlifts. It’s a good sore though.

Warm-up

5 rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Squats
  • 15s Mountain climbers
  • 15s Squat Jumps

I took it easy during the warm-up because I knew what was in store and there were a lot of squats coming in the WOD.

Skills

Tabata: Ring L-sits

Tabata: Over the box jumps (24″)

For the Ring L-sits I wasn’t able to keep my legs out for long and had to resort to holding my knees up as long as possible. My arms actually started to give out sooner once I switched to the knee tuck version. Over the box jumps were new and a welcome challenge. Since my basketball days I’ve always enjoyed jumping. I managed 6 or 7 over the box jumps during each 20s period.

WOD

Today we each got to choose between “Cindy” or “Mary” for the WOD. I have a little history with “Cindy” so this was an easy choice for me. Without that history I would have chosen “Mary” because I could use the work on HSPUs and lots of pull-ups. So, what’s that history with “Cindy” you ask?

I started CrossFit almost 8 months ago. My first on-ramp session was supposed to be a 1/2 “Cindy”, but I only made it into minute 6 or 7 before I nearly passed out and was literally on the ground for the next 30 minutes. I was doing ring rows instead of pull-ups and only managed 3 rounds. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life, but I was instantly hooked on CrossFit.


Fast forward a month and a half after that, when I did jumping pull-ups during “Cindy” and completed 12 rounds plus 5 more jumping pull-ups and 1 push-up. Oh, and I also had to switch from regular push-ups to knee push-ups in round 7 or 8.

As you might expect, I wanted my revenge on that bitch!

“Cindy”
20:00 AMRAP

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

Today I completed my first Rx “Cindy” doing kipping pull-ups and chest-to-ground push-ups the entire way. Those first 3 rounds were done right around the 3:00 mark. All pull-ups were unbroken and other than a few sips of water, I never took more than a 1 or 2 second break during some of the push-ups and air squat sets. I definitely had to take the most breaks during the push-ups, but would only rest for a second or two at the top of a push-up before doing more. I ended up with 18 rounds plus 5 pull-ups and 6 push-ups, so scored 18+11 on the WOD!

Take that “Cindy”! I hope we can be friends now. 🙂

Chase’s Birthday WOD

Sometimes we’ll do a birthday WOD on or near someone’s birthday. Usually it has something to do with their name and their age. Last Thursday was Chase’s birthday, but he was out-of-town, so we “celebrated” today. For the 5:30 class it was 92 degrees with 40% humidity. I think the weather contributed to a smaller class size than usual especially since it looked like the 4:15 class only had a handful of folks as well. We had 6 people show up and only one was female, which is very rare for Survival Fitness. I bet membership is 2-1 in favor of the women, but I’m not complaining about that ratio. 🙂

Yesterday I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to try on some Nike Free running shoes if they had any is a size 14. Luckily they had just the pair I was looking for. I tried on the 4.0 v2 and absolutely loved them. They are so light, minimal, and comfortable, without being too close to a true barefoot style running shoe. I didn’t buy them right away because I wanted to check around online for color options and better pricing. I couldn’t find anything I liked better than the black/gray or a better price, so I went back today and bought them. I’m looking forward to going out for a recovery run on my next rest day.

Warm-up

  • Tabata Box Jumps (24″)
  • Tabata Deadlifts (85#)
  • Tabata Wall Ball Sit-ups (20# MB)

Instead of a Tabata mash-up we did all 8 rounds at a station before moving on. The deadlifts were light, but for a warm-up I could actually feel them by the end. Wall ball sit-ups were something new and really worked the abs. I’m a fan of those!

WOD

27:00 AMRAP

  • Chest-to-deck Push-ups
  • Hanging Leg Raises
  • Aabove the head plate lunges (10#)
  • SDLHP (75#)
  • End each round with a 150m run

Do 27 reps of each, except the run. I completed 3 full rounds, 27 push-ups, 27 leg raises, 27 lunges, and 27 SDLHP for a 3+108 score. There were about 20 seconds left on the clock and I knew I couldn’t finish the run in that time so I didn’t even make the attempt. I sort of defeated myself with the SDLHP and I’m disappointed. I should have pushed through them harder to give myself enough time to finish the run. I beat myself before I even started the first rep. Ugh!