After doing 210 KBS yesterday in the WOD, I can feel it in my posterior chain like I haven’t in quite some time. My back still has issues. I made it out to walk 18 holes of golf this morning.
Warm-up
5 rounds
10 Single-leg RDL (62# KB)
45s Rest
5 rounds
8 DB Shoulder Presses
45s Rest
I started off with 45# DBs, moved to 40# during the 3rd set and even had to go down to 35# to finish out. Not sure why I was so weak with these.
3 rounds
20 GHD Sit-ups
1m Rest
The GHD at the gym is whack! Doesn’t even adjust, but we make due I guess. 20 in a row was tough.
WOD
21-15-9
Thrusters (30# DBs)
Ring Rows
I’ve decided it’s time to start scaling weights more so I can increase power output. Again Faster has a great article you should read. I’m just not strong enough to do many WODs Rx that involve heavy weights, so why try, when it means I have to go slower and can’t keep up the intensity. I almost went with the 35# DBs, but switched to 30s at the last-minute. Ring rows were the real struggle of this though. I finished in 6:02.
Finisher
Work on HSPU.
I did 3 sets with a minute or two of rest in between. My arms and shoulders were already fried at this point. I managed to get 5, 6, and 4 reps. Terrible!
Still a little sore today, but I’m finally on the tail end of it. Well, except for my lower back that is. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and then headed in at 7pm tonight so I could stay after for the 8pm open gym time.
Warm-up
750m Run
WOD
Deck of Cards
Reps
2-10 = Face value
Jack = 11
Queen = 12
King = 13
Ace = 14
Movements
Joker = Run 500m
Hearts = Burpees
Diamonds = 4 Mountain Climbers
Spades = Thrusters (60#)
Clubs = Ring Rows
I haven’t done a deck of cards in a really long time. We were allowed to substitute any movements out for something we are weak at or needed to work on. Originally clubs were one-arm snatches, which I like, but figured they are not a good idea with my back. So I put in the ring rows. I thought I was using 75# for the thrusters but after we got going I realized I had the women’s bar. Oh well, 50# was plenty with that many thrusters.
There was a 40:00 time limit. When time ran out I had just started on my first burpee of the King and then had 5 more cards to go.
Strength
Back Squats
5 HSPU
Rest 2-3m
For the back squats I did:
5x 135#
3x 185#
2x 205#
1x 225#
1x 235#
I was hoping to set a PR today, but when I did that rep at 235# I could really feel it in my back as I came out of the bottom. I had to shut it down after that. I was pretty fatigued from all of the Thrusters in the WOD too I guess. HSPU felt really good and I was able to do each set of 5 unbroken without resorting to using any AbMats.
I’m already feeling much better tonight, so I decided to do a quick garage WOD. This was the first time really using the rings after putting them up in my garage.
5 rounds
5 Ring Dips
10 Ring Rows
20 AbMat Sit-ups
Dips and rows are both weaknesses on the rings and a good push-pull combo to work on. I threw in the sit-ups because you can never work too much on the abs, right? I finished in 10:07 doing each round in pretty consistent times.
In other news, I got my latest order from Progenex today and I’m excited to get on the Omega+, which is a krill oil product to use in place of fish oil because it’s better. I ran out of fish oil last week and I’m confident I wouldn’t have been so sore from the competition if I had still been taking some. Live and learn.
Yesterday, Survival Fitness held the first Summer Open. It was a team event with one male and one female per team. It was a great event with 28 teams competing.
It was the first time I’ve competed in any event like this. The workouts were tough, but fun and rewarding. It was a great experience and very inspiring to watch the top teams. I could barely roll out of bed this morning and it’s a struggle to walk around the house. Even my fingers are sore.
All smiles before WOD #1
WOD #1
10:00 AMRAP (Clean/Deadlift – HR Push-up ladder)
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-?
Men
Clean 135#
HR Push-up
Women
Deadlift 135#
HR Push-up
Man will do 1 clean with 135# and then 1 HR push-up, then…
Woman will do 1 deadlift with 135# and then 1 HR push-up, then…
Man will do 2 cleans with 135# and then 2 HR push-ups, then…
Woman will do 2 deadlifts with 135# and then 2 HR push-ups
etc.
This was going to be our weakest workout because of the weight. If we got to the round of 10 I figured it would be good for us. We completed the 10th round and I got in 3 more cleans before time ran out. We placed 24th in the workout. My back has been wrecked for about a week and it’s even worse after this one. I have some pretty good soreness in the lower part of my back. I need to get myself on video to see if there is something I’m doing wrong with my cleans to cause the lower back issues.
The woman had it relatively easy in this one and you could really tell by the fact that the men immediately collapsed to the ground when the 10 minutes was up.
WOD #2
Partner A: 100 burpees, then tag off and…
Partner B: “Karen”
If you don’t know what “Karen” is, she’s one of the benchmark WODs:
150 Wall Ball Shots for time
Women: 16# ball, 8′ target
Men: 20# ball, 10′ target
The teams decided who is partner A and who is partner B. This workout had a 14 minute time cap and if your team didn’t finish, each rep not completed adds 1 second to your time for scoring.
Both parts of this are gassers. My partner did burpees and I did the wall balls. My PR for “Karen” is 8:51, but I knew I could do much better. As a best case scenario I was hoping my partner would complete her part under 7 minutes, giving me about 7 minutes to take a shot. She finished up just under 7 minutes and I managed to get 141 wall balls in the 7 remaining minutes. Only 9 more reps and we would have finished! The WOD was our best placing (18th) of the day. My quads and glutes are on fire today from all of the wall balls.
WOD #3
“Isometric Chipper”
15:00 AMRAP
Part 1:
60 1 arm d-bell snatch (alternate arms each rep) (45#/30#)
Other partner holds a hand stand against the wall
Part 2:
50 Goblet squats (45#/30#)
Other partner does a bottom squat hold
Part 3:
40 AbMat sit-ups
Other partner must hold a plank
Part 4:
30 K2E
Other partner does a bent knee L-hang
Part 5:
20 ring rows
Other partner holds their chin above the bar
One partner will perform the isometric hold, while the other chips away at the reps. As many switches can be made as needed. No reps are be counted if the partner breaks the isometric hold.
This was one of the most brutal workouts I’ve ever done. The isometric holds crush your soul. I was shooting to get through one round if we could. We got through the circuit once and got done with 40 more snatches, notching us a 22nd place finish in the workout. Nearly every team struggled with the ring row and chin-up hold combination at the end of the circuit because there was nothing left in the tank.
Today I’m feeling a lot of this one in my abs and especially in my upper back and shoulder area from the handstand holds. My partner had a hard time getting up on the wall, so I had to do the majority of the hand stand holds. The goblet squats most definitely contributed to the sore quads and ass I have today.
Overall we finished 25th out of 28 teams and I couldn’t be happier. My partner in the competition only started doing CrossFit about 2 months ago. I didn’t compete with any visions of placing high. I know I can’t stay with the top guys, but I enjoy the challenge and pushing myself.
In addition to these 3 workouts, the top 4 teams then did:
WOD #4
In 7:00:
Flip a 325# tire 50 yards down and 50 yards back in the parking lot.
With the remaining time, each partner then does over the box jumps (at the same time) using their own 24″ box
Score is total number of over the box jumps when you add both teammates reps together.
WOD #5
“Double DB Fran”
42-30-18
Thrusters (45#/30# DBs)
Pull-ups
With only one partner working at a time they have to do 42 thrusters, then 42 pull-ups, then 30 of each, and finally 18 of each. The team can split up the block of reps for a movement however they want but they most be completed before switching movements.
For anyone that doesn’t know, “Fran” is the most well-known CrossFit benchmark. When you ask someone their “Fran” time it’s the equivalent of asking a weightlifter how much he bench presses. In a normal “Fran” you do 21-15-9 using a 95# barbell for guys and a 65# barbell for the gals. Top athletes can finish this in under 3 minutes, but it’s an all-out sprint. My PR for DB “Fran” is 9:05, which is not very good.
Moment of the Day
My favorite moment of the day was during the 5th WOD. The male on the second place team (going into the WOD) hurt his ankle in the 4th WOD so he was only able to do a few of the thrusters. That left his partner doing nearly all of the thrusters and him doing nearly all of the pull-ups. If you’ve ever done thrusters you can already begin to imagine the suck.
Many of us have done “Fran” but we’re talking 42-30-18 here! Not 21-15-9. You could see the woman on the edge of tears each time she had to drop the DBs. The guy’s hands were tore up and bleeding all over. They were several minutes past the times of the other 3 teams in the finals and could have called it quits taking 4th in the WOD no matter what. But they dug deep, we all cheered them on, and they finished. You’ll never see anything like that in another sport. We are CrossFitters.
Judging
Four of us guys that competed ended up judging the final two events to give all of the other volunteers a break. It was kind of stressful to be in such an important role. Luckily it’s pretty easy to judge the most elite of the group because their form in usually dialed in.
After Hours
After the awards ceremony and most people went home, about 10 or 15 of us stuck around cleaning up a bit, finishing off a keg and a bunch of beer in the fridge. A couple of people that didn’t compete actually did some drinking WODs! I think I got home around 10:30. It was a long day, but worth every minute.
Photos
Here are a bunch of photos I’ve downloaded from Facebook. As folks upload more photos I’ll update the gallery here.
I should have taken a day off somewhere during the week. I just got home from Survival Fitness where I attended the 4:15p class and stayed another hour for open gym. I’m exhausted and could really tell towards the end of the 2 hours. Finally I forced myself to leave. At least I’m out-of-town for the weekend so I can’t get in any WODs. I think all of the squatting we did this week really took a toll on my body too. I’ve never gone 6 days in a row before and now I know why.
Warm-up
100 V-ups
Every minute on the minute, do 5 box jumps (24″), except to start the first minute.
We didn’t do many box jumps this week, so I was glad to see them here, even if it didn’t end up being very many. I think I finished in the 6th(?) minute, but don’t remember for sure.
As we were waiting for everyone to finish, I jumped on the bar and got my first muscle-up! Did it again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Next up, the rings. I actually just got a set of the wood rings from Rogue Fitness to use while I’m vacationing for 10 days and then I can hang them in my garage when I get back.
WOD
EMOM: 4 Burpees (start with 4 right away)
50 PVC Front Squats
30 SDLHP (88# KB)
50 PVC OHS
30 1-arm Push Presses (each arm) (45# DB)
50 PVC Back Squats
30 Ring Rows
I finished in 17:28, so I did 68 burpees. Front squats with a PVC pipe were kind of weird because there was no weight there to keep the wrists in place and help the elbows get up. Oh yeah, 150 more squats for the week! I wanted to get in some heavy front or back squats at open gym, but not with how much squatting we had already done for the week.
Finisher
5 rounds
150m Sprint (rectangle in the parking lot)
2m Rest
My sprints were all 21-22 seconds, which is pretty good considering the corners are pretty scary running in the parking lot. I felt really good doing the sprints.
Open Gym
I did some deadlifting to start. The plan was to do a 5×5 after the light warm-up set.
10x 135#
5x 225#
5x 275#
5x 305#
1x 325#
I’m not sure what I was thinking when I increased the weight so much there. I had to set the bar down after the 3rd rep at 305# before knocking out the last two. Then at 325# I had to shut it down after one. I was starting to feel it in my back and got light-headed after I walked away from the bar. At least I got in some heavy deadlifting, but I should have been smarter about it.
Then Casey A. was doing some snatch balances, so I jumped in with him. We did some with the 45# bar and some with 65#. After that we did some squat snatches with 65# and 85#. I think I was doing 3-5 reps for a couple sets at each weight for both the snatch balance and the squat snatch.
This Saturday is CrossFit for Hope, which is an event based around raising money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. CrossFitters around the world will be doing the “Hope” WOD and are taking donations and pledges. If you have a few spare bucks to donate, I have a big box over in the right sidebar linking to the page where you can sponsor me. St. Jude is a great cause and does a ton to advance cancer research. I’m trying to raise $300, so anything you can do is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
It felt great to take a rest day yesterday. It was tough not doing anything, but I know it’s for the best.
Warm-up
Tabata Mash-up
Broad Jumps
Rock Climbers
Haven’t done either of these exercises in quite some time. Both are pretty taxing.
WOD
250m Run
50 Tuck Jumps
50 Plank Push-ups
250m Run
40 Lunges
40 Prayer Crunches
250m Run
30 SDLHP (71# KB)
30 K2E
250m Run
20 Burpee Box Jumps (24″)
20 Ring Rows
250m Run
10 Pull-ups
10 Curtis P’s (40# DBs)
250m Run
I’d never done plank push-ups or Curtis P’s before and to be honest, I won’t be mad if I never have to do them again. Haha! Both were tough on me. My time was 24:48.
Ab Finisher
1m Side Plank (R)
10 V-ups
1m Side Plank (L)
10 V-ups
45s Side Plank (R)
11 V-ups
45s Side Plank (L)
11 V-ups
30s Side Plank (R)
12 V-ups
30s Side Plank (L)
12 V-ups
15s Side Plank (R)
13 V-ups
15s Side Plank (L)
13 V-ups
My tailbone and the surrounding areas still have some issues, so the V-ups were pretty brutal, not to mention there was a total of 90 of them. I got through them though.
Today was a great WOD and finisher that hit a lot of areas.
Reebok hasn’t shipped my CrossFit Nano 2.0 shoes yet. I wonder what the hold-up is. I did call Zappos to check on the status of the Inov-8s I had to return and they are actually crediting my credit card for them. I figured they were giving me a credit to use on another pair of shoes. I love Zappos!
I really hated taking yesterday off, but my body needed it after 5 days in a row. I did get out and walk 18 holes of golf, so that was some active recovery. My legs were actually a little sore today, maybe lingering from all of the previous WODs building up.
Warm-up
5 rounds
12 Ring Rows
12 Plyo Push-ups
One minute per station, so you rest for the remainder of the minute once your set is done. Ring rows are still a weakness of mine. I was able to do all of the plyo push-ups unbroken though.
WOD
Partner Ladder
1 -> 10 Burpees
2 -> 20 KBS
1 -> 10 Pull-ups
2 -> 20 Wall Balls
1000m Run
One partner works at a time, while the other rests. Using burpees as an example, partner A does 1 rep, partner B does 1, partner A does 2, partner B does 2, and so on until both have done the set of 10. For the KBS and Wall Balls, rep counts increase by 2 each time, so it would be 2, 4, 6, … up to 20. I was partnered with Kinde, one of the top women at the gym. Since she had just done 150 pull-ups yesterday, Matt had her do thrusters with 30# DBs, which was so much worse.
I used a 55# KB for the swings and a 20# MB for wall balls. The only thing I didn’t complete unbroken was the set of 20 KBS, which I broke down into sets of 12 and 8. I felt bad for Kinde because she wasn’t getting much rest and then when we got to the run she was having a hard time breathing. She hung on and pushed through it. We finished in 44:27.
I had a tape grip for my right hand to do pull-ups and it really saved me. Last night I trimmed off the loose skin from a big popped blister, so it’s still pretty raw. I was really happy to be able to do all of my pull-up sets unbroken today and my wall balls are like night and day compared to where I was a few weeks ago. This Paleo Challenge is really paying off!
Strength
Front Squats
5x 135#
5x 155#
5x 175#
3x 195#
1x 215#
Hitting 215# ties my PR. I hadn’t done front squats in three and a half months, so I’m happy with that after all of the wall balls in today’s WOD. I went for a 2nd rep at 215#, but my legs were toast and I had to dump it. Next time.
Update: When I got home, I rested a bit and then did day 2 of the Armstrong Pull-up Program (PDF). I’m hoping to increase my pull-up strength at a faster pace than what I’m getting from the WODs. I’ve been consistently adding 1 or 2 reps to my maximum rep strict set each month, but I want it to increase faster. I did the first pull-up session last night, so this morning was the first time I did the push-up part of the program.
Bought the Iron Gym Extreme, because the pull-up stand I have in my garage sucks
The humidity is picking up and so is the temperature. Just over 80 degrees tonight during class. I need to make the switch to mornings, but there are some good athletes that go to the 4:15pm or 5:30pm classes, which makes you push harder.
Warm-up
Tabata Mountain Climbers
Tabata Monkey Fuckers
Tabata Bear Crawls
WOD
3 rounds
200m Run
50 Ring Rows
30 KBS
10 SDLHP
200m Run
Yes, that’s a run to start and end each round, so you end up running a couple of 400s unless you take a break between rounds. I used a 55# KB for the swings (American) and a 71# KB for the SDLHPs. Doing that many ring rows was the biggest trouble for me. I had to split them up into sets of 5 for the most part and even some smaller sets. My hands are hurting from earlier in the week and I still have a good blister from the 350 Russian KBS the other day. I finished in 29:37.
Strength
Work up to a 1RM Clean and Jerk, doing 1 rep each minute. My sets were 135#, 155# 165#, 175#, 180#, and 185#. I did a full clean on the last two reps and on my last jerk my split was so small I’m not even sure you could call it a split. I had to muscle it up because I didn’t get under the bar. That’s a 5# PR on the clean, 15# PR on the jerk, and 20# PR on the combination. Not a bad day at the gym!
Went to a night class since the only morning class is 5:45am on Tuesday. It was kind of nice, even though I really like how I feel throughout the day when I workout in the morning.
Warm-up
5 rounds
1m Russian Twists
1m Plank
I used a 20# KB for the twists and got a total of 292 (counting each side) through the 5 minutes.
WODs
4 different 3:00 AMRAPs
At each station perform the buy-in exercise and reps. Then do max reps of another movement for the remaining time of the 3 minutes. Keep track of max reps for each station. Rest 2 minutes between stations.
20 Box Jumps
-MAX DB power cleans
20 Burpees
-MAX Push-ups
300m Run
-MAX Ring Rows
20 KBS
-MAX Wallballs
I used a 24 inch box for box jumps, 35# DBs for power cleans, a 53# KB for Russian swings, and a 20# MB for wallballs. I think my reps for the MAXs were 31, 41, 37, 35, but I might be off by a few on some of those.
Strength
Find 1 rep MAX for clean + thruster. We broke into groups by strength and formed lines to each take a shot at a weight before moving up. I think we went 65#, 85#, 105#, 125#, 145#, 165#. Those all went up pretty well for me. I was the only one left, so Matt pushed me to go for my body weight of 180#. I got the weight up with a power clean without too much trouble. I normally would do a full clean as it gets this heavy, but I knew I needed to squat for the thruster. The clean was a 15# PR. I went for the thruster and got it about half way over my head. I think if we had done this before the WOD I could have gotten it, but I was pretty fried. I’m thrilled about the clean PR especially since it was a power clean. 165# is a lot more than I’ve ever attempted with a thruster as well.
I didn’t do any workouts Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I did walk 18 holes of golf yesterday, but other than that, I rested. My body needed it.
Workout 12.1 of the 2012 Open is in the books. I’m just shy of the middle of the pack in the region and in the world. My goal is to finish the Open ahead of 10%, so I’m well on my way. I wonder what workout 12.2 will be. I hope they don’t bring DUs in yet. I could use some more practice time.
Warm-up
World’s Greatest Stretch (3 each leg)
400m Run
2 Sets
10-15 KBS
10-15 GHD
10-15 Hip Extensions
60s Plank
I used a 53# KB for the swings and did 15 reps of everything.
Strength
5 Sets
10-12 Goblet Squat, 2-1-1-1 tempo
45s Rest
10-20 Push Ups, 1-0-1-0 tempo
45s Rest
8-10 Ring Rows, 2-1-1-1 tempo
45s Rest
Looks easy right? Not so much! The focus was on tempo and stamina for this strength session. I used a 44# KB for goblet squats, but probably should have used a 53#. In each set I achieved the high rep count except for push-ups. In sets 3, 4, and 5 I was only able to get 16 push-ups. I could have squeezed out some more, but not by keeping the correct tempo. Ring rows were really tough with the 2 second lowering phase.
WOD
2 Sets
350m Row
3m Rest
This was a great quick cardio killer to finish the class. I did the rows in 1:10 and 1:11. I had the damper setting on 5 for the first one, which is what I usually use, but tried 7 for the 2nd, and was able to get just about the same time, when most people lost at least a 4-5 seconds. Might be something to try more often.
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 