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
A new Paleo Challenge is starting today at Survival Fitness, but I’m not doing this one because I’m going on vacation, my body fat isn’t going to drop enough to be helpful to a team, and I don’t want to eat that strict anymore. I do still eat Paleo and am working out how to maintain my body composition, while also being able to build more muscle.
So we did a type of benchmark workout today.
Warm-up
50-40-30-20-10
Air Squats
Sit-ups
Time limit of 10 minutes and he said he didn’t want anyone to finish this. It’s just some movements to get the body ready for the WOD. I got through the 50s and 40s and did some of the 30 air squats.
WOD
10 Rounds (15:00 time cap)
15 Deadlifts (155#)
15 HR Push-ups
I was going to go with the Rx 185#, but Matt quickly talked me out of it when he showed that the top dawg in the gym barely finished this workout Rx. So I dropped down to 155# and I still didn’t get done. I was able to get in 9 full rounds as the buzzer went off on the clock, so had one round to go. That’s 135 reps of each, which is a ton of deadlifting.
On the board this WOD didn’t look too bad, but combined with the over 90 degree temperature and humidity it took a lot out of you. I know I’m going to be feeling it in my back for a few days.
We could have chosen a workout with 1-arm DB snatches, burpees, box jumps, and sprints, but I’m not going to have any barbell work for 10 days so I chose to do the deadlift WOD. I already have a DB snatch workout planned for the next week at some point. One more day at the gym before I’m outta here!
I finished in 21:49. My goal was sub-20 when I started out because I came into the garage just after the 3:00 mark after the first run. If I hadn’t taken a quick water break after every run I think I could have been pretty close to 20 minutes. This wasn’t anything crazy but enough to get my heart rate up for a while and burn a few calories. The fifties were pretty heavy, but doable. I’m going to try to use them quite a bit when I go on my 10 day vacation starting Wednesday.
Still pretty sore from Sunday’s WOD and some new soreness from doing “Cindy” yesterday. I can really feel all of those push-ups. I don’t remember the last time I was this sore to be honest.
Warm-up
30 yards down and back
Zombie Kicks
High Knees
Butt Kicks
Power Skips
5 rounds with 20# MB
1m OH Lunges
1m Sit-ups
1m Front Squats
1m Diamond Push-ups (on ball)
1m OH Squats
1m Rest
The MB work was a real arm and shoulder killer. It got the legs nice and loose for the WOD too.
WOD
20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2
Burpees
Goblet Squats (50# KB)
The burpees were much harder than usual due to doing 186 chest-to-ground push-ups yesterday and about 60 MB diamond push-ups in the warm-up. All sets of burpees were done unbroken, but I had to break each round of goblet squats into 2 sets until I got to the round of 10 when I went unbroken the rest of the way. I finished in 15:08.
Strength
5×5 Weighted Pull-ups
Take 2 minutes of rest after each set and try to increase the weight each set.
For my sets I used 8#, 10#, 12#, 15#, and 15#. I might have even come up just short on the 5th rep in the last set, so I’m glad I didn’t try to increase to 20# which would have been the next jump. I actually stayed after class to finish this off because there was a 15 minute gap before the next class started. I know I need the work to increase my strength. This is a huge improvement over the last time I did weighted pull-ups and used 12# for the last 3 sets.
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.
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 yesterday’s WOD I was going to make today a rest day because I figured I would be fried. I was feeling good all day though. Matt posted the WOD on Facebook and it looked like a fun one so I decided to head in.
Warm-up
5 rounds
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Jumping Jacks
The squat holds are way at the bottom with the intent of opening up the hips. You’re not trying to hold a squat for that long.
WOD
20:00 AMRAP
2 SDLHP
2 Burpees
150m Run
4 SDLHP
4 Burpees
150m Run
…
Increase SDLHP and Burpees by 2 each round, but the run stays the same.
This one was all about how much gas you had in your tank. I used a 71# KB and was able to finish the round of 18 plus 20 SDLHP and 2 burpees.
Ab Finisher
5 Rounds
1m Plank
1m AbMat Sit-ups
My arms were drenched in sweat, which made it harder than normal to hold the plank. 5 rounds of a minute really adds up too. We counted our sit-ups and knew I could blow the high of the day (228) out of the water. My goal was to beat my 67 reps from the Paleo challenge benchmark WOD in every round. I finished with 356 reps. After we were done and Matt was laughing, I realized I can touch my shoes without even lifting my shoulder blades off the ground, which would still be within the box’s standards, so at least I make it harder than that on myself and get some movement into it.
I wasn’t feeling all that motivated today when I was deciding which class to attend tonight. I’m not sure if the busy day with multiple WODs yesterday or walking 18 holes of golf this morning took a lot out of me. I ended up going to the 5:30pm class and felt fine once I got moving.
Warm-up
3 rounds
1m MB Russian Twists
1m MB V-ups
1m Plank
1m Bicycles
1m “Mystery”
1m Rest
I used a 20# MB for Russian twists and V-ups. Each round, the “Mystery Move” changed; first we did side planks, then flutter kicks, and ended with prayer crunches. I was really feeling a burn during this ab circuit due to the leg lifts I did yesterday.
WOD
50 reps of each
Air Squats
Burpees
Box Jumps
KBS (Russian)
Close-grip HR Push-ups
Plyo Lunges
Pull-ups
Sit-ups
I used a 24″ box and a 53# KB. Since I flew through everything, I did full sit-ups to make it harder. I finished in 23:22 and then did 12 reps on the GHD as a bonus.
The close-grip HR push-ups were a bit awkward because you have to keep the hands far enough apart that you can lift them off the ground when your chest is laying down. Pull-ups felt really good and my kip is getting dialed in. I need to learn those butterfly pull-ups soon.
Strength
10 Sets
High grip Prowler sprint
Low grip Prowler sprint
Rest
Finally I got to use the Prowler! I probably won’t be too excited when I feel the effects tomorrow. Stayed after class a bit to finish these. The Prowler was loaded with 180# of weights so I’m guessing over 200# total. The distance was probably 25-30 yards each way. The high grip wasn’t too bad, but the low grip took everything I had to get the Prowler moving, was much slower pushing, and got harder each time. Here’s a video of Casey and I. I’m shown first pushing it back to our starting line.
5 rounds
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.
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 