Crossfit: Total

Crossfit Total
Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

Post total to comments.


Last Time - 04/06/2008:
Back Squat: 220
Shoulder Press: 130
Deadlift: 320
Total: 670

Today:
Back Squat: 225
Shoulder Press: 135 (push press on 140)
Deadlift: 350
Total: 710

All new PRs, sweet. I think I sabotaged my shoulder press though. I did 135 a few days ago for 5 reps (3+2, but it was a bar I don't usually use and I sometimes suspect it doesn't weight 45 pounds), then yesterday on my rest day I did rotator cuff exercises. I like the way they make my shoulder feel but I think it led to some weakness in my shoulders. Oh well, I'm still happy. The back squat was a little shaky but I went past parallel. It's just that I started to dirft onto my toes but caught it, pulled it back and went up on my heels. I tried 355 after the 350 but I didn't have enough to get it off the ground.

I'm a Master

Well, maybe not at Crossfit, but I just handed in my last research paper for my last class for my MBA program. Assuming it's a semi-coherent read, I should graduate. I started almost 3 years ago and I remember the first class and thinking I made a big mistake because it was going to take so long to finish. Instead, it seemed to go by rather quickly. I think it relates a bit to working out and getting fit. You basically just need to show up and do what you need to do for that day. You need to break down larger goals. "Getting my MBA" is a big goal and doesn't allow for much focus. But breaking it down into "Read one text book chapter per weekday night" or "complete one review question every other night" or "find 4 usable source articles this week" are short-term goals that help get you through the day, week, month, class, and ultimately the entire program. Same thing goes for fitness. You can't start out 100 pounds overweight, barely able to do one bodyweight squat and start focusing on goals to lose 100 pounds and squat 200 pounds. It's too much, you must to break it into chunks. You should start out with a small, easily achievable goal that requires only a bit of work and effort. There is momentum in setting and accomplishing goals. Success builds on itself. I mentioned here before that last July (see far left photo above) I basically gave up ever being fit again because I just couldn't bring myself to eat right and increase my intensity at the gym. I was zombie walking through your standard 3x10 weightlifting routine and hating it. I was 35 pounds overweight and it just seemed like it would take forever to get fit so why bother? I decided to give it one last try and made a simple goal of tracking everything I ate for 2 weeks. If after two weeks, I didn't like it and didn't make any progress, then I promised myself I could eat 3 pizzas a day and buy a kegerator. Instead I lost about 10 pounds those first two weeks and the success kept rolling. Today I'm more fit than I ever was before, plus I'm smarter because we all know that degrees directly correlate with increased intelligence. ;)

Crossfit: Shoulder Press

080528

Shoulder Press 3-3-3-3-3 reps

Post loads to comments.

Me:
115x3
125x3
130x3
135x3
135x2(failed on last rep)

Not bad. I was looking back on 080503, the workout with the shuolder press, push press, and push jerk, I hit 1 rep of 130 then failed twice on the next two singles. Today, I did 3 reps at 135, then another 2 before I failed. I have been working on keeping my elbows forward on the shoulder press. Maybe that has something to do with it. Nothing like taking your old single rep PR and doing 3 reps with it.

Crossfit: 080527

080527

Run 1 mile
Two minutes of each:
Row
30 pound Dumbbell thrusters
20 pound Medicine ball cleans
Double-unders
Pull-ups

Post total time and total reps plus calories (from row) to comments

As Rx'd:
1 mile: 7:30
Row: 31 calories
Thrusters: 20
Medicine ball cleans: 22
Double-unders: 20
Pull-ups: 22

Total time: 17:30
Total reps: 115

Crossfit: Jason

"Jason"

For time:
100 Squats
5 Muscle-ups
75 Squats
10 Muscle-ups
50 Squats
15 Muscle-ups
25 Squats
20 Muscle-ups

OK, even with the rest day there was no way I could do 4x the pull-ups and dips for muscle ups after the 150 pull-ups I did Sunday. That'd be another 200 pull-ups plus 200 dips, that's ridiculous. My arms were shot and I'm quite certain it wouldn't have benefitted me in the least. So, I subbed 5 ring pull-ups and 5 ring dips for 5 muscle-ups. I know it's not the prescribed substitution but like I said, my arms were shot. I finished this workout in 31:30.

I see tomorrow's workout has pull-ups too, nice, I guess someone won't be happy until my hands are torn up. They were sore on Sunday and I actually saw blisters this morning.

Crossfit: 800m and Pull-ups

080524
Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Pull-ups


As Rx'd

Round 1: 8:31
Round 2: 10:58
Round 3: 12:18

Total Time: 31:48

I did this at the park. A couple of kids came by the pull-up bars with their father and wanted to do what I was doing. The father lifted them up and they tried and tried but couldn't get out one pull-up. I smiled as I was doing sets of 5. I said, "Come on, you guys hardly weigh anything. Pull!" The older kis managed to get about halfway up and I told him that he should keep practicing if he wanted to get big and strong. The father asked me how many pull-ups I usually do. I told him that today I was doing 150 and his jaw dropped. "150 Pull-ups?!?" "Yeah," I said, "plus the half mile runs in between."

Then he picked up the kids and walked away. I think he might have thought I was a looney.

Crossfit: KB Swings, Sit-ups, Back Extensions, K2E

080523

Five rounds for time of:
2 pood Kettlebell swings, 25 reps
25 GHD Sit-ups
25 Back Extensions
25 Knees to Elbows

Did this at home. Only have 1.5 pood KB. Also, no GHD so folded my sandbag in half and stuck my legs under a shelf and I was surprised to realize that they felt a lot like GH sit-ups. For back extensions, I just did stiff leg deadlifts with the 1.5 pood kettlebell.

Here's my workout:

ROM warm-up (arm swings, shoulder dislocations, toy soldiers, butt kickers, etc.)
3 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, 5 squats.

WOD:
1.5 pood KB swings x 35
25 Sand Bag Sit-ups
25 Stiff Legged Deadlifts (1.5 pood KB)
25 Knees to Elbows

Round 1: 5:24
Round 2: 6:28
Round 3: 6:40
Round 4: 7:00
Round 5: 7:20

Total Time: 32:52

I spent about 15 minutes on the heavy bag.

Then I did 3x10 side bends with the 1.5 pood KB.

Then 1x15 ring push-ups, raised my feet up 1 foot and did 3x10 ring push-ups.

Crossfit: Deadlift & HSPU

080522
Five rounds of:
Deadlift, 3 reps
Handstand push-ups, max reps

I subbed standing shoulder press for HSPUs. Just cuz.

Deadlift;Shoulder Press

Round 1: 225x3;95x10
Round 2: 300x3;115x5
Round 3: 300x3;115x5
Round 4: 300x3;115x5
Round 5: 300x3;115x5

I finished off the workout with 4 rounds of max reps of pull-ups. About 8 per round partly because my grip was shot.

Rest Day

I decided to ride my bike to work today for something different. I see that tomorrow's WOD involves deadlifts and HSPUs so I'm guessing a little bike riding won't interfer too much. It's a little over 15 miles to work, takes about an hour. I never mind the ride to work. It's early morning. It's a great way to wake up. The sun is rising. It's cool. Traffic is limited and 90% of the ride is quite rural past farms and open meadows and I'm never in a hurry to GET to work. The ride home is a different matter. More traffic. More people. The asphalt has been heating up all day and I've spent all day working and the ride isn't 15 miles anymore, it's 15 MORE miles that day. To top it all off, the ride home is uphill, overall.

If I could figure out a way to only ride to work and drive home, I'd ride to work everyday.

Crossfit: Row / Burpees

080520

For time:
Row 1000 meters
25 Burpees
Row 750 meters
50 Burpees
Row 500 meters
75 Burpees

a.k.a "Yuck". As Rx'd, 32:13. Those last 75 Burpees sucked royally.

Crossfit: 080519

080519

For time:
75 Push-ups
95 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 50 reps
50 Ring Dips
45 pound Weighted Pull-ups, 30 reps
25 Handstand Push-ups

Ran out of time and (more importantly) energy on this one. I did 75 bar dips. I did one pull-up with 45 punds, realized that dog wouldn't hunt, then did 12 reps with 25 pounds, and the remainder with 20 pounds. Then I did 26 HSPUs with my legs over the Smith Machine bar. Total time: 30:57

Crossfit: Clean & Jerk / 400m

080518

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
95 pound Clean and Jerk, 15 reps
Run 400 meters

I did this as Rx'd and got 3 rounds plus 1 rep. I did full squat cleans and alternated randomly between push jerks and split jerks.

I could have done better but didn't eat all that well Sunday night and this morning.

Crossfit: Michael

"Michael"

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

Last time I did Michael, I subbed supermans for back extensions. Total workout time was 24:13. Today was cold and rainy and I didn't feel like running 800m outside so I decided to sub Burpees for the 800m run. Since my best 800m so far was 3:20, and since I can do about 50 burpees in about 5 minutes, I figured about 35 Burpees per round would be a fair substitute. I also subbed "Good Mornings" for Back Extensions. I used a 1-pood kettlebell held behind my head for the good mornings.

Round 1: 7:40
Round 2: 9:18
Round 3: 9:59

Total Time: 26:58

Crossfit: Cindy

080515

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

-OR-

"Mary"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups


I chose Cindy because I can't do Handstand push-ups, but I'm working on them. I got 15 rounds. That was pretty much what I was shooting for. I was pretty confident I could get 10, pretty pessimistic about 20. This is the same workout as Level 8 Day 1 at Simplefit. I'm glad because today's workout shows I can still put up respectable numbers with the Simplefit program. I think that's important because it shows I'm on track with what I want. I don't want to get stray from that and suddenly find myself doing arm and leg curls and wrist curls, spending 2 hours in the gym and not being able to do a single pull-up.

Crossfit: Deadlifts

080514
Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps


225
275
300
315
340(PR)
345(f)
315
315

Today was supposed to be a rest day but I felt like I had a lot of energy this morning. I'd rather have a weekend rest day anyway. I'll do Cindy tomorrow. Hopefully the WOD after Cindy isn't a gym WOD and I can do it outside or at home. Once the weather gets nice I start disliking the gym.

Crossfit: 30 Muscle-ups

080512
30 Muscle-ups for time

Post time to comments.

If you cannot do the muscle-ups do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips.

I was going to take my rings to the park today but it was cold and wet. My plan was to do 60 jumping muscle-ups. I think that'd be a fair sub. But like I said, cold and wet and so I just went to the gym and did 120 pull-ups and 120 dips. I did 30 rounds of 4x4. I had a pretty good pace getting half-way done around 12 minutes but it started getting harder and I finished in 32:03.

Crossfit Overhead Squat

080511
Overhead Squat 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps

65-85-95-105-115x1,110x2-115-115

I had to bail on the 115 attempts a couple of times, but I only dropped down in weight the first time. I realized it's not really a weight issue. If you lose focus for a split second on overhead squats that bar just goes and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it other than get out of the way. It's an interesting exercise. You don't really fail on the power side so much as keeping everything in the shoulder girdle, arms, and core tight. You can't allow that bar to get out from right over your center of gravity at all or you lose it.

Crossfit Update

I'm still here, just not updating as often.

I had a bad day on the last Elizabeth WOD. I couldn't even clean it once, which is queer because I did the workout as Rx'd before. I think I ate like crap the night before though and then skipped breakfast. Not a good combo. I can generally do one or the other without a big impact but not both. I ended up doing squats with 135 pounds and I did 2x the bar dips.

I did the 4 rounds of 800m runs. I did them all in 3:20 (9mph on the treadmill on 2% incline). That's better than last time.

Diane: 05/10/2008

21-15-9 reps of:
225 pound Deadlift
Handstand push-ups

I did this in 12:36. Deadlifts at 225 but for handstand push-ups, I had my toes hooked over the smith machine bar. I probably should have done 2x the reps on those but I didn't.

This morning I did Fran as prescribed:

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

I did it in 13:12 today, better than the 14:12 I did last time.

Crossfit: 50 Burpees

080504

For time:
50 Burpees

Jump one foot above reach each rep.

Time: 5:31

That's a little disappointing because I've done 100 Burpees in slightly less than 10 minutes before. But I've never done them so soon after Murph or yesterday's shoulder workout. Murph really taxed my cardio-pulmonary system, I could tell. I was breathing hard for 51 minutes and my breathing muscles got sore.

Crossfit: 080503

080503

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Compared to 080408

Shoulder Press: 125,125,130,130(f),130(f) Followed failed reps with a push press at that weight.
Push Press: 135-135-140-140-140
Push Jerk: 115-115-120-125-130

Overall, a general increase in weight. Shoulder press didn't feel that much stronger. I have a hard time starting that and have to concentrate not to involved a little push. Push presses and push-jerks definitely felt stronger than last time.

Crossfit: Murph

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

To punish myself for not getting to the Crossfit gym on travel, I made myself do Murph yesterday. I broke the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats into 10 rounds of 10-20-30.

Total Time was 50:58

Here's the breakdown:

First Mile: 8:35
Round 1: 1:58
Round 2: 2:28
Round 3: 3:01
Round 4: 3:08
Round 5: 3:04
Round 6: 3:21
Round 7: 3:34
Round 8: 3:22
Round 9: 3:36
Round 10: 3:51
Second Mile: 10:58

Back Home

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go to the local Crossfit gym. With my MBA final paper being due and having to do work at my hotel at night in addition (grr), I was pretty much exhausted. Couple that with the fact that I asked a local if he had any knowledge of the Crossfit gym on that particular street and he responded, "Gym, on that street? I wouldn't go there without a gun strapped on." and my motivation to get there significantly wained. I still would have gone if I didn't have all that extra work.

Anyway, I managed to do the Dumbbell Bear on Tuesday and Thursday along with some swimming in the pool. That worked out pretty good because the Crossfit WOD's I missed were pretty focused on thrusters and the Dumbbell Bear incorporates 100 of them.