02/05 Burpee Pullups

02/05 Burpee Pullups

For time:

100 burpee pullups

source: crossfit.com
time: around 14:31
works: whole body
difficulty: 9
my effort: 9

These are killers. I was happy to get 100 done in 14:31. My goal is sub- 10:00 someday. Someday, a long time from now. Ha.

02/04 - Round Up

02/04 Round Up

For time:

21-18-15-12 reps of:

135-lb bench press
95-lb push press
pullups


source: I made it up
time: around 20:00
works: chest, shoulders, core, back
difficulty: 6
my effort: 8

Today's crossfit.com workout called for heavy weight snatch balances. Frankly, I'm not quote limber enough in my achilles yet - nor are my shoulders stable enough - to feel comfortable tossing weight like this over my head. I'm working up to it. So I substituted a quick workout that's kind of a round up of most of my major upper-body movements.

Not much to explain here. Obviously, there is no resting between sets, so as to maximize the cardio aspect of the workout and train the muscles to work when fatigued.

02/02 - Skinned Shins

02/02 Skinned Shins

For time:

65-lb Goblet Squat, 30 reps
42" Box Jump, 30 reps
135-lb hang clean, 30 reps
65-lb Goblet Squat, 15 reps
42" Box Jump, 15 reps
135-lb hang clean, 15 reps


source: I made it up
time: around 25:00
works: legs, traps, back, core, endurance
difficulty: 8
my effort: 8

I made today's workout up, after deciding to skip crossfit's 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 overhead squat day. I'm still working in to the point where I feel comfortable (and flexible) enough to hoist a couple hundred pounds over my head and squat. I need better shoulder stability. Ergo, I subsituted a different workout.

I chose goblet squats because I wanted to try them out in the context of a workout. I think these are a great "beginning" squat, in that doing them for a while will help you develop your form in other squats - including overhead. I should have gone for a lot more than 65lbs, but live and learn. Try these if you're trying to work into good squatting form.

The box jumps are a fun way to work in some cardio and explosiveness. I chose a 42" box - the tallest available. I like the challenge of trying to propel myself that high off the ground after squatting. Beware, though. Missing a box jump that high has dire consequences for your shins (see photo).

Finally, I worked in a hang clean. This was a good clean-up exercise for the core, power and shoulders. A good way to round out the set.

These took me longer than I thought. I was originally going to shoot for 30-20-10 but had to shorten to 30-15, as I had to go to work.

Enjoy!

02/01 Thrusters & Pullups

02/01 Thrusters & Pullups

135 pound Thruster, 15 reps
35 pound weighted Pull-up, 15 reps
95 pound Thruster, 21 reps
20 pound weighted Pull-up, 21 reps
65 pound Thruster, 36 reps
36 Pull-ups


source: a crossfit workout
time: 13:21
works: legs, shoulders, back, core, endurance
difficulty: 9
my effort: 8

Today was the first day in my new AM workout routine. We moved last weekend, and my home is no longer 1/4 mile from the gym. Working out in the evening thus means that I do not get to see my son. Since exercise is about 4th or 5th on my list of life priorities (coming behind family, work, intellectual and spiritual pursuits, not in that order), it got moved to the morning. I've never been a big fan of morning workouts; it takes me a while to get loose and limber. Today was a rough day to start in the AM, but I pushed through.

The 135-lb thruster is a pretty heavy weight for me to rep 15, so I setted it into chunks. Maybe it was the fact that it was the first set of the day, but I felt a little creaky. The other two sets went much more smoothly, though I admit I was feeling the deadlifts from yesterday a little bit.

The pullups were not a problem. I've always liked weighted pullups, and did the first two sets as strict dead-hang. The last set (unweighted) I did as kipping pullups, so as to integrate the power movement (the hip-snap) into the exercise. I've started to adopt the philosophy that weighted pullups are for strength and should be dead-hang, and non-weighted are for power, and should be kipping. Try it out.

One thing I did note: I was a lot more hungry throughout the day.This proves the point that for those wanting to lose weight (of which I am not one), intense or prolonged exercise is often the wrong way to go. Non-conventional thinking, I know. But research has shown that exercise can actually be a contributing factor in weight gain for the average person...and it's not muscle. More on this in a future post.

Deadlifts & 1/4s

01/31/11 - Deadlifts & 1/4s

225-lb deadlifts, 21 reps
Sprint 400m
225-lb deadlifts, 18 reps
Sprint 400m
225-lb deadlifts, 15 reps
Sprint 400m
225-lb deadlifts, 12 reps
Sprint 400m

source: a crossfit workout
time: About 10 or 11 minutes
works: legs, endurance
difficulty: 7
my effort: 7

Today's workout was a back and forth tandem of deadlifts and quarter-mile runs.

As I've mentioned before, I have an advantage when it comes to deadlifts, as my lengthy frame allows me to lift more than a shorter athlete might be able to. I pay for it in areas like bench press, trust me.

So the deadlifts were easy for me; I probably should have increased the weight a bit. If you find these too easy, you can also work on starting from a lower position. In other words, approach the bar, and pull your butt down so that you're in a modified squat position in front of the bar. Remember not to allow your knees to pass over the bar. This makes the actual movement much more difficult. This also allows you to keep your back in a more proper position when lifting the weight.

I ran the quarters at a 6:00/mile pace. Probably could/should have gone faster. Oh well!

01/23/11 - Dead Jumping

01/08/11 - Dead Jumping

Complete 3 rounds of:

275lb deadlift

50 rotation jump rope

20 box jumps, 30" box

source: modified from Crossfit
time: ??:??
works: legs, core, endurance
difficulty: 8
my effort: 8

I fell off the wagon over most of January, which I'm sure was very disappointing to my three readers. No, not the workout wagon. The blogging wagon. But I'm back, mostly because this is the way I keep track of how much I lifted the last time I did a workout. I'm hoping to keep it through the end of 2011 at least. We'll see.

Today's workout was modifed from a recent Crossfit post. I added box jumps to the mix, because I like trying to jump when I'm tired. Well, I don't like it. What I mean is that it seems like I'm usually called on to jump when I'm already tired. E.g. basketball, football, or hopping a fence while running from the cops. Just kidding. Anyway, I added the box jump component for that reason.

I forgot to keep time, which is annoying. It was in the 15-20 minute range.

I did this workout wearing a 20-lb weight vest. I felt that most on the box jumps, naturally.

Oh, one last thing. When doing deadlifts at this weight - or any weight, really - make sure to remember to breathe out when you're lifting up. You don't want to pop a hernia from straining.

image credit: http://www.rawperformance.co.uk/

01/08/11 - As I Lay Dying, or "Wall Crawls"

Complete 5 rounds of:

10 Wall Crawls

10 Toes to bar

20 24" box jumps

source: crossfit.com
time: 45:01
works: shoulders, core, triceps, and a lot of other stuff
difficulty: 9
my effort: 7

Before today, I'd never heard of or seen a "wall crawl" before. In fact, I had a real hard time finding a good video to post of this exercise (actually, I never did), so I got my dad to shoot a few photos of my last set so I could show the progression. I wasn't sure how many of these I could do before I started today. I found I could do them, but I was slow and needed a lot of recovery between reps. I ended up setting 2-2-2-2-2.

Wall crawls had been defined like this: "For the wall climbs, start with your toes and chest on the deck, walk your feet up the wall until your chest touches the wall, and then descend back to the original position."

The progression looks like this:







It's hard, especially if you string your reps together. The other problem is, you progress through Toes-To-Bar's and Box Jumps so quickly that you end up back at the Wall Crawls really fast - way before you're ready. Or at least before I was. So I went though this workout, but it took me forever - 45 minutes. I think if I did it again I could cut quite a bit of time out of it now that I know how to pace. Something closer to 25-30 minutes.

Be careful when climbing: I sweat so much that I made the ground and the wall slick. I had to move around quite a bit to avoid sliding all over the place.