Squats 4-26-08

Squatted heavy today for Max Effort (ME) 1 -1 -1 -1 -1

210, 215, 220, 225, 230

230 marks a new PR for me.  On the 11th I did 225 and failed on 230.  So I'm happy to hit 230 today,  Thats 5lbs closer to the goal of 300lbs by February.

Chain yourself to a Squat Rack and call me in a year!!

Overhead Squat 4-25-08

I was supposed to do heavy Deadlifts today.  My hands just couldn't handle holding that kind of weight after ripping off a few calluses.  So I did Overhead Squats instead.

Overhead Squats:  45#x10, 65#x5, 75#x3, 85#x3, 90#x5, 95#x5, 100#x5, 105#x5

Lunges 105#x10

Push Press 3 sets of 5 reps 105#   

Still working on form on the Overhead Squats.  This is the most weight I've ever done on Overhead Squats.  The most I've done before this was 65lbs, as this is a new exercise for me.  At these weights these are real easy on the legs, but its tough on the wrists (flexibility issue) and on the shoulders (mainly stabalizer muscles), and not too bad on the abs.  I'm curious what my max is at this point.  I'm guessing somewhere around 125lbs, but I don't really know.  That would mean I need about a 50lb increase to reach my goal of Overhead Squatting my body-weight.  Should be very doable.  I threw in a few lunges to work the legs a little bit more, and the push presses because the overhead press is one of my weakest areas.  They were a little tougher then otherwise because of coming off the Overhead Squats.

Angie 4-24-08

For time:

100 pullups

100 jackknives

100 squats (bodyweight only air squats)

100 pushups

in 26 min 10 sec.

This was the first time I did Angie as Rx'd.  I wasn't sure how it would go, because 100 pullups is pretty intimidating.  But I was pleased with the results.

The breakdown is on top.  The results of how Angie destroyed my hands is below that.  Good times.

Back Squats 4-22-08

I did 5 sets of 5 reps of 185lbs.

Then I did 40 kipping pullups.  I did them broken, getting off the bar and resting for a few seconds.  But I didn't rest any longer then about 10 seconds.  I was happy with this effort.  My current goal of 40 pullups without getting off the bar seems to definitely be within reach before the year is up.  Really need to strengthen my grip before that is possible.

Row and Wipers 4-21-08

4 rounds of 400m Row at approximately 1:50/500m pace with 3 minute rest in between rounds.  20 Windshield Wipers with 95lbs during the rest periods.  

I didn't have much time to work out today, so I squeezed this one in about 20min.  The Crossfit main site WOD was back squats.  I decided to do this WOD today and the back squats tomorrow.

Push Press 4-20-08

Main Site WOD....Push Press 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3

I did 105, 110, 115, 120, 120

Then just for fun I did 10 L Pullups.  The last 3 were pretty bad form.  

I really didn't push the weight at all on the push presses, and should have used heavier weight.  My dad was working out with me today and we ended up talking more then working out during my portion of the workout.  As a result I was extremely unfocused and decided to take it easy today.

30 Min of Deadlift 4-18-08

30 Minutes of Deadlift at 70% of my max.  My max is 285lbs.  So I used 200lbs for the exercise.  Jerrod came up with this idea and did 30 minutes of squats.  I decided to try it with deadlifts instead.  My goal was to do 100 reps.  I don't know why I picked that number, but it seemed like a nice big round number that would equal a lot of work.  

24 at 5:30

33 at 8:20

50 at 14:10

70 at 19:56

75 at 22:19

86 at 25:30

91 at 28:28

106 at 30:00

After reaching about 40 at the 10:00 min mark, I did about 3 reps with about 45 seconds to one minute of rest in between.  In the last minute and a half I just did as many as I could, which ended up being 15, giving me a total of 106 reps.  This was a fun one.  I'm looking forward to trying it with squats.

4-17-08

 5 Rounds for time:  7 Pullups, 7 Thrusters with 65lbs, 7 burpees:  8:12

My buddy Dan came over and worked out with me tonight.  He did 5 rounds of 400m row with 2 min rest.  His times were 1:34, 1:30, 1:34, 1:35, 1:34.  He is brand spanking new to crossfit and has only done 4 crossfit workouts, 3 of which have been rowing workouts.  He has been loving working out on the rower and is seriously considering buying a Concept 2 rower.  Very cool!  

CROSSFIT Workout Log from the Beginning: All of January, February, March, and half of April

My very first day of doing CrossFit!!!! This marks the start of one heck of an a
dventure. I'm posting this on 8-15-08 which is 7.5 months since starting Crossfit. I finally booted up the old computer and dug out my CrossFit log from the beginning. Here is all of Jan, Feb, and the first half of April:

1-23-08: 150 walking lunges ... I was SUPER sore after this for days!

1-24-08: 1 pullup 1st min 2 pullup 2nd min etc. - jumping pullups in rounds 5,6,7 .... completed 6 rounds and did only 5 in the 7th round .... Did these on rings at a local park

1-27-08 for time...4 rounds of 8 burpees, 12 jackknives, 10 30lb kettleball swings : 7 min 48 sec

1-29-08 for time...3 rounds of 75 walking lunges, 35 air squats, 15 back extensions : 6 min 29 sec
1-30-08 21-15-9 or 15-12-9 DB Shoulder Press, Bench Dips, Push Ups : 6 min

Feb:

2-1-08 ... Moved into our first house! Can't wait to build the new CrossFit Garage Gym.

2-02-08 for time...75 Burpees : 9 min 55 sec

2-09-08 Cindy - Puppies: Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as you can of:

1 Pull-up 4 Push-ups, 7 Squats: 24 Rounds

2-10-08 5 sets of 5 reps Thrusters 35lb dumbells

2-13-08 - First day working out in my CrossFit Garage Gym in the new house! Got my squat rack set up. Yahoo!!
50 Lunges
50 Ring Rows (used squat rack bar, not rings)
50 Push ups
50 Squats

6 min 11 sec

2-14-08
40 lunges
40 5 gallon bucket step ups
40 jackknives
40 squats

2-15-08 - Got my brand new C2 Rowing machine!!
5 rounds for time of:
500 meters row..average 34/35 strokes per minute
20 jackknives
20 wipers with 45# bar at arms length

2-17-08 - Got the Crossfit bar, 25lb, 35lb, and 45lb bumpers from Wichita Falls Weightlifting and some lifting shoes!!

Squat: 10 x45#, 5x95,5x125, 5#,5x145#,5x145#,5x145# First time squatting in about 8 years!!

2-18-08
Buttercups:

15 Pull-ups (Jumping)
200 meter run
20 pound Thruster, 15 reps
400 meter run
20 pound Thruster, 15 reps
200 meter run
15 Pull-ups (Jumping)

8 min 56 sec

2-20-08

25 R Arm Medicine Ball Throws, 25 L Arm Medicine Ball Throws, 50 Medicine Ball Situps/Throws, 50 Overhead Medicine Ball Squats

2-21-08
150 Burpees...... 23 min

1st WOD ever done as RX'ed !! Yahoo!!!

2-24-08
Snowboard @ Bear Valley

2-25-08
Snowboard @ Bear Valley

2-26-08
Snowboard @ Bear Valley

2-27-08 Got a huge Tractor tire for the garage gym! When loading it up, I smashed my hand between the ~ 300lb tire and bed rail of my truck. It bruised up pretty good and at first I was thinking I broke my hand. It turned out to just be a bone bruise that really smarted. No working out for me for a few days.

2-29-08
Buttercups:
800 Meter Row
25 Pull-ups (Jumping pull ups)
50 Push-ups
50 Box Jumps
800 Meter Row
13 min 03 sec

March:

3-1-08
Squat: 3x145#, 3x155#, 3x165#, 3x170#, 3x175#

3-2-08
Modified Angie
100 Pullups
100 Jackknives
100 Pushups
100 Squats

I broke it down to 4 Sets of 25 reps even though you aren't really supposed to.

29min 25sec

This kicked my butt! Everything was super tough. Airsquats were hard because of the squats yesterday. I was most excited about doing kipping pullups for the first time ever! Yippee. I can tell my pullup max has just gone up due to the form of kipping pullups alone. Probably went from about 12-14 deadhang pullups to about 17 or so (total guess) kipping pullups..... Pretty sweet. Unfortunately kipping pullups are a bit of an ab workout too. Which made the jackknives tougher. And when your abs get shot, pushups become that much tougher. haha good stuff. Ended up taking about 5-6 min on each set with about a 2 min average rest in between sets.

Tomorrow's a rest day! I'm gonna need it.

3-5-08
For time:
20 Sledgehammer Swings, 20 Box jump, 20 inch box, 20 Jumping pull-ups, 20 Kettlebell swings, 35# Walking Lunge 20 steps, 20 45# Thrusters, 20 Medicine Ball High Throws (10# ball), 20 Burpees, 20 Squats, 20 Jacknives

11min 20 sec

3-6-08
Row 4 Rounds of 500 Meter Intervals with 3 minute rest:
1st Round 1:46, 2nd Round 1:53, 3rd Round 1:55, 4th Round 1:52...Total Row 7:26

3-7-08
Deadlift 3x3x3x3x3
Warmup: 500M Row, 95#x5,115#x5,145#x3,

Workout: 165#x3,175#x3,185#x3,195#x3,205#x3

3-9-08 Modified Lynne:
5 Rounds of Max Pushups and Max Pullups
Pushups: 73,43,40,30,25 (fist under the chest, not full range of motion)
Pullups: 20,12,13,10,12

3-10-08
2:00 min Sledgehammer swings and 2:00 min Rowing Interval workout.....3 min rest in between each exercise
85 Swings
550 meter row
73 Swings
530 meter row
73 Swings
545 meter row

3-12-08
Warmup 440m row

Practiced snatch with 15# bar. And 45# bar. Hard to tell what the heck I'm doing right or wrong.

Squats
165#x15
175x3
185x3
190x3

3-13-08
3 rounds for time of 800meter row
30 back extensions
30 second L-sit on 1st round..30 jacknives on last 2 rounds.

17:45

I kept my pace to a 2:00min/500meter pace for the 800 meters. I think the rowing hurt a lot more than it should have because my legs were toast from the squating yesterday. I kept my pace to a 2:00min/500meter pace for the 800 meters.

On the L-sit I was baaarely able to do one L-sit for 30 seconds the first round, so I did 30 jacknives the next two rounds instead. In the 3rd round I finally understood why they have you do the ab work and low back work on this WOD. Its because it tires out your core, which makes the rowing tough because you can't transfer the power from your legs to your arms efficiently. Very sneaky of them.

3-14-08
Fight Gone Bad:
Did not have enough time to finish this workout. Kicked my butt anyways with only doing two rounds of it.
Modified Puppies:
Wall-ball, 10 pound ball, as high as I can throw them each time
Sumo deadlift high-pull 45 pounds (Reps) Box Jump 20" box (Reps) Push-press 45 pounds (Reps) Row (Calories) 19, 16In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

3-16-08
150 burpees in 19min 55sec (compare to 2-2-08 and 2-21-08)

3-17-08
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 400m row (2:00min/500m pace) and 15, 35# kettleball swings (used 35# dumbell). Did 7 rounds for a total of 2800m rowing and 105 kettleball swings

Was a pretty good workout. My low back got nice and tight in the second to last kettleball swing set.

Our German Shepherd puppy Blitz was born today!

3-19-08
Squat: 135#x5, 175x3, 190#x2,195#x2,200#x2,205#x2,210#x2,210#x1
Push Press: 5 sets of 5 reps 95#
compare to: 3-12-08, 3-1-08, 2-17-08

3-20-08
Tabata - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest. 8 rounds, 4 exercises..Do all 8 rounds of one exercise before moving on to the next...no rest between exercises.
Pushups 1st two rounds were ring pushups : 12,8,10,7,10,10,9,7
V-Ups (Jacknives): 17,15,15,14,12,14,12,12
Kettleball Swings 35#: 11,11,10,11,9,9,9,9
20"Box Jumps: 14,10,10,9,9,8,9
Total: 335

3-23-08

Warmed up with 2min of jumprope. That thing stings when you suck at jumproping, screw up and it whacks you in the leg.

5 sets of 400m row at 1:50/500m pace. In between sets did 15 reps of 135# shoulder shrugs just to mix something else in. I felt real good on the rower, just felt fresh and didn't get too winded. I think that's because I've been doing primarily 500m intervals, so the 400m felt short. I averaged about 1:48/500m throughout most of the workout. Next time I do this workout, I'll drop the pace down to about 1:45/500m. That will be tough!

3-24-08

Filthy Fifty... Pack: For time

35 Box jump, 24 inch box
35 Jumping pull-ups
35 Dumbell swings, 1 pood (35 pounds)
35 Walking Lunges
35 Knees to Elbows
35 Push press, 45 pounds
35 Back extensions
35 Wall ball shots, 10 pound medicine ball thrown ashigh as possible
35 Burpees
100 Standard Rope Jumps

19min50sec

I need to practice my double unders. I'm glad to see improvement in this workout. Not just going faster while doing the same # of reps, but increasing the workload and keeping the time under 20min. The knees to elbows was the hardest part of thisworkout. I've never done them before and they were tough, especially on my grip because of the shrugs I did yesterday. The burpees were also tough cause I was pretty pooped by that point.

3-26-08
Jackie - 1,000-meter row, 50 45lb thrusters, and 30 pull- ups.

This pit bull of a workout is scored by the time to complete all exercises. Play with different orders of the three exercises and compare times.

Jake and I broke it up by doing: 17 reps of 45#thrusters, 10 pullups, 500m row (1:53/500m pace), 17reps of 45# thrusters, 10 pullups, 500m row (1:56/500m pace), 16 reps of 45# thrusters, 10 pullups.

My time was 10min 14sec. Jake's was 14min 36sec. Jerrod got 9:12

3-30-08
Nate: I did the Pack version, except that Pack called for 15 min and I did it for 20 min.

As many rounds in twenty minutes:
6 Pullups
6 Dips (did many of them assisted with my toe on the ground to assist me up)
4 Hanstand Pushups - Bridged on knees
8 - 55# Kettlebell Swings

I did 9 Rounds

3-31-08
Row 5,000m

20min 37sec

2:03.7/500m average pace
1min 57sec 500m split
321 calories burned
34 calories average burned each 500m split

I wasn't sure what pace I could keep up, so I set the pace boat up at 2:05 as a complete guess. It ended up working pretty good. I beat the pace boat by about 11/2 boat lengths. This was a good workout for me.

4-1-08

Did a quick L-sit workout tonight. Did 45 sec L-sit then with 3min rest in between did 3 30 sec L-sits. Then had an 8 min break and finished off with a 45 sec L-sit. I really only did a true L-sit on the first 45 sec set. The other ones my legs were bent most of the time. I probably should try to do it instrict form too, but I couldn't hold a strict L-sit for the full sets. I also felt it in my triceps and was shaking which I hope is because of the 54 bar dips I did two days ago.

4-2-08
Squat: 185# 3 sets of 5
Push Press 100# 3 sets of 5.

After reading RIPPETOE-STARTING STRENGTH FAQ, I changed 3 things with my form when I squatted this time. These 3 descriptions are taken from the FAQ...

1) This was my biggest change: Make necessary adjustments so that stance width is proper, i.e. heelsat ~ shoulder width, feet pointed in a "neutral"manner, ~30 degrees outward. ~30 degrees is "neutral" because as you widen your stance, your toes need to point outward in order to maintain proper patellar alignment with the thigh bones.

2) Grip the bar as close to your head as possible. This will test your shoulder, elbow and wrist joint flexibility. The closer your hands are (within reason,your hands shouldn't touch your ears), the tighter your upper back will be, and the better the bar will sit on your back.

3) Use a thumbless grip. You aren't supporting the bar with your hands. You're holding the bar DOWN against your back. Your wrist should NOT bend in either direction. It should be a straight line from your forearm across the wrist onto your hand.

The change in grip and hand placement weren't a big deal. Might have made my upper back a little tighter afterwards, but no biggie, just a little different feeling. The thumbless grip felt different as well, but again nothing huge. The main change was angling my feet out about 30 degrees. I have been having my feet parallel to each other. I don't know if was because of this, or if doing 3 sets of 5 at 185 was tough for me, or if it was just a bad day, but it seemed like the weight felt heavier than it should have. The last day I squatted approx. a week and a half ago looked something like this: 165#x5, 185#x3, 190#x2, 195#x2, 200#x2, 205#x2, 210#x2, 210#x1. Basedon my memory of that, 185 didn't feel that heavy. I certainly went up quite a bit past there and squatted more weight. However, it was low reps at that higher weight. By changing the angle of my feet it worked slightly different muscles in my legs or worked those muscles more than when my feet were parallel, and that is why the weight 'felt' heavier. I'm thinking it was also partly just mental, because I know sometimes when you step under a heavily weighted bar you think to yourself, wow this feels heavy and other times you think, ha this is nothing......I also have not switched back to a 'normal' day shift sleeping schedule on my weekend, so I worked out yesterday at 1:30am, got to bed by 3:30 am...so that may have had something to do with it.

4-3-08
Tabata: 8 rounds of 20 sec full effort, 10 sec rest for a total of 4 minutes of work for one exercise.
Started with Sledgehammer swings. I didn't write downthe numbers, but it was to the best of my memory: 16,15,15,14,14,13,13,13

Then went into bodyweight squats:21,20,19,17,16,14,15,15
This really hurt a lot since I squatted yesterday.

Then went to rowing (counted by calories burned)7,7,7,7,7,7,7,8

I didn't have anyone to help time me, but I discovered that on my watch, in the countdown setting, it beeps for exactly 10 seconds after it reaches zero. So setting the countdown for 22 seconds gave me a couple seconds to start so I wasn't wasting any of the 20seconds of work and then when it hit zero and after 10seconds of beeping, I hit the start button again (I hope that made sense). It worked pretty well. This really kicked my butt. Tabata is an awesome workout for pushing the level of work capacity you can handle. Only a 12 minute workout, but its high intensity stuff.

4-4-08
10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 :

Pull Ups
Jackknives
Ring Push-Ups

13min 36 sec

The first two sets of 10 and 9 I did knees to elbows, but realized I wouldn't be able to keep that up so I switched to jackknives. The ring pushups were definitely the hardest. My feet were up on the jumpbox so I was perfectly parallel to the rings. Good stuff.

4-8-08

Did Fight Gone Bad (modified) tonight:

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 10 pound ball, Thrown as high as possible (Reps) 23, 21, 20
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 65 pounds (Reps) (As Rx'd is75#) 26, 24, 21
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps) 23, 20, 20
Push-press, 65 pounds (Reps) (As Rx'd is 75#) 23, 20,25
Row (Calories) 14, 17, 20

In this workout you move from each of five stations after aminute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. Add your points and post them to comments.

1st round total: 109
2nd round total: 102
3rd round total: 106

Total: 317

If you pace yourself its doable. If you go all out every exercise from the start you will die. Literally. Last time I did it I only used 45# and only did 2 rounds. My numbers were higher but it wrecked me after 2 rounds. So I tried to pace myself a bit more and tried to make 20 reps with each exercise through the entire workout. I think it worked out better this way, but it was tough.

4-9-08

I bought a heavy (80lb I think) punching bag from a buddy for $20. If you've never done any work on a heavy bag, its quite exhausting if you are punching hard.

So I did 5 rounds:

2 min punching on the heavy bag
1 min rest
2 min sledgehammer swings

This was a good one. I didn't count swings or punches, so it'll be hard to measure improvement in the future, but thats okay. As long as you work hard that's the point. After a few minutes of rest I also did a little ab workout.

10 Knees 2 Elbows
10 leg lifts (knees bent at 90 degrees, so you are just lifting your knees until your upper leg is parallel to the ground as you hang from the pullup bar)
10 L Pullup position holds....where I held my legs inthe L pullup position for a 2 second count.

As far as my abs go, I should have done another round or 2 of these. But my grip was completely shot after doing those sledgehammer swings and punching. I could barely hold onto the bar at the end.

I'm thinking of doing the crossfit total tomorrow. My goal is to get at least a total of 600 points. Although I want to just do a squat workout today, I know it would be beneficial to do this type of benchmark every now and then so I can track my improvement a little better. My goal by next Feb is to have an 800 in the crossfit total. That would mean at least a 300lb squat, 350lb deadlift and 150lb press. That would mean about at least a 75lb improvement in both the squat and deadlift, and about a 30lb improvement in the press. I think that should be doable. I'll need to consistently improve, but barring any injuries I think I'll make it.

4-11-08

Squat: 215, 220, 230 (failed), 225
Press: 100, 105, 115 (failed), 110
Deadlift: 260, 265, 270, 275, 280, 285

Total: 620

I cheated on this one by not following the Crossfit Total (CFT) rules. You are only allowed 3 attempts at each lift and you are not allowed to drop in weight. But it was the first time I've ever done the CFT and I really wanted to find my true max on these three essential exercises. My goal was to break the 600 mark, so I was fairly pleased with my results. The Press is definitely my biggest weakness. I also really want to get my Squat numbers way up. I was happy that my deadlift was a little more then 1.5 times my bodyweight at 175lbs. This CFT comes after 2 1/2 months after starting Crossfit.