Push and Pull

No Intu-Flow just a little extra shoulder mobility with PVC pipe and lacrosse ball before the start up.

Start up
4 rounds
5 Inch Worms
Row or Air Dyne 10 calories

Strength
Strict press
Week 3
Pull your chart(see coach for loads)

Metcon
15-12-9 (7 min time cap)
Pull up
Push up

Rest 2 mins

12-9-6 (7 min time cap)
Chest to bar pull up
Hand release push up

Rest 2 mins

9-6-3 (7 min time cap)
Bar muscle up
Handstand push up

Or choose to do the following as a mod

18-12-6 (7 min time cap)
Box dips
Decline push up

Finisher
2 min plank hold
Stretch

It is pretty amazing that I'm still strong even though I haven't worked out with heavy weights until just a month ago. My sets on the strict press today were 5@120#, 3@135# and then 7@150#. A younger guy I was lifting with who has been training for months only got 6@155#.

Then the metcons. I did jumping pullups. I should probably start using the band next time we do pull ups. I finished both of the first two metcons in under 4 minutes. I don't recall the exact times, I'll have to look at the board in the box when I go back tomorrow. The push ups in the first metcon were crazy hard! For some reason the hand release push ups in the second metcon were easier.

I can't do muscle ups yet so I did the box dip/decline push up version of the third metcon. My arms were wasted. I did the box dips unbroken but I could only do 9-6-3 of the decline push ups. I couldn't hold the plank for two minutes straight but I got a total of about 2:30.

Filthy Fifty

Once again I barely got to the box in time to change let alone do my extra intu-flow warm up. I almost skipped today's workout. I knew it was going to be hard but I told myself I wouldn't skip WODs that hit my weaknesses. The really weak parts for me would be the burpees and double-unders at the end. Yesterday we did a total of 24 burpees in 3 rounds of 8 during the warmup and that was hard enough. I also talked to my daughter Gabrielle and she encouraged me not to skip. Also, I was supposed to be working out with Tyrone at the 1715 class but he didn't SHOW UP!

Start Up
2rds
50 Jax
10 Plyo
10 Pass Through
10 Halo ea. side

WOD
'Filthy Fifty'
50 Box Jumps 24/20
50 Jumping Pull-ups
50 Kettlebell Swings 35/20
50 Walking Lunges
50 Knee to Elbow
50 Push Press 45/35
50 Back Extension
50 Wall-balls 20/14
50 Burpees
50 Double-unders

Finisher
Stretch

The warm up warm up definitely got a light sweat going. Only problem was I could feel some little twinges in my left knee during the jumping jacks (jax) which is odd as it hasn't been bothering me. Anyway, I made it through the warm up.

I decided step-ups to the 20" box would be a better option for me today after trying a couple of jumps as we were setting up for the Filthy Fifty. I checked with Coach Ryan and he said that would be an acceptable scale. I got through the jumping pull-ups and kettlebell swings using the Rx 35# bell in sets of 10. Walking lunges were kinda hard. By this time I was breathing like an old steam locomotive. Plus my left knee still wasn't happy and my hip flexors have been tight for a week.

I couldn't quite do Knee to Elbow and had to do hanging knee ups bringing my knees above the waist. I did sets of ten to 40 when my abs started cramping up. I finished it with 3-3-4 to get to 50 reps. I was able to crank through the push press in sets of 10 reps. Back extensions sucked. I was trying to be careful of my "delicate" back. I haven't done these in ages. I was surprised by how much my hamstrings were involved. Perhaps I didn't have the machine adjusted properly. I didn't stick to a sane rep scheme, I just made it through anyway I could. By this time I was pouring sweat.

Wall balls I did in sets of 5. I really had to focus on squatting low which of course makes my left hip hurt. And finally the burpees. I was so tired and my shoulders were so beat down that I could only do 2 or 3 reps at a time. This really, really sucked but somehow I did 50 reps. I asked Coach Ryan if there was a time cap in the middle of them but he said just keep going. Finish it up. I was hoping he would cut me off before the jump rope.

I can't do single unders consistently let alone double unders. I kept trying and was occasionally able to string together 2 or 3 single unders in a row. I stopped at 50 but I had so many missed attempts that it was probably close to the called for 100 single-unders for those who can't do double-unders. I finished in a woeful 46:38. After a few minutes to recover, I did my Prasara Yoga cool down as the finisher called for stretching.

A WOD in My Wheelhouse

I was happy to see today's WOD when I looked at the Distinct Crossfit website this morning. It was centered around front squats and deadlifts! I prefer back squats, but any squat and deadlifts cater to my strengths. Plus the rep range was good for me. I didn't get to the box in time for my intu-flow but I did do a little extra hip and shoulder mobility prior to the startup.

Start up
On The Minute (OTM) for 6 Minutes
Even 2 Suicides
Odd 8 Burpees

Strength
OTM for 5 minutes
4 front squat 70% of 1rm

Metcon
9-7-5
Deadlift 245/155
Handstand push up
(Mod box, bar on rig or 2 abmat max)

at the 9:00 min mark

9-7-5
Front Squat 135/95
Toe to bar

Record time for each metcon

Finisher
Walking heel grab
Walking knee grab
Chest opener

The burpees in the start up were killers. I don't think I've ever done as many burpees as I've done in the last month. I think I'm getting a little better at them. I did the strength portion front squats with 145#. Four squats every minute for 5 minutes doesn't seem hard but it really is even with a comparatively light weight.

I did the first section of the Metcon with 185# for the deadlift. I was being overly conservative, 205# would have been better. I may even have been able to do it with the Rx 245#. I've never done Hand Stand Push Ups (HSPU) so I did push ups in a pike position with my feet on a 24 inch box. I finished 3:02.

I started the second metcon at the Rx weight of 135# but I struggled so I dropped down to 95# for the 2nd & 3rd rounds. I probably could have done 115# for all three rounds. Still can't do toes to bar so I did hanging knee-ups instead. Changing weight and fatigue caused my time for this section to go up to 4:22.

No yoga today. I just did the listed finisher.

A WOD Full of SUCK

That's how one of the other members of Distinct Crossfit described yesterday's workout, "A WOD Full of SUCK!" I got to the box late. I went home first to make sure my son had gotten home okay from his first day on his new job! Congrats Isaiah!

Anyway, people hard already begun the warm up when I got there so I only got in two rounds of it.

Start up
3rds
20 jax
10 PVC jerk
10 jump pull ups

Strength
Strict Press
Week 2
Pull chart for loads

Oly skill
5 pressing snatch balance after every round of strict press
45/35 or lighter

Metcon
800m run
then
21-15-9
S2OH 105/75
Pull ups

Finisher
Lacrosse ball shoulders/back
Lacrosse glute
1 min banded IT stretch per
1 min band hammy per side

There were a lot of people at the 1815 class yesterday. I ended up working in on the strict press with two younger guys who are not as strong as I am. This also threw me a bit behind the class because I had to increase the weights they were using after each of their sets. My strict press was 3@110#, 3@125# and 5@140#. Coach Derrick said he thought I had three more reps in me for that max set. I could feel my low back protesting a bit which is why I stopped. I need to get a weightlifting belt that fits my currently and temporarily big gut.

The snatch balance was quite hard, first off my shoulders were tired and my heels were coming off the floor and pitching me forward. I think it was due to lack of mobility in my hips and ankles. Got to to work on those areas.

The metcon was a KILLER! Running outdoors on pavement, in the heat and humidity, going up and down even slight hills is a lot different that running indoors on a treadmill with no change of incline set up. Sunday I was able to run 1600M w/o stopping or walking at all on the treadmill. Yesterday I had to walk a two or three times to complete the 800M. Once again I was the last one back from the run by a long stretch. Oh and those young guys that I'm stronger than? They are way, way better at running, metcons and bodyweight movements than I am.

Then we were on to 3 round of Shoulder Two Over Head supersetted with Pull Ups. First round reps were 21 of each movement, 2nd round 15 reps each, 3rd round 9 reps. Remembering how a workout partner, Tyrone aka Tynado had me scale down the weight on power cleans the day before, I scaled the S2OH weight down to 95#. I can't yet do good pull ups so I did jumping pullups. I had to break the 21 and 15 rep rounds down into smaller chunks.

I'm so used to doing strict movements that I did my first round of S2OH strictly before I noticed that everyone else was doing a "push press", dipping a bit at the knees and using their legs to help get the weight up. Believe you me, I did push presses the 2nd and 3rd rounds.  I almost went unbroken on the round of 9, I had to wipe my sweaty hands after 3 reps of pull ups but I got the final 6 unbroken and I did the 9 S2OH unbroken with Coach Derrick urging me on.

I finished in 15:25. It really was a KILLER! There was one guy, older than most but I don't think he's older than me, still doing banded pull ups when I finished. Banded pull ups are harder than jumping pull ups, so I had an advantage. Plus I'm pretty sure he used the Rx weight for the S2OH.

 I didn't do the prescribed finisher. I did use a foam roller on my back and hip flexors. I also did my Prasara Yoga cool down routine. This was my fourth day in a row working out. I was feeling really beat down. I took a "Contrast Shower", which I read about on Confessions of a Crossfit Coach, in order to help speed my recovery when I got home. I also iced my back and right shoulder. By the time I had finished dinner my left hip socket was hurting so bad I could barely walk.

My doctor says the cartilage is just all rough and worn in there and there is nothing to be done about it. I'm not yet a candidate for hip replacement and hope I'll never be. The more weight I lose the less it should bother me and the only way to lose the weight is to move more and eat better and moving more just makes it hurt. So I've just got to suck it up and keep moving. However, I will be taking today off to give these aching joints a chance to settle down.

Leg Day

How many squats can you do? There were about 200 squats hidden in todays WOD. See if you can find the hidden squats. Oh, I did get to the box and changed in time to do most of my Intu-flow warm up prior to the official start up.

3rds
5 med ball cleans
5 box jumps
10 jing jangs

Strength
Back Squat
Week 2
Refer to your chart

Metcon
5 rounds of:
20 squats
10 burpees
5  powerclean 155/95

Finisher
100 knee tap crunch
Stretch

The back squat strength work was 3x3x200#,230#,260#. The last set was supposed to be max reps but my back kinda cracked in a weird way so I stopped. My legs probably were up for several more reps but I decided to play it safe.

I had loaded up my bar with 135# for the Metcon and was contemplating doing the Rx 155# but Ty suggested I use 115#. Great suggestion, that was plenty heavy enough as I haven't been doing power cleans. I never would have made it through with the heavier weight.

I made it through the 100 knee tap crunches in sets of 10 with just a pause to catch my breath a little. No extended breaks. No major cramping of the abs this time. I didn't really stretch out. I just wanted to get home to a shower, food and ICE for my back. Oh, I also spent a little time on my inversion table, too.

Distinct Tri Two Days Late

The WOD at Distinct Crossfit on Friday was

Run 1600M
Bike 3200M
Row 800M

I missed it because I didn't leave work soon enough and I needed to take my sons to TKD. I kinda' had it in my mind to make it up yesterday but I did the Aces Wild WOD as prescribed instead. So, I went out to the Furman PAC and did the best analog of the workout I could.

At Distinct we run outside on the road. Today I ran on a treadmill. Also, at the box we use Airdyne bikes whereas at Furman I used a recumbent style bike without the arm action. I did have access to a Concept 2 rower so that was the same.

1600M in 15:23
3200M in 8:56
814M in 4:22

Total Time 28:41

I took 12 seconds off my mile time! I wonder how much of that is due to not having to do any hills? I did run the entire 1600M which is a vast improvement. Almost all running I've been doing has been running interspersed with short walks.

A Crossfit Card Game

Hooray! I went to Distinct Crossfit on a Saturday morning! Last weekend I was in Lexington, KY for a wedding. The previous weekend was the Greenville Games. I'm not sure why I didn't go on Saturday 19 July 2014. I started this Crossfit journey on 18 July 2014. Oh well.

After a start up of halos, pass throughs and good mornings with PVC pipe, we played a Crossfit Card Game.

So, the way it worked was as follows. For a total of thirty minutes every time someone drew a spade we had to do burpees equaling the number on the card. Drawing clubs meant wall balls, diamonds meant pull ups and hearts meant Ground To Over Head with a barbell plate. My weight for the latter was 45 pounds. I did the low reps pullups w/ a band and did jumping pullups for the high reps. If we drew a face card that meant doing 11 reps. Aces meant a 400M run, however Coach Lindsay suggested I do 200M.

So, we did a total of 45 burpees, 47 wall balls, 38 pull ups and 46 GTOH. Alyssa and I did an extra 11 GTOH as I drew the king of diamonds just before the 30 minute time cap came up. We ran three times, so I got 600M of running. Any time we drew a joker Coach Lindsay had to do what we wanted. And we drew both. Alyssa had Lindsay do 11 unbroken pull ups. I had her do 11 burpees. After sitting around a while I finished up with Prasara Yoga for about 16 minutes.

Worst WOD So Far

Didn't get to box in time to do my extra warm up.

Start up
2rds
Walking front kicks
Walking heel grab
Walking hip opener
20 PVC good morning
120m run

Strength
1. Emom 5
    4 Front squat @ 65% of 1rm
2. Emom 5
    4 tng dead lifts @ 65% of 1rm

W.O.D
4RFT
4 mutant makers 145/75 (hang squat clean to thruster)
25 hrpu
25 unbroken double unders(if you break or trip up before 25 you must start over) RX2-25 double unders, mod 2/1 scale unbroken.

Finisher
90 sec of L Hang or L sit
1 min overhead band distraction
30 sec parallel arm stretch per side
30 sec of mod y hold per side

The start up went okay. I need to work a little harder on the heel grabs and hip openers. My front kicks are kinda low. I guess I need to work on increasing my mobility and flexibility for all of those. The strength portion was good. I did the front squats w/ 135# which was 65% of my 205 max. My problem w/ the front squats is getting a good rack position, again should mobility. I did the deadlifts w/ 180#, 65% of my 275# max from last week.

The the WOD. This sucked. I gave up after two rounds. I never got 10 consecutive single unders let alone 50. Double unders are way, way in my future. I really felt dejected. I should have kept on with the mutant makers and the hand release push ups for the whole four rounds. I won't give up again. I did the finisher but had to break the L Hang into sets of 10 seconds for the total 90 seconds. I skipped my extra yoga cool down. I just wanted to get home.

WOD Hit My Every Weakness

Didn't get to Distinct Crossfit in time to do my Intu-Flow warm up. Actually I did but I stood around talking instead of doing extra warm up.

So after taking five days off (three to go to Lexington, KY for my brother's wedding, and two because I was so freaking tired from the trip and disorganized) I hit the gym and of course it's a running and core-centric day. ARG!

Start up
1 min per station
Airdyne
Row
Rope slam
Jing jang
Mountain climbers

W.O.D
800m run
80 bicycle crunches
400m farmers carry 60/40 DB/KB
40 reverse burpees
200m run
20 ghdsu

Goat work
10 mins
Rope climb work
Work on wrapping and getting up the rope

Finisher
Stretch and roll

This was hard as shit. My core and running are two of weakest areas for now. It will get better. I had never done reverse burpees before, they ain't no joke. I haven't climbed a rope since junior high school. I ran my 800M in 6:46, which is super SLOW, and finished the WOD in 28:20. Slowest in the box. Damn, I'm too competitive to keep being so slow.

I tell you one thing, it's a whole lot better to get in shape and stay in shape than to let everything go and try to get in shape again. I did do my Prasara Yoga cool down.

Deadlifts Equal Scraped Shins

Got to the box in time to change and do my Intu-Flow before the official start up. My daughter came along with me to try Crossfit and to ask questions of the trainers and gym owner about getting into the fitness business.

Start up
Otm 5
10 burpees

Strength
12 min to establish 1rm Front Squat
12 min to establish 1rm Deadlift

Metcon(10 min)
2RFT
20 toe to bar
20 thrusters 95/65

Finisher
Stretch

So, to me 50 burpees is a workout but that was just the warm up for today. I got the first 3 sets of 10 with 15-20 seconds left in the minute before starting the next set. Then my abs started cramping up. I got only 5 reps on the 4th set and only three on the 5th set. I spent the remaining time in that 5th set stretching out my abs.

I never did a whole lot of front squats. When I did it wasn't in the front rack position, you know the clean position of a clean and jerk. My position was poor. I need more mobility in my shoulders and wrists. That and not the weight was really the limiting factor. I only got 205 pounds.

Deadlifts...this is the movement that I was doing 15 or 16 years ago when I tore my right glute. That injury set off a whole series of back problems over the years. I was frankly kind of scared. On top of that the stupid weight belt I bought kept popping off during my front squats so I didn't even use it on the deadlifts. I worked up to 275 pounds. At least I used such good form that I scraped my shins with the bar. Got to remember to either chalk my shins or use some other protection on deadlift days.

I felt like I probably could have gotten at least 315 but I ran out of time and like I said, I was kinda scared. My back was kind of tingly but I remembered a story on NPR: Pain In The Back? Exercise May Help You Learn Not To Feel It. I think I saw a similar story on CBS or NBC but I can't find it right now. I will get better.

The metcon 2 rounds with a 20 minute time cap of 20 toes to bar and 20 thrusters. I can't do T2B yet, so I did hanging knee ups. I did the thrusters with the prescribed 95 pounds. I didn't do any of them unbroken. I did the abs in sets of 5 to 20. I did the first set of thrusters in 5s. The second one I did 4 sets of three then Coach Derrick came over and urged me to finish up unbroken, I got the final 8 reps straight. It was a real cardiovascular challenge. Thrusters are HARD! Despite the cool weather I was soaking wet and breathing hard.

I didn't really stretch afterwards. I just sat around and put away my weights. Good workout for the fourth day in a row. Now three days off for travel. Oh and hooray for no running!

Getting Better at Running

I looked at today's workout and it was basically the Helen W.O.D. with Hand Release Push Ups (HRPU) substituted for pull ups. I didn't want to go but I did. I got to Distinct Crossfit in time to do my normal Intu-Flow warm up.

I only did 2 rounds of the startup. I didn't notice the 3 rounds line and after my first round was dicking around looking at the leader board, then I noticed people were still going through the startup exercises. I jumped back in but didn't have enough time to complete the third round. But I was sufficiently warmed up for the W.O.D. thanks to the Intu-Flow.

Start up
3 rounds
10 cal ride Airdyne
10 PVC goodmorings
10 PVC Over head squats
5 Downward Dog to Upward Dog

W.O.D.
3 RFT
400m run
21 KBS (53/35)
12 HRPU

Goat work(8-10 mins)
Choose one
Pull ups/chest to bar/mu skill
Rope climb wrap
Pistols
Double unders

Finisher
50 leg ext to hip raise
Smash/roll sore muscles

I did the W.O.D. in 15:46. That was a huge slice of time off my first Helen, which was 23:40. Nearly 8 minutes better!  Shoot just one week ago it took me 15:35 just to run 1600M. Thanks to Lindsay Decken for coming out to run my final 400M with me. She was finished way ahead of me and could have just waited at the box, but she came back out. Having her along really helped though I did have to walk some on the uphill stretch headed back to the gym.

I worked on jumping rope again for my skill work. I should probably work on some other skill next time we have Goat work. and just work on my jump rope on my own time daily. The leg ext to hip raise was a killer. I got 10 reps to start, though my reps were probably poor compared to other folks. The I did sets of 5, thens sets of 2 and finished up w/ 3 sets of 3 to get 50 total reps. I thought I wasn't going to be able to get up and walk my abs were so tight. But I managed after lying on the mat a bit then doing some upward facing dog again to stretch my abs. I didn't have the energy for my normal prasara cool down plus it was almost 1930.

Three workouts in a row! Better running and 5 pounds heavier on my kettlebell swings! Hooray!