Saturday's Workout

Yesterday, at the end of the 5 a.m. workout, our coach casually mentioned that the Saturday morning class would be doing "Angie" -- one of the original CrossFit benchmark workouts:

For time:

• 100 pull-ups
• 100 push-ups
• 100 sit-ups
• 100 squats

It looks like this:



Well, hell. I didn't want to miss this. "Angie" is a bodyweight-focused WOD, and therefore totally up my alley. But I'm playing suburban dad today -- shuttling the boys to martial arts class and a soccer game -- so there's no way I'm going to make it to the gym.

Thankfully, the only piece of equipment required for "Angie" is a pull-up bar, and I have one in my garage. And the kids weren't going to get out of bed until 7:30, so...

It was a no-brainer to start the day with "Angie," right?

Not so much. The first dozen or so pull-ups went off without a hitch, but then it started to really, really suck as my forearms started to cramp up. Soon, I found myself unable to string together more than three pull-ups in a row without dropping off the bar. It took me almost ELEVEN MINUTES just to get through the pull-ups.

Thankfully, the other three exercises in "Angie" are solidly in my wheelhouse. I cranked out all 100 push-ups in 3 minutes, and the sit-ups (my favorite -- not kidding) took even less time. My plan of attack with the squats was to break them up into five sets of 20, and just fly through them. It worked.

I finished "Angie" in 19:47.

If I can manage to improve my pull-up time (and, say, cut it in half), I might be able to one day complete this workout in less than 15 minutes, which would be awesome.

Of course, even then, I still wouldn't come close to Chris Spealler's 10:11 "Angie" time. I mean, the guy started by stringing together 70 straight pull-ups, fer cryin' out loud.

Round 2 / Day 89: 100 Pull-Ups, 200 Push-Ups + P90X Ab Ripper X

I'm trying to slowly but surely increase the number of reps I do with weights strapped to my belt. Today: 35 pull-ups with a 20 pounds of weight strapped to my belt, 35 pull-ups with 10 extra pounds, and another 30 pull-ups with no extra weight. Not much more than last week, though I added another 50 push-ups. Baby steps, I guess.

Round 2 / Day 82: 100 Pull-Ups + 150 Push-Ups + P90X Ab Ripper X

Today, I did one-third of my pull-ups with 20 pounds chained to my belt, one-third with 10 pounds chained to my belt, and one-third with no added weight.

And I think my arms are going to fall off.

Round 2 / Day 76: 100 Pull-Ups + 150 Push-Ups

When I woke up at dawn, my sinuses were still congested and my throat was still sore, so I had a decent excuse to skip Ab Ripper X this morning.

Still, I managed to heave myself up and over my pull-up bar 100 times. The first 25 reps were done with an extra 20 pounds chained to my belt, though I lightened my load by 10 pounds for the next 25. I cranked out my last 50 with no added weight, but they felt just as tough (if not more) than my first 25. I also threw in a bunch of push-ups -- the last 30 of which were Atomic Push-Ups performed with my TRX suspension system.

My goal? To work my way up to a full "Angie" CrossFit workout, which consists of 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats -- performed as quickly as possible.

Round 2 / Day 68: 100 Pull-Ups + P90X Ab Ripper X

This morning, I decided to do 50 weighted pull-ups before finishing with 50 standard ones. With this workout, I want to build strength (rather than focus on my conditioning or endurance), so I'm starting each rep from a dead hang in order to avoid using momentum to assist me (so no kipping pull-ups -- at least for now). To keep proper form without exhausting myself, I had to limit myself to low-rep sets, so the workout took a bit longer than I expected. Still, I'm feeling much better about my pull-up numbers than I was just a couple of months ago. Practice, practice, practice, right?

That said, I would never attempt this: