Bottoms Up

I'm still here.

This past week has passed me by. I've been meaning to post, I've been busy with the kids while Michelle was at the 2012 Weston A. Price Foundation Conference. Blogging is fun and all, but so is running around the house playing Batman versus Iron Man and singing Weird Al Yankovic tunes at the top of our lungs.

Anyway, here's the latest rundown on my gym activities.

Friday

Strength Skill:

• Bottoms Up Kettlebell Cleans (5-5-5-5-5-5, one set every 3 minutes)

The rest of the class continued working on barbell cleans, and I wish I could've joined 'em. I've been feeling sharp pangs of envy whenever I watch other people practice cleans. So I did my bottoms-up kettlebell cleans in the back of the gym, and tried my best not to watch my classmates heave their barbells around.

Metcon:

• "Jackie" - for time:
• Row 1,000 meters
• 50 thrusters (45lbs / 35lbs)
• 30 pull-ups

It's only been a few months since we last did "Jackie," though this time around, I wasn't able to do the thrusters with a barbell. Instead, to ease the pressure on my wrist, I did double kettlebell cleans and presses, which approximated -- but didn't equal -- the experience of thrusting the barbell overhead.

Jackie still wrecked me (per usual). But the first squat after getting off the erg is the hardest, and once I pushed through the KB cleans and presses, the pull-ups went fairly quickly.

Result: 8:22 -- significantly faster than my 9:51 from June, but I did it RXed that time.

Monday

Strength Skill:

• Back Squats (3-2-1-1-1-1)

I was happy to hit a new PR at 245 pounds -- though I suspect I had some left in the tank.

Metcon:

• 21 burpees
• 21 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 21 Abmat sit-ups
• 15 burpees
• 15 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 15 Abmat sit-ups
• 9 burpees
• 9 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 9 Abmat sit-ups

Pretty straightforward stuff -- and a workout I didn't have to modify to accommodate my wrist injury! (Well, I did have to do the push-up portion of the burpees from my fists, but that doesn't really count, does it?)

The overhead kettlebell swings slowed me down a bit. Seventy pounds is half my bodyweight, and every time I swung that iron ball, it threatened to pull me off my feet.

On the plus side: No Abmat ass-crack rash!

7:49 RXed

I'm Hating My Wrist Right Now

I don't know what I did to my right wrist, but for over a week now, it's felt like crap every time I flex it. On Friday, we were supposed to work on touch-and-go cleans at the gym (five sets of five, one set every three minutes), but when I attempted to warm up with just an unloaded barbell, my wrist started screaming at me to stop.

Tim suggested that I ditch the barbell cleans and work instead on bottoms-up kettlebell cleans to help rehab my wrist. I kept the weights light -- this was the first time I'd attempted bottoms-up cleans, and the last thing I wanted was to exacerbate my mysterious injury. It was a bummer that I wasn't able to practice touch-and-go barbell cleans, but on the plus side: New skill!

Next up: The metcon.

3 rounds:

• 1 minute max effort calorie row
• 1 minute max effort toes through rings
• 1 minute max effort wall balls (20lbs / 14lbs)
• 1 minute rest

The calorie row and toes through rings weren't a problem. With my right wrist wrapped tightly with a wrist strap, the calorie row and toes-through-rings weren't a problem. Neither required much wrist flexion. I actually had a fantastic time with the toes-through-rings -- I found 'em to be much easier on the hands than toes-to-bars, and it was pretty easy to maintain a good kipping rhythm throughout.

The wall balls, on the other hand, were murder. I plodded along slowly, relying on my left (weaker) arm to toss and catch the medicine ball. Note to self: One-armed wall balls are not a good idea. Each minute yielded fewer than 10 wall ball shots.

Result: 123 as RXed.

I was hoping a weekend of R&R (and a mind-blowing meal) would fix what ails me, but alas: No dice. My wrist isn't any better. When my alarm clock started buzzing at 4:20 a.m., I briefly considered turning over and going back to sleep. But I thought better of it: There would be something I could do at the gym that involves no wrist flexion. And after a sedentary weekend, I was ready to get off my butt again.

The strength skill was front squats. To save my wrists, I did back squats (five sets of three, one set every three minutes) instead. Again, I took it easy, going only up to 185 pounds. I focused instead on maintaining proper form -- in particular, keeping my knees from collapsing inward during my ascent from the bottom.

More good news: The metcon didn't involve a whole lotta wrist action.

For time:

• 10 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 240 meters
• 20 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 30 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 800 meters

Before the workout, I'd planned to go with the women's RXed weight, but Tim gave me a skeptical look. "Way too light," he said. He was right. I went with a pair of 40 pound dumbbells, but I probably would've done fine with the 45s. In fact, the dumbbell burpees were more fun than I'd anticipated, though my quads were burning by the third round.

Even all that running felt good in the cool, misty darkness.

Result: 13:23.

Bear Complex!

What's a bear complex, you ask?

It's a barbell complex that consists of 5 rounds of 7 sets of the following sequence:

• Power Clean
• Front Squat
• Push-Press
• Back Squat
• Push-Press

You can't set the barbell down until each round is complete. Rest as needed between rounds, but keep increasing the load on the barbell until you find your max. Your score is the max weight with which you were able to complete a full round.

It sounds easy until you realize that this complex consists of 175 lifts in total.

Or until you watch others struggle through it.



Or until you try it yourself.

I tried it once before in my garage, but had forgotten how much I sucked at it, so I was excited to try it again with the rest of the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto. I was feeling giddy, and blazed through the first three rounds (at 65 pounds, 75 pounds, and 85 pounds). My plan was to lift 95 pounds during the fourth round and then jump to 115 for my final round, but Tim convinced me I was being a dummy. "Do the jump now, before you're too tired. Go for 105."

I finished (albeit just barely) the fourth round at 105. Good thing, too, because after I loaded the barbell up to 115, I crapped out before I could finish the final two sets of the fifth round. Was it disappointing? Yes. But I also enjoyed every second of this barbell complex, even as sweat poured off me in sheets.

I can't wait to attempt this one again. (And I will -- just as soon as I can move back into my house. I miss my garage gym.)

You're Never Too Old to Deadlift Over 400 Pounds

Joe Stockinger -- age 82 -- is my hero.

Wednesday's Workout: CrossFit Austin

Sorry I've been M.I.A. -- we're down in Austin for the inaugural PaleoFX conference (a.k.a., the Gathering of the Paleos), and our schedules have been jam-packed. 

M and I are staying in a house filled with Paleo people, including Bill and Hayley (Primal Palate), Diane (Balanced Bites), Stacy (Paleo Parents), Liz and Spence (CaveGirlEats), Diana (Radiance Nutrition), Bobby (UltraGrassFed), and Laura (Ancestralize Me). And of course, you can't have large gatherings of Paleo folk without a visit to a CrossFit box.

Clad in Nom Nom Paleo socks, about most of our house's residents -- plus George of Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations -- visited CrossFit Austin today. The box is just five minutes from our house, so even though we got a late start to the day, we managed to hustle over there for the noon class.

I've been under the weather for a couple of days, so I wasn't feeling super-awesome as we pulled up to the gym. But I was hoping a good workout would knock the cold right out of me.

After a directed warm-up (very similar to what we do at CrossFit Palo Alto, down to the lunges and punter-kicks), we got down to business.

Skills Practice:

• Kipping Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
• Ring Push-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
• Lateral Step-ups (3 sets of 5 per leg, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)

These were fun. I enjoy the rhythmic motion of kipping pull-ups, and chest-to-bar pull-ups were a nice change of pace. The lateral step-ups and push-ups were a pleasant way to knock some rust off, too.

But then came the metcon workout.

Metcon:

2-3 Person Team Workout - 20 Minute AMRAP of:

• 500-meter row
• 200-meter farmer's walk (55lb / 35lb in each hand)
• Sumo Complex: 10 sumo deadlifts and 10 sumo back squats (135lb / 95lb)

In this workout, each person starts at a different station, and you can move onto the next station only after your teammate has finished that movement. I was on a team with George and Spence -- two incredibly strong guys -- so my only goal today was to avoid slowing them down...too much.

I started with the sumo complex, and had Spence on standby in case I couldn't hoist the 135-pound barbell over my head and onto my back. But I managed to get through all the squats, deadlifts, and the rowing without too much trouble.

The farmer's carry, on the other hand, was rough. We carried 55 pounds in each hand, and it felt like our wrists were going to explode. Here's Diane, expressing how all of us felt:

I managed to get two-thirds of the way through my third round. Spence and George got through three rounds each, so we ended with a score of 8 -- almost 9! -- full rounds as RXed.

We were pretty wiped by the end of the hour, but still had enough energy to pose for photos.

And one of us (*cough*Diane*cough*) had enough left in the tank to climb a rope using just her arms.

[Note: The crappy photos above are mine; the good ones are by Bobby Gill]

Friday's Workout: Barbell Tabata

No better way to kick off the weekend than with a good thrashing.

Strength Skill: 

• Strict Weighted Pull-ups (5-3-3-1-1) 

I finished with 40 pounds on the weight vest, but I'm not even remotely close to my previous PR. The groove needs grease!

Metcon:

"A Lotta Tabata":

• 6 rounds of Tabata muscle snatches (45lbs / 35lbs - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest)
• Rest 1 minute
• 6 rounds of Tabata back squat to push-presses (45lbs / 35lbs - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest)
• Rest 1 minute
• 6 rounds of Tabata deadlift to bar push-ups (135lbs / 95lbs - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest)
• Rest 1 minute
• 6 rounds of Tabata split jerks (45lbs / 35lbs - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest)
• Rest 1 minute

For each of the four movements, count the lowest number of reps achieved in one 20-second set. Add up the four numbers for your score.

Hoo, boy. Who knew lifting an empty bar could be such a punch in the gut?

The muscle snatches weren't so bad. I did ten reps in each of the first few rounds, and I tried my damnedest not to dip below that number. But towards the end, I managed only nine muscle snatches in 20 seconds.

After a too-short one-minute breather, I had the same experience with the back squat to push-presses (which, for all intents and purposes, is just like a behind-the-head barbell thruster). I started with ten reps in each of the early rounds, but dipped down to nine by the end.

Even with exhaustion beginning to set in, I had a great time with the deadlift to bar push-ups (do a deadlift, then set the barbell down and do a push-up with your hands gripping the bar, touching your chest to the barbell). This is an unbelievably awesome full-body movement. It takes a while to do, though, and I managed only four full reps with each round.

Last up: Split jerks. Not having done these before, it took me a while to get accustomed to the movement. My natural inclination was to plant my right (dominant) foot forward and shoot my left leg back, but dorsiflexing my left ankle still makes me wince. After attempting that once, I switched it up, jumping my left leg forward so I could land more flat-footed. Unfortunately, my experimentation cost me a rep, and in my first set, I managed only seven split jerks. I was able to crank out eight in each of the next three rounds, but the extra rep didn't count, so in the final two sets, I decided to stop when I reached seven.

I got tired. Sue me.

Result: 9 + 9 + 4 + 7 = 29 as RXed.

Wednesday's Workout: Rowing Makes Me Sick

ROWING. Why'd it have to be rowing?

Metcon:

3 rounds for time:

• One minute to complete 20 air squats
• One minute to row max distance (in meters)
• One minute to complete 10 pull-ups
• One minute to row max distance (in meters)
• One minute to complete 10 burpees
• One minute to row max distance (in meters)

Scoring is calculated by totaling the number of meters rowed.

I make no secret of the fact that rowing is the bane of my CrossFitting existence. "Hate" is not too strong a word to use when describing how I feel about having to climb onto the erg. But that's also why I force myself to practice. We keep an erg in our garage, and I dutifully mount that torture device every few days in the hopes that one day, I'll suck less at rowing.

Did my homework help me in today's WOD? Yes and no. I rowed with improved form and maintained a good stroke rate, but the sheer exertion required -- especially with squats, pull-ups and burpees thrown into the mix -- took a toll. My legs felt like flaming jelly by the middle of the second round. And the final round of 10 burpees took me the entire minute to complete. Every time I stumbled back to the rower, my pace got slower. Eighteen minutes after the start of the workout, I limped to the finish.

Result: 2,239 total meters as RXed (meaning I did the pull-ups unassisted). My pace was just under 250 meters per minute.

I'm satisfied with my score -- despite the fact that it's not my best performance on the erg. Last July, I rowed 2K in 7:45, keeping a pace of a little over 260 meters per minute -- before collapsing on my couch at home and immediately coming down with a fever.

Well, it's nice to know that some things stay the same, 'cause once again, I feel a cold coming on. For some reason, rowing 2K+ appears to be a surefire way to thrash my immune system and lower my defenses against the germs that my kids generously bring home from school.

Good times.

Supergirl

Naomi Kutin is 9 years old and weighs 88 pounds. And earlier this month, at the New England Powerlifting Championship in Vermont, she set youth-class records for both the deadlift (193 pounds) and back squat (187 pounds -- enough to eclipse even the previous record of 180 pounds in the WOMEN'S Open division).



This is a girl who's still too short to get the barbell off the squat stand -- and yet she's already squatting more than double her bodyweight.



When I was nine years old, my greatest accomplishment was learning how to make fart noises with my hands.

[Source]

This Looks Safe

I can finally put our stability ball to good use.