It's immensely stupid of me to hit the gym on just four hours of sleep, but I did it anyway.
Strength Skill:
Turkish Get-Ups (1. 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 - each side)
I did fine. I stuck with light weights (12 and 16 kilograms), and focused on ensuring good positioning of my free hand. And even the 12 kilogram kettlebell was enough to get my shoulders nice and engaged -- just in time for:
101 push-presses for time (95# / 65#), with a 5-burpee penalty every time the barbell is set down on the floor.
I'll admit it: For the first half of the WOD, I certainly tried to "game" system by resting the bar across the back of my neck and shoulders when I was too tired to continue. And for a while, it worked -- I got through the first 50 push-presses without having to do any burpees.
But as the workout wore on, the heavier the barbell got (even though I was only using 80 pounds and not the RXed 95). After Rep Number 50, I reluctantly lowered the barbell to the ground and did my requisite burpees....slowly. I broke the remaining push-presses into sets of 10, and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to do another four or five rounds of burpee before hitting the magic number of 101 push-press reps.
Result: 12:13.
Yeesh. I literally fell asleep while writing this post. Must. Go. To. Sleep.
For a while now, I've felt like I've plateaued in strength, but this week has seen a couple of unexpected breakthroughs. On Wednesday, I nabbed a new Zercher squat PR, and today, I eked out a push-press PR when I managed to lock out with the equivalent of my bodyweight hoisted above my head.
It's not like this came out of nowhere -- we have, after all, been working on these movements for the past month at CrossFit Palo Alto. Nonetheless, I was caught a bit off guard because my sleep has been HORRIBLE. Between work, kids, travel, battling colds, and frantically piecing together the content for the Nom Nom Paleo app, neither M nor I have enjoyed much shut-eye these days. It's ironic that we're constantly telling people they need to prioritize sleep, but we never sleep ourselves.
Sadly, April looks to be even crazier -- but I plan on spending the entire month of May in bed, unconscious.
Metcon:
"11,250"
Based on the CrossFit Love deadlift challenge from 2010, this workout involves deadlifting 11,250 pounds for time. It doesn't really matter how you hit the magic number. You can do 50 reps at 225, or 61 reps at 185. Heck, you could probably even do 250 reps at 45 pounds, though that would be an entirely different sort of workout.
As you may recall, I'm now a little leery of high-rep, heavy deadlift metcons, so I decided to go with 185 pounds rather than the heavier weight. I'm glad I did; the barbell was plenty heavy once I sped through the first two dozen reps. Once I racked up 30 reps, I hit a wall, and had to pause after every two or three reps.
Result: 6:14 as RXed. Not exactly speedy. Tim pointed out that Austin Malleolo did this workout in less than one minute, which didn't exactly make me feel better about my performance:
(Austin is insanely strong, but I have to say that after watching his deadlift form, my back wants to weep.)
All I can say is: Ouch. This workout -- an AMRAP of 15 box jumps, 12 push-presses, and 9 toes-to-bar -- was indeed a punch in the face. And gut. And crotch. Simultaneously.
My box jumps and toes to bar weren't too bad, but my push-presses stunk up the place. I resorted to split-jerking most of my reps because I'm evidently still too puny to push-press dozens of reps at 115 pounds. Even so, I lifted at a glacial pace and no-repped a half-dozen times. In the end, I managed to only get through 4 full rounds and 10 additional box jumps.
Gah -- 115-pound push-presses are on the menu for the Open WOD 12.3 at CrossFit Palo Alto tomorrow, along with a crapload of box jumps and toes-to-bar. That's a purdy heavy weight for me. I have a feeling that those eighteen minutes are going to be a punch in the face.
Good thing we had a chance to practice today.
Strength Skill:
Push-Presses (5-5-3-3-3)
I paired up with the Terminator, who has a bum shoulder, and therefore at less than full cyborg strength. We did the presses from a rack, and finished with 115 pounds on our final set. Tomorrow, we have to do 'em from the floor. Twelve at a time. Between box jumps and toes-to-bar. For eighteen minutes straight.
Again: Gah. Guess who's going to be doing some jerks tomorrow?
Metcon:
At least we had a nice barn-burner of a metcon today.
2 rounds for time:
40 double-unders
30 kettlebell transfers (24kg / 16kg)
20 Abmat sit-ups
10 ring rows
I tripped up a few times with the jump rope, but otherwise, this one blazed by.
I paired up with the Terminator today, but I couldn't match the weight he was squatting. I couldn't even match my own PR of 205 (set over a half-year ago). In my last set, I eked out a few reps at 195 pounds, but ended up dumping the weight. New goal for this cycle: 215 or bust.
Surprise! No metcon today -- just lots of barbell work, which I loved. This was perfect for me; my metabolic conditioning's already pretty decent, but I'm nowhere near as strong as I'd like to be. I was excited to see a WOD pop up on the schedule at CrossFit Palo Alto today that prioritized strength and form over speed.
In place of the metcon, here's what we did:
5 rounds (not for time):
4 strict presses
3 push-presses
2 push jerks
I eventually made it up to 105 pounds, but this workout was harder than it looked. Just because the clock wasn't ticking didn't mean I wasn't getting fatigued by all the pressing and jerking.
Speaking of fatigue, I'm passing out as I type this. Not kidding. Must. Sleep. Now...
After five long days away from the gym, I was looking forward to joining my fellow 5 a.m. nutjobs at CrossFit Palo Alto today. Alas, M was at work, and my in-laws weren't available this morning, so I was grounded again. I wish I could say I slept in, but like clockwork, my eyes popped open at 4:20 a.m. Groaning, I pulled the covers over my head and tried to go back to sleep.
Another bummer: I missed the triumphal return of XFitMama. Despite giving birth less than two months ago, she's already in full-on beast mode: She did the WOD as RXed on her first day back at the gym. (Not a surprise, considering that this is the same firebreather who was doing WODs with unassisted pull-ups while nine months pregnant.)
Despite missing the 5 a.m. class, I was determined not to skip another day at the gym. I'd considered (for about a half-second) being a smart, reasonable person and resting my ankle, but I'm pretty sure I would've gone stir crazy if I'd stayed away. So in the end, I moved heaven and earth (otherwise known as a meeting and a conference call) in order to hit the noon class at the gym.
The class was packed with familiar faces; it was great to hang out with Lawyerhands (who thoughtfully brought me a bag filled with OldSkoolBoarder's various ankle braces), Carol (who occasionally pops in at 5 a.m.), Alma, Carmela, Jimmy and others. It was also oddly gratifying to see that I wasn't the only one with a bum foot in class today. Two(!) others were hobbling around due to extracurricular injuries, and during warm-ups, the three of us formed a sad little group in the corner, unable to do jumping jacks and high-knees.
Strength Skill:
Cleans (5-5-5-3-3)
Jimmy (who also has a sprained ankle) and I paired up and got through two ankle-jarring sets of cleans before we hung it up. Tim had us practice kettlebell cleans instead, which -- while a nice change of pace -- aren't quite as fun as squat-cleaning a barbell. Then again, I'm biased: I discovered today that I kind of suck at kettlebell cleans. Another skill to practice!
Metcon:
"9/11" - 5 rounds for time:
9 push-presses (95lbs / 65lbs)
11 knees-to-elbows
I did a few push-presses yesterday in the garage, and they were less than comfortable whenever I dipped and forced my ankles to flex. But for whatever reason (maybe because I took Tim up on his offer to treat my ankle by yanking on my foot before class?), my push-presses were surprisingly decent. This isn't to say that I was particular fast or graceful during today's WOD. On more than one occasion, I tipped forward at the top of my presses, which lifted me awkwardly onto my toes. And starting in the third round, I had to dump the bar a couple of times mid-set, which slowed me down considerably. My knees-to-elbows weren't super-fast, either -- but on the plus side, I didn't further wreck my hands.
Tim wasn't there. For the first time ever, he didn't coach the 5 a.m. crew. (He's in Colorado with Kristen to help pace The 6 Soles as they run the Leadville 100.)
Trish (M's coach) was our fearless leader today, and shook us out of our routine by having us perform unfamiliar movements (during our warm-up and cool-down). Like Tim, she's all kinds of awesome, but in a totally different way.
We set an attendance record! Fourteen bodies were in the gym this morning before the crack of dawn to get our WOD on. If just one more person had shown up, we'd have been at capacity for the first time ever. (Yes, Blake, I'm talking about you.)
Strength Skill:
L-Sits / Pass-Throughs / Skin-the-Cat
Gymnastics are fun. I wish I were better at 'em, though -- in particular, my L-Sits could use some work. I used to have a pair of parallettes at home, but my mother-in-law crushed one of them with the garage door. Time for a trip to the Home Depot, I guess.
Metcon:
7 rounds for time:
7 dumbbell push-presses (45lbs / 30lbs)
7 pull-ups
I flirted briefly with the idea of going RXed, but by the time I went to grab the sole pair of 45-pound dumbbells, the Terminator had scooped them up. Trish pointed out that I could do the WOD with a pair of 20kg kettlebells, but after trying 'em out, I ended up chickening out. By the time I put the kettlebells back, only the 30-pound dumbbells were left. (Lucky me!)
Yeesh. These aren't getting any easier. I almost regret having done that one solitary dead-hang muscle-up once upon a time -- and then never attempting them again. Now, all these months later, I'm starting to fear that it may have been a fluke.
But you know what'll banish that thought? ANOTHER MUSCLE-UP. That's my goal for next Friday.
Looks straightforward enough, right? But wait a second: What are medicine ball V-ups?
I shouldn't have asked.
You start by squeezing a 20-pound medicine ball between your feet. Lie down with your arms up over your head. Pike up with your legs and arms straight, passing the ball from your feet to your hands at the top of the movement. With your arms and legs outstretched, lie back down and touch the ball to the ground above your head. Then, do a sit-up while holding the ball up with straight arms until you're upright enough to place the ball between your feet again. That's ONE rep.
The push-presses weren't all that fun, either.
Result: 151 points (as RXed). It was fun, but my lack of physical coordination was a major hindrance today. Fumbling around with a medicine ball cost me a lot of time and reps.
On the plus side, at the end of the WOD, we got a visit from our buddy Mint. Aside from XFitMama and me, Mint's the longest-tenured member of the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto -- and an all-around amazing and inspiring guy. But he's been absent from class for over a month now; like the Terminator, he's recovering from surgery.
Mint probably wants me to shut up about him already, so I'll just say this: We have sorely missed his deadpan jokes, his penchant for singing along to Social Distortion during WODs, and his ugly green shoes. It's not been the same without him, so he better get his butt back in the gym soon.
It wasn’t because my left leg was banged up (see, e.g., Chyna Cho in last year's Games). My decision was fueled instead by a fear that I’d fail to crank out unassisted pistols with my weaker left leg – and I really wanted to go RXed that day.
Stupid? Totally. And my right butt cheek still hasn’t forgiven me for that fiasco.
Today was my opportunity to make amends.
Strength Skill:
Weighted Pistols (2 sets of 5, 3 sets of 3)
My left leg is still significantly weaker than my right. I can bust out pistols with my dominant (right) leg all day (well, not all day), but I'm still prone to collapsing to the floor when attempting the squats from my left side.
Thankfully, I find pistols to be infinitely easier when I'm clutching a kettlebell in my hands. Perhaps it's the counterbalancing weight that keeps me from toppling over, or maybe the kettlebell just reminds me to keep my core tight throughout the movement. Either way, it works, and that's all I care about.
Metcon:
3 rounds for time:
400-meter run
21 dumbbell push-presses (45/30)
12 pull-ups
After a couple of weeks on the road, the Terminator was back in class today. It was good to have him back to explode out of the gate and set an impossibly fast pace for the WOD.
The push-presses were the most challenging part of this workout -- I had to drop my pair of dumbbells more than a few times -- but overall, this one wasn't too bad. After weeks of rain, it felt great to run outside (no puddles!). And despite my achy hands, the pull-ups came smooth and fast today
Result: 12:20 -- a good forty seconds behind the Terminator. (I like to tell myself that it's more fun to chase him than to be chased by him. But I'm starting to suspect that I'm a liar.)
Before starting, my goal was to avoid taking any mid-set breaks -- especially during the push-presses (I hate cleaning the bar up off the ground). I failed spectacularly, taking one break during the push-presses, one during the toes-to-bars, three during the burpees, and two during the sumo deadlift high pulls. Still, in the end, I think that breaking everything up into mini-sets of 5 to 10 reps was definitely the way to go. I doubt I could have finished this workout otherwise. (Even launching right into burpees immediately after finishing a long set of toes-to-bars was crazy-difficult; it took a few reps before the feeling came back to my hands and forearms.) By taking a breather here and there, the wheels never came off, and I still had some gas at the end.
Besides, as my coach proclaimed: "If you don't need to break up your sets, you're not lifting enough weight."
Some experts -- like renowned strength coach Mike Boyle -- aren't fans of front squats, but I like 'em. Maybe it's because I'm still relatively new to O-lifting, but I've seen steady improvement over the past few months, and I'm gradually inching towards a 1.5X bodyweight front squat. (I do, however, need to be more mindful of my form; I've noticed that I tend to favor my right leg, especially when going heavy on squats.)
Basically, you throw a bunch of weights onto a barbell -- then, by hook or by crook, you hoist it from the floor to an overhead position, with your arms locked out at the top. Most people accomplish this using a clean-and-jerk technique. Others clean the barbell up to their shoulders, and then push-press the bar up.
This guy finished in less than 90 seconds (which, by the way, is pretty darn good -- he's right there with top CrossFit Games competitors):
Me? I used just 95 pounds (instead of the men's RX'ed weight of 135) and it took me 4:40 to finish. Clearly, I have quite a bit of room for improvement.
So much for resting on the weekends. This is what I did today.
Fight Gone Bad is a WOD that also doubles as CrossFit's signature annual charity fundraising event. It started five years ago, and has since raised over $2 million. This year, the three nonprofits supported by Fight Gone Bad 5 are LIVESTRONG, The Wounded Warrior Project and the CrossFit Foundation.
Here's the workout: You rotate through five stations, spending one minute at each:
Wall ball: 20 pound ball, 10 foot target. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
Sumo deadlift high pull: 75 pounds. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
Box Jump: 20″ box. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
Barbell push-press: 75 pounds. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
Row: Your butt off. Each calorie burned (according to the monitor) is scored as 1 point.
Rest one minute, and then repeat the five stations. Rest another minute, and then repeat 'em all again. Three rounds in total.
The clock isn't reset or stopped between exercises; someone just calls out “rotate,” and you immediately stagger from one station to next.
Almost two dozen of us packed into our little CrossFit box for Fight Gone Bad (and for the post-workout birthday barbecue for Tim, our coach). Many of us dragged along family members and friends, too. I brought my kids (ages 2 and 5), who watched (with almost zero interest) as multiple heats of sweaty men and women jumped, rowed, and frantically heaved medicine balls and barbells around the gym.
You may not believe this, but my plan was to just watch everyone else pummel themselves with Fight Gone Bad. It's not that I didn't want to join in, but M's working this weekend, so I was supposed to be keeping an eye on the kids -- something I wouldn't be able to do if I were in the middle of a long WOD. But a few of the other adults volunteered to watch the boys, so at the last minute, I changed out of my khakis and into a pair of shorts and grabbed a score sheet.
I won't lie: Fight Gone Bad kicked my ass. I went into the workout hoping I could score at least 15 points per station, so my goal was to hit 225 in total. But by the time the third round started, I was running on fumes. Screw 225 -- my goal was just to finish without passing out in front of my kids.
In the end, I was happy to eke out 209 points -- and pleased that I did it without scaling down the difficulty of any of the exercises. (I stuck with the standard RXed weights for men.)
Result: I was one burpee into my seventh round when the clock ran out. This was murder on the wrists, but I thoroughly enjoyed the bear crawls and burpees. (The shoulder-to-overheads? Not so much.)
More groove-greasing. This ought to look familiar by now:
2 sets of deadlifts
2 sets of presses
2 sets of weighted pull-ups
For good measure, I threw in some roll-outs and air squats, and I practiced doing handstands and double-unders. But overall, I tried to take it easy today. I love me some rest and recovery.
Squat cleans! Three sets of 5, and three sets of 3.
Today's metcon:
3 rounds for time:
400-meter sprint
60' overhead walking lunges (self-explanatory: do walking lunges while holding a weight plate overhead)
25 plyo box jumps
I finished (profusely sweating and out of breath) in 11:55.
Afterwards, I went home and completed Day Three of my Power to the People program: 2 sets of 5 deadlifts, 2 sets of 5 presses, and 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups.
All before 7 a.m.! (Which means I'm going to collapse before 9 p.m. tonight.)
I'm now making my way through Tsatsouline's "Power to the People," a book focused on building raw strength through daily practice of just two exercises: deadlifts and presses.
The "Russian strength secret" that Tsatsouline teaches in "Power to the People" can be summarized in one sentence: "Train heavy, but keep the volume, or the total number of reps per workout, low." Why? So we can "minimize the amount of 'torn down' muscle -- and the reconstruction that follows."
This approach won't turn anyone into a bodybuilder because the point isn't to grow big-ass muscles. Rather, the focus is on gaining "wiry strength" such that "[m]ost likely your measurements will not increase, while your weight will go up a few pounds. the packing density of your muscles' contractile proteins has increased, the first thing to happen when 'real' muscle growth takes place." By periodizing and increasing the amount of weight that's being lifted but without going to exhaustion, Tsatsouline says, you can steadily enhance your full-body strength without constantly destroying and rebuilding the muscles in your body
Sounds good to me. My health and fitness goals don't include bulking up or becoming a bodybuilder. I do, however, want to get stronger, and I definitely want to improve my deadlift. So this program sounds like it's worth a shot.
Whole9 modified/customized Tsatsouline's "Power to the People" program by adding some warm-ups and metcons to the deadlifts and presses. It's simple and easy to follow, which is a big part of why I've decided to try it starting today. On the days I don't head to my CrossFit class, I'm going to follow the Whole9 program and see where it can take me in 2-3 months' time.
Hence, my workout today was cribbed directly from Whole9:
DAY ONE
Buy-in: 3 rounds of 0:20 handstand hold + 15 KB swings (Russian) + 10 plyo box jumps
Deadlift: Warm up with some DLs at lighter weight
Set 1: 60% of 1RM, 3-5 reps
Set 2: 90% of Set 1, 3-5 reps
Press: Warm up with some presses at lighter weight
Set 1: 60% of 1RM, 3-5 reps
Set 2: 90% of Set 1, 3-5 reps
Cash out: 3 rounds for time of 30 Double-Unders + 15 Hanging Knees-to-Elbows
I followed Whole9's directions carefully and used weights that felt too light for me. I'm sure it'll get harder as the program progresses, but right now, I can't see how this is going to get me that much stronger.
Still, the full workout wiped me out completely. I'm nodding off while typing this. Time for bed.
I am officially declaring my love for practicing chin-ups at the CrossFit gym.
I have my reasons: (1) I find them to be much easier than pull-ups, which I hate; (2) I'm (BRAG ALERT) actually pretty decent at chin-ups; and (3) when we practice chin-ups in the strength/skills portion of our CrossFit class, it's highly unlikely that we'll have to do any pull-ups during the metcon.
But after doing a bunch of weighted chin-ups, we still had a WOD to finish:
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 12 minutes:
5 Ground-to-Overhead Lifts (I opted for squat cleans followed by push-presses)
10 Burpees
15 Plyo Box Jumps
I was halfway through my sixth round (4 Burpees in) when the clock ran out.
I always assumed "Burpees" were so named because it made people want to expel stuff from deep inside them (and "Barfees" doesn't have quite the same ring to it), but it turns out that they were actually named after...somebody.
According to some, the exercise was likely named after Lieutenant Thomas Burpee, a Revolutionary War-era officer in the New Hampshire Militia who had "the innate Burpee fondness for martial exercises." It's speculated that he introduced Burpees as a fitness and conditioning (and disciplinary) tool for the troops he commanded.
