Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

We began with a bunch of gymnastics stuff today, including:

• L-Sits
• Parallette Push-Up/Pass-Throughs
• Skin-the-Cats
• Back Levers
• Muscle-Ups

This is the first time I attempted back levers. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but they're incredibly fun.

I hadn't practiced muscle-ups in earnest since I first managed to do one back in July, but learned that I still have it in me to crank 'em out. Progress!

Metcon:

"Eva" (sort of):

3 rounds for time:

• 600 meter run
• 20 overhead kettlebell swings
• 20 pull-ups

Result: 15:58. An unscaled Eva -- which requires five rounds of 800 meter runs, 30 kettlebell swings and 30 pull-ups -- would have crushed us. Even with all the modifications, it felt like this workout took forever.

Monday's Workout

Back home, and back to CrossFit!

Strength Skill:

• Turkish Get-Ups

I did plenty of Turkish Get-Ups back when I was doing my Monster Mashup routine earlier this year, so after shaking off the cobwebs, I got through these just fine.

Metcon:

"3/4 Cindy" -- AMRAP in 15 minutes of:

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 squats

A full Cindy is 20 minutes long. A couple of new folks have joined our 5 a.m. class, so we did just 15 minutes -- and for that, I'm grateful. Not that today's WOD wasn't incredibly fun, mind you. I love bodyweight workouts, and greatly prefer them to metcons that emphasize lifting heavy barbells.

Result: I completed 15 rounds + 3 pull-ups in 15 minutes. I shot out of the gate, but slowed substantially towards the end.

(I briefly considered pacing myself, but decided that it didn't make sense to do so with such a short workout. I may feel differently if/when we do a full Cindy, though.)

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

Zercher Squats

I got up to 200 pounds, which is about 1.5X my bodyweight. But I think I can do more. We'll see -- next week.

Metcon:

For time:

• 600 meter run
• 30 overhead kettlebell swings (53-pound kettlebell)
• 30 push-ups
• 400 meter run
• 20 overhead kettlebell swings (53-pound kettlebell)
• 20 push-ups
• 200 meter run
• 10 overhead kettlebell swings (53-pound kettlebell)
• 10 push-ups
• 600 meter run

Result: 12:29. The one other guy in class (visiting from out of town) took off like a bat out of hell, leaving me in the dust on the first 600 meter run, but he gassed out shortly thereafter, and finished almost 2 minutes after me. When I first started CrossFitting, I did the same thing, but have been trying to pace myself better. It's helped, but the rush of adrenaline at the start of the WOD still makes us all go a little nuts.

Saturday's Workout

Groove: Greased.

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 5 weighted push-ups

I'm finally getting to the point where I need to order more weights!

Monday's Workout

Strength Skill:

Power Cleans



Metcon:

1/2 "Cindy":

(A full Cindy is 20 minutes long, but we cut it in half.)

AMRAP in 10 minutes of:

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 squats

The last time I attempted something similar, I did 15 rounds in 14 minutes, for an average of 1.07 rounds per minute. This time, in 10 minutes, I managed to crank out 11 rounds and a couple of additional pull-ups, for an average of about 1.11 rounds per minute. A very slight improvement, but improvement nonetheless!

Thursday's Workout

More strength-building, Power to the People-style.

• 50 air squats
• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 push-ups
• Handstand practice

Turns out that prior to today, I was doing side presses incorrectly; I was doing basic shoulder presses, without really engaging my lats. Yesterday, Coach T showed me the proper movement, which looks like this:



Needless to say, I currently suck at this.

Monday's Workout

I'm a little under the weather, but not enough to justify scuttling my workout.

After some warm-up (I did 2 double-unders!), we practiced power jerks again -- and I think I tried to go too heavy. On my last rep, I attempted to heave a barbell loaded with more weight than my own bodyweight, and ended up awkwardly throwing it to the floor. I hope I didn't tweak my lower back.

As usual, the metcon was an ass-kicker:

AMRAP in 10 minutes:

• 10 Hanging Toes-to-Bar
• 20 Dumbbell Snatches (25% of bodyweight)
• 10 Push-Ups

I did 4 rounds and 12 reps before time ran out.

After I got home, I threw in my Tony Horton Killer Abs DVD for good measure, which was probably a mistake. Not only was my midsection wrecked from the toes-to-bars, I haven't attempted any kind of workout that isolates the core like this in a while. I used to whip through this workout with no problems, but by the end of today's session, I was wiped out.