The other total

Sunday 30 October Mainsite WOD

Clean, 1 rep
Bench press, 1 rep
Overhead squat, 1 rep

210 clean, 200 bench, 170 OHS

Rich Froning: 335 clean, 325lb bench, 360lb OHS

Notes: didn't quite hit 1,000 total like I was shooting for.

PRs

work and school got temporarily intense last week, only made it to the gym once. threw barbells around for 2 hours today to make myself feel better. PR highlights:

3x5 back squat @ 210
3x5 press @ 100

cable jump rope gets here tomorrow. gonna learn double unders like a pro.

monday

skill --
kipping pullups

notes: i suck

metcon --
5 rounds for time of:
7 kettlebell thrusters (35 lbs. Rx = 55lbs)
11 burpees

time: 9:45

notes: probably shouldn't have eaten pizza and wings last night

Nasty Girls

Warmed up with a few mins of double unders, then:

10 mins on the min (OTM):

3 strict ring dips with turn out

3 hanging power cleans 45#

3 Samson lunges

WOD today was nasty girls, one of the original crossfit workouts.

3 rounds for time:

50 squats

7 muscle ups

10 hanging power cleans 135#

Time: 9:17

District crossfit trainer: 6:something rx

Notes: did 4 or 5 muscle ups the first round then hit a wall so I scaled back to a lower set of rings to do jumping muscle ups. Scaled cleans to 115#, did first and last set unbroken. Muscle ups and hanging power cleans will wreck your shoulders. First time attempting muscle ups as part of a wod. Thought I'd be able to get a few more than I did but overall pretty satisfied. Everyone else in the class scaled the muscle ups with pull ups and ring dips. Starting to get sick, probably taking tomorrow off.

saturday

3mi run in 25:24. rock climbing in a couple hours

Oly+

Warmed up with double unders. I think the 45 mins of work yesterday helped. I was able to string 5 together much more consistently than before.

Been doing Oly work the last few Fridays cause the gym is empty and I don't have to share the platform.

5x3 3 position snatch 105#

2x3 snatch pull 145#

2x3 snatch deadlift 160#

3x2 snatch grip push press (behind neck) 95, 115, 115#

Then I did Bonakdasauraus' WOD from earlier in the week.

9-7-5 for time of:
Wall climbs
Kettlebell snatches, right arm
Kettlebell snatches, left arm

Time: 9:43 45# dumbbell

Notes: dumbbell snatches are a little easier than kb. Really liked the wall climbs. First time doing them in a wod, they'll definitely help develope hand stands and hand stand walks cause you're forced to shift your weight from one arm to the other as you go up and down. Also a good hotel wod since all you need is a wall and dumbbells.

freaky friday

skill --
double unders

notes: couldn't get it going today. kept whipping myself in the elbow.

metcon --
5 rounds for time of:
10 dumbbell ground-to-overheads (30 lbs)
5 handstand push-ups (scaled with box)
15 jumping towel pull ups (Rx was 3 rope climbs)

time: 11:00

notes: never did towel pull ups before. by the end, my forearms felt like they were going to explode.

intermediate rock climbing starts tomorrow. pretty excited.

hump day

strength ---
Bench Press
3-3-3-3
95lbs-135-165-175

note: 175 was a PR for me (!)

metcon ---
1000m row
21 dumbbell hang squat cleans (30 lbs)
750m row
15 dumbbell hang squat cleans (30 lbs)
500m row
9 dumbbell hang squat cleans (30 lbs)

time: 17:42

Angie

You can't say we never tried.

100 pull ups

100 push ups

100 sit ups

100 squats

19:25 - 3 min PR

10:11- Chris Spealler

Been eating pretty well the last 3 weeks (with the exception of the last few days due to travel restrictions or general unpreparedness, you say tomato I say tomato). Workouts have been feeling pretty solid even though I haven't been getting enough sleep. Hoping to get my sleep schedule back on track in the next few days. Worked out in a halfway decent hotel gym today. And by halfway decent I mean they had ample room to do kipping pull ups and had a lot of dumbbells. Going to try to do a soft sand beach run later in the week.

shoulders gone

skil --
L-sit:
6 x 10 seconds

note: very bad at these

9-7-5 for time of:
Wall climbs
Kettlebell snatches, right arm
Kettlebell snatches, left arm

Time: 13:04 with 45lb kettlebell

note: last to finish in the class by about a minute. the wall climbs were rough on me.

Checkout: Accumulate 1 minute in a bridge

note: i'm pretty good at the bridge

level 2

up till now, i've been going to the level 1 class on the weekdays (except for when i go on thurs/fri, when level 1 and 2 are combined). today was my first day going to the level 2 class. this means that class now starts at 6am instead of 630am and that more difficult workouts won't be scaled down.

warmed up with a 4 round tibata of double unders and KB swings (30 lbs). I'm getting better at DUs. I like it

skill ---
Turkish Getups (30lbs)
4x3

Note: my left side is clearly weaker

metcon --
10 min AMRAP:
10 KB swings (53lbs - i think 1.5 poods) (Rx was 70 or 75)
10 Front Squats (95 lbs) (Rx was 115)

rounds: 5 rounds + 10KB Swings + 5 front squats

notes: we did some KB swing skill work before the wod, and it made a HUGE difference. I was bending my knees way too much (as was 90% of the class), and turning alot of the downward swing into a squat. now i lean forward much more and use my hips rather than my hips + glutes. big difference.

checkout
3x20 situps

Body Weight Cleans

5 rounds:

7 squat cleans 155#

14 kb swings 54# (subbed 50#)

13:42

Closed out with 5x3 snatch grip behind the neck press. Really liked these, working distinctly different muscles than regular press.

Oly + Row

Worked out alone yesterday, C&J day

5x3 three position cleans 135#

2x3 clean pull 195#

2x3 clean dead lift 210#

Then worked up to 205# jerk

Rested about 15 mins then rowed 2k.

Me: 8:30

Rich Froning: 6:24 how the f?

My VO2 max (the amount of oxygen your body is capable of utilizing in one minute - ml of O2 per kg of body weight per min) is 33.42. The higher the better. This means my cardio capacity is below average for my weight and age. Sweet. Threw Rich's stats into the calculator and his VO2 max is 68.96, aka off the MFing charts. Calculator: http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/vo2max.asp

Notes: learning to hit the pocket at the mid thigh position and generate significantly more power when the bar passes across my hips (see video below). Haven't maxed out in a while but lifting lighter weights at around 65% of my previous 1RM's is getting significantly easier.

heart rate saturday

warmed up with some rowing skill work and mobility.

metcon---

100m row + 4 burpees
200m row + 8 burpees
300m row + 12 burpees
400m row + 16 burpees
400m run + 16 burpees
300m run + 12 burpees
200m run + 8 burpees
100m run + 4 burpees

Time: 22:33

The burpees were my bottleneck. Great cardio workout.

friday funday

warmed up with some double under work. i did a string of 1 DU + 1 SU 4 times. was pretty happy about that.

strength:
push jerk
3-3-3-3
95-125-135-135

note: it's definitely easier to do push jerk from the back rack position. however, bringing the bar down after i've pressed it is a big problem for me. i feel like i'm going to get injured doing it. bringing both in front or behind my head is difficult (behind is harder).

metcon:
6 min AMRAP
9 back squats (125lbs)
7 burpees
5 shoulder-to-overhead (125lbs)

rounds: 2 + 5 burpees

note: for me, this weight was too heavy for this metcon. i had to rest a good amount. Rx was 155 for men, 115 for women.

21-15-9er

Did single arm hangs from the pullup bar for time. Got 11s for both arms. I think someone got a minute. wtf.

Then:

21-15-9
ground to overhead 115#
band pushups

8:30

Notes: Some beast threw up a 6:40 in a previous class - I think I came in 3rd or 4th on the day. Band pushups are done by taking a colored band and running it from one hand across your back to your other hand. In other words, they make pushups suck even more than they do. Added ~20s to my time because I failed my last pushup 3 times. I think the WOD would have been better with hand release pushups. I wasn't winded enough when I finished b/c I took so damn long on the pushups.

who knew beer could be gluten free?

also if airsquats are too hard for you, you should probably grab one of these?

Humpday

Started out with some plyo work - about 8 or 9 plyo boxes (box jump boxes) lined up in a row in ascending height with a foot or two between each box. Idea was to work on explosive power at the bottom of the jump by going touch and go when landing on the ground and taking any rest on the top of the box.

Warmup we did (8 mins, on the min (OTM)) 2-3 HSPU, 3 log rolls, 3 push ups. Log rolls are where you lie on your back on the floor in the hollow body position and roll over onto your stomache and continuing back onto your back without touching your feet or hands to the ground. These OTM warmups are a good way to get loosened up while also working on skill/technique work.

Did some external rotation mobility work with the bands on the pullup bar to prep for the front squats we did next.

WOD:

12 mins OTM 2 front squats (~70% 1RM) cleaned from the ground (160#)

Then 8 min AMRAP:
8 toes to bar
8 single arm kb swing 53# (any combination of arms, swinging to above eye level)

8 rounds 3 T2B

Notes: worked out with one of the guys who owns half the leaderboard in the gym. Gonna try to work out with him more often - I think he got 9 rounds + 6 T2B.

Concept 2 has a calculator for computing your V02 max with an accuracy of +/- 1-2%. Pretty good tool if you don’t have access to those training labs where they plug all those tubes and stuff into you. The catch is you have to row a 2k.
http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/vo2max.asp

District CrossFit Trainer demonstrating Tuesday's mainsite WOD:




And I can't even comprehend how strong you have to be to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Urvy2dv--Gc

rainy wednesday

cold and rainy bike ride to the gym today. went rock climbing on tuesday. my beginner rock climbing class is over and i signed up for the intermediate which starts the weekend after next. the hardest top-rope route I've been able to finish without stopping was a 5.8, and I've done a 5.9 with rest. I've done a few V0 bouldering routes as well.

strength --
4x3 push press
max was 135lbs

metcon---
2 min AMRAP of every exercise:
Rowing (for calories)
Push Press (65#)
KB Swing (35#)
Box Jump (20")
Single Unders

Counting each calorie as a rep, I did 149 reps + 181 single unders.

Notes: pretty easy workout. probably good for me since I'm just getting back after 3 weeks.

squat stands

so I made squat stands over the weekend...something I saw on CF football a few months ago and made an adjustable variant:



They're pretty sweet. A little wobbly though, and our patio isn't all that level. I'll use them for squats and presses from time to time I think. The 1-1/4" dowels I had been planning on using for pegs ended up failing my QA (slamming 95lbs on the pegs repeatedly). Gonna upgrade to steel pipe. But overall a succcess I say: $30 + 3 hours.

Ingredients:
-160lb concrete
-12' pressure treated 4x4
-two 5-gallon buckets
-1-1/4" dowel rod pegs
-6 pouches Grizzly Wintergreen

monday

back to CF after ~3 weeks away. i've been rock climbing about 2 to 3 times a week, but that's about it. it's getting cold here, which makes it difficult to get out of bed at 5AM and bike to the gym. gotta get some better cold weather gear.

Row 500 m then
30-20-10 of:
Hand release push-ups
Air squats
Sit-ups
then Row 500m

Time: 12:38

Partner WOD

My partner was a beast. Former college wrestler who did a muscleup WOD yesterday after CFing for 2 weeks.

15 min AMRAP:

A: 95lb sled drag (~100 feet)
B: 45lb dumbbell farmer carry (same distance)
C: sprint (same distance)

First partner does A and B, second partner does C and A, first does B and C, etc.

~25 rounds, lost count - shit was confusing

Cindy

20 min AMRAP
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

20 + 7 squats

Jacked the following from District CF:

The Story of Cliff Young

Every year, Australia hosts 543.7-mile (875-kilometer) endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne. It is considered among the world’s most grueling ultra-marathons. The race takes five days to complete and is normally only attempted by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. These athletes are typically less than 30 years old and backed by large companies such as Nike.

In 1983, a man named Cliff Young up showed at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone’s shock, Cliff was not a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners.

The press and other athletes became curious and questioned Cliff. They told him, ‘You’re crazy, there’s no way you can finish this race. ” To which he replied, “Yes I can. See, I grew up on a farm where we could not afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race .

When the race started, the pros left Cliff behind quickly. The crowds and television audience were entertained because Cliff did not even run properly, he appeared to shuffle. Many even feared for the old farmer’s safety.

All of the professional athletes knew that it took about five days to finish the race. In order to compete, one had to run about 18 hours a day and sleep the remaining six hours. The thing is, Cliff Young did not know that!

When the morning of the second day came, everyone was in for another surprise. Not only was Cliff still in the race, he had continued all night jogging.

Eventually what Cliff asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. To everyone’s disbelief, he claimed he would run straight through to the finish without sleeping.

Cliff kept running. Each night he came a little closer to the leading pack. By the final night, he had surpassed all of the young, world-class athletes. He was the first competitor to cross the finish line and he set a new course record.

When Cliff was awarded the winning prize of $ 10,000, he said he did not know there was a prize and insisted that he did not enter for the money. He ended up giving all of his winnings to several other runners, an act that endeared him to all of Australia.

This is a true story. Wiki page.

Need to work on getting a lot deeper in those snatches

Oly Day

3 Position Snatches: 5x3 (snatch from ground, mid thigh, and high hang at 95#)
Snatch Pull: 2x3 (basically deadlift into a shrug at 130#)
Clean Deadlift: 2x3 (165#)
Push Jerk: 5x5 (95#)

Closed out with tabata push ups and sit ups. Tabatas are awesome, blew my load on my first set of push ups with 20, finished my last set with 6...

In conclusion, pound those snatches so you can press 242lb like this dude



someone please try to fuck with this guy

PRs

3x5 squat @ 210
3x5 bench @ 150

Did some dead lifts and worked on form...my lower back felt strong for not having lifted since the end of last week. I need to work on consistency.

Infinity Front Squats for Time

jk

100 front squats 95#
25 sit ups every time the bar is dropped

9:34

Did front squats in sets of 40, 30, 15, and 15

Oly Day

Glutes were a little tight from yesterday still - worked on clean & jerk instead of doing a metcon.

3 Position Cleans: 65% 1RM 5x3 (clean from ground, mid thigh, and high hang at 135#)
Clean Pull: 90% 1RM 2x3 (basically deadlift into a shrug at 185#)
Clean Deadlift: 100% 1RM 2x3 (210#)
Rack Jerk: worked up to 195#, felt good, I'll probably go for 210# next time
Row Sprints: 30 sec. on 30 sec rest for 6 sets (pussed out the first set for some reason and only hit 106m - maxed out at 133m in subsequent sets)

more SS

In keeping w/ my tradition of posting once per month, here goes:

I've been fairly regular w/ my starting strength workouts, and am still experiencing linear gains (w00t). However, I find myself gaining a fair bit of weight: I started at 175 back in April, but have just hit 190! Not sure how I feel about this; guess I'll try to cut it down once my linear gains are exhausted.

My lifts are now:

295 squat 3x5

210 bench 3x5

295 deadlift 1x5 (I reset it to work on form, can probably do 10-20lbs more)

125 press 3x5.

Edit: also, f'ing pants won't fit.

Hamstring Special

Went to another District CF class last night - this class was for people new to CF/learning the fundamental movements. Went to a 7pm class, latest I've worked out since being in school probably, I was pretty beat by the time we finished the warmup. Learned the deadlift w/ PVC pipe then did:

10 min AMRAP

8 Deadlift 225# (scaled to 205)
12 Lunges
16 Lateral jumps over the barbell\

8 rounds + 12 lunges

Pretty simple WOD - good for individuals learning the basics but still challenging enough to make it suck for people who are familiar w/ the movements. Did some foam/lax ball rolling when I got home last night, ass/hams don't feel like there's a knife cutting through them this morning - so I got that going for me.

liftin

i'm gonna abbreviate my posts drastically and/or only post when i hit new PRs. not trying to hijack our crossfit blog into my strength blog...

squat @ 205 no sweat, poor form (tied PR from when i had been doing SS for weeks)
went for a 150 bench, ended up with 150-145-140 :( next time
did a whole slew of other functional barbell stuff, weighted dips & pullups, etc.

mike out.

4 Oct 2011 Mainsite WOD

Worked out on mah roof tonight - weather was pretty perfect

Muscle snatch 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Power snatch 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Snatch 5-5-5-5-5 reps

95lb for all reps, failed the last rep of one of the power snatches. Probably could have done 100 or 105lb for the power snatches but I only have 25 and 35lb plates for now.

barbell extravaganza

so i had another dentist appt today, and that basically means i had a barbell in my hands from 11 to 1. i'll see what i can remember:

monstrous MWOD warmup (focused on hips and shoulders)
3x5 bench press @ 145 (went smooth with no spotter this time around...progress baby!)
3x5 C&J (not split jerk) @ 135 (first time doing C&J, mikey likey)
3x5 strict press @ 105 (push pressed the last 2 reps)
4x5 weighted dips @ 10-20-30-40 (+ 1x1 @ 50 for S's & G's)
3x3 weighted pullups @ 10-20-30
3x5 inclined bench @ 115 (easy, and more weight than i've done before)
3x5 front squat @ 135
3x5 shrugs @ 185
3x15 ghd situps
1x1 get a filling at the dentist

i tried going through the OHS movement with my heels on these really thin plates (~3/4") and it made it a million times easier. Legit lifting shoes are in my near future.

Monday WOD

5 sets, for time:

HSPU x6

Chest to bar x12

dumbbell lunges x 24 (#35)

I did 3.5 sets of everything, except #30 on lunges, in about 15 min (gym is crowded, and geared more toward LA Fitness and less toward manly feats of pwnage).

Why less than 5? Because I work best in short, controlled bursts, just how the ladies like. Also, I gotta stick to doing more than one workout every other week. In other news, MB is weak and woman-like.

15 August Mainsite WOD

With a continuously running clock, do one pull-up and one handstand push-up the first minute, two pull-ups and two handstand push-ups the second minute, three pull-ups and three handstand push-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able. When you cannot complete the required number of reps for either exercise, continue only with the other as long as you are able.

Use as many sets in any order each minute as needed.

Post number of minutes successfully completed for each exercise to comments. Their sum is your score.

19 (13 pull ups + 6 HSPU)

Tour de CrossFit - Final Stage

Went to District CrossFit's free intro class today. Decided to call this the last stage in the Tour cause I'll likely join this one after dropping into one of their regular classes this coming week.


The box is nothing fancy - it's in some old garage/industrial building and not as shiny as the other boxes I've been to in DC but I guess if that's what you're looking for you should go to an LA Fitness. Best location for me relative to the other boxes: 15-20 mins including walking and metro with no transfers. And there's a Chipotle next to the metro station.


The gym has everything you need for WODS (read ropes). Pretty large space for a decent location downtown. This was definitely the best run intro class I've been to. It was a large class but the WOD was perfect for a group of 15-20 people. We did wall balls, burpees, and box jumps in the WOD and before we began everyone went to each station in a group of 6 where one of the 3 head coaches taught the movements/standards.

WOD:

3 rounds with 1 min rest between rounds:

1 min wall balls 14/8# (AMrepsAP)
1 min burpees (AMrepsAP)
1 min box jumps 20/12# (AMrepsAP)

Score is your total reps after 3 rounds.

Majority of class scored 120-160 reps. One woman who was probably in her mid 30's and 100lbs got 207 reps - beating me by 4. Pretty sure she's never done CF before after watching her do some wall balls during our instruction period - she might have been counting by 3's.

I get the feeling that the capacity of the top athletes at this box may not be quite as high as some other boxes. I asked about the CF Games Open and one of the trainers said they didn't have enough people (who were capable or willing?) to compete this year but will definitely compete next year. Looking at their leaderboard with benchmark lifts/WODS I'm within 10lb on some of the lifts and pretty close timewise on some of the WODS.

Anyways, I'll go back this week to check out a regular class to meet some other athletes and then probably sign up for a membership.

Side note: Christy Phillips, who came in 6th in the 2010 games used to be a trainer here but she's not on the website anymore, not sure what happened to her. One of the full time trainers (woman) came in 4th at regionals this year (top 3 went to the games) so that's legit.

Peace out.