Muscle Ups

So I have been working on muscle ups randomly to get better at them during workouts. I was able to get into the box early with Brandon and I new this was something that I wanted to work on....but before that I had to do a WOD at home. The wife and baby left to a friends to do a DVD workout so I had a free half hour. I wanted to hit running and body weight so I did:

400 M
50 Air squats
20 Paralette Push up
400 M
40 Air Squats
20 Paralette Push ups
400 M
30 Air Squats
20 Paralette Push ups
400 M
20 Air Squats
20 Paralette Push ups
400 M
10 Air Squats
20 paralette Push ups

13:34

Workout was good and actually made me more tired then I expected. Hoping to hit a few like this at home a week.

I left for the Box about 10 minutes after this. Got there and did 20 MU's. No time but I think I will be doing 30 for time soon to set a mark at what I need to beat. After that did band pulls and runs with Brandon. Then some OHS's with 185. Shoulders were shot. Great day. Tonight I will do some Power Cleans.

All in the search to get better.

NU

I like Chippers....like.....THE DIRTY DOZEN

I have been writing down workouts I want to do like a mad man. Everyone I write I look at it to make sure it will make me uncomfortable and that it will make me better. I knew I had a day off from Crossfit Football (Wed and Sun and OFF days). So, I was contemplating what I would do.....the decision was simple once I jumped on the main site. A chipper! A chipper is a long workout with multiple movements, sometimes high rep, low rep, high weight, low weight.....it is an anything goes workout. Here is what sparked my eye:

For time: THE DIRTY DOZEN

25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35 pound dumbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
3 Rope climb ascents (12 Ft rope)

I walked in and said..."I am doing the Main Site WOD!" The gym ended up doing it so I guess I didn't need to really emphasis I was doing it. But, I wanted to make sure I got to! This was also a good workout because FGB is this Saturday and instead of doing that workout I was able to do something like it that I could push through the whole way. There were a few hick-ups....I had to really break up the ring dips, knees to elbows, wall balls after the first 15, and the KB swings (used a 70# DB). All in all I was happy......I can do better with lots more work:

12:35

After the WOD I did some snatch work:

3 x 135
3 x 155
2 x 185 (failed on the second one and tried 2 more times with no success)

Working hard to get better....rest of the day will be off and hope to spend quality time with the Family after work!

Last nights Deadlift workout:

3 x 2 325#
3 x 2 345#
1 x 1 375#

Felt lighter and had little rest between sets. The 375# felt very heavy though and my back was still a little sore from last time. Going to continue to do this twice a week, increasing weight and reps when needed.

NU

Unsure?

I was unsure all day yesterday what I was going to do today. I was not going to be able to go to the gym because of work and the WOD posted for the football page was one I wanted to do but I did not have KB's. It was 5 Rds 1 minute on 1 minute off. Try to get 30 KB swings with 2 Pood (70#). I decided multiple times what to do and finally when I woke up I decided on the fly.

I took the dog on a 20 minute run and then grabbed my Oly bar and stepped outside. I decided to use 65# and do swings with it. The same workout from the football page. 30 swings and every time you did not get 30 in a minute you had to do 1000 row (or in my case 100 SDHP with 45# (which I still owe Chelssie 2000 M Row (200 SDHP). The workout did not go as planned:

Rd 1 - 25 swings
Rd 2 - 23 swings
Rd 3 - 21 swings
Rd 4 - 23 swings
Rd 5 - 25 Swings

Which ultimately means I have a whole lot of SDHP to do tonight. 700 to be exact!

Geeze....I am hoping to get them done tonight after deadlifting. I am planning to do RDL's and then get at least 6 sets of heavy deads before jumping into those SDHP's. I am just hoping my traps stay in tack for tomorrow mornings WOD at the box. This better make me better!!!

NU

Fun With the Girls!

The nasty Girls, ones that can strike fear in a crossfitter. I know for me they do. So.....I decided why not make a monster Nasty girl. I will call her.........Burfranisagracindy! The monster I now know it as. I went to the gym this morning to attack it after doing some Front Squats working my way up to 245# x 3.

Burfranisagracindy:

10 Burpees
Fran
10 Burpees
Isabel
10 Burpees
Grace
10 Burpees
10 Rds of Cindy
10 Burpees

25:50

My goal was to finish in under 24 minutes (like an idiot I think it should go better then it actually did). I figured I could get Fran, Isabel, and Grace in under 4:00 leaving me 10 minutes to do the rounds of Cindy and :30 seconds for each sets of burpees. After finishing I was initially upset but realized that I was closer then i thought.
I had made a bet with my wife that if I did not do it under 24:00 I had to Row 2000k immediately after. Lets just say that didnt happen....i uh...had to be somewhere after I finished! HAHA...

This workout helped me realize I need to examine my training and really push myself past the norm. I want to get better and be great at Crossfit, and I have to do this type of programming. Next up will be Deadlifting tonight (what I feel is my work lift). Wish me luck!

Feeling like I got a little bit better today!!! Always a good thing.

A great PLAN...that somehow changes

I went to bed last night having the perfect plan in place for what I wanted to do for my workout since I was not going to the Box because my wife would go instead while I stayed home with Jada.

The plan was to do an AMRAP for 20 Minutes:

10 Burpies
5 HSPU
5 DL 245#
15 Air Squats

But......I woke up feeling wrecked....(do not know why since I had the day off????) Looked at what I had down and thought....the yoga made my hamstrings tight so I do not think dl's are a good idea...ill do those tomorrow...then I saw 10 burpees and thought that is a lot! So i modified it. Instead I did this:

AMRAP 10 Minutes

5 Burpies
5 Paralette HSPU
15 Air Squats

Finished w/ 7 Rds + 3 Air Squats....had to end up breaking up the Paralette HSPU into singles as I got farther in. Thought it would be better to do a short Body weight metcon becasue tomorrow I am going to kill my body.

And the workout that will do this to me is....dun dun dun....

10 Burpees
Fran (21-15-9: Thrusters 95# - Pull ups)
10 Burpees
Isabel (30 snatches 135#)
10 burpees
Grace (30 Clean and Jerks 135#
10 Burpees
10 Rds Cindy (5 pull ups - 10 push ups - 15 Air squats = 1rd)
10 Burpees

Came up with this two days ago and thought this would be perfect because tomorrow is open gym. I have no expectations except to go with minimal stoppage. This one should help make me better!!!

That is the ultimate goal!

NU

Much Needed Rest

One of the hardest things for me to do is rest. I always feel that when I rest I get worse.....and I want to get better. Today is a truly needed day of rest. I have been pushing hard and my brain has been turning to find new ways to push myself and enhance my fitness. I did not totally rest though, I did my Yoga DVD, which makes me feel amazing when I finish. Recommend it to everyone...don't do it as much as I need to, but I do stretch every day.

I have made up a few WODs that I hope to be able to use in my training. I am also going to start do a painstorm, or something like a painstorm at least once every two weeks. They should be fun.

A painstorm is a workout designed in the old country (across the Atlantic) that are long and hard WODs. It was made because when people met they did not want to do just FRAN since they all travelled so far, so they made sure to get the most out of their visit.

A simple one to list is 500 Thrusters with the Olympic Bar (45#). Sounds rough but very intriguing to me. This will come up in the near future for me to do I assure you.

Already looking forward to my AM workout tomorrow!

Still trying to get better.....even when I rest!

NU

Muscle Ups!!!......AHHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, woke up and went to the box, a normal early morning ready to go. Off day in the box since we are following Crossfit Football so the WOD was supposed to be "easy" (hard to imagine for Crossfit).

9 Hang Clean 185#
15 Toes 2 Bar
6 Hang Clean
15 Toes 2 BAr
3 Hang Clean
15 Toes 2 Bar

Well I thought why not throw in some things I need work on. I new I needed to get used to GHD's in WOD's and doing multiple reps. I also thought I can do muscle ups pretty easily and consecutively but have never used them in a WOD. So.....why not throw them in? Decided to tweak the workout for myself.

9 Hang Clean 185#
15 Toes 2 Bar
15 GHD Sit Ups
3 MU's

6 Hang Clean
15 Toes 2 Bar
15 GHD Sit Ups
3 MU's

3 Hang Clean
15 Toes 2 Bar
15 GHD Sit Ups
3 MU's

Well......let's just say work needs to be done. This is the first time in a long while that I have failed multiple reps on a workout. After the first round went smooth and I repped the 3 MU's and then on the 2nd rd I failed the 3rd MU (here is where issues started. Not sure how many trys it took but I know I looked at B and said I think I am taking a DNF on this. He said no!, and I was finally able to get it. The 3rd rd was worse and I ended up finishing the workout, but in ugly terms:

15:40

then immediately after a 2 minute rest did 50 burpees

2:26 (this really sucked!!)

Still trying to get better and have a lot of work to do!!!

NU

PR

I have been trying for a long time to get a PR in Snatch. Of course I worked and worked and nothing, 195# and thats where I stayed. And I only got that once. So it had been awhile since I tried so I said what the hay. Even though I am still so sore. And you know what....I got 200#. And I know I can do more, so my goal is 225# and I just moved up.

After that I decided to try FGB since we have the fundraiser in 2 weeks and I had never done it. The workout was tough but I was expecting my body to be dead afterwards because of all the horror story (which the reason my body didn't feel this way is because I could have pushed just a little harder, that will be determined to be true or not next time). I wasn't sure what a good number was but told myself I wanted 400 during the fundraiser.

I ended with 392 reps, counting for myself in the box because everyone else was busy. They said there will be judges so hopefully that knocks me up a few points. I was happy with the showing though.

Thought about doing death by Clean and jerk per Mikko Salo, but the wife and baby needed to get home, save that for tomorrow after the WOD. Still trying to get better.

NU

Todays WOD

Here are some picks from the weekend:





Todays WOD was a good one but hard for me because of how sore.

We did Max 20 rep Back squat:

185# (rough because of soreness)

WOD:

AMRAP for 15 Minutes:

5 Ground to Overhead 185#
7 ball slams 20#
9 Pushups (hands off the ground)

5 Rds + 6 slams

Crossfit Fittest in the Region

Well, the competition is over and there ended up being 4 WOD's. It was so much fun! There were 15 Elite Men that competed and all were awesome people. I also wanted to say thank you to Crossfit Crown Point for putting on the event. The first event went well and I got 2nd place overall behind Brandon who is the owner of Crossfit South Bend where I train. I got 9:12 and he got 8:28 just killing the workout which was:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Deadlift 225#
KB Swings 1.5 Pood
Chest 2 Bar pullups

The 2nd was one that I felt really good about:

21-15-9

Burpees
Thrusters 95#
Box Jumps 24'
Then Ground to Overhead Max within 5 Minutes for the workout

I finished 1st in 6:48 and Brandon got 2nd place in 8 Minutes something (cant remember exactly, sorry Brandon).

The Ground to Overhead I did 255# which was exactly what I was shooting. I was excited and won that part of the event also.

The 3rd workout was a Max wattage on the rower in 3 rows. This one I got 5th place on with a pull of 614. Not what I would have hoped for but it was my first time and had no idea what to expect.

The final WOD is a hard one to explain:

3 Rds:

There was a 5 Foot wall and you had to throw a 40# sandbag over and then jump over doing this 5 times
sled push that weighed around 165# 100M
then switch a grab a sled weighing around 165# and pull it back 100M
last 15 OHS 95#

I finished 1st in 8:33 (4 Minutes faster then 2nd Place)

I was very excited and won overall, but Brandon was right there the whole time and we really represented the gym going 1st and 2nd place overall. I can't wait for another competition and signed up for one in Baltimore that is Nov. 6th that I am hoping to be able to compete in. We also have decided to have a competititon in the Box in January. Very excited!

Deadlifts

I have to do deadlifts Saturday and of course, Jason (the owner at Crossfit Roselle) decided to put some Deadlifts in our workout yesterday.

500 M Row
25 Deadlift 225#
50 Double Unders
25 Deadlift 225#

7:03

The workout was hard and the Deadlifts killed my back. Making my decision to take off the next two days easy.

The Strength Wod was AMRAP Body weight OHS. I weighed in at 173# but decided to do 185#. The goal was to get 15. I failed on 15! Sucked.

Next was AMRAP pushups. I got 78. Not bad but I want to get 100, so I have work to do. THen came the Wod which is listed above. Good day but my body will thank me for 2 days off and then be mad again on Saturday when we do some fun WOD's at the competition.

NU

3 Days

Just got to Chicago the other day and ended up heading to the Crossfit Box in Roselle. 3 Days left until the COmpetition and I am getting very excited

Yesterday morning the owner set up a workout just for me that was entising, yet I could not go all out without killing myself for the weekend competition. So, I went about 75%. The Strength was:

Power Clean 1-1-1-1-1-1

Did 185# - 225# - 245# - 255# - 265# - 275# (Failed)

Then the WOD:

5 Rds

15 Thrusters 135#
5 Mountain Climbers (5 leg thrusts and then a push up is one)
30 Ab Mat Sit Ups

18:39

__________

Today woke up and went back. I knew that he was going to have something for me again since I told him if he gave me something short I would go all out, and he did not disappoint:

The Strength was OHS Max reps Body weight. Weighed 173# but decided to do 185#

14 Reps (Failed on 15)

Then:

Max Push ups: 78


The WOD:

500 M Row
25 Deadlift 225#
50 DU's
25 Deadlift 225#

7:04

The WOD was rough. My legs were shot after the OHS and the Row that I could not knock out the Deadlifts. They were rough. Then I could not get through the DU's because my arms were so tired. Rough workout and humbled me a lot! Cannot wait to work on Deadlift to get better! Great WOD Jason Rice.

NU

Yesterday and Today

I decided to do #2 WOD for the games. But, before that we did Death by 10's. Which consists of running ten M every minute. Increasing by one run every minute. So you do 1 then 2 and then 3 and so on every minute until you can not make the runs within the minute.

18 RDs PR

Competition WOD:

21-15-9

Burpees
Thrusters 95#
Box Jumps 24'

7:12

This workout again, was like the 1st WOD for the competition....a lot harder in person then on paper. Felt slow and wish I could have done better, but it is all relevant. Hoping to beat that time next Saturday.

Then did Clean and Jerk Max weight within 5 minutes of workout. (This is how it will be for the competition, I did it about 10 minutes after)

225-245-255PR-265PR-275PR-285PR

I was very pumped about these lifts and have them all on tape. But, I am skeptical about the weights. I have a feeling it was 10-20# less then what I have recorded. I am hoping I am wrong but I have a gut feeling. I am going to post 265# as my new PR and not change it until I get 285#.

Today:

Happy Labor Day!!

Got to the gym today and started off with Max Front Squat with Rep scheme 3-3-3-3-3-3.

225#-235#-245#-255#-265#-275#-275#

Never done this before so the 275 is a PR. Then we went into an AMRAP for 15 Minutes.

3 Power Cleans 55% of Max (used 185#)
3 Rds of Cindy (1 Rd is 5 pullups - 10 Push ups - 15 Body squats)

Finished with 4 Rds + 3 Power Cleans.

I did not push very hard but took it easy on the WOD. I think this is the first time since doing Crossfit that I have ever done this. It was nice, I didn't get tired, yet felt I worked out. It is good to do the week of a competition. Can't wait until Saturday's Competition!

Until then, I will keep trying to get better.


NU

The WOD's.....Finally!

Well, they are posted...WOD #1 and #2:

Fittest in the Region competition 9/11/2010:

WOD #1

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Deadlift 225#
KB Swings 55#
Pullups


WOD #2

21-15-9

Burpies
Thrusters 95#
Box Jumps 24'

Then within 5 Minutes of finishing Max Groung to Overhead


WOD #3

Will be announced on the day of the competition


I am so excited, these WOD are great and should seperate the field of athletes. I did the 1st WOD this morning:

9:13

Not as fast as I wanted but I also thought it was going to be easier. Not at all! it was very hard and really pushed me. I am going to do WOD #2 tomorrow morning and then try to bring them together by Tuesday. I only wish I new other times that people will do for these WOD's.....what's the fun in that though.

What makes me even more excited is that my wife and daughter will get to watch me compete!

I will do my best.

NU

Waiting......and more Waiting....

I was waiting after my workout yesterday (which was harder to do then it looked on paper) to write my post on what I did yesterday. Which happened to be:

15-10-5 rep scheme

Hang Snatch 135#
Box Jumps 24"
Pull ups

I finished this in 6:36, rough!

I was holding off on this because I was sent an email about my competition in Crown Point that I would be receiving another email with the WOD's we would be performing on the 1st. So I sat waiting....and waiting....all day and never received the email. So now here I am, the 2nd, no email and figured I could show my frustration. I was hoping to start planning how I would feel (which right now my body is fried) about the workouts and how I would attack them. Not happening.

Well, I decided to then take the day off today and hope I get that email. I did wake up this morning and go for a run at 6:30 am in the rain (ran 17:38), which felt like a warm shower I was running in. I tried talking Chelssie into running in the rain after she woke up but she was not into that since it was coming down more then a sprinkle.

Anyway, hope to see that email!

NU

LOOOOONG DAY!!!

Went in to the Box thinking something simple, instead......something simply long!

We started off with a warm up of 1 mile run but after every 400 M we would do some movements (DL, Burpies, Planks, anything to make you tired) then we ran back in and found our 5 Rep Deadlift Max:

345# x 5

Then we went right back outside and ran 8 x 40 M sprints, jogged back inside and did the WOD:

AMRAP for 8 Minutes:

5 Clean and Jerk 155lbs
5 Ring dips

7 Rd + 1 Dip

I was happy with my results.

Tomorrow is a big day coming up, the first two workouts for the competition are being announced, not sure what time but am looking forward to knowing what lies ahead on the 11th.

NU

Bench Press?

I have benched press one time in the last year or possibly longer. The one time I did it was in a WOD that had heavy bench presses. Also, it is not a functional lift and really is not a movement that assists your daily life or will aid in a random situation in life. Therefore benching 225# for Max reps is not usual for me to do anymore.

The workout we did today started with 10 x 2 of back squat with 65% of your Max. My max is around 405# so I used 265# with 45 sec rest between sets.

The WOD after that was:

4 Rounds

225# Max rep Bench Press
Max Pullups
15 sit throws with 20# Med ball

We did this for time but it was not done very fast. Took me 11:40 and my rep were:

Rd 1 9 Bench / 15 Pull ups
Rd 2 4 Bench / 8 Pullups
Rd 3 4 Bench / 8 Pullups
Rd 4 2 Bench / 7 Pullups

Totalling 19 Presses with 225# and 38 Pullups

I liked this workout for today because I felt my body needed a rest day (I should say my lungs needed a resst day) and this helped make it feel like a active rest day. I am getting very excited for the September 11th competition in Crown Point for the Fittest Person in the "Region" competition. I am hoping and expect to do weel, but then everyone in it should feel that way.

NU

Crossfit Football

Today in the Box we did a crossfit football workout:

21-15-9 (the rep scheme for each movement)

Push Press 135#
Ring Dips
Burpees
Calorie Row (you row until you burn the number of calories needed)

Finished in 9:40

The workout was a good one and my shoulders were fried already and that just toasted them more! I believe we are going to be doing more of the Crossfit football wod's for a few months. I am interested in trying it.

I have also decided to do extra DL on Wed and Sat in order to increase my strength in the life. Also, I will be doing 5-5-5-5-5 for power cleans like I did the other day on Fridays.

____________

Last night I did some DL's:

225 x 7
245 x 6
255 x 5
275 x 4
295 x 4
305 x 3
325 x 2
345 x 2
365 x 1 (Failed)
345 x 1
345 x 1

"Nancy"

I got home last night after talking to one of my friends through text and heard their box was doing a 5-5-5-5-5 of Power clean touch and go. You had to clean it bring it down touch the ground and clean again for 5 reps. You could not stop or let go of the bar.

I wanted to try this one to see where I would be, I was hoping to get to 235# for 5 but after starting things changed:

185# x 5
205# x 5
225# x 4 (could not touch and go on the last one and failed on the lift)
215# x 5
215# x 5 (this one was hard and I had to really gut through it)

I made sure that my rest periods were less then 3 minutes per set, my grip really starting going on the 225# power cleans.

_____

Today I woke up and decided "Nancy was a good WOD.

5 rds

400M Run
15 OHS 95#

I had done this a month and a half ago after I saw it in the Crossfit games senior division. i completed it in 12:23

Today, I beat my time by 11 seconds getting 12:12. It is hard to judge if it is a true 400M because I walked out the distance to a of 200M for my turnaround. Did run a few yards father then I did last time I did the workout las time.

My goal is to get this under 12.

NU

"Mary"

Thw WOD today was "Mary" one that I had not yet done. It consists of:
5 HSPU (Hand Stand Push Ups)
10 Pistols (1 leged squat alternating)
15 Pull-ups

The workout is an AMRAP for 20 Minutes(As Many Rounds/Reps AS Possible in that time)

I finished with 12 Rds + 3 pullups.

I felt good doing it but that i went slow. Next time I try this I will really push myself more.

Before the workout started I did some snatch work and snatch balances. Ending at 175lbs.

NU