brikis98's crossfit journal

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles
I think you'll find your endurance a bit better if you pick a set number of reps (say 15) and do those, break for five or ten seconds, and then bang out fifteen more. That gives your body micro-recoveries, which can work wonders when you're trying to do 400 reps.

On Friday I just repeated FGB for the first time. I had a 68 pt PR. Part of that is obviously due to superior conditioning, but I think that taking the time to rest at set intervals really helped me. The score for each round reflected that -- my best round was the third.

As for sit-ups, they are incredibly taxing if you're doing them right (which it sounds like you are). I always find my abs burning at about 50 - 55 reps, but usually try and push through it. With more regular rest (15 reps, 5 - 10 second rest), I find it much easier.

Hm, that makes a lot of sense actually. I think I'll give this a shot next time a similar workout comes along.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Saturday, November 1

Workout of the Day

Back Squat
OH Press
Deadlift

My numbers

Back Squat: 205x5, 245x5, 285x3, 205x8
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x3xmissed
Deadlift: 295x5, 365x3

Back squat went very well today. My hips felt a bit weird, but there was no actual pain, which is a huge improvement. As a result, I went for some heavier weight. The 3rd rep of 285 was VERY slow, almost coming to a complete stop, but I kept good form and pushed through it. That's 100lbs more than I weigh, and some good progress since I've started working on my strength numbers again.

OH press sucked once again. Everything goes well until 155 - a weight I definitely could handle before - and I just can't get the 4th rep up. I think I just need to accept that I've lost strength on this lift, check my ego, and drop the weight down a bit.

I was originally going to go for 365x5 on the deadlift, but I was pretty gassed after squats and decided not to push it, stopping after 3 reps.

Just curious what your height/deadlift stance are?

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Just curious what your height/deadlift stance are?

I'm about 5'11", 185lbs. I do a standard deadlift as shown here and here.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Just curious what your height/deadlift stance are?

I'm about 5'11", 185lbs. I do a standard deadlift as shown here and here.

Nice deadlift Was curious if you were sumoing it or not.

 

[gramboh]

I think that you can definitely improve times by doing set rest breaks as mentioned by Beau. As long as your overall time is improving, you are meeting the goal of the workout as well as improving your conditioning.

One thing, I think on Tabata workouts like TSE you are supposed to score it by taking the lowest # of reps from each exercise and summing them, e.g. if your lowest rounds were 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, 5 squats, 5 sit-ups you get 20. But of course total reps is a very valid measure as well (and one I would prefer to use the few times I've done tabatas hehe). When you did that WOD did you have a laptop in the gym with you so you could see the timer? I've wanted to do that one but without a pull-up bar at home I'd have to bring my laptop to the gym and look insane, or get the GF to time/score me.

cheers

 

[brikis98]

Monday, November 3

Rest day.

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Nice deadlift Was curious if you were sumoing it or not.

Thanks. I've never really tried sumo style, though it looks interesting.

Originally posted by: gramboh
One thing, I think on Tabata workouts like TSE you are supposed to score it by taking the lowest # of reps from each exercise and summing them, e.g. if your lowest rounds were 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, 5 squats, 5 sit-ups you get 20. But of course total reps is a very valid measure as well (and one I would prefer to use the few times I've done tabatas hehe).

The explanation for the "Tabata Something Else" workout says to "post total reps from all 32 intervals to comments", so I assumed total reps was the main goal.

Originally posted by: gramboh
When you did that WOD did you have a laptop in the gym with you so you could see the timer? I've wanted to do that one but without a pull-up bar at home I'd have to bring my laptop to the gym and look insane, or get the GF to time/score me.
cheers

I did this workout at my office gym, and I use a laptop at work, so I obviously already had it with me. It's almost always empty in there too, so I didn't get any weird looks as I'm sure you would at a normal gym.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Monday, November 3

Rest day.

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Nice deadlift Was curious if you were sumoing it or not.

Thanks. I've never really tried sumo style, though it looks interesting.

I know a lot of power guys who sumo because they feel they can pull a higher 1RM with it. You have less ROM with sumo, but the bar also moves a shorter distance so you should be able to pull a bit higher weight for the same amount of work. I've tried both, and I'm not going to any power meets so I'll stick with regular stance (with normal grip since I clean frequently) but I did pull more with sumo than I did with a regular stance. It's a pretty neat thing to do from time to time, though, feels a bit different.

 

[gramboh]

Oops sorry brikis, it was a conventional tabata I was thinking of that you score using the lowest round, or at least that is the way I was taught once, my bad.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, November 4

Workout of the Day

For time:
50 Pull-ups
50 Ring Dips
40 Pull-ups
40 Ring Dips
30 Pull-ups
30 Ring Dips
20 Pull-ups
20 Ring Dips
10 Pull-ups
10 Ring Dips

My numbers

Time: 35:02

Very tough workout, but I liked it. I did it at the office gym and although I hate using the split handles instead of an actual pull-up bar, I love that they are really high up, so I could get my legs full extended for the kipping. The result was that the pull-ups - all 150 of them - actually went very very smoothly.

Ring dips were a completely different story. I fatigued very quickly on them and after early in the first round, I had to break them into sets of 3-5 and even 1-2 at the very end. Having to balance yourself on the moving rings gets very tough with so many reps, but it must build some awesome strength as a result.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, November 5

Workout of the Day

For time:
Run 800 meters
95 pound Shoulder press, 21 reps
Run 800 meters
95 pound Push press, 21 reps
Run 800 meters
95 pound Push Jerk, 21 reps

My numbers

So, after I did this workout, I realized that I didn't read it correctly. I thought that it was 21 reps of shoulder press for all 3 rounds, not realizing that the second round was actually push press and the 3rd round push jerk. No big deal, just means I did a different workout as follows:

For time:
Run 800 meeters
95 pound shoulder press, 21 reps

Time: 20:02

Pretty cool workout, but I screwed up in two ways. The first was misreading it, but instead I got a slightly different workout which is ok. The second was that I ran the first 800 too fast. It's amazing how much of a difference there is between running 800m at 10mph and 10.5mph. The former I've done w/o too much difficulty a number of times. The latter I did in the first round today and it nearly killed me.

I did set a new PR of 800m in ~2:51. Unfortunately, that's only ~9 seconds faster than 10mph, but it probably cost me a couple of minutes on this workout. After this first run, I was really out of breath and my heart rate was through the roof. As a result, I could only eek out 9mph on the 2nd 800 and 8mph on the last one. I was really shocked how much of a difference 0.5 mph made, but I guess it just means I really need to improve my running.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, November 6

Workout of the Day

Front Squat 10-10-10-10-10 reps

My numbers

I hadn't done OH squats in ages, so I worked on them a little as a warm-up.

OH Squat: 95x8, 115x5, 135x3, 155x1, 165xmissed
Front squat: 135x10, 165x10, 185x10, 195x10, 205x10

One of my goals for this month is to improve my snatch, so I decided to start by working on the part I struggle the most with: the OH squat. My form was definitely rusty, but I still managed to tie my PR of 155x1. However, 165x1 was a no go. Gonna need a lot more practice on this.

As for front squat, I never do sets of 10, so I wasn't sure what weight to use. Therefore, I started light and ramped it up each set. The last two sets were brutally tough, with me shaking and gasping for air the last couple reps. Yet another CF workout that is harder than it looks.

One final thing: I weighed in at 183lbs today. When I started cutting back in April, I was 223lbs, which means I've now lost 40lbs in ~7 months. I was not fat to begin with - I had a lot of muscle mass, so I guess I carried it well - so I'm amazed I had 40lbs to lose.

 

[Safeway]

Post pictures dude. Who cares if there are older pictures to relate back to. Maybe you can find a couple of casual pictures that show your size, and now new pictures that show your CrossFit muscles.

I really want to see real-world CrossFit gains.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, November 7

Rest day.

Originally posted by: Safeway
Post pictures dude. Who cares if there are older pictures to relate back to. Maybe you can find a couple of casual pictures that show your size, and now new pictures that show your CrossFit muscles.

I really want to see real-world CrossFit gains.

Heh, I'll see if I can dig some pictures up on facebook or something, but I doubt I have any with a shirt off, at least not from the last year or so when I hit my peak weight of 223lbs... Fully clothed, the differences are much harder to see, but maybe I'll find something that can be put side by side. If not, I'll post a picture of myself wearing my old jeans and old suit, both of which are HUGE on me now

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Friday, November 7

Rest day.

Originally posted by: Safeway
Post pictures dude. Who cares if there are older pictures to relate back to. Maybe you can find a couple of casual pictures that show your size, and now new pictures that show your CrossFit muscles.

I really want to see real-world CrossFit gains.

Heh, I'll see if I can dig some pictures up on facebook or something, but I doubt I have any with a shirt off, at least not from the last year or so when I hit my peak weight of 223lbs... Fully clothed, the differences are much harder to see, but maybe I'll find something that can be put side by side. If not, I'll post a picture of myself wearing my old jeans and old suit, both of which are HUGE on me now

A lot of times it's even pretty noticeable in the face/neck. I cut from 260 to 224 once and man, my cheeks/neck lost more than I would have thought.

 

[conorvansmack]

Holy cow, congratulations!

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, November 8

Extra rest day. Had yet another wedding to go to (for some reason, everyone I know is suddenly getting married), which basically meant an entire day of eating and drinking in enormous quantities. Good times.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Saturday, November 8

Extra rest day. Had yet another wedding to go to (for some reason, everyone I know is suddenly getting married), which basically meant an entire day of eating and drinking in enormous quantities. Good times.

And don't forget, for free! Win.

 

[gramboh]

Congrats on the weight loss goal. Also wow, 10 rep front squats higher than your BW, that sounds ridiculously brutal, I might have to try that sometime, never done more than 5 rep sets. I can only imagine the pain.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, November 9

Workout of the Day

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run.

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Time: 40:01

Booyaa! Murph was the first CF workout that I had ever done. Back on July 7, I spent ~42 minutes, and only got through 70% of the exercises between the 1 mile runs (70 pull-ups, 140 push-ups and 210 squats). Today, in 2 minutes less, I did the entire thing. It's nice to see everything come full circle and it's a pretty good improvement for 4 months.

This is a really tough workout, but I got my pacing down very well. I ran the first mile at 9mph (took ~6:37) and the last one at ~6.5mph (took 9:00). I broke up the middle part into 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. I didn't try to rush through it and as a result, my muscles never fatigued - ie, there was no "burning sensation" at any point. The limiting factor was my lungs/heart and with the steady pace, they did fairly well.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, November 10

Rest day.

Practiced handstands a bit today. Normally, I'd get into a headstand with my back to the wall and then do a handstand push-up to get into a handstand. However, following the Beastskills handstand tutorial, I was able to kick straight into a handstand today, which is much better. Not only does this teach me to get into a handstand the way I would if there was no wall around, but I feel like I also get into a much better handstand stance as a result. I'll definitely be doing it this way from now on (including for workouts w/ handstand push-ups) which should speed my progress along nicely.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Monday, November 10

Rest day.

Practiced handstands a bit today. Normally, I'd get into a headstand with my back to the wall and then do a handstand push-up to get into a handstand. However, following the Beastskills handstand tutorial, I was able to kick straight into a handstand today, which is much better. Not only does this teach me to get into a handstand the way I would if there was no wall around, but I feel like I also get into a much better handstand stance as a result. I'll definitely be doing it this way from now on (including for workouts w/ handstand push-ups) which should speed my progress along nicely.

Nice!

I've been working like crazy on my handstands and my balance is slowly getting better. My long-term goal is unassisted HSPUs and one-handed handstands, so I've got a ways to go.

 

[hondaf17]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Sunday, November 9

Workout of the Day

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run.

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Time: 40:01

Booyaa! Murph was the first CF workout that I had ever done. Back on July 7, I spent ~42 minutes, and only got through 70% of the exercises between the 1 mile runs (70 pull-ups, 140 push-ups and 210 squats). Today, in 2 minutes less, I did the entire thing. It's nice to see everything come full circle and it's a pretty good improvement for 4 months.

This is a really tough workout, but I got my pacing down very well. I ran the first mile at 9mph (took ~6:37) and the last one at ~6.5mph (took 9:00). I broke up the middle part into 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. I didn't try to rush through it and as a result, my muscles never fatigued - ie, there was no "burning sensation" at any point. The limiting factor was my lungs/heart and with the steady pace, they did fairly well.

Nice work dude! Murph is the toughest WOD, in my opinion. It's just a killer. I've been doing CrossFit for about 6 months now and did full Murph in 47:04 back in September. However I didn't do it with a weight vest. Did you know it's named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL that was killed in Afghanistan (read the book "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrel) and received the Congressional Medal of Honor? "Murph" did this work-out while wearing a 20-lbs body armor vest.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: hondaf17

Nice work dude! Murph is the toughest WOD, in my opinion. It's just a killer. I've been doing CrossFit for about 6 months now and did full Murph in 47:04 back in September. However I didn't do it with a weight vest. Did you know it's named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL that was killed in Afghanistan (read the book "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrel) and received the Congressional Medal of Honor? "Murph" did this work-out while wearing a 20-lbs body armor vest.

The workouts all have interesting names. For instance, did you know that Fight Gone Bad was originally custom-tailored for BJ Penn before his UFC debut. Obviously, the goal was to simulate a three round UFC fight. When BJ first did the workout, they asked him how it was and he said "it was like a fight gone bad." Hence, the name.

Anyway, Murph is a doozy, but personally I think most of the metcon workouts are tough. Angie holds a special place in my heart for tearing up my hands.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, November 11

Workout of the Day

Weighted pull-ups 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

My numbers

Weighted pull-ups:
45lbs x 1
65lbs x 1
90lbs x 1
105lbs x 1 (PR)
115lbs x 1 (PR)
125lbs x 1 (PR)
135lbs x missed, I think

I also tossed in some bench press after the pull-ups:
205x5, 245x5, 265x5

I got a dip belt today and used it to do the weighted pull-ups. The belt worked great, but unfortunately, I was doing the workout at the office gym which doesn't have a normal pull-up bar, so I had to use the split handles at the top of a really tall power rack. To get to them I had to climb up on a bench, which was no easy task with > 100lbs hanging off of me. Moreover, with split handles, it's quite hard to tell when your chin clears the bar. Up until the last set, I was getting really strong pulls and am pretty damn sure my chin was at the right height. However, with 135lbs, I don't quite think I got it. I'm confident I can get it next time this workout comes up as I'll be sure to do it on a normal pull-up bar that I can reach from the ground.

No real issues with bench press today - just nice to see the weight moving up. I think I'll go for 275x3 next time.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

htf? 125lbs? that can't be good for your spine.