brikis98's crossfit journal

[brikis98]

Sunday, December 7

Workout of the Day

"Nicole"
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
Run 400m
Pull-ups, max reps

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Rounds: 7
Pull-ups by round: 17, 11, 14, 12, 12, 10, 12

Tough workout. The running really killed my motivation and really shortened my pull-up sets. I find it tough to hang onto a pull-up bar for long when out of breath and in some rounds, namely rounds 2 and 6, I just slipped right off. I ran the first 400 at 11 mph and all the others at 10.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, December 8

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, December 9

Workout of the Day

"The 300 Workout"
25 Pullups
50 Deadlifts, 135lbs
50 Pushups
50 Box jumps, 24"
50 Floor wipers, 135lbs
50 1-arm Kettlebell Clean & Press, 1 pood
25 Pullups

My numbers

Based on available equipment at the office gym, I did ~21" box jumps (actually, I was jumping onto a bench) and did dumbbell clean & press with 35lbs.

Time: unknown - timer malfunction

So, a bunch of guys at work decided to compete in a Crossfit workout this Saturday. We wanted to pick a workout that was relatively long and representative of CF's variety/intensity, but as the majority of people in the contest don't do Crossfit, we had to pick something that didn't require knowledge of any difficult or complicated exercises (ie, no muscle-ups, snatch, handstand push-ups, etc). It came down to several choices and people finally voted to do this "300 workout". I don't think it's actually an official CF WoD, and it wasn't my top choice, but it seemed reasonable enough.

I decided to try it out today so I could get a feel for it before Saturday's competition. Overall, it went pretty well, except for one thing: I was using a timer app on my phone, but unfortunately, it froze after just 1:00 minute (the phone probably went to sleep). Therefore, I have no clue how long the workout actually took. My guess is it was in the 20-30 minute range, but it's really hard to judge. I guess I'll see my actual time this Saturday.

All the exercises were relatively easy with the exception of the floor wipers. Holding 135lbs while you bang out 50 reps (1 rep = touching both sides with your feet) is surprisingly tough and I had to break it down into sets of 10. Everything else was just limited by my lungs, with the last 25 pull-ups being pretty tough as I was quite winded.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, December 10

Workout of the Day

Snatch (technique practice)
Squat
Split Jerk
Deadlift

My numbers

Snatch: 65x5, 95x3, 115x1, 115xmissed, 115xmissed, 115xmissed
Squat: 225x5, 255x5, 295x5
Split jerk: 185x1, 195x1, 205x1, 215x1 (PR), 225x1
Deadlift: 225x3, 315x3, 405x1

I've somehow managed to un-learn the snatch and seem to keep getting worse at it. It's weird. I used to be able to snatch 135, but now, after a successful 115 attempt, I failed on all subsequent sets to get it again. It's clearly a technique issue, but I'm just not able to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I can power snatch 115 pretty easily, but I'm not getting under the bar quickly enough to do a full squat snatch. I don't practice this lift nearly often enough, so there's no way I'll be snatching 180 any time soon.

Other than that though, I felt really strong today. I finally got 295x5 on the squat with reasonably good bar speed for every rep. I also set a new PR on the split jerk with 215, although I still couldn't quite get under 225 in time. Finally, feeling pretty good, I just decided to go for a 1RM on the deadlift and put up 405. This ties the most weight I've ever put up, although back then I did 405x3. However, I weigh 180lbs now and was 223lbs then, so I'm still damn happy

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, December 11

Workout of the Day

With a continuously running clock do one 135 pound Clean and Jerk the first minute, two 135 pound Clean and Jerks the second minute, three 135 pound Clean and Jerks the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

My numbers

5 rounds + 5 clean & jerk + 1 clean. (didn't get the last jerk in b4 round 6)

The workout was short, so I tossed in some bench press after: 225x5, 265x3, 275x3

Man, this C&J workout was not a good choice right after a heavy day of squat, deadlift and split jerk. Yesterday's workout had used all the exact same muscles in essentially the exact same motions and as a result, I had no speed, no explosiveness and just felt flat. I was hoping to make it at least 7 rounds, but ended up missing round 6 by a hair. Oh well, I'll need to do better next time.

Bench press, fortunately, went very well. I got 275x3 up, which is a 1 rep improvement over last time. Looks like next time I'll go for 280, or BW + 100lbs. Neat

 

[brikis98]

Friday, December 12

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, December 13

Workout of the Day

Today, I competed with 7 other guys from work at the "300 Workout":

25 Pullups
50 Deadlifts, 135lbs
50 Pushups
50 Box jumps, 24"
50 Floor wipers, 135lbs
50 1-arm Kettlebell Clean & Press, 1 pood
25 Pullups

My numbers

I ended up winning the competition. I don't remember everyone's times exactly, but the break down was something like:

Me: 17:01
Another CFer: ~20:00
Almost everyone else: ~22:00 - 26:00
Personal trainer: 34:00
Marathon runner: 35:55
(A guy who skipped the deadlifts: ~19:30)

As I mentioned before, we picked the "300 workout" as a decent representative of a CF WoD, but one which contained no particularly heavy or technically complicated exercises. In other words, the advantage of being a CFer should have been fairly minimal in terms of technique or know-how. However, I think the results speak for themselves:

* The two CFers came out on top, by a decent margin. I think I won primarily due to a lightning fast start, banging out the 25 pull-ups in one go, followed by 30-10-10 with very little rest on the deadlifts and push-ups.
* The other folks, ranging in ages from ~24 - 32, did pretty darn well, with most people really struggling with floor wipers and the last set of pull-ups.
* There was a "personal trainer" there, and while he definitely looked to be in great shape (the guy probably had ~6% BF), his performance was less than spectacular. It only confirms my general impression of most personal trainers.
* Finally, the marathon runner struggled mightily with the pull-ups, deadlift and clean & press. He's an excellent long distance runner, but he seriously lacked strength, power, quickness, etc.

The only other thing I can add is a quote from the CF website:

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, December 14

Rest day. I have a visitor from out of town, so I'm taking my rest day today instead of Monday.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, December 15

Workout of the Day

Four rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
50 Squats

My numbers

I ran outside on an olympic track. I used a stopwatch to time how long it took me to run the 400m and do the 50 squats for each round.

Round 1: 1:27 + 1:59 = 3:26
Round 2: 1:50 + 1:58 = 3:48
Round 3: 1:57 + 2:01 = 3:58
Round 4: 1:53 + 1:52 = 3:45

Total: 14:57 (PR)

This was my second time doing this workout: the first time, back on 10/22, I took 15:01, so this is a 4 second PR. It doesn't seem like much, but today's conditions were definitely harder, as (1) I ran on a track instead of a treadmill and (2) I was running against 20mph+ winds. It was fairly warm today (~55 degrees), so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do this one outside, but it definitely made the workout harder.

The one oddity today is that while I was warming up for this workout by just lightly jogging a couple laps around the track, both of my lats got really tight and basically cramped up. I have no idea why, as all I was doing was running at about 6mph, but even a few hours later, they are still sore and tight. Perhaps I slept weird or was sitting weird at my desk before the workout? At any rate, it didn't affect the workout much, but it's pretty bizarre.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, December 16

Workout of the Day

Decided to work on some oly lifts today.

Power Clean and Jerk
Squat Clean and Jerk
Squat Clean

My numbers

Power Clean and Jerk: 135x5, 185x3, 205x3, 215xmissed - got the power clean (PR), missed the jerk
Squat Clean and Jerk: 205x1, 215x1 (PR), 225xmissed
Squat Clean: 225xmissed, 225xmissed, 225x1, 235x1 (PR), 245x1 (PR)

Very interesting workout today. I started with some power cleans, which went reasonably well, and I set a new PR at 215lbs. However, my split jerk form was a bit off and I was not able to split jerk 215 after the power clean.

I then moved on to the squat clean and jerk and managed to get 215 up on both parts, also a new PR. However, I could just not get myself to squat under 225, so I never even got to attempt the jerk on it. 225 lbs was my PR on the squat clean and it frustrated me not to be able to do it again, so I kept trying it. Each time, I was just not generating the necessary bar speed and was not moving myself under the bar aggressively. After missing on 3 straight tries, I got really angry and almost immediately went for a fourth try. I got it easily.

It was at this point that I realized I wasn't putting nearly enough intensity - enough anger, really - into my clean attempts and hence wasn't generating the speed I needed. As dumb and ridiculous as it sounds, for the next two attempts, I actually slapped myself in the face a couple of times to really get my heart pumping and was able to get new PR's of 235 and then 245. It was a silly way to accomplish it, but it really got my head and heart into the lift - hell, if I had still been fresh, I think I would've been good even for 255, but was way to gassed to even attempt it.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, December 17

Workout of the Day

"Barbara"

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

My numbers

Round 1: 3:30
Round 2: 4:32
Round 3: 4:58
Round 4: 5:00
Round 5: 5:25

Total: 23:25

Well, I guess I can add Barbara to the long list of CF workouts that are way tougher in real life than they look on paper. My first round was completely unbroken, except for the squats which I did 25-15-10. It still took some 3:30, which makes it all the more mind blowing that some people on the CF site claim multiple rounds of ~2:30. I just don't know how you do it so bloody fast. For the later rounds, fatigue from the last couple days was really setting in. After running + 200 air squats on Monday and a ton of C&J yesterday, the air squats today were rather tough. At any rate, it's an awesome workout, I felt like total crap when I was done, and I can't wait to have another shot at this one.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, December 18

Workout of the Day

Seven rounds for time of:
75 pound Shoulder Press, 21 reps
21 Back extensions

My numbers

Did back extensions on a 45 degree back extension machine.

Time: 21:06

Bleh. This is my second try at this workout and it didn't go too well. The first time was back on August 27, when I did it in 20:08. Today, my traps were absolutely shot from clean and jerks two days ago, so the shoulder press was pure agony from the very first set. Back extensions I did in unbroken sets in all 7 rounds.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, December 19

Rest day. Sore as hell from 4 straight days of CF.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, December 20

Workout of the Day

Was going to do my standard 3x5 style workout of squat/bench/deadlift, but I had to spend 45 minutes shoveling snow to get my car out of the driveway, so I opted to skip deadlifts. I also had no spotter so I decided to do a bit of dumbbell bench press for variety.

Squat: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
Weighted pull-ups: 5x1
Dumbbell Bench Press: 3x5

My numbers

Squat: 225x5, 265x5, 305x2, 225x8
Weighted pull-ups: 45x1, 90x1, 110x1, 115x1, 120xmissed
Dumbbell Bench Press: 80x5, 90x5, 100x5

Although it was a pain in the ass to do, I had forgotten how good of a workout you can get by shoveling. My arms, back, and abs were all working pretty hard as I dug through the fairly large driveway at my house.

It was nice to be squatting over 300 today, but I definitely did not have the 3rd rep of 305 in me. I'll try again next time. I think my weighted pull-ups were really hampered by the shoveling, as I really had no explosiveness on the pull and could not get my chin over the bar on 120lbs. My PR is 125lbs, and I had been hoping to get up to 135lbs (three 45lb plates), but it was not meant to be today. Finally, dumbbell bench press felt great. It was my first time doing it in probably a year, but surprisingly, I didn't struggle at all with the balance as I usually do the first couple times. The 80's and 90's went up very easy. The 100's were much more of a struggle, but I got through it.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, December 21

No workout today. Way too much snow & crappy road conditions to go anywhere. Everything is supposed to freeze tonight, so to try to reduce the damage for tomorrow, I spent a good hour shoveling. I live in a house which shares the driveway with 9 other people - around 8 cars total - so it's pretty damn large. Moreover, the snow was very wet & heavy. As I worked, I noticed two things:

1. Shoveling is yet another place where a focus on "functional" exercises really pays off. One of my housemates pulled his back out after 1 min of shoveling. I spent an hour working and my back felt just fine - heavy squatting and deadlifting have taught me to keep my spine rigid/straight against a load and kettlebell swings and thrusters have taught me to use hip drive to toss the snow efficiently over the fence that runs next to the driveway.

2. I have made ridiculous gains in endurance from CF. About a year ago, I spent 30 minutes shoveling a small portion of our driveway in similar conditions, after which I was winded, sore and had a back ache. Today, I easily shoveled the whole driveway myself (took an hour), and the only thing that stopped me from going to the gym afterwords were the crappy road conditions.

I love Crossfit.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Sunday, December 21

No workout today. Way too much snow & crappy road conditions to go anywhere. Everything is supposed to freeze tonight, so to try to reduce the damage for tomorrow, I spent a good hour shoveling. I live in a house which shares the driveway with 9 other people - around 8 cars total - so it's pretty damn large. Moreover, the snow was very wet & heavy. As I worked, I noticed two things:

1. Shoveling is yet another place where a focus on "functional" exercises really pays off. One of my housemates pulled his back out after 1 min of shoveling. I spent an hour working and my back felt just fine - heavy squatting and deadlifting have taught me to keep my spine rigid/straight against a load and kettlebell swings and thrusters have taught me to use hip drive to toss the snow efficiently over the fence that runs next to the driveway.

2. I have made ridiculous gains in endurance from CF. About a year ago, I spent 30 minutes shoveling a small portion of our driveway in similar conditions, after which I was winded, sore and had a back ache. Today, I easily shoveled the whole driveway myself (took an hour), and the only thing that stopped me from going to the gym afterwords were the crappy road conditions.

I love Crossfit.

See, this is why I love stressing functional strength. That is amazing. It's good when fitness gains in the gym have a use in the real world. Good job, man. I'm sure an hour of shoveling was plenty of a workout.

 

[conorvansmack]

I noticed the same thing when I was digging my wife's car out of Snowpocalypse 2008. I spent about and hour and a half outside. My glutes were a little sore, but deadlifting and squatting have definitely helped me become more useful in the wintertime. It doesn't make me like living in the snow any more though.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, December 22

Workout of the Day

"Erin"
Five rounds for time of:
40 pound Dumbbells split clean, 15 reps
21 Pull-ups

My numbers

Time: 20:30

And yet another CF workout that looks easy on paper and turns out to be an ass kicker in real life. This was my first time doing dumbbell split cleans and my form on them sucked. I only realized in the 4th round that I was trying to do the 2nd pull way too early in the motion, but by then, I had already wasted a ton of energy. I also found that lowering the weight back to the ground was basically an inverse bicep curl. Granted, 40lbs isn't much weight for curls, but 75 reps adds up pretty quick, and combined with pull-ups, the absurdly thick split handle pull-up bar at the office gym, and 3 straight days of shoveling snow, and my biceps and forearms were completely destroyed by this workout.

On a random note, I wrote a couple blog entries this past weekend describing my experiences with weight loss and crossfit this year:

A Tribute to Crossfit
How I lost 43lbs

 

[abaez]

Thanks for those posts. The exact thing you wrote - losing weight without losing flab - has been plaguing me the past two months. I could not figure out how I could run 10 miles and vigorously hike 5 and still not look like I'm losing weight. I'll have to work some weights in there but I have no weights Will have to look around.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: abaez
Thanks for those posts. The exact thing you wrote - losing weight without losing flab - has been plaguing me the past two months. I could not figure out how I could run 10 miles and vigorously hike 5 and still not look like I'm losing weight. I'll have to work some weights in there but I have no weights Will have to look around.

Glad you enjoyed them

Craigslist is a great place to buy weights if you have space in your house, but in general, a gym membership is often a much more affordable and worthwhile investment, as it gives you access to more equipment that is higher quality that you don't have to maintain.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, December 23

Workout of the Day

Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
135 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
135 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
135 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

My numbers

Did a split jerk instead of a push jerk.

Time: 27:58 (PR)

I was lucky to get all the way through this workout. My hands are really torn up from the pull-ups and dumbbell split cleans yesterday and I had a few blisters start to tear open on the very first round. On top of that, my forearms are still damn sore from shoveling snow all weekend and yesterday's workout. As a result, gripping the bar - even with just 135lbs on it - proved to be damn painful. I had to break up the deadlift and hang power clean sets a lot more than I wanted to just so I could set the bar on the floor and let my hands rest.

Despite that, I still crushed my previous time of 41:00 on this workout back on 09/09. Granted, back then I had wasted a few minutes waiting for a power rack to free up, but today's grip difficulties probably cost me just as much time. The other good news is that I think I finally figured out why my hang power cleans always felt worse than my normal power cleans. I realized in the middle of round 3 that, compared to the position my body was in before the 2nd pull of a power clean, I was not getting my shoulders in front of the bar as much before starting the pull on a hang power clean. The result was that during the hang power clean, the bar ended up further away from my body as it traveled to my shoulders. To remedy the issue, I just pushed my hips further back and leaned forward more before starting the pull, with ultimately made the bar stay much closer to my body on it's way up after the pull. This made my hang power cleans feel much smoother & more efficient and helped me pick up the pace a bit for the final two rounds.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, December 24

Rest day. At the girlfriend's parents' house for a couple days for christmas, so it's not too likely i'll be getting much exercise while here. Happy holidays everone!

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Wednesday, December 24

Rest day. At the girlfriend's parents' house for a couple days for christmas, so it's not too likely i'll be getting much exercise while here. Happy holidays everone!

Holidays are where it's legitimate not to work out Note to everybody: everything in moderation. Haha.

Merry Christmas, man. Hope it's a good one.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, December 25

Another rest day due to holidays.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, December 26

Workout of the Day

Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift
Snatch

My numbers

Squat: 225x5, 265x5, 305x2xmissed
Bench Press: 205x5, 245x5, 275x3, 205x8
Deadlift: 315x3, 385x3
Snatch: 95x3, 115x1, 135xmissed, 135xmissed, 135xmissed

So, as an (early) new year's gift, I got a Pendaly Crossfit Barbell. I don't have any room for gym equipment in my home, so I keep it in the office gym, along with the bumper plates I had bought a few months ago. I had not planned on doing the snatch today, but I had to test out the new toy, so I tossed it in at the end of the workout. My verdict: the bar is awesome. My snatch technique is not. I'm not expert on barbells, but there were 3 things that made this bar better than any of the ones I had used at other gyms, and especially the crappy chrome bar at the office gym:

1. The knurling felt great on the hands, even when deadlifting 385
2. The bar made virtually no noise when I would drop it after doing a snatch. The only sound was from the bumper plates which make a fairly muffled thud. This is a very welcome change form the chrome piece of junk I was using at the office before, and I'm sure my coworkers will appreciate it.
3. The sleeves have nice spin to them. I suck at olympic lifts, but I did a few light clean & jerks and definitely noticed a difference with the spin as I turned my elbows to get under the bar.

Overall, my workout was so-so. I'm not sure why, but my form did not feel very smooth today on the back squat, and as a result, I missed the 3rd rep of 305. I definitely had the strength to do it today, but I didn't get a good bounce out of the hole and just couldn't come all the way back up. I'm sure I'll get it next time though. Bench press felt pretty damn good today, and I would've gone for 280 on the last set, but there was pretty much no one in the office, and I didn't want to risk it without a spot. Deadlift felt great and next time I'll go for 395x3. However, I don't think next time will be for another ~2 weeks, as I'm going to start alternating deadlift with the clean & jerk during these heavy lifting days. I really want to improve on the olympic lifts and I think developing my power will actually help my deadlift, even though I won't be doing it too often.

Finally, I flat out suck at the snatch. 95lbs and 115lbs felt fine, and even though I somehow managed to do 135lbs a while back, I could not do it again today. I was getting under the bar this time, but probably not fast enough, as I couldn't lock it out above me and would just have to dump it every time. Granted, I was pretty gassed at the end of my workout, and the snatch is probably the most technically complicated lift there is, but it's still disappointing to suck this bad.