brikis98's crossfit journal

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
Did you go straight through each exercise, or did you rotate your way through them on the way to 100 for each?

As far as I know, Angie is meant to be done in the exact order it's written. First you do 100 pull-ups, then 100 push-ups and so on. This means that, by design, you are limited by the muscular endurance of the muscles involved in each exercise. This is quite different than "Cindy" (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats) where the limiting factor is typically your lungs, as one muscle group rests while another is being worked, but your lungs are being taxed the entire time.

Yeah, Angie goes straight through. 100 pullups suck nomatter how you break it down.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, January 14

Workout of the Day

Back Squat: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
OH Press: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
Power Clean: 5x3
Floor Glute Ham Raise: 3x5

My numbers

Back Squat: I was warming up w/ 135lbs and felt a twinge of pain in my hip. Decided going up to 305lbs wouldn't be a good idea. As a result, I re-ordered the workout and added in some power snatch.

Power Clean: 185x3, 190x3, 195x3, 200x3, 205x3
Power Snatch: 95x3, 115x3 (wasn't happy w/ form), 115x3
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x3, 115x8
Floor Glute Ham Raise: 3x5

My hip feels better today, but I don't think it was ready for heavy back squats, so I didn't bother risking it. Heavy squats are up again this weekend, so hopefully the hip will be 100% after a few more days of rest + ibuprofen.

Everything else went reasonably well today. It was good to practice my o-lifts and I'm slowly climbing back up on my OH press. I did floor glute ham raises for the second time today and already noticed a slight improvement as I was able to get a lot lower under control when doing the negative portion.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, January 15

Workout of the Day

Four rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
50 Squats

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Total: unknown (timer malfunction)

Crappy workout today. Firstly, my hip was feeling worse today than yesterday, which is a bit worrying. Hopefully more ibuprofen and my rest day tomorrow will help. Second, my legs were felt totally dead from yesterday, especially my hamstrings from the floor glute ham raise. Running was a chore (did the first 3 rounds @ 10mph, the last one at 9.5mph) and my legs were burning on the very first round of squats. To top it all of, I was using my phone as a timer and its battery died during the workout, so I have no clue how long it took, although I'm sure I didn't set a new PR or anything.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, January 16

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Random update: I found a way to do GHD sit-ups today at the office gym!

We have a crappy BodyCraft workout machine similar to the one in this image. If you look at the picture can see two key items:

(1) In the very middle of the image, you can see the padded back of a seat with the BodyCraft logo on it. Just below it are two foam rollers.
(2) Just below the seat back is the actual seat. If you look just in front of this seat (ie, closer to the camera) there are two more foam rollers.

If you sit in the seat in (2) so that you are facing the weight stack (ie, you'd have your back to the camera), you can lean back so that the foam rollers in (2) are right under your butt or hamstrings (depending on your height). When you do this, you can then neatly tuck your feet between the foam rollers in (1) and the seat in (2). As long as you raise the seat in (2) to the proper height so it clears the metal bar (for leg extensions), you're now in a perfect position to do GHD sit-ups!

I did a quick set of 10 today to try it out and they were damn hard, but I felt nice and secure. I might put a little more padding under the foam roller below my butt, but otherwise, it's pretty damn sweet!

 

[brikis98]

One more update. I found a way to use this set-up to do full glute ham raises! I wrote up the instructions for everything on the CF messageboards. Obviously, these are not as good as the real exercises, but for those of us who don't have access to a GHD, they may be decent alternatives.

 

[stinkynathan]

Couldn't you just put a bench under a Smith machine, lock the bar down close to the bench, and cram your feet in there? Adjust the bench so you're dangly-dangling off the end of the bench. Just a suggestion I read on the BrandX site the other day.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: stinkynathan
Couldn't you just put a bench under a Smith machine, lock the bar down close to the bench, and cram your feet in there? Adjust the bench so you're dangly-dangling off the end of the bench. Just a suggestion I read on the BrandX site the other day.

Not a bad idea, although I could see a few issues with it:

1. It would kind of hurt to use a bar to hold our feet rather than something like a padded foam roller. However, if you have one of those squat pads or just wrap a towel around it, it should be ok.

2. Most benches are pretty low to the ground, so you definitely couldn't get the same ROM on the sit-ups and pretty much no ROM on the back extension part of a glute ham raise.

3. I don't have a Smith machine at my office gym, although I may be able to do something similar with a power rack + barbell + weights.

 

[DomS]

what exactly is cross-fit?


and good luck with glute-ham raises. Those things are ridiculous. I'm adding them to back/hamstring day soon

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: DomS
what exactly is cross-fit?

It's an exercise program that is designed to improve General Physical Preparedness (GPP), which basically means it gets you in shape to do just about anything. It's used by many police offers, military units, martial artists and tons of other athletes. The idea is to develop fitness across all domains, including cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy. To do that, the workouts include a bit of everything: power lifting, olympic lifting, running, gymnastics, rowing, climbing, and more. The workouts are constantly varied (ie, a different one every day) and are done at a very high intensity.

For more info, check out the Crossfit main site (especially "What is Crossfit?" and the many videos), the Crossfit Wikipedia entry and my tribute to Crossfit in my blog.

Originally posted by: DomS
good luck with glute-ham raises. Those things are ridiculous. I'm adding them to back/hamstring day soon

Yea, they are brutally hard, but are supposed to be extremely good for the posterior chain. I've always been an anterior chain dominant person, so I'm trying to even it out now.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, January 17

Workout of the Day

Squat: 3x5
Bench: 3x5
Deadlift: 2x3

Pull-ups: max reps
Bench: max reps with bodyweight

My numbers

Squat: 225x5, 265x5, 305x1 (stopped due to hip pain)
Bench: 205x5, 245x5, 280x1xmissed
Deadlift: 315x3, 395x2xmissed

Pull-ups: 30 (PR)
Bench: 185lbs x 17 reps

Not the best workout today. My hip is still not 100% and didn't feel great during any of the sets. I pushed through for a while, but finally called it quits after the first rep of 305 as it did not feel right at all and I was worried I was going to make the injury worse. I'll try 305 again next time. Bench press felt oddly heavy today and I totally lost form on the second rep of 280, so I'll repeat that next time as well. Finally, my back and hamstrings were very sore after yesterday's experimentation with glute ham raises. Although I felt decent on the deadlift, I just did not have enough to get the 3rd rep of 395. So, sure enough, I'll be re-doing this weight as well.

For the record, today's workout was supposed to be "Lynne", which consists of 5 rounds of max reps on pull-ups and bodyweight bench press. I don't like this workout at all as the amount of volume leaves me with debilitating DOMS for the next few days and interferes with all the workouts that come after it. As a compromise, I tossed in one max rep set of each at the end of the workout. I tied my PR of 185x17 on the bench and set a new PR with 30 consecutive pull-ups. I think if I had been fresh - ie, my chest wasn't tired already from bench press and my grip from deadlift - I could've easily had a few more reps on each.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, January 18

Workout of the Day

Five rounds for time of:
25 Inverted Burpees
25 Pull-ups
25 Burpees

My numbers

Scaled down to 4 rounds. I can't do a kip up, so I did the inverted burpees with a sit-up and roll to standing.

Time: 50:00

I really should have scaled this workout even more. I had never done inverted burpees before and each one took me a long time. I didn't get the form right for the sit-up and roll until about round 3, by which point I had already wasted a TON of time and energy. Up to that point, I had not been throwing my upper body and arms forward enough, which made standing up a lot harder. The inverted burpees sucked so much, this was the only time in my life that I looked forward to normal burpees. I'm sure I'll do better on this one next time it comes... which hopefully won't be for a long time

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Holy crap. I've never seen inverted burpees and I just watched 'em. That required an amazing amount of coordination, core strength, etc. That's awesome. Sorry you took such a beating, but you know it's all for the greater good And it just kinda puts normal burpees into perspective for ya, haha.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, January 19

Rest day.

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Holy crap. I've never seen inverted burpees and I just watched 'em. That required an amazing amount of coordination, core strength, etc. That's awesome. Sorry you took such a beating, but you know it's all for the greater good And it just kinda puts normal burpees into perspective for ya, haha.

Heh, it was a hell of a workout - my calves, abs, legs, chest and shoulders are all toast. If I had spent more time learning the sit-up and roll before starting, I'm sure I could've done the workout a lot faster and kept the intensity even higher... But I'll accept this first try as my crash course

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Holy crap. I've never seen inverted burpees and I just watched 'em. That required an amazing amount of coordination, core strength, etc. That's awesome. Sorry you took such a beating, but you know it's all for the greater good And it just kinda puts normal burpees into perspective for ya, haha.

Heh, it was a hell of a workout - my calves, abs, legs, chest and shoulders are all toast. If I had spent more time learning the sit-up and roll before starting, I'm sure I could've done the workout a lot faster and kept the intensity even higher... But I'll accept this first try as my crash course

What's the specific sit-up and roll technique? I figured you would just get up and then continue onward if you couldn't do the kip.

 

[Darkstar757]

Dude I so wish you lived near me! I could use someone to help me get my fat ass into shape.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
What's the specific sit-up and roll technique? I figured you would just get up and then continue onward if you couldn't do the kip.

There are some videos of the sit-up and roll version of the inverted burpee on the Crossfit messageboards. The tricky part, at least for me, was rolling onto my feet and standing up without using my hands. That is, you use your hands while lying on your back to start the roll, but once you are rolling and your feet touch the ground, the idea is to stand up without any additional pushing with the hands. It seems obvious now, but for the first two rounds, I wasn't throwing my upper body and hands forward enough and at the right time, so I'd often stumble backwards a few steps as I stood up. This wasted a lot of energy and time, but once I corrected it, made the whole thing a lot easier.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
Dude I so wish you lived near me! I could use someone to help me get my fat ass into shape.

Heh, I'm sure having someone there to push you can be a great motivation, but the vast majority still should come from you. I was initially driven by the desire to get in shape, but eventually, seeing the results became an awesome drive as well. Now, I have all of those plus a genuine enjoyment for the challenge of learning the exercises and completing the workouts. Crossfit has become my sport and I have great fun at it

Out of curiosity, where do you live?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
What's the specific sit-up and roll technique? I figured you would just get up and then continue onward if you couldn't do the kip.

There are some videos of the sit-up and roll version of the inverted burpee on the Crossfit messageboards. The tricky part, at least for me, was rolling onto my feet and standing up without using my hands. That is, you use your hands while lying on your back to start the roll, but once you are rolling and your feet touch the ground, the idea is to stand up without any additional pushing with the hands. It seems obvious now, but for the first two rounds, I wasn't throwing my upper body and hands forward enough and at the right time, so I'd often stumble backwards a few steps as I stood up. This wasted a lot of energy and time, but once I corrected it, made the whole thing a lot easier.

Ahhh, ok, I see it now. That's way better than the kip though, haha.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Ahhh, ok, I see it now. That's way better than the kip though, haha.

Yea, I think a kip-up would make this exercise another order of magnitude harder. Guess I'll need to invest some time now to learn how to do it and find out

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, January 20

Workout of the Day

"Annie"

50-40-30-20 and10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders
Sit-ups

My numbers

Time: 11:00

The good news is that I've gotten pretty damn efficient at double-unders and can bang 20-30 out in a row with minimal fatigue. I definitely have the endurance for 40-50 in a row, but it's rare I can get through that many reps without snagging my feet on the rope accidentally. The bad news is that I still suck horribly at doing sit-ups in large numbers. The odd thing I've noticed is that with both sit-ups and push-ups, once I've done 50-60 reps total, it's like my body stops removing lactic acid from the muscles. As a result, I really slow down and need breaks every 5-10 reps thereafter. This happens whether I got to the ~60 mark by pacing myself with sets of 10 or by just doing as many as possible consecutively (e.g. a set of 50 and then a set of 10 as I did today with sit-ups).

This sort of muscular endurance is something I've always struggled with. Unfortunately, it's also one of the few areas I've seen almost no improvement after ~6 months of CF. To solve this problem, I think I might try a "Grease the Groove" (GTG) approach for a few weeks. I'll go into the office gym ~3 times per day, a few days a week, and bang out an ~80% set for push-ups and sit-ups. I imagine it will interfere with my workouts initially, but hopefully my body will adjust. Right now, I can do ~40 consecutive push-ups and ~50 consecutive sit-ups, so I'll start easy with sets of 25 and 35 and slowly work my way up, maybe adding 5 reps to each exercise per week. Ideally, I'd like to get to 100 reps of each, but I have never tried this before, so I'm not sure how realistic that is and how long it'll take to achieve.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, January 21

Extra rest day. I was supposed to squat today, but my hip is still not 100%, so I decided to give it an extra day off. I did start my GTG approach for push-ups and sit-ups, doing 3 sets of 25 reps of each exercise spread through out the day.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, January 22

Workout of the Day

Power Clean: 5x3
OH Press: 3x5
HSPU: 3xF
Glute ham raise: 3xF

My numbers

Power Clean: 185x3, 195x3, 205x3, 215x1xF, 215x1xF
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x4xF
HSPU: 6, 5, 4
Glute ham raise: 5, 4, 4

My hip injury is starting to worry me now. It has been almost two weeks and it hasn't gotten any better. In fact, I've avoided any kind of squatting this whole week and even took an extra day off and yet today it seemed to actually hurt more. Random motions would cause pain in the hip, including lunges (during warm-up), dropping down from the wall after a set of HSPU's, and even step-ups onto a bench. Last time I had an injury that wouldn't go away on its own (rotator cuff pain from pull-ups), I went to a chiropractor who did some Active Release Techniques (ART) and had me feeling better pretty quick. Not sure if he'll be able to do anything for a hip injury, but I called today to make an appointment, so we'll see what happens.

Anyways, I did whatever I exercises I could in this workout that wouldn't aggravate the hip, which meant no squatting whatsoever. Power cleans felt ok, although my form kind of sucked when I got to 215 and I couldn't get past the first rep. Definitely need to keep practicing these. OH press went pretty well and I just barely missed the 5th rep of 155. I got it to about my forehead before I slowed down and had the weight come right back down. I'm sure I'll get it next time. I haven't done any HSPU's in ages, so I tossed some in at the end of the workout. Finally, I used my ad hoc set-up on the BodyCraft machine at the office to do some ghetto glute ham raises which were hard as hell, but felt great.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Dang, dude, I'm really sorry to hear about the hip. It's such a sensitive area if you mess with it. I had to take several weeks off and had to do TONS of stretching to get it to a manageable point. Even then, I had to ease into the weight. It's even hard to go to the doctor for 'cause they will 100% prescribe you ibuprofen and tell you to take 3-5 weeks off. I don't think the release techniques will help in the long run since it's probably tendon/bursa related. I dunno what to tell you man. See if you can do some light stretches (like the Samson stretch for CF), ice it, and take ibuprofen after. Do the stretch really, really light. Like a 2-3/10 for the first week and then see how it goes. Ice is gonna be key because the tendon gets inflamed pretty easy. Take care of it. Massaging didn't help me so I don't know if I'd put the time into it.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Dang, dude, I'm really sorry to hear about the hip. It's such a sensitive area if you mess with it. I had to take several weeks off and had to do TONS of stretching to get it to a manageable point. Even then, I had to ease into the weight. It's even hard to go to the doctor for 'cause they will 100% prescribe you ibuprofen and tell you to take 3-5 weeks off. I don't think the release techniques will help in the long run since it's probably tendon/bursa related. I dunno what to tell you man. See if you can do some light stretches (like the Samson stretch for CF), ice it, and take ibuprofen after. Do the stretch really, really light. Like a 2-3/10 for the first week and then see how it goes. Ice is gonna be key because the tendon gets inflamed pretty easy. Take care of it. Massaging didn't help me so I don't know if I'd put the time into it.

Thanks. I've been doing the stretching + ibuprofen route these 2 weeks with no noticeable progress. I always do the samson stretch as part of my routine, and it feels great on my hip flexors, but with this particular injury, it's not quite hitting the right spot. Know of any other hip stretches or PT exercises I could try?

I'm not confident the ART guy will help either, but I figure I'll give it a shot and see what happens. He did a great job with my rotator cuff last time so maybe I'll get lucky again. And if that doesn't work, I'll probably go to the doctor and ask for an x-ray or MRI to make sure it's nothing more serious. One person on the CF message boards had similar symptoms that didn't go away for a year, until they finally got an MRI and found out it was a labral tear that needed surgery. Hopefully mine is nothing near as serious, but if it doesn't heal soon, I think the MRI may be a good safety precaution.