brikis98's crossfit journal

[SociallyChallenged]

Labrum tears are pretty common and the symptoms can often sound like tendinitis, but I would think you would have to do something more consistently wrong to get it to that point. It could happen though.

Other PT stretches... You could do the butterfly stretch where you look like you're meditating or try the same kind of lunge stretch, but stand up from that position. It may stretch different muscles. I usually can't notice it because it's the main one for me that's always giving me trouble so that's the main place I feel it. Other than that, man, I dunno. It's gonna be pretty sensitive. I wouldn't worry about the worst case scenario because I had the same thing and it just took a while to heal.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, January 23

Workout of the Day

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 10 reps

My numbers

I suck at arithmetic and accidentally stopped after 19 minutes rather than 20.

11 rounds + 6 pull-ups

I liked this workout. It was like a slightly lighter Fran, but one that just keeps beating on you for a whole lot longer. If only I could add properly and hadn't cut myself off a minute early, I think I would've completed the 12th round, but I guess that'll have to wait until next time.

In other news, my hip felt a whole lot better today and gave me no issues at all during thrusters. Of course, 65lbs is really light for a front squat, but as the hip was hurting yesterday even during air squats, this is a pretty big improvement. I almost wonder if the extra rest day I had taken Weds was detrimental - perhaps this injury heals better when I (carefully) use the joint and get lots of blood to circulate through the area. I guess I'll see what it feels like tomorrow.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, January 24

Workout of the Day

Run a 5K

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Time: 23:25

Man, I think I'm cursed at the 5k. It has come up 5 times since I've started CF and the results so far have been:

1. Couldn't do it because I was at a wedding
2. After 2 miles, had to stop due to really painful side stitches
3. Set a new PR of ~22:30
4. After 1 mile, had to stop because I thought I was going to throw up
5. Today: after 1.75 miles, had to slow down due to really painful side stitches

The one time I've been able to run a 5k without pain, I got a decent time. Every other time though, some goddamn distraction screwed me over. Today, I was trying to run at 8.6mph (for a time just under 22 minutes) but the side stitches forced me to slow down to 6.0mph for almost a mile and cost me a lot of time. My guess is that this is the result of CF not having many workouts with running distances over ~800m. So while CF helps you develop the endurance to run a 5k at a good pace, the lack of practice does not let you develop the adaptations you need to absorb the impact from running for longer than a few minutes.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, January 25

Workout of the Day

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

My numbers

15 rounds + 13 pull-ups. 133 pull-ups total. (PR)

I think this workout defines "diminishing returns". Once you get past round 10, the difficulty just increases exponentially. My biceps, forearms and lats had turned to lead by the last round and I just could not eek out 3 more pull-ups to get to round 16. Still, this is a decent improvement on my old PR of 13 rounds + 10 pull-ups (101 pull-ups total).

I also tried to do some back squats and deadlifts today, but failed miserably. With back squats, 135 felt ok, but once I tried 185, I realized my hip injury is still not ready. I could distinctly feel a sharp pain in my hip just when I would be using my glutes/hips to push out of the hole and there was no way it was going to hurt any less if I worked up to 305lbs. As for deadlift, everything was fine, except I tore open a scab on my shin during my warm-up sets. It took a while to stop the bleeding and I knew any further deadlifts would just tear it open again. It's frustrating, as I was wearing soccer socks this time... but the number of cuts I have from my days before soccer socks will take a while to heal fully, so this is something I'll just have to deal with.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, January 26

Rest day. Today is the third day of my GTG style push-ups and sit-ups and I've bumped it to 30 reps per set and do 3-4 sets during the day. If all goes well, I'll do 35 per set next week.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, January 27

Workout of the Day

"Fight Gone Bad!"

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

My numbers

Based on available equipment, I had to sub wall ball for thrusters with two 20lb dumbbells (reps) and row for burpees (reps).

Thrusters: 28, 19, 18
SDHP: 12, 13, 12
Box Jump: 16, 16, 19
Push Press: 20, 20, 18
Burpees: 12, 12, 10

Total: 245

Ooof, tough workout. My throat is a bit sore from breathing so hard. My hip felt ok, although I definitely felt it on a few reps of box jumps and a couple burpees. Oddly enough, thrusters felt just fine, despite the fact that the injury came from a botched front squat... This makes me think that if back squats still hurt next time they come up in a workout, I might just switch to front squats until the injury heals.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, January 28

Workout of the Day

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Workout of the Day

I was snowed in again today, so I did this workout in my cramped basement with its low ceilings and had to sub inverted rows on my rings for pull-ups.

Inverted rows: 13, 9, 7, 7, 5, 5, 5, 6 = 57
Push-ups: 25, 15, 13, 10, 9, 8, 9, 9 = 98 (PR, +17)
Sit-ups: 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 = 75 (-8)
Squats: 16, 14, 13, 12, 12, 13, 12, 12 = 104 (-4)

Total: 334 (PR... kinda)

I really like this workout but need to do it more often to see improvements. I've only done it once before and got a total of 322. This sort of makes today's total a PR (+12), but last time I did it with actual pull-ups instead of inverted rows, so it's hard to compare. On the one hand, you lift less weight on inverted rows. On the other hand, you can't kip, and I have almost no practice with inverted rows, so I fatigued pretty damn quickly.

Anyways, my push-ups showed a marked improvement from last time. I've only done 3 workouts with the GTG approach, so maybe it helped. On the other hand, I did 8 fewer sit-ups, but that one is easy to explain: I used to do sit-ups with my feet anchored, but stopped doing that a few months ago as I think the Rx'd sit-up in CF is unanchored. Anyways, the result is that it's much harder to cycle through sit-ups quickly, so even on the first set I couldn't bust out more than 10. However, I kept a very consistent number of sit-ups each round, so perhaps the 3 GTG workouts helped my sit-ups as well.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I think situps can be anchored, man. I watched one of the vids for this workout and I coulda sworn he did anchored situps.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
I think situps can be anchored, man. I watched one of the vids for this workout and I coulda sworn he did anchored situps.

It does seem to vary in the videos, but I think I'll stick with unanchored. As far as I understand, this uses the abs more than the hip flexors, reduces stress on the back and seems slightly more "functional" and "real world" to me.

 

[KingGheedora]

How do you manage to do the crossfit workouts, especially the ones for time? What gym do you go to? At my gym it would be pretty hard to line up more than one bench at a time, and everything is spread out across the gym.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
I think situps can be anchored, man. I watched one of the vids for this workout and I coulda sworn he did anchored situps.

It does seem to vary in the videos, but I think I'll stick with unanchored. As far as I understand, this uses the abs more than the hip flexors, reduces stress on the back and seems slightly more "functional" and "real world" to me.

Yeah, you're right, but I hate feeling like I'm not moving, especially on situps which are the easy part of the workout. They're the one thing I can just rip on.

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
How do you manage to do the crossfit workouts, especially the ones for time? What gym do you go to? At my gym it would be pretty hard to line up more than one bench at a time, and everything is spread out across the gym.

There's actually not that many workouts that need a whole bunch of different stations.
Just taking a look at The Girls, only the following might need a little substituting if you're working out at the big box:

Helen (Eva) - if the gym has kettlebells, it'll probably still be there after your lap as they are not "popular" in the globos).

Jackie - since you'll be doing 45lb barbell thrusters anyway, just substitute the 1000m row with sumo deadlift highpulls using the 45lb bb.

Linda - this one i'll admit is very difficult to do in a globo as prescribed. i just subbed the deadlift and cleans with dumbbells.

Nancy - again, difficult to do as prescribed in a globo (i just sub doubleunders for the run).

Kelly - sub double unders for the run.

With crossfit, it's nice that there are specific, prescribed workouts that people can do and see their scores / times and compare with others. however, the main goal is are you improving on what you did? So if you had to sub in an exercise, note what you did as a substitution, and when that workout comes around again, do it the same way you did previously and judge against that score / time.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
How do you manage to do the crossfit workouts, especially the ones for time? What gym do you go to? At my gym it would be pretty hard to line up more than one bench at a time, and everything is spread out across the gym.

I wish I could go to an official CF gym, but all the ones in my area take too long to get to for it to be practical. Instead, I split my workouts between the following:

(1) A small gym at my workplace: it has a power rack (with crappy split handles for pull-ups at the top), barbell, iron weights, bumper plates (I bought these), a bench, crappy treadmill and some light dumbbells. It's really convenient to go here right after work, so I do as many of workouts here as I can. It's usually empty too, so I can use all the equipment I need without people getting in my way.
(2) A small commercial gym near my house: the main advantages this gym has over the office gym are a bunch of much nicer treadmills, better pull-up bars, the hyper extension machine, and a big yoga room.
(3) An olympic track near my house

I lag behind the CF mainsite by about a month so I can rearrange all the workouts to fit my schedule. For example, any workout that involves olympic style lifts I'll put on a weekday, since my office gym is the only place I have bumper plates. On the other hand, anything that involves a lot of running goes on the weekend so I can use the olympic track (in the summer) or the nicer treadmills at the commercial gym (in the winter). It's not perfect, as I do have to make substitutions for equipment I'm missing (wall ball, rowing, GHD sit-ups, rope climb) and occasionally I have to wait for some equipment at the gym. However, I get through 99% of my workouts without issues and have seen amazing progress in my fitness.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, January 29

Workout of the Day

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

My numbers

Front Squat: 205x5, 225x5, 245x3 (stopped due to hip)
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x4xF
Power Clean: 185x3 (unhappy w/ form), 185x3, 195x3 (unhappy w/ form), 195x3, 205x1xF
Hang Power Clean: 185x3, 195x3, 205x1xF
HSPU: 6, 5, 4
Glute ham raise: 5, 4, 3

Frustrating workout today. I tried to do front squats in the hope that they wouldn't hurt my hip as much as back squats. They definitely felt better, but it was still quite unpleasant when I got to 245lbs, so I stopped. OH Press was ok and once I again I just barely missed the 5th rep of 155. Next time, I guess.

Power clean flat out sucked. I could feel from the first set onwards that something was going wrong with my form as I just did not have the explosiveness I needed. I repeated a couple of the sets to try to workout the kinks, but it didn't help. Frustrated, I worked on my hang power clean to try to focus on the explosive part of the lift. However, my form continued to suck and I still couldn't get the last two reps of 205. No idea what suddenly went wrong, but I'm going to go back and read the power clean chapter in SS to see if something will click.

Finally, HSPU's were crappy again after OH press, although I felt more stable and controlled than last time. Glute ham raises went very well. I'm now able to do 3 full ROM, slow glute ham raises on the ghetto setup I have at the office gym. It's a huge improvement over zero and I'm really feeling it in my hamstrings, glutes, calves and lower back.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, January 30

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, January 30

Extra rest day. I'm out of town with the gf and we spent the whole day eating outrageous quantities of delicious food, including bacon, french toast and home made pizza. Mmmm. On the healthier side, we did go on a 2 hour hike in the snow and I did 3 sets of my GTG push-ups and sit-ups, 30 reps per set per exercise. On Monday, I'll bump it to 35.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, February 1

Extra rest day. Still out of town with the gf, so no access to a gym.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Sunday, February 1

Extra rest day. Still out of town with the gf, so no access to a gym.

Sounds like a great weekend

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda

Originally posted by: brikis98
Sunday, February 1

Extra rest day. Still out of town with the gf, so no access to a gym.

Sounds like a great weekend

It was fantastic

All we did the whole weekend was hike around some beautiful, snow covered woods, cook delicious food, watch some movies, and relax. It was my first extended break from CF in quite a few months and my body definitely needed it.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, February 2

Workout of the Day

"Elizabeth"
21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dip

My numbers

Time: 14:04 (PR)

After a few days off, I got back to the gym today and felt pretty good. I really enjoyed this workout, although I don't think I paced myself quite right. I started too fast and burned out a little on the first 21 cleans, but then overcompensated and slowed down too much towards the end, which became obvious when I banged out the last 9 ring dips in one consecutive set and realized I wasn't that tired. Despite that, I still demolished my previous time of 25:04 on this workout from back on July 13. And back then, I had subbed normal dips for ring dips, which just shows how much I've improved since then. With slightly more consistent pacing, I think I can get this time down even more. Can't wait for this workout to come up again

In other news, after a pretty long break from working on my planche and l-sit, I tried them out again today and found, to my surprise, that I had gotten better at them. Despite being tired from the workout, I was able to hold a rock solid tuck planche for nearly 20 seconds, which probably ties my PR. The l-sit was even more impressive: I was able to hold one with incredibly good form for 20 seconds. Not only did this beat my previous PR, but I did so while keeping my legs extremely straight and parallel to the ground (or even pointed a tiny bit up). This is just a testament to doing the functional exercises in CF: the skills and strength you get from them transfer incredibly well to everything in life and you can become better at something like l-sits with minimal actual practice of l-sits.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, February 3

Workout of the Day

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Hang Power Snatch, 15 reps
Run 400 meters

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Time: 24:45

Awesome workout. Felt great to get some practice at the snatch, although the toughest part was lowering the weight back down after a rep. It was uncomfortable, bruised my thighs, and tore up my hands. Probably makes more sense to do this workout with a power snatch instead of a hang power snatch so I can dump the bar in between.

In other news, I think my hip injury is finally starting to heal up. I still feel a tinge of pain from time to time, but it happens much more rarely and hurts far less. If my legs don't feel like jello tomorrow, I might try out some back or front squat and see how it holds up.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, February 4

Workout of the Day

Squat: test it out
OH Press: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
Deadlift: 2x3
HSPU: 1xF

My numbers

Squat: 135x8, 185x5, 225x5, 255x5, 265x3
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x3, 115x8
Deadlift: 315x3, 395x1xF, 315x3
HSPU: 8

I was wickedly sore from yesterday, especially in the hamstrings, quads, and traps, so I took it easy today. I started by testing out my hip on the back squat. Overall, it is probably at 90% now. It hurt a little bit on the occasional rep, but for the most part held up just fine. I think another week or two and it should be back to normal. I intentionally kept the weight low on squat, but it has been almost exactly a month since the last time I did heavy back squats, and 265 definitely felt a lot heavier than it used to be. It absolutely sucks, but it looks like another injury is going to force me to work my way up on squat yet again.

OH press went w/o any issues, even with my traps being extremely sore. I'm pretty confident I'll finally get 155x5 next time. Deadlift went unsurprisingly poorly. My hamstrings were so burned out from yesterday's snatches and running, that there was no way I was going to pull 395x3. For the same reason I also skipped the glute ham raise today, but did an extra deadlift set of 315x3 to make myself feel better about it. Finally, I tossed in one set of HSPU just to see progress and managed to bang out 8 clean reps, a 2 rep improvement from last week.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, February 5

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, February 6

Workout of the Day

"Nicole"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max rep Pull-ups

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill. Running speed (mph), Pull-ups per round:

10, 21
10, 16
10, 15
9, 12
8, 14
8, 14
8, 0 (time ran out)

Total distance: 1.75 mi (ties PR)
Total pull-ups: 92 (PR)

On Wednesday, I did my first back squatting in about a month. On Thursday, I had such bad DOMS in the on the inner part of my thighs (probably the adductors) that I had trouble walking, so I took a rest day. My legs weren't any better today, but being a stubborn ass, I decided to do a workout anyway. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best decision

Running was an absolute chore, which isn't surprising since the soreness has had me limping the last 2 days. I've done this workout once before, back on December 7th, and I ran the first 400m at 11mph and all the others at 10mph. Today, I barely made it through the first 3 rounds at 10mph and then slowed down quite a bit from there. I still ended up running the same distance (7 laps), but this time around did not have enough time to do pull-ups in the 7th round. Amazingly, despite doing one less round of pull-ups, I still ended up with a higher pull-up total today (92) than last time (88). It's possible that running slower let me preserve some more stamina to do extra pull-ups, but I felt awful the entire time, so I'm not sure that's true. When all was said and done, I collapsed on the floor and felt like absolute ass for about 20 minutes. Bleh.

 

[brikis98]

On a random note, I'm considering modifying my CF routine a little bit. I'm currently doing the CF WoD as prescribed on the mainsite, except I'm lagging behind by about a month so that I can arrange the workouts in my schedule better. I never skip any workout, but I might move it to a different day as I only have access to certain equipment on certain days of the week (e.g. I only have access to bumper plates on weekdays when I'm at the office gym). I also bias my workouts towards strength, as that seems to be an easy "hack" to quickly boost performance on almost all workouts. To do this, I simply add strength exercises to existing workouts, as a strength based WoD comes up at least once (and usually twice) per week. For example, "back squat 5-5-5-5-5" might become "back squat 5x5, bench press 5x5, deadlift 1x5" and "clean and jerk 3-3-3-3-3" might become "back squat 3x5, OH press 3x5, clean and jerk 5x3".

I think I'm going to continue this trend, but make it a little more formal and take a small page out of the Texas Method (or West Side method) and setup my schedule to include one "speed/volume day" and one "heavy day". On speed/volume days, I'll use lighter weights but a more sets/reps. I'll also be sure to include olympic/explosive movements on these days. On heavy days, I'll use heavier weights and just work on singles, doubles and triples, with the goal of setting new PR's every week or two.

Example Speed/Volume Day
Squat: 5x5
Split Jerk: 5x3
Power Clean: 5x3
Power Snatch: 5x3

Example Heavy Day
Squat: 3x3
Bench: 3x3
Deadlift: 1x3
OH Press: 5x5

Any thoughts/opinions are appreciated