brikis98's crossfit journal

[EvilYoda]

I just wanted to say: CF WODs awesome in their suckage. Did my first full group workout today and after an hour of warmups and technique, we did 30 snatches for time. It was my first time with the snatch (so wrong) so I only did 75lb. My legs were still sore and by the end, it was horrible.

I can't wait to go back on Monday

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, February 7

Workout of the Day

"Michael"
Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill. Did back extensions on a 45 degree back extension machine. Did sit-ups on the floor, unanchored.

Time: 24:25 (PR)

This is the 5th time Michael has come up and my 5th consecutive PR on it. You can say what you want about CF, but the fact that I'm able to improve on just about every single workout for some 7 months straight now is incredible.

I still had pretty bad DOMS in my legs from the back squatting, so I did the 800m runs at 9mph instead of my usual 10mph. It's possible today's PR (a 50 second improvement on the 25:15 I set back on November 29) is the result of not being as winded for the sit-ups/back extensions, even though the slower running probably cost me an extra 1.5 minutes. However, I think the GTG sit-ups I've been doing played a big role here, as I got through the sit-ups much faster today, even though my feet were unanchored.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
I just wanted to say: CF WODs awesome in their suckage. Did my first full group workout today and after an hour of warmups and technique, we did 30 snatches for time. It was my first time with the snatch (so wrong) so I only did 75lb. My legs were still sore and by the end, it was horrible.

I can't wait to go back on Monday

Heh, glad to hear you're enjoying it. CF is an awesome combination of pain and pleasure. Pain from the massive suckage you feel during a workout... Pleasure from the rush you get when you're done and you realize the progress you've made in your fitness. I've played tons of different sports and tried many different workout routines, but nothing has been quite so motivating and life changing as CF. Good luck with it!

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, February 8

Workout of the Day

Back Squat: 5-5-5-5-5

My numbers

135x8, 185x5, 185x5, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5

Well, my hip may not be as healed as I thought. It felt quite funky today even doing 135, so I decided to keep the weight low today and not go over 225. Although it didn't hurt once I got more warmed up, my form did not feel right. I just could not get a smooth squat motion going and I was not comfortable under the bar. To ensure that I don't injure myself further, I think I'm going to keep the weight low on back squat for a while until I can do it 100% pain free and with rock solid technique.

In fact, I'm really tired of working incredibly hard on my squat, making good progress and then losing it all because of an injury. This is going to be my 3rd time re-building my squat numbers and I'm determined to do it right. I think starting at this lower weight (225) and working my way up slowly is going to be the proper way to do this. I'm not going to go up in weight just because I finished a 3x5 of it: I'm only going to go up in weight if I finished the 3x5, had good bar speed the entire time, and feel damn confident about it. Before, I'd just rush up to the next weight as soon as I could, but I feel like after all these injuries, my body needs more time to adapt to the stress of heavy back squatting, and that's exactly what I'm going to give it. It's not a race, and going fast hasn't worked for me, so I'm going to check my ego and take my damn time. /rant

 

[brikis98]

Monday, February 9

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, February 10

Workout of the Day

Three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell swing, 21 reps
21 Push-ups
15 foot Rope climb, 3 ascents
20 inch Box jump, 21 reps
21 Back extension
Walking lunge, 150 ft

My numbers

Had to make substitutions based on available equipment: 55lb dumbbell swing instead of kettlebell swings and 21 pull-ups instead of the rope climbs. I also measured my lunge and each step is about 3.5 - 4.0 feet long, so I estimated the 150 ft as 40 steps of walking lunge.

Time: 24:22

Great workout. Really fast paced, full body and tough. I actually got through the first 2 rounds in under 15 minutes, but this must have been too fast as I really thought I was going to puke when I started the 3rd round of knees to elbows. I had to slow down a lot to recover and ended up taking almost 10 minutes for the final round.

I had actually meant to do 15 towel pull-ups as the (official) sub for the rope climb. I tried to do a few during my warm-up and found that I could not hold on to the towel for more than 1 or 2 pull-ups in a row. I'm not sure if the towel I brought was a particularly bad choice - it was old, grimy and slippery - but my hands kept slipping off. I know that this is supposed to be tough on the grip, but I've climbed ropes before and it was not nearly as difficult. Or maybe I'm just a wuss and need to keep trying to develop my grip *shrug*

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I've subbed towel pullups for rope climbs before and it's not a fair sub really. The towel pullups were way harder than any rope climb I've ever done so I don't know if it's just your towel.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
I've subbed towel pullups for rope climbs before and it's not a fair sub really. The towel pullups were way harder than any rope climb I've ever done so I don't know if it's just your towel.

Heh, good to know it wasn't just me then. I guess my pitiful performance on them means I need some extra grip work, so maybe I'll toss in some towel pull-ups from time to time as some fun practice.

 

[conorvansmack]

You could alternate towel pull-ups with regular ones as part of your GTG work.

 

[stinkynathan]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Tuesday, February 10

Workout of the Day

Three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell swing, 21 reps
21 Push-ups
15 foot Rope climb, 3 ascents
20 inch Box jump, 21 reps
21 Back extension
Walking lunge, 150 ft

My numbers

Had to make substitutions based on available equipment: 55lb dumbbell swing instead of kettlebell swings and 21 pull-ups instead of the rope climbs. I also measured my lunge and each step is about 3.5 - 4.0 feet long, so I estimated the 150 ft as 40 steps of walking lunge.

Time: 24:22

Great workout. Really fast paced, full body and tough. I actually got through the first 2 rounds in under 15 minutes, but this must have been too fast as I really thought I was going to puke when I started the 3rd round of knees to elbows. I had to slow down a lot to recover and ended up taking almost 10 minutes for the final round.

I had actually meant to do 15 towel pull-ups as the (official) sub for the rope climb. I tried to do a few during my warm-up and found that I could not hold on to the towel for more than 1 or 2 pull-ups in a row. I'm not sure if the towel I brought was a particularly bad choice - it was old, grimy and slippery - but my hands kept slipping off. I know that this is supposed to be tough on the grip, but I've climbed ropes before and it was not nearly as difficult. Or maybe I'm just a wuss and need to keep trying to develop my grip *shrug*

WOW that is an ugly WOD. When was it posted? I know I haven't done it in the last 5-6 weeks.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: stinkynathan
WOW that is an ugly WOD. When was it posted? I know I haven't done it in the last 5-6 weeks.

It was posted back on November 23.

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
You could alternate towel pull-ups with regular ones as part of your GTG work.

I'm not currently doing pull-ups with my GTG work, but it's a decent idea. I might add in some air squats too as more stamina/endurance on those would really come in handy (especially for my sad tabata numbers).

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, February 11

Workout of the Day

Back Squat: recovery
Split Jerk: work up to 1RM
Power Clean: work up to 1RM
Power Snatch: work up to 1RM

My numbers

Back Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 205x3, 235x5, 235x5, 235x5
Split Jerk: 135x3, 185x3, 205x1, 215x1, 225x1 (PR)
Power Clean: 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 215x1, 225x1 (PR), 235xF
Power Snatch: 95x5, 115x3, 135x1, 145x1 (PR), 155xF

Man, what a good day at the gym. I'm continuing to slowly recover my back squat, being extra conservative due to the hip injury. Fortunately, the hip felt great today. No real pain or discomfort and as a result, I was able to maintain good bar speed, get real deep, and overall felt much more comfortable under the bar. I'll continue to carefully bump the weight up 10lbs every workout and will hopefully be back at ~305lbs and injury free within 8 weeks or so. Damn long time, but injuries are a bitch.

To make myself feel better, I decided to go for PR's on a bunch of oly-style lifts. I felt fast and powerful today and it showed in the 3 new PR's. In fact, I wasn't too happy with my form on the split jerk or the power clean and if I can polish my technique a bit, I should be setting PR's on those again soon. After the 225 power clean, I was very tempted to see if I could break my 245 squat clean PR, but since a bad squat clean caused my hip injury in the first place, I decided against it. I was also pretty happy to finally see some progress on the snatch. It's bloody difficult to learn, but I made some conscious tweaks to my form today - namely, working extra hard to keep my back in full extension and starting the scoop a bit later in the motion - which allowed me to get 135 and 145 up easily. I was pretty gassed and didn't approach 155 with nearly enough aggression, but I have no doubt it's within reach.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, February 12

Workout of the Day

"Fran"
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

My numbers

Time: 5:32 (PR)

I have to say it again: CF is awesome. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and was pretty damn sore from yesterday's PR-a-thon. While the pull-ups went ok, the thrusters - overlapping badly with yesterday's squats, cleans, snatches and jerks - were very tough. My legs felt like lead the entire time. My throat got really sore from breathing so hard. And despite all that, I still broke my old PR of 5:58 (from back on November 26) by almost half a minute. I wish I could see such rapid and consistent progress in all parts of my life.

After the workout, I took some time to practice some gymnastics. On the rings, I did some ring dips, inverted piked pull-ups, skin-the-cat, back lever and l-sit. On the floor, I practiced my tuck planche, l-sit, and pistols. For some reason, I'm much better at doing pistols with my right leg than my left. I can do 4-5 good pistols on my right leg, but only 1-2 on my left before I start losing my balance in the bottom of the pistol. Holding a 15lb dumbbell out in front actually makes the pistol easier by providing some counter balance, so I'm thinking I might use that to help me even out the flexibility/strength in my legs and then slowly ween myself off of it.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, February 13

Gymnastics day

Well, today was supposed to be a rest day, but it was anything but. A friend of mine is a former national champion and junior olympics champion in gymnastics and she now teaches kids at a gymnastics school nearby. They had an "open gym" night today and she invited me over to try it out.

Gymnastics is amazing. I don't think you can quite appreciate the strength, balance, flexibility and coordination of these athletes until you try some of this stuff yourself. She worked with me on my handstand, some l-sits, some flips from a trampoline track thing, some fun drills and moves on the uneven bars (glides, spins, muscle-ups and some others I don't know the name of), hollow rocks, superman rolls, various stretches and a whole bunch more. This stuff is incredibly hard and I felt every muscle in my body working. I accomplished four new feats today:

I got my first kip-up
It was really nice to be able to practice these on a cushiony/springy floor and after a couple tries, I finally got one. And then another and another until I exhausted myself. I then moved onto a hard surface (to remove the springiness of the floor from the equation) and got one there too, although it was harder. These things are hellishly fun and provide an awesome workout.

I found my max box jump is around 52 inches
I stacked a whole bunch of mats on top of each other and practiced doing box jumps onto them. The nice thing is that if you miss a jump, crashing into them is completely painless (unlike a hard box). I kept stacking them higher until they reached the middle of my chest, at which point I failed a couple times and finally just made it on top on the 3rd try. At home, I measured the distance to that point on my chest, and it's about 52 inches. Nothing special, but good to know that this is roughly my max box jump.

I did a back lever on a bar
I had done these on rings before and found that it felt a bit different on a bar but of approximately the same difficulty.

I did a very brief front lever on a bar
I had done these before too, but could never get beyond the straddle version before. Today, I managed to slowly close my legs together and very briefly hold a proper front lever.

Anyways, I had a total blast and I wish I could do this more often. I can see why gymnastics is part of CF and am going to try to incorporate more of it into my training. In the meantime, my body is exhausted and I have a feeling I'm going to be incredibly sore tomorrow...

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, February 14

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, February 15

Workout of the Day

Squat: recovery
OH Press: 3x5
Deadlift: work up to 1RM

My numbers

Squat: 135x8, 185x5, 205x3, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x5
Deadlift: 135x8, 225x3, 315x3, 365x1, 405x1, 415x1 (PR)

This has to be one of the best lifting weeks I've had in a long time. I set 3 new PR's on olympic style lifts, a new Fran PR, learned to do a kip-up, and today decided to max out my deadlift. My old PR of 405 went up pretty damn quickly and with good form, so I added 5lbs on each side and went for 415. I have to admit it wasn't the prettiest rep, with a small amount of back rounding and slow bar speed, but I felt strong and let out a celebratory grunt when I locked it out at the top. I freaking love deadlift - nothing quite so primal, visceral and functional as picking up a whole bunch of weight from the ground. It's also awesome to be lifting more at my current bodyweight of ~185 than I was when I did only strength training and weighed 223. Thank you CF

Earlier in the workout, I had continued to work on rebuilding my squat. My hip has been feeling reasonably good: there is no pain at all now, but I can tell it's a little weaker than before. Still, 245 went up with no issues in all 3 sets, so it'll be 255 next Weds. As for OH press, I finally got all five reps of 155. It has been a lengthy deload period, but it's finally over, as next week I'll be back to doing 160 for reps.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Congrats on the deadlift PR. That's about 2.3x body weight - not bad at all

 

[brikis98]

Monday, February 16

Workout of the Day

For time:
100 squats
2 muscle-ups
80 squats
4 muscle-ups
60 squats
6 muscle-ups
40 squats
8 muscle-ups
20 squats
10 muscle-ups

My numbers

Did muscle-ups on a pull-up bar.

Time: 16:20

I once again must comment on the effectiveness of CF's use of functional exercises: I haven't done muscle-ups as part of a workout since December 27, but despite that, my muscle-up has gotten stronger/faster. I was absolutely flying around the pull-up bar today, easily banging out 4-6 in a row even though I felt winded from the squats. It is absolutely uncanny to be able to improve on an exercise with minimal practice. I love it.

Squats went reasonably well in this workout - I was particularly happy with my form - but I think I would greatly benefit from adding them to my GTG routine. It'll definitely up the load on my body/CNS, but my capacity to recover has increased dramatically since starting CF, so I think I can tolerate it. And since squats are part of virtually every CF workout, I think having more stamina/endurance in my legs will significantly improve my WoD times.

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Congrats on the deadlift PR. That's about 2.3x body weight - not bad at all

Thanks. My goal for this year is to DL 455, or about 2.5x body weight. I think with enough work on my oly-lifts, some more glute ham raises, the normal CF workouts, and a DL max out session once every month or two, I should be able to get there.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, February 17

Rest day. Got some crazy DOMS in my quads from the 300 air squats yesterday. These high rep things get me every time and I have a feeling tomorrow's workout will suffer because of it.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, February 18

Workout of the Day

Back Squat: recovery
OH Press: work up to 1RM
Power Clean & Jerk: 3x3

My numbers

Back squat: 135x8, 185x5, 225x3, 255x5, 255x5, 255x5
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 175x1, 185x1 (ties PR), 190xF
Power Clean & Jerk: 185x3, 190x3, 195x1xF (got the clean, missed the jerk), 135x8 (to work on form)

My back squat is every so slowly crawling back up there. Even though my quads were still very sore, the 3x5 with 255 felt solid and my hip gave me no issues whatsoever. Looks like it's 265 this weekend.

OH press went very well. I managed to tie my PR of 185lbs that I set back on July 9, when I weighed ~200lbs. I'm 185lbs now, which means I'm finally pressing my BW. 190 was pretty close too, making it to just above my forehead, but I just couldn't get under it. I'll get it next time.

I wanted to do a 5x3 of power cleans and a 5x3 of snatch today, but with the DOMS in my legs, that would've been way too much volume. I settled on a 3x3 of power clean & jerk, which didn't go too well. My form was piss poor on both. I worked up to 195, but after an ugly power clean on the 2nd rep, I had an even uglier jerk that I missed completely. I forced myself to do 8 reps with 135 to try to get my technique smoother, but I'm still not happy with it. I don't feel like I'm getting enough power from my legs on the 2nd pull of the power clean and I know for a fact I'm not getting deep enough in my split jerk. Unfortunately, doing o-lifts only once a week is just not very much practice for such complicated motions and so my form has been really inconsistent.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, February 19

Workout of the Day

"Mr. Joshua"
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill. Did GHD sit-ups on a ghetto setup as I described here, but scaled it down to 15 reps (instead of 30) per set. Also, I accidentally loaded 255lbs on the bar instead of 250.

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 Glute-ham sit-ups
255 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

Time: 28:00 (PR)

Even though it destroys me, I love this workout. I broke my old PR of 32:15 from December 29. Back then, I just did 30 regular sit-ups per round and today's 15 ghd sit-ups were definitely harder and more taxing. I scaled it down to 15 per round because they are notorious for producing ridiculous DOMS. Before today, I had never done more than ~20 ghd sit-ups in an entire day, so I figured 75 was a big enough jump already.

I ran the first two rounds at 9mph and the last three at 8mph. The deadlifts went very well. I stupidly loaded 5 extra pounds on the bar, which doesn't sound like much, but over 75 reps, it adds up to an extra 375lbs. I have a feeling my posterior chain will be quite tender tomorrow.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, February 20

Rest day. Glutes, hamstrings and abs are damn sore.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, February 21

Workout of the Day

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

My numbers

23 rounds + 5 pull-ups (PR)

I love this workout, but I'm a bit disappointed by my performance. I still broke my old PR from January 4th, but only by 1 squat and 5 pull-ups. My goal had been 25 rounds, but quite frankly, I just didn't push myself hard enough to get there. I definitely have the physical ability to do it, but the mental drive was missing today.

 

[KingGheedora]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Saturday, February 21

Workout of the Day

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

My numbers

23 rounds + 5 pull-ups (PR)

I love this workout, but I'm a bit disappointed by my performance. I still broke my old PR from January 4th, but only by 1 squat and 5 pull-ups. My goal had been 25 rounds, but quite frankly, I just didn't push myself hard enough to get there. I definitely have the physical ability to do it, but the mental drive was missing today.

23 rounds is impressivve. On pull-ups alone the most i can do right now is 3 sets of 7, maybe an additional handful after that (never gone for a record within a certain amount of time). Are the push-ups and pull-ups body weight? What about the squats, any weight?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora

Originally posted by: brikis98
Saturday, February 21

Workout of the Day

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

My numbers

23 rounds + 5 pull-ups (PR)

I love this workout, but I'm a bit disappointed by my performance. I still broke my old PR from January 4th, but only by 1 squat and 5 pull-ups. My goal had been 25 rounds, but quite frankly, I just didn't push myself hard enough to get there. I definitely have the physical ability to do it, but the mental drive was missing today.

23 rounds is impressivve. On pull-ups alone the most i can do right now is 3 sets of 7, maybe an additional handful after that (never gone for a record within a certain amount of time). Are the push-ups and pull-ups body weight? What about the squats, any weight?

All the above exercises are body weight. Also, the pullups are kipping pullups. They are easier in the sense that you can use your hips and the rest of your lower body to drive yourself upward, but they get just as hard when both your upper back and lower body start to die out. 23 rounds is nothing to scoff at.

Currently, I'm taking a sports psychology class and we've been talking about psychological tools that allow athletes to perform at a consistently high level for their ability. First of all, arousal (stimulation) levels have a huge say in how you perform. Whether you need to be really pumped or fairly calm to complete a movement depends on what you do. For CrossFit, however, you do need a fairly high arousal level. You can achieve this through increasing breathing rate, imagery (picturing yourself doing the motions over and over, particularly with ease and good form), music, and utilizing other highly aroused individuals (kind of a contagious effect). I've noticed that these sorts of things really help me get the job done better. Perhaps you could try them on days like today where you just don't have the "mental drive." You can always get the drive. You just gotta hit the right arousal state for what you're gonna do. Just food for thought.