Front Squat Friday

Not Reis

What a cool, mellow morning today at The Black Box. Not a lot of people, and plenty of space to get your warmup on, and get into some serious front squats.  It's another rest day for the CF Main Site so as usual NYC has a skill day.  Our skill for the day?  The front squat.

WOD
Front Squats (Seven rounds of three)
3 3 3 3 3 3 3

My most recent session with rounds of three front squats yielded a PR of 185 lbs.  I was definitely looking to break that record today, as I've been getting more comfortable pushing the weight higher.

Warmup
Handstands (x3) (I attempted some handstand pushups with three stacked abmats to support my head.  Sara said from now on when the warmup calls for handstand attempts I should do hree handstand pushups with the abmats)
Pushups (10)

Elbow Stretch (30 seconds) x2 (we got in rack position under the bar and just stretched our elbows forward and up, to try and loosen up for the front squats).

Front Squats
Warmup Sets:  10 x 95 - 5 x 115

WOD:  135 - 155 - 175 - 185 - 185 - 195 - 200 (3-rep max PR)

Wow...that was some weight for sure!!  I feel great getting into the zone where I can really start establishing my benchmarks with the lifting exercises.

I was able to fit into the 3X Crossfit shirt I bought from the main site last month.  When I got it in the mail I laughed because I'm a comfortable 3X across most brands, and this thing barely fit over my chest and not at all around my belly.  SIZING FAIL!  Either way I decided to try it on last night and BOOM...IT FITS!  So I sported it at the gym today.

Feelin great, hittin PRs, setting new benchmarks...a great week all around!

I think I'll get into some more diet stuff over the weekend.  It's such a big part of my daily life and I feel most of my posts have been CF-centric as of late.  Expect some of that soon.

Thanks again for checkin out the blog!  Enjoy your weekend...

Peace...

Might as Well JUMP!

Chalk outlines are for the weak - I leave a sweat puddle

I watched the sample video of today's WOD last night and was psyched to get into what seemed to be a classic Crossfit workout.

WOD
"Wittman"
Seven rounds for time of:
1.5 pood Kettlebell swing, 15 reps
95 pound Power clean, 15 reps
15 Box jumps, 24" box

Sara was back and I chose one of her two standard warmups, which typically call for dead-hang pullups, L-hang from the bar, and Kettle Bell swings.  Since there were 105 KBS in the WOD I chose to just focus on pullups, and I got 20 of them (broken up into sets of 5) using two resistance bands.  Elliott commented about my improvement and said I looked like I knew what I was doing. I'm glad I at least have him fooled ;).  I mixed in some shoulder rolls and shoulder dislocates with the PVC, because I was still hurting pretty good from Monday's WOD.

I had one of those mornings where I woke up in serious pain (I was tellin people I felt like I had a pain vest on), but I hoped by the time I arrived and warmed up I'd be ready to go.  That's actually how it panned out, which was great because I needed every ounce of my energy to get this one done.

I scaled as follows:

35 lb Kettle Bell
65 lb Power Clean
20" Box Jumps

As is the case with any WOD involving box jumps, I promised myself I would at least do the first round of them before switching to step-ups.  I'm still trying to be conscious of my leg, but the only pain I felt was in my quads, which were pretty shredded from Monday.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

WOD Time: 32:11

I did EVERY FUCKING BOX JUMP.  EVERY ONE. Done.  ME.  I did ALL of them. EVERY! BOX! JUMP!

This is pretty damn huge.  Not only did I finish the WOD, but I've never even done a DOZEN box jumps.  Today I did 105!!  I think all these weeks of shredding my legs is starting to reap rewards.  I struggled through the last rounds a bit, but nothing like I have in the past.  Sara felt that my choices of weight for both KBS and Cleans were too light.  I really thought I was planning ahead for the final 2-3 rounds but I think she's right.  I could've gone 50 lbs on the KBS and 75-85 on the Cleans. 

Either way I was leveled after it was done, and every inch of my clothes was drenched.  Mission accomplished I say.  We'll tighten up the weight next time.  Sara even mentioned that we should explore RX'ing the weights and paring down the reps so I get more accustomed to RX'ed weight.  We'll work on it moving forward, but for now I'm psyched that I was able to hit this one hard and finish it.

Peace...

Lord of the Rings: The Quest for My Inner-Gymnast

Sara was out today and our trainer was Josh, a cool funny guy who was super-knowledgable about mobility.  He discussed mobility vs. flexibility (I never thought there was much of a difference, but there is). He had us do very interesting movements to warm up. Some laying on our side, moving limbs to the opposite side...some crazy gymnastics-like movements on paralettes, but nothing that we did would prepare me for the pain that followed today's workout.

WOD
"Ledesma"
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 Parallette handstand push-ups
10 Toes through rings
20 pound Medicine ball cleans, 15 reps

(check out the video of the WOD, with an incredible performace from Austin Malleolo of Crossfit Albany, complete with horrible musical selections)

I got into a handstand and tried half a pushup before the warmup today, but no way do I feel like I'm ready to tackle the exercise as part of a WOD.  So I scaled those to pike pushups off a 24" box with my butt straight up in the air.  Josh saw me crank out the first round of them and said I can't be more than a couple of weeks away from doing handstand pushups...pretty crazy...

The biggest surprise though was my ability to jump my feet into the rings consistently throughout each round.  It takes a lot of momentum to get my body even semi-inverted, so this movement was super-challenging.  But somehow I found the strength to get my toes through those rings a lot, and when they didn't quite make it they were damn close. 

As far as the medball cleans, the less said about those the better. After watching the video I envisioned a fluid, steady motion between reps. But after Josh was done with me I was second guessing every rep, thinking about whether I was extending upward enough before dropping down under the ball.  So that hesitation translated into longer rounds, which resulted in more pain.

I got through four rounds, plus five pike pushups. I'm not going to say I took it easy, because a WOD like this (or any WOD for that matter) takes balls-to-the-wall energy to get through.  But I was still conscious of my Phlebitis, and while my leg was feeling better the bump was still there on my calf, so I didn't want to get stupid about it.  I was psyched to be back...anything on top of that was a bonus.

What Rhymes with Phlebitis?

This is what I look like with Phlebitis

So last spring I was the shit.  I strutted my stuff around Planet Fitness like I owned the place.  I mean after all I was back up to an hour a night (and sometimes each morning too) on the elliptical machines.  But in April I kicked it up huge and went for those vertical super-motherfucker elliptical machines that made you look like you were rock-climbing your way through a seizure.  One night I finished 30 minutes on one of those bad boys and the pain in my knee was just mixed into my standard post-"workout" euphoria...that is, until I went to the doctor a few days later to explore the three bumps around my knee and calf that were hot to the touch.  Yep...Phlebitis. An inflammation of my veins that meant an increased chance I could end up with a blood clot.  Turns out all I could do (once they confirmed it wasn't in my "deep system", which would be bad) is wear compression stockings (think Tim Curry in Rocky Horror) for a few weeks and hope for the best.  I asked the vascular doc if the benchmark exercise had anything to do with it and he was certain that it didn't.

Fast forward to last week.  I'm coming off a week where I was near-debilitated from 225 air squats in a kick-ass WOD. I recover just in time for three epic days of snowboarding in Utah.  Just before the trip I discover a nickel-sized bump on my left calf.  By day three my quads are pretty cooked, so I take it easy and do half the runs I did the previous two days.  Regardless, the trip leaves me with some serious pain, mainly in my left calf. Fast forward to Saturday night (after seeing the doctor on Friday). Yep...easy to figure this one out.  I have Phlebitis again, albeit far smaller and more superficial than last time. So I promised myself that I would listen to my body and give it the time it needed to heal.  After skipping today's skill day (it would have been my first day back at CF in over a week) I tried some air squats tonight and it seems while the bump is there the pain in my calves has subsided.  I'm going to try tomorrow's WOD and see how it goes.  If the pain comes back at all I might just cash out with some pushups, pullups or something else that's not leg-intensive.  I know this life change is a marathon not a sprint, but it's hard not to at least get back in there and make SOMETHING happen.

A random aside...as part of the triage checkin at the hospital they asked me to hop on the scale to get a weight.  This turned into a pretty big moment as I haven't weighed myself since last spring. While that weight was 320 pounds I easily packed on 10-20 more before starting Crossfit in November. So here it went...the moment I was sparing myself as I realized that weight isn't nearly as important as the size of my pants (which it's not).  But lo and behold, even considering that I'm 4-5 inches smaller around the waist, and I know I'm so much stronger, I couldn't help but get pumped when she read off the number:

298.5!!!!

Holy shit I haven't weighed 2-something in YEARS. What a crazy milestone. It feels amazing to have come so far in such a short time.  And considering what must be significant muscle gain I feel GREAT about losing that much weight.  I've recently been thinking about tightening up my Paleo into the Zone but it seems what I'm doing is working well enough for now.  I'm maintaining probably about 90% Paleo, with the other 10% being the whey & casein protein I eat for recovery, as well as balsamic vinaigrette 1-2 times a week (many of my lunch salads have olive oil & balsamic vinegar).  I guess it's time for a post about diet sometime soon so we can break it down and maybe I can get some feedback.  For now I coast back into the Black Box tomorrow on a cloud.  This stuff is working so well.  I hope my veins hold out until I drop another 75 pounds or so :).

Peace and Love to you all...

Ridin' Out West...

Tomorrow I leave for my first snowboarding trip since 2005.  It's a pretty incredible thing.  My buddy Walt turns 40 this week, and he wanted to celebrate by reuniting in the mountains of Utah.  While I lived in Colorado (1998-2005) Walt came out to ride Copper with me a couple of times...back when I would ride about 10 times a season.  Now it's been six years since I touched powder, and it's hard to speculate on how I'll do out there.  But I'm certain that without the last couple of months at Crossfit I would be an absolute mess...

It'll be interesting to break the hardcore routine I've cultivated (hitting the Black Box at least three times a week since November). I'm happy to say my quads are finally coming around after Tuesday's thrashing.  I was worried there for a second that I'd have to be drinking at the lodge while I watch my buddies cut it up.  Looks like I'll be recovered and ready to go.

I checked into Crossfit Park City since I figured by Wednesday I should be acclimated and might be able to withstand a WOD.  I might hit up that box on Wednesday morning, but it's hard to gauge whether or not I'll be ready.  I'll play it by ear, but it would be awesome to squeeze in a WOD amidst all of the boarding.  I might also be quite spent after a full day Monday & Tuesday, so we'll see.  I'm definitely looking forward to dropping into as many boxes as I can when I travel.  I can imagine the pile of T-shirts I would have amassed in my 20s if Crossfit was around.  I was in a different state on average every month back then.  C'est la vie...

I may or may not report from Utah.  For now I'll treat this as a special WOD and maybe even keep track of my reps:

AMRAP Snowboarding - 72 hours

;-)

For now, be safe out there...Peace...

Deadlifting Oswego

Surprise!!  No snow this morning (at least by 4AM)! So I rolled into Crossfit unexpectedly for today's skill day.  I missed both deadlift days last week, which I was particularly bummed about, because it's been since December and I really wanted to get some weight on the bar and give it a shot.  Last time I "PR'ed" at 215, knowing it was far below my threshold, and when I saw deadlifts on WODs on both Saturday and Sunday of last week I figured I screwed myself until at least March or April (since I can't make it into the city on weekends).  Lo and behold today's skill day involved deadlifts for the warmup and Rack Pulls for the WOD.  But I was determined to focus strictly on deadlifts to really get into it and see where I'm at.

Warmup
20 Pullups (5x4 Double-Banded)
30 KB Swings (50 lb)

WOD
Deadlifts - 235 x3 - 275 x3 - 285 x3 - 295 x1 - 305 x1 - 305 x1 - 315 x1 (1 rep max PR)

I was dead set on getting over the 300 mark.  While I have no idea how much I weigh (last I weighed myself I was 330 lbs in the spring of 2010) I assume I hit close to my bodyweight today, which I'm pretty psyched about.  I was going to stop at 305 so I could say that I dealifted Miami (word to Scott in the 305), but I powered through and deadlifted 315, so I guess I'll have to settle for deadlifting Oswego, NY. I guess next time I'll try to pull for Roscoe, TX (325)...we'll see...

My quads are thumping from yesterday.  Not psyched to limp my way through the evening commute (in a blizzard). Pray for me...

Peace.

Squat...Me Worry!

I came into today feeling pretty damn good.  I hadn't done a decent volume of squats in a while, but I figured if I could power through the 100 burpees last week I could make this happen.  I think out of everything I attempt at Crossfit, air squats are my strongest exercise.  I knew once I hit the third round it would take some serious focus to power through the last 50 or so.  So I was a bit worried about hitting all 225 of them.

Warmup
Handstand (held for about a minute...flirted with the pushup while I was there)
10 Jumping Ring Dips
Frog Stand (20 seconds)
Death Stretch (ouch!)
Hip Stretches

Pullups - So Sara tells me she knew I got 1/2 a pullup last week because she reads my blog...<blush>. She asked me to set up the band so I could show her.  I got halfway up a couple of times.  Then she grabs another band and puts them together.  BOOM! I did 3 or 4 pullups with multiple bands...kind of surreal to be traveling over the bar...even if it did take a truck tire's worth of rubber to get me up there.  Gotta start somewhere...we talked about scaling the 12 muscle ups for the WOD (see below), and she decided on 24 jumping pullups and 12 banded ring dips per round.  Before I knew it, it was go time...

WOD
Three rounds for time of:
12 Muscle-ups
75 Squats

I cranked through the first round without much problem.  Sara said I had the best squat in the room (she's a good motivator), and she also was on me to keep going whenever I was hunched over, feeling I couldn't crank out another 40, 30, 5 ...whatever it was.  A couple of the guys helped me through round two.  When I finished the squats one of them thought I was done and he yelled "time".  He obviously isn't familiar with my pace ;-).

In round 3 I did the jumping pullups 1-3 at a time, and slopped my way through the ring dips (likely a couple of sketchy reps in there for sure).  Then came the final 75 squats.  I was really giving it everything I had and I didn't know how I was getting through this one.  I hit 25 and I really didn't know where the other 50 were going to come from.  I had the guys on either side of me eggin me on and Sara in the middle...she was relentless.  The problem (at the time anyway) was that she's seen what I'm capable of.  So when I came up from 5 more and hunched over she just wasn't havin' it.  I just kept chipping away...5 more, 10 more, 3 more, etc.  Finally I got there...

Time: 23:09

I know I'm still miles away from RX'ing an entire WOD, but it feels great to be cranking out these high numbers of reps.  I'm hitting milestones left and right, and it feels amazing!

It's snowing already...again.  Looks like another shovel WOD is waiting for me at home, and with tomorrow being a rest day I guess it's good timing that I'll have to wake up and shovel, missing yet another Crossfit day so my driveway doesn't end up a sheet of ice. C'est la Vie...

Psyched for Thursday!

Zero Degrees of Preparation

One of the locals snapped an action headshot

Butt. Ass. COLD! This was the simple truth facing me as I was the sole moron who actually showed up for the 7:00 class today.  Zero degrees with a nice breeze as New York City wakes up and sees me for the knucklehead that I am.  But hey, I ain't gettin' fit curled up for an extra hour in my bed, so I say BRING IT ON.

Kevin actually asked me if I'd prefer to row vs. run.  When I said run, he just handed me a stopwatch with this look on his face like "OK buddy good luck".

Warmup (2 Rounds)
10 Shoulder Dislocates (PVC)

10 Overhead Squats (PVC)
10 GHD Situps
10 Back Extensions
10 Ring Rows (RX'ed as Pullups)
10 Pushups (RX'ed as Ring Pushups)

WOD (3 Rounds for Time)
Run 800 Meters
Rest 2 Minutes

Times
5:49 – 6:25 – 6:10

I'm actually happy with my times, as I didn't walk long stretches at any point.  If I had to walk or slow down, I picked a visual spot to hit where I would start running full speed again, and it worked pretty well to motivate me.  Granted the obvious motivator was the fact that if I moved slow enough I might start cracking and bleeding right there on the pavement.  Either way chalk up another win.  Thousands to go...

Snatched from the Jaws of Pain...

If I wake up very sore I've learned to just get my body moving and I'll be alright .  A couple of times the pain has cost me a day at Crossfit.  But I've learned that by the time I get to the Black Box it's almost three hours after I wake, and I'm likely favored to power through a workout without much trouble.  If a metcon was on the schedule today that would have been very questionable.  The only way I was getting through today was the fact that it was all skillwork...a nice chill day where we focus on the ill-named but ever-powerful "Snatch".

A nice visual breakdown of the Snatch

I was happy to get some weight on the bar and see where I stood with this exercise.  I don't remember doing a straight-up power snatch (from the floor)...several times we went over the muscle snatch (starting from the bar at mid-thigh) and we did snatch balances a couple of times in the past (or maybe once in NYC and once in Morristown). 

Warmup:
Pullup Attempt (got 1/2 way up with thickest band several times...this is HUGE for me)
30 Kettle Bell Swings (16 kg)
20 Ring Rows
10 GHD Situps
5 mins Double-Under practice

Snatch:
6-7 warmups with bar (45 lb)
65 lbs (x3)
85 lbs (x3)
105 lbs (x3)

I'm pretty sure the WOD called for seven rounds of one rep, but I really wanted to get comfortable with the exercise, and Sara was more concerned with that than adhering to the exact number.  She had a lot of helpful comments, and she mentioned that my snatch form was better than my cleans.  I felt good with the weight, and I feel like if I pushed heavier it would be borderline.  I didn't want to get so heavy that I compromised the form of the exercise (or bring myself any additional pain).  It gets meaningless when you do that, even though it's the most common thing I see in other types of gyms.

Either way another productive skill day in the books, and I'll have a solid reference point next time we revisit the snatch.  The soreness from yesterday's madness didn't slow me down at all, but you can bet there's some solid rest coming up this weekend before I attack next week's Crossfit schedule.

Peace...

Yeah Burpees!

Click for Burpee Fun!

What do you get when you cross two handstands, 75 bent-over dumbbell rows, a 2K run and 100 burpees? Frankly I have no idea what the name for it would be, but let's just say for me this week I call it "Wednesday".

...So I'm limping triumphantly down 6th Ave after yesterday's WOD (most days after a tough metcon I get a little victory limp going) and I'm truly overwhelmed by my morning experience.  I'll set this up by pasting the WOD as RX'ed:

Five Rounds for Time
400m Run
20 Burpees
15 Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows

I get to the typical spot in the WOD where everybody's finished and I'm still truckin my way through round 3 out of 5...and as usual everyone has been encouraging the shit out of me the whole time.  Suddenly I have Anthony on my left doing the burpees along with me, and coaching me through the db rows. Then Anthony and Tim join me for the run in the final round.  We get back upstairs after the run and they both do the final 20 burpees along with me.  I cruise through the last 15 db rows and BOOM...

40:22

Sara asked me before the WOD if I considered scaling.  "It's a lot of burpees" she said.  I waved it off and went for it.  As I was leaving  there were hi-fives all around...such a cool feeling to hit such a benchmark!

There is no way to overstate how humbled I am that these guys invested their time and energy in getting me to finish this WOD. I mean they were fucking DONE. They are not trainers. They could have walked away and still been the nice guys that they are every day.  But there's something about Crossfit that makes people really care THAT much...something that makes us a team even though we're only competing with our individual selves.  I think there's some magic in the combination of someone's excitement as they're hitting their stride with Crossfit and the excitement of others as they watch somebody go through that discovery.  There was a lot of synergy in the room yesterday, and it felt damn fantastic.