NLI Competition

Well, now I've done something remarkably stupid.  I registered for the Next Level Invitational, a regional CrossFit competition.  I compete on June 23.  We'll see how I stack up with other CrossFitters!

Dreaded DUs

WOD

3 RFT

20 OHS 95 lbs (Rx)
40 Double-Unders (argh!)
20 SDHP 95 lbs (Rx)

21:22

I can't do DUs.  I knew this going into it, and nothing new was discovered in this WOD.  Long after everyone else finished the WOD, I was still struggling with my 3rd round of DUs.  And by struggle, I mean I lost my temper because I was so frustrated with my inability.

I will be working on these for sure.

Team Player

Today was a Team WOD, in which I paired up with a classmate to split the work however necessary in order to complete the entire workout in as little time as possible.  My teammate was a guy named Matt.

Only one person works out at a time.  The working guy can sub out with his teammate at any time during any workout on any movement.  There isn't as much strategy in this as it might seem, but to achieve a great time, both teammates should communicate clearly throughout the workout in order to make snap decisions about the best approach.

WOD

For Time

400m Sandbag Run 60lbs
35 KBS 53 lbs
24 Burpees
35 KBS 53 lbs
24 Burpees
100 Double Unders
35 Pull-ups
24 Clean & Jerks 135 lbs
35 Pull-ups
24 Clean & Jerks
400m Sandbag Run 60 lbs

[Blargh, I can't remember the time we got]

Here was my personal contribution:
200m Sandbag Run
15 KBS
14 Burpees
15 KBS
14 Burpees
18ish DUs
12 Pull-ups
8 or 9 C&Js
19 or so Pull-ups
7 C&Js
200m Sandbag Run

We finished 3 seconds behind the winners, Hector and Travis.  We were leading until the final 50m of the foot race.  It was pretty soul-crushing.  I feel like I really slacked off, especially on the C&Js.  In hindsight, I wish I had taken on the last 3-4 C&Js to give my teammate a break and let him run the first 200m of the final event.  I think that, had I taken the bag for the last 100-200m I might have found the will to beat Hector (or at least keep it very close).  I could tell Matt was pretty gassed in the final 50-100m, so I wish I had done a bit more to give him a chance to carry the energy level all the way to the finish line.

Next time.

Ease Back Into It

For a variety of reasons, I was feeling too sore to work out on Monday, so I gave myself an unplanned day off.  The following day I was feeling a little nervous so I scaled back the WOD in order to give myself a chance to ease back into the usual intensity.

WOD

10 RFT

3 Power Cleans 140 lbs (Rx: 155 lbs)

3 Box Jumps 30" (Rx)

7:48

Of note during this workout was my incredibly crappy form during the first several rounds of cleans.  The bar was too far from my body during the pull, which greatly magnified the difficulty of the lift.  I missed a few cleans because of this.

The box jumps looked a lot more intimidating than they actually were.  It takes a little more focus than the usual 24" jump, but getting clearance wasn't much of an issue.

Vegas, Baby!!

I met with my good friend in Las Vegas and we visited one of the local boxes to get in a workout.

WOD 3/23

42-30-18

Ring Dips (Rx)
SDHP 75 lbs (Rx)

14:00

That was a LOT of ring dips.  I thought that this choice of programming was a bit bizarre, but in retrospect I'm glad to have done the workout since I rarely do such an insane volume of movements.

I was sore for a few days after this one.

Tie Game

Friday 3/23 WOD

5 RFT

200m Run
25 KBS 53 lbs (Rx)

14:23

I can't quite remember my time, except that I was leading the class the entire time until the final 5 or 10 KBSs.  I tied Sarah with identical times.  If only I hadn't stutter-started my KBSs!!

First Place Finish!! (NO Asterisk!)

For the first time, I completed the WOD Rx and finished first among my classmates!

WOD

For Time

21-15-9

Burpee Deadlifts 185 lbs (Rx)

Chest-to-bar Pull-ups (Rx)

400m Run between rounds

14:50

It has been exactly 8 weeks and a day since my first official day of CrossFit and I'm happy to report that I beat everyone, including a few veterans, today.

Burpee deadlifts are simply regular deadlifts, but after returning the bar to the floor (don't let go of the bar), you perform a burpee by kicking your legs out, doing a push-up, and jumping your feet back to the starting position.

I'm not sure why things went so well today.  I partly think that the two guys who usually crush me kind of let me have this one.  But overall, each movement in this workout is something I've specifically worked on in the last several weeks, so perhaps this was the union of all things I've practiced into one WOD.

It was pretty funny to see Hector's (usually one of the strongest in my class) face when we finished our last C2B Pull-ups at the same time and I darted out the door.  He was right on my heels the entire time, which is why I think he sort of gave it away to me, but I wanted to make sure I'd keep a whatever little bit I had in the tank just in case he tried to make a move in the final 50 meters.

All in all, a really great day :)

Phoenix Rising

Yesterday's WOD was so terrible I didn't even want to revisit it on this blog.

WOD

5 RFT

6 Thrusters 135 lbs (Rx)
12 KBS 62 lbs (Rx)
24 HR Push-ups

23:54

Yep.  24 minutes of awful.  135 lbs is so freakin' heavy!!  There was supposedly a 20 minute time cap on this workout, so once I was getting close, I just wanted to wave the white flag and take a DNF.  But, in true CrossFit fashion, 2 of my classmates and the coach got on my ass to finish off the workout, whatever it took.  So I summoned whatever willpower I had left, finished off the last round of thrusters, managed the KBSs unbroken, and then slogged through the push-ups.  Even Coach Dave, who usually takes a pretty unsympathetic attitude toward me, told the other coach to take it easy because I "looked like I was dying".

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have attempted to Rx this one.  When I showed up I was kind of excited about the WOD because the heavier-than-usual weights seemed like a good change of pace.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger though, supposedly.  Which is why the following day was so exciting...

3rd Place Finish (Rx)

Part of the warm-up had us do 25 burpees for time, in honor of hitting Day 25 of the 100 Day Burpee Challenge!  I did it 55 seconds.  Hooray.

WOD

For Time

21 HR Push-ups (buy-in)

6 Rounds:
7 OH Squats 95 lbs (Rx)
7 Pull-ups

21 HR Push-ups (cash-out)

9:36 [Edit required...I can't remember exactly]

All in all a pretty good workout.  For whatever reason, OHSs come easier to me relative to some of my peers (even the more accomplished CrossFitters).  I also liked that magic number 7; it's just small enough to make me think I can pull off the set unbroken.

The class was really full today, more than 15 people.  The gym was accommodating nevertheless!  Good times.

Coming back for more

For some reason I could not fall asleep last night.  That is the first time since I started CrossFit that I haven't been able to get a good night's rest.

WOD

20 min AMRAP

200m Run
21 KBS 53 lbs (Rx)
14 Box Jumps 24" (Rx)
7 HSPU

5 rounds + 6 KBS

Finally, an Rx'able WOD for me.  I know this because it reminds me somewhat of the 12.3 WOD I did on Saturday, only much easier.  KBSs are finally starting to feel a little easier than before, but they're still the first movement to wear me out the most in the last few WODs that had them.

Catching Up

I almost got lazy with this blog, having not posted several workouts.  Here's the catch-up post.

Friday's WOD (3/9)

For Time

50 pull-ups
15 deadlifts 245 lbs (Rx: 275 lbs)
40 HR push-ups
10 deadlifts
30 HR push-ups
5 deadlifts
20 HR push-ups
50 pull-ups

19:25

This was hard in a totally different way than I had been anticipating.  The sheer volume of lifts had me believing that this would be extremely tough on my lungs, but this WOD turned out to be a really long, tough strength workout.  Moving back and forth between the push-ups and deadlifts was interesting because switching from a relatively light push mode to a very heavy pull mode was a tremendous shock to my body.  I'd noticed that my first one or two deadlifts would be really difficult for me and I'd have awful form, but as I repeated them it'd start to feel easier.  (Shortly after it would start to feel hard again as I fatigued).

Today's WOD (3/12)

For Time

150 single-under jump rope (Rx: 50 DUs)
40 wall ball shots 20 lbs
30 pull-ups
20 burpees
10 wall walks

10:00

I've been hurting since Saturday, which I'll discuss in a moment, so I didn't feel that prepared for today's workout even though it wasn't that hard.  I wore myself out completely on the burpees (thinking I'd gotten decent at them by now) and struggled through the wall walks.  I should have been a couple minutes faster on this, at least.


The CrossFit Games Open WODs

I've been participating in the Open WODs just to establish my 2012 baseline so I'd have a way to compare my performance to my performance one year from now.  Here is a summary:

12.1 WOD
7 min AMRAP burpees
93

12.2 WOD
10 min AMRAP snatches
30 @ 75 lbs
(Could not complete any at 135 lbs)

12.3 WOD
18 min AMRAP
15 box jumps (24")
12 push press 115 lbs
9 toes-to-bar
205 total reps
I figured out how to kip T2Bs but it didn't matter much because 115 push presses are ridiculously tiring after a very short while.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with how I did.  It's been 2 full days and most of the muscles in my body are still exhausted from those push presses.

iPood

I Pood, teehee.


WOD

3 RFT

21 KBS 53 lbs (Rx)
12 Pistol Squats, 6 each leg

6:48

Pistols are incredibly hard.  The strength exercise was fairly taxing today, but I'm pretty sure I never would have been able to do all the pistols in this workout, regardless.  Needless to say, my WOD wasn't Rx'd.

There is so much stuff I want to work on, but the "constantly varied, functional movement, performed at high intensity" rarely revisits the same things, so it's hard to know if I'm improving and which movements to prioritize.

CrossFit Criticism and Controversy

CrossFit draws an awful lot of controversy.  The criticisms seem to boil down to a combination of the following:

1. CrossFit only prepares you to be good at CrossFit.  Its training is not transferrable to other "real" activities such as sports, life-and-death situations, or everyday physical demands.
2. Kipping Pull-ups are bullshit and that Clean & Jerk was sloppy.  CrossFit's use of Oly lifts and gymnastic activities in a high-volume, metabolic conditioning framework is sacrilegious.  It is a disgrace to the originally designed intent of such movements.  Additionally, these movements are often performed poorly or unsafely due to fatigue and/or poorly practiced form.
3. CrossFit is an elitist community and ostracizes a lot of people who could fundamentally benefit from CrossFit things.  CrossFit does not offer sufficient on-ramping and progression-based infrastructure to protect its participants and encourage success, especially newcomers and folks with pre-existing conditions.  It demands so much of a beginner that its workouts may easily injure him or drive him away.

I'm not going to defend CrossFit because I feel that it is, at least partially, guilty as charged on all three accusations.

1. Does CrossFit only help me get better at CrossFit?  I haven't attempted any sport other than CrossFit since I started, so I can't speak to this criticism in much detail.  I feel stronger, faster and healthier than I did before CrossFit, but at the same time I can't claim that I feel prepared to run a competitive 10K, swim a respectable 800m, play golf with greater accuracy, or be comfortable and confident in a fist fight.  I'm not looking for a fight, but I'll report back on my sports performance as it compares to my perceived present and prior performance.  CrossFit aims to maximize work capacity in a nonspecific way, so it's very difficult to assess whether it is actively enhancing my ability to do work (in the physics sense of the term) in specific applications such as kicking a soccer ball, carving a ski slope, or running a 10K race.  Time will tell.
2. Does CrossFit misuse Olympic lifts and other movements in its regimen?  Perhaps so...I talked about this in a previous post.  There are a couple good videos in which the father of CrossFit, Greg Glassman, discusses the philosophy and foundations of CrossFit.  In them, he indirectly defends the reasons for high-volume, full-body weightlifting: "work capacity across broad time and modal domains."  In other words, CrossFit aims to maximize work capacity (force applied over distance in various ways) executed over varying time domains (short time, longer time, long times).  His explanations make sense to me and I appreciate a more quantitative approach to defining health and fitness, but I'm not yet 100% convinced that the practice of high-volume Oly lifts and repetitive gymnastic movements are the most expedient (and safest) means to achieve maximized work capacity.
3. Is CrossFit elitist and, regardless of intention, exclusionary?  On this, I really have to agree that it is.  Robb Wolf, a journalist and author, provides a critique here.  Though it is pretty clear from his tone and diction that he himself got ostracized from the CrossFit community and therefore has some beef with CrossFit HQ, I can't help but agree that CrossFit has a tendency, though perhaps unintended, to leave behind beginners and slow learners.  It's not an easy regimen to follow and CrossFit's sense of tight-knit community seems to stem from survivorship bias and elitism, not from a special breed of fitness enthusiasts who happen to be friendly and outgoing.  In my own experience, I have occasionally felt that my classmates only became more interested in me after I had begun showing up more regularly and Rx'ing some WODs.  It could be coincidence or it could be a figment of my imagination, but it is an observation of mine.

CrossFit continues to attract a great deal of attention, both positive and negative.  This post is very unlikely to be my last on its controversy.  In spite of its criticisms and my doubts, I feel more engaged in my fitness than any time in the last few years and I find myself constantly hungry to improve.  If CrossFit has done that for me, I can't deny that it has a place in my world.

In Need of a Rest

I've been trying to maintain 3-4 days in a row of workouts followed by 1 rest day and I've been pretty good about it.  However, the third and certainly the fourth days are always pretty difficult.

WOD

15 min AMRAP

6 HSPU
12 KBS 53 lbs (Rx)
18 Tactical Lunges

6 Rounds

"Tactical Lunges" are walking lunges in which you pass the kettle bell to your opposite hand at the bottom of the lunge.  Needless to say, they're pretty hard after a while.  The HSPUs didn't bother me much and I even felt like the KBSs weren't getting too hard until the 5th round or so.

At any rate, I definitely need a rest day.  I'm way overdue for an Off-day Topic anyway, and so I'll leave my discussion on rest until then :)

More Fran-esque Workouts

I think I've developed a fear or aversion to Fran, since it was my first CrossFit workout and it absolutely humiliated me.

WOD

4 RFT

200m Run
10 Thrusters 95 lbs (Rx)
10 C2B Pull-ups
2 min rest

17:10

I'm glad I Rx'd this, but my time sucked.  Chest-to-bar pull-ups are surprisingly difficult compared to regular kipping pull-ups, but Thrusters continue to kick my butt.  I can't help but think that my recent poor diet choices contributed to this, but it's hard to say for sure.

Playing Favorites

I was going to skip Thursday's WOD to give myself a recovery day, but when I saw it I couldn't resist.  Also, when I woke up, I just felt like I needed to prove to myself I could Rx a workout.

WOD

For Time

3 HSPU
6 Deadlift at 225 lbs (Rx)
200m Run

6 HSPU
9 Deadlifts at 225 lbs
200m Run

9 HSPU
12 Deadlifts at 225 lbs
200m Run

12 HSPU
15 Deadlifts at 225 lbs

11:00

I tried to kip the handstand push-ups, which certainly helped but I don't think I was maximizing the upward momentum.  In spite of that, my only broken set was the final set of 12, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

I knew as soon as I lifted 225 lbs for the first rep that things would get difficult for me, but I simply aimed to keep a steady pace.  The sets of 12 and 15 were pretty hard, with the final 5 or 6 reps really sucking.

Ultimately, I finished it and in fairly good time.  The better guys in the class finished in 7-8 minutes, but at Rx weights I won't be too hard on myself.  I still beat a lot of guys who were doing less than Rx.

Only Two

WOD

2 RFT

30 Pull-ups

15 Power Snatch 75 lbs (Rx: 95 lbs)

30 Push Press 75 lbs (Rx: 95 lbs)

12:08

I finished first by over a minute I think, which signals that I probably should have attempted more weight (perhaps even Rx).  Nevertheless, it was pretty tough workout.  I even tore some skin on my hands again, bleh.

As expected, the snatches were tiring, but I still feel awkward about the volume.  Sometimes I felt as though I were taking breaks during the set just because daisy chaining so many snatches feels bizarre to me.

Five by Five

After a pure strength workout, naturally the most appropriate follow-up is a tough slog.

WOD

5 min AMRAP
  5 dumbbell push press 40 lbs
  10 box jumps 24"

2 min rest

5 min AMRAP
  7 wallball shots 20 lb medball
  14 KB swings 53 lbs

2 min rest

5 min AMRAP
  9 pushups
  18 lunges (9 each side)

2 min rest

5 min AMRAP
  50m sprint forward
  50m sprint backward
  100m overhead dumbbell (1x40 lb db)

2 min rest

5 min row for distance


7 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 1254m row
1254m | 16 rounds

I was only 5 or 6 lunges from completing an extra round during the pushup/lunges exercise, so I'm a little annoyed I couldn't get it.  The 100m overhead dumbbell was just absurd; I had no idea that getting even one round would be so difficult.  I still suck at wallball shots, especially at 20 lbs.  I'll work on those for sure.

Overall it was a pretty good workout.  I'm glad to claim another Rx'd WOD!

One Rep Is An Oxymoron Isn't It?

Today's workout wasn't so much a workout as just taking time to establish one rep maxes for a few exercises.  This was great for me since all of my 1RMs to date have been nothing but guesswork.

WOD

15 min to establish 1RM Back Squat
15 min to establish 1RM Shoulder Press
15 min to establish 1RM Deadlift

Score = sum of each exercise's 1RM weight

245 + 130 + 275 = 650

The two guys I partnered with today are both much stronger than me, so at first I felt like my maxes were pretty inadequate.  But after I left the gym, I realized that these results were actually pretty great for me.  In retrospect, 245 lbs squat was actually much better than I anticipated going into it.  The 130 lb shoulder press was literally every ounce I could possibly handle and probably 5-10 lbs better than I was expecting.  The deadlift was the only lift where I didn't surprise myself since I had come so close to my 1RM last week at 265 lbs.

All in all, it was a good session.  When you don't know any of your 1RMs, every lift is a personal record!  I look forward to revisiting these soon.

3 Days in a Row and Going Strong

Yeah, not really.  I'm sore everywhere and my body is simply exhausted.

WOD

20 min AMRAP

10 Dumbbell Push Press, 40 lbs (Rx)
15 Deadlift, 185 lbs (Rx)
60 Jump Rope (Rx: 20 Double-Unders)

5 rounds completed, barely.

I don't know how to do double-unders yet, so the coach had me do 60 jump rope as a substitution.  I'll find out tomorrow how many rounds might be considered "decent", but I'm pretty sure that I will not stack up well against my peers.

The push presses killed me today.  My shoulders are still wrecked from the last two days.  A few months ago, 40 lb dumbbells weren't a big deal even when doing a strict push press.  But today I could not do an unbroken set after the first one.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Looks like the coaches have intentionally transitioned away from lower body and have continued to punish the upper body and core.

WOD

For Time

100 Overhead squats, 65 lbs (Rx: 95 lbs)
10 Toes to Bar if the bar passes beneath the head

14:49

Breakdown of my overhead squat sets were 30, 15, 15, 15, 15, 10.  I sort of wish I had just hunkered down and endured the pain of finishing off the final 25 reps without having to do another set of T2Bs.  The mental battle of weighing the pain of a few more OHSs versus doing another 10 T2Bs was an interesting dynamic to this workout.

I knew that Rx'ing it would be pretty much impossible, but I tested out 85 lbs before starting.  I knew immediately it would never happen.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my legs were (and are) the least tired part of my body.  This was a test of upper body strength for sure.  After these last two days, I'm not sure what my performance will be like tomorrow and I'm even less confident about even showing up on Saturday.  Sometimes the key is just to take it a few reps at a time.

Just Like Fifth Grade Gym Class!

Travis, a fellow CrossFit classmate: "Any time you don't see a strength or skills workout listed before the WOD, you know it's gonna be a long haul workout."

WOD

For Time

1 mi Run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
100 sit-ups (on Abmat)
1 mi Run

47:05

I was the last person to finish the sit-ups but I was able to overtake three people.  Still though, I wish I had worked a little harder on the sit-ups since I admittedly held back a little bit because I wanted to have enough juice to run another mile.  Also, I'm super proud of being able to do 100 kipping pull-ups!  I guess the ring rows paid off!

For both miles, I practiced Pose running technique.  While I definitely feel lighter on my feet and ultimately less winded, striking with my forefoot first fatigues my calves much more than heel-strike running.  I am not familiar enough with Pose running to know whether this is the result of poor technique or simply not being used to the movement.  I'll keep practicing and researching this.

100 Day Burpee Challenge!

It's Day 1 of the 100 Day Burpee Challenge!!  I invite all you to join me!

What is it?  It's easy...

Day 1:  Do 1 Burpee.
Day 2:  Do 2 Burpees.
Day 3:  Do 3 Burpees.
...
Day 98:  Do 98 Burpees.
Day 99:  Do 99 Burpees.
Day 100:  Do 100 Burpees for time to celebrate the 100 Day Burpee Challenge!

Rules

1. If you miss a day, you have to make up all of the missed burpees on the following day.  For instance, if you miss your two burpees on Day 2, you have to do five burpees on Day 3.  If you miss your 90 burpees on Day 90, you have to do 181 burpees on Day 91.  Yikes.
2. If your workout happens to include burpees that day, you may count them toward your total burpees for the day.  If your workout had more burpees than required by the Challenge, you may NOT carry over your extra burpees into the following day(s).
3. The ONE exception to Rule #2 is on Fridays.  You may pay forward your burpees up to a maximum of 2 days forward, in case your weekend may hinder you from doing your required burpees.  Rule #1 is always in effect, however, so don't get too cute with this rule.

Happy burpeeing to you!!!!!!

Buy in, Cash out

WOD

400m Run (Buy-in)

3 RFT

10 Thrusters @ 95 lbs (Rx: 115)
10 Burpees
10 Toes to Bar

400m Run (Cash-out)

13:22

The idea here was to bookend the 3 RFT with 400m runs.  The clock starts at the beginning of the first run and ends only when you cross the finish line for the last 400m run.

Finished first today!  Not doing the Rx thrusters was the clear advantage here.  95 lbs was just about all I could handle.  Hey, at least it was more than women's Rx.

Reset Button

Today I did back squats for the strength workout.  We don't use pads or anything, so the bar rests directly on the upper part of the trapezius.  This is moderately to extremely uncomfortable.  The following conversation ensued:

Me:  Where do you place the bar exactly?
Kit (classmate):  Oh, right along here, on the thick part of your traps below your neck.
Me:  Okay, that's what I thought, but it still sort of hurts when I put it there.  Am I just a huge wuss?
Instructor:  What's going on?
Me:  The weight of the bar on my shoulders is pretty uncomfortable.
Instructor:  Yeah, it can get that way.
Me:  In college, we used a pad.
Instructor:  ...We don't use pads here.

...I guess I am a wuss! :-D

Without further ado, the workout today!

WOD

3 RFT

6 Wall walks
12 Deadlifts @ 205 lbs (Rx 255)
400m Run

15:04

I happen to enjoy both wall walks and deadlifts, so it was only fitting that today's workout included 400m runs to create a sense of balance.  The instructor called the runs a "reset button" because it's such a shock to the body after heavy lifting.  At any rate, I'm pretty happy with my performance today.  I am surprised that I am able to do so many deadlifts at 205 lbs.  I feel like only a month ago, I'd never be able to pull that off.

As per usual on Friday, the group was smaller: only one other guy and four women.  Still, it feels good to finish first once in a while :)

Fran+

To call today's session a challenge is a monumental understatement.  I don't usually record the day's "skills" workout, but today's was noteworthy.

4x400m Sprints
2 min rest between bouts

I can't remember my times, but they were all sub-2m runs.  I was the third guy to finish and only a second or two behind the guy in front of me, who had built up a good lead on me in the first bout.

Today's WOD was like Fran, only worse.  I didn't think it possible, either.  I didn't even bother trying to Rx it, so I did women's Rx (exception, 24" box jumps)

WOD

For Time
21-15-9

Wall Ball 14 lbs
Pull-ups
Thrusters 65 lbs
Box Jump (24")
KBS 35 lbs

19:25

The time cap was 20min, so I just barely finished.  The upper part of my abs were searing with pain.  The only good thing that came out of that was that I actually did all the pull-ups without assistance and without too much trouble.  Everything else just killed me.

Stubborn Rx'ing

Leave it to my ego to not let me mod down a WOD anymore.  I've done two WODs Rx'd, so why would I downgrade now?  One good reason might be to not finish dead last.

WOD

For Time

75 Burpees

50 Hang cleans @ 95 lbs

25 HSPU (Rx: hands level with head)

18:40

The burpees weren't so bad; I don't think I was too far behind the better guys in my class.  I fell pretty far behind on the hang cleans.  50 is a big number and it gets pretty discouraging when you feel spent after only 15 or 20 of them.  The hand-stand push-ups ended me, though.  I haven't taught myself how to kip them just yet, so I just had to power through them the hard way.

At any rate, I'm glad to have Rx'd another WOD!

Just Do Fifty

Got to Open Gym just a couple minutes after 8:00am.  After 15 or 20 minutes of stretching and getting situated, I asked the instructors if they could help me improve my pull-ups.

I tried a few sets of dead-hang (aka traditional) pull-ups just to get the blood pumping.  The instructor had me do 12 kipping pull-ups both for conditioning and to inspect my form.  My form was pretty good, but we mutually discovered one of my major issues: my grip strength!!  I can't hold onto the bar because my fingers and forearms get tired of bearing my weight.

The pull-ups bars at my gym are approximately 3" diameter bars, which requires relatively more effort to hang onto than a narrower one.  I noticed that after 8-10 pull-ups, my hands begin to slip off.  With kipping, it actually feels even more difficult to hold on with each subsequent pull-up since the momentum of the negative actually serves to rip me from the bar.

To address this, I practiced four consecutive holds on the bar, 15 seconds apiece.  First, a standard pull-up hold, then left hand reversed, right hand reversed, and finally both hands reversed (chin-up style).  I should continue these holds until I can hold them for at least 30 seconds.

After these strength workouts, I went ahead with the WOD I missed last Wednesday.

WOD

3 RFT

10 Toes to bar
20 Burpees
30 Wall Balls (20 lb med ball)

15:00

The wall balls were insanely difficult.  I realized after a few reps that I'd never attempted them with a 20 lb med ball, and it wasn't long before I found myself having to take breaks after every 6, often after every 3.  I think that each subsequent round took me approximately twice as long as the previous one.

After spending several minutes catching my breath, the instructors had me resume working on pull-ups.  I did another set of 12 kipping pull-ups, unfortunately broken because of my weak grip strength.  Afterward, I needed to do 50 ring rows.  Of course, I was not even close; I did 25 total before calling it quits.

To improve my back strength quickly, I am supposed to do 50 ring rows every day.  Whether I do them unbroken or one at a time, I should keep working at it until I finish all of them, no matter how long it takes.  Bring it!!

First Rx!!!!

I finally Rx'd a WOD!!  I'm pretty happy with that :)

WOD

3 RFR (Round for Reps)

1 min AMRAP walking lunges with plate overhead (45 lbs)
1 min rest
1 min AMRAP stiff-legged deadlift (135 lbs)
1 min rest
1 min Burpees
1 min rest

Total reps: 53 + 57 + 53 = 163

I'm glad to have finally Rx'd a WOD.  Also, 163 isn't too bad.  The top guys in the class could push 180 or even more than 200 total reps, but anything in the 160s is a pretty good workout in my opinion.

This workout of course panders more to my background since it's mostly pure weightlifting with breaks built into the routine.  All the same, it's nice to finally do a workout as prescribed.

Mod that WOD

More pull-ups today.  Since I knew that I'd never be able to do them, I immediately grabbed an assistance band.

WOD:

4 RFT

16 KBS @ 53 lbs (Rx: 62 lbs)
8 band-assisted pull-ups (Rx: L pull-ups)
16 Box jumps 24" (Rx: same)
8 Push Press @ 95 lbs (Rx: 115 lbs)

15:30

I'm pretty happy with my workout today.  Knowing full well  that I'd never be able to do 32 pull-ups (of any kind), I went straight for the band.  By the end of the third round I had gotten pretty close to my max heart rate and I was gasping and wheezing for air.  My core burned, my lungs hurt, and it was hard to see straight.  I actually am not sure how I finished the fourth round.

Sometimes it helps if I play head games with myself while doing the exercises.  For instance, I'll split the 16 reps into 4 4-counts.  If it's a smaller number, sometimes it seems more attainable.  Another good head game is to count up then count down: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Of course, these tactics only work up until the reality of exhaustion smacks me upside the head.

All in all, though, it was a great workout and I feel pretty good today.

Death Knell

I usually try to peek at the WOD on my gym's website before I leave the house.  As soon as I saw pull-ups, I knew it'd be a bad day.

WOD

21-15-9
OHS 75 lbs
Pull-ups (MOD)

9:43

I was dead last today out of a group of 12 people, as I knew I would be.  Pull-ups continue to be a major weakness for me.  I had to do the second and third sets with an elastic band for assistance.  At the time it didn't feel like it was any easier.

I hope to improve on them this weekend.

Finishing First*

I finished first in the WOD today!!  I did 50 lbs less than Rx, but I'll take what I can get.

WOD:

5 RFT

6 Squat Cleans (85 lbs)
12 Burpees

10:15

Yup, burpees are hard.  Anyway, I chose to go with only 85 lbs today since I am new to squat cleans.  A squat clean is basically a standard clean that goes into a full front squat.  The idea is that I should be able to move a relatively heavier weight because I can squat down to "catch" the bar, requiring less power generation from the upper body to move the bar.

I haven't been lending much commentary lately on CrossFit, so I figured I'd weigh in a little bit today.  Today's workout was a strenuous, full-body workout with a blend of cardiovascular conditioning and compound weightlifting movements.  All in all, that is precisely what I was looking for in a new workout routine.  However, I question the programming of the powerlifting movements.  Today's WOD involved 30 cleans and last week I did 40 snatches (per arm!).

Traditionally, Olympic style lifts are performed at relatively heavy weight for very few reps.  Their original purpose was not to help train a high degree of muscular stamina and cardiovascular endurance, but rather to train the neuromuscular system to generate maximum strength and speed.  Since the compound movement is just as much about engaging the nervous response as it is about conditioning the muscles, there are rapidly diminishing returns on repeating the movement over and over.  For instance, in training for a 100m dash, no amount of jogging will prepare you to jump off the blocks faster when the gun fires.  Conversely, there's only so much jumping off the blocks you can do again and again before you are no longer getting positive results.  This leads to my other point: the reduced weight of a high-repetition set fails to prepare the nervous system for moving very heavy weight, thus counteracting the original design of these lifts.

As a full-body exercise that gets my heart rate to 90% of max while hitting nearly every major muscle group, high-repetition O-lifts are working flawlessly.  But as an effective way to build my body's capacity to deliver power through neuromuscular conditioning, color me suspicious.  CrossFit makes some big claims about training "across broad time and modal domains", and arguably these WODs are accomplishing that, but I'm just not sure that the powerlifting elements are necessarily the safest and most effective way to do it.

Love Your Life

Today I felt like CrossFit's purpose is to make me learn to love life by hating 30 minutes of it each day.  To quote the wise Steve G., "it's like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer...because it feels so good to stop."

WOD:

4 RFT

10 Left-hand KB Snatch (44 lbs)
20 Burpees
10 Right-hand KB Snatch
400m Run

23:37

I know I say this almost every post, but this WOD was brutal.  I was originally going to do this exercise with a 35 lb kettle bell but the instructor had me move up to a 44 lb.  And though the snatches get difficult after a while, they are nothing compared to the 20 burpees and the running.  I'm still astounded by how tired I get from doing burpees.  And running is always awful.

For the final 100m of the workout, I decided to push it a little to shave a few seconds off my time.  For the final 25m I was sprinting (or what felt like an all-out sprint).  By the time I crossed the line, nausea, slight delirium, shortness of breath, and a dull headache all came on at once.  I'm not sure if it was the workout, a lack of hydration, or poor cardiovascular condition, but it was an interesting palette of sensations.

Fallen off the wagon

Hi readers,

I apologize for the lack of content as of late.  Late last week I started experiencing a fierce allergic reaction, breaking out with head-to-toe itchy hives.  I'm on a bunch of steroids and antihistamines to combat the problem.  Although the doctor did not specifically instruct me to cease exercise, I've learned the hard way that it's usually more prudent to exercise caution and make sure I'm getting better before doing anything else.

Thanks for bearing with me.  I will be back on the CrossFit horse as soon as I feel it's appropriate to continue.

Cheers!

Open Gym

Every Saturday morning, my CrossFit box holds "open gym".  On these days, there is no structured class.  Instead, members show up at their leisure to either work on specific skills, do a WOD they missed earlier that week, or even just hang out.  I wasn't sure I'd like this, but I was pleasantly surprised.  There are 2-3 instructors there who are available to coach you if you ask for their help.  It's pretty neat to get fairly personalized attention for almost whatever workout you feel like doing.

I arrived at the gym thinking I'd just goof off.  I wanted to work on pull-ups and practice my handstands.  The instructor, however, determined that the reason that my pull-ups were bad were because I haven't built up my endurance.  "Are you going to to do a workout?  You should do a workout," she says.  Uh oh.

Just like that, she starts getting me set up for last Tuesday's WOD, which I had missed.

My WOD:

4 RFT:

2x100m Sandbag Sprint (35 lb sandbag, run backwards for 2nd leg)

10 Burpees over Bar

10 Power Cleans (75 lbs)

16:18

This workout might have been as bad as Fran, and that's saying something.  By the third round, I could barely breathe and I was practically walking the sprints.  For whatever reason, I'm still astounded by how hard burpees are after a while.  I still had labored breathing a good 30 minutes after I finished the workout.  Ridiculous.

Signs of Improvement

Skill workout today was 1RM floor press.  It's like a bench press, but you lay on the floor.  After that, we were to drop the weight 10% and do as many reps as we could.  I didn't quite do that, but whatever.

1RM @ 215 lbs
17 reps @ 165 lbs

This amuses me because I am not in the least bit surprised by this outcome.  Having not had access to heavy weights but ample access to light weights for 9 months, the results are perfectly consistent with how I have been training.

WOD:

15m AMRAP

2 muscle-ups
4 HSPU
8 KBS @ 62 lbs

My modded WOD:

15m AMRAP
2x - 3 pull-up + 3 ring dips
4 HSPU
8 KBS @ 53 lbs

Result: 7

I'm pretty happy with my performance today.  As usual, the pull-ups got tough for me, but doing only 3 at a time definitely made it doable.  The dips were very easy.  I was very proud of my hand-stand push-ups today, as I was able to perform them without adding any assistance.  They got pretty rough toward the end, but I refused to get help.  The kettle bell swings started out pretty easy, but it's shocking how hard it feels at the end. I wonder if I should have done it Rx'd, but it's probably more prudent to take it slow.

Team Effort

As usual, the class typically begins with "active stretch" to get the blood pumping and the muscles limber followed by a "skills workout" to build competency in a particular movement.  Today's skill workout was doing handstands.  It's weird to think about how I've never actually done a handstand in my life, even as a kid in gymnastics class or horsing around with friends.  I think I started to get the hang of it toward the end of the workout session, holding a handstand for a few seconds at a time.  I want to revisit that soon since...well, it's awesome to be able to do handstand!


WOD:

2-person team
3 RFT:

Overhead squat AMRAP (Rx 95 lbs, I did 65 lbs)
400m run

13:32, 132 reps (70 of which were mine).

Today, I didn't feel nearly as sucky today.  Obviously, doing OH squats 30 lbs below Rx was a tremendous crutch, but it was still a tough workout.  When doing a lot of OH squats, it becomes extremely important to maintain a shoulder shrug as instructed in the Essentials class.  As fatigue sets on, the bar can get pretty wobbly unless you keep your lats locked and stabilized.  Squatting of course challenges the glutes, back, and abs, but holding a weight above my head gave me a hell of a burn in my trapezius.

The running also went better.  I paced myself in the first two with the intention of having some gas in the tank for the final bout.  Fortunately, the strategy worked and I was able to push the last 200m to finish the workout.  My partner only got 12 reps while I was running, so I like to think that my pace cut her short from finishing a few more.

Today I wore bandages over each blister and wore lifting gloves over that.  That was definitely a good idea.  The skin is still healing but at least it's no longer cracking open and feeling raw anymore.

Essentially Sucky

Today's WOD:

Fran
For time:

21-15-9
Push press (75 lbs, Rx is 95)
Pull-ups

14:21

Today was awful.  I guess Fran is known for being pretty tough, but I feel pretty crappy about how badly I did.  I finished dead last among my classmates.  Again, the pull-ups destroyed me, much the same as last week.  I'll definitely be working on those this weekend.

Up until this morning, my left shoulder had been bothering me.  I'm not sure how to characterize it.  I hesitate to call it an injury, since I still maintained full range of motion and strength, but I could definitely feel a sharp, shooting twinge in my deltoid when I held my arm out at certain angles.  Fortunately, the strain subsided just barely in time for this morning's workout, but I do worry about these minor hurts I seem to get every time I go to this gym.

Speaking of small pains, I got my first pair of blisters, one for each hand.  The skin peeled clean off while doing the pull-ups. I hardly felt it at the time, but I made up for it when I doused my hands in hydrogen peroxide.  At the time of this post, it's been approximately 13 hours and the wounds are still a little raw.  Lesson learned, I suppose: buy tape and use it.  Until then, I'm going to retreat back to my dorky weightlifting gloves.

Essentials, Day 6

Today was the final day of Essentials class!

The instructor had us join the 6:00am class for stretching and warm-up, but we broke off for a few minutes to review the major movements.  After that, however, we rejoined the class to do their WOD!

Today's WOD:

4 RFT

30 squats
15 burpees
5 wall walk

My time was 15:07.  Wall walks are awful (press '2' to skip to relevant footage).  If they don't seem that bad to you, I encourage you to try them.  In fact, I didn't even perform them "Rx", which I believe requires the athlete to touch his chest to the wall at the top position.  I only went  until my hands were ~8" away from the wall.  As I expected before we began, I was one of the last to finish in the class.  I think I beat two others, but not by much.

So that's it!  I am a graduate of the Essentials program and I am invited to train in whatever classes fit into my schedule.  I am debating whether to continue with the 6:00am class.  The issue hasn't really been waking up early, but mostly the commitment to go to bed at a reasonable time.  Regardless of the schedule I choose, I will need to upgrade my discipline and be able to sustain it.

I look forward to starting the "real thing".

Essentials, Day 5

I've been excited to write this post because today's lessons covered what is ostensibly one of the most controversial and polarizing elements of CrossFit.

Today, we learned kipping pull-ups.  What the hell is "kipping"?  Actually, it's much easier to watch than to read about, so I encourage you to follow the link (press '4' to skip to the most relevant footage).

For those not able to open YouTube, "kipping" is a momentum-generating movement that assists the execution of the pull-up.  The athlete swings such that her upper body and lower body act as counterweights to each other, which sort of generates centrifugal momentum about the bar that helps her clear her chin over the bar.  This makes the pull-up easier for two reasons:

1. The body's swinging generates a little bit of upward momentum, reducing the load on the back muscles.
2. As the upper body swings upward, the arms become relatively more horizontal.  This position puts the back's muscles at much higher mechanical advantage than it would be otherwise when hanging beneath the bar.

CrossFit endorses this style of pull-up because its goal is to maximize power.  That is to say, applying maximum force over a given distance in the least amount of time possible.  Kipping allows a person to do more work (moving your head from beneath the bar to above the bar) in less time.  Indeed, kipping certainly helps achieve that goal compared against it's older brother, the dead-hang pull-up.

At this point, traditionalists and critics write off CrossFit immediately here.  A pull-up, evidently, is a pretty sacred movement in the world of fitness and many feel that CrossFit shits all over it.  And to be perfectly honest, the traditionalists have a point:

1. The purpose of the traditional pull-up has always been to build upper-body strength.  The movement primarily works the latissimus dorsi, along with 12 other muscles acting as synergists.  It's been a staple of upper-body strength training for a very, very long time.
2. If  you were hanging such that your body were against a flat surface, such as a rock or a building, kipping would serve no purpose.  The only way to pull yourself up would be to have sufficient upper body strength.

So who's right?  Well, neither.  And both.

Kipping pull-ups meet their training objectives in that they do hoist your body up very quickly and efficiently.  It's an exercise to develop power and endurance.  That said, I do not believe that this is an optimal technique to develop raw back strength.

Traditional pull-ups meet their training objectives in that they develop the back muscles.  It's an exercise to build raw strength.  That said, I do not believe that this is an effective technique for delivering power.

So all told, the two exercises are separate techniques that serve different purposes.  Much the way that a deadlift and a clean hit many of the same muscle groups but train them in very different ways, so are kipping pull-ups and dead-hang pull-ups.  I'm not sure why this causes such a commotion among fitness communities, as both exercises have their proper place.

At any rate, here was my WOD today:

3 RFT

5 pull-ups
10 HR push-ups (lift hands from the floor at bottom of the push-up)
15 box jumps
20 push presses (55 lbs)
15 kettle bell swings
10 GHD (glute-ham-developer) sit-ups
5 ring dips

15:43

The push presses were easily the most taxing part of the workout.  In the third heat, I needed 5 or 6 rests.  This workout certainly panders to my strengths more than the ones involving endurance, so I'm happy to have finally beaten my classmate on something.  Not by much, but I'll take it.

Benchmarks

My previous posts have been rather enthusiastic about the supposed benefits of CrossFit.  The principles on which CrossFit is designed seem sound to me within the frameworks of strength training and general conditioning.  CrossFit boasts that its training alone can prepare an athlete for a pretty broad range of sports and competitions.  I've been told rather tall tales of CrossFitters who have run marathons and done triathlons doing nothing but CrossFit to train.  I find these boastful claims to be suspect and sometimes unrealistic, but who am I to judge until I've tried the training regimen for a substantial amount of time?

While I've committed myself completely to CrossFit for the foreseeable future, I want to do so with enough objectivity that I can judge its effectiveness against my past training and personal feats.  Below, I chronicle a few of my personal records for a variety of different exercises and events.  My memory serves me rather poorly, so these PRs are not exact, but it should be a close enough approximation to use as a benchmark.  I am certain, however, that these estimates are conservatively biased.

• 5K run: 20:00
• 10K run: 42:00
• Deadlift: 285 lbs
• Back squat: 225 lbs
• Bench press: 225 lbs
• Dead-hang pull-ups: 15+

CrossFit seems to suggest that if I train under its regimen to a fairly high level of fitness, I should be able to perform the above activities as well or almost as well as I did when I trained for them specifically.  There isn't much supporting evidence to suggest how close I can come, so I'm arbitrarily deciding that I should be able to achieve at least 90% of my PR for all of these movements.  That translates to:

• 5K run: 22:13
• 10K run: 46:40
• Deadlift: 257 lbs
• Back squat: 203 lbs
• Bench press: 203 lbs
• Dead-hang pull-ups: 14 pull-ups

These targets aren't intimidating when viewed on their own, but to have the capacity to do any one of them at almost any time is downright unbelievable.

I promise to put forth the effort and intensity that gives myself the best chance of hitting these benchmarks.  If I am successful, I will have no problem getting behind CrossFit as a legit strength and conditioning framework.

Off-day topics: Hydration

In the spirit of keeping the content coming, I figured I'd choose topics to discuss on my off-days.  Actually, I may still go to the gym today, but it's good to talk about fitness topics regardless.

A reader asked me to discuss the importance of hydration during workouts, especially CrossFit workouts.

I've long been of the unsubstantiated opinion that the human body can tolerate a fairly wide range of hydration levels.  Kidneys are a pretty neat little organ and from a physiological standpoint and they do a pretty fantastic job of maintaining homeostasis, so long as you don't overdo it in one direction or the other.  However, from a sports standpoint, what exactly should we be doing?

1. How do we lose and gain water?

Water is lost via perspiratory, respiratory, renal, and gastrointestinal processes.  In English, you lose water by sweating, breathing, peeing, and pooping.

Water is gained from consumption and metabolic processes.  In English, your body gains water by drinking and by simply being alive.

Typically, the net water turnover from respiratory and metabolic processes is fairly close to zero, whether at rest or not.

Peeing is obviously a loss of water, but water excreted by the kidneys has arguably already exited your body, so it doesn't "count" per se.  Furthermore, renal activity greatly reduces during exercise, as the body naturally mobilizes itself for a protracted period of sweating and elevated metabolic needs.

Normal poop contains very little water, so water loss from bowel movements is minimal (exception: diarrhea).  Intestines do a pretty fantastic job of eking out every bit useful nutrient, including water, from the food you ingest.

Therefore, the primary source of water loss is sweating.

2. How much sweating is too much sweating before athletic performance degrades?

The ACSM asserts that >2% bodyweight loss of water is a "critical water deficit" that degrades aerobic exercise potential, citing higher core body temperature and higher heart rate as the main reasons for degradation.  The same article also suggests that the marginal decrement in aerobic performance is minimal as loss of water continues; it's mostly an all-or-nothing bodily response.  Note that >3% is considered clinically dehydrated.  Lastly, the article suggests that neither muscle strength nor anaerobic capacity are significantly impacted by hydration levels.

I haven't weighed myself in quite some time, but assuming I am still roughly 157 lbs, a 2% loss of water is approximately a 48 oz water deficit, or 3 full pints of water.  That's an enormous amount of water to lose to sweating and I would suspect that an hour of exercise at varied intensity is not sufficient to cause such a deficit, but I don't want to assume too much.  Which leads to my next question...

3. How quickly does a person lose water to sweating during exercise?

Obviously, sweat rates can vary greatly according to activity, individual physiology and a huge number of environmental factors.  The article's observations show sweat rates for a variety of sports (rowing, soccer, football, tennis, triathlon, etc.) and range from 0.5 to 2.0 L/h, or 17 to 67 oz per hour.

So there you have it.  Depending on circumstances, it's quite possible to lose enough water during a one-hour workout to yield sub-optimal aerobic performance.  Combined with the relatively common incidence of beginning a workout while partially dehydrated, it is quite possible that insufficient hydration could be a factor.

4. Okay, so what should we do?

To keep it simple, here is what is generally recommended:

• Hydrate immediately before your workout.  12-16 oz will usually suffice.
• Every 15-30 minutes during your workout, take a drink.  It could be anywhere from 5-20oz, depending.
• After your workout, be sure to drink consistently for the next 4-6 hours.

It is very uncommon to find an athlete that maintains pre-workout water levels throughout his or her training.  Drinking fluid after a workout to replace lost fluids is critical.  Recall that sweating continues well after a workout, but also that peeing resumes.  While a normal person is unlikely to know their total water loss for a given workout, it doesn't hurt to keep sipping water for a few hours post-workout.

I know that I need to up my water intake, both inside and outside the gym.  I won't be able to measure improvements because of this change, but relative to the effort I need to put forth elsewhere, this is by far the easiest way to get a small gain in athletic performance.

Essentials, Day 4

We learned a few new movements today, primarily of the gymnastic/calisthenic variety:

• Box jumps
• Burpees
• Knee-ups, Knees-to-elbows, Feet-to-bars
• Hand-stand push-ups.

A burpee is simply the act of dropping to the floor, prone and chest touching the floor, then getting up as quickly as possible, finishing with a short jump and a clap of the hands overhead.

Knee-ups and their cousins are performed while hanging from a pull-up bar.  They're mostly self-explanatory.  Sometimes Knees-to-elbows and Feet-to-bars are abbreviated K2E and F2B, respectively.

An "Rx" Hand-stand push-up, often abbreviated HSPU, is performed by doing a hand-stand against the wall, lowering your head to the floor, then pushing back up.  The exercise can be heavily modified to reduce load and improve mechanical advantage for the athlete-in-training.  We used a 24" box to place our feet on, which alleviates the bodyweight a great deal.

Anyway, here was the workout for today:

FT (for time)

• 400m run
• 20 box jumps (24")
• 10 burpees
• 500m row
• 20 pull-ups
• 10 K2E
• 500m row
• 20 Wall Ball (16 lb med ball)
• 10 HSPU (modded with box)
• 400m run

I completed it in 18:32.  This workout kicked my ass.  And my breaking point was where I would actually have least expected it: the pull-ups.  I could not do 20 pull-ups to save my life, which is curious to me since I (previously) felt that, on the whole, my upper body strength was far less deteriorated than my core and leg strength.

I powered through the run, box jumps, burpees and rowing with relative ease and gained a pretty significant lead on my classmate.  But the pull-ups ended me.  It took me a very long time to complete them.  The Wall Balls were difficult for me too as I was unable to link too many of them together, but my slowness there doesn't even compare to how hard a time I had with pull-ups.

I knew that a weightlifting background would be only marginally useful for CrossFit, but today's workout really highlighted this for me.  I underestimated just how out-of-shape I am.

I can't wait to look back on this post and laugh about how crappy I was.

Essentials, Day 3

Last day of Essentials for the week!

Today we learned shoulder movements: shoulder press, push press, wall ball, and the push jerk.

Shoulder Press

1. Stand up tall, core tight, bar beneath your chin, supported by clavicle and hands.  Have elbows slightly pointed forward.
2. Pull head straight back, keeping eyes level, while the bar travels straight upward.
3. As the bar passes above the head, return head to neutral position and lock the elbows.
4. Leading with the elbows, lower the weight while moving your head backward again to make way for the bar.  Return to starting position.

Push Press

This is very similar to the shoulder press, but is a power-generating movement that allows you move more weight and move it faster than a standard shoulder press

1. Drop hips straight down, as though somebody pressed the back of your knees to cause them to break.
2. Straighten legs and drive hips upward while executing shoulder press.
3. The finishing position should be the same as in the shoulder press.

Wall Ball

Wall ball is pretty fun!  We didn't do too many of them, but I can tell it would make for a pretty tough workout.

1. Stand in front of the wall.
2. Starting in a squat position, hold a medicine ball in front of your face (almost close enough to kiss it).
3. Drive upward while performing push press movement.
4. Release the ball at full extension.  Ball should get enough height to touch the line painted on the wall.  (I do not know how high up it is; I'll be sure to ask next time)
5. Catch the ball and absorb its impact by lower back into squat position.  Repeat.

Push Jerk

This is sort of a variation on classic olympic lift.  Of the presses discussed today, this one enables the lifter to the most amount of weight.  This link sorta distinguishes the shoulder press, push press, and push jerk.  One small difference is that we split our feet, like this woman.  (N.B. her execution of the clean and jerk is far from perfect, so I don't recommend the video as a reference guide).

1. Perform a push press.
2. As the bar travels up, split the feet apart to get beneath the bar.
3. Retract the feet to neutral starting position, starting with forward foot then the back foot.

I found that I slightly prefer my left foot to go forward, but it didn't matter much.  With respect to foot position, the toes should be pointed slightly inward for stability's sake.  Also, the rear foot's heel should not be bearing weight; focus the weight on the ball of that foot.

That said, my WOD was the following:

3 RFT:

10 push presses

20 sit-ups using the Abmat

400m dash

I finished in 11:37 I believe, push-pressing 45 lbs.  My classmate beat me by a pretty good margin, having powered through the final bout's sit-ups and proving to be a far better runner than me.  The dude is a 32 year old father (plus or minus), so I'm a little peeved about losing to him.  But hey, it's only the beginning.

Essentials, Day 2

2:00am - Wake up suddenly, worried that I have overslept.

4:40am - Wake up again, realize I still have a half hour til alarm goes off. Fuck.

5:10am - Alarm goes off.

5:20am - Take dogs for a brisk 1mi loop.

5:40am - Feed dogs, pound a protein shake.

5:50am - Off to the gym!

6:00am start sounds pretty awful, but truth be told I felt better today than I did on Monday. I'm not sure if I'm getting used to it, excited about the class, better rested, or some combination of the three, but I feel pretty good.

The morning started off with the same warm-up exercises. I forgot about one of them in my prior post. It was simply kicking your heel into your butt and grabbing the foot to stretch the quads while extending your opposite hand toward the sky. By the way, the inch-worm warm-up still kicks my ass.

Today was about learning the deadlift, the sumo deadlift, and the clean. As per the first class, we started with PVC tubes, then graduated to training bars, then to adding plates. One neat thing I had not previously noticed is that the plates are foam-covered, thus making it safer and quieter when the bar is dropped to the floor after a clean.

In this class, I was taught to perform a deadlift as follows:

The standard deadlift

1. Place feet beneath your hips, as though you had just let your legs fall into a neutral position. Face toes forward.
2. Your grip's width is determined by where your hands lay on the bar when you hold your extended thumbs against the outside of your shins.
3. Raise your tailbone as high as you can and keep your shoulder blades "down". Keep chest high.
4. Lift the bar, keeping the bar as close to the legs at all times.
5. As the bar is approaching the knee, straighten the legs and continue lifting the bar along the leg. Keep a tight core and keep tailbone pointed "up" as much as possible.
6. Finish the lift by driving heels into the floor and driving hips forward. Shoulder blades should still be "down".

This is more or less how I learned to deadlift back in college. However, the straightening of the leg as the bar passes the knees was a new sensation for me as it really highlighted my poor flexibility. At no point did I feel the lift itself was physically taxing, but maintaining strict form really stretched my hamstrings to the point that the tension was a little uncomfortable. I am told that my flexibility will improve naturally over time.

Next was the sumo deadlift. This lift is done with a wider stance than a standard deadlift, with toes pointed outward a bit. Like a sumo wrestler's stance, duh.

Sumo deadlift

1. Assume sumo stance, minding the same posture requirements as the standard deadlift. Kettle bell should be in the middle of the stance.
2. Grip kettle bell and begin deadlift.
3. Explode upward, driving heels down and hips forward.
4. Leading with the elbows, row the kettle bell up to your chest.
5. Lower the weight to its original position.

After that we moved on to our first olympic lift, the clean. This is a pretty old school movement, designed to be a multi-jointed, full-body exercise that trains nearly every muscle in the body to provide explosive power. The clean, deadlift, squat and jerk are lauded as core weightlifting movements since they recruit so many muscles in such a way that universally prepares the weightlifter for almost all of life's physical challenges and athletic requirements. To my knowledge, every legit athlete incorporates these movements into their workouts. And I don't doubt it. Whether you're breaking tackles, driving the lane, catching a wave, or running from a lion, there is no situation in which you don't need to be able to generate high amounts of force per unit time.

This was easily the best lesson I ever got learning the clean. Rather than using a bar, we were given medicine balls (the large, cushy kind). We got into the starting squat position, placing palms on either side of the ball.

1. Begin the upward lift of the ball.
2. As the ball approaches the waist, explode upward while shrugging the shoulders.  Do not use the elbows or any other "throwing" motion to help the ball up.  It should travel upward strictly due to the upward momentum of the squat and shrugging movement.
3. Rotate hands around the ball while lower yourself into a squat position so as to catch the ball before gravity takes over the ball's trajectory.
4. Stand straight up, hips forward.  Drop the ball when finished.

To practice this, the instructor broke up the movement by catching the ball for us at its apex and giving us however much time we wanted to get used to getting beneath it.  It was extremely helpful in learning the motion and getting comfortable.

The workout for the day was the following:

3 RFT (reps for time)

12 deadlifts

9 cleans

200m run

I deadlifted only 65 lbs and cleaned only a 10 lb med-ball.  Neither my classmate nor I really pressed hard and we finished simultaneously, in 9:37 I believe.  Despite the low weight, it was more sufficient to work up a sweat.

Tomorrow is Day 3 of the Essentials Program.  I will report back soon!

10 Pillars of Fitness

The CrossFit Journal is an interesting publication. As far as I can tell, it's a monthly compendium of articles submitted by self-proclaimed experts and athletes in the world of fitness who expound on the benefits of CrossFit via empirical and/or experimental evidence-based writing. Though the submissions are claimed to go through "rigorous review", I see no evidence that this journal is peer-reviewed by a committee of recognized fitness coaches and experts.

It's not to say I have a problem with that, but I figured I'd first admit to the source's wonkiness before gushing about it.

This article grabs my attention because it describes a lot of the muddied thoughts I've been having about fitness. I've had them parked in the back of my head for years, but never bothered to actually do anything about it. I guess it's true that hard work is never popular.

Anyway, the article is definitely of the tl;dr variety, so I'll try to summarize below:

"Fitness" has been insufficiently defined in the past, so CrossFit has taken it upon themselves to define it. The definition of fitness disaggregates into 3 standards:

FIRST, there are 10 skills by which physical aptitude can be measured. You are only as fit as you are competent in each one. They are:

- cardiovascular/respiratory endurance

- stamina

- strength

- flexibility

- power

- speed

- coordination

- agility

- balance

- accuracy

SECOND, true fitness requires the ability to perform any physical task well, including and especially unfamiliar and unforeseen challenges. Dispense with what you think you know about sets, routines, periodization, and the like.

THIRD, true fitness requires balanced development and competency in the three major metabolic pathways: phosphogen, glycolytic, and oxidative. That's a little bit gobbledygooky, but basically this standard states that you should optimize all three ways in which your body mobilizes energy to exert itself. That might be a short, explosive exertion such as a high vertical jump (phosphogen), a moderately powered activity such as an intense tennis rally (glycolytic), or an endurance activity such as running a 10K (oxidative).

So basically, CrossFit aims to prepare you for anything and everything and suggests that if you are simultaneously competent in 800-meter track events, gymnastics, and olympic weightlifting, you would be phenomenally more fit than the vast majority of amateur athletes.

Dave, one my CrossFit coaches, shared the following saying with me. It's intended to be a hypothetical retort of a CrossFit athlete to a specialized athlete of any variety:

"I can do what you do almost as well. You can't do what I do at all. And what we both can't do, I can do it better than you."

Cheers to that! Let's see what happens.

Vernacular

CrossFit reminds me of soccer in America. A LOT of people play it and love it, but in day-to-day life you just don't hear about it much and only those involved in the underground culture really "get it".

And, like anything that has a large following yet isn't mainstream, there is a lot of confusing lingo and shorthand that just doesn't make sense until someone explains it to you. To me, understanding the vernacular won't make you an automatic inductee into a cult, but it certainly helps understand what is going on.

The CrossFit facility itself is often called a "box". Not sure why this terminology is necessary, but I believe the point is to differentiate boxes, which range from hangars to warehouses to garages to basements, from gyms, which are the more familiar Powerhouses, Gold's, and 24 Hour Fitness facilities.

It bears mentioning the similarities and differences between boxes and gyms. Both have a great deal of overlapping equipment and fixtures: barbells, plates, squat cages, pull-up bars, rowing machines, etc. Boxes also have things I don't typically see in traditional gyms: gymnastics rings, kettle bells, medicine balls, tires, stackable boxes, etc. Finally, boxes have a distinct lack of things I usually see in traditional gyms: weight machines of any variety, dumbbells, stationary bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, etc.

CrossFit is unique from most training programs in that most folks who engage in high intensity training programs do it as preparation for a particular sport. A competitive downhill skier might train in the gym with a variety of olympic lifts and jumps. A professional wide receiver might jump rope and do agility ladder exercises. In other words, the training is a means to an end. With CrossFit, the training is the means AND the end. CrossFit itself is the sport for which you perpetually prepare. By extension, it therefore prepares you for any kind of physically demanding, athletic activity.

In CrossFit, there are dozens of "benchmark" workouts, which are commonly given girls' names (Angie, Fran, Grace, Cindy, etc.). They are not a strictly required set of exercises for anybody who practices CrossFit, rather they are used to compare yourself to other CrossFit atheletes. To my knowledge, all of them are timed in some fashion, whether you "do as many of these as you can in x minutes" or "do these x times in as little time as you can". This brings competitive spirit to CrossFit and gives athletes a goal (beat the other guy). Note that there is little glory in becoming king of only one or two benchmark workouts. The spirit of CrossFit is that you achieve such a high degree of fitness that you excel at ANY benchmark workout on any given day.

CrossFit organizers usually come up with a "Workout of the Day", almost universally abbreviated WOD and pronounced as such. The main website always posts one, which many boxes use, but any certified coach can generate their own. Workouts seem to be always cross-functional and full-body. Though the WOD may have a particular emphasis -- agility, power, strength, or cardiovascular endurance -- they are designed to hit everything at least a little bit. This is distinguished from bodybuilding, which emphasizes different muscle groups throughout the week but almost never any other aspect of fitness.

To be sure, there is quite a bit more vernacular, particularly of the shorthand used to describe a person's workout, but I figured I'd start somewhere. I'm not aiming to provide a glossary of terms, but rather introduce lingo to the blog as it becomes relevant to me and to the blog. I imagine that as I get more involved in the program, I'll use more and more of the shorthand and (hopefully) less and less of the current format's wall o' text.

Fundamentals, fundamentals

“Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.”

- Randy Pausch

I've enrolled myself into the Essentials Program at my CrossFit gym. It's a 6-session program over 2 weeks that familiarizes people with all of the major movements in CrossFit exercises. Today was the first day.

I started at 6:00am sharp, which meant a 5:10am alarm clock to give me enough time to walk the dogs a mile before leaving for the gym. I only had one other classmate, however the regular class was surprisingly full, with about 12-15 people attending.

Started with warm-up exercises, mostly dynamic stretching:

1. Deep lunges with both hands down on the floor positioned ipsilaterally of your calf, transition to calf stretch with hands on either side of your forward knee, then stand up and pull opposite knee into body. Alternate sides as you move forward across the room.

2. Grab your ankle and pull it up toward your abdomen while leaning back a bit to stretch posterior hip flexors and glutes. Alternate sides as you walk across the room.

3. Start in a plank position and take baby steps forward while leaving hands in their initial position. Body transitions from plank to acutely angled downward facing dog. Then walk hands forward until you return to plank position. This was pretty tough on the shoulders (anterior deltoid).

4. While holding your hand out horizontally in front of you, palm down, kick your opposite, straightened leg up til you connect your toe with your palm. Alternate sides as you walk down the room.

After the warm-up, which admittedly (shamefully?) made me break a sweat, we grabbed a medicine ball (the big cushy kind, not the rubber roly poly kind) and a tube of PVC piping. Mara, our trainer for the day, proceeded to teach us the basics of classic squatting. She explained the squat is probably the most fundamental and important core functional movement for almost any physical activity and certainly for any CrossFit activity. That said, she was a pretty big stickler about our form and execution.

Not to say that I haven't done ANY squats since college, because I have, but I have certainly not done any heavy squatting (150+ lbs) since then. I tweaked my back in college and chalked it up to an injury, but according to the trainer, my form tends to break down at the bottom of the squat. I begin to tuck my tail under my body when I should be striving to move the hip further out and maintain a curve in the small of my back. If that's the case, that would certainly explain a lot pain in lower back while under load.

We practiced 3 types of squats: back squat, front squat, and overhead squat. I haven't done front squats since college and have never attempted overhead squats before. With, at most, a 15 lb training bar as my load, none of the movements felt particularly challenging.

The overhead squat was interesting. Amounting to what is basically the latter half of a full snatch, Mara encouraged us to focus on, in addition to proper squat form, keeping our shoulders shrugged and applying rotational pressure at the pinky end of our grip. These minor adjustments supposedly help lock the shoulder and back joints in order to provide maximum support for the weight suspended 8-10 inches above our heads.

We only did 5 of them with the 15 lb training bar, but even that short bout indicated that overhead squats could get very difficult very quickly as you load the bar.

Next, the actual work out. Mara had us do "Cindy". Strictly, Cindy is a 20-minute workout in which you rotate through the following routine: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats. The aim is do as many rounds as possible in a 20-minute period. Mara only had us do 10 minutes and emphasized form over speed for this workout, so I didn't want to push too hard. I only got 4 rounds in 10 minutes. As a benchmark, elite CrossFit athletes can usually do 15-25 rounds in 20 minutes.

In my next post, I'll discuss lingo and philosophy.

Day One

Well, here goes my attempt at blogging. Blogger tells me that my last post was exactly five years ago to the day. This time, however, I'll have content to publish on a regular basis!

First, a smidgen of context. This blog's most probable audience has known me plenty long enough to know that I have long been a huge fitness dork (among other types of dorks as well, but those types are less relevant here). Since college, my bread and butter has been traditional weightlifting and bodybuilding. Not to say that I've limited my horizons to repeatedly picking up and putting down heavy objects. Not in the least. I've done mid-distance running (5K-10K), rowing, swimming, "boot camp", kickboxing, yoga, pilates...nearly everything that can be done in a gym, I've probably done it. Except Zumba.

And yet, for years I've been longing for something new. I've grown tired of spending hours in the gym only to yield menial improvements in raw strength while witnessing continued deterioration of other important areas of fitness such as cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and agility. As I approach the ripe age of 30, brute strength and "club muscles" aren't terribly meaningful or useful (arguably, they never were).

In other words, I've been seeking a comprehensive fitness regimen that builds "athleticism". I live a life where I don't strive for excellence in any one physical activity or sport -- I don't run competitively, ski, snowboard, play soccer, stand-up paddleboard, golf, or save people from burning buildings with sufficient frequency that I ought to train specifically for any one of them. However, I would like to be as prepared as possible to do any one of them on any given day.

Enter CrossFit. As I understand it, CrossFit is a cult exercise phenomena that has made a "sport" out of a wide variety of cross-training activities borrowed from dozens of training regimens utilized by nearly every known sport. Commonly used movements include those that specifically target functional strength and power: olympic lifts, jumps, squats, etc. Said another way, CrossFit aims to train you and prepare you to be able to move large loads (yourself or otherwise) over long distances in short periods of time in whatever direction (e.g. up, forward).

The primary purpose of this blog is simply to record my progress and serve as an exercise journal. I never bothered keeping one before, which has probably been to my detriment, so I'm glad to address this deficiency now. The secondary aim of this blog is to record my thoughts on this new training program from the point of view of an 10-year veteran gym rat and biomedical engineering major with enough background knowledge in kinesiology, physics, and biomechanics to get himself in serious trouble. I hope this blog is informational, interesting, and perhaps even motivational.

Special thanks to Steven Gee, who has contributed more to the fitness side of my life than anyone else.