Lower back is hurty

My lower back is really tight and sore from Friday's OneWorld WOD....7-1 Muscle Ups and DL @ 275 right after I did my 335....not too smart on my part.

Today's WOD:

Morning

Squat 265 x 3 x 5 & 225 x 2 x 5 (to practice form)

I wanted to go for 275 3x5, but my back is too tight and I racked it and wasn't feeling it at all.

Evening

• Snatch - 70% x 3 (95); 75% x 2 (100); 80% x 1 (110); 85% x 1 (115); 80% x 1 (110); 75% x 1 (100)
• Clean & jerk - 70% x 3 (145); 75% x 2 (155); 80% x 1 (165); 85% x 1 (175); 80% x 1 (165); 75% x 1 (155)
• RDL - 55% (of back squat) x 8 x 4
• Hanging leg raise - 3 x 15

3 rounds of max pull ups

3x5 press @ 120

Good week

This past week was my first week with my gym open. It was fun. It was slow going, but it was fun when people were coming in. I also had a good training week. I hit 335 dlx5 and 275 squatx5.

I have figured out a training program for myself. I have wanted to find a balance between power, speed, and raw strength. The raw strength stuff comes from 70sbig.com. The power and speed comes from Catalyst Athletics. I have to do the Olympic lifts in order to stay explosive and fast.

Each week I will squat twice 3x5, press 3x5 once, bench 3x5 once and deadlift 1x5 once. I will also follow the WOD that Catalyst posts each day for my Oly work.

If the CA WOD has BS in it then I will obviously not do them or I will do them in a high bar BS position and scale the weight.

The 70sbig work will be done before the CA to ensure my full strength. I will have to eat a ton and drink a ton of milk to support this workout scheme. I think it will be a good balance.

I guy named Ricki, from Las Vegas, came into my gym on Friday and Saturday. He is 32 and is a former competitive power lifter, now competitive Olympic lifter. He is probably 5'8" and weighs 200 lbs. Solid. He is wicked strong. Anyway, he does 12 legitimate work outs a week. I want to call him and get a break down of his weekly training programming.

BS PR and a Metcon

I was practicing some form stuff on my BS even after doing 3x5 on monday and my legs felt good. I decided to push the weight and see what happened.

260x5, 265x5, 270x5. 265 & 270 were both PRs! Next week I am going to do 270x2x5 and 275x5.

Metcon:

21, 15, 9

SDHP 115lbs

Overhead Lunges 45lb plate two count

7:38

Squat and Press

Squat: 3x5 @ 260 It didn't go up nearly as easy as I thought it would. I definitely did not eat well enough yesterday and today. I am going to try it again a little later this week and see if it goes up easier.

Press: 3x5 @ 125...it sucked and my press is seriously stalled

Saturday Night FS

More FS

3x5 @ 205

70s Big

I love 70sbig.com

It is a great website and I laugh a lot reading it. It is about eating A LOT and building muscle through strength and not hypertrophy.

My numbers have been steadily increasing and I am definitely getting bigger (yes a little chubbier, but that comes with all the food and milk) and stronger.

Deadlift yesterday: 325 x 1x5

Squat and Bench today:

Squat - 250 x2x5 and 255x1x5

Bench - 205x3x5 and 185x1x5

Tomorrow it is time for a little MetCon.

Bench & FS

FS:

95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 210x5x3

Last week I did my 5x3 at 205. I moved up 5 lbs this week and it felt easier than last week. I have been doing pretty good at getting between 3/4 to a gallon of whole milk a day and that has been helping for sure.

Bench:

135x10, 155x5, 165x5, 185x3, 195x3x5, 185x3x3

I did 205 last for my PR. I didn't have a spotter today and my right should was feeling really weak, so I figured I would do 195. It felt pretty easy, so that's why I did the 185 at the end.

5x20 Ring Push ups

4x15 Dead Hang pull ups

Overcoming Shoulder Pain

I have had some serious shoulder pain for the past two weeks. I have had a lot of clicking and pulling for over a year, but it really started hurting a lot recently. I was researching rotator cuff injuries, but I think something is just legitimately inflamed. I warmed up a lot before my WOD and it felt fine and my shoulder still feels good and its 630 at night.

Cleans:

95 x 5, 135 x 5, 145 x 3, 155 x 2, 165 x2, 175 x 1, 185 x 3, 205 (f), 205 (Huge PR)

Front Squats:

135 x 2 x 5, 185 x 3, 205 x 5 x 3 (they went up slow, but didn't feel hard)

Press:

115 x 3 x 5, 120 x 5, 125 x 5, 130 x 5, 135 x 3 (pr), 140 x 2 x 2 (pr)

6 rounds:

10 dead hang pull ups

20 pushups

I was driving to the gym today listening to my most favorite song in the world (bagpipes Goin' Home) and I saw in the distance a hearse driving slowly in the right lane. I had a feeling immediately that it was a military personnel. I sped up to see and in the back laid some brave individual that gave their all serving the greatest country on earth. The flag was respectfully draped over the coffin. I felt extreme gratitude for that individual's service, sorrow for that person's family, but I was also so sad that I am not apart of that brotherhood that I so badly want to be apart of.

God Bless the Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines that serve every day.

Squats and Bench

Squats:

45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 155x3, 185x3, 225x2, 235x3x5 (just below parallel), 185x3x5 (butt touch calves)

Bench: 95x5, 135x10, 155x5, 185x3, 195x2, 205 x 3 x 5 without a spotter.

Sore Shoulders

• 3-position clean (floor, knee, mid-thigh) - 70% x 2 sets; 75% x 2 sets --------- 140, 150
• Snatch deadlift - 100% (of snatch) x 7 x 2, 100% x 5 x 3 ---------- 150 (I need to do some heavy DLs soon)
• Front squat - 65% x 6; 70% x 5; 75% x 5; 80% x 3 x 2 ------------ 160, 170, 185, 200
• Press - 5 x 3 ---------- 125 (really weak and sore)

I have some pretty sore shoulders. I am not too sure why , but I sure did feel weak today.

Rest Day

Rest Day. My shoulders are sore for some reason. I drank A LOT of egg nog...I suck at diets.

FS and Cleans

• Power clean + 2 clean - 65% x 2 sets; 70% x 3 sets -------- 130, 140
• Snatch balance - 60% x 3 x 2; 65% x 3; 70% x 3 x 2 -------- 80, 90, 95
• Push press - 75% x 5 x 5 --------- 135
• Front Squats - 70% --------- 170

The front squats felt good, so did the cleans. The weight on the snatch balance was easy, but my balance was off. It didn't feel heavy overhead I just felt off a little. The push press was really easy.

I haven't had time the past two days for metcons. I need to make up for it tomorrow.

Ran out of time

Today was a busy day. I didn't have enough time to finish the whole WOD because I went down to check out my gym and then I had the evening classes. I got through most of it, but not all of it. I also wanted to do a metcon.

• Power snatch + 2 snatch - 65% x 2 sets; 70% x 3 sets --------- 90 & 95 lbs
• Jerk - 70% x 3 x 2; 75% x 3 x 3 ---------- 145 & 155 lbs
• Clean pull - 90% x 7 x 4 -------- Didn't get to this one
• Back squat - 60% x 8; 65% x 8; 70% x 6; 75% x 6 x 2 ---------175, 190, 205, 215 lbs
• V-ups - 3 x 15

My left knee has been hurting. I know it is not something new because it has been nagging me for about 2 years, but it has just been nagging me a lot more lately. I was able to squat pretty good today though.

The gym is looking pretty awesome.

Diane again

I wanted to do today's Catalyst WOD, but I didn't have enough time and blake brought one of his coworkers down to the gym to try out CrossFit. He is a fit guy and has messed around with circuit type strength training.

We did Diane today.

21, 15, 9

Deadlift 225

Handstand Pushups

Time - 5:26 PR (old time was 5:55)

I'll do today's Catalyst WOD on Monday and play catch up this week.

Tinkering with my diet

So far I am at 1900 calories for the day and that is with the 6 cups of milk. I have dinner and then a before bed meal still.

I have already done a bunch of hypertrophic bench press today:

135 x 10

155 x 10

165 x 3 x 10

When I go back to the gym I will do today's Catalyst WOD and a mini metcon if I have time.

Today's Nutrition log

• Snatch - 75% x 2, 80% x 1 x 4 ------- 110 & 115
• Snatch pull off riser - 85% x 4 x 5 --------- 125
• Snatch push press - 87% x 4 x 2, 87% x 3 x 2 --------- 130 (painful but not hard)
• Back squat - 87% x 3 x 5 ---------- 250 modified to a 3x3 it felt really heavy and my left knee was having some weird pains
• Weighted sit-up - 3 x 10 -------- 45

Day 2

Whenever I eat healthy I am always so incredibly hungry. I eat pretty much all day long and I miss my nice fatty yummy food that makes me full.

My diet today:

2 apples

6 oz chicken breast

1 whey protein shake (not as a meal replacement)

1 can of tuna

2 plums

couple spoons of almond butter

home made beef yellow curry (no rice)

--this had yellow curry paste, coconut milk, lots of beef, bell peppers, onions and fish sauce

2 hotdogs without the bun

last mini shake with 1 scoop protein, 3 tbs coconut milk, and 2 scoops mixed frozen berries

And I'm still hungry...I need to eat more in the morning and noon time.

WOD:

• Hang clean - 75% x 2 x 4 --------- warmed up with 95 and 135 / working set @ 155
• Snatch balance - 80% x 3 x 2, 84% x 2 x 2 --------- warmed up with 45 & 95 / working sets @ 120 &125
• Push press - 89% x 3 x 4 -------- 155

Metcon:

3 rounds

250m row

30 push ups

Time - 4:13

Snatch balance video

I created a food log to keep better track of my intake. I want to eat healthy (paleo) while eating enough protein and calories to keep building muscle. This website, fitday, has a very easy to use and customizable system.

Today's food log

I am happy that I am getting enough protein, but it was definitely work. I am worried about how low the calories are though. I would rather be in the 3000 range, so I am pretty far off from that.

I think what I am going to have to do because I don't want to spend a ton of money to eat more and more is have around 6 cups of whole milk a day. It is cheap (not paleo) but it isn't terrible for me. I think I will still be able to lose my chub from the GOMAD diet, maintain my weight, and gain strength. We'll see.

I am so chubby right now! Last week I was doing great with the GOMAD diet and I felt bigger, but not chubby. Well, one week has made a huge difference & I am soooooooooo chubby! No more for me! There are other ways to get big and strong and ill take those over GOMAD.

So, I am drastically changing my approach to a strict paleo for this 8 week block with the exception of the weekends. I am going to have a minimum of 150 grams of protein, only carbs from fruit and veggies, and good fats. By doing this I will ideally cut that chub back off and still get bigger because of the quality of food and the large amount of protein.

Catalyst Athletics:

• Clean & jerk - 75% x 2, 80% x 1 x 4 ------------I warmed up with 135 then used 155 & 165 for the working sets
• Clean deadlift - 113% (of clean) x 4 x 5 -----------I used 230 lbs
• Front squat - 89% x 2 x 5 --------I didn't know my FS 1 RM so I chose 225, but I think I can go a little heavier than that. However, 89% of 225 is 200 and that was HEAVY! I did that for the 1st set and had to go down to 185 for the second set.

4 rounds for time:
10 m sprint x 4 (back and forth, touch floor at each end)

15 kipping pull-ups --------------- Time - 4:04

Picking a program

My problem right now is that I get serious ADD and can't stick to a strength program. I get bored of strength programs, but I also know that I really need to hit one hard to see some better CF gains.

I am going to stick to Catalyst Athletics for 8 weeks. So, starting tomorrow the 21st of Oct until the 21st of December I will hit Catalyst HARD with some short fast metcons. I am not sure how much longer I am going to be on the gallon of milk, but that will last at least 2 weeks longer.

Rowing......

I hate rowing.

3x15 ring dips.

1x25 normal dips, 2x5 dips with 36lbs, 2x5 w/ 53 lbs, 2x5 w/ 72 lbs, 1x25 without weight

Power Cleans:

warmed up with the bar and with 95 lbs

3x5 with 135 (easy), 1x5 with 145, then a bunch of singles at 155, 165, and 1 at 175. I seriously suck at power cleans. I should be able to do at least 205, so I just need to practice them more and figure it out. I should be able to do sets @ 185.

Then did rowing intervals at 200 m with a 3 min rest with Jason. I wanted to figure out which setting was the best for me. The first one was at 3, then next 5, 7, 9. I got the same time across the board (38 seconds) but the best was the 3 and 5. The 7 and 9s I was so incredible tired. I hate rowing.

Pretty good day

Back squat, press and mini metcon day..

Last week I was nursing a seriously painful rip/back strain. I was able to bench press and press last week but that was it.

On Saturday I did the new hero WOD, Tyler RIP.

Tyler:

5 rounds

7 muscle ups

21 sdhp @ 95lbs

time - 12:42

Todays WOD:

3x5 back squat @ 245 (went up easier than last strength cycle)

Press:

5, 5, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, and then max reps at 95lbs

105, 115, 120, 125, 135, 145, 145

Mini Metcon:

3 Rounds

30 situps

20 ring dips

10 pull ups

time - 4:38

Strength Again

Another strength day....these get boring, but they are necessary

Bench press:

2x10 @ 135 & 155

5x5 @ 175

1x10 @ 135

Deadlift:

2x10 @ 135 & 185

1x5 @ 225

3x5 @ 275 (easy), 285 (easy), 305 (pretty easy which felt awesome).

1000 m row - Time - 3:34 (I suck at rowing)

MetCon

Today was a pretty good MetCon

5 rounds:

7 handstand push ups

15 kb swings 53lbs

30 air squats

Time - 11:35

Then Pete and I messed around on the bucket/pommel horse thing.

Finally, we each did one set of max rep pull ups. Peter got 30 and I got 45. My grip failed, but my pullup muscles weren't hurting at all. On a smaller bar I could've gotten A LOT more. My goal once I get my pullup bar set up in my gym is 75. I think I can totally do it. I'll video tape it.

Back at the Heavy

I feel small and weak and have to get over my issues with eating big to get big. I want to put of some serious weight and I just need to stick to the eating part of it.

I want to be a mini-CrossFit version of Doug Young

Today's Strength stuff

Press 3x5:

115 for all three sets

Squat 3x5:

225 (easy, but I'm choosing it as a restart point)

Pull ups 3x10:

10 lbs for all 3 sets

Snatch WOD

Snatch WOD with Peter today. It is starting to get cold and for the first time in a long time I felt like I actually needed to do a legitimate warm up. Buuuuuuuuuut, I didn't really warm up and just wanted to start.

WOD:

5 Rounds -

Row 200 m

10 snatches 95 lbs

15 box jumps 24 inches

Time - 18:26

Time to get back on track with blogging.

CrossFit Sandy is getting close to opening. It has been taking longer than I thought, but finally it is coming together. The plumbing is being put in this week and then HVAC, electrical, bathroom, walls, and paint!

So far I have some family members, a couple friends, and Blake might have a guy or two from his work that will be coming to my gym. I think membership will come pretty quickly, I'm not too worried.

Friday and Saturday

Friday: Rocky Mountain Qualifiers Final WOD

Get 7000 pounds from the ground to overhead any way possible

I chose to do 74, 95 lb snatches

Time - 7:43 (really slow and sucky)

Saturday: Really tired

5 rounds

400 m run

12 Deadlifts 265

I didn't keep track of my time was I was still coaching peter and running alongside of him. The deadlifts felt easy though, which was good.

Catch Up

I don't really remember what I have done this week. Yesterday I had a great hard one.

4 rounds:

65lb Overhead Lunge 100 ft

30 box jumps

20 pull ups

and

20 rep CrossFit Total:

Squat: 165 (should've gone higher)

Press: 80

Deadlift: 245

Total: 490

Next time I'll break into the 500's

Today: 5x3 Jerks

135, 155, 185, 185, 190

Bent over row:

135 (15 reps), 155 (10), 175 (7), 185(6), 185 (6)

Press:

5x5 @ 115

Shrug:

Same weight as bent over row because I didn't want to switch around all the weight.

Tomorrow is a great day of remembrance. I will certainly never forget and I will make sure that my kids and grandkids will always show great respect to the victims and towards to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines that fight every day in Afghanistan.

It frustrates me that the press and the government try to shift the focus of Afghanistan to creating a democracy instead of the truth. We are their to get rid of the people who hate everything about us. And I am completely fine with getting rid of them.

God Bless America

Elizabeth

Good WOD today. I did bench press and Elizabeth no more than 3 minutes rest inbetween.

Bench: My bench was pathetic today. I truly have no idea what was going on, but I felt weak and the weight was not moving as fast as it should have been. Last week or last time I did heavy 185 was EASY. So, I don't know what was going on.

135x10, 155x5, 185x5 (really crappy and pathetic), 195x3x3 (I was super frustrated)

Elizabeth right after.

21, 15, 9

Cleans 135 lbs

Ring Dips

Time - 10:38

Monday/Tuesday

Monday:

75 Push Press 95 lbs...penalty if you drop or rack the bar..penalty=250 m row

Time - 7:20

Tuesday:

Deadlifts

 185x10, 225x10, 255x5, 275x5, 295x3, 305x1 (I wanted 3 but I knew after 1 that it wasn't happening) 300x3, 300x3, 295x3, 275x5

GHD Situps: 2x15, 1x15 with 15 lbs, 2x15 with 25 lbs, 2x30 no weight

Power Cleans: 3x5 @ 125 lbs

Later in the day:

2 x 500m Row first one 1:37 PR then 1:42

Bent Over Row: 1x10 115, 2x10 135

Level 2 Certification

This weekend I flew to Seattle for the Level 2 certification. I had originally signed up for one in Oct in Oceanside, CA but I saw this one opened up at the last second because someone canceled and I signed up immediately for it.

I am SOOO glad that I went. The first day was intense and nerve racking. The 3 coaches were big name CF guys. Chuck Carswell, Pat Sherwood, and Adrian Bozman. Day 1 was a mix of lectures, demonstration from the coaches and the majority of the time practice coaching in groups of 5 with 1 coach observing and tearing us apart.

The level two is about being able to teach the 9 fundamental movements (air squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push press, push jerk, deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull, and med ball clean), manage a group effectively, have good presence and attitude, see problems, correct problems, time management, proper teaching progressions, demonstration etc.

The Certification has about a 40% pass rate and the coaches make sure to not let ANYTHING slide. While going through the teaching progressions you have to be able to see major and minor faults, correct those faults while keeping the rest of the group moving, bring someone to the center to show others how to correct the fault, drill in the most important parts of the movements, keep everyone going at the same time on your pace, and be relentless on form.

Day two was the actual test. We had 8 people per group. Volunteers from other affiliates came in to be test subjects that we coached as well as the other people taking the certification. Each person had to teach 1 squat, 1 press, and 1 deadlift. We were graded by each coach and then the coaches met together tallied the scores and then determined who passed or not.

I passed! I was so excited. At the end of yesterday I thought I had a good chance, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. All 3 of my coaching sessions went really well and they didn't really have anything bad to tell me in my debriefing. It was awesome. It felt great.

Even if I had not passed I still would have learned so much and it would have been so worth it and would have returned to do it again. But, I am glad I passed....

Last Week

I did quite a bit last week. I did Nate, another WOD, and I did heavy back squats and got a huge pr on that.

Nate: 17 + 2 muscle ups & 2 hspu (PR old was 16)

Back squat: old 5 rm was 245...this week 255 easily and old 1RM 265...New 290 twice!

Monday

Press: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 75, 1x3 @ 95, 1x2 @ 115, 2x5 @ 130, 2x10 @ 95, 1x8 @ 105

MetCon:

10 min of Cindy:

20 rounds

Restart Strength Program

I am going to restart my strength program on Monday with Week 2 again.

Rest of the Week

So, I realized my back pain was not from my squats, but rather it was from my presses on monday. At the Barbell Cert I learned that it is completely acceptable to lean back when you press, but that the lean is from the waist and not in the lumbar. I must've leaned both in the waist and in the lumbar straining my ribs/back.

I did not feel good enough the rest of the week to continue with my heavy program. I didn't do anything on Tuesday and I only did 15 muscle ups for time early Wednesday morning because I had to beat Peter. I got a 1:36 on the 15 muscle ups I think.

Thursday I did power cleans, but I didn't go up to 155. I did a bunch at lower weights and then I went up to 145 and called it good. I did the WOD that the gym was doing that day. 5 rounds: 15 pull ups and 15 OHS @ 95 lbs. I got a 9:56 on that. My pull ups sucked with the new bars in the gym.

Friday I did a WOD called Grindy with Peter. We added a little more to the WOD to make it more even.

Grindy:
10 clean and jerks 135 lbs
5 rounds Cindy
10 clean and jerks 135 lbs
5 rounds Cindy
10 clean and jerks 135 lbs

and then we added an additional 5 rounds of Cindy.

Time - 19:05 and peter got like a 22 something.

I have not been that tired in a long time.

Saturday:
Dianne
21, 15, 9
Deadlift 225 lbs
Hand Stand Push Ups

Time - 5:55

Multiple Sets of strict muscle ups

1 set of ring push ups.

Back is jacked

My back is all tweaked and crap from the heavy squats on Monday. It doesn't feel injured, but just tweaked to where when I twist or bend over the pain takes my breath away. Not too good. It is getting better as the day goes and hopefully I'll feel good enough for a MetCon tomorrow.

Day 7

So, this is my first day repeating the WOD. Last week I did 225lbs back squat and 115lbs press.

Today:

Squat-
1x5 @ 45
1x5 @ 95
1x5 @ 135
1x3 @ 185
1x2 @ 225
3x5 @ 245

Press-
1x5 @ 45
1x5 @ 75
1x5 @ 95
1x2 @ 105
3x5 @ 120

My squat felt better than my press today. Still getting stronger though.

Saturday...Day 6

Gymnastics/Rest

Pete came into the gym pretty early and he did bench press for strength. His did his working sets at 235 which was awesome.

I did a mix of dead hang muscle ups (2 at a time) ab rollers super slow, handstand push ups on the parallette bars.

I can do 3 hspus on the bars head to ground every time now, which is pretty good. I would like to get that up though.

Day 5

Today I felt pretty good. My back was a little sore from the squats yesterday, but I was still able to do pretty decent weight today on my Deadlifts. Today was also my metcon day.

Deadlifts:

2x5 @ 135

1x5 @ 185

1x3 @ 225

1x3 @ 245

3x3 @ 275

MetCon:

5 rounds for time:

200 m run

20 kb swings 53lbs

Time - 8:02

I felt like an absolute slug. I swear I was basically walking. First, I haven't ran in awhile, which is definitely my fault and I need to do more of. Second, my back has never ever felt so tight in my entire life. As I was running the tightness in my back was truly taking my breath away. I was just glad to be over.

When I was done I spent some time on the foam roller, stretching, and then hanging from the pullup bar to release the tension from my back.

Next week I think I wanna do 295 on the reps of 3 for dead lift.

This video is of Mark Rippetoe at a Barbell Cert. This is exactly what I did on Saturday and Sunday.

This is a video of a CRAZY deadlift. I am hoping to get a mid-400's deadlift, but this guy did 1008!

Days 3 & 4

Day 3:  This is my rest/skill day.  I did a lot of handstand push ups, pull ups, and ring dips.

5x20 Butterfly pull-ups

5x10 handstand pushups

5x15 ring dips

5x10 dead hang pull ups

5x5 handstand pushups

5x10 ring dips

Day 4:  Squat and Bench Press

Squat:

2x5 @ 45

1x5 @ 95

1x3 @ 135

1x2 @ 185

3x5 @ 235

Bench Press:

2x5 @ 45

1x5 @ 95

1x3 @ 135

1x2 @ 165

3x5 @ 185

4x10 Narrow bench @ 135

My squats were better on day 4 than on day 1 and the working sets for bench at 185 felt good too.  I'll definitely be able to go up a little next week.

Day 2

Today was power cleans and a short metcon

Power Clean progression:

2x5 @ 65lbs

1x3 @ 95 lbs

1x3 @ 115lbs

1x3 @ 135 lbs

3x3 @ 155 lbs

2x3 @ 135 lbs

I wanted to get all five working sets at 155lbs, but my form got too crappy that I had to go back down.  I probably should've only gone down to 145 instead of 135, but thats ok.  

WOD:

5 rounds for time:

6 muscle ups

20 air squats

Time - 9:02 

Day 1

These WOD's include warm ups. I was definitely tired from them. Blake did Squats and Presses with me today. Tomorrow will be MetCon and Power Cleans.

Squat:

2x5 45lbs

1x5 95lbs

1x3 135lbs

1x2 185lbs

3x5 225lbs

Press:

2x5 45lbs

1x5 75lbs

1x3 95lbs

1x2 105lbs

3x5 115lbs

The first set of 225 was sloppy and heavy. I felt much much stronger on sets 2 and 3. It definitely felt heavier than I thought it would. Press felt pretty good, but rep 5 on all 3 sets went up pretty slow and shaky.

So, tomorrow I need to think of some kind of metcon that won't interfere with Deadlifts and Bench press on Thursday. I'm thinking some rowing/muscle up exercise.

This diagram shows different positions to hold the bar. The first is a front squat, which is a very valuable strength exercise and great CF exercise. The middle one is one that we don't do and the last one, the low bar back squat, is by far the most powerful of the three. The low bar squat is what we went over at the Cert and is definitely the exercise used to get big and strong.

CrossFit Barbell Certification

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the CrossFit Barbell Certification that SLC CrossFit hosted. It is put on by a guy named Mark Rippetoe who trains power lifters and Olympic lifters and has written many books and articles about the basic strength lifts. Overall, it was pretty interesting and they showed a lot of good ways to teach the basic lifts to beginners.

Their main point was that everyone can benefit from getting stronger, that I will be a better Crossfitter if I will get stronger. I do believe that for sure. But, these dudes were all about getting HUGE. Like the huge where you kinda look fat, but you're definitely still strong.

I want to get stronger and as a result get bigger, but not at the expense of being fast and good at MetCons. I am going to try one approach that they have. A little experiment.

The Experiment:

One of the trainers was this 23 year old Level 2 trainer/Kinesiology grad student who was BIG. He routinely helps people get big and strong, while still doing CF. He said that he regularly helps guys gain between 15-20 pounds of mostly muscle in about 8 weeks through eating A TON and a gallon of milk a day. You have to eat big to get big. He then does two days of strict strength and then two days of metcon and skill work.

Mondays: Squat, Press, Power Clean

Tuesdays: MetCon, skill

Wednesday: rest/skill

Thursdays: Bench, Deadlift, Squat

Fridays: MetCon/skill

Saturdays: Light MetCon

The Heavy Days are to be hit HARD.

I am going to finally pick this program and stick with it because he promised a dramatic increase in all my strength lifts and my CF times will go down...we'll see.

More Catalyst Athletics

Wednesday:

Front Squat: 81% x 2 x 5 ..... 205lbs HUGE PR

Snatch Push Press: 81% 3 x 5 ..... So, I have never done this movement before, but I really liked it and it was really hard and hurt...in a good way. I didn't know what weight to start at so I did my first set at 95, second at 115, and third at 135. Next time I will definitely do 135 and 145.

Clean Pull: 100% 3 x 3: 185 lbs

Thursday:

3x5 Shoulder Press: 115

3 Rounds:

15 kb swings 53 lbs

10 burpees

Time - 3:20 (me), 4:22 (Blake)

Clean and Jerk: 75% 2 x 2 and 80% 1 x 2.... 75% = 155 lbs and 80% = 165 (these number are based off my Jerk PR of 205...not my clean. My clean is pathetic compared to my jerk. )

Fight Gone Bad

I did a normal Fight Gone Bad today. The last time I did it I did the CF Football version. The normal way is muuuuuuuuuch harder than the football version.

3 rounds spending 1 min at each station:

Push Press 75lbs

Box Jump 24"

Wall Ball 20lb

Sumo Deadlift Highpull 75lbs

Row calories

Total score: 368

I was shooting for 400, but I came up short and am pretty disappointed. I took too many breaks. I'll get it next time though.

Getting Back on Track

I have been a mess staying focused with my own training. I've been relatively busy down at the gym, but I have been spending most of my time working on my own CF box and the Snow Gym that my training has been suffering. I also tweeked something in my back/neck last week that KILLED and stuck with me until yesterday.

I decided I was done making up WODs for myself and I was just going to rely on another Website. I chose Catalyst Athletics. These guys are incredible. They are professional Olympic Lifting coaches out of Northern Cali that now have moved into the CF arena and they post great Strength WODs every day. So, my plan is to do that WOD with a small metcon and skills work and be good for the day.

Catalyst WOD:

• Back squat - 84% x 2 x 5 (I used 225 lbs and went deeeeeeeep)
• Push press - 78% x 3 x 5 (140lbs)
• Snatch pull - 98% (of snatch) x 3 x 4 (155lbs & 135 lbs *had a weird knee pain)
• Weighted Sit-up - 3 x 10 (25lb GHD sit-up)

MetCon:

3 Rounds for time

30 pullups

30 hang power cleans 95lbs

TIME - 7:53

Body Weight Bench: 3x15

Planches

This is a great planche progression video. I am on a gymnastics kick right now. My hand stand push ups are head to floor on parallette bars now and I've been practicing the bucket pommel device. Next up: Planches. With some practice, I'll be able to do them soon.

Today's WOD:

AMRAP 20 min:

5 handstand pushups parallettes head to floor

10 sumo deadlift highpulls 95 lbs

15 squats

Rounds: 11 1/3

Pioneer Day

Pioneer day is a nice random holiday in Utah. Whitney, my brother's little family and I went up Mill Creek Canyon after the morning CrossFit classes and walked around up on the trails for a little bit and then we had lunch together. It was so pretty up there. Whitney and I are going to start learning the trails better and take advantage of the pretty mountains here.

I came into the gym around 3:15 to do today's WOD, which was Lynne. My old score was 228 before I left for bootcamp and I thought I was in great shape then.

Today's breakdown:

Lynne:

5 rounds

max reps body weight bench press

max reps pull ups

NO time limit

So, you do one set of bench and then one set of pullups until you can't go anymore.

Bench: 20, 20, 17, 17, 18

Pullups: 40, 31, 30, 32, 26

Total Score: 251

Catch Up

Monday: Heavy Jerks and Heavy Push Press

Warm up with Jerks at 135, 155, 165, 175

185x3...went up easy

195x1

195x1

200x1 (7/8 of the way there! I was so mad at myself)

200x1 (f)

200x1 (f)

195x1

Push Press: 155x5, 160x3, 165x1, 170x1, 165x1, 165x1, 175x1

Tuesday:

5 rounds of

20 deadlift 225lbs

20 pullups

Time -- 17:15

Wednesday:

10 rounds

10 wall ball

10 toes to bar

time -- 9:33

Overhead Squats:

65lbsx10x3

95lbsx5x3

115lbsx5

Bench:

135x20x3

Thursday:

Active rest day

Peter and I wanted to mess around with some gymnastics movements. We played around with the parallette bars doing pommel horse drills with our feet in the suspended bucket. We then did a chain of handstand push ups as deep as you could go (2 of them) then 1 muscle up with no kip at all, then 10 rounds to the left and then 10 to the right on the parallette bars. We did that like 4 times through. I then did a bunch of hand stand pushups on the parallette bars where I touched my head to the ground. That was pretty fun.

Busy Saturday

Saturday was awesome at the gym.  It was super busy with quite a few new people.  It was really fun.  I was at the gym from about 7:30-1:00 and then I went to see Harry Potter with my wife and her older brother.  We then at dinner with her Uncle and before I knew it the day was done and I hadn't worked out.  Pete and I planned on working out at night again. 

Warmup - 30 muscle ups for time -- 6:12 (over a minute better than my last time)

50 toes to bar/ab mat sit ups

40 push press 95 lbs

30 kb swing 70 lbs

20 front squat and 20 back squat 95 lbs

10 parallette hand stand push ups (I tried to go as deep as I could and I ended up doing each rep separately because they are soooooooo much harder on parallettes)

Time - 14:52

Games WOD #7

I did the CF Games WOD #7 yesterday:

AMRAP 8 min:

4 hspu on parallettes

8 kb swings 70 lbs

12 ghd situps

6 2/3 rounds = 156 reps

My abs are SORE today.

I then did some bench at 155 and toes to bar.

Today I practiced double unders but I totally suck at them. I also did my 20 squat and deadlift exercises.

Deadlift: 155 lbs x 20

Squat: 140 lbs x 20

CF Games WOD #8

Pete and I did the CF Games WOD # 8 today! Wow it was HARD! I loved it though. It was a great mix of everything and I did better than I thought. I wish I had gotten around 25 min though. Next time.

WOD:

15 Cleans 155 lbs
30 Toes to bar
30 Box Jump
15 muscle ups
30 push press (40 lb dumbbells each hand)
30 double unders
15 thruster 135 lbs
30 pullups
30 burpees
45 lb plate overhead walking lunge

Time - 26:30

Pete had to mess with the weight on the cleans and thrusters, but still did the same overall total weight by lowering his weight and increasing the number of reps. He got a 29:55. We were both struggling for awhile after this WOD.

The cleans were hard and the thrusters with the burpees soon to follow seriously brought me closer to throwing up than I had been in a long time.

I can't embed CF movies, but here is a link to this WOD: HERE

Gun Control by Ted Nugent

Couldn't agree more.

Late night WOD and Friday WOD

I did the big Friday WOD on my own because I was teaching the 7 am class. It was crazy hot outside and I was definitely struggling.

WOD:

AMRAP 55 min

400m run

5 cleans 135 lbs

5 wall ball

5 box jump 36"

5 kb swing 70 lbs

Rounds: 12

I dry heaved for awhile in the 8th round, but I stuck with it.

I had a couple of intros on Saturday morning and then did a bunch of other things during the day so I wasn't able to get a WOD in. Pete and I went down to the gym at 11:00 for a WOD.

We did 'Twins'

2 rounds:

750 m row

20 handstand push ups

2 rounds:

20 Thrusters 115 lbs

20 pull ups

Peter -- 19:52 (95lbs) He did awesome...he is getting much stronger.

Alex -- 18:48

I did this WOD back in Seattle and I got like a 20 something on it, so this was a good improvement.

Nate

This was one of my favorite WODs today.

Nate:

AMRAP 20 minutes:

2 muscle ups

4 handstand pushups

8 kettle bell swings 70 pounds

I got 16 rounds today.

Here is a link to information about the SEAL whom this WOD is named after. He is definitely one of my Hero's that I look up to.

Squat/Deadlift Program

I have started a squat/deadlift program that Freddy C. from CF One World did with his guys. 20 reps two times a week starting with 50% of your 5 rep max. Increase the weight 5 pounds each week until you reach the same weight as your 5 rep max but you are now doing it 20 times! We'll see how it goes.

Starting squat weight: 135x20

Starting dl weight: 150x20

Heavy dl: 2x10 at 225, 2x5 175, 1 at 295, 1 at 305, 1 at 305, 1 at 305

Push Jerks continued from yesterday: I warmed up with 95 lbs, 115 lbs, 135 lbs, then I jumped up to 155x3, 165x3, 185x3, 195x1 (PR), 185x1 fail, 175x1 fail, 175x1.

I also did front squats with the same weight as the jerks. 21 with 95 lbs, 15 with 115, 10 with 135, and then sets of 5 or three from there on out.

Busy at the gym

The gym is getting busier and that is awesome.  It is fun to see people progressing and setting new personal records.  Its also fun helping people with technique.  Between the gym and running back to my house to check on the dogs it is truly difficult to get in a legitimate WOD.  

Today I was at the gym from 5:30 am - 9:30 then I ran home took a shower and played with the dogs...I then left at 10:30 so I could get back and do a little WOD with peter.  We did 'Nate' but a 10 min version of it.  

10 min. Nate:

2 muscle ups

5 handstand pushups

8 kb swings 70 pounder

I got 7 rounds in 10 min.  I could've gotten more though.  

We then worked on some pressing technique with Peter so that he is careful of his back and he got up some good weight.  I managed to get a couple reps in there too..

I got 140 lbs up standard press...and I got 165 push jerk 5 times easily.  

Hopefully I'll get more in today.

So, I went back to the gym.  I watched a video of Chris Spealler (CF Park City owner and #1 crossfitter in the world) doing 106 pullups strait and that got my juices going.  I can't figure out how to post it on here though...

2nd WOD:

3 rounds max reps body weight bench press and pullups --

Round 1: bench @ 145 lbs -- 20...Pull ups 30

Round 2: bench @ 145 lbs -- 18...Pull ups 35

Round 3: bench @ 145 lbs -- 17...Pull ups 40

Total bench: 55 reps      Total Pull ups: 105       Total Reps: 160 in 3 rounds

2 sets of very narrow bench 20 reps at 95 lbs

Back again...Justin came at the last class of the day and he was pressing some serious weight..so I jumped in at the end when he lowered the weight a little and push jerked 165x5 no problem..that felt pretty good.

Workout of Death

Today was another great Workout of Death courtesy of Grant.  

It was Grant, Alli, Ed, Rich and I

100 kb swings 70 pounder

75 wall balls 20 lbs

50 box jumps 24 inch

25 jerks 135 lbs

50 abmat sit ups

75 left leg lunges

100 jump rope singles

3000 m row

100 jump rope singles

75 right leg lunges

50 ab mat situps

25 jerks 135 lbs

50 box jumps 24 in

75 wall ball 20 lbs

100 kb swings 70 pounder

Grant - 1 hour 13 min 2 sec

Alex - 1 hour 14 min 37 sec

Alli - ?

Ed - ?

Rich - ?

Yummy

I've gained weight

So for the longest time I have been stuck at 135-140 lbs.  I weighed myself at my cousin's house two days ago and I weighed a solid 145!  

I want to get bigger and bigger and bigger, but with trying to get bigger comes chub.  So, I am fighting that battle of trying not to get chubby but to get stronger and lean muscle mass, while trying to stay semi-trim.  It sucks.  

I wouldn't mind being as big as this guy...his name is Chuck Carswell...former NCAA football player now big time crossfitter/HQ trainer dude.  He's huge.

I read from some website when I was prepping for BUDS that a good strength indicator was being able to bench your body weight 20 times in one set.  That was easy at 135 so today I had to try 145.  I didn't have a spotter, but I tried anyway.

I ended up doing 3x20 at 145!  It felt awesome.  So, that is a great indicator that I am gaining pretty decent weight because my strength is increasing with my weight.  

WOD's:

100 burpee pullups for time:

Time - 9:35

Later in the day:

5x10 dead hang pull ups

Narrow bench 2x20 95lbs

Normal Bench 3x20 145 lbs

Strict Overhead Press: 3x5 115 lbs, 2x8 95 lbs  

Late Night WOD

I got back from a funeral on Wednesday and I was itching to do a WOD.

Wednesday night WOD:

5 rounds:

5 muscle ups
10 sledge hammer swings
10 thrusters 115 lbs

Time - 15:25

The end of last week was tough on my workouts because I found out my cousin died and my family members helped out as much as possible.

Friday's WOD:

Standard Press:
2x10 at 95lbs, 5x3 125 lbs, 1x7 115 lbs

30 muscle ups for time - 7:20

I did the first 15 muscle ups in about 1:30 and then they quickly caught up! I got to 25 then seriously failed on about 10 attempts! The last 5 took forever!

Rest In Peace Michael

1 guy vs a whole crowd

This dude is awesome! This is why I CrossFit for the small chance that I need to dominate 20 dudes at one time.

Nice Sunny Day

Today was a perfectly sunny day. It was great.

My diet has been crap because I have been feeling very cheap. Basically I've been having 3 protein shakes with whole milk and peanut butter and 2 meals a day. That is most likely stopping me from growing and getting stronger.

Today's WOD:

Before Lunch (when I was crazy hungry)

3x3 Front Squat @ 185 x 2 and 1 set of 205

I was suppose to do 5 sets but I was so hungry that I couldn't finish!

Post Lunch WOD:

5 rounds -

5 muscle ups

10 thrusters 95 lbs

Bench: 2 sets of 10x135, 2 sets of 3 x 185, fail on 205!!!, 1 set of 3x185, 1 set of 10x135

Saturday and Monday

Saturday my body was feeling the effects of the crazy Friday WOD. My traps were killing me as well as my right hamstring and butt. I still wanted to workout so I did the WOD that the gym posted for Friday.

WOD:

AMRAP in 20 min:

5 hand stand pushups

10 bench press 135 lbs

15 push press 95 lbs

20 dips

I got 5 rounds. I wasn't disappointed because I was so tired and sore and I was going as fast as my muscles would let me.

Sunday was a good rest day and when I woke up this morning my traps were feeling good, but my right hamstring and butt were still pretty sore.

Monday's WOD:

3 rounds for time:

400 m run

21 kettle bell swings 53lbs for men/35 lbs for women

12 hand stand pushups

I used 70 lbs for the kettle bells

TIME - 11:09

First Friday Beat the Crap out of Ourselves Fest

Today was the first of many Friday killer WODS.  Jason put together the WOD with a little revision from Justin (added MORE muscle ups) and we met at the gym at 8ish.  It took awhile to stretch and get all the bars set up because this WOD had a lot of weight and a lot of different exercises that required bars.  

Vi (gym owner), Jason (trainer), Justin (gym owner), Rich, Mike and I all stepped up to the plate this morning to hit it.  

WOD:

10 rounds:

25 calorie row (close to 500 m)

15 hang power clean 95lbs

10 push press 115 lbs

5 back squat 185 lbs

5 muscle ups

20 med ball slams 20 lbs

1 deadlift 275

Total repetitions: close to 5k row, 150 cleans (14,250 lbs), 100 push press (11,500 lbs), 50 back squats (9250 lbs), 50 muscle ups, 200 med ball slams (4000 lbs), and 10 deadlifts (2750 lbs)

Total weight moved: 41,750 lbs plus row and muscle ups

Times: Justin - 1:19:03, Vi - 1:29:10, Alex - 1:29:44, Jason - 1:39:29, Rich - 4 rounds, Mike DNF

Mike flew off the pullup bar backwards and landed on his back and nailed his head on the ground so he didn't finish and Rich was shooting for as many rounds and possible (AMRAP) in 60 min.

It was awesome.

Cool alternative workout websites

Here are a couple of other alternative fitness/functional fitness websites.  They aren't CrossFit, but they pretty much use the same exercises and equipment.

Mountain Athlete

This website has a whole bunch of endurance full body workouts.  They seem pretty cool and I am going to start doing some of them in my own programming.

Military Athlete

This is the same guy as Mountain Athlete, but the programming focuses on rucking, running, endurance, and strength.  Its pretty cool.

Gym Jones

This gym is actually in SLC.  The owner is a mountain climber named Mark Twight.  He is a different dude and has an interesting train philosophy to say it nicely.  He does however post some gnarly workouts that I look at every once in awhile.  

OUCH

My legs are really really sore.  That's what I get for not working out and being sick!  Never again.  

Today is a rest day for me more or less.  Jason and I are trying 3 days on of working out 1 off then 2 on and 1 off...so that means m, t, w work out thursday rest and workout friday and saturday rest on sunday.  

Tomorrow a couple of us are doing a doozy of a workout.  Jason and I want to do a WOD that takes roughly an hour once a week.  We want to push our strength and our endurance.  It will be fun.

Even though today was a rest day I still did some bench press and narrow bench press.  I also did some bench press with the 53 lb kettle bells.  

Im Sore

I am definitely feeling the muscle ups/clean and jerk WOD!  My shoulders are feeling good and sore.  I haven't felt sore from a shoulder WOD in awhile.  

The gym has been busy!  It has been a lot of fun.  A lot of people have been coming in and pushing themselves every day.  This one gal came in this evening and she is probably in her 40's and she crushed today's WOD.  You could tell her legs were killing her, but she just pushed through and even beat Jason's time (Jason I hope you read this muahaha).  It was pretty cool.  

I also did two intros today which are fun to do.  I did my WOD after the noon class.

WOD:

10 rounds for time:

7 med ball cleans 20 lbs

7 burpees

Time - 6:36

Strength:

Bench: 4 sets of narrow 135 lbs 12, 12, 8, 8 reps...3x3 185, then I did 2 sets of 165 8 times

Dead Lift: 2 sets of 225 lbs 12 times...3x3 295

Back at it

Whitney and I moved back to SLC because it feels more like home now and we wanted to be close to my siblings.  I was really sick for the first 2 weeks that we were here.  I had a gnarly sinus infection and I got some steroids and an antibiotic to fix the problem.  Today was my first day hitting a real WOD in about a month!

I have done some strength stuff, but I had been feeling too crappy and nauseous to do any metabolic exercises.  I definitely lost some weight, which is crappy.

It is really nice to be back in SLC and to be working/training at SLC CrossFit.  I love it there.  I love the gym, equipment and the people.  The other trainers there are just awesome and I really look up to Vi.  

I want to get into some of the crazy trail runs that these guys do so that will be fun to do as well.  

The gym WOD was 'Nasty Girls' today and I had been planning on doing muscle ups (video of muscle up here) so I did my own ladder WOD.  I helped out with the 12 o'clock class and I ended up doing probably 15 muscle ups then and those were my first muscle ups since leaving SLC 6 months ago.  They felt pretty solid.  

My WOD:

1,2,3,4,5 Muscle Ups

2,4,6,8,10 Clean and Jerks 135 lbs

So, I did 1 muscle up and then 2 c&j, then 2 muscle ups and 4 c&j and so on.  

It ended up being 25 muscle ups (not including the 15 or so I did earlier) and 50 c&j for time -- 16:51

My muscles felt good, but I was WINDED!  Not training for a month plus the altitude killed me.  Im glad to be back.

Diane

I did Diane today with a bunch of extra stuff. I felt ok. I felt much stronger on the deadlift part than on the handstand push ups. Usually I am really good at handstand pushups but my shoulders were bailing on me pretty quickly.

Diane:

21, 15, 9

Deadlifts 225

Handstand Pushups

Time: 6.53

5 sets of dead hang weighted pullups:

10 x 20 lbs

8 x 25 lbs

6 x 35 lbs

5 x 53 lbs

3 x 53 lbs

Strict shoulder press:

4 sets of 8: 115lbs

Catching Up

Wow I've been way crappy at updating my blog.  I took a rest day I think on Tuesday, but other than that I have worked out every day.  I can't really remember what I did on Wednesday though.  

Thursday I did a classic CF exercise called Linda.  It is also called the three bars of death.  The WOD is:

For Time:

10, 9, 8, 7...1 

Deadlift: 1.5 x body weight

Bench Press: body weight

Cleans: .75 x body weight

Right now I weigh about 135-140ish which is pretty consistent for me.  I wanted to do a little over the Rx'd weights so I did:

DL: 255

Bench: 155

Clean: 125

Time: 14:03

Today's WOD:

5 Rounds for time

15 wall ball

15 kettle bell swings (70 lbs)

15 pull ups

Time: 9:50

I then practiced a bunch of double unders because I am not too good at them and I felt like I was getting a little more comfortable with them.  

I then did some push jerks:

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 6

165 x 3

175 x 3

185 x 1

My shoulders are sore.

Monday's WOD

Today was alright.  I wanted to do a semi-heavy WOD today.

WOD:

5 rounds for time:

5 hspu (hand stand push ups)

10 deadlifts 255 lbs

15 kb swings 53 lbs

Time: 10:53

I went back to the gym later in the day and did some press, pp, and pj.  

I can't remember the weights I did, but I finished push jerks with 185 lbs x 3

I finally ran

I went in today to help with the morning classes at the CF gym.  More people showed up than I thought would so that was pretty cool.  The one thing that I am always let down on each and every time I go there is the lack of intensity that the people bring.  Each persons intensity is relative to them, but when they aren't huffing and puffing and wanting to do nothing the rest of the day then they did not push themselves enough.  

I would say MAYBE 1 in 20 semi push themselves at this gym.  Its probably just the gym atmosphere because the other coaches don't encourage and yell at the people to push them.  I definitely do though and I always get people coming up to me thanking me for pushing them and helping them.

In between stuff I did some standard press, but after I left I wish I had done a heavy fast MetCon.  All day I've been thinking about it and its been bugging me!

I have been planning on running for awhile and since I got my Nike 3.0 frees for my birthday I can now run in comfort.  I ran at Whitney's parents house on their treadmill and just popped a movie on.  I wanted to get 13.1 in under two hours and I was well on my way, but I wore the wrong underwear and my legs started rubbing so bad they almost started bleeding.  They still kill.  I finished with 9 miles in about an hour and 5 minutes or so.  I am going to run the half marathon next week with the right underwear!  

I also went shooting today with my HK for the first time in about a year.  I just got one box of 9mm.  I still got it so that was good.  I also looked at some carrying size handguns for the future when I have some cash to get my concealed permit and a carry gun.  I love the Kimber Ultra Carry II 1911 and I also looked at the Springfield XD .40 subcompact, which is a lot cheaper, but much bulkier.  I'll probably just save up and get the Kimber some day.   

3 WODs

When I was going to SLC CrossFit I just kinda hung out there quite a bit and would end up doing way too much working out.  I would get restless and start doing one WOD after another.  

Well that is happening again.  I go into NW CrossFit and help out in the morning and there is a break between 10-11 so I was just going to do one WOD.  Well, one turned into 3 and some extra at the end.

WOD #1:

4 rounds:

5 clean & jerks 155lbs

10 pullups

15 box jumps

Time: 9:42

WOD #2:

3 Rounds:

10 Front squats 135 lbs

8 push press 125 lbs

15 ring dips

WOD #3:

3 rounds:

6 Thrusters 135 lbs

15 kb swings 70 lbs

20 push ups

I forgot to time myself on the last two WODs, but I went as fast as I could and I didn't take any breaks inbetween WODs either...I switched up the equipment and started right back up again.  

I got a new book yesterday and read it in one day.  I loved it.  It's called, The Mission, The Men, and Me Lessons From a Former Delta Force Commander.  It has some cool missions obviously, but also a lot of great leadership information as well as common sense decision making tips.  Its a good book, I'm going to read it again.

I am going to start running again.  Before I left for bootcamp I was running pretty regularly.  With the possibility of me going back into the military I want to start running/rucking and getting my legs used to miles again.  

Twist on Fight Gone Bad

Today at NW Crossfit I did a twist on Fight Gone Bad with another guy.  I was coaching some people and this dude came in and the owner of the gym told him to do today's CFFootball WOD.  He looked at it and said yeah and wanted someone else to do it with.  So, the owner, Jake, called me over to do the WOD with this guy.  This other guy is probably 6'4" 205.  Pretty big fit guy.  

The idea behind Fight Gone Bad is that it mimics a MMA fight of 3 rounds of 5 min. of constant work.  So, the WOD has 5 different elements and you spend 1 min at each element keeping track of the number of repetitions that you complete for each element.  You then total the number of reps for each round and add them up for a total Fight Gone Bad score.  

Normal Fight Gone Bad is: 75lb Push Press, box jumps, rowing (counting calories), wall ball, and sumo deadlift high pull.  

Today's Crossfit Football Fight Gone Bad was: Box jumps, Double Unders, Push Ups, Rowing, and Thrusters 95lbs.  

The other guy today got a total score of: 339

I got: 420

The owner of the gym got: 309.

Cindy mania

When I was at the Cert this past weekend, Andy Stumpf mentioned the need for LEO/Military guys to occasionally push themselves for longer than normal MetCons.  He said that he as a SEAL will do 1 hour or so MetCons every other week or so.  

I have been focusing so much on strength and I wanted to see how my conditioning was today and if I could push past the pain mentally and keep going.  

Cindy: A traditional Cindy is as many rounds as possible in 20 min of -- 5 pullups, 10 push ups, 15 air squats (hip below the knee).  When I do a real Cindy I usually get 32 rounds or so on average, which isnt too bad.  

When I started today I wanted to get 60 rounds of Cindy in an hour...well I couldn't hold back enough and I thought I was pacing myself, but in the first 20 min I still did 30 rounds, then I got to 60 rounds at 44:53 and finally I was starting to slow down and I ended up getting 76 rounds in an hour.

76 rounds

Pullups: 380

Pushups: 760

Squats: 1140

Get Some

NW Crossfit

I went and took the firefighter's Washington exam this morning and then drove to Greenlake to see NW Crossfit -- Greenlake.  The guy that owns it has another branch in Bellevue and is opening another in Seattle somewhere.  He said he would most definitely love another coach and wants to see how I like his gym for the next couple weeks.  

I went to the Bellevue branch in the evening and did my own WOD and then watched/helped with the evening classes.  They don't really have as much structure as I am used to from the other affiliates that I have been to.  

Tomorrow I am going to visit Crossfit Eastside and see what they say.  I went and did a WOD at their affiliate when I first got to Seattle and I liked their box and they definitely knew what they were doing.  I'm interested to see what they have to say.

I'm going to go to a morning class at NW Crossfit tomorrow to help and workout.

Today's WOD:

Standard Press: 125x5, 135x5

Push Jerk: 145x5, 155x5, 175x5, 185x3(PR)

6 rounds:

200m row

15 pullups

8 Thrusters 135 lbs

time: 13:38

Monday's WOD x2

I did two WODs today:

1st one:

5 rounds:

7 deadlift 255

10 hang power clean and jerk 95lbs

Time: There were too many interruptions too keep good track of time, but I pushed myself and was going pretty dang fast. 

2nd WOD:

5 rounds:

5--55lb dumb bell snatch each hand

20 dips (I wish the gym had rings)

Time: 5:22

Las Vegas Cert Day 2

Sunday was another awesome day.  The day started off with a review and question and answer session that lasted for awhile.  Andy Stumpf (AD SEAL and owner of CF Coronado) just knows so much and can explain it all so well that I can't imagine not having him at a Cert.  

Another trainer named Jimmy, who is the owner of CF Laguna Beach and is the director of something at CF HQ gave a great nutrition lecture about the zone and paleo diets.  

We had a couple break out sessions where we went to a couple of different stations to practice some more functional movements so that we could teach them properly.  We went over the snatch, kipping and butterfly pull ups (I demonstrated the butterfly for everyone), muscle ups, and the GHD setup.  

We had a surprisingly really good WOD that in writing didn't look very hard, but was a doozy.  I wasn't sore from the previous day and I thought that my soreness from all the deadlifts I did on Friday was gone.  Boy was I wrong.  In the middle of the WOD I felt Friday's deadlifts and Saturday's WOD in my legs like crazy!

Sunday WOD:

Run 800m

5 rounds

10 squat clean 45lb plate

10 push ups

Run 800m

Time: 9:14

I got 5th place overall which wasn't too bad.  There were a couple really good runners and I feel like I could've done better, but my lower back was absolutely screaming at me.

Im extremely glad that I went and now Im certified! 

Las Vegas Cert

I am in Las Vegas again, but this time not for police stuff thank goodness.  This time I am in Vegas for a CrossFit Level 1 Certification.  It is 2 days of instruction on the methodology, movements, training tips, how to be a great trainer, how to open your own box, and some WODs mixed in.  

3 'famous' CF headquarters trainers lead the group with other trainers from the Mountain region to help with the cert.  Andy Stumpf (CF Coronado), Freddy C. (CF One World, and Joley Gentry (CF One World) are the head trainers.  When we lived in San Diego I went to Andy Stumpf's gym and he is a stud.  He is super smart, a level 3 trainer, 13 years on the SEAL teams as an enlisted guy and received his commission back in October so he is now a SEAL officer.  He can help anyone become proficient in functional fitness and easily explains CF so that anyone would want to do it.  

We covered a lot of good information on all the Squat movements, Pressing movements, and Deadlift movements today.  A lot of instruction and practice as well.  There was a Whole Foods super close so I got lunch there.  

To end day 1 we did a gnarly version of 'Fran'

WOD:

6 rounds 

30 seconds 95 lb Thrusters/10 second rest/30 seconds pullups (some one was counting the total number of repetitions and marking them on a sheet.)

 My scores:

round 1: 37 pullups, 15 thrusters

round 2: 26 pullups, 14 thrusters

round 3: 21 pullups, 12 thrusters

round 4: 21 pullups, 10 thrusters

round 5: 17 pullups, 10 thrusters

round 6: 17 pullups, 10 thrusters

Total Pullups: 139

Total Thrusters: 71

Total Score: 210

Utah region CF games qualifier WOD

I was checking my SLC crossfit trainer's blog and he posted one of the WOD's that the Utah region did for the Crossfit games qualifiers.  I would LOVE to compete in the CF games some day.  I need to get a little stronger and my technique needs to get better on cleans etc.  The Games is definitely one of my real goals that I am going for.  

Warmup:

3 rounds --

10 burpees 

10 225 deadlifts

15 squats

WOD:

5 rounds for time --

7 deadlifts @ 275 lbs

30 air squats

7 hand stand push ups (hspu's)

Time: 15:41

Words cannot express how tight my back was getting.  The first set I did all 7 deadlifts without a break and I finished the first round in like 50 seconds.  By round 4 I was going pretty slow.  I was doing my deadlifts in two sets, 4 the first then 3 the second set.  My back was getting so tight that it was making me slow down incredibly on my air squats.  The hspu's were easy and I did all 7 in 1 set in each of the 5 rounds.  

I finished the fourth round in 10:50 or so and I stepped up for the 5th and final round.  Usually, in my WODs when I hit the last round or the last couple minutes I get a shot of adrenaline and I pound through the WOD, but today I tried that for my deadlifts and I cannot even explain how tight my back got.  My last set of 7 deadlifts were done in 3, 2, 1, 1.  I was dying! I finished in 15:41, so that last round took me almost 5 minutes!  Unreal.  I was breathing super hard, I was just so incredibly tight and drained for the deadlifts.

My buddy said the guy who won got 19 min something...so I was doing something right today.

I then did some bench and I was done after that.

Dead Lifts!

My dead lifts are seeing some serious improvement.  

Strength WOD:

135x15, 225x8, 275x5, 325x1 (PR), 295x3, 205x12

So that's another 10 lb increase in a week and a dead lift of 2.3 times my body weight, which is pretty awesome.  

I then did a little metcon mix of:

4 rounds:

10 pull ups

20 push ups

30 dips

Tuesday's WOD

Yesterday I did a couple of different WOD's because I just felt like I needed to do a little bit more and it was so nice outside.  

In the morning I did some sets of Front Squats at 185 lbs and 205 lbs.  I then did some at 155 and 135 and tried to do higher reps.  I know I did some type of MetCon but I can't really remember what it was.

Then in the afternoon before I went to work I did another MetCon:

5 rounds:

10 Dumb Bell push press 40 lbs each

50 yard sprint

30 push ups

50 yard sprint

Rare sunny Seattle day

It was a rare sunny day today, but when its sunny there isn't a prettier place than Seattle.  The dogs are loving playing outside and they are beat by the end of the day, which is awesome.  Cookie has turned into quite the escape artist though!

Whitney came and worked out again with me today.  She did her first 'Cindy,' a Crossfit original.  It is:

20 min AMRAP:

5 pullups

10 push ups

15 squats

Whitney did great.  She got 13 rounds!  She substituted jumping pullups and kept a great pace for the entire WOD!

My WODs:

Strength: 

Strict Press: 105x10, 115x7, 125x4, 135x3 (PR), 95x10

MetCon:

4 rounds for time:

5 deadlift 245 lbs

10 push press 115 lbs

12 pull ups

Time: 9:00 flat

Main site WOD

I am pretty sore from yesterday's WOD.  I decided to stick with the main site today and just do a quick MetCon.  I'll most likely do some other stuff later today.  

WOD:

100 inverted burpees for time:

8:43

Overhead Squats

Whitney and I went to the ProClub together.  She has been doing mini body weight WODs and warming up to full on CrossFit.  One day when we have our own garage gym going she'll be doing the real thing (if she still wants to).  

Today I was showing her some of the basic CF movements: Squat, Front Squat, and Overhead Squat.  She has done some exercises with both Back and Front Squats, but none with Overheads.  The ProClub has the rubber bar thingys of different weights that were lighter than a regular lifting bar so that is what she used.  

MetCon WOD:

4 rounds: 

10 OHS (whitney 9 lbs/ alex 95 lbs)

5 dumb bell snatches each arm (whitney 7.5 lbs/ alex 55 lbs)

It is important to know that whitney finished before I did!  She was around 7:30 and I was around an 8 min range.  My conditioning is terrible right now!

Strength WOD:

Bench: 5x225, 5x225, 5x205, 20x135

This was the first time that I have ever done 2x5 of 225.  Usually I just do 3 reps, but today I was doing 5, which felt pretty good. 

Back at home (well not really home)

I'm back in Redmond and I guess for now I am calling it home.  Either way it was nice to go to a gym and push around some weight.  I woke up this morning pretty late because I couldn't sleep last night and I got online and checked the main site CrossFit.  They posted a new 'Hero' WOD and it is the 2nd this week.  The first one was for an Air Force Combat Controller (gnarly dudes that go through some unreal training) and today's tribute WOD was for one of the SWAT cops from Oakland.  

For those people that know me, know that I am all about military SOF (special operations forces) and now SWAT.  I love how Crossfit honors them and is a very patriotic community.  

God bless all those men that have died and that continue to serve.  I wish I could with all my heart.

This picture is of SDV-1 SEALs based out of Hawaii.  All of them died in Afghanistan except for one (third from the right Marcus Lutrell).  There are a couple of CF WOD's in honor of these incredible brav

e men.  RIP.  Michael Murphy, Medal of Honor recipient is located on the far right.  Here is a link to his MOH official citation.

The SWAT WOD, named 'Danny', was: 20 min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) 30 box jumps, 20 pp 115 lbs, 30 pull ups.  I took out the pull ups and put in deadlifts because the pull up bar at Golds is waaaaay too far away to make it an effective WOD.  Also, people steal your stuff if you leave it to go do something else and that bugs the crap out of me. 

MetCon: Danny

 3 1/2 rounds in 20 min. 

I thought I would've done better...I guess that means I need to do a little more conditioning.  

Strength WOD today: Deadlifts

225x10, 255x6, 275x4, 295x2, 305x1 (PR!), 315x1(PR!!!).  

My old PR in SLC was 285.  Last week I put up 295 and today 305 went up with relative ease and 315 went up pretty good, so I was extremely happy with a 20 lb increase.

This picture is of SOC Jason Freiwald, DevGru.  He died in Afghanistan on September 11, 2008 with another SEAL John Marcum.  Marcum was hit and with complete disregard for his own life, Jason exposed himself to enemy fire and pulled Marcum to a safer position.  Both died later from injuries sustained in battle.  Crossfit has WODs for both of them as well.

Now in Las Vegas

Today I am in Las Vegas for a long day of police testing.  There was close to 1000 people that showed up for 40 academy slots!  By the end of the day that number had been cut in half, but that is still a huge number of people.  Tomorrow is some type of interview/oral board thingy so hopefully that'll go well.  

The hotel that I am staying at doesn't have a hotel and I ate horribly today.  I had a protein bar in the morning, some almonds in the afternoon and I finally got some food at Whole Foods at 7:30!  I was pretty dang hungry.

I did a silly pt qualification thing today for the police department and I was shocked at how out of shape people were.  Guys that looked in shape were just pathetic.  We had to run a timed mile run at the end and the limit was 10:50!  I honestly don't know if I can run slow enough to do a 10:50 mile.  Needless to say I got a 5:32.

I'll do some pushups and stuff tonight and figure something out tomorrow.  Hopefully, I will be home by tomorrow so I can get a good workout in and start hitting it hard again.

This video is another huge contender at the CF games.  He has some ridiculous strength and awesome endurance.