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.

In LA

Im in LA right now and I just got back to the hotel from testing for the PD all morning.  So, I went to the hotel gym to figure out what I could do with the equipment that they had before I have to catch a flight to Las Vegas for the LVMPD.  

The gym had a bunch of dumb bells, smaller medicine balls, a cable station/pull up bar, and some treadmills.  I took the 30, 40, and 50 pound dumb bells and went next to the pull up bar to see if I could put some kind of work out together.  I ended up doing stuff with really no system, but I just wanted to get my heart rate going.  

I did a whole bunch of dumb bell snatches with all the weights, thrusters, lunges, pull ups, strict presses, and tried to do some dumb bell over head squats but those were pretty difficult.  

When I get to Las Vegas tonight I am going to check out the gym at that hotel and probably do something else because this little workout didn't feel like enough!

Friday and Saturday

Friday I didn't have too much time and the gym was packed so I think I did some Strict Press and I'm not too sure what else I did.  Saturday, I took Whitney with me to the ProClub and we did 'Freddie's Revenge'.  We modified the weight because in the actual video they are doing 185 Push Jerks, but they each weigh about 205-215ish.  I used 135lbs.

We didn't have a stopwatch, but there was a digital clock on the wall and I finished in just under 6 min and Whitney finished just over 6 min.  She did awesome!  We used 30 pounds for her and we both agreed we both should've gone heavier, although she did want to throw up for about a good solid hour after the WOD.

WOD:

5 rounds for time

5 push jerks 135 lbs Alex 30 lbs Whitney

10 burpees

Now I want to do it again, but instead do 155 or 165.

Deadlift PR!

Today was a really good deadlift day.  I didn't take much time to warm up because I didn't have a ton of time.  I just stepped right into it.  My previous 1 rep max was 285, but today I did 275x3 so easily that I knew I could go quite a bit heavier.  I then did 3x285 pretty good and finally 3x295.  The CFSB article recommends that when you set a personal record (PR) you just need to stop there because your body has exerted so much energy that you will do more harm than good by pushing it.  So, after 295x3 I had to call it quits and move on to my conditioning exercise. 

Strength:

Deadlifts:

145 - 30 times Overhand grip

185 - 10 times Overhand grip

205 - 6 times Overhand grip

5x3 - 265, 275, 285 (my previous 1 rep max!), 295!

I then did 15x205 lbs to finish off.

MetCon:

'Mini-Grace' 115 lb clean and jerks 30 times for time:

Time - 2:38

That's a pretty good time considering I can't drop the weights and reset and I have to lower them, which kills my elbows.  I'll be excited when I can doing the real Grace and heavier Graces as well.

Tuesday's WOD

This video is of Jason Khalipa. He was last years CrossFit Games winner. He's a freaking animal. He's doing a classic CF exercise called 'Grace'. Its 30 Clean and Jerks 135 pounds for time. My best time is in the 5:00's which is not too bad since the last time I did it I weighed 135 lbs! My goal though is to get a similar strength to weight ratio as Khalipa's.

Yesterday I didn't really have access to a computer because the internet is totally spotty at our house right now. I am testing the 'whole milk' theory and so far I haven't wanted to explode from lactose intolerance! Hopefully it will help me gain some good lean muscle with the strength exercises that I am doing. Right now, on a good day, I weigh about 140, but I would honestly like to get around to 160ish, but not chubby. I am not exactly sure if it is possible, but that's where I'm heading. Hopefully I will be able to get my legs quite a bit bigger and that will help to gain some weight.

I haven't even been sore this week so that has been good. My body usually adjusts to different work outs pretty quickly and I am able to push through the soreness pretty well and this time is no different. I was pretty sore last week almost immediately, but this week I haven't felt sore yet.

Strength:

Overhead Press 1 rep: 125, 130, 135, 130, 135

Push Press 5x3: 135, 145, 155, 160, 155

WOD:

12, 9, 6

135 lb Thrusters

60 lb dumb bell swing

400 m run

Time: 9:50 (slow!)

WOD

Well I didn't exactly improve on my front squat like I wanted to.  But, I did feel like I was in more control and I was going deeper and handling the weight better.  I also went heavier on my MetCon Push Presses as well.  

Strength: 

5x3 FS: 165, 185, 195, 205, 205

5x3 Incline Bench: 205, 225, 205, 205, 185

MetCon:

5 rounds:

6 push press 135 lbs

8 burpees

12 db swings 60 lbs

Time: I messed up my stop watch on my phone, but it was about 8 min.

Friday and Saturday

By Friday I was feeling pretty tired all over.  Typically, with CFSB you are supposed to work out for two days then take a rest day, but I pretty much like to work out 6 days a week.  So, my body is going to just have to adjust.  

I did work out on both days, but I can't really remember what I did.  I went climbing on Friday and did a little WOD at the climbing gym and I did a couple muscle ups, which I hadn't done in awhile.  Saturday, I went early in the morning and didn't do anything too heavy because my left elbow was hurting pretty good.

Today is the start of week two on CFSB so I'm hoping I can go up at least 5 lbs in all of my lifts this week.

SORE!

Sore is an understatement!  The Crossfit Strength Biased (CFSB) article talked about how sore you would get if you are doing the program correctly and they weren't joking.  My body will get used to it, but right now I'm a little sore.  My lower back isn't sore from the dead lifts yesterday so thats good, that means I was doing them correctly.  

I bought some whole milk to have on my 1st and 3rd meals of the day with my protein to help add some size.  I'm not exactly sure how to add up the fat blocks with the whole milk though...I guess it doesn't really matter as long as I'm getting stronger and more fit.  

Warmup:

Overhead Squats, Push ups, PP, and air squats

Strength WOD:

5X5 Squats - 165, 185, 205, 225, 235 (I was so incredibly sore that I didn't want to push it)

5X3 Bench - 205, 215, 225, 245, 245

MetCon:

7 ROUNDS:

3 Push Jerks 155 lbs

6 box jumps 24" box

20 push ups

Wednesday's WOD

I felt pretty good on the dead lifts today.  My hammies are still pretty sore from the Front Squats two days ago but they seemed to warm up a bit.  But, I was so dang tired for my MetCon today!  I was pretty disappointed with myself and I really wanted to push myself faster, but it honestly was hard to without bumper plates, chalk, and a good pull up station.  I'll definitely be feeling this one tomorrow though.

Warmup: 

3 sets of: 10 pull ups, 30 push ups, 30 squats

3x10 Overhead squats with just the bar

Strength WOD:

1x30 Deadlift 145 lbs

5X5 Deadlifts

225, 245, 255, 265, 275 (twice -- re-gripped and 3 more times)

MetCon WOD:

1-7-1 Ladder 95lb Snatches 

2-14-2 Ladder Pull ups and 24" box jumps

Time:

13:54

CrossFit Football

I LOVE IT!  Finally a program that is completely dedicated to speed and strength.  www.crossfitfootball.com.  

I also love the nutrition links that they posted.  I look at these blogs pretty much every day as well:

robbwolf.com

proteinpower.com

paleodiet

On today's main site and in the CF journal, Pat Sherwood posted another zone chronicle.  He is with Chuck Carswell, who is a former football player and is huge and Chuck is eating a 1/2 pound burger for his post dinner nighttime snack.  That would seem like a ton of food, but considering the type of working out that he (and hopefully I am) is doing it will just help him get bigger and stronger.  He says, "you gotta eat big to get big."