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