Friday, 30 January 2009

Presses

CFSB Week 5, Round 1
Presses
5 x 45kg
5 x 47.5kg
3 x 50kg
Should have gone with 5 x 3 dammit. I really wanted that 5 x 50kg.
Sort of made up the remaining 2 sets by:
3 x 50kg
3 x 52.5kg leaning back on the last one

12 x 40kg

And I just realised. Anything more than a single with 50kg is a PB for multiple reps. My max for a single is 55kg.

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Deadlifts

CFSB
Week5 Round 1
Deadlifts
Messed up the high rep set the other way. Missed it completely.
I'd have sworn it was dropped this week. Should have read tghe notes more carefully, or at all.

3 x 95kg
3 x 100kg
3 x 105kg

Lost my focus and the tight back in the last set. Not a matter of the weight being too heavy, just the lack of focus.
It's still not a habit I've locked in, but it's getting closer.

Then I ran around the block. About a mile.
Tired of running short distances where I never settle into a running style. I wanted to give myself a chance to relax into it a bit.

Monday, 26 January 2009

The power of CrossFit kids

Today I used cues and techniques learned at the CrossFit Kids cert to teach one of Lynette's nieces squats, front squats, presses, thrusters and burpees in the weekend. It took about 20 minutes.

I was just going to show her squats, but she kept asking for more so we kept going. Her squats went from basically awful to nearly perfect faster than I would have believed.

Will she remember all I showed her? Probably not, but she'll retain a bit and we'll work on reviewing and reinforcing it, which the certs also cover

Jeff and the team at CF Kids HQ are geniuses.
And if you coach kids and don't go to one of their certs you're an idiot. They're that good.

It was so cool to see a kid transform her technique and I got to help. I guess Jeff and Mikki and Cyndi get to see that all the time. I envy them

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Med ball stuff

At my father-in-law's in Tokoroa for the long weekend I took some medicine balls and did this.
5 Rounds
Med ball cleans and throws, length of the back-yard.
Lunges holding med. ball overhead, the length of the back-yard.

10kg ball

Fun.
Hurty.

The section slopes slightly so the cleans and throws were up-hill to minimise ball roll. I made the length of the yard in 3 throws. The travel back took many many lunges, a lot of rests and no small amount of bad language.

Friday, 23 January 2009

HSPU and L pull-ups

For time:
15 Handstand push-ups
1 L Pull-up
13 Handstand push-ups
3 L Pull-ups
11 Handstand push-ups
5 L Pull-ups
9 Handstand push-ups
7 L Pull-ups
7 Handstand push-ups
9 L Pull-ups
5 Handstand push-ups
11 L Pull-ups
3 Handstand push-ups
13 L Pull-ups
1 Handstand push-up
15 L Pull-ups

21:21

HSPU went well.
L pull-ups dropped to singles heading into the 11 rep round

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Presses

CFSB Week4, Round 1
Presses
5 x 45kg
5 x 47.5kg
4 x 50kg
My shoulders have been sore from OHS the other day and that may have impacted on this this time.
Last time I blamed the HSPU challenge, this time OHS, I've got a whole week to come up with the excuse for my next failure. Skinny shoulders and long arms probably have more to do with it.

12-13-14-15-16-17 x 30kg
Yes I know it's wrong, but I wanted to see how far I could get if I read week 4 as ascending 12rep to 20 rep sets of presses.
I'll be good next week.

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Box jumps, OHS, pull-ups

3RFT
30 x 20" box jumps
15 x 30kg OHS
8 pull-ups

18 and change.
The problem? The slacker on the box, under the OHS' and under the pull-up rafter.

Should have swapped the OHS and pull-up numbers in hindsight, that was a bit too much when I've shaky OHS form.

34 piked HSPU.

Monday, 19 January 2009

Deadlifts

Week 4, Round 1
5 x 90kg
5 x 92.5kg
5 x 95kg

15-16-17-18-19-20-21 x 60kg

Went for the volume option again as I'm in the first round. Do you know how many reps that is though?
Me either.
Millions at least!

A bit pooped.

Sunday, 18 January 2009

t-push-ups, lunges, squats

3RFT
10 t-push-ups
15 lunges holding 5kg dbells overhead
30 squats

14 minutes

Working really really hard to keep all my squats as clean as possible. I'm still losing the tension in my back when I get tired and I can't afford to do that.

Pathetic time BTW. Yes I do know.

Then I stretched. Novelty factor: infinite, unfortunately.

Did my 34 (2 too many) HSPU in the warm-up and they're back to being easy when piked, so I'm one one, one off for the rest of the series now. That extra day lets me recover and I need it desperately.

Friday, 16 January 2009

Elizabeth

21-15-9
50kg power cleans
beginner ring dips

10:33

My arms are too fried after doing my 30 piked HSPUs in the warm-up to pull off regular dips.

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Presses

Week 3, Round 1
5 x 42.5kg
5 x 47.5kg
3 x 50kg
Too big a jump with the HSPU challenge going on too.

12-13-14-15 x 30kg

Monday, 12 January 2009

Deadlifts

Week 3, Round 1
5 x 87.5kg
5 x 90kg
5 x 92.5kg
Rushed some of these a bit.

12-13-14-15 x 60kg

No metcon. All I had time for with visiting family, including the brother-in-law with his new (for him) VFR100 that I got to take for a spin.

So yes, I chose the bike over CF.

And it was fun!

Saturday, 10 January 2009

Cindy-ish

AMRAP 15
5 pull-ups
5 ring push-ups
5 x 60kg power cleans

7 rounds plus ring push-ups

The power-cleans were the slowest part, which is what I wanted.
60kg was about right to make me work, but not so much that my form got too badly out of control.

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Andrea's an author

I got a PM from Andrea Nitz (aka Marla Singer of CrossFitBrandX forum fame) this evening saying that an article titled "High Performance Pregnancy" she wrote for the CrossFit Journal on training for pregnant women had been published.
I subscribe to the journal of course (doesn't everyone?), but I confess I hadn't been following the articles posted since it switched to a completely on-line publishing format. I'd watched some of the videos, but hadn't looked at the articles. Upshot was, I missed Andrea's article.

My loss.

Andrea operates her own CrossFit affiliate specialising in training pre and post-partum women using CrossFit methodology. Well what else would you use? That means mothers to be and new mums for those of us who know next to nothing about this stuff, i.e. blokes. The site is at http://crossfitmom.com/ and it's interesting reading even if you or your significant other is not in the family way.

Andrea did a great job with the article. It's well written, informative and written in plain english. Surprisingly for anyone who knows me, I also appreciate that it isn't rabidly pushing CrossFit on pregnant women. It's pushing exercise for pregnant women, with CrossFit as the not so subtly suggested preferred option.

Great job Andrea.

Can I have your autograph now that you're all famous and all?

Run, swings, HSPU

3RFT
400m
15 x 17kg dbell swings
10 HSPU

A blistering 13 and change.

Snails went to sleep from boredom while passing me.

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Press, half-arsed metcon

Press
5 x 40kg
5 x 42.5kg
5 x 45kg
About right.
Still had some gas left, which time and increasing weight will take care of.

12-13-14-15 x 30kg
That just about popped my foofoo valve.
Rep 15 my left shoulder was very hinky.

Rest 5 min (put the weights, motorbike and other assorted junk back in the shed)

Then
Run to the playground (about 500m according to mapmyrun); 3:09

3 rounds
10 TTB/pull-up combo
10 push-ups
9:32
TTB further demonstrated that Christmas is not good for abs.
The J.T. effect from the presses got me on the push-ups.
The whole episode was very embarrassing, especially with 3 early teenage girls sitting there eating fish and chips while I puffed and rested my way through.
I'm sure I was discussed after my departure.

Run (stagger) home; 3:22

I'd like to thank my 5 y.o. niece for the opportunity to discover that the monkey bars at the playground are tall enough to hang from during the hours I spent with her there. The bars are too fat to be comfortable, and they're all artistically bent into a partial helix, but they are usable.
The other adults pushed their kids on the swings, I competed with the kids for space on the bars.

Tuesday, 6 January 2009

Deadlifts, Metcon

Last night
Week 2, Round 1
5 x 82.5kg
5 x 85kg
5 x 87.5kg
Too light to really push me from the standpoint of what I can lock out, but enough to make me lose the feeling of having my lower back locked. Which is largely a matter of my not having the habit set yet.

12-13-14-15 x 60kg
Same as above. Puffing a bit when I finished.

3RFT
15 x 10kg medicine ball cleans
5 x beginner rope climbs
2 x box jump passes (put all of the boxes in a row on the lawn, jump on the 20" boxes, jump over the 12" boxes, out and back is one pass)

About 12 minutes.

This morning I feel like a truck backed over me, so on track.

Monday, 5 January 2009

Barista Bears

Lynette's collection is growing.
Patrick sent one from Dallas and here's the set so far.

Photo was taken with my cellphone, so it's less than perfect.
From Barista_bears