Predicted 1RM

• Back Squat – 5@210 =~ 1@247
• Shoulder Press – 5@100 =~ 1@125
• Deadlift – 5@260 =~ 1@305
• Total – 677

My current best Crossfit Total is 615 lbs. Here are updated estimates of my 1-Rep maxes and Crossfit Total score using the same formula as before.

Predicted 1RM

• Back Squat – 5@200 =~ 1@235
• Shoulder Press – 5@95 =~ 1@118
• Deadlift – 5@250 =~ 1@294
• Total – 647

When the Wisconsin Democratic Senators walked out several weeks ago, they were engaging in a tactic known as “Quorum Busting”. This is a relatively obscure tactic that takes advantage of a legislative bodies Quorum rule. The Quorum rule obviously is essential to ensure a minimum number of persons are present before official actions can be taken by a legislative body. For the Wisconsin Senate, it only takes a simple majority to convene and conduct business not related to the budget. Anything associated with the budget, requires two-thirds of the body for a quorum. So by packing it up and heading off to an early spring break in sunny, warm…..Illinois??……(seriously, Illinois???)…..the Senate is unable to engage in official business related to fiscal matters. I can imagine the 14 Senate Democrats on a bus heading south, with a sign along the bus that says “Quorum Busting or BUST!”

Ha!

So, immediately begins the heated rhetoric, (i) accusing the 14 Senators of abandoning their civic duties, (ii) elections have consequences, and (iii) such conduct is not tolerated in a democracy. I mean seriously, if our legislature were to just stop meeting, then the whole fabric of society will unravel. No such civilized society would ever tolerate such a thing, ever!

Uhhhh….wait a sec.

It appears that Quorum Busting has been going on for…….over 150 years? Seriously?!?! How did we ever last this long as a free and democratic society if Quorum Busting is the last sign of the apocalypse? Falderal! Pish-posh!

Alright, let’s get that useless history book off the shelf, grab a dust rag, open that book up and see what we can find:

1. Illinois? Honest Abe Lincoln tried (unsuccessfully) to jump out a window (because chamber doors were locked) when he was in the Illinois legislature to prevent a quorum (one must wonder, why was he the last one left that he suddenly realized that he needed to jump out the window. “Hey, where did everyone go…..uh-oh, crap…..must…find….window…..Hey, it’s bit stuffy in here, mind if stand by the window while you do that Roll Call thing……darn…..”)? We’ll aint that a hoot.
2. Texas? Apparently the Texas Legislature is off the chain when it comes to Quorum Busting. Everybody is bush league compared to these guys. It’s seems to be a generational right of passage in Texas.
   • Rump Senate (1870) – The infamous Texas Rump Senate. In an effort to thwart the passage of a bill that would have given the Governor broad law enforcement / militia powers, a delegation of Senators barricaded themselves in a committee room. The Sergeant-In-Arms had to bust through a window to forcibly bring 4 of the Senators back into the chamber to satisfy the Quorum. After establishing the necessary quorum, the offending Senators were arrested and locked up. Let that stand as a stern warning to anyone that even thinks about Quorum Busting……Don’t Mess w/ Texas……….It worked for a while……until one day……
   • The Killer Bees (1979) – Objecting to a plan regarding the reorganizing of the primary election system, 12 Texas Senators packed up and when into hiding. A state-wide all points bulletin was issued and Law Enforcement scoured the entire state looking for them. At one point the brother of one of the Killer Bee’s was arrested, mistaken to be one of the hiding Senator’s (wow, how embarrassing…….) The governor subsequently backed down and the Killer Bees came out of hiding…their beehive was located a mere 3 miles from the Capitol. The failed effort of Law Enforcement to find the Killer Bees and their arresting the a man who wasn;t a Senator, earned them the title of “Bumble Bees”.
   • The Killer D’s (2003) – This time, the Texas legislature decided to step up and fulfill their destiny by Quorum Busting a redistricting plan. Fifty-two state legislators decided to not show up to prevent a quorum on the bill. And it worked…..for while…..but then one day, it all went crazy again…….
   • The Texas Eleven (2003) – Although the redistricting plan was thwarted by the Killer D’s, it was eventually passed by the Texas State House and subsequently landed like a big ‘ol dud in the Texas State Senate. Twelve Texas Senate Democratic Senators piled into a bus and went to New Mexico and chilled out, IT worked for while, until one of them got nervous, hitched a ride back to Austin and provided the lone person needed to satisfy a quorum. I bet he didn’t get an invite to the Texas Democratic Christmas party that year.
3. U.S. Congress? Even the storied, gentlemanly, highly professional, always dignified, collegial U.S. Senate; and its always wacky, high-strung, everything goes relative; the U.S. House of Representatives, have seen their share of Quorum Busting.
   • Disappearing Quorum (1890) – Back in the day, a quorum was only deemed official if the total number of Yea’s on a matter exceeded half the number of members of the entire body. If less than half of the entire body did not vote Yea, then a Quorum was not achieved and the vote was not valid. So, this leads to the interesting case in 1890 when the House had to decide which person from the WVa 4th congressional district would be seated. Knowing they did not have the necessary votes to stop the seating of Republican (instead of their choice, the Democrat), 163 House Democrats were present, but just refused to vote. The food fight that immediately broke out was the stuff of legends. The Speaker of the House ordered another Roll Call and directed the Clerk of The House to base the quorum on those present instead of those that voted (an obvious violation of the Rules of the House at that time). The doors were then ordered locked and the Roll Call commenced. Knowing they could not get out of the chamber, many Democratic members tried to hide under their desks to prevent being counted in the Roll Call. This political theatre went on for 5 days until the necessary number of yea’s were obtained. The Rules of the House were then changed shortly thereafter so that such non-sense would ever occur in the U.S. Congress. Uh……..or not……..
   • Civil Rights Filibuster (1942) – The issue: Poll taxes. A southern contingent of U.S. Senators go into hiding to prevent a quorum. A Call of the Senate was issued and the necessary number of Senators were rounded up and brought in.
   • Call of The Senate (1988) – Sen. Robert Byrd issues a Call of the Senate to force a vote on Campaign Finance Reform. The Republican Senators went into hiding, mostly in their offices. The Sergeant-At-Arms uses his skeleton key to open up the office of Oregon Republican Senator Robert Packwood. He is forcibly carried feet first by Capitol Police into the Senate chamber at 1:17 a.m.

Ok, so Quorum Busting is a tactic that has been employed with mixed results since the days of Abe Lincoln and it has been employed by both political parties at both the state and federal level. It is obviously a tactic of last resort with defined risks / consequences for both sides, particularly for the Quorum Busters.

At some point the Wisconsin 14 are going to have to come back. I think they have made their point and have probably gotten all of the political advantage they can get out of this situation. Without at least three defections from the Senate Republicans, continuing this will be senseless and costly to the state. It’s time to re-engage the wheels of democracy and let this particulat act of political theaterto come to a close.

If anyone else has any historical examples of Quorum Busting in the U.S., please post it here. I’d like to add to the collection!

Peace,
Bill W.

So, I took the dive and bought a bike, an ’82 Honda GoldWing Interstate. The previous owner put two months of solid work into it and got it put back together and running at 85% or more. It still needs some work on the engine, though. It misfires occasionally and needs a good tune up.

I’m planning to start from the electrical side of things first. The spark plugs are new, but I plan to check the gaps anyways. I bought a spark gap tester to check if there’s enough juice coming to the plugs from the coil. After that, I’ll check the coil over. I bought a valve compression tester to check for leaky valves since the exhaust is smoky on one side of the engine. Valve clearences need to be checked. Finally, the carbs have been rebuilt, but have never been synchronized, so I’m borrowing a set of 4-cylinder carb-sync gauges from a coworker to do this. If I have any time left over, before my parent come to town on Wednesday, I’ll start getting more familiar with the bike by running through the scheduled maintenance procedures.

Wish me luck.

So… A lot has happened in the past four months. I injured myself in early May trying to do a max power clean and I took three months off while I recovered. Once I felt like my back was healed, I started up again, but was quickly side-railed again when my long-term relationship ended suddenly. This resulted in another month of no working out from a combination of depression and a lack of equipment.

I received my new barbell a week ago and I have been lifting, and plan on continuing to lift, very aggressively – About 25 lbs/week increases on my squat, 10 lbs on my deadlift, and 7 lbs on both my bench-press and shoulder-press. When things start to feel pretty hard, I’ll halve my increases.

After doing the same 1 rep max calculations as the last post, I find myself back where I was in April, with an estimated CrossFit Total of about 615. This is quite discouraging since I feel like I’ve wasted six months doing nothing. I need to be aggressive, but smart, in order to avoid injury since my default mode is to go all in.

I gained a lot of fat last time I did strength training. In the month of March, I gained 9 lbs, and my waist measurement went down. Sweet! In April, however, it all settled on my ass, thighs, and mid-line, gaining 10 lbs of mostly fat. After I injured myself, I cut back on calories, ate more low-carb, and tried to lean out a bit. I lost 15 lbs, but my body-fat calculator says that it was about half fat and half muscle. This isn’t what I wanted to see.

Now that I’m lifting again, I had to decide on a nutrition plan. I’m not going to be drinking a gallon of whole milk a day like I was before, which means my strength gains will probably not come as quickly. I’m trying to eat mostly paleo but adding IF. If I can lean out to about 8% body fat, then I may do a high-calorie (5000 cal/day) type of thing again.

So, that’s my summary. I’ll have to post something more personal, about starting my life over on my own sometime, but that type of writing is hard, and it makes me sad. I’m more comfortable with analytical analysis at this time, and I’m fine with that.

Cheers!

On April 5th, the gym did a crossfit total. I chose aggressive weights and scored 615.09lbs without missing a single rep. I should have been more agressive.

Since that time, I’ve been gradually increasing the weight of my lifts. I’ve achieved a new PR in both the squat (5 reps of 220lbs) and shoulder press (1 rep of 53kg, or 116.84lbs) and because of this, my total is now at least 634.46lbs.

Now is where I put on my fortune-telling hat. A conservative estimate of one’s max weight of a lift can be calculated by dividing the 5-rep max weight by .85. I use .80 for my shoulder press though, since I know this to be more accurate from my own experience. Since I’ve been increasing all of my 5RM weights in the past month, my 1RM should be quite a bit higher than my PR weights.

Predicted 1RM

• DL – 5@285lbs =~ 1@335.29
• S – 5@220 =~ 1@258.82
• SP – 5@100 =~ 1@125
• Total 719.11

An increase of 100lbs in one month. Sweet!

I am planning to continue with my strength-biased programming through the month of May, and then retest my crossfit total. By that time, I should be able to hit pretty close to 800lbs.

Here’s a collection of links to videos that teach the olympic snatch.

The Burgener Files

• Part 1: The Warmup
• Part 2: Skill Transfer Exercises
• Part 3: The High Hang Snatch
• Part 4: Stance, Grip and Position
• Part 5: Coaching Points
• Part 6: The Pocket

Other

• Coach B Corrects James Hobart

Today’s workout was all barbell work.  We started, like usual, with a strength workout.

2-2-2 Back Squat (90%)

I did a few warm-up sets, then tried 133#.  I’ve done that weight before for one set of 3, so I knew I could do it.  It didn’t feel like 90%, so I jumped up to 155#.  I did three sets with this weight and felt good about it.  New estimated 1RM is 172#.

On to the WOD.

8 Tabata Intervals Each of:

Push Press (75# / 45#)
SDHP (75# / 45#)

Just yesterday, we did a bunch of deadlifting and I was not happy to be doing more.  Hillary wrote down my splits, but I forgot the paper at the gym.  This one was tough, but I was able to do it Rx without running out of gas or having my heart and breathing shoot through the roof.

Total: 43PP + 43SDHP = 86

Today was another one of those fun benchmark workouts — “Tabata Something Else”

8 Tabata Intervals (20 seconds of work; 10 seconds of rest) each of:

Pullups
Pushups
Situps
Squats

I got a tear on my right-hand ring finger pad on my very last pull-up. I think I lost count on the pull-ups too. Kipping really helped me. I never anchored my feet before on the situps, so that probably accounted for part of my increase there.

my reps were

pull-ups: 41 (+21(!) from last time)
push-ups: 43 (+6)
sit-ups: 81 (+19)
squats: 91 (+2)
overall total: 256

Congrats to my co-worker, Christian, who came for today’s free day.

We had a pretty straight-forward workout today — shoulder-press strength work, and rowing.

3-3-3-3 Shoulder Press (75% of Max)

We did 75% shoulder presses two weeks ago and I used 89#.  Did the same today.

3 Rounds of:

Row 500 Meters
Rest 1 Minute

I looked at the whiteboard to estimate what I thought my splits should be.  I was shooting for 1:45ish.  I went out too fast and, by the third split, I was struggling.  Afterward, my quads were so shot that I could barely walk to the car, though I was fine once I rested.

Splits: 1:40, 1:45, 1:57

Our gym started its performance challenge about two months ago.  Today was our final exam. I felt like I did pretty well last time.  Let’s see if I’ve gotten any better.

1RM Deadlift

I’m still lifting too much with my back and not my legs.  I was surprised that my back wasn’t sore the next day though.

Deadlift: 288#

For time:

Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)
30 KB Swings (35# / 25# )
30 Burpees
30 Double Unders
30 Push Presses (45# / 35#)
Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)

I’ve been working on my double-unders, but the burpees had taken so much out of me that I wasn’t able to string them together at all.

Time: 15:03

Since last time, I added 10 k to my deadlift, and took 3:22 off of my WOD time.  I’m pretty happy with that.

No strength workout today.  Well, I guess I should say it was one big strength workout.

“Linda”

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:

1.5x Body-weight Deadlift
1x Body-weight Benchpress
.75x Body-weight Squat Cleans

My max deadlift is 1.5x my body weight, so I scaled as follows. I pretty much halved all of my weights.

• Deadlift : 133# (74%)
• Bench Press : 89# (49%)
• Clean : 67# (36%)

I was surprised that, of the three movements, I found the bench press to be the easiest.  When I move my weight up next time, I can probably be more aggressive with my bench press weight.

Time: 23:37

Quick workout today.  Back squats, push-ups, and pull-ups.

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squats (80% of Max)

I did two warm-up sets, then used 121# for my work sets.  I took a big jump in weight since the last time I did 5×3 back squats.  This says my estimated 1RM is 151#.

3 Rounds of:

10 Clapping Push-ups
10 Clapping Pull-ups (be careful)

The first round of clapping push-ups was pretty easy.  I didn’t even attempt the clapping pull-ups, though I was able to do 3 or 4 chest-to-bar pull-ups the first round, then I kipped the rest.  I had to rest between reps a lot more on the second round.  On the third round, I had to do the last seven clapping push-ups on my knees, and could only do one pull-up at a time.

Time: 5:00

Today’s workout was thrusters and something new, burpee pull-ups.

5-5-5-5-5 Thrusters (70% of Max)

I’ve never tried to do heavy thrusters, so my choice of weight was a bit arbitrary.  I did the sets with 77#.

For Time:

60 Burpee Pull-ups (burpee into a jumping pull-up)

I was able to do all pull-ups from the floor.

Time: 10:17

We did back squats again today.  I thought the three reps with a weight of 111# last week was somewhat easy, so I did my first round at that weight.  My 5th rep was a little unstable, so I moved down to 99#.  I felt a lot more stable on my last sets once I got myself to stop unconsciously leaning forward.  I felt good at the end.

The WOD was a little bit of torture.

50-40-30-20-10 reps of:

Push Balls (like a wall ball, but you just push press the ball up)
Situps

I challenged myself on this one and did the first 50 reps with a 14# ball, and the rest with 10#.  There’s not much to say about it.  Maybe could have tried to do the first 25 of the second round with the 14# ball, so as to done half with the heavier ball instead of a third, but I’m not upset about it.

Time: 10:20

Strength workout today was back squats.  I’ve never done them before, so I wasn’t sure what my 75% max weight would be.  I tried 133#, but my third rep was pretty hard.  I moved down to 111# for the other four sets.

“Half Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

We did a full Cindy two months ago, and I’ve made some big improvements since then.  I did most of my rounds with jumping pullups last time, and this time I was able to do all kipping pull-ups.  I didn’t note how many rounds of knee push-ups I did last time, probably all of them.  This time I was able to get three rounds of strict push-ups and the rest on my knees.  Push-ups seemed to be everyone’s weak spot though.  I guess I just need to do a few every morning.

Total: 6 rounds + … 10 squats.

No strength workout today.  Just a simple WOD.

“Helen”

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
21 Kettlebell Swings 56#/35#
12 Pull-ups

I’ve done this workout twice before.  Actually my first CrossFit workout was Helen.  I never scaled my workouts, so getting through 12 pull-ups was a chore.  It’s amazing what an effect “being in shape” has on my WOD times.

Prescribed weight is 56#, but I used a 35# kettlebell.  I had tried using a 45# KB in a recent workout and couldn’t do any more than 10 swings.  I guess I could have tried to get as far as I could with 45# before switching, but I was lazy.  My body was really blown about halfway through last time.  I wanted to be able to go strong the entire way through today.

My hand is still a little torn up from last week’s pull-ups.  I found a great video online that shows how to tape your hands so that you can still do pull-ups when they’re torn.  I tried it tonight and, while it didn’t remove all the hurt, I was able to get through the WOD without causing more damage.  I was able to do kipping pull-ups for the first round, and did three on the second.  The rest of my pull-ups were jumpers.

• 1:37 running / 1:30 KB + PU
• 1:52 / 1:23
• 2:11 / 1:10

Total Time: 9:43

For future reference — my average running pace was 1:53.

We continued our shoulder press strength workout today, stepping up the weight, and decreasing the number of reps.  I did five sets of 3 reps with a weight of 89#.  I had poor-ish form, but got every rep, except the very last one.  I guess I had the perfect weight.  This puts my 1RM at about 120#

The WOD was 5 minutes of Tabata intervals (20sec work / 10 sec rest) on the rower using total calories as the score.  I know I’m a pretty strong rower, so I looked at the scores and thought that I’d try to do at least 7 cal per interval.  My first round was 8, and I had 9 cal on a few.  Total score: 84.  Tired but happy.

The workout named “Nicole” is supposed to be 20 minutes: as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) of 400m run and max rep pullups.  Today, we did “Mini Nicole”.

As many rounds as you can do in 10 minutes of:

run to truck and back (~200M)
max kipping or jumping pull ups

We did max rep pull ups last week, so I had a good estimate of how I’d do on this WOD.  I figured I could do six or seven rounds, with an average of three pull ups per round.  I can’t kip, so the strict pull ups would wear me out pretty quickly.  I occasionally will do a kipping pull up as part of my warm up, but I’ve never been able to link two in a row.  I think a lot of the problem was that I just wasn’t committing to it.  Just before the WOD, I claimed my pull up bar and did two kips in a row.  Landon saw me and said basically “if you can do two kips, you’re doing all kips”.  Damn it!   I’m glad I did though.

Here are my splits.

• 0:46 running / :29 pullups (9 reps)
• 1:00 / :30 (8)
• 1:23 (6) [forgot to hit the split button on my watch]
• 1:28 (6) [forgot to hit the split button on my watch]
• 1:02 / :22 (5)
• 1:08 / :16 (3 jumping)
• 1:07 / :16 (3 jumping)
• 0:52

I surprised myself on the first round when I got the nine kipping pullups.  Wow!  It felt great!  I tore a callous during the 5th round of pull ups, and I tried to do a dead-hang on my 6th, but couldn’t get up, so I did jumping pullups on the 6th and 7th rounds.  I need to remember to chalk my hands when I do pull ups.

Total: 10:39. 7 rnds + sprinting. 33 kipping + 6 jumping pull ups

I stayed at work too late today, so I did a workout at home.  I’ve been slowly working on getting my endurance up to the point of being able to do 5 sets of 500 jump ropes.  This evening I did 5 x 280 single unders followed by 5 x 140 alternating foot jumps with 1min rest between sets.  I kept up, but it was pretty tough.  Afterward I did some double under practice.  I tried keeping my jumping pace steady, and just changing the tempo of my rope.  I did pretty well and will add this to my daily warm-up.