Crossfit Journal Snatch Videos

General — Tags: , — Tim Nowaczyk on January 1st, 2010

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

The Burgener Files

Other

All Barbells, All the Time

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on November 10th, 2009

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

Tabata Something Else

General — Tags: , , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on November 4th, 2009

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.

Another Shoulder Press and Rowing Workout

General — Tags: , , — Tim Nowaczyk on November 3rd, 2009

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

Crossfit Performance Challenge Final Exam

General — Tags: , , , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on November 2nd, 2009

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.

Linda

General — Tags: , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 30th, 2009

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

Back Squats, Push-ups, and Pull-ups

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 27th, 2009

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

Thrusters and Burpee Pull-ups

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 20th, 2009

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

Back Squats, Push Balls, and Sit-ups

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 19th, 2009

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

Back Squats and Half Cindy

General — Tags: , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 15th, 2009

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.

Helen

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 14th, 2009

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.

Shoulder Presses and Rowing

General — Tags: , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 13th, 2009

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.

Mini Nicole

General — Tags: , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 7th, 2009

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 didn’t think push ups could be made more difficult.

General — Tags: , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 5th, 2009

Today’s workout started with 5×5 constant weight shoulder presses.  Taking last week’s 5×5 shoulder press progression into consideration, Dave L. suggested that 77# would be a good weight.  I did two warm-up sets of 35# and 45#, then four rounds of 77#.  I Still felt good, so I did 82# on my last set.  I heard that we’ll be doing shoulder presses every week, but adding weight each week, so I’m planning to do 5×82# at that time.

21-15-9

Ring Pushups (scale reps as necessary)
Double Unders

I have never done ring push-ups before.  They are crazy hard.  I can do 25 push-ups easy, but could barely get through 5 ring push-ups.  I was able to do the first 21 strict by breaking them into sets, but on the second and third rounds I had to do knee push-ups.  I didn’t make up any time on my double unders.  My timing was all off.

Time: 10:27

Pullups and 10min AMRAP

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on October 1st, 2009

Strength workout today was 3x max reps pull ups. First round I got seven (pretty good for me).  After resting, I got four reps on the second and third sets.  I’ll have to grease the groove with pullups over the next few weeks.

10 Minute AMRAP of:

5 Hand Stand Pushups
10 Box Jumps

I used a 24″ box, doing knee head stand push ups.  Got in 10 rounds, plus all the push ups and 5 box jumps.  The box jumps were my weak spot.

Quick Burpee and Kettlebell Workout

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on September 29th, 2009

The gym followed their regular template today with a combination strength workout followed by a MetCon WOD.

Today’s strength workout was 5×5 shoulder presses. We did 15 rep sets last week, so this would give me a chance to boost my numbers up a little more. I’ve never tried for my 1RM, so I’m using this strength workouts to help me get a feeling for what that number probably is. I did warm-up sets at 35# and 45#, then started with my max 15RM of 67#. Since that was pretty easy, I added on 10# and did that for two sets. Now that I was half way though, I tried pushing up a little more to try to find my failure point. I did a 82# set with a little struggle on the last rep, and pushed to 89# for the last set, only getting 4 reps before failure.

On to the WOD.

3 Rounds of:

10 Burpees
20 KB Swings (45#/35#)

I did a few 45# KB swings before the WOD, to see if I thought I could handle that weight.  I figured I could get through one round, then switch to 35# for the remainder.  By the 10th rep into the WOD, I wasn’t able to keep my elbows straight, so I switched to 35# at that point.  In the middle of the second set of burpees, I suddenly felt all my energy drain.  I was surprised by the suddenness of it.  The rest of the workout was a trial.  I was having a hard time with the burpee jump.  I remember feeling like I had a pained expression while doing the last 20 KB swings with no break (Thanks Landon and Dave).  I didn’t beat many people, but I felt like I gave it my all.  That’s all I try for.

Time: 4:28

New Toys at the Gym

General — Tags: , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on September 22nd, 2009

The trainers have been busy the past few days, making new toys to torture us with.  They stuffed a bunch of army canvas with wood chips to make an uneven heavy sack.  Today we had to use them in a workout.

First, though, we had a strength workout.  Three sets of 15 shoulder presses.   I did 35# and that was pretty easy, so I stepped up to 67#.  This was a bit too aggressive.  I did 10 reps and this was all I could do.  After a bit of a rest, I did 5 more reps with this weight, then stepped down to 50# for a final 15 reps.

3 Rounds of:

10 Alternating Sandbag Cleans (5 each arm)
Run to Truck with Sandbag

Kyle suggested that I use a 42# bag and decided to stick with it after a couple of trial reps.  I though that the workout would catch up with me even though it felt easy at that time.  I should have used a heavier weight, since I cruised through it.  The running was difficult though.

Time: 4:27

Deadlifts, Double Unders, and Kettlebells – Oh My!

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on September 21st, 2009

We started out today’s workout with some strength work – three sets of eight snatch-grip deadlifts.  I worked my way up to 177# at which point Landon pointed out some poor form when lowering the bar.  I did another two reps at that weight with correct form, and went on to the WOD.

3 Rounds of:

30 Double Unders
30 KB Swings (45# / 35#)

I brought the jump rope I use at home, which is a lot lighter than the ropes at the gym.  It is also adjusted almost perfectly for my height.  Despite this, I didn’t feel too good on the double-unders.  I was only able to string 3 together in a row at the most, where my P.R. is eight with a gym rope.  I haven’t practiced double-unders with my rope at all.  I only use it for speed work at home.  I am planning to bring it with me to the gym and do 30 before every workout in order to get better at them.

For the kettlebell swings, I used a 35# weight.  I think I could do a shorter rep workout with a 45# weight at this point, but I knew that 90 reps would be tough for me using a 35# kb.

Time: 10:40

Today, I didn’t want to die.

General — Tags: , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on September 17th, 2009

Today’s workout was long, but didn’t leave my body blasted like yesterday’s did.

3 Rounds:

800M Run
50 Situps
50 Good Mornings

Last time I did 3×800, my average split was 3:26 and I tried to keep my pace as close as I could to that time today.  The good mornings were a new movement for me.

Splits:

  • 3:21 run / 3:27 sit-ups & good mornings
  • 3:35 / 3:17
  • 3:27 / 3:06

Total: 20:12

My average 800 time was slower by 1 2/3 sec compared to last time, which surprised me.  I thought I would be slightly faster.  I kept each round much closer to my average though.  I felt unsure about the movement on the first round of good mornings, which slowed me down.  I didn’t know if I was keeping my lumbar curve as I bent over, and also didn’t know if I was bending over deeply enough.  Landon assured me that my form was good and I sped up on the second and third rounds.

It was a longer workout than many, but I felt good afterward.  Most 20+ minute workouts have been killers.  This one was long, but pretty easy.  We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Crossfit Fail – Defeated by Poor Scaling

General — Tags: , , , , , , — Tim Nowaczyk on September 16th, 2009

I knew that today’s workout would be quite difficult, but I didn’t think it would knock me down so badly.

For time:

25 pull-ups
50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
50 push-ups
50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
50 “floor wipers” (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
50 “clean and press” at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
25 more pull-ups

I didn’t scale the workout down near enough.  I could do any one or two of the exercises as I scaled them, but I didn’t acknowledge the cumulative effect that such aggressive exercise would have.  I did Fran last week with jumping pullups, so I decided to do JPU from 1 20# bumper plate.  I should have used two, or a 12″ box.  I thought I could do 50 133# deadlifts, but moved down to 89# after the first 15.  For my push-ups, I did 25 strict, then struggled through 25 knee push-ups.  Box jumps on a 24″ box.  I can do this height, but it gets slow at the end.  Maybe could have done a 20″ box instead.  89# floor wipers, then dropped to 67#.  I only did 30 reps before quitting.  I felt like I was gonna pass out.  My heart was racing.  By this time, I was so wiped out that I was doing one or two floor wipers at a time and needing lots of rest between reps.

I’m sure that this one will come up again.  I’ll scale it properly next time and I know I’ll get through it.

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