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
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
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
Other
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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