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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I attempted Fran a bit over a year and a half ago.  I didn’t know the point of MetCon workouts at that time, so my scaling lost almost all of those benefits.  Instead of scaling it in a way that kept my heart and breathing rates up and keeping the intensity level high, I gained a lot of muscle fatigue and spent most of the time recovering.  I scaled today’s workout back a little bit more, but my time was so much faster.

21-15-9 reps of:

Thrusters (95# / 65#)
Pullups

I went with a 45# bar for the thrusters and did jumping pull-ups. I did the first round of JPU while standing on a 20# bumper plate (about 4″) and added a second bumper for the second and third rounds. Final time: 8:15 or so. I need to get kipping pull-ups down! Then I could stop with most of this jumping pull-ups bullshit.

A lot of reps of some standard exercises today.

WOD for Time:

1 Minute Handstand Hold
40 Pullups
40 Burpees
40 Situps
40 Air Squats

We did some front squats as part of the warm up (3x15reps). My PR 3rep FS was 75# a year and a half ago, but I also didn’t know what I was doing. I went with 67# today and got a good workout. My wrists need some stretching work so I’ll be adding the Reverse Namaste stretch to my warm up. I found another good tip online to think about pushing your elbows into the wall in front of you when doing front squats. This will create a bigger shelf for the bar and will give an extra half-inch or so for your hands.

On to the WOD. I think I can do a hand-stand, but holding it for 1 minute is definitely out. The substitution was a plank hold and even that was making my arms shake by the end of the minute. I was able to do 7 dead-hang pull ups, and the rest were jumping pull ups. The burpees were slow, but as Rx. Situps on an ab-mat.

Final time- 12:48

I’ve done the Cindy workout before; two times in January of 2008.  At that time I was regularly doing pull ups in the mornings and was going to the gym a couple times a week.  When I saw that Cindy was to be our workout today, I thought to myself that this would be a great benchmark to show how fit I am now compared to a year and a half ago.  Well, It seems that doing two hard workouts the two days before Cindy does not create a good environment for a PR.  Also, Jon had us do some kipping pullup practice before the workout, so my pullups were shot before I even started.  A year and a half ago, I did 6 RX rounds; today, I got 13 rounds (-2 squats) doing jumping pull ups and only the first two rounds with strict push ups.  I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Today’s Workout is a new one.  I’m kinda surprised that they’re doing this on a non-free day.

“Pace Yourself”

50 pull ups
Run to Stop Sign on Market (800M)
50 push ups
Run to Guard Rail (400M)
50 burpees
Run to Truck (~250M)

I scaled it down to 30 reps instead of 50.  I got six or seven good pull-ups in, but then switched to jumping pull-ups.  My 800m sprint was 3:44 (pretty good for me).  I got almost all of my push-ups, only having to do 4 knee push-ups.  My next 400m took me 2:01.  I was drained from the push-ups, so I did my burpees on my knees.  Final sprint was  51 seconds.

Total time: 15:52.

It’s been a while since I’ve crossfitted. I haven’t done this workout since the very first time I tried a crossfit workout.

“Helen”

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

Post time to comments.

The scaled down “pack” workout calls for 35 pound dumbbell swings which is about 1 pood, and I just happen to have a 1 pood kettlebell. I got to the AFC at about 9:10 and did the standard warm-up sans pullups. My sit-ups were on the floor instead of in the GHD because I think I’ve lost a bit of flexability. I can’t do dips, so I could only do 5, then 3 of them. It was 9:30 and I still had to do my last set of dips for the warm-up, but I skipped them so that I could start on the workout. I finished two rounds and didn’t think I could complete the third before they closed, so I skipped it.

Total time: 20:54 for two rounds.

I haven’t worked out in a few weeks, so that has to change. A while back I had the idea of doing a quick round or two of barbara-lite (10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups, 30 sit-ups, and 40 squats) in the morning every morning. I did this today and want to keep doing it every morning.

Today was a lazy day at home, but at 9:00 I noticed that today’s workout didn’t require any weights, and I’d even done it before.

“Tabata Something Else”

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals

my reps were

pull-ups: 3/3/3/3/3/3/1/1 total 20 (+3 from last time)
push-ups: 6/6/6/6/6/4/2/1 total 37 (-3)
sit-ups: 8/9/9/8/9/7/6/6 total 62 (-2)
squats: 11/11/11/11/11/11/11/12 total 89 (+6)
overall total: 208

Four weeks ago, I said that I hoped that this workout came up again soon. I guess I got my wish.

I haven’t crossfitted in a couple of weeks, but decided to do yesterday’s workout.

“Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

I’ve done Cindy before and did six rounds, so last night I decided to just do six rounds.  It took me 16 minutes so I probably should have done one more round, but I slacked.

I seem to always be doing pull-ups.  Today was a rest day, but I haven’t been working out much, so I did yesterday’s workout.

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

I was able to do six sets, plus one pull-up.  That’s five more pull-ups than last time.  I like seeing progress.

Another new workout.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

I made it through six rounds.  The pull-ups and push-ups killed me but I was able to keep up on the squats.  I was able to walk to the car without feeling like I would fall over after every step, so that’s a positive thing.

Another successful crossfit workout.

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals to comments.

My reps were

pull-ups: 5/5/2/1/1/1/1/1 total 17
push-ups: 7/7/7/7/5/2/3/2 total 40
sit-ups: 11/12/12/7/5/5/6/6 total 64
squats: 5/15/10/10/10/10/10/13 total 83
overall total: 204

Someone posted an mp3 mix with beeps at the 20 and 10 second intervals, and another sound that signals to switch to the next exercise. It helped me a lot to not have to always be looking at my watch. I hope when this workout comes up again that I’ll do a bit better at it.

It’s been a while since I worked out, with the holiday travel and all, but Hillary and I got into a nearby gym this morning. The Rxed workout for today was a 5k run. Running is one of the only crossfit workouts I can do as prescribed. Yesterday’s workout was a straightforward one named Barbara – 5 * (20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, 50 squats). I planned to do Barbara-lite by subtracting 10 reps from every exercise. I ran the 5k in 29:30 ish, and got through one set of Barbara in 6 minutes before giving up.