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

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.

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

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’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.

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.

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.