new kid on the block

Okay. So I'm not new to CrossFit, but this was the first Saturday WOD I have been able to attend with the group. I've been helping get things off the ground with our little CrossFit group; equipment, ideas, and planning. But I was out of town the past few Saturdays, and had to miss our first group WODs.

As my first Saturday group WOD, this was a great experience. I'm excited about what we are putting together. The group was small, there was 7 of us in all. But we did an exhausting work out, we had an official looking setup in the park, and a few people even checked us out and got some information. We've got plans, and it looks like things are heading in the right path. I'm already thinking about next Saturday.

Be there.

training, on the go

For most of us, an important part of training is routine. Some work out before work, others after. Some arrange their workouts around meals, class, or whatever gives structure to their day. But whenever you work out, it is probably a part of a routine.
Not only time, but location is another important part of our daily training routine. The damp smell of your home gym, or the familiar sites at the local park can be an essential part of your workout, something that helps you clear your mind and focus on the challenge ahead. Finally, our equipment is a part of the routine. When I go out into my backyard, I know exactly what my weight bar feels like, I know that my pull-up bar spins because I never mounted it correctly, and that the homemade rings give a little because I need to tighten the knot on the rope that runs through them. This is my gym. This is home.

So what do you when your entire routine goes up in smoke?

I'm at my parents house right now, trying to see everyone before school starts back up again. I feel like training has become a lifestyle, so instead of taking a break while I'm here, I'm continuing to work out. Yet there is a whole new challenging aspect to this, I have no schedule, no set place to exercise, and limited equipment means.

I'm sure everyone who works out regularly runs into the same problem. Unexpected things happen, forcing us out of our set schedule. In order to continue to train, we are forced to be imaginative, flexible, and dedicated.

I have a couple dumbbells here, no pull-up bar, and there's a YMCA down the road. I tried the Y, but there isn't much to work with. It was crowded and uncomfortable; I couldn't do the workout I had planned for the day because they didn't have the proper equipment. Instead, I did the "CrossFit Total", maxing out on shoulder presses, squats, and deadlifts, which isn't something I have done before. I also worked on back extensions, something I know I'm lacking in.

Today I was going to try the Y again, but it was about to close. Frustrated, I made up my own workout: 21-15-9 one-legged squats, each leg, and hindu push-ups. it ended it being a pretty good workout.

I've learned from this that when your workout routine goes out the window, you have to "go with the flow", and not get frustrated. Try something you don't usually do, or haven't done in awhile. Come up with a routine you haven't done before; a novel progression or combination of exercises. And even if you're in an unfamiliar gym or a backyard with no equipment, plow through your workout like you always do. you'll be a better man (or woman) for it.

Mind Over Matter?

On the main CrossFit Lombardy blog, it was mentioned that the person who goes last, always gets the best score. While this isnt always true, about 4 times out of 5 around here, the last person to go usually gets marginally better scores. Why is this? It can't always be that the person to go last just happens to be the better man that day, physically speaking. There's currently three of us doing WOD's on a regular basis here, and we each have our strengths and weaknesses. But the recent trend that "the person who goes last wins" show that the bottleneck in our performance often is not physical, but mental. When you go last, you see the suffering on your teammate's faces. But you tell yourself the whole time, that you can go faster. It doesn't necessarily matter who is a little stronger or who can run a little faster. When it's your turn to go, you know the time to beat. You tell yourself you wont rest as long, or at all. You know the pace you have to keep and you are determined to keep it. Driven by the will to compete and win, you make sure that you do.

But what is this really saying about any of us? It shows that in some cases, we lack mental strength moreso than physical strength. We all have the ability to make a superhuman effort every time. I'm sure everyone has finished a workout, and realized that they truly gave it their all, that they went without stopping, without thinking even. Yet each time, and it has been only a few times, that I have finished a workout and realized I gave it my all, I also knew that I had not done anything "special". The stars had not aligned giving me the power to push ahead. I gave myself the power, and it was not something I couldn't have done every other workout of my life.

Give it your all next time. I'll try to do the same.

WOD, 12/23

Well, the whole nature of the "challenge" changed about 2 weeks ago. matt moved back down to Richmond, so we have been working out together. Another blog, crossfitlombardy.blogspot.com has been started to keep tracked of our group WODs. This week, I'm back home for Christmas, and I'll be working out by myself.

I did Tabata Something else today, which is 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, for 8 rounds each of pull-ups, push-ups, situps, and squats. I scored by total number of each exercise.

Push-ups:119
Squats: 156
Sit-ups: 101
Pull-ups: 44

Pull-ups were terrible. I need to be working on them.

WOD, 12/6 "The Filthy Fifty"

I gave the old beast a try. It didnt look too hard, I mean just 50 of a bunch of easy exercises? Well, I was wrong. Unlike the "Murph", this one pushed my aerobic capacity to the limit. I was breathing heavily the entire time. It felt good. Anyways, here's the workout:

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box -did these last, not first
50 Jumping pull-ups - unbroken
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood - unbroken
Walking Lunge, 50 steps - unbroken
50 Knees to elbows - broken like crazy.
50 Push press, 45 pounds - 15-12-10-8-5
50 Back extensions - 25-25. I should have been able to do these in one go.
50 Thrusters, 20 lbs. 25-25
50 Burpees - broken like crazy. first experience with burpees
50 Double unders - can barely do DU's. No good.

Time: 28:02

that's a little over 3 seconds per rep. Figuring none of these exercises should take over 1 second per rep, thats over 2 second of rest per rep. Room for improvement is obvious right there. I can't wait to try this one out again.

WOD, 12/5

Alright, I havent been keeping up with things the past few days. I didnt work out this past monday, and maybe sunday. I cant even remember, but here's my WOD for 12/5

"Murph"

1-mile run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Sit-ups
1-mile run

47:25

I realized a few things:
-my pull-ups are still lacking.
-my push-ups are lackng
-my legs are decently strong for my bodyweight

My aerobic capacity didnt get taxed at all here. I'm pretty used to running a mile at this point, and since I completed all of one exercise before moving on to the next, I ended up just burning up my muscles before I got winded.

I'd like to start making up my own workouts on a regular basis. But I think I will wait a little while, until I really have an idea of what I need to work on, and what makes up a good workout. That'll take some experimentation.

WOD, 12/2

Skipped out on yesterday's workout. No good. Anyways, here's what I did today.

Push-up burnout
Pull-up burnout

One round of Barb
-2:25 minutes

which is interesting, because that's much better than my previous times. And I had just done it a few days ago! My room mate tried the workout, and got better times than me, in the mid 2 minute range. So I had to show that I could compete. It's times like that which show me how much I thrive on competition when it comes to fitness.

after that, it was
3x3x3x3x3x3x3 Overhead squats
85-85-95-95-105-105-115

This is my first time with OHS, quite awkward. I could do a little more weight, but I need to work on shoulder flexibility and balance. I can tell how important form is for these.

WOD, 11/30

Barb:

20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

5 sets, each for time, with a 3 minute rest between each

1) 3:20
2) 3:19
3) 3:10
4) 3:16
5) 3:37

I was really happy with the turnout

Rest day

I'm beat from yesterday. So today, I'll rest. I did a few pull-ups earlier, because mine are terrible, but I'll keep it at that.

On a side note, as I was walking to class, I witnessed a man, crazed on PCP, get naked and attack people on campus. Could I have dodged his punches if I had gotten in his way? Could I have taken him down?

Maybe. I'll keep working until next time.

WOD, 11/28

Here it is:

Get a 50# dumbell. Find a stretch of grass. Make some kind of marking where youre standing, measure out 15 feet from that, make another mark. Got it?

Pick the dumbbell up with both hands, go into a full squat, and throw it at the mark 15 feet away, using your arms, legs, and chest. Lung over to the weight,(4-5 lunges for me) pick it up, repeat the process.

So 1 count= 1 Dumbbell throw + 4-5 lunges

The workout is: 21-15-9-3
-Dumbell throws/lunges
-jumping pull-ups

you could really do regular pull-ups, but my back is sore from pull-ups yesterday, and I was trying to keeep my heartrate up without having the pull-ups slow me down.

Time: ~15:00

I noticed I could have done it faster. The part that got worked the most was my back, and my legs and shoulders a little. I may have to tweak it a bit in the future.

Now I'm off to the gym. I'm planning on alternating 500M rows, situps and pushups, something like

3 Rounds:
500M Row
50 Push-ups
50 Sit-ups

WOD, 11/27

Completed 10 rounds of the pull-ups. I think I could do 13 rounds back in the day. It was actually a bit better than I thought I could do. And my neck didnt explode!

Also included in the workout:

2 rounds of:
50 crunches
25 Push ups
500M row

for a warmup.

1000M row after the pull-ups for a cool down.

Streched my neck plenty before, during, and after the pull-ups, and focused on relaxing my neck and breathing. Worked out well.

Headaches

Today I will be doing the following 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.

which has me a little wary because pull-ups are what brought on some sort of neck injury that caused severe sudden-onset incapacitating headaches. The problem was never really diagnosed. I saw a couple of doctors, got a CT scan, went to a chiropractor. The whle 9-wards. Nothing unusual came up. Too bad it took 5 minutes of searching on the internet to find this:

Exertional Headache

Benign exertional headache has been recognized as a separate entity for more than 60 years. In 1932, Tinel (7) first described severe but transient headaches following exercise. Since then, these headaches have been associated with exercises such as weightlifting (8) and wrestling (9).

Recent studies (8-10) have delineated a clear-cut exertional headache syndrome: Straining or a Valsalva-type maneuver precipitates the acute onset of severe throbbing pain, usually occipital, for a few seconds to a few minutes. The headache then settles to a dull ache lasting 4 to 6 hours. In subsequent weeks to months, the headache recurs with exertion. The patient has no history of migraine and a normal neurologic exam.

In the largest series to date, Rooke (11) followed 103 patients with benign exertional headaches and found that approximately 10% had an organic cause for the pain, usually a skull-base anomaly. Clearly, the major differential diagnosis—subarachnoid hemorrhage—needs to be excluded by appropriate investigation.

Exertional headaches are thought to be vascular, but this is unproven. According to one theory, exertional headache occurs because exertion increases cerebral arterial pressure, causing the pain-sensitive venous sinuses at the base of the brain to dilate. Studies of weight lifters (12) demonstrate that, with maximal lifts, systolic blood pressure may reach levels above 400 mm Hg and diastolic pressures above 300 mm Hg. The throbbing, migrainous nature of these headaches, together with the finding (13) that intravenous dihydroergotamine mesylate can relieve them, supports the supposition that these headaches have a vascular basis.

Treatment strategies include NSAIDs such as indomethacin at a dose of 25 mg three times per day (15). In practice, the headaches tend to recur over weeks to months when the patient performs the provoking activity and then slowly resolve without treatment, although some cases may be lifelong. In the recovery period, a graduated symptom-limited weightlifting program is appropriate.

So, I'm going to have to figure out how I can avoid this. I took about a month of no exercise to heal up last time. I don't need that to happen again.

wish me luck.

WOD, 11/26

As stated in the last post, the workout was:

1 mile run

streching

3 Rounds for time:
-400 M run
-21 KB swings
-12 Pull-ups

Time: ~13:30.

I need to measure out 400M accurately
My pull-ups are weak. That's where I lost all my time, all of my sets were broken. I havent done many pull-ups since hurting my neck, so I know where I need to be working. KB swings were great, unbroken, and my running went well.

The Challenge

This, as you can see, is the first post in my blog. It is in this blog that I plan to keep track of my workouts, nutrition, and overall progress in working towards the upcoming challenge. What is this challenge? A little background...

Matt and I were roommates for about a year, from august '05 to august '06. At the beginning of that year, both of us were in pretty terrible shape. We both experimented with various workout routines and plans, including weightlifting and bodyweight endurance workouts. Each time we'd try a new plan, we recognized the deficiencies in our previous fitness plan. Finally, we came across www.crossfit.com. It seemed that crossfit incorporated the best aspects of the workouts we had been doing before, into one system. After a few months of doing crossfit consistently, I can say that I was in the best physical condition I had ever been in. I could do everything harder, stronger, and faster than I had been able to do before. I'm not saying there wasnt room for improvement, but I had reached a new level of fitness.

This during the summer this past year. I managed to injure my neck, which made many exercises difficult to do, other things got in the way, and I stopped making time for exercising like I used to. Matt graduated and moved out, and I no longer had someone pusing me to get out there. Eventually, I wasnt exercising at all. In the past few weeks to a month, I've started workout out again, trying to get back into my old routine. Yet it's not quite the same when you don't have someone doing the same workout as you. I've found that the competitive edge if a huge factor (for me at least) in performing well, especially in a program like crossfit.

Matt still lives about an hour away, and neither of us have transportation. I can't find anyone in the area who would be a reliable workout partner, and who would want to do crossfit 5-6 days a week. After a recent phone conversation, Matt and I came up with the idea of a fitness challenge. For me, this challenge is an answer to the problems I just mentioned. It's something to motivate me, to push my level of fitness to something even higher than it's been before. We havent worked out out all the rules but the basic premise is simple. Every month or two, we meet up, and perform some sort of workout together. This workout will probably be known to both of us in advance. It will test all of the different aspects of fitness, as laid out by crossfit. The workout will be long, and hard, to say the least. Whoever does it faster, with more reps, more weight, or whatever the workout calls for, is the winner. Set up another workout, different from the last, meet up again in a month or so, repeat.

Enough typing, time to exercise. Here's the plan for today:

-1 mile run

-3 rounds for time:
400M run
21 KB swings
12 Pull-ups

I'll let you know how it turns out.