Day 9/10 - Rest/ I'm a Shut-In

Day 9 was a rest day.  I actually cheated today and had a milkshake from Sonic.  It was good, but never worth it when it's all over.

Day 10
Kelsa is Nerding it up tonight at an early release of the new Twilight movie so I am stuck in the house.  I'd rather not ride my bike to the gym in the 108 degree heat, so I need to do some workout at home. 

I decided to do max reps of the following for 5 rounds:
                      Parallette pushups               Stability ball pushups
Round 1                       9                                        12
2                                  7                                         8
3                                  8                                         6
4                                  6                                         6
5                                  6                                         5



It was a lot harder than I thought.  Those parallettes make you go super deep into your pushups, plus the ball pushups require a lot of core strength and use more triceps than a regular pushups. 

Day 8 - Blisters in the Sun

After doing death by pullups yesterday, my hands were already hurting with a couple small blisters.  I was planning on wrapping my hands or at least putting on some bandaids, but by the time I got to the gym for todays workout I completely forgot.  I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but boy was I wrong.

Today's workout called for heavy deadlifts and hand stand pushups 5 rounds of 5 each.  The first round of deadlifts (225#) weren't bad, but by the second I felt one of the blisters pop!  Great!!  As I kept going they started to get tugged on more and pull apart and.... crap... four open blisters!  I just had to finish, so I did.

I was planning on cashing out with some bent over dumbbell rows but couldn't hold on to anything.  Man it sucks.  Instead I did some knees to elbows on the captain's chair.

Cash in:
Burgener warmup
Barbbell complexe warm up
dynamic stretching
Air squats and pushups

5 rounds for time
5 x 225# deadlift
5 handstand pushups (feet on bench)
Time: 10:27

Cash out:
21-15-9 knee raises on captain's chair

Day 7 Death by Pullups

Today's workout is supposed to be 10 rounds of:
3 reps of 45# pullups
5 strict pullups
7 kipping pullups

Even scaled to a moderate level, it remains 10 rounds and only down to 35#.  WOW!!

I know that I significantly lack in upper body strength, but that is a huge amount of weight to lift, even if it supposedly a medium level.  So, being the weakling I am, I dropped the weighted pullups to 20#.  I got through 4 rounds at that weight and then hit a wall.  I dropped it down to 10# and continued on another round and a half.  I was hoping to get 7 rounds in, but my hands were 5 more pullups away from breaking open blisters, so I decided to stop at 6 rounds.

I was pretty dissapointed.

In light of my lack of upper body strength, I have decided to start "cashing out" my workouts a couple of times a weak with some extra upper body strengthening.  Depending on what body parts I cover in my CF workout, I'll hit another body part to help increase strength.  Mainly: bench press, shoulder press and weighted pullups. 

An effective way to increase strength and size is do perform drop sets or pyramids.  Drop sets start heavy, you do reps to fatigue, then drop the weight and continue 5 or so sets.
A pyramid you start light, perform 10 reps, add weight, perform 8 reps, add weight perform 6 reps, then work your way back down.  You can also do the reverse of heavy + less reps up to light and high reps and back down.

_________________________

Todays workout:

Cash In:
Dynamic warmup
Burgener warmup
Barbbell complex warmup
2x8 air squats and pushups

6 rounds for time:
20# weighted pullups x3 (last two rounds 10#)
Strict pullups x 5
Kipping pullups x 7
11:39.  23 sets (number of times I dropped to the floor)

Cash out
Bench press
65# x 10
85# x 8
105# x 6
85# x 8
65# x 10

Energy: 8

Stress: 1
Shoes: racing flats
Location: Fitness Factory 2:20pm
Bad Boy: Nothing yet
Good Boy: Zone meals and snacks

Day 6 - Metcon madness

Today's workout was metabolic conditioning (metcon), pure and simple.  It's fun to do these, and they are definately deceptively hard.  On paper you think it's going to be easy and know it's going to be a fast workout, but it's going to S.U.C.K.

Today it looked like this:

Cash in:
Dynamic warmup

Burgener Warm-up
Burgener barbbell complex warm-up
Quad spinal rotations


3 rounds for time:
40 double unders (jump rope)
30 box jumps (bench)
20 dumbbell swings with 35# db (american style)
Time: 10:50

Cash Out:
Hamstring stretching on ball

Energy: 6
Stress: 2
Shoes: racing flats
Location: Fitness Factory 7pm
Bad Boy: 3-4 lifesavers/ 6laffy taffy @ work
Good Boy:  Zone meals and snacks

Day 5 - Rest day

Today was a rest day.  We went to the library today and got some cds (The Shins and A Band of Horses) cd's that I reserved the other day.  These were the cd's I was going to order on Itunes, but luckily they had them at the library...FREE!!!  FTW

I am planning on attending a course in December and will have to use personal money to pay for it.  It is pretty expensive but well worth the money for me as an athletic trainer and for future business.  I took the level one course a couple of months ago and use the information regularly.  My goal is to become SFMA certified and have two courses to go and possibly a couple day internship and/ or a test or two.  The certification is an assessment tool to help identify mobility or stability issues in patients/ athletes/ active people, with pain or just wanting to improve their performance, and then give them exercises and instructions on how to correct these issues.  It is very effective and I have already seen great effects from attending the first course and applying the information. 

Today I deposited a hunk of that money into savings.  I have a couple of personal training clients and am going to use the money I get from them to help pay for the course.  I'm guessing another 5 weeks or so and I'll have enough saved to register.  I'm hoping they will still have the course available when I have all the money. 

Bad Boy: More laffy taffy 4-5 pieces and some lifesavers at work, 1 ginger cookie that are amazing a patient brought in for us
Good Boy: All meals zone, rode my bike to work and back in am, lunch and pm in 110 degree heat!

Day 4 - Thrusters and situps

Nothing but a good hard workout today.  After working out for 4 days straight, I was getting pretty sore.  Especially my back from those tricep rope pullups and the pushups yesterday.  A good warm up was all I needed to lube up my muscles and get them ready to go. 

Warming up to some people is usually a 5 minute bike ride, walk or run, then a bunch of static stretching (bend over and touch your toes for 20 seconds).  This is NOT  a good warmup.  Our bodies actually relax more and shut down the reaction time of our muscles when we hold stretches.  The best warm up you can do would include dynamic movements as found in this or this video.  This helps prepare your body (nerves and muscles) for movements you are going to do during your workout or sport. 


Cash In:
Dynamic warmup
Burgener Warm-up
Burgener barbbell complex warm-up
10 pass throughs with dowel
10 overhead squat with dowel and 45cm ball

Today's workout:
3 rounds:
15 x 30# dumbbell thrusters
30 situps
7:27


Cash Out:
Single knee to chest bridges x 10
hamstring and hip stretching
Samson stretch

Energy: 7.5
Stress: 2
Shoes: VFFs
Location: Fitness Factory 7pm
Bad Boy: 3-4 lifesavers/ 3 laffy taffy @ work
Good Boy: All zone all day!

Day 3 - ITunes and RJ

Sunday was my birthday and one of the awesome presents I received was an ITunes gift card.  I was thinking about getting another cd by The Shins or Band of Horses but found I could borrow them from the library system for free!!  So I decided to get some workout music.  I tend to like fast rock/ metal (like Disturbed) or hip/hop (Ludacris) when I work out.  I hopped on ITunes and got a Flo Rida cd, Kanye West and some random rock songs.  Andrew WK really gets me going too.  I really like both full cds and the other songs too.  Man, I have good taste in music.

Today's workout was "RJ", here is his story:

Veteran LAPD officer and United States Marine Corps Reservist Sergeant Major Robert J Cottle, 45, was killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. RJ joined the Marines at age 18, and the LAPD in 1990. His various LAPD assignments included Hollywood Vice, Southeast Area, LAPD Dive Team and, most recently, SWAT. He is survived by his wife Emily and 9 month old daughter Kaila. The LAPD established a trust fund for them.

It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be.  And the worst part was that the run was the worst part!  My pushups were also suffering from yesterdays burpees and over head lunges.  I'm sure my shoulders and chest will start talking to me tomorrow. 

Total Push-ups: 125

I also worked on some technique on my regular air squat and overhead squat, lowering down to a 45cm ball.  The goal was just to get in some quality reps.  I was surprised how easy it was to keep good form, especially after my ass kicking workout.  Now, I didn't have a mirror or anything in front of me, nor was Kelsa there to help coach, but it felt good to me. 
 
Cash In:

Dynamic warmup
Burgener Warm-up
Burgener barbbell complex warm-up
Quadriped spinal rotation
Single knee to chest bridges

Today's workout:

"RJ" pack scaling
5 rounds for tim:
600 meter run
30 jumping pullups with tricep rope
25 pushups

Cash Out:
10 air squats for form to 45 cm ball
10 overhead air squats for form to 45 cm ball

Energy: 9
Stress: 1
Shoes: Racing flats
Location: Fitness Factory 7pm
Bad Boy: 3-4 lifesavers/ 1 laffy taffy @ work
Good Boy: All zone all day!

Day 2 - OH lunges and burpees

Cash In:
Dynamic warmup
Burgener Warm-up
Burgener barbbell complex warm-up

Today's workout:
30# Overhead lunges x 50 feet
21 burpees
For time 17:44

Energy: 7
Stress: 2
Shoes: VFFsprint
Location: Fitness Factory 7pm
Bad Boy: couple pieces of hard candy/ laffy taffy @ work, 1 baklava
Good Boy:  B, L, snacks all zone, dinner @ subway with extra cheese for pro

__________________________
Day two of my Year of Crossfit challenge.  My goal is to do 5-6 days of CF per week with eating in the zone as much as I can.  I'm feeling motivated!  The hardest part will be getting a workout in on Wed or Thur night because those are both 12 hour days when I get done at 6:30.  Luckily this week's rest day is on Thursday which is the worst for exercise motivation. 

The workout was great.  It was more shoulders than I thought it would be.  105 pushups in 105 burpees and 250 feet of 30# overhead lunges in 17:44.  My anterior delts were on fire for a good 20 minutes after stopping. 

I wore my vibram five fingers (VFF) and it's funny to see peoples' looks and double takes.  I wore them to Walmart after working out and I can totally tell when people are talking about them or checking them again for a better look.  I just want to be like, "They're Vibram five fingers... no they don't have any support... what kind of shoes were you born in?... they're very comfortable."  I'm still loving them. 

Looking forward to tomorrow. 

Day 1 Crossfit Challenge

I have stopped posting workouts based on my FITR Concept.  I think it is a great system, but it didn't seem like any body else in the blogosphere was keeping up with it.  I also missed doing Crossfit too much myself.  Crossfit makes you competative with yourself as well as other people who post their times on the website.  I only do CF in a regular Globogym setting and can't imagine how cool it is to do it in a real CF gym.  I bet I would PR left and right with another set of eyes on my form and with a group setting!   Some day....

So, I have decided to switch the purpose of this blog to following my Crossfit adventures.  I was browsing through my new Crossfit Journal subsciption and read about a soldier that was doing Crossfit and journaling his journey for a year.  I thought that it was a great idea and that since my birthday was yesterday, it would be a good starting point for a whole year of Crossfitting.  My goal is to perform 5-6 CF workouts a week, eat as close to Zone as I can and log my workouts daily. 

I also have a dream of opening my own Crossfit gym/ post-rehab fitness facility and think that blogging will help get ideas for forming my business.  I have been Crossfitting for almost 2 years, have used it with Crossfit Endurance to train for full and half marathons and have found that nothing is superior in results than any other program. 

Yesterday, I did 7 sets of 1 reps of overhead squats.  An overhead squat is a great exercise and not only lower body.  It is all core.  If you don't have core strength, good squat technique, shoulder mobility or thoracic extension you will not be able to perform an OH squat well.  I think my form was actually pretty good this time around.  I did the following weight:

1.  65
2.  75
3.  85
4.  95
5.  105
6.  115
7.  120

The hardest part was actually getting the weight over my head.  I had to unrack the weight in a back squat position (bar behind head on traps) and only did a push press to get it over my head.  I now know to do a split jerk to get it over my head so I don't have to use so much arm strength to get it up. 

I then ran on the treadmill 1 min sprint; 1 min rest x 9.  I was wearing my Vibram five finger sprints for the first time on a treadmill.  It took some getting used to but the form came to me and it felt good.  I don't think I'll keep using them on the treadmill, I'm afraid they will get scuffed on the belt.  I'll save them for CF and outdoor running.  I have some racing flats I'll wear for running on the tmill.