Tagged: kettlebell
ID
I don’t go often to the gym on Saturday, mostly because of scheduling issues. Saturdays are usually special, too: chippers. They take longer and there’s a lot of reps of a lot of exercises. It’s demanding physically and mentally because it seems to take forever at time. And because people used to sign in for Saturday morning classes, the chicken out at the last minute when they saw the WOD (taking space from others), the head coach decided that he wouldn’t be posting the Saturday WOD – it’s a surprise, nad you’ll know about it when you get there.:)
So I had no clue what I was getting myself into this morning. Here’s what was on the board: Dirty Dozen. For time – 25 walking lunges, 20 pullups, 50 box jumps 20in, 20 double unders, 25 ring dips, 20 knees to elbows, 30 KB swings 2 pood, 30 situps, 20 hang squat cleans, 25 back extension, 30 wall balls 20lbs and 3 rope climb. Phew! Lot’s do do, 40min cap.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that brutal. Demanding, yes. We more or less all went at the same pace at the beginning – done with the box jumps before the 5min mark. We started to sperate at the ring dips. Some are slower, some are faster. I actually finished second, with a time of 18:48. NOT Rx!
That pissed me off. You see, we had to use the 2 pood KB, and I thought I had one – none are labelled. Turns out I had a 1.5 pood. Wish I’d known that at the beginning, not at the next to last swing. The training remains, mind you, but I didn’t Rx because of weight ID. It stinks.
Still happy – have a nice weekend!
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
New Move – New Coach
Back at the box after a weekend of celebrating and going back to school. I now have less time now that the summer semester has started – Mondays and Wednesdays are out.
Things have change at the gym; we now have more classes available to accommodate the growing number of athletes. Instead of having one 1h class after another, we we have more options, but staggered to start every half hour. That way, we got more training time all the while making it possible to finish earlier. They’ve also added an open gym period on Sundays, for those who want to practice anything – trainer(s) will be present, of course. To make this possible, as I have alluded Sunday, we’ve hired a new coach. She’s a regular at our gym and a newly minted level 1 trainer. I didn’t see much of her training while doing my Bday WOD.. pick your poison day is pretty much do as you like. Today, she was leading our class. The fact that she’s a regular takes the awkwardness of first time teachers out of the way. She’s motivated, pays attention to details and sees things differently than the main coach. Combining those multiple point of views – they are not conflicting so far – help better understand some tricky things for movements. My first impression is a good one, but only time will tell how she’ll develop as a trainer. She’s got a good model in our main coach – that’ll help, too.
Today’s skill was shoulder mobility, something I’m always happy for, while the previous class was doing the WOD. 🙂 Then we switched to the WOD while the next class was warming up and preparing for the skills’ portion. Here’s what was on the menu today: 3 round for time – 15 ring dips, 20 KB Snatch 1.5 pood and 30 OH walking lunged 45lbs. The KB snatch was a new one, but fairly simple: You do a snatch with the kettlebell, with one hand – that’s it. The trick is not to let the KB hit your wrist/forearm too hard as it swings back at the top of the movement. I tried 1.5, but couldn’t do it… 1pood was good enough for me. Waling OH lunges are still a horrible thing to do. It took me 14:21. Demanding, but not too much, and you work out a good sweat. A good workout.
Summer is also coming along, with it’s heat and humidity. That should help me – I thrive training in that weather!
They’re also adding a competition workout/team – commitment is needed, sweat, pain and soreness are the price to pay, greatness the reward. It seems to be pretty much invite only/talk to the coach about it. It’ll be an intensive thing, for sure… not that I’ll be joining them. I’m aware of my current flaws and weaknesses and crazy schedule. I’m not there yet, but I plan to be.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
Schmalls
Pick your Poison Friday is upon us! Like often, I try to do something I don’t really like, if only to force myself at improving my weaknesses. Today, I chose Schmalls.
Schmalls is a Hero WOD: For time – 800m run cash-in, then 2 rounds of the following: 50 burpees, 40 pullups, 30 pistol squats, 20 KB Swings 1.5pood, and 10 HSPU. Then, there’s a 800m run cash-out. I did 35:432, but not Rx as I can’t quite do the pistol squats and full HSPU.
Pistol squats are squats, but with one leg straight out in front of you. So basically a one leg squat. It’s hard, and gravity keeps getting in the way of getting up.
Still, all in all a good workout – I got most of the anger and bad things out of me. A good way to finish the week, and start the weekend. 🙂
‘Might go train tomorrow.. it all depends if I get a WOD named after me. Our coach, for some athletes’ birthday, creates a WOD filled with stuff said athletes don’t quite like. As tomorrow’s my birthday, who knows if I’ll get one…
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
Body Metrics and End benchmark 1
The 90 days are done, now we collect our winnings or bragging rights. Sort of. First we have to redo the benchmark we first did before the challenge started, in January.
According to the rules, I had to do at least 2 benchmark WODs at the beginning and redo them at the end. In my case, it was Jack and Fran – you can check the January 7 and 10 posts. The results were used as a baseline to determine the winner and improvements, among other things. In my case, I’m number 1 equal with another athlete, so the benchmark will separate us. Obviously, for the comparison to be fair, it means I have to do this week’s WODs at the same weights as last time. Those that I’ve been reading my blog for a while will remember that I got a shoulder injury at the end of October that left me on the bench for a while, and that it took forever to heal and regain my strength. At the benchmark time, I wasn’t back up to full strength for Jack.
After the skill, we went straight on to Jack: 20min AMRAP – 10 push press 115lbs, 10 KB swings 1.5pood and 10 box jumps 24in. In January, I scaled at 75lbs and finished with 7 rounds and 2 push press. This time, with the same weight (no choice), I finished with 11 rounds and 2 box jumps! Holy crap! It’s a 50% improvement, more or less.
I guess the paleo, the training and the Open help. 🙂 Pretty proud of myself.
Speaking of pride, we also took my measurements to compare. In January, I weight 199lbs and had a body fat percentage of 20.1. Today, at about the same time, I weight 180lbs and had a body fat percentage of 15.1. 15.1! Again Holy crap! I think back then I was aiming at 10% body fat loss and some 20lbs. Half of my goal – not too bad. 🙂
And yes, the Mrs is happy with the results. 😀
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
P.S. My thoughts are prayers go to the runners and folks of Boston.
Helen 2
Ah, pick your poison Friday, where you have a degree of control on where you want to feel pain. I decided to go with yesterday’s actual WOD, Helen.
I did Helen a while back, 6 month ago to be exact. Helen is 3 rounds for time: 400m run, 21 KB swings 1.5 pood and 12 pullups. Last time, I did it in 14:23Rx. SO I figured I’d do it again to see if I’ve improved, or at least to push my limits. It went pretty well, actually. I did slow down in the third round, but my running’s still not too bad. I finished it in 13:07Rx this time
Beat my previous score by more than a minute! A nice way to start the weekend.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
2 pood
Back in the box after a slow weekend. I did train Sautrday, but I decided to take the Sunday off, first real rest day in the last 2-3 weeks. Felt good! The only exercice I did was yelling at my coathletes doing 13.2 – they did awesome, some breaking their previous 13.2 scores… and I mean breaking it by whole rounds.
Today felt like a Monday… just bleh. After the warmup, we split our group in two teams, for logistical reasons. One half did the WOD while the other did the skill part. I did skills first.
Skill was simple, squat cleans 10-8-6-4-4-4. I ended up doing 115lbs at the end, which was pretty much around my 1rep max. It went pretty well; getting under the bar was ok, too. I tweaked my wrist again, but it’ not too bad. I’ve been given more homework by the coach, too. Every time we have cleans, front squats, I have to add to my warmup a series of exercices to help with my wrist mobility, or lack thereof.
As my quads and knees were extremely well warmed up, we moved to the WOD, a quick one, too. 21-15-9 for time: back squat 225lbs, KB Swing 2 poods. Oh joy, one is my 1 max rep (recent), the other is 2 pood. That’s a LOT of weight to swing around – 72lbs. I scaled it quite a lot, and it still was a lot of work, especially the squats. I did 135lbs and 2 poods. Took me 7:50, and I’m goingto feel it tomorrow, too.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
Fredericton 2
I’m there, I have the possibility, might as well use it. With my elbows still a little sore from Wednesday’s pullups, I went back to the Crossfit gym to tackle new challenges.
Like I mentionned in my previous post, the first part of the training session is strength-oriented lifts. I had the choice today, so I decided to make use of professional lifters to work on a lift I’m not good at: the OH Squat. With their system, I started at 35lbs for 3 reps, and worked my way to 5reps and 60lbs over 5 sets. It’s not much, but the light weight helped me focus on my form. Even at 60lbs, my form was better, I didn’t feel like my arms were going forward and dragging me with them like usual. I’ll also give credit to my Ottawa coach, I’ve been told I got a good form/technique! 🙂 I did get some tips that I hope will help, as well as a new exercise to improve my shoulder flexibility. Like the deep squats I practiced every night, I had to do these ones every night. Hope it works – this will also help my snatch.
The Mrs worked on lifts while I did the WOD. She got good results and tips, too. She seemed very happy about it, too. 🙂
The WOD was 15min AMRAP: 10 pushups, 15KB swings 1.5pood. After Wednesday’s pushups, this was NOT welcomed. But like the old saying goes, It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun. I keep a good pace and finished with 7rounds and 1 KB Swing Rx. A good way to warm up in the cold N.-B. morning.
Filthy 50
Here’s a WOD I had done back in September. It wasn’t fun back then, and it still isn’t. Nonetheless, I was curious to see if I had improved. Odds were I had, but my double unders suck even more… No skill today, just the WOD, the Filthy Fifty.
Filthy Fifty – For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders
First time around, it took me 35:01 Rx to finish it. This time, it took me 27:38 Rx- quite an improvement. The worst part, after the hated double unders, is the burpees. Your body is already tired all over from what you’ve done before, your cardio’s being pushed to the limit every other minute by the effort and muscles keep cramping and uncramping because they’re too tired to stay cramped. Enter the burpees: 50 more reps of total body torture to make sure you’re totally drained afterward. Happy that it’s done, now.
And a big congrats to the Mrs, who did it for the first time and persevered throughout, regardless. 🙂
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 400ml water – after training.
Rx
Another good WOD tonight, and I’m going ot feel it tomorrow! Nonetheless, it felt good to fight the outside cold with training and sweating.
After warm-up, we went to the skill of the day – Power snatches 8-6-4–2-2-2. I started light, 75lbs, and went heavier until I found my max – 155lbs. I’m pretty happy with it, though I would’ve like to do my last set of 2 at 175, but it just didn’t want to. Next time!
The WOD was a hate-filled one for me, but I managed to keep my calm through out. Three rounds for time: 50 double unders, 50 KB swings 1.5pood and 50 situps – 20 min cap. That’s right, only 20min to do all of it. And I can’t even string series of doubles unders. Fun times. I was determined nonetheless to do this Rx, even if I only managed to do one round. I ended up doing 1 round and 13 situps of the second round – but. it. was. Rx! I’m really getting bad at those DU… I had to do them in sets of one. Statistically, I should’ve been able to at least to 2 in a row at some point. But no, not even. I hate double unders, with a passion. Still, I kept (most of) my cool and did them. It’s the only way I’ll get better. Sigh.
The rest went pretty well; it’s the quantities that hurt. 50 KB swings is a lot – you have to break it down in sets, it’s less daunting.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (28g) Dymatize ISO100 whey powder in 400ml water – after training.
Challenge Benchmark 1
In my previous post, I mentionned I was to do 2 Benchmark WODs this week for the paleo challenge. I plan on doing jiu on Mondays (with crossfit before when feasible), but today, I only did crossfit in order to do my first challenge benchmark, a Hero WOD.
We started with body measurements – weight and body fat percentage. I’ve gained weight since I started this blog – I like to think it’s mostly muscle mass – and I usually weight myself at empty, in the morning. On average, I walk at 192lbs with 19% body fat. My official weigh-in, around 5pm, was 199lbs and 20% body fat. I suddenly feel heavy, but not that fat. 🙂 I assume I’ll get measurements at the end, too. Loosing 8-10% and some 10 lbs would be really awesome; going back to my pre-wedding weight (168) would be nothing short of a miracle.
Our warmup was quick and simple. Two rounds of 7 burpees, 8 pushups, 9 sit-ups and 10 jumping lunges (each leg). We then moved on to the skill – hang power cleans 6-6-6-6. I finished my last set at 105lbs. I’m pretty happy with the progress, even though I probably could’ve added 10, maybe 20, more pounds. Then came the WOD.
Hero WOD – “Jack”: 20 AMRAP – 10 push-press (115lbs), 10 KB swings (1.5 pood), 10 box jumps (24in). I scaled the push-press to 75lbs and did 7 rounds + 2 push-press. My heart was racing by the time I was done. I didn’t expect it to be cardio-heavy! In addition to writing my results on the board with the others, my stats were entered in the challenge file, with an indication of what was scaled. Our coach refuses to tell us by which standards he’ll decide who won the challenge. I guess we’ll know in April.
I also tried to do a ring muscle-up again. Being an idiot, I did it at the end of my WOD; there wasn’t room around the rings before, as others were doing the WOD. I’m getting there, though. I looked at a tutorial to see what I was doing wrong… and I’m getting a better grasp of the body mecanics involved. If I keep this up, I might be able to do one by the end of the challenge… or even February!
Supplements
2 scoops (40g) Beyond Yourself Pre-WOD with 10oz water 20 min before training, 1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (28g) Dymatize ISO100 whey powder in 350ml milk – after training.
**So the pre-WOD is not working at all for me. Even with two scoops, I don’t feel a rush of energy or anything. Too bad. **
Road 2 Sparta(n) 