Excuses
So I’m back from Arizona. It was a fun trip but we completely skipped all planned workouts. As a result, I really wanted to hit my box this week but, unfortunately, past couple of days were crazy with all kind of early morning arrangements.
But hey, that’s why I got the Crunch membership, right? So yesterday I took 30 minutes between my catch-up meeting and an engineering interview and went to do back squats (5x5) and bench presses (5x3). 5-10 minutes to warm up, 15-20 for the strength exercises. In and out: 30 minutes.
And today I took 20 minutes before another interview (I do an awful lot of interviews these days; boring as fuck) to do 5x5 power cleans. This time I spent 5 minutes warming up on a roller, then rowed for 500m to elevate my heart rate and then spent 10-15 minutes doing power cleans. In and out: 20 minutes.
So if your excuse for not going to the gym is that you don’t have time—I will go all condescending wonka on you.
In other news, I started using my new awesome logging software. Future, here I am:
Logging
I haven’t been blogging about past few workouts because, well, I don’t think that a list of exercises is a very interesting read. Of course, my data is interesting to me—that’s why I started this blog in the first place—but now it’s time to take logging into a private space and use this blog for less mundane posts.
Unfortunately, all logging solutions I tried were pretty bad UI-wise. So I don’t really have a better solution than a spreadsheet. But we’ll see.
In other news, today I found out that the Crunch gym next to our office has a platform for olympic lifts, two squat racks, bumper plates, kettlebells, rowers and medicine balls. This means that now I can supplement my classes at Lalanne Fitness with slow-paced workouts working on mobility and technique. Exciting!
CrossFit Games Open, 12.5
We decided not to wait for Saturday and do the workout today. I was going for 36 reps but did better than expected!
WOD, 12.5:
- (7 minutes AMRAP)
- 3 barbell thrusters (100lb./65lb.), 3 chest to bar pull-ups
- 6 barbell thrusters, 6 chest to bar pull-ups
- 9 barbell thrusters and so on.
Pull-ups were pretty easy for me but thrusters were fucking hard. The last time I did Fran I couldn’t even do the RXed 95 pounds thrusters but here I was today—doing 100lb. I managed to go through the full round of 12 and then crank out additional 7 thrusters. Result: 67.
And after that I went up to the heavens:
Since I am not in the top 60 athletes in the NorCal region, this means that the CrossFit Games are over for me this year. And I am very glad I didn’t chicken out and signed up for the Games—it was lots of fun!
Previously:
WOD 03/21/2012: Back squat PR and double TABATA.
Good day—I PR’ed back squats and did pretty well during the metcon.
Warmup:
- Row 1k
Strength/skill:
Back squat (5x5). 4 minutes of rest between each set. I went with a high-bar back squats because they are easier for me.
- 115lb.
- 165lb.
- 185lb.
- 205lb.
- 225lb. (PR)
Double TABATA: KB swings (1.5/1) and hand release push-ups.
CrossFit Open Games, 12.4
Quite a few hours passed since we did 12.4 but my legs are still shot. Wall balls were unexpectedly hard.
WOD, 12.4:
- (12 minutes AMRAP)
- 150 wall balls
- 90 double-unders
- 30 muscle-ups
I started wall balls with two sets of 15 and then switched to sets of 10 until I got to 80. After that I was so tired I had to switch to sets of fives. After that, with just a minute left, I managed to crank out 50 double-unders.
Result: 200.
Looking forward to 12.5.
WOD 03/15/2012: Bench press PR
Today we again went for the last evening class so that we could do yoga immediately afterwards.
Warmup:
1000m. row and 3 rounds of 20 walking lunges, 20 shoulder only push-ups and 20 hollow rocks.
Strengh/skill:
Today was a bench press 1RM day. I like bench press so I was very excited to find out if I can beat my previous PR of ~75kg. And I did it!
- 10 reps with an empty bar (45lb.)
- 8 reps with 75lb.
- 125lb.
- 165lb.
- 185lb. (PR! ~84kg.)
- 195lb. (fail)
- 190lb. (fail)
- 190lb. (fail)
Even though I failed my last three attempts with even heavier weight I’m very happy about my new personal record.
Metcon:
- (7 minutes AMRAP)
- 7 push press (95lb/65lb.)
- 7 box over jumps
Box over jumps are scary. I went with 75lb. because this workout didn’t allow push jerks and finished with 7 full rounds.
WOD 03/14/2012: Hang power snatch
This will be short post because I need to post two workouts and I’m tired.
Warmup:
- (2 rounds)
- 50 double-unders
- 20 wall balls
- 20 GHD sit-ups
Strength/skill:
5x3 Hang power snatch
- 75lb.
- 85lb.
- 95lb.
- 105lb.
- 105lb.
Metcon:
- Double TABATA
- Hang power snatch (95lb./65lb.)
- Bar facing burpee
I went with 75lb. and finished with 4/4.
WOD 03/12/2012: Back squats
Today’s workout was exciting because we haven’t done heavy squats in a while.
(source: Lift Big, Eat Big)
Warmup:
- (3 rounds)
- 10 pull-ups
- 10 push-ups
- 10 squats
- 10 sit-ups
I decided to do deadhang pull-ups today and, man, they are hard. I need to practice them more.
Strength:
Back squats: 5x5.
- 185lb.
- 195lb.
- 205lb.
- 215lb.
- 215lb.
Squats were hard (especially since my shoulders are very tight and sore) but doable. Pamela took a video of one of my sets and after watching it I realized that I barely break the parallel even though during the actual squat I felt like my ass was almost hitting the ground. Anywho, I was pretty happy with my performance today because I managed to do five reps with my 1RM weight.
Metcon:
- (for time, 21-15-9)
- 400m. run
- Back squats (95lb./65lb.)
This was a relatively easy metcon even though my legs turned to jelly after heavy squats. I went through all rounds completely unbroken. Result: 7:53 as RX’ed.
