The sport of fitness, the art of getting better

http://crossfit.com - 051231
http://www.crossfit.com/cgi-bin/moveabletype/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1017 (the kipping pullup) Post questions and reflections to comments.

"Kipping in pullups is cheating just like pumping your arms is cheating while running." I forget who said that but they are a freaking genius!
DH pull ups: 2 and done for the day.Kipping pullups: 4-7 rep sets for multiple sets
Having people stop and stare at you "cheating" : Priceless.
The main thing I like about kipping is... I CAN FINALLY DO IT!
Being able to do entire workouts with unmodified pullups is a huge ego boost in one way but kills you metabolically because 1 second of rest between 30 pullups is 25 seconds you don't get when you kip for 6 5 rep sets, plus the kip adds a metablic demand straight pulls do not have.
I still try the dead hangs periodically and I went from 1 to 2 in the amount of time it took me to go from 0 to 5 reps of kipping. So I expect a similar return when I got from 5 kipping to 10 and from 10 to 20.
Cheating ROCKS.

The sport of fitness, the art of getting better

The sport of fitness, the art of getting better

100 burpees - 17:15

I did this as a challenge to myself on the day after Christmas. Originally I had planned to do Barbara, because a year ago I did 3 rounds with burpees. I had only been doing crossfit for 4 months.

I saw the Burpees x 100 thread on crossfit.com and thought, wow, that sounds interesting. I love burpees! Burpees were the first thing I ever did from crossfit.

Anway, I typed this big long post from my blackberry, but lost it because blogspot uses Java aned BB don't do java!

so about 17 sets of 5 burpees, and a couple sets of 2 and 3 each. I applied the trick Jason and Ricky taught me for Jumping Squats (evil bastards) - drop into the squat from the jump. I dropped from my burpee jump straight to the squat-thrust. I was able to do almost all the sets without stopping in the squat position.

Definite benchmark workout! Gonna do that one on my birthday!

Saturday's workout

I thought I was doing the Pack (25-45#) but 45# was the Big dog Wgt.

Run 800M
50 Hang Squat clean 45# (sub 2 x20#db)
5 rope climbs or 50 pullups (mix pull ups and rope climb)
Run 600M
25 Hang Squat Clean 45# (sub 2 x20#db)
3 rope climbs or 50 pull ups (Mix pull ups and rope climb)
run 400 M
.....stopped at 40 minutes.

the rest is:
15 Hang Squat Clean 45# (sub 2 x20#db)
1 rope climbs or 50 pull ups

CINDY

Cindy

13 rounds (pushups on knees). This is the same as my last attempt.

One thing that is remarkable - I have not been doing CF more than twice a week for the last 3 months.

And I still got 13 rounds on this workout. Imagine if I had been keeping up my 4-5 w/o per week routine. I am going to start kicking serious butt as soon as I get back from my vacation. *determined*

Wednesday workout

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

Squats
Pull Ups
Push ups
Toes to Bar

I did it with mostly knee push ups and knees to elbows. 50:00 First round 12 min, second round at 24, third round at 30....

Mike did it in about 13:00.

3rd workout this week!

From class today:

Big Dogs
run 800M
50 x HSC 45#
5 rope climbs or 50 pull ups
run 600M
25 x HSC 45#
3 rope climbs or 50 pull ups
run 400M
15 x HSC 45#
1 rope climbs or 50 pull ups


I started this with 2 20#dbs. climbing the rope was...ummm...embarassing. I managed one ascent and half attempt in the first round. Second round, I stepped all over mike h and still did not get up the rope. Did tortured pullups instead.

Did not finish. Do not pass go. Do not collect big dawg workout points.

Helen - 12kg 17:21

Dammit.

And, it was with a 12kg bell. I haven't been crossfitting regularly so I figured it would be suicide using the 16kg bell.

Last time with 16kg was 17:26

dammit.

Gotta get to Brand X more often. Frickin' work.

The sport of fitness, the art of getting better

1:04
Did puppy rounds but did mostly pack movements.
(for 15 mu)
45 pullups (9:36! plus nasty blister on my left hand)
15 bar dips + 30 bench dips
(I could only do sets of 1 & 2 on the bar going down as far as I could - which was pretty far. Then I figured I was losing intensity and finished up with sets of 15 on the bench)

Followed by
3 rounds of
15 heaving snatch balance, lunge, lunge X 35# (for 45#)
10 burpees + jump up to bar
5 Bear complex X 35# (for 95#)
200 m

Finish with
30 Dumbbell shoulder presses (for 15 HSPU)


I tried the HSB with 45# but had to drop the bar from the top. Then went down to 35# bar. Did sets of 5 until third round when I went to sets of 3.
I could have done the Bear complex with 45 # but just stuck to the same bar. Besides it was are real bear with 35#! ;) I was able to do sets of 3 & 5.

Frannie takes another victim

A friend of mine was browsing Crossfit.com and found a video of Fran.

He decided it looked simple enought so he set himself up with a 95# bar in the gym and set to work. After one thruster went to 75 pounds, and after a few more went to 65#.

He did finish the workout with reps little bit modified.

The next day: "I feel like crap today and I'm blaming you, Laura."

heh. I said Welcome to the club. Everyone gets their asses kicked by Fran.

Eugene's birthday pull ups

I know I get a little over ambitious or maybe once I decide on a goal, I just don't work on it as much as I should but I knew I would probably not be able to do a single set of 50 pull ups for Eugene Allen's 50th Birthday.

I don't have a good pull up station here at home and Brand X is closed on Sunday, so I went over to the little fitness center in my neighborhood (they let me have a free day - since I said I would be less than a half hour) and tried to do a pull up on one of their lifting cages (like the ones they have at the Vista HS WL gym) but I think I lack confidence on it so I couldn't do it.

I settled for the Gravitron (cybex?) machine. I used the parallel grips for most of the reps and started with 8 # of assistance. After about 15 I upped it to 10#. I was doing sets of 2 and when I got to where I could only do singles, I was at 40 so I upped it to 12# and cranked out a few sets of triples.

I finished the fifty in 20:00 and that is counting futzing around with the first station.

I still posted on Eugenes thread so that he would know I tried. But assisted mmmm maybe he won't count them.

bummer.

Saturday's Workout

Did the Brand X "Happy Day Workout" by Cindy Franz.
Station 1: Ring pull ups
Station 2: Box jumps
Station 3: Pull ups
Station 4: Situps Station
5: Thrusters

Partner A runs 200m while Partner B performs max. reps at station, then switch. Move to next station and repeat.
Partner A + Partner B + 100 (10 points per lap) = total points

I had a new person, Juliette, who had only been to one class before, and Jeff asked if I was sure - knowing she would not get as much done, I suppose or possibly afraid for her, since I run REALLY slow! haha.

First station, pull ups I did 3 sets of 5 pull ups and a set of 2 then a single for 18. Juliette came back and she did some jumping pullups before Jeff pointed out that if she did not get her chin over the reps don't count, so she ended up with just a few pull ups.

Next was the situps which I happend to ROCK at, so I got up to 62 points on my set, then I ran, came back and did jumping ring dips which I do not rock at, so 5:1 ratio gave me 5 equivalent dips. for at running total of 67.

Box jumps got me to 82

Last but not least I kicked ass on the thrusters with a 35 # bar by getting to 110.

I did my last run after giving Juliette a quick instruction on how to do it and worried a little that she should be using a PVC pipe. Told her to do whatever Jeff said if he came by. When I got back from my run, her boyfriend David was watching her form.

Since she was focusing mostly on form, she didn't count all her reps and so we counted 10 for each exercise except we just counted 5 for pull ups.

So we had 255 points all together. Not too shabby.

I helped her work on jumping pull ups on a better station for it and then we did some squatting practice.

WOD

4 rounds for time
Run 400M
50 Squats

Did a variation at Brand X (Pack workout)

3 rounds for time:
Run 800M
50 Squats
(Big Dogs did Weighted Front squats)

My time: 26:05

That's 50 fewer squats (actually 40 fewer because I did 4 sets of 15 in the last round) and 800m more running.

My runs averaged about 6 minutes each round. Squats about 2 minutes each round - sucking wind approx 2 total minutes. LOL.

Mysterious Bruises

Last wednesday I came home from crossfit with a mysterious bruise forming on my left upper arm. Very noticeable.

I couldn't figure it out.

There were some ring dips in the chipper we did in the class but the ring circumfirence is way to small to bruise me that high up, and I dismissed it as the cause.

Well, last night I noticed the bruise was back with vengeance after doing some more jumping dip practice and some static holds on my rings at home. I went back and did a little recreation of the scene.

Apparently, the buckle you adjust the height of Tyler's rings is exactly at that spot when adjusted at a good position for jumping.

Mystery solved.

I wonder if the rotation of my wrists is too far in and if I adjust to proper rotation away from my torso the buckle will not press on my arm that way.....

Zone Redux

These pants are too tight.


dammit.

Breakfast...coffee. Three espresso shots. Heavy cream.

Not really zone and no nutrition.

Lunch....3 oz grilled chicken. 1 cup white bean "chili" really just bean soup. Giving myself 3 unfavorable carbs for that. Assuming fat is commensurate.

eh.

I'm gonna get back on the zone - will try to do zone for Turkey day. I'll let you know how that works out.

Painstorm - Suck it up Buttercups!

Painstorm - Pack version @Brand X

1:00 to do:

50-40-30 Squats
45-35-25 Pushups (knees - I'm a realist)

Run 400m

40-36-32-28-24 DB snatch (L/R)

Run 400m

30 Box Jumps
27 Pull ups

Cried uncle at the 1hr mark.

The rest should have been

24-18 Box Jumps
21-15 PUll ups

Run 400M

20-16-12 Dumbbell burpee, hang squat clean, thrusters
18-14-10 Ring dips
Run 400m


10-8-6 HSPU’s
9-7-5 Pistol (1 rep = l,r)
Run 400m

Stubborn

me (after doing 20#db walking lunges): I don't think I can do the HSQ with these 20#ers.

Jason: Just do front squats. Or shallow HSQ.

Me: I guess I can do that instead of lowering the wts.

/Me does 35 20#HSQs. ALL THE WAY DOWN and ALL the WAY UP.

STOOOOPID.

ouchie

I did a modifed version of the WOD:
800M run
20 inch Box jump, 35 reps (is this the tall box at the school?)
Sit-up, 35 reps
35 Slam-ball, 20 pound ball
20 pound Dumbbell walking lunge, to end of building and back
20 pound Dumbbell hang squat clean, 35 reps
jumping Ring dips, 35 reps

about 50 minutes. Should have used lower weights. Good one.

Gotta get back on track

Noticing the effects of not working out...made myself do a modified Fran at home. My pullup station doesn't work for me. So I hung my rings from the bar and did:

Bizzarro-Fran for me tonight:

21-15-9 of

65# thrusters
Jumping Ring dips

16:24

Thrusters were DIFFICULT - and too heavy for me to do more than sets of 5's and threes.

Focused on getting shoulders in ears and going all the way down for thrusters and on getting full extension and keeping arms close to my body on the jump-dips. I thought about doing 5:1 ratio for pull ups but it was 10pm and wanted to keep the time down.

I think I might use the Jumping dips as a sub for pullups at home. That way I can still do workouts with pull ups in them and work my ring dips at the same time.

Chipper

30 Pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings 16kg (35#) 5x10
75 Sit-ups
50 Push-ups (mix of reg/knees)
30 Front squats, 65 pounds !!
50 Supermans
25 Handstand Pushups (attempted then did 15#db presses)
30 Hang squat cleans, 45 pounds
30 Knees to elbows
35 Dips (dips/assisted jumping on rings)
21 Thrusters 15 pound - dbs
50 Sit-ups

1:05

I had my first private session with Kim Toth today. She had me do:
Run 200m
Static Holds in a tuck on the rings - x 4 max holds
run 200m
Ring pushups 4 x max (2 sets on knees)
run 200m
Ring extensions? This is where you start out in push up position and the gradually reach forward to a planche...not sure what they are called. 4x max reach
run 200m
Stretch - good mornings with pvc pipe
5 sets of O/H squat with 5 presses in the down position

This was all BEFORE the chipper. No wonder it took me an hour. But here's the mods on the last time we did this chipper:

Pack Workout
Time 47:00
with 45# bar for lifts, jumping pull ups, 20# shoulder presses for hspu, 20#kb swings.

Pushups: I did 20 std pushups and then went to knee pushups. I managed 1 last std pushup in the last 5 rep set.
_________________

Tomorrow: ANGIE

I've never done Angie with pull ups. I wonder if we can do it tomorrow at BX.

Tuesday Crossfit

Run 200 M
45# push press x 15
1 15' rope climb

How many rounds can you complete in 20 minutes.

5 rounds less 2 presses and 1 ropeclimb.
or in other words 4 rounds + 13 presses

Too much resting. Not enough puking. haha. I should have done better than that. But at least I climbed that damned rope 4 times! It took me a while to get my feed to get some grab each time and I had to hang on for dear life while I fumbled with it.

kicked my butt!

10-20-30
Box Jumps 18#
Shoulder Presses 15#
Burpees
Pullups


34:08

Back on Schedule...maybe

My mom comes back tonight.

Hopefully will be able to make it to Wednesday crossfit at BX, then Friday AM.

I'm going to try to get to the gym to do a workout. I'll pick one from last couple of weeks ago.

I feel like slug! ;)

finally

Two dead hang pullups, no kip, in a row.

However, neither of them was one smooth pull. I had to REALLY muscle myself up there. I picked my feet up and hung free at the beginning of each pull up.

w00t

I weigh about 152-155.

Skill Practice

Practiced headstands as coached by Roger Harrell in the seminar.

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/sept-sem/press.wmv
hmmm I didn't do it JUST like that. I was resting my knees on my elbows as a transition. Will have to practice that some more.

When you get it right, it feels easy. 'Til you topple over and hit your knee on the tv stand. OUCHIE.

I got up for a mere second 3 or so times. Got a nice bump on my head, no carpet downstairs. Should get some padding for the floor. hmmph. And knees on elbows gets old FAST.

Did some jumping dips on my rings, and cursed my lack of a decent pull up station at home. Won't be able to get into BX until my mom comes back from her out of town trip.

25 pull ups to make the hall of fame at BX. No problem. ;) I'm all over it. Gotta get 50 for Eugene. How many days until November 23rd. D'OH!

Chipper Hell

Chipper Saturday @ Brand X

1 hour:
run 800M
30 pullups
3 attempts to cross monkey bars (should be 1 trip)
run 600
bear crawl length building/lunge back
1 arm db squats x10 (l/r 15#)
run 400m
60 db shoulder presses 15#dbs
three pathetic attempts at rope climbs (I forgot how to do it)
run 200m
10 throws for height 12#dball
3 attempts to cross monkey bars (better on second and third attempts with tips from the guys)should be 1 trip


That kicked my butt. ;) The monkey bars killed my hands, but at last I was able to traverse to the fourth bar after Ricky and Chuck helped me figure out the transfer should happen after a swing. But my grip was already shot.

The 30 pullups were the easiest part. How sick is that?

...not good at our stuff...

So my two "running buddies" decided to try the 100 pull up workout today in the gym (unbeknownst to me) and this is what Russ told me when they got back:
Russ: We gave the 100 pull ups a try today.
Me: Did you do 100?!
Russ: Well, we got about halfway through and gave up.
Me: You did 50 pullups! That's awesome!
Russ:....Ok we got a quarter of the way.... :/
me: 25! Well that's pretty good. Did you do dead hang?
Russ: Yeah. We did sets of 3's and 4's and after about 10 minutes we pretty much were done.

Me: You've got to learn to "cheat"!

I told him he'd probably have done better doing singles but something tells me they'd not have made a hundred. Not because I'm better than they are, just that they are not doing pullups every other day. My recovery time is 1000 times better than even 6 months ago.

Then I told him about doing the Murph lite workout. I don't know if he'll try crossfit though. We'll see. Those two are definitely like dogs looking at a stranger with a bone. They Want the bone, not sure about the guy who's holding it.

Murph Lite

Murph Lite (Brand X Pack workout):

Run a Mile
50 pull ups (sets of 5 with some 4's and a single at the end!)
100 push ups (50 on knees)
150 squats (sets of 15 & 20, last two sets were 10's)
Run a Mile (walked some)

1:10

That's %$#%&@! HARD, man.

DOH! Catching up

Today I went to the 6:30 am class at Brand X and this was Sean's workout:

Run 400
*
3 rounds of the triplet
10 HSQ @45#
15 Pull Ups
20 Push ups
*
Run 400M

20:50 - Sean seemed to think that was a pretty good time.

Gotta work on those HSPU.

The last time I worked out was Monday - workout for Erin Hearn. Pull ups and ring dips team workout. Life has been a challenge! LOL.

I am going to take a few privates from Kim Toth, and I think I'll work on HSPU (handstand practice first) and Ring dips for starters. Assuming GardDawg does not have anything different that he thinks I should practice. :)

Painstorm VI

Looks like Di-Elen
(Brand X pack version)

3 rounds for time

Run 400m
15 Dumbblell Deadlifts (25#db)
15 pull ups
Run 400M
15 Kettlebells swings (25#db)
15 Standing Shoulder Press

My time 45:45 (after doing 100 pullups yesterday, the pullups were eked out in sets of 3, 4 & 5)

Big Dog Version: BW barbell deadlifts, 50# KB swings, 15 HSPU

this shows the pull up bar.

a pic I took a month or so ago.

100 pullups (WOD)

I sent out the WOD to about 5 guys at the office - a few said they would try it.

I told them I expected to take between 30 minutes to an hour. No one was around when I did go to the gym at 3:00pm. I wasn't really planning to go at that time but at the last minutes I figured it was then or never. Painstorm tomorrow, so I probably would not get a chance to do it on the weekend.

Anywhhoooo....I had to do singles because it's a no-kipping bar for me. Grip's too wide. I used a stool to get up to the bar and the hung my weight by bending the knees then did a kind of kip halfway in the pull.

I would say I rested about 10 seconds between pull ups. It seemed to go amazingly fast. At 61 I couldn't believe I was still getting chin over the bar. Any that wer borderline signaled a 20-30 second rest. I broke a sweat but it was way easier in that respect than just doing the 17 kipped ones on miracle day.

At 75 I took a minute break and checked the watch, 12:36.

Cranked em out a few at a time with less than 10 seconds until I was losing ROM. REST. 5 more singles bam bam bam bam bam.

Finished up at 16:58.

All the guys I gave my time to were...surprised.

100?

You did 100. in 20 minutes?

Real ones or cheaters? I explained. Then said, you do 'em exactly the way I did and see how long it takes!

hehe.

I love that look on their faces. Impressed, skeptical, amazed...one guy said, if you do that again I want to see it!

None of them did any pull ups today that I know of.

One guy I have kept up to date on my pull up journey, he is 51 and he can do a set of 50 then he goes to sets of 20's and 30's!!!! He mailed me:

"See, I told you you'd break 20! Good on yer!"

this shows the pull up bar and me doing a pull up about a month ago.

As good as you are at your stuff...

Well, two of the guys at work were going for a run and one asked if I wanted to go. I said sure. He goes: "yeah? Can you keep up?"

"Well, probably not, but I'll meet you on the loop back!" ha.

Then I realized I left my running shoes at home. The second guy, whom I have been needling about CrossFit, came in and asked: "Ready, tough girl?"

So I borrowed a pair of shoes...LOL. Then I found a pair of my own in the locker room.

The guys waited for me and asked if i wanted to set the pace. I said for them to just run and not worry about me.

I think I ended up about an eight to a quarter mile behind them but didn't lose much more ground than that. They waited for me at the halfway mark an walked to give me a little recovery time (considering i was probably pumping at capacity for 15 straight minutes and they were not at their max output) A couple minutes later I said, 'Come on, I'm ready let's run!"

The first part was in a canyon with uphills and down hills, the second half was flat street and a down hill of about 3/4 mile.

I think the whole thing ran about 3 miles. They finished a couple minutes ahead of me. And gave me props at the end. "Good Finish!"

Fran 45# 8:20

Saturday at Brand X
Fran: team workout
One partner has 10 minutes to complete fran and records their time. At 10 minutes, the clock is reset and the other partner takes his/her turn. If not completed, an athlete takes 10:00 as their time. Add both partners times for team score.

The fastest team (Jim & John) took a combined 9:44 to finish. All the other teams subtracted 9:44 from their team time, multiplied the difference in minutes by 3 to get the number of burpees to do as penalty.

Laura: 45# thrusters + kipping pullups 8:20 (PR- Ahmik Style!)

Karen: 10# thrusters + ring rows 6:40

15:00 - 9:44 = 5:22

15 penalty burpees

Tore my callouses during Fran so my burpees were "fingertip" burpees.

This was my favorite of all the team workouts.

Mikki got 7:41 with 60#
Andrea got 8:13 with 50#

Wednesday Crossfit at BrandX

Workout from Jason's class tonight:

65 then went down to 45# during cleans
run 400m
Clean 5x5x5
run 400m
Front Squat 5x5x5
run 400m
Push Press 5x5x5

Started out too heavy and took off 20lbs. After I lowered it, Jason told me to pick up the intensity...here's the result:

17:15 *grin*

He did 22 minutes with 135#.
Mike Nitz (he's 15 or 16 I think) did 12:14 but I'm not sure how much weight he used...I think 95#

I think, Cindy.

But I don't know what J has planned for class. We'll see.

“Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

OR

“Mary”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups

Post your choice of girls and rounds completed to comments.

Monday's Workout at Brand X

Rest Day/Humble Pie Day

Big Dogs
3 rounds for time
run 400m
deadlift 225 x15
3 muscle ups

Pack
3 rounds for time
run 400m
deadlift x 15
15 pullups
15 ring dips

Puppies
3 rounds for time
run 400
10-25# db deadlift x 30
10 pull ups
10 dips

Buttercups
run 200m
db deadlifts x ?
jumping pull ups x ?
bench dips x ?


This hurt: "If you are not a trainer or have not had privates in Crossfit, you belong in the puppies."

I started out doing puppies because I can't do ring dips (even though I have been to the CF cert). Apparently I can't even do decent bar dips for 10 reps. "Deadlift -- definitely not one of your strong points."

30 minutes with 10 pullups and 10 jumped negatives on the bar dips. Buttercup City. 65# barbell Deadlift.

Better schedule those privates..... Still, a good workout. What are those center muscles in your chest? Ouch.
_________________

10,20,30 - looks eay on paper

WOD (from Friday's CrossFit post)

38:12

19" jumps on bench
Burpees
Standing Shoulder presses
Single pullups - slight jump at the bottom

ugh. killer

I was a little worried about the box jumps. I was using a weight bench - the kind you use on mother$%#@$&ing arms day. Tried to get full extension at the top before jumping down. SCARY. But I did it.

I completed 10 & 20 rep rounds in 17 ish and the 30 rep round in 11. I guess that makes sense. That includes some rest of around 30 seconds and yelling at Bradley as he got under foot chattered enough to threaten my counting. LOL.

Frustrated with my pullups station. It's a dip/pull up station, not conducive to kipping and the support bar is too high for me to get full extension and pull myself up. No way I can do 60 dead hangs...haha.

Helen - 17:26 35#

Didn't break 15 but made a 2 minute improvement

Helen - 16kg KB + kipped pullups

17:26

kb swings broken
10-5-6
15-6
10-6-5

Pull ups
3,5,4
5,4,3
6,3,2,1

The sport of fitness, the art of getting better

Today, I want to go to Brand X and either Test my max pullups (shooting for 20) or Do helen with all kipped pullups and break the 15:00 mark. I dont' think I can do both. I might test max and then do helen and just take what I can get.

I haven't worked out since Sunday. So it's a good day to test and probably a good day to get a pr on Helen. LOL. Jeff Martin did a WOD and PR'd on Helen but I'm no Jeff Martin!

:)

WOD today looks like a good one...

10, 20, and then 30 rep rounds of:
Box jump, 20 inch box
Handstand push-ups
Burpees
Pull-ups

what the hell

so I can post in the UK guy's blogs.

davie...karl...drew...

i'm heeeeere! Where's the beer?