I was happy to see a Crossfit gym opened up right near my mom’s house in Huntington so I swung by for a drop-in. It’s a really new place - opened just a month ago I think - and their outfitted with all the new hot Rogue gear. I started in on CFSB’s standard warmup #1 before I realized that there was a WOD-specific warmup posted on the board (there was no class intro - people just jumped in whenever they arrived). The warmup was 500m row, shoulder dislocates, 5 Turkish Get Ups/side (30lb). Then I did some KB Romanian Deadlifts and leg swings to warm up my hamstrings, as Rxed by Coach Nick.
WOD:
Repeat 3x
Time: 24:43. Not very fun and not a very strong performance to rep CFSB. There was a whole list of stretches to go through after the WOD, which was a nice change of pace for me. We hit all the big areas for about 30 sec each side and then I finished with some more hamstring stretches cause I sure need them. CF Limitless is a great box and I’m sure they’ll do really well here…looking forward to dropping in whenever I’m in town.
Started off the morning with an easy 2 min row followed by lots of foam rolling and lax balling on the hamstrings. Then I did a less sessile warmup:
- 10 Back extensions on the GHD (10lb)
- 10 Front leg swings/side
Repeat 3x, followed by even more rolling and stretching for the hips and hamstrings.
WOD:
15 minute row for max distance with a 16 s/m cap. I went 3540m, which is shorter than the last couple of times, but that’s expected at 16 s/m. I did a pretty good job of keeping the pace throughout and really got in to the groove after a while.
Afterwards Nick had me cool down with descending pace ladder, starting at 2:10 and adding 10 sec to my pace every 300m. Finished 1200m and called it a day.
I’m not cleared to do anything as intense as the Crossfit Total, which was happening today, so I went in for coach Nick’s rowing workshop instead. I’d really like to improve my stroke and get more comfortable on the erg, so these should be great.
Today we focused on the recovery portion of the stroke. We warmed up with a 500m row, which I finished in 1:40, nice and easy. Then we did some light KB RDLs really slowly to stretch the hamstrings and feel the stretch reflex and moved onto the rower to transfer the same movement onto the rower. We focused on keeping the quads engaged (knees locked) during the initial recovery and paused there to feel the stretch. We paid attention to the back position too, making sure it stayed tight and all that. Then we did a drill to practice the stretch reflex at the very bottom of the stroke and reinforced how to make it effortless and smooth. After all that, we had to row an 8:00 piece with a stroke rate of 16s/m, which is really slow. It was tough to keep it that low and I averaged 17s/m for 2018m.
Really happy to learn these drills and tips for keeping the movement efficient and powerful. Look out, Zach.
Made it in for open gym today. Started with a little mobility work and then warmup 1:
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 10 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x
WOD - AMRAP 7 minutes:
- 2 Deadlifts (335lb)
- 2 Muscle Ups
Score: 3 rounds + 1 MU. Bloody hell. I finished two rounds inside of a minute but I lost my muscle ups in the fourth round. I probably had about 10 failed attempts. If all went well I should have finished about 8-10 rounds. I was planning on doing a lot more deadlifting, so I did another 5 sets of 2 reps after the clock ran out.
Wanted to test my short distance rowing after that, so I hopped on an erg and pulled 500m in 1:32.5, averaging 26 s/m. I was gunning for sub 1:30. Next time.
I missed some of the pre-warm up, but then got a crack at the new standard warmup 2 for the first time:
- 16 Reverse Weighted Lunges (30lb)
- 12 Single Arm DB Press (30lb)
- 12 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
WOD:
15 minute row for max distance. I went 3771m, 127m short of last time, but that’s ok since we were working with a stroke rate cap of 23 s/m. I stayed around 20 s/m and kept a pretty steady pace throughout. We spent the duration of class practicing skin-the-cats, which are always fun.
First class back since my bout with Devil’s Grippe (no shit). I picked a helluva WOD to ease back in on. First, warmup 1:
- 15 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Air Squats
- 10 Ring Pushups
- 7 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x, then the WOD:
- Row 1000m (3:26)
- Row 500m (1:38.9)
- Row 500m (1:45.9)
- Row 250m (:46.3)
- Row 250m (:47.7)
- Row 250m (:48)
- Row 250m (:50)
Maintain a 2:1 rest:work ratio between intervals.
This was tough throughout, but the second 500 was probably my least favorite interval.
Worked from home, so got a lunch break workout in today with Shane and the noon crew.
Warm up 2:
- 30 sec Front/Supine Plank (alternate each round)
- 10 Reverse Lunges / Leg
- 10 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
Back Squats:
Double Half Jackie:
- Row 500m
- 25 Thrusters (45lb)
- 15 Pullups
Repeat 2x
Time: 9:16. About 90 seconds slower than my plain old Jackie time! I went out way too hard on the first row (1:30) and was totally gassed for the remainder. Pretty dumb. Squats were pretty easy.
I’ve been busy with too many long days at work, bad food, and free flowing beers on this trip. Made a late night date with the hotel gym at the Movenpick in Berlin.
- Burpees x 60 sec (22, 20, 16, 15)
- Row x 60 sec
Repeat 4x, resting 60 sec between rounds.
Felt like crud throughout most of this one. Gotta get my diet back on track when I come home from the land of beer, chocolate, bread, and potatoes.
I’m in Berlin this week for work. I was excited because my hotel is right next to a giant soccer field, but when I headed over there for a sprint workout it was locked up tight. So I took a 1.5 mile jog to a huge outdoor track that I found nearby, which was also locked up tight. Also jogged by a bunch of playgrounds with pullup capabilities but they were all locked too. What the fuck is up with these Germans?
I trudged down to the hotel gym to see if there was anything worthwhile in there and found a rower! It’s not a C2, but beggars can’t be choosers. Whipped up this little ditty on the fly:
- 500m Row
- 25 Pushups
- 25 Situps
- 25 Squats
Repeat 3x
Time: 16:12. Spent a lot of time fumbling around on the rower getting in and out. Kept an average pace of around 1:30/500m.
Made it in for the good old 8pm class tonight. Since we’re sticking with two standard warmups for this cycle, alternating each workout, I hit warm up 1 today:
- 15 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Air Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 8 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x, then onto the real WOD:
Bench Press
- 5 x 205lb
- 5 x 205lb
- 5 x 215lb
- 5 x 225lb *FAIL* (3)
Row to 25 calories
- 40 sec
- 40 sec
- 39 sec
- 42 sec*
Rows immediately followed the BP sets then we rested as needed before the next set of BP. Total bench press poundage: 3,125lb (no points for the failed set at 225). Total rowing time: 2:41. I fucked up on the last rowing set and stopped pulling after the monitor showed 24 cals (around 38 sec). I thought I would coast to 25, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. After I realized, I pulled a baby pull and finished out at 42 sec.
I missed a good chunk of crush week workouts and now we’re into backoff week. Luckily today was an ass-kicker anyway. Some lax ball rolling to start, then:
- 5 min rowing
- 5 min jump rope practice
Repeat 3x
We did some ladders with stroke rate on the rower to make things more challenging. It was great to get some time to really focus on form. I was pretty wrecked from each rowing interval, so the jump rope was mostly recovery / working on different combos. High sweat index today, kids.
Some foam rolling and stretching was just what the doctor ordered this morning. My legs are still sore from the DB Bear.
Then we did another version of the WOD from my very first day at CFSB:
- 8 x 250m Row
- 47.4 sec (29 s/m)
- 46.4 sec (29 s/m)
- 46.6 sec (29 s/m)
- 46.9 sec (30 s/m)
- 46.9 sec (29 s/m)
- 48.3 sec (28 s/m)
- 48.2 sec (28 s/m)
- 46.7 sec (31 s/m)
Rested ~2 min between sets.
Moderate improvement, but not great. Humbling to see McG’s numbers on this (43.8) and to hear that it wasn’t even close to his PR. Cranked out 3 sets of 7 strict pullups afterwards (was supposed to be max reps, but it was all I could muster).
Back-off week continues! We had three stations to work through today, spending around 15 minutes at each. First we did some foam rolling and mobility work. I focused on getting the hips, wrist, and shoulders ready for some heavy thrusters, which was station two. The second 15 min station was for finding a heavy single:
Thrusters:
- 10 x 45lb
- 5 x 95lb
- 1 x 135lb
- 1 x 165lb
- 1 x 185lb
- 1 x 200lb *FAIL*
- 1 x 195lb (PR)
I’d never attempted a max single with the thruster, so I’ll take it. The third station was a 15 minute row for max distance. I went 3898m, 64m further than last time. My plan was to alternate stroke rates between 28 and 22 each minute, as Nick suggested. I think I slacked off a bit too much during the 22 s/m intervals, but this was still tough.
Warmed up with a circuit of cossack squats, plank holds, and ring rows, then some self-prep before the squatting.
Back Squats:
- 5 x 265lb
- 5 x 275lb
- 5 x 285lb
Partner WOD:
- 100 KB Swings (32kg)
- Row 2000m
Time: 11:36 (with Carlos). We each did 2 x 25 swings and planned to switch every ~300m. Carlos tweaked his back on his last set, so I rowed the last 600m or so. It was tough.
I should have gone heavier on the squats, but we used 85% of our last heavy single for the first weight, which wasn’t a true 1RM for me. Looks like my historic 5RM back squat PR was 325lb for a set of 5 when I was training under the texas method programming. Got a long way to go to get back there!
Went through today’s warmup, which was geared for the front squat but I made up the push press exposure from earlier in the week.
Push Press
- 3 x 165lb
- 3 x 175lb
- 3 x 180lb
- 11 x 135lb
Working to find a heavy triple. Good tip from Laurel about keeping my midsection rigid and ribs down while I press up, but I still need lots of work here. Last set was a rep-out at 75% of my max triple.
WOD:
- Row 200m
- 10 Overhead Squats (95lb)
- Row 200m
- 8 Overhead Squats (95lb)
- Row 200m
- 6 Overhead Squats (95lb)
- Row 200m
- 4 Overhead Squats (95lb)
- Row 200m
- 2 Overhead Squats (95lb)
Time: 7:35. I believe this was my first for time workout with OHS. My first set felt really rickety but I was able to settle in and move pretty well for the remaining sets. I liked rowing such a short distance for each interval - 200m ended up being 16 pulls and I focused on maintaining a long, smooth pull rather than getting herky jerky.
