Randy

Back Squats

Back squat:

3-3-3-3-3

My loads were: 185, 185, 205 (2 reps + fail), 195, 195.

It's only been about two weeks since I last did this workout, but when it came up on the main site a few days ago, I decided to take another swing. Unfortunately, since I'm not markedly stronger than I was two weeks ago, I ran up against the same wall I did last time: 205. I think it's funny that "Heavy Things" is playing in the background for that set. You really are genius, iTunes. Maybe I should just forfeit all of my music-selection agency to you.

Warrior Diet Day 11

For well over a week now I've been eating all of my meals within a four-hour window of time, typically 4pm-8pm. This is the general precept of Ori Hofmekler's "Warrior Diet." My weight loss--about 9 pounds in the first 4 days--has turned around and I'm now headed, slowly, back up the scale, which is what I'd hoped for. That said, considering I'm presently at 159lbs, it's doubtful I'll reach my target goal of 170lbs by New Years.

Hunger pangs, mood swings, and fluctuations in energy have all but dissipated. Some days I feel hungry by four o'clock and some days I don't. In either case, within the undereating daytime period I typically consume 4-5 cups of coffee, black of course, as no caloric intake is technically allowed--that and I have standards.

Although this diet is a drastic deviation away from when I normally eat, the content of my meals is very much the same: meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. On days where I do two or more workouts, I make sure to really up my fat intake--an extra avocado or cup of almonds or egg yolks, whatever--otherwise I feel considerably hungrier the following day.

On the whole, so far so good. I plan to let this play out at least until the new year.

Don't Let Go!

This is one of my all time favorite workouts. I did it back in October, and today I got a personal record! Enjoy!

Birthday WOD: Heavy Cindy

Yesterday, the auspicious 24th anniversary of my birth, I did a particularly grueling AMRAP in the form of 5 chest to bar pull ups, 10 ring dips, and 15 overhead squats with 95lbs. Again, the goal is to complete as many rounds of those exercises (in that order) as possible in twenty minutes. I did 5 rounds plus 8 ring dips, which is more than I'd expected. So, happy birthday indeed.

AMRAP!

I did a 12-minute AMRAP this morning, AMRAP meaning "as many rounds as possible." In this case, one round consisted of 9 wall balls (throwing a 20lb. medicine ball to a 10' target), 7 kettlebell swings (53lbs.), and 5 burpees. Since the workout is timed, the goal is to do as many rounds as possible before time is up. To see the steady attrition of my efforts, check out the video.

The Climb Clean Couplet

Here's a workout I did yesterday evening. It's of my own invention, and after giving it a trial run, I'm pretty pleased with it--definitely something I'll come back to in a few months! That said, despite the semi-protective tube socks, I still had a bloody left shin by the end of the workout. Time for some epidermal recovery. Enjoy!

Muscle up demonstration

So I got my first muscle up back in November. I still haven't reached a level of proficiency where I can string together more than 2 or 3, but it's coming along.

The Grand Canyon Mule

This workout comes courtesy of Meg Mottl, owner and coach of CrossFit Kirkwood. I saw it on their website and thought: great WOD, great name. Let's go!

 The Grand Canyon Mule
50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5 double unders alternating with
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of pull ups and bench press (115lbs.)

In other words, do 50 double unders, 10 pull ups, 10 bench presses, then 45 double unders, 9 pull ups, 9 presses, and so on and so on. A "double under" is a jump rope maneuver--the rope must pass underneath the feet two times for each single jump. For someone who hasn't yet acquired the skill, simply substitute three "single unders" for each double under, so instead of 50 DUs, do 150 single unders.

Oh yeah, finished it in 14:37. Bueno.

Short & Sweet

3 Rounds for time of
15 pull ups
30 hip extensions

Workouts like this, in light of some of the recent longer ones, are a real treat. There's no need to break up sets or plan some sort of strategy for pacing. It's basically a sprint, one sustained max effort. The pull ups I'm doing in the video are called "kipping pull ups," a full-body movement that utilizes the hips to generate upward momentum. In some cases, I string them together in a circular motion; these are called "butterfly pull ups" and are simply a faster variation of the kipping pull up.

As for my hip extensions, some of them have a questionable range of motion. Correctly done, the hip extension should bring the torso completely parallel to the ground. If you're ever unsure of your form, videotape it; the camera doesn't lie.

And yes, I know my legs are whiter than the snow outside. What do you expect? I'm a redhead in the winter.

Stackin' A Rack

This was today's WOD on the CrossFit mainsite.

Shoulder press: 1-1-1-1-1
Push press: 3-3-3-3-3
Push jerk: 5-5-5-5-5

As with the bench press, these are all serious weaknesses of mine, and what's more, I have no idea how my form looks under load. We took a little video to make sure I didn't have anything too catawampus going on.

Looks good!

For the shoulder press I managed 115lbs, the push press 135lbs, and the push jerk 135lbs.

AM Workout

3 Rounds of
10 deadlifts, 205lbs
30 GHD sit ups

6:16

PM Workout

21-15-9 reps of:
Turkish get ups, 45lb. barbell
ring dips

I finished this workout in a disappointing 21:46. A Turkish get up, or TGU, is a maneuver in which you go from a supine to a standing position with a weight held overhead; in this case the weight is an extremely unwieldy barbell.

Workouts like this are particularly frustrating for me simply because of the neurological difficulty; that is, the coordination, agility, accuracy, and balance required for a single TGU are at the edge of my abilities. This leads to occasional missed repetitions, instances where I dramatically lose control of the barbell, oftentimes accompanied by swearing. For some reason, it's far more bothersome for me to miss a rep due to lack of skill than it is for me to miss a rep due to lack of strength or endurance. If you have any guesses as to why that might be, feel free to leave them in the comment section.

Warrior Diet Day Five

After seeing a few interviews with Ori Hofmekler on youtube, I decided to give his diet, the "Warrior Diet" as he calls it, another chance. I had done it once before back in high school, a time when I was still consuming huge amounts of sugar, carbohydrates, and processed foods in general. I don't remember how long I followed it, but clearly my enthusiasm for it did not last.

As of last Friday, I have only been taking food during a five (sometimes four) hour window of the day, either 3 or 4pm to 8pm. While it's true that I would love nothing more than to shatter some of my CrossFit PRs by being smaller and faster, weight loss is not my goal. The eight pounds of fat I've dropped since starting the diet I hope to regain (plus about 5 more pounds) in lean muscle.

My real goal with this dietary experiment is to find better and more sustained energy levels for my day-to-day living. So far, it's been a mixed bag. Today I feel great and will be able to break the fast without intensive hunger or craving, BUT after doing lengthy and intensive workouts like yesterday's "Whitten" or "Fight Gone Bad"--which I did on Saturday at CrossFit Kirkwood--my mind feels pretty foggy and my body feels wiped clean. Eating seems to cure the fogginess and exhaustion. Depending on how this pans out over the next couple of weeks, I may decide to inject my own post-workout nutrition into the diet's fixed timetable. We'll see.

AM Workout

For time:
50 steps walking lunge w/ 45lb. weight held overhead
40 deadlifts, 135lbs.
30 burpees
20 box jumps, 24" box
10 pull ups

Surprisingly, the only soreness from yesterday is in my calves, and I managed to get through this chipper in 7:38. Give it a month or so and I'll try this in a round format; three rounds of this would make for a really good, longer-duration workout.

Today's Workout: "Whitten"

5 rounds for time of:

22 kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
22 box jumps, 24" box
400m run
22 burpees
22 wall balls, 10' target & 20lb. ball

Again, I decided to do yesterday's workout from the CrossFit main site. By a large margin, this was the longest CrossFit workout I've ever done. My goal was to finish under 45 minutes, and I managed it in 42:48, which is grand. Box jumps were the biggest hold up, and the run was a bit sketchy on the icy downhill corner leading back into the shed.

Today's Workout: "Lynne"

5 sets of max reps for:
bodyweight bench press (165lbs)
pull ups

6/24  5/20  3/17  2/16  2/16

This was yesterday's WOD on the CrossFit mainsite; it's one of "the girls" that I've never done before. Bench press is certainly a weakness for me, so it feels good to confront that weight with max-effort sets. 

"And Terwillinger bunts one!"