Front Squats & Rope Climbs

This is another mainsite workout posted early last week. It is:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of 135lb front squat, alternating with 1 rope ascent (15ft.)

It's not that I lack all creative ability in workout construction; I've just been really enamored with HQ's programming lately. As of roughly 5pm this evening, my sister Amanda will have earned her CrossFit Level 1 certification, officially enabling her to devise some workout madness of her own. I'm thinking in one of the coming weeks I'm going to have her write all of my workouts--do a full two circuits of 3 days on 1 day off programming. We'll see. In the meantime, enjoy the fun.

Med Ball Couplet

This is a main site workout from a couple of days back.

5 rounds for time of:
15 medicine ball cleans, 20lb. ball
15 wall ball throws, 20lb. ball, 10' target

Snatches!

No, it's not what you think. The snatch is an Olympic lift, in which the weight goes from ground to overhead in one movement. An extremely technical lift, it doesn't allow for near the amount of weight that could be used in either of its constituent lifts--the deadlift and the overhead squat. In other words, even though I can deadlift over 300lbs and overhead squat 155lbs, I can only snatch 125, my new PR as of shooting this video.

The workout is:

Snatch 1 rep every minute for 15 minutes.

I don't have every rep included in the video. Most are there though, with a few entertaining "misses" sprinkled in as well. Enjoy.

Meat and Potatoes

This is a mainsite workout I scaled back a tad.

4 rounds of:
5 L pull ups
15 push ups
10 chest-to-bar pull ups
15 push ups
15 pull ups
15 push ups

No frills. Just fun, or something.

Fitness is...agency.

A well-known CrossFitter and affiliate owner, Blair Morrison, has published a series of articles in the CrossFit Journal over the past several months reflecting on the nature of fitness, going beyond the measured and empirical definition posited years ago by Greg Glassman and offering up some thoughts on the more subjective—though often no less striking—rubrics of fitness; things like character, potential, defense, and identity. Anyone who’s ever committed themselves to the trials of a CrossFit workout would no doubt attest that these other elements—though more averse to measurement—are all, in some manner, tangled up with intensity—the elixir of human movement.

As of yet, there are several standards unmentioned by Morrison that I believe to be noteworthy. Foremost among these is agency. Fitness is agency. Fitness is possession of the means to an end, the ability to act from a position of power, and although the various “ends” we humans now seek in the 21^st century are no different than what we’ve been seeking for millions of years—food, water, shelter, community, and purpose—our means are quite different.

“Hunt” and “gather,” for most of us, have become little more than references to our past rather than active verbs that characterize our living. Plenty of other verbs intrinsic to non-domesticated lives—jumping, throwing, sprinting, swimming, wrestling—are more and more absent from day-to-day activities, relegated instead to the realms of sport.  Even our most coveted and necessary of actions—sex—is being sidelined more often. As a population, our fitness is in need of careful attention and rehabilitation, either that or Viagra, depending who you ask.

What can in one light be construed as a health crisis might, in a different light, be considered signs of our success. Grocery stores on every corner, a continuous supply of water and electricity in every home, an elaborate network of roads and highways, access to the entire span of human knowledge at the push of buttons, motorized transit for every person. Indeed, our cleverness and ingenuity as a species has allowed us—more so than any other time in history--to hold the traumatic volatility of the natural world at arms length.

Moreover, our path toward more abundance and security with less effort has been exponential, and rather than abandon these advances and adopt stone-age existences for the sake of our health, why not simply reinvent our relationship to technology? If technology is merely a crutch, a way to circumvent our own exertion, well then there’s nothing intrinsically unhealthy in that. What’s unhealthy is living as though the crutch is your leg. What’s unhealthy is replacing fitness—your own means—with tools. Those who don’t find ways to exert themselves amidst our sea of luxurious living will surely be a weaker, frailer bunch than those that do.

Of course, this is why CrossFit is taking the industrialized world by storm. It provides a systematic, progressive, and holistic regimen of exertion than can span the course of a lifetime. From an evolutionary perspective, CrossFit is the antidote to the indulgences born of our technological success. CrossFit provides the stimuli that our sheltered living no longer does, at least not often enough (for many of us anyway), and when an individual continually subjects himself to such stimuli, he achieves an amazing thing: fitness. He achieves agency. He achieves the means to act from a position of power rather than reliance.

Posterior Chain Couplet

This is a CrossFit HQ workout that I've taken and scaled down. It is:

21-15-9 reps of 225lb. deadlift, alternating with 400m runs.

Before the workout, I estimated 1) that this combination of movements was going to manhandle my posterior chain (lower back and hamstrings) and 2) that eight minutes would be a stellar and marginally obtainable time for me. I don't usually play this sort of guessing game with my workouts, but I felt particularly determined to test my threshold for this combination and so decided to wear a wristwatch, allowing me to gauge my pace on the 400s. Pleasantly surprised, I crossed the plane of the garage door at exactly 8:00. Booyah, posterior chain.

Grand Canyon Mule

This clever workout was concocted by Meg and Rich Mottl of CrossFit Kirkwood. I came across it while perusing their site one afternoon in December and did the workout that same day (got it done in 14:37). It goes:

50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5 double unders, alternating with 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 pull ups and bench press.

The bench press is supposed to be bodyweight, but I used 115lbs in both instances. Somehow, despite even its popularity in more mainstream fitness regimens, bench press has been a lifelong weakness of mine. Still, I managed to bring my time down by about 90 seconds, finishing in 13:04.

A brief aside here: "Double-unders," as you'll see in the video, refer to a jump rope maneuver in which the rope passes underfoot twice for every jump. In some instances you may see me doing a few single passes before I get into the double-under rhythm. As a movement, they're a real devil, taxing both cardiovascular/respiratory endurance and muscular stamina, not to mention the other neurological qualities they test and improve--coordination, balance, agility, speed, and accuracy. Learning to do them, even while winded, will be a great boon to your fitness. Enjoy!

Squat WOD

I came up with this workout a couple days ago and tested it out on Amanda and Steven.

For time:
20 back squats
15 front squats
10 overhead squats
5 thrusters

After watching them push through it, I decided to give it a try today. My goal was to avoid dropping the barbell at any point. Didn't quite hit that mark, but I was pleased to stay under five minutes. Enjoy!

pull ups & wall balls

This couplet is the mainsite workout for today; it is:

7 rounds for time of:
10 wall ball shots, 10' target, 20lb. ball
10 pull ups

I was hoping to finish this in under five minutes, and despite doing every set unbroken, the pull ups were a little slow.

Mainsite Fun

The brilliant minds at CrossFit Headquarters came up with this entertaining bit of suffering for today's WOD:

Run 1 mile
100 GHD sit ups
100 back extensions
Run 1 mile

Mix and match the sit ups and back extensions as needed.

My first mile was 7:20, second was 8:02, and total time was 23:45. Everything along the posterior chain was so lit up by the time my second mile rolled around I'm not sure you could really call it "running." Still, with the warm spring-like temperatures and clear skies, it was refreshing to be outside without gloves or a hat. I'd like to believe that I can ease and acclimate my way into high-intensity workouts amidst the infamous high-intensity humidity of St. Louis summers. Wishful thinking.

Some Assembly Required

I did this workout yesterday. It's 5 rounds for time of:

15 box jumps, 24" platform
12 toes-to-bar
9 back squats, 135lbs
6 kettlebell swings, 70lbs
3 muscle ups

Though I've been able to do muscle ups for a few months now, this is the first time I've programmed them into a workout. My goal was to make myself winded for the muscle ups, as doing them fresh isn't all that difficult. I've found that one of the best ways to improve proficiency in a given movement is to put it right in the midst of an already taxing lineup.

Also new to my workouts is the 70lb. kettlebell. At almost half my body weight, it packs a large and irresistible punch. Imagine attaching a handle to Jupiter and then trying to swing it. Buckets of fun.

Thruster Climb Couplet

Thrusters and rope climbs are a tenacious combination. Next time I'll do it with either more weight or more rounds. Still, a good workout.

Holy Forearms II

I did this workout toward the beginning of November of last year. We had just gotten a couple of 53lb. kettle bells, and, in a possibly misguided effort to hit the ground running--with the big dogs--I made up this little workout that involved ninety(!) kettle bells swings.

The workout is 3 rounds for time of:
30 KB swings
25 wall ball throws, 10' target
20 pull ups

My time in November was 17:23. I've shaved off nearly 5 minutes since then! Clearly, my work capacity isn't suffering in 2011.

The combination of swings and pull ups at the transition of each round lends a jello-like consistency to the forearms. Untying your shoes after the workout can be a chore. Enjoy!

21-15-9, repetitions?

I've been doing a lot of workouts with this format lately. Here are two more. I did the first one last Wednesday and the other one I did just yesterday. Enjoy.

And the other--this one is sumo deadlift high pulls and overhead squats.