Friday workout

Today's warm up started with the obligatory 400 meter run. I think they might be a bit lazy on this one although it is a good way to get your blood moving at 6:00 am. The warm up then consisted of 3 rounds:

• 10 Air squats
• 10 push-ups
• 10 abmat sit-ups 

The workout was "Jack," As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes:

• 10 Push press (115/75)
• 10 Kettlebell (53/35)
• 10 Box jumps (24/20)

So my weights and such get a bit confusing here. I put on the 115# and tried a push, no go. I dropped down a few times looking for something I could do the 10 reps of without my form suffering too much. I ended up settling on 85# but only got through 2 rounds with that before I dropped it to 75# for the rest of the workout. I started with the 35# kettlebell on the swings but after the first set dropped to 30# and finished the workout there. I did the box jumps at 24" as prescribed. I completed 7 rounds and everything but the box jumps of the eighth round. I felt pretty good about that. I have been noticing the men's prescribed weights for these exercises are crazy high for me. There are some guys that do them as prescribed at the gym but most of these guys probably outweigh me by 40#, maybe more. I am now trying to start with the women's prescribed weights and go up from there. I noticed also that the women at this gym are almost always scaling and some of them by a lot. The one girl today did the push press with 43# the first round and 33# for the rest. This is one of the nice things about crossfit, it is scale able to whatever fitness level you are at and I have never seen anyone at the gym give anyone any crap about scaling. It is really about improving yourself and not so much direct competition with the others on weight. Compete on time if you like but not everyone is going to be doing the same weights. I still think some of the prescribed weights are too high for the speed of these workouts when you consider these are skill lifts that require good form. This is actually one of the big criticisms of crossfit.

On to the workout name, "Jack." There are many named workouts in crossfit, some have arbitrary women's names but are not named after anyone in particular and are collectively referred to as "The Girls." Others have interesting names like "Filthy Fifty." There are a few that are named after particular crossfitters and then there are the "Heroes." The "Heroes" are named after fallen military fire and police in general. Many are named for special operators who have died in the recent wars and today's workout is one of them. So who is "Jack?"

Army Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, of Bethany, Oklahoma, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash., died September 29th, 2009, in Jolo Island, Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised explosive device. Martin is survived by his wife Ashley Martin, his parents Jack and Cheryl Martin, and siblings Abe, Mandi, Amber and Abi.

This is another thing that I like about crossfit, it isn't all about getting bodies in the gym.