Wednesday Workout

Warm up started with 400 meter run. we then did 3 rounds:

• 10 pull-ups
• 10 air squats
• 10 ab-mat sit-ups

From there the workout was prescribed as 8 rounds of the following for time:

• 10 kettlebell swings (53/35)
• 10 weighted lunges (53/35)
• 10 clapping push-ups

It was explained to me at the start to simply use the kettlebell for the weighted lunges and hold it up high under the chin with both hands. The kettlebell swing is one of the exercises where I think they prescribe way too much weight every time I see it. Perhaps I am just a wuss but it seems to me there are very few people out there that should really be doing kettlebell swings with 53#. I started off with the 35# kettlebell and after the first round dropped to 30# which is plenty for an 8 round cycle. This is a move that seems to me it would be real easy to do wrong and the consequences of that could be really bad. If you do not know what this move is you can have a look here. I think I probably go down too far on this one and get the legs a little more involved than this guy does and I also go up a good bit higher on the front end as well. I do try very hard to concentrate on getting the hips moving and having that be the core of the movement but I will admit that as you get tired it is easy for this exercise to fall apart which is why I think the weight needs to be right for you. I did the lunges with the 30# kettlebell as well rather than a 53# as prescribed. Again, that is a lot of weight for a lunge at least for me. I might have been able to do the 35# but I had the 30# kettlebell there for the swings so I used that. I also modified the push-ups. I did not come all the way up for a clap but I did go plyometric with them and made sure to push my hands up off the ground on every one of them. They did not get real high but I did what I could do on those and all 80 were plyometric. I completed the workout in 13:01 with the modifications mentioned above.

This is a good example of what I was talking about in my last post that the workouts are no more dangerous than others if you use your head. I could have gone out and tried to do this workout as prescribed so I could show off for the ladies but I would have run a much higher risk of hurting myself. The bottom line is my days of needing to show off for anyone are long over and that to me is a good place to be if you are going to walk into a crossfit gym. If you are young and stupid and trying to show off some of these workouts will likely bite you in the ass and the consequences could be a serious injury. Be smart and scale the workouts as needed and you should be fine. That is not to say you should be a slack ass out there. I was working my ass off on this one but I was doing it with weights that I was able to control through this somewhat complex moves in a manner that I felt was safe. Make no mistake though, I was wiped by the end of that 13:01.

I cooled down with a 200 meter run and a bunch of stretching as I normally do.

What is this crossfit thing

I have been saying for a while that I need to put a post together explaining what crossfit is but I just have not found the time. Well I figure I better just go ahead and do it or I never will. So what is crossfit? The "dictionary" definition of crossfit from the folks at crossfit HQ is constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements but what the hell does that even mean. The bottom line is that what crossfit is to you is going to depend a bit on how and where you do it. It seems that each crossfit gym has it's own approach and then there are always those that do it at home on their own. The common thread seems to be that it is a general physical preparedness program which pulls its movements from many disciplines and generally times the workouts. It is often called the sport of fitness and that is probably as good a definition as any although it doesn't really tell someone who hasn't done it what it is.

If you start to do crossfit you can expect to do Olympic lifting, calisthenics, gymnastics moves, plyometrics, running, and all kinds of other crazy shit you may never have thought to do if you were not doing crossfit. You will do what is called a Workout of the Day, or WOD for short, each day you do a crossfit workout. If you belong to a gym you will do it there and will generally not know what the workout will be until you get there and see it posted on the whiteboard. If you work out at home you will likely grab a WOD from one of the gym's websites. In general the gym's will post their WOD every day so you don't need to membership to get access to that. If you go to the gym you will do the workout with a group of people that show up at the same time as you and almost always the workout will be timed in some way. This is one advantage of joining the gym over doing it on your own, I find I work out way harder with the others around than I do by myself.

Crossfit gyms are pretty expensive if you compare them to your typical Bally's or similar gym. I pay $135 a month for mine with a 3 month membership and that is pretty cheap for a crossfit gym. The thing is you are paying for the programming, the workouts being posted, as well as the fact that you have a coach present and watching you during each workout. I usually do not need much feedback from the coach but when I do the lifting, which I am unfamiliar with, it is nice to have her there and the feedback is useful. For this reason you can't really compare the price to the standard gym unless you look at what a trainer, classes, or both would cost there.

Because of this model it is important that you find a gym that has a good set of coaches and someone who knows their shit doing the programming. This is one of the big knocks on crossfit. It takes nothing more than a weekend long $1000 class to get a Level 1 trainer certification and that and the $3000 per year affiliate fee are really all you need to open an affiliate. You can see the details here on the crossfit HQ site. Because of this there seems to be a wide range of quality out there ranging from great to piece of crap. Most crossfit "boxes", they call the gym a box not a gym but this just makes me sound like a douche so I won't use that term any longer, will let you try at least one class and come visit before you join so you should.

Most of the complaints about the program have to do with poor form on Olympic lifting and I could see that. Some of the people are much more interested in their time than their form and this can be a real bad way to look at it. If you find a good gym with a good coach and are smart about what you are doing you will likely not have any more risk of injury from crossfit than you would with most other programs out there. For a detailed article bashing the shit out of crossfit you can have a look here but there are others out there that are a bit more even handed and reflect more what my experience has been such as this one. There are also some videos put out by crossfit gym's that try to explain what it is and some of them are pretty good but remember the source, they are gym owners. Have a look here, here, and here for some decent ones.

Some of the naysayers are part of the reason it took me so long to finally take the plunge with crossfit but I have to say that I have not found most of the problems that people who complain about it mention. I also noticed over time that most of those that were complaining had never really done crossfit but were more complaining about people they have met who are crossfitters or they just can't stand the founder of crossfit, Greg Glassman. I have to agree with them on both of these points. Greg Glassman seems like an asshole and he is also a fat out of shape dough ball that I don't really want to get my fitness advice from. Had I seen some of his videos and interviews prior to trying crossfit I might never have done it. Just ignore him though because he really has nothing to do with your local gym and you will never have to interact with him. I also have seen some of the crossfit douche-bags that come in and take their shirt off before the workout starts to show off their pierced nipples while they do their workout. They then proceed to do their pull-ups with a green band and lifting with some of the worst for you will ever see. I would love to punch these idiots in the face but for the most part they are also harmless and you won't see many of them.

Bottom line for me is this is a varied workout routine that keeps me interested. The gym does the programming so I don't need to think about what I am going to do I just show up and do what they tell me which saves me a lot of time over what I was doing, all my own programming. I really like the community feel of the gym where people will cheer you on if they finish before you. I like the fact that it feels like a sport rather than just a workout. I like the fact that I am seeing results and getting in shape. I am not suggesting this is for everyone but I like it, at least for now, and I think I will stick with it. If you want to find out more fitbomb has some good posts on the program as well here.

Monday Workout

We were still at the beach today, just got home a bit ago. I got up this morning and went to the club house at my aunt and uncles house, which has a gym, so I could do the workout. According to the website for the gym I attend today's workout was 5 rounds for time:

• 15 push jerks (95/65)
• 400 meter run

I started off with 5 minutes on the elliptical just to warm up and then did a modified version of this workout. They only had dumbbells in the gym so I used those to do a modified version of the exercises, you can see it in this video. I started with 40# dumbbells and made it through almost the first 3 sets with that. I dropped to 35# dumbbells with 4 reps left on the third set because my form was starting to break down. I completed with that weight. I guessed on the 400 meter course but when I got back to their house I used the google earth ruler tool to measure it and it said 410 meters so I think it was pretty damn close. I completed the 5 rounds in 18:15 which I think was pretty good and I was pretty well spent by the end. I did some stretching to end it off and then walked back to the house.

Saturday Workout

We are out of town visiting my aunt and uncle this weekend so no gym this morning. I did my own thing today instead. Ran maybe 800 meters to the local playground for a warm up and then did AMRAP in 20 minutes:

• 10 burpees
• 10 knees to elbows
• 20 air squats

I made it through 7 rounds plus the 10 burpees and 8 knees to elbows on the eighth round. If you don't know what knees to elbows are have a look here. That is all.

Friday Workout

Warm up  today started with a 400 meter run, surprise. We then did 3 rounds:

• 10 air squats
• 10 push-ups
• 10 mountain climbers

The workout as prescribed was 10 rounds for time:

• 10 wall ball shots (20/16)
• 10 slam balls (30/20)

Seems pretty easy right? If you are unfamiliar with wall ball shots you can see the move here. Slam balls can be viewed here. The wall ball shots kicked my ass last time I did them when we did the filthy fifty workout. When we did that one I was going pretty strong until I hit this move and I just died trying to knock out 50 of these things. This time I felt a bit better and I did start out with the prescribed 20# ball. I had to drop the 20# to a 16# ball after the first 3 sets of 10 though but I finished off with that and even on the last set I did the first 7 wall ball shots unbroken before having to take a bit of a breather for a second. I did the slam balls with the prescribed 30# ball and that thing got heavy as hell by the time this thing was over. This was the first time I have ever done this exercise so I was a bit slow and I am not sure I was slamming it as much as I should but I certainly got a workout. By the end of the 4th or 5th round I was taking short breathers between exercises and by the end my lungs were screaming. There were only 3 of us there and I finished last behind both of the women there although I was using heavier weights. My quadriceps were still sore as hell this morning when I walked in from the Wed. workout with the thrusters but I was able to get through it and I feel pretty good. I finished in 15:09.

I am certainly feeling like I am getting in better shape very quickly. I was not in bad shape before but this is really kicking it up a bit and it is also a lot of fun.

Forget the Steroids

I saw an article this week about a Stanford University developed device that is designed to change the core temperature of an individual very quickly. The news articles I read, one of which is here, take the angle that this device is better at performance enhancement than steroids. I also found a more detailed article which explains a bit of how this thing works as well as some of the methodology used to get some of the amazing results. You can check this one out here. The discovery of performance improvements in athletes from this was apparently just something they stumbled on but they got great results with a lab staff member. according to the Stanford University News:

...the glove's effects on athletic performance didn't become apparent until the researchers began using the glove to cool a member of the lab – the confessed "gym rat" and frequent coauthor Vinh Cao – between sets of pull-ups. The glove seemed to nearly erase his muscle fatigue; after multiple rounds, cooling allowed him to do just as many pull-ups as he did the first time around. So the researchers started cooling him after every other set of pull-ups.

"Then in the next six weeks he went from doing 180 pull-ups total to over 620," said Heller. "That was a rate of physical performance improvement that was just unprecedented."

Apparently the heating of muscles causes the enzyme they use to create chemical energy to change into some unusable state which is what you feel as muscle fatigue. This change in state reverses as the muscles cool down and thus the fatigue goes away. Cooling the body eliminates  your fatigue and allows you to continue working without damage to the muscles. Sounds like pretty powerful stuff to me but I can't see paying the $3000 they are asking for it. The articles is worth a read and there is an interesting video on it below. I would not be surprised if you see some form of this available much cheaper in the years to come although it seems they have been at this for a while.

Wednesday Workout

Warm up started with a 500 meter row and then continued with 3 rounds:

• 10 mountain climbers
• 10 ab mat sit-ups
• 10 air squats

Next came the workout "Daniel" for time:

• 50 pull-ups
• 400 meter run
• 21 thrusters (95/65)
• 800 meter run
• 21 thrusters (95/65)
• 400 meter run
• 50 pull-ups

I had to scale the pull-ups as usual. The first 10 I knocked out without any assistance then used a blue (very thin) band up to 35 and switched to a green band (thicker band) for the final 15. On the second set of pull-ups I did roughly the same breakdown but switched to green earlier and by the end was doing them in sets of 3-5 and jumping as well. 50 pull-ups at the end of this work out is hard as shit. If you are unfamiliar with band assisted pull-ups have a look at this video for how it works, ignore the grip. On the thrusters, here is a video demo, I was unsure what weight to do so tried a few different weights before we started the clock and settled on 85#. Coach Michele watched me getting set up and corrected me on depth on the front squat part so I made that correction. I actually grabbed a 16# wall ball and put it on the floor behind me and when I did the squats made sure my ass touched the ball, sorry to whoever will be using it next. I made it through most of the workout with the 85# on the bar but dropped to 75# for the last 6 reps. I feel pretty good about that since I was only slightly in front of the men's tee for most of the workout. I completed the workout in 26:39, not bad I think.

This workout is named for Daniel Crabtree, a SFC in the Army National Guard who was killed in Iraq on 06/08/2006 from a IED attack. To find out more about Daniel have a look at this link. Always remember when you are doing these workouts where these names come from and why. When you think you can't finish or it is just too hard think about how hard things were for these people and their families and pick your ass up and keep going.