brikis98's crossfit journal

[brikis98]

Tuesday, October 21

Workout of the Day

"CrossFit Total"
Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

My numbers

Once again, as I slowly work to rebuild my strength, I opted for a 3x5 style workout instead of just one rep max sets. I also tossed in some cleans at the beginning for practice.

Cleans: 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 225xmissed
Squat: 205x5, 245x5, 265x5
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x3xmissed
Deadlift: 225x5, 295x5, 365x2

* I've been working up to a 225lbs clean and I just barely missed it today. I didn't get my elbows around quickly enough and had to dump it. I'm confident I'll get it next time.

* During warm-up for squats, my hips were still hurting a bit, so I decided not to push it to 275x5. I guess the good news is that 265x5 went very easily, so if my hips feel better next time, I'll finally go for 275 then. If they do still hurt... dunno. Might have to switch to front squats.

* OH press flat out sucked. It was very easy until the last set at which point I couldn't even get the 4th rep of 155. This is kind of... sad. Sigh. Gonna take a while to work my OH press back up to where it was.

* Deadlift was the one bright spot in this other wise crappy workout. 295x5 was so bloody easy, I decided to just go for it and see if I could do 365. It went up twice without much difficulty and with very good bar speed. 365lbs itself is not a PR, as I deadlifted 405 at bodyweight 223lbs back in April. However, as I weighed in at 183.5 yesterday, this was a new PR of a double bodyweight deadlift.

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: gramboh
Thanks, makes total sense now, and now that I think of it I've done both exercises before, however I've only done back extensions over a stability/swiss ball.

I'm doing my first Fran today. Can't decide on the thruster weight. Couple buddies did it back home I think one used 65 one used 80. I OHP'd 135x2 really easily after doing my working sets yesterday, I think I could max 145 maybe even 150 and I can front squat probably 205 if I tried to max (haven't yet), so I'm tempted to try 95lbs thrusters. On the other hand that is a total bozo ego move since it will hammer my time. Aiming for 10min, the pull-ups are going to kill me, my kip still sucks. I think I'll do a few thrusters at 65/75/85/95 and decide what feels appropriate then go from there.

It's definitely up to you, but I think CF folks generally recommend going for a better time rather than more weight with workouts like Fran. None of the reps in Fran are supposed to feel "heavy" at all. You should be able to "throw the weight around," whether it's the 95lbs for thrusters or your own bodyweight for pull-ups. The limiting factor in Fran should always be endurance. It should primarily be your lungs that are burning up and causing you to take a break, and not your muscles. If you find the muscles failing before your lungs, you may want to scale the weight down. This is especially true with thrusters. While the press part of a thruster is easier than the OH press (since you can/should use lots of hip/leg drive), and the squat shouldn't be too heavy for anyone, the exercise uses almost every muscle in your body (kind of like cleans) and can/should wind you really quickly. 21 reps of anything is a lot, but it's especially tough with something so full body.

In conclusion: 10 minutes sounds like a pretty good goal. Make hitting that time your #1 priority and scale everything else (the weight/reps/whatever) accordingly.

Wow, spot on comments, it's like you saw my workout last night. I did Fran as Rx'd in 13:26, it turns out the thrusters were not a problem @ 95lbs but rather my terrible pull-ups caused a really long time. I finished the last thrusters at ~10:30 so it took about 3 minutes to do 9 pull-ups, and it was due to strength giving out which as you said is not the goal of Fran. I actually went a bit slow on the thrusters, stopping at 15 on the first set even though I probably could've banged all 21 out since I was worried about pace. I'm not too disappointed though as this is the first time I've done more than ~20 pull-ups in a workout (I usually do 3 sets after lifting around ~8/6/5 = 19). My kipping is getting better as I had to force more hip pop as I got more tired.

I'm going to stop doing pull-ups at the end of my 3x5 days and instead do them every other time at the gym or the playground by my house and just work on getting volume/kipping up. I ended up having to break the pull-ups down into sets of 5/4/3/2 and even singles toward the end. My heart rate slowed down significantly as well.

Anyways thanks for the tips, I should start updating my journal thread instead of posting this stuff in yours . Congrats on the clean and double BW dead.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, October 22

Workout of the Day

Four rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
50 Squats

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill.

Time: 15:01

I liked this workout a lot, but I wasn't a fan of the conditions I had to do it in. First, I hate running fast on a treadmill. At above 9mph, my stride feels wrong and inefficient, almost like I'm fighting with the treadmill, and I'm just never comfortable. However, it was too dark and cold outside, so I didn't have a choice. I ended up running the first 400m at 11mph (fastest speed the treadmill allows) and the remaining 3 at 10mph. Second, my legs were really sore from yesterday's squatting & deadlifting, so the air squats in this workout were a real battle and at up a lot of time. I need to do better next time.

 

[Safeway]

I'd like to thank you for the absurd regularity of your updates. This thread lead me to Google CrossFit gym near me. I just shot off an email inquiring about the program and registering for a Saturday information session/sign-up. :beer:

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, October 23

Rest day.

I was supposed to work out, but had to stay really late at work, so I'll workout tomorrow instead.

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'd like to thank you for the absurd regularity of your updates. This thread lead me to Google CrossFit gym near me. I just shot off an email inquiring about the program and registering for a Saturday information session/sign-up. :beer:

Heh, no problem. Have fun with CF

 

[brikis98]

Friday, October 24

Gah. Had to work late again. Got home really hungry, so I did a quick workout of boxing (2 rounds of 2 minutes) and my usual routine on the gymnastics rings. Then I ate a massive amount of pizza, wings and cookies. I somehow don't think I'm going to hit my weight loss goal this month

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Friday, October 24

Gah. Had to work late again. Got home really hungry, so I did a quick workout of boxing (2 rounds of 2 minutes) and my usual routine on the gymnastics rings. Then I ate a massive amount of pizza, wings and cookies. I somehow don't think I'm going to hit my weight loss goal this month

with the holidays coming up it aint gonna get easier keeping up goals. that's why i tell myself i'll workout for a solid 10 months and just let loose these last few. No regrets because i know i will have worked hard for it and no goals for me to fail at :laugh: .

you've done exceptionally well since starting this journal and deserve a little break now and then. one step back, 21-15-9 forward

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, October 25

Workout of the Day

Run 5K

My numbers

1600m: 7:43
3200m: 15:37
Stopped after half a lap more - really sharp pain in my right side

Gaaaah. Goddamn it, what a crappy week of workouts. First, my hips continue to bother me during back squat and my OH press numbers suck. Next, I have 3 days in a row where I needed to work 10-12 hours which resulted in crappy workouts or skipping the workouts all together. And now this.

For whatever reason, just as I started to pick up pace for the last mile, I got a really sharp pain on my right side, around my floating ribs. I used to get stitches in my sides when I ran, but (1) I haven't had them in years, (2) they usually happen early in a run, not 2 miles in and (3) they never hurt this much. I'm not sure what caused it - maybe I ate too much for breakfast or maybe I didn't drink enough water - but the pain came on very suddenly and I just couldn't keep running. It's a damn shame, as I my legs and lungs were feeling great up to this point and I think I could've finished in under 24 minutes, which was my goal.

Originally posted by: HN
with the holidays coming up it aint gonna get easier keeping up goals. that's why i tell myself i'll workout for a solid 10 months and just let loose these last few. No regrets because i know i will have worked hard for it and no goals for me to fail at :laugh: .

you've done exceptionally well since starting this journal and deserve a little break now and then.

Yea, in retrospect, that's true. I've definitely made some good progress while doing CF, but that just means crappy weeks like this one are even more noticeable by contrast. Oh well, I just gotta shake it off and start fresh again next week.

Originally posted by: HN
one step back, 21-15-9 forward

Heh, nice. That should be on a t-shirt

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, October 26

Workout of the Day

For time:
10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 30 reps
50 Pull-ups

30 GHD Sit-ups
30 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 20 reps
35 Pull-ups

50 GHD Sit-ups
50 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 10 reps
20 Pull-ups

My numbers

My gym doesn't have a GHD, so I subbed decline sit-ups for GHD sit-ups and did the hip & back extensions on a 45 degree back extension machine.

Time: 28:02

Aahhh, finally a good workout. Actually, almost too good. I was obliterated by the end of it and it took me ~20 minutes to feel normal again. Good stuff.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, October 27

Rest day. Upper back, arms and biceps are really sore from yesterday's pull-ups.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, October 28

Workout of the Day

Decided to do another strength workout. I really like tossing these in 1-2 times per week, but with CF 5 times per week, I try to keep the volume relatively low.

Clean
Squat
Bench
Deadlift

My numbers

Clean: 135x8, 185x3, 205x1, 225x1 (PR)
Squat: 205x5, 245x5, 275x5
Bench: 205x5, 235x5, 265x4
Deadlift: 275x5, 365x3

Pretty good workout today. I got my October goal of cleaning 225lbs. It was a pretty solid lift and I think I could've had 235. However, I need to spend some more time working on my snatch, so I think I'll be doing that before strength workouts in the future.

Squat was a bit mixed again. I finally did 275x5 which went pretty well, but unfortunately, my hips hurt again. It wasn't too bad, but I'm worried it'll turn into something worse. I'm going to give it another week or two, but if they keep hurting, I'll have to switch to front squat.

Bench press was very solid. 265 was going up pretty damn well, but I didn't have a spotter, and after a pretty tough 4th rep, I didn't risk going for the 5th rep.

Deadlift went very well. Last time I did 365, I was very winded and even a bit light headed after 2 reps, but I had no such issues this time. I'll probably go for 375 next time around.

 

[Safeway]

Do you have any pictures of your progression?

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Do you have any pictures of your progression?

If you mean pictures of myself as I lost weight, then unfortunately, no.

 

[Safeway]

Yea, as you lost weight and gained muscle.

It isn't too late to start keeping track in one month increments at this point.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Yea, as you lost weight and gained muscle.

It isn't too late to start keeping track in one month increments at this point.

I wish I had taken pictures, but at this point, I think it's a bit pointless. Since mid April, I've dropped from 223lbs to ~184lbs and my plan is to keep going until I hit 180lbs. Pretty much all of my major weight loss has already happened and I really doubt I'll look much different after losing 4 more pounds.

As for muscle gain, as I expected, there hasn't been much of that. It's incredibly tough to gain muscle while losing weight. In fact, I almost certainly lost muscle, especially during my ~3 week European vacation, where I did no weight training, ate a (relatively) crappy diet, drank tons of beer, but still dropped ~8lbs from all the walking. This past month - during which I've barely lost any weight - is the only one during which I may have gained some muscle due to plenty of extra 3x5 style workouts and being less strict with my diet. However, I don't think it's at all noticeable and as I plan on keeping my bodyweight at 180, I don't think taking pictures would be too worthwhile.

 

[gramboh]

Re: your hip pain in squats etc. what are you doing for stretching? I assume you do the CFWU before the WODs, but are you doing additional static stretching? If you have access to one, I highly recommned foam rolling. I just bought a travel roller (travelroller.com is the site, I bought one locally) and the thing is godsend, especially for leg muscles. I used one at the gym before I moved religiously, then for the pas 2 months I haven't had access to one and noticed pain developing in my hip flexors and hamstrings from squating. Just did my first session on the roller last night and I was almost in tears from the pain

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, October 29

Workout of the Day

Three rounds, 15-12- and 9 reps, for time of:
135 pound Thruster
Muscle-ups

My numbers

Did muscle-ups on a pull-up bar.

Time: 23:58

Very tough workout, but I kind of liked it. Towards the end, my form on both exercises started to break down, but I fought through it. My hands hurt like hell from the muscle-ups, but fortunately, the blisters didn't tear.

Originally posted by: gramboh
Re: your hip pain in squats etc. what are you doing for stretching? I assume you do the CFWU before the WODs, but are you doing additional static stretching? If you have access to one, I highly recommned foam rolling. I just bought a travel roller (travelroller.com is the site, I bought one locally) and the thing is godsend, especially for leg muscles. I used one at the gym before I moved religiously, then for the pas 2 months I haven't had access to one and noticed pain developing in my hip flexors and hamstrings from squating. Just did my first session on the roller last night and I was almost in tears from the pain

I don't do the CFWU, but rather something very similar to Greg A's warm-up, which includes the Samson stretch. Time permitting, I also add something after the warm-up to really get my heart going, such as a quick set of burpees, some jump rope, light jogging, etc. This sort of warm-up has been *excellent* for just about everything, but despite it, my hips have still been hurting during back squats.

I've been considering getting a roller for a while, so maybe it's time I get off my ass and order one. However, I always thought it was something to use after a workout, along with stretching, to help healing, flexibility, etc?

 

[gramboh]

From what I've read, ideally you do say ~30min of rolling on rest days, or after the workout. What I've done in practice is usually ~5-10min of rolling after lifting days which seems to help a lot. Now that I have my own roller, I'll probably do it 3 or 4 times a week at home (on both lifting and rest days).

I've seen people using them during warm-ups but I'm not sure that's the best idea.

 

[conorvansmack]

One of the jiu jitsu guys at my old gym used one as part of his warm up. A number of the guys traveled with them in their bags, but he was the only one that warmed up with it.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, October 30

Workout of the Day

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

My numbers

I used this online Tabata timer to precisely time the intervals.

Pull-ups: 50
Push-ups: 81
Sit-ups: 83
Squats: 108
Total: 322

Damn. This was my first Tabata-style workout and it was friggin tough. I think my natural rhythm doesn't quite mesh with the 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, so I was really struggling to keep up. I honestly think that if I just did my own pacing for 4 minutes of each exercise, I would've gotten far more reps. Anyways, hopefully this is something that will improve with time and produce the benefits that Tabata intervals are supposed to have.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, October 31

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Review of October

I've decided that at the end of each month, I'd do a little recap to see how things went. October was a VERY busy month for me at home and work, so I didn't achieve many of my goals:

Drop body weight from 185lbs (10/02) to 180lbs: Failed

My body weight hasn't changed at all in October - I weighed in at 185lbs this morning. I think there were two primary reasons for this:

1. I did not watch my diet nearly as carefully. I had an extremely busy month, with lots of quick/unhealthy meals, lots of restaurant food and many other causes that made it impossible to track calories. As a result, I was probably eat roughly maintenance.

2. I did a lot more heavy lifting this month in the form of 3x5 SS-style workouts. As I result, I think I've actually gained a little bit of muscle. As my weight has stayed the same, this would imply I did lower my overall body fat percentage, something that seems to be confirmed by what I look like in the mirror.

Hold a handstand for 10 seconds: Failed

I think I practiced handstands a grand total of once this whole month, so most likely, I've gotten worse at these.

Perform 30 seconds of the "tuck planche": Failed
(The planche progression)

I practiced this a couple times in October and held it for 20 seconds once, but that's as far as I got. I'm making decent progress and should be able to pull this one off next month.

Hold a "tucked l-sit" for 15 seconds: Done: 10/25
(The L-sit progression)

I only tried this a few times, but improved really quickly, and reached 15 seconds pretty easily. I have now moved on to the normal (straight legged) L-Sit, which I can do for ~8 seconds.

Snatch 180lbs: Failed

I only tried the snatch once this past month. Definitely going to focus on this a lot more in November, practicing it before strength workouts.

Clean 225lbs: Done: 10/28

Snuck this one in at the end of the month. It was a very solid lift and I probably could've had more.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, November 1

Workout of the Day

Back Squat
OH Press
Deadlift

My numbers

Back Squat: 205x5, 245x5, 285x3, 205x8
OH Press: 115x5, 135x5, 155x3xmissed
Deadlift: 295x5, 365x3

Back squat went very well today. My hips felt a bit weird, but there was no actual pain, which is a huge improvement. As a result, I went for some heavier weight. The 3rd rep of 285 was VERY slow, almost coming to a complete stop, but I kept good form and pushed through it. That's 100lbs more than I weigh, and some good progress since I've started working on my strength numbers again.

OH press sucked once again. Everything goes well until 155 - a weight I definitely could handle before - and I just can't get the 4th rep up. I think I just need to accept that I've lost strength on this lift, check my ego, and drop the weight down a bit.

I was originally going to go for 365x5 on the deadlift, but I was pretty gassed after squats and decided not to push it, stopping after 3 reps.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, November 2

Workout of the Day

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

My numbers

Time: 23:01 (PR)

This was my second time doing Angie: the first time was on 09/16 and it took me 30 min. 7 minutes faster is definitely some good progress, but I still have plenty of room for improvement. One trend I've noticed is that with so many reps to do in a row, I tend to start quickly and then suddenly run out of steam 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through. This is probably normal for everyone, but I'm curious if I'd see any benefit by starting a bit slower and pacing myself.

For example, I got through the first 50 pull-ups in ~3 minutes, but the last 50 took me around 6 minutes. Obviously, as muscles fatigue, it gets a lot harder, but I wonder if I could pull off a more even pace to reduce my time. For example, if I took 4 minutes (instead of 3) to do the first 50, I wonder if I could've done the last 50 in 4 minutes as well (instead of 6), saving 1 minute overall.

Push-ups and squats went reasonably well, but I once again struggled on sit-ups. I'm not sure what it is about sit-ups (maybe my technique is wrong), but my abs just don't recover quickly. Once the burning sensation starts, it doesn't seem to go away for a long time - much longer than other muscles - which makes it really hard to get through so many reps. Anyone else experience this?

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Sunday, November 2

Workout of the Day

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

My numbers

Time: 23:01 (PR)

This was my second time doing Angie: the first time was on 09/16 and it took me 30 min. 7 minutes faster is definitely some good progress, but I still have plenty of room for improvement. One trend I've noticed is that with so many reps to do in a row, I tend to start quickly and then suddenly run out of steam 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through. This is probably normal for everyone, but I'm curious if I'd see any benefit by starting a bit slower and pacing myself.

For example, I got through the first 50 pull-ups in ~3 minutes, but the last 50 took me around 6 minutes. Obviously, as muscles fatigue, it gets a lot harder, but I wonder if I could pull off a more even pace to reduce my time. For example, if I took 4 minutes (instead of 3) to do the first 50, I wonder if I could've done the last 50 in 4 minutes as well (instead of 6), saving 1 minute overall.

Push-ups and squats went reasonably well, but I once again struggled on sit-ups. I'm not sure what it is about sit-ups (maybe my technique is wrong), but my abs just don't recover quickly. Once the burning sensation starts, it doesn't seem to go away for a long time - much longer than other muscles - which makes it really hard to get through so many reps. Anyone else experience this?

I think you'll find your endurance a bit better if you pick a set number of reps (say 15) and do those, break for five or ten seconds, and then bang out fifteen more. That gives your body micro-recoveries, which can work wonders when you're trying to do 400 reps.

On Friday I just repeated FGB for the first time. I had a 68 pt PR. Part of that is obviously due to superior conditioning, but I think that taking the time to rest at set intervals really helped me. The score for each round reflected that -- my best round was the third.

As for sit-ups, they are incredibly taxing if you're doing them right (which it sounds like you are). I always find my abs burning at about 50 - 55 reps, but usually try and push through it. With more regular rest (15 reps, 5 - 10 second rest), I find it much easier.