Warm-up:
5 min run (10:00 min/mi)
Burgener warm-up

Crossfit WOD 130510
Five rounds of:
5 Dumbbell deadlifts
5 Dumbbell hang cleans
5 Dumbbell push presses
5 Dumbbell squats

Increase the load each round. Rest as necessary between rounds. 
KL: 25, 3x35, 40

3 rounds:
2x8 hamstring curls (L-R; 35)
30 sec weighted deadhang (25, 35, 45)

Nice to get a little more metcon workout in once in a while. The DBs were much tougher on the shoulder and elbow so I kept the weights relatively light (probably should have started lower and kept increasing). Could have gone a tad heavier but not much more.

metcon

CFWU (3 rounds of 10 pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, back extensions)

then:

crossfit WOD 110418

Three rounds for time of: (did ONE round, subbed 160 meters for 100 meters))
Run 100 meters
50 Push-ups
Run 100 meters
50 Sit-ups
Run 100 meters
50 Squats
Run 100 meters
50 Back extensions

SS 13:25
JL 15:08

SS: push-ups broken 25-10-5-5-5
sit-ups unbroken
squats broken 36-14
back ext broken 15-15-10-10

Ok, so doing one round instead of three was a mistake, but a fortunate one. As it was, this workout had me gasping on the floor for 10 minutes afterward, and it's only now, an hour after the workout, that I feel competent enough to write the post. When I looked at the workout last night I legitimately did not see the three rounds part. Convenient, right?

We did increase the length of the runs, but that's because the track length is 1/10th of a mile, so 100m is .6 of a lap around the track which is kind of hard to do consistently for an oval shaped track. However, had I done all three rounds I would have probably found a way to make it work.

First J.T.

crossfit WOD 110407

"J.T"

21-15-9 reps of:
HSPU (smith machine assist)
ring dips
push ups

SS 16:15

First attempt at J.T. today. Holy crap I forgot how much harder ring dips were than regular dips. Still, I was glad I checked this out last night so I could bring my rings in from home. It's something I've been meaning to do and just never got around to it. Also, now that they're here I can do ring dips (and other ring exercises) whenever I want! I also remembered to bring my Tabata timer so maybe some intervals will show up in the future.

Having a locker at the gym is niiiice.

Michael

crossfit WOD 110405

"Michael"

3 rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters (1/2 mile)
50 back extensions (subbed supermans)
50 sit-ups

SS 21:12
JL 21:30

Not a bad time, but one and a half minutes slower than my previous attempt. At least I did the supermans and sit-ups in the proper order this time. The run felt great on the first round, but I was dragging serious ass on the last one. The supermans were generally broken something like 30-20 or 40-10 and the sit-ups were broken 30-20 on the first two sets and 20-15-15 on the last set. Running after doing a whole bunch of sit-ups isn't super fun. However, doing those supermans after running was actually kind of awesome. Since I'm laying on my stomach, every time I go up it forces the air out of my lungs and when I come back down I inhale. It seemed like the oxygen recovery I got was far better than it would have been were I simply standing around.

a whole bunch of squats

crossfit WOD 110317

5x1 OHS
5x1 front squat
5x1 back squat (did low bar)

Try to increase weight on each rep

OHS: 95, 105, 115, 125, 135
FS: 135, 155, 160, 165, 170
BS: 185, 190, 195, 200, 205

JL was ill this morning, likely self-induced from St. Patty's activities last night, so I was squatting all by my lonesome today. I did better than I thought I would, which is nice, but I'm sure I could have gone higher for those overhead squats. Apparently my PR for OHS is 140, and I'm pretty sure I could beat that now if I tried. For both front and back squats, I'm 20 lbs under my PR 1RM (back squat, front squat) which is fine for now, but I'd definitely like to hit those next time. For both squats, I seem to be lacking in core strength to keep my body rigid while I lift with the legs. With the front squats, it was simply difficult to hold the weight with my torso but there were no actual problems lifting it. for the back squats, I definitely stalled a little, but the more troublesome aspect was my tendency to go up with the legs and butt without raising my torso. I really need to work on building strength there, so more squats are definitely on the menu.

thrusters and pullups, but not Fran!

CFWU x 3, no pull-ups

crossfit WOD 110313

Seven rounds for time of
10 wall ball shots, 20 lb ball (subbed 15# dumbbell thrusters)
10 pull-ups

SS: 9:49

John's strained leg was only a little tight today, so we figured we could get away with some light thrusters to loosen it up.

First set blew by super fast, started breaking up the pull-up sets at the 4th round. I didn't catch John's time, but I know he did 2x10 and then 2x8 pull-ups before switching to lat pull downs for the last three rounds. It's an hour later now and I still haven't caught my breath, but I don't feel this was a metabolically taxing as it should have been. Will probably up the thruster weight if we do this again.

pullups and bench press

crossfit WOD 110310

With a continuously running clock, do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, and so on as long as you are able.

SS: 10
JL: 8

In addition to this one, we did the same thing, only with 135 lb bench press.

SS: 7 + 4 reps
JL: 9

John's leg is still in recovery so this was a good one for today.

sprints!

crossfit WOD 110308

Ten rounds, each for time of
Sprint 100m
Rest 90 seconds





SS: 16, 16.52, 17.52, 18, 19 (John injured himself here), 18.16, 17.30, 20, 18.8, 18.5

There's an indoor track at the gym here that's 1/10 of a mile (even smaller than the roof of coles!) but they don't let you do intervals on it (in theory, we haven't tested that out). Regardless, we decided to run across the basketball courts downstairs. These times reflect running across three courts (width-wise) and back, which turns out to be ~100m. If it were nicer outside we could have done it there, but we had no such luck.

On the 5th sprint John strained him hammy, so we'll probably do upper body stuff for the next week or so.

run and snatch

crossfit WOD 110302

3 rounds for time:
400m run
65lb squat snatch, 15 reps
handstand push-ups, 9 reps (subbed feet on 2.5 ft pylo box)

SS: 19:21
JL: 20:59 (snatch sets went 15, 12, 7)

Quick morning workout! My elbow is still janky so I'll take a rest tomorrow and start again on Monday.

McCluskey

crossfit WOD 110301

We modified this one so heavily I'm not sure it still qualifies as the same workout.

"McCluskey" (modified)

Three rounds of:
9 Dips
15 Burpees
21 Pull-ups

Then,
Run 800 meters

JL: 25:12 (2nd round 18 pull-ups, 3rd round 12 pull-ups)
SS: 23:25

I had every intention of doing a 21-15-9 of high pulls and OHS's that was put up a few days ago, but we went with this one instead. We only intentionally subbed the dips for the muscle-ups. Changing the burpee pull-ups to burpees and cutting running from the first two rounds was accidental, but in retrospect probably a really good idea. Took me quite a while to catch my breath after this one, likely because Wednesday to Saturday was spent drinking with prospective graduate students. For some reason my elbow is feeling janky too, but that should resolve itself in a few days.

Snatcher

Warm-up:
sprints and box drill
Burgener warmup

Crossfit Football WOD 020111
Complete 5 rounds:
3 Power Snatches
3 Snatch Pulls
3 Power Snatches
*Use 60%-70%& of last set of snatch from SWOD.
*Stay connected to the bar on each round. Do not drop the weight.
*If weight is dropped, count number of drops and perform an equal amount of burpees as a penalty.
Rest 120 seconds between sets.

KL (65, 75x2, 80, 85)
1 drop after snatch pulls @85

20 weighted decline situp (10)
10 standing plate twist (45)
1:30 plank hold

Nice new workout posted at CF football. Not sure if intent of the workout is no failed snatches, you can read it as either no bails or no setting the bar on the ground. I read it as the latter: PS before the pulls always went up easy, grip starts getting taxed after the pulls. Tweaky back from deads yesterday but otherwise things felt fine. Would try this next time allowing rest on the ground (connected to bar), but upping the loads.

The Mooch

Warm-up:
DROM
back squat

Crossfit Football WOD 061309
"The Mooch", AMRAP in 15 minutes of:
3 back squats 225#
6 pullups
9 pushups

BL: 10 rounds + 1 back squat

3x(1+4) muscle-up + ring dips

Brutal. Still sweating 45 minutes later. Very interesting triplet cause the pullups and pushups drove so much blood to my shoulder girdle that getting the barbell racked properly was actually a bit painful. Pullups done on rings to avoid losing the rack, which meant kipping was extremely limited.

shoulder

warmup:
3x barbell complex: 45, 2x50

crossfit WOD 090206
5x1 shoulder press: 5x120
5x3 push press: 125, 130, 2x135, 140
5x5 push jerk: 140, 2x135, 130 (f5), 125 (f5)

3x10 OHS (45#)

Nice to do some shoulder work today. I must have been getting tired because those jerks were really sloppy at the end. I was increasingly afraid of crushing my skull.

Also, it's really interesting how quickly some of the strength has returned. Just a month ago I was having problems with putting 70-95# overhead.

Climbing-specific WODs

In case you missed it, Rob Shaul over at Mountain Athlete has started posting climbing-specific workouts of the day:

Beginning January 12th, we started a focused, 8-week sport specific cycle to prepare our climbers for the spring desert climbing season at Red Rocks and Moab. This cycle is rock-climbing specific, and is designed to substantially increase our athletes finger and hand strength, pulling strength, power endurance and stamina.

So right now you are probably asking yourself why are we training in the gym at all then? We are training in the gym because not all of us can go climbing every day, we have to work or take care of family, and not everyone lives where they could even go climbing easily. Also it is winter so rock climbing isn't even possible at all outside of gym training or the rock gym. So this program is designed to help all of us who lead regular lives but still want to get out climbing.

Also this training allow us to break down and train all of the specific muscles that we use climbing. We are training our finger tendons, our grip strip strength, pulling strength and core strength and by training these areas when we are able to go climbing we will be stronger. The strength gained from this program will help you get back to where you were climbing in the fall quicker and as your body learns to use its new strength with the climbing skills you have you will climb stronger as well.

Finally, getting our athletes stronger in the gym allows them to dedicate most of their "on rock" or "on ice" time to the technical nuances of the sport. Their "practice" then can also be more focused and efficient, because they are more fit, and don't need to spend as much time outside developing fitness.

My name Isobel

Bergener warm-up, 45#
3x5 snatch (45, 65, 95)

crossfit WOD 080922

"Isabel"
For time:
Snatch 135#, 30 reps

SS: 5:55 (95#)

cooldown: climb some routes at Coles before Kenway & the gang show up.

This one was kind of fun. I was a little concerned because I had half a burrito about an hour before work, but it turned out to be fine. Most of the snatches were full squat snatches, but some were not quite to parallel. I think I can definitely go up in weight next time, likely to 105 or possibly 110.

Grace Be With You

warm-up:
CFWU x 3
2x5 C&J (45, 65)

workout:
crossfit WOD 080917

"Grace"
135# clean & jerk, 30 reps

SS: 95#, 8:18 (full squat cleans on 27/30 reps)

So, apparently full squat cleans almost double my time on this one, though the last time I did this workout was over a year ago. Three big differences in the movement this time compared to last time. First difference is the depth of the catch on the clean. This time I tried to catch, or go down to parallel or lower on every rep, whereas last time I just threw it up onto my shoulders. Also, after catching the weight, I would stand up completely before dipping down to start the push jerk. Last time, I just transitioned right into the jerk from the bottom of the catch. And the last difference is rather inconsequential, but this time I did actual push jerks, and last time I push pressed my way to the finish.

So, with all that it's hard to compare to my performance last time. This way was definitely more taxing. I broke up the reps something like (5-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-1) and took anywhere from 3-8 breaths between sets. I was having a pretty intense case of apprehension beforehand, and honestly I'm just glad it's over.

Texas, week 10, intensity

Warm-up:
back squat (doubles to 225#)

2-2 back squat (250,255 [dnf last rep])

Crossfit WOD 091308
"The Chief"
Max rounds in 3 minutes of:
3 power cleans (135#)
6 pushups
9 squats

Rest 1 minute. Repeat for a total of 5 cycles.

I scaled this to "Son of the Chief" by cutting it in half (3 cycles: first 3 minutes, second 3 minutes, third 1.5 minutes). Managed 3-3-1 rounds. Rx'd weight is probably a bit too heavy for me, became more of a strength-endurance workout than a lung-burner.

Did the scaled WOD cause the squats felt bad enough that I knew I didn't have energy for heavy singles. Video of a warm-up set here and the first set at 250# here, compare the knee positions coming out of the bottom - something to work on). Video of the last set is here, which despite being slower, demonstrates better form since I resist the urge to let my knees slide forward on the ascent.

Finished with 3 front tuck levers (~30s each).

Still feeling slightly sick, may take this week to rest. Dinner (bison steaks, steamed snapper and broccoli):

Halting deads

Warm-up:
0.5 mi run

Crossfit WOD 083008
4x400 m runs (treadmill, incline=1.5, 1:1 work:rest)
1:38,1:34,1:32,1:31

3x3 Zercher squats (2x155,175)
4x2 halting deadlift (225, double overhand)

Runs felt great, and the heartrate hit 214 bpm on the last run! Played with 2 exercises I'd like to rotate in. Kept the weight light since I'm a bit fried from yesterday. The Zercher squats are nice, similar to front squats, although I felt it a bit more in my lower back. Halting deads (Rippetoe describes them here) are perfect for working the starting deadlift position, which has been causing me grief at the heavier weights.

Video of the third set of halting deads, with some analysis below.
The starting position looks good for the first rep, but I blow it for the third (and to a lesser degree the second) by setting my hips too low. Watch how my shoulders come forward on the third rep before the barbell moves vertically. You can see why this happens by comparing the images below:
In the first image, the dashed vertical line passes from the scapula directly through the barbell (or at least my best guess of where it is). This puts the shoulders in front of the bar, and produces a slight angle between the arms and vertical, just as Ripptoe argues is the correct starting position. In the second image, the hips are lower, pulling the scapula back, and the dashed vertical line is now roughly parallel to the arms. This causes the hips to rise faster than my shoulders when I start pulling, and they continue to do so until I achieve the position in the first image after which the barbell actually really starts to move. The difference between these two positions is pretty small (at least to me!), and they can be compared better when overlayed:

Angie

CF WOD 080822

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups (anchored)
100 Squats

SS 30:40 (approx times: 11:00, 9:00, 4:00, 6:00)

Somehow I managed to go faster this time. Pull-ups fell quite sharply, 20, 5, and then a whole bunch of threes and twos. Sit-ups unbroken. Improved three minutes from last time, though that may be due to all that extra rest I've built up. The workout felt really good today, all things considered.

Tricepatops

CFWU x 3

crossfit WOD 080717

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
15 Push-ups
12 Ring dips
115 pound Push-press, 9 reps (subbed 95#)

SS: 4 rounds + 2 push-ups

Man, this one was tough. Everything I did worked essentially the same muscle group, so my arms were hella fried towards the end. Push-ups and the push-press were ok, did some rounds broken, some unbroken, but the ring dips were freaking killer. I was doing singles starting on the third round, from the very first rep. I found I could go much faster if I did one, and then kept my hands on the rings as opposed to trying to shake it out. Those last two push-ups at the start of the fifth round were some of the hardest push-ups I've ever done.