CrossFit: Fit to Fight it Out

Just as I was trying to get back on a roll with my workout posts, I skipped a week…fail!

The past two weeks has mostly been CrossFit. I did squeeze in a couple of runs, but nothing to really brag about.

We’ll hit the first four (missed) workouts at Man O’War CrossFit:

Monday: This was a workout that I was excited to get going because I was hoping to get a new PR. I ended up improving my clean PR from 105 to 110 pounds! It felt good to have a new PR in the box because it had been a while.

Tuesday: Pull-up hell! Plus we had to clean our barbells, so that meant not being able to really squat a whole lot. I stuck with 65 pounds through the whole WOD because my arms were getting tired from all the pull-ups. I was able to finish the WOD before the 15 minute time cap.

Wednesday: Cardio hell! This was a rough morning workout. Ryan and I were the only two in our class, so we pushed each other and fed off of each other–I liked that. On the Every Minute On The Minute WODs, you tried to give yourself as much time to recover and catch your breath. I’d finish the 15 wall balls in about 30 seconds. I did the AMRAP with a 42 pound kettlebell and did 4 rounds. The last EMOTM was rough, though!!

Thursday: Yet another chance at a PR, only with the dreaded snatch. I didn’t do as well on this as I would have liked, but the snatch is a very awkward movement and I’m still working on my form. I lost my record, but I think I got 65 or 70 pounds.

Friday: This was a long, rough WOD, but I finished in under 25 minutes. Our air squats were changed to goblet squats with 35 pound kettle bells, which were also used with our lunges (I changed to 26 pounds for the lunges after a while). By the time I got to the box dips my arms were like JellO and I placed my foot down to help stabilize,

Monday (this week): Another rough cardio WOD. The weights were done with kettle bells, so I used a 35 pound bell. All I could think about was trying to get everything done quickly because I did not want to do any more 100 meter sprints! By the time I got to the burpee tuck jumps, I really was only able to do three tuck jumps, then I just hoped to try to get some air between my toes and the floor. Still working my way up, I did the box jumps on a 12″ box with a 45 pound plate.

Tuesday: We worked on our basic movements of split jerks, yet another awkward movement that we don’t work on as much as maybe we should. I got up to 75 pounds with a push jerk and split jerk. I started to feel some soreness in my right shoulder/bicep so I took it easy on the WOD with just 55 pounds.

Wednesday: This WOD wasn’t as hard as you’d think it was. My shoulder/bicep was still giving me trouble (Taylor says it’s bicep tendonitis), so instead of handstand push-ups, I did ring pulls. I did singles until the end and did 10 double-unders–I’m still trying to get consistent with my double-unders and I knew it’d take me forever to do that many.

Running:

I squeezed in a couple of runs in the last two weeks. They weren’t really for distance, but just to get out and run. Last Wednesday I ran 2.5 miles because I just wanted to get in a good sprint. I finished with a pace per mile at 8:30–pretty impressive!

Then on Sunday, I had planned a 5 mile run but I just wasn’t feeling it. I took a route that I knew had some turn offs, just in case I couldn’t finish the run. I’m glad I did–when I got to about 3 miles, I just wasn’t feeling the best, so I turned for home. I got in 3.61 miles in 32:53 (avg 9:07). Hey, a run’s a run.

Overall, I’m doing better physically–I just need to figure out my eating. I don’t feel like I’m eating a lot, but maybe just not the most well-rounded diet.

Your turn: What’s one improvement you’ve seen in your workouts and/or runs in the past two weeks?

Squeezing in a Workout

I hope you had a good weekend! Mine was a beautiful weekend–the weather couldn’t be any better for the first weekend of August (sunny, warm, no humidity). Saturday M made a delicious pizza with handmade honey whole wheat dough and his own pizza sauce. The dough should have been for two pizzas and we used it for one, so it was rather thick in the middle, but still really good. I think he’ll be making our pizzas from now on… 😉

Sunday morning I planned to go for a run, but I woke up not feeling so well, so it turned into a lazy morning. When we finally got moving, M and I took the dogs to the Kentucky Horse Park to walk around and enjoy the weather. We were treated to a polo match when we first pulled in–I love polo! Years ago, when I first moved to Lexington, I’d go to polo matches with Dally all the time with friends, but lately I just keep missing the matches. We sat and watched a couple of chukkers (“innings” in polo) before we parked the car and set about on our walk.

We’re so lucky to have something like the Kentucky Horse Park in our “backyard”–every weekend there is always something going on horse-related. Plus it’s just beautiful and peaceful.

The Stump Kids posing in front of the Alltech Arena–a large world class indoor horse show arena at the Horse Park.

We walked about 2.5 mile around the Horse Park, stopping to take photos of the girls and enjoying the scenery. But part-way through, while I was waiting for M in the bathroom, I decided to take advantage of the break to put together a short workout. The workout included:

10 handstand push-ups on the steps
10 dips on the steps
25 Russian twists
10 (assisted) pistol squats
3 Rounds

I did the assisted pistol squats next to the fence, listening to my poor knees pop and grate each time (they’re pretty beaten up). And M caught me doing some handstand push-ups (gotta work on those shoulders!):

It was a great, short workout! And it made me think–you can always squeeze in some sort of workout, no matter how little time you have. Waiting to pick your kids up from school? Get out of the car and do a circuit of air squats, jumping jacks, and maybe push-ups against the car.

Walking the dogs? Wake up your dogs (and you) with some short bursts of jogging to boost the calorie burn. Or, if you’re like me and sitting a lot on the couch working on an article, take some breaks to play with the dogs, run back and forth in the yard, or do some push-ups and sit-ups to stir up the creative juices.

I think a lot of times we get caught up in our busy schedules and put blinders on that we can’t multi-task. But you can…to an extent.

I also like to kickstart my CrossFit workouts by running the mile to the box, then depending on how much my butt got kicked in the workout, I’ll run/walk back.

How do you try to squeeze in a little extra workout (or two) throughout the day?

Related articles

• Quick Indoor Workouts for Busy People (exercise.answers.com)
• 30 CrossFit Workouts You Can Do At Home (lifestyledezine.com)
• How to Squeeze Workouts Into Your Business Trip (mashable.com)
• Will You Find a Way or an Excuse? (coachstephensworkouts.wordpress.com)

Improvement in Strength

I returned to Lexington Saturday evening, and it was great to be back. While my visit back home was wonderful and full of action (mom’s surgery, visiting CrossFit boxes, meeting up with old friends, lots of riding horses, etc.), I missed M and missed Lexington.

I immediately got back into the swing of things by hitting up Man O’War CrossFit Monday morning. We were doing the CrossFit Total again to measure how much we had grown in strength over the month of July. I was a little worried about my progress, since I missed out on an entire week of consistent training while I was home (though I did get some good workouts in). But I shouldn’t have worried… On July 1, my total was 365. I was excited to discover that I improved by 55 lbs!

I was proud of myself for really pushing it with the weights. It scared me, at first, to think that I was squatting my weight and deadlifting more than my weight, but then I felt pretty badass and strong. Wha What!? 😉

Oh, and did I mention that I sliced my finger Sunday night? Yeah….not fun! I was opening up a can of cat food for M’s cat, Sean, and sliced my pinky right where it meets my palm. It’s been very awkward to keep bandaged, but Tuesday Taylor and I used some tape to help protect it for that day’s WOD, which included pull-ups. See:

I finished this WOD in 21:04, using a band for the pull-ups (I went a little easier because I didn’t want to reopen the cut) and doing 55 lb front squats (as well as working on my handstand push-ups on a box).

These past two workouts have been great confidence boosts for me in regards to my physical strength. I spent the weekend keeping track of the CrossFit Games (learn more by checking out wrap-ups from two of my fave bloggers who got to watch them in person, Tina and Anne) and I’ve just been amazed at the competitors’ strength. I mean, come on…100m walking lunges with 100 lb overhead?? A woman deadlifting 265 lbs?? Srsly!

In the past three months that I’ve been doing CrossFit, I’ve definitely seen a difference in my physical strength, but also feeling like I can do anything. Sure it’s going to take me a while to work up to regular pull-ups, but I feel like I am going to get to a point where I can do pull-ups on my own–I’ve never felt that way before. The sport has given me more confidence in different ways, and for that I’m thankful.

I’ve been lucky to get that boost from riding horses, as well, but this feels a little different for some reason. And volleyball…I never really had a big confidence boost from playing that sport (coaches tend to do that some times).

So, tell me, has a sport ever changed your confidence for the better?

 

Making CrossFit Work, Even with a Bum Knee

So I’ve been a bit of a bad blogger and have been MIA lately. But, I have a good excuse! You see, on top of my regular 8-5 job, I have a second job as a volleyball ref for a bar league a couple nights a week (6 pm to midnight), plus I am a freelance writer for a few different equine magazines. Lo and behold, I had three big features all due on the same day (May 15) and other things in my personal life going on that made blogging not very important at the time. But, my articles are submitted, so I’m hoping to be back in action. (I hope you can forgive me!)

Anyway, last week I failed to blog about my class at Man O’War CrossFit, so I figured I’d combine this week’s class with last weeks.

First up, last week’s class:

Last week’s class was a trial in pride for me. We worked on push presses and trying to get 70% of our max so we could do four sets of 10, along with 10 medicine ball throws for our strength portion of the workout. I’ll be the first to admit that I have a weak upper body–a lot of women do. But I didn’t realize how weak until we started this exercise. After many attempts, I ended up doing the push presses with a 35-lb woman’s bar. (Hey, at least I have a starting point to build from!)

After the strength portion, we worked with a partner to do the WOD:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Thrusters (rx 95/64#)
Lateral bar jump
Sit-ups
For Time

Working with a partner, one did 10, you did 9, partner 8…until you hit 1, then you switched and went back up, so partner would do 1, you 2, partner 3… I did the thrusters with the 35-lb bar, but jumped over my partner’s bar that had 15-lb weights on it. Part-way through the WOD, my knee started bothering me. I figured maybe it was just doing the later bar jumps, so I tried to take it easy. Unfortunately, I think too many squats (with the thrusters) and heavy weights, plus the jumps wasn’t the best thing. Later that day, and the next day, my knee was sore, so I didn’t go back for my Friday class like originally planned.

Now, last night’s class:

Before class I contacted Taylor (coach) about my knee and how I was concerned about the strength portion: 8 reps of split squats on each leg for 5 reps. He told me not to worry, that he’d come up with something for me to do in replace of the leg stuff and to come on to class.

My strength workout? 12 reps of body weight pull-ups and chest-2-bar pull-ups, 3 sets each. (I told him I really wanted to work on my upper body strength, so he listened!) I used the wide band on my pull-ups. Those are tricky little things–you start off feeling so strong for the first couple, then quickly you’re starting to struggle to get your chest to the bar. But, I did it!

Our WOD:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Dumbbell Thrusters
Handstand Push-Ups
1 50m Farmer Carry

For me, I did dumbbell push presses instead of thrusters to save on my knees. Then, for those of us who couldn’t do handstand push-ups (yet), we worked off of boxes. You set your toes in the middle of the box, then got in a plank position for your push-ups. The closer you got your hands to the box, the harder it was. Also, the higher the box was, the harder the exercise was. But you didn’t want to get your body in less than a 90* angle at the hips. I used the 24″ side of the box and tried to get my hands close. But I know I’m going to need a lot more work on push-ups, period, to get the strength for HSPU!

Here’s a great explanation of the progression training you can do for handstand push-ups:

Taylor wanted us to finish in no more than 15 minutes. I finished in 10:33 with 15lb dumbbells (for push presses and farmer carry). I rounded up the workout with 100 full butterfly sit-ups using the ab mat, since I wanted to take it easy on my knee and not do wall balls for the day.

What’s one CrossFit exercise you’re afraid to try? I think HSPU are going to be my big fear! Haha

Hitting the Sand & Back to HIIT

This week kicks off my busy period…wait, when do I not have a busy period? Anyway, I digress…

Sand volleyball season is now in full swing here in Lexington. This is my third year reffing for a bar league on the southside at a German restaurant/bar called Marikka’s. We have two sand courts out back with leagues playing Monday through Friday. In previous years I’ve reffed 3-4 nights a week, but this year I’m cutting back to only one night, plus filling in wherever needed. It also means I’m basically working from 8 am until about 12:30-1 am, which makes for some long days.

Last night was the first night back in the referee’s chair.

This will be my view every Monday night until mid-October.

When I ref, I have only an hour between my full-time job getting out at 5 and when I have to be at the bar with my court open (6). Some people might think that’s not enough time to do much of anything, but, thanks to having my gym just 5 minutes from work, I’m able to squeeze in a high intensity workout in about 20-30 minutes.

Yesterday, because of an appointment and traffic, I only had 20 minutes to get in a good sweat. So here was my workout:

1 minute jump rope
30 seconds push-ups
10 wall balls (14-lb medicine ball)
Repeat for a total of 10 minutes

20 seconds rope waves
50 crunches
Repeat twice

Then I did some of my physical therapy workouts, which included lunges, side-ways leg lifts, back kicks, and then about 5 minutes of stretching.

I was out of the gym by 5:45 and on the road towards Marikka’s.

How do you fit in sweat-worthy, short-on-time workouts?

Taking on the Challenge–Trying a New Fitness Class

As part of the Elf4Health Holiday Challenge, today’s task was to try a new fitness workout. I worked ahead a little and attempted a new workout class at my LA Fitness.

For the past couple of weeks I had contemplated trying a new group exercise class called “Calorie Crusher,” so last night, after a 10 minute warm-up on the elliptical, I decided to bite the bullet and join in the class.

Calorie Crusher is a timed class–55 minutes of different sets, never stopping. Taped to the mirror in front of us were 10 different exercises. This week, we did “blue” so those exercises were (in order): Run (or march), Squats, Ski, Punches, Curtsy Squats, Burpees, V Sit-Up, Push-Ups, Mountain Climbers, and Jumping Jacks. You perform each exercise for one minute, then move onto the next. After completing the initial 10, you tore down the last exercise (Jumping Jacks) and started at the beginning again, without stopping. So you do 10 exercises at the beginning, then 9, 8, 7, 6, etc…you get the point.

The instructor, Stephanie, said she was aiming to burn 1,000 calories in the 55-minute class. I’m not sure if we made 1,000 calories, but I was pretty whooped by the end. My legs were still tired from cardio kickboxing Monday night, so I struggled with the multiple squats and burpees (though I love burpees). Luckily we were able to do our own thing with each exercise, so I’d do plank jumping jacks combined with my burpees to give my legs a little bit of a rest.

I loved the class, especially since she was flexible–I did different types of punches each time during that section, as well as the squats.

This morning my alarm went off at 5 and I made my way to the gym to meet a friend for a running date. When I got there, she was on an elliptical, saying she wasn’t feeling like the hard pounding of the treadmill, and for once I didn’t object and hopped on to an elliptical–my legs were exhausted. So for 45 minutes we chatted and sweated together.

Tomorrow’s challenge is to wake up 15 minutes early to meditate. I’m hoping to get in a yoga DVD before work.

Have you tried a new fitness challenge lately? Did you get hooked?