Good thing that I did all that extra cardio....

last night. Today I sucked. Should have taken the rest day. Overhead squats always suck. When I was competing in OLing, I just did not do them. I could always snatch or power snatch more than I could rack, step out and squat overhead- kills my shoulders and feels totally wrong to do. But screw it- I am trying to get better at them, so I will suck it up and push through. Helen time tonight was a PR by a 18 seconds- big deal, I thought I would have crushed my old time but honestly I wanted to tap out after the first round.....I was dying. I slowed down the treadmill and kept on going. Isn't that what it's about? Who would have known or cared if I would have bailed out early and just posted whatever time I wanted? Tempting- but not something I have ever done, Why would I? Remember who you do this for- you, you and no one else. I wonder if the pressure to post times online (crossfit.com) may lead some to inflate (or deflate) their numbers somewhat. I could give a sh*t about what someone thinks about my numbers and you should feel the same way. I have nothing to prove and neither do you. Train hard, train smart, and always give it your best- everything else will sort itself out. OK, rant overwith.

Cardio Crazee

What do you do when you are waiting for your daughter to finish volleyball practice, and you are not training the team tonight? Play with the cardio equipment at the rec-center.

Row 1000 meters 4:00

Run 20 minutes on track

Row 1000 meters 4:00

Ride 20 minutes on Airdyne

Train Like A Champion

Is the name of a dvd set (2 disk) documenting the training of Strongman Phil Pfister by Nick Osborne in his pursuit, an eventually winning the 2006 World's Strongest Man contest. If you enjoy functional training programs- you will really like what Nick has Phil doing. Nick employs MB's, SB's, and bands in his training programs and has Phil working outside the box to achieve a really well rounded athletic model. There are some exercises that I would either throw out or change the actual equipment set-up, but again- keep what is useful and discard what is not (and this is purely subjective) but keep an open mind.

Ba-Ba-Ba

Ba-Barbara-ann! Did the WOD from Crossfit, "Barbara" consisting of 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps, and 50 squats. Each round done for time, resting 3 minutes in between each round, completing 5 total rounds. This is will fill your body with lactic acid!! By the fourth round during the situps...I was near meeting Uncle Pukie, held dinner down, but I was not the same for the rest of the night. Used an abmat and dynamax ball for the situps and squat respectively.

Round 1- 4:28:94
Round 2- 4:00:63
Round 3- 3:50:03
Round 4- 3:45:87
Round 5- 3:48:50

Dips n' Chins

Today's WOD from the Crossfit mainsite was 30 muscle ups for time. Now, I had been doing these with rings attached to the top of a power rack and using a jumpstretch band to give me some bounce out of the bottom. I thought I was doing pretty good and that I could easily manage one MU on my own on a set of high rings. At the GSX cert, when it was my time to step up and try a muscle up, I failed miserably. I flailed and jerked around but could not get even close to a MU. My grip was slipping, and I am use to using chalk (Nicole volunteered that I looked like I could use some chalk...) but this is only an excuse. I felt extremely weak in the initial pull to get myself high enough to get into the transition phase (pull to dip)- it is or was that simple. I have come home with a goal of getting multiple MU's before the summer is up and first I need to shore up my weak chin-up strength. Instead of scaling MU's with jumpstretch bands and jumping etc... I decided to use a conjugate template somewhat. I will break the movement down into a technique phase or speed phase, using a functional trainer, or rings lowered to midway to ground- moving into some strength work on chins/dips, then finishing with the WOD of high reps chins and dips as a sub for the MU's. Worked pretty well today- arms and shoulders feel fairly smoked but time will tell if this play works, I need to get an unassisted MU!

Warm-ups
Airdyne for 1minute/calories x 24,22,24,28,28
Followed with 1 minute plank or bridge x 5

Technique work/speed work
Using a Functional trainer- performed a pulldown with the double handles and transitioned into a dip
70/6 x 3 90/5 x 3 *need to get the right percentages down here...just guessing, will use 60% bodyweight next time.

Strength Work
Chins 30/3 40/3 50/3 60/3 70/2
Dips 35/3 45/3 55/3 65/3 75/3

WOD 30 MU's for time....subbed 120 chins and 120 dips for time
16:28

Happy Easter

Hope you have had or are having a great day. Do not eat to many Peeps!! Pray for the safety of the men and women who are away from their homes this Easter protecting this country and our very lives. Did the Crossfit WOD, which consisted of 7 sets of singles on the Clean and Jerk.

65/5
95/3
135/2
155/1
185/1
195/1
205/1
210/1
215/1
220/1
225/1
230/1

Stopped here...no pr, but solid jerks for a change, no pressing out. How much left in the tank? Maybe 5-10lbs, but I always like to end on a positive note. Happy Easter!

March Madness!

What a great time of the year if you are a BBall fan. As I type this K State is going at it with Wisconson down in Omaha. Outstanding. Duke just got knocked off by West Virginia. I do not care what team you are rooting for you have to give it to these young men....they leave it all on the floor. Teams can be down or up by 20 and they WILL not be counted out until the last buzzer sounds. Pure drama on the hardwood.

As the tournament goes on, I am in the basement-

GHR KB press (OK, get into a horizontal extension position on your GHR...like the end position of most GHR situps, hold a KB in the floor press position and press for the prescribed amount of reps...sit up and exchange kb to opposite side and press again)
12kg KB for 5+5, 7+7, 9+9, 11+11, 13+13
Follow with 1 minute on the airdyne for max calories
24,24,22,24,27

Power Cleans from the floor
95/5 135/5 185/3 205/3x3

Fridays WOD from Crossfit Mainsite- For Time
HSPU- 15-13-11-9-7-5-3-1
L-sit pull ups-1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15

Time- 14:07
Lost it in the end on the pullups....HSPU's actually getting easier- wider hand position and further away from wall! Made a huge difference.

Lazy blogger...

I have not been keeping up with this thing at all this week. Week went like this-

3/16
Nicole- As many rounds in 20 minutes of:
400M run
Max pull-ups
6 rounds with a total of 102 pullups

3/17
High bar squats
45/10 95/10 135/10 185/10 225/10

Nate- As many rounds in 20 minutes of:
2 muscle ups
4 HSPU
8 KB swings with 2 pood
(subbed 5 chins and 5 dips with 25lbs for 2 MU's)
7 rounds and 2 pu's

3/18
Bear Complex- PC+FS+PP+BS+PP x 7 (95lbs)
2 minutes on airdyne
5 rounds.....did not keep time on this

3/19
Jerk Practice
95/5 135/5 155/5 175/5
Standing pulls with rolling thunder 100/10 120/10 140/10 160/10

3/20
High Cable chops 100/10 120/10 140/10
DB Core Rows + pushups 60's x 10+10 x 3 sets

WOD
4 400M runs with 2 minutes rest inbetween
1- 1:42:72
2- 1:30:47
3- 1:29:03
4- 1:25:25

Here is what some summertime powertraining will do....I was so blown up I could not get my head into the picture!
PS.....this is sarcasm:)

Snatch work today!

Yesterday was a rest day on the Crossfit mainsite, but I went ahead and did a mild 5K run (38minutes?), no record breaker- just getting in some work. Today called for 7 sets of singles on the barbell snatch lift. Still alittle cold outside to get into the garage...and as of yet have no box...so down to the basement for a compromise- Power Snatch with an Overhead squat. This is how this afternoon went.

Hanging leg raise with a kip x 30
Shoulder horn x 20 10's-12's-15's
Box jumps 18" x 10 with little knee bend on land
3 rounds

Pass thrus and OHS with PVC x 10
3 rounds

Power Snatch and OHS (1+1)
65/3 95-115-125-135-145-155-160-165-170

Snatch High pull from bench
185/3-205/3-225/3x3sets

Feel like I need to work on the top end of the snatch- not getting enough vertical lift like I used too. My max in comp was 90KG and I feel like I am strong enough now to match or surpass that but I have yet to prove it on the platform.

Michael on a treadmill

Is what I did today. No PR. Missed it by 3 seconds. Been too busy to keep up with blog- it is TAX time and I am trying to get the year end stuff finished at least 3 weeks out for the accountant.

6 minutes airdyne/ 2.16 miles

Power Clean and press 95/5 115/5 135/4 155/5

Michael as Rx'd
800M run
50 back extensions
50 situps

Time- 20:55:79
PR- 20:52


Check out this video of Donnie Shankle and then go to the Crossfit Affiliates site and watch Donnie do "Grace." Incredibly strong guy.

Nothing hits as hard as life!

I love this clip from "Rocky Balboa." One of the best monologues from a movie in a long time.

Lynne Tonight!

Late night workout yet it had to be done. With kids and weekend responsibilities it is sometimes difficult to get it (the workout) in, but somehow you need to make time.

Not much warm-up...had to get to it.

BP-Current weight is 190 but I will stick with using 195 x 19, 18, 15, 13, 12

Pull-ups x 28, 27, 22, 20, 18

Old PR (184) New PR- 192


* This was an old picture, maybe the summer before last- getting ready for a meet doing speedwork.

Hard to believe

it has been a week since the Fort Worth level one cert at GSX in Fort Worth, Texas. I looked at the clock at around 4pm yesterday, and sitting at my son's basketball game, I thought "yeah, right about at this time- one week ago I was kicking my own ass through 5 rounds of 10 MB cleans and 10 burpees. We all did this workout outdoors at the end of the day and then headed back into GSX to refill our glycogen stores with pizza and beverage. Check out some of these pictures to get an idea of what a great time it is at the cert and what an outstanding facility GSX is. By the way, Saturday's workout was some warm-up prehab work and then on the the mainsites WOD, which was 7 sets of 3 on the hang squat clean.

Scarecrows 100/15
KB swings 52/15
Handstand Holds bdywt/1min
3 rounds

Hang Squat Cleans
140/3 160/3 180/3 200/3 210/3 220/3 225/3

Back to Work!

Today was the day. Back on track with the Crossfit.com mainsites WOD. Tried to get in the groove sooner- but it was not meant to be. There is alot of discussion on many sites about form and technique when it comes to CrossFit. Coach Glassman has said many times that WOD's need to have both- Technique/form and Speed. At the Fort Worth Cert this was brought up multiple times. This argument will be like the argument of what constitutes acceptable depth in the squat. The argument will never be settled- but most people know it (proper) depth when they see it, but when it comes to max effort, unfortunately perfect technique can go out the window. You can lay out a template for people to follow, and say in the pull-up, if the chin does not go over the bar...then it does not count as a rep. Doesn't matter if you have one leg, are 95, or whatever. A chin up has a strict definition and whatever you did does not fit that definition. "Grace" is probably the new ugly workout. I thought that it consisted of 30 clean and jerks....meaning a squat clean. Then Grace became Power Grace. Now Grace is pull the bar up straight legs or whatever and get that MFer overhead no matter what. This is essentially what "old timers" would call a 2 hands anyhow overhead lift. Nothing wrong with it. Many athletes are capable of 2 minutes times, but what happened to technique and the actual work done? If this is brought up, you are labeled a form Nazi. Does it really matter? Once again, you can preach all you want about proper deadlifting form but when you are on that platform but when 5lbs means the difference between first and second, do you think you will stop the lift if your back rounds?? Hell no- you keep pulling no matter what because that is what the sport requires- lifting the maximum amount of weight. Is it dangerous- Hell yeah it is, but you accept that risk when you sign up. Would the same guys/gals who do an ugly X minute Crossfit storm still be at the top of the record board even if they cleaned up their form...absolutely- they are monsters and would only be slowed down a little. In the end all we can do is worry about ourselves and our athletes. Jon Gilson has an excellent article on his site againfaster.com about this subject and Coach Glassman has been addressing this issue in the last 2 online Crossfit journals. To me it is a concern, yet so far I have been sleeping OK at night over this :) How do you feel? Is this a non issue, or something that needs to be dealt with asap?

Today went like this:

Airdyne @ 6 mins

Snatch practice

"Diane" scaled 21-15-9
Used 225 on DL's but my HSPU's were lowered to two dynadisks.
The deads feel great, but when my time slips below 4 minutes I will take out 1 disk and essentially start over.

Old PR- 5:45
New PR- 4:42

Great Certification!

Returned from the Crossfit Cert at GSX in Fort Worth and cannot seem to get back on track! Physically and mentally it feels like the "dead time" after a tournament or competition. I am sore all over. I was in great shape going in, but that did not seem to matter. I returned on Monday 2:30am (storms caused delays) and today (Wednesday) is the first day that I feel like training. Will write more about the cert later this week and post some pictures. At the cert, many individuals asked me whether I trained my athletes in strict Crossfit mode, or use a different approach. With my young athletes- strictly Crossfitting. Older trainees I tend to do more of a hybrid type workout, using what is available and taking into account what my clients want. That does not mean that I do no Crossfitting. On the contrary- Now that I am certified, I will be utilizing more WOD's per group. Here is an example of what I had a group of 50-55 males do this morning at 5:30am-

Warm-up (5mins)

Halo drill with 25lb plate
Lying band hip flexions
MB figure 8 passunders
MB jackknife

Each grouping/couplet is performed for 3-4 rounds

A.
Narrow grip BB Snatch x 5
Hip Flexion x 10+10
DB step-ups x 15

B.
Standing Press x 10,8,6,4
Hip Extension x 10+10
GluteHam Raise x 15

C.
Barbell pullover and press x 5+5
BB Deadlift and curl combo x 10
12" box jumps x 15

Mini- "Cindy" for 10 minutes (5 pullups/10 pushups/15 squats)

End with static stretching with jumpstretch bands

This is a pretty good example of how most morning are laid out. Is it perfect? No. Would I like to do it differently? That is the plan.

Here is a great motivational snipet from the movie " Facing Giants." Zach Evan Esch (sp?) has posted this and it has made the rounds on a few other sites- but it is a great clip....What are you willing to do? How far will you go? How many brick walls will you let stand in your way?