August 2014 – CrossFit and Workout Log

Wendler Week 3, Bench Press and Back Squat

August 29, 2014August 29, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

So.. I finally did some strength training again.

Started with bench.. I didn’t have a spotter so didn’t go all out on the last set so I only did 7.. I should really not do bench without a spotter… cause I can do so much more than 7 and is just a waste when I don’t do as much as I can…

I did 3 reps of pull ups between every set.

After that I did back squat.

I filmed my back squat to see my form. I was unpleasantly surprised by how far forward I lean when doing them. I should really spend a lot of time on my mobility to be able to stay upright more. No wonder I have so much trouble doing front squats…. Also.. my depth… I hit parallel, but don’t break it. So should try and go deeper as well. Videoing yourself is so depressing lol… but learn a lot from it. I will post the video later.

After the back squats I finished with 50 kbs wings and 30 kb lunges with a 16kg kettlebell (sets of 10).

According to the Wendler program you have a deload week after the third week. But since I just had a long break from the program I’m going to skip the deload week and head straight into Fase 2 Week 1.

WOD August 26, 2014

August 27, 2014August 27, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

When I went to the box yesterday I was a little bit undecided whether I should join in on the WOD or if I should finally get back on my strength training. I really liked the scheduled WOD though (the first one at least). In the end I decided to join the WOD, but secretly hoped I could skip the second one.

WOD 1

18 Minute AMRAP:

– 50 Double Unders

– 10 Power Cleans #135/95

– 3 Wall Climbs

Rest 5 Minutes:

WOD 2

3 x 400m Sprints (1 Minute Rest between sprints)

My workout
I scaled the first workout in reps and weight. I did 25 double unders, 8 power cleans with 85 lbs and 3 wall climbs each round. I finished 3 rounds + 27 reps (25 du’s and 2 power cleans) in the fourth round. The wall climbs felt were really hard somehow. Much harder than last week.

I wanted to bail out on the runs alltogether but joined in on the first round. After the first round I bailed. Afterwards I regretted it. Running is my biggest weakness, which is an extra reason to do all the running that’s on the board. It just feels so crapping bad to run. Especially to run fast.

So yea.. bit disappointed in myself.

WOD August 25, 2014

August 26, 2014August 26, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

I started so good last week with working out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but that’s kind of where it stopped. I still haven’t picked up on the Wendler routine yet either. Lets say I’ve had a bit of a summer break. But determined to train hard again from now on!!

Yesterday I did the WOD.

Strength

Back Squat 5 x 7

EMOM 10 Mins “Pull/Push”

– 5 Pull Ups

– 10 Push Ups

My workout
Back squat: 7 x 75 lbs, 7 x 95 lbs, 7 x 105 lbs, 7 x 115 lbs, 7 x 120 lbs. I did the pull ups kipping, without band and the push ups hand release.

WOD

3 Rounds For Time:

– 10 Deadlifts

– 10 Weighted Lunges

– 1 Hill Sprint

My workout
I did the deadlifts with 105 lbs and the lunges with a 25 lbs dumbbell. My time was 17 m 47. Horrible!!!

I didn’t do much over the weekend as I was mostly hiding from the sun. I went out with the kayak on Saturday, but the sea was a bit “wild” with waves coming from all sides lol. I got a bit nervous for some reason so went back very quickly.

On Sunday I went for a walk. I love the nature here… The sea in front, but when feel for a change I can just walk up and enjoy the Spanish “campo”.

WOD August 20, 2014

August 21, 2014August 21, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

Strength

EMOM For 10 Minutes:

– 6 Deadlifts (uneven min)

– Max Handstand Push Ups (even min)

My workout
I did the deadlifts with 135lbs and handstand push ups strict with 1 abmat. I managed to do 3 hspu’s all rounds except the second, when I did 2.

WOD

5-4-3-2-3-4-5 reps of:

– Deadlifts (Bodyweight if possible)

– Wall Climbs

Cash Out:

– 50 KB Swings

My workout
There was a 13 minute timecap and I finished the second round of 4. I did the deadlifts with 135lbs. Wall climbs are tough.. they slowed me down a lot.. but I did do them really proper with nose to wall every rep. I was going to do the kb swings with 16kg but, such a shame, I ran out of time :p.

WOD August 19, 2014

August 20, 2014August 20, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

WOD

4 Rounds For Time:

– 20 Double Unders

– 20 Pull Ups

– 20 Pistol Squats (or 40 Squats)

– 20 Burpees

– 20 Sit Ups

– 1 Hill Climb

*For the guys who have double unders, unbroken reps to start the round.

35 minute timecap

My workout
I finished the third around apart from the hill climb. I did all double unders unbroken. Yay me!! I did the pistol squats from a box and the pull ups with a medium band. In the second and third round I only did 10 burpees instead of 20. The heat is making me see black spots and burpees weren’t helping so to be able to keep on going I just had to scale them. It was a fun workout. Very draining.. hill climbs are mostly hill-fast-walks for me, but I run the way down so could catch up with the people that run up and walk down hehe. If I had been sensible I would have just done my strength training and skip this WOD, but I guess I’m not very sensible.

WOD August 18, 2014

August 19, 2014August 19, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

Strength

– 12 Mins EMOM Bear Complex (As Heavy As Possible )

My workout
I used 65lbs. I think I could have done a bit more…. but this was tough enough with the heat that we were in.

WOD

Every 5 Minutes For 15 Minutes (3 Rounds):

– 400m Run

– 10 Box Jump Overs

– 3 Cleans (AHAP)

My workout
When I read this I thought that there was no way I would even manage 1 round within 5 minutes, but I surprised myself. I finished the first round in 4 minutes so even had a minute to catch my breath before starting the next. The second round I had about 10 seconds left haha. The third round I finished within 5 minutes on the dot. I did the box jump overs on a 24 inch box and the cleans with 65 lbs.

A tiny break – some Wendler videos – WODing in my hometown

August 18, 2014August 19, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

It’s been 14 days since my last post! What happened there? Well, a whole lot! I became an auntie again!!! I am proud auntie of little Kyan who was born on August 10, 2014. He came a month earlier than planned which made me go on an impromptu trip to Holland to be with my family.

However, before I went to Holland on the 9th I did do a workout here in Spain on the 6th. I just didn’t have time to post about it yet. I did Wendler Week 3, Day 1, Shoulder Press and Day 2, Deadlift.

Shoulder Press

As you can see I messed up the weights on the warming up big time. I don’t know how I got so confused, but the first set felt really heave haha. Wonder why :p.

I actually filmed my last set (7 reps of 60). I was curious to see my form and thought I could learn from it. I filmed a bit too low though, so can’t see my extension. But it might be fun to keep for future comparison anyway.

After the shoulder press I went straight into the deadlifts.

Deadlift

And I filmed those two. My second set and the last one. And these are actually quite useful, because I can see that I need to straighten my back more on the first rep (I think it looks ok on the last 2 reps?) and I think that I should put my feet a little bit closer together and/or push my knees out more. My legs look a little bit wobbly.

Also. Note to self. Control the pain face! lol

I don’t remember all my assistance work.. I think I tried some GHD situps, which were surprsingly hard (going down). I do remember I did 5 rounds of 3 strict dips and 3 strict pull ups.

So.. after that workout it’s been kind of quiet. The time in Holland was so hectic that I barely had time for myself, let alone workout. I did however manage to visit the local CrossFit box one evening for a workout. And I was very impressed. I didn’t expect too much of a box in Lelystad. Lelystad is quite a small city and for some reason I didn’t think a CrossFit box in Lelystad would be very big or good. But I was very, very wrong!!! Great box, with a lot of space and high quality equipment. And a great coach!! I thoroughly enjoyed my session there and learned a lot too!

I went on Wednesday the 13th and the WOD was

WOD

3 min AMRAP
30 double unders
10 handstand push ups

Rest 3 min

3 min AMRAP
30 double unders
10 ringdips

Rest 3 min

3 min AMRAP
30 double unders
10 push ups

My workout
The WOD itself was nothing special, but I was very impressed with the warm up, how it was planned out to match the wod. I had to do things I’ve never done before (worm to downward facing dog comes to mind). After the warming up we worked on skills, which mostly meant working on a kipping handstand push up. I only every practiced this once before and was happy to get some useful pointers on how to do this properly. I learned a lot in the short time spent on this!!

For the workout I scaled the reps of the hand stand pushups to 5 and I managed to do 5 of them kipping and unbroken. My double unders were absolute crap. They got better each round though. I think I had to get used to the rope a tiny little bit and lets be honest.. my double unders are just one big mess sometimes. In the first amrap I only got to a total reps of 65. The second amrap I did the dips eccentric and got to 68 reps. The third amrap went the best and I got to 80 reps.

After the WOD we spent time on a thought out cooling down, which involved “smashing” some muscles. Also something new for me.

I am honestly very impressed with CrossFit Lelystad and will definitely join for the 3 week period when I’ll be in my hometown in October/November!

WOD August 4, 2014

August 5, 2014August 5, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

I joined in on the WOD today and this was on the schedule.

WOD 1

EMOM 3rd Minute For 21 Minutes:

– 5 Deadlifts

– 7 Strict Toes To Bar

– 9 Burpees

My workout
I did the deadlifts with 135 lbs and did knees to elboes instead of toes to bar. Went quite well. The burpees took me the longest, but did them under 30 seconds each time, so always had at least 30 seconds rest in between exercises, so it was easy to complete.

WOD 2

EMOM For 12 Minutes:

– 3 Snatches

My workout
Well…. There were more people than barbells so we couldn’t do this WOD. Instead we had to do death by burpees! What torture. I did beat my pr though (even after all those burpees in the previous wod :D). The last time I did DBB I completed 12 in a minute and then got up to 12 in the round of 14 with a total of 54. Today I finished 14 in a minute and did 9 in the next with a total of 65.

(Death by burpees is doing 2 burpees in the first minute, 4 in the second, 6 in the third, 8 in the fourth and so on, until you can’t beat the minute.)

SUP and Wendler Week 2, Day 4, Back Squat

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

I started the Sunday with some stand up paddle! Didn’t get very far though, because it was a little bit wavey and my friends didn’t manage to stand up on their board lol. So I just went around in circles near the beach haha.

I used a board of a friend of mine and it’s much smaller than the standard board you can rent so in the beginning it felt really wobbly, but after a couple of minutes I got used to it and felt more confident. I really love being on the water. I jumped in for a little swim as well, but it was surprisingly cold!! Hard to imagine I swam 3km in the same cold water just a couple of weeks ago!

After that lovely morning on the water we went for some nice sardinas and beer at the chiringuito (gotta love Spanish life!). In the afternoon my friend told me he was going for a workout and for some reason I felt for going as well. So I went to the box and did some squats. I didn’t feel for doing much else though. We warmed up with 3 rounds of

20 sec double unders
10 sec rest
20 sec air squats
10 sec rest
20 sec push ups
10 sec rest
20 sec sit ups
10 sec rest

Then I did my squats. They continue to be the hardest of the 4 Wendler movements for me.

I messed up the weights on the 2nd set, but I guess it doesn’t matter much. The 3 reps are no problem at all with these weights. But it does get quite hard quite fast doing anything more than that.

After the squats I did 50 jumping lunges (5 sets of 10) and then I spent some time practicing my overhead squat (first with a broomstick and then with a 15kg bar).

A Saturday on the rings

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 Tessa Leave a comment

On Saturday I was feeling a bit under the weather. Not sick, but very tired and no energy whatsoever. So I didn’t go to the morning workout and didn’t do much all day. Until I suddenly got restless in the evening and decided to go up the hill to play with the rings a little bit. It turned more into a photo session than a training session, but at least I got a nice walk and practiced some ring holds. I actually tried to see how far I would come when trying a muscle up lol. The answer is: not very far. I made some nice pictures though. That training spot is so amazing and I was there during the sunset and had the backset of Gibraltar and Morocco in twilight. Amazing!! It made me feel so much better just being out there. I do truly believe that whenever you feel down or sad or sick or tired, going outside is always the perfect remedy. It’s my favourite quote from the Dutch Anne Frank book, which is:

“Voor ieder die bang, eenzaam of ongelukkig is, is stellig het beste middel naar buiten te gaan, ergens waar hij helemaal alleen is, alleen met de hemel, de natuur en God. Want dan pas, dan alleen voelt men dat alles is zoals het zijn moet.“

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

I don’t believe in God, but I do agree, when you are outside in nature, everything seems to be as it’s supposed to be. All the questions disappear and you can just be.

And this last picture just made me laugh so hard. It was the first picture made with the self-timer and the timer makes a funny sound before taking the picture which I guess drew Murphy’s attention. Hahaha.