Pull ups – CrossFit and Workout Log

WOD 3 September 2013

September 5, 2013November 24, 2015 Tessa Leave a comment

I hadn´t been to CrossFit for a week again!! :O

But, I did do a lot of other working out. It was actually a very nice week for me activity wise. After that last WOD last monday I went for a run on Wednesday. I went in the mountains and the run started with going up up up for the first 10 minutes and I was able to keep on running. Which made me so happy!! Because I hadn´t been running for a while and I always really struggle with any kind of elevation. So for me it was a personal victory to manage to go up all the way without falling back into a walk.

Then on Thursday I did my very first home WOD haha. I had a bad headache so didn´t want to go to the gym, but in the end I got bored at home and felt like doing something anyway. So at home I did 70 burpees, 50 squats, 50 sit ups and 25 pushups.

On Saturday I went to the beach for my first solo kite session. Well, bodydrag session. I´ve had a few kite lessons and have now bought my own kite to practice with. But I haven´t had a lot of time to practice getting up on the board yet. I tried a little bit this Saturday, but there wasn´t much wind and I was struggling. But it was still fun!!

Then, on Sunday, I had the biggest challenge! A 10km run. I had never run more than 6km so I knew this was going to be hard. And I never run when the sun´s out either and this was right when the sun was out with 30 degrees C. So I was a bit worried. And rightly so. The first 5km were really nice and I ran them quite fast (improved my record!), but after that it just went downhill. I had to take a lot of walking breaks and it really was very very hard mentally to just keep on going really. But I made it in the end and even ended with a sprint to keep the clock from going into the next minute. I´m happy with the result, but I won´t be doing that again any time soon ;).

Tuesday I finally went to the gym again and did the following workout.

I tried to do it RX as much as I could. Which meant I did the push ups properly (not from the knees) and the snatches with 25lbs (as was written on the board). The double unders I unfortunately still can´t :(. During the warm up I managed to get a few in, but I can´t do two in a row yet so it would take me forever to do 30. Instead I had to do 120 singles per round. Handstand push ups I still can´t do either so had to do 8 wall walks per round. The pull ups I decided to do with the green band, which is much harder than with the black band. We had a 30 minute time cap and I made it almost through 2 rounds. In the second round I skipped the wall walks so I could finish the pull ups.

I felt good about it though, because I was using more strength than before so hopefully I´m building strength with that as well. I really want to try to follow the weights and things a bit more now.. which will mean I´ll be even slower than before haha, but I think is probably the best way to improve.

Anyway, not a lot of workouts at the gym, but a good week nonetheless. I have been slacking a bit with the eating habits though. And struggling with the headaches. I have one now as well and I want to go to the gym tonight, so hopefully it will go away in the next couple of hours.

Hasta luego!

WOD 22-24-26 August 2013

August 28, 2013November 24, 2015 Tessa Leave a comment

On Monday we did the exact same workout that I did on my very first CrossFit class six weeks ago. So it was a nice way for me to measure some progress.

It was Fran (21-15-9 thrusters/pullups) and during the first class I did it in 10m13 seconds with 10kg on the thrusters and using the black band for the pull ups. After six weeks I was able to do it in 8m08 seconds with 5kg more on the thrusters. Still using the black band though.

But still, I managed to bring my time down with 2 minutes while adding some weight. So I´m happy :).

I also set a personal record for the Front Squat. I managed one good one. In my last set my coach told me I wasn´t going down far enough and when I finally did boy did I notice the difference! I wish he had told me a bit sooner though.. I feel like I´ve probably been doing it wrong all this time. Anyway, I did mange to do one good one with a 20kg bar + 70lbs in weight on it so that´s.. 52,2kg!! Getting close to my body weight!! :D

Last saturday we had an awesome WOD at the box. Normally saturday mornings are at the beach, but for some reason it wasn´t possible this week. I was a bit disappointed at first, because I love the workouts on the beach, but this was sooooo coool. Rich has just bought some new toys for the box and that includes two huge tires. So part of the workout was flipping tires :D.

The workout was:

2 teams of 4, per team:

180 clean & jerks
40 hill runs
8 distances of tire flips (I don´t know what the distance was)

So that was 45 clean & jerks each, 10 runs each and the tire flips we just did however it worked out. Which worked out in me and one other teammate doing 2 and the guys doing 5 and all four us doing the remaining 1 together.

The hill run was basically running up a hill and then jogging/walking back down.

The clean & jerks I did with 8kg.

Here are some pictures of the morning. It was so cool!!

The Thursday before that I brought my friend Mirella, who was visiting me from Holland. (She came on Monday as well.) She was really scared to come with me haha, but now she signed up to the box in Amsterdam because she loved it so much!! :D

The workout on Thursday was in pairs for time:

100 wall balls each
100 burpees each
100 sit ups each

The med ball was not allowed to touch the ground after start, so one of the pair had to hold the ball at all times. There was a 25 minute time cap and Mirella did really good for her first WOD. She finished the wall balls and sit ups and did up to 16 burpees I think. I finished the wall balls and sit ups too and got up to 65 burpees.

Before that workout we had to do 7 minutes of alternating Turkish Get Ups. Yes, that is an exercise. They are quite heavy! But I liked doing them. I think I did 3 on each side, so 6 total (with 8kg kettlebell). The exercise looks like this.

Before Thursday I hadn´t been to the box for a week!! :O I don´t know what happened, but lets say life got in the way :p.

This week I´m not going 4 times as I wanted to do either. I think maybe I should stick with 3 times a week. Not because I don´t want to go more often, but more because I just don´t really want to make the time for it. It gets in the way of other fun stuff (plus some much needed relaxing time) too much. Anyway.. we´ll see. I´ll go 4 times if I can and try to stick with at least 3 times a week no matter what.

On another note. I signed up for a run next Sunday! It´s a 10km run for a good cause. I´ve never run 10km in my life before so that´s going to be a challenge. I haven´t been running at all since I moved to this area so I´m a little out of practise too. And it´s going to be hot. It starts at 10am on the Marbella paseo and you get 1.5 hour to finish. I hope I make it!!

WODs and Nutrition

August 14, 2013November 24, 2015 Tessa Leave a comment

Whupsie. I haven´t been updating properly.

Last week was a tough week for me. The WOD on Thursday (August 8) was again really hard for me. I struggled a lot last week.. not sure why. This week is going better though :). But lets go back to Thursday. The WOD was like this.

It´s a “hero” WOD. We had a 40 minute time cap and I made it through .. wait.. I don´t remember!! I do remember that I only did 5 thrusters each time and that I did them (and the deadlifts) with 24.2kg (5kg less than the Rx). The first round I did 10 deadlifts, but changed that to 5 as well from the second round on. For me those (heavy) lifts are still very new to me and I don´t want to overdo it and hurt my back or something.

I think I did 3.5 rounds.. not 100% sure, but yea I think so.

Then, the beach WOD on Saturday. That one was really fun and hard. But fun. The WOD was run from one point to another (on soft sand) at about 30m distance. When there do 10 pushups and 10 squats. Run back and do 10 kb swings (8kg) and 10 burpees. Then run to the sea and go in up to your middle. Run back out to first point. That is one round and we had to do 10.

When everyone was long finished it was me and another Dutch guy that still had to do two full rounds. I don´t know how they can be so fast!!! They must be cheating :p.

After the WOD we went out for breakfast with some. They have been doing that for a few weeks now. When I used to come with Luke I couldn´t go as I had to drive him back to Calahonda, but now I can join :). And it´s the best breakfast ever! It´s at a place called Pan y Mermelada in Marbella and I don´t know how their breakfasts normally are, but they have a special “CrossFit” breakfast, which basically means you can get anything and everything for €12. Sandwiches, veggies, fruit salades, fruit juices, coffee, pancakes, bacon, more fruit, more veggies, more yummies. It´s delicioso!

Anyway, back to the WOD´s. This week I started going on Monday as well. On Monday the WOD was like this.

The squats I worked up from 20kg to in the last three rounds 43kg. I kind of last my form in the last round though.. didn´t go all the way down with my squat. I was afraid I wouldn´t be able to get back up again!! I think I can do heavier though.. If I don´t have to do 6 reps :p. Should try it next time. The walking lunches I did with 2kb swings of 8kg.

After that it was 3 rounds for time of kb swings and runs. (More running!!! GRRRR!!) I wanted to take the 8kg kettlebell again, but they convinced me to take 12kg. Which, when trying out, I had a hard time with from the first go. Butttt, I did manage!! In the end I did 90 kb swings of 12kg and 3 400m runs in 14:58 minutes! It felt awesome!!

Then.. yesterday..!

When you see this on the wall you know it´s time to be scared!

He called it the Tamburello. As Luke Tamburello (one of the box members) turned 30 yesterday. Hah! Let´s hope nobody turnes 40, 50 or 60 soon ;). In 35 minutes I got up to 18 wall balls. I did real push ups (instead of from the knees) for the first time in a WOD and made it through all 30 almost in one go :D. Box jumps I did 20″. Pull ups with black band.

I found the roll outs really hard.

BB Roll Out

You´re supposed to roll out all the way to a vertical position, but I can´t come back up when I try that. So I just go about halfway and pull back.

Double unders I don´t know how to do yet (they´re rope jumps where you jump once but the rope goes under twice) so I did 60 single jumps instead. And I did all of them in one go as well, which made me happy. The handstand pushups I did from a box. Basically you put your toes on the box and make sure your body is in 90 degrees so your upper body is straight up in the air and your legs are vertical. Then try and push up.

Handstand push up from box

Looks easy. Is not easy.

Sit ups were a piece of cookie (because a cookie is so much nicer than cake). The kb swings I did with 8kg (yah I know I should have taken the 12kg but trust me after doing all those other things my arms were already like jelly). Then the friggin burpees, which always make me dizzy. The push press is something I had never done before. I did them with 2 kettle bells of 8kg. It was quite heavy!! I had to do reps of 5 so I spent a lot of time on it.

DB push press

There was 1 minute left on the clock when I started the wall balls. I used a 10lbs ball and got 18 in there when the time was up.

It was a very nice workout!!

Today I´m feeling it though. Happy that I have a rest day ;). Tomorrow I´m going again. Today it´s one month since I started. I made some pics on the first day and some this morning as well. Maybe I´ll post a comparison picture later. Although I don´t think there is much difference to be seen yet.

I wanted to post something about my food habits as well. But don´t have time!! Will try and update soon!

WOD 6 August 2013

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013 Tessa Leave a comment

It´s full on summer here in Spain now and it´s crazy hot because of it. I think that´s why I really struggled yesterday. I think on paper this WOD wasn´t as hard as some of the other ones I did, but I struggled a lot with it.

The workout was 21 minutes ascending ladder of

Burpees
Kettlebell swings (I used 8kg)
Handstand pushups
Box Jumps (20 inch)
Pull ups

We started with 2 reps of each and the ascending ladder means that every round you add 2 more reps. So first round is 2 of each, second round is 4 of each, etc.

I substituted the handstand pushups for wall climbs. And because wall climbs are a bit more straining we started them with 1 and then add 1 every round. But even that turned out to be too hard for me.

I really struggled a lot this workout. Black spots.. out of breath. Dripping sweat.

I did a total of 6 rounds, but I didn´t multiply to wall climbs. I just did one of them each time. I couldn´t handle more :( (I should really practice the hand stand!!). So in the end I did a total of 6 wall climbs and a total of 42 of each of the other movements.

After finishing the workout we got 3 minutes of rest and then had to run 1 mile, which was 4 laps around the building.

I thought I would be ok on the run as I´ve been practising running for a while now, but it was horrible! I started out too fast so I burnt out after the first lap and had to walk a short bit on every lap after that. The first lap I came in as one of the fastest, but in the end I was the last one to finish. Lesson learned ;).

I switched to another time. I used to go at 7pm as I went straight after work. But this week I moved apartments and I now live much closer to the box. So now I go home first and go to CrossFit at 8pm. It´s a bit quieter at 8pm so I think it´s nicer (7pm class is always fully booked with usually some extra people there as well). But it felt so much hotter today than last week. Not sure if the temperature is so much different or if it just gets more hot in there every hour. Because then I might switch back to 7pm :p.

WOD 30 July 2013

July 31, 2013November 24, 2015 Tessa Leave a comment

Progress!!

Yesterday, for the first time after a crossfit workout, I didn´t feel like absolute crap. Don´t get me wrong. I feel great right after a work out. I feel on top of the world for getting through it haha! But usually when I get home I´m so completely exhausted that I just eat and go to bed. But yesterday, even though it was a hard workout, I felt quite good throughout the evening. I even had the energy to watch a movie!

I think my body is slowly getting used to the intensity of the workouts and recovering more quickly :). Feels good! I feel like I could actually do another workout today! But I won´t… ;).

Yesterday the WOD was Barbara. One of “the girls”.

Which means 5 rounds of 20 pull ups, 30 push ups, 40 sit ups and 50 squats. In between the rounds you have to take a 3 minute break.

If you count that up it means 100 pull ups, 150 push ups, 200 sit ups and 250 squats!! Wowza!!!

We had a 48 minute time cap. I did the pull ups with a purple band, which is ridiculously thick. Too thick for me, I almost fly through the roof using it. But all the black bands were taken, so it was either the too thick purple band or the too thin green band. And since I figured this workout would be hard enough I chose for the thick one. I´m happy I did, because I´m 100% sure I wouldn´t have been able to finish if I had used the green band. I don´t think I can do more than 5 pull ups in a row with the green band.. let alone 5 rounds of 20. The push ups I did from the knee.

And these were my times.

As you can see it´s not so easy to do calculations when you´re out of breath haha. I tried to write down the time it took me to do the round (excluding the 3 min waiting time) but I obviously had trouble counting. I think, if my ability to count has come back to me these are the correct times.

Round 1 5 min 15 sec
Round 2 5 min 57 sec
Round 3 6 min 58 sec
Round 4 7 min 7 sec
Round 5 5 min 54 sec

It is funny to see that I was so much faster in my last round than the round before. Knowing it´s the last just gives you that little extra energy you need :).

But what it comes down to is that it took me a total of 43 min 11 sec to do the workout. This includes the 4x 3 min rest.

I´m looking forward to tomorrow´s WOD!! :D

WOD 25 July 2013

July 26, 2013November 24, 2015 Tessa Leave a comment

Another tough workout. We had a 40 minute cap to do the above.

I did the kettle bell swings with 8kg. I think I can do heavier, but I don´t trust my technique yet and don´t want to get back troubles or anything. So rather keep the weights a bit low until I get used to these exercises. Besides, I have enough trouble getting through an exercise like this without the weight hehe. The sumo dead lift I did with 16kg.

I wasn´t able to finish the complete three rounds..

This is how far I got.

So, that´s two rounds of each exercise and then 21 more box jumps, 20 kettle bell swings and 5 burpees.

I had the most trouble getting the pull ups done (I didn´t do them till the chest btw, just the normal chin over bar). My arms would be so tired at this point that I struggled getting up. Even though I used the black band.

Box jumps weren´t easy either. I had two times when I made the mistake of not jumping both feet at the same time and almost falling face down, because I didn´t lift my feet high enough. I guess that´s what you get for trying to cheat haha. It always surprised me when I do the box jumps though, because before the first jump it really seems impossible to me to even get one done. I don´t know the height I did them on. The box has 3 ways you can put it and I did it on the lowest possible. Which is probably not 20 inch, but a little lower.. maybe 18 inch (45cm)..

The burpees give me the most trouble breathing-wise and feeling faint. I think it´s because of the going down on the ground and all the way back up in so many repetitions. Not good for the heart :p.

I think I would have managed to finish it though, if there wasn´t a time cap. I just need too much time to catch my breathe sometimes. But hopefully in some time those breaks will get shorter and shorter :).

I tried to take a picture of my “workplace” afterwards, but I was shaking so badly I wasn´t able to get it sharp lol.

WOD 15 July 2013

July 15, 2013July 15, 2013 Tessa Leave a comment

Why was I so nervous? I could have known it would be fun!

First we had to do back squats in reps of 5-5-5-3-3.

I did them with a 20kg bar:

5: + 2x10lbs (29,2kg total)
5: + 2x15lbs (33,8kg total)
5: + 2x20lbs (38,4kg total)
3: + 2x25lbs (43kg total)
3: + 2x25lbs (43kg total)

I didn’t dare to try 30 lbs as I was already having a hard time completing 3 reps of 25lbs.

(It is a bit annoying that some of these weights have the weight in kg on them and some in lbs.)

Then it was on to FRAN. If you do it properly you should do the thrusters with 65lbs (30kg) as a female. But I did it with 15kg.

What are thrusters? They are squats with a weight on your chest and as you come up you push the weight up with your arms stretched above your head.

Like that.

So, it was 21 of those, then 21 pull ups, which I did with a black band. The band helps people like me, who can’t do pull ups without a little help. There are bands in different sizes of thickness. The thicker the band the more it helps you. I think the black band is the thickest. When you start with it it feels like it almost shoots you through the ceiling! But trust me, after a couple of repetitions, even with the band it’s hard to keep going.

After the first 21 of each you do it all again but then 15 times and then again 9 times. For time. My time was 10m13sec.

For some reference. They say you did a good job if you book under 5 minutes. With twice the weight I had.

But for me, as a rookie, I think I did ok :).