Tag: Strength

WOD January 26, 2015

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Strength

“New CrossFit Total”

– 1RM Overhead Squat

– 1RM Bench Press

– 1RM Clean

My workout:
I was looking forward to this one.. It has been a long time since I tested out one rep maxes. I actually never tried it for the overhead squat as I am just happy to even do it with the bar hehe. I managed 65 lbs properly. I also did 2 reps with 70 lbs, but not sure if I went low enough.. So I’m going to set it at 65 lbs for now.

The bench press!! Last time I tried 1rm was before I started the Wendler schedule in July and it was 95 lbs. That felt so light now!! In the end I set my new pr at 115 lbs. I also tried 125 lbs and ALMOST got it. My spotter helped me in the end, he started helping me a bit premature I felt because I feel like maybe I would have gotten it.. but when I tried a second time I completely failed lol. Next time I should try 120 though.. pretty sure that I could have hit that. But ya, now my new pr is 115 lbs, which I’m still happy with :D.

After that it was time for the power clean. My PR for that one was 120 lbs which I set not too long ago (November 30), but I didn’t manage 120 lbs this time. I didn’t have much time as I took a bit longer on the bench press.. but managed a 115 lbs.. then failed twice on 120 lbs. So no new PR there.

WOD

– Death By Burpees

My workout:
Was actually looking forward to this one as well. I knew my burpees had improved so was sure that I would improve my score. I didn’t remember my old score though. In the end I came to the 15th rep in the minute I had to do 16. Such a shame I couldn’t squeeze that last one in to be able to go into the next minute!! Was still an improvement though from 65 total reps last August to 71 total reps now. :)

 

Sickness and some workouts

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Long time no writing, because long time no workouts. After that horrible Fran on Monday I got a bit sick. I had a really bad cold all of last week and really had cero energy. I think I kind of trained too much the week before and it just caught up to me. Also, pretty much everybody in my office was sick, so I think the bug just hit us all.

So, I didn’t go in at all last week, until Sunday when I decided to try and at least do something. I tried some jump ropes and rowing, but was still coughing quite a lot. Ended up doing some power cleans. I tried to make a Wendler schedule for it and started with that. I took my 100% 1RM instead of 90% though.. Don’t know if that’s smart….

Power Clean

5 x 80 lbs (36.3kg)
5 x 90 lbs (40.8kg)
5 x 100 lbs (45.4kg)

I wanted to do a bit more on that last set, but already failed my last one (before redoing it). So figured that was all the energy I had :p.

After this I did some more hand stand practicing. I do feel that I’m getting a bit better. But still not quite there yet. Rich started doing an EMOM and to at least get a little bit sweaty I decided to do a 10 min EMOM of

uneven min: 20 double unders
even min: 10 kb swings 16kg

Nothing very impressive.. but it was enough for me that day.

On Monday I felt a bit beat again, so didn’t go. Yesterday I didn’t have time to go to a class and I kind of felt horrible again. Coughing like a chain-smoker and headache.. but I had about 30 minutes to kill before having to pick my friend up at the airport so decided to go in for a little bit anyway.

I did Wendler’s deadlifts (Cycle D Week 1)

Deadlift

5 x 125 lbs (56.7kg)
5 x 145 lbs 65.8kg)
7 x 160 lbs (72.6kg)

My rep goal was 7 so happy that I got that. I used mixed grip for that last set. Felt I needed it :p. The 145 lbs felt quite heavy so wasn’t sure if I could do the 7 with 160 lbs, but it was easier than I thought.

After this I just did some hand stand practice again and some stretching.

Today I’m going in for my first real WOD since December 1st. Let’s hope I don’t pass out :p.

WOD November 21, 2014 and Wendler Cycle C Week 3 Shoulder Press (again)

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Shoulder Press

5 x 55 lbs (25kg)
3 x 65 lbs (30kg)
5 x 70 lbs (32kg)

Notes:
I did 1 rep more on the last round than last time, so I’m very pleased :).

WOD

In Pairs:

You Go, I Go ” Bear Complex” x 2 reps per partner.

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 Minutes.

My workout:
We were with an uneven number so I went by myself. I used 75 lbs. My first 2 reps took me 40 seconds so I tried to take 40 seconds breaks in between. In the end my reps were a little slower and I took breaks up to a minute. I did 16 reps in total (8×2).

Bear complex btw is:
– power clean
– front squat
– shoulder press
– back squat
– shoulder press from back

WOD November 19, 2014 and Wendler Cycle C Week 3 Deadlift (again)

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I redid the deadlift cycle I already did a couple of weeks ago. It’s what came up on the program now and since I haven’t really been keeping my schedule I thought it couldn’t hurt to do it again. But first we did a WOD.

WOD

12 min EMOM of

  • 2 power snatches and 2 overhead squats

My workout:
Rich used me as an example for demo-ing the moves. That was a first and kind of scary haha. I hope I did well. I had to show high pulls and hang power snatches and power snatches and overhead squats with the pvc pipe a couple of times. I had to do it so that they could look at me from the side. Very nerve wrecking, because I still struggle with my form lol. But I guess he thought I was ok enough to use as an example :). I did the workout with just a 20kg bar as I was already feeling a bit dizzy during the warmup. And I still struggled during the workout… I started feeling faint after the first few minutes.. Stupid blood pressure :(. I skipped 3 minutes of overhead squats (so just did the snatches those minutes), because I was afraid I would seriously pass out.. but other than that I managed to finish it. I hate feeling so weak :(. I felt really wobbly in the overhead squats too. Not comfortable at all!!

After that we did the deadlifts.

Deadlift

5 x 135 lbs (61.2 kg)
3 x 155 lbs (70.3 kg)
5 x 170 lbs (77.1 kg)

That felt much nicer. I did the exact same weights and reps as last time. The 5 x 170 lbs felt really heavy.. so I think it’s good I redid this one to get back on track. But no more faintness during the lifting :). Friday Rich has the shoulder press for 5-3-1 scheduled. I will repeat last ones one for that one as well. I still have to do the back squat for that Wendler week, but in the box they have already done those, so I think I will do them in the weekend :).

Wendler Cycle C Week 2 Bench Press and WOD 17 November, 2014

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Third day in a row. I think I’m back on track!! :D Rich started programming Wendler into the normal program, which is great for me, because now I don’t have to do it next to the WOD’s, which saves me time and also it means that the WOD’s he programs next to it will probably match with the strength bit better than when I pick and choose which WOD/exercises I would do after.

Bench Press 5-3-1

5 x 70 lbs (31.8kg)
3 x 80 lbs (36.3kg)
7 x 90 lbs (40.8kg)

My rep goal was 9, but I’m quite happy with 7, keeping in mind that I haven’t done any strength workouts for almost a month.

WOD 1

For time: 21-15-9 reps of

  • Ring dips
  • Toes to bar

My workout:
I scaled the ring dips to jumping ring dips and I did knees to elbow instead of toes to bar. My time was 5 min 28 sec.

WOD 2

For time: 21-15-9 reps of

  • Row (calories)
  • Jump over rower burpees

My workout:
My time was 8 min and 57 seconds. And boy was that hard!! The jumps over the rower were the hardest part… but managed to keep on going :). I felt like I pushed my limits on this one and it felt good!!

Wendler Cycle C Week 3 Shoulder Press and Deadlift

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It turns out that it’s not so easy to go to Crossfit as I had hoped. They don’t have morning classes and in the evening there have been so many other things to do that after Monday it has just been impossible.

But, my sister is a member of one of the cheapo gyms here in the centre, where anyone can go on your card. So I borrowed her card yesterday and went there during my lunch break. I figured I’d do some Wendler after all (as I would have no clue what to do in the gym otherwise).

I started with a 5 min row to warm up. Then:

Shoulder Press

5 x 25kg (55 lbs)
3 x 30kg (65 lbs)
4 x 32.5kg (70 lbs)

And then:

Deadlift

5 x 61 kg (135 lbs)
3 x 70 kg (155 lbs)
5 x 75 kg (170 lbs)

Not great, but not too bad either. Last time I did shoulder press I could only do 3 with 70 lbs so at least it’s improvement. I forgot to write down my rep goal for the deadlift (it was 7). I think I would have been able to get 7. But since I had no specific goal.. this felt heavy enough lol.

After this I did 3 sets of

  • 10 dumbbell push press with 2 10kg dumbbells
  • 10 weighted lunges with 14kg dumbbell.

It’s better than doing nothing, right?

I cooled down with 3 minutes running and 3 minutes walking. And then it was straight back to work ;).

 

Wendler Cycle C Week 2 Back Squat + Barbell Class

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I was having a very bad day yesterday. It was a super stressful day at work and I was eating horribly. I also felt a little bit like I was starting to get ill.. low energy, chills, stuffy nose. I thought about not going to the box, but since I only have a few days left before I leave for a month I convinced myself to go anyway. And as always, that was a good decision :).

I signed up for the barbell class at 7:15 and decided to not join the WOD at 6:15 as I really needed to get my squats in for the Wendler schedule.

Back Squat

3 x 45.4kg / 100 lbs
3 x 49.9kg / 110 lbs
6 x 56.7kg / 125 lbs

(I decided to start reverting everything to kg’s. These lbs weights.. even though we use them at the box, really don’t mean anything to me.)

After that I did two tabata’s (8 rounds of 20 sec work and 10 sec rest). One with kettlebell swings and one with kettlebell lunges. Both with a 16kg kettlebell. I did 7 swings each round and 6 lunges each round. (Didn’t push myself too hard.)

I wanted to check my form when doing power cleans so filmed a few practice reps. (Did 2 x 3 reps.) But somehow I managed to film it upside down lol. There were kids running around with a football too. Very distracting! (Not to mention not very safe..) I will try and fix the video and upload it later.

I think I want to try and add power cleans to my strength schedule. Would be nice to train with heavier weights on that movement. But will have to see how much strength training I can do in the next month anyway as I’m not sure the box in Lelystad has open box hours.. So might wait until I’m back in Spain to add that in.

After my own training I joined in on the barbell class (will really miss this class!!).

barbellclass

 

So this time we practiced the split jerk. Started with some footwork and timing on when to “split”. After that we did 7 sets of 1 power clean, 2 shrugs, 1 split jerk and 1 split jerk from bar on back. I did them with 55 lbs (24.9kg).

For strength we did hand stand push ups. I used a 25 lbs (11.3kg) plate and one abmat and did 3 sets of 5 hand stand push ups.

Nice class again! I will miss these technical classes!!!

Wendler Cycle C Week 2 Deadlift and Bench Press

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After two lazy days full of bad food I went back to the box on Sunday to do some strength. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I kept messing up all the weights.

For the deadlifts I somehow wrote down something completely wrong (I wrote down 190 for the last set lol) and miscalculated slightly so I did 165 lbs instead of 160 lbs. I still managed the 7 rep goal though :).

Deadlift

3 x 125 lbs
3 x 145 lbs
7 x 165 lbs

After that I did the bench press. I messed up the second set where I put on 85 lbs instead of 75 lbs. I was supposed to do 85 lbs on the last set.. so then I thought I’d just do 90 lbs, but somehow messed up even more and did 95 lbs haha. Weird day. I didn’t meet my rep goal, but that was to be expected with that weight.

Bench Press

3 x 65 lbs
3 x 85 lbs
6 x 95 lbs

According to my rep goal calculator my deadlift 1RM should be at 200 lbs now. Sounds pretty cool. Working with kg’s though it’s not so special (90.8kg), but getting closer and closer to the 100kg.

After finishing the bench press I joined in on a 12 minute EMOM of

1 min: 4 power cleans 85 lbs
2 min: 5 pull ups
3 min: 8 burpees

So, that 4 times. I can tell you, I was quite gassed after that.

I think I am definitely going to miss my box when I’m in Holland.

Wendler Cycle C Week 1 Back Squat

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It is nice to have a visitor who likes to work out. Gives me motivation to do more too :D.  We went to the box today as Rich opened it in the morning for open gym. Maciek didn’t know what CrossFit was when I first told him that that’s what I do. But he Googled it and now he wants to try it. Today we just did strength training, because there was no class. But on Wednesday he will come with me to a class. He already said that he liked the atmosphere in the box much better than a normal gym though (he normally works out at home).

I did my Wendler program for the back squat. And it went super great!!

Back Squat

5 x 90 lbs
5 x 105 lbs
10 x 120 lbs

My rep goal was only 7 on the last set. And I managed 10!! I think all with good depth!! Yay :D.

After that I did 3 rounds of 25 russian twists and 15 lunges (both with 20 lbs). And finished with a 1k row.

I did a lot of foam rolling today as well. My legs were hurting a lot since Friday (not sure from what) and the foam roller helped a lot.

Wendler Cycle C Week 1 Bench Press (kind of)

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I have Shin and Maciek over from London for a week. And Maciek has been working out a lot so he really wanted to go to the gym today. The box wasn’t open so we looked up a gym in Estepona where we could drop in for free.

After wandering around the gym for a while, feeling a bit lost, I figured I could do my bench press. But I didn’t bring my notebook.. AND all the weights in the gym are in kg’s (as every other normal European gym except our box of course). So I kind of just did whatever felt right….

I started with a 5min run on the treadmill to warm up. Then for the bench press I did:

Bench Press

5 x 30kg (66 lbs)
5 x 35kg (77 lbs)
13 x 35kg (77 lbs)

I did 2 strict pull ups after each set.

So… I wasn’t that far off if I compare it to what I was supposed to do (5 x 60 lbs, 5 x 70 lbs, 12 x 80 lbs). Not too bad at all!

After that I was a bit lost again.. I had planned to also do the back squats, but they didn’t have a squat rack! They had a smith machine.. but I didn’t want to use that.

After looking lost again for a little bit I discovered a fun little area where they had some kettlebells and a dip station. So I did 3 rounds of

15 kettlebell swings
2 pull ups (from handles that they normally use for wall climbing)
5 dips

I finished off with 10 pushups and some playing around on the TRX that I also found somewhere.

I still feel a bit awkward in a gym somehow. But it’s nice to know that if needed I have a gym nearby to do some exercise at.