Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Priceless

Gym membership: $50
Homemade rings: $8
Ratty old gym clothes: $20

Having the soccer moms at the globogym leer at you while you bang out 100 pullups?

Priceless.

Crossfit rocks!

Today's workout:

quick warmup

"Angie"
For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

28:41

The pull-ups, as it turns out, were definitely the limiting factor here - took something on the order of 12 or 13 minutes. I was down to singles by the end.

I need to work on these basic exercises more - I can do 20 of them right outta' the gate, and then I'm quickly reduced to much smaller numbers. I'd like to be able to do 10 sets of 10 for the pull-ups, maybe 5 sets of 20 for the push-ups, and 2 sets of 50 for sit-ups and squats.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Today's workout

Quick warmup:
- 15 pullups
- 15 dips
- 15 roman chair situps
- 15 back extensions on GHD
- 15 walking lunges

5k run at 23:21 - 9 seconds off my personal best. I'm hoping to knock this one down this summer.

Barbell shoulder press - 5 rounds of triples

115 lb
135 lb
135 lb
135 lb
140 lb

The back is on the mend, woohoo!

Labels: , ,

Monday, April 28, 2008

Crossfit WOD - Nancy

CFWU 2x15

Followed by:

"Nancy"

Five rounds for time of:
400 meter run
95 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps

Last time, 18:40

Finished up with some incline bench work, cause I'm vain.

This workout (and there's a similar one later in the week with snatches instead of OHS) is a total bitch.

The runs are pretty easy, and a 95 pound overhead squat wouldn't be a big deal if your heart rate wasn't already really high. But after the run, core control is really difficult, which makes a decent OHS really, really hard to control. Managed to squeak it out in 17:58.

Labels: ,

Friday, April 25, 2008

CrossFit WOD - Elizabeth

Warmup 2x15

21-15-9 reps of:

135 pound clean
Ring dips

9:51 vs. 10:48 last time. Went well overall, particularly considering back tweakage. Knocked off almost a minute, woohoo!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Today's workout

Warmup 2x15

Everything on Crossfit today I've either already done, requires back work, or requires significant cardio, which my snot filled head would make very difficult, so I came up with my own thing:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of the triplet
Pullups, pushups, squats

9:02

Followed up with L-pullups, handstand practice (I will learn to do a freestanding handstand pushup) and some incline bench work just for the hell of it.

The back felt pretty good, actually. I didn't stress it much, so there's no telling how it'll hold up under load, but it wasn't screaming like it was on Tuesday.

Now if I could just kick this sinus crap...

Labels: , ,

Deadlift woes

So on Tuesday, I was deadlifting, seven rounds of singles. I did a few warmup reps at 315, and then started in with the work set. The first few rounds, I pulled 385. I moved up to 395, within 10 pounds of my PR. It went, and actually went pretty well, so I figured, "Ooooh! Let's see if we can hit that PR again!"

I loaded on the extra 10 pounds. I gripped the bar, and gave a mighty pull. The bar came off the ground, then an inch, then two, then three... and that was it. I couldn't pull it. I set the bar down.

Bummed, I pulled off the two dinky little 5 pound plates. I then regripped, and pulled again, and the weight started to rise.

This time, however, something happened - I felt something shift in my back, and suddenly my back hurt like hell. I stopped immediately, and put the weight down. I knew I was definitely done for the day, so I started pulling the plates off. As I was doing this, I figured out what I'd done.

After failure at 405, I pulled off a measly 10 pounds, didn't give myself any time to recover, and pulled, hard, again. Fatigue in my lower back caused me to round it, and then there was a large shear force on my spine. I suspect that what happened was a herniated disc. The "shift" I felt was the disc giving way.

As of today, I can move around OK, but I suspect it'll be a while before I deadlift any serious weight again. Thank god for Advil and ice!

Lessons learned:

1. When dealing with large loads, allow for recovery time between rounds, even if the previous round didn't go.

2. I need to work on my deadlift form - must maintain a straight lower back. It was an absolutely sickening feeling having my back do what it did.

Labels: , ,