Strength - Workout A

3 sets of 5 x 190lb back squat
Yup. These are starting to feel heavy.

3 sets of 5 x 90lb shoulder press.
I'm just reading the chapter on these in "Starting Strength." I think it helped.

1 set of 5 x 235lb deadlift.
These felt pretty good, thanks to some good, hands-on coaching from Harlan.

3 sets of 5 x 20lb weighted pull-ups.
Pretty tough in these. I tried to get them done as quickly as possible.

Sunbutter

It's a PB-like spread made from sunflower seeds instead of peanuts. I bought a jar today at Body Fuel and it's awesome.

Go get you some.

"AlltheshityoulikeFit"

I saw this article on "10 ways to be a better CrossFitter" from CrossFit South Beach linked on the Affiliate blog. It's all good, but this one is my favourite:

3. Don’t whine – It’s okay to cry, just make sure that we can’t see or hear you and remember to clean up your tears when you’re done. Maybe the song that comes on isn’t your favorite, in the immortal words of Josh Everett “If you need music to motivate you, go find something else to do”. Be careful of asking me to change the song, I might just put on Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA on repeat. I’m your coach, not Mix Master Mike. You have a task to accomplish, so do it. Yes I know that every workout is hard and I know that you hate running and I know that the bar hurts your delicate hands, but there comes a time when we have to nut up or shut up…or both. CrossFit is constantly varied, so the odds are that you will see some workouts you hate. That’s why it’s CrossFit and not alltheshityoulikeFit. When you come to CrossFit, be ready to work. Come prepared to face all those pains and things you hate head on. Accept the suck.

Hmmm... complaining about the music? Check.

Hurting my delicate hands? See the name of this blog.

"alltheshityoulikeFit"? That is officially the greatest word invented this week.

Go read the entire list.

Strength - Workout B

3 sets of 5 x 185lb back squats. Note to self: Pay more attention to the amount of weight on the bar. I did a set of 5 x 175lbs before I noticed it was too light. Also, I notice that once I hit rep 3 or 4, I forget what number I'm on. There was likely at least one set, and possibly more, in which I did six reps.

Hey... they don't call it "CountFit."

3 sets of 5 x 100lb bench press.

5 sets of 3 x 115 power cleans.

I know it's still early days, but I'm really happy that I decided to start doing this. I don't harbour any illusions of having a 1000-plus CrossFit Total like Harlan, but I always knew there was a lot of room for improvement when it came to my strength. The number of metcon workouts that I'm doing is way down, but I don't really miss them that much. In fact, with the low-intensity strength workouts I barely even break a sweat... at least, so far. I'm sure when the weights start to get close to the limits of my capability, I will start to sweat. But even with the light weights, I think I'm actually losing the last of the Christmas/Cancun surplus weight and inching back into the 173-175 range I was at before.

Aaron had told me to make sure I eat when doing this. He wasn't kidding. I have been eating CONSTANTLY, and I am always hungry. I've been trying eat mostly good stuff, and I guess when you're eating good food (meat, veggies, fruit) it takes a lot to fill up. My stomach is literally growling as I write this, and it was less than an hour ago that I was eating a good portion of turkey and chicken breasts and some raw veggies, followed by a slice of banana bread.

I e-mailed Aaron the other night about the strength programming: "I am really digging it so far. I wish I had done this a long time ago."

He responded: "Glad you are enjoying it...Right now everything is fairly easy, but it will get tougher, much tougher. :-)"

Strength - Workout A

3 sets of 5 x 180lb back squat

3 sets of 5 x 85lb shoulder press

1 set of 5 x 225lb deadlift

3 sets of 5 17.5lb weighted pull-ups

"Letters to the Editor"

Not sure why it's called that. I was finally able to make a 6am workout, though I was a few minutes late. I did this the day after everyone else, because the WOD today was back squats and power cleans and jerks, which I did yesterday (minus the jerks) as part of the Strength workout.

Chipper for time:

50 sit-ups
50 medicine ball cleans (harder than I thought)
25 deadhang pull-ups (yuck)
25 kipping pull-ups
50 medicine ball cleans
50 sit-ups

The cleans came quicker on the second round, I think, mostly because I was trying to match the Janimal's time from yesterday.

Time was 16:39.

.

Strength - Workout B

Squat 3 x 5 reps of 175lb Squatting each time I do one of these, so that's 2-3 times a week, and going up five pounds each time...that's gonna get heavy real quick.

Bench 3 x 5 reps of 95lb Laughable, I know, but that's what happens when you have a ridiculously weak bench press to begin with and it's one of the reason I'm doing this.

Power clean 5 x 3 reps of 110lb Felt light after Tuesday's workout, but my technique needs to be better. I guess I'm going to get plenty of practice.

Redundant Post

I recently posted a big testimonial about CrossFit over at Tyler Has Nothing To Say.

Given that I can name all five people who read Sissy Hands (and if you're reading this, I hope you know that I love you for it) and I'm pretty sure they also read THNTS, there may be no point in linking to it now.

Power Cleans

1-1-1-1, ending in a heavy single, but not a max.

I did 145,155,175,185.

I don't know what my max is, but 185 is pretty close.

Then we had to do 4 power cleans on the minute for 15 minutes, using 85 percent of our heaviest single. I did 155, and worked up a pretty good sweat by the end. After the first couple of sets, I thought I would have to drop to 135, but I made it through to the end with 155.

My technique still needs work, particularly my triple extension and keeping my legs together as I get under the bar.

Strength - Workout A

3 sets of 5 x 170lb back squat

3 sets of 5 x 80lb shoulder press

1 set of 5 x 215lb deadlift

3 sets of 5 15lb weighted pull-ups

Strength Program

Instructions from Aaron:

Here are the numbers to start with, Squat 170 (5lb), Deadlift 215 (10lb), Bench Press 95 (5lb), Power Clean 110 (5lb), Shoulder Press 80 (5lb). You can decide if you want to fit in 2 or 3 strength sessions per week. Either way, you will alternate between two workouts.
Workout A) Squat 3 sets of 5 reps (3x5), Shoulder Press 3x5, and Deadlift 1x5, Weighted Pullups 3x5-7 reps. Workout B) Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Power Clean 5 sets of 3 reps (5x3). Beside each starting weight is a number in brackets, this is how much weight you will add to the exercise every time you do the workout. These weights will feel easy at first, that is fine, it won't be long before they will feel like more work. Use the same weight for each of the sets (called "sets across"). When you get to the point of not being able to get all the reps with the weight I will give you further instructions.

Right now your dominant goal is building strength. Your priority is the 3 strength sessions and recovery. You should gain weight on this program, but it will mostly be the muscle you want to gain.

It would be better to be more rested going into a strength workout than really sore from a metcon the day before. You should be able to do strength then metcon but if the metcon has you doing 300 squats the day before your next strength day maybe sub something else in order to allow you to squat well for strength day.

Don't do 2 strength days consecutively.

If you want a little metcon cardio, keep it short, fast paced, and intense, nothing over 10 minutes.

The Other Cancun Workouts

I kinda lost track of which days I did these, and while I did go on the internet briefly each day while in Mexico, it was mostly to check for messages from my Mom about how things were going, as my parents were looking after the Boy.

Thursday

Back on the roof for another metcon. The gym at the facility had some dumbbells, but it was pretty small for any kind of weight work, so I went back up to the unused rooftop terrace for another workout. I forgot to bring my stopwatch this time, so I don't know how fast I did it. Not really fast. But I was breathing pretty hard by the end.

Five rounds of:

10 burpees
10 squats
10 boxjumps (the terrace had a 20 inch stone bench surrounding it that was perfect for box jumps)
10 bench dips (kind of lame, but I wanted to do something for arms/shoulders other than push-ups)
10 double unders.

I was originally going to do it as a chipper (50 of each) , but it was getting dark and windy and I didn't want to be up there all night. Plus, I was a little self-conscious and was doing this in full view of about half the hotel rooms in the place.


Saturday

The previous day, I was killing some time wandering around the resort when I had a brainstorm. I went to the gym and took a look at the pull-down machine (not sure if that's the official name). I figured out that if I set it at its heaviest settings, I could use it for pull-ups. I was really happy and made mental plans to do 10 rounds of "Cindy" the next day. Then I got there in the morning and some guy with a moustache was using the cables on the machine to do bicep curls (kill me now). I could have hopped in with the three people who were taking part in the spinning class, but I really had no desire to do that (I don't like biking, running or walking in one place and not getting anywhere, which is probably why I'm not a big fan of rowing). So I thought I'd follow the credo of "regularly learn and play new sports" and spend a little while goofing around in the racquetball court. I actually worked up a pretty good sweat, but was surprised at how bad I was at sustaining any kind of a rally. I guess, when you play by yourself, you have to hit the ball twice as often. My parents have a court in their building complex and I think I'm going to drag my Dad in there to give it a try.

After what seemed like forever, Moustache was done pumping up his biceps, so it was time to do 10 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats).

Except, that the pull-ups weren't coming so easy. I couldn't really kip without rocking the machine (and I didn't want it to fall over or to even make noise and get a warning from staff) so the pull-ups had to be mostly deadhang. So I switched it to five rounds of Cindy and I didn't time it. Then I went back to the hotel room and did 100 double-unders on the balcony.

The rest of the trip, I tried to make up for the insane amounts of non-paleo food and blended alcoholic drinks I was consuming by being as active as possible. I played a lot volleyball (beach, pool, tequila) and went on a bike tour, and fought the ocean at least once a day. I still gained a couple of pounds on the trip, but nowhere near what I would have otherwise.

Rooftop Torture in Cancun

The "Rooftop" reference in the title comes from the fact that I was doing this on an unused rooftop terrace I found at our resort. It had that cheap green artificial turf looking stuff.

"Torture" may be exaggerating it a bit, but my stomach was feeling a bit weird this morning. Still, I thought I needed a break from eating and drinking.

5 rounds of

15 burpees
25 DUs

Time was 12:10

You have OCD (Obsessive CrossFit Disorder) if you...

My wife has a single friend (a non-CrossFitter) she's looking to set up with a nice guy. She asks me to approach a certain dude at CrossFit to see if he'd be open to getting set up.

In the e-mail I wrote to him, this is how I vouched for the girl:

"The girl is FINE, but I'm not sure what her Fran time is..."

Back Squats / Deadlifts / Weighted Pull-ups

Back squats
5-5-5 at 80-85 percent of one-rep max (I used 225lbs)

3-3-3 at 86-91 per cent (I used 240)

Deadlifts 1 x 5 using 75per cent of one-rep max. (I used 235lbs)


Then weighted pull-ups. 3 x 5-8 reps.

I did 15lbs (5), 20lbs (5), 25lbs (4).

Much to learn, young Tyler has. Much work left to do, there is

Sorry for the Yoda-esque title. I've been playing a lot of swordfighting on our new Wii Sports Resort game, and I'm feeling sort of Jedi.

I went to CFR tonight to take part in strength club. The competition team training, of which most of the strength club members are a part, has introduced some new stuff to the curriculum. Tonight was a lot of snatch work, followed by a mini metcon. ("Heavy Jackie": 1000m row, 30 push press with 125lb, 15 pull-ups; my time was 8:17, three seconds behind Harlan.)

I won't go into all the details, but tonight was a good reminder that I need to consistently practice Olympic lifting technique.

But my biggest CrossFit priority this year is getting stronger. How much stronger? I don't think it's out of the question for me to have a CrossFit total that's over 800. I'm at 705 now, and I think with some hard work, I should be able to put at least 50lbs on my deadlift, 30 on my back squat and 20 on my shoulder press.

I thought about going nuts with the milk, but I have a hard enough time staying lean as it is. I would like to go the Chris T. or BrianB route and have a low amount of body fat, but still be able to move a sufficient amount of heavy weight, have a pretty good metcon capacity and look decent with my shirt off (I realize that's vain; I'm so vain that I do think that Pat BenetarCarly Simon song is about me).

If I want to get better, I gotta get stronger. While it was fun to do the same workout as the competition team, I think I will stick with the regular strength club programming from this point forward.

"Jonesworthy"

I am not worthy.

80-64-50-32-16-8 squats
40-32-25-16-8-4 55lb bell swings
20-16-12-8-4-2 pull-ups

Time was 22:29