Pistols Day 3

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5

Superset:

Racked Pistols w/ 16kg: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)
20 sledgehammer throws and catches x 8 sets

Superset:

Full Contact Twist w/15kg : 5x5
Reverse Board Curl: 5x4

Snatch & Press

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch: Bar x 5

Snatch Grip Deadlift: w/ 30kgx5
Snatch Grip Deadlift: w/ 70kg: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Military Press (max test w/ 24kg): 1L+1R (this shows the importance of lat stabilization in the movement, I only made 1 rep because my lats were heavily fatigued by yesterdays work)
Superset:

Military Press w/ 21kg: 5x2 (1 minute rest between sets)
Board Curl w/ 2kg: 5x3

Pistols Day 2 + Rows

OHS w/ bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5

Racked Pistols: w/ 16kg: 5x2 (2 mins rest between sets)

Triset:

Forearm lever: 5x3
Reverse Board Curl: 5x3
Incline Wrist Adduction (with sledgehammer): 5x8

50 Wide Grip Partial Sternum Pull-ups
50 Heavy Iron Woody Seated Rows

Full Contact Twists w/15kg: 5x5

Snatch & Press

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5

Snatch Grip Deadlifts:

30kgx5
70kg: 5x2 (2mins rest between sets)

Superset:

Military press: 21kg: 6x2 (2 mins rest between sets)
10 Counterclockwise + 10 Clockwise Sledgehammer rotations: 3sets

Reverse Board Curl: 8x3 (1 min rest)

Pistol Day 1

I decided to drop front squats in favor of racked pistols, to devellop balance, strength and explosiveness unilaterally.

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Racked Pistols w/ 16kg: 3x2 (L&R, 3 minutes rest between sets)
FCT w/ 15kg : 5x5

Snatch Grip Deadlift Day 1

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Snatch Grip Deadlift w/70kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Superset:
Military Press w/ 21kg: 4x3 (3 minutes rest between sets)
Reverse Board Curl: 6x3

Squat & Twist Day 15

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg x 2
FSQ w/ 90kg: 6x2, was supposed to do 8 sets, but my muscular fatigue was too high at 6 sets, so I stopped to prevent me from collapsing under the weight (1 minute rest)

Full Contact Twist w/13kg: 5x5

Superset:

Forearm Lever (2kg+3W): 4x5
Board Curls w/2kg : 4x3

Sledgehammer Turns (10 Clockwise + 10 Counterclockwise): 1Left Hand Leads+ 1 Right Hand Leads

Sledgehammer Pass (H2H Style): 20 reps

Hang Power Snatch Day 9

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Power Snatch w/ 42kg: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Snatch Grip Deadlifts:
50kg x 3
70kg x 3 (will be doing Snatch Grip Deadlifts instead of Power Snatches for increased power development)

Military Press: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Reverse Board Curls: 3x2

Sledgehammer Rotations (10 Clockwise+ 10 Counterclockwise): 1L+1R

Squat & Twist Day 14

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg x 2
FSQ w/ 90kg: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)
Thor's Hammer (2kg+2W): 8x3 (1 minute rest between sets)

Hang Power Snatch Day 8

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Power Snatch w/ 42kg: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Military Press: 21kg: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 13

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg x 2
FSQ w/ 90kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/ 13kg: 5x5
Forearm Lever (Thor's Hammer): 2kg+2W (wheels that keep plates from sliding off): 5x4 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Hang Power Snatch Day 7

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Power Snatch w/ 42kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)
Military Press 21kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 12

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg x 2
2 mins rest
FSQ w/ 80kg x 2
3.5 mins rest
FSQ w/ 90kg x 3
FSQ w/ 96kg x 1 (Fail)
Anti Barbell Cleans w/ 10kg: 6L+6R
Full Contact Twist w/ 10kg: 5x5

Hang Power Snatch Day 6

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg x 3
Hang Power Snatch w/ 42kg x 3
Hang Power Snatch w/ 46kg x 3 (partial fail due to press out)
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 5x2 (1 min rest between sets)
Military Press: 19kg x 3
3 mins rest
24kg: 3L+1R (+5 Negatives and holds with Right)
19kg: 5x2 (1 min rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 11

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 5x2 (2 mins rest between sets)

Anti Barbell Cleans w/ 10kg: 5L+5R
Full Contact Twist: 5x5

Hang Power Snatch Day 5

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 5x2 (2 mins rest between sets)
Military Press 19kg: 5x2 (2 mins rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 10

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 3x2 (3 mins rest between sets)

Anti Barbell Cleans w/ 10kg: 5L+5R
Full Contact Twist: 5x5

Hang Power Snatch Day 4

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 4x3 (3 mins rest between sets)
Military Press 19kg: 3x2 (3 mins rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 9

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 10x2 (1 min rest between sets)

Anti Barbell Cleans w/ 10kg: 5L+5R
Full Contact Twist: 5x5

Hang Power Snatch Day 3

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 10x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Military Press w/ 19kg: 10x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 8

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 6x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twist w/ 10kg : 5x5

10 Anti Barbell Cleans (bar loaded with 10kg, outer hand on outer part of middle rings): 5L+5R

Hang Power Snatch Day 2

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Military Press 19kg: 6x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 7

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 4x3 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twist w/ 10kg : 5x5

Hang Power Snatch Day 1

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 36kg x 3
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Military Press 19kg: 4x3 (3 minutes rest between sets)

3x5sec top position pull-up hold w/ 32kg

Squat & Twist Day 6

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg x 6 (PR)
FSQ w/ 80kg: 5x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Full Contact Twist w/ 8kg : 5x5

Press Max Day

Max MP Test w/ 24kg KB: 3L+2R

MP w/ 19kg: 5x2 (1 min rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 5

OHS w/ bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ bar x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 6x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/8kg: 5x5

Snatch & Press

OHS w/ bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ bar x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 30kg x 5
Hang Power Snatch w/ 36kg x 3
Hang Power Snatch w/ 40kg x 3 (this seems to be the ideal weight, it's heavy enough to make me pay attention to my triple extension, to make sure I get the weight overhead with maximum acceleration)

MP w/ 19kg: 6x2 reps (2 minutes rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 4

Ivanchenko preparing to pull, originally posted at www.mikesgym.org

Snatch w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 5
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 4x3 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twist: 5x5 w/ 8kg

I hope to top 100kg x 3 reps in this cycle and am going to do some power snatches next cycle, while maintaining my squat numbers.

And if that picture above doesn't get your fired up to do some snatching, I don't what will...

Military Press

Military Press 19kg: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 3

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 8x2 (1 minute rest between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/ 7kg: 5x5

HOC Day 2

Just got back from work early today, but after 45 minutes of riding my bike, I didn't feel like butchering myself with a High Octane Cardio session. I will do it Saturday though. Here's what I did today:

1 round of:

120 rope jumps
10 Cleans w/ 32kg (5L+5R)
120 rope jumps
10 One Arm Swings w/ 32kg (5L+5R)

Followed by:

Military Press w/ 19kg KB: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Squat & Twist Day 2

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 5x2 (2 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/ 7kg: 5x5

HOC Day 1

Since I have had poor overhead strength for quite a while now, I have decided on focusing on achieving a 32kg Kettlebell overhead press for 5 reps.

Therefore I will be doing a strength routine prior to my High Octane Cardio day.

So today I did:

MP 19kg KB: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Followed by HOC:

5 circuits of:

120 rope jumps
10 Cleans (5L+5R) w/ 32kg KB
120 rope jumps
21 2arm high swings w/ 32kg KB

Time: 22:47

Back to Squats

OHS w/ bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 70kg x 3
FSQ w/ 80kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)

Full Contact Twist w/ 7kg: 5x5

High Octane Cardio

5 circuits of :

1 minute jump rope
5 cleans left + 5 cleans right w/32kg
1 minute jump rope
10 swings left + 10 swings right w/32kg (later in the circuit this became 21 two hand swings)

Pretty good workout. Next time I will double the number of cleans and alternate the one arm swings with 2 arm swings (crossfit style).
Also I found it pretty distracting having to check my watch every 30 seconds, so I will just replace 1 minute jumping rope with 120 rope jumps, which won't make me waste any time AND add in the 'timing' aspect. Like in the regular crossfit workout I will try to beat my previous time.

I hate BW squats

I was out to do 'Jonesworthy' today, but after 80 BW squats my legs didn't really feel like cooperating any more. I did finish the first round though, but after I got a measly 20 pull-ups in sets of 5, I decided I'm not really up to 'Jonesworthy' yet...

That's right, I'm not in shape yet... So I decided to leave CrossFit aside and focus on my weak points again. My shoulder endurance is pretty bad (keeping your hands up to protect your face in a fight should be easy, even when fatigued) and so is my cardiovascular conditioning right now. So I sought out the best methods for CV conditioning and to me this still is : Hight Octane Cardio, the combination of al kinds of kettlebell ballistics followed by several minutes of jumping rope just has to get me in great shape.

I'm going to keep on doing some Interval Training and HOC in the next couple of days, but next week I'm going to resume my squat training, which gave me great strength gains last time. And on my 'off' days I'll throw in some HOC training 2 times a week followed by a Tabata Thruster once a week on Saturday to 'Finish' my week of training and rest on Sunday... Well, sounds like a plan... We'll see how it turns out.

GPP Circuit

Burpees x 30 seconds
Jumpings jacks x 30 seconds
Dumbell press with 'high knees' x 30 seconds
Shadow Boxing x 30 seconds

Did this circuit 5 times.

Followed by tabata tuck sits.

Max Squat + Swing 'Finisher'

Warmup:

OHS w/ bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 5
FSQ w/ 72kg x 5
FSQ w/ 80kg x 3 (PR)
FSQ w/ 86kg x 3 (PR by 14kg in 4 weeks !!!)
FSQ w/ 90kg x 1 (Another PR)

After this 4 week Squat & Swing Cycle I'm going to venture back into the CrossFit world for at least a week. Quite frankly I don't know if I'm going to do another cycle of squats & swings or not. A 1.5BW Squat sounds mighty tempting...
I will be adding in some Tabata Squats along with max squat, deadlift, clean and snatch attempts hoping to see a steady rise in my squat poundage.
I have been taking a look at www.gymjones.com, every once in a while lately and have been interested in their workouts. They're like Crossfit, but 'different'. Needless to say you'll see a lot of Gym Jones favorites in here soon. Stay tuned for more workouts to come...

L-Sits

Max attempt: 30sec (PR)
L-Sits : 5x13sec

Pull-ups DAY 6 + L-Sit Day 5

Pull-ups (BW+10kg): PR: 10 reps, followed by: 5x4 (1-2 minutes rest between sets)
L-sits (with shoes on): 6x16seconds (1-2 minutes rest between sets)

Day 10

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 72kg: 3x2 (3 minutes rest between sets)
Swings w/32kg 3x14 (3 minutes rest between sets)
Full Contact Twist w/ 5kg: 5x5

Pull-ups DAY 5 + L-sit DAY 4

Pull-ups (BW+10kg): 6x5 (2 minutes rest between sets)
L-sit (with shoes on): 4x21 seconds (3 minutes rest between sets)

Day 9

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
OHS w/ 30kg x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 72kg: 10x2 (1 minute rest between sets)
Swings w/ 32kg KB 10x10 (1-1.5 minutes rest between sets)

Before starting the swings I knew I was in for a treat. 10x10 is no walk in the park, not right now anyway. My heart & lungs got a great workout too, that's for sure. It was also quite a mental test, not to quit and call it a day. I eventually worked my way through by 'looking forward to the next set of swings' instead of concentrating on '7 more sets left' ;-).
After the swings my whole body was shaking, BUT I got a kick out of finishing those 10 sets, that's for sure. Can't wait to be able to do 50L+50R of those :-)

Finished with the usual:

Full Contact Twist w/ 4kg: 5x5

Pull-ups DAY 4 + L-sits day 3

Pull-ups (BW+10kg) 4x7 reps (3 min rest between sets)
L-sits 8x13sec (1 min rest between sets)

Day 8

OHS w/ Bar x 10
OHS w/ 30kg x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/ 72kg 6x2 (2 min rest between sets)
Swings w/32kg KB 6x12 (2 min rest between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/ 4kg 5x5

L-Sit Day 2 + Pull-ups DAY 3

Pull-ups w/ 10kg: 8x4 (1 min rest between sets)
L-sit (shoes on): 5x16 sec (2 min rest between sets)

Day 7

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
OHS w/ 30kg x 10
FSQ w/ 30 kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50 kg x 3

FSQ w/ 72kg 4x3 (sets x reps with 3 min rest between sets)
Swings w/ 32kg KB: 4x14 (3 min reps between sets)

Full Contact Twists w/ 4kg 5x5
Jandas 3x5

L Sit Day 1

L-Sit on parralletes with shoes on: 3x20 sec (3 min rest between sets)

Pull-ups DAY 2 and abs

I did my second day of pull-ups (BW+10kg) which looked like this:
5x5 (2 min rest between sets)

After that I did some ab work. I have decided to add the 3 min L-sit and a full evil wheel rollout to my ab 'goals'.

So I tested my L-sit max today (with shoes on): 25 seconds.
Did some Isometric holds (10sec) in some strenous pike positions.

I'm currently reading the 'Art of Expressing the Human Body' by Bruce Lee and I'm going to add some extra flexibility work into my routines, focusing mainly on the sitting hamstring stretch and the side leg stretch.

Day 6

OHS w/ Bar x 10
OHS w/ 30kg x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 4

Work Sets
FSQ w/72kg x 8 (PR)
FSQ w/72kg for 5x2 (1 minute rest between sets)
Swings w/32kg : 30L+10R (It's when I started swinging with my right hand that I realised how out of shape I was, by the tenth rep I was completely gassed).
I proceeded to do 10R+10R more to even out the amount of reps with my right hand.
Then did: 2x9 (setsxreps)
Finished as usual with:

Full Contact Twist: 3kg: 5x5
Jandas: 5x5

Pull-ups DAY 1

I have set myself the goal to get 20 pull-ups with BW+10kg. This will allow me to add some 1 RM strength and considerable reps in the my BW only pull-ups.

Today I did:

3x6 (with 3 min rests between sets)

Day 5

OHS w/ Bar x 10
Drop Snatch w/ Bar x 5
OHS w/ 30kg x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
FSQ w/ 50kg x 3

Work Sets

FSQ w/72kg 6x2 (2 mins rest between sets)
Swings w/32kg KB 6x11 (2 min rest between sets)
Full Contact Twist w/3kg 5x5
Janda Situps 5x5 (fists on forehead)

Day 4

Hip Flexor Stretch
Drop Snatch with empty bar x 5
OHS 30kg x 10
FSQ 30kg x 5
FSQ 50kg x 3
FSQ w/72kg 5x3 (3 min rest)
Swings w/32kg 4x14 (3min rest)
Full Contact Twist 5x5 w/3kg
Jandas 5x5

Day 3

Warm-up

Hip Flexor Stretching

Drop Snatch w/ Empty bar (10kg) x 5

OHS w/30 kg x 10
FSQ w/30 kg x 5
w/50 kg x 3

Work Sets


FSQ w/ 72kg 8x2 (sets x reps)
Swings w/ 32kg KB 8x9 (1 minute rest on both FSQ and swings)
Full Contact Twist w/2kg (on Olympic Bar) 5x5
Jandas (hands of forehead) 5x5

Day 2

Warm-up

Hip Flexor Stretching

OHS w/30 kg x 10
FSQ w/30 kg x 5
w/50 kg x 3

Work Sets


FSQ w/ 72kg 5x2 (sets x reps)
Swings w/ 32kg KB 5x11 (2 minutes rest on both FSQ and swings)
Full Contact Twist w/2kg (on Olympic Bar) 5x5
Jandas (hands of forehead) 5x5

Day 1

Warm-up

Hip Flexor Stretching

OHS w/30 kg x 10
FSQ w/30 kg x 5
w/50 kg x 3

Work Sets


FSQ w/ 72kg 3x2 (sets x reps)
Swings w/ 32kg KB 3x14 (3 minutes rest on both FSQ and swings)
Full Contact Twist w/2kg (on Olympic Bar) 5x5
Jandas (hands of forehead) 5x5

Back to Basics (no pun intended)

Hi all,

Thanks for 'bearing' with me in my bodybuilding 'phase', I'm sure some of you knew I wasn't going to be able to pull this off for long ;-)

For those who did, you were wrong ... You see, I'm not a bodybuilder, I'm a wiry guy who likes being strong. Josh Everett said it best "but now my goal is simpler…. To Be Strong. I want to be able to be placed in any situation and be strong. I want the type of strength that transfers to every situation. I want people to say, "that's a strong dude" regardless of age or size. I just want to be considered strong, not for a little guy (5'9" 182), but just plain strong. Put me on a football field, in a weightlifting, powerlifting, TSC meet, or in a bar fight and I want respectable strength for all situations. To me that is the definition of "real" or "functional" strength. That is my goal of training."

So, I reverted back to the training that brought me great gains.

Basically, it's some heavy strength work followed by some heavy 'energy systems work' , then finishing with heavy abs.

In all of these, I will be focusing on my weaknesses, on things I am NOT good at.

Today I tested my strength for the upcoming cycle:

Warm-up

OHS w/ 30kg x 10
FSQ w/ 30kg x 5
w/ 50kg x 3
(Note: All Front Squats are executed from the bottom position. When I mention 3 reps, I first squat the bar from the bottom supports, then take my position, do 3 reps, and do an eccentric to reposition the bar on the supports)

Work Sets

FSQ w/ 60kg x 3
w/ 70kg x 3
w/ 72kg x 3

Full Contact Twists: 3x5 (L&R)

KB Swings 1x15 (L&R)

Janda Situps (Hands on forehead): 3x5

Bear Bent-Over Rows

Bent Over Rows (pulling to abdomen, not chest)

1x5 w/36kg (90%)
10x5 w/32kg (80%) (I added some 2 arm swings after the 5th set of rows to the blood flowing a little more, will add weight next time)

Bear Dips

Bodyweight dips w/ iron woody bands to get me out of the bottom position more easily.

5x10 (with a change of band strength after my 5th set)

Bear Front Squats & Step-ups

Warm-up:

OHSx10 w/30kg (too loosen things up)

Front Squat x5 w/30kg
x5 w/50kg

Work sets:

1x5 w/66 kg (90%)
10x5 w/ 60kg (80%)

Rests on average between 1-2 mins

Step-ups w/30 kg

4x8

Bear Clean & Press

1 Clean, 5 Presses

Warm-up: 5x30kg

Work set:

1x5 w/ 42kg (90%)
6x5 w/ 38kg (80%)

5x5 Jandas

Bear Legs

Conventional Deadlifts:

Warmup (5x50kg, 3x70kg)

Work sets:

1x5 @ 108kg
10x5 @ 96 kg

Pullover with 20lb barbell:

2x5

Janda situps: 3x5

Notes: This felt really good. I'm going to stick with it for a while and see where this goes.

Bear Back

Bent-Over Rows

I started with too much weight, which lead me to execute more of a descending pyramid then a bear routine.

50kg x 3
46kg x 3
44kg x 1
40kg x 7

Rest Interval: 1-2 mins

Dips : 3 x 5 BW

Bear with me

Since I have had a hard time develloping any form of added mass the last couple of months, I have decided to choose an approach that can't fail. I decided to put all my money on the interesting (but very simple) program develloped by the Russian Special Forces to pack on mass aka The Bear. Pavel Tsatsouline discusses it in his great book 'Power to the People' (get it, it has some real good insights on training). Due to my heavy cycling (avg of about 2 hours a day), I also decided to spare my legs and train them on OFF days.
I also decided to make some changes in my diet - as we don't have lunch breaks at work - to be able to get enough protein AND carbs (when appropriate) no matter what. This means eggs and veggies in the morning, milk and fruit throughout the day and cottage cheese before bed. Let me show you what my workout of yesterday looked like - and most importantly, what's it's going to look like for the next month. That's right... no changing training methods for at least another month.

Upper Body Repetition Day

A. BW Dips for Max reps x 3 :5,4,3
B. Skull Crushers w/20kg BB: 4x6
C. Chin-ups w/16kg : 5,4,3,2,1
D: Shoulder Press w/16kg: 8,6,6
E: Barbell Reverse Curl 3x8 w/20kg
F: Jandas: 4x5

Max Effort Lower Body

Normally I'd do this workout Wednesday, but since I won't have a whole lot of time on Wednesday, I decided to do it today.

Front Squats

5@ 40kg
5@ 50kg
5@ 56kg
5@ 62kg
5@ 64kg

Step up with knee raise

4x8 w/30kg (will up weight next time)

Romanian Deadlift

4x6 w/ 78kg

Thick Dumbell Hold

3x max time (12 sec with 26kg, better time next time ;-)

Max Upper Body Day

Weighted Dips (work up to max of)

-5@ BW
-5@ BW+1kg
-3@ BW+3kg
-2@ BW+4kg
-2@ BW+3kg

Dumbell Floor Press

4x10 w/12 kg dumbbells

Bent-over Rows

4x10 w/40kg barbell

Bent-over Dumbell Rear Delt Flys

3x12 w/2kg dumbell

Hanging Knee Raises

4x15

Casual Fridays

Since I'm opting for muscle gain right now, 21 day itch isn't cutting it (with all the singles I'm gaining a lot of strength, but no size), so here's what I did today as a 'finisher':

Isometric Deadlifts from Blocks (shin height) 3x5 w/ 70kg
Power Cleans 3x5 w/50kg
1 Arm Renegade Rows with 1 pood kettlebell: 3x8
Bent over shrugs w/50kg 3x8

Finished off with 30 2 arm 2 pood kb swings.

Olympic Wednesdays II

Power Snatch w/ 46kg : 15x1
Power Clean & jerk w/ 58kg: 7x1

High Pull with Fat grip dumbbell of 22kg: 5,5,5,5,5

Mad Max Mondays

Front Squats w/74 kg: 15x1
Military Press w/46kg: 15x1 (the last rep was a real grinder, I'll up the weight next time)
High Pull with Fat Grip Dumbbell: 3,3,5,5,5
Side Lying External Rotation with 2kg: 2x8

Oh, and FYI, I have changed up my diet to meet the needs detailed in the book 'Scrawny to Brawny', which I just purchased recently. By doing this I hope to add some (+/-5kg) to my frame, over time, so I can ensure continuos gains in strength. Besides, I didn't feel like staying at my current weight of 70kg all the time. Time to smash some plateaus !

Another Strongman Saturday

Turkish Get-up w/24kg KB: 5x1
High Pull w/ 22kg Fat grip dumbbell: 5,4,5,4,3
32kg one arm swings : 40 total (20L+20R)

Supersets EDT Style

A1: Bent-Over Rows w/42kg : 13 sets of 5
A2: Floor Press w/42kg : 13 sets of 5

B1: Back Squats w/56kg : 7 sets of 5
B2: Romanian Deadlifts w/ 66kg: 7 sets of 5

Olympic Wednesdays

Power Snatch w/42 kg: 15x1 (about 30 seconds rest in between each rep, needless to say I will be upping the weight by 4kg next time)

Power Clean w/ 56kg: 15x1 (1 minute rest - or less - the last couple of reps were hard, but I will add 2kg to the bar next time)

High Pull with 20kg Fat Grip Dumbbell: 5,5,5,5,5 (these were pretty explosive and got the dumbell to chin level on almost every rep).
Power Snatch with 20kg Fat Grip Dumbell: 1L+1R.

I'll see how swings with the dumbell go on Friday.

Monday to the Max

Front Squats w/74 kg: 10x1 (5 more sets and I'll up the weight)
Military Press w/44 kg : 15x1 (next time I'll up the weight)

Mini High Pulls w/ 20kg Fat Grip Dumbbell : 5,5,5,5,5 (these felt a bit more explosive, and I got my pulls up to chest level, will keep using this weight until I can power snatch for 5 reps)

Strongman Saturdays

32kg Snatch x 1 (L,R)
Turkish Get-up w/24kg KB 3x1 (L,R)
Mini High Pull w/ 20kg Fat Grip Dumbbell: 5,5,5,5,5 (L,R)
32kg KB 1 Arm Swings x 30 (15L,15R)

BBing Fridays

Today is friday, which is bodybuilding day according to the '21 day itch'. This will allow me to do some bodybuilding work (as said before I'm not much of a bodybuilder, but I do enjoy the occasional 'pump ;-) For any of you who haven't tried EDT yet, I suggest you try it out, it's not as easy as it looks (with compounds movements that is)

A1: Rows w/40kg
A2: Incline Bench w/ 30kg (this was too light, will bring weight up next time)

Sets the timer to 15 minutes and got 10 sets of 5 for each exercise.

B1: Romanian Deadlift
B2: Back Squats (in retrospect I should have gone with Front squats)

Got 8 sets of 5 for each exercise in 15 minutes.

This went pretty well, I think next time will be more efficient, as I will change my exercise and weight selection to make it a bit more challenging (and so, induce a more appropriate response)

Power Snatch + Power Clean & Jerk

Power Snatch w/ 40kg: 15x1 (1 min rests)
Got 15 reps, will upping the weight next time

Power Clean & Jerk w/54 kg: 15x1 (1 min rests)
Same here, got all 15 reps, upping the weight next time

Mini High Pulls w/ 20kg Fat Grip Dumbbell: 3,4,5,5,5 (1 min rest)

The 21 Day Itch

Last week I posted that I was going to do '1 lift a day' a program by Dan John. But in the mean time I changed oppinions and decided to go with Charles Staley's new '21 day itch' program as it seemed to fit me like a glove. Why? Well I like heavy singles for one and I do like to alternate between powerlifting, olympic and strongman movements (and the very occasional bodybuilding). This program will allow me to do all those things, so I decided to jump in.

Here's what my workout for today looked like:

Front Squat w/ 74kg 5x1 (1 min RI)
Military Press w/ 44kg 10x1 (1 min RI)

Mini High Pulls (low height) with a 20kg fat grip dumbbell:
5 sets of 5,5,4,5,5 reps (1 min RI)

Rings and things

I finally received my power rings yesterday and started messing around with them right away. Woohoo ! Skin the cat(s), dips, pull-ups, muscle up attempts etc... Great fun, will be using them a lot.

Here's what I did today,

Front Squat (5 RM test):

5x30kg
5x50kg
50x60kg
50x66kg

Snatch Grip Deadlifts:

5x50kg
5x70kg (this felt really heavy, the lower position really taxes the posterior chain)

A dozen Glute Ham Raises (I didn't feel like counting,but I did a bunch)

6 sets of : 1 Power Clean / 2 Front Squats w/ 40kg (this felt pretty good, next time I'll up the weight and throw in another complex)

Followed by :

30 1 Arm Swings w/ 32kg KB (15L+15R)
30 2 Arm Swings w/ 32kg KB

Ending with :

20 rings dips

There ... this felt like a great workout.

5 RM Tests: a preparation for One Lift a Day

Military press

5x30kg
5x36kg
5x40kg

Power Clean

5x40kg
5x50kg
5x56kg

30 2 Arm Swings w/ 32kg KB.

Torn callous = Focus on legs

Due to my torn callous I wasn't really able to do any olympic lifts due to the strain the hook grip places on that specific part of the hand, so I decided to focus my time on improving my hamstring strength:

Side Press 1x6 (L&R) w/ 14kg
Muscle Snatches w/ bar x 6 (shrug, upright row, muscle snatch)
Pull-ups w/ 32kg (5 second top holds)

3 sets of:

'Natural Glute Ham Raise' x 5
32 kg Kettlebell 2 arm swing: 10

After the weekend

I just got my 32kg Kettlebell, decided to give it test drive:

Complete as many circuits as possible in 10 minutes of:

5 Cleans
5 1 Arm swings (L&R)
10 2 Arm Swings

I got 4 sets and my tore a callous just when I thought I had enough :-)

The 32kg feels solid, can't wait to snatch and press it.

Squat, C&J, Snatch & SP

-5x5 Front Squat w/62kg
-8x1 Clean & Jerk w/52kg
-8x2 Snatch w/36kg
-1x5 Side Press w/14kg

Swings and rack walks

60 swings (30L+30R) to chin level w/24kg KB
2x max time rack walk (back straight) w/24kg KB

Will do Tabata L-Sits tonight.

Wednesday

-8x1 Clean and Jerk w/50kg (Only did 5x1 due to a sprained shoulder, yet again, I have to practice the recovery from the jerk position without putting too much strain on my shoulders)
-5x5 Front Squat w/ 60kg
-8x2 Overhead Squat w/ 36kg
-1x10 Side Press w/ 12kg (next time upping the weight by 2kg)

Fresh Start

Warm up:

Broomstick overhead squat work
Hip flexor stretches
Bar only snatches and cleans

Workout:

8x2 Snatch w/36kg
8x1 Clean & Jerk w/ 50kg
5x5 Front Squat w/ 60kg
1x7 Side Press w/ 12kg

For more info on this olympic lifting workout, please look into Dan John's Book 'From the Ground Up'

Also for some informative reading on the old school weightlifting days, read into Bob Hoffman's books here.

20/08

Side Press: 1x7 with 12kg, this felt like the limit right now, so I'm going to stick with 7 reps for a while, then I'll 'upgrade' to 8.
Clean & Jerk: 1x6 30kg
Snatch : 1x6 30kg
Sit-up: 1x6 1kg
Swings: 50 swings with 24kg in 1:42 min, next time will do 60 swings

Taking a break

Hi all,

I have decided to take a small break from CrossFit. Why? Well, because of a slight case of overreaching. I got a new job a while back and had to drive my bike to work every day .It's about a 12 mile bike ride every day (that's total, to and from work). That's really nothing, but combining that with CrossFit, an irregular schedule, lack of sleep and not enough - healthy - food consumption quickly added up to some signs of overtraining (excess fatigue).

So I have decided to turn my training attention to something that would allow my body to recover first.

I have always had a great respect for the old time strongmen: Sandow, Goerner, Saxon, Aston, etc, ... So I have decided to try one of their training methods. They don't involve too many complicated cycling methods or 1 RM calculations. On the contrary training is kept quite simple:
Pick a weight you can do 10 repetitions with . Start by doing 5 reps with it. Next time 6, then 7 until your reach 10. Ten start over with a weight 5 or 10 pounds heavier, for one and two arm exercises respectively . All this is a brief summary of what you will find in George Hackenschmidt's 'The Way to Live', a very interesting view of how the strongmen of old trained.

Based on that, here's what my training looked like today (and will look like for the coming 2 weeks):

Side Press: 1x6 w/12kg
Clean & Jerk: 1x5 w/ 30kg
Snatch : 1x5 w/ 30kg
Sit-up: 1x5 w/1kg plate on forehead
Pistols: 1x3(L&R) 16kg (these only be done 3x per week along with pull-ups)
Secret Service Swing Test: 5:00 : Only did minute as my hands were still hurting from the pull-ups yesterday. Got 20L+20R
L-sit practice: 3x30sec with 2:30 min Rest Interval

Murph

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

1:08:22 , substituted 1 mile run for 400 rope jumps and 10L+10R 24kg swings in the beginning and just 400 rope jumps in the end.

Also ended up doing 100 Push-ups and 150squats in stead of the prescribed number of squats and push-up. Pull-ups were done as RX'd.

Preceded the whole thing with 2sets of 5 side presses (L+R) with 12,10kg. My current goals is to be able to do this with 40kg.

Rest Day

I felt like a kettlebell inspired workout today:

Warmup:
10 (L+R) 16kg swings
10 (L+R) 24kg swings

16kg: 1x curl, jerk, overhead squat, press (L+R)
24kg: 2x loaded cleans (L+R)

2KB in one hand drills, inspired by Hermann Goerner's amazing strength feats

16kg+24kg (in one hand): 5x deadlift (L+R) + 5x Mini Swing (very small back and forth movement)

24kg: 1x Turkish Get-up (L+R)
16kg: 3,2 Turkish Get-up (L,R)

40kg: 5x Pull-up 3 second top position isometric holds

L-Sits: 3x +/- 35 seconds (last set was only 30 seconds), 3min rest between each set.

Helen

Did 12:19, that's about a 50 second improvement from last time... pull-ups are still my weakness.

Shoulder is still not 'quite allright' will RICE it some more today (the period of 48 hours after an injury is the most important for speedy recovery).

Elizabeth

Elizabeth didn't go the way I wanted her too. I had this - light - stabbing pain in my left shoulder while coming back down from a finished squat clean, hesisated, did a couple of more reps and felt the slight pain again. That's when I decided to stop at 2 rounds (clock was at 12 minutes).
Will RICE and hope to see it disappear quickly.
Used 46kg on squat cleans and bar dips instead of rings dips.

Pull-ups and wall ball

Five rounds for time of:
25 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball - 10 foot target
30 Pull-ups

Didn't do this workout today because I went to a party last night and I'm not really feeling up to it. Will try squeezing it in on the next rest day.

Rest Day

Rest day today, felt like some PR attempts. I didn't feel like high-rep pull-ups. I did, however, do some heavy weighted pull-ups. Well only a couple to be honest: 1 rep with chin just reaching bar level w/ BW+40kg.
2 reps with 24kg (could have done more, but didn't want to push it)
Next time I'll try some negatives with 40kg and top position holds, so I can at least get one clean rep. My previous pull-up PR is BW+30kg btw ;-) All that with no specific practice ...

Next I did timed L-sits. Got 45 seconds, a 5 second improvement. Hmm, not bad... will be focusing on L-sit volume more next week along with fewer tabata sessions.

Nancy

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

Didn't use 95 pounds as I still feel fatigued from yesterday's deadlift workout, so dropped the weight to 65 pounds.
Did it in 16:33, all sets of OHS were unbroken... Yep, you guessed it, unbroken = not enough weight ;-) Will add some next time.

Deadlift Max Day

Deadlift 3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1 reps

All weights in kg.

Bodyweight=70kg

3x94 (used hook grip here)
2x104 (switched to mixed grip)
2x114
2x124 PR
1x130 (Fail, my grip was weak and I rested on my thighs)
1x126 PR (beat my previous PR by 6kg or 13 pounds !!!)
1x124
1x124
1x124

Since my grip was weak, I decided to add grip specific work into my 'specification program' (which currently consists of broomstick overhead squats and L-sits) that I will be doing before/after my workout, depending on the type of workout and how grip-specific it is.

I believe that if I improve my grip 300lbs is going to fly up, garantueed. Well, on to the next deadlift workout ;-)

Will do some Tabata L-sits this evening.

Cindy Or Mary

“Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

OR

“Mary”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups

Naturally, I picked Cindy. My last date with Cindy was pretty bad. At that time I did 10 rounds + 5 additional push-ups. I also made the mistake of watching the clock too much back then, which (believe it or not) really causes one to look at it too much ;-)
Today I improved my first time by 3 rounds. I did 13 rounds+5 Pull-ups and 5 Pushups. Allright ! Another PR !
I must say, the first time I did Cindy I didn't feel too good about it, but now I'm learning to deal with that feeling of fatigue ... and push on. I hope to keep loggin those PR's with the next benchmarks.

Rest Day

Well, this time I decided to take a break on a rest day... meaning no extra workouts . (not the one I had planned anyway).

Did some overhead squat flexibility work and worked on some drills to loosen up my hip flexors. E.g.: holding on to a door and pulling myself down into a deeper squat position while simultaneously pulling myself deeper pushing my knees apart.

What followed were L-sits. Not Tabata style though. Although still based on a set interval. 20 second L-sit (with shoes on; it makes a difference) followed by 40 seconds rest x 5 sets. Here I wasn't able to hold the L-sit for any time longer than 3 sets. I think this probably is due to the prolonged abdominal fatigue I have started to build up from all those L-sits and situps I did the past couple of days.
Now, we only have to wait until I recover and then, who knows, maybe a smashing new PR...

Extend, Pull, Push

21-18-15-12-9-6 and 3 rep rounds for time of:
Back Extension
Pull-up
Push-up

Did it in 20:13 minutes. Pull-ups broken, Pushups broken.

Prior to WOD did some overhead squatting, working to get that nice arch in the bottom position.
After the WOD I focused on the 'rack position' again. Did a couple of front squats with 65 pounds to ensure proper positioning.

Will do some Tabata L-sits tonight.

Tabata squat + situps

Well I decided to play it safe and chose to use a 10 pound plate... ok, ok, I should have chosen more, but I have to bike to work tomorrow and want to be able to make the trip without stopping to start peddling with my hands ;-)

Weighted tabata squat : 11
Situps (unanchored): 150 in 07:59 I did 40 consecutive reps before taking a break.

As usual I did some overhead squats with a broomstick, trying to go deeper and deeper while keeping my back straight and 'pushing my legs apart'. No L-sits today. Will do them tomorrow.

Push Press Max Day

Started off with some Overhead squat flexibility work as usual, also did some ankle flexibility work. Will keep doing this as the ankle flexibility work allowed me to get more comfortable in the bottom position of the overhead squat.

Weights in kg:

3@ 38
2@ 40
2@ 46
2@ 50
1@ 56
1@ 60
1@ 66 Fail (failed to push press it, but kept upping the weight as this was already a PR in the clean as I clean the weight first, the PP it)
1@ 70 (Fail, but I made the clean !!! PR by 8kg or 17 pounds !)
1@ 62 (tried to PP it but couldn't get it past the sticking point)

After those PR's I lowered the weight down to 30kg and focused on the hook grip and my keeping that grip all the way up to the clean 'rack position'. Auch... Keeping the hook grip in the rack is not easy will have to practice that some more.

Finished off with some Tabata L-sits.

Thanks again CrossFit !!! Keep those PR's coming.

Rest Day

Today was a rest day, and - as promised - I tested my max on pull-ups and L-sits (in that order), here what happened:
1) Pull-ups (kipping) : 17 (PR by 2 reps)
2) L-sits : 35 seconds (PR by 5 seconds after a bit less than a week practice)

I will retest my max L-sit time tonight though, as I think my abs were pre-fatigued by all the kipping done in the pull-ups.

'Explosive Lifting for Sports' came in the mail today and I quickly proceeded to read the chapter on the technical execution of the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. Well, I gotta tell you. I learned quite a couple of things :
1) My wrist flexibility is nowhere where it's supposed to be.
2) During the snatch (and thus, overhead squat) I have always had the 'reflex' of keeping my wrist straight, but in the book they mentioned you have to flex your wrists ...
I tried it, and boy ... instant overhead squat improvement.

In the coming months I will keep it a steady practice to do overhead squats as part of my warm-up and when possible will practice 'rack position' supports to increase the flexibility in my wrists so I can improve
1) My squat clean efficiency/form
2) My front squat efficiency/form

There, that's it for today... will try another max L-sit later today. If it beats my current PR -don't worry- I'll post it ;-)

New L-sit PR tonight : 40 seconds

Jump 'n Run

Five rounds for time of:
35 Double-unders
Run 200 meters

I didn't do any double-unders because the higher jump seemed to annoy the neightbors (live in appartement), so I replaced double-unders by 30 burpees... As usual I subbed runs for jump rope (regular turns, smaller jumps, less noise)
Finished in 14:24 mins
Tomorrow is a rest day, will test my max L-sit and max pull-ups tomorrow. Hoping to get some great PR's .

Jackie

"Jackie"

1000 meter row
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
30 pull-ups

Substituted SDHP with 45lb barbell for rows.
13:40

I'm surprised as how difficult the SDHP were (near the end of the set). Maybe I will be able to get a C2 one day and row 1000m and see how both compare...
Won't do any more L-sit until tomorrow, just want to give my triceps time to recover.

Elizabeth

“Elizabeth”

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

Time 13:48

Modifications:
1)Used 42kg or 92.5 pounds for the clean. Next time I will up the weight.
2)Did bar dips in stead of ring dips (I'm still waiting for those to arrive). I think I can easily say that if I did this workout using rings, my time would most certainly be over 20 minutes. That's a fact.

My goal is to eventually break 10 minutes for these 'type' of workouts (21,15,9 of 2 exercises).

I received the new issue of the CF journal today. This one deals with a loads of things including some progressions to learn the overhead squat. This information is priceless ! I will be incorporating these progressions into my training regimen to up my flexibility and improve my full snatch and full clean form.

Rest Day

As promised, today I did :

"Jonesworthy"

6 rounds for time of:
Squat 80-64-50-32-16-8 reps
1.5 pood Kettlebell swing 40-32-25-16-8-4 reps
Pull-ups 20-16-12-8-4-2 reps

As RX-ed, although my time ain't that spectacular ... yet, 25:01 minutes.
Will do some tabata L-sits when I get home from work this evening.

Max Overhead Squat Day

It's funny to see how one movement can really expose a lot of your weaknesses. For instance, I have had a shoulder injury about 5 months ago . Consequently - as I used more weight in the OHS - I noticed an instability in my left shoulder. I need to start working on my shoulder more (TGU, Ring work).

Here's what I did today (all weights in kg)

3@ 36
2@ 40
2@ 44
2@ 44
1@ 46
1@ 48
1@ 50
1@ 50
1@ 50
I didn't feel it would be wise to 'push the enveloppe' and end up re-injuring a shoulder. So I carefully stuck with 50kg. OHS form was ok though.

30 Muscle ups

For time:
30 Muscle-ups

Well haven't gotten to doing 30 muscle ups (or anything similar) today, because I didn't really have the time and planned to use this day as a rest day, because of my time restrictions.

So here what I did today:

Tabata L-sit (4mins: 20sec work,10 sec rest)
I started with 2 sets of clean L-sits, but as my abs and triceps fatigued I switched to a bent legged L-sit for one set and a tuck sit for the remaining sets. This idea was given to me by Brendan Melville on the crossfit forums, he personally reported that : "Since starting tabata intervals with l-sits, my time has shot up. I went from approx. 32 seconds to approx 60 seconds. I do tabata l-sits every 2 or 3 days." ,that got me interested. So I will be doing tabata intervals Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and see how my current L-sit time (+/- 30 seconds) will improve from now on. I can't wait to hit 1 minute.

I have also been surfing around the Gym Jones website lately, which is excellent BTW. I took a look at their schedule - it's clickable, click on a day to view the workouts they did - and found some interesting workouts I might try soon.

I have also been looking at one workout to add in to my routine that would be 'my' benchmark workout, so no matter what happens this workout would come back every month at around the same time. For future reference this workout will be 'Jonesworthy'
. Why this one and not some other benchmark workout ? Well, first of all, because I'm drawn to it. It's tough, it has a lot of swings and a lot of pull-ups. It will take anyone at least 10 minutes to finish it. 10 minutes is out of this world, 15 minutes is an excellent time, 20 minutes is a good time, 25 is average and 30 minutes is a bad time. I'm curious to see how my times will evolve in the next couple of months. Stay tuned...

Run & Thruster

For time:
Run 1600 meters
115 pound Thruster, 9 reps
Run 800 meters
115 pound Thruster, 15 reps
Run 400 meters
115 pound Thruster, 21 reps

I'm not yet strong enough to handle those 115 pounds, so I settled for 88 lbs or 40kg. Subbed runs for 800,400 and 200 rope jumps respectively. Finished in 28:56 minutes. I'm glad I finally got under 30 minutes for these 'type' of workouts. Progress is coming bit by bit.
Since tomorrow I have a 9hr day at work, I decided to compensate for that prolonged period of inactivity and tried to add another WOD into my schedule this afternoon.
I picked one that had tempted me for quite a while:

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
Run 200 meters
60-pound Thrusters, 20 reps
20 inch Box Step-ups, with 60 pounds, 20 reps
15 Pull-ups

After the first round I felt like I was out of gas, I could have pushed on, but I don't think I would have been of much use for the rest of day ;-)
Conclusion : two WOD's a day are reserved for people who have been on CrossFit for quite a while, not for a newbie like me.
Prior to my first workout today I did some timed L-sits and to my amazement I broke 30 seconds. Hmm, could this have anthing to do with Crossfit ? Prior to crossfit I remember struggling for 15 seconds...

I also set up my sandbag and will be throwing it around soon.

Rest Day

Front Squat 10-10-10-10-10 reps.

I couldn't keep still on a rest day now could I ;-) so I did the above and payed attention to my front squat form. I still need to work on some flexibility issues. I really want to make sure my back is as straight as possible. So here's the sequence (weights is kg's):

50,52,52,52,52

It looks easy, but in reality this workout naturally makes you watch your form. For those who are wondering where I got it, you might want to check the CrossFit archives now and then to look at some workouts you might not have done before that look pretty interesting.

Clean & Jerk + Pull-ups

Seven rounds of:
Clean & Jerk, 1 rep
Max reps Pull-ups

C&J weight in kilos:

C&J:36,40,46,50,56,60,62
PU:15,7,8,9,7,6,8

I haven't really done a lot of squat clean in the past, but I do know that I would have maxed out at approx. 50 kilos. That means that I beat my previous (estimated) PR by +/- 10 kilos or 22 pounds. Pretty good progress for only ONE month of crossfit !!!
My goal is to eventually (this year) be able to clean & jerk 225 pounds or 102 kilos . After that I will be going for 225 for 15 then 30 consecutive reps ... but that's just my imagination talking :-) We've got some training to do before I can clean 225 for reps.

Run 'N Snatch and behind the scenes of the WOD's

Run 5K

I didn't do the 5K as I'm gradually building up my running distance (as mentioned before) each Sunday of the month, so here's what I did instead:

For time:
Run 800 meters
Snatch, 30 reps
Run 800 meters

Did it in 13:46 minutes. Used 32kg (+/- 70lbs) and subbed 800 meter run for 400 rope jumps. I'm starting to feel like I can up the intensity, am no longer 'scared' of the workout but am slowly starting to 'fight back' Please note (Coach Glassman et al) I said 'slowly' ;-)
I have been taking a look behind the scenes of the Crossfit WOD's by ordering a back issue of the Crossfit Journal, more specifically issue #6.
I strongly recommend anybody interested in the Crossfit methodology to purchase this issue, as it will give you a good insight on how the WOD's are set up, how you can set up your own program and even (if you know what workouts you're good at) help you identify you weakness and work on that by focusing more on those type of workouts.
Also for those thinking about combining more strength days into their WOD schedule, you might want to order the Performance Menu back issue #3. In it, Coach Rutherford and Coach Josh Everett both discuss their unique approach to combining Crossfit with the 'regular' weight training schedule. This column provides great insight in the minds of 2 great coaches and how they manipulate Crossfit to suit their athletes' needs.

Today's Chipper

For time:
20 inch Box jump, 50 reps
15 foot Rope climb, 5 ascents
1.5 pood Kettlebell swing, 50 reps
50 sit-ups
40 pound dumbell Hang power clean, 50 reps
800 meter Run
50 Back extensions

Well today was a long one . Subbed the following :
16" box jump (I really got to get myself a 20" box)
25 lb DB's .
400 rope turns for 800m run

Got a lousy time of 33:13 (actually 32:13, lost a minute to replace the dumbells weights with a weight I could handle). I'm about one month into crossfit right now and have seen about every type of workout. The last couple of days weren't 100% and maybe I won't start pushing the intensity to the max right away. I'm planning on just increasing my times right now and staying consistent until I have no more obstacles slowing me down for a while (parties and such ;-)
Then I will start 'going all out' on a daily basis.

Rest Day

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I was itching to test my max reps on pull-ups and did 15 reps! That's a pretty good improvement when compared to less than a month ago when I could do +/- 6 reps . Keep in mind that these were kipping pull-ups and the 6 I did a month ago were dead hang. I do think was responsible for my addition in pull-ups, but not in a way that people would think it's 'cheating' , but in really making the pull-up more explosive and involving the upper body more (especially the abs and making better use of the lats vs the upper arms). I hope that I'll be able to break 20 in the coming month ;-)

Drunken Linda

"Linda"

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of the triplet:

Deadlift: 1 ½ bodyweight
Bench press: bodyweight
Clean: ¾ bodyweight

I just came back from a pretty tyering 1.5 days . So I start Linda with a lot of good intentions, but my body was given me clear signs (muscles acting up) that I should keep it short and sweet so I did the first 2 rounds which took me a sloppy 25 minutes. I lowered the weight for the deadlifts to 225 (my BW being 150 pounds so about 10 pounds less that 1.5 x bodyweight) and I used 1 weight for the cleans and bench, because I only have 1 bar. 90 pounds was used for benching and cleaning. I did work up a bit of sweat, but I could have done better. So I called this a 'drunken Linda'.

Lunges & Burpees

Five rounds for time of:
45 pound barbell Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet
21 Burpees

I did 14:12, but when looking at the other times that's far from right. I did 4+4 Lunges on each leg, but that's obviously not enough distance. Anybody have a good substitute as to how much lunges -on average- would be required to lunge for 50ft?
I 'only' completed it in 14:12 minutes, but I did manage to work up a good sweat though.
I'm off to the beach ... see you all saturday. Oh don't worry, I'll try to do the missed WOD's on my future rest days ;-)

Rest Day

Well, again, today was supposed to be a rest day. But, tomorrow I'm leaving for 2 day 'holiday' to the seaside and won't be able to do the WOD's for a full 2 days ! ;-)

So I decided to do another WOD type workout today .
I got this one from Josh Everett :

How many rounds can you do in 15 minutes of :
20 2 arm swings (I made it 21 american style swings)
20 squat pulls
10+10 Lunges (mean 10 left and 10 right)
20 pushups

All done with a 1.5 pood kettlebell. My results were pretty lame... I got 3 rounds + 21 swings . Next time I'll try to add another round .
Well, I'm off to the seaside, see you all in a couple of days !

Deadlift

Deadlift 3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1 reps

So here's what I did (all weights in kg):
3x100,2x102,2x104 (at this point I started using a mixed grip), 2x106,1x110 (my old PR),1x112,1x114,1x116,1x120: I beat my previous PR by 10kg or 22 pounds, without any deadlift specific practice other than what was described in the WOD's and in the March 2004 CF Journal (the beginner routine). All this with a little less than a month using CrossFit !!!
Thank you CrossFit and more specifically Greg and Lauren for the effort you put have put into this from the start !

By the time I reached 120kg I didn't have any more plates to put on the bar. Yep... gotta go buy some new plates.

Have also been seriously thinking about getting a 32kg kettlebell to have some heavier kettlebell work. My currently heaviest KB - the 1.5 pood - is starting to feel light. Especially for the swinging movements or 'ballistics'.
I have noticed that each kettlebell I have gotten in the past has each and every time been a 'stepping stone' to greater strength. This of course is due to the great workout your posterior chain gets from those massive iron balls.

I have also been looking into some workouts I could do on rest days -with a heavier kettlebell- that would nicely complement the CrossFit WOD's. Will keep you guys (and gals) posted.

Fran

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95-pound Thruster
Pull-ups

Well, I'm pretty mad. I got 10:50 minutes on this one. Not bad you say? True ... but I only used 66 (30kg) pounds and I managed to do all sets of thrusters unbroken. Pull-ups were still broken in sets of 3 except for the first set where I managed to knock out 8 reps in a row. Hmm I hope I can keep those sets of 8 coming ;-)
I kind of felt like Josh Everett or Greg Amundson - with the thrusters - in their video when doing Fran, but umm ,I'm neither of those mutants. So next time I'm going to have to up the weight by at least 5 pounds to make it harder... after all, no WOD is supposed to even be remotely easy. That's doesn't mean I wasn't working hard though ... just not hard enough.

Cindy

“Cindy”

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

I completed today's WOD, but before I give you my results I want to tell you that - as I mentioned yesterday- I did a +/- 3km run this morning. The results ? Well, it wasn't really easy ... or fun for that matter(not yet anyway) but I ran it in 15 minutes.
I'm planning to bring that time down to about 12-13 minutes before I run a greater distance.
On to today's WOD. It wasn't really pretty, but I managed 10 rounds and 5 additional pull-ups.
Now I realise I could have squeezed in some push-up's too.
Although the timer said 1 more minute, that minute still gave me the time to - possibly - do half a round, I just didn't think I had a full minute left. Well, it will be a lesson for these type of WOD's ... keep going until the timer beeps !

Rest Day

Well , nothing to report today. I didn't do any skill practice like other would as fell of my bike yesterday and my knee and right hand are bruised, so I'm just going to relax today. I used RouteRuler to figure out a good running route for me to use tomorrow, as I have decided to work on my weakness: running. In addition to tomorrow's WOD I will run a 3.3km route through my neighbourhood . In the weeks to come I will consistently try to respectively descrease and increase :
1)Running time
2)Running distance
My priority will be with time for about 2 weeks, then slightly increasing the length, then focusing on time again, etc ... until I reach 5k. After which I will focus on running longer distances (>5k)more sporadically.
All this will eventually lead me to be a better athlete and actually run 10k when the WOD demands it.
There... No excuses, no compromises...Crossfit !

Michael

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

26:37 but I'm adding 1 minute (final time being= 27:37)of 'penalty time' because I couldn't get my groove right with those swiss ball sit-ups.
My barbell was set up too high for me to hook my feet under it properly and during the workout I stopped the clock to get a towel to do sit-ups with , but ... the towel was a bit too thin and didn't really give quite enough support ... ugh ... so I kept doing the swiss ball sit-ups. Maybe I will consider one of those ABMATs.
I also used a swiss ball for the back extensions while hooking my feet under a barbell and lying face down on the ball (abdominals touching the ball) so I could simulate a back extension and I know, I know ... it's only a partial ROM, but I'm working with what I have here .
Also I'm starting to feel like my jumping rope is becoming too easy ,so I decided to raise the intensity by performing partial knee-ups to simulate the running motion, but not exagerating knee height to keep it realistic. It seems to work, I'm going to add these in the future. Tomorrow is a rest day ... enjoy.

Kelly

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Substitutions : Run 400 meters => 200 Rope jumps
24 inch Box => 16 Inch box
And finally , wall ball target was 9' high instead of 10.
And even with al these substitutions I got a measly 33:13 min. Well I can tell you one thing though, Arnold once said :
"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
This really applies to Crossfit . Crossfit builds character. If you keep going true a tough workout and don't stop, you build character. I think that's one of the reasons Crossfit is so popular amongst law enforcement and military personel.
I broke my 30 reps with both box jumps and wall ball shots into sets of 10 reps . Next time I'll break them both into sets of 15 reps, which will considerably up the intensity of course.
I'm going to try to get my hands on a 24 inch box a 16 inch really is small , compared to the 'real deal'. I folded a blanked in half to absorb the shocks of the jumps on the box, because I live in an appartement and work out on my appartement terras which is large enough (4m x 3m) to jump rope and do other stuff. I just have to minimize the noise for the old lady downstairs.
Well see you all tomorrow , can't wait to unwrap tomorrow's WOD ;-)

Snatches & Pull-ups

Three rounds for time of:
95 pound barbell Snatch, 21 reps
15 foot Rope-climb, two ascents, without legs, from seated start

If you don’t have a rope, make plans to pick one up, and until then, substitute 20 pull-ups for each ascent. Snatch is squat snatch, not power snatch.

So that's what I did, except for the 95 pounds which I 'safely' replaced with a 65 pound barbell, because I'm not really familiar with the squat snatch. Turns out lowering the weight was good idea, because somewhere in the 2nd set I had to bail out and lower (it wasn't really a dump) the bar from the overhead squat position to my 2 tires positioned just under the plates of my barbell. I did this one in 30:35 minutes. Still a really bad time. I still blame pull-ups for a huge loss of time, considering I have to break them up into sets of 3 or maybe 4. Fatigue really makes it difficult to match your normal amount of pull-ups in a rested state. Yep, CrossFit is on to something allright.
But I'm still in my first month of crossfit, so I'm still not supposed to push myself too hard either. Here's why (scroll down to the 5th paragraph).

Rest Day

Well, it's supposed to be a rest day... but I have decided otherwise. I have a 2 day vacation coming up in a little more then a week , so I decided to hit the crossfit workouts hard, to the edge of overtraining, so I'll really have earned those 2 days of pure 'laziness' :-)

Here's what I did today, and before you start laughing at my horendous time, please take into account that this workout was preceded by a 45min bike ride (the ride home from work).

For time:
100 Squats
40 Pull-ups
80 Squats
32 Pull-ups
60 Squats
24 Pull-ups
40 Squats
16 Pull-ups
20 Squats
8 Pull-ups

Time: 41:14 minutes. This definitely needs improvement. Pull-ups were broken into sets of 3 and squats were broken into sets of 20 when necessary.
P.S.: about yesterday's remark on not running for a while, I AM going to to long distance runs, but not just now. I'll start adding them when requested in about 1 months or so.

First WOD

Run 5K.

That's what the Workout of the Day prescribed today. When I started crossfit I knew workouts like this were part of the program (long endurance events) and they usually were called for about once or twice a month. Right now I'm almost 2 weeks into crossfit, but don't feel like running long distances yet . So every time an endurance event like this is called for I will replace it by one of the crossfit 'benchmark' workouts.
So here's what I did today :
"Helen"
Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 ½ pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

I completed this in 13:07 minutes. The only change I made is I jumped rope 200 times instead of running 400 meters. Pull-ups were broken into sets of 4 reps for set 1, 3 reps for set 2 and 3 or 2 reps for set 3.
How do I feel ? Well, first of all after those kettlebell swings - although they are two handed - my grip is weak. Second thing I noticed is my throat was really dry after this workout ... not to worry , water to the rescue ;-) . As said before I will attempt to get as close as possible to Josh Everett's time on every benchmark workout and in this case I will have to be twice as fast to make it . Well, got a long way to go ...

Last Workout before Crossfit WOD's

How many rounds in 20 minutes of :
Bench press 135 pounds x 10 reps / 12 L-Pull-ups

Well , as usual I had to reduce the weight on the bench press. I used 110 pounds (50kg) and because I don't have a real bench , I floor pressed the weight instead . Parallettes make good spotters :-)
Guess what ... I got 3 rounds - right - not good. Also for the L-pull-ups I made sure I never really started from a dead hang as I wanted to protect my shoulders . I kind of shrugged up so my lats were already contracted - protecting my shoulders - but keeping my arms straight . I have had problems with L-pull-ups in the past when not using this technique due to a weaker left shoulder . My left shoulder was injured in the past*so needless to say I don't want to injure it again.

*= NOTE: when practicing Turkish Get-ups, always make sure you do them outside, so that when something goes wrong you can drop the kettlebell (away from your body, of course) and protect your shoulder from being pulled in an unwanted direction .

11th workout : snatches

Snatch nine sets : 3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1 .

Sets of 3 reps with 30kg , sets of 2 with 32kg and sets of 1 with 34,36,38 and 40kg respectively.

10th WO : Pull-ups

6 sets of max pull-ups

Results : 9,7,7,6,4,3
That's a total of 36 pull-ups . I will be adding towel pull-ups into my routine soon , as I tried them yesterday and I couldn't do a single one ... My grip needs some work.

9th Workout

Seven rounds for time of :
Front squat bodyweight 10 reps/30 feet of rope climb.

I only used about 110 pounds and subsituted 15 pull-ups for the rope climb. I should have done 30 instead , but after having done 30 the first round and taking a lot of time to do it , I decided to reduce the reps. I also reduced the rounds to 4 instead of 7 rounds , because I didn't have that much time today . I finished in 23:45 minutes. Not really good huh ? I hope to drastically improve these times in about 6 weeks.

8th workout

How many rounds can you complete in 20 minutes of :
Run 400 meters/Deadlift 225 pounds x 7 reps ?

Since I'm not really up to deadlifting 225 for so many reps yet , I decided to tone it down a bit and deadlift 198 pounds or 90kg instead.
I managed 6 rounds . This was my best workout yet , and I really got this post-exercise high . It's been a little over 1 week on crossfit and I'm already starting to feel the differences . I can't really confirm those 'feelings' so I'm just going to wait until I'm 1 month into crossfit to test my 1RM on the basic lifts again and do a couple of workouts again (trying to beat my previous time , of course) .

Rest Day

7th workout and some great times.

5 rounds for time of :
60 pound two hand dumbbell swing x 21 / Glute Ham developer medicine ball throw sit-up with 12 pound ball x 15


I know, today was supposed to be a rest day (3 on , 1 off) but it worked out better for me to rest tomorrow and do this workout today . I replaced the med ball throw by crunches (situps at first ;-) with a 5kg plate and used a 1.5 pood kb for the swings . I finished the workout in 9:43 min , which I am quite happy about . Yesterday I spent some time looking at Crossfit's top athlete's times for the girls . I payed particular attention to Josh Everett's times . My goal are to match these times , some day ...
Chelsea 30 rounds 04/11/05 30 rnds in 30 mins
Diane 03:50 05/02/01 n/a
Elizabeth 04:19 05/05/23 bar dips w/24kg
Fight Gone Bad 400 points 04/12/01 Slightly modified
Fran 02:37 04/11/21 n/a
Helen 07:29 05/03/31 n/a
Isabel 01:30 04/11/11 n/a
Jonesworthy 12:20 04/12/03 n/a
Josh E.'s own 43:36 04/10/08 n/a
Linda 15:48 04/11/03 BW 185 lbs
Mary 14 rounds 05/01/19 14 rnds in 20:02
Tabata st else 500 points 05/05/31 n/a
Below you see the name of the workout , the time in minutes or the number of rounds completed or number of points scored, the date in yy/mm/dd format and finally a space for comments .Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily the best time for those workouts .Josh Everett isn't the necessarily the best crossfitter around either , he's just a good - scratch that - great representative of the 'elite' people at crossfit. These are times/scores to aim for .

6th workout

Five rounds for time of:
35 pound Dumbbell thruster x 15 reps / 12 pull-ups

I didn't use 35 pound for the thrusters (= front squat / push press), but used two 26 pound dumbells instead. All sets were broken up into little doable chunks e.g. for pullups 4-4-4 instead of one whole set of 12 reps.
I was humbled by this workout ... again ... finished it in 23:00 minutes . I'm curious to see how this is time is going to improve in the next months ...

5th workout

5 sets of 50 Sit-ups on GHD.

Well , I don't have a GHD here at home , so I did tried to do 5 different kinds of situps . The first 2 sets I did regular situps , then I did a set of scissor situps , followed by some crunches and finally finished up with some hanging knee raises . Wasn't too intense , although I bet that if I had to do them on a GHD , that would have been a whole different workout .

4th workout

How many rounds can you complete in 15 minutes of :
Hang squat clean 135 pounds 12 reps / 15 ring dips

I did regular dips instead of ring dips . Well , crossfit really humbled me on this one : I only got 4 rounds and used 65 instead of 135 pounds. Ouch ... I did make a small mistake in the first round when I did 15 hang squat cleans in stead of only 12 , but that doesn't really make up for that pathetic score now , does it ? Forging Elite Fitness ... it's a work in progress :-)
Remember I did kipping pull-ups yesterday , well today I was sore in all the right places . I really feel my lats being sore instead of my arms and my abs are slightly sore too . I'm interested to see how kipping is going to affect my dead hang pull-ups (both weighted and Bodyweight) .

Rest Day

Well today is supposed to be a rest day , but I couldn't really sit still . So I I practiced the kipping pull-up . At first I had some trouble finding my groove , but after some practicing I managed to 'get it' . It's going to take a while before I can crank em out as fast as Josh and Greg in 'Fran' though .

3rd Workout

How many rounds can you complete in 20 minutes of :
24" Box jump x 25 reps / 5 Muscle ups ?

Wasn't able to do the muscle ups so substituted those for 5 dips and 5 pull-ups . I managed 3 rounds and the countdown timer reached 12 minutes when the appartement representative came up to complain about the noise I was making with the box jumps . She also added that this wasn't the first time she heard me making dropping stuff . So I proceeded to get some tires out of the garage (which is too small for any overhead lifting) to make sure she didn't have anything more to say when doing deadlifts .
Now I'm left with the need to find a solution to those box jumps . I used to replace the running in crossfit by rope jumping but this also seems to upset my downstair neighbours (I live on the 3rd floor) so I'll have to fix that . I'm thinking about getting a 1x1m judo mat , but they're quite pricy(130$+10$ shipping).I was also looking into some type of 'puzzel mats' as seen here . Anybody know if they have an anti-slip coating ? Any other ideas ?

2nd Workout

Run 5K for time

I am not going to run 5K just yet , don't feel up to it . I think that's something I'll start doing when about 1 month into crossfit .

So here's what I did :

30 mins of jump rope alternated with 21 swings (santa cruz style) with a 1.5 pood kettlebell . I did this to get familiar with the crossfit-style swing , as it is more taxing than the 'conventional' swing to eye level.
I really felt a pump in my forearms afterwards . Did about 5 sets of swings alternated with jumping rope . Warmed up and cooled down with the 1 pood . This workout left me sweating bullets , but I still feel good . Did some stretching this evening which seemed to alleviate the soreness in my hamstrings and glutes . Tomorrow I'll be in for something even more challenging . Can't wait ...

First workout

From now on for about 16 days , I will be following a crossfit 'introduction' routine outlined in the CF journal March 2004 Issue.
Here's the first one I did today :

5 rounds for time of :
Deadlift 185 pounds 15 reps / 10 Handstand push-ups

In reality , however , things look a bit different .
Prior to the 'main workout' I did 4 sets of 3 weighted pull-ups with 54 pounds .After that I did some samson stretches but used a bar overhead to get a bit more of a stretch . Then right before I started the workout I warmed up my lower back and hamstrings with some kettlebell swings (santa cruz style).

I only used 155 pounds for the deadlifts and did partial handstand push-ups (HSPU).
How do I feel ? Well I was quite pleased to be able to finish it , as my tired body was really asking me to call it quits on the 3rd round . But hey , what's 2 more rounds ? I ended finishing the whole thing in 18:49 . I'm not really thrilled with that time , because I know I could have done better had my grip not been a problem . I guess I have plenty of time to work on that with similar Crossfit WOD's . What's next ? Well later today I'm going to do some stretching . In the past I have seen great differences in recovery time and muscle soreness when stretching . If anybody is interesting in reading up on stretching ,please read this interesting roundtable discussion .
After that I'll do some TVA isometric contractions to improve my posture.
To summarize all of the above once more I'd have to say : I feel great and am excited to see my fitness improve while following the Crossfit WOD's .

Well , this is it . I'm starting crossfit ...

Well , this is it . I'm starting crossfit . First let me introduce myself :

Hi , my name is David . I'm 19 yrs old and live in Belgium . I have been actively working out for 1 year now and just got a barbell set of plates about 3 months ago . Here are some of my stats :

Height : 6'
Weight : 150 pounds
BF % : +/- 12 %
Bench Press 1RM (Repetition Maximum) : 140 pounds
Deadlift 1 RM : 242 pounds
Full Squat 1 RM : 150 pounds
Weighted Pull-up 1 RM : Bodyweight + 70 pounds
Max Bodyweight pull-ups : 6

For a description of these exercises please look here .

I have chosen to start crossfit because I believe it has no peer when talking about exercise intensity, variety and functionality .In essence crossfit will make you a world class athlete without having to train 4+ hours a day .

Here are my goals for this blog :

1) Show others how long it takes to go from deconditioned individual , to above average condition using the crossfit principles.
2) Show others that you can dramitically improve your strength , strength-endurance and endurance , without practicing them specifically (only once in a while).

So I'm starting my journey , I'm really excited to see where it will take me.

WARNING : The activities , physical and otherwise , decribed in this blog for informational purposes , may be too strenous or dangerous for some people and the reader should consult a physician before engaging in them .