Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Great Trainer
I have to say my personal trainer is awesome. I asked her to look at CrossFit and she embraced it wholeheartedly. Today’s workout, 4 rounds of 20 overhead squats, then 35 seconds of max reps jumping pull ups. This was so intense. The overhead squats were with 12, 15, then 18 lbs for the last 2 sets.
I also discussed my concerns with moving too fast trying to learn the clean. It is a scary, highly technical skill and I want to make sure I have great fundamentals before I start adding a lot of weight.
I’ve been working with my trainer since April. She has literally changed my life. I’m healthier now than I was a decade ago and I have the foundation for a lifetime of fitness.
If you live in the St. Louis area and you are considering changing your life, let me know and I will put you in contact with my trainer. I really can’t stress enough how much she has helped me.
Tour the Facility, or Do You Hate Your Arms?
I met with Dan, Brandon and Orie at CrossFit Des Peres today. They have a lot of open space above Core Fitness. 6 sets of adjustable rings, 2 lifting platforms, a huge tire, just to name a few things I noticed right off, not to mention the giant kettlebells. We did various warm ups. They checked my form on some basic movements, air squat, front squat, thrusters. I tried a ring pull up, some ring push ups and a couple ring dips with legs on the ground.
We finished with a sick WOD (workout of the day). 21-15-9-3 reps of (my scaled versions) 20 lbs dumbell thrusters, jumping ring pull ups, dumbell push ups. (I’m still wary of doing normal push ups on the ground since my nerve problems in my left arm.) I figured out pretty quickly I could break this down into 3 mini sets, so 7-7-7, 5-5-5, 3-3-3, 1-1-1. This made a huge difference for the last set because it was just like 1 more set of 3 from the 9s with a little rest. I had a total of 5 push ups that I didn’t count because I couldn’t finish the rep. To be that close to, or at failure so often in such a short time was a new experience. Anyway, I finished in 16:22. I read somewhere that the first time you do something is always a personal record so I guess that was 16:22 PR.
Before I left, I jumped on the incline trainer. 20-25 seconds or so of 4 mph at a 50 incline. That thing is just sick. I totally want to do more. Of course it made my legs match my arms for the spaghetti lactic acid burn. Stretching felt so good as toxins flushed into my system from pumped muscles.
I’m going to love CrossFit. This is like the first month or so when I started working out, only, as far as I can tell, the feeling should just keep going. I can’t wait for the next sick workout.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday Workout - Shirley, It's Cold Outside
I met Dan, Orie and Elizabeth today at the Kirkwood High School track. It turns out Orie lives across the street. We set up 4 stations around the track. Do a station, sprint to the next station, go around twice. Elizabeth suggested 36 reps as the magic number because it was 36 degrees outside. I think she needs to see a shrink.
We each started at different stations. I started at the one arm dumbell snatches (KB for most but I did 25 lb dumbells because I was unfamiliar with the motion.). 18 with each arm, then sprint to the 24” box for box jumps. 9 box jumps and my bursting heart forced me to lower the power requirement by doing step ups instead. From that point on, the sprint was more like a recovery walk and I just hoped to be able to breath by the time I got to the next station. 36 ball slams with the 20 lb medicine ball. Umm, no problem? Sort of…. An actual semi-run to the 4th station, sand bag. I don’t know how heavy the duffel bag of sand was but carrying it 100 yards and back was a great challenge. I kept going for all 8 stations. After my last sandbag carry, I gave everything that was left for a final 100 yd sprint then spent 5 minutes gasping for air hoping not to revisit breakfast. All told, one of my best workouts ever. After only 9 hours I’m already feeling muscle rebuilding.
I’m meeting Dan at CrossFit Des Peres on Tuesday to see the facility. If their workouts all get this much out of me, the returns are going to be awesome.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
CrossFit
I asked my personal trainer if we could incorporate CrossFit into my program. Last night, she listened. We spent 5 – 10 minutes with her trying to teach me the clean (olympic lift). Then, I did 20 kettlebell swings (I don’t know the weight.), 20 dumbell thrusters, 20 burpees (without the push up), another 20 KB swings, partner stretches and then I did 50 prone knees to elbows for homework. This may have been my best workout since I started working out in April. My quads are destroyed. Every time I stand up, walk, or climb stairs, I just start laughing from the wonderful pain.
CrossFit was new for me. CrossFit was fulfilling. I’m looking forward to more CrossFit.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Parkour and Open Gym
Last night, I went to an open gym session at a local gymnastics gym. Team TRICKset gets together there to practice parkour, tumbling and to generally have a good time. I started to learn monkey jumps, kongs and cashes. I also learned to do a passable palm spin. This was probably the coolest thing I learned last night. When I see it executed in videos, it looks great and it turns out that it is mostly a mental move. It isn’t that hard to execute as long as you commit to it but a moment’s hesitation and it is all over but the fall.
