Strength Training

“How’s CrossFit going?” people ask….. Well, remember my first chipper back in march? 14ish minutes to complete? Yesterday we revisited that workout and I completed it TWICE, the first time in 7:14ish and the second in 7:04!!!!! Holy crap. I LOVE CrossFit.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/25/2008
• Time: 08:00:00

Today was fun CrossFit day –
Warmup
10,8,6 Cal On Rower
6,8,10 Squats, Jumping Pullups

Then we worked back squats which I’m actually pretty good at and shoulder presses (5 sets of 5 with 3 warmup sets) trying to nail the fundamentals that I’m weakest on - keeping the bar close to my body and moving forward under the weight with the goal of moving me up to an 18K bar, but I couldn’t quite (only just barely) get there. Funny (not in an amusing way) to watch that my left side is still much weaker from the break and damage from last winter so it always collapses first and/or just can’t push the weight like my right arm/shoulder. I’ll nail it next time, for sure, though.

Lastly jumped on the rower to put my baseline 500m row on the board. We’ve done it before but somehow neglected to record it so now I’m on the board at 2:08.6. It wasn’t really my strongest effort but I’ll take it as a baseline as that just means I’ll be able to kill it all the more when we next record it. Clearly I should be able to get it under 2 minutes in no time at all.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 04/07/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Michael brought the hurt again today by introducing me to “Fight Gone Bad” (official description). Since I’m still a beginner I had a mini version of 2? 3? rounds (I can’t remember) of circuits modified to
1. 10-12 cals rowing
2. 12 Wall Balls with 8lb ball
3. 10ish Sumo Deadlift Highpull
4. 18ish box Jumps (ok, step ups)
5. 35lb (?) Push Press
I think my total score for however many rounds I did was 176, so I’ll take that to start.
This is a crazy cool 5 minute circuit with a minute of rest in between repeated 5x so named “Fight gone bad” as it’s a workout designed to train cage fighters (meaning it’s meant to be MORE intense than the rounds they experience during fights). Some famous cage fighter did the routine for the first time and, when asked how it was, claimed that it was like a “fight gone bad”.
I agree. Was seriously the most intense thing I’ve ever done. Good thing I was headed straight to the sports med doc directly after to get things all adjusted

Oh, and in case you’re curious - the point of this all is to turn my body into what Linda Hamilton looked like in Terminator 2, and the results so far are GREAT. Even my smallest clothes are too big and, combined with a strict zone diet of 11 blocks a day, the changes are happening in the all the right places. Hope I can keep rocking it!!

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 04/04/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Today was my first attempt at a modified ‘named’ workout - Michael guided me through Nancy.
400M run
15 Overhead squats
X5 for time.
For my first time we cranked it down to 12 squats (35lb bar + 20lbs, I think) and WOW. Super tough, though I got through it in just slightly over 20mins. It was a fantastic start and I’m pleased to have completed it without dumping the bar at any point. Really looking forward to getting more solid on the squats as they were really pretty rough  But still – my first try at a named workout!! Only up from here – and on my way to doing it “as prescribed” and getting on the board!
Busy day today with yoga at 6:30, Crossfit at 8, and a quick lunchtime run. Good dang thing I have a massage tonight.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 04/02/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 04/01/2008
• Time: 18:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Tweaked my SI joint again (ergh) after the long trail run this weekend so was a little tight/tender for CrossFit this morning. Michael’s got mad skills, though, so he led me on a whole hour of med ball movement with some super cool new ab drills as well as a ton of walking/twisting throws. Feeling better already and will try to get off to see PT asap – going to try a new place in the hopes of finally working this persistent issue out. Running is definitely the thing that sets it off so it’s key that I get it worked out before the season really kicks off.  

My first Chipper! Friday found me getting my first “chipper” workout at CrossFit – with a bunch of movements all setup to be done in sequence without any rest/recovery. The memory is fuzzy and I have no idea what order I did it in but it looked something like this

25 Back Extensions

25 Squats?

400m Row

25 Wall Balls

25 Lunges

25 Jumping Pull ups

25 Jump to Support on the rings

25 box jumps

25 med ball 3x situps (med ball up to one knee cross , down, med ball up to other knee cross, down, throw med ball to trainer when sitting up, repeat x25)

25 dumbbell clean and press

I did it all in 14 or something minutes and it was massively difficult. It’s a great example of what I love about going to CrossFit, though, there’s NO way to be counting the minutes or waiting for the “prescribed time” to elapse when doing that workout like you might while on a treadmill at the gym cause you’re busy just trying to KEEP GOING and not puke on your shoes.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/28/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/27/2008
• Time: 18:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

I’ve been wanting to workout with kettlebells for a few years, and today I got to start! After doing Tanata squats (baseline = 11)Michael started me off with Kettlebell swings, then tried to move on to the deadlift/snatch sort of thing but my wrists aren’t quite strong enough so we backed it down to a clean and then some sort of flip. Can’t remember what it was called but I have plenty of bruises on my biceps to help remind me to learn to ‘absorb’ the bell as it flips around next time

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/26/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Session #4 at CrossFit this morning. Went in feeling pretty awful physically but fantastic mentally down to a super fun but more active than I planned weekend. I’m not sure if Michael was really merciful as I certainly left feeling like a fully juiced orange half (does that make sense? You know how after you juice an orange half it’s all busted, flat, and floppy? That was me!) after today’s session. Here’s the scoop:

Worked deadlift, clean & jerk from a new approach that Michael hatched up this weekend. Seemed effective as it was checked off the list of ‘things to learn’. Yay!

On to WAY MORE fun, though. Box jumps – which I was surprisingly good at (! For a while, more on that later) cementing in Michael’s opinion that I am a ‘fast twitch’ athlete – capable of quick busts of power – AWESOME!. I learned the form – jumped the first short one easily – moved right on to the second – also fine – and right onto the third box which is about 1/3 my body height coming in just above my knees. Much to my surprise I jumped onto it on the first try. 

Then on to rope climb. Yikes! I’ve NEVER climbed a rope – not even in elementary school gym class. Never been able to use my smallish arms to haul my curvy lady body up until TODAY! These guys are seriously good at breaking things down to a level you can do. I started with a plank pull up the rope from a fully flat position lying on the floor – Ok – fine. Then learned to shorten that by bending at the knee – ok – fine. Then on to ‘locking’ the rope in-between my feet and sort of doing an arial squat to move up the rope – COOL! I got halfway up, then learned to descend without seriously burning my leg with the rope by loosening the rope lock on my feet. This will take more practice but still, man, I climbed halfway up the rope today. Totally rocks.

Last warmup was learning wall ball - just like the photos here at the bottom. Squat, deadlift, explode up and throw ball (6 or 8lb in my case) up many feet to hit target – catch it – repeat. Super cool.

Yep – I said that was the last warmup – now time for the actual workout J

15/9/6 Wall ball, box jumps, 200m run. About halfway through the _first set_ of wall ball I was feeling done (oops) but rocked through the rest and headed for 15 box jumps on the medium height box. I started by just stepping up then remembered I was supposed to be jumping, TRIED to jump and got up on the box in a squat (pretty much supposed to land up there in standing position, not a squat) so kind of toppled over off the back of the box. Michael caught me before I hit mat and I backed off to stepping for the rest of that set – then off to the 200m run, back in for the second set of 9 of everything  - then 6. Managed one jump for the last jump before heading out for the last 200m run and *done*.

What was cool is that this was my first time-based thing so I set my benchmark time on that circuit – 7minutes something. One of the things that was super intimidating to me about CrossFit before was this whole ‘work for time’ bit where they time your circuits and you try to do things as fast as you can, but I found it really didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Maybe because I was working SO DAMN HARD just to do the moves that there was really no way I could do them *faster* or even really worry about *how fast I was doing*. I mean I did consciously try to keep my pace up a bit on the run and not use it as recovery but with the work being all back to back like that it’s not like you can break out in a sprint after jumping on a box 15times, you know? I really look forward to doing this circuit again in a month or 6 weeks and seeing how much I can improve the time, weight, or height. Meanwhile though, it’s just REALLY cool to be doing exercises that you have no choice but to focus fully on in order to complete them. There’s no ‘clock watching’ happening when you’re throwing a ball up from a squat position to hit a target hanging off the ceiling, you know, you’re just busy trying to get it the heck up there and keep count of the reps!

So even though I went in feeling pretty wrecked, I’m super stoked, and now all I want is a long lazy NAP J  

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/17/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Man, I’ve got to get some sleep. Trying to learn the multi-part moves of deadlift, clean & jerk (the basis of this, only I was doing it with a medicine ball )   today – Ergh! Good thing Michael, my trainer, is super positive and able to break the movement down into tons of “Cues” ‘cause man-oh-man I SO wasn’t getting it! I was at CrossFit for an hour, and was still trying to get it right at about 50mins in. The only experience that I can recall that comes close is learning to ride a bike, and my mother could tell you that I didn’t learn THAT very quickly either J

With only a few minutes left in our session Michael wanted me to get some metabolic work in so he set me up a quick series of something like 12/9/6. Sounds like so LITTLE when I think about it: 12cals on the rower, 12 deadlift, clean & jerks, then 9cals and lifts, then 6 cals and lifts. Seriously? I’m embarrassed to admit that I was close to crying/puking during the 5 minutes or whatever the circuit took me. It’s difficult to believe how difficult it is to do activities that utilize so many joints, muscle groups, and movements for just a few short minutes.

To the good at the very end Michael gave me a 20lb? (I thought it was a kilo gym but clearly I wasn’t lifting 44lbs so it must not have been 20k) medicine ball to do the deadlift, clean & jerk and I was actually able to do it MUCH better than I had with the lighter weighted balls. Michael says that my ‘explosion’ to perform that movement means I’m more of a ‘fast twitch’ than a ‘slow twitch’ person.  Will be interesting to continue to explore that, for sure.

Also to the good was that since I’m still learning the movements I was spared the “chipper” workout they had set for everyone else today. “Chipper” since it’s a gauntlet of activities all set up in a linear fashion where you started with 40 squats, then 400m on the rower, some rope climbs, some jumping pull-ups and I’m not really sure what else. They call it the chipper because it works just like a tree chipper – takes you in whole and spits you out the other side in tiny little busted up pieces J. My boss here at the squish did it this morning before I got there and he said it totally made him dry heave. ROCK!

Today was my first “two days in a row” CrossFit experience and my body made this pretty clear to me in yoga this morning as I was much less able to hold poses for extended periods of time. Thankfully it was pretty much our usual Friday restorative class so there was a lot of (very good for me) stretching. I am frustrated, though, that it seems like nearly every other activity I engage in (with the exception of swimming) seems to negatively impact my yoga practice. Running makes my hips/SI/Hamstrings sore/weakened and yesterday’s deadlift practice did as well. Maybe/I hope that will decline with time and as I get more fit?

Either way, I think I’ll hit the pool tomorrow, a hike scheduled for Sunday (skipping the BigClimb that the CrossFit folks are doing), and then back to back to back yoga/CrossFit on Monday morning! Lean mean body here I come!!!    

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/14/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

A series of mood stability-shattering events last weekend – some bad – some lovely but still “different” from what I’ve been experiencing recently – had me starting the week sick in bed with a cold, enjoying that lovely combination of being dead sick AND completely stressed and wigged out. Despite a day of rest I continued through Tuesday and Wednesday feeling like a piece of cooked spaghetti on a taffy stretcher: constantly wobbly and just about to break at any second. Last night was the fourth in a series of mostly sleepless nights and I found that when I did awaken this morning I was still feeling jittery and hopeless. My morning schedule was all messed up, too, as normally I head straight for the gym, but today was my first day of CrossFit at 8am so even leaving the house later than usual (6:30) I found I had spare time (huh? What does one do with THAT?). I didn’t want to go to the gym and do anything as CrossFit is pretty hard core and I knew I was already going in slightly weakened  – so like all good geeks I came into the office. Checked mail, put out a few work fires, then had the great idea to study my Yoga Sutras book a bit.  Here’s what my study opened to:  (Italics quoted from Inside the Yoga Sutras)

                Disease, dullness, doubt, carelessness, laziness, sensuality, false perception, failure to reach firm ground, and slipping from the ground gained-these distractions of the mind-stuff are the obstacles on the spiritual journey.  

Yep! OMG. I’m feeling all of those!

Vikshepa, translated as ‘distraction’ means false projection, scattering, dispersing, and shaking (of the mind stuff).

Ok, this is getting creepy – that’s EXACTLY what I’ve been feeling.

…accompaniments to the mental distractions include distress, despair, trembling of the body, and disturbed breathing.

(CHECK CHECK).   

The mind begins to have a hard time focusing…the end result is dullness of mind. Doubt adds fuel to dullness. The mind is bored, and a bored mind will always look for a distraction

(check)

– if it cannot find anything satisfying within the practices, it will look to gratify the senses

(check).

Why does this happen?

” …due to extended periods of physical or emotional stress”

(check)

What to do?

Always keep your eye on your goal Dwell on happiness, looking for it like a miner’s eye seeks gold.

Seek your teacher - ..Wisdom passed from one human being to another is like being kissed by the truth. It is beautiful and powerful…

So what did I do?

I went to CrossFit to learn – told them I wasn’t 100% so we took it a bit easy on the metabolic side –only a few short bursts – then worked on squats and overhead presses with a big focus on using the breath to stabilize the midline to keep the integrity of the movement. Left feeling: Stronger. Lighter. Peaceful. Not jittery and not miserable. Yay!

Lesson: When feeling awful, first seek to study the Sutras. They remind me of the path that I am on, that the journey is not without setbacks and provide guidance on how to move past them. If possible, then also seek teachers, of which I am blessed to have MANY. Take what they have to offer and continue to work on the balance between effort and release.  

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/13/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Even though things have been quiet here on clukasik.sweat365 I HAVE been sweating 365! It’s been really awesome to not be training for any one thing in particular but to just _do_ as much as I can as often as I can. Without focusing on one area I find I get a lot of (duh) variety in my workouts and hopefully wind up *doing* a lot more. This week is a good example - M-W-F 6:30am Yoga class, T-Th 6:30PM Pilates class, Tuesday: 60 minute swim, Thursday 60 minute run, Friday: 60 minute Crossfit class. Wowie! Saturday I’ve got a 2 hour yoga session, and several walks (!) and who knows what on Sunday. Last weekend I hiked 13 miles - OH BABY - I’m having fun. 

What’s new with you?  

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 03/07/2008
• Time: 09:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 02/21/2008
• Time: 18:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

100x on Gravitron (dips, pull ups, wide pull ups)

20 single leg squats w/ball

Penguin walks with band

abductor/adductor leg raises with 12lb weighted bar (must find more to do with these weighted bars)

back extensions 2×25 on ball

Pilates leg circles

2×10 ball exchange abs

10 leg lowers

various stretching. hamstrings quite tight.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 07/18/2007
• Time: 07:45:00
• Total Time: 00:45:00.00

FreeMotion “Chops” High to low, low to high, side to side

Hips adductors/abductor

Lats

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 07/10/2007
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00

Hit the Free Motion ‘chops’ hard today -

high to lows with 22lb, 3×12,

low to high with 15lb, 3×12,

twists with 20lb, 2×12.

Hamstring kicks, some adductor work, single arm Tris 3×12 with 10lb and a set of biceps.  Noticed that my arms felt completely burned out during the second set of tris - must have been the two hours of tennis practice we had yesterday! Ultimately didn’t get all I wanted in so will hit tomorrow after my run with some hip & leg wrok, lats, and shoulders. ergh. got no shoulder work in - unless the “chops” do that - seems like they would.

Sure wish I had the bank to afford to go back to Pilates reformer work. The DVDs just don’t have the same intense result as classes and working on the apparatus. My serve clearly misses that awesome core strength.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 07/02/2007
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:35:00.00

1 arm Chest Press on ball: 2×12 @ 15lb, 1×12@17.5lb

adductor leg raises w/15lb body bar 3×20

abductor leg raises w/15lb body bar 2×12

lats 3×10 @ 60lb

Bicep curl to Overhead press one-leg on Bosu 2×12 @ 12lb

Ball Exchange Abs 3×10

Hip raises 1×20

One leg squats w/ball 2@20

Plie squats 1×10

Stretching

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/26/2007
• Time: 07:15:00
• Total Time: 00:45:00.00

45 Mins strength, 15 flex.

FreeMotion (FM) Triceps 3×12

FM Biceps 2×10

FM Shoulder Press 2×10

FM Twist 2×10

Chest Press (bench) 3×12 15lb

Tricep Pullovers/Skull Crushers 2×10 8lb

Hip Ups 2×25

Stretch.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/18/2007
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/08/2007
• Time: 07:15:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00

Rest day was certainly a good call. Feeling much better this morning. Had some reading to do (Rolling Stone!) so opted to stay inside and hit the stair climber. It’s my favorite cardio ‘machine’ by far. I also use treadmills for running intervals but not really any of the other cardio ‘machines’. I just don’t feel like I get a solid workout from them.

Anyway, headed down to lift afterwards and, as always, spent over 30 minutes doing fast circuits and still left things un-done that I would have liked to do. I think I’m going to get a little notebook to use while I’m there to keep notes on bits I mean to focus on for the day and also note what I don’t get to in one session so I can get to it in the next. I’ve tried the workout ‘card’ things and while those are great for tracking your progression in terms of weight lifted they don’t necessarily lend themselves to the fashion in which my brain works so I’ll try a little spiral notebook on for size.

I really enjoy doing strength work -it’s oddly relaxing for me and I believe a big part of it is that I started and spent nearly the first year doing it with a trainer (Josh). Not only did that make me comfortable in the room (unlike a lot of gals I know) it made me comfortable that I’m generally doing things correctly and it gave me a huge variety of exercises to do - so when things are busy I can switch to some other way to get to those muscles and I have a whole range of difficulty of things to do. Machines for lazy days, bosu and multiple muscle groups for hard days, etc. Also, Josh frequently commented that I was one of the few of his clients to really do my reps in a slow and controlled fashion. I considered why and realized that being in the weight room is one (often the only) time during my day when I have the luxyry of being slow and deliberate. Each rep is almost a meditation for me - focusing on the muscles working, controlling the motion to ensure I’m not compensating with other parts of my body and, of course, counting the reps.

So unless I’m super strapped for time it’s never really a chore for me to head down to the free weight room after a cardio session - I look forward to it as a time to relax and focus while working to make my body stronger and more flexible. It makes me feel great and, hell, that’s what this is all about after all!  

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 06/07/2007
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 00:45:00.00

Nearly all Free Motion toay:

Tricep pushdowns 3×12 (same weight on both arms! first since my break!)

Twists 3×20 (15lb)

Ad/ab legs 2×20

Donkey Kicks 2×20

Bicep Curls 2×10 (again, same weight on both arms!)

–

Alternating Lunges 2×10

Ball/rail floating abs: 1×25

Ball back raises: 2×20

Band Squats 2×30

Can someone PLEASE made a resistance band that doesn’t break in mid-squat? I’ve broken those things more times than not, I swear..and it’s not that I’m not tying the knot correctly..they just snap in between the knots. People - it’s not that hard!! Add some fibers running lengthwise in them to increase the tensile strength so that idiots like me don’t wind up on thier cans while trying to do their workout!

Tweaked my SI joint again (ergh) after the long trail run this weekend so was a little tight/tender for CrossFit this morning. Michael’s got mad skills, though, so he led me on a whole hour of med ball movement with some super cool new ab drills as well as a ton of walking/twisting throws. Feeling better already and will try to get off to see PT asap – going to try a new place in the hopes of finally working this persistent issue out. Running is definitely the thing that sets it off so it’s key that I get it worked out before the season really kicks off.