Snowed In·fi·del

Weather's frozen and crappy (for Arkansas) today, so I stayed home.

Whad I did:

J.T.(plus)

21-15-9 rep rounds of

• Handstand Push-ups
• Ring Dips
• Push-ups
• +Sit-ups

23:28 (boo)

The handstand push-ups are what kills me. I'm good for about 15 straight, but I quickly deteriorate to singles after that.

One Round Was Enough…

I'm not sure where Seth dug this one up, but we weren't sure how long you were supposed to go… One round? Three? AMRAP in 20 minutes?

• 95 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps
  
• 15 L-Pull-ups
  
• 95 pound Split-jerk, 15 reps
  
• 15 Knees to elbows
  
• 95 pound Hang clean, 15 reps
  
• 15 Back extensions holding 25 lb plate
  

Well after about 10 minutes, it became pretty apparent that 1 round was sufficient to kick our asses. I had a migraine setting in and I fucked up my tooth again the same way I did it last time (ramming the bar into the underside of my chin on the push jerk) so I called it halfway through round 2.

 

Seth: 9:40

Justin: 10:29

Alternate location

Well since Justin skipped out on the lunchtime workout to get some culture, I went to my old stomping grounds near Alltel to workout with my friend Kelly.

We did:
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
10 Thrusters - 75#
10 Knees-to-Elbows

I think the lack of oxygen affected my ability to count rounds, but the totals as best we could figure were:
Seth - 11 rounds
Kelly - 10 rounds

Effort and perspiration level was good.

Pull

Today's workout was 7 sets of 5 reps deadlift, followed by seven singles of weighted Pull-up. Here's the results:

Seth and I both failed the 4^th set of deadlift after a few reps. I failed to get over the bar at the 6^th attempt at weighted pull-up.

Run, Jump, Pull…

Today's workout from Seth's bag of tricks is:

4 Rounds for Time :

• Run 400 m
  
• 30 Box Jumps
  
• 15 L-Pullups

Turkish Getup-mills??

We did the crazy assed workout from the video posted to the CrossFit main site today. It was:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

• 12 Turkish Getup-mills @35lbs (Turkish get-up with a windmill)
  
• 12 Ring Dips
  
• 12 Walking lunges @2x50lb DB
  

We did them out of order from the video because… well because I wasn't paying attention, apparently. Anyhow, those getup-mills are no joke, man. We were sweating buckets. Also, my knees are all skinned up from the rubber floor.

Monday, Get Back to Work!

Well, after two days rest, it's time to get back to the masochism. Today:

5 rounds for time of:

• 5 reps Power Clean to Thruster @ 115lbs
  
• 10 Burpulls (Burpee to Pull-Up.)
  
• 15 Ring push-ups
  

Seth twinged something in his shoulder practicing the Bear complex, so subbed it for power clean to thruster. It's a damn good thing we did, too, because we'd have both DNF'd after round three.

Took around 27 minutes.

Friday – “J.T.”

Well, to round out the week, Seth picked a Hero Workout, "J.T."

J.T.

In honor of Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor, 30, of Little Creek, VA, who was killed in Afghanistan June 2005

21-15-9 reps for time of
Handstand Push-Ups
Ring Dips
Push-Ups

Seth – 21:20
Justin – 22:47

(This is from memory. Seth, correct me if I'm wrong.)

Lunch Date With Fran

We decided to "take it easy" today because we're still nursing our bruised egos from yesterday's Manmaker Challenge, so we did:

Fran:

21-15-9 rep rounds of:
95lb Barbell Thruster (front squat to push-press.)
Pull-up

We both came in right around 6:30, but we weren't really putting PR effort into it, so I expect us to beat those times soon.

Crossfit Des Peres “Manmaker Challenge”

Today, we're taking on the Manmaker Challenge from Crossfit Des Peres. Here it is:

3 Rounds for Time

• 10 Overhead Walking Lunges
  
• 5 Barbell Man Maker Complex - Barbell Burpee to Deadlift to Hang Power Clean to Thruster
  
• 10 Push Presses
  
• 5 Overhead Squats
  
• 10 Knees to Elbows
  
• 5 Pull-ups
  
  

  
  

Rules

1. Barbell must remain in hands at all times, except to switch to KTE/Pull-up, which must be done without delay.

• Removing the hands from the bar or resting on the way to KTE will result in a 30 second penalty.
  

2. Barbell weight equals ½ bodyweight, up to a maximum of 95lbs

3. Feet must not touch the ground on KTE/Pull-up. Each time the feet touch the ground

• Feet touching the ground will result in a 30 second penalty.
  

4. All rules on ROM and technique must be adhered to. Repetitions done improperly will not be counted.

• Lunges: Knee much touch the ground, arms must remain locked in full extension.
  
• Burpees: chest must touch the barbell, full plank position.
  
• OHS/Thrusters: Hips must fall below the knees. (Deep squat)
  
• Push Press: much reach full extension.
  
• KTE: Knees must touch the elbows, body must return to full extension
  
• Pull-ups: Chin above the hands. Arms must fully extend at the bottom.
  

For illustration, here's a video of those crazy CrossFit DP folks schooling the Manmaker Challenge:

God help us.

RESULTS:

Seth and I both used 95lbs on the barbell and both came quickly to the realization that we have much work to do in holding weight overhead.

Seriously, we both stopped counting penalties before the end of the first round. Our inability to keep the weight overhead for long made for many, many rests taken.

Tuesday - "Tabata Mash-up (Bench/Sit-up)"

We're going to take it a little easy today so we'll be fresh for tomorrow's workout. We're going to take on the "Crossfit Des Peres Manmaker Challenge" tomorrow, so we're picking a workout that shouldn't be too hard to recover from. Here's today's WOD:

1 Round
8 Alternating tabata intervals each of:
135lb Bench Press
Sit-ups

Tabata interval - 20 seconds work, followed by 10 seconds rest.

Scoring: Traditional scoring for Tabata intervals is lowest number of reps in any given interval per exercise = your overall tabata score for the round. Potential results would look like this:

Bench: 12,11,10,10,8,8,6,10 Tabata Score: 8
Sit-up: 12,11,11,10,10,11,10,12 Tabata Score: 10


In this case, we're doing a Mash-up, which is alternating between the two exercises. We'll do 20 seconds work on bench, 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds work with sit-ups, 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds work on bench, etc. until eight intervals of each exercise have been completed, for a total of 16 intervals.

Mash-up scoring is typically done by adding the total overall number of reps, so in the above case, the total Mash-up score for the round would be 162.


Results:

Seth beat the crap out of me on this one. Here's the scores:


After we were both done, we did a pull-up challenge, which is as follows:

Do 1 pull-up in 1 minute. In the next minute, do 2 pull-ups. In the next, do 3. Continue in this fashion until you fail to reach the prescribed number of pull-ups for the given minute.

We were only able to get to 11 minutes. Having only one decent pull-up bar at our disposal makes this a hard one to work out, logistically.

Monday - "Monkey Claw"

Today was another workout pulled out of Seth's Folder of Pain and Suffering. I don't know if this one already had a name or not, so I'm calling it Monkey Claw, cause that's what my hands turned into about halfway through the towel pull-ups. My fingers are still stiff.

For Time
25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box Jumps - 20" box
20 Double-Unders
25 Ring Dips
20 Knees-to-Elbows
30 KB Swings (2 pood) (sub 70/75# DB Swings)
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans - 35# DBs
25 Back extensions
30 Wall-ball shots, 20# ball (sub 20# DB thrusters)
3 Rope climb ascents (sub 45 towel pull-ups)

Seth - 36:00
Justin - 35:26


This was a whole lot of works and reminded me just how much I hate thrusters. Left some rockin sweat angels on the floor afterwards, though.

Zone Breakdown...

So we've broken down on our Zone diet some the past couple of days. Thursday night we were tired, and beaten down from eating the same thing over and over, so we gave in and went to Pizza Hut. We got a large thin-crust pepperoni lover's pizza with extra cheese.

It was AWESOME.

So we ate good Friday, but friday night, for dinner, we had leftover pizza and a bottle of wine.

Today, I've had a zone breakfast and a Guinness Extra Stout for lunch, and I think I'm about to have some Stoby's cheese dip with tortilla chips.

All in all, however, The Zone has been doing what it's supposed to do, dropping fat from us, and increasing our sense of well-being. So far, I'm convinced that this is the 'right way' to be eating, although it takes a huge amount of consideration and measuring. I believe this will get easier as we get used to the measurements and learn to eyeball them.

Erin and I have both lost almost 10 lbs. While this is desirable to her, I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with it for myself. It's hard for me to get and stay above 165, and I'm well below that now. I suppose I shouldn't complain, though.

“Noodle Arms” (Bowman CrossFit?)

I hooked up with Seth today at Bowman Fitness and we did a workout he found and (aptly) named "Noodle Arms."

3 Rounds for time of:

• Run 400m
  
• 15 push-ups
  
• 15 pull-ups
  
• 15 push-ups
  
• 15 squats
  
• 15 push-ups
  
• 15 sit-ups
  
• 15 push-ups
  

We forgot to start the stopwatch when we began, but I think we got pretty good times. Felt like sub 20 minutes. We'll be sure to work the clock next time. My arms are still twitching as I type this.

Seth has been flying solo recently on the CrossFit front and has done a lot of studying on it, and has compiled a huge list of workouts that should keep us going for quite some time. He's gotten very organized, which I find great, cause I suffer from an acute lack of organization lately. Working out with Seth again has reminded me how much of the appeal to CrossFit for me is actually the people that I work out with. The camaraderie and friendly competition are great motivational factors and actually make the misery enjoyable. The desire to quit is diminished greatly when there's someone next to me NOT quitting. Anyhow, enough sappy stuff. I'm sure Matt thinks I'm gay enough by now, if he's reading.

So yeah, happy weekend everybody. Here's a picture of a monkey in a dress:

On Second Thought...

Well, Seth, one of the former members of our former CrossFit group at Acxiom popped up and posted on me outta nowhere. Turns out he's CrossFitting at Bowman Fitness, where I started working out in the first place. Seth's a really strong dude and a lot of fun to work out with. I've decided that having a like-minded workout partner is more valuable than having a fitting place to work out, so I'm signing back up at Bowman tomorrow. How ironic.

 

So today, I worked out at UALR and here's what I did:

Warm-up:

12x Thruster@45lbs
10x Thruster@55lbs
10x Thruster@95lbs
8x Thruster@135lbs
6x Thruster@155lbs

Work-out:

21 pull-ups
21 burpees
15 pull-ups
15 burpees
9 pull-ups (Go screw around in the
9 burpees swimming pool for a bit)

Wednesday – The Little Rock Gym Tour Has Ended…

Well, I've been to as many of the gyms as I can find in the area, and the one with the least amount of suck seems to be the hardest one for me to get into. I've decided that the UALR Wellness Center is my new home away from home. There's only one decent pull-up bar and the performance monitors on the rowers are all broken, but hey, they HAVE rowers, and they've got the only Olympic sized pool in central Arkansas.

Unfortunately, though… you have to be a student or faculty, or family of student or faculty to get a membership…. So I'm in search of a "cousin" of mine who can sponsor me for a membership. In the meantime, I'll continue to pay the $3 guest fee. So here's what I did yesterday, at UALR:

 

"Christine" (modified)

3 rounds of

50 strokes on the rower

(RX was 500m, but the PM was broken)

12 Suitcase Deadlifts @ 2x 60lb DB

(RX was Bodyweight barbell Deadlift, but I didn't know if I'd get yelled at for bringing a barbell out to where the rowers are. I scaled down the weight cause my lower back's a little tweaked.)

21 Box Jumps @ 24" box

Two days, no blog… catching up (Tuesday)

So Tuesday, I went to War Memorial to the gym there, it has a name, it's not important (Jim Daily, I think?) to see if it was suitable to my needs. It was not. It sucked a lot, actually, and for some reason the indoor pool area is kept at about 90 degrees all year round. I can only imagine how warm the water is. I'm told they do this because there's an old people swimming aerobics class and the old people bitch about it being cold. Anyway, I can't imagine trying to work out in a warm pool, breathing warm air. Let alone the problems I'd have thinking about the urine content of the water in a public pool when it's the temperature of actual urine.

So with the limited amount of freeweights at Jim Daily, I did:

 

Warm up:

Run .5mi, 2x10 of: push-up, pull-up, dip, sit-up, power clean @45lbs

Work out:

    2x5 Full Squat Clean and Press @ 95lbs

    10 Knees-to-bar    

2x5 Full Squat Clean and Press @ 115lbs

10 Knees-to-Bar

1x5 Power Clean, Front Squat, Push Press @ 135lbs

1x5 Power Clean, Front Squat, Push Press @ 155lbs

10 Knees-to-Bar

The Little Rock Gym Tour Continues…

Never got around to posting yesterday, so here it is today.

My friend Jonny was cool enough to sign me in as a guest yesterday to the UALR wellness center. There's a lot of traffic in and out of there, so a lot of the equipment is a little run down, and the shower facilities leave a little to be desired, but all things considered, it's not too bad. Certainly better than the Globogyms I've been going to. Not being settled in anywhere is making it a little hard to really get at it, so I took it a little bit lighter yesterday and did:

Four rounds of:

20 pull-ups

30 push-ups

40 sit-ups

50 squats

 

Then did a few light sets on bench @ 135, 155, and 185

Macaroni Grill….

Today is one of my coworkers' birthday, so as per our tradition, here, we all went out to lunch at his choice of restaurant…. Which was Macaroni Grill (bastard.)

I looked through the nutrition facts for their dishes online beforehand, and was amazed at how messed up bad for you the food is there. The only menu item I could find that was even close to being zone friendly was Chicken Florentine Salad with no dressing.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 490 (Kilojoules 2048)
		% DV**
Total Fat	19 g	29%
Sat. Fat	3 g	15%
Cholesterol	-	0%
Sodium	4940 mg	206%
Total Carbs.	50 g	17%
Dietary Fiber	7 g	28%
Sugars	-
Protein	33 g

In blocks, this works out to about:

Fat - 6.3 blocks

Carb - 5.5 blocks

Protien - 5.5 blocks

Very close to balanced, and I can make up for everything over 5 on my post-lunch snack. Word.

(Note: Didn't like the salad at all, only ate half of it. Made up for the missed blocks with sliced ham, an apple, and some nuts)

I was curious, so I thought I'd look up what I normally would have ordered, before I started acting like I gave a shit about what I ate.

I otherwise would have ordered chicken fettuccini alfredo, eaten at least half a loaf of the bread they give you, and had at least two Dr Peppers.

So here's what the block total for that would have been:

Fat 36 blocks

Protien: 9.2 blocks

Carbohydrate: 17 blocks

I have no idea how I avoided getting fat.

Take it Easy Day (as if I haven’t had enough recently…)

Did a little light cardio today, then:

5xBear Complex @95lbs

10 Knees-to-bar

5xBear Complex @115lbs

10 Knees-to-bar

5xBear Complex @135lbs

10 Knees-to-bar

 

Bear Complex - Power clean to front squat to push press to back squat to push press.

Knees to bar – Hanging from the bar by the hands, curl torso upward until knees come into contact with the bar and slowly drop back to hang.

Deadlift/Burpull...

Went to another gym today, since I'm going to have to pay a joining fee at Bowman Fitness and I'm sampling the other options in the area. Went to some place called.... well I can't remember and it doesn't matter cause it was another stupid Globogym place. All the pull-up stations have goofy twisty grip handles on them, not a straight bar in sight. Anyhow, here's what I did:


21-15-9 rep rounds of:
225lb Deadlift
Burpull (burpee jumped into pull-up)

I only got the 21-15 rounds in, as I ran out of time and had to get back to work. The deadlift coupled with the burpull is a huge metabolic train wreck. It was nice to crank out some deadlifts tho.

Holiday Gluttony Season is Over!!

Well, it's that time of year, when I no longer have any valid excuse for eating carbs and fat till I think I'll puke and drinking beer/wine/liquor till I do, every day. Erin and I have committed to at least one month 'In the Zone,' after which we'll assess our progress and determine if it's worth all the trouble to proceed. We're still working out our block goals exactly, but the good news is, we haven't been too far off on the kinds of food we're eating for breakfast and lunch, just need to adjust the ratios a bit. As for dinner, we have some changes to make. After about 7:00pm, we tend to go into a spiral of carbohydrate consumption.

I'm currently rationed out for 16 blocks daily and Erin's rationed for 8. I don't know if this is a sufficient amount of nutrient, though, so I'm thinking about upping myself to 19 or 20 and erin to 10. We'll see how we feel.

FYI, the block breakdown works like this:

3 grams fat - 1 fat block

6 grams protien - 1 protien block

9 grams carbohydrate - 1 carbohydrate block

This works out to 40% of your calories coming from carbohydrate (preferrably complex) and 30% each of fat and protien. The block system makes it much easier to keep track of the macronutrient breakdown and stay in the 40-30-30 zone.

Anyhow, if you're interested in reading up on The Zone diet, especially with regards to crossfit, here's a few links (stolen from Crossfit Flagstaff:)

• The Zone Diet - An Overview of the Weight Loss Program
  Read about the Zone diet and how it works.
  
• The Zone Diet for CrossFit
  Document compiled from the CrossFit Journal issue 21 and Barry Sears' Zone books. Courtesy Front Range CrossFit.
  
• CrossFit Journal Issue #15
  Food, The Deadly Quartet, Responsible Diet Books, Cholesterol Myths.
  
• CrossFit Journal Issue #21
  Describes the Zone, breaks foods down in measurements, provides meal plans.
  
• Zone Books
  Order Enter the Zone, Zone Meals in Seconds, and other Zone books from Amazon.com.
  

Note: The Zone is very much a weighing and measuring diet. It's a lot more involved than "just trying to eat better," but I'm told that after a while, you get to be able to judge volumes/weights by sight. If you're going to try The Zone, go get a kitchen scale and some easy to wash measuring cups/spoons, and get used to going to the grocery store more often, as the foods you should be eating expire quickly.