kettlebellguy

Archive for January, 2010

Whiteboard 1-30-2010

Lots of activity when I got there. Ron was working on the rings, Joe and Will were working on the shoulder press and Justin was working on the snatch.

Couple of new people this morning but a small class compared to other recent Saturday classes. I think the bitter cold had a lot to do with the numbers.

Our skill this morning was the “Limbo”. You know, seeing how far the bar can be lowered and you can still go underneath. Not a fan of this and could hardly make the first round. I switched to Limbo Duck Walks. One you got under the bar you had do to three push ups. For some reason Will decided that this morning was the morning I was going to start doing hand clap push ups. I tried, they looked pretty sad but doing them is the only way I will be able to do them.

Joe and I were teamed up for the WOD. I think we did a really good job. Chris, Ron and Will were all doing real knees to elbows which go much slower than the Knees to Belly Buttons Joe and I were doing.

Eating—On track. Projecting a 2 pound loss for Monday morning.

What hurts today—Felt much better at 9AM than I do at 6AM during the week. I was able to move much faster. I think it is just because I have had longer to get my body going.

One Year Ago—Swings and shots

Here is a video made of my break through with back squats. The issue is not the amount of weight but the fact that I actually was able to get down into a squat position. I am all about creating excitement in the box.

Video credit, Brian Yoak, CrossFitLegacy.com

Whiteboard 1-29-2010

Prior to class worked on back squats and clean squats. The progress is very slow but doing long warm ups is the key.

Really had to push hard for this WOD. Rx’d weight for the dead lift was 225, I went 195. Pull ups and burpees both sucked.

Free Saturday class tomorrow. Anxious to see how many people we get. An average size Saturday class is at least 20 now.

Eating—I packed food to take with me last night. I had cut up raw green peppers, carrots, almonds, grapes, a banana and an apple. Continuing my OCD on weighing in I checked this morning and down a solid two pounds. All I have to do now is hold onto that until Monday morning. If just a couple of us in the weigh in group can pull 1 or 2 pounds we will top 50 total pounds lost for the group.

What hurts today—Just sore and stiff, the usual.

One Year Ago—We were still digging ourselves out of the remains of a heavy snow storm this time last year when we did Cindy.

Whiteboard 1-28-2010

Moving slow again this morning. Not a fan of the WOD. I would have done better if I had spent about an hour working on my hips and getting ready to squat.

Good news was that I woke up this morning so anything else is just gravy on the day.

Eating—On Track. Took another look at the scale and I am still down from Monday. Just need to hold on until next weigh in.

What hurts today—Just the usual.

One Year Ago—It was another really bad snow day but I made it to the Box.

I was really feeling sorry for myself during our hang squat cleans this morning until I checked to see the hot mess we did last year. The 1/3 Clean/Front Squat came from Jerry. I remember clearly Brian and Jerry watching us as they realized we might not live through the original plan to do 4 rounds and they moved it back to 3. Good decision!

For the 1/3 Clean/Front Squat you do one clean and then 3 Front Squats.

CrossFit at 6AM. Turned very cold last night but no significant snow.

Because of the complexity of the result tracking I grabbed two shots of the whiteboard.

Here is the actual WOD.

Whiteboard 1-27-2010

Results 1-27-2010

Brian scaled the WOD to do 15 good push ups in place of the double unders or single jump ropes. My right heel was really acting up and I knew that extra jumping on it was not going to do anything good.

10 250M rows in a row is a lot regardless of what else you might be doing. I determined that it takes me 39 pulls to get the 250M. As time went on I got that down to 38 and on the last row I was down to 37.

Still really dispointed that I have to give up sparing, at least for a while because of my hands. So far I don’t have any hand issues with the sitck but of course the potential for a skull fracture goes up with the sticks.

All the movemnts are planed in advance and we are all very careful. Soon we will start working with helments and more protective gear.

Here is a short video to at least give an idea of what I am talking about with stick combat. I am not doing anything like this yet but this is where it could lead.

Eating—On track. I am in full on OCD mode for getting weighed everyday. This works good when you see a loss on most days. If I can just hold on for the rest of the week I am sure to have a good loss for next Monday.

What hurts today—Slept well, did not wake up until the alarm at 5AM. Right heel was really bad this morning. This was different from the ankle, this was pain when standing.

One Year Ago—Did not make it to class one year ago. The snow was too deep to get out of the driveway.

Whiteboard 1-26-2010

Had trouble getting my focus this morning prior to class. Did work a bit on the big rings and was able to get myself up several times. Not able to do a ring dip yet. Not sure why I can get up on the big rings in the middle of the room but not on the rings attached to the pull up rig. I guess there are better mysteries I can spend my time trying to figure out. Bottom line, I am able to get myself up and hold for a few seconds.

Dave C and I partnered up for the 1x1x1x1x1x1x1 Max Snatch work. I made it up to 135 but then backed down to 125 to try to focus more on form. Still working on the same issue where I do a muscle up rather than a power up. If I can ever nail the technique I am sure the weight will increase.

Had a fail on my pictures of the whiteboard and I can’t make out all the result numbers.

The guys got into a body fat discussion this morning so I pulled out this information on body fat recommendations. I like this chart because it attempts to take into account both gender and age within the guidelines.

If you don’t like these numbers for only $29.99 I can provide you with a chart saying that 40% body fat is perfect.

Be sure not to confuse these numbers with BMI (Body Mass Index). That is a different measurement all together.

Original link for chart

Age-Adjusted Body Fat Percentage Recommendations

Women

Men

Source: Gallagher et al. Am J Clin Nut 2000; 72:694-701

Six guys and a scale—It was really exciting for me that all six of us had some weight loss this week. That may not happen each week so we need to enjoy it when we can. I am down to 244, a total loss of 12 pounds since 1-4-2010.

Eating—Staying on track with Paleo.

What hurts today—Really stiff this morning so everything is just as usual.

One Year Ago—Kettlebell Deadlifts and Swings

We all moved a lot of weight. 84 Deadlifts and 84 Swings for a total of 168 reps.
Eric 168 X 55 lbs = 9,240
Terry 168 X 45 lbs = 7,560
Tom 168 X 35 lbs = 5,880

Whiteboard 1-25-2010

I kind of wasted my time prior to class this morning and did not work on my squat warm up. That made a real difference when it came time for overhead squats during the warm up. The Turkish get ups were a real challenge.

The WOD was Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls and Wall Balls. My energy level was low this morning and was reflected in my time results.

Eating—On track, feeling good and weight is coming off.

What hurts today—Slept all the way through last night. Just some heel/ankle pain this morning. Depending on how I move my wrists they are both tender from yesterdays self defense work. Still bummed out about this issue but I sure do not want to get into a situation of being out of action due to pushing the issue too far.

One Year Ago—Happy Birthday Kelly!!!
It’s Kelly’s birthday so we got to celebrate with Happy Burpees.

Self defense class had mixed results this afternoon.

Worked on sparing again using the hand wraps for my left hand. Unfortunately I experienced the same issue. Pain centered on the thumb and inner wrist when punching or blocking a punch. This has now also moved into my right hand.

In each class the intensity of the sparing is increasing and along with that the intensity of frequency of pain around my thumb joint and inner wrist. It has finally reached the point where I can’t ignore the pain. It reminds me of the type of pain you get when you hit the crazy bone in your elbow. It’s long lasting and kind of makes me sick to my stomach. Today it also started to happen in my right hand.

This is a real disappointment. I pushed myself to get to the point where I was OK in taking punches and getting much better at delivering punches and starting to enjoy the sparing activity more and more each time.

For now we have decided to stop all sparing. I don’t think this is an issue of something needing time to heal and get better. I fear this is just the way my hands and wrists react to the impact.

I can’t help but think about the increasing issues I am having with my ankles/heels along with this issues in my hands and wrists. They are seem to be over reacting to impact. Jumping for my feet and punching for my hands.

If I go to the Doctor and say my hands hurt when I hit things and my feet hurt when I jump up and down they might suggest less hitting and jumping.

I am just going to put the sparing out of my mind for awhile. There is a lifetime of others things for me to work on in class. We have already planned to focus on stick combat and kicking for the near future.

Also worked on two new drills, the chainsaw and the windmill.

Next class on Tuesday evening.

Whiteboard 1-23-2010

Worked on my overhead and back squats again. Still a big issue with overhead but I can really get my back and air squats going by doing a long warmup workout with the bar and weight.

There were 22 for class this morning. There were 6 people that were brand new to CrossFit.

Continuing with the CrossFit Kids theme we played Musical Balls. Instead of chairs we used med balls and instead of walking around in a circle we alternated between walking lunges and plank crawls. The only punishment for not getting a seat on a ball was you were out of the game. I could live with that. I got kicked out on the third round. I think I was able to disguise my disappointment pretty good.

The WOD was simple if you like bodyweight stuff. Joe C and I were teamed up and we did a good job but neither one of us are sprinters when it comes to burpees, squats or sit ups.

Eating—On track.

What hurts today—Feeling good today.

One Year Ago—My Aching Balls. Dan, Chris, Mo, Willie, Jerry, Catlin and Terry with Brian and Jerry coaching.