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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Round 46 - 01/24/11: ‘Angie’

Well the good news is when I woke up this morning my knee wasn’t sore at all. Last week on Monday morning my knee felt creaky and was really bothering me, so that gives me hope this knee pain I’m having won’t last for long. I also started reading up on some of the athlete profiles for a competition our gym is having this week and one of the girls ran a 30k race and a half marathon while doing CrossFit. You can run distance and do CF, so I just need to be patient. My knee’s already feeling better and maybe next week I won’t feel any pain at all on my run!


I wasn’t feeling so hot today so when I got to the gym I wanted to do Saturday’s workout (I definitely didn’t want to back squat something heavy which was the workout today). Saturday’s workout started with deadlifts to a 3 rep max, so that’s what I did. My 3 rep max was 145. I probably could’ve gone to 150 (maybe even 155), but the bar just felt like it was slipping and my hands hurt. The trainer asked me if my hands were hurting and suggested I use a different grip next time to neutralize the bar (since I’m lifting pretty heavy now). Hopefully that’ll help.


Saturday’s second part of the workout was a pull up progression, which I was pretty certain I was going to do. I felt better after deadlifts, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk crashing and burning in the middle of today’s workout (which was ‘Angie’).


However, as the trainer helpfully pointed out to me there was no way a pull up progression workout was going to force me to do as many pull ups as ‘Angie’ was going to make me do and it was probably better just to do her.


Sooo...Angie is what I did.


100 pull ups

100 pushups

100 sit ups

100 squats


The squats were also kind of deterring me from Angie because I was afraid it would bother my knee, but that actually felt fine. Angie wasn’t as hard as I anticipated her to be (except for the pull ups, which took the longest by far, I used the thick band and the absolute skinniest band during). I finished the entire workout in 21:58. That was the second fastest time (fastest time for the girls) when I completed it (but then again, the night was young, haha). I was really happy. I probably went that fast because I just wanted it done before I started feeling crappy again and I just blasted through it. I was happy with my time.


And that was Monday’s workout. Have a great day guys!


- N

Monday, January 24, 2011

Round 45 - 01/21/11: 'Arnie'

Alright, Friday was brutal. Haha. I took one look at the workout and almost wanted to cry a little. I have a new nemesis and his name is Arnie. He will be defeated next time. ;)

For starters we had the choice of bench press or Pendlay rows (which I have yet to try) for either a 5 rep max or 3 sets of 5. I opted for bench press because I was kind of disappointed in myself from last time. I talked to the trainer and she gave me a really helpful piece of advice. She said when you attempt a max and fail (like I did last week) you shouldn’t attempt a max again for a few weeks. Instead you should work on increasing you 3 sets of 5 weight by a small amount because that is the best way to increase your overall max. Once you fail at a certain weight for 3 sets of 5, then you attempt a max again. I thought this was really helpful and I’m going to make a note to do this from now on.


I ended up doing 3 sets of 5 at 80lbs. Next week I’ll try 82lbs for 3 sets of 5. Week after I will try 85lbs at 3 sets of 5...and so on and so on until I fail. Then I’ll go back and try my 5 rep max. I think this little bit of extra structure is going to really help.


The second half the workout was “Arnie”. Arnie is just plain brutal and I actually only did half of that workout (to be fair, a lot of people only did half of that workout). The full Arnie looks like this:


21 Turkish get-ups, Right arm
50 Swings
21 Overhead squats, Left arm
50 Swings
21 Overhead squats, Right arm
50 Swings
21 Turkish get-ups, Left arm

Turkish get-ups suuuuuuck (note: in the video they use a dumbell, but we used a kettlebell). Big time. The right arm wasn’t so bad but the left arm was just awkward. I felt like I couldn’t move that way and my leg kept cramping. The kettlebell I used was only 15lbs, but that felt plenty heavy, trust me. The version of Arnie I ended up doing was:

10 Turkish get-ups, R-arm

25 swings

21 squats

25 swings

21 squats

25 swings

10 Turkish get-ups, L-arm


It was plenty hard, let me tell you. The worst part was easily the Turkish get-ups (the rest actually wasn’t too bad). I finished in 12:18. The most shocking thing for me was the difference between my left and right side during the get-ups. My left arm was shaking for a while after I finished. It was kind of remarkable.


And that was Friday’s workout. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I’ll post more later.


- N

Round 44 - 01/20/11

I’m sorry for the delay! I wasn’t in the blogging mood this weekend and my posts just weren’t coming together. This will both be short and sweet and I’ll try and be better about posting this week, but I’m thinking after January I may “revamp” my format a bit in terms of what I talk about and how detailed I get into my exercises. Just to spice things up…

But until then, let me tell you what I did on Thursday.


I went in the afternoon (despite my best attempts to get my butt out of bed and go that morning), and warmed up with rowing again (and yes, my form was better, I took my time, but at least I did it right...my apparently fragile ego has mended from Tuesday, haha). After that we did L-sit practice. These actually felt pretty good. I have no idea how to get my legs up so I’m completely parallel, but I was able to straighten them and hold them up at slightly more than a 45 degree angle. My abs were dying more than anything and I thought they looked pretty good. My progression on those has been quite measurable. I could barely hold myself up for 10 seconds the first time, let alone attempt to straighten and lift my legs. Overall, it felt good.


Our next part of the workout was just...gross. We did a 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 workout with

Pushups, Russian kettlebell swings (with a 35lb one) and double unders. My pushups felt great and I kind of just blasted through them. The kettlebell swings were tough, but I got through them fairly quickly and the double unders killed my time. It still takes me forever to get the hang of those. You have to really crank your arms around to get the rope to spin fast enough and I wasn’t doing that at first. My record for double unders in sequence is 6 and I got those at the very end of the workout. It was hellish.


I finished in just over 19 minutes. Like I said, the double unders were my undoing.


- N

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Round 43 - 01/18/11

Today was not good. Let’s just get that right out of the way. I was, uh…a little embarrassed. Last week I was watching some of the new guys in our gym getting instructed on how to row properly. I thought I had been doing it wrong this whole time and these last few days did what I thought I had observed the new guys doing...

Well, that was a little awkward, because apparently I was doing it very wrong now. Haha. One of the trainers came over and was like “stop that right now, that looks awful!” just teasingly and corrected me but ...yeah, embarrassing. I mean I’m glad they corrected me, I just kind of feel like an idiot for messing up something as simple as rowing. I should know how to row properly. I guess I wasn’t doing it “wrong enough” before to have anyone notice so today must have been really awful...


Ugh, okay. I feel a bit better. I had to get that off my chest. It’s not a big deal, right? No one’s going to remember how badly I was rowing for a day or two. I’ll get used to the proper technique and it’ll all be good. It’s really not as easy as it looks and I’ll just take it slow instead of worrying about a time.


Just...like I said. A little embarrassing.


Anyway, after that I was kind of second guessing myself the whole workout, which I didn’t like. We started off with presses and I only made it to a 5 rep max of 65lbs. I attempted 70lbs but I only managed to get 3 reps.


For the workout we did 5 rounds of 5 clean and jerks and 10 chest-to-bar pull ups. I had never done a clean and jerk before, but it’s basically a clean and press only you can jump into the press so you have some more power. My cleans started out okay but kind of wavered a little at the end. With my pull ups I started using just one band and ended up having to add another one because I wasn’t getting my chest all the way to the bar. I used 53lbs for the clean and jerks. I’ll be honest, this whole week has kind of shaken me a little. With my knee injury I’m wondering if I haven’t been squatting correctly or something...and now I’m wondering if I’m just trying to progress myself too quickly in general. The rowing thing was kind of the final straw. It’s not a great feeling...but maybe I’m just a little oversensitive today. Either way, it’s time to regroup. I think I need a day off. I’ve never had a workout program that was so reliant on technique where someone was there to watch you carefully and correct you so I’ve never felt like this before. Taking a step back will be good.


I hope you guys have a good night. I’ll let you know how it goes on Thursday (if I do go). Hopefully I have a better day. Haha.


- N

Monday, January 17, 2011

Round 42 - 01/17/11: Injured.

It’s official...I am injured. I ran on the treadmill yesterday (which I hate with a passion) in brand new shoes (that sometimes bug my feet until they’re broken in but nothing else) and my stupid knee still hurt 5 minutes into my run. I tried everything I could think of: I stretched randomly, I decreased the incline, I decreased the speed (to a snail’s pace for me), nothing worked. I couldn’t run a few steps without pain after those few minutes. It. Totally. Sucks.


I wanted to start training for another half marathon and I (stupidly) thought the shoes would fix my knee pain. Cut to me lying on my bed with my knee elevated and an ice pack for most of last night. It hurt for the rest of the night and this morning and I’ve been trying to self-diagnose this whole time. I’m fairly certain it’s Iliotibial Band Syndrome. The pain seems mostly on the outside of my knee or surrounding it and it’s always running that causes it. Running is hard on your joints (compared to anything else) and if your IT band is tight your knee won't getting the cushioning and support it requires for the impact...so it hurts. My IT band is tight. Haha. It was confirmed today when I tried two different rollers at the gym (one foam, one plastic - ouch!). It seemed to help because my knee pain is down now even after I did some squats. My treatment for this problem of mine will consist of the following:

  1. Stop walking at a crazy high incline on the treadmill to warm up for CF. We’re going to stick to rowing for the next 2 weeks and see if that makes a difference.
  2. Take fish oil supplements again (I should be anyway, but they help reduce inflammation in this case).
  3. Use the foam roller regularly at the gym (and possibly purchase my own).
  4. Do the stretches my sister’s physiotherapist gave her when she was having knee pain during our half marathon training.
  5. Keep my squat weights low for the next two weeks and focus on my knee position throughout the entire movement.
  6. Ice whenever I do feel pain. 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions that have worked for them? I’m a runner by trade and I need to be able to run. As much as I love CF…I still have to be able to run.


Alright enough knee talk. Onto CrossFit!


So WOD started with back squat (and yes, I did row to warm up). I also used the foam rollers to loosen up before starting, but I knew right away I wasn’t going for a max. Instead I did 3 sets of 5 (one at 125 and two at 105). It just wasn’t worth risking it today.


For the second part of WOD we did a 21-15-9 workout of deadlifts and pushups (or HSPUs for those that were able to). The progression was HSPU -> parallette pushups -> chest-to-ground pushups -> knee pushups. I stuck with chest-to-ground pushups and did my deadlifts at 105 (which I was pretty proud of!). Deadlifts will always feel the heaviest when you grab the bar, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lift the weight. I felt the exercise, but it was definitely doable. I might go up to 115 next time.


And that was my WOD. I’m going back tomorrow so I’ll let you guys know how it goes and how the knee feels. Have a good night!


- N


Friday, January 14, 2011

Round 41 - 01/14/11

Today I hit the gym around 3 after I spent the morning running errands and (finally) getting myself a new pair of running shoes (I’ll keep my old ones for CrossFit). My knees have been bugging me during my runs for the last few weeks and it’s extremely frustrating. I’m hoping new shoes will do the trick, but I fear I might have to start doing yoga again. I’m not a yogi. At all. I’m not flexible (yes, I know that improves with practice and time), and I’m not into calmness and serenity and pressing your heart to the sky...at least not when I workout. I’ve tried a few times and I just can’t get into it personally, but I might need to try again. It seemed to help a bit during my half marathon training.

Sorry. Tangent. So, I came home from errand running and didn’t feel too spectacular. I bummed around on the couch for a bit before finally deciding to force myself out the door.


I’m really, really glad I went. Friday workouts are usually short and sweet and this was no exception. We did 3 rounds of 7 power cleans, 10 front squats and 10 burpees. My bar was 65lbs (last time it was 55 for power cleans!) and that weight felt really good. My cleans felt pretty spectacular, to be honest. Hahaha. I mean it. It was like everything was just clicking and I didn’t have to think about it and spend time psyching myself up for each rep. I just did them and they felt great (and, according to the trainer, looked good too!). It’s kind of amazing when stuff like that happens. Yeah, they’ve been feeling better little by little and I had the hang of motion and I knew what I had to do...but today the pieces just fell into place. It was a good feeling.


I finished the workout in 9:04, which I was very happy with. I also had a really delicious protein smoothie when I came home as my recovery snack. I’m going to enjoy the weekend off CF. Break in my runners maybe Saturday and Sunday and just let my muscles rest.


Ten weeks in everyone! (And incidentally just over 100 days until our vacation that I apparently need a bathing suit for.) Thanks for sticking with me thus far. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Round 40 - 01/13/11

Alright, I have a bit of a headache so this post will be short and sweet. Today’s WOD consisted of two things - HSPU practice (headstands for me) and an AMRAP workout. For the HSPU I started by trying to walk myself into the wall...but for some reason my left wrist has been bugging me since yesterday afternoon and that was just too much weight on it. After a few (pointless) tries at that I moved onto headstands. I actually did several without any help from the trainer. He said he was going to come over and help me, but by the time he did I was already upside down, haha. I had a little headache so the blood rush was really uncomfortable. For that reason, the headstands were short and sweet. I’m still feeling kind of sinus-y now so I’m sure that’s part of it. My main objective for today was to get myself into a headstand on my own...and I did that. It was night and day from the last time I tried to get up myself, so I definitely felt accomplished. I can’t believe I was so afraid of being upside down! Haha.

Like I said, the second part of the workout was an AMRAP for 15 minutes. It was 15 pull ups, 30 squats and 15 pushups (scaled down from ring dips which I’m not even close to yet; pushups were bad enough today). I tried my bands from last week and the trainer came over and told me to take one off. He said that was too easy and I keep underestimating myself. I guess that’s something to keep in mind. He said it should always be a struggle to get to the top of the movement, but something you can achieve. I definitely struggled for every single one of those pull ups today, so mission accomplished! Haha.


The squats were okay, the pushups were killer on my shoulders and started to bug my wrist towards the end. I was completely done by the end of it. I did 5 rounds plus a round of pull ups in the 15 minutes. I was glad to be done. I jumped in the hot tub when I got home to ease some aching muscles. I just hope I don’t have to press or push anything tomorrow. My poor shoulders can’t take it!


And that’s my recap for today! I hope everyone has a great night!


- N

Round 39 - 01/11/11: The Day My Shoulders Died.

Tuesday’s workout was...let’s just say as a result this whole week has felt like my first week of CrossFit all over again. My shoulders are on fiiiiiire. Between the pushups and pull ups from Monday and what we did on Tuesday...I had to go for a hot tub after my workout today to see if I could loosen up my muscles a bit. No amount of stretching was helping.

But apparently I enjoy pain (not that it should’ve taken me that long to figure out ;)), because I’ve stuck to my workout schedule anyway (I get sad when I miss it!).


WOD started with bench press for a 3 sets of a 5. My shoulders were already hurting, but I worked up to 85lbs and gave it a try. I didn’t quite make the 5th rep, but the trainer was spotting me and didn’t think it was because of a lack of arm strength. Apparently I wasn’t arching my back enough throughout the movement and that’s important for assisting the movement. I missed out on why, haha. I’ll have to try it next time. I ended up doing 3 sets of 5 at 75lbs. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for though.


The second part of the workout...ugh. It’s where my shoulders failed, haha. We had to do 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 sets of push press and kettlebell swings for time. I was a little ambitious and set my bar at 53lbs. My kettlebell was the 35lb this time.


The push presses nearly killed me. I felt like I was never going to make it, but somehow I did. The kettlebell swings were doable for the first while, but by the end nothing felt doable. I have been in so much pain ever since. Haha. Stupid push presses. I am really glad I finished with the weight I did though… it would’ve sucked to have to swap out for something lighter halfway through. I ended up finishing in 14:10 (which wasn’t as bad a time as I thought it would be).


And that was Tuesday’s workout. I’ll post about today’s in a little bit!


- N

Monday, January 10, 2011

Round 38 - 01/10/11: 'Cindy'

Okay, post two for tonight. I hope everyone had a great weekend! This is my workout from today.

I really liked the workout we did today because it started with pull up work for a 1 rep max. As you guys know, my goal is to do a real, unassisted pull up and today I got to see how close I was. I tried a few different band combinations and I managed to do one (almost complete) pull up with the medium sized band only. I tried a few reps with the thick band, a few with a thin band and a medium band and finally the trainer told me to take a break and come back to try just the medium band. I feel like if I hadn’t done quite as many pull ups leading up to it, I would’ve completed it fully. It was really close though.


Still, I was excited to see how far I’d come. I remember when I couldn’t even do one pull up with the thick band. It’s definitely a marked improvement.


Next we did back squat. My goal was 135lbs because last time I managed 125lbs. My wrists were really bugging me today, and I think I was holding the bar too narrow to start. When I spread my grip a little (on the intern’s suggestion) it felt better.


I worked up to 125lbs pretty quickly and then went for 135lbs. I did two sets at 135lbs and on the second set the trainer and the intern were watching me. They told me to add more weight. Haha. I ended up doing 5 reps at 145lbs. I probably could break 150 next time if I plan a little better. I’ll almost be able to back squat my body weight! That’s exciting! I wonder what I can deadlift now. I’ll have to make sure I try deadlifts this week...


The last part of the workout was an AMRAP for 10 minutes. The workout was called “Cindy” but it was a mini-Cindy because we only did 10 minutes instead of 20. It’s a fast paced workout so 10 minutes was plenty after the kind of exercises we’d done before. It consisted of 5 pull ups (where I just used the thick band), 10 push ups and 15 squats. I ended up doing 7 sets and an extra round of pull ups in the 10 minutes. I thought that was pretty good overall.


I’ll be back again tomorrow so I’ll let you guys know how it goes. Have a good night!


- N

Round 37 - 01/07/11

Alright, so I’m a little behind in updating. I worked on Saturday and felt pretty crappy all day and writing just wasn’t in the cards...


So you guys are going to get a double whammy tonight! Excited? ;) Here’s Friday’s post...


Today’s workout was short! Haha. It was good though, I wasn’t feeling that great so my endurance is really not there right now. I needed something short and sweet and that was exactly what I got.


For starters, front squat. Last time I did 2 reps at 105lbs. Today I did a 3 rep max at 115lbs. Increasing your front squat is a much slower process than increasing weight on your back squat, so I definitely went up gradually. My wrists were sore and it kind of felt like the bar was choking me (which is how it’s supposed to feel, haha), but I got ‘er done. I never look forward to doing front squats, but I look forward to the number afterwards.


Next we did a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 workout (10 reps, then 9, then 8, you get the picture) of deadlifts (at 75lbs for me) and wall balls (12lbs for me). I’ve never done deadlifts in an actual workout before so this was kind of new to me. Deadlifts are a slow exercise. You have to tighten your back, stand up completely straight and lower the weight, keeping the bar as close to your body as possible the whole time. It took me a few reps to figure out how to do it “fast” so I was a little slow out of the gate. The wall balls felt great. I think next time I’ll go up to the 16lb one. The last time I tried it my form was really affected, but I think I’ve gotten strong enough to handle another 4lbs now.


There was another girl working out beside me who started a bit over a minute before me and the intern was kind of egging us to compete with each other (for fun, of course). I was so close to catching her. She finished her last wall ball seconds before me. Considering how much sooner she started, I definitely made up a lot of time, but it was just fun competing. I really wanted to catch her. Hahah. I finished in 6:23. Like I said, short and sweet.


And that was today’s workout! I hope you all had a great weekend!


- N

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Round 36 - 01/06/11: ‘The Handstand Pushup’

Okay no, nobody get excited, I didn’t do a handstand pushup. I did, however, make a huge leap in my progression towards a handstand pushup. I ended up completely vertical several times during my workout and that was a big milestone for me. I started by trying to walk myself up the wall (feet on the wall, walk your hands in as much as you can) like I have been before. I was actually able to move this time (which, as you know, felt impossible a few weeks ago). After a little practice to get better form for the actual handstand the trainer suggested doing a headstand. I did a few where I tried to kick my legs up as high as I can, never actually hitting the wall. The trainer then suggested that he put me against the wall completely.

I did not want to at first, but he assured me he’d spot me and said “what’s the worst that could happen”. I gave it a go after a little probing and I did an actual headstand. I tried a few more times and in all honesty, getting up there is the worst part. Once you’re there it’s not bad at all. I actually had a lot of fun doing it. It was cool and felt like such a huge leap from what I had been doing so far. I wouldn’t mind doing it again. Maybe I’ll be able to kick myself onto the wall next time.


The workout was a 21-15-9 that consisted of power cleans (which I’m feeling so much more comfortable with now), knees-to-elbows (probably one of the hardest single exercises I’ve done at this point), and box jumps. I couldn't actually get my knees all the way to my elbows, but I got as high as I could.


I finished in 13:24. The workout seemed to take forever because of the power cleans and the knees-to-elbows (which some people did fast but took me forever). The box jumps were by far the easiest part.


I’m feeling better today, but still not quite myself. I’ll be going to the gym after work tomorrow and then hopefully recuperate a bit before my next session. I also desperately need new running shoes. My knees haven’t been feeling right during my runs because they’re so beat up.


And that’s it for now! Have a great night guys!


- N

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Round 35 - 01/04/11: ‘Starless’

So, I’m sick. I felt it when I was getting up to go to the gym but thought maybe I was dragging from being lazy all day...well nope, I’m sick. And my boss (finally) got back to me telling me I’m supposed to be working tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. (Thanks for the notice, guys.) If I feel like this I won’t be going to work. It’s been downhill since I left the gym…But I did get through my workout, so hopefully it won’t get much worse than this. I’ve upped my Vitamin D intake just to be safe.


Anyway, today we got into the swing of things with one heavy lifting exercise and a conditioning workout. The WOD was a 3 rep max of press followed by a 10 minute AMRAP of 50 feet of lunges and 10 burpees.


For press I really had no idea where my max would be. I haven’t done a basic press in a while and the last time I did that I maxed out at 57lbs (only really finishing the exercise with 55lbs). Because press uses pretty much only your shoulders it’s harder to increase the weight. With exercises that use big muscle groups (like squats and deadlifts) you don’t notice the difference between 5 and 10lbs the same way you would in exercises that use smaller muscle groups. For press you have to go up in really small increments because of this.


So I spent a good while just increasing my press weight. I didn’t want to max myself out too soon and we were only going for a 3 rep max. I ended up getting to 65lbs (after some probing from the trainer) and he said he only thought that was 80% of my max (even though he watched me barely finish the last rep). We decided to give 68lbs one shot and see what happened.


Well, I had it. I really, really had it. I did the first two reps (with some struggle) and I swear I would’ve managed the third one if I’d just taken a rest at the top of the second rep. Instead I realized too late I needed to rest (taking one on the bottom of the movement) and lost all my momentum.


So my 3 rep max for the day was 65lbs, but I swear next time I’ll be able to break 70. If I had had a clearer objective in mind I wouldn’t have had so many “in between” sets and I wouldn’t have tired so easily.


It was during the conditioning workout that I started to realize I was actually sick. I was just tiring so easily and my head seemed fuzzy. The workout was 50 feet of lunges with a weight overhead (45lbs for boys and 25lbs for girls). Normally I don’t do exactly the prescribed workout (in terms of prescribed weight and stuff) so I get a little star beside my name on the board that means “modified”. I hate that star. I want that star gone. I know it’s a work-in-progress and it could take years to get all those completely gone...but I just want a few of them gone. I want to be able to do a few workouts without needing to “modify” it.


Well today that happened. I lifted the 10lbs over my head to test it out and the trainer looked and me and shook his head. I lifted the 15lbs over my head and he did the same thing, “keep going”. I ended up using the 25lbs for the whole workout and kept a pretty good pace throughout. The burpees drained me quickly and that totally slowed me down but I’m chalking that up to being sick. I ended up doing 4-and-a-bit rounds of the prescribed workout in 10 minutes.


So all-in-all, a good workout day. I wish I’d gotten in 5 rounds of the AMRAP, but I can’t really control getting sick. I gave it my all and I’ll be hurting tomorrow and that’s the important thing.


Have a good night guys!


- N

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Round 34 - 01/02/11: 'Jack'

I made it to the gym today! I didn’t do much of anything on New Year’s Eve, but for some reason I’ve been so exhausted the last few days. I think I’m a little under the weather.

WOD today was awful. My shoulders were on fire and it seemed like it was never going to end. I felt like I was really dragging too...don’t know if it was because I’m a little sick or because my barbell was really heavy for the exercise I was doing. It was a good workout (great even) and I’m really glad I went...I just didn’t feel like I did fantastic.


The only part of the workout was an AMRAP for 20 minutes. I should’ve expected it to be brutal (20 minutes is long for an AMRAP), but for some reason the workout looked easy. 10 push press, 10 kettlebell swings and 10 box jumps. I like all those exercises and don’t find anyone particularly draining on it’s own (not like a burpee or something). I set my barbell at 53lbs and grabbed the 26lb kettlebell. I had the trainer look at me do a few kettlebell swings because I kept having people correct my technique last time. She made a few tweaks and told me the weight was too easy for me...so I either had to go up to the 35lb one or change the exercise a little. I ended up doing the latter (on the trainer’s suggestion) and switched from Russian Kettlebell swings to American Kettlebell swings (see this video; Russian swings go to your shoulders, American swings go over your head. American swings are obviously more challenging because of the height you have to get, so you use less weight). The trainer explained to me that some workouts specify Russian swings and other workouts give you the option to pick and choose. I knew the kettlebell was too light for me at 26lbs, but I was wary of increasing the weight when I wasn’t completely comfortable with my technique. I felt better after having her watch me.


I ended up finishing just shy of 7 reps of the exercise, and that was one of the lower numbers on the board. I absolutely felt spent the entire way through. Those push presses killed me and I was taking a way longer rest than I usually needed to. I could've sworn the bar was 65lbs instead of 53 by the end. I got so drained so quickly! Every time I had to go pick up my barbell again it was daunting and the 20 minutes seemed to go on forever. I was so happy to be done this one. It was way harder than I expected it to be.


I’ll go back tomorrow and probably go for my run on Tuesday. I just felt like I needed to be there today. I missed Thursday and I was going stir crazy just sitting at home. It felt good to get out.


How's everyone doing? Back at the workouts after the holidays? I'm so glad not to be at a regular gym this year because I used to dread the month of January. This year'll be different, thankfully.


Have a good night guys!


- N

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year! - Month Two Roundup


Hey everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic evening last night and are ready and raring to go in the New Year. I took some quick-ish measurements and a photo for you guys for my month two progress report since I’ll be starting month three of CrossFit next week. I’ll probably do the at-home workout today (100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats for time).

There’s not a huge difference (as you can see from my inches lost), but there is something I think. In the New Year I’m thinking of starting a modified version of the Paleo Diet. Maybe that’ll help me shed some weight a little faster.


Also, I don’t know when this happened but I think I grew half an inch in height...so good news there.


Stats:


Height - 5’7(.5)”, haha

Weight - 157/158

Bust - 38”

Waist - 29.5"

Hips - 38.25


For some reason my waist just isn’t budging, but I always lose weight there last, so I guess that’s to be expected. I’ve gone down a whole cup size in my bra though (got measured yesterday to spend my Victoria’s Secret gift card). I never was able to lose weight there, so I’m glad for that. I could definitely stand to shrink a little in that area (and every other area). Hopefully I really start seeing the inches come off this month.


And this is my progress picture for the last month. Like I said, not a huge difference but I see something for sure (as in more definition). Maybe it’ll just take me more time.


Also, I was a size 8 (comfortably) in my favourite workout pants when I started CrossFit and I went to the store yesterday (again, to spend gift card money) and decided just for kicks to try on the size 6. I ended up buying a size 6 in the pants because the sales girl seemed to think they fit me great (I thought they fit but they could’ve been a little looser, I just wanted a second opinion, I didn’t want to size up if I was going to be shrinking more, so I bought them in a different fabric that’s more forgiving). I guess that’s the inches lost in the hips/bum. That was kind of a big deal for me, my size goal when I was losing weight (at a size 14/16) was a size 6...so yeah, definitely have to keep checking the size tag to make sure I’m actually wearing a 6. It’s a little surreal. I haven’t been a size 6 since I was 14 (wow, 9 years). It seems like such a big jump from an 8 to a 6.


Now my goal is mostly to be bikini ready by summer...but that’s more on my perception than an actual number I can compare too.


Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!


- N