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Spring Fling!

What a nice morning out at Artesani Park in Brighton--sunny skies and a great turnout for our first Woodshed Fitness Sunday Workout. Bunny, Laurisa, Meaghan, Mark, Lawrence, and Jon joined us for a good, solid neural and joint warmup, some basic work on the particulars of the squat, deadlift, and overhead press, and a ripping good little burner with some weightless Tabata shoulder work thrown in for good measure.

WoD: Spring Fling
21-15-9 reps
Squat Jumps
Dumbbell/Plate Swings
Pushups
(Run 100m at conclusion of each round)
Rest 2 min
Weightless Tabata Shoulder Press

Great work by all; remember, the magic is in the movements and keep those backs tight and drive off the heels! We'll do it again really soon!

For you: Concise, easy primers on the air squat and the deadlift.

Playtime: Shed WoD #22

Important every now and again to have a WoD that's less of a sprint towards precision than it is an exploration of the studio space, as it were. Today's felt like that:

Shed WoD #22: Playtime
Warmup: 25 jumping jacks, 25 PVC clean pulls from Position 1
WoD: 7x2 power clean and jerk, 135 lbs
Rest 3 min
3 rounds for time
10 db cleans, 40 lb--5 each arm
10 pushups
10 tuck jumps
Results: cleans were rough, jerks a little rougher...need to drop down in weight to drill down form, particularly on the jerks...3:30 on the metcon--legs were burning.

Shed WoD #21: Press

Hit yesterday's CFB strength workout in the shed, adding a little tabata squats for good measure.

Shed WoD #21: Press
Warmup: 20 air squats, 20 PVC dislocates, 20 PVC presses
WoD: 7x2 Shoulder Press, work up to 95% of max weight
Rest 4 min
Tabata squats
Results: pressed 105, 115, 125, 130, 135, failed 2nd rep 140, 140 (97% of current max)...14 on tabata squats.

For you: check out this link to eating Paleo and reducing the risk of osteoperosis: get off the damn grains!

Tomorrow: the first Woodshed Fitness Outdoor Workout and a new format for the blog!

Shed WoD #20: Ugly Isabel

Ugly, ugly shed workout today, and a good reminder that the more technical lifts and movements, among which today's Olympic Snatch surely numbers, demand the attention to detail and precision that's best gotten at via class at CFB. Hard to police yourself--went higher in weight than my last go-round at Isabel and it was u-g-l-y I ain't got no alibi.

Shed WoD #20: Ugly Isabel
Warmup: 30 air squats--15 slow, 15 fast, 20 PVC Shoulder Disclocates, 20 PVC Good Mornings
Skill work: 3x3 Snatch Grip Deadlifts, 135 lbs
WoD: Isabel, 30 snatches for time, 135 lbs.
Rest 5 min
30 burpees for time
Results: Did Isabel with 105 lbs, up from 95 lbs last time. Don't have 25 lb bumper plates or blocks, so bar was taken from shoetops rather than mid-shin, which definitely affected my starting position and attention to form. This was ugly: muscle snatched most of the reps w/pressout. Finished in 6:48; power output down 14 ft/lbs/second from last go-round at Isabel. Burpees at 2:18.

For you: We spent a good few hours at the Certification drilling down the deadlift and its outrigger foundational movements, the Sumo Deadlift High Pull and Medicine Ball Clean. What was the deadlift once known as? The healthlift. Why? Check out the linked video and find out.

Mr. Clean

I love the clean. It's my favorite aspect of the Oly lifting game by far--there's something so brutally simple and functional to the movement: hey, pull that object up off the ground and get it up to your chest so you can safely hand it to me or press it over your head or hell, throw it somewhere.

We hit the barbell cleans at Crossfit Boston yesterday; after Jon led us through a great series of movement warmups, it was off to the platforms. I kept it to mid-range level weights; I'm determined to master form at this movement before beginning the process of strength building via jumps in load.

WoD:
12 noon CFB class
Warmup: 400 m run, barbell clean movement series
WoD: 7X2 barbell cleans, work to 90-95% of max weight
Results: sets at 95, 115, 125, 135 (failed), 135, 140, 140. Missing element is the hip drive; Jon also noted a tendency to raise the shoulders ahead of the hips on the deadlift of the weight to mid-thigh.

For you: over and over and over again this past weekend at the Certification, we drilled down our focus to the production of power, defined in practical terms as the ability to move (large) loads (long) distances quickly. Training within the Crossfit methodology, at increasing levels of intensity as focus and form mitigate, is nothing short of a magic bullet for power production. And it's important--perhaps even necessary--to note that power is not solely the province of your average meathead down at the globo-gym; as Greg Glassman notes (somewhat astringently), your 75 year-old grandmother bending over to pick up her bag of groceries will rely primarily upon her power reserve to get the bag up (move the large load) off the ground (a long distance) quickly and safely.

To wit, check out this Crossfit Grandma: I love it!

Joy

As I pulled into the parking lot of Guerilla Fitness in Montclair, New Jersey this past Saturday morning, I was tired, wired, and more than a little bit anxious. Seemed just about right--I was forty minutes away from diving into my Crossfit Level One Certification, and as badly as I'd been wanting my Cert for what seemed like forever, the prospect of getting my Crossfit on under the watchful eyes of trainers and strangers alike was fairly daunting. I'm a private person, you see...

Fast forward to Sunday evening and the drive back to Massachusetts: windows open, big smile, feeling like going to the Cert was the best decision I'd made since asking my wife to marry me. So what went down in between? Got a few days to listen?

Literally...got a few days? I'll be using the For You section over the next few entries to detail certain aspects of the Certification Weekend as we look forward to the first Woodshed Fitness Weekend Workout this Sunday at 9 AM. For now I'll leave you with my WoDs over the last three-day on cycle (today's a rest day), and with the thought that my greatest takeaway from this last weekend was the pure, unabridged joy available to the fitness enthusiast--and that kind of joy's all too rare of a commodity these days.

Saturday WoD: "Fran"
21-15-9 reps
95 lb thruster
pullups
results: 5:59, 29 seconds off PR but felt pretty good about the pace coming off some time away from brutally short power blasters like Fran, the magna mater of the genre
Sunday WoD: "7 and 7"
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) 12 minutes:
7 medicine ball cleans, 20 lb ball
7 pushups
results: 14 rounds--wanted 15 and likely could have pushed the pushups a little harder to get there but whoo boy were my legs cooked by this point in time
Monday WoD: 1 Mile Run
results: 8:24 pace--a lot better than my last go at a mile but still a good minute slower than I'd like.

For You: right out of the gate, we dove into Crossfit's definition of fitness. From Greg Glassman's seminal piece What Is Fitness?, check out the 10 General Physical Skills on Page 4.

The Visiting Team

Had the pleasure of hitting a WoD at Genetic Freak Fitness in Stow this morning, under the able eye of Kevin Cann. It's always an interesting mix of feelings when you step into a new box: there's that new kid in school thing ding-donging inside your head, but with that bit of unease comes the attendant adrenalin dump--always a good thing when you hit a metcon like the burner Kevin had programmed for today:

4 rounds for time:
15 pullups
21 kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
30 box jumps, 27" box (could have been 30"; we weren't sure)
Results: 18:14 as rx'd. Haven't done pullups in a few weeks, so my kip was a little off--felt better once Kevin caught it and got me pushing off a bit more into the swing...box jumps were hellish as usual; last set of kb swings hit me a little harder than I'd expected.

For you: hit a great nutrition lecture last night, given by Crossfit Boston's indomitable EvaClaire "EC" Synkowski...a little bit late in the game for the dead of winter doldrums, but check out this great link on Vitamin D (good old Vitamin Sunshine) from Dr. Mike Eades' blog.

Shed WoD #19: Interval Hell

Nice rest day. Good rest day. I like rest days.

And now, le deluge...

Shed WoD #19: Interval Hell
(based on today's CFB WoD and Saturday's CFNE Throwdown)
Warmup: 3x10 air squats, pushups, straight leg situps, 25 lb plate SDHPs
WoD: Interval Hell
3 rounds for time
5 burpees
10 db cleans, 40 lb (5 reps each arm)
15 tuck jumps
rest 4 minutes
2 rounds for time
21 deadlifts, 135 lbs
7 thrusters, 135 lbs
rest 4 min
2 rounds for time
7 push jerks, 135 lbs
21 jumping pullups
Results: 5:14 on first segment--should have gone unbroken on tucks first/second rd...6:59 on second segment--thrusters weren't as difficult as I'd feared, although I lost some depth on second rd; need to concentrate better on driving heels through floor on deads...4:14 on third segment--most of the jerks were pressed out; revealed the push jerk to be a pretty big hole in my skill set

For you: Check out this awesome thread on competition and guts from Cynergy Crossfit; I haven't been to hell during a WoD in some time, but reading some of these posts...well, hell seems like a great place to visit.

Shed WoD #18: Lucky Seven

For the third day of this latest three-on, one-off series of WoDs, I borrowed from the (slightly insane!) Friday WoD at Crossfit Boston, with necessary modifications for exercise (subbing a slightly lighter front squat in for the back squats since I don't have a squat rack in the shed, and SDHPs for the rowing) and time (dropping the rounds from 10 to 5).

Shed WoD #18: Lucky Seven
Warmup 2x10 PVC O/H Squat, Pushups, Straight Leg Situps, 2x5 Hang Snatch w/PVC
WoD: Lucky Seven
5 rounds for time
7 front squats, 135 lb
20 pushups
30 one-arm SDHPs, 40 lbs (15 each arm)
Results: 17:17, was rounding back on last set of squats--need to focus on keeping back arch and really sitting back onto heels...should really be a 15 minute workout if that: too much rest, not enough intensity.

For You: More from Stronglifts on the Front Squat, plus a great how-to video (with a questionable soundtrack)...

Shed WoD #17: Power Cleans

Strength doesn't come out of a vacuum, nor is it gifted from on high at birth--with rare exceptions, of course. Rather, strength is the product of an assiduous and repetitive assault on the Iron; in fact, perhaps more than any other component of what we know as fitness, strength is optimally built brick by brick.

This ought to be extremely encouraging. Listen, I can't promise you that you'll deadlift four or five times your bodyweight eventually: that's a superstrong deadlift and your body may not be anatomically wired to push it to that level. But what I can promise you is that if you put in the work, the strength gains will come, and they'll be pretty measurable at that.

With an eye on my goal to clean and jerk my bodyweight 35 times this July, I hit a power clean strength workout to build on Friday's "Grace":

Shed WoD #17: Power Cleans
Warmup: 3x10 PVC overhead squats, muscle cleans, jumping jacks
Skill work: Clean Grip Deadlift (really a continued warmup), 3X3 at 135 lbs
WoD: 7 sets, 2 reps, power cleans, work to 90% of current max
Rest 4 min
Run 1 mile
Results: first two sets at 135, third at 140, fourth at 145, fifth at 155, sixth at 160, failed seventh at 175 (would have been a PR by 5 lbs), back down to 135 for form-reinforcing set of two (got good extension, quick elbows)...mile was hellish--first mile in 4 months, about 9 minutes--ugly.

For you: What is strength, exactly? How does it differ from power--itself defined broadly as the ability to apply maximal force with the quickness? How strong is real strong? Here's a pretty good place to start looking into the nuts and bolts of strength training, with the bonus rec of a few good books (for me, you can't beat Coach Rip's Starting Strength).

Shed WoD #16: Power Hour

Had to blast in and out really quickly and wanted to get a good idea where I'm at with Grace, the Crossfit Clean & Jerk benchmark WoD, so I came up with this quickie:

Shed WoD #16: Power Hour
Warmup 2x10 PVC overhead squat, air squat
Skill work/test: Max Pushups
WoD: Grace, 30 Clean and Jerks for time, 135 lb
Results: 34 pushups, 10:58 on WoD (PR by approx 1 min)...need to concentrate on form every rep of this WoD: increased att'n to form actually should improve time immediately.

For You: What makes Grace such an effective master blaster of a workout? Check out this article on the benefits of Olympic Lifting...go Oly crazy!

Taking it Overhead

Who would have thought that pressing and holding a moderately heavy weight overhead, then squatting to full depth on repeat with the weight aloft would be just about the best core exercise going? What about crunches, abs of steel, ab rollers, ab fab, et alii?

Indeed, the overhead squat's a killer and was a perfect stomping ground for my first CFB class in 12 days.

6 PM Class
w/u: 50 air squats, 2 rounds of 10 knees to elbows, PVC shoulder dislocates, snatch balances
5x5 Overhead Squats
rest 2 min
3x3 Shoulder Press
Results: 45, 55, 65, 65, 65 on o/h squats--went lighter by design; 80% of my max would have put me at 85 to start; 95, 115, 120 on shoulder presses; again, lighter by design

For you: A quick primer on the overhead squat and its effectiveness in blasting the core from Crossfit Phoenix

Shed WoD #15: The Chief

After yesterday's uneasy reentry into the WoD atmosphere, I wanted to come back hard today while making use of some of the new plates and Olympic bar I got for Woodshed Fitness over the weekend. So...we met "The Chief" at 0900 hours.

It was an interesting 19 minutes, to be sure--form on the power cleans improved, then devolved while intensity picked up towards the end of the WoD. It's been quite some time since I hit a WoD whose pushups felt like rest, but I certainly "enjoyed" the 6 rep respite in between torching my quads and hips via cleans and squats.

That said, I'm reminded of the potential minefield that a difficult movement places within the multi-exercise WoD. I'd say that I spent a good 15 minutes prior to the workout just absolutely dreading the power cleans at 135 lbs, and sure enough I apportioned way too hefty a percentage of whatever mental and emotional energies I had at my disposal solely to the cleans--as a result, this felt less like a multi-movement interval based WoD meant to test power and endurance than it did a referendum on my power cleans with a sprinkling of pushups and squats as garnish. Not coincidentally, my squats were rushed and rounded. Focus on challenging movements is great; focus to the detriment of the remainder of the WoD is, obviously, not ideal.

Shed WoD #15: "The Chief"
Max rounds in 3 minutes of:
135 pound Power cleans, 3 reps
6 Push-ups
9 Squats
Rest 1 minute. Repeat for a total of 5 cycles.
Results: I hit this for rounds of 3, 3, 2 (plus 2 power cleans), 2 (plus 3 power cleans), 3.

For you: this simple challenge--during your next session, focus on bringing your best form and intensity to date to bear upon the movement you consider the second or third most difficult of your workout. After reading through this entry, you'll likely hit your most difficult movement with ample aplomb by sheer osmosis; now, make sure you're bringing that gut check to the movement you're dreading just a little bit less than whatever exercise it is that's got you cold sweating the WoD.

Snow Day WoD #1: Enough is Enough

Here it is March 2, and we've got ourselves about a foot of fresh powder outside. Do I need to turn in my New Englander card if I confess I've hated every single snowstorm this winter? I'm about ready to start living like these cats.

Today's a day to give thanks for the kid snowblower across the way who's keeping me from having to test the back with an hour of shovelling. I'll need to do some roof raking in a little bit, but that ought to act as a nice stretch for the back after I hit the Snow Day WoD below:

Snow Day WoD #1: Enough is Enough:
As Many Rounds As Possible in 12 minutes
20 air squats
15 straight-leg situps
10 pushups
5 burpees
Rest 3 minutes
20 burpees for time
Results: 5 rounds completed plus squats and situps; 20 burpees in 1:08. Holy crap that took a lot out of me. Nothing like the first WoD after a long winter's break...except the first class after a long winter's break.

For you: today's subtext is kicking your own ass via bodyweight movements, and on that tip, here's another excellent bodyweight workout from one of my favorite sites, Mark's Daily Apple.

March Forward

March at Woodshed Fitness is all about new beginnings: rehabbing our back for a month while strict Zoning to lean out a little bit; stretching out our hammys and shoulders daily; hosting our first Woodshed Fitness event on March 22 at 9 AM; attending and receiving our Crossfit Level 1 Certification in mid-month; and finally, and most importantly, reader-centric daily entries where the focus becomes what you take away from your time reading here.

For now, the personal routine--we'll call it a PoD:

• Morning, afternoon, and evening stretch: shoulder mobility and lateral opening, hamstrings
• Lighter weights on Crossfit WoDs--specifically overhead work
• Pushing metabolic capacity on WoDs as focus of month--5 on, 2 off routine
  
• Strict Zoning at 16 blocks protein, 8 blocks carbs, 40 blocks fat
• Gallon of water daily

With an eye on using this month as active recovery for the April-June clean and jerk training, this plan should work nicely. Updates as the month progresses.

I Was On A Break

Back is still slightly tweaked, tweaked enough that I'm taking a couple more days off from WoDs and initiating some long-overdue chiropractic treatment. Will return over the weekend with some thoughts on working out smartly, as well as some news on the first Woodshed Fitness event!

Missing My Favorite

Today's CFB WoD is an iteration of my favorite WoD, "Eva." Owing to the cold weather and slippery slopes, the hardy souls at CFB are subbing in a 1k row for each 800m run: "Eva on a Rower" for time instead--godspeed to them all. I'm looking forward to hitting that at an open gym sometime soon once my back feels a little better and we've got the little guy's morning daycare routine more buttoned down.

In the meantime, I wanted a quick one for today that would keep my metcon alive and hit my hammys without tweaking my back unnecessarily. Burpees, per usual, fit the bill nicely.

We'll call this Nursery WoD #1 (since I did it in my son's nursery): 100 Burpees For Time

Time: 9:54 (PR of 6 over my previous 10 minute max of 94 burpees)--kept to my goal of 10/min. Would like to push to 12/min next time and see how long that's sustainable.

Hamstring stretch as cooldown this evening after 25 air squats.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

The resolve to eliminate midnight snacking is all well and good but last night I learned that without a substitute plan in place, there's very little stopping the snack.

Tonight we'll work with one block fat snacks if necessary--3 almonds at a time. Very little insulin spike, if any, and a good way to wean myself off the larger stuff.

Today's CFB WoD is a max strength test on the two Oly lifts--snatch and clean & jerk. Perfect opportunity for me to do some technique work here in the shed with my PVC: no ego, just some long, solid work on form with a short metcon at WoD's end:

Shed WoD #14: Snatch/Clean & Jerk
Warmup: Brief Shovel, 3x10 PVC overhead squat, pushup, dumbbell swing, situps
Skill Work: PVC Snatch, PVC Clean and Jerk 10 sets of 5, each exercise
WoD: 2 rounds for time, 20 one-arm power snatches (40 lb), 20 one-arm clean and jerks (40 lbs)--concentrating on pull from ground, explosive hips, 10 pushups

Note: Had to abort WoD due to some upper back pain (which I believe dates from some poor one arm snatch form during WoD on Friday PM). Will hit a breathing ladder of burpees in advance of some hamstring stretching this PM. Better safe than sorry.

21 Days

Received wisdom holds that it takes 21 days to disabuse oneself of a bad habit. Coincidentally, I'll be Zoning (16 blocks) for the next 3 weeks in anticipation of my Level 1 Crossfit Certification (and the 3 or 4 WoDs it holds) on March 14th and 15th.

It's now my belief that my main dietary stumbling block, the midnight snack, may be more of a (colossally) bad habit than a bodily signal: whether I take in 2000 calories or 4000 earlier in the day, I'll inevitably wake up after an hour or so of sleep primed to eat. And that sucks--food in the middle of the night equals insulin spike, growth hormone shutdown, and worst of all, the implicit high sign that one mouthful gives to the next. No one makes a good food decision standing in front of the fridge at two A.M.

So we're going to hit the midnight snack shutdown as hard as we hit the Zone over the next 21 days, and we'll see where that leaves us viz. performance at the Cert. I'm looking forward to that weekend's Fran.