How I Came to Crossfit: Shed WoD #12: The Dumbbell 300

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away...actually, sitting in the sauna at my big box gym after a bicep workout, I was reading through a Men's Journal and came upon this article. Maybe my box workout felt a little lackluster that day, maybe I wasn't feeling as pleasantly worn down as I'd have liked--whatever the reason, this mysterious, magical Crossfit stuff really hit my where I itch. I decided I'd hit the website and try whatever the WoD was the next day.

Next day, next sauna: I'd aborted the WoD after failing on the 3rd or 4th rep of the first set of cleans (prescribed weight was 135 lb, I was using 25 lb dumbbells). So maybe I wasn't ready for Crossfit just yet.

Fast forward to the premiere of "The 300" and the Men's Health cover story on the leading man's Crossfit routine. I was still slogging away at the big box, running my own bodypart programs, making little functional progress, and spending way too much time there to boot: 45 minute workouts, half of which were spent just idling around waiting for an area or machine to clear. Alright, I thought, let's give this functional fitness a shot again--I've always been a bit of a masochist...

That decision having been made, I enlisted my brother to hit the WoDs with me and we began following the main site workouts 3 on, 1 off at our big box in Boston. A few months later, having seen some definite progress in intensity and strength, I took a new job outside of the city and made the switch to working out at a Crossfit facility--Crossfit Boston. For all that I'd gained in strength and capacity for hard work, my form...well, we'll get into that at a later date.

Today's Shed WoD #12: The Dumbbell 300
(based on today's CFB WoD)
Warmup: joint mobility, 3x15 squats, walking lunges
Skill/Test: 70 pushups for time, time 3:31
Rest 4 min
25 burpees
50 one arm power snatches from floor, 40 lb db
50 db swings, 40 lb
50 situps w/40 lb db overhead
50 one arm sumo deadlift high pulls, 40 lb db
50 db clean and press, 40 lb db
25 burpees
time: 28:11...burpees were 5 at a time by the end. Tough one.

Shed WoD #11: Push Press/Tag Team

Based on yesterday's WoD at Crossfit Boston:

Shed WoD #11: Push Press/Tag Team
Warmup: Joint mobility, 3x10 40 lb db cleans (5 each arm), pushups, jumping pullups
WoD
5 rounds for time: 10 push press, 40 lb db (5 each arm)
rest 4 min
3 rounds for time: 20 burpees, 1 minute goblet squat 40 lb db

3:33 on the push press, 9:17 on the burpees/squats

Longer post tomorrow on The 300 workout and my introduction to Crossfit.

Truth, or, Get the Hell off the Nautilus

"The body functions as a complete system--it works that way and it likes to be trained that way. It doesn't like to be separated into its constituent components and then have those components exercised separately, since the strength obtained from training will not be utilized in this way. The general pattern of strength acquisition must be the same as that in which the strength will be used."
-Mark Rippetoe & Lon Kilgore, Starting Strength

Resting, Actively

Planning on hitting the WoDs at CFB each day this week, so today's a rest day after a 3 on/1 off/2 on week last week.

But what's rest without a little action? With that in mind, here's a rest day WoD for y'all:

Rest Day WoD: The Stretch
Joint mobility: arms, hips, knees, ankles
Skill: Max burpees, 1 minute (get the hips and hammys warm for the stretch)
WoD: 'The Stretch'
From Coach Rip: "Squat down, put your fingertips under your feet to hold them, flatten your back as much as you can, and then shove your ass up in the air as high as you can. Hold it there and count to 30 slowly. Do this 3 times a week for the rest of your life. It takes about 3 weeks for flexibility to improve dramatically."

Hangover

Had some open meal McDonalds and ice cream for an early Valentine's Day last night...yeah, that's how we roll. It's amazing how much the post-carbfest morning feels like a hangover--heavy-headed, cottonmouthed, thirsty, sluggish. Onward and upward from that to the WoD for today:

Shed WoD #10: Jackie, Jumped Up
(based on today's CFB WoD)
Warmup: 50 air squats
Skill work: 2x15 pushups, PVC power cleans
WoD: 'Jackie, Jumped Up'
100 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls, 40 lbs
50 Thrusters, 40 lb/5 lb db (25 w/40 in right, 5 in left, 25 vice versa)
50 jumping pullups

Finished in 8:13, jumping pulls surprisingly were the sticking point--had to break those down 10-5-10-10-10-5

Success

As a followup to last month's entry on effective failure: we back squatted for triples at CFB today; my ability to focus confidently on sitting back into the squats at weights of 255 and then 265 pushed me towards attempting a 10 pound jump to 275 (my previous one-rep max) for my 5th working set.

Further confident that an effective failure at 275 would still likely mean I'd hit two reps of the triple, I hit the triple with as (properly) tight a lower back as I can remember having on a max effort squat. Depth may have been a little shallow on the second rep, but my spotters and coach thought it was pretty solid. I'm happy with it and happier still that the end result felt like the product of hard and smart work. Failing forward!

WoD
noon CFB
warmup: 3x10 PVC overhead squats, good mornings, ring dips, pullups, situps
WoD: Back squats 5 sets, 3 reps, start w/88% of 1 rep max and work to 92-95% of that weight--used 235, 255, 260, 265, 275

The Wanderer

In the immortal words of the bard (Dion), they might as well call me the wanderer. Over the last few years of WoDs--most Crossfit, some not--I've developed and nurtured the bad, bad habit of walking away from the weight during breaks between reps. Now, that brief mental sortie is (very) occasionally a necessary evil during a longer-duration WoD, say around rep 40 of the 50 rep wallball during the Filthy Fifty.

But as a general practice, here's the problem with the stepaway--it's inefficient by design. Walk with me here for a minute. You're in the middle of a set of 10 heavy cleans and make it to rep 5 before you need to take a breather, so you drop the weight and take a few steps away.

And this begs the question: what is it that's supposed to be happening while you're breaking from the exercise? Quite simply, recovery. Resting as needed to Recover so that you're Ready to hit the next Rep. Lots of R's, and last I checked, there are no R's in stepaway. Pithy, isn't it? But the point stands--you're not adding necessary additional recovery by stepping away from the weight; instead, what you are doing is introducing an artificial, extrafunctional bridge back to the movement.

Here's what I can tell you confidently about your brain under duress, acquaintance unmade: it won't let you make any movement back to the exercise before it's good and ready, whether that movement be a step towards the bar or the actual reach downwards to retrieve the bar and begin your next rep. So why step away and remove that first post-Recovery movement ten paces from its target?

So...Resolution: to drop the stepaway once and for all (except for the aforementioned Filthy Fifty). P.S., I stepped away two times during the WoD today, hence the entry.

WoD
12 noon CFB
warmup: dynamic warmup (bear crawls, squat jumps, high knees, leg kicks)
skill work: PVC snatches and front squats
WoD:
3 rounds for time: 10 front squats, 60% max weight, 10 broad jumps--time 4:27, 145 lb on front squats
rest 5 min
3 rounds for time: 7 barbell snatches, 60% max weight, 7 burpee pullups--time 6:59, 45 lb on snatches
rest 5 min
8 intervals 20 sec work/10 sec rest rowing maching

Shed WoD #9: Motivation

Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my mama said...days you just...don't...feel...like...working out.

With a WoD title like 'Motivation,' you might be expecting some bromides on reaching for the stars, finding and lighting the fire in your belly, etc. Alas, I'm all out today and that might be for the best: days like this, longer duration WoDs like this...best thing you can do is just say F it, get into the WoD, and hold on for dear life. Do not quit. DO NOT QUIT.

Shed WoD #9: Motivation
based on today's CFB WoD
100 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (SDHP), 40 lb db (as sub for 1K row)
30 tuck jumps (sub for box jumps)
15 jumping pullups (sub for kipping pulls)
75 SDHP, 40 lb db
40 one-arm thrusters, 40 lb db (20 reps each arm)
15 jumping pullups
50 SDHP, 40 lb db
40 one-arm cleans, 40 lb db (20 reps each arm)
15 jumping pullups
25 SDHP, 40 lb db
40 db swings, 40 lb db

Time 29:42, intensity 7.5 peak, 8.5 for going over three "let's quit" hurdles and finishing as Rx'd

Shed WoD #8: S&J (Snatch and Jerk)

Hit this one in the shed yesterday, for time (though of course I left my watch inside, d'oh):

Shed WoD #8: S&J
Warmup: Mobility exercises, 3x10 pushups, jumping pullups, squats, good mornings w/PVC
Skill work: 5x10 deadlifts w/PVC pipe
WoD: 3 rounds for time
10 one arm snatches (5 each arm), 40 lb db
20 one arm jerks (10/arm), 40 lb db
20 pushups

Pushups were down to sets of 5 in 3rd round.

Nutritionally, it's been a tough 10 days. Full Zoning went by the wayside--I honestly feel like I was taking in too many carbs and, paradoxically, the large % of fruity carbs was bonking my hunger. I've had more success with containing that late night hunger by going lower carb/less fruit, so I'm moving back in that direction. We'll keep updating as events or empty jars of almond butter merit.

Weekend--Shed WoD #7: Roast Shoulder

Quick early Monday morning post. Hit this WoD Saturday AM before heading out for the day:

Shed WoD #7: Roast Shoulder
Warmup: 75 air squats
Skill work: Max burpees 1 min--19 (20 in 1:03) (PR by 1)
WoD: (power) 5 sets, 3 shoulder press, 5 push press, 7 jerks, 40 lbs each arm--rest as needed

Sunday afternoon we had good friends Meg and Dan out to the shed for some intro work on fundamentals (squats, pressing, and deadlifts). A really fun way to spend an early Sunday afternoon and both Meg and Dan did fantastic work--hitting true squats for the first time is always a bracing experience and they did great: upright torsos, hamstring-driven.

Quick and Dirty: Shed WoD #6 "Dumb Karen"

Tomorrow's going to be a killer WoD--an iteration of Wednesday's CFB punchlist--so this will be brief because I gots to get my sleep.

Shed WoD #6 "Dumb Karen"
Warmup 3 rounds: 25 jumping jacks, 5 burpees, 10 PVC clean pulls
Skill work: max consecutive pushups: 33
WoD: "Dumb Karen" 150 dumbbell thrusters, 40 lbs, both hands on dumbbell simulating wallball throw ("Karen" is 150 wallballs, 20 lb wallball) time: 7:33

Pushups were a bit low, but left shoulder still a little wonky. Could have pushed a little harder on the WoD, perhaps done more consecutive reps at beginning or broken sets into rounds of 15 rather than 10.

35

The more I've been thinking on the many and varied nutritional and fitness goals I've set for myself this year, the more I've been driving myself crazy. Core, weight loss, muscle gain, overhead positioning, muscle ups, et cetera and jeepers creepers.

And then it hit me while reading Robb Wolf's "37": why not shunt most of those goals through the same tunnel aimed at that simple, frigging brutal birthday workout? Clean and jerk my bodyweight 35 times on or around my 35th birthday this year. Lose the bodyfat and gain the functional muscle? Check--I don't want to be carrying any extra weight I'll have to rip off the ground and throw overhead 35 times. Core strength, overhead stability, explosive hip drive? Check--going to have to be hella functional, explosive, and attentive to core if I want to c&j 175-185 lbs 35 times.

Handstands and muscle-ups? All right, maybe I'll have to work those on their own time. But everything else? I'll hit those naturally via training to clean and jerk 175-185 35 times. It's brutal. It's simple. My one rep max C&J right now is 155 lb, so it's going to be a hell of a WoD. But mentally, aiming at one WoD with a flowering of ancillary benefit feels like a great move.

You Better You Bet

Building mental toughness...great piece from Jon Gilson here.
Building mental toughness...easier said than done.
Building mental toughness...essential for pushing past sticking points.

Today's 7 am CFB WoD:
Warmup: PVC dislocates, overhead squats, work on cleans
WoD 1: row 500 m, max effort
Rest 4 min
WoD 2: 3 rounds for time
10 clean and jerk, 95 lb
5 handstand pushups (band assisted to parallettes)
5 pushups

1:34.7 on the row (PR by 7.6 sec), 12:20ish on WoD with definite improvement on the clean and jerks, specifically the jerks. HSPUs were dicey; I got a little lazy on those and didn't go at the correct form (tight abs, head down and looking out, toes pointed up). Pushups were fine.

Building mental toughness...the second set of a three set WoD, especially one which incorporates a relatively high-powered movement like the clean and jerk, is the perfect first rung on your ladder to heaven. In fact, by exacting a pretty simple pressure point within the second set--hitting it during the middle belly of the WoD, NOT the bitter end--you can regularly test your mental toughness on an incremental basis and in the doing, apply some method to your madness.

Using this WoD as an example, and assuming I'm hitting it hard from go, let's say I do six clean and jerks out of the gate before putting the weight down to take a few extra breaths. Six is now the operative number, and six plus one is the number of consecutive clean and jerks I'll shoot to hit during the second round. To make this work, I'll want to ensure two things. First, that I'm mentally ready to genuinely go as hard as I can out of the gate, killing all thoughts of game planning the # of max reps based on past performance with the movement or the WoD. And second, that I'm hitting a true physical max during the first round--I go, go, go until I need to drop the weight and regroup.

Executed properly, this exercise necessitates the mental push beyond a physical limit. Taken to a slight extreme, we might try the breathing squat regime...someday.

Argument for Paleo Diet

Great post here at Robb Wolf's.

As far as my own personal experience, it goes like this:
Grains and dairy in my diet, heavy workouts...knee and shoulder pain.
No grains, no dairy, heavy workouts...no knee and shoulder pain.
Back on grains and dairy this week...knee and shoulder pain again.

Off-Zoning & Shed WoD #5: The 50

Had a little extra cheese and 2 zone bars late last night, so we open meal those two slips--leaves us with one open meal left for the week and that's slated for tomorrow's lunch. If I can stick that strictly to Zoning in this first week of the month, I'll be happy. Yeah, 100% compliance would be great but that goal's a bit lofty with some built-in open meal ops (my weekly work lunch, dinner with the in-laws).

But we can mitigate the extra carbs somewhat by programming a longer metcon for today, which would have been my instinct anyhow after the short, power-biased WoDs of the last two days.

Shed WoD #5: The 50 (modification of Crossfit's Filthy Fifty):
50 tuck jumps
50 jumping loft pullups
50 db swings, 40 lb
50 walking lunges (this should be fun in a tiny tiny shed--back and forth, back and forth)
50 knee raises from loft
50 push press, 40 lb db in one hand, 5 lb db in other--25 of 40 right, 5 left, 25 of 40 left, 5 right
50 supermans
50 thrusters, 40 lb db in one hand, 5 lb db in other--25 of 40 right, 5 left, 25 of 40 left, 5 right
50 burpees
50 tuck jumps

Notes: programming 50 burpees (ish) for the third straight day was pushing it a little bit; shoulder seized up 10 into the 50 and I called off on the burpees and finished with the tuck jumps. Knee raises from loft were a bit tough on the hands after the 50 jumping loft pullups, and I need to arrive at an accepted range of motion for those. Still, a tough WoD: 25:07 for the first 8 exercises plus 10 burpees, which was more or less the pace I was shooting for (3 minutes per exercise)

Glossary

An e-mail from good friend Dan yesterday re-reminded me that I've been meaning to put up a glossary of sorts: some of these entries are a little acronym and odd-word heavy (burpees, anyone????) and it's my intention to make this blog--and Woodshed Fitness in general--110% as user and reader-friendly as possible. So thanks Dan, and with that:

Terminology
WoD: Workout of the Day
Block: Unit of macronutrient measurement w/in Zone Diet--1 block protein is roughly 7 g protein, 1 block carbs is 9 g carbs, 1 block fat is 1.5 g fat
Paleo: shorthand for Paleolithic Diet protocol (FAQ here)--get rid of those damn dirty grains and sugars!
Metcon: short for Metabolic Conditioning--what the laypersons and priests might call Cardio. WoDs that get your heart rate going bananas are Metcons; coincidentally, a good post-metcon snack might include some bananas.

Exercises
Burpee: evil, sadistic, gym class holdover. These are killer but do-able, and brutally effective.
Clean: Olympic lift designed to pull heavy weight off the ground and into overhead press rack position via explosive hip action and quick elbows.
Jerk: Partner lift to the clean, meant to press a heavy load overhead via explosive hip drive and a pulling of the body under the bar.
Power: appended to the Clean or the Snatch, the word 'power' represents a lift caught with hips above parallel. One should be able to power clean or power snatch more weight than one can full squat clean or full squat snatch.
Push Press: exercise meant to push heavy weight overhead via quick hip dip and drive action. One does not pull under the bar as one does when jerking, but rather pushes weight into lockout position overhead while ending/landing exercise with straight legs.
Snatch: Olympic lift designed to pull heavy weight from ground into final lockout overhead.
Tabata: exercise protocol designed to exert effective muscle failure via 20 seconds on, 10 second off movements
Thruster: diabolical combo of squat and overhead press wherein the weight is actioned up via dint of explosive hip drive; for my money the best weight-bearing exercise going.

Shed Workout #3: Partner Revenge

Had the pleasure of my brother Jon's company yesterday. He's been Crossfitting on his own for about as long as I have (I'll get to that story, and its concomitant regret that we didn't start earlier on, later in the week), and with the shed being the shed, I had to cook up something spatially economical and partner-oriented for the biggest bang.

Enter Partner Revenge, based loosely on Freddy's Revenge, a Crossfit Games WOD from 2008. We don't have a barbell at our disposal yet--in fact we're still relegated to a sole 40 lb dumbbell--so I increased the rep scheme on the jerk/overhead portion and jumped the burpees to a max rep partner protocol like so:

"Partner Revenge"
4 rds for time
20 single-arm jerks, 40 lb dumbbell
max burpees while partner jerks

We hit this hard after a db swing/squat/pullup/burpee warmup and some PVC clean skill work, then finished with goblet squat holds in the bottom position. Great WOD and great to have Jon with us.

Planned Skill Work for Week:
Sunday: Clean work/getting height in clean
Monday: Hamstring stretch, core strength
Tuesday: Ring work (muscle up, false grip)
Thursday: Overhead stability, Jerks (rack position)
Friday: Handstands
Saturday: Clean work, handstands

Zoning the last two days has been a little tough: I've gotten some carbs from grains and some protein from dairy (though grassfed), and have felt a little more joint soreness than usual. Interesting. I think as I settle into it, I'll ramp the grains and dairy back down.

Weekend Links

Last night I ate half of a giant meat pizza and felt like complete crap afterwards. It was glorious, the optimal open meal: carby enough to make me feel sorta pneumatic for the rest of the night, junky enough that I feel well able to hit back to Zoning for the next few days before the next open meal. On that note, I'm going to try strict Zoning for a month. 17 blocks, across the board. May have to eat more fruit than I'm used to, but I'm going to really black box this and see how it affects body comp and performance.

Some links:
Jack LaLanne, 80 years old
Recovery from Jon Gilson of Again Faster and CFB
Poms and Blacks and Yum Yum
Thinking about trying this

Back tomorrow with a WOD, a skill work plan for the week, and some thoughts on warmups.

See you in the shed!

Scoreboard

Fans of losing teams who are fool enough to heckle their opponents are optimally met with this astringent, one word riposte:

"Scoreboard." As in, check out the scoreboard, doofus.

Similarly, there's a reason that Crossfit gyms the land over dot their mirrors and whiteboards with the day's WOD and its tally. Scoreboard. It's right there in your face--the day's work and, in due time, your results.

And if we're wired to hit things a little harder when we know the results are going up in lights, I'd say it's equally true we're wired to hit things exactly as prescribed when we've got our marching orders staring us head on...in writing, preferably in permanent marker.

To that end, I wussed out on this morning's shed workout. I'd gone out there after a quick ice detail in the driveway, intending to do yesterday's CFB breathing ladder: 1-20-1 dumbbell thrusters--albeit alternating arms between one 40 lb dumbbell and one 5 lb. I hit my clean warmup more or less as rx'd, though somewhat haphasardly, but didn't sustain the intensity requisite to completing the breathing ladder. At the round of 10 thrusters, my mind did that killing rational calculus designed to get the body out of dodge asap.

'A 1-10-1 breathing ladder's hard enough, your warmup went longer than usual, it's really cold out here and hell, you haven't eaten in 18 hours.' Wham...that was that and I went at the reduced, easier workout to completion. Lesson learned: scoreboard.

Maybe I still would have caved had I been staring down the WOD in writing, maybe not, but writing it out beforehand and tacking it to the wall would have given me more of a puncher's chance. Lesson learned: scoreboard.

Sleep: 7-7.5 hrs
WOD: clean warmup (clean pull, clean pull, clean w/PVC pipe--3x10), db thruster breathing ladder 1-10-1 (40 lb db one arm, 5 lb db other arm--alternate arms set to set), 3x15 sec hanging leg raises (skill: core strength and stability)
Food: 17x zone (yay almond butter!)

Recovery

Right now I'm looking to work out 5 times a week, on a 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off schedule. That means today's a rest day, and per usual on rest days, I'm torturing myself by looking at the posted workout at Crossfit Boston: a 1-20 dumbbell thruster breathing ladder.

'Damn, that looks great,' I'm thinking, 'maybe I should try to do that one in the shed.' I've got a dumbbell, I know how to do breathing ladders (1 rep of the exercise, 1 breath, 2 reps, 2 breaths, and so on up to 20), and it looks painful. But deviating from my plan for the week's workouts would introduce the element of instability, and that's such a slippery slope: work out today...maybe tomorrow I wake up not feeling so hot after the 4th consecutive WOD and I skip class, and that means I've got to rethink my plan to hit 5 WODs/this wk and set myself up on proper rest for the same routine next week.

Nah...later for that. 5 one-hour classes/WODs a week with 2 needed recovery days (I'm not sleeping super with a newborn and still hashing out my diet) is a smart, doable--and most importantly--repeatable routine for me right now.

But what I can do to scratch that itch is make sure I use today as an active rest day to hit one of the six areas I'm looking to build: hamstring flexibility (depth & upright torso in squats), pushups, core strength & stability, muscle ups (combo ring pullup and dip), verticality & extension on olympic lifts, and handstands. In fact, if I'm smart about it, I can hit two in one day: working my hammy flexibility means stretching them out, and that means getting them warm beforehand--the perfect job for a series of PVC pipe cleans to work on extension and verticality. Just like that, a workable plan for two areas of skill work, some active rest (great for recovery), and I've scratched that WODdy itch I was talking about.