Friday, April 29, 2016

Quick and easy

Man, I'm tired.  Yesterday was a lighter WOD, but then I kissed normal sleep goodbye with a marathon FIFA session.... don't judge me :P

And then I waited two more days to start writing again...

So, what had happened was... Squats.  I finally hit 20 in a row, no re-rack.  It was only the bar, but now I've done something for 20 reps.  Tonight, there is 20 reps again, for the final time, and I'm going to put some weight on the bar tonight and see what I can do for 20. 

The other thing we did was a 4 rounder of 6 sumo deadlifts at 185, and this this weird clockwise lunge...  so picture a clock, and keeping one foot planted, hit all 12 hand s of the clock.  Then do it again, counterclockwise, with the other leg. 

Like I said, and easy enough day.  Tonight, I'm going to hit that 20 again for more weight, and the rest of the stuff looks a bit like fluff, so I'm going to do some regular DL's, some presses, and some cleans. 

Monday, April 25, 2016

Soooo

About all that stuff Denis went over on Friday... yeah, got to do it first hand myself today.  These deadbugs hurt my quads... makes me wonder if I'm not doing it right... I know just the guy to ask ;)

This is going to be quick, I've got some strife to take care of, and frankly wasn't going to write tonight, but I was browsing back posts, looking for a photo...finally found it in the cloud.  Go fig.

We had 18 minutes of Tabata like hell.  I don't remember the times, but it was something like 2 minutes max effort strict pullups (which have fallen off in 6 months of neglect... go fig... again).  Then 30 sec on 30 off of wallballs, then more pullups, then burpees at that 30 on 30 off clip, and then one last 2 minute stretch of max effort pullups.

After that, it was a simple 12 minute AMRAP of rowing and situps.

Fun, but happy it's over.  Strained my tricep on my right arm I feel.  Pulling with all your might can do that... especially when all your might isn't enough, even with a band ;)

Now... I get to experience my first in box fight.  Teams 6 weeks out from Regionals, and two of the top people are off the team, and it's drama drama drama.  Very sad to see.  Don't think it will split the box, but two Alphas are going at it, so it's probably going to get messier before it gets better.  At this point is probably best to sit back and watch, rather than take sides.


Squat Therapy

What is Squat Therapy?  Great question.  I guess it really depends on how you define therapy.  LOL!  Apologies on the delay, should have written this Friday, or Saturday, or even Sunday... but we're here now, so we're moving forward.  

Friday was awesome and awful.  I was actually toying with the idea of not going.  It was a beautiful day, and I wasn't sure I was going to get there before class started.... but I went anyway, and got there way before class started.  Last Friday class I went to was at 530.  Now they're back on the normal schedule of the top of the hours.  So I got lots of time to stretch, warm up, etc.  Reminds me, as a type this, that I REALLY need to catch up with the doc.  I haven't seen in for a tune up in over a month, and my hips are in a bad spot.  Moving on. 

It was a small class, maybe not for Friday, but in general, and I understand.  I mean after 2 squat cycles, who really wants to go to something call squat therapy?  I do... mainly because I want to get better at squatting... and thats what I got.  My mechanics just got another major overhaul.  We were all squatting light-ish weight, and Brian came by one at a time to do individual coaching, things to work on.  For some, their knees were out, some in, some didn't put enough on the posterior chain.  For me, my knees went too far forward.  When Brian came buy, I did my best squat impersonation.  I came up on my toes a little, but I felt everything else was good.  HA!  It didn't take two reps for him to be like "I see what we need to work on".  Next thing I know, he's in front of me squatting, and has his hands out, he's like don't let your knees hit my hands.  What happened next was the most awkward squat (oh, yeah, he got me a box to squat to as well...), this was the most awkward squat of my life, trying to touch butt to box without my knees hitting his hands.  I failed, twice.  Took all the weight off the bar, tried again.  This time, however, he pushed my knees out while I was looking for the box with my butt.  Trying to come back up with my knees out, trying to fire the glutes for that push through... WOWOWOWOW.  It took two more, and I had to rack the bar.  I was shaking. 

I mean, it was like learning to walk again.  Exciting and exhausting at the same time.  After he'd coached everyone, he took those of us with common issues, and showed us some more things to work on to get these changes to stick.  For me, it was Romanian deadlifts, good mornings, and this wide knee'd KB "high pull".  As I write all this, my groin muscles are giving me some phantom sensations. 

Ok, so that was like 75% of the time.  The other 15 minutes was spent on an AMRAP of 30 wallball, 20 hand power cleans, 10 bar over burpees.  2 of my least favorite moves... and I'd just decimated my squats, and I wanted to reinforce the changes, so I was going to do my wallballs like that...   BRUH!  I mean like BRUH! 
It was amazingly bad.  Like I don't have the words to tell you about my suffering.  LOL.  I will say that my hang cleans we're nice and smooth, probably could have gone up in weight.  After what seemed like forever, the 15 minutes was over.  Usually I'm quick to clean up.  today, not so much.  Plus I was cleaning up the previous classes stuff, so there were extras everywhere. 

Now, normally thats the end of the story, but Dennis Dolan was in the house, and he helped me with my sheared calf muscles... and he's looking at possible shoes for me via his athletics contacts (curse you wide feet!).  Today, Dennis is working with the regional team athletes.  Some from our box, some from another one not terribly far away that we have a good relationship with. 

Dennis is like 5'5".  He's not terribly tall, but he's got a self-assuradness (word?) that grabs your attention, and a presentation style that keeps your attention.  I watched.... the entire bit.  I spent an hour watching this man coach 3 main warmups with athletes that are going to regionals.  I could have partaken with them, I'd have been welcomed, but I was in full on learn/observe mode.  As he made comments about this athlete or that athlete, I tried to see what he was seeing, and committed it to memory.  Posture queues, how the movements were supposed to look, etc. 

Really, I could type for a while on what I observed.  I wont, but it was awesome.  Felt like I owed someone $50 for this hour seminar.  Got it for freeeeeee though.  Dennis has worked with Powerline Athletics and several other high profile groups, and knows WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than I thought he did.  Not that I thought he was dumb or anything... best analogy, it's like knowing someone of Nate Robinson's size and stature, and knowing he can dunk....  and then actually seeing it in action.  The way he worked the room, worked the athletes, and taught... something I very much hope to emulate one day.

Ok, thats all I've got.  Yet another one that I don't have time to proof read before posting... hope to get to the gym tonight, need to get out of work early enough to stop by the house and pick up my gear.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Why do I always forget something...

I didn't think I'd be able to walk today.  Tuesday was a squat heavy day.  I mean, after last Wednesday, I thought there is no way I'd make it through.  Guess what, I made it!  And I can walk!

Before I get into that, I will say I did do some work this weekend.  Hammys were still a little tight come Saturday, when I went on a little 2.3 mile walk with my chiropractor buddy (who also gauged my interest in working his start up with him, super cool).  And then balled on Sunday.  Knees and ankles were sore come Tuesday, but it was fun and a great workout. 

Point of interest here, it's Thursday, and I'm sore... but not the owie my muscles hurt sore... it feels deeper than that, like I found another level of muscle to abuse... strange.  

 Alright, so Tuesday is a squat day.  20-10-10 apparently.  They've been on this for a bit, so everyone is comfortable with what they have to do.  I don't think I've chained 20 airsquats in a row, let alone real squats.  I can tell you know, days later, still haven't.  LOL.  But I will.  Even if it's just the bar next week, I'm going to get that 20.  My issues seem to focus around staying engaged mentally, and keeping solid core/solid form.  I think the best I got to was 13 with two 15# plates.  I can do this, I just need to do it... 

After that, there was a 3 part WOD, with 2 movements in each.  I don't have it in front of me, so I'm going off memory now, but it was something like 5 rounds of 8 box step ups with a dumbbell press at the top and then 8 burpee box jumps.  Tell you now, I scald the hell out of this... In reality, after watching Brandons coaching instruction, I should have used a shorter box... and then there is the burpee box jumps.  Didn't bother with the box jump part, I'll admit it....   Think I got to the end of my 4th round when we all moved on to the next thing, which was  4 rounds of 16 walking lunges and 20 situps.  Finished this one, but man alive I'm slow slow slow at situps.  Are they really that hard? 

Last round was 3 sets of 30 alternating one arm KB swings, and then 20 air squats.  Let me tell you, after all the squats I did, and tried to do, and the step ups, and the lunges... hahahaaha.  This was amazing.  I tried to just bang them out 4 or 5 at a time, in an ASAP method.  It worked ok.  The killer was the KB swings to be honest.  I probably went too heavy, but man, my obliques would hurt before I got to 10.  I realize that is probably a periphery benefit of doing one armed ones, or maybe I rotated to much and made it more ab like, but holy cow that was something else. 

That was that. 

It was awesome to get back in the box, and it was a pretty BA workout.  I really wanted to get back to it yesterday (Wed), but around 330 or so, not long after lunch, it felt like something was trying to dig its way out of my stomach.  Nausea, pain, general uneasiness...   I have no problem working out when I don't feel 100%, but this felt like I was 100% for sure going to puke... and I'd like to keep my "I've never puked" streak going.... I mean, when I finally post a sub 4 minute Fran, I can puke all day, thats fine, but I'm not going to pop that cherry because my stomach hurts. 

I actually went home and took a nap, still felt like ass all night.  Felt better this morning sans a headache.  Thinking it might be this work coffee I'm drinking with coconut oil.  I say that because my stomach is kinda achy now... and I had my coffee late yesterday too... who knows, so long as it's fine by WOD time. 

Alright, misc things.  I still miss DE... I really do need to look at moving, or at least visiting.  Prolly wait till I've actually lost a full hundo.  Can't go back empty handed.

Setting up a weight loss comp with my boys, $20 buy in.  Want to make this a competition, and get me that motivation.

Still getting around to doing vlogging with a FB pages, might integrate the 'gram as well. 

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Friday, April 15, 2016

So this is what staring over feels like...

Ok, didn't make it that Tuesday.  Spent most of the afternoon/evening in the bathroom, either at work or home... it wasn't pretty, we'll leave it at that.

Did make it Wednesday.  WOD Wednesday.  Oh boy.  I haven't felt like that since my first day of CrossFit.  And in a lot of ways, it was my first day of CrossFit.  Put it to you like this, I was wobbling in the middle of workouts, going from one spot to another.  It felt like when Gia had me trying out the different squat positions our fist day.  Here it is two days later, and I'm struggling to go downstairs still.... I even bought a foam roller from home use.... still having problems.  Oof.

Really, we hit a lot of stuff.  We did some medball tossing (overheard, torso twist, torso twish with a push if that makes sense) and some medball situps.  Then there was a nice AMRAP of hang power snatches at a "light weight" of 75lbs.  My lord, when did that get so heavy...   hang snatches and single/double unders.  This belly man... it hurts when I jump rope now.  Slaps hard... very tender.  And the snatches... like I said, we're incredibly heavy.  I was able to do most of them with solid form, but had I been lazy about it, it would have ended badly. 

Next was a 400m run or row and then 15 OHS squats.  I'd already rowed a fair bit in warming up... 1500m?  And when I got to the rower again, my lord was it hard.  The quads were like "na breh, no mas".  Did it anyway, but when it came to the OHS... I did two, and they didn't feel right.  "Yo Reggie, come tell me how bad these are".  Did one.  "About a quarter".  WHAT?!?!.... Reggie, my man, I've got a big backside, you sure?  He just smiled and was like yeah.  Ok, let me try this.  Went as low as I've ever gone.  "Perfect".  !@#$   This was as low as I think I can go... needless to say, this AMRAP was awful.  I wasn't wearing my lifters, and I could feel my right heel coming up just a little, so Brandon grabbed some wafer thin plate to put under my heels to simulate lifters.  Don't think it hurt anything, but it probably didn't help either....  guess I just need to decide if I'm going to use the lifters as full on WOD shoes or not.  I was trying the Sketchers back out as I could run easier in them, and they don't really have a drop... we'll see what happens.

Last WOD was 10 good mornings with the barbell, 10 toes to bar, or situps.  I got through 4 rounds and was done.  Next day, hammys, abs, obliques, quads, even shoulders... all smoldering.  IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK!!!   Pain and all.  I've got a big smile on my face.  It doesn't feel good physically, but mentally and emotionally, I'm in a happy place.  Hope you have a great weekend, I'm out. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Coming Soon... again.

It's been an excuse filled month.  Family caught influenza A over 16.3, I didn't, but was a carrier, didn't want to pass that mess to anyone else.  Week later, caught bronchitis myself, last 5 days.  Sucked.  Missed 16.4.  Missed 16.5 due to a lack of transportation, two weeks without a working car. 

Now, these are all pretty valid reasons, but when you're actually driven, this are minor obstacles trying to get in your way.  I've been completely unmotivated, and having these keep me away from the box is frankly unacceptable.  Could have  at least been working on the FB page I keep talking about ( I do keep making short vids for it though)..... but I've been neglecting that too.  In short, I've regressed.  I'm not back up to my starting weight (not really sure where I am exactly), but I'm up about 20lbs, which, after 6+ months of limited workouts, isn't a shock... but I'm tired of being a fatty.  This is the end of my second year, and I've lost all progress from this point last year.

We're turning that around today.  Hitting up On Track this afternoon, first class in a month.  Surprisingly nervous to get back to my fitness family.  Shame, guilt, failure... lots of emotions would try to keep me away one more day, but this is too important to fail at.  Top it all off, found out my mom has cancer this last weekend.  She has an encouraging prognosis, getting a hysterectomy done, should catch it all as it's stage 1 and very very early according to the docs, we'll see.  I need to use things like this to motivate me to be better than I've been.  Seeing me get smaller and in better shape will lift my mother up... Positive vibes and feelings have been shown to impact the health of patients, so I want to do extra to help dear ol' momma. 

Back to me though.  Getting back to WoDs, I'm past ready.  Got soft hands again, need to fix that.  Have a potential two a day scenario unfolding for the coming weeks.  Buddy is on a Wendler lifting program, might jump in with him, he comes back to this work campus next week, and there is a gym on premise.  Think I can get away with some lifting and then doing CF stuff.  Talk to coach about it tonight.