Cross-Fit Day 3: Handstands.....REALLY?

Well I walked into Cross-Fit today and checked out the board to see what we were going to be put through.  The one thing I was actually nervous about finally showed up, handstands.  I am sure the majority of you out there would not understand what it is like for someone 6'3" to do a handstand.  Short people (under 6' tall).....make me sick!

So as usual we started out with the DROM and back extensions.  We learned how to do Superman's which was a streatch to get us ready to learn Kipping.  We all did 500m rows at the same time, which I excelled at because I am the only person in my class over 6' tall.  I have to be honest, it was tough....I started to fell like I did at the end of my first class.  I could hear myself breathing hard which annoyed me because I am only 10 minutes into the class.

We next learned the basic motions of Kipping which is basically a form of a pull-up where you use all of your body:



Next was jumping pull-ups, that is sort of self explanatory.  Last was walking lunges which I learned here in a few minutes I need to strengthen my legs!

The WOD

 

3 rounds for time:

200m Run

12 Walkng lunges

10 Jump pull-ups

 

So that means we had to do them in order 3 times.  I came in middle of the pack but I was moving on that last 200m.  I caught the girl in front of me, she probably thought I was going to eat her because of how loud I was breathing as I passed her.  I have to admit I am pretty disgusting when I do any running.

 

So now onto the dumb handstands :-(  Here is how they are supposed to look:

 

I decided to be the first one to try these because I knew I was going to have some issues.  So attempt after attempt I tried to flip onto the wall and every time it looked like my arms and legs were all over the place.  After about 6 attempts I finally got my heels to stick to the wall.  Unfortunately I did not lock my left arm so I came tumbling down on my shoulder.  I am glad I did not hurt myself but it is going to take me some time to learn how to do those.  Oh..everyone else in my call (all under 6') were able to do it after 2 or 3 attempts.  So I decided to do it again....I didn't even come close to completing one of them...ugh.

Cross-Fit Day 3: Where are the chicks? (Last Friday)

It looks like the girls in the class were intimidated by my muscular body because they decided to take the morning class instead of the Friday afternoon class.  I don't blame them....I am just that good looking....ok not really.

So today we did our normal buy-in DROM (dynamic range of motion) but add some wrist stretches, back work and an intro to rowing.  We ended the buy-in with a 200 meter run out on the street....I cannot wait to get hit by a car :-(   We worked on rowing for a few minutes then did a 200 meter row to work on our form.  I felt I did well with this because I have the length to do some long rows.

We then reviewed dead lifts which I forgot how to do for some reason so that took a few reps to get back into it.  We next worked on understanding what a thruster was by going over front rack position, then a front squat then the actual thruster.  The thruster is hard for me because I have always been told to be on my toes or on the balls of my feet.  Exercises like the thruster or squat I need to stay on my heels.  It is going to take a while for the muscle memory to set in.

Here is a picture of a thruster:

The WOD consisted of 3 rounds for time - 200 meter row & 10 thrusters:
My results:

Round 1 - 1:56 (Walked from the row machine over to the thruster rack and lost time)
Round 2 - 1:39 (Really concentrated on the rowing.  I screwed up the thrusters badly)
Round 3 - 1:32 (Rowing went well, thrusters were 10x better.)

No cash-out today.

I talked with the trainers for a while after class about understanding squats/thrusters/whatever.  I need to unlock my hips first then start to squat down.  I seem to be keeping my knees in and that is messing up my squat.  Oh well.....lets see what happens tomorrow.

Cross-Fit Day 2: That wasn't so bad!

I guess they saw me almost passing out last class because this class was not so bad.  The trainers stressed form instead of actually trying to kill me.  We started out with a review of what we did on Monday for the warm up and added the Samson Stretch:

I can say it was hard to hold that for 20 seconds 2 different times.  I am just not flexible enough to do a lot of these type of exercises yet.  I really hope as I continue to try cross-fit I become more flexible!

The next few exercises we learned were the dead lift, press and push press.  I actually did pretty well at those.  We only used the bar so we could work on our form and try to understand how not to get injured.

Next was the WOD:

8 min round of
1. 10 dead lifts

2. 10 DB push press
(alternate between the two for 8 minutes)

I got approx. 12 rounds as the board says above and yes some of the girls did beat me but they are not 6' tall either.  It is so much easier for smaller people to do these exercises.  Towards the end of the 8 minutes I could feel my back tightening up, probably because I was doing something wrong so I called the trainer over to watch my form.  He showed me that I needed to straighten my back out more over the bar when I was doing the dead lifts.  He was right, my back started to feel much better after that.

I am not sure what to expect Friday...something tells me they are going to take us to hell and back since it is the weekend.

Can't wait!!



Cross-Fit Day 1: I want to die!

So last night I attended my first Cross-fit class.  This class was called "On-Ramp" which is for beginners to learn the basics and ease their way into the real classes.  It is three days a week and goes on for a month,  There were two girls along with myself in the class. We had two trainers who were watching over us to make sure we had proper form.

We first did the warm up which consisted of the trainers showing us how to do proper squats, push-ups, mountain climbers, leg swings and ring pull-ups. This last about 15 minutes of actual exercise since we all screwed up various motions...like squats.  My dumb slouch killed me on those.  I had to keep my back as straight as possible and push my hips back as far as I could..GOOD TIMES.

So now the WOD (workout of the day)

200 meter run

15-12-9  (we had to do 15 reps of the following three, then 12 reps, then 9 reps)
Squats
Push-ups
Ring pull-ups (not the right wording)

200 meter run

The WOD was timed...I came in last :-(  Little did I know that the two girls have actually done it before.  I think I finish in 8 minutes...I took me a while to complete the push-ups...ugh.

The "cash out" as it is called (sort of like a cool down.....but not really).
4 minutes of:
20 seconds mountain climbers
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds of sit-ups
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds mountain climbers
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds of sit-ups
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds mountain climbers
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds of sit-ups
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds mountain climbers
10 seconds of rest
20 seconds of sit-ups

We then we outside to talk about diet...the trainer thought I was going to pass out or throw up.
I was not going to but that was as close as I have ever got to being sick from working out.  I drove home and laid on the floor for about 25 minutes WANTING TO DIE.

Cannot wait for Wednesday!

Monday Morning Weigh-in & Cross-fit starts today!

Well it looks like I  have gained even more weight since the last time I weighed in:

Weight: 236.5
Goal: 218

I was around 218 this time last year and it felt great.  I am glad I only have around 18lbs to lose instead of the 32lbs I had to lose last year to get to 218.

I start my Cross-fit training today at http://crossfitsouthhills.com/.  If you need a good laugh give it a look every now and then.  I hear they love to take pictures of the new people in class.  I have really high hopes for the rest of this month!  I plan on getting my diet back to where it needs to be.  It is always so much easier when I am working out.

Other upcoming events:

Montour 1/2 Marathon
Erie 1/2 Marathon
The Great Race - Pittsburgh (10K)

Going to be tough.

Satuday fun day

So last Saturday I ran with Dunn on the Montour Trail near USC in Pittsburgh.  It was pretty terrible since I have not run over 5.5 miles since the Pittsburgh Marathon in May.  We did 5.2 miles down hill (47 min) and 5 miles up hill (49 min).  It felt great to get back out there and do some real running.