On another note, it looks like your 500m record is safe for the time being. I haven’t been doing any rowing except when running is part of the WOD, so my training has been fairly sparse. Did you train specifically to get the 1:31 or was that just a result of crossfit? I’ve realized there’s a big difference between 1:39 and 1:31!!
[/quote]
Just on a lark, I’d been rowing a 500’s as a warmup for a few weeks trying to follow the advice being given on the Crossfit site about proper rowing.
There is a huge difference between even a 1:30 and a 1:31. It’s like the first minute is great then the last 31 seconds I’m barely hanging on for dear life! haha
[quote]JohnnyNinja wrote:
As an aside, can you explain why cross-fitters seem to catch the clean and do their front squats with their elbows down and their wrists acting as the support for the bar instead of getting their elbows under and then upfront and catching on their shoulders with upper arms parallel to the floor (IE the “proper” Olympic way)?
Just seems so potentially hazardous to the joints (and possibly dropping it). Is it the light weight used, is it just fatigue from doing so many reps and for time? Again it seems potentially dangerous, but on the flip side I don’t see many injuries (I’ve only followed crossfit thru videos and threads, I don’t have any real world experience with it.)
Sorry for the hijack but I figured since you are going along with it you may know.[/quote]
Lot of factors here:
Bad form
doing the power version as opposed to the full, not an excuse but often when doing power cleans you don’t always full rack it.
inexperience with real Olympic weightlifting see number 1.
They are doing thrusters, which actually calls for a fucked up form to do it successfully. You are supposed to hold it in the front rack position and then transtion to the press but it makes it really awkward so for thrusters often people have this halfway between racking and pressing position.
Fatigue is a bitch, also not an excuse but on things like Elizabeth, 21 cleans at a 135 pounds gets hard fast and on some reps you get it up but it’s not correct.
There are CrossFit injuries as there is a whole injury section on the Message Board there. Mostly it’s overuse injuries in the elbow that seem to dominate things there.
ah, thanks Backlash. I didn’t know if maybe there was a reasoning I didn’t understand behind it. Yes the Thruster version makes sense, especially as seen under the lens of “doing it for time”. Whatever works, it just always struck me when I watched videos, looks painful.
Sorry for being a crossfit, been mad busy with school/finals/etc. Was at the library from 3p-1.45a yesterday. Will get back into it soon.
When I have made it to the gym, I’ve been doing the Angie workout (100 each of pullups [I use bent-over db rows], pushups, sit-ups, and squats) for conditioning, and a workout of 5x3 cleans and 6x5 DL’s, all with 60 seconds rest between sets.
Hopefully get back on track soon.
Thirteen, looks like things are going well. How is tanimal?
[quote]JohnnyNinja wrote:
As an aside, can you explain why cross-fitters seem to catch the clean and do their front squats with their elbows down and their wrists acting as the support for the bar instead of getting their elbows under and then upfront and catching on their shoulders with upper arms parallel to the floor (IE the “proper” Olympic way)?
Just seems so potentially hazardous to the joints (and possibly dropping it). Is it the light weight used, is it just fatigue from doing so many reps and for time? Again it seems potentially dangerous, but on the flip side I don’t see many injuries (I’ve only followed crossfit thru videos and threads, I don’t have any real world experience with it.)
Sorry for the hijack but I figured since you are going along with it you may know.[/quote]
Well, I know more than a few crossfitters who rack the bar correctly. We had an olympic lifting certification at our gym a month ago, with Brugener (I wasn’t there). I would imagine it would be pretty hard to rack the bar incorrectly after spending a weekend with him.
But I know what you’re talking about - I see it a lot as well. Partly down to 2 reasons, I think:
they do a lot of thrusters. Even though these “look like” fronts squats with an overhead press, you’re wrists won’t thank you if you rack the bar the conventional way (as I learned the hard way). You basically have to go “elbows down”. See my first post on this thread for more details on that.
with the amount of weight some crossfitters use, it really doesn’t matter
9 tests completed (out of 15, not counting bodycomp/anthro’s), 8 have increased anywhere from 2.5-33%.
One, Bench Press, has gone down by 15lb (5.6%) over the 8 weeks. Kinda disappointing, but really, what did I expect having done bench only once?
Best improvement so far was going from 308x9 on the deadlift to 308x12…
Oh, and Tmoney, tanimal’s doing well - getting back on the bike and building strength back up in the weight room. Okay, off to watch epsiodes of “the Office” haha.
The bench press going down is pretty expected in anyone that had any training prior to doing CrossFit. It seems to me the only people that actually improve their bench while CrossFitting are those that are beginners.
Good work.
I’ve been incorporating short metcon’s on my “rest days” and at the end of my workouts. We’ll see where this gets me.
Hey I know you like using the rower, so try this one on for size, from the Catalyst Athletics WOD on 7th of May.
For time:
200 m row
10 push ball - 10% BW
300 m row
10 KB swings - 35% BW
400 m row
10 ball slams - 15% BW
500 m row
I did it in 7:39 with the following modifications due to equipment available after my regular workout.
20# MB on push ball which is ~11%BW
55# KB on swings which is ~29%BW
20# MB on slam ball which is ~11%BW
Not a bad one, the 500m at the end sucked a little.
[quote]Backlash79 wrote:
Hey I know you like using the rower, so try this one on for size, from the Catalyst Athletics WOD on 7th of May.
For time:
200 m row
10 push ball - 10% BW
300 m row
10 KB swings - 35% BW
400 m row
10 ball slams - 15% BW
500 m row
I did it in 7:39 with the following modifications due to equipment available after my regular workout.
20# MB on push ball which is ~11%BW
55# KB on swings which is ~29%BW
20# MB on slam ball which is ~11%BW
Not a bad one, the 500m at the end sucked a little.[/quote]
“Like” the rower is a bit of a strong statement More like, I appreciate its merits and the workout that it puts one through, plus it’s always a challenge!
That workout looks pretty good - push ball is the same as wallball? I like some of these shorter metcons - I can go well up to about 10 minutes, and survive 20, but anything above that and I drop off pretty rapidly…
I haven’t read the whole thread, so sorry if this has been answered, but have you noticed any differences in the way you feel or look? Particularly, any more or less energetic or athletic feeling than you were before you started? Can you see the 1% gain in bf?
I’m not trying to be too specific, I’m just curious about the off-paper or subjective results of this experiment.
I haven’t read the whole thread, so sorry if this has been answered, but have you noticed any differences in the way you feel or look? Particularly, any more or less energetic or athletic feeling than you were before you started? Can you see the 1% gain in bf?
I’m not trying to be too specific, I’m just curious about the off-paper or subjective results of this experiment.[/quote]
For the BF, as far as I’m concerned at my range, variations within 2% really don’t make much of a difference (measurement error can be this much or more) - I actually FEEL like I am more muscular (i.e. leaner with bigger muscles) although that isn’t evidenced by the calipers. My arms did go up in size, which is a surprise to me. In all honesty as well, my diet really hasn’t been great although I did expect a drop in % just due to increased intensity of work.
As for all of the subjective stuff, the answer is a definite YES… I have tons more energy on a daily basis, my work capacity (i.e. ability to work hard for longer durations and recover faster between hard efforts) has increased dramatically. I went from feeling like absolute trash after some of the metcon’s to recovering fully within 3-4minutes post.
Before I began crossfit, if I was asked to do heavy deadlifts to “failure” (see my rep strength with 308), I would have been sore for probably around 5 days post. This time around, I felt like I could go back the next day and do the same over again. Overall, my body is just way more resilient, and I like the way that feels.
I will say this though - there is a definite break-in period that is tough mentally and physically. I charged into it a bit too hard and really had to work my recovery modalities to keep my body in working order. I highly recommend following the scaled-down versions of the workouts for the first 4-6 weeks.
Was feeling good about deadlifts, been really going up well lately and today it was time to post test.
Opened with 140kg (308), went to 160 (352), 175 (385), 180 (396) then decided to go 22lb heavier for my final lift…
190kg, 418lb! Really happy with that one as my all time PB was only 385.
Also did my “repetition strength” bench press. At pretest, I chose to use my bodyweight (195), so I stuck with that weight instead of bumping it up to 200 (as current bodyweight is 198.5 - round up). Weight felt good and I banged out 12 reps - same as pretest!
I find it interesting how my max has dropped a full 15lb but my ability to hit moderate-heavy weights has remained…
Only a few more tests to go: 500m row, the bike step test (aerobic), and squat 1RM. I might squat next week though and hit the other tests tomorrow.
Sorry I pooped out on you as of late because of school and work, but school is done and one of my jobs ends tomorrow, so I’ll have more time to train, so I should be back in the saddle soon enough on the thread (unless you’re closing out the thread).
[quote]
That workout looks pretty good - push ball is the same as wallball? I like some of these shorter metcons - I can go well up to about 10 minutes, and survive 20, but anything above that and I drop off pretty rapidly…[/quote]
Simliar, it’s like a push press with a ball, so you don’t drop into a squat like in wall-ball.
wall ball like a thruster
push ball like a push press
[quote]
That workout looks pretty good - push ball is the same as wallball? I like some of these shorter metcons - I can go well up to about 10 minutes, and survive 20, but anything above that and I drop off pretty rapidly…[/quote]
Simliar, it’s like a push press with a ball, so you don’t drop into a squat like in wall-ball.
wall ball like a thruster
push ball like a push press
[quote]Thirteen wrote:
More results and an all-time PR!!!
Was feeling good about deadlifts, been really going up well lately and today it was time to post test.
Opened with 140kg (308), went to 160 (352), 175 (385), 180 (396) then decided to go 22lb heavier for my final lift…
190kg, 418lb! Really happy with that one as my all time PB was only 385.
Also did my “repetition strength” bench press. At pretest, I chose to use my bodyweight (195), so I stuck with that weight instead of bumping it up to 200 (as current bodyweight is 198.5 - round up). Weight felt good and I banged out 12 reps - same as pretest!
I find it interesting how my max has dropped a full 15lb but my ability to hit moderate-heavy weights has remained…
Only a few more tests to go: 500m row, the bike step test (aerobic), and squat 1RM. I might squat next week though and hit the other tests tomorrow.[/quote]
Thanks man, pretty happy about it. \no rowing for me though yet - ended up cycling to and from a couple of work sites and spent 70minutes in the saddle on a hot day… killed me off pretty good. i’m on a little vacation this weekend (long weekend here in BC) but will hit up that 500 early next week. \i’ll video it so regardless of whether \i get it or not, there’ll be a record of it!
I’ve done CrossFit for a while (3 months) and It bumped up my work capacity greatly. I actually hoped for this so I could work up to productive 2-a-days. Needless to say it has worked extremely well. I still CrossFit twice a week to maintain that work capacity (and that mental edge you need to do CrossFit) and then focus my efforts on other aspects.
More like, I appreciate its merits and the workout that it puts one through, plus it’s always a challenge!