Category: Crossfit WOD Type Workouts

Round 4 Day 14 – WOD Chesty

So last night I decided just as I was leaving work to do the actual WOD from the Crossfit Aurora Site since I had already done a Fran and a Cindy and didn’t have the time to hand pick another named workout. The WOD was as follows and since I liked it and will be doing it again I’m going to call her Chesty:

Chesty

50 Double Unders (since I don’t have a rope I did 50 tuck jumps instead same as power jumps in Insanity)
Rest 3 min
4 Rounds of:
21 burpees
15 Ring Dips (I have a dip stations for these)

My biggest problem with both Insanity and the WODs is the fact that getting to my feet from laying down a la burpee has been almost impossible for me since my back surgery. Not only that, but the fatness doesn’t help either. However, last night I found that when I used dumbbells instead of putting my hands on the floor I could actually do the movement. So for the first time in almost 10 years I did some burpees last night.

Save your wrist, enable the burpees within!

The workout itself is short but tough just like many of the WODs. In total I think I was done the actual workout part in around 13.5 minutes not including the double unders. I do find it weird though that I push myself far harder doing the Crossfit workouts than I do during either the Insanity or the P90X workouts. Maybe it is the time factor, maybe just being set free from the schedule of the workout although I haven’t actually gone at the DVD pace for a long time now with Tony. I am not sure, all I do know is that these workouts are crazy short and crazy tough… and I am picking the easy ones!!

Round 4 Day 14 – The Last 2 and Officially Paleo

I did Shoulders and Arms last night with Tony. I actually skipped the last section because I was feeling a bit off. Maybe it is the change in my diet, not having the sugar and processed grains really means a weird effect on your energy levels. I have done this before, prior to my wedding in 2007 I spent the whole summer off wheat and actually toyed for a while with completely raw food. However, I am many things, not least of which is a meat eater. I am not sorry, I won’t apologise for it and I refuse to be strong-armed by the passive aggressive vegan idiots who say meat is murder and whatever other amusing catch phrases they have come up with. Dog on a plate? , are you having a laugh? They eat dog in Korea. It’s all a matter of perspective and the fact is that without the meat eating public, there wouldn’t be enough food to go around, especially if the Organic wannabes have their way and get rid of the food industry giants that are keeping us all alive. But I digress.
My menu of choice then is Paleo. For the last 4 days in fact I have been completely grain free and apart from the usual headache and lethargy that accompanies any major change in diet it hasn’t been bad. When I went on the brown rice diet in 07 to isolate what it was that was making me so sick I found the same. About a week of feeling horrible and then almost as if coming out of a cocoon I felt awesome. I also found out that I have an intolerance for both wheat and naturopaths. So I quit both and have been more aware of my issues ever since. I am not going to sugar coat things here, it is VERY hard to get off grains especially if you are going all out and basically just eat fruit, veg and protein. It seems like everything you see is grain based and that is very true. But if you can start off and then work at finding things you can eat, you really can make it work and I can’t even begin to explain how good you will feel off that white processed powder, er, flour. Sadly I have other issues. I am almost completely intolerant of the nightshade family that includes peppers, potato and tomatoes. Potato isn’t too bad but if I eat a little raw tomato my acid reflux becomes so bad it almost incapacitates me. Peppers make me fart but happily hot sauce of which I am a HUGE fan doesn’t seem to have the same effect. So for now I am off potato too. Believe me, this couldn’t be harder but I think in a month when I look back, I will at least have more information about my body and how it reacts than I do now.

Today is my Crossfit workout and I haven’t decided what yet. If I can’t decide I think it may be Fran again this time with dumbells to take the strain off my wrists.

Round 4 Day 12 – I Hate Cindy (and a throwback to day 4)

So Day 9 was as promised, a version of Cindy however I only managed 15 minutes not the full 20. After 1 round I felt like I was going to die. I managed 13 rounds in the 15 minutes. It was odd though, I thought my chest would explode after 2 rounds but then I think my brain shut off to protect me from myself and suddenly there was 2 minutes to go. My heart rate hasn’t been that high in a VERY long time. I think I was over 160bpm for almost the whole thing!

I found a piece of paper this morning with my workout from Day 4 and realized that I had inadvertently done what I had interpreted as Fran. I was disappointed since this week I had it in my head that I was over Cindy and moving to Fran but now I have to find another partner.

FWIW these are the “real” versions of Cindy and Fran:

Cindy

AMRAP 20 minutes

5 pull-ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats (Air Squats)

Fran

For time (I am not sure how they measure the required weights however)

21 thrusters
21 pull-ups
15 thrusters
15 pull-ups
9 thrusters
9 pull-ups

As I stated at the top, Cindy almost crushed me but surprised me at how high I could get my HR to go and also surprised me at how proud I was of myself even though I had only managed 15 minutes not the full 20.

I can tell, I am going to be inventing my own versions, naming them after people I detest and touting them as the “I once had and injury so I can’t do burpees” versions for the still tentative crowd.

P90X / Insanity / CrossFit / Weights – Round 4 Tentative Schedule

I am going to try to work in some Crossfit type WOD workouts in with my Beachbody stuff. Not only that, I have incorporated Gym days as well as P90X days to give me the best of both worlds. Since I have a bench for chest and shoulders I may as well get it used, not only that, it will help me to maintain my strength as well as the flexibility and bodyweight work from the DVDs. I find that having done this for a while that I miss the heavy weights of bench and shoulder press. I miss the massive pump that I get from doing free weights and since I have the ability to work it in, I am going to schedule it as part of Round 4. Having said that, here is the tentative schedule for the next 90 days. You will notice that I have opted to do a 4 on 1 off rotation. I find that doing these workouts is extremely hard on the body and you really do need to schedule more than one day a week off if you are mixing up the workouts together. I find that if I don’t I will get to around 8 or 10 days and suddenly be unable to do the workout and end up taking 2 days off or more. That is not productive in any way so I will try to get the rest I need while still maintaining the work rate. I hace also scheduled a “rest week” to give me a break from the monotony. This is subject to change, obviously, but for now, I think this looks like a fun way to get me to Christmas.

ROUND 4 – P90X / Insanity / WOD /Freeweight  Mix

(Modified after day 28 – Too Much Chest In Phase 2)

1P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
2Plyometric Cardio Circuit
3P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
4WOD with Pullups
5OFF
6GYM Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
8GYM Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
9WOD with Pullups
10OFF
11P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
12Pure Cardio
13P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
14WOD with Pullups
15OFF
16GYM Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
17Plyometric Cardio Circuit
18GYM Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
19WOD with Pullups
20OFF
21P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
22Cardio Power and Resistance
23P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
24WOD with Pullups
25OFF
26Core Cardio and Balance
27Core Synergistics
28Core Cardio and Balance
29P90X Chest & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
30Max Interval Plyo
31P90X Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
32WOD with Pullups
33GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
34Pure Cardio
35OFF
36GYM  Chest and Triceps
37WOD with Pullups
38GYM Back & Biceps
39Pure Cardio
40GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
41WOD with Pullups
42OFF
43P90X Chest & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
44Pure Cardio
45P90X Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
46WOD with Pullups
47GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
48Max Interval Plyo
49OFF
50FOY Yoga
51Core Cardio and Balance
52Core Synergistics
53FOY Yoga
54OFF
55WOD with Pullups
56Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
57Max Cardio
58Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
59OFF
60WOD with Pullups
61Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
62Max Interval Plyo
63Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
64OFF
65WOD with Pullups
66Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
67Max Interval Circuit
68Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
69OFF
70WOD with Pullups
71Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
72Max Cardio
73Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
74OFF
75WOD with Pullups
76Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
77Max Interval Circuit
78Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
79OFF
80P90X Fit Test & Insanity Fit Test
81Max Rep Pullups 10 min max
825K Timed Run
83Max Rep Bench 10 min max
84FINISH!!

Round 3 – Day 82. Crossfit-ish Legs and Back

My personal WOD for legs and back today, I call it the 1115.

4 Rounds of:

10 air squats (technically still perfecting them so 10 with good form will do)
10 Pull ups
10 Jump Ups (12/16/18/24″)
5 Pullups

I was beat by the end, I actually wanted to do another set but realized that my legs were getting wobbly and jumping up onto my deck with legs like that one more time may result in my face meeting my DIY project. I have to admit, even though it only took about 20 minutes to complete it really did feel like a good workout. My heart rate was over 160 which is rare for me and a true indicator that the intensity was where it should have been.

The air squats are tough since you have to go below horizontal and in the  past that has thrown my back out so I was a little nervous. Also, there is a great deal of technique to them and I am sure that given the shortness of my hamstrings and the tightness of my ITB that my technique is far from perfect. In fact I think I am victim of the “famous” butt wink.

All I can do is keep trying, do my best and what? (silence)…( my favourite part of the P90X series… You can almost hear the crickets.)

From the Crossfit site, a short demo of the air squat: Air Squat

What’s Next? Round 4 Spitballing

September 7 2010

So I am starting to think about Round 4 and what it will entail. Since I am a big fan of Fitbomb I have taken a shine to the Crossfit methodology and even though I wouldn’t be able to do some of the movements due to my back surgery I still think that I could hit 2 out of 7. That is all I would need to get me started on something like this:

Day 1: P90X Workout
Day 2: Crossfit WOW (workout of the week choice)
Day 3: Insanity Workout
Day 4: P90X Workout
Day 5: Crossfit WOW
Day 6:  Insanity Workout
Day 7: Rest

There will have to be some kind of adjustment to the bodyparts I would work, part of me thinks that I can skip the leg workouts from P90 if I am doing both Insanity and CF. I would need to work Chest, Back, Shoulders and Arms over the 2 day split realizing that the WOW would probably then have to work something different if possible. I would still try to break it down into a 90 day session which given occasional days off (Thanksgiving weekends, parents visiting etc.) should run me well into the Christmas season. I still have almost 2 weeks of Round 3 to go and it is my mission to get this Fitness Melange organized in time to start right at the end of Round 3.

What is the philosophy behind round 4? Well, I think the ability to incorporate some running is the main focus. Also, being able to avoid burning out on Tony and Shaun is critical. The more I work out with them, the more I want to get out and see how fit I am doing other things after all, what is the point in getting fit if you aren’t going to test yourself once you get there? I think that a large part of doing a WOW will be to show off the shape I am in from doing P90X and Insanity. Plus there is something visceral about working out outside, lifting things that aren’t dumbbells or barbells and getting to grip with yourself without the aid of a TV personality.