Tag: deadlift

WOD, OLY and Bootcamp Bodyweight (Making Stuff Up)

Friday at the end of training we did a 20 round version of Chelsea, however since I have injured shoulders among my athletes there was some modification happening. I did chinups, pushups and squats but my girls (at least some) did VSnaps, handstands and squats. It was a 20 minute one per minute thing and I am happy to say we ALWAYS finish with at least 20 seconds to go. I remember the first few times I tried this and I would run out of time around about round 15 and never managed to get further than round 21. Now I would easily be able to make 30 in 30 although I have yet to try!

I went into work from midnight until 5am on Sunday morning after having rested all day Saturday in preparation. It didn’t really matter, I was still insanely tired on Sunday but I managed to crank out 100 deadlifts and 100 squats with 95lbs in around 20 minutes.

I am also trying to build a decent ab workout for bootcamp, I have some variations but nothing really bootcamp worthy.

So rather than rely on stuff I could find, I thought I would make some stuff up and see how they handled it.

Here’s the rundown, if you want to know what side rocker runners are, you will just have to email me and ask.

x2
10 full crunch
10 regular pushups
10 curl up to bar
10 pullups
10 side crunch

x2
20 leg up crunch
10 military pushups
10 mb situp double twist
10 pullups
10 hanging leg raise

x2
10 side plank leg raise / toe touch
10 spider each side
20 MB shelf stacker 10 per side
10 front lunge
40 side rocker runners each side

x2
40 running backs each arm
10 clap pushups
10 leg cross under hip touch floor each side
10 pullups alternate hands
20 wall sit mb side touch

x2
10 falling towers mb under butt
10 plyo pushup
30 second superman plank each
10 chest pullups
20 flutters low and middle only

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
5 Worlds slowest burpee with clap

 

10.66-69 – My Olympic Lifting Days

Since I moved my bar up to the garage and have bumper plates that I can get decent weights with I am now getting more and more into the Oly movements. On a typical day I will try to do 4 movements, deadlift, hang clean, clean and press and squat. Occasionally I will do push press or power cleans but I don’t seem to be able to nail the regular clean quite yet, my balance seems to let me down. I will try to do 100 movements, it usually takes between 30-40 minutes and it is a great workout. I have a makeshift chin up bar out there too so I can always add chin ups into the mix to make it more interesting. I alternate between sets of 5 and 10 and even add in a 55lb kettlebell whenever I can. I know the weather isn’t going to last, but for this summer I have had a great time building great core strength, back strength and coordination with these amazing movements.

Last week my workouts resembled this:

Friday: 135lb

Deadlift 5×5
Hang Clean 5×5
Clean and Press 5×5
Squat 5×5

Saturday: 5 rounds of:

5 Clean and Press
5 1 arm swings
5 KB Snatch
5 Pullups

Sunday: 135lb

Sets of 10

Deadlift x5
Clean and Press x5
Hang Clean x5

 

R8D33 – Risky Business

I decided to try the WOD from yesterday’s Fitbomb entry which looked like this:

Strength:

Turkish Get Ups (45lb KB) (I made it through 15 per side, 1-2-3-4-5)

Metcon:

5 sets:
12 deadlift 155lb
9 hang clean 155lb
6 push press 155lb (it was actually jerk press but I decided to push)

I got through the first set OK but felt like my back was not comfortable with the weight so for set 2 I dropped back to 115lbs instead. The last thing I need right now is a back injury after all. I managed to struggle through 4 sets and for the last set since my back was aching I decided to do 27 pullups instead. Since I had done 15 turkish get ups each side to start I figured it wasn’t a bad workout overall. However, I know that my strength really needs work since I stopped going to the gym and doing static weight training.

I’m not going to dwell on it though, if I can only deadlift 115 for my workouts instead of 155 it’s not the end of the world, no matter what the demon in my head tells me.

R5D20 – 5×5 Weighted WOD

mv30_su2_2On the way back from work today I bought myself a 50lb MIR weighted vest. Since I lost the last 40lbs I have wanted to reward myself with something, since I was supposed to do so when I reached 250lbs. It makes sense that I should get a weighted vest since I am now doing less when I do pull ups since I weigh less. So I researched a little online and it seems that MIR has the best vests and FitnessSource in Richmond Hill had one in stock. Let me just say that if I ever meet Mr Mir I am going to run him over with my car for inventing something so blatantly evil.

I set out to do back day, something with 135lb deadlifts and pull ups. I decided that a quick 5 deadlift, 5 pull up combo would be just the ticket. I wanted to be done in under 30 minutes so I put a time cap of 15 minutes on the 5×5 sets. I then put on the vest and got to work. I had taken 30lbs out of the vest so that I was wearing 20lbs to start with, a good idea since after the first set of pull ups I was astounded at how  hard they were. Regardless of that, when I picked up the box that the vest came in I couldn’t believe that it was the same as the weight I have lost, I momentarily had my mind blown!

I blew through the first 5 sets in 5 minutes before I hit difficulties. It took me another 8 minutes to do the last 5 and since I knew I wasn’t going to make another, I stopped at an even 10 rounds. I was pretty gassed but happy at the number however it wasn’t until I took off the vest that I realized just how heavy 20lbs is. Even though this was the first workout I have done, I am already very happy with the purchase. I don’t think I will ever be running in the thing but for doing bodyweight workouts which is my focus right now, it is amazing. I can’t wait to do some squats, pushups and box jumps in it and even try to get through an insanity workout with it on! So

R5D13 – Deadlift Debacle Solved (Plus a couple of fun links)

deadliftLast time I was on deadlift day (previously known as back day) I tried in vain to get a power/ endurance program to work. It didn’t pan out the way I had hoped and I ended up only doing 36 reps of each movement. It was supposed to be:

“Deadlifts with 135# plus chinups as follows:

1 per minute, adding one per minute.

Minute 1 – 1 deadlift, 1 chinup
Minute 2 – 2 deadlift,2 chinup
Minute 3 – 3 deadlift, 3 chinup and so on..

I had hoped to get to 20 but my brain intervened and said I should aim for 15. My body intervened quickly after that and due to my lack of experience in deadlifting I was done after 8 rounds.”

This time I wanted to do 5’s and see how far I could go…

So rather than try to extend myself to the full minute, which was the issue, I decided to get to the point where I did about 40 seconds of work maximum. So I targeted 5 moves max as the target like this:

Minute 1 – 1 deadlift, 1 chinup
Minute 2 – 2 deadlift,2 chinup
Minute 3 – 3 deadlift, 3 chinup and so on up to 5 on the 5th minute.

For the 6th minute I went back to 1 of each, cycled up to 5 again and then repeated the cycle with no rest.

The upshot was a total of 45 reps of deadlifts, 45 pull ups in 15 minutes. The workout was not terribly taxing, not as much as two days ago was. I think next time I will start at 3 and go to 7 instead of 1 going to 5. That would give me a total of 75 reps of each, a decent work total. All I need now is to get over my fear of injury and get up to lifting my bodyweight.

HIIT can be as low as 6 minutes a week… Caveat please, thank you.

Chronic cardio (an hour on the treadmill)? Let’s kick that dead donkey again…

My wife is so smart, she already uses macadamia nut oil.

R5D4 – 6 Harder Than Anticipated

As I suspected when I started, I completely forgot I was supposed to be doing a 4th day and went straight from day 3 to rest to starting over. So for day 4 it was back to RKC swings, then the TGU for day 5 and yesterday I disappointed myself with a mix of deadlifts and chinups. There are a couple of things I would like to say at this point. The Turkish Get Up workout which is supposed to be mixed with the WOD is actually a 20 minute workout by itself once you are done the warmup so adding a WOD at this point is a bit much to ask. Once I get the hang of the TGU, probably after the RKC minimum phase I can add more. Maybe I should have added my day 5 workout on since it was short and left me a little miffed and short on calories burned. I had planned the following: Deadlifts with 135# plus chinups as follows: 1 per minute, adding one per minute. Minute 1 – 1 deadlift, 1 chinup Minute 2 – 2 deadlift, 2 chinup Minute 3 – 3 deadlift, 3 chinup and so on.. I had hoped to get to 20 but my brain intervened and said I should aim for 15. My body intervened quickly after that and due to my lack of experience in deadlifting I was done after 8 rounds. For some reason, I was just too careful to do more. I am not yet familiar enough with the deadlift post-surgery to know how far I can push it. I was scared that I was going to put out my back and that the rest of the week would be spent in pain. So I quit. I did however do an extra 35 chin ups so that I wouldn’t feel cheated and that at least my workout wouldn’t be under 10 minutes. Sometimes I think sticking to P90X would be easier, I wouldn’t run into issues like this however, being your own workout boss is worth it’s weight in gold. At one point during the weekend I had to carry an 80lb bag of salt into the basement and I was surprised to feel the difference the RKC is already making to my core stability.

Yesterday which was planned to be day 7 was usurped by having to coach for 3 hours. I had enough of a workout lifting none too light teenage gymnasts to warrant me doing any more once I got home.

Round 4 Day 32 – El Improvisario (FGB)

After completing the workout, he said it felt like a "fight gone bad"

I don’t know if that is even a word but my improvising skills are getting better and better as I try to keep up with some of the signature Crossfit workouts. Today, as promised, was Fight Gone Bad but since I lack the basic necessary equipment I had to improvise.

The workout Rx (as prescribed) is like this:

You rotate through five stations, spending one minute at each:

  • Wall ball: 20 pound ball, 10 foot target. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
  • Sumo deadlift high pull: 75 pounds. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
  • Box Jump: 20″ box. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
  • Barbell push-press: 75 pounds. Each rep is scored as 1 point.
  • Row: Your butt off. Each calorie burned (according to the monitor) is scored as 1 point.

Rest one minute, and then repeat the five stations. Rest another minute, and then repeat it all again. Three rounds total.

Wall ball is simple, just throw the ball at the 10ft target and catch. However, once you catch the ball, you have to go into a full squat at the bottom.
SDHP is also a simple move if you know the mechanics of a deadlift. Even if you don’t, as long as you keep your head up and back flat you should be OK with only 75lb.
Box jumps can be anywhere from 18″-24″ depending on  your comfort level
Row – Since there are many people who don’t have rowers at  home, you could sub outdoor sprints or treadmill running in a pinch. Since many of the WODs include sprints or short distance runs I don’t see the harm in this but your score would be off.

For me, working in my basement now that winter is closing in, this was going to be a challenge. I didn’t have the ball or the height to do wall ball and I have read that you can sub thrusters instead if you want. Not knowing this, I opted to use dumbbells and throw it as high as I could which in a 8 or 9ft ceiling basement isn’t far. I should probably have used more than a 20lb DB too but I can try that next time. For the SDHP I wanted to use the bar not only for the pull but also as a target to jump over for the box jumps so I put 25’s on the Olympic bar, rested the bar on 2 small boxes and had a decent set up. With my back history it was important that now I am moving back into Olympic lifts that I go easy so having the bar a little higher than it would normally be with bumpers was a bonus. The bar was only about 18″ off the floor so I had to make sure in my jumps I was clearing it by a decent margin. As you have figured out, my SDHP was done with 95lbs not 75.
I used 35lb dumbbells for the Push Press which left me 5lb short.
Instead of the row I had to run on the treadmill and since  the treadmill we have doesn’t like me running on it the fastest I can go is around 5mph, after that I blow the fuse.

So there you have it. With the warm-up and the WOD it was about a half hour workout. 3 rounds of 5 minutes plus extras.
My counts were (I am sure) pitifully low but here you go:

DB throw – 30 – 40 – 40 (110)
SHDP (95lb) – 8 – 10 – 10 (28)
Jumps – 14 – 15 – 14 (43)
Push Press (35lbDB) – 20 – 15 – 16 (51)
Run  ?

Without counting calories – 232