2012-01-12 WOD: 5 Rounds + Prowler … suck.

Posted by bronick on January 12, 2012
Posted in: WOD. Tagged: , , , .

I know it takes time to get back into the swing of things, but this one I really sucked at which is why I’m recording it…

WOD:

5 rounds for time:

  • 20 hip extensions
  • 20 box jumps (24″)
  • 30m bear crawl
Then, partner heavy prowler push for 200m.

RESULTS:

12 min cap: 3 rounds + 15 hip ext + 3 box jumps
(sub 20″ box, 20 hip ext 1st round then 15)

5×45# for the prowler

COMMENTS:

As I expected (which probably partly played into it), my back did not do so well with the hip extensions. Hence I dropped from 20 to 15 after the first round. In addition, my quads are apparently still dead from the squats on Tue which really slowed up the other two movements for me and the prowler.

On the up side, it was nice to be doing stuff outside in the sunlight since I went to the noon class. Its already dark by the time I hit the 5:30 still. Oh and we apparently now have 65# plates at the gym which look exactly like the 45# plates!

2012-01-10 WOD – Back Squats + 5 rounds

Posted by bronick on January 10, 2012
Posted in: WOD. Tagged: , .

WOD:

1 rep max back squat

Then, 5 rounds of

  • 5 squats (@1.5 bodyweight)
  • 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
RESULTS:

Back Squat: 295, 315(f)
5 Rounds: 7:47 @ 175# (scaled weight, and std kipping pull-ups)

COMMENTS:

Figured I’d post this one since it included a 1 rep max. I had no clue what back squat was going into this, but apparently it was 295# which I’ve gotten last 2 two times I’ve gone for max back squat (which are from over a year ago). I’ll be adding this to my PR page, so I have a reference for the next time.

Burpee 365 – Week 1

Posted by bronick on January 10, 2012
Posted in: Burpee Challenge. Tagged: , .

Recap of week #1:

Date Day Done
2012-01-01 1 1
2012-01-02 2 2
2012-01-03 3 3
2012-01-04 4 4
2012-01-05 5 5
2012-01-06 6 –
2012-01-07 7 13

Not bad, only 1 missed day… Go figure, it was a Friday night. I haven’t gotten in the habit of doing my burpees first thing in the morning like I use to do. Hopefully this week I’ll start that up.

Primal Week 1

Posted by bronick on January 9, 2012
Posted in: Diet, Primal.

Week #1 is done… and overall I did pretty good. I didnt get around to doing much prep work last weekend, so I did end up eating out a bit and short-cutting meals by using some precooked items. But I did make chooses along the primal lines for these (such as organic chicken meatballs w/ minimal extra ingredients). My breakfast was usually an omelet w/ bacon, veggies, and salsa. Lunches tended to be a salad with some sort of meat (Carnitas, chicken, lamb, etc…). So over all I think I did pretty good.

I did have one off day… which was of course Friday night. The stuff that was off the primal path was some vodka, vodka tonics, and a burrito. But the rest of the day was good, and Im not stressing… since one of the things I said I wanted to do this time was to work more for the sustainable eating v.s. going super strict and then fall off again.

Here are a few of my meals…

 

As for week #2, I did spend some time on Sunday planning, prepping, and cooking for the week. On the menu so far is: Egg Muffins (w/ peppers, onions, mushrooms, bacon), Primal Stuffed Peppers (beef & pork), Bacon-Chicken-Avocado Salad.

2011 year in review… FAIL :-(

Posted by bronick on January 6, 2012
Posted in: Diet, Primal. Tagged: , , , , , .

So I started writing this a while back, but never got around to posting….

While I had some great times in 2011, including traveling around the world, with regards to my health & fitness… it was a big FAIL. During this past holiday season I came the the following sad realizations….

  • Having to buy XXL clothes.
  • Gaining back all the weight I lost back in 2006/2007.
  • Being one of long time members of CrossFit Santa Clara, but being one the worst athletes.

I knew I had kinda let myself go a bit, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how bad.  I’m not saying I’m back where I started, as I know I’m definitly in better shape than I was back in 2006 before I started working out at all.  Over the past few years, my weight had been slowly creeping back up… but I think I held things at bay by hitting the gym often enough. However, since I got back from my sabbatical earlier this year I just never seemed to be able to get into a groove again. And then the holidays hit (Hallowed, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/New Years)… a few too many Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Peppermint Mochas.

So now that the holidays are over,  its time to get back to business. I usually don’t really do a New Year’s Resolution, but I think I need at least one this year… Go Primal. Eating has always been my downfall and that needs to be my #1 priority to fix. On Monday, I embarked in the “cleaning out the fridge and cabinets” endeavor as well as hitting the store to stock up on veggies and stuff. I brought into the office  all my cookies, candies, and chocolates from the holidays so they aren’t at home with me any more.

I’ve started making food at home, but haven’t gotten into full swing yet and have still been getting my breakfast from the office cafe. But at least I’m ordering basically primal foods (eggs, veggies, bacon) and have been doing the black coffee.

To help keep kick-start the new year and keep me on track, I have decided join (although a bit late) in the 30 Day Fuel Challenge from the gym. Since I was already going Primal, I figured why not. I still need to get the official welcome pack. I have been logging my meals, so I now I just need to figure out the points for each day.

Resolution #2 is Get Active… this include both getting back to the gym on a regular basis and finding stuff to do outside of the gym. I think not doing stuff outside of the gym was also one of my downfalls. Back in 2007 I lot a ton of weight and got pretty fit, but never really started doing any physical activity outside of the gym. There are so may things I keep saying that I want to do: mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, kayaking… but I never did get into doing them on a regular basis, and even less so this past year. So for this one I’m saying that at least once a week I will get out to do something active and fun. Like the Primal Blueprint says… “play”. Be it a hike, rock climbing, vollyball, or just a simple bike ride on my local trail.

Its been a while since I’ve posted any sort of goal or resolutions, but as they say… its easy to give up if nobody knows your trying. So a request to all my fitness minded friends out there…

PLEASE call me out if you see me slacking.

 

2011-12-01 WOD – Cleans & Sit-up +Snatch AMRAP & Burpees

Posted by bronick on December 2, 2011
Posted in: WOD. Tagged: , , , , .

So I did actually make it to the gym on Sunday for the team workout, but didn’t make it back in until yesterday after that. Was pretty happy with the clean (full/squat), as in the past my power clean was always more than my squat clean due to my lack of being able to catch in the squat position. So I’m considering this a PR, since I don’t have any log my previous squat clean max. Woot! PR!

Now the AMRAP was a different story… as expected, the sit-ups did me in again.

WOD:

1 rep max clean (full/squat)

5 min AMRAP:

  • 10 situps
  • 3 power snatch @ 95#
Immediately after, max burpees in 1 min.

RESULTS:

215# clean

5 rounds + 5 situps

15 burpees

Turkey Trot 2011

Posted by bronick on November 25, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized.

So last year it was freezing cold… and this year the weather forecast was rain. Luckily, rain equated to a light sprinkle during the start of the race. Didn’t make the gym photo this year, as I couldn’t find the folks from the gym :-( Kinda sad since I’ve now done it each year with the gym. I did see a few folks, but not the whole crew.

But, I had a new running partner for this year… I managed to convince Jen from the Renegades to join me! Yay! And she was brave enough to do the 10K. Neither of us have done much running recently. So needless to say, rather than “run” we ended up doing more of a jog, walk, jog, walk, walk some more, etc…

Quite a bit down from last year, but considering how bad I’ve been about going to the gym and eating… I’m not surprised. And it was more about actually just finishing and have good company while doing so.

Ben and Jen after the race!

Oh… And I did actually do the run in my Vibram FiveFingers  BIKILA, which are the running version of the shoe. And I was very happy that both my feet and calves had no real issues. The bottom the feet where a little sore, but nothing major… so I guess they really do work well for running!

2011-11-15 WOD: Deadlifts + 10min AMRAP

Posted by bronick on November 16, 2011
Posted in: WOD. Tagged: , , , .

Doing much better this week after the first day than last week. For the deadlifts, I didn’t hit a PR but I feel like I did pretty good for the first time doing heavy deadlifts in quite a while. As for the AMRAP, I pretty much sucked at it and didn’t get a good workout. The sit-ups screwed me over, as my abs kept cramping up and so they took me forever. It was kinda sad when after one of the prowler pushes, I started on sit-ups and didn’t finish them before the next prowler push (which was about 1min). Ugh. This lead to a very low number of rounds and not much intensity.  I probably should have done some other stuff after the workout to make up for it, but since it was already 7:30 I decided to head home and get some dinner instead.

As for food… been doing pretty good with the exception of my coffee. I actually skipped dinner on Monday since I didn’t get home from the gym until 9pm and decided to hit the bed early instead. Last night was butternut squash soup and some turkey meatballs w/ asparagus … yum!

WOD:
1 rep max deadlift

10 minute AMRAP:

  • 5 pull-ups
  • 7 push-ups
  • 10 sit-ups

Every 2min, prowler push

RESULTS:

Deadlift 355#
10min AMRAP: 4 rounds + 12 reps

2011-11-14 WOD: Hang Power Cleans + 5 Rounds for time

Posted by bronick on November 15, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , .

So I didn’t make it back to the gym much last week. My legs where  just wrecked from the squats on Monday. Eating during the week was ok, not so much over the weekend.

But it was back to the gym on Monday, even if it was kinda late… hit the 7:30pm class since I didn’t leave work until 7:00pm. Workout was alright, but as usual… I didn’t scale properly and the KB swings slowed me down a lot because of my back. Was suppose to only take about 5min and I took almost 10min. I did talk to Karo a bit after and he said I need to focus on keeping my core tight when doing things like this. He said that is very common for folks to not have an issue keeping tight during heavy lifting, but they forget it about when doing high rep stuff like KB swings and box jumps. I know my core is definitely on the week side, so I really need to work on that… guess its time to start doing some hollow hold/rocks at home.

WOD:

Heavy Hang Power Cleans – 2 rep, repeat for about 15min

5 Rounds for time of:

  • 20 Kb swings @ 1.5 pood (yes 1.5 pood, don’t go 2 pood)
  • 20 Air Squats

RESULT:

Hang Power Cleans: 95# … 185#

5 Rounds: ~10min

2011-11-08 WOD – 20 min AMRAP

Posted by bronick on November 9, 2011
Posted in: WOD.

So this workout really did not go so well for me… Before the WOD we did some skill work practicing the false grip ring pull up. My wrists didn’t take so well to this which didn’t help the WOD. Wrist have always been a week point for me. The other thing I found is that my core has gone to shit… I think I only manged to do maybe 5 or so actual wall climbs, as I would use make it half way before collapsing (aka letting my hips fall).  Between these two things the WOD turned into basically 5 wall climb attempts, 7 deadlifts, 7 hang cleans, 4 full cleans + 3 push press.

On the up side, I’m doing better with my eating.

WOD:
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

  • 5 Wall Climbs
  • 7 hang power cleans @ 135#’s
  • 7 shoulder to overhead @ 135#’s
  • 7 Good mornings @ 135#’s 7 Deadlifts @135# (changed by Rick)

RESULTS:

4 rounds + 1 wall climb (attempt) @ 95#