Effort

This week has been an interesting one. We just got approved at BodyConstruction to be a CrossFit affiliate. The interesting thing is the mindset of the personal trainers that are already there. All of them have been through the training. They have done the workouts. They have sweated. They have given the white board and the stopwatch the 1000 yard stares that most people going through these kinds of workouts do. Sadly myself and one other person is on board. We have been doing this for so long, that the pain, the intensity, the results simply come as second nature effects of the effort that is put in.

One of the trainers actually said Monday night, "I just can't seem to put on any size doing the CrossFit workouts...". I really did not want to rock the boat just quite yet, but I did watch him eat his dinner which consisted of a 2 oz can of tuna and a few pretzels. If you eat like a bird.. you look like a bird.

On the other hand I did see something amazing this week. A new client Dan started. Eager to match the rest of the "guys" in the class Dan gave it his all this week. We had a little workout in celebration of the fair this week called "corndog"

21-15-9 reps 3 rounds for time:
Burpees jump w/ overhead clap
Sumo DL high pull 95#
pullups
1/4 mile run

Time 14:22

Dan did this workout in close to 38 minutes. He grunted. He spat. He collapsed once or twice during the pullups. The voice in his heed screaming "why the fuck are you doing this to me...". He finished. All of us well rested and re-hydrated by now went to the street corner where Dan was running and cheered him on during the last 1/4 mile run.
Dan stood there.. shaken.. exhausted. He only said one thing: "I never thought I could do it."

Well guess what Dan... you did. Welcome.

Strange looks...

It is a chilly 28 degrees here today in Tampa. You would be hard pressed to know that spring and summer are right around the corner for us Floridians. The past month has been very interesting at the gym. All the newbies with lofty goals of new years resolution pounds flying off their bodies have show up. Certainly the first week or so has already claimed a few casualties on the roster. Health clubs love this shit. It's called the sucker membership.

Anyway.. Cindy wanted more of a strength / metcon workout. Her shoulders and upper traps need the most development to tie in her v-taper and overall figure. This can be accomplished with heavy heavy presses, or push presses.

Meritorious

5x5x5x5x5x5 Heavy push press with barbell (you should be at bar plus 5# plates for 55 pounds) 6 rounds of 5 reps
40x Pull-up + Use close grip. Do as many body weight.. then use machine assist.. no jumping.. just light assist
50x KB Swing @ 36# KB +
60x Sit-up (feet anchored) +
70x Burpees (pushup, squat to overhead jump clap)

record time.

Maybe it was the kettlebell swings.. maybe it was the intensity of the burpees... maybe it was when she went up to one of the silverback's at the squat rack and asked if he was done "chatting"... any of these could have been the reason she got so many strange looks at the globo gym yesterday.

How hard can this be..?

My wife has been doing strength training for quite some time. She actually was a client at Body Construction a few years ago with trainer Marja Blitz. That was a 4 month ordeal that totally changed her mind in fitness. Over the past few years that I have been doing CrossFit she occasionally looks at my log book and offers a "this looks like an interesting workout..." comment. Well over the past few weeks she has really been letting me design workouts for her.

She is very strong lower body, but needs to work on strength and upper body muscle. Nothing puts muscle on the body faster than compound exercises.

Today I did a workout for her called Breathing Ladders. This is a very deceptive work load. You do your exercises one rep each...take a breath... do two reps... take two breaths... work your way up and down the ladder.

Cindy's workout 2-1-09
"Breathing Ladders"

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps / breaths

95# deadlift
25# plate front squat
full body pushups

Her total time for this workout was 19:12 minutes. At the beginning when I assigned it to her.. she was not sold. When she was done, I asked her if she had had enough... the bent over posture, hands on knees, red face, full body sweat was the only answer I needed.

Superbowl Dreaming

I think I saw everything I needed to see in the globo gym today.

There was a lady there in full out Steeler's garb. Certainly her mind was on today's game, and of course the side of chicken wings that come with it. She was reading the Oprah book of the month club feature while on the stair stepper. I set my stop watch on zero and hit start. 12 15 steps later 60 seconds had finally passed by. She did this routine for about 10 mintes, gracefully stepped off and wiped vast amounts of invisible sweat off her brow. You just have to love people that go through the motions.

Workout: 2-1-09

10 mins warmup jump rope. Practice double unders
95-105-115-135-145# over head squats with 10-15 reps each to failure
Pushups 20 between each set.

4 rounds of time:
30# DB each hand walking lunges 10 steps each leg
45# plate each hand walking farmer's carry 100 meters

4 rounds of 125% BW squats at #245
10 reps each

Ab work to finish. .