Documenting My Attempt at CrossFit
As I was heading down to the gym, got a call from on of the guys on the team, had to talk through some statistics questions. Ate up pretty much all the time I had. I tried to jump on the rower while talking to him but that was an instant fail.
I ended up racing through the following:
1K row
25 Russian kb swings 1.5 pood
25 hand to hand kb swings 1.5 pood
Better than nothing, but not what I intended. I had to really convince myself not to just call it off and head to work.
I’ve gotten in 1.5 workouts since I tried to jump back in two weeks ago. It’s a start, but it sucks.
Workout 1 (the .5 in my total) went like this:
Plan: let’s just do things I love. Rowing and bench. Simple, fun.
1k row Sprint
Then
5×5 bench press
Did the row, died with about 200m left, by the time I was done my split time was up like 25 seconds from my median pace. Fell off the rower and rolled around on the floor unable to walk, finally bringing myself over to the trash can that I had to hold on to for a good 30 minutes until my stomach returned to normal. The whole time my 5 year old was trying to help me, which was adorable, but kinda pathetic.
And that was day one.
Day two, today, went a bit better. Same idea, do what I like to do, but maybe dial is back a step.
1k row (moderate pace, NOT Sprint)
THEN
4Rounds:
12 strict shoulder press
12 American Swing 1.5 pood
I got through this one. Feeling good. Looking forward to day 3.
It’s amazing how fast fitness can leave you. About 18 months ago, I left my big company gig, and started a machine learning software company (rxa.io) and while it’s been amazing, the time to build this company had to come from somewhere. I have two young kids ( 8 & 5) and they weren’t going to give up time, I’ve given up as much sleep as I can (more than I should), and I have given up all my leisure time. So, all that was left was my WODs.
For the past year or so, I’ve been working out about once a month, give or take. And I’ve packed on 10-15 pounds, and not good ones. As you can see from my BTWB score, I’m down about 80% of where I was, and it went FAST!
I was told once that if you have a goal, share it with your friends, and make it public, and hold yourself accountable. So with that in mind, I’m going to try like heck to back on the wagon starting right now.
I plan on posting my workouts on my blog as I do them, and I’ll be logging them on my whiteboard here.
A lot of people have reached out to me from this blog, and I really appreciate all the support, and kind words, and I’m glad that it has helped a few people along the way. So I’m hopeful this will help folks who may have gotten out of their rhythm or maybe some folks who are looking to take their first step.
If anyone has any tips for getting back on and staying on, I’d love to hear them.
Thx!
J
I loved every second of 16.1. All 72,000 of them.
the overhead walking lunges were so much better than I was expecting. They finally got hard as I got into the 5th round, and on my very last set I ended up losing the bar 2/3 of the way down. This was much more fun than I was expecting.
I was able to pretty easily PSN the bar up in a clean grip and go. I tested several grip widths until I found the most comfortable to be that clean width.
I was hoping to spin 180 during the burpees, but I got about 90 some of the time, and mostly 0.
The chest to bar were done pretty much all singles. The fact that I’ve gained about 15 pounds in the past year is certainly making the bodyweight stuff interesting :)
Overall, this was a fantastic workout, so glad I was able to get it done (5.5 rounds). I’ve got some work to do, but I’m happy with the result.
Side note, I have been struggling with a neck injury I got back at the end of January, which has had a major impact on my February, and sadly the open. It’s been very hard to do much of anything other than rowing since the incident.
CrossFit Games link used to be here.
I’ve been using and enjoying two new photo apps, Google Photos and Carousel from Dropbox. Both are amazing and worth checking out.
Carousel pops up with occasional throwback pics and yesterday it sent me the picture on the left. AKA the ‘before’ picture. All I can say is that I never want to be that before picture again!!!!!
It would be very difficult for me to say my transformation was from a lot of hard hard work and dedication because if I’m being honest, it doesn’t feel that way. I’ve had so much fun, met so many great people and I’ve enjoyed every step of my journey with CrossFit.
It’s almost like I’m cheating. No one ever told me working out could be fun. I got to discover that for myself. I still have days that I don’t feel like going in, or that I want to just hit snooze and roll over. There are some hard moments of weakness. But once I get my butt up and to the box, all that transforms into excitement and laughter and genuine good times.
So 15.3 brought us Muscle Ups
And 15.4 brought us Handstand Push Ups.
I’m pretty sure CrossFit Open 15.5 is going to bring us rope climbs. Well, maybe not rope climbs. At least I hope not rope climbs.
If 15.5 isn’t 100 rope climbs for time, here’s what I think it will be.
15.5 will include burpees. It will include something heavy, and it will have a very simple rep scheme.
CrossFit Open 15.5 will be a chipper.
50 Burpee Box Jump Overs 24″/20″
40 Calorie Row
30 Thrusters @ 95 /65
20 Deadlifts @ 275 / 185
10 Muscle Ups
I think there will be no time cap. So when you get to the muscle ups, if you don’t have them, you won’t be able to submit a score.
It’s the new year, and you are looking to start a small journey that will have a tremendous impact on just about everything you do. You want to have more energy, think more clearly, significantly reduce the risk of countless diseases, and significantly increase the likelihood of your ability to pick up your great grandchildren someday…. so of course you are looking to start CrossFit!!
After you check with your doctor and make sure that you are safe for exercise, here’s a quick kick starter to get your body ready for moving. For those that like to have it on their e-reader, look at how to plan your workout in ebook format. It will easily guide you throw your first steps and then it should become natural. Consumer ease of use has really gotten quite easy. Anyway back to the working out.
You will do 2 workouts per week. You can space them out however fits your schedule, you may do them on back to back days if that fits.
Week 1:
4 minutes of Jump Rope or Jog ¼ mile
Then do 3 Rounds of
10 Sit Ups
5 Push Ups
1 Burpee
Week 2:
4 minutes of Jump Rope or Jog ¼ mile
Then do 4 Rounds of
12 Sit Ups
7 Push Ups
3 Burpees
After week 2, jump over to my beginner CrossFit workout track and join my virtual gym (it’s free) and follow along at home. You can message me through there any questions you have as you progress.
I post a beginner workout of the day 2-3 times per week as well. I’ve posted 100 so far, so feel free to check that for workout inspirations. I post the workouts Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
I dropped over 20 pounds in the first 100 days of doing CrossFit. If you stick with it, I believe it will work for you.
I hit 1,000 workouts posted on Beyond The Whiteboard. Kind of unbelievable if you ask me. I’ve got a lot of folks to thank for keeping me motivated, and committed. Namely my 7AM crew, the trainers at HyperFit USA (a.k.a. CrossFit Ann Arbor), my family and friends, but I have to give a tremendous amount of credit to Beyond The Whiteboard. I don’t know why I care so much about that little lightening bolt, but I do. I watch my Fitness Level like a hawk. It used to be the first thing I would check Monday mornings when the updates would run, but now it runs in real time… which is both good and bad :)
Watching my level climb from 1 to 41 (or TIGER level!) has been awesome. It’s been about 2.5 years since I started CrossFit, and Beyond The Whiteboard has given me a detailed record of the progress.
What is pretty amazing is that over the course of 2 and half years, my Fitness Curve has been on more or less the same upward path. It has taken little dips here and there, but the trend can’t be ignored. I think that speaks a lot to the programming at HyperFit, and I like seeing the results plotted this, makes me more convinced HyperFit’s approach to CrossFit is spot on.
I love data (seriously, it’s what I do for a living) and I am so happy to have Beyond The Whiteboard tracking and packaging it up in such a fun and motivating way. And as I say often at work: data and analytics without optimization is pointless, and Beyond The Whiteboard tells me where I’m falling behind, so I can optimize my extra time to hit my weaknesses and ensure a balanced progression.
If you aren’t using Beyond The Whiteboard, start right now.
It’s not pretty, but yesterday I got my first (and second) Muscle Up!!
I started putting in dedicated time and thoughts to this last December at my Level 1 Cert. I really wanted to get it done then, but I was not ready.
Over the past 10 months, I put a focus on lots of strict pull ups and dips and ring dips and did a few 1 on 1 training sessions with our trainers and it all paid off.
A couple of pointers:
Here’s Doug Chapman explaining a pull up / dip complex:
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