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I had the lovely experience of making it down to CrossFit Las Vegas today.  And I am just ecstatic that I did.  Hand Stand Push-Ups (HSPU) were part of the WOD.  These are one of the exercises that just amaze me when I see other people do them, and prior to today, I had not had (nor created) an occasion to try them on my own.

So when the instructor went over the WOD, I was filled with a wide mix of emotions ranging from “Oh crap” to “Oh shit”.  One of the many things that sets CrossFit apart are the instructors.  And Vili at CrossFit Las Vegas is no exception.  He could see that I was a bit concerned with the HSPUs and he sprung into action, never once making me feel like I should sit it out or not try it.  He just grabbed a few ab mats and walked me through it step by step, and let me try it.  And I was able to flop myself up and over and before I knew it… I was banging out my HSPUs like the best of ‘em.  Ok, maybe not that great, and with 2 – 3 ab mats, but you get my point.

So HSPU’s aside, here’s the run down on CrossFit Las Vegas (CFLV):

1. Visit their site, and do a little prep-work
   1. www.CrossFitLasVegas.com
   2. Set up a log in
   3. Have your affiliate owner shoot them an email and it’s only $10 for the class!
   4. If you don’t do any of the above, don’t worry, you can just show up for a class, you just need to fill out an extra form when you get there and the regular drop in fee is $20
   5. Getting down there from the Strip is kinda pricey.  The cab ride was $20 each way from Bellagio.
      1. 7540 DEAN MARTIN DR.
         #508
         LAS VEGAS, NV 89139
         (702) 900-2358
      2. Tell the cab driver it’s at W Warm Springs Road and Dean Martin Drive.  It’s just south of W Warm Springs on the East side of Dean Martin Drive.  In a little one story strip building that has several businesses in there.  They are in suite 508 which is on the south end of their building, you’ll see the logo and other CrossFit style decals when you find it.
      3. I just grabbed a random cab from my hotel to get there, and once I told the guy where I was going he got all excited and we talked fitness the whole way…when he started showing me pictures of himself working out on his phone, it got kinda odd, but he was nice enough and came back to pick me up no problem :)  You’ll definitely need to call for a cab to get back.  So get your cabby’s number.  Here’s my guy’s if you need one:  702-332-5116, his name is Gary.
   6. CFLV is a bit more chilled on the start time than my home box.  I showed up at 5:40AM for the 6AM WOD and I ended up sitting in the cab for a bit until folks arrived, about 5:50AM.
   7. The WOD had a flexible start time of about 6:05AM, and that was driven by when the regular athletes trickled in.  Seemed very friendly and comfortable.
   8. The warm ups were done as a group, and had a nice mix of stretching with bands and movements and single unders, which I enjoyed because I really need to work on my jump rope skills.
   9. My classmates were very friendly and welcoming and focused on the WOD.  I thought it was a very well run group, especially for 6AM in Las Vegas.
   10. We did a strength routine of Clean and Jerks that we had 20 minutes to complete on our own and do 5 sets of 3 at 75-85% of PR.  This was a struggle for me as I had a little trouble pacing myself.  I prefer a timer and set intervals, but that’s probably just because that’s what I’m used to.  So I ended up doing 6+ sets ‘cause I kinda burned through it.
   11. We then did the WOD that included the HSPU, dumbbell lunges and Hallow Rocks.  So two out of the three were new to me.  Which is another benefit of CrossFit Tourism, you get to try new things.  And speaking of the Hallow Rocks, holy cow, way more intense than they look!
   12. Last, but certainly not least, I got to give a ton of credit to Vili.  What a great coach!!  He gave very clear and simple instructions, helped everyone with a perfect mix of instruction and motivation.  He’s got a great attitude, and added a ton to the overall experience.

I highly recommend dropping in at CrossFit Las Vegas if you are in town.  Check out their schedule and keep an eye out for Vili’s classes.

Here are a few pix from my trip:

Can you tell it was 5:55AM?

This is a big pile of Atlas Balls:

This is one of my very first Handstand Push-Ups!  I’m probably way more excited about this than I should be:

Amen CFLV:

Getting up early for WODs means you get to take cooler pix from your hotel room:

I’m in Las Vegas today, and I had made plans to make it over to CrossFit Las Vegas for the 8:30 AM WOD, BUT, they were thwarted by an 8AM meeting.  When I discovered this at 7AM today, I immediately put the back up plan into place and did my Hotel WOD.

Even though I’m a little disappointed I didn’t make it over to the local box, I still got a great work out in, and a nice boost from BeyondTheWhiteboard.com when I plugged in my results, and got a PR. It’s the little things.  That makes my third PR this week.  237 reps for the hotel wod, #215 for dead lifts and #100 for overhead squats.

Being flexible, and staying committed to getting in and logging the results of a good work out are another key component to achieving the long run results I’m seeing from CrossFit.  Plus, my bottum is kinda sore, so as I’m sitting in the conference today, I have a nice little reminder that I succeeded this morning…which feels damn good :)

 

I found myself on the road this week, and while I tried to find a good local box, it just didn’t work out.  I was in Cincinnati and Queen City CrossFit was in a great location, but they have smaller classes, and they could not guarantee space for a drop in.  That’s why it’s always good practice to email ahead of your visit.

So I then found myself looking for a good WOD to do in my hotel room.  I also wanted something quick so I could also take advantage of a little extra sleep.  So I came up with the following CrossFit Hotel Room WOD, and it took about 16 minutes.  It was fast, but I felt pretty worked out by the end.  If you wish to log it on BeyondTheWhiteboard.com, I have it set up here.

Warm Up:
Jumping Jacks 15 Seconds
Air Squats  15 Seconds
Mountain Climbers  15 Seconds
Jump Squats 15 Seconds
4 Rounds 

WOD:
TABATA Push-Ups
TABATA Sit-Ups
TABATA Air Squats
Score total reps.

The only equipment you need is you, it would be helpful to have a timer as well.  If you have an iPhone, I HIGHLY recommend Timers Pro
This app works great for intervals with rest or TABATA.  I just mod the TABATA to 15 seconds work and 15 seconds rest to time my warm up.  This app makes it easy since it lets you save multiple set ups.

I’d rather have gone into the local box, but this was a great alternative that made for a good start to the day. 

Never hold back words of encouragement. Never. Whether it be at work or the gym. It’s amazing the impact you can have on someone with something as simple as an old fashioned ‘attaboy.

Last week our benchmark WOD was Badger and during the second set of the 800 meter run, just as I was approaching the first 200 meter mark, I had determined that I would hit the 200 mark and then walk 25 meters and then run again. Running is not my strong suit.

Just as I was turning to walk, literally at that exact moment, a fellow teammate, who I had never spoken to before, and frankly I’m not sure I’d seen before, runs by and says “Keep up that pace, great work.” That’s all it took.

After that I decided not to start mixing in any walking and just push myself to keep running. From there, I made it the whole WOD without walking. First time for that in a WOD with 800 meter runs in it. All because someone decided to give me a little boost.

So this week, there was more running. The benchmark WOD of the week was Abbate which includes a 1 mile run, an 800 meter run and then another 1 mile run. And I ran all three legs without mixing in any walking. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t done that last week in the 800’s there is no way I would have done it this week.

Because of a mental gain thanks to a teammate, I was able to make a significant physical gain that will stay with me.

Just another reason why CrossFit and HyperFit are the best.

Some folks have said that CrossFit is akin to playing a team sport as an adult.  This could not be more true.  When you decide to join a CrossFit gym, you are signing up to be an athlete on a team.  That means something.

Yesterday, a teammate and I decided to try to double up today.  HyperFit USA (our box) does a benchmark WOD every Saturday at 9 AM.  Today was Hope.  Immediately after the benchmark WOD they offer an Olympic Weightlifting class at 10 AM.  We have joked before about “sticking around” for it.  But yesterday our jokes kinda turned to a ‘let’s try it?” and we finally decided to actually try it.  I’m not sure either of us would have done it with out the other’s prodding.  And I’m pretty sure Whit said more than once, “as long as it’s not snatches”.

The end result was over two hours of solid CrossFit for me today, finishing Hope then spending an hour working on Snatches add in some stretching, some rowing and rolling around on the ground and my body is tired, but I’m pumped.  I consider that a PR, two workouts in one day.  And I give full credit to the power of the CrossFit team.

After the WOD last night I jumped on the scale.  I was expecting a reading of about 183 give or take a half pound.  Well, it read 179 flat.  The last time I weighed 179, I was a junior in high school, which was almost 20 years ago.  When I started this CrossFit thing, I was hoping to someday get under 200.

When I hit 199, I thought a nice stretch goal would be under 190.  You can see that goal noted in the chart above, and I crushed it in record time.  The fact that the slope of this line has remained so constant for so many months is unreal, and a true testament to the effectiveness of CrossFit workouts.

Getting into the 170s does several things in my head.  First and foremost, it breaks me free from caring about my weight.  As someone who not too long ago weighed over 250 pounds, not caring about my weight any more is a big deal.

The mental focus is no longer losing weight on my body, but gaining weight on my bar.

After discovering the “testimonial” feature on BeyondTheWhiteboard.com, I posted up a new page showing my CrossFit Results.  They put together a nice and short summary of some of the work you have logged.  It’s awesome to see the data in this context.  In the past 4 months, I’ve lifted over 50,000 pounds.  That’s a lot.  I also posted up a full set of photos dating back from April 2012 through this week.  It’s just amazing to see what CrossFit can do in such a short period of time.  I have never seen or done anything like this.

I usually workout around 4.4 times per week (see “The more you go” post). I have posted 116 workouts and set 14 personal records. Along the way I have run 24,453 meters and lifted 50,435 pounds. I have also done 754 push-ups, 766 pull-ups, and 277 sit-ups.

 

Today, being a Saturday at HyperFit USA,  we did a benchmark WOD.  Annie.

Annie is:
50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders,
Sit-ups.
(we did this with a 10 minute time cap)

In case the whole term is new, a double-under is a jump rope where you swing that bad boy under your feet two times for every jump you do.  Way, way harder than it sounds.

This was the first time I ever attempted to do a “double-under”.  Not at all ideal.  I learned the hard way today the value of spending time working on skills outside of the WOD.  For my “MOD”, a.k.a. modification, was to do single unders.  Seems to make sense.  Except it’s 3 for 1.  So that’s 150 single under jump ropes in round one.  This made for a lot of misery, and the evental time cap / DNF.

To avoid this, it’s really important to spend an extra 5 minutes before or after your WOD and work on a skill.  After my trip to CrossFit NYC.com, where toes-bar was part of the warm up, I started doing 5 before every WOD.  Then I mixed in 5 pull ups.  Mind you, I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, and just a few weeks longer than that I could not do 1 un-aided pull up or 1 toes to bar.  It takes 5 minutes, but I actually have a kip going for both, and they are really coming along.  I banged out 6 toes to bar then 6 pull ups before Annie today, and went back for 6 more pull ups after Annie for good measure.  I also tried a few more double-unders after, but it was just getting ugly.

Starting Monday, I’ll be mixing in double-unders to the pre WOD routine.  As for wall walks, those are just fun as hell to do, and should be done when ever you can :)

If you want to track your pre WOD toes to bar and pull ups with me, I’ve got a simple workout tracker going here: http://beyondthewhiteboard.com/workouts/441711-toes-to-bars-pull-ups

 

There are a few special sub sets of WODs (Work Out of the Day), and at the top are the Hero WODs.  These workouts are done in memory of a fallen soldier.  They are tough, and force you to push yourself harder than a typical WOD or even Benchmark WOD.  These are the most intense workouts most of us will ever do.

Hero WODs are one of those elements of CrossFit that remind you that you are part of a community.  This whole experience is much larger than you or me.  When you are participating in CrossFit, you are part of a team.  You care for your teammates, whether they are 5 feet or 5 time zones away, we are all in this together.

We are also afforded the luxury of being reminded of those teammates who gave it all for us.  My gym, HyperFit USA, does a “Murph” WOD every Memorial Day and Labor Day.  It consists of:

1 Mile Run
100 Pull-Ups
200 Push-Ups
300 Air Squats
1 Mile Run

It is every bit as hard as it sounds.  But when you think about it as a way to pay tribute and celebrate a teammate who gave it all, it’s extremely motivating, and a touch more rewarding.

Here’s a bit of the story behind Murph, for more info and videos visit: http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/pg.html

Lt. Michael P. Murphy
Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, from Patchogue, NY. Murphy was killed by enemy forces during a reconnaissance mission, Operation Redwing, June 28, 2005. Murphy lead a four-man team tasked with finding a key Taliban leader in the mountainous terrain near Asadabad, Afghanistan, when they came under fire from a much larger enemy force with superior tactical position. Mortally wounded while exposing himself to enemy fire, Murphy knowingly left his position of cover to get a clear signal in order to communicate with his headquarters. While being shot at repeatedly, Murphy calmly provided his unit’s location and requested immediate support for his element. He returned to his cover position to continue the fight until finally succumbing to his wounds.

 

   

There is not much better than progress.  There are 40 days between the shot on the left, where I was equipped with my medicine ball and an empty bar and the shot on the right, where I was using weight (80lbs in total).

The overhead squat has got to be one of the toughest lifts we do.  It is so awkward, so uncomfortable.  I usually feel like I am about to tip over, and I have (twice).  But it is also one of those things that you just use the empty bar, the medicine ball, or what ever it takes to work on getting the form down, or at least better, and you just keep after it.

The shot on left is now the “before” picture, but 41 days ago, it was the “after” when paired against the PVC pipe I had been using up to that point.