Stunts are my favorite part of CrossFit. I ought to work harder (somehow - ?) to get a higher Fight Gone Bad score, but what really excites me is new one-off tricks like my recent "acquisition" of bar muscle-ups and hip-overs. Last Friday I added two more, a weighted pull-up with a 24-kg kettlebell attached to me, as well as a pistol on each leg with that same weight. We did the rest of the workout (a cool dumbbell complex) and then did a max push-ups test and I got 30. That was pretty good for being tired.
I am hoping to get a video this month on my 45th birthday doing consecutive alternating bar muscle-ups and hip-overs. Not 45 of 'em, though.
Today we did a max pull-ups test and I got 33 kipping, beating my old max of (I think) 27. I've lost nine pounds recently by eliminating all grains and almost all starches. I eat apples - is that a starch? Anyway, no bread, no rice, corn, etc., nothing with added sugar, none of my old staple of peanut butter and honey on toast, no ice cream... I eat a lot of meat, nuts, and fruit, and should eat more vegetables. But they require more planning and cooking and are not as fun in the summer as fruit!
I'm going to San Diego at the end of August as an assistant RKC staffer at the RKC Level 1 certification there. I'm totally psyched and if I don't hurt myself on my stunts I should be in great shape for that. Fingers crossed (and I will be careful!).
The way I did "Grace," at home on our stone patio, was like this: Power clean from ground, split jerk, no dropping the weights, 30 reps, 95 lbs. Time: 7:38.
I think this is the first time I've done Grace. It's fun lifting outside on a nice cool, pleasant spring afternoon! But kind of tedious carrying all the gear up from the basement and out the kitchen door and back down!
I weigh 57 kg and tonight I deadlifted 115 kg, twice, for two single lifts. It was the first time I've lifted twice my weight. My weight was 60 kg for several years and I never got to 120 on the deadlift, but now that I'm on a whole-foods high-protein diet I've lost 3 kg in the past seven weeks. So, I was able to meet my twice-bodyweight goal halfway. I am determined to lift 120 in the next three months.
After getting a bit out of the workout routine in 2008, and paying the price in reduced fitness, I've been more disciplined this year and feel like I've come back to where I should be and can move forward with confidence.
I've been trying to eat nothing but whole foods for about two weeks now. Meat, eggs, vegetables, nuts and fruit, and nothing else. (Such as bread, crackers or any other manufactured crunchy things, ice cream, cheese, pizza.) I kind of want some ice cream and I kind of find it inconvenient to plan a bigger variety of whole-food meals than I used to plan. But honestly on the whole it's not that hard; I was already going to the store a lot and doing some simple cooking almost every day, so I'm better prepared for this kind of diet change than I would have been a couple of years ago.
This is the end of the second week and my energy seems to be higher. I didn't sleep well last night, but I went to the 7 AM workout class as I'd planned and it went really well. Max pull-ups and a barbell snatch-based complex done with a partner for 20 minutes. I had not done snatches in months because of elbow tendonitis, which is now much much better. So the snatches were super fun. I just used the 15 kg bar. My max pull-ups I was afraid were going to be around 13 but I did 17 and was happy with that. (I became relatively deconditioned in 2008 as my priorities changed from PR's to learning to teach and everything that comes with that.)
I went home and napped and ended up with that jet-lagged feeling -- can it really still be the same day as when I was in the gym last? -- and went back at 4 to teach my CrossFit class. The instruction on the snatch complex went well as did their workout. (Yesterday we did a workout involving jerks from the rack and that went really well too. Gratifying to be able to somewhat manage a group and teach/refresh them on something technical.)
Five PM came, my group left and the evening crowd wandered in... and I found myself wanting to do the workout again. I thought, well, if my energy is this good in spite of the "jet lag" from not sleeping, I better take advantage of it. So, I worked out with Erica as my partner and used 20 kg until the final 5 minutes of the 20-minute workout. Three snatch-grip deadlifts, 3 highpulls, 3 snatches, 3 overhead squats, 3 bent-over rows (go figure) alternating with the partner for 20 minutes. I had almost but not quite forgotten how fun it is to snatch when it's not too heavy. One of my life goals is to be still snatching an empty barbell (if not more) when I'm 75.
Before we started the snatch workout, we did max pull-ups as we had done in the morning. I had more determination this time and made 26, which I'm pretty sure I'd never done before. I think I am going to sleep well.
Today's planned workout at the gym was our first instance of having everybody try the "take your 10-rep max back squat and do 20 reps with it." I was one of few who had tried this even once before. In my two most recent entries I described doing 20 squats at a guesstimated 10-RM of 70 kg. Today I went for 80 kg and succeeded. It was significantly more difficult, but the experience makes me more willing to push even harder in a couple of weeks for 20 reps at 85.
Other gym clients who haven't been squatting very long used today's 20 heavy reps to try something tougher than normal, to use their resolve, and to begin to narrow down what is TRULY HEAVY for them. A lot of people seemed to have learned something and to have found it gratifying.
Also for me today, it was fun to do a muscle-up on the pull-up bar with the aid of a green rubberband. I was inspired to this by seeing Leigh Anne do it. It was a nice stunt!
In the gym one of the three goals we'll be tracking for the next four months is the front squat, so I tested my 1-rep max yesterday. I made it to 90 kg, a new max.
It was one bright spot in a disappointing week. Starting last Tuesday I've had a worse than nagging pain in my right shoulder. It's bad enough to wake me up at night and keep me from going back to sleep and has been for eight nights. I didn't think anything was torn because I still have full range in the shoulder. What I can't do is jump to a support position on rings or dip bars. Something on the right side is turned off and not working.
This occurred (not sure how and wasn't aware of it at the time) in my first week of feeling like my left elbow tendonitis was well enough to work out hard. I was so excited and now I'm feeling like I'm doomed. I hope I'm overreacting but I've never had pain like this before. Luckily, moving it around a lot makes it hurt less (that's the only thing that does) so at least when I'm at the gym I'm not distracted every second.
