CrossFit workouts: March 2008 Archives

21 thrusters (weight: 65 pounds)
21 pull-ups
15 thrusters
15 pull-ups
9 thrusters
9 pull-ups
Time: 5:34

Last time (a couple of weeks ago) I did "fran" all alone in the gym and I was slower with less weight. Yesterday I was well rested and there was a noisy room full of people working out. I was really glad to be that much faster and heavier, and had no shoulder problem.

I had been unusually tired the previous two days after doing a lot of snatch practice followed by heavy squats to a new max (96 kg) on Monday. I wasn't sure that should have made me feel totally spent for two whole days, but Scott told me he experienced the same thing when he was doing more O-lifting practice.

Last time, a year ago, I did Fran in 5:56 with 65 pounds. Today I did it in 5:57 with 55 pounds. Ever since I started having that sporadic shoulder problem (which I think of as "the twang") I'm more tentative with thrusters. No shoulder problem today but I'm always anticipating it. I'll work on thrusters and pull-ups for a couple of months and do it with 65 to see how it goes. My press is way stronger than it was a year ago for sure, but the thruster is so much more aggressive.

I practiced snatch drops and snatches today at 15 to 22 kg, working on my ability to catch it low and get out of the power-snatch trap. Then I did 11 and 15 overhead squats with 22 kg. All that was with Scott and before "Fran," which I did alone in the gym.

Nancy and I were partners for this workout. We used two 12-kg kettlebells. For 20 minutes, partners take turns: clean the two KBs; with them racked, lunge right; lunge left; jerk. How many rounds can you do in 20 minutes? Nancy and I did 51 (each).

We weren't finished. Next we had to sit on the floor with a barbell, legs out straight in front, and press the barbell overhead for one minute. Nancy and I used a women's bar (15 kg) and got 18 and 26 reps. That's really hard!

I went to the gym in the afternoon yesterday to do my O-lifting workout, which involved cleans, snatch drops, snatch pulls from blocks, and overhead squats.

Then I worked with my client WS, trying out barbell squats and presses with him for the first time. He did great considering he's older than most of my trainees have been and is still working on his squat in every sense. I use a 19-inch box as a depth gauge on his air squats and kettlebell goblet squats, so we used that for barbell back squatting as well. I got the bar as low as possible on his back, hoping to help keep him from tipping forward onto his toes as he descended. It took four sets with the 45-pound bar, but in the end he was getting down to the box on most reps. The press is easier for him because he has pretty good overhead shoulder flexibility. We didn't have time to work on his deadlift.

I stuck around for Scott's workout class because he had said we'd do some deadlifting, and I want to start working on mine since repeating my same max at the CrossFit Total last week. I worked up through six sets of five, to a broken set of five at 90 kg. Then we did a CrossFit workout that involved three rounds: run 400 meters, 50 air squats. My time was 10-minutes-something and I was tired! I was going to work out today but decided to rest. Did some light yard work instead--washing rocks for a fountain!

7 pull-ups
7 thrusters (I used a 25-kg barbell)
7 burpees
7 rounds for time
12:58

This workout came from trainer Tim via some elaborate, loud videos posted over a period of several days on crossfit.com.