Recently in Training Category

Today: 5 sets of 3 squats at 85 kg. Heavy but not too scary-difficult once I got into it. Next time, 5 x 5 at the same weight.

I followed this by practicing kettlebell pistols with the 24 kg. I did a few on each leg, but they are inconsistent. I'll practice these a lot the next two weeks in case they come in handy at the RKC that starts August 27. I can't wait to go to San Diego!

Several months ago I signed up as a volunteer assistant staffer at this month's RKC in La Jolla. This will let me renew my RKC status without paying full price to go through the cert again, and will give me the (I hope) fun and educational experience of assisting the team leaders. I went to the RKC (Dragon Door) website to double check the physical testing requirements and saw that they had changed the snatch test. Two years ago I had to (at my weight and gender) snatch the 16 kg kettlebell 26 times without stopping. This year I would have to snatch it as many times as my weight in kilos in five minutes. That was about 58 to 60 snatches--not at all difficult to do in five minutes. I tried it right away, with a gym friend counting reps for me and keeping time, did not stop, and finished in about 2:40. Whew. That was almost an easier test than the old one.

So earlier this week the materials arrived for this upcoming course I'm assisting at. What's this? The snatch test is now 100 reps for everyone, in five minutes, regardless of body weight. And at my weight, 16 kg is the weight I will use. Indeed the old new test must have been tried out and found to be too easy! I went out in the back yard yesterday to take this new new test, snatching the 16 kg 100 times. I succeeded with 20 seconds to spare. Now that's a hard test! I think it's great!

I wish I had looked at the website earlier to find out the test was changed, and I would have started practicing this sooner. The next two weeks I'm going to do the snatch test on Mondays and Fridays, and do pressing and maybe sprinting on Wednesdays and maybe Saturdays. The snatch test was challenging weight-wise and also winded and tired me like repeated sprints.

45th birthday stunt collection from Fran Mason on Vimeo.

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!).

I had a great day yesterday that seemed to be full of successes.

New trainee Donna, in her second session, made huge progress on her deadlift technique. She's sticking with personal sessions for a while so I can tailor the sessions to her, which is going to be really fun.

Then I had a gymnastics-filled 4 PM class and it went great! I had gone to Dave's 7 AM class to see how he would progress people through L-sits and then into some tumbling, and I did it his way, mostly. We warmed up then stretched the hamstrings a lot, using partners, in order to facilitate the L-sits. We did a bunch of that, not holding for too long but doing reps.

Then in the tumbling section I came up with a couple of simple drills that seemed to help people go from forward rolls into handstand roll-outs without crashing down. First, during the forward roll I asked people to be sure to put the back of their head on the mat and then roll. If they flew into the roll without putting their head down, I was more afraid they would do the same thing out of the handstand and knock the breath out of themselves. Second, I added a second round of forward rolls that started in a sort of downward-dog position - hands on the mat with STRAIGHT arms; then bend the arms and tuck the chin, round the back and roll.

From there, when we went into the handstand roll-outs (spotting and cueing each other), people were able to lower themselves without crashing. Ten people and only one minor crash. I was very happy with this and everyone had fun.

During my hour break I had a personal success at doing my first bar muscle-up. Yay! Ryan saw me trying it and told me to throw my head forward to help get completely over the bar, and this worked right away. I did two of the bar muscle-ups and could not do any more the rest of the evening. Today my shoulders really feel worked! Can't wait to try those again when I'm fresh. Here's a really good video of bar muscle-ups. I couldn't quickly find one of a woman doing them. Mental note - bring a camera nex time!

And finally, last night at six I had a second session with a very enthusiastic guy who loves working out and is fun to teach. So, it was a great day.

3 dumbbell snatches per side, 35 lbs
7 high-jump burpees
Run 100 meters (or what looked like 100 to me)
5 rounds

Time: 11:40

This was just a little too easy; next time, 45-lb dumbbells. Considering I was doing 1-arm barbell snatches, which is 45 pounds, that's definitely the weight I should have used. I was chicken I guess.

I mowed the lawn right after this, including slopes, which added to the over-all sense of having done push-ups.

Surprisingly fun: chain push-ups from Fran Mason on Vimeo.

I tried this out the day after the gym got the chains, with the assistance of trainee Teague (aka "the Bad Influence") (kidding). Next day I had everyone in my 4 PM CrossFit class, who is able to do any push-ups, try push-ups in chains! They liked it, and some people continued practicing their push-ups after the chains were put back in their storage bucket, just for fun.

In Scott's noon class today we did 5 x 5 weighted dips, then with a partner, take turns doing 3 cleans and do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. For the dips, I managed a few reps with 8 kg attached to me, but I did the 5 x 5 with a 15-lb dumbbell between my ankles. Adding weight to bodyweight drills is so gratifying. For the cleans, I used 30 kg and my partner and I did 32 rounds.

In the evening after I was done working, I decided to try the new RKC snatch test: snatch a 16-kg kettlebell as many reps in five minutes as equal your weight in kilos. Someone recently pointed out that this (at my weight of 60 kg) is one snatch every five seconds, and this seemed intimidating, though I realized that each rep takes way less time than five seconds. I thought I had better try this now in case I need to train to do it in September when I go renew my certification. Kellie timed me and counted reps, and I did 60 reps in 2:47 without putting the weight down. I ought to work towards doing all 60 with only one hand-switch, but for the new snatch test you can switch off as much as you need to.

I'm in the middle of a 12-session class at noon Mondays and Wednesdays at Mind and Body Studio in the Central District. It's my first class in the neighborhood and I'm grateful to Dana Belkholm, the owner, for approaching me with this class idea. Two people signed up. One was out of town today and the other had a babysitting gap, so today since I was there I worked out on my own.

Row 500 on the Concept2 at 23 strokes per minute (Time: 2:01)
rest
30 kettlebell swings (24 kg)
rest
Row 500 at 24 spm (2:02)
rest
35 KB swings (24 kg)
rest
Row 500 at 24 spm (2:02)
rest
40 swings (16 kg - getting exhausted but really wanted the volume)
rest
Row 500 at 25 SPM (2:00)
rest
40 swings (16 kg)

It is very worthwhile to experiment with keeping the stroke rate down and seeing how much power you can put into each stroke. For me, with my small size and short legs, these rates are very low. (For a typically tall man on a rowing team, these rates would be closer to what they'd use for a sprint.) But since I'm a fast-twitch person who's a good jumper, it seems to make sense to JUMP! and recover, for the duration, rather than stroke fast and endure.

I'm jumping "back" a bit more, could stand to do it even more I think, and I still need to extend more explosively. It's better than it was anyway.