New Year's Resolutions

My CrossFit New Year's Resolutions are:

- first strict pull-up (deadline April, 1)
- first strict push-up (no knees)
- first ring dip
- better core strength to do gymnastics!
- body weight back squat and front squat
- 100 kgs deadlift (now 97,..)

Biggest goals:

- limit my inhaler use during running and wall ball shots!
- finish the intermediate level!

DAY 6: McGhee

I'm officially halfway the challenge! We started the strength part with sumo deadlifts but since a week or two they have been hurting the inside of my hip joint and this happened again today, so I switched from sumo deadlifts to deadlifts. I managed to repeat my 1RM from September (215 lbs) and that is really awesome after six days of daily training.

McGhee went great, I really love long workouts. Instead of jumping on a wooden box, I jumped on a softer box and this was the first time after my box jump injury that I did box jumps in a workout.

I finished with 15 rounds and 3 push-ups! 

DAY 5: filthy fifty

I slept only 6 hours last night and I could definitely feel it in my muscles. We did 4 x 20 front squats with 50% of our 1 RM and they were very difficult. My 1 RM is actually 135 and I could barely manage the front squats with 65.

Since it was a full house, I had to start the workout with the knees to elbows (knee raises) and it took me too long. My hands just couldn't hold on to the bar and I kept falling off. I took me over 7 minutes to complete the first fifty. Afterwards I tried to pick up the pace and that went well but I couldn't make up for lost time. I finished doing 43 jumping pull-ups and still had to do the kettle bell swings and the walking lunges. Maybe next time...

(I found this picture somewhere online but I forgot where..)

DAY 4: Isabel - 3 min rest - Grace

When I started to warm-up I felt immediately tired. Not as much my mind as my body. I could tell that I did Murph the day before but I gave my best effort nonetheless. 

We did 5x3 sets of power snatch (with 70 lbs) and 5x3 of clean&jerk (with 75 lbs) in the strength part of the workout. Afterwards we did Isabel and Grace with 3 minutes rest in between. I started the workout with 70 but lowered the weight to 65 after 15 clean&jerks because I couldn't hold my back muscles stable enough. I finished in 16:35. 

DAY 3: Murph

Today was murph-time. I was still sore from fight gone bad and seven when I started with the murph. The running actually went quite well but then the problems started. If I have a muscle ache, normally, it goes away after a couple of movements in a WOD, but today it didn't... I really struggled with the ring rows and the push-ups. The squats went really good and the running afterwards went as good as it can be after 300 squats.

Nonetheless it took me one minute more than when I did Murph in June, from 58:28 to 59:38, but I finished underneath the hour mark so that is good.

DAY 2: team SEVEN

Yesterday we did a team seven. First time I did this WOD and it was intense! My team mate and I finished in 48 min 31 seconds. I did almost all the thrusters and all the deadlifts and she did almost all the kettle bell swings and wall climbs. I can do wall climbs but they take so long....

Happy with the results and the upcoming muscle soreness. Luckily today is a rest day.

Murph tomorrow....

DAY 1: fight gone bad

Last time I did fight gone bad I did 224 reps. So today's goal was to do the same or better.

I ended with 221 reps, not bad for a fight gone bad :)

And afterwards I realized I took a heavier wall ball than prescribed, so I might could have done 224 reps...well...next time...

Last CrossFit challenge of the year: 12 days before Christmas

This is the first time that I'll do this kind of challenge: 14 days - 12 wods (2 rest days).

Let's see how my body will cope with daily workouts. I think it will be quiet interesting.
I'll combine this with enough sleep, healthy food and water..

October 15, Hi Helen

Once a month it is test day: time to work on our skills levels. I finished the beginner's level a couple of months ago, so many of the exercises of the intermediate level are still far-fetched (muscle ups, ring dips, hand stand hold, 7 skin the cats...). However, some are within reach.

Today I added theses skills:

- 65 sit-ups in 2 minutes (Last month I did 63 in 2 minutes....)
- 40 knee push ups

I tried:

- 200 singles. I had to stop after 60 because my knee started to hurt.
- backward roll. Somehow I forgot how to do them.

Afterwards we did HELEN.

I scaled to ring rows

The running went really bad although I used my inhaler beforehand.
The second time round of running I even had to walk because my knee was so painful.

I finished the workout in 12:45.

October 13, Luckily it is not Friday and we aren't doing box jumps

It was 1RM time! We did a 1RM sumo deadlift today. The last time I did a 1RM sumo deadlift was on June, 22 and I lifted 155 lbs. Time to lift some more.

I easily lifted 155 - 175 and finally 185. I tried lifting 195 and I could actually lift it from the ground but I could feel that my technique was about to fail. Instead of risking back pain I stayed with 185. 

30 pounds more in 4 months isn't bad so I was really happy with my new PR :)

Yeah for progress!

After our 1RM we did 100 banded KBS: AUCH!

The WOD was:

AMRAP in 3 min of:

60 kbs (53/35)

max rep deadlift (255/185)

- 2 min rest -

AMRAP in 3 min of:

30 pull-ups

max rep sumo deadlift (255/185)

After the 100 banded KBS the 60 KBS were seriously heavy! I scaled the lifts to 130 lbs and did ring rows instead of pull-ups. The first round I didn't even do a deadlift the second round I could do 11. My final score was 101 (60 + 41).

October 5, losing track of updates, clean slate

I've been losing track of all the updates that I still have planned in my head.  So I decided to start with a clean slate. No more posting postponed updates

For now just a couple of small updates:

- I finished Fight Gone Bad RX with 224 reps, reaching the 200 reps necessary for the intermediate level!

- We went to the Lowlands Throwdown in Apeldoorn last weekend and watched some great athletes compete. One of our CrossFit Leuven athletes, Marijke Gijsens, finished fourth in the master's category. Hurray!!!

- I'm looking for ways to avoid hyper flexing my joints, since I'm risking some serious injuries. Any advise always welcome!

- I can do 25 pull-ups with a green band and I can sometimes do a couple with the blue band. I'm working on my goals!

- Starting with yoga and the plank challenge are things I want to be doing in October!

September 21, Piotr doing a 140 kg bar complex Lowlands Throwdown Qualifier @ CrossFit Antwerpen

On September 21 the Lowlands Throwdown Qualifier took place in CrossFit Antwerpen. 8 members of CrossFit Leuven took a shot at qualifying themselves to go to Apeldoorn on October 4 and 5. 

In WOD #2 every athlete had 6 minutes to find his/her max weight for the following bar complex: 1 hang clean - 1 front squat - 1 shoulder to overhead.

One of the athletes of CrossFit Leuven excelled and finished 1st on WOD #2. Piotr did the bar complex with 140 kgs (310  lbs).

It is definitely impressing to watch!

 

(more photos of the qualifier will be posted soon!)

September 12, Body weight challenge

If you would ask me about the exercises I like the least, I would definitely say the majority of body weight exercises. I am still working on my one pull-up, I failed doing 65 sit-ups in 2 minutes (63, aargh) and for some reason I can't do burpees or V-ups very fast (yet!)

So when today's workout was announced, I felt a shudder.

AMRAP in 3 min of:
20 Burpees
? Pull-ups
-1 min rest-
AMRAP in 3 min of:
30 Wallball shots (20/14)
? Pull-up
-1 min rest-
AMRAP in 3 min of:
40 V-ups
? Pull-ups

Score = number of pull-ups

Worst nightmare and definitely a body weight challenge! I scaled the pull-ups to ring rows

The first round I did 13 ring rows, the second 11 and the third 17. A total score of 41 ring rows. Next time I will try to do 45 ring rows!

September 11, from 1RM to WOD weight

Today's workout was most definitely a milestone in my crossfit career. One year ago September 10, 2013 my 1RM sumo deadlift was 105 lbs and today it was my workout weight. Three months ago I did my first wall climb that was close enough to the wall to be considered a wall climb. Today I did 18 wall climbs in the workout!

In the strength part we did some sumo deadlifts (36 in total) and a lot of kettle bell swings (100 consecutive!)

The workout was:

3 rounds for time of:
12 Sumo deadlifts (225/155)
24 Kettlebell swings (53/35)
6 Handstand push-ups

I scaled the sumo deadlifts to 105 lbs and the handstand push-ups to wall climbs but I did do the kbs with 35 lbs! I finished in 14:57 and I was sooo happy! I managed to do all the wall climbs without falling on my face although I still have to work on coming down! Two big bruises on my knees!

September 8, mental block

I went to a party on Saturday so I didn't go to the box on Sunday although I wasn't hungover or so. I just went to bed late and wanted to give my body some rest.

I went on monday and this was the WOD:

21-15-9 reps for time of:
Russian Kettlebell swings (70/53)
Burpees
Toes to bar

7 power clean (135/95) after each round

The strength part consisted out of 1 RM power clean and 2 rounds of 10 man height jumps alternated with 10 double kettlebell cleans.  I thought my 1 RM was 85, but it actually already was 105 lbs. When I reached that point I started thinking that my 1 RM power clean couldn't be higher than my 1 RM front squat.... and I blocked. I could definitely pull the 115 lbs high enough but I couldn't bring myself to jump underneath it. Mental block !!

I did the WOD with a 53 lbs kettlebell (heavy!!!) and scaled the toes to bar to knee raises on the rings. I did the power cleans with 70 lbs. Unfortunately, I forgot my time, whoops, and I can't decipher the whiteboard picture but I definitely finished within 15 minutes and it felt great!

3 rounds for time

Yesterday's WOD was no joke, that's for sure. It looked okay on the whiteboard but during the wod you could definitely feel the exhaustion caused by the 6 rounds of 6 reps of good mornings and 5 reps of bent over rows.

The WOD was:

40 kettlebell swings (35 lbs)
30 pull-ups (scaled to ring rows)
20 burpees

I managed to finish in 25:34. I had to take a lot of breaks to catch my breath and to calm down my stomach (had some spaghetti one hour before the WOD).

...and I'm back!

I took July off from blogging for various reasons. One of them being that I just wanted to be free from my computer for a month, the other one being that I was traveling for the majority of the month!

So now it is time for some updates. There are a couple of them in the pipeline, such as:

- While we were traveling on the East Coast of the States, we (boyfriend and I) visited 7(!) boxes in two and a half weeks. I will blog about each of them based on when we visited them: I AM CrossFit Upper Keys, Reebok CrossFit Miami Beach, CrossFit Hephzibah, Gold City CrossFit, Bull Run CrossFit, Reebok CrossFit Fifth Avenue, CrossFit Hell's Kitchen

- I achieved a new level of fitness!

- WOD's at home, at CrossFit Leuven!

- CrossFit in Malta? Trip with my girlfriends!

- Short-term and long-term goals.

Something with burpees

On Saturday we celebrated the Swedish Midsommar Gille with some CrossFit Leuven friends. Although I didn't get home until 2 o'clock there was no reason not to workout the next morning. At the party it was really hard not to eat all the yummie Swedish food but I kept to my paleo diet and I didn't drink a drop of alcohol. I did splurge on sushi before the party though (whoops, not so paleo).

The WOD was:

AMRAP in 15 min of:
10 Burpees
10 Sumo deadlifts (225/155)
10 Russian KBS (70/53)

Burpees are my least favorite exercise! For some reason I just can't do them fast enough. 

The Sumo deadlifts (with 105 lbs) and the Russian KBS (with 45 lbs) were actually going very easy in comparison with the burpees. I managed to do 5 rounds and 7 burpees in 15 minutes.

Tuesday's WOD

Whoops I forgot to blog about Tuesday's WOD.

This was the WOD:

AMRAP in 12 min of:

6 Handstand push-ups

12 Wallball shots (20/14)

18 Double unders

I finished with 5 rounds and 10 wall ball shots (scaled the HSPU's to sitting thrusters and the double unders to tuck jumps). I can actually do double unders (one at a time) but somehow when it's workout time I can't do them anymore, hence the scaling.

In the warm-up we built up to handstand (push-up). When I was little my friends once dropped me on my head/neck whilst I was doing a handstand and since then I have been sort of scared of doing them. 

However, with a little help (to make me swing further) I did a handstand today (and I didn't drop on my head)!! :)

Murph time

Today it was Murph time and although I have been working out at CrossFit Leuven for more than a year, it was my first solo Murph!

I scaled the pull ups to ring rows and the push ups to knee push ups and finished in 58:28. 

I'm soooo happy with this result. Not only is it under the one hour time cap but I can barely believe that I did 200 push ups. I remember being happy half a year ago with the fact that I could do 10 knee push ups !!! What a progress!!!!