French health is a walk in the park?

Posted on June 17, 2013 by RX

The Pyrenees mountains separate French Catalonia from Spain. Driving across them is like a short trip through history with many castles and fortresses perched on top of steep cliffs. The mountains also isolate the quieter French seaside villages from the all-day-all-night energy of Barcelona and Costa Brava.

I drove back from our long weekend in France to Barcelona to catch a flight to London.

My Jawbone Up! confirmed age-old health observations: the locals here walk a lot… While in Spain and France, I walked on average 15,000-20,000 steps a day vs my normal 3,000 in the US (not counting the WODs).

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Suspension Bands on the Beach

Posted on June 16, 2013 by RX

Today we gave TRX WODs another shot with a quick beach workout with a strong enough tree to hold the straps. Pullups got replaced with TRX rows which are surprisingly much harder than ring rows especially on sandy ground. Same with TRX pushups with the bands low to the ground. All in all these last two days convinced me to take these suspension bands more seriously.

MetCon
for time:
50 TRX rows
50 TRX pushups
50 TRX squats
50 situps
[9:22]
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Partner TRX Gone Bad

Posted on June 15, 2013 by RX

Being in French Catalonia, there is no CF gym in sight so we need to get creative with our WODs. The seashore has great tree-lined parks with robust trees and endless running paths as well. I often travel with my TRX bands which I haven’t used in quite a while so today’s conditions finally called for them.
My daughter and I created a WOD resembling a certain minute-by-minute workout.

MetCon “TRX Gone Bad”
24 minutes for total reps not counting the runs and planks:
3 rounds of
- 1 minute TRX pushups
- 1 minute run
- 1 minute TRX ring rows
- 1 minute run
- 1 minute TRX squats
- 1 minute run
- 1 minute TRX plank
- 1 minute rest
then as a cash-out:
1 minute TRX super globo gym biceps curls
[258 / 233 reps]
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Crossing the Mountains to South France

Posted on June 14, 2013 by RX

Today is Rest Day after a quite busy work week and we are heading to France to relax on the weekend before work resumes in London.

Traveling from Barcelona to the south of France is like entering a different continent. The bustling tourist trap and all-nighter lifestyle of BCN gave way to a quieter, calmer set of villages with endless sand beaches and very little noise.
Unfortunately that also meant leaving behind other trappings of an overactive lifestyle, like a CrossFit box. The closest one in France is hundreds of miles away.

This will give us the excuse to test how tough we can make bodyweight training with TRX bands and the endless running paths around. Starting tomorrow.

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Another Spanish WOD

Posted on June 13, 2013 by RX

Since we couldn’t get enough of the local flavor of CF, we went back for a second serving today. This one was even harder. Maybe because the warmup already had close to a hundred kettlebell swings. Still, I will remember Barcelona as a fun town with a cool box with some tough programming.
Warmup
- 800m row or 800m run or 120 DU or 360 singles
- 60+ kettlebell swing practice
- 6-6-6 kettlebell swings – russian
- 6-6-6 kettlebell swings – american
WOD
12 minute AMRAP
- 2 kettlebell presses
- 4 kettlebell swings
- 6 jump over box – 30in
increase reps by 2 in each round
[7 rounds + 14 presses]

barcelona222

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