RX THE WOD

CrossFit Supersets

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

I forgot some of the terms in traditional gyms until last week when someone in the corporate gym asked me if I was just doing supersets. (Superset is when you do two weightlifting exercises back to back without stopping). I said sure, I specialize in supersets. In fact, that is what MetCons are most of the time. Moving loads at a distance quickly and without stopping. So there you have it. We are now also Superset Specialists. Speaking of which, I totally supersetted my shoulders today with double unders, shoulder presses, deadlifts and pushups in a row. But at least there was very little stopping…

Skill
– As many reps as possible in 10 minutes of double unders: 181
– Muscle up and handstand pushup forms
Strength
– Wendler Push Presses 3/3/3 [105+]
Conditioning
Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes:
– 2 deadlifts @ 315 lbs
– 12 pushups
Then 1 mile run
[TIME: 18:30]

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The CrossFit Scientist

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

In a sport where you are on the clock and measured for every movement, it is expected that there are great tools for tracking performance. In fact there are countless WOD trackers and planners available both online and off. Many boxes provide access to a tracking tool or provide at least a paper version WODBook. In my travels I’ve seen a great variety of these and have been trying Beyond the Whiteboard, other gyms provided FitView, flexFWD and numerous other sites. They are all great to track WODs, comparing you against other athletes, tracking your benchmark movements and lifts.
One new tool I’m trying is Science behind Sweat. What is cool about it is the ability to get beyond tracking into calculating work output over time, assessing muscle utilization and performance. It also tries to predict how you would perform in the Open or the Games based on your past results.

I found that computer trackers don’t work for me in the gym. For tracking the reps, planning the day or the week ahead paper is still the best for me. After using sports journal’s WODbooks for a year now, I’m experimenting with MetCon5. I like how this book helps you plan and hold you accountable over a whole year…

Today was a great endurance interval run with pyramid pushup, sit-ups every 2 minutes. A little over 6K in 15 rounds with endless pushups and sit-ups… Fun.

Skill
100 Double Unders
Conditioning
15 rounds
– 2 minute run then
within next minute:
– 10, 12, 14…. pushups and situps every 2 minutes
count up until run out of the minute then start counting down
[SCORE: 248 pushups and 248 situps]

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Rocking the Paleo Zone

Posted on June 2, 2012 by

Most CF athletes adapt sooner or later to a better form of nutrition in order to improve performance. The journey takes some to the Zone and others to Paleo while some attempt to hold to the tough standard of Paleo Zone. I had no problem with Paleo, easy to keep in mind the five ingredients: meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. When I tried Paleo Zone, I did find it challenging the complexities of zone blocks and the constant conversion of ounces and cups to blocks. (If you forgot your ideal zone blocks, the best online calculator I found is here).

On my last trip to Europe, I was impressed by one of the coaches eye-balling zone blocks. He could tell a 1 block food from a 2 just by looking at it. And he could deadlift over 500 and clean in the mid-200s… That inspired me to simplify the Zone enough to make it easier to follow and yes, make it all visual. My simplified method of tracking the Zone is below. It works for most Paleo foods but doesn’t apply to grains, legumes and starch that we wouldn’t eat anyway, right?

Skills
– Double Unders, Strict Handstand Pushups
Strength
– Wendler Squat Clean 3x3x3 – 135+
Conditioning
5 rounds every minute on the minute.
Score: # of seconds less than 30 seconds to complete for each round. No score for over 30 second rounds.
– 10 kettlebell swings
– 5 burpees
[SCORE: 13 seconds]

Posted in Paleo, Top Posts, WOD | 1 Comment

Paleo, Mead and Double Unders

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

This month I will be entering my second year in CrossFit and part of that is rethinking goals for both fitness and nutrition. (More on this closer to the anniversary date of June 22nd). But it made me think of Paleo challenges especially over barbecues and weekend parties. One common discussion when I bring up Paleo is not ‘what do you eat’ any more – I think people resigned to the fact that we’re ‘Against the Grain’. The new question now is ‘what do you drink?’. Since I don’t drink beer and hard liquor, I didn’t have the usual paleo withdrawal challenges of the grain drinkers. I do like wine though and wine is not paleo. Yes, it came with agriculture even if thousands of years before the beer monks…

The one drink that is pre-agriculture may be mead. Getting mead is almost impossible in any local store and most producers do not ship. If you find one that does you would be happy to know that 4 ounces are 1 zone blocks and the drink may be closest to Paleo you can find.

Skill
– Double Unders, Strict Muscle Ups, Handstand Pushups
Strength
Wendler Snatch [95+]
MetCon
3 rounds for time
– 10 power snatches 75 lbs
– 20 double unders
[TIME: 4:57]
Endurance
Tabata Row – 8x20sec – 10 sec rest

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Unbroken

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

CFDV set a great new standard for the workout today: “unbroken”. As we learned, there is a world of difference between doing 20 reps of something when you can rest vs when you cannot. In fact the workout I remember the most was at CFKOP designed by one of the athletes called ‘Bad Medicine‘. Running, cleans, wallballs and overhead squats with a medicine ball then you can never put down… KOP has done these with barbells too…

The point is simple. Some days I could do 20 unbroken double unders. But any day, any time? Not. The standard is what you can show up with any day, any time. That is the true baseline worth improving… Like pulling a double under all-nighter? Can’t sleep till you get 100 unbroken? Tempting…

Strength
Wendler Strict Shoulder Press [110+]
Conditioning
5 rounds
– 15 Wall Balls – 20 lbs
– 20 Double Unders or 40 singles
Needs to be unbroken – any broken sequence needs to be restarted
Any resting or bad form requires restart of the round as well
[TIME: 7:50 w singles]