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Andi's crossfit and bulking journal


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Warm Up:

5 minute personal warm up

300m row

3 rounds of

8 front squat - 20kg

8 kettlebell swings - 16kg

 

Lift:

OTM 8 x 1 Squat clean @ 80% - 42.5kg

 

WOD:

5 rounds for time:

3 power clean @ 80% of weight performed in lift session

200m run

 

Completed in 6:50 with 35kg on the bar.

 

Another nice early morning, raring to go. Surprisingly so actually. I initially balked at the idea of doing squat cleans again, but it was actually pretty beneficial doing these so soon after barbell club, as the technique was still pretty fresh. 42.5kg was around 80% of my 1RM as prescribed, but I really felt like I could go heavier. Dropping into the squat felt perfectly achievable each time and it didn't feel particularly heavy. I'm hoping that this means a 1RM for squat clean is coming my way soon.

 

The WOD was a good blaster. My prescribed weight was 35kg for the power cleans, which honestly felt light, meaning I could blast through this all unbroken, something very unusual for me. Pretty pleased that I completed in 6:50, and I think I probably could have gone faster if I'd had my eye on the clock at all.

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Warm Up:

Bear Crawl tag

Bergener variation warm up

Lift:

5 x 2 snatch - 25kg

WOD:

21-15-9

Snatch - 25kg

Run 1km, 400m, 200m in between each round.

(Rx was 50kg with 1mile, 800m, 400m runs)

Disappointed with my snatching today. We had the choice of power snatch into overhead squat, or squat snatching for both the lift and the WOD, and I honestly thought I'd be able to do this at a higher weight, but no. I just couldn't drop into the squat snatch quickly enough when I tried at anything higher than 25kg. I really need to work on this. My technique feels ok at this weight, so I think as long as I work on it consistently the weight will go up, but still, disappointing.

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Warm Up:

300m row

then 3 rounds of:

10 x overhead squat - 20kg

10 x kettlebell swing - 16kg

10 pipe passthroughs

 

then snatch warm up

 

Lift:

Snatch - 8 x 2 on the minute - 25kg

 

WOD:

8 minute power snatch & burpee ladder - 30kg

2-4-6-8-10......

 

Another snatch session, and I felt a lot better about it this time than last week. 25kg is still not as high as I'd like to be currently on squat snatch, but it felt much better than last week. I think I've worked out why I hit a sudden limit when I can no longer drop down comfortably into the squat and lock out into a power snatch; it's got to be directly related to how much I can comfortably overhead squat. When it's too heavy going overhead, it's not stable and my body compensates by locking up and making it stable. I need to improve my overhead strength if I'm going to improve beyond my current 1 rep max of 35kg.

 

The WOD felt ok, it was comfortable being at 30kg and I could plod through without stopping for more than a few seconds when the going got tough. I managed to get 7 snatches into my round of 12.

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Workout 20/12/13

 

Warm Up:

300m row the 3 rounds of

8 bench press (start light with increasing weight)

8 ring row

8 sit up

Lift:

3x5 bench press - 47.5kg (failed on last set)

WOD A:

30 handstand pushups

70 ring rows

Can be broken up however you like.

 

WOD B:

100 kettlebell lateral raises (4kg)

100 banded pull downs

Can be broken up however you like.

 

A nice Friday morning session before my work's Christmas party kicks off. It was nice to hit bench press for the first time in ages, but it was annoying to fail the third set of 5 after 3 reps....really annoying!!

 

The WOD was a great one, the above WOD A was the level 2 version. The prescribed workout was 50 handstand push ups and 100 ring rows. I broke this into 10 rounds of 3 HSPU and 7 ring rows and finished in 11:27, which I was happy with.

 

I only managed the first half of the second WOD as the class ran over time a bit and I had to leave for work. I finished 40 banded pull downs and 30 lateral raises before getting out of there.

 

It was nice to have what felt like a great arm workout, ready for Friday fun.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't manage to blog much over the Christmas break, but I did do some workouts, mainly focusing on lifting with one metcon workout.

 

27/12/13

 

Barbell squat:

20kg x 10

40kg x 5

60kg x 5

70kg x 5 x 5

Press

20kg x 10

32.5kg x 5 x 5

Kipping pull ups

3 sets of 10 (had to break the last two sets up as my grip was failing).

28/12/13

 

50 overhead squats

50 over bar burpees

50 sit ups

To be completed in any order you choose. I chose to break this into 5 sets of 10 reps on each. Rx was 70kg, which is WAY to heavy for me in OHS, so I did this at 30kg and completed it in 13:58.

30/12/13

 

Front squat

40kg x 5

50kg x 5 x 5

Power snatch

Attempt 1RM (42.5kg to beat)

Failed - I couldn't even equal 42.5 and my max was 40kg. Very frustrating.

31/12/13

 

Deadlift

Attempt 1RM (110kg to beat)

Failed - managed 100kg but couldn't budge 110kg to equal previous PB.

Squat clean

Attempt 1RM (55kg to beat)

SUCCESS - managed to squat clean 57.5kg. The first attempt was there, but a little shaky, was somewhere between a power snatch into front squat than a squat snatch. My second attempt was fine. Very pleased with this.

 

 

 

That concludes my 2013 year of crossfit training. Looking back I set myself a few goals for the year, some I achieved, some I didn't. The ones I failed to achieve were gaining 0.5kg of muscle mass per month and getting at least 1PB. I am still struggling to gain clean weight, and have been making a real push for this over the last couple of months. The PR goal started out well last year, but I stopped seeing the gains after a few months. I'm carrying this forward into my 2014 goals. The goals I was successful in seem small now, but at the time they were things I just couldn't do, so I am pleased that I have got these skills now. They need work still, but they are there. The goal was to chain together double unders, and learn handstand push ups and toes-to-bar. All of these I can now do - woop!!!

 

And on to 2014. Keeping it simple I'd like to achieve the following during the coming year.

 

One PB in a lift each month.

Get pistols nailed

Get chest-to-bar pullups nailed

I'm going to throw this one in...but I'm not expecting to do it....I'd like to join the muscle up club.

The main things I need to do to help achieve these are, attendance and food. I need to make sure I get to the box several times per week, I'm aiming for 4-5 times, one of week being barbell club. Food wise, I'm looking to eat around 2500 calories on rest days, and 3000 on training days. I'll monitor my weight weekly and adjust this accordingly.

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Warm up:

3 minutes double under

2 rounds of:

15s overhead squat hold (20kg, 30kg)

2 lengths bear crawl

5 snatch (20kg, 30kg)

Lift:

Achieve 1RM, then do 3x1 at 90% of 1RM.

Got 50kg for 1RM (equalled previous PB), then did 3 x 1 sets at 47.5kg. Felt like there was more in the tank, so went for a new 1RM PR at 52.5kg and got this. I think there was probably some more there too. January goal....tick!

WOD:

10 minute AMRAP

30 double unders

15 snatch - 30kg

 

Managed to get 2 rounds and 30 double unders completed, at level 2, which was a power snatch into OHS, rather than full squat snatch. The first round's reps were full squat snatch, but I quickly tired of this. Simple on paper, but this really took it out of me.

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Workout 03/01/14

 

Warm Up:

300m row

2 rounds of:

7 bench press (increasing weight - 20kg, 30kg)

7 ring rows

7 air squat

7 sit ups

 

Lift:

3 x 5 bench press - 47.5kg

 

WOD:

Angie (Scaled) - 25 minute time cap

70 pull ups

70 push ups

70 sit ups

70 air squats

Just a quick write up today, as my arms feel like they're going to drop off after this workout! Pleased with my bench press, two weeks ago when I attempted this exact lift I failed on the last set, but it felt reasonably easy today, and I think I possibly could have gone heavier.

 

The WOD, was HARD WORK! I did the scaled version, the presrcibed amount of reps for "Angie" is 100 on each movement, but that would have taken me all day. As it was, I just completed the sit ups in within the time cap, and didn't get started on the air squats at all. The slowest part was the push ups, I always blow out on these really quick, and to be honest the last 20 reps were pretty worm like in movement. I'm mainly pleased that I managed 70 kipping pull ups though, my hands are now pretty torn up as part of it, but that's all part of the game.

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Workout 05/01/14 - Barbell Club

 

Warm Up:

Spiderman lunges

Pipe passthroughs

Snatch technique

Snatch balance

 

Lift:

12 x 1 Snatch

The intention of the lift in Barbell today was to stay at a steady weight and really try to dial in technique. However, as I got to the end of the session things seemed to be going so well technique wise I went for a PB, and got it!

 

Lifts were at:

25kg, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 32.5, 32.5, 32.5, 35, 35, 37.5

 

Really pleased with these, all were squat snatched, and I had no trouble at all dropping to the bottom of the squat in one movement. I'm probably still catching the bar quite high rather than getting under it when low, but I know I'm not stopping in a power squat, and then lowering to the bottom. 37.5kg is no world beater, but I've been trying and missing this weight for some time, so it was nice to finally nail it. It didn't feel hard either, so perhaps breaking the 40kg barrier is around the corner.

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Workout 08/01/14

 

Warm Up:

200m run

Snatch drills (possible the most intense warm up I've ever done!)

Lift:

6x2 OTM Snatch @ 70% (27.5kg)

6x2 OTM Clean @ 70% (37.5kg)

WOD:

5 rounds for time

10 ring dips (Scaled to 4 ring dips)

400m run

12 minute time cap

This was an intense session! The warm up was a struggle in itself. We were pretty pushed for time, but Coach Coxy didn't want to lead anyone into the lifts or WOD with cold muscles or joints, so made a tasty warm up accordingly.

All the olympic lifts went ok. I accidentally miscalculated and went just below 70% for the cleans, and should have done this at 40kg, but nothing too drastic there. All were squatted rather than powered, and felt good.

The WOD was a blower! I opted for the level 1 of 4 ring dips as I need to do these strict still as my kipping ring dips aren't too good. I haven't done many of these recently, and thought I was better at them than I was this morning. Something to work on there. Completed this exactly as the time cap elapsed, so a dead 12:00.

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Workout 09/01/14

 

Warm Up:

3 rounds of:

30 second wall squat sit

20 double unders

5 back squat (increasing weight)

10 wall balls

 

Lift:

Max Effort Box Squat (20" box)

 

WOD:

10 minute AMRAP

150 wall balls (9kg)

90 double unders

 

Oooooof! This was brutal, for many reasons. Firstly, my 1RM back squat from one year ago is 90KG. I was determined I could go higher with box squat as there's not as much depth involved, and the purpose of this was to concentrate on the upper portion of the squat, and it worked! I got a 110kg squat, and while it felt heavy, as I've never had anything that heavy on my back before, the actual lift felt relatively easy. I tried at 120kg, but something happened here and as soon as I started to try to rise up I could feel the bar falling forward, my spotter Lewis was in a tight squeeze as he had the box in the way of me and him, but in my mind I could feel that the bar was going down, and forward quickly. Rather than let it take me down with it I just leaned into it and let it roll off me, over my head. Not a fun way to bail out, and looking back could have been pretty nasty, but lucky all was fine after I gave myself a minute sitting down to recover. Next time I attempt this I'm going to make sure I have a spotter on each side of the bar, so they can take the weight if it falls. Live and learn.

 

Secondly, the WOD was one we did as part of the Open last year, and it damn near killed me then! When I did this last year I attempted it Rx as I was registered for the Open, and in a 12 minute time window managed around 100 wall balls. This time, I decided to scale the workout to level 1, and do 100 wall balls at 7kg, in order to try and get well into the double unders before time was called. This was a good choice I feel, I completed the wall balls in around 8 minutes, and managed to get 60 double unders before time ran out.

 

Time now to recover from my massive squat fail earlier, and thank my lucky stars that nothing more serious than a slightly sore neck happened.

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Workout 10/01/14

 

Warm Up:

3 rounds:

10 burpees

30 seconds front rack mobility

7 push press (increase weight each round)

 

Lift:

3x5 linear progression

Push Press

 

WOD:

A) 7 minute AMRAP - burpees

B) 3 sets, max strict chin ups

C) 100 lateral raises

 

I wasn't sure whether to go today as my neck and back is quite sore after the bad squat fail yesterday, but I thought I might as well give it a go. Thankfully there was nothing involving headstands etc involved, so it was fine, although I did feel a little stiff and sore along my neck and upper back during the push press.

 

I did the push press at 45kg which felt heavy, but achievable. According to my notebook this was a PB for the 3x5 rep range, which is great news.

 

I managed 73 burpees in the 7 minutes, I think if my back had been 100% I could have got a bit closer to the 100 goal, but I was fairly pleased with this. It's something to aim for next time too.

 

My arms and shoulders were pretty shot, and I only managed 3 sets of 3 chin ups. Very disappointed with this, I know I could have got more out if I was fresh though.

 

100 lateral raises was not particularly fun either, breaking them up with the chin ups helped though. We were low on kettlebells so I used 2 2.5kg plates for this, which was a struggle when getting close to 100 reps, but I probably would have got more out of a 3 or 4kg weight.

 

I'm away in Ipswich writing songs for the next Extreme Noise Terror album this weekend, so there won't be any workouts done, but that's probably a good idea so that I can rest my neck and back for a couple of days.

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Workout 15/01/14

 

Warm Up:

7 minute AMRAP

Even minutes - double unders

Odd minutes - burpee into candlestick

8x1 OTM

Clean & Jerk - increasing weight slowly - 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 42.5

 

Lift:

10x2 - Clean & Jerk - 42.5 (dropped to 40kg after two sets to maintain good form)

 

WOD:

1 mile run (8:57)

Rest 1:1 (Didn't rest the full 9 minutes as had to get going)

1 mile run (Actually only did 0.5 mile, as I needed to get to work - 4:30)

 

This was great, with almost relentless olympic lifting. I was pleased throughout, bar one lift with my clean form, however my foot position in the jerk still needs work.

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18/01/14

 

Front squat

5x5 55kg

 

Strict Press

3x5 35kg Failed on last set

 

Concentrating on front squat as I find this easier to keep my chest upright in. This weight felt fine, I definitely have more in there. The press was rushed as I was running out of time. It was supposed to be 5x5, but I dropped it to 3x5 as I only had 10 minutes left, however this wasn't enough time to rest properly between sets and ended up failing the last set after 3 reps.

 

19/01/14 - Barbell Club

 

Warm up:

Snatch balance

Hang snatch

Lift:

3x3 high hang snatch @ 50-60%

2x2 snatch from knee (increase weight slightly)

5x1 snatch

Another snatch session at Barbell Club. Again, low intensity, and keeping the weights relatively low in order to drill technique. This is really helping, I'm getting under the bar faster, and lifts that approach my 1RM aren't giving me any grief at all, suggesting the my 1RM is probably higher than where it currently is recorded to be. It is only 37.5kg, so not earth shattering, but it's creeping up slowly as my technique gets better.

 

I'm away on tour in Spain this week, so I won't be able to get to the box, and probably not able to train at all. Really annoying as I was getting somewhere as far as consistency is concerned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Workout 29/01/14

 

Warm Up:

2 minutes sprits/down ups, increasing intensity

Skills practise:

7 minutes working on chest-to-bar pull up technique

7 minutes to do 3 max effort kipping pull up sets (7,3,6)

 

WOD:

20 minute AMRAP

30 kipping pull ups (Level 2)

30 kipping handstand push ups (Rx w/ 1 AbMat)

200m run every time you break

 

First session back in a week and a half after being on tour last week. Still struggling to hit my chest on the bar in the pull ups. Coach gave me a tip to swing higher before initiating the kip when doing chest to bar, which I couldn't get to work, but I'll keep practicing this. I was also disappointed in my kipping pull up max effort sets. I still can't chain these together very well, and my grip always gives up before my strength does. I know how to chain them, but I can't quite get the movement right. Again, more practice required.

 

The WOD was tough, and long. The worst part for me was the pull ups, I had in my head I'd roughly get 7-10 reps per set before breaking and having to run, but in reality I was getting 4-6 reps. This really slowed me down, and I didn't make it to the kipping handstand push ups until around the 13th minute. I did better in these than the pull ups, getting around 5 per set, then actually getting a PB in the very last set at 11 reps! Amazing what a ticking clock can do for you.

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Tour was great fun cheers. It was insanely difficult to eat to be honest, especially as the promoters hadn't been told I was vegan and so had prepared Spanish omelettes for me. It got to the point where I hadn't eaten for a very long time and I caved in to the eggs. Annoyed at myself massively. The first day i was in Madrid however and I found a craft beer bar next to a vegan restaurant, so I ditched my band mates for a few hours while I soaked up the heaven.

 

I'm off to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia next week on tour, so I'm really hoping I can find food there.

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