WOD 6/27/2010

"Progressions"
3 rounds for time:
Push ups - 7 high decline, 7 low decline, 7 flat, 7 low incline, 7 medium incline, 7 high incline
Pull ups - dead hang to failure, kipping to failure, 10 jumping
Squats - 10- 45# overhead, 10 squat jumps, 10 bodyweight
Abs - 10 KTE, 10 decline, 10 flat

Welcome to "Freak Week"

We have started a new experiment this week......Freak Week. The second week of every month will be a week that we take four movements and add weight to them. For instance, pull ups, we start with two sets of bodyweight, dead hang pull ups, then start adding weight. We will do sets of three reps with each weight and keep increasing the weight on each set until we can't complete that third rep. Last night we used a backpack to hold the extra plates, I was worried it wasn't going to make it, next month we will have a militay ruck sack, that should do.

Freak Week # 1
6-06 Thruster
6-07 Pull up
6-09 Deadlift
6-10 Push up

The Tower

The tower is about halfway complete. We have the ability to do about 80% of the movements used in the Crossfit workouts. I will soon be cleaning out the upstairs and adding a few more components. We will definitely need more room if we add anyone to our roster.

How effective is it?

Good question. How hard are you willing to push yourself? How much pain can you handle? It's just like the line from Remember the Titans..."What is fatigue?......Army clothes......".

Bottom line: 20-30 minutes of a crossfit workout is all you can handle. It's more effective than a 1 hour treadmill ride...and more painful than maxing out on squats.

You have to be self-motivated. It shouldn't take some oiled up "fitness personality" yelling at you through a Garth Brooks-style headset to make you finish the workout. You have to find it in your gut and keep pushing on, focus on finishing with a faster time than before and immediately start looking forward to what the white board will curse you with tomorrow.

How it all started...

I have been exercising fairly consistently for the past 15 years never going more than a few months between routines. The past few years have been tougher than previous years, not only because of the normal busyness of life but also because of being severly bored with going to the gym. I have always been motivated to stay in shape but never really motivated to the point of actually enjoying the workout itself....until I discovered Crossfit. Crossfit is functional fitness at it's best. Functional fitness is training the muscles in a fashion similar to how they would be used for work or survival, not merely making them bigger. Lots of the movements are used by the military and law enforcement training academies. It develops all of the smaller, stabilizer muscles that would never be stressed in a "bodybuilding" workout. Crossfit focuses on range of motion, explosiveness and muscle control. Boredom is never a problem now, I can always change up the workout or I can follow the WOD (workout of the day) at crossfit.com.

My first crossfit workout was on March 21, 2010, it was "G.I. Jane" from crossfit.com. G.I. Jane consists of starting in a standing position, dropping down to do a push up, jumping up to an overhead bar and doing a pull up.....that's one rep.....do a total of 100 reps. This first attempt took me 20:11. I haven't yet attempted "G.I.Jane" again, but I will soon....I will let you know how it goes.

WOD 6/3/2010

"Angie" from crossfit.com

For time:
100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats

Finish all reps of each movement before going to the next one.

Open for business...

Tower Gym is up and running. Or should I say, running and pulling and pushing and jumping and climbing and lifting and complaining (that's for you, Wes...)