Overhead Press - Back Squat

Saturday, January 26, 2019

BeStrong Strength and Conditioning

2:00 PM

Warm Up

Air squats
Glute stretches
misc

Overhead Press

45
65
85
95
105
115
125x1

Back Squat

95
115
135
155
175
185
195x1

On both lifts, I was building towards a heavy single and felt pretty good about the effort.

BeStrong Strength and Conditioning is a pretty cool community tucked into a strip mall between a video game store and a trophy shop.  The storefront sign proudly advertises "GYM" without much fanfare.  Inside there are two power cages, two squat racks, several nice benches, dumbbells and lots of cast iron weight.  They have about 170# of bumpers for Olympic lifting.  They also have a t-bar row, stationary bike, and Concept 2 rower along with some other miscellaneous equipment and recover stuff like foam rollers.  They are continuing to build out the facility as space and finances allow.

Saturdays 1-4 PM is open gym and anybody can come by and lift.  They typically also lift at 2 PM on Sundays, and 5PM most weeknights.  I got to meet Cody and Al and the BeStrong certainly has a community set up for competitive powerlifters and folks wanting to get an edge on life through powerlifting.  It is family friendly and there were a couple of little ones running around and a father came in with his son and daughter as I was leaving.

The facility is "always open" for members paying $40 month-to-month, with discounts for 3 month, 6 month and 12 month commitments.  For having just opened in August 2018, they have a good following.  There were about 8-12 people there while I was in and Cody said typically it is just a few of them lifting in the evenings.  They also offer ad hoc and formal coaching, training and programming.

Several of the lifters were originally at Classic Barbell which unfortunately closed down.  This seems more viable, given the smaller space and higher price point.  I definitely plan to drop in again and would consider getting a membership.

Deadlift

Friday, January 25, 2019

CrossFit Golden - Open Gym

2:00 PM

Warm Up

3 Rounds of

10 angled lunges (5 each leg)
10 banded good mornings

Real warm-up called for 10 F/B skater walks, 10 banded good mornings, 10 Jane Fondas, 8 each DB Crossbody RDL (2011) each round.  I did not know what half that stuff was.

Deadlift

E2OM

5x185
4x195
3x205
2x215
1x225
2x225
2x225
2x225

Metcon

4x 2 min round for max reps (rest 2 minutes between rounds)

300m Row
Max Reps 24" box jump over

5
5
5
5

I probably should have scaled this as I saw folks getting much higher counts for max reps, but it was still a good workout.  It took me about 1:15 to finish the row, 15 seconds to transition and then 30 seconds for the box jump overs.

The deadlift, estimated by max at 250#.  It may be as high as 275#, but I thought this was a safe starting place. 

Front Squat

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

CrossFit Golden - Lacey, Diedre

12:00 PM

Warm Up

2 rounds of

1 minute jump rope
30 second star plank (15s each side)
10 mtn climber circles (each leg)
10 segmented glute bridge
10 cuban presses each arm
10 air squats (32X1 cadence)

Then

Barbell Warm Up

10 quarter squats
5 front squats at 32X1

Front Squat

Every three minutes build to heavy double 32X1

75
95
115
135
145
145#

Metcon

10 min AMRAP

of

1 Deadlift
1 Hang Clean
1 Front Squat
1 Push Press

setting down the barbell is a 5 burpee penalty

Rx 115/75

I used 65# and really struggled with this one.  After the first burpee penalty I was winded and would have to rest 20-30 seconds after the last burpee before picking up the bar.

I managed 8, 4, 3, 3, 1+2 for 19 rounds + 2 reps and had 4 burpee penalties of 5 burpees each.

Squat Clean

Thursday, January 17, 2019

CrossFit Golden - Open Gym

2:00 PM

Warm Up

1 minute jumping jacks

then

2 Rounds of

10 quad hip extension?
10 PVC good mornings
10 air squats
10 reverse grip pass throughs
10 PVC front squat
10 banded clam shells

Barbell Warm up

5 High Hang Clean Pulls
5 High Hang Clean Pulls and Front Squat
5 High Hang Clean
5 Hang Clean
5 Full Clean

Weightlifting

For the following 18 minutes, increase the loading on the barbell each set, allowing the initial positional work to help you build into heavy loading for your full cleans from the floor.
Every Minute on the Minute, for 6 minutes (6 sets)
High-Hang Clean (1 rep @ 50-65 of 1-RM Clean)
Rest 60 Seconds, and then…
Every Minute on the Minute, for 4 minutes (4 sets):
Hang Clean (1 rep @ 65-80% of 1-RM Clean)
Rest 60 seconds, and then…
Every 2mins, for 6 minutes (3 sets)
Clean (1 rep @ 80+% of 1-RM Clean)

65 High Hang Cleans
75
80
85
90
95

95 Hang Cleans
100
105
110

110 Full Cleans
115
120#

All reps were squat cleans

Metcon

For time:
40/30 Calories of Rowing
20 Burpee Box Jump-Overs (24″/20″)
10 Squat Cleans (175/115 lbs)

I scaled this to a 20" box and step downs and used 75# for the squat cleans.  I ended up finishing in 11:19 which I thought was pretty good.  I did singles for the squat cleans and was able to maintain pretty good form.

Metcon - Run, PU, T2B, HRPU

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Crossfit Golden - Paige/Greg

4:30 PM

Warm Up 

3 Rounds of

8 half kneel KB Bottom Up press
10 Lateral banded walk
12 Scap Push-ups
Short Lap

Then set up for metcon
4 strict pull up (or variation)
6 T2B (or variation)
8 Tempo HRPU

Metcon

6 Rounds Every 5 minutes do

400m Run
8 Strict Pull-ups
12 T2B
16 HRPU

I scaled this right out of the gate with a 300m run.  I did a couple of strict pull-ups in round 1 and quickly switched to banded pull-ups.  The last 2 rounds, I did ring rows.  I scaled T2B to kipping straight leg raises.  I scaled the HRPU to banded HRPU during the first round.

My times were reasonably consistent

3:45
3:47
3:53
3:54
3:51
4:03

Accessory Work

2 rounds of
1 min reverse snow angel
1 min side plank right
1 min side plank left

As expected this was tough, I could hold about 10 seconds before needing to rest.

Am I an Experienced CrossFitter?

I recently signed up for a membership with CrossFit Golden the online contact form had two choices:

(1) First timer
(2) Experienced CrossFitter

I decided to drop in on a class as an experienced crossfitter.  Now it is time for a retrospective.

CrossFit Undeniable:  3/2/2015 - 6/30/2015 - 4 months
MBS CrossFit (MBS):  7/6/2015 - 12/31/2015 - 6 months
MBS:  1/1/2016 - 8/26/2016 - 9 months (once/week)
West Metro CrossFit (WMCF):  2/7/2017 - 3/31/2017 - 2 months
CrossFit Golden (CFG):  12/27/2017 - ???

I also dropped in at a smattering of boxes over that time period as my travels dictated:

NorCal CrossFit (Redwood City, CA)
Old Pueblo CrossFit (Tucson, AZ)
CrossFit Silver Bull (Germantown, TN)
Clermont CrossFit (Clermont, FL)

In essence you could say that I had about 1 year of CrossFit over a 2 year period.  And have taken about 2 years off from coached training.

That may be a bit of an understatement as I continued to do gymnastics, Olympic lifting, swimming, bicycling, running, etc over the last couple of years, but certainly more sporadically and with less intensity.  Certainly my oilfield time was marked by calisthenics (Cindy), powerlifting and jogs on the treadmill of 10-20 minutes.

Another metric would be the CrossFit Open.

I registered and did the 2016 Open at MBS

I registered and did the 2017 Open at WMCF

I did not register, but did the 2018 Open workouts at Aspire Fitness

I intend to register for the 2019 Open and complete the workouts at CFG.

I have always done the workouts scaled and have chalked up scores at the bottom of my box and my age group worldwide.  I do not expect this year to be any different.  However give the tumultuous couple of years, I feel pretty good about starting CrossFit at age 43 and my CrossFit rebirth at age 47.

I would still enjoy getting into triathlon again (or at least swim, bike, run training). 

I would enjoy getting into yoga again.

OH Press - Helen

Monday, January 14, 2019

CrossFit Golden - Ryan, Lacey

12:00 PM

Warm Up

2 Rounds of

Banded left/right steps with KB in Front Rack
Plank reach under and extend
KBS

Pass Throughs
Inch Worms
Prone Press

OH Press

Every 3 minutes for 15 minutes build to heavy single

95
105
115
120
125
failed 130

Push Press

Then 2 additional sets of push press 80-85% of max for reps to failure (still on 3 minute interval)

I used 100# (80%)

9 reps
8 reps

Helen

3 Rounds for time

400m Run
21 KBS (53/35)
12 Pull-ups

I scaled this to a 35# KB and switched to jumping pull-ups on the second round and it still took me 14:37 to finish.  Primarily based on a really slow run.