Category: Crossfit

Saturday Morning

It has been a great Saturday so far.  Of course it started with Avery screaming at 5 am for me to get up and come give her some cuddles…

I headed to the gym around 7:30 and after doing some mobility work I worked on a 5 rep front squat and got to 100 lbs.  Then I took a bit of a rest and did a workout called Helen.  It is 3 rounds of a 400 meter run, 21 kettle bell swings and 12 pull ups.  My previous time was 14:57 and today I completed the workout in 12:08!  I was really excited! I have to thank Ashley for helping me through the workout and keeping me moving.

Then Steve came to give Cross Fit a try.  We did 1/2 of Cindy- so he got in 10 minutes of as many rounds as possible of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 squats.  He got a a good workout in for sure!

After our workouts we met up with Richard at Upper Crust for a well deserved breakfast and a trip to the farmers market this morning.

Now I think it is nap time!

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Crossfit Challenge

Our Summer Crossfit Challenge starts in the morning.  We have been weighted and measured…  basically here is what our next month will involve.

We will follow a Paleo approach to nutrition focusing on large amounts of vegetables with as much variety as possible, lean sources of nutrient rich animal protein, and healthy fats.

 

We will avoid grains and grain like substances, pastas and sugars (refined AND unrefined). We will also throw out beans for the time being. Maintaing a Paleo routine for the next month will allow you to, at the very least, reset your system. You will then be able to reintroduce those missing foods which will give you a better sense of how you operate with and without them.
Vegetables
The most vegetables possible during your day is the goal. We prefer a foundation or a bed of leafy green veggies, but, if you maintain variety, you are free to incorporate whatever colors you would like! Starchier vegetables will be considered a treat that should not be consumed daily. So sweet potatoes, summer squashes and other similar foods should be used sparingly (once or twice a week).

 



Vegetables are not always available for our meals, especially with breakfast. If you find yourself missing veggies at one of you meals, do not fret. Simply double up at the next meal or incorporate that missing serving over the next two.

 


EDIT: To be more specific about sweet potatoes: you will only consume these post-workout. Simply, you must get a worthy workout in. If you make it into the gym for class you can assume you’ve done enough. And if you don’t have the chance but you get something in on your own, treat yourself as well.

 


These carb sources are great for aiding in recovery!

 

 

Protein


During this challenge the goal is to have a palm sized (this is the starting point) piece of meat with each meal. For those that are more comfortable with meat, you simply need to have what you would consider to be one serving of protein with each meal.
During this challenge we will adhere to a 90/10 lean to fat ratio with our meat. This will prevent us from consuming too much fat from commercially raised animals. Lean sources of protein include turkey, chicken, lamb and beef.
Also, EGGS ARE GOOD TO GO! And be sure to eat the yolks!
Fat
We will be utilizing fat as our energy source so please do not avoid it. Without fail a number of y’all will report dragging during the middle of your day. FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT! Stick to plant based fats. Cold pressed oils like coconut and olive oils are ideal while avocados, almond butter and mixed nuts are all excellent as well.
Meals and Snacks
You must eat when you are hungry, and you must be full when you are finished. This should be music to your ears! You are not to be hungry EVER! If you are hungry you are wrong!
Snacks are so important during these challenges. Finding a rhythm with meals usually does not take very long. But snacks can conquer everyone. You must find foods that you enjoy and that pack and carry easily. Boiled eggs, carrots and almond butter and mixed nuts are my favorite. Ideally you would have a fat source because that will keep you satisfied longer. Beef jerky is also an option (be careful with all of the extra stuff often included though).

 

Cheat Night

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My Crossfit Certification Weekend

This past weekend I took what is called the Crossfit Level 1 course.  The course gives you the basic knowledge to teach crossfit and is the first of several courses you take to become a Crossfit coach.  The course was in Orlando Florida at Crossfit Performance and consisted of two days of lectures, small group sessions, workouts and finally an exam.
Everyone who I know who has taken the course assured me that most of the class would be new people to Crossfit.  However as everyone walked in I noticed they didn’t look like beginners at Crossfit… and when they did the introductions most of the class had been doing Crossfit for 3 years.  I was immediately a bit intimidated and really worried I was getting in over my head.  However, when I told Tarasa she assured me I knew the movements and would be fine (which I was).
The first breakout into our small groups- I was surrounded by 9 guys, so I really wanted to move perfect to not have any attention called to me.  I felt fairly confident as we were working on squats and I am pretty good at them.  I survived without getting corrected!
Day one moved on and after lunch was our first workout- I was mentally prepared to do Fran…  to everyone’s surprise it wasn’t Fran, but worse.  It was 3 rounds of Thrusters with 65 lb. (95 lb. for guys) and burpees.  I think I would have really preferred the pull ups, but as one of the leaders said “You can hide with the pull ups.  There is no hiding in this workout!”  I did scale the workout to 55 lb. as 65lb. is just a bit much for me.  The next goal was just not to be last… and I wasn’t.  I couldn’t imagine anything worse than being tired and having 50 people standing around telling me to do another burpee!  I was no where near competitive as the other girls were finishing in 3 minutes without scaling and I was 7:09.
After the workout they pulled out a cooler for everyone to have a beer and celebrate finishing day one.  We headed out for some dinner and a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods- where I got some cool new shoes!
Day two started at 9 am and we did our daily workout in the morning after our breakout session on deadlifts, sumo high pull deadlifts and medicine ball cleans.  Now other than deadlifts- I really don’t ever do the other exercises, so I thought it could be an interesting morning.  To my surprise I actually did fairly well with them (and didn’t get called into the centre of the group).
For day two’s workout is was an 8 minute AMARP of 10 push ups, 12 medicine ball cleans and 15 sit ups.  It wasn’t too bad, but the goal was to really coach your partner and I happened to get one that just would not shut up and kept telling me repeatedly to open my hips on the cleans…  It was a long 8 minutes.
More lectures and breakout sessions and we finished with our exam around 4.  It was 50 questions and we will get our results in the next 5-7 business days…  so we will see if I passed!
Overall it was a great experience for me as it took me way outside my comfort zone and pushed me to do something I didn’t think I could.  People ask if I am want to coach now…  I have to say the course doesn’t really qualify you to coach in my opinion.  It is a good course and does teach you the main movements, nutrition and the basic Crossfit theory- but you would still need to shadow an experience trainer for quite sometime before you should be coaching (or at least in my opinion).
Next course— Crossfit Defense later this year!
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Crossfit Certification

Next weekend is my cross fit certification in Orlando and I can’t wait… I just hope that I am ready.

I fly up on Friday and I am going to stay with Julie Benson (college roommate).   It will be great to hang out in the evenings and talk about the old college days!

Friday night is my first work out at the gym and class starts at 8:30 on Saturday morning.  I have been studying and have watched all the videos that go along with it.  I will make another study push this week and then I will just have to hope for the best!

 

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Thursday workouts

After my Fran workout Tarasa decided to increase my cardio work.

We started out with some front squats, 3 reps building up to 105lbs.

Then we moved onto thrusters- The plan was to do 9 heavy thrusters (85lb) and 5 pull ups on the minute for 9 minutes.  Unfortunately my arm didn’t cooperate I was fine until the weight got heavy, then I felt the pinch again…  so a change of plans and we did 4 squat cleans and pull ups.  The combination was really tough on the arms and I didn’t realize it until I got to the first set of pull ups.

After that we moved onto 15 double unders and burpees on the minute for 6 minutes.

The evening consisted of 4 rounds of 800m sprints with a 3 minute rest followed by 5 rounds of my max set of toes to bar and push ups…

Finally I was done for the day and happy Friday will be a rest day!

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I failed Fran

So this morning I failed at reaching my Fran goal of under 10 minutes by 1 minute and 54 seconds.  I just didn’t have the cardio strength to keep going as the weight wasn’t that heavy and I kept really good form with my pull-ups.

I have to say I was extremely upset afterwords- almost to the point of tears.  I realize my reaching my goal was going to be tough, but I didn’t realize I would be that far off my time.

For those of you who don’t know what Fran is- it is a workout that consists of Thrusters with 65 lb and pull ups.  You do 3 rounds of 21-15-9 reps.  Here is a video of how it should look:

 

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