Technique

It's all about technique - get the technique correct and you will be amazed! I'm talking about Olympic lifting.
On the 11th of January I successfully lifted 90kg using the Power Clean technique x 3 times after starting at 60kg.
I weighed myself during this lifting session and the scales told me that I weighed in at 75kg.

Adding to this, this morning of the 14th January I successfully completed 3 x Back Squat at 120kg.  10kg heavier than my previous PB of 110kg.

Everything seems to be going quite well - earlier in the week (last week, starting the 7th of January) we did the 2012 CrossFit Open workout no.1 again, 7 minutes of burpees with a six inch jump and touch with both hands (jump and touch a bar 6 inches above your reach).  When I completed this back in February 2012 I managed 72 burpees in the 7 minutes - this time however, after 11 months of CrossFit training no less than three sessions per week I increased this to 91 burpees in 7 minutes, an extra 19 burpees over 7 minutes!

2013!

Well, Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations are over, back into the swing of things, last workout was Christmas Eve morning, got back to the Box this very morning on the 2nd of January 2013.
This was a fun filled WOD of wall balls!

Front   Squat 10mins 2reps EMOM at 90%1RM

50 Wall   Ball

Run 200m

40 Wall   Ball

Run 300m

30 Wall   Ball

Run 400m

20 Wall   Ball

Run 300m

10 Wall   Ball

Run 200m loads of fun. Great cardio endurance WOD. On a higher note.. wore my new workout shorts today... got them for Christmas from my wife.  Hailing from the USA (the shorts that is) Rogue Fitness.

The Training Week that Was

Four training days (CrossFit) this week.
Monday - what do I remember from that morning, OK kipping handstand pushups - Check!
Tuesday - don't remember, something fun and exhausting no doubt
Thursday - some single lift strength deadlift - 130kg 7 times!
Friday - clean and jerk - 1 lift every minute on the minute 8 times - weight 75kg! (bodyweight)

Overall it's been a great week at training.

On the food side, we had dinner out on Monday night, nice and early (nanna time) Tian Ran, delish.

Got the new 'extreme' Synabol this week, new flavour, Lemon, with added prickly pear and other goodness.

Pullups

I think I've found my preferred bar for doing pullups, we had a WOD on Tuesday that required 25 pullups and 15 burpees, by 3 rounds. I surprised myself with going the first 25 unbroken!

Getting closer to getting the doubleunders too....

Practice practice practice

Don't try this without warming up

DEADLIFTS

2 heavy deadlifts every minute for 10 minutes.
110kg x 2 lifts every minute. = 2200kg in 10 minutes.

That was a good time.

http://www.urbanenergyblog.com/crossfit-810/

Slightly Broken

Third day of training in a row this week.
It's Thursday - did a shitonne of running this morning.
WOD:
run 1600m
3 x rope climb
run 1200m
3 x rope climb
run 800m
3 x rope climb

Time: 26.5 minutes

Legs not working that great today after yesterdays Deadlifts and handstand pushups.

CrossFit -  it's a Hell of a good time.

New schedule

Back to CrossFit training at full capacity - no more taking it easy after coming back from holidays.
New time schedule started today (24th of September) first class of the day is now at 5:30am.  More classes, smaller classes, better training.

Todays session was a good one!

Some strength work then a nasty WOD.

Back Squat - 12 reps, 10, 8, 6, 4
60kg, 80kg, 90kg, 100kg, 110kg

The WOD -
Row 1000m
15 power clean @ 60kg
40 boxjumps
Row 750m
12 power clean @ 60kg
30 boxjumps
Row 500m
9 power clean @ 60kg
20 boxjumps

400m farmers carry @24kg

A thoroughly sweat drenching time.

Just for fun

Super Hero Saturday @ CrossFit Urban Energy

Great social morning down at CrossFit Urban Energy, everyone in attendance dressed up and ready to have some fun.

That's me, Mr Incredible

The Crew

Double WOD Saturday

So it was Saturday the 9th of June 2012, off for a Saturday morning session then head up to Sumner to watch the crew compete at Ironskull for a few hours.
We did a pretty awesome 2 man team WOD, box jumps, push ups, rowing, burpees etc.
So after the WOD had a shower, got changed etc, then jumped in the car, filled up with fuel, grabbed a nut bar and a spinach ricotta pastry.
Off to Sumner, when I got there Coach says, are you gonna join in? it's an easy one, do it c'mon.
So yes I put my name down.  And off all things the WOD was Fight Gone Bad! now this was a shortened version for the competition day.  Only 3 rounds of misery. 1 minute AMRAP of the following: Wall Ball @ 10kg must reach 10 feet marker on wall, SDLHP @ 40kg, box jumps @ 36 inches, push press @ 40kg, burpees! with 30 seconds rest between rounds.
Yuck! that was an experience, I was damn nearly dead by the end and completed 191 reps in total, pretty sure I only got about 5 reps on the wall ball on the last round.

Time flies - even if you aren't having fun

It has been a few weeks already I think.
Weeks full of training, eating, having fun and all the rest of it.
Have been stepping up training the last few weeks, 4 times a week, usually back to back.
Keeping up the supplements, namely Syntec Synabol and Syntec Synthesis protein complex.  Great stuff, does a great job with muscle repair and everything else in the body that uses proteins as building blocks.
Climbed to a new milestone during Monday morning training with Deadlift, did 2 sets of 5 reps @ 120kg and 1 rep @ 130kg and 1 rep @ 140kg.

On the food front, we went to Tian Ran the other week for dinner, had a nice feast.
Taboon in Robina for lunch yesterday, fantastic.
Signature Dish in Varsity Lakes for breakfast on Sunday was wonderful, the Chef made something not on the menu.
Food, I love it.

Friday Fun

With coach Joe away for the Crossfit regionals the normal hum and hype down at Crossfit Urban Energy isn't quite there.
Of course we had a great session anyway, also gives us a chance to lend a hand and show some of the newbies how to do movements like deadlift and clean n jerk.
Deadlift had been on the menu a bit of late, so this morning was a good one too.
30 deadlift @ 70kg (straight through!)
A block run, about 1.2k
30 Clean n jerk @ 50kg
Time 13:45

WOD b.
8 minute AMRAP
5 wall ball @10 kg
20 butterfly situps
5 box jumps
Completed 5 rounds

The WOD 11th May 2012

Today we had a bonus, we had WOD a. and WOD b.
WOD a. was a 10 minute AMRAP of: 15 OverHeadSquat (20kg Barbell) and 15 Kettlebell swings @ 24kg followed off by a 200m jog/walk/run whatever you could make your body do when you are trying to get your breath back.
I got through 3 complete rounds plus 15 OHS and 5 KB swings

After a little break it was on to WOD b.
30-20-10
Skips(double unders) or 90-60-30 singles (I'm still doing the singles) with that is Burpees 30-20-10.
So first round is 90 skips and 30 Burpees !!!!
4 x Chest to bar pullups then
Second round is 60 skips (I did 90 by mistake) and 20 Burpees
4 x Chest to bar pullups and then
Third round is 30 skips then 10 Burpees
finished with 4 Chest to bar pullups

Recap - what's been going on

So I just read my friends blog about her recent zone/paleo diet.  She has done very well in the last four weeks, so a big shout out to her. http://shielarae.blogspot.com.au/
So long before I knew that CrossFit was in Australia I had been seeing her updates about CrossFit and things like that, it did pique my interest but it took a long time to get me to a CrossFit venue, as it turned out my friend re-located his gym and was now offering CrossFit.  Perfect, time to check it out.  All I can say is WOW,  this has been a life changer.  I was so bored with the gym, doing RPM class on Tuesdays, pushing weights around a few other days a week, the only thing I really did enjoy at the gym was the yoga on Saturday mornings.  It was great to get in there on a Saturday morning and stretch out, have breakfast relax then go kick around with my mates in the afternoon on the local junior soccer field.

At first when I started at CrossFit Urban Energy, I got hold of a 20 visit pass, so I rationed them out, I did two sessions a week for the first 10 weeks.  After that I went unlimited, since February I have been attending no less than 3 sessions a week.  Every WOD is a challenge, a good challenge, sometimes when Coach writes it up on the board in the morning, we are like 'What?' we are going to do 'That' Ok lets get this WOD.
By the end of it I'm like, Holy Moly that was hard, but I'm done now so High Five to me!
Some clothes feel tighter (mainly shirt sleeves wrapping around my biceps) and some are loosening up.

Training CrossFit is now my favourite thing to do after playing soccer.  That reminds me, I haven't been for a surf in a while, gotta get that board out in the water soon!

Grace

The WOD for this benchmark Wednesday was Grace.
30 x clean and jerk for time.
Rx for men is 60kg, when I did this in february I did it at 40kg, today I did it at 55kg. Todays time was 5:26.  A little bit longer but 37.5% more weight.

3rd day of CrossFit 6am back to back

It's been a few days or even almost weeks now.

Anyhow training away, working, eating, just the usual.

So I've completed three 6am CrossFit sessions back to back this week.

Monday morning was Muscle Up turnover (progression training) and Rope Climb progression training with some Kickups (hand stand progression) (all in warmup)

Second Part was 4 x 8 reps of Front Squat (from Ground)

The WOD: 3 Rounds of 400 mtr run, 20 Toes To Bar or Knees To Elbows, 10 Squat Clean @ 30kg

My time - 13 minutes

Tuesday morning.

Warmup on Double Unders, Rope Climbs (we got to climb the rope today)

Then it was some warmup Hang Snatch

The WOD: 10 Minute AMRAP of Hang Snatch @30kg, Overhead Squat @30kg, Burpees: 2,4,6,8,10,12 etc.

So the first round you do 2 Hang Snatch, 2 Overhead Squat then 2 Burpees.

Second round you do 4 Hang Snatch, 4 Overhead Squat then 4 Burpees.

Each round you increase the reps by 2 until time.

I had my chalk ready to mark the completion of each round.

I finished doing 12's and started on 14's, got to 4 Hang Snatch before time was called.

Wednesday morning.

Warmup run.

4 Rounds of Max Handstand Push Ups / Ring Dips

I did - 15+8, 5+6,6+5,2+3

Deadlift warmup @90kg

WOD: 21-15-9 of Deadlift @80kg (body weight + 7kg approx) and Pull Ups for time

I still hate Pull Ups.

By the time I had completed the round of 15 everyone else had finished and I still had the round of 9's to go, my grip was failing me, so I was doing the Deadlift 1 rep at a time, everyone was cheering me on, at last I had finished the Deadlift, now only 9 Pull Ups to do.

Finally finished!!!

Just for fun Coach announced 1 minute Max Burpees.

Got 20.

Stickered

Woot woot, got me a Crossfit Urban Energy sticker for the car!  So badge of honour.

Benchmark Wednesday

What do I like about Wednesdays? Or what I love about a Wednesday, well for one it's the 6am start at Crossfit Urban Energy and Wednesday is when we do a Benchmark workout.
Today the Benchmark WOD was named Helen, all Benchmark and Hero WOD's are named after fellow Crossfit athletes that have died in the line of duty.

Run 400mtrs
21 x Kettlebell Swing @ 24kg
12 x Pullups
Repeat 3 times for Time.
That took me 13:22
I spend most of the down time doing Pullups, I haven't mastered the art of dragging 75kg from dead hang to chin over the bar and repeating as necessary.  In the near future I will achieve this goal.

Prior to the WOD we did the mobility, warmed up the muscles and did some Muscle-up practice progressions.
Now, the Muscle-up is considered to be one of the hardest things you can do, you start out as if you are doing a pullup, but you end up at the top of a tricep dip, gymnasts do this all the time when they are performing on the  rings, it's how they get into position at the begining of their routine.
This takes quite a bit of strength, strength that I am still in the process of building via pullups.

Black Ops Friday

Seeing as it's Friday the 13th and all, I thought I would nickname todays training 'Black Ops Friday'

The WOD
800 mtrs
15 Boxjump
15 kettlebell swing @24kg

15 Boxjump

15 kettlebell swing @24kg

15 Boxjump

15 kettlebell swing @24kg

800 mtrs

that was a good time... LOL finished it in 13 minutes (I really don't enjoy the running 800mtrs)

Benchmark Wednesday

Todays WOD is Fight Gone Bad

http://wodstack.com/workouts/30776-fight-gone-bad

First time doing this one, seems pretty simple in theory, but after trying to do box jumps for 1 straight minute, you kind of start to get tired.  Everyone started on different excercises to spread out the field.
1 minute break between rounds was over before it even started, well so it seemed.
All in all it was a good workout.

Eco planet pizza

We discovered their menu a few weeks ago when we were having breakfast at Sol Bread Cafe.
Animal friendly all vegetarian pizza, on wholemeal base.
Amazing
We tried the Mediterranean Breeze. Fantastic.
I love food