Next Level

So I've taken my supplementation to the next level, after using the same supplement stack for the past 14 months, it's time to take it up a notch.
Moving from Synthesis Protein by Syn-Tec to Glyco-Whey Protein by Syn-Tec.  Stacked with pure form Creatine and Beta-Alanin.

Rock up to CrossFit Nobbys Beach on Monday morning and training has been pushed to the next level.  I've been put into the 'Performance Training' group.  One of the WOD's from Monday was 5 rounds for time of - 7 x 40kg full snatch + 15 Wall Balls @ 10kg and 10 feet height.

Today was run 800m then 50 x 24kg single arm kettlebell snatch followed by another 800m run.
WOD 2 was - 4 rounds for time capped at 12 minutes.
20 x HSPU + 30 TTB

I got two full rounds + 20 HSPU + 18 TTB.

Good times are rolling.

The CrossFit Games Open is complete

Five weeks have passed - it's over for another year, the CrossFit Games Open has come to an end.

That's my Australian open score there in the highlight, pretty happy with that, being as it was my first time to compete in the open.

Over the 5 weeks we did all sorts of fun things.  Snatch & burpees, shoulder to over head, deadlift, box jumps, clean and jerk, toes to bar, wall balls, double unders and muscle ups then the 5th week was thrusters and chest to bar pullups.

All in all it was a great learning experience, I surely know what I need to work on over the next 11 months until the next open.

The list:
Double Unders
Wall Balls
Box Jumps
Thrusters
Snatch
Mobility
Endurance
Metabolic Conditioning


This morning we did a MetCon for time
10-1
Burpees & Toes To Bar
10 burpees
10 TTB
9 burpees
9 TTB
all the way back to 1 of each.
55 reps of each
I think I may have done 4 reps of burpees and TTB twice by  mistake.
my time 7:46

Time goes by

So it's Easter this weekend - wow.  That means it is my birthday next week sometime gee whizz.
The CrossFit Open is still going - we have two more open work outs to complete, this week and one more next week.  Then it's back to normal training.
What has the open highlighted for me this year, well I need to learn more about mobility for my hamstrings and lower back (tight lower back held me down for the 13.2 WOD)
I need to vastly improve my Wall Ball - those things are deadly and trying to do 150 of them is torture, it surely doesn't help that the target is a line 10 feet off the ground and my reach is barely over 6 feet.
Box Jump efficiency is also key - competition standard.
Must improve burpee - these things are the pudding of fitness
Must improve running - I hate running, I'm more of a short sprint kinda guy - 50-100m
Double Unders - must become more efficient in this discipline, I'm getting better.
My pull ups have improved dramatically over the past 12 months as my hanging strength and pull up technique has increased. I can happily do 15 pull ups.

CrossFit Games

We are now into week two of the CrossFit Games open.
The workouts are simple yet punishing.
What will they have for us next week?
So far we have done burpees with snatches, that was 17 minutes of punish
40 burpees with 6 inch jump
30 snatches at 30kg
30 burpees
30 snatches at 61kg
20 burpees
30 snatches at 75kg
10 burpees
then max snatches

I only got 9 snatches into the 61kg.

Week two was 10 minutes of:
5 shoulder to overhead @51kg
10 deadlift @51kg
15 24inch box jump

I managed 5 rounds and 4 reps of shoulder to overhead

good times had by all.

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.

Lifting things

Monday morning madness :)

70kg OHS (overhead squat) done pretty easily.

70kg power cleans 3 rounds of 5 reps with max strict pullups in 3 minutes with 1 minute rest between rounds.

5 power cleans, 3 pullups
5 power cleans, 15 pullups
5 power cleans, 9 pullups

Feeling good, powering on, it's the 'silly season'

Probably the leanest I've been in a long time.

Weighing in at around 74kg.

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.

Accomplishment

This morning during warmup we did muscleup technique and progression.  My first real attempt during training on the rings, BAM! I'm up!!!  missed the next two.
On my second attempt, BAM! I'm Up!!, back down and BAM! I'm Up!! missed the third one.
Third attempt, BAM! I'm UP!!, missed the next two.

Very happy to have gotten 4 out of 9 attempts today.  Kipping as much as possible to get there, but got there nonetheless.

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.

Smoked forearm

Todays workout was a forearm breaker, yesterday we did a bunch of pullups so that didn't help.

http://wodstack.com/workouts/35925-death-by-kettlebell

90 kettlebell swings all up @24kg yes my forearms were so tight I could hardly hold the kettlebell.
A total shoulder blaster from the dumbell hang clean and press @15kg did 60 of those bad boys.

Apart from the odd tough workout, CrossFit training is great.  Early mornings, cool mornings, leaving for training in the dark now too. (Southern Hemisphere winter is fast approaching)
Drove the CrossFit Lancer into training this morning.  My wife started her training half an hour earlier so we travelled in two cars.  Her trainer asked me if I had been asleep in the car :)

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.