Full Body

Wow

Ugh, sometimes I dislike work, I had some evenings that didn't have my home till 2am and I was gettin up at 8am for my other job, I hate not being able to workout as much lately, but I felt I got a good one today with two big bang for your buck exercises.

Complex (1 Power Clean + 3 Front Squats)
135
155
175
195
215
225

DB Snatches for time
*Perform 10 total reps, so 5 per arm for time, you must alternate arms each rep.
50 lb - 29 seconds
60 lb - 32 seconds
70 lb - 36 seconds
80 lb - 1:06
90 lb - 1:46

I think I've done something similar to the first complex before, but not that one exactly.  I was going to stop at 215 but wanted to see how power cleaning 225 felt again, still hurts, and the front squat portion was getting difficult as well but I do enjoy these kind of complexes where you can go heavy.  The second part was inspired by event 3 of the crossfit regionals, really the only part was how it was done and the number of reps, as I had to switch arms each time.  The first 3 sets were basically continuous, but with the 80 I started to take a short break every two reps, and same deal with the 90.  I am happy that the 90 went as easy as it did, as I believe that is my pr with snatches but for a single, I could probably do the 100 lb now.  I say easy in relative terms as it was far from easy like the first sets were, and as the drop in time indicates.  Good workout to get my ass moving again.

The final set of the db snatches is on my youtube channel.

Upper Body

Daniel Tyminski

Supersets

Incline DB Fly - 40sx10, 45sx10, 50sx10
Incline DB Bench Press - 40sx10, 45sx10, 50sx4

Straight Arm Pulldown - 100x10, 120x10, 130x10
Pullups - 8, 6, 5

Lateral Raises - 3x10.......25s
Push Press - 95x10-9-7

Rear Delt Raise Machine - 3x10.......80
Chest Supported Row - 3x10.......120

This was a "how much of the burn can you take" kind of workout.  The first pairing it more of an extended set than a superset, as soon as you are done the flies you go right into the presses without setting the dumbbells down.  I've done this technique numerous times and it burns like crazy.  The second was the same deal, started with an isolation movement and went into compound.  The push presses I maybe could have gotten a rep or two more on some sets but I wanted to make sure they stayed push presses and not push jerks.  Ya this burned but overall it was a fun upper body workout!

Legs

Welcome to Toronto

For some weird reason my right glute is sore, not sure why only my left.  I know on the military press when you struggle your body on instinct tightens up all over, especially your glutes, I didn't think that'd be as true on handstand pushups but I got no other reason for my one glute to be sore, oh well I can still manage a leg day.

Hamstring Curl - 70x10, 80x10, 90x10

Front Squats
135x5
155x5
175x5
195x5
215x3
235x3
250x3 (pr)

Superset
Leg Extension - 140x10, 170x10, 200x10
DB Travelling Lunges - 3x6 (per leg) with 50s

Ahh that's a painful leg day, mentally and physically.  I wasn't even sure if I was going to go for a heavy weight on the front squat, other than the squat clean no other lift requires more mental preparation from me.  But when I start I go all out, doing many many sets.  I started with 5 reps and part way through decided to drop to 3 as I wanted to test my strength a bit.  I kept making big jumps but when I hit 235 I knew it was close.  I remembered my 3rm is 245, so why not go for a pr.  I admit going into the 250 lift I was doubting myself, which is a huge mistake, but I psyched myself up and while my elbows probably did drop a tad I am pleased with the pr.  The second part was one painful superset my legs nearly gave out several times on the lunges.  Good leg workout!

Upper Body

Christmas Abbott - my client had the right idea

Because I didn't workout the last two days, and I know I won't be working out tomorrow, normally I'd do a full body workout, but my legs were so sore after Wednesdays routine I could hardly walk.  Better today but far from okay, so I decided to re-visit an old marathon of an upper body circuit.  I got this from the crossfit site, my old time being 31:19.

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time
Pullups
Handstand Pushups
Time: 27:09

That's 4 minutes and 10 seconds quicker which I am happy with as I am also heavier now than I was before.  The pullups weren't easy by any means, but certainly seemed easy in comparison to the handstand pushups, they were horrible my shoulders were fried very quickly.  84 reps of them ties the most I have ever done in a workout, it's tied with when I did this the first time.  I tried to pace myself but either way this workout will be hard, some of it can be seen here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWr0ZV9LrHw&list=UUY76daDPRwJx9guouwnll4A&index=2&feature=plcp

Full Body

Shana Alverson

Full Body today with a strong conditioning influence as well.

3 Rounds for time
20 Back Squats - 135
20 Bench Press - 135
Time: 13:40

4 Rounds for time
5 DB Hang Squat Cleans - 45s
5 C2B Neutral Grip pullups
Time: 7:58

Alternate Sets
Overhead Rope Extensions - 70x10, 80x10, 90x10
Preacher Curls - 50x10, 60x10, 80x7

I probably should have upped the weight on the back squats so they would be more even with the bench press.  It's not that they were easy, they did burn and get my heart rate up, but much easier than the bench press, the first round wasn't even broken but all the bench presses were.  I was pretty sweaty after the first one but that just may be the scorcher of a day as well.  The second one was a quick but tough one too, I haven't squat cleans with dumbbells in a while they take some balancing but none of the sets were broken, the pullups were.  Good sweat driven routine.

Power

I don't know who this is, I do not care

Back to some simple things today, snatches and cleans.

Power Snatch (touch and go)
95x6
115x5
125x3
Split Snatch (resetting)
135x2
145x2
145x2

Power Cleans (all but first two sets were resetting)
135x5
155x3
185x2
205x2
215x2

This is the third day in a row so I didn't want to get caught up doing too much.  I switched to split snatches and resetting, the second set of 145 oddly went much better than the first, I wonder if my max has gone up.  The cleans felt heavier than usual, but it was the third day and after snatches so it may just be fatigue, and it's not that 215 for a double is bad.

Full Body

Tried it a little different today, did much less sets than usual so I could do more exercises.

DB Lunges (per leg) - 45sx6, 55sxx6, 65sx6

Incline DB Bench Press - 60sx10, 70sx10, 80sx7

Wide Grip Cable Row - 120x10, 140x10, 160x7

R-Band Dips (green band) - 3x10

Wide Grip Pullups - 10, 8, 8

It seems that a majority of the time I do workouts my sets usually hit at least 4 and up to 7 or 8 (more if I'm doing squats and count warmup sets).  Today I kept it quick, 3 sets for all sets and on exercises where there was a weight I increased it by two increments instead of one.  There is entirely nothing wrong with focussing on just a few exercises and loading up on the sets, but because that's almost all I do I should try and do this way a bit more often.  The only thing worth mentioning is the dips which were done differently than usual.  I have done R-band pullups and they are tough, so instead of adding weight I tried the same technique with dips it worked well.  The picture above replicates exactly how I did them too.

Conditioning

Backyard conditioning workout, they hurt but are fun at the same time.

20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 reps for time
Kettlebell Swings - 24 kg
Burpees
Time:21:57

Holy shit that got my heart rate through the roof.  I wasn't really sure what time I was going for but around the 15 minute mark I thought I'd go for for a sub 22, and I JUST made it.  I was forced to sprint the last about 12 total reps and because of how exhausted I was at that point it was agony, and then I realized this was 110 reps of each.  That's not quite the highest number of burpees I've done in a workout, but it's near the top.  My legs felt it a bit, but my lungs and shoulders were cooked, and the hot day and searing sun didn't help.  Still it is fun to do some outside stuff again and get out of the gym.

Full Body

Got called into my other job today so only had time for a really quick workout  (This workout was completed yesterday).

Alternate Workout
HB Back Squats
180x6
200x6
220x6
240x6

Pullups - 4x12

Then off to arm myself I went.  The squats felt heavy but I was in a hurry so I was kind of warming up as I went, high bar this time so they were all hamstring to calf.  The pullups I wanted to arm for the same number on all 4 sets and it was definately a struggle by the end.  This coming week I have quite a few shifts starting at 5:45am at my security job, yikes, oh well money is money.

Full Body

Azadeh Boroumand

Some full body work today.

Sumo Deadlifts
225x5
275x5
Cluster Sets....5-4-3-2-1, 15 seconds rest between, 2 sets completed at 315

Single Arm DB Row
75x6
80x6
85x6
85x6

Decline Bench Press
130x10
180x8
200x6
220x5

That cluster set technique was something I did a while ago, it's simple but if you aren't familiar with cluster sets it may look confusing.  You do 5 reps, rest 15 seconds, do 4 reps, rest 15 second, 3 reps...and so on till you end at one, that is one set of which I did two of.  The reason for this, and most cluster, is the short rest allows the body to just partially recover enough so you can get more reps within that 'set' than you normally could with that weight, so it kind of tricks the body.  I technically was doing 15 reps at 315 in one set, which I can't technically do traditionally, but this technique allows it.  Having said that, when I did this before it was one of the few times I cut a program short because this technique was so grueling.  Back then I did it with 225 conventional (wayy weaker than I am now) and hated it.  Today I wondered if 315 would be too heavy, turns out it was just right because this hurt like hell.  On exercises like deadlifts and squats, this technique just blows it's very painful my glutes and hamstrings were killing me, it's only effective if you pick the right weight....if you do you'll know because you just barely....and I mean barely are able to finish, 2 sets is enough for this style.  The bench press was done with the 40 pound bar, hence the odd looking numbers.

Upper and mobility

Elisabeth Akinwale

This workout was actually done yesterday just never got around to updating my blog.  I was more stiff than sore anywhere, so I did a little upper body work followed by roughly 25 minutes of mobility and stretching.  This is something people usually wait till they get injured to do, and some of my clients especially seem to need me add it to our session or they are incapable of stretching, oh well they'll learn.

Dips - 15, 15, 13

Inverted Rows - 15, 14, 12

3 Rounds for time
10 Neutral Grip Pullups
20 Pushups
Time: 5:48

Mobility work included long stretches for my hip flexors, groin, glutes, IT band, hamstrings, calves, lats and middle to upper back, also some foam rolling for my IT band, hamstrings and erector spinae.

While I did try to move at a decent pace for the timed portion, I wasn't stressing too much over how fast I was.  I felt much better when this was over the stiffness (mostly in back from cleans) was more or less gone.

Conditioning

Aja Barto

I was going to take 2 days off to rest and recover, especially my legs, those cleans, deadlifts and squats I had done weren't feeling too nice yesterday and today.  Buut, I got bored today and decided to do a quick lung burner.  It's quick compared to my usual workouts with the rest and all, but in the crossfit world this is considered a medium to long workout.

For time
Clean and Jerk - 185 (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
Over the Bar Burpees (10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
C2B Kipping Pullups (10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
Over the Bench Jumps - 30 inches (10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
Time - 17:58

So it's a 5 round workout, round one you do the first number in brackets, round 2 you do the second, and so on.  This was a fun but challenging workout.  The clean and jerks were the lowest overall number, but 185 is not light it was probably the hardest of all exercises.  Each one I dropped and reset as I was trying to pace myself.  Even though it's minor that little lateral hop does seem to make that style of burpees harder than the regular ones, they were never broken but turned into slow motion.  The C2B pullup I don't do often, but were harder that I thought they'd be.  Every round but the last was broken, and most rounds broken into singles, again not really due to them being that hard but trying to pace myself.  The bench jumps were the easiest but did raise my heart rate.  This was a fun effective lunge burner, as well as my legs and arms taking a decent beating.

Parts of the workout can be found here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8k1u2qOk3E&list=UUY76daDPRwJx9guouwnll4A&index=1&feature=plcp

Full Body

Jerry Tevers

Today was definately a feel good day, below is why.

Squat Clean and Jerk (resetting)
135x2
155x2
175x2
195x2
205x2

LB Back Squat
185x5
225x3
255x3
275x3
295x2
315x2

Mixed Grip Pullups - 12, 10, 8, 8

I haven't been going heavy on cleans as much lately, trying to focus a bit more on snatches, buut heavy cleans can still be fun.  I didn't feel like I had the same pop but I was happy to get up to 205 after not really going too heavy on them anymore.  The clean portion this time was harder than the jerk, which after the at 135 I used the split for all sets.  The 205 was close on the clean but not really the jerk portion.  The back squats was the feel good moment.  Last time I went for a heavy weight I got 315 but only for one rep, I did try a second but failed and had to place it on the safeties.  Today the 315 went up for a double nicely, it was heavy but completed with good form.  Again because it was low bar I just need to break parallel, I had a client video the last set so when he sends the video I'll post it to my youtube.  The other reason I was happy with the lift was this wasn't done fresh, it was done after heavy squat cleans, and yesterday I did higher reps of romanian deads so my hamstrings are pretty sore.  I'm very glad with the pr, good workout!

Full Body

Romanian Deadlifts
185x10
195x10
195x10
195x10

DB Bench Press
60sx10
70sx8
80sx7
90sx5

Inverted Rows - 14, 12, 11, 9

Alternate Sets
V-Bar Pushdowns - 3x10......50
Preacher Curls - 50x10, 60x8, 8

Last time I did romanian deadlifts I really focused on proper form and wanted to get that good stretch out of my hamstrings, and it worked they were very sore for almost a week.  Today I upped the weight by only 10 pounds and again focused on really stretching out those hamstrings, we'll see if I am sore again.  The bench presses went well, last time I was unable to end it at 5 reps I only got 4 with the 90s.  I also haven't done inverted rows as much lately, they are an effective mid back exercise.

Full Body

Leah Clark

Full Body again today.

Bulgarian Split Squats (tension style)
95x6 (per leg),
115x6
125x6
135x6 (but was unable to keep tension on)

Death by Military Press at 95 lbs
9 Rounds completed + 5 additional reps

Death by Situps (starting at 2, increasing by 2 each time)
11 Rounds completed + 22 additional reps

Those split squats with the constant tension, simply meaning you never stand fully up really burned.  On the last set at 135 I was able to get 6 reps, but not able to keep the tension, I lost my balance on each leg.  Because I rarely lose my balance on that side it just means my leg was close to failure.  I had a client do the next 2 routines having not yet done them myself.  The military press one I didn't know what to expect, but was pleased I completed the 9th round, which was close, the 5 additional reps were all single, so 50 total reps.  The situps I barely beat him on, he got to the same round I did, but I managed 22 additional reps and he managed 13, only 9 reps more is pretty damn close.  154 total situps doesn't sound too bad either, but as I have mentioned before, it's one of my biggest weaknesses.

Full Body

Arms, especially shoulders were sore from helping my brother move into his new apartment yesterday, meh.

2 Rounds for time
20 Pullups - (STRICT)
50 Pushups
Time - 8:17

Power Cleans (touch and go)
130x5
150x5
170x5
180x5
200x2

Client does above workout but for some reason uses kipping over strict, beats my old time by getting 9:44
I point out that kipping pullups aren't the same exercise, therefore he did a different workout.
He replied "Yeah, like kipping saved me 1 minute 15 seconds. Nice try, kid!"
Me, in my head knowing that is really does, decide to just do the workout again with kipping.  Literally 10 seconds before my first pullup, I decide to use strict instead....as I know what a body is capable of when it has a time to beat, and despite being strong on kipping pullups, knew I'd still get a good time.
New Score......close to 3 minutes faster than old.....and 1 minute 27 seconds faster than his KIPPING version.  I probably should have waited for him to get his time tattooed on his arm like he claimed....would have been even sweeter then :).

The power cleans were random, the numbers look a little different as I used the 40 pound bar, only one left.  The last set I thought I'd get 3 before I started, after the second one I didn't even come close to a third, I managed the deadlift portion.  Good workout.

Also I am not surprised I was so much faster on that routine, when you have a time to beat, which this time I did, you push yourself harder.

Upper Body

Usain Bolt

Good old fashioned upper body day.

Alternate Sets
Bench Press
135x10
155x8
175x5
195x4

Cable Row
120x10
140x10
150x10
160x8

Alternate Sets
Military Press - 3x10.......95
C2B Chinups - 10, 8 7

Overhead Rope Extensions - 80 (10, 8, 8)
Preacher Curls - 50(10), 60(8, 8)

I kow I could have gotten a rep or two more on bench press had I asked for a spot, I could have but wanted to just test it, oddly flat barbell bench press is arguable my least favourite exercise I much prefer dumbbells or some angle difference.  The military presses were very close to not getting 10 reps on the last 2 sets, but not bad, good workout.