In sight...

Talking bout that finish line, only a week and a half left in the Academy, test tomorrow, not worried. 

No class PT today so I headed over to the LTA Gym (Medina) for some work.

2000m row 8:18.8 (weak sauce)

I remember when I hit the 7:50, I'll get there again with some dedication to rowing.

Warmed up with HPC @ 135# - 155# x 5



There's nothing wrong with a good snatch(pull)



Snatch Pull Triples up to 245



Messed around in the "lifting" area on the incline doin 135 5x5 (for no real reason other than I didn't feel like leaving and the rack was full of assholes reverse curling)

I seriously detest curling in the rack.

My post-workout meal, AKA dinner, was less than ideal.  Cabana bowl (no shell/rice/bean) with Fajita beef, lettuce, pico, cheese, and Sour cream.  I also stopped by the DFAC for some extra chicken breast to bump up the protein count for the day.  Could have made a wiser choice and just got a shake, they were probably the worst cooked chicken breasts in history, like jerky.  I busted out the fancy salami from Trader Joes just to add some moisture to the chicken so it could be eaten.  Needless to say I can't wait to be home and be able to cook again.

Dirty Thirty - Their Way

Todays WOD - AMRAP 15 Min

Squat x30
Push up x30
Mountain Climber x30 (each leg)
Situp x30
Lunge x30 (each leg)
Burp x30
Squat Thrust x30

Result: 1 round plus 30 squats.

Pushups are my weakness when they are Chest2Floor so it was slow getting through those and slow through the "Burps" (Push up/Thrust combo)

At least I didn't have to put the blue suit back on after sweating like a champ...

I do make that shit look good though...could use a haircut...

The class calls these my Ninja Turtle shoes.

Why not.

As in why not do everything.
Bench 3x5 @190#
Squat 6x2 @ 275#
Dead lift 405# x1
Hang Power Clean 5x4 @ 135#

Energy was low as I didn't have breakfast, not for lack of trying. But I made up for it at lunch with some Smash Burger Paleo-ish Smash Hash.

Ive been tracking food on My Fitness Pal lately.  Its decent, although I'm not a huge fan of it not counting strength as burning calories...  Tracks my macros either way.

Tabata Fridays

Yesterdays workout included Tabata Squats, Pushups, Situps and Squat Thrusts.  8 Rounds each.

Very painful.

Thursday was 21-15-9 Burps (bottom half of a burpee)-Situps-Squats, 400m run before each round, and at the end of the last round (17min?)

Tomorrow its all about goin heavy, and I cant wait.  I also decided to jump back on MyFitnessPal to track what I eat, especially concerning Macros, and try to keep me on the "eating clean" bandwagon ESPECIALLY now that my wife is thinking about Paleo diet.

I should also note that I've had almost an entire gallon of water today and still aint pissing clear, which leds me to deduce that I wasn't doing my due diligence at drinking my water.

My Legs are Gonna be HURTING Tomorrow

Todays WOD, brought to you by the wonderful guys at the Non Commisioned Officer's Academy,

400m
25 lunges per leg (in place)

Made 4 rounds and half a lap.  That a mile and some change with 100 lunges per leg...its gonna be a big bag of suck tomorrow!

Snatch Pulls/Deadlifts

5:00 row/PC Warmup

Snatch Pulls x3 up to 235# for 2 sets followed by 3-3-3-3  Deadlifts at 315#

OHP 115 3x5, cleaned from the floor.
Push Press 5x3, cleaned

That gym is legit.  I'd love to type a bunch more shit but I gots papers to write SON!

Pyramid for Time and Lumberjack 20

11/24/13

Pyramid for Time

400m run
Squat-Pushup-Situp
5-5-5
10-10-10
15-15-15
20-20-20
15-15-15
10-10-10
5-5-5
400m run

18 min cap - completed in 13, repeated WOD until 18 min expires

11/25/13

Lumberjack 20

400m
Mountain Climber x 20(p/leg)
400m
Burp x 20
400m
Squat Thrust x 20
400m
Situp x 20
400m
Burpee x 20

Should have a 20 min cap but instructer dropped ball and stopped at 18, got to the 12th burpee, expressed my dissatisfaction in my special way.

Took Saturday off to write another paper, do some strength work tomorrow along with 2 more papers...

I feel like I need a paper writing recovery day.

Tabata Ichi

Yea, Tabata Ichi is what they called it..

Tabata CTF Push ups
Tabata Mountain Climbers
Tabata Sit ups
Tabata Squat Thrusts

8 rounds each, probably about 20-30 sec rest between exercises.  I probably would have kept my score if I want preventing imminent death, but I know the low score for push ups was like 2, yea...2 you try Tabata Chest to Floor Push ups and tell me how it is...

1000m row, 4:05

Note: Gateway gym on Lackland is basically useless, unless you only want to row, or do bodyweight stuff. THERE ARE NO BARBELLS IN THIS SO CALLED "GYM"!

Just saying.

Squats/Pulls

Out at Medina Gym today.

Power Cleans/Snatch Pulls up to 225# x 2 x 3
Front Squats 5x2 @ 225# (1 min rest)
Back Squats 5x2 @ 275# (1 min rest)

Tomorrow would be pressing but don't be shocked if I end up squatting anyway.

Keeping up.

So as  you can tell, I'm not very good at keeping up with my blog.  I'll have to work on that.

I've spent the last two weeks back in the place where my career was born, Lackland AFB, Texas.  I'm here attending the Non-Commisioned Officers Academy, one of the PME requirements we must complete on our path to greatnest ing the Air Force.  What does this have to do with my blog, well, I'll tell you.

Among many of the complaints you may have heard me have in the past is that the military, as a whole, just gets it wrong when it comes to unit physical training.  you know how it goes:  Show up, stretch, 3x20 push ups, 3x20 situps, flutter kicks...2 mile run.  Same old shit, M-W-F. 

Well, I got to the NCO Academy and during the in-brief one student stands up and asks the Commandant (CMSgt in charge of the Academy), about PT.  He states he heard NCOA is moving towards a more CrossFit style program.  The Commandant responds with "going?? we're already there!".

The NCOA refers to there program as Human Performance lessons, which covers workouts, that follow CF metcon-style programming. Obviously the logistics that would involve including weightlifting in a NCOA enviroment is cost-prohibitive.  And a nutritional aspect is added, although, it is not-so CF style.  50% carbohydrate macro's is definitely not CF and not something you'll find me buying into anytime soon.

Which brings me to my log:

Yesterdays WOD:

400m sprint
40 Squat
30 Butterfly situps
20 Pushups - chest touching floor
10 Squat Thrusts
400m sprint

Time 6:53

Todays WOD
AMRAP 20min
20 squat
15 situps
10 pushups CTF
5 squat thrust

8 rds + 48 reps (2 reps shy of 9rds)

Obviously I'll have to keep up with my own strength training, and I found the bomb gym to do it...Medina Annex fitness center.  Might have to drive to the other side of the 410 but as far as AF base gyms go, this one is legit. (excluding bases that have CF Affiliates or CF style gyms)

More to come....I promise this time.

The PR that never was...

Got in the gym today nice and early, which is like 8am.  Thats early for a workout ok!  I'm not waking up at 3am to lift, I have to do that shit on work days...damn all that.

I was there to squat...and squat I did not.  Somehow I loaded a bar for deadlifting, not thinking about it, so I went ahead with that.  Warmed up...135 x5....225x5...315x5...365x1...405x1...Now that went up real smooth.  I felt good for a PR, last PR was 415.  Loaded up 420...closed the lever, gripped....big belly of air..pulled it to about 5 inches...and that was as far as it was goin!  Oh well...next time I'll get it.

After that I dropped it to 315 and did 3x10 "power" shrugs (regular grip, clean grip, snatch grip)

Finished with 100# per hand Farmers walk up and down the BB court until the PT Testers showed up.

SO I guess I'll Squat/Press tomorrow before a wonderful 3 day work weekend.

Atlanta - Gettin it in Southern Style

Back from Atlanta.  What an awesome place!  I spent my kids birthday at Six Flags White Water, it was awesome and well worth the money.  I had Cheesecake Factory twice, and don't judge me.  I had a Kobe Burger and then went back for Fish Tacos, never had any Cheesecake though.  I had enough deserts with my son's cake (Coldstone Creamery Ice Cream Cake).  Hit up the World of Coca-Cola, pretty interesting stuff.

I was able to get in a workout early in the trip.  I found a small gym nears my Mother's that had a rack and was able to knock out 5x5 Squats @ 245# and 3x5 Press @ 115#.  Other than that I go no workouts in.  Basically, I had a full deload week, and that's okay by me.

I returned to the gym Tuesday with some Squatting:
225x5
245x5
265x3
275x2
285x2x1

Along with 3 x max reps - weighted dips @ 15# (8-7-8)

Wednesday went well, I thought..:

Press 3x5 @120#
Deadlift
315x5
335x5
365x2
385x1

Finished with 5x5 T-bar rows @ 135# and 5x5 T-bar press (might be what its called???) @ 90#, no rest between sets.

Meanwhile, the Olympics is happening.  Been watching what little coverage of Weightlifting I can, and watching all of the Gymnastic competition.  Not much to comment on but its all very inspiring.  I WILL say that I was completely disappointing with the rules limiting each country to two participants in the individual all-around.  Jordan Weiber outscored all but 4 women who qualified for the final but was not allowed...what a shame!

The Future of the Reebok CrossFit Games, from a Notso-CrossFitter

I likely could have made this blog longer, but I'm not one for typing, and I'm supposed to be packing....shit.

The 2012 CrossFit Games season has come to a close.  Froning and Thorisdotter stand victorious once again in a memorable double-repeat as the fittest man and woman on Earth.

I spent the entire weekend watching the Spectator Stream live from my work computer, with an few hours of training and Post Checks here and there.  It was an awesome thing to watch.  The contestants have unbelievable stamina and strength.  PRs were being set left and right.  Everything was as intense and electric as you would imagine.

Attendance in the Home Depot Center set records.  Not CF Games records, but HDC records for any event held at the center.  If you started following CF back when I did (2008) its was nearly unfathomable how far this sport has come.  Rags to riches, more or less.

CrossFit is growing fast and isn't showing any signs of slowing down soon.  So we have to ask ourselves, what next?  The HDC can't hold it forever.  Hell, I don't think they can seriously consider using the HDC in 2013.  2012 tickets sold out completely in a matter of days!  There are a few viable options that I think CrossFit HQ and Reebok should consider as ways-ahead for the CFG that will allow the sport to continue its growth, provide more unpredictability, and allow more spectators to visit the games.

The biggest option that is probably the favorite of mine is treating the CFG the same as the Superbowl, World Cup, World Series and countless other major, worldwide sporting events.  Move the venue every year to a new location.  There are multiple venues that can hold more spectators and still have the facilities needed for unpredictable workouts.  Many major cites have held Olympic Games over the years and still have those facilities that can be used for track workouts, swimming, weightlifting etc.  Additionally, you throw in environmental factors that people must plan for.  CFG in Denver this year?  Better plan for high altitudes.  You see where I'm going with this?  Atlanta, LA, Denver, Dallas, Columbus (Rogue would love that, right?), all of these places fit the bill.  Why leave it in America?  We are searching for the Fittest in the World, right?  How about the CFG in Berlin, or Barcelona, or Sydney.  

One thing I heard repeated again and again is CrossFit in the Olympics.  This is where I think we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves.  Lets look at this realistically.  The IOC isn't going to allow Dave Castro to show up and drop a bunch of random workouts, with sketchy programming, standards, and safety considerations.  If it was ever even allowed to be in the Olympics it would be so over-regulated it would basically end up being a decathlon with weightlifting thrown in.  Anyway, why would CrossFitters even want to be in the Olympics?  That shit is mainstream.  I thought we were the rebels.  The fitness outcasts gathering on a dusty ranch for the "Woodstock of Fitness".   The Reebok partnership stirred shit up enough, and it was much more of a blessing than initially thought.  Initially, people were jumping ship like the Titanic was goin down!

Its hard to say what next year will bring.  But I hope it keeps up the trend.  Keep growing, keep moving forward, but don't forget where it came from.  "We are the Underground", keep it that way.

CFG Atlanta 2013!!  At least I'd think it was cool.

Deuces.

No Barbell for awhile...maybe

Had to get in the last workout today, tomorrow I'm flying to Atlanta to visit family.  Not sure what the gym scene is in Hiram, GA but I wasn't really given a warm fuzzy by Google search.  I imagine there will be a sufficient amount of running, and some playground workouts if I cant find anything else. 


Maybe I'll just grab heavy things from Mom's garage and just run around the yard with them; entertain the neighbors a little, who knows?


Todays workout:


Back Squat 3x5 @ 255#
Dips 3x10
Situps w/med-ball throw 25-20-10


I'm fairly sore from yesterday's tire flipping/sledge hitting shenanigans.  Honestly didn't thing I'd be that sore but I guess I have been neglecting the tire lately, and I paid my dues for it.


My wife managed to gank my last Kill Cliff, which she enjoyed...so now I have to order enough for the both of us...  At least we'll be in the Atlanta area for 10 days and I can get it from a store...boom!

Death by Tire Flips

The stay at home workout today. Recently I had to sell my stands, barbell and weights, but I managed to retain my big ass tire (not that I can really transport the behemoth anywhere), my sledge, sand bag, and various other implements.

I revisited the Death by Tire Flips workout I discovered on StrongmanWOD last year. So with this tire (well over 600#) i can get up to five on each round, which made for a total of 30 flips. After the flips I completed what I will call a medley, for lack of a better word, of sledge hits, 2pood one-arm swings, and parallete pushups for 15 minutes.

 No real rep scheme, just do something until you can't anymore and then do something else. When I was finished I could barely hold on to my cup of water. So my arms are bruised from flips and my shoulders, traps, and forearms are sore as shit!

 I feel fuckin awesome!

Squats and Fish Oil

First day of leave today.  Its always a good feeling knowing that you're not at work when you should be and still getting paid for it.  Especially when you have to wake up at 3am to go to work...I can feel my Test level increasing already.

Last night I got in my workout late due to me not having scheduled day care this week and not being able to take my kid to the gym with me.  There was definitely something wrong with my leg yesterday.  My knee was hurting all day for no damn reason and by the end of the day there was some serious pain in my tibialis anterior, or just below that.  Couldn't tell why, wasn't really injured, just really sore.  It probably should have prevented me from squatting, but I'm a little hard-headed so when its time to squat, well.... that's what the hell I'm gonna do.

Workout:

3-3-3-3-3 Power Cleans
125#(4)-135#-145#-155#-165#

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squat
225#-245#-255#-265#-270#

100# per hand Farmers Carry (100ft x 5-6)

I got home and took like 4 grams of Fish Oil, 10,000iu of Vitamin D3 and went to bed.  This morning I didnt have any leg pain, so hopefully it wont be coming back.

In the words of Lift Big Eat Big - "If you can't fix it with Squats or Fish Oil, you're probably going to die"

Gettin it in On-the-Job

This last three days were LONG!  It was my last cycle before taking leave in Georgia.  On the last day I spent a little time in the gym. (we have one in the area where we work)

Granted, lifting heavy things while having less than 10 hrs sleep over three nights isnt the most productive thing in the world, neither is not doing shit in the gym for three days.

Worked up to heavy singles on deadlift at 385#.  After that I threw 115# and the bar and did sets of 5 on strict press until it became impossible (with pullups x 3 in between), the did sets of 5 push-press.  Really trying to get my overhead strength way up.  Finished up trying out the Klokov Press with an empty bar for a couple reps...That one could get ugly down the road, its brutal!

Klokov press is essentially a wide snatch-grip, behind the neck, strict press, or SGBTNSP if you're an acronym loving crossfitter.  It was made popular by the Russian weightlifting phenom/psychopath for which it is named.

Here is a video of the beast from Lift-Run-Bang doing it at 185# for 9 reps.

In other news, Kill Cliff hit a deal with GNC, that means you can get that shizz anywhere soon!

Georgia on My Mind

So in about a week, I'll be hopping on a plane to GA and visiting family for about 10 days, including a trip to Water World, and hopefully, Falcons Training Camp.  Otherwise this has been a fairly normal off cycle.

I made an attempt to hit up my (sort-of) college gym, unfortunately they wont let you in if your not registered for classes.  So I turned around and headed to Midtown Sports and Wellness for a little workout:

Back Squat 3x5 @ 250#
Press 3x5 @ 120#
Seated Dumbell Press 2x5 @ 50# each

First time ever doing dumbell presses but I think I need to incorporate more overhead shoulder stuff, seeing as how its my weakest point.

BTW, that was yesterday.

Today was spent at the base gym for deadlifts (only place I can use chalk...).  So today's workout went a little like this:

Deadlift 5-5-5 (315#-335#-335#)
Bench Press 3x5 @ 185#

I didn't feel very sore.  This may be due to the fact my Kill Cliff came in a couple days ago and I've been drinking the shit out of it.

If you've never heard of (or tried) Kill Cliff its the first "recovery drink" on the market. (that's not a protein shake) It is very refreshing and the ingredients have anti-inflammatory properties as well as some other benefits.  Its also not LOADED WITH CRAP like Red Bull, Monster and the ton of other gut bombs available in your local truck stop.

I drink the hell out of it regardless of the fact I can only get it online for now.  If you want to try it, click on any where in this post that says Kill Cliff and order a case, you WONT be disappointed.

My Neck, My Back! My Neck and My Back!

Friday was fairly heavy.  Once again I took advantage of an opportunity to use a local gym instead of the base gym, Midtown Sports and Wellness.  I like to go here because its clean, they have decent equipment, the rowers WORK, and they have a pool and Jacuzzi. (for recovery, of course)

After doing some rower warm-up, I hit the squat rack and worked up to heavy doubles.

Then I was interpreted.

I HATE being interrupted in a workout, however, its the nature of being a Husband, Father and Active Duty Serviceman...so be it.

Anyway, after a 45 minute rest, I hit up some bench press, working up to a heavy single (210#) and then proceeded back to the rack for heavy rack pulls (below the knee), working up to a single at 455#.

Finished up with "assistance work", which is a fancy powerlifters way of saying isolation without sounding like a body builder.  Basically 3x10 shrugs @ 315# and 3x10 elevated/weighted(25#) situps.

So you're thinking, that sounds like a lot of volume.  Well seeing as I'm not really a elite level lifter, yea, it was a shitload of volume.  Come Saturday morning I felt like a steamroller had plowed over my Traps, spinal erectors, and whatever's in between.  Even contrast baths after the workout Friday were of no help.  Needless to say, Saturday was rest.

Sunday, as I was prepping to head to the base gym for a workout, the Wife got called into work.  So what was prepping to be a little "Grace" and running, turned out to be a quick little garage burner:

70# KB Swing x 25
80# Sandbag Clean/Press x 30 (about 12 min w/time to re-tie the sand bag 3x)
70# KB Swing x 25

KB Swings were unBroken

Back feels a little tight, time to roll...

New Things

Today was interesting.  I was sore all over from previous days workouts but I know I wont be doing anything over the weekend. (3x15-17 hour shifts) So I figured I would try a couple new things and see how it goes.  First I warmed up the old Deadlift to 315x5 and tried out some 315 Deadlift Carries.

These are fairly simple; simply do a deadlift, then walk a distance carrying the weight, easy enough right?  

I liked these, it was something like poor-mans Yoke walks.  (I'll have a Yoke one day)

Next up was Zuercher (spelling?) squats.  These are the ones where the bar is held in the pit of your elbow...I have a feeling this will be felt in the abdominal region tomorrow!

I also threw in some tire flips and farmers walks for good measure...