BACK ON TRACK!

2/28

AM) STRENGTH: POWER CLEAN+ CLEAN
                              BACK SQUAT 3X3

3 ROUNDS:
-30 DOUBLE UNDERS
-10 BURPEES

PM) 5X 1000M ROW WITH 5/4/3/2 MIN REST

Sorry I’ve been MIA. Finally back from an amazing trip to Australia and back to training. I know I said id post more about our coogee beach wods but Blair did a great write up on that you can check out HERE. As for today I felt really powerful on my cleans, but my legs felt very weak. I kinda jacked my shoulder with a nice spill while sandboarding in Australia so as opposed to snatching I went with 1 power clean immediately followed by a clean. the weight was flying up! I hit 285# pretty easily for a 5lb pr, and was very close at 290 for 4 attempts, getting it on my shoulders every time but not able to stick any of them. I was very happy with that and was hoping that my time off from training would also transfer into my squat. this was not the case. I was able to get 345# for 3, but 355 for only 2. legs fell very weak and tired. this I was not happy with. my squat strength is always a weakness of mine and with the Russian squat cycle and some other strength programs I was finally reaching that 400# mark. Im hoping that this was just a fluke and next week my strength has come back. I’d really like to do another cycle of the Russian squat program but I think it’s too much right now with regionals around the corner. I’m thinking next week ill start the 10x3:3x3 program for back squat and front squat. I think my legs just need more volume than the windler program is giving me. I still plan use the windler plan for my deadlift, press and bench. I finished my am session with a quick lung burner. I want to start doing slightly more volume with the conditioning. last year my breathing and endurance felt unstoppable and I want to get it back to that point. I finished 3 rounds of 30 double unders and 10 burpees in 1:59. I messed up on the last set on double so that cost me a few seconds.

for the pm session I wanted to blast my conditioning without doing too much that would make me sore. so what better than 5 max effort 1000m rows with a descending rest period. I kept them at about 95% the whole way through and rowed 3:19/3:38/3:39/3:39/3:42. I knew going that hard not he 1st would drastically make my following rows drop off, but other than the initial drop I held it pretty consistent. I wanted to keep them all under 3:40 but I started that last row a little too slow and couldn’t make it up in the finish. that 2 min rest felt very short. feels great to be back on a regular program. the vacation was awesome and I needed it bad, but now I’m fired up and focused on showing up to regional’s feeling unstoppable!

FIRST DAY OF FULL TRAINING!

2/21

Am) strength: back squat 3x3
Good morning 3x10

Skill: 3x 10 strict toe to bars
30 seconds trx plank

Pm) wod 1: 3 person wod
5 rounds:
80m run(1/2 sand 1/2 concrete
Max db thrusters(27#)
Max kb swing (53#)

Wod 2: 4 rounds each for time:
60m shuttle run in sand
40m kb drag in sand(53#)

Wod 3: max distance wheelbarrow walk in sand

Wod 4: 40m sprint in sand


A lot of volume today and I was loving it!.. I learned that a week off feels great on the muscles and joints, but that first day back is a little tricky... We met up with the owner of wodtours, he trains out of a boxing gym that has some crossfit stuff too..I felt very weak on the squats, not sure if it was just fatigue from travel, dehydration, not enough food, or just weak from taking a week off... Either way the weight was heavy!.. I got 315,325 then tried 360 and didn't even get one so I went back down to 315...even though these number are way less than what I've done in near past I'm not really discouraged.. My body felt very empty and powerless, but nonetheless it felt good to feel some heavy weight...we hit 3x10 good morning at 135#' and finished with w 3x10 strict toe to bars....I'll make another post about the conditioning workout later, they were pretty brutal and we did them at an amazing place..that's all the time I have for now though

AUSTRAILIA IS BADASS!!!!!!

2/19

First day back to actually doing some training and it feels amazing!... Especially since it get to them in the hot sun and in front of some amazing beaches down under!... Today was out first full day here so our Aussie buddy,nick, took Blair, John and I down to the coastline to show us some of the area... We walked about 3-4 miles ona cement path that lined the coastline... Tons of people running, walking and exercising everywhere, pretty awesome... We stopped at several beaches to cool off in the ocean.. Water Is amazing, warm and turquoise. About every 1/2 mile or so there was these workout stations with various pull up bars, dip bars etc.. We spent a good 30 min at one of them playing around with some glide kips, muscle ups, levers and a handful of parallette bar variations... I was drenched in sweat and my arms, shoulders and chest were rocked... We tried the man test Ive seen on cf Santa Clara's site where you do 5 dips, walk forward on the bars, 5 dips walk backwards on the bars, 4 dips,3 dips etc.. Very challenging I only made it halfway through 3.. Fun time through.. We continued our journey playing around with a lot of handstand and l-sit variations off rocks and rails and anything else we found.. Finally we arrived at our final destination, bondi beach. This is a beautiful white sand beach with tons of people surfing, playing volleyball, skateboarding, swimming , laying out and just enjoying the weather.. There was a 9 foot wall lining the beach with some pretty badass graffiti work on it so we decided to go for another workout... After playing around with the possibilities of what we could do I ended up doing 5 rounds of 5 hspu, then 1 wall sacled to the top.. Pretty gassing workout and an awesome place to train... I'm missing the barbell stuff so I think tomorrow we'll take a bar down to the beach or somewhere cool and try to do some barbell work. If the open workout doesn't require any special equipment I'm hoping to take whatever we need down to one of these beaches and do the wod down there. I'll try to post some pics soon.

SPLIT JERK PR!

2/10

AM)

STRENGTH: SPILT JERK 1RM

WOD 1: 5 ROUNDS:
              -5 PARALLETTE HSPU'S WITH KIP
              -7 OHS (135#)
              -25M PROWLER/DOGSLED/YOKE PUSH
              -25M WALKING LUNGE

WOD 2: 1-10 DOUBLE BURPEE LADDER WITH 60 YARD RUNS BETWEEN EACH LADDER

My strength plan called for deadlifts and presses today but my back was still a little tight from Wednesday. i haven't split jerked at all in at least 6-8 weeks, so i went for a heavy single and pr'd by 10#'s reaching a lifetime goal of a 315# split jerk! i was stoked and it didn't even feel that hard. i had an early miss at 285# and knew it was a fluke, i just needed a reality check to get my ass under the bar! feeling pretty pumped up about the pr we went right into the wod. i had the pleasure of going head to head with another up and coming, Nick Luchessi, and the battle was close. i was able to pull on him a little during the hspu's otherwise it would have been a tight one. we had 5 different sleds set up outside, all pretty close in weight but definitely different in the feel, especially when pushing the yoke, very awkward. this was a really good wod, the hspu's made the ohs squats pretty rough and the sled pushes made the walking lunges a little more crippling. i finished in 12:32.

after teaching a class, Nick and i tackled a gasser i saw on BLAIR MORRISONS BLOG which was a double burpee ladder from 1-10 with a 60 yrd run in between them for a total of 110 burpees and 1200m of running. pretty good one, not too gassing, mostly just burnt up the quads and shoulder. i was able to stay pretty consistent on my runs and burpee pace and finished in 9:36. one more day of training then I'm taking an entire week off, i might go crazy so I'm going to try and do something long and horrible in hopes that ill be sore til at least Tuesday..haha

POWER CLEAN PR!

2/8

STRENGTH: MUSCLE CLEAN 2RM:1RM
                      POWER CLEAN 2RM:1RM

WOD: 5 ROUNDS:
            -9 DEADLIFT STANDING ON 45# PLATE (225#)
            -6 MUSCLE UPS
            -35 AIR SQUATS

Had an awesome day today training with some of Nor Cal's finest, Jason Khalipa, Neal Maddox, Garret Fisher, and a handful of other beasts! i made a trip out to San Jose to check out Jason and Pat Barbar's new affiliate, crossfit norcal. its an old club one, globo gym style, with lots of racket ball courts, steam room ,lockers, and a ton a space. a lot of potential with this spot. we started off with muscle clean, which is something I've never tried. it was hard to force myself not to redip under the weight but once i got the hang of it i really liked it. it definitely makes you pull hard with the arm and finish  the second pull of the clean.  i got 195# for 2 and 205# for one. next was power cleans. i got 265# pretty clean but missed my second lift at 275#. i did pr for a single at 280# and got really close at a couple attempts at 285#. it felt really good and solid, but the 315# Neal and Jason where throwing around somewhat dwarfed it..haha, those guys are very strong. props to up and coming Garret Fisher who power cleaned 285#.. pretty solid.

moving straight from the strength to the wod was a little different for me but i liked the change of pace. i felt pretty good until the 4th round when one failed muscle up seemed to make me fall way behind and made the following muscle ups seem very difficult. Jason and Neal are very fast on the deads and squats, and surprising very good with the muscle ups for some big guys. id say that's probably where i lost the most ground. i tried for a lot of triples and double on the muscle ups and gassed out by the 4th round, whereas Jason whom was right next to me was doing a lot of singles as early as the second round, but he was able to keep a good pace on them throughout the wod. i felt like my muscle ups were better than i was performing, possibly a little fatigued from he chest to bars the day before or maybe they just need a lot more work. i finished in 10:26, about 2 min behind Neal and Jason. feeling discouraged but never defeated, this experience has lit that fire up even more! the next showdown will be a little different!..haha..all in all it was awesome to train with guys. i get used to  always being out in front when i train, and as humbling as it was, it was really nice to fall behind and have to chase someone else. i think i got a little bit out of my comfort zone and may have been rushing things a little, live and learn. I'm going to try and make it out there with these guys as much as possible, it was a great push! thanks for the session guys!

SNATH WORK

2/7

AM)

STRENGTH: POWER SNATCH 1RM
                      PUSH PRESS 3X3
                      SNATCH PULL 3X3
                      SNATCH DEADLIFT 3X3

PM)

WOD: 12-9-6
            POWER CLEAN AND JERK(155#)
           15 CTB PULL UPS AFTER EACH SET

WOD 2: 10 MIN ROW-30 SEC AT 50%,30 SEC AT 90%


Started off today really excited to pr my power snatch, unfortunately that was not the case. my current pr was 210#, and after a solid 205# i jumped to 215# for 3 attempts but wasn't able to stick any of them. a little disappointing but i just wasn't feeling very powerful today. my over training approach is starting to catch up to me, which is why I'm really excited about taking next week off. i really think giving my body some quality time to recover is going to benefit me a lot, its just going to drive me crazy not being able to workout. the rest of my lifts felt about the same, lacking power. i missed my 3rd rep of my 3rd set at 225#, which I've done 235 for 3 in the past. 3x3 snatch pulls at 245 and 3x3 snatch deadlifts at 260# felt fine.

after the mornings disappointing lack of power i wasn't sure how the metcon was going to feel. but it actually wasn't that bad. i did my whole 1st set unbroken, then a lot a quick singles and double for the rest of the wod. i finished in 4:36. the rowing workout was a pretty Nice finisher. i rowed 30 seconds at a 2:15-2:20 pace, then 3o seconds at a 1:40 pace. i was able to keep my splits the whole way through. resting next week, then its time to kick it into full throttle !

SQUATS AND BENCH PRESS GETTING STRONGER

2/6

AM)

STRENGTH: SQUAT WITH CHAINS 75%X5: 85%X3: 95%XMAX
                      BENCH PRESS 75%X5: 85%X3: 95%XMAX

5 ROUNDS:
 -10 SPEED SQUATS(205#)
 -10 BENCH PRESS (155#)

PM)

RUN 800M AT 90%
REST 3 MINUTES
4 400M REPEATS AT 800M SPLIT (90 SEC REST)

I attended the mobility cert this last weekend at crossfit Davis with Kelly starrett and it was awesome! id highly recommend it to all of you. i learned a lot about how to rehab nagging injuries or tight spots, but more importantly how to prevent them before they happen. i think one of the coolest things i learned was just basic set up on how to squat. it was nothing really that new, just a little more empathises on getting tight and keeping the knees out, "screwing" your feet into the ground before squatting, creating a little external rotation and putting some torque on the hips. i tried it today and although it felt a little different and awkward on some reps, overall i felt way tighter in the bucket and way more powerful. my last set of squats was at 300# and i got 4 reps, i was hoping for 3 and came very close to 5 so i was pretty stoked about that. i weighed the chains just out of curiosity and they weight about 47#'s each, which means I'm pushing probably 370-380# towards the top of that squat. the bench press felt a lot better too. using that same concept of external rotation and torquing up the shoulders, i felt way more powerful, my last set was at 260# and i got it for 4 reps, still lame but definitely getting better. after the bench, Zack and i did the 5 rounds of speed squats and bench press as we have been doing for the past 2 weeks. the squats felt way easier than the last few weeks but the bench got incredibly hard towards the end. i was still able to stay unbroken the whole way and not break pace on the speed squats finishing in 6:34, about 10 seconds faster than last week. id like to keep this up, but i might switch to a front or overhead squat, or just up the weight.

for the pm session, x and i headed over to the track for some repeats. regionals is about 3 months out and its time to start working on my running again. i did my 800M at about a 90% effort and finished in 2:55. so my plan was to run 4-400m's at a 1:25-1:30 pace with 90 seconds rest. i was using my iPhone for a stopwatch and ended up running them a little too quick, 1:19,1:25,1:29,1:18. it was windy out too and i hate running in the wind, but i got through it and although my back was screaming at the end, it wasn't as bad as it has been the last few trips to the track.

DEADLIFTS!

2/3

AM)

STRENGTH: DEADLIFT WITH PURPLE BAND-80%X3: 85%X3: 90%X3
                      PRESS-80%X3: 85%X3: 90%XMAX

WOD: 20 PARALLETT HSPU WITH KIP
           30 DEADLIFTS(335#)
           30 OHS (135#)
           50 TOE TO BARS
           60 BURPEES

Another quick one, ill get back into more depth next week. deadlifts felt great! 350,370 and 390. pulling them all solid and aggressive. i really like the bands they make you fight that weight all the way up. presses went 145/155 and 165 for 5. the wod was nasty, slow and painful for the 1st 3 movements then fast and gassing to finish. the hspu's felt pretty good, i got 9 on my 1st set. the deadlifts blazed out my hammies but felt light towards the top after using the bands. ohs felt solid i went 7,7,7,9. probably could have done 3 sets of 10 but my 1st set was a little wobbly after the deads. i flew through the toe to bars with 25/10/8/7 for my sets, and did the burpees unbroken without breaking my pace. finished the wod in 17:13

FRONT SQUATS

2/1

AM)

SKILL: 3X MAX STRICT MUSCLE UP+MAX STRICT

STRENGTH: 1 FRONT SQUAT EMOTM FOR 10 MIN

WOD: 1200M RUN

quick post for today. my muscle ups felt good but had failed a couple strict so it affected my kips i went 4/5,4/4,3/5. i went up 5#'s from last week on the front squat and finished all 10 minutes at 315#. the weight felt really good and I'm hoping for 335#+ 1rm in a few weeks. i had planned to run a little more but after the 1st 1200m my back, hips, and quads were super tight, so i went for a 2000m slow jog to loosen up and the stretch. the 1200mish run took me 4:31, about 5 second faster then when i did it about a month ago.

SNATCH WORK

1/31

AM)

STRENGTH: POWER SNATCH 2RM
                      SNATCH GRIP RACK JERK 2RM
                      SNATCH PULL 3X3
                      SNATCH DEADLIFT 3X3

PM) WOD: 20 MIN AMRAP:
                    -200M RUN
                    -5 STRICT HSPU
                    -5 HANG POWER SNATCH(115#)

Well as expected my legs are pretty beat up, but not nearly as bad as last week. it took a little time but i got my legs warmed up and started in on the power snatches. I've been rowing 1000m as part of my warm up everyday for the past 3-4 weeks and I'm really liking it. i alternate each day between a 18-20 stroke pace and a 30-32 stroke pace keeping the same 1:55 split, just to get some variation in tempo. not only is my stroke getting way more efficient but it really gets my legs and hips loose before i lift.  i went for a 3rm last week and got 195#, barley missing the 3rd rep at 200#, so i was hoping for 205# today. it took me 3 tries but i stuck 205# and when i did felt pretty easy. the 1st two attempts felt light but i kept getting lazy on the second rep, just needed to remind myself to stay tight through that 1st pull. I'm hoping for 215# for a single next week. next was the snacth grip rack jerks. i went 225/245/265/285 and then tried 305 but missed the 2nd rep. 3x3 snatch pulls at 235#, and 3x3 snatch deadlift at 255# to wrap it up.

the pm wod was pretty solid. a longer amrap with short rounds and reps/weight that didn't require me to break up sets or hesitate before starting. the hspu's felt easy the whole way, i was able to come in from the run and kick right up into them, walk to the bar and pick it up without hesitation. the runs got slower and slower but i pushed through til the end and got 12 rounds even. my running is nowhere near where it needs to be but i still have about 3 1/2 months until regionals so I'm just easing into it for the next month or so before i really start to ramp it up. the open starts in about 3 weeks and its getting me pretty excited. i cant believe the season is already here! I'm excited to see all my clients go nuts on these open wods and get involved in the sport of crossfit, its going to be a blast!

                   

CHAIN SQUATS, BENCH PRESS AND LUNGES

1/30

AM)


STRENGTH: SQUAT W/ CHAINS: 80%X3:85%X3:90%XMAX
                      BENCH PRESS: 80/85%X3:90%XMAX

5 ROUNDS:
    -SPEED SQUATS(205#)
    -BENCH PRESS (155#)

100 AB MAT SIT UPS

PM)

WOD: 3 ROUNDS
           -100FT WALKING LUNGE(HOLDING 45# DUMBBELLS AT SIDE)
           -20 KB SWINGS(70#)
            *FINISH WITH 50 WALL BALLS(20#)

Week two of squatting with chains and its feeling a lot better! the discomfort and awkwardness of the chains isn't as bad and the power feels good!. i went 250/265 and 285# for the last set. i was able to stand up 5 reps with the 285# before dumping the 6th. its tough to say how much that would be without the chains but id put it somewheres around 355-365#, which would be awesome for 5 reps. next was the bench press, still weak but getting stronger. last set was at 250# and i got it for 6 reps, felt pretty solid. last week we finished with the 5 rounds of 10 speed squats at 205# super set with 10 bench press at 155#, and i wrecked me! i want to keep doing this every week but i don't think i can train very effectively being that sore, so i was hoping it would be a little easier this week. we flew through it this time and the burn was significantly less. it took me 6:45, about 2 minutes faster than last week. I'm sure i could do this much faster but I'm forcing myself to speed squat all 10 reps which makes me rest a little longer after the bench press. i never do sit ups so i finished with 100 ab mat sit ups.

for the pm session i figured my legs were already going to be out of use for tuesday so we just went with it and tested out our legs stamina with 3 rounds of 100ft walking lunge holding 45# dumbells at your sides and 20 kb swings with the 70# with a 50 wall ball cash out to finish. the lunges felt pretty solid, having to pause a few times on sets 2 and 3 but never putting down the weights, the real factor was grip strength, especially on the kb swings. i went unbroken on the 1st two sets of swings but grip was failing on the third and was forced to go 10/10. the wall balls went pretty quick,my legs were smoked from the lunges but it felt good to squat and not lunge. i went 15/15/10/10 and finsihed the wod in 9:09. i suspect that my legs will be sore but hopefully not as bad as last week!