Yesterday would have made one year since I last posted. I'd say that is a long enough blogging break. Do people even blog anymore? I feel as if it has been eclipsed by other mediums. I still like this as a mode for, if nothing else, keeping track of my workouts.
So where am I? Good question. Can you ask yourself a question and call it a good question? Workout wise I am headed back towards a happy, happy place. I spent the last year and a half without a workout home and it affected my desire to stay in shape. I had a gym for the first year, but it was far away and pretty awful. I also got a packet of one to three day coupons for about 50 gyms in the NYC area. That got old quickly and due to not having a normal job and hours it was already difficult to get stuff done (job applications, cover letters, grad school applications, GRE studying) while working 40 hours a week. I cleaned up my act for the ultimate season, but did not have access to what I needed to be as productive at training as I used to be. I finally have a schedule that makes workouts much more accessible. Right now I am rocking:
Mon: hour of basketball, heavy lower body lifts
Tue: boxing and crossfit/circuits I make up
Wed: off
Thurs: cardio (eventually)
Fri: Crossfit
Sat: cardio (goaltimate)
Sun off
I have had something like this for the last month or so and I already feel a lot stronger. It was emasculating to see my numbers after such a long layoff, but it was to be expected. In an effort to get some numbers back on the site and cause I had a decent workout week the last seven days Ill summarize.
Wed off
Thur off
Fri: Cross Fit
This was my third day/week of crossfit. I like it, but don't love it. I love the equipment they have, but the price is severe. I need to figure out if I could attend a really nice gym monthly for the same price I am paying to workout at crossfit once a week. The workouts are brutal and I like being brutalized, but I am not sure they are the best for ultimate. A lot of the movements involve upper body strength especially over head lifting strength,, which I don't think is super ultimate oriented. Once I retire, I might fall into it full time. Anyways:
row: 1000m for 3 minutes at 24 strokes per minute (spm)
I loved this part. Keeping the spm at 24 means while pulling as hard as you can means you have to explode out, go back reeeaaaaalllllll slow and then explode out again.
wall walks/reverse walks: 3 x 5 or 10 minutes:
unlike that 80 lb prepubescent kid in the video I am 200 lbs of man, not that there weren't two other 200 lbs of man doing this correctly right next to me, but I just wanted the juxtaposition of the kid in the video, calm and controlled, and me just suffering through the first set of these, barely getting vertical and then crashing down. This is the type of exercise that I would not associate with ultimate improvement. The reverse ones started f'n with my back, but I finished them. I finished the wall walks too, but it wasn't pretty or correct.
overhead squats: 5/5/3/3/3/1/1
Nice! I think crossfit has changed since I maligned it 4 years ago. Some places take time out to get your 1RM in, which is awesome (cause it came right after wall walks where people were for sure questioning everything about me). I went something like:
125/135/145/155/160/165/170
Some core exercise that I couldnt do.
Sat: Tennis
Used a beautiful Saturday morning to get some tennis in. Played three sets after I let the 2nd set get away from me due to a couple terrible service games, but I crushed in the 3rd set.
Sun: Off
Mon: Rutgers
Started with some basketball. As documented here before everything offense I suck at. I put the ball on the floor one or two times a game usually with terrible results. I miss put backs all the time. I mean point blank, one on none, put backs. I freak out on fast breaks and usually end up just jumping with the last thing on my mind being to score. On defense and on the boards I work my ass off. I contest all shots, take runs at inbounds and lazy passes, bang hard with the big guys, jump over people for rebounds, etc. All in all people love me and I have been getting better. This Monday we had an awesome offensive team, which means I do absolutely nothing on offense except get offensive boards and try not to get in the way. It was awesome. We crushed teams. Almost every week I get a steal at the top of the key on a lazy pass (as an aside, last week I was dominating some really good kid on defense and it was game point us. He looks to get a pass above where anyone else plays defense and I jump the lane, body him out of the way while corralling the ball and so I on a break away all alone. I dribble twice, most likely touch the ball with two hands, take another dribble and now I am close to the basket. This is like the 3rd or 4th break away I've had and I try to dunk everytime. Once I pretty much dunked, two other times I've kind of dunked/layed it in. This was going to be point 17 in a 16-15 game that has lasted forever and came after another drawn out 12-10 game. I am tired. I take off for the dunk and immediately know things are going wrong. I am not going up as much as off to the side so I try to change the "potential" dunk into a layup. I'm not sure it hits rim at all. I bet it looked like I had somehow got bumped by an imaginary player ((Angels in the Outfield style)) and got all out of sorts. Luckily one of my teammates ((we did have about an hour of history behind us so maybe he had an inkling that this would happen)) was following me for the put back.) and this was no different resulting in me, of course, jumping with no idea what I am going to do seeing a trailer who I hit, who hits another guy for a wide open lay up. Anyways, fun!
lifts:
deadlifts: 5/5/3/3/3
I dont want to do the early math so its in bumper plate colors
4 blues/4 blues, 2 yellows/4 reds/4 reds 2 5's (272)/272/287
To be continued...
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7 comments:
Whoa, I didn't even know I still *followed* this blog, and then it appears once again on my feed...
Now that I am retired, I've became a big fan of CrossFit. I too am paying the exorbitant fees, but I'm in there 3-4 times a week so I get at least half my money back in value.
I really like the workouts, even coming around to the "metabolic conditioning" 25 minute slug-fest life-haters. It's also cool to chart real progress--I've increased max reps on all the heavy lifts, I can now do 20 or so hand-stand push-ups, I can walk on my hands, etc.
But most of all I like working out in a gym where you can throw your weights down after a rep like a real bad ass.
Damnit, Seigs. I really wanted to be first.
I like progress.
20 hand stand push ups is great. I am at one. There is a lot of stuff that benefits a compact body I think, especially all the pushing and pulling.
Here is my big problem so far. These people seem to think that if you haven't done cross fit you shouldn't be able to perform their workouts. Either that or they are super duper nice and enthusiastic. I've done most of this before. For the most part Crossfit did not invent these exercises nor do you need a "box" to do them in.
Again, I would rather be able to pick and choose a bit more, but all in all a great workout and a lot of support from the staff and co-workerouters.
Workout blogs are so 2008. Only losers are doing it now.
P90X - get with the times Ben.
You mean Power 90 Extreme? What an amazing group of words.
Agree CrossFit enthusiasts can sometimes come off as patronizing.
Also, sometimes I get frustrated because I feel that we are spending too much time working towards getting the best workout results instead of just getting good workouts in. For instance, we spent a half hour the other day trying to learn the most efficient grip, "kipping" motion, and progression for doing a muscle-up. Great if that's your goal but I would have rather spend the time doing an actual workout, even if it was just pull-ups and dips.
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