Thursday:
Row 500m
50 Box Jump
50 Press Ups
20 DB Snatch (Each arm)
50 Sit Ups
50 Wall Ball
50 Lunge Walk
20 Turkish Get Up
50 DB Swing
50 Double Under
Turkish get ups are funny. Lie on your back facing the sky, pick up 1 dumb bell (I was using 12kg for all dumb bell (DB) exercises above) and hold it out, straight up like a mast, pointing at the sky. Then you have to stand up, all the time holding the dumb bell pointing straight up, without bending the the arm that’s holding it. Then you have to lie back down, again withouth bending your dumb bell arm and keeping it pointing straight up. Only Crossfit could come up with an exercise like this: simple in its design… a painful beast in its execution! Crossfit, oh how we love your like quirks.
Double unders are skipping so that the rope goes round twice before you land, another simple yet tricky and painful Crossfit exercise.
The point behind these exercises though is that they not only build strength and fitness, but also balance and agility. What’s the point of being able to lift a heavy weight say, if you can only do it when it’s connected to a gym exercise machine which is balancing and supporting it for you? Crossfit believes in funcitonal ability, and for that you require poise and balance too.
Friday:
Deadlift: reps of 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1
Shoulder Press: reps of: 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3
Excellent! I’ve been looking forward to Crossfit Deadlifts again for a while, as I was sure I could beat my last Personal Best of 130kg. Here’s what I did:
Warmed up at 5 reps of 80kg and 3 reps of 100kg. Then my lifts were: 110kg – 130 – 140(PB) – 150(PB) – 155(Fail)
150kg (which is 23.5 stone!) saw me staggering around like a fool, trying to hold my balance, which is not really to be advised when you’re carrying that kind of weight. I never dreamed I’d be picking up this kind of weight before starting Crossfit.
I got to a PB of 3 x 45kg on the Shoulder Press, which is a little disappointing, as I’m relatively much better it seems with leg exercises than pure shoulder strength. Need to work on this.
Saturday
This is not for time, 5 rounds (unbroken, i.e. you’re not allowed to put down the weights between exercises) of
5 Dumb Bell Deadlifts
5 Dumb Bell Cleans
5 Dumb Bell Push Presses
5 Dumb Bell Front Squats
After each round, you take a nice breather and then increase the weight. I managed to go through (this is each of 2 dumb bells, so double for total weight): 15kg / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25, Though the last round was not unbroken. I dropped them a couple of times as they came crashing down from the Push Presses. It’s interesting that doing this with Dumb bells is hard than a weight lifters bar (typical Crossfit that!) which again is to help with independent balance, as the weights wobble around all over the place. I.e. more drunken staggering about, trying to hold them up!
Still, that’s the fun of Crossfit.
