Friday April 20th
5 rounds of:
5 Shoulder Presses
10 Push Presses
15 Split Jerks
Using a 35kg bar, this was a tough one. I think by the 4th round it took me 5 mins to do just the 5 shoulder presses! I managed it, but in a very slow 32:31 (when compared to everyone else, many on lower weights). Chatting with the coach afterwards, he explained that compared to my squats and stuff, I’m weak on the shoulder exercises, so this was made deliberately heavy to help increase my strength. I guess I can live with that.
Saturday April 21st
Deadlifts: 3 reps – 3 reps – 3 reps – 3 reps – 3 reps – all for max lift.
Front Squats: similarly 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 for max.
Note each set of 3 has to be done consecutively, with only a moments rest.
Now we’re talking! This is the sort of workout I love, for some reason I appear to be relatively strong with heavy leg exercises (I assume from spending my teenage years as a sprinter and jumper at school), so these routines allow me to do well and make me feel I’m not always back of the class. I guess we’re all vain in our own little ways. My weights:
Deadlift: 100 – 130 – 140PB – 130 – 110
3 x 140kg Deadlifts is a beast, I was happy with this though, my 1 rep max is 150kg.
Front Squat: 70 – 80 – 90PB – 100PB – 80
Previous PB was 80 for 3 reps, so I was very pleased with a 20kg increase. I now have bruises on my shoulders though. 100kg is a lot of metal to have resting on your shoulders for a minute or so!
Sunday April 22nd – A much need rest day. Crossfit calls for a rest every 3 days so your muscles can recover, and boy do you need it!
Monday April 23rd
Tabata Kettle Bell Swings – 16kg for me – double handed swing from between your legs to over your head.
5 min rest
Tabata Ball Slams – You life a basket ball full of sand right above your head, throw it on the ground and drop into the squat to catch it on the bounce. As it’s full of sand they only bounce once, and only about 3 inches off the ground. If you don’t catch it on the bounce, it doesn’t count.
5 min rest
Tabata Row – row and count the calories burned in each 20 sec period.
5 min rest
Tabata dumb bell snatch alternating arms each round (15kg) – Basically the dumb bell hangs between your legs, and you have to get it above your head (arm straight) in one go.
Tabata-tastic! A “Tabata” exercise works like this: you do work for 20 secs and count your reps, then you rest for 10 secs. That’s 1 round. Your “score” is your worst round. No point doing 15 on your first round if you can’t keep that pace. Today we were doing 10 round Tabata exercises, so they take just 4 mins 50 secs to complete, but believe me, it feels a whole lot more. So the above was less than 20 mins of exercise with 15 mins of break in total, and I can tell you everyone was completely exhausted, no one spoke for several minutes afterwards.
My worst rounds for each exercise were: 8 – 8 – 7 – 5, giving a total of 28. Not bad, not great, but a lot of fun. 🙂
