Tuesday 25 September 2012

Crossfit Monday and Wednesday, Spinning and the health challenge

Monday

Warm-up

max handstand pushups (7, 5, 5, 6, 7)
20 x straight leg situps

x 5

WOD

75 x skips (24 double unders for the others)
12 x push-ups
6 x front squat (25kg)
3 x rope climb attempts
7 x chin-ups (red band - this was to make up for not doing rope climbs properly, if you could do rope climbs you didn't have to do the chins!)

26mins 58 secs

My rope climbs were sucking, I think it's the shoes I'm currently using, because I used to get several metres up the rope with my old shoes, but now I can't even get grip right at the bottom. I might try with my old shoes next time we have rope climbs.

I think 2 orange bands isn't far off 1 red band because it didn't seem that different. Maybe next time I'll try an orange and a yellow.

Finisher

1 min row
1 min plank
1 min rest

x 4


Wednesday

Warm-up

100 x skips

Then 3 rounds of:

10 x sit-ups
20 x walking lunges

Then another 100 skips

WOD 1 

5 x power clean (30kg)
10 x hand stand push-ups

10min AMRAP

I got through 6 full rounds and had done 5 HSPUs in the 7th round when the buzzer went off. So that's a total of 65 HSPUs! WOO!

I was also the only one in the class that could actually do HSPUs!! Amazing! Only down to 3 ab-mats, but at least I can do them, I also did the first set unbroken :D  Next time I might try dropping an ab mat and see how I go.

Like this, only with 2 more ab mats as the target for my head (source)


WOD 2 

10 x push-jerk (25kg)
400m row (running for the others)

20min AMRAP

I got through 6 rounds exactly. So 60 push-jerks and 2.4km row.

Spinning 

I was finding the rowing a bit of a challenge this morning because we did a spin class last night and my legs were a bit fatigued from all the hill climbs. I'd forgotten how horrible the bike seats were at spinning, they completely squash your lady-bits AND hurt your ass. Nasty. The hill climbs were a bit of a relief in one way, because you get to stand up out of the seat!

I used to do spinning with my brother, but I hadn't done it in over a year.. I'd probably go back, I don't love it and it's quite boring compared to Crossfit, but it is a good cardio workout.. if you can deal with the seat!

Source

Health Challenge

So far so good. I weighed myself yesterday morning and I was 73.9! Lowest I think I've ever been! I'll wait and see if it sticks, cuz yesterday I was 74.7kg. My official weigh in day is Friday for the challenge, so I'll see what it is then.

One thing I've been thinking about is that I need to remember is that Glenn and I have different body types, he can get away with eating crap food a lot of the time. I just can't. So I should not model my eating behaviour on him and get too upset when he's eating junk and I can't.. I should remember that I'm more like a Ferrari, I only run on quality fuel!

Me (source)
Glenn (source)


Sunday 23 September 2012

Crossfit Thurs and Friday and Holiday Health Challenge

Thurs

Strength 1

Dead lift to 3 x 5 rep max.

5 x 30kg
5 x 40kg
5 x 50kg
5 x 60kg
5 x 60kg
5 x 65kg
5 x 65kg
5 x 65kg

With 20 x ab mat sit-ups inbetween, hello ass crack rash!

Woo, went up 5kg in my 5 rep max! I wonder what my 1 rep max would be now.

Strength 2

5 x 8 box step-up each leg with a bar (20kg)
15 x v-situps in between

WOD

In pairs do:

250m row
max double unders in between

x 5

So one person rows 250m whilst the other person does max double-unders.

I got 33 or 36 double unders total (yeah shutup), my partner got over 200!!!


Friday

WOD

20min AMRAP

5 x cleans (full squat) - 25kg
10 x push-ups
10 x box jumps
1 x rope climb

Got 5 rounds. This was my first time squatting on the cleans in a WOD, it wasn't pretty.. but I did it!

Can't say the same for the damn rope-climbs, I completely suck at those.

Strength

4 x 8 reps floor press

Did 25kg but could have gone to 30kg I think, it was the first time we'd done them, so it was hard to know what a good weight would be!


Holiday Health Challenge

So, in 4 weeks time, Glenn and I are going to the USA for 3 weeks and Cairns for a few days on the way back. I've decided that it's high time I actually got off my ass and tried to clean up my diet properly, instead of complaining that I haven't lost any weight but still eating complete shit on the weekend and too much food generally during the week.




So I've set myself a challenge as follows:


Goal
To lose 2kg or 3cms from waist by 20th October - when we leave for the USA. This is 4 weeks away (less now, I wrote this post on Friday!).

Reason
So that I feel good about myself and also because I may end up putting on weight while I'm away, so it would be better to start out lighter! It might also give me motivation to not go completely off the rails on the trip.

Rules

Exercise
  • 5 workouts a week, can be anything, but must include 3 Crossfit/strength workouts a week.
  • Walk 30 mins at lunchtime every day, if possible.
  • Bike to work at least once during the next 4 weeks
Food
  • Minimum 90% paleo or primal compliance (aim for 100% though) and stick to the 10% rules listed below
  • Starchy Carbs (sweet potatoes etc.) only after a workout and only if deserved!
  • No drinking during the week and no alcohol other than clear spirits and sugar free mixers (soda, tonic etc.) on the weekend
  • 1 serve of fruit per day, max
  • Watch portion sizes, palm of your hand for protein, fist for carbs
  • 50g or less carbs per day and aim for at least 100g protein per day
  • Snacks should be mainly protein or veggies, only snack if actually hungry or pre-Crossfit
  • Watch fat intake, although it is not evil, it has lots of calories, so don’t overdo the bacon!
  • Nothing with added sugar
10% meals and exceptions
  •  If eating 3 meals a day and 1 snack = 2.8 non-paleo/primal meals per week (2 meals, 1 snack), however aim for just 1 cheat meal per week, none if possible!
  • Make sensible choices, if you MUST have chocolate and it fits the 10% rule, then it has to be    70% cocoa solids minimum
  • If not eating paleo carbs, then aim for gluten free or if that’s not possible then really small portions
  • The following events are exceptions to the above rules, however they should not be a free-for-all either! : 
                - Dinner out with friends (wine etc. okay, try to make sensible food choices)
                - Jarod's birthday event and S&S
                - Phil's coming back drinks/party
                - My going away drinks (if I organise something)
Other
  • Sleep at least 7hrs a night, preferably 8
  • Do at least 1hr of homework every day
  • Finish essay 1 week prior to leaving so that I can review it before I leave

Pre-challenge stats

Weight: 74.6kg (although I weighed 76.2kg the day before, so who the fuck knows the right answer!)
5cm above BB: 79cm
BB: 87cm
5cm below BB: 94cm
Right bicep (at base of tatt): 34cm (?? I can't actually read my writing, will check this)
Right thigh (20cm below hip scar): 57.5cm


So far, so good. It's been fairly easy to stick below 50g carbs a day too. Saturday dinner was my cheat meal and we went to the pub and had parma and beer, so it was a complete cheat meal.. but totally worth it!







Wednesday 19 September 2012

Aqua Zumba and Crossfit Wednesday

Aqua Zumba

On Tuesday night, the girls and I went to Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre to try Aqua Zumba! Unfortunately we somehow ended up in different classes and I did Aqua Zumba, whilst the others were doing Aqua Pilates.

Aqua Zumba is what it sounds like, Zumba in a pool. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to dance whilst in water, but it's bloody difficult! It was a lot of fun, mostly because it was so silly and it was really hard to do what the instructor was trying to get you to do with any grace or rhythm. I think they want it to look like this:


But really, it's more like this:




A bunch of people, lots of them old, flailing around in the water completely out of time! It was still fun, but not really a good enough workout for me.

Crossfit

So, to get a proper workout, last night I went back to my one true love, Crossfit!  It was a good one too, lots of power clean and jerks, which is my most favourite of lifts!

Warm-up

750m row

Then 3 rounds of:

10 x back lunges
10 x good mornings (never done these before, basically you hold a stick behind your neck and bend over to stretch your hamstrings)

WOD

30 double unders (90 normal skips for me)
10 chins (2 x orange bands)
3 x power clean and jerk (25kg)

x 10

So in total 900 skips, 100 chins and 30 power clean and jerks.

I finished in 23mins 18 seconds, and finished FIRST! I rarely finished first but I powered through this one and beat everyone by quite a lot. I think it was mainly because I'm pretty much ready to go down a band in chin-ups and up the weight in the power clean and jerks, so for me it was quite easy.

Strength 

We did back squats and I had a go at them, after months and months of not doing them. I started out light and then worked my way up.

8 x 7kg
8 x 12kg
8 x 12kg
8 x 22kg
8 x 22kg

It felt good to be squatting again, my feet have to be in a whacky turned out position for me to get the depth, but I could do it. I had some knee pain in both knees last night after class when I was standing up from a sitting position, but everything feels fine today, so hopefully I can keep doing them and get back to doing the same workout as everyone else, except for the running.

I am really sad about not being able to run for more than 10mins at a time though, I love the freedom of just going for a run and I can't do it anymore.  When I get back from the USA I'll get it properly assessed, but in the meantime, I'm considering trying a knee brace to see if that helps hold my kneecap in place when I'm running, but they're expensive so I'm not sold on the idea yet cuz it might not do anything at all.

Food

I went to the farm on the weekend and scored some home grown parsnips. I've never really cooked with parsnips before, but I googled around and found a Donna Hay recipe for pork chops with parsnips and pears and a Jamie Oliver recipe, which my dad's GF had recommended, for tagliatelle with parsnips, pancetta and rosemary.

The second one is 100% not paleo, I could have had it with zucchini noodles, but I was bad and decided to go with the pasta option.  Both were amazingly delicious and super easy, so I'll try and paleofy the pasta recipe next time.

Giant parsnip!

Cooking down the parsnips for the pasta recipe

Pork chops with parsnips and pears


Thursday 13 September 2012

Catch-up post

I have been so slack at updating this blog, sorry. I have been to Crossfit 3 times this week though!


Monday

Monday's workout was lots of rowing and power cleans.

1km row
21 x power cleans (25kg)
30 x back extensions (everyone else was squatting I think)

750m row
15 x power cleans
20 x back extensions

500m row
9 x power cleans
10 x back extensions

No idea what my time was.

I'm sure we did something else as well but I can't remember what. Ooh I know, we practised handstands in groups, I managed to hold myself up without wall assistance for a few seconds. WOO! Love handstands.



Thursday

WOD 1

400m row
40kg farmers carry (basically carrying a KB in each hand)
12 air squats (backsquats for others)

x 5

I think it was something like 19mins.

I did squats for the first time in ages and my knee hasn't fallen off! That's a good start, although squatting was never really the issue, it probably just exacerbates the issue I have when I run though. That's definitely not any better, it still 'goes' at around 10mins when I run. So over it. When I get back from the USA I'll get it scanned and properly sorted out.

WOD 2 

It was supposed to be barbell lunges and v-sits ups, but I was doing sled pulls and then sled walks and only did 1 round of V-situps.

Not sure that I deserved any sweet potato last night!  I ate it anyway though.. along with some strawberries, which I'm quite addicted to at the moment, I looove strawberry season!

Strawberries with faux chocolate sauce and coconut cream




Today

Today's beauty was a hero workout, which I did this morning.

"Roy"

15 x deadlift (40kg)
20 x ball slams (box jumps for everyone else, I started at 15kg and went down to 12kg)
25 x chin-ups (2 x orange bands)

x 5

75 deadlifts, 100 slams and 125 chin-ups all up! The chin-ups killed me, I was doing them in sets of 3, which is lame and made them take forever. The guy next to me was totally cheating, he said he was only doing 20 each round, oh well, his loss! I'll have super awesome muscles and he will have less super awesome muscles!

It took me 28mins 32 secs I think.

I was almost in tears for most of it, not sure why.. just one of those days I guess! Haven't had a workout like that for a while where I felt so crap, I really should have remembered to focus on the reason why these hero workouts exist, because someone died in the line of duty, maybe that'd stop me being lame and help me to just suck it up and get on with it!


I only had 11hrs between workouts because I went this morning, maybe that was the issue, usually I have at least 24hrs, if not a whole day off in between.



Other stuff

On Tuesday, Jen, Sarah, Andrew and I went to salsa class. I used to do salsa several times a week and was getting okay at it, but then I went overseas and never really got back into it when I got back. I had forgotten a lot of stuff, but it didn't take too long to remember some of it by the end of the beginner's class. Not sure if we're going to make this a regular thing or not, but it's pretty fun... other than all the gross, sweaty man-hands you have to hold!

I've also been in training for work for most of the week and we were in an awesome art deco building in Queen street, check out the elevator numbering below. What I failed to get a photo of was the awesome pattern on the floor inside the elevator. I kept trying, but the doors kept closing too fast or someone else was in the elevator and I didn't want to look like a weirdo. I really love art deco buildings, there were so many things in that building I would have loved to take photos of, if I'd had the chance.




Thursday 6 September 2012

Crossfit x 3 and getting a sweat on at Bikram Yoga

I haven't posted in forever!! Work has been crazy and I've had no time in the evenings either this week, so you get 3 Crossfit posts in one.  This is the first week back to my normal routine after 2 weeks of only going once and it's been good and we've been doing fun workouts too.

Firstly though, I'll start out with my Bikram Yoga experience. I'm not really a yoga person.. or a super hot temperature person, but somehow I was convinced to try Bikram yoga last night.

Bikram yoga is a 90 minute yoga class which is done in a room heated to 39 degrees.. yes, 39 degrees. In the 90minutes you go through a series of 26 poses (asanas) and do each of them twice. It's a weird kind of yoga in that the teacher doesn't show you what to do, she just gives you verbal instructions the whole time, so I have no idea how this would work if no one in the class had done it before, because the only way to know what to do is to copy the people in front!

They were a lot harder than they look!

The main aim when you first go is just to try and stay in the room for the entire class and not faint/throw up/die. I managed to do all of these things and had a fair crack at most of the asanas as well. The room was super packed and it was HOT, I was drenched in sweat by the end of the first weird breathing pose and a lot of the poses required you to hold your leg/foot in a certain way with your hands, but you're so sweaty that it's hard to get a grip! The teacher opened the door a few times during the class, which was like heaven, but not for very long.

The first hour I actually didn't mind and would be happy to do again, the last 30mins dragged though and I'm glad I could see the clock, because I knew I only had to get through that half an hour and I was done, if I had no idea how long we had to go I'm not sure how I would have felt.

The last 30 minutes were poses done on the floor and for some reason it felt a lot hotter doing those ones than when we were standing up, I guess because we had less available surface area to lose heat from as we were lying down flat (??).   There were a few poses towards the end that I didn't bother trying because they looked too hard for starters and it was just too hot by that point, I never felt dizzy or sick though, just super overheated.  Other people were really struggling though and one girl next to Jen had pretty much given up after the first pose.

As it is so hot, you have to be really well hydrated and also ensure that replace electrolytes afterwards. Their website said to drink 3-4 litres of water, so I drank about 3.5 yesterday at work (and had to pee a million times). I also bought some coconut water to replenish electrolytes during and after class, it's way better for you than Gatorade etc. and actually has more electrolytes in it from what I could read on the labels. I was so thankful for the coconut water in that last 30mins, at that point water really wasn't cutting it!

So, the big question.. would I do it again? Yes, actually! As a way to suck you in, you get a free 9 day pass with your first class, so I have 9 days in which to go back. The only issue for me is that this one is way out in Glen Waverley, which isn't very convenient, so I'm not sure if I will make it back out there but I am thinking about it. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone who absolutely hates the heat though.

For the record, Cocobella tastes way nicer!
So now onto my favourite type of exercise, CROSSFIT! :)

Crossfit

Last Friday

WOD 1 

5 x hang snatch (25kg)
250m row (everyone else was running.. I'm sure far less than 250m!)

x 8

I only did a half squat on the snatch because of my knee... and yes I still giggle every time they say snatch.

WOD 2 

20 x weighted box step up (14kg)
10 x hip extension with kettlebell rows (16kg)

x 6

Everyone else was doing back squats I think, so I got this fun little workout!  I was only supposed to do 5 rounds but I had extra time.


Monday

WOD 1 

90 x normal skips
5 x handstand push-up
10 x chinups
20 x straight leg sit-ups  (no using your arms for momentum, we had to keep them on our thighs when sitting up, these were fucking hard!)

x 5

17mins 19seconds

This was actually fun, I quite like getting to practice handstand push-ups and I like chin-ups (how things change!) so it was good.

WOD 2 

Every 3 mins do:

10 x hang power clean (25kg)
10 x burpees

x 7

This was less fun, doing 70 burpees sucks. The way it worked was that you did the power cleans and the burpees and then could rest until the end of the 3 mins when you had to go again, so the faster you did them, the more rest you got!

Wednesday

WOD 1

10 x Power clean and Jerk (25kg)  (no split though as in that video)
21 x KB swings (16kg)

We did this exact same workout a few weeks back, so they wanted to see how much faster/heavier we could go. Last time I did it in 8mins, this time I did it in 7mins 26seconds, so I knocked 34secs off my time, WOO!

Next time I might go slightly heavier with the power clean and jerks, although I don't think I could go up to 30kg, so it'd have to be a random weight like 27.5kg (we only have 1.25kg or 2.5kg plates for small increments).

WOD 2 

Push-press to 3 x 8 rep max (20 kg then 25kg, which was definitely my max after the first WOD!)
3 x 20 band pull aparts
3 x 12 barbell row

None of this was for time.