Worked on my cleans.. which apparently suck. My form has never been right on them, and I figured out why..

I always bring the bar out away from me. I always bounce it off my thighs and power it up. I’ve gotten better about NOT pulling, but I still bring it away from my body.. and as Justin was instructing me on keeping it close, keeping it against my skin, I figured it out.

I used to hit my tummy with the bar.

HOW FUCKING EMBARRASSING!!!

I used to hit the bar on my fat ass stomach. Gross.  And by doing so, I’ve engrained it in myself, my technique, and whatever, this bad form, to move the bar around what’s not really there anymore.

I still have a belly, I really could stand to lose another 40-50 lbs from all over my body still, but I’m getting there. But STILL. I’ve been sacrificing my form because of this, and that’s just how I know how to do it now. What really hit me was when I realized this, and I explained it to Justin (one of the coaches) and his response was, “yeah well you dont have to worry about doing that anymore..” which to me means.. yeah well, you don’t have this belly that sticks out anymore.

And while I DO think I still have this belly, it’s nice to hear a coach say something like that, without even thinking about it. He doesn’t even realize how much that made my day.

Anyway, the WOD.

9-15-21 (how clever)

Burpee Box Jumps 30/24″
Chest to Bar pull ups

I used the green band for these, and then for the last 21, I added a purple band. Those fuckers. They just wreck my forearms during! I’m hoping my biceps survive this time though, cause they didn’t fare so well last time!

Time.. 14:24.

And I love 24″ box jumps!

Hatch Cycle Week 2 Day 1

Strength: Hatch Cycle W2:D1

HBBS: 1×10@60%, 1×8@65%, 1×6@70%, 1×6@75%, 1×6@80%

Front Squat: 1×5@60%, 1×5@70%, 1×5@75, 1×5@75%

WOD: 10 Minute EMOM

12 Slam Balls (30/20#)
*Remaining time in each minute perform as many “T Pushups” as possible.Score is total number of push ups.

Nothing crazy to report. I got 46 T push ups, which I was pretty excited about. Maybe that’s why my lats are sore? Hmmmmm

Slam balls were great.. although the combination of the workout was much more difficult than I thought it would be!! Nice work. 

And my quads.. holy moly my quads love heavy squats.

So we did 31 Heroes on Saturday and it was brutal, as expected. My biggest fear was battling the rope climbs. Last year, I had JUST learned rope climbs, so I wasn’t really expected to do all of them. This year, I really have no excuse except weakness and extra weight. I didn’t want to be that way.

A little history: We do this WOD once a year, to commemorate our fallen soldiers. On Aug 6th, 2011, 31 Heroes, (30 men and 1 dog) were shot down by enemy fire in Afghanistan. Across the nation, CrossFit gyms are getting together to honor these heroes by doing the 31 Heroes WOD. 31 minute AMRAP, of 8 Thrusters, 6 Rope Climbs and 11 Box Jumps. 8-6-11, for the date they were taken from us.

This is a partner WOD, so while one partner is doing the 8-6-11 rep scheme, the other is doing a 400m sandbag run, and when the other gets back, they switch. A brutal workout indeed, but it serves as a great reminder of what others have sacrificed for our freedom and our amazing country.

There’s still remnants of rope burn on my inner thigh and the top of my foot, and around my ankle. Awesome! 😀

With these new cycles, I feel like we’re just doing the same thing over and over, but we’re slowly increasing our weights, with the idea that at the end of the cycle, we’ll have a new 1RM. So yeah.. snatch day. again.

Strength: Snatch (1×5 @60%, 1×5 @65%, 1×5 @70%, 1×5@75%)

*Use 110% of your 1RM to base %’s off of. (I used 135lbs, as my 1RM is 125 now)

WOD:

20-15-10

Box Jumps (30/24″)

Hang Power Snatch (95/65#)

finished in 8:43. Sub 10! I RXed it too, yeah! Those 24″ box jumps are actually fun. You do them totally different from the 20″ boxes.. its more like a jump and squat and stand, instead of a jump and stand.

We started a new squat cycle called the Hatch Squat Program today. I was ready to come in and use my arms, since I felt so much better after last night’s moving around! YAY!

After our warm ups, we did the following:

Strength: Hatch Cycle W1D1

HBBS: 1×10 @ 60%, 1×8 @ 70%, 1×6 @ 75%, 1×4 @ 80%

I worked off of my current 1RM of 245. Man, that first set of 10 was rough! After that, it moved fairly easily, actually. THANKfully.

Front Squat: 1×5 @ 60%, 1×5 @70%, 1×5 @70%, 1×5 @70%

I worked off my current 1RM of 215. AND… I have to say, today was the highest my elbows have ever been. I felt like a pro today on those front squats! Those are usually a weaker movement for me, but even my wrists felt good again today. Nice!

WOD: 10 Minute AMRAP

6- Lateral Bar Burpees
6- Thrusters (95/65#)

My goal was to complete 6 rounds. I made sure to watch the clock and pace myself, kinda gauge where I was at, how far I had to go, and how many more rounds I had to do in the remaining time, etc.

I ended up getting 6 full rounds plus 4 additional reps. YAY! Goal met! 

Mobility is important, kids! Here I am, freaking out a little that I have a mild, tiny case of rhabdo in my arms after the pull ups we did on Friday.. googling symptoms (not the dark pee, I didn’t have that!) and stressing over what to do, if it’ll clear up on its own, etc.. because seriously, my arms couldn’t extend open all the way without stinging pain in my biceps. I haven’t really experienced that before, and this was days later.. yeah yeah DOMS, I know.. I’ve had that.. this was.. painful. Saturday, Sunday, Monday.. and it wasn’t getting better. I still wanted to move though, because the rest of my body felt great (my lats were sore, but not in pain) and I knew the moving would feel good, BUT the WOD was rope climbs and wall balls and wall walks, come on.. all upper body/arms.

Well, I went in.. and I did the warm ups, which felt so good! And also the strength part, which was front squats. Good news is I can still do my 1RM of 215, but no PR. 🙁 AND.. also good news, for the first time ever, my wrists DIDN’T hurt during heavy front squats, whoa! And I didn’t even have my wrist wraps on!

I got to work with my friend/massage therapist who came to his first CF class during Bring a Friend day last week. (He came back! That never happens!) So we got to work together, since you know, I have to work with the boys on bar movements.  I don’t think he actually expected me to front squat 215, but we had a good time, regardless. 🙂

So, once we were done with the strength and mobility, they went on to go over the WOD. I just wasn’t ready to put my arms through that, so I did some GHD sit ups instead, and some kettlebell soleus calf stretches. Mmmmmm.

I also wrapped my left bicep (the one that hurt more) with the voodoo band. That really helped to release a lot of the swelling and inflammation, I think. Here we are a day later, and I can open them up all the way with only a little bit of soreness, and really, no more pain. Yay!

Moving around yesterday really helped though. Just getting my blood flowing and stretching my body out seemed to make a huge difference in how I felt overall.

MOBILITY IS IMPORTANT, GUYS! EVEN WHEN YOU’RE SORE!

Working on our Snatches! And I PRed, YEAH! 125! And I got a sweet video of me doing it too.. well, Russell got the video, but seriously! So exciting!

I haven’t PRed my Snatch since Feb, when I got 120. Happy girl!

Our WOD was a wrecker.. I’m STILL sore from it, and this is 2 entirely full days later. I can’t open my arms out all the way without my biceps stinging with pain. Ouch. YAY for using only one green band for all 45 pull ups! I can’t imagine what it will be like when I get to the purple band and do that shit. Good Lord. (up until now I’ve doubled up on bands, purple and green, for higher sets of pull ups.)

21-15-9

Pull Ups
Slam Balls

Finished in 7:13.

AND I ripped during those pull ups, too! This picture is from tonight, and it looks so much better than it did fresh!

ANOTHER BRING A FRIEND DAY!!! Awessommmeee!!

Today, one of my massage therapists took me up on my offer and actually came to Bring a Friend Day! I’m so used to people saying shit like oh yeah! I’ll definitely do that! And then.. oh hey yeah… I have to retile my roof that day, what a weird coincidence! Or hey man!! I’d love to go but I’m right in the middle of learning mandarin Chinese and I just can’t skip it right now.. OR.. HEY! YEAH! I really wanna get back into working out! I have arrangements made for my kids and work is all squared away but.. oh.. what’s that? Bring a Friend day is this week?? Oh no.. wait.. I’ve gotta make sure things are all settled, and you know, this week just isn’t a good week. but definitely next time! Yeah!

Right.

Anyway, Chuck actually showed up! So cool. AND I met a cool new chick named Rainy who’s a new transplant from another CF gym across town. YAY!

So we did Fight Gone What? but it was with a partner.. WHOA.

Three Rounds
1 min of work for each movement, count your total reps each round

Shoulders to Overhead 75/65lbs
Wall Balls 20/16
Box Jumps 24/20
Push Ups
Sit Ups
1 min rest.

Switch every 5 reps with your partner. So I do 5, you do 5, I do 5, etc.

Rainy was my badass partner and together we got 450. YEAH!!! RXed that shit!

Bring a Friend Day!!!!!

I made it to the 6:30p class, thank god for that! With our work schedule lately, the evening classes have been the ‘wrapping up’ of a busy day. They let me unwind and get all my anxiety and stress out. It’s the one hour where I’m not thinking about anything work-related, which is very unlike me.

Anyway.. Bring a friend day consisted of:

17 Min Amrap
200m run
14 Overhead Walking lunges (45/25)
12 knees to elbow
10 burpees

I finished 3 full rounds plus 6. BLEH. That shit was rough!

I hadn’t done Crossfit Total since about a year or so ago.. so I was excited for this sort of WOD! No running, no burpees, no pullups, no ring dips. Nothing I suck at.. this means I could do all of it! 😀

Crossfit Total IS.

Back Squat – 3 Attempts to a 1RM 

Strict Press – 3 Attempts to a 1RM

Deadlift – 3 Attempts to a 1RM

**Maximum of 3 Attempts at each lift.

I got my current 1RM for my back squat, which is 245.
My current strict press which is 105, and I ended up getting my deadlift at 275, which is 60lbs less than my 1RM, but I have to have my adrenaline really flowing to get that. I found out!

My total score was 625, which is awesome! Last time I did Crossfit Total, I only got 530.