My crack at crossfit

DamienH

Monday, 22nd March
I decided to do some exercise at home today, get out of the gym for a bit.

Ladders with the 24kb (1,2,3,4,5,6)
I do one rep, change arm, do one rep, change arm, do two reps etc.
This was nice, five ladders used to be hard. I could do seven now I'd say, maybe even eight.

Swings with the 32kb
2 x 20
I did five with my right, five with my left twice.

Franley
21-15-9
Burpees and squats
5:17
Last time I did this was the 8th of January and my time was 8:32. Can't believe I've managed to shave off over a minute a month! I even got through the first sets of burpees and squats without taking a break, this cardio crack is working !

G86

DamienH wrote: »

Monday, 22nd March


Franley
21-15-9
Burpees and squats
5:17
Last time I did this was the 8th of January and my time was 8:32. Can't believe I've managed to shave off over a minute a month! I even got through the first sets of burpees and squats without taking a break, this cardio crack is working !

Well done!:) Bet you'll feel that tomorrow!

DamienH

Tuesday, 23rd March
BUP ladders with the 16kb
(1,2,3,4,5) x 2

Presses with the 32kb
4 x 3 each hand.

Babs
20 Ring Rows
30 Pushups
40 Situps
50 Squats
3 minute rest

The above for five rounds
37:35 including 12 minutes for rests.
It was rough and tough really tbh. I thought the pushups/rows would be the worst but I found the situps to be.

G86

DamienH wrote: »

Babs
20 Ring Rows
30 Pushups
40 Situps
50 Squats
3 minute rest

The above for five rounds
37:35 including 12 minutes for rests.
It was rough and tough really tbh. I thought the pushups/rows would be the worst but I found the situps to be.

Fair play to ya! I'm definitely trying this one once I'm better. It'll be my kickstart back into things next week:D

Transform

DamienH wrote: »

Tuesday, 23rd March
BUP ladders with the 16kb
(1,2,3,4,5) x 2

Presses with the 32kb
4 x 3 each hand.

Babs
20 Ring Rows
30 Pushups
40 Situps
50 Squats
3 minute rest

The above for five rounds
37:35 including 12 minutes for rests.
It was rough and tough really tbh. I thought the pushups/rows would be the worst but I found the situps to be.

fair play man!!

DamienH

Thursday, 25th March
Warmed up with some hand to hand with the 12kb.

5 x 5 Chinups with the black band.
These were perfect, no problems.

MP with the 32kb
4 x 3 each arm

Push press
30kg x 5 e/a
32.5kg x 5 e/a
35kg x 5 e/a
40kg x 5 e/a
These were all pretty easy. 40kg is the heaviest db there and it was still going up nicely I'll have to wait till I get my hands on something heavier.

Side press with the barbell
20kg x 5 e/a
30kg x 5 e/a
37.5kg x 3 e/a

Finished off with 32kb for amraps
11 with the right
10 with the left

Good session. I'm seriously thinking about dropping the bench from 5/3/1 and replace it with something overhead, it's just more of a laugh.

DamienH

Friday, 26th March
Didn't want to do much today because it's the deload week.

Some low reps with the 32kb, 2's and 3's.
Windmills with the 24kb 5x3 each arm, palm to the floor each time.

Today was the weekly weigh in aswell and my weight was 118.6kg, so everything's still on track. I'm going to be delighted when I see 117 odd, it'll be the lowest I've been since I started weighing myself which is about two years now.

DamienH

Monday, March 29th

Pressathon
Warm Up
30, 35, 47.5

50 x 5
57.5 x 5
65 x 10

Did some fooling around with kettlebells as usual, 16 and the 20

Gave pullups a try on the black band aswell, managed 4 strict ones, bar to my neck. I can remember trying them when I first got the band and couldn't even get anything resembling one... progress!

I was drinking last night so I decided against doing anything else, tomorrow's another day.

I weighed myself in the gym aswell since the scales was out, 116.9kg! My scales here at home reads 119kg , so it's 2.1kg off, making my Friday weight 116.2kg. Officially the lowest I've ever weighed since I started any kind of exercise. I know not to get too hung up on the scales but it's exciting to finally see 120kg being further and further away. I have to take some photos to show the loss a bit better. 65 for 10 good solid reps aswell so my strength isn't going anywhere.

Roll on the deads!

DamienH

Tuesday, March 30th
Deadlifts
Warm Up
107.5 x 5
122.5 x 5
140 x 12

Did some chins and other stuff aswell.

I wasn't feeling the best going in there but I'm dying with a cold now, I'm weak as a kitten. I'm going to take the rest of the week off training and then start this cycle over again on Monday, should be better by then.

DamienH

Friday, 2nd April

Felt better on Friday so I said I'd do some snatches at home.

Snatches with the 24kb
8 left and 8 right
10 sets each arm with 30 secs between each set.

Thirty seconds isn't a very long time. Towards the end it was getting tough to keep hold of the bell, I'll have to do some heavy one arm swings to bring my grip up. My lungs were burning towards the end but form was still pretty good.

Ladders with the 32 and 24.
(1,2,3,4 x 2) x 2

I put the two bells down and did one c&p with my left arm on the 24 and one with my right. Immediately did the same with the 32. That's 20 presses with each arm, 10 with the 24 and 10 with the 32. I liked it, the 24 feels so light after the 32.

Weighed myself aswell at the weekly weigh in on my home scales, 116.9kg. That should be 114.8 on a proper scales so it's all still looking good. I'm definitely noticing a difference in my body aswell. Back to normal 5/3/1 next week.

DamienH

Wednesday, 7th April
I got up and I decided todays the day for max Deads and MPs

Deads first
Warmed up as usual
140 x 1
160 x 1
172.5 x 1
190 x Fail <----GRRRRRRRR
187.5 x 1

187.5 felt hard which I suppose is what a 1RM should feel like. Big red head and I was shaking like a leaf afterwards. This is the first time I've ever really tried to pull a proper 1RM and it felt pretty good. More on this below.

Now it was time for the presses. All done with heels together, zero hip drive.

Warmed up
50 x 1
60 x 1
72.5 x 1
80 x 1
Delighted with the 80, it's a bit of a milestone being 0.66 of my original weight. Un-racked it , squeezed the **** out of myself and pushed it up. Strangely enough my left side went up quicker than my right (I'm right handed) so I was left with the bar at a diagonal until the right caught up. Nicely summed up by the phrase "an absolute bastard."

Overall the couple of cycles of 5/3/1 I did weren't half bad to me. Original deadlift was 167.5 and I think MP was late sixties off the top of my head.

Only problem with 5/3/1 for me is that I'm not used to handling heavy loads. When I unracked the bar for the press it felt really heavy, I was thinking "this is going to be tough," and up it went (just). More heavy sets, doubles or triples, and I would be far more confident under the bar. The same goes for the deadlift, even more so because of the added weight. Fair enough, I'm not competing in any competitions but every likes a heavy single and if I was to do 5/3/1 again I'd throw in some doubles and triples.

This is the end of me and 5/3/1 for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday I'm moving to South Korea for a year to teach English and I have absolutely no idea what kind of a gym will be over there. I've tried to do some research but it's come back with nothing. So here's my plan:

I've got a contact for a kettlebell so I can keep doing snatches, I plan to test my max snatches with the 24 on Friday. They've really helped my cardio so I think they have to be kept. The bell is also nicely compact, and relatively cheap, so it'll be a viable solution to my woes. Tie this in with burpees, pullups and bodyweight crossfits and I should be sorted.

Now for straight up strength, beastskills has been my friend. I'm thinking one-arm pushups would be a good place to start along with getting my first proper chin/pullup. I'm going to get one of those handy doorway stations so I think I could realistically get a chinup within 8 weeks if I do a couple every time I walk through the door. To keep my pressing strength I'll also work in headstands, advancing to handstands. These seem to be a staple of old time strongmen (mad mad overhead pressing strength) so they can only do good. I feel TGUs have really helped my pressing aswell so the carryover from handstands should be the same (hopefully). Pistols for the legs and an ab-wheel for rollouts. This is the one year plan anyway and I figure this should keep me pretty fit and busy.

Added to all the above, weight has to come down. I just jumped on the scales (home scales) which reads 117.1kg, a loss of about 5kg since I started really watching what I ate. In a years time, I WILL to be at about 95-100kg which works out at about half a pound a week which shouldn't be a problem. This would put me at 15st (the same weight as my brother!) and something which I would have thought impossible 2 years ago, when my heaviest weight was 19st 9lbs if I remember correctly. It'd do wonders for me as a person aswell, so it'll have to happen. Also, since most of my training will be bodyweight it really is a good idea to get as lighter.

Now the goals for next April, in no particular order.
1. A pistol
2. A bodyweight MP
3. 15st
4. Pullup

That's the end of the manifesto anyway, now just to get down to it
I actually have DOMS in my shoulders & lats aswell, it hasn't happened in so long. It feels so wrong but yet... so right.

G86

Have ya checked out any gyms over there yet?

DamienH

Monday, 31st of May
High time for an update here.

Today
10 chinup negatives, about 15 secs of a negative on each one.

Bent Presses
5 sets of 1 rep each arm with a 24kb

Ladders with the 24kb
3 (2,4,8) ladders each arm.

Windmills with 24
5 sets of 5 each arm

8 mins of Turkish Get ups, changing arms every rep.

Okay a bit of an update on my situation.
Going to a gym is basically a no go for me. It costs about 65EUR a month, money I don't really have. I can get all the kettlebells I need for about 180EUR so it's money well spent. There's a park within farmer's walking distance aswell so I'm going to just drag the bells there once the weather becomes a bit more dependable.

I've been over here now about five weeks, I've slowly been able to get the training back on track. I own a chinup bar now and a 24kg kettlebell. I've just been paid and I should have a 32 and a 12 by Wednesday.

32 is for presses and the 12 is just to have a laugh learning to juggle it. I'll be able to use it for two-hand anyhows aswell and windmills. It was going cheap so I thought why not.

I've been playing with the kettlebell every other day. Swings 0:30/0:30 off for 13 sets and TGUs have been the staples. I've learned to do the bent press now and a proper side press, I'm really recruiting the lat on both of these. Windmills are also becoming a new favourite, I'd neglected them at home.

I've been averaging 40 chinups (with the black band) every day since I've gotten the bar, some days more, some days less. I took 3 days off and went all out and I managed to do 9, with a really close tenth rep. I could only do 5 when I got here so I'm delighted with that. I tried to see where I could get without the band aswell yesterday and my distance has definitely increased. The way I usually did them was sets of 3/2 throughout the day. 4/5 sets before work and however many I felt up for after. I've switched to negatives just because I've got sufficient strength now to really do them properly, 15 seconds for the first couple. It falls away to about 10 towards the end but it's still very strong and controlled. I'm going to see how they serve me after 3-4weeks of doing them. I'll probably still do a few band chins but nowhere near as many, just around 18 I'd say (9x2).

I haven't done any metcons at all since I've been here, my only conditioning has come from the swing intervals. I get them done about 2/3 times a week but I've slacked off in the last week. They'll be done in the morning before work though, maybe even tonight. I'm going to really master swings with the 24 before I go onto the 32, I can remember it being a pretty big step.

My brother got me the Convict Conditioning book (dragondoor bodyweight strength thingy) before I left so I've been doing a small bit of that. Nothing major. It's a list of progressions for bodyweight excercises and I usually do them as a bit of recovery work, maybe twice a week. As I progress I'll probably have to cut down on the kettlebells abit as it looks like it gets fairly hairy. It's a nice change of pace though.

Biggest thing for me is my weightloss over here. I went on the tear for about a week before I left home and when I got over here I was weighed for my medical, 118.4kg. I jumped on the scales here at home and I came in at 115.6kg this morning. The food is really good over here, beer is by far the worst thing that I've been doing to myself. It is a very carb heavy diet (rice) but I'm after getting some whey to try and curb that a bit, I've been eating jerky aswell. I'd say I'm averaging maybe 120g or protein a day, probably not ideal but I'm not going to worry too much. The only meat I can readily get my hands on is pork (or dog *woof woof*) so I don't eat too much of it. Nuts and whey are my main sources, along with eggs and jerky.

I'll try to keep this up to date, I miss having the old log on the go.

Sorry I missed your post aswell G86, I wasn't subscribed to the thread for some reason. Won't happen again!

DamienH

Monday, 1st June
Swings
0:30/0:30 on/off
Got me going a bit but nothing too major, I've got another few sessions before 0:40/0:20
I was averaging about 18 swings a set, dropping to 15/16 on the last two or three.

This was done before I went out so it was all I could do.
Had a bit of a cash problem aswell so instead of buying another bell I got a 5kg plate and I'll tape the badboy to the end. Can't wait to start pressing something with a nice bit of weight.

DamienH

Tuesday
Presses with the 30kg KB
5 sets of (1,2,3)

Felt nice to be pressing something a bit heavier. No problems with the weight though.

A couple of TGUs, 4 each arm.

Got in late so I left it at that.

DamienH

Wednesday, 3rd June

Practiced skipping as a warm up, one of the most frustrating things I've done in a while

5 Chinup negatives.
Windmills 5 sets of 3 each arm.
Bent Press 5 sets of 1 each arm.

Swings
0:20/0:40 off
12 sets

Practiced the tripod stand which I got from Beastskills. It feels weird to be upside down but I have to get used to it. I could really feel my core aswell. Managed about 3 sets of 8-10 secs each. I'm going to try and get this up to about 0:30 each set before I try to straighten out my legs, a headstand is my first goal on the way to the handstand. I tried to do a headstand against a wall but I couldn't kick up properly

CC
Supported squats
30-30-30
Incline Pushups
40-40-40

Swings were tough alright. I decided to just swing the 30kb because the 5kg is covered in tonnes of duct tape, it'd be a balls to take off. I'll keep at these intervals for a while and then move it up to a 0:30 split.

Negatives make me sore as **** aswell so I kept them to five today because of the windmills and presses.

DamienH

Friday, 4th June

5 sets of (1,2,3,4) ladders with the 30kb.

DamienH

Monday, 7th June

Ladders (1,2,3) x 3

Negatives
10 negatives, held for as long as I can. Managed to keep it for about 10 seconds.

Tripod Stand
6 x 10 secs
Once I get a big base, my knees just perch nicely on my elbows and it feels like a pretty strong position. I'm going to try to hold these for 30/40 secs before I move my knees up into an inverted knee raise. With a bit of practice I should be able to get the headstand alright.

Swings with the 30kb
I did 25, rested for a minute. Repeated this five times. I did some jumping jacks and attempted to skip to try and stay as active as possible.

DamienH

Tuesday, 8th June

Tripod Stand
4 x 10secs

Incline pushups
40 - 40

Supported Squats
30 - 30

Bent Press
3 each arm with the 30kb.
I'm really just trying to focus on form with these, more for a bit of fun than anything.

Windmills (palm to the floor)
3 sets of 4 each arm
These felt grand, absolutely no problems. I can remember when I left windmills with the 32 being a really shaky experience so I'm definitely getting stronger at them.

Turkish Get Ups
4 each arm

Skipped a bit to finish.

DamienH

Thursday, 10th June

Ladders
(1,2,3) x 3
Did a chinup with this aswell
C&P with the right hand, C&P with the left and one chinup. Repeated for number of reps. Took the least amount of rest I could get away with in between sets.

Swings
6 Minutes
25 - 10 second rest
25 - 10 second rest
25 - 20 second rest
15 - 10 second rest
10 - 20 second rest
25

My grip was mangled by the end of this, it'll have to get better. I had to take the rests mostly just to give my grip a chance.
I wasn't going completly all out though, saving that for friday.

edit: Weight was 114.9 this morning, oh ya. First time i've ever seen it at 114.x, delighted.

DamienH

Saturday, 12th June

Ladders
(1,2,3) x 3
Chinups too

Swings
4 minutes
I did as many as I could, messed up counting them. It was good enough anyway.

Tripod Stand
4 sets of :10sec

I've got a swing volume plan worked out so I'll have something to stick to. It last for 6 weeks.


Weight 113.8kg as of the 16th, one stone down.

DamienH

Wednesday, June 23rd

I managed to try out a gym so I just did a bit yesterday.

Squats
85 x 5
90 x 5
(95 x 5) x 3

Felt good to squat something again, the 95s got tough enough towards the end but I was expecting that

MP
50 x 5
55 x 5
60 x 5
60 x 5
55 x 5

Press was weaker than expected, I presume it'll just come back with a bit of work

Windmills
(27.5 x 5) x 2
(30 x 5) x 3
Both were done each arm. These felt really good, I did them with a dumbell. The gym's heaviest db is 40kg so I'm going to move up to the barbell once I get these down. The weight wasn't a problem but sometimes my form was a bit sloppy. A bit of practice should sort that.

All in all felt pretty good to be back at the gym. I'm pretty sure I can get a handy little discount so I'm going to join up on Friday once I get paid. I gotta do some chins and tripods when I go home aswell.


edit: Came home from work did
Chinups
5-4-3-2-1

Tripod stands

5 x 10 seconds

DamienH

Friday, 25th June
Chins
5-4-3-2-2

Tripod Stands
5 x 10 secs

The tripod stands have gotten pretty easy now. I think I'm going to bump them up to 20secs each. I get a pretty good feeling in my shoulders after them.

Gym tomorrow, going to restart the deadlift and mp program.

DamienH

Saturday, 26th June
Deadlifts
100 x 5
90 x 5

MP
35 x 5
30 x 5

Leg raises
3x5

Intervals on the C2
:30 on/1:00 of

12 intervals.

Chins
5-4-3-3-2

Started the new dead and press cycle today. I took my 5RM to be 130 and 60, I could do more but it's no harm starting a bit lighter since I've been away.

DamienH

Sunday, 27th June
Chinups
5-4-4-3-2

Weight was 114.2kg. Gone up but I didn't weigh myself first thing in the morning as usual. it's only half a kilo anyway, no biggy. Once I start getting back into metcons the weight should start coming off nicely.

DamienH

Monday, 28th June
Deadlift
100, 90

Military Press
35, 30

Push Press with 40kg DB
3-2-1 each arm

Curls with 40kg BB
5 - 8 - 5

Rower
320 calories

The rowing was boring but it's the best of all the cardio machines. Some kind of a metcon tomorrow I think.

I'm going to go for reps with the 40db at the end of the week. I'll try it once a month to see how my strength is coming along. Ideally I'd like a heavier dumbell but they can't be found in this city.

DamienH

Tuesday, 29th June
Deadlift
105, 95

Military Press
40, 35

Chinups
6-5-4-3-2

Thrusters 30kg 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Burpees 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

Did the thrusters for 10, then one burpee etc.
Time: 11:42

I knew the time was going to be a shocker. I definitely haven't missed burpees and I was right to scale down the thrusters. Gotta start somewhere though!

DamienH

Wednesday, 30th June
Chinups
6-5-4-3-3

Thursday, 1st July
Chinups
6-5-4-4-3

Works been mad so I've just managed to do these after I got up. I'll be able to get to the gym on Saturday, deads presses and a metcon. I'll have to burn off a few extra calories on the rower aswell. I've been having a look to try and improve my form.

the drifter

whats the bw down to at the minute?

DamienH

115 just now. That's after eating though. I've got to calm down on the drink and it'll drop alright, it's just so hard!