World O’ Hurt

Phew, what an exhausting week this has been! I don’t think I’ve ever worked out this much or this hard in a single week before. This past month I’ve continued to reach dizzying new heights in overcoming what I thought were my limitations. Physically, I have to credit Crossfit Central in stoking the fire inside me to try more and harder to do well at everything. I think I feel stronger, younger, happier, and more energetic now than in any other time of my life.

I have had some rough times the past few years, and it seems that a confluence of events and knowledge has happened to address a lot of my life problems. Part of it has been diet, exercise, a change of scenery, and the company I keep. These tough weeks and tough workouts have served to keep at bay the rough times.

Thursday’s Crossfit workout was the second I’ve had working on a pure lifting/strength area. Last time it was power cleans, this time, three rep max of:

• Deadlift: 3-3-3-3-3

Of course this is a three-rep tap-n’-go max. As I haven’t done deadlifts extensively, I was a little conservative with the weight this time around. I think next time I will be starting a bit heavier:

205-225-255-275-300

The interesting thing is that just like pullups, my grip seems to be the failing component. When I changed from matched to reverse grip to test that hypothesis (the “hook” grip didn’t do much for me), the 300lb came up much easier. My preference would be to continue working on getting a stronger grip, and to not use things like straps or different grips. I want to make all of myself strong together, and not work on one thing in exclusion to others.

After the deadlifts, John wasn’t done with us yet. He had a little surprise for us:

• Four 30-second rounds with a 3-second rest:
  • Star Jumps

I got (if I remember correctly) 22-19-21-24 reps. So WTF is a star jump? It’s a jumping jack on crack. Very exhausting, and will be making an appearance in Friday class soon.

Speaking of Friday class, it continues to be awesome. The format of the class has changed substantively, but the content has not. We continue to do the same excercises we always have, but I am putting a much stronger emphasis on progress for each and every one of the students. I’ve been doing this by tracking their progress in a notebook, and implemeting Crossfit-style “AMRAP” and “Time to X Rounds”. Holding a stopwatch and saying “three, two, one, GO” seems to be the most motivating thing I have ever done.

This Friday’s workout, I tried to adapt the Crossfit “Cindy” workout to Kung-Fu conditioning. I have not yet found an adequate replacement for pull-ups. I believe that all our school needs is some nice pullup bars, and we’d be good to go! I believe that I am going to try to purchase some more medicine balls soon, or at least make some out of basketballs and sand.I also want to explore using dumbbells in a limited capacity (thrusters, etc).

AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 20 Double-Unders
• 5 Pushups
• 10 Situps
• 15 Air Squats.

I got in 15 rounds plus 20 double-unders. All reps strict. I haven’t done Cindy, but I can’t see how I could have gotten 15 rounds of Cindy in! Freakin’ pullups…

We also had a second workout, a nice set of Tabatas. I divided the students up into two groups, A and B, with different workouts. I wanted to give group ‘A’ a emphasis on core/abs, and ‘B’ an emphasis on arms:

A:

• In-outs on the parallelettes
• Russian Twist
• Medicine Ball Twist (25lb ball)
• Bicycles

B:

• Punch-out drill on the kick shield
• Elevated push-ups
• Medicine ball throw (15lb ball)
• Medicine ball slam (12  and 10lb balls)

I haven’t yet implemented Tabata scoring (I’m not sure if people will be able to keep track of their reps), but I am trying to figure out a good method.

Overall, this year has been fantastic for my Friday class. Every year I try and bring something new and exciting into class, so that no year is the same as the last. Every year I try and improve the “secret sauce” a little more. It is a fine line. I know that I may have alienated some students from the class, but I think that the progress is worth it.

I teach a conditioning class on Fridays at my Kung-Fu school. It has a reputation for being very difficult and for “edge-seeking” students. I do nothing to dissuade people of that notion! I suppose that I take a certain perverse pride in teaching the class that is apparently talked about in hushed whispers. I also believe that there is tremendous value in a class such as mine. People know they will be pushed to their limit, and I think they value such an outlet.

Tonight, I tried to give my own twist to one of my favorite conditioning sets, that I borrowed from the amazing Mountain Athlete gym. It’s a little ditty I like to call “The Leg Destroyer”, that I put a few special twists on this time:

• As Many Rounds As Possible – 20 minutes:
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 20 Lunges (10 each leg)
  • 20 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)
  • 10 Jump Squats
  • 20 Double-Unders (or 40 rope turns if double-unders aren’t gonna happen)

This is without a doubt one of the most brutal sets I’ve ever inflicted on the class. Generally, the Leg Destroyer is four rounds. Making it AMRAP was quite the eye opener. As I’m now keeping track of the performance of the students, some interesting trends surfaced. It seems that most people plateaued at five rounds. There were a few at six and some change, and a few at four and some change, but the overwhelming majority of people got in five rounds and a few squats.

This setup really becomes a grind after the first round. I would say that most people knocked out the first two sets fairly quickly, then spent 15 minutes on their next two or three! The decline in performance is pretty startling, which makes it all the more important to keep doing the exercises as quickly as you can!

One thing that I really tried to accentuate today was correct form on the squats and lunges. I was incredibly pleased to note that people still got in a large number of rounds even with that added difficulty. For me, the only conclusion I can reach is that people are a hell of a lot tougher than they think they are. As difficult as my class is, I will occasionally throw in a set like this one, and to a man (or woman!) the students invariable rise to  the occasion. I love and am proud of them all!

Since we still had some time left after the “Leg Destroyer”, I decided to throw in a little something extra that I discovered at the Crossfit gym the previous day:

• 16 Tabata Rounds, Alternating:
  • Situps
  • Bicycles

I have done Tabata circuits innumerable times in class, with multiple exercises (sometimes six or seven). The character of the alternating exercise protocol really seemed to be quite different than those setups. I felt there was more intensity and more at stake as the rounds went on. It’s not something we’ll do every week, but it is a wonderful variation.

Bravo to my students for tackling what is absolutely the hardest task I’ve given them to date!

Ah yes, dinner. I cooked up the last Ribeye steak with some salt and plenty of fresh-cracked pepper. Add in some crispy, verdant salad greens, and you have a paleolithic delight!