Jeremy Stecker: April 2008 Archives

080428

Thruster 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

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4/30/08 - To work on form a bit and get a gauge on how much their weight should be for next time, Mike Q and Chris O did sets of 3.  We also did 5 sets instead of 7.

Mike - (sets of 3) 95,125,135,145x1,145

Chris - (sets of 3) 95,95,95,95,95

Jeremy (sets of 1) - 175,215,205,205,205,205,195

Here's a video to review our form:




 

080426

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Hang Power Snatch, 15 reps
Run 400 meters

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Never done this one. Looks fun.  Very low weight for Hang Power Snatch so the lungs are going to be burning.  Hopefully the weather is as good as Monday and maybe we can do this outside!  Anyone enjoy hauling weights to the basketball court?!

4/29/08 - It was raining so no hang power snatches on the basketball court for us.  Our snatches were sure ugly, just muscling it up there.  I'm sure our times will go down as our technique improves.

Times:  Mike Q:  18:27 (45 lb)
            Jeremy S:  20:31 (rx'd)

And Chris Otto came for the first time and did 3 rounds of: 400m row, 10 squats, 10 situps, 5 pushups and 5 pullups (black band) in 13:30.  Thanks for coming!

 

Deadlifts, 5 sets of 3.

Quite a few great videos here on deadlifts.  Look for the ones on deadlift alignment.  Always work to improve your deadlift because thats the start of the olympic lifts.  Plus knowing how to lift heavy stuff off the floor can never hurt.

My strategy:  Start over 300 and go from there.

4/28/08 - Started at 300, and the following reps looked like this:  310,310,310x2,295.  Still working on the back. Also noticed that my grip was starting to be a weak point at this weight.  Felt strong, but also felt the back curve a bit.  Working on form and back flexibility.
 

Rest it up.  

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

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My last time - 28:18 at the beginning of March...  Looking forward to taking a nice chip out of that time.

4/25/08 - Mike was over for the workout for Friday and for some reason the looney wanted to do this one instead of Weighted pullups.  So we gave it a whirl.

Mike Q - Outstanding time of 31:59 (with the blue band pullup).  Although still working a bit on depth, Squats are looking better and better every week and now strength and flexibility allowed Mike to pound these out in just a few short minutes.  How much weight have you lost Mike?

My time - 27:34.   My times were the following: pullup 9:21, pushup 7:48, Situp 7:56, squat 2:28)  This next time I'm going to do some homework ahead of time and figure out a way to improve my time and work smarter.  (Instead of hitting failure by rep 50 and 3-5 repping my way to the finish)



 

080422

Weighted pull-ups 7 sets of 1 rep

Post loads and body weight to comments.

4/28/08 - got to this one a few days late.  Max with supinated grip (overhand) 70 pounds, max with unsupinated (underhand) 85. 

 

Back Squats

5 sets of 3.

- My weights for this week were 215, 225,235,245 and 255.  Not too shabby.  I was focusing on my form, but more especially keeping my core tight and looking at the floor 5 feet ahead of me.  I've got a BAD habit of looking up when the weight gets heavy.  I probably could have done a bit more, especially at the starting side.
 

Rest it up.

Quote of the day:  If you gotta eat two frogs, eat the biggest one first.  -- unknown
 

Sunday 080420

Shoulder press 3-3-3-3-3 reps

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Weights were as follows: 115,145,150,150,155, back was feeling rounded towards the last set.  Trying to keep the abs tight after Michael the day before was a challenge.
 

Rest it up.

Quote of the day:

"The trouble with cyclists is that their training establishment keeps reinforcing the silly bull**** that all recreational athletes want to believe: at some point, all serious athletes go outside their sport-specific work to improve, and recreational athletes just want to play their sport and wear the clothes."
                      -- Mark Rippetoe
 

080418

"Michael"

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

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Congrats to Mike Quirk on finishing this beast of a workout.  He has the pleasure of learning what running is like after 100 situps and back extensions - you feel pretty silly when you run without the use of your back and abs. 

Mike Quirk - 24:24 - As Rx'd, (with both the back ext and situps(unanchored) on the abmat)  Nice work.

Jeremy Stecker - 34:28 - Beat old time of 34:30!  By 2 seconds, how crazy is that.  Situps were GHD and so was back extensions.

Jeremy Kaufman came and busted out a 115-pound Elizabeth in 19:25.  He more than tripled the amount of ring dips he's ever accomplished. 

 

"Elizabeth"

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

Here's a video of annie and greg cranking out 'Elizabeth' from the crossfit main site.

4/19/08 - Completed this bad boy in 15:17.  Five minutes less than the last time I tried it in November.  Pretty good PR, but I'm just not quite happy with it.  I guess thats what I get when I watch the crossfit superstars do it beforehand.  Cleans are one of those things I feel like I'm really not doing effeciently.  But it was a great workout.
 

I'm going to be playing softball with some friends this day and getting ready for our city league softball team games.  Should be fun.

4/18/08 - Hour and a half of Softball - Fun stuff.  I'll have to say that I seemed to crank the ball pretty well and was able to run around and shag balls during the entire time easier than the other years getting back into Softball after the winter season.  Sure, I still had some of the normal soreness that comes with coming back (shoulder/arm from throwing, and hand from swinging) but not nearly as much as previous years when my off season was running or lifting.
 

Rest it up.  

"Nancy"

Five rounds for time of:
400 meter run
95 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps

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4/16/08 - this was my first time doing it as Rx'd.  Time = 23:15.  I did press record when I came in although overhead squatting is one of my weak points so if I have time to post the video of it it will be embarassing.  One good thing is that the fifth round of Overhead squatting was much easier than the first.  It seemed I was getting better at doing it, and better at handling the hefty weight!

Oh, and you learn pretty quickly that if you don't keep your shoulder and arms locked your making it 5 times harder than with them locked.  Thats something I hear all the time but I didn't learn it until I actually experienced it.

 

"Quarter Gone Bad"

Five rounds for total reps of:
135 pound Thruster, 15 seconds
Rest 45 Seconds
50 pound Weighted pull-up, 15 seconds
Rest 45 Seconds
Burpees, 15 seconds
Rest 45 seconds

Post total reps for all five rounds to comments.

4/14/08 - Congrats to Mike Quirk on not only hitting a landmark and moving to the blue band, but on the 5th round something seemed to click and was able to almost double the pull ups with ease.   I could see that the change took place, his nervous system "learned" how to do a pull up better, just like you'd learn to balance on a bike.  Congrats Mike.

Scores:
Jeremy Stecker - 81 - As rx'd(1.5 pood KB) (rounds thrust-27, pullups-25, burpees-29)
Mike Quirk - 65 (Thrust-18{115 pounds], pullups-31 (blue band), burpees-16)

 

Saturday 080412

Run 10 K

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4/15/08 - Mike Q - 5k - 30:03 Congrats on your first 5k! 

Jeremy Stecker - 45:57 - A new PR by 13 seconds!

Running is the best way to learn to make your body do things when your mind is telling you to slow down.  It's the best "head game" workout.

 

Here's a quick video I made of deadlifts.  My form has come a long way, I tend to round my back as the weight gets even moderately heavy.  On these lifts you'll notice a lot less of that (but still some work to be done) as I've learned to focus on pushing on my heels, and pushing my knees back.  One thing I noticed with this video is I tend to look up instead of straight ahead.  I don't know where I got that, but its a bad habit.


Remember, with the deadlift:

• Arms are like ropes
  
• Look straight ahead
• Push with the heels
  
• The back is arched
• The bar comes straight up, along legs
  

 

Rest it up.  

Deadlift, 7 sets of 1.

4/13/08 - 275,305,310,315,320,325,330 - a nice improvement from January 28th on both form and numbers (they were 295, 315,315,315,315).  I took video of this to check my form.  Look for it on the main page.
 

"Kelly"

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

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My first time doing this one.  Looks like a metabolic conditioning monster.

4/11/08 - Man this is a good one.  I finished the third round and didn't even want to walk, much less run.  The fifth round was pretty bad as well - I was running as quickly as I could and if Jake was still awake he would have been able to lap me!

 

080406

5 sets of 1 shoulder press
5 sets of 3 Push Press
5 sets of 5 Push Jerk

This will be my third time doing  this workout since I started, and I'm still not quite sure how to go about it.  My presses have gotten a lot better since starting, but on here its difficult to gauge the weight - your push press should be 30% greater than your shoulder press, and jerk 30% greater than push press, but with the added reps, perhaps just keep the weight the same the whole time??  All I know is that my traps are pretty tired by the time I hit the third push jerk set. Here's a picture to demonstrate.


4/8/08 - Did pretty good on this one, forget that picture above.  I feel it more in my lats and abs than my traps.   My score was Shoulder press - 155,160,165,165,170; Push press -185,185x2,175,180,180x2; and push jerk 185x2,155,135,135,155.  Almost all lifts were better than when I did it the end of February.
 

Rest it up.  

Over the past several episodes of the Crossfit Journal, there's been video of Coach Burgener teaching Pat the Snatch.  I also had the opportunity to go up to Portland and visit crosfithel to spend a few hours trying to improve my Olympic lifts.

I learned really quickly that theres a better way to lift then the way that I've (and probably you) been doing it your entire life.  It takes a bit more patience, but it pays off.

The way we've always done it is to get under the bar, throw some plates on and LIFT!  If you're forms not quite right, take a plate or two off, or maybe put some more on there.  A few years later you're saying, "Wow, my form isn't improving."

The problem is your body and brain need to learn what to keep tight, what to move at what point, how to get full range and use the full scope of your muscles.  The bar on you is holding back your chances of your getting the lift right. 

The solution.  Work with no weight.  Squat with bodyweight until you get it right.  Clean, Press, Deadlift the pvc pipe until your body learns the movement. Here we can see and feel our weaknesses, AND we can improve them.  Our body can learn how to do the movement correctly.

Then we put some weight on and/or ramp up the intensity, and pretty soon the heavy bar and intensity shows our weaknesses.  Take it back down to the pvc pipe and fix those weaknesses and then ramp it back up.

Here's a quick video of me failing on the squat and the shoulder press.

They both show my weaknesses in the lifts.  Can you see them? 




And now that I see them, I'm going to be focusing on these with the pvc pipe and certain exercises in my warmups so that next time I'll hit that weight with perfect form!
 

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Post number of minutes completed to comments.

Scale back to rubber bands as needed.  Go to a band where you can get at least 10 rounds in.

4/4/08 - A new PR for me!  14 rounds + 11 pullups for me today, up from 10+2 from december.  It may not seem like much of an improvement on paper, but thats 70 more pullups - I'm happy about it!

 

"CrossFit Total"

Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

Post total to comments.

Remember, there's specific rules on the crossfit total, you can check them out here.  The article also gives some good tips on ways to increase your crossfit total.

4/7/08 - I was pretty happy about today's results - I got two new PR's!  On the squat I got a new lift of 295 (over my previous of 290) - I had one more try at 300 and didn't quite make it, although I did take a video of the final failed lift.  Maybe I'll post it for laughs! 

My second lift, the Shoulder press, I got a new weight of 170 (over my previous at 160)..  Very happy with this one.  I tried the next at 175 and recorded that one as well.... AND FAILED!  :D

My Deadlift tied my PR at 345 leaving my new Crossfit total at 810!  A huge improvement over 795!  Time to celebrate!


 

Rest it up.  

"Gwen"

Clean & Jerk 15-12- and 9 reps

Touch and go at floor only. Even a re-grip off the floor is a foul. No dumping. Use same load for each set. Rest as needed between sets.

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Here's Jeremy Kaufman busting out the third round of Gwen. 

 

The workout is:

Five rounds for time of:

30 GHD situps
25 back extensions

Should be fun!  Never done this one.

Finished this one on Saturday at a time of 22:40 - As Rx'd - full GHD situps.  Brutal.  Those situps just seem to take a toll.  I can't wait till the time where I can do all 30 unbroken.

 

 

Run 800 meters x 4 for time.

Rest as needed between efforts.

If its even mildly easy you're not going hard enough.  As far as the rest, I'm going to keep track of my rests so I can measure it against the next time this workout comes up, although this is the first time I've seen this one.