S2B plus, making a better Buk

[Buk]

I don't make most of my current workouts, most of them come directly from CrossFit's WOD(Workout Of the Day). I think that being a trainer might be kinda cool. I sometimes think about trying to get a hold of a group of kids and training them into little beasts. I wish someone had done that with me when I was in high school/junior high. Soccer players/coaches, at least when and where I grew up, greatly understimate the value of strength training and lack knowledge in propper conditioning. Maybe it is time to acquire a few certs.

[Buk]

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Rest day, that doesn't sound like fun. Hmmm, how do we make grocery shopping a worthwile evening activity? I pull the wheelbarrow out of the shed, dang the tire is low. No biggie, push it half mile to the gas station, air up the tire, and push it back. 9:30 pace there, 10:14 back. Load up my new and improved 150 pound sandbag and a cooler into the wheelbarrow. 1.15 miles to the Kroger: 15:43(11:20 pace most of the way, a couple trouble spots and traffic slowed me a bit). Then shop for some healthy food(left the wheelbarrow outside) for the next couple of days: 14:31, $24.27(Saved $7.67 with my Kroger plus card). Load the groceries into the cooler and return home: 21:17(other than the 30% grade, 50 foot high hill into the back of the parking lot, Kroger is 160 feet below my house.) Move the groceries into the fridge, and cool down by jogging back the the gas station because I forgot to coil the air hose up and just left it laying in the parking lot. It took a good bit of my evening, but if I didn't need air in the wheelbarrow tire, the shopping trip would have only been about 50 minutes. And yes, I got just as many strange looks pushing the wheelbarrow as when carrying the sandbag. I was as wet as you can get, shoe sloshing wet. My hands were wrinkly and soft from the sweat and having to hold the wooden handles for 46 minutes. Heartrate was in the 180's most of the time. This was a fun evening.

[Adam H.]

Dude you are my hero. That is the best grocery shopping story I have ever heard! So you are just sitting around and think... "I know! I'll put my sandbag in the wheelbarrow and go get some eats!"... perfect! I can't wait to get my sandbag and sled built so I can start freaking out the people in my neighborhood.

I agree with what you said about strength training from a young age. I always wish somebody would have shown me how to train back in high school. (I'm 26, 27 in 16 days).

Keep up the hard work.

Adam

[BamaDave]

LMAO!!!! Why is there some small, non-skeptical part of my brain that could actually believe this story???!!!

And what a slacker. You should have hauled that wheelbarrow to Home Depot and loaded it up with heavy steel supplies to make your backyard gymnastics apparatus.

[Buk]

Thursday, August 11, 2005

"Cindy"
20 minutes of:
-Pull-ups, 5 reps
-Push-ups, 10 reps
-Squats, 15 reps

11 rounds(19:48)
0:44, 1:08, 1:18, 1:43, 2:07, 2:05, 2:21, 2:23, 2:09, 2:04, 1:46

0:44

1:08

1:18

1:43

2:07

2:05

2:21

2:23

2:09

2:04

1:46

I alternated sets of kipping and regular pull-ups, and believe it or not, it was the push-ups that slowed me down the most. Did 110 push-ups, but started wearing down less than half way through. Another item to add to my pratice list. I did well with the 165 total squats, and was fairly happy with the 55 pull-ups; even though this pails in comparison to where I want to be, will be.

Things to pratice regurally:
-Push-ups
-Pull-ups(kipping and regular, overhand and underhand)
-Jumprope
-Handstand(walking, and handstand push-ups)

[Buk]

Friday, August 12, 2005

Deadlift
3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1

225x3
245x2
275x2
295x1F
315x1
295x1
315x1
315x1
315xF

A little dissapointed in this, quite a ways from the 400 club. My grip strength is really weak. The hook grip is going to the top of my pratice list. None of my 315s would have counted in competition. They were real close, but the bar was slipping right through my grip before I could lock out. I even chalked up for the last 2 lifts. I think I am going to get some straps, but only for use on max deadlift day. I am really going to focus on the hook grip, maybe grip is hindering my clean more than I realize. I finished off with some hook grip holds at 225 pounds. Then I went and carried buckets of concrete around for about an hour and a half pouring porch footers that the truck could not get to around my brother-in-law's house. Farmers carries of about 80 pounds in each hand over uneven terrain, then a lift to hold the bottom and edge to pour. The handle would pop off if you tried to use it while pouring.

[Buk]

Saturday, August 13, 2005

5 rounds for time:
-Run 350 meters
-Overhead Squat 40KG, 15 reps

16:13 total
2:18, 2:46, 3:48, 3:47, 3:34
Run paces: 5:29, 6:54, 8:20, 7:53, 8:24
Pretty quick pace for the first run, but things slowed quickly after that. This combo killed my hamstrings for the run(don't think yesterdays deadlift max and bucket carrying helped much either). I did the first 2 sets of overhead squats without a break, but broke the last 3 sets into minisets of 10+5. I took the bar upstairs next to the track to eliminate the stairs and keep this one fast paced.

I am currently working on the Crossfit challenge of a Rutman mile, bodyweight sandbag carry for a mile in under 15 minutes. Their last challenge was 15 body weight overhead squats. A body weight overhead squat is my current 1 rep max, and half body weight for 15 reps is very difficult. But now that I think about it, I just recently broke 15 minutes with a half body weight sandbag mile. I have a long way to go to for both of these goals.

Things to pratice regurally:
-Hook Grip
-Push-ups
-Pull-ups(kipping and regular, overhand and underhand)
-Jumprope
-Handstand(walking, and handstand push-ups)

[Buk]

Sunday, August 14, 2005

5 rounds for time:
-Wallball 15lb, 25 reps
-Pull-ups, 15 reps

17:02 total
2:02, 2:58, 4:00, 4:07, 3:55
The prescribed workout had 30 reps for pull-ups instead of 20. But there was no way I was going to get 150 pull-ups in a reasonable amount of time so I dropped it to half, did about half and half kipping and nonkipping pull-ups. Wallball is holding a medicine ball at your chest, drop into a full squat, on the way up throw the ball against the wall 10 feet high. Catch the ball and use its momentum to push you into the full squat of the next rep. The wallball time was pretty consistently about 1 minute per round, but the pull-up time went up quickly. Did quite a few pull-ups later in the day though. Lots of pratice with handstands, handstand push-ups, jump rope, and the hook grip also.

[Buk]

Monday, August 15, 2005

"Elizabeth"
21-15-9 reps for time of:
-Clean 135 pounds
-Dips

18:48 total(3:22 improvement from 11 days previous)
6:45(1:25), 7:02(1:45), 5:01(0:12)
3:55(0:38), 2:50(0:47), 4:31(0:43), 2:31(1:02), 3:44(-0:26), 1:17(0:38)
Repeat workout of August 4th (11 days ago) with pretty decent improvement, and with nearly all full squat cleans this time(2 of 45 were power cleans). It is hard to tell how much of the improvement is physical ability versus having a better feel and goal time to beat though. I am pretty sure I pushed this one last time, but I know beating todays time on this workout in the future will be due to physical improvement. Too wore out to pratice anything afterwards, tough to drive home even. Next week I am going to try some repeats of my first few crossfit workouts from this journal for additional measure.

[Buk]

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

"Helen"
3 rounds for time:
-Run 350 meters
-Dumbbell Swings 55 pounds, 21 reps
-Pull-ups, 12 reps

14:03 total(5:31 improvement from 36 days previous)
3:46(1:30), 4:58(2:09), 5:19(1:52)
Run paces: 5:47(0:26), 6:41(0:26), 7:39(0:27)
Another repeat, July 10(36 days ago) with significant improvement. Run paces were pretty consistently faster, but they need to become more consistent from round to round. And a 26 second pace improvement only earns me 6 seconds for that distance, so most of the time improvements came form getting through the swings and pull-ups faster. I am pretty happy about this performance, here is what I said after this workout the first time:

posted by Buk on July 10th after performing this same workout in 19:34
[qb]I want to see these times that are around 20 minutes be below 15 minutes in August. So for toadys workout, that would be performing all three rounds at a slightly faster rate than todays first round. That seems very possible.[/qb]

My fastest round last time was 5:16, so I was just barely behind that for my last round today, but my average time put me easily under my goal of 15 minutes.

[Adam H.]

Great work. Its always nice to see the progress quantified.

The title of your log makes me think you are attempting to bulk. Are you? Any success?

Keep it up, man.

Adam

[Buk]

Originally posted by Adam H.:
[qb]Great work. Its always nice to see the progress quantified.

The title of your log makes me think you are attempting to bulk. Are you? Any success?[/qb]

Thank you Adam!

No, my title is a little misleading. I could stand to loose a few pounds. Still hovering right around 200 pounds, I drink way too many calories. That is a fairly easy problem, I just need to commit to fixing it. My original intent was was to start S2B phase II workouts with some of the other guys at the begining of this month. I opted to replace the corrective phase I with Crossfit to focus more on conditioning and weight loss. I have since decided that I should stick with Crossfit longer to develop more conditioning and a better GPP base. I was going to supplement the S2B workout with Crossift for conditioning, but I think I will be better off doing Crossfit as my primary workout scheme and adding to it where needed.

It has been a month and a half since I started Crossfit and I have really enjoyed the program. The results have been great even though some of the workouts are still beyond me. Once I get a little more capable with the Crossfit workouts, I am going to add in some extra olympic lifting into my weekly routine. Seeing results(better times, more pounds) is very motivating and makes me want to push myself even harder.

[Buk]

Saturday, August 20, 2005

For time:
50 Squats
20 Pull-ups
40 Squats
16 Pull-ups
30 Squats
12 Pull-ups
20 Squats
8 Pull-ups
10 Squats
4 Pull-ups

14:40 total(7:59 improvement from 42 days previous)
3:52(0:59), 3:56(2:39), 3:45(1:44), 2:03(1:42), 1:04(0:55)
Repeat workout of July 10(42 days ago) again with much improvement. During the workout I knew my previous finish time, but not the splits; so I didn't know what kind of drop off to expect for the later rounds. With the first 2 splits around 4 minutes I thought that I might not be doing much better, but finishing the 4th round in 2:03 at 13:36 almost made the last round enjoyable. I kipped a little, but the low pull-up bar I used today made kipping more difficult. Kept about 80% of my pull-ups as nonkippers. Wish I would see a 5 minute improvement in my 5k soon.

[TrainingGirl]

Wow...big improvement! I didn't know you were doing the CrossFit routines..cool. I'm only aware of them cause Q posts them all the time. But they really look challenging.

[Buk]

Thanks TG! I think I turned a few people here onto Crossift: Q and Phaedrus49er for sure, and Q has made his excitement about it known. They are very challenging, but I love the workouts and the results.

[BamaDave]

That workout looks like a killer. I don't think I could do 20 pullups without getting the legs into it, and even then, I'm not sure. When you have 20 pullups to do in this workout, do they have to be all at once, or are you allowed to stop, drop off the bar, and then finish the set??

[Buk]

Rest is allowed within a set where needed. I usually refer to this as taking mini-sets. All of the pull-ups in the set must be completed before going to the next exercise. That is where the time factor comes in. The more mini-sets and the longer the mini-rests the worse the time is. I drop and rest a lot on workouts with that many pull-ups