i discovered a new gym

so i've been going to recreate fitness for a 8 months or so and i really love what its done for me. I've always felt like it was missing something. More specifically, its missing pummel horse. I was on my way to Super Burrito today when i came across a new gym that had everything anyone could ever need to become fit. The gym is called Old Coach Child's House of Fitness. Here is a pic I took of my time there. What an incredible experience it was. They will be holding a cert in the coming months. I'm looking forward to it.

Had a great workout this morning with Aaron. Was lots of fun.

Diet:
can't remember a thing except Super Burrito. :)

rest day

yesterday was a rest day for me. i think Friday's will always be a rest day for me. i'll use that time to skate with my new gang hopefully when the weather is better. Maybe i'll start swimming on fridays too. last night we went to Oba and i realized that place might be one of my favorites. I think its trendiness has always turned me away. But last night, i realized most of my favorite meals have come from there. i worked 14 hours yesterday so im feeling pretty tired today.

Diet
12pm Muscle Milk
2pm Muscle Milk
7:30pm Half Pint of Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream
8:30pm Cuban Pulled Flank Steak over Bonito Mash
9:30pm Chocolate Molten lava cake with Creme Fraiche ice cream
10:45pm 2 scoops of cool moon ice cream in a waffle cone

short but sweet wod

today we did push presses which was fun. Jonas did 215 for 3 which was pretty cool to watch. did weighted pullups between sets which is much harder than what we would usually do between lifts. good stuff though.

Workout
ending set 165x3
weighted ring pullups with 25lb kb x 5 between each set

WOD
run 2 laps
30-20-10
db dl
db pp
(30lbs for both)
run 2 laps
time: 7:52

Diet
8am Muscle Milk
11am OG Amys cornmeal crust pizza
3pm: Muscle Milk
5:30pm 3 large cupcakes and 1 small dot cupcake
7pm: 2.5 burritos

everything 50

today i had some of meagan's amazing nut bread and got to see Stella in the same workout. plus my Friend erica and her friend Shy joined us for a workout today. pretty cool. Erica thinks she's surfing tomorrow.After today's workout, i'll be curious to see if she made it. Nathan was talking alot about form today which i was really happy to hear. its tough to find the balance between racing and getting the best workout. as long as people are safe, form may not really matter too much. some people like to go fast. some people like to hurt. some people like to lift heavy weights. we get what we want from our workouts. Old Coach Maxwell talks alot about mobility. He's a bajillion years old, fitter than a 20 year old ninja. He moves like a young fit man. Seeing him in person and watching him move really inspired me to work on what i've been calling form. I think what i've really been working on more than form is range of motion. I feel like i get so much more bang for the buck by doing a full range of motion. My goal is to be fit and mobile old man some day. I dont think aging in itself robs us of our mobility. I think if we don't use our mobility, we lose it. i had lost quite a bit over the past few years. Its slowly coming back and I hope when i'm old coach maxwells age, i can still move. ok, i'm babling. workout was great and very hard.

Workout:
50 of everything.
16k kb for high pulls
24k for swings
20lb slam
30lb med ball clean
Straight leg ring rows
chest to floor pushups
slow row
situps(palm touching floor in front of feet)
jump ropes
jumping pullups
Diet:
8am: Muscle Milk
1:30pm 2 fish tacos, beans, and rice
5pm: Muscle Milk
7:30pm !slice of Meagan's nut bread
8pm: 3/4 OG Amy's Pizza
10pm: muscle milk

30/30

today was a 30work/30 rest with a slight twist from the norm. we stayed put for 6 rounds of the same exercise. was pretty good. surprisingly the run was by far the hardest thing on the menu.

Skill:

3 TGU per side
5 kb snatch per side
12 jack knives
16k

WOD: 30 on/30 off/6 intervals/rotate

2 hand kb swing: 45lb(too light)
5 meter sprints
rope whips
burpees(old coach style)


Diet:
8am: Muscle milk
11am: Tofu Breakfast Burrito
2pm: Muscle Milk
4pm: Chocolat Chip Cookie from Grand Central
6pm: Salad Roll and Acai berry smoothie
8:30pm: whole og Amy's cornmeal crust pizza

when the THMFIC's away, the mouse will play

Nathan will not allow me to try the butterfly kip so i took advantage of his absence to do my final attempt at butterfly kip.


I wont do it again Nathan. i just had try it on video so i could see how it looked.

jackie

today was a fantastic day. I used to do back squats when I worked out at 24hour fitness. I could do 315lbs but it was rare that the crease of my hip ever went parallel and it definitely never went below. I had to check my ego at the door when moving to deep front squats. i was depressed when i could only squat 135lb and even that felt hard. Well now, i feel like i'm starting to creep back up in weight with the front squat. i'm not anywhere close to my partial rep back squat weight but i am feeling a lot more comfortable and stronger with the front squat. Another thing that really made my day is i improved my Jackie time by a minute and 5 seconds. What makes me most happy about this is that my last jackie, i counted any rep that i squated to a ball on thrusters and counted a few questionable pullups(nose above bar). Today, I was able to do full squat thrusters on every rep and didn't have to put the bar down. I also only counted pullups where my chin was over the bar. (I think by crossfit standards, that doesn't even count as a crossfit pullup anymore. I thought i read that chest to bar is the new standard.) I had 3 pullups that would have counted for me last time around but i decided to redo them to make it an official Jackie. the row, the thrusters, and the first 10 pullups felt amazing. It was the last 20 pullups that took the most time. I'm really happy that i improved my form from last time and still knocked a minute off my time. i was thinking the other day how interesting it is that certain workouts cater to different sizes of people. I feel really lucky to be in the 175lb body weight range. Its light enough that i can run and do pullups but its heavy enough that i can lift descent weight. If i was heavier, the pullups and running would suck but i'd probably be able to lift more weight. If i was lighter, i would probably do more pullups and run faster but weights would suck a lot more. i'm going to aim for 160 or 165 and see if i can maintain most of my lift weights. We'll see. i know why I like the morning workouts so much. they set the tone for the rest of the day.

workout:
squats
highest set of 3
205

did one rep at 235 just to see what it felt like.

Jackie:
9:07
previous time 2 months ago was 10:12

Diet:
5:30am Muscle Milk Shake
10am: Muscle Milk Shake
12pm: Perfect Food Bar and Kombucha
2pm: Burrito Bowl with Fish and tortilla chips
5pm: Muscle Milk Shake
6pm: 1 tangerine
8:30pm Muscle Milk Shake
12:45am Muscle Milk Shake

Movie weekend

So I'm bloggin again from a movie theater waiting for movie to start. I love going to movies. I'm being good and skipping on the m&ms this time.(not because I'm strict but because I just had a burrito)

workout:
walk for 45 min

diet
11am: muscle milk
1pm vegetarian burrito from

5pm steak, pizza, and fish from firehouse
8pm Muscle milk

Fell off diet wagon

I've been working hard and working out hard all week. I ran out of lean body shakes so I wasn't eating very consistent. I also was working from stores this week so I wasn't around to blog so much either. I think blogging is good for me because it keeps me on my diet. I have switched back to muscle milk today. I ripped my hands for the first time since joining the gym. Those thursday night snatches did me in. Damn that hurts. Really really enjoyed this last weeks workouts. Very hard but very fun and rewarding. I don't do well on play days because I need to be told what to do at the gym. 24hour fitness was play day for me. Next time we have a play day, I'm going to try a 10 min snatch test. Since I'm banned from the butterfly kip, kettlebell snatches are the 2nd most fun thing I can think of for a play day. Will be back to AM workouts next week since we'll have Hannah. Rode my bike an for an hour 4 days last week. I think that wore me out a bit for the workouts. I'm at a movie theater and movie is about to start. Signing off.
:)

starting to keep up

so a few months back i was inspired by another crossfit outfit that was wiping the slate clean with all PR records and starting over again with good form on everything. no more partial squats. no more sloppy burpees. Butt to calves squats, deep thrusters, chest to floor pushups, etc. Folks with 4 minute frans were suddenly doing 7 minute frans. Folks that were squating 225 were squating 185. Fight Gone Bad scores went down, etc. Athletes were reporting that it was hard on the ego at first but in time, they were getting fitter and soon approaching their previous partial rep/sloppy form PRs. The athletes that made this change were athletes who were physically capable of doing the correct form. They weren't asking people to do things they weren't physcially capable of(They weren't asking a new person to do chest to bar pullups or an overweight person to do a butt to floor squat)After reading about that, I decided to commit to good form and full range of motion(i blogged about it already i think.) Well, for the firs several weeks i was finishing the WODs a good 10 minutes after class was over. Many times i was finishing WOD's a good 10 to 15 minutes after the next to last person was finished. We would even joke about needing to extend class times so that i could finish them. I've always been one for quality over quantity. Over the last week, i started to feel like my body was able to keep up with the class a little better. I think the effort and commitment to good form is starting to pay off. i'm feeling pretty pleased about the results i'm starting to see in my strenght and mobility. I know its all a work in progress but i'm starting to really feel a difference. I think it also helps that at this point i have complete trust in the programming we're receiving at Recreate Fitness.

Workout:
none

Diet:
noon: veg burrito
5pm: Banan Royal Sundae

i found Aaron's wallet by the rower

So i found Aaron's wallet here next to the rower. Must have fallen out of his pocket as he kicked the crap out of his previous PR by something like 11 seconds. Oh my freakin goodness. There's no stoppin this guy. Wow. i'm amazed by his progress.

After really fun game of beam ball, i joined my skater gang in the parking lot for some downhill sessions. It was pretty damn fun. Megan, Trevor, Aaron, and I skated for a while up and down Vaughn. At one point we looked just like the lords of dogtown(well in my mind we did). I had a blast!! Megan was doing some slides wearing her uggs on her skateboard. I looked over at Trevor and said "you must be proud. She's an awesome skater!". He replied "proud?, i'm jealous! She's better than me!". If it was earlier and warmer, i think we could have skated for hours.

Workout
hang clean squats
30lb dbs
5 ring dips
we were supposed to do 6 rounds. not sure how many i got. was thinking about how much the row was going to hurt. couldn't focus on the other stuff.
row 500m for time. got a PR by drafting off Aaron :)
Beam ball. 10 self tosses(hey,get your mind out of the gutter) in one minute.

skated

Diet:
4am Lean Body Shake
9am Egg and Potato Burrito
11am 1 acai strawberry smoothie and perfect food bar
1pm 1 orange
8pm 1 burrito, 2 pieces of pizza, 5 pot stickers, 1 ginger ale, and 1 large piece of boston cream pie

what a week

the past 3 days i've gotten up at 4:30am to prepare for company meetings. I'm the av guy by default so i lug the projector, laptop, and screen to these. its a bit stressful on weeks we have hannah because we are a 1 car family. we are exhausted from car swapping, biking, and racing around to make appointments. We decided a while back to be a one car family. i'm glad we did but weeks like this one would be a lot easier with a second car. Today's workout we did push press. Felt pretty good to be under the bar again. my wrist flexibility has improved a lot which i'm pretty happy about.

workout
5 sets of 5 push press
i don't remember the details :(

3 rounds of:
run around building twice
12 push press 30lb
8 burpees (i did 6 count burpees but my heels came off ground)
10 k2e
i dont remember the time but it felt like a good workout for burnout like me.

Diet:
8am: 2 pieces of string cheese
10am: buttermilk biscuit
12pm: grilled tuna sandwich from meriweathers.
2pm: small piece german chocolate cake
8pm: lean body shake

workouts paid off in the real world today

so today at work, we inherited a huge IBM server rack cabinet. My co-worker said he thought it weighed 200lbs. I think it was more like 100lbs but is was an awkward as hell 100lbs. We needed to get it up narrow rolling stair ladder into a small data closet above a walk-in cooler at one of our stores. Dana was ready to recruit people to help but with it being such a narrow stair ladder, its was looking impossible. I then realized that I train every day for this kind of stuff. I said, he let me try carrying it. So i stepped in side the cabinet(floor exposed), squatted down, picked it up and climbed the ladder. It was easily the most dangerous thing i've ever done in my life. i would have probably died if i fell backwards but aside from it being a really stupid idea, it was a very proud moment for me. I even used it as a chance to plug the gym. Told them that we dont train to lay on our backs and push barbells up. we train so we can do this! It was pretty awesome. A few peoples jaws dropped. Probably because they had never seen anyone try something so crazy and stupid. i like to believe that one of those dropped jaws was someone saying "wow, how did he do that"? So, workout tonight was awesome. I only have a few tshirts and i couldn't find them. I wore a Tanktop that i used to work out in. i came downstairs and Hannah said "oh Dad, please don't wear that. Please". Good for the self esteem when me wearing a tanktop is what embarrasses hannah. For those of you that know her, NOTHING embarrasses her. Except her dad wearing a tanktop. Then after the workout she accused me of flexing during the workout. I told her that muscles flex naturally when you excercise them. She wasn't convinced. She cracks me up. After a talk with Joel, Matty G, and Aaron about good nutrition, i headed to Pizza Go Go for 2 slices of pizza. Good stuff. i drank a ton of yerba mate so i'm babbling too much. I really love the new gym space more and more every time i'm in it. I used Aarons recommendation on the rower by trying to keep the wheel spinning evenly throughout the whole row. i don't think i really did it, but thinking about it made for a pretty decent row. i am playing with damper settings. For today's 1000, i put it at a 4 which worked out pretty good. For the next 500m, I may try an 8 to see if i can break a 1:30. Starting to worry about cortisol elevations as i raise my intensity and effort(maybe i've already commented on this before) Trying to get lots of Yerba Mate, Acai tea, water, and sleep. I can read my body pretty well. Will try 6 days a week until i get down to a bodyweight i feel good about. Then, i may try to do 4 days a week. I'd really like to do a triathlon this spring or summer so i know i should spend some time in the pool soon.

Workout:
i can't remember but it took me a long time and was very tiring. Used a 24k for the 2 hand swings, used a 16k for the snatches. Everything else was bodyweight.

Diet:
7am: 3 mini blueberry muffins
8am: 15 blueberries
1:30pm Lean Body Shake
5:30pm 1 Tablespoon Smart Balance Flax Oil Peanut Butter
8:00pm 2 Slices of Veggie pizza and a Pomegranate Izze.

5 minute abs

so i've heard John say for months that front squats are better than all the sit ups in the world. Today i woke up and knew what he was talking about. my abs were killing me this morning from the front squats yesterday. i like front squats more than sit ups so thats good. Today was a 40/20 workout. i have end of quarter meetings this week at work so i may have to go to night class instead of morning the rest of this week. i've switched over to only yerba mate instead of coffee in the mornings. really trying to focus on anti oxidant consumption now that i eat meat and workout harder. i feel way more alive with yerba mate than i ever do with coffee.

workout
warmup:
kb complex with 25lb kb

Skill(only got 2 rounds)
farmer walk with 2 kbs in hanging carry position. (36k/32k)
Turkish get up (16k/16k)
Heavy Kb swing (36k/36k)
Jacknife x 12 (only got one round of this)

Wod:
4 rounds 40/20 with 90 seconds rest between round
heavy jump rope
double kb clean and push press 45lb kb
superplank(chest to ground pushups)
shuttle run
rope snaps

Diet:
8am Lean Body Shake, electrolytes and 10g of creatine.

my first day in new gym

i had to check my calendar and my watch when i walked into the gym. Thought maybe i walked into a 10:30 Saturday class. There were a bajillion people there today. There was plenty of space though so it worked out great. We did Front Squats after several weeks off. I think the fact that we've done so much core work, our squats didn't loose anything. I also think the leg circuits helped too. Today I shared a rack with John and Jonas. Normally i would have started lighter and gone up slower but i knew we were a little pressed for time so i just did whatever weight Jonas put on the bar(John went much heavier than we did). On the fifth set, i got under 205 thinking, maybe i'll try for 3 since 3 at that weight is my all time almost fell over max weight. Then after i lifted it, I said to myself "I can't rack this after 3 in front of John. He'd probably move the rack if i tried to rack it:)"(i mean that in a good way. He is extremely encouraging and i always get my PR's when he's standing next to me)Somehow managed to do 5. Felt pretty good about that.
The WOD was a short but sweet one. Tried to do the Ol' Coach's preferred burpees. I did them but didn't string them together by landing in the squat position(thats hard after rowing and ball slams.


Workout:
warmup:
band pass throughs
band overhead squats
jump rope

Skill:
2warmup front squats at 115
5 sets of front squats with 8 ring rows and 5 spidermen between.
135/165/165/185/205


Diet:
8am Lean Body Shake
10m Muscle Milk Shake
3:30pm Lean Body Shake
5:00pm handful of organic cheese popcorn
7:00pm one chicken burrito

i love the new gym

i cannot believe how amazing the new gym space is. just when i thought that i couldn't get more excited and committed to this fitness journey, along comes this beautiful new space that is so exciting. what i'm most excited about is being able to invite more friends. With the smaller gyms space and limited class size, many of us held back on inviting friends. Now there is plenty of room for everyone and their grandmother. i'm REALLY excited about getting back to olympic lifts this coming week. we had a great time at the move party. i wished we had a time lapse camera set up to see how all the gym clients moved the entire gym in 11 minutes. It was great to visit with Aaron and Jason at the party. Aaron, i never see. And Jason and i dont get to chat much in the mornings because we're either trying not to puke or we're not awake enough.

workout: nothing

Diet:
9am Lean Body Shake
10am chocolate cookie
2pm Steak Sandwich, Chicken Tenders, Fries, and a Calzone.
5pm 80% of a movies size bag of peanut M&Ms

leg circuits and i dont get along

i dont know why it is that i cant go any faster or take fewer breaks doing leg circuits. No matter what I do, i have to stop at 10 during the jumping lunges and at 5 or 6 during the jumping squats. The lactic acid burn is like nothing ive ever felt in any other exercise. i honestly think i left out an entire set of kb swings in today's workout and still finished several minutes behind the rest of the group. not that it matters but it is strange to me why i have such a hard time keeping up. oh well, in time, it will come(i hope).

workout
warm up.
I just did pass throughs(wasn't trying to be a rebel. i was kind of late and had to answer a work email and space was tight for the other warm up activities. are those enough excuses)

Skill
partner kb swing
plate squat
kb swing, hp, snatch (16k felt heavy today)

wod
4 rounds
leg circuit
15 24k kb swings
15 pushups

(i have no memory of the 3rd set of kb swings. Nathan said that with the time i finished in, there's no way i could have left out a set of swings. still not sure. I got a great workout either way so i'm not worried.)

Diet:
8am: Lean Body Shake
11am Lean Body Shake
2pm Lean Body Shake
4pm Bubba Burrito
8pm Lean Body Shake
1:45am Lean Body Shake

almost puked today

so i've been drinking out of this mega mug Hannah got me for christmas for over a week now. Today i mentioned to Melissa that i almost threw up and she informed me that the mug is not meant to drink from and contains some chemical liner. Wish i knew that earlier. i think i'll live but i did almost puke. 6:30 is now the happening class time. Lots of new friendly and fit faces in the gym.

workout
warmup:
kb mobility complex

skill:
pullups tried butterfly kip(bonked my nose on the bar. ouch)
windmill x 5(12k)
1 leg double kb dead lift (32k/32k)

WOD:
40/20
sumo deadlift high pulls: 32k/32k/32k/36k
row(averaged 1:45 pace)
bear crawl(bear roll for Jonas on set 4. i almost puked laughing)
jumping pullups(round 4 i think i got only 1/2 inch of air per jump

Diet:
8am 42g liguid protein shot
10am: 12 ounce latte
7pm Lemon Loaf slice
8:30pm 3 eggs, 2 corn tortillas, 5 oz beans, 1 oz mozzarella cheese
10:30pm Lean Body Shake

jury duty

so Melissa had to go to Jury duty today so i didn't get to workout(Hannah not old enough to be home alone yet). I wanted to do the night class but Hannah has a class tonight. Guess i'll just do leg circuits and 6 count burpees at home. :)Work is going well. November kicked my butt up and down but we're starting to make progress with some projects we're working on. i'm out of shakes so i've been eating low carb balance bars today. drinking lots of water today. Also decided to start drinking anti oxidant rich teas more often since we now eat meat.

Workout:
none yet

Diet:
8am Lean Body Shake
11am Low Carb Balance Bar
2pm Low Carb Balance Bar
6pm Ahi Fish and Chips
8pm Polenta from Pastini
10pm Low Carb Balance Bar

6 days in a row

so i just realized that i always want to start my blog entries with the word "so". Thats strange. so when i first started working out at recreate fitness, i couldn't get enough. one time i came 7 times in one week. i went 2 times in one day because i was so addicted. Nathan said that might not be such a good idea. i've noticed that i come back way stronger and recover better if i take rest days when my body tells me to. I'm concerned about cortisol levels going up if i don't rest. i'll be the only one in town to admit that i'd rather look fit than be fit. i know i could probably get thrown out of the gym for saying something so vain and shallow. I was asked to write down some goals for 2009. Truth is my main goal is to get leaner in 2009. I'm having a very very hard time controlling my diet. If i have my shakes around, I can do great. Once i run out or find myself without one, i turn to my best friend; the burrito. So, i'm going to try coming to the gym 6 times a week to compensate for the amount of food I eat. That way, i'll get leaner and more conditioning too. Old Coach Steve Maxwell said his fans in prison get ultra lean on diets of pure crap by doing lots of burpees. I figure if guys in prison can build great bodies eating crappy prison food and doing burpees, i could maybe build a half way descent build by eating shakes, pizza, cupcakes, and burritos with 6 days of recfit workouts. We'll see. i also need to get better about my logging. Work has been really busy and the holidays kept me away from my computer. i know that for my logs to mean anything, i need to be consistent. i feel like on days i eat the worst, i don't end up blogging. that should stop in 2009. Today i got 18 dead hang pullups. My goal was 20 by the end of 08 but i'm pleased with 18. I could do only 10 when i started. i was partnered with Aaron today and really enjoyed the workout. He is a great partner.

Workout
warmup:
ladder

skill:
med ball pass
max pullups 18
max pushups 36

wod:
1500m row(500,500,250,250)Aaron is a rowing machine.
10-1 ladder
push press(30lbs)
mt climbers
box jumps
ring holds for 2min
18:46

Diet:
11am: 3 eggs, 2 pieces of toast 1/2 cup black beans, 2 tamales
7:30pm 2 green chile tamales, 2 bowls og tomato soup
11:00pm lean body shake