I thoroughly enjoyed Crossfit today!
Mostly because it was outdoors, but it was also a fantastic set of movements. Due to limited kettlebells I ended up with a 35 lb'er - Shortly after that I wish I'd gotten a bit lighter!
We started off with a warmup doing sumo deadlift high-pulls, followed by running to the gate and back.
Here's a picture to help illustrate:
So starting back by those stairs on the parking garage, we did 10 sumo deadlift high-pulls, run to the gate, run back, 8, run, back, 6, run, back etc until done.
After that first warmup Dave (our crossfit trainer) explained our exercise and had us do 5 of each movement on each side. Starting at the bottom of the stairs (closer than before), you do 10 kettlebell squats holding the kettle bell each side (total 20 reps), then take your kettlebell up the stairs to the second level:
Here we move away from the stairs (so faster and/or slower people still have access!) and do 15 total kettlebell press ups, so 7 and 8 or 8 and 7 each side however you want to do that. Upon completion you again take your kettlebell to the top level for the final 3 movements of the set.
You can see way in the back where the stairs come up. At the top there near the stairs you combine the squat and press to do 5 kettle bell squat-presses on each size (total 10) then leave your kettlebell there and head to that wall that is between the middle and back light posts for wall burpees! I like wall burpees because it makes me feel like I'm doing parkour training. To do a wall burpee you drop back into the normal burpee start, back and down to a pushup, come up and jump over the wall and down to the pushup. Each time over the wall counts as one rep. After 5 times over the wall you run a lap around the upper level of the parking lot back to the stairs where you have finally completed your first set. Now we had 2 minutes until you start the next set. Total of four sets, goal is to try to be below 3 minutes per set! My first set was 3:55. Yikes. Sadly I have already forgotten my total time, but I DO think I improved a bit, and was able to pass people on the burpees and running, which made me feel good. After I finished my four rounds, I was able to rest for a bit allowing a few more people to finish their fourth round - but there were a few people who were a set behind. Dave asked who wanted to do a challenge and complete the last round with the final people. I decided to do it if I could use a lower weight, so I used somebody's 20 lb weight and went down to the bottom to start round 5.
Wow what a difference lighter weight makes! I was a LOT faster on that 5th round and finished it in 2:45... which was a nice feeling.
Four house after I STILL feel really good - although I'm starting to fatigue a little and my shoulders are being a bit wonky. Part of that is because we took the whole family out for a Costco shopping trip!
Just for fun here's one of those awesome mirror self-taken-raised-shirt-ab pics. I've almost got some abs yay!
Tomorrow we are going to a farm to pick up a quarter cow! We're excited to have a lot of grass fed beef in our house!!
