When the Lunatics Run the Asylum

FYI, just in case you didn't know, RFM owners Robert and Kristi are off-island. Bump needs some surgery because he tweaked his arm somehow. I knew that but I forgot.

Which is probably why when I walked into the noon workout today I was kinda confused.

No Kristi, no Bump. Just me, Al, Bruce, Garrett, Shauna and Dom. 

At first I thought Kristi was just late, but then I realized, how did we get the gym open then?

It wasn't until I changed my clothes and had my shoes on that it dawned on me.

We were unsupervised.

What's the big deal right? It's not like we're all kids that were going to break the equipment or burn down the gym. Hell, Bruce, Al and Garrett are all older than me and I'm 40.

But . . . I sensed troubling vibes from the beginning. Just the mixture of Bruce and Al and no one to hold them back or talk some sense into them filled me with dread. I kept on hearing them both say things like:

"Yeah we go try that . . ."

"For real? Ok, shoots."

"Ho brah and den what, after that we still going do the WOD?"

"Nah, can. I did 'em this morning already."

It got to the point where I just had to come out and ask:

"Are we doing two WOD's today?"

Yup.

Just so you know, this was not part of the regular workout. Our coaches had programmed deadlift for our strength workout and then three rounds of a 400 meter run, 10 burpees and as many double-unders as you can do in the time remaining. We had three minutes to do all that and then rest for two minutes.

Sounds like a tough workout already right? Well Al figured that since we're doing deadlifts already let's just do a deadlift WOD. Specifically 21, 15, and 9 reps of 225 pound deadlifts and handstand push-ups.

After that we would do the regular WOD. 

I said no way but Bruce said, "Nah, we go just sample."

"Ok. But I'm not deadlifting 225."

"Yes you are."

"Ok, I am."

What can I say, Bruce has this odd Jedi Mind Trick power without being trained in the ways of the Force. He tells you to lift a weight and you do because you feel shame that you're only lifting a third of what he just did.

I was still worried though. I mean, this had the makings of a bad Tarrantino movie with a bloodbath ending. Look at the key players:

Al - Mr. Fire Department Mini Spartan who works out at home AND THEN comes to the gym. In the same day.

Bruce the Moose - The man who lifts more than anyone else in the gym and then yells at you to "smell victory" in order to motivate you during your lifts. 

Garrett - A fine member of our Maui Police Department who is real strong and who I have never seen back down from any workout yet.

Shauna - She's just off. She's skinny as a Southeast Asian refugee and still thinks she has to do Crossfit, run to Iao and come home and do P90X or Insanity too. 

Dom - Small filipino guy who just joined the gym but puts up numbers like he's been doing it for years.

Then there was me, Mr. I Hate Cardio, who just told everyone that he was looking for more material for his blog because it was getting boring.

Well shit, here you go Mr. Antone, better blogging material for you on a silver platter. We've got drama, pain and suffering all before you have lunch. 

So like a bunch of dumbasses we all just followed Al and set up our deadlift bars and picked our handstand push-up spots. 

Me and Garrett were the last to finish. I wish I could tell you my time but AL COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO SET UP THE DIGITAL CLOCK. Thanks buddy. 

Not that it mattered. We were smoked, especially me and Garrett. He was sitting down outside trying to breathe and I was lying down on the floor because my back felt like Bruce Lee had given it the six inch punch. 

We rested for a little bit in front of the fans then we got ready to run our first 400 meters. During the run I thought, "Ok, this isn't so bad."

Then I got back and dropped down for my first burpee and my arms were like, "WTF is wrong with you?"

I managed to finish my 10 burpees and got in NO double-unders. I tried, I swear.

Same thing happened in the second round, but then the third round I got mad.

I was like, for real? We're doing back to back WOD's? Eff this crap. 

I took off my shirt and I don't know what was going through my mind but I was determined to run with Al.

Stupid right? Well I was following Mr. Spartan all the way up and all the way back. I pulled the old Days of Thunder trick and drafted right in back of him.

I got a good head start on my burpees but then my friggen double unders was not there at all. I did one.

So you know what my final score was today? One. One double-under.

Anyway, that was the story of our noon class today. Thank you God for the material.

And to Bump and Kristi, come back soon. Please. Because Al and Bruce are trying to kill us.

Later gang,

Rod

Solution To Writer's Block . . . Go Back to the Beginning

So I've been having a hard time getting this blog up and running again. Loss of motivation, writer's block, getting old and lazy, aliens kidnapped me and replaced me with a clone of myself but I don't realize that I'm not the original copy of Rod Antone . . . whatever.

Anyway, there's a solution to this I feel. Read some Hunter S. Thompson and go back to the beginning. Back to when it all started. Jump into the DeLorean and hit 88 mph and revisit 2010 again when I first started my Crossfit journey at RFM.

I looked back at my first blog on September 28, 2010 and found this. My first post about Bump taking me through an introduction workout:

"The place is nothing more than a garage with weights all around and ropes hanging from the ceiling. But he's got me sweating after a 3 minute warm up and then has me lying down on the ground and gasping for air over the next seven minutes. I couldn't believe it. We did something called thrusters and burpees back to back and I almost saw the bright light and went over to the other side. It was nuts. 

Meanwhile I look around the gym and there are high school girls ripping through a more advanced workout than I just did. It was embarrassing. And painful. I was hooked."

Haha. Oh yes, I remember that day well. I didn't know anyone's name, just Bump and that his cute fiancee's name was Kristi. But I remember seeing Lori and Kehau and Frank and Derek all jam at the workout. (Kehau you're going to laugh but the first thought when I saw you was "big shoulders and small shorts" hahaha)

I also remember foolishly thinking that "Yeah the guys don't look THAT in shape . . . I can do this crap."

Well more than two years later and I'm still trying to do "that crap." The workouts are still hard, and challenging, and I'm still hooked.

And yes, there are those workouts that I still see the "bright light" but I no longer feel like I'm gonna die. Instead I know that this is just another workout and all I have to do is lie down in front of the fan and rest for a bit.

When I look back at it the journey has been more than just a physical one. I got some confidence back, some "mojo" as Austin Powers called it, something that kept deteriorating along with my health. My wife and I had decided to split, about to send my son to the mainland, was still working freelance and not making much money and still just basically finding my way back to . . . myself really.

RFM helped. Bumper and I really never talked in high school but God must have sensed that he could help me because we drank beers and talked several times that night at my 20th year reunion.

Things work out for a reason. Sometimes I say that RFM saved me, but that's not true, or that's not accurate as we say in journalism.

RFM revived me. Like defibrillators shock a body into working again, that's what RFM did for me. That first workout was a shock, and it revived me.

Not sure what I'm trying to say here, maybe I'm just trying to remind myself how this all started.

One final note for today, we did 30 manmakers for yesterday's workout. My time was 6:34. Last March it was more than 7 minutes.

Like Hunter S. Thompson once said . . . "Buy the ticket, take the ride." Been fun so far guys, let's keep it going.

Later,

Rod

I Hate . . . Blogging

It's been a while, a couple weeks actually, since I wrote anything in this blog.

I gotta be honest here folks, I've not been feeling it.

The I Hate Cardio blog was supposed to keep me honest, force me to stick to Crossfit if my workouts were on display for the world to see.

But ya know, I'm addicted. I'm going to keep going to Raw Fitness Maui until I get tired of it or suffer a major injury. The way things are going the second will happen long before the first.

So, I don't need this blog for that reason anymore. What then?

The only other reason is . . . I like people reading it.

For real. I'm a Leo, feeding my ego is a way of life. I need attention, which is why marriage didn't suit me I think.I hate to be ignored.

Now, lest you think I'm blaming you, the reader (or the non-reader if you want to get technical), I'm not. I blame myself.

It's not you, it's me.

Really. I've been so damn boring lately, who the hell would want to read this crap. My blog sounds like this:

"Oh today sucked because I was weak. Or slow. Or because I had the wrong sort of shoes on. Blah blah  blah blah blah."

I sound like a whining asshole. I don't even want to listen to me! Forget it.

No, if I'm going to keep writing this blog it's going to change. We all have to evolve. "Get stronger or get weaker." Applies to the Box and applies to the Blog.

So, to exercise some marketing techniques here, what makes a blog fun to read?

Personally I find that if I (1) write about my friends at RFM (2) make fun of myself or them and (3) say something interesting or exciting then usually I get an uptick in readership.

So therefore, I will employ all three. Not tonight though, because I'm not in the mood.

Gonna hit the box  tomorrow  though. Hopefully I find some inspiration.

Later . . . I think,

Rod

My Throat Still Hurts But It's Time to Get A Bloggin

Look, I'm not going to blame it all on sickness but . . .

I've been stricken with the strep. As in, in the throat. Praise God for antibiotics.

I noticed something was wrong last week Tuesday, when I could not even complete one round of the WOD.

Those of you who know me know that while I may be slow, I'll finish the WOD. But Tuesday I was miserable. Everything hurt and I didn't know why.

That night I started getting body aches, had a fever of 104 and still had the chills after putting on thermal underwear and socks. Oh yeah, and my throat hurt so bad I could barely drink water.

The next day I looked up "strep throat symptoms" on Google and sure enough, there was a wall of yellow crap behind my tonsils. I felt like I had been infested with Aliens. Ugh.

But thanks to Kaiser, lots of fluids and amoxicillin, I'm back. Had my first workout today and did my best, even though my throat was still a little sore. Here are some highlights:

- deadlift was 260 and it was reasonably easy. Next time I'll go up to 270. Maybe.
- pull-ups were weak, did three sets of five reps of weighted pull-ups using the 53 pound kettle bell. It sucked.
- the WOD was a simple and straightforward three rounder, :30 seconds of work followed by :30 seconds of rest, like so:


:30 kettle bell swings
:30 rest
:30 sit-ups
:30 rest
:30 double unders
:30 rest

After three rounds I ended up with about 180 something reps. My weak points were of course the double unders but at round two I managed to get 25 reps. My DU's have been sucking lately so I was happy with that at least.

Okay gang, gotta get serious about the workouts and my eating habits. Nothing like a bout with a painful illness to make you not take your health for granted. So let's get started.

See you at the box 'cause I'm back. For good this time.

Peace,

Rod

Hana Relay Rocks and so does the WOD Afterwards

So. I wasn't going to run the Hana Relay.

Haven't been running, haven't been jogging, haven't even been walking. A week prior to the race I didn't even go to any Crossfit workouts.

But Kristi sees the entertainment value of having me on the team so they sign up FOR ME . . .

And you know, I'm glad they did.

So Friday night I take it easy, get some good rest and then come Saturday I put on our killer new RFM "Jerk" shirts for the race. They're sweet.

I saw earlier that RFM had me listed to run just one leg, a 2 miler that was all downhill. I didn't blame them after last year's race. I ran super slow and we were like in last place. There were no other teams around us for miles.

This year I needed some redemption so I told the team I'd meet them at Baldwin Park for the leg there. I wasn't registered to do that leg but I wanted to do it last year, just because it was through my home town and I know the route by heart.

So I got there, threw my bag in Shauna and Jun's truck and started running with Jun and Bill on leg three, from Baldwin Park to Hookipa Park, a little more than 3 miles.

This first leg sucked. My back hurt and I was out of breath. Runners were passing me left and right, one of them a silver haired guy with a knee brace and a t-shirt that said "Motrin in Motion" or something like that.

I made it though and on the way out I grabbed some Motrin from that same old guy. After about an hour and a half the Motrin kicked in and I was thinking about running again. So they let me run leg 10 with Brent, a mile downhill and a mile uphill.

This time it went a little bit better and even though I was moving kinda slow I made some decent time.

Before too long it was time for the last leg through Hana Town. Marcus said "You're coming right?" and I said yeah, why not.

We chugged a beer and Bump, Brent, Marcus, Lori and I ran the last leg. Crossing the finish line was pretty awesome. Drinking beer afterwards and the Red Sand beach was even more awesome but I don't have time to write about that today.

Then we get back on Monday and we have a cool little WOD that requires no legs (thank God), a blessing for all of us that ran the relay. AMRAP 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 sit-ups. I got 9 rounds so I was pretty stoked about that.

Been a good weekend/start of the week for me guys, hope you're having fun too.

Later,

Rod

Back to the Blog and the Box

In case you haven't noticed this blog has been AWOL along with my presence at RFM.

No biggie. Last week it was meetings, meetings and more meetings.

Then on Monday it was a holiday and I didn't show up again. At that point they put out a missing person's poster on the RFM website with my picture on it. Haha. Funny mathafathas.

So I showed up on Tuesday. Sometimes the schedule sucks and you just can't make it into the gym and that was last week. Sue me.

But I'm back and just in time, because Tuesday's workout was just right. Push-ups, sit-ups and some running. Cool.

Except the only other person with me was the new girl Allison, who looked like she could run like a gazelle. Damn these new members who are already in shape, how the hell am I supposed to enjoy their pain?

So the WOD consisted of running 200 meters, then coming back and doing as many push-ups as you could in whatever time you had left from a minute and a half (1:30). Then you run again and come back and do as many sit-ups as possible. Run again and do push-ups again then run again and finish off with sit-ups.

Anyway, we start and me and Allison are neck and neck. Neither of us are breathing hard. Then I get back in the gym and I start pumping out the push-ups. Something in my mind said to just go for broke because I wouldn't get a chance later. I was aiming for 60 but I got 50 instead.

I could go on but there's nothing more to this story except that I never got close to running with Allison again. I was winded and she her stride was . . . well, gazelle-like. I ended up with 98 reps total which means the other three push-up/sit-up sessions were pitiful. Thank God for that first round.

The next day though . . . crap I'm still feeling Wednesday's workout.

Back-squats for strength then 12-9-6 reps of dumbbell power cleans, dead-hang pull-ups and burpees.

This was humbling. First off, we had to use half our body weight for the dumbbells so I had to use 50's. Painful.

Then the dead-hang pull-ups were a disaster. I used to be able to do 12 but with this weird shoulder injury I did six then went dead after the first round.

The easiest part were the burpees. Wait, what did I say. Hell yes, you heard it. The burpees were the easiest part. I speak the truth.

What say you RFM bretheren?

Peace,

Rod

Running Like Fred Flintstone

So the other day I talked about doing the Iao run with some RFM members who are training for the Hana Relay.

I hate running but I went because if I'm going to run the relay I better put in some time on the road. Plus RFM was close due to Robert and Kristi being out of town, so I really had no excuses.

So that morning I grabbed my workout clothes and looked for my shoes . . . and couldn't find them anywhere.

Crap. It was getting late so I just left. I thought maybe I could stop by the mall and grab some shoes but I never got the chance.

So 4 o'clock rolls around and I don't want to run but I do want to do SOMETHING that will get the heart pumping. Anyway, I got dressed, parked up the street and walked over to where Kathy and Kalaheo were standing, with no shoes. Shauna and the others came up soon afterwards and everyone was like:

"Where are your shoes?"

"Are you seriously going barefoot?"

"You're crazy."

No I'm not crazy. Just didn't have time to get new shoes and really wanted to do some sort of workout.

And I didn't trust myself to workout at home by myself. I'm a Crossfitter, I need my gym-peeps. They keep me going.

In this case, they kept me going all the way up to the road that leads into Iao Valley and about two or three turns into the valley itself. After that my back gave out and I had to turn around and head back to the car.

Not a bad workout though, next time hopefully I'll make it to the end with the rest of the group.

Then again, next time I also hope to have shoes.

Peace.

Rod

Damn You Shoulder and Running on Tuesday?

Handstand push-ups used to be my favorite workout.

Then came the shoulder problems.

Damn it.

Today was five rounds of 20 double unders then 10 handstand push-ups.

Shauna finished in less than 5 minutes. I took more than nine.

Nuff said.

Sheesh. Okay, gotta spin this into a more positive light.

Perhaps this is a ploy by the Crossfit gods to force me to concentrate on other things. Such as training to run.

The Hana Relay is coming up soon and I've got the cardio of a sloth when it comes to running.

Gotta get busy. The gang is running tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. Not sure I can make that.

I gotta do something though. Don't focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can do.

Right?

Later gang,

Rod

It's Always Worse Than It Seems

So today's WOD was 12, 9 and 6 reps of thrusters with a 200 meter run in between each set.

Thrusters. My natural enemy. I've hated them since Bump had me do them for my introduction Crossfit workout many moons ago.

I've come a long way since then, somewhat. I pondered what weight to use in my mind. Ikaika said 115 would probably be as heavy as he went. He said he and Bump did some crazy WOD involving thrusters of 135 that hurt him for days afterwards.

Haha, good thing we weren't doing 135 right? Yeah.

Then during the warm-up I see Ikaika give me a troubled face and he pointed to the board. It took a while for me to see it but next to the thrusters was this symbol: (135/95).

That of course translates to "prescribed weight for men is 135 and 95 for women."

I read that and said, "ONE THIRTY-FIVE?" in a really high voice, because right then it felt like someone had kicked me in my nuts.

Ah crap. Seriously? I told Bob and he just flat out said no way. he said "I did 85 pounds last time. Maybe I can do 95 this time. Maybe."

Bob was keeping it real. Unfortunately keeping it real for me probably meant I had to do 135.

So yeah, me and Ikaika put on 135. Marcus came in for the 5 p.m. class right before we started and saw the 135 and he actually looked concerned. I'm not used to seeing that look on his face, usually he's the gung-ho, go all the way sorta guy in our gym.

(Probably the reason why he passes out first during every party too. Marcus parties like he does his WOD's, he doesn't hold anything back. Good for his cardio, bad for his internal organs. But I digress.)

I tried one out and surprisingly it wasn't too bad. Of course I know my body, after three of these things I was going to be in trouble. I had to strategize. Maybe three sets of four reps for the first round?

The countdown had already started so I had little time to come up with anything else. Three sets of four reps it is.

It was a good strategy because I wasn't completely wasted at the end of the first round but it meant I was the last one out of the gym to go do my 200 meter. The second round was worse but still manageable and the third round I managed to crank out six straight reps. I was in some pain but by then my thought was it would actually hurt worse to stop and pick that damn bar up again.

The running also sucked because my back tightened up, surprise, surprise.

But hey, we survived. And as much as I hate thrusters I always feel better after doing them. Mostly because I figure it'll be a while before I have to do them again.

Seriously though I feel pretty good.

But let's not do 135 pound thrusters again anytime soon. Thanks.

See ya tomorrow gang,

Rod

Samongan Training With Tehau

First off, CONGRATS TO MR. AND MRS. ROBERT AND KRISTI KIKUCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, our fearless leaders at RFM are getting hitched finally!!! They had a small, intimate family wedding today and we've got a reception tomorrow.

As someone who used to be married I give Bump credit for jumping on the wagon again. Then again, Kristi is a sweetheart so the decision wasn't that difficult I'm sure.

In any case, I don't have a picture of the married couple yet but when I do I will insert it here:


In the meantime, let us return to our blog, which, if you haven't figured it out by now, ran into a little snag today.

Mainly, RFM was closed because said owners were getting hitched.

So, either I had to (1) workout at home and write about that, (2) break into the RFM gym or (3) workout at another Crossfit gym.

I know, I was kinda scared about option 3 myself. I've never Crossfitted anywhere else except RFM. But then again, Kehau is still an RFMer at heart.

So yeah, I worked out at Crossfit Upcountry today with Kehau coaching me. It was like old times. I would do a movement, she would mock me then laugh. Repeat.

Good times, good times.

So I get to Crossfit Upcountry and we start warming up and I notice that Kehau's warm-ups are exactly like RFM's warm-ups except 8 times faster.

For example, Kristi would say something like this during a warm-up for power cleans: "Plant your feet, explode and get that extension."

Kehau's version was like this: "Plantyourfeetexplodeandgetthatextension."

Needless to say the warm-up went by a bit faster.

Then we did the cash-out after that, which is usually done at the end of the WOD. Because of this she called it the "buy-in" for all you Vegas fans.

The "buy-in" today was to put a rubber band around a partner and hold him/her back while they try to run across the parking lot. Then you put on the rubber band and drag them all over the place. Like so:

Okay, see that kid? Yeah, small kine weight difference between us. He's like in high school and would maybe weigh a buck fifty if his sweatpants were wet. I actually felt bad for him. I know Kehau did this on purpose just for laughs. Well that and there really was nobody else in my weight class at the gym, damn skinny King K kids.

Anyway we had to run back and forth, four times each. I won't lie, I was winded. The kid is a high school wrestler so this was nothing for him. He had this look on this face afterwards that said, "You okay uncle?"

Shaddup and let's get on with the WOD.

So the strength workout were these funky things called snatch deadlifts which were basically wide grip deadlifts. They really made my back tight so after three sets of five of 135 I had to loosen up. What was great was they had this really hard ball, I think it was a lacrosse ball, that did wonders for my back. I don't know where you get one of those in Hawaii but I need one so I can work out the kinks before and after every WOD.

Then it was time for the WOD, 21,15 and 9 reps of hang power cleans and release push-ups.

I was okay with that until Kehau demonstrated and I saw I had to squat all the way down to the bottom.

I don't usually swear on this blog but I'll be honest. Right there and then I said, "Fuck."

Power cleans are okay but hang power cleans are a bitch and if you add that squat it's a freakin beast.

In other words I hate them.

So we start and sure enough, I do the first 10 and I'm winded. Only 11 more to go in the first round damn it.

Plus I don't realize it when I set up but the sun was angled so that every time I squatted I was blind.  I would blame Kehau for that too but I picked my spot so . . . yeah, my fault.

Afterwards I took my usual spot on the floor and in front of the fan and noticed that NOBODY ELSE WAS LYING DOWN.

What the hell? How was nobody else tired after that?

Oh yeah, because THEY ALL JUST GRADUATED FROM KING K OR ARE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

Damn kids. Can't wait to get back to my RFM geezer gym on Monday.

Kidding. It was good to workout with Kehau again. Not sure what kind of pose we're trying to do in this picture below but we looked retarded as usual.

I know you're going to read this tonight Kehau, so let's just say you'll always be Maui's strongest Samoan/Tongan hybrid woman to me. Thanks for the workout.

Talofa folks,

Rod

Foiled Again

Still not sure if I'm just tired from not coming to RFM regularly or if the WOD's this week are just kicking my ass but we've have some humdingers lately.

(Yes thank you that was my first attempt at using the word "humdingers", I think it worked.)

Yesterday was another simple but terrible four rounds of the 400 meter run followed by 15 toes to bar.

Oh yes, we had a one minute rest in between rounds.

See, this is where sometimes in Crossfit you get to involve some strategy.

I figured, just go all out on the first 400 meter run. After that you're golden because no matter what time you come in everyone has to wait one minute. I'll always be a minute ahead of everyone.

Which was absolutely correct. I think the first two rounds I was way ahead of everyone.

Then came Shauna. Damn it.

She was doing her T to B's pretty quick and she's a good steady runner. Not really super fast but just maintaining the same speed for all four runs.

That's hard to do, especially for me although yesterday was better than most. My back didn't start tightening up until the 3rd round and that's where she passed me.

I think our times ended up being three seconds apart, with her ahead of me.

Grrrrr...

Okay, today we're doing push-presses followed by double unders. Hopefully this goes better today for me.

On another note.

So, a while back I posted a link to a 60 Minute story about how sugar and corn syrup are basically killing us.

Yep. Bottom line is, get your sweets from fruits or not at all.

They did a follow up this past Sunday: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57481946/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

From what I could tell, a portion of the new information in the latest report is that glucose attaches itself to cancer cells and FEEDS IT.

That is messed up. Open up your fridge and look inside. See that cake? It's evil. That ice cream? Toxic.

That Komoda Bakery cream puff? That's Satan himself waiting to kill you from the inside with his pitchfork.

This makes me sad because some of my favorite foods involve sugar: guri guri, cookies and cream, blueberry cheesecake, that fancy dessert at Hy's Restaurant in Honolulu where they drizzle fresh fruit with melted chocolate . . .

No more. No more.

But how do I stop my son from eating sugar? That's the tough one.

That and how bad do I feel for HC&S? They're growing acres and acres and acres of sugar and now this report comes out. I wonder if this has affected their operations or profit margin.

I can't help it, I'm a Paia boy. The sugar industry raised my family and put food on the table for my mom and my aunts and uncles.

Sigh. Getting off point here a little, sorry folks.

See ya at the box,

Rod

So Good You Almost Puke

Made it back for the first workout since last week Wednesday, which in Crossfit Years is the equivalent of not working out for two months. I think the ratio is for every day you miss of Crossfit it equals two weeks of not going to the regular gym.

Seriously.

So the workout was 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps of KB swings while going in the other direction for burpee box jumps.

Holy. Crap.

It starts out pretty easy because 10 KB swings ain't nothin. But then those burpee box jumps start adding up real fast.

In total we did 55 BBJ's and at the end of the WOD I felt like throwing up. In fact everyone did.

Pretty sure no one actually yacked but it sure felt like it.

Also it didn't help that it's August and the box is like an oven. Swear to God we're cooking in there.

I was squatting yesterday and I couldn't see anything as I was going down with the weight because sweat was in my eyes the whole time.

In other news, went to Kaiser for my first round of physical therapy and the doc seemed to know what she was doing. Did some shoulder bending movements and it actually felt better. Just gotta remember to do those same movements again during my lunch break.

Today we've got four rounds of running 400 meters and toes to bar. I think I'll do okay if I can keep my grip on the bar.

Best of luck to everyone, cheehoo.

Rod

This Is What 40 Looks Like Now Biyatches

Wondering where I've been all week? Here's what happened.

So earlier this summer I get a call from my good buddy Brian, who I went to college with back in the day at the University of Colorado.  He tells me "I'm getting married, can you be in the wedding?" I'm like, sure dude, when?

Turns out it's August 4th. Which is my birthday. Which this year would be my 40th birthday.

As in fortieth. Four Zero. The big 4 Ohhhh.

Shoot. Why the hell not right? I'll see friends, taste some good Sonoma wine and celebrate my 40th in st style.

Anyway, so this is me, in a tuxedo for a wedding on my 40th birthday. I figured at least I'll have a good pic of me at 40 and it's not bad. I've seen worse.

But the pic is just extra. The best part was when I first got there. A friend of mine picked me up from the airport and we headed straight for the bar in the city where my college buddies were waiting. There were about five of us total, all from the same dorm where we met back in 1990, our freshman year of college.

I walked in and each one of those guys were like:

"Dude, what the hell?"

"How much are you lifting? You're huge!"

"Are you using supplements or steroids?"

And the best one was . . .

"I thought men can't build muscle once you hit 40?"

When my buddy asked me that I was like, WHAT????

You're kidding me right? That's ALL we do at RFM. We build muscle.

Yeah, maybe we don't do all the sculpting that some other programs do but I'd rather look like how I do now and be able to be strong and fast (okay I'm not fast but I'm faster than I would be without RFM) than look like a body builder and not be able to do anything.

Besides, just hearing my friends talk I felt like a body builder. It was awesome.

The whole trip they kept asking me about Crossfit and the workouts and if there was a diet involved as well. I told them about Paleo and I could see it in their eyes that they were totally curious though not convinced enough to check it out.

Ah well, what can you do, right?

As for me I'm so ready to get back into the gym. Hoping to train twice as hard and stick to Paleo more strictly.

Maybe not this weekend though. This is the weekend that Bump and Kristi get married!

Good times people, good times. Stay classy San Diego.

Peace!

Rod

No Juice and Ready to Press

Back in college a friend of mine had a t-shirt that he would always wear when playing football that said "No Juice" in the front.

For the longest time I didn't know what it meant but he was a big local guy and a lot of the small haole/katonk kids from my dorm that went to the Hawaii parties on campus (hey, we had the best looking girls) were intimidated by him.

The conversations would go something like this:

Haole friend: "Rod that No Juice guy is staring at me, I think he wants to beat me up."
Me: "That's because you're the only one who didn't take off his shoes when you came inside his house."
Haole: "Is that bad?"
Me: "Just take off your shoes and have a beer."

Anyway for years he was just known as "No Juice". It wasn't until months later that I noticed the back of his shirt that said ". . . just pure genetics."

Juice had referred to steroids. No juice, meaning I'm all natural babe.

I bring this up because I had someone's teenage son tell their parents that they thought I was on roids.

Seriously? All I gotta say is, thank you kid and thank you RFM. I've gotten my shoulders to college levels again when I lived in the gym.

My shoulders are about the only areas on my body that I can get the most improvement from. I hate legs and my chest is torn and I have a lower back problem.

But even though my shoulder is tweaked it's still pretty strong. That's why I'm looking forward to doing shoulder presses today. If I keep my grip pretty narrow I should be almost at full strength.

At least that's the theory. We'll see how it goes.

Later gang,

Rod

Missing the Filthy 50 and Why My Knees Hurt

So I missed a helluva workout on Saturday, which, had I known what it would be I probably would have gone.

It's the Filthy 50, the father of all long and twisted WOD's out there.

Goes something like this:

50 box jumps
50 jumping pull-ups
50 KB swings
50 walking lunges
50 knees to elbows
50 push presses
50 back extensions
50 wall balls
50 burpees
50 double unders

It's terrible and awe inspiring at the same time. Bob didn't go on Saturday either and we both looked at the board with a sense of regret.

RFM instills a sense of testing yourself at every opportunity, and the Filthy 50 is a better test than some. I noticed Jun took the longest time, around 42 minutes. I have to imagine that I would have been around there. Ikaika was around 28 or 27 minutes I think. He said the back to back wall balls and burpees were the worst.

I can only imagine. Damn it.

So today I tried to push it, we had 4 rounds of:

:30 seconds of dumbell lunges
:30 sec rest
:30 sec push-ups
:30 rest
:30 KB swings
:30 sec rest

The thing is for the dumbell lunges you needed to do 50 percent of your weight, which for me is 100 pounds or 50 lbs dumbells in each hand. WTF.

My lunges felt terrible, and my knees felt like I was smashing them into the floor. I had to get two floor mats to pad the ground. That helped.

By my knees are still sore. But worse than that I want to do the Filthy Fifty.

Damn it.

Later,

Rod

Birthdays for the Big Boys (Kristi too) and the No-Pain WOD

SO . . . it figures after I say I had a dream about not being able to make the WOD that I don't make the WOD on Wednesday.

But, I went on Friday, which was awesome and terrible at the same time. More on that later.

First off, big birthday wishes to Kristi, Ikaika and Marcus. All three of them July babies.

Kristi is about as sweet as Beezlebump is evil, which means she is very sweet. But get her toasted and the HHHAAAAAAAAAAAWAIIAAAAAAN comes out small kine. She's awesome.

Ikaika and Marcus are of course the young guns in the gym, always lifting harder, running faster and pushing my limits. But it's because of them and others in the gym that I push myself too, just in an attempt to keep up with them.

Let us pause for some pictures:

Yes, I looked for the most embarrassing pics I could find. Get over it, it's my blog ya bastards.

No, but these guys make the gym what it is. Whether it's Ikaika getting that Mike Tyson tattoo on his head or Kristi yelling at me in the gym or Marcus . . . well let's just take yesterday for example.

Marcus comes into the gym looking slightly sluggish, which is unusual as he is a ball of energy most times. I asked what was up and he said he had just eaten at Da Kitchen, specifically the kanak attack plate.

Marcus said he didn't even know what a  "kanak attack" was so I explained. It's the "eat till you sleep" Hawaiian paralysis that you get when you eat too much.

"Ah," he said. "That explains everything."

Anyway so we do power cleans for strength and of course, Marcus has to go the extra mile despite a full stomach and did power squat cleans instead. Then he went into the bathroom and locked the door for a bit. I don't blame him, because we had 15, 12, 9 repetitions of over head squats, pull-ups and burpees.

And Lord knows you don't want a full stomach when you do overhead squats. All that pressure and you might have an embarrassing episode in the gym.

So we start the WOD and I throw on 95 lbs. I keep up with Marcus for the first round of 15. The whole round. Then I have to actually catch my breath and realize that nothing hurts.

I mean, sure, the WOD is tough but my shoulder didn't hurt and neither did my back, the two things that usually hold me back.

So now I'm thinking, damn, no excuses. Time to workout.

By the time I did the last workout I was floored. Like on the floor gasping for air and head spinning.

Marcus, Ken and Bruce had finished before me but we were all right behind each other. Even Bruce was on the ground.

(By the way folks, Bruce works out even though he's been getting migraines at the gym. Can we force this animal to take it easy? Probably not, just concerned about the braddah.)

Good workout and great way to start the weekend.

Take care gang and happy birthday to all of you again!

Rod

I Dream of WODs

So it's finally happened.

I had my first official Crossfit dream last night.

Like a lot of my dreams it starts out sorta realistic then turns sorta absurd.

I dreamt that the whole RFM gym was doing a whole day of WOD's. The first one was the longest then we had a bunch of other smaller but just as painful WOD's afterwards throughout the entire day.

It sorta reminded me of the Crossfit Games except anybody could do it. It was in a large park and there were hundreds of people there.

The first WOD, the big one, involved running a mile then coming back and doing a bunch of body movements and weight lifting. Fifty push-ups, 40 sit-ups, 30 of something else and so on and so forth.

Then after that we had a bunch of other WOD's. I can't remember each one but it was like if we took the entire week's board at RFM and did all of them in one day. I think we had 8 hours to do all the WOD's.

BUT . . . here's the catch.

I DIDN'T GET TO WORKOUT.

Yup, that's right. It was my own freakin dream and I had to work. I was in my workout clothes and everything and had to go to a meeting.

I was so pissed that, and this is where it gets absurd. After my meeting I found a DeLorean in the parking lot of the Uptown Chevron and tried to go back in time so I could join everyone else on the WOD. Except I didn't have fuel and I had to have Kehau and Marcus pedal on stationary bikes to jump start the flux capacitor or something like that.

Because if anyone can hit the 9.21 gigawatts I needed to go Back to the Future it's those two, right?

I don't know if I made it back to start the all day WOD because right about then I woke up. Even though it was a dream I was still upset that I missed the WOD.

Sigh. You know, if I was going to have a Crossfit dream you would think I would dream about outlifting Bump or coming in first or something. Freakin A dude.

Whatever. So. Back to the workout.

Today was tough. Five hang squat cleans, 10 lateral burpees and a 400 meter run for three rounds.

I went heavy but not as heavy as I was supposed to. Did 135 instead of 170 and it still sucked.

The runs sucked but Bob was there to coach me through it. He kept saying stuff like "expand your stride" and "let's go, it's downhill now."

Simple yet effective. So much so that on the last round when we were coming back for the last 200 meters I took off and caught up to one of our younger members, who is still in high school.

Nothing like a last minute blast of energy to make up for the entire workout. Sixteen minutes wasn't going to impress anyone but I felt the burn.

Okay guys, I'm going back to bed tonight to dream a little Crossfit dream again. And this time I'm making the WOD.

Shoots,

Rod

Shoulder, back and legs are in pain . . . and I like it

Thrusters. What can I say about thrusters?

I hate 'em but I sorta love them too. Why, because only after thrusters does my body really feel like I worked out.

Take yesterday's workout, 9 thrusters and 9 pull ups for five rounds. Pretty simple and pretty devastating.

Ken was there at the workout and me and him were neck and neck . . . for the first round. Kept it close for the second round too but the third round was tough. I could no longer do 9 unbroken thrusters.

It got worse and worse until I was doing three thrusters at a time. My pull-ups were consistent though, but I was concerned about the "snap, crackle and pop" sounds that my right shoulder was making the whole time.

Afterwards I couldn't catch my breath and had to roll around on the floor for my usual five to ten minutes. It was good though. Somehow Crossfit ain't legit until you've made love to the floor for a bit.

Today looks like it could be just as tough. Shuttle runs of 10, 20, and 30 meters, followed by five burpees then AMRAP double unders. Rest a minute between rounds for four rounds.

That doesn't look as bad as yesterday's but I am probably wrong about that. I think Bump and Kristi have been increasing the WOD pain since our strength workouts were tweaked a little so that right now it's pretty easy. It'll get harder as we have to put more weights on but right now it's cruise city.

Oh and here's another one, how many of you would like to see a noon workout?

There's quite a few of us who go to the 4 p.m. that are interested, I'm thinking there has to be people from the other classes that would go to it to.

I'll post something on the RFM Facebook page, or you can reply here and tell me what you think. Kristi said if there's at least five people she'd do it.

Later gang,

Rod

Welcome Back to my Back and All Good Things . . .

Well you knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

For the past couple of blogs I've been complaining about my shoulder being injured, and I know some of you . . . well me at least . . . were wondering, "Okay, how long before my back acts up again?"

Got the answer yesterday. I knew it too as soon as I looked at the board.

Run 400 meters, swing 25 kettlebells, for four rounds.

Simple. No rest. No complicated olympic weightlifting movements.

But oh so very harsh for my lower back.

Shauna witnessed my back in action yesterday, she said she noticed by the second round that I was running "off center."

Didn't really think about what I must look like but yeah, I do whatever I have to do with my legs to offset what I'm feeling on the lower left side of my back.

I don't know, maybe I just have to row, or ride the bike.

Or better yet, maybe I have to lose the gut. It's coming back. I think it's my son's popsicles. Me and him eat like three each after dinner.

And then there's the Hana Relay coming up, so running is going to be kinda important during that event. RFM is putting together another team and I've seen the squad, all good runners. I'd like to join but I really don't want to hold them back this year.

Some of my other friends were talking about running and putting our own team together. That might work out better.

Oh, and then there's one more thing.

Got a job offer out of state. Out of country in fact. Something I can't really refuse.

It's been good to be back home on Maui and I'm really going to miss the crew at RFM. Shoot, Kehau still hangs with us every now and then and she still misses us to the point of tears. It was very touching to see her at the party this past weekend.

I think I'm still in shock. I don't have to go but I'd be stupid to pass this up. And I guess I can keep working out by reading the RFM blog from wherever I am as long as I have a well stocked gym with kettlebells and bumper plates.

Ah well boys and girls, we'll talk about this later. I'm not leaving tomorrow or next week or next month. Definitely here AT LEAST until my son leaves for California in mid-August so we've got some WOD's to do first.

Wow I feel sad.

Okay, enough, we'll talk later gang.

Rod

Shoulder Problems Part IV or How I Went to the Doctor and Actually Got Some Helpful Advice

So, the shoulder issues are continuing. Not too bad, I can comb my hair but still don't have my full strength back yet.

BUT . . . I did something adult today. Amazingly enough, I made an appointment and went to the doctor.

The guy was in his 30's and his profile said he was a Penn State grad who had an "interest" in sports medicine. I was somewhat pleased to read that but didn't get too excited.

Sure enough he shows up and he's as skinny as a twig and doesn't look like he knows much about sports. But he's got a Penn State lanyard around his neck which tells me he follows college sports at least because you don't go to Penn State and wear a lanyard because you're not proud of your college sports team. I'm guessing the whole Pa Joe Paterno thing has caused him many a sleepless night.

Anyway, the doc moved my shoulder in all manner of directions trying to find the exact location of my pain. Then he made me feel like a complete idiot. Not on purpose but just because everything he suggested was pretty common sense:

Doc: "Well you don't have a tear but you definitely strained something in your shoulder. How did it feel after you iced it?"

Me: "Uhhhhh, iced it?"

Doc: "Well you said you were in pain, didn't you ice it afterwards?"

Me: "Uh, no. I was kinda hoping it would go away on it's own."

Doc: "Hmmm, what about some sort of anti-inflammatory? You try Motrin?"

Me:  Silence. Then finally. "No. Was I supposed to?"

Doc: Silence. Then, "you should try Motrin. And icing your shoulder. Maybe for a couple of weeks and see  how it feels."

Me: "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll do both."

Doc: "Do you know what you might have done that strained your shoulder?"

Me: "Well, we had a pretty busy week for shoulder workouts when I first felt pain several weeks ago. We   had shoulder presses and over head squats and handstand push-ups." And then I quickly added, "But I think it really started hurting when after I slept at a weird angle."

See, that was a lie. I wasn't even sure why I lied, then I realized later I didn't want him to tell me that I had to quit Crossfit. It was kinda pathetic.

Of course the doc ain't stupid, but at this point he thinks I am.

Doc: "So you had all that activity involving your shoulder but you think the pain came from sleeping wrong?"

Me: "Uh, yeaaaaaaaaahhhh. Yeah. Sleeping. That's it. Felt messed up after I woke up that . . . morning."

Doc: "Well how about you take the Motrin, ice your shoulder and also stop with any sort of shoulder involved movements at the gym until you feel better."

Damn it doc, why do you have to make so much sense? "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

Sigh.

So I go to the gym after work and tell Kristi about what the doc said and she asks me, "Wait, no shoulder movements? What are you doing here today?"

Ah crap. We had overhead squats.

Again I panic. Now Kristi was going to make me sit out of the WOD.

Me: "Really? Overhead squats . . . I don't think it'll be that bad."

Thankfully Kristi had a plan. Instead of the overhead squats/double-unders workout that everyone else did I did Annie again, which was 50-40-30-20-10 of double-unders/sit-ups.

I had a crappy time of 10:36 last week when I did it. Today I figured if I couldn't do the regular workout at least I can try to beat my time for this workout.

And I did. Came in at 10:08. Shaved off 28 seconds. I was stoked. Was hoping to come under 10 minutes though.

But I think this might be a good thing. See, I'll just start doing the workouts I did the week before and try to go for a better time. Plenty of motivation for that and it'll prevent me from thinking about how my shoulder is going to get weak as hell.

Oh yeah, then Bump comes into the gym and ties a tourniquet around my shoulder. I seriously thought my arm was going to fall off. Not looking forward to doing that again tomorrow.

Between him, Kristi and the new doc though I gotta admit I've got a good physical therapy team here. Here's hoping that the shoulder will be 100 percent again soon.

In the meantime, it's given me some material to write about again. Uhhh, thanks?

Anyway, take care gang,

Rod

Pressing Past the Pain . . . sorta

Today might have been one of the most frustrating days in my brief but happy Crossfit career at RFM.

As you know if you've been reading this blog, which according to my Google analytics page no one really is but whatever, then you know I've got something seriously messed up with my shoulder.

Like I can't even comb my hair because it requires me to raise my hand above my head.

It's frustrating and painful and sucks. And today I really, really, really needed my shoulder.

For today we were looking for our one rep max for 1) back squats, 2) presses and 3) deadlifts.

In case you missed it, presses, as in shoulder presses. As heavy as you possibly can lift.

I was so angry at my shoulder, you have no idea. Especially when I look on the board and see that Ikaika did 175.

Now I know I can do 175. I've done 185 before and that was about six months ago.

If not for this shoulder injury I could probably do more now, but whatever.

I knew I should have just done the squats and deadlifts and shined the presses but I just couldn't. Even the voice of reason, Bob, gave me a little smack down and said I should be "mature" and just wait for my shoulder to heal instead of trying to prove something.

He's right damn it. So was Bump when he said not to worsen my injury.

But then Bruce showed up and was talking about squatting barefoot because he has a broken toe and that 175 that Ikaika did was staring me in the face . . .

Well, what can I say? I've been accused of a lot of things in my life but being mature isn't one of them.

So I pressed. I figured I had a chance if I lifted fast and got the weight up quick.

I was right, I did 135, 155 and 165 easy.

Then I tried to jump to 185. No dice.

Then I went down to 175 and still I was stuck. Because of my injury I had no muscles to push through that "sticking" zone right above your head during the press.

So I had to be satisfied with 165, which felt entirely lame. But Bump pointed out that when my shoulder healed I could redo my one rep max total.

On another note I was happy with my squat (275) and my deadlift (375). Good to lift with Al and Bob because we were all around the same strength level and pushed each other just enough to lift the heaviest weights we could handle.

But I am kinda nervous to see if my pressing with my shoulder today has any consequences. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Cross your fingers for me. Later gang.

Rod

Dear Shoulder, I Miss You. Love, Rod

Ahhhh . . . I knew it was going to happen one day.

I was making some good gains and getting super strong in my shoulders over the last year, I kinda knew something was going to happen.

Not that anything tore or popped, but I have a theory.

See, my right shoulder has been having to do things that my left doesn't, because of the pec tear on my right side.

I can feel it working harder, especially these last two years at RFM, and I think it finally said, "Bro, serious? I need a freakin rest."

Even Kristi saw it yesterday, my pull-ups were so lopsided that she set up the elevated ring rows station for me instead for the WOD. Good call Kristi.

The workout was a 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pull-ups, or, as the WOD is also known, Helen.

But along with my shoulder my back was fried from doing heavy deadlifts so I replaced the run with the stationary bike.

I hadn't done such a scaled down workout in a while but you gotta listen to your body folks. Ego at the door means shoulder and back happy.

Still got a good workout although that stationary bike kicks my ass. Two minutes on that thing is tough, I think I would rather have ran but it's better for my lower back.

Anyway, the shoulder rehab is ongoing, to be continued . . .

In other news, Freddy Camacho Man Savage at CrossfitOneWorld had an interesting post recently about the people who walk into the Crossfit gym and walk out. Maybe after one workout, maybe after a week or a month but eventually they leave.

Me, I can't understand why. Sure it's tough but I can't imagine my life without it. So much so that I actually started to feel guilty because technically I was breaking one of the 10 Commandments. Yes, those ones that Moses brought down from the mountaintop. The 2nd Commandment in particular which is, "Thou shalt not have any gods before me."

See, I don't attend church regularly anymore but I get freaked out if I miss an RFM workout. In Catholic school (yes I attended private school for a little while) we learned that the 2nd Commandment wasn't just talking about actual "gods" per se but other things that you worship. Like how some people worship their car, or their house, or their job or . . . their gym.

Also this gives more credibility to the whole Beezlebump idea . . . then again he doesn't have classes on Sunday morning so there's no direct competition . . . hmmmm . . .

Whatever, I'm getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off tangent here. Back to Freddy's post.

So we've had a lot of people come and go at RFM but the people that stick in my mind didn't leave because they didn't like it. They liked it but just couldn't stay. Let's go through the list:

Tehau, Maui's former strongest Samoan/Tongan female, left because she inherited a gym upcountry. I think it's all a cover-up though. Secretly she's training in the cane fields to retake her title and she doesn't want anyone to steal her techniques. That's okay, you go get 'em Tehau, CHEEEEEEEEEEEHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Braddah Derek Meyers, left for a better job in Oregon. I miss getting mad at his jackrabbit bouncing, long distance sprinting, loudmouthed ass. Although now that I have a gimp shoulder I regret teasing him about his.

The big O, Coach Oran. He coached for as long as he could despite having some serious scheduling changes with his job at MPD. Finally had to leave because Josh Lindsey joined the gym and Oran was going to arrest him but . . .

Josh escaped and left for parts unknown. Too bad because he really liked RFM and the Crossfit WOD's. I hear he's checking out the Crossfit gyms in Mexico now.

There's a whole bunch of other people who have come and gone that I don't have pictures for. Like Brad, who set up his own gym in his house, and Patty and Heidi, who work out in the cane fields with Tehau upcountry.

Anyway we miss all of you guys, at least drop in and see us sometime for a WOD or two.

Until next time gang,

Rod

Having Some Technical Difficulties

After having some pretty good strength gains in my shoulders for months, something finally gave way recently.

Not sure what happened but it's been hard for me to raise my hand above my head, much less lift a weight. I had a hard time just combing my hair this morning damn it.

Yesterday Professor Beezlebump gave me some stretches to do and they actually worked. Didn't totally cure it but I could raise my hand higher afterwards.

The problem is I didn't take notice as to when the pain started.

So here's some helpful advice for all you RFM peeps, Crossfitters in general or just people that workout on a regular basis.

If you can, write it in your notebook the time and place you notice any body pain and what workout or event it was that came before. Might make things easier for your physical therapist when it comes to diagnosing your ills.

As it is I might have to do those ring rows for a bit until my shoulder comes back. That's not a problem, I like ring rows. It's a good stretch and a good workout, they feel pretty good.

Today we do snatches for our strength, heavy snatches. Not sure if I can do them, might have to switch to something else.

Getting old sucks gang, but at least with RFM the aging comes with increases of strength and cardio. Hate to be getting older AND weaker. That would suck.

Coolio,

Rod

Return of the "Other Guy"

Sorry for the lack of posts people. A lot of work, some play and much joy now that my son is here for the summer.

In the meantime a lot has happened in the I Hate Cardio fitness world. But first I have to talk about the most recent public appearance of this guy:

Yup, that's me like about 12 years ago. Some of my former co-workers at Hawaii News Now thought it would be amusing to flash an old news photo of me instead of what I currently look like for a phone interview I did.

You know, there was a time when I would have dreaded seeing that photo. I would have thought stuff like, "Man I wish I was still that skinny" or "look at that, a full head of hair and no chin fat."

But now I look at him and think, "This guy looks like Ralph Macchio's weak sister or a member of Menudo."

I don't miss the younger me. Ok maybe I miss the hair a little bit.

But I'm in better shape than ever before (if you minus the back pain and torn pectoral of course) and I feel pretty good about that.

I mean, back in 1998, 1999 I was going out a LOT and drinking a LOT and . . . doing all kinds of stuff I probably shouldn't have been doing. I had a 24/Hour Fitness membership as did the rest of Honolulu but I think I might have been going twice or three times a week.

I remember I forced myself to swim and run during my days off of lifting and that helped me stave off the love handles for a little while, but eventually that stuff all catches up to you when you get older.

And I really wish I had discovered Crossfit back then, I can't even tell you how much it would have changed my life for the better.

But as it is it's working out. My legs are a work in progress but my shoulders are at an all time high when it comes to strength. I cranked out push presses of 115 like it was nothing on Monday during the WOD. It was 12 push presses, 25 situps and 10 burpees. The sit-ups and burpees were tough but I managed to catch up a lot during the PP's. Got a good time that day too. Ahem, not going to mention who I beat but his name starts with I and ends with Kaika.

Hey, just sayin.

My brother even said I have reached "Murph" status.

I think the word Murf or Murph is a Maui thing because I told my friends on Oahu about it and they were clueless. Anyway it means big dude, like the kind that has no neck.

My brother said I was a Murph now. This was after I punched him in the chest for changing my Facebook status while I was still logged in.

He went down hard and was pretty pissed off. I said sorry but was kinda snickering inside.

See, that's what you get when one brother Olympic weightlifts and the other is on a Vegan diet.

Seriously. He is. He's losing weight though, something I would like the do. Hence the Paleo diet. Sorta. Had some pasta today damn it.

Okay, just gotta get serious. The workouts are coming along nicely and I'd like to have my eating habits in check as well. The 30 Day Paleo Challenge begins NOW.

Or, tomorrow, after I meet with Kehau and Shauna for drinks.

Hey, it's an important RFM event related meeting.

Cool kids, see you at the box.

Later,

Rod

My grip and hips are toasted and the most fricken awesome race ever

So me and Bump talk about zombies sometimes and how all this training at RFM will come in handy one day should the undead walk the streets.

Today I was looking for material to write about on the blog and Googled "zombie cardio" just for fun. There's some guys practicing parkour around Chicago. Pretty cool, check out the video: http://zombiefit.org/category/media/

If you think about it parkour would come in pretty handy if you came across some zombies. You could scale a wall in seconds and flip over any obstacle. Of course some of that stuff looks pretty crazy, I think I'm going to stick to RFM for now.

BUT . . . I did find a website about a ZOMBIE OBSTACLE RACE. Righteous. If you go to the webpage there's a video you can watch if you click the link under the title: http://runforyourlives.com/locations/south-temecula-ca/courseobstacles-san-diego-ca/

Sweet. But I digress. On to the workout.

Today was the perfect example of how a simple looking workout can really mess you up.

Deadlifts for strength then three rounds of 10 pistol squats and 15 toes to the bar.

First off, deadlifts. I did five reps of 305 today. Felt pretty strong but it wasn't easy.

Then the WOD. Oh man I knew I was in trouble, mostly because I can't do pistol squats.

Once upon a time I could do 10 on each leg, BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL. Now I can't even bend past my knee before I end up flat on my ass. So I gotta grab something to help me go down and get back up.

But the toes to bar ended up being worse. Yeah.

Anyway, the first round of pistol squats suck, but I manage to do the toes to bar unbroken. Then the second round of  PS really sucks and then for some reason when I try to do the T to B's my hip flexor muscles are WASTED. I can barely get my legs up.

By the third round I'm doing one toe to bar then having to rest. My grip is shot and I have NO muscles left in my legs to get them up.

I finish last. Dead last. My forearms hurt and my legs were wobbly. If the zombies attacked right there and then I would only be able to hobble to the Korean bar down the street just so I could have one last beer before I am eaten alive by the undead.

Anyway, typing makes me tired right now. Time to get some rest.

Later peeps,

Rod

Protect Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself and Start Training for the Zombie Outbreak

  So yeah, I wrap my legs.

  See, this is what happens when you do a bunch of weight lifting type WOD's again and again, week after week. You end up scraping the crap out of your shins.

  Deadlifts then power cleans then deadlifts again and each time I hit my shins it would open up my scab and I was bleeding again. My blood ended up on the bar and the floor, it was gross.

  I wasn't the only one either, everybody was getting scraped up. So one by one they all invested in high socks and other shin protecting equipment.

  I of course, went ghetto and grabbed Bruce's knee wraps and used them to wrap my legs.

  Hey, they work. Bump said I look like an escapee from Candyland but whatever. At least I'm not bleeding anymore.

  And I needed them today because we were doing heavy power snatches plus three overhead squats. And oh joy, my partner was Marcus.

  Bruddah has one speed, max out as fast as you can. We jumped up in weight super fast and before I knew it I was snatching up 175. The snatch I could handle but I had to bail on the three OHS. It was heavy, I was off balance and I felt my wrists breaking.

  But I got the snatch at least. Yay.

  Then our WOD was run 800, do 50 sit-ups, 50 kettle bell swings then run another 800 meters.

  I had to grab the 35 pound kettle bell because all the other guys took the heavy weights. (Serious, had nothing to do with me sandbagging). But my time was still 19 plus minutes. Sheesh.

  I'm getting more concerned about my cardio, particularly my running, because of what's been going on in the news lately.

  Come on, you know what I'm talking about. Guys eating the faces off of people, ripping out their own intestines, cutting off body parts and sending them in the mail. It's got all the markings of the zombie apocalypse.

  Plus the Ancient Mayan calendar predicts that December 2012 will usher in a new age . . . a zombie age probably from the looks of it.

  And if we have to survive the zombie outbreak we're going to need some good cardio, along with a 12 gauge shotgun and flamethrower. I can buy the last two, the first one I've got to earn on my own.

  SO . . . let's do it people. Get moving, because after the bullets and the gas run out all you've got are your feet.

  Peace,

  Rod

WOD Talking, Strippers in our midst and Good results but Bad times

Just in case you missed it, our good friend Freddy Camacho-man Savage posted that there's a magazine out there dedicated to Crossfit. It's called, WOD Talk. http://www.wodtalk.com/

Kinda cool looking website, I haven't checked out the stories yet but I will. I promise. Website review coming up.

Now. On to other more interesting topics. Such as the fact that Bumper and Kristi are tying the knot this summer.

A wedding. Fantastic. His and her bachelor parties. Even better.

Except this is Maui and you can't really do anything interesting. Not really.

Then I started thinking . . . you know there was a time when two of our female members made certain comments about one of our male members.

SO maybe they could give a bruddah some extra cash, have him put on a small mankini and boogie to YMCA.

That's for Kristi and the girls of course. I'd have to find something for Bumper to do.

(Hey look at that, flights to Bangkok are only $300 online!!!!)

I'm just teasing. Congrats you two. Besides, I'm not the one you should be worried about. I heard about Shauna's party bus. Bumper should be the one worried if she's planning Kristi's party. I'm an angel in comparison.

So, let's talk WOD.

Back squats for strength today and it felt pretty good. I did five reps of 225 and squatted down DEEP.

Then we did five rounds of 10 front squats, 7 handstand push-ups and a 100 meter run with 30 seconds of rest in between.

Back got a little stiff and for the first time in a long time my wrists were giving me trouble. I couldn't bend them back like you're supposed to for front squat and it sucked.

My time wasn't bad but I'm just not getting the times that I want and I keep on finishing about two minutes after the big boys.

Just gotta keep pushing it I guess. I've been getting some nice compliments from people about looking less like an out of shape slob so I'm pretty stoked about that.

But I gotta keep working on the times. NEED. FASTER. TIMES!!!

Got an 800 meter dash tomorrow. Twice.

Push push push push.

Shoots.

Rod

Anti-Aging Foods

Anybody seen this food chart recently?

Okay, so the first three I get, but what about 4 and 5? Isn't that anti-paleo? And since when is watermelon anti-aging?

Some food for thought gang. Any comments? Just checking.

Rod

Missing Fran, 100 burpees and how strength=speed

So I DIDN'T get to do Fran on Monday (21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups). I was having some "intestinal" issues that day.

I blame the shoyu chicken from last week. Knew I shouldn't have eaten that. Ugh.

But I talked to Bruce the next day who surprised me by saying, "Ho brah Fran was easy. I did all the thrusters unbroken."

I was like, damn. At first I thought this was just another example of Bruce's incredible will to lift beyond pain. Then Bumper pointed out that Bruce probably wasn't in pain to begin with.

"Guy squats 335 pounds 10 times," he explained. "Do you really think 95 pound thrusters were a problem for him?"

True. Then Sir Bumpalot added (yes I'm making more nicknames for him) "Everybody talks about improving their performance during the WOD. You want to do that you gotta hit the strength workouts hard."

Yeah. That's the ticket. Get super strong lifting heavy weights and start shredding during the WOD. I can do that. I'm in.

So, let's review Beezlebump's advice so far:

1) Concentrate on speed during the WOD. Go lighter on the weight if you have to.

2) Lift HEAVY during strength until the weights you lift during the WOD feels like paper mache.

I like this plan. Mostly because it means lifting more and being in pain less if I do it right. I'm down.

So . . . Tuesday we do snatch balances. Sort of a weird squat press thingie. I went up to 105 and that was pretty heavy. I think I could have done 115 or even 135 but it was my first time. I'll try going up next time.

Then for the WOD we did 100 burpees. I. Shit. You. Not.

Were we worried? Hell yes. A bunch of people at the gym said they actually thought about not coming. I would have been one of them but I had already missed Fran so you know, I had to come.

By the way, is it SICK that I was jealous of all the people who were complaining about how sore they were after doing Fran on Monday? I needed therapy and they call it burpees.

So I had a plan and it wasn't bad. There was this Crossfit game WOD that had people try to see how many burpees they could do in 7 minutes. So that was my goal. 7 divided by 100 equaled 14 or so burpees per minute. Not a bad goal.

We started and I did 14 burpees for the first two minutes. Then I went down to 12 reps. Then I did 10 reps per minute till I hit 70 reps. After that was at 6 minutes already and just did the last 30 straight.

It was a surprisingly good pace. I didn't bog at all and I ended up getting a time of 7:57.

Whaddaya know, having a strategy actually worked. What can I say, I'm learning.

THEN . . . today we deadlifted. I went up to 295 and did it 5 times. Or 4. I could have gone for more but my grip sucks.

Our WOD for the day was interesting though. Thirty box jumps, thirty sit-ups and a 50 yard farmer's walk. Then 20 box jumps, 20 sit-ups and a 100 yard farmer's walk, then 10, 10 and a 150 yard walk.

I was almost last today, I need to go faster on those box jumps because everything else was okay.

Workouts have been going well, some back pain but things have been good. Can't wait for the Friday workout.

God I hope I don't regret saying that.

Later folks,

Rod

Fear of Fran

I don't write pre-blogs about workouts often but today is different.

Because today we do Fran.

Fran is 21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pull-ups.

The first round of 21 will suck but the middle round of 15 will suck much worse. 

The last nine reps will take forever. 

Wish me luck.

My Back. Is. Fried.

Yup, it's that time of year again. Time for my back to tighten up like the screws in Frankenstein's head so that I can walk like him too.

See this pic? Looks like I'm flexing my arms huh? Nope. In this picture I'm holding my ass off the ground because sitting down after the WOD strains my back like you wouldn't believe.

Some of you may ask, why not just lie down instead? Well I did that too. At this point I'm experimenting to see which position hurts less. Thanks to Shauna for taking the picture by the way.

I knew I was in trouble yesterday. We had 21, 15 and 9 reps of power cleans and lateral jumps to do.

Power cleans were supposed to be at 50 percent of my one rep max, which as of the clean competition for me was 210 lbs. So 105 bls, no problem right? Easy peasy Japanesey.

Hell I even went 95 lbs just to play it safe. The WOD started and it was like almost doing the bar.

Almost. I think I hit the 13th rep and my back started getting so stiff it felt like a knife in my kidneys every time I bent over.

By the next set I wasn't bending over any more, just dropping the weights on the ground after I got them up.

Man, I was without back pain for a while and loving it. Feeling this familiar pain come back was . . . just bums me out I guess.

I thought that maybe I had progressed beyond the point that I was having back pain, but it's still there.

Not going to stop me though, I'm going to keep stretching and pushing it during the WOD's. Maybe one day I'll be rewarded with a pain free workout.

Or I could just stop doing deadlifts, power cleans and kettle bell swings.

Nah.

Later,

Rod

Small Kine Dirty Lickins

I know everyone that reads this blog has seen me bitch about a workout. It's nothing new.

BUT  . . . yesterday was a whole new level of ass whuppin. Like I couldn't get off the floor for 15 minutes.

It didn't look that terrible on the board. WOD: 30 double unders, 20 kettle bell swings and 10 burpees. You get a minute rest then repeat for four rounds total.

I kinda raised my eyebrows at the 1 minute rest. Something about that worried me.

Later Bump explained that if we're resting for a whole minute he fully expected us to sprint through this workout.

And that's what killed me, the sprint. I was flying on DU's, moving at a decent pace for the dumbell swings and hitting the burpees at the slow but constant pace.

At the end of each round I was super winded. At the end of the fourth round I felt like I was in shock.

I'm not kidding. I was in shock when I tore my pectoral. I remember rolling around on the ground, feeling nauseated and not being able to catch my breath and breathe. That is what yesterday felt like, minus the nausea.

But it was a good workout. Today looks like another one.

On another note, my brother has finally started to get serious about his health. No, he's not joining Crossfit (yet) but he's starting to diet and watch what he eats. He's doing the "Eat to Live" program and has been seeing some results. He doesn't eat any chicken, fish, meat or any other type of flesh.

It sounds boring but his face is getting skinnier. Just to mess with him I brought over some guri guri and Komoda bakery goods. He didn't stand a chance. Ha.

See ya at the box,

Rod

Untold Story from the Clean Competition (Oops)

So this is going to be hard to admit after I just wrote that big "expose" on Crossfit and how form is so important etc, etc, etc.

I might have told Bruce to forget about form during the competition and just concentrate on getting it up.

What? I'm not a coach! This is what happened . . .

So it's time for the men's competition. All the guys are in the back and warming up for 10 minutes then starting with our lifts.

We're all trying to get the bugs out and Bruce comes up to me and says . . .

"Ho what cuz, how my form?"

And then proceeds to do a power clean that looks awful. I know because I was doing awful cleans last year.

Except that Bruce is so freaking strong that he just lifts it. It's off the ground and on his shoulders.

Right there in my mind I start drawing upon everything  that I learned from Bump and Kristi, you know, keep the arms loose, don't pull until you're fully extended, explode and get under the weight as soon as possible.

Except there's no time. We had 10 minutes but that was 6 minutes ago and what the hell am I going to teach Bruce in four minutes? Bump and Kristi are busy running the competition and the rest of the guys are working out.

Soooooo . . . this is what I tell him.

"Screw it brah, forget about technique. You can learn that next year. Just concentrate on getting that weight up doing whatever you have to do."

Immediately after I say this Bruce looks at me, with one eyebrow raised higher than the other, and replies,

"Yeah brah you right, I just going power 'em up. Shoots."

So he resumes warming up and so do I. After that I completely forgot what I had said to him.

Of course, I did notice during the competition that he had no form whatsoever. Check it out:

Basically Bruce did three really heavy sets of reverse curls from the floor. But he got all three of his lifts, I only got two.

Fast forward to today and we're warming up at the gym. I'm minding my own business when I hear Kristi say,

"Wait, WHAT did Rod tell you?"

Uh oh.

Okay, so YES, form is super important and YES if you don't do it right you can get injured and YES I know I'm not a coach.

I was just giving out advice to a friend that I thought best suited the situation. Kristi wasn't buying it though.

"I'm telling Bump what you said," she threatened.

Awww, come on. Sheesh.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Anyway, let's talk workout.

We had to run a 200 meter, do 10 overhead squats and end with as many toes to bar as possible before 2 minutes and 30 seconds ran out.

These sort of WOD's are kinda cool because it's up to you how hard you want to push it at the end. Plus we get like a minute to rest between sets so it's easier to go all out.

In fact, my 200 today was was better than yesterday. My back wasn't hurting at all and I was ahead of the pack for the first 100 meters. The second 100 was not as good but I still felt good coming back into the gym.

The overhead squats were a little tough because we had just done heavy back squats earlier. And the toes to the bar at the end were challenging to say the least.

But three rounds is better than six any day and we all pushed it pretty hard knowing it would all be over soon. I got a total of 36 toes to bar, Bruce got 50. I don't know where he gets it from, he seems to just ignore pain and exhaustion.

Wish I could do the same, but I'll take 36 reps for now.

Good WOD today folks, nice to have a rest day tomorrow. I'll be on Oahu Friday so no RFM for me.

But maybe I might just make it down to Hardass Fitness . . . maybe.

Later guys,

Rod

It's What I do

So, once upon a time it was my job to ask questions and get answers.

I'd like to think that I was good at it. Certainly I was better at it during my last seven years as a newspaper reporter than my first five years as a TV reporter.

Because let's face it, I was too busy partying in the beginning. No other way to put it.

Anyway, I'm bringing this up because I realize, with all my journalism experience I have never taken a critical look at Crossfit. This blog has been all about how great it is and how it's helped me, how much I love it, etc etc etc.

Hey, what can I say? I've had mostly nothing but good experiences and it has changed myself and my body for the better. I'm happier because of Crossfit.

Actually, strike that, I'm happier because of Raw Fitness Maui. It's not just a gym, it's friends and family. It's a good place to be.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't at least TRY to look for some negative commentary about Crossfit. I mean, geez, it's been two years. I can have ONE post where I attempt to be critical.

Plus I love setting Beezlebump off. Who knows, Kehau may even chime in too. So here goes.

Here is one of the earliest critical articles about Crossfit, written back in 2005 in the New York Times of all places. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/fashion/thursdaystyles/22Fitness.html?_r=1

In my eyes this reporter had an agenda. Find something insidious about this new workout craze. There's a paragraph in that story that reads like this:

---The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique. And the importance placed on quantifiable results has attracted hard-charging people like hedge fund managers, former Olympians and scientists. But some exercise experts are troubled by the lack of guidance for beginners, who may dive into stressful workouts as Mr. Anderson did. (He had not worked out regularly for two years.) "There's no way inexperienced people doing this are not going to hurt themselves," said Wayne Winnick, a sports medicine specialist in private practice in Manhattan, who also works for the New York City Marathon.---

Did you read that first sentence? "The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique." According to who? The reporter? How about some attribution buddy? Like, "Sports therapists say . . " or "My mom says . . ." Guess he's too smart to quote anyone. Genius. This is what passes for journalism at the NYT? I should have sent in a resume.

Read it though, it's a good, bad article. Kind of like looking back in time and shaking your head and thinking, "How much they did not understand back then. Tsk, tsk."

Now this guy wrote this last year, and I have to say I don't know if he has a point or not but he seems to make more sense than the first guy.

http://freakstrength.com/2011/12/16/why-is-crossfit-bad/

He starts off his blog like this:

--- I like CrossFit. I hate it too.

I like that it gets you doing some worthwhile things. You’ll squat, pull, press, and all of that good stuff. You’ll do body weight stuff, which I’m a huge fan of. In that regard, it’s better than a lot of “fitness” regimens out there.

But there are two huge downsides. The first is that form doesn’t matter. Really, it doesn’t. The rules state that you have to get from point A to point B, but how you get there is arbitrary. This is why people are doing power cleans that look horrible. I remember tuning into ESPN to watch the games (out of curiosity), and there were guys falling to their knees on cleans due to fatigue. ---

Okay, so, this guy also says form doesn't matter in Crossfit and attributes this to what he's seen at the Crossfit Games.

Wellll . . . yeah, I fall down on my knees with fatigue all the time. Is that bad? I'm pushing myself. I know this, I'm stronger today for doing what I did yesterday at RFM.

As far as form, well, shoot. My fellow WODmates and I start off with decent form but once you get to round six . . . well yeah, we get fatigued.

Again, is this bad? I'm going to defer to Beezlebump and the Camacho Man if he would like to chime in from CrossfitOneWorld. That is if my blog allows him to comment. Damn the blogger gods if they don't. Sorry in advance Freddy but try to post if you can.

Okay, so the next guy says he actually attended a Crossfit certification and thinks it's great. But he had some critiques about it as he came from a non-Crossfit fitness background of some sort. It's definitely worth a read: http://www.stupidgymshit.com/2011/01/18/good-or-bad-crossfit/

His main concerns are quality of instructors, physical capabilities, program variability and complexity of movements. This guy actually makes a lot of sense, and not because he likes Crossfit. I just like the way he already wasn't a Crossfitter but went through the certification. I think his different background helps him look at everything more objectively.

Now this last one is from some fitness forum. If you click on the link it goes to some video about Lulu Lemon day at Crossfit LA. It just looks wrong and makes me want to never workout at this gym ever.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=120204311&page=1

Anyway, that's it. If you know how to Google you can find much more but the gist of it is, Crossfit can really mess you up if you don't have the right instructors who teach you the right technique and have the right attitude. Which is why when a friend of mine said he wanted to check out Crossfit in his hometown I said check out every gym until you find the right one.

I just got lucky because Beezle is my classmate. (SABERS!!!)

Oh yeah, the workout. Three snatches, six box jumps and a 200 meter run, AMRAP for 12 minutes.

I did six rounds and my back was fatigued. But guess what, it's fine now.

And tomorrow I'll be stronger. Suck it NYT.

Later,

Rod