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