finally, an all upper body workout

Today's workout consisted of 12 push presses and 12 dips for as many rounds as you can handle in 10 minutes.

As we used to say back in high school, "Crackahz." No really, I actually mean it.

I know I whine a lot after these workouts but that's because my lower body has been untrained for 38 years unless you count the kicks I've thrown in several years of Shotokan karate. Anyway, it's a hell of a lot easier for me to push my upper body than it is my lower body. I've been lifting weights since I was 16 but it was all bench and curls and military press. You know, big muscles for the beach kind of thing. It's only now that I'm doing this olympic powerlifting hell that is Crossfit that my legs are learning all sorts of painful lessons that I didn't learn back in high school.

But throwing weight up with my upper body? Yeah, that's something I'm used to. I cranked out six full rounds plus 8 push press reps today. Usually I don't make it past four rounds so today was definitely a good day.

I haven't told anyone this yet but I want to compete in the Crossfit games one day. Maybe on the national level. That and I want to run the Kona Ironman at least once. A buddy of mine said recently that he realized once men pass a certain age, there is no such thing as "maintenance" workouts anymore. When you're younger you can get away with putting in a certain amount of excercise and still look and feel good. You don't have to have any goals, nothing to aim for. Just walk into the gym at least twice a week and throw some weight around.

Well that $hit doesn't cut it anymore apparently. I've got no choice if I want to stay in shape. Either I get stronger and faster or I get weaker and lazier. I really believe there's nothing in between once you get older than 35. So why not keep moving forward? Sounds better than having your physical well being slowly disintergrate as time passes by.

Why am I thinking about this? Well, mainly because I had a good day today. Everything seems possible after a good day. Does for me at least. I'm thinking no rest day tomorrow. Time to hit up Elite Fitness again and see if I can handle another round of MMA cardio conditioning. Hoo-rah.

training for the zombie apocalypse, or how I let a one armed guy beat me today

Yes, it's true. First a 5 month pregnant lady kicks my ass at a Crossfit workout. Then a 12 year old boy. And now Derek the Wonder Gimp with one arm laps me by a mile.

Today the workout sucked so bad only three of us showed up. Derek the beforementioned gimp, Kevin the minicardio machine and yours truly. The task before us was to run 400 meters then squat 50 times for four rounds.

In case you suck at math that's a total of 1600 meters and 200 squats. My quads were already crying when I read the workout online the night before.

To motivate us Bump said to imagine as if we were training for the zombie apocalypse and needed to have our stamina up in order to avoid the legions of the undead. It kind of pumped me up. For the first 400 meter run that is. By the time I counted my last squat I was praying that the zombies would catch me because I would have told them to eat my legs first to stop the pain.

I came in last of course, after Gimp boy. Derek has been going hard core and I suspect him to be smoking meth before coming to our workouts. At least that's my excuse for him beating me today. It can't be because he's in better shape than me right? Maybe I should stop drinking at noon, it could be affecting my performance.

it's all about technique, of which I have none

So today I learned I could possibly have a slipped disk in my back. Or just really really inflexible. Take your pick.

We were doing  High hang cleans at Raw Fitness Maui today and I just couldn't get the movement right. There were like three trainers surrounding me trying to give me pointers but I just wasn't getting it.

Then to top it all off I kept having to stop and stretching because my lower back was getting tight. Kristi, one of the gym owners, was concerned because I seem to have a tight back a lot during workouts. I told her I just thought it meant I was out of shape. She seemed to think it might mean I have a slipped disk and should see a doctor about it. Nice.

By the way I think I should mention that I already hate tomorrow's workout. Run 400 meters then do 50 squats for four rounds. It. Will. Suck.

Thrusters, pull-ups and double unders, oh my

So my last blog talked about handstand push-ups and how I love them. Well true to form on Friday the Raw Fitness Maui workout included three of my most hated enemies. Thrusters, pull-ups and double unders. Damn them.

Thrusters are bad enough and no, it is not a Kama Sutra move. Think squat plus overhead press. It basically punishes your legs until they're worthless pieces of spaghetti noodle. Then there's the pull-ups. In college an old workout buddy and I used to do weighted pull-ups. And just earlier this year I used to be able to crank out 12 but ever since my pec tear I can only do 8.  But at RFM all the girls there can rip 'em out like nothing. Okay, sorry, I meant WOMEN. It's very humbling.

And double unders are a jump rope technique where you get that rope under your feet twice on one jump. I can do 3 in a row but the workout called for reps of 12. That's right, 12 thrusters, 12 pull-ups and 12 double unders. For four sets. I did it but I just couldn't do all 12 reps for all of the thruster sets. My legs were cabbage after the first one.

No Crossfit today. Well, there is a Saturday class but I've got some work to catch up on. I'll probably go for a run on the beach and then attempt swimming a bit in the ocean at some point. I need to buy a long board. Anyone got one for sale?

Damn burpees

I like upside down pushups. I am actually a stud at upside down pushups. When I was 17 I broke my arm and had to rehab myself doing upsidedown  pushups.

Get the picture? And today for Crossfit we were doing upside down pushups.

Granted it was 3 upside down pushups, 5 deadlifts and 10 burpees for as many rounds as you could in 10 minutes.. Still, it was so easy I almost felt bad for everyone else.

Except, while I ripped through the first two I SUCKED at burpees. Basically after 5 rounds I looked like a jumping platypus.

If It was a straight up upside down pushup workout I would have kicked ass. If it was a deadlift contest I would have kicked ass. But throw in those damn burpees and I was mortal like everyone else. It's always something I tell you.

Anyway, tomorrow is MMA conditioning day. Stay tuned.

Let's talk about Tito

Sometimes when kids tell you want they want to be when they grow up you smile and say, "that's nice", but inside you think, "An astronaut? Yeah right kid." Well, there's a 12-year-old boy who works out at my gym that I don't doubt for a second when he says he wants to become a professional UFC fighter. His real name is Thomas but everyone calls him "Tito."

Tito doin his thang in the gym

So to cut to the chase, Tito kicks ass. He runs faster, jumps higher and just blows the doors off of every workout we have. I hear he takes jujitsu and if so I feel sorry for the other kids in the class. He must twist them into pretzels.

So today was another standout Tito moment. The first part of our workout was upside down handstands. Basically you just throw your legs up against the wall and try to hold your self upside down for as long as you can. I did a minute and five seconds. My other two partners Kats and Derek went for a minute 20 and a minute 46 respectively I think.

Then there was Tito. He went for two minutes and more. I forget how much but he kicked all of our asses. Good for him. I actually got mad at the boy the first time I worked out next to him because he was jumping around like a jackrabbit and I was going into cardiac arrest. But honestly the kid is an inspiration. Hopefully I can get my little boy conditioned like him. (Not that I want him to become a UFC fighter but you know that I mean.)

Anyway, that was the first part of the workout. The second part was five rounds, count 'em FIVE rounds of 30 situps, 20 box jumps and 10 pullups.

And I did the whole thing. No skipping reps. I came in last but damn it felt good to finish the whole workout without having to make any modifications. Today felt good. Time for a beer.

Be careful what you wish for

On Friday I complained about how I had to scale back the workout and do a lesser version of what everyone else was doing. Today I did the full workout but was wishing I could give up at the same time. Of course Bumper the gym owner and head torturer felt the need to take pics of my pain. Thanks Bump.

Actually the Raw Fitness Maui workout wasn't too bad, three rounds of 10 reps of front squat followed by a 400 meter run. I repped out the first 10 reps pretty quickly but then totally lagged during my run. By the last round I was the last guy out of four running back to the gym. My legs were okay and not too fatigued but my lower back was killing me. That sort of made everything stiff and I felt like the Tin Man trying to run.

But at least I didn't rerack my weights like I wanted to in the middle of my set. A small victory I guess but I'll take any kind of a win I can get right now. Yay. Hopefully tomorrow I get to write about how I set a new record but somehow I feel that post won't be written until 2011 at least.