Fear factor

I've felt many emotions while working out at Raw Fitness Maui. Anxiousness, excitement, anxiety, frustration, eagerness and many others.

But today was a new one.

Fear.

Today Bumper said we would keep jumping until we reached our maximum height. I thought maybe we'd keep jumping in the air and try to touch a certain spot on the wall or something. But no, that would be too easy.

Instead we jumped on the 24 inch box. Then we added more inches but throwing the 45 lbs rubber weight on it. Then another. Then another. Then another.

I think I got to 39 inches before finally saying enough. I don't know why I felt so scared trying to jump, it's not like you'd hurt yourself too badly if you couldn't. Just skin your knee maybe or bump your shins.

But it was weird, I was scared. And so was everybody else. The higher it got the worse we felt. Even Kristi got nervous and was too afraid to jump at one point. Made me feel better.

It was so bad that I forgot about the second part of the workout, 30 reps of "The Bear Complex". In a nutshell one rep = Power Clean + Front Squat + Push Press + Back Squat + Push Press.

Simple right? Wasn't bad actually, finished all 30 in 14:56. But I still hate bending my wrists backwards. That just kills me. I needs me some flexibility.

I wish I could fix my car like I'm fixing my body

  I didn't work out today because my car died. It's actually a friend's car who was kind enough to lend it to me more than a month ago until I get some steady work but for the most part it's mine now. (Kinda dinged it up a bit, oops).

  But since I've got the time right now I figured talk about a few goals I have for myself in 2011. I'm talking about physical goals in the gym. I've got other personal goals but this isn't the place to discuss them if you know what I mean.

Anyway, here they are:

 - be able to do 50 pullups without stopping or using the rubber bands
 - be able to do at least 10 muscle ups in a row
 - run the 400 in a minute or less
 - be able to powerclean 225
 - shoulder press 185
 - be able to do 50 box jumps without stopping
 - be able to do 50 wall balls without stopping
 - bench 225 20 times

  Too much? Am I not being realistic? I've got all year to reach these goals right? Okay maybe the powerclean seems kinda nuts but I've got the motion down and if you do it right you don't really feel the weight at all as it's going up.

  Oh yeah and I want to continue with the Paleo Diet in some sort of adjusted form. Like be able to eat sugar on Saturdays and starch on Sundays or something like that. And not stuffing my face with doughnuts but more like having a bowl of ice cream on Saturday and some shrimp and pasta on Sunday. Little things in moderation. Also drinking alcohol again will be nice. Yes indeed.

  I think we should all have goals, otherwise why else are we doing this? And I still gotta buy a boogie board and some churchhill fins. I can't live in Paia and not hit the water, it's embarassing.

  What do you think? How about your goals? I want to see them too. Write them out here and maybe we'll try to reach them together.

Aloha gang,

Rod

When it comes to hang squat cleans, last is okay

Five rounds of hang squat cleans. No I don't have my time. I was too tired to look up at the clock. Oh wait, I almost forgot to mention that it was five rounds of 15 squat cleans. And 20 situps. But the 20 situps was almost like a rest period. Damn.

I just gotta face it, my legs are weak. WEAK. But that's okay. They're getting there. I've neglected doing any sort of legs for years and now I'm paying the price. I expect that. But damn it's tough.

Plus hang squat cleans have that stupid move at the end where you bend your wrists backwards and have to rest it on the front of your shoulders. I just don't have that flexibility and don't know if it'll ever come. I hate those puppies. If I had to pick a top three most hated moves in the gym it would be burpees, thrusters and hang squat cleans.

(By the way Bumper, I swear to God if you read my blog then decide to throw all three of those together for a workout one day I will hurt you. And I'll make sure to do it before the workout because afterwards I'll be too busy throwing up blood.)

Today was tough though. Not sure if it's because I spent all day at the beach and was a little pooped but I almost gave up on the fourth round. I was going to fake like I had done all five rounds already but then Kristi gave me that look that said, "I've been counting, do the last round damn it." So I did. Sweet Jesus I did it.

You know I was tired if I came in last after Bob, Josh and Derek and just don't give a damn. Usually I'd be whining about how I didn't push hard enough or some other B.S. but tonight I was just glad to finish.

But I gotta say, I feel good tonight. It's gotten to the point where feeling sore and exhausted means I feel good and not feeling sore and exhausted means I wasted my time today. Welcome to Bizzaro World, aka Crossfit. Have a good one gang.

***UPDATE***

  Okay, Josh said he didn't do all 15 reps on tonight and it was more like 15, 12, 8, 8, 8. That explains him finishing before I did. Seriously though, I was just glad to be done. Ow.

A special day

  On Tuesday Josh and I were pulled aside by Kristi so we could do some mobility work. Which in essence means we are inflexible as hell. I blame years of lifting without stretching. Damn you Muscle and Fitness magazine.

  So instead of doing our strength workout we were subjected to torture so vile it should be used to question prisoners at Guantanamo. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad but it was somewhat painful and weird. But I got a good stretch. I'll try to explain what we had to do but it's difficult without pictures. (Kristi email me those pics at antonerod@live.com, pretty please!)

  SO . . . actually I don't even know where to begin. First she wraped a giant rubber band around my arm and told me to pull against it until I seperated my shoulder blade from my back muscles. This sounded bad and felt worse. Plus it made me contort my face until I knew I looked like some mental health patient, mainly because Kristi's daughter was watching and laughing at me. Then Josh did it and I saw him make faces that looked angry and confused at the same time. Sort of like a constipated Incredible Hulk or something. At least I understood why people were laughing at me, because that face is funny.

  Then she gave us tennis balls, placed them on my traps muscle, then pulled my arm and pushed the tennis ball in with her foot using her leg muscles, which for Kristi is a lot of muscle. She's a pretty girl but she'll throw up some weight on those snatches and squats and cleans and . . .  you get the picture. She's strong. And actually the pressure felt sort of good when I let myself relax but good God she had my arm in a vise. She has what I call the "GI Joe Kung Fu Grip". Must be from grabbing heavy weightlifting bars every day. I have marks on my arm like a little boy who gets abused at home.

  Oh yes, and in the middle of all this stretching Kristi tells me, "Rod, you're fuzzy." At first I'm thinking, "Do I really have that much body hair? Is she telling me I should start shaving my arms? What, just cause she goes out with a hairless hapa Japanese guy that doesn't mean she can pass judgements on the other men in the gym."

  Ah but it seems I got it all wrong. Sorry Kristi. Apparently being "fuzzy" means you are inflexible. I went online to find a yoga instructor's blog which will better explain what Kristi meant (thank God for Google):

*******“The fuzz” are strands of cobweb-like connective tissue that develop between the muscles and between muscle groups when we fail to move our bodies around in all the magnificent ways it can move. These strands of connective tissue multiply and bind together during long periods of inactivity (like when we sleep).
   As time passes the fascia thickens and hardens between those once juicy, smooth and slippery surfaces rendering them less and less able to slide and glide past one another. As the individual muscles lose their ability to move freely and independently of other muscles our movements become less multidimensional and refined. We call this ’stiff’.************

  Thank you to the "Nourish Santa Cruz" blogger for that. Check out the whole blog at http://www.nourishsantacruz.com/blog/tag/muscle-ability/

  Oh yes, did I mention after all  that we still had the damn workout of the day. Run 400 meters, do 21 box jumps, then repeat for a total of 3 rounds. My knee was bothering me for some reason but I do believe my box jumps are getting better. My runs are less painful but I'm not getting faster. Ah well, I think it'll be the last thing to improve for some reason. And yes Bump, I'll post times later.

  In the end I'd just like to say that despite the pain, the personal time that our trainers put in to help Josh and I with our mobility is just a testament to the type of gym they run. Josh pointed out that he's had a personal trainer before and they charge $65 or more per hour. I've calculated that RFM only charges people $6 an hour if you go to all 20 classes that they offer each month. They work with you one and one to develop powerlifting technique and stretching and mobility and it's worth every penny and more.

  Guess what I'm trying to say is they run a good shop and I'm glad to be working out there. Thanks guys.

What's better, lots of weight or lots of reps?

Tonight I threw up some weight. First 135, 185 and 205 for benching. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Then we did two rounds of push presses, dips and kettle bell swings. First round you do as much as you can, rest for three minutes, then try to match the same reps as the first round.

I did 12 push presses, 30 dips and 26 kettle bell swings, then finished up the second round in 1:56. But here's the thing, I went heavy, about 115 lbs for the push press, so I didn't rep out as much as I could have. Twelve reps wasn't that hard to do. The kettlebells were the same way. I did the 44 lbs kettle. Not bad. Plus I got my motion down so I'm not trying to power it up with my back and shoulders anymore.

I don't know, should I have gone for less weight and more reps? Maybe. I just get a better workout if my reps are higher, I know that. It almost feels like I didn't workout tonight. Maybe if I went 95 lbs on the push press I could have gone for 25 reps or higher.

Oh and I should point out that the workout actually calls for ring dips, not regular dips. But I can't do those yet. I've been working on it though. Maybe I should have gone for it tonight. Yeah, then maybe I wouldn't be whining about how I don't feel like I worked out tonight. Grrrrrrrrr . . .

  On another note, I didn't eat a damn thing today and I'm not hungry. Just had too many things to do. Should I be worried about my lack of hunger? It's not like I don't have the fat to spare. Then again this girl's dinner next to me is looking good. Hmmm, maybe it's time I go home and have a meal before I assault this girl for her chicken salad.

See, this is why I hate cardio

Yesterday I had to look at the workout that was posted online like three times. This is what was posted:

4 rounds:
Run 400 meters
Rest 2:00

That's it. No wall balls, no box jumps, no front squats. Nothing. Just running. At first I thought, wow, piece of cake. Then I looked at the 2 minute rest again and said to myself, crap,  they want us to go all out.

Yeah, see that's the thing when you incorporate those other things with running, nobody goes all out. You're running at cruise control because your legs are usually cabbage by the time the 400 meter comes up.

But this, this was another level of evil. Just run flat out, rest, then run flat out again. So simple in its deviousness that I almost admired it. Almost.

See, we have some real nutcases at our gym, and I know nobody was going to try and pace themselves on this run. Especially Derek. Ever since he lost all that weight he's been working out with the intesity of a heroin addict looking to score some smack. There's no stopping him. Plus he's got that injured shoulder so what he can't do with the weights he tries to make up in cardio. In other words, the gimp is fast.

So anyway, we power through our strength workout which includes five sets of 2 rep snatches and 3 sets of 3 rep deadlifts. I made the mistake of lifting with Kats for deadlifts, that guy throws up some mean weight. I think we started off with 225 then kept going up to 285. Tough but I wasn't worried about the weights.

Then we start running. Everybody lines up like we're going to film a scene from "Chariots of Fire" and then we take off when Kristi says GO. To my surprise Bob is off like a racehorse with Derek in second. I might have been third. My buddy Josh was right behind me and the two gals were coming up from behind.

That was the first round. Let's skip to the fourth lap. Bob and Lori and I were last. Derek was first of course. But surprisingly my friend Josh came in before me. Not that Josh is out of shape, but he's a thick guy that hasn't been doing Crossfit as long as I have. But good for him. Bastard.

They averaged out all four of my times for each lap and I think I had a 1:37. Josh had 1:24 or something like that. We were blown out.

Now, about this time I would end this blog but I need to keep going beyond this workout to tell you a related story about the aftermath of  this run. I got invited to a fundraiser in Paia and invited Josh to check it out with me. Anuhea was playing, there was a bikini fashion show, the works. Josh and I are both on the Whole 30 diet and we still have 17 days to go before we can drink alcohol but it was still fun to check out.

Except at some point Josh ends up resting in his truck. In the middle of the girls with bikinis struttin their stuff on stage. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "Brah, that run killed me. My legs are f--ked up."

See, that's what you get for trying to beat my time. Next time run slower. Hahahahahahha.

Pain can be funny, especially if it's not yours

Today was a cool little workout, quick, tough yet not leaving me with a bunch of sore muscles. We threw up some shoulder presses for strength and I did 3 sets of 3 reps of 95, 115 and 135. Not bad. Then we did push ups and pullups for asending and descending reps of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I had a time of 6:54. Again, not bad. And I only used the rubber band after I hit the 7 rep mark and was descending in reps. It's getting there.

But the real fun came afterwards when Oran, our 9 a.m. trainer suggested we stretch out. I was there with Josh, a friend of mine who I introduced Raw Fitness Maui to last week. He was an all star football player in high school, played a year of division 2 college ball, and held all the powerlifting records too. But that was a long time ago. Now he's 33 and like me, a fat ass.

So Oran gives us these foam "rollers". They're about two inches in circumfrence and maybe two feet long. What you do is you put these on the ground and "roll" on them with your body at various angles to stretch things out. And let me tell you, some of those stretches are brutal for the first time.

For me today I had a tight spot right behind my armpit on the right side which I managed to get rid of with the roller after about 5 minutes of pain. Josh however has never done these before.

Yes, I know. I find joy in evil things sometimes.

So Oran has Josh roll everywhere, on his back, his thighs, his ass, everything. All I hear are screams. It's like Nightmare on Elm Street except he's not dreaming. "ARGHHHHHHHH!!!" is all I hear and I can't stop laughing. I laughed so hard I had a cramp in my abs and had to use the roller to get it out.

Oh man that was funny. Plus it was good to work out under Oran's supervision again. He used to watch me like a hawk to make sure I was doing all the powerlifting techniques right and didn't let me put on any weight until I did. Then he switched from the afternoon classes to the morning and today I found out why. He's a police officer and he had his shift changed. Also explains why he watched us so dilligently during our workouts. He's a cop! He's used to busting people! Right on Officer Oran, keep up the good work.

And thanks for making Josh stretch and giving me some entertainment this morning. It's a great way to start the day.