My crack at crossfit

DamienH

Hey,
I've been doing crossfit now for a week. I decided to stick up a log to keep track of my progress. I'm used to doing 5x5 workouts drawn out over an hour and a half so this is an altogether new beast for me.

Age :20
Height : 6'1''
Weight : 19st 2lbs
BF: Around 25-27% < No real idea of that tbh. I've lost about a stone and a
half since I started excercising and I was 33% body fat then.

Lifts:
Bench : 100 x 3
Squat : 105 x 5
Push Press : 75 x 5
Sumo Deadlift : 135 x 5 ( Haven't done a straight dead in a while, doing some today so I'll post back later )

Diet is getting much better now, oats and protein for brekkie, snack of chicken/tuna salad/sandwich, main meal consists usually of meat and rice or maybe just meat and a plate of veggies, maybe a smoothie or something after that and then usually some tinned mackarel before bed ( suprisingly I love the stuff ) I'll post all entries seperate just to make it easier

DamienH

TUESDAY 5TH AUGUST:
Back Squat 5 x 5 Reps

Worked my way up to ( 105 x 5 ) x 3

Normal day nothing new really

DamienH

WEDNESDAY 6TH AUGUST

18kg Dumbell Squat Snatch Left & Right Arm ( 21 reps of each )
42 Rack Ups ( I can't manage a proper pull-up yet so I'm doing rack ups. Once I'm back in Uni I'm planning on getting a band to help me )

18kg Dumbell Squat Snatch Left & Right Arm ( 15 reps of each )
30 Rack Ups

18kg Dumbell Squat Snatch Left & Right Arm ( 9 reps of each )
18 Rack ups

15:02

This drained me completly, a heaving ball of sweat on the floor. Great fun though and happy enough with the time. A hate rack-ups I can only imagine the pull-ups

DamienH

Thursday 7th August

"Karen,"

150 Wall Ball Shots with a 7.5kg ball

6:06

Much harder than I though this would be. I looked at the video of the excercise and thought " is that it ? " well was I wrong. Again a heaving ball of sweat. It felt weird to be only using a tiny weight but I have to get my head out of doing 5x5 all the time.

I should say that for a warm-up I normally do a bit of walking, some light weights ( shoulder boxes and cuban press ) and a couple of push ups, around 25/30. I'm tryng to do dips but find I get a pain in my right shoulder from doing them. I think I might be going too far down, I try to go parallel but I think I may be going deeper.

DamienH

Saturday 9th August

Five rounds for time

50kg Hanging Squat Cleans x 5
15 Rack-ups

Rope climbs were listed instead of pull-ups but since I don't have a rope, pull-ups were suggested as a sub

13:19

Pretty tough. I'd never done the squat clean before and it was harder on my grip than expected. Almost let it drop on the last few.

gabgab

Hey man,

I am doing the opposite, I did crossfit for a while. Now I am doing starting strength, keep up the good work, its good stuff and does make a difference to all round fitness too,

Fair play,

DamienH

Sunday 10th August

Run 5K

32:15

Considering I've made a point of not running in the last 2 years ( somehting I'm paying for now ) I've no idea what an okay time is for running this but I'm happy enough with this. Hopefully next time I can get < 30 if I really push myself.

My back has been at me since doing those rack-ups but other than that nothing besides a nice bit of DOMS :rolleyes:

I think I might start doing some jogging as part of my warm-down

DamienH

Monday August 11th

For time:

10 Sit-ups
10 Supermen
30kg Thrusters , 30 Reps
30 Pull-ups

20 Sit-ups
20 Supermen
30kg Thrusters, 20 Reps
20 Pull-ups

30 Sit ups
30 Supermen
30kg Thrusters, 10 Reps
15 Pull-ups

26:01

Hardest crossfit I've done so far I think, during the warm-up I tried 20 thrusters at 40kg as I'd never done them before but I knew that I should scale them down cause they were awful

DamienH

gabgab wrote: »

Hey man,

I am doing the opposite, I did crossfit for a while. Now I am doing starting strength, keep up the good work, its good stuff and does make a difference to all round fitness too,

Fair play,

Ya I read your thread before I started, fair play that's some difference. Nice one for the encouragement

DamienH

Wednesday 13th August

Crossfit Total

Back squat, 1 rep ( 105kg, form is getting there now though )
Push Press, 1 rep ( 80kg )
Deadlift, 1 rep ( 140kg )

Happy with yesterday tbh, no problems

DamienH

Friday 15th August

Weight 120kg

I had to make up for today and yesterday's WOD so I did

30 Tuck Jumps x 3
30 Sit-ups x 3
30 Supermen x 3

Did 50 for the first trio but realised I had to scale down, damn you tuck jumps

13:52

Not too happy with this time, it can only get better ( hopefully )

Next WOD was

30 Pullups
30 Dips
20 Pullups
20 Dips
15 Pullups
15 Dips

Approx 10 minutes, I forgot to stop the watch.

All pullup's were really rack ups and dips were done with my legs supported .Can't do dips right just yet, I can get about 5 on parallel bars and then my shoulder kills, these seemed to do the trick though.

Pretty happy with the day though, managed to move the bar on the smith machine up for the rack-ups a bit so at least I'm improving.

DamienH

Monday 18th of August

45kg Thrusters ( Reps: 15-12-9 )
Rack Ups ( Reps: 21-15-12 )
Bench Dips ( Reps: 21-15-12 )

11:28

Missed a day gotta catch up tmrw

DamienH

Tuesday 19th August

Deadlift
7 x 1 Rep

Did 145kg on this form is much better now, I've read a book by Pavel over the weekend and some of his tips really helped.

Did some push-ups and sit ups

5 Minute brisk walk
then Run for a minute ( 11.5 on machine -> 5.1/km ) then walk for a minute and a half ( 6.5 -> 9.2/km )

Pretty happy with today, roll on tmrw

DamienH

21st August

Helen
3 rounds of
400M Run
21 20kg KB swings
15 Pull-ups


12.18

DamienH

22nd August

"Angie,"

Scaled to

80 Pull-ups ( Body rows are the proper name for what I'm doing )
80 Push Ups
80 Sit Ups
80 Squats

19:48

A bit of a toughie

By my count I've done 458 body rows since I started (13 days ago) They've gotten considerably easier thank god. I got 43 uninterrupted today which I was pretty chuffed with, the day I get my first proper pull-up I'm getting drunk as a celebration

DamienH

23rd August

Run 800M
21 x 40kg standing military press

Run 500M
21 x 40kg push press

Run 500M
21 x 40kg Standing Military press

18:42

I was meant to run 800M for each of the runs but it really killed me. I've been working all week but I know that's just excuses.

Last entry for about 5 days, moving back over to Cardiff for college again so no time for these mad workouts.


Gotta work on my running, but I hate it so much~!!!!!

DamienH

I managed to get a workout in before I go away for the weekend, might get another hopefully.

Front Squats
With 50KG
10-10-10-10-10

Then for time

100 Body Rows
100 Push-ups
140 Squats

19:42

The squats absolutely killed me. I had to take a break after doing 10 my quads were on fire from the front squats. Happy with the body rows, there getting much easier now I think it's time to put my legs up on a bench or something. Push-ups took it out of me though, I think I'm going to start doing some ones daily

DamienH

Thursday, 4th September

Deadlift
3 x 3 @ 135kg

Push Press
3 x 3 @ 80kg

Back today after taking a few days off, O weight training how I've missed ye.

Got a kettlebell in the post today as well to play around, I'll edit if I get a few swings on the go, I'm sure I can't resist



edit: I've done a load of swings and I've been clean and pressing the thing every time I pass it, great stuff

DamienH

Friday 12th September

Clean and Press @ 65kg
3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3

Deadlift
100kg , 90kg

Bench
80kg , 70kg

Pull-ups ( Using gravitron )
* Assisted by 42kg
5 - 5 - 5 - 5

Dips
5 <--- Didn't feel too good on these I strained something while finishing the press so I decided not to do anymore.


I finally got enough money together to join the gym today and to my surprise the had a pull-up/dips assistance machine. I had to use 42kg assistance but I suppose I have to start somewhere.

I've also managed to keep busy using my kettlebell. This is the routine I've done twice now and maybe again today, mainly something to get my HR up and keep it there for 30-40mins.

A1 Squat (with KB ) 3 Sets of 12 Reps
A2 Pushups 3 sets of 15 reps
A3 Rest one Minute

B1 KB Row 3 sets of 12 each arm
B2 Clean and Press 3 sets of 8 reps each arm
B3 Rest one Minute

C1 Windmill 3 sets of 5 each arm
C2 Turkish Get Up 3 sets of 5
C4 Rest one minute

Each letter group is a superset followed by one minute of rest

To finish I normally do something like
KB swing for 0.5-1 Minute, rest for 1-1.5 Minutes

I've found a new love for turkish get ups, they work all my abdomen better than any sit-ups.

DamienH

Tuesday September 16th

I've been reading enter the kettlebell and tbh I've got the bug, love the things.

Workout was done using ladders with a 16kg kb. I'd clean the kettlebell and then press over my head with each arm. The laddered progressed from 1 - 3 reps on each hand.

5 x 1,2,3 ladders i.e. 30 reps with each arm, minimum rest taken inbetween sets

I made sure that form was good and paused before the press so as not to use any momentum from the clean.

Next was a snatches time trial. I did snatches with either arm for 6 minutes. Whenever I felt that form was going I switched arms. I did 142 combined but I'm pretty sure I managed to mess the count up towards the end.

All in all pretty happy, going to do good old Crossfit fran tmrw. It'll be nice to get back into the crossfit... ugh

DamienH

19th September

Deadlift
105 , 95

Pull-ups
30 (6x5)

Dips
30 (6x5)

DamienH

20th September

I did 5x(1,2,3,4,5) clean and press ladders with a 16kg kb, moving up to 24 k next week

Also did swings with a 16k for 7 minutes, managed to knock out 150 in 7 odd the last ten were to make it a nice number

Still on my kb fix but I'll get back to the crossfit soon, loving these things though

DamienH

September 23

Ladders of 3x(1,2,3) with a 16kg Kb all c&ps

I tried the 24kg for a clean and a few presses. It was tough but I'm fairly confident I'm going to be able to do it for a 3 ladder on saturday.

Rolled 2 dice and got 9 so I went for a good few snatches in nine minutes. I wasn't going as hard as I could , I took a rest of about a minute , got 120 , both arms combined. Counting got surprisingly hard at about 100 though

Did the usual 25 Pull-ups and dips

I'm noticing a nice bit more definition around my upperbody and my legs are starting to get together aswell, pretty chuffed.

It was nice to feel my lower back being stressed aswell during the workout, I'm always afraid that it doesn't get the amount of work it should.

DamienH

Friday 26th September

Said I'd do one of the painstorm workouts from the lads @ funckey.co.uk. It was:

All lifts to be done with the oly. bar only

400m Run
40 Back Squats
40 Front Squats
20 Overhead squats
400m Run
40 Military Press
40 Push Press
20 Military Press
400m Run
40 Hang-power cleans
20 Hang-power snatches
400m Run

Total time 31:28

Pretty happy but I'm feeling pretty wrecked now... not a kettlebell in sight aswell

DamienH

Saturday September 28th

Good workout today I was pretty chuffed. I even managed to get some of the crossfit WOD done

First was Kb ladders with the 24kg (1,2,3) reps with each hand. Pretty tough but I'm happy with how I did.

Then it was:
Push press
70 - 75 - 80

Deadlift
107.75kg
97.75kg

Pullups and Dips 15 of each

I finished off then with nine minutes of swings with the 16Kb
My buddy was there so he helped with counting and by his count I manged 235 in 9:05.

Delighted with that tbh. Great day at the office

DamienH

Tuesday 30th September

Deadlifts
110 , 100 kg
Felt good, form is much better than when I started. They've become less of a nightmare

Pull-ups and Dips
15 of each

Ladders of 1 rep 24kg presses with a kb
Snatches for 2 mins with 24kb ( I rolled the dice and got 2, happy days )

Felt really good today, came out stronger than when I went in. Crossfit tmrw

DamienH

Wednesday 1st October

5x5 Cleans with the 32kb
5x1 each arm TGU

Nate workout
4 Pull-ups
4 Dips
5 Push-ups
8 swings with the 32kg kb

I managed to do 6 rounds in 16mins. My watch broke so I didn't manage the 20mins.. can't say I was too fussed

Havo

What weight are you now buddie??

DamienH

I haven't been around a scales so I haven't had the oppertunity. Look better anyway just generally. I'm home on thursday so I'll do it then. TBH I'm looking forward to it.

Colm_OReilly

Hey Damien,

I don't normally pop into the workout logs here but a client of mine sent me a link to your trog, nice work man!

If you need any help/guidance on CrossFit or just want to shoot the breeze feel free to send me a mail: info@crossfit.ie

Keep up the good work,
Col

DamienH

Saturday October 04th

Woke up late so I had to run to the gym to get a quick one in. Only had time for 15 Pull-ups, 10 dips and I managed to get up to 4 on my ladders with the 24kb. Think I might swing my kb at home here today. Crossfit tmrw, like the look of todays WOD.

Thanks for the encouragement colm, I'm sure i'll be asking you a q or 2

Edwardius

DamienH wrote: »

Crossfit tmrw, like the look of todays WOD.

You won't like it three rounds in dude! It's a bitch! Some good times n' numbers here man.

DamienH

Monday October 06th
Ladders with the 24kb 1,2 reps
TGU 5x1 each arm . These were done with the 24kg but I think it's time to move up to 32k
Snatches: Form on these were terrible. I think I jumped too early. I'm going to move back to my 16k here at home and get my form down!

Started doing the crossfit WOD
60kg Deadlift 15reps
60kg Clean 12reps
60kg Back Squat ( These were meant to be front squat but I've never done them previously. My form was atrocious in the warm-up so I thought it better to cut my losses
60kg Shoulder Jerk

Repeat for 3 sets
I was only able to complete 2 sets before I had to leave cause the gym was closing... not a coincidence just unlucky timing. For 2 sets I was 11:17 in..... My god this is tough. I only realised while doing it that each part ends where the next one starts. My back was on fire , a gasping sweaty mess. Good fun all the same though, roll on tmrw. I'll catch up on the WOD aswell

DamienH

Tuesday 07th Ocotber
Deadlifts
112.5
102.5
No Problems really

Pull-ups and Dips
25 of each. I've managed to change the assistance now to 32 which is a jump of 14kg over 3 weeks so I'm happy to see that my pulls are progressing. Dips are now down to 15kg assistance and I felt pretty good on them.

Light day today, might do some crossfit tmrw if it's a metcon workout

DamienH

Friday 10th October

Weight 117.5kg ( <---woot woot )

I'm back home in Ireland for the weekend so I went to the gym I usually go to. It turns out that it's been taken over by the Hitler of the "fitness club," world. The weights section is gone to nothing and there's been a few new rules brought in. I was lining up the oly bar for my deadlifts and over walks the man himself. He told me that that bar was " only for chest presses ," grand says I show me the deadlift one then. Over he walked to a ( shock and horror ) smith machine. I asked him nicely if I could just do my deadlifts, it wasn't even busy , but he said no " Insurance reasons ," They've taken away the kbs except for the 16k and the 8k so presses were out of the window. This is what I did anyway but I'm never going back to that dump.

8kg kb Presses (1,2,3,4) ladders. I was doing these with the bell inverted to make them harder and it was tough to keep it upright all through the ladder.
Snatch Practice with the 16
Pushups 14,11,11,10,16
I also practiced doing thrusters with dbs in my hands

Back to cardiff on tuesday so I think I'll go to the park and do burpees or something monday if I can handle it

DamienH

Wednesday October 15th
Back today from Ireland

24kb Ladders (1,2,3,4)
These felt pretty good, ready for 5 on Saturday
Cleans with a 32kb
Snatch Practice with the 24 <

---

Form's getting better
Pushups 12,14,11,11,17
Crossfit, dead and pull/dips tmrw

DamienH

Thursday 16th October
Deadlifts 115,105
Pull-ups/Dips 5x5 of each
Military press 50kg,40kg
Some Front Squat practice

Pretty much the same as always, I added in a lightish MP just to liven th day up a bit. Front squats are still tough though, getting my elbows parallel to the floor is a nightmare

DamienH

Thursday 23rd October
I haven't posted in a week mainly because I've been busy but I've been going to the gym and doing my regular thing. Tried the 24kb for 5 ladders on sunday but it didn't happen, only got to 4 sets. Roll on the weekend

Today was
Clean 32kb 5x3
Snatch 24kb 8x2
Swings 32kb 10x3
TGU practice

Then I did a kind of crossfit wod from the last few days. The gym was packed out so I had to split the twpo excercises and do pull-ups first, then burpees ( <--bastards )

I did 70 assisted pullup-s ( 37kg of assistance I think ) and then 70 burpees in roughly 26mins. I say roughly cause I had a few problems with the stopwatch. The pullups took way too long for my liking, I think I'm going to start doign a couple of sets of 10 during the week. First time ever doing a burpee and they were right little horrors. They didn't take as long as the pull-ups but I never thought they'd take so much out of me.

Pretty happy anyway

DamienH

Monday, October 27th
Ladders with 24kb 1,2,3,4,5 <

---

Ohh ya !!
15 Pull-ups and 15 Dips
Practiced my squatting form

A bit fo a short one today admittedly but the ladders took it out of me, pretty chuffed I managed to get the full ladder..... roll on that 32. I think I'm going to give the deadlifts a break and hit into the squats for a while for something a bit different. Back in tomorrow to get some kind of a circuit done. They've got punch bags in the gym, think I might try and clean these bad boys + some swings and pullups for time... we'll see

DamienH

Tuesday 28th October
Squats 90,80 for 5
Pull-ups 35 (7x5)
Swings with 24kb for 4 minutes

Crossfit
21-15-9 Cleans @ 40kg
42-30-18 Dips @ 25kg assistance ( changed to 32kg for the last ten )
14:57

First time doing squats in ages today but felt really good doing them. The 90 sailed up and down and I was watching my form which seemed pretty good. The pull-ups were my normal ones just spread out over the entire workout.

Crossfit went pretty well tonight aswell. I spent a good time practicing the clean before I attempted it. The 40kg felt really light but the dips were pretty hard. By far the bulk of the time is dips. I think I could of have done it slightly faster aswell if I didn't have to wait for people on the machine

DamienH

Thursday 30th October
3 (1,2,3) ladders with the 24kb
Military Press 50,40
Pull-ups 8x5
10 mins of running
Some sit-ups on the decline bench

DamienH

Monday 3rd November
Ladders with the 24kb (1,2,3) x 4
Squats 92.5,82.5

Crossfit
Pull-up ladders
One the first minute, two the second minute...... etc.
Got to 10 minutes and when the clock ran out on the 11 I had 7 done, all full extension.
Assistance was on 39kg <---- moving this up for my usual pull-ups next time
Thrusters
50-55-62.5-70-70
I really wasn't happy with the front squat portion of the thrusters... I really have to practice them.

All in all a good enough day, more fun tomorrow

DamienH

Wednesday 5th November

Presses with the 24kb, 3x5 each arm
Snatches with the 24kb, 2x8 each arm
Swings with the 32kb, 3x10

Pull-ups 6x5
Squats 95,85

Crossfit
As many rounds as I could complete in 15 mins
10 Pullups
10 Thrusters with 30kg bar

I managed to do 9 and almost got the tenth in on time, twas tough though. Looking now, it says 20mins on the site but for some reason I thought 15....

All in all a pretty good day I thought. Squats still feel strong and I'm going deep with them. I think 115 or 120 is an achievable goal. The extra sets I did of pullups were easy, I had the assistance at a comfortable level. Roll on tmrw

DamienH

Thursday November 6th
I just did the crossfit of the day today

Do five rounds of the below, max reps for each set
Bench Press (@80kg) :12,12,10,8
Pull-ups@32kg of assistance: 10,10,10,9

Pretty happy with the bench tbh. I haven't done the excercise in at least 2 months now. I used be able to get 100kg for 3 so I guess I'm not far off that. More of the same tmrw

DamienH

Friday 7th November
Squats 97.5, 87.5

Cross
Run 400m
50 squats

x3 = 11:30

DamienH

Tuesday 11th November

5 x 1 Each arm with the 32kg
3 x 8 Snatches with the 24kb each arm
3 x 8 Swings with 32kb
4 TGU's each arm

Squats
100,90

Pull-ups
About 6x5 with 32kg assistance but it could of been more, I was just knocking them out whenever really

Squats felt strong again, no problems. I had a ****e nights sleep so I decided to lay off the crossfit for today, will do some tmrw

DamienH

"Fight Gone Bad!"

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 8kg ball (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 32kb (Reps)
Box Jump, knee height (Reps)
Push-press, 32.5kg (Reps)
Row (Calories)
Break of 1 minute between sets

My score was all the reps and calories combined for all sets. I managed to get 279 so I was pretty chuffed. It was really feckin' tough though.

DamienH

I went to the gym yesterday, back again tmrw on monday.

Squats
102.5, 92.5

Saturday, November 15th
75 Squats
7 Pull-ups
7 Dips
50 Squats
15 Pull-ups
15 Dips
25 Squats
22 Pull-ups
22 Dips
12 Squats
30 Pull-ups
30 Dips

All done in 22:45
Pull-ups were done at 32kg assistance, dips at 20kg. I was really happy that I managed to get everything done with the 32kg assistance, all the pull-ups are paying off. I think I'll do some 1 rep maxes on them tmrw.

DamienH

Yesterday's workout
Monday 17th November
Ladders with the 24kb 1,2,3,4,5 x 5
I want to get these down as strict presses. All reps were done with heels touching and minimum side bend.

Pull-ups
1-1-1-1-1
All these were done at 20kg of assistance... nearly there

Crossfit
Run 250m
15 swings with the 24 kb
12 Pull-ups

x3

Managed to do this in just over 8 minutes pretty happy, more to do today.

DamienH

Tuesday 18th November
Felt pretty weak today cause of yesterday so I decided to take it easy

A1: Squats with 24kb 3 sets of 12
A2: Pushups 3 sets of 12
Rest 1 Min after each a2

B1: KB rows with the 16 3 sets of 12 each arm
B2: Windmills 3 sets of 5 each arm

I did some military press practice using the barbell to get my form right, it's coming along nicely. Crossfit was 5 sets of 1rm push jerks today, no way was I going to do that after yesterday. I'll see what tmrw brings

DamienH

Wednesday, November 19th

Squats
107.5, 97.5

Military Press BB
60, 50, 40

Push Jerk pratice with the bar and 40kg

Pull-ups
2x5 @ 32kg

Crossfit
Run 250m
Max sets of pull-ups

Repeat for 20mins

I only managed to get 4 in 12 mins and had to stop. I'm not feeling the best atm and I felt mad weak toward the end so I knocked it on the head. Hopefully after my rest day tmrw I should be fighting fit.
I managed to get 15, 13, 8, 10 reps with the pull-ups, assistance on 32kg. I think I'll stay on 32kg for another week and then move it up, those one rep max's earlier in the week helped out a lot.

I've got the military press down now pretty much so I'm going to try working it in between the 2 days of kettlebells. 60 was going towards my max so I decided to start @ 80% and then work it up. Heels together and correct breathing.

I skipped a step on the squats but I'm not too worried, they felt strong still.

I saw a guy bench 160kg for 5 reps today. It was really impressive, I felt like clapping when he'd done it... still waiting to see some massive overhead press.