blah blah blah. MONKEY BARS. bla bla bla
I've been watching the WODs scroll by on crossfit for a while now, and I love it. I've never gone to gyms, and usually strictly believed that the body i have should reflect the activities I do. But for some reason, i sure do love crossfit. Short, efficient work outs that aim to prepare me a broad range of physical challenges. It's also the first thing i've done that stresses absolute strength: Previously i've been happy just to lift myself, run myself, carry myself & my stuff, etc. This is the first place where the absolute strength is actually benchmarked and, no surprise, i suck at it.
I've been doing only 1 of 3 to 1 of 5 of the workouts they posted, usually due to equipment shortfall. But i'm trying to do them all as Rx'ed now that i have a bit more equipment available. Alison's got a rower, a cinderblock makes a good kettlebell, etc.
bla bla bla, i haven't done any metcon so my wind is crap, so i've been doing crossfit & boxing to address it. I haven't played disc in a long time, and I'd like to go back and not be winded immediately.
I went out looking for a pullup bar to do "Cindy" today (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats). I was really excited. This was one i could do! I had nailed 16 rounds at the house in I-town, and i was hoping to break 20 (ha!). Now, what was I gonna do for a pullup bar?
I remembered a set of monkey bars at the park by my house, so i thought i'd go there. Oops, they're gone, replaced by those plastic crappy jungle gyms no one likes. So i try a different park, with older-school equipment, but it's gone, same story, same plastic crap. A third park, same problem. It's a little ridiculous. What's a guy got to do to find a pull-up bar? I'm getting a little frustrated: the pull-up is one of the movements our muscles are DESIGNED FOR, we should be doing them every day! We are MONKEYS! So WHERE ARE OUR MONKEY BARS? Hell, even Alison's gym -- one of the only apartment gyms i've seen that has a freestanding punching bag -- doesn't even have one.
I finally found some on an old, forgotten "fitness trail," at Mason District park, but they were so worn that they spun in their blocks, and they were at least 2" in diameter. Sad :(
Extending my streak of "WOD's i have all the equipment for, tomorrow is 'Grace'. My previous was 8:30 at 65% bw, and i was sore for about 4 days :) Whee. Funny thing is, that 65% bw represented all the weights i had at the time.
Goals:
1) get my 'Grace' time below 6:00, then work up to Rx'ed weight (which is practically 100% bw, sigh).
2) a freestanding handstand push-up
3) 'Fran' sub 6:00.
4) 20 rounds in 'Cindy'
I realized i was out of shape when i tried to box a few months ago and barely got through 3 rounds. Thinking back, i realized that, after moving to the lakehouse, I played maybe 5 games of disc in two years, and otherwise, didn't do any metcon work at all. Sure, i biked to work in the summer of '06, but it was hardly heavy aerobic exercise. Since i've just been climbing and hiking, i wanted to add a regular metcon component back to my life, preferably like boxing: short intense intervals.
There's a useful duality in types of activity: a) activities that will give you the body you need to be better at them and b) activities that won't. A good example of 'a' is cycling, or running, or playing basketball. If you do nothing but play basketball, you'll get a body like a better basketball player. A good example of 'b' is rock climbing: if you're not already lean, it's almost impossible to not be frustrated, and there's no way that just climbing will be sufficient to turn you lean.
So the idea of doing sufficient work to adequately prepare myself for any physical challenge, especially when it represents a very modest time commitment and a limited equipment requirement, makes a ton of sense.
For fun, i made a list of sports/activities/movement skills i played as a kid:
soccer
baseball
football
tennis
swimming
diving
badminton (also called "the shuttle run, with a racket")
boxing
muay thai
filipino martial arts
frisbee
after going to college, i've added:
skiing (CC & downhill)
climbing
capoeira
kayaking
dancing
observations: none involve weights or absolute strength; even boxing is scaled to weight classes.
dear self, please right rite moar! thx, love, self!
I've been doing only 1 of 3 to 1 of 5 of the workouts they posted, usually due to equipment shortfall. But i'm trying to do them all as Rx'ed now that i have a bit more equipment available. Alison's got a rower, a cinderblock makes a good kettlebell, etc.
bla bla bla, i haven't done any metcon so my wind is crap, so i've been doing crossfit & boxing to address it. I haven't played disc in a long time, and I'd like to go back and not be winded immediately.
I went out looking for a pullup bar to do "Cindy" today (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats). I was really excited. This was one i could do! I had nailed 16 rounds at the house in I-town, and i was hoping to break 20 (ha!). Now, what was I gonna do for a pullup bar?
I remembered a set of monkey bars at the park by my house, so i thought i'd go there. Oops, they're gone, replaced by those plastic crappy jungle gyms no one likes. So i try a different park, with older-school equipment, but it's gone, same story, same plastic crap. A third park, same problem. It's a little ridiculous. What's a guy got to do to find a pull-up bar? I'm getting a little frustrated: the pull-up is one of the movements our muscles are DESIGNED FOR, we should be doing them every day! We are MONKEYS! So WHERE ARE OUR MONKEY BARS? Hell, even Alison's gym -- one of the only apartment gyms i've seen that has a freestanding punching bag -- doesn't even have one.
I finally found some on an old, forgotten "fitness trail," at Mason District park, but they were so worn that they spun in their blocks, and they were at least 2" in diameter. Sad :(
Extending my streak of "WOD's i have all the equipment for, tomorrow is 'Grace'. My previous was 8:30 at 65% bw, and i was sore for about 4 days :) Whee. Funny thing is, that 65% bw represented all the weights i had at the time.
Goals:
1) get my 'Grace' time below 6:00, then work up to Rx'ed weight (which is practically 100% bw, sigh).
2) a freestanding handstand push-up
3) 'Fran' sub 6:00.
4) 20 rounds in 'Cindy'
I realized i was out of shape when i tried to box a few months ago and barely got through 3 rounds. Thinking back, i realized that, after moving to the lakehouse, I played maybe 5 games of disc in two years, and otherwise, didn't do any metcon work at all. Sure, i biked to work in the summer of '06, but it was hardly heavy aerobic exercise. Since i've just been climbing and hiking, i wanted to add a regular metcon component back to my life, preferably like boxing: short intense intervals.
There's a useful duality in types of activity: a) activities that will give you the body you need to be better at them and b) activities that won't. A good example of 'a' is cycling, or running, or playing basketball. If you do nothing but play basketball, you'll get a body like a better basketball player. A good example of 'b' is rock climbing: if you're not already lean, it's almost impossible to not be frustrated, and there's no way that just climbing will be sufficient to turn you lean.
So the idea of doing sufficient work to adequately prepare myself for any physical challenge, especially when it represents a very modest time commitment and a limited equipment requirement, makes a ton of sense.
For fun, i made a list of sports/activities/movement skills i played as a kid:
soccer
baseball
football
tennis
swimming
diving
badminton (also called "the shuttle run, with a racket")
boxing
muay thai
filipino martial arts
frisbee
after going to college, i've added:
skiing (CC & downhill)
climbing
capoeira
kayaking
dancing
observations: none involve weights or absolute strength; even boxing is scaled to weight classes.
dear self, please right rite moar! thx, love, self!