So, I’m now going to post some embarrassing pictures of my hands. They are not pretty. Calluses everywhere, rips, gaps, and scabs are all over both hands, ick! Why are they so awful? Well…it seems I have had to become re-motivated to improve my gymnastic skills that includes a Muscle-Up and Butterfly pull-ups. Both are skills that require me {ESPECIALLY} to practice A Lot. I have never been one to learn things in one lesson! So, my new goals are 5 butterfly pull-ups in a row and two muscle-ups in a row with no assistance!
What have you HAD to practice excessively to get good at?
This happens to be one of the stories of my life – a missed goal and I have yet to re-motivate to run another marathon. Not only that, but, I have yet to re motivate myself on what my actual athletic goals are at the moment…oh wait, that’s not true! I want to clean and jerk & snatch a boat load of weight! That is important to me at the moment. I’d also like to improve my gymnastic skills {pull-ups, dips, muscle ups…} I’d also like to be a happy, healthy well-balanced mommy. Not too much exercise, not too much work, plans for the future, etc. A balanced life is one that is worth living for, not a super stressed out one.
Today is March 21, 2013. I have been writing on this site since 2007! Wow, that’s a long time. 5 Years ago this month I was bike racing. It was early in the season, I was hot to exercise and chose bike racing at the time.
Next month is the Redlands Classic and I can’t wait for the cyclist to fly into our town. The last few years, I’ve managed to have a good time hosting riders and this year will be no different. I’m excited to meet the riders of the women’s Optum Cycling Team this year and I can’t wait to cheer on all the riders including (hopefully) my own!
Finally, it was an at home workout day yesterday since it’s spring break and I wanted to work on my Olympic Lifting Skills. So, below is a video my son filmed for me to see the “hip drive” on my clean. What I am referring to is “are my hips meeting the bar?” Here is how it’s supposed to look Hang Clean plus a Push Jerk.
This is a new garage for us and I did manage to hit the garage door opener on the jerk which is why it’s jerky, hahaha. Good news is that I didn’t break it! Anyway, this barbell sequence was taken from Rudy and I sent it to a friend just for another set of eyes. I believe in looking at this that the barbell should not come forward at all and that I need to physically make contact at the hip and there should be no press out at the top of the jerk. Guess the only way to fix this is to practice it correctly!
This is a subject close to my heart as I have spent the last three years trying to get stronger. The first two years of crossfit were easy compared to now. I could get a PR every time I did a lift! I remember my first Deadlift PR was 155! That was a big deal three years ago. Thankfully, I’ve put 100 pounds on that lift, but, I’ve had to work my butt off to get it. If you google “How to Get Stronger”, there will be 1000′s of hits and the list of information is vast!
In addition, I’ve also spent a good deal of time reading about a variety of methods on how to get stronger, leaner and bigger…….bottom line what you chose to do in the weight room depends on your goals. If you’re interested in putting on 5 pounds of muscle, then, you need WAY MORE VOLUME. If you’re interested in strictly upping you’re one rep max, then, less volume and more reps in the 80-90% range. Also, it doesn’t work forever! You need to plan back off weeks or deload weeks such as 3 weeks of heavy and 1 week of lighter.
So, do you have a plan for getting stronger? Do you do the same reps and weights at the gym every single week? Every time you walk in the gym, is there a plan in place?
Here’s what I know to be true:
Working off percentages of your one rep max works the majority of the time. 4 sets of 5-7 reps in the 70-80% works very well for me. So, for example, if your press is 105, then 4 sets of 5 @ 73 for week one, 4 sets of 5 @ 78, etc.
Going heavy is also effective. Using a rep scheme of 5×2, 7×1, 10×1 starting at 80% and moving into 90% by week 3 works has worked for me as well.
Intensity + Volume is an a** kicker but also very effective. Try the following rep scheme of 3 reps on the minute for 3 minutes at 60%, 3 reps on the minute for 3 minutes at 70%, then, 1 rep every 30 seconds for 3 minutes at 80% is super hard because it creates a) intensity b) work!
Finally, there is strength training in the form of conditioning which is even harder really. These are what a lot of crossfit workouts are based on. Repeating higher reps of a medium weight as fast as possible can be the most horrible form of strength training at all! For example, my favorite workout in CrossFit is Elizabeth. 21-15-9 of Squat Cleans + Ring Dips at 95 pounds for women. This is serious work at a high intensity and theoretically, can be finished in under 10 minutes.
In summary, if you are looking to get stronger, the best plan of attack is to combine one or two of these methods into your weekly training. Going heavy earlier in the week and doing more of a faster/lighter reps towards the end of the week is a great way to get lean and strong effectively.
Feel free to add to leave a comment on how YOU plan to get stronger in 2013!
This past weekend, I had the amazing pleasure of participating in a co-ed husband & wife teamed crossfit event in the town of Upland, California at CrossFit Kinnick. My husband and I along with another couple competed in an intermediate category of 4 individual crossfit WODS (Mini-Helen, Mini-Jackie, Fran, and Grace) along with CrossFit Totals at the end of the competition. Per lift, we had 7 minutes to find our 1 Rep Max in the Deadlift, Back Squat and Press) for all four people.
At the very last minute, we lost our babysitter and chose to take our children to the event. My children are 6 & 9 and had spent the last week being ridiculously sick. So sick that they were sleeping upwards of 14 hours a day and had a high fever for 3 + days. We figured they’d be happy at the competition because there are always tons of kids around and lots of ipads and iphones to use in case of an emergency. Turns out my kids can be VERY obsessive when it comes to Angry Birds on the iPad when left to their own devices. Anyway, when it came time for us to compete, I nudged them both and tried to get them up to come watch us!! They would not budge!
So, I start my workout of 600 meter row, 30 thrusters and 20 pullups and was fairly well gassed by 300 meters…My husband is right behind me doing FRAN at the same time. We had no idea what the other one was doing and we both were in our own version of the “pain cave”. All I could think about during the row was how to save my legs, because 30 thrusters were coming up……I get off the rower and start thrusting a 33 pound bar which is SUPER light and my quads were on FIRE. Like it burned everytime I took a squat. Those 30 thrusters were the hardest and most painful of my life, not kidding. In the middle of this SERIOUS pain, I see my youngest child directly in front of me. He’s got that look of urgency and then points to his private parts and mouths the words, “mommy, I need to pee”! Clearly, I was in the middle of something and that didn’t matter to him! I will never forget this event for that one moment.
Major pain face
In the end, we all had a good time inflicting pain on ourselves. I would like to thank the organizers of the Battle of the Boxes for hosting a well run, well judged, appropriately timed event. I had great help from the staff when I needed it and I even got a “Congrats” from the owner of the box which I totally didn’t expect. In fact, I felt horrible about my particular event that anytime anyone told me I did a good job, I gave them a weird look–cause in my mind, I stank it up.
Clearly, we had a super strong team last weekend. Clearly, we cooperated well and supported each other well. I loved every minute of it. We now have another competition coming up in another month and this time we (my friend and I) are competing with our husbands on a team of four. The cool thing is we get to one do one mini-WOD each followed by Cross Fit Totals which is a 1 RM of Press, Deadlift and Back Squat. It’s going to be super fun and I can’t wait to get out there with my husband of 13 years and rock it! Having a competition looming in front of me gives me a focus for a month. What is the focus?! Get big PR’s of course! Lift serious weight. Be an older mom setting an example for all those young ladies out there, that we too can be competitive!
Ok, so, this topic makes me giggle! How many of you want a big butt?! And, I don’t mean Big like BIGGGG, I mean big, muscular and tight big booty? You know, like Venus Williams big? I had a friend stop me on the street recently to ask, “What could she do to get a butt like mine?” I swear! Then, she told me I had an amazing ass which her toddler son promptly repeated, hahahaha!
I have been blessed with a big booty which I swear was a curse when I was younger.
However, having a big bum has propelled me through many marathons, bike races, triathlons and now it does help with lifting. My father used to tell me I had inherited the family genetic of having a big butt…now, it’s been multiple sizes throughout my 40+ years. In high school, I had a size 12 big girl booty and I did just fine running cross country and track. Got to college and did the same thing along with some bike racing….still a good size 8 girl. Had babies, a good size 8 on a 5’6″ body frame is a good size booty. I carry all my extra weight/baggage in my butt and thighs. Now, that I am happily into my 40′s, I can honestly say that I have a size 4 butt. Smallest it’s ever been in my career of athletics and it’s all because of LIFTING and having a darn good diet. The more lifting I do, the smaller it gets.
Evidence:
Now, apparently having a big booty is a hot topic in the fitness world. I’ve read at least 5 different articles just this week on how A) Lifting gives you a great butt and B) How Lifting Can Improve Your Butt size and shape. In addition, if you google “How to Improve Your Butt through Exercise” There are thousands of articles! Even one article says that if you have a super deep squat (like High Bar Back Back), it will give you a bigger butt. Ha. Love it. Guess if you want a bigger, tighter better looking butt, you should be weightlifting!
In preparation for my first team competition in over a year, I needed to test my Deadlifts today because one of the events calls for 2 sets of 10 Deadlifts at 225 for women. That is HEAVY, people. Even if I have a 1 rep max in the 250+ category, 225 is still super heavy. And, I’d never tried to do multiple sets of them before today. So, here goes!
Many years ago, I posted about how I changed mygarage to be more “workout” friendly. {Feel free to look back at old posts, they are fun to read!}.
It hasn’t’ changed much over the years, garages never do, however, the workouts I do in them is completely different! Today’s post is a photo easy of some of the work I did today while my kids played in the house, ate their cereal and generally were fine by themselves (very thankful they are old enough to play on their own!!).
First of all, you must rock the knee socks! These bad a** socks come from WOD and I love them. Totally makes the morning when you put on a zippy pair of knee socks.
Must have items include SFH protein powder, chap-stick, and some newly downloaded tunes!!
The workout begins with Snatch practice off blocks.
Then, Clean and Jerk practice off blocks. Followed by a bunch of other stuff not pictured here that included an upper body lift, some rowing and core work on a GHD machine.
For added motivation I keep a picture of myself next to a “Get One Muscle Up” card! Thankfully, this has been done, however, it has to be worked on each and every week!
Finally, I’m happy to report that healthy leftovers were readily available upon finishing my morning work!!
