Free Range Student

FC Day 32: Swim

2012-02-24T09:02:00.004Z

Up early this morning for a swim, unfortunately the pool was pretty busy this morning so there wasn't much room to swim without getting stuck! Just had to fit in what I could and managed about 2km.

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

- Teddy Roosevelt

Chicken Update: Improvements to the water supply

2012-02-23T16:43:00.002Z

I haven't done a post about the chickens for a while, mostly because there hasn't been much to post about besides their egg production, they have just been quietly (or not so quietly) getting on with it! Which is great! However there is one thing which has bothered me over the last couple of weeks - the water supply. When we first got the hens we bought a cheap and cheerful, standard plastic drinker which has been a bit of a hassle. Firstly, as soon as it gets cold enough to freeze, they crack. So then they leak! They are also a pain to fill up and clean out. The third - and worst - problem is this:

The hens paddle in the trough of the drinker as when they drink and it soon gets full of mud, leaves and muck potentially with faecal contamination, meaning the chickens are reluctant to drink and if they do drink it is potentially a disease risk. If hens cannot drink enough water, they also don't eat enough, and are therefore in poorer condition, less healthy and egg production also suffers. This meant washing the trough several times a day and refilling it to provide them with fresh water. So when our second trough cracked, I decided it was time for a change for the good of the hens and also for my student loan balance and breakfast egg supply!

A sturdy galvanized drinker would stop the cracking issue but would still be open for contamination, not to mention being expensive! A more novel solution was required! After some research I came across this:

A nipple drinker attached to a standard bottle cap! A drinking nipple works in the same way as a hamster/guinea pig water bottle which you've probably seen before - the hen pecks the nipple, pushing the metal button into the cap and allowing water to come out. When the hen stops pecking, the button fall back into place and the water stops. And as the nipple is suspended and the water supply closed off, there's no chance of contamination. Simple, clean and effective. Chains of nipple drinkers on an automatic supply are used in many commercial egg farms for these very reasons. This one also costs about four quid! The rest of the materials we just had lying about.

Here's how I got ours up and running:

1. Get the nipple cap, a standard plastic water bottle, some scissors/craft knife, and some cable ties/string.

2. Unscrew the bottle cap and replace it with the nipple cap.

3. Use the scissors to cut a hole in the other end of the bottle to allow filling with a hose/watering can.

4. Choose a suitable place to attach your drinker, I chose the fence so I could fill it with our hosepipe which is close by, but you could construct some kind of stand/stake to attach it to.

5. Attach the drinker using the cable ties or string. Fill with water using the hole you cut in the top.

6. Stand back and admire your handiwork! Here's our hens investigating their new drinker:

There it is - easy, cheap and effective. Hopefully this should benefit the hens immensely and I will be rewarded with more eggs! To buy the nipple drinker cap or other equipment associated with building your own water supply, the link to the eBay shop I bought mine from is here. The item is called a Drinkit universal nipple cap - please note I am in no way affiliated with this seller, I am simply reviewing the item from my own use.

FC Day 30: Weighted pull ups

2012-02-22T22:00:00.000Z

Just a short workout today as I'm struggling for time with exam revision, but useful to see if there is any strength improvement in my weighted pull ups.

Warm Up:
30 x Double unders + dynamic stretches

Buy In:
10 x Snatch @30kg
20 x Walking lunges
30 x Sit ups
20 x Arm swings (forward +back)
10 x Hand release press ups

Strength:
Weighted pull up -
6 @ 10kg
4 @ 15kg
3 @ 20kg
2 @ 22.5kg
1 @ 25kg
1 @ 27.5kg
1 @ 27.5kg

Cash Out:
100 x V-outs (movement demo here courtesy of gymnasticswod.com)

No inspirational quote as such for today, rather an inspirational video featuring CrossFit's Chris Spealler and a speech from basketball legend Michael Jordan.

FC Day 29: WOD

2012-02-21T19:31:00.003Z

As its high time I did some kind of proper workout instead of messing around doing skills practice andstrength work, today I'm doing the WOD from CrossFit Liverpool with my own warm up and buy in thrown in there.

Warm Up;

Dynamic stretches as always

Buy In:

30 Double unders

WOD:

4 rounds of 30s on 30s off for each exercise for total reps:

Kettlebell swings 24kg (I had to use a dumbbell for this as I dont have any KBs)

Reps in 4 Rounds: 63

Bottom to bottom squats (rep starts and ends at the bottom of a squat)

Reps in 4 rounds: 87

Sit ups

Reps in 4 rounds: 122

Total Rep Score: 272

"When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win."

-Ed Macauley

FC Day 28: Strength WOD and Lift technique

2012-02-20T17:44:00.000Z

A run through of technique for the major lifts today, along with some general strength work.

Warm Up:
Dynamic stretched as always, particularly focusing on opening the hips using the spiderman lunge and on stretching out the hamstrings.

Buy In:
3 rounds with unladen 20kg Olympic bar:
5 x deadlift
5 x sumo deadlift high pull
5 x power cleans
5 x squat cleans
5 x snatch
5 x thrusters

Focus here is on technique: engaging the hips to provide the power in each movement, trying maintain a bar in a straight vertical trajectory from the bottom of each movement to the top and maintaining correct form to minimise the risk of injury. It is important to learn correct form here using the relatively light weight of an unladen bar so that when under pressure in a workout with heavier weight you are less likely to revert to poor techniques which are potentially dangerous. If you haven't done these movements before you should get proper coaching from a qualified strength coach. Here's a useful video from techniquewod.com where coach Doug Larson goes over technique for deadlift and also some common mistakes to avoid:

Strength:
Todays WOD is a strength set focusing on the back squat.

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squat
Weight: 50kg, 60kg, 70kg, 80kg, 80kg

Started low here as I haven't done this for a while and had no spotter, next time I'll start from around 70/75kg with a spotter and try to work up from there.

I used the low bar position for this exercise as opposed to the high bar position.

Here's another video, this time from CrossFit.com where top athlete Dave Lipson demos this WOD (topping out at around 525lbs or 230kg!) and gives some explanations of technique and the differences between high and low bar:

"Like it or not, we remain the possessors of potentially strong muscle, bone, sinew, and nerve, and these hard-won commodities demand our attention. They were too long in the making to just be ignored, and we do so at our peril. they are the very components of our existence, the quality of which now depends on our conscious , directed effort at giving them the stimulus they need to stay in the condition that is normal to them. Exercise is that stimulus "
-Starting Strength 2 (Mark Rippetoe/ Lon Kilgore)

Skill Progressions 4: L-hang/L-Hang pull up

2012-02-17T12:03:00.001Z

The revision break practice skill of the day is...

The L-Hang or L-Hang Pull Up

This requires a lot of proprioceptive control, awareness and core strength among other things. Here's a great video from CrossFit San Francisco and gymnastics coach Carl Paoli at gymnasticswod.com explaining the key elements of body position for the L-hang and providing some progression exercises and scaling to help us get there:

Details at GymnasticsWOD

I'll also be throwing in some stretches to improve my woeful hamstring flexibility, and maybe a workout later on. If you haven't checked out gymnasticswod.com yet, get on it!

FC Day 24: WOD and Skill Progression

2012-02-16T08:30:00.000Z

Today's revision break skill is.....

Bar False Grip

It's also about time I fitted a proper workout in this week, so here's the WOD which I will be doing later today:

WOD:
Today's WOD includes a bar complex called the Bear (sometimes called the Man Maker), it's basically a load of bar lifts combined into a continuous movement, and you count the whole thing as one rep. It consists of:

Power clean - Front squat - Push press - Back squat - Push Press - Bar to floor
There is no time limit, but the bar must not rest on the ground till you complete all 7 reps, just tap to the floor and go!

So my workout is:

5 rounds for QUALITY:
7 x Bear complex @ 40kg
10 x Double Unders

Cash Out
Max rep Pull ups = 17

For some inspiration, here's CrossFit beast Rob Orlando doing the Bear with just over 90kg!

To be honest, I found this tough, even though there was no time limit, my bar work and lifting has suffered from lack of training, need to get over to CrossFit more often I think! On the plus side, my double unders have improved with practice. Not surprisingly my pull ups weren't overly impressive straight after this set.

"We improve ourselves by victories over our self. There must be contests, and you must win."
- Edward Gibbon

Skill progressions 2: The Double Under

2012-02-15T14:13:00.004Z

For today's revision breaks I shall be focusing on the double under - a skipping exercise where the rope passes round twice on one jump. This takes a bit of practice to master, especially for an uncoordinated oaf like myself, but once learned they make a great tool for including in CrossFit workouts.

Double Unders
Each revision break today consists of 15mins practice with double unders.

I'll also be throwing in some repeat practice on false grips, and a great drill for yesterdays skill progression recommended by Rob Hornby at Running_From_Science, which is to do reduced depth HSPU and touch your head to a stack of plates/mats, gradually removing them till you can go all the way to the floor and back. This helps develop the required strength better than the push press.

Technique
If your already a double under pro, and want to see some skills from jump rope ninja Buddy Lee that will blow your mind, you can find that here.

For the rest of us, it's time to get some more advice from Coach Carl Paoli from gymnasticswod.com on learning the double under (Video 1) and some progressions and drills (Video 2) to help us get there:

Details at GymnasticsWOD

So there we go, I'll get practicing on these and hopefully my next trip to CrossFit Liverpool I'll be R'xing any WODs with double unders!

FC Day 22: Strength for Skill Progression

2012-02-14T22:56:00.003Z

For tonight's revision break, I'm doing some strength work which will help build the strength to allow me to do handstand push ups. If we turn the handstand push up upside down, it kind of resembles a bodyweight push press... so, if I can increase my push press to near body weight AND improve my stability on handstands, in theory I should be able to do HSPU's like a pro!

Strength
Push Press - Starting at manageable weight, increase to find 3RM

3 x 40kg
3 x 45kg
3 x 50kg
3 x 55kg
3 x 60kg
(managed 1 x 65kg)

Current bodyweight: 84kg

Still a way to go yet, we will revisit this again and try to make some progress!

"With self-discipline most anything is possible."
- Teddy Roosevelt

FC Day 22: Skill progressions

2012-02-14T17:24:00.002Z

I'm deep in revision mode at the moment with my 4th year exams in less than two weeks, so I'm struggling to find time for as many training sessions I was managing a few weeks ago. Not wanting to regress into full-on slob status again after just a few weeks of hard work, I am going to use my revision breaks to spend 10-15mins working on some skill progressions that will help me in post-exam workouts. I'll also be trying to fit in a few WODs or swim/run sessions where I can.

So here's the first one:

Handstand Push ups

The handstand push up is a tough exercise to master but great for strength, balance, variety in CrossFit WODs and makes a change from fighting with a bar all the time. First of all though, you need to be able to do a handstand. Having a wall to practice against helps, and there's a few progressions to work through to allow you to get there. If like me your rubbish at handstands, you may find this video I've been using from Coach Carl Paoli at gymnasticswod.com really helpful:

Details at GymnasticsWOD

So there it is, great advice on keeping good body position and working on the way to being able to handstand. The next thing is building up the strength, particularly in the shoulders, to be able to get all the way down, touch the floor with the top of my head and then press up into a handstand again, more on this later!

“Those who do not find the time for exercise will have to find time for illness.”
– Earl of Derby

FC Day 20: WOD

2012-02-12T21:24:00.005Z

A fast paced workout today with a combination of weights and bodyweight exercises.

Warm Up:
10 x single leg bench lunges
10 x forward leg swings (each leg)
10 x back leg swings (each leg)
10 x side leg swings (each leg)
10 x spiderman lunges
10 x dislocates
10 x arm swings

WOD:
6 rounds of:

3 x Deadlift @ 80kg
6 x Ring press ups
9 x Knees to elbows
12 x Squats

Time: 7mins 22s

Cash Out:
10mins False grip progressions

40 x GHD Sit ups

Stretch off + mobility work

“The common denominator of success - the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful - lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.”
-The Common Denominator of Success (a speech)
by Albert E.N. Gray

FC Day 19: Back in the gym

2012-02-11T22:47:00.001Z

Back in the gym today after a couple of days off, it made for a nice revision break. Worked on some more weighted exercises for low reps today, trying to gain some overall strength as well as fitness.

Warm up:
Stretches then 10 x bench press @ 45kg

Strength:
Bench press @ 60 kg
8-4-4-4

Weighted pull ups:
7 @ 5kg
5 @ 10kg
3 @ 15kg
2 @ 20kg
1 @ 22.5kg
(failed at 25kg)

Skill
False grip hang progressions, I can now hang for a few seconds with a bar false grip, very close to a pull up.

Cash out:
20 x pull ups
20 x single arm clean and press @ 22.5kg

"Conquer yourself."

- Vladimir Salnikov, 1500m Swim Champion, 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

2012-02-09T21:22:00.000Z

Unfortunately I've been unable to post any workouts the last couple of days as I've been forced to take 2 rest days to get over some lower back pain and soreness. Not from any training I don't think as I haven't really done any big lifting or back stuff for a week or so, it just happens from time to time when your fairly tall I guess as its happened a few times over the years. Never mind, just slap some Deep Heat on there and get ready to go hard or go home next workout!

FC Day 15: Skills Practice and Core

2012-02-07T15:37:00.000Z

OK so today's workout is a little bit of a mish-mash! Two of my main goals are a) to be able to complete the CrossFit Workout of 100 pull ups for time with a respectable score and b) to be able to do muscle ups - a tough gymnastic movement on the rings which requires a combination of strength and technique which features in a lot of CrossFit workouts.
So the main focus is to develop a few baseline skills that I will need in order to achieve these:
a) improve kipping pull ups
b) develop a strong false grip

WOD:

Dynamic stretches as always to warm up

Buy In:
3 continuous rounds of:
10 x back squats with 20kg bar
10 x press up
10 x sit up

Skills Practice
10-15 mins practice followed by max reps pull up test:

Kips
Kipping pull ups
Max rep pull ups today: 20 pull ups

10-15 mins practice on false grip progressions. For this I used the great movement progressions videos on gymnasticWOD.com. Here is the first of the false grip progression videos and more info about the false grip:

Details at GymnasticsWOD

These videos are really useful and great if you can't get to a CrossFit box to get some first hand tuition there.

Cash Out:
100 V-ups

Stretch off

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."
- Vince Lombardi

FC Day 14: Swim

2012-02-06T22:05:00.001Z

I'm well overdue for another swim session, so time to hit the pool! Arrived at the pool late today so I only had 45mins to swim, quite pleased to get this set in in that time:

Swim

Warm Up:

800m Swim as:

300m F/C

200m B/K

100m B/R

200m F/C

Prelim Set:

8 x 50m B/K Fast on 5s rest between 50s

Main Set:

3 x 200m F/C on 20s rest

4 x 50m B/R Kick on 10s rest

4 x 100m F/C swim with hand paddles on 10s rest

4 x 50m B/R Kick on 5s rest

Swim Down: 100m easy swim

Total Distance: 2700m

"Sport teaches you to win honestly. Sport teaches you to lose with dignity. In a word, sport teaches you life."
-Ernest Hemingway

FC Days 11-13 Update

2012-02-05T20:14:00.000Z

Haven't been able to update on my progress over the weekend so here's three days in one post:

Friday:

Warm Up: Dynamic stretches

WOD:

40-30-20-10

Box jumps

Sit ups

Time: 5mins 24s

Saturday:

Warm Up:

800m run

2km bike

Dynamic stretches

Buy In:

3 rounds of:

10 x Bent over row with 20kg bar

10 x Good morning with 20kg bar

10 x Front squat with 20kg bar

20 x Sit ups

10 x Iron leg cross (each leg)

10 x Scorpions (each leg)

WOD:

Dallas Fitness Test Row

6 x 30s sprint row + 30s rest

Record total distance, aim for 1000m or more.

Total distance: 1027m

Stretch off

Sunday: Rest day

"But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, his greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious."

-Vince Lombardi

FC Day 10: Rest Day

2012-02-02T20:34:00.002Z

A rest day scheduled for today to allow time for recovery.

Some running and a CrossFit WOD on the agenda for over the weekend!

FC Day 9: Return to CrossFit

2012-02-01T12:53:00.001Z

Tonight sees a return across the Mersey to train with the guys at CrossFit Liverpool. First real session in a CrossFit box for a long time so it's going to be a tough one, wish me luck!

Tonight's workout from the CrossFit Liverpool blog page:

Warm Up
400m run
Dynamic stretches

Buy In
3 rounds with PVC pipe bar:
10 dislocates
10 overhead squats
10 good mornings
10 sit ups

Dynamic Effort
Bench Press 10 x 3 @ 65% 1RM

Having never really done bench press at all, I instead worked up to find a ballpark figure of my 1 rep max:

1RM bench press: 70kg

Ideally this should be a lot higher, something to improve on here.

WOD
AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 15 min:

5 pullups
10 ring press ups
15 double unders skipping (or 45 single skips if like me you can't do double unders yet)

My score: 8 rounds

I was mainly held back here by my lack of strength on the ring press ups, after 3 rounds I was struggling on these and it was really slowing my rounds down. If I can improve on these I should be able to improve a lot on this score. Obviously I need to learn double unders as well so I can do these sets as prescribed.

All in all, it was a struggle, but I had an awesome time, worked hard and set some bench marks for improvement which is good. To excel at CrossFit demands elite fitness, and elite fitness doesn't come easy to anyone!

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

- Teddy Roosevelt

FC Day 8: Flexibility and Core WOD

2012-01-31T20:00:00.002Z

Very very stiff today, especially my legs, so starting with some flexibility exercises from gymnasticswod.com, and then a short WOD focused on some core strength skills. A strong 'core' consisting of abdominals, hips and lower back, forms the powerhouse of the body and is especially important in both explosive movements such as starts and turns in swimming, Olympic lifting and sprinting, as well as balance and stability in almost all active sports.

Warm up and flexibility:
20 x front leg swings (each leg)
20 x back leg swings (each leg)
20 x side leg swings (each leg)
20 x spiderman lunges
20 x scorpions
20 x forward arm swings
20 x backward arm swings
30s plane crash hold each arm

WOD:
10 rounds:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 x knees to elbows

30s GHD back extension hold

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 x GHD sit ups

e.g. Round 1: perform 10 knees to elbows, 30s GHD back extension hold and 1 GHD sit up.
Round 2: perform 9 knees to elbows, 30s GHD back extention hold and 2 GHD sit ups etc.

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
- Jim Rohm

FC Day 7: Swim

2012-01-30T21:52:00.002Z

Another training session in the pool this evening, hopefully get a few more in before the end of the week.

Swim

Warm Up
600m swim as 100m F/C, 100m B/K, 100m B/R, 100m F/C, 100m B/K, 100m B/R

Main Set
3 x 200m F/C on 20s rest

6 x 100m - 1, 3 and 5 B/R
2, 4 and 6 B/K on 20s rest

6 x 100m F/C with paddles on 20s rest

Swim Down
100m easy swim

Total distance: 2500m

"This is my body. And I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day.
What are you on?"

- Lance Armstrong

FC Day 7: Run

2012-01-30T14:38:00.002Z

Went out for an exploratory run along a new route today, had no idea of the distance at the time, so was quite pleased to find out that it was pretty much exactly 7km having mapped the route out afterwards on runningmap.com (which I prefer for mapping my runs as its easier to map off-road routes than on mapmyrun.com and most of my runs are on tracks and trails.)

Run: 7km

Time: 38mins

Showing some improvement from taking almost this long to run 5km last week!

"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile"

FC Day 6: WOD

2012-01-29T22:06:00.001Z

Some harder work today after the rest day yesterday - Triple 7's: 7 movements, 7 reps, 7 rounds, as fast as possible!

WOD: Triple 7's

7 rounds of:

7 x squats
7 x knees to elbows (hanging from bar)
7 x hand release press ups
7 x sit ups
7 x pull ups
7 x single arm dumbbell clean and press (22.5kg) RIGHT ARM
7 x single arm dumbbell clean and press (22.5kg) LEFT ARM

Time: 22mins 37s

"The faster I finish, the faster it stops hurting."
Marco Pantani 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner

FC Day 4: Run

2012-01-27T13:01:00.002Z

A shorter off-road run today, trying to maintain a faster pace than on the 5km run from earlier in the week.

Run 2km

Time: 12.32

My Vibram Komodosport running shoes, also great for CrossFit.

“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

FC Day 3 WOD

2012-01-26T22:12:00.001Z

Nothing too fancy today, just some strength work on a couple of key CrossFit exercises in preparation for some more lifting work next week.

WOD:

Deadlifts -

3 x 90kg
3 x 90kg
3 x 95kg
3 x 95kg
3 x 100kg
3 x 100kg

Progression to 1 rep max weighted pull up:

10 x kipping pull up
5 x pull up + 5kg
5 x pull up + 7.5kg
3 x pull up + 10kg
2 x pull up + 15kg
1 x pull up + 20kg
1 x pull up + 20kg

"Today I will do what you won't, so tomorrow I can do what you can't"

Fitness Challenge Day 3

2012-01-26T19:17:00.002Z

Todays cardio consisted of roughly 45 minutes of squash. Squash is great for working on speed, balance, fitness and accuracy. I'm not particularly good at squash but it was good for exercise and made a fun alternative to swimming and running.

Squash:

Multiple games -

Three-quarter court
Doubles
DONKEY

Time: 45 mins

Also sustained a nice squash ball shaped bruise as a result of being the loser at DONKEY, I like to think this shows my commitment!

"The difference between commitment and involvement can be seen in a Bacon and Egg breakfast, the chicken was involved...the pig was committed."