…for only around 4 minutes lol.

Original image courtesy of Miranda Oldroyd’s Twitter (@CrossFitMiranda)

It was funny when Bob Harper showed off his CrossFit friends on the Biggest Loser doing random WOD’s in his workout playground. His team of contestants were just floored seeing them do weird, foreign movements like overhead squats and handstand pushups. And when he said this was something his team could “potentially do” at some point…it hit me.

That’s so true. Sure, I was never as out of shape as the contestants, but I know that feeling of being pretty out of shape and thinking something like a muscle up was impossible.

Also, the whole place was DECKED OUTTTT in Rogue Fitness equipment. From the Games to now prime time television, it’s awesome seeing Rogue really flesh out their business.

Anyway…yeah…as you can see in these videos (we’ll see how long they stay up lol…), the CrossFit segment was only around 4 minutes long. Still, it was cool seeing our heroes like Rich Froning, Camille, Matt Chan, Kristan Clever, and Miranda Oldroyd on national TV.

Props to Carols Villafana for posting these on YouTube:

I initially only watched out of curiosity…

…since I really don’t watch TV aside from a few shows and sports. Most shows are a waste of time to me. Channel surfing + junk food were one of the many reasons I got out fat when I was younger.

What got me hooked on watching all 2 hours of last night’s Biggest Loser episode? Getting all those flashbacks to when I started hitting up the gym.

It was the summer going into my senior year of high school.

My weight reached an all-time high due to poor eating and sleeping habits, along with a lack of any physical activity whatsoever. Since I stopped playing sports around 8th grade, the only activities I had outside of school were guitar and video games. Yeah…can’t lose weight with those hobbies…

…that’s when I knew I had to make some changes with my life. I’ve done some workouts at home using some light dumbbells and even Dance Dance Revolution for some cardio (lol), but I knew that signing up for a gym membership had to be done to see the results I wanted.

Seeing the contestants struggle with their workouts and their new lifestyle changes seemed all too familiar to me. I was so self-conscious about how I’d looked when working out. Whether it’s doing a lift for the first time or how weird it would be for a guy to use an elliptical machine.

Honestly, that self-consciousness at the gym didn’t disappear until I got deep into CrossFit. I mean I’ve fallen off the GHD with no shame haha. That’s where I am now.

Watching the show reminded me how tough those mental hurdles were to overcome. But you know what? It’s all about starting somewhere, right?

When I started out at Planet Fitness, I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I pretty much just came up with my own stuff based off the material on JohnStoneFitness.com and the forums there. Then I thought LOTS of cardio was necessary, so I did 1-2 hour cardio sessions (bike, treadmill, or elliptical) on top of 30 minute lifting sessions.

I’ll never forget my first cardio “session.”

It was pretty much a 30 minute walk on the treadmill because I had NO ENDURANCE at all and my asthma was pretty bad then.

Hey, it was a start and I did see results. Even more so the following summer going into my freshman year of college. So much for that… (beer + Domino’s + Easy Mac + barely any sleep)

I watched the Biggest Loser last night only to see the CrossFit people, which ended up being such a small part of the episode. However, watching the show reminded me so much of where I started.

It reminded me that I don’t want to go back to that. That lifestyle where I constantly felt like shit. That lifestyle I was really unhappy about.

Fortunately, I’m now in that place, that zone where I no longer have worries about getting into shape. It’s all about executing that solid plan made for your body.

For the 2013 CrossFit Newbies

So all these thoughts of my beginnings really got me thinking of people starting fresh in 2013. I was already pretty damn self-conscious at Planet Fitness, a “judgement free zone” (lulz…felt more the opposite). Then things were taken to a whole new level at my school gym, where guys stared at each other working out and girls were afraid of stepping foot in due to the same reason.

What about a newbie signing up for a CrossFit gym?

I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot of people new to CrossFit would find many of our gyms intimidating simply because of the shit they see in the Games on TV and also the intense personalities of some athletes.
It’s hard for a lot of outsiders to see the welcoming culture under the image of intensity.

So for you newcomers, here are some things I just wanted to point out:

Not all boxes are intense

Whether CrossFit or another type of gym, each has its own personality. Some are totally hardcore while others cater to almost everyone. If you’re thinking of signing up, visit the local box and talk with the trainers there to get a feel for it. You’re going to be working out here 3-5+ times a week, so it should be a place you like.

Don’t worry about what people think of you when you work out

We all started somewhere. The majority of people are not going to be lifting heavy-ass weights or getting sub-3 minute Fran times right out of the gate. Just keep doing your thing and listen to what your coaches have to say.

You make a mistake with a movement? No biggie.

You fail a lift at a very light weight? Shake it off.

You trip or something during a run? Get back up.

All that matters is that you’re working towards a healthier lifestyle. The community around you can’t help but respect that.

Focus on your form

Leave your ego at the door.

I noticed this especially with guys who’ve had some previous lifting background. A lot of these lifts and movements will be new to you, so focus on getting your form down. Yeah, your form will go to shit at times during certain workouts, but it’s best if you lay down a solid foundation when you start.

It’ll help reduce any bad habits that’ll be hard to shake off down the road, which’ll drastically reduce your chances of injury. I’ve seen way too many people who can’t accept that their form sucks, yet continue to push through with it. It’s people like that who give CrossFit a bad name. Don’t be that guy or girl. Your body will thank you later as well.

And in the long-run, nailing down your form will help you lift more weight. 1 simple tweak in your form can help you shoot up in weight for a lift. I’ve experienced this countless times and still continue to.

You want it to get to the point where you can visualize what a lift SHOULD look like and then things just happen automatically. Then you’ll have less things to think about while you work out.

Ask yourself why you CrossFit

Yes, we all have many reasons why we do it. And that’s pretty damn awesome.

However, if you really do want to see results consistently and faster, focus on 1 thing at a time. Do you want to drop fat/health? Do you want to improve your performance? Or do you have some other reason for hitting up a CrossFit box?

I’m suggesting focusing on 1 main goal, especially in the beginning, because scattered plans tend to give you scattered results. I’ve been there numerous times. For example, I’ve bounced back and forth between dropping body fat and performance for quite a while. It wasn’t until I asked myself why I CrossFit that I decided to keep my focus on fat loss right now.

So far so good.

Having that proper focus will make things easier for you and for your CrossFit trainers, as they’ll be able to give you better, more personalized suggestions to achieving your goals.

Lastly…have fun

Think about how lucky you are.

You have this awesome opportunity to change things. To live a healthier lifestyle. To make yourself look pretty damn good. To make yourself stronger and faster than ever before.

Enjoy yourself out there. Savor every single rep. Feel that pump you get from a heavy lifting sesh. Soak in the flow of those butterfly kipping pullups.

And it’s sweet how you can share these experiences with other people. You don’t have to go through this journey alone. Between your coaches and other people in your class, you have a lot of like-minded individuals who want to see you succeed.

Joke around. Do a WOD. Have a good time.

The fun factor of CrossFit is what gets me to show up each day with ease.

Happy new year! Kip it real, my friends.

Man. That’s a loaded question.

As much as I’d love to PR my Fran time, that would be so fuckin cliche. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t pick anything from your typical CrossFit exercise list. I could easily spend all night listing down the best CrossFit WODs out there, and there’s no way I’d be able to narrow down to 1 that I would be totally happy with.

And no…I won’t partake in something like CrossFit endurance training. If tomorrow were my last day on this earth, I wouldn’t want to end things with one of the many intense CrossFit workouts. Forget about some extreme exercise program tomorrow. I could give two shits about “forging elite fitness.”

The more I think about it, the more I’d rather keep things simple. Go back to basics.

What kind of shit do I love to do?

Lift heavy. Motherfucker.

I would most likely do a whole WOD of cleans. For the first part of my workout, I’d do some strength shit. Building up to a new 1 rep max would be my plan. 250# or 255# would be a sweet final PR.

After doing that for a good 20 minutes or so, I’d do a fairly long AMRAP, maybe like 20 minutes of something with squat cleans, double unders, and pull ups.

I don’t see any logic or purpose to this WOD, but those are a few of my favorite movements. Even if this were my last workout, I wouldn’t go all out.

Why?

Every single rep. I’d cherish it – I’d feel every muscle in my body working together to complete each squat clean; I’d feel every rotation of my jump rope overhead; and I’d string together some of the smoothest butterflies I could ever do.

Rather than shoot for some crazy time for some crazy WOD with no standard, I’d simply appreciate this workout for the art found in CrossFit. Despite all the BEAST MODEEEE (roar) and skull-n-bonez mentalities in our CrossFit world, there’s much more to our sport.

When you stop for a moment and see the forest from the trees, that bad day at your box or that failed PR seems like nothing. Whenever I get down because of shit like this, I always ask myself, “Why do I CrossFit?”

I hit up my local box 5 times a week because:
1) I don’t want to be fat again.
2) I love doing these CrossFit workouts. Hitting up the gym is no longer a chore.
3) This shit makes me happy as fuck.

And how do I make sure I always maintain those 3 reasons above? Just show up. Simple as that.

So in the grander scheme of things, those little obstacles in my way don’t mean shit. And if tomorrow were that final day of working out, I would savor being in that moment. Being in the now.

Of course we know all that “world is ending” stuff is bullshit…”

…but I’m going to live tomorrow’s WOD and my entire day in the moment. I’m sure, like myself, a lot of you lose sight of what really matters with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We get pissed at the stupidest shit. We bitch over all these #firstworldproblems. We don’t realize how fuckin lucky we are.

Enjoy tomorrow. Kick some ass. YOLO

Kip it real, my friends.

Yeah…check this shit out. Lindsey Johnson lost a bet to Neal Maddox…so she had to do 500 burpees. Spencer Hendel was dragged along to do this WOD with her. Check it out:

I thought it was pretty insane cause we just did a WOD yesterday that started with 50 burpees AND ended with 50 burpees. Those 100 alone got me close to breaking. My right quad even cramped up a bit, so I had to lean a bit more towards my left upon finishing each rep.

Aside from the physical strain, it’s once again that mental game that can get to a lot of people with such an intense workout. Seriously…500 burpees? Lots of props to Lindsey and Spencer.

By the way…”Niggas in Paris” at the end of that video? Haha…reminds me all too much of my CrossFit box.

Kip it real, my friends.

1) Kipping Knees-to-Elbows by Again Faster

For the longest time, I had no idea how the fuck to kip knees-to-elbows. I was always flopping around like some goof on that pull up bar. While I still struggle with this movement, this was the video that taught me how to string them together.

2) Butterfly Kipping Pull Ups With James Hobart

Another Again Faster vid haha. What can I say? Their Mic’d Instructor series has helped me out for the past nearly 3 years. I believe I’ve posted this video before, but it’s just one of those classics that I had to add to this list.

About 2 years ago, when I finally learned to do some kipping pull ups, I wanted to butterfly. Bad. Normal kipping was just too slow and tiring for me, so I watched a shitload of vids and kept working on various steps of the progression. It was this butterfly kipping pull up vid that got me addicted to the movement, and it pretty much inspired me to come up with the domain name “KippingItReal.com”.

Once you learn to butterfly, you’ll never go back…unless you’re too exhausted during a WOD and form goes to shit. I love doing them so much I even forced myself to learn butterfly chest-to-bars.

3) Again Faster and Double Unders

Yes, Again Faster. They’re too helpful with this stuff. And yes, I’ve already shown this video on double unders before. Even to this day, it was really a game changer for me. I used to be so bad with jump rope work that my coach during my 1-on-1 on-ramp sessions didn’t have me spend too much time on that shit.

“Um…let’s move onto some power cleans…”

Now double unders are just a matter of endurance for me. I hope this vid and my tutorial on dubs help some of you out there.

4) Mobility WOD – Improving My Rack Position Flexibility

First of all, I want to say that Kelly Starrett is the man. For all your mobility-related needs, check out his website and digest his vids.

When I started barbell movements through Starting Strength, getting the bar in the proper rack positioning seemed IMPOSSIBLE. And my push and strict presses always started a few inches from my shoulders. I remember reading the book and looking at the pics of the athletes resting the bar on their shoulders.

Not possible. Me? Flexible? Never.

Thanks to CrossFit and pre/post-workout stretching, I gradually improved on my flexibility. Still…keeping my elbows high during a front squat or when catching a clean was a challenge. Thanks to this vid from K-Starr, I kept doing these small mobility exercises and some others and over time, the proper rack position just happened. Messing up my wrists happened less often, despite a few issues here and there.

As a result, my front squat weight shot up and I finally was breaking the 225# clean barrier with ease. Upping your strength isn’t the only way to improve your lifts. Sometimes all it takes are simple, gradual improvements like with your flexibility.

5) Greg Amundson and Positive Self-Talk

“The greatest adaptation to CrossFit takes place between the ears.”

Even before coming across this video from Greg Amundson, I found the topic of self-improvement to be interesting. It all started with learning about lifestyle design from Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek and some other books I stumbled upon. But yeah, this video shows that CrossFit is more than just a matter of conditioning, power, strength, and all that good stuff.

The mental game is huge. And if you can learn to harness that inner game during your CrossFit WOD’s, you can easily transfer that shit to your everyday life. I’m tellin ya…you feel so much better when you understand what you can and cannot control. Check out the video. It’s one of the reasons I jumped down a rabbit hole of books and vids on the mental side of things. I’ll definitely review some of these books at some point. If I were to suggest only 1 book, I’d say it’s Psycho-Cybernetics.

6) The Original Fran YouTube Video

Shit…I’m getting all nostalgic here. So what’s up with this vid? It’s shitty quality (hey…this was 2006 YouTube) and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” was playing in the background (wtffffff).

This was the first CrossFit video I watched. It’s old school. No one was doing butterfly kipping pull ups. It was just so fuckin raw.

I can picture it now…it was about 4 years ago, sitting at my desk in my on-campus townhouse. My buddy and I came across some article on CrossFit, so we decided to look shit up. Of course I was skeptical. What the FUCK kind of strength and conditioning workout is this? And the music didn’t seem to help.

However, it was this 1 damn video that started it all for me. Even after struggling with those CrossFit Brand-X scaled workouts, I decided to keep at it. Now, friend watching the vid with me is head trainer at his local box and now I’m some douchebag with his own CrossFit blog.

See what happens with some positive self-talk?

Kip it real, my friends.

And NO…it’s not from cleaning and jerking it.

While we haven’t done that full movement in months, I’m pretty comfortable with my form on that lift (what did you think I was talking about?). For a while, I was wondering what the hell would cause this extra strain on my wrist. Catching the barbell for cleans has become a lot easier and more efficient for me. Everything seems to be in its right place. However, my right wrist would always have some issues.

I just couldn’t figure it out.

Even my standing desk “office setup” is pretty solid with an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, which are at the proper height. I couldn’t imagine what could be wrong…

…then it hit me.

Shit.

This keyboard is fuckin wide thanks to the number pad on the right, forcing my mouse positioning to be outward and awkward.

I noticed in addition to some strain on the wrist, the front area of my right shoulder also has some discomfort during overhead squats or snatches. So there’s most likely a chance that awkward, outward positioning that I have day in, day out is to blame.

So what did I do?

Once again, another ghetto solution. I’m all about these simple yet effective tricks. My keyboard and mouse are on top of stacks of books, with the stack for my mouse being a little bit higher. I just shifted the top book on the mouse stack to the left, covering my number pad which I barely use anyway.

With my forearm angled inward, the positioning is more natural and causes a lot less strain on my wrist. Sure, nothing beats the positioning my keyboard gives my right hand, but it’s not like I can put my mouse over the “Y-U-I-O-P” area of keys.

I’ve had this setup for the past week or so, and I finally put things to the test today. It’s a deloading week, so I was taking it easy. Still, I got up to 225# on my squat clean, focusing on form. Then I did 60 75# overhead squats over the course of 5 rounds for a WOD.

So far, so good with my wrist. To think it was most likely this really basic problem I had that was messing up my wrist all the time.

If any of you are having constant wrist problems from cleans and whatnot, think about the everyday habits you have. The things you do every day. The shit you do at work. Think of anything that you do that may seem like a tiny issue with your body. This small issue could be something that you do all the time that only causes huge problems for you.

Kip it real, my friends.

That’s what I thought.

This past spring, my buddy sponsored by Manimal Wear gave me a pair of their wrist wraps. I’ll admit that I had no idea what the fuck these things were for at the time. So they just stayed in my gym bag in its plastic bag for a good 2 months or so.

Then around the summertime, I hurt my wrist (again) going for a 1 rep max power clean. I think I was going for 235#. At around the 225#-ish mark is when my wrist safety would go to shit on cleans. It was one of the main factors that held me back in my clean development.

At least I was able to figure out it also had to do with my rack flexibility. My shoulders were able to get to the proper positioning over time thanks to a bunch of videos on Mobility WOD. But still…my wrists were still prone to injury if my catch positioning messed up just one tiny bit. On top of that, anything overhead – jerks, snatches, overhead squats, etc. – was affected by these small wrist strains I’d experience here and there.

That’s when it hit me…uh…I should give these wrist wraps a shot.

You Can’t Be Totally Dependent Upon Wrist Wraps…

…but at least for me, they give me that extra room for error when improving my form as I get heavier in cleans and overhead lifts. With this extra leeway, I was able to get that 240# power clean, 185# overhead squat, and banging through an ascending ladder of 135# thrusters was actually possible in a recent WOD.

Everyone at the box keeps asking me if they help.

Um…yes.

I honestly can’t see myself without them for any workouts that could hurt your wrists. They provide enough support during those heavy and/or high reps, while giving you enough mobility for more technical shit in the same WOD. Yep, I’ve managed to string my double unders with these wrist wraps on.

Most of the CrossFit products out there are unnecessary. Rarely do I spend money on this shit unless it really does help, like the right pair of shoes, a jump rope of my own, and a comfortable pair of underwear. I don’t see a need for sweat-activated, graphic t-shirts or expensive handcare products when old, ready-to-dispose-of gym clothes and a foot file + moisturizer do the job.

With The Wrist Wraps, It’s Different

They actually protected me from a bunch of injuries and really stepped up my CrossFit progress. Having a pair was like a paradigm shift for me.

Plus, wrist wraps are cheap as fuck compared to most CrossFit gear out there. I don’t mind dropping $12 every time a pair gets too smelly from the sweat.

Kip it real, my friends.

What if I were really a JUSTINE, not Justin? Who the fuck knows?

Anyway…lately, I’ve been getting back into Pinterest. I’ve blogged about it in the past, and then forgot about that social media site. It wasn’t getting the same exposure my Facebook page was getting (like it if you haven’t already), so I just let it die out.

Then about a month ago, I noticed my Pinterest following grew to over 400 followers. As of writing, I have 643 followers. Thanks for all your support!

Sure, around 60% of the Pinterest demographic is female and the majority of my pins would represent something a CrossFit girl blog would post, but there’s a lot of inspirational stuff in there…and also some eye candy for the guys lol.

I’m all about visualization going into something – whether it’s a big meeting, some sort of sales pitch, or a 1 rep max deadlift. You see yourself kicking ass, so eventually that automatic response system helps you execute. That’s why many of you out there might benefit from checking out some of these inspirational images on Pinterest or Instagram prior to your CrossFit workouts.

Then Again…

…there’s also the bad side to these pics. I see a lot of people on my personal Facebook feed posting this stuff all day, every day. Hey, it’s cool that you want to kick ass at life. So do I and so do many of you reading this. But by constantly sharing this shit with your friends to express how you want to motivate yourself, you almost feel satisfied with whatever goals you’re going for. It’s like the more you share these quotes, the closer you FEEL you are to your goals.

Um…hitting the share button won’t do shit for you. Taking action will.

I came across a TED Talk a while back that pretty much described this take on your goals. Check out the 3 minute video. It’s some food for thought:

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather shut the fuck up on my personal newsfeed (which I actually have for almost 2 years), and keep doing my thing. No need for some external validation. Of course, once in a while, I’ll have to mention some CrossFit goals on here, but to tell you the truth, my biggest goals are non-CrossFit related.

Basically, I’m saying that these inspirational images/quotes are great for sparking that fire in you. However, it’s up to you and your own actions to reach the finish line in motherfuckin style.

Kip it real, my friends.

…you normally expect to listen to some really intense shit – rap, dubstep (like a lot of people out there, I hated it, but now I’m hooked), and some good old rock. Then, every once in a while, one of your fit trainers is just like whatever with the Pandora playlist, as he or she is already busy coaching the class.

So imagine out of nowhere…things go from DMX…

…hold on a second. Before I continue this entry, I’ll leave you with a bit of Christmas awesomeness involving DMX if you haven’t seen it already:

…okay, now that’s out of the way…yes, things go from DMX “Up in Here” to some popular, really club-friendly dance hit (okay, in this case, popular a year ago).

At this point, I was amping myself up to PR my deadlift…

Part of today’s WOD was 12-15 minutes to build up to a 1 rep max deadlift. For the longest time, I’ve had recurring lower back problems, most of which came from my terrible posture working at my computer 8 hours or so every day. It wasn’t until I switched to a standing desk that the back problems disappeared and my deadlifting began to progress.

The last time I PR’d my deadlift was during an in-house throwdown wayyyyy back in January. Almost a fuckin year, ya? It’s been way too long. Every time I’d progress a bit, my deads would hurt my back somehow, slowing things down for me.

I think I tied my PR of 355# a few months after, although it really was a struggle.

So today, I was in the zone. Warmed up with 135#. Cool beans. Another warm up set at 225#. Sweet. My grip’s there. Then started my single reps at 295#. Followed by 325#. I was feeling nice. And 355#. I matched my PR with ease.

My lower back was feeling solid and healthy.

To play things smart, I spaced my sets by at least 3 minutes.

I threw on a pair of 5s, calmly walked over to apply some chalk on my hands, then walked back slowly. You can say I was in my own trance. I really wasn’t paying attention to what or who was around me. All I wanted was that PR.

Pulled 365#. Went straight up. No struggles. I was pretty damn stoked as I ran over to the other side of the gym to ring the PR bell.

As I looked to my lifting partner, he asked if I was doing another set. Instantly, #YOLO was the only thing that came to mind, so I grabbed another pair of 5s.

After about 2 minutes into this rest, MISTA WORLDWIDEEEEEEE and JLo came onto the speaker system:

Fuck.

So what’s wrong with PR’ing to Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez?

Well…I always laugh when this kind of music comes up. The lyrics are always ridiculous. Also, I have that itch inside of me to bust a move. Don’t threaten me with a good time.

Back in high school, I was such a music snob. You could call me hater. I couldn’t stand anything popular, any band that wasn’t popular that became popular, or any rap/hip hop. As a result, I was so out of touch with some fun music.

Now, things are completely different. I enjoy pretty much anything out there, especially songs with a good dance beat. That’s why initially, “On the Floor” was so damn distracting.

All I could do was get my chuckle to myself out of the way, get more chalk, then patiently wait for the 4 minute mark to grip it and rip it. I tightened up my body, went down to reach for the bar, and everything was good to go.

Shit.

As I was pulling up, I noticed my back was rounding a bit. It’s interesting what a mere 10 pounds could do to your form. I battled. I fought. I scraped whatever energy I had in me to get that fuckin bar past my knees.

Inching. Upwards. Finally. Hit 375#. 20# PR.

Getting the bar above the knees pretty much guarantees a homerun for my deads. Although, I doubt that’ll always be the case, especially once I get into heavier weights.

Hey, 400#…I look forward to making you my bitch in the new year.

What about Adele?

Okay, so the last part of our work out involved 25 second sprints for average max wattage, followed by 1:35 breaks, 4 times. I was too busy joking around with people about the music playing today that I didn’t really remember my watts. It was something like mid-to-high 400s each time.

When Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” came on…

…at first I was thinking to myself, “Really?” Then, I just decided to laugh it off. “Hey, Coach…this kind of music gets me really pumped…I mean, JLo and Pitbull helped me PR my deadlift…so why can’t Adele help me tear things up on the rower?”

That beat actually did get me amped…somehow…

Overall, it was a pretty solid workout. Adele’s already been blogged about before for a previous appearance of hers at the box, so I think it’s just a recurring theme. She’s meant to be part of my legit CrossFit music playlist, along with JLo and Pitbull (sarcasm).

But to tell you the truth, I’ll always remember this day because of the randomness of the songs I PR’d and tore it up to. I’m sure most people would be able to ignore the music and just do there thing, but I love and appreciate music way too much to completely zone it out at the gym.

Do you ever come across non-workout-friendly songs mid-workout? If so, do you just ignore it? Do you enjoy it (like me lulz…)? Or do you let that kind of stuff get to you? Let’s hear what you think in the comments below

Kip it real, my friends.

Well…CrossFit sucks when your body complete shuts down during Fran haha.

My goal of a sub-5 minute Fran just didn’t happen. As much as I wanted to get that time, my body simply broke down.

On the bright side…I did improve my hang squat clean form and PR’d my front squat prior to that 5 minute AMRAP of Fran (basically a 5 minute cap). Sure, I can easily blame the lifts before Fran, but I’m not going to do that. It was just one of those days. As my friend just texted me:

I did catch myself shitting myself mentally…

…when I couldn’t get the first 21 pull ups unbroken.
…when I had to break up my set up 15 thrusters.
…when I didn’t even finish the 15 pull ups within 5 minutes.

You win some, you lose some, ya?

No worries. There are still many more opportunities to get a sub-5 minute Fran time. My hang squat clean form improved a lot thanks to 1 tip from my coach. The rep scheme we had for these was 3.2.1.1. Did 3 reps of 185#, then 2 of 205#. I knew 225# was what I wanted next, followed by 230# to tie a previous PR that was pretty damn ugly from what I remember.

The first try of 225#…uh…it looked terrible as fuck. I didn’t catch it high enough, so I muscled through it, even walking forward to help lock the bar properly on my shoulders to finish the rep.

I’m never proud of myself whenever I have to resort to such shit. Why? Pretty much every time it happens, I have the strength in me to pull it off properly. My form would just be off.

That’s why rather than screw a part of my body up with 230# on the next attempt, I knew I had to get 225# clean this time. Coach did some pretty good teaching when he asked if I knew why I ended up leaning forward like that. I said it was cause I couldn’t get under the bar enough to catch it properly. But he said there was more…

…my biggest issue was not extending my body enough during the pull of the hang squat clean. I’ve been focusing way too much on the drop all this time. So I listened to coach, and guess what happened?

I caught that fuckin barbell with the best form I’ve ever had. Feels good man. And to think about a year ago I couldn’t even do a normal squat clean, let alone hang squat clean, at over 200#.

And my front squat? My last PR from August was 255#…went for 265#…had it…but for some reason I had to drop the weight about halfway up. Went for 260# with a tough battle for the last quarter of the rep, and BOOM. Got it. Rang our PR bell lol.

As I’m writing this, I’m feeling much better about today’s workout. It didn’t affect the rest of my day, but it was a bummer at the time that I didn’t even come close to finishing Fran. Combining the racing of my heart post-workout and feeling a bit like shit, things weren’t looking good. Seriously, if I didn’t chill the fuck out during our cool-down stretch, I probably wouldn’t have accomplished anything else today.

Gotta love simple breathing/meditation exercises.

CrossFit sucks when you’re not eating right…

…that’s true. While I did have success with upping my carbs during my back-loading the past few weeks, this weekend I went overboard, as I mentioned yesterday. It did catch me by surprise to see Fran for today, so next time…I’ll be prepared.

Even with a cheat day on Saturdays, I know I’ll be able to handle Fran if she decides to show up again on a Monday. That bitch.

Kip it real, my friends.