Conditioning

Personal training with Paul

Across the U.S. today, many CrossFit gyms are taking part in the CrossFit for Hope event to raise money for St. Jude's children's hospital. I looked at the routine's components and felt that I could do the workout as RXed, but it requires a second person to keep track of the time. I asked Paul if we could do this as part of one of our training sessions so he could time me. He probably pissed his pants laughing when he read my request, because this was friggin' tough! My scores for each individual movement in each round are in brackets.

"Hope"
Three rounds of:
Burpees (17, 11, 10)
75 pound Power snatch (10, 6, 7)
Box jump, 24" box (15, 11, 10)
75 pound Thruster (9, 7, 7)
Chest to bar Pull-ups (8, 8, 8)

Total = 144 (59, 43, 42)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," you must move to the next station immediately for a good score. One point is given for each rep.

Not based on prior experience of anything like this, I thought I'd hit around the 200 mark, but I was nowhere near. I'm not too bothered about that, though, because I know I gave it everything (the subsequent feeling of nausea is testament to that). I followed the advice in the demo video of (a) not going flat out on the burpees to avoid being burnt out when I moved to the next station, and (b) keeping my elbows up for the thrusters - rather than pointing down, like I usually do - so that I can power up from my legs and hips and not rely on my shoulders to push the bar overhead. 

My legs were still damn sore from Thursday's workout and I thought that might be a problem. However, after about 10 minutes of stretching and warming up beforehand, that wasn't an issue. It was my breathing that hurt more than anything else. Also, the final set of pull-ups were a killer because I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest.

This was a good, challenging workout, and I'm so glad I gave it a shot (was it only 17 minutes?!). That being said, I told Paul that if I ever suggest something like this again, just punch me in the face.

Here are other posted scores: www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/008407.html.

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And to finish off today's session...

Alternate sets
Underhand pull-downs @ 100: 10, 10, 9
Incline dumbbell presses @ 35s: 10, 10, 10