Zercher Carry and a Friday Workout

It's back to rain in Seattle! But at least it's a little warmer. I'm not sure if I prefer the rain or the freezing cold. But I've found that people complain either way!

We did some new (to me) things at Crossfit last night.

The first one that kind of blew my mind was called the Zercher Carry.

This obviously isn't me, but you get the general idea. We started with the barbells in a racked position, instead of on the ground. It's just about as hard as you think it is! This was something totally new to just about everyone in the class, which I always enjoy. We all have different strength levels, but no one is more "skilled" than another and we are all sort of figuring it out together.

We also did weighted box jumps last night. Yup, you read that right. We held dumbbells while we jumped on boxes. Um, who does that?! Isn't jumping on the box tough enough?! Haha.

After I got over my initial fear of falling on my face (Coach: Allison, jump on the damn box!), I used 10 pound weights and was able to do sets of 5 fairly easily. Talk about having to be extra explosive. Tough for a white girl who cant jump!

Our workout included the Zercher carry, 5 weighted box jumps and 7 kettlebell goblet squats. We did as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. I can't say I pushed myself very hard, but I enjoyed working on some of the new exercises.

Before the workout, we did back squats. Since my legs are still toasty from Monday, this was pretty tough for me. We did 5 sets of 8. I made it up to 65 kilos for my final set, but only made it to 6 reps. I am probably going to do legs again next Monday, so hopefully I'll recover fast!

I taught my H.I.I.T. class last night, and really enjoyed the workout.

The workout is 3 different AMRAPS (as many rounds as possible), 6 minutes each. We got through all of them with a 1-2 minute break between.

When I pulled out the white boad with this workout written on it, everyone stood looking at me with their mouths open and shaking their heads. But by the time they finished, they were all smiles and thanking me for kicking their butts. That's what I love about teaching fitness. Showing others how to push themselves past what they thought was possible.

Crossfit Benchmarks

I had a great day off yesterday! Finally. I taught so many extra classes last week, I felt like I was on a never-ending work streak for awhile.

I had grand illusions of sleeping in, but my body naturally woke up around 5:30am. That's just disgusting. I was so frustrated with myself that I laid in bed with my eyes closed for another hour before I finally gave in.  Sigh.

I started my day off with a run around Lake Union with my friend Jess. She is running a 100 mile race in a few weeks, so she is on taper time. We had a great 6 mile run that really flew by! It was sprinkling/showering for most of the run, but I have to say I hardly noticed it. It was good to a) be running in the daylight and b) have a friend to run with. My usual runs at 4 am are conducive to neither option.

We had grand discussions for after her race about doing speed work together. Maybe if I have a friend, I'll actually do it! I refueled after my run with another Picky Bar. This time it was "Lauren's Mega Nuts" flavor. I really love these bars. They are quite delicious. It's still a toss up whether I love these or Lara bars more.

I rallied for my evening Crossfit class.

We started off doing 4 sets of 8 bent over rows. I got up to 30 kilos for my last set, but probably should have used more weight.

Our workout included some benchmark Crossfit ladies! Our box hardly ever does benchmark workouts. While I think I would get bored of them quickly, it's nice to see where you're at sometimes. Case in point, our coach had about 7 or 8 of the ladies on the board for us to choose 2 from, and I think I had only done one of them before!

I chose "Grace" and "Diane" for my two workouts.

Grace is simple enough: 30 clean and jerks. I didn't get up to rx (women = 95 lbs.), but I did do 65 kilos for the entire thing, which was tough for me.

"Diane" is 21-15-9 reps of deadlift and handstand pushups. For the deadlift, I used 55 kilos. And the handstand pushups I did on the wall over some stacked abmats.

After Mondays leg extravaganza, the deadlifts were a bit rough, but I made it through!

I didn't get my times for either, but both were around 8 minutes. My new goal is to get to rx on both of these!

If you do Crossfit, what are your favorite benchmark workouts? I think mine is "Helen" (3 rounds: 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, 12 pullups). I love the running aspect, obviously, and I'm anxious for the day that I can do all the pullups without a band.

Work It Wednesday Circuit

My legs are finally feeling recovered from my squat extravaganza Monday. And I'm still super excited to workout again with the dudes. Who knew this former ballet dancer and run-lover would become a lifter? Not me!

There is something to be said for my new found love of weight training. While I still love the endurance high I get from running, I am addicted to the toasty muscles after a good weight session now! I love that shaky feeling, knowing I have tested my muscles and ready to heal them and make them even stronger!

I took it pretty easy yesterday, but I did give my evening H.I.I.T. class a good workout!

Essentially this workout is three separate intervals. So, you could just do one, or do all three! I definitely had some eye rolls in class. Especially the first 2 minutes of long jumps. But everyone finished just fine, and, as usual, were happy to have been pushed.

My agenda today involves a run around Lake Union this morning with Ultra Marathoner Jess.

It has been awhile we've run together, so it'll be good to be back with my running bud! Have a great Wednesday!

Crossfit Fun With My Trainers

Yesterday, I headed over to my Crossfit gym to get my a** handed to me by my trainers. They invited my friend Beth and I to come work out with them for the afternoon.

Not sure about Beth, but I had grand illusions of doing a few squats, some military presses and then rallying for the 4pm class.

That's not exactly what happened!

We started off with squats, yes. But little did I know we were going to do a bagillion! (Yes, bagillion is a legitimate word). We got warmed up with some drills to get our systems firing and then started on back squats.

Oh squat rack, you kick my butt!

My coaches are so knowledgeable. Working with them, watching them and having them critique me, I get so much information. I feel like I should be taking notes! I feel really lucky to have them as teachers and instructors.

When I squat in class, it takes me a million years to figure out the right weights to use and switching them off and on the barbell takes forever. My coaches did it in seconds. It was so fast. I was flabbergasted!

I'm sorry to say I have no idea what the program was we were doing, nor do I remember how much weight I used. The last set for both Beth and I were more difficult for our arms and shoulders than our legs. Holding that dang barbell up on your back is tough work!

All of the squating took us about an hour. I was shocked that time was flying so fast! Oh, but we weren't finished, yet!

Our trainer had us grab dumbells to do split lunges. Split lunges mean you put your back foot on a box, or bench, and do single lunges on one leg. The thought being you can go down even further.

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By the third set, I was using 30 pound dumbbells for sets of 7 on each leg! My quads were SHAKING! Beth even did 35 pounds. Um, I guess we haven't been pushing ourselves as hard as we should be during classes?

We superset the lunges with even more squats, using a contraption I can't even remember the name of. It was basically a harness that you held over your shoulders to squat with. Not sure how much weight that was, either (pay attention next time, Allison!), but darn, those sets of 7 were rough!

After all those shenanigans it was "conditioning" time! Oh goodness gracious, I had no idea what I was in for!

Aerodine bike. This ish is CRAZY!

The above "bike" is called an aerodine. There is one at our Crossfit gym, but I had never been on it before yesterday. I figured it was just a regular bike, but OH how I was wrong! We did four 30 second intervals on that thing and I felt like my lungs were going to burst! Aaaaand I loved it, obviously. =)

After the fourth interval, I was so exhausted, but felt awesome! I am definitely going to have to go workout with the dudes more often. They kicked my butt!

Following one of our classes last week, one of our trainers did what is called a back lever. I made him repeat it yesterday so I could get a video of it. He literally looks like superman! Please note the music in the background =)

And with that, I leave you to your Tuesday!

Filling In

Holy exhaustion, what a week!

Every week since New Year's I think I have been complaining about the weeks feeling long, but this week feels like insanity! Everyone at work is sick, so we have been scrounging for covering desk and training shifts and to get fitness classes covered.

Our group fitness classroom. Bring the pain!

I have taught several extra classes this week, which has me feeling fairly run down. I honestly admire instructors who just teach multiple classes every single day. It really takes a lot out of you! Even when you're tired you have to turn on the pep and the cheerleader attitude. Most days that is easy for me, but I have been so tired this week that the extra class hours really felt like a struggle.

Since I have been in teaching mode this week, I thought I'd share the workout I gave to one of my classes this week. I think people enjoyed this because it has the obvious cardio component (box jumps), but mixes in high-rep strength training as well.

Filling you in on the rest of my week:

Wednesday morning, before going in to work to teach a bootcamp class, I managed to get in a 10 mile run. I have some changes on the horizon regarding my running, but I'm sorting through them in my head and will let you know my plans soon! The 10 miles was great until about mile 8, where I started just feeling tired. I made it through, though!

I ran along the Burke Gilman Trail, so it was nice a flat the entire time. I didn't have a pace in mind, so I just ran.

I've had some interesting Crossfit workouts the past few days. Wednesday we did rowing intervals for a variety of time, distance, calories, etc. Essentially we rowed about 250 meters, did 10 thrusters, then rowed again 250 meters. My goal for most of them was to keep the same pace for both rowing segments. I was semi-successful, but I still suffered from positive splits for most rounds. Oh well! Next time!

Thursday at Crossfit was really fun. We got to do some skills that we don't work on everyday. We started with overhead squats, which are a nice change of pace from the usual back squats.

This person looks way to happy doing overhead squats!
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Our workout was a 15 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):

3 snatches
6 toes to bar
9 kettlebell swings

Instead of doing toes to bar (which I generally dislike), I decided to work on "skin the cat". For this move, you hang from the bar and bring your body through your arms, and then back through. After a few tries, I was able to get through by myself, but still needed my coaches help to get myself back over. It was fun trying to get a new skill and not worrying about time or weight. I want more of these workouts!

I hope your Friday goes by quickly and that you have a great weekend!

Music for Motivation

Yesterday started off with 7 glorious miles for me, all before 6 am! Although I run every morning, it's rare for me to get in more than 6 miles. It was so nice to get a long-ish run in to start the week off. I loved every minute of it, after I got out of bed, of course =)

I love getting a running high so early in the day. It just puts me in such a great mood!

I haven't been running with music much, lately, but I ran the entire 7 miles blasting some sweet tunes yesterday. I definitely felt a surge of inspiration during my favorite songs and it got me thinking about music as motivation. It's amazing what a beat or what certain lyrics can do for my workouts.

This year for a holiday gift, my gym gave us all new ipod nano's. At first I wasn't all that enthralled because I already have a very old generation ipod nano, but who doesn't get excited about new electronics?!

I finally busted into my new toy the other day. Oh my goodness, what a difference! There were so many great changes that had been made! I guess I didn't even think about it much, but my ipod is probably about 8 years old. So, duh! Of course it is now a much better product.

I thought I would share some of my current favorite music selections with you. For working out, I am very much a top-40 music lover. I tend to get a lot of flack for this. Especially at my Crossfit box, but I just love the catchy beats!

Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Scream and Shout - will.i.am
Dancing in the Dark- Dev
Blow - Ke$ha
On the Floor - Jennifer Lopez
Call Your Girlfriend - Robyn
Dancing on my Own - Robyn
S&M - Rihanna
Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO
J'Adore Hardcore - Scooter
We Run the Night - Havana Brown
I Know You Want Me - Pitbull
Bon, Bon - Pitbull
Americano - Lady Gaga
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns and Roses
Devil's Dance Floor - Flogging Molly
On the Dancefloor - David Guetta

I hope that gives you some good music ideas to help with some motivation! Or you can make fun of me. Either works =)

Crossfit last night was another great example of how music can change your mood. I went in kind of feeling in a funk. Nothing in particular was wrong, I just wanted to be off in my own lala world.

Different day. Same Crossfit craziness!

Our workout was in groups of four, as follows:

20 calorie row
20 v-ups
20 box jumps
20 wall ball

We got started and one of the choaches started playing the "Call Me Maybe" station on Pandora. Well, let me tell you. That perked me right up! I started dancing and singing along and immediately my mood was changed! Hooray for music!

Any tunes you think I should be listening to? What are your current favorites?

Weekend Arm Burner

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I did some working, per usual. On Saturday, I got to train a really awesome client. She is 60+ years old, but such a bada**! She does back squats, kettlebell swings, etc. You name it and she can probably do it! On top of getting to show her things like kettlebell snatches and thrusters, her enthusiasm for fitness was what got me most excited! She emphasized before we started that she wanted me to be hard on her and really challenge her. Sometimes people will say that, but not really mean it. She actually meant it and it was a pleasure to train someone who loves fitness!

That took care of my personal training high for the week, that's for sure!

I got in some running this weekend, as if there was any doubt. I was hoping to get in a long run, but it didn't really happen. Oh well!

It's been very sunny here, but very cold as well! It's actually my favorite kind of weather. I love crisp, clean days.

Saturday after work, I decided to give myself a little arm workout inspired by GPP Fitness.

And my arms are still sore today! I hardly ever do specialized muscle groups like this. Crossfit has got me doing mostly compound movements that work a variety of muscles. I think my soreness is a sign that I need to incorporate more specificity, too. Although I'm not too worried about it, we'll see if I actually start mixing it up.

Here's to a good Monday!