Cheesecake & Crossfit

Crossfit Totals is a good benchmark workout to indicate your overall functional strength capacity

The CrossFit Total is the sum of the best of three attempts at the squat, the press, and the deadlift. All three lifts are done while standing on the floor. They require minimal and inexpensive equipment. They are not technique- dependent to the extent of the Olympic lifts, yet they require technical proficiency beyond mere passing familiarity. They are safe when performed correctly, since they can all be performed without spotters—alone in a garage if necessary.

There is no time limit for each lift or for the length of the session in which they are all performed, but they must all be performed during one session—i.e., you cannot leave the area to rest or perform other activities between the three lifts.

Check out http://journal.crossfit.com/2006/12/the-crossfit-total-by-mark-rip.tpl for more information on what is involved with the Crossfit Total

Strength building

At my box, we are moving into a simple strength quarter focusing on the basic lifts used in the Crossfit Totals so since I was away Snowboarding last week during initial testing week of these lifts, I completed them last night using the Crossfit Totals Benchmark WOD.

Approaching Crossfit Totals

I warmed up with a gentle 250m Row, foam rolled by quads (stiff from snowboarding last week), and thoracic spine, did some dynamic hip opening stretches, and activated my glutes by doing some step ups. My warmup sets looked like this:

Squat I used the my recent 3RM Squat of 105kg to base the percantages on.

1 x 5 @ 40% (42.5kg)

1 x 3 @ 60% (62.5kg)

1 x 1 @ 75% (77.5kg)

1 x 1 @ 80% (85kg)

1 x 1 @ 90% (95kg)

Press Because I was warm from the Squat, I didn't need to do as many warm up sets for the Press. I used the my last 1RM Press of 45kg to base the percentages on.

1 x 5 @ 40% (20kg)

1 x 2 @ 70% (32.5kg)

1 x 1 @ 80% (37.5kg)

1 x 1 @ 90% (42.5kg)

Deadlift I did the same warmup sets as the Press, my last 1RM was 165kg but I used my lifting parter's 1RM of 170kg to base the percentages on so we weren't messing with the weights too much. Perhaps this backfired on me or I was too tired and hadn't rested enough as I didn't do very well on this third lift.

1 x 5 @ 40% (67.5kg)

1 x 2 @ 70% (120kg)

1 x 1 @ 80% (135kg)

1 x 1 @ 90% (152.5kg)

Squat

My 3 attempts for Squat:

105kg - SUCCESS

110kg - SUCCESS

115kg - SUCCESS (new PB)

Crossfit Totals: 115kg (3rd rep) Squat from Hannah Ashworth on Vimeo.

My 3rd and final weight for my Crossfit Total Squat: 115kg. Think I've got a lot more in tank, this went up quite easy

Press

My 3 attempts for Press:

45kg - SUCCESS

47.5kg - SUCCESS (new PB)

50kg - FAIL

Crossfit Totals: 47.5kg (2nd rep) Press from Hannah Ashworth on Vimeo.

I have been chasing the weight for over a year now, and believe that my recent bench 5x5 has helped me to get there. However it is a little bit of a lean back, I think I still met the standards but I would hope at the end of this strength quarter, this goes up beautifully.

Crossfit Totals: 50kg (3rd rep) Press from Hannah Ashworth on Vimeo.

My new target to chase: 50kg! May need to look at buying some small fractional plates as a 2.5 kg increase is too much in the press

Deadlift

My 2 attempts for Deadlift - stopped after I failed 2nd lift:

165kg - SUCCESS (matched existing PB)

167.5kg - FAIL

I've accidently deleted the video of my DL whilst out for cocktails celebrating my birthday and the PBs last night, but even though I didn't improve on my previous 1RM, there was no hitching this time, it went up a lot smoother.

Getting Stonger

13.3 Crossfit Games Open WOD

12min AMRAP:

150 Wallballs 14lbs to 9ft

90 Double Unders

30 Muscle Ups

Welcome to Wall Ball HELL! 150 Wallballs (aka the nasty Miss Karen) followed by 90 Double Unders, then if you've got them which I don't - muscle ups.

This is a repeat WOD from last year's Crossfit Open:12.4, since I was in a moon boot last year, I was able to complete Karen, but swapped double unders for 90 sit-ups instead, so can't truly compare my progress between this year and last year, but I do know that I finished Karen about 1 minute faster this year! I went for the 15 sets of 10 reps with 10 seconds rest approach. My wallballs were really consistent for the first 100. I looked at the clock each time I finished a set, and found that I was taking 20seconds to complete 10 reps each time, putting me at 20 wallballs a minute with rest. If I had been able to sustain that pace, I would have finished the wall balls in 7mins 30sec however at 100, my engine & accuracy started to go, I took another 20 seconds rest before starting on last 50. I had 3 missed reps, and by last 20, I had to to drop to sets of 7, resulting in my time of 8min34sec for Karen.

I was quite nervous about moving onto double unders since double unders are what I was doing when I snapped my achilles in Dec 2012, it was my first time attempting them in my reebok OLY shoes, but shoes and achilles were solid! Needed to shake the legs out before picking up rope, but I was able to bang out 20 reps unbroken straight away on my jelly legs. But my weakness is my engine which slowed down and strangely my left wrist didn't want to turn over any more meaning I finished with 9 reps of double unders still to complete. I would have liked to have finished all 240, and then jumped up to rings to hang off them and pretend like I had a muscle up! Hopefully next time I do that disgusting WOD, I will get up the rings!

Not sure why I'm talking about next time, 5 days later, and I'm still walking funny, Karen = major DOMS, never want to do that again... until next year :)

10min AMRAP 5 STOH 52.5/35kg 10 DL 52.5/35kg 15 Box Jumps 24/20”

Did it this morning. Stepped up and down for the box jump, makes awful box jumps safer on my dodgy knees & achilles and not as gassy (yay!) but harder to get hips fully extended and not as fast as good rebounding box jumps.

Managed 7 complete rounds + 3 Deads giving me 218 in total. My right lower back pinged a little during round 5 which slowed me down and my deadlifts became excruciating. Happy with that score though.

Now veggeing out on couch with my little ninja cat and some 85% green & blacks dark chocolate - earned it!