5 Rounds

15 pullups
20 situps
25 pushups
30 squats

12:10

We make up our own workouts patterned after actual crossfit workouts.  This was Tuesday’s backyard workout for Jeanie and me.

Homegrown Filthy 50

50 wall ball shots
50 box jumps
50 push ups
50 squats
50 pull-ups (d.b. heavy pants for J)
50 double unders (100 regular jump ropes for J)
50 kb swings (25#/15#)
50 burpees
50 situps

J’s time= 22:02  R’s time= 17:24

Today’s physical exercise included:

14 mile bike ride in what I can only describe as perfect weather.  (Ok, it was a little windy at times, but who cares, really?)

“Helen”
3 rounds of
400 meter run (3 laps in my back yard)
21 KB swings (30# dumbell for me, 20# for J)
12 pullups (12 chair dips for J)

My time: 7:15 (shaved 41 seconds off my time from 8/2)
J’s time: 8:30 (shaved 49 seconds off her time from 8/2)

Tonight, I am proud.

Jeanie did p90x “chest & back” with me tonight, and did a great job attempting the six sets of various kinds of pull-ups that workout calls for.  No, she can’t yet do a pull-up, but with assistance and jumping she did at least five “negatives” for each of the six sets.  Impressive.  Additionally, she surprised herself by getting off her knees for the push-ups and doing real ones.

There’s no way she could have done anything like this in June.  Get your tickets for the gun show now.

They call this one “Jared."

800 meter run (6 laps around back yard)
40 pull-ups
70 push-ups

4 rounds

My time: 29:39

Jeanie substituted/scaled and did four rounds of 800 meters, 40 situps and 40 push-ups (on knees).  Her clock failed, but I would estimate her time to be 34 minutes.

I’ve never been to an actual Crossfit gym (or I guess its “box” not “gym”).  I’ve only ever done one workout with the Pilot Crossfit  club at my college.  And I only occasionally do “official” Crossfit workouts from thee main website.  But I think I can fairly say that I do “crossfit” (lowercase).

One of the things the Crossfit cultists rave about is the “community” aspect.  I’ve never been that fond of working out with a bunch of other people, and have always preferred to grit it out on my own.  That’s why I like P90X a lot.  You go to the basement, pop in the dvd, push play, and let er rip.  I’ve been doing these P90X workouts off an on for five years now, and they are still great.

This summer, J decided she wanted to get fit.  So we’ve been doing my own brand of “crossfit.”  The other day, for instance, we did Chelsea, which is 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats, every minute on the minute.  It’s good workout.  We scaled it for J, since she still doesn’t do pullups (it’s one of her goals–be able to do actual pullups), substituting “heavy pants” (a bent over back fly with dumbells) for the pullups.  Had I given her this workout two months ago I would have heard a series of “I can’ts” come out of her mouth.  But not anymore.  She’s motivated.  Every day she asks me, “so what’s my workout today.”  I’ve enjoyed it this summer–working out in this fashion with J.  I’m proud of her.

So here’s today’s workout.

4 rounds
One lap sprint (in the backyard–roughly 130 meters)
30 squats
One lap sprint
30 sumo high pulls
One lap sprint
30 chair dips
REST one minute

She may complain, but less than she used to.  She’ll do it.  Tomorrow she’ll ask me for a new workout.  We’re going to keep right on doing these workouts we make up or rip off from the Internet (here’s a really cool website called  “WOD shop”) for as long as we are physically able. I feel great–maybe the best shape of my life.  She feels great–maybe a little sore.

Get your tickets.

There may well be something wrong with me. Yesterday I was one of roughly 75 people watching a men’s fastpitch softball game between the Argentina national team and the Hill United Chiefs of Kitchener, Ontario streamed live online. And all the while wishing I was playing. I suspect at least a few of the others watching were wishing they were playing as well.

Next weekend.

This morning we did a “family workout”–Sydney, Jeanie, and me.  Here’s what it consisted of.

I’ve been to so many chapel services at Bethel over the years and heard so many speakers that they all start to sound the same.  Occasionally someone says something that stays with me for a long time.  What tends not to stay with me is who said it.  So, somebody sometime at some Bethel Chapel service in the last fifteen years or so said this:

“We don’t read the Bible to finish; we read the Bible to change."

I always liked that.  Even though I’m kind of fond of the “read the Bible in 90 days” or “a year” or other Bible reading plans, the problem with them is this: I don’t want to get to day ninety and say, “DONE! Yay me.  Now I can get on with life now that I’ve read the Bible in 90 days."

Occasionally I tweet about some “P90X” workout I’ve done.  I like this workout program, even though I have never really committed myself to strictly following the program for 90 days.  I’ve been doing the workouts semi-regularly for almost five years now, and they’re terrific.  I didn’t want to get to the end of 90 days and say, “DONE! Yay me.  Now I can get on with life after P90X."

Which is why I like crossfit. It just sort of goes on forever and ever with constant variety with no end in sight.  But I’ve sort of used the Tony Horton workouts that way anyhow, so I was predisposed to liking crossfit before I even knew what it was or tried one of the workouts.  What I also like about the crossfit workouts is the insanely high level of intensity they typically ask of you and how short they are.  Most workouts are 15-20 minutes, but some incredibly great workouts take less than ten. 

So here you go, exercise lovers.  Try one of the P90X workouts “crossfit” style.  I recommend the legs and back workout.  Instead of following the video (which you don’t need once you’ve done the routine a few times; you can remember–and if you can’t, it takes a whole two minutes to write the names of the exercises down on a little piece of paper), set your stop watch, say 3-2-1 go, and crank out the workout for time.  Here’s how I do it.  Each pull-up set is 12 reps (96 pullups total for the workout).  Each leg exercise is 25 reps.  You do the wall sits for the time Tony prescribes.  And you complete the “sneaky lunge” sequence at a reasonable pace.  And when you finish the workout, you record your time.  Next week you try to beat the time.  It’s fun and it reduces the workout to–well, lets say if you’re in decent shape you can crank it out in less than 25 minutes.  It would be nearly impossible to do it in less than 20, but some stud might surprise me here.  When I do it this way I use 20# dumbells–and if that’s too much for any of the exercises, I only use one of them instead of both.  Saves the trouble of figuring out how much weight is just right for the workout, since the goal here is not merely building strength but cranking your heartrate way the heck up.

You can do the same thing with the chest and back workout or the shoulders and arms workout.  Suddenly they become both strength and cardio workouts–in other words, more like crossfit.

I’ve also found that doing PlyoX “tabata” style (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest; this will leave you in oxygen debt very quickly) while it shortens the workout–really increases the intensity.

I keep looking at the P90X2 videos on youtube and I’m tempted, but it’s expensive for all those medicine balls and other crap you gotta buy.  The beauty of P90X was how minimalist it was in terms of equipment.  Pull-up bar and dumbells.  While the stability and core strength you’d get from this kind of training looks impressive to me–it looks like the kind of training professional athletes (NBA players, even) would do–I’m cheap.  What can I say.

So here’s to one of the best things about summer vacation for a college professor: exercising.

Tomorrow, tune in  for my rant on the relationship between exercise and remaining semi-productive as a “scholar” (gosh, I hate that word).

p.s.  Today’s workouts were P90X chest and back; ab ripper x. 

The best thing about crossfit is that you can invent your own crossfit workout and call it a crossfit workout.  Here’s the one I invented and then did today.

100 rep. jump ropes
10 wall ball shots with 25# ball
10 pull-ups
10 jump-knee tucks (a move borrowed from p90x)
10 sumo high pulls with 30 pood kettlebell

As many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 15 minutes.

Exhausting.  Felt great!

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

My score = 24

Three rounds for time of:
25 Push ups
25 Pull ups
25 Dips
75 Squats

16:36 as rx’d.

Crossfit, “Murph”

Run one mile.
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
Run one mile.

For time.

33 min, 12 seconds.

Ouch.

My first ever crossfit workout.

“Angie” is …

100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 air squats

For time. You do them in order (have to complete the pullups before you start pushups, etc.). You can take breaks, but the clock is running.

Time: 19:09

Gotta learn to do kipping pullups.

41/m/185#