5 Rounds

15 pullups
20 situps
25 pushups
30 squats

12:10

Strained or pulled or–who knows, maybe tore?–a calf muscle playing basketball yesterday. Nothing major, just a little painful pushing off and landing.  Gonna go easy on it a little while.  Still, there’s a lot of other body parts to exercise, so tonight’s workout will be:

P90X Chest and Back + ab ripper X

Shouldn’t cause any problems for my moderately sore calf.

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

Did p90x workout tonight–shoulders and arms.

Played basketball at noon for an hour.  Won 4 lost 1.

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.

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.

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

1.  30 minute bike interval (while watching “X-Files”, of course)
2.  5 minute medicine ball (10#) ball handling drills
3.  10 minute speed rope intervals (50 seconds of jumping, 10 seconds of rest, 10 intervals)

I’m a relatively consistent crossfitter/P90x-er.  I’m not a fundamentalist/legalist when it comes to these workouts, so I don’t really do everything exactly as prescribed or when prescribed, but I have followed Tony Horton fairly consistently (at leas the workouts–screw the diet; eating “whey” is for commies) through a couple of almost 90 day sessions.  I almost never do Kenpo.  I rarely do the entire YogaX workout.  But I like the program and the workouts work.

I started attempting some of the named crossfit workouts last summer and fell in love the high intensity of crossfit.  I’ve never fallen in love with Olympic lifting, mostly because Olympic lifting and I haven’t really had a first date. Nor do I have the equipment at home to do them.

I know crossfit is designed to be done as a community, but my problem is the crossfitters at BC crossfit right when I’m playing basketball, and the reason I would do crossfit is to maximize my enjoyment of basketball, not because I have some desire to become a superstar at the crossfit games.  Excuses aside, I actually enjoy working out alone.

All that to say I did the P90x chest and back workout plus ab ripper x this morning.  I wonder if I’ve done this particular workout fifty times yet?  I wouldn’t be surprised. I did it for the first time back in August of 2007.    I bet I’ve done it at least a dozen times a year since then.  If you follow the 90-day program you do this workout five times in 90 days.  I have not been through the 90 day program ten times, of course, but this is probably one of my favorite of the routines, thus my wondering about the 50 times in a little less than five years.

So what does tomorrow hold?  Were I following the 90-day program, tomorrow would be Plyometrics.  It’s a great workout.  But I think I’m going to to a 15 minute interval set on the jump-rope and maybe some yoga and then shoot some hoops.  Maybe watch an episode of the X-Files on dvr while riding the stationary bike.

See–not a legalist.