Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I'm Mer and He's Dave and We're Here To...

...Pump {clap} You Up!

Last year before ironman training really took hold, Coach had me doing a lot of strength training. I would usually attend an aerobic weight class and then do another day during the week using the TRX. By the time I reached my half IM in June my body was looking cut.



Right after that race started full-on ironman training and all the strength training fell to the side and eventually became non-existent. Well now, we want to be cut. I'm hoping to look a little bit like this....


And Dave, well, I'd like him to look a little bit like this...



We decided to add some weight training to our routines. And not just any weight training....Cross Fit. Now, we're not joining a Cross Fit gym. And we're not trying to qualify for the Cross Fit Games. So, we're taking the workouts off the Cross Fit website and doing them to the best of our abilities. We're not doing anything for time. We're not, necessarily, trying to max out our weight. We're having to modify things based on equipment and skill levels we have available.

We started on Monday. The workout of the day was 3 X 300m row, 20 lb ball wall throws, 10 pull ups. Our gym has rowing machines, so we were able to program them for 300m and have it count down for us. This was probably the easiest part of the entire workout. Since I don't think Lifetime would appreciate us throwing their medicine balls against the wall and letting them fall to the floor, we modified the wall throws so they were basically hip-thrust shoulder presses. The first two sets I used 10 pound dumbbells and the last set I used 12 pounds. What a difference those four pounds made! Finally was the pull ups. Ugh! Neither of us can do a pull up. Not even close. So, we used the pull up machine that allows assistance. I did my first set using 40 lbs of help, the second set I did 5 reps with 40 pounds and 5 reps with 50 pounds, and the last set was with the aid of 50 pounds.

Today's workout is going to be hilarious. Today's workout involves handstand pushups. Dave says to me last night, "I can't even get up to a handstand!" He's going to modify them off the ball. I fortunately/unfortunately can do a handstand. There are also toes-to-bar, which is the same thing as I have in my 12 for 2012 goals: hanging V-ups. We will probably be modifying them since neither of us are even close to being able to touch our toes while hanging from the bar. We are supposed to do 75 push presses at 75 pounds. Um, we have a 35 pound bar, so we'll go with that. And finally 150 double-unders, otherwise known as jump roping. I'll be buying us some jump ropes after work.


4 comments:

Dave said...

One correction: I can, in fact, *almost* do a pull up.

Blink said...

I found a groupon for CrossFit and went to an orientation class earlier this week. I don't think my knees like it. I can't imagine doing jumping lunges with weight on my back. My knees are screaming just after the dozens and dozens of squats we did.

I would like to try the TRX, tho! What did you think of that?

Karen said...

Never thought of checking their websites for the workouts. The gym membership is so pricey that has always kept me from trying out crossfit. Thanks for sharing that idea!

Jamie said...

Are you going to do the cheesy before and after pictures? PLEASE make them hilarious. :-)