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re: Daily CrossFit Thread: Workouts and other musings..

Posted on 4/10/24 at 1:12 pm to
Posted by DrDenim
By the airport
Member since Sep 2022
825 posts
Posted on 4/10/24 at 1:12 pm to
I was going to start my own new thread to discuss what I'm doing, but I decided to bomb in on y'alls CrossFit™ Thread because what I'm doing is in this "neighborhood". This is a novel of a post, after this one I'll be shorter and sweeter, but I wanted to lay out my rationale and backstory for why I'm basically homebrewing my own "cross-fit" style workouts.

I've tried CrossFit™ in the past and failed miserably at it. I am not physically capable of doing these WOD™ workouts.
"So,... that's no problem, just scale it." says Mr. Crossfit™ Coach. So I scaled it, and I still couldn't do it. I found myself spending way too much time sucking wind, laying on the ground, just dying. And it's expensive to do this. I'd show up, do a little mobility/stretching, maybe some technical practice on a particular move/lift, and then the WOD™ where I'd find myself on a knee or on my back, recovering for several minutes before I can do anything again. In the end, I'd estimate that anywhere from 50-75% of the WOD™ session for me was eaten up by heavy breathing and the inability to participate due to gross fatigue, and too often the WOD™ would include things that I just wasn't able to do at all, no matter how well recovered. I didn't blame the coaches (maybe I should, I don't know, but it's not my style), or CrossFit™, I only blamed myself. It was embarrassing and demoralizing. I learned that being able to "scale" for yourself takes greater skill than I had originally thought, but I also felt that if I "scaled appropriately" that I'd be doing such a chopped down version of what the coaches were assigning to the class that I really felt like I had no business being there in the first place.

My plan for years has been to try this out again and avenge myself against this kind of training and finally prove to myself that I am capable of doing this kind of high intensity conditioning work, I just need it perfectly tailored down to whatever my level is. I've finally laid a good foundation for myself with other gentler forms of conditioning, and it's time to start doing my own WODs™, if they should be called that, and I don't need to be joining up at any Box™ anytime soon, I can accomplish what I need to at my garage/home setup, and I can do it for free, in a manner that allows me to avoid feeling like a fat, disgusting failure that can't do anything.

First attempt at creating a WOD™ came out with this,
I named it "Courier"
4 rounds for time:
a) 100 jump ropes (single under)
b) 400 meter ruck with 30lbs in the pack, while carrying my 44lb kettlebell in my hand or hands the entire time, I can switch hands and carry it anyway I want just so long as I hold in with my hands/arms the entire time.
c) 10 burpees
d) front squat to OHP with 135lb x 8

Well, this sounded good, but I did a little testing beforehand on the day before I planned to do this, and after some thinking this was probably too ambitious, so I scaled my own WOD™ that I wrote for myself before I even attempted it! See? This shite is hard. I'm kidding, I didn't consider this scaling. I considered it "editing" and it was a wise decision. I basically chopped it in half. As I progress in my abilities I'll move more towards the first version of this WOD™, but for day #1 this was great and I feel I got great results and feedback from doing it.
Second attempt at "Courier"
2 rounds for time:
a) 50 jump ropes(single under)
b) 200 meter ruck with 30lbs in the pack and carrying the 44lb kettlebell
c) 10 burpees
d) front squat to OHP with 95lb x 5

I finished in 20:11, this was what I wanted to do, about 20 minutes as intense as I could go, and I wanted to craft a combination of elements that were highly challenging but wouldn't cripple me and put me on the ground for 50% of the session. I can skip rope okay, 50 is about my threshold for reps though before I start to hit my foot/ankle due to fatigue and getting out of sync. I was able to do both rounds of 50 reps without stopping either from running out of breath or hitting my foot. Threw on the pack and picked up the KB and took off for my marker, this segment was the toughest for me and I felt miserable the entire time. Haven't breathed like this in a long time, but that's what I was wanting to create. Something that took me right up to MY threshold and maybe a little bit over, but not too much that I'd have to take a protracted rest period. I was able to push myself to continuously move over 200 meters, although the second trip just about killed me. After a short(approx 30sec) rest I started in on my 10 burpees and was able to get 10 done in about 90 seconds each time. The front squats to OHP were the only part that was too easy, I could have handled the 135lb x 8, but I was worried because I have bad form with front squats due to poor ankle and wrist mobility. It's something I need to keep working on but I was able to do this just fine. Overall I was pleased with how close to my max abilities this kept me for the 20 minutes. My watch and HR monitor tell me I was in zone 4 for 11:48 and Zone 3 for 5:52, that's almost 18 minutes of a HR over 125, not a bad show for the first outing. The overall pace was outstanding, very little recovering during the workout. I would estimate my total recovery time during this entire workout was between 2-3 minutes. It was mostly just the work and the suffering and that's exactly what I wanted. I feel like I'll get a lot out of this and I'll be better for it.

The plan will be to do these WODs™ on Tuesdays and this is another place where I will make a sharp departure from how CrossFit™ seems to program, I will do the same exact WOD™ next Tuesday(04/16), and the next Tuesday(04/23), and the next Tuesday(04/30. If I can beat this week's time next week and keep improving my time over 3 weeks then I'll go for the full 4 rounds or I'll write another WOD™ and work on that one for another month.
Posted by AbitaFan08
Boston, MA
Member since Apr 2008
27203 posts
Posted on 4/10/24 at 6:30 pm to
That’s a whole lot of writing. I hope you find what works for you. CrossFit doesn’t have to be a one size fits all thing.
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