Weekend Recap + Your SFCWs + Health Challenge #2

I competed this weekend for the first time in over a year–something I wasn’t sure I was going to get into again. And guess what? I had a freaking blast. Even with having to be cautious of my shoulders and left foot, I was able to work hard, have fun, and stay injury free. My quads and traps are a little sore this morning as I’m typing (sorry your Monday post is a little late), but overall, I feel PUMPED and excited to get back into the gym!

I owe it to Kim for getting me excited about competing again. Kim, who’s rather new to CrossFit, just decided that she wanted to compete and needed a partner. What the heck, I thought? I haven’t done CrossFit in a while (at least not a lot of it consistently) so I felt pretty new to game myself. Might as well tackle this together right? And we did!

Our first workout was finding a one-rep max snatch. I was NOT looking forward to this because Olympic lifts are my biggest weakness, next to wall-balls. Honestly, they may even be worse than that. I really wanted to at least hit over 100 pounds but I hadn’t snatched much since last October. And even then I was only muscle-snatching 115 because my form was/is atrocious. I ended up hitting 105 lbs and though I wish I could’ve/would’ve done more, I still met my goal of at least 100 lbs.

And guess what? YOUR FIRST STRONG FIGURE CONDITIONING WORKOUT is going to be just that: maxing out on your snatch. You can use a barbell, or what most of you use–a kettlebell or a dumbbell. Start light and work your way up to finding your max snatch for each arm. I’ve done this with my bootcamp class before and it is SO much fun watching people just throw up heavy dumbbells when they think they can’t! So that’s what I want you to do if you have the available equipment. When you’re done, I want you take 50-60% of that max number and complete the following sequence:

• 10 snatches each arm/2 min rest
• 8 snatches each arm/1:30 rest
• 6 snatches each arm/1:00 rest
• 4 snatches each arm/:30 rest
• 2 snatches each arm

If you really want to make this harder, complete 50 double unders before the 10 snatches, 40 before the 8 snatches, 30 before the 6, 20 before 4, and 10 before 2.

If you don’t have available equipment to max out, just do the above complex.

And if you have no equipment, stick with the above bulleted format, but do lunges and hollow rocks. (So you would do 10 lunges each leg, 10 hollow rocks, then rest.) To make this harder, double the numbers.

Our second workout for the competition was my style of workout….but one everyone else in the entire building dreaded: burpees and thrusters. We had five minutes to do a complex of six burpees over a barbell and then six thrusters with 65 pounds. So I did the burpees and Kim did the thrusters. After the five minutes were up, we got one minute to rest and then had to repeat–this time Kim with the burpees and myself with thrusters. I loved this one.

Your second STRONG FIGURE CONDITIONING WORKOUT is pretty much the same thing. You’ll have five minutes to do as many rounds as possible of

• 6 burpees
• 6 thrusters (using any weight appropriate for you)
• 1 minute rest
• repeat

If you don’t have equipment for the thrusters, follow the same format but complete 6 burpees, 6 squats, 6 pushups.

Our last workout of the competition was the one I dreaded the absolute most: we had seven minutes to complete two rounds of 50 wall balls (14 lb ball to a 10-ft target), 30 pull-ups, and 10 overhead squats at 65 lbs. All I wanted to do were the squats. I hate wall balls and I haven’t done a lot of pull-ups since I took a break from Wendler’s Beyond 5-3-1 Powerlifting program. (I was doing about 100 per week then. I think I should always do 100 a week from now on because I felt WEAK and I hated it!)

So Kim carried us in this one. I think she did the majority of wall balls and pull-ups and I pitched in where I could and with the squats. We didn’t get two rounds done, but hey, we said all along we were just here to have fun and that’s what we did! We gave it our best shot. Literally. I gave all those stupid wall balls my best shot.

Your last STRONG FIGURE CONDITIONING WORKOUT OF THE WEEK is to complete the following:

You have 14 minutes to complete 2 Rounds-

• 50 wall balls (to an appropriate target–make it challenging!)
• 30 pull-ups (or ring rows, or kettlebell rows–scale as needed)
• 10 overhead squats or overhead walking lunges

Adjust this one as needed per equipment. You can easily sub goblet squats, kb thrusters, etc. as needed. If you don’t have equipment, sub 50 sit-ups, 30 lunges, and 10 push-ups.

Just like last week, I told you I would let you know what my work/bootcamp group was going to do for week two of our health challenge! This week, instead of pushing out an unhealthy food or habit, we are bringing in a healthy food or healthy habit into our lives. Of course, some of us may continue to kick out the bad habits, but learning how to incorporate better foods into our meals and live healthier as a whole is super important! Today starts the new week and many of my co-workers and bootcampers have chosen some excellent habits and foods to add. I am still slightly undecided. I did really well with my goals last week of eating dinner at a decent hour as well as not having any alcohol! I am definitely going to keep these habits up and either add the healthy habit of going to bed sooner or working on more mobility (an idea one of my bootcampers came up with).

Will you add a healthy habit or food to your life this week? If so, what will it be? Let me know in the comments below.