CrossFit Langley - Partner 100's Metcon Workout With Narration

For Valentines day my wife and I decided to go to our CrossFit Langley gym where we did a fairly short Metcon (Metabolic Conditioning Workout). So instead of going out for dinner and eating a bunch of calories, we worked a bunch off ;)

Anyway, this "Partner" Metcon workout lasted about 25 minutes and consisted of: 

• 100 Floor Press (like a bench press but done off the floor instead of a bench)
• 100 Box jumps
• 100 Wall Balls
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 Sit-ups
• 1000 Meter Row 

The 100 reps where split between two people as it was a "Partner" workout. The 100 reps could be split into what ever set amounts we wanted to do as partners and each activity the rep amounts varied.

The object is to get it done as quickly as possible and my partner and I did this Metcon workout in just under 24 minutes. According to my Polar Loop and H7 Heart Rate Sensor setup I burned a bit over 500 calories performing this Metcon Workout.

You can watch us work our way through this rather fun team based cardio and strength workout:

Pop Goes the Weasel - Or Should I Say Rectus Femoris!

After a week away in Vegas it was back to the grind and today happened to be leg day at my CrossFit Langley class and it was heavy day, on this heavy day we do 5 sets with 3 reps of back squats increasing the weight with each set till we get to our max three rep weight. Of course we do our regular warmups before hand.

All went well right up to and including my 275 pound third set, I felt pretty good and was sure I was going to squeeze out at least 2 reps at 305... Well I did get one off but at a pretty big cost! Right at the bottom of my first rep of 305 pounds, as I was coming up I felt and heard a "pop" that was accompanied by a very significant sting in my left Quad. It actually stopped me in my tracks and I paused on the way up, I was not sure what to do since I had a spotter behind me and did not want to drop the weight on him, so up I went unassisted and to be honest as I went up it was not all that hard and the sting was kind of forgotten since I was so focuses on getting this weight up and off of me.

Needless to say, no more squatting for me on this day and perhaps for a while :( I finished up the workout doing 10 reps times 6 sets of sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups, and I did get a pretty good workout in for the day considering what happened.

So here I am sitting at home typing away on my keyboard with an icepack on my leg, not sure of the severity of the Quad Rectus Femoris tear? I am thinking it is at least a first degree tear (about a 5% tear). It could even be a second degree tear (more than 5% but less than a complete tear), but I am fairly certain it is not a third degree tear since that would be a complete tear and there would have been no way I would have been able to get the weight up.

Because of all of this I have decided that from now on I will only lift to get stronger in general. I am not going to do sets under 5-6 reps max since every time I have sustained an injury it has been during reps of 3 or lower. So there will be no more single rep Personal Record attempts. What's the point if I get injured in the process and I can no longer train that body part. That is completely anti productive and not worth the satisfaction of saying I can lift "X" amount of weight.

Types of CrossFit Shoes to Use When Working Out

One piece of fitness gear that is probably the most important equipment gear you can wear are your shoes, of course if you're running you probably need some sort of jogging shoe, if you're playing basketball then a basketball shoes is the obvious choice, playing tennis or some kind of court based game and you got it, court shoes! Football, Soccer, Baseball, Golfing and yet again they have shoes named exactly for their given sport.

So what exactly do you wear for CrossFit which takes many aspect from several sports, some running, some gymnastics, some weight lifting, and a bunch of a whole lot of other things...

To be honest there is no one shoe that is perfect for everything so in CrossFit we tend to come prepared with at least two pair of different styled shoes. One pair that's kind of good for basic lateral movements and one pair for heavy weight lifting. If a lot of running is involved it's a good idea to dawn some jogging shoes but usually our running session are basically sprints and so it's best to stick with the jack of all trade standard CrossFit shoe.

Yes there are now shoes made specifically for CrossFit, although they may not always be names "CrossFit Shoes". Basically a CrossFit specific shoe is fairly flat with little to no incline and very little cushion, the idea is to have a lot of flex from side to side, front to back and have the feeling of being almost barefoot but with just enough sole to absorb some of the impact. Why is this so important? Like a performance car, they have low profile tires so that the car will not lean to much from side to side in a corner, this gives the car better traction and the driver more feel of the road so more control and better performance.

The downside to CrossFit shoes is that they are not the best for any extended running or super high impact movements. They are also not ideal for heavy weight lifting although they are much better than a shoe with a thick cushion styled sole. I do use my CrossFit Shoes for deadlifts since barefoot is almost best when doing deadlifts and my CrossFit shoes have a very thin sole with no incline from front to back.

What you want for many power lifting styled exercises are Olympic weight lifting shoes. These shoes have a sole that is almost rigged with very little toe flex and almost zero cushion. Olympic power lifting shoes are low in the front and rise up in the back which gives exercises like squats and other floor to shoulder and overhead movements the correct foot angle for the most power and drive. The downside is that these shoes are pretty much useless for just about everything else ;)

I hope that helps you out a bit, I would recommend starting out with a good low profile and low or no-rise CrossFit shoe, when you start to get into the heavier weight lifting then you can "step up" to some Olympic weight lifting shoes to add to your CrossFit workout arsenal.

CrossFit Metcon Workout - 55 Push-ups, Pull-ups, Sit-ups - 150 Air Squats, 225 Feet Walking Lunges, 75 Back Arches

Another Metabolic Conditioning Workout I did over at CrossFit Langley. It consisted of two parts:

Part one was a Ladder workout with Pull-ups, Push-ups and Sit-ups. Usually you start off with 10 reps per set and drop one rep off per set till you are left with your last set of only 1 rep, it works out to 55 reps in total so I generally just do 5 sets of 11 reps. Works out to be the same but I find I do less walking around and get them done faster this way.

Here's how my "Ladder" was divided up:

• 5 sets of 11 Pull-ups (55 reps total)
• 5 sets of 11 Push-ups (55 reps total)
• 5 sets of 11 Sit-ups (55 reps total)

Part two consisted of three rounds of the following:

• 50 Air Squats (150 reps total)
• 75 feet of Walking Lunges (225 feet total)
• 25 Back Arches (75 reps total)

I really found part two very tiring but still pushed hard and made it through :)

Home CrossFit Style Workout for Chest - Back - Arms - Abs

It's been a while since I did an at-home workout video! Most weeks I workout 5 days at my CrossFit Gym since it's close to home and my membership lets me go as much as I like, so I may as well get my moneys worth and get some extra motivation in a supportive group situation.

This week my schedule just didn't work with the CrossFit times so today I decided to do my workout at home and take this opportunity to record it for you all.

I only really had a half an hour or so, so to maximize my workout I did my usual high intensity CrossFit Style no rest multi exercise workout and in this program I worked my Chest, Back, Arms and Abs.

This high intensity workout consisted of 10 complete rounds, each round I did 6 reps of each of the following exercises:

• 6 Pull-ups x 10 rounds (total of 60 reps)
• 6 Push-ups x 10 rounds (total of 60 reps)
• 6 Sit-ups x 10 rounds (total of 60 reps)
• 6 thirty pound Dumbbell Curls x 10 rounds (total of 60 reps)
• 6 Olympic Ring Dips x 10 rounds (total of 60 reps)

The entire workout took me about 17-18 minutes and it got really hard to complete some the exercises near the very end which is pretty much what you want to achieve if you want to push yourself.