Tag Archives: progress

Annie’s Got Some Guns ;)

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , , ,

I’ll admit that I walked into Crossfit last night feeling pretty good about the workout. Karnie. Karnie is a combination of “Annie” and “Karen”.

Annie

50,40,30,20,10

Double Unders

Situps

+

 

Karen

150 wallballs for time

=

 

Karnie

50,40,30,20,10

Double Unders

Sit-ups

Walls Balls

Now, I feel like my strengths are probably in jump roping and definitely sit-ups, so I felt pretty confident about the “Annie” part. Wall balls, however, are not my favorite thing…and there were 150 of them on my list of things to do.  HOWEVER, I made a couple breakthroughs last night! Once I started in on the wall-balls with the 8# medicine ball, Paul could tell they were too easy, and made me go up to the 10# ball. SO, that means, by the end of the workout, I had done 150 wall balls with an additional 2 extra # than I am used to. Also! When I was doing my first 50 double unders, Paul (coach) came over and was telling me that he could TELL that I was sooooo close to just breaking through and stringing like 20 double unders together. At the moment I was struggling to get 3 together, so I laughed and gasped with whatever air I had left, “Yeah right!” Sure enough, not even 5 minutes later, I strung 12 together for my first time ever. Strung another 10 together a couple of times in the rest of the workout. Amazing!!!!!!

Just incase you’re not sure what a double-under is, here ya go:

So I finished the whole workout in 22:25!! 150 double unders, 150 sit ups, and 150 wall balls (with an additional 2 pounds!), 22 minutes, 25 seconds!!

 :-D TAKE THAT KARNIE!!

I HAVE to comment on Nick’s rockstar abilities last night!!! He did the first 50 double-unders with 49 (!!!!!) of them strung together. He finished the whole workout in 15 minutes!! What a STUD! :-D

I was talking to Melissa last night…I just dont’ know why I EVER doubt myself about going to Crossfit. I ALWAYS feel so amazing once I’m done. Yeah, its tough to get there a lot of days, and its tough during the workout…but I leave there feeling like I really did something…I’m tired, exhausted, sore and completely relaxed. I’m always in a great mood, even if its mellow…Just show up. You will NEVER regret it.

Now For Dessert: Push-up Surprise!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , ,

It has officially happened…

I got my first push-up! ON MY TOES!!!

The best part about it though? I didn’t realize I was doing a push-up!!

So on Saturday morning Nick and I went to the free yoga class that Crossfit was offering, post-workout. I was really enjoying the class, feeling much more flexible than usual, and noticing my recent strengths. When I used to do yoga, pre-crossfit, I couldn’t (smoothly) transition from downward facing dog into the upward facing dog. I noticed Saturday that I was having a MUCH easier time doing this!

After yoga, Nick and I helped Alexis move some of her furniture into her new apartment. After helping him carry a loveseat/chair down to the Expedition, I started telling him how excited I was that I could do the “swoop” into upward facing dog. Right there, in the middle of Bow Street, I got down on my hands and toes and showed him. Then I reset, and did another. Then came the question…

“Wait Jen….are you doing push-ups?”

“No…wait…oh my god…I am!! Do these count!?!”

“YES! They count!! Do another one!”

So there in the middle of the street, I did a few more. On my toes! Then later, in the middle of Atlantic Ave I did my first set of three! Then later, at home, I did another three….it continued like this all night. It was like discovering I had a secret power all of a sudden…who WOULDN’T want play around with that all day!?

So, it’s official :) I can NOW do “real” push-ups. I may regret letting anyone (including myself) know, because now I’ll have to do them ALL like that in the workouts…but for now, I’m on cloud 9  :)

Other wonderful events from the weekend: handstands in the grass at Dane Street (I got a 1-mississippi, 2-mississippi, 3 count on one of mine!! Nick got a 4-mississippi!!), cartwheels and not caring WHO saw, jumping in the ocean with our clothes on, sitting “in the rain” sheltered by our massive tree that covers our deck (and not getting wet!), ladies’ night on Friday night, Nick’s new haircut, visiting Latitude with Nick on Sunday and PR’ing on my 3×3 back squats (125#: first time I ever backsquatted anything over 110), pressing 3×3′s of 50# (my 1 rep max used to be 50), and trivia with an awesome group of people Sunday night!

What a great weekend!!!! Happy Monday guys! :)

Great Gains AHEAD!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , , ,

Well, my friends, we have officially made it to the end of the work week! Yeah!!! I’m feeling pretty darn excited about quite a few things this morning! First of all, ITS FRIDAY! HELLOOO!! Not only does that mean that it’s almost the weekend, but that means that I got my “power” turned on at Franson this morning! Also, my parents are coming to visit for the weekend, and they’re getting here tomorrow afternoon! ALSOOOOO, my dad is going to try out Crossfit with me at 6am on Monday morning!!! I was so flippin’ excited when he told me he wanted to try it . It meant a lot to me for them to even come check Crossfit OUT! I mean, this has been a huge part of my life for the last 5 months, and I wanted them to see what it is their daughter is capable of! When he told me he wanted to actually do the workout with me though, AMAZING!!!

Finally, I’m feeling really excited that I’m starting to notice some gains at Crossfit! While I have been suuuuper exhausted since I have landed back in Boston 10 days ago, and I feel like I put on a few pounds while I was gone (remember the jeans meltdown? I’m sure Nick does and will never forget it…haha), I noticed a few things last night in the workout that made me feel like I was BACK and better than before ;)

First of all, I think we have discussed multiple times my deeeeeep rooted desire to do a kipping pullup, yes? Well since I have not yet accomplished that, I have been doing strict pullups (palms facing away from me) with the green band. For the LONGEST time I was incapable of doing even one pullup, WITH the green band, without kind of hopping off the 12″ box. Then during one of the workouts a month ago (ish), Danny

A visual for those of you that don't know what I mean when I say "pull ups with the green band." The band just gives you that little bit of additional assistance!

said, “What are you doing?” (remember that blog?), and since then I have decided I didn’t need the box. So last night we did a workout that seemed easier when just reading it on the crossfit blog, but it was definitely a good workout.

Workout:

AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 10 minutes of:

3 strict pullups (hooray..since this is the only kind of pullup I know how to DO!! It seems to make everyone else grumble, so I’m hoping that means once I actually GET a kipping, pullups get a little easier!)

10 Kettlebell deadlifts (25#) Could have done more than 25# obviously, but I needed to use that KB for my swings, which I’m only up to 25# for.

10 Kettlebell swings (25#)

So before going on to the next part of the workout I want to go back to the pullups. Guys…I was able to do ALL three (doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I honestly couldn’t do more than one before in a row, and I had to jump off the box….I was able to do ALL THREE from the ground, just pulling my bum up there!) CONSECUTIVELY! I did 9 whole rounds..which means??? 27 pullups in 10 minutes…from the ground!! I nearly welled up with happiness! hahaha!!

Okay, so the next part of the workout: MAX number of double unders (double revolutions of the jump rope per jump) in 2 minutes. I had to ask to make sure if it was CONSECUTIVE double unders, or just as many as you could do in the 2 minutes (didn’t have to be consecutive, just as many as you could do in the 2 minutes). Now before (meaning, 1-2 months ago) I couldn’t do a double under at all. I remember my first one like it was jusssst yesterday (haha, I’m in a punchy mood today..). But seriously…I was VERY excited when I got that ONE double under. So last night, when that 2 minutes started, I hammered them out (FOR ME!)! I did 29 (29!!!!!) double unders in the 2 minutes we had. I was staying pretty consistent with the rhythm of single, single, double, single, single, double…etc. WOOOOO FRICKIN’ HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

THEN!! Yes, there is another then! It was a very productive, awesome night at Crossfit! For our challenge we had to start off by back squatting 55% of our max back squat (4 reps, two times). I did 65# with Miss Alexis. Then, we had to up it to 80% of our max weight for a back squat. For this one we only had to do 2 reps at a time, but we had to do it 6(!) times! So, the first two turns I had, I did 85#, NOOOO problem!! So Alexis pushed me a little (you’re awesome :) ) and said, “you ready to go up?” Maybe my max is not 105# anymore…because we went up to 95# and I was loving it! Ahhhh Crossfit :)

So anyway, it’s going to be an amazing weekend (family, weather, my man, good times!), and I hope yours is amazing tooooo!! Get out in the sun and soak up some of that Vitamin D!!! :-D  xoxo!