Tag Archives: pull ups

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Yesterday was one of those days in the gym that, regardless of what “place” I came in, I won in my mind :) Yesterday’s WOD:

“The Chief”

5 rounds

3 min AMRAP

3 power cleans (135/95 – I used 75)

6 pushups

9 squats

1 min rest

 

Now, I went into this KNOWING that I may not have as many rounds as everyone else, because I presently struggle with pushups; HOWEVER, I COMMITTED myself to doing the whole workout on my toes for the pushups(and I don’t mean halfsie pushups, I’m talking kissing the freakin’ floor pushups), and by golly, I did just that!

13 total rounds + 1 power clean =

40 {75#} power cleans

78 (TOE) pushups!

117 squats

If that is not exciting enough, (I can TELL that you’re freaking out with excitement :-p) I reached a goal that I have had for a year and a half (at least a year and a half that lululemon’s goal tender had been reminding me that I hadn’t reached my goal anyway…)!!!…

…::to string together 10 UNASSISTED kipping pull-ups::…

I FINALLY did it!!! Not once, maybe twice or three times…to the point where Nick told me I need to rest for the day :-p Doesn’t he know that when you get a new toy alllll you want to do is it play with that new toy?! :)

I’ve come a long way since my first ever pull-up in CENTRAL PARK on January 6, 2011…and no, I don’t have any actually pictures to PROVE my first pull-up…but it did happen there, after all these failed attempts

 

::and look at me now, 10 unassisted, consecutive kippers!! :-D ::

Great day in the gym followed by a great date night with my love…which will be followed by a GREAT weekend…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**::Weekend Ketchup::**

I know that I haven’t talked much about the wedding in the last, ohhhh, year and a half since we’ve been engaged, but with the practice, the move, making buddies and trying to feel like I LIVE here, it hasn’t been the forefront of our world. Now that it is two months away (as of a week from today) things are definitely starting to pick up! This weekend alone we:

  • BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON!!!!…TOOOOO MEXICO!!!!!!  I am BEYOND excited to be on vacation for a whole week, in the hot Mexican air, in an all inclusive resort where we won’t need to think about anything, besides, “do we want to lay on the beach or snorkel??” Trust me, I’m counting down the days :-p
  • I had my first DRESS FITTING/ALTERATIONS!!!! I was sooooo lucky to have some of my SB ladies there with me, you all made me feel like the most beautiful person on the planet!! I love you ladies!!!!
  • Finalized our CATERING MENU!!!! I am sooooooooooooo excited to eat that food again at the wedding :) hahaha.
  • My bridesmaid’s have their dresses!!
  • I am ALMOST finished addressing all 200 invites :-p

Great productive weekend with a little game of ‘Nick chases Jen up a mountain for ¾ of a mile’ to top it off (no joke, it was intense, I thought my lungs were bleeding when I got to the top) :-p We have fun ‘round here :-p

 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

 

Jen

Famous Friends :) :-p

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

I had quite the surprise Monday morning when I went to the Crossfit.com website to find out what the workout of the day was going to be. Rest day. Dammit! I scroll back to Sunday and who do I see but our Beverly buddies (specifically Alicia Gomes and Jared Monaco  of Crossfit Route 1) who created the workout;  nifty little video included:-p You can watch for yourself here!

 

 

So, as you could see on the workout, the WOD was a pull-up ladder. Minute 1, 1 pull-up; minute 2, 2 pull-ups, etc. Oh…does that sound too easy for you?? When you’re up to round 9 or 10, you are already 55 pull-ups deep in 10 minutes, and you’re tired. Trust me, don’t EVER look at a Crossfit workout and say “that’s it??”, usually “that’s it” is quite enough.

I got through 12 whole rounds and 10 of the 13th round before my hand ripped open. Dangit!! I could have gone longer! Oh well, 88 pull-ups is not too shabby!! :-p The best part about it was that I was able to link at least 10 together (with an orange band*, the thinnest)…I was, for some reason, incapable of doing that before, even with the band…but now…NOWWWWWW…non-issue, folks :)

 

With love and gratitude,

Jen

*I went back to kipping with the orange band for a while because I was hyper flexible through my lumber and thoracic spine during the kip. I didn’t have enough arm strength, and a little too much flexibility, which was equaling a major jacked up back every time I did a lot of pull-ups. So I started doing strict pull-ups to gain strength, and really started working on creating that hollow body during the kipping motion. Much to my excitement, today after doing 88 of them today, I was pain-free!!

Meet Cindy…

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

No, not this Cindy…

…not this one either…

I feel there comes a point in a Crossfitters life when you hear the name Cindy, Annie, Fran or Grace, and all you can think about is how badly they kicked your butt the last time you saw them.

Say WHAT?!

Cindy the WORKOUT of course!

Cindy

5 pull-ups

10 push-ups

15 air squats

{AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) for 20 minutes}

Yesterday, during our lunch-time workout at Innate Fitness, we introduced ourselves to this pleasant little gal. I decided before the workout, still riding my post-Crossfit Games high, that I was going to do the entire workout prescribed (as in, un-assisted pull-ups, push-ups on my toes, etc) and no matter how difficult it got, sticking to that decision…even if it meant less rounds.

I am proud to announce that I finished my first ever PRESCRIBED (I will say rx’d from here on out…) CINDY!

My results?

9 rounds and 5 pull-ups, and 3 push-ups into my 10th round.

Freakin’ RIGHT!

On top of that?! I strung three kipping pull-ups together…AND….

after the workout was all said and done…I PR’D (personal record) on the most consecutive double unders that I could do…

…30 consecutive double unders!!!!!!!

I can say that yesterday was the best fitness day that I’ve had in a long while…I woke up this morning feeling like I definitely used my muscles…which means to me that they’re getting stronger and that I’m one day closer to looking like those strong women I posted about yesterday.

On the note of sharing my personal success’ with you…

Somedays I feel like I meet people who have been doing Crossfit for a year and they’re already stringing 10 kipping pull-ups together, or they’re deadlifting 200 lbs…and then I stand there thinking, “I’ve been doing this for a year and a half, and I JUST got my pull-ups for peets sake!!”…

…but I have my own path in this. I have little break throughs here and there, and with everyday that I work at it, I get better than the day before…

If it takes me three years to string 10 kipping pullups together, it takes me three years…because I have the rest of my life to become a better, stronger, faster athlete!

Don’t believe me?

Crossfit is a life-long sport :)

So just remember that this is a competition against no one but yourself. This is a competition against the you of yesterday…the previous year you… Next year, you want to be able to say that you could CRUSH today’s you :) So…let’s get on that :)

Let’s get growing!

Jen

I QUIT!

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

I had an interesting “first” last night at the gym.

The first time I quit.

While there are plenty of workouts that I have not been able to finish due to time limits, this was the first workout I pulled myself out. Why?? Why now? I could say, “Well, I’m a pansy” “I wasn’t feeling it tonight” “It was hard”. Those excuses wouldn’t typically fly for me. There are nights I don’t “feel it” and go and do it anyway…and they’re ALL hard…and well, I wouldn’t say anyone who does Crossfit is quite a…pansy. So, the reason then?

I ripped my hands open. Good enough of a reason? Not sure…but sometimes, as people have told me, you have to play smart. You either finish the other 21 pull-ups with ripped hands, make the rip worse and take the chance of not being able to train for a week, or you pull yourself out before it’s too late.

Here’s the workout:

5 rounds

7 Muscle-Ups (and for those of us who do not HAVE muscle ups quite yet, 3 pullups, 3 dips for every ONE muscle up = 21 of each)

21 Burpees (have to jump and touch something 1 foot beyond our standing reach)

So, I took the steps I thought I should take to avoid rips (isn’t it funny, by the way, how I had WAITED for months and months to rip, and now I can’t seem to STOP ripping!! I mean, I got it the first time, that it’s not something you really WANT to do…); I chalked up (put my hands in a bucket of chalk to neutralize sweat on my hands, so that it won’t pull or slip) each round, and the pull-ups HAD to be broken up (3 pull-ups, 3 dips, 3 pull-ups, 3 dips, etc)…usually that helps! Anyway, the point of this is…after round 4 was completed (with one round to go) I had a bad rip on both hands, and was in serious pain throughout the 21 burpees of that round, and I was just DONE. I just walked away.

Now this is not saying that I didnt’ get a good workout…I mean…I still did 84 pull-ups (ON THE RED BAND!!!!! I have done the red band ONCE before, and it was like 30 pull-ups…this was 84!!!!), 84 dips, and 84 burpees…nothing to scoff at.

Then why the serious bummerness afterward? I literally felt TERRIBLE about it. Well, I think it was because it was the first time in close to a YEAR (I started October 5, 2009) that I quit on a workout. Literally, the whole walk home, I felt bummed. I was beating myself up HARD about it. I felt like I had jipped myself a little.

When Nick got home last night, I was talking to him about it…being SERIOUS (:-p) and here he is smirking. I asked him why he was smirking!

“You should hear yourself…using terms like “chalking up”, “84 pull-ups on the red band”, “take one burpee at a time” and “ripped my hands”…do you think 2 years ago you EVER would have thought you’d be saying these things? Its cool!”

Then I thought about it…yeah…2 years ago I didn’t do ANYTHING physically active…and now I’m complaining that I didn’t get to do all 105 pull-ups, or 105 burpees..that I ONLY got to do 84. If I look at it that way, that I didnt’ want to go last night, and I did…that a year ago I could barely do a pull-up on the GREEN band (that dang green band :-p)…that makes it a LOT easier to cut myself some slack. :) . So I quit one workout…we all have days…and I would much rather keep working out this week instead of nursing a gouged palm. :)

As for some recipes!!! I made a DELICIOUS tilapia dinner last night!!!! I dont’ even LIKE fish and I LOVED this!! It is SOOOOOOO easy! :)

1 lb-1.5 lbs tilapia

1/2 cup almond flour/meal

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 juiced lemons

THATS IT!

So, you mix together the onion powder, almond flour and garlic powder in a bowl. Juice the two lemons in a juicer. Then dip the tilapia one by one in the lemon juice to coat it, and then press it into the dry mixture on both sides. Have olive oil heating in a pan on medium heat while you’re doing this..and then plop the fish in the pan. Pan fry for 4-5 minutes on each side. Done!!!

Guys it’s so easy that I could just write that by memory :) Best recipe ever!

With it I just made a vegetable medley: butternut squash, onions, red potatoes, green peppers all cooked in coconut oil. DELICIOUS! :-D  

Have a FABULOUS day!!

Ciao Green Band!

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

Where do I begin…

HUGE night for me last night at Crossfit. I FINALLY surpassed that dang green BAND! The workout was Helen: 3 rounds of a 400m run (in 86 degree temperatures mind you), 21 kettlebell swings (with a 25# weight), and 12 pullups. I typically use the green band for pull ups (the band that gives the most assistance), but Danny took one look at my set of 3 pull ups and told me I was ready for the blue band (a lot less help). I looked at him like he was crazy (at least that’s what I was THINKING), and said, “Danny, there are 12 pull ups at a time in this workout…” and he said, “Yeah, if you can do three sets of four pullups that easy on the green band, you can do four sets of three on the blue band…now hop to it”,  as he reaches down to stretch the band for me so I can step in. I step in, still VERY unsure of my strength…and boom…one was easy. I looked at Danny and said, “Danny! I just got realllllllllllly excited inside right there!!!” I freakin’ did a pull up with the BLUE BAND!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Freak out!!! :-D Took me 16:23 to finish all three rounds…and you can bet your bum that I am DANG proud of that too! BLUE BAND!!!! Thank you Danny :) You always push me when I don’t think I have it in me…I appreciate that :)

Just Dance.

So this morning I woke up at 5am. I told you that I would start my “Add More ~ing To Your Life” side project, and I did. The task was to look at feelings I had/have that hold me back from happiness. Negative thoughts. I was supposed to sit quietly with those thoughts, and analyze the HELL out of them. Why do I feel this? What does it feel like? Does it have a shape? Is it attached to a person, a time? etc. At first I wasn’t feeling so hot about it, to be honest. However, should I really expect that I was going to feel great the first day when I was literally TRYING to stir up negative feelings that I may have been harboring deep down? No! No way! So I sat with my thought for what felt like a long time after Nick left for work. I started writing. I realized some things that tend to cause dissatisfaction for myself. I sometimes do not think I am smart enough. I sometimes have inadequacy issues. I am a perfectionist. I feel like I need to be perfect at everything the first time I do it.Super unrealistic I know… I think I have realized that due to that perfectionist outlook, I hold expectations of others that are far too high, and unfairly unrealistic. This makes me demanding of people at times. Argh, this is really hard for me to write right now…because I DO tend to care what people think at times, and there’s a possibility you could think less of me for writing that…but I’m going to take my chances.

So after I figured out those ugly little things about myself, I had to write positive affirmations that were the OPPOSITES for each of these. So I started, “I AM intelligent.” “I do not need to be perfect. I am a work in progress, progression, not perfection”, etc. I was going to stop there for the day, because the next step was adding movement to these affirmations, and I felt I was running out of time. In the end, however, I decided to turn on some tunes and dance (this was the suggested movement for releasing these negative feelings. She said that sometimes these negative feelings are so buried deep in us that we have to PHYSICALLY move them through us at times). I am so glad that I did this. Here is where you may find me dorky, but I’m willing to take the risk. I started dancing, in my living room, saying these positive affirmations out loud. Then it got easier, and more emotional. I got emotional. I realize that all is not solved in a day, but I can see how doing this every day for 30 days WILL make a difference. I started saying affirmations that I had not even written DOWN! I am strong. I am beautiful as I am today. I am a work in progress that will only get better with each day that goes by, but I am beautiful as I am today. The more I danced, the more I believed it; the more passionate I felt; the stronger (emotionally and physically) I felt. It was honestly a REALLY beautiful thing.

So, I will revisit this tomorrow morning, and for the rest of these 30 days. I look forward to what each day will bring :) Happy Thursday everyone :)

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!

The Art of Pushing Oneself

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

“If I have accomplished anything good, then it’s mainly because I’ve been driven by the need to know whether I can accomplish things I’m not sure I have the capacity for.” ~Vaclav Havel, playwright

Last nights workout was HARD. “Ryan”- 5 rounds of 7 Muscle Ups and 21 Burpees. We’ve discussed muscle ups before, but if you forgot what that is:

Now since my upper body strength is no where NEAR ready for that kind of move quite yet, I had to modify. The modifications were: for every one muscle up, you do 3 pull ups and 3 dips (so 7 rounds of 3 pull ups and 3 dips). Since beginning Crossfit in October, the pull up has been my archenemy. While it USED to be that if I saw pull ups in the workout, I didn’t go…I now make sure I’m there to work on this weakness. I have spoken with you many times about my deep-rooted desire to be able to nail a kipping pull up…and I’m telling you, I can’t friggin WAIT!! These “strict pull ups” are KILLING me!

Last night while doing my pullups with the green band (the STRONGEST support system for those of us who struggle :-p), my coach comes over.

“What are you doing?”

“What?” I say

“Why you jumping?’”

Yes I was jumping…I MAY have been jumping…I don’t think I can convey JUST HOW LITTLE arm strength I have (EVEN after doing Crossfit for 4.5 months!). I was jumping off the box to be able to get myself up over the bar, and really was only getting the first one easily DOING THAT!

“Because I’m tired…” Not what I meant to say…but I didn’t want to say, I CAN’T!!!

“No, no, no. No jumping…feet off the box…you can do this.”

I did do the first one, with struggle, which I DO expect! However, two and three I wasn’t getting all the way up to the bar. Once my coach noticed this he made sure to tell me that he often has to sift through people’s bullshit to make sure they’re pushing themselves, and low and behold, I wasn’t bullshitting him.

EASILY I could have gone to the “told ya so!” mentality and went RIGHT back to jumping off that box. But I didn’t. I WANT (sooooooooooo badly) to be able to get a pull up. So I struggled. I didn’t even come CLOSE to finishing the workout in the 25 allotted minutes…

but I didn’t care.

I continued doing the pullups (when there was a free band…I had to alternate that with ring rows, which I made sure to make hard enough for myself) the HARDER way, so that at some point they WILL become EASIER!

After the brutal workout, hair SOAKED with sweat (feeling like I really worked my ass off :) ), I popped my head into the office and thanked my coach for pushing me. I’m not there to just “get through” the workout…I’m there to get better, to get stronger…and pansy assing my way through it will NEVER get me there!

Do something today that makes you uncomfortable…just try it, for me :)

“There’s no better cure for mediocrity than a dose of truth” ~Robert Genn

Have an INCREDIBLE FRIDAY and an INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!!!!