4 updates left in the Nanaimo CrossFit Challenge! Follow along for the final updates.
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This week we got to experience the Turkish Get-Up. Dun dun dun. They’re not that scary really. But they do make you think.
Buy-in: Ring rows and handstands
Our Buy-In this week was ring rows and handstands. Ring rows are basically the opposite of a push-up. The rings hang from the roof or a bar and you set them about hip height. Setting them higher or lower changes the workout and how hard you have to work. Hang from the rings with your arms vertical and your body sort of horizontal, like you’re laying on the ground but just above it. Your body should be straight and rigid. Then you pull up with your arms until the rings get to your armpits or shoulders. To make it intense you can put your feet on a box so they’re up high with your body angled down to your shoulders.
Handstands are, well, handstands. I think everyone has tried a handstand once in their life, even if it was just as a little kit pretending to be a world famous gymnast. I thought handstands were something spies should be able to do when I was little so that increased their appeal. I never could do one for more than a few seconds though. Working on them in Buy-in’s has made me quite a bit better. I think I’m to 5 or 6 seconds with a good handstand and then a flail after that. If you want to try handstands make sure you have some space so you don’t end up kicking someone in the face or putting your foot through the wall.
Today was really simple. Simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy though. It can still mean crazy hard. Here it is:
1 Power Clean, 1 Push-up.
That’s it!
Kidding. It increases every minute until you can’t do any more at 1 minute: 2 Power Cleans, 2 Push-upsat 2 minutes: 3 Power Cleans, 2 Push-upsand so on till your arms collapse.I was surprised that the limiting factor in this exercise was the push-ups. That’s probably an indicator that my Power Clean form isn’t very good and I was using my arms too much. I was aiming for 8 rounds. That was the lowest score from the previous workouts during the day. I wanted to at least get 8 and then anything on that would be gravy.
8 was when I really started to feel it. I had to really think about my Power Clean form. I had to really push through the push-ups. The rests were getting shorter and shorter.
10 got really hard. You can’t pace much any more, it’s an all out sprint for both the exercises. You have to get through the exercises as fast as you can or else you won’t have time to continue. If you run out of time doing push-ups, you’re out. No more rounds for you.
12 was killer. I managed to just crank out the last few push-ups of the round but I was toast. That was all I could do. They were the worst push-ups I’ve ever seen but they were done. More Power Cleans? Nope.
So if Tuesday’s WOD was all about nice, small numbers, Thursday’s WOD was about the highest numbers I’ve seen in a WOD. Over 200 reps total with all the bodyweight exercises in it. Each of the exercises aren’t that hard but they start to add up at the middle. The last half is way more work than the first. You know you can do it but it’s mind game by the end. You can do it but how fast? How can you split it up. It’s tough to do 20 box jumps or 30 sit-ups when you’re really tired so do you do sets of 10? 5? Try and power through all of them?
Here’s the WOD:
20 Walking Lunges (each side)
30 Sit-ups
20 Box Jumps
10 Pull-ups
5 Turkish Get-ups
10 Pull-ups
20 Box Jumps
30 Sit-ups
20 Walking Lunges (each side)
Box Jumps are 2 feet hops onto a box. Simple right. Awesome leg workout. Just don’t trip and fall on your face!
Turkish Get-ups are a bit strange to explain so here’s a video. You can do them with any weight. The girl in the video has a heavy weight so it’s much more work.
For cash-out we just did some mobility stretches and a slow cool down.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Turkey Day everyone. Hope the weekend was awesome. If you wanted to do a Turkey Workout from Nanaimo CrossFit, Katie has posted one that everyone can follow along with. Give it a try. Remember to warm up before you get right into it!