Category Archives for CrossFit Music

What Adele, Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull Have To Do With My CrossFit Journey

When testing your endurance and strength…

…you normally expect to listen to some really intense shit – rap, dubstep (like a lot of people out there, I hated it, but now I’m hooked), and some good old rock. Then, every once in a while, one of your fit trainers is just like whatever with the Pandora playlist, as he or she is already busy coaching the class.

So imagine out of nowhere…things go from DMX…

…hold on a second. Before I continue this entry, I’ll leave you with a bit of Christmas awesomeness involving DMX if you haven’t seen it already:

…okay, now that’s out of the way…yes, things go from DMX “Up in Here” to some popular, really club-friendly dance hit (okay, in this case, popular a year ago).

Adele Jennifer Lopez JLo Pitbull On the Floor Rolling in the Deep

At this point, I was amping myself up to PR my deadlift…

Part of today’s WOD was 12-15 minutes to build up to a 1 rep max deadlift. For the longest time, I’ve had recurring lower back problems, most of which came from my terrible posture working at my computer 8 hours or so every day. It wasn’t until I switched to a standing desk that the back problems disappeared and my deadlifting began to progress.

The last time I PR’d my deadlift was during an in-house throwdown wayyyyy back in January. Almost a fuckin year, ya? It’s been way too long. Every time I’d progress a bit, my deads would hurt my back somehow, slowing things down for me.

I think I tied my PR of 355# a few months after, although it really was a struggle.

So today, I was in the zone. Warmed up with 135#. Cool beans. Another warm up set at 225#. Sweet. My grip’s there. Then started my single reps at 295#. Followed by 325#. I was feeling nice. And 355#. I matched my PR with ease.

My lower back was feeling solid and healthy.

To play things smart, I spaced my sets by at least 3 minutes.

I threw on a pair of 5s, calmly walked over to apply some chalk on my hands, then walked back slowly. You can say I was in my own trance. I really wasn’t paying attention to what or who was around me. All I wanted was that PR.

Pulled 365#. Went straight up. No struggles. I was pretty damn stoked as I ran over to the other side of the gym to ring the PR bell.

As I looked to my lifting partner, he asked if I was doing another set. Instantly, #YOLO was the only thing that came to mind, so I grabbed another pair of 5s.

After about 2 minutes into this rest, MISTA WORLDWIDEEEEEEE and JLo came onto the speaker system:

Fuck.

So what’s wrong with PR’ing to Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez?

Well…I always laugh when this kind of music comes up. The lyrics are always ridiculous. Also, I have that itch inside of me to bust a move. Don’t threaten me with a good time.

Back in high school, I was such a music snob. You could call me hater. I couldn’t stand anything popular, any band that wasn’t popular that became popular, or any rap/hip hop. As a result, I was so out of touch with some fun music.

Now, things are completely different. I enjoy pretty much anything out there, especially songs with a good dance beat. That’s why initially, “On the Floor” was so damn distracting.

All I could do was get my chuckle to myself out of the way, get more chalk, then patiently wait for the 4 minute mark to grip it and rip it. I tightened up my body, went down to reach for the bar, and everything was good to go.

Shit.

As I was pulling up, I noticed my back was rounding a bit. It’s interesting what a mere 10 pounds could do to your form. I battled. I fought. I scraped whatever energy I had in me to get that fuckin bar past my knees.

Inching. Upwards. Finally. Hit 375#. 20# PR.

Getting the bar above the knees pretty much guarantees a homerun for my deads. Although, I doubt that’ll always be the case, especially once I get into heavier weights.

Hey, 400#…I look forward to making you my bitch in the new year.

What about Adele?

Okay, so the last part of our work out involved 25 second sprints for average max wattage, followed by 1:35 breaks, 4 times. I was too busy joking around with people about the music playing today that I didn’t really remember my watts. It was something like mid-to-high 400s each time.

When Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” came on…

…at first I was thinking to myself, “Really?” Then, I just decided to laugh it off. “Hey, Coach…this kind of music gets me really pumped…I mean, JLo and Pitbull helped me PR my deadlift…so why can’t Adele help me tear things up on the rower?”

That beat actually did get me amped…somehow…

Overall, it was a pretty solid workout. Adele’s already been blogged about before for a previous appearance of hers at the box, so I think it’s just a recurring theme. She’s meant to be part of my legit CrossFit music playlist, along with JLo and Pitbull (sarcasm).

But to tell you the truth, I’ll always remember this day because of the randomness of the songs I PR’d and tore it up to. I’m sure most people would be able to ignore the music and just do there thing, but I love and appreciate music way too much to completely zone it out at the gym.

Do you ever come across non-workout-friendly songs mid-workout? If so, do you just ignore it? Do you enjoy it (like me lulz…)? Or do you let that kind of stuff get to you? Let’s hear what you think in the comments below 😀

Kip it real, my friends.