Category Archives for Nonsensical Random

If My Last CrossFit Workout Were Tomorrow…

…which CrossFit WOD would I do?

Man. That’s a loaded question.

As much as I’d love to PR my Fran time, that would be so fuckin cliche. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t pick anything from your typical CrossFit exercise list. I could easily spend all night listing down the best CrossFit WODs out there, and there’s no way I’d be able to narrow down to 1 that I would be totally happy with.

And no…I won’t partake in something like CrossFit endurance training. If tomorrow were my last day on this earth, I wouldn’t want to end things with one of the many intense CrossFit workouts. Forget about some extreme exercise program tomorrow. I could give two shits about “forging elite fitness.”

The more I think about it, the more I’d rather keep things simple. Go back to basics.

What kind of shit do I love to do?

Lift heavy. Motherfucker.

I would most likely do a whole WOD of cleans. For the first part of my workout, I’d do some strength shit. Building up to a new 1 rep max would be my plan. 250# or 255# would be a sweet final PR.

After doing that for a good 20 minutes or so, I’d do a fairly long AMRAP, maybe like 20 minutes of something with squat cleans, double unders, and pull ups.

I don’t see any logic or purpose to this WOD, but those are a few of my favorite movements. Even if this were my last workout, I wouldn’t go all out.

Why?

Every single rep. I’d cherish it – I’d feel every muscle in my body working together to complete each squat clean; I’d feel every rotation of my jump rope overhead; and I’d string together some of the smoothest butterflies I could ever do.

Rather than shoot for some crazy time for some crazy WOD with no standard, I’d simply appreciate this workout for the art found in CrossFit. Despite all the BEAST MODEEEE (roar) and skull-n-bonez mentalities in our CrossFit world, there’s much more to our sport.

When you stop for a moment and see the forest from the trees, that bad day at your box or that failed PR seems like nothing. Whenever I get down because of shit like this, I always ask myself, “Why do I CrossFit?”

I hit up my local box 5 times a week because:
1) I don’t want to be fat again.
2) I love doing these CrossFit workouts. Hitting up the gym is no longer a chore.
3) This shit makes me happy as fuck.

And how do I make sure I always maintain those 3 reasons above? Just show up. Simple as that.

So in the grander scheme of things, those little obstacles in my way don’t mean shit. And if tomorrow were that final day of working out, I would savor being in that moment. Being in the now.

Of course we know all that “world is ending” stuff is bullshit…”

…but I’m going to live tomorrow’s WOD and my entire day in the moment. I’m sure, like myself, a lot of you lose sight of what really matters with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We get pissed at the stupidest shit. We bitch over all these #firstworldproblems. We don’t realize how fuckin lucky we are.

Enjoy tomorrow. Kick some ass. YOLO 😛

Kip it real, my friends.

The Day After Tomorrow Drake YOLO

Wouldn’t This Be Fun To Do At Your Box?

We Were Just Shooting The Shit

You know…foam rolling and stretching out before today’s WOD.

A few of us noticed a new cubby area for our abmats, PVC pipes, sandbags, and other stuff. One person said, “Uh…where did they buy that? Abmatshelvings.com?”

Not gonna lie. It was a pretty sweet setup. So good that it was hard to find the PVC pipes. They kinda just blended in with the environment.

Then we talked about how we tend to stick to our noon class. Yeah, we’re noon class loyalists 😛

The funny thing when you drop in another class is pretty much no one will know you. Our box has grown so much in the past few months, that even if you’ve had a membership for a while, you can pretty much be a total stranger in other classes.

CrossFit Box

This Could Be Fun

We were joking around that you could pretend to be a total newbie in one of these classes. Maybe even pretend you just came off the month-long on ramp session.

So you’re doing the warm up, you act like you don’t know what’s going on.Then, when it’s WOD time, you bang out your butterfly pull ups. Throw in some chest-to-bar action. Why not some muscle ups?

This Just Shows

You can’t judge a book by its cover.

And why am I talking about this kind of shit? Well, I’m competing in the Garage Games Team Throwdown this weekend at CrossFit Milford. Many people of course will look like your typical CrossFiter guy or girl. You’ll just know right away.

Then there’ll be the unlikely people who you won’t really notice right off the bat. However, once the competition starts, you’ll be shocked by their performances.

This is the kind of stuff I’m looking forward to this weekend. While I’m just doing this for fun, and am in the scaled division (I tend to crap out on higher reps of heavier weights), I wouldn’t be surprised if my teammates, myself, and the other people competing surprise ourselves with the shit we’ll pull off on Saturday and Sunday.

They just released the WOD’s about 30 minutes ago, and it goes a little something like this:

Saturday

WOD 1:
3 Rep Max OHS

WOD 2:
2 Mile Run (woof)

WOD 3:
40 reps for men/30 reps for women power cleans (185#/105#)
50/40 up and over box jumps (24″/20″)
60/50 shoulder to overhead (155#/95#)
70/60 burpee plate jumps
80/70 power snatches (75#/55#)

Sunday

WOD 4:
Total of 16 minutes max calorie Airdyne test
2 team members go for 8 minutes
Then the other 2 for the other 8 minutes

WOD 5:
Team Fran (4 people)
18 minute cap

Should be a pretty intense weekend, huh? It’ll be pretty damn fun as well.

If you’re competing this weekend or just showing up to cheer on your friends, maybe you’ll run into me…

Kip it real, my friends.

Who The Hell Uses A Standing Desk?

I do.

I honestly thought using a standing desk was nonsense, even after seeing this infographic months ago:

Sitting Is Killing You Infographic

Click for the full-sized image.

As someone who spends HOURS every day on the computer for work, I knew I couldn’t keep sitting and slouching like I usually do all day. Sure, I go all out in my CrossFit WOD’s, but I really do spend a lot of my time in front of the computer.

A few days ago, I came across the infographic again and really thought about my daily routine outside the box…and shit.

Re-reading all those facts in that infographic was just downright scary. Sitting like that for so long every day just adds up. It obviously isn’t good for my health. On top of that, my posture takes a hit in the later hours of my day.

No bueno.

What Do I Have To Lose?

Yeah, I was thinking of following this tutorial for building a standing desk with stuff from IKEA for $22, but I thought of being creative today since today was an off day from the gym.

With the help of a piano chair, a bunch of hardcover books from college that I couldn’t sell, and a shitload of outdated, uber-geeky computer books, I managed to hack this together:

KippingItReal DIY Standing Desk Setup

Pretty ghetto, huh?

To help my feet out a bit through the day, I even dug up my old yoga mat from my P90X days.

How’s The Standing Desk So Far?

As expected, it’s not that comfortable, although I know my feet and calves will eventually adjust. It’s like the transition from wearing thicker running shoes to a minimalist shoe like the New Balance Minimus MX20.

At first, you question if you’ve made the right decision, then after a week or so, it seems like the best decision you’ve ever made.

Now Again…Why A Standing Desk?

For one, standing while doing work could possibly improve my productivity. A bunch of other guys I know who also work from home have said good things about it, so why not give it a shot? After a long sesh in my office chair, especially when I start to slouch, I get lazy. It’ll be interesting to see how this desk setup works for me.

And of course, the main reason I wanted to try this out is for my own health.

Sitting at my desk all day most likely is slowing down my progress. If I can see any direct improvements in my CrossFitting and in my physical results, then I’m all for this standing desk “nonsense.”

What Do You Guys Think?

At times, I do miss having a nitty-gritty, part-time summer job where I was doing a lot of hands-on work. I was just more active then. Sure, most of the time, I’d be sweating my ass off and making only a little bit of cash, but back then it seemed so much easier to get into shape.

Maybe the constant sitting has been the downfall of my recent lifestyle?

Regardless, I’m going to Kip It Real and try this out for a few weeks. I’ll play things by ear.

#4 for “To Get Butterflies” On Yahoo

No Not Google

So I was simply checking out the analytics of my GetClicky account and noticed that someone found my site through a Yahoo search of “to get butterflies” (without quotes).

To Get Butterflies

He or she landed on my “I Used To Get Butterflies Before Every WOD” post and actually spent the time to read it! Thanks for reading 🙂

Want to see it for yourself? Just go to Yahoo.com and search for “to get butterflies” without the quotes. Of course, your results may vary (Yahoo has a shitload of servers), but every time I check it out, my blog post comes up as the #4 result.

To Get Butterflies Yahoo

Just thought I’d throw that out there. Now time to do some research and write more content for you CrossFit Crazies 😛