From Strongest To Fittest

[Bako Lifter]

I think it'd be interesting to see a 250 lb powerlifter do toes to bar haha. Nice work, I think built in rest periods just make amraps harder.

[AJ Roberts]

Weird day today, felt totally off and just not myself. Bryan gave me the option of taking today off and then picking back up tomorrow but honestly the gym was the only place I wanted to be.

1) Mobility

Took some extra time here as my body was tight and as the first exercise was front squat I wanted to make sure I'd be able to do it right.

2) Front Squat - Worked up to 365lbs x1

Plan was to find a max today, last week I only managed to hit 245x2 before I wasn't able to keep my elbows up. Big difference this week and felt very comfortable under the bar.

EMOTM - 10 mins

Power clean - 225x3

WOD

6-5-4-3-2-1 Box Jumps (34")
18-15-12-9-6-3 Pull-ups

Time: 10:27

[Big_Byrd52]

Weird day today, felt totally off and just not myself. Bryan gave me the option of taking today off and then picking back up tomorrow but honestly the gym was the only place I wanted to be.

1) Mobility

Took some extra time here as my body was tight and as the first exercise was front squat I wanted to make sure I'd be able to do it right.

2) Front Squat - Worked up to 365lbs x1

Plan was to find a max today, last week I only managed to hit 245x2 before I wasn't able to keep my elbows up. Big difference this week and felt very comfortable under the bar.

EMOTM - 10 mins

Power clean - 225x3

WOD

6-5-4-3-2-1 Box Jumps (34")
18-15-12-9-6-3 Pull-ups

Time: 10:27

front squat in the rack position? huge progress if yes. i cant seem to make any headway toward improving it

[AJ Roberts]

front squat in the rack position? huge progress if yes. i cant seem to make any headway toward improving it

Yup rack position. I've been mashing my tri's & lats as well as doing mob work non stop. If you're not doing the stuff KStar has up on MobilityWOD.com start NOW. 2 Weeks you'll be a different person.

[AJ Roberts]

Despite taking Thursday off my body still wasn't fully recovered. Wrists and forearms were pretty beat up so we programed around that.

1) Mobility work

Added another new stretch in today. Made a huge difference and is one i'll be adding into the daily routine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA2DWnAMWdo

2) High bar close stance back squat w/ Pause at the bottom
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x3

AMRAP - 3 Minutes
Back Squat - 135

Reps - 55

AMRAP - 10 Minutes
5 Shoulder to Overhead - 155
7 Ring Dips
9 Air Squats

6 Rounds + 6 Reps

50 Burpees - 6:19

[AJ Roberts]

My girlfriend Gracie's sister Erin is in town visiting and joined me at the box. She is new to the sport like me and trains out of Crossfit Closer up in Canada.

Here's a little video of our workout



This is what we did

1) Mobility

2) Power Snatch - Work up 3 rep max in 1 minute

Managed to hit 195 which isn't bad considering my best 1 rep right now is 205.

EMOM - 7 minutes
Power Snatch 155

WOD - 21, 15, 9
KB Swings - 73lbs
Double Unders

1 Minute rest

2000m Row

[Tim K]

Erin kills the double unders!

[Dave M.]

Hey AJ!

Heard about this on the CF message boards from Chris Mason. Very cool! I'll definitely continue keeping an eye on things here.

Looked like a solid workout the other day. Hopefully the O-lifting is coming along. We're all expecting some damn beastly lifts once you really nail your technique and flexibility.

I'm curious about that last workouts 2000 m row. What was your time? I'd think a big guy like you could generate a lot of power and do pretty well.

[AJ Roberts]

Bryan designed today to be a active recovery so no main movements just the WOD.

AMRAP - 20 Minutes
T2B - 10
Burpees - 15
KB Swings - 20
Wall Balls - 25
Airdyne bike - 100 Strokes

Score - 2 rounds 107 reps

Burpees destroyed me from the get go and then on round 3 I tried to push myself then went right into the swings unbroken but when I hit the wall balls I was so delusion that I got smacked upside the head a few times. Still a long way to go.

[mrelwooddowd]

Good job. That WOD is a heavy breather for sure.

[AJ Roberts]

Been a crazy few days with work and haven't had much time to update the blog. Gracie made some killer videos though. Instead of me trying to remember everything I'm just going to post those up and I'll get back to posting like normal Monday.

[Yamar]

Sounds like you got much more of a plan than me Sam, but then again you've always had you diet pretty much dialed in.

For me it's pretty simple right now..

Breakfast - Eggs & Bacon/Sausage
Mid Morning - Protein Shake
Lunch - Red Meat + Green Veggies
Mid Afternoon - Pre-Workout Shake
After workout - Protein Shake
Dinner - Red Meat + Veggies
Before Bed - Protein Shake

I do this for 6 days then on 7th last two meals are + carbs

I was sticking to White meat but with this plan I need to keep fats high so red meat + fish oil is what I was told to do.

I'll probably do this for a few more weeks and then look at changing things up to "shock" the body again.

You mind me asking:

Do you include dairy or fruit in your diet?

[chris mason]

Been a crazy few days with work and haven't had much time to update the blog. Gracie made some killer videos though. Instead of me trying to remember everything I'm just going to post those up and I'll get back to posting like normal Monday.

Nice video. Does Lipson live around there?

On a related note, I met the gal that owns the box you train at in Montana. Brunette, but her name escapes me. Seemed like a nice gal.

[AJ Roberts]

You mind me asking:

Do you include dairy or fruit in your diet?

Pretty much no dairy but I do include fruit. I'm working with the guys from http://www.paleodietinabox.com/ if you're interested in what I'm following.

[AJ Roberts]

Nice video. Does Lipson live around there?

He lives about 20mins from me.

On a related note, I met the gal that owns the box you train at in Montana. Brunette, but her name escapes me. Seemed like a nice gal.

Yea Erica said she ran into you at the Tour. Sounds like it was a blast.

[AJ Roberts]

1) Mobility, Flossing & Dynamic Warmup.

2) Full Squat Clean

95x10
115x8
135x6
155x4
185x2

I think this is correct I know the weight is but I'm not sure about the sets. We're moving away from working with a lot of heavy weights and focusing for a while of form as well as conditioning. My joints has been taking a beating over the last month and the last thing the guys want is for me to get a injury.

EMOTM - 10 mins

Full Squat Clean - 155x3

WOD

3 rounds – 1 min at each station:

Front squats – 95lb
Push-Ups
Alt Lunges

Rest - 1min

Score is TOTAL Reps = 189

This destroyed me. Legs were shaking so fearsly took a good 30 minutes to get up off the floor once we were done.

[AJ Roberts]

Legs were a little stiff today from all the squatting yesterday but nothing some aggressive mobility work couldn't fix.

1) Mobility

On top of my normal ensemble I throw in these as well today which really helped lossen up the hips.



2) Power Snatch

95x10
115x8
135x6 x2
155x4 x4

3) Overhead Squats

bar x5 x4sets

I can squat about half way down with good technique but to do a full squat I have to relaxing my shoulders which isn't optimal especially if I was lifting heavy weight. Instead of working up in weight with bad technique I just went through the range of motion each time trying to keep my torso more upright and shoulders locked in. I've got several drills to help me with this so hopefully it comes together over the next month.

WOD

5 Rounds:

5 Power Snatch – 115
7 Burpees over bar
5 Ring Dips

Rest 2 Min

Row 100M

Score is TOTAL TIME including Rest = 19:55

I set out thinking I was doing 7 rounds and at 4 Brian said is that it to which I replied I was at 4. He goes 1 more and it was the best news EVER. Seriously, I didn't think I was going to make it. Burpees just ruin everything!

[chris mason]

He lives about 20mins from me.



Yea Erica said she ran into you at the Tour. Sounds like it was a blast.

It really was! I totally enjoyed it.

[AJ Roberts]

Worked out with the 5:30pm class today and did the gym WOD. It was my first partner workout and I loved it. Having someone else counting on you to really pushes you beyond what you'd push yourself.

I was partnered up with Aaron who's a pretty high level Crossfitter. Here's what we had to do.

Row 1600m
150 Burpees
150 Kettle Bell Swings (53lb)
Row 1600m

We broke the row up into alternating 400m and then the burpees and swings into 10's. We split everything even going back and forth except for the burpees where Aaron picked up an extra 30 (doing 3 sets of 20) as I was starting to really struggle. The extra rest gave me enough time to recover and keep moving.

Looking back at the workout we should have split the swings into 20's as these were pretty easy for both of us. This is where we could have picked up some time. I forgot to look at our overal time, I think it was around 23 minutes.

Also Gracie put together another awesome highlight video from last week. Check out my clean technique around the 1:44 mark.

[chris mason]

Nice AJ! I can see the improvements.

[AJ Roberts]

Took a trip over to Crossfit Fortius to get some feed back from Olympic Lifting coach David Miller.

Clean - 5x3 ~80%

2 Front Squat + 2 Jerk x4

Pause Front Squats - 3x3

I'm starting to get the movements down but I still struggle in moving my body fast vs just trying to move the barbell fast. I'm able to hit the positions I need to but my timing is off and things still look a little awkward. Got lots of great feedback and will continue to try and dial this all in.

EMOM - 20 minutes
Kettlebell Swings - 53lb
Kipping Pullups - 5

[AJ Roberts]

Spent the morning at Crossfit SoCal and put on a mini seminar for several of their members. I had a blast teaching as always and really enjoyed working with everyone. Hopefully, I can start doing things like this more often again.

I headed over to Crossfit PB after to hit my workout, body is a little beat down from the week but after spending a little extra time on mobility I was good to go. Here's what Anders had me do.

Snatch - 5x3 @175lb

EMOM - 10 minutes

Snatch x 3 - 135lbs

Tabata Intervals - 8 minutes

Airdyne bike - 1 minute on
Rest - 1 minute

[mrelwooddowd]

I'm not sure if people realize how tough 1 minute intervals are on the bike. They're AWFUL.

good work. You're really getting a good variety of stuff.

[DoUgL@S]

Nice work AJ. Thanks for sharing your journey.

[AJ Roberts]

Headed to the gym early today to do an interview for the http://journal.crossfit.com/. We covered some good topics so hopefully that makes for a good article.

After that it was time to do work. Here's what went down.

1) Hang Snatch
95x5x2
115x5x2
135x5x2
155x5x1
165x5x1
155x5x3

2) Push Press
155x3x3

Was suppose to squat here but my knee was bothering me. I tweaked it a week or so back in when I got wiped out by a wave in the ocean and it's been hit or miss since. Today was a bad day for it so we opted to switch things up.

Since I couldn't squat it meant I couldn't do Fran which was what was planned. Instead we decided to re-test Grace.

Grace

30 Clean and Jerk

Time 2:48 (1 minute 19second PR)

Rest 5 minutes

50 Burpees