From Strongest To Fittest

[AJ Roberts]

Been away for the last week. Was in Vegas for the Olympia with Grace. She competed in the USPA Deadlift challenge and took home the Gold with a huge 385lb deadlift. Took at shot at 402 but it got a little out in front. She has the strength just need to tweak a few things with her technique. Super proud of her.

After the Olympia we stayed in town for a few days on business, then I flew out to Austin, Tx for another business event. Got to eat dinner with billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jean Paul Dejoria and then the next night dress up in 80's gear and watch the Spazmatics.

I actually didn't take any dress clothes with me or a costume so I had to hit the mall to pick up a shirt and a outfit. Turns out I now fit into XL shirts & t-shirts. Not sure where my weight is as I decided to give myself a mental break from the digits for a week or so. I'll weigh in Monday morning but I'm pretty sure I've dropped under 260 now.

Now that I'm back in SD that means i'm back at the box and what a workout to come back to.

Here's what went down...

EMOM - 7 minutes
Front Squats – 225x5

This was actually programed as 5x5 working up each set but as my conditioning still needs a lot of work I decided to do EMOM while everyone else worked up. Struggled with keeping my elbows up today and this made every rep that much harder. I wasn't recovering either and the last few rounds were pretty close to max.

RDL – 3 x 8 w/185

Used a snatch grip and really focused on stretching the hamstrings. These puppies are still tight as a duck's arse and need some serious work. Going to start hitting them multiple times a day.

WOD
Reps 25-20-15-10-5

Deadlifts – 185
OH Lunges – 45

Time: 8:08

The fastest this workout had been done so far for the day was just over 6 minutes. I had the genius idea that this was the day that I just went for it balls out from the get go. No pacing, no being a puss and breaking up the sets. Just all out effort. Things started really good, I blasted through the 25 and 20 round, then smashed 15 deadlifts before it took a turn for the worst. As soon as I picked up the plate for lunges I knew I was in trouble, I glanced at the clock and it was just under 4 minutes. I figured I'd just nut up and push through the pain that was beginning to set in, instead of resting like I normally would have. I took 5 steps and collapsed. My legs felt completely shot and started to cease up on me. I tried to regroup and go after five quick breaths but collapsed again on the 1st step. This time I took ten deep breaths then squeeze out another 4 lunges only to collapse on the 5th rep. I dragged myself back to my feet and just stood there shaking out my legs and trying to catch my breath. Finally, I felt like I was good to go and cranked out the last 6 reps. My body was numb for the last two rounds and as soon as I finished I fell to the ground and remained there for a good 20mins.

Tomorrow I'll be back to do it all again

[mrelwooddowd]

Nice effort. That's a pretty fast time for a WOD like that. I HATE OH Lunge with a 45lb plate more than ANYTHING we do. So very much..

[AJ Roberts]

Nice effort. That's a pretty fast time for a WOD like that. I HATE OH Lunge with a 45lb plate more than ANYTHING we do. So very much..

So here's the deal those lunges wiped me out for 3 days straight. Even on Monday I wasn't fully recovered. The prescription from Coach Boorstein...more lunges.

[AJ Roberts]

I keep getting behing on this here log. I'm not sure how many people read this thing but I always feel bad when I sit down and realize I'm days behind. Hopefully, it's just the 3 people I know cause then it really don't matter. Anways here's what I've done this week so far...

Monday
Snatch – 95x1x3

Now this might sound like a ridiculously stupid weight for me but it's actually the first time I've ever done a full snatch. Usually I power snatch as my overhead has been non existent but after weeks of hammering away at mobility I was finally able to full squat in the overhead positon. So, technically this was a PR.

Pause Back Squats – Worked up to 405x2

WOD:

AMRAP 7 Min:

Run 800M
Max Hang Squat Cleans – 95

I suck at running and came in at like the 4 minute something mark. Managed to squeeze out 21 reps on the hang squat cleans in the remaining time.

Tuesday

“Coe” – 10 Rounds:

10 Thrusters – 95 lbs
10 Ring Push-Ups (ADV)

Finished 17:18

This was the fasted time of the day up until this point. I knew it would get broken later on as this is really a 9-10 minute WOD for the elite guys but I was pretty proud of myself especially as I went unbroken on the Ring push-ups.

Wednesday
Went over to Crossfit Fortius with Coach Boorstein and Anders. Here's what I did.

3-position Squat Clean – 185 x 3 sets
Clean Pulls (from below knee) – 3 x 5 @ 185

AMRAP 8 Min:

3 Power Cleans - 185
20 Double-Unders

4 rounds + 18 reps

Double unders killed my score on this but I'm getting better at them so at least I'm moving in the right direction.

Here's some footage from today's session. Give it a thumbs up if you dig!

[chris mason]

I think more than 3 are reading this AJ .

[fsupower]

I just registered for the forum just so I could state that there DEFINITELY are more than three people reading this.

[Paulo_Santos]

For some reason, the YouTube videos don't show up at all for me.

[DoUgL@S]

Definitely more than 3 of us following your exploits.

For some reason, the YouTube videos don't show up at all for me.

Are you on an iDevice, or do you have a Flash blocking extension on your browser?

[Paulo_Santos]

Definitely more than 3 of us following your exploits.



Are you on an iDevice, or do you have a Flash blocking extension on your browser?

Yes, an iPhone. I can usually see YouTube videos form other forums though.

[Ben Norris]

Dont worry AJ there is something about OH walking lunges that nobody can explain. The sheer suck factor of them defies belief.

[AJ Roberts]

Friday

Full Clean and Jerk – up to 265 (pr)
Full Clean - up to 295 (pr)

Super pumped about these, especially as they were performed with the correct technique and not just muscle fucked.

AMRAP 8 Min:

10 Shoulder to Overhead – 115
10 Box Jump (up and overs) – 24

5 + 18

Saturday

Didn't make it into the gym in the AM due to it being Circa Max for the San Diego Barbell crew which took up the majority of the morning. Managed to get a evening workout in though.

Row - 10 rounds - 30sec on 30sec off
Muscle Practice with band - whole bunch of reps
Jump rope - 5 rounds - 1min on 30 off

[Tim K]

Nice PRs! You'll post vids of them up soon?

[DoUgL@S]

Congrats on the PR AJ. The AMRAP looks enticing.

Yes, an iPhone. I can usually see YouTube videos form other forums though.

Others probably have both HTML5 and Flash.

[AJ Roberts]

Nice PRs! You'll post vids of them up soon?

This session wasn't videoed unfortunately.

[AJ Roberts]

Monday

My boy Leon Josaitis was in town and asked to come WOD with me. Me and Leon go way way back and haven't worked out together since his powerlifting days. He started getting into Crossfit after he saw me make the switch and is a straight gangsta. As you can probably tell I was pretty pumped to work out together.

Snatch - 185x1 (~75%)

EMOM x 10mins
Snatch - 135x3

6 Rounds:

12 KBS – 70
8 Burpees (over KB)

Time = 6:32 (I think will check tomorrow and edit as I forgot to write it down)

After the gym I took Leon to my favorite joint in town, Bareback Grill. Bryan and Anders actually turned me onto this place and it is by far the best burger joint around. Plus it's all grass fed beef so it doesn't break the diet. Had a blast talking about the 'old' days and tried my hardest to convince Leon to move here. Another buddy of ours actually just moved here like a month ago so it makes perfect sense right? Just need to convince his wifey it's a good idea.

Tuesday

I saw this workout before I headed to the box and to be honest I knew it was going to be terrible. I tweaked my left knee last week when making on the cleans and squatting with any type of weight just isn't happening right now. I wasn't sure how it would hold up for the bodyweight stuff but planned to just modify as I went if needed. I figured when I got to the end I'd just power clean to finish. However, that didn't quite happen the way I planned.

Chipper For Time:

100 Skater Plyos
90 Abmat Sit-Ups
80 Air Squats
70 Double-Unders
60 Box Jumps – 24”
50 HR Push-Ups
40 Walking Lunges
30 Pull-Ups
20 Burpees
10 Squat Cleans – 155lbs

30 MIN CUT-OFF

DNF

This is my first workout I didn't finish. What pisses me off the most is I did everything RX and had about 45 secs left when I got to the squat cleans. I figured I'd try and finish right but on the first rep knew it wasn't going to happen. Bryan said if I was going to power clean I needed to switch to 185 but the idiot I am didn't have another bar set up waiting to go. By the time I switched the weights out I was down to 10seconds and only managed 1 rep as I lost my grip on the way down.

However, something positive did come of this ass-whooping workout. The rope I usually use was already taken by another member so I was forced to use a slightly longer and lighter rope. Turns out this makes double unders a whole lot easier. Originally, I was planning on modifying this as Bryan suggested to single-doubles hitting 35 of each, but after I started I decided to go for the full 70. Interesting enough though this is always the portion of the workout that KILLED my time. I was the second person to pick up the rope but the last to get to the box. At around rep 45 my conditioning let me down and the last 30 seemed to take forever. A few months ago I couldn't do 1 rep, so although it still sucks I'll take it.

[ljosaitis]

Ya dude, that was a blast and that restaurant is awesome. I started peeping the boxes around here and may start going at least part time. I made a list of all the cf stuff I either suck at or don't know how to do at all and am gonna put some effort in those weaknesses. I started a log here when I started training enough for it to actually matter called LEEEROYYYYYYY JENNNNKKKIINNNSSSS so I could kinda keep track of what I've been doing. I looked through the Regional workouts today and can't do half that stuff hahaha!

[Iplan]

Dude ~ this is the most fascinating thread on WBB right now. Thanks for keeping us up to speed on your progress!

[mrelwooddowd]

Nice to see your double Unders are coming together. Some people never get them. That could have been detrimental to your quest..lol

[AJ Roberts]

As expected I was sore as shit today but instead of taking an off day I dragged myself into the box to suffer some more.

a1) 3-Position Power Snatch – 135 x 3 sets
a2) PVC Overhead Squat x 5

b1) Snatch Pulls (below knee) – 3 x 5 @ 85%
b2) PVC Overhead Squat x 5

Still suffering with some knee pain despite flossing it a ton, so decided instead of trying to full snatch to superset PVC OH Squats to still work range of motion without the loading and do power snatches instead.

AMRAP 10 Min:

7 Power Snatch – 135
Run 100M
7 TTB
Run 100M

Score = 4 Rounds

The runs sucked and ate up a lot of my time. Most people got 5-6 rounds and I suspect the top guys were up at 8-9. I know it'll get easier when the weight comes off but honestly I'm going to have to start running more. It's something I hate which means it's a must.

On the flip side I figured out how to link TTB and went unbroken on those so another skill that's made some huge improvements.

[Judas]

My boy Leon Josaitis was in town and asked to come WOD with me. Me and Leon go way way back and haven't worked out together since his powerlifting days. He started getting into Crossfit after he saw me make the switch and is a straight gangsta. As you can probably tell I was pretty pumped to work out together.

LEON!!!!

Hah!! We all thought you were dead. Last time (well, and first time) i saw either ov you guys was at the last Iron Gladiators meet in Spokane... 2006 i think?

This is a very interesting journal. I feel your pain, trying to go from powerlifter to a weightlifter (though not Crossfit for me). Took me years to finally undo all that bad training and horrid mobility. I'd love to get into a Crossfit-like regimen, but currently my list ov forbidden exercises would have me hacking up WODs left and right just to find something i could do. Plus... i probably dont want to know how outta shape i am right now...

[Rock1984]

Good sessions.

SD is a killer place, I gotta have a look at job openings over there...

[AJ Roberts]

Just a quick update with some cool things that happened over the past week.

The WOD demo we did for mainsite dropped



Crossfit Journal released the first installment of the article series we are doing on my journey. http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/10/...testpart-1.tpl.

Power released the cover of the November/December issue which I'm featured on.



I'm also being interviewed tomorrow night at 8pm by Vincent Dizenzo's on the Just Big radio show, which should be fun.

[Paulo_Santos]

Awesome job AJ.

[AJ Roberts]

After talking with Anders about where my body is at we decided it's best for me to take a "down week". Actually Anders decided because if it was left to me I would just continue going balls to the wall as I feel like I have to make up for lost time due to being so far away from where I'm trying to get to. Anyways, I'll still be hitting the box daily but am under strict orders to only go 80% effort on everything.

Monday, Oct 23rd

1) EMOM - 8 mins
Power Snatch x5 w/95lbs

The class was working up to a single but as I need to work on my conditioning I opted to stick with a light weight and do 5's on the minute and sweat a little.

2) OH Squat - worked up to 95lbs

Started with the PVC pipe and worked on brining my hands in. Moved to the training bar, then the womens bar, and then finally the olympic bar. Managed to move my hand in about 2" from where they were last time and am getting closers to having them in the correct snatch position. I kept the weight light as there is no point loading until I can get in the correct position.

WOD - For Time
30 Burpee Cleans – 95lbs
Run 400M

Time - 4:58

[AJ Roberts]

Tuesday

Games OPEN WOD 12.2

AMRAP 10 Min:

30 Snatches – 75lbs
30 Snatches – 135lbs
30 Snatches – 165lbs
MAX Snatches – 210lbs

Score - 71