Maybe it was the 40 burpees, and I know all my previous workouts have been heavily modified, but this WOD was super tough and you could clearly see my body print outline in sweat on the ground where I was doing my burpees.
Thruster "Beast Builder" (AMRAP - Reps)
Beast Builder
On the Minute x 7:
Thrusters
Minute 1: 115/85
Minute 2: 135/95
Minute 3: 155/105
Minute 4: 155/105
Minute 5: 155/105
Minute 6: 135/95
Minute 7: 115/85
Fitness:
95/65
105/75
115/85
115/85
115/85
105/75
95/65
Long Haul (Time)
"Long Haul"
2 Rounds For Time:
20 Push Presses (115/85)
30 Single Dumbbell Box Step-ups
40 Burpees
50/35 Calorie Row
Dumbbell: 50/35
Box: 24"/20"
For Thrusters I did 35, 45, 55, 55, 55, 55, 45 lbs for 5 reps each. Maybe I could have gone a little heavier at a bit more weight, but I’m also trying not to have terrible form.
For the “Long Haul” I did 35 lb push presses, and 20 lb dumbbell.
Okay, so I need to work on my form for burpees. I’m using my arms too much to catch myself on the way down and I guess I just need to do less off that somehow to save my arms.
One other things to work on based on yesterdays WOD is double-unders.
I really just need to spend some time practicing these. I’m sure my form is just way off because I can only do like 2 in a row. One thing I’m going to work on is doing one or two singles to start out with and then work on using just my wrists and less of my arms when rotating the rope.
I found this article today titled The Secret to Getting Better at CrossFit
I see this with a lot of beginner CrossFitters. They start going to classes and immediately want to be proficient in all of the Olympic lifts and gymnastics movements. When they can’t do something, they get frustrated and decide that they’re just never going to be good at certain skills. They act as if everyone who is able to do double unders, pull-ups, handstand push-ups or snatch over 100 pounds is just naturally gifted and was able to do everything overnight. Ha, if only that were true. I repeat: to get better at something, you have to practice.
It’s a good reminder to that it just takes time to learn these new skills and it might take spending a little extra time before or after class to practice specific movements. Like today after class I spent some time working on my pull-ups. I practiced just hanging from the bar for 1 minute. After resting for a bit I then attempted to see how many I could do and I was able to get to 3 pull-ups unbroken. My PR before that was 2, so even after just a week of CrossFit there is some improvement. My current pull-up goal is to be able to do 10 unbroken.