January 25,2022

On the road at Hawks Cay shooting our Into the Blue show.
we leave the dock pretty early so I did a workout in the afternoon

deck of cards on the dock

spades- burpees

clubs- pushups

diamonds - ATG split squats

hearts- situps

joker 1 and 2 - 100 flutters

i had a friend join me too

That’s a manatee. Hopefully I these road workouts will be enough to avoid looking like him when I return to the garage.

January 24, 2022

On the road to Florida. I hit the deck of cards this morning and also was able to get a few reps of a full Nordic.
if you follow Kneesovertoesguy on IG this exercise may look familiar. I became interested in it when I started Joe Hippensteel’s program last year.
on the first try I could get no where near the floor. I had to use all the pillows I could find or a medicine ball behind me to be able to achieve the lay back position. Over time I was able to lose the pillows or med balls and make it to the floor.
I tried to sit up but there was no way. Over the course of this year I have gotten stronger and more flexible in this position.
Today I was able to hit strict Nordics for reps for the first time without a sandbag on my knees or any other help from a band or anything.

Embed Block
Add an embed URL or code. Learn more
Embed Block
Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

January 21,2022

Feeling happy, grateful and thankful that I have such a strong relationship with my wife. Celebrated 26 years of marriage yesterday

today

I only did the 40 min EMOM because I am leaving in a few minutes to head to Atlanta to spend the day with Diamond Dallas Page. I’ll workout with him and then do a podcast. Can’t wait.
mic you don’t know him, he is DDP the professional wrestler. Now he has a program called DDP Yoga that has transformed so many people. Truly remarkable.

check out this video

January 20

Today is a special day. It is my 26th anniversary with my beautiful wife, Cynthia. I am so grateful and thankful for her and the life we have created. Marrying her was the best decision I ever made in my life.

Today:

I felt a little something strange in my lower back on Sunday while sit-in on the couch of all things. Since then I have been careful with it. It only bothers me in movements where I lean forward. The Cross leg forward lean doesn't seem to make it very happy so I have been careful with that one. For that reason, I decided to go a good bit lighter today than Rx.

3x2 @ 245 rather than 295

cleans @ 135

Row felt good for the most part. Held a 1:38-1:45 on the EMOM and 2:10 on the 4 min sections.

Did not do the Metcon

Accessory work complete

January 19, 2022

137 days ago I started the Mat Fraser HWPO program. I really like the programming but the thing I don’t like about it is that I am no longer using Beyondthewhiteboard to keep track of my progress. Ill have to do it here which is good for anyone interested in what we are doing I guess.

This is a reload week so the workouts are still hard, but less reps and less time. Today, there was a warm up on the bike. We had to use an Assault Bike because that is what we have. It is designed for a spin bike.

At the beginning of the program we did a 20 minute max ride. We got our average calories for a 20 minute time. Today’s workout is based off that time. So the 110% is 10% higher than the wattage I could hold for 20 minutes. The 80% is off that 20 minute test as well.

I held 500+ for the 110% and 300+ for the 80%. The first round of 3 sets was the hardest as the lactic acid flowed into the bloodstream but the second was a little easier and the third easier to hold the same Watts.

Finished with Plate holds :45 x 3 then Forearm curls at 15lbs each 3x20

Good group this morning.

People: Josh, Jose, Kyle, Justin, Card, Rusty, Steen

Dogs: Moose, June, Ellie

March 27, 2021

The CrossFit Open has had my attention lately and I have neglected to post here.

The workouts have been interesting and good tests, in my opinion. At the end of the 3 I am feeling good about all the results except 21.3 and 21.4. 21.1 and 21.2 were completed twice and both times I did much better on the second time.

I am considering doing 21.3 and 4 again but Im not sure it will be necessary. The top 10% move on to the next round. There are 6700 people in my division so the top 670 move on. I expect to be in the top 50 after this result. I may just take this weekend to recover and get set to be at my best when the next round starts. That entails some celebration which just might include some ice cream and extra sleep.

I hope that your CrossFit Open has been going well. If you are not in this competition I hope that you have your own event or milestone you are preparing for. GO get it!

Here are the Podcasts that I have done on the Open

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

March 4, 2021

Traveling now

wr have 2 shoots back to back so it has been deck of cards and dumbbell workouts since I have been on the road

today and yesterday I played around with an Open type workout that I made up on the fly

21-15-9

dumbbell snatch alt @50lbs

lateral burpees over DB

i finished 4:27 the first time and 4:20 the second

good one if you have minimal gear and are short on time

February 23,2021

Sometimes the program calls for things I am uncomfortable with. Actually, a good program will test you and work on your weaknesses. However, every now and then a day is programmed right in your wheelhouse.
today was that day.
double unders and Handstand walks are good for me. I can do both well

any kind of burpee usually plays to my advantage

mix those movements into a workout and I’m usually pretty strong.
todays had a medium weight deadlift. I felt MUCH better after all the stretching that I have been doing with this lift. I was having nerve pain down my right leg and deadlifts made it worse. I knew that doing uneven deadlifts to accommodate this pain was not good but I had to do it to make it through certain workouts with deadlifts. The stretching has made that go away and I felt strong on both sides of my body today. I broke into 5/4 on the dead’s just to be safe but I could have moved faster.
the single DB burpee step over was a much more challenging movement than I expected and I had trouble moving quickly but got them done.
mall in all, great day. Feeling really good and ready for the Open

February 22, 2021

Great start to the work week with a rainy, dreary day that would have most people pulling the blankets up and hitting the snooze button.

Not us. We had a hearty group of dudes ready to get after it today and this whole week despite the weather, inconvenience, unpleasantness, laziness or comfort.

Today started out with

Back squat

10-8-6-4-2

Increase weight each set and take 2:00 between each set

then

Roll right into this one

TRICYCLE

60 cal on Assault Bike

then

4 Rounds of

21 Thruster @75 lbs

18 Alternating Dumbbell Snatch

15 Chest to Bar pullups

This one took me a little over 22 minutes including a poop break after the 2nd round. I was disappointed in this because I did not exercise discipline yesterday. I ate too much and too late. I was not burning clean and my body said…We got to get rid of this…and it did. I was able to come back and finish pretty strong, however, I believe I could do much better on this workout.

This is going to be a great week that will have lots of good outcomes at work but also in the training part of my life. My stretching program has been paying some big dividends as I have overcome my back injury and increased range of motion in almost every position and lift. I will continue to work hard at this flexibility for this entire year and probably for the rest of my life. Joe Hippensteel says that it is the fountain of youth and I do believe him. I feel better than I have in a long time.

February 19,2021

Bringing the training week to a close with this burner today. I love workouts like this. This is a classic example of a psych out workout. What I mean by that is that upon first look, I thought wow, 50 OHS, 40 Hang Squat Cleans and 30 Thrusters…man those thrusters are going to be tough.

Any of us would have been lucky to have been able to do one thruster in the 16 minute window. There was no need to stress over the movements, we were not even going to get there.

I have experienced many workouts like this. The Elite will get there and back to the burpees and maybe even a bunch of OHS, who knows, maybe even farther. However, the average athlete or 50 year old isn’t going to make it that far.

Don’t stress about things like that. Chip away at the work and take it as it comes.



This week was also a time for testing our Aerobic Capacity for Chris Hinshaws program. TO do so we needed to do a 400 m time trial and then a 1 mile time trial. If you have been reading this blog very long, you may already know that I have had issues with my calves and running. Well, it happened again but I am finally starting to understand the signals my body is sending and control my ego enough to stop immediately when I feel a certain twinge of pain in my calf.

I did stop and it was sore but I am not out of commission like I have been in the past.

This year I found Joe Hippensteel and I have been spending 1-2 hours a day on stretching. It has made an incredible difference in the way I feel and my range of movement in almost every exercise and lift. I feel better even just walking around.

Out of frustration, I called Joe and talked to him about my calf. He is going to help me learn to unlock my calf muscles and restore the ability to run injury free. Ive done it before…lots. That is why it is so frustrating. My calves are my limiting factor, not endurance, cardio or strength. Just the calves.

Ill update my progress here. Until then, check out his stuff. Here is a post I did with his Quad stretch. When I first started, I used 2 Dynamax Medicine balls and a pillow under my butt. Now I can get all the way to the ground and I am working to get my back flat.

Check out Joe’s material. You will be glad that you did. If you read David Goggins book, Joe is the man who helped David to regain his health and running ability.

February 11, 2021

Not sure how I got out of the habit of updating this blog, but I am going to try to do better.

We are using Comptrain as our training program so I started to just use the app to record workouts. I will try to update here. For followers, sorry.

Today

3 miles/300 pushups

First time I have run in a while and due to my new stretching routine, I felt great. No injuries, and I won at 34;30. Not anywhere close to my best time on this course, which was 27:00 but Im getting the running back. I was just happy to finish. Moose also did well.

Back to Comptrain to get ready for the Games coming up.