The $1000 Bet - The Process

Single Leg DL is HARD

2009-11-10T12:03:00.007-08:00

CFSB WOD – 11.10.09

Single Leg Deadlift 3-3-3 (each leg): 135# x 3 / 145# x 2 / 155# x 1

5 Rounds for Time

100M Sprint

20 OH Walking Lunge (25# Plate)

15 Wall Ball (20# Ball)

Time: 12:57

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Cherry Popping

2009-11-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

CFSB WOD – 11.9.09

Front Squat 3-3-3-3: 205# x 2,F / 205# x 3 / 215# x 2,F / 205# x 3

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

Kettlebell Swings (1.5 pood)

Box Jumps

Push Ups

Time: 15:27

My workout was the first recorded one at the new location. It's a cool spot in Hermosa Beach. I imagine it will help CFSB grow quite a bit.

I also had my league basketball game. My best guess at my boxscore:

MIN / FGM-A / FTM-A / REB / AST / STL / BLK / TO / PF / PTS

25 / 0-5 / 2-2 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 2

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Moving WOD

2009-11-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

CFSB Team WOD - 11.7.09
AMRAP 20
Box Jumps
Kettle Bell Swings (1.5 pood)
Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95#)
400m Run

I started on the SDHP. It was fun to do it as a team. Another team member's running totally affected how long you spent at a station. I couldn't even keep track of which were more favorable, cause they were all quite painful. My team did 9 rounds to the other team's 8, though there was a run issue where one person on the other team ran a little extra (500m+).

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Heavy Deadlift

2009-11-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

CFSB WOD – 11.6.09
Deadlift 3-3-3-3 x 80% 1RM (1 rep max): 225# x 3 / 245# x 3 / 275# x 3 / 275# x 3 (PR)
4 Rounds
15 Deadlifts
40 Double Unders
15 v-ups

Didn't see the 1 rep max note when we did it this morning. Oh well.

Did the WOD with 155 DL. Pretty tough stuff...
Time: 15:53

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Helen, Sharks + Volleyball

2009-11-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

CFSB WOD - 11.4.09
Back Squat 5×3: 225 / 225 / 245 / 265 (1 then Fail) / 255 / 260 (2 then Fail)

“Helen”
3 rounds for time:
400m run
21 KB Swings (1.5 pood)
12 Pullups

My Helen Time: 16:06

After that, straight to a surf session - see 'Shark Week'.

And finally, some volleyball at 25th Street. I played awful, but I refuse to believe it was because I was tired. I did twist my ankle pretty good while spiking in warm-ups. Excuses are awesome.
Game 1: Mesko/Allen def. Stalder/Arbel 28-19
Game 2: Stalder/Allen def. Mesko/Arbel 15-13
Game 3: Madden/Cleary def. Mesko/Arbel 28-26
Game 4: Anderson/? def. Mesko/Arbel 28-25
Game 5: Mesko/Arbel def. Madden/Cleary 28-19 (finally, a win)

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Shark Week

2009-11-04T14:52:00.003-08:00

There were so many sharks on Monday, we had to get back out today with the underwater camera and see what was up. Seriously, Monday we saw 4-10 ft. sharks all over the place. At any given time when looking down, you could see 2-8 sharks swimming right under you. Unfortunately (sort of), we hardly saw any today and captured none on film. Oh well, next time!

Download now or watch on posterous

MVI_2317.MOV (6068 KB)

Download now or watch on posterous

MVI_2308.MOV (8740 KB)

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Weak Shoulders

2009-11-04T14:52:00.001-08:00

Played some basketball with Glenn at Playa Vista. I was up the whole game and had game point at 20-11, but I let him back in it and he ended up winning 23-21. Sometimes I think I'm a head case.

CFSB WOD – 11.3.09

Shoulder Press 3-3-2-2-1-1: 95x3 / 115x3 / 115x2 / 115x1 / 115x1 / 125 x F

7 Rounds

3 Thrusters

6 L-Sit or Strict Pull-Ups

9 Push-Ups

Build up to your shoulder press 1 rep max with about 90 seconds rest in between each set. For WOD, you want to go pretty heavy on the thrusters.

Even though I was one of the weakest with the shoulder press, I was doing a pretty heavy thruster at 135#. Pull-ups started as L-Sit, but quickly turned to strict (and occasionally reverse grip).

Time for 7 rounds: 14:22

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A Long Day

2009-11-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

Started the day with a little Crossfit and finished with some basketball...

CFSB WOD – 11.2.09

Power Clean 3×4: 115, 155F, 135

2K Row for time: 7:02

Men shoot for sub 7:00 minutes and women shoot for sub 8:45 minutes. Pace yourself to make sure you have enough gas for the last 500M.

The row kicked my ass. Shooting for sub 7 means averaging 1:45/500M throughout. That is hard. I think people would find it hard to pull a a 1:45 500, but averaging it over 2K - DAMN! Then again, I was able to manage a 7:02 on my first row for time in a competitive setting. So it's probably good that it was hard as fuck.

After that madness, I went swimming with some sharks. The intent was to go surf at El Porto, but the hundreds of leopard sharks seen below the surface threw my concentration for some reason. Everyone was talking about them in the lineup and you couldn't go more than 5 minutes without seeing 1-10 sharks below you. And they weren't small! Anywhere between 4-10 ft. I wish I was exaggerating. Good session!

And to finish off the day, a basketball league game. It was probably my best game to date. 2 pts, 4 boards, 1 assist and some good things happening that don't show in the boxscore. I felt much more confident in general. Hopefully that will continue through the rest of the season and into the playoffs if we make it.

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South Bay Thriller

2009-10-31T11:16:00.001-07:00

CFSB WOD 10.30.09:

“South Bay Thriller”

4 Rounds for Time

25 Kettlebell Snatch

15 Burpee Box Jumps

50M Monster Walk

*Advanced – Shotgun a beer after the last monster walk

If you aren’t dressed up

Narf (Reverse Fran)

9-15-21

Chest to bar pull-ups

Dumbell Thrusters

I wasn't dressed up so I had to do Narf. Narf sucks. Increasing reps is not fun. And the dumbell thrusters were harder than we all thought.

We did regular pull ups and I used 25# dumbells for the thrusters. We also added the beer chug at the end. I'm no good at chugging beer in the first place, but being out of breath made it near impossible.

Time: 9:58 (11:40 after beer)

Updated status of rips below...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Nasty Girls

2009-10-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

CFSB WOD 10.29.2009:
3 rounds for time:
50 Squats
7 Muscle Ups (or 3x pullups & dips)
10 Hang Power Cleans

I did the Muscle Up Transition into the Dip, not full Muscle Up.
First round of Hang Power Cleans: 95#
Last 2 rounds: 85#
Time: 14:01

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My First Rip

2009-10-28T12:29:00.001-07:00

It didn't take long... Got my first rip today. It happened during some heavy deadlifting. Pretty sure the warm up kipping got it going, but the straw was my heaviest deadlift to date.

CFSB WOD 10.28.09:

Deadlift 3×3 - 3 x 245#, 3 x 265# (RIP), 3 x 265#
Then, AMRAP 10 minutes:
15 Jumping Back Squats
15 Good Mornings

6 Rounds + 8 Squats with 45# barbell.

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Poop Basketball

2009-10-27T17:04:00.001-07:00

I had another league game last night. I was all fired up and ready to do some damage...

It just didn't work out that way. I was more aggressive, pulling down 3 or 4 boards, and I took 5 or 6 shots too. Unfortunately, I couldn't make a basket to save my life. And it's not like anyone plays defense on me. They pretty much just let me go by. I really need to make them pay for that and take it all the way to the hole. I keep taking these floaters that come close, but no bueno. Next week!

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The Longest Mile

2009-10-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

My first CFSB WOD:
500M Sprint
25 Ring Dips
100M Farmer’s Walk
100M Waiters Walk
100M Walking Lunges
25 Wall Balls
100M Medball Sprint
100M Broad Jumps
100M Walking Lunges
25 Burpees
500M Sprint

My time: 32:37 (and I had to use bands for the 2nd half of the Ring Dips)

Turns out that Tabata really was just a sample. Today's WOD was brutal. I would probably rename the last exercise to the 500M Puke/Walk. I didn't puke, but I wanted to.

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Elements

2009-10-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

I did my Elements training at CFSB today. I thought it would be challenging to learn all the moves, but not too much of a workout. I was wrong. It's amazing how sweaty you can get lifting a pvc pipe.

Turns out I'm ready for the WODs. That's exciting. Can't wait for my first one on Monday.

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Basketball at the Park

2009-10-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

I played some pickup basketball at the park with a friend from work. There were a bunch of people playing and we got a game of 4 on 4. I kinda got schooled, but it was good practice for the league games.

I would have mentioned the league game this week, but it wasn't worth mentioning. It was an early game and I didn't get there until about 12 minutes left in the 2nd half. We ended up losing a close game and my contributions were negligible at best. I didn't score, but may have pulled down a couple of boards.

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My First Real Crossfit Workout

2009-10-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Today I went to check out Crossfit Southbay. I've been meaning to for a while and finally did. And I'm very glad that I did. I got there a little before 6a but nobody had arrived yet. It seems they just lost the regular Tue/Thu 6a coach to a move to Temecula. I was about to leave, but found out someone was on the way, so I waited for a little bit.

Once Forrest got there, we were off and running. He had me warm up with a 1k row. No problem so far. Then he asked me if I could do some kipping pull ups and other such Crossfit basics. I said not really, so he started to show me the principles of the kipping pull up. It was cool to actually have someone show me, because watching those videos really only got me so far. I was never able to produce the right energy heading in the right direction. I almost always ended up swinging and losing control. So now I kinda know how to kip, or at least what it's supposed to feel like - still a long way to go for actual continuous kipping.

So once the pleasantries were done, I was ready to start my sample WOD. For simplicity, introduction and a taste of the intensity Forrest had me do a Tabata consisting of 4 exercises each with 4 minute rounds of 20 secs. on and 10 secs. off. Pull ups, push ups, sit ups and squats. We went over the form for each before starting. A little different than I typically do, but all for the better and seemed easy enough.

It's hard to remember the exact details of what followed. I remember being spent after my 2nd round of pull ups (50 secs. into the workout). I can do pull ups, but without proper kipping (and overall weakness), I was worthless after a couple of sets with such a short rest. So he had me do some jumping ones off a box. Mind you we didn't take a break or anything, this was all somehow incorporated into that 2nd 10 sec. rest period. The jumping ones were easier (sort of). What they lacked in difficulty for my upper body, they made up in a leg workout and a growing cardio burn that I hadn't felt in some time. The intensity was already upon me.

I got through the pull ups and it was on to push ups. Probably my least favorite and weakest exercise. No matter how much I workout, I don't seem to improve my push up numbers. I'm hoping Crossfit can change that. Pushups were tough as expected. Those short rests didn't do much to get me kicking out more reps either. I think I was holding steady somewhere around 5 or 6 - God, I suck. Once those horrible 4 minutes were done it was time for sit ups.

Sit ups are easy. I have a pretty strong core (even when it doesn't totally look like it) and I truly believe they are much more mind than physical. But something bad started happening during the sit ups. Not the kind of bad that would make me stop - I still don't think I've figured out what that bad is really. But the kind of bad where the nausea started hitting. The combination of my lungs working non stop and the movement of the sit up was just kicking my ass. But I made it through.

On to squats. I always think my legs are the strongest part of me, so normally I would have thought - no problem. But at this point in the workout, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to feel good or easy or anything in between. The squats were hard and they just made my lungs burn some more. I was able to do about 9 reps each time which seemed like a lot. And I even pushed through on the last one and busted out 14.

All said and done, I did a total of 235 reps or so in the 16 minutes (10:40 of on and 5:20 of off). And I felt great...No, not really. I felt like shit. I could barely breathe for the next 30 minutes. I had to sit down for a long while and was holding back my last meal or 2. Talked with Forrest for a while during the recovery period, but I was really just spitting out a word here and there. That's all I could muster. My body was shaking, lungs and throat were burning and I came to the realization that this may have been the first time I'd ever felt what a Crossfit workout is supposed to feel like. I have worked out super hard before, but not like that.

So I'm pretty much hooked right from the start. I can't help it. I love that type of shit. Ever since I made the $1000 bet and started working out, I've been looking for better and tougher ways to challenge myself and to improve. I've always been a sport junkie and now I might be taking my first steps to being a Crossfit junkie as well. Bring on the WODs.

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10K Row

2009-10-19T16:06:00.001-07:00

I just felt like doing a 10K row. I've done 1 or 2 before, but I'm not sure what my times were, so my personal best is now: 40:47.

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Biking with Jason

2009-10-15T17:13:00.001-07:00

El Porto to Santa Monica:

http://bit.ly/7dVuk

Santa Monica to iCrossing:

http://bit.ly/1eYXJi

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Bulk Up like a Boss or Don't (If You're a Girl)

2009-10-15T12:25:00.001-07:00

I don't normally re-link, retweet, etc. But I found Crossfit Southbay's WOD article today very interesting. Ever since I started The $1000 Bet, I've tried to infect family and friends with my new found love of fitness. And of course there are many different ways to achieve a healthy, fit lifestyle.

I started with P90X and combined it with anything and everything else that I could get my hands on. I biked 15 miles each way to and from work 5 days a week. I trained and competed in Triathlons. And I played about as much volleyball as I ever had, just to name a few (seriously, check out the logs - did I mention that I have an incredibly supportive, amazing wife?). I think all of that contributed to the final results I achieved. But I also give a lot of credit to P90X for the muscle definition I was able to build. I always thought that P90X's quick hitting no rest workouts were a big factor to getting the rippedness, but I think there is a lot more to it.

After doing P90X, plenty of people asked me about it and whether I would recommend the product. I always sang its praises. After all, it pretty much changed my life (or at the very least was an integral part of the change I decided to make - did I mention that I have an incredibly supportive, amazing wife?). But not everyone that completed P90X after me got the same results. It was a mixed bag. The one constant was how good working out 6 days a week made people feel. There was no debate about that. But the visual and physical results varied. And I often thought why?

I assumed that others were pushing themselves just as hard as I was. Just completing the workouts is an accomplishment in itself (at least I thought so). But I think one of the things that may have been holding some of my friends and family back from seeing significant results was the one piece of not so good advice that P90X and the rest of the world gives. Lift heavy for bulk and lift light with many reps for lean and toned muscles. We've all heard that a million times. Well, the articles linked below delve into why that is simply not true. Apparently it's well documented in research, facts and best of all science that lifting heavy is the way to go for just about everyone. The top 10 list does an excellent job of boiling down just how silly the basic misconception of lifting heavy = bulk (especially for the ladies).

Go check out the Crossfit Southbay Article and be sure to click on the "Top 10 Reasons Heavy Weights Don't Bulk Up the Female Athlete"

And just to piggy back the sweet image they posted in relation to the article, here are a couple of my favorite entries posted at amiripped.com:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Paleo Diet

2009-10-13T11:42:00.001-07:00

I want to eat like this, or at least give it a try. I'm not real big into diets as you can see from The $1000 Bet. But eating based on our hunter gatherer ancestry seems like a good idea. After all, agriculture was pretty much the beginning of the fat man, right?

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Basketball League - Game 3

2009-10-13T01:15:00.001-07:00

I played in my third league game tonight. I'm still not playing so great. I didn't feel like I did much. No hussle points. No solid rebounds. Just average at best. My best play was getting fouled down low while going for a rebound. We were in the bonus so 1 and 1 on the free throws. I made the first and missed the second. I did rack up some fouls :)

My line (approximately): 1 pt, 2 rebs., 4 fouls

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Crossfit Betty

2009-10-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to do one of the named WODS this morning. The Betty seemed like a good idea based on time. I looked at my log and I had done it in August in a time of 27:31 (I only had about 30 minutes to work out this morning).

Five rounds for time:

12 Push Press, 135 lbs.

20 box jumps, 24" box

I thought I was moving real fast, barely slowing down at all during the box jumps. The Push Press was another story. Around the 3rd round I realized that something wasn't quite right. I was having a pretty tough time with the weight and the rep number. I was only doing 3-4 reps at the start of a round and maybe 2 in a row at the end. Time was creeping up on me and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to crack my previous best set in August.

I started thinking abut what could be causing the problem. First thing that came to mind was not having slept the night before. But that wasn't it. Something else was a bigger problem. I kept thinking and then it came to me. The last time I did the Betty, I wasn't too sure I'd be able to do 12 Push Presses at 135 lbs. so I actually did it with 25 lb. plates (95 lb. total). Of course that produced a quicker time. So I was bummed I couldn't beat my time, but I couldn't be too hard on myself. I finished the full real Betty in 32:54. Hopefully I won't be too sore.

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Crossfit WOD 091008

2009-10-08T09:56:00.001-07:00

I did a quick Crossfit WOD this morning. I pretty much suck.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Row 250 meters
Sumo deadlift high pull 95 lbs, 21 reps
Pull-ups, 15 reps

I did a whopping 2 rounds. That is some weak sauce. I needed another 5 minutes to finish off the 3rd round so I can't even come close to counting it.

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Volleyball at 25th St.

2009-10-07T23:07:00.001-07:00

I played some volleyball with the 25th St. crew. I think I'm really learning a lot from those guys. They have so much experience and that's what I need. I went 2-1 on the day, not bad.

Match 1: John/Kevin def. Arbel/Matt 21-17, 10-21, 15-10
Match 2: John/Arbel def. Matt/Kevin 16-21, 21-18, 15-11
Match 3: Kevin/Arbel def. John/Matt 28-21 (single game because of time)

After the volleyball, I played some Smashball (aka matkot) with my dad. It was good shit. Just like the old days in Israel.

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Basketball League

2009-10-06T14:08:00.001-07:00

Played in Glenn's buddies' league game last night. I'm a permanent fixture now. I'm supposed to bring the hustle, which I do, but I need to workout more to keep up the pace. Shit is tiring.

My line (approximately): 4 pts, 3 rebs.

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