Day 4 of my Crossfit OnRamp Classes, and I was somewhat excited in having had an entire weekend off to recuperate, hoping I could walk in and start a workout without being too sore at beat up at the outset.  Friday’s class (OnRamp Day 3) had gone fairly well, so I was excited to see if the trend continued.  I really wanted a good workout that pushed me, but not so much that I started getting sick or nervous about hurting myself.

Today didn’t disappoint.  The warm-up was quite reasonable, I thought.  We started with three consecutive sets of: 10 air squats, 3 plank walks, 10 sit-ups, and 20 jumping jacks. In reality, it may have been the “easiest” warm-up yet, but I thought it did what it was supposed to.  My heart rate was up, I was stretched out, moving, and ready to go.

We then jumped into some stretching exercises to get ready for “press day.”  With some PVC pipe we did a number of shoulder exercises to stretch things out, then we talked about a number of different types of presses.  We started with form practice for the strict press with the PVC pipe, then a push press, then finished with practice of the split-jerk press.  It was all about form, and I know it’ll take some practice, but most of it seemed pretty reasonable.  I’m sure, just like when I first started using free weights 10 years back or so, it feels uncomfortable and scary for a while until you get used to it.

Then we moved into our progression for handstand push-ups.  Yup, really, just like it sounds.  To begin with, we started with a hand stand.  I began against the wall doing a tripod progression to a hand-stand without too much trouble.  Next, however, was getting into an arm-locked handstand without the tripod.  Not quite as good… I’m not sure I really have the shoulder strength to handle that yet, but with Chris’s help I was able to hold the position for a few seconds with help getting into it against the wall.  He said it was better than most beginners for that exercise — he may have been bolstering my feelings, but it seemed like a decent start.

The workout of the day was of the AMRAP type — As Many Rounds As Possible — in 15 minutes.  Our progression was 10 kettle bell swings (18-lb bell), 15 kettle bell squats, and a 200 m run.  I gotta say, it sounded pretty reasonable at the start.  The first round went well.  Kettle bell swings are actually kinda fun.  I know my weight was light, but I was also focusing on form.  Then the 15 kettle bell squats started to get challenging by the end, but about the right intensity, and I knew once I finished those I’d have a 200m run to recuperate before round two.  Silly me.  Finished the squats, put the bell down, and took about three steps before I almost fell on my face.  Apparently my legs had turned to gelatin during the squats.  OK, so not as easy as I’d figured.  I knew there had to be a catch.

Despite the jelly legs, I finished my 200m run and started on round two.  Again, the kettle bell swings were kinda fun, the squats really started to push me, and it was the run following the squats that again kicked my butt.  During round 3 I had to take a quick circle walk about halfway through the kettle bell squats, then finished up with a stumble out the door.  By the time we finished the 15 minutes, I’d completed five rounds (barely), and had 8 kettle bell swings into round 6 complete.  Not wanting to leave the fun part unfinished, I did the last two after the buzzer, then attempted to walk around and regain my senses for a few moments, as that last run I’d started to get a bit dizzy.  I sat down, walked around, talked (gasped) to the instructor for a few minutes, then headed home for my shower.  Which got MUCH more exciting when I decided to climb the stairs to get to the bathroom.  OK, need the railing here.  No problem.  Until I had to go back DOWN the stairs to let the dog in.  Going down the stairs was a bit more exciting, as I barely had enough in my legs to keep from falling.  Yup, good workout.  Survived day four, onto number five on Wednesday!