Crossfit OnRamp Day 8, Wednesday morning, and nothing is terribly sore to start out with.  I’m excited, a workout where I’m coming in “relatively” fresh!

The warm-up we began with seemed pretty reasonable.  Three consecutive sets of:

  • 20 jumping jacks
  • 5 plank walks
  • 10 situps
  • 20 flutter kicks
My abs were sore by the end, and I was warmed up, heart going, but not completely spent.  Just about right.  While the previous class finished up, I spent about 5 minutes on the jump rope myself working on double unders, then we began the “education” portion of today’s lesson.
 

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We focused on kettle bell exercises and progressions, reviewing standard kettle bell swings, then working into kettle bell clean & jerks right-handed, left-handed, and simultaneously.  Then we moved into kettle bell snatches, which I actually liked better than the clean and jerks.  Finally, we spent a few minutes doing Turkish Get-Ups.  They were kind of fun from a technical standpoint and an exercise unlike anything I’ve ever done before, but I also quickly learned how tiring they get after a few repetitions doing them correctly.
 
Today’s workout was a quick one, though challenging.  Chris gave me a choice of going to lower or heavier kettle bells for the workout.  I chose the heavier set, but kept the lighter ones handy in case it was a bit more than I bargained for.  As it happened, I was able to complete the workout without moving to the lighter bells, but certainly didn’t have much (if anything) left in me by the time we were done.  The workout was one time through, for time:
  • 15 KB swings
  • 7 KB C&J (R)
  • 15 KB swings
  • 7 KB C&J (L)
  • 15 KB swings
  • 7 KB snatch (R)
  • 15 KB swings
  • 7 KB snatch (L)

I was a bit nervous about this one with all the shoulder work, given some artificial parts in my right shoulder and a missing rotator cuff muscle, but it worked out OK.  The 15 kettle bell swings, which I usually like, really had me pushing to keep good form by the end, and the 7 reps of the clean and jerks and snatches were just the right amount to push me, but not so much that I had to break the sets.  My biggest worry by the time we were done was keeping hold of the kettle bell, as I was absolutely drenched.  A couple trips for more chalk on my hands certainly fixed that issue, though.  Total time was around 6:20 for the workout.

I’d expected another “cash-out” killer exercise before leaving since I did the set unbroken, but we finished up with a shoulder stretching exercise.  This workout seemed just about right — challenging, pushing me, but it didn’t kill me for the rest of the day (and I’m hoping leaves me in reasonable shape for a couple matches of sand volleyball tomorrow night, as it’s our end-of-season playoff night)!  Friday is our “Total” day, in which we try to figure out my maximum weight for a variety of strength exercises.  I’m a bit excited to learn what my maximums are, but also a little nervous about staying injury free, as all heavy-weight work I’ve ever done has always involved sets of a minimum of eight repetitions.  One-rep maximums will be an entirely new critter!