Saying hello to Barbara

Yesterday I visited the great guys in www.crossfit.ie for a workout and instead of doing their workout of the day (WOD) I was allowed to pick the session.

I went with crossfit barbara as its been a few months since doing it and wanted to make sure my form was up to the crossfit standards. It goes as follows –

20 pull ups (inverted rows if you need to scale)

30 press ups (chest touches floor)

40 sit ups (shoulders to touch knees if possible)

50 squats

all done for 5 rounds with a strict 3mins break between rounds. The first time I did this I went straight through the 5 rounds with no break – dying the next day!!

I plugged in the tunes, ramped it up to 11 and I must say who couldnt push hard when this killer tune is playing –

Myself, colm and tom blasted through the first round (got the first one in bang on 3mins) but every round there after was getting slower with the press ups taking for—-ever! Possibly due to all that benching the previous day and Colm noted that I am dropping my hips too much on my press ups – just me getting lazy as its been pointed out by my good friend Marco also.

I ended up doing a 32.01min time including all breaks. I have done it under 30mins before but I must say the chest to knees on the sit ups really slowed me down as I would normally not have come that high. On a plus note I got all the pull ups in every round as 20reps unbroken i.e. I did not have to come off the bar. Hands are a bit rough from that today though. I did not take any video but here is the guys at crossfit kalmar doing it well –

Certainly feeling it today and please remember if you want to give this a shot then aim for 3 rounds and keep a good range of motion on all exercises. Oh and I hope the guys at crossfit liked the flapjacks as they are my bribe to get to train with them in their great facility. Looking forward to the next time.

Oh 2 more vids of the world class Pat Barber doing the same workout in a crossfit gym in New Zealand and in a smoking time of 26.50mins – stunning!

And one by Bionic (possibly one of my fav crossfit competitors as his numbers are stunning!). Here he does the exact same workout in 30.05mins but doing chest to bar on the pull ups – totally hard core.

On a small point, they both hook their feet under a pair of dumbbells which might help me next time with speed as we did our unhooked and without the use of an ab mat.

Ok honest last one. I saw this video and would like to comment. Just watch the press ups and please note that he never once touches the floor with his chest (pause it any time to see as its miles from the floor).

 Head dropping too much and like for me hips dropping too much (BUT I made sure I touched chest off floor on ever rep). Obviously I think this is wrong and watch bionic and pat do the press ups – chest on floor or it does not count.

Secondly, on his sit ups he is using his hands to pull at his legs to get up on almost all reps – fail!! Not allowed. Squats are spot on though.

i suppose what I am saying is standardize the movements. I have first hand experience with this in crossfit competitions as you get away with nothing and since that I have become massively aware of making sure I use full range on all exercises so when I post a time or workout it has been done correctly.

Hope this helps and I am going back to eating right now – one of those days where I just can’t eat enough!