On-Ramp Class #2 #crossfit

The purpose of the on-ramp classes is to get me conditioned and ready to start in the group WODs. I'm not going to know everything, but they want me to have the basics down, as far as form and technique.

Again, I may not know the correct terms for everything we did, so I apologize...

This morning was my 2nd on-ramp class; one-on-one with the trainer.

I started with a "warm-up," which is pretty much a joke because the warm-ups leave me breathless, shaking, and wanting to lay down!!

 He wants me to get used to coming in and looking at the board, doing the warm-up first.

I did a 500 meter row, and then honestly, I can't remember when the warm-up ended and the class began since this was on-ramp and not your traditional class, so I will just recap what we did. Seriously, the warm-up is rough at times.

He told me the whole point in these exercises was to get me used to everything, but especially to warm-up my hips and back in preparation for the power cleans.

After the row, I did 10 sampsons, which is pretty much a walking, stretch lunge. Afterwards, we worked on the jump rope! I don't remember the last time I jumped rope. I was not one of those girls at recess who did this, I can tell you that. He showed me double unders, which is when you get the rope under your feet twice during one jump, but today I focused on my forms with singles. I did approximately 150. Tiring!

Following this, we worked on the med ball cleans. Power cleans is what we were working towards today since I had a rough time with those and he wants me to get them done the best I can. The real WOD looked INSANE:

• 50 burpees
• 10 hang clean and jerks 45/35
• 40 burpees
• 20 hang clean and jerks
• 30 burpees
• 30 hang clean and jerks
• 20 burpees
• 40 hang clean and jerks
• 10 burpees
• 50 hang clean and jerks

For time.

No. I did not do that today! I don't even know what a hang clean is yet?

Okay, so med ball cleans: essentially, you're holding the med ball (10lb for me), squatting like in a deadlift and coming up into a clean with the ball, as if it's the bar! We did quite a few of these.

Then we did med ball wall shots. ugh, those kill me. You're squatting with the ball, and then jumping up and throwing it to a 10 foot target.

source

He then took me through the basics of a tabata work out. Usually, you would do 8 rounds of this interval training. For instance, the med ball wall shot: 20 seconds of as many as you can do, but probably at around 85% of what you could do. Rest 10 seconds, repeat. Trying to continue with the same reps you did the first time. Repeat times EIGHT.

Eight! ha!
We did four today, just to get the idea.
4 rounds of the med ball wall shot. I think I did about 8 each round.

We then worked on box jumps!! The idea is to really power through it and get the hips into it. We did 4 rounds of these.  I cannot remember the height of the box, but it was rough!! But totally a fun challenge.

Then it was time for the kettlebell! He really wanted to make sure I was putting the action into popping my hips. It's more hips than anything!! We did 4 rounds with 20 kettle ball swings with the 16 lb (?).

source: google images

Now is when the idea of popping your hips from the kettlebell swings really resonated with me: during power cleans!

Last week, he introduced cleans to me, and I totally sucked.

In fact, the other day while sweeping, I even practiced with the broom! Crossfit is infiltrating my mind and everyday activities now! I still need tons more practice, but he say my body knows what to do, it's really just my brain getting in the way by over thinking it all!

I don't remember how many we did because we did it quite a few times, going over form, what I was doing wrong, etc. At the end, I did a 4 round tabata with the power cleans. I only did about 5 reps each time, with 55 lbs.

Here is a basic you-tube video of a power clean.

I started to get the hang of it. I even have the beginning of a blister on one hand!! yikes.

I posted on Facebook this morning about how much I am loving crossfit. This may not sound all that significant, but deadlifting 85lbs and power cleaning 55 lbs is a whole different world for me!! Seeing as I came from my girly Shapes gym where all we ever do in group fitness was lift dinky little 10 pounders, and at most...15 lb bar for deadliest.

I just know that someday, I am going to lift more than my body weight and then some, especially once I get the form and technique down.

I don't go back until Tuesday and this makes me sad. He said after two more on-ramp classes, I will be good to go. And starting next month, I am pretty sure I'll be upping my frequency to 3 times per week because 2 is just not cutting it!