photo credit: sanchom

After a few days of email and youtube tag I finally got together with my Crossfit Trainer and she ok’d my form on my squats so I could get going on my Tabata Squat assessment.

What are Tabata Squats?

1 word?

Hell.

More than 1 word?

It is 8 rounds of squats. Each round lasting 20 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest between each round.

The goal is to do as many squats as you can in the 20 seconds.

Only the number of your lowest round counts. Dang.

My first Tabata Squat workout:

It didn’t go as badly as I thought it would. I quite frankly thought my number would be 0 ~ as in I can not squat once at all in the last round. That was not the case however.

While only the lowest number counts I want to keep a record of how I’m doing so I can gauge my progress over time.

Round 1: 8
Round 2: 8
Round 3: 8
Round 4: 9
Round 5 8
Round 6: 8 (seriously feeling the burn)
Round 7: 7
Round 8: 8

So the number for my first Tabata Squats workout is 7.

If you want to see Tabata Squats for REAL. Go to Crossfit and watch this video: ” Tabata Squat Demo-3 Flying Ladies” Just scroll down toward the bottom of the page ~ they’re in alphabetical order.

At this point in my Crossfit training I am getting up to a base level so I can start doing the WOD (workout of the day). My trainer is sending me my workouts at this point and I’ll post what I’m doing here.

If you are more fit than I  ~ and most people are lol…

You can go to CrossFit and look at the WOD there and just do it yourself.

I’m really looking forward to starting to do my workouts for time and getting in the game with everyone else.

On a side note:

Paleo eating is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I have also given myself a little room to not be perfect, and not be 100% ALL the time. So I eat a little cheese on my eggs. I had a sugar cookie when Hanna and Ryan made them. I don’t want to completely deprive myself of the holiday festivities ~ and I figure if I do a little better today, than I did yesterday then I’m good to go.

I’ve found some great Paleo blogs and I’m having a great time finding new Paleo recipes and cooking new Paleo foods. Ryan is not quite so gung ho ~ but as long as I feed him some kind of non vegetable carb on the side he seems fine to go along with the game.

If you’re doing Crossfit I’d love to hear from you ~ I’d especially love to hear about when you first started ~ your experience, and progress.

Related posts:

1. Finally Figured Out What I’m Going to Do All Winter
2. Delicious Lunch Paleo Style
3. Week In Review

Hey Ya’ll, I’m back. I know it’s been forever. I’ve been sitting here in windy old Kansas feeling sorry for myself that I can’t get out and ride, that it’s too cold, too windy, too dark, too whatever.  This does not lead to fitness, nor does it lead to completing BAK in 2011.

Yesterday I talked to a friend of mine in Minneapolis, she’s a certified Cross Fit coach and is in the process of opening her own CrossFit gym with her husband. She’s really excited about it, and her enthusiasm got me curious, so I took a look.

It looks scary as hell ~ but really fun and challenging at the same time.

If you’ve never heard of cross fit it’s based on functional movement ~ a lot of police forces, and the military use this or similar training.  It also uses serious muscle confusion to keep your body working for you.

Each day Cross fit puts out a WOD (workout of the day). These workouts are timed ~ the faster you get through them the better. This gives you not only a great strength workout, but cardio as well. You can read all about it at CrossFit.com.

So today we had our first real “consultation” and we talked about nutrition, life and of course the workouts. She gave me a run down of the “assessment” and I’m frickin skeered. I’m thinking to myself ~ now wait a minute, I can ride my bike 36 miles ~ but I don’t think there’s any way in hell I can do all this!! And it’s just the ASSESSMENT???

It really got me to thinking about overall fitness, and how important it is going to be in addition to bike fitness. I am also getting interested in doing some mountain biking, seems there are some really nice singletracks around these parts ~ but again ~ I suck with the cold weather and the wind.

So this winter I’m going to really focus on my overall total fitness, getting stronger, getting fitter and I’m going to do it with Crossfit. I will ride my bike when I can (hopefully it will be more than the last month or so), but my primary focus is to build a base level of fitness so I can be in good shape come spring. I think I can do that with Crossfit.

One other really fun thing about Cross fit is since everyone is doing the same workout each day (you can scale the workout to your ability, but everyone from Army Ranger to Grandma does the same workout) everyone at the gym puts up their time ~ and it becomes even more motivation to push through and do better with each workout. I really like this aspect of it, and I’m really glad that even though my Crossfit Coach is in Minnesota she’s putting together something that will help me get involved with the other people in her gym.

Today I’m putting together some medicine balls, and trying to get some better foods in the house. The assessement is on Friday ~ figure I will need a couple days to recover before I have to work out again, so better to start on Friday.

I’d love to hear what you think about crossfit as well as what you are doing to maintain and develop your overall fitness!

It’s good to be back, and I’ll be here more regularly now that I’m back on track.

Related posts:

1. Tabata Squats ~ My First Round of Tabata Squats
2. What the Heck Am I Gonna Do All Winter?
3. 5 Great Workouts When You Can’t Get Outside to Ride Your Bike