What I did on my vacation
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 8:41PM What do CrossFit affiliate owner/trainers do on their vacation?
Well, we swam (in warm lakes, no less), ran, biked, canoed, waterskied and, of course, did some CrossFit workouts on the road. As many of you know, this can be an adventure. Here are some highlights from ours:
On our drive to Minnesota, we stayed overnight in Sioux Falls, SD. There just happened to be a CrossFit gym a short 15 minute run down the road. Chris Mello, owner and operator of CrossFit Sioux Falls invited us to join their 6:15am session where we enjoyed a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of Burgener Burpees, Box Jumps and KB swings.
And just what is a Burgener Burpee, you ask? Well, it is a normal burpee, executed while holding onto dumbbell in each hand. Instead of a normal jump to vertical, you do a clean with the dumbbells and then a press. We were schooled in the exercise by none other than Cody Burgener, son of renound Oly lifting coach Mike Burgener. Cody is a trainer at CFSF while playing baseball for the U of SD. We loved these so much that I stopped at Wal-Mart on the drive back and filled up the van with enough DBs to make this exercise work at CFTA.
Here are some CF workouts done at various places and improvisations noted:
1. Nancy - 5 rounds of Run and OH squats. Did this at a globo gym. They had a power rack (open type, not a cage) and one of those tracks around the exercise equipment. No bumpers, all steel, so I set the safety bars up to where I figured if I had to dump they might catch the bar. Fortunately, I did not have to find out if this worked. Nobody grabbed my bar while I was running, either.
2. Run & squat. Easy one for the road - requires no equipment.
3. HPSUs and L pull-ups. I took rings with us and hooked them up to a basement beam. The "L pull-ups" were actually pull-ups done from a seated position on the floor. Easier than real L PUs, and can be further scaled by leaving the feet on the floor if you want. HPSUs can be scaled with anything you want to put your feet on. Karen used an old desk in my parent's basement. Rings travel well...
4. Amrap 20min, 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Sit-ups. Used a swing set at the resort we were staying at for a pull-up bar. The bar was a full 2" in diameter with about 40 coats of paint on it. But it worked...
5. 4 rounds 20 knees to elbows, 20 burpees, 400m run. Swing set again...
6. Joshie - 3 rounds of 21 dumbbell squat snatch R, 21 L pull-ups, 21 db sqt snatch L, 21 L pull-ups. I stole the resort's adjustable dumbbells and enough plates from the "fitness room" to make (2) 40 lbs and took to a place where I could anchor my rings above. Did the same type of scaled L pull-ups off the ground.
And, on the drive home, we stayed overnight in Pierre, SD. That's pronounced "peer" if you were wondering. Steve Cable, owner and operator of Dakota CrossFit, invited us to his 5:15am session. That's 4:15am MDT, by the way. Anyway, we enjoyed a great Tabata Something Else with Steve's gang.
But now Karen is on to me and I probably won't be allowed to map any more routes that just happen to overnight in places with CrossFit gyms. Oh well.