Rhabdo's Revenge

Word of the day is..................DEUCE!!

Jason Kaplan - Monday, November 30, 2009

So the other day I'm driving my car on the highway when all of a sudden the car starts to kinda shut down on me followed by the "check engine" light popping on.  My first reaction to this was sh*t balls or as I also like to say in times of stress *DEUCE!  Its a little frustrating because my car was recently serviced ending with a big bill, but what can you do.

ANYWAY the main thing on my mind is my training, screw my car.  I used to love it, but within the first year of having it, it got ravaged in a hail storm which changed my inner thoughts/feelings about it.  This morning I plan on dropping the car off at the dealership and then running to work.  Its about 6 miles or so I believe uphill.  The only annoying thing will be carrying a bag or *murse for my clothes and lunch for work, but thats what it takes nahmane............. 

*Deuce = shit
*Murse = Man purse

Another rest day

Jason Kaplan - Thursday, November 19, 2009

To the left I'm bending a freaking nail with my hands, I'll get into that in a few seconds......

It is only Thursday and man, I feel like deuce nahmane?  Not sad or depressed, just like I got my ass kicked.  The WODs I've done this week have been awesome, and the other day I practiced some tire flipping for Hybrid Athletics Winter Challenge as my strength WOD.  As of now the tire I'll be using in the competition is 500 lbs, and all we have are two 250lber tires.  I could just strap them together somehow, but that seems like too much work.  When I was done with my tire practice which was 3 sets of 10 flips, I was basicaly covered in tire crap.

Today I'm going to try really hard not to WOD.  Rest days are important, from experience they prevent me from yelling at my mom and beating up people.  Instead I'm going to focus on my first passion before crossfit which was grip and wrist strength. HA! I know what some of you are thinking, especially that guy over there (inside joke).  But let me tell you all something, I was very close to developing world class nail bending strength and thats no joke.  Check out Ironmind.com, I was so close to getting onto the Red Nail roster.  Bending this nail takes somewhere between 500-600 lbs of strength!!


100s of nails I've bent with my bare hands....roar.


Yo I need a rest day nahmane....

Jason Kaplan - Thursday, November 12, 2009
Attention all GFCM members - This is one of my new favorite shirts to WOD in.  Unfortunately its an inside joke and only 1 or 2 of you will understand where this idea came from.  7:00 PM class look out, I may coach in it.

Being serious now, not much to say other than a rest or active rest day is needed.  Training has been going pretty well and I still firmly believe my diet has been fine, but I'm a little tired.  The main thing that has been sucking lately is my sleep.  Right before Hybrid Athletics had their Fall Challenge I was getting into bed before 11:00 PM every night and like I said before I felt JUICED.

Lately I've been focusing on a lot of strength pre or post WOD meaning squats, deads, and shoulder press.  All my numbers have improved but I have to add in the olympic lifts again.  I've also still been doing 2k rows with average intensity twice a week post WOD working on conditioning with that damn machine.  My goal with that is always sub 8 since its post WOD.  Hopefully when the time comes and I have to make the decision about living or dying, I'll be able to push it to sub 7.

Other news is that Hybrid Athletics is having another strongman challenge this January and I am looking forward to that event.  Plus I've got a feeling sectional information for the 2010 games will be posted very soon AND LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, AT THIS POINT NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN PASSING THE SECTIONALS.  I mean really, if I don't pass the regionals then whatever, but I must pass the sectionals.  Looking back at NEQ I was over trained, a little nervous, but more importantly not hungry enough to qualify.  My mind has changed and I'm waiting for the day to come.


Rhabdo got Rhabdo...........not

Jason Kaplan - Monday, October 26, 2009
WHOOOOHAAAAAAA............This past weekend I visited some crossfit friends (Crossfit USA) in Connecticut who were having a grand opening celebration/WOD for their second box Crossfit Relentless.  It was a good time, basically anything involving crossfit nowadays makes me happy.

However, the WOD was hell.  It was a chipper, at first glance I wasn't intimidated at all, the only thing that bothered me was that wall ball was involved in the upcoming sh*t storm.  It was 1 round consisting of 225 lb deadlifts 15Xs, 25 wall ball shots, 30 toes to bar, 5 muscleups, 3 rope climbs, and a 500 meter ski on the ski erg.  I don't mean to sound cocky or like a big dog but really, I was thinking, "only 1 round, just 1 round, this is nothing."  Well like usual when I thought I'd have some fun I got SERVED bboy style.
 

Right when I heard "GO" I started blasting through the dead lifts.  Dead lifts for time are starting to become my favorite exercise replacing pull ups.  I was the first one done quickly running over to wall ball, but was brought back to reality because wall ball isn't for short little men.  Once I was done the rest of the group caught up to me but I picked up the pace with toes to bar.  I was knocking those down pretty quickly as well and with perfect form, but they wore me out like no other.  When I was finished with those I went to the rings and could barely get through 5 muscleups which is pretty embarrassing for me to say.  When I was through with that part I stumbled over to the rope and began climbing, and all I have to say here is that at this point I actually thought I was going to die.  The first time getting up there at this point was ok, the second time was very tough, and the final time was death.  Fortunately I new how to use my legs because if it wasn't for them I would have fallen15ft to the concrete.  After that I basically walked to the SKI ERG like a zombie, hooked myself up to the machine, and began to ski.  This was my first time using this machine and didn't have the technique down at all.  All I have to say about it right now is that I don't really care for it.  My arms and hands were crippled making it very difficult to hook my arms/hands to the machine.     

When I was done I walked around the gym for a little then just laid down on my back leaving a print of my shirt on the ground.  The pain I felt was comparable to how I felt after performing fran at the level 1 cert that was for the crossfit journal.  I felt almost the same except I didn't go outside and puke my life away.  My only defense is that my diet and sleep weren't on that day.  IT AIN'T EASY WODDING ON THE ROAD *NAHMANE.


 

*Nahmane = Know what I mean

Why I quit Crossfit.....................

Jason Kaplan - Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Ok, I didn't really quit crossfit and this has nothing to do with Greyskull or poking fun of that situation, but I had AN ANNOYING EXPERIENCE which I'll get into just a few seconds.  I just need to bring up my ratings/views because let me tell you something they are low nahmane.  If you don't know what nahmane means already then you're missing out.  Anyway I've been really juicing up my training lately banging out 2-3 strength or metcon wods back to back 4 or 5 days straight.  The amazing thing is I don't feel burnt out which is credited to my nutrition, sleeping, and doing all these WODS within 2-3 hrs and yes I have that much free time after work.  Having no wife, kids, or someone to depend on me really pays off in this stage of the game mainly because I can do whatever I want whenever.

So the following story is why I wanted to quit Crossfit.  Last night WOD 1 was shoulder press 3X5 sticking with 160lbs (BW 165lbs), followed by a pull up/high pull/run metcon, then after resting for maybe 30-45 mins I decided to row a 2k.  Now, every time I row a 2k my goal is always to get sub 8, then hopefully one day when I want to kill it (or myself) I may magically get my sub 7.  Anyway the majority of the row was going great till the last 500-600 meters.  MY DAMN SHIRT WAS BEING PULLED UNDER THE SEAT ROLLER EVERY PULL.  Every freaking time I rolled up for another pull I had to keep pulling my shirt up, but that didn't help.  If I ignored it then more of the shirt rolled underneath shortening my distance going backwards even more.  The real bonus was the ground I placed the rower on wasn't leveled!!  So in other words from behind I probably looked like I was leaning to my left way to much.  When I was done my left leg felt like I did 100 unbroken pistols!!

In the end I still rowed sub 8 but a real crappy time.  When I was done I stood up, threw off my shirt, and yelled F*CK multiple times.  To all my Guerrillas don't worry, I'm not quitting crossfit and taking up powerlifting, but I won't be in today because I'm still pissed!!! 


Rhabdo voice "60lb dumbbell son....."



Morning WOD......DEUCE!!!!

Jason Kaplan - Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I don't have enough time to workout after work today because I have back to school night.  To the people who remember my posts prior to the games don't worry, I'm not working out in the afternoon falling victim to the classic 2aday syndrome.  This morning I plan on getting through 2 quick WODs.  WOD 1 will be 3X5 dead lifts and WOD 2 will be a 2k row followed by 30 burpees. 

Below is a video of the stone/burpee WOD at the Hybrid Athletics Fall Challenge.  I loved this event, if it looks like I'm smiling around burpee 15 or 16 its because I am! 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tcMovAYDE8&feature=player_profilepage

My dad saves the day!!

Jason Kaplan - Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Fortunately my father video taped all of the events at the competition, mainly the deadlift one.  Hybrid Athletics was very understanding of the situation, looked over their records, and changed the scorecards.  It turns out it was a good thing I opened my mouth because it ended up pushing me into the mens overall spot.  At this point I'm just glad the performance was noticed thats all.  Here is the deadlift workout, does this look like 52 reps to you!?  When I drop the bar the counter says 36, but I'm no where near 36.  I guess I'll take away my Forrest Gump quote from yesterday about my life.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G17826uKdhI


"LIGHT WEIGHT BABY!!!"

Jason Kaplan - Monday, September 21, 2009
 
I'm very pleased to say that the Fall Hybrid Challenge went well with me winning my weight class division (Light Weight!), and finishing second for the men's overall.  It was a small competition but nevertheless the pain and pressure was still there to represent myself and Guerrilla Fitness. 

 On top of that the other Guerrilla Fitness athletes that were there competing such as Mickey Schultz and Scott Lewis both won their divisions and Jason Reo placed 3rd out of the mens light weight class.  The competition ran nice and  smooth  and we were all very happy once it was all over, or maybe it was just me because now I could eat and drink whatever I wanted to again.

The events were somewhat enjoyable in that they were no longer than 5 minutes.  My least favorite event was the first one which was the sandbag carry/box jumps.  The main reason was because my body was starting to shutdown on the final round of box jumps.  F
ortunately I manned up and fought through the pain and got through it.  Once I was done I crawled off to the side collecting myself on the ground.

The only thing that bothered me was the 4th event which was the dead lift WOD, max reps in 2 minutes.  I was looking forward to this because I new this would be very easy for me.   What ended up happening was I'm pretty sure my judge miscounted my reps where he was 10 off!  Once I got to 46 in my head he all of a sudden said 36.  After hearing that in the middle of the event I just started cranking out reps again because I had to beat at least 46 to win.  Luckily I  was able to overcome that and got to 52 but I firmly believe it should have been 62.  During the event the judge never said anything and was very quiet.  I'd say thats the only bad thing about crossfit competitions, if you don't have a judge who is with it, then you are screwed. Other than that he was a cool dude, but when you train like your life is on the line you want things to be perfect.

Since the competition has been over I have abused food again, but after this past Sunday I think I'm good for now.  One day of no rules was good enough.   Training wise I'm going to take Monday off and get right back into it Tuesday nahmane?




 

  

"I'm talkin bout juiced!!!"

Jason Kaplan - Friday, September 18, 2009

Lets get something straight here, when I say "Juiced" I don't mean steroids, I mean PUMPED UP.  I don't know what it is but this whole week I've honestly felt amazing.  Almost like I'm O.D.ing on coffee but I haven't been drinking my usual amount.  The big change has been my diet, but I think most of all going to sleep before 11PM.  Once this weekend passes my diet will slip a little because I need to live life nahmane?  I'm talking about going to the cheesecake factory or something like that and finding something sweet to eat because you only live once.

On top of my diet and sleeping pattern improving I've also become a little smarter with my training.  I learned 2adays are stupid.  If I'm going to workout in the early morning then its going to be an endurance
workout.  For some reason I can handle that better than a full blown out crossfit WOD.  Also for the last few weeks I've been banging out 2-3 WODs back to back with 20-30 mins rest in between each.  I think those are best to do because they prep your body for a competition setting.  If you want to be competitive you have to get used to doing more than 1 WOD a day.    



I'LL BE BACK........................

Jason Kaplan - Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yeaaaaaaa, I've been gone for quite awhile.  I haven't been updating my blog mainly because I have had nothing to write about. The 2009 Games really inspired some good posts, but that time has passed.  Then again its time to start training for the 2010 Games!

My training lately has been going pretty well which has made me happy, and this coming weekend I'll be competing in Rob Orlando's crossfit strongman competition.  I'm really looking forward to this friendly competition because I feel I need a little more "competition" experience nahmane.  Plus I think the event is pretty cool with the strongman twist.  I'd like to do well but I'm going to aim low so I'm not disappointed if I puss out.   

Other than that fun stuff another school year of teaching has begun.  In school I look like a Mr. Magoo character some would say or maybe even a buff Harry Potter, but little do my colleagues know I'm a freak at the end of  the day.  Maybe this year they will find out, at least some of my students know after seeing me running up and down the block without a shirt on or puking my guts out in the parking lot.