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So, I am still getting the hang of how to work this website on an iPad. It's certainly not designed with IOS in mind. Apparently I just erased my entire blog from earlier today.(sigh) it was a prettynlong one. I don't think I have it in me to recreate it. Anyway, let me try to sum it up in 500 words or less. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement I have been receiving on this little project of mine. I could not hope to see this thing through without your help. A friend of my wife and I has decided she likes what I am doing here and has started a similar blog about the same type of journey, which she intends to take. Check it out HERE. Make sure you send her some love and encouragement, as she will certainly need it! I managed to accomplish nearly all my goals from my first day yesterday. There were some rocky moments, but altogether it was successful. I'm finding that the most difficult part of all this is eating enough clean food to keep my body fueled. Snacking in the middle of the day on good muscle-building food will be, simultaneously, extremely important and highly difficult. It's going to take some experimenting to find what works for me. On to the workouts! Barbell Gymnastics -Take 10 minutes to establish a 1 rep max snatch from lifting blocks (below the knees) Notes: Take no more than 5 attempts. Work up to weight quickly as well. This entire workout should take no more than 15 minutes. Strength 1) 3 sets of max number of reps of bench press at 85% of your 1 rep max (rest 60 secs between sets) 2) 3 sets of single arm dumbbell rows (8 right, 8 left)- As heavy a weight as you can do (rest 60 secs between) Conditioning For TOTAL time: 3 rounds of: 20 pistols (simply one leg body air squats, alternating legs) 3 rope climbs (15' rope, if you have access) *THEN* 50 toes to bar (hang from a pull up bar, then raise your feet so that your toes touch the bar) *THEN* 3 rounds of: 20 wall ball @ 20# (14# for women) 5 power cleans @ 215# (145# for women) Notes: the is no rest between any of the movements for the whole workout. The goal here is to have the lowest possible time. If you have trouble with the pistols,try holding something vertical and steady, like a doorframe or a rack, while doing them. As always, refer to crossfit.com for full descriptions, instructions, and instructional videos of the movements if you have never done them. Do not attempt the snatch without the aid of a coach the first few times. *****MY RESULTS***** Barbell Gymnastics - I did not feel like dragging out the lifting blocks today, so I decided to just snatch from the ground. I'm sure I could have pulled a little more weight with the blocks, but I got the same workout in. I ended up putting up 135# for my 1 rep max. It was a full snatch, rather than a power snatch. I was happy with the number and gives me something to work with. This is an extremely technical movement and I was just happy to be able to pull it off under weight. For reference, my superstar wife holds a 1 rep snatch max of 150#. She is 5 feet tall and weighs about 115#. if you are not familiar with her, she was just named the 6th fittest female in the southeast at the Crossfit Regional Qualifiers this past weekend. She is my hero. Check out here blog HERE if you are so inclined. It's much more popular than mine. Strength -I did not have a spotter in the gym today for my bench press.I also do not know what my single rep max is. Due to these facts I just loaded 155# on the bar to see what would happen. I was able to complete 3 sets of 4 with that weight. I could have probably done twice that many, but without a spotter I was hesitant to try. It's one thing to ditch weight while you are standing up. It's another when you are lying underneath it. -I did 55# for the dumbbell rows. Again, I believe I underestimated what weight I could pull. I think I could have done 70#. Conditioning -This workout was pretty tough. I am unable to do pistols unassisted, so I held onto the pull up rig with one hand as I did them. I got through all 3 rounds of them and the rope climbs in under 6 minutes. The toes to bar slowed me down considerably. This is a movement that I have not historically been able to do. It takes a decent amount of flexibility and core strength. My gut and my painful back has always kept me from doing them. I don't know how or why, but I did them all today. I had to break them down into sets of 2 or 3 as my hands were hurting quite a bit from the rope ascents. All my wall ball shots had to be broken down into sets of 5. I would throw it 5 times, take 5 quick breaths, and do it again. I was unable to power clean the prescribed weight of 215#. That is considerable weight for someone starting off. I had to drop the weight to 155#. I finished the workout in 27:19, well under the 30 minute goal I had. My wife did the workout with me. She did it prescribed at the women's weight. This was only 10 pounds less than I cleaned. She took the workout slowly as she is still getting over the competition this past weekend. She finished in 17:25. Oh well...I'm used to her destroying me at workouts. This time next year I am going to give her a run for her money.